The Sun.
London, England, 1827-11-23 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

ANCIENT ENGLISH FICTIONS.

DOCTOR FAUSTUS THE. CONJUROR.
• London, pp. 138.
Doctor Faustus is a name well known to the
devourers of German and English romance. He
was a student of .Wittenburg, who took to astro-
logical and theological studies (in which he sur-
passed all his cotemporaries) somewhere about
the middle of the 16th century. Not content
with this dangerous supremacy, lie must needs
study the black art ; but as in those ticklish
times, it was first necessary to take. out k license
for conjuration in the High Court of Tophet,
the Doctor was compelled to have recourse to the
Devil's attorney, Mephistophiles, who, on con.,
sideration of.his signing over his soul and body
to Beelzebub, granted him letters patent of pre_
cedence as a conjuror. This was the only
slip poor Vaustils made during a long and
. eod-natured easy
bustling He was a g
fellow, fong of, horse-racing,, fun, and. frolic
much given to female society, warmly attached
to his friends; devoted to literature, and no con-
temptible poet. The present volume, from which
we have deduced these . facts, sets out with
an amusing detail of the Doctor's early life
in which there was nothing remarkable, except
that at sixteen he 'was as illiterate as at six
months old.. He scion, however, made amends
for this ignorance, and acquired information so
rapidly, that at twenty-four years. of age he was a
first-rate classic, a capital mathematician, an ac-
complished talker, and as good a dancer as the
late Rev. Mr. Maturin. It was just at this pe-
riod when " he had gat himself a name for much
good learnynge," that he one day walked into a
wood near Wittenberg (now, we fear, enclosed),
and, after a few preliminary exorcisms, conjured
tjp the Devil, who forthwith appeared before
'inn in the disguise of a Grey Friar. Their in-
terview is thus detailed :
" Presently the devil began so great a rumour in the
wood, as if heaven and eart would have come together,
with wind, and trees bowed their tops to the ground, then
fell the devil to roar, as if the whole wood had been full of
lyons, and suddenly about the circle run the devil, as if a
thousand waggons had been running together on paved-
stones : after this, at the four corners of the wood it thun.
deed horribly, with such lightning, 'as the whole world to
his seeming had been on fire. Faustus all this while, half
amazed at the devil's so long tarrying, and doubting whe-
ther he were best to abide, any More such horrible conjur-
ings, thought to leave his circle, and depart, whereupon
the devil made him such tnusick of all sorts, as if the
nymphs themselves had been in- the place : whereat .Faus-
tus revived, and stood stoutly in his circle, expecting his
purpose, and began again to conjure the spirit Mephisto-
philes in the name of the Prince of Devils, to appear in his
likeness ; whereat suddenly, over his head hung hovering
in the air a mighty dragon; then calls Faustus again after
his devilish manner, at which there was a monstrous cry
in the wood, as if hell had been open, and all the torment-
ed 'souls cursing their condition., Presently, not three
fathom above his head, fell a flame in manner of lightning,
and changed itself into a globe; yet Faustus feared it not,
but did persuade himself that the devil should give him his
request before he would leave. . Oftentimes after to his
companions he would boast that be had the stoutest head
under the.cope of heaven at command. 'Whereat they an-
swered, " They knew no stouter than the Pope or Eui-
peror." But Dr. Faustus said, " The bead that is my
servant, is above non earth ;" and repeated certain
-wiirds of St. Paul to the Ephesians;:to make his argument
good, " The Prince of the World is upon earth and under
heaven." Well, let us come again to his conjuration
where we left him at the fiery globe Faustus vexed at
his spirit's so long tarrying, used his charms', with full pur-
pose not to depart before he had his intent ; and crying on
Mephistophiles the spirit, suddenly the globe Opened, and
sprung up in the height of a man, so burning a time, in the
end it converted to the shape of a fiery man. This plea-
sant beast ran about the circle a great while, and lastly,
appeared in the manner of a Gray Fryer, asking Faustus,
what was his request? Faustus commanded, that the next
morning at twelve of the clock he should appear to him.at
his house."
Punctual to his appointment, Satan—or
rather Mephistophiles—next day made Isis ap-
pearance ; on which Faustus candidly told him,
that his request was none other but to become
a devil, or, at the least, a limb of him !" Me-
phistophiles replied that he would make him free
of Tophet, provided that, in return, he would
give him a promissory-note for his soul and
body payable on demand one hour after death.
To this the wicked Doctor, wrapt up in " his
devilish cogitations," gave an immediate assent,
and was forthwith introduced by his visitor
into Pandemonium, as a free and an accepted
devil; on which the author exclaims—" thus
the spirits and Faustus were agreed, and
dwelt together; no doubt there was a virtuous
housekeeping." In a few months afterwards the
Doctor, beginning to tire of single bles-
sedness, " bethought him of a spouse ;"
but, on hinting his intentions to Mephis-
tophilcs was told that if ha dared to persist
in such folly lie should be torn into " divers
pieces?' He therefore wisely eschewed all further
thoughts of matrimony, but gave himself up in-
stead to visiting Heaven and Hell, in company
with his obsequious Familiar, who every now and
then gave him a sly rub on the score of his ill-
judged, bargain, assuring him, on the honour
of a gentleman, that when his appointed
hour was arrived, the devil would not fail
to come -in state and fetch hurl home.
Having sufficiently acquainted himself with the
nature of the thing above and- the things beneath
him, our worthy Doctor next turned his atten-
tion to the different European Comts, each of
which he visited successively as a travelling con-
juror. In one place he cut off the head of an
English Ambassador at Vienna (this is not the
only instance we have known of an English Am-
bassador at Vienna being without a head,) in
another he bolted a waggon load of hay at a
mouthful: in Bavaria he pawned his right leg to
a Jew for money, and then summoned him to
Bow-street for the larceny ; at, Wittenberg he
sacrilegiously made free with the Bishop of
Salisbury's wine cellar, and stuck the butler
head-downwards on the top of an elm-tree ;
in Constantinople he locked the Grand Seignor
out ,f his own Seraglio, and paid his addresses
to his nine hundred wives during his absence ;
at Rome lie transported himself invisibly into
the Pope's State dinner-room, saluted his Holi-
ness with a tweak of the nose of remarkable
energy (for which Messrs. Shiell and O'Connell
will, no doubt, execrate his memory, the Doctor
being a staunch Protestant), and not satisfied
with this insult, had the audacity to drink off
his Holiness's choicest wine, and floor the two
Cardinals who stood near him. At the Court
of Auhalt he conjured up some grapes for the
Queen, who was, "as ladies wish to be who
love their lords," and was in consequence offered
a pension which he declined (the Marquis of

-----
Londonderry, has generously followed his ex-
ample) : at Munich, in Bavaria, he prevailed
upon a roasted calves-head to cry out murder,
and lastly, by way of finale, called up the spirit of
Helen, who seems by the description given of her
to have possessed rather more flesh and blood than
usually. falls to the lot of apparitions. He
wrought, says our author, "divers other marvels,"
the least of which would put the Indian Jugglers
to the blush—after which, having nothing more
to do, he made his will, and began seriously to pre-
pare himself for his latter end. Mephistophiles,
however, adroitly contrived to prevent him relaps-
ing too deeply into religion, and precis-ely as the
Wittenburg Church clock struck midnight (the
Doctor's allotted twenty-four years having duly
expired) bore him off to Tophet in the shape of
a Barbary ape, much to the astonishment of an
old lady who was purchasing some castor oil at
an apothecary's shop, right • opposite. " Ani
thus" concludes our quaint but amusing old
author, ". ended. the whole history of Doctor
Faustus, .bis conjurations and other acts that he
• did in his life, out of which example every
Christian may,learn, but 'chiefly, the stiff-necked,
to fear Gon, and be careful of their vocation,
and to be at defiance with all devilish works ;
and not to invite the Devil as a guest nor give
him place, as that wicked Faustus bath done."
We would not wish to weaken the effects of
this impressive moral by any additions of
our own ; so setting all further homily aside,
we will merely say a word or two on the literary
peculiarities of the present volume. Its style,
though quaint, is remarkably pure and vigor-
ous, occasionally in its supernatural descrip-
tions, rising to something not unlike sublimity.
Its display of learning, too, is far from con-
temptible ; and in its few comic scenes, there is
a brisk and lively spirit, which, though purposely
kept down, proves that our author had the true
Rabelaisian leaven about him. Add to this a
strong earnest simplicity (for throughout his nar-
rative he seems convinced that he is relating a
fact), and the reader will be at no loss to con-
ceive, that " the life of Dr. Faustus" must be
richly amusing, even in its most deplorable ab-
surdities. We should not omit to state that
Marlowe has drawn his comic scenes (the mag-
nificent tragic one is all his own) from its pages ;
Goethe, the first crude idea of his unique Me-
phistophiles, and Maturin, the account of Mel-
moth's last midnight interview with Juan di
Moncada, in Ireland. We have merely to add,
that the book is a translation from the German,
published in England somewhere about the year
1596; and now for the first time re-published.

IRELAND.—DumAN, Nov. 19.

TZTENSIVE EMBEZZLEMENT BY A ROMAN CATHOLIC

• PRIEST.
This day the Rev. Joseph Murphy, a respectable
Catholic clergyman, and principal of a very thriving
seminary at Drumcondra, near Dublin, was brought
up to the head office .of police in custody, having
yesterday evening been arrested upon a warrant from
the Mayor of Drogheda, charged with appropriating
to his own use certain debentures lodged in his
.hands by a Widow lady in that.town. The warrant
was grounded upon the information of Mrs. Mary
Holmes, widow lady, of Drogheda, who swore, that
some years since Messrs. James and G. Metcalf, of
that town, had purchased for her a number of deben-
tures,--that upon their decease the whole of these
debentures, with an account of their disposal and
investment, were handed over to herself. She fur-
ther stated, that the Rev. Mr. Murphy, who then
resided in Drogheda, enjoyed a considerable pertion
of her confidence, and that under these circum-
stances she handed over to him the whole of her
debentures, in amount 44,000/.; desiring him to have
the property invested in her name, and to employ
the interest receivable upon them in the purchase of
more debentures for her. This occurred in the end
of 1819, or the commencement of 1820. From that
period, according to her statement, down to April
last, the Rev. Mr. Murphy continued to receive the
interest on these debentures, and always reported to
her that he was acting faithfully according to her di-
rections. She further swore that from time to time in
this interval, he called upon, and received from her
various sius, which he stated were necessary to
add to the interesLof the debentures, for the pur-
pose of purchasing more, and he always told her
that the 44;0001. were invested in her name. On
the 4th of April last she swore that she applied to
him for half a year's interest, and that he refused to
comply with her application. Thereupon she de-
sired a relation of her s, an attorney named Connor,
land the prosecutor in this instance, to go to the Bank
of Ireland, where Mr. Murphy had stated that the
debentures were invested in the 5 per Cents., and
endeavour to trace them. He did so accordingly,
and upon examination, found in October, 1819, there
appeared five debentures invested in her name in the
I, 5 per Cent. securities: but that none since had been
added to them. It appeared further, that these had
been subsequently sold out, and she swore that the
'transfer was effected without her knowledge or con-
sent. On the contrary, she believed that up to that
time the money was regularly standing ia he name
in the 5 per Cents. Upon this information, coupled
with those of two others, the Mayor of Drogheda
(Mr. Huey) issued a warrant for the apprehension
of Mr. Murphy. This was transmitted to the head
office of police in Dublin, where it was backed
dandd
given to two officers for execution. They proceee
yesterday afternoon for Drumcondra, where hey suc-
ceeded in taking the prisoner into custody,
veyed him to this office. In the mean time, he
t and con-
comMunicatetl with his friends, and several most re-
spectable gentlemen attended at the office this day
for the purpose of tendering bail.
Messrs. O'CoriNELL and SHILL were in attend-
ance for the prisoner, and contended that the war-
rant, which was under the 52d of the late King, was
materially defective in many instances. It appeared
to be a most loose one, not stating that the deben-
tures were intrusted to Mr. Murphy for any specific
purpose; further, it did not allege that they were
not at present in the Bank ; it omitted to state whe-
ther the debentures had been given to the prisoner
by this lady, who was, it was stated, upwards of 90
years old, and in a state of dotage ; nor did it state
that he had appropriated them to his own use.
The Magistrates said, if such a defective warrant
had come before them in the first instance, they
would have declined to act on it.
Mr. O'CoNNEI added, that the whole prosecu-
tion would turn out a speculation which he should
not characterize. The old lady had, from his ear-
liest years, adopted the Rev. Gentleman, treated him
with the utmost kindness, and actually given these
debentures to him for himself. She had now made
a will to that effect.
The Magistrates required two sureties as bail, in
the sum of 2,500/: each, for the prisoner's attend-
ance at the next Drogheda Assizes to stand his trial,
which was immediately tendered and accepted.
This affair has excited considerable interest in