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The Two Fausts.
of the German, on the contrary, seems never to consider himself aught but as a puppet in the leading-strings of his master, and showers unavailing re proaches upon his infernal guide for every mishap which common sense should teach him to be the inevitable result of his own folly. The Faustus of Marlowe is at least blinded by sin, that of Goethe sins by shutting his own eyes. The English poet seems to have had a keen sense of the truth of divine revelation, the German to have viewed it as an object of cold and wordy criticism,— The emptiness of human learning fills the mind of Marlowe’s Faustus with dissatisfaction and disgust. A misunderstanding of atext of Scripture wherein all men are included under sin drives him to despair, and tempts him to add to his other sins the deeper one of magic. We have said that he was blinded by sin. we do not desire to enter into a theological controversy on the influence of sin over a man’s con duct. The apprehension of the con sequences of sins already committed, involves him more deeply :
[Sept.
Mephostophilia.—Unhappy spirits that live with Lucifer, Conspired against our God with Lucifer, And are for ever damned with Lucifer. Eurasian—Where are you damned 2 .Mephoatlrphilia—In hell. Famine—How comes it then that thou art out of hell ?
MBPhOSlOPhfliL—WIIY this is hell, nor am I out of it. Think’st thou that I, that saw the face of Go , And tasted the eternal joys of heaven, Am not tormented with ten thousand hells In being deprived of everlasting bliss? O Faustus ! leave these frivolous demands, Which strike a terror to my fainting heart.”
In Faustus’s reply we have a trait of his vanity, as well as the reasons
which urge him to bargain with Lucifer, notwithstanding the terrible truths re vealed by the demon : “ Faustus.—What! is great Mephosto philis so passionate For being deprived of the joys of heaven! Learn thou of Faustus manly fortitude, And scorn those joys thou never shalt
possess. “Seeing Faustus hath incurred eternal death, By desperate thoughts against Jove’s deity.”
This is the motive which impels him. As to the rest, he sins with open eyes. The devils lure him with no delusive joys in expectancy. The truth, the
naked truth they are compelled to tell him, as to their own misery and their
lost happiness. We give a part of his dialogue with Mephistopheles.*
Go, hear these tidings to great Lucifer: Seeing Faustus hath incurred eternal death By desperate‘thoughts against Jove’s deity, Say he surrenders up his soul So he will spare him four-and-twenty years, Letting him live in all voluptuousness, Having thee ever to attend on me; To give me whatsoever I shall ask; To tell me whatsoever I demand; To slay mine enemies and to aid my friends, And always be obedient to my will.”
The good and bad angels of Faustus enter the lists. The one urges him onward, the other admonishes repent ance and prayer. Even the devil dares not lie. When asked what good the possession of Fautus’s soul would do to Lucifer, the candid answer is, “ So lamen miseris socios habuisse doloris,” a. phrase best translated by the vulgar
“ Faustus—Who is this Lucifer, thy lord '! .Mephostophilis.—Arch regent, and com mander of all spirits. Faustus.—-Was not that Lucifer an angel once 7 Mephoslophilis.-Yes, Faustus, and most dearly loved of God. _ Faustus.—How comes it then that he is adage—“ Misery loves company.”— Prince of Devils? Mephostophil'is.—Oh ! by aspiring pride Wealth and honors, sensual delights, gain the victory over the better angel and insolence,
of the unfortunate Doctor, and the com pact with Lucifer is signed, sealed, and Faustus --And what are you that live delivered with all the formalities of a with Lucifer ? regular legal transaction. For which God thrust him from the face of heaven.
- The modern name.
Marlowe calls him Mephostophilis.
