The Project Gutenberg EBook of Faust, by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Faust Author: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Release Date: January 4, 2005 [EBook #14591] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAUST *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Chuck Greif and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team
by
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH, IN THE ORIGINAL METRES, BY
An Illustrated Edition
THE WORLD PUBLISHING COMPANY
CLEVELAND, OHIO NEW YORK, N.Y.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS
PREFACE
AN
GOETHE
DEDICATION
PRELUDE
AT THE THEATRE
PROLOGUE IN
HEAVEN
FAUST
SCENE I. NIGHT (Faust's Monologue)
II.
BEFORE THE CITY-GATE
III. THE STUDY (The
Exorcism)
IV. THE STUDY (The Compact)
V.
AUERBACH'S CELLAR
VI. WITCHES' KITCHEN
VII.
A STREET
VIII. EVENING
IX.
PROMENADE
X. THE NEIGHBOR'S HOUSE
XI.
STREET
XII. GARDEN
XIII.
A GARDEN-ARBOR
XIV. FOREST AND CAVERN
XV.
MARGARET'S ROOM
XVI. MARTHA'S GARDEN
XVII.
AT THE FOUNTAIN
XVIII. DONJON (Margaret's
Prayer)
XIX. NIGHT (Valentine's Death)
XX.
CATHEDRAL
XXI. WALPURGIS-NIGHT
XXII.
OBERON AND TITANIA'S GOLDEN WEDDING
XXIII.
DREARY DAY
XXIV. NIGHT
XXV.
DUNGEON
It is twenty years since I first determined to attempt the translation of Faust, in the original metres. At that time, although more than a score of English translations of the First Part, and three or four of the Second Part, were in existence, the experiment had not yet been made. The prose version of Hayward seemed to have been accepted as the standard, in default of anything more satisfactory: the English critics, generally sustaining the translator in his views concerning the secondary importance of form in Poetry, practically discouraged any further attempt; and no one, familiar with rhythmical expression through the needs of his own nature, had devoted the necessary love and patience to an adequate reproduction of the great work of Goethe's life.
Mr. Brooks was the first to undertake the task, and the publication of his translation of the First Part (in 1856) induced me, for a time, to give up my own design. No previous English version exhibited such abnegation of the translator's own tastes and habits of thought, such reverent desire to present the original in its purest form. The care and conscience with which the work had been performed were so apparent, that I now state with reluctance what then seemed to me to be its only deficiencies,—a lack of the lyrical fire and fluency of the original in some passages, and an occasional lowering of the tone through the use of words which are literal, but not equivalent. The plan of translation adopted by Mr. Brooks was so entirely my own, that when further residence in Germany and a more careful study of both parts of Faust had satisfied me that the field was still open,—that the means furnished by the poetical affinity of the two languages had not yet been exhausted,—nothing remained for me but to follow him in all essential particulars. His example confirmed me in the belief that there were few difficulties in the way of a nearly literal yet thoroughly rhythmical version of Faust, which might not be overcome by loving labor. A comparison of seventeen English translations, in the arbitrary metres adopted by the translators, sufficiently showed the danger of allowing license in this respect: the white light of Goethe's thought was thereby passed through the tinted glass of other minds, and assumed the coloring of each. Moreover, the plea of selecting different metres in the hope of producing a similar effect is unreasonable, where the identical metres are possible.
The value of form, in a poetical work, is the first question to be considered. No poet ever understood this question more thoroughly than Goethe himself, or expressed a more positive opinion in regard to it. The alternative modes of translation which he presents (reported by Riemer, quoted by Mrs. Austin, in her "Characteristics of Goethe," and accepted by Mr. Hayward), [A] are quite independent of his views concerning the value of form, which we find given elsewhere, in the clearest and most emphatic manner. [B] Poetry is not simply a fashion of expression: it is the form of expression absolutely required by a certain class of ideas. Poetry, indeed, may be distinguished from Prose by the single circumstance, that it is the utterance of whatever in man cannot be perfectly uttered in any other than a rhythmical form: it is useless to say that the naked meaning is independent of the form: on the contrary, the form contributes essentially to the fullness of the meaning. In Poetry which endures through its own inherent vitality, there is no forced union of these two elements. They are as intimately blended, and with the same mysterious beauty, as the sexes in the ancient Hermaphroditus. To attempt to represent Poetry in Prose, is very much like attempting to translate music into speech. [C]
[A] "'There are two maxims of translation,' says he: 'the one requires that the author, of a foreign nation, be brought to us in such a manner that we may regard him as our own; the other, on the contrary, demands of us that we transport ourselves over to him, and adopt his situation, his mode of speaking, and his peculiarities. The advantages of both are sufficiently known to all instructed persons, from masterly examples.'" Is it necessary, however, that there should always be this alternative? Where the languages are kindred, and equally capable of all varieties of metrical expression, may not both these "maxims" be observed in the same translation? Goethe, it is true, was of the opinion that Faust ought to be given, in French, in the manner of Clement Marot; but this was undoubtedly because he felt the inadequacy of modern French to express the naive, simple realism of many passages. The same objection does not apply to English. There are a few archaic expressions in Faust, but no more than are still allowed—nay, frequently encouraged—in the English of our day.
[B] "You are right," said Goethe; "there are great and mysterious agencies included in the various forms of Poetry. If the substance of my 'Roman Elegies' were to be expressed in the tone and measure of Byron's 'Don Juan,' it would really have an atrocious effect."—Eckermann.
"The rhythm," said Goethe, "is an unconscious result of the poetic mood. If one should stop to consider it mechanically, when about to write a poem, one would become bewildered and accomplish nothing of real poetical value."—Ibid.
"All that is poetic in character should be rythmically treated! Such is my conviction; and if even a sort of poetic prose should be gradually introduced, it would only show that the distinction between prose and poetry had been completely lost sight of."—Goethe to Schiller, 1797.
Tycho Mommsen, in his excellent essay, Die Kunst des Deutschen Uebersetzers aus neueren Sprachen, goes so far as to say: "The metrical or rhymed modelling of a poetical work is so essentially the germ of its being, that, rather than by giving it up, we might hope to construct a similar work of art before the eyes of our countrymen, by giving up or changing the substance. The immeasurable result which has followed works wherein the form has been retained—such as the Homer of Voss, and the Shakespeare of Tieck and Schlegel—is an incontrovertible evidence of the vitality of the endeavor."
[C] "Goethe's poems exercise a great sway over me, not only by their meaning, but also by their rhythm. It is a language which stimulates me to composition."—Beethoven.
The various theories of translation from the Greek and Latin poets have been admirably stated by Dryden in his Preface to the "Translations from Ovid's Epistles," and I do not wish to continue the endless discussion,—especially as our literature needs examples, not opinions. A recent expression, however, carries with it so much authority, that I feel bound to present some considerations which the accomplished scholar seems to have overlooked. Mr. Lewes [D] justly says: "The effect of poetry is a compound of music and suggestion; this music and this suggestion are intermingled in words, which to alter is to alter the effect. For words in poetry are not, as in prose, simple representatives of objects and ideas: they are parts of an organic whole,—they are tones in the harmony." He thereupon illustrates the effect of translation by changing certain well-known English stanzas into others, equivalent in meaning, but lacking their felicity of words, their grace and melody. I cannot accept this illustration as valid, because Mr. Lewes purposely omits the very quality which an honest translator should exhaust his skill in endeavoring to reproduce. He turns away from the one best word or phrase in the English lines he quotes, whereas the translator seeks precisely that one best word or phrase (having all the resources of his language at command), to represent what is said in another language. More than this, his task is not simply mechanical: he must feel, and be guided by, a secondary inspiration. Surrendering himself to the full possession of the spirit which shall speak through him, he receives, also, a portion of the same creative power. Mr. Lewes reaches this conclusion: "If, therefore, we reflect what a poem Faust is, and that it contains almost every variety of style and metre, it will be tolerably evident that no one unacquainted with the original can form an adequate idea of it from translation," [E] which is certainly correct of any translation wherein something of the rhythmical variety and beauty of the original is not retained. That very much of the rhythmical character may be retained in English, was long ago shown by Mr. Carlyle, [F] in the passages which he translated, both literally and rhythmically, from the Helena (Part Second). In fact, we have so many instances of the possibility of reciprocally transferring the finest qualities of English and German poetry, that there is no sufficient excuse for an unmetrical translation of Faust. I refer especially to such subtile and melodious lyrics as "The Castle by the Sea," of Uhland, and the "Silent Land" of Salis, translated by Mr. Longfellow; Goethe's "Minstrel" and "Coptic Song," by Dr. Hedge; Heine's "Two Grenadiers," by Dr. Furness and many of Heine's songs by Mr Leland; and also to the German translations of English lyrics, by Freiligrath and Strodtmann. [G]
[D] Life of Goethe (Book VI.).
[E] Mr. Lewes gives the following advice: "The English reader would perhaps best succeed who should first read Dr. Anster's brilliant paraphrase, and then carefully go through Hayward's prose translation." This is singularly at variance with the view he has just expressed. Dr. Anster's version is an almost incredible dilution of the original, written in other metres; while Hayward's entirely omits the element of poetry.
[F] Foreign Review, 1828.
[G] When Freiligrath can thus give us Walter Scott:—
"Kommt, wie der Wind kommt,
Wenn
Wälder erzittern
Kommt,
wie die Brandung
Wenn Flotten
zersplittern!
Schnell heran,
schnell herab,
Schneller kommt
Al'e!—
Häuptling und Bub'
und Knapp,
Herr und Vasalle!"
or Strodtmann thus reproduce Tennyson:—
"Es fällt der Strahl auf Burg und Thal,
Und
schneeige Gipfel, reich an Sagen;
Viel'
Lichter wehn auf blauen Seen,
Bergab
die Wasserstürze jagen!
Blas,
Hüfthorn, blas, in Wiederhall erschallend:
Blas,
Horn—antwortet, Echos, hallend, hallend, hallend!"
—it must be a dull ear which would be satisfied with the omission of rhythm and rhyme.
I have a more serious objection, however, to urge against Mr. Hayward's prose translation. Where all the restraints of verse are flung aside, we should expect, at least, as accurate a reproduction of the sense, spirit, and tone of the original, as the genius of our language will permit. So far from having given us such a reproduction, Mr. Hayward not only occasionally mistakes the exact meaning of the German text, [H] but, wherever two phrases may be used to express the meaning with equal fidelity, he very frequently selects that which has the less grace, strength, or beauty. [I]
[H] On his second page, the line Mein Lied ertönt der unbekannten Menge, "My song sounds to the unknown multitude," is translated: "My sorrow voices itself to the strange throng." Other English translators, I notice, have followed Mr. Hayward in mistaking Lied for Leid.
[I] I take but one out of numerous instances, for the sake of illustration. The close of the Soldier's Song (Part I. Scene II.) is:—
"Kühn is das Mühen,
Herrlich
der Lohn!
Und die Soldaten
Ziehen
davon."
Literally:
Bold is the endeavor,
Splendid
the pay!
And the soldiers
March
away.
This Mr. Hayward translates:—
Bold the adventure,
Noble
the reward—
And the
soldiers
Are off.
For there are few things which may not be said, in English, in a twofold manner,—one poetic, and the other prosaic. In German, equally, a word which in ordinary use has a bare prosaic character may receive a fairer and finer quality from its place in verse. The prose translator should certainly be able to feel the manifestation of this law in both languages, and should so choose his words as to meet their reciprocal requirements. A man, however, who is not keenly sensible to the power and beauty and value of rhythm, is likely to overlook these delicate yet most necessary distinctions. The author's thought is stripped of a last grace in passing through his mind, and frequently presents very much the same resemblance to the original as an unhewn shaft to the fluted column. Mr. Hayward unconsciously illustrates his lack of a refined appreciation of verse, "in giving," as he says, "a sort of rhythmical arrangement to the lyrical parts," his object being "to convey some notion of the variety of versification which forms one great charm of the poem." A literal translation is always possible in the unrhymed passages; but even here Mr. Hayward's ear did not dictate to him the necessity of preserving the original rhythm.
While, therefore, I heartily recognize his lofty appreciation of Faust,—while I honor him for the patient and conscientious labor he has bestowed upon his translation,—I cannot but feel that he has himself illustrated the unsoundness of his argument. Nevertheless, the circumstance that his prose translation of Faust has received so much acceptance proves those qualities of the original work which cannot be destroyed by a test so violent. From the cold bare outline thus produced, the reader unacquainted with the German language would scarcely guess what glow of color, what richness of changeful life, what fluent grace and energy of movement have been lost in the process. We must, of course, gratefully receive such an outline, where a nearer approach to the form of the original is impossible, but, until the latter has been demonstrated, we are wrong to remain content with the cheaper substitute.
It seems to me that in all discussions upon this subject the capacities of the English language have received but scanty justice. The intellectual tendencies of our race have always been somewhat conservative, and its standards of literary taste or belief, once set up, are not varied without a struggle. The English ear is suspicious of new metres and unaccustomed forms of expression: there are critical detectives on the track of every author, and a violation of the accepted canons is followed by a summons to judgment. Thus the tendency is to contract rather than to expand the acknowledged excellences of the language. [J]
[J] I cannot resist the temptation of quoting the following passage from Jacob Grimm: "No one of all the modern languages has acquired a greater force and strength than the English, through the derangement and relinquishment of its ancient laws of sound. The unteachable (nevertheless learnable) profusion of its middle-tones has conferred upon it an intrinsic power of expression, such as no other human tongue ever possessed. Its entire, thoroughly intellectual and wonderfully successful foundation and perfected development issued from a marvelous union of the two noblest tongues of Europe, the Germanic and the Romanic. Their mutual relation in the English language is well known, since the former furnished chiefly the material basis, while the latter added the intellectual conceptions. The English language, by and through which the greatest and most eminent poet of modern times—as contrasted with ancient classical poetry—(of course I can refer only to Shakespeare) was begotten and nourished, has a just claim to be called a language of the world; and it appears to be destined, like the English race, to a higher and broader sway in all quarters of the earth. For in richness, in compact adjustment of parts, and in pure intelligence, none of the living languages can be compared with it,—not even our German, which is divided even as we are divided, and which must cast off many imperfections before it can boldly enter on its career."—Ueber den Ursprung der Sprache.
The difficulties in the way of a nearly literal translation of Faust in the original metres have been exaggerated, because certain affinities between the two languages have not been properly considered. With all the splendor of versification in the work, it contains but few metres of which the English tongue is not equally capable. Hood has familiarized us with dactylic (triple) rhymes, and they are remarkably abundant and skillful in Mr. Lowell's "Fable for the Critics": even the unrhymed iambic hexameter of the Helena occurs now and then in Milton's Samson Agonistes. It is true that the metrical foot into which the German language most naturally falls is the trochaic, while in English it is the iambic: it is true that German is rich, involved, and tolerant of new combinations, while English is simple, direct, and rather shy of compounds; but precisely these differences are so modified in the German of Faust that there is a mutual approach of the two languages. In Faust, the iambic measure predominates; the style is compact; the many licenses which the author allows himself are all directed towards a shorter mode of construction. On the other hand, English metre compels the use of inversions, admits many verbal liberties prohibited to prose, and so inclines towards various flexible features of its sister-tongue that many lines of Faust may be repeated in English without the slightest change of meaning, measure, or rhyme. There are words, it is true, with so delicate a bloom upon them that it can in no wise be preserved; but even such words will always lose less when they carry with them their rhythmical atmosphere. The flow of Goethe's verse is sometimes so similar to that of the corresponding English metre, that not only its harmonies and caesural pauses, but even its punctuation, may be easily retained.
I am satisfied that the difference between a translation of Faust in prose or metre is chiefly one of labor,—and of that labor which is successful in proportion as it is joyously performed. My own task has been cheered by the discovery, that the more closely I reproduced the language of the original, the more of its rhythmical character was transferred at the same time. If, now and then, there was an inevitable alternative of meaning or music, I gave the preference to the former. By the term "original metres" I do not mean a rigid, unyielding adherence to every foot, line, and rhyme of the German original, although this has very nearly been accomplished. Since the greater part of the work is written in an irregular measure, the lines varying from three to six feet, and the rhymes arranged according to the author's will, I do not consider that an occasional change in the number of feet, or order of rhyme, is any violation of the metrical plan. The single slight liberty I have taken with the lyrical passages is in Margaret's song,—"The King of Thule,"—in which, by omitting the alternate feminine rhymes, yet retaining the metre, I was enabled to make the translation strictly literal. If, in two or three instances, I have left a line unrhymed, I have balanced the omission by giving rhymes to other lines which stand unrhymed in the original text. For the same reason, I make no apology for the imperfect rhymes, which are frequently a translation as well as a necessity. With all its supreme qualities, Faust is far from being a technically perfect work. [K]
[K] "At present, everything runs in technical grooves, and the critical gentlemen begin to wrangle whether in a rhyme an s should correspond with an s and not with sz. If I were young and reckless enough, I would purposely offend all such technical caprices: I would use alliteration, assonance, false rhyme, just according to my own will or convenience—but, at the same time, I would attend to the main thing, and endeavor to say so many good things that every one would be attracted to read and remember them."—Goethe, in 1831.
The feminine and dactylic rhymes, which have been for the most part omitted by all metrical translators except Mr. Brooks, are indispensable. The characteristic tone of many passages would be nearly lost, without them. They give spirit and grace to the dialogue, point to the aphoristic portions (especially in the Second Part), and an ever-changing music to the lyrical passages. The English language, though not so rich as the German in such rhymes, is less deficient than is generally supposed. The difficulty to be overcome is one of construction rather than of the vocabulary. The present participle can only be used to a limited extent, on account of its weak termination, and the want of an accusative form to the noun also restricts the arrangement of words in English verse. I cannot hope to have been always successful; but I have at least labored long and patiently, bearing constantly in mind not only the meaning of the original and the mechanical structure of the lines, but also that subtile and haunting music which seems to govern rhythm instead of being governed by it.
B.T.
I
Erhabener Geist, im
Geisterreich verloren!
Wo immer Deine lichte Wohnung sey,
Zum
höh'ren Schaffen bist Du neugeboren,
Und singest dort die
voll're Litanei.
Von jenem Streben das Du auserkoren,
Vom reinsten
Aether, drin Du athmest frei,
O neige Dich zu gnädigem Erwiedern
Des
letzten Wiederhalls von Deinen Liedern!
II
Den
alten Musen die bestäubten Kronen
Nahmst Du, zu neuem Glanz, mit
kühner Hand:
Du löst die Räthsel ältester Aeonen
Durch
jüngeren Glauben, helleren Verstand,
Und machst, wo rege
Menschengeister wohnen,
Die ganze Erde Dir zum Vaterland;
Und
Deine Jünger sehn in Dir, verwundert,
Verkörpert schon das
werdende Jahrhundert.
III
Was
Du gesungen, Aller Lust und Klagen,
Des Lebens Wiedersprüche, neu
vermählt,—
Die Harfe tausendstimmig frisch geschlagen,
Die
Shakspeare einst, die einst Homer gewählt,—
Darf ich in
fremde Klänge übertragen
Das Alles, wo so Mancher schon
gefehlt?
Lass Deinen Geist in meiner Stimme klingen,
Und was Du
sangst, lass mich es Dir nachsingen!
B.T.
Again ye come, ye hovering Forms! I find ye,
As early to my clouded
sight ye shone!
Shall I attempt, this once, to seize and bind ye?
Still
o'er my heart is that illusion thrown?
Ye crowd more near! Then, be
the reign assigned ye,
And sway me from your misty, shadowy zone!
My
bosom thrills, with youthful passion shaken,
From magic airs that
round your march awaken.
Of joyous days ye bring the blissful
vision;
The dear, familiar phantoms rise again,
And, like an old
and half-extinct tradition,
First Love returns, with Friendship in
his train.
Renewed is Pain: with mournful repetition
Life tracks
his devious, labyrinthine chain,
And names the Good, whose cheating
fortune tore them
From happy hours, and left me to deplore them.
They
hear no longer these succeeding measures,
The souls, to whom my
earliest songs I sang:
Dispersed the friendly troop, with all its
pleasures,
And still, alas! the echoes first that rang!
I bring
the unknown multitude my treasures;
Their very plaudits give my heart
a pang,
And those beside, whose joy my Song so flattered,
If still
they live, wide through the world are scattered.
And grasps me
now a long-unwonted yearning
For that serene and solemn Spirit-Land:
My
song, to faint Aeolian murmurs turning,
Sways like a harp-string by
the breezes fanned.
I thrill and tremble; tear on tear is burning,
And
the stern heart is tenderly unmanned.
What I possess, I see far
distant lying,
And what I lost, grows real and undying.
MANAGER ==== DRAMATIC POET ==== MERRY-ANDREW
MANAGER
You
two, who oft a helping hand
Have lent, in need and tribulation.
Come,
let me know your expectation
Of this, our enterprise, in German land!
I
wish the crowd to feel itself well treated,
Especially since it lives
and lets me live;
The posts are set, the booth of boards completed.
And
each awaits the banquet I shall give.
Already there, with curious
eyebrows raised,
They sit sedate, and hope to be amazed.
I know
how one the People's taste may flatter,
Yet here a huge embarrassment
I feel:
What they're accustomed to, is no great matter,
But then,
alas! they've read an awful deal.
How shall we plan, that all be
fresh and new,—
Important matter, yet attractive too?
For
'tis my pleasure-to behold them surging,
When to our booth the
current sets apace,
And with tremendous, oft-repeated urging,
Squeeze
onward through the narrow gate of grace:
By daylight even, they push
and cram in
To reach the seller's box, a fighting host,
And as for
bread, around a baker's door, in famine,
To get a ticket break their
necks almost.
This miracle alone can work the Poet
On men so
various: now, my friend, pray show it.
POET
Speak
not to me of yonder motley masses,
Whom but to see, puts out the fire
of Song!
Hide from my view the surging crowd that passes,
And in
its whirlpool forces us along!
No, lead me where some heavenly
silence glasses
The purer joys that round the Poet throng,—
Where
Love and Friendship still divinely fashion
The bonds that bless, the
wreaths that crown his passion!
Ah, every utterance from the depths
of feeling
The timid lips have stammeringly expressed,—
Now
failing, now, perchance, success revealing,—
Gulps the wild
Moment in its greedy breast;
Or oft, reluctant years its warrant
sealing,
Its perfect stature stands at last confessed!
What
dazzles, for the Moment spends its spirit:
What's genuine, shall
Posterity inherit.
MERRY-ANDREW
Posterity! Don't
name the word to me!
If I should choose to preach Posterity,
Where
would you get contemporary fun?
That men will have it, there's
no blinking:
A fine young fellow's presence, to my thinking,
Is
something worth, to every one.
Who genially his nature can outpour,
Takes
from the People's moods no irritation;
The wider circle he acquires,
the more
Securely works his inspiration.
Then pluck up heart, and
give us sterling coin!
Let Fancy be with her attendants fitted,—
Sense,
Reason, Sentiment, and Passion join,—
But have a care, lest
Folly be omitted!
MANAGER
Chiefly, enough of incident
prepare!
They come to look, and they prefer to stare.
Reel off a
host of threads before their faces,
So that they gape in stupid
wonder: then
By sheer diffuseness you have won their graces,
And
are, at once, most popular of men.
Only by mass you touch the mass;
for any
Will finally, himself, his bit select:
Who offers much,
brings something unto many,
And each goes home content with the
effect,
If you've a piece, why, just in pieces give it:
A hash, a
stew, will bring success, believe it!
'Tis easily displayed, and easy
to invent.
What use, a Whole compactly to present?
Your hearers
pick and pluck, as soon as they receive it!
POET
You do
not feel, how such a trade debases;
How ill it suits the Artist,
proud and true!
The botching work each fine pretender traces
Is, I
perceive, a principle with you.
MANAGER
Such a reproach
not in the least offends;
A man who some result intends
Must use
the tools that best are fitting.
Reflect, soft wood is given to you
for splitting,
And then, observe for whom you write!
If one comes
bored, exhausted quite,
Another, satiate, leaves the banquet's tapers,
And,
worst of all, full many a wight
Is fresh from reading of the daily
papers.
Idly to us they come, as to a masquerade,
Mere curiosity
their spirits warming:
The ladies with themselves, and with their
finery, aid,
Without a salary their parts performing.
What dreams
are yours in high poetic places?
You're pleased, forsooth, full
houses to behold?
Draw near, and view your patrons' faces!
The
half are coarse, the half are cold.
One, when the play is out, goes
home to cards;
A wild night on a wench's breast another chooses:
Why
should you rack, poor, foolish bards,
For ends like these, the
gracious Muses?
I tell you, give but more—more, ever more, they ask:
Thus
shall you hit the mark of gain and glory.
Seek to confound your
auditory!
To satisfy them is a task.—
What ails you now?
Is't suffering, or pleasure?
POET
Go, find yourself a more
obedient slave!
What! shall the Poet that which Nature gave,
The
highest right, supreme Humanity,
Forfeit so wantonly, to swell your
treasure?
Whence o'er the heart his empire free?
The elements of
Life how conquers he?
Is't not his heart's accord, urged outward far
and dim,
To wind the world in unison with him?
When on the
spindle, spun to endless distance,
By Nature's listless hand the
thread is twirled,
And the discordant tones of all existence
In
sullen jangle are together hurled,
Who, then, the changeless orders
of creation
Divides, and kindles into rhythmic dance?
Who brings
the One to join the general ordination,
Where it may throb in
grandest consonance?
Who bids the storm to passion stir the bosom?
In
brooding souls the sunset burn above?
Who scatters every fairest
April blossom
Along the shining path of Love?
Who braids the
noteless leaves to crowns, requiting
Desert with fame, in Action's
every field?
Who makes Olympus sure, the Gods uniting?
The might
of Man, as in the Bard revealed.
MERRY-ANDREW
So, these
fine forces, in conjunction,
Propel the high poetic function,
As
in a love-adventure they might play!
You meet by accident; you feel,
you stay,
And by degrees your heart is tangled;
Bliss grows apace,
and then its course is jangled;
You're ravished quite, then comes a
touch of woe,
And there's a neat romance, completed ere you know!
Let
us, then, such a drama give!
Grasp the exhaustless life that all men
live!
Each shares therein, though few may comprehend:
Where'er you
touch, there's interest without end.
In motley pictures little light,
Much
error, and of truth a glimmering mite,
Thus the best beverage is
supplied,
Whence all the world is cheered and edified.
Then, at
your play, behold the fairest flower
Of youth collect, to hear the
revelation!
Each tender soul, with sentimental power,
Sucks
melancholy food from your creation;
And now in this, now that, the
leaven works.
For each beholds what in his bosom lurks.
They still
are moved at once to weeping or to laughter,
Still wonder at your
flights, enjoy the show they see:
A mind, once formed, is never
suited after;
One yet in growth will ever grateful be.
POET
Then
give me back that time of pleasures,
While yet in joyous growth I
sang,—
When, like a fount, the crowding measures
Uninterrupted
gushed and sprang!
Then bright mist veiled the world before me,
In
opening buds a marvel woke,
As I the thousand blossoms broke,
Which
every valley richly bore me!
I nothing had, and yet enough for youth—
Joy
in Illusion, ardent thirst for Truth.
Give, unrestrained, the old
emotion,
The bliss that touched the verge of pain,
The strength of
Hate, Love's deep devotion,—
O, give me back my youth again!
MERRY
ANDREW
Youth, good my friend, you certainly require
When foes
in combat sorely press you;
When lovely maids, in fond desire,
Hang
on your bosom and caress you;
When from the hard-won goal the wreath
Beckons
afar, the race awaiting;
When, after dancing out your breath,
You
pass the night in dissipating:—
But that familiar harp with soul
To
play,—with grace and bold expression,
And towards a
self-erected goal
To walk with many a sweet digression,—
This,
aged Sirs, belongs to you,
And we no less revere you for that reason:
Age
childish makes, they say, but 'tis not true;
We're only genuine
children still, in Age's season!
MANAGER
The words
you've bandied are sufficient;
'Tis deeds that I prefer to see:
In
compliments you're both proficient,
But might, the while, more useful
be.
What need to talk of Inspiration?
'Tis no companion of Delay.
If
Poetry be your vocation,
Let Poetry your will obey!
Full well you
know what here is wanting;
The crowd for strongest drink is panting,
And
such, forthwith, I'd have you brew.
What's left undone to-day,
To-morrow will not do.
Waste not a day in vain digression:
With
resolute, courageous trust
Seize every possible impression,
And
make it firmly your possession;
You'll then work on, because you must.
Upon
our German stage, you know it,
Each tries his hand at what he will;
So,
take of traps and scenes your fill,
And all you find, be sure to show
it!
Use both the great and lesser heavenly light,—
Squander
the stars in any number,
Beasts, birds, trees, rocks, and all such
lumber,
Fire, water, darkness, Day and Night!
Thus, in our booth's
contracted sphere,
The circle of Creation will appear,
And move,
as we deliberately impel,
From Heaven, across the World, to Hell!
Has He, victoriously,
Burst
from the vaulted
Grave, and
all-gloriously
Now sits exalted?
Is
He, in glow of birth,
Rapture
creative near?
Ah! to the woe of
earth
Still are we native here.
We,
his aspiring
Followers, Him we
miss;
Weeping, desiring,
Master,
Thy bliss!
CHORUS OF ANGELS
Christ is arisen,
Out
of Corruption's womb:
Burst ye
the prison,
Break from your gloom!
Praising
and pleading him,
Lovingly
needing him,
Brotherly feeding
him,
Preaching and speeding him,
Blessing,
succeeding Him,
Thus is the
Master near,—
Thus is He
here!
BEFORE THE CITY-GATE
(Pedestrians of all kinds come forth.)
SEVERAL APPRENTICES
Why do you go that way?
OTHERS
We're for the Hunters' lodge, to-day.
THE FIRST
We'll saunter to the Mill, in yonder hollow.
AN APPRENTICE
Go to the River Tavern, I should say.
SECOND APPRENTICE
But then, it's not a pleasant way.
THE OTHERS
And what will you?
A THIRD
As goes the crowd, I follow.A FOURTH
Come up to Burgdorf? There you'll find good cheer,
The finest lasses
and the best of beer,
And jolly rows and squabbles, trust me!
A FIFTH
You swaggering fellow, is your hide
A third time itching to be tried?
I
won't go there, your jolly rows disgust me!
SERVANT-GIRL
No,—no! I'll turn and go to town again.
ANOTHER
We'll surely find him by those poplars yonder.
THE FIRST
That's no great luck for me, 'tis plain.
You'll have him, when and
where you wander:
His partner in the dance you'll be,—
But
what is all your fun to me?
THE OTHER
He's surely not alone to-day:
He'll be with Curly-head, I heard him
say.
A STUDENT
Deuce! how they step, the buxom wenches!
Come, Brother! we must see
them to the benches.
A strong, old beer, a pipe that stings and bites,
A
girl in Sunday clothes,—these three are my delights.
CITIZEN'S DAUGHTER
Just see those handsome fellows, there!
It's really shameful, I
declare;—
To follow servant-girls, when they
Might have the
most genteel society to-day!
SECOND STUDENT (to the First)
Not quite so fast! Two others come behind,—
Those, dressed so
prettily and neatly.
My neighbor's one of them, I find,
A girl
that takes my heart, completely.
They go their way with looks demure,
But
they'll accept us, after all, I'm sure.
THE FIRST
No, Brother! not for me their formal ways.
Quick! lest our game
escape us in the press:
The hand that wields the broom on Saturdays
Will
best, on Sundays, fondle and caress.
CITIZEN
He suits me not at all, our new-made Burgomaster!
Since he's
installed, his arrogance grows faster.
How has he helped the town, I
say?
Things worsen,—what improvement names he?
Obedience,
more than ever, claims he,
And more than ever we must pay!
BEGGAR (sings)
Good gentlemen and lovely ladies,ANOTHER CITIZEN
On Sundays, holidays, there's naught I take delight in,
Like
gossiping of war, and war's array,
When down in Turkey, far away,
The
foreign people are a-fighting.
One at the window sits, with glass and
friends,
And sees all sorts of ships go down the river gliding:
And
blesses then, as home he wends
At night, our times of peace abiding.
THIRD CITIZEN
Yes, Neighbor! that's my notion, too:
Why, let them break their
heads, let loose their passions,
And mix things madly through and
through,
So, here, we keep our good old fashions!
OLD WOMAN (to the Citizen's Daughter)
Dear me, how fine! So handsome, and so young!
Who wouldn't lose his
heart, that met you?
Don't be so proud! I'll hold my tongue,
And
what you'd like I'll undertake to get you.
CITIZEN'S DAUGHTER
Come, Agatha! I shun the witch's sight
Before folks, lest there be
misgiving:
'Tis true, she showed me, on Saint Andrew's Night,
My
future sweetheart, just as he were living.
THE OTHER
She showed me mine, in crystal clear,
With several wild young blades,
a soldier-lover:
I seek him everywhere, I pry and peer,
And yet,
somehow, his face I can't discover.
SOLDIERS
Castles, with lofty
Ramparts
and towers,
Maidens disdainful
In
Beauty's array,
Both shall be
ours!
Bold is the venture,
Splendid
the pay!
Lads, let the trumpets
For
us be suing,—
Calling to
pleasure,
Calling to ruin.
Stormy
our life is;
Such is its boon!
Maidens
and castles
Capitulate soon.
Bold
is the venture,
Splendid the pay!
And
the soldiers go marching,
Marching
away!
FAUST AND WAGNER
FAUST
Released from ice are brook and river
By the quickening glance of the
gracious Spring;
The colors of hope to the valley cling,
And weak
old Winter himself must shiver,
Withdrawn to the mountains, a
crownless king:
Whence, ever retreating, he sends again
Impotent
showers of sleet that darkle
In belts across the green o' the plain.
But
the sun will permit no white to sparkle;
Everywhere form in
development moveth;
He will brighten the world with the tints he
loveth,
And, lacking blossoms, blue, yellow, and red,
He takes
these gaudy people instead.
Turn thee about, and from this height
Back
on the town direct thy sight.
Out of the hollow, gloomy gate,
The
motley throngs come forth elate:
Each will the joy of the sunshine
hoard,
To honor the Day of the Risen Lord!
They feel, themselves,
their resurrection:
From the low, dark rooms, scarce habitable;
From
the bonds of Work, from Trade's restriction;
From the pressing weight
of roof and gable;
From the narrow, crushing streets and alleys;
From
the churches' solemn and reverend night,
All come forth to the
cheerful light.
How lively, see! the multitude sallies,
Scattering
through gardens and fields remote,
While over the river, that broadly
dallies,
Dances so many a festive boat;
And overladen, nigh to
sinking,
The last full wherry takes the stream.
Yonder afar, from
the hill-paths blinking,
Their clothes are colors that softly gleam.
I
hear the noise of the village, even;
Here is the People's proper
Heaven;
Here high and low contented see!
Here I am Man,—dare man
to be!
WAGNER
To stroll with you, Sir Doctor, flatters;
'Tis honor, profit, unto me.
But
I, alone, would shun these shallow matters,
Since all that's coarse
provokes my enmity.
This fiddling, shouting, ten-pin rolling
I
hate,—these noises of the throng:
They rave, as Satan were
their sports controlling.
And call it mirth, and call it song!
All for the dance the shepherd dressed,
In
ribbons, wreath, and gayest vest
Himself
with care arraying:
Around the
linden lass and lad
Already
footed it like mad:
Hurrah!
hurrah!
Hurrah—tarara-la!
The
fiddle-bow was playing.
He
broke the ranks, no whit afraid,
And
with his elbow punched a maid,
Who
stood, the dance surveying:
The
buxom wench, she turned and said:
"Now,
you I call a stupid-head!"
Hurrah!
hurrah!
Hurrah—tarara-la!
"Be
decent while you're staying!"
Then
round the circle went their flight,
They
danced to left, they danced to right:
Their
kirtles all were playing.
They
first grew red, and then grew warm,
And
rested, panting, arm in arm,—
Hurrah!
hurrah!
Hurrah—tarara-la!
And
hips and elbows straying.
Now,
don't be so familiar here!
How
many a one has fooled his dear,
Waylaying
and betraying!
And yet, he
coaxed her soon aside,
And round
the linden sounded wide.
Hurrah!
hurrah!
Hurrah—tarara-la!
And
the fiddle-bow was playing.
OLD PEASANT
Sir Doctor, it is good of you,
That thus you condescend, to-day,
Among
this crowd of merry folk,
A highly-learned man, to stray.
Then
also take the finest can,
We fill with fresh wine, for your sake:
I
offer it, and humbly wish
That not alone your thirst is slake,—
That,
as the drops below its brink,
So many days of life you drink!
FAUST
I take the cup you kindly reach,
With thanks and health to all and
each.
(The People gather in a circle about him.)
OLD PEASANT
In truth, 'tis well and fitly timed,
That now our day of joy you
share,
Who heretofore, in evil days,
Gave us so much of helping
care.
Still many a man stands living here,
Saved by your father's
skillful hand,
That snatched him from the fever's rage
And stayed
the plague in all the land.
Then also you, though but a youth,
Went
into every house of pain:
Many the corpses carried forth,
But you
in health came out again.
FAUST
No test or trial you evaded:
A Helping God the helper aided.
ALL
Health to the man, so skilled and tried.
That for our help he long
may abide!
FAUST
To Him above bow down, my friends,
Who teaches help, and succor sends!
(He goes on with WAGNER.)
WAGNER
With what a feeling, thou great man, must thou
Receive the people's
honest veneration!
How lucky he, whose gifts his station
With such
advantages endow!
Thou'rt shown to all the younger generation:
Each
asks, and presses near to gaze;
The fiddle stops, the dance delays.
Thou
goest, they stand in rows to see,
And all the caps are lifted high;
A
little more, and they would bend the knee
As if the Holy Host came by.
FAUST
A few more steps ascend, as far as yonder stone!—
Here from our
wandering will we rest contented.
Here, lost in thought, I've
lingered oft alone,
When foolish fasts and prayers my life tormented.
Here,
rich in hope and firm in faith,
With tears, wrung hands and sighs,
I've striven,
The end of that far-spreading death
Entreating from
the Lord of Heaven!
Now like contempt the crowd's applauses seem:
Couldst
thou but read, within mine inmost spirit,
How little now I deem,
That
sire or son such praises merit!
My father's was a sombre, brooding
brain,
Which through the holy spheres of Nature groped and wandered,
And
honestly, in his own fashion, pondered
With labor whimsical, and pain:
Who,
in his dusky work-shop bending,
With proved adepts in company,
Made,
from his recipes unending,
Opposing substances agree.
There was a
Lion red, a wooer daring,
Within the Lily's tepid bath espoused,
And
both, tormented then by flame unsparing,
By turns in either bridal
chamber housed.
If then appeared, with colors splendid,
The young
Queen in her crystal shell,
This was the medicine—the patients' woes
soon ended,
And none demanded: who got well?
Thus we, our hellish
boluses compounding,
Among these vales and hills surrounding,
Worse
than the pestilence, have passed.
Thousands were done to death from
poison of my giving;
And I must hear, by all the living,
The
shameless murderers praised at last!
WAGNER
Why, therefore, yield to such depression?
A good man does his honest
share
In exercising, with the strictest care,
The art bequeathed
to his possession!
Dost thou thy father honor, as a youth?
Then
may his teaching cheerfully impel thee:
Dost thou, as man, increase
the stores of truth?
Then may thine own son afterwards excel thee.
FAUST
O happy he, who still renews
The hope, from Error's deeps to rise
forever!
That which one does not know, one needs to use;
And what
one knows, one uses never.
But let us not, by such despondence, so
The
fortune of this hour embitter!
Mark how, beneath the evening
sunlight's glow,
The green-embosomed houses glitter!
The glow
retreats, done is the day of toil;
It yonder hastes, new fields of
life exploring;
Ah, that no wing can lift me from the soil,
Upon
its track to follow, follow soaring!
Then would I see eternal Evening
gild
The silent world beneath me glowing,
On fire each
mountain-peak, with peace each valley filled,
The silver brook to
golden rivers flowing.
The mountain-chain, with all its gorges deep,
Would
then no more impede my godlike motion;
And now before mine eyes
expands the ocean
With all its bays, in shining sleep!
Yet,
finally, the weary god is sinking;
The new-born impulse fires my
mind,—
I hasten on, his beams eternal drinking,
The Day
before me and the Night behind,
Above me heaven unfurled, the floor
of waves beneath me,—
A glorious dream! though now the glories
fade.
Alas! the wings that lift the mind no aid
Of wings to lift
the body can bequeath me.
Yet in each soul is born the pleasure
Of
yearning onward, upward and away,
When o'er our heads, lost in the
vaulted azure,
The lark sends down his flickering lay,—
When
over crags and piny highlands
The poising eagle slowly soars,
And
over plains and lakes and islands
The crane sails by to other shores.
WAGNER
I've had, myself, at times, some odd caprices,
But never yet such
impulse felt, as this is.
One soon fatigues, on woods and fields to
look,
Nor would I beg the bird his wing to spare us:
How otherwise
the mental raptures bear us
From page to page, from book to book!
Then
winter nights take loveliness untold,
As warmer life in every limb
had crowned you;
And when your hands unroll some parchment rare and
old,
All Heaven descends, and opens bright around you!
FAUST
One impulse art thou conscious of, at best;
O, never seek to know the
other!
Two souls, alas! reside within my breast,
And each
withdraws from, and repels, its brother.
One with tenacious organs
holds in love
And clinging lust the world in its embraces;
The
other strongly sweeps, this dust above,
Into the high ancestral
spaces.
If there be airy spirits near,
'Twixt Heaven and Earth on
potent errands fleeing,
Let them drop down the golden atmosphere,
And
bear me forth to new and varied being!
Yea, if a magic mantle once
were mine,
To waft me o'er the world at pleasure,
I would not for
the costliest stores of treasure—
Not for a monarch's robe—the
gift resign.
WAGNER
Invoke not thus the well-known throng,
Which through the firmament
diffused is faring,
And danger thousand-fold, our race to wrong.
In
every quarter is preparing.
Swift from the North the spirit-fangs so
sharp
Sweep down, and with their barbéd points assail you;
Then
from the East they come, to dry and warp
Your lungs, till breath and
being fail you:
If from the Desert sendeth them the South,
With
fire on fire your throbbing forehead crowning,
The West leads on a
host, to cure the drouth
Only when meadow, field, and you are
drowning.
They gladly hearken, prompt for injury,—
Gladly
obey, because they gladly cheat us;
From Heaven they represent
themselves to be,
And lisp like angels, when with lies they meet us.
But,
let us go! 'Tis gray and dusky all:
The air is cold, the vapors fall.
At
night, one learns his house to prize:—
Why stand you thus, with
such astonished eyes?
What, in the twilight, can your mind so trouble?
FAUST
Seest thou the black dog coursing there, through corn and
stubble?
WAGNER
Long since: yet deemed him not important in the least.
FAUST
Inspect him close: for what tak'st thou the beast?
WAGNER
Why, for a poodle who has lost his master,
And scents about, his
track to find.
FAUST
Seest thou the spiral circles, narrowing faster,
Which he,
approaching, round us seems to wind?
A streaming trail of fire, if I
see rightly,
Follows his path of mystery.
WAGNER
It may be that your eyes deceive you slightly;
Naught but a plain
black poodle do I see.
FAUST
It seems to me that with enchanted cunning
He snares our feet, some
future chain to bind.
WAGNER
I see him timidly, in doubt, around us running,
Since, in his
master's stead, two strangers doth he find.
FAUST
The circle narrows: he is near!
WAGNER
A dog thou seest, and not a phantom, here!
Behold him stop—upon his
belly crawl—His
tail set wagging: canine habits, all!
FAUST
Come, follow us! Come here, at least!
WAGNER
'Tis the absurdest, drollest beast.
Stand still, and you will see him
wait;
Address him, and he gambols straight;
If something's lost,
he'll quickly bring it,—
Your cane, if in the stream you fling
it.
FAUST
No doubt you're right: no trace of mind, I own,
Is in the beast: I
see but drill, alone.
WAGNER
The dog, when he's well educated,
Is by the wisest tolerated.
Yes,
he deserves your favor thoroughly,—
The clever scholar of the
students, he!
(They pass in the city-gate.)
THE STUDY
FAUST
(Entering, with the poodle.)
Behind me, field and meadow sleeping,
I
leave in deep, prophetic night,
Within
whose dread and holy keeping
The
better soul awakes to light.
The
wild desires no longer win us,
The
deeds of passion cease to chain;
The
love of Man revives within us,
The
love of God revives again.
Be still, thou poodle; make not such racket and riot!
Why at the
threshold wilt snuffing be?
Behind the stove repose thee in quiet!
My
softest cushion I give to thee.
As thou, up yonder, with running and
leaping
Amused us hast, on the mountain's crest,
So now I take thee into my keeping,
A welcome, but also a silent,
guest.
Ah, when, within our narrow chamber
The
lamp with friendly lustre glows,
Flames
in the breast each faded ember,
And
in the heart, itself that knows.
Then
Hope again lends sweet assistance,
And
Reason then resumes her speech:
One
yearns, the rivers of existence,
The
very founts of Life, to reach.
Snarl not, poodle! To the sound that rises,
The sacred tones that my
soul embrace,
This bestial noise is out of place.
We are used to
see, that Man despises
What he never comprehends,
And the Good and
the Beautiful vilipends,
Finding them often hard to measure:
Will
the dog, like man, snarl his displeasure?
But ah! I feel, though will thereto be stronger,
Contentment flows
from out my breast no longer.
Why must the stream so soon run dry and
fail us,
And burning thirst again assail us?
Therein I've borne so
much probation!
And yet, this want may be supplied us;
We call the
Supernatural to guide us;
We pine and thirst for Revelation,
Which
nowhere worthier is, more nobly sent,
Than here, in our New Testament.
I
feel impelled, its meaning to determine,—
With honest purpose,
once for all,
The hallowed Original
To change to my beloved German.
(He opens a volume, and commences.)
'Tis written: "In the
Beginning was the Word."
Here am I balked: who, now can
help afford?
The Word?—impossible so high to rate it;
And
otherwise must I translate it.
If by the Spirit I am truly taught.
Then
thus: "In the Beginning was the Thought"
This first
line let me weigh completely,
Lest my impatient pen proceed too
fleetly.
Is it the Thought which works, creates, indeed?
"In
the Beginning was the Power," I read.
Yet, as I write, a
warning is suggested,
That I the sense may not have fairly tested.
The
Spirit aids me: now I see the light!
"In the Beginning was the Act,"
I write.
If I must share my chamber with thee,
Poodle, stop
that howling, prithee!
Cease to bark and bellow!
Such a noisy,
disturbing fellow
I'll no longer suffer near me.
One of us, dost
hear me!
Must leave, I fear me.
No longer guest-right I bestow;
The
door is open, art free to go.
But what do I see in the creature?
Is
that in the course of nature?
Is't actual fact? or Fancy's shows?
How
long and broad my poodle grows!
He rises mightily:
A canine form
that cannot be!
What a spectre I've harbored thus!
He resembles a
hippopotamus,
With fiery eyes, teeth terrible to see:
O, now am I
sure of thee!
For all of thy half-hellish brood
The Key of Solomon
is good.
SPIRITS (in the corridor)
Some one, within, is caught!
Stay
without, follow him not!
Like the
fox in a snare,
Quakes the old
hell-lynx there.
Take heed—look
about!
Back and forth hover,
Under
and over,
And he'll work himself
out.
If your aid avail him,
Let
it not fail him;
For he, without
measure,
Has wrought for our
pleasure.
FAUST
First, to encounter the beast,
The Words of the Four be addressed:
Salamander,
shine glorious!
Wave, Undine, as
bidden!
Sylph, be thou hidden!
Gnome,
be laborious!
Who knows not their sense
(These elements),—
Their properties
And
power not sees,—
No mastery he inherits
Over the Spirits.
Vanish in flaming ether,
Salamander!
Flow
foamingly together,
Undine!
Shine
in meteor-sheen,
Sylph!
Bring
help to hearth and shelf.
Incubus!
Incubus!
Step forward, and finish
thus!
Of the Four, no feature
Lurks in the creature.
Quiet he lies, and
grins disdain:
Not yet, it seems, have I given him pain.
Now, to
undisguise thee,
Hear me exorcise thee!
Art thou, my gay one,
Hell's
fugitive stray-one?
The sign witness now,
Before which they bow,
The
cohorts of Hell!
With hair all bristling, it begins to swell.
Base Being, hearest thou?
Knowest
and fearest thou
The One,
unoriginate,
Named inexpressibly,
Through
all Heaven impermeate,
Pierced
irredressibly!
Behind the stove still banned,
See it, an elephant, expand!
It
fills the space entire,
Mist-like melting, ever faster.
'Tis
enough: ascend no higher,—
Lay thyself at the feet of the
Master!
Thou seest, not vain the threats I bring thee:
With holy
fire I'll scorch and sting thee!
Wait not to know
The threefold
dazzling glow!
Wait not to know
The strongest art within my hands!
MEPHISTOPHELES
(while the vapor is dissipating, steps forth from behind the
stove,
in the costume of a Travelling Scholar.)
Why such a noise? What
are my lord's commands?
FAUST
This was the poodle's real core,
A travelling scholar, then? The casus
is diverting.
MEPHISTOPHELES
The learned gentleman I bow before:
You've made me roundly sweat,
that's certain!
FAUST
What is thy name?
MEPHISTOPHELES
A question small, it seems,
For one whose mind the Word so much
despises;
Who, scorning all external gleams,
The depths of being
only prizes.
FAUST
With all you gentlemen, the name's a test,
Whereby the nature usually
is expressed.
Clearly the latter it implies
In names like
Beelzebub, Destroyer, Father of Lies.
Who art thou, then?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Part of that Power, not understood,
Which always wills the Bad, and
always works the Good.
FAUST
What hidden sense in this enigma lies?
MEPHISTOPHELES
I am the Spirit that Denies!
And justly so: for all things, from the
Void
Called forth, deserve to be destroyed:
'Twere better, then,
were naught created.
Thus, all which you as Sin have rated,—
Destruction,—aught
with Evil blent,—
That is my proper element.
FAUST
Thou nam'st thyself a part, yet show'st complete to me?
MEPHISTOPHELES
The modest truth I speak to thee.
If Man, that microcosmic fool, can
see
Himself a whole so frequently,
Part of the Part am I, once
All, in primal Night,—
Part of the Darkness which brought forth
the Light,
The haughty Light, which now disputes the space,
And
claims of Mother Night her ancient place.
And yet, the struggle
fails; since Light, howe'er it weaves,
Still, fettered, unto bodies
cleaves:
It flows from bodies, bodies beautifies;
By bodies is its
course impeded;
And so, but little time is needed,
I hope, ere, as
the bodies die, it dies!
FAUST
I see the plan thou art pursuing:
Thou canst not compass general ruin,
And
hast on smaller scale begun.
MEPHISTOPHELES
And truly 'tis not much, when all is done.
That which to Naught is in
resistance set,—
The Something of this clumsy world,—has yet,
With
all that I have undertaken,
Not been by me disturbed or shaken:
From
earthquake, tempest, wave, volcano's brand,
Back into quiet settle
sea and land!
And that damned stuff, the bestial, human brood,—
What
use, in having that to play with?
How many have I made away with!
And
ever circulates a newer, fresher blood.
It makes me furious, such
things beholding:
From Water, Earth, and Air unfolding,
A thousand
germs break forth and grow,
In dry, and wet, and warm, and chilly;
And
had I not the Flame reserved, why, really,
There's nothing special of
my own to show!
FAUST
So, to the actively eternal
Creative force, in cold disdain
You
now oppose the fist infernal,
Whose wicked clench is all in vain!
Some
other labor seek thou rather,
Queer Son of Chaos, to begin!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Well, we'll consider: thou canst gather
My views, when next I venture
in.
Might I, perhaps, depart at present?
FAUST
Why thou shouldst ask, I don't perceive.
Though our acquaintance is
so recent,
For further visits thou hast leave.
The window's here,
the door is yonder;
A chimney, also, you behold.
MEPHISTOPHELES
I must confess that forth I may not wander,
My steps by one slight
obstacle controlled,—
The wizard's-foot, that on your threshold
made is.
FAUST
The pentagram prohibits thee?
Why, tell me now, thou Son of Hades,
If
that prevents, how cam'st thou in to me?
Could such a spirit be so
cheated?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Inspect the thing: the drawing's not completed.
The outer angle, you
may see,
Is open left—the lines don't fit it.
FAUST
Well,—Chance, this time, has fairly hit it!
And thus, thou'rt
prisoner to me?
It seems the business has succeeded.
MEPHISTOPHELES
The poodle naught remarked, as after thee he speeded;
But other
aspects now obtain:
The Devil can't get out again.
FAUST
Try, then, the open window-pane!
MEPHISTOPHELES
For Devils and for spectres this is law:
Where they have entered in,
there also they withdraw.
The first is free to us; we're governed by
the second.
FAUST
In Hell itself, then, laws are reckoned?
That's well! So might a
compact be
Made with you gentlemen—and binding,—surely?
MEPHISTOPHELES
All that is promised shall delight thee purely;
No skinflint bargain
shalt thou see.
But this is not of swift conclusion;
We'll talk
about the matter soon.
And now, I do entreat this boon—
Leave
to withdraw from my intrusion.
FAUST
One moment more I ask thee to remain,
Some pleasant news, at least,
to tell me.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Release me, now! I soon shall come again;
Then thou, at will, mayst
question and compel me.
FAUST
I have not snares around thee cast;
Thyself hast led thyself into the
meshes.
Who traps the Devil, hold him fast!
Not soon a second time
he'll catch a prey so precious.
MEPHISTOPHELES
An't please thee, also I'm content to stay,
And serve thee in a
social station;
But stipulating, that I may
With arts of mine
afford thee recreation.
FAUST
Thereto I willingly agree,
If the diversion pleasant be.
MEPHISTOPHELES
My friend, thou'lt win, past all pretences,
More in this hour to
soothe thy senses,
Than in the year's monotony.
That which the
dainty spirits sing thee,
The lovely pictures they shall bring thee,
Are
more than magic's empty show.
Thy scent will be to bliss invited;
Thy
palate then with taste delighted,
Thy nerves of touch ecstatic glow!
All
unprepared, the charm I spin:
We're here together, so begin!
SPIRITS
Vanish, ye darking
Arches
above him!
Loveliest weather,
Born
of blue ether,
Break from the sky!
O
that the darkling
Clouds had
departed!
Starlight is sparkling,
Tranquiller-hearted
Suns
are on high.
Heaven's own children
In
beauty bewildering,
Waveringly
bending,
Pass as they hover;
Longing
unending
Follows them over.
They,
with their glowing
Garments,
out-flowing,
Cover, in going,
Landscape
and bower,
Where, in seclusion,
Lovers
are plighted,
Lost in illusion.
Bower
on bower!
Tendrils unblighted!
Lo!
in a shower
Grapes that
o'ercluster
Gush into must, or
Flow
into rivers
Of foaming and
flashing
Wine, that is dashing
Gems,
as it boundeth
Down the high
places,
And spreading, surroundeth
With
crystalline spaces,
In happy
embraces,
Blossoming forelands,
Emerald
shore-lands!
And the winged races
Drink,
and fly onward—
Fly ever
sunward
To the enticing
Islands,
that flatter,
Dipping and rising
Light
on the water!
Hark, the inspiring
Sound
of their quiring!
See, the
entrancing
Whirl of their dancing!
All
in the air are
Freer and fairer.
Some
of them scaling
Boldly the
highlands,
Others are sailing,
Circling
the islands;
Others are flying;
Life-ward
all hieing,—
All for the
distant
Star of existent
Rapture
and Love!
MEPHISTOPHELES
He sleeps! Enough, ye fays! your airy number
Have sung him truly into
slumber:
For this performance I your debtor prove.—
Not yet
art thou the man, to catch the Fiend and hold him!—
With
fairest images of dreams infold him,
Plunge him in seas of sweet
untruth!
Yet, for the threshold's magic which controlled him,
The
Devil needs a rat's quick tooth.
I use no lengthened invocation:
Here
rustles one that soon will work my liberation.
The lord of rats and eke of mice,
Of flies and bed-bugs, frogs and
lice,
Summons thee hither to the door-sill,
To gnaw it where, with
just a morsel
Of oil, he paints the spot for thee:—
There
com'st thou, hopping on to me!
To work, at once! The point which made
me craven
Is forward, on the ledge, engraven.
Another bite makes
free the door:
So, dream thy dreams, O Faust, until we meet once more!
FAUST (awaking)
Am I again so foully cheated?
Remains there naught of lofty
spirit-sway,
But that a dream the Devil counterfeited,
And that a
poodle ran away?
THE STUDY
FAUST MEPHISTOPHELES
FAUST
A knock? Come in! Again my quiet broken?
MEPHISTOPHELES
'Tis I!
FAUST
Come in!MEPHISTOPHELES
Thrice must the words be spoken.FAUST
Come in, then!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Thus thou pleasest me.FAUST
This life of earth, whatever my attire,
Would pain me in its wonted
fashion.
Too old am I to play with passion;
Too young, to be
without desire.
What from the world have I to gain?
Thou shalt
abstain—renounce—refrain!
Such is the everlasting song
That
in the ears of all men rings,—
That unrelieved, our whole life
long,
Each hour, in passing, hoarsely sings.
In very terror I at
morn awake,
Upon the verge of bitter weeping,
To see the day of
disappointment break,
To no one hope of mine—not one—its promise
keeping:—
That even each joy's presentiment
With wilful
cavil would diminish,
With grinning masks of life prevent
My mind
its fairest work to finish!
Then, too, when night descends, how
anxiously
Upon my couch of sleep I lay me:
There, also, comes no
rest to me,
But some wild dream is sent to fray me.
The God that
in my breast is owned
Can deeply stir the inner sources;
The God,
above my powers enthroned,
He cannot change external forces.
So,
by the burden of my days oppressed,
Death is desired, and Life a
thing unblest!
MEPHISTOPHELES
And yet is never Death a wholly welcome guest.
FAUST
O fortunate, for whom, when victory glances,
The bloody laurels on
the brow he bindeth!
Whom, after rapid, maddening dances,
In
clasping maiden-arms he findeth!
O would that I, before that
spirit-power,
Ravished and rapt from life, had sunken!
MEPHISTOPHELES
And yet, by some one, in that nightly hour,
A certain liquid was not
drunken.
FAUST
Eavesdropping, ha! thy pleasure seems to be.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Omniscient am I not; yet much is known to me.
FAUST
Though some familiar tone, retrieving
My thoughts from torment, led
me on,
And sweet, clear echoes came, deceiving
A faith bequeathed
from Childhood's dawn,
Yet now I curse whate'er entices
And snares
the soul with visions vain;
With dazzling cheats and dear devices
Confines
it in this cave of pain!
Cursed be, at once, the high ambition
Wherewith
the mind itself deludes!
Cursed be the glare of apparition
That on
the finer sense intrudes!
Cursed be the lying dream's impression
Of
name, and fame, and laurelled brow!
Cursed, all that flatters as
possession,
As wife and child, as knave and plow!
Cursed Mammon
be, when he with treasures
To restless action spurs our fate!
Cursed
when, for soft, indulgent leisures,
He lays for us the pillows
straight!
Cursed be the vine's transcendent nectar,—
The
highest favor Love lets fall!
Cursed, also, Hope!—cursed Faith, the
spectre!
And cursed be Patience most of all!
CHORUS OF SPIRITS (invisible)
Woe! woe!
Thou
hast it destroyed,
The beautiful
world,
With powerful fist:
In
ruin 'tis hurled,
By the blow of
a demigod shattered!
The scattered
Fragments
into the Void we carry,
Deploring
The
beauty perished beyond restoring.
Mightier
For
the children of men,
Brightlier
Build
it again,
In thine own bosom
build it anew!
Bid the new career
Commence,
With
clearer sense,
And the new songs
of cheer
Be sung thereto!
MEPHISTOPHELES
These
are the small dependants
Who give me attendance.
Hear them, to
deeds and passion
Counsel in shrewd old-fashion!
Into the world of
strife,
Out of this lonely life
That of senses and sap has
betrayed thee,
They would persuade thee.
This nursing of the pain
forego thee,
That, like a vulture, feeds upon thy breast!
The
worst society thou find'st will show thee
Thou art a man among the
rest.
But 'tis not meant to thrust
Thee into the mob thou hatest!
I
am not one of the greatest,
Yet, wilt thou to me entrust
Thy steps
through life, I'll guide thee,—
Will willingly walk beside
thee,—
Will serve thee at once and forever
With best
endeavor,
And, if thou art satisfied,
Will as servant, slave, with
thee abide.
FAUST
And what shall be my counter-service
therefor?
MEPHISTOPHELES
The time is long: thou need'st
not now insist.
FAUST
No—no! The Devil is an egotist,
And
is not apt, without a why or wherefore,
"For God's sake," others to
assist.
Speak thy conditions plain and clear!
With such a servant
danger comes, I fear.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Here, an
unwearied slave, I'll wear thy tether,
And to thine every nod
obedient be:
When There again we come together,
Then shalt
thou do the same for me.
FAUST
The There my
scruples naught increases.
When thou hast dashed this world to pieces,
The
other, then, its place may fill.
Here, on this earth, my pleasures
have their sources;
Yon sun beholds my sorrows in his courses;
And
when from these my life itself divorces,
Let happen all that can or
will!
I'll hear no more: 'tis vain to ponder
If there we cherish
love or hate,
Or, in the spheres we dream of yonder,
A High and
Low our souls await.
MEPHISTOPHELES
In this sense, even,
canst thou venture.
Come, bind thyself by prompt indenture,
And
thou mine arts with joy shalt see:
What no man ever saw, I'll give to
thee.
FAUST
Canst thou, poor Devil, give me whatsoever?
When
was a human soul, in its supreme endeavor,
E'er understood by such as
thou?
Yet, hast thou food which never satiates, now,—
The
restless, ruddy gold hast thou,
That runs, quicksilver-like, one's
fingers through,—
A game whose winnings no man ever knew,—
A
maid that, even from my breast,
Beckons my neighbor with her wanton
glances,
And Honor's godlike zest,
The meteor that a moment
dances,—
Show me the fruits that, ere they're gathered, rot,
And
trees that daily with new leafage clothe them!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Such
a demand alarms me not:
Such treasures have I, and can show them.
But
still the time may reach us, good my friend.
When peace we crave and
more luxurious diet.
FAUST
When on an idler's bed I
stretch myself in quiet.
There let, at once, my record end!
Canst
thou with lying flattery rule me,
Until, self-pleased, myself I see,—
Canst
thou with rich enjoyment fool me,
Let that day be the last for me!
The
bet I offer.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Done!
FAUST
And
heartily!
When thus I hail the Moment flying:
"Ah, still
delay—thou art so fair!"
Then bind me in thy bonds undying,
My
final ruin then declare!
Then let the death-bell chime the token.
Then
art thou from thy service free!
The clock may stop, the hand be
broken,
Then Time be finished unto me!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Consider
well: my memory good is rated.
FAUST
Thou hast a perfect
right thereto.
My powers I have not rashly estimated:
A slave am
I, whate'er I do—
If thine, or whose? 'tis needless to debate
it.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Then at the Doctors'-banquet I, to-day,
Will
as a servant wait behind thee.
But one thing more! Beyond all risk to
bind thee,
Give me a line or two, I pray.
FAUST
Demand'st
thou, Pedant, too, a document?
Hast never known a man, nor proved his
word's intent?
Is't not enough, that what I speak to-day
Shall
stand, with all my future days agreeing?
In all its tides sweeps not
the world away,
And shall a promise bind my being?
Yet this
delusion in our hearts we bear:
Who would himself therefrom deliver?
Blest
he, whose bosom Truth makes pure and fair!
No sacrifice shall he
repent of ever.
Nathless a parchment, writ and stamped with care,
A
spectre is, which all to shun endeavor.
The word, alas! dies even in
the pen,
And wax and leather keep the lordship then.
What wilt
from me, Base Spirit, say?—
Brass, marble, parchment, paper,
clay?
The terms with graver, quill, or chisel, stated?
I freely
leave the choice to thee.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Why heat thyself,
thus instantly,
With eloquence exaggerated?
Each leaf for such a
pact is good;
And to subscribe thy name thou'lt take a drop of blood.
FAUST
If
thou therewith art fully satisfied,
So let us by the farce abide.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Blood
is a juice of rarest quality.
FAUST
Fear not that I this
pact shall seek to sever?
The promise that I make to thee
Is just
the sum of my endeavor.
I have myself inflated all too high;
My
proper place is thy estate:
The Mighty Spirit deigns me no reply,
And
Nature shuts on me her gate.
The thread of Thought at last is broken,
And
knowledge brings disgust unspoken.
Let us the sensual deeps explore,
To
quench the fervors of glowing passion!
Let every marvel take form and
fashion
Through the impervious veil it wore!
Plunge we in Time's
tumultuous dance,
In the rush and roll of Circumstance!
Then may
delight and distress,
And worry and success,
Alternately follow,
as best they can:
Restless activity proves the man!
MEPHISTOPHELES
For
you no bound, no term is set.
Whether you everywhere be trying,
Or
snatch a rapid bliss in flying,
May it agree with you, what you get!
Only
fall to, and show no timid balking.
FAUST
But thou hast
heard, 'tis not of joy we're talking.
I take the wildering whirl,
enjoyment's keenest pain,
Enamored hate, exhilarant disdain.
My
bosom, of its thirst for knowledge sated,
Shall not, henceforth, from
any pang be wrested,
And all of life for all mankind created
Shall
be within mine inmost being tested:
The highest, lowest forms my soul
shall borrow,
Shall heap upon itself their bliss and sorrow,
And
thus, my own sole self to all their selves expanded,
I too, at last,
shall with them all be stranded!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Believe
me, who for many a thousand year
The same tough meat have chewed and
tested,
That from the cradle to the bier
No man the ancient leaven
has digested!
Trust one of us, this Whole supernal
Is made but for
a God's delight!
He dwells in splendor single and eternal,
But
us he thrusts in darkness, out of sight,
And you he
dowers with Day and Night.
FAUST
Nay, but I will!
MEPHISTOPHELES
A
good reply!
One only fear still needs repeating:
The art is long,
the time is fleeting.
Then let thyself be taught, say I!
Go,
league thyself with a poet,
Give the rein to his imagination,
Then
wear the crown, and show it,
Of the qualities of his creation,—
The
courage of the lion's breed,
The wild stag's speed,
The Italian's
fiery blood,
The North's firm fortitude!
Let him find for thee the
secret tether
That binds the Noble and Mean together.
And teach
thy pulses of youth and pleasure
To love by rule, and hate by measure!
I'd
like, myself, such a one to see:
Sir Microcosm his name should be.
FAUST
What
am I, then, if 'tis denied my part
The crown of all humanity to win
me,
Whereto yearns every sense within me?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Why,
on the whole, thou'rt—what thou art.
Set wigs of million curls
upon thy head, to raise thee,
Wear shoes an ell in height,—the truth
betrays thee,
And thou remainest—what thou art.
FAUST
I
feel, indeed, that I have made the treasure
Of human thought and
knowledge mine, in vain;
And if I now sit down in restful leisure,
No
fount of newer strength is in my brain:
I am no hair's-breadth more
in height,
Nor nearer, to the Infinite,
MEPHISTOPHELES
Good
Sir, you see the facts precisely
As they are seen by each and all.
We
must arrange them now, more wisely,
Before the joys of life shall
pall.
Why, Zounds! Both hands and feet are, truly—
And head
and virile forces—thine:
Yet all that I indulge in newly,
Is't
thence less wholly mine?
If I've six stallions in my stall,
Are
not their forces also lent me?
I speed along, completest man of all,
As
though my legs were four-and-twenty.
Take hold, then! let reflection
rest,
And plunge into the world with zest!
I say to thee, a
speculative wight
Is like a beast on moorlands lean,
That round
and round some fiend misleads to evil plight,
While all about lie
pastures fresh and green.
FAUST
Then how shall we begin?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Soar up, soar up, Dame Nightingale!
Ten thousand times my
sweetheart hail!
SIEBEL
No, greet my sweetheart not! I tell you, I'll resent it.
FROSCH
My sweetheart greet and kiss! I dare you to prevent it!
(Sings.)
Draw the latch! the darkness makes:
Draw the latch! the
lover wakes.
Shut the latch! the morning breaks
SIEBEL
Yes, sing away, sing on, and praise, and brag of her!
I'll wait my
proper time for laughter:
Me by the nose she led, and now she'll lead
you after.
Her paramour should be an ugly gnome,
Where four roads
cross, in wanton play to meet her:
An old he-goat, from Blocksberg
coming home,
Should his good-night in lustful gallop bleat her!
A
fellow made of genuine flesh and blood
Is for the wench a deal too
good.
Greet her? Not I: unless, when meeting,
To smash her windows
be a greeting!
BRANDER (pounding on the table)
Attention! Hearken now to me!
Confess, Sirs, I know how to live.
Enamored
persons here have we,
And I, as suits their quality,
Must
something fresh for their advantage give.
Take heed! 'Tis of the
latest cut, my strain,
And all strike in at each refrain!
(He sings.)
There
was a rat in the cellar-nest,
Whom
fat and butter made smoother:
He
had a paunch beneath his vest
Like
that of Doctor Luther.
The cook
laid poison cunningly,
And then
as sore oppressed was he
As if he
had love in his bosom.
CHORUS
(shouting)
As if he
had love in his bosom!
BRANDER
He
ran around, he ran about,
His
thirst in puddles laving;
He
gnawed and scratched the house throughout.
But
nothing cured his raving.
He
whirled and jumped, with torment mad,
And
soon enough the poor beast had,
As
if he had love in his bosom.
CHORUS
As
if he had love in his bosom!
BRANDER
And
driven at last, in open day,
He
ran into the kitchen,
Fell on the
hearth, and squirming lay,
In the
last convulsion twitching.
Then
laughed the murderess in her glee:
"Ha!
ha! he's at his last gasp," said she,
"As
if he had love in his bosom!"
CHORUS
As if he had love in his bosom!
SIEBEL
How the dull fools enjoy the matter!
To me it is a proper art
Poison
for such poor rats to scatter.
BRANDER
Perhaps you'll warmly take their part?
ALTMAYER
The bald-pate pot-belly I have noted:
Misfortune tames him by degrees;
For
in the rat by poison bloated
His own most natural form he sees.
FAUST AND MEPHISTOPHELES
MEPHISTOPHELES
Before all else, I bring thee hither
Where boon companions meet
together,
To let thee see how smooth life runs away.
Here, for the
folk, each day's a holiday:
With little wit, and ease to suit them,
They
whirl in narrow, circling trails,
Like kittens playing with their
tails?
And if no headache persecute them,
So long the host may
credit give,
They merrily and careless live.
BRANDER
The fact is easy to unravel,
Their air's so odd, they've just
returned from travel:
A single hour they've not been here.
FROSCH
You've verily hit the truth! Leipzig to me is dear:
Paris in
miniature, how it refines its people!
SIEBEL
Who are the strangers, should you guess?
FROSCH
Let me alone! I'll set them first to drinking,
And then, as one a
child's tooth draws, with cleverness,
I'll worm their secret out, I'm
thinking.
They're of a noble house, that's very clear:
Haughty and
discontented they appear.
BRANDER
They're mountebanks, upon a revel.
ALTMAYER
Perhaps.
FROSCH
Look out, I'll smoke them now!
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST)
Not if he had them by the neck, I vow,
Would e'er these people scent
the Devil!
FAUST Fair greeting, gentlemen!
SIEBEL
Our thanks: we give the same.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Is it permitted that we share your leisure?
In place of cheering
drink, which one seeks vainly here,
Your company shall give us
pleasure.
ALTMAYER
A most fastidious person you appear.
FROSCH
No doubt 'twas late when you from Rippach started?
And supping there
with Hans occasioned your delay?
MEPHISTOPHELES
We passed, without a call, to-day.
At our last interview, before we
parted
Much of his cousins did he speak, entreating
That we should
give to each his kindly greeting.
(He bows to FROSCH.)
ALTMAYER (aside)
You have it now! he understands.
SIEBEL
A knave sharp-set!
FROSCH
Just wait awhile: I'll have him yet.
MEPHISTOPHELES
If I am right, we heard the sound
Of well-trained voices, singing
chorus;
And truly, song must here rebound
Superbly from the arches
o'er us.
FROSCH
Are you, perhaps, a virtuoso?
MEPHISTOPHELES
O no! my wish is great, my power is only so-so.
ALTMAYER
Give us a song!
MEPHISTOPHELES
If you desire, a number.
SIEBEL
So that it be a bran-new strain!
MEPHISTOPHELES
We've just retraced our way from. Spain,
The lovely land of wine, and
song, and slumber.
(Sings.)
There was a king once reigning,
Who had a big black flea—
FROSCH
Hear, hear! A flea! D'ye rightly take the jest?
I call a flea a tidy
guest.
MEPHISTOPHELES (sings)
There was a king once reigning,
Who
had a big black flea,
And loved
him past explaining,
As his own
son were he.
He called his man of
stitches;
The tailor came
straightway:
Here, measure the
lad for breeches.
And measure his
coat, I say!
BRANDER
But mind, allow the tailor no caprices:
Enjoin upon him, as his head
is dear,
To most exactly measure, sew and shear,
So that the
breeches have no creases!
MEPHISTOPHELES
In silk and velvet gleaming
He
now was wholly drest—
Had a
coat with ribbons streaming,
A
cross upon his breast.
He had the
first of stations,
A minister's
star and name;
And also all his
relations
Great lords at court
became.
And the lords and
ladies of honor
Were plagued,
awake and in bed;
The queen she
got them upon her,
The maids were
bitten and bled.
And they did not
dare to brush them,
Or scratch
them, day or night:
We crack them
and we crush them,
At once,
whene'er they bite.
CHORUS (shouting)
We
crack them and we crush them,
At
once, whene'er they bite!
FROSCH Bravo! bravo! that was fine.
SIEBEL
Every flea may it so befall!
BRANDER
Point your fingers and nip them all!
ALTMAYER
Hurrah for Freedom! Hurrah for wine!
MEPHISTOPHELES
I fain would drink with you, my glass to Freedom clinking,
If 'twere
a better wine that here I see you drinking.
SIEBEL
Don't let us hear that speech again!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Did I not fear the landlord might complain,
I'd treat these worthy
guests, with pleasure,
To some from out our cellar's treasure.
SIEBEL
Just treat, and let the landlord me arraign!
FROSCH
And if the wine be good, our praises shall be ample.
But do not give
too very small a sample;
For, if its quality I decide,
With a good
mouthful I must be supplied.
ALTMAYER (aside)
They're from the Rhine! I guessed as much, before.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Bring me a gimlet here!
BRANDER
What shall therewith be done?
ALTMAYER
Yonder, within the landlord's box of tools, there's one!
MEPHISTOPHELES (takes the gimlet)
(To FROSCH.)
Now, give me of your taste some intimation.
FROSCH
How do you mean? Have you so many kinds?
MEPHISTOPHELES
The choice is free: make up your minds.
ALTMAYER (to FROSCH)
Aha! you lick your chops, from sheer anticipation.
FROSCH
Good! if I have the choice, so let the wine be Rhenish!
Our
Fatherland can best the sparkling cup replenish.
MEPHISTOPHELES
(boring a hole in the edge of the table, at the place where
FROSCH
sits)
Get me a little wax, to make the stoppers, quick!
ALTMAYER
Ah! I perceive a juggler's trick.
MEPHISTOPHELES (to BRANDER)
And you?
BRANDER
Champagne shall be my wine,
And let it sparkle fresh and fine!
MEPHISTOPHELES
(bores: in the meantime one has made the wax stoppers, and
plugged
the holes with them.)
BRANDER
What's foreign one can't always keep quite clear of,
For good things,
oft, are not so near;
A German can't endure the French to see or hear
of,
Yet drinks their wines with hearty cheer.
SIEBEL
(as MEPHISTOPHELES approaches his seat)
For me, I
grant, sour wine is out of place;
Fill up my glass with sweetest,
will you?
MEPHISTOPHELES (boring)
Tokay shall flow at once, to fill you!
ALTMAYER
No—look me, Sirs, straight in the face!
I see you have your fun
at our expense.
MEPHISTOPHELES
O no! with gentlemen of such pretence,
That were to venture far,
indeed.
Speak out, and make your choice with speed! With what a
vintage can I serve you?
ALTMAYER
With any—only satisfy our need.
(After the holes have been bored and plugged)
MEPHISTOPHELES (with singular gestures)
Grapes the vine-stem bears,
Horns
the he-goat wears!
The grapes are
juicy, the vines are wood,
The
wooden table gives wine as good!
Into
the depths of Nature peer,—
Only
believe there's a miracle here!
Now draw the stoppers, and drink your fill!
ALL
(as they draw out the stoppers, and the wine which has been
desired
flows into the glass of each)
O beautiful fountain, that flows at will!
MEPHISTOPHELES
But have a care that you nothing spill!
(They drink repeatedly.)
ALL (sing)
As 'twere five hundred hogs, we feel
So
cannibalic jolly!
MEPHISTOPHELES
See, now, the race is happy—it is free!
FAUST
To leave them is my inclination.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Take notice, first! their bestiality
Will make a brilliant
demonstration.
SIEBEL
(drinks carelessly: the wine spills upon the earth, and turns to
flame)
Help! Fire! Help! Hell-fire is sent!
MEPHISTOPHELES (charming away the flame)
Be quiet, friendly element!
(To the revellers)
A bit of purgatory 'twas for this time, merely.
SIEBEL
What mean you? Wait!—you'll pay for't dearly!
You'll know us,
to your detriment.
FROSCH
Don't try that game a second time upon us!
ALTMAYER
I think we'd better send him packing quietly.
SIEBEL
What, Sir! you dare to make so free,
And play your hocus-pocus on us!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Be still, old wine-tub.
SIEBEL
Broomstick, you!
You face it out, impertinent and heady?
BRANDER
Just wait! a shower of blows is ready.
ALTMAYER
(draws a stopper out of the table: fire flies in his face.)
I
burn! I burn!
SIEBEL
'Tis magic! Strike—
The knave is outlawed! Cut him as you like!
(They
draw their knives, and rush upon MEPHISTOPHELES.)
MEPHISTOPHELES (with solemn gestures)
False word and form of air,
Change
place, and sense ensnare!
Be
here—and there!
(They stand amazed and look at each other.)
ALTMAYER
Where am I? What a lovely land!
FROSCH
Vines? Can I trust my eyes?
SIEBEL
And purple grapes at hand!
BRANDER
Here, over this green arbor bending,
See what a vine! what grapes
depending!
(He takes SIEBEL by the nose: the others do the same
reciprocally,
and raise their knives.)
MEPHISTOPHELES (as above)
Loose, Error, from their eyes the band,
And how the Devil jests, be
now enlightened!
(He disappears with FAUST: the revellers start and separate.)
SIEBEL
What happened?
ALTMAYER
How?
FROSCH
Was that your nose I tightened?
BRANDER (to SIEBEL)
And yours that still I have in hand?
ALTMAYER
It was a blow that went through every limb!
Give me a chair! I sink!
my senses swim.
FROSCH
But what has happened, tell me now?
SIEBEL
Where is he? If I catch the scoundrel hiding,
He shall not leave
alive, I vow.
ALTMAYER
I saw him with these eyes upon a wine-cask riding
Out of the
cellar-door, just now.
Still in my feet the fright like lead is
weighing.
SIEBEL
'Twas all deceit, and lying, false design!
FROSCH
And yet it seemed as I were drinking wine.
BRANDER
But with the grapes how was it, pray?
ALTMAYER
Shall one believe no miracles, just say!
WITCHES' KITCHEN
(Upon a low hearth stands a great caldron, under which a fire
is
burning. Various figures appear in the vapors which
rise from the
caldron. An ape sits beside it, skims it, and
watches lest it boil
over. The he-ape, with the young
ones, sits near and warms himself.
Ceiling and walls are
covered with the most fantastic witch-implements.)
FAUST MEPHISTOPHELES
FAUST
These crazy signs of witches' craft repel me!
I shall recover, dost
thou tell me,
Through this insane, chaotic play?
From an old hag
shall I demand assistance?
And will her foul mess take away
Full
thirty years from my existence?
Woe's me, canst thou naught better
find!
Another baffled hope must be lamented:
Has Nature, then, and
has a noble mind
Not any potent balsam yet invented?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Once more, my friend, thou talkest sensibly.
There is, to make thee
young, a simpler mode and apter;
But in another book 'tis writ for
thee,
And is a most eccentric chapter.
FAUST
Yet will I know it.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Good! the method is revealed
Without or gold or magic or physician.
Betake
thyself to yonder field,
There hoe and dig, as thy condition;
Restrain
thyself, thy sense and will
Within a narrow sphere to flourish;
With
unmixed food thy body nourish;
Live with the ox as ox, and think it
not a theft
That thou manur'st the acre which thou reapest;—
That,
trust me, is the best mode left,
Whereby for eighty years thy youth
thou keepest!
FAUST
I am not used to that; I cannot stoop to try it—
To take the
spade in hand, and ply it.
The narrow being suits me not at all.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Then to thine aid the witch must call.
FAUST
Wherefore the hag, and her alone?
Canst thou thyself not brew the
potion?
MEPHISTOPHELES
That were a charming sport, I own:
I'd build a thousand bridges
meanwhile, I've a notion.
Not Art and Science serve, alone;
Patience
must in the work be shown.
Long is the calm brain active in creation;
Time,
only, strengthens the fine fermentation.
And all, belonging thereunto,
Is
rare and strange, howe'er you take it:
The Devil taught the thing,
'tis true,
And yet the Devil cannot make it.
(Perceiving the
Animals)
See, what a delicate race they be!
That is the maid!
the man is he!
(To the Animals)
It seems the mistress has
gone away?
THE ANIMALS
Carousing, to-day!
Off and about,
By the chimney out!
MEPHISTOPHELES
What time takes she for dissipating?
THE ANIMALS
While we to warm our paws are waiting.
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST)
How findest thou the tender creatures?
FAUST
Absurder than I ever yet did see.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Why, just such talk as this, for me,
Is that which has the most
attractive features!
(To the Animals)
But tell me now, ye cursed puppets,
Why do ye stir the porridge so?
THE ANIMALS
We're cooking watery soup for beggars.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Then a great public you can show.
THE HE-APE
(comes up and fawns on MEPHISTOPHELES)
O cast thou the dice!
Make
me rich in a trice,
Let me win in
good season!
Things are badly
controlled,
And had I but gold,
So
had I my reason.
MEPHISTOPHELES
How would the ape be sure his luck enhances.
Could he but try the
lottery's chances!
(In the meantime the young apes have been playing with a
large
ball, which they now roll forward.)
THE HE-APE
The world's the ball:
Doth
rise and fall,
And roll incessant:
Like
glass doth ring,
A hollow thing,—
How
soon will't spring,
And drop,
quiescent?
Here bright it gleams,
Here
brighter seems:
I live at present!
Dear
son, I say,
Keep thou away!
Thy
doom is spoken!
'Tis made of clay,
And
will be broken.
MEPHISTOPHELES
What means the sieve?
THE HE-APE (taking it down)
Wert thou the thief,
I'd
know him and shame him.
(He runs to the SHE-APE, and
lets her look through it.)
Look
through the sieve!
Know'st thou
the thief,
And darest not name
him?
MEPHISTOPHELES (approaching the fire)
And what's this pot?
HE-APE AND SHE-APE
The fool knows it not!
He
knows not the pot,
He knows not
the kettle!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Impertinent beast!
THE HE-APE
Take the brush here, at least,
And sit down on the settle!
(He invites MEPHISTOPHELES to sit down.)
FAUST
(who during all this time has been standing before a mirror,
now
approaching and now retreating from it)
What do I see? What heavenly form revealed
Shows through the glass
from Magic's fair dominions!
O lend me, Love, the swiftest of thy
pinions,
And bear me to her beauteous field!
Ah, if I leave this
spot with fond designing,
If I attempt to venture near,
Dim, as
through gathering mist, her charms appear!—
A woman's form, in
beauty shining!
Can woman, then, so lovely be?
And must I find her
body, there reclining,
Of all the heavens the bright epitome?
Can
Earth with such a thing be mated?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Why, surely, if a God first plagues Himself six days,
Then,
self-contented, Bravo! says,
Must something clever be created.
This
time, thine eyes be satiate!
I'll yet detect thy sweetheart and
ensnare her,
And blest is he, who has the lucky fate,
Some day, as
bridegroom, home to bear her.
(FAUST gazes continually in the mirror. MEPHISTOPHELES,
stretching
himself out on the settle, and playing with the
brush, continues to
speak.)
So sit I, like the King upon his throne:
I hold the sceptre,
here,—and lack the crown alone.
THE ANIMALS
(who up to this time have been making all kinds of fantastic
movements
together bring a crown to MEPHISTOPHELES
with great noise.)
O be thou so good
With
sweat and with blood
The crown to
belime!
(They handle the crown awkwardly and break it into two
pieces,
with which they spring around.)
'Tis done, let it be!
We
speak and we see,
We hear and we
rhyme!
FAUST (before the mirror)
Woe's me! I fear to lose my wits.
MEPHISTOPHELES (pointing to the Animals)
My own head, now, is really nigh to sinking.
THE ANIMALS
If lucky our hits,
And
everything fits,
'Tis thoughts,
and we're thinking!
FAUST (as above)
My bosom burns with that sweet vision;
Let us, with speed, away from
here!
MEPHISTOPHELES (in the same attitude)
One must, at least, make this admission—
They're poets, genuine
and sincere.
(The caldron, which the SHE-APE has up to this time neglected
to
watch, begins to boil over: there ensues a great flame,
which
blazes out the chimney. The WITCH comes careering
down through
the flame, with terrible cries.)
THE WITCH
Ow! ow! ow! ow!
The
damnéd beast—the curséd sow!
To
leave the kettle, and singe the Frau!
Accurséd
fere!
(Perceiving FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES.)
What is that here?
Who
are you here?
What want you thus?
Who
sneaks to us?
The fire-pain
Burn
bone and brain!
(She plunges the skimming-ladle into the caldron, and scatters
flames
towards FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES, and the Animals.
The Animals
whimper.)
MEPHISTOPHELES
(reversing the brush, which he has been holding in his hand,
and
striding among the jars and glasses)
In two! in two!
There
lies the brew!
There lies the
glass!
The joke will pass,
As
time, foul ass!
To the singing of
thy crew.
(As the WITCH starts back, full of wrath and horror)
Ha! know'st thou me? Abomination, thou!
Know'st thou, at last, thy
Lord and Master?
What hinders me from smiting now
Thee and thy
monkey-sprites with fell disaster?
Hast for the scarlet coat no
reverence?
Dost recognize no more the tall cock's-feather?
Have I
concealed this countenance?—
Must tell my name, old face of
leather?
THE WITCH
O pardon, Sir, the rough salute!
Yet I perceive no cloven foot;
And
both your ravens, where are they now?
MEPHISTOPHELES
This time, I'll let thee 'scape the debt;
For since we two together
met,
'Tis verily full many a day now.
Culture, which smooth the
whole world licks,
Also unto the Devil sticks.
The days of that
old Northern phantom now are over:
Where canst thou horns and tail
and claws discover?
And, as regards the foot, which I can't spare, in
truth,
'Twould only make the people shun me;
Therefore I've worn,
like many a spindly youth,
False calves these many years upon me.
THE WITCH (dancing)
Reason and sense forsake my brain,
Since I behold Squire Satan here
again!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Woman, from such a name refrain!
THE WITCH
Why so? What has it done to thee?
MEPHISTOPHELES
It's long been written in the Book of Fable;
Yet, therefore, no whit
better men we see:
The Evil One has left, the evil ones are stable.
Sir
Baron call me thou, then is the matter good;
A cavalier am I, like
others in my bearing.
Thou hast no doubt about my noble blood:
See,
here's the coat-of-arms that I am wearing!
(He makes an indecent gesture.)
THE WITCH (laughs immoderately)
Ha! ha! That's just your way, I know:
A rogue you are, and you were
always so.
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST)
My friend, take proper heed, I pray!
To manage witches, this is just
the way.
THE WITCH
Wherein, Sirs, can I be of use?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Give us a goblet of the well-known juice!
But, I must beg you, of the
oldest brewage;
The years a double strength produce.
THE WITCH
With all my heart! Now, here's a bottle,
Wherefrom, sometimes, I wet
my throttle,
Which, also, not the slightest, stinks;
And willingly
a glass I'll fill him.
(Whispering)
Yet, if this man without due preparation drinks,
As well thou
know'st, within an hour 'twill kill him.
MEPHISTOPHELES
He is a friend of mine, with whom it will agree,
And he deserves thy
kitchen's best potation:
Come, draw thy circle, speak thine
adjuration,
And fill thy goblet full and free!
THE WITCH
(with fantastic gestures draws a circle and places mysterious
articles
therein; meanwhile the glasses begin to ring, the
caldron to sound,
and make a musical accompaniment.
Finally she brings a great book,
and stations in the circle
the Apes, who are obliged to serve as
reading-desk, and to
hold the torches. She then beckons FAUST to
approach.)
FAUST (to MEPHISTOPHELES)
Now, what shall come of this? the creatures antic,
The crazy stuff,
the gestures frantic,—
All the repulsive cheats I view,—
Are
known to me, and hated, too.
MEPHISTOPHELES
O, nonsense! That's a thing for laughter;
Don't be so terribly severe!
She
juggles you as doctor now, that, after,
The beverage may work the
proper cheer.
(He persuades FAUST to step into the circle.)
THE WITCH
(begins to declaim, with much emphasis, from the book)
See, thus it's done!
Make
ten of one,
And two let be,
Make
even three,
And rich thou 'It be.
Cast
o'er the four!
From five and six
(The
witch's tricks)
Make seven and
eight,
'Tis finished straight!
And
nine is one,
And ten is none.
This
is the witch's once-one's-one!
FAUST
She talks like one who raves in fever.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Thou'lt hear much more before we leave her.
'Tis all the same: the
book I can repeat,
Such time I've squandered o'er the history:
A
contradiction thus complete
Is always for the wise, no less than
fools, a mystery.
The art is old and new, for verily
All ages have
been taught the matter,—
By Three and One, and One and Three,
Error
instead of Truth to scatter.
They prate and teach, and no one
interferes;
All from the fellowship of fools are shrinking.
Man
usually believes, if only words he hears,
That also with them goes
material for thinking!
THE WITCH (continues)
The lofty skill
Of
Science, still
From all men
deeply hidden!
Who takes no
thought,
To him 'tis brought,
'Tis
given unsought, unbidden!
FAUST
What nonsense she declaims before us!
My head is nigh to split, I
fear:
It seems to me as if I hear
A hundred thousand fools in
chorus.
MEPHISTOPHELES
O Sibyl excellent, enough of adjuration!
But hither bring us thy
potation,
And quickly fill the beaker to the brim!
This drink will
bring my friend no injuries:
He is a man of manifold degrees,
And
many draughts are known to him.
(The WITCH, with many ceremonies, pours the drink into a
cup;
as FAUST sets it to his lips, a light flame arises.)
Down with it quickly! Drain it off!
'Twill warm thy heart with new
desire:
Art with the Devil hand and glove,
And wilt thou be afraid
of fire?
(The WITCH breaks the circle: FAUST steps forth.)
MEPHISTOPHELES
And now, away! Thou dar'st not rest.
THE WITCH
And much good may the liquor do thee!
MEPHISTOPHELES (to the WITCH)
Thy wish be on Walpurgis Night expressed;
What boon I have, shall
then be given unto thee.
THE WITCH
Here is a song, which, if you sometimes sing,
You'll find it of
peculiar operation.
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST)
Come, walk at once! A rapid occupation
Must start the needful
perspiration,
And through thy frame the liquor's potence fling.
The
noble indolence I'll teach thee then to treasure,
And soon thou'lt be
aware, with keenest thrills of pleasure,
How Cupid stirs and leaps,
on light and restless wing.
FAUST
One rapid glance within the mirror give me,
How beautiful that
woman-form!
MEPHISTOPHELES
No, no! The paragon of all, believe me,
Thou soon shalt see, alive
and warm.
(Aside)
Thou'lt find, this drink thy blood compelling,
Each woman beautiful
as Helen!
STREET
FAUST MARGARET (passing by)
FAUST
Fair lady, let it not offend you,
That arm and escort I would lend
you!
MARGARET
I'm neither lady, neither fair,
And home I can go without your care.
[She releases herself, and exit.
FAUST
By Heaven, the girl is wondrous fair!
Of all I've seen, beyond
compare;
So sweetly virtuous and pure,
And yet a little pert, be
sure!
The lip so red, the cheek's clear dawn,
I'll not forget while the world rolls on!
How she cast down her timid
eyes,
Deep in my heart imprinted lies:
How short and sharp of
speech was she,
Why, 'twas a real ecstasy!
(MEPHISTOPHELES enters)
FAUST
Hear, of that girl I'd have possession!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Which, then?
FAUST
The one who just went by.
MEPHISTOPHELES
She, there? She's coming from confession,
Of every sin absolved; for
I,
Behind her chair, was listening nigh.
So innocent is she,
indeed,
That to confess she had no need.
I have no power o'er
souls so green.
FAUST
And yet, she's older than fourteen.
MEPHISTOPHELES
How now! You're talking like Jack Rake,
Who every flower for himself
would take,
And fancies there are no favors more,
Nor honors, save
for him in store;
Yet always doesn't the thing succeed.
FAUST
Most Worthy Pedagogue, take heed!
Let not a word of moral law be
spoken!
I claim, I tell thee, all my right;
And if that image of
delight
Rest not within mine arms to-night,
At midnight is our
compact broken.
MEPHISTOPHELES
But think, the chances of the case!
I need, at least, a fortnight's
space,
To find an opportune occasion.
FAUST
Had I but seven hours for all,
I should not on the Devil call,
But
win her by my own persuasion.
MEPHISTOPHELES
You almost like a Frenchman prate;
Yet, pray, don't take it as
annoyance!
Why, all at once, exhaust the joyance?
Your bliss is by
no means so great
As if you'd use, to get control,
All sorts of
tender rigmarole,
And knead and shape her to your thought,
As in
Italian tales 'tis taught.
FAUST
Without that, I have appetite.
MEPHISTOPHELES
But now, leave jesting out of sight!
I tell you, once for all, that
speed
With this fair girl will not succeed;
By storm she cannot
captured be;
We must make use of strategy.
FAUST
Get me something the angel keeps!
Lead me thither where she sleeps!
Get
me a kerchief from her breast,—
A garter that her knee has
pressed!
MEPHISTOPHELES
That you may see how much I'd fain
Further and satisfy your pain,
We
will no longer lose a minute;
I'll find her room to-day, and take you
in it.
FAUST
And shall I see—possess her?
MEPHISTOPHELES
No!
FAUST
Can we go thither?
MEPHISTOPHELES
'Tis too early yet.
FAUST
A gift for her I bid thee get!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Presents at once? That's good: he's certain to get at her!
Full many
a pleasant place I know,
And treasures, buried long ago:
I must,
perforce, look up the matter. [Exit.
EVENING A SMALL, NEATLY KEPT CHAMBER
MARGARET
(plaiting and binding up the braids of her hair)
I'd something give, could I but say
Who was that gentleman, to-day.
Surely
a gallant man was he,
And of a noble family;
And much could I in
his face behold,—
And he wouldn't, else, have been so bold!
MEPHISTOPHELES FAUST
MEPHISTOPHELES
Come in, but gently: follow me!
FAUST (after a moment's silence)
Leave me alone, I beg of thee!
MEPHISTOPHELES (prying about)
Not every girl keeps things so neat.
FAUST (looking around)
O welcome, twilight soft and sweet,
That breathes throughout this
hallowed shrine!
Sweet pain of love, bind thou with fetters fleet
The
heart that on the dew of hope must pine!
How all around a sense
impresses
Of quiet, order, and content!
This poverty what bounty
blesses!
What bliss within this narrow den is pent!
(He throws himself into a leathern arm-chair near the bed.)
Receive me, thou, that in thine open arms
Departed joy and pain wert
wont to gather!
How oft the children, with their ruddy charms,
Hung
here, around this throne, where sat the father!
Perchance my love,
amid the childish band,
Grateful for gifts the Holy Christmas gave
her,
Here meekly kissed the grandsire's withered hand.
I feel, O
maid! thy very soul
Of order and content around me whisper,—
Which
leads thee with its motherly control,
The cloth upon thy board bids
smoothly thee unroll,
The sand beneath thy feet makes whiter, crisper.
O
dearest hand, to thee 'tis given
To change this hut into a lower
heaven!
And here!
(He lifts one of the bed-curtains.)
What sweetest thrill is in my blood!
Here could I spend whole hours,
delaying:
Here Nature shaped, as if in sportive playing,
The angel
blossom from the bud.
Here lay the child, with Life's warm essence
The
tender bosom filled and fair,
And here was wrought, through holier,
purer presence,
The form diviner beings wear!
And I? What drew me here with power?
How deeply am I moved, this hour!
What
seek I? Why so full my heart, and sore?
Miserable Faust! I know thee
now no more.
Is there a magic vapor here?
I came, with lust of instant pleasure,
And
lie dissolved in dreams of love's sweet leisure!
Are we the sport of
every changeful atmosphere?
And if, this moment, came she in to me,
How would I for the fault
atonement render!
How small the giant lout would be,
Prone at her
feet, relaxed and tender!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Be quick! I see her there, returning.
FAUST
Go! go! I never will retreat.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Here is a casket, not unmeet,
Which elsewhere I have just been
earning.
Here, set it in the press, with haste!
I swear, 'twill
turn her head, to spy it:
Some baubles I therein had placed,
That
you might win another by it.
True, child is child, and play is play.
FAUST
I know not, should I do it?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Ask you, pray?
(He places the casket in the press, and locks it again.)
Now quick, away!
The sweet young maiden to betray,
So that by wish
and will you bend her;
And you look as though
To the lecture-hall
you were forced to go,—
As if stood before you, gray and loath,
Physics
and Metaphysics both!
But away!
MARGARET (with a lamp)
It is so close, so sultry, here!
(She opens the window)
And yet 'tis not so warm outside.
I feel, I know not why, such fear!—
Would
mother came!—where can she bide?
My body's chill and
shuddering,—
I'm but a silly, fearsome thing!
(She begins to sing while undressing)
There was a King in Thule,
Was
faithful till the grave,—
To
whom his mistress, dying,
A
golden goblet gave.
Naught
was to him more precious;
He
drained it at every bout:
His
eyes with tears ran over,
As oft
as he drank thereout.
When
came his time of dying,
The towns
in his land he told,
Naught else
to his heir denying
Except the
goblet of gold.
He sat at the
royal banquet
With his knights of
high degree,
In the lofty hall of
his fathers
In the Castle by the
Sea.
There stood the old
carouser,
And drank the last
life-glow;
And hurled the
hallowed goblet
Into the tide
below.
He saw it plunging and
filling,
And sinking deep in the
sea:
Then fell his eyelids
forever,
And never more drank he!
(She opens the press in order to arrange her clothes, and perceives
the
casket of jewels.)
How comes that lovely casket here to me?
I locked the press, most
certainly.
'Tis truly wonderful! What can within it be?
Perhaps
'twas brought by some one as a pawn,
And mother gave a loan thereon?
And
here there hangs a key to fit:
I have a mind to open it.
What is
that? God in Heaven! Whence came
Such things? Never beheld I aught so
fair!
Rich ornaments, such as a noble dame
On highest holidays
might wear!
How would the pearl-chain suit my hair?
Ah, who may
all this splendor own?
(She adorns herself with the jewelry, and steps before the
mirror.)
Were but the ear-rings mine, alone!
One has at once another air.
What
helps one's beauty, youthful blood?
One may possess them, well and
good;
But none the more do others care.
They praise us half in
pity, sure:
To gold still tends,
On gold depends
All, all!
Alas, we poor!
PROMENADE
(FAUST, walking thoughtfully up and down. To him MEPHISTOPHELES.)
MEPHISTOPHELES
By all love ever rejected! By hell-fire hot and unsparing!
I wish I
knew something worse, that I might use it for
swearing!
FAUST
What ails thee? What is't gripes thee, elf?
A face like thine beheld
I never.
MEPHISTOPHELES
I would myself unto the Devil deliver,
If I were not a Devil myself!
FAUST
Thy head is out of order, sadly:
It much becomes thee to be raving
madly.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Just think, the pocket of a priest should get
The trinkets left for
Margaret!
The mother saw them, and, instanter,
A secret dread
began to haunt her.
Keen scent has she for tainted air;
She snuffs
within her book of prayer,
And smells each article, to see
If
sacred or profane it be;
So here she guessed, from every gem,
That
not much blessing came with them.
"My child," she said, "ill-gotten
good
Ensnares the soul, consumes the blood.
Before the Mother of
God we'll lay it;
With heavenly manna she'll repay it!"
But
Margaret thought, with sour grimace,
"A gift-horse is not out of
place,
And, truly! godless cannot be
The one who brought such
things to me."
A parson came, by the mother bidden:
He saw,
at once, where the game was hidden,
And viewed it with a favor
stealthy.
He spake: "That is the proper view,—
Who
overcometh, winneth too.
The Holy Church has a stomach healthy:
Hath
eaten many a land as forfeit,
And never yet complained of surfeit:
The
Church alone, beyond all question,
Has for ill-gotten goods the right
digestion."
FAUST
A general practice is the same,
Which Jew and King may also claim.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Then bagged the spangles, chains, and rings,
As if but toadstools
were the things,
And thanked no less, and thanked no more
Than if
a sack of nuts he bore,—
Promised them fullest heavenly pay,
And
deeply edified were they.
FAUST
And Margaret?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Sits unrestful still,
And knows not what she should, or will;
Thinks
on the jewels, day and night,
But more on him who gave her such
delight.
FAUST
The darling's sorrow gives me pain.
Get thou a set for her again!
The
first was not a great display.
MEPHISTOPHELES
O yes, the gentleman finds it all child's-play!
FAUST
Fix and arrange it to my will;
And on her neighbor try thy skill!
Don't
be a Devil stiff as paste,
But get fresh jewels to her taste!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Yes, gracious Sir, in all obedience!
[Exit FAUST.
Such an enamored fool in air would blow
Sun, moon, and all the starry
legions,
To give his sweetheart a diverting show.
[Exit.
THE NEIGHBOR'S HOUSE
MARTHA (solus)
God forgive my husband, yet he
Hasn't done his duty by me!
Off in
the world he went straightway,—
Left me lie in the straw where
I lay.
And, truly, I did naught to fret him:
God knows I loved,
and can't forget him!
(She weeps.)
Perhaps he's even dead! Ah, woe!—
Had I a certificate to show!
MARGARET (comes)
Dame Martha!
MARTHA
Margaret! what's happened thee?
MARGARET
I scarce can stand, my knees are trembling!
I find a box, the first
resembling,
Within my press! Of ebony,—
And things, all
splendid to behold,
And richer far than were the old.
MARTHA
You mustn't tell it to your mother!
'Twould go to the priest, as did
the other.
MARGARET
Ah, look and see—just look and see!
MARTHA (adorning her)
O, what a blessed luck for thee!
MARGARET
But, ah! in the streets I dare not bear them,
Nor in the church be
seen to wear them.
MARTHA
Yet thou canst often this way wander,
And secretly the jewels don,
Walk
up and down an hour, before the mirror yonder,—
We'll have our
private joy thereon.
And then a chance will come, a holiday,
When,
piece by piece, can one the things abroad display,
A chain at first,
then other ornament:
Thy mother will not see, and stories we'll
invent.
MARGARET
Whoever could have brought me things so precious?
That something's
wrong, I feel suspicious.
(A knock)
Good Heaven! My mother can that have been?
MARTHA (peeping through the blind)
'Tis some strange gentleman.—Come in!
(MEPHISTOPHELES enters.)
MEPHISTOPHELES
That I so boldly introduce me,
I beg you, ladies, to excuse me.
(Steps back reverently, on seeing MARGARET.)
For Martha Schwerdtlein I'd inquire!
MARTHA
I'm she: what does the gentleman desire?
MEPHISTOPHELES (aside to her)
It is enough that you are she:
You've a visitor of high degree.
Pardon
the freedom I have ta'en,—
Will after noon return again.
MARTHA (aloud)
Of all things in the world! Just hear—
He takes thee for a
lady, dear!
MARGARET
I am a creature young and poor:
The gentleman's too kind, I'm sure.
The
jewels don't belong to me.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Ah, not alone the jewelry!
The look, the manner, both betray—
Rejoiced
am I that I may stay!
MARTHA
What is your business? I would fain—
MEPHISTOPHELES
I would I had a more cheerful strain!
Take not unkindly its repeating:
Your
husband's dead, and sends a greeting.
MARTHA
Is dead? Alas, that heart so true!
My husband dead! Let me die, too!
MARGARET
Ah, dearest dame, let not your courage fail!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Hear me relate the mournful tale!
MARGARET
Therefore I'd never love, believe me!
A loss like this to death would
grieve me.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Joy follows woe, woe after joy comes flying.
MARTHA
Relate his life's sad close to me!
MEPHISTOPHELES
In Padua buried, he is lying
Beside the good Saint Antony,
Within
a grave well consecrated,
For cool, eternal rest created.
MARTHA
He gave you, further, no commission?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Yes, one of weight, with many sighs:
Three hundred masses buy, to
save him from perdition!
My hands are empty, otherwise.
MARTHA
What! Not a pocket-piece? no jewelry?
What every journeyman within
his wallet spares,
And as a token with him bears,
And rather
starves or begs, than loses?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Madam, it is a grief to me;
Yet, on my word, his cash was put to
proper uses.
Besides, his penitence was very sore,
And he lamented
his ill fortune all the more.
MARGARET
Alack, that men are so unfortunate!
Surely for his soul's sake full
many a prayer I'll proffer.
MEPHISTOPHELES
You well deserve a speedy marriage-offer:
You are so kind,
compassionate.
MARGARET
O, no! As yet, it would not do.
MEPHISTOPHELES
If not a husband, then a beau for you!
It is the greatest heavenly
blessing,
To have a dear thing for one's caressing.
MARGARET
The country's custom is not so.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Custom, or not! It happens, though.
MARTHA
Continue, pray!
MEPHISTOPHELES
I stood beside his bed of dying.
'Twas something better than manure,—
Half-rotten
straw: and yet, he died a Christian, sure,
And found that heavier
scores to his account were lying.
He cried: "I find my conduct wholly
hateful!
To leave my wife, my trade, in manner so ungrateful!
Ah,
the remembrance makes me die!
Would of my wrong to her I might be
shriven!"
MARTHA (weeping)
The dear, good man! Long since was he forgiven.
MEPHISTOPHELES
"Yet she, God knows! was more to blame than I."
MARTHA
He lied! What! On the brink of death he slandered?
MEPHISTOPHELES
In the last throes his senses wandered,
If I such things but half can
judge.
He said: "I had no time for play, for gaping freedom:
First
children, and then work for bread to feed 'em,—
For bread, in
the widest sense, to drudge,
And could not even eat my share in peace
and quiet!"
MARTHA
Had he all love, all faith forgotten in his riot?
My work and worry,
day and night?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Not so: the memory of it touched him quite.
Said he: "When I from
Malta went away
My prayers for wife and little ones were zealous,
And
such a luck from Heaven befell us,
We made a Turkish merchantman our
prey,
That to the Soldan bore a mighty treasure.
Then I received,
as was most fit,
Since bravery was paid in fullest measure,
My
well-apportioned share of it."
MARTHA
Say, how? Say, where? If buried, did he own it?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Who knows, now, whither the four winds have blown it?
A fair young
damsel took him in her care,
As he in Naples wandered round,
unfriended;
And she much love, much faith to him did bear,
So that
he felt it till his days were ended.
MARTHA
The villain! From his children thieving!
Even all the misery on him
cast
Could not prevent his shameful way of living!
MEPHISTOPHELES
But see! He's dead therefrom, at last.
Were I in your place,
do not doubt me,
I'd mourn him decently a year,
And for another
keep, meanwhile, my eyes about me.
MARTHA
Ah, God! another one so dear
As was my first, this world will hardly
give me.
There never was a sweeter fool than mine,
Only he loved
to roam and leave me,
And foreign wenches and foreign wine,
And
the damned throw of dice, indeed.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Well, well! That might have done, however,
If he had only been as
clever,
And treated your slips with as little heed.
I
swear, with this condition, too,
I would, myself, change rings with
you.
MARTHA
The gentleman is pleased to jest.
MEPHISTOPHELES
I'll cut away, betimes, from here:
She'd take the Devil at his word,
I fear.
(To MARGARET)
How fares the heart within your breast?
MARGARET
What means the gentleman?
MEPHISTOPHELES (aside)
Sweet innocent, thou art!
(Aloud.)
Ladies, farewell!
MARGARET
Farewell!
MARTHA
A moment, ere we part!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Yes, my good dame, a pair of witnesses
Always the truth establishes.
I
have a friend of high condition,
Who'll also add his deposition.
I'll
bring him here.
MARTHA
Good Sir, pray do!
MEPHISTOPHELES
And this young lady will be present, too?
A gallant youth! has
travelled far:
Ladies with him delighted are.
MARGARET
Before him I should blush, ashamed.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Before no king that could be named!
MARTHA
Behind the house, in my garden, then,
This eve we'll expect the
gentlemen.
A STREET
FAUST MEPHISTOPHELES
FAUST
How is it? under way? and soon complete?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Ah, bravo! Do I find you burning?
Well, Margaret soon will still your
yearning:
At Neighbor Martha's you'll this evening meet.
A fitter
woman ne'er was made
To ply the pimp and gypsy trade!
FAUST
Tis well.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Yet something is required from us.
FAUST
One service pays the other thus.
MEPHISTOPHELES
We've but to make a deposition valid
That now her husband's limbs,
outstretched and pallid,
At Padua rest, in consecrated soil.
FAUST
Most wise! And first, of course, we'll make the journey
thither?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Sancta simplicitas! no need of such a toil;
Depose, with
knowledge or without it, either!
FAUST
If you've naught better, then, I'll tear your pretty plan!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Now, there you are! O holy man!
Is it the first time in your life
you're driven
To bear false witness in a case?
Of God, the world
and all that in it has a place,
Of Man, and all that moves the being
of his race,
Have you not terms and definitions given
With brazen
forehead, daring breast?
And, if you'll probe the thing profoundly,
Knew
you so much—and you'll confess it roundly!—
As here of
Schwerdtlein's death and place of rest?
FAUST
Thou art, and thou remain'st, a sophist, liar.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Yes, knew I not more deeply thy desire.
For wilt thou not, no lover
fairer,
Poor Margaret flatter, and ensnare her,
And all thy soul's
devotion swear her?
FAUST
And from my heart.
MEPHISTOPHELES
'Tis very fine!
FAUST
Hold! hold! It will!—If such my flame,
And for the sense and
power intense
I seek, and cannot find, a name;
Then range with all
my senses through creation,
Craving the speech of inspiration,
And
call this ardor, so supernal,
Endless, eternal and eternal,—
Is
that a devilish lying game?
MEPHISTOPHELES
And yet I'm right!
FAUST
Mark this, I beg of thee!
GARDEN
(MARGARET on FAUST'S arm. MARTHA and MEPHISTOPHELES walking up and down.)
MARGARET
I feel, the gentleman allows for me,
Demeans himself, and shames me
by it;
A traveller is so used to be
Kindly content with any diet.
I
know too well that my poor gossip can
Ne'er entertain such an
experienced man.
FAUST
A look from thee, a word, more entertains
Than all the lore of wisest
brains.
(He kisses her hand.)
MARGARET
Don't incommode yourself! How could you ever kiss it!
It is so ugly,
rough to see!
What work I do,—how hard and steady is it!
Mother
is much too close with me.
[They pass.
MARTHA
And you, Sir, travel always, do you not?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Alas, that trade and duty us so harry!
With what a pang one leaves so
many a spot,
And dares not even now and then to tarry!
MARTHA
In young, wild years it suits your ways,
This round and round the
world in freedom sweeping;
But then come on the evil days,
And so,
as bachelor, into his grave a-creeping,
None ever found a thing to
praise.
MEPHISTOPHELES
I dread to see how such a fate advances.
MARTHA
Then, worthy Sir, improve betimes your chances!
[They pass.
MARGARET
Yes, out of sight is out of mind!
Your courtesy an easy grace is;
But
you have friends in other places,
And sensibler than I, you'll find.
FAUST
Trust me, dear heart! what men call sensible
Is oft mere vanity and
narrowness.
MARGARET
How so?
FAUST
Ah, that simplicity and innocence ne'er know
Themselves, their holy
value, and their spell!
That meekness, lowliness, the highest graces
Which
Nature portions out so lovingly—
MARGARET
So you but think a moment's space on me,
All times I'll have to think
on you, all places!
FAUST
No doubt you're much alone?
MARGARET
Yes, for our household small has grown,
Yet must be cared for, you
will own.
We have no maid: I do the knitting, sewing, sweeping,
The
cooking, early work and late, in fact;
And mother, in her notions of
housekeeping,
Is so exact!
Not that she needs so much to keep
expenses down:
We, more than others, might take comfort, rather:
A
nice estate was left us by my father,
A house, a little garden near
the town.
But now my days have less of noise and hurry;
My brother
is a soldier,
My little sister's dead.
True, with the child a
troubled life I led,
Yet I would take again, and willing, all the
worry,
So very dear was she.
FAUST
An angel, if like thee!
MARGARET
I brought it up, and it was fond of me.
Father had died before it saw
the light,
And mother's case seemed hopeless quite,
So weak and
miserable she lay;
And she recovered, then, so slowly, day by day.
She
could not think, herself, of giving
The poor wee thing its natural
living;
And so I nursed it all alone
With milk and water: 'twas my
own.
Lulled in my lap with many a song,
It smiled, and tumbled,
and grew strong.
FAUST
The purest bliss was surely then thy dower.
MARGARET
But surely, also, many a weary hour.
I kept the baby's cradle near
My
bed at night: if 't even stirred, I'd guess it,
And waking, hear.
And
I must nurse it, warm beside me press it,
And oft, to quiet it, my
bed forsake,
And dandling back and forth the restless creature take,
Then
at the wash-tub stand, at morning's break;
And then the marketing and
kitchen-tending,
Day after day, the same thing, never-ending.
One's
spirits, Sir, are thus not always good,
But then one learns to relish
rest and food.
[They pass.
MARTHA
Yes, the poor women are bad off, 'tis true:
A stubborn bachelor
there's no converting.
MEPHISTOPHELES
It but depends upon the like of you,
And I should turn to better ways
than flirting.
MARTHA
Speak plainly, Sir, have you no one detected?
Has not your heart been
anywhere subjected?
MEPHISTOPHELES
The proverb says: One's own warm hearth
And a good wife, are gold and
jewels worth.
MARTHA
I mean, have you not felt desire, though ne'er so slightly?
MEPHISTOPHELES
I've everywhere, in fact, been entertained politely.
MARTHA
I meant to say, were you not touched in earnest, ever?
MEPHISTOPHELES
One should allow one's self to jest with ladies never.
MARTHA Ah, you don't understand!
MEPHISTOPHELES
I'm sorry I'm so blind: But I am sure—that you are very kind.
[They pass.
FAUST
And me, thou angel! didst thou recognize,
As through the garden-gate
I came?
MARGARET
Did you not see it? I cast down my eyes.
FAUST
And thou forgiv'st my freedom, and the blame
To my impertinence
befitting,
As the Cathedral thou wert quitting?
MARGARET
I was confused, the like ne'er happened me;
No one could ever speak
to my discredit.
Ah, thought I, in my conduct has he read it—
Something
immodest or unseemly free?
He seemed to have the sudden feeling
That
with this wench 'twere very easy dealing.
I will confess, I knew not
what appeal
On your behalf, here, in my bosom grew;
But I was
angry with myself, to feel
That I could not be angrier with you.
FAUST
Sweet darling!
MARGARET
Wait a while!
(She plucks a star-flower, and pulls off the leaves, one after
the
other.)
FAUST
Shall that a nosegay be?
MARGARET
No, it is just in play.
FAUST
How?
MARGARET
Go! you'll laugh at me.
FAUST
What murmurest thou?
MARGARET (half aloud)
He loves me—loves me not.
FAUST
Thou sweet, angelic soul!
MARGARET (continues)
Loves me—not—loves me—not—
(plucking the
last leaf, she cries with frank delight:)
He loves me!
FAUST
Yes, child! and let this blossom-word
For thee be speech divine! He
loves thee!
Ah, know'st thou what it means? He loves thee!
(He grasps both her hands.)
MARGARET
I'm all a-tremble!
FAUST
O tremble not! but let this look,
Let this warm clasp of hands
declare thee
What is unspeakable!
To yield one wholly, and to feel
a rapture
In yielding, that must be eternal!
Eternal!—for the end
would be despair.
No, no,—no ending! no ending!
MARTHA (coming forward)
The night is falling.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Ay! we must away.
MARTHA
I'd ask you, longer here to tarry,
But evil tongues in this town have
full play.
It's as if nobody had nothing to fetch and carry,
Nor
other labor,
But spying all the doings of one's neighbor:
And one
becomes the talk, do whatsoe'er one may.
Where is our couple now?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Flown up the alley yonder,
MARTHA
He seems of her still fonder.
MEPHISTOPHELES
And she of him. So runs the world away!
A GARDEN-ARBOR
(MARGARET comes in, conceals herself behind the door, puts her
finger
to her lips, and peeps through the crack.)
MARGARET
He comes!
FAUST (entering)
Ah, rogue! a tease thou art:MARGARET
( clasping him, and returning the kiss)(MEPHISTOPHELES knocks)
FAUST (stamping his foot)
Who's there?
MEPHISTOPHELES
A friend!
FAUST
A beast!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Tis time to separate.
MARTHA (coming)
Yes, Sir, 'tis late.
FAUST
May I not, then, upon you wait?
MARGARET
My mother would—farewell!
FAUST
Ah, can I not remain?
MARTHA
Adieu!
MARGARET
And soon to meet again!
[Exeunt FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES.
MARGARET
Dear God! However is it, such
A man can think and know so much?
I
stand ashamed and in amaze,
And answer "Yes" to all he says,
A
poor, unknowing child! and he—
I can't think what he finds in
me! [Exit.
FOREST AND CAVERN
FAUST (solus)
Spirit sublime, thou gav'st me, gav'st me all
For which I prayed. Not
unto me in vain
Hast thou thy countenance revealed in fire.
Thou
gav'st me Nature as a kingdom grand,
With power to feel and to enjoy
it. Thou
Not only cold, amazed acquaintance yield'st,
But
grantest, that in her profoundest breast
I gaze, as in the bosom of a
friend.
The ranks of living creatures thou dost lead
Before me,
teaching me to know my brothers
In air and water and the silent wood.
And
when the storm in forests roars and grinds,
The giant firs, in
falling, neighbor boughs
And neighbor trunks with crushing weight
bear down,
And falling, fill the hills with hollow thunders,—
Then
to the cave secure thou leadest me,
Then show'st me mine own self,
and in my breast
The deep, mysterious miracles unfold.
And when
the perfect moon before my gaze
Comes up with soothing light, around
me float
From every precipice and thicket damp
The silvery
phantoms of the ages past,
And temper the austere delight of thought.
That nothing can be perfect unto Man
I now am conscious. With this
ecstasy,
Which brings me near and nearer to the Gods,
Thou gav'st
the comrade, whom I now no more
Can do without, though, cold and
scornful, he
Demeans me to myself, and with a breath,
A word,
transforms thy gifts to nothingness.
Within my breast he fans a
lawless fire,
Unwearied, for that fair and lovely form:
Thus in
desire I hasten to enjoyment,
And in enjoyment pine to feel desire.
(MEPHISTOPHELES enters.)
MEPHISTOPHELES
Have you not led this life quite long enough?
How can a further test
delight you?
'Tis very well, that once one tries the stuff,
But
something new must then requite you.
FAUST
Would there were other work for thee!
To plague my day auspicious
thou returnest.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Well! I'll engage to let thee be:
Thou darest not tell me so in
earnest.
The loss of thee were truly very slight,—
comrade
crazy, rude, repelling:
One has one's hands full all the day and night;
If what one does, or
leaves undone, is right,
From such a face as thine there is no
telling.
FAUST
There is, again, thy proper tone!—
That thou hast bored me, I
must thankful be!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Poor Son of Earth, how couldst thou thus alone
Have led thy life,
bereft of me?
I, for a time, at least, have worked thy cure;
Thy
fancy's rickets plague thee not at all:
Had I not been, so hadst
thou, sure,
Walked thyself off this earthly ball
Why here to
caverns, rocky hollows slinking,
Sit'st thou, as 'twere an owl
a-blinking?
Why suck'st, from sodden moss and dripping stone,
Toad-like,
thy nourishment alone?
A fine way, this, thy time to fill!
The
Doctor's in thy body still.
FAUST
What fresh and vital forces, canst thou guess,
Spring from my
commerce with the wilderness?
But, if thou hadst the power of
guessing,
Thou wouldst be devil enough to grudge my soul the blessing.
MEPHISTOPHELES
A blessing drawn from supernatural fountains!
In night and dew to lie
upon the mountains;
All Heaven and Earth in rapture penetrating;
Thyself
to Godhood haughtily inflating;
To grub with yearning force through
Earth's dark marrow,
Compress the six days' work within thy bosom
narrow,—
To taste, I know not what, in haughty power,
Thine
own ecstatic life on all things shower,
Thine earthly self behind
thee cast,
And then the lofty instinct, thus—
(With a gesture:)
at last,—
FAUST
Shame on thee!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Yes, thou findest that unpleasant!
Thou hast the moral right to cry
me "shame!" at present.
One dares not that before chaste
ears declare,
Which chaste hearts, notwithstanding, cannot spare;
And,
once for all, I grudge thee not the pleasure
Of lying to thyself in
moderate measure.
But such a course thou wilt not long endure;
Already
art thou o'er-excited,
And, if it last, wilt soon be plighted
To
madness and to horror, sure.
Enough of that! Thy love sits lonely
yonder,
By all things saddened and oppressed;
Her thoughts and
yearnings seek thee, tenderer, fonder,—
mighty love is in her
breast.
First came thy passion's flood and poured around her
As
when from melted snow a streamlet overflows;
Thou hast therewith so
filled and drowned her,
That now thy stream all shallow shows.
Methinks,
instead of in the forests lording,
The noble Sir should find it good,
The
love of this young silly blood
At once to set about rewarding.
Her
time is miserably long;
She haunts her window, watching clouds that
stray
O'er the old city-wall, and far away.
"Were I a little
bird!" so runs her song,
Day long, and half night long.
Now
she is lively, mostly sad,
Now, wept beyond her tears;
Then again
quiet she appears,—Always
love-mad.
FAUST
Serpent! Serpent!
MEPHISTOPHELES (aside)
Ha! do I trap thee!
FAUST
Get thee away with thine offences,
Reprobate! Name not that fairest
thing,
Nor the desire for her sweet body bring
Again before my
half-distracted senses!
MEPHISTOPHELES
What wouldst thou, then? She thinks that thou art flown;
And half and
half thou art, I own.
FAUST
Yet am I near, and love keeps watch and ward;
Though I were ne'er so
far, it cannot falter:
I envy even the Body of the Lord
The
touching of her lips, before the altar.
MEPHISTOPHELES
'Tis very well! My envy oft reposes
On your twin-pair, that
feed among the roses.
FAUST
Away, thou pimp!
MEPHISTOPHELES
You rail, and it is fun to me.
The God, who fashioned youth and maid,
Perceived
the noblest purpose of His trade,
And also made their opportunity.
Go
on! It is a woe profound!
'Tis for your sweetheart's room you're
bound,
And not for death, indeed.
FAUST
What are, within her arms, the heavenly blisses?
Though I be glowing
with her kisses,
Do I not always share her need?
I am the
fugitive, all houseless roaming,
The monster without air or rest,
That
like a cataract, down rocks and gorges foaming,
Leaps, maddened, into
the abyss's breast!
And side-wards she, with young unwakened senses,
Within
her cabin on the Alpine field
Her simple, homely life commences,
Her
little world therein concealed.
And I, God's hate flung o'er me,
Had
not enough, to thrust
The stubborn rocks before me
And strike them
into dust!
She and her peace I yet must undermine:
Thou, Hell,
hast claimed this sacrifice as thine!
Help, Devil! through the coming
pangs to push me;
What must be, let it quickly be!
Let fall on me
her fate, and also crush me,—
One ruin whelm both her and me!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Again it seethes, again it glows!
Thou fool, go in and comfort her!
When
such a head as thine no outlet knows,
It thinks the end must soon
occur.
Hail him, who keeps a steadfast mind!
Thou, else, dost well
the devil-nature wear:
Naught so insipid in the world I find
As is
a devil in despair.
MARGARET'S ROOM
MARGARET
(at the spinning-wheel, alone)
My peace is gone,
My
heart is sore:
I never shall find
it,
Ah, nevermore!
Save
I have him near.
The grave is
here;
The world is gall
And
bitterness all.
My poor weak
head
Is racked and crazed;
My
thought is lost,
My senses mazed.
My
peace is gone,
My heart is sore:
I
never shall find it,
Ah,
nevermore!
To see him, him
only,
At the pane I sit;
To
meet him, him only,
The house I
quit.
His lofty gait,
His
noble size,
The smile of his
mouth,
The power of his eyes,
And
the magic flow
Of his talk, the
bliss
In the clasp of his hand,
And,
ah! his kiss!
My peace is
gone,
My heart is sore:
I
never shall find it,
Ah,
nevermore!
My bosom yearns
For
him alone;
Ah, dared I clasp him,
And
hold, and own!
And kiss his
mouth,
To heart's desire,
And
on his kisses
At last expire!
MARTHA'S GARDEN
MARGARET FAUST
MARGARET
Promise me, Henry!—
FAUST
What I can!
MARGARET
How is't with thy religion, pray?
Thou art a dear, good-hearted man,
And
yet, I think, dost not incline that way.
FAUST
Leave that, my child! Thou know'st my love is tender;
For love, my
blood and life would I surrender,
And as for Faith and Church, I
grant to each his own.
MARGARET
That's not enough: we must believe thereon.
FAUST
Must we?
MARGARET
Would that I had some influence!
FAUST
I honor them.
MARGARET
Desiring no possession
FAUST
My darling, who shall dare
MARGARET
Then thou believest not!
FAUST
Hear me not falsely, sweetest countenance!
Who dare express Him?
And
who profess Him,
Saying: I believe in Him!
Who, feeling, seeing,
Deny
His being,
Saying: I believe Him not!
The All-enfolding,
The
All-upholding,
Folds and upholds he not
Thee, me, Himself?
Arches
not there the sky above us?
Lies not beneath us, firm, the earth?
And
rise not, on us shining,
Friendly, the everlasting stars?
Look I
not, eye to eye, on thee,
And feel'st not, thronging
To head and
heart, the force,
Still weaving its eternal secret,
Invisible,
visible, round thy life?
Vast as it is, fill with that force thy
heart,
And when thou in the feeling wholly blessed art,
Call it,
then, what thou wilt,—
Call it Bliss! Heart! Love! God!
I
have no name to give it!
Feeling is all in all:
The Name is sound
and smoke,
Obscuring Heaven's clear glow.
MARGARET
All that is fine and good, to hear it so:
Much the same way the
preacher spoke,
Only with slightly different phrases.
FAUST
The same thing, in all places,
All hearts that beat beneath the
heavenly day—
Each in its language—say;
Then why not
I, in mine, as well?
MARGARET
To hear it thus, it may seem passable;
And yet, some hitch in't there
must be
For thou hast no Christianity.
FAUST
Dear love!
MARGARET
I've long been grieved to see
That thou art in such company.
FAUST
How so?
MARGARET
The man who with thee goes, thy mate,
FAUST
Nay, fear him not, my sweetest one!
MARGARET
I feel his presence like something ill.
I've else, for all, a kindly
will,
But, much as my heart to see thee yearneth,
The secret
horror of him returneth;
And I think the man a knave, as I live!
If
I do him wrong, may God forgive!
FAUST
There must be such queer birds, however.
MARGARET
Live with the like of him, may I never!
When once inside the door
comes he,
He looks around so sneeringly,
And half in wrath:
One
sees that in nothing no interest he hath:
'Tis written on his very
forehead
That love, to him, is a thing abhorréd.
I am so
happy on thine arm,
So free, so yielding, and so warm,
And in his
presence stifled seems my heart.
FAUST
Foreboding angel that thou art!
MARGARET
It overcomes me in such degree,
That wheresoe'er he meets us, even,
I
feel as though I'd lost my love for thee.
When he is by, I could not
pray to Heaven.
That burns within me like a flame,
And surely,
Henry, 'tis with thee the same.
FAUST
There, now, is thine antipathy!
MARGARET
But I must go.
FAUST
Ah, shall there never be
MARGARET
Ah, if I only slept alone!
I'd draw the bolts to-night, for thy
desire;
But mother's sleep so light has grown,
And if we were
discovered by her,
'Twould be my death upon the spot!
FAUST
Thou angel, fear it not!
Here is a phial: in her drink
But three
drops of it measure,
And deepest sleep will on her senses sink.
MARGARET
What would I not, to give thee pleasure?
It will not harm her, when
one tries it?
FAUST
If 'twould, my love, would I advise it?
MARGARET
Ah, dearest man, if but thy face I see,
I know not what compels me to
thy will:
So much have I already done for thee,
That scarcely more
is left me to fulfil.
(Enter MEPHISTOPHELES.) [Exit.
MEPHISTOPHELES
The monkey! Is she gone?
FAUST
Hast played the spy again?
MEPHISTOPHELES
I've heard, most fully, how she drew thee.
The Doctor has been
catechised, 'tis plain;
Great good, I hope, the thing will do thee.
The
girls have much desire to ascertain
If one is prim and good, as
ancient rules compel:
If there he's led, they think, he'll follow
them as well.
FAUST
Thou, monster, wilt nor see nor own
How this pure soul, of faith so
lowly,
So loving and ineffable,—
The faith alone
That her
salvation is,—with scruples holy
Pines, lest she hold as lost
the man she loves so well!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Thou, full of sensual, super-sensual desire,
A girl by the nose is
leading thee.
FAUST
Abortion, thou, of filth and fire!
MEPHISTOPHELES
And then, how masterly she reads physiognomy!
When I am present she's
impressed, she knows not how;
She in my mask a hidden sense would
read:
She feels that surely I'm a genius now,—
Perhaps the
very Devil, indeed!
Well, well,—to-night—?
FAUST
What's that to thee?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Yet my delight 'twill also be!
AT THE FOUNTAIN
MARGARET and LISBETH With pitchers.
LISBETH
Hast nothing heard of Barbara?
MARGARET
No, not a word. I go so little out.
LISBETH
It's true, Sibylla said, to-day.
She's played the fool at last,
there's not a doubt.
Such taking-on of airs!
MARGARET
How so?
LISBETH
It stinks!
MARGARET
Ah!
LISBETH
And so, at last, it serves her rightly.
She
clung to the fellow so long and tightly!
That was a promenading!
At
village and dance parading!
As the first they must everywhere shine,
And
he treated her always to pies and wine,
And she made a to-do with her
face so fine;
So mean and shameless was her behavior,
She took all
the presents the fellow gave her.
'Twas kissing and coddling, on and
on!
So now, at the end, the flower is gone.
MARGARET
The poor, poor thing!
LISBETH
Dost pity her, at that?
MARGARET
He'll surely take her for his wife.
LISBETH
He'd be a fool! A brisk young blade
Has room, elsewhere, to ply his
trade.
Besides, he's gone.
MARGARET
That is not fair!
LISBETH
If him she gets, why let her beware!
The boys shall dash her wreath
on the floor,
And we'll scatter chaff before her door!
[Exit.
MARGARET (returning home)
How scornfully I once reviled,
When some poor maiden was beguiled!
More
speech than any tongue suffices
I craved, to censure others' vices.
Black
as it seemed, I blackened still,
And blacker yet was in my will;
And
blessed myself, and boasted high,—
And now—a living sin am I!
Yet—all
that drove my heart thereto,
God! was so good, so dear, so true!
DONJON
(In a niche of the wall a shrine, with an image of the Mater
Dolorosa.
Pots of flowers before it.)
MARGARET
(putting fresh flowers in the pots)
Incline, O Maiden,
Thou
sorrow-laden,
Thy gracious
countenance upon my pain!
The
sword Thy heart in,
With anguish
smarting,
Thou lookest up to
where Thy Son is slain!
Thou
seest the Father;
Thy sad sighs
gather,
And bear aloft Thy sorrow
and His pain!
Ah, past
guessing,
Beyond expressing,
The
pangs that wring my flesh and bone!
Why
this anxious heart so burneth,
Why
it trembleth, why it yearneth,
Knowest
Thou, and Thou alone!
Where'er
I go, what sorrow,
What woe, what
woe and sorrow
Within my bosom
aches!
Alone, and ah! unsleeping,
I'm
weeping, weeping, weeping,
The
heart within me breaks.
The
pots before my window,
Alas! my
tears did wet,
As in the early
morning
For thee these flowers I
set.
Within my lonely chamber
The
morning sun shone red:
I sat, in
utter sorrow,
Already on my bed.
Help!
rescue me from death and stain!
O
Maiden!
Thou sorrow-laden,
Incline
Thy countenance upon my pain!
NIGHT
STREET BEFORE MARGARET'S DOOR
VALENTINE (a soldier, MARGARET'S brother)
When I have sat at some carouse.
Where each to each his brag allows,
And
many a comrade praised to me
His pink of girls right lustily,
With
brimming glass that spilled the toast,
And elbows planted as in boast:
I
sat in unconcerned repose,
And heard the swagger as it rose.
And
stroking then my beard, I'd say,
Smiling, the bumper in my hand:
"Each
well enough in her own way.
But is there one in all the land
Like
sister Margaret, good as gold,—
One that to her can a candle
hold?"
Cling! clang! "Here's to her!" went around
The
board: "He speaks the truth!" cried some;
"In her the
flower o' the sex is found!"
And all the swaggerers were dumb.
And
now!—I could tear my hair with vexation.
And dash out my brains
in desperation!
With turned-up nose each scamp may face me,
With
sneers and stinging taunts disgrace me,
And, like a bankrupt debtor
sitting,
A chance-dropped word may set me sweating!
Yet, though I
thresh them all together,
I cannot call them liars, either.
But what comes sneaking, there, to view?
If I mistake not, there are
two.
If he's one, let me at him drive!
He shall not leave
the spot alive.
FAUST MEPHISTOPHELES
FAUST
How from the window of the sacristy
Upward th'eternal lamp sends
forth a glimmer,
That, lessening side-wards, fainter grows and dimmer,
Till
darkness closes from the sky!
The shadows thus within my bosom gather.
MEPHISTOPHELES
I'm like a sentimental tom-cat, rather,
That round the tall
fire-ladders sweeps,
And stealthy, then, along the coping creeps:
Quite
virtuous, withal, I come,
A little thievish and a little frolicsome.
I
feel in every limb the presage
Forerunning the grand Walpurgis-Night:
Day
after to-morrow brings its message,
And one keeps watch then with
delight.
FAUST
Meanwhile, may not the treasure risen be,
Which there, behind, I
glimmering see?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Shalt soon experience the pleasure,
To lift the kettle with its
treasure.
I lately gave therein a squint—
Saw splendid
lion-dollars in 't.
FAUST
Not even a jewel, not a ring,
To deck therewith my darling girl?
MEPHISTOPHELES
I saw, among the rest, a thing
That seemed to be a chain of pearl.
FAUST
That's well, indeed! For painful is it
To bring no gift when her I
visit.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Thou shouldst not find it so annoying,
Without return to be enjoying.
Now,
while the sky leads forth its starry throng,
Thou'lt hear a
masterpiece, no work completer:
I'll sing her, first, a moral song,
The
surer, afterwards, to cheat her.
(Sings to the cither.)
What dost thou here
In
daybreak clear,
Kathrina dear,
Before
thy lover's door?
Beware! the
blade
Lets in a maid.
That
out a maid
Departeth nevermore!
The
coaxing shun
Of such an one!
When
once 'tis done
Good-night to
thee, poor thing!
Love's time is
brief:
Unto no thief
Be
warm and lief,
But with the
wedding-ring!
VALENTINE (comes forward)
Whom wilt thou lure? God's-element!
Rat-catching piper,
thou!—perdition!
To the Devil, first, the instrument!
To the
Devil, then, the curst musician!
MEPHISTOPHELES
The cither's smashed! For nothing more 'tis fitting.
VALENTINE
There's yet a skull I must be splitting!
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST)
Sir Doctor, don't retreat, I pray!
Stand by: I'll lead, if you'll but
tarry:
Out with your spit, without delay!
You've but to lunge, and
I will parry.
VALENTINE
Then parry that!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Why not? 'tis light.
VALENTINE
That, too!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Of course.
VALENTINE
I think the Devil must fight!
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST)
Thrust home!
VALENTINE (jails)
O God!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Now is the lubber tame!
[Exit with FAUST.
MARTHA (at the window)
Come out! Come out!
MARGARET (at the window)
Quick, bring a light!
MARTHA (as above)
They swear and storm, they yell and fight!
PEOPLE
Here lies one dead already—see!
MARTHA (coming from the house)
The murderers, whither have they run?
MARGARET (coming out)
Who lies here?
PEOPLE
'Tis thy mother's son!
MARGARET
Almighty God! what misery!
VALENTINE
I'm dying! That is quickly said,
And quicker yet 'tis done.
Why
howl, you women there? Instead,
Come here and listen, every one!
(All gather around him)
My Margaret, see! still young thou art,
But not the least bit shrewd
or smart,
Thy business thus to slight:
So this advice I bid thee
heed—
Now that thou art a whore indeed,
Why, be one then,
outright!
MARGARET
My brother! God! such words to me?
VALENTINE
In this game let our Lord God be!
What's done's already done, alas!
What
follows it, must come to pass.
With one begin'st thou secretly,
Then
soon will others come to thee,
And when a dozen thee have known,
Thou'rt
also free to all the town.
When Shame is born and first appears,
She
is in secret brought to light,
And then they draw the veil of night
Over
her head and ears;
Her life, in fact, they're loath to spare her.
But
let her growth and strength display,
She walks abroad unveiled by day,
Yet
is not grown a whit the fairer.
The uglier she is to sight,
The
more she seeks the day's broad light.
The time I verily can discern
When
all the honest folk will turn
From thee, thou jade! and seek
protection
As from a corpse that breeds infection.
Thy guilty
heart shall then dismay thee.
When they but look thee in the face:—
Shalt
not in a golden chain array thee,
Nor at the altar take thy place!
Shalt
not, in lace and ribbons flowing,
Make merry when the dance is going!
But
in some corner, woe betide thee!
Among the beggars and cripples hide
thee;
And so, though even God forgive,
On earth a damned existence
live!
MARTHA
Commend your soul to God for pardon,
That you your heart with slander
harden!
VALENTINE
Thou pimp most infamous, be still!
Could I thy withered body kill,
'Twould
bring, for all my sinful pleasure,
Forgiveness in the richest measure.
MARGARET
My brother! This is Hell's own pain!
VALENTINE
I tell thee, from thy tears refrain!
When thou from honor didst depart
It
stabbed me to the very heart.
Now through the slumber of the grave
I
go to God as a soldier brave.
(Dies.)
CATHEDRAL
SERVICE, ORGAN and ANTHEM.
(MARGARET among much people: the EVIL SPIRIT behind
MARGARET.)
EVIL SPIRIT
HOW otherwise was it, Margaret,
When thou, still innocent,
Here to
the altar cam'st,
And from the worn and fingered book
Thy prayers
didst prattle,
Half sport of childhood,
Half God within thee!
Margaret!
Where
tends thy thought?
Within thy bosom
What hidden crime?
Pray'st
thou for mercy on thy mother's soul,
That fell asleep to long, long
torment, and through thee?
Upon thy threshold whose the blood?
And
stirreth not and quickens
Something beneath thy heart,
Thy life
disquieting
With most foreboding presence?
MARGARET
Woe! woe!
Would I were free from the thoughts
That cross me,
drawing hither and thither
Despite me!
CHORUS
Diesira, dies illa,
Solvet soeclum in favilla!
(Sound
of the organ.)
EVIL SPIRIT
Wrath takes thee!
The trumpet peals!
The graves tremble!
And
thy heart
From ashy rest
To fiery torments
Now again
requickened,
Throbs to life!
MARGARET
Would I were forth!
I feel as if the organ here
My breath takes
from me,
My very heart
Dissolved by the anthem!
CHORUS
MARGARET
I cannot breathe!
The massy pillars
Imprison me!
The vaulted
arches
Crush me!—Air!
EVIL SPIRIT
Hide thyself! Sin and shame
Stay never hidden.
Air? Light?
Woe
to thee!
CHORUS
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus,
Quem patronem rogaturus,
Cum
vix Justus sit securus
EVIL SPIRIT
They turn their faces,
The glorified, from thee:
The pure, their
hands to offer,
Shuddering, refuse thee!
Woe!
CHORUS
Quid sum miser tune dicturus?
MARGARET
Neighbor! your cordial! (She falls in a swoon.)
WALPURGIS-NIGHT
THE HARTZ MOUNTAINS.
District of Schierke and Elend.
FAUST MEPHISTOPHELES
MEPHISTOPHELES
DOST thou not wish a broomstick-steed's assistance?
The sturdiest
he-goat I would gladly see:
The way we take, our goal is yet some
distance.
FAUST
So long as in my legs I feel the fresh existence.
This knotted staff
suffices me.
What need to shorten so the way?
Along this labyrinth
of vales to wander,
Then climb the rocky ramparts yonder,
Wherefrom
the fountain flings eternal spray,
Is such delight, my steps would
fain delay.
The spring-time stirs within the fragrant birches,
And
even the fir-tree feels it now:
Should then our limbs escape its
gentle searches?
MEPHISTOPHELES
I notice no such thing, I vow!
'Tis winter still within my body:
Upon
my path I wish for frost and snow.
How sadly rises, incomplete and
ruddy,
The moon's lone disk, with its belated glow,
And lights so
dimly, that, as one advances,
At every step one strikes a rock or
tree!
Let us, then, use a Jack-o'-lantern's glances:
I see one
yonder, burning merrily.
Ho, there! my friend! I'll levy thine
attendance:
Why waste so vainly thy resplendence?
Be kind enough
to light us up the steep!
WILL-O'-THE-WISP
My reverence, I hope, will me enable
To curb my temperament unstable;
For
zigzag courses we are wont to keep.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Indeed? he'd like mankind to imitate!
Now, in the Devil's name, go
straight,
Or I'll blow out his being's flickering spark!
WILL-O'-THE-WISP
You are the master of the house, I mark,
And I shall try to serve you
nicely.
But then, reflect: the mountain's magic-mad to-day,
And if
a will-o'-the-wisp must guide you on the way,
You mustn't take things
too precisely.
FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES, WILL-O'-THE-WISP
(in alternating song)
We, it seems, have entered newly
In
the sphere of dreams enchanted.
Do
thy bidding, guide us truly,
That
our feet be forwards planted
In
the vast, the desert spaces!
See
them swiftly changing places,
Trees
on trees beside us trooping,
And
the crags above us stooping,
And
the rocky snouts, outgrowing,—
Hear
them snoring, hear them blowing!
O'er
the stones, the grasses, flowing
Stream
and streamlet seek the hollow.
Hear
I noises? songs that follow?
Hear
I tender love-petitions?
Voices
of those heavenly visions?
Sounds
of hope, of love undying!
And the
echoes, like traditions
Of old
days, come faint and hollow.
Hoo-hoo!
Shoo-hoo! Nearer hover
Jay and
screech-owl, and the plover,—
Are
they all awake and crying?
Is't
the salamander pushes,
Bloated-bellied,
through the bushes?
And the
roots, like serpents twisted,
Through
the sand and boulders toiling,
Fright
us, weirdest links uncoiling
To
entrap us, unresisted:
Living
knots and gnarls uncanny
Feel
with polypus-antennae
For the
wanderer. Mice are flying,
Thousand-colored,
herd-wise hieing
Through the moss
and through the heather!
And
the fire-flies wink and darkle,
Crowded
swarms that soar and sparkle,
And
in wildering escort gather!
Tell
me, if we still are standing,
Or
if further we're ascending?
All
is turning, whirling, blending,
Trees
and rocks with grinning faces,
Wandering
lights that spin in mazes,
Still
increasing and expanding!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Grasp my skirt with heart undaunted!
Here a middle-peak is planted,
Whence
one seeth, with amaze,
Mammon in the mountain blaze.
FAUST
How strangely glimmers through the hollows
A dreary light, like that
of dawn!
Its exhalation tracks and follows
The deepest gorges,
faint and wan.
Here steam, there rolling vapor sweepeth;
Here
burns the glow through film and haze:
Now like a tender thread it
creepeth,
Now like a fountain leaps and plays.
Here winds away,
and in a hundred
Divided veins the valley braids:
There, in a
corner pressed and sundered,
Itself detaches, spreads and fades.
Here
gush the sparkles incandescent
Like scattered showers of golden sand;—
But,
see! in all their height, at present,
The rocky ramparts blazing
stand.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Has not Sir Mammon grandly lighted
His palace for this festal night?
'Tis
lucky thou hast seen the sight;
The boisterous guests approach that
were invited.
FAUST
How raves the tempest through the air!
With what fierce blows upon my
neck 'tis beating!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Under the old ribs of the rock retreating,
Hold fast, lest thou be
hurled down the abysses there!
The night with the mist is black;
Hark!
how the forests grind and crack!
Frightened, the owlets are scattered:
Hearken!
the pillars are shattered.
The evergreen palaces shaking!
Boughs
are groaning and breaking,
The tree-trunks terribly thunder,
The
roots are twisting asunder!
In frightfully intricate crashing
Each
on the other is dashing,
And over the wreck-strewn gorges
The
tempest whistles and surges!
Hear'st thou voices higher ringing?
Far
away, or nearer singing?
Yes, the mountain's side along,
Sweeps an
infuriate glamouring song!
WITCHES (in chorus)
The witches ride to the Brocken's top,
The
stubble is yellow, and green the crop.
There
gathers the crowd for carnival:
Sir
Urian sits over all.
And so
they go over stone and stock;
The
witch she——-s, and——-s the buck.
A
VOICE
Alone, old Baubo's coming now;
She
rides upon a farrow-sow.
CHORUS
Then
honor to whom the honor is due!
Dame
Baubo first, to lead the crew!
A
tough old sow and the mother thereon,
Then
follow the witches, every one.
A VOICE
Which way com'st thou hither?
VOICE
O'er the Ilsen-stone.
I peeped at the owl in her nest alone:
How
she stared and glared!
VOICE
Betake thee to Hell!
Why so fast and so fell?
VOICE
She has scored and has flayed me:
See the wounds she has made me!
WITCHES (chorus)
The way is wide, the way is long:
See,
what a wild and crazy throng!
The
broom it scratches, the fork it thrusts,
The
child is stifled, the mother bursts.
WIZARDS (semichorus)
As doth the snail in shell, we crawl:
Before
us go the women all.
When towards
the Devil's House we tread,
Woman's
a thousand steps ahead.
OTHER SEMICHORUS
We
do not measure with such care:
Woman
in thousand steps is theft.
But
howsoe'er she hasten may,
Man in
one leap has cleared the way.
VOICE (from above)
Come on, come on, from Rocky Lake!
VOICE (from below)
Aloft we'd fain ourselves betake.
We've washed, and are bright as
ever you will,
Yet we're eternally sterile still.
BOTH CHORUSES
The wind is hushed, the star shoots by.
The
dreary moon forsakes the sky;
The
magic notes, like spark on spark,
Drizzle,
whistling through the dark.
VOICE (from below)
Halt, there! Ho, there!
VOICE (from above)
Who calls from the rocky cleft below there?
VOICE (below)
Take me, too! take me, too!
I'm climbing now three hundred years,
And
yet the summit cannot see:
Among my equals I would be.
BOTH CHORUSES
Bears the broom and bears the stock,
Bears
the fork and bears the buck:
Who
cannot raise himself to-night
Is
evermore a ruined wight.
HALF-WITCH (below)
So long I stumble, ill bestead,
And the others are now so far ahead!
At
home I've neither rest nor cheer,
And yet I cannot gain them here.
CHORUS OF WITCHES
To cheer the witch will salve avail;
A
rag will answer for a sail;
Each
trough a goodly ship supplies;
He
ne'er will fly, who now not flies.
BOTH CHORUSES
When round the summit whirls our flight,
Then
lower, and on the ground alight;
And
far and wide the heather press
With
witchhood's swarms of wantonness!
(They settle down.)
MEPHISTOPHELES
They crowd and push, they roar and clatter!
They whirl and whistle,
pull and chatter!
They shine, and spirt, and stink, and burn!
The
true witch-element we learn.
Keep close! or we are parted, in our
turn,
Where art thou?
FAUST (in the distance)
Here!
MEPHISTOPHELES
What! whirled so far astray?
Here, Doctor, hold to me: in one jump we'll resume
An easier space,
and from the crowd be free:
It's too much, even for the like of me.
Yonder,
with special light, there's something shining clearer
Within those
bushes; I've a mind to see.
Come on! well slip a little nearer.
FAUST
Spirit of Contradiction! On! I'll follow straight.
'Tis planned most
wisely, if I judge aright:
We climb the Brocken's top in the
Walpurgis-Night,
That arbitrarily, here, ourselves we isolate.
MEPHISTOPHELES
But see, what motley flames among the heather!
There is a lively club
together:
In smaller circles one is not alone.
FAUST
Better the summit, I must own:
There fire and whirling smoke I see.
They
seek the Evil One in wild confusion:
Many enigmas there might find
solution.
MEPHISTOPHELES
But there enigmas also knotted be.
Leave to the multitude their riot!
Here
will we house ourselves in quiet.
It is an old, transmitted trade,
That
in the greater world the little worlds are made.
I see stark-nude
young witches congregate,
And old ones, veiled and hidden shrewdly:
On
my account be kind, nor treat them rudely!
The trouble's small, the
fun is great.
I hear the noise of instruments attuning,—
Vile
din! yet one must learn to bear the crooning.
Come, come along! It must
be, I declare!
I'll go ahead and introduce thee there,
Thine
obligation newly earning.
That is no little space: what say'st thou,
friend?
Look yonder! thou canst scarcely see the end:
A hundred
fires along the ranks are burning.
They dance, they chat, they cook,
they drink, they court:
Now where, just tell me, is there better
sport?
FAUST
Wilt thou, to introduce us to the revel,
Assume the part of wizard or
of devil?
MEPHISTOPHELES
I'm mostly used, 'tis true, to go incognito,
But on a gala-day one
may his orders show.
The Garter does not deck my suit,
But honored
and at home is here the cloven foot.
Perceiv'st thou yonder snail? It
cometh, slow and steady;
So delicately its feelers pry,
That it
hath scented me already:
I cannot here disguise me, if I try.
But
come! we'll go from this fire to a newer:
I am the go-between, and
thou the wooer.
(To some, who are sitting around dying embers:)
Old gentlemen, why at the outskirts? Enter!
I'd praise you if I found
you snugly in the centre,
With youth and revel round you like a zone:
You
each, at home, are quite enough alone.
GENERAL
Say, who would put his trust in nations,
Howe'er for them one may
have worked and planned?
For with the people, as with women,
Youth
always has the upper hand.
MINISTER
They're now too far from what is just and sage.
I praise the old
ones, not unduly:
When we were all-in-all, then, truly,
Then
was the real golden age.
PARVENU
We also were not stupid, either,
And what we should not, often did;
But
now all things have from their bases slid,
Just as we meant to hold
them fast together.
AUTHOR
Who, now, a work of moderate sense will read?
Such works are held as
antiquate and mossy;
And as regards the younger folk, indeed,
They
never yet have been so pert and saucy.
MEPHISTOPHELES
(who all at once appears very old)
I feel that men are ripe for Judgment-Day,
Now for the last time I've
the witches'-hill ascended:
Since to the lees my cask is
drained away,
The world's, as well, must soon be ended.
HUCKSTER-WITCH
Ye gentlemen, don't pass me thus!
Let not the chance neglected be!
Behold
my wares attentively:
The stock is rare and various.
And yet,
there's nothing I've collected—
No shop, on earth, like this
you'll find!—
Which has not, once, sore hurt inflicted
Upon
the world, and on mankind.
No dagger's here, that set not blood to
flowing;
No cup, that hath not once, within a healthy frame
Poured
speedy death, in poison glowing:
No gems, that have not brought a
maid to shame;
No sword, but severed ties for the unwary,
Or from
behind struck down the adversary.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Gossip! the times thou badly comprehendest:
What's done has
happed—what haps, is done!
'Twere better if for novelties thou
sendest:
By such alone can we be won.
FAUST
Let me not lose myself in all this pother!
This is a fair, as never
was another!
MEPHISTOPHELES
The whirlpool swirls to get above:
Thou'rt shoved thyself, imagining
to shove.
FAUST
But who is that?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Note her especially,
Tis Lilith.
FAUST
Who?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Adam's first wife is she.
FAUST
Those two, the old one with the young one sitting,
They've danced
already more than fitting.
MEPHISTOPHELES
No rest to-night for young or old!
They start another dance: come
now, let us take hold!
FAUST (dancing with the young witch)
A lovely dream once came to me;
I
then beheld an apple-tree,
And
there two fairest apples shone:
They
lured me so, I climbed thereon.
THE FAIR ONE
Apples
have been desired by you,
Since
first in Paradise they grew;
And
I am moved with joy, to know
That
such within my garden grow.
MEPHISTOPHELES (dancing
with the old one)
A dissolute
dream once came to me:
Therein I
saw a cloven tree,
Which had
a————————;
Yet,——as
'twas, I fancied it.
THE OLD ONE
I offer here my best salute
Unto
the knight with cloven foot!
Let
him a—————prepare,
If
him—————————does not scare.
PROKTOPHANTASMIST
Accurséd folk! How dare you venture thus?
Had you not, long
since, demonstration
That ghosts can't stand on ordinary foundation?
And
now you even dance, like one of us!
THE FAIR ONE (dancing)
Why does he come, then, to our ball?
FAUST (dancing)
O, everywhere on him you fall!
When others dance, he weighs the
matter:
If he can't every step bechatter,
Then 'tis the same as
were the step not made;
But if you forwards go, his ire is most
displayed.
If you would whirl in regular gyration
As he does in
his dull old mill,
He'd show, at any rate, good-will,—
Especially
if you heard and heeded his hortation.
PROKTOPHANTASMIST
You still are here? Nay, 'tis a thing unheard!
Vanish, at once! We've
said the enlightening word.
The pack of devils by no rules is daunted:
We
are so wise, and yet is Tegel haunted.
To clear the folly out, how
have I swept and stirred!
Twill ne'er be clean: why, 'tis a thing
unheard!
THE FAIR ONE
Then cease to bore us at our ball!
PROKTOPHANTASMIST
I tell you, spirits, to your face,
I give to spirit-despotism no
place;
My spirit cannot practise it at all.
(The dance continues)
Naught will succeed, I see, amid such revels;
Yet something from a
tour I always save,
And hope, before my last step to the grave,
To
overcome the poets and the devils.
MEPHISTOPHELES
He now will seat him in the nearest puddle;
The solace this, whereof
he's most assured:
And when upon his rump the leeches hang and fuddle,
He'll
be of spirits and of Spirit cured.
(To FAUST, who has left the dance:)
Wherefore forsakest thou the lovely maiden,
That in the dance so
sweetly sang?
FAUST
Ah! in the midst of it there sprang
A red mouse from her
mouth—sufficient reason.
MEPHISTOPHELES
That's nothing! One must not so squeamish be;
So the mouse was not
gray, enough for thee.
Who'd think of that in love's selected season?
FAUST
Then saw I—.
MEPHISTOPHELES
What?
FAUST
Mephisto, seest thou there,
MEPHISTOPHELES
Let the thing be! All thence have evil drawn:
It is a magic shape, a
lifeless eidolon.
Such to encounter is not good:
Their blank, set
stare benumbs the human blood,
And one is almost turned to stone.
Medusa's
tale to thee is known.
FAUST
Forsooth, the eyes they are of one whom, dying,
No hand with loving
pressure closed;
That is the breast whereon I once was lying,—
The
body sweet, beside which I reposed!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Tis magic all, thou fool, seduced so easily!
Unto each man his love
she seems to be.
FAUST
The woe, the rapture, so ensnare me,
That from her gaze I cannot tear
me!
And, strange! around her fairest throat
A single scarlet band
is gleaming,
No broader than a knife-blade seeming!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Quite right! The mark I also note.
Her head beneath her arm she'll
sometimes carry;
Twas Perseus lopped it, her old adversary.
Thou
crav'st the same illusion still!
Come, let us mount this little hill;
The
Prater shows no livelier stir,
And, if they've not bewitched my sense,
I
verily see a theatre.
What's going on?
SERVIBILIS
'Twill shortly recommence:
MEPHISTOPHELES
When I upon the Blocksberg meet you,
I find it good: for that's your
proper place.
WALPURGIS-NIGHT'S DREAM
OBERON AND TITANIA's GOLDEN WEDDING
INTERMEZZO
MANAGER
Sons of Mieding, rest to-day!
Needless your machinery:
Misty vale
and mountain gray,
That is all the scenery.
HERALD
That the wedding golden be.
Must fifty years be rounded:
But the
Golden give to me,
When the strife's compounded.
OBERON
Spirits, if you're here, be seen—
Show yourselves, delighted!
Fairy
king and fairy queen,
They are newly plighted.
PUCK
Cometh Puck, and, light of limb,
Whisks and whirls in measure:
Come
a hundred after him,
To share with him the pleasure.
ARIEL
Ariel's song is heavenly-pure,
His tones are sweet and rare ones:
Though
ugly faces he allure,
Yet he allures the fair ones.
OBERON
Spouses, who would fain agree,
Learn how we were mated!
If your
pairs would loving be,
First be separated!
TITANIA
If her whims the wife control,
And the man berate her,
Take him to
the Northern Pole,
And her to the Equator!
ORCHESTRA. TUTTI.
Fortissimo.
Snout of fly, mosquito-bill,
And kin of all conditions,
Frog in
grass, and cricket-trill,—
These are the musicians!
SOLO
See the bagpipe on our track!
'Tis the soap-blown bubble:
Hear the schnecke-schnicke-schnack
Through
his nostrils double!
SPIRIT, JUST GROWING INTO FORM
Spider's foot and paunch of toad,
And little wings—we know 'em!
A
little creature 'twill not be,
But yet, a little poem.
A LITTLE COUPLE
Little step and lofty leap
Through honey-dew and fragrance:
You'll
never mount the airy steep
With all your tripping vagrance.
INQUISITIVE TRAVELLER
Is't but masquerading play?
See I with precision?
Oberon, the
beauteous fay,
Meets, to-night, my vision!
ORTHODOX
Not a claw, no tail I see!
And yet, beyond a cavil,
Like "the Gods
of Greece," must he
Also be a devil.
NORTHERN ARTIST
I only seize, with sketchy air,
Some outlines of the tourney;
Yet
I betimes myself prepare
For my Italian journey.
PURIST
My bad luck brings me here, alas!
How roars the orgy louder!
And
of the witches in the mass,
But only two wear powder.
YOUNG WITCH
Powder becomes, like petticoat,
A gray and wrinkled noddy;
So I
sit naked on my goat,
And show a strapping body.
MATRON
We've too much tact and policy
To rate with gibes a scolder;
Yet,
young and tender though you be,
I hope to see you moulder.
LEADER OF THE BAND
Fly-snout and mosquito-bill,
Don't swarm so round the Naked!
Frog
in grass and cricket-trill,
Observe the time, and make it!
WEATHERCOCK (towards one side)
Society to one's desire!
Brides only, and the sweetest!
And
bachelors of youth and fire.
And prospects the completest!
WEATHERCOCK (towards the other side)
And if the Earth don't open now
To swallow up each ranter,
Why,
then will I myself, I vow,
Jump into hell instanter!
XENIES
Us as little insects see!
With sharpest nippers flitting,
That our
Papa Satan we
May honor as is fitting.
HENNINGS
How, in crowds together massed,
They are jesting, shameless!
They
will even say, at last,
That their hearts are blameless.
MUSAGETES
Among this witches' revelry
His way one gladly loses;
And, truly,
it would easier be
Than to command the Muses.
CI-DEVANT GENIUS OF THE AGE
The proper folks one's talents laud:
Come on, and none shall pass us!
The
Blocksberg has a summit broad,
Like Germany's Parnassus.
INQUISITIVE TRAVELLER
Say, who's the stiff and pompous man?
He walks with haughty paces:
He
snuffles all he snuffle can:
"He scents the Jesuits' traces."
CRANE
Both clear and muddy streams, for me
Are good to fish and sport in:
And
thus the pious man you see
With even devils consorting.
WORLDLING
Yes, for the pious, I suspect,
All instruments are fitting;
And on
the Blocksberg they erect
Full many a place of meeting.
DANCER
A newer chorus now succeeds!
I hear the distant drumming.
"Don't
be disturbed! 'tis, in the reeds,
The bittern's changeless booming."
DANCING-MASTER
How each his legs in nimble trip
Lifts up, and makes a clearance!
The
crooked jump, the heavy skip,
Nor care for the appearance.
GOOD FELLOW
The rabble by such hate are held,
To maim and slay delights them:
As
Orpheus' lyre the brutes compelled,
The bagpipe here unites them.
DOGMATIST
I'll not be led by any lure
Of doubts or critic-cavils:
The Devil
must be something, sure,—
Or how should there be devils?
IDEALIST
This once, the fancy wrought in me
Is really too despotic:
Forsooth,
if I am all I see,
I must be idiotic!
REALIST
This racking fuss on every hand,
It gives me great vexation;
And,
for the first time, here I stand
On insecure foundation.
SUPERNATURALIST
With much delight I see the play,
And grant to these their merits,
Since
from the devils I also may
Infer the better spirits.
SCEPTIC
The flame they follow, on and on,
And think they're near the treasure:
But
Devil rhymes with Doubt alone,
So I am here with
pleasure.
LEADER OF THE BAND
Frog in green, and cricket-trill.
Such dilettants!—perdition!
Fly-snout
and mosquito-bill,—
Each one's a fine musician!
THE ADROIT
Sans souci, we call the clan
Of merry creatures so, then;
Go
a-foot no more we can,
And on our heads we go, then.
THE AWKWARD
Once many a bit we sponged, but now,
God help us! that is done with:
Our
shoes are all danced out, we trow,
We've but naked soles to run with.
WILL-O'-THE WISPS
From the marshes we appear,
Where we originated;
Yet in the ranks,
at once, we're here
As glittering gallants rated.
SHOOTING-STAR
Darting hither from the sky,
In star and fire light shooting,
Cross-wise
now in grass I lie:
Who'll help me to my footing?
THE HEAVY FELLOWS
Room! and round about us, room!
Trodden are the grasses:
Spirits
also, spirits come,
And they are bulky masses.
PUCK
Enter not so stall-fed quite,
Like elephant-calves about one!
And
the heaviest weight to-night
Be Puck, himself, the stout one!
ARIEL
If loving Nature at your back,
Or Mind, the wings uncloses,
Follow
up my airy track
To the mount of roses!
ORCHESTRA
pianissimo
Cloud and trailing mist o'erhead
Are now
illuminated:
Air in leaves, and wind in reed,
And all is
dissipated.
DREARY DAY
A FIELD
FAUST MEPHISTOPHELES
FAUST
In misery! In despair! Long wretchedly astray on the face
of the
earth, and now imprisoned! That gracious, ill-starred
creature shut
in a dungeon as a criminal, and given
up to fearful torments! To this
has it come! to this!—Treacherous,
contemptible spirit, and
thou hast concealed it from
me!—Stand, then,—stand! Roll the devilish
eyes wrathfully in
thy head! Stand and defy me with thine intolerable
presence!
Imprisoned! In irretrievable misery! Delivered up to evil
spirits,
and to condemning, unfeeling Man! And thou hast
lulled me, meanwhile,
with the most insipid dissipations, hast
concealed from me her
increasing wretchedness, and suffered
her to go helplessly to ruin!
MEPHISTOPHELES
She is not the first.
FAUST
Dog! Abominable monster! Transform him, thou Infinite
Spirit!
transform the reptile again into his dog-shape? in which
it pleased
him often at night to scamper on before me, to roll
himself at the
feet of the unsuspecting wanderer, and hang
upon his shoulders when
he fell! Transform him again into
his favorite likeness, that he may
crawl upon his belly in the
dust before me,—that I may trample him,
the outlawed, under
foot! Not the first! O woe! woe which no human
soul can
grasp, that more than one being should sink into the depths
of
this misery,—that the first, in its writhing death-agony
under
the eyes of the Eternal Forgiver, did not expiate the
guilt of all
others! The misery of this single one pierces to the
very marrow of
my life; and thou art calmly grinning at the
fate of thousands!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Now we are already again at the end of our wits, where the
understanding
of you men runs wild. Why didst thou enter
into fellowship with us,
if thou canst not carry it out? Wilt fly,
and art not secure against
dizziness? Did we thrust ourselves
upon thee, or thou thyself upon us?
FAUST
Gnash not thus thy devouring teeth at me? It fills me with
horrible
disgust. Mighty, glorious Spirit, who hast vouchsafed
to me Thine
apparition, who knowest my heart and my soul,
why fetter me to the
felon-comrade, who feeds on mischief and
gluts himself with ruin?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Hast thou done?
FAUST
Rescue her, or woe to thee! The fearfullest curse be upon
thee for
thousands of ages!
MEPHISTOPHELES
I cannot loosen the bonds of the Avenger, nor undo his bolts.
Rescue
her? Who was it that plunged her into ruin? I, or thou?
(FAUST looks around wildly.)
Wilt thou grasp the thunder? Well that it has not been
given to you,
miserable mortals! To crush to pieces the innocent
respondent—that is
the tyrant-fashion of relieving one's
self in embarrassments.
FAUST
Take me thither! She shall be free!
MEPHISTOPHELES
And the danger to which thou wilt expose thyself? Know
that the guilt
of blood, from thy hand, still lies upon the town!
Avenging spirits
hover over the spot where the victim fell, and
lie in wait for the
returning murderer.
FAUST
That, too, from thee? Murder and death of a world upon
thee, monster!
Take me thither, I say, and liberate her!
MEPHISTOPHELES
I will convey thee there; and hear, what I can do! Have I
all the
power in Heaven and on Earth? I will becloud the
jailer's senses: get
possession of the key, and lead her forth with
human hand! I will
keep watch: the magic steeds are ready,
I will carry you off. So much
is in my power.
FAUST
Up and away!
NIGHT
OPEN FIELD
(FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES speeding onward on black horses.)
FAUST
What weave they there round the raven-stone?
MEPHISTOPHELES
I know not what they are brewing and doing.
FAUST
Soaring up, sweeping down, bowing and bending!
MEPHISTOPHELES
A witches'-guild.
FAUST
They scatter, devote and doom!
MEPHISTOPHELES
On! on!
DUNGEON
FAUST
(with a bunch of keys and a lamp, before an iron door)
A shudder, long unfelt, comes o'er me;
Mankind's collected woe
o'erwhelms me, here.
She dwells within the dark, damp walls before me,
And
all her crime was a delusion dear!
What! I delay to free her?
I
dread, once again to see her?
On! my shrinking but lingers Death more
near.
(He grasps the lock: the sound of singing is heard inside.)
My mother, the harlot,
Who put me to death;
My father,
the varlet,
Who eaten me hath!
Little sister, so good,
Laid
my bones in the wood,
In the damp moss and clay:
Then was I a
beautiful bird o' the wood;
Fly away! Fly away!
FAUST (unlocking)
She does not dream her lover listens near;
That he the rattling
chain, the rustling straw, can hear.
(He enters.)
MARGARET (hiding herself on the pallet)
Woe! woe! They come. O
death of bitterness!
FAUST (whispering)
Hush! hush! The hour is come that frees
thee.
MARGARET (throwing herself before him)
Art thou a man, then
pity my distress!
FAUST
Thy cries will wake the guards, and they will seize thee!
(He
takes hold of the fetters to unlock them.)
MARGARET (on her knees)
Who, headsman! unto thee such power
Over me could give?
Thou'rt
come for me at midnight-hour:
Have mercy on me, let me live!
Is't
not soon enough when morning chime has run?
(She rises.)
And I am yet so young, so young!
And now Death comes, and ruin!
I,
too, was fair, and that was my undoing.
My love was near, but now
he's far;
Torn lies the wreath, scattered the blossoms are.
Seize
me not thus so violently!
Spare me! What have I done to thee?
Let
me not vainly entreat thee!
I never chanced, in all my days, to meet
thee!
FAUST
Shall I outlive this misery?
MARGARET
Now am I wholly in thy might.
But let me suckle, first, my baby!
I
blissed it all this livelong night;
They took 't away, to vex me,
maybe,
And now they say I killed the child outright.
And never
shall I be glad again.
They sing songs about me! 'tis bad of the folk
to do it!
There's an old story has the same refrain;
Who bade them
so construe it?
FAUST (falling upon his knees)
Here lieth one who loves thee ever,
The thraldom of thy woe to sever.
MARGARET (flinging herself beside him)
O let us kneel, and call the Saints to hide us!
Under the steps
beside us,
The threshold under,
Hell heaves in thunder!
The
Evil One
With terrible wrath
Seeketh a path
His prey to
discover!
FAUST (aloud)
Margaret! Margaret!
MARGARET (attentively listening)
That was the voice of my lover!
(She springs to her feet: the fetters fall off.)
Where is he? I heard him call me.
I am free! No one shall enthrall me.
To
his neck will I fly,
On his bosom lie!
On the threshold he stood,
and Margaret! calling,
Midst of Hell's howling and noises
appalling,
Midst of the wrathful, infernal derision,
I knew the
sweet sound of the voice of the vision!
FAUST
'Tis I!
MARGARET
'Tis thou! O, say it once again!
(Clasping him.)
'Tis he! 'tis he! Where now is all my pain?
The anguish of the
dungeon, and the chain?
'Tis thou! Thou comest to save me,
And I
am saved!—
Again the street I see
Where first I looked on
thee;
And the garden, brightly blooming,
Where I and Martha wait
thy coming.
FAUST (struggling to leave)
Come! Come with me!
MARGARET
Delay, now!
So fain I stay, when thou delayest!
(Caressing him.)
FAUST
Away, now!
If longer here thou stayest,
We shall be made to dearly
rue it.
MARGARET
Kiss me!—canst no longer do it?
My friend, so short a time
thou'rt missing,
And hast unlearned thy kissing?
Why is my heart
so anxious, on thy breast?
Where once a heaven thy glances did create
me,
A heaven thy loving words expressed,
And thou didst kiss, as
thou wouldst suffocate me—
Kiss me!
Or I'll kiss thee!
(She embraces him.)
Ah, woe! thy lips are chill,
And still.
How changed in fashion
Thy
passion!
Who has done me this ill?
(She turns away from him.)
FAUST
Come, follow me! My darling, be more bold:
I'll clasp thee, soon,
with warmth a thousand-fold;
But follow now! 'Tis all I beg of thee.
MARGARET (turning to him)
And is it thou? Thou, surely, certainly?
FAUST
'Tis I! Come on!
MARGARET
Thou wilt unloose my chain,
FAUST
Come! come! The night already vanisheth.
MARGARET
My mother have I put to death;
I've drowned the baby born to thee.
Was
it not given to thee and me?
Thee, too!—'Tis thou! It scarcely true
doth seem—
Give me thy hand! 'Tis not a dream!
Thy dear,
dear hand!—But, ah, 'tis wet!
Why, wipe it off! Methinks that
yet
There's blood thereon.
Ah, God! what hast thou done?
Nay,
sheathe thy sword at last!
Do not affray me!
FAUST
O, let the past be past!
Thy words will slay me!
MARGARET
No, no! Thou must outlive us.
Now I'll tell thee the graves to give
us:
Thou must begin to-morrow
The work of sorrow!
The best
place give to my mother,
Then close at her side my brother,
And me
a little away,
But not too very far, I pray!
And here, on my right
breast, my baby lay!
Nobody else will lie beside me!—
Ah,
within thine arms to hide me,
That was a sweet and a gracious bliss,
But
no more, no more can I attain it!
I would force myself on thee and
constrain it,
And it seems thou repellest my kiss:
And yet 'tis
thou, so good, so kind to see!
FAUST
If thou feel'st it is I, then come with me!
MARGARET
Out yonder?
FAUST
To freedom.
MARGARET
If the grave is there,
Death lying in wait, then come!
From here
to eternal rest:
No further step—no, no!
Thou goest away! O
Henry, if I could go!
FAUST
Thou canst! Just will it! Open stands the door.
MARGARET
I dare not go: there's no hope any more.
Why should I fly? They'll
still my steps waylay!
It is so wretched, forced to beg my living,
And
a bad conscience sharper misery giving!
It is so wretched, to be
strange, forsaken,
And I'd still be followed and taken!
FAUST
I'll stay with thee.
MARGARET
Be quick! Be quick!
Save thy perishing child!
Away! Follow the
ridge
Up by the brook,
Over the bridge,
Into the wood,
To the left, where the plank is
placed
In the pool!
Seize it in haste!
'Tis trying to rise,
'Tis
struggling still!
Save it! Save it!
FAUST
Recall thy wandering will!
One step, and thou art free at last!
MARGARET
If the mountain we had only passed!
There sits my mother upon a
stone,—
I feel an icy shiver!
There sits my mother upon a
stone,
And her head is wagging ever.
She beckons, she nods not,
her heavy head falls o'er;
She slept so long that she wakes no more.
She
slept, while we were caressing:
Ah, those were the days of blessing!
FAUST
Here words and prayers are nothing worth;
I'll venture, then, to bear
thee forth.
MARGARET
No—let me go! I'll suffer no force!
Grasp me not so murderously!
I've
done, else, all things for the love of thee.
FAUST
The day dawns: Dearest! Dearest!
MARGARET
Day? Yes, the day comes,—the last day breaks for me!
My
wedding-day it was to be!
Tell no one thou has been with Margaret!
Woe
for my garland! The chances
Are over—'tis all in vain!
We
shall meet once again,
But not at the dances!
The crowd is
thronging, no word is spoken:
The square below
And the streets
overflow:
The death-bell tolls, the wand is broken.
I am seized,
and bound, and delivered—
Shoved to the block—they give the
sign!
Now over each neck has quivered
The blade that is quivering
over mine.
Dumb lies the world like the grave!
FAUST
O had I ne'er been born!
MEPHISTOPHELES (appears outside)
Off! or you're lost ere morn.
Useless talking, delaying and praying!
My
horses are neighing:
The morning twilight is near.
MARGARET
What rises up from the threshold here?
He! he! suffer him not!
What
does he want in this holy spot?
He seeks me!
FAUST
Thou shalt live.
MARGARET
Judgment of God! myself to thee I give.
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST)
Come! or I'll leave her in the lurch, and thee!
MARGARET
Thine am I, Father! rescue me!
Ye angels, holy cohorts, guard me,
Camp
around, and from evil ward me!
Henry! I shudder to think of thee.
MEPHISTOPHELES
She is judged!
VOICE (from above)
She is saved!
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST)
Hither to me!
(He disappears with FAUST.)
VOICE (from within, dying away)
Henry! Henry!
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