hero of one of the most durable legends in Western folklore and literature, the story of a German necromancer or astrologer who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. There was a historical Faust, indeed perhaps two, one of whom more than once alluded to the devil as his Schwager, or crony. One or both died about 1540, leaving a tangled legend of sorcery and alchemy, astrology and soothsaying, studies theological and diabolical, necromancy and, indeed, sodomy. Contemporary references indicate that he was widely traveled and fairly well known, but all observers testify to his evil reputation. Contemporary humanist scholars scoffed at his magical feats as petty and fraudulent, but he was taken seriously by the Lutheran clergy, among them Martin Luther and Philippe Melanchthon. Ironically, the relatively obscure Faust came to be preserved in legend as the representative magician of the age that produced such occultists and seers as Paracelsus, Nostradamus, and Agrippa von Nettesheim.

The Faustbuch was speedily translated and read throughout Europe. An English prose translation of 1592 inspired the play The Tragical History of D. Faustus (1604) by Christopher Marlowe (Marlowe, Christopher), who, for the first time, invested the Faust legend with tragic dignity. His play invoked more effectively than the original the summoning from the underworld of Helen of Troy to seal Faust's damnation. Marlowe retained much of the coarse humour and clownish episodes of the Faustbuch, and German versions of Marlowe's play compounded them. This association of tragedy and buffoonery remained an inherent part of the Faust dramas and puppet plays that were popular for two centuries. In the early versions, Faust's eternal damnation was never in doubt.