Wagner hires Casper to serve his master—Doctor Faust. Destitute and crippled with debts, the latter makes a deal with the devil Mefisdofles: he will make him rich by helping him invent printing. In return, Mefisdofles demands that Faust sacrifice his parents and his wife. Faust murders his father, who has come to blame him for the death of his mother (she died of grief when she learnt that her son made a deal with the Devil). Meanwhile, Mefisdofles poisons Faust’s wife. Then Mefisdofles takes Faust and Casper to the court of Parma. But the courtiers envy the famous scholar and conspire against him: Mefisdofles helps him flee. Casper is sent to Hell, but he is soon let out. Everyone meets in Wittenberg: Faust repents, but he is then seduced by Helehne, whom Mefisdofles introduced to him; she changes into a skeleton when he tries to kiss her. At midnight, Faust is doomed and Casper, now a night watchman, marries the market gardener Anabakuduh, whom he meets in the street after curfew.

All audiences

Bille Johann August

Germany

Greiz

Typewriting

Poverty

Scholar

Professor

Necromancy

Sorcery

People and history

Printing

Debt

Parricide

Matricide

Feminicide

Perlike

Skittles

Poison

Dragon

Wittenberg

Death

Nightwatchman

Tragic

Farcical

Comical

Title page of the manuscript of Johann Georg Bille's Docter Faust

German

Kasperl

Christoph Wagner

Faust

Voice

Angel

Devil

Fury

Mephistopheles

Father

Duke of Parma

Duchess of Parma

Minister

Neighbour (female)

Monologue

Lazzi

Word for another

Song

Off-stage voice

Dilemma

Apparition

Macaronism

Repetition of a word

Pact with the devil

Comic equivocation

Murder on stage

Aside

Echoing lines

Flying machine

Brawl

Metamorphosis

Story

Bawdy equivocation

Final wedding

Docter Faust

Doctor Faustus