The Spiritual and the Worldly in
the Faust Legend
David Pan
Humanities Core Course
Winter 2011, Lecture 1
Top ten ways to avoid plagiarism
(and improve your writing)
1. Respect your sources.
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Core lecture, Fall 2010).
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suspension or dismissal from the university.
7. Calculate that the odds against this 20-word string being exactly the
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to 1.
8. Remember that, even if you don’t get caught, you’ll get caught next
time.
9. Remember that you will get caught.
10. Cite your sources.
The Faust legend stages a conflict
between spirituality and materialism in
early modern Europe.
1) The Faust myth originates in a conflict between
Christian ideals and the worldly focus of natural
science.
2) The 16th century Faustbuch has an ambiguous
structure in which it depicts a worldly,
individualist project in order to then condemn it.
3) The deterioration of the religious framework of
the Faust legend allows Goethe to create a new,
worldly frame for the Faust story.
The Faust legend stages a conflict
between spirituality and materialism in
early modern Europe.
1) The Faust myth originates in a conflict between
Christian ideals and the worldly focus of natural
science.
a)
b)
c)
The focus on the divine in the monotheistic traditions
leads to a subordination of the material and social world
to a spiritual or intellectual world.
Advances in the natural sciences threaten the Church
by suggesting that its authority, based in scripture, might
be replaced by the authority of knowledge gained from
observation of the world.
The historical Faust embodies the debate between
natural science and the church because he is both a
wandering scholar and a charlatan.
The focus on the divine in the monotheistic traditions
leads to a subordination of the material and social world
to a spiritual or intellectual world.
This World
SensualPractical
Intellectual
Moral
Epicurus: All knowledge
comes from sense
experience
Epictetus argues that bodily
concerns are not as
important as one’s attitude.
Other World
Abraham is told to sacrifice material
life for the sake of a spiritual ideal.
God’s uses his otherworldly power to
help the Hebrews
Rabbinical Judaism focuses on
scholarly debate of the Torah
Maimonides sees intellectual rather
than physical, social, or moral
development as true goal of life.
Christ sacrifices his bodily existence
in order to then be resurrected into a
spiritual existence.
In Islamic submission to God, God’s
judgment in the afterlife becomes the
primary guide for actions in the world.
Advances in the natural sciences threaten the Church by suggesting that its
authority, based in scripture, might be replaced by the authority of knowledge
gained from observation of the world.
Natural scientific discoveries
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1492 Martin Behaim constructs a
terrestrial globe
1528 Paracelsus published his Kleine
Chirurgie, the first authoritative manual
dealing with surgery.
1543 Nicolaus Copernicus publishes De
Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, which
explains heliocentrism.
1560 Battista Porta explains the structure
of the eye in Magia Naturalis and invents
the Camera Obscura.
1590 Zacharias Jansen builds the first
microscope.
1591 Giordano Bruno argues for infinity
and homogeneity of the universe in De
immenso et innumerabilis seu de universo
et mundis.
1600 William Gilbert publishes De
magnete, explaining electricity and
magnetism.
1632 Galileo Galilei defends heliocentrism
in his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief
World Systems
Church reactions
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1486 Heinrich Kramer publishes Malleus
Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches).
1515 The Lateran Council decrees in De
impressione librorum that no work may be
printed without permission from the
ecclesiastical authority.
1537 Martin Luther attacks Faust’s relation
to the devil in his Tischreden.
1546 scholar and printer Etienne Dolet is
hanged and burned for publishing heretical
books.
1587 Historia von D. Johann Faustus
published as pro-Lutherian condemnation of
Faust’s pact with devil.
1600 Giordano Bruno burned at the stake
for heresy.
1616 Inquisition threatens Galileo Galilei
with punishment for teaching the Copernican
system.
1633 Church condemns Galileo and he
recants
Source: Classen, Albrecht. “New Knowledge, Disturbing and Attractive: The Faustbuch and the Wagnerbuch as
Witnesses of the Early Modern Paradigm Shift.” Daphnis 35.3-4 (2006): 515-535.
Williams, Neville. Chronology of the Expanding World, 1492-1762. New York: McKay, 1969.
The historical Faust embodies the debate between
natural science and the church because he is both a
wandering scholar and a charlatan.
The historical Johann (or Georg) Faust was a
wandering scholar/astrologer/doctor.
• Perhaps born in Knittlingen,
Wuerttemberg, around 1480 (Martin
Luther born in 1483).
• Studied perhaps in Heidelberg or in
Cracow.
• Reported to have lectured in Erfurt.
• Wanders and practices astrology,
alchemy, and medicine.
• Reportedly dies in 1540 in Staufen,
Breisgau.
Source: Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn. Doctor Faust. 1650-52. Fondazione Magnani Rocca, Corte di Mamiano, Italy.
Artstor. Web. 22 December 2010.
Palmer, Philip Mason and Robert Pattison More. The Sources of the Faust Tradition: From Simon Magus to Lessing. New
York: Haskell, 1965.
The historical Faust embodies the debate between
natural science and the church because he is both a
wandering scholar and a charlatan.
Contemporary references to Faust describe him as a fool and necromancer.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
August 20, 1507, letter from Johannes Tritheim to Johannes Virdung:
“Master George Sabellicus, the younger Faust, the chief of
necromancers, astrologer, the second magus, palmist, diviner with earth
and fire, second in the art of divination with water. […] he ought to call
himself a fool rather than a master.”
October 3, 1513, letter from Conrad Mutianus Rufus to Heinrich
Urbanus: “a mere braggart and fool.”
May 10, 1532, entry in the records of the city council of Nuremberg:
“Safe conduct to Doctor Faust, the great sodomite and necromancer, at
Fuerth refused.”
1537 (published 1566), Martin Luther, Tischreden: “Much was said
about Faust, who called the devil his brother-in-law”
January 16, 1540, letter from Philipp von Hutten to his brother Moritz
von Hutten:”Therefore I must confess that the philosopher Faust hit the
nail on the head, for we struck a very bad year.”
1563, Johannes Manlius, Locorum Communium Collectanea, quoted
from Philipp Melanchthon: “the host with several others went into his
bedroom and found him lying near the bed with his face turned toward
his back. Thus the devil had killed him.”
1587 Historia von D. Johann Fausten: “he could not abide to be called
Dr. of Divinity, but waxed a worldly man, and named himself and
Astrologian, and a Mathematician, and for a Shadow, sometimes a
Physician, and did great Cures; namely with Herbs, Roots, Water,
Drinks, and Clysters”
Fear of threats to
Christian principles
+
Fascination with
progress of
natural sciences
=
Popularity of
Faust myth
Source: Palmer, Philip Mason and Robert Pattison More. The Sources of the Faust Tradition: From Simon Magus to
Lessing. New York: Haskell, 1965.
The Faust legend stages a conflict
between spirituality and materialism in
early modern Europe.
1)
2)
The Faust myth originates in a conflict between Christian
ideals and the worldly focus of natural science.
The 16th century Faustbuch has an ambiguous structure in
which it depicts a worldly, individualist project in order to
then condemn it.
a)
b)
c)
The popularity of Historia von D. Johann Fausten (1587) [the
Faustbuch] depends upon a fascination with the new possibilities
for discovery, invention, but also abuse, opened up by the advance
of the natural sciences.
The Faustbuch functions as a condemnation of Faust through its
framing of the story, not the story itself.
When the authority of the church declines, the framing commentary
falls away and the 18th century theatrical versions of Faust become
farces.
The popularity of Historia von D. Johann Fausten (1587) [the
Faustbuch] depends upon a fascination with the new possibilities for
discovery, invention, but also abuse, opened up by the advance of the
natural sciences.
The Faustbuch recounts the devil’s pact and Faust’s adventures.
Table of Contents
Chap. II. How Dr. Faustus began to practise his Devilish
Art, and how he conjured the Devil making him to appear,
and meet him on the Morrow morning at his own House. 5
Chap. III. The Conference of Dr. Faustus with this Spirit
Mephistophiles, the Morning following, at his own House.
8
Chap. XXVIII. How Dr. Faustus play'd a merry Jest with
the Duke of Anhalt, in his Court. 48
Chap. XXIX. How Dr. Faustus, with his Company, visited
the Bishop of Salisburg's Wine Cellar. 50
Chap. XXX. How Faustus feasted his Guests on Ash Wednesday. 52
Chap. XXXI. How Dr. Faustus conjured the four Wheels
from the Countryman's Waggon. 54
Chap. XXXII. How four Jugglers cut one anothers Heads
off, and set them on again, and Faustus deceived them.
56
Chap. XXXIII. How Dr. Faustus wrote the second time with
his own Blood, and gave it to the Devil. 57
Pact with
the Devil
Adventures
with magic
The Faustbuch
episodes recount
the ways in which
Faust rejects
Christian ideals in
his tricks and
travels.
Source: The surprizing and damnable life, and deserv'd death of Doctor John Faustus. London: printed by L. Nisbet;
and are to be sold by the booksellers of London and Westminster, [1750?]. Eighteenth Century Collections Online.
Gale Cengage Learning, 1 June 2004. Web. 21 December 2010.
Instead of subordinating his desires to the demands of
God, Faustus pursues physical pleasure outside the
bounds of spiritual restrictions.
Quoth Mephistophiles, to this I answer thee, Thou
canst not marry; for Wedlock is a chief Institution
ordained of God, and that thou hast promised to defy,
as we do all.
Dr. Faustus fell into despair with himself, fearing, if he
should motion Matrimony any more, then the Devil
would tear him to pieces. (18)
When Dr. Faustus called to Mind that his Time from
Day to Day drew nigh, he began to live a Swinish and
Epicurish Life: Wherefore he commanded his Spirit
Mephistophiles to bring him seven of the fairest
Women that he had seen in all the Times of his
Travel; which being brought, first to one, then another,
he lay with them all, insomuch that he liked them so
well, that he continued with them all manner of Love,
and made them to travel with him all his Journies;
these Women were two Netherland, one Hungarian,
one Scottish, two Walloon, and one Franklander. And
with these sweet Personages he continued long, yea,
even to his last End. (62-63)
Faustus is not allowed to marry because
marriage is “ordained of God” and places
sexuality under the laws of the divine order.
Faustus is content to
live a “Swinish and
Epicurish Life,” and
the text describes his
seven different
women.
His life of
sensual
pleasure is
framed in the
narration by
reminders of
his eventual
bad end.
Source: The surprizing life and death of Doctor John Faustus. To which is now added, the Necromancer: or,
Harlequin, Doctor Faustus. As Performed at the Theater Royal in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. Likewise, the whole life of
Fryar Bacon, the Famous Magician of England: And the merry Waggeries of his Man Miles. Truly translated from the
original copies. London: printed and sold by Edw. Midwinter, at the Looking-Glass on London-Bridge, 1740?.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Cengage Learning, 1 June 2004. Web. 21 December 2010.
The Faustbuch functions as a condemnation of Faust
through its framing of the story, not the story itself.
The title page of Historia von D. Johann Faustus foregrounds the plot of the
story but also provides a commentary that condemns Faust from a Christian
viewpoint.
Story
of Dr. Johann
Faust, the notorious
magician and necromancer,
how he sold himself to the devil
for a period of time, the strange
adventures he saw and undertook,
until he at last received his
just reward.
Multiple chapters from his
own writings collected and
printed as a terrifying example
and heartfelt warning to all
self-conceited, cunning,
and godless
people.
Source: “Title page of the Historia von D. Johann Fausten, published in 1587 by Johann Spie.” Wikimedia Commons.
Wikimedia, 29 September 2008. Web. 20 December 2010, my translation.
The Faustbuch functions as a condemnation of Faust
through its framing of the story, not the story itself.
The narrator of Historia von D. Johann Faustus criticizes Faust’s turn
to the temporal world and warns others not to follow his example.
Whoever only has the temporal in light
And for the eternal has no sight
Surrenders to the devil day and night
Had better keep his soul in sight. (Historia 23)
The turn away from spiritual
ideals in favor of materiality
becomes the object of critique
in the narrator’s commentary.
And thus ended the whole History of Dr.
Faustus’s Conjuration, and other Acts that he did
in his Life; out of which Example every
Christian may learn; but chiefly the Stiff-necked,
and High-minded, may thereby learn to fear
God, and to be careful of their Vocation, and to
be at Defiance with all devilish Works, that God
hath most precisely forbidden. (Surprizing,
1740?, 78-79)
The narrator presents the
church viewpoint at the end of
the story by warning the “Stiffnecked and High-minded”
against “devilish Works.”
Source: Historia von D. Johann Fausten: Text des Druckes von 1587. Ed. Stephan Füssel and Hans Joachim Kreutzer.
Stuttgart: Reclam, 1988. My translation.
The surprizing life and death of Doctor John Faustus. 1740?. See slide 11.
When the authority of the church declines, the framing
commentary of the Faustbuch falls away and the 18th
century theatrical versions of Faust become farces.
From the preface to Necromancer: or Harlequin Dr. Faustus (1723)
He was born in Germany, about the Beginning of the 14th Century, a
Period of Dullness and Barbarism. Monkery and Imposition prevail’d
much stronger than, perhaps, then ever will again: And Knowledge was
in so few Hands, that an uncommon Share of Learning, or uncommon
Qualifications, were sufficient to make a Man thought a Conjurer.
(Rich v-vi)
Final lines of The Necromancer, or Harlequin, Dr. Faustus (1740)
Doctor waves his Wand, and the Scene is converted to a Wood; a
monstrous Dragon appears, and from each Claw drops a daemon,
representing divers Grotesque Figures; several Female Spirits rise
in Character to each Figure, and join in Antick Dance. As they are
performing, a Clock Strikes, the Doctor is seized, hurried away by Spirits,
and devour’d by the Monster, which immediately takes Flight; and while it
is disappearing, Spirits vanish, and other Daemons rejoyce in the
following Words: Now triumph Hell, and Fiends be gay, The Sorc’rer
is become our Prey. [At the End of the Chorus the Curtain falls. FINIS
(Surprizing, 1740?, 87-88)
1723 preface criticizes the
“Dullness and Barbarism” of
those who viewed a man of
learning as a “Conjurer.”
The scene is conceived
as theatrical farce,
making fun of the whole
notion of demons and
witches.
Demons have the final
word in the play.
Source: [Rich, John.] The vocal parts of an entertainment, called the Necromancer or Harlequin Doctor Faustus. As
perform'd at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. To which is prefix'd, a short account of Doctor Faustus; and how
he came to be reputed a magician. London: printed and sold at the Book-Seller's Shop, at the Corner of Searle-Street,
Lincoln's-Inn-Fields and by A. Dodd at the Peacock, without Temple-Bar, [1723]. Eighteenth Century Collections
Online. Gale Cengage Learning, 1 June 2004. Web. 20 December 2010.
The surprizing life and death of Doctor John Faustus. 1740?. See slide 11.
The Faust legend stages a conflict
between spirituality and materialism in
early modern Europe.
1)
2)
3)
The Faust myth originates in a conflict between Christian
ideals and the worldly focus of natural science.
The 16th century Faustbuch has an ambiguous structure in
which it depicts a worldly, individualist project in order to
then condemn it.
The deterioration of the religious framework of the Faust
legend allows Goethe to create a new, worldly frame for
the Faust story.
a)
b)
c)
Goethe can conceive a new ethic for Faust at a point where the
witch-hunts have subsided and the earlier Faust myth has turned
into farce.
By shifting the framing of the Faust story into the world of drama,
Goethe creates an aesthetic rather than religious framework for the
play.
As in the aesthetic frame, the Christian frame of the play merges
the eternal with the worldly.
Goethe can conceive a new ethic for Faust at a point
where the witch-hunts have subsided and the earlier
Faust myth has turned into farce.
Development of
Faust legend
Historical Faust attracts interest
as the rise of natural sciences
triggers into a Church campaign
against heresy.
•1480 Historical Faust
born
•1540 Historical Faust
dies
Establishment of Faust legend
coincides with witch-hunts and
religious condemnation of
practical knowledge.
•1587 Historia von D.
Johann Fausten
•1604 Marlowe, Dr.
Faustus
Faust legend turns to farce as
witch-hunts decline (Knellwolf
166-81).
•1684-88 Dr. Faustus,
Made into a Farce
•1723 Harlequin Dr.
Faustus
Goethe sets up a new moral
framework for Faust that
replaces the Christian one.
•1749 Goethe born
•1772-75 Goethe
writes Urfaust
Numbers
of witch
trials and
executions
in Saxony
(“Saxony”)
Source: Knellwolf King, Christa. Faustus and the Promises of the New Science, c. 1580-1730: From the Chapbooks to
Harlequin Faustus. Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2008.
“Saxony.” Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition. Ed. Richard Golden. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006.
Goethe’s life spans a period in which
Enlightenment ideas created a new focus
away from religion and toward society
•
•
•
•
•
•
1749 Goethe born August 28 in Frankfurt on Main.
1765-68 Studies law in Leipzig.
1768-69 Brief conversion to Christianity. Studies
alchemy.
1772 Practices law in Wetzlar. Begins work on Faust.
1774 The Sorrows of Young Werther.
1775 Accepts ducal appointment at the court of
Weimar.
–
–
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Works for two decades to reopen a silver mine.
Approves the execution of a single mother for infanticide.
1786-88 Travels to Italy.
1788 Takes Christiane Vulpius as mistress.
1790 Essay in the Elucidation and Metamorphosis of
Plants.
1794 Begins work with Friedrich Schiller.
1795-96 Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship.
1806 Completes Faust I. Marries Christiane Vulpius.
1808 Faust I appears.
1832 Completes Faust II.
“Johann Wolfgang von Goethe." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 22 Dec. 2010.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Web. 22 Dec. 2010.
By shifting the framing of the Faust story into the world of
drama, Goethe creates an aesthetic rather than religious
framework for the play.
In the “Prelude in the Theater,” the Manager and the Poet have opposing
interests.
MANAGER.
POET.
Above all, let there be sufficient action!
They come to gaze and wish to see a spectacle.
If many things reel off before their eyes,
So that the mob can gape and be astounded,
Then you will sway the great majority
And be a very popular man.
The mass can only be subdued by
massiveness,
So each can pick a morsel for himself.
A large amount contains enough for everyone,
And each will leave contented with his share.
Give us the piece you write in pieces!
Try your fortune with a potpourri
That’s quickly made and easily dished out.
What good is it to sweat and to create a whole?
The audience will yet pick the thing to pieces.
(89-103)
Oh, speak no more of motley crowds to me,
Their presence makes my spirit flee.
Veil from my sight those waves and surges
That suck us down into their raging pools.
Take me rather to a quiet little cell where pure
delight blooms only for the poet,
Where our inmost joy is blessed and fostered
By love and friendship and the hand of God.
Alas! What sprang from our deepest feelings,
What our lips tried timidly to form,
Failing now and now perhaps succeeding,
Is devoured by a single brutish moment.
Often it must filter through the years
Before its final form appears perfected.
What gleams like tinsel is but for the moment.
What’s true remains intact for future days. (5174)
Source: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Faust, First Part, trans. Peter Salm. New York: Bantam, 2007. This and all
subsequent references to this text refer to the line numbers in this edition.
The Comedian merges the material interests of the
Manager with the ideal perspective of the Poet.
COMEDIAN.
Reach for the fullness of a human life!
We live it all, but few live knowingly;
If you but touch it [wo ihr’s packt], it will fascinate.
A complex picture without clarity,
Much error with a little spark of truth –
that’s the recipe to brew the potion
whence all the world is quenched and edified.
The fairest bloom of youth will congregate
to see the play and wait for revelation;
then every tender soul will eagerly absorb
some food for melancholy from your work.
First one and then another thing is stirred,
so each can find what’s in his heart. (167-79)
Life and Knowledge
Grasp of reality and Fascination
Error and Truth
Quenching and Edifying
Spectacle and Revelation
Variety and Depth
The Christian frame of the play follows
the structure of the aesthetic frame.
The Angels and Mephistopheles have opposing static conceptions.
RAPHAEL.
The sun intones his ancient song
in contest with fraternal spheres,
and with a roll of thunder
rounds out his predetermined journey.
His aspect strengthens angels,
but none can fathom him.
The inconceivable creations
are glorious as from the first. (243-50)
Raphael praises the
permanence of
celestial events.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Forgive me, but I can’t indulge in lofty words,
Although this crowd will hold me in contempt;
My pathos certainly would make you laugh,
Had you not dispensed with laughter long ago.
I waste no words on suns and planets,
I only see how men torment themselves.
Earth’s little god remains the same
And is as quaint as from the first.
He would have an easier time of it
Had you not let him glimpse celestial light;
He calls it reason and he only uses it
To be more bestial than the beasts. (275-86)
Mephistopheles
stresses the futility of
human striving
The “Prologue in Heaven” establishes a new framing
story for Faust in which striving in the material world is
not a temptation but the basis for salvation.
The Lord merges the angelic with the demonic
through “Becoming”
I am glad to let you have apparent freedom;
I hold no hatred for the like of you.
Of all the spirits that negate,
The rogue to me is the least burdensome.
Man’s diligence is easily exhausted,
He grows too fond of unremitting peace.
I’m therefore pleased to give him a companion
Who must goad and prod and be a devil.—
But you, my own true sons of Heaven,
Rejoice in Beauty’s vibrant wealth.
That which becomes will live and work forever;
Let it enfold you with propitious bonds of Love.
And what appears as flickering image now,
Fix it firmly with enduring thought. (336-49)
Noting the danger that human activity
flags and humans often prefer to rest
rather than to strive, God designates
the devil as the companion who
stimulates humans in their desires so
that they continue striving.
God does not
demand faith
but links love
to “becoming.”
God designates
the angels as
those who take
pleasure in the
beauty of this
activity and then
transform it into
something
lasting.
The Faust legend stages a conflict between
spirituality and materialism in early modern Europe.
1)
The Faust myth originates in a conflict between Christian ideals and the worldly focus of natural science.
a)
The focus on the divine in the monotheistic traditions leads to a subordination of the material and social world to a spiritual or intellectual
world.
Advances in the natural sciences threaten the Church by suggesting that its authority, based in scripture, might be replaced by the
authority of knowledge gained from observation of the world.
The historical Faust embodies the debate between natural science and the church because he is both a wandering scholar and a
charlatan.
b)
c)
a)
b)
2)
The historical Johann (or Georg) Faust was a wandering scholar/astrologer/doctor.
Contemporary references to Faust describe him as a fool and necromancer.
The 16th century Faustbuch has an ambiguous structure in which it depicts a worldly, individualist project in order to
then condemn it.
a)
The popularity of Historia von D. Johann Fausten (1587) [the Faustbuch] depends upon a fascination with the new possibilities for
discovery, invention, but also abuse, opened up by the advance of the natural sciences.
i.
ii.
b)
The Faustbuch functions as a condemnation of Faust through its framing of the story, not the story itself.
i.
ii.
The title page of Faustbuch foregrounds the plot of the story but also provides a commentary that condemns Faust from a Christian viewpoint.
The narrator of the Faustbuch criticizes Faust’s turn to the temporal world and warns other not to follow his example.
When the authority of the church declines, the framing commentary falls away and the 18th century theatrical versions of Faust become
farces.
c)
3)
Most of the Faustbuch consists of stories of his adventures with the devil.
Instead of subordinating his desires to the demands of a religious order, Faustus sets himself apart by pursuing physical pleasure outside the
bounds of spiritual restrictions.
The deterioration of the religious framework of the Faust legend allows Goethe to create a new, worldly frame for the
Faust story.
a)
Goethe can conceive a new ethic for Faust at a point where the witch-hunts have subsided and the earlier Faust myth has turned into
farce.
By shifting the framing of the Faust story into the world of drama, Goethe creates an aesthetic rather than religious framework for the
play.
b)
i.
ii.
c)
In the “Prelude in the Theater,” the Manager and the Poet have opposing interests.
The Comedian merges the material interests of the Manager with the ideal perspective of the Poet.
As in the aesthetic frame, the Christian frame of the play merges the eternal with the worldly.
i.
ii.
The Angels and Mephistopheles have opposing static conceptions.
The “Prologue in Heaven” establishes a new framing story for Faust in which striving in the material world becomes the basis for salvation.