[44] _Shepherd’s Calendar_—July. CHAPTER IV. GOETHE. The Faust-legend around which Goethe wove his great tragedy, was one of those floating traditions which were common in the romantic lore of many countries during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and which seem to have originated in the general belief in occult forces. The Johann Faust of the popular stories was undoubtedly an individual of that name, born towards the close of the fifteenth century in the little town of Knittlingen, near Maulbronn, in Würtemberg. His parents were poor, but he was enabled by the bequest of a rich uncle to study medicine. He attended the University of Cracow (where he probably received his doctor’s degree), studied magic which was there taught as an accepted branch of knowledge, and appears to have afterwards travelled for many years through Europe. Manlius, the disciple of Melancthon, quotes the latter as having said: “This fellow Faust escaped from our town of Wittenberg, after our Duke John had given the order to have him imprisoned. He also escaped from Nuremberg under the like circumstances. This sorcerer Faust, an abominable beast, a common sewer of many devils, boasted that he, by his magic arts had enabled the Imperial armies to win their victories in Italy.” It was probably the famous battle of Pavia fought in 1525 of which Faust spoke, as the time of his visit to Wittenberg appears to have been about the year 1530. Further evidence of the existence of such a character is to be found in the _Index Sanitatis_ of the physician, Philip Begardi, published at Worms in 1539, and in the _Sermones Conviviales_ of Johann Gast, who gives an account of a dinner given by Faust at Basle at which he was present. The original form of the legend is contained in a work published by Spiess in Frankfurt in 1587, entitled the _History of Dr. Joh. Faust, the Notorious Sorcerer and Black-artist, etc., etc._ This book was first translated into English in 1590, and from it Marlowe doubtless obtained the material for his tragedy of “Dr. Faustus,” which appears to have been first performed in London in 1593, the year of his death. In the first act of Goethe’s tragedy we are introduced to Faust, who is sitting in his lofty-arched Gothic chamber or laboratory, his desk piled high with the works of noted writers on magic and astrology. “And this one Book of Mystery From Nostradamus’ very hand, Is’t not sufficient company?”