g monologue of Marlowe's play inspired the
more famous, though scarcely finer, opening scene of Goethe's drama.
'Theology, adieu!' Faustus exclaims, taking up a book of magic--

These metaphysics of magicians,
And necromantic books are heavenly ...
All things that move between the quiet poles
Shall be at my command--Emperors and kings
Are but obey'd in their several provinces,...
But _his_ dominion that excels in _this_
Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man.
A sound magician is a mighty god.
Here, Faustus, tire thy brains to gain a deity.

His agony of despair at the last moment is very finely depicted, and
there are not a few passages in the play which, for beauty of expression
and thought, are truly Shakespearean. Some of you possibly know the
magnificent lines addressed to Helen of Troy, which begin thus:

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium--

and the lines which seem to allude to the identification of Helen with
Selene, the Moon-goddess--

O thou art fairer than the evening air
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars.
Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter
When he appeared to hapless Semele;
More lovely than the monarch of the sky,
In wanton Arethusa's azur'd arms.

Marlowe's play was written about 1590. Now it is asserted that about
this time English travelling players visited Germany, and perhaps
introduced there Marlowe's drama; and possibly _this_ was the beginning
of the German 'puppet-plays' on the subject of Faust. I do not feel
quite sure about it. Faust puppet-plays seem to have existed almost
simultaneously with the old Faust-books, and there is even the trace of
one _before_ the oldest Faust-book; at least in the archives of the
University of Tuebingen an entry has been unearthed in which in 1587 two
students were condemned to the 'Karzer,' or 'Black hole,' for composing
a 'Puppenspiel' on the subject of Dr. Faust.

In these Puppenspiele (puppet-shows) the comic element largely prevails
and is kept up by the comic figure Kasperle, a buffoon or 'Hanswurst' of
the same character as the Italian Pulcinella, the progenitor of our
English 'Punch.' As might be expected, these puppet-shows introduced a
great many variations of the story, most of them a mixture of tragedy
and comedy. In one a raven brings the contract from the devil for Faust
to sign. One of the conditions is that