Faust

For other uses, see Faust (disambiguation).

Faust depicted in an etching by Rembrandt van Rijn (circa 1650)

Faust (German for "fist") or Faustus (Latin for "auspicious" or "lucky") is the protagonist of a classic German legend in which the protagonist makes a pact with the Devil. The tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical works, such as those by Christopher Marlowe, Goethe, Thomas Mann, Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Oscar Wilde and Charles Gounod.

The name "Faust" has come to stand for a charlatan alchemist (some claim "astrologer and necromancer") whose pride and vanity lead to his doom. Similarly, the adjective "faustian" has come to denote acts or constellations involving human hubris which lead eventually to doom.

Historical Faust

The origin of Faust's name and persona remains unclear, though it is widely assumed to be based on the figure of German Dr. Johann Georg Faust (approximately 1480–1540), a dubious magician and alchemist probably from Knittlingen, Württemberg, who obtained a degree in divinity from Heidelberg University in 1509. According to one account, Faust's infamy became legendary while he was in prison, where in exchange for wine he "offered to show a chaplain how to remove hair from his face without a razor; the chaplain provided the wine and Faustus provided the chaplain with a salve of arsenic, which removed not only the hair but the flesh" (Barnett).

In Polish folklore there is a tale with a Pan Twardowski in a role similar to Faust's, and seems to have originated at roughly the same time. It is unclear if and to what extent the two tales have a common origin or influenced each other. The figure of Pan Twardowski is supposedly based on a 16th century German emigrant to Kraków, then the Polish capital, possibly John Dee or Edward Kelley. According to Melanchthon, the historic Johann Faust had studied in Kraków, as well.

Sources of the Faust legend

The first recorded Faust committed to print is a little chapbook bearing the title Historia von D. Iohan Fausten published in 1587. The book was re-edited and plagiarised throughout the 17th century.

• Johann Spies: Historia von D. Johann Fausten. (1587)
• Das Wagnerbuch von (1593)
• Das Widmann'sche Faustbuch von (1599)
• Dr. Fausts großer und gewaltiger Höllenzwang (Frankfurt 1609)
• Dr. Johannes Faust, Magia naturalis et innaturalis (Passau 1612)
• Das Pfitzer'sche Faustbuch (1674)
• Dr. Fausts großer und gewaltiger Meergeist (Amsterdam 1692)
• Das Wagnerbuch (1714)
• Faustbuch des Christlich Meynenden (1725)

With Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus of 1604, it also received an early literary treatment. Plays and comic puppet theatre loosely based on the legend were popular throughout Germany, often reducing Faust to a figure of vulgar fun. The 1725 chapbook was widely circulated, and also read by the young Goethe.

It has been suggested Jacob Bidermann used such an earlier source for his treatment of the legend of the Damnation of the Good Doctor of Paris, Cenodoxus (published c. 1602). Possibly related tales of a pact between man and the devil include that of Theophilus of Adana, and Mary of Nijmegen,the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century Dutch play attributed to Anna Bijns.

Marlowe's Doctor Faustus

The early Faust chapbook, while already in circulation in Northern Germany, found its way to England, where it was translated into English by "P. F., Gent[leman]" in 1592 as The Historie of the Damnable Life, and Deserved Death of Doctor Iohn Faustus. It was this work that Christopher Marlowe used for his more ambitious play, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (published c. 1604). Marlowe also borrowed from Acts and Monuments by John Foxe, on the exchanges between Pope Adrian and a rival pope. Another possible inspiration of Marlowe's version is John Dee (1527-1609), who practised forms of alchemy and science and developed Enochian magic.

Goethe's Faust

Goethe's Faust inverts and makes greatly more complex the simple Christian moral of the original legend. A hybrid between a play and an extended poem, Goethe's two part "closet drama" is epic in scope. It gathers together references from Christian, medieval, Roman, eastern and Hellenic poetry, philosophy and literature; ending in a Faust who is saved, carried aloft to heaven, as Mephistopheles looks on.

The legend of Faust was an obsession of Goethe's. Although by no means a constant pursuit, the composition and refinement of his own version of the legend occupied him for over sixty years. The final version, not completely published until after his death, is recognized as a great work of German Literature.

The story concerns the fate of Faust in his quest for the true essence of life ("was die Welt im Innersten zusammenhält"). Frustrated with learning and the limits to his knowledge and power, he attracts the attention of the Devil (represented by Mephistopheles), with whom Faust makes a deal to serve him until the moment that Faust attains the zenith of human happiness, at which point Mephistopheles may take his soul. Goethe's Faust is pleased with the deal, as he believes the moment will never come.

In the first part, Mephistopheles leads Faust through experiences that culminate in a lustful and destructive relationship with an innocent and nubile woman named Gretchen. Gretchen and her family are destroyed by Mephistopheles' deceptions and Faust's desires and actions. The story ends in tragedy as Gretchen is saved and Faust is left in shame.

The second part begins with the spirits of the earth forgiving Faust (and the rest of mankind) and progresses into rich allegorical poetry. Faust and his devil pass through the world of politics and the world of the classical gods, and meet with Helen of Troy (the personification of beauty). Finally, having succeeded in taming the very forces of war and nature Faust experiences a single moment of happiness.

The devil Mephistopheles, trying to grab Faust's soul when he dies, is frustrated as the Lord intervenes – recognizing the value of Faust's unending striving.

Goethe's Faust was the source material for at least two successful operas: Faust by Charles Gounod and Mefistofele by Arrigo Boito; and major works for soloists, chorus and orchestra such as the "dramatic legend" The Damnation of Faust by Hector Berlioz, Robert Schumann's Scenes from Goethe's Faust and the second part of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8.

Other Fausts

-The Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps had their 2006 season music repertoire based on Faust.

-The opening song of Sabbat's debut album, History of a Time to Come contains a story about Faustus' bargain with the devil

- "Faustus" was also an anti-Christian adversary in some of Saint Augustine's writings.

- Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus is about a composer who agrees to renounce love in exchange for artistic inspiration and a successful career. The story is strongly allegorical in its relationship to social and intellectual developments in Germany prior to World War II.

- The Amercian modernist Gertrude Stein wrote the libretto for an operatic version of the Faust legend, Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (1938), in which Faustus struggles with modernist anxieties about the Enlightenment; he sells his soul for the knowledge of how to make "white electric light," with which he inadvertently abolishes the difference between day and night, eventually falling into a perpetual darkness. The text has been staged by many of the United States avant-garde theatre artists.

- David Mammet authored a play called Faustus for which he won an award from the Chicago Public Libraries in 2006. Mammet's Faustus ultimately repents and triumphs over hell.

- Randy Newman wrote a modern musical version of the Faust story similar to Goethe's, in which God and the Devil vie for the soul of Henry Faust, a schizophrenic college student. See Randy Newman's Faust.

-The computer game Seven Games of the Soul is also known as Faust, and features an old black man named Marcellus Faust as its protagonist. The plot of the game has Faust investigating the lives of various members of a carnival and judging them while attempting to confound Mephisto, a version of Mephistopheles.

- In the manga and anime Shaman King, the character known as Faust VIII is a descendant of original Faust. He learns necromancy from his ancestor's writings, and uses it to control skeletons and his dead wife's body. He seeks to gain power to bring his wife back from the dead. He would later summon the power to Mephisto in the later half of the series.

- In the book, play and film Thursday's fictions, a character named Wednesday is offered eternal life in a Faustian bargain by the antagonist, Saturday, but he turns her down.

- In Charles-Valentin Alkan's "Grande Sonate: Les Quatres Ages" Op. 33, an atypical sonata depicting the life of man, the second movement 30 Ans is given the title Quasi-Faust. The movement has been described as one of the most difficult and transcendental pieces for the piano repertoire. Often neglected due to its difficulties, the 30 Ans movement musically depicts the struggle between God and the Devil for the possession of Faust's soul upon his demise. The soloist is faced with a myriad of difficulties; being driven to play the Devil's parts "diaboliquement," often forced to play remote registers of the keyboard and must perform an eight part fugue which reintroduces the theme of "Le Seigneur" as it wages its final battle against the Devil.

- In Switchfoot's album, "Oh! Gravity," the track, "Faust, Midas and Myself" alludes to a Faust-like character in verse one. He appears as a diabolical, almost non-human entity tempting the composer to indulge in the 'pretty things' in life and have 'everything at once, everything you've seen, everything you'll need, everything you've ever had in fantasies'. As in the example of the tale of Faust however, to gain these things requires bargaining your life away to the Devil. The composer then reminds listeners of the painful subsequent reality of such a choice.

- Radioheads album "In Rainbows" has underlying themes in the tracks from the Faust legend, in particular the track "Faust-Arp" and in the final track of the album "Videotape" Mephistopheles is mentioned in the opening lines "When I'm at the pearly gates, This will be on my videotape, my videotape, Mephistopheles is just beneath, and he's reaching up to grab me"

See also

• List of works which retell or strongly allude to the Faust tale
• Phantom of the Paradise
• Brajendra Nath Seal
• Dr Faustus
• Brocken specter
• The Devil and Tom Walker, 15th-18th century local New England legend with high similarities to Faust. Recorded in Washington Irving's 1842 "Tales of a Traveler" compilation.
• Jonathan Moulton, the "Yankee Faust"
• Pan Twardowski, the "Polish Faust," a German man comes to the then-capital of Poland: Cracow
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Rudolf Steiner
• The Brocken
• The Sorrows of Satan
• Walpurgis Night
• Damn Yankees
• Brazen Head
• Siobhan Jade Bagshaw Mitchell
• Staufen, Germany, a town in the extreme south-west of Germany, claims to be where Faust died; depictions appear on buildings etc.

Sources

• Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, Edited and with and introduction by Sylvan Barnett (1969, Signet Classics)
• J. Scheible, Das Kloster (1840s).

External links

All links retrieved on November 22, 2007

• Faust Study Guide
• The Faust Tradition from Marlowe to Mann, California State University, Chico
• Pacts with the Devil: Faust and Precursors
• The Jäger Artist
• E-texts:
  • Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, available for free via Project Gutenberg
  • Tragical History of Dr. Faustus, available for free via Project Gutenberg (Quarto of 1604)
  • Tragical History of Dr. Faustus, available for free via Project Gutenberg (Quarto of 1616)
  • At Projekt Gutenberg-DE:
    • Goethe's Faust, part 1
    • Goethe's Faust, part 2
    • Heine's Der Doktor Faust
  • Faust full text in German and English side-by-side
  • Marlowe's Dr. Faustus
• Jan Svankmajer's Faust
• The Pre-Death Thoughts of Faust by Nikolai Berdyaev
• Thursday's Fictions, a contemporary project with Faustian themes

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