Faust

Faust, medieval legendary character in league with the devil who became linked with the name of Johann Faust (c.1480–1540), a wandering conjurer and entertainer. The story of his adventures was published in a Frankfurt chap-book in 1587, and in an English translation provided the material for Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (c.1589–92). The legend returned to Germany via the English Comedians, who stressed the spectacular and farcical elements, and lived on in a puppet-show until once more taken up seriously by Lessing in 1759. Only fragments of his work remain, but it is evident that he envisaged Faust as a scholar whose inquiring mind finds itself in conflict with the limits imposed by God on human knowledge. During the period of Sturm und Drang the Faust legend made a strong appeal, being used by Friedrich Müller and particularly by Goethe, whose play on the subject, in two parts, engaged his attention from 1774 to his death in 1832. In it Faust, though tempted by Mephistopheles and guilty of the death of Gretchen, defies the devil and escapes him, his soul, as in Lessing's version, being eventually borne up to heaven.