Goethe’s Faust, Part One
Faust’s pact
Mephistopheles offers service here in exchange for Faust’s service when they meet again beyond this life. Faust answers by placing the decisive condition in his experience of the present. If he asks the flying moment to delay because it is so fair, the bargain may claim him. Mephistopheles then asks for the agreement to be signed with a drop of blood.
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In the sources
Principal account
LiteraryMephistopheles offers service here in exchange for Faust’s service when they meet again beyond this life. Faust answers by placing the decisive condition in his experience of the present.
Further detail
LiteraryIf he asks the flying moment to delay because it is so fair, the bargain may claim him. Mephistopheles then asks for the agreement to be signed with a drop of blood.
Context & interpretation
This entry follows the character, setting or motif in Part One of Goethe’s drama as translated by Bayard Taylor. Its supernatural events and spoken claims belong to the play, rather than serving as historical biography or independently established accounts of spirits.
Original passages
Source 1
Faust
When thus I hail the Moment flyingOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Goethe’s Faust, Part One; active reader leaf 94
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0088-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0088-E001-P0094
- Original scan leaf
- 95
- Recorded leaf number
- 95
- Current Reader position
- 91
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
Faust
subscribe thy name thou'lt take a drop of bloodOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Goethe’s Faust, Part One; active reader leaf 96
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0088-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0088-E001-P0096
- Original scan leaf
- 97
- Recorded leaf number
- 97
- Current Reader position
- 93
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed