Footnotes
[10] Marlowe’s Faustus, etc., edited by A. W. Ward [4th ed., Oxford, 1901], and Faustus-Notes, by H. Logeman [Gand, 1898].
[11] R. Rohde: Das Englische Faustbuch und Marlowes Tragödie [Halle, 1910].
IV
The Faust Drama in Germany
Throughout the stagnant literary period of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth, it was not the various editions of the Faust book that kept the legend green in Germany, but the popular drama which developed from Marlowe’s Faustus. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, companies of English actors began to tour the Continent, and in their repertories were the plays of the Elizabethans, much mangled and adapted to the taste of their uncultivated audiences. The popularity of these English Comedians, as they were called, was greatest in Germany, and we find traces of them throughout the first half of the seventeenth century. Acting as a profession began in Germany with these English companies. At first they played only in English, but later they produced German translations of their repertory, even German original plays, and recruited their ranks from among German actors. Soon German troupes were formed on the same lines, who still, however, called themselves “English Comedians,” since the advertisement was of value. The English actors laid great weight on visual effect, for the language difficulty had at first to be surmounted. The actors themselves were for the most part minstrels and dancers, and the most important character was the clown who appeared in every production, however tragic it might be. Even when the play was performed in English, the clown spoke German, and he was known under various names, such as Pickelhäring, while later on he was called Hans Wurst. The plays were not written down and there was plenty of scope allowed for gagging, so that eventually they were distorted out of all recognition and were practically the work of the actors themselves. Among the plays which were produced and gradually adapted in this manner was Marlowe’s tragedy, and in its more spectacular form it provided the public with the two somewhat contradictory essentials, plenty of coarse humour and plenty of blood.
The earliest record of a performance of Marlowe’s play by the English strolling players is one at Gräz in 1608. In 1626, a Tragödia von Dr. Faust was produced at Dresden on the 7th of July, and this was no doubt also Marlowe’s play. We know what the main outline of the popular drama must have been from a comparison of the various puppet-plays which were performed in comparatively recent times in Germany and Austria, for when the Faust drama ceased to be performed by living actors, it was taken over by the proprietors of marionette theatres, and in this form it survived till well into the nineteenth century. The main points which the popular drama possessed in common with Marlowe’s tragedy were the expository opening monologue, the appearance of the good and evil angels, and the presaging of Faust’s impending end by the striking of the clock. The humorous and melodramatic scenes had no doubt been supplemented and exaggerated by other hands even on the English stage. There is no ground for assuming that there was already a Faust play of German origin on the German stage before the arrival of the English Comedians.
The following is an amusing specimen of the type of programme which was issued by the strolling players. It refers to a performance by the famous Neuber troupe in Hamburg, on the 7th of July, 1738[12]:—
“The wicked Life and fearful End of the World-famous Arch-sorcerer D. Johann Faust.
The following Scenes will be presented, among others: A great outer Court in the underworld Palace of Pluto, by the Rivers Lethe and Acheron. On the River comes Charon in a Boat, and to him Pluto on a fiery Dragon, followed by the whole of his underworld Retinue and Spirits.
Dr. Faust’s Study and Library. An agreeable Spirit of the upper World will sing the following touching Aria, accompanied by tender Music: