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Renaissance Attitudes Towards Faustus as a Magician

Renaissance Attitudes Towards Faustus as a Magician

A Look at Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus




The “Real Faust”

“It is now clear to us that the real Dr. Faust, on whom Marlowe based his play, was not a magician at all but rather an incredible braggart and trickster. His stories were bred in the German inns of the sixteenth century, an environment described by E. M. Butler as a place where “jugglers, charlatans, and quacks of all kinds thrived. . ., the ideal breeding ground for those crass deceptions and knavish tricks associated with the real Faust” (121). Dr. Faust was known to publicize himself as chief of all astrologers, the most learned chemist of all times, a palmist, a crystal gazer, and a man who could perform miracles greater than Christ (121). Unfortunately for Faust, he was never able to bring about any of these miracles (unless one wants to argue that such a man achieving a good theological degree is a miracle in itself). The only documented facts that might have given him credibility as a wizard, among his barmates, were things that now seem trivial. These include such occurences as his keeping a dog with him at meals (some of the sixteenth century general public considered demons to disguise themselves as dogs), his ability to occasionally obtain out-of-season game, and his threatening a group of monks with a poltergiest because they gave him bad wine. Whenever he would claim to bring someone back from the dead, he always needed a couple of days to prepare, no doubt to hire the right actors and create an eager audience. Dr. Faust was not made famous and immortalized in literature by such authors as Marlowe because of amazing acts, but rather because his amazing amount of bragging caused false stories to become exaggerated over time. In truth, the real Faust sounds more like Shakespeare’s comically boastful Falstaff than the respectable man unable to avoid temptation that Marlowe creates.
Faust’s own legend did grow, however, to the point of his banishment from the city of Ingostadt for being a soothsayer. Faust brought this on himself though. Unlike the Faustus in Marlowe’s play, the real Faust went out of his way to inform people of his pact with the devil. According
to Johannes Weir, Faust once came up to him and said, “I surely thought that you were my brother-in-law and therefore I looked at your feet to see whether long, curved claws projected from them” (124). Faust had to know that such a statement would not be taken lightly by many in the sixteenth century, a time connected with great fear of Satan.”

Pasted from <http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20070205123822/http://virtual.park.uga.edu/cdesmet/tiffany/faustus4.htm>
[Compiled by: Jesse Baker, Adria Bredemann, Brittain Brussart, Adrian McLeer, Tiffany Tuck, & Tia Wolowicz for ENG 434, Dr. Desmet, University of Georgia, May 1997. The uga.edu page is gone, and the link is to the waybackmachine.org. All hail waybackmachine.]

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Faustus originally intends for his magic to do good

From a student paper on Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus:

“Faustus originally intends for his magic to do good: to increase his intellect and his power so he may help others and possibly ease his finding a mate so he may start a family. Thus, he aspires to be a “white” magician or magus, a rare wise man who could connect with God in order to manipulate objects or events.

Yet when he performs his conjuring in Act 1 Scene 3, he does not pray willingly to God but to devils, for they will move willingly and quickly to bring him the same end–power. Does he then truly become a demonic or “black” magician in this act? Hardly, for Mephistopheles arrives of his own free will, and their relationship continues in the same dynamic, with Mephistopheles as the magician and Faustus as the pawn who has given up what small power he previously has for the pretense of that of another.

The Renaissance audience, according to Traister, would have recognized this relationship and known that Faustus was not either a white or black magician, or either a true or ceremonial (a distinction made by Eugenio Garin in which ceremonial magic leads to chaos and sin). The type of magician Faustus is allowed to imitate is limited by Mephistopheles as well as what kind of magic he is permitted to perform. Mephistopheles refuses to conjure a wife for Faustus; rather he insists on a lusty paramour, Helen.

The only magic Faustus does perform are childish tricks against the Pope, unquestionably demonic or “black”, for he acts consciously against God, and only because Mephistopheles allows him to be a magician for one fleeting moment. Faustus, of course, pays for this type of magic with his own demise and damnation to Hell.”

From a student paper <http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20070205123817/http://virtual.park.uga.edu/cdesmet/tiffany/faustus2.htm>

Renaissance Attitudes Towards Faustus as a Magician
A Look at Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus
Pasted from <http://web.archive.org/web/20070201210657/http://virtual.park.uga.edu/cdesmet/tiffany/faustus.htm>

Jesse Baker, Adria Bredemann, Brittain Brussart, Adrian McLeer, Tiffany Tuck, & Tia Wolowicz
for ENG 434, Dr. Desmet, University of Georgia, May 1997.

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The distinction between white magic and black magic

From a student paper on Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus:

“The distinction between white magic and black magic was very unstable during the Renaissance. Christian doctrine accepted both versions of magic but scholars argued as to the differences between the two. White magic was seen as a natural science when used for legitimate ends. Also called “natural magic,” white magic flourished during the Renaissance and was used as a means of acquiring access to the divine through nature. In the New Testament there is a favorable view of the Magi, or magician. These people used white magic to worship Christ.

Black magic also used nature but included the invocation of demons. This was the magic that Dr. Faustus used in Marlowe’s great work. Black magic, or witchcraft, implied the use of supernatural powers for a wicked purpose. In early Christian history, black magic was seen as idolatry. Paganism was seen as a sin in the Old Testament but this form of black magic was still acknowledged. This exercise of evil was seen as demonic to Christians but, nevertheless, both forms of magic flourished during this time period.”

Pasted from <http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20080510132953/http://virtual.park.uga.edu/cdesmet/tiffany/faustus5.htm>

Renaissance Attitudes Towards Faustus as a Magician

Pasted from <http://web.archive.org/web/20070201210657/http://virtual.park.uga.edu/cdesmet/tiffany/faustus.htm>

Jesse Baker, Adria Bredemann, Brittain Brussart, Adrian McLeer, Tiffany Tuck, & Tia Wolowicz
for ENG 434, Dr. Desmet, University of Georgia, May 1997.

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Synchronicity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

“Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events, that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance, that are observed to occur together in a meaningful manner. The concept of synchronicity was first described by Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung in the 1920s.

The concept does not question, or compete with, the notion of causality. Instead, it maintains that just as events may be grouped by cause, they may also be grouped by their meaning. Since meaning is a complex mental construction, subject to conscious and unconscious influence, not every correlation in the grouping of events by meaning needs to have an explanation in terms of cause and effect.”

Pasted from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity>

Synchronicity is also the title of an album by The Police and includes a song (“Wrapped Around Your Finger”) by Sting with the verse:

“Mephistopheles is not your name,
But I know what you’re up to just the same.
I will listen hard to your tuition,
And you will see it come to its fruition.

(Copyright: Emi Blackwood Music Inc. O.B.O. Magnetic Publishing Ltd. )

Pasted from <http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/police/wrappedaroundyourfinger.html>

According to Wikipedia:

“The album’s title was inspired by Arthur Koestler’s The Roots of Coincidence, which mentions Carl Jung’s theory of synchronicity. Sting was an avid reader of Koestler, and also named Ghost in the Machine after one of his works.”
Pasted from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity_(The_Police_album)>

From Carl Jung himself:

“It seems to me that one cannot meditate enough about Faust, for many of the mysteries of the second part are still unfathomed. Faust is out of this world and therefore it transports you; it is as much the future as the past and therefore the most living present. Hence everything that to me is essential in Goethe is contained in Faust.
Yours sincerely, C. C. JUNG ”
Letters of C. G. Jung: Volume I, 1906-1950. By C. G. Jung

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Doctor Faustus is based on an older tale; it is

Doctor Faustus is based on an older tale; it is believed to be the first dramatization of the Faust legend.

Some scholars believe that Marlowe developed the story from a popular 1592 translation, commonly called The English Faust Book. There is an official 1528 Ingolstadt municipal reference to a “suspicious” Doctor Faustus. There is thought to have been an earlier, lost, German edition of 1587, which itself may have been influenced by even earlier, equally unpreserved pamphlets in Latin, such as those that likely inspired Jacob Bidermann’s treatment of the damnation of the doctor of Paris, Cenodoxus (1602).

Whatever the inspiration, the development of Marlowe’s play is very faithful to the Faust Book especially in the way it mixes comedy with tragedy. However, Marlowe also introduced some changes to make it more original. Here, he made three main additions in the play:

Faustus’ soliloquy in the Act 1 on the vanity of human science
Good and Bad Angels
substitution of Seven Deadly Sins for a pageant of Devils

Apart from these changes, he emphasized his intellectual aspirations and curiosity and minimized the vices in the character of Faustus to lend a Renaissance aura to the story.

Pasted from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tragical_History_of_Doctor_Faustus>

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Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II was a great and important

Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II was a great and important Renaissance patron and follower of the occult arts, including astrology and alchemy, but reputedly a poor ruler. His greater legacy is as a patron of the arts; his great failures were as a political leader. He was forced to abdicate in 1611.

A little background:

“Rudolf II of Austria (July 18, 1552–January 20, 1612), Holy Roman Emperor as Rudolf II (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia, as Rudolf (1572–1608), King of Bohemia as Rudolf II (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria as Rudolf V (1576–1608). He was a member of the House of Habsburg.

Rudolf’s legacy has traditionally been viewed in three ways: an ineffectual ruler whose mistakes led directly to the Thirty Years’ War; a great and influential patron of Northern Mannerist art; and a devotee of occult arts and learning which helped seed the scientific revolution.”

….

“Astrology and alchemy were mainstream science in Renaissance Prague, and Rudolf was a firm devotee of both. His lifelong quest was to find the Philosopher’s Stone and Rudolf spared no expense in bringing Europe’s best alchemists to court, such as Edward Kelley and John Dee. Rudolf even performed his own experiments in a private alchemy laboratory. When Rudolf was a prince, Nostradamus prepared a horoscope which was dedicated to him as ‘Prince and King’.

Rudolf gave Prague a mystical reputation that persists in part to this day, with Alchemists’ Alley on the grounds of Prague Castle a popular visiting place.”


Pasted from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor>

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The superstitious credulity of the age in which they lived

[Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II – a great and important Renaissance patron and follower of the occult arts, including astrology and alchemy, but a poor ruler. His greater legacy is as a patron of the arts; his great failures were as a statesman. He was forced to abdicate in 1611.

The 1783 article which follows, marvels at the neglect of clear political realities as Rudolph’s enemies prepare for war, in favour of a blind obsession with fruitless astrology and further notes the inevitable judgement of time that would eventually pass its gaze over the author’s time, as it will our own.]

A little background:

“Rudolf II of Austria (July 18, 1552–January 20, 1612), Holy Roman Emperor as Rudolf II (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia, as Rudolf (1572–1608), King of Bohemia as Rudolf II (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria as Rudolf V (1576–1608). He was a member of the House of Habsburg.

Rudolf’s legacy has traditionally been viewed in three ways: an ineffectual ruler whose mistakes led directly to the Thirty Years’ War; a great and influential patron of Northern Mannerist art; and a devotee of occult arts and learning which helped seed the scientific revolution.”

Pasted from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor>

“Astrology and alchemy were mainstream science in Renaissance Prague, and Rudolf was a firm devotee of both. His lifelong quest was to find the Philosopher’s Stone and Rudolf spared no expense in bringing Europe’s best alchemists to court, such as Edward Kelley and John Dee. Rudolf even performed his own experiments in a private alchemy laboratory. When Rudolf was a prince, Nostradamus prepared a horoscope which was dedicated to him as ‘Prince and King’.

Rudolf gave Prague a mystical reputation that persists in part to this day, with Alchemists’ Alley on the grounds of Prague Castle a popular visiting place.

Pasted from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_II,_Holy_Roman_Emperor>

The article:

From 1783 – In The English Review, Or, An Abstract of English and Foreign Literature:

“The house of Austria, against which this gathering storm was directed, beheld it with astonishing indifference. The emperor, Rhodolphus, more intent on observing the motions of the heavenly bodies, than on watching the movements of his enemies, indulged a natural love of science, the only passion that is able to extinguish the pride of power in the breasts of princes.

He had given up, with little reluctance, to his brother Matthias, the government of Hungary, Moravia, and Austria, and soon after he also resigned that of Bohemia.

With the title of emperor, he lived a private man. It is matter of greater wonder that the king of Spain, in whom the passion of religion did not eradicate all the feeds of ambition, appeared unconcerned at the warlike preparations of an inveterate enemy. Whether the ministers of Spain trusted to the success of those plots they had formed against Henry in his own palace; or, that with the superstitious credulity of the age in which they lived, they confided in the completion of those predictions that about this time were so frequent in the mouths of Catholics concerning the sudden death of the king of France (*); or that they weakly imagined this monarch had no other object in view than the expulsion of Leopold from the states of Juliers; or from whatever secret cause, it is certain, that amidst a general and anxious suspence, the court of Madrid discovered not any symptoms of alarm.

The world, struck with the mighty preparations of France, wondered at the serenity of Spain, when an event happened which proved how much human affairs are governed by causes beyond the reach of princes; which frustrated the well laid designs of the great Henry, and supplied the want of vigilance and wisdom in the counsels of Philip.

The death of the French monarch, and the various effects of this great event being described with a minuteness which perhaps belongs rather to French than to Spanish history, the Editor writes as follows.

‘After the death of Henry, his friends and allies had reason to apprehend that the vindictive passions of the house of Austria would be heightened and inflamed by the hope of gratification. The Italian states especially, overawed by the power of Philip in Naples and in Lombardy, trembled lest the Spanish arms should over-run all Italy. But Charles Emanuel, duke of Savoy, whose noble mind was inspired with the pride rather than the despondency of grief, endeavoured to rally the broken forces of the league, and to unite them once more into a compact and formidable body….’

Footnote:

* This conjecture may appear at first sight, to certain readers, wholly absurd and groundless. Nevertheless it will not seem altogether extravagant, if we reflect on the power of universally received prejudices on even the strongest minds.

About this time, and even long after it, the science of judicial astrology was studied by philosophers of the highest reputation, with great gravity, and, as they firmly believed, with great success. There is in the university of Petersburgh, a very able mathematician, who is making great progress in judicial astrology at this -very day [Faust.com note: 1783]. It is certain that the duke of Lerma was a firm believer in the doctrines of this science. See Anecdotes du Ministerc du Comte due D’Olivarez.

Men of sense, of the present times, struck with that mixture of genius and extravagance which distinguishes the writings of antiquity, are at a loss how to reconcile so much reason with such great extravagance; and suspect that many of the opinions delivered in those writings were not real, but popular and affected. There is not a doubt but posterity will entertain similar doubts concerning some of the doctrines of the seventeenth and even eighteenth century. Men are ever changing their opinions, yet ever wondering that the world did not always think as they do now.

Pasted from <http://books.google.ca/books?pg=PA462&dq=astrology&ei=SYVwTZGuMI_EgAexgfVB&ct=result&id=FjMJAAAAQAAJ&output=text>

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Herr Mikrokosmus

Herr Mikrokosmus: Faust as Astrologer

Abstract:

Although the earliest depictions of Faustus portray him as an astrologer, very few publications to date have touched on the role of astrology in the life of this infamous character. Parallel to the decline in astrological sciences beginning in the seventeenth century, post-Scientific Revolution depictions of Faust have deemphasized astrology as a primary pursuit of the figure. I examine the status of astrology in four versions of the Faust(us) myth: The anonymous Historia von D. Johann Fausten and its English translation/adaptation as The English Faust Book, Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, and Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus. I argue that the decline in the status of astrology corresponds to historically weakening belief in the analogy of microcosm and macrocosm as epistemologically relevant and analyze the implication of the Faust figure in genuinely modern quandaries of skepticism and aesthetic representation.

…
Excerpts:

“Due to an increased interest in magic during the Renaissance, the line
between astrology and necromancy, which is the practice of summoning spirits,
appears to have grown vague.”

…

“…we can now make sense of the title page of Marlowe’s Doctor
Faustus, on which Faust summons Mephistopheles from within a magic circle that is
inscribed with the signs of the Zodiac and the planetary glyphs.”

…

“…They claim that accurate astrological predictions necessitate
the guidance of a spirit, which would involve the heretical use of necromancy to
transgress God-given boundaries to cognition.”

Title: Herr Mikrokosmus: Faust as Astrologer
Author: Liggett, Catherine, 1984-

Pasted from <https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/10677> (Includes a downloadable PDF)

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In the Middle Ages Astrology and Alchemy were taught at

In the Middle Ages Astrology and Alchemy were taught at the university level. Faust knew both.

Although much about the original Faust is speculation, and his identity isn’t sure, he may have received a degree in Divinity from the University of Heidelberg in 1509, studied magic at the University of Kraków and lectured at the University of Ehrfut in central Germany.
https://www.faust.com/legend/johann-georg-faust/>

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The Divergence of Astrology & Astronomy

The Divergence of Astrology & Astronomy

“Astrology and astronomy were archaically treated together, and were only gradually separated in Western 17th century philosophy (the “Age of Reason”) with the rejection of astrology. During the later part of the medieval period, astronomy was treated as the foundation upon which astrology could operate.

Since the 18th century they have come to be regarded as completely separate disciplines. Astronomy, the study of objects and phenomena originating beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, is a scienceand is a widely-studied academic discipline. Astrology, which uses the apparent positions of celestial objects as the basis for the prediction of future events, is defined as a form of divination and is regarded by many as a pseudoscience having no scientific validity.”

…

“Astrology was widely accepted in medieval Europe as astrological texts from Hellenistic and Arabic astrologers were translated into Latin. In the late Middle Ages, its acceptance or rejection often depended on its reception in the royal courts of Europe. Not until the time of Francis Bacon was astrology rejected as a part of scholastic metaphysics rather than empirical observation. A more definitive split between astrology and astronomy in the West took place gradually in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when astrology was increasingly thought of as an occult science or superstition by the intellectual elite. Because of their lengthy shared history, it sometimes happens that the two are confused with one another even today.”

…

“For a long time the funding from astrology supported some astronomical research, which was in turn used to make more accurate ephemerides for use in astrology. In Medieval Europe the word Astronomia was often used to encompass both disciplines as this included the study of astronomy and astrology jointly and without a real distinction; this was one of the original Seven Liberal Arts. Kings and other rulers generally employed court astrologers to aid them in the decision making in their kingdoms, thereby funding astronomical research. University medical students were taught astrology as it was generally used in medical practice.”

…

“Astronomy and astrology diverged over the course of the 17th through 19th centuries. Copernicus didn’t practice astrology (nor empirical astronomy; his work was theoretical), but the most important astronomers before Isaac Newton were astrologers by profession – Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, and Galileo Galilei. Newton most likely rejected astrology, however (as did his contemporary Christiaan Huygens), and interest in astrology declined after his era, helped by the increasing popularity of a Cartesian, “mechanistic” cosmology in the Enlightenment.

Also relevant here was the development of better timekeeping instruments, initially for aid in navigation; improved timekeeping made it possible to make more exact astrological predictions—predictions which could be tested, and which consistently proved to be false. By the end of the 18th century, astronomy was one of the major sciences of the Enlightenment model, using the recently codified scientific method, and was altogether distinct from astrology.”

[Above are excerpts from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology_and_astronomy ]