Faust

fowst, Doctor Johann (1480-1538), a German magician. He was a native of Wurtemberg. There is no doubt that such a man lived in Germany, and that he was credited with the possession of magic arts and of living in intimate association with evil spirits. In other words, he was considered a master of the black art. According to the legend of Dr. Faust, however, he was a youth of large fortune who flung away his money and gave himself over to a wild life. He then began to study magic and made a bargain with Satan, according to which he was to have wealth and pleasure for twenty-four years. At the end of this time his soul was to belong to the Evil One. Faust signed a contract in his own blood to the effect that: "(1) He shall renounce God and all celestial hosts; (2) He shall be an enemy of all mankind; (3) He shall not obey priests; (4) He shall not go to church, nor partake of the holy sacraments; (5) He shall hate and shun wedlock." Mephistopheles, a devil, "who liked to live among men," went with Faust and helped him to riot in every kind of gross pleasure for twenty-four years as agreed. At the end of that time, Satan appeared in a hideous form at midnight and bore Faust away to everlasting torment. The legend has been used as literary material by many writers in Germany and elsewhere. In all perhaps 200 or 300 volumes have the whole or a part of their space devoted to the Faust legend and his black arts. This Dr. Faust is the basis of Goethe's Faust, a production which is considered Goethe's greatest work. It is needless to add that it would be a bold writer who would undertake to improve Goethe's use of the legend. See Goethe