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Faust
by Johann W. Geothe
Translated by Anna Swanwick ( 1808 )
Introductory Note
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the greatest of German men of letters, was
born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, August 28, 1749. His father was a man of
means and position, and he personally supervised the early education of his
son. The young Goethe studied at the universities of Leipsig and Strasburg,
and in 1772 entered upon the practise of law at Wetzlar. At the invitation of
Karl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, he went in 1775 to live in Weimar,
where he held a succession of political offices, becoming the Duke's chief
adviser. From 1786 to 1788 he traveled in Italy, and from 1791 to 1817
directed the ducal theater at Weimar. He took part in the wars against
France, 1792-3, and in the following year began his friendship with Schiller,
which lasted till the latter's death in 1805. In 1806 he married Christiane
Vulpius. From about 1794 he devoted himself chiefly to literature, and after a
life of extraordinary productiveness died at Weimar, March 22, 1832. The
most important of Goethe's works produced before he went to Weimar were
his tragedy "Gotz von Berlichingen" (1773), which first brought him fame, and
"The Sorrows of Young Werther," a novel which obtained enormous
popularity during the so called "Sturm und Drang" period. During the years at
Weimar before he knew Schiller he began "Wilhelm Meister," wrote the
dramas, "Iphigenie," "Egmont," and "Torquato Tasso," and his "Reinecke
Fuchs." To the period of his friendship with Schiller belong the continuation of
"Wilhelm Meister," the beautiful idyl of "Hermann and Dorothea," and the
"Roman Elegies." In the last period, between Schiller's death in 1805 and his
own, appeared "Faust," "Elective Affinities," his autobiographical "Dichtung
und Wahrheit" ("Poetry and Truth"), his "Italian Journey," much scientific
work, and a series of treatises on German Art.
Though the foregoing enumeration contains but a selection from the titles of
Goethe's best known writings, it suffices to show the extraordinary fertility and
versatility of his genius. Rarely has a man of letters had so full and varied a life,
or been capable of so many-sided a development. His political and scientific
activities, though dwarfed in the eyes of our generation by his artistic
production, yet showed the adaptability of his talent in the most diverse
directions, and helped to give him that balance of temper and breadth of
vision in which he has been surpassed by no genius of the ancient or modern
world.
The greatest and most representative expression of Goethe's powers is
without doubt to be found in his drama of "Faust"; but before dealing with
Goethe's masterpiece, it is worth while to say something of the history of the
story on which it is founded - the most famous instance of the old and
widespread legend of the man who sold his soul to the devil. The historical
Dr. Faust seems to have been a self-called philosopher who traveled about
Germany in the first half of the sixteenth century, making money by the
practise of magic, fortune-telling, and pretended cures. He died mysteriously
about 1540, and a legend soon sprang up that the devil, by whose aid he
wrought his wonders, had finally carried him off. In 1587 a life of him
appeared, in which are attributed to him many marvelous exploits and in
which he is held up as an awful warning against the excessive desire for
secular learning and admiration for antique beauty which characterized the
humanist movement of the time. In this aspect the Faust legend is an
expression of early popular Protestantism, and of its antagonism to the
scientific and classical tendencies of the Renaissance.
While a succession of Faust books were appearing in Germany, the original
life was translated into English and dramatized by Marlowe. English players
brought Marlowe's work back to Germany, where it was copied by German
actors, degenerated into spectacular farce, and finally into a puppet show.
Through this puppet show Goethe made acquaintance with the legend.
By the time that Goethe was twenty, the Faust legend had fascinated his
imagination; for three years before he went to Weimar he had been working
on scattered scenes and bits of dialogue; and though he suspended actual
composition on it during three distinct periods, it was always to resume, and
he closed his labors upon it only with his life. Thus the period of time between
his first experiments and the final touches is more than sixty years. During this
period the plans for the structure and the signification of the work inevitably
underwent profound modifications, and these have naturally affected the unity
of the result; but, on the other hand, this long companionship and persistent
recurrence to the task from youth to old age have made it in a unique way the
record of Goethe's personality in all its richness and diversity.
The drama was given to the public first as a fragment in 1790; then the
completed First Part appeared in 1808; and finally the Second Part was
published in 1833, the year after the author's death. Writing in "Dichtung und
Wahrheit" of the period about 1770, when he was in Strasburg with Herder,
Goethe says, "The significant puppet - play legend . . . echoed and buzzed in
many tones within me. I too had drifted about in all knowledge, and early
enough had been brought to feel the vanity of it. I too had made all sorts of
experiments in life, and had always come back more unsatisfied and more
tormented. I was now carrying these things, like many others, about with me
and delighting myself with them in lonely hours, but without writing anything
down." Without going into the details of the experience which underlies these
words, we can see the beginning of that sympathy with the hero of the old
story that was the basis of its fascination and that accounted for Goethe's
departure from the traditional catastrophe of Faust's damnation.
Hungarian March from the "Damnation of Faust"Op.24 by Hector
Berlioz(1803 - 1869).
Of the elements in the finished Faust that are derived from the legend a rough
idea may be obtained from the "Doctor Faustus" of Marlowe, printed in the
present volume. As early as 1674 a life of Faust had contained the incident of
the philosopher's falling in love with a servant - girl; but the developed story of
Gretchen is Goethe's own. The other elements added to the plot can be noted
by a comparison with Marlowe.
It need hardly be said that Goethe's "Faust" does not derive its greatness from
its conformity to the traditional standards of what a tragedy should be. He
himself was accustomed to refer to it cynically as a monstrosity, and yet he
put himself into it as intensely as Dante put himself into "The Divine Comedy."
A partial explanation of this apparent contradiction in the author's attitude is to
be found in what has been said of its manner of composition. Goethe began it
in his romantic youth, and availed himself recklessly of the supernatural
elements in the legend, with the disregard of reason and plausibility
characteristic of the romantic mood. When he returned to it in the beginning of
the new century his artistic standards has changed, and the supernaturalism
could now be tolerated only by being made symbolic. Thus he makes the
career of Faust as a whole emblematic of the triumph of the persistent striving
for the ideal over the temptation to find complete satisfaction in the sense, and
prepares the reader for this interpretation by prefixing the "Prologue in
Heaven." The elaboration of this symbolic element is responsible for such
scenes as the Walpurgis - Night and the Intermezzo scenes full of power and
infinitely suggestive, but destructive of the unity of the play as a tragedy of
human life. Yet there remains in this First Part even in its final form much that
is realistic in the best sense, the carousal in Auerbach's cellar, the portrait of
Martha, the Easter - morning walk, the character and fate of Margaret. It is
such elements as these that have appealed to the larger reading public and that
have naturally been emphasized by performance on the stage, and by virtue of
these alone "Faust" may rank as a great drama; but it is the result of Goethe's
broodings on the mystery of human life, shadowed forth in the symbolic parts
and elaborated with still greater complexity and still more far - reaching
suggestiveness - and, it must be added, with deepening obscurity - in the
Second Part, that have given the work its place with "Job," with the
"Prometheus Bound," with "The Divine Comedy," and with "Hamlet."
The Tragedy Of Faust - Dedication
Ye wavering shapes, again ye do enfold me, As erst upon my troubled sight
ye stole; Shall I this time attempt to clasp, to hold ye? Still for the fond illusion
yearns my soul? Ye press around! Come then, your captive hold me, As
upward from the vapoury mist ye roll; Within my breast youth's throbbing
pulse is bounding, Fann'd by the magic breath your march surrounding.
Shades fondly loved appear, your train attending, And visions fair of many a
blissful day; First - love and friendship their fond accents blending, Like to
some ancient, half - expiring lay; Sorrow revives, her wail of anguish sending
Back o'er life's devious labyrinthine way, And names the dear ones, they
whom Fate bereaving Of life's fair hours, left me behind them grieving.
They hear me not my later cadence singing, The souls to whom my earlier lays
I sang; Dispersed the throng, their severed flight now winging; Mute are the
voices that responsive rang. For stranger crowds the Orphean lyre now
stringing, E'en their applause is to my heart a pang; Of old who listened to my
song, glad hearted, If yet they live, now wander widely parted.
A yearning long unfelt, each impulse swaying, To yon calm spirit - realm
uplifts my soul; In faltering cadence, as when Zephyr playing, Fans the
Aeolian harp, my numbers roll; Tear follows tear, my steadfast heart obeying
The tender impulse, loses its control; What I possess as from afar I see;
Those I have lost become realities to me.
Prologue For The Theatre
Manager. Dramatic Poet. Merryman.
Manager
Ye twain, in trouble and distress True friends whom I so oft have found, Say,
for our scheme on German ground, What prospect have we of success? Fain
would I please the public, win their thanks; They live and let live, hence it is
but meet. The posts are now erected, and the planks, And all look forward to
a festal treat. Their places taken, they, with eyebrows rais'd, Sit patiently, and
fain would be amaz'd. I know the art to hit the public taste, Yet ne'er of failure
felt so keen a dread; True, they are not accustomed to the best, But then
appalling the amount they've read. How make our entertainment striking, new,
And yet significant and pleasing too? For to be plain, I love to see the throng,
As to our booth the living tide progresses; As wave on wave successive rolls
along, And through heaven's narrow portal forceful presses; Still in broad
daylight, ere the clock strikes four, With blows their way towards the box
they take; And, as for bread in famine, at the baker's door, For tickets are
content their necks to break. Such various minds the bard alone can sway,
My friend, oh work this miracle to - day!
Poet
Oh of the motley throng speak not before me, At whose aspect the Spirit
wings its flight! Conceal the surging concourse, I implore thee, Whose vortex
draws us with resistless might. No, to some peaceful heavenly nook restore
me, Where only for the bard blooms pure delight, Where love and friendship
yield their choicest blessing, Our heart's true bliss, with god - like hand
caressing.
What in the spirit's depths was there created, What shyly there the lip shaped
forth in sound; A failure now, with words now fitly mated, In the wild tumult
of the hour is drown'd; Full oft the poet's thought for years hath waited Until
at length with perfect form 'tis crowned; What dazzles, for the moment born,
must perish; What genuine is posterity will cherish.
Merryman
This cant about posterity I hate; About posterity were I to prate, Who then
the living would amuse? For they Will have diversion, ay, and 'tis their due. A
sprightly fellow's presence at your play, Methinks should also count for
something too; Whose genial wit the audience still inspires, Knows from their
changeful mood no angry feeling; A wider circle he desires, To their heart's
depths more surely thus appealing. To work, then! Give a master - piece, my
friend; Bring Fancy with her choral trains before us, Sense, reason, feeling,
passion, but attend! Let folly also swell the tragic chorus.
Manager
In chief, of incident enough prepare! A show they want, they come to gape
and stare. Spin for their eyes abundant occupation, So that the multitude may
wondering gaze, You by sheer bulk have won your reputation, The man you
are all love to praise. By mass alone can you subdue the masses, Each then
selects in time what suits his bent. Bring much, you something bring for various
classes, And from the house goes every one content. You give a piece,
