Full disclosure. I have never read Faust and only know the basic details of the Robert Johnson-like story. I've seen a few one-man plays based on Faust but I don't remember much about them. I also like saying the author's name - not sure what that implies . . .
Goethe was born in Frankfurt in 1749. He worked on Faust in various bursts between 1774 and when it was published in 1808. Parts of it were skipped over, parts originally written in prose then rewritten in verse. He had trouble bringing it all together especially being written off and on over 34 years.
85-88
Come now, show the world the way, be sure that when
Imagination and her choruses,
Reason, Good Sense and Sentiment and Passion,
Say their lines, the Fool also says his.
212-213
Old age doesn't make us childish, as they say,
It finds the true surviving child in us.
Great line at 236 (from the Director to the Poet and the Comic):
Be prodigal, by all means, with the stars
I liked Mephistopheles right from the beginning. (270-292)
He tells God that if he tried to speak in the elevated way the archangels do, his pathos would "surely make you laugh were laughter not a thing you've learned to do without."
Something I've not really thought on before but you don't think about God having a sense of humour - or not having one. Then Mephistopheles says that he isn't concerned about "the suns and planets" but "how human beings torment themselves" and goes on to speak about "Earth's little god" - so much said in 3 words.
He tells God that if he had not given mankind a glimpse of Heaven, he would be better off but instead Man calls this enlightenment 'reason' and "uses it only to be more bestial than any beast."
Much later, in the promenade awaiting Gretchen, Mephisto is angered that a priest stole the jewellery they gave her, and comments (2809-10),
"If I wasn't a devil myself I'd give
Me up to the Devil this very minute."
As The Lord and Mephisto wager over Faustus' fate, the Lord says "So long as human beings strive, they will go wrong."
Mephisto calls "science and reason the highest of all the powers that humans have." (1851-2)
He belittles Faust's "headlong striving", his "never-to-be-sated craving" saying "It overleaps the joys of earthly living." (1858-9)
I wish I read German - the translation I'm reading, at line 1884, has a character say "I'm cramped and cabined" which reminds me of Macbeth's words "I'm cabined, cribbed, confined". I'm not sure if this is the translator riffing on Shakespeare (the translator for Lucretius' text made many references to literature) or whether Goethe himself alluded to Macbeth.
Mephisto, while mocking academic learning, cites a phrase "encheiresis naturae" which apparently was used by a professor of Goethe's to 'define life'. It means "an intervention by the hand of nature".
His description of what you get out of many classes still holds true today. (1958-63)
"Beforehand con
By Rote the paragraphs one by one
So you'll see clearer, when you look,
He's only said what's in the book.
But scribble with diligence as though
The Holy Ghost were dictating to you."
Mephisto refers to laws and rights that "are handed on like an eternal malady. They crawl from generation to generation." He then mentions "that right that is born in us alas, there's never any talk in that." (1972-4; 1978-9)
He speaks about passing into "the Temple of Certainty" (1992)
The notes in these texts can be as illuminating as the texts themselves. David Constantine notes a reference to "not one jot" as possibly being a reference to the Council of Nicea, A.D. 325 where there was a schism over two Greek words which differed only by one Greek letter, iota.
Ομοονσιοζ vs ομοιονσιοζ
I never knew "not one iota" came from this, nor that jot came from iota.
Mephisto, impersonating Faust as a teacher, tells a student "Eritis sicut Deus scents bonus et malum" "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." quoth the serpent to Adam & Eve.
Goethe is quite scathing about medicine and doctors. Faust's father was a medical doctor and while Mephisto and Faust are in the Witch's Kitchen, Mephisto refers to her potions and incantations saying she must "like any doctor, do her hocus-pocus". (2538)
He comments about Faust's desire to give Gretchen jewellery:
"A fool in love like that will blow
A sun and moon and all the stars
To amuse his sweetheart an hour or so." (2862-4)
Faust has some good lines as well:
"It's easy being in the right if all you hear is your own voice." (3069-70)
It was interesting to be exposed to his opinions on academia, relationships, religion etc. He used so many references to scripture and to Shakespeare. This was a somewhat chaotic text to read - jumping from scene to scene. Some are quite short and I'm not sure what their purpose is. Again I wish I could read it in the original language to fully appreciate it.
When I read texts like this, I try and imagine how the general population would have received it, as well (in this case) as how the forward thinkers would have received it. The sections on Gretchen seem quite disturbing and I don't know whether the populace would have been horrified by what Gretchen did or by what Faust did.
We'll be reading Werther in the new year. I'm curious to read a different text by Goethe. I enjoyed Faust but I'm not sure I fully appreciate his intellect yet. When I'm done the course, I'll have to find and read a copy of the rest of Faust.
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