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Faustus and the Censor: The English Faust-Book and Marlowe's Doctor Faustus

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While Empson's posthumous publication, "Faustus and the Censor," first came out in the 1980's, it remains a relevant document in Christopher Marlowe criticism. The oft-disputed authenticity of Marlowe's play "Doctor Faustus," and its two versions, the A and B-texts is the main focus of Empson's book. Empson begins with the beginning - Marlowe's sources, primarily the German Faust Book. Empson discusses the possible relationship with the translator of English Faust Book, a mysterious gentleman named 'P.F.' who may have provided Marlowe with information on German and Latin texts.

Empson's thesis is that the A text is the 'original' - but that its seeming inadequacies are due to the interference of the official censor of plays in the late 1500s. Scenes missing that Empson argues were removed for reasons of state and morality are an appearance of the chorus and an episode in a Turkish harem.

The censor, Empson argues, had three major problems with Marlowe's play that required change: 1)the women Faustus consorts with must be real women - because Anglican belief did not allow that devils could consort with humans. 2)Mephistopheles must be a devil - again, Anglicanism does not allow for middle spirits. 3)Faust must be punished eternally at the end of the play; apparently, the original version when acted, left some ambiguity about this issue.

Empson's "Faust and the Censor" tends to be somewhat repetitive on supporting these points. However, the repetition is done well, so that the points he makes are continuously reinforced and consistently developed. This is an engaging piece of literary criticism - the language is familiar, even colloquial, making the book an interesting and even entertaining read - very unusual in the field of literary criticism. I don't even like Marlowe, but Empson's style and substance make this a critical work worth checking out.

Christopher Marlowe was one of England's most famous playwrights, a contemporary of Shakespeare and his rival for a brief period until his life was cut short by a mysterious dagger-thrust to the eye. The result of a tavern brawl? Political assassination? No one knows. The mystery survives to this day.

As with his life, one of Marlowe's classic dramas, "Doctor Faustus", the tragic legend of the man who sold his soul to the devil, is also the subject of much debate for the simple reason not one but two different manuscripts exist, the A and B Texts, and no one has been able to adequately explain why there is more than one version for this remarkable work. The A text was first published in 1604, and republished twice, but the B Text, which contains far more material than the A Text, eclipsed this version in 1616 and was republished five times.

For years, Marlowe scholars have attempted to discover how these two texts came into existence and why the B Text seems more complete than the A Text, however, all they have provided are theories, but no definite answers.

William Empson had his own unique theory, which is the subject of this scholarly work. Empson, a literary critic famous for his close reading of texts and his controversial analysis of them, proposed Marlowe was attempting to introduce something dangerous into this particular drama, something that would have rang alarm-bells for the theologians of his day, and therefore attracted the attentions of the state censor.

Texts were closely scrutinized in Elizabethan times lest dubious material might corrupt the morals of the spectators, and Empson believes the A Text was chopped when Marlowe deviated from acceptable Christian theology by having Faust desire to become a Middle Spirit and escape damnation, yet rejecting God's plan for salvation. Under this plan, Faust would have enjoyed all the benefits of selling his soul, without the expected punishment of falling into Hell. Emspon proposes that Marlowe "skipped" this version out into the public before the censor could catch him, but was later forced to cut the objectionable material for later performances. The cut version is supposedly the A Text, and a later Christianized patch-up resulted in the B Text.

This book explores the various "clues" Empson believed he discovered in the two texts that point to this strange unorthodox plot, which he claims was excised by the censor. The problem is, Empson died and left the his study unfinished and unpolished. John Henry Jones was granted permission to edit and publish Empson's draft as he had discussed the subject many times with him and had a fair idea of how the critic wanted to present his theories. However, in deciding not to edit Empson's original work too much, the book reads in a disjointed manner as the editor had nothing but a working draft to use. In this form, it is difficult at times to grasp what Empson was trying to point out, and the text suddenly ends, leaving the reader dangling in mid-air.

Yes, you know what his theory is from the introduction, but how Empson arrived at his conclusion is difficult to discern from his text due to its nature as a draft in progress. While scholars must be grateful that Empson's work was not lost after his death, this book tends to be frustrating to read for the above mentioned reason, and the fact he and the editor presupposes readers to be familiar with W.W. Greg's analysis of Marlowe's text, which may not be the case. Moreover, we also have to remember this is just a theory, we have no idea of Marlowe included this unorthodox plot in "Doctor Faustus" as Empson suggests. However, there are other interesting sections, such as the various explorations of early Faust material, information on the Faust books, and the Renaissance debates on the existence of Middle Spirits and how they play into the Faust legends.

E.A. Bucchianeri, author of "Faust: My Soul be Damned for the World"