Faust, Or Faustus, Dr. Johann, a prominent character of the national and popular poetry of Germany. According to tradition, he was a celebrated necromancer, born about 1480 at Knittlingen in Wiirtemberg, or, as others have it, at Roda, near Weimar, or Anhalt. He is said to have studied magic at Cracow. Having mastered all the secret sciences, and being dissatisfied at the shallowness of human knowledge, he made an agreement with the Evil One, according to which the devil was to serve Faust for full 24 years, after which Faust's soul was to be delivered to eternal damnation. The contract, signed by Faust with his own blood, contained the following conditions: 1, he shall renounce God and all celestial hosts; 2, he shall be an enemy of all mankind; 3, he shall not obey priests; 4, he shall not go to church nor partake of the holy sacraments; 5, he shall hate and shun wedlock." Faust having signed these conditions, Satan sent him as a familiar spirit Mephistopheles, a devil "who likes to live among men." Faust now began a brilliant worldly career.

He revelled in all manner of sensual enjoyment, of which his attentive devil servant, with an inexhaustible fertility of imagination, was always invent- ing new and more attractive forms.When remorse tormented Faust and surfeit led him to sober reflection, Mephistopheles diverted him with all kinds of curious devilries. Disgusted at last with his life of dissipation, Faust yearned for matrimony; but Satan appeared in all the terrors of fire and brimstone, frightened him out of this purpose, and then sent him from the lower regions the beautiful Greek Helena as a concubine, who bore him a son, Justus Faustus. As the term of 24 years draws to its close, he seeks relief and salvation from priests, but nothing avails him. All flee from the doomed man. Midnight approaches; an unearthly noise is heard from Faust's room, the howling of a storm which shakes the house to its very foundation, demoniacal laughter, cries of pain and anguish, a piercing, heartrending call for help, followed by the stillness of death. Next morning they find Faust's room empty, but on the floor and walls evidence of a violent struggle, pools of blood and shattered brains; the corpse, mangled in a most horrible manner, they find upon a dunghill.

The beautiful Helena and her son have disappeared for ever.-That some such person as Faust has existed is asserted in the most direct manner by writers who profess to have conversed with him. Among these eye witnesses are Philip Melanchthon, the great reformer, and Conrad Gesner; and even in Luther's Table Talk mention is made of Dr. Faustus as a man irretrievably lost. But it is not certain that the real name of this man was Faust. Joseph Gorres maintains that a certain George Sabellicus is the only historical person in whom the original of Faust can be recognized. Faust's death is presumed to have taken place in 1538. Tradition has connected with his name a great number of biographical traits and magical feats formerly ascribed to other reputed conjurers. The tragical fate of Faust is represented as resulting from an irreconcilable conflict of faith and knowledge. Goethe, in his grand drama, has attempted a poetical solution of the legend. The moral of his Faust is, that man's longing after knowledge may lead him into extraordinary errors and failings, but cannot destroy his better nature.-The first printed biography of Faust appeared in 1587, at Frankfort: Historia von I). Johann Fausten, den weitbeschreyten Zauberer und Schwarzkiinstler. In 1588 appeared a rhymed edition and a translation into low German; in 1589, a translation into French, Histoire prodigieuse et lamentable de Jean Faust; about the same time an English version,A Ballad of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, the great Conjurer;" and shortly after,The History of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Dr. John Faustus." The latter version seems to have been the basis of Christopher Marlowe's drama, Life and Death of Dr. Faustus," which in its turn was transformed into a German puppet play, from which Goethe drew the first conception of his tragedy.

In 1599 G. R.Widmann published Warhaftige Ilistorien von den grewlichen und abschewlichen Sunden und Lastern, auch von vielen wunderbarlichen und seltzamen abentheuren so I). Johannes Faustus hat getrieben (3 vols., Hamburg). A new version appeared in 1674, which was often republished, but replaced at last by an abridged edition of Widmann's work (1728). A great number of books on necromancy also pretend to give, from original manuscripts of Faust, his cabalistic formulas, charms, talismans, etc. All of these publications, and also all important monographs bearing upon this subject, have been reprinted in the valuable collection of J. Scheible, Has Kloster weltlich und geistlich (Stuttgart, 1847). More than 250 different works on the legend of Faust are enumerated in Peter's Literatur der Faustsage (2 vols.,.Halle, 1849).