IV

The Faust Drama in Germany

Throughoutthe stagnant literary period of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth, it was not the various editions of the Faust book that kept the legend green in Germany, but the popular drama which developed from Marlowe’sFaustus. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, companies of English actors began to tour the Continent, and in their repertories were the plays of the Elizabethans, much mangled and adapted to the taste of their uncultivated audiences. The popularity of theseEnglish Comedians, as they were called, was greatest in Germany, and we find traces of them throughout the first half of the seventeenth century. Acting as a profession began in Germany with these English companies. At first they played only in English, but later they produced German translations of their repertory, even German original plays, and recruited their ranks from among German actors. Soon German troupes were formed on the same lines, who still, however, called themselves “English Comedians,” since the advertisement was of value. The English actors laid great weight on visual effect, for the language difficulty had at first to be surmounted. The actors themselveswere for the most part minstrels and dancers, and the most important character was the clown who appeared in every production, however tragic it might be. Even when the play was performed in English, the clown spoke German, and he was known under various names, such asPickelhäring, while later on he was calledHans Wurst. The plays were not written down and there was plenty of scope allowed for gagging, so that eventually they were distorted out of all recognition and were practically the work of the actors themselves. Among the plays which were produced and gradually adapted in this manner was Marlowe’s tragedy, and in its more spectacular form it provided the public with the two somewhat contradictory essentials, plenty of coarse humour and plenty of blood.

The earliest record of a performance of Marlowe’s play by the English strolling players is one at Gräz in 1608. In 1626, aTragödia von Dr. Faustwas produced at Dresden on the 7th of July, and this was no doubt also Marlowe’s play. We know what the main outline of the popular drama must have been from a comparison of the various puppet-plays which were performed in comparatively recent times in Germany and Austria, for when the Faust drama ceased to be performed by living actors, it was taken over by the proprietors of marionette theatres, and in this form it survived till well into the nineteenth century. The main points which the popular drama possessed in common with Marlowe’s tragedy were the expository opening monologue, the appearance of the good and evil angels, and the presaging of Faust’s impending end by the striking of the clock. The humorous andmelodramatic scenes had no doubt been supplemented and exaggerated by other hands even on the English stage. There is no ground for assuming that there was already a Faust play of German origin on the German stage before the arrival of the English Comedians.

The following is an amusing specimen of the type of programme which was issued by the strolling players. It refers to a performance by the famous Neuber troupe in Hamburg, on the 7th of July, 1738[12]:—

“The wicked Life and fearful End of the World-famous Arch-sorcerer D. Johann Faust.The following Scenes will be presented, among others: A great outer Court in the underworld Palace of Pluto, by the Rivers Lethe and Acheron. On the River comes Charon in a Boat, and to him Pluto on a fiery Dragon, followed by the whole of his underworld Retinue and Spirits.Dr. Faust’s Study and Library. An agreeable Spirit of the upper World will sing the following touching Aria, accompanied by tender Music:

“The wicked Life and fearful End of the World-famous Arch-sorcerer D. Johann Faust.

The following Scenes will be presented, among others: A great outer Court in the underworld Palace of Pluto, by the Rivers Lethe and Acheron. On the River comes Charon in a Boat, and to him Pluto on a fiery Dragon, followed by the whole of his underworld Retinue and Spirits.

Dr. Faust’s Study and Library. An agreeable Spirit of the upper World will sing the following touching Aria, accompanied by tender Music:

[A song of three verses.]

A Raven flies out of the Air and fetches the Manuscript of Dr. Faust. Hans Wurst breaks in accidentally on his Master, Dr. Faust’s Magic. He must stand still and cannot move from the spot until he has taken off his Shoes. The Shoes then dance together in a merry Manner.An insolent Court-menial, who mocks Dr. Faust, is endowed with a pair of Horns.A Peasant buys a Horse from Dr. Faust, and as soon as he rides it, the Horse turns into a Bundle of Hay. The Peasant wants to call Dr. Faust to Account, Faust pretends to be asleep, the Peasant tugs him and pulls off his Leg.Hans Wurst wants to have a lot of Money, and to please him, Mephostophiles causes him to rain Money.The lovely Helena sings, to the Accompaniment of pleasant Music, an Aria which is unpleasant to Dr. Faust, for it presages his Doom.Dr. Faust takes Leave from his Famulus Christoph Wagner. Hans Wurst also departs, and the Spirits fetch Dr. Faust to the Accompaniment of Fire-works, which play in an ingenious Manner.The underworld Palace of Pluto is seen once more. The Furies have Possession of Dr. Faust and dance a Ballet round him, because they have brought him safely into their Domain.The Rest will be more pleasant in the Seeing then here in the Reading.Commencement at half past four, in the so-called Opera House in the Goosemarket at Hamburg.”

An insolent Court-menial, who mocks Dr. Faust, is endowed with a pair of Horns.

A Peasant buys a Horse from Dr. Faust, and as soon as he rides it, the Horse turns into a Bundle of Hay. The Peasant wants to call Dr. Faust to Account, Faust pretends to be asleep, the Peasant tugs him and pulls off his Leg.

Hans Wurst wants to have a lot of Money, and to please him, Mephostophiles causes him to rain Money.

The lovely Helena sings, to the Accompaniment of pleasant Music, an Aria which is unpleasant to Dr. Faust, for it presages his Doom.

Dr. Faust takes Leave from his Famulus Christoph Wagner. Hans Wurst also departs, and the Spirits fetch Dr. Faust to the Accompaniment of Fire-works, which play in an ingenious Manner.

The underworld Palace of Pluto is seen once more. The Furies have Possession of Dr. Faust and dance a Ballet round him, because they have brought him safely into their Domain.

The Rest will be more pleasant in the Seeing then here in the Reading.

Commencement at half past four, in the so-called Opera House in the Goosemarket at Hamburg.”

Another programme from Frankfort of the year 1742 announces that after the play there will be a dance, after the dance a ballet, and if time permits, after the ballet there will be a merry comedy.

It will thus be seen to what depths the story of Faust had fallen, before the time came to raise it to the plane of the world’s greatest tragedies. It was Lessing who first saw the potentialities of the theme, and he pointed them out in the famous seventeenthLiteraturbriefof the 16th of February, 1759, which commenced a new era for German literature, henceforth to turn away from French models and seek inspiration from Shakespeare. The stilted superficiality of French literature was to yield to the more congenial vigour of the English. It is true that Lessing did not recognize the worth of Marlowe, who stood in the shadow of his greater contemporary, but he declares that the old German plays had possessed much of the English quality. “To mention only the best known of them:Doctor Fausthas a number of scenes, which could only have been imagined by a Shakespearean genius. And how deeply was, and in part still is, Germany in love with her Doctor Faust! One of my friends possesses an old draft of this tragedy, and he has communicated a scene to me in which there is undoubtedly much that is great.” He then prints a scene, which was really composed by himself, and among his papers after his death were found sketches relating to his plan for a Faust drama. It is certain that Lessing intended to reject the obsolete orthodox view that Faust must necessarily pay for his sins by an eternity of damnation. The Catholic theologians had permitted sorcerers to be saved by repentance, but the spirit of the Reformation demanded that Faust forfeit his soul, and from this inevitable doom there was no appeal. The age of Enlightenment, on the other hand, looked upon the intellect as supreme, and it was obviously absurd that Faust’s attempt to solve an intellectual problem should lead to the loss of his soul. It is to Lessing that is due the fundamental change in the conception of the Faust problem,whereby Faust is not damned, but saved. The longing to penetrate the mysteries of the universe is no longer regarded as an instinct implanted in humanity by the Devil.

So far as we can judge from the fragments, Lessing’s Faust was to be driven to the pact solely by his thirst for knowledge. Goethe was to create the eternal type, the man who seeks to encompass the universe, who demands complete and ultimate satisfaction for the limitless craving of the human soul. The first impulse to create a Faust drama of his own came to Goethe from a marionette version of the popular drama, a performance of which he saw in Leipzig in his student days, for he never saw it performed by living actors, and neither the Folk book nor Marlowe’s tragedy came into his hands until much later. It was a task which occupied him all his life. His original draft, theUrfaust, has only been discovered in manuscript in recent times, but in the year 1790 he publishedFaust. A Fragment.The first part of the completed tragedy appeared in 1808, and the second part in 1833, a year after Goethe’s death.

The fundamental difference between Goethe’s conception of the problem and all that had gone before is typified in the fact that it is not apactinto which Faust enters with Mephisto, but awager. There are indeed two wagers. In the Prologue in Heaven, Mephisto discusses Faust with the Lord and says,[13]

“What will you bet? There’s still a chance to gain him,If unto me full leave you give,Gently uponmyroad to train him!”

“What will you bet? There’s still a chance to gain him,

If unto me full leave you give,

Gently uponmyroad to train him!”

The Lord enters into the spirit of the thing and replies,

“As long as he on earth shall live,So long I make no prohibition,While Man’s desires and aspirations stir,He cannot choose but err.

“As long as he on earth shall live,

So long I make no prohibition,

While Man’s desires and aspirations stir,

He cannot choose but err.

* * * * *

A good man, through obscurest aspiration,Has still an instinct of the one true way.”

A good man, through obscurest aspiration,

Has still an instinct of the one true way.”

The opening monologue, which shows Faust in his study fighting with the realization that “here, poor fool! with all my lore I stand, no wiser than before,” is an echo of the initial monologue of Marlowe’s tragedy, which came to Goethe through the medium of the popular drama and the puppet-show. Hitherto the pact had been for a definite period of twenty-four years, during which Faust was to enjoy all that the Devil could give him and then to fulfil without hope of mercy his part of the bargain. Goethe’s Faust, however, demands more than the fulfilment of transitory desires. He wants to grasp the moment of supreme satisfaction, and if Mephisto cannot give him that, Faust’s soul remains his own:—

“When on an idler’s bed I stretch myself in quiet,There let, at once, my record end!Canst thou with lying flattery rule me,Until, self-pleased, myself I see,—Canst thou with rich enjoyment fool me,Let that day be the last for me!The bet I offer!...

“When on an idler’s bed I stretch myself in quiet,

There let, at once, my record end!

Canst thou with lying flattery rule me,

Until, self-pleased, myself I see,—

Canst thou with rich enjoyment fool me,

Let that day be the last for me!

The bet I offer!...

* * * * *

When thus I hail the Moment flying:‘Ah, still delay—thou art so fair!’Then bind me in thy bonds undying,My final ruin then declare!”

When thus I hail the Moment flying:

‘Ah, still delay—thou art so fair!’

Then bind me in thy bonds undying,

My final ruin then declare!”

That is the important point. Mephisto plunges Faust in the pleasures of revelry, love, power and classic beauty, but in spite of his burning craving for supreme happiness, he is incapable of enjoying the blissful moment. There never is a fleeting moment to which he can say “Ah, still delay—thou art so fair!” There is no absolute truth or absolute beauty, and therefore no absolute happiness. The blissful moment does not exist, and the only satisfaction which man is free to enjoy is in striving after an imaginary absolute. Faust never becomes absorbed in a moment of ecstasy and therefore the Devil loses the wager. By using his power unselfishly to further the lot of others, he is the instrument of his own salvation; he redeems himself by an ever higher and purer form of activity, as Goethe himself said, and dies with the conviction that

“He only earns his freedom and existence,Who daily conquers them anew.”

“He only earns his freedom and existence,

Who daily conquers them anew.”

When Mephisto summons his devils to carry the soul to hell, a host of angels flies from heaven to repel them, and as they bear Faust’s immortal soul into the upper air, they proclaim

“Whoe’er aspires unweariedlyIs not beyond redeeming.”

“Whoe’er aspires unweariedly

Is not beyond redeeming.”

The Devil had not given Faust the blissful moment, but had only enabled him to find a compromise between dream and reality by creative work. Faust’s craving remained unfulfilled, and his reconcilement to the conditions of life was only temporary. But as that is the only possibility, as man’s highestaspirations never can be completely satisfied, the wager was from the first destined to be unfulfilled.

In Goethe’sFaustthe theme received the highest treatment of which it was capable. At the time when he first came in contact with the story, Faust dramas were being announced by authors from all corners of Germany, and perhaps it would not be too much to say that every German poet since Goethe has cherished the hope of some day creating his own Faust. Of the tragedies, farces, operas, pantomimes, ballets, novels, short stories, poems, folk-songs and even parodies on the subject, it may be said that their name is legion, and it appears to have been cast into every possible art-form. It will, perhaps, suffice to mention here a dance-poem which was written by the poet Heinrich Heine in 1851 for performance at Drury Lane. Lumley, the director of the theatre, had already made preparations for the production, when it was laid aside as unsuitable. One of the latest treatments of the theme isFaust and the City, by Lunacharski, the Minister of Education in Soviet Russia.

Footnotes[12]K. Engel:Zusammenstellung der Faust-Schriften[Oldenburg, 1885], pp. 188 ff.[13]Bayard Taylor’s translation.

Footnotes

[12]K. Engel:Zusammenstellung der Faust-Schriften[Oldenburg, 1885], pp. 188 ff.

[13]Bayard Taylor’s translation.

Back to Index Next