Faustus

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Faust \Faust\, Faustus \Faust"us\n.
     an alchemist of German legend who sold his soul to the devil
     in exchange for knowledge.
  
     Syn: Faust.
          [WordNet 1.5] Faust



From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Faust \Faust\, or Faustus \Faustus\ (f[^a]s"tus).,
     Doctor Johann Faust, a person born at Kundling (Knittlingen),
     W["u]rtemberg, or at Roda, near Weimar, and said to have died
     in 1588. He was a man of licentious character, a magician,
     astrologer, and soothsayer, who boasted of performing the
     miracles of Christ. It was believed that he was carried off
     at last by the devil, who had lived with him in the form of a
     black dog.
     [Century Dict. 1906]
  
     Note: The legends of Faust were gathered from the then recent
           traditions concerning him in a book which appeared at
           the book-fair at Frankfurt-on-the-Main in 1587. It was
           called "The History of Dr. Faustus, the Notorious
           Magician and Master of the Black Art, etc." Soon after
           its appearance it became known in England.
  
                 A metrical version of it into English was
                 licensed by Aylmer, Bishop of London, before the
                 end of the year. In 1588 there was a rimed
                 version of it into German, also a translation
                 into low German, and a new edition of the
                 original with some slight changes. In 1689 there
                 appeared a version of the first German Faust book
                 into, French, by Victor Palma Cayet. The English
                 prose version was made from the second edition of
                 the original, that of 1588, and is undated, but
                 probably was made at once. There was a revised
                 edition of it in 1592. In 1592 there was a Dutch
                 translation from the second German edition. This
                 gives the time of the carrying off of Faustus by
                 the devil as the night between the twenty-third
                 and twenty-fourth of October, 1538. The English
                 version also gives 1538 as the year, and it is a
                 date, as we have seen, consistent with
                 trustworthy references to his actual life.
                 Marlowe's play (' The Tragical History of Doctor
                 Faustus ') was probably written in 1588, soon
                 after the original story had found its way to
                 England. He treated the legend as a poet,
                 bringing out with all his power its central
                 thought -- man in the pride of knowledge turning
                 from his God.                      --(Morley,
                                                    Eng. Writers,
                                                    IX. 254.)
           This play was brought to Germany about the beginning of
           the 17th century, and, after passing through various
           developments on the stage, finally became a
           puppet-play, which is still in existence. Lessing wrote
           parts of two versions of the story. M["u]ller, the
           painter, published two fragments of his dramatized life
           of Faust in 1778. Goethe's tragedy (which see) was not
           published till 1808. Klinger published a romance
           "Faust's Leben, Thaten und H["o]llenfahrt" (1791:
           Borrow translated it in 1826). Klingemann published a
           tragedy on the subject (1815), Heine a ballet "Der
           Doctor Faust, ein Tanzpoem" (1851), and Lenau an epic
           "Faust" (1836). W. G. Wills adapted a play from
           Goethe's "Faust," which Henry Irving produced in 1885.
           Calderon's play "El Magico Prodigioso " strongly
           resembles Goethe's and Marlowe's plays, though founded
           on the legend of St. Cyprian.
           [Century Dict. 1906]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  Faustus
       n : an alchemist of German legend who sold his soul to
           Mephistopheles in exchange for knowledge [syn: {Faust}]