Chapter IV: Introduction (2)

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.

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.

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=