.

Faust, the son of a peasant living near Weimar, is brought up by a rich uncle at Wittenberg, where, in due time, he studies theology at the university and takes his degree with distinction. Be-, ing, however, of a foolish and arrogant' (we should say, a bold and original) mind, he gets the name of speculator,' and begins to study books of magic. Soon he repudiates the name of a theologus' and becomes a Weltmensch,' calls himself a doctor of medicine,' astrologer,' etc., and goes about healing people with herbs, roots and clysters. Having thus taken eagles' wings to himself, and resolved to search into all things in heaven and earth,' he carries his madness to the extent of trying to evoke the devil. Going into the woods near Wittenberg, at night, he succeeds, after much ado, in raising a subordinate devil who appears in the guise of a monk. Faust demands that this spirit shall come to his house the next day at midnight, which the spirit does. Then, after various preliminary • disputations,' in one of which the spirit gives his name as Mephostophiles,* the pair enter, at Faust's solicitation, into an agreement. Mephostophiles agrees to bestow upon Faust the form and nature of a spirit, to be his faithful and obedient servant, to come to his house whenever wanted, and there either to remain invisible or to take any desired shape. In return, Faust agrees that after a certain period, fixed later at twenty-four years, he is to belong to the devil, and that meanwhile he will renounce the Christian faith, hate all Christians, resist all attempts to convert him, and sign this covenant with his own blood.

an

For a while Faust remains at home seeing no one but Mephostophiles and his famulus, an insolent lubber' called Christoph Wagner, who had formerly been a worthless vagabond. At first Mephostophiles amuses Faust and Wagner (who is in his master's secret) with various manifestations, and feeds them on princely food and drink purloined from the neighboring castles. So Faust leads epicurean life' day and night, ceases to ‘believe in God, hell, or devil,'† and thinks that soul and body die together.' He desires a wife, but marriage being a Christian ordinance, the devil objects and finds other ways to gratify his lust. He also provides a great book dealing with all sorts of magic and nigromancy.' Faust's curiosity being excited, he asks his familiar all sorts of questions con

* On the forms of the name see note to line 242+, of the text.

† Chap. X. This curious feature of the legend which makes Faust skeptical with regard to hell and the devil even while he is on intimate terms with an envoy of hell and is daily doing wonders in the devil's name, is worthy of special notice.

cerning the spirit-world. Long disputations' ensue respecting hell, the hierarchy of devils, the fall of the recreant angels, etc. Mephostophiles' account of Lucifer's former estate brings Faust to tears of remorse over his own folly; still he will not repent and return to God and the church, but persists „in allen seinen opinionibus und Meynungen." Presently the devil refuses to answer further questions, whereupon Faust becomes a calendar-maker, and turns his attention to physics and astronomy. In such pursuits seven years pass.

In the next eight years we hear of only two adventures. Faust desires to visit hell, and Mephostophiles brings it about that Beelzebub calls for him at midnight, takes him up into the air in an ivory chair, puts him asleep and lets him dream of hell in the belief that he is really there. Afterward he ascends into the sky in a car drawn by dragons and spends a week among the stars. In the sixteenth year he conceives a desire to travel on earth; so Mephostophiles converts himself into a horse with wings like a dromedary,' and bears him to all parts of the world. In this way he visits many lands, seeing their sights, enjoying their pleasures, and performing all sorts of conjuror's tricks. At Rome he plays pranks upon the pope. At Constantinople he visits the Sultan's harem in the role of Mahomet. At the court of Charles V. he counterfeits the forms of Alexander the Great and his wife. Again he conjures

a stag's horns upon the head of a knight, swallows a peasant's cartload of hay, and saws off his own leg and leaves it in pawn with a Jew. Toward the end he spends much time in revelry with certain jolly students. On one occasion some of these wish to see Helena of Greece, whereupon Faust produces her for their diversion. Later he takes Helena as a concubine and has by her a son Justus Faust, who foretells future events for his father.

As the end of his career approaches Faust regrets his bargain and bewails his fate in bitter tears and lamentations. The devil tries to console him, but insists inexorably on the contract. On the last day of the twenty-four years, having previously willed his property to Wagner, Faust goes with his boon companions to an inn near Wittenberg, treats the company to good food and wine, informs them ruefully of his situation, and tells them that the devil is to come for him at midnight. They then separate. At the hour named the students hear a terrible sound of hissing and whistling, and in the morning on going to look for him they find no Faust,' but only his mangled body lying on a heap of refuse.

The gist of this story, as seen by those who created it, is the awful fate of a bad man who is led by the study of magic into dealings with the devil. The league with the devil is not the root, but the fruit of Faust's badness, which consists, primarily, in an unholy intellectual curiosity. A promising theologian, he is not content with traditional theology, but wishes to know all things in heaven and earth.' This desire itself is sinful. Men should be content with what is revealed in the Word. Faust essays to get the desired knowledge by the study of magic, but this study is sinful. Knowledge and power may, to be sure, be got in that way, but they are got by the devil's help and men are commanded to resist the devil instead of making friends with him. Hence the logic of the catastrophe. Faust's wicked desire is gratified. For a while he lives as a superior being and lords it over time and space. But he does this by the devil's aid and the devil must have his pay, and his pay is the soul of his dupe.

Speaking broadly and from a modern point of view,* what we see in the Faust-legend is the popular Protestant theology of the Reformation period expressing itself upon the great intellectual movement of the Renaissance; upon the new spirit of free inquiry, of revolt against narrow traditions, of delight in ancient ideals of beauty. Faust is a representative of this spirit. It might seem at first as if there were but little likeness between him and the great humanists, but there are two traits which connect him with them, namely, his interest in secular science and his love of antique beauty. The lovely pagan Helena, as well as physics and astronomy, is one of the devil's tools for entrapping the soul of Faust. In this connection it is noteworthy that a very early tradition connects Faust with the University of Erfurt, then the great seat of German humanism.† There he is represented as lecturing upon

* On the historical import of the Faust-legend, cf. Erich Schmidt, Charakteristiken, pp. 1-37, Kuno Fischer, Goethe's Faust, p. 21, ff., and Scherer's Introduction to his facsimile edition of the original Faust-book.

Cf. Scherer, Geschichte der deutschen Litteratur, p. 273.

Homer and calling up the shades of Homeric heroes to illustrate his lecture. Again he participates in a discussion on the utility of Latin comedy as reading-matter for the schools. In this Faust we see a genuine colleague of the humanists.

Thus it would seem as if the legend, in working out the character and career of Faust, had intentionally made him a wicked secular counterpart to Luther. At least the parallel, as drawn by Scherer,* is very striking. Both Luther and Faust are occupied with the old humanities at Erfurt, but Luther turns his back on the sensuous lures of paganism and meets his need of woman's love by marrying him a wife in accordance with divine ordinance, while Faust yields to lawless passion, rejects marriage at the devil's advice, and takes Helena as a paramour. Both live at Wittenberg, the cradle of the Reformation, Luther as the reverent student and expounder of the Bible, Faust as a despiser of scripture and a searcher after forbidden knowledge. Both visit Rome, where Luther is shocked by the prevailing license, Faust cynically amused to find that others are no better than himself. Luther shies his inkstand at the devil, Faust makes friends with him; Luther is a devout believer, Faust a reckless skeptic.

For a time the Faust-narrative proved very popular and new editions and translations came out in rapid succession.† In 1599 G. R. Widman published the story with an elaborate commentary, and his account, it would seem, became the chief source of the subsequent versions.‡ Widman differs in many particulars from the original Faust-book, but the details do not concern us here. In general he gives to the legend a more decidedly anti-Catholic tinge and deprives it of its poetry. In his hands Faust loses the character of a titanic philosopher who takes eagles' wings to himself'; he is, rather, a promising youth led into bad ways through

*Faust-Buch, p. xxi.

↑ For exact bibliographical data, see Engel, Zusammenstellung, p. 57 ff. + Widman's work is reprinted in Scheible's Kloster, II., 273 ff.

contact with the magic of the Catholic church. The episode of Helena Widman only refers to in a foot-note; he will not offend chaste ears and hearts by relating it. In 1674 a new edition* of Widman's work was published by C. N. Pfitzer, a Nürnberg physician, and Pfitzer's book was re-issued in abbreviated form early in the following century by an anonymous editor styling himself a man of Christian sentiments' (von einem Christlich Meynenden).† This little book was widely sold and must have been familiar to the boy Goethe at Frankfurt. Indeed it

was here, or in Pfitzer, that the author of Faust found the hint for his Gretchen. On the strength, probably, of some tradition that had escaped or scandalized Widman, Pfitzer and his anonymous successor tell of Faust's falling in love with a poor but beautiful servant-girl. At first Faust tries to seduce her; then when her virtue turns out to be proof against his wiles, he proposes to marry her. From this purpose he is frightened by the devil, who gives him the fair Helena in the girl's stead. §

But it was the popular Faust-drama, more than the narrative, which kept the subject alive for the German people during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as it was also the drama, in the form of a puppet-show, which impressed the young Goethe with the significance of the legend.

Of this drama as performed by

Indeed it was not a drama in a

living actors no text is extant. critical or literary sense, but a popular show presented from age to age by strolling companies, with variations and improvisations to suit the time or the views of the manager. But in spite of their variety these shows were of the same general type and conformed

* Reprinted by A. von Keller, Tübingen, 1880.

↑ Reprinted, with a good Introduction by Szamatólski, as No. 39 of Goeschen's Deutsche Litteraturdenkmale. This rep.int is from a copy of the year 1725, the earliest known.

It is, however, certain that Goethe was not confined to this book and the puppetplay for his knowledge of the legend. See also below, under the heading 'Gretchen.' § Szamatólski, p. 23.