hing thy fate and thee. Oh, may the gods
To thee the merited reward impart
Of all thy kindness and benignity!
Farewell! O turn thou not away, but give
One kindly word of parting in return!
So shall the wind more gently swell our sails,
And from our eyes with soften'd anguish flow,
The tears of separation. Fare thee well!
And graciously extend to me thy hand,
In pledge of ancient friendship.

THOAS (_extending his hand_)

Fare thee well!

* * * * *

THE FAUST LEGEND FROM MARLOWE TO GOETHE

By KUNO FRANCKE, PH.D., LL.D., LITT.D.

Professor of the History of German Culture, Harvard University

The Faust legend is a conglomerate of anonymous popular traditions,
largely of medieval origin, which in the latter part of the sixteenth
century came to be associated with an actual individual of the name of
Faustus whose notorious career during the first four decades of the
century, as a pseudo-scientific mountebank, juggler and magician can
be traced through various parts of Germany. The Faust Book of 1587,
the earliest collection of these tales, is of prevailingly theological
character. It represents Faust as a sinner and reprobate, and it holds
up his compact with Mephistopheles and his subsequent damnation as an
example of human recklessness and as a warning to the faithful.

From this Faust Book, that is from its English translation, which
appeared in 1588, Marlowe took his tragedy of _Dr. Faustus_ (1589;
published 1604). In Marlowe's drama Faust appears as a typical man of
the Renaissance, as an explorer and adventurer, as a superman craving
for extraordinary power, wealth, enjoyment, and worldly eminence. The
finer emotions are hardly touched upon. Mephistopheles is the medieval
devil, harsh and grim and fierce, bent on seduction, without any
comprehension of human aspirations. Helen of Troy is a she-devil, and
becomes the final means of Faust's destruction. Faust's career has
hardly an element of true greatness. None of the many tricks,
conjurings and miracles, which Faust performs with Mephistopheles'
help, has any relation to the deeper meaning of life. From the compact
on to the end hardly anything happens which brings Faust inwardly
nearer either to heaven or hell. But there is a sturdiness of
character and stirring intensity of action, with a happy admixture of
buffoonery, through it all. And we feel something of the pathos and
paradox of human passions in the fearful a