ABSTRACT
The three prefatory scenes to Faust, which, it should be noted, are evidently intended to preface the whole work, not simply the first part, might be described respectively as the lyrical, dramatic and epic prolegomena to the drama. The ‘Zueignung’ records the poet’s private feelings at resuming work on a project that belongs to his increasingly distant youth. The ‘Vorspiel’, ostensibly a discussion of the theatre, its relationship with and its obligations to the public, also contrives to suggest the fiction that the subsequent action is the very performance now being worked out by the three principals of a somewhat rough-and-ready travelling company. The ‘Prolog’ provides a cosmic dimension in which not only are momentous issues raised concerning good and evil, man’s place in the divine scheme, his destiny and his salvation sub specie aeternitatis, but also the earthly life of one man, Faust, is shown to be not without the sanction and protection of a higher power, unbeknown to him. As in some classical and Baroque drama, an individual human destiny is observed by, and is to some extent even the plaything of, forces beyond himself- an actor in the great theatre of the world.
