Faust: A Tragedy
What's that from the floor uprising there?
'Tis he! 'Tis he! O send his hateful face
Away! What seeks he in this holy place?
He comes for me!
Faust.
No! thou shalt live.
Margaret.
Judgment of God! to thee my soul I give.
Mephistopheles. [_to_ /Faust/]
Come, come! else will I leave you to your fate!
Margaret.
Thine am I, Father! O shut not the gate
Of mercy on me!
Ye angels! ye most holy Spirits! now
Encamp around me! and protect me now!
Henry, I tremble when I think on thee.
Mephistopheles.
She is judged!
Voice. [_from above_]
Is saved!
Mephistopheles. [_to_ /Faust/]
Hither to me!
Voice. [_from within, dying away_]
Henry! Henry!
[The End]
FOOTNOTES.
Introduction
[i1]
_De Dæmonibus, Ficini, Aldus; and Horst, Zauber-Bibliothek_, vi. p.
72.
[i2]
_Giordano Bruno de Monade, numero et figura, apud Horst, Z. B._ iii.
p. 70.
[i3]
John xii. 31; 1 John iii. 8; and the remarks in Bretschneider's
_Dogmatik_, § 108.
[i4]
"The weary bitterns in the fen
Are booming--never mind them."
_Walpurgis-Night's Dream._
[i5]
See this particularly proved of Ficinus, in Buhle's _Geschichte der
Philosophie_, vi. _theil._ § 889.
[i6]
Buhle, _ubi subra_, § 897.
[i7]
The most deliberate attempt of this kind that I have seen, is that
of _Dürr_, in the sixth volume of _Schellhorn's Amœnitates
Literariæ_; where the story of Faust is called "Historiola pueris et
aniculis credita;" and the hero himself, "_Doctor Faust fictitius
ille et imaginarius_."
[i8]
_Faust, eine Tragœdie_, von August Klingemann, Leipzig, 1815; of
which there is a good account in one of the numbers of _Blackwood's
Magazine_.
[i9]
_Christ. Aug. Huemann's Glaubwürdigste Nachricht von D. Fausten._ In
einem Schreiben an Herrn D. Haubern. _Bib. Mag._ vol. iii. p. 84.
[i10]
_Die Sage von Doctor Faust_, von D. Christian Ludwig Stieglitz, in
Raumer's _Historiches Taschenbuch_, 5ter Jahrgang, Leipzig, 1834. The
same number contains a dissertation on Wallenstein.
[i11]
_Apud_ Heumann.
[i12]
From the Latin of Manlius. _Apud_ Heumann, _ut supra_.
[i13]
_Wierii Opera_, Amstelodami, 1660. _De Magis Infamibus_, p. 105. He
is as little favourable to our hero as Manlius. He says, indeed,
that he practised magic over the whole of Germany, "cum multorum
admiratione;" and that "nihil non potuit," but it was all "inani
jactantia et pollicitationibus."
[i14]
_Disquisit. Mag._, lib. ii. dissert. 12.
[i15]
_Apud_ Stieglitz, _ubi supra_, p. 130.
[i16]
I suppose Begardi alludes to the world-renowned Philippus
Aureolus Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombastus von Hohenheim.
[i17]
In a letter dated 20th August 1507.
[i18]
Camerarius, Hor. Suceessiv. cent. 2. page 314. Conrad Gesner,
Onomasticon apud Stieglitz, Sage von Faust.
[i19]
The life of Paracelsus is very characteristic of the age, and may
be seen in Sprengel's _Histoire de Medecine_, § 9. art. iii.
[i20]
That Faust might attain universal celebrity, the fame of authorship
could not be wanting. Besides being the reputed author of his own
life and exploits, published by his executor Wagner after his
death, there are extant magical works under his own name,--perhaps
not more authentic than those ascribed to Solomon,--of which one of
the most curious is reprinted by Horst, _Zauber Bibliothek_, vol.
iii. p. 86, with the following title, "Doctor J. Faust's Book of
Miracles, Art, and Wonders, or the Black Raven,--also called the
Threefold Hell-compulsion; wherewith I compelled the Spirits to
bring me whatsoever things I pleased, whether gold or silver,
treasure great and small, and the springroot (a magic plant), and
whatever other such things are upon the earth; all this have I
brought to pass by means of this book, and was also able to dismiss
the spirits as often as I pleased." The introduction to this book by
Doctor Faust himself is curious, but too long for insertion. The
warning, however, with which it concludes is too serious to be
omitted, "_Above all things, beware of entering into compacts with
these Spirits, that it may not fare with you as it has fared with
me._"
[i21]
Roscoe's _German Novelists_, vol. i. To which the curious may add
(1.) Faust: _dans l'Histoire et dans la, Legende par Ristelhüber._
Didier. 1863. (2.) Faustus: his life, death, and doom, a romance in
prose; from the German. London: Kent and Co., 1864. (3.) Auerbach's
_Volksbuchlein_. München, 1839.
[i22]
See notes to Manfred.
[i23]
Martin.
Faust
[1]
Apollyon, Beelzebub, Satan.
[2]
A cant word for a sword.
[3]
_Dudelsack_. A bagpipe.
[4]
_Rabenstein_. Place of execution.
NOTES.
Note I.
_And this mysterious magic page_
_From Nostradamus' hand so sage._
Nostradamus was born at St. Remy, a town of Provence, in 1503, and
was a great friend of Julius Scaliger. He must thus have been
likewise a cotemporary of the famous alchymist Cornelius Agrippa,
whom, as we have seen (_Vide Introd. Remarks_), Del-Rio makes a
companion of Dr. Faust. Like a worthy son of the sixteenth century,
Nostradamus was convinced that he could make no progress in the art
of healing bodily diseases unless he began _ab ovo_ with the study
of the stars; and this it was that led him away from his own
profession of medicine into the sublime regions of astronomy and
astrology, to which allusion is made in the text. He was
particularly famous for his prophetic almanacs, which were held in
universal estimation. The title of his principal work is "_The
true Prophecies and Prognostications of Michael Nostradamus,
physician to Henry II., Francis II., Charles IX., Kings of France,
and one of the best astronomers that ever were, a work full of
curiosity and learning_." The English translation is from the hand
of Theophilus de Garenciennes, a naturalised Frenchman, and Oxonian
Doctor of Physic. The common edition is London, 1672.
Note II.
_He sees the sign of the Macrocosm._
The macrocosm is a Greek word signifying the _big world_, the
universe, as contrasted with the _little world_, the microcosm or
man, made in the likeness of God, and therefore in the likeness of
his great manifestation, the universe. The terms were in familiar
use with the theosophists of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries; as may be seen from the title-page of a great
physico-metaphysical book by our countryman, Robert Fludd, printed
at Oppenheim 1617-19, "_Utriusque Cosmi, majoris scilicet et
minoris, Metaphysica, Physica atque technica Historia, in duo
volumina, secundum, Cosmi differentiam divisa; auctore Roberto
Fludd, alias de Fluctibus, Armigero, et in Medicina Doctore
Oxoniensi_," etc. The book is rare; but the curious may find a
beautiful copy in the Library of the Writers to the Signet,
Edinburgh.
Note III.
_The key of Solomon the wise_
_Is surest spell to exorcise._
Solomon was a magician among the Jews, for the same reason that
Roger Bacon has acquired that reputation amongst us--on account of
his great wisdom. The Jewish exorcists, of whom mention is made in
several passages of the New Testament (Matthew xii. 27), used to
invoke the evil spirit by the name of Solomon (Joseph. Antiq. 8, 2,
5, apud Bretschneider Dogmatik, vol. i. p. 764), and the cabalistic
talmudists were, of course, not negligent in taking advantage of
this popular belief for giving authority to their occult science of
numbers. Accordingly, we find Solomon, in the Middle Ages, looked
upon as the patriarch and patron-saint of the Magic Art; and many
curious books, under his name, were in common circulation among its
Professors. It is to the title of these books that the text alludes,
"_Clavicula Solomonis_," or Key of Solomon, supposed to be of
supreme power in compelling spirits to obey the will of man. They
are now become exceedingly rare, but some notice of them will be
found in Reichard's work _von Geistern_, and in Horst's
_Zauber-Bibliothek_.
Note IV.
_Let the Salamander glow,_
_Undene twine her crested wave,_
_Silphe into ether flow,_
_And Kobold vex him, drudging slave!_
Here we have the four elemental spirits, of which Mr. Pope has
discoursed so learnedly to Mrs. Anabella Fermor in his preface to
"The Rape of the Lock." With Silphs and Salamanders I may
suppose the English reader sufficiently acquainted, as they have
been almost naturalised on British ground; Undenes and Kobolds still
remain more closely attached to their German soil. The former,
sometimes called _Wasser-Nixen_, are a sort of Teutonic Nymphs or
Sirens, familiar now to a large class of English readers, from
Heine's ballad of the _Lurley_, and Fouque's beautiful
extravaganza of _Undine_; the latter, seemingly from a Greek
original, κόβαλος, well known to the readers of Aristophanes, are
called /gnomes/ by Pope, and appear as _brownies_ in many a Scotch
ballad. For special details of their character and proceedings the
German work of Henning's _von Geistern_ may be consulted, p. 800,
and Horst's _Zauber-Bibliothek_, vol. iv. p. 250.
Note V.
_Bend thee this sacred_
_Emblem before,_
_Which the powers of darkness_
_Trembling adore._
"Jam experimento comprobatum est nullum malum dæmonem, nullum
inferiorum virtutum, in his quæ vexant aut obsident homines, posse
huic nomini resistere quando nomen /Jesu/ debitâ, pronunciatione
illis proponitur venerandum; nec solum nomen, sed etiam illius
signaculum /Crucem/ pavent."--_Agrippa de Occult. Philos._, lib.
iii. c. 12.
Note VI.
_The pentagram, stands in your way._
"Inter alios plurimos characteres, duo tantum sunt veri et
præcipui, quorum primus constat ex duobus trigonis super se invicem
ita depictis ut Hexagonum constituant. Alterum dicunt esse priori
potentiorem et efficaciorem et esse pentagonon."--_Paracelsus de
Characteribus apud Horst, Z. B._ vol. iii. p. 74. The figure thus
accurately described by the oracular Bombastus occurs almost as
frequently as the sign of the cross, in almost all the old books on
magic, and is drawn thus:
[image - pentagram]
The Platonists (let Proclus serve for an example) seem to have
derived from the Pythagoreans a strange mixture of religious
mysticism with a great enthusiasm for the mathematical sciences; and
this same pentagonal figure very probably derives not a little of
its supreme efficacy from the fact of its having been transmitted to
us from the most ancient times. Poetry is not the only thing that
receives a sacredness from age.
Note VII.
_When left you Rippach? you, must have been pressed_
_For time. Supped you with Squire Hans by the way?_
"Rippach is a village near Leipzig; and to ask for Hans von
Rippach, a fictitious personage, was an old joke amongst the
students. The ready reply of Mephistopheles, indicating no surprise,
shows Siebel and Altmayer that he is up to it. /Hans/ is the German
_Jack_."--/Hayward/.
Note VIII.
_Cat-Apes._
These nimble little animals, which play such a distinguished part in
this Witch Scene, are denominated in the original
"_Meer-katzen_," literally "Sea-cats;" of which Adelung (in
voce) gives the following account:--"A name given to a certain
kind of monkeys with a cat's tail, of which there are many
species,--_Cebus_, Linnæi. They are so called from coming across
the sea from warm countries." I originally intended to retain the
German phrase "_Sea-cat_;" but afterwards had no hesitation to
adopt the happy translation given by the writer in _Blackwood's
Magazine_, vol. vii. There is something mystical in the idea of an
animal half cat and half ape, which agrees wonderfully with the