Dr.
Johann Faust, the man who sold his soul to the Devil.
A mythical
figure?
Certainly
not.
I went to the
pretty town of Staufen via Bad Krvzingen from Freiburg. From the
distance you can see the ruins of a castle looming above the vineyards
on a hill. In the town below is a Gasthaus called Zum Lvwen (To the
Lion). The tavern has a fresco on the wall by Prof. Fritz Geiges on the
front wall depicting the Devil – Mephistopheles in the process of
breaking the neck of a broken down Dr. Faustus. Below the fresco is a
wonderful calligraphic scripture with the words:
In
anno 1539 in Leuen-to-Staufen Dr Faustus, an astounding nigromantic,
died miserably as a legend says, at the hands of the highest Devil
named Mephistopheles, whom he called his brother-in-law as long as
he lived, after the Pact which ended after 24 years, who broke his
neck and sent his poor, eternally damned soul to Hell.
The only
evidence regarding the death of Faust in Staufen can be found in two
texts of the Zimmerschen Chronicle published in 1565. One source cites
the end of the magician 'in the herrschaft Staufen im Preisgew.' The
other source mentions ' in or far from Staufen, the town in Breigew.' 'Preisgew'
and 'Breigew' relate to the district Breisgau. There is a lack of other
substantial evidence.
Nevertheless, the local tradition and belief has it that it knows
exactly where Faust's journey which began in the realm of knowledge and
ended with his sojourn in Hell. The last moments of Doctor Faust's
journey to Hell began in the tavern called To-the-Lion, on the third
floor, in room number 5.You can spend a night in this room and be
inspired to write a play or a sonnet on the Life of Doctor Faustus or
perhaps a modern-day Faust who lives in a metropolis like NY, London or
Berlin
Three houses away in the Late Gothic town hall of Staufen you can find
the foot-prints of the Devil on one of the uppermost stairs. The Devil
had come in the guise of a human to pick up Faust, and left the town of
Staufen with an enormous leap.
You stars
that reigned at my nativity
whose influence hath allotted death and hell
Now draw up Faustus, like a foggy mist,
Into the entrails of yon laboring cloud.
– Christopher Marlowe
(1564-1593)
There's
another story (German: Sage) which was published by Constantin Geres in
the magazine 'Schauinsland' in 1882. It connects the Faust-story with
the Johannites:
It was late in the afternoon in the year 1541 when a farmer and his son
were walking along the country road from Krvzingen to Staufen. Suddenly,
the weather changed for the worse and a gigantic bird with black wings
flew over them. The appearance of the errie big bird scared them so much
that they ran to a cross along the roadside and prayed till the scary
bird flew away.
Thereafter, they set upon their journey to Staufen, where the farmer had
to do some business at the tavern called The Lion. As they entered the
tavern, they saw a doctor and another stranger. The stranger made a fool
out of the farmer farmer and said that he'd been scared of a big black
bird and had run in angst to a roadside cross and mumbled prayers to
God.
The farmer found the words of the stranger extraordinary, for he and his
son were the only ones who'd seen the big bird in the country road. And
he knew that this stranger had flown over them in the form of the big
black bird.
Shortly, the Doctor who was none other than the famous Faust, was taken
by the Devil from room no. 5 of the tavern Zum Lvwen.
In Christopher Marlowe's 'Doctor Faustus' Faust says:
Ugly hell, gape not! Come not Lucifer!
I'll burn my books!
Goethe's Faust was published in two parts in 1808 and 1832. Faust Part I
is a dedicatory ode and laments the passage of time, the passing away of
friends and shows Goethe's dedication to his work. There are countless
interpretations of Faust and the play symbolically embraces the irony of
human life, commenting on human, social and political phenomena. He also
praises the fundamental human virtue of endeavour, striving and endless
creative activity found among poets, writers, artists.
It was at Schiller's instigation that Goethe began in 1797 to work again
at Faust II. Whereas Faust I contains Knittelverse, blank verse, hymnic
passages and strophic songs, Faust II has various rhyming measures,
ottava rima, terza rima and trimeters.
However, the best known early literary version of the Faust legend came
from the Frankfurter printer Johann Spie_. In this popular German
volksbuch (people's book) Doctor Faust dabbles from theology to sorcery,
makes a pact with the Devil for a period of twenty-four years. He lives
extravagantly and riotously. Ans when his time is up he's carried off to
Hell. Dr. Faustus is active at the University of Wittenberg in the
Volksbuch story. It is a book of stern moral intention, with a raised
index-finger, and a dreadful warning to others who might undergo
alliances with Satan. The Spie_'sches Faustbuch is the source of
Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (1589). Goethe on the other hand
was obsessed by the subject of Faustus, almost his entire life. He
enjoyed the puppet play called 'Puppenspiel von Dr. Faust' when he was a
kid and also read the Faust Volksbuch.
Faust's Damnation (Fausts Verdammnis) an opera by Hector Berlioz is
being stanged on October 20, 2007 at the Freiburger Theatre (Grosses
Haus) and it is an attempt to use music to illustrate the complexities
of Faust's soul. Ach, even if Faust's love and life were a fiasco, and
he was damned to Hell, what survives is the work, the art and music.
There are English versions of the Faust legend by A.G.Latham (1902-5),
Bayard Taylor (1908), L.MacNeice (1951) and Barker Fairley (1970) which
deserve deserve mention, but I must admit I was chuckling with laughter,
and I had tears in my eyes, when I read Rober Nye's Faust, told by a
certain Kit Wagner, Faust's disciple. It was like reading P.G. Wodehouse
in the days of alchemy and sorcery.
Here, yours truly would like to quote Faust as a motto for us all who're
caught in life's vicissitudes like the famous Georgio Strehler did, when
he acted in Goethe's Faust I and II at the Piccolo Teatro with a
thousand voices and 12,000 verses in the year 1989:
Ich f|hle Mut, mich in die Welt zu wagen, mich in die Welt zu wagen,
Der Erde Weh, der Erde Gl|ck zu tragen, Mit St|rmen mich herumzuschlagen
Und in des Schiffbruchs Knirschen nicht zu zagen.
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Dr.
Johann Faust, the man who sold his soul to the Devil. 