Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net +------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in | | this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of | | this document. | | The symbol for a trochee on page 134 is shown like this: | | - U | | Text printed using the Greek alphabet in the original book | | is shown as follows: [Greek: logos] | +------------------------------------------------------------+ THE FAUST-LEGEND AND GOETHE'S 'FAUST' BY H. B. COTTERILL EDITOR OF GOETHE'S 'IPHIGENIE' SCHILLER'S 'LAGER' 'REFLECTIONS FROM THE NIBELUNGENLIED' DANTE'S 'INFERNO' ETC. LONDON GEORGE G. HARRAP & COMPANY 9 PORTSMOUTH STREET KINGSWAY W.C. 1912 BALLANTYNE & COMPANY, LTD. TAVISTOCK STREET, COVENT GARDEN LONDON PREFACE These lectures have been given perhaps half a dozen times, in England, in Switzerland and in Germany. On allowing them to appear in print I should perhaps apologize to my readers for the somewhat free and familiar style in which parts of them are written; but even if I had the time to recast them into a more serious form I should be unwilling to do so, for there is surely enough ponderous literature on the subject, and although some may resent in a book what often helps to make a lecture attractive, I think I can rely on the fact that many people agree with the dictum of Horace: Ridiculum aeri Fortius et melius magnas plerumque secat res, or, as Milton has it: Joking decides great things Stronger and better oft than earnest can. Almost the only change that I have made in my MS. has been the substitution or addition of an English translation in numerous places where I had formerly quoted the German original. On some occasions, when first writing the lectures, I very probably used the English version of _Faust_ by Bayard Taylor, but I have not the book at present at hand and cannot feel quite certain whether any of the verse translations are not my own. The little book makes of course no pretence to be a contribution to critical or biographical literature. It is meant especially for those who wish to know something more about the story of Faust and about Goethe's play, and who, because their knowledge of German does not suffice or for other reasons, are unable to study the subject in any more satisfactory way. H. B. C. FREIBURG IM BREISGAU _August 1912_ CONTENTS PAGE THE OLD FAUST LEGEND 9 GOETHE'S 'FAUST' (PART I.) 56