E X T E N S I O N THE REAL DR FAUSTUS Selling your soul to the devil or making a pact or a deal with the devil is not an unfamiliar theme and can be defined as one of the most famous legends in Western folklore and literature. It has inspired many popular films, television shows, books, plays and music, and it usually means that a person offers his or her soul to the devil in exchange for youth, knowledge, wealth or power. But why is this theme so popular? Besides the constant attempt of man to equal God or nature which has always inspired many writers, one of the reasons could be that Faustus s character was in fact built on a real person who lived in Germany between the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries. In Elizabethan times, for news of alchemy1, astrology and sorcery Englishmen naturally looked towards Germany. On the one hand because Germany was still an undiscovered country and it was therefore associated with mystery and magic, on the other hand because some famous physicians2 and legendary figures like Paracelsus3 and a certain Johann Georg Faust (1480 1540) were born there. According to the records, Dr Johann Georg Faust was a travelling alchemist, astrologer and magician of the German Renaissance. His life became the heart of the popular tale of Doctor Faust from the 1580s, culminating in Marlowe s The Tragicall History of Doctor Faustus and Goethe s Faust (1808). Legend says that Doctor Johann Faust wanted a life of pleasure and learned how to call for the devil. He then made a pact with him: his soul in return for 24 years of service from Satan. 1. alchemy: a form of chemistry that tried to discover an elixir of life and a method for changing metals into gold. 2. physicians: doctors of medicine. 3. Paracelsus: Renaissance physician, botanist, and alchemist. 38