The history of the damnable life and deserved death of Doctor John Faustus, 1592, together with The second report of Faustus, containing his appearances and the deeds of Wagner, 1594.
History
The history of the damnable life and deserved death of Doctor John Faustus, 1592, together with The second report of Faustus, containing his appearances and the deeds of Wagner, 1594.
Faust, -approximately 1540 -- Legends
_Second part of D. Johann Faust’s History, in which is described the
Pact of Christopher Wagner, Faust’s former Disciple, contracted with
the Devil, called Auerhan, who appeared to him in the form of an Ape,
also his adventurous Ribaldries and Pranks, which he performed with
the Aid of the Devil, and fearful End which at last overtook him._
_Together with an excellent Description of the New Isles, what People
live therein, what Fruits grow there, what Religion and Idol-worship
they have there, and how they are captured by the Spaniards, all drawn
from his posthumous Writings and, for it is very amusing to read, put
into Print. By Fridericus Schotus Tolet: Now at P. 1593._
Unlike the publisher of the Faust book, the author of the Wagner
book appears to have taken all precautions to hide his identity, for
Fridericus Schotus is a pseudonym, and Tolet is Toledo, where there
were supposed to be celebrated schools of magic. At the end of
his book the author declares that he has translated from a Spanish
original, printed seventy years ago, which he received from a Brother
Martin of the Order of St. Benedict. That is obviously false, since the
Faust legend did not exist in 1523, and certainly could not have been
in print in Spain. The author also declares that he has refrained from
saying anything that might be considered detrimental to the Church of
Rome, but this promise he has not kept very successfully. In an edition
which appeared in the following year, the town of origin is given as
“Gerapoli,” which is fictitious and may contain an anagram of “Prague,”
since the first edition states that it was published at “P.”
The Wagner story is essentially a paraphrase of the Faust legend, and
the author keeps to the outline of his hero’s character which is given
in the Faust book. The sole difference is in some of the external
incidents.
The English Wagner book was licensed about six months after the German
Wagner book, according to an entry in the Stationers’ Registers under
the 16th of November, 1593, and the date on the title-page is 1594.
It is _not_ a translation of the German Wagner book, but an extremely
faint imitation, into which the author has introduced many new details.
He appears only to have taken the basic idea, though there are
occasional quotations from the German book, and it is practically an
independent work. The 1680 edition was, in fact, translated into German
and published in Scheible’s _Kloster_.
WILLIAM ROSE.
1925.
[Illustration:
THE
HISTORIE
of the damnable
life, and deserved death of
_Doctor John Faustus_,
Newly imprinted, and in convenient
_places imperfect matter amended_;
according to the true Copie printed
_at_ Franckfort, _and translated into
English by_ P. F. _Gent._
Seene and allowed.
BY WISDOM PEACE
BY PEACE PLENTY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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