DETHE
FAUST
838
G6
F2
+542
NSLATED B
D SCOONE
RUBIERAC

The
German-American
Goethe Library
University of Michigan.
838
Gle
+2
7842
FAUST.
28311
FAUST.
.
A TRAGEDY.
BY GOETHE.
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE
BY
WILLIAM DALTON SCOONES, B.A.
LONDON:
TRÜBNER AND CO., LUDGATE HILL.
1879.
838
GG
F2
£542
1
:. '/
་ །
DEDICATION.
YE come again! Dim visions of the past!
That charmed in life's young morn these weary eyes.
Shall I essay this time to hold ye fast ?
Still clings my heart to empty fantasies?
Ye throng around! Well! Be your glamour cast
Upon me, as from shadowy mist ye rise!
Youth trembles through me, while I breathe again
The magic airs that whisper round your train.
Ye bring with ye the forms of happier days,
And many dearest shadows rise to view;
Like tones of old and half-remembered lays,
Come early Love, and Friendship tried and true:
Thought wanders back through Life's bewildering maze,
The passion and the plaint burst forth anew,
And call the Good, who, by injurious Time
Of fair hours cheated, perished ere their prime.
They cannot hear this last and ripest song,
The souls to whom I sang my opening lay;
Dispersed and vanished is the friendly throng;
Th' applauding echoes sadly died away.
To strangers now these later notes belong,
Whose very praises this sad heart dismay;
And those who heard my strain with joy and pride,
If yet they live, are scattered far and wide.
vi
DEDICATION.
There comes on me a yearning, long unknown,
For that still spirit-land, so fair, so dear;
My numbers, lisped in scarce articulate tone,
Steal, like Æolian harp-notes, on the ear
This stubborn heart has soft and tender grown,
A tremor thrills me, tear falls fast on tear;
The Present as in distance dim I see,
The Past is now my sole reality.
FAUST.
PROLOGUE FOR THE THEATRE.
MANAGER.-STAGE-POET.-MERRYMAN.
MANAGER.
Ye two! In whom I oft have found
At time of need a trusty stay,
What are your expectations, say!
Of our success on German ground?
I fain would please the people, if I can,
At least while live and let live is their plan.
Our posts and planks now rise in order meet,
And every soul anticipates a treat.
They're sitting now, brows raised in expectation,
All gravely looking for a strong sensation.
I know how one should rouse their interest,
And yet about our prospects I am pensive;
'Tis true they're not accustomed to the best,
But then their reading's terribly extensive.
What's to be done, to have all fresh and new?
Imparting pleasure and instruction too?
So that with joy we may the crowds survey
As like a deluge to our booth they rush,,
1
2
10
FAUST
And pushing, elbowing, jostling, make their way,
Till through the narrow gate of grace they crush
When, in broad day, before the stroke of four,
They fight to pay their money down, nor reck,
Like starving people round a baker's door,
That for a ticket they must risk their neck.
This wonder on such crowds we all allow
The Poet only works-O work it now!
;
POET.
Nay, tell me not of that gross multitude!
Whose very look puts Poesy to flight;
Defend me from the concourse, blind and rude,
Whose vortex whelms us in our own despite :
Give me that nook of calm beatitude!
Where only may the Poet drink delight,
Where Love and Friendship fashion for the heart
With hand divine a Bower of bliss apart.
Ah! what within the breast is meditated,
What scarce the stammering lip preluding speaks,
Abortive now, now nearly consummated,
The rude distraction of a moment breaks;
Yet oft, when through long years the thought hath waited,
In form perfected sudden it awakes :
What glitters takes the passing time alone,
The True will last to future ages known,
MERRYMAN.
How long must I with future times be baited?
Suppose that I on future times dilated?
Who would cut jokes to pleasure this?
And laughter, mind ye! must, and shall be had:
FAUST.
3
The jolly presence of a clever lad
Can never, to my fancy, come amiss.
One who agreeably brings his jests to bear
Will not despond because the public's fickle ;
He'll like to act to an extensive sphere,
More certain thus their brains to tickle.
Courage then! Fall to work in master fashion!
Call Fantasy with her attendant band,
Reason, Invention, Taste, Experience, Passion,
But not omitting Folly, understand!
MANAGER.
But, above all things, give them incident!
Who come to see, with sights will be content:
When plenty is spun out before their eyes,
Which may the gaping multitude astound, .
In public favour speedily you rise,
Become a man admired and renowned.
The masses only can by mass be won,
•
Whence each may pick and choose his favourite part;
When heaps are served, there's something for each one.
And each will highly gratified depart.
You give a piece, then piecemeal utter it !
Such a podrida's sure their taste to hit;
As easily it's played as it's invented,
What good, if you a perfect whole presented?
The Critics soon would tear it bit from bit.
POET.
You do not feel how base such work must be,
How little of true fame it can impart ;
The dabblings of these gentlemen, I see
You have exalted into rules of art.
1-2
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FAUST.
MANAGER.
No such reproach can pierce my armour through;
The man who feels he's urgent work to do,
Will try the fittest tool to find:
You have to split unseasoned timber, mind!
And then for whom you're writing only see !
One comes here simply driven by ennui,
One sore oppressed by after-dinner vapours ;
Another, and the worst of all is he,
Straight from perusal of the daily papers.
Here, as at masquerades, men fly from thought;
Cold curiosity mainly fills the gallery,
The Ladies give themselves and dress for nought,
And play their part without a salary.
What are your dreams, in your poetic fury?
How to delight the house when full?
Look at the audience, your jury,
Half are indifferent, half are dull.
This, the play over, is on cards intent,
That to a night of lawless love aspires,
Why then, poor simpletons! torment
For such as these the heavenly choirs?
Only give more, more, ever more, I ask!
So will your efforts with success be crowned,
Do but your utmost people to astound!
To satisfy them is a harder task.
Well! What's the matter? Ecstasy or pain?
POET.
Begone! And seek thyself some other slave!
Shall then the Poet, what boon Nature gave,
Her highest human gift, thus fool away
By blasphemous misuse, such praise to gain?
FAUST.
5
LO
By what doth he all hearts enslave?
By what, all passions doth he sway?
Is't not the tones that from his bosom roll,
And win the wide world back into his soul?
When all her endless threads at random tangled
Around the spindles Nature careless flings,
When in revolting discord rudely jangled.
All vocal being tuneless rings;
Who rouses all to soft harmonious motion,
And holds in rhythmic concord sweetly bound?
Calls each to join the chorus of devotion,
The mighty march of meetly martialled sound?
Who wakes the storm that into passion seethes?
For pensive spirits paints the evening red?
Who bids the fair spring flowers their brightest wreaths
Around the path of the beloved to shed ?
Who of poor unconsidered leaves hath wound him
A Chaplet for desert in every field?
Who storms Olympus, calls the Gods around him?
Man's power! that in the poet stands revealed!
MERRYMAN.
Be this fine power then unfolded!
Let the poetic work be moulded.
As men conduct a love affair!
First one is struck, then charmed, then lingers near,
Little by little we become ensnared,
Pleasure increases, then is quickly marred,
Th' extreme of rapture sudden woes invade,
And e'er you know it your romance is made.
Let us in this wise then the Drama treat,
Grasp for the subject human life complete!
It's lived by all, though not to many known,
And interests all, whatever portion's shown.
6
FAUST.
A crowd of pictures in confusion,
A spark of truth and much illusion,
'Tis thus the rare elixir's brewed.
By which the world is quickened and renewed.
Then will the fairest flowers of youth collect,
To see your play and hear it's revelations,
Then will each young and tender intellect
Suck from the work its sentimental rations.
First this, then that, the sweet emotion shares,
And each beholds what in his heart he bears.
Ready are all alike to laugh or cry,
Your points admire, your lofty flights revere :
Trained intellects you'll never satisfy,
But minds unformed are grateful everywhere.
POET.
Then give me back again the days,
When I myself was forming still;
When from the heart the thronging lays
Would burst in ever babbling rill.
When life through golden mirage gleamed,
Each bud was big with splendid hours,
As carelessly I culled the flowers
With which the laughing valleys teemed.
Nothing I had, and yet profusion,
The thirst for truth, the rapture in illusion.
Unfettered thus let every impulse rove!
The ecstasy that throbs to pain,
The strength of hate, the might of Love,
Give-give me back my youth again!
MERRYMÁN.
Youth, my good Friend! will prove your stay,
When girt in fight with hostile faces;
FAUST.
7
When round your neck a buxom May
Clings close in amorous embraces;
When in the hard-won race advancing,
The victor's laurel gleams in sight;
When, after hours of furious dancing,
One feasts and drinks away the night.
But in the Lyre's familiar measure,
Freedom and grace combined to keep,
Towards the goal ordained at pleasure
With sweet divergences to sweep.
That, ancient Sir, 's your task to-day,
A task that to respect you binds us;
Age makes not childish, as men say,
It only still as children finds us.
MANAGER.
Words in abundance have been spent,
Let deeds come now! say I for one,
While you are bandying compliment,
Something effective might be done.
Of moods and tempers cease to prate!
Faint heart will ne'er in temper be:
Poets yourselves you estimate,
Show power over poetry!
What we desire is clear and plain,
The strongest drink we wish to drain :
Quick to your work of brewing run!
What's left to-day, to-morrow leaves undone ;
Waste not an hour in thoughtless ease!
Occasion, by the forelock held,
Let Resolution firmly seize !
So, lest her captive win release,
To labour will she be compelled.
8
FAUST.
You know upon our German boards
Are no restrictions as to scenery ;
Draw freely then upon our hoards
Of properties and stage machinery!
Use heaven's great and lesser lights!
Nor be your show of stars deficient !
Of fire, water, rocky heights,
Beasts, birds we have a stock sufficient.
So in this little booth may you
Range all Creation's circle through;
And swift but heedful tread the round,
From heaven through earth to hell profound.
PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN.
The LORD and the HOST of Heaven.—MEPHISTOPHELES.
Enter THREE ARCHANGELS.
RAPHAEL.
The Sun, with all his brother spheres,
Hymns, as of old, accordant song;
And on his destined course careers,
In pealing thunder-march along.
His aspect gives the Angels might ;
Though none his being fathom may;
Thy unimagined works are bright,
As at Creation's dawning day.
GABRIEL.
And swift, and ever swift, gyrating,
Earth's sphered splendour spins in flight;
Light, as of Eden, alternating
With shade of deep and dreadful Night.
The mighty waves of climbing Ocean
The cliffs' deep bases gird with spray ;
And cliffs and waves, in blinding motio n,
Are whirled on their ethereal way.
MICHAEL.
Contending tempests bellow, sweeping
From sea to land, from land to sea ;
10
FAUST.
A chain of perturbation keeping
Round all in their wild ecstasy.
There shines far-flashing desolation
Before the death-bolt's deadly way ;
We mark, O Lord, with veneration,
The gentle passage of Thy day.
THE THREE.
Thine aspect gives the Angels might,
Though none Thy being fathom may;
Thy great and glorious works are bright,
O Lord, as on Creation's day.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Since you, O Lord, vouchsafe to come in person,
And ask how things go with us, once again;
Nor to my presence e'er hast shown aversion,
Behold me here, attendant in the train.
I own, at high-flown words I'm no adept ;
And, though the saying raise the general scorn,
My pathos would but make you laugh—except
That laughter you have long ago forsworn.
On suns and systems I can not dilate,
I only see how men bemoan their fate.
The little god of earth still treads the beaten way,
And plays astounding pranks, as at the primal day.
His life might know some little joys,
Hadst Thou not given a gleam of heavenly flame,
Which he calls reason, and employs,
In deeds that put the beasts themselves to shame.
He seems to me (the words your Grace will pardon),
Like a long-legged grasshopper in the garden;
That ever flies, and flying springs,
Till on the grass his ancient song he sings:
FA‡UST.
11
Would on the grass alone he sought repose
In every lump of filth he thrusts his nose.
THE LORD.
And hast thou nothing more to say ?
Still art thou carping night and day?
With nought on earth contented wilt thou be?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
No, Lord! I find all there, as ever, sad to see.
Men touch me so, with their lamenting ;
I feel some qualms, the wretched knaves tormenting.
THE LORD.
Know'st thou my servant Faust?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
The Doctor?
THE LORD.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Truly he serves you in his own strange mood ;
The fool lives not on earthly drink and food.
By seething passion torn afar,
Himself half conscious of his madness,
He.
He yearns to grasp at once heaven's brightest star,
And all that earth can yield of rapturous gladness,
By nothing near, and nothing far,
His deep desires contented are.
THE LORD.
Though darkling now he serve me here,
Soon will I lead him into light serene.
12
FAUST.
Knows not the gardener, when the bough is green,
That flower and fruit will deck the coming year?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
What will you wager? That you'll lose is clear,
If leave to me you'll only give,
Gently aside his bark to steer.
THE LORD.
So long as he on earth shall live,
Do what thou wilt, nor hindrance dread;
Man still must stumble, while he struggles here.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
For that my thanks-As for the dead,
'Tis not my fancy them to seek;
I much prefer the plump and rosy cheek.
No corpse that calls shall find me in the house ;
A cat am I that love to play my mouse.
THE LORD.
So be it-I grant thee the condition made.
Draw thou this spirit from its heavenly stay,
And lead him, if thy grasp is on him laid,
With thee along the dark and downward way.
Then stand abashed! when forced to own,
That to the good man, in his wildest deed,
Full well the way of righteousness is known.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Aye! but his sage convictions soon depart,
My bet I count already paid me down,
And, when you see my plan succeed,
Grudge not-if I exult with all my heart.
FAUST.
13
Dust shall he eat-and that with greed;
Even as my cousin Snake, of old renown.
THE LORD.
Resort here, freely, when you will ;
I bear no hatred to your kind.
Of all opposing spirits, still
This knave I least offensive find.
The energies of man soon sink to sleep,
Too fond of absolute inaction is he;
Therefore I with him this companion keep,
Who stirs and strives, and must, as devil, be busy.
But ye, God's sinless children! from the sight
Of pure eternal beauty drink delight!
By that which ever lives and works alone
Be Love's Elysian bond around you thrown.
And what in fair and fleeting show is wrought,
Fix and eternize, by enduring thought.
[Heaven closes. Exeunt THREE ARCHANGELS.
MEPHISTOPHELES (alone).
I come sometimes, the Ancient One to see;
And take good care my conduct shall be civil ;
"Tis most polite, in such a Lord as He,
To hold familiar converse with the devil.
J
FAUST.
17
On instruments and glasses piled;
That is thy world! That's called a world!
And ask'st thou, why within thy breast
The prisoned pulses languid play?
Why, by a nameless weight oppressed,
All quick fresh energies decay.
In place of Nature's living bloom-
God's blessed gift-this reeking den
Is stuffed with offal of the tomb,
Brute skeletons, and bones of men!
Up! Range the free, the open land!
This mystic book, of magic rite,
From Nostradamus' mighty hand,
Will it not guide thy search aright?
Stars, in their courses, shalt thou know;
Shalt Nature's hidden script unroll;
Her spirit-power shall through thee flow,
As soul that whispers unto soul.
No poring here, with toil-dimmed eyes,
The holy signs will render clear :
Ye spirits! that around me rise!
Hear me ! and answer when ye hear.
(He opens the book, and sees the sign of the Macrocosm.)
Ha! What a vivid rapture, at the sight,
O'er every sense, in racing tide is flowing!
I feel the young, the holy life-delight,
Through every nerve and tissue, keenly glowing.
Was it a God who traced the sign
That stills the inner storm I feel,
Makes my sad heart with rapture reel,
And, by a mystic spell benign,
The powers occult around me can reveal?
2
18
FAUST.
Am I a God? Such light outbreaks !
In these pure lines my soul surveys,
Great Nature working bare in all her ways:
Now first I fathom what the wise man speaks.
‘No bar the spirit-realm is keeping :
Thy thought is shut, thy heart is dead.
Rise, Acolyte! and bathe, unsleeping,
Thy earthly breast in morning red.'
(He examines the sign.)
How with the whole all interweaves !
How each in others works and lives!
What powers celestial, upward-downward winging,
Stream numberless, the golden vessels bringing;
On blissful pinions float,
From central heaven to worlds remote,
All, with the One Great All, accordant ringing.
How grand the show! Alas! but shows I see;
Where, endless Nature! shall I capture thee?
Where are ye, breasts? The fount of life to all,
From which depend both earth and heaven,
For which each fainting soul hath striven;
Ye flow, ye gush-and I thirst-tortured fall.
(He turns over the book impatiently, and perceives
the sign of the EARTH SPIRIT.)
Effect how different works this holy sign!
Spirit of Earth! thou drawest nigher :
My strength already waxes higher :
I glow, as filled with flaming wine.
My bosom pants, the shock of life to dare ;
All earthly bale, all earthly bliss to bear;
Fearless press on, though tempest rage around,
And mid the crash of shipwreck calm be found.
The clouds close over me!
FAUST.
19
The Moon withdraws her light-
The lamp expires-
Mist rises, and around me gleam
Red flickering rays.
There sinks
From the high vault a shuddering chill,
And seizes on me.
Prayer-compelled Spirit! thou art hovering nigh!
Reveal thyself!
Ha! In my heart what agony!
My senses reel—
I thrill unknowing what I feel;
My heart is unresisting drawn to thee:
Thou must, thou must, though life the payment be.
(He seizes the book and mystically pronounces
the sign of the EARTH SPIRIT. A red flame
Aashes up. The SPIRIT appears in the flame.)
Who calls upon me?
SPIRIT.
FAUST, shrinking away.
Dreadful countenance !
SPIRIT.
Prevailing hast thou drawn me here,
Torn by thy yearning from my sphere;
Now-
FAUST.
Woe! I cannot bear thy glance.
SPIRIT.
Long hast thou struggled, groaned in prayer
My face to see, my voice to hear;
Now, conquered by thy supplication,
Here am I! What unmanly fear
2-2
20
FAUST
Appals thee, more than man in aspiration;
Where is the soul's deep cry? The breast that new
creation
Would form and rule within? that palpitated
In act to soar with us, the Spirits, mated?
Where art thou, Faust, whose voice rang through mine
ear?
Who strove with all thy powers to drag me near?
Art thou the thing that trembles, fleeing
Even from my breath, through all his being ?
A poor, touch-tortured, writhing worm!
FAUST.
Thee! form of fire! shall I fear?
That thing—that Faust am I—and am thy peer.
SPIRIT.
On life's wild billows, in action's storm,
I float, I wave,
In myriad motion,
A Birth, a Grave,
An endless ocean,
A twining strife,
A glowing life;
At the humming loom of Time, weave I
The living garb of the Deity.
FAUST.
Thou! who in circling flight the world canst clasp!
Unresting Spirit! How nigh I feel to thee!
SPIRIT.
Thou'rt peer, unto the Spirit thou canst grasp;
Not me!
(The SPIRIT vanishes.)
FAUST.
21
.
Not thee!
Whom then?
FAUST, sinking down.
I, God's own image!
And not mate for thee!
(A knocking is heard.)
FAUST.
O, Death! I know! My Famulus it is.
My fairest Fortune comes to nought.
That I, through this dull rogue without a thought,
The rich abounding vision-tide should miss!
WAGNER in dressing-gown and night-cap. A lamp in his
hand. FAUST turns angrily.
WAGNER.
Pardon! I heard your voice declaiming ;
A passage, doubtless, from some Attic play :
I at improvement in the art am aiming ;
It helps to form one, at the present day.
I've heard, and from a trusty teacher,
An Actor may improve a Preacher.
FAUST.
Ay! when the Preacher is an Actor;
A case that often happens nowadays.
WAGNER.
But when a man's close in his study packed, or
Rarely, on Festivals, the world surveys;
Seeing, as through a telescope, obscurely ;
He'll hardly move it by persuasion, surely?
22
FAUST.
FAUST.
The labour's lost that lacks inherent feeling;
When from the soul it does not start;
The fresh unstudied strain, spontaneous pealing,
In tones that echo through the hearer's heart.
From others' feasts concoct your hashes;
Sit patching, pasting, all your days;
And, from your little heap of ashes
Labour to blow a feeble blaze.
Monkeys and children may admire,
(If that's your taste,) each measured tone:
The hearts of men you'll never fire,
Till flame be kindled in your own.
WAGNER.
Delivery is the speaker's all in all:
I know it well, though yet my skill be small.
FAUST.
Seek honest prizes-Do not be
A mere bell-jingling fool-The mind,
For sense and reason easily
Will suitable expression find.
When earnest purpose sets you speaking,
There's little need of language seeking.
Ay! Your so glittering speech, in which are twined
Cut scraps of intellect the mass to move,
Is cold and sterile as the sleety wind
Rustling in Autumn through the withered grove.
FAUST.
23
WAGNER.
Good Heaven! How long is Art!
How brief this mortal stage!
I often labour o'er the critic page,
With aching head, and heart.
How hard it is along the path to rise,
By which the sacred Fount is gained!
And ere one half the journey is attained,
It mostly happens a poor devil dies.
FAUST.
And parchment then, is that the holy river,
One draught of which will quench the spirit's thirst?
No waters slake the soul's consuming fever,
That do not from its own deep fountain burst.
WAGNER.
But still, you'll own 'tis pleasure vast,
To catch the spirit of the Past:
To mark what ancient sages thought,
And to what wondrous height we their results have
brought.
FAUST.
Ay, truly! To the very stars on high!
My friend! The spirit of Antiquity
A volume is to us sealed fast.
That which as spirit of the Past is known,
Is, sooth to speak, no spirit but our own,
In which the vanished Age is glassed-
Dark too the picture we behold therein !
From the first glimpse one turns repelled away;
A gloomy lumber-room-a rubbish bin-
Or, at the best, a formal Puppet Play ;
24
FAUST.
With stilted speech, and musty maxim teeming,
As may in Puppet mouths be best beseeming.
WAGNER.
But then the World! Man's heart and soul! By all
Knowledge of these, is held a worthy aim.
FAUST.
Ay! knowledge! What men currently so call ;
Who dares to give the child its proper name?
The few, who something of that lore have learned,
And not been wise enough their hearts to seal,
But shewed the people what they know and feel;
Have, for reward, been crucified and burned.
But pardon! Friend! The night draws on apace;
"Tis time, that we break off the conversation.
WAGNER.
I'd gladly keep awake, a longer space,
To hold with you such learned disputation.
Nathless, to-morrow Easter chimes will sound ;
A few more questions, then, I'd fain propound.
No pains for knowledge can my zeal appal,
True I know much, but fain would I know all.
[Exit WAGNER.
FAUST.
How loth is Hope to leave the shallow brain,
That toils, on gleaning husks and chaff intent;
That eager delves, the buried gold to gain ;
And, finding earth-worms, grins in huge content.
And dare a voice so earthly here intrude,
Where gathering Spirits teem beyond our ken?
But, ah! for once-I owe thee gratitude,
FAUST.
25
Thou emptiest of all the sons of men!
You snatched me from the horrible despair,
That over me a freezing shadow cast:
So giant-like the spectre towered there;
I knew my littleness, and shrank aghast.
I, Image of the Godhead! who upon
The mirror of eternal Truth would gaze;
Who basked in Heaven's pure unsullied rays;
Who from me stripped the husk of earthly clay;
I, more than Cherub! Who in thought had flown
Through Nature's very veins; who fain would dare,
With Heaven's creative power, its bliss to share ;
How my presumptuous pride do I atone?
A word of thunder sweeps my dream away.
No more I boast myself thy peer;
If I have power to force thee here,
I had no power to compel thy stay.
In that bright moment, was I shown,
How low a thing I am, and yet how high!
You thrust me ruthless back, to grope alone
In the Cloudland of dim Mortality.
What teacher shall I find? How can I learn,
What impulse to resist, and what obey ?
Our errors, more than our misfortunes, turn
The drag against our wheels, on Life's rough way.
The noblest aims that in the soul have birth,
To base intruding ends are warped awry :
And when we once have gained the goods of earth,
All better things seem dross and vanity :
The higher sense, our soul's celestial life,
Is smothered in the world's rude press and strife.
26
FAUST.
If youthful Fancy, once, on wings of Hope,
Rose in Infinitude to soar unfettered;
A narrow space affords her ample scope,
When, one by one, she sees her ventures shattered.
Then, deep within the heart, Care builds her nest;
There hatches hideous strange unrest:
Rocking in torment, peace and joy she scares-
And ever shifting semblance wears.
As house, land, wife, or child, she may appear;
As flood, fire, poison, or assassin's steel;
You groan at tortures you will never feel;
What ne'er will happen chills the soul with fear.
No mate am I for Gods, too well I know—
More like the worm, that crawls in dust below,
And in the dust, on which its life is fed,
Is crushed and buried by the passers' tread.
Dust chokes me here. Dust, that in growing heaps,
On these shelf-cumbered walls around has risen ;
The mouldering rubbish, in a thousand shapes,
That stifles me, in this moth-eaten prison.
Here can I find the draught for which I thirst?
Where, in a thousand volumes, I may read,
How men in every age their lot have cursed,
Though haply, here and there, one better speed.
Thou hollow skull! what does thy grinning say?
Is't that thy brain, bewildered once like mine;
In twilight shadows yearned for light of day,
And groped unhappy, seeking truth divine?
Ye instruments! Ye surely mock at me,
With wheel and cog, and cylinder and catch:
FAUST.
27
I try the door, and ye should be the key
Your wards, though complex, can not lift the latch.
Deep hidden in the very blaze of day,
Nature to none aside the veil will fling
What to thy soul she deigns not to display,
No screws or levers from her breast will wring.
Old disused lumber of a vanished time!
Chattels, that once my Father's taste delighted!
Old Calendar! that hast been gathering grime,
Since, at the desk, this smouldering lamp was lighted.
Far better to have spent this little all,
Than, burdened by it here, to moil and groan;
Whatever heritage may to thee fall,
Possession of it lies in use alone;
What's not enjoyed, we may a burden call,
And to the present only is enjoyment known.
But, ha! What, yonder, draws and holds my gaze?
Thou little Phial! Dost thou mine eyes enthrall?
Whence breaks this light upon me, soft as rays
Of moonlight on the woodland wanderer fall?
Hail to thee! precious phial! Thou priceless boon!
With reverential touch I take thee down:
In thee, man's craft and science I revere.
Of slumber's holy dews, quintessence sweet!
Draught where Death's subtle silent forces meet !
Vouchsafe a service to thy master here!
I look on thee-my pangs are mitigated;
I handle thee-my struggles are abated;
The spirit flood-tide slowly ebbs away ;
I'm beckoned on across the mighty deep;
a
28
FAUST.
Calm at my foot the glittering waters sleep ;
To other shores invites another day.
A fiery-winged car floats waving down!
Through æther's azure depths I mount, to try
The path untrod, that leads to worlds unknown,
New peaceful spheres of pure activity.
But may this life divine-this Godlike rest,
By thee, erewhile a worm, be sought and won?
Yea! If thou turnest, with a steadfast breast,
Thy back on lower light, on earthly sun.
Dare to burst through the dark repellent portal,
The common herd would fain pass slinking by!
Thine hour is come, to show in act, that mortal
Quails not before immortal dignity;
To gaze unmoved upon the dim abyss,
Where Fancy dooms herself to tortures dire ;
On through the narrow pass serene to press,
Whose red gorge flickers with infernal fire ;
To take the step with calm untroubled thought;
And risk, if risk there be, the passing into nought.
Come down! Pellucid crystal goblet! Come !
I take thee from the case, thine ancient home,
Where thou hast lain neglected many a year.
You glittered at my Father's solemn feasts,
And moved to mirth the grave and sober guests,
Passed round from hand to hand, with merry cheer.
The carvings rare that score thy surface bright-
The task, in rhyme, their meaning to explain-
Or at a draught thy deep contents to drain-
All brings before me many a youthful night.
FAUST.
29
I ne'er shall pass thee more, at festal time,
Nor set my wit to read thy runes in rhyme ;
(This subtle juice soon steals the wits away :)
The dusky stream, that fills thee, fragile bowl!
I freely pour, without or doubt or dole;
And in this crowning draught, with all my soul,
Drink hearty welcome to the coming day.
(He puts the goblet to his lips.)
Peal of Bells, and choral singing.
CHORUS OF ANGELS.
Christ hath arisen!
Joy! to the languishing,
Evil inheriting-
Penalty meriting—
Hopeless and anguishing,
Pent in the prison !
FAUST.
What deep melodious peal? What silver tone?
Hath power, at my lips, the cup to stay?
Do ye, sweet bells! in jocund unison,
Ring in the dawning of the Easter Day?
Do ye, glad voices! sing the song of pure delight,
That rang from Angel lips, on that sepulchral night,
The pledge of compact new with mortal clay?
CHORUS OF WOMEN.
With spices, duly
The fragrant balm is made;
Tenderly, truly,
The Lord in earth is laid.
Cerecloths enwind Him,
Shrouding the form so dear-
کھو
30
FAUST.
We come to find Him-
Alas! Christ is not here.
CHORUS OF ANGELS.
Christ hath ascended
Joy to the risen!
Ordeal ended—
Trial transcended
Broken the prison.
FAUST.
Voices of heaven! so mighty yet so mild—
Why, to this earth-stained soul your message speak?
Peal forth to hearts, yet simple and unsoiled :
I hear the summons, but my faith is weak;
And Miracle is faith's own darling child-
I cannot soar to those pure crystal spheres,
Whence rings exultant your celestial strain ;
And yet, from youth familiar to mine ears,
It calls me softly back to life again.
Heaven's kiss of love, in boyhood's happy times,
Flowed to me on the peaceful Sabbath air :
Sweet mystic voices rang in Sabbath chimes,
And ardent rapture lit my youthful prayer.
A deep, ineffable, mysterious yearning
Drove me afar, to field and forest lone;
And on my cheek delicious tears were burning,
As rose before my soul a world unknown.
That Hymn then presaged many a youthful joy ;
The licensed mirth of Spring's bright holiday :
Memory brings back the feeling of the boy;
And, at the last dread step, it bids me stay—
Peal sweetly forth then, pure angelic strain!
My tears flow fast-I cling to earth again.
FAUST.
31
CHORUS OF DISCIPLES.
He in the grave who lay,
Bound in the prison,
Hath to the light of day
Lordly arisen.
He in supernal light
Blissfully shining;
We in the nether night
Heartbroken pining.
We thine own, left alone—
Gone, our Defender—
Envy, on Heaven's throne
Master! Thy splendour.
CHORUS OF ANGELS.
Christ hath gone up on high
Rise ye up joyfully,
Earthly corruption fly—
Sing praise in holiness;
Shew love in lowliness;
Let the bread broken be,
Sign of true Charity;
Bear to the lands afar,
Light of the Morning Star;
Then, though unseen to thee,
Christ will be nigh.
BEFORE THE GATE.
Townspeople of all classes walking out.
MECHANICS.
Why are you starting off that way?
OTHER MECHANICS.
We're for the Jagerhouse to-day.
THE FORMER.
We're for the Mill; we fancy that the best.
A MECHANIC.
What say you to the Wasserhof, my lad?
SECOND MECHANIC.
Oh no, not there! the road's too bad.
OTHERS.
Where are you_bound?
THIRD MECHANIC.
I'm going with the rest.
FOURTH MECHANIC.
Burgdorf's the place! they give you there,
The prettiest girls, and strongest beer;
Beside the chances of a jolly row.
FIFTH MECHANIC.
You ranting dog! You're fidging fain
To get your numskull cracked again;
I won't go there! I hate the place, I vow.
3
34
FAUST.
MAIDSERVANT.
No! Here I turn, I go no further out.
SECOND MAIDSERVANT.
We're sure to meet him by the Lindens soon.
FIRST MAIDSERVANT.
That would be pretty sport for me, no doubt;
He'd walk beside you all the afternoon :
And then in every dance your partner be :
What's your enjoyment, pray, to me?
SECOND MAIDSERVANT.
He won't be there alone, I vow it's true;
He said that Curlywig was coming too.
STUDENT.
Pest! How those wenches step along!
Come, Fritz! Let's after them in haste;
Good buzzing beer, tobacco strong,
And a well-dressed girl all suit my taste.
CITIZEN'S DAUGHTERS.
Look at those handsome students! What a pity
To see them so their proper sphere desert,
When they might know the elite of all the city
They steal away with servant girls to flirt.
SECOND STUDENT (to first).
No, no; walk slower! Here come two behind,
Dressed in the very height of fashion :
One is my pretty neighbour too, I find ;
And for the girl I really have a passion.
FAUST.
35
For all they look so modest and demure,
They'll let us join their walk at last, be sure.
FIRST STUDENT.
Not I; with all these forms I can't put up;
Come quick! or we shall lose the game we started;
The girl on Saturday that twirls the mop,
You'll find on Sunday the most tender-hearted.
CITIZEN.
I don't think much of our new Burgomaster ;
Since he's in place, his pride grows daily vaster :
And what good does he to the Town?
Business is growing slacker every day,
We've more restraints, and yet we've more to pay
Than in time past was ever known.
BEGGAR.
Kind Gentlemen! and Ladies gay!
Blooming and fair and richly dressed,
O deign to look on me to-day!
Pity and succour the distressed.
The tender heart beats ever lightly;
O let it list my pleading lay;
This day that beams on all so brightly,
Make it to me a harvest day.
ANOTHER CITIZEN.
What, on a holiday is more delightful,
Than to discuss the war, the woes it works,
The bloody battles, and the slaughter frightful,
In foreign countries there, among the Turks?
One sips a tankard, at the window lolling;
The vessels gliding down the stream surveys;
3-2
36
FAUST.
Then, homeward in the dusk contented strolling,
One blesses God for peace, and peaceful days.
THIRD CITIZEN.
Ay, Neighbour! Let 'em fight it out, I say;
And split each other's skulls, for ought we care ;
Eat one another up, if that's their way,
So things at home keep quiet as they are.
OLD WOMAN (to Citizen's Daughters).
Heyday! How smart! each blooming like a flower!
Who that beholds but must admire?
Don't be so proud though! for I have the power,
To get you what you most desire.
FIRST CITIZEN'S DAUGHTER.
Quick! Agatha ! I would not willingly
With such old witches be in public viewed ;
Yet last St. Andrew's Eve she let me see
My future lover plain in flesh and blood.
THE OTHER.
Ay! and she shewed me mine too in the glass,
A soldier gay with gallant comrades near ;
I'm always on the watch to see him pass;
Look where I may, he never will appear.
SOLDIERS.
Fortresses rising,
With turret and tower,
Maidens despising
A conqueror's power ;
Hard though the capture,
Keen is the rapture,,
Lordly the pay.
FAUST.
37
The blast of the trumpet
Our summons to gain,
The wreath of the victor,
The sleep of the slain.
There is storm, there is life in
The strife of the field;
Maidens and fortresses
Parley and yield :
Stern is the struggle,
Lordly the pay,
And gaily the soldiers
Go marching away.
FAUST and WAGNER.
FAUST.
River and brook from the ice are clearing,
Under the quickening eyes of Spring ;
Promise of Summer is fast appearing,
Aged Winter, trembling, fearing,
Flies to the mountain on flagging wing.
Still he scatters, indignant flying,
Feeble showers of feathery sleet ;
Streaks of white in the dale are lying,
Under the sunbeams soon to fleet.
Earth is awakening, living, growing,
Flowers erelong will be brightly glowing;
They are waiting yet for the warm May showers,
But the gathering crowds show bright as flowers.
Stand and gaze from this lofty height,
And back to the city turn your sight;
From the frowning arch of the ancient gate,
What a mingled multitude streams elate!
38
FAUST.
In the breath of the morning blithe and gay !
They are keeping the Resurrection Day,
And they themselves from the grave are risen:
From gloomy chamber and house they fly,
From the shop and the workroom's fetid prison,
From gable and roof that block the sky,
From alley and courtyard crowded thickly,
From the dim cathedral's sombre night,
All burst forth to the joyous light;
See, O see, how they scatter quickly
Over the meadows and gardens bright!
The river is rippled, far and wide,
With boats that rock on the flashing tide;
The last, so laden it seems to founder,
Already is far on its winding way ;
And the distant paths on the hill-side yonder
Glisten with groups, in their raiment gay.
Hark! the clamour afar of the village mirth !
'Tis the people's very heaven on earth;
Wild rings the shout of their jubilee!
Here I feel the man that I fain would be.
WAGNER.
In walking with you, Doctor, thus, I own,
I have much profit and much pride ;
I'd not however venture here alone,
This coarse vulgarity I can't abide.
With fiddles, skittles, shouts, their noisy revels
Create a din that's odious to me;
They rant and roar as if possessed by devils,
And call it singing and festivity.
FAUST.
39
PEASANTS under the Linden Tree.
Dance and Song.
The shepherd for the dance was dressed,
With garland, ribbons, crimson vest,
That showed his figure fairly.
Beneath the tree, within the ring,
They all like mad were capering,
And the dance was going rarely.
With hey, ho! round we go!
Merrily flashed the fiddle-bow.
He pressed within the ring to pass
And pushed against a lusty lass,
He'd room to pass her barely;
The rosy maiden turned and said,.
'Where are you driving, Dunderhead?
You show your manners sparely !'
With hey, ho! round we go!
Merrily flashed the fiddle-bow.
Yet off they start, and round and round,
And right and left they whirl and bound,
The petticoats flew rarely;
fill, blowsed and breathless, flushed and warm,
They rested panting arm-in-arm ;
He swore he loved her dearly.
With hip and elbow, heel and toe!
Merrily flashed the fiddle-bow.
'Don't be so fond! There's many a maid
Has been cajoled, and then betrayed,
I tell you plain and fairly.'
40
FAUST.
But he coaxed her off with him aside,
And from the tree resounded wide,
As the ring was whirling rarely,
Hey ho, hey ho! and around we go,
And madly screamed the fiddle-bow.
OLD PEASANT.
Doctor! we take it very kind,
You condescend to folks so rude;
And learned scholar as you are,
Come here among the multitude.
Please you to taste this foaming jug,
The drink be sure is not the worst;
We bring it with the hearty wish,
It may not only quench your thirst,
But every drop within it may
Add to your honoured life a day.
FAUST.
I take the cup you kindly press,
And drink your health and happiness.
OLD PEASANT.
'Tis well done of you, sir, indeed,
Our country revel to attend ;
Full many a time and oft before,
In evil days, you stood our friend.
Many are hale and hearty here,
Whom your good father's skilful aid
Snatched from the burning fever's jaws,
What time the pestilence he stayed.
You, Doctor, too, a young man then,
Were always by the sick-bed found;
Though many a corpse was carried forth,
FAUST.
41
Thank God you came out safe and sound;
Though many a trial did you prove,
The helper's helped by One above.
ALL.
Health to our helper! Long may he
Live to do deeds of charity!
FAUST.
Give thanks to Him who from above
Inspires and succours acts of love.
(He walks on with WAGNER.)
WAGNER.
To what delightful thoughts, O man renowned !
This universal homage must give birth!
Happy is he, whose signal worth
With such a sweet reward is crowned.
The father leads his son to thee;
All ask and crowd and hasten up;
The fiddles pause, the dancers stop;
You pass-They stand in line to see ;
High in the air their bonnets fly;
They bow, and almost bend the knee,
As if the Host were passing by.
FAUST.
A few more paces onward to that stone !-
Here let us rest awhile, our footsteps staying.—
Oft have I sat here sorrowful, alone,
And bowed my soul with fasting and with praying.
Strong in the faith and hope that fired my breast,
I thought by sighs, tears, quivering hands, to wring
The stoppage of the fell and dreadful pest
42
FAUST.
From Heaven's high Lord, the all-surveying King.
The people's plaudits sound to me like shame ;
O! could'st thou read within me, thou would'st know,
How little son or father earned the fame
The silly crowd is eager to bestow.-
My father was a good but moody man,
Who into Nature, and her circles wide,
Made deep research, on his eccentric plan;
With perseverance strange his task he plied.
He sought, with adepts of the mystic spell,
Within the dark laboratory closed,
By endless methods, in the crucible,
To fuse together elements opposed :
The Lion red, the Lover keen, to whom
The Lily bride in tepid bath was given;
Then both together, from the bridal room,
Through other chambers by the flame were driven ;
And when at last, with hue diversified,
The Young Queen flamed within the crystal flask ;
This was the medicine; the patients died;
And who recovered, no one cared to ask.
With this elixir, from the devil brought,
Throughout these hills and dales, we daily wrought
Havoc more deadly than the very pest:
To hundreds did I give the potion vile;
They sank and perished, and I live the while,
To hear the reckless murderers praised and blessed.
WAGNER.
What ground is that, to be in spirit grieved?
What more can the most upright do?
Than strictly, faithfully, pursue,
The art he from his elders has received.
If you, in youth, revered your sire,
FAUST.
43
From him submissive you would learn ;
Now that as man you've carried knowledge higher,
Your son may rise still higher in his turn.
FAUST.
Happy is he who still a hope can feed,
Forth from this sea of error clear to sail;
What we discern not, that we ever need ;
And what we know, we cannot make avail.
But let us not this hour's sweet embitter,
Brooding on thought so sorrowful as this;
Look! how yon leaf-embowered cabins glitter,
Touched by the sun's last glowing kiss.
He bows, he sets, the day is nigh its ending;
Onward he speeds to shed on others light;
O had I wings! that, from the earth ascending,
I might for ever follow in his flight:
Then should I see eternal sunset streaming
Upon a world reposing at my feet ;
The valleys hushed, the hills in glory gleaming;
The silver brooks to golden rivers fleet.
The mountain rampart, cleft by ravines sheer,
No more arrests me on my Godlike way;
Already to my dazzled gaze appear
Far-shining seas, with many a tropic bay.
But see! the Deity at last is sinking;
Not less imagination lifts the mind;
I follow still, his light immortal drinking,
The day before me, and the night behind,
The heaven above me, and the waves below :
A lovely dream! Meanwhile the sun has gone;
Ah! no corporeal wings can waft us on,
So fast and far as nimble thought can go.
Yet, through some instinct born with us, we sigh,
44
FAUST.
And yearn aloft our airy course to wing;
When, lost in blue abysses of the sky,
We hear the lark his quivering carol sing;
When, wheeling o'er the craggy pine-girt height,
On outspread vans the eagle soars ;
Or when the crane labours in homeward flight,
O'er pathless fens and solitary shores.
WAGNER.
At times, odd fancies through my mind have flown,
Yet such an impulse have I never known:
One's joy in woods and fields is brief.
I envy not the bird his lofty flight;
Far otherwise thought bears us with delight
From book to book, from leaf to leaf.
They fill the winter night with joys untold,
And genial warmth through every limb can raise,
And when an ancient manuscript's unrolled,
All heaven seems open to our ravished gaze.
FAUST.
One impulse only holds thee in its spell ;
O, may the other ne'er be known to thee !
Two souls, alas! within my bosom dwell,
And each would from the other fain be free.
The one, by organs strong as clamps of brass,
Clings to a world it eagerly desires;
With struggling wing the other beats, to pass
Up to the fields of its immortal sires.
O! if there spirits be on high,
Who rule 'twixt earth and heaven, our sorrows seeing;
Stoop hither downward from your golden sky!
And bear me hence to new and varied being.
Were but the fabled magic mantle mine,
(D
FAUST.
45
That wafts the wearer over land and sea ;
I'd not exchange it for the purple fine
That marks the monarch's regal dignity.
WAGNER.
Nay! Call not on that evil-omened swarm
Of powers unblessed, that streaming through the air,
From every quarter, bale and harm,
In countless shapes to mortals bear.
Keen from the North the sharp-fanged spirits fly,
To pierce thee with their arrow-pointed tongues ;
Some from the parching East flow harsh and dry,
To suck the moisture from thy withered lungs ;
The South, from scorching deserts speeds a train,
That on thy fainting head breathe burning down;
The soft refreshing West dissolves in rain,
Thyself, thy fields, thy smiling crops to drown.
Quickly they hear, on mischief ever bent;
Gladly obey, more cruelly to grieve;
Present themselves as if from heaven sent;
And lisp like Angels when they most deceive.
But let us go! Grey twilight veils the scene;
The mists are rising, and the air grows keen
At evenfall one learns the house to prize :
Why stand you so, and stare with wondering eyes?
What, through the gloom, thus holds your gaze un-
changing?
FAUST.
See you that black dog, through the stubble ranging?
Wagner.
I've noticed him, he's nothing weird at least.
FAUST.
Look close, and say for what you take the beast.
46
FAUST.
WAGNER.
Why, for a poodle dog, who thus will range,
Seeking his master's track to puzzle out.
FAUST.
See, with what spiral convolutions strange,
In lessening rings he circles us about.
And, if I err not, close behind appear
Faint streaks of fire, where he plants his feet.
WAGNER.
Nothing I see but a black poodle there ;
You're juggled by some optical deceit.
FAUST.
He seems to me light magic nooses weaving,
With snare malign our footsteps to enlace.
WAGNER.
He only circles timidly, perceiving
Two stranger forms, and not his master's face.
FAUST.
The circles narrow, he's already near.
WAGNER.
See! it's a dog. No apparition's here.
He whines, then slinks around; he crouches too,
And wags his tail, as dogs are wont to do.
FAUST.
Come with us, doggie! Come to me!
FAUST.
47
WAGNER.
A clever beast, and droll is he.
If you stand still, he sits and begs.
You call, he leaps about your legs.
If you lose anything he'll bring it,
Your stick from water, if you fling it.
FAUST.
You're right, I find no indication
Of spirit, 'tis but education.
WAGNER.
A dog well bred, and duly trained,
A wise man's love has often gained.
To merit yours he'll hardly miss
This Students' pupil as he is.
(They go in at the Town Gate.)
FAUST.
49
FAUST'S STUDY.
Faust entering with the Poodle.
FAUST.
Now that o'er meadow, vale, and plain
The shades of night a mantle draw,
My better soul awakes again
To tender, deep, foreboding awe.
Now hushed is every wild desire,
With every rash unhallowed deed;
The love of man now rises higher,
The love of God is felt indeed.
Hush! Poodle! be quiet! don't restlessly move,
Nor growl in that fashion ill-bred!
Lie down in the nook at the back of the stove !
There's a cushion to make you a bed.
Your gambols and leaps, as we walked o`er the hill,
A desire of pleasing expressed:
Now pay for your shelter, by lying there still,
A welcome and peaceable guest!
Ah! when within our narrow cell,
The friendly lamp is burning bright,
The heart that knows its nature well
Is gladdened by an inner light.
Reason begins again to speak,
And Hope again to spring and shine ;
We yearn the stream of Life to seek
Aye, even at its source divine.
4
50
FAUST.
Peace! Whine no more! That brutish howl
Discordant jars with the holy strain,
That breathed soft harmony through my soul:
There are men, aye many, who snarl disdain,
At all that passes their spirit's sway :
The good and the fair they feel as pain,
On which they turn with an angry growl :
Are dogs as sullen and base as they?
Alas! I feel that, struggle as I may,
The river of Contentment flows away.
O why should the stream so soon run dry?
While we in thirst and faintness lie?
Oft have I felt that wretched soul-prostration;
Yet is the pang itself restorative;
Baffled, we learn above the world to live,
And in our darkness long for Revelation,
Whose light nowhere so clearly shines,
As in the Gospel's hallowed lines.
By sudden impulse swayed, I long
The ancient version to translate,
With zealous care and accurate,
For once into my own loved German tongue.
(Opens the volume and begins his task.)
'Tis writ—' In the beginning was the Word.'
Here I stick fast; and who may help afford?
The Word, I dare not rate so high.
A new translation let me try!
If any light from heaven my soul hath caught,
’Tis writ—' In the beginning was the Thought.'
But this first line with cool reflection view,
For fear thy hasty pen should prove untrue.
To stir―create—is that of Thought the dower?
No! Write!'In the beginning was the Power.'
FAUST.
51
Yet, as my well-considered line is writ,
A something warns me not to keep to it.
The Spirit helps me! and, from scruple freed,
I write-'In the beginning was the Deed.'
If with me you wish to stay,
Cease that howling, Dog! I say.
Bark no more! but quiet rest!
Such a noisy chamber guest
From my quarters must away.
One of us straight
Must the dwelling vacate.
I'd not inhospitable be,
But there's the door-your course is free.
Ha! what a wondrous prodigy !
Can this be sober verity?
Is it a shade, or substance true?
My Poodle grows beneath my view;
Waxes broad, and waxes high;
Mightily his form uprears :
A dog no more the brute appears.
What is this spectre hideous?
Most like a Hippopotamus,
With gleaming tusks, and flaming eye?
Your nature, friend! I now descry.
For such a demi-hellish brood,
The key of Solomon is good.
SPIRITS (in the passage).
There within is one caught,
Stay without, follow not;
As a fox in the gin,
Quakes an old wolf of sin.
But soft! Have a care!
Hover here!
Hover there!
4-2
52
FAUST.
Up and down, through the air
;
He may break from the snare—
If our help may succeed,
Leave him not in his need-
Good turns manifold,
Has he done us of old.
FAUST.
First, the fiendish brute to quell,
Will I speak the fourfold spell.
If Salamander? he shall glow ;
Sylph ? to viewless air shall fly;
Undine? shall to water flow;
Cobbold? shall his labour ply.
Who learns not the lore
Of the Elements four,
Who reads not aright
Their nature and might,
May aspire in vain
Over spirits to reign.
Salamander! pass in flame!
Undine! swift in water stream!
Sylph in meteor bright ascend!
Quick thy household task attend!
Incubus! Incubus !
Shew thyself, and make an end !
Of the four, not one
To the mark has gone :
He lies there sullen, and feels no harm ;
He grins his spite at the spoken charm.
A ban more dread
Shalt thou hear said
FAUST.
53
If I take thee, friend, well
For a truant from hell,
This effigy mark,
Which the hosts of the dark
Bows down in despair!
He's heaving already with bristling hair!
Scion of accursed seed!
Canst thou not the Great One read?
Uncreated and alone;
Bearing the great name unknown;
Whom remotest Heavens own;
Him the foully piercèd One ?
Behind the stove to slink compelled,
To Elephantine size he's swelled;
He fills the room from end to end,
In mist he seems about to fleet.
Down! down! nor to the roof ascend!
Crouch lowly at thy master's feet!
Thou seest my threats are to be feared;
With holy flame wilt thou be seared?
Tarry not
For the fire triple hot!
Tarry not
To brave an exorcism stronger still!
MEPHISTOPHELES, as the mist disperses, comes from behind
the stove, in the dress of a travelling scholar.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Why this disturbance? What's your worship's will ?
FAUST.
This was the core, then, of the brute :
A wandering scholar! Faith! it makes me
smile.
54
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Your learned worship, I salute;
You've made me sweat sufficiently the while.
FAUST.
What is your name?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
The question seems absurd,
From one who thinks so little of the word;
Who steadily distrusts all outward seeing,
And studies merely the essential being.
FAUST.
With gentry of your kidney, all the same,
One mostly learns the nature from the name.
Your inner being's pretty plainly shown
If you're as Murderer, Fly God, Liar known.
Who are you, then?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Part of that Power that would
Ever scheme ill, while ever working good.
FAUST.
Say what this enigmatic speech implies.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
The Spirit I, that evermore denies ;
And that with reason; for this whole creation
Deserving nothing but annihilation,
'Twere better far that it had never been:
Thus what you commonly describe as sin,
As wrong, destruction, evil represent,
That constitutes my proper element.
FAUST.
55
FAUST.
A part you style yourself, yet whole appear.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
The very modest truth do I declare.
Though man, that little lump of self-esteem,
A true and perfect whole himself may deem,
A part am I, of part that once was all;
Part of the Darkness, Light's original:
Proud Light that ever seeks the rank and realm
Of ancient Mother Night to overwhelm ;
Yet strives in vain, for, battle as he will,
Closely to matter is he fettered still.
From matter streams he, matter beautifies;
Matter arrests him on his flashing way;
With matter, then, must he decay ;
And finally, when matter fails, he dies.
FAUST.
Your honourable trade I now perceive;
Wholesale destruction failing to achieve,
You've turned your hand to ruin in detail.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
And, sooth to say, in that I mostly fail.
The somethings of this clumsy world, that are
To the Great Nothing an eternal bar,
Whatever methods I essay,
I never yet could put away.
In earthquake, fire, flood and storm, I rage ;
Still land and sea hold on from age to age.
The brute and humankind—accursed brood!
Vainly to extirpate I try ;
Though generations sink and die,
56
FAUST.
Still circulates the younger, fresher blood.
The course of things might drive one to despair!
Through earth, and water, and the very air,
Unnumbered germs, of myriad kinds, are strown ;
They spring in moisture, dryness, heat, and cold;
But that the lifeless realm of fire I hold,
Nothing were left that I could call mine own.
FAUST.
And so, your devil's fist in rage
You clench, with unavailing spite ;
Fruitless and hopeless war to wage
Against the source of life and light.
Some other enterprise essay,
Dark son of the mysterious Nought!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
To that, upon a future day,
I may, at leisure, turn my thought
Meanwhile, I crave your leave to go.
FAUST.
Why you should ask, I cannot see.
Now that your quality I know,
To come and go at will you're free.
The door, the window there, no less
The chimney, gives you passage clear.
MEPHISTOPIIELES.
A trifling hindrance, I confess,
To my departure keeps me here.
That wizard sign upon the sill!
FAUST.
The Pentagram affrights you, then ;
But let me know, thou child of hell!
FAUST.
57
If that debars, how came you in?
What could so keen a sprite deceive?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
The sign's ill-drawn, as you perceive.
The lines that ought to make complete
The outward angle do not meet.
FAUST.
A lucky chance! and I infer,
I hold you safe, my prisoner,
Although the capture's accidental.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
The Poodle careless passed the lintel;
But now the matter wears another shape,
And from the house the devil can't escape.
FAUST.
But why not through the window fly away?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Devils and ghosts this ordinance obey;
They must depart the way they came, or stay:
One road is free, the other is defined.
FAUST.
Hell has its regulations too, I find,
"Tis well a bargain then may be concluded,
On which one can depend, with folks like you?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
You need not fear your claims will be eluded :
Our bills will all be paid in full when due.
58
FAUST.
But that's a matter for deliberation;
We'll talk of it next time we meet :
Release at present from incarceration,
I once more urgently entreat.
FAUST.
A single moment longer here remain,
To tell me something more important still!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Let me go now! I'll quickly come again;
Then ask as many questions as you will!
FAUST.
I did not send to beg your presence here ;
Unasked you ran your head into the snare ;
The man who's caught a devil, must hold him tightly;
He'll not be trapped a second time so lightly.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Since you so wish it, then, I give consent
To bear you company awhile.
Let me a sample of my art present,
The time 'twill serve us to beguile.
FAUST.
Twould please me. To perform you're free;
Let but the piece agreeable be.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
In this brief hour's rapid flight,
Your soul shall reap more rich delight,
Than in a year's monotony.
That which the dainty spirits sing thee,
The lovely images they bring thee,
FAUST.
59
Are no deceit of glamour feigned.
By odours sweet around thee stealing,
By savours rare their gust revealing,
Shall all thy senses be enchained.
No preparation do we need :
All are assembled; now proceed!
SPIRITS.
Vanish! ye darkling
Arches on high!
Look lovingly through,
Soft exquisite blue
Of the crystalline sky!
Were the dim circling
Vapours unfolden,
Little stars sparkling,
Planets more golden
Beam on the eye.
Children of Heaven
Fairer than light
Through the clouds riven,
Stoop to our sight.
O, were it given
To follow their flight!
With draperies gleaming,
Waving and streaming,
The meadows are shining,
Shining the bowers,
Where lovers reclining
Pensively render
Heart-pledges tender.
Bowers on bowers!
Tendrils entwine,
Droopeth the vine
60
FAUST.
With dark clusters blushing,
Presses are crushing,
Rivulets rushing
Of sparkling wine.
Rustling, dashing,
Through bright jewels flashing
Far away flowing
In hurrying race,
To silver meres growing,
Glassing the grace
Of green swelling high-lands.
The wingèd array
Speed raptured away,
Fluttering onwards
Evermore sunwards,
On to the islands
Rocking asleep
On the wide waving deep.
Hark! voices gay joining
In chorus are heard ;
See! dancers are twining
Their maze on the sward.
Scattering yonder
Freely they wander,
Loftily climbing,
Cresting the steeps ;
Lustily swimming,
Breasting the deeps;
Some floating in air,
All hastening where
Bright glitters afar
The sweet luminous star
Of delight and of Love.
FAUST.
61
MEPHISTOPHELES.
He sleeps. Well done! my little dainty Fays!
You've fairly tranced him with your luscious lays,
And for the concert thanks you merit well.
You are not yet the man to hold the devil tight.
Play round him still with visions of delight,
And steep him in a sea of fascination!
But now, to break this threshold spell,
For a rat's tooth I have occasion.
No lengthy conjuration do I need ;
I hear one rustling there, he'll soon give heed.
The Lord of rats, and frogs, and mice,
Of flies and beetles, bugs and lice,
Commands thee instant to appear,
And straightway gnaw this threshold here,
Softened with oil, which I am dropping.
Ha! here you come obedient hopping :
Now quick to work! th' impervious hedge
Is that sharp angle at the edge.
But one bite more! 'tis gnawed in twain-
Now, Faust! dream on until we meet again!
FAUST (awakening).
Am I once more deluded and deceived?
These Sprites, were they but forms by fancy shaped ?
Dreamt I that here the devil I received?
And was it but a Poodle that escaped?
FAUST.
63
THE STUDY.
FAUST AND MEPHISTOPHELES.
FAUST.
A knock! Come in! Again my peace is broken.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
'Tis I.
FAUST.
Come in!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Come in, then!
Thrice must the words be spoken!
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
That will do, I can appear.
We shall, I hope, get on together;
For I, your cloudy moods to clear,
Come as a youthful gallant hither;
In crimson gold-embroidered vest,
And stiff silk mantle richly dressed,
At haunch a swinging long rapier,
And in my hat a gay cock's feather.
If by my counsel you'll be guided,
Be like array for you provided;
In which, from rusty trammels free,
You'll learn at last what life may be.
64
FAUST.
FAUST.
In any dress I shall not cease to groan,
By limits of this narrow life oppressed:
Too old am I, to think of play alone;
Too young, without desire content to rest.
L
What from the world can I obtain ?
Abstain shalt thou ! Thou shalt abstain !'
That is the everlasting song,
That's chanted in the ears of all,
Whose dreary tones, our whole life long,
Still, hour by hour, harsher fall.
Hopeless I greet the morning light;
And well my bitter tears may run,
To see the day, that, in its flight,
Not one desire will gratify, not one ;
That, by its cavils obstinate and blind,
Nips in the bud each hope with pleasure rife ;
And clogs the quick creations of my mind
With all the grim formalities of life.
And when again the Night's dread shadows fall,
Shuddering I slink my limbs at rest to lay ;
For frightful visions then my soul appal,
And banish slumber from mine eyes away.
The God, that in my breast abides,
With power to stir my inmost soul,
And each internal impulse guides,
This outer world cannot control.
And hence to me, by life's dull weight oppressed,
Existence is a burden, Death a rest.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
And yet, Death comes to none, a wholly welcome guest.
THE TRAGEDY.
NIGHT.
FAUST in a high-vaulted narrow Gothic Chamber, seated
restless at his desk.
Now I, Alas! Philosophy
FAUST.
With Jurisprudence, Medicine too,
And, woe is me! Theology,
With zealous toil have studied through;
To find, poor fool! my labour o’er,
Myself no wiser than before.
Master, ay Doctor, though I'm classed,
To think that I, this ten years past,
Each way that cross and crooked goes,
Have drawn my scholars by the nose;
No solid truth to teach or learn ;
It makes the heart within me burn.
True! I know more than the rabble of teachers,
Your Doctors and Masters, your Writers and Preacn
Scruple and doubt at least have fled;
No devil I fear; no hell I dread.
But joy has, thus, my soul forsaken ;
I dream no longer truth to find;
Or gather knowledge, that, partaken,
Might change and elevate my kind.
Besides, nor goods nor gold have I,
Nor lordly power and dignity.
16
FAUST
A dog such abject life would spurn ;
So to the magic Art I turn :
Haply, by spirit-lore unsealed,
Life's mystery may stand revealed;
And I no longer sweat and stew,
To teach the things I never knew ;
With quickened eyes, I'd keen explore
All Nature, to the central core ;
Trace each effect to its beginning,
And quit this trade of jargon-spinning.
Would, sweet full Moon! you never more
Might gaze upon my travail sore;
Bent at my desk, thy face serene,
How many a night I've rising seen!
When, over books and papers strown,
You, melancholy Friend! looked down,
O! might I, on the mountain height,
But wander in thy lovely light ;
With spirits glide by mountain caves,
And sweep the turf thy lustre laves;
Cast mists of study from my mind,
And in thy dews refreshment find.
But..oe is me! immured I dwell,
in this accursed dungeon cell;
Where heaven's pure light polluted drains,
Through narrow, murky, painted panes ;
Cumbered by books on books upreared,
A dusty, dry, worm-eaten store—
By dingy paper, smoke besmeared,
Encompassed round from roof to floor-
Chests, where ancestral rags lie furled;
Jars, bottles, in disorder wild,
FAUST.
65
FAUST.
O blessed is he, whose brow in victory's light,
With bloodstained laurel-wreath he binds;
Whom, glowing from the dance's mad delight,
Clasped in a maiden's arms he finds.
Would I had dropped before the Spirit's might!
Absorbed, exanimate, to nothing sunk.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Yet, I believe, that on a certain night,
A certain dark brown potion was not drunk.
FAUST.
You play the spy, it seems, like a proficient.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Most things I fathom, though I'm not omniscient.
FAUST.
If I was drawn from horrors o'er me stealing,
Fooled by the charm of that familiar chime,
Which stirred the last remains of childish feeling
By mocking echoes of a happier time :
Now cursed be all, that round the soul,
The chains of witchery can cast!
That, in this wretched dungeon hole,
By cozening magic binds it fast!
First cursèd be the high esteeming
Of self, with which the mind's imbued!
Cursed the deceits of outward seeming,
By which the senses are subdued!
Cursed be the hollow dreams that wile us
With Fame and Glory's empty charm!
Cursed the possessions that beguile us,
10
5
66
FAUST.
As wife or child or serf or farm!
Accursed be Mammon, when his treasure
To hard and bootless labour leads!
Or when, for our luxurious leisure,
The soft unruffled couch he spreads!
Cursed be the wine that sparkles gleaming!
Cursed Love's last grace that mocks the sense!
Cursed Hope and Faith illusive dreaming!
Cursed above all be Patience!
SPIRIT CHOIR (invisible).
Woe! woe!
The beautiful world!
So fair, so grand!
Is rent and shattered,
To ruin hurled ;
By a Demi-God, with violent hand
In pieces scattered:
The wrecks we bear
To the soundless deep;
And over the vanished
Beauty weep.
Thou mightiest
Of the sons of men !
Proudlier, fairer,
Build it again ;
Build it up in thy breast!
With sense refined and clear,
Begin life's new career!
New songs shall charm thine ear,
Of sweeter strain.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
These are my little ones,
Little but wise :
FAUST.
67
To enjoyment and action,
You hear them advise.
Out into the world away,
Far from this lonely hearth,
Where sense and sap decay,
They wish to wile thee forth.
Trifle no longer with the grief
That like a vulture eats away the mind!
The worst of company would bring relief,
And make you feel a man among your kind.
Yet think not I design that you
Into the common pack should slide ;
I'm no Aristocrat, 'tis true,
But if you're willing, side by side,
To take the road through life with me,
I, for my own part, will agree
Here on the instant yours to be;
Your guide and comrade, and if you
Wish it, your slave and servant too.
FAUST.
And what must I in turn fulfil ?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
We'll settle that hereafter, when you list.
FAUST.
No! no! The devil is an egotist,
And is not so devoted to God's will
As others gratis to assist.
Let your conditions clearly be expressed!
Such servant, else, might prove a dangerous guest.
5-2
68
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Here, then, your drudging slave I bind me
Still ready at your beck and call to be
When, on the other side, you find me,
You'll undertake to do as much for me!
FAUST.
To me that other side's a trifling matter;
When you the present world to dust can shatter,
Then may the other have its day.
This earth it is from which my pleasures flow,
This sun looks down upon my daily woe;
Let me but free from its endurance go;
Then come what will and come what may.
To that, henceforth, I close mine ears,
Whether we there shall hate or love;
And whether, in the unknown spheres,
There's a below, and an above.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
In such a mood, you should be well inclined
To venture; only to my terms agree!
Straightway the pleasures of my art you'll find;
I'll give you what man ne'er hath seen to see.
FAUST.
And what, poor devil! hast thou to give?
Have man's high thoughts that heavenward strive
By such as thou been ever understood?
But thou hast never-satisfying food.
Red gold hast thou, that, when I grasped it, would,
Swift as quicksilver, through my fingers run ;
A game at which no player ever won;
FAUST.
69
A girl who, while her arms my neck entwine,
Darts promise to another from her eyes;
Honour's brief ecstasy, the bliss divine,
That, like a meteor, flashes, fades, and dies.
Show me the fruit that, ere it's plucked, will rot !
And trees that every day grow green anew!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Such a demand affrights me not;
Such treasures can I give to you.
But, my good friend! the time is coming round,
When we may feast on real good in peace. ·
FAUST.
If e'er at peace reposing I am found,
That very instant may my being cease!
When you can charm the soul within me,
Replete, self-satisfied, to stay;
When to contentment you can win me,
Be that for me the final day!
On that I'll wager.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Done !
FAUST.
And done! I say.
When, to the moment fleeting past,
I cry, 'O stay! thou art so fair;'
Then let your chains be round me cast!
Then glad I leave this vital air;
Then may the sullen death-knell sound
Then from thy service art thou free;
The dial-hand may cease its round;
Let time be then no more for me!
70
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Reflect! 'twill not escape our memory.
FAUST.
Therein you only use the right you have.
I do not hastily this venture try;
Drudging on here, what am I but a slave?
If thine, or if another's, what reck I?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
This very day, then, at the Doctor's meal,
As servitor will I begin my task.
But first, in life and death secure to feel,
A line or two in writing I must ask.
FAUST.
Dost thou, poor Pedant! ask for writing then?
Is man, man's sacred word, beyond thy ken ?
Is't not enough, my spoken word alone,
Through all eternity my lot should bind?
Raves not the world in all its currents on?
And shall I by a promise be confined?
But this illusion's on the heart impressed;
And who to its erasure would consent?
Happy is he who bears an honest breast;
No sacrifice for truth will he repent.
But an indenture, duly signed and sealed!
A spectre that, at which the blood's congealed:
The word upon the pen drops dead,
And wax and sheepskin rule instead.
What, fiend of hell! with thee will pass?
Paper or parchment, stone or brass?
With chisel, pen, or graver shall I write ?
The choice of all is freely left to thee.
FAUST.
71
MEPHISTOPHELES.
How can you launch on such a needless flight
Of overstrained, excited oratory?
The slightest scrap will do; you sign your name
Here, in a little drop of blood, below.
FAUST.
If you're so bent upon this same
Fantastic whimsey; be it so!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Blood is a fluid quite unique.
FAUST.
Think not that I my bond shall break!
What all my passions raging seek,
Is simply what I undertake.
Myself too highly have I prized ;
I only rank in thy degree;
By the great Spirit I'm despised,
And Nature hides herself from me.
The thread of thought is rudely rent,
And knowledge yields but bitter discontent.
Let, then, in depths of sensuality,
Each flaming passion be allayed !
Veiled 'neath dark, magic mystery,
Let every wonder be arrayed !
Let us plunge in the torrent of Time as it raves!
And ride on Hazard's rolling waves!
Then may rapture' and distress,
Disappointment and success,
Alternate as they may and can :
In restlessness alone is work for man.
72
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Nor end nor bound's allotted to you.
Will you of all things snatch delight,
And sip their sweetness in your flight?
Much good may the enjoyment do you!
Only fall to! and don't be coy!
FAUST.
Harkee once more! The question's not of joy.
Turmoil I seek; delights that torture give ;
Love fierce as hate; anguish restorative.
My bosom, from the lust of knowledge free,
Henceforth no pang of sufferance will reject;
And joys, assigned to all humanity,
Into my single lot would I collect.
Mankind in height and depth I fain would know;
Heap on my single self their weal, their woe;
Through their collective sense my soul dilate,
And last, in crowning ruin share their fate.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
O trust to me! who many a thousand year
On this hard provender have ruminated;
That no man, from the cradle to the bier,
The ancient leaven e'er assimilated.
Trust one of us! This pregnant All
Is ordered only for a God's delight;
He ever basks in light ethereal;
Us to the outer darkness hath He dight;
And you alone are fit for day and night.
FAUST.
Nay! but I will!
FAUST.
73
MEPHISTOPHELES.
That's fairly spoken out !
On one point only I've misgivings strong ;
Which is, that Time is short and Art is long.
You'll let yourself be taught, no doubt.
Engage a poet, I advise !
The gentleman must set his wits a-brewing,
The most resplendent qualities
Upon your honoured head profusely strewing.
The Lion's noble ire;
The Red deer's rapid flight ;
Th' Italian's blood of fire;
The North's enduring might.
Let him for you the secret find,
How craft and candour are combined!
And how, in youth, with blood high mettled,
To love upon a system settled!
A gentleman so perfect, could I meet him,
I'd surely as Sir Microcosmus greet him.
FAUST.
What am I, then? if all my hopes depart,
That crown of manhood to attain,
For which my senses strive in vain ?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Thou art, when all is ended-what thou art.
Put on a curly wig, of towering size!
On high-heeled buskins let thy stature rise!
Still art thou only—what thou art.
FAUST.
I feel it; vainly all the treasure
Of human lore I've worked to win :
74
FAUST.
When I sit down my gains to measure,
I find no flow of strength within :
I've not become a hairbreadth higher,
Nor to the Infinite a fraction nigher.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
My worthy sir! you see the matter,
As men the matter mostly see.
We must arrange the business better,
Before our life's enjoyments flee.
Why! what the deuce! both hands and feet,
And brains and body, all are thine ;
And what I taste with savour sweet,
Is that the less completely mine?
Suppose that I six horses buy;
Their strength I purchase with my pelf,
And dash on gaily, as if I
Had four-and-twenty legs myself.
Up then! Let idle dreaming be!
And out into the world with me!
A fellow speculating, and refining,
I tell you's like a beast on blighted ground,
Drawn by an evil spirit round and round,
While close about bright verdant meads are shining.
But how shall we begin?
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
At once we'll start.
On what a martyr's scaffold here thou art!
And what chagrin devours you, grown
Your pupils' torment, and your own!
To neighbour Paunch leave this condition!
FAUST.
75
At threshing straw why labour all the day?
The best of all your erudition
You know, you dare not to the lads display.
Even now, I hear one on the stair.
FAUST.
I cannot possibly receive him.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
e;
Long has the poor boy waited there
We must not disappointed leave him.
Come! Hand to me your cap and gown!
"Twill be a most becoming masquerade.
Trust to my cunning to deceive him!
Ten minutes with the lad and I have done ;
Meantime your preparations can be made.
(Puts them on.)
[Exit FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES (in FAUST's gown).
Ay! Reason, knowledge, banish from thy mind
The purest, highest powers of human kind;
And let a lying Spirit darkly roll
The mists of magic o'er thy blinded soul;
And mine thou art, beyond recall—
Fate has endowed him with a spirit,
Rushing unbridled to a fall;
That, earthly joys too eager to inherit,
Impetuous overleaps them all.
Through dreary wilds shall he be borne,
Life's flat insipid miry waste;
To struggle, shudder, sink forlorn,
And vainly yearn the fruit to taste,
On which his baffled lips would revel;
76
FAUST.
Unanswered for refreshment shall he pray;
Had he not bound himself to serve the devil,
He must no less have been a castaway.
A STUDENT enters.
STUDENT.
I'm here but just arrived from home,
And full of eagerness I come,
To profit by the conversation
Of one, all name with veneration.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
I'm flattered by your courtesy :
A man like other men you see.
Have you elsewhere yourself addressed?
STUDENT.
I humbly crave your interest.
I come with honest resolution,
Fair means and healthy constitution :
My mother saw me start with pain,
But knowledge I'd resolved to gain.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Well! here you're on the very spot.
STUDENT.
To tell the truth, I like it not.
These walls and buildings thickly placed
I find by no means to my taste.
The space is too confined for me,
One sees no verdure, not a tree.
And, when at lecture in the hall,
Sight, sense, and hearing fail me all.
FAUST.
77
MEPHISTOPHELES.
All that from habit comes alone
The child that shuns the breast at first,
When once the mother's milk is known,
With clinging lips will sate its thirst :
So yours to Learning's ample breast
With growing joy will soon be pressed.
STUDENT.
Gladly in my embrace I'd wind her,
Would you but tell me where to find her.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Declare, before you further go,
What branch of science you would know.
STUDENT.
Knowledge complete is my desire.
All earthly lore I'd fain acquire;
On heavenly mysteries deeply ponder,
Science and Nature both embrace.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Here you are fairly on their trace ;
But let not thought too widely wander!
STUDENT.
I'm heart and soul on learning bent;
Still, on bright holidays in Spring,
Some hours of sport and merriment,
I own, would be a pleasant thing.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Improve the time! it flies away amain ;
Still method teaches time to gain.
78
FAUST.
So first I'd have you, my young friend!
A course of Logic to attend.
Then will your mind be drilled and dressed,
In tight-laced Spanish boots compressed,
Till fair and softly 'twill be brought
To crawl along the path of thought;
And not, for want of due corrections,
Dart wildfire-like in all directions.
Then, after many days, you'll know
What once you hit off at a blow,
Easy as meat and drink are swallowed,
Through One, Two, Three, must now be followed.
For thought, you safely may assume,
Works like a weaver's master loom.
One treadle thousand threads is guiding ;
Swift to and fro each shuttle flies;
Each stroke knots up a thousand ties,
As lines invisible are gliding.
Then comes your grave Professor in,
And proves that so it must have been.
The first was so, the second so,
Therefore the third and fourth also ;
And if there'd been no first and second,
On third and fourth you'd vainly reckoned.
In this all scholars are believers,
Though none as yet have turned out weavers.
He, who life's nature would display,
Begins-by driving life away;
The pieces then he takes in hand,
All but, alas! the joining band.
Chemists term this 'Naturæ Encheiresis,'
Nor feel the sarcasm sting them in their thesis.
FAUST.
79
STUDENT.
I don't precisely comprehend.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
In that respect you'll quickly mend,
When once so far your knowledge passes,
That all things you reduce to classes.
STUDENT.
Your words as thoroughly my brain confound,
As if a mill-wheel there were whirling round.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Then next before all other lore,
You Metaphysic must explore.
There study, till deep thought attains,
What ne'er was meant for mortal brains!
For all the mind discerns
or not-
Let fine word substitutes be got.
All must be done too, this half year,
With regularity severe.
Five lectures every day has in it,
Be punctual at them to the minute!
The whole beforehand well prepare!
Be every passage conned with care!
That so you may the better know,
If he beyond the book should go;
Yet write with diligence unsated,
As if the Holy Ghost dictated!
STUDENT.
You need not that twice over say,
The gain I see is infinite;
80
FAUST.
What one has down in black and white
One can securely bear away.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
But now, your Faculty to name!
STUDENT.
I'd not to Law myself affiance.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
In that I think you're not to blame ;
I know too much about the science.
Statutes transmitted to us by entail,
Like maladies inherited we keep;
Through generations thus they long prevail,
And on from place to place insidious creep.
Right turns to wrong, and reason to confusion.
That you're a grardson you may well lament;
As for the law that at our birth is sent,
To that no lawyer makes the least allusion.
STUDENT.
Your counsel fixes my dislike the faster ;
Lucky is he who has so wise a master.
Theology's perhaps the safer way.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
I should be loth to lead your steps astray.
But, as regards that science, I declare
"Tis hard the path of error to avoid :
There's so much hidden poison everywhere,
Which for the remedy is oft employed.
'Tis best one guide alone to hear,
And stoutly by his words to swear.
FAUST.
81
In general, to words hold fast!
Securely then the gates are passed,
By which the shrine of certainty's attained.
STUDENT.
But meaning, sure, must be in words contained.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Still, you need not distress yourself about it;
When meaning fails, and one must do without it,
Then the full benefit of words is gained.
Of words men make a battlefield;
With words high-sounding systems build;
In words believe, with faith unshaken;
From words not one iota can be taken.
STUDENT.
I'd not your kindness overtask;
Still I should feel the more indebted,
If on the Healing Art permitted
One pithy, guiding word to ask.
Three years is but a narrow space,
The ample field of learning to embrace ;
But, helped by just a hint alone,
One feels advanced upon the way.
MEPHISTOPHELES (aside).
I'm sick of this pedantic tone,
So now again the devil to play.
(Aloud) The Healing Art's not hard to apprehend ;
You search the universe in depth and height,-
And let things happen in the end,
As God sees right.
Hunting for knowledge useless waste of ease is;
No one acquires more learning than he can ;
6
82
FAUST.
He who the present moment seizes,
He is your proper man.
Your figure fairly takes the eye,
You'll not want impudence to bear you through,
And when you on yourself rely,
Then others will rely on you.
Of women, first of all, make sure!
Their everlasting Ahs and Ohs,
Their fancied woes,
A single remedy can cure.
But decently polite become!
You'll have them all beneath your thumb.
Take your degree to start with! that will lead 'em
To think surpassing science you attain
Then you are welcome to each tender freedom,
For which another sues for years in vain.
Feel the soft pulse, with pressure warm!
And let, with burning looks, your arm
Around the swelling hips be placed,
To feel how tightly they are laced.
STUDENT.
That looks more promising, one sees one's way.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
My dear young friend! all theory is gray,
The golden tree of Life alone is green.
STUDENT.
I feel as though in dreamland I had been.
You'll let me trespass on you once again,
To hear your wisdom all the grounds explain-
MEPHISTOPHELES.
As far as lies in me, with all my heart.
FAUST.
83
STUDENT.
I most unwillingly depart :
Allow me first my Album to present;
Pray to this mark of your regard assent !
With pleasure.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
(He writes, and gives it back.)
STUDENT (reads).
'Eritis sicut Deus scientes bonum et malum.'
(Closes the book reverentially, and takes his leave.)
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Only follow the ancient saw, and the serpent, my relation,
And, image of God as you are, you'll reap at last vexation !
Now, whither go we ?
Enter FAUST.
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Where it pleases you.
The little world, and then the great, we'll view.
Pleasure and profit both, be sure,
You'll suck from that delightful tour,
FAUST.
With this long beard I want the art
To play in life an easy part.
I fear a failure when intent
Myself politely to present.
Awkward in company and harassed,
I feel, and show myself, embarrassed.
6-2
84
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
All that my friend will come, have no misgiving!
Trust but yourself! You've learned the art of living.
FAUST.
But how upon our course to start?
Coach, horses, servants, where are they?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
This cloak, spread out with proper art,
Will lift us through the air away.
Of course, for such a daring flight,
Our bag and baggage must be light.
Some fiery gas, which I have ready,
Will waft us upward swift and steady.
So, free and unencumbered, forth we steer ;
I compliment you on your new career.
FAUST.
85
AUERBACH'S CELLAR IN LEIPSIC.
DRINKING PARTY OF JOLLY FELLOWS.
FROSCII.
WILL no one laugh? Will no one guzzle ?
I must your screwed-up mouths unmuzzle :
You're like wet straw, that's hard to light,
Who generally blaze so bright.
BRANDER.
It's all your fault, you've nothing given us
Funny or filthy to enliven us.
FROSCH (throwing a glass of wine in his face).
There's both for you.
BRANDER.
You double brute!
FROSCH.
When asked to do a thing, I do 't.
SIEBEL.
The first who brawls, we'll turn him out.
Come, join in friendly chorus, swill, and shout!
Hilloah!
ALTMAYER.
O death! some cotton here! The fellow
Will split my ears with his tremendous bellow.
86
FAUST.
SIEBEL.
When roof and rafter rattle to the tone,
The full chest power of the bass is shown.
FROSCH.
Right! Turn the fellow out that takes offence !
A tara, lara, la !
ALTMAYER.
A tara, lara, la !
We're tuned; commence!
(Sings.)
The dear old holy Roman realm,
How holds it still together?
Brander.
A wretched song! O! O! a song political!
A scurvy song! You ought to thank God therefore
That you've no Roman realm to keep or care for.
Two blessings I, for one, devoutly prize, are
That I am neither Chancellor nor Kaiser.
Still we shall not a leader want, I hope;
I vote that we elect a Pope.
The sort of quality is known,
That marks the man to fill the throne.
FROSCH (sings).
Fly, Lady Nightingale ! carol sweet!
Ten thousand times my darling greet!
SIEBEL.
No greeting darlings here! We'll no such pulings silly!
FAUST.
87
FROSCH.
I'll greet and kiss my dear, I tell you, will ye
(Sings.)
Fly open, bolts! ere morning breaks.
Fly open, bolts! my lover wakes.
nill ye
Bolts, fasten tight! 'tis morning light.
SIEBEL.
Ay! sing away! and praise her to the height!
"Twill soon my turn for laughing be :
She'll play the trick with you, she played with me.
I hope she's doomed at last to love a Gnome,
And, while they at a crossway are caressing,
May an old goat from Blocksberg hasting home
Stay, as he gallops past, to bleat his blessing—
An honest lad, of wholesome flesh and blood,
Is for the jade by far too good.
The only serenade I'll give her's
To smash her window-panes to shivers.
BRANDER (knocking the table).
Look here!
Look here!
Attend to me!
You'll own, sirs! I'm a knowing wight!
Some lovelorn people here I see ;
I'll give them something to agree
With their condition, as good-night.
Now, listen all! a song brand new!
And lustily troll the chorus through!
(Sings.)
A rat lived under a cellar stair,
Whose paunch grew fatter and smoother,
88
FAUST.
On the butter and lard that he pilfered there,
Than if he were Doctor Luther.
But cook in his run put a poisoned bait,
Which made him as heartily sick of his fate,
As if he had Love inside him.
CHORUS.
As if he had Love inside him.
He scampered in, and he scampered out,
Through every puddle trailing;
He scratched and he gnawed the walls about;
But all was unavailing.
He gave many a jump to get rid of his grief;
But found, wretched creature, as little relief,
As if he had Love inside him.
CHORUS.
As if he had Love inside him.
Stark mad with pain, in the open day,
He into the kitchen scuffled;
And there on the hearth-stone struggling lay,
And panted, and twitched and snuffled.
Cook laughed as he quivered in every limb;
'Ha ha! There's about as much hope for him,
As if he had Love inside him.'
CHORUS.
As if he had Love inside him.
SIEBEL.
What makes the blockheads laugh and shout?
To poison an unhappy rat!
A wonderful achievement that!
FAUST.
89
BRANDER.
You sympathise with him, no doubt.
ALTMAYER.
Bald, and pot-bellied, at this dark case,
He's mild and melancholy grown;
He sees in the rat's bloated carcase
A striking portrait of his own.
Enter FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Now first and foremost, you must see
The sons of joy and jollity;
And learn how lightly life may float away.
These fellows make a feast of every day.
With little wit, and boundless laughter,
Around their narrow ring each eager races,
Just as her tail a kitten chases:
If heads ache not the morning after,
And credit lasts another day,
Happy and unperturbed are they.
BRANDER.
They're travelling foreigners, I'll swear.
'Tis plain from their outlandish air.
Not half an hour arrived, may be !
FROSCH.
Begad! you're right! Ah, Leipsic still for me!
'Tis good as Paris, to give folks a tone.
SIEBEL.
Who do you think they are,
in truth?
90
FAUST.
FROSCH.
Let me alone! With half a minute's pains,
As easy as you draw a child's first tooth,
I'll worm their secret out and pick their brains.
They're men of quality, you may be bound!
So discontentedly they look around.
BRANDER.
More likely mountebanks, I doubt.
ALTMAYER.
Aye! Like enough!
FROSCH.
Now mark! you'll see me cook them.
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST).
Though by the throat the devil took them,
These fellows would not find him out.
FAUST.
Our service, to you!
SIEBEL.
Thanks! Accept the same!
(A side, looking suspiciously at MEPHISTOPHELES.)
What makes the fellow walk so lame?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Allow us to sit down by you, my friends!
Failing good liquor, which is hopeless here,
Pleasant society must make amends.
ALTMAYER.
Mighty fastidious you appear.
FAUST.
91
FROSCH.
From Rippach, it is probable you come?
Did you with Mr. Hans sup on the way?
MEPHISTOPIIELES.
We passed him by without a call to-day :
However, when we found him last at home,
He made, about his cousins here, a speech;
And sent, by us, his compliments to each.
(Bowing to FROSCH.)
ALTMAYER (aside).
You caught it there! He's sharp!
SIEBEL.
A knowing file!
FROSCII.
I'll sell him, only wait awhile!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Was I deceived? or did we hear
Some well-trained voices, chorus singing?
The tone must echo grandly here,
From these wide-vaulted arches ringing.
FROSCH.
I see that you're a dilettante.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
No! though my love is great, my power is scanty.
92
FAUST.
Give us a song!
ALTMAYER.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
O, if you like, a legion.
SIEBEL.
But something of the newest strain.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
We've only just arrived from Spain,
Of wine and song the lovely region.
(Sings.)
A king once reigned in glory
Who had a bloated flea.
FROSCH.
Hark! hark! you caught the word, a flea!
A pretty hero verily !
MEPHISTOPHELES (sings).
A king once reigned in glory
Who had a bloated flea;
He loved him, says the story,
As if his son were he.
'Go call my tailor cute here!'
The tailor came anon.
'Cut out the lad a suit here!
And fit him breeches on!'
BRANDER.
And charge the tailor, if you please,
To measure for his life exactly,
FAUST
93
So that the doublet fit compactly,
And breeches sit without a crease!
Satin and silk he put on,
Coat, mantle, hose, and vest;
Bore orders at his button,
A cross upon his breast.
He ruled administrations,
And wore a Star of State.
And soon his poor relations
Took rank among the great.
Then all at Court presented,
To wince and shrug were seen ;
Sore bitten and tormented,
From the maidens to the Queen.
They might not brush nor smack them,
To put the fleas to flight;
We catch them, and we crack them,
If one should dare to bite.
CHORUS shouting.
We catch them, and we crack them,
If one should dare to bite
FROSCH.
O bravo! that went splendidly!
SIEBEL.
So perish every cursed flea !
BRANDER.
Finger and thumb! and crack them clever !
ALTMAYER.
Well, liberty and wine for ever!
94
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
To liberty a glass I'd gladly drain,
If better liquor one could here obtain.
SIEBEL.
Don't let us hear that said again!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
But that 'twould put the host to shame,
I'd offer to each worthy guest,
A sample of our very best.
SIEBEL.
Out with it then! I'll bear the blame.
FROSCH.
We'll praise it duly if it's fine;
But no small samples! We are drouthful.
cannot fairly judge of wine,
Unless I take a jolly mouthful.
ALTMAYER (aside).
They're from the Rhine, I'm pretty sure.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Give me a gimlet.
Brander.
What will that avail?
Your hogsheads, surely, are not at the door.
ALTMAYER.
The host's tool basket's hanging on the nail.
MEPHISTOPHELES (takes the gimlet).
Now, say what each would like to sip!
FAUST.
95
FROSCII.
What! have you wine of every kind ?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Each man may choose, as he's inclined.
ALTMAYER (to FROSCH).
Ah! you begin to lick your lip.
FROSCH.
A glass of Hock, then, shall be my request ;
The produce of our Fatherland is best.
MEPHISTOPHELES (boring a hole in the edge of the table
where FROSCH sits).
Bring me some wax for stoppers, quick !
ALTMAYER.
Why this is all a juggler's trick.
MEPHISTOPHELES (to BRANDER).
And you?
BRANDER.
Well, then! Champagne for me,
And let it bright and sparkling be.
(MEPHISTOPHELES bores; one of them meanwhile
prepares wax, and stops the holes.)
We cannot always strangers spare ;
Far off one often finds a treasure ;
No German true can Frenchmen bear,
But drinks their wine with keenest pleasure.
96
FAUST.
SIEBEL.
To me all sour drink's distasteful;
Give me a glass of genuine sweet!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Then you will like Tokay, so be't.
ALTMAYER.
Come, sirs! just look me in the face full !
You think on us to play your jokes !
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Ha ha! With such distinguished folks,
That would be really too absurd.
But quick, now! only speak the word!
Say for what wine my science you'll be tasking.
ALTMAYER.
O, any! Waste no longer time in asking!
(After all the holes are bored and stopped.)
MEPHISTOPHELES (with strange gestures).
Grapes upon the vine are born,
And the he-goat bears the horn!
Wine is sap, and grapes are wood,
Wooden board yields wine as good.
Nature's secret fathom well!
Have faith! and, lo! a miracle!
Now draw the stoppers! Drink your fill !
ALL (as they draw the stoppers, and the wine spouts into
each one's glass).
How bright it flows! The lovely rill!
FAUST.
97
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Only beware, no drop you spill!
ALL (sing).
We're all as jolly as cannibals,
As fifty score of swine.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
They're glorious now; they'll soon be reeling ripe.
The scene disgusts me.
FAUST.
Let us go away!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Attend awhile! You'll see the bestial type
In utter nakedness itself display.
SIEBEL (drinks carelessly; the wine is spilt on the ground,
and turns to flame).
Help! fire! help! from hell 'tis sent.
MEPHISTOPHELES (speaking to the flame).
Be quiet! friendly element !
'Twas but a flake of purgatorial flame.
SIEBEL.
(To the topers.)
What's that? We'll pay you soundly for your game.
You don't quite know on whom your wit is spent.
FROSCH.
You'd better not a second time provoke us!
7
98
FAUST.
ALTMAYER.
Best let him quietly slip off!
SIEBEL.
What, sir! you dare at us to scoff,
With your infernal hocus-pocus?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Silence! old wine-butt!
SIEBEL.
Broomstick that you are!
To vent your insolence you dare?
Brander.
Of broken heads you'd best beware!
ALTMAYER (draws a stopper from the table, flame jets out
I burn! I burn!
upon him).
SIEBEL.
'Tis magic flame.
Stab him! The wretch is lawful game.
(Draw their knives, and rush at MEPHISTOPHELES.)
MEPHISTOPHELES (with solemn gestures).
False face-false word appear!
Change place from far to near!
Be there! be here!
(They stand amazed and gaze on each other.)
ALTMAYER.
Where am I? What a lovely view!
FROSCII.
Vineyards, as I'm alive!
FAUST.
99
SIEBEL.
Grape-bunches too!
BRANDER.
Here, where this verdant foliage grows,
See, what a splendid cluster shows!
(Takes SIEBEL by the nose. The rest do the same
to each other, and raise their knives.)
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Error! thy bandage from their eyes unfold !
And mark, ye blockheads, how the devil can jest!
(Vanishes with FAUST. The fellows start away
Hah!
What!
from one another.)
SIEBEL.
ALTMAYER.
FROSCH.
Is this your nose I hold?
BRANDER (to SIEBEL).
And yours, too, in my gripe is pressed.
ALTMAYER.
I felt a shock that went through every limb.
Give me a chair! My brains are all aswim.
FROSCH.
No! What's the matter? Plainly say!
Uor M
7-2
100
FAUST.
SIEBEL.
Where is the rascal? If I held him,
He should not scatheless get away.
ALTMAYER.
Upon a cask mine eyes beheld him,
Out of the door careering go.
My feet feel just like lead, I know;
(Turning to the table.)
O, would the wine might ever flow!
SIEBEL.
'Twas sham, illusion, mere moonshine.
FROSCH.
I could have sworn I swallowed wine.
But then, the grapes ?
BRANDER.
ALTMAYER.
Ah, well! he surely blunders
Who, after this, will blame belief in wonders.
Maou
FAUST.
101
THE WITCH'S KITCHEN.
Dim
(A large caldron over the fire on a low hearth.
figures appear in the steam rising from it. A She-Ape
sits skimming the caldron and watching that it does not
boil over.
The He-Ape sits close by with the young ones,
warming himself. Walls and ceiling are hung with the
strangest implements of sorcery.
FAUST-MEPHISTOPHELES.
FAUST.
This silly wizard-work revolts my mind!
Dare you to tell me, I relief shall find,
Here, in this chaos of insanity ?
Need I take counsel of a crazy crone ?
Or will a sup of her foul cookery
Bid thirty winters from mine age begone?
Woe's me! if you no better course descry;
My hope already changes to despair,
Has Nature, then, have spirits pure and high,
Found out no healing balsam anywhere?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Ah! there, my friend! you speak with reason sound;
A mean has Nature age for youth to change;
But in another book 'tis to be found,
And is a chapter wondrous strange.
What is it? Say!
FAUST.
102
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Well! without money's worth,
Magic, or medicine, that mean to win ;
Into the fields you first must sally forth,
And there to hack and heave and hoe begin :
There let thyself, thy thoughts, be bound
Within a close contracted round;
Thy food on simplest fare be found;
With beasts, live like a beast! and willing be,
Thyself the soil thou delvest to manure!
That is the safest method, credit me!
To make thy youth to fourscore years endure.
FAUST.
I lack the habit-I was never made,
To lay my hand to pick and spade.
That narrow life would never do for me.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Then must you to the witch, you see!
FAUST.
And why that ancient hag, I ask?
The magic drink, can you not brew it?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Ah! that would be a truly pleasant task!
A thousand bridges built were nothing to it.
'Tis not through skill and craft alone,
By patience must her work be done.
Long years and rapt attention 'twill require ;
Time only gives the draught its strength and fire.
She must use strange ingredients too.
And slowly mingle, when she's found them :
FAUST.
103
The devil taught her them, 'tis true;
But yet the devil can't compound them.
(Looking at the Apes.)
What a delightful household! Look!
This is the valet, that the cook.
The dame is out, as I opine?
Off to dine,
APES.
Away she's flown,
(To the Apes.)
Up and over the chimney-stone.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Is't commonly for long she goes?
APES.
Barely the time to warm our toes.
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST).
How do you like the little brutes?
FAUST.
I ne'er saw vermin more unpleasant.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Nay! I protest, their chatter suits
My taste exactly, just at present.
So now, ye cursed dolls! declare
What in the bubbling caldron stew you?
APES.
We're boiling broth for beggar's fare.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Then customers will hurry to you.
104
FAUST.
THE HE-APE (comes and fawns on MEPHISTOPHELES).
O, out with the dice !
Make me rich in a trice!
Let me win the main !
They mock and neglect me;
But if gold I could gain,
They'd prize and respect me.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
How proud and pleased the Ape would be
With a ticket for the lottery.
(The young Apes, who have been playing with
a large globe, roll it forward.)
HE-APE.
That earthly ball!
'Twill rise and fall,
And roll for ever.
The hollow thing
Like glass will ring,
How soon to shiver!
Here shines it fair,
Still brighter there ;
I'm quick and clever!
My son! I say,
Cast it away!
For thou art dying!
'Tis only clay,
To fragments flying.
FAUST.
105
MEPHISTOPHELES.
What means that sieve?
APE (takes it down).
Were you to thieve?
I'd find you out and spare not.
(Runs to the She-Ape, and makes her
look through it.)
You, through the sieve,
The thief perceive,
Yet name his name you dare not !
MEPHISTOPHELES (approaching the fire).
And then this pot?
HE and SHE APES.
The silly sot
Knows not the pot,
Nor even knows the kettle.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Ill-mannered scum!
HE-APE.
Here, take the broom,
And sit there on the settle!
(Makes MEPHISTOPHELES sit down.)
FAUST (who during this time has been standing before a
mirror, now approaching, now receding from it).
What heavenly form, within that magic glass,
See I before my charmèd vision rise?
Love! lend thy lightest wings! and let me pass,
106
FAUST.
To the enchanted region where she lies!
Ah! when no longer here I stay,
But onward move the truth to find,
In rising mist she seems to fade away,
The peerless flower of womankind!
But can a woman be so fair?
Or, in those resting limbs do I behold,
All heavenly beauties blent in mortal mould ?
Can ought so lovely live on earth?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Why, when a God six days His task will tend,
And to Himself cries' Bravo!' at the end,
'Tis natural something striking should come forth.
Bnt now your eyes with gazing sate!
I'll find you speedily as sweet a flower :
And blessed will be the man whom kindly Fate
Shall call to lead her to the nuptial bower.
(FAUST goes on gazing at the mirror. MEPHIS-
TOPHELES, lounging on the settle and play-
ing with the broom, continues.)
Here, throned in state, a king, I sit me down ;
My sceptre see! I only lack the crown.
The ANIMALS (who meanwhile have been playing all kinds
of strange antics, bring a crown to MEPHISTOPHELES with
loud clamour.)
O! pray be so good,
With sweat and with blood,
The crown to beslime!
(They handle the crown awkwardly and break it
in two pieces, with which they dance round.)
There it's broken now! We
FAUST.
107
Can speak, and can see,
Can listen and rhyme.
FAUST (before the mirror).
I surely shall go mad, woe's me!
MEPHISTOPHELES (pointing to the Apes).
My brains, too, feel a bit distraught.
APES.
And if lucky we be,
And words fall happily
Behold! there is thought!
FAUST (as before).
The heart is burning in my breast;
Come! Let us hasten from the place.
MEPHISTOPHELES (in the same posture).
Well! surely it must be confessed
They're poets of a candid race.
(The caldron which the She-Ape has neglected, be-
gins to boil over. A great flame rises and
shoots up the chimney. The WITCH, with
horrible cries,comes down through the flame.)
WITCH.
Augh Augh! Augh! Augh!
Infernal beast! Accursed sow!
To leave the pot and scald the Frau,
Brutes that ye be !
(Perceiving FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES.)
What do I see?
Hah! who are ye?
108
FAUST.
Ye slink in here ?
To spy may be ?
The fiery doom
Your bones consume!
(She dips the ladle in the caldron and casts
flames at FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES,
and the Apes. The Apes whimper.)
MEPHISTOPHELES (inverting the broom which he holds,
and striking among the pots and glasses).
To shivers fly!
Here crockery!
There cookery!
The jest I carry on,
And thus, you carrion!
Your tune accompany.
Know'st thou me now? thou withered atomy !
Thy Lord and Master dost thou know ?
What hinders me, but I destroy
Thee and thine Ape familiars at a blow?
Hast thou no reverence for the doublet red?
Nor the cock's feather that I bear?
Have I a veil before my visage spread?
My name and rank must I myself declare ?
WITCH.
Pardon, my Lord, my greeting rough!
But still I see no cloven hoof;
Nor thy attendant ravens either.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
For once, the plea I may allow ;
'Tis no small time, moreover, now,
Since you and I came last together.
FAUST.
109
And culture too, which all the world refines,
Has to the devil stretched its lines,
Who, at the Northern Phantom, now turns pale ?
Where see you claws, and horns, and tail ?
As for the foot, which I must keep in truth,
It might attract the public scorn ;
And so for years, like many a brilliant youth,
False calves I constantly have worn.
WITCH (dancing).
I'm half beside myself with glee,
Once more Squire Satan here to see.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Woman! give not that name to me!
WITCH.
Wherefore? Why goes it so against the grain?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
'Tis writ in story books this many a day,
And yet the world has thence but little gain
Quit of the wicked one—the wicked stay.
Call me the Baron! That's a title good;
Like others I'm an errant cavalier!
You do not doubt my claim to noble blood.
The escutcheon that I bear, behold it here!
(Makes an indecent gesture).
WITCH (laughs immoderately).
Ha ha! That's your old fashion to a hair!
You're a mad gallant, as you always were.
110
FAUST
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST).
My friend! take note of what I say!
To come round witches that's the way!
WITCH.
Now, gentlemen! your pleasure show!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
A cupful of the drink you know.
That too, which has been kept the longest;
The oldest liquor is the strongest.
WITCH.
With pleasure! Here's a flagon prime !
Of which I sip, from time to time.
By age refined, it's lost it's stink;
And willingly a glass I'll pour.
(Aside to MEPHISTOPHELES.)
If, unprepared, this man a drop should drink,
You know yourself, he cannot live an hour.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
He's a good friend-Twill suit him well,
Your strongest brew I should not fear for him.
So draw your circle! Speak your spell!
And fill your chalice to the brim !
(WITCH, with solemn gestures, draws a circle,
and places various strange articles within it.
The glasses begin to ring, the caldron to give
musical sounds. Lastly, she brings a large
book and puts the Apes in the circle, to serve
for a desk and to hold the torches. She signs
to FAUST to approach.)
FAUST.
111
FAUST (to MEPHISTOPHELES).
No! Say you this my lot can change?
This silly trash, these gestures strange,
These hackneyed nostrums magical,
I know them and detest them all.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Pooh! pooh! The farce should not provoke us.
You need not be so stern and strict.
As leech, of course she plays her hocus pocus,
To give her medicine the due effect.
WITCH (with solemn emphasis begins to declaim from the
book).
See! thus 'tis done
Make ten of one!
Let two depart !
And three makes even!
Then rich thou art.
Skip o'er the four!
From five and six,
So says the Witch,
Make eight and seven !
Then all is done,
And nine is one,
And ten is none,
That is the witch's one times one!
FAUST.
She raves, as if her wits were gone astray.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
There's plenty more of it, she's yet to say.
I know it well: so jingles all the book;
I lost time on it once, in study serious :
112
FAUST.
For downright contradictions always look
To wise men and to fools alike mysterious.
The Art's both old and new, you see!
It's ever been the general use,
Through three and one, and one and three,
Error for science to diffuse.
So still they preach and babble on ;
Who cares sheer folly to confute?
And men are prone to think, who hear but words alone,
That there must be some meaning at the root.
WITCH (continues).
True wisdom's light,
On lofty height,
From all the world is hidden.
Who ne'er by thought
Has wisdom sought,
It comes to him unbidden.
FAUST.
What means she, by the senseless gabble,
She through my deafened ears is screeching?
Methinks, I listen to a rabble,
Of fifty thousand idiots preaching.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Sibyl Enough! Enough! O sybil sage!
Produce your potent beverage!
And pour a bumper full and steady!
A man of high degrees is this my friend;
Mischief for him you need not apprehend;
He's tossed down many a gulp already.
(WITCII with many ceremononies pours the drink
As FAUST lifts it to his mouth, a
into a cup.
light flame arises).
FAUST.
113
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Off with it! Do not hesitate !
'Twill soon your heart with joy inspire.
What with the devil so intimate!
And frightened at a little fire !
(The WITCH dissolves the circle.-FAUST steps out.)
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Now quick away! you must not rest!
WITCH.
May the elixir work aright!
MEPHISTOPHELES (to the WITCH).
And, if there's ought you would request,
Remind me on Walpurgis night!
WITCH.
Here is a ditty! Sometimes sing the air!
You'll find it raise a strange exhilaration.
Come!
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST).
Off at once! No further hesitation !
You need a copious perspiration,
To drive through every nerve the spirit rare.
Princely repose, hereafter shalt thou know,
And feel the exquisite internal glow,
When Cupid stirs and flutters here and there.
FAUST.
One moment, let me in the glass gaze on!
Too lovely was that imaged form!
со
Uor M
114
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
No! no! you soon shall see a paragon
Of breathing beauty ripe and warm.
This draught within you, you will greet
A Helen in each maid you meet.
Maou
(Aside) ·
FAUST.
115
THE STREET.
FAUST (MARGARET passing by).
My fair young lady! may I dare
My arm and escort to bestow ?
MARGARET.
I'm neither lady, nor am fair,
And home can unescorted go.
[Breaks from him and exit.
FAUST.
By heaven, that child's a beauty rare!
I never saw a thing so fair.
All modesty and gentleness!
Yet ready witted ne'er the less.
Her lips' rich red, her cheeks' clear bloom
Will haunt me to the day of doom :
Her eyes, so timidly depressed,
Have kindled fire within my breast:
The scorn too of the tender thing
Was absolutely ravishing!
Enter MEPHISTOPHELES.
FAUST.
Get me that girl without delay!
What girl?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
8-2
116
FAUST.
FAUST.
Why! she who's just gone in.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
She! from the priest she's on her way,
Assoiled and pure from every sin.
I lurked by the confessional;
I tell you she's a spotless flower;
She'd nothing to confess at all,
And over her I have no power.
FAUST.
And yet she's fourteen years and more.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
You speak just like Dick Dissolute,
Who covets every tempting fruit,
And thinks no good nor grace can be,
But to be plucked by such as he :
But this can't always be the case.
FAUST.
Most Reverend Doctor Solemn-face!
Of your wise homily enough!
I tell you, and conceive me right!
Unless within my arms to-night
I clasp that creature sweet and bright,
At stroke of twelve, our bargain's off.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Think what it is that you desire!
A fortnight clear I should require,
To plan an interview alone.
FAUST.
117
FAUST.
With seven hours for the task,
The devil's aid I need not ask,
To make the simple maid mine own.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
You're talking like a Frenchman now.
Eut don't be vexed! you'll do no good,
By rushing to beatitude.
The pleasure's not so great I vow,
As when you first, on every side
With tender flummery have plied,
And to your will the poppet wrought,
As old Italian tales have taught.
FAUST.
I love without such aids of art.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Still let me tell you, jest apart,
You must not hope, though all be done,
The girl can be so quickly won.
By storm we cannot take the fort,
But must to stratagem resort.
FAUST.
Then get me something she's possessed!
Show me the chamber of her rest!
A kerchief from her bosom white,
A garter of my heart's delight.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
That you may know my ardent zeal
To mitigate the pangs you feel;
The washi
118
FAUST
A minute shall not wasted be;
This day you shall her chamber see.
FAUST.
But shall I see her! clasp her?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Nay!
She'll at a neighbour's be away.
Meanwhile in solitude you may
Drink in the sweet air of her home,
And feast on hope of joys to come.
May we go now?
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
It's early yet.
FAUST.
Some present for my darling get!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Presents already! bravo! that's the way!
Full many a precious hoard I know,
And treasures buried long ago;
I'll go and make a brief survey.
[Exit FAUST.
[Exit.
FAUST.
119
EVENING.
A neat little room.
MARGARET (braiding and binding up her hair).
I would give much to know who he,
That gentleman I met, can be :
So frank and gallant was his face,
I'm sure he comes of noble race ;
That in his look was plainly told;
He'd not, else, dared to be so bold.
Enter FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
In quick! but tread with noiseless feet!
FAUST (after a silent pause).
Leave me alone here! I entreat!
MEPHISTOPHELES (prying about).
Not every maid keeps things so neat.
FAUST (looking around).
Welcome, soft twilight! that above
This holy sanctuary dost brood;
Seize on my heart, delicious pang of Love
That pines and faints on Fancy's airy food!
What sense of peace here breathes around!
[Exit.
[Exit.
120
FAUST.
Where order and contentment dwell.
What wealth in this poor home is found!
What bliss divine within this narrow cell!
(Throws himself into the leather arm-chair beside
the bed.)
Receive me! thou! in whose ensheltering arm
A bygone world its joys, its sorrows laid.
How oft around this father's throne, a swarm
Of happy children here have climbed and played!
Here, in the joy that Christmas gifts inspire,
Haply with childish cheek my darling maid
Hath pressed the withered hand of her grandsire.
I feel, O maiden! here thy spirit sway,
That order and abundance can command;
That, mother-like, instructs thee, day by day,
Smooth on the board the decent cloth to lay,
And deck the floor with lines of waving sand.
O lovely hand! so goddess fair!
With thee, this hut a heavenly kingdom were.
And here!
(Lifts one of the bed-curtains.)
What trembling rapture through me streams !
Here could I muse unconscious hours away:
Here, Nature! didst thou mould in happy dreams
The angel newly-sprung to-day.
Here lay the child! her tender bosom warm
And glowing with existence new;
Here, pure unfolding into faultless form,
The image of the Godhead grew.
And thou! what led thee here to steal?
What inward pang is this I feel?
What wouldst thou here? Why sinks thine heart so low?
FAUST.
121
Unhappy Faust ! thee-thee no more I know.
Is this a magic air, that round me flows?
How burned for sudden joy my keen desires !
Now, in a dream of love the flame expires:
Are we the sport of every wind that blows?
What, if she came this very moment in?
How, for thy guilt, could'st thou do penance meet?
The mighty braggart, ah, how small and mean!
Would sink away confounded at her feet.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Make haste! she's walking homeward straight.
FAUST.
Away! away! I'll come no more.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
This casket see! an awful weight!
I chose it from a secret store.
Place it this instant in the press!
I swear to you, 'twill turn her brain :
I filled it richly, I confess,
Another blooming girl to gain ;
But youth is youth, and play is play.
I know not! Shall I?
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
What d'you say
D'you wish to keep the jewels rare ?
In that case, you your passion may,
Your good time idly thrown away,
And me, all further trouble spare.
?
122
FAUST.
Grown avaricious! I declare !
I scratch my head, and wash my hands of all!
There!
(He puts the casket in the press and locks it.)
Come at once! I'll undertake
The sweet young thing you soon shall make
To your desires a willing thrall.
And lo! you stare !
As if you at a lecture were ;
As if before you in didactic hood
Physic and Metaphysic stood
Away!
MARGARET (with a lamp).
How close it is and sultry now!
[Exeunt.
(Opens the window).
And yet without the air was keen.
I feel so faint! I know not how.
I wish my mother would come in!
Such sudden tremors through me fly;
A foolish, fearful, girl am I.
(Sings as she undresses.)
There was a King in Thule,
Was faithful to the grave:
Him, she, who loved him truly,
A goblet dying gave.
Dearer than all he held it,
It graced his every meal;
The tears whene'er he filled it,
Adown his cheek would steal.
When came his dying hour,
His fiefs he reckoned up,
Gave all, his heir to dower;
But not so went the cup.
FAUST.
123
He sat, with knights attendant,
Carousing royally,
In the banquet-hall resplendent,
Of his castle by the sea.
Up stood the drinker olden,
A last life-draught to drain;
Then hurled the goblet golden
Far downward to the main.
He watched it fall, fill, glimmer,
Sink deep beneath the sea;
His eye grew dim and dimmer,
And never more drank he.
(She opens the press to put away her clothes, and
sees the jewel-casket.)
Who can this pretty casket here have hid ?
I fastened the press door, I'm sure I did.
How strange! I wonder what's beneath the lid.
Some one came borrowing, may be,
And as a pledge my mother took it ;
But here's a ribbon with a key;
I think I'll venture to unlock it.
What's this? Good heavens! Only look!
In all my days I ne'er saw things so rare;
Such jewels as the lady of a duke
At high court festivals might wear.
How would that chain become me, there?
Who can these splendid trinkets own?
(Puts them on and walks before the glass.)
If but the earrings were mine own!
They give one quite a different air.
What use is beauty-fresh young blood?
That's very fine, and very good ;
124
FAUST.
>
But all the same you're left alone;
Half pitied, if you're praised, be sure.
For gold contend,
On gold depend,
All! all! alas! we poor!
FAUST.
125
PUBLIC WALK.
FAUST pacing to and fro, deep in thought.
Enter MEPHISTOPHELES.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
By all disastrous love! By all the fires of hell!
Would I knew something worse, to make the ban more
fell!
FAUST.
What's happ'ed, your temper thus to sting?
I ne'er beheld a face more evil.
MEPHISTOPIIELES.
To the devil I myself would fling,
If it were not that I'm the devil!
FAUST.
Has anything your reason turned awry ?
This furious fit becomes you certainly!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Think! only think! The gems we lavished
On Gretchen by a priest are ravished.
Her mother soon the gauds perceived,
And thereof strong mistrust conceived.
The good dame has a piercing scent,
Aye snuffling o'er her Prayer-book bent :-
1
126
FAUST.
Smells every thing, to ascertain
If it be holy or profane.
Our box she nosed, and in a minute
Found there was no great blessing in it.
My child! cried she, ill-gotten good
Ensnares the soul, and taints the blood.
Be these to blessed Mary given !
She'll send us for them bread from heaven.
At this poor Gretchen sadly pouted;
Gift horse, thought she, should ne'er be doubted;
And he can be no godless knave,
Who with such tact these jewels gave.
;
Straight for a priest the mother sends
Soon as the jest he comprehends,
A keen delight his face expresses.
Quoth he, 'Most admirably done!
Who conquers self, great gain has won.
A stomach strong the Church possesses.
Realms rich and broad can she devour,
And feel no flatulencies sour.
The Church, dear ladies! 'tis confessed,
Alone can stolen goods digest.'
FAUST.
Well! that's a not uncommon game,
A Jew, a King can do the same.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Rings, lockets, he proceeds to sweep,
As one might mushrooms, in a heap ;
Pouched them with no more ifs or buts,
Than if he took a bag of nuts;
Vowed Heaven would rich reward provide ;
And left them-vastly edified.
FAUST.
127
And Gretchen ?
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Sits in sore disquiet,
Uncertain what to smile or sigh at;
Dreams ever of the casket rare,
But more of him who placed it there.
FAUST.
I'm vexed to hear my darling's pain;
Fresh ornaments at once obtain !
The first were no great things, I'm sure.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Yes! All is child's play to Monsieur !
FAUST.
Go! And to do my bidding labour!
Stick closely to her ancient neighbour !
Don't be a devil of milk and water!
But let new gems at once be brought her!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Illustrious sir! I hear and I obey.
Thus will a fool, in love's infatuations,
To please a mistress puff away
Sun, moon, and all the constellations.
[Exit FAUST.
FAUST.
129
THE NEIGHBOUR'S HOUSE.
MARTHA (alone).
May God my dearest husband pardon!
The life he leads me is a hard one.
Away to foreign lands he's flown,
And left me pining here alone :
Yet never was he crossed by me,
God knows I loved him tenderly.
Perhaps he's dead, and I, hard fate !
Want even his death certificate.
(She weeps).
Dame Martha !
Enter MARGARET.
MARGARET.
MARTHA.
Gretchen! What may't be?
MARGARET.
My knees will scarce my weight sustain !
I've just a casket found again,
Hid in my press, of ebony,
And full of things more rich and rare,
Than even the former trinkets were.
MARTHA.
Then do not to your mother show them!
Or she will on the Church bestow them.
9
130
FAUST.
MARGARET.
But just behold them! Only look!
MARTHA
(dresses her up).
Well! Gretchen dear! You are in luck!
ᎷᎪᎡᏩᎪᎡᎬᎢ.
The pity is, I shall not dare,
In church, or street, the gems to wear.
MARTHA.
Still you can slip in as you pass,
And here may put them on at leisure,
Walk half an hour before the glass
"Twill be to both of us a pleasure.
And then, in time, on Festal Day or Fair,
You'll venture by degrees the things to wear :
Rings, chain, pearl earrings, one by one may try them;
We'll make some story, should your mother spy them.
MARGARET.
But who could both these pretty caskets bring?
I fear there's something wrong about the thing.
Good God! My mother's knocking!
(Some one knocks.)
MARTHA (looking through the blinds).
It's only a stranger. Walk in, sir! pray!
Enter MEPHISTOPHELES.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
I've made bold to enter! if indiscreet,
Nay!
FAUST.
131
Your forgiveness, ladies! I must entreat!
(Draws back respectfully from MARGARET.)
May this Dame Martha Schwerdlein's be?
MARTHA.
It is, sir. What may you want with me?
MEPHISTOPHELES (aside to Martha).
Now that I know you, I'll take my leave :
You've a guest of quality, I perceive.
Pray pardon my freedom inopportune!
I will call again in the afternoon.
MARTHA (loudly).
Only fancy, child, what the gentleman said!
He thinks you a lady born and bred!
MARGARET.
I'm a poor young girl, and of peasant blood;
Good heavens! the gentleman's far too good!
These rings and jewels are not my own——
MEPHISTOPHELES.
O! It's not the beautiful gems alone :
You've an air so noble, a look so clear
It's a pleasure indeed to stay longer here!
MARTHA.
But what's your errand? I am fearful
MEPHISTOPHELES.
I wish I brought you news more cheerful;
The fault's not mine, if it's distressing;
Your husband's dead—and sends his blessing.
9-2
132
FAUST.
MARTHA.
Dead! the true soul! O Misery!
My husband dead! Then I shall die.
MARGARET.
Dear Martha ! Let not grief prevail !
MEPHISTOPHELES.
No! Hear the melancholy tale !
MARGARET.
I hope I ne'er shall love; to part
I'm sure with grief would break my heart.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Grief after joy, joy after sorrow flies.
MARTIA.
How he departed, let me know!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
In Padua interred he lies
By holy St. Antonio.
And in a spot ordained and dressed,
For endless cool untroubled rest.
MARTHA.
And is there nothing more you bring?
+
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Well, yes! A weighty large request,
You will let the priests three hundred masses sing;
I've empty pockets, for the rest.
FAUST.
133
MARTHA.
What! Not a token! not a trinket!
What every travelling workman, for a keepsake,
Hoards in the bottom of his knapsack?
Would beg or starve, should need befall-
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Madam! I'm sorry that you think it;
But rest assured he was no prodigal.
'Tis certain that he rued his errors sore,
Aye! and bewailed his evil luck much more.
ᎷᎪᎡᏩᎪᎡᎬᎢ.
Alas! that men to such distress are carried!
For his soul's rest I'll oft entreat.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
You well deserve to be directly married ;
A girl so lovable and sweet!
MARGARET.
O no! my maiden days are not yet over.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
If not a husband then, we'll say a lover;
There's no more heavenly blessing here,
Than to embrace a thing so dear.
MARGARET.
That's not the custom in our town.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Custom or not, such things are done.
134
FAUST.
What more?
MARTHA.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
I stood beside his dying bed ;
Not quite a dunghill-'twas of mouldy straw-
Yet still he made a Christian end, and saw
(
His day of reckoning come with dismal dread.
How,' sighed he, 'is my heart with anguish cleft!
To think that I my wife, my business left :
I shudder to recall the base design.
Would, ere I die, her pardon I might know!'
MARTHA (in tears).
Dear man! he had my pardon long ago.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
'And yet, God knows! 'twas more her fault than mine.'
MARTHA.
The liar! What? At the grave's mouth to lie !
MEPHISTOPHELES.
With his last breath he fabled certainly,
;
If I've received a right impression.
'Iv'e not,' said he, a 'life of pastime led ;
First to get children, and then find them bread,
Bread in the widest sense of the expression :
And was not even my share in peace allowed !'
MARTHA.
Could he forget the truth, the love I showed ?
My drudgery by day and night?
FAUST.
135
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Not he! He thought upon them with delight!
'As I,' said he, ' away from Malta fared,
For wife and babes I offered prayer enraptured;
And Heaven's approval plainly was declared,
For soon our ship a Turkish galley captured.
She bore the Sultan's treasure with her crew;
Then valour reaped a harvest rich and rare ;
And I received, as was my honest due,
A good substantial portion for my share.'
MARTHA.
Eh, how! Eh, where? It is not surely buried?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Who knows where now to the four winds it's carried?
As he, at Naples, strolled about observant,
A fair young lady hailed him as a friend.
Much love and truth she showed him—love so fervent,
He felt it even to his sainted end.
MARTHA.
The wretch! His children's bread to squander !
Even all our misery could not
Avail his shameless life to hinder!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
But then, by death he's paid his scot.
Were I now in your widowed state,
Just one chaste twelvemonth would I grieve,
And look out meanwhile for another mate.
136
FAUST.
MARTHA.
O heaven! I should not soon perceive
One like my first, so kind and loving ;
There scarce could be a fonder fool than mine
Only a little too much given to roving,—
And foreign women,—and foreign wine,—
And rattling the accursed dice.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Indeed your love was well bestowed,
If the good man to you likewise
Such amiable forbearance showed;
On such conditions, I could bring
Myself with you to change the ring.
MARTHA.
O sir! It pleases you to jest !
MEPHISTOPHELES (aside).
I'm off! These women, truly 'tis averred,
Would take the very Devil at his word.
(To MARGARET.)
What says the heart within your breast?
MARGARET.
What mean you, sir?
MEPHISTOPHELES (to himself).
You simple child and pure !
Ladies! Farewell!
MARGARET.
Farewell!
FAUST.
137
MARTIA.
One word, sir! To make sure,
I wish a formal deposition made,
When my love died, and where the corpse is laid.
I like things done in order, and should choose
To see his death inserted in the news.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
The word of two sworn witnesses, good madam!
Should dissipate all doubts, suppose you had 'em ;
And I have with me now a gallant friend,
Who to the Court can certify his end:
I'll bring him to you here.
MARTIA.
O yes! Pray do!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
And the young lady will be with you too?
A lad who's travelled, seen full many a sight,
And is with ladies always most polite.
MARGARET.
Before him I should blush-so little worth!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Before no king upon the face of earth!
MARTHA.
Behind the house, within my garden then,
This evening we'll await the gentlemen.
FAUST.
139
THE STREET.
FAUST.-MEPHISTOPHELES.
FAUST.
Well, what success? Is victory near?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Ah! Bravo! So you're all on fire!
Gretchen will soon be won to your desire;
To-night you may at neighbour Martha's see her
A woman that, designed express
For go-between and procuress.
Good!
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
But there's something we shall have to do.
FAUST.
For one good turn another's fairly due.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
We must in legal form depose,
Her lord and master's bones repose
At Padua, in consecrated mould.
FAUST.
Pleasant indeed! So we must travel there!
140
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Sancta simplicitas! Need you then be told
You are not asked to know it, but to swear?
FAUST.
If that's your plan, my hopes dissolve in air.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
O sainted man! I ask you now,
Is this the first occasion, pray,
On which from truth you've gone astray?
Have you not often, definitions
Of God, the world, and its conditions,
Of man, and all that heart and soul impress,
Pronounced with confident averment,
With steadfast voice and brazen brow?
And yet, if truth be told, confess!
You know of all these mysteries less,
Than of Herr Schwerdlein's interment.
FAUST.
Liar and sophist will you ever be !
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Ay! To all those who cannot deeper see.
Then will you not to-morrow feign
Hot love, to turn poor Gretchen's brain,
And vow you'll ever true remain ?
FAUST.
"Twill be heart's truth!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Admirable !
And all your rant of love unfailing,
FAUST.
141
Of passion peerless, all-prevailing,
Will that be all heart's truth as well?
FAUST.
Silence! It will! When in my mind
Rage passions, frenzies, ecstasies,
Whose name I vainly seek to find ;
When through the universe in thought I fly,
All highest phrase to seize and try ;
When that which glows within as flame,
I endless, aye ! eternal name ;
Is that a devilish pack of lies?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
And yet, I'm right.
FAUST.
Stay! Hear me out!
I beg of you, and spare my lungs !
Who will be right, and has the gift of tongues,
Is right, no doubt.
But come! This long discussion breeds disgust
I own you're right; and why ?-because I must.
FAUST.
143
THE GARDEN.
MARGARET on FAUST's arm.-MARTHA and MEPHIS-
TOPHELES walking up and down.
MARGARET.
You trifle with me, sir! I know,
And to my shame thus condescend :
A polished traveller often so,
From mere good-nature, will commend.
One, who such wide experience has gained,
Can ne'er by my rude talk be entertained.
FAUST.
One glance of thine, one word, has greater worth
To me, than all the wisdom of this earth.
MARGARET.
(He kisses her hand.)
O! do not so! How can you bear to kiss
What must so coarse and rough appear?
Hard household work my daily portion is ;
My mother truly's too severe.
MARTHA.
(They pass by.)
And you, sir! Do you travel thus for ever?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Duty, alas! and business compel.
144
FAUST.
How hard it is from many a spot to sever,
Where yet one may not longer dwell!
MARTHA.
In years of giddy youth 'tis well
The world to wander o'er and o'er
But when the evil days come on,
To sneak into the grave a lone old bachelor,
That surely can be good for none.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
I see that day approach with anxious eyes.
MARTHA.
Then, my dear sir, in time be warned and wise!
MARGARET.
(They pass over.)
Yes! out of sight is out of mind;
Politeness fits you easily;
And you may friends by hundreds find,
And all far cleverer than I.
FAUST.
Dearest! Believe me, what's termed wit and sense,
Is oft but vanity and pertness.
MARGARET.
How!
FAUST.
Alas! that gentleness and innocence
Their own transcendent value never know;
That meekness, modesty, endowments due
To Nature's highest and most liberal grace—
FAUST.
145
MARGARET.
You'll think of me, a little moment's space?
I shall have time enough to think of you.
FAUST.
Ah! then you're used to loneliness?
MARGARET.
O yes! Our household's small, it's true,
But must be seen to ne'ertheless.
We keep no maid; and I must cook, wash, wring,
Sweep, knit, and sew,work late, and early rise;
And then my mother too, in everything,
Is so precise!
Not that her need to stint herself is great;
We might, if so disposed, with others vie ;
My father left a decent property,
A house and garden by the city gate.
But now my days have long in quiet sped ;
My soldier brother serves the State;
My little sister's dead.
True, the child cost me many a care and pair,
And yet I'd gladly bear it all again ;
So dear she was !
FAUST.
An angel, if like thee!
MARGARET.
I brought her up; she loved me tenderly.
After my father's death the child appeared,
And long too for my mother's life we feared;
In such extremity she lay,
And then revived so slowly day by day;
'Twas not to be supposed that she
10
146
FAUST.
The little bantling's nurse could be ;
And so I brought it up alone
On milk and water, all my own:
In my embraces fondly pressed,
It grew, smiled, nestled on my breast.
FAUST.
You must have felt a joy most pure and true!
MARGARET.
O yes
! But many a weary hour too.
The cradle of the little one stood close
To my bedside, and hardly could she stir,
Ere I arose ;
Laid her down by me after she was fed;
And if she slept not, I must leave my bed,
And walk about the chamber dandling her.
Then must I rise at dawn to wash the clothes,
Then sweep the house, to market then away :
And so 'twas ever work day after day.
Tis true, sir, thus at times one feels oppressed ;
Yet food so savours sweet, and so does rest.
MARTHA.
Ah! we poor women are severely tried!
A tough old bachelor is hard to turn.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Dear madam, I am sure with such a guide,
I soon should better courses learn.
MARTHA.
(They pass on.)
But tell the truth, sir! Have you no one found ?-
To no one has your heart been ever bound ?
FAUST.
147
MEPHISTOPHELES.
A bonny wife, by one's own hearth, we're told
By the old saw, is more than pearls and gold.
MARTHA.
I mean, no liking have you e'er conceived ?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
In many quarters I've been well received.
MARTHA.
But were you ne'er in love? I meant to say.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
With ladies none should venture jests to play.
MARTHA.
Ah! you don't understand me.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Fain I would!
(They pass on.)
I understand at least―you're very good!
FAUST.
And did you recognise me, angel, say !
The moment we into the garden came?
ᎷᎪᎡᏩᎪᎡᎬᎢ .
You saw-with shame I turned my eyes away.
FAUST.
The liberty I took you do not blame?
You pardon me my speech the day
That you from church were on your way?
10-2
148
FAUST.
MARGARET.
I was annoyed. I'd ne'er so treated been ;
Such charge against me no one ever brought.
Has he then in my look, at once I thought,
Anything bold or unbecoming seen?
His impulse on the sudden seemed to be,
'No need to stand on forms with such as she!'
Yet something stirred within me, I confess,
That pleaded in your favour; though, it's true,
I felt quite angry with myself no less,
Because I could not angrier be with you.
Sweet love!
FAUST.
MARGARET.
Stay! stay!
(Plucks a daisy, and picks off the leaves one after
another.)
FAUST.
May that a nosegay be?
MARGARET-
Only a game.
FAUST.
How?
MARGARET.
Go! You'll laugh at me.
(Plucks the leaves, and whispers to herself.)
FAUST.
MARGARET.
He loves me-loves me not.
What whisper you
?
FAUST.
149
FAUST.
You dear angelic being! what?
MARGARET.
Loves me-not-loves me-not.
(Plucking the last leaf with keen delight.)
He loves me !
FAUST.
Yes, dearest child! Be this flower oracle
To thee a message from the gods! He loves thee!
And understand'st thou what that means-' He loves
thee ?'
I tremble!
MARGARET.
FAUST.
Tremble not! but let this look,
This pressure of the hands, proclaim to thee
What words can never speak.
To give our being wholly up, and feel
An ecstasy, which must eternal be—
Eternal! for its end would be despair-
No, no! no end! no end!
(MARGARET presses his hands, then breaks from him,
and runs off. He stands for a moment in
thought, then follows her.
MARTHA (approaching.)
It's growing dark!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Yes! time for us to go.
150
FAUST.
MARTHA.
I'm sorry you so soon must say adieu—
But here folks scandalise each other So,
It seems as though they'd nothing else to do,
But to note o'er
Who comes and goes at every neighbour's door :
Live how you will, ill-natured tongues will sound.
And our young couple?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Up the path have flown--
Gay butterflies !
MARTHA.
Your friend seems to her drawn.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
And she to him; 'tis so the world goes round!
FAUST.
151
A SUMMER-HOUSE.
MARGARET runs in; hides behind the door; holds her
fingers to her lips, and peeps through a crevice.
He comes!
MARGARET.
FAUST (enters).
Ah! traitress! wouldst thou from me run?
I have thee!
(He kisses her.)
MARGARET (embracing and kissing him again).
O! I love thee, dearest one!
(MEPHISTOPHELES knocks.
FAUST (stamping).
Who's there?
MEPHISTOPIIELES.
A friend!
FAUST.
A brute!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
The time to part is come.
MARTHA (comes up).
Yes, sir; it's growing late!
152
FAUST.
FAUST.
You'll let me see you home?
MARGARET.
My mother would-Farewell!
FAUST.
I must go, then?
Farewell!
MARTHA.
Adieu !
MARGARET.
But soon to meet again!
[Exeunt FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES.
MARGARET.
Good Heaven! what things of every kind
Must such a man have in his mind!
I blush before him in amaze—
Say yes to everything he says;
Poor untaught girl! I cannot see
What he can find to like in me!
FAUST.
153
FOREST AND CAVERN.
FAUST (alone).
Exalted Spirit! thou hast given me all—
All that I prayed for. Not in vain thy face,
Lit with celestial flame, has beamed upon me.
Thou giv'st me mighty Nature for a kingdom,
With power to feel and to enjoy. No blank
And wondering gaze alone hast thou accorded,
But let me look into her inmost heart,
As one who reads the bosom of a friend.
The ranks of all that live dost thou lead forth
Before me in array, and bidd'st me know
In solemn wood, and sky, and sea, my brethren.
When through the forest depths the tempest howls,
And the great pine, uprooted, bough and stem
Of neighbour growth sweeps downward to the earth,
With shock that echoes through the bellowing hills,
Thou leadest then to sheltered cave secure ;
There show'st me to myself, and of my breast
The deep mysterious wonders stand revealed.
And when into my gaze the clear full moon
Climbs, with her calming spell, there throng around,
From mountain-cliff, and from dew-beaded copse,
Dim silvery figures of the Antique World,
To lighten meditation's joys austere.
But ah! that nothing perfect comes to man
At length I find. With that sweet ecstasy
-
154
FAUST.
That lifts me near and nearer to the gods,
Thou giv'st me this companion, whom I never
Can shun; who, cold and insolent, degrades me
In mine own eyes, and shrivels into nothing
Thy prodigal endowments with a breath.
Busy, he kindles for that lovely image
Within my breast insatiable flame :
So reel I from desire to enjoyment,
And in enjoyment faint for new desire.
Enter MEPHISTOPHELES.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Well! have you of this life had quantum suff.?
Think you its charm will prove enduring?
To try its flavour once is well enough,
Then off to pleasures more alluring!
FAUST.
O! would you'd something else to do,
Than thus to sweep my bliss away!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Well! I can leave your bliss to you!
You need not that in earnest say.
A comrade, crabbed, cross, and crazy grown,
It would not break my heart to leave;
More than enough upon my hands is thrown !
What you'd have done, and what have left alone,
One cannot from your worship's looks perceive.
FAUST.
His tone is quite correct, I vow!
He'd fain be thanked, because he bores me dead!
FAUST.
155
MEPHISTOPHELES.
What life, poor son of earth, wouldst thou
Without my countenance have led?
Of morbid fancy's skits unsteady
I've eased you for this many a day;
And, but for me, thou wouldst already
From off this earth have marched away.
Why, in dark grots and caverns foul,
Sit lonely moping, like an owl ?—
From sodden moss, and boulders dripping,
Thus like a toad refreshment sipping?
Delightful sport indeed! 'Tis true,
The doctor still is strong in you.
FAUST.
Know you what quickened life, what powers renewed,
I find when wandering here in solitude?
Ah! if you knew, so base thy devilish kind,
'Twould raise but envious torment in thy mind.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
O, happiness beyond all earthly height!
On dew-drenched mountain sward to couch by night!
Both earth and heaven in spirit-grasp to seize,
To swell, a god in mystic reveries!
By strain of thought earth's mysteries unroll;
To feel the whole six days' work in thy soul !
In pride of power a nameless bliss to know;
In pure love transports all to overflow !
To soar above a mortal mean condition !
And then, the lofty intuition
To end-
(Making a gesture.)
I'll not presume to mention how!
156
FAUST.
Shame on thee!
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Ay ! the naked fact you blame ;
Truly, you're well entitled to cry shame!
One must not mention to chaste ears, no doubt,
That which chaste minds will never go without.
But on my word I've no objection, I,
You should at times regale upon a lie.
But 'twill not do to linger o'er the fare.
3300 Back to your ancient lunes again you're brought;
And, if this holds, will soon be wrought
To horror, frenzy, or despair.
Enough of this! Your darling pines apart,
Where all around is cramped and drear;
You're never absent from her heart,
Such overpowering love is there.
At first your passion streamed along
Like snow-fed torrent, swollen high;
It flowed into her breast ere long,
But now your streamlet's running dry.
Instead of vapouring here on mountain height,
Methinks your worship would do well
This poor young monkey of a girl
For her devotion to requite."
To her the time seems lamentably long,
While from her room she marks the clouds that fly
Over the old town wall on high.
'O would I were a bird!'- —so runs her song,
All day and half the night.
She's mostly mournful, sometimes gay,
Then weeps till she can weep no more;
FAUST.
157
Then calm a while, so one would say,
Yet still heartsore.
FAUST.
You subtle snake, you !
MEPHISTOPHELES (aside).
Ay ! if I can but take you!
FAUST.
Infamous! Take thyself from hence!
Name not the lovely girl to me;
Nor let desire for her sweet body be
Inflamed again in my half-maddened sense!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
What's to be done? That you are off she deems;
And so you nearly are, it seems.
FAUST.
I'm nigh to her; and if I from her went,
I should not lose her, nor should I forget.
I envy even the blessed Sacrament
That by the touch of her sweet mouth is met !
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Ah, well! I've often envied you, iì. leed,
The pair of twins that under roses feed.
Off, pander!
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Ah, you rail! I smile, you see !
158
FAUST.
The God, that lass and gallant made,
Well understood the noble trade
Of making also opportunity.
Go to her! Goodly cause for distress!
To seek the chamber of your mistress-
That is not to your death to go!
FAUST.
What joys of heaven from her embrace could charm me!
O might I on her bosom warm me!
Do not I well her desolation know?
Am not I, then, the cutcast one, abhorrent
To God; inhuman, without aim or peace ;
Raving in mad desire, as foams the torrent
From crag to crag towards the precipice?
And she close by, with childlike thoughts and holy,
Dwelt, cabined on the narrow mountain-fell,
With all her simple cares, and duties lowly,
Comprised within that humble cell.
And I, the God-detested,
Could not I be content,
When I the stern rocks wrested,
And into ruin rent?
Her, and her peace too, must I undermine ?
Hell! must this spotless sacrifice be thine?
Fiend! be this torture-time abbreviated;
Let that come quick which must be so!
Let her lot be to mine precipitated,
And both together on to ruin go!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Ah! now again it boils and burns!
Go in, you fool, and cheer your lover!
FAUST.
159
When such a noddle no escape discerns,
It straightway thinks that all is over.
The valiant man's the man for me!
I thought you'd fairly reached the fiendish level;
There's nothing in the world, that eyes can see,
So dull as a desponding devil!
FAUST.
161
MARGARET'S CHAMBER.
MARC RET (alone at her spinning-wheel).
My peace is gone,
My heart is sore ;
I shall find it never,
O never more.
The place without him
Is like a tomb,
The whole world bitter,
And wrapped in gloom.
My head is heavy,
And sore distraught ;
And wearily wanders
My troubled thought.
My peace is gone,
My heart is sore;
I shall find it never,
O never more.
For him at my window
I watch at home,
In hope to meet him
Abroad I roam.
His stately step,
His stature high,
The smile of his mouth,
And his kingly eye;
11
162
FAUST.
His words that whisper
A magic bliss,
His hand's warm pressure,
And ah! his kiss!
My peace is gone,
My heart is sore;
I shall find it never,
O never more!
My heart goes after him,
When he's passed;
O might I follow him—
Hold him fast!
And kiss him, kiss him,
As fain would I
Beneath his kiss
I should swoon and die!
FAUST.
163
MARTHA'S GARDEN.
MARGARET.-FAUST.
Promise me, Heinrich !
ᎷᎪᎡᏩᎪᎡᎬᎢ .
FAUST.
All I can!
ᎷᎪᎡᏩᎪᎡᎬᎢ,
Then tell me, of religion, how you view it?
I know you for a sweetly-natured man,
And yet I fear you're not devoted to it.
FAUST.
Hush! hush! my child! You find me kind and good,
One for his friend who'd spend his flesh and blood,
Would no one of his faith or Church bereave-
MARGARET.
That's not enough; one also must believe.
Must one?
FAUST.
MARGARET.
O would you were as I advise!
The Holy Sacraments you do not prize.
I do.
FAUST.
11—2
164
FAUST.
MARGARET.
At least no love for them you show.
When hear you mass, or to confession go?
Do you believe in God?
FAUST.
Who dare aver,
That he believes in God?
Ask of the priest, or the philosopher!
Him who within the realm of doubt hath trod,
Their answer mocks.
MARGARET.
So nothing you believe ?
FAUST.
Angelic creature! Do not misconceive!
Who dare give Him a name?
And who proclaim,
'Him I believe'?
Who can so certain be,
That boldly he
Will say, 'I disbelieve'?
The All-Embracer,
The All-Sustainer,
Holds and sustains He not,
Thee-me-Himself?
Hangs not the vault of Heaven above us?
Spreads not the earth secure below?
And climb not, friendly beaming,
The everlasting stars on high?
Gaze I not face to face on thee?
Does not all flow,
Throughout thy brain and heart ?
FAUST.
165
And work in mystery eternal,
Seen-unseen-ever-ever near?
Let that fill full thine heart, though great it be !
And when you feel supreme felicity,
Then call it what thou wilt!
Happiness! Heart! Love! God!
No name for it have I.
Feeling is all in all ;
Name is but sound and smoke,
That hides the heavenly flame.
MARGARET.
That sounds all well and rightly spoke;
The priest himself says much the same,
In slightly different phrase.
All hearts, in every place
FAUST.
Under the blessèd light of day,
The same thing each in his own tongue say;
Why may not I in mine ?
MARGARET.
You make it plausible with language fine ;
And yet it's wrong, for sure am I
Thou hast not Christianity.
FAUST.
Dear child!
MARGARET.
And then I almost weep,
To see the company you keep.
How so?
FAUST.
166
FAUST.
MARGARET.
That man, from whom you never part,
I loathe him from my very inmost heart.
In all my life I never knew
Such a sharp pang as runs me through,
To see his hard repulsive leer.
FAUST.
What, my own darling, can you fear?
MARGARET.
His presence makes my blood run cold.
Others with pleasure I behold;
Much as I long to be with you,
That man with secret dread I view.
A wretch, I hold him, God-forsaken ;
Heaven pardon me, if I'm mistaken !
FAUST.
One must at times such owl-like fellows see!
MARGARET.
I could not bear to live with such as he !
He enters with a sneer infernal,
As if he fumed with rage internal,
All goodness loathing!
One sees that he has sympathy with nothing.
His brow shows, like a written scroll,
He loves no single human soul.
I feel so happy in thine arm,
So lapped in feelings soft and warm!
He comes; and cords my heart up hard and tight.
FAUST.
167
FAUST.
You little dear suspicious sprite !
MARGARET.
It weighs upon my mind so sore,
That, soon as e'er he comes our way,
I feel as if I could not love you more ;
And, when he's by, I cannot even pray!
That strikes my heart with horror through!
Is it not, Heinrich, so with you?
FAUST.
All that is nothing but antipathy!
I must go now.
MARGARET.
FAUST.
O, shall I never be
A single hour on thy bosom blessed?
United soul to soul, and breast to breast ?
MARGARET.
Ah! If I only slept alone,
I'd leave the door unlocked this very night;
But then my mother's sleep is light,
And, were your coming to her known,
I should expire then and there!
FAUST.
My angel! That you need not fear!
This phial see ! Three drops alone,
Mixed with her draught at evening measure!
And into dreamless sleep will she be thrown.
168
FAUST.
MARGARET.
What would I not do, for your pleasure?
You're sure no danger will attend it?
FAUST.
If so, love! would I recommend it?
MARGARET.
O best and dearest! when your face I view,
To do whate'er you will I'm strangely won
I have already done so much for you,
That soon you'll leave me nothing to be done.
[Exit MARGARET.
Enter MEPHISTOPHELES.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
The monkey's gone?
FAUST.
Again you lurk and spy!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
I heard distinctly all the conversation.
She catechised you, Doctor, famously;
I hope you're better for the exhortation!
These girls are always captivated by
A pious fellow, of the good old school;
Who's yielding there, they hope themselves to rule.
FAUST.
To you, you monster! is unknown,
How such a loving soul and leal,
In faith implicit nursed,
FAUST.
169
From which alone
Comes all her happiness, should terror feel
To think the man she loves a soul accursed.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Thou supersensual soul in sensual frame !
A girl can lead you by the nose !
FAUST.
Abortion base, of filthiness and flame!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
So well, too, physiognomy she knows!
She feels, she can't tell how, when I am nigh!
Beneath this vizard deep design can spell ;
She's certain I must be a genius high,
Perhaps the very Prince of hell :
For when to-night
FAUST.
What's that to you?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
I've my own pleasure in it too.
FAUST.
171
AT THE WELL.
GRETCHEN and LIESCHEN with pitchers.
LIESCHEN.
You've nothing heard of Barbara ?
GRETCHEN.
Nothing. I come but seldom out.
LIESCHEN.
Sibylla said to me to-day,
She'd played the fool beyond a doubt.
That comes of pride!
GRETCHEN.
How so?
LIESCHEN.
It's plain to view,
That, when she eats and drinks, she's feeding two.
GRETCHEN.
Ah!
LIESCHEN.
And it serves her right, say I for one;
After that fellow what a time she's run!
Walking together early-late-
Off to each village dance and fête !
Before the rest must she be seated
172
FAUST.
With cake and wine for ever treated-
And of her beauty, so conceited!
And yet so mean she felt no shame
In taking every gift that came.
Then there was cuddling and kissing;
And lo! behold! the rose is missing!
Poor creature!
GRETCHEN.
LIESCHEN.
Can you pity feel?
When you and I were at our wheel,
Kept at our mother's after dark,
She was out flirting with her spark,
Upon the garden bench in talk,
Or strolling up the shaded walk.
A fine come-down from all her airs!
When she the sheet of penance wears.
GRETCHEN.
He'll surely take her for his wife!
LIESCHEN.
He'd be a fool-such gallants still
Can roam for pleasure, where they will.
Besides, he's off.
GRETCHEN.
O that is base!
LIESCHEN.
If wed, 'twill be in sorry case !
The lads will tear her wreath in two,
And chaff before the door we girls will strew!
FAUST.
173
1
GRETCHEN (going home).
What anger once my spirit stirred,
When a poor maiden's fall I heard!
For other's sins I could not find
Words strong enough to please my mind;
Blacker and blacker still I saw them,
Nor black enough could ever draw them ;
And crossed myself, of virtue vain ;—
And now, of sin I bear the stain.
Yet everything, that brought me here,
God! seemed so good, and was so dear!
FAUST.
175
THE KEEP.
In a niche in the wall an image of the Mater Dolorosa, with
vases of flowers before it.
MARGARET (places fresh flowers in the vases).
O Mother Maiden!
Thou sorrow-laden!
Look down and pity my distress !
With keen sword driven,
Thine own heart riven,
Thou seest the woes thy Son oppress.
To the Father gazing,
Thy plaint upraising,
On high for his and thy distress.
Who knoweth,
How groweth
My pain through flesh and bone?
What terrors round my heart are thronging,
All its anguish, all its longing,
Knowest thou, and thou alone!
Wherever I am going,
What woe, what woe, what woe in
My aching breast must be !
To my lonely chamber creeping,
Weeping, weeping, weeping,
My heart is crushed in me.
176
FAUST.
The vases at my window
Were wet with many a tear,
As I this morning gathered
The flowers I offer here.
The dawn of day came peeping
In through the casement red,
As I, too sad for sleeping,
Sat wretched up in bed.
Save me! from shame's last bitterness!
O Mother Maiden !
Thou sorrow-laden !
Look down, and pity my distress!
:
FAUST.
177
NIGHT.
Street before GRETCHEN's door.
VALENTINE (a soldier, GRETCHEN's brother).
When round the bowl we passed the toast
Where many a man would brag and boast;
And when my comrades o'er the glass,
Would vaunt each one his peerless lass,
While to her praise the wine he poured ;
I'd lean my elbow on the board,
And coolly sit with inward smile,
To hear them gasconade awhile;
(
Then laugh, and twirl my beard, and say,
(A brimming bumper in my hand,)
They all are charming in their way!
But is there one in all the land
With my dear Gretel to compare ?
One fit my sister's shoes to bear?'
Hob, nob! Kling! klang! The glasses rung!
'Hear!' was the shout,' He says right well;
Of all the flock she bears the bell!'
Then would the braggarts hold their tongue.
But now! O, I could tear my hair out!
And dash my brains in sheer despair out;
To hear each scurvy rascal sneering,
Venting his sorry jests and jeering!
To sit there like a bankrupt broken,
12
178
FAUST.
And sweat at every word that's spoken ;
And, though I tanned his ass's hide,
Not dare to say the villain lied!
But ha! Who's that? Who's slinking there?
If I mistake not 'tis a pair.
If he be one, his knell may sound,
He shall not living leave the ground!
Enter FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES.
FAUST.
See! From the window of the Sacristy,
How darts the lamp a pure and constant ray!
That dim and dimmer grows, and dies away,
Compassed and killed by black obscurity !
So now are shadows on my spirit weighing.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
I too feel languid, like a tom-cat straying,
That up the fire-ladder crawls,
And glides along the garden walls :
In highly proper mood am I,
Half wantonness, half thievery.
Already thrills through every vein
The wonderful Walpurgis night;
It comes to-morrow round again;
You'll see then what is worth the sight!
FAUST.
When will that precious hoard appear?
Do not I see it glimmering there?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
O, you shall shortly have the pleasure,
Of taking out the hidden treasure;
FAUST.
179
I took a glance at it this minute,
There's store of lion dollars in it.
FAUST.
What! Not a trinket? not a ring?
To make my darling bright and gay?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Well! I believe I saw a string
Of pearls, or something in that way.
FAUST.
Ah, that's all right! It is not pleasant
To go to her without a present.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
You should not grumble, if your fate is
To have sometimes your pleasure gratis.
But now that heaven starlit shines,
I'll let you hear a coup de maitre ;
I'll sing to her some moral lines,
More thoroughly to fascinate her.
(Sings to the zither.)
Linger no more,
Sweet Kate, before
Your lover's door,
When the morning sun is gleaming
Though maid thou art,
Beware, sweetheart!
Lest thou depart,
A maiden only seemir
O take good heed!
When done the deed
12-2
180
FAUST.
Love flies with speed,
Poor things! He will not linger;
Then grant no grace,
Or fond embrace,
To flattering face,
Without the ring on finger!
VALENTINE (comes forward).
Whom are you after? Sacrament!
You vile rat-catching villain, you!
To the devil with the instrument!
To the devil with the singer too!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
There goes the zither! smashed to shreds!
VALENTINE.
Now! look out sharp for broken heads!
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST).
Come, courage, Doctor! keep good heart !
Stick close to me! you'll not miscarry!
Out with your toasting-iron smart!
And thrust away! Leave me to parry!
Then parry that!
And that!
VALENTINE.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Ay ay. All right!
VALENTINE.
MEPHISTOPIIELES.
Just so!
FAUST.
181
VALENTINE.
The devil's in the fight!
What's this? My wrist is wrenched and lamed!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
VALENTINE (falls).
Now thrust!
Ah me!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
The bumpkin's tamed!
But come! this very instant must we fly,
The hue and cry is up and will increase;
And the Blood Ban I'd rather not defy,
Although I'm hand in glove with the police.
MARTHA (at a window).
Help! Murder! Help!
GRETCHEN (at a window).
O, bring a light!
MARTHA.
They shout and scuffle, brawl and fight!
PEOPLE.
One's dead, or nearly so!
MARTHA (coming out).
Where have the murderous wretches run?
GRETCHEN (coming out).
Who's lying here?
182
FAUST.
PEOPLE.
Thy mother's son!
GRETCHEN.
Almighty God! What woe!
VALENTINE.
I'm dying! That is quickly said,
And quicker still will be.
Women! Don't shriek and shrink in dread !
Come round and list to me!
(All gather round him.)
Look, Gretchen! You are young as yet ;
More skill and cunning must you get,
To ply your trade aright :
This let me whisper, and no more,
You've once begun to play the whore;
Go! and be one outright!
GRETCHEN.
My brother! God! What, this to me!
VALENTINE.
You'd better let the Lord God be!
What's done is done and past recalling,
A falling stone will still be falling.
With one you've dealt upon the sly,
Others will follow by-and-by,
And when some dozen have played the game,
The whole town next may do the same.
When first disgrace new-born appears
She's carefully withheld from sight;
They wrap her, over head and ears,
FAUST.
183
Beneath the veil of night.
Would stifle if not forced to spare her.
But as she grows and waxes great,
She walks abroad at noon elate
Though not one whit is she the fairer,
But fouler as her visage grows,
More boldly into light she goes.
Ay, I already see the day,
When decent folks will shrink away,
As from a carcase putrified,
To find you, strumpet! at their side.
Your heart will sicken with despair,
To see them look you in the face!
No more a golden chain you'll wear !
Nor kneel at church time in your place!
Nor smiling to the dance repair,
In snowy collar trimmed with lace!
But in some beggar's foul resort,
With thieves and cripples will consort ;
And even though God your guilt forgive,
My curse go with you while you live!
MARTHA.
Commend your soul to God ! and dread
To die with slander on your head!
VALENTINE.
Could I your cankered carcase reach,
You brazen bawd! you shameless witch!
I'd do, what might for all my sin
Abundant absolution win.
GRETCHEN.
My brother! O what anguish sore!
184
FAUST.
VALENTINE.
I tell you! give your weeping o'er!
When you your maiden honour lost,
You dealt my heart its deepest thrust.
Now to God's home beyond the grave,
I go, a soldier leal and brave !
[Dies.
FAUST.
185
CATHEDRAL.
SERVICE. ORGAN AND ANTHEM.
GRETCHEN, with a number of people.
EVIL SPIRIT behind her.
EVIL SPIRIT.
Gretchen! Art thou the same
Who, innocent and pure,
Before the altar came,
And from the little well-worn book
Lisped out a prayer,
Half childish play,
Half God within the heart?
Gretchen! What thoughts are thine?
Upon thy bosom
What remorse must weigh!
Darest thou for thy mother's soul to pray,
Who slumbered into long long pain through thee?
Whose blood thy threshold stains?
And underneath thine heart
Stirs there not quickening now
What, by its ominous presence,
Tortures itself and thee?
GRETCHEN.
Alas! Alas! Would God I might
186
FAUST.
(Organ)
Shake off the thoughts that through me pass
In my despite !
CHOIR.
Dies iræ, dies illa
Solvet sæclum in favillâ
EVIL SPIRIT.
What terrors seize thee!
The last trumpet sounds!
The graves burst open!
And thine heart
From sleep in ashes,
Up to fiery pain,
Newly created
Palpitates again!
GRETCHEN.
Would I were hence!
The pealing organ takes
My breath away.
The chant dissolves
My very heart!
CHOIR.
Judex ergo cum sedebit
Quidquid latet adparebit
Nil inultum remanebit.
GRETCHEN.
I'm so oppressed!
The shafted walls
Close on me!
And the vaulted roof comes down
To crush me! Air!
FAUST.
187
EVIL SPIRIT.
Hide thyself? Sin and shame
Abide not hidden !
Air! Light!
Woe to thee!
CHOIR.
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
Quem patronum rogaturus?
Cum vix justus sit securus?
EVIL SPIRIT.
The glorified their faces
Turn from thee away!
To reach a hand to thee,
The pure would shudder!
Woe!
CHOIR.
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
GRETCHEN.
Neighbour! Your scent-bottle!
(Swoons away.)
FAUST.
189
WALPURGIS NIGHT.
Hartz Mountains.
FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
To mount a broomstick are you not inclined?
To me the roughest goat would welcome be;
We're yet far distant from the goal assigned.
FAUST.
While I feel fresh upon my legs, I find
This knotted staff does well enough for me.
Why should one wish the journey's length compressed ?—
This tangled labyrinth of vales to trace,
Then climb the high cliff's wrinkled face,
Where foams the torrent from the mountain crest,
This gives our expedition charm and zest !
Life to the birch the Spring has given,
Her breath already stirs the pine;
Should it not then our limbs enliven?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
I' faith! I feel it not in mine!
Midwinter grips my body fast ;
Through frost and snow I'd travel if I might.
How dully does the moon belated cast,
From disk unfilled, a melancholy light,
190
FAUST.
So dim and faint, that from imperfect vision,
Against the rocks and trees we're like to run.
I'll call a Will-o'-wisp, by your permission ;
And yonder, brightly blazing, there is one!
Hilloa! My friend! Come here to us in haste!
You must not let your lustre burn to waste!
Be good enough to light us as we go!
WILL-O'-WISP.
Out of respect for you, I trust I may
Resist my strong propensity to stray;
Our natural course is zigzag, as you know.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Ha ha! You think like men to play your game!
Lead on straightforward, in the devil's name!
Unless you wish your flickering life blown out!
WILL-O'-WIsp.
You're lord and master here, no doubt!
And so your will must be obeyed.
But mind! the mountain's magic-mad to-night,
And when you're led by Jack-o'-lantern's light,
You must not be exacting to a shade!
FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES, and WILL-O'-WISP
(in part song).
The border of the realm of Spirit
And magic vision now is passed ;
Lead us on, and honour merit !
Lead us onward, far and fast,
Through the wilderness of wonder!
FAUST.
191
Trees on trees fast flitting yonder
Stream unending, backward tending!
How the mighty crags are bending!
Their giant-snouted summits, lo!
How they snort, and how they blow!
Brook and brooklet trickling go,
Over stone and turf along.
Hear I rustling? hear I song?
Hear I loving voices chime?
Voices of the golden time?
All for which the heart is aching ;
And the echo, like a strain
Long remembered, comes again.
Too-whit! Too-whoo-hoo! There a way
Piping pewit, owl, and jay!
Can it be they all are waking?
Are those lizards on the banks?
Bloated bodies, slender shanks
And the roots, in snaky fold,
From the cliffs, and through the sands,
Thrusting convoluted bands,
Threatening to seize and hold,
Life-like, blotched, athwart the dells
Reach their polyp tentacles
At the traveller; and the mice
Thousand-coloured, squadron-wise.
Through the moss, and through the heather!
And the fire-beetles fly,
A bewildering company!
Whirled in thickening swarms together!
Stand we still? I prithee say!
Or advance we on the way?
192
FAUST.
All revolves; in wild grimace
Crags and trees distorted flicker
And Will-o'-wisps career and blaze,
Swelling larger, crowding thicker!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Seize and hold my girdle fast!
We've reached a central height at last,
From which our dazzled eyes behold
How Mammon turns the hills to gold.
FAUST.
Through all the vales how strangely glimmers
Red lustre, like a dreary dawn;
Deep down below the cliffs it shimmers,
In gulphs and chasms far withdrawn :
Here vapour floating-mist ascending—
Through gauzy veil the splendour gleams ;
Now darts, a slender thread extending,
Now bursts as when a fountain streams;
Now, sudden flashing forth its fires,
Runs myriad-veined the gorges through;
Then up the winding glens retires,—
Then dissipates itself anew.
There fiery sparkles, upward flowing,
Like scattered gold-dust spread and fall;
Oh, look, how all the peaks are glowing
Along the sable mountain wall !
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Does not Lord Mammon light before ye
With regal pomp his palace here ?
You're lucky to have seen his glory;
E'en now the roystering guests are near.
FAUST.
193
FAUST.
How rave the storm-blasts through the air!
With furious buffets on my neck they blow.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Hold tightly to the ancient rock-ribs there!
Or you'll be swept into the gulph below.
With cloud the night o'ercast has grown ;
Hark! how the forests howl and moan!
The owlets in terror are flitting ;
Hark! how the pillars are splitting,
The evergreen palace sustaining!
How the branches are creaking and straining!
The great trunks are groaning aghast,
As their roots are upwrenched by the blast.
In fearfully entangled fall,
One on another crash they all;
And through the gullies wreck entwined,
Hisses and howls the raving wind!
Hear you voices, there on high?
Now they're distant, now they're nigh!
Ay! the whole mountain-side along,
Resounds a ranting Witches' song!
CHORUS OF WITCHES.
The Witches to the Brocken fly;
The grass
is green and the stubble dry.
Thither all the rout repair,
Sir Urian is sitting there.
Over stock, and over stone,
Witch, goat, and warlock hurry on.
13
194
FAUST.
VOICE.
The ancient Baubo cometh now!
She rides alone on a farrow-sow!
CHORUS.
Where honour is merited, honour we pay.
Let old Mother Baubo go leading the way!
A stately sow! and mother astride her!
Let all the witch company follow the rider!
VOICE.
Which way did you come ?
VOICE.
Over Ilsenstein I;
I peeped at the owl's nest in hurrying by.
She opened such eyes!
VOICE.
To perdition be cast!
Why ride you so fast?
She grazed me in passing, the jade!
Only look at the gash she has made!
CHORUS OF WITCHES.
The way is broad,
is broad, the way is long;
What an outrageous, maddened throng!
With forks, and with besoms, we're jostled and harried,
Till the baby is stifled, the mother miscarried.
SEMI-CHORUS. WIZARDS.
We creep along like any snail,
While far in front the women sail.
When starting for an evil place,
By a thousand paces they win the race.
FAUST
195
SEMI-CHORUS.
WITCHES.
No! We maintain that is not so:
With a thousand paces we women go:
But while we hasten for our lives,
At one long bound the man arrives.
VOICE (above).
Come with us! Come with us! from Felsensee!
VOICES (below).
O would that with you we might up and away!
We are washed and anointed from speck and from
stain ;
But all our endeavours are labour in vain.
BOTH CHORuses.
The wind is still; the stars have fled
The mournful moon now hides her head
But sputtering fiery sparkles flow,
To light the way the witches go.
Stay! Stay!
VOICE (below).
VOICE (above).
Who calls from the gulph below?
VOICE (below).
O take me with you, I implore!
Three hundred years I've climbed, or more,
Nor can attain the mountain crest,
Though sore I long to join the rest.
13-2
196
FAUST.
BOTH IN CHORUS.
A staff will carry, a besom float!
Bestride a pitchfork! mount a goat!
He, who to-night shall fail to soar,
May grovel hopeless evermore!
HALF-WITCH (below).
How long have I been hobbling on,
To find them all before me gone!
At home I could not rest in peace,
Nor here does my vexation cease.
CHORUS OF WITCHES.
'Tis salve that makes the witch prevail.
A rag supplies a goodly sail;
With trough for ship we launch on high ;
Who flies not now, will never fly!
BOTH CHORUSES.
When at the peak our course shall end,
Then sweeping downward swift descend!
And cover all the heathy ground,
With witch battalions wide around!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
(They descend.)
With crowding, pushing, babbling, bustling,
Whizzing and whirling, clattering, hustling,
Fizz, flame, and stink, they give us here
A genuine witches' atmosphere!
Mind we're not parted! keep close near!
Where are you
?
FAUST (from a distance).
Here!
FAUST
197
MEPHISTOPHELES.
So quickly hence conveyed!
Then shall my power as master be obeyed!
Squire Voland comes! Sweet people! Place! Make way!
So now we may
Here, doctor! take my arm !
From this distracted rabble flee ;
Too mad their mood for sober folks like me.
There's a peculiar glimmering close by,
Behind that copse; there sport perchance may be.
Let's slip off quietly at once, and try!
FAUST.
Spirit of contradiction! Well, lead on!
Yet truly this is wisdom at the height!
To climb the Brocken on Walpurgis night,
And then slink off to meditate alone!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
But see! what numerous fires are lighted!
Here's quite a cosy club united;
With few one need not solitary be.
FAUST.
To mount the height were better far to me!
There, whirling smoke and flame I view ;
There, all stream up, to reach the fiend resolved;
There will be many a riddle solved!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
And many a riddle knotted too.
Leave the great world to rave and riot!
We'll shelter here in peace and quiet.
By an old adage it is said,
198
FAUST
That of the great world little worlds are made.
I see young witches void of clothing;
And ancient witches dressed with art.
Come! act for once the friendly part!
The sport is great, the trouble nothing.
Hark to those blessed instruments intoning!
One must get used to their accursed droning.
Come! Come along! So must it really be:
I'll join the group, and take you in with me:
Your thanks one day I shall be earning.
This is no scanty space, what say you, friend?
Do but look there, you hardly see the end!
Hundreds of fires, all in rows, are burning!
There's cooking, dining, dancing, drinking, toying,
What can be met with better worth enjoying?
FAUST.
Shall you, to introduce us at the revel,
Announce yourself as sorcerer or devil?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
In general I appear incognito;
Still, on high days, one's orders one may show.
The garter would be slight distinction here,
But all the guests the cloven foot revere.
See you that snail, with horns toward me turned ?
She, with her subtle sense of feeling,
That there is somewhat in me has discerned.
Here, if I would, my rank there's no concealing.
Come then, from fire to fire on we'll wander;
You shall be gallant, I will act the pander.
(To some who are sitting round some expiring embers.)
Old gentlemen! Why thus apart reclining?
I fain would see you in the circle shining,
FAUST.
199
Immersed in revelry and riot;
You've ample time at home for sitting quiet.
GENERAL,
Service to nations vainly paid is!
Do what you will! your labour's lost!
For with the people, as with ladies,
The youngest always please the most.
MINISTER.
None now the ancient courses hold.
Would the good times we might recall,
When we and ours were all in all !
That was the genuine age of gold.
PARVENU.
No fools have we been ever found.
Nor e'er at moral fences faltered;
Yet things keep turning round and round,
Just when we would not have them altered.
AUTHOR.
Who now will ever think of reading
A single page of common sense?
This blessed youth beat all preceding,
In sauciness, and pert pretence.
MEPHISTOPHELES (who suddenly appears very old).
I feel that men for doom are ripening quickly,
Now that the last time here, I've dragged my legs;
When my own little cask is running thickly,
"Tis plain the world is coming to the dregs.
200
FAUST.
PEDLAR WITCH.
My masters! do not hurry by,
And lose the present opportunity!
Look at my wares attentively!
I've goods to suit the whole community.
And yet there's nothing I am vending,
The like of which on earth you'll find,
That has not once, some woe transcending
Brought on the world and human kind.
No knife that's not dripped blood from blade and haft,
No cup, from which a sound and healthy life
Has not been withered by a poisoned draught;
No gem, that's not seduced a worshipped wife;
No sword, that has not compact cleft in twain,
Or from behind a foeman foully slain.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Gossip! The times you've quite mistaken!
What's done is done; what's o'er is o'er ;
By novelty alone we're taken ;
Lay in of novelties a store!
FAUST.
My wits begin to lose their level!
This with a vengeance is a revel!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
The crowds are onward, upward rushing;
You're pushed even while you think you're pushing,
Who's that?
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Ah! look at her attentively!
That's Lilith!
FAUST.
201
4
Who?
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Adam's first wife was she.
But that rich hair take heed how you survey!
Those lustrous tresses that her beauty deck :
If cnce she twines them round a young man's neck,
She is not wont to let him break away.
FAUST.
Two sit apart, a young with an old lady ;
They've had, it seems, a rousing dance already.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
To-night folks don't sit resting long.
They dance again ! we'll join them—come along!
FAUST (dancing with the girl).
A lovely dream once came to me,
I saw a blooming apple tree;
Two lovely apples on it gleamed,
I climbed, and reached them, so I dreamed.
THE BEAUTY.
Fair apples then you dearly prize!
'Twas always so since Paradise ;
I'm overjoyed indeed to know,
Such apples in my garden grow.
MEPHISTOPHELES (with the elder).
A grimly dream once came to me,
I saw a withered cloven tree;
The tree was knotty, dry, and tough,
And yet it pleased me well enough.
202
FAUST.
OLD WOMAN.
My deepest reverence is due
Sir Cloven-footed Knight to you ;
Though rough and dry the bark appear,
The fruit has flavour, do not fear!
PROKTOPHANTASMIST.
How dare you thus presume? accursed crew!
Are you such idiots, you know not,
Spirits on feet of mortals go not?
And yet you're dancing, just as mortals do !
THE BEAUTY (dancing).
Who licensed him to interfere?
Faust (dancing).
He thrusts his nose in everywhere.
While others dance, he criticises;
All steps, but those which he advises,
No steps at all he'll estimate.
When we go forward he is most irate.
But if you keep revolving still,
As does his worship in his ancient mill,
He may perhaps not rank you in the worst place,
Provided he's consulted in the first place.
PROKTOPHANTASMIST.
This is astounding! what! go dancing on?
Vanish this instant! now my light has shone!
Ye devil's crew! all order ye forget!
Wise as I am, ghosts swarm in Tegel yet.
How long I've preached, your idle dreams confounding!
And yet you're callous still! It's most astounding !
FAUST.
203
THE BEAUTY,
O, go away! and don't annoy us so !
PROKTOPHANTASMIST.
Hear me, ye spirits! to your face declare,
A spirit despotism I will not bear !
No spirit empire does my spirit know.
(They go on dancing.)
I see that nothing will succeed to-day ;
Still, I am aye prepared my course to run;
And hope, before my enterprise is done,
The devil and the poets to dismay.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Now straight for the next puddle will he steer,
And there will squat, to find relief assured;
For when the leeches fasten on his rear,
Of spirits and of spirit he'll be cured.
(To FAUST, who has left the dance.)
Why did you let the pretty damsel go?
Who danced and sang with you so long?
FAUST.
Why, in the middle of her song,
A red mouse darted from between her lips!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Suppose it did! Pray why should that dismay one ?
Enough for you, the mouse was not a grey one.
Who lets such trifles love's delight eclipse?
204
FAUST.
Then I saw-
What?
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
FAUST.
Mephisto! seest thou? say!
A fair, pale, lonely girl there, far aside;
She's passing slowly from the spot away,
And seems as though on fettered feet to glide.
She looks to me, I must confess,
Like Gretchen in her loveliness.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Let that alone! with danger it is rife.
A magic form, an idol, void of life.
To meet that silent figure is not good;
Her glassy stare can freeze the living blood,
And turn the throbbing heart to stirless stone.
Hast thou Medusa's story never known?
FAUST.
'Tis true! the eyes as of a corpse I
see,
That never by a loving hand were closed;
Yet that's the form Gretchen gave up to me,
That the sweet breast on which my head reposed.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
O fool, too soon deceived! her arts beware!
She seems to each his first love's form to bear.
FAUST.
What rapture! and what deadly grief of heart!
From that fixed look I cannot bear to part.
FAUST.
205
How strange! I see around her throat of snow,
A single slender crimson line,
Traced like a knife-edge thin and fine!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
In truth, I see, 'tis even so.
Her head beneath her arm can she convey;
'Twas long ago by Perseus lopped away.
This fondness for illusion still!
Come, let us hence, and up the hill !
Here all, as in the Prater, is astir,
And, if I have not lost my senses,
There close before us stands a theatre !
What is the piece?
SERVIBILIS.
Even now it recommences !
The piece is new, last of a course of seven ;
That number's now invariably given.
An amateur both plot and words invented;
By amateurs it's also represented.
You'll pardon my departure, sirs, I'm certain;
My amateur work is to draw the curtain.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
I'm glad to see you at the Blocksberg, here,
You're truly acting in your proper sphere.
FAUST.
207
WALPURGIS NIGHT'S DREAM;
OR,
OBERON AND TITANIA'S GOLDEN WEDDING
FEAST.
INTERMEZZo.
MANAGER.
Mieding's trusty children, we
Shift to-night no scenery;
Dewy dell and rock and tree
Are all the stage machinery.
HERALD.
That the wedding golden be,
Must fifty years have rolled on :
If ended be the enmity
Better is the golden.
OBERON.
Spirits, who my rule obey!
Come ye, when invited!
For the king and queen to-day
Are again united.
PUCK.
Here comes Puck with antic bound
Light his ankles whisking;
Hundred others caper round,
Frolicking and frisking.
208
FAUST.
ARIEL.
Ariel sets up his song
That sweet as heavenly lute is;
Many frights it draws along,
And also many beauties.
OBERON.
Couples who would fain agree!
Hear my exhortation !
Fond and loving would ye be?
Try but separation !
TITANIA.
If man show temper, woman whim,
You'll do them both the best turn,
To eastern quarters wafting him,
Her far away to western.
ORCHESTRA (tutti fortissimo).
Gnat's proboscis, trump of fly,
With all their brother swarmers,
Frogs in wet, and grigs in dry,
These are the performers!
SOLO.
Here's the bagpipe coming! See!
A huge soap-bubble swelled up ;
Hark to the schnecke-schnicke-schnee!
Through his snout high held up.
SPIRIT (forming itself).
Paunch of toad, and spider's foot,
And winglets for the nurseling!
If 'twill not make a little brute,
"Twill make a little verseling.
FAUST.
209
LOVING Couple.
With mincing step, and lofty bound,
Through dews and scents Sabæan,
You fail, though lightly tripping round,
To reach the Empyrean.
INQUISITIVE TRAVELLER.
Is this a lying travesty?
Or does my sight need clearing?
The fair God Oberon, is he
On such a stage appearing?
ORTHODOX.
Though tailless, and with clawless hands,
He stands upon a level
With all the gods of Grecian lands,
Indubitable devil!
NORTHERN ARTIST.
My present efforts, to be sure,
Are only sketchy scratching;
But for the grand Italian tour
A project I am hatching.
PURIST.
Ah! Evil fortune brings me here,
Where still the din grows louder ;
Of all this host of hags appear
But only two in powder.
YOUNG WITCH.
They powder wear and petticoat,
Who old and grey are growing;
But I sit naked on my goat,
My buxom body showing!
14
210
FAUST.
MATRON.
We will not quarrel; never be
Good manners so forgotten!
Yet, ere it's ripe, I hope to see
Your tender body rotten!
BAND MASTER.
Gnat's proboscis! trump of fly!
Around the naked flit not!
Frogs in wet! and grigs in dry!
Lest the time you hit not.
WEATHERCOCK (towards one quarter).
Can better company be spied?
Young fellows smart and active !
Each lassie blooming like a bride!
They're metal most attractive.
WEATHERCOCK (towards another quarter).
If earth refuses wide to gape,
And gulp these wretches deep down;
From such a rabble to escape,
To Hades will I leap down!
XENIEN.
Like little insects blood we draw,
With piercers keen and stinging:
To Satan, our revered papa,
Our wonted homage bringing.
HENNINGS.
See! how the swarming crowd in play
Their simple jokes are plying!
That we've good hearts at least, they say,
There can be no denying.
FAUST
211
MUSAGET.
Among this thronging witches' band
Oneself one gladly loses ;
They're easier far to keep in hand,
Than e'er I found the Muses.
CI-DEVANT GENIUS OF THE AGE.
All knowing people honour us.
Come, grip my skirt tenacious!
Like our Teutonic Parnassus,
The Blocksberg summit's spacious.
INQUISITIVE TRAVELLER.
That rigid man, who is he, pray?
So stiff and solemn pacing;
He sniffs and snuffles all the way;
O! Jesuits he's tracing!
CRANE.
From clear and troubled waters we
Snatch fishes for our revels;
Just so the pious here you see
Are hand in hand with devils.
WORLDLING.
Yes! pious folks draw profit clear
From everything they grapple;
They've built upon the Blocksberg here
Full many a crowded chapel.
DANCER.
Another band? A distant sound
More like to drums than citterns!
No! only from the reeds around
The hollow-booming bitterns.
A
14-2
212
FAUST.
DANCING MASTER.
With many an awkward sprawl and flop,
They jig at slow but sure rate;
The crooked jump, the pursy hop,
To all critiques obdurate.
FIDDLER.
Each rascal here the others' throats
Would slit, so sore he spites them;
As Orpheus' lyre the snarling brutes,
The bagpipe here unites them.
DOGMATIST.
Nor lurking doubt, nor critic sneer,
My high assurance levels ;
The devil must exist, it's clear,
Else how could there be devils?
IDEALIST.
Within my spirit Fantasy
For once is too despotic;
In fact, if I'm the All I see,
I'm turning idiotic.
REALIST.
Essential Being plagues me sore;
My firm belief is shaking;
I feel to-day, as ne'er before,
The ground beneath me quaking.
SUPERNATURALIST.
I'm quite delighted at the view,
With all its wild confusion ;
If devils are, that angels too
Must be's a sound conclusion.
FAUST.
213
SCEPTIC.
The flame they follow as it flies
Though gold to gain they really meant;
Devil and doubt are close allies,
Here I am in my element.
LEADER OF THE BAND.
Frogs in wet, and grigs in dry,
Ye dilettante swarmers!
Gnat's proboscis, trump of fly,
Most musical performers!
THE DEXTErous.
Sanssouci this jolly crowd
Is styled, that round us toddles ;
To walk on foot is not allowed,
We march upon our noddles.
THE MALADroit.
Once sponged we many a dainty meal,
All vanished like a vapour!
Our shoes are danced out toe and heel,
On naked soles we caper.
WILL-O'-THE-WISPS.
From black morasses we advance,
From thence derive our talents;
Yet here we glitter in the dance
The most resplendent gallants!
SHOOTING-STAR SNUFF.
In light and flame I shot from high ;
Now fallen to the dregs again,
Here all awry on grass I lie!
Who'll set me on my legs again?
124
FAUST.
THE MASSIVE,
Room! Room! Room! and round about!
As down the grass we batter;
We're spirits, but beyond a doubt
No mortals could be fatter.
PUCK.
Step not like elephants at play!
Lead-footed generation!
Let Puck the lusty show to-day
The stoutest corporation!
ARIEL.
If Nature, or the spirits' might
Your nascent wing uncloses,
Follow my aërial flight
Up the Hill of Roses !
ORCHESTRA (pianissimo).
Cloud-wreaths break in flying flake,
Bright illuminated;
On leaf and lake the breezes wake,
And all is dissipated!
FAUST.
215
GLOOMY DAY.
A Heath.
FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES.
FAUST.
IN Misery! In Despair! Long a wretched fugitive on
earth, and now in prison! Fettered as a criminal, and
awaiting a horrible doom! The guileless, hapless crea-
ture! Brought to this! To this! Lying worthless
spirit! And this thou hast hidden from me! Stay
there! Stay! Roll thy devil's eyes savagely in thy
head, and rack me with thy intolerable presence! In
prison! In hopeless wretchedness! Abandoned to evil
spirits, and hard-judging, pitiless man! And me mean-
while thou hast cajoled by tasteless debaucheries, con-
cealing from me her growing misery, and leaving her to
perish without aid.
She's not the first.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
FAUST.
Dog! Abominable monster! Change him, thou in-
finite Spirit! Change the serpent back to his dog's shape
again, as he oftentimes would run before me in the dusk
—to crouch at the feet of the unsuspecting traveller, and
when he fell to fasten on his throat. Change him to his
chosen shape again, that he may grovel on his belly before
me in the dust, while I trample him underfoot, the ac-
216
FAUST.
cursed! Not the first! Woe! Woe! Is it conceiv-
able by any human soul, that more than one could sink to
this abyss of misery-that the first, in the writhing pangs
of death, should not have sufficiently atoned for the guilt
of all the rest in the sight of the All-merciful?
The agony of this one thrills through my being, to my
very marrow; thou art coolly grinning at the fate of
thousands !
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Now we're already at our wit's end! Just where the
senses of you men break down. Why make fellowship
with us, if you can't carry it out? Why will you fly, if
you're not proof against dizziness?
selves on you, or you on us ?
FAUST.
Did we thrust our-
Gnash not thy ravening teeth at me! It revolts me!
Great glorious Spirit! Who deignedst to appear to me,
who knowest my heart and my soul, why fetter me to
this shame fellow, who feeds on mischief and revels in
destruction?
Have you done?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
FAUST.
Save her! or woe betide thee! The bitterest curses
cleave to thee through eternity!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
I cannot loose the chains of justice, or draw open her
Save her! Who was it who brought her to ruin?
bolts.
I, or thou?
(FAUST looks wildly around.)
Are you reaching after the thunder? Happily, that is
not entrusted to you miserable mortals. To shatter an
FAUST.
217
innocent adversary! that is the true tyrant's way of get-
ting out of his dilemmas.
FAUST.
Take me to her! She shall be free!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
And the danger that you incur! Know that the blood-
guilt of thy hand still lies upon the town. Avenging
spirits hover over the place of the slain, and wait for the
returning murderer !
FAUST.
With the murder and death of a
Monster! take me there, I say, and
That too from thee!
world upon thee!
rescue her!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
I will take you: and what I can do, now hear! Have
I all power in heaven and upon earth? I will cloud the
gaoler's senses. Get possession of the keys, and take her
out with human hand! I will watch. The magic horses
are ready. I will convey you. This can I do.
FAUST.
Up and away!
FAUST.
219
NIGHT.
Open Country.
FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES (rushing onward on black
horses).
FAUST.
What are they at, round the Ravenstone?
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Who knows what they're brewing and working?
FAUST.
Sweeping up, sweeping downward, they hover and light!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
A congress of Witches.
FAUST.
They sprinkle and charm.
Let us on!
FAUST.
221
PRISON.
FAUST (with a bunch of keys and a lamp before an iron
door).
Horror till now unknown my soul appals!
The pangs of all mankind upon me lie!
She's lying there, behind these humid walls,
For innocent illusion doomed to die!
Thou tremblest her form to see!
Thou dread'st with her again to be!
On! On! Thy weak delays keep death still lingering nigh.
(He handles the lock. Singing within.)
By my mother, the harlot,
To death was I beaten;
By my father, the thief,
I was roasted and eaten.
My sister at play
Threw my bones, well-a-day!
In a cool shady corner, and there
I turned to a bright little bird of the air.
Fly away! Fly away!
FAUST (unlocking the door).
She dreams not that her lover listens near,
The clanking chains the rustling straw can hear!
(He enters.)
MARGARET (hiding her face in the straw of the bed).
They come! O bitterness of death! Woe! Woe
222
FAUST.
FAUST (whispering).
Hush! Hush! For thy deliverance come I.
MARGARET (falling down before him).
If thou art man, then mercy to me show!
FAUST.
Thou'lt rouse the sleeping gaoler with thy cry!
(Takes the chains to unfasten them.)
MARGARET (kneeling).
Who, headsman! over me this power
To thee can give?
Thou com'st to take me at the midnight hour!
O pity me, and let me live!
Will 't not be soon enough when dawn has sprung?
I am as yet so young-so young!
And now to die!
Once I was fair-that was my misery!
My love was nigh,-now is he far away.
My wreath is rent, the scattered flowers decay.
Handle me not with such rude violence !
Spare me! I've never given thee offence.
O let me not in vain implore thy grace!
Until this hour I never saw thy face!
FAUST.
Can I survive this agony intense?
MARGARET.
You can do with me what you will.
But let me nurse the child before I go !
(She rises.)
FAUST.
223
All night, upon my breast, I kept it still;
They took it from me but to work me woe.
And then to say that I the babe could kill!
I shall never be joyful again!
They sing songs on me! O what cruelty!
So ends an old sorrowful strain!
But who bade them sing it at me?
FAUST (falling on his knees).
Here kneeling at thy feet thy lover see!
From these vile bonds he comes to set thee free.
MARGARET (throwing herself beside him).
Ay! Let us kneel! To Heaven we'll offer prayers!
See there! beneath the stairs,
Under the cell,
Flame the fires of hell !
The devil,
With horrible noise,
Holds hideous revel!
FAUST (loudly).
Gretchen! Gretchen!
MARGARET (listening).
That was my true love's voice!
(She springs up, her chains fall off.)
Where is he? O I heard his cry.
I'm free! No one shall stop my way!
To his embraces will I fly,
My head upon his bosom lay!
Gretchen!' he called! He's standing in the cell.
Through all the raving, all the din of hell,
The howls and scoffings of the devilish crew.
That sweetest tenderest voice I knew.
224
FAUST.
'Tis I!
FAUST.
MARGARET,
'Tis thou! O say it yet once more!
(Embracing him.)
'Tis he! 'Tis he! And all the grief is o'er.
Where now the pang of prison or of chain?
"Tis thou! Thou com'st to set me free again!
I'm saved!
Already through the street I pace,
Where the first time I saw thy face;
Again I see the garden gate,
Where I and Martha used to wait!
Come! Come with me!
FAUST.
(Striving to lead her away.)
MARGARET.
O stay!
(Caressing him.)
I stay so gladly where thou stayest.
Away!
If thou delayest,
FAUST.
We both of us shall rue it sore.
MARGARET.
What, then! and canst thou kiss no more?
My love! with absence short as this,
Hast thou forgotten how to kiss?
Why in thine arms am I despairing so?
When once thy words, thine eyes with love that shone,
FAUST.
225
Would make all heaven my spirit overflow,
And thou wouldst kiss me till my breath was gone.
Kiss me !
Or I'll kiss thee !
O woe! Thy lips are cold!
No word they say.
Where is thy love
Of old?
Who's stolen it away?
(Embracing him.)
(She turns from him.)
FAUST.
Come! follow me! Take courage, I entreat.
I'll fold thee to my breast with ten-fold heat.
But follow me! That's all I ask thee now.
MARGARET (turning to him).
But is it thou? but is it really thou?
"Tis I. Come with me!
FAUST.
MARGARET.
Thou undo'st my chain.
And tak'st me to thy heart again.
How comes it that thou dost not shrink from me?
Know you, my love! whom you are setting free?
FAUST.
Come! Come! The night begins to wane !
MARGARET.
My mother have I slain !
My child I've drowned!
The gift thy love and mine that crowned,
15
226
FAUST.
Thine also! for 'tis thou, I almost deem.
Give me thine hand! It is no dream-
Thy dearest hand-What's this? It's wet !
O wipe it off! It seemeth yet
With blood to run.
O God! What is it thou hast done?
Sheath, sheath that dagger drawn !
I pray of thee!
FAUST.
Let what is bygone be bygone!
Thou slayest me!
ᎷᎪᎡᏩᎪᎡᎬᎢ .
O no, you will remain till I
Have shown you how the graves must lie.
You will see all done
By to-morrow's sun!
The best place you will give my mother,
And then close to her lay my brother,
And me a little space aside,
But not too wide.
On my right breast the little one.
Nobody else will rest by me
To lie close clinging to thy breast,
That was the sweetest soundest rest!
But now that nevermore may be ;
I feel as though for thee I yearned,
And were by thee for ever spurned;
And yet so kind and good thou look'st and art!
FAUST.
If so, why not with me depart?
MARGARET.
Where? where ?
FAUST.
227
Out into freedom!
FAUST.
MARGARET.
If the grave be there,
If death is waiting, I will haste,
Into the bed of everlasting rest.
But not a step beyond!—And you
Will go? O, Heinrich! Might not I go too?
FAUST.
Thou'st but to will it! Open stands the door.
MARGARET.
I dare not go. All hope for me is o'er !
What good to fly? They watch me everywhere.
So wretched 'tis, to have to beg one's bread,
With evil thoughts too troubling one's head!
So wretched 'tis, 'mong stranger folk to fare;
They're sure to find and seize me anywhere !
I shall be with thee.
FAUST.
MARGARET.
Haste! O haste!
Save thy poor child, while yet thou mayst !
Away! Along the path!
Beside the brook;
Over the bridge,
And into the wood beyond!
To the left, where juts the plank
Over the pond.
O seize it! seize it!
15-2
228
FAUST.
It tries to rise !
It struggles still.
Help! Help!
FAUST.
Be calm! Exert thy will!
Take but one step, and thou art free!
MARGARET.
If only over the hill were we!
There sits my mother upon a stone,
It chills me through with dread!
There sits my mother upon a stone;
She's nodding with her head!
She signs not, beckons not, her head sways o'er ;
She slept so long, she'll never waken more.
She slept that pleasure might be ours,
Ah! Those were happy hours!
FAUST.
No words, no prayers can touch thy sense.
What can I do, but bear thee hence?
No!
MARGARET.
Loose me! I'll endure no violence!
How can you seize so barbarously on me?
I've always loving been and good to thee!
FAUST.
The day is breaking! O! my love! my love!
MARGARET.
Day! Yes! the day breaks-'tis the last day dawns-
It should have been my wedding-day.
To no one that you've been with Gretchen say!
FAUST.
229
My crown is rent in twain,
The blossoms fall!
We shall see one another again,
But not at the ball.
The crowd grows fast, but not a word is spoken—
The gathered thousands there
O'erflow the streets, the square.
The death-bell tolls, the staff of doom is broken.
They seize me now, they bind my hands-
They drag me where the scaffold stands--
For each neck seems the steel to shine,
That quivers raised to fall on mine-
Still lies the world as the grave !
FAUST.
Would I had perished at my birth!
MEPHISTOPHELES (appears outside).
Come! Or your life is little worth!
Delaying! Debating for ever !
My horses already shiver!
The daylight is shining around.
MARGARET.
Ha! What rises up from the ground?
He! He! O, drive him away!
In the holy place would he seek his prey?
He comes for me!
FAUST.
No, dearest, thou shalt live!
MARGARET.
Judgment of God! To thee myself I give !
230
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST).
Come! Or I leave thee here to share her lot.
ᎷᎪᎡᏩᎪᎡᎬᎢ.
Thine am I, Father! O, reject me not!
Ye angels! ye heavenly guard!
Range round me, to watch and ward!
Heinrich! I tremble sore for thee !
She's doomed!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
VOICE (from heaven).
Is saved!
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Away with me!
(Vanishes with FAUST.)
VOICE (from within, dying away).
Heinrich Heinrich !
THE END.
BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, SURREY.

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