Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold
text by =equal signs=.
Broadway Translations
“_Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety._”
[Illustration: AN ALLEGED FAUST PORTRAIT
BY JAN JORIS VAN VLIET
_After a Sketch by Rembrandt.
About 1630_]
Broadway Translations
THE HISTORY OF THE
_DAMNABLE LIFE and DESERVED DEATH_
OF
DOCTOR JOHN FAUSTUS
1592
TOGETHER WITH
_THE SECOND REPORT OF FAUSTUS_
CONTAINING HIS APPEARANCES AND THE DEEDS
OF WAGNER
1594
_Both modernized and edited by_
WILLIAM ROSE, M.A., PH.D.
LECTURER IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, KING’S COLLEGE
_With an Introduction_
_With 24 Illustrations chiefly from Woodcuts_
LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS LTD.
NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
THE MAYFLOWER PRESS, WILLIAM BRENDON AND SONS LTD.
CONTENTS
PAGE
_Introduction_ 1
I. _The Historical Personage_ 3
II. _The German Faust Book_ 23
III. _Faust in England_ 42
IV. _The Faust Drama in Germany_ 48
V. _The Wagner Book_ 57
THE HISTORIE OF DR. JOHN FAUSTUS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. _Of his Parentage and Birth_ 65
II. _How Doctor Faustus began to practise
in his Devilish Art, and how he conjured
the Devil, making him to appear and meet
him on the morrow at his own house_ 67
III. _The conference of Doctor Faustus with the
Spirit Mephostophiles the morning
following at his own house_ 70
IV. _The second time of the Spirit’s appearing
to Faustus in his house, and of their
parley_ 72
V. _The third parley between Doctor Faustus and
Mephostophiles about a conclusion_ 74
VI. _How Doctor Faustus set his blood in a saucer
on warm ashes, and writ as followeth_ 76
VII. _How Mephostophiles came for his writing, and
in what manner he appeared, and his sights
he shewed him: and how he caused him to keep
a copy of his own writing_ 77
VIII. _The manner how Faustus proceeded with his
damnable life, and of the diligent service
Mephostophiles used towards him_ 79
IX. _How Doctor Faustus would have married, and
how the Devil had almost killed him for it_ 81
X. _Questions put forth by Doctor Faustus unto
his Spirit Mephostophiles_ 84
XI. _How Doctor Faustus dreamed that he had seen
hell in his sleep, and how he questioned with
his Spirit of matters as concerning hell,
with the Spirit’s answer_ 86
XII. _The second question put forth by Doctor
Faustus to his Spirit, what Kingdoms there
were in hell, how many, and what were their
rulers’ names_ 87
XIII. _Another question put forth by Doctor Faustus
to his Spirit concerning his Lord Lucifer,
with the sorrow that Faustus fell afterwards
into_ 88
XIV. _Another disputation betwixt Doctor Faustus
and his Spirit, of the power of the Devil,
and of his envy to mankind_ 90
XV. _How Doctor Faustus desired again of his
Spirit to know the secrets and pains of hell;
and whether those damned Devils and their
company might ever come into the favour of God
again or not?_ 92
XVI. _Another question put forth by Doctor Faustus
to his Spirit Mephostophiles of his own
estate_ 98
XVII. _Here followeth the second part of Doctor
Faustus his life, and practices, until his
end_ 100
XVIII. _A question put forth by Doctor Faustus to his
Spirit concerning Astronomy_ 101
XIX. _How Doctor Faustus fell into despair with
himself: for having put forth a question unto
his Spirit, they fell at variance, whereupon
the whole route of Devils appeared unto him,
threatening him sharply_ 104
XX. _How Doctor Faustus desired to see hell, and
of the manner how he was used therein_ 110
XXI. _How Doctor Faustus was carried through the
air up to the heavens to see the world, and
how the Sky and Planets ruled: after the
which he wrote one letter to his friend of
the same to Liptzig, how he went about the
world in eight days_ 115
XXII. _How Doctor Faustus made his journey through
the principal and most famous lands in the
world_ 121
XXIII. _How Faustus had a sight of Paradise_ 144
XXIV. _Of a certain Comet that appeared in
Germanie, and how Doctor Faustus was
desired by certain friends of his to know
the meaning thereof_ 146
XXV. _A question put forth to Doctor Faustus,
concerning the Stars_ 147
XXVI. _How Faustus was asked a question concerning
the Spirits that vex men_ 148
XXVII. _How Doctor Faustus was asked a question
concerning the Stars that fall from Heaven_ 149
XXVIII. _How Faustus was asked a question as
concerning thunder_ 149
XXIX. _How the Emperor Carolus Quintus requested
of Faustus to see some of his cunning,
whereunto he agreed_ 150
XXX. _How Doctor Faustus in the sight of the
Emperor conjured a pair of Hart’s horns
upon a Knight’s head that slept out of a
casement_ 154
XXXI. _How the above-mentioned Knight went
about to be revenged of Doctor Faustus_ 155
XXXII. _How three young Dukes being together at
Wittenberg to behold the University,
requested Faustus to help them at a
wish to the town of Menchen in
Bavaria, there to see the Duke of
Bavaria his son’s wedding_ 156
XXXIII. _How Doctor Faustus borrowed money of
a Jew, and laid his own leg to pawn for it_ 160
XXXIV. _How Doctor Faustus deceived an Horse-courser_ 162
XXXV. _How Doctor Faustus ate a load of Hay_ 164
XXXVI. _How Doctor Faustus served the twelve
Students_ 165
XXXVII. _How Faustus served the drunken Clowns_ 165
XXXVIII. _How Doctor Faustus sold five Swine for
six Dollars apiece_ 166
XXXIX. _How Doctor Faustus played a merry jest
with the Duke of Anholt in his Court_ 167
XL. _How Doctor Faustus through his Charms
made a great Castle in presence of the
Duke of Anholt_ 168
XLI. _How Doctor Faustus with his company
visited the Bishop of Saltzburg his
Wine-cellar_ 171
XLII. _How Doctor Faustus kept his Shrovetide_ 172
XLIII. _How Doctor Faustus feasted his guests on
the Ash-Wednesday_ 174
XLIV. _How Doctor Faustus the day following
was feasted of the Students, and of his
merry jests with them while he was in
their company_ 176
XLV. _How Doctor Faustus shewed the fair
Helena unto the Students upon the
Sunday following_ 177
XLVI. _How Doctor Faustus conjured away the
four wheels from a clown’s waggon_ 180
XLVII. _How four Jugglers cut one another’s head
off, and set them on again; and how
Doctor Faustus deceived them_ 182
XLVIII. _How an old man, the neighbour of Faustus,
sought to persuade him to amend his
evil life, and to fall unto repentance_ 183
XLIX. _How Doctor Faustus wrote the second time
with his own blood and gave it to the
Devil_ 186
L. _How Doctor Faustus made a marriage
between two lovers_ 188
LI. _How Doctor Faustus led his friends into
his Garden at Christmas, and shewed
them many strange sights in his nineteenth
year_ 189
LII. _How Doctor Faustus gathered together
a great army of men in his extremity
against a Knight that would have injured
him on his journey_ 190
LIII. _How Doctor Faustus caused Mephostophiles
to bring him seven of the fairest women
that he could find in all those countries
he had travelled in, in the twentieth year_ 192
LIV. _How Doctor Faustus found a mass of
money when he had consumed twenty-two
of his years_ 193
LV. _How Doctor Faustus made the Spirit of
fair Helena of Greece his own Paramour
and bedfellow in his twenty-third
year_ 193
LVI. _How Doctor Faustus made his Will, in
the which he named his servant Wagner
to be his heir_ 194
LVII. _How Doctor Faustus fell in talk with his
servant touching his Testament, and the
covenants thereof_ 195
LVIII. _How Doctor Faustus having but one month
of his appointed time to come, fell to
mourning and sorrow with himself for
his devilish exercise_ 197
LIX. _How Doctor Faustus complained that he
should in his lusty time and youthful
years die so miserably_ 197
LX. _Another complaint of Doctor Faustus_ 198
LXI. _How Doctor Faustus bewailed to think on
Hell, and of the miserable pains therein
provided for him_ 199
LXII. _Here followeth the miserable and lamentable
end of Doctor Faustus, by the which
all Christians may take an example and
warning_ 201
LXIII. _An Oration of Faustus to the Students_ 202
THE SECOND REPORT OF DR. JOHN FAUSTUS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. 221
II. _How certain drunken Dutchmen were abused
by their own conceit and self-imagination,
of seeing the grand Doctor, Doctor
Faustus_ 225
III. _Wagner’s conference with Doctor Faustus,
and how miserably they broke up their
disputations_ 229
IV. _Wagner’s cozenage committed upon the
sellers of his Master’s goods_ 237
V. _The description of Vienna_ 238
VI. _A long discourse betwixt the Devil and
Wagner, and ended with a good Philosophical
repast_ 239
VII. _The arrival of the Messenger at Wittenberg,
and the description of Wagner_ 254
VIII. _The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus seen in
the Air, and acted in the presence of a
thousand people of Wittenberg. An.
1540_ 256
IX. 266
X. _A lamentable history of the death of sundry
students of Wittenberg_ 273
XI. 278
XII. 280
XIII. 280
XIV. 282
XV. _The gifts of Wagner to the Duke, and
three Devils retained for Soldiers to the
same Prince_ 283
XVI. 285
XVII. 286
XVIII. _The second Mocking_ 288
XIX. _The third_ 292
XX. _The fourth and last_ 293
XXI. _The process to the Combat_ 295
XXII. _The Combat_ 300
XXIII. 308
XXIV. 310
XXV. 311
XXVI. 312
XXVII. 314
XXVIII. 316
Appendix A: List of Localities 321
Appendix B: A Ballad of Faustus, about 1670 323
Appendix C: Bibliography 326
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
An alleged Faust Portrait. By Jan Joris van Vliet
(after a Sketch by Rembrandt. About 1630) _Frontispiece_
PAGE
The Seal of Aziel 21
Facsimile of 1592 Title-page 59
The Journey to the Witches’ Sabbath (after P.
Cornelius) 84
The Ride past the Gallows (after P. Cornelius) 123
The Seven Chief Churches of Rome 133
Fresco from Auerbach’s Cellar in Leipzig 210
Fresco from Auerbach’s Cellar in Leipzig 211
View of Wittenberg about 1546 (after Lucas Cranach
the Elder) 217
Luther’s House and Surroundings, 1611 244
The Castle of Wittenberg, 1611 244
A Caricature of the Pope 278
A Caricature of Luther 291
Woodcuts illustrating The History of Doctor Faustus 36
37, 111, 154, 156, 158, 161, 163, 166, 169, 175, 179
FOREWORD
The printed version of the earliest extant English Faust Book that has
been modernized for the present edition is the reprint by H. Logeman in
the _Recueil de Travaux de l’Université de Gand_ [24ᵉ fascicule. Gand,
1900]. This is the only reprint of the unique copy of the English Faust
Book of 1592, which is in the British Museum, and with which I was able
to compare it.
The first edition of the English Wagner Book has likewise only been
reprinted once, after one of the two copies in the Bodleian Library
at Oxford, by Alfred E. Richards in _Literarhistorische Forschungen_
[XXXV. Heft. Berlin, 1907], and this edition I have used for the
present modernization.
Those who wish to read the Faust and Wagner Books in the old
orthography, I would refer to the careful editions of these two
scholars. I have only modernized the old spellings and occasionally,
for the sake of clarity, the punctuation, but have made no syntactical
alterations whatever. Even where, in the case of the Wagner Book, the
syntax sometimes obscured the meaning, I have thought it best to let it
stand.
The versions printed by Thoms in his _Early English Prose Romances_
are later than those printed in this volume. His Faust Book is undated,
but the British Museum Catalogue gives it the suppositional date 1700.
His Wagner Book reproduces the text of 1680. His introduction is, of
course, out of date and practically useless.
W. R.
INTRODUCTION
The story of the man who sells his soul to the powers of evil in
return for material gain, is one of the most ancient in the history
of humanity. It is perhaps as old as humanity, for when the light of
self-consciousness first began to dawn on man, he no doubt desired to
know more than his limited intellect could tell him, or to possess
something that the world could not or would not give him. When he
looked around, and was frightened at his own littleness, he created
gods for his protection, and these gods he endeavoured to propitiate,
until they became his tyrants. They were the symbols of his hopes and
fears, so that when he was propitiating his gods he was stereotyping
the limitations of his own mind. And the most important of those
limitations was that he must not look beyond his manufactured gods for
the hidden causes of things. A profound instinct nevertheless urged him
to probe beyond, and the resulting spiritual unrest, which has always
manifested itself spasmodically in the human race, underwent various
personifications at different times. The elements of the Faust story
were already present in the Garden of Eden—the Tree of Knowledge,
the personification of Evil in the Serpent, and the Woman who was
tempted to overstep the bounds of what was permitted by the orthodox
authority, in order to grasp the Forbidden Fruit. It is significant
for the peculiar construction of the human mind, that it was always
the Spirit of Evil which led the way to spiritual emancipation. In
order to give concrete expression to his almost unconscious thirst for
greater knowledge, man had to pretend to himself that this craving was
pernicious. His very attempts to free himself from superstition provide
the strongest evidence of the tortuous way in which his mind had to
work, for it could only rise to a higher conception of its own worth by
playing a game of self-deception.
The Faust problem was not peculiar to the Christian era. The Jews had
their Solomon and the Greeks their Prometheus, but it was only at the
end of the Middle Ages, when the old world was in the melting-pot, that
there arose the most famous of all these legends, the most curious
element in which is perhaps the fact that there was at the source of it
an actual person.
I
_The Historical Personage_
The first record of an actual magician or adventurer of the name of
Faust occurs in a letter written in Latin by the Abbot Trithemius of
Würzburg, formerly of the Benedictine monastery of Sponheim, near
Kreuznach in the Palatinate, to the mathematician and Court astrologer,
Johann Virdung, on the 20th of August, 1507. The learned abbot, whose
name is the Latinized form of Johannes Tritheim, writes to his friend
in Heidelberg to warn him against a certain Faust from whom the
astrologer is expecting a visit:—
“That man, about whom you have written to me, Georgius Sabellicus,
who has ventured to call himself the prince of necromancers is a
vagabond, an empty babbler and a knave: worthy to be whipped, that
he might no longer profess publicly abominable matters which are
opposed to the holy Church. For what are the titles which he assumes,
other than the signs of a most stupid and senseless mind, which
proves that he is a fool and no philosopher? Thus he has adopted the
following title: _Magister Georgius Sabellicus_, _Faustus junior_,
fountain of necromancers, astrologer, _magus secundus_, chiromancer,
aëromancer, pyromancer, second in hydromancy. Behold the foolish
temerity of the man; what madness is necessary to call oneself the
fountain of necromancy. A man who is, in truth, entirely devoid of
education, should rather call himself a fool than a _magister_.
But his wickedness is not unknown to me. When some years ago I was
returning from the March of Brandenburg, I met this man in the town
of Gelnhausen, where I was told in the inn of many frivolous things
promised by him with great audacity. When he heard of my presence, he
fled forthwith from the inn and could not be persuaded by anyone to
present himself to me.
He sent to me also by a citizen the advertisement of his foolishness,
which I remember he sent to you. In that town I was told by priests,
that he had said in the presence of many people that he had attained
such great knowledge and memory of all wisdom, that if all the works
of Plato and Aristotle, together with all their philosophy, had been
absolutely wiped out of human memory, he would restore them, like a
second Hebrew Ezra, by his genius, totally and more excellently than
before.
When I was later on in Speyer, he came to Würzburg, and is said to
have boasted with similar conceit in the presence of many people, that
the miracles of our Redeemer Christ are no cause for astonishment;
he himself could do everything that Christ had done, as often as and
whenever he wished. This year, during the last days of Lent, he came
to Kreuznach, where he made vast promises in a similar swaggering
manner, and said that in alchemy he was the most perfect of any that
had ever lived, and knew and could perform whatever the people wished.
During this time the office of schoolmaster in this town was vacant,
and it was conferred upon him through the intercession of Franz
von Sickingen, the steward of your prince, a man who is exceedingly
ardent with regard to mystical matters. But soon afterwards he began
to practise a most infamous kind of fornication, forsooth, with the
boys, and he fled, when the matter came to light, from his imminent
punishment.
This is what is evident to me, according to the most certain
testimony, concerning that man whose visit you are awaiting with such
eagerness.”
The accusations of the abbot are to be taken with a pinch of salt, for
he was himself suspected of dabbling in magic, and his indignation may
have been coloured by more than a tinge of jealousy. He is known to
have declaimed before the Emperor Maximilian against the followers of
the black art, and there is a letter, written by him only four days
before the above epistle to Virdung, in which he protests against
the imputing to him of magic practices. He was even rumoured to have
conjured up the spirits of the dead in the presence of the Emperor. At
any rate, he does not seem to have been anxious for popular inclusion
among the necromancers. Neither is it at all certain that there is any
truth in the scandal about the school at Kreuznach, for that was the
sort of vice which it was usual to attribute to dissolute magicians.
It cannot be explained why Faust should have called himself _junior_,
for there is no trace of any earlier magician of the same name.
Whether _Sabellicus_ was his real name, and _Faustus junior_ a kind
of professional title, or whether George Faust attached the title
_Sabellicus_ to his name as an allusion to the magic art of the
Sabines, is likewise a mystery. It will be noticed that he is called
_George_, and the same Christian name occurs again, six years later, in
the second existing reference to Faust.
Conrad Mutianus Rufus (Conrad Mut, Canon at Gotha, called Rufus on
account of his red hair), a friend of Reuchlin and Melanchthon, and one
of the most cultured of the Humanists, makes the following statement in
a letter written from Erfurt to his friend Heinrich Urbanus on the 7th
of October, 1513:—
“There came a week ago to Erfurt a certain chiromancer named Georgius
Faustus, _Helmitheus Hedebergensis_, a mere braggart and fool. The
professions of this man and of all the fortune-tellers are vain. The
rude people marvel at him, the priests should denounce him. I heard
him swaggering at the inn. I did not reprove his boastfulness, for why
should I bother about the foolishness of others?”
These two George Fausts are obviously the same person. The term
_Helmitheus Hedebergensis_ may be meant for _Hemitheus Hedelbergensis_,
half-god of Heidelberg, where the charlatan perhaps pretended to have
studied.[1] There was a Bachelor named Johann Faust, of Simmern,
at Heidelberg in the year 1509, but it is unlikely that he has any
connection with our Faust.
There is a legend that Faust was given asylum at the monastery of
Maulbronn by the Abbot Entenfuss in the year 1516, and that he there
pursued his alchemistic activities. The well-known “Faust tower” which
is still shown there was, however, not built until nearly a hundred
years later.
The next reference we find is an entry in the account book of the
Bishop of Bamberg by the latter’s chamberlain, under the date 12th of
February, 1520:—
“Item 10 gulden given and presented to Doctor Faustus _philosophus_
in honour of his having cast for my gracious master a nativity
or _indicium_, paid on Sunday after Scholastica by the order of
Reverendissimus.”
A less flattering entry is that in the minutes of the resolutions of
the Town Council of Ingolstadt in 1528:—
“To-day, Wednesday after St. Vitus, 1528. The fortune-teller shall
be ordered to leave the town and spend his penny elsewhere.” This is
supplemented by another entry in the record of expulsions: “To-day,
Wednesday after St. Vitus, 1528, one who calls himself Dr. Jörg
Faustus of Heidelberg has been told to spend his penny elsewhere, and
has promised not to resent or mock such summons of the authorities.”
It will be noticed that the same Christian name again occurs, in
conjunction with the reference to Heidelberg.
There is then a gap of some eleven years before we meet the name again
in the _Index Sanitatis_ of the physician Philipp Begardi of Worms,
published in 1539:—
“There is also to be found a renowned and bold man; I did not wish
to have mentioned his name, but it will not be hidden or unknown.
For some years ago he wandered through almost every province,
principality and kingdom, made his name known to everybody, and
boasted loudly of his great art, not only in medicine, but also in
chiromancy, necromancy, physiognomy, crystal-gazing and more of such
arts. And not only boasted, but also gave himself out to be and
wrote himself as a famous and experienced master. He also himself
acknowledged and did not deny, that he was, and was called Faust, and
signed himself _Philosophus Philosophorum_, etc. There has, however,
been a great number of people, who have complained to me, that they
have been swindled by him. His promises were as great as those of
Thessalus. Similarly his fame, like that of Theophrastus also; but the
fulfilment, as I learn, was found to be very small and fraudulent; yet
he was not slow in taking money, and at his departure many people were
cheated. But what can one do about it, gone is gone.”
When Philipp von Hutten, the cousin of the more famous Ulrich von
Hutten, was about to start on his first expedition to Venezuela in
1534, Faust prophesied that the voyage would be unfortunate, and he was
right, for von Hutten, in a description of the voyage written in 1540,
writes: “I must acknowledge that the philosopher Faustus divined it
correctly, for we have had a very bad year.” A rival fortune-teller,
Joachim Camerarius, who had declared that the voyage would be lucky,
asks in a letter to a friend, written in 1536, what Faust can prophesy
about the German Emperor’s next battle with the King of France.
Johann Gast, a protestant clergyman at Basle, relates two anecdotes of
Faust in the edition of his _Sermones Convivales_ which appeared in
1548:—
“_Concerning the Necromancer Faust._
He once turned into a very wealthy monastery, in order to spend the
night there. A brother sets before him ordinary, weak, not very tasty
wine. Faust asks him for better wine from another barrel, which is
usually given to distinguished guests. The brother says: ‘I haven’t
the keys. The prior is asleep, and I may not rouse him.’ Faust
replies: ‘The keys lie in that corner; take them and open that barrel
on the left and bring me a drink!’ The brother refuses and declares
that he has no permission from the prior to give the guests other
wine. When Faust hears this, he says: ‘In a short time thou wilt
experience strange things, inhospitable brother!’ Early next morning
he went away full of bitterness, without taking leave, and sent a
raging devil into the monastery, who made an uproar day and night, and
set everything in motion in the church and in the rooms of the monks,
so that they had no peace, whatever they did. At last they consulted
as to whether they should abandon the monastery or totally destroy
it. They therefore announced their misfortune to the Count Palatine,
who took the monastery under his protection and sent away the monks,
to whom he allows every year what they need, keeping the rest for
himself. Some assert that even now, when monks enter the monastery,
there arises such a tumult, that the inhabitants have no peace. The
devil knows how to manage that.
_Another Instance of Faust._
When I was dining with him in the great College at Basle, he gave the
cook birds of various kinds, concerning which I did not know where he
had bought them or who had given them to him, since at that time none
was being sold in Basle, and they were birds such as I have never seen
in our neighbourhood. He had with him a dog and a horse, which, as
I believe, were devils, since they could do everything. Some people
told me that the dog had sometimes assumed the form of a servant and
brought him food. The wretched man came to a terrible end; for the
devil strangled him; his corpse lay on the bier on its face all the
time, although it was turned round five times.”
The chronicler appears to have been a superstitious person, and he is
the first to refer to Faust as being in league with the Devil, for
Trithemius had looked upon him as a dissolute, wandering scholar, and
Begardi thought him little more than a common charlatan. None of the
last three authorities quoted above has mention of Faust’s Christian
name, but he appears as _Johannes_ in a book compiled by Johannes
Manlius (Johann Mennel) in 1563, _Locorum Communium Collectanea_, which
consists mainly of reports of conversations with Melanchthon, to whom
the following reminiscence is also to be attributed:—
“I knew a man named Faustus of Kundling, a little town near my home.
When he studied at Cracow, he had learned Magic, which was formerly
keenly studied there and where public lectures were delivered about
this art. Later he wandered about in many places and spoke about
secret things. When he wanted to create a sensation at Venice, he
announced that he was going to fly into the heavens. The devil then
lifted him up in the air, but let him fall to earth again, so that
he nearly gave up the ghost. A few years ago, this Johannes Faustus
sat very downcast on his last day in a village in the duchy of
Württemberg. Mine host asked him why he was so downcast, this not
being his custom or habit; for he was usually a graceless rogue, who
led a dissolute life, so that at one time and another his love affairs
had nearly brought him to his death. He thereupon replied to the host
in that village: ‘Do not be frightened to-night!’ At midnight the
house was shaken. Since on the next morning Faustus had not risen
and it was already noon, the host went into his room and found him
lying beside the bed with his face twisted round, as the devil had
killed him. During his life, he kept a dog, which was the devil....
This Faustus escaped from our town of Wittenberg, when the excellent
prince, duke Johann, had given the order that he was to be arrested.
In a similar way, he is said to have escaped likewise in Nuremberg.
At the beginning of the meal, he felt warm; he immediately rose from
the table and paid his scot to the host. He was hardly outside the
door when the minions came and asked for him. This magician Faustus,
an infamous beast, a cesspool (_cloaca_) of many devils, boasted that
all the victories which had been won by the imperial armies in Italy,
had been obtained for them by him through his magic, which was a most
shameless lie.”
This story is repeated by Andreas Hondorff in his _Promptuarium
Exemplorum_, which appealed five years later, in 1568:—
“Such a necromancer was Johann Faustus, who practised many tricks
through his black art. He had with him always a black dog, which was a
devil. When he came to Wittenberg he would have been arrested by order
of the Prince Elector, if he had not escaped. The same would have
happened to him in Nuremberg also, where he likewise escaped. But this
was his reward. When his time was up, he was in a tavern in a village
of Württemberg. Upon the host asking him why he was so downcast, he
replied, ‘Do not be afraid to-night, if you hear a great banging and
shaking of the house.’ In the morning he was found lying dead in his
room, with his neck twisted round.”
There is a casual reference to Faust in the _Table-talk of Martin
Luther_, edited by Johannes Aurifaber (Johann Goldschmidt) in 1566:—
“But when in the evening, at table, mention was made of a necromancer
named Faustus, Doctor Martin says earnestly, ‘the devil does not
employ the services of magicians against me; had he been able to do me
hurt, he would have done it long ago. He has no doubt had me often by
the head, but he never-the-less had to let me go again.’”
In a chronicle concluded in the same year by the Count Froben Christoph
von Zimmern, the scene of Faust’s death is given as Staufen in
Breisgau:—
“But that the practice of such art (of soothsaying) is not only
godless, but extremely perilous, that is undeniable, as is proved
by experience, and we know how it went with the famous necromancer
Faustus. He, after many wonderful things which he did during his life,
about which one could write a special treatise, was at last, at an
advanced age, slain by the evil spirit in the province of Staufen in
Breisgau.”
And there is further a reference to his revenge on the inhospitable
monks:—
“About that time (i.e. after 1539), Faustus died at, or at least not
far from Staufen, the little town in Breisgau. During his life, he
was a strange necromancer, who in our times could be found in German
provinces and had so many strange dealings, that he will not easily be
forgotten for many years. He lived to be an old man, and, as is said,
died wretchedly. Many people have thought that he was killed by the
evil spirit, whom in his lifetime he only called his brother-in-law
(_Schwager_). The books which he left behind have come into the
possession of the lord of Staufen, in whose province he died, and
many people have afterwards tried to obtain them, and in my opinion
desired in them a perilous and unlucky treasure. He charmed a spirit
into the monastery of the monks of Lüxheim in Wasgau, which they could
not get rid of for many years, and which troubled them strangely; for
the sole reason that they had once been unwilling to give him shelter
for the night, that was why he had procured for them this turbulent
visitor; at the same time, it is said, that a similar spirit was
attached to the former abbot of St. Diesenberg by an envious wandering
scholar.”
The last considerable reference, before the publication of the
folk-book, is in the edition of _De Praestigiis Daemonum_ by Johannes
Wierus (Johann Weyer, or Wier), which appeared in 1568. A German
edition of this book was published eighteen years later. Wierus was one
of the most distinguished and enlightened physicians of his time, and
he fought for years, at first with some success, against the fanatical
persecution of witches which was providing human torches in every
village in Germany. In this book on the illusions of the devils, he
protests against the witch-burnings, and it is noticeable that he does
not definitely refer to Faust’s alleged compact with the Devil:—
“When formerly at Cracow in Poland necromancy was taught publicly,
there came one of the name of Johannes Faustus, of Kundling, who in a
short time understood this art so well, that a short time ago, before
the year 1540, he practised it to the amazement of many and with many
lies and frauds in Germany, publicly and without fear. What a strange
hoaxer and adventurer he was, and what strange tricks he was able to
perform, I will here only demonstrate to the reader by one instance,
but with the instruction that he promise me beforehand that he will
not imitate him. When on one occasion this necromancer Faustus on
account of his wicked tricks was imprisoned at Battenburg, which lies
on the River Maas and borders on the Duchy of Geldern, in the absence
of the Count Hermann, the chaplain of that place, Dr. Johann Dorsten,
a pious, simple man, showed him much kindness, because he had promised
to teach him many good arts and make him a profoundly experienced man.
Therefore, when he saw that Faust was very fond of drink, he sent him
wine so long till the barrel was empty. But when the magician Faustus
noticed that, and the chaplain also prepared to go to Graven to get
a shave, he told him that if he would procure for him more wine, he
would teach him an art, how to remove his beard without a razor or
anything. When the chaplain forthwith agreed, he bade him take some
arsenic and rub well his beard and chin with it, not telling him to
prepare it beforehand and mix it with other things. When he did this,
his chin began to burn, so that not only the hair fell out, but the
skin and flesh came off as well.
I knew another man who had a black beard, and was yellowish of
face on account of his melancholy complexion. When he visited the
magician Faust, the latter said to him: ‘Really, I thought you were
my brother-in-law, my sister’s husband; and so I looked immediately
at your feet, to see whether you had long, crooked claws!’ Thus he
compared the good man, because he was swarthy, to the devil, and
called him also, as was always his custom, his brother-in-law. But he
received his reward at last. For, as is said, he was found dead one
morning beside his bed in a village in Württemberg, his face turned
towards his back, and the previous night there was such a turmoil in
the house, that the whole house shook.”
And lastly, there is a reference to Faust’s conjuring up the dead in
Wolffgang Bütner’s _Epitome Historiarum_, in 1576:—
“I have heard that Faustus, at Wittenberg, showed to the students and
to an exalted man N——, Hector, Ulysses, Hercules, Æneas, Samson, David
and others, who came forth with fierce bearing and earnest countenance
and disappeared again, and princely personages are also said to have
been present at the time and to have looked on.”
At this point it will be well to summarize what we have learnt about
Faust from contemporary references. The difficulty with regard to
his Christian name has already been mentioned. If his real name was
_Georg_, it may have been forgotten and replaced by the more common one
of _Johann_, or there may have been two magicians of the name of Faust,
the older one named Georg and the later one Johann, who may have taken
the name of Faust because it had already been rendered famous by his
predecessor. The latter hypothesis is, however, extremely unlikely, and
there seems very little reason to doubt that all the references are
to the same individual. It has been suggested that the name Johann
may have originated through confusion with Johann Fust, the printer,
but the latter died in the year 1466, and it was only during the
seventeenth century that the Faust legend was attributed to him. The
earliest investigators thought that the whole story was a mere legend,
and possibly invented by the monks as an expression of their hatred
of the inventor of printing, though as a matter of fact, it was only
through financial sharp practice that Fust obtained possession of the
printing outfit of the real inventor, Gutenberg.
As early as 1683, however, a professor of theology at Wittenberg
brought forward evidence of the actual existence of an individual of
the name of Faust.[2]
According to Manlius-Melanchthon, Faust was born in Knittlingen and
studied at the University of Cracow, though he appears later to have
said he came from Heidelberg. About the year 1505, the Abbot Trithemius
came in contact with him at Gelnhausen, though he did not speak to
him, and does not even say that he actually saw him. He was later in
Würzburg, and in 1507 he came to Kreuznach where he obtained a post
as schoolmaster, though he was soon compelled to flee on account of
alleged immorality. In the year 1513, he was in Erfurt, where he
called himself the half-god of Heidelberg. He may have stayed at
Maulbronn during the year 1516, but we hear nothing definite until
he casts the horoscope of the Bishop of Bamberg in 1520. Eight years
later, he was expelled from Ingolstadt, and six years after we find
Philipp von Hutten seeking his advice about a forthcoming expedition.
Another five years elapse, and a physician of Worms refers to the
complaints of people who had been swindled by him; the remark “gone is
gone” may allude to the disappearance or death of Faust, though it is
more likely that it refers to the money of the victims. The Zimmern
Chronicle mentions the village of Staufen, near Freiburg in Breisgau,
as the scene of his death, and gives the date as some time after 1539.
Wierus places the period of his activity before 1540, and when Gast
writes in 1548, he refers to Faust as being already dead. He appears to
have travelled extensively, for there are additional allusions to his
presence in Wittenberg, Nuremberg, Battenburg on the Maas, and Basle,
where Gast met him.
There seems no doubt that Doctor Faust surpassed all the wandering
scholars of his time both in pretensions and notoriety. His attempts
to fly and to conjure up spirits, to say nothing of the boast that
he could restore lost manuscripts of classical authors, are all
intelligent anticipations of what has been done or pretended in the
present century. He was rather indiscreet in declaring that he had
helped the Imperial armies to victory in Italy, but he may have been
emboldened by patronage such as that of Philipp von Hutten and the
Bishop of Bamberg, though the distinguished humanists and reformers
would have nothing to do with the braggart. The students appear to
have been greatly impressed by him and he certainly imposed on the
uneducated people.
Soon after his death the historical facts become blurred, and the
mysterious circumstances surrounding his disappearance may have given
an additional impulse to the subsequent legend, which appears, indeed,
to have started even during his lifetime. The later contemporary
references are already coloured with imaginative detail, and anecdotes
relating to his various pranks, real or alleged, were circulating among
all classes of the people. These soon became the nucleus of a large
collection of stories, some of which had formerly been related of other
magicians and were now fathered on Faust, until in the year 1587,
scarcely fifty years after his death, the first printed account of
the life of “Dr. Johann Faust, the notorious Magician and Necromancer”
was published, as a warning to all readers, at Frankfort-on-the-Main.
It is astonishing that he should so soon have become a myth, but an
explanation may perhaps be sought in the ferment and unrest of an age
which stands between the medieval and the modern, when old conceptions
were tumbling and new worlds, both material and intellectual, were
being discovered. Literature was no longer a diversion for the upper
classes, and the dreams and traditions of the people were finding their
way into print. Till Owlglass, the Wandering Jew, Doctor Faust are all
types in which have been concentrated the lore and myth of centuries.
In these representative figures, the people have focussed their
longings and their aversions, their hopes and fears, and none of the
wizards of popular superstition was more familiar to them than the man
who had put forth his pretensions in all the market-places of Germany.
The Zimmern Chronicle declares that when Faust died, he left
behind him various books which came into the possession of the lord
of Staufen, and that many people had endeavoured to obtain these
works. Whether there is any truth in this statement is a matter for
considerable doubt, but the booksellers were not long in turning the
belief to their own advantage and supplying the demand for books of an
occult nature. There were at first manuscripts in circulation, which
gave instructions how to practise the various magic arts attributed to
Faust, the most famous of them being the _Höllenzwang_, or _Conquest of
Hell_. They were usually disposed of secretly by disreputable people
at exorbitant prices,[3] but later the publishers brought out volumes
which they ascribed to the authorship of Faust, and some of these were
even supplied with false dates, to give them an appearance of antiquity.
One such manuscript bears the following title:—
“Secret and hidden, highly-authenticated Magic Writings, for the
advantage of all, which have been truly tested by me, Doctor Johann
Faust, and found trustworthy in each and every case, to the purpose
that I have set down herein honestly and without falseness or deceit
the principles of all the arts of the world, how I have practised
them all myself and come thereby to great fortune; likewise I have
presented openly everything which I have herein recounted to my
successors, necromantic as well as cabalistic, that I may be well
remembered; all Spirits have been subject to me through these my
Writings, they have been compelled to fetch for me and do all my
bidding. Nothing further have I written but these twelve parts. Let
him who finds and obtains them use them with caution and take strict
heed of all therein, that you may not endanger body and life, against
which I warn you in all sincerity.”
[Illustration: THE SEAL OF AZIEL
From Faust’s _Triple Conquest of Hell_.]
A _Höllenzwang_ printed in the year 1607 explains in greater detail the
benefits to be attained by its aid:—
“Dr. Johann Faust’s Juggler’s Bag, concerning all kinds of unheard-of,
secret, merry feats, mysteries and inventions whereby a man may
interpret dreams, tell fortunes, open locked doors, cure the gout,
recognize adulterers and fornicators, inspire strange men, women
and maids with love, increase his height by some ells, make himself
invisible or invulnerable, change his shape, rouse the thunder and
lightning, collect and disperse snakes, catch pigeons, fish or birds
in his hands, overcome his enemies, and perform other innumerable,
incredible and extravagant feats, both merry and advantageous,
together with five other extravagant, excellent and authentic
devices. Now for the first time from the Original written with his
own hand by Dr. Faust, published for the particular pleasure of all
artists by Johann de Luna, Christoph Wagner’s former disciple and
well-experienced in the Magic Arts.”[4]
[Footnote 1: H. Düntzer: Dei Sage von Dr. Joh. Faust [Scheible’s
Kloster, 1847].]
[Footnote 2: J. G. Neumann: _Disquisitio historica de Fausto
Praestigiatore_.]
[Footnote 3: One enthusiast in Holland is said to have paid eight
thousand gilders for four magic seals contained in a book of this kind.]
[Footnote 4: K. Engel: _Zusammenstellung der Faust-Schriften vom 16.
Jh. bis Mitte 1884_ [Oldenburg, 1885], pp. 150 and 158.]
II
_The German Faust Book_
It was not long before a publisher saw the business possibilities
of the legend, for in the autumn of the year 1587 there appeared at
Frankfort-on-the-Main the first printed account of the life and death
of Faust:—
_Historia Von D. Johann Fausten, dem weitbeschreyten Zauberer unnd
Schwartzkünstler, Wie er sich gegen dem Teuffel auff eine benandte
zeit verschrieben, Was er hierzwischen für seltzame Abentheuwer
gesehen, selbs angerichtet und getrieben, bisz er endtlich seinen
wol verdienten Lohn empfangen. Mehrertheils ausz seinen eygenen
hinderlassenen Schrifften, allen hochtragenden, fürwitzigen und
Gottlosen Menschen zum schrecklichen Beyspiel, abscheuwlichen Exempel,
und treuwhertziger Warnung zusammen gezogen, und in den Druck
verfertiget. Iacobi IIII. Seyt Gott underthänig, widerstehet dem
Teuffel, so fleuhet er von euch. Cum Gratia et Privilegio. Gedruckt
zu Franckfurt am Mayn, durch Johann Spies. M.D.LXXXVII. [History
of D. Johann Faust, the notorious Magician and Necromancer, how he
sold himself for a stipulated Time to the Devil, What strange Things
he saw, performed and practised during this Time, until at last
he received his well-merited Reward. For the most Part extracted
and herewith printed from his own posthumous Writings as an awful
and abominable Example and sincere Warning to all presumptuous,
inquisitive and godless Persons. “Submit yourselves to God. Resist
the Devil, and he will flee from you” (James iv). Cum Gratia et
Privilegio. Printed at Frankfort-on-the-Main by Johann Spies.
M.D.LXXXVII.]_
The story is preceded by a dedication to two friends of the publisher,
and a _Preface to the Christian Reader_, in the former of which there
is reference to the widespread popularity of the legend: “Since many
years ago there was great and universal talk in Germany about the
various adventures of Doct. Johannes Faustus, the notorious magician
and necromancer, and everywhere there is a great demand for the history
of the said Faustus at entertainments and gatherings, and since
likewise there is now and then mention in the works of some modern
historians of this magician, his devilish arts and fearful end, it has
often been a matter of astonishment to me that nobody has composed a
regular account of this fearful story and published it as a warning to
the whole of Christendom. I have also not hesitated to enquire from
scholars and wise people whether this history has perhaps already been
written down by anyone, but I have never been able to discover anything
certain, until recently it was communicated and sent to me by a good
friend in Speyer, with the request that I should publish and present it
as a fearful example of devilish deceit, murder of body and soul, as a
warning to all Christians.” This dedication is dated Monday, the 4th
of September, 1587, and signed by Johann Spies himself. The Preface
to the Christian Reader, amid much quoting of the Bible, declares
that, “The exorcisers of the devil seldom come to a good end, as is to
be seen in the case of Dr. Johann Faustus, who was alive within the
memory of man, signed a compact and league with the devil, experienced
many strange adventures and practised abominable infamy and vice, with
guzzling, swilling, fornication and all kinds of sensual pleasure,
until at last the devil gave him his deserved reward and wrung his neck
in a dreadful manner.”
This little volume must have been enormously popular, for although it
appeared so late in the season, there were before the end of the year
at least four reprints, a new original edition, and a further edition
containing eight new chapters. The _editio princeps_ (of which there is
a copy in the British Museum) contains 69 chapters.
It is not long since an older version of the _Historia_ in manuscript,
dating from the seventies or early eighties of the sixteenth century,
was discovered.[5] It contains a different preface and two more
chapters, one of which describes how Faust releases a nobleman and old
schoolfellow named von Reuttpüffel from captivity in Turkey, and brings
him home just after his wife has married again. The story is told with
all the hearty bawdiness of the time, and the wife is made to feel
thankful that her vigorous first husband has returned to her, after
her single, disappointing experience with the second one. There are in
addition a few prophecies made by Faust in his last year concerning
the Papacy, including one concerning the Massacre of St. Bartholomew
in 1572. It was written, of course, after the event. The preface
states that the manuscript was translated from the Latin, but whether
the first version of the Faust book was really written in any other
language than German it is impossible to say.
It is already obvious from the Preface to the Faust book that the
publication of the wicked life and dreadful doom of Faust was intended
as a warning to all who could not find peace and content in the bosom
of the Church, but would seek to explore beyond, with the treacherous
aid of science, which at that time, of course, included magic.
Curiosity in theological matters was regarded as an unhealthy symptom,
and was only playing into the hands of the Devil, who, in the words
of the Epistle of Peter, quoted in the Preface, as a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Faust represents the spirit
of enquiry, which was regarded as fatal to the soul, but nobody seems
to have wondered whether a soul that had to be so jealously guarded and
could be so easily lost was worth having at all. The strong Lutheran
tendency which was a characteristic of the activities of Spies as a
publisher, is also a marked feature of the Faust book. Martin Luther
himself shared the prevailing view of the time, that the world is
divided into two camps, that of God and that of the Devil, and the
latter is mentioned frequently in his writings. Faust can, with some
reservation, be looked upon as the great counterpart of Luther; they
are the two poles of the sixteenth century. In the book, the contrast
is all the more striking since it does not appear as an intentional
element in the work. The views of Luther are not definitely defended,
but are taken as a matter of course, and the contrast between the
theologian and the sceptic develops naturally from the theme, though
the Lutheran doctrine occasionally comes prominently to the fore. Both
the Faust of the legend and Luther were Doctors of Theology and closely
connected with Wittenberg, the cradle of the Reformation. Starting from
the same point, they reached goals which were diametrically opposed.
They both lectured on the culture of antiquity, and they had both been
in Rome, but whereas Luther had set out with feelings of reverence,
only to return in disappointment and indignation, Faust was merely
amused and contemplated with cynical complacency the license of the
Vatican, where the priests were no better than himself. Luther married
in accordance with the tenets of the Church, but Faust rejected the
sacrament of marriage for the pagan Helena. Luther based his faith on
the Bible, Faust was not content to accept the Holy Writ, but sought to
penetrate the forbidden mysteries beyond it. Faust entered into league
with the Devil, while Luther hurled his inkstand at him.[6]
It is true that it was not in the spirit of Luther to conceive of
the defection from orthodox theology as defection from God, and the
ridicule to which the Church of Rome and its priests are exposed in
the Faust book, even the Devil himself appearing in the guise of a
monk, would quite possibly even have appealed to his robust sense of
humour. Nevertheless, there seems little reason to doubt that the book
was written from the Lutheran standpoint. Since, however, in the field
of German literary research, it seems impossible for any definite
point of view, with whatever weight of proof it may be supported,
to be maintained for very long, before a scholar brings forward its
exact opposite, which he defends with equally weighty evidence, there
has recently been an attempt to prove that the tendency of the Faust
book was not Lutheran but Catholic.[7] The author of this theory does
not deny that the intention of some passages is obviously hostile
to Catholicism, but he declares that they are later interpolations,
and endeavours to prove that the book is a parody on Luther, who is
represented as a modern Bacchus and companion of the Devil. The first
direct anti-clerical reference is the taunt at the celibacy of the
clergy in Faust’s conversation with Mephostophiles concerning the
former’s desire to take a wife. The Devil endeavours to dissuade him
by declaring that marriage is a divine institution, but Faust retorts
that the monks and nuns do not marry. This passage is lacking in the
Wolfenbüttel MS. In the chapter which deals with the journey through
Europe, Faust remarks at Cologne that the Devil is in the Church of
St. Ursula with the 11,000 virgins. The MS. has _Tempel_ instead of
_Teufel_. When Faust arrives in Rome, he spends three days and nights
invisible in the pope’s palace, finding that “these pigs at Rome are
fattened and all ready to roast and cook,” and after his experience in
the harem at Constantinople, he mounts up in the air in the vestments
of a pope. These last two adventures are also to be found in the
MS., but Dr. Wolff declares them to be interpolations. His evidence,
however, is not convincing, and there is little reason to assume that
the spirit of any literary version of the Faust book which may have
been extant before 1587 was different from the tendency of the edition
published by Spies.
The development from historical fact to legend was influenced
considerably by contact with other myths of the same type. There were
numerous alleged covenanters with the Devil in the Middle Ages, of
whom the most akin to Faust was Theophilus of Adana. But Theophilus
was saved eventually from eternal damnation by the intervention of the
Virgin Mary, and if the Faust book had really been of Catholic origin,
there is little doubt that the Madonna and the Saints would have saved
him. The fires of Hell are essential to the spirit of the Faust book;
the pact is irrevocable. Many features formerly attributed to other
wizards were transferred to Faust, including the Devil in the form of
a black dog which always accompanied Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim,
the enchanted garden conjured up by Albertus Magnus for the Emperor in
the midst of winter, and the exorcising of the spirit of Alexander the
Great and other Greek heroes by the Abbot Trithemius. The incident
of Helena may be due to the connection with Simon Magus, who was
accompanied on his journeys by a courtesan named Helen. The fame of all
these magicians sank into obscurity, and the one figure that carried on
into future centuries the memory of their deeds was Faust.
When the oral legend was cast into literary form, the anonymous author
appears to have consulted many works of reference. The long chapter
which describes the journey of Faust and Mephostophiles, as well as
the description of Paradise, is based on the _Book of Chronicles_ of
Hartmann Schedel, which appeared in 1493. The peculiar zig-zag nature
of the journey is due to the fact that Schedel gives the towns in
chronological order, according to the supposed year in which they were
founded, and the author of the Faust book has copied them mechanically.
Similarly he has taken from the German-Latin dictionary of the Swiss
humanist Dasypodius, in alphabetical order, the list of fish, game
and wine with which Faust entertains his guests at the court of the
Count (really Prince) of Anhalt. For example, the fish are mentioned
in the following order: _Aal_, _Barben_, _Bersing_, _Bickling_,
_Bolchen_, _Aschen_, _Forell_, _Hecht_, _Karpffen_, _Krebs_, _Moschel_,
_Neunaugen_, _Platteissen_, _Salmen_ and _Schleyen_, and the wines are
_Burgunder_, _Brabänder_, _Coblentzer_, _Crabatischer_, _Elsässer_,
_Engelländer_, _Frantzösische_, _Rheinische_, _Spanische_, etc. The
conversations concerning the physical sciences and celestial phenomena
can be traced to _Elucidarius_, a collection of scientific dialogues.
Augustin Lercheimer’s (pseudonym for Professor Hermann Witekind of
Heidelberg) _Christliche Bedenken und Erinnerung von Zauberei_, which
first appeared in 1585, was formerly thought to have been a direct
source of the Faust book, but it is possible that Lercheimer himself
borrowed from an earlier manuscript of the Faust book. He anticipates
modern science when He protests against the witch-burnings, and
declares that witches should be sent to the physician rather than to
the judge. In the third edition of his book, which was published in
1597, Lercheimer denounces the Faust book as a libel on the University
and Church of Wittenberg:—
“It is all malicious lies.... He had neither house nor yard at
Wittenberg or elsewhere, was never at home, lived like a vagabond,
was a parasite, guzzled, swilled and lived by his conjuring. How
could he have a house and yard by the outer gate of the town in the
Scheergasse, since there never was a suburb and therefore no outer
gate? Neither was there ever a Scheergasse there. That in such a
University, a man whom Melanchthon used to call a cesspool of many
devils should have been made Master, to say nothing of Doctor of
Theology, which would be an eternal disgrace to the degree and
honourable title, who believes that?... About all the other vanity,
lies and _Teufelsdreck_ in the book, I will say nothing.... It is, to
be sure, nothing new and no cause for surprise that such calumnies are
issued by the enemies of our religion, but it is unwarrantable and
lamentable that our printers also should publish such books without
shame, whereby honest people are slandered and inquisitive youths led
to attempt similar magic feats; to say nothing of the abuse of the
beautiful and noble art of printing, which has been conferred on us by
God.”
The fact that Lercheimer, who was an ardent adherent of Luther, should
have condemned the book in such terms, cannot be regarded as evidence
of its anti-Lutheran tendency.
Another important manuscript was discovered recently in Nuremberg.[8]
A certain Christoph Rosshirt, a teacher of Nuremberg, who had studied
in Wittenberg, copied into an album about the year 1575, amidst other
matter, anecdotes relating to various magicians, including Doctor
Faust. It will be noticed that Faust’s Christian name is given here as
_George_. The Faust stories are four in number:—
1. When Dr. Georgius Faustus is lecturing to the students at the
University of Ingolstadt on philosophy and necromancy, he invites
some friends to dinner, and tells them that the food and drink they
are enjoying come from the wedding-feast of the King of England.
He instructs them to hold on to the edge of the towel when water
is brought for them to wash their hands, and he will take them to
the dance at the King’s wedding. When they are discovered in the
ball-room, they are taken for spies and arrested. They are condemned
to be hanged, but Faust rescues them in the same way that he had
brought them there. They wash their hands in England and dry them in
Germany.
2. Faust asks a Jewish merchant at the Frankfort Fair to change him
some French money into good talers. The merchant promises to call on
Faust at his inn and bring him the money, but when he arrives, Faust
is lying on a couch, apparently asleep. The Jew puts his bag of talers
on the table and shakes Faust by the arm, but cannot rouse him; he
becomes annoyed and shakes him violently by the leg, which comes off
in his hand. He rushes in terror from the house, leaving behind him
cloak and money-bag which are shared by Faust and his servant.
3. Faust sells a swineherd in Bamberg some fat pigs, but warns him
against driving them into flowing water. On the next day the swineherd
neglects the warning and the pigs are turned into bundles of straw. By
this time Faust is well on the way to Nuremberg.
4. On the evening before he is due to fulfil his pact with the Devil,
Faust arrives at a village inn and asks for a room for the night. In
the tap-room there is a crowd of drunken, noisy peasants, who refuse
to be quiet when Faust asks them. The magician bewitches them so that
they remain sitting with their mouths wide open, and he is able to
have his last meal in peace. He pays his bill, tips all the servants,
and goes to bed, but is persuaded by the host to disenchant the
drunken clowns. On the next morning, Faust is found dead in bed.
As some of these stories had already been in circulation about other
magicians, it is obvious that Faust was already becoming in popular
imagination the prototype, and it is possible to see the myth in
progress of development. The magician who sold his soul to the Devil
was not a new factor in the superstitious fantasy of the people, but it
was convenient to father all the floating rumours on some outstanding
personality of whom everybody had heard and who had, in the memory of
many, boasted in public of his wicked art. It is of interest to note
that whereas Bütner declares that it was at Wittenberg, the leading
Lutheran University, that Faust conjured up the Greek heroes, this
Nuremberg manuscript transfers his teaching activities in philosophy
and necromancy to the centre of Catholic doctrine, Ingolstadt. Later on
the scene is shifted to Erfurt, the seat of humanism.
The enlarged edition which appeared in 1587, with a different sequence
of chapters and eight new ones added, has drawn for its new matter
mainly on the _De Praestigiis Daemonum_ of Wierus and the _Christliche
Bedenken und Erinnerung von Zauberei_ of Augustin Lercheimer, where
the anecdotes are related for the most part about other magicians. The
title-page of this edition states that it was printed by Spies, but his
printer’s ornament is lacking, so the statement is most probably false.
The stories are as follows:—
1. Faust meets a peasant who has lost his horse, and tells him that he
has just seen a man riding away on it. The peasant hurries after the
supposed thief and there is a gory fight, until he notices that the
other man’s horse is a stallion, whereas his own was a gelding.
2. Faust meets a priest in Cologne hastening to church with his
breviary in his hand, and turns the sacred book into a pack of cards.
3. Faust enters an inn, where he is refused entertainment, as there
is no food in the house. He taps the window with his finger, and says
“Bring what you have”; then putting his hand outside the window, he
draws in a large dish full of boiled pike and a large can of good
Rhine wine.
4. A castle in which Faust is living is besieged by the Spanish troops
of the Emperor Charles. He shoots fragments from a tree under which a
Spanish colonel is sitting, although the latter is not visible from
the castle, and catches the Spanish cannon-balls in his hands.
5. Faust swallows a servant in an inn, because he fills the glasses
too full, and washes the morsel down with a bucket of water. The
servant is afterwards discovered in the yard all wet and dripping.
6. Faust cuts off a man’s head in an inn, but is prevented from
setting it on again by the mysterious influence of one of the
spectators; so he causes a lily to grow on the table, from which he
slices off the head, and immediately one of the spectators falls
decapitated from his seat. Faust then sets the first man’s head on his
shoulders again.
7. Faust invites some gentlemen to dinner, but when they arrive they
find the table empty. Their host bids his spirit fetch food from a
neighbouring wedding-party, and after the feast the guests ask him to
show them one of his tricks. He causes a vine to grow on the table,
with grapes for each of his guests, and tells each one to pick his
own fruit with one hand and put his knife to the stalk with the other,
but to be very careful not to cut. He then leaves the room, and when
he returns they are all grasping their own noses with one hand and
holding their knives in dangerous proximity with the other.
8. Faust teaches a chaplain how to remove his beard with arsenic.
The edition of 1589 is important, because it contains the six extra
“Erfurt Chapters,” which were most probably based on local tradition
in that town. Faust is seen here as a lecturer at the University. The
following is a summary of these extra chapters:—
[Illustration]
1. Some students invite Faust to accompany them to the Leipzig Fair,
and after they have inspected the town and the University they come
to a wine-cellar, where some draymen are endeavouring without success
to roll out a huge barrel. Faust mocks their efforts, and they return
his jeers with interest, but the owner of the barrel offers to make
a present of the contents to whoever can lift it out. Faust goes
into the cellar, sits astride the barrel as though it were a horse
and rides out. The host has to keep his promise, and Faust shares the
contents with his companions.
[Illustration]
2. Faust was for some years at Erfurt and lectured at the University.
On one occasion, when he is lecturing on Homer, the students request
him to conjure up the ancient heroes of Greece. He promises to do
so at his next lecture, which is consequently very fully attended.
The heroes duly appear in their armour—Menelaus, Achilles, Hector,
Priam, Alexander, Ulysses, Ajax, Agamemnon and others, followed by the
one-eyed giant Polyphemus, with the extremities of a man he is eating
still projecting from between his teeth. The spectators are terrified,
but Faust laughs and orders the spirits to go away again, which they
all do with the exception of Polyphemus, who looks as though he
would like to devour one or two of the students. However, he also is
persuaded to retire, but the students do not ask Faust to repeat the
experiment.
3. Faust offers to bring to light the lost comedies of Terence and
Plautus, though only for a sufficient length of time to enable them
to be copied. The theologians and members of the University council,
however, think that there are enough books in existence from which the
students can learn Latin, and in any case there is the possibility of
the Devil inserting in the newly discovered works all kinds of poison
and bad examples, and the disadvantage might outbalance the gain. So
Faust is not given the opportunity this time of proving his skill.
4. While Faust is in Prague, a friend of his, who is giving a party in
Erfurt, desires his presence, and presently there is a knock at the
door and Faust is seen to have just alighted from his horse. He says
he cannot stay long as he must be back in Prague on the morrow. He
gets intoxicated, and asks the guests whether they would not like to
try some foreign wines. He thereupon bores four holes in the table and
puts plugs into them. Glasses are fetched, Faust draws the plugs and
serves each man with the wine he desires. It appears that his horse,
who is devouring all the oats in the stable and looking for more, is
really Mephostophiles. Early in the morning Faust rides away, and the
guests who accompany him to the door see his horse rise with him into
the air.
5. Faust invites some friends to his lodging, and when they arrive
there is neither food nor drink, fire nor smoke. Their host raps on
the table with his knife, and a servant comes in. Faust asks, “How
swift are you?” and the reply is, “Like an arrow.” “No,” says Faust,
“you cannot serve me, go back whence you came.” He raps again, and
another servant enters, who tells Faust that he is as swift as the
wind. He also is sent away. A third servant is as swift as thought and
is accepted by Faust, who orders him to bring food and drink for the
feast. The goblets are put on the table empty, but Faust asks each of
his guests what kind of wine or beer he would like, holds the goblet
out of the window and draws it in again full of the desired liquor.
6. A famous Franciscan monk, named Dr. Kling, who was well acquainted
with Dr. Martin Luther, endeavours to convert Faustus. But Faust
declares it would be dishonourable to go back on his pact with
the Devil, which he has signed with his own blood. “The Devil has
honourably kept his part of the bargain, therefore I will keep mine.”
The monk reports this conversation to the Rector and Council of the
University, and Faust is compelled to quit Erfurt.
These stories are also to be found in a seventeenth-century manuscript
chronicle of Thuringia and the town of Erfurt, based on an Erfurt
Chronicle of the previous century which is now lost. The author of this
earlier chronicle appears to have heard the anecdotes, in the year
1556, from a neighbour of the Franciscan monk who tried to convert
Faust. The story of how Faust rode the barrel of wine out of the cellar
is recorded in two paintings on the wall of Auerbach’s wine-cellar in
Leipzig, which bear the date 1525, but are in reality no earlier than
the seventeenth century. The wine-cellar itself was not built till
1530.
There were further editions of the Faust book in 1590 and 1592, as
well as a rhymed version, which appeared at Tübingen in the winter
of 1587-8. It is probably the authors of this book who are referred
to in the complaint of the ducal commissioners to the senate of the
University of Tübingen, which is recorded in the minutes of the senate
on the 15th of April, 1588. The publisher and authors are ordered to be
incarcerated for a couple of days, and sternly reprimanded.
In the year 1599 there was published at Hamburg a considerably enlarged
edition, of which the end of each chapter was adorned with an edifying
commentary, called an _Erinnerung_, or Remonstrance, and it is this
version which became the basis of the subsequent editions. The story
becomes more anti-Catholic than in the earlier editions, and the
anti-papal moral is driven home in each _Erinnerung_. The editor, Georg
Rudolf Widman, has successfully eliminated any element of titanism or
poetry which may have been present in the original book, and Faust
becomes merely a young man led astray by the Church of Rome. Widman
has even been delicate enough to condense the Helena episode to a mere
reference in a footnote.
Widman’s version was again subjected to re-arrangement in the year
1674, by the Nuremberg physician Johann Nicolaus Pfitzer, who modified
the former polemic against the Catholic Church, and in 1725 Pfitzer’s
version was published in abbreviated form by an anonymous editor
who called himself a _Christlich-Meynender_, or Man of Christian
Sentiments. This volume is exceedingly slim, but it was sold
everywhere and became the popular chap-book. It is important in that
it contains the germ of the Gretchen episode in Goethe’s drama. Faust
tries to seduce a servant-girl, but she is proof against temptation and
he offers to marry her; Lucifer, however, dissuades him and gives him
Helena instead.
[Footnote 5: By Gustav Milchsack in the library at Wolfenbüttel,
and edited by him in _Historia D. Johannis Fausti des Zauberers_
[Wolfenbüttel, 1892-7]. Milchsack promised at the time to follow
up this publication with a second volume containing the results of
his researches, but he has not yet done so, and according to German
custom, other scholars have hitherto refrained from trespassing on his
preserves, so the problems raised by the discovery of this manuscript
have not yet been fully investigated.]
[Footnote 6: W. Scherer: _Das älteste Faustbuch_ [Berlin, 1884].]
[Footnote 7: Eugen Wolff: _Faust und Luther_ [Halle, 1912].]
[Footnote 8: By Wilhelm Meyer, and edited by him in _Nürnberger
Faustgeschichten_ [Munich, 1895].]
III
_Faust in England_
The earliest mention of Faust in England is in a translation by R. H.
of a book by Ludwig Lavater, _Of Ghostes and Spirites_, published in
1572:—
“There are also conjurers founde even at this day, who bragge of
themselves that they can so by inchauntments saddle an horse, that in
a fewe houres they will dispatch a very long journey. God at the last
will chasten these men with deserved punishment. What straunge things
are reported of one Faustus a German, which he did in these our dayes
by inchauntments?”
_The History of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Doctor John
Faustus_, which was published in London in 1592, was, as the title-page
announces, newly printed and in places amended, so there must have
been an earlier edition of which all trace is lost. This was in all
likelihood translated from the _editio princeps_ of 1587, but as we are
uncertain of its date, it is not impossible that one of the slightly
later German editions was used. There occurs in the Stationers’
Registers under the date 28th of February, 1589, the entry of “A ballad
of the life and deathe of Doctor FAUSTUS the great Cunngerer. Allowed
under the hand of the Bishop of London.”
This ballad has been preserved only in later versions of the
seventeenth century,[9] and it is not possible to say definitely
whether or no it was founded on the English translation of the German
Faust book, though that is the most likely theory. There is little
doubt that the latter appeared before the ballad. In any case, _The
Tragical History of Doctor Faustus_, by Christopher Marlowe, which was
in all probability on the stage as early as 1589, was based directly,
as is shown by internal evidence, on the English Faust book, and it
is unlikely that Marlowe was acquainted with the German version.[10]
So even if the ballad was founded on Marlowe’s tragedy, which is very
improbable, and not on the English Faust book, the latter must have
been published an astonishingly short time after the appearance of the
original German _Historia_. The translator is called P. F. _Gent._
(i.e. Gentleman, and not, as some editors have thought, his surname),
but in later editions these initials appear as P. R. or P. K. His
identity cannot be established, and it is not even possible to estimate
definitely his knowledge of German. To quote Logeman; “That P. F....
must have known some German is of course evident from the whole of the
translation and more especially from some passages where a smaller
light would have blundered. But that his own cannot have shone very
brightly is apparent from the number of lesser and greater blunders
in which we have caught our translator, and also from the fact that
some passages which present considerable difficulties will be found
to have been omitted.” We cannot, however, judge a sixteenth-century
translator by present-day standards, for he was at liberty to adapt
or modify as he listed. For example, where the German original states
that Faust blew in the pope’s face, the translator renders _blew_ by
_smote_, thus altering the whole sense, and it is doubtful whether the
false translation is due to P. F.’s sense of humour or his ignorance
of German. The description of Florence is even more confused than in
the original, and he adds strange lore of his own, such as the mythical
story of the Brazen Virgin on the bridge at Breslaw, who was used for
the disposal of unruly children. It is possible that P. F. had really
visited eastern Germany and the Polish or Galician regions, such as
Prague and Cracow, but it is just as likely that he obtained his extra
knowledge from a travelled friend. He frequently tones down the German
author’s denunciation of Faust’s wicked ways, and emphasizes the
fantasies and cogitations rather than the presumption and arrogance of
the sorcerer. The English Faust book is therefore the first step in the
deepening of the Faust character, and this conception is developed by
Marlowe.[11]
There is in the original legend of Faust little of that titanic
discontent with the spiritual limits of humanity, which is now regarded
as the fundamental characteristic of the Faustian nature. It is not the
desire to solve the riddle of the universe that drives him to the pact
with the Devil, but the less worthy desire for power and pleasure. It
is true that “he took to himself eagles’ wings and wanted to fathom
all the causes in heaven and earth,” but the Promethean defiance which
some scholars have sought to establish as his guiding motive, was a
preconception implanted in their own minds by a study of the Faust of
Goethe. The Faust of the _Historia_ obliges the Devil to answer all his
questions and shows afterwards a lively interest in the organization
of heaven and hell, but the first-fruits of the pact are food, wine
and women. Even Marlowe’s Faustus promises himself merely treasure,
delicacies and power from intercourse with the spirits; philosophy,
medicine, law and theology are all inadequate for the man who longs to
“raise the wind, or rend the clouds,” but when his league with hell has
endowed him with supernatural powers, the only use he finds for them is
to gratify his sensual desires or indulge in practical jokes. It cannot
be said that Marlowe has realized in his tragedy the potentiality of
the legend, though he seems to have had an inkling of it. The Helen
episode gives rise to the finest poetical passage in the play:—
“Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?”—
and the final scene, with Faust’s death presaged by the striking of
the clock, is impressive, but the author has done little to raise the
conception to a higher plane.
After the production of Marlowe’s play the name of Faustus appears
to have become a household word, and there are various allusions
to the character in contemporary writings, including a reference
in Shakespeare’s _Merry Wives_. William Prynne relates in his
_Histrio-Mastix, The Players’ Scourge_, 1663, a curious incident
which occurred during a performance. He is quoting the tragic end of
many who have been slain in playhouses in London, “Nor yet to recite
the sudden fearful burning even to the ground, both of the Globe and
Fortune Playhouses, no man perceiving how these fires came: together
with the visible apparition of the Devil on the Stage at the Belsavage
Playhouse, in Queen Elizabeth’s days (to the great amazement both of
the Actors and Spectators) whiles they were there profanely playing the
History of Faustus, ... there being some distracted with that fearful
sight.”
There was no further development of the theme in this country, for it
degenerated into a subject for farce and pantomime. There were further
editions of the English Faust book, and in the year 1664 there was
published in London _The History of Doctor John Faustus; Compiled in
Verse, very pleasant and Delightfull_, with a doggerel dedication to
the reader:—
“Reader, I would not have you think,
That I intend to waste my ink,
While Faustus Story I reherse,
And here do write his life in verse.
For seeing Fryer Bacons Story,
(In whom Oxford still may glory)
For want of better pen comes forth,
Compos’d in Rymes of no great worth:
I call’d my Muse to task, and pend
Faustus life, and death, and end.
And when it cometh forth in print,
If you like it not, the Devil’s in’t.”
A farce by the actor W. Mountford, _Life and Death of Doctor Faustus,
with the Humours of Harlequin and Scaramuch_, was acted at the Queen’s
Theatre in Dorset Gardens between 1684 and 1688, and revived later at
the theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. It was borrowed for the most part,
with the exception, of course, of the harlequinade, from Marlowe.
The poet Alexander Pope declares that Faust was the subject of a set of
farces, which lasted in vogue two or three seasons, and in which both
Drury Lane and Covent Garden strove to outdo each other for some years.
John Thurmond, a dancing master, composed a _Harlequin Dr. Faustus_,
which was performed at Drury Lane, and published in the year 1724, and
there is a record of a _Harlequin Dr. Faustus, Pantomime; altered from
the Necromancer_, by a Mr. Woodward, which was acted at Covent Garden
as late as 1766. These are but casual references to what must have been
numerous Faust farces, and there were in addition performances of Faust
puppet-plays in the Punch and Judy Theatre of Martin Powell opposite
St. Paul’s Church in Covent Garden. Neither the pantomimes nor the
puppet-plays appear to derive from Marlowe, but since the appearance
of the latter’s tragedy, the Faust story appears definitely to have
abandoned the epic form for the dramatic, and it is in its original
home, Germany, that further development took place. Although in England
the theme degenerated until it was employed for the most insipid type
of theatrical entertainment, it was the English dramatist who first
gave it the form in which, two centuries later, it was to inspire the
greatest of all the poets who have sought to express the strivings of
humanity in the figure of Faust.
[Footnote 9: See Appendix B.]
[Footnote 10: _Marlowe’s Faustus, etc._, edited by A. W. Ward [4th ed.,
Oxford, 1901], and _Faustus-Notes_, by H. Logeman [Gand, 1898].]
[Footnote 11: R. Rohde: _Das Englische Faustbuch und Marlowes Tragödie_
[Halle, 1910].]
IV
_The Faust Drama in Germany_
Throughout the stagnant literary period of the seventeenth century and
the first half of the eighteenth, it was not the various editions of
the Faust book that kept the legend green in Germany, but the popular
drama which developed from Marlowe’s _Faustus_. Towards the end of
the sixteenth century, companies of English actors began to tour the
Continent, and in their repertories were the plays of the Elizabethans,
much mangled and adapted to the taste of their uncultivated audiences.
The popularity of these _English Comedians_, as they were called,
was greatest in Germany, and we find traces of them throughout the
first half of the seventeenth century. Acting as a profession began
in Germany with these English companies. At first they played only
in English, but later they produced German translations of their
repertory, even German original plays, and recruited their ranks from
among German actors. Soon German troupes were formed on the same
lines, who still, however, called themselves “English Comedians,”
since the advertisement was of value. The English actors laid great
weight on visual effect, for the language difficulty had at first to be
surmounted. The actors themselves were for the most part minstrels and
dancers, and the most important character was the clown who appeared in
every production, however tragic it might be. Even when the play was
performed in English, the clown spoke German, and he was known under
various names, such as _Pickelhäring_, while later on he was called
_Hans Wurst_. The plays were not written down and there was plenty
of scope allowed for gagging, so that eventually they were distorted
out of all recognition and were practically the work of the actors
themselves. Among the plays which were produced and gradually adapted
in this manner was Marlowe’s tragedy, and in its more spectacular form
it provided the public with the two somewhat contradictory essentials,
plenty of coarse humour and plenty of blood.
The earliest record of a performance of Marlowe’s play by the English
strolling players is one at Gräz in 1608. In 1626, a _Tragödia von Dr.
Faust_ was produced at Dresden on the 7th of July, and this was no
doubt also Marlowe’s play. We know what the main outline of the popular
drama must have been from a comparison of the various puppet-plays
which were performed in comparatively recent times in Germany and
Austria, for when the Faust drama ceased to be performed by living
actors, it was taken over by the proprietors of marionette theatres,
and in this form it survived till well into the nineteenth century. The
main points which the popular drama possessed in common with Marlowe’s
tragedy were the expository opening monologue, the appearance of the
good and evil angels, and the presaging of Faust’s impending end by
the striking of the clock. The humorous and melodramatic scenes had
no doubt been supplemented and exaggerated by other hands even on the
English stage. There is no ground for assuming that there was already a
Faust play of German origin on the German stage before the arrival of
the English Comedians.
The following is an amusing specimen of the type of programme which
was issued by the strolling players. It refers to a performance by the
famous Neuber troupe in Hamburg, on the 7th of July, 1738[12]:—
“The wicked Life and fearful End of the World-famous Arch-sorcerer D.
Johann Faust.
The following Scenes will be presented, among others: A great outer
Court in the underworld Palace of Pluto, by the Rivers Lethe and
Acheron. On the River comes Charon in a Boat, and to him Pluto on a
fiery Dragon, followed by the whole of his underworld Retinue and
Spirits.
Dr. Faust’s Study and Library. An agreeable Spirit of the upper World
will sing the following touching Aria, accompanied by tender Music:
[A song of three verses.]
A Raven flies out of the Air and fetches the Manuscript of Dr. Faust.
Hans Wurst breaks in accidentally on his Master, Dr. Faust’s Magic. He
must stand still and cannot move from the spot until he has taken off
his Shoes. The Shoes then dance together in a merry Manner.
An insolent Court-menial, who mocks Dr. Faust, is endowed with a pair
of Horns.
A Peasant buys a Horse from Dr. Faust, and as soon as he rides it, the
Horse turns into a Bundle of Hay. The Peasant wants to call Dr. Faust
to Account, Faust pretends to be asleep, the Peasant tugs him and
pulls off his Leg.
Hans Wurst wants to have a lot of Money, and to please him,
Mephostophiles causes him to rain Money.
The lovely Helena sings, to the Accompaniment of pleasant Music, an
Aria which is unpleasant to Dr. Faust, for it presages his Doom.
Dr. Faust takes Leave from his Famulus Christoph Wagner. Hans Wurst
also departs, and the Spirits fetch Dr. Faust to the Accompaniment of
Fire-works, which play in an ingenious Manner.
The underworld Palace of Pluto is seen once more. The Furies have
Possession of Dr. Faust and dance a Ballet round him, because they
have brought him safely into their Domain.
The Rest will be more pleasant in the Seeing then here in the Reading.
Commencement at half past four, in the so-called Opera House in the
Goosemarket at Hamburg.”
Another programme from Frankfort of the year 1742 announces that after
the play there will be a dance, after the dance a ballet, and if time
permits, after the ballet there will be a merry comedy.
It will thus be seen to what depths the story of Faust had fallen,
before the time came to raise it to the plane of the world’s
greatest tragedies. It was Lessing who first saw the potentialities
of the theme, and he pointed them out in the famous seventeenth
_Literaturbrief_ of the 16th of February, 1759, which commenced a new
era for German literature, henceforth to turn away from French models
and seek inspiration from Shakespeare. The stilted superficiality
of French literature was to yield to the more congenial vigour of
the English. It is true that Lessing did not recognize the worth
of Marlowe, who stood in the shadow of his greater contemporary,
but he declares that the old German plays had possessed much of the
English quality. “To mention only the best known of them: _Doctor
Faust_ has a number of scenes, which could only have been imagined
by a Shakespearean genius. And how deeply was, and in part still is,
Germany in love with her Doctor Faust! One of my friends possesses
an old draft of this tragedy, and he has communicated a scene to me
in which there is undoubtedly much that is great.” He then prints a
scene, which was really composed by himself, and among his papers after
his death were found sketches relating to his plan for a Faust drama.
It is certain that Lessing intended to reject the obsolete orthodox
view that Faust must necessarily pay for his sins by an eternity of
damnation. The Catholic theologians had permitted sorcerers to be saved
by repentance, but the spirit of the Reformation demanded that Faust
forfeit his soul, and from this inevitable doom there was no appeal.
The age of Enlightenment, on the other hand, looked upon the intellect
as supreme, and it was obviously absurd that Faust’s attempt to solve
an intellectual problem should lead to the loss of his soul. It is to
Lessing that is due the fundamental change in the conception of the
Faust problem, whereby Faust is not damned, but saved. The longing to
penetrate the mysteries of the universe is no longer regarded as an
instinct implanted in humanity by the Devil.
So far as we can judge from the fragments, Lessing’s Faust was to be
driven to the pact solely by his thirst for knowledge. Goethe was to
create the eternal type, the man who seeks to encompass the universe,
who demands complete and ultimate satisfaction for the limitless
craving of the human soul. The first impulse to create a Faust drama of
his own came to Goethe from a marionette version of the popular drama,
a performance of which he saw in Leipzig in his student days, for he
never saw it performed by living actors, and neither the Folk book nor
Marlowe’s tragedy came into his hands until much later. It was a task
which occupied him all his life. His original draft, the _Urfaust_, has
only been discovered in manuscript in recent times, but in the year
1790 he published _Faust. A Fragment._ The first part of the completed
tragedy appeared in 1808, and the second part in 1833, a year after
Goethe’s death.
The fundamental difference between Goethe’s conception of the problem
and all that had gone before is typified in the fact that it is not a
_pact_ into which Faust enters with Mephisto, but a _wager_. There are
indeed two wagers. In the Prologue in Heaven, Mephisto discusses Faust
with the Lord and says,[13]
“What will you bet? There’s still a chance to gain him,
If unto me full leave you give,
Gently upon _my_ road to train him!”
The Lord enters into the spirit of the thing and replies,
“As long as he on earth shall live,
So long I make no prohibition,
While Man’s desires and aspirations stir,
He cannot choose but err.
* * * * *
A good man, through obscurest aspiration,
Has still an instinct of the one true way.”
The opening monologue, which shows Faust in his study fighting with
the realization that “here, poor fool! with all my lore I stand, no
wiser than before,” is an echo of the initial monologue of Marlowe’s
tragedy, which came to Goethe through the medium of the popular drama
and the puppet-show. Hitherto the pact had been for a definite period
of twenty-four years, during which Faust was to enjoy all that the
Devil could give him and then to fulfil without hope of mercy his
part of the bargain. Goethe’s Faust, however, demands more than the
fulfilment of transitory desires. He wants to grasp the moment of
supreme satisfaction, and if Mephisto cannot give him that, Faust’s
soul remains his own:—
“When on an idler’s bed I stretch myself in quiet,
There let, at once, my record end!
Canst thou with lying flattery rule me,
Until, self-pleased, myself I see,—
Canst thou with rich enjoyment fool me,
Let that day be the last for me!
The bet I offer!...
* * * * *
When thus I hail the Moment flying:
‘Ah, still delay—thou art so fair!’
Then bind me in thy bonds undying,
My final ruin then declare!”
That is the important point. Mephisto plunges Faust in the pleasures of
revelry, love, power and classic beauty, but in spite of his burning
craving for supreme happiness, he is incapable of enjoying the blissful
moment. There never is a fleeting moment to which he can say “Ah,
still delay—thou art so fair!” There is no absolute truth or absolute
beauty, and therefore no absolute happiness. The blissful moment does
not exist, and the only satisfaction which man is free to enjoy is in
striving after an imaginary absolute. Faust never becomes absorbed in a
moment of ecstasy and therefore the Devil loses the wager. By using his
power unselfishly to further the lot of others, he is the instrument of
his own salvation; he redeems himself by an ever higher and purer form
of activity, as Goethe himself said, and dies with the conviction that
“He only earns his freedom and existence,
Who daily conquers them anew.”
When Mephisto summons his devils to carry the soul to hell, a host
of angels flies from heaven to repel them, and as they bear Faust’s
immortal soul into the upper air, they proclaim
“Whoe’er aspires unweariedly
Is not beyond redeeming.”
The Devil had not given Faust the blissful moment, but had only
enabled him to find a compromise between dream and reality by creative
work. Faust’s craving remained unfulfilled, and his reconcilement to
the conditions of life was only temporary. But as that is the only
possibility, as man’s highest aspirations never can be completely
satisfied, the wager was from the first destined to be unfulfilled.
In Goethe’s _Faust_ the theme received the highest treatment of which
it was capable. At the time when he first came in contact with the
story, Faust dramas were being announced by authors from all corners of
Germany, and perhaps it would not be too much to say that every German
poet since Goethe has cherished the hope of some day creating his own
Faust. Of the tragedies, farces, operas, pantomimes, ballets, novels,
short stories, poems, folk-songs and even parodies on the subject, it
may be said that their name is legion, and it appears to have been cast
into every possible art-form. It will, perhaps, suffice to mention here
a dance-poem which was written by the poet Heinrich Heine in 1851 for
performance at Drury Lane. Lumley, the director of the theatre, had
already made preparations for the production, when it was laid aside as
unsuitable. One of the latest treatments of the theme is _Faust and the
City_, by Lunacharski, the Minister of Education in Soviet Russia.
[Footnote 12: K. Engel: _Zusammenstellung der Faust-Schriften_
[Oldenburg, 1885], pp. 188 ff.]
[Footnote 13: Bayard Taylor’s translation.]
V
_The Wagner Book_
The first edition of the German Wagner book was published anonymously,
without mention even of its place of origin, in 1593, under a title of
which the following is a translation:—
_Second part of D. Johann Faust’s History, in which is described the
Pact of Christopher Wagner, Faust’s former Disciple, contracted with
the Devil, called Auerhan, who appeared to him in the form of an Ape,
also his adventurous Ribaldries and Pranks, which he performed with
the Aid of the Devil, and fearful End which at last overtook him._
_Together with an excellent Description of the New Isles, what People
live therein, what Fruits grow there, what Religion and Idol-worship
they have there, and how they are captured by the Spaniards, all drawn
from his posthumous Writings and, for it is very amusing to read, put
into Print. By Fridericus Schotus Tolet: Now at P. 1593._
Unlike the publisher of the Faust book, the author of the Wagner
book appears to have taken all precautions to hide his identity, for
Fridericus Schotus is a pseudonym, and Tolet is Toledo, where there
were supposed to be celebrated schools of magic. At the end of
his book the author declares that he has translated from a Spanish
original, printed seventy years ago, which he received from a Brother
Martin of the Order of St. Benedict. That is obviously false, since the
Faust legend did not exist in 1523, and certainly could not have been
in print in Spain. The author also declares that he has refrained from
saying anything that might be considered detrimental to the Church of
Rome, but this promise he has not kept very successfully. In an edition
which appeared in the following year, the town of origin is given as
“Gerapoli,” which is fictitious and may contain an anagram of “Prague,”
since the first edition states that it was published at “P.”
The Wagner story is essentially a paraphrase of the Faust legend, and
the author keeps to the outline of his hero’s character which is given
in the Faust book. The sole difference is in some of the external
incidents.
The English Wagner book was licensed about six months after the German
Wagner book, according to an entry in the Stationers’ Registers under
the 16th of November, 1593, and the date on the title-page is 1594.
It is _not_ a translation of the German Wagner book, but an extremely
faint imitation, into which the author has introduced many new details.
He appears only to have taken the basic idea, though there are
occasional quotations from the German book, and it is practically an
independent work. The 1680 edition was, in fact, translated into German
and published in Scheible’s _Kloster_.
WILLIAM ROSE.
1925.
[Illustration:
THE
HISTORIE
of the damnable
life, and deserved death of
_Doctor John Faustus_,
Newly imprinted, and in convenient
_places imperfect matter amended_;
according to the true Copie printed
_at_ Franckfort, _and translated into
English by_ P. F. _Gent._
Seene and allowed.
BY WISDOM PEACE
BY PEACE PLENTY
_Imprinted at London by Thomas Orwin, and are to be_
solde by Edward White, dwelling at the little North
doore of Paules, at the signe of the Gun. 1592.]
_HERE FOLLOWETH THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK_
Page
Of the parentage and birth of Doctor Faustus. 65
How Doctor Faustus began to practise in his
Devilish art, and how he conjured the Devil,
making him to appear and to meet him on the
morrow at his own house 67
The conference of Doctor Faustus with the Spirit
Mephostophiles on the next morning at his
own house 70
The second time of the Spirit’s appearing to
Faustus in his house, and of their parley 72
The third parley between Doctor Faustus, and
Mephostophiles, about a conclusion 74
How Doctor Faustus set his blood in a Saucer
on the warm ashes and wrote 76
How Mephostophiles came for his writing, and
in what manner he appeared, and his sights
he shewed him, and how he caused him to keep
a copy of his own writing 77
The manner how Faustus proceeded with his
damnable life, and of the diligent service that
Mephostophiles used towards him 79
How Doctor Faustus would have married, and
how the Devil had almost killed him for it 81
Questions put forth by Doctor Faustus unto his
Spirit Mephostophiles 84
How Doctor Faustus dreamed that he had seen
Hell in his sleep, and how he questioned with
the Spirit of matters concerning Hell, with the
Spirit’s answer 86
The second question put forth by Doctor Faustus
to his Spirit, what Kingdoms there were in Hell,
how many, and what were the rulers’ names 87
Another question put forth by Doctor Faustus
to his Spirit concerning his Lord Lucifer, with
the sorrow that Faustus fell afterwards into 88
Another disputation betwixt Doctor Faustus and
his Spirit of the power of the Devil, and of his
envy to mankind 90
How Doctor Faustus desired again of his Spirit
to know the secrets and pains of Hell, and
whether those damned Devils and their company
might ever come into the favour of God
again or not 92
Another question put forth by Doctor Faustus
to his Spirit Mephostophiles of his own estate 98
The second part of Doctor Faustus his life, and
practices until his end 100
A question put forth by Doctor Faustus to his
Spirit, concerning Astronomy 101
How Doctor Faustus fell into despair with himself:
for having put forth a question unto his
Spirit, they fell at variance, whereupon the
whole rout of Devils appeared unto him,
threatening him sharply 104
How Doctor Faustus desired to see Hell, and of
the manner how he was used therein 110
How Doctor Faustus was carried into the air up to
the heavens to see the world, and how the Sky
and Planets ruled: after the which he wrote
a letter to his friend of the same to Lyptzig,
how he went about the world in eight days 115
How Doctor Faustus made his journey through
the principal and most famous lands in the
world 121
How Faustus had a sight of Paradise 144
Of a certain Comet that appeared in Germany,
and how Doctor Faustus was desired by certain
friends of his to know the meaning thereof 146
A question put forth to Doctor Faustus, concerning
the Stars 147
How Faustus was asked a question concerning
the Spirits that vex men 148
How Doctor Faustus was asked a question concerning
the Stars that fall from Heaven 149
How Faustus was asked a question concerning
thunder 149
The third part, how the Emperor Carolus quintus
requested of Faustus to see some of his cunning,
whereunto he agreed 150
How Doctor Faustus in the sight of the Emperor
conjured a pair of Hart’s horns upon a Knight’s
head that slept out of a casement 154
How the Knight sought to be revenged of Faustus 155
A merry conceit of Faustus with three young
Dukes 156
How Faustus borrowed money of a Jew 160
How Faustus deceived an Horse-courser 162
How Doctor Faustus ate a load of Hay 164
How Faustus played a jest with twelve Students 165
How Faustus served the drunken Clowns 165
How Faustus sold five Swine 166
How Faustus played a merry conceit with the
Duke of Anholt 167
How he made a Castle in the presence of the
Duke of Anholt 168
How they robbed the Bishop of Saltzburg his
Cellar 171
How Faustus kept his Shrovetide 172
Faustus his feast to his friends on the
Ash-Wednesday 174
How the next day he was feasted of his friends 176
How he shewed his friends the fair Helena of
Greece 177
How Faustus conjured away the four wheels of
a Clown’s waggon 180
How he deceived the four Jugglers 182
How an old neighbour of Faustus gave him
counsel to amend his life 183
How Faustus wrote again the second time, with
his own blood, and gave it to the Devil 186
How he made a marriage betwixt two Lovers 188
Of his rare flowers at Christmas in his Garden 189
How he gathered together a great army of men 190
How he gat for himself seven fair Ladies 192
How he found treasure in the 22. year of his time 193
How he made fair Helena his Paramour 193
How he made his Will 194
His talk with his servant 195
Five complaints of Doctor Faustus before his end 197
His miserable end, with his Oration to his friends 201
=A Discourse of the most famous Doctor John Faustus of Wittenberg in
Germanie, Coniurer, and Necromancer: wherein is declared many strange
things that he himselfe hath seene, and done in the earth and in the
Ayre, with his bringing vp, his trauailes, studies, and last end=
CHAPTER I
_Of his Parentage and Birth_
John Faustus, born in the town of Rhode, lying in the province of
Weimer in Germanie, his father a poor husbandman, and not able well
to bring him up: but having an uncle at Wittenberg, a rich man, and
without issue, took this J. Faustus from his father, and made him his
heir, in so much that his father was no more troubled with him, for
he remained with his uncle at Wittenberg, where he was kept at the
University in the same city to study Divinity. But Faustus being of a
naughty mind and otherwise addicted, applied not his studies, but took
himself to other exercises: the which his uncle often-times hearing,
rebuked him for it, as Eli oft-times rebuked his children for sinning
against the Lord: even so this good man laboured to have Faustus apply
his study of Divinity, that he might come to the knowledge of God and
his laws. But it is manifest that many virtuous parents have wicked
children, as Cain, Ruben, Absolom, and such-like have been to their
parents: so this Faustus having godly parents, and seeing him to be
of a toward wit, were very desirous to bring him up in those virtuous
studies, namely, of Divinity: but he gave himself secretly to study
Necromancy and Conjuration, in so much that few or none could perceive
his profession.
But to the purpose: Faustus continued at study in the University, and
was by the Rectors and sixteen Masters afterwards examined how he had
profited in his studies; and being found by them, that none for his
time were able to argue with him in Divinity, or for the excellency
of his wisdom to compare with him, with one consent they made him
Doctor of Divinity. But Doctor Faustus within short time after he had
obtained his degree, fell into such fantasies and deep cogitations,
that he was marked of many, and of the most part of the Students was
called the Speculator; and sometime he would throw the Scriptures from
him as though he had no care of his former profession: so that he
began a very ungodly life, as hereafter more at large may appear; for
the old proverb saith, Who can hold that will away? so, who can hold
Faustus from the Devil, that seeks after him with all his endeavour?
For he accompanied himself with divers that were seen in those Devilish
Arts, and that had the Chaldean, Persian, Hebrew, Arabian, and Greek
tongues, using Figures, Characters, Conjurations, Incantations, with
many other ceremonies belonging to these infernal Arts, as Necromancy,
Charms, Soothsaying, Witchcraft, Enchantment, being delighted with
their books, words, and names so well, that he studied day and night
therein: in so much that he could not abide to be called Doctor of
Divinity, but waxed a worldly man, and named himself an Astrologian,
and a Mathematician: and for a shadow sometimes a Physician, and did
great cures, namely, with herbs, roots, waters, drinks, receipts, and
clysters. And without doubt he was passing wise, and excellent perfect
in the holy scriptures: but he that knoweth his master’s will and doth
it not, is worthy to be beaten with many stripes. It is written, no man
can serve two masters: and, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God: but
Faustus threw all this in the wind, and made his soul of no estimation,
regarding more his worldly pleasure than the joys to come: therefore at
the day of judgment there is no hope of his redemption.