[Footnote 1: Dedication. The idea of Faust had early entered into Goethe's
mind. He probably began the work when he was about twenty years old. It
was first published, as a fragment, in 1790, and did not appear in its
present form till 1808, when its author's age was nearly sixty. By the
"forms" are meant, of course, the shadowy personages and scenes of the
drama.]
[Footnote 2: --"Thy messengers"--
"He maketh the winds his-messengers,
The flaming lightnings his ministers."
_Noyes's Psalms_, c. iv. 4.]
[Footnote 3: "The Word Divine." In translating the German "Werdende"
(literally, the _becoming, developing_, or _growing_) by the term _word_,
I mean the _word_ in the largest sense: "In the beginning was the Word,
&c." Perhaps "nature" would be a pretty good rendering, but "word," being
derived from "werden," and expressing philosophically and scripturally the
going forth or manifestation of mind, seemed to me as appropriate a
translation as any.]
[Footnote 4: "The old fellow." The commentators do not seem quite agreed
whether "den Alten" (the old one) is an entirely reverential phrase here,
like the "ancient of days," or savors a little of profane pleasantry, like
the title "old man" given by boys to their schoolmaster or of "the old
gentleman" to their fathers. Considering who the speaker is, I have
naturally inclined to the latter alternative.]
[Footnote 5: "Nostradamus" (properly named Michel Notre Dame) lived
through the first half of the sixteenth century. He was born in the south
of France and was of Jewish extraction. As physician and astrologer, he
was held in high honor by the French nobility and kings.]
[Footnote 6: The "Macrocosm" is the great world of outward things, in
contrast with its epitome, the little world in man, called the microcosm
(or world in miniature).]
[Footnote 7: "Famulus" seems to mean a cross between a servant and a
scholar. The Dominie Sampson called Wagner, is appended to Faust for the
time somewhat as Sancho is to Don Quixote. The Doctor Faust of the legend
has a servant by that name, who seems to have been more of a _Sancho_, in
the sense given to the word by the old New England mothers when upbraiding
bad boys (you Sanch'!). Curiously enough, Goethe had in early life a
(treacherous) friend named Wagner, who plagiarized part of Faust and made
a tragedy of it.]
[Footnote 8: "Mock-heroic play." We have Schlegel's authority for thus
rendering the phrase "Haupt- und Staats-Action," (literally, "head and
State-action,") who says that this title was given to dramas designed for
puppets, when they treated of heroic and historical subjects.]
[Footnote 9: The literal sense of this couplet in the original is:--
"Is he, in the bliss of becoming,
To creative joy near--"
"Werde-lust" presents the same difficulty that we found in note 3. This
same word, "Werden," is also used by the poet in the introductory theatre
scene (page 7), where he longs for the time when he himself was
_ripening_, growing, becoming, or _forming_, (as Hayward renders it.) I
agree with Hayward, "the meaning probably is, that our Saviour enjoys, in
coming to life again," (I should say, in being born into the upper life,)
"a happiness nearly equal to that of the Creator in creating."]
[Footnote 10: The Angel-chorusses in this scene present the only instances
in which the translator, for the sake of retaining the ring and swing of
the melody, has felt himself obliged to give a transfusion of the spirit
of the thought, instead of its exact form.