This edition answers the needs of both beginning and advanced students:

It features the text of Marlowe's play with modern spelling and punctuation, glosses and annotations on the page, and a thorough Introduction devoted to the play's historical, cultural, and theological contexts.

In addition, it includes a generous selection of related texts, including excerpts from Machiavelli's The Prince, Gentillet's Anti-Machiavel, and Bacon's The Advancement of Learning.

Its combination of pedagogical acuity and historical craft make Lynch's an excellent edition of Marlowe's play—one that also serves as a fine introduction to Elizabethan drama as a whole. It moreover offers a convenient window on the reception of Machiavelli in England and the representation of Christmas, Jews, and Turks on the Elizabethan stage.