FAUSSET. 486 FAUSTA. FAUS'SET, Asdbew Robert (1821 — ). A biblical scholar of the (.'lunch of England, born at Silverhill, Ireland. He graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1843; became rector of Saint Cuthbert's, York, England, in 1859, and Canon of York in 1885. With Rob- ert Jamieson and David Brown he prepared a commentary on the whole Bible entitled The Library Commentary (London, 1868) ; separately he issued the well-known lima Psalmicce ( L877, 3d ed. 1SS5 | : The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopaedia (1879, 3d ed. 1891). FAUST, foust, Berxhard Christoph (1755- 1842). A German physician. He was horn at Rotenburg, Hesse, was educated at Gottingen and Rinteln, and in 1788 became physician in ordinary at Biickeburg. He was one of the first physicians in Germany to adopt vaccination, and published on that subject: Ueber die Kuhpocki n und deren Impfung (1801) ; and Oeffentliche An- stalten, die Blattern durch Einvmpfen der Kuh- pocken auszurotten (1804). The most important of his numerous hygienic works is the Q-esund- heitskatechismus -nm Gebrauche in den Schulen und beim hiiusUchen Unterricht (1794, and fre- quently republished). Of the three English trans- lations of the work, the latest is entitled A Y< U) Guide tn Health, Compiled from the Catechism of Dr. Faust (1832). FAUST, or FAUSTUS, Johanx (c.1485- c.1540). A German charlatan, astrologer, and soothsayer, supposed to have performed marvels by the aid of the Devil, and to have been car- ried away by him at his death. Such tales made their first appearance in literature as Historia von Dr. Johann Fausten at the book-fair at Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1587. This relates how the suii of a peasant achieves distinction at the University of Wittenberg, but seeks to deepen his knowledge by magic arts, secures a devil, Mephistopheles, for his servant for 24 years, alter which Faust is to belong to the Devil. This compact is sealed in Faust's blood. The Devil amuses Faust and his pro- fessorial famulus Wagner with high living, sex- ual indulgence, and visions of the spirit world. This rouses remorse, and Faust seeks consolation in mathematics, afterwards visiting hell and the stars, making wide travels, playing magic pranks, sharing in student revelry, uonjuring the Grecian Helen from the nether world, living with her as concubine, and begetting a soothsaying child. When the 24 years are over the Devil carries away Faust, who ruefully points the moral of his folly. This tale was rendered into metrical English in that very year, and was turned into German rhymes in 1588. There was a new edition, too, with some changes, and in 1589 a French version by Victor Palma Cayet. The German version was done into English pro e and of this there was a revision in 1592, with a Dutch version of the same year, in which (lie death of Faust is dated October 23 24, 1538. Soon after the story tn-st reached England its central though! was seized on by Marlowe in his powerful drama 77/. Tragedy o] Dj Faustus, written :is it seems in 15SS. though not entered at Stationers' Hall till 1601. Here the poel i I ilies the zealous and mortally serious Lutheran of the Historia, who had made Fausi the counter- part, of Luther, as he was in fact his content porary. Faust brings to the University of Wit- tenberg 'a foolish and arrogant mind,' seeking to explore nature beyond scholarly tradition, and so led to classical culture, and to the Devil. The Luther of history and the Faust of the legend both lectured on ancient culture. Faust yields to it and Helena. Luther marries after the Christian ordinance. Luther clings to his Bible. Faust would explore behind and beyond it. Luther fights with the Devil; in the legend, Faust compacts with him. Both visit Rome. Luther is roused to revolt, Faust is amused and cynical. Read in this light, the Historia shows orthodoxy, brandishing its theological birch at the freedom of human inquiry. But with Mar- lowe Faust is a type of intellectual pride, a modern Lucifer, jealous of his God. It was the melodramatic and spectacular ele- ments in his drama, however, .that made it hold the stage, and after Marlowe's death (1593) these were still further accentuated, so that when English actors brought the drama back to Germany it was essentially a popular, not to say a vulgar spectacle, in which a clown, who in Goethe's drama has become W;o_; ner, representing the shrewd philistine common- sense of the middle class, is accorded the chief part. A still further fall awaited the legend — it became a puppet play, a Punch and Judy show to amuse children; and thus it was seen by the boy Goethe, as a modification of it may yef. be seen by the German children of to-day. The situation, however, involved the deepest prob- lems of man's mortal existence. Its possibilities were being widely perceived. Friedrich Mid- ler, the painter-poet, published in 1778 two fragments of a dramatized Faust's Leben. Les- sing also twice essayed the subject. Klinger, of the Storm and Stress (q.v.), published (17!U) a romance on Faust's Leben, Thaten und Hbllen- fahrt (translated by Borrow, 1826). Goethe. who had begun work on the subject in 1773. and committed several scenes to friends in 1775 in the so-called Gochhausen MS., published Faust, tin Fragment, in 1790, the complete first part in 1808. The second part appeared posthumously. Klingemann wrote a tragedy (1815), Lenau an epic "(1836). Heine a ballet (1851) on Foust. Goethe's Faust was adapted to the English stage by W. G. Wills in 1885, and produced with much splendor and success by Sir Henry Irving. Of Goethe's Faust there are many English transla- tions, of which Bayard Taylor's is perhaps the most useful. The most convenient Bibliography of the older Faust literature is Engel's Zusam- i,n U.-.I, Hunq der Faust-Sckriften (Oldenburg, 18S5). FAUST, or FUST, JoHANN. See FUST. FAUS'TA, Fi.a via Maxim i ana (289-327). A Roman empress, a daughter of Maximianus, a col- league in the Empire with Diocletian, and com- pelled to abdicate with him. Fausta became tb« econd wife of Constantine the Great in a.d. 307, She was ambitious, and was constantly inter- meddling in affairs of Slate, she had great in - lluenee with ( 'on -t ant inc. for whose advancement she was willing to make almost any sacrifice. It is said that she reported to him a plot in which her father. Maximianus. was concerned, then causing Constantine to order the execution "f Maximianus, She met her death by suffocation in a heated bath, at < 'onstant ine's order. This
