7.28 Goethe — «Faust I» (the study scenes) — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read the two study scenes of Goethe's Faust in the first edition of 1808: the poodle that turns into the devil, and the wager between Faust and Mephistopheles. Read the spelling used before 1901: That, Theil, seyn, bey, Thür for modern Tat, Teil, sein, bei, Tür . Follow rhymed verse with shortened words such as hab' , heil'gem , würd'ger , and the poetic order des Pudels Kern . Understand lines that have become everyday German: des Pudels Kern , Ich bin der Geist, der stets verneint , Verweile doch! du bist so schön! Sentences from this text, before the notes. Read the German aloud; all of them come back below. German English Der Teufel kann nicht aus dem Haus. The devil cannot get out of the house. Mir hilft der Geist! The Spirit helps me! Ich bin der Geist der stets verneint! I am the spirit that always denies! Ich muß es anders übersetzen I must translate it differently Welch ein Gespenst bracht’ ich ins Haus! What a ghost I have brought into the house! Das also war des Pudels Kern! So that was what was inside the poodle! Prerequisites : 7.27 — you need Goethe's language from 7.26 Reading and 7.27 Reading , conditions with the verb first from 2.23 Grammar , and the vocabulary of philosophy from 5.18 Vocabulary . About this text Goethe worked on Faust for most of his life. The first part, Der Tragödie erster Teil , appeared in 1808 in Tübingen with the publisher Cotta; the second part was published after his death in 1832. The story comes from a sixteenth-century legend about a scholar who sold his soul to the devil. Goethe's Faust is a professor who has studied philosophy, law, medicine and theology and knows that he knows nothing. In the first scenes he despairs and nearly takes poison; on Easter morning the church bells hold him back. On an Easter walk outside the town, a black poodle follows him home. This excerpt contains the first study scene, Studirzimmer in the spelling of 1808, and the second study scene up to the moment when Faust agrees to sign the pact in blood. It is about 3,200 words, from the transcription of the first edition in German Wikisource, unchanged except that the printed page numbers are left out and the stage direction for Mephistopheles' entrance is joined into one line. Each line of verse is printed as its own line. Speakers' names and stage directions stand on their own lines too: Faust. , Mephistopheles. , Geister auf dem Gange. Faust uses several kinds of verse. Faust's first monologue, at the start of the scene Nacht , is in Knittelvers , an old German metre of rhymed lines with four stresses and a free number of unstressed syllables. The study scenes are mostly in freer rhymed lines of different lengths, often with four or five stresses, and the spirits sing in short lines. You will learn to read these forms aloud in 2.40 Grammar . For now, read for the rhyme: almost every line rhymes with a line near it, often the next but one, and the rhymes help you find where a sentence ends. Grammar in the text The spelling of 1808. Before the reform of 1901, German wrote th in many native words and y in some diphthongs. Read That as Tat , Theil as Teil , Thür' as Tür , seyn as sein , bey as bei , freylich as freilich , giebt as gibt . The pronunciation is the same. Goethe also writes Conzert with c , where modern German has Konzert . Shortened words. The metre often needs one syllable less, so a vowel is dropped and marked with an apostrophe: Verlassen hab’ ich Feld und Auen , Mit ahndungsvollem heil’gem Grauen , würd’ger for würdiger , bracht’ ich for brachte ich . Read the full form in your head, but say the short one. The genitive before the noun. Poetry puts the genitive first: nach des Lebens Bächen , after the streams of life ; der Wesen Tiefe , the depth of beings ; dieser Schwelle Zauber , the spell of this threshold ; and Das also war des Pudels Kern! , so that was the core of the poodle . This last line is now an idiom: das ist des Pudels Kern means that is the heart of the matter . The wager as a condition. Faust states his bet with the verb first, as in 2.23 Grammar : Werd’ ich zum Augenblicke sagen: Verweile doch! du bist so schön! Dann magst du mich in Fesseln schlagen . If ever I say to the moment: stay, you are so beautiful, then you may put me in chains. The same pattern runs through his speech: Werd’ ich beruhigt je mich auf ein Faulbett legen, So sey es gleich um mich gethan! Ihr and du . Mephistopheles first greets Faust as a scholar, with the polite Ihr : Ich salutire den gelehrten Herrn! Ihr habt mich weidlich schwitzen machen. Faust answers with du , as a master speaks to a spirit he has caught, and Mephistopheles soon does the same. When Faust speaks of devils in general he says ihr Herren , with some irony. Translating the Bible. Faust tries to translate the first verse of the Gospel of John into German. Luther's Bible has Im Anfang war das Wort . Faust rejects Wort , tries Sinn , then Kraft , and settles on That . The four nouns sum up his character: he values action above words. Reading it a second time, section by section Faust and the poodle. Back in his study, Faust feels calm and full of love for humanity. The poodle runs about and growls. Faust opens the New Testament and translates: im Anfang war die That! The poodle howls and barks, and as Faust threatens to throw it out it swells into a monster as big as a hippopotamus. The spells. Spirits in the corridor whisper that one of them is caught inside. Faust tries the spell of the four elements, then a stronger holy sign. The mist falls, and Mephistopheles steps out from behind the stove, dressed as a travelling student. Who are you? Mephistopheles introduces himself in riddles: Ein Theil von jener Kraft, Die stets das Böse will und stets das Gute schafft , a part of that power which always wants evil and always creates good. Ich bin der Geist der stets verneint! He would like to destroy the world, but life keeps returning. The pentagram. Mephistopheles wa