Christopher Marlowe (1564-93) a man of extreme passions and a playwright of immense talent is
the most important of Shakespeare's contemporaries. This edition offers his five major plays
which show the radicalism and vitality of his writing in the few years before his violent
death. Tamburlaine Part One and Part Two deal with the rise to world prominence of the great
Scythian shepherd-robber The Jew of Malta is a drama of villainy and revenge Edward II was to
influence Shakespeare's Richard II. Doctor Faustus perhaps the first drama taken from the
medieval legend of a man who sells his soul to the devil is here in both its A- and its B-text
showing the enormous and fascinating differences between the two. Under the General Editorship
of Michael Cordner of the University of York the texts of the plays have been newly edited and
are presented with modernized spelling and punctuation. In addition there is a scholarly
introduction and detailed annotation.
