In This Piece The
Sublime And Terrible Border Close On The Ridiculous; For Instance The Devil
And Faust Come To Drink In A Beer-Schenk Or Ale-House.
'Tis true the Devil
is incognito at the time and is called "der Fremde" or "the Stranger"; it
is only towards the conclusion of the piece that he discovers himself to be
Satan....
The actor who played the part of the Stranger had something in
his physiognomy very terrific and awe-inspiring. In another scene, which to
us would appear laughable and absurd, but which pleases a German audience,
three women in masks come on the stage to meet Faust, in a churchyard, and
on unmasking display three skeleton heads.
Poor Faust had stipulated to give his soul to the Devil for aiding him in
the attainment of his desires; the Devil on his part agrees to allow him to
commit four deadly sins before he shall call on him to fulfil his contract.
Faust, in the sequel, kills his wife and his father-in-law. Satan then
claims him. Faust pleads in arrest of judgement, that he has only committed
two crimes out of the four for which he had agreed; and that there
consequently remained two others for him to commit before he could be
claimed. The Devil in rejoinder informs him that his wife was with child at
the time he killed her, which constituted the third crime, and that the
very act of making a contract with the Devil for his soul forms the fourth.
Faust, overwhelmed with confusion, has not a word to say; and Satan seizing
him by the hair of his head, carries him off in triumph.
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