Authors: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
12.
Gospel of John 1:1. Faust is confronted with the ancient problem of translating the Greek
logos
. Note how throughout
Faust I
“the word” is denigrated in favor of “feeling.”
13.
The
SPIRITS
stand in close though undefined relationship to Mephistopheles.
14.
Allegorical names representing the four traditional elements: fire, water, air, earth.
15.
The crucifix.
16.
The sign of the Trinity.
17.
Pentagram. Sign representing the five letters of the word “Jesus.” Known to alchemists and pansophists of the Baroque period; a sacred sign and hence anathema to hellish spirits.
18.
A decisive line. Faust and Mephisto make a wager. In earlier versions of the story, for example in Marlowe’s drama, Faust and Mephisto conclude
a pact
, according to which Faust simply signed away his soul in payment for services rendered.
19.
Spanish boots. An instrument of torture used during the Spanish Inquisition.
20.
Encheiresis Naturae
. Technical jargon meaning something like “nature’s special touch.”
21.
“You will be like God, knowing Good and Evil.”
22.
Block Mountain. Dominant peak in the Harz Mountain range in Germany, where, according to legend, devils, witches, and other evil spirits congregate on Walpurgis Night (April 30–May 1). The same peak is also referred to as
Blocksberg
or
Brocken
, the latter being the modern designation. (See also lines
3660
,
4221
,
4317
.)
23.
This song cruelly anticipates Gretchen’s tragic fate.
24.
In Goethe’s time, the city of Leipzig was known for its culture and elegance. It was often referred to as “a little Paris.”
25.
A reference to “Hans Arsch von Rippach” of folklore fame, a figure of ribald student humor. Rippach is a village near Leipzig.
26.
The magic mirror is a well-known device in fairy tales and folklore. Faust sees in it a shape of ideal feminine beauty. It may be regarded as a prefiguration of both Gretchen and Helena (
Faust II
).
27.
The witch’s numbers-game is pure mumbo-jumbo. No allegorical or symbolic meanings are indicated.
28.
Walpurgis Night. (See
note 22
.)
29.
A song about Ultima Thule, a fabled northern island believed to be the resting place for the setting sun. While the ballad does not apply directly to Gretchen’s situation, it does evoke an appropriate mood. It has been set to music by such composers as Zelter, Schumann, Liszt, and Gounod.
30.
This is calculated irony. Saint Anthony is the patron saint of loving wives and brides.
31.
“Gretchen” and “Margaret” are used interchangeably.
32.
Only the Earth Spirit (see
note 4
) can be meant, although such an interpretation jars with line 3243 because it was the Lord, not the Earth Spirit, who gave Faust Mephistopheles as a companion. It is never safe in Goethe’s
Faust
to construct exact relationships between mythical forces.
33.
Mephistopheles refers to Faust’s rejuvenation in the witch’s kitchen. The line is fairly typical of Goethe’s treatment of time in this drama. Sequence and duration are generally kept open and vague.
34.
Mephisto’s flippant reference to breasts. (See the Song of Solomon 4:5.)
35.
In contrast to Gretchen’s previous song (
2759–82
), this song refers directly to her situation.
36.
A demonstration of moral outrage; a motif in social ostracism. Other, similar motifs appear with increasing frequency. (See, for example, Valentine scene,
3620–3775
.)
37.
Walpurgis Night. (See
note 22
.)
38.
Lion-Dollar. Valuable silver coin minted in Holland and used primarily for international trade.
39.
A borrowing from Ophelia’s song in
Hamlet
IV, 5.
40.
Blood-ban. Thought to be a judgment stemming directly from God. Mephistopheles was therefore powerless to intervene.
41.
“Day of wrath; that day will crumble the world to ashes.” Two lines from a well-known medieval requiem attributed to Thomas of Celano.
42.
“Before the judge all hidden things shall become apparent. Nothing will remain unavenged.”
43.
“What shall I say, I who am wretched? Whom shall I implore on my behalf when even the just are scarcely secure?”
44.
WALPURGIS NIGHT
. (See
note 22
.)
46.
Urian. The origin of this word is not certain, though it is probably a corruption of the German
Urhahn
. Here, simply another name for Satan.
47.
This and subsequent
VOICES
should be understood as those of individual witches.
48.
Baubo. In Greek mythology, Demeter’s midwife; in German folklore, sometimes used as a name for a witch.
49.
Ilsenstein. Granite rock formation near the peak of the Brocken.
50.
Polemic against rationalist critics of Goethe.
51.
Voland. Derived from the Middle High German
valant
, meaning “seducer.” Here, another name for the devil.
52.
Lilith, according to rabbinic tradition, was Adam’s first wife. First mention of her name occurs in Isaiah 34:14. She was said to have left Adam and mated with demons, begetting dangerous spirits. In medieval and Renaissance books of magic she occurs as a frightening spirit. Lilith is also known as a
succuba
.
53.
See the Song of Solomon 4:13.
54.
For reasons of propriety Goethe deleted certain words when
Faust I
was published. It is felt, however, that the modern reader will not object to a translation of the full text as given in the poet’s original manuscript.
55.
PROCTOPHANTASMIST
. A facetious coinage by Goethe meaning approximately “buttock ghost-imaginer.” This is a reference to Friedrich Nicolai (1733–1811), Goethe’s literary adversary and an undeviating rationalist, who believed that hallucinatory visions of ghosts could be treated effectively by the application of leeches to the buttocks.
56.
Although Nicolai had repeatedly—by rational and “enlightened” argument—demonstrated the impossibility of ghosts, the castle at Tegel (near Berlin) continued to be haunted under his very nose, so to speak. It was a well-publicized affair, which angered Nicolai.
57.
Nicolai had written a travelogue of no fewer than twelve volumes, covering his voyage through Germany and Italy.
58.
Allusion to an episode in Greek mythology where Perseus struck off Medusa’s head.
59.
Prater. A famous public park in Vienna, relatively new in Goethe’s time.
60.
SERVIBILIS
. A huckster and announcer, such as one might find before a circus tent.
61.
WALPURGIS-NIGHT
’
S DREAM,
etc. This scene has no organic connection to the Faust drama. While somewhat patterned after Shakespeare’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
, the scene consists of polemic verses criticizing the contemporary literary scene. The piece was originally intended as the so-called
Xenien
for the
Almanac of Muses
(
Musenalmanach
), a journal organized by Goethe’s friend Schiller. As Schiller was disinclined to use these verses for the journal, Goethe cast about for another, appropriate setting for them, and for better or for worse, decided to include them as an “intermezzo” in his
Faust
. Actually some parallels between the rather personal polemics of the previous “Walpurgis Night” scene and those of the “Intermezzo” may be found. It is well to keep the designation “Intermezzo” in mind, as well as the operetta-like character of the piece.
62.
Mieding. The manager of the Weimar theater where Goethe directed many plays, including his own.
63.
XENIES
. Personifications of polemic verses.
64.
Friedrich von Hennings, a Danish author who had taken severe exception to Goethe’s and Schiller’s polemics in the
Almanac of Muses
.
65.
MUSAGET
is the title of a collection of poems by Hennings. See note above.
66.
CI-DEVANT GENIUS
. A satiric attack on Hennings’s periodical
Genius der Zeit
.
67.
INQUISITIVE TRAVELER
. This is Nicolai (see
note 55
). In this case, however, he is not the speaker, but the person spoken to.
68.
Nicolai was a militant Protestant.
69.
WORLDLING
is likely to be Goethe himself.
70.
The dancer calls attention to a group of philosophers of various persuasions, now approaching.
71.
Here begins the political satire.
72.
Raven Stone. Block of stone and mortar used for executions. Traditionally, crows circle over it.
73.
The Juniper Song. In the old legend, an evil stepmother slaughters her child and serves it as a dish to the father. The child’s sister gathers up the bones and buries them under a juniper tree. Soon a bird arises from the bones, and its song lures the stepmother from her house. Once outside, she is crushed by a falling millstone. Goethe was familiar with this tale as a young boy.
74.
The juniper tree legend seems to work on Gretchen’s mind. See previous note.
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JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
Before he was thirty, Goethe had proved himself a master of the novel, the drama, and lyric poetry. But even more impressive than his versatility was his unwillingness ever to settle into a single style or approach; whenever he used a literary form, he made of it something new.
Born in 1749 to a well-to-do family in Frankfurt, he was sent to Strasbourg to earn a law degree. There he met the poet-philosopher Herder, discovered Shakespeare, and began to write poetry. His play
Götz von Berlichingen
(1773) made him famous throughout Germany. He was invited to the court of the duke of Sachsen-Weimar, where he quickly became a cabinet minister. In 1774 his novel of Romantic melancholy,
The Sorrows of Young Werther
, electrified all Europe. Soon he was at work on the first version of his
Faust
, which would finally appear as a fragment in 1790.
In the 1780s Goethe visited Italy and immersed himself in classical poetry. The next decade saw the appearance of
Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship
, his novel of a young artist’s education, and a wealth of poetry and criticism. He returned to the
Faust
material around the turn of the century and completed Part 1 in 1808.
The later years of his life were devoted to a bewildering array of pursuits: research in botany and in a theory of colors, a novel (
Elective Affinities
), the evocative poems of the
West-Eastern Divan
, and his great autobiography,
Poetry and Truth
. In his eighties he prepared a forty-volume edition of his works; the forty-first volume, published after his death in 1832, was the second part
of Faust
.
Goethe’s wide-ranging mind could never be confined to one form or one philosophy. When asked for the theme of his masterwork,
Faust
, he could only say, “From heaven through all the world to hell”; his subject was nothing smaller.