Doctor Faustus (or The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus), based on the German Faustbuch, was the first dramatised version of the Faust legend of a scholar's dealing with the devil. Versions of "The Devil's Pact" can be traced back to the 4th century, Marlowe deviates significantly by having his hero unable to "burn his books" or repent to a merciful God to have his contract annulled at the end of the play. Marlowe's protagonist is instead carried off by demons and in the 1616 quarto his mangled corpse is found by several scholars. Doctor Faustus is a textual problem for scholars as two versions of the play exist: the 1604 quarto, also known as the 'A text', and the 1616 quarto or 'B text'. Both were published after Marlowe's death. Scholars have disagreed which text is more representative of Marlowe's original and some editions are based on a combination of the two. The scholarly consensus of the late 20th century holds the 'A text' is more representative because it contains irregular character names and idiosyncratic spelling, which are believed to reflect a text based on the author's handwritten manuscript or "foul papers". The 'B text' in comparison, was highly edited, censored because of shifting theater laws regarding religious words onstage and contains several additional scenes which scholars believe to be the additions of other playwrights, particularly Samuel Rowley and William Bird (alias Borne)