Faust (foust), Faustus (fô`stəs, fou`–), or Johann Faust (yō`hän), fl. 16th cent., learned German doctor who traveled widely, performed magical feats, and died under mysterious circumstances. According to legend he had sold his soul to the devil (personified by Mephistopheles in many literary versions) in exchange for youth, knowledge, and magical power.

Innumerable folk tales and invented stories were attached to his name. The first printed version is the Volksbuch (1587) of Johann Spiess, which, in English translation, was the basis of Christopher Marlowe's play Dr. Faustus (c.1588). Many versions followed, ranging from popular buffoonery to highly developed art forms. Spiess and Marlowe represent Faust as a scoundrel justly punished with eternal damnation, but Lessing instead saw in him the symbol of man's heroic striving for knowledge and power and therefore as worthy of praise and salvation.

Lessing's view of Faust as seeker was continued by Goethe Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von , 1749–1832, German poet, dramatist, novelist, and scientist, b. Frankfurt. One of the great masters of world literature, his genius embraced most fields of human endeavor; his art and thought are epitomized in his great dramatic
..... Click the link for more information. in one of the greatest dramatic poems ever written. He enlarged upon the old legend, adding the element of love and the saving power of woman and giving the story a philosophical treatment. Goethe first came to grips with the theme in 1774 (in what is called the Urfaust). The first part of Faust appeared in 1808; it is more suitable for the theater than the more profound and philosophic second part (1833).

The many subsequent Faust novels and dramas, among them those of Klinger, Chamisso, Grabbe, and Lenau, could not rival the power and fame of Goethe's work. A recent variant of the Faust legend is Thomas Mann's novel Doktor Faustus (1947, tr. 1948). Goethe's Faust inspired innumerable composers of operas, oratorios, stage music, and symphonic works, including Berlioz, Gounod, Schumann, Liszt, and Boito. Spohr's and Busoni's Faust operas are based on other literary models.

Bibliography

See H. G. Meek, Johann Faust (1930); P. M. Palmer and R. P. More, Sources of the Faust Tradition (1936).

Faust

Faust, detail from the title page of the 1616 edition of The Tragical History of Dr. …

(credit: Courtesy of the trustees of the British Library; photograph, R.B. Fleming)

Legendary German necromancer or astrologer who sold his soul to the devil for knowledge and power. There was a historical Faust (perhaps two; both died c. 1540), who traveled widely performing magic, referred to the devil as his crony, and had a wide reputation for evil. The Faustbuch (1587), a collection of tales purportedly by Faust, told of such reputed wizards as Merlin and Albertus Magnus. It was widely translated; an English version inspired Christopher Marlowe's Tragicall History of D. Faustus (1604), which emphasized Faust's eternal damnation. Magic manuals bearing Faust's name did a brisk business; the classic Magia naturalis et innaturalis was known to Johann W. von Goethe, who, like Gotthold Lessing, saw Faust's pursuit of knowledge as noble; in Goethe's great Faust the hero is redeemed. Inspired by Goethe, many artists took up the story, including Hector Berlioz (in the dramatic cantata The Damnation of Faust) and Charles Gounod (in the opera Faust).

Faust

(Dr. Faustus) sells his soul to the devil in order to comprehend all experience. [Ger. Lit.: Goethe Faust; Br. Drama: Marlowe Doctor Faustus]

See : Devil

Faust

rejuvenated by Mephistopheles at the price of his soul. [Ger. Lit.: Goethe Faust]

See : Rejuvenation

(Faustus), the scholar hero of a German legend, originating during the Reformation, who made a pact with the devil to gain knowledge, wealth, and the experience of worldly pleasures. The legend of Faust, a historical figure of whom contemporary evidence survives, became inextricably entwined with traditional tales of magi, wandering scholars, and charlatans, incorporating elements of the fantastic from Christian hagiography and medieval demonology.

The first literary presentation of the Faust legend appeared in 1587, when J. Spiess published the Story of Doctor Johann Faustus, Famous Sorcerer and Practitioner of Black Magic. Thereafter, Faust became the hero of German Volksbücher (or Faust-books), a drama by C. Marlowe, puppet plays, and pantomimes. In the second half of the 18th century, several leading German literary figures revived interest in the Faust legend, among them G. E. Lessing, who interpreted it in accordance with the convictions of the Enlightenment. Faust, Lessing believed, had to be saved, because the search for truth to which he dedicated himself could never become the province of Satan. During the Sturm und Drang period, such poets as J. M. R. Lenz and F. M. von Klinger found a congenial theme in Faust. J. W. von Goethe, in his drama Faust (part 1, 1808; part 2, 1832), suggested that man can achieve success in his quest for an understanding of human existence only through faith in the power of reason and in his ability to change the world.

The romantic poets of the early 19th century, for example, A. von Chamisso and N. Lenau, also turned to the Faust legend. In their treatment, however, they generally introduced Byronic motifs, stressing those elements in Faust that suggested the discontented wanderer suffering from Weltschmerz. In recent times the most significant work on the Faust theme has been T. Mann’s novel Doctor Faustus (1947), which juxtaposed Faust’s tragic fate with the fate of the novel’s hero and, more broadly, that of all Germany.

The personality of Faust inspired many Russian writers, including A. S. Pushkin, V. F. Odoevskii, and I. S. Turgenev. During the crisis of bourgeois culture, the Faust legend was given an irrationalistic interpretation in the works of K. D. Bal’mont, V. Ivanov, and S. Solov’ev, among others. The progressive trend in creative adaptations of the legend was continued in works by A. V. Lunacharskii and M. Gorky.

The mythological nature of the Faust story permitted its treatment outside literature. It became the theme of operas by C. Gounod, I. Walter, and F. Busoni and symphonic compositions by R. Wagner, F. Liszt, and G. Mahler. Artists, such as E. Delacroix, M. A. Vrubel’, and M. Beckmann, illustrated the Faust legend and its literary interpretations.

REFERENCES

Legenda o doktore Fauste. Edition prepared by V. M. Zhirmunskii. Moscow-Leningrad, 1958.
Golik, I. “Bessmertie narodnoi legendy.” Voprosy literatury, 1962, no. 11.
Henning, H. Faust-Bibliographie, vols. 1–2. Berlin-Weimar, 1966–70.
Schroder, R. Gorkis Erneuerung der Fausttradition. Berlin, 1971.

L. E. GENIN

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No references found			47), the Old Man reminds Faustus, echoing the source text, The Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Doctor John Faustus (1592): "Hell is bloodthirsty, and is never satisfied. "The verie paines of hell": Doctor Faustus and the controversy over ... by Hirschfeld, Heather Anne / Shakespeare Studies In medieval Germany, John Faustus makes a promise which jeopardises his immortal soul, while in modern East London the Chapman Brothers prepare an artwork with equally irrevocable consequences. culture: Faustus Event by The Journal (Newcastle, England) John Faustus, an educated, modern man of Europe, has worked his way through all the academic fields of learning and yet finds himself deeply unsatisfied. A soul for sale by The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)			John Damascene John Damascene, Saint John Daniel Wild John Davis John Day John Day Dam John Day Fossil Beds National Monument John Denton Pinkstone French John Desmond Bernal John Desmond Clark John Dewey John Doe John Dollond John Donne John Dory John Douglas Cockcroft John Dryden John Edensor Littlewood John Edgar Hoover John Edward Redmond John Ellis McTaggart John Emil Max Eggert John Ernst Steinbeck John F Kennedy National Historic Site John F Kennedy Regional Park John Faustus John Ferguson McLennan John Fillmore Hayford John Fisher, Saint John Fiske John Fitzgerald Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site John Flamsteed John Flaxman John Fletcher John Ford John Fortescue John Foster Dulles John Francis Bray John Frank Schairer John Franklin John Franklin Enders John Frederick Charles Fuller John Frederick I John Frederick William Herschel John Fullarton John Galsworthy John Gay John George John Gilmore John Glenn			John F Kennedy School John F Kennedy University John F. Butts & Associates, Inc. John F. Condon John F. Dulles John F. Dulles John F. Enders John F. Henderson Public Branch Library John F. Herschel John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy Branch Library John F. Kennedy Catholic School John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts John F. Kennedy High School John F. Kennedy International Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport John F. Kennedy Jr. Public Library John F. Kennedy Library and Museum John F. Kennedy National Historic Site John F. Kennedy School of Government John F. Kennedy Space Center John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School John F. Kennedy: Inaugural Address John F. Kennedy: Inaugural Address John F. Welch Technology Centre John F.W. Herschel John Falstaff John Falstaff John Faustus John Felice Rome Center John Felix Anthony Cena John Ferguson McLennan John Fidden Real Estate John Field John Fillmore Hayford John Fisher John Fisher, Saint John Fiske John Fitch John Fitch John Fitch John Fitzgerald Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy Business Centre John Fitzgerald Kennedy International Airport John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site John Flamsteed John Flamsteed John Flamsteed Community School John Flaxman John Flaxman John Fleming John Fletcher John Fletcher John Fletcher (disambiguation) John Fletcher (disambiguation)

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Bibliography

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