Faust: Difference between revisions
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The legend that he had sold his soul for magical powers, and had been torn to pieces by devils upon the expiration of the contract, seems to have sprung up immediately, spread by Lutheran preachers who used him as an Awful Example. The first surviving fictional account of his adventures was a chapbook that appeared in 1587, ''Historia von D. Johan. Fausten dem weitbeschreyten Zauberer und Schwartzkünstler'' ("History of Dr. Jno. Faust, the far-famed Wizard and Sorcerer").
In this or similar form the legend spread to England, where [[Christopher Marlowe]] would embody it in ''[[Doctor Faustus|The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus]]'' (first published 1604, probably written ''c''. 1590). Marlowe suggests a more complicated figure than the mere seeker after wealth and pleasure presented in earlier versions; his play establishes Faustus as a great scholar, one who longs for Knowledge as well as Power, who turns to sorcery after he has already reached the limits of human science and philosophy. His Faustus vacillates more between God and the Devil than the simple character of the chapbook (his [[Good Angel, Bad Angel|Good and Evil Angels]] appearing bodily, though presumably not in miniature form a few inches above his shoulders, given the conditions of the Elizabethan stage); given several opportunities to repent, he nevertheless proves obdurate, and is duly
Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, the story proved popular in Germany in the form of chapbooks and puppet plays, often incorporating a great deal of humor and spectacular effects. Certain episodes became standard: Faust summoning up Mephistopheles; Faust disputing with him on the nature of God and the universe; Mephistopheles mocking Faust's scholar-servant, Wagner; Faust gaining the love of Helen of Troy; Faust appearing at the court of the [[Holy Roman Empire|Emperor]]; Faust or Mephistopheles in invisible form playing pranks on [[The Pope]]; Faust being given the chance to repent and refusing; and, finally and inevitably, Faust being dragged off to Hell by devils on the expiration of his contract. A subsidiary episode, in which Faust demands marriage with a virtuous peasant girl and is refused by Mephistopheles on the grounds that marriage, being a sacrament and thus pleasing to God, is against the terms of the contract, would form the basis for the story of Margaret (Margarethe, Gretchen, Marguerite) in subsequent versions of the story.
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