Faustus

“ The heart of Faustus was moved, and his eyes began to moisten, while he trembled, and looked angrily upon the Devil. When he asked his wife why she wept, she wrung her hands, and replied, “Ah, Faustus, do you not perceive how the hungry ones examine your pockets for bread? How can I see that without tears? They have eaten nothing for a long time; we have been unfortunate, and all thy friends have forsaken us; but now I see thee again, it is to me as though I saw the countenance of an angel. I and thy father have suffered more on thy account than on our own. ”

“ Faustus, a daring mortal, who, like us, is at war with the Eternal, and who, through the strength of his spirit, may at some future period be deemed worthy to dwell along with us here, has discovered the art of multiplying, on an easy principle, a thousand and a thousandfold, those things denominated books,—those dangerous toys of men,—those vehicles of delusion, of error, of lies, and of horror,—those sources of pride and of painful doubt. ”

“ FAUSTUS. When I behold the heavens, then I repent, And curse thee, wicked Mephistophilis, Because thou hast depriv'd me of those joys. MEPHIST. Why, Faustus, Thinkest thou heaven is such a glorious thing? I tell thee, 'tis not half so fair as thou, Or any man that breathes on earth. FAUSTUS. How prov'st thou that? MEPHIST. 'Twas made for man, therefore is man more excellent. FAUSTUS. If it were made for man, 'twas made for me: I will renounce this magic and repent. Enter GOOD ANGEL and EVIL ANGEL. GOOD ANGEL. Faustus, repent; yet God will pity thee. EVIL ANGEL. Thou art a spirit ”

“ FAUSTUS. Ah, Faustus, Now hast thou but one bare hour to live, And then thou must be damn'd perpetually! Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven, That time may cease, and midnight never come; Fair Nature's eye, rise, rise again, and make Perpetual day; or let this hour be but A year, a month, a week, a natural day, That Faustus may repent and save his soul! O lente, lente currite, noctis equi! The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike, The devil will come, and Faustus must be damn'd. ”

“ Faust—"Oft have I thought to have done so; but the devil threatened to tear me in pieces if I named God; to fetch me body and soul if I once gave ear to divinity. And now it is too late."' As the fearful moment fast approaches, Dr. Faustus, orthodox on the subject of the duration of future punishment, exclaims in agony—
'Oh! if my soul must suffer for my sin,
Impose some end to my incessant pain.
Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years—
A hundred thousand, and at the last be saved:
No end is limited to damned souls.
Why wert thou not a creature wanting soul? ”

“ He had the mien of a fallen angel, whose countenance was once illuminated by the Godhead, but which was now obscured by a gloomy veil.
Faustus (in surprise) . Is man, then, every where at home? Who art thou?
Devil. I am a prince of hell, and come because thy mighty call compels me.
Faustus. A prince of hell under this mask; under the figure of a man! I wished for a fiend, and not one of my own race.
Devil. Perhaps, Faustus, we are most so when we resemble ye; at least, no mask suits us better. ”

“ If such be the order of things in this world, hurl me at once into hell. Its darkness is a thousand times preferable to the light of day.
Devil. Not so fast, Faustus. In the first place, I take away from thee thy mighty magic rod, and confine thee in the narrow circle which I draw around thee. Here shalt thou listen to me, and howl and tremble. I will unfold to thee the consequences of thy deeds, and will assassinate thee through downright despair.
“Fool! thou sayest thou hast learnt to know man! Where? How and when hast thou attained this knowledge? Hast thou ever sounded his nature? ”

“ Thou art mistaken, Faustus. In the first place, men will rob thee of the honour of having invented this art.
Faustus. That is worse than damnation.
Satan. Observe now this man: he stands before me, the ruler here, and holds everlasting torments as nothing when compared with the loss of his fame and glory, those chimeras of his overheated brain. ”

“ Hereupon spake Faustus: "Get thee hence from me, and take St. Valentine's farewell, and Crisman with thee; yet I conjure thee, that thou be here at evening, and bethink thyself of what I have asked thee; ask thy prince's counsel therein."
Mephistophiles the spirit, thus answered, vanished away, leaving Faustus in his study, where he sat pondering with himself how he might obtain his request of the devil, without the loss of his soul; yet he was fully resolved in himself, rather than to want his pleasure, to do what the spirit and his lord should condition upon. ”

“ Enter an OLD MAN. OLD MAN. Ah, Doctor Faustus, that I might prevail To guide thy steps unto the way of life, By which sweet path thou mayst attain the goal That shall conduct thee to celestial rest! Break heart, drop blood, and mingle it with tears, Tears falling from repentant heaviness Of thy most vile and loathsome filthiness, The stench whereof corrupts the inward soul With such flagitious crimes of heinous sin As no commiseration may expel, But mercy, Faustus, of thy Saviour sweet, Whose blood alone must wash away thy guilt. ”

“ Enter an OLD MAN. OLD MAN. O gentle Faustus, leave this damned art, This magic, that will charm thy soul to hell, And quite bereave thee of salvation! Though thou hast now offended like a man, Do not persever in it like a devil: Yet, yet thou hast an amiable soul, If sin by custom grow not into nature; Then, Faustus, will repentance come too late; Then thou art banish'd from the sight of heaven: No mortal can express the pains of hell. ”

“ The lovely fantom becomes Faust's paramour and bears him a remarkable son called Justus Faustus.
What wonder if the young Goethe, himself disappointed with book-learning, eager for life, and beset by vague yearnings for mystic insight into the nature of things, saw in Faust a symbol of his own experience? But as soon as he began to identify himself with his hero it was all up with Faust's utter damnableness: a young poet does not plan to send his own soul to perdition. ”

“ He buries him in a deep sleep, and creates in his place a phantom, with which the cheated devils try successfully the whole process of temptation and seduction. All this appears to Faustus in a dream. He awakes; the Devil discovers his error, and flies with shame and fury, and Faustus, thanking Providence for its warning, clings to truth and virtue more firmly than ever. ”

“ The spirits tell me they can dry the sea, And fetch the treasure of all foreign wrecks, Ay, all the wealth that our forefathers hid Within the massy entrails of the earth: Then tell me, Faustus, what shall we three want? FAUSTUS. Nothing, Cornelius. O, this cheers my soul! Come, shew me some demonstrations magical, That I may conjure in some lusty grove, And have these joys in full possession. VALDES. Then haste thee to some solitary grove, And bear wise Bacon's and Albertus' works, The Hebrew Psalter, and New Testament ”

“ Faustus, vexed at his spirit's so long tarrying, used his charms, with full purpose not to depart before he had his intent; and crying on Mephistophiles the spirit, suddenly the globe opened, and sprung up in the height of a man, so burning a time, in the end it converted to the shape of a fiery man. This pleasant beast ran about the circle a great while, and lastly appeared in the manner of a Gray Friar, asking Faustus what was his request.
Faustus commanded, that the next morning at twelve of the clock, he should appear to him at his house; but the devil would in no wise grant it. ”

“ And while Faustus was in these devilish cogitations, night drew on, and this hellish spirit appeared to him, acquainting him that now he had orders from his prince to be obedient to him, and to do for him whatsoever he desired, provided he would promise to be his, and withal to acquaint him first what he would have of him? Faustus replied, that his desire was to become a spirit, and that Mephostophiles should be always at his command, that whensoever he called for him, he shall appear invisible to all men, and that he should appear in what shape he pleased. ”

“ Therefore, Faustus, look well about thee, and bethink thyself better, and I wish thee to change thy mind, for if thou keep not what thou hast promised in thy writing, we will tear thee in pieces like the dust under thy feet. Therefore, sweet Faustus, think with what unquiet life, anger, strife, and debate thou shalt live in when thou takest a wife. ”

“ Presently, not three fathoms above his head, fell a flame in manner of lightning, and changed itself into a globe; yet Faustus feared it not, but did persuade himself that the devil should give him his request before he would leave. Oftentimes after to his companions he would boast that he had the stoutest head under the cope of heaven at command. Whereat they answered, They knew no stouter than the Pope or Emperor. But Dr. Faustus said, "The head that is my servant, is above all upon earth;" ”

“ FAUSTUS. Yes, he will drink of all waters; but ride him not into
the water: o'er hedge and ditch, or where thou wilt, but not into
the water. Go, bid the hostler deliver him unto you, and remember
what I say.
HORSE-COURSER. I warrant you, sir!--O, joyful day! now am I a
made man for ever.
[Exit.]
FAUSTUS. What art thou, Faustus, but a man condemn'd to die?
Thy fatal time draws to a final end ”

“ The deepest thinkers of their time, like Nostradamus, Cardan, Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, Thomas Campanella, flattered themselves that they could enter, by means of art and science, into communion with good or evil spirits, on whose aid they depended for obtaining knowledge, fame, wealth, and worldly honors and enjoyments. Faustus was one of those whom a passion for inquiry, in league with a powerful, sensual nature, led astray. ”

“ Faustus complained that he should in his lusty Time,
and youthful Years, die so miserably.
The sorrowful time drawing near, so troubled Dr. Faustus, that he began to write his mind, to the end he might peruse it often and not forget it, which was in manner as followeth:—"Ah! Faustus, thou sorrowful and woeful man, now must thou go to the damnable company in unquenchable fire, whereas thou mightest have had the joyful immortality of thy soul, the which now thou hast lost! Ah! gross understanding and wilful will! What seizeth upon thy limbs, other than robbing of my life? ”

“ The writers of neither the first nor the second Silesian school were exactly the men to appreciate the depth of a legend like that of Faustus,--still less the watery poets of the beginning of the eighteenth century. Lessing, who, with his sharp, sound criticism, and his clear perception of the beautiful, led the way to a higher state of things in literature, appears also to have been the first to discover the deep meaning buried in the popular farces of Faustus. He pronounced it worthy the genius of a Shakspeare, and himself attempted to make it the subject of a tragedy. ”

“ Faustus living in all manner of pleasure that his heart could desire, continuing of his amorous drifts, his delicate fare, and costly apparel, called on a time his Mephistophiles to him, who being come, brought him a book in his hand of all manner of devilish and enchanting arts, the which he gave Faustus, saying, "Hold, my Faustus; work now thy heart's desire." The copy of this enchanting book was afterwards found by his servant Christopher Wagner. "Well," quoth Faustus to his spirit, "I have called thee to know what thou canst do if I have need of thy help." ”

“ Faustus is gone, regard his hellish fall,
Whose fiendfull fortune may exhort the wise
Only to wonder at unlawfull things:
Whose deepnesse doth intice such forward wits,
To practise more than heavenly power permits. ”

“ Faustus said, "But that I have not done."
"No, thou sayest truth," quoth Mephistophiles, "thou hast not done it; but thou hast denied the Lord thy Maker which gave thee the breath of life, speech, hearing, sight, and all other thy reasonable senses, that thou mightest understand his will and pleasure, to live to the glory and honour of his name, and to the advancement of thy body and soul. Him, I say, being thy Maker, hast thou denied and defied; yea, wickedly hast thou applied that excellent gift of understanding, and given thy soul to the devil ”

“ LIST OF PLAYS BY ARTHUR DAVISON FICKE [x] The Breaking of Bonds, 1910 Mr. Faust, 1913 MR. FAUST [1] INSCRIPTION
Pale Goethe, Marlowe, Lessing—calm your fears!
None plots to steal your laurel wreaths away.
Approach; take tickets: you shall witness here
The unromantic Faustus of to-day—
A Faustus whom no mystic choirs sustain,
No wizard fiends blind with prodigious spell.
The mortal earth shall serve him as domain
Whether he mount to Heaven or sink to Hell. ”

“ He also told them he had a desire to join with the godly, and to leave off that wicked course; but immediately the devil used to come and torment him, etc. "But now," saith Faustus, "it is but in vain for me to talk of what I did intend, for I have sold myself to the devil; body and soul is his." No sooner had [298] he spoken these words, but suddenly it fell a thundering and lightning, the like was never heard; whereupon Faustus went into the great hall, the doctors and masters staying in the next room intending to hear his end. ”

“ Faustus the most widely-spread we know of, we cannot allude to these primitive traditions, the circulation of which is perfectly mysterious. We speak of such popular legends as admit of their origin being traced. Among these the Faustus-tradition may be called comparatively new. To us Americans, indeed, whose history commences only with the modern history of Europe, a period of three hundred years seems quite a respectable space of time. ”