A " FAUST " PROBLEM. 



C Faust," I, 1335-1334-) 



By Prof. WiLLEM Sybrand Logeman. B.A., L.H.C. 



Among the many hard nuts which Goethe has presented in 

 his " Faust " to readers and commentators the passage indicated 

 in the title of this paper is one of the hardest. That some com- 

 mentators pass over these hnes, or part of them, with no. or 

 very brief, comment, as if' the meaning was fairly clear and 

 needed but little elucidation, and that others explain obsciiniin 

 per ohscurius — and even some of the greatest and best are here 

 guilty of that fault — is but a proof that not every guide can 

 always be trusted, and a fresh illustration of the well-known 

 " quandoque dormitat Homerus." 



Let me first recall the lines to my readers. I will give the 

 passage first in the original and then as it is rendered in English 

 by Mr. Bavard Taylor in his admirable translation.* 



Me]>histopheles having revealed himself as " des Pudels 

 Kern" (the poodle's real core), Faust asks him: 



Wer bist du denn? 

 Meph- : Ein Teil von jener Kraft, 



Die stets das Bose will iind stets das'Gute schafft, 

 Faust: Was ist mit diesem Ratselwort gemeint? 

 Mcph. : Ich bin der Geist der stets verneint ! 



Und das mit Recht ; denn alles was entsteht 



1st werth dass es zu Grunde geht ; 



Drum besser war's, dass nichts enstunde. 



So ist denn alles was ihr Svinde. 



Zerstorung Kurz das Bcise nennt. 



Mein eigentliches Element- 



Or in English : 



Faust: Wlio art thou? 



Meph. : Part of that Power, not understood. 



Which always wills the Bad, and always works the Good- 

 Faust. : What hidden sense in this enigma lies? 

 Meph. : I am the Spirit that Denies I 



And justly so: for all things, from the Void 



Called forth, deserve to be destroyed : 



'Twere better, then, were naught created ; 



Thus, all which you as Sin have rated, 



Destruction, — aught with Evil blent, — 



That is my proper element. 



It is my intention, in this short paper, first to quote what some 

 of the most authoritative " Faust " commentators have .said in 

 elucidation of these lines, and to show by a short discussion the 

 insufiiciency of their explanations, and secondly, to attempt to put 

 before you as briefly and as clearly as I can what I believe to 

 be the'sense of Mephisto's Ratselwort and of his own paraphrase 

 of the same. 



Two lines — or I might perhaps say one line and one word — 

 demand such explanation; if we can feel sure that we understand 



* Published by Frederick Warne & Co., Bedford Street, Strand. 

 A 



