How old is Faustus?

[shaxper]

We know that he's invested a reasonable amount of time into learning virtually all of the arts and that he is a respected man of learning at Wittenberg, but how old is he?  Why does he clarify in his contract with Mephistophales that he live 24 years and then be taken to hell?  Does he expect to be dead by then anyway, or is that simply a reasonable amount of time to demand?  Does anyone know if Faustus was given an age in the original legends, or whether a young or old actor originally performed the part?  I think it affecs how we view the character.  Is Faustus the foolish young man who has come too far too fast and believes he will never die, or is he an older man facing a sort of mid-life crisis and looking to burn out fantastically rather than dwindle?

[Ophelia]

Greetings. A very good question. Did anyone see the recent production in London? Faustus was played by a young actor, which was apparently a break of tradition from the old man Faustus is supposed to be. How can we be sure this is so? Faustus could just be a young, vain proud man, could he not?

[Desdemona]

While studying today, I read that Goethe has written a play called 'Faust'. I knew that already, but what I didn't know is that it is based on the life of a historical Dr. Johann Faustus. And the interesting thing is that he was born in 1480 and died in 1540, which could mean that at the beginning of the play(s) Dr. Faustus is 36 and at the end --24 years later-- 60. Because that's the age at which the historical Faustus died. Of course it's possible that the Faustus plays are based on the life of the historical Faustus, but that not everything is true to life --I find it very hard to believe that someone has actually experienced the 'adventures' described in the play   . I don't know, maybe the different poets having written a Faustus play didn't know the age of the real Faustus when he died, but I guess they probably did. Or maybe it just didn't matter to them?

[shaxper]

I was familiar with Goethe's play, but I had no idea that Faustus had died only four decades before Marlowe wrote the play.  I thought it was an old legend.  Rumors about the man were probably still rampant when Marlowe began writing.  I guess, in that respect, there probably wasn't much of an adherance to fact in the play.  After all, it's highly unlikely that Faustus was dealing with the Devil in the first place.  Chances are, he was simply experimenting with Wicca or alchemy.