FAUST. Goethe's 'Faust,' a poetic tragedy in two parts, is unquestionably the greatest, though not the only, treatment of its fruitful theme. Goethe began work on it as early as 1774. In November 1775, he carried with him to Weimar a manuscript, commonly called the 'Urfaust' of which a fair copy was made by Fraulein von Goch hausen, a lady of the court. This copy, fortu nately preserved, was discovered and published in 1887 by Erich Schmidt. Goethe's own first publication on this subject was 'Faust, ein Fragment' (1790), differing somewhat from the Gochhausen copy. Thereupon followed in 1808 the First Part of the tragedy. The Second Part was not taken resolutely in hand until 1827, and was notpublished until 1833, the year after Goethe's death.
It has been said that every age has its 'Faust) and that every poet writes his 'Faust.' If we disregard sundry medieval analogues to the story, we may say that the original Faust wai a semi-historical figure of the 16th century, perhaps one of the less worthy of the human ists — at any rate early reputed a magician, necromancer, something of a down, and the victim of condign punishment for a dissolute life in league with the devil. So he appears in a chap-book of 1587, in popular dramas, and in puppet plays.
Some acquaintance with the traditional Faust Goethe acquired as a youth in Frankfort, Leipzig, and Strassburg, and the dramatic treat ment of this problematic character was one of his first literary plans. What attracted him was of course not the vulgar marvels, or the lewd adventures, or even the supernatural powers attributed to the legendary Faust. Goethe saw in Faust, as in Gatz von Berlichin gen, one of the heroes of a spacious and ex pansive time, a man of like passions with himself, and a character which he could in infinite measure fructify with his own experi ences and his own longings.
Goethe's Faust is a professor and scholar who aspires to penetrate to the essence of things. Unremitting application has made him master of all the knowledge that generations have accumulated. He knows his powers, but
also his limitations. He has not found the key to unlock the mysteries of the universe and for this reason he has betaken himself to magic. By its aid he conjures up the spirit of that earth which he has been unable to comprehend. Nevertheless, he cannot bear direct contact with this spirit, which is too wonderful for him. The more readily, therefore, though disdain fully, he falls in with the proposal of another spirit, the mischief-maker Mephistopheles, that he seek enlightenment through experience in a field to which he has hitherto been a stranger, the field of life. Mephistopheles undertakes to introduce him first to the little, then to the great world. The reward for these services shall be the possession of Faust's soul, to be claimed when a moment arrives, so beautiful that Faust shall wish to prolong it.
This is the ground plan of Goethe's entire drama. The First Part comprises Faust's ex periences in the little world, the Second Part, in general, those in the great world. The First part, moreover, best known and most admired, reaches its climax in Faust's seduction of Gretchen, one of the most pathetic tragedies ever written and one written with incomparable directness, simplicity and power.
The Second Part takes Faust to the imperial court, where he ingratiates himself with a frivo lous emperor by arranging a pageant and by the invention of paper money. Here, however, Faust's eyes become opened to another great world which like a new planet swims into his ken. It is a part of the traditional story that Faust shall summon up the shades of great figures of the past for the amusement of his patrons and one of these is Helen of Troy— according to the chap-book, Mephistopheles pro cures him Helen for a concubine. But Goethe transforms the Spartan queen into the embodi ment of the Greek ideal and when Faust has succeeded in his conjuration, he cannot refrain from seeking to make her his own.