Body

Abstract

In Faustus (‘B’ text 4.1) the ‘renowned magician’ puts on a little show to amuse the German emperor:

Enter at one [door] the Emperor ALEXANDER, at the other DARIUS. They meet; Darius is thrown down. Alexander kills him, takes off his crown, and, offering to go out, his Paramour meets him. He embraceth her and set Darious’s crown upon her head; and, coming back, both salute the [German] Emperor, who, leaving his state, offers to embrace them, which Faustus seeing suddenly stays him. (4.1.101)²

The emperor, suavely admonished by Faustus—‘My gracious lord, you do forget yourself / These are but shadows, not substantial’ (102–3)—obligingly retorts: ‘O, pardon me. My thoughts are so ravished / With sight of this renowed emperor / That in mine arms I would have compassed him’ (104–6). This scene enacts an apotheosis of limits. First, the limits of the heroic warriors’ interaction, ended without words by sudden killing. Second, the limits to Alexander’s erotic affection, deceitfully sublimated from genuine embrace to ritual crowning. Third, the limits to the emperor’s desire, wrongly lured by theatrical shadows. And finally, the limits of the show itself, marked by the ‘doors’ at which Alexander and Darious enter.

Für Nietzsche ist der Mensch das noch nicht festgestellte Tier.

Heidegger¹