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قراءة كتاب Faustus his Life, Death, and Doom

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Faustus his Life, Death, and Doom

Faustus his Life, Death, and Doom

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
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Faustus, by Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger

Transcribed from the 1864 W. Kent and Co. edition by David Price, email [email protected]

FAUSTUS:
his
LIFE, DEATH, AND DOOM.

A ROMANCE IN PROSE.

Translated from the German.

      “Speed thee, speed thee,
      Liberty lead thee,
Many this night shall hearken and heed thee.
      Far abroad,
      Demi-god,
Who shall appal thee!
Javal, or devil, or what else we call thee.”

london:
W. KENT AND CO., PATERNOSTER-ROW.
1864.

london:
robson and levey, printers, great new street,
fetter lane.

THE TRANSLATOR TO THE PUBLIC.

The publication of the present volume may at first sight appear to require some brief explanation from the Translator, inasmuch as the character of the incidents may justify such an expectation on the part of the reader.  It is therefore necessary to state, that although strange scenes of vice and crime are here exhibited, it is in the hope that they may serve as beacons, to guide the ignorant and unwary from the shoals on which they might otherwise be wrecked.

The work, when considered as a whole, is strictly moral.  The Catholic priest is not praised for burning his fellow-creature at an auto-da-fé, and for wallowing in licentiousness; nor is the Calvinist commended for his unrelenting malignity to all those whose tenets are different from his own, and for crying down the most innocent pleasures and relaxations which a bountiful and just God has been pleased to place within the reach of his earthly children.

The tyrant and the oppressor of mankind will here find himself depicted in his proper colours.

Neither will the champions of freedom pass the fiery ordeal with feet unseared; since a glorious

specimen of what they all are will be found among the following pages.  Ye who with ever-open mouths are constantly clamouring at whatever is established, whether it be beneficial to the human race or injurious, will here find the motives for your conduct pointed out and held up to contempt and execration.

But, above all, this work contains the following highly useful advice:

Let every one bear his lot with patience, and not seek, at the expense of his repose, to penetrate into those secrets which the spirit of man, while dressed in the garb of mortality, cannot and must not unveil.  Let every one bridle those emotions which the strange and frequently revolting phenomena of the moral world may cause to arise in his bosom, and beware of deciding upon them; for He alone who has power to check or permit them, can know how and why they happen, whither they tend, and what will be their ultimate consequence.  To the mind of man all is dark; he is an enigma to himself: let him live, therefore, in the hope of once seeing clearly; and happy indeed is he who in this manner passes his days.

The present translation, it should be added, has been executed with as much fidelity to the original as the difference of the two languages, and other considerations, would allow.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Ambitious Character of Faustus—His Discovery of Printing—Journey to Frankfort—The Devil, the White Nun, and Father Gebhardt of Mayence—Faustus offers his Bible to the Council of Frankfort—His first Interview with a Spirit—The Infernal Banquet—Speech of Satan—Allegorical Entertainments of Leviathan—Faustus’s Dialogue with the Devil

1

CHAPTER II.

Leviathan meets Faustus at an Inn at Frankfort—Assembling of the Council, and Discussion on Faustus’s Bible—Corporation Squabbles—Leviathan and Faustus invited to a grand Civic Entertainment—Faustus presents his Bible to the City—His Introduction to the Mayoress—Knighthood of the Mayor—The Devil’s Revenge on the Corrupt Corporation—The Hermit of Homburg—A Lesson to Misanthropists—The Hermit and the lovely Pilgrim—His Hut burnt by Leviathan, and he perishes in the Flames—Faustus returns to his Wife and Family at Mayence—Espouses the Cause of a despairing Client, and corrupts the Judge—Dispute about the Nun Clara—Leviathan’s Revenge on the avaricious Judge—Faustus’s Adventure with Clara—Takes leave of his Family—Rescues a Youth from Drowning

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CHAPTER III.

The Devil and Faustus continue their Journey on the Banks of the Fulda—The oppressive Prince-Bishop—Faustus’s Interview with the Bishop—Clerical Luxury—Case of Dr. Robertus, the Protector of the People—Faustus espouses his Cause, and liberates the “Patriot”—The Devil and Faustus visit the Court of the Prince of ---.—The betrayed Minister and his Daughter—The Devil and Faustus imprisoned—The Fiend suffocates the Prince, and, with Faustus, resumes his Journey—The Wildgrave and burning Village—The infatuated Monk—School of Physiognomy—Faustus and the Virgin Student—The Devil’s Peep-show, and its Talismanic Influence—Portrait of the Fiend

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CHAPTER IV.

France in the Reign of Louis XI.—Interview of the Devil and Faustus with Father Vesois—Loves of Madame de Monserau—Faustus and the French Widow—The Fatal Supper—Arrival of Faustus and the Devil at Paris—Execution of the Duke of Nemours—Faustus and the avaricious Father—Infanticide recommended—Horrible Death of the Miser, and Ruin of his Daughter—Trial of a humane Surgeon, and ungrateful Murderer—Anatomical Cruelties—Prisons of Paris—Bishop of Verdun’s Cages—Perillus, the Tyrant Phalaris, and the Brazen Bull—Atrocious Character of Louis XI.—The Hermit of Calabria—Faustus and the Devil visit England—Cruelties of Richard, Duke of Gloucester—The Devil’s Portraiture of the English Character—Arrival of Faustus and the Fiend at Milan—Murder of the Duke

Galeas Sforza—Florence—Spanish Auto-da-Fé—Pope Alexander VI.—Combat of a Papal General with one of his Officers for a White Goat—Machinations of the Pope—Ancient and Modern Rome, and her Abominations—Cardinal Cæsar Borgia—Licentious Entertainments at the Vatican—The Pope and his Illegitimates—Cæsar Borgia and

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