Faust

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For other uses, see Faust (disambiguation)}}}.

Faust (Latin Faustus) is the protagonist of a popular German tale of a pact with the Devil, assumed to be based on the figure of the German magician and alchemist Dr. Johann Georg Faust (approximately 1480–1540). It has been used as the basis for many different fictional works, most notably by Christopher Marlowe, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Klaus Mann, Thomas Mann, Hector Berlioz, Oscar Wilde and Mikhail Bulgakov.

General plot

The story concerns the fate of a learned gentleman named Faust, who in his quest for forbidden or advanced knowledge of material things, summons the Devil (represented by Mephistopheles, often also referred to as Mephisto), who offers to serve him for a period of time, at the cost of his soul — perhaps meant to represent the loss of his integrity. In the fulfillment of Faust's increasingly frightening desires, Mephistopheles functions almost as a genie. However, at the end of the story, they quarrel over their bargain and Mephistopheles kills Faust.

Origin

While most scholars believe the story of Faust originated in northern Germany, committed to print in 1587 with the publishing of a little chapbook bearing the title Historia von D. Iohan Fausten, other scholars are quick to note that historia is Latin for Geschichte (German word for story or history) and Iohan is Latin for Johann. The choice of languages may imply the existence of an even earlier, independent source in Latin, such as that which Jacob Bidermann used for his treatment of the legend of the Damnation of the Good Dick of Paris, Cenodoxus.

There are other theories of origin for Faust. In the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century a Dutch play attributed to Anna Bijns appeared which may offer a template for the Faust legend. Mary of Nijmeghen dramatizes the story of a young woman convinced by a demon, One-Eyed Moenen, to sell her soul to learn the seven liberal arts. She lives a dissolute life for some time until, moved by a morality play, she regrets her bargain and seeks forgiveness. Unlike Faustus, Mary repents and, after a long penitence, receives her reward in heaven.

In either case, the little chapbook, already in circulation in Northern Germany, found its way to England where it was translated into English by a certain "P. F., Gent[leman]" in 1592 as The Historie of the Damnable Life, and Deserved Death of Doctor Iohn Faustus (unpreserved). It was this work that Christopher Marlowe used for his somewhat more ambitious play, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (published c. 1600). Additionally, Marlowe borrowed from Acts and Monuments by John Foxe, on the exchanges between Pope Adrian and a rival pope. Another possible inspiration of Marlowe's version is John Dee (1527-1609), who practised forms of alchemy and science and developed Enochian magic.

Along with Jacob Bidermann's Cenodoxus (published c. 1602), Marlowe's version served to inspire Goethe's later Faust, which may be considered the more definitive classic work.

History

The Faust tale is a variation of the story about a negotiated pact between man and the devil, involving human hubris and diabolic cunning; the oldest extant version is the tale of Theophilus of Adana.

The origin of the protagonist's name and persona remains unclear. It is widely assumed to be based on the figure of the German magician and alchemist Dr. Johann Georg Faust (approximately 1480–1540), a dubious magician and alchemist probably from Knittlingen, Württemberg, who obtained a degree in divinity from Heidelberg University in 1509. According to one account Faust's poor reputation became legendary while he was in prison, where in exchange for wine he "offered to show a chaplain how to remove hair from his face without a razor; the chaplain provided the wine and Faustus provided the chaplain with a salve of arsenic, which removed not only the hair but the flesh."(Barnett) Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon are said to have alleged Faust's companionship with the devil.

However, it is also possible that the name "Faust" (German for "fist") is related to Italian "fausto". Fausto is possibly derived from the Latin adjective "faustus", meaning "auspicious" or "lucky". There may also be a connection with the fustum (Latin for "doctor's staff") of Aesculapius and other doctors of the time, an item likely to have figured prominently in the Legend of the Damnation of the Good Doctor of Paris, Cenodoxus, which also was an influence on Goethe's version.

The name of "Faust" has since become attached to any number of legendary tales about a charlatan alchemist (some claim "astrologer and necromancer"), whose pride, vanity, and vile hucksterism would inevitably lead to his doom. Similarly, the adjective "faustian" has come to denote any acts or constellations that involve human hubris leading to doom.

In Polish folklore there exists a tale with a Pan Twardowski in a role similar to Faust's, which seems to have originated roughly at the same time. It is unclear if and to what extent the two tales have a common origin or influenced each other. The figure of Pan Twardowski is supposedly based on a 16th century German emigrant to Kraków, then the Polish capital, possibly John Dee or Edward Kelley. According to Melanchthon, the historic Johann Faust had studied in Kraków, as well.

Works which retell or allude to the Faust tale

Drama

• Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1604~1610)
• Jacob Bidermann's ''Cenodoxus (1602)
• Gotthold Lessing's play, Doktor Faustus, mentioned in a contribution to a magazine (1759), but otherwise left unfinished and collected and published posthumously (1784) in its original, incomplete form
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust
• Christian Dietrich Grabbe's Don Juan und Faust (1829)
• Nikolaus Lenau's Faust (1836)
• Gertrude Stein's Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights
• Dorothy L. Sayers' The Devil to Pay
• Václav Havel's Temptation
• Michel Carre's Faust et Marguerite
• Mark Ravenhill's Faust is Dead
• David Mamet's Faustus

Opera

• Konrad Boehmer's Doktor Faustus (1983), libretto by Hugo Claus
• Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele (1868)
• Havergal Brian's Faust
• Ferruccio Busoni's Doktor Faust (1916-25)
• D'Hervé's Le Petit Faust
• Charles Gounod's Faust (1859)
• Sergei Prokofiev's opera based on Bryusov's The Fiery Angel
• Ludwig Spohr's Faust
• Heinrich Zoellner's Faust`
• Alfred Schnittke's Historia von D. Johann Fausten
• Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress
• Hector Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust

Classical Music

• Hector Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust (1845-46) (sometimes performed in staged opera versions)
• Sarasate's "Faust Fantasy" is a showpiece for violin and piano based on the Faust story.
• The second movement of Charles-Valentin Alkan's Grande Sonate (published 1848)
• Ludwig van Beethoven's Opus 75 no 3 (1809) Song — Aus Goethes Faust: "Es war einmal ein König"
• Charles Gounod's Ballet music from his opera Faust (1859). The ballet occurs as an interlude in the Fourth Act during the Walpurgis Night scene familiar from Goethe's Faust Part 1. The ballet or ballet music is often performed independently from the opera.
• Franz Liszt was fascinated by the Faust legend, particularly with the character of Mephistopheles. He wrote several musical works on this idea, including:
• * Faust Symphony (1854–57)
• * "Two Episodes based on Lenau's Faust," the second of which is the famous "Mephisto Waltz No. 1"
• *"Mephisto Waltzes" (4)
• Part II of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 (1906–07)
• Modest Mussorgsky: "Mephistopheles' song of the flea", is just that: a version of the song that Mephistopheles sings in the tavern scene of Goethe's Faust, pt. 1.
• Randy Newman's Faust (1993)
• Alfred Schnittke's Faust Cantata'' (1982-83)
• Franz Schubert's Gretchen am Spinnrade (1814)
• Robert Schumann's Scenes from Goethe's Faust (completed 1853)
• Igor Stravinsky's Histoire du Soldat (1918) tells the story of a soldier who trades his fiddle to the devil for a book that predicts the future of the economy.
• Richard Wagner's Faust overture (1840, originally intended as the first movement of a Faust symphony)
• John Adams' new opera Doctor Atomic was originally commissioned as an American Faust telling, and the composer admits that the opera still retains Faustian elements. Its subject matter is Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project.
• In 2006 the German composer Ernst Heckel and the English writer Richard Bunting published a modern rock musical titled "Faust".
• The texts of the Dutch composer Alexander Comitas' Walpurgisnacht, a piece for fanfare band and choir, come from Goethe's Faust.

Popular Music

• Frank Zappa's "Titties & Beer", from the album "Zappa in New York" and others, has the Devil stealing the protagonist's large-breasted girlfriend and their beer, and demands he make a deal to get them back. This so perturbs the Devil that the opposite of Faust's gamble happens.
• Fausto is the birth name of the bassist for the Los Angeles based rock band ['Excape']and goes by the name [eL DocKtor FauZto.] He claims to be an incarnation of the spirit of Faust.
• Trans-Siberian Orchestra's album Beethoven's Last Night includes Faustian references; Beethoven in a deal with Mephistopheles must choose between his, possibly fictional, tenth symphony or his soul.
• Gothic rock band Mephisto Walz, probably based on Liszt's Mephisto Waltzes.
• Art Zoyd's song Faust.
• The Fall's song Dktr Faustus (1986), also known as Faust Banana.
• The Charlie Daniels Band's 1979 hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"
• Avant-garde/progressive black metal band Arcturus's album, La Masquerade Infernale (1997) alludes to the tale and is dedicated to the "Faustian spirit".
• American/Norwegian melodic power metal band Kamelot's albums, Epica (2003) and The Black Halo (2005) are a two-part adaptation of the Faust legend.
• Murdoc Niccals, bassist of the British animated band Gorillaz, claims he had sold his soul to the devil so that the album Demon Days would succeed, and that his middle name was Faust.
• British Rock band Muse's song 'The Small Print', from the album Absolution, describes the plight of Faust from the viewpoint of the Devil. The song's working title was "Action Faust".
• Popular British metal band 'Cradle of Filth' have a song entitled ['Absinthe With Faust']on their 2004 'Nymphetamine' album.
• Racebannon, a heavy/experimental band from Indiana, released an album entitled Satan's Kickin Yr Dick In. It describes a man who desires success as a pop star selling his soul to the Devil and the consequences of his actions.
• Brazilian death metal band Mystifier released a song on their album Wicca/Göetia entitled "The True Story about Doctor Faust's Pact with Mephistopheles".
• Norwegian Black Metal act "Emperor" briefly contained a member who used the pseudonym Faust, he was imprisoned for murder in 1993 and has since been released
• Greek death metal band Septic Flesh's last album, Sumerian Daemons, contains a song called Faust.
• German kraut-rock band Faust, a founder of industrial and electronic rock.
• Faust is a B-side on the Gorillaz album G-Sides.
• Faust Flag is the pseudonym for the drummer of The Pop Culture Suicides, which features ex-Marilyn Manson guitarist Zim Zum.
• The Phantom Regiment drum & bugle corps' 2006 program was named "Faust", and is an abstract telling of the story.
• English Band Dr. Faustus [link]
• Randy Newman's Faust (1993)

Musical \"Faustian pacts\"

• Blues legend Robert Johnson was said to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his skills with the guitar.
• Like Robert Johnson, violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini was also said to have sold his soul in exchange for his musical skills.

Poetry

• Heinrich Heine's "Der Doktor Faust"
• Carol Ann Duffy's "Mrs Faust"
• Delmore Schwartz's "Faust in Old Age"[link]
• Dale Pendell's "Pharmako Gnosis"

Prose fiction

• William Beckford's "Vathek"
• Stephen Vincent Benet's "The Devil and Daniel Webster"
• Valery Bryusov's The Fiery Angel: the tavern scene from Goethe's Faust, Part 1, is spliced into the rest of Bryusov's storyline.
• Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita
• Adelbert von Chamisso's Peter Schlemihl's Remarkable Story (Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte, 1814)
• Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness"
• William Faulkner’s “Absalom, Absalom!"
• Carl Deuker's On the Devil's Court
• Philip K. Dick's Galactic Pot-Healer
• Samuel Adams Drake's Jonathan Moulton and the Devil
• João Guimarães Rosa's Grande Sertão: Veredas (The Devil to Pay in the Backlands)
• Thomas Harris's Silence of the Lambs
• Herman Hesse's Demian
• Tom Holt's Faust Among Equals
• Washington Irving's "The Devil and Tom Walker"
• Ed Kleiman’s “North End Faust"
• Alfred Jarry's Faustroll
• Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera
• Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus
• Klaus Mann's Mephisto
• Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer
• Terry Pratchett's Faust Eric
• Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire"
• Anne Rice's "Memnoch the Devil"
• V. Alexander Stefan's Doctor Faustef
• Stendhal's The Red and the Black
• Michael Swanwick's Jack Faust
• Ivan Turgenev's Faust
• Douglass Wallop's The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant
• Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Zoran Živković's Time-gifts
• Matthew Lewis's The Monk
• Roger Zelazny and Robert Sheckley's If at Faust You Don't Succeed

Film

• F. W. Murnau's Faust (1926)
• The Band Wagon (1953)
• Forbidden Planet (1957) Based on Shakespeare's The Tempest, but in which high technology in the service of the id plays the role of the Devil.
• Peter Cook and Dudley Moores Bedazzled (1967), remade in 2000
• Richard Burton and Nevill Coghill's Doctor Faustus (1967)
• Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
• Phantom of the Opera'' (1983)
• Jan Svankmajer's Faust (1994)
• I Was A Teenage Faust
• Rowdy Herrington's A Murder Of Crows
• Álex Ollé's Fausto 5.0
• István Szabó's Mephisto (1981 film)
• The Phantom of the Opera'' (1990)
• Stephen King's Needful Things (1993)
• Walter Hill's Crossroads (1986)
• Angel Heart (1987)
• David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997)
• Brian Yuzna's (2001)
• Tombstone (1993)
• Alex Ollé & Isidro Ortiz's Fausto 5.0 (2001)
• Egon Lomack's Faust and Furious (2003)
• James McTeigue and the Wachowski brothers's V for Vendetta (2005)
• Eric Leisers's Faustbook (2006)
• George Lucas's (2005)
• Michael Mann's Thief (1981) Although not completely alluding to Faust, the deal that Frank (played by James Caan) makes with Leo (played by Robert Prosky) could be that of Faustian nature.

Musicals

• Randy Newman's stage musical Faust.
• Little Shop of Horrors, as well as the movie version of the stage version, Little Shop of Horrors.
• The comedy-musical Damn Yankees.
• The song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"
• Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise has songs that allude to the tale of Faust, such as Faust and Beauty And The Beast.
• The musical play Disco Inferno.

Anime and manga

• Shaman King (A character in Shaman King, Faust VIII, is a descendant of Dr. Faust)
• Saber Marionette (The antagonistic ruler of the kingdom of Gartlant in Saber Marionette J)
• Faust Münchhausen (a villain seen in the Urotsukidoji movies)
• Deel Faust (The impish kid Devil General of Wind in "Devil (&) Devil")

Video games

• Stauf, the main character in The 7th Guest is an anagram of "Faust".
• The 'Big Boss' of the Dead End Gang gang in Vendetta is called Faust. He blows poisonous green fumes from his mouth as a special attack.
• Faustus is the name of a minor villain in
• Guilty Gear series, "Faust" (Guilty Gear X, Guilty Gear XX)
• Max Payne, in which the mob member Jack Lupino is attempting the "Faustian deal".
• Dr. Faustus was a character in the cancelled Playstation 1 game, "Thrill Kill."
• In the Soul Calibur series, Faust is the name of Siegfried Schtauffen's first sword. Additionally the character Nightmare is what Siegfried becomes after laying hands on the demon blade and losing his soul.
• Faust is a secret boss in the Playstation 1 game "The Legend of Dragoon"
• Faust is a notorious monster (in this case, a giant arcane "doll" (robot) creature) in Final Fantasy XI.
• Faust: The Seven Games of the Soul (PC Game - very loosely based on Goethe's Faust).
• In the opening cutscene of the PlayStation 1 game Xenogears, one of the computer operators reports that Deus has accessed the 'Control System Faust', which it uses to alter the Eldridge's course.
• In the computer game Freespace 2, the Faust is a class of vessels intended for scientific research.
• Panzer Faust and Iorn Faust are weapons in the Phantasy Star Online series.
• Mephisto is the boss in Diablo 2, Act III.
• A Faustian deal makes up a major plot-element in .

Comic books

• The comic book Faust was published in the 80s and 90s by artist Tim Vigil and writer David Quinn. The book follows a story template similar to the opera Faust, but is an updated version. Rebel Studios, an independent label originally published it, but it was later picked up by Avatar Press and a subsequent sequel series was created. Both are extremely sexual and violent series.
• Felix Faust is a magical supervillain in the universe of DC Comics. He appeared first in 1962 as an adversary of the Justice League of America.
• Jack Faust was the name of a magician in Alan Moore's series Promethea, and is also referred to in other books from the America's Best Comics imprint.
• In Help!, Volume 2, Number 1, February 1962, Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder produced "Goodman Goes Playboy." In it, Goodman Beaver sells his soul to Mephistopheles in order to gain the material and sexual benefits that were extolled monthly in Playboy magazine. This comic strip, however, was legally suppressed by the creators of Archie Comics because it disparaged their cartoon character and his companions.
• Dr. John Dee, a Renaissance scholar who was a likely inspiration for Marlowe's version of the "Faust" story, is a character in Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. Additionally, the character of the Scarecrow quotes Marlowe's play of Faust ('It is a comfort in wretchedness to have companions in woe').
• In the Hong Kong comic strip The World of Lily Wong one of the main characters, Stuart Wright, once worked at a very immoral advertising agency called Faust Associates. Their company logo resembled a devil.
• The fifth chapter of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta references Faust, and the deal he made.
• In the anime/manga Shaman King, one of the subcharacters is called Faust VIII and is portrayed as a depressed, secluded person with the skeleton of his dead wife in his coat.
• A humour webcomic adaptation of [Faust], by Claus Thomsen.

Nonfiction

• Bertrand Russell's essay "A Free Man's Worship"
• Oswald Spengler's book "The Decline of the West" labeled Western society as 'Faustian'
• Peter Gowan's book "The Global Gamble - Washington's Faustian Bid for World Dominance"

Television

• In the 2000 Family Guy episode "Running Mates", Brian is reading Stewie to sleep when Stewie interrupts, instructing that when reading Faust, one must read the part of Mephistopheles in a scary voice.

Pen name

"Minister Faust" is a pen name for Canadian writer, broadcaster and activist Malcolm Azania; as Minister Faust, he wrote the science fiction novel and social satire The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad.

See also

• Walpurgis Night
• The Brocken, also known as Blocksberg
• Brocken specter
• Jonathan Moulton, the "Yankee Faust"
• Pan Twardowski, the "Polish Faust"
• Friedrich Nietzsche

Sources

Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, Edited and with and introduction by Sylvan Barnett (1969, Signet Classics)

External links

• [Faust Study Guide]
• [Devilish Deeds in Staufen]
• [Pacts with the Devil: Faust and Precursors]
• E-texts:
• *[Free eBook: Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe] at Project Gutenberg
• *[Free eBook: Tragical History of Dr. Faustus] at Project Gutenberg (Quarto of 1604)
• *[Free eBook: Tragical History of Dr. Faustus] at Project Gutenberg (Quarto of 1616)
• *At Projekt Gutenberg-DE:
• **[Goethe's Faust, part 1]
• **[Goethe's Faust, part 2]
• **[Heine's Der Doktor Faust]
• *[Marlowe's Dr. Faustus]
• [Jan Svankmajer's Faust]
• [The Pre-Death Thoughts of Faust] by Nikolai Berdyaev

[A wiki page about Faust]. Includes scene by scene commentary.

 

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