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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026192256 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF FAUST 
 
\-vv?^%"^^^^ 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 THE INTELLECTUALI8IV1 OF LOCKE 
 THE VEIL OF 1818: 
 
 A SERIES OF ESSAYS ON IDEALISM. 
 
THE FIRST PART 
 
 \ 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Tragedy of Faust 
 
 IN ENGLISH 
 
 BY,^ 
 
 THOS. E. WEBB, LL.D. 
 
 Sometime Fellow of Trinity College, 
 
 Professor of Moral Philosophy^ 
 
 Regius Professor of Laws, and Public Orator^ 
 
 in the University of Dublin f and 
 
 Bxam-iner in the University of New Zealand^ 
 
 NEW EDITION 
 
 WITH 
 
 THE DEATH OF FAUST 
 
 From the Second part 
 
 LONGMANS, 
 
 GREEN, 
 
 AND CO 
 
 39 
 
 PATERNOSTER ROW, 
 
 LONDON 
 
 
 NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 
 
 
 
 1898 
 
 
 
 \All rights reserved] 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 T 
 
 
 
 (^f'ls 
 
 Kl|:l-). 
 
 
 
 ti K' 1 V 1 
 
 ui'i V 
 
 
■'^H 
 
 
 

 TO 
 THE ENGLISH GOETHE SOCIETY 
 
 AND 
 
 THE GOETHE-GESELLSCHAFT 
 WEIMAR 
 
The first edition of this work was published in the 
 Dublin University Press Series, by the favour of the 
 University authorities, and the author has availed 
 himself of the leisure, which a Judicial Office has given 
 him, to endeavour to make it more worthy of his honoured 
 Alm.a Mater. 
 
 The Prelude at the -Theatre is given in the 
 original edition ; but, as the Prelude is not a ;part of 
 the Tragedy, and is only a statem.ent of the principles 
 on which the Tragedy is constructed, it has been om,itted 
 to make room, for the Scene in the Second Part which 
 describes the Death of Faust, and virtually com- 
 pletes the story. 
 
 The views enunciated as to the Tim^ of Action, the 
 Sequence of the Scenes, the character of the Dramatis 
 Persona, and the general Moral of the Tragedy, may 
 be singular, but they have one recommendation — they 
 remove all the objections that have been advanced 
 against Goethe by his critics. 
 
 DuBUN, tst December, iSqJ. 
 
For the purpose of reference, and of comparison with the prose 
 translation of Mr. Hayward, as edited by Professor Buchheim, the 
 line-numeration of von Loeper has been adopted, and is placed at 
 the head of each of the following pages. 
 
PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN. 
 
THE ARGUMENT. 
 
 The moral of the Tragedy of Faust, so far as a drama 
 so dwersijied involves a moral, is indicated in the 
 Prologue. The general idea is, that though in the 
 struggles of life an honest man may go astray (1. 75), 
 yet, amid all the turmoil of his jiassions, he never loses 
 his consciousness of right (1. 87), and that if he strives to 
 do his best, he will eventually be saved (Part ii., Act v., 
 1. 878). Of such a. m.an Faust is selected as a ty^e, and 
 he is handed over to Me^histo^heles for trial (1, 81) . In 
 the Prologue the Fiend wages that, if j>erm.itted, ha 
 will induce him to take the' downward way. (1. 70), and 
 viake him., like the Serpent, feed, on . dust (1. 92). 
 Accordingly, in the Tragedy he undertakes to devote 
 hifiiself to his service in this Vtiorld, on condition that 
 Faust will becqm-e his servant when they m.eet in the 
 next. This is the contract (1. 1302). Faust expresses 
 his contemj>tfor all the pleasures that the devil could 
 offer him, (1. 1321), and consents to die the m.om.ent that 
 Mephistojiheles can give him a sense of satisfaction. 
 This is his wager (1. 1344). The trial lasts for the 
 greater ^art of a century; but amidst all his aberra- 
 tions Faust never Iqses his consciousness of right, and 
 to the last he is unsatisfied with all the pleasures that 
 the Spirit of Evil could su^^ly (Part ii., Act v., 1. 529). 
 Accordingly he dies of old age; his imm^ortal ^art is 
 borne aloft by Angels (1. 766) ; and Me^histoj>heles, 
 foiled in his expectation of meeting him in the next 
 world, not only loses his wager, but is deprived of 
 the benefit of his contract (1. 771). 
 
prologue in i^eaben. 
 
 THE LORD. 
 THE HEAVENLY HOSTS— then MEPEUSTOPHELES. 
 
 The three Archangels advance. 
 
 Raphael. 
 
 The Sun as erst in tones resounding 
 
 Vies with his brother spheres in song. 
 And his afore-traCed journey rounding 
 
 Speeds in his thundercourse along. 
 The sight gives the Angels strength in gazing, 
 
 Though none can fathom his array ; 
 And all Thy handiwork amazing 
 
 Is bright as on the primal day. 
 
 Gabriel. 
 
 And swift, with swiftness thought outspeeding, 
 
 The Earth revolves all richly dight, 
 The glow of paradise receding 
 
 Before the awful shade of night ; 
 Afoam the Sea, with billows leaping, 
 
 Against the deep-sunk rock careers. 
 And onward rock and sea are sweeping, 
 
 For ever with the rushing Spheres ! 
 
 B 2 
 
4 ' PROLOGUE IN BEAVEN. \M-^o 
 
 MlCHAFX. 
 
 And Storms *hirl, rivalling each other, 
 
 From sea to land, from land to sea, 
 And round them form amid the pother 
 
 A chain of deepest potency ; 
 Ruin aiiame with lightning-flashes 
 
 Clears for the thunderburst a -way, 
 Yet, Lord, thy servants, as it crashes, 
 
 See the calm wending of thy day 1 
 
 All Three. 
 
 The sight gives the Angels strength in gazing. 
 
 But Thee it never can display ; 
 And all thy handiwork amazing 
 
 Is bright as on the primal day ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Since thou, O Lord, art drawing near once more. 
 
 And askest how things fare with us, and e'en 
 Hast seemed well-pleased to see me heretofore, 
 
 I, too, amongst thy servitors am seen. 
 Excuse me, but fine words on my behalf 
 
 I cannot use, though all the circle scoff; 
 Pathos from me would surely make thee laugh. 
 
 If kughter long since thou hadst not left off. 
 Of Sun and Worlds there 's nothing I 've to tell — 
 I only see how men themselves be-hell. f* 
 
 The little god o' the world the same stamp doth display. 
 And is as marvellous — as on the primal day ! 
 
4I-S7] PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN. % 
 
 A little better would he live 
 
 But for the show of light from heaven that thou didst 
 
 give ; 
 He calls it Reason, and employs it so 
 As e'en more brutish than the brute to grow. 
 Saving your gracious presence, he's as mad as 
 One of those little spindle-shanked cicadas. 
 Which tries to fly and only springs, 
 And straight i' the grass its ancient ditty sings ; 
 And if he would but in the grass repose ! 
 In every nastiness he pokes his nose. 
 
 The Lord. 
 
 And ha'st thOu nothing more to say } 
 Copiest thou always to inveigh } 
 
 On Earth seems nothing ever right to thee .? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 No, Lord ! I find things there still bad as bad can be. 
 Man moves me as he moans the livelong* day ; 
 I scarcely care myself the wretch to fray. 
 
 The Lord. 
 Knowest thou Faust 1 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 The Doctor .? 
 
 The Lord. 
 
 One that serveth Me 1 
 
PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN. [S8-7S 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 11 sooth he serves you in peculiar wise. 
 
 lis food, poor fool, is nought that earth supplies — 
 
 ^ ferment urges him to what's afar ; 
 
 E'en to himself his craze is half confest ! 
 Df Heaven he would demand the fairest star, 
 
 And of the Earth whate'er it hath of best, 
 Vnd be it near, or be it far. 
 
 Nothing can Calm the tumult of his breast ! 
 
 The Lord. 
 
 Though but confusedly he serves me now, 
 
 I soon shall lead him into perfect light. 
 The gardener knows, when buds begem the bough, 
 
 The tree with bloom and fruit will yet be bright. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 What will you wage 1 ' You '11 lose your neophyte. 
 Permission if you will but give 
 That I may lead him on a downward flight 1 
 
 The Lord. 
 
 \s long as he on earth doth live, 
 E'en let it be as thou hast said. 
 Man needs must err for life is tentative. 
 
76-97] PROLOGUE IN HE A VEN. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 That claims my thanks — for with the dead 
 To trouble myself I never seek ; 
 What most I fancy is the full fresh cheek. 
 'Tis not for a dead thing that I 'm~ in the house — 
 In short, I 'm what the Cat is with the mouse. 
 
 The Lord. 
 
 Enough 1 It is permitted thee ! 
 
 Lead thou this spirit from its source astray, 
 And, if thou gain the mastery, 
 
 Take hiih with thee upon the downward way — 
 And stand abashed, confessing in despair, 
 
 Though a dim turmoil may a good man shake, 
 Still of the right way he is well aware. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Just so ! but no stay doth it make. 
 
 I 've little fear about my stake ; 
 
 When I have won it let me break 
 Into a crow of triumph unreprest ! 
 Dust shall he eat, and with a zest. 
 
 Like that old mate of mine, the famous Snake. 
 
 The Lord. 
 
 Thou 'rt free to come whene'er thou hast occasion- 
 On such as thou I 've never looked with hate ; 
 
 Of all the Spirits of Negation 
 It irks me least the Imp to tolerate. 
 
8 PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN. [98-ni 
 
 Man betrays slackness while his task pursuing, 
 
 Soon doth he long for absoMe repose ; 
 
 So for his mate advisedly I chose 
 A Fiend that stirs and spurs, and must, as devil, be 
 doing 1 — 
 
 But ye, true Sons of God, with joy survey 
 
 The living Beauty in its rich array ! 
 
 The Eternal Genesis, which works and lives. 
 
 Embrace you in the bounds where love is sought ! 
 And make ye of the shifting shapes it gives 
 
 Enduring things by ever-during thought ! 
 
 [ Heaven closes, and the Archangels separate. 
 
 Mephistopheles (alone). 
 
 Frorn time to time I like the Sire to see — 
 
 So not to break with him I seek. 
 'Tis mighty handsome in a high grandee 
 
 So affably with the devil himself to speak. 
 
The Wager on Earth. 
 
 If thou by pleasure canst cajole. 
 Or if, by any charm thou hast. 
 
 Thou once canst satisfy the soul, 
 Then let that moment be my last. 
 
THE FIRST PART OF THE TRAGEDY. 
 
TIME OF A CTION. 
 
 The Drama on Earth must be suji^osed to commence 
 im.m.ediately after the so-called wager has been made in 
 Heaven. 2he First Part of the Tragedy is conversant with 
 the passions and temptations of ordinary life— the little 
 world of action into which Faust is first introduced by the 
 Fiend (1. 1698). The time it occupies is about a year . It 
 o^ens upon Easter Eve (1. 24s), and the interval between 
 Easter Eve and Walpurgis Night can in no case be 
 much more than am.onth. Between Walpurgis Night 
 and the closing scenes of the drama an interval of some 
 ten or eleven months must be supposed. The first three 
 scenes — Night, Without the Gate, and Faust's 
 Study— (io not occupy m,ore than four-and-twenty hours. 
 In the first scene Mephistopheles is invisibly present, 
 watching Faust in his paroxysm of despair (1. 1225) ; in 
 the second, he attracts his attention as a Poodle (1. 794) ; 
 and in the third, he presents himself in person as a 
 Travelling Scholar (1. 970). 
 
I-I6 NIGHT. 
 
 In a high-vaulted, narrow, Gothic Chamber, 
 Faust restless, seated at his desk. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 I 'vE now studied, alas, Philosophy, 
 
 i Law's mystery, and Medicine, 
 
 And, to my grief, Theology, 
 
 ! With eager effort truth to win — 
 
 And here, poor fool, with all my lore, 
 
 [ 'm just as wise as I was before ! 
 
 Master, ay, Doctor I 'm styled, God wot ! 
 
 And for near ten years it hath been my lot 
 
 All up and down, and in and out. 
 
 To lead my scholars by the snout — 
 
 And that we can know nothing I now discern ! 
 
 My heart to cinders it doth burn. 
 
 True, I 'm wiser than those airy creatures, 
 
 Doctors and Masters, Scribes and Preachers ; 
 
 I am not troubled with scruple or cavil, 
 
 Little I reck of hell or devil — 
 
!2 SCENE I. [17-44 
 
 But then of all joy I am bereft ; 
 
 No dream that I know aught special is left, 
 
 No dream that as teacher I could find 
 
 Aught that would better and bless mankind ! 
 
 Then I have neither gold nor land, 
 
 No place of honour or command. 
 
 By the merest hound would such life be spurned ! 
 
 Therefore to Magic I have turned, 
 
 If perchance, by the mouth of Spiirit shown, 
 
 Many a mystery might be known — 
 
 That no more with bitter sweat aflow 
 
 I needs must say what I do not know — 
 
 That I may discern what inner force 
 
 Holds the world together in its course. 
 
 View germ and productive power displayed. 
 
 And cease in words alone to trade ! 
 
 Would for the last time thou didst shine. 
 Full Moon, upon this woe of mine ! 
 How oft I 've watched the midnight skies 
 From this lone desk to see thee rise. 
 Till o'er my books and papers thou, 
 Sad friend, didst smile on me, as now ! 
 Ah, that I could on mountain height; 
 Disport in thy delicious light. 
 Round mountain cave with spirits shimm(.i-, 
 Glide o'er the meadows in thy glimmer. 
 Shake off this sickness of the soul, 
 Bathe in thy freshness, and be whole ! 
 
45-72] NIGHT. 13 
 
 Still in this dungeon must I dwell. 
 This cursed, close, immuring cell, 
 Where e'en heaven's blessed light doth pass 
 All saddened through the painted glass ? 
 Bounded by books, heaped tome on tome, 
 
 Which dust defiles and worms deface, 
 And which, up to the very dome, 
 Foul smoke-stained paper doth encase — 
 Crammed full of instruments uncouth. 
 
 With box and bottle ranged around. 
 
 Old furniture cumbering the ground — 
 This is thy world ! A world forsooth ! 
 
 And dost thou ask thee why thy heart 
 
 Is pining in thy bosom pent, 
 And why a pain defying art 
 
 Doth every stir of life prevent ? 
 'Mid living nature God of old 
 
 Placed man as part — but here, instead. 
 Brute skeletons, in reek and mould. 
 
 And dead men's bones, round thee are spread 1 
 Away into the wider land 1 
 
 And this mysterious Book supplied > 
 By Nostradamus his own hand, 
 
 Will it not be sufficient guide ? 
 The courses of the stars 'twill show, 
 
 And, Nature's teaching if thou seek, 
 Thy soul will gain the power to know 
 How spirit doth to spirit speak ! 
 
14 SCENE I. [73-97 
 
 Dry thought incompetent is found 
 
 To make the hallowed symbols clear ; 
 Ye Spirits, ye are hovering round — 
 
 Give, me an answer if ye hear ! 
 
 \He opens the Book, and perceives the Sign 
 of the Macrocosm. 
 
 What sudden rapture, as I gaze on this, 
 
 Flashes through all my senses ! Once again . 
 A happy sense of life, and youth, and bliss, 
 
 Is glovifing through my evety nerve and vein. 
 Was it a- god who traced these signs so well ? 
 The storm within me they are stilling. 
 My heart with gladness they are filling, 
 And, forced by their mysterious spell, 
 
 Nature to lift her veil for me is willing ! 
 Am I a god ? Lo, all is light ! 
 As these pure symbols meet mine eyes. 
 Nature in act before my spirit lies ! 
 Now first I understand the Sage aright : — 
 " The world of Spirit is not barred ; 
 
 Thy sense is shut, thy heart is dead ! 
 Up, Scholar, and thy sloth discard, 
 And bathe thee in the Morning-red ! " 
 
 [^He contemplates the Sign. 
 
 How all into the Whole itself enweaves ! 
 
 Each in some other works and lives ! 
 
 The Heavenly Powers move up and down, and reach 
 
 Theirgolden pitchers, each to each ! 
 
<)8-i2t] NIGHT. 15 
 
 From heaven, with healing in their wings, 
 They permeate all earthly things — 
 All, through the All, harmonious rings ! 
 
 Ah, what a sight ! — Yet nothing but, a sight ! 
 
 Where shall I grasp thee, Nature infinite ? 
 
 Where clasp thy breasts ? Ye founts which life sustain, 
 
 On which all heaven and earth depends, 
 
 To which the wearied spirit wends — 
 Ye gush that all may drink, and must I yearn in vain ? 
 
 \_He turns over the Book impatiently, and 
 perceives the Sign of the Spirit 0/ the 
 Earth. 
 
 How different is the action of this Sign ! 
 Thou, Spirit of Earth, to me art nigher ! 
 Already I feel my powers are higher. 
 Already I glow as with new wine. 
 Courage to face the world I feel awaken, 
 To let earth's weal and woe in turn be taken. 
 The storm to buffet, and, of all forsaken, 
 Amid the shipwreck's crash to stand unshaken ! 
 'Tis clouding overhead — 
 The moon withdraws her light — 
 The lamp burns low 1 
 Mists rise ! — Red lightning-flashes quiver 
 Around my head 1 — There breathes 
 A cold blast from the vaulted roof. 
 And catches me ! 
 
i6 , SCENE I. [122-1 
 
 I feel thee, Spirit, to my bidding bent ! 
 Reveal, thyself! 
 
 Ha, how my heart is torn and rent 1 
 
 With a strange feeling, 
 
 Lo, my senses all are reeling ! 
 I feel my very heart to thee surrendered I 
 Thou must, thou must, although my life be tendered^ 
 
 \_He takes the Book, and with a mysterious air pi 
 nounces the Sign of the Spirit. A reddish fla 
 shoots forth — the Spirit appears in thef^me. 
 
 Spirit. 
 Who calls me ? 
 
 Faust {with averted face). 
 
 Soul-appalling sight ! 
 
 Spirit. 
 
 Hard hast thou pressed me to appear. 
 Long hast thou hankered for my sphere?, 
 And now — 
 
 Faust. 
 Woe 's me ! Thou dost affright ! 
 
 Spirit. 
 
 Panting, to see me thou dost pray, 
 
 My voice to hear, mine aspect to behold — 
 Lo, by thy potent prayer I am controlled ! 
 
 Here am I ! Speak ! What pitiful disniay 
 
137-158] NIGHT. 17 
 
 Seizes the more than man i* Where is thy passionate cry ? 
 
 Where is the breast which could a world supply, 
 
 Sustain, and cherish ? which, with joy elate, 
 
 Of Us, the Spirits, thought to be the mate ? 
 
 Where is the Faust whose call rang through the night. 
 
 Who forced himself on Me with all his might ? 
 
 Say, art thou he, who, whiffled by my breath, 
 
 Art inly quivering to death — 
 
 A writhing and recoiling worm ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Shall I succumb to thee, thou flaming Fear? 
 I 'm he — am Faust — am thy compeer ! 
 
 Spirit. 
 
 In life's wild sea, in action's storm, 
 I rise on the wave, 
 
 O'er the surge I sweep. 
 Life's womb and grave. 
 An eternal Deep ! — 
 A tissue flowing, 
 A life all glowing. 
 To weave at Time's thunderous loom is mine, 
 A vesture of life for the Power Divine ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 'Thou busy Spirit, thou that still dost wend 
 
 Round the wide world, how near I feel to thee ! 
 c 
 
ig SCENE I. [159-17^ 
 
 Spirit. 
 
 Thou 'rt like the spirit thou dost comprehend — 
 
 Not me ! 
 
 [ Vanishes^ 
 
 ' Faust {confounded). 
 
 Not thee ? 
 
 Whom then ? 
 
 I — image of the Godhead ! 
 
 And not like thee ! 
 
 \_A knocking. 
 
 Death ! Well I know it — 'tis my Famulus — 
 My fairest chance hath come to nought ! 
 That visions full beyond my utmost thought 
 
 Must by the barren rogue be troubled thus ! 
 
 Wagner in his dressing-gown and night-cap, with a lamp 
 in his hand — Faust turns round angrily. 
 
 Wagner. 
 
 Excuse me, but I heard you, Sir, declaiming—^ 
 
 Doubtless you read one of the Grecian^plays ; 
 At some improvement in this art I 'm aiming, 
 , For it works wonders now-a-days. 
 I 've often heard it said that as a teacher 
 A player might give lessons to a preacher. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Ay, if the preacher chance to be a player. 
 As may, upon occasion, come to pass. 
 
177-198] NIGHT. 19 
 
 * 
 
 Wagner. 
 
 Shut in one's' room, and only a surveyor 
 
 Of the great world through an espial glass, 
 And from afar, or on some set occasion, 
 How can one hope to lead it by persuasion ? 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Unless you feel it, there's no use in trying, 
 
 Unless it flashes from the soul, 
 And, on its native charm relying, 
 
 Sways every heart withcfut controul. 
 Sit at it ! Glue your bits together ! 
 
 Make of your stolen scraps a hash ! 
 Try, with your heap of ashes, whether 
 
 Your breath can fan it to a flash ! 
 The child and jackanapes may wonder, 
 
 If praise like theirs a joy impart ; 
 But heart from heart will stand asunder. 
 
 Unless it gushes from the heart ! 
 
 Wagner. 
 
 Still 'tis delivery makes the Orator ; I find 
 In this respect I 'm very much behind. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Seek to gain honest influence ! 
 
 On sounding words let fools rely ! 
 True judgment and good common-sense 
 
 Will find their own delivery. 
 c z 
 
20 SCENE I. [199-220 
 
 If you're in earnest, say your say — 
 
 To hunt for phrases why delay ? 
 
 Your speeches, all so brilliant of their kind. 
 
 In which for living men snipt shreds you twist, 
 Are just as stirring as the autumn wind 
 
 Which rustles through the dry leaves, wrapt in mist. 
 
 Wagner. 
 
 O God, but art is long, 
 
 And short is human life ! 
 
 Oft when I join the intellectual strife ' 
 Fears for my head and heart begin to throng. 
 How hard it is a method to descry 
 
 By which to reach the fountain-head ! 
 
 And ere one half the weary way we tread, 
 Why, a poor devil 's apt to die. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 The parchment scroll — is that the holy well 
 
 A draught from which for ever slakes the thirst .'' 
 
 Of no refreshing wilt thou have to tell. 
 If in thy soul thou dost not seek it first. 
 
 Wagner. 
 
 Still 'tis a great delight in Histor/s page 
 
 To seize the spirit of a former age, 
 
 To see how some great sage before us thought. 
 
 And mark to what a height by us it hath been brought. 
 
22 r- 244] ' NIGHT. zi 
 
 Faust. 
 Ay, even to the starry height ! 
 The by-gone years, my friend, are veiled in night — 
 A book with seven seals is the Past ! 
 
 What you the spirit of the times miscall 
 
 Is but the spirit after all 
 Of those in whose record the times are glassed. 
 A sorry spectacle it is full oft 
 
 From which, at the first glance, one turns away — 
 A bin for rubbish, or a lumber loft — 
 
 At best a high historic puppet-play, 
 With grave state maxims, and pragmatic saws. 
 Fit only to be mouthed by wooden jaws ! 
 
 Wagner. 
 But then the World — the heart and mind of Man, — 
 Of these some knowledge we may surely claim. 
 
 Faust. 
 Ay, knowledge as 'tis called, you surely can ! 
 
 Who dares to give the child its proper name ? 
 The few who something of them have discerned. 
 But in their folly failed to watch their heart. 
 And to the crowd must needs their mind impart. 
 Have from all time been crucified or burned. 
 But pardon me — we're far into the night ; 
 
 The thread of this our converse must be broken. 
 
 Wagner. 
 Fain would I stay awake till morning light. 
 
 To hear such learned words as you have spoken ! 
 
22 SCENE I. [245-269 
 
 But on the morrow, as 'tis Easter Day, 
 
 A few more questions let me ask, I pray. 
 
 Great zeal upon, my studies I bestow ; 
 
 True, I know much, but all I fain would know. ' 
 
 {_Exit. 
 
 Faust {alone). 
 
 How strange that hope should not desert the mind 
 Which clings to trash — that he alone should hope, ' 
 Who doth with greedy hand for treasure grope, 
 
 Nor loses heart though nought but worms he find ! 
 
 Dare such a mortal voice find utterance here. 
 
 Where in its fulneSs Spirit floated round } 
 Yet, ah, for once thou hast my thanks sincere. 
 
 Though poorer son of earth could scarce be found. 
 For thou didst snatch me from despair, which straight 
 
 Would all my faculties have overpowered ; 
 The Shape was so gigantically great, ^ 
 
 That as a pigmy I might well have cowered 1 
 
 I, God in miniature, who thought to stay 
 Fast by the mirror of eternal truth. 
 Who joyed in light celestial, and, forsooth, 
 
 Had shuffled off the child of clay — 
 
 I, more than Cherub, who, in fancy's might, 
 All nature's veins was proudly peririeating. 
 And felt myself a god, as if creating — 
 Ah, that my pride should know such swift abating ! 
 
 One thunderword hath put my soul to flight. 
 
270-298] NIGHT. 23 
 
 I may not dare pretend to be thy peer ; 
 
 I had the might to force thee from thy sphere, 
 But to retain thee I had not the might ! 
 In momentary ecstasy 
 
 I felt so little, and so great ! 
 But thou didst thrust me ruthlessly 
 
 Back into man's uncertain state. 
 Who '11 teach me ? What am I to shun ? 
 
 Into the world am I to flee ? 
 Alas ! what we've endured, as what we've done. 
 
 Determines what we are to be. 
 
 E'en to the loftiest thoughts by man attained 
 
 Some baser eleihent for ever clings, 
 And when the goods of this world we have gained. 
 
 Dreams and deceits we deem all better things ; 
 What gave us life — nobility of feeling — 
 In the world's welter perishes congealing ! — 
 If Fancy once, with daring hopes afire. 
 
 And full of the Eternal, soared sublime. 
 Small is the space which now she doth require. 
 
 When all lies wrecked upon the tides of time. 
 Care quickly nestles in the human heart, 
 And causes many a secret smart, 
 
 And restless svyays herself, and scares delight and rest 1 
 Lo, with new masks she evermore is drest. 
 Her form as house and land, as wife and children, veiling- 
 
 As fire, flood, poison, pointed blade ! 
 
 Of what befalls not we 're afraid. 
 And what we never lose we're evermore bewailing ! 
 
24 SCENE I. [299-326 
 
 I am not as the gods — I feel it, and I must ! 
 I 'm as the worm which wriggles through the dust, 
 And in the dust, for which 'tis doomed to crave. 
 Is crushed by passing tread, and finds a grave. — 
 What is 't but dust that straitens these high walls 
 
 Upon a hundred shelves — the mass of trifles 
 Which in a thousand forms my sight appals. 
 
 And in a world of moths my spirit stifles ? 
 Here shall I fill the void within my breast ? 
 
 These tomes must I peruse, from morn to morrow, 
 To learn that happiness is rare at best, 
 
 That all beneath the sun are born to sorrow ? 
 
 Why art thou grinning there, thou hollow skull ? 
 
 Is 't that thy brain, like mine, too deeply pondered, 
 Sought the bright day, and in a twilight dull, 
 
 Still truth pursuing, miserably wandered ? 
 Ye instruments, I feel ye 're mocking me, 
 
 With wheel and cog, and glass retorted ! 
 I reached the door — ye should have been the key. 
 
 Yet when ye'd raise the bolts your master-bit is 
 thwarted. 
 Mysterious in the blaze of day. 
 
 Nature lets no man of her veil bereave her ; 
 What to thy mind she deigns not to display 
 
 Thou wilt not wrest from her by screw or lever ! 
 Ye ancient properties, by me unused. 
 
 My father used ye, and so here ye moulder ; 
 Thou ancient roll, with smoke thou art suffused 
 
 Since dimly on this desk the lamp began to smoulder. 
 
327-356] NIGHT. 25 
 
 'Twere better to have spent my little store, 
 Than burdened with that little here to moan ! 
 
 Earn thou the right to what thy sires of yore 
 Have left thee heir, if thou wouldst truly own ! 
 
 The wealth we use not is a burden sore ; 
 
 What we can turn to use is by the moment shown. 
 
 Why gaze I thus, as yonder spot I mark ? 
 
 Is yonder Flask a magnet to my sight ? 
 Why is all clear, as when in forest dark [light ? 
 
 Round some benighted wretch the moon is breathing 
 
 I bid thee hail, thou ,one effectual Phial ! 
 I now devoutly take thee down for trial — 
 
 In thee I honour human wit and skill ! 
 Thou abstract essence of sweet sleepy juices. 
 Thou concentration of all deadly uses, 
 
 Thy gracious purpose for thy lord fulfil ! 
 I see thee, and' the smart is mitigated — 
 I grasp thee, and the struggle is abated — 
 
 The spirit's flood-tide slowly ebbs away ! 
 Thou pointest outward to the broad expanse. 
 Before my feet the crystal waters glance. 
 
 To new shores I am lured by novel day ! — 
 A car of fire that lightly wings the air 
 
 Approaches me ! To cross the great Inane 
 By a new path I feel that I can dare, 
 
 New spheres of free activity to gain. 
 This lofty life, this joy for gods alone. 
 
 But now a worm, such bliss deservest thou ? 
 Yea, from the precincts of the blessed sun 
 
 Do thou but turn with resolution now ! 
 
SCENE I. [357-383 
 
 !ake bold at once to burst the gates aside, 
 From which men turn away in pale affright ! 
 ere is the time to show that in his pride 
 Man, like a god, can rise to the divinest height — 
 view unmoved the pit of black despair 
 In which, self-damned, thought dooms itself to 
 
 dwell — 
 press right on to that dread thoroughfare. 
 Around whose narrow mouth flame all the fires of hell- 
 take the final step, serene of thought, 
 Ibeit at the risk of fleeting into nought ! ■ 
 
 nd now, pure crystal Chalice, from thy place- 
 escend,- and leave thy antiquated case. 
 Where thou hast Iain for years, forgotten quite ! 
 by gleam would gild the feasts my fathers gave, 
 id brighten up the guests severely grave. 
 As round they passed thee in thy circuit bright. 
 The rich emblazonry that charmed their sight — 
 ich bound in rhyme the meaning to explain, 
 id then the measure at a draught to drain — 
 Recalls to memory many a youthful night ! 
 shall not pass thee now to any neighbour ; 
 ihall not show my wit upon the artist's labour — 
 Here is a juice intoxicates aright ! 
 ith its brown stream it filleth up thine hollow, 
 epared and purposed for what now will follow ! 
 ith all my soul this last draught let me swallow — 
 A festive greeting to the morning light ! 
 
 \He puts the goblet to his mouth. 
 
384-403] NIGHT. 27 
 
 Sound of Bells and Choral Songs. 
 Chorus of Angels. 
 
 Christ is arisen ! 
 Joy to all mortal-bred 
 Wrapped in a merited, 
 Haunting, inherited, 
 
 Sense of perdition ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 What fleep resounding hum, what silver tone, 
 Snatches the goblet from my lips with power ? 
 
 Ye booming bells, already make ye known 
 The glad return of Easter's matin hour 1 
 
 Already do ye sing, ye choirs, the cheering song. 
 
 Which sounded round the grave what time the Angelic 
 throng 
 Of a new covenant the tidings bore } 
 
 Chorus. OF Women. 
 
 Furnished with spices 
 
 O 'er Him we spread them out — 
 True at the crisis 
 
 Fondly we laid Him out ; 
 Fair we entwined Him 
 
 In the grave's winding gear — 
 Ah ! and we find Him 
 
 No longer here ! 
 
8 SCENE I. [404-429 
 
 Chorus of Angels. 
 
 Christ is arisen ! 
 Blest is the Loving One 
 Who the test drearisome, 
 Wholesome but wearisome, 
 
 Stood for a season ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 iTe heavenly tones ! so mighty and so mild, 
 
 Why seek ye me, when prostrate in the dust } 
 ling out where men by feeling are beguiled ! 
 
 Bereft of faith your story I mistrust ; 
 ii'aith welcomes Miracle — 'tis her favourite child. 
 To reach the distant spheres I dare not strive, 
 
 From which the joyous tidings sound ; 
 
 And yet the old familiar chime is found 
 V&a. now of power to call me back to life ! 
 
 n other days, Heaven, with a loving kiss, 
 Upon me in the solemn sabbath hush descended, 
 And mystic music with the bells was blended, 
 
 ^nd, as I knelt, a prayer was fervent bliss ! 
 
 ^ sweet unutterable yearning 
 Urged me to roam the forest and the field ; 
 
 ^nd 'mid the tears with which mine eyes were burning 
 A world before me stood revealed ! 
 
 This song of yore proclaimed the frolic wild, 
 The liberty that spring did never lack ; 
 
 ^nd memory revives the feeling of the child, 
 And from the last dread step now holds me back 1 
 
430-4S4] NIGHT. 29 
 
 Oh still sound on, thou sweet celestial strain ! 
 Tears fill mine eyes 1 Earth claims her own again ! 
 
 Chorus of Disciples. 
 
 He that was buried here 
 
 Now hath ascended 
 Into a higher sphere, 
 
 Living and splendid ; , 
 He in the zest of birth 
 
 Feels a creative joy, 
 We on the breast of earth 
 
 Linger i'n sore annoy I 
 Us He left failing, 
 
 Us that were His — 
 Ah, we're bewailing, 
 
 Master, thy bliss ! 
 
 ' Chorus of Angkls. 
 
 Christ is arisen 
 
 Out of Corruption's hands ! 
 ' Rise and uprisen 
 
 Burst from your bands ! 
 By your works teaching Him, 
 Loving in speech of Him, 
 Bound each to each in Him, 
 Going forth preaching Him, 
 Certain of reaching Him, 
 Ye have your Master near — 
 Ye have Him here ! ji, 
 
SCENE II. [455-460 
 
 Walking parties of all sorts pass out. 
 
 A Party of Artisans. 
 3uT why in that direction, say ? 
 
 Another Party. 
 To the Hunting Lodge we're on the way. 
 
 First Party. 
 We think a ramble to the Mill is best. 
 
 An Artisan. 
 jo to the Waterside— take my advice. 
 
 A Second. 
 ^he road is anj^hing but nice. 
 
 The Second Party. 
 And what say you 1 
 
460-474] without the gate. 31 
 
 Third Artisan. 
 
 , I 'm going with the rest. 
 
 Fourth. 
 
 Come up to Burgdorf ! There you'll find for cheer 
 The loveliest lasses, and the best of beer, 
 And shindies of the primest sort ! 
 
 Fifth. 
 
 My over-lusty bully-boy, let be — 
 Itches thy skin for thrashing number three } 
 I won't go there — I dread the place in short. 
 
 A Servant-maid. 
 No ! No ! Back into town I have to go. 
 
 Another. 
 And he '11 be standing by the poplars, too. 
 
 The First. 
 
 That 's no great luck for me, I trow. 
 .He'll only care to walk with you, 
 With you he '11 dance upon the lea — 
 But what are your delights to me ? 
 
 The Other. 
 
 He won't be by himself^ — he said 
 
 To-day he 'd surely bring young Curlyhead. 
 
2 SCENE II. [475-494 
 
 A Scholar. 
 
 Slight ! How the strapping wenches stride ! 
 Step out, my friend, we should be at their side. 
 ^ good strong beer — ^tobacco with a bite — 
 tnd Betty in her best — that 's my delight ! 
 
 Burgher's Daughter. 
 
 Those fine young fellows only see — 
 
 'Tis positively a disgrace ; 
 They might command the best of company, 
 
 Yet after yonder maids they race ! 
 
 Second Scholar {to the first). 
 
 •^ot quite so fast ! Behind us comes a pair, 
 
 They both are neat and trimly drest ; 
 Dne of them is a neighbour fair — 
 
 Of all the maids I like her best ; 
 Uthough so quietly they wend, 
 They'll let us join them in the end. 
 
 The First. 
 
 >Io, my friend, no ! I hate restraint ! Away, 
 Or we shall lose the game for want of pressing ! 
 
 The hand that plies the broom on Saturday 
 Is best on Sunday, if you want caressing ! 
 
 A Burgher. 
 
 ^o, I mislike him, this new Burgomaster ! 
 lis self-assumption now grows daily vaster. 
 
49S-SI8] WITHOUT THE GATE. 33 
 
 And then what is he doing for the town ? 
 
 Doth it not worsen every day ? 
 
 We more than ever must obey, 
 And more than ever yet pay down. 
 
 A Beggar {sings). 
 
 Sweet gentlemen, and you so pretty, 
 With rosy cheek and dainty dress ! 
 
 Be pleased to look on me with pity. 
 Oh, look, and lessen my distress ! 
 
 Here let me not in vain be playing. ! 
 
 The heart that gives alone is gay ; 
 A day when all the world is maying 
 
 Should be for me a harvest day ! 
 
 Another Burgher. 
 
 On Sundays and on Holidays I know 
 
 Of nothing better than to talk of war 
 
 And war's alarums, when abroad, afar. 
 In the Turk's country, folk a-fighting go. 
 A man stands at the window, drinks his glass. 
 
 And sees the gaudy craft adown the river glide ; 
 Then home at eve in merry mood we pass. 
 
 And bless sweet peace, and peaceful time and tide. 
 
 Third Burgher. 
 
 Ay, neighbour, ay ! Exactly so ! 
 
 Skulls they may split for aught I care, 
 The world may topsy-turvy go, 
 
 So things at home continue as they were. 
 
 D 
 
4 SCENE II. ■ [519-54* 
 
 Old Woman {/o Burghers' Daughters). 
 
 Dh my, how smart ! So handsome too ! 
 
 Who is there you ■would not alfure ? 
 But not so proud ! Yet still you'll do ! 
 
 And what you want I inaybe could prbcure. 
 
 Burgher's Daughter. 
 
 >ome along, Agatha ! I 'm in a fright 
 Lest we be seen with such an old witch-wife ; 
 
 ^nd yet she showed me on St. Andrew's Night 
 My future lover to the life. 
 
 The Second.' 
 
 she showed me mine too in a crystal fair — 
 In guise a soldier, with a wild set round him ; 
 
 '. look about — I seek him everywhere — 
 But, sooth to say, I have not found him ! 
 
 Soldiers. 
 Burg with embattled 
 
 Rampart and pinnet, 
 Beauty with haughty 
 
 Thoughts swelling in it — 
 
 Fain would I win it ! 
 Shrewd- is the service, 
 
 Rich the reward ! 
 
 Roused by the trumpet 
 
 Danger we 're wooing, 
 Ready for rapture, 
 
 Ready for ruin ! 
 
S42-568] WITHOUT THE GATE. 35 
 
 On we go storming ! 
 
 Life we are sharing ! 
 Fair one and fortress 
 
 Yield to the daring ! 
 Shrewd is the service, 
 
 Rich the reward ! 
 And to new conquests 
 
 Hies the gay horde ! 
 
 Faust and Wagner. 
 Faust. 
 Freed from ice are rill and river, 
 
 By the genial, enlivening, glance of Spring ; 
 
 Hope is green in the valley, and joy doth bring ; 
 Old Winter, with a feeble shiver. 
 
 Falls back on the bleak hills, there to cling. 
 From thence, as he flies, he with impotent spleen 
 
 Showers pellets of ice which in strips alight 
 On the mead which is glowing into green ; 
 But the Sun endures not a trace of white. 
 Everywhere, lo, there is stirring and growing, 
 All with colour he'd fain set glowing; 
 The scene lacks flowers, but he takes in lieu 
 Gay mortals appareled in every hue. 
 Turn round, and from this hillock's crown 
 Look back a moment on the town. 
 Forth from the gloomy portal-arch 
 A motley crowd is on the march. 
 To-day all sun them on the sward ; 
 They honour the rising of the Lord, 
 
 D2 
 
36 SCENE II. [569-595 
 
 For they themselves for the day have risen ! 
 
 From the dingy dens of their sordid Babel, 
 From the bonds of the handicraftman's prison, 
 
 From the heavy -depression of roof and gable. 
 From the crush and constraint of street and alley, 
 
 From the church's consecrated night, 
 
 All are issuing into light 1 
 see, ah, see how in crowds they sally, 
 
 Through garden and field to scatter wide — 
 3ow the stream wafts many a joyous galley 
 
 O'er the length and breadth of its tossing tide, 
 ^nd how to sinking overladen 
 
 That last canoe puts oiF from shore ! 
 The coloured dresses of youth and maiden 
 
 Are blinking e'en from the mountain hoar. 
 The village hubbub strikes mine ear ; 
 The people's paradise is here. 
 5oth great and small shout merrily ; 
 lere I am man — nor fear to be 1 
 
 Wagner. 
 
 Vith you, Sir Doctor, 'tis, I own, 
 
 Credit and profit thus to go ; , ■ 
 
 ^et loth were I to venture here alone. 
 
 For I 'm an enemy to all that 's low. 
 'his fiddling — screeching — skittle-pitching — 
 
 Disgusts me as I pass along ; 
 'hey rave as though the fiend their sides were 
 switching, 
 
 And call it pleasure, call it song ! 
 
S96-6I9] WITHOUT THE GATE. ■ 37 
 
 Rustics under the Linden. 
 
 Dance and Song. 
 
 The Shepherd decked him for the dance, 
 Wreath, ribbon, jacket, all aglance, 
 
 With colours he was glowing ! 
 The ring was formed, and lass and lad 
 Around the^Linden danced like mad. 
 Yohey ! Yohey ! 
 Yoheisa ! Heisa ! Hey ! — 
 So went the fiddlebowing. 
 
 The ring to enter he essayed. 
 And with his elbow nudged a maid 
 
 That in the round was going. 
 The buxom damsel turned her head, 
 " Now that's a stupid thing," she said, — 
 Yohey ! Yohey I 
 Yoheisa ! Heisa ! Hey ! — 
 " Rare manners you are showing ! " 
 
 Still round they whirled, of sense bereft. 
 They danced to right, they danced to left, 
 
 The petticoats were flowing ! 
 Becoming red, becoming warm, 
 They rested panting arm in arm, — 
 Yohey ! Yohey ! 
 Yoheisa 1 Heisa ! Hey ! — 
 One arm akimbo going I 
 
38 SCENE II. [620-643 
 
 " Don't make so free ! How many a maid 
 Is first betrothed and then betrayed, 
 
 A heedless trust bestowing ! " 
 But off he coaxed her with a word. 
 And from the Linden far they heard — 
 Yohey! Yohey"! 
 Yoheisa ! Heisa ! Hey ! — 
 The cries and fiddlebowing. 
 
 Old Rustic. 
 Sir Doctor, it is good of you 
 
 That this our feast you have not spurned, 
 And that you join this throng of folk, ■ 
 
 For all you are so highly learned ; 
 So take you this our fairest jug — 
 
 We've filled it withfresh liquor first — 
 I hand it you, and pray aloud, 
 
 It may not merely quench your thirst ; 
 Let every drop that it doth hold 
 To swell your tale of days be told. 
 
 Faust. 
 Ere the refreshing draught I drain, 
 I thank and pledge you back again. 
 
 \_The people gather round him in a circle. 
 
 Old Rustic. 
 In sooth it is right kindly done 
 
 On this glad day yourself to show ; 
 You showed us that you meant us well 
 
 In the evil days of long ago ! 
 
^44-668] WITHOUT THE GATE. 39 
 
 Full many a man stands living here, 
 
 Whom at death's door your sire did tend. 
 And from the fever's rage did snatch, j 
 
 And to the sickness put an end. 
 And though you were a youngster then, 
 
 In each sick house you too were found ; 
 Full many a corpse we carried out, 
 
 But still you came forth safe and sound ; 
 Many a hard trial then you stood ! 
 The High Helper helped the helper good ! ' 
 
 All. 
 Health to the tried and trusty friend — 
 Long may he live his help to lend ! 
 
 Faust. 
 Bow before Him who still doth teach 
 The! way to help, and helpeth each ! 
 
 SJffe passes on with Wagner. 
 Wagner. 
 What must your feelings be, O wondrous man, 
 
 When you perceive the homage you have won ! 
 Ah, happy he, who from his talents can 
 
 Show such a grand result as here you 've done ! 
 
 The father shows you to his son — 
 Each asks, and hastes, and near you draws — 
 The fiddle stops, the dancers pause ; 
 You pass — in rows they stand to see — 
 They fling their bonnets up for glee — 
 A little more, and they would bend the knee, 
 As 'twere the Venerdbile ! 
 
40 SCENE II. [669-696. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 But one step further, up to yonder stone ! — 
 
 Here in our walk we 'II choose our place for resting^ 
 Here, lost in thought, I often sat alone. 
 
 And mortified myself with prayer and fasting. 
 Young, rich in hope, and in believing blest, 
 
 To tears — sighs^wringihg hands — I long resorted,. 
 And deemed the staying of the Pest 
 
 Might from the Lord of Heaven be thus extorted. 
 The crowd's acclaim is mockery when all 's done ! 
 
 Oh, could'st thou in my bosom read 
 How little either sire or son 
 
 Deserves such honourable meed ! 
 My father was a dreamy worthy man. 
 
 Who, oyer Nature and her sacred maze. 
 
 In all good faith, but with a sort of craze. 
 And in his own way, pored to find a plan — 
 One who with grave Adepts surrounded, 
 
 And shut up in his murky cell. 
 With endless recipes compounded 
 
 The nauseous stuff that proved so fell. 
 There the Red Lion, wooer bold, was married 
 
 In tepid waters to the Lily White ; 
 And then in flames the bridal pair was harried 
 
 To various chambers to complete the rite. 
 If then the Young Queen was descried 
 
 With all her colours in the glass, 
 That was the remedy ; the patients died. 
 
 And who recovered no one asked, alas! 
 
697-722] WITHOUT THE GATE. 41 
 
 Forth with our hell's elixir we would sally, 
 And rage on mountain, and in valley, 
 
 Worse than the Pest that walked abroad. 
 To thousands I supplied the bane without misgivings — 
 They died away, and I am living, 
 
 For men the murderers to applaud ! 
 
 Wagner. 
 
 How can this cause you such distress } 
 
 What more has any honest man to do, 
 
 If the received procedure he pursue 
 With scrupulous care and conscientiousness } 
 If, as a youth, your father you revere. 
 
 You will accept whatever he may teach ; 
 If, as a man, you should extend your sphere, 
 
 Your son, in turn, a higher point may reach. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Ah, happy he who still can hope to rise 
 
 Out of this sea of errors ! Here below 
 Man for the use of what we know not sighs. 
 
 And yet he cannot use the things we know ! 
 But let us with such dismal thoughts have done, 
 
 Nor the enjoyment of the hour embitter ! 
 See, in the glory of the setting Sun, 
 
 How, girded round with green, the cabins glitter ! 
 He sinks — he sets^we have outlived the day ! 
 
 He hies him hence, life as he speeds renewing ; 
 Would I had wings to soar aloft from clay, 
 
 And follow him, for evermore pursuing ! 
 
42 SCENE II. [723-749 
 
 Then in the eternal splendours of the west 
 
 Would the still -world beneath me lie enfolden — 
 The hills on fire — the valleys all at rest — 
 
 The silver waters Hashing into golden ! 
 I should not be arrested in my flight 
 
 By the wild mountain with the gorge below ! 
 
 And now the Sea, with all its bays aglow, 
 Bursts like a thing of wonder on my sight ! 
 The godlike Orb at last appears to sink, 
 
 But the new impulse stirs my mind ; 
 Onwards I press, eternal light to drink. 
 
 The Day before me, and the Night behind, 
 The Skies above me, and beneath, the Surges ! 
 
 A splendid dream ! — and meanwhile he is gone ! 
 
 Ah, how the spirit's wings when hurrying on 
 Outstrip corporeal wing, howe'er it urges ! 
 Yet at our birth there is an instinct given — 
 
 Upwards and onwards still the feeling springs. 
 When o'er us, lost in the blue waste of heaven, 
 
 Her shrilling lay the Sky-lark sings — 
 When poised above the mountain larches 
 
 The Eagle hovers in the dome — 
 And o'er the meres, and o'er the marches, 
 
 The Crane is makinsr for its home ! 
 
 Wagner. 
 
 I 've oft myself had many a curious notion, 
 But ne'er experienced any such emotion. 
 Forest and field soon satisfy the look ; 
 
750-776] WITHOUT THE GATE. 43 
 
 Nothing to envy in a wing I find. 
 
 How differently the pleasures of the mind 
 
 Lead us from page to page, from book to book ! 
 Then winter nights are summer to the soul-^ 
 
 A blissful life sets all your lirrjbs aglow, ' 
 And when some precious parchment you unroll. 
 
 All heaven descends, and makes it heaven below. 
 Faust. 
 In thee one impulse only stands confest — 
 
 let the other rest unknown for ever I 
 Two souls, alas, are dwelling in my breast. 
 
 And one doth from the other long to sever. 
 One after worldly things doth fondly lust. 
 
 And with tenacious organs clings to earth ; 
 The other passionately spurns the dust, 
 
 And fain would mount to where its race had birth. 
 If there be Spirits in the air, 
 
 Who, hovering round, 'twixt heaven and earth have 
 sway, 
 Oh, stoop ye from your golden atmosphere. 
 
 And bear me to some brighter life away 1 
 Yes, were a magic mantle only mine, 
 
 To bear me to strange lands, I 'd prize it more 
 
 Than richest robe that mortal ever wore, 
 Nor for a monarch's mantle would resign ! 
 
 Wagner. 
 Invoke not thou the noted powers of air. 
 
 Which streaming through the welkin overspread it. 
 And from all quarters for mankind prepare 
 
 Danger in every form that can be dreaded. 
 
44 SCENE II. [777-79* 
 
 Lo, from the North the spirits sharp of tooth, 
 
 Pounce down upon you with their spiky tongues ; 
 Lo, from the East they parch you without ruth, 
 
 And batten on your very lungs ; 
 If from the South the desert hordes arrive, 
 
 Which heap incessant fires upon your crown. 
 The West sends forth the swarms which but revive. 
 
 Your field, your meadow, and yourself to drown. 
 They love to listen, still on mischief bent — 
 
 Love to delude by readily complying ; 
 They pose as if from heaven they had been sent, 
 
 And lisp like angels, when they 're lying. 
 But let- us go ! The world is growing grey — 
 The air is chill — a mist obscures the way ! 
 We learn to prize the house at eventide. — 
 Why stand you thus, forthgazing open-eyed } 
 What in the twilight can engross you so ? 
 
 Faust. 
 Yon blackDogdost thou see through tilth and stubble go.'' 
 
 Wagner. 
 I 've seen him long ; he seemed no weighty thing to me. 
 
 Faust. 
 Mark the brute well ! What take you him to be .? 
 
 Wagner. 
 
 Why, a mere Poodle-dog, who, in his kind. 
 Is questing for his master, as appears. 
 
799-812] WITHOUT THE GATE. 
 
 4S 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Dost thou observe how round us he doth wind 
 In spirals wide that narrow as he nears ? 
 
 And, if I do not err, he seems to leave 
 A trail of fire behind him as he flies ! 
 
 Wagner. 
 
 Nothing but a black Poodle I perceive ; 
 It may be some delusion of your eyes. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 It seems as if light magic toils he laid, 
 To fetter our approaching feet. 
 
 Wagner. 
 
 Round us I see him bound, uncertain and afraid. 
 Since in his master's stead two strangers he doth meet. 
 
 Faust. 
 The circle narrows — he is close to me ! 
 
 Wagner. 
 
 'Tis not a demon but a dog, you see. 
 
 He growls and wavers — crouches on the ground, 
 
 And wags his tail — all habits of a hound. 
 
46 SCENE II.— WITHOUT THE GATE. [813-824 
 
 Faust. 
 Give us your company ! Come here ! 
 
 Wagner. 
 
 'Tis but a fool of a dog, 'tis clear. ' 
 Stand still, and he will watch your eye; 
 Speak to him, and to jump on you he '11 try ; 
 If you lose aught, he '11 bring it quick — 
 He '11 leap into the water for your stick. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 You may be right ; I do not find a trace 
 Of spirit here — of training 'tis a case. 
 
 Wagner. 
 
 Even a wise man may be brought 
 
 To like a dog that's duly taught. 
 
 Yes, well doth he deserve your utmost care, 
 
 He, of the student tribe the -scholar rare ! 
 
 {They enter the city -gate. 
 
825-844] THE STUDY. 47 
 
 Faust {entering with the Poodle). 
 
 Meadow and field now lie forsaken, 
 
 And shrouded in the deepest gloom, 
 And night the better soul doth waken. 
 
 And solemn thoughts their sway resume. 
 Lulled is each passion, wild and erring, 
 
 Asleep are violence and sin ; 
 The love of man within is stirring — 
 
 The love of God now stirs within. 
 
 Gently, Poodle ! Run not riot ! 
 
 Why do you snuffle at yonder sill .'' 
 Behind the stove lie down in quiet, 
 
 Take the best of my cushions if you will. 
 On the mountain ways we found it pleasant 
 
 To see you scamper and bound your best. 
 But to please me and merit my care at present, 
 
 Act as a sober, welcome guest ! 
 
 Ah, when again the lamp is lighted, 
 
 And cheers the closet with its ray. 
 The heart no longer feels benighted. 
 
 Within the bosom all is day. 
 
48 SCENE III. [«4S-8('9 
 
 Reason again its law delivers, 
 
 And hope again begins to blow ; 
 We long for life's refreshing rivers, 
 
 Life's fountain-head we long to know. 
 
 Growl not, Poodle ! With the strain, 
 Which enraps my soiil with a sacred thrill, 
 Harsh brutal sounds accord but ill. 
 We are wont to see that men disdain 
 
 What they cannot grasp — 
 That, impatient of what would oft restrain. 
 On the Good and the Fair they are ever scowling — 
 Dog ! wouldst thou imitate man in growling .' 
 
 But strive as I will for higher things, 
 From within no satisfaction springs. 
 Ah, why should the stream so soon run dry, , 
 And the spirit be left athirst to lie 1 
 Such an experience is mine 1 
 
 And yet there 's a source which the want supplies ; 
 
 What is not of earth we learn to prize, 
 And for Revelation fondly pine. 
 Which fairer light hath never lent. 
 Than that of the New Testament. 
 For once, with spirit duly strung, 
 
 I take the text which is ground of all, 
 
 To render the sacred original 
 Into my own beloved German tongue. 
 
 \He opens a volume and sets to work. 
 
870-898] THE STUDY. 49 
 
 'Tis writ, In the beginning was the Word I 
 ' At once I 'm stopt ! Assistance who 'II afford ? 
 The Word so high as this can ne'er be rated — 
 It must be otherwise translated. 
 If by the Spirit I am rightly taught, 
 ^Tis writ, In the beginning was the Thought ! 
 "Yet, ponder well on this first line, 
 Nor let thy pen to over-haste incline I 
 Is Thought the efficient cause in nature's course ? 
 Surely, In the beginning was the Force ! 
 Still, as the word is traced beneath my hand, 
 A something warns me not to let it stand. 
 The Spirit helps me 1 Nothing more I need — 
 I know, In the beginning was the Deed ! 
 
 If I with thee must share my dwelling, 
 
 Then, Poodle, cease thy yelling. 
 
 Cease thy baying ! 
 
 I cannot brook a mate displaying 
 
 Such strange disorder where I dwell. 
 
 Of the two 'twere well 
 
 One should quit the cell. 
 
 I must cease to act as host, I fear ; , 
 
 The door is open, the way is clear. — 
 
 But what is this I see 1 
 
 In the course of nature can it be .-' 
 
 Is it substance 1 Is it show } 
 
 How long and broad he seems to grow — 
 
 He rears himself amain ! 
 
 Not a trace of the dog doth he retain 1 
 
 E 
 
50 SCENE ni. [899-922 
 
 What a demon for a guest I chose ! 
 Now like a river-horse he shows, 
 With fearful tusks and fiery eyne. 
 Ah, what thou art I divine ! 
 On such a mongrel breed of hell 
 The Key of Solomon will tell. 
 
 Spirits {in the corridor). 
 
 One of us within is caught ! 
 
 Stay without 1 Follow him not ! 
 
 As a fox in iron gin, 
 
 Shakes an old lynx of hell within ! 
 
 But give heed ! 
 
 Fly to and fro, 
 Fly high and low. 
 
 And he '11 manage to be freed ! 
 
 If your aid can avail him, 
 
 Let it not fail him. 
 
 For he beyond measure 
 
 Hath toiled for our pleasure ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 But first of all the brute to ply 
 The Formula of the Four I '11 try. 
 Salamander shall glow, 
 Nymph to water repair. 
 Sylph shall vanish in air, 
 Gnome labour below ! 
 
923-949] y-fi'-S STUDY. 51 
 
 Who knows not the lore 
 
 Of the Elements four, 
 
 Their resources 
 
 And forces, 
 
 Will fail with disaster. 
 
 Their Spirits to master ! — 
 
 Flush, as flame flushes, 
 
 Salamander 1 
 Rush, as stream rushes, 
 
 O Nymph ! 
 Flash a meteor of beauty, 
 
 ' O Sylph ! 
 Do thy house-drudge's duty, 
 
 Incubus ! Incubus ! 
 Come forth, and cease to thwart me thus ! 
 
 None of the Four 
 
 Hath he in store — 
 
 He lies at his ease and he grins at me ; 
 
 I 've done him no mischief that I can see. 
 
 But thou shalt hear me 
 
 Conjure, so as to fear me ! — 
 
 Tell me, friend, tell. 
 Art a truant from hell ? 
 Then look on the symbol, 
 At sight of which tremble 
 The armies of darkness ! 
 
 He bristles and swells in his starkness ! 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 SCENE III. [950-970 
 
 Reprobate, heed Him ! 
 Say, canst thou read Him, 
 The Uncreated, 
 
 Unuttered, Unsounded, 
 By whom Heaven is pervaded. 
 
 Pierced where sinners abounded ? 
 
 Where behind the stove it stands 
 As an elephant it expands. 
 Dilating, lo, it fills the room, 
 
 Into mist it fain would fleet ; 
 Rise not to the roof — resume 
 
 Thy place before thy master's feet ! 
 Thou seest I do not vainly threat. 
 With holy fire I will scorch thee yet 1 
 Wait not to know 
 
 The light that hath the triple glow ! 
 Wait not to know 
 The direst. effort of my skill ! 
 
 As the mist clears, Mephistopheles comes forward from 
 behind the stove, dressed like a Travelling Scholar. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Why this ado 1 Say, what 's your worship's will ? 
 
 Faust 
 
 So this, then, is the kernel of the cur — 
 
 A strolling clerk 1 The case quite laughable is getting. 
 
•971-986] THE STUDY. 53 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Permit me to salute you, learned sir ! 
 You've given me an awful sweating. 
 
 Faust. 
 What is your name 1 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 A trifling thing to know 
 For one who treats the Word with such disdain, 
 Who, far removed from outward show, 
 The inner nature would attain. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 With gentry such as you we well may claim 
 
 To know your nature when we know your name. 
 
 As to your quality we 're not beguiled, 
 
 When Lord of Flies— Destroyer — Liar — ^you are styled. 
 
 Who are you then .? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Part of the Power which would 
 Work evil evermore — ^yet evermore works good. 
 
 Faust. 
 What is it that your paradox implies ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 I am the Spirit that evermore denies ! 
 And rightly, too ! All Being at its birth 
 Returns to Nothing — that is all its worth ; 
 
54 SCENE in. [987-1010 
 
 Therefore 'twere better far that nought should be ! 
 So what you name indifferently 
 Sin — Ruin — Evil in its full extent — 
 Is my peculiar element ! 
 
 Faust. 
 You style yourself 3. part, and whole you're fronting me ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 I tell the modest truth to thee — 
 Though man, that world of folly, in his soul 
 Believes himself to be a whole, 
 I 'm but a part of Part — a part of Night, 
 Which once was All, and then gave birth to Light — 
 The imperious Light, who fain would overwhelm 
 His mother Night, and oust her of her realm ! 
 And yet, strive as he will, he only strives in vain ! 
 Attached to Body he must still remain- 
 He streams from Body — Bodies he makes bright — 
 
 And Body stops him in his mid career ! 
 
 Erelong with Body may he disappear. 
 And all once more be Universal Night ! 
 
 Faust. 
 Now know I your distinguished mission 1 
 You can't on a great scale work perdition, 
 And so you try it on a small. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 And, sooth, to little purpose, after all ! 
 This bulky world, this God-knows-what, 
 Which sets up as opposed to Nought, 
 
IOII-I033] THE STUDY. 55 
 
 In spite of all I 've undertaken 
 I know not how it can be shaken, 
 
 Though !Fire — Flood — Tempest — Earthquake — I com- 
 mand ; 
 Unruffled in the end are Sea and Land ! 
 And that damned trash, of brutes and men the 
 brood, 
 
 I 'm baffled by their masses serried. 
 
 What crowds I have already buried ! 
 And still there circulates the fresh young blood. 
 'Tis fit to drive one mad, this ceaseless birth ! 
 From Air and Water, as from Earth, 
 Germs by the thousand burst, their cage, 
 
 In wet and dry, and hot and cold ! 
 
 On Fire had I not laid mine hold 
 Nought should I have for appanage ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 And so unable to resist 
 
 The power that peoples sea and sod. 
 In spite you clench your devil's fist. 
 
 And shake it in the face of God 1 
 Something more eligible find. 
 
 Strange Son of Chaos, to be at ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 I '11 turn it over in my mind — 
 
 The next time we will talk of that ! 
 At present I '11 retire, if you '11 allow. 
 
56 scene iii. [1034-1054 
 
 Fau?t. 
 
 I see not why you ask my leave ; 
 I 've made acquaintance with you now, 
 
 Your calls I 'm willing to receive ; 
 There is the window — there the door — 
 
 Then you 've a chimney, too, I trow. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 To tell the truth, I see upon the floor 
 
 A slight impediment when I would go — 
 The Wizard-foot— the threshold Spellr- 
 
 Faust.' 
 The Pentagram is your dismay ? 
 Resolve me then, O Son of Hell, 
 How came you here if that can bar your way ? 
 How was so choice a spirit caught ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Observe it well — 'tis not exactly wrought ; 
 The lines of the outward angle, as you see, 
 Between them leave a little gap. 
 
 Faust. 
 It was a fortunate mishap ! 
 My prisoner, then, you seem to be 1 
 So much from accident I win ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 The Dog marked nothing as he bounded iii ; 
 Things now look differently — I doubt 
 The Devil 's unable to get out. 
 
ioss-i07i] the study. 57 
 
 Faust. 
 But why not through the window leap ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Phantom or Fiend, one law we're bound to keep — 
 We must get out where we get in ; the route 
 We 're free to choose, and then we 're bondsmen to 
 the law. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Hell hath its statutes .? Good ! From this I draw 
 The inference that a binding pact 
 
 May with you gentry be concluded here 1 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Whate'er we promise you will get it clear ; 
 Nothing do we deduct, in point of fact. 
 But this will further thought require — 
 
 We '11 talk about it the next time we meet ; 
 
 But now most humbly I entreat 
 That you '11 permit me to retire. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Nay, for a moment longer, pray, remain, 
 And tell me something that is news. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Let me go now— I '11 soon be back again, 
 And you may ask me anything you choose. 
 
s8 ' scene iii. [1072-1oq2 
 
 , Faust. 
 
 I snared you not — when all is told, 
 
 You 're taken in your own device ; 
 When you hold the devil, keep your hold — 
 
 You '11 not be apt to catch him twice ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 If such your pleasure, I am quite prepared 
 
 To bear you company awhile. 
 Provided while your room with me is shared 
 
 My arts may suitably the time beguile. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 With all my heart — in that you're free ; 
 But something joyous let it be. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 More joy for every sense within thee 
 
 In these brief moments thou shalt win thee 
 
 Than in a year's monotony I 
 The songs my dainty Sprites will sing thee, 
 The fairy forms which they will bring thee, 
 
 Are not mere empty magic sleight ! 
 Sweet scents thou shalt inhale at leisure. 
 Thy palate shall afford thee pleasure, 
 
 Thy touch shall give thee rapt delight ! 
 No preparation do we need ; 
 We are assembled all — proceed ! 
 
I093-II2I] THE STUDY. 59 
 
 Spirits. 
 Vanish, ye glooming 
 Vaultings entombing 1 
 Charming and cheering 
 Haste thy appearing 
 
 Ether in blue ! 
 Would that the darkling 
 Clouds were declining ! 
 Starlets are sparkling, 
 Softer suns shining 
 
 Brighten the view ! 
 Shapes of ethereal 
 Beauty, aerial, 
 Winding and waving, 
 
 Through the air shimmer, 
 Passionate craving 
 
 Follows their glimmer ; 
 And of their slender 
 Drapings the splendor 
 Streams over tender 
 
 Meadow and bower, 
 
 Where, while reclining 
 
 Lost in sweet pining, 
 Lovers surrender I 
 Bowers the vine shading ! 
 
 Tendrils entwining ! 
 Grapes the bough lading 
 Plunged in the welter 
 Of the vat swelter — 
 Streams of wine issue ! 
 
6o SCENE III. [ir22-ii5i 
 
 Flushed the red juices 
 Ripple through sluices 
 Pebbled with rubies — 
 Leave the high mountains 
 
 Lying, behind them — , 
 
 Far from their fountains 
 Broaden and wind them 
 
 Round the hill bases ! 
 
 And the winged races, 
 
 Happiness tasting, 
 
 Sunwards are hasting, 
 
 Hasting to pleasant 
 Isles, that on Ocean 
 
 Dip with incessant 
 Magical motion, 
 
 Where in full chorus 
 
 Crowds shout before us. 
 
 O'er the meads glancing 
 
 Light feet are dancing — 
 
 Sun and air courting, 
 
 All are disporting ! 
 
 O'er the hills lightly 
 Parties are skimming ; 
 
 O'er the lakes brightly 
 Others are swimming ; 
 
 Others are flying — 
 
 All of them hieing. 
 
 All, to the gleaming 
 
 Distant stars, dreaming 
 
 Only of bliss ! 
 
1152-1175] THE STUDY. 6i 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 He sleeps ! Well done, my airy, fairy youngsters ! 
 Ye 've fairly sung him into sleep, my songsters ! 
 
 I 'm in your debt for concert such as this. — 
 Thou 'rt not the man to hold the devil fast ! — 
 All sweetest spells of slumber round him cast. 
 
 Immerse him in a sea of dreams ! 
 But, that the spell o' the sill be nipt and passed, 
 
 A rat's tooth I require, meseems. 
 There needs no lengthy conjuration — near me 
 E'en now one rustles, and anon will hear me. 
 
 The Master of the Rats and Mice, 
 
 The Flies and Frogs, the Bugs and Lice, 
 
 Bids thee come forth into the cell 
 
 And nibble yonder pentacle, 
 
 When well with oil it is besmeared. — 
 
 What, hopper, hast so soon appeared .? 
 
 Then set to work ! What foils my will 
 
 Is pointed at me from the sill. 
 
 Another bite and then the job 's complete. — 
 
 Now, Faustus, dream away until again we meet ! 
 
 Faust {awaking). 
 
 Again deluded am I doomed to be .? 
 
 Is nothing left of all the Spirits shaped. 
 But that a dream belied the devil to me. 
 
 And that a poodle-dog escaped 1 
 
2IME OF A CTION. 
 
 The next three scenes do not necessarily occupy more 
 than a day or two. Mej>histoJ>heles on leaving Faust 
 has promised to return without delay (1. 1070), and 
 accordingly the second scene in the Study must be sup- 
 posed to follow close u;pon the first. The Fiend sees that 
 nothing can be done with the philosopher while he re- 
 mains a fnere recluse, and accordingly he persuades him. 
 to leave the cloister for the world (11. 1186, 1277, 1698). 
 Tfie scene in Auerbach's Cellar is laid on the evening 
 of their flight (U. 1803, 1813, 1834). Faust is disgusted 
 with the world to which he has been introduced ■ 
 (1. 1 941), and Mephistopheles sees that he has no chance 
 of infltiencing the philosopher unless he can give him, 
 the passion and the power of^youth to stimulate the 
 knowledge and experience of age (1. 1987). The scene 
 in the Witch's Kitchen, therefore, follows close upon 
 the carousal in the cellar. Faust is transformed into 
 a young noble (1. 2325). He is now in a condition to be 
 tempted. Scarcely a week has elapsed since, like Job, 
 he was handed over to the Tem.pter. 
 
1176-1183] THE STUDY. 63 
 
 Faust and Mephistopheles. 
 
 Faust. 
 Who knocks ? Come in! Whom now have I to dread? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 TisI! 
 
 Faust. 
 Come in ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Thrice must the word be said ! 
 
 Faust. 
 Come in then ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 So — that pleases me ; 
 To form a league we shall be led ! 
 To hunt the megrims from your head 
 
 I 'm here, a young noble, as you see, 
 In gold-laced scarlet suit arrayed. 
 My short cloak of the best brocade, 
 
64 SCENE IV. [1184-1211 
 
 A tall cock's feather in my hat, 
 
 Sword long and pointed on my thigh ; 
 And I advise you, fair and flat, 
 
 To don the like attire and fly, 
 That disenthralled, unfettered, free, 
 What life is you at length may see. 
 
 Faust. 
 I still shall feel, whatever my attire, 
 
 The pain of this cramped life of earth. 
 
 I am too old for simple mirth, 
 Too young to be without desire ! 
 On me what can the world bestow .? 
 Forego thy wish ! Thou must forego ! — 
 Such is the everlasting song. 
 
 Which in the ear of mortal rings. 
 The burden which our whole life long 
 
 Each hour in passing hoarsely sings ! 
 I only wake with terror in the morn — 
 
 Tears, bitter tears, I weep, to see the sun, 
 The day to see, which in its course forlorn. 
 
 Will not fulfil one wish of mine — not one — 
 But will, to mar all sense of joy, 
 
 Bid obstinate questionings arise, 
 And, all my fancies to destroy. 
 
 Obtrude life's grim realities. 
 And when the night upon my spirit sinks. 
 
 In anguish on my couch my limbs I stretch ; 
 Rest is denied me, slumber from me shrinks, 
 
 Wild visions hover round the sleepless wretch ! 
 
I2I2-I232] THE STUDY. 65 
 
 The god that in my bosom dwells 
 
 Can stir me to my inmost soul ; 
 Enthroned within obedience he compels. 
 
 But nought without can he control ! 
 So by the burden of existence prest 
 I loathe my life, and deem that death is best. 
 
 \ Mephistopheles. 
 
 Yet death is n^'er a wholly welcome guest. 
 
 Faust. 
 O happy he whose brow, in battle's blaze. 
 
 Death with the blood-red laurel bindeth — 
 Whom, after the wild dance's whirling maze, 
 
 Clasped in the arms of love he findeth ! 
 O that, o'erwhelmed by the high Spirit's might. 
 
 In ecstasy expiring I had sunken ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 And yet by some one, on a certain night, 
 A certain brown juice was not drunken. 
 
 Faust. 
 To play the spy is your delight, you own. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 All-knowing I am not, yet much to me is known. 
 
 Faust. 
 If I recoiled, when all was reeling, 
 
 Beguiled by a familiar chime. 
 Which roused remains of childish feeling 
 
 With echoes of a happier time, — 
 
 F 
 
66 SCENE IV. [1233-1260 
 
 I curse the fate that doth environ 
 
 The spirit with a snare and spell — 
 The blandishments that play the siren. 
 
 And keep us in this living hell ! 
 Accurst be that high self-opinion 
 
 With which the mind itself arrays ! 
 Accursft the shows that hold dominion 
 
 O'er all our senses but to' daze ! 
 Accurst the dreams, the dupe's impression. 
 
 Of lasting name and laurelled brow ! ; 
 
 Accurst what flatters as possession, ' 
 
 As wife and child, as serf and plough ! 
 Accurst be Mammon when with treasure 
 
 He doth to daring deeds invite. 
 And when he smooths, as lord of pleasure. 
 
 The couch for indolent delight 1 
 Cursed be the wine-cup's balm deceiving ! 
 
 Cursed, all that love can grant its thrall ! 
 Cursed be all hope ! Cursed, all believing ! 
 
 And cursed be patience more than aU. 
 
 Chorus of Spirits {innistbk). 
 
 Woe ! Woe ! 
 
 Thou hast laid it low. 
 
 The beautiful world. 
 
 With a violent blow — 
 
 Into fragments 'tis whirled ! 
 
 A demi-god dared to assail it ! 
 
 We hale it 
 
 Away to the Void, as a ruin — 
 
I26i-I2t8] THE STUDY. 67 
 
 We wail it, 
 
 The beauty o'erwhelmed with disaster ! 
 
 Though thou art 
 
 Clay, be the master ! 
 
 Show thou art 
 
 Strong and restore it ! 
 
 In thy bosom the edifice rear ! 
 
 With intellect clear 
 
 Live anew ! 
 
 A new course pursue. 
 
 And o'er it 
 
 New strains thou shalt hear ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 'Tis my youngsters 
 Are the songsters. 
 Old of wit they urge the attraction 
 Of joy and action! 
 Out into the world they would 
 Lure thee from the solitude 
 Where the stagnant juices thicken, 
 And the senses fail to quicken ! 
 
 Cease trifling with the sorrow you conceal. 
 
 The vulture that consumes your vitals ! Then 
 The meanest fellowship will make you feel 
 
 You are a man with fellow-men ! 
 Not that it is meant 
 
 To mix you with the common crew ; 
 
 I 'm none of your grandees, 'tis true, 
 But if with me you are content 
 F 2 
 
68 SCENE IV. [12S9-1308 
 
 To take each step in life, I '11 try 
 
 With all your wishes to comply. 
 
 On the spot 1 fell you 
 
 I am your fellow — 
 
 Or, if such ministry you crave, 
 
 I am your servant, ay, your slave ! 
 
 Faust. 
 And in return what must I do for you .? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 On a long day you 're welcome to insist. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Nay, nay ! The Devil is an Egotist, 
 And for the sake of God will scarcely do 
 
 What one he traffics with would list. 
 Out with it boldly — what dost thou require } 
 Such servant, faith, 'twere perilous to hire ! ^ 
 
 MEPHISTOPHEt.ES. 
 
 Here to thy service I will bind me — 
 
 Rest and repose I '11 sacrifice for thee ; *. 
 
 And when in the Hereafter I shall find thee. 
 Why, thou shalt do the like for me. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 To me the Hereafter makes no matter ; 
 If once the present world you shatter 
 The other may in turn succeed. 
 
1309-1333] THE STUDY. 69 
 
 'Tis from this earth my joys I borrow — 
 This sun looks down upon my sorrow ; 
 What may befall me on the morrow, 
 
 Away from these, I do not heed. 
 I 've heard enough ! In after years 
 
 I care not if we love and hate, 
 Or whether in those distant spheres 
 
 There 's still a high and low estate. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 If such your mind, no scruple you will raise. 
 Come, bind yourself ; for all your mortal days 
 Mine arts shall minister to your delight. 
 I '11 give you what as yet ne'er greeted mortal sight ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 What wilt thou give, poor fiend } Was ever 
 
 Man's soaring spirit, in its high endeavour, 
 
 Qompassed by spirit of thy cast f 
 
 Ay, thou hast bread, which satisfies not — hast 
 
 Red gold, which never stays, but fast, 
 
 E'en as quick-silver, through the hand doth run — 
 
 High play, at which man never won — 
 
 Beauty, which, with its breast to mine, 
 
 Ogles my friend beneath its drooping. lashes — 
 Glory, beatitude divine. 
 
 Which, as a meteor, into darkness flashes 1 
 Ay, show your fruit, which, ere 'tis plucked, doth rot — 
 
 Your trees, that daily bud but never bear ! 
 
70 SCENE IV. [1334-1353 
 
 M EPHISTOPHELES. 
 
 Such requisition scares me hot ; 
 
 You may disdain the pleasures I prepare. 
 But, my good friend, the time we soon shall see, 
 
 When at our ease we '11 feast on what is best. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 If e'er at ease upon a couch I rest, 
 Then let there be an end of me ! 
 If I am made self-satisfied 
 
 By any spells that thou canst cast, 
 Or duped by joys thou canst provide, 
 
 Then let that moment be my last ! 
 
 Such is my wager ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Done ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 My word is pass'd ! 
 When to a moment I shall say, 
 
 " O tarry yet ! thou art so fair ! " 
 Then chains upon me thou may'st lay. 
 
 Then let me perish, then and there ! 
 Then o'er me let the death-bell sound, 
 
 Then from my service thou art free ! 
 The clock may stop, the hand drop in its round, 
 
 And time shall be no more for me ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Think well upon it ! We shall not forget. 
 
'3s4-i379] the study. 71 
 
 Faust. 
 
 I ask thee not thy rights to waive ; 
 My life, hot rashly, on a cast I 've set. 
 
 E'en as I am, I am a slave — 
 I reck not if I must be thine. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 This very day, then, when the Doctors dine, 
 
 As servant I will wait on you. 
 
 But one thing more ! — With life and death in view, 
 I fain would ask you for a line. 
 
 Faust. 
 Something in writing, Pedant, wouldst thou own ? 
 A man, a man's word, hast thou never known 7 
 Is 't not enough that I my word have pass'd, 
 
 And so disposed for ever of my days ? 
 Say'st thou " the world streams on and changes fast. 
 
 And why should I be fetter'd by a phrase ?" 
 The notion, still, is planted in the breast, 
 
 And who would free him from allegiance to it } 
 Happy the man whose faith can stand the test ! 
 
 Whate'er the sacrifice he ne'er will rue it. 
 Yet a scrawl'd parchment, with a seal imprest. 
 
 Affrights us like a ghost, and all eschew it. 
 The promise dies upon the pen, 
 Sheepskin and wax are sovereign then. 
 Ill spirit, which shall I purvey, 
 Brass — marble — parchment — paper } Say ! 
 With style — pen — graver — shall I write it .'' 
 
 To choose among them thou art free. 
 
72 SCENE IV. [1380-1403 
 
 Mephistopheles . 
 Why of a sudden this strange rhapsody, 
 So overdone, and so excited ? 
 
 The merest scrap of paper will hold good. 
 And you can sign it with a drop of blood. 
 
 Faust. , 
 If it suffices your mistrustful mood, 
 Thus farcically let my faith be plighted ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Blood is a juice of a peculiar kind. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Thou need' St not fear this compact will be broken ! 
 The dearest purpose of my mind 
 
 Is, in the words which I have spoken ! 
 Too high hath mine ambition swelled — 
 
 Yes, I may only rank with thee ! 
 By the Great Spirit I 'm repelled, 
 
 Nature withdraws herself from me ! 
 The thread of thought is snapt in twain ; 
 Long have I loathed the lore we gain. 
 Plunged in the joys the senses can provide 
 
 Our glowing passions let us still ! 
 
 Let magic furnish at oiir will 
 The marvels which its veil doth hide ! 
 Ours be the rush of time, the rolling'tide 
 Of change, upon its crest to ride ! 
 There let failure and success. 
 Enjoyment and distress, 
 
1404-1427] THE STUDY. 73 
 
 Shift with each other, as they can ; 
 'Tis unrest only shows the man. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Measure or limit, none is set. 
 
 Sip, if it please you, everywhere, 
 
 Snatch, as it flies, some pleasure rare, 
 I wish you joy of all you get. 
 Only fall to, and don 't stand blinking ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 I tell thee, not of pleasure am I thinking ! 
 Mine be the whirl — the agonising joy — 
 Enamoured hate — inspiriting annoy ! 
 Cured of the wish to know beyond my ken. 
 
 To every pang my bosom I will bare ; 
 All that 's allotted to the sons of men, 
 
 Within myself enjoying, I will share ; 
 My mind shall grasp their objects, high or deep. 
 Their weal and woe upon my heart I '11 heap ; 
 My self into the self of all shall be extended, 
 'Till, like the rest, a wreck, I too am ended ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Believe me, who for ages long and drear 
 
 Have brought this diet to the test, 
 That, 'twixt the cradle and the bier, 
 
 No mortal man could the old leaven digest ! 
 Of one like me believe the story, 
 
 God only can be All ! Eternal light 
 
74 SCENE IV. [1428-1451 
 
 Wraps Him who finds himself the King of Glory ; 
 Us he hiath doomed to darkness in despite, 
 And you can claim but day and night ! 
 
 '' Faust. 
 
 I '11 have my will ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 AH very fine ! 
 In one thing, though, I fear you 're wrong- 
 Life is biit short and Art is long ; 
 
 You should take lessons, I opine. 
 
 Select for your associate a poet. 
 And let him, from the fancies he hath fostered, 
 
 Extract each noble quality, and bestow it, 
 Accumulated, on your honoured costard — 
 
 The Lion's mood. 
 
 The swiftness of the Deer, 
 
 The Italian's fiery blood. 
 
 The North's endurance sheer ! 
 
 Let him find you the secret of combining 
 
 High-mindedness with low designing. 
 
 And with the warmth of youthful passion 
 
 Love coolly planned in formal fashion ! 
 
 Myself for friend would like to claim him — 
 
 Sir Microcosmus I would name him. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 What am I, then, if what I 've most at heart, 
 The crown of manhood's whole domain, 
 Is what no mortal can attain ? 
 
I4S2-I47S] THE STUDY. 75 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Thou art precisely — what thou art ! 
 Pile on thy periwig a million locks, 
 Pose with thy foot upon an ell of socks — 
 
 Thou still remainest what thou art ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 I feel it — all in vain have I amass'd 
 
 Such treasures as the mind of man can win, 
 
 And, wearied, when I sit me down at last, 
 No power unwonted gushes forth within ; 
 
 Not one poor hair's breadth have I gained in height — 
 
 I am no nearer to the Infinite ! 
 
 Mephis'Tqpheles. 
 
 My friend, you only see the matter 
 
 Just as the matter's mostly seen ; 
 Ere time the joys of life can scatter. 
 
 We must be wiser than we 've been. 
 The henker ! Thou hast hands and feet, 
 
 And head, and other things, are thine ; 
 And though my pleasure may be fleet. 
 
 No matter — none the less 'tis mine. 
 I buy six stallions, if I can, 
 
 And then of horse-power I have plenty, 
 And dash along, a proper man, 
 
 As though my legs were four-and-twenty. 
 Arouse thee ! Let thy poring be, 
 And come into the world with me 1 
 
76 SCENE IV. [1476-1496. 
 
 The slave that thinks — I tell thee to thy teeth — 
 Is like a beast, with the foul fiend to hound him 
 
 In one dull circle on a blasted heath, 
 While fair green m,eads are lying all arouiid him ! 
 
 Faust. 
 How, then, shall we begin ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 With me you '11 come. 
 This place was meant for martyrdom. 
 What life could be more dull and dreary 
 Than thus the youngsters and yourself to weary } 
 Leave that to Master Paunch, your yoke-fellow ! 
 
 In threshing straw why give yourself annoy ? 
 The best of all that you can know 
 
 You dare not mention to a boy. 
 I hear one in the corridor. 
 
 Faust. 
 I cannot see him, he must wait. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Poor lad ! He's there an hour or more — 
 
 Don't send him off disconsolate. 
 
 Lend me your cap and gown — 'twill fit 
 
 Delightfully my doctorate. 
 
 {He puts on the gown. 
 Now leave it to my mother-wit I 
 
 A quarter of an hour is all I want ; 
 
 Meanwhile make ready for a pleasant jaunt ! 
 
 \_Exit Faust, 
 
I497-IS20] THE STUDY. 77 
 
 Mephistopheles {in Fausl's gown). 
 Do thou but view man's high domain, 
 
 Reason and knowledge, with disdain, 
 Do thou but let the spirit of lies 
 
 Steel thee in shams and sorceries, 
 I have thee, with no terms to keep ! — 
 
 Fate to this man a restless soul hath given, 
 
 Which, spurning all restraint, doth onward sweep ; 
 For the impossible he hath striven, 
 
 Only the joys of earth to over-leap. 
 Through life's wild ways he shall be driven, 
 
 Through all its miserable waste ; 
 I '11 see he staggers — stares — stands passion-riven 1 
 
 Insatiate as he is, he shall not taste 
 The fruit that floats before his lips, and even 
 
 Though he implore no solace shall he know. 
 Himself to the devil had he never given, 
 
 Still to perdition he must go ! 
 
 A Pupil enters. 
 Pupil. 
 I've only been a short time here, 
 And full of deference appear 
 To see and speak to one whose fame 
 All men with reverence proclaim. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Your kindness gratifies me much I 
 You see but one of many such ; 
 Elsewhere perhaps you have applied } 
 
78 SCENE IV. [1521-1539 
 
 Pupil. 
 
 I pray you, deign to be my guide ! 
 
 I'm come from home with spirit high, 
 
 Young blood, and gold in fair supply. 
 
 My mother would hardly let me go, 
 
 But I'm here to learn what 'tis right to know. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 For that you're in the very place. 
 
 Pupil. 
 
 Yet, faith, my steps I'd fain retrace. 
 
 Within these walls and halls I find 
 
 That things are noways to riiy mind. 
 
 The space is so confineid ; you see 
 
 No patch of green, no sign of tree; . 
 
 And in the class rooms, on the benches, 
 
 Sight, hearing, thought, each quickly blenches. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 It all depends on habit. So, 
 
 In taking to its mother's breast 
 The infant is at first but slow. 
 
 Yet soon it feeds itself with zest. 
 And so to Wisdom's bosom bright, 
 Each day you '11 cling with more delight. 
 
1S40-ISS3] THE STUDY. 79 
 
 Pupil. 
 I'd hang upon her neck with joy unfeigned. 
 Do you but tell me how she may be gained. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Before I make you a reply, 
 Pray, let me know your Faculty. 
 
 Pupil. 
 
 I want to be a learned man, 
 And fain would master if I can 
 All that is in heaven and earth — in fact 
 All science, and all nature. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 There 
 You're on the right track, but beware 
 Lest auglit divert you or distract. 
 
 Pupil. 
 
 Body and soul, I 'm on it bent ! 
 
 Still I should like, in many ways. 
 Some freedom and divertisement 
 
 In the bright summer holidays. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Waste not your time, so swiftly doth it flit. 
 Still method makes the most of it ; 
 And so, to begin, my dear young friend, 
 A course of Logic I recommend. 
 
So SCENE IV. [1554-1587 
 
 There will your mind be duly braced 
 
 And well in Spanish boots enlaced, 
 
 So that in future 'twill be brought 
 
 Tq creep along the path of thought, 
 
 And not go zigzag, here and there. 
 
 Like jack-o-lanterns in the air. 
 
 Then long you'll be taught by learned folk 
 
 That for what you did at a single stroke. 
 
 Like eating and drinking, easily. 
 
 You must needs make use of One ! Two ! Three ! 
 
 With thought's manufacture 'tis the same 
 
 As with weaving a web on a weaver's frame, — 
 
 One tread sets in motion a thousand threads ; 
 Backwards and forwards the shuttles are going, 
 The threads, unseen in the stream, are flowing, 
 
 One stroke a thousand connexions spreads. 
 
 Up comes your Philosopher, who but he, 
 
 And makes you aware that it so must be ; 
 
 The first was so, the second so. 
 
 And therefore the third and the fourth are so ; 
 
 And, if the first and second were not. 
 
 The third and fourth could never be got. 
 
 In this your scholars are all believers, 
 
 But none of 'em ever have turned out weavers. 
 
 On a living thing to display his wit 
 
 Your sage first drives the life out of it. 
 
 And when the pieces are in his hands, 
 
 With no bond to unite them, alack ! he stands. 
 
 Encheiresis Naturae they name it now 
 
 Among Chymists, self-mocked, they know not how. 
 
1588-1609] THE STUDY. 81 
 
 Pupil. 
 I don't exactly comprehend. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 In that respect you soon will mend, 
 When once you 've learned how to reduce 
 And properly classify things for use. 
 
 Pupil. 
 
 With all this I 'm as stupified 
 
 As if in my head a mill-wheel plied. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Next, before anything else you try. 
 To Metaphysics your mind apply ! 
 There see that by deep thought you attain 
 What never was meant for mortal brain ; 
 For what enters — or enters not — your head 
 A fine word stands you in good stead. 
 And see to it that for this half year 
 To the strictest order you adhere. 
 You'll have five lectures eyery day — 
 As the clock is striking' be in the way. 
 The text-book of the course prepare, 
 And con each paragraph with care, 
 The better to see, when next you look. 
 That all he has told you is in the book ; 
 Still, write what he dictates, as engross'd 
 As if he were the Holy Ghost ! 
 
 G 
 
82 SCENE IV. [1610-1628 
 
 Pupil. 
 
 With repeating that you may dispense — 
 
 I see its use as clear as light ; 
 
 For what you have in black and white 
 You can take home with confidence. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 But your Faculty let me ask once more. 
 
 Pupil. 
 To Law I cannot reconcile my mind. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Small fault with you for that have I to find ; 
 
 I know how matters stand with this same lore. 
 Transmitted laws and ordinances 
 
 Are an inherited disease ; 
 They steal from age to age as time advances, 
 
 And spread from place to place by slow degrees ; 
 Sense turns to nonsense — benefit to bane ; 
 
 Woe to thee that thou dost succeed thy sires ! 
 
 The innate law, the law the time requires, 
 Of that, alas, no thought is ta'en. 
 
 Pupil. 
 
 My loathing rises with your speech : 
 Happy the pupil whom you teach ! 
 I 'm half-inclined to try Theology. 
 
1629-1650] THE STUDY. ,83 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 I would not misdirect you wittingly. 
 As to this science I make no disguise, — 
 
 It is so hard the right way to ensure, 
 And in it so much latent poison lies 
 
 Which scarce can be distinguished from the cure. 
 Here, too, some one divine 'tis best to hear with care. 
 And by the master's words to swear. 
 The whole to sum up — stick to words ! 
 Then through the portal this aflFords 
 You reach the fane of certainty. 
 
 ^ Pupil. 
 But in the words some meaning there must be. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 ~ Just so ! but you may spare the trouble this entails, 
 
 For 'tis precisely where the meaning fails 
 A wo^d comes in the most conveniently. 
 With words you can plausibly dispute, 
 With words a system institute. 
 In words you can plausibly believe ; 
 A word of one iota don't bereave. 
 
 Pupil. 
 
 I fear my questions are detaining you, 
 
 But I must trespass on you still. 
 
 On Medicine I trust you will 
 Pronounce a weighty word or two .-' 
 G 2 
 
84 SCENE IV. ' [1651-1674 
 
 Three years are very quickly pass'd, 
 And then, God knows, the field is vast; 
 If but a pointing-hand be shown, 
 You then can better feel your way. 
 
 Mephistopheles [aside). 
 
 Enough of this dry canting tone ! 
 
 In earnest now the devil I'll play. 
 {Aloud.') 
 The spirit of Medicine you can catch with ease. 
 
 You study hard the great world and the small. 
 
 To let things turn out, after all, 
 As God may please ! 
 In vain you beat about in scientific guise, — 
 
 We only learn the little that we can ; 
 He that can seize the moment as it flies, 
 
 He isi the proper man ! 
 You 're fairly well built, I perceive, 
 
 And as for boldness you will do ; 
 And only in yourself believe, 
 
 And others will believe in you. 
 First, learn the way the women to allure ; 
 Their everlasting ahs 1 and ohs ! 
 So numerous. 
 From one point you can always cure. 
 Affect a grave air when you call. 
 And under your hat you'll have them all. 
 
1675-1692] THE STUDY. 85 
 
 Procure a title — confidence it brings 
 That in your skill you overtop your peers ; 
 
 You then can feel your way to all the little things 
 For which another man may coax for years ; 
 
 To press the pulse you can require, 
 
 And clasp her, with sly looks of fire, 
 
 Well round the shapely hip — to see 
 
 If too tightly laced she be. 
 
 Pupil. 
 
 That's something like! — at least, the where and how 
 you spy. 
 
 Mephistophkles. 
 
 Grey, my dear fellow, is all theory, 
 
 But still life's golden tree in green is drest. 
 
 Pdpil. 
 
 It seems as I were dreaming, I protest. 
 Pray, may I call and trouble you again, 
 To hear you thoroughly your views explain } 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Whate'er I can, I '11 gladly do. 
 
 Pupil. 
 I cannot possibly take leave of you 
 Ere for your autograph I hand my book ; 
 For such a mark of favour may I look .^ 
 
86 SCENB IV. [1693-1706 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Most certainly. 
 
 \_He writes in the look and gives it hack. 
 
 Pupil {reads). 
 Eritis sicut Deus, scientes bonum ex malum. 
 
 \He closes the book with an air of profound respect, 
 and takes his leave. 
 
 Mephistopheles {alone). 
 Only follow the ancient saw, and that gossip of mine,- 
 
 the Snake, 
 And you'll find your likeness to God to be a sore mistake ! 
 
 Faust enters. 
 
 Faust. 
 And whither now .'' 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 The matter rests with you. 
 The little world, and then the .great, we'll view, 
 With what delight, what gain immense. 
 You'll revel through the course, without expense ! 
 
 Faust. 
 With all the length of beard I wear, 
 Life's easy grace is my despair. 
 The attempt will fail with me ; in fact, 
 When in the world I ne'er knew how to act — 
 With other men I feel so small ; 
 I still shall be confused in spite of all. 
 
I707-1718] THE STUDY. 87. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 The world, my friend, self-confidence will give ; 
 Trust thine own self, and thou hast learnt to live. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 How shall we leave, then .? What about 
 Your coachman and your coach and pair ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 We 've bilt to spread the inantle out, 
 
 And that will take us through the air. 
 Only upon this daring trip 
 No heavy baggage you must ship. 
 A puff of heated air, which I '11 supply. 
 From earth will lift us rapidly, 
 And, if we 're light, a swift course we shall steer ; 
 I wish you joy upon your new career ! 
 
88 SCENE V. [1719-1726 
 
 5llua:Baci)'jsf €t\\&t in Ectpjig, 
 
 A Party of Boon Companions. 
 
 Frosch. 
 
 What ! no one drinks, or laughter raises ? , 
 I '11 teach you to be making faces ! 
 You 're only sodden straw to-night, 
 And yet at times you 're all a-light. 
 
 Brander. 
 
 It lies with you ; there 's nothing you supply. 
 None of your dulness, no obscenity. 
 
 Frosch 
 {throws a glass of wine in his face). 
 There, then, you 've both. ' 
 
 Brander. 
 
 Thou double swine ! 
 
 Frosch. 
 If such I be, the fault is thine ! 
 
1727-1739] AUBRB'ACH'S CELLAR. 89 
 
 SlEBEL. 
 Cut with all brawlers — turn them out ! 
 Come, stretch your chests ! CryRunda! Drink and shout ! 
 Hip! Holla! Ho! 
 
 Altmayer. 
 
 Alack I I'm God-forgotten ! 
 The rascal splits my ears — what, ho, some cotton ! 
 
 SlEBEL. 
 
 'Tis only when you make the vault resound. 
 That the full compass of the bass is found. 
 
 Frosch. 
 
 Quite right ! Whoe'er takes huff, out with the loon 1 
 A ! Tara lara da 1 
 
 Altmayer. 
 
 ■ A ! Tara lara da ! 
 
 Frosch. 
 
 Our pipes are all in tune. 
 {.Sings.) 1^ 
 The dear old Holy Roman Rule, 
 How holds it still together .? 
 
 Brander. 
 
 A nasty song ! Pah ! A political song ! 
 A sorry song 1 Each morn thank God anew 
 The Roman Empire is not ruled by you ! 
 
90 SCENE V. [1740-1755 
 
 I hold 'tis something to be thankful for 
 
 That I'm not Emperor or Chancellor. 
 
 Still we must have a head, and so, I hope. 
 
 You will proceed to choose a Pope.. 
 
 You know the quality as well as I 
 
 That turns the scale, and lifts the man on high. 
 
 Frosch. 
 
 {Sings.) 
 Uprouse thee, Lady Nightingale ! 
 My sweetheart with ten thousand greetings hail ! 
 
 SlEBEL. 
 
 Your sweetheart — deuce a greet! I'll hear no more 
 about it ! 
 
 Frosch. 
 
 I'll kiss your sweet, as well as greet ! By you I'll not 
 be flouted ! 
 
 I 
 {Sings.) 
 
 Bolt, fly back 1 'Tis dead of night ! 
 Bolt, fly back ! Love waits delight ! 
 Bolt, fly to ! 'Tis dawn of day ! 
 
 SlEBEL. 
 
 Ay, sing, sing on — laud and extol away ! 
 
 My turn to laugh will soon be due ; 
 
 She's made a fool of me — she'll do the same for you. 
 
1756-1778] AUERBACH'S CELLAR. 91 
 
 No, give her for gallant an amorous gnome ! 
 
 Let him upon the cross-ways with her toy ! 
 Let some old goat from Blocksberg bound fpr home 
 
 Bleat as he gallops past to wish 'em joy ! 
 A likely lad of honest flesh and blood 
 For such a slut is much too good. 
 The only greeting I would give her 
 Would be her window-panes to shiver ! 
 
 Brander [striking the table). 
 
 Attend ! Attend ! To me give ear ! 
 
 I know what life is, you'll admit ; 
 Some love-sick folk are sitting here. 
 And as they seem of drooping cheer, 
 
 I'll treat them to a song their case to fit. 
 List ! 'Tis the newest thing that's out, 
 And give the chorus with a shout ! 
 
 {Sings.) 
 
 A Rat in the cellar had his nest, 
 
 And lived on fat and butter, 
 And a little paunch this Rat caress'd, 
 
 The same as Doctor Luther. 
 The Cook, she laid a poisoned bait, 
 And he was in as sore a strait, 
 
 As if 'twere love that lined him. : ^ 
 
 Chorus {shouting^ 
 As if 'twere love that lined him ! 
 
92 SCENE V. [i779-i79» 
 
 Brander. 
 He rushed about, he rushed without, 
 
 And lapped at every puddle ; 
 He gnawed and scratched, and made a rout 
 
 Which only showed his muddle ; 
 He gave full many a frantic bound. 
 Poor brute ! his, bellyful he found. 
 
 As if 'twere love that lined him ! 
 
 Chorus. 
 As if 'twere love that lined him ! 
 
 Brander. 
 For very pain in open day 
 
 He rushed into the kitchen — 
 Fell panting on the hearth, and lay 
 
 With all his limbs a-twitching ; 
 Loud laughed the poisoner, and said — 
 Aha ! he is as fairly sped, 
 
 As if 'twere love that lined him ! 
 
 Chorus. 
 As if 'twere love that lined him ! 
 
 i SlEBEL. 
 
 What glee the arrant fools display ! 
 
 'Twould seem to be the height of skill 
 Ratsbane for wretched rats to lay ! 
 
 Brander. 
 Apparently they 've your good will ? 
 
i799-i8i8] AUERBACH'S CELLAR. 93 
 
 Altmayer. 
 The poor bald-headed mass of fat I 
 
 His luck in love hath piade him tame, 
 And so to yonder swollen Rat 
 
 A natural likeness he may claim. 
 
 Enter Faust and Mephistopheles. 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Now, in the first place,.! must try 
 And find you pleasant company, 
 To show how lightly time can glide away. 
 Each day to these men is a holiday. 
 With much conceit, and little wit, 
 
 Each in his narrow circle twirls, 
 
 As round its tail a kitten whirls ; 
 And if their heads no headache split. 
 And if mine Host gives credit fair, 
 They 're satisfied and free from care. 
 
 Brander. 
 They 're from a journey, I should say. 
 To judge from their outlandish way ; 
 A long time here they cannot be. 
 
 Frosch. 
 Faith, thou art right ! Leipzig I say for me ! 
 ^Tis a small Paris, faith ! Its polish we display. 
 
 SlEBEL. 
 
 For what do you take them, on the view } 
 
94 SCENE V. [1819-1829 
 
 Frosch. 
 
 Leave me alone ! When round the bumper goes. 
 
 As 'twere a baby's tooth I drew, 
 I '11 have their secret from the fellows' nose. 
 They 're scions of some noble house, I 'd swear, 
 They 've such a proud and discontented air. 
 
 Brander. 
 Jack-puddings from a market, for a dollar ! 
 
 Altmayer. 
 'Tis like ! 
 
 ^ Frosch. 
 
 Just watch ! The pair I '11 smoke ! 
 
 Mephistopheles [to Faust). 
 
 They 'd never scent the devil, the poor folk. 
 Although he had them by the collar ! 
 
 Faust. 
 We greet you, gentlemen ! 
 
 SlEBEL. 
 
 We thank you and salute ! 
 
 \Speaking low, and looking askance at 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Halts not yon fellow of a foot } 
 
1830-1841] AVERBACWS CELLAR. 95 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Pray, at your table, may we take a seat ? 
 
 Though good wine can't be had, do what we can. 
 Your company will prove a treat. , 
 
 Altmayer. 
 You seem a most particular gentleman. 
 
 Frosch. 
 
 You must have quitted Rippach rather late ? 
 With Master Johnny did you stay to sup ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 To-day we did not stop to look him up ; 
 Last time we spoke wi.th him, and, I may state, 
 About his cousins he had much to say — 
 His compliments to each he begged us to convey. 
 
 \He hows to Frosch. 
 
 Altmayer {whispers). 
 Thou hast it there ! He twigged ! 
 
 SlEBEL. 
 
 A knowing customer I 
 
 Frosch. 
 I '11 have him yet, though, never stir ! 
 
96 SCENE V. [1842-1855 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 We heard, unless I am at fault, 
 
 Trained vocalists in chorus sing ; 
 I 'm sure a song from yonder vault, 
 
 Must have a most delightful ring ! 
 
 Frosch. 
 Maybe you are an Artist ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Not at all ! 
 Great is my passion, but my power is small. 
 
 Altmayer. 
 Give us a stave ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Lots, if for such you long 1 
 
 Brander. 
 And let it be a brand-new strain. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 We 're only just returned from Spain, 
 That all-surpassing land of wine and song. 
 {Sings.) 
 There was once a king devoted 
 To a monster of a Flea — 
 
 Frosch. 
 Hark ye ! A Flea ! D' ye take him right ? 
 Your Flea's a dainty little wight ! 
 
1856-1875] AUERBACirS CELLAR. 97 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 {Sings.) 
 
 There was once a king devoted 
 
 To a monster of a Flea, 
 And he scarcely could have doted 
 On a son more foolishly. 
 " Let the tailor know my pleasure ! " — 
 
 To court the tailor goes ; 
 " For a coat the younker measure, 
 And measure him for hose ! " 
 
 Brander. 
 
 Don't fail to press it on the man of stitches 
 
 To take his measure to a T, 
 
 And, as he loves his head, to see 
 There 's not a wrinkle in the breeches ! 
 
 Mephistophkles. 
 
 In silk and velvet showing 
 
 Behold the younker drest — 
 'His coat with ribbons glowing, 
 
 A cross upon his breast ; 
 Soon he fills the highest stations, 
 
 And wears a splendid star. 
 And all his near relations 
 
 At court great people are. 
 
 H 
 
98 SCENE V. ' [1876-1892 
 
 And at court the lords and ladies 
 
 In quiet could not sit ; 
 Each, from queen to waiting-maid, is 
 
 Be-devilled and be-bit ! 
 And they did not dare to nick 'em, 
 
 However they might prick — 
 But we nick 'em, and we snick 'em. 
 
 Wherever they may stick ! 
 
 Chorus {shouting). 
 But we nick 'em, and we snick 'em. 
 Wherever they may stick ! 
 
 Frosch. 
 Bravo ! that 's.the song for me ! 
 
 SlEBEL. 
 
 So may it fare with every flea ! 
 
 Brander. 
 Point and pick with finger fine ! 
 
 Altmayer. 
 Hey, for jollity ! Hey, for wine ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 I 'd drink to jollity, and be your debtor. 
 Were but this wine of yours a trifle better. 
 
 SlEBEL. 
 
 Your tongue on that point you must fetter 
 
1 893-1904] AUERBACH'S CELLAR. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 But that mine Host might think I did him shame. 
 From our poor cellar I 'd supply 
 A treat for this good company. 
 
 SlEBEL. 
 
 Here with it ! I '11 take all the blame. 
 Frosch. 
 
 I 
 
 We '11 recommend you, if your wine be fair ; 
 Don't let your samples, though, be spare, 
 ' For if my judgment you desire, 
 A right good mouthful I require. 
 
 Altmayer {whispers). 
 They 're from the Rhine, as I surmise. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Get me a wimble 1 
 
 Brander. 
 
 What d' ye want to bore } 
 You scarce can have the barrels at the door } 
 
 Altmayer. 
 
 A tool-kit of mine Host's behind you lies. 
 H 2 
 
 99 
 
100 scene v. [19os-1912 
 
 Mephistopheles 
 {takes the wimble and addresses Frosch). 
 Now name the wine you 'd like to sip. 
 
 Frosch. 
 What say' St thou } Hast thou such variety ? 
 
 Mephistopheles . 
 Each gentleman to choose is free. 
 
 Altmayer {to Frosch). 
 Aha ! Already you begin to lick the lip. 
 
 Frosch. 
 
 Well, then, if I 'm to choose, some Rhenish bring — 
 The Fatherland supplies the best of everything. 
 
 Mephistopheles 
 
 {bores a hole at the edge of the table where 
 Frosch is sitting). 
 
 Procure some wax, that each may have a stopper. 
 
 Altmayer. 
 Why, this is prestidigitation proper ! 
 
1913-1923] AXIERBACW S CELLAR. loi 
 
 Mephistopheles [to Brander). 
 And you ? 
 
 Brander. 
 
 Champagne 's the wine for me ! 
 And real mousseux let it be ! 
 
 [Mephistopheles lores ; in the meantime one of 
 the company has made the stoppers and is 
 stopping the holes. 
 
 One can't forswear what 's foreign after all — 
 
 Good things oft lie beyond the Rhine ; 
 Your genuine German can't abide your Gaul, 
 
 And yet he loves to drink his wine. 
 
 Siebel 
 
 {as Mephistopheles approaches his seat). 
 
 None of your sour for me in any case, — 
 A glass of genuine sweet I say ! 
 
 Mephistopheles {bores). 
 Then, presto ! you shall have Tokay ! 
 
 Altmayer. 
 
 Nay, nay, my masters, look me in the face ! 
 I plainly see these be but scurvy jests. 
 
SCENE V. [1924-1937 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Fie 1 fie ! upon such noble guests 
 'Twere rather rash to try a trick. 
 Only speak out at once ! Be quick ! 
 With what wine, tell me, may I serve you ? 
 
 Altmayer. 
 With any ! — spare your rhetoric ! 
 
 [After all the holes have been bored and stopped. 
 
 Mephistopheles (with strange gestures). 
 Grapes by a stem are bred, 
 Horns by a he-goat's head ! 
 Rare juice is wine, though vines be wood ; 
 This wooden slab can yield as good. 
 Look deep and nature's power perceive ! 
 Behold a miracle ! Believe ! 
 
 Now draw the plugs, and have your fun 1 
 
 \_Theydraw the stoppers, and the wine which each 
 I , has chosen runs into his glass. 
 
 All. 
 Lovely rillets, how they run ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Spill not a drop, or you are done 1 
 
 \_They drink repeatedly. 
 
1938-1948] 4UERBACH'S CELLAR. 103 
 
 All {sing). 
 
 We 're jolly as the cannibals, 
 Or as five hundred swine, O 1 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 The rogues are at their ease— how well they're doing, seel 
 
 Faust. 
 I want at once to get away. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Just mark them first ! Their bestiality 
 Will make a notable display. 
 
 SlEBEL 
 
 {drinks carelessly — the wine is spilt and turns to flame). 
 Help ! Fire ! Help 1 Hell hath found a vent ! 
 
 Mephistopheles {charming the flame). 
 
 Softly, my frolic element ! 
 
 {To the company. 
 
 This time 'tis but a drop of Purgatorial fire ! 
 
 SlEBEL. 
 
 What 's this ? Beware ! To know us you require ! 
 We '11 make you bitterly repent ! 
 
104 SCENE V. [1949-1957 
 
 Frosch. 
 Let be, and don't a second time provoke us ! 
 
 Altmayer. 
 Just get him quietly to leave the room. 
 
 SlEBEL. 
 
 What, sirrah, do you then presume 
 To practise here your hocus-pocus P 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Peace, you old wine-cask ! 
 
 SlEBEL. 
 
 Besom-staflf ! 
 And so you'll give abuse ? 
 
 Brander. 
 
 Refrain, 
 Or blows will soon begin to rain ! 
 
 Altmayer 
 
 {draws a stopper from the table— fire flashes out 
 against him). 
 \ 'm burning ! Burning ! 
 
 SlEBEL, 
 
 Sorcery ! Draw ! 
 The rascal is outside the law ! 
 
 \They draw their knives and fall upon 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
1958-1966] AUERBACWS CELLAR. 105 
 
 Mephistopheles {yuith 'solemn gestures). 
 
 Cheated eye and ear, 
 
 Cause place and sense to veer ! 
 
 Be afar whilst here ! 
 
 \_They stand amazed, and stare at one another. 
 
 Altma^er. 
 Where am I ? What a lovely land ! 
 
 Frosch. 
 Vineyards ! Can I believe my eyes ? 
 
 Siebel. 
 
 And grapes to hand ! 
 
 Brander. 
 
 Beneath the green bower screening them, 
 See, what a bunch ! See, what a stem ! 
 
 ]_He seizes Siebel by the nose — the others do the 
 same with one another, and raise their knives. 
 
 Mephistopheles {as before). 
 
 Illusion 1 from their eyes remove the band ! 
 Now mark the sport the devil shows ! 
 
 \He disappears with Faust — the four start 
 back from one another. 
 
io6 SCENE V. [1967-1977 
 
 SlEBEL. 
 
 What ails you 
 
 ? 
 
 Altmayer. 
 How ? 
 
 Frosch {to Altmayer). 
 
 Was that your nose ? 
 
 ' I. 
 
 Brander {to Siebel). 
 And yours I 'm holding in my hand ! 
 
 Altmayer. 
 
 It was a sKock that went through every limb ! 
 Get me a chair ! My senses swim 1 
 
 Frosch. 
 Nay, tell me what hath happened — nothing hide. 
 
 Siebel, 
 
 If I could see the wretch once more, 
 I 'd have his life whate'er betide ! 
 
 Away — out by the cellar door — 
 Upon a cask — I saw him ride — 
 Heavy as lead my feet are growing ! 
 
 , {Turnmg towards the table. 
 
 My ! can the wine be still a-flowing } 
 
1978-1981] AUERBACH'S CELLAR. ' 107 
 
 SlEBEL. 
 
 'Twas all a cheat, a sham, a show. 
 
 / 
 Frosch. 
 
 'Twas wine that I was drinking, though, 
 
 Brander. 
 And how about the grapes as well ? 
 
 Altmayer. 
 Who '11 tell me now we can't believe in miracle ! 
 
io8 SCENE VI. [1982-1991 
 
 A low hearth, with a large caldron standing over the fire. 
 In the steam which rises from it various forms are seen. 
 A She-monkey sits by the caldron, and skims it, and sees 
 that it does not run over. The He-monkey is seated near 
 her with the young ones, and warms himself. The 
 walls and ceiling are decked out with the strangest 
 witch- garniture. 
 
 Faust and Mephistopheles. 
 
 Fattst. 
 
 With loathing this mad magic-work I view ! 
 Say'st thou my life I shall renew 
 
 In this mere jumble of insanity ? 
 Must I take counsel with an ancient crone, 
 
 And by her filthy cookery 
 From. off my frame will thirty years be thrown ? 
 Woe 's me if this is all I may expect ! 
 
 Flown is the hope which round me hovered ! 
 Hath nature — hath some noble intellect — 
 
 No sort of balsam for decay discovered ? 
 
1992-2009] THE WITCH'S KITCHEN. 109 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 That shows your usual sense, my friend — for, look. 
 Nature hath means to make you young, none apter ; 
 
 But that stands written in a different book. 
 And forms a very curious chapter. 
 
 Faust. 
 I fain would know it. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Good 1 'Tis soon revealed — 
 Leech, gold, nor gramarye you need to know it. 
 
 Forthwith betake you to the field — 
 Set to, and hackle it, and hoe it — 
 
 Confine your thoughts — your passions tame — 
 Within your little sphere be little — 
 Invigorate yourself with simple victual — 
 
 Live with the beasts, a beast, nor deem it shame 
 The acres that you reap yourself to dung ; 
 
 This is the means, if such should be your aim. 
 To eighty years to make you young ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 I am not used to that ! I could not bring my mind 
 
 The spade to handle as a hind. 
 
 On such a narrow life I should not pitch. 
 
no SCENE VI. [2010-2028 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Then there is nothing for it but the Witch. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 But why the Beldam in particular, pray .? 
 Can't you yourself prepare the liquor ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 That were rare sport to while the time away — 
 
 I 'd build a thousand bridges quicker ! 
 Science ?,nd skill won't do alone, 
 But patience also must be shown. 
 It occupies aquiet spirit long; 
 Time only makes the fine decoction strong. 
 The strangest of ingredients, too, 
 
 They must collect who undertake it ; 
 The devil taught it her, 'tis true. 
 
 But still the devil cannot make it. ' 
 
 \_Espying the Brutes, 
 Saw you ever such a comely clan .'' 
 That's the Maid-servant, that the Man ! 
 
 \To the Brutes. 
 It seems the dame 's not in the house. 
 
 The Brutes. 
 
 For a rouse, 
 
 Out of the. house 
 
 By the flue, to mouse ! 
 
2029-2038] THE WITCH'S KITCHEN. in 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 How long is she out when she thus withdraws ? 
 
 The Brutes. 
 As long as we take to warm our paws. 
 
 Mephistopheles {to Fausx). 
 How do you like the dainty brutes } 
 
 Faust. 
 Aught more ridiculous I never saw ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Nay, from discoursing with such apes I draw 
 
 A pleasure that my humour suits. 
 
 \To the Brutes. 
 Now, you damned mannikins, declare 
 What mess is that you 're stirring round 1 
 
 The Brutes. 
 Broad beggar's porridge we prepare. 
 
 Mephistophe les. 
 Then large your public will be found. 
 
112 SCENE VI. [2039-2060 
 
 The He-Monkey 
 {approaches and fawns upon Mephistopheles). 
 The dice, oh, pitch, 
 And make me rich. 
 My wish to win intense is ! 
 I 've gone to smash^ — , 
 Were I in cash 
 I should be in my senses. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 How blest the Ape would deem himself to be 
 Were he but in the lottery ! 
 
 [/» the meanwhile the young Monkeys have been 
 playing with a large globe and are rolling it 
 before them. 
 
 The He-Monkey. 
 
 This earthly ball 
 
 Doth rise and fall 
 With roll incessant ; 
 
 It rings like glass, 
 
 Which breaks, alas ; 
 To view 'tis pleasant — 
 
 A glittering 
 
 But hollow thing. 
 T live quiescent ! 
 
 Do thou, my son. 
 
 This rolling shun ! 
 Thou hast to die ! 
 
 'Tis clay — anon 
 In shards 'twill lie ! 
 
io6i-2073] THE WITCH'S KITCHEN. 113 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 For what 's the sieve ? 
 
 The He-Monkey {taking it down). 
 
 Whoe'er the thief, 
 I quickly would proclaim him ! 
 
 [_He runs to the She-Monkey, and 
 lets her look through it. 
 Look through the sieve ! 
 Dost know the thief, 
 And dost thou fear to name him ? 
 
 Mephistopheles {approaching the fire). 
 And yonder pot ? 
 
 He-Monkey and She-Monkey. 
 
 The simple sot ! 
 
 He knoweth not 
 
 Either the pot or kettle ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Discourteous beast ! 
 
 The He-Monkey. 
 
 Take the whisk at least. 
 And seat thee on the settle ! 
 
 \_He makes Mephistopheles sit down. 
 I 
 
h4 scene vi. [2074-2094 
 
 Faust 
 
 {who all this time has been standing before a mirror, now 
 
 approaching it, and now retiring from it). 
 What see I ? What a form and face 
 
 The magic glass before me brings ! 
 
 Lend me, O Love, the swiftest of thy wings, 
 And guide me to her living place ! 
 Ah, when I stay not on this spot, but summon 
 
 The courage to approach that presence rare, 
 
 I only see her as through misty air ! — 
 The fairest vision of a woman ! 
 
 Can woman be in truth so fair ? 
 Is that recumbent figure merely human, 
 
 Or is 't the essence of all heaven that 's there ? 
 Is' aught Such to be found on earth ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 When six days on his work a god doth spend, 
 And calls. out bravo! at the end, 
 'Tis natural to expect a thing of worth. 
 So stare away while here you're stuck ; 
 
 To find you such a prize I 've not to roam, 
 And happy he who had the luck 
 As bride to take her to his home ! 
 
 [Faust continues looking into the mirror — 
 Mephistopheles stretches himself on 
 the settle, and, playing with the whisk, 
 continues speaking. 
 Here on my throne as king I sit me down : 
 I hold the sceptre, but I lack the crown ! 
 
209S-2I07] THE WITCWS KITCHEN. 115 
 
 The BS.UTES 
 
 {^ho have been making all sorts of strange, disorderly 
 movements, bring Mephistopheles a crown, with 
 loud cries). 
 
 Oh, if you would 
 With sweat and blood 
 But give the crown a liming ! 
 \_They handle the crown awkwardly, and break it 
 in two pieces, with which they dance about. 
 'Tis, done, ah me ! 
 We talk and see, 
 We listen and we 're rhyming. 
 
 Faust (before the mirror). 
 Woe 's me ! My wits begin to flit I 
 
 Mephistopheles {pointing to the Brutes). 
 And e'en my head begins to go like winking. 
 
 The Brutes. 
 
 A happy hit, 
 
 A clever skit, 
 
 Will pass for thinking. 
 
 Faust {as before). 
 Like fire my breast begins to burn ! 
 Let us at once be gone from here ! 
 I 2 
 
Ii6 SCENE VI. [2108-21 19 
 
 Mephistopheles {in the same position). 
 
 One thing at least we now discern — 
 That there are poets who 're sincere. 
 
 \The caldron, which the She-Monkey has hitherto 
 neglected, begins to boil over — there rises a great 
 flame which shoots up the chimney — the Witch, 
 with horrible cries, comes tumbling down through 
 the flame. 
 
 The Witch. 
 
 Wow ! Wow ! Wow ! Wow ! 
 You blasted beast ! You cursed sow ! 
 You have neglected the kettle, and scorched the Frow ! 
 Accursed brute ! 
 
 {Espying Faust and Mephistopheleej. 
 
 What have we here ? 
 
 Who are ye here ? , 
 
 What is your suit ? 
 
 Who seeks my cell ? , -'' 
 
 The pains of hell 
 
 In your marrow dwell ! 
 
 \She dips the ladle into the caldron, and scatters flame 
 at Faust, Mephistopheles, and the Brutes — 
 the Brutes whimper. 
 
2I20-2I39] THE WITCWS KITCHEN. ii? 
 
 Mephistopheles 
 
 {who reverses the whisk which he has in his hand, 
 and slashes at the pots and glasses). 
 
 Smash ! Smash ! 
 There lies the plash, 
 There lies the glass ! 
 For jest 'twill pass, 
 Thou carrion, as 
 I mark thy melody ! 
 \_As the Witch steps back full of anger and amazement. 
 
 Dost know me then, thou skeleton, thou fright ? 
 
 Thy lord and master dost thou know ? 
 What's to prevent me smashing, as I might. 
 
 You and your monkey-spirits at a blow ? 
 For my red doublet has thou lost respect ? 
 
 Can the cock's feather no attention claim ? 
 Am I disguised that thou canst not detect ? 
 
 And must I really give my name ? 
 
 The Witch. 
 
 My lord, forgive my rude salute ! 
 But I perceive no Horse's foot — 
 And where are both your Ravens flown ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Well, this time I will let you off, 
 For 'tis a long time, sure enough', 
 Since we -ft-ere last together thrown. 
 
il8 SCENE VI. [2140-2158 
 
 And Culture, too, which licks the world to shape, 
 Hath not allowed the Devil to escape. 
 The Phantom of the North is to be seen no more ; 
 Where are the horns, the tail, the claws of yore ? 
 As for my shanks, which I should sorely miss, 
 
 'Twould prejudice me if I left them bare ; 
 So what I 've done for several years is this — 
 
 Like many a young blood, false calves I wear. 
 
 The Witch [dancing). 
 
 It almost takes my wits away, 
 
 Once more the noble Satan to survey ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 That title, woman, spare me pray ! 
 
 The Witch. 
 Why so } What hath it done to thee } 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Among the myths they 've long thought fit to stick it, 
 Though men are none the better that I see ; 
 
 Rid of the Wicked One, they've still the wicked. 
 Call me Lord Harry, and the thing holds good — 
 
 With Cavalieros I 'm a Cavalier. 
 You can't be doubtful of my gentle blood, 
 
 And if you want my cognizance — see here ! 
 
 \He makes an unseemly gesture. 
 
2IS9-2I72] THE WITCWS KITCHEN. 119 
 
 The Witch [laughs immoderately). 
 
 Ha ! ha ! Your old way, I declare ! 
 You're still the merry rogue you ever were ! 
 
 Mephistopheles {to Faust). 
 
 My friend, take note of what I say — 
 
 When you 've to deal with Witches, that's your way. 
 
 The Witch. 
 Now tell me, sirs, how can I be of use ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 We want a jorum of the famous juice ! 
 
 And be it of the oldest, I request ; 
 Age doth a double strength produce. 
 
 The Witch. 
 
 With pleasure ! There 's a flask which 1 
 Oft sip myself upon the sly, — 
 'Tis free from every particle of stink ; 
 To you a glass I '11 gladly give. 
 
 {In a whisper.') 
 
 If this man, unprepared, the potion drink. 
 He has not, well you know, an hour to live. 
 
I20 SCENE VL [2 1 73-2 1 84 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 He 's a great friend of mine — it will agfee with him ; 
 
 I grudge him not the best of thy purveying. 
 
 So trace thy circle— say thy saying — 
 And fill up to the very brim ! 
 
 \_The Witch, with singular gestures, traces a circle, 
 and places a number of curious things within it; 
 meanni}hile the glasses begin to tinkle, and the 
 caldron begins to gurgle and make music. Lastly 
 she brings a big book, and places the Monkeys in 
 the circle, to serve as a rea/iing-desk, and to hold 
 the taper. She beckons Faust to approach. 
 
 Faust {to Mephistopheles). 
 
 Nay, tell me what's she at, the antic .'' 
 All this mad work — these gestures frantic — 
 This most ridiculous pack of stuflF — 
 I know, and hate it, well enough. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Nons.ense ! To laughter it should but provoke us — 
 
 Don't be so difficult a man ! 
 As leech she must devise some hocus-pocus, 
 
 To make the dose work rightly if she can. 
 
 [He forces Faust into the circle. 
 
2i8s-2207] THE WITCWS KITCHEN. 121 
 
 The Witch 
 {^ith great emphasis begins declaiming from the book). 
 This must thou ken ! 
 Of one make ten, 
 Pass two, and then, 
 Make even three, 
 And rich you'll be. 
 Forego the four ! 
 Of five and six — 
 'Tis Witch's lore- 
 Make seven and eight, 
 And all is straight ; 
 And nine is one, 
 And ten is none ; 
 This is the Witch's one-times-one ! 
 
 Faust. 
 The crone in high delirium seems to rhyme. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 It won't be over for a length of time ; 
 
 I know the book — 'tis all of the same ring — 
 
 I 've wasted many an hour upon its pages ; 
 A downright contradiction is a thing 
 
 Puzzles alike your simpletons and sages ! 
 The art is old, and new, you see — 
 
 All times have deemed it no slight matter 
 By three and one, and one and three, 
 
 Error instead of truth to scatter. 
 
122 SCENE VI. [2208 2227 
 
 They prate and preach about it without fear, 
 For who to meddle with the fools would care ? 
 
 Men ^vill believe, when merely words they hear. 
 Something to think about must needs be there. 
 
 The Witch {continues). 
 
 The splendour bright 
 
 Of wisdom's light 
 From all the world is hidden ! 
 
 Truth ever shrinks 
 
 From him that thinks. 
 And comes to fools unbidden ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 What nonsense is it she doth spout ? 
 
 My head she's splitting with her shrieks — 
 Methinks I hear in one fell rout 
 
 A hundred thousand lunatics. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Enough, enough, most admirable Sibyl ! 
 Give us the drink, and not a dribble, 
 But boldly fill the rummer to the rim 1 
 The draught will do my friend no harm, you'll see ; 
 He is a man of many a high degree — 
 Many a good draught hath been absorbed by him ! 
 
 \_The Witch, with much ceremony, pours the drink 
 into a cup; as Faust lifts it to his mouth a light 
 flame shoots out. 
 
2228-2243] THE WITCH'S KITCHEN. 123 
 
 Mephistopheles {to Faust). 
 
 Down with it quick ! Don't hesitate ! 
 
 'Twill cheer your heart up as you drink. 
 What, you the devil's intimate, 
 
 And from a flash of flame to shrink .? 
 
 \The Witch dissolves the circle — Faust steps out. 
 Now forth at once ! Repose you'll rue! 
 
 The Witch. 
 May the sup you've swallowed work aright 
 
 Mephistopheles {to the Witch). 
 
 And if there 's aught that I can do for you, 
 You've but to name it on Walpurgis-night. 
 
 The Witch. 
 
 Here is a charm, which, if at whiles you sing, 
 Its singular effect you will admire. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Come along quick and do as I desire ! 
 
 'Tis requisite you should perspire, 
 That through you, in and out, the flush may spring ! 
 
 Erelong you shall enjoy the leisure of a lord, 
 
 And feel, with all the joy that passion can afford, 
 How Cupid stirs himself, for ever on the wing. 
 
124 ' SCENE VI. [2244-224^ 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Let me but cast but one hasty look behind ! 
 Such womanhood is far too fair to be ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Nay ! nay ! The paragon of womankind 
 Before you bodily you soon shall see. 
 
 {^Aside.') 
 
 You '11 see with the dram that 's down your throat 
 A Helen in every petticoat. 
 
TIME OF ACTION. 
 
 III. 
 
 The next seven scenes of the drama take little more than 
 a, week. In the Street Faust, fresh from, the Witch's 
 Kitchen, meets Margaret com-ing from the Cathedral 
 (1. 2266), and on the Evening of the same day he is 
 .conducted by Mephistoj>heles to her Chamber (1. 23 11). 
 The scen^ on the Public Walk m,ust be supposed to 
 occur immediately after (1. 2460). A .second casket is left 
 with Gretchen, and the scenes in the I^eighbour's 
 House, on the Street, and in the Garden are laid 
 M^on the same day (11. 2668, 2672, 2839). The interval 
 between the scene in the Garden and that in the 
 'Garden-house is but short; and it is in the Garden- 
 house that Margaret is supposed to fall. She is taken 
 iy surprise. 
 
SCENE VII. [2250-2259 
 
 % Street 
 
 Faust. Margaret passing by. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Fair lady, may I make so free 
 As to offer my arm and company ? 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 I 'm not a lady, nor am I fair — 
 And your company I well can spare. 
 
 \_She breaks from him and exit. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 By heaven but yonder child is fair ! 
 I never saw such beauty rare — 
 So virtuous and so virginal, 
 And somewhat malapert withal ! 
 Her rubied lips, her cheeks a-light, 
 I never shall forget the sight 1 
 
2260-2272] A STREET. 127 
 
 And then the way she dropped her eyes — 
 Deep in my heart the image lies ! 
 A charta her very curtness lent, 
 Which in itself was ravishment ! 
 
 Mephistopheles enters. 
 
 Faust. 
 Hist ! 
 To get me the girl you must assist ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 What girl 1 
 
 Faust. 
 She hath just passed. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 What she .? 
 
 She was returning from the Priest ; 
 Of sin he hath declared her free — 
 To the chair I crept up stealthily. 
 
 She 's an innocent thing, who for nothing at all 
 
 Repairs to the confessional ; 
 
 O'er her I 've not the slightest power. 
 
 Faust. 
 And yet she 's fourteen every hour. 
 
128 SCENE VII. [2273-2289 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Like some Jack Libertine you talk 
 Who 'd pluck each flow'ret from its stalk, 
 And deems there is not woman's fame 
 Or favour, which he may not claim. 
 Things sometimes take a different line. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Good Master Moraliser mine, 
 
 Spare me your saws, so wise and clever ! 
 
 I tell you frankly, wrong or right. 
 
 If that young thing that charmed my sight 
 
 Repose not in my arms to night. 
 At night's mid hour for good we sever. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Bethink you how such matters speed ! 
 Some fourteen days at least I need, 
 The opportunity to discover. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Had I seven hours to woo a maid, 
 I should not need the devil's aid 
 To be such a chit's successful lover. 
 
2290-2307] A STREET. 129 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Why, that's the veriest Frenchman's prate ; 
 
 I beg you, cease yourself to worry — 
 
 Why to enjoyment should you hurry ? 
 The pleasure'is not half so great, 
 Ab when demur you overcome 
 With all sorts of brimborium. 
 And knpad and mould your poppet well — 
 As many a foreign tale will tell. 
 
 Faust. ■ '■ -k '; 
 My appetite needs no such zest. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Offence apart — apart from jest — 
 I tell you that the pretty child 
 Won't be so speedily beguiled. 
 By storm you '11 never take the fort, — 
 To stratagem we must resort. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Get me some toy the angel owes ! 
 Guide me to where she takes repose ! 
 Get me a kerchief from her breast. 
 Some prize, by love to be caress'd ! 
 
 K 
 
130 SCENE VII. [2308-2322 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 To let you see that to your pain 
 I minister with might and main, 
 I will not lose a single hour — 
 This eve I '11 take you to her bower. 
 
 Faust. 
 And shall I see her .? Have her .? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Nol 
 She will be at a neighbour's — so 
 
 Alone you will be free to go, 
 
 And in her atmosphere at leisure, 
 
 Feast on the thoughts of future pleasure. 
 
 Faust. 
 Can we go now .'' 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 'Tis early yet. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Some present for her see and get ! 
 
 {_Exit. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Presents already ! Bravo ! That 's the way to woo ! 
 
 I know full many a likely spot. 
 
 And buried treasure long forgot — 
 
 These for a bit I must review. 
 
 ' {Exit. 
 
2323-233'] EVENING. 131 
 
 aEijcning. 
 
 A neat little Chamber. 
 
 Margaret 
 
 {braiding and binding up her tresses). 
 
 I WOULD give something could I say 
 
 Who was that gentleman to-day ! 
 
 He looked right gallant to the eye, 
 
 And is of noble family ; 
 
 That on his brow I well could read — 
 
 He would not else have been so bold, indeed. 
 
 Mephistopheles — Faust. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Come in^step light — don't be afraid ! 
 
 Faust {after a short silence). 
 Leave me ! I would not that you stay'd ! 
 
 Mephistopheles {peering about). 
 An uncommon tidy little maid ! 
 
 K2 
 
 \_Exit. 
 
 lExit. 
 
132 SCENE VIII. [2332-2354 
 
 Faust {looking round). 
 
 Welcome delicious twilight shade, 
 
 Which this sweet sanctuary dost shimmer through ! 
 Let Love's delicious pangs my heart pervade — 
 
 Love that doth pine on Hope's sweet honeydew ! 
 What a strange sense of stillness here doth brood. 
 
 Of order, of contentedness ! 
 In this rare poverty what plenitude ! 
 
 In this poor cell what blessedness ! 
 
 [_He throws himself into a leathern 
 chair beside the bed. 
 
 Receive me thou 1 that hast, in mirth and moan, 
 
 Welcomed with open arms a vanish'd race 1 
 How oft around this patriarchal throne. 
 
 Have swarms of children struggled for a place ! 
 Here, grateful for the gift which told of Christ, 
 
 My darling, with her fresh and fair young face. 
 Her grandsire's wither'd hand hath fondly kist ! 
 
 I feel, sweet rnaid, thy spirit bright 
 Of thrift and order whispering round, 
 
 Which daily prompts thee, as a mother might. 
 
 And bids thee spread the board with spotless white. 
 And strew the sand in crinkles o'er the ground. 
 
 Sweet hand ! So like the hand divine ! To me 
 
 This hut becomes a halidom through thee ! 
 
 And here !- - 
 
 [I7e lifts the curtain of the bed. 
 
23S4-2374] , EVENING. 133 
 
 What seizes me, half tremor, half delight ? 
 
 Here could I stay whole hours, meseems. 
 
 Here, Nature 1 thou didst shape in airy dreams 
 The angelic form, so exquisite ! 
 Here lay the child, the glowing life 
 
 Her gentle bosom coursing through., 
 And here, with finest issues rife, 
 
 Her beauty to perfection grew. 
 
 And thou, say, what hath brought thee here ? 
 
 How deeply moved do I appear ! 
 
 What would'st thou ? On thy heart what weighs so sore ? 
 
 I know thee, miserable Faust, no more ! 
 
 Breathes magic round me in this chamber rare ? 
 My mad desires brook'd no delay — 
 And, lo, in dreams of love I melt away ! 
 
 Are we the sport of every breath of air ? 
 
 If here she came, ere thou hadst time to fly. 
 With what rebuke would thy presumption meet ! 
 
 The mighty libertine would lie 
 Annihilated at her feet ! 
 
 Mephistopheles re-enters. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Make haste ! I see her there below. 
 
134 SCENE VIII. I [2375-2389 
 
 Faust. 
 Away ! Away ! I return no more ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Here is a box with fairish store. 
 For which elsewhere I had to go — 
 Pop it into the press ! I swear, 
 
 She'll be beside herself for joy ! 
 I got you various trifles there 
 
 Another baby to decoy ; 
 But every child 's the same to me — 
 The sport 's the same whoe'er she be. 
 
 Faust. 
 I know not — shall I i 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Can you ask 1 
 Maybe you mean the prize to nobble ? 
 
 Then let your Lustihood give heed — 
 
 Bid the fair hours in quiet speed, 
 And spare me any further trouble. 
 
 I hope you 're not a man of greed ! 
 I scratch my head, I rub my hands — 
 
 \He places the casket in the press and 
 locks it again. 
 
2390-2410] , EVENING. 13s 
 
 Be on the alert ! — 
 
 To bend the charming little flirt 
 To what your wish or will demands, 
 And you look all gloom, 
 As if you were bound for your lecture-room, 
 And there they stood bodily, grim and grey, 
 Physics and Metaphysics ! — ^Away 1 
 
 {Exeunt. 
 
 Margaret {with a lamp). 
 
 It is so close, so sultry here, 
 
 \_She opens the window. 
 
 And yet 'twas not so warm without ; 
 I feel, I know not how, so queer — 
 
 What can my mother be abou( ? 
 All over my body I 'm shuddering — 
 I 'm a poor timid little thing ! 
 
 \_She begins to sing while she is undressing. 
 
 There was once a king in Thule 
 
 True even to his grave, 
 Whom the one he loved so truly 
 
 A gold cup, dying, gave. 
 
 For his banquets he retained it, 
 
 Nought like it did he prize. 
 And ever as he drained it. 
 
 The tears were in his eyes. 
 
136 SCENE Vm. . [2411-2433 
 
 And he reckoned land and lordship, 
 
 When his time was come to die ; 
 To his heir he left their wardship, 
 
 But put the beaker by. 
 
 He sat, and kept high wassail, 
 
 With his knights around sat he, 
 In the great hall of his castle 
 
 That overhung the sea. 
 
 He rose, and life's last iiicker 
 
 He quaffed as there he stood. 
 And cast the hallowed beaker 
 
 Straight down into the flood. 
 
 JHe watched it dropping — drinking — 
 
 And sinking in the sea ; 
 His heavy eyes were sinking — 
 
 Drop nevermore drank he ! 
 
 \_S'he opens the press to put away her 
 clothes, and perceives the casket. 
 
 How came this lovely casket here } 
 
 I locked the press, I 'm very clear. 
 
 Inside it what can be ? It certainly is queer. 
 
 'Tis like a pledge which one might bring. 
 
 And leave with mother for a loan ; 
 A key is hanging by a string, 
 
 I 'd like to open it, I own ! — 
 
,2434-2448] EVENING. 137 
 
 What's this? My goodness ! Only see ! 
 
 I ne'er beheld the like since I was born ! 
 Jewels ! By dame of high degree 
 
 On gala days they might be worn ! 
 How would that sweet chain look on me ? 
 Whose can they be, such jewels fine ? 
 
 \_She decks herself with them and 
 steps before the glass. 
 
 Were but the ear-rings only mine ! 
 They give one quite a different air. 
 
 What skills your beauty, simple maid ? 
 
 All very fine when all is said, 
 But after all they leave you there ; 
 Praise that 's half pity you endure. 
 
 Gold is the thing — 
 
 To gold they cling ! 
 God help us that are poor 1 
 
138 SCENE IX. [2449-2456 
 
 Faust pensively pacing up and down. He is joined by 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 By the pangs of flouted love ! By all the fires of hell ! 
 Would I knew aught that 's worse, to curse by it as well 1 
 
 Faust. 
 
 What now ? What pinches you so sore ,? 
 In all my life ne'er saw I face so evil ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Upon the spot to the Devil I 'd give me o'er, 
 If I were not myself a devil. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Is your head turn'd ? It doth beseem you well 
 Thus like a raving lunatic to yell ! 
 
2457-2484] ^ PUBLIC WALK. 139 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Just think ! The gems for Gretchen I purvey'd, 
 
 A Priest away with them has made ! — 
 
 The mother of the thing gets sight, 
 
 And views it with a secret fright. 
 
 The dame hath a marvellous fine nose 
 
 And snuffling o'er her missal goes, 
 
 And smells each chattel to ascertain 
 
 Whether 'tis sacred, or profane ; 
 
 And in the jewels she thought it clear 
 
 That but little blessing did appear. 
 
 " My child," quoth she, " unlawful gain 
 
 Doth infect the blood, and the soul enchain. 
 
 To the Mother of God let it all be given — 
 
 She '11 cheer our hearts with manna from heaven ! " 
 
 A wry mouth little Margery made ; 
 
 " 'Tis a mere gift horse," to herself she said , 
 
 "And godless surely he could not be 
 
 Who brought it here so gracefully." 
 
 A Priest that the mother had sent for came. 
 And as soon as he perceived the game. 
 He liked the look of what he saw. 
 
 "This shows right feeling," he begins, 
 
 " He that o'ercometh ever wins ! 
 The Church is blest with a goodly maw — 
 Whole lands she hath bolted when sharp-set, 
 And hath ne'er over-eaten herself as yet. 
 The Church alone, my daughters dear. 
 Can digest unlawful gain, 'tis clear." 
 
140 SCENE IX. [2485-2500 
 
 Faust. 
 
 That is a very common game ; 
 
 A Jew and a King can do the same. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 So off he swept clasp, chain, and ring, 
 As if 'twere some twopenny-ha'penny thing, 
 Thank'd them, neither less nor more 
 Than if 'twere a basket of nuts they bore, 
 , Said, Heaven would all sorts of reward provide — 
 And at this they were highly edified. 
 
 Faust. 
 And Gretchen ? 
 
 Mephistopheles: 
 
 Now sits all astray, 
 And knows not what to do or say. 
 Thinks day and night on pearl and gem, 
 But niore on him who brought her them. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 My darling's sorrow makes me fret — 
 
 Procure at once another set ! 
 
 The first were nothing out of the way. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Ay, to my lord 'tis all child's play ! 
 
2501-2508] A PUBLIC WALK. 141 
 
 Faust. 
 
 And go, and see thou dost my will 1 
 Hang thou about her gossip still. 
 Good devil, don't like panada be, 
 And have a new set here for me ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 r'll see, sweet sir, to both particulars. 
 
 {Exit Faust. 
 
 A love-sick fool, I do declare. 
 
 Would puff sun, moon, and all the stars-^ 
 
 To please his mistress — into air ! 
 
 {Exit. 
 
142 SCENE X. [2509-2522 
 
 Martha (alone). 
 
 May God forgive my husband — he 
 
 Hath scarcely acted well by me ! 
 
 Away in the world he 's fled 
 
 And left me to a lonely bed. 
 
 I never vexed him all my life — \ 
 
 God knows I was a loving wife ! I 
 
 I \_She weeps. 
 
 In fact he may be dead ! — ^What woe ! — 
 
 Had I but aught his death to show ! 
 
 Margaret enters. 
 
 Margaret. 
 Dame Martha ! 
 
 Martha. 
 
 Gretel, what aileth thee ? 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 My knees almost beneath me sink I 
 Another casket — only think — 
 Was in the press — rof ebony — 
 And full of trinkets rich and rare, 
 Far finer than the others were ! 
 
2523-2536] THE NEIGHBOUR'S HOUSE. 143 
 
 Martha. 
 
 You must not mention it to mother ; 
 To shrift she 'd take it like the other. 
 
 Margaret. 
 Ah, only look at them ! Ah, do ! 
 
 Martha 
 {puts the ornaments on her). 
 You lucky little creature, you ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 I daren't be seen with them, alas. 
 When on the street, or when at mass. 
 
 Martha. * 
 
 But you can frequently come over. 
 
 And wear them here upon the sly ; 
 And you can pace an hour before the glass, moreover — 
 
 We shall enjoy it, you and I ; 
 Then an occasion comes, a holiday. 
 And by degrees, the whole you can display — 
 A chainlet first, and then a pearl in the ear ; 
 Mother mayn't see — some tale we'll make up, never fear ! 
 
144 SCENE X. [2537-2550 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Who in the world could two such caskets bring ? 
 
 There 's something wrong about the thing ! 
 
 \_A knock. 
 
 Save us ! Can that my mother's knock have been ? 
 
 Martha (^peeping through the Mind). 
 'Tis a strange gentleman — Come in ! 
 
 Mephistopheles enters. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Ladies, if I have made so free 
 
 As to enter at once, pray, pardon me. 
 
 \\He steps back respectfully on seeing Margaret. 
 For Madam Schwerdtlein I would fain inquire. 
 
 Martha. , 
 I 'm she, sir — what may you desire ? 
 
 Mephistopheles {speakiug lorn to her). 
 
 I know you now — I need no more — 
 You have a distinguished visitor ; 
 Excuse the liberty I have ta'en, 
 In the afternoon I '11 call again. 
 
 Martha {aloud). 
 
 Fancy! — the gentleman that's here. 
 Doth take you for a lady, dear ! 
 
2551-2564] THE NEIGHBOUR'S HOUSE. 145 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 I 'm but a poor young simple thing — 
 The gentleman 's too flattering ; 
 The jewelry is not my own. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Ah, no — 'tis not the gems alone ; 
 The air — ^the glance so keen — betray — 
 I 'm so delighted I may stay. 
 
 Martha. 
 What tidings bring you .'' Pray, excuse — 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 I would that I had better news ! 
 
 I hope you '11 not resent what I 've to tell — 
 
 Your husband 's dead, and sends you his farewell ! 
 
 Martha. 
 Dead } The true heart ! Oh misery ! 
 My husband dead ! 'Tis death to me 1 
 
 Margaret. 
 ,Dear dame, ah, yield not to despair ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 List the sad tidings that I bear 1 — 
 
 L 
 
146 SCENE X. [2565-2576 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Ne'er let me love if this ensues ! 
 It would be death to love and lose ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Joy entails grief, and grief with joy is varied. — 
 
 Martha. 
 The manner of his death, oh, let me know ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 In Padua I left him buried. 
 
 Fast by good St. Antonio ; 
 In a well consecrated space 
 He hath his last cool resting-place. 
 
 Martha. 
 Beside these tidings. have you nought to bring 1 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Yes, one last prayer ! A great boon he bespoke- 
 Three hundred masses you must make them sing ! 
 Apart from this I 've nothing in my poke. 
 
2S77-2592] THE NEIGHBOUR'S HOUSE. 147 
 
 Martha. 
 
 What ! Not a token ! Not a toy ! 
 
 Why, every journeyman in his satchell bears 
 
 Some slight memento, which, he spares, 
 
 And would prefer to starve, to beg and wander — ■ 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Madam, it grieves me you should feel annoy, 
 
 But, in good sooth, he had no cash to squander ; 
 His failings, too, he ceased not to deplore — 
 Ay, and lamented his ill luck still more. 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Ah me, that mortals shoijld so luckless prove ! 
 Full many a requiem for him I will pray. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 You should be married off without delay — 
 You are a darling made for love ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 Ah no, that would not do as yet. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Then take a lover till a spouse you get. 
 Heaven's choicest gift it were to fling 
 One's arms around so sweet a thing ! 
 
 LZ 
 
.148 SCENE X. [2593-2605 
 
 Margaret. 
 'Tis not the custom of the place. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Custom or not, 'tis oft the case. 
 
 Martha. 
 But say — 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 I stood beside his death-bed ; it was nought 
 But a foul lair which rotting straw supplied, — 
 But in a Christian frame of mind he died. 
 
 And found his score far heavier than he thought. 
 
 "How thoroughly,'' he cried, "myself I hate. 
 
 For leaving wife and business to their fate ! 
 
 To think upon it is to die ! 
 
 Would she forgave me while I 'm here below ! " — 
 
 Martha (peeping). 
 The darling ! I forgave him long ago. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 "Yet she, God knows, was more to blame than I." 
 
 Martha. 
 He lied ! ' What ! Lie, when at the point of death ! 
 
2606-2623] 7'HE NEIGHBOUR'S SOUSE. 149- 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 No doubt he rambled with his latest breath, 
 If to some judgment I may make pretence. 
 " I found it anything but fun," he said, 
 " First to get brats, and then to get them bread, 
 And bread, too, in the very widest sense — 
 And could not eat in peace the crust I'd gotten ! " 
 
 Martha. 
 
 And all my truth, and all my love forgotten — 
 My drudgery by day and night ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Not so — he viewed them in a proper light. 
 He said, " Away from Malta when I sailed, 
 
 My prayers for wife and child were fond and fervent. 
 
 And Heaven looked down with favour on its servant — 
 ,And so our ship a Turkish vessel hailed, 
 Which carried part of the great Sultan's treasure. 
 
 Valour had its reward — and then and there 
 I was awarded, in the amplest measure, 
 
 As was befitting, my peculiar share." 
 
 Martha. 
 
 Hey ! What 7 Hey ! Where ? Perchance he may have 
 buried it } 
 
iso scene x. [1624-2646 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Who knows where the four winds by this have carried it ! 
 Through Naples as he sauntered, simple youth, 
 
 A. lady took him into her good graces. 
 And gave such tokens of her love and truth, 
 
 That to his blessed end he bore the traces. 
 
 Martha. 
 The wretch ! His family to plunder ! 
 And qll the penury, and all the woe, 
 Could not keep him and infamy asunder ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 He died in consequence, you know. ^ ' 
 Were I now in your present case, 
 
 I'd mourn him for a virtuous year, 
 And meanwhile set myself my treasure to replace. 
 
 Martha. 
 
 None would be like my first, I fear. 
 No little fool could well be fonder — 
 
 The sun upon his like will never shine I 
 He had no failings — save a wish to wander — 
 
 And foreign women — and foreign wine — 
 And that cursed worry of the dice ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Now, now ! — There needed no ado 
 Had he a little venial vice 
 
 On his side overlooked in you. 
 I swear, in such a state of things, 
 With you I 'd make exchange of rings ! 
 
2647-2656] THE NEIGHBOUR'S HOUSE. rst 
 
 ^ Martha. 
 Oh, sir, I fear you do but jest ! 
 
 Mephistopheles [aside). 
 
 Methinks 'tis time my stumps I stirred — 
 She 'd take the very Devil at his word ! 
 
 [To Gretchen. 
 
 And j/owr heart, how is it imprest ? 
 
 Margaret. 
 What mean you, sir, by that } 
 
 Mephistopheles [aside). 
 
 Sweet childlike innocence ! 
 (Aloud). Ladies, farewell ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 Farewell. 
 
 Martha. 
 
 Don't keep me in suspense ! 
 If you have proof, I pray you don't defer it, 
 How, where, and when he died, my treasure, and was 
 
 buried ! 
 Ever on order hath my heart been set — 
 I fain would read his death in the Gazette. 
 
152 ' SCENE X. [2657-2668 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Yes, the truth, dear lady, wherever you're thrown, 
 
 At the mouth of two witnesses is known. 
 
 I 've a nice young fellow, a friend, whom straight 
 
 I '11 bring before the magistrate. 
 
 I '11 fetch him here. 
 
 Martha. 
 Oh, prithee, do ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 And the young lady will be here, too ? — 
 A gallant lad 1 Has travell'd — he 
 To ladies is all courtesy ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 Before him I should blush for shame. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Not if it were a king that came ! 
 
 Martha. 
 
 Behind the house, in my garden, then. 
 At eve we expect both gentlemen. 
 
 I 
 
2669-2676] A STREET. 153 
 
 511 ^tteet. 
 
 Faust — Mephistopheles. 
 
 Faust. 
 How goes it ? Will it do ? Is 't soon to be ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Bravo ! And so you 're all on fire .? 
 
 Gretchen is yours when you desire ! 
 This eve your love at Martha's you shall see. 
 That woman is a gipsy quean, 
 Made for a bawd and go-between ! 
 
 " Faust. 
 Good! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 But there's something she requires of us. 
 
 Faust. 
 Well, one good turn requites another thus. 
 
IS4 SCENE XI. [2677-2689 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 'Tis only to depose, I may remark, 
 
 That her liege lord is lying, stiff and stark, 
 
 In holy ground, in Padua's city fair. 
 
 Faust, 
 That 's rich ! Then first the journey we must take ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Sancta simpUcitas ! The trouble you may spare — 
 Though nought you know, the deposition make ! 
 
 Faust. 
 If that 's your only plan, in pieces it may break. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Most sanctimonious purist ! Look you there ! 
 
 Is it the first time since thy natal hour 
 That thou hast borne false witness } Hast thou not 
 Of God and of the World, and what therein is wrought, 
 Of Man, and all with which his head and heart are 
 fraught. 
 
 Given definitions with enormous power. 
 
2690-2705] A STREET. 155 
 
 With fearless breast and shameless brow ? 
 
 And, wouldst thou to the bottom go, 
 
 Of these high matters didst thou know 
 More than of Schwerdtlein's death ? Confessedlyr not 
 thou! 
 
 Faust. 
 Thou ever art a liar and a sophist. 
 
 Mephistopheles . 
 
 Ay, if thou look not deeper ere thou scoffest ! 
 Wilt not to-morrow, in all honour. 
 Befool poor Gretchen, and upon her 
 Lavish thine oaths, till thou hast won her 1 
 
 Faust. 
 Ay, from my heart ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 All very fine ! 
 Then as to love and truth undying, 
 ' The one sole passion all-defying, — 
 Will that be from this heart of thine ? 
 
 Faust. 
 Peace ! Peace ! It will ! — And when my mind 
 
 Intensely feels, and all but reels, 
 And seeks a name, and cannot find — 
 
iS6 SCENE XI. [2706-2716 
 
 When thought has ranged through all creation, 
 And reaches vainly at expression, 
 If I should style this glowing might 
 Eterne, eternal, infinite, 
 Is that a devil's pack of lies ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Still I am right. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 List ! Mark thou this — 
 I do entreat thee stop, and spare my lungs ! 
 People who will be right, if they have tongues. 
 
 Will be, I wis. 
 But come, the thing 's sufficiently discuss'd ; 
 I own that thou art right — because I must ! 
 
2717-2728] THE GARDEN. 157 
 
 Margaret on Faust's arm — Martha with Mephis- 
 TOPHELES, walking up and down. 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 I KNOW it well, you only spare me, sir, 
 
 And stoop to me till I 'm ashamed. 
 From sheer good nature every traveller, 
 
 For putting up with things is famed. 
 Poor talk like mine, 'tis idle to disguise, 
 Cannot be much to one that is so wise. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 More is one look of thine, one word from thee, 
 Than all the wisdom of the world to me 1 
 
 \_He kisses her hand. 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Don't incommode yourself! How can you kiss it, you 1 
 
 It is so nasty and so rough ! 
 
 What is there that I 'm not obliged to do ! 
 
 Mother is closer than enough. 
 
 \They pass on. 
 
iS8 SCENE XII. [2729-2743 
 
 Martha. 
 And you, good sir, keep travelling to and fro ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Business, alas, and duty so ordain ! 
 With what regret from many a place we go, 
 Yet may not yenture to remain ! 
 
 Martha. 
 
 'Tis well before life's brisker years are gone. 
 
 Free of all ties, to roam the wide world o'er ; 
 . But the evil day will come anon, 
 
 And to the grave to crawl, a lonely bachelor — 
 
 That ne'er was good for anyone. 
 
 # 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 With fear I view my coming fate. 
 
 Martha. } 
 
 Take warning, then, dear sir, before it is too lateT 
 
 \They pass on. 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Yes, out of sight is out of mind ! 
 
 With courtesy you overflow; 
 
 But you have heaps of friends, I know, 
 Whom more intelligent than me you find. 
 
2744-2758] the garden. 159 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Oft, sweet one, what is termed intelligence 
 Is mere conceit and levity. 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 How so } 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Ah, that simplicity and innocence 
 
 Themselves and their own worth should never know ! 
 That meekness, modesty, the gifts of nature when 
 
 Most loving, and most liberal to endue — 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Ah, think of me a moment, now and then, 
 I shall have time enough to think of you ! 
 
 Faust. 
 You 're much alone withal } 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Yes, though our household is but small, 
 
 It must be seen to after all. 
 
 We keep ho maid ; I cook, sweep, knit, and sew, 
 
 And early run about, and late — 
 Mother in all things is, you know, " 
 
 So accurate 1 
 
i6o SCENE XII. [2759-2779 
 
 Not that her need for pinching is so great ; 
 We might do more than others that we see. 
 For father left a handsome property, 
 
 A house and garden-plot beyond the gate. 
 Still, now my days are quiet in the main ; 
 
 My brother is a lansquenet, 
 My little sister 's dead. 
 With the poor child a precious life I led, 
 Yet gladly would I bear it all again. 
 So dear I held the child ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 An angel, if like thee ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 I reared it, and 'twas very fond of me. 
 
 After my father's death 'twas born ; 
 
 We had given up mother — so forlorn 
 
 And in such piteous case she lay ; 
 
 Then she came round so slowly, day by day. 
 
 She could not nurse the babe herself, 
 
 As there it wailed, poor little elf, 
 
 And so on milk and water, all alone 
 
 I reared it, till it seemed my own ! 
 
 Upon my arm, upon my knee, 
 
 It crowed, and kicked, and throve with me. 
 
2780-2798] THE GARDEN. 161 
 
 Faust. 
 You must, I 'm sure, have known the purest pleasure. 
 
 .Margaret. 
 
 And many an hour that tried me beyond measure. 
 
 At night its little cot I'd take 
 Beside my bed ; if but to stir it tried 
 
 I was awake. 
 Now I would give it drink, now lay it by my side, 
 Now leave my bed, when quiet 'twould not keep, 
 And walk it up and down, and dandle it to sleep — 
 And yet was at the tub when day began to peep ; 
 To market then, then by the hearth to stay — 
 And so'to-morrow but repeats to-day. 
 With such a life one sometimes feels deprest. 
 But then it seasons food and seasons rest. 
 
 \They pass on. 
 
 Martha. 
 
 Poor women fare but ill, whate'er they do — 
 Old bachelors are hard to be converted. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 It but depends on some one such as you 
 To find a better way concerted. 
 
 Martha. 
 
 But tell me frankly — have you never met — 2 
 Hath your heart nowhere fixed itself as yet 1 
 
 M 
 
i62 SCENE XII. [2799-2808 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 By the old adage we are told, 
 
 A home and wife are more than pearls and gold. 
 
 Martha. 
 I mean — at no time hath the tender passion — 7 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 I 've always been received in the most gracious fashion. 
 
 Martha. 
 Nay — hath no serious feeling for the fair — 1 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 To triile with the sex no gentleman should dare ! 
 
 Martha. 
 You take me not ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 I 'm sorry so to find ! 
 But as I take it^-you are very kind. 
 
 \They pass on, 
 
 Faust. 
 
 You knew me, little angel from the skies, 
 When from the garden gate I cast a look ? 
 
2809-2823] THE GARDEN. 163 
 
 Margaret. 
 Did you observe it not ? I dropped my eyes. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 And you forgive the liberty I took — 
 My boldness — when from yonder Dom 
 You lately were returning home 1 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 I was confounded — it was new to me ; 
 
 Never against me could a word be spoken ; 
 
 Ah, thought I, hath he recognised the token 
 Of aught unmaidenly or bold in thee .? 
 It' seemed as if it flashed across his mind 
 To deal straight off with one of such a kind. 
 Yet — I must own it — there began to stir — 
 
 Here — pleading for you — something strange and new ; 
 And with myself I felt the angrier, 
 
 Because I was not angrier with you ! 
 
 Faust. 
 Sweet darling ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 Stay awhile ! 
 
 \_She pulls an aster and plucks the petals one 
 after another. 
 
 M2 
 
i64 SCENE XII. [2833-2828 
 
 Faust. 
 Make you a posy ? 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 No! 
 
 'Tis but a pastime. 
 
 Faust. 
 How } 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 You '11 laugh at me, I trow. 
 \_She plucks the petals and murmurs. 
 
 Faust. 
 What murmurest thou } 
 
 Margaret {Jialf -aloud). _ 
 
 He loves me — Loves me not ! 
 
 Faust. 
 Thy face a look of heaven hath caught ! 
 
 Margaret {^continues). 
 
 Loves me — Not — Loves me — Not — 
 
 \_PlucMng the last petal with fond delight. 
 He loves me ! 
 
 :Ki. 
 
2828-2839] THE GARDEN. 165 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Yes, my child ! Let the answer of the flower 
 Be as an oracle to thee ! He loves thee ! 
 Know'st thou what that doth mean ? He loves thee ! 
 
 \He takes both her hands. 
 
 Margaret. 
 I 'm all of a tremble ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Oh tremble not ! Let this fond look, 
 
 This pressure of the hand, convey 
 
 What words could ne'er express ! 
 
 To give oneself up wholly, and to feel 
 
 A joy that must eternal be ! 
 
 Eternal ! — Ah, its end would be despair. 
 
 No, no ! Unending ! — Unending ! 
 
 [Margaret /r«w« his hands, disengages herkelf, 
 and runs away. He stands a moment in. 
 thought, and then follows her. 
 
 Martha {coming up). 
 Night 's closing in. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Yes, we 'II retire apace. 
 
i66 SCENE XII. [2840-2848 
 
 Martha. 
 
 I 'd ask you longer to remain, 
 But this is such an awful wicked place. 
 
 It seems as nobody had nought to gain, 
 Or think about, 
 
 But gape and watch one's goings in and out ; 
 Do what you will the gossip's lip is curled ! 
 
 And our young couple — .'' 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Flown up yonder walk — ^the pair 
 Of giddy butterflies ! 
 
 Martha. 
 
 He appears struck with her. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 And she with him. Such is the way of the world. 
 
2849-2851] A GARDEN-HOUSE. 167 
 
 Margaret daris into it — plants herself behind the door — 
 holds the tip of her finger to her lips — and peeps 
 through the crevice. 
 
 Margaret. 
 He comes ! 
 
 Faust {coming up). 
 
 Ah, rogue, sweet torment that thou art ! 
 I 've caught thee ! [He kisses her. 
 
 Margaret 
 {embracing him and returning the kiss). 
 Love ! — I love thee from my heart ! 
 
 Mephistopheles knocks at the door. 
 
 Faust {stamping). 
 Who 's there ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 A friend ! 
 
I68 SCENE XIII. [2851-2854 . 
 
 Faust. 
 A brute ! 
 
 Mkphistopheles. 
 
 'Tis time for parting — come ! 
 
 Martha {coming up). 
 Yes, sir, 'tis getting late. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 May I not see you home ? 
 
 Margaret. 
 I fear that mother would — Good-bye ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 And must I leave you then .? 
 Good-bye ! 
 
 Martha. 
 Adieu ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 Soon may we meet again ! 
 [Exeunt Faust and Mephistopheles. 
 
28SS-2860] A GARDEN-HOUSE. 169 
 
 Margaret {to Martha). 
 
 Heavens ! What a man ! Sure, there is nought, 
 Nought, upon which he hath not thought ! 
 And there I stand, all bashfulness, 
 And nothing can I say but, Yes. 
 I 'm a poor silly child — and he^ — 
 I wonder what he sees in me ! 
 
 \_Exit. 
 
TIME OF ACTION. , 
 
 IV. 
 
 After the occurrence in the Garden-house, Faust,, in 
 an access of remorse, fiies to the Forest, where he is 
 su;p;posed to remain for several days. Margaret, in 
 desjiair at his fancied desertion, bewails her lost ^eace 
 of mind at the Spinning-wheel. Mephistopheles, per- 
 ceiving that he has been foiled, determ-ines to ^ut an 
 end to the episode, and with this view prevails on Faust 
 to return. The four scenes im.m.ediately following his 
 return are laid upon the same day. Faust meets 
 Margaret in the Garden, and, once ?nore overpowered 
 by passion, obtains an assignation for the combing night 
 (1. 3150); from, the Garden Margaret proceeds to the 
 Well, where her fears are roused by the story of 
 Barbara (1. 3188) ; in the extrem.ity of her alarm, she 
 prostrates herself before the Image of the Virgin on the 
 Esplanade (1. 3230) ; and yet, bound by her prom.ise, she 
 administers the sleeping-draught to her m^other on the 
 fatal Night (1. 3263). At night Mephistopheles carries 
 out the covert threat which he had uttered in the Garden 
 (I.3187), and, by his contrivance, the attem.pt to keep 
 the assignation results in the m.urder of Valentine, the 
 flight of Faust, and the death of Margaret' s mother. 
 This is Mephistd' s 'frolic'' (1. 3187). The day but one 
 after Margaret is in the Cathedral, a prey to the 
 suggestions of the Evil Spirit, and Faust is ascending 
 th£ Brocken under the guidcince of his Evil Genius. 
 Walpurgis-night occurs the night but one after the 
 scene at Gretchen's door (1. 3305). 
 
2861-2878] FOREST AND CAVE. 171 
 
 Faust {alone). 
 
 Transcendent Spirit ! Tiiou hast given me all, 
 
 All that I prayed for ! Not in vain hast thou 
 
 Toward me turned thy countenance in fire ! 
 
 Thou gav'st me Nature for a realm, with power 
 
 To feel and to enjoy her beauty ! Not 
 
 A mere amazed cold visit dost thou grant — 
 
 Thou bid'st me gaze into her inmost breast, 
 
 As 'twere the bosom of familiar friend ! 
 
 Thou marshalest before me the array 
 
 Of living things, and teachest me to know 
 
 My kind in stilly brake, in air, and flood. 
 
 And when the storm i' the' forest roars and gna'rrs. 
 
 And the pine giant,-all the neighbouring boughs 
 
 And neighbouring boles o'erwhelming, thunders down, 
 
 And the dull crash booms hollow through the hills, 
 
 Thou dost conduct me to the sheltered cave. 
 
 And showest me myself, and I behold 
 
 The marvel and the mystery within ! 
 
172 SCENE XIV. [2879-29,00 
 
 And when on high, all purity, the moon 
 Is breathing balm, upborne on airy wings 
 Frorn wall of rock, and forth of dewy dell. 
 The silver shadows of the past arise. 
 And temper the severe delight of thought ! 
 
 And yet that nothing perfect falls to man 
 Inow am conscious ! With this ecstasy 
 Which brings me ever nearer to the gods, 
 Thou gav'st me for associate him with whom 
 I ne'er may part, though cold and truculent 
 He lowers me to myself, and into nought 
 With a mere word, a breath, resolves thy gifts. 
 He fans within my bosom a wild fire 
 For that most beauteous form, persistently. 
 So from desire I reel into delight, 
 And in delight I 'm dying for desire. 
 
 Mephistopheles enters. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Have you not had enough of it by this ? 
 
 How can you such a life so long pursue .? 
 To try the thing for once were not amiss. 
 
 But then away to something new ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Would thou hadst something else to do, 
 When thus my happier hour thou dost molest. 
 
2901-292 1] FOREST AND CAVE. 173 
 
 I 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Tut, tut ! — I 'd gladly let you rest and rue ; 
 You dare not say so but in jest. 
 Grabbed and cracked, and aught but debonair, 
 
 You would be no great loss, I trow. 
 My hands are full — I 've not an hour to spare — 
 What shall I do, or what shall I forbear 1 
 
 From my lord's nose 'tis difficult to know. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 That 's the right tone to take ! He 'd have me say, 
 I thank you much, because you bore me dead 1 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Why, without me, thou wretched child of clay. 
 What sort of life wouldst thou have led .? 
 
 I 've cured thy brain for many a day 
 Of all the maggots that thy fancy fed. 
 
 And but that I was in the way. 
 Ere now this Earth-ball thou hadst fled. 
 
 Why 'mid the rifts o' the rocks, in cavern foul. 
 
 Sit perched, exactly like an owl 1 
 
 Why, with dank moss and dripping stone content. 
 
 Suck, like a toad, your nutriment } 
 
 A pretty way the time to kill ! 
 
 The doctor's sticking in you still. 
 
174 scene xiv. [2922-2938 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Canst thou conceive the sense of life renewed 
 
 Which comes of wandering in the solitude ? 
 
 Yes, if thou hadst the faintest sense of this. 
 
 Fiend that thou art, thou wouldst begrudge the bliss ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 A superhunaan ecstasy ! 
 In damp and darkness on the hills to lie — 
 With heaven and earth to deem yourself embodied — 
 To fancy you are swelling into godhead — 
 To grope earth's marrow, like a man distracted — 
 To feel the six days in your breast enacted — 
 In pride to clasp I know not what illusion — 
 To overflow the world in your effusion. 
 Oblivious that of earth you are the son. 
 And bring your high ecstatics, when all 's done — 
 
 [ With a gesture. 
 Well, I must not say how — to their conclusion ! 
 
 Faust. 
 Fie on thee ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 With my conclusion you 're disposed to quarrel ; 
 That modest _/fe of yours is mighty moral ! 
 
2939-2967] FOREST AND CAVE. 175 
 
 To the chaste ear you must not dare to name 
 What the chaste heart delights in, all the same ! 
 One joy I don't begrudge you, by-the-by — 
 When you 've occasion, to yourself to lie ! 
 You '11 not stick long to this, I 'm clear ; 
 
 Again your mind is over-wrought, 
 
 And, if it lasts, you '11 be distraught 
 With madness — heart-ache — haunting fear. 
 Enough of this ! Your lady-bird sits yonder, 
 
 And all is dreary and depress'd ; 
 On you she ceases not to ponder — 
 
 Love is the tyrant of her breast ! 
 At first your passion was a furious torrent, 
 
 O'erflowing like a brook which snows have swollen high ; 
 Into her heart you poured it all, I warrant, 
 
 And now the brook again is dry ! 
 Instead of sitting throned in this high fashion, 
 
 As king o' the woods, methinks, my lord 
 
 The poor young monkey might reward 
 With some requital for her passion. 
 To her the time seems miserably long ! 
 
 She seeks the lattice — sees the leaden pall 
 
 Of the dun clouds pass o'er the city wall. 
 "Oh would I were a bird" — so goes her song 
 The livelong day, half the night long I 
 At times she 's cheerful, but mostly low — 
 
 Then she weeps her fill ; 
 And then she's quiet to outward show — 
 
 But love-sick still ! 
 
176 scene xiv. [2968-2981 
 
 Faust. 
 Serpent ! Serpent ! 
 
 Mephistopheles {aside). 
 
 So !— I bet 
 I fang thee yet ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Abandoned wretch ! Go, get thee hence ! 
 Dare not to name that lovely thing, 
 Nor the desire for her sweet body bring 
 
 Again before my half-distracted sense ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 What's to be done } Sh^ thinks that you are flown, 
 And in a sort you are, — as you must own. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 I 'm near her still — apart we 're in accord ; 
 
 She still is unforgotten — unforsaken ! 
 Yes, should she lip the body of the Lord 
 
 While I 'm away, my envy would awaken ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Well said, my friend 1 I 've often envied you 
 The twins that feed 'mid roses out of view. 
 
2982-3003] forest and cave. 177 
 
 Faust. 
 Avaunt, thou pander ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Good ! You rail and I must rally ! 
 
 The God who fashioned youth and maid 
 
 Must have foreseen the noble trade, 
 Which finds them time and place to dally ! 
 Away 1 A proper cause for looking sour 1 
 Betake thee to thy lady's bower — 
 
 'Tis not the grave, I guess ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Tell me not of the heaven within her arms ! 
 What though I kindle in her glowing charms, 
 
 Have I no feeling for her wretchedness ? 
 An outcast am I not, a runagate, 
 
 A monster without aim or rest, 
 A cataract that roars infuriate 
 
 From rock to rock, for the abyss addrest — 
 And by it she, with a child's simple mind. 
 
 Her home upon the little alpine plot. 
 Her thoughts to household cares confined, 
 
 Her little world that narrow spot ! 
 And I, of God detested, 
 
 'Twas not enough, perforce. 
 The firm rocks to have wrested. 
 
 And shattered in my course ! 
 
 N 
 
178 SCENE XIV. [3004-3017 
 
 Her and her quiet I must undermine ! 
 
 Hell ! thou hast claimed this sacrifice as thine ! 
 
 Shorten, foul fiend, the dread before the doing ! 
 
 Be quickly done what must be done 1 
 Let me be crushed to atoms in her ruin, 
 
 And let us in our doom be one ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Again it seethes — again it glows ! 
 
 Go in and comfort her, you fool 1 
 Your dolt when difficulties round him close 
 
 Sees no escape, and 'gins to pule. 
 Give me the man whose spirits rise ! 
 
 You show a spice of the devil in most affairs, 
 But -if there is aught on earth that I despise. 
 
 It is a devil who despairs. 
 
3018-3033] GRETCHEN'S ROOM. 179 
 
 Gretchen {at the Spinning-wheel, alone). 
 
 My heart is heavy, , 
 
 My peace is o'er, 
 'Tis gone for ever, 
 
 For evermore ! 
 
 If away he be, 
 'Tis death to me, 
 The world is all 
 To me as gall. 
 
 I feel as my 
 
 Poor head were crazed ; 
 I feel as my 
 
 Poor mind were mazed. 
 
 My heart is heavy, 
 
 My peace is o'er, 
 'Tis gone for ever. 
 
 For evermore 1 
 
 N 2 
 
i8o SCENM XV. [3034-3057 
 
 For him at the lattice 
 
 My eyes grow dim ; 
 If I leave the house, 
 
 'Tis but for him. 
 
 His noble form, 
 
 His bearing high, 
 The smile of his mouth. 
 
 The flash of his eye — 
 
 And the magic flow 
 
 Of words that 's his, 
 The clasp of his hand. 
 
 And, oh, his kiss ! 
 
 My heart is heavy. 
 
 My peace is o'er, 
 'Tis gone for ever, 
 
 For evermore ! 
 
 For him my soul 
 
 Doth wildly strain ; 
 Ah, could I but clasp him. 
 
 And so detain ! 
 
 Oh, could I but kiss him, 
 
 And with a sigh 
 Upon his kisses 
 
 Dissolve and die ! 
 
3058-3065] MARTHA'S GARDEN. • 181 
 
 Margauet and Faust. 
 
 Margaret. 
 Promise me, Heinrich ! 
 
 Faust. 
 If I can ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 How do you stand as to Religion, say ; 
 
 You are a thoroughly good-hearted man, 
 
 But, small regard to it, I fear, you pay. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Peace, child ! Thou know'st that thou art dear to me, 
 That I -would give my life for love of thee ; 
 Of faith and feeling none would I bereave. 
 
 Margaret. 
 That 's not enough^you know we must believe ! 
 
i82 SCENE XVI. [3066-3074 
 
 Faust. 
 Must we ? 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Would I could influence you ! At all events. 
 You honour not the Holy Sacraments. 
 
 Faust. 
 I honour them. 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 But love them not, alas ! 
 'Tis long since you have ceased to go to shrift or mass . 
 Do you believe in God ? 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Who, darling, dares aver 
 
 -That he believes in God ? 
 Ask of your priest, or your philosopher — 
 
 His answer, seems it not 
 A mockery of the questioner ? 
 
 Margaret. 
 So, you do not believe ? 
 
307S-3I02] MARTHA'S GARDEN. 183 
 
 Faust. 
 
 My meaning, sweet one, do not misconceive ! 
 
 Who Him may name 
 
 And then proclaim, 
 I believe in Him ? 
 
 Who that doth feel 
 
 His heart can steel, 
 And say, I disbelieve ? 
 
 The AU-enfolder, 
 
 The All-upholder, 
 
 Enfolds, upholds he not 
 
 Thee— Me— Himself ? 
 Doth not yon Heaven bend o'er us from above ? 
 Lies not the Earth beneath us, firm and fast ? 
 And do not the eternal Stars ^ 
 With kindly aspect mount on high ? 
 Am I not gazing, eyes in eyes, on thee ? 
 And doth not All 
 Crowd on thine head and heart, 
 And with a web of endless mystery. 
 Seen or unseen, envelop thee ? 
 Fill thine heart with it to the full ! 
 And with the feeling when thy soul is blest. 
 Then name it how thou wilt— r 
 Name it Bliss ! — Heart ! — Love ! — God ! ' 
 I have no name for it ! 
 
 Feeling is all ; 
 The name is but a sound — a smoke 
 That dims the heavenly glow. 
 
i84 SCENE XVI. [3i03-3"5 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 All that is very well to know — 
 The Priest speaks much as you have spoke, 
 Albeit he uses different phrases. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 'Tis utter'd in all places — 
 By all hearts under heaven — and each 
 Speaks it in his own speech — 
 Then why not I in mine } 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 It may pass when couched in words so fine, 
 But there's something in it that's all awry 
 Then you have no Christianity. 
 
 Faust. 
 Sweet child ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 It hath long been a grief to me 
 To see you in such company. 
 
 Faust. 
 How so ? 
 
311S-3132] MARTHA'S GARDEN. 185 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 The man you have for mate 
 From the depths of my inmost soul I hate ! 
 Never hath aught in all my life 
 Within my bosom plunged the knife 
 Like that man's horrible visage ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Tut! 
 Little poppet, fear him not ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 His presence agitates my blood. 
 
 I feel to all others as I should, 
 
 But much as I long to see thee, dear, 
 
 I view that man with a secret fear. 
 
 And that he is a knave my belief is strong ; 
 
 God forgive me, if I dp him wrong ! 
 
 Faust. 
 Such queer birds there must always be. 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Ne'er would I live with such as he ! 
 
 When once at the door he doth appear. 
 
 He looks in with a mocking leer, 
 
 And rage supprest ; 
 
 One sees that in nought he takes interest ! 
 
i86 SCENE XVI. [3'33-3i48 
 
 'Tis wfit on his brow, as on a scroll, 
 
 That he can love no living soul ! 
 
 I feel so happy in thy arm, 
 
 So free, so unreserved and warm, 
 
 And lo ! his presence closes up my heart ! 
 
 Faust. 
 Ill-boding angel that thou art ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 The feeling presses me so sore. 
 
 That, if he chance to come our way, 
 I feel as if I loved thee, love, no more — , 
 
 When he is by, I cannot pray ; 
 This, eats into my heart — and you — 
 
 Heinrich, you must feel it too ! 
 
 Faust. 
 You 've taken an antipathy ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 1 now must go. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Mine can it never be 
 One little hour in peace o'er thee to bend, 
 Heart to meet heart, and soul with soul to blend ? 
 
3J49-3164] MARTHA'S GARDEN. 187 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Ah, by myself did I but sleep ! 
 
 I 'd gladly leave the door unbarred to-night, 
 But mother's slumber is not deep, 
 
 And if she caught us, in my fright 
 I should drop dead upon the spot ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 No need, my angel — fear it not ! 
 
 Here is a flask ! Three drops — but three — 
 
 If in her drink she take, 
 The veil of sleep will shroud her peacefully. 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 What would I not for thy dear sake .? 
 I trust it will not do her aught but good 1 
 
 Faust. 
 Would I advise it, darling, if it would ? 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Dearest and best ! Thy face if I but see, 
 It seems as though no will but thine I knew ; 
 
 I have already d,one so much for thee. 
 That little more remains for me to do ! 
 
i8S SCENE XVI. [3I&S-3I79 
 
 Mephistopheles enters. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 The monkey ! Is she gone ? 
 
 Faust. 
 
 More spying ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 I 'm apprised 
 Of all that passed, as near I stood ; 
 The Doctor hath been soundly catechised — 
 
 I hope that it will do him good. 
 The maids are right when they would be advised 
 If one 's religious in the plain old way — 
 If there he ducks his head he'll follow us, they say. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Thou monster, •'tis to thee unknown 
 How soul so tender and so true, 
 Full of the fond belief 
 To which alone 
 
 She looks for her salvation, cannot view 
 The man she loves as lost without a holy grief. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Of dames thou sensual super-sensual squire — 
 A little minx doth lead thee by the nose ! 
 
3180-3187] MARTHA'S GARDEN. 
 
 Faust. 
 Thou mockery born of filth and fire ! 
 
 Mkphistopheles. 
 
 Skill, too, in physiognomy she shows ! 
 When I am by, she feels she knows not how- 
 
 My mask a secret presage must diffuse ; 
 She feels that I 'm a genius — nay, I vow, 
 
 She well may take me for the deuce ! 
 To-night, then, — ? 
 
 Faust. 
 What is that to you ? 
 
 Mephistopheles, 
 I then shall have my frolic, too 1 
 
I90 SCENE XVII. [3 1 88-3 1 93 
 
 Gretchen and Lieschen with pitchers. 
 
 Lieschen. 
 Hate you heard no remarks on Barbara pass'd ? 
 
 Gretchen. 
 No, not a word — I don't go in the way. 
 
 Lieschen. 
 Faith, Sybil told it me to-day ; 
 She too hath play'd the fool at last. 
 So much for airs ! 
 
 Gretchen. 
 How so } 
 
 Lieschen. 
 
 Faugh — only think ! 
 She fodders two when she doth eat and drink ! 
 
 Gretchen. 
 Oh! 
 
3i94-32'3] -^^ THE WELL. 191 
 
 LlESCHEN. 
 
 She hath met with her merits in her mishap. 
 The time she kept hanging on yonder chap ! 
 
 They needs must have their ramble — t 
 
 Their dance and village gambol ! 
 As first she everywhere must shine. 
 He kept courting her with tarts and wine ; 
 She was vain of her beauty and, in fine, 
 Was so lost to honour she felt no shame 
 In taking his presents when they came. 
 And the kissing and cuddling that went on ! 
 And, lo, the little flower is gone ! 
 
 Gretchen. 
 Poor thing L 
 
 LlESCHEN. 
 
 What — pity thou dost feel ! 
 While the like of us plied the spinning-wheel. 
 Kept in by our mothers after dark. 
 She was there by the side of her precious spark ; 
 On the bench at the porch — in the alley dim — 
 No hours were too long for her and him ! 
 And npw she may duck, and make her shrift. 
 And penance do in the sinner's shift ! 
 
 Gretchen. 
 He '11 surely take her for his wife. 
 
192 SCENE XVII.-' [3214-3229 
 
 LlESCHEN. 
 
 What a fool he would be ! No — everywhere 
 A spruce young fellow can take the air — 
 Besides, he 's bolted ! 
 
 Gretchen. 
 That's not right! 
 
 LlESCHEN. 
 
 If she gets him, she '11 still be in evil plight ; 
 The lads will tear the wreath from her head, 
 And we at her door chopped straw will spread ! 
 
 {Exit. 
 
 Gretchen {going home). 
 
 How boldly could I once inveigh 
 When a poor maiden went astray ! 
 And how my tongue for other's shame 
 Could ne'er find words enough to blame ! 
 Black as it seemed, could it blacker be 
 It was not black enough for me ! 
 I blessed myself and felt so proud. 
 And now to sin I, too, have bowed ! 
 Yet all that moved this heart of mine, 
 Was, oh, so dear and so divine ! 
 
3230-3241] THE ESPLANADE. 193 
 
 A niche in the City •wall containing an Image of the 
 Mater Dolbrosa, with vases of flowers before it. 
 
 Gretchen 
 
 {places fresh flowers in the vases). 
 
 Oh, incline thee, / 
 And look benignly. 
 Thou rich in sorrows, on my need ! 
 
 The sword thy heart cleaving-, 
 Fordone with grieving. 
 Thou with upcast eyes thy Son dost heed ! 
 
 ' Thou the Father eyest. 
 
 And thou deeply sighest 
 For thyself and him, in your hour of need ! 
 
 Who guesses 
 How presses 
 My anguish to the bone ? 
 o 
 
194 SCENE XVIII. [3242-3262 
 
 How my heart within me shiversj 
 How it urges, how it quivers, 
 .None knows but thou, but thou alone ! 
 
 Whene'er abroad I go. 
 
 What woe, what woe, what woe. 
 In my bosom — here — is nurst ! 
 
 My chamber when I keep, 
 
 I weep, and weep, and weep, 
 As though my heart would burst ! 
 
 The plants before my window 
 
 I bedew'd with tears, ah me. 
 When in the early morning 
 
 I pluck'd the flowers for thee ! 
 
 When, ushering in the morrow. 
 
 The sky was flushed with red. 
 Already in my sorrow 
 
 I was sitting in my bed ! v 
 
 Help ! Rescue me from shame and death ! Oh heed \ 
 
 Oh, incline thee. 
 
 And look benignly. 
 Thou rich in sorrows, on my need ! 
 
3263-3280] NIGHT. 195 
 
 Mm- 
 
 The Street be/ore Gretchen's door. 
 Valentine, a Soldier, Gretchen's Brother. 
 
 Valentine. 
 
 Once when I sat at some carouse 
 
 Which many a braggart's boast allows, 
 
 And every fellow of the Flower 
 
 Of Beauty ranted by the hour, 
 
 And in her praise libations poured — 
 
 With elbows planted on the board, 
 
 I 'd sit at ease amid the rout. 
 
 Hear all the gasconading out, 
 
 And smiling stroke my beard, and say. 
 
 Taking the bumper in my hand : — 
 " All good and excellent in their way ! 
 
 But is there one in all the land, 
 That's fit to hand my father's daughter, 
 Sweet Gretel, e'en a glass of water ? " 
 Tap ! Tap ! Clink 1 Clink ! all round the room ! 
 
 Then, " he is right," some trooper cried, 
 
 " Of all her sex she is the pride !" 
 And so the toasters all were dumb, 
 o 2 
 
ige SCENE XIX. [3281-3502 
 
 And now ! — I may tear my hair withal, 
 Or run my head against the wall !^ 
 With cutting speeches, noses sneering. 
 Will every jackanapes be jeering ! 
 And I, like bankrupt debtor fretting, 
 At every chance word shall be sweating ! 
 And though I sent the rascals flying, 
 I could not say that they were lying. 
 
 Who 's coming here ? Who steals this way ? 
 There's two of them, or I missay. 
 Is 't he ? Then at him I will drive, — 
 He shall not leave the spot alive ! 
 
 Faust and Mephistopheles. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 How from the window of yon Sacristy 
 
 Upwards the lamp's eternal flame doth flicker, 
 And shimmers sideways with a feeble bicker. 
 
 And darkness closes round it, bodily ! 
 
 E'en so within my bosom all is night ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 And I 'm a young cat, dying for delight, 
 
 That up thp'-'fire-man's ladder crawls. 
 
 And softly steals around the walls. 
 
 I feel so virtuous all over — but 
 
 With just a spice of roguery, a spice of rut ! 
 
3303-3318] NIGHT, 197 
 
 My prescient limbs already borrow 
 
 From rare Walpurgis-night a glow : 
 It comes round on the overmorrow — 
 
 Then why we are awake we know. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Meanwhile is that the treasure on the rise, 
 Which flaring yonder one espies } 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Soon, if you live, you 'II have the pleasure 
 Of hoisting out the crock of treasure ; 
 Thereat I lately took a squint — 
 There be rare lion-dollars in 't. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 What, not a trinket, not a ring. 
 
 Wherewith to deck my queen of girls } 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 I noted in it some such thing — 
 A matter of a string of pearls. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 I 'm glad of that ! It pains me so 
 When I without a present go. 
 
198. SCENE XIX. [33i9-334o 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 It should not cause you much annoy 
 ' Some unbought pleasure to enjoy. — 
 Now that the sky with stars is all athrong. 
 
 List to a masterpiece of wit ; 
 I '11 sing her a good moral song, 
 
 More surely to befool the chit. 
 
 {He sings to the ztthern.) 
 
 What dost thou here. 
 
 At door of fere, 
 
 O Katie dear, 
 So early in the morning } 
 
 In time be stay'd ! 
 
 In goes a maid, 
 
 That out a maid 
 Will never go — -take warning ! 
 
 When once 'tis done 
 
 You '11 rue the fun, 
 
 Poor foolish one 1 
 Good night, if here you linger 1 
 
 For yojir life, in bvief. 
 
 Grant ne'er a thief 
 
 Of boops the chief, 
 Without the ring on finger ! 
 
334I-33SI] NIGHT. 199 
 
 Valentine [coming forward). 
 
 Thou damned ratcatcher ! Sacrament ! 
 
 Whom art thou luring to perdition ? 
 To the devil first with the instrument, 
 
 And then to the devil with the musician ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 The zithern 's smashed ! For nothing, more 'tis fit. 
 
 Valentine. 
 And now then for a skull to split ! 
 
 Mephistopheles {to Faust). 
 
 Sir Doctor, don't give way ! Be brisk ! 
 
 Do as I bid — the day we '11 carry ! 
 Out quickly with your flipperwhisk ! 
 
 Do you thrust only ! / will parry. 
 
 Valentine. 
 Then parry that ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 And wherefore not ? 
 
SCENE XIX. [3352-3359 
 
 Valentine. 
 
 And that ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Just so ! 
 
 Valentine. 
 
 The devil fights, I wot ! 
 But what is this 1 My hand 's already lamed ! 
 
 Mephistopheles {to Faust). 
 Thrust home ! 
 
 Valentine {falls). 
 O me ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 The lubber now is tamed ! 
 Off on the instant ! We must cut aiid run ! 
 
 Already there is raised a murderous cry. 
 
 On settling with the watch I could rely, 
 But with the justicers it can 't be done. 
 
 \_Exeunt. 
 
 Martha {at a window). 
 Turn out ! Turn out 1 
 
 Gretchen {at a window). 
 
 Ho 1 lend a light ! 
 
3360-3368] NIGHT. 20J 
 
 Martha {as before). 
 They scold and scuffle — shout and fight. 
 
 People. 
 Here 's one already sped ! 
 
 Martha {coming out). 
 The murderers, are they really flown ? 
 
 Gretchen {coming out). 
 Who lieth here ? 
 
 People. 
 Thy mother's son ! 
 
 Gretchen. 
 My God ! How awful ! Dead ! 
 
 Valentine. 
 
 I 'm dying ! That 's a thing, in fine. 
 
 No sooner said than done ! 
 Why do you women howl and whine } 
 
 Come, listen every one ! 
 
 \^They gather round him. 
 
SCENE XIX. [3369-3392 
 
 My Gretchen, see, you 're young as yet 
 More knowing you will have to get, 
 
 You manage matters ill. 
 One word' in confidence — no more — 
 Since now you 're once for all a whore, 
 
 Why, be so with a will ! 
 
 Grjejchen, 
 Brother ! My ^od ! Why 
 
 Valentine. 
 
 \ 
 
 Nay, bring not God into the game ! 
 
 What 's done, unhappily, is done ; 
 
 And things will run the course they run. 
 
 You go with one upon the sly — 
 
 Others will follow by-and-by ; 
 
 When a dozen have had you, sinking down, 
 
 You will be had by all the town ! 
 
 When Shame is born, that none may know. 
 By stealth into the world she 's brought. 
 And o'er her head and ears 'tis sought 
 
 The veil of night to throw ; 
 
 Yes, men would gladly murder her ! 
 
 But when she 's grown, and courts display. 
 Barefaced she flaunts in open day. 
 
 And yet she 's grown no lovelier. 
 
 The fouler that she is to sight, 
 
 The more she courts the noonday light ! 
 
3393-3413] NIGHT. 203 
 
 I see the time already when 
 
 Each honest-minded citizen, 
 
 As from one that of the plague had died, 
 
 From thee, thou jade, will turn aside. 
 
 Thou shalt feel a sinking at the core. 
 
 When they shall look thee in the face ! 
 The chain of gold thou shalt wear no more, 
 
 No more by the altar find a place. 
 Or disport thyself on the dancing-floor 
 In the point-lace collar that once you wore 1 
 Go— cowering in some loathsome spot, 
 With beggars and with cripples rot ! 
 And e'en if God himself forgive. 
 Live banned while still on earth you live ! 
 
 Martha. 
 
 Commend thy soul to God on high ! 
 Why burden it with calumny 1 
 
 Valentine. 
 
 Would in my clutch I had thee clawed. 
 Thou shameful, vile, beshrivelled bawd ! 
 Then should I for my every sin 
 Full measure of remission win ! 
 
 Gretchkn. 
 My brother ! Oh, what agony ! 
 
204 SCENE XIX. [3414-3418 
 
 Valentine. 
 
 I tell thee, let thy -weeping be ! 
 When with thine honour thou didst partj 
 Thou then didst stab me to the heart ! 
 To God I go through the sleep of death, 
 A soldier to my latest breath ! 
 
 \Dies. 
 
3419-3431] THE CATHEDRAL. 205 
 
 Cfte (Catl&cbral. 
 
 Service, Organ, and Hymn. 
 
 Gretchen in a crowd of people — ^EviL Spirit 
 behind her. 
 
 Evil Spirit. 
 
 How different, Gretchen, was it once with thee. 
 
 When thou, all innocence, 
 
 Cam' St to the altar here. 
 
 And from the well-worn little book 
 
 Didst lisp thy prayer — 
 
 Thine heart half-full of childish glee. 
 
 Half-full of God ! 
 
 Gretchen J 
 
 Where are thy thoughts ? 
 
 What is the misdeed 
 
 That haunts thine heart ? 
 
 Say, art thou praying for thy mother's soul. 
 
 Who slept away to long, long pain through thee ? 
 
2o6 SCENE XX. [3432-3450 
 
 Whose blood is at thy door ? — 
 
 And there, beneath thine heart, 
 
 Doth it not stir e'en now, a quickening thing. 
 
 Which plagues itself and thee 
 
 With ,its ill-boding presence ? 
 
 Gretchkn. 
 
 Woe ! Woe ! 
 
 Would I were free of the dark thoughts 
 Which without cease come sweeping to and fro 
 Against me ! 
 
 The Choir. 
 
 Dies irae, dies ilia, 
 Solvet saeclum infavilla. 
 
 [Organ. 
 
 Evil Spirit. 
 
 Wrath seizes thee 1 
 The trumpet sounds ! 
 The graveyards quake ! 
 And thine heart, 
 From its repose in dust 
 Roused into life 
 To dwell in penal fires, 
 Starts quaking ! 
 
345I-3470] THE CATHEDRAL. 207 
 
 Gretchen. 
 Would I were hence ! 
 I feel as if the organ's sound 
 Took away my breath — 
 As if the hymn 
 Loosened my heart ! 
 
 The Choir. 
 
 Judex ergo quum sedehit, 
 Quidquid latet adparebit. 
 Nil inultum remanebit. 
 
 Gretchen. 
 It feels so close ! 
 The minster pillars 
 Inclose me! 
 The vaulted roof 
 Crushes me ! — ^Air ! 
 
 Evil Spirit. 
 
 Conceal thee ? Sin and Shame 
 Brook no concealmpnt ! 
 Air } Light .? 
 Woe 's thee ! 
 
 The Choir. 
 
 Quid sum miser tunc dicturus, 
 Quem patronum rogaturus, 
 Quum vix Justus sit securus ? 
 
2o8 SCENE XX. [3471-3477 
 
 Evil Spirit. 
 
 The glorified 
 
 Avert their faces from thee ! 
 
 The pure of spirit shrink 
 
 From reaching thee their hands ! 
 
 Woe ! Woe ! 
 
 The Choir. 
 Quid sum miser tunc didurus ? 
 
 Gretchen. 
 
 Neighhour ! Your smelling-flask ! — 
 
 \Swoons. 
 
3478-3490] WALPURGIS-NIGHT. 209 
 
 The Hartz Mountains. 
 
 The District of Schierke and Elend. 
 
 Faust and Mephistopheles. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Are you not longing for a broomstick ? I 
 
 Should like to have a he-goat, stout and tough. 
 Our bourne, by this road, far away doth lie. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 While on my legs I feel so fresh and spry, 
 This knotted staff will serve me well enough. 
 
 What boots it shortening the way ? 
 To stroll amid a labyrinth of valleys — 
 To climb the rocks, from which in joyous sallies 
 
 The young streams dash in their incessant play — 
 
 This is the charm which makes a journey gay ! 
 
 Already Spring is stirring in the birches ; 
 The pine already feels its influence — 
 
 What marvel if our very limbs it searches ? 
 
 p 
 
210 SCENE XXI. [3491-350S 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Faith, I have no such vernal sense — 
 My body is all winter ! Would the ground 
 
 O'er which I pass were white with frost and snow ! 
 How mournful rises the imperfect round 
 
 Of the red Moon with its belated glow, 
 And niggard light ! One comes into collision 
 
 With some damned tree or rock at every turn ! 
 I '11 hail a Will-a-wisp with your permission — 
 
 Yonder is one which lustily doth burn ! 
 Holla ! My friend ! May I request your aid ? 
 Why all this purposeless parade ? 
 Be good enough to light us up the steep ! 
 
 WiLL-A-WISP. 
 
 I hope I may, in deference to you. 
 My natural levity subdue ; 
 But zigzag is the course we 're wont to keep. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Ho, ho 1 you think man's privilege to claim- 
 But just go straight, in the devil's name, 
 Or out that flickering life of yours I '11 puflf. 
 
3509-353'] WALPURGIS-NIGHT. 211 
 
 WiLL-A-WISP. 
 
 You're master of the house, that's plain enough, 
 
 So I '11 submit me to your will. 
 But mind 1 The mountain 's magic-mad to-night, 
 And if you follow an erratic light, 
 
 Whate'er befalls you must not take it ill. 
 
 Faust — Mephistopheles — Will- a- wisp 
 {in alternate song). 
 
 Lo, meseems, a world enchanted, 
 Sphere of spell and dream, we enter ! 
 
 Gain thee credit, and undaunted 
 Guide us quickly to the centre 
 
 Of the vasty desert places ! 
 
 Trees with trees upon their traces. 
 
 See, how swiftly past they 're trooping ! 
 
 And the flying cliffs are stooping, 
 
 And the rock-snouts, as we 're going, 
 
 How they're snorting, how they're blowing ! 
 
 Down through sward and shingle flowing 
 
 Rapid brook and brooklet glisten. 
 
 Is it to their rush I listen ? 
 
 Is it song ? or love's fond story 
 
 Sighed when life was in its glory. 
 
 All we loved and hoped conveying ? 
 And like some tradition hoary 
 
 Echo isthe tale re-saying ! 
 p 2 
 
212 SCENE XXL [3532-3558 
 
 Whew-hoo ! Shew-hoo ! Now 'tis nearer ; 
 Lapwing, jay, and owl are clearer — 
 
 Wide awake they all are staying ! 
 See, the salamander scrambles. 
 Paunch and long shanks, through the brambles ! 
 And the roots, like serpents, scare us. 
 
 Where they wind themselves from under 
 
 Rock and sand, as things of wonder 
 Stretching out their coils to snare us 1 
 And amid the teeming blotches 
 Many a fibre-polyp watches 
 For the wanderer ! And, unstinted. 
 Mice in thousands many-tinted 
 
 Swarm the moss, and swarm the heather ; 
 And the fire-flies round us flicker, 
 Crowding round us, thick and thicker — 
 
 A wild escort altogether ! 
 
 Tell me — for 'tis past my knowing — 
 Are we standing ? are we going ? , 
 All things in a whirl are showing — 
 Rock and tree, that make grimaces, 
 And the will-a-wisps whose blazes 
 Multiply and bloat are growing ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Grasp me by the lappet well ! 
 Here 's a central pinnacle. 
 Where amazed the gazer knows 
 How on the mountain Mammon glows ! 
 
3S59-3580] WALPURGIS-NIGHT. 213 
 
 Faust. 
 
 How strangely glimmers through the hollows, 
 
 Red as the morn, a lurid light ! 
 Into the gorge its course it follows, 
 
 And flickers 'neath the mountain height. 
 The vapours rise, the fog advances, 
 
 But forth it flashes from the haze ; 
 Now as a Ijne of light it glances. 
 
 Now as a fount of fire it plays ; 
 Here river-loops of radiance slender 
 
 Through all its length the valley vein, 
 And here, in isolated splendour 
 
 From narrow nook it shines amain ; 
 Sparks near us shoot and fall in showers, 
 
 As one were tossing golden sand — 
 But see ! As in its height it towers. 
 
 The rock-wall blazes like a brand ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Hath not Lord Mammon, now, in state 
 
 Lit up his palace for the night ? 
 
 'Tis lucky you have seen the sight ; 
 For the wild guests we shan't have long to wait. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 How fierce the storm-blast hurtles through the air ! 
 ,With what fell strokes it beats against my shoulders ! 
 
214 scene xxi. [3581-3604 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Clutch the old ribs o' the rocks, or mid the boulders 
 Down in the gulf beneath you '11 find your sepulchre ! — 
 A mist is thickening the night ! 
 Hark, what a crash through the forest ! In flight 
 The startled owls are scattered ! 
 Hark, how the pillars are shattered 
 Of the ever green palace ! The quaking — 
 The crack of the boughs and the breaking — 
 The trunks in their agony moaning — 
 The roots, all gaping and groaning ! 
 In fearful confusion as they fall, 
 One over another, down crash comes all ! 
 And, where the wreckage the rifts is fouling. 
 The winds are hissing and howling ! — 
 Hear' St thou voices in the sky ? 
 At a distance ? drawing nigh ? 
 Hark, the mountain side along 
 Streams a madding magic-song ! 
 
 Witches {in chorus). 
 
 Bound for the Brocken is every quean — 
 
 The stubble' is yellow, the blade is green. 
 
 Where the multitude musters, as befits. 
 
 Lord Urian on the summit sits. 
 
 So on we go, o'er stock and stone ; 
 
 And the witch and the goat by their stench are known. 
 
3605-3616] WALPURGIS-NIGHT. 215 
 
 A Voice. 
 
 Alone old Baubo's coining now ; 
 She rides upon a farrow-sow. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Where honour 's due, there honour pay 1 
 Dame Baubo on, and lead the way ! 
 A proper sow and a gammer stout — .^ 
 Then follows all the Witches' rout. 
 
 A VoiCK. 
 Which way did you come ? 
 
 A Voice. 
 
 Over Use's steep 1 
 At the owl in her nest I took a peep — 
 She showed me a pair of eyes 1 
 
 A Voice. 
 
 To Hell ! 
 Why ride you so fell } 
 
 A Voice. 
 
 As past me she bounded, 
 Just see how she wounded ! 
 
2i6 SCENE XXI. [3617-3632 
 
 Witches. {Chorus). 
 
 The way is broad, the way is long ; 
 What ails ye for a madcap throng ? 
 With prick of fork, and scrape of broom, 
 The child is choked, and bursts the womb ! 
 
 WiTCHMASTERS. 
 
 {One half of the chorus.) 
 
 A snail with his house could scarce be slower— 
 The women all are on before ; 
 Whenever 'tis hey for the devil's door, 
 They 're a thousand steps in a'dvance, or more. 
 
 {The other half.) 
 
 No such distinction do we make ; 
 Woman a thousand steps may take. 
 But let her make what haste she can, 
 With a single bound she 's pass'd by man. 
 
 A Voice {above). 
 Come with us, come, from the Rocky Mere ! 
 
 Voices {from below). 
 
 With you on high we would fain career ! 
 
 We wash and are white — we are fresh and fair — 
 
 But fruit, alas, we may never bear ! 
 
3633-3646] WALPURGIS-NIGHT. 217 
 
 Both Choruses. 
 
 The winds are hushed, the stars in flight, 
 The moon is fain to hide her light ; 
 And in its whirl the magic-quire 
 Scatters a thousand sparks of fire ! 
 
 A Voice {^from below). 
 Hold ! What, ho ! 
 
 A NoicTS^ {from above). 
 Who calls from the rifte4 rocks below ? 
 
 A Voice {below). 
 
 Take me with you ! Take me with you ! 
 I 'm climbing these three hundred years, 
 And yet the peak I cannot win — 
 I would that I were with my kin ! 
 
 Both Choruses. 
 
 Ye may ride the besom, the pitchfork ride — 
 Ye may ride the staff, or the goat bestride ; 
 Who cannot raise himself to-night 
 Is lost, the miserable wight ! 
 
2i8 SCENE XXI. [3647-3664 
 
 Demiwitch {belom). 
 
 I hurry after them, so long; 
 How far ahead is all the throng ! 
 No peace at home can I obtain. 
 And here I seek for it in vain. 
 
 Chorus of Witches. 
 
 The salve doth give the witches nerve, 
 A mere rag for a sail will serve, 
 A trough 's a good ship for the sky ; 
 Who flies not now will never fly. 
 
 Both Choruses. 
 
 And when at length the peak we round, 
 
 Descend and lightly skim the ground. 
 
 And cover, far as eye can see, 
 
 The wide heath with your witchery ! 
 
 [^They alight. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 What a crowd and crush ! What a clash and clatter ! 
 
 What a whirl and whiz ! What chaff and chatter ! 
 
 Spark — sparkle — stench — and scorching, blent — 
 
 A genuine witches' element ! 
 
 Stick close to me, our parting to prevent. 
 
 Where are you } 
 
3664-3679] WALPURGIS-NIGHT. 219 
 
 Faust {at a distance). 
 Here! 
 
 Mephistqpheles. 
 
 So far away already ? 
 Mine household I must try and steady. 
 Make room ! Childe Voland comes ! Sweet crowd, let 
 
 room be found ! 
 Here, Doctor, take my hand ! Now, with a single bound. 
 From all the rabblement we 're free ; 
 'Tis far too mad e'en for the like of me. 
 
 There 's something yonder sheds a curious glare — 
 Something attracts me in yon shrubbery — 
 
 Come, come along ! We will ensconce us there. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Spirit of contradiction ! Lead the \ifay ! 
 I follow 1 Yes, methinks you 're right — 
 We seek the Brocken on Walpurgis-night, 
 
 To isolate ourselves, for choice, while here we stay. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Only look there — what vivid flames ! 
 A merry club your notice claims ; 
 Surely with such you're not alone. 
 
SCENE XXI. [3680-3702 
 
 Faust. 
 
 I 'd rather be above, I own. 
 Bonfires and curling smoke I view ; 
 
 Off to the Arch-fiend they repair — 
 
 Solved must be many a riddle there. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 And many a riddle knitted, too. 
 
 Let the great world around us riot ! 
 
 Here we will house ourselves in quiet. 
 With long-established use we may not break — . 
 Placed in the great world little worlds we make. 
 Yonder I see young witches naked — stark — 
 
 And old ones, who their charms discreetly veil. 
 
 For my sake make yourself agreeable — 
 Small is the labour, great the lark ! 
 I hear a sound of instruments, I declare ! 
 Confounded twangle ! — that we have to bear. 
 So come along — you cannot say me nay ; 
 To introduce you I will lead the way — 
 Once more you '11 feel obliged to me, I know. 
 
 How say you 1 Here there 's room enough, my friend ! 
 
 Only look there ! You scarce can see the ,end. 
 A hundred fires are burning in a row ! 
 They dance and chat — they cook, carouse, and court — 
 Now tell me where you 'II meet with better sport .? 
 
37"3-37»2] WALPURGIS-NIGHT. 2zi 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Will you, to introduce us to the revel, 
 Present yourself as wizard or as devil ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Faith, 'tis my wont to roam incognito, 
 
 But on a gala-day one's orders one should show. 
 
 True, with no garter am I deckt, 
 
 But here the horse's hoof is held in high respect. 
 
 Seest thou yon snail .? She 's creeping here I doubt — 
 
 Her feelers tipt with eyes, she would appear 
 Already to have scented something out ; 
 
 E'en if I would I can't disguise me here. 
 But come — we '11 saunter on from fire to fire — 
 I '11 be the pimp, and you of dames the squire ! 
 
 \To certain personages who are sitting 
 round a fire that is all hut out. 
 Old gentlemen, why sitting at the skirt 1 
 1 'd have you in the midst of it, begirt 
 With rout and youthful revelry. 
 Alone enough at home a man can be. 
 
 General. 
 
 Who'd put his trust in nations, dreaming 
 That they '11 remember what he did of yore ? 
 
 'Tis with the people as with women — 
 The young are always to the fore ! 
 
SCENE XXI. [3723-3738 
 
 Minister. 
 
 All now gpes wrong upon the public stage ; 
 
 Give me the honest men of old ! 
 When we had place and patronage, 
 , ;,;That was the genuine age of gold. 
 
 Parvenu. 
 
 We were no dullards, I '11 be bound, 
 
 And oft when we were wrong we had our will ; 
 
 But now the world persists in going round, 
 Just wheii we want it to be standing still. 
 
 Author. 
 
 Who, as a rule, at present cares to read 
 A work which any trace of thought discloses } 
 
 And as for our young people, 'tis their creed 
 That wit consists in turning up their noses ! 
 
 MepMistopheles 
 {who all at once appears very old). 
 
 For doomsday men, I feel, are ripening quick. 
 
 Since I for the last time up the Witch-in,ountain wheeze ! 
 
 My little cask is running thick — 
 And so the world is on its lees ! 
 
3739-3758] WALPURGIS-NIGHT. 223 
 
 Pedlar-Witch. 
 
 Pass me not thus, fair sirs, nor let 
 
 Your opportunity go by ! 
 
 Look at my wares attentively 1 
 A large assortment here you get — 
 No shop on earth the like can show — 
 
 And yet there 's nothing I 've in charge 
 Which hath not sometime worked the woe 
 
 Of mortals and the world at large. 
 No blade is here which hath not dripped with blood — 
 
 No bowl, which hath not through some healthy frame 
 Poured the hot poison's wasting flood — 
 
 No trinket, which hath not seduced a dame — 
 No sword, which hath not some firm bond dissevered. 
 Or from behind some deadly thrust delivered ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Fair coz, the times you fail to realise — 
 
 Done and used up ! used up and done ! 
 Lay yourself out for novelties ! 
 
 'Tis after novelties we run ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Let me keep steady ! I declare 
 I call this something like a fair ! 
 
224 SCENE XXI. [3759-3/68 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 The surging- mass is making for above — 
 
 You 're only shoved when you believe you shove. 
 
 , ■ Faust. 
 
 And who is that ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Do thou observe her well — 
 That's Lilith. 
 
 Faust. 
 Who.? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Adam's first damosel. 
 Be on thy guard against her lovely hair, 
 
 That tire of hers in which she peerless shines! 
 
 When with its charm a youngster she entwines 
 She will not soqn release him — so beware ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 The old witch with a young one I espy ; 
 Already they have frisked right merrily ! 
 
3769-3786] WALPURGIS-NIGHT. 225 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 That without cease to-night they '11 do. 
 
 There goes another dance ! Come now, We'll join the two. 
 
 Faust 
 {dancing with the Young One). 
 I hcid a dream was fair to see — 
 Methought I saw an apple-tree ; 
 Two lovely apples on it glanced — 
 I mounted for I was entranced. 
 
 The Fair One. 
 You 're fond of pippins anyhow. 
 And were from Paradise till now ; 
 I feel a thrill of joy to know 
 That such within my garden grow. 
 
 Mephistopheles 
 
 {with the Old One). 
 I had a dream was weird to see — 
 Methoug'ht I saw a rifted tree ; 
 It had a most portentous split — 
 Such as it was I fancied it. 
 
 The Old One. 
 With hearty welcome I salute 
 The Gallant of the Horse's Foot ! 
 Before it let him stand if he 
 Admires the fissure of the tree. 
 Q 
 
226 SCENE XXI. [3787-3806 
 
 Proktophantasmist. 
 
 Accursed folk ! So you defy me, then ? 
 Have I not shown, that 'tis a vain conceit 
 To think a spirit stands on common feet ? 
 
 And there you dance, like ordinary men ! 
 
 The Fair One {dancing). 
 Why then to our ball should he repair ?^ 
 
 Faust [dancing). 
 
 Oh, he is positively everywhere. 
 
 While others dance, he forms his estimate ; 
 
 If there 's a step on which he cannot prate, 
 That step 's as good as wanting in the dance I 
 But most it angers him when boldly we advance. 
 If spinning in a constant round you went, 
 
 Like him in that old mill of his. 
 
 He 'd say, perhaps, 'twas not amiss, 
 And, if you'd wait on him, he'd give his full assent. 
 
 Proktophantasmist. 
 
 Ye still are there ! The like was never heard 1 
 Vanish, I say ! You 're shown to be absurd 1 
 This devil's pack defies all rule 1 We boast 
 We are so wise — yet Tegel hath its ghost ! 
 Long as I 've swept the floor, upon my word, 
 The filth remains ! The like was never heard 1 
 
3807-3822] WALPVRGIS-NIGHT. 227 
 
 The Fair One. 
 Then let us hear no further sermonising ! 
 
 Proktophantasmist. 
 
 I tell you, spirits, to your face, 
 
 The sway of spirit I would fain displace — 
 'Tis what my spirit fails of exercising. 
 
 \The dancing goes on. 
 In nought shall I succeed to-night — I know it ; 
 
 Still, here I find material for a Tour, 
 
 And ere I take my last step I am sure 
 I yet shall triumph over devil and poet I 
 
 MEPHISTOPHEtES. 
 
 He '11 squat in the first puddle that he reaches — 
 
 In that 'way his relief is best assured ; 
 And when he's well phlebotomised by leeches. 
 
 Of spectre, spirit, and esprit, he 's cured ! 
 
 [To Faust, who has left the dance. 
 Why did you let the pretty maiden go. 
 
 Who for you, as she danced, so sweetly sang } 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Pah 1 In the middle of her song there sprang ' 
 A red mouse from her mouth. 
 Q J 
 
228 SCENE XXI. [3823-3837 
 
 Mephistophel.es. 
 
 'Tis well 'twas so ! 
 You 've little reason to complain ; 
 
 It is enough that you can say 
 
 The mouse in question was not grey — 
 Who heeds such trifles when he plays the swain ? 
 
 Faust. 
 Then saw I — 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 What } 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Mephistfl, dost thou see, 
 There— standing all apart — a pale child, sad and sweet } 
 
 She drags her limbs so painfully. 
 
 She seems to move with fettered feet. 
 
 Methinks, I must confess, that she 
 
 Like gentle Gretchen seems to be ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Let it alone I It never fails to scathe ! 
 
 'Tis something magical — 'tis void of life — a wraith I 
 
 To meet it never bodeth good ! 
 
 Its frozen aspect freezes up the blood. 
 
 And turns a man to marble 1 Mark my word ! 
 
 Of the Medusa you have surely heard. 
 
3838-3857] WALPURGIS-NIGHT. 229 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Her eyes are as tKe eyeballs of the dead, 
 Whose lids no loving hand was by to close ! 
 
 Yet 'tis the bosom of my Margaret — 
 The form I clasped when love to madness rose ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 That is the charm, thou fond deluded fool ! 
 To each she seems his mistress as a rule. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Ah, what delight ! Ah, what despair ! 
 I 'm spell-bound by that wistful air ! 
 How curious that the lovely neck 
 A single crimson lace should deck, 
 No broader than a whittle's back ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Quite right ! I see it too. Good lack. 
 
 With head beneath her arm you may behold her. 
 
 Since Perseus sliced it from her shoulder ! 
 
 This lusting for illusion still ! 
 
 Come, let us saunter up the hill ! 
 
 Here we 've the Prater all astir, 
 
 And, lo, unless my wits are gone, 
 I actually see a theatre. 
 
 What 's doing here 1 
 
230 SCENE XXI. [3857-3865 
 
 Servibilis. 
 
 They '11 recommence anon — 
 A brand-new piece, sir — the last piece of seven — 
 
 'Tis thus that for the public we purvey ! 
 An anjateur the piece hath given, 
 
 And amateurs enact the play ; 
 My amateurship is to raise the curtain — 
 
 Fair sirs, excuse me, if I say adieu. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 , Finding you on the Blocksberg I am certain 
 77/a/'s as it should be — 'tis the place for you I 
 
3866-3873] WALPURGIS-NIGHT S DREAM. 231 
 
 I©al(]pui:fft3£f;:|^i0t)t'sr 2Dircam, 
 
 THE GOLDEN WEDDING OF OBERON AND TITANIA. 
 
 INTERMEZZO. 
 
 Stage-manager. 
 
 To-day of rest we take a spell, 
 Gallant sons of Mieding I 
 
 Hoary hill and dewy dell 
 Are all the scene that 's needing. 
 
 Herald. 
 
 No Golden Wedding can there be 
 Till fifty years have vanished ; 
 
 Btit that 's the Golden One for me 
 From which dispute is banished. 
 
232 SCENE XXII. [3874-3889 
 
 Oberon. 
 
 If there be Spirits on the scene, 
 To join me they're invited! 
 
 Fairy King and Fairy Queen 
 Are once again united. 
 
 Puck. 
 
 Puck appears and twirls him round, 
 And featly foots the measure ; 
 
 Hundreds come upon the ground 
 With him to take their pleasure. 
 
 Ariel. 
 
 Ariel trills the song to- night 
 In tones that are the rarest ; 
 
 His singing fascinates the fright — ' 
 It fascinates the fairest. 
 
 Oberon. 
 
 Spouses, who in accord would stay. 
 On this our lesson ponder ! 
 
 To separate them is the way 
 To make a couple fonder. 
 
3890-3905] WALPURGIS-NIGHT'S DREAM. 233 
 
 TiTANIA. 
 
 Should he be gruff, she full of whim, 
 
 To seize the pair be ready — 
 Away to farthest north with hini, 
 
 To southward with the lady ! 
 
 Full Orchestra {fortissimo). 
 
 Droning Gnat and buzzing Fly, 
 
 And, kindred acquisitions, 
 Grigs that the grass and leaf supply, 
 
 These are our musicians. 
 
 Solo. 
 
 Lo, the Bagpipe, with its sack 
 
 Bloat as a soap-sud bubble — 
 List the schnecke-schnicke-schnack 
 
 Its snub-nose comes to snuffle. 
 
 Spirit on the Make. 
 
 Spider's foot, and paunch of toad, 
 
 And winglets for the minim ! 
 The makings of a little ode 
 
 Are all the makings in him. 
 
234 SCENE XXII. [3906-3921 
 
 A Couple. 
 
 Dainty step, and spring on high, 
 Through honey-dew and vapour — 
 
 You cannot figure in the sky, 
 Though well enough you caper. 
 
 Inquisitive Traveller. 
 
 Can I believe mine eyes ? Is not 
 
 This simple masquerading 1 
 Oberon the radiant god, 
 
 Is he, too, here parading .' 
 
 Orthodox. 
 
 Not a talon, not a tail ! 
 
 And yet beyond all cavil. 
 Like those of Grecian hill and dale 
 
 Your god is but a devil. 
 
 Northern Artist. 
 
 My work 's but sketchy, to be sure. 
 E'en when I 'rti at my smartest ; 
 
 And yet for the Italian tour 
 I 'm working like an artist. 
 
39*2-3937] WALPURGIS-NIGHT S DREAM. 335 
 
 Purist. 
 
 'Tis ill luck brings me here, I doubt ; 
 
 They lewder grow and louder ! 
 And, see, of all the Witches' rout 
 
 But two are wearing powder. 
 
 Young Witch. 
 
 Your powder and your petticoat 
 
 For grey old hoddy-doddy ! 
 I sit me naked on my goat, 
 
 And show my buxom body. 
 
 Matron. 
 
 We 're too well bred with you to vie. 
 
 When decency 's forgotten ; 
 You 're young and nice, but ere you die, 
 
 I hope that you '11 be rotten. 
 
 Bandmaster. 
 
 Nosing Gnat and Fly forbear 
 
 To mob the naked beauty ! 
 Frog-o'-the leaf, and Grasshopper, 
 
 Keep time, and do your duty I 
 
236 SCENE XXn. [3938-3953 
 
 Weathercock ^to. the one side). 
 
 The choicest company ! The fair 
 All brides for the occasion I 
 
 And fine young fellows everywhere 
 Afire with expectation I 
 
 Weathercock (/o the other side). 
 
 And if the ground don't open wide 
 The whole of them to swallow, 
 
 I '11 make for hell with rapid stride, 
 And leap into its hollow. 
 
 Xenia. 
 
 We 're here though mere ephemera, 
 With little nips for shearing, 
 
 Satan, our august Papa, 
 As he deserves, revering. 
 
 Hennings, 
 
 See, how these witlings in a swarm 
 
 Are innocently jesting I 
 They'll say at heart they mean no harm 
 
 To those they are molesting, 
 
3954-3969] WALFVRCIS-NIGHTS DREAM. 23.7 
 
 MUSAGETES. 
 
 While thus bewitched one takes no heed, 
 
 If here himself he loses ; 
 'Tis easier a Witch to lead 
 
 Than 'tis to lead the Muses. 
 
 Ci-devant Genius of the Age. 
 
 Come, seize my lappet ! I 'm the guide 
 
 Of all the cultured classes ! 
 The Blocksberg hath a summit wide, 
 
 Like Germany's Parnassus. 
 
 Inquisitive Traveller. 
 
 How call ye yonder rigid wight ? 
 
 With haughty step he paces ; 
 He sniffs and snuffs with all his might — 
 
 "The Jesuits he traces"! 
 
 Crane. 
 
 In troubled waters as in clear 
 
 I have a taste for fishing ; 
 And so the pious people here 
 
 To catch a devil are wishing. 
 
238 scene xxii. [3970-3985 
 
 Worldling. 
 
 Ay, for the pious all things tell 
 
 As vehicle of profit ; 
 E'en here they 've their conventicle — 
 
 All Blocksberg's witness of it. 
 
 Dancer. 
 
 Surely a new choir hither speeds ? 
 I hear a distant drumming ! — 
 " Don't mind the racket I In the reeds 
 'Tis but the bitterns bumming." 
 
 Dancing-Master. 
 
 Aloft each lifts his legs from ground, 
 
 And, as he may, is speeding ; 
 The clumsy hop, the crooked bound, 
 
 None how it looks are heeding. 
 
 Violinist. 
 
 On rivals slain their fancy feasts, 
 
 By mutual hate excited ; 
 The bagpipe here unites the beasts, 
 
 As once the lyre united. 
 
3986-4001] WALPURGIS-NIQHT'S DREAM. 239 
 
 Dogmatic. 
 
 I '11 raise no idiotic cry, 
 
 Despite critiques or cavils ; 
 The Devil is something certainly, 
 
 For here are lots of devils ! 
 
 Idealist. 
 
 Here fancy holds my sense in thrall. 
 
 Too strong to be prevented ; 
 But if I am indeed the All, 
 
 To-night I 'm all demented. 
 
 Realist. 
 
 The matter that I 've novif in hand 
 
 A crucial case is putting ; 
 For the first time, as here I stand, 
 
 I 'm doubtful of my footing. 
 
 . ■ 'i 
 
 Supernaturalist. 
 
 I 'm well contented to be here — 
 
 With these I share the revels ; 
 Good spirits may exist, I 'm clear, 
 
 For clearly there are devils. 
 
240 scen^ xxii. [4002-4017 
 
 Sceptic. 
 
 Tracking the little flame they go, 
 And think they '11 find the treasure ; 
 
 But cavil chimes with devil — so 
 I 'm here to take my pleasure. 
 
 Bandmaster. 
 
 Grigs that haunt the leaf and grass. 
 
 Confounded impositions ! 
 Gnat and Fly with nasal bass, 
 
 You're wonderful musicians ! 
 
 Trimmers. 
 
 Sans-souci — is motto meet 
 
 For all the gay and knowing ; 
 We cannot go upon our feet, 
 
 So on our heads we 're going. 
 
 .Imbeciles. 
 
 Though once we sponged for courtly dues, 
 
 God help us ! we 're forgotten;; 
 We 've fairly danced away our shoes 
 
 And loaf about unshodden. 
 
4018-4233] WALPURGIS-NIGHT S DREAM. 241 
 
 WiLL-A-WlSPS. 
 
 From the bogs that gave us birth, 
 
 We come to air our talents ; 
 And, straightway, in the ranks of mirth 
 
 We shine as brilliant gallants. 
 
 Shooting Star. 
 
 I shot down hither from the sky, 
 
 In starlike splendour falling ; 
 Who '11 help me to my legs when I 
 
 Upon the gra^s am sprawling .'' 
 
 Levellers. 
 
 Make way ! make way I Enlarge the round 1 
 
 The grass will soon lie flatter ! 
 We're spirits, but we're spirits found 
 
 With limbs of solid matter. 
 
 Puck. 
 
 Don't, like calf-elephants at play, 
 
 So heavily be pounding ! 
 Mark Puck, the thickset elf, to-day, 
 
 How lightly he is bounding ! ^ 
 
 R 
 
242 SCENE XXII. [4034-4041 
 
 Ariel. 
 
 If nature gave you wings for flight, 
 
 If spirit such discloses, 
 Follow me to yonder height. 
 
 Which dawn has crowned with roses ! 
 
 Orchestra i^pianissimd). 
 
 On cloud and gauzy mist the flush 
 Of morning hath descended. 
 
 A light air stirs the leaf and rush, 
 And so the whole is ended ! 
 
TIME OF A CTIOJV. 
 
 V. 
 
 Some ten or twelve months must be suf;posed to have 
 elapsed between the Night on the Bracken and the 
 Gloomy Day , followed by the terrible night, with which 
 the First Part of the Tragedy concludes. During these 
 months Margaret, deprived of her mother, her brother, 
 and her lover, is abandoned to her fate. She flies in 
 terror from, her home, wanders through the country, 
 drowns her child in her distraction, and is arrested, 
 tried, and condemned to death. During the whole time 
 Faust, ignorant of her condition, is engaged by Mephis- 
 topHeles in a round of frivolous amusements. The truth 
 is revealed to him when it is too late. The final scenes — 
 the Gloomy Day, the Ravenstone, and the Dungeon— 
 occupy only a few hours. Margaret is saved from the 
 shame of a public execution by death (1. 4251); and with 
 her death ends Faust's experience of the little world 
 of com.mon life (1. i6g8). As yet, neither the wager 
 made in heaven nor the wager m,ade on earth has been 
 decided. Faust is still the kindly man of the Prologue. 
 In spite of all his aberrations he is conscious of the right 
 way ; and in spite^ of all the devices of Mephistopheles , 
 he has not, even for a mom-ent, been satisfied with the 
 pleasures that the world has hitherto afforded. 
 
 K 2 
 
244 SCENE XXin. [i-ii 
 
 A Heath. 
 
 Faust and Mephistopheles. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 In misery! In despair! Long pitiably wandering 
 through the land, and now imprisoned ! Immured 
 as a malefactor in a dungeon, doomed to the most 
 frightful torture, the gentle, hapless creature ! 'Tis. 
 come to that ! to that ! — All this, thou treacherous and 
 unworthy spirit, thou hast concealed from me ! — 
 Stand, ay, stand, and roll thy devil's eyes infuriate ! 
 Stand, and affront me with thine intolerable presence ! 
 — Imprisoned ! In irretrievable misery ! Given over 
 to evil spirits, and to men that judge and have no 
 pity ! And me, in the meanwhile, thou rockest like a 
 child in ridiculous distractions, hidest from me her 
 growing anguish, and leavest her, reft of all help, to 
 perish ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 She 's not the first ! 
 
1^-3'] a gloomy day. 245 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Dog ! Execrable monster ! — Change him, thou 
 Infinite Spirit, change the reptile back into the dog 
 that loved to trot before me in the dark, and roll 
 before the feet of the inoffensive traveller, and fasten 
 on his shoulders as he fell I Change him again into 
 the shape he loves, that he may cringe before me in 
 the dust, and that I may trample him beneath my feet, 
 the reprobate 1 — 'She 's not the first ! — Woe ! Woe I 
 The soul of man cannot conceive that more than one 
 poor creature should have sunk to such a depth of 
 misery, or that the first, when virrithing in her deadly 
 throes, should not have made satisfaction for the guilt 
 of all the rest, in the eyes of the All-merciful ! Marrow 
 and mind it harrows me, the misery of this one; and 
 there thou calmly grinnest at the fate of thousands ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 And so, once more, we are at our wit's end, the 
 point where reason, with you mortals, snaps ! Why 
 dost thou enter into fellowship with us, if thou canst 
 not go through with it ? Would'st fly, and art not 
 proof against dizziness ? Which forced himself upon 
 the other, I or thou ? 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Show not thy hungry teeth, affront me not \ It stirs 
 my loathing! — Great and glorious Spirit, who didst 
 
246 $CENE XXIII. 1 [31-49 
 
 deign to reveal thyself to me, thou who dost know my 
 very heart and soul, why rivet me in fellowship of 
 shame. to one who feeds on mischief, and regales 
 himself on ruin ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Hast thou yet done ? 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Save her, or woe betide thee! Deny rne this, and 
 an eternal curse fall on thee ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 I cannot loose the bonds of the Avenger, his bolts 
 
 I cannot draw. — Save her ! — Who plunged her in 
 
 perdition 1 I or thou .' 
 
 [Faust looks wildly round. 
 
 Art grasping at the thunder .? 'Tis well you miserable 
 
 mortals may not wield it 1 To smash the innocent 
 
 remonstrant, that is the tyrant's way to vent his rage 
 
 when pressed. 
 
 Faust. 
 Bring, me to where she is ! She shall be free 1 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 And what, then, of the risk that thou dost run .' 
 Reflect — the guilt of blood, shed by thine hand, still 
 lies upon the town. Over the place where he was slain 
 avenging spirits hover, and lie in wait for the returning 
 murderer. 
 
SO-S7] ^ GLOOMY DAY. 247 
 
 Faust. 
 
 This too from thee ! The desolation and the death 
 of a whole world upon thee, monster ! Conduct me 
 there, I say, and set her free ! 
 
 Mbphistopheles. 
 
 I will conduct thee — hear what I can do ! Have / 
 all power in heaven and upon earth ? I will becloud 
 the senses of the warder ; do thou possess thee of the 
 keys, and bring her out, with a man's hand ! I watch 
 — the magic horses wait — I bear you off ! This much 
 I can. 
 
 Faust. 
 Up and away then ! 
 
 '■%, 
 
SCENE XXIV. [4042-4047 
 
 The Wold. 
 
 Faust and Mephistopheles dashing along upon black 
 horses. 
 
 Faust. 
 What are they at round the Ravenstone ? 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 God knows what they're stewing and brewing. 
 
 Faust. 
 Flitting up, flitting down, they bow them and bend them ! 
 
 M BPHISTOPHELES. 
 
 A Witches' Sabbath. 
 
 Faust. 
 They scatter and patter. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Push on ! Push on ! 
 
4048-4063] THE PRISON. 249 
 
 Faust 
 {with a hunch of hey s and a lamp, before an iron wicket'). 
 
 Horror unwonted on my spirit falls, 
 
 The woes of all the world upon me weigh. 
 Here doth she dwell behind these dripping walls, 
 By love's illusion only led astray ! 
 And thou dost hesitate to free her 1 
 And thou dost fear again to see her ! 
 Haste 1 There is lingering death in thy delay. 
 
 \He takes hold of the Iqck. 
 
 Singing within. 
 
 My mother, the harlot, 
 
 Hath done for me ! 
 My father, the varlet. 
 
 Hath eaten me 1 
 My wee sister alone 
 Picked up every bone 
 
 In a cool place to lay ; 
 So a nice little bird of the wildwood I've grown — 
 
 Fly away ! Fly away ! 
 
250 SCENE XXV. [4064I4077 
 
 Faust {unlocking the door). 
 
 That love is listening, little doth she think, 
 
 As the straw rustles and the fetters clink. 
 
 [He enters. 
 
 Margaret {hiding herself in the litter). 
 Woe ! Woe ! They come ! 'Tis hard to die 1 
 
 Faust {softly). 
 Hush ! Hush ! To free thee I am seeking! 
 
 Margaret {turning herself round). 
 As thou 'rt a man, feel for my misery ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Thou wilt awake the warders with thy shrieking ! 
 
 [He lays hold of the fetters to unlock them. 
 
 Margaret {on her knees). 
 
 Say, headsman, who hath deemed it right 
 
 This power o'er me to give ? 
 Thou com'st for me while yet 'tis night — 
 
 Oh, pity me and let me live ! 
 Is it not time enough when day is sprung .? 
 
 Oh, I am still so young, so young ! 
 
 And I must die ! 
 
 Fair was I, too — 'twas my calamity ! 
 
 \_She rises. 
 
4078-4095] THE PRISON. 251 
 
 My love was near me — now he 's far away ! 
 
 Torn lies my wreath — scattered are flower and spray ! — 
 
 Lay not such a violent hold on me ! 
 
 Spare me ! What have I done to thee ? 
 
 Ah, let me not in vain implore — 
 
 I never saw thee in my life before ! 
 
 Faust. 
 Such woe what mortal ever bore ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 I now am wholly in thy might ! 
 
 Only first let me nurse the child. 
 I clasped it to my heart all night ; 
 
 They 've taken it to drive me wild, 
 And now they say I 've made away with it. 
 
 And joy I ne'er again shall know ! 
 Then they sing songs of me ! 'Tis very wrong ! 
 
 An ancient story endeth so — 
 Why point the song ? 
 
 Faust {flings himself down). 
 
 One that doth love thee at thy feet doth kneel. 
 To loose these wretched bonds of steel. 
 
25? SCENE XXV. [4096-41 12 
 
 Margaret {flings hei self beside hini). 
 
 O let us kneel to the blessed saints in prayer ! 
 See ! Under the stair — 
 At the door of the cell — 
 There 's a seething of hell ! 
 And, brawling, 
 
 The Fiend makes a noise, 
 With fury appalling ! 
 
 Faust [loudly), 
 Gretchen ! Gretchen ! 
 
 Margaret {attentive). 
 
 That was his voice ! — 
 "[She springs upi the chains fall off. 
 Where is he ? Yes, his call I heard ! 
 I'm free! I will not be, deterred — 
 To his neck I '11 fly, 
 On his bosom lie ! 
 
 He called, Gretchen 1 He stood at the door of the cell ! 
 Through the midst of the howling and clashing of hell. 
 Through the fierce demon hootings I heard the well-known, 
 The sweet; loving, ever affectionate tone ! 
 
 Faust. 
 'Tis I ! 
 
4113-4125] ^-^-S PRISON. 253 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 'Tis thou ! Oh, say it once again ! 
 
 [Clasping him. 
 'Tis he ! 'Tis he ! Where now is all my pain ? 
 Where is the anguish cell and fetters gave me ? 
 'Tis thou 1 Thou 'rt come to save me ! 
 I 'm saved ! — 
 
 Yes, there again I see the street. 
 Where first it was our fate to meet ; 
 And there 's the pleasant garden, too. 
 Where I and Martha watched for you ! 
 
 Faust {making for the door). 
 Come with me ! Come ! 
 
 Margaret {fondling him). 
 
 Ah, stay thee ! 
 I stay so gladly where thou stayest ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Do not delay thee ! 
 If thou delayest 
 We shall pay dearly for the chance we miss. 
 
254 SCENE XXV. [4126-4143 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 What ? Thou canst no longer kiss ? 
 
 !^Iy love — so speedily returned — 
 
 And all thy kissing, all, unlearned ? 
 
 While on thy neck why feel I such a load, 
 
 , When once thy words, thy looks, had power to thrill, 
 
 And a whole heaven my bosom overflow'd. 
 
 And thou didst kiss me, as if thou would' st kill ? 
 
 Kiss me ! 
 
 Or I'll kiss thee ! 
 
 \She evibrac^s him. 
 Alas, thy lips are cold. 
 
 Nor part ! 
 
 Where is thy loving 
 
 Gone roving ? 
 Who hath filched thine heart ? 
 
 \_She turns from him. 
 
 Faust. ■ 
 
 Come r Follow me, darling ! Oh love, be bold ! 
 On my heart I '11 repay thee a thousandfold ! 
 Only follow me ! That is all I need ! 
 
 Margaret {turning to him). 
 And is it thou } Is 't thou in, very deed } 
 
4144-4161] 'I'HE PRISON. 255 
 
 Faust. 
 'Tis I ! Oh, come ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Thou dost unloose my chain, 
 Dost take me to thine heart again ! 
 How comes it that thou dost not shrink from me ? — 
 And dost thou know, my friend, whom thou would'st free ? 
 
 Faust. 
 Come ! Come ! The night fs on the wane. 
 
 Margaret. , 
 
 Alas, my mother's life I 've ta'en, 
 My child I 've drowned ! 
 
 It was the boon by which we both were bound, 
 Yes, both I — 'Tis thou ? Is 't fancy's gleam ? 
 Give me thine hand ! — 'tis not a dream ! — 
 Thine own loved hand ! — But, ah, 'tis wet ! 
 Wipe it away ! Meseems that yet 
 There's blood thereon ! 
 My God ! What hast thou done ? 
 Put up that sword thou hast, 
 I beg of thee ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Oh darling, let the past be past ! 
 Thou killest me ! 
 
256 scene xxv. [416z-4179 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 No, thou must stay behind ! 
 
 I will describe the graves, and mind 
 
 Thou dost this work of sorrow 
 
 Upon the morrow ! 
 
 Give the best place to my mother, 
 
 Close beside her place my brother. 
 
 Me, a little space aside. 
 
 But not too wide ! 
 
 Let the little one rest on my right breast — 
 
 No one else by me would lie ! 
 
 To nestle up to thee when nigh, 
 
 That was a sweet, a dear delight ! 
 
 But never again is that for me I 
 
 It seems as if I forced myself on thee. 
 And thou didst thrust me from thy sight — 
 And yet 'tis thou, and thou dost look so kind. 
 So good ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 If thou dost feel 'tis I, make up thy mind, 
 And come ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Out into the air } 
 
4180-4192] THE PRISON. 257 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Free as air to be ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 If the grave be there — 
 If death lie in wait — then come ! 
 From here to my long last home I go — 
 And one step further — no ! — 
 So thou art going P Would that I could go ! 
 
 Faust. 
 Thou canst ! 'Tis but to will ! The door is ope ! 
 
 Margaket. 
 
 I may not go — for me there is no hope ! 
 What avails flight ? They lie in wait for me ! 
 'Tis so wretphed to have to beg one's way. 
 And the mind to evil thoughts a prey — 
 'Tis so wretched to roam through a foreign land, 
 And upon me still they would lay their hand I 
 
 Faust. 
 I shall be with thee ! 
 
-258 SCENE XXV. [4192-4213 
 
 Margaket. 
 
 Away ! Away ! 
 
 Rescue thy child ! Away ! 
 
 Follow the path, 
 
 On to the brook. 
 
 Over the bridge, 
 
 Into the wood. 
 
 To the left — where the plank is, 
 
 In the pond 1 — 
 
 Seize it at once ! 
 
 It strives to rise. 
 
 It struggles yet I 
 
 Rescue ! Rescue ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Be calm, I entreat ! 
 One single step and thou art free 1 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Would, we were past the hill 1 for, see. 
 There sits my mother upon a stone — 
 
 A shiver is o'er me creeping — 
 There sits my mother upon a stone, 
 
 And she nods her head, as sleeping ! 
 She signs not, she minds not, her head hangs o'er — 
 She hath slept so long, she will wake no more ! 
 She slept that we might take our pleasure. 
 Ah, those were happy times I 
 
4213-4235] THE PRISON. 259 
 
 Faust. 
 
 My treasure !, 
 Vain is entreaty, vain is all I say ; 
 I must resolve on bearing thee away. 
 
 Margaret. 
 ^Unhand me ! No ! I '11 not be forced ! 
 Don't lay such a murderous hold on me ! — 
 Once I did everything for Ipve of thee. 
 
 Faust. 
 The day dawns ! Darling ! Darling ! 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Day ! Yes, 'tis day ! My last day 's come, I see ! 
 My- wedding-day it ought to be ! 
 Tell no one that you were with Gretchen first. 
 My wreath hath met mischance ! 
 
 Now all is o'er ! 
 
 Each other we shall see once more, 
 But, ah, not at the dance ! — 
 The multitude throngs — not a sound it makes ; 
 
 The place, the passes. 
 
 Cannot hold the masses. 
 The death-bell tolls ! the death-wand breaks I 
 My arms to my side they are lashing ! 
 
 To the chair my body they consign ; 
 O'er every neck is flashing 
 
 The blade that is flashing over mine ! 
 Dumb lies the world as the grave ! 
 
 s 2 
 
a6o SCENE XXV. [4236-4246 
 
 I 
 
 Faust. 
 Oh, would that I had ne'er been born ! 
 
 Mephistopheles appears outside. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Off, or you 're lost ! It is the morn ! 
 Such idle terrors ! Debating and prating ! 
 My steeds shiver waiting — 
 Night 's all but o'er. 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 What 's that which rises from the floor .? 
 He ! He ! — Bid him fly apace ! 
 What would he in this holy place 1 
 He wants me ! 
 
 Faost. 
 
 Thou shalt live ! 
 
 Margaret, 
 Great Judge ! Into thine hands my soul I give 1 
 
 Mephistopheles {to Faust). 
 Come— or i' the lurch I leave thee with her now. 
 
4247-4252] "^'HE PRISON. 2bi 
 
 Margaret. 
 
 Thine am 1, Father ! Save me thou ! 
 Ye Angels — all ye Heavenly Hosts — befriend me ! 
 Spread your bright leaguer round me to defend me ! — 
 Heinrich ! I fear for thee, ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 She 's doomed ! 
 
 Voice {from above). 
 She 's saved ! 
 
 Mephistopheles {to Faust). 
 
 Come thou to me ! 
 [Disappears with Faust. 
 
 'Voice,, {from within, dying away). 
 Heinrich ! Heinrich ! 
 
Doctor Marianus loquitur. 
 
 Unaided who can kee;p their feet 
 On Passion's slo^e to ruin ? 
 
 What heart is ^roof to whisker sweet, 
 And all the wiles of wooing? 
 
THE SECOND PART OF THE TRAGEDY. 
 
 Act v. Scene 6. 
 THE DEATH OF FA UST. 
 
The reader will naturally desire to know the final 
 result of the Irial of Faust, and to learn whether 
 Me;phisto^heles fulfils his ioast {I. 1335), whether Faust 
 experiences a moment of self-satisfaction under the 
 guidance of his evil genius (1. 1340), whether, in fine, 
 Mephistopiheles wins or loses the wager (1. 1344), and 
 whether the clock stops, and the index drops, and Faust 
 dies, in pursuance of the conditions of his compact 
 (1. 1351), or iii the ordinary course of nature. The 
 Second Part of the Tragedy is divided into the orthodox 
 Five Acts. In the first, Faust is introduced to the Court 
 of the Emperor ; in the second, he is the spectator of the 
 Classical Walpurgis-Night ; in the third, he contracts a 
 necrom.antic alliance with Helen ; in the fourth, having 
 assisted the Em.peror in battle, he is rewarded with the 
 grant of a vast stretch of sea-shore for reclamation ; 
 and in the fifth, he is the lord of a wide domain which 
 he has reclaimed. He has had experience both of the 
 great world and the small (1. I'SgS), and he has been 
 tried in each. He is now a hundred years old, and 
 he has recently been stricken blind ; bu4 he is found 
 labouring for the welfare of his fellow -men. The final 
 result of his Trial, and the circumstances of his death, 
 are given in the following scene. 
 
THE DEATH OF FAUST. 265 
 
 <!Bccat Courtparb of t|)e ^^alare. 
 
 Torches. 
 
 Mephisiopheles, as Overseer, at the head of a gang of 
 Labourers. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Come on, ye shambling rogues, come on ! 
 
 Shades ! Lemurs ! Hybrid creatures ! 
 Mere bags of sinew, nerve, and bone. 
 
 With botched and bungled features ! 
 
 Lemurs [in Chorus). 
 
 To do your pleasure we 're at hand, 
 
 Although we only guess it ; 
 Perhaps there is a stretch of land. 
 
 And we are to possess it. 
 The pointed stakes they all are there. 
 
 And eke the chains to measure ; 
 But we 've forgotten, I declare, 
 
 What really is your pleasure. 
 
266 GREAT COURTYARD OF THE PALACE. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Your task requires no engineer, 
 
 You'll measure well without him ! 
 Lengthways lay down the longest here, 
 
 And raise the sods about him. 
 So dig me deep a lengthened square, — 
 Such for our fathers we prepare ! 
 To leave the palace for the tomb. 
 Such, oddly, is the final doom ! 
 
 Lemurs 
 {digging, with comical gestures). 
 
 When I was young, and lived and loved, 
 Methought that life was pleasant ; 
 
 To merry sound my feet would, bound 
 More lightly than at present. 
 
 But now malicious Age hath plied 
 His crutch my pride to humble ; 
 
 What have they done that thus upon 
 An open grave I stumble ? 
 
 Faust 
 {coming out of the Palace feels his way by the door-posts). 
 
 Ah, how the clinking spade delights me yet ! 
 
 It is the people of my fief — 
 
 They give the sea-vex'd earth relief, 
 A limit to the waves they set. 
 And with a fetter bind the sea. 
 
THE DBA TH OF F4 UST. 267 
 
 Mephistopheles {aside). 
 
 For us alone you painfully 
 
 Your land with dam and dyke have screened ; 
 
 For Neptune, Ocean's Waterfiend, 
 
 You but prepare a huge repast ! 
 Foredoomed is all that you acquire : — 
 The elements with us conspire, 
 
 To ruin all will come at last. 
 
 Inspector ! 
 
 Faust. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 Here! 
 
 Faust. - 
 
 Despatch this matter craves- 
 For labourers the country scour. 
 Ply them with pleasure, use your power, 
 Pay them, persuade them, press the knaves ! 
 And send me tidings daily to the Haven, 
 To what extent the new ditch hath been graven. 
 
 Mephistopheles {half-aloud). 
 
 They speak as if they tidings gave, 
 
 Not of whajt's graven, but of what's — a grave. 
 
268 GREAT COURTYARD OF THE PALACE. 
 
 Faust. 
 
 A Swamp, that lies beneath the mountain chain, 
 
 O'er all my reclamations spreads the pest ; 
 That fetid pool if I could drain, 
 
 • Of all my works 'twould be the last and best. 
 Room for whole millions I should then ensure, 
 Fit home for freemen, though not quite secure — 
 A land of fruitful fields, a green champaign. 
 Where men and herds contented would remain, 
 Settled full soon behind the mighty mound 
 By which a people's toil my work hath crown'd. 
 Within, a land as bright as Eden lies, 
 Without, the ocean to the rim may rise, 
 And if it /Should commence the mound to sap, 
 All to the breach would rush, to close the gap. 
 Yes, to this thought my full assent I give, 
 
 Indeed, of wisdom 'tis the height — 
 None to be free can claim, or e'en to live. 
 
 But those who daily earn the right ! 
 And so 'mid peril, and ennobling fears. 
 Youth, manhood, age, would spend their honest years. 
 Such stir of life could I behold, and stand 
 'Midst a free people on their own free land. 
 Then to the moment I might say, 
 
 O tarry yet ! Thou art so fair ! 
 
THE DEATH OF FAUST. 269 
 
 My work on earth, when eons pass away, 
 
 Will still have left its traces there ! 
 The very foretaste of a joy like this 
 Supplies the moment of my highest bliss. 
 
 {He sinks back, the Lemurs take hold of him, 
 and lay him on the ground.) 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 No joy could satisfy him, no success content. 
 He wooed each shifting shape that flitted past ; 
 
 And yet the last, poor, empty moment-that he spent 
 Was that which he would fain be holding fast ! 
 
 Time masters him who could my power withstand ; 
 
 There lies the old man, stretched upon the sand ! 
 
 The clock hath stopped ! 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Hath stopped ! 'Tis still as night ! 
 The index falls ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 It falls ! 'Tis finished quite ! 
 
270 great courtyard of the palace. 
 
 Chorus. 
 'Tis past ! 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 Past ! Senseless word ! Why past ? 
 Past and mere nothing are the same at last. 
 Is our eternal doing worth a thought 
 When all we do is swept away to nought 1 
 > ' Ay, it is past ! ' From that what canst thou glean .? 
 It is the same as if it ne'er had been. 
 Yet round it seems to cycle, undestroy'd ; 
 'Twere better there were one Eternal Void. 
 
 Lemurs (p. 265). 
 
 Mox etiam Lemures animas dixere sileritum ; 
 Is verbi sensus, vis ea vocis erat. 
 
 Ovid. 
 
 Graben (p. 267). 
 
 He hath graven and digged up a pit, and is fallen 
 himself into the destruction that he made for other. 
 
 The Booi of Common Prayer. 
 
NOTANDA. 
 
The Prelude. 
 Anno sexagesimo suo Poeta loquitur. 
 
 O GIVE me back the time of growing, 
 When I myself was in ray spring, 
 
 And when the fount of song was flowing 
 With fresh, unbroken, caroling — 
 
 When all was haze, and all illusion, 
 When wonder lurked in every flower, 
 And blooms in thousands decked the bower, 
 
 And dales were one divine profusion ! 
 
 Nought had I, but enough for youth — 
 
 Delight in dreams, and longing after truth ! 
 
 Give me the yet untamed emotion. 
 The bliss^that tingled into pain. 
 
 The power of hatred, love's devotion, — 
 O give me back my youth again ! 
 
NOTANDA. 
 
 It may appear strange that the story of Faust which had 
 occupied the thoughts of Goethe from his earliest youth 
 should have been published by him, at the age of forty, as 
 nothing but a Fragment. But a fragment it really was. It 
 did not contain the Easter scenes, or even the reference 
 to Easter (1. 245) ; it contained a single reference to Wal- 
 purgis-night (1. 2235), but it did not give the scenes upon 
 the Brocken ; it did not even give the Prison scene with 
 which the completed drama closes (1. 4048). The action 
 has no beginning, no middle, and no end. And as the 
 Fragment is unlimited in point of time, so it is inde- 
 finite in point of moral. It intimates, indeed, that 
 Faust had sold himself to the powers of darkness — dem 
 Teufel ubergeben (1. 15 12), but the terms of the bargain 
 are not disclosed, and the character of Mephistopheles is 
 not described. Even the loves of Faust and Margaret are 
 devoid of moral interest. The Fragm.ent, in short, was 
 what Coleridge and Lamb conceived the Tragedy to be — 
 a mere. series of magic-lantern pictures without causation 
 and without progression — a mere vulgar story of seduction 
 and desertion. 
 
 Schiller, as early as 1794, had compared the Fragment 
 to a torso, and the Schiller correspondence shows the pro- 
 longed and patient labour which Goethe bestowed on the 
 completion of his statue. His great work did not appear 
 in its finished ioxm.—in vollendeter Gestalt — till the year 
 
 T 
 
274 NOTANDA. 
 
 1808; and the German critics point to the long intervals 
 which elapsed between the composition of its various parts 
 as explaining the inconsistencies and oversights which they 
 fancy they detect in the masterpiece of the consummate 
 artist. But Goethe's correspondence shows that, when 
 composinghis later work, he had every portion of his earlier 
 work before him. He forgot nothing, he overlooked nothing, 
 he allowed nothing to escape him. Whatever he did, and 
 whatever he left undone, it was with full consciousness 
 and deliberate design. In the first place, by opening the 
 Tragedy on Easter-eve (1. 245), by arresting the action 
 of the drama on Walpurgis-night (1. 3304), and by closing 
 it with the death of Margaret in the Prison (1. 4251), he 
 obviated the objection of ' illimitedness ' which Schiller had 
 brought against the Fragment. Easter-day, according to 
 the calendar, is the first Sunday after the Full Moon which 
 happens upon, or next after, the 21st of March ; and 
 Walpurgis-night, as everyone knows, is the night of the 
 30th of April, and the first of May. Accordingly Faust 
 apostrophises the Full Moon — voller Mondenschein (1. 2,^ 
 — when he is discovered in his chamber ; and Mephisto- 
 pheles remarks the Moon's imperfect round — die unvoll- 
 kommne Scheibe des roi'hen Monds (1. 3494) — when he 
 and Faust ascend the Brocken. From the lattef expression 
 it would seem that the moon had not yet filled her horns ; 
 but whether we apply it to the increscent or to the de- 
 crescent moon is of no practical importance. The time 
 occupied by the main action of the drama is either a little 
 more than three weeks or a little less^ than five ; and if this 
 be so, it is eyident that the main action of the drama is 
 separated from its final catastrophe by about a year. 
 
 Mephistopheles, eager to win the wager which he has 
 made in heaven, returns to earth, and at once presents him- 
 
NOTANDA. 27s 
 
 self to Faust. Without delay he introduces him into the 
 world, and renews his youth. He loses no time in carrying 
 out his purpose. The first great temptation to which Faust, 
 as the guter Mensch of the Prologue, is subjected by his 
 evil genius is the master passion ; and, accordingly, the 
 main interest of the First Part of the Tragedy is centred in 
 the Episode of Gretchen. Faust and Margaret, like 
 Romeo and Juliet, realize the saw of Marlowe ; they love at 
 first sight (11. 2254, 2819), and in the T^gedy, as in the 
 Fragment, the story of Hero and Leander is repeated. If 
 we follow the intimations of time which Goethe himself has 
 given — noch heut, heut Abend, &c. — it will be seen that 
 the interval between the first meeting of the lovers in the 
 Street, and the passionate moment in the Garden-house, 
 can scarcely be more than six days — the time of action that 
 is assigned by modem criticism to the play of Shakespeare. 
 In the Fragment, the scene in the Garden-house is imme- 
 diately followed by the cry of Gretchen at the Spinning- 
 wheel— wz«>«i? Ruh ist kin ; but in the Fragment the 
 lament of lost innocence is followed by the assignation 
 in the Garden, by the confession at the Well, by the flight 
 of Faust to the Forest, by the anguish of Gretchen when 
 kneeling at the Shrine, and by her final agony in the 
 Cathedral. The poor child, in short, is wooed and won, 
 degraded and deserted. But what in the Fragment is a 
 prolonged amour, becomes va.^e. Tragedy a brief but tragic 
 passion. The whole story is transformed, transmuted, 
 and transfigured ; and the miracle is effected by a single 
 change. The scene in the Forest is placed immediately 
 after the scene in the Garden-house, and the flight of Faust 
 becomes attributable, not to some ignoble or inexplicable 
 motive, but to a paroxysm of virtuous remorse. Mephis- 
 topheles is foiled ; and, accordingly, he determines to put 
 T 2 
 
276 NOTANDA. 
 
 an end to the episode. Under the malign influence of his 
 evil genius, Faust is induced to return to Gretchen. On 
 his return, his evil desires are again inflamed, and he 
 solicits and obtains the assignation. But the transposition 
 of the scene which elevates the character of Faust preserves 
 the character of Margaret from being degraded. In the 
 fragmentary essay the flight to the Forest is placed afier the 
 assignation in the Garden, and the assignation is supposed 
 to have been kept ; in the completed work the flight is 
 placed before the assignation, and the catastrophe of the 
 drama is precipitated by the mere attempt to keep it. The 
 covert threat of Mephistopheles — nun heute Nacht ? — 
 (1. 3186) — shows that the night of the assignation in the 
 Garden is the night of the duel on the Street. The night of 
 the appointment has arrived ; Margaret has administered 
 the sleeping-draught to her mother ; the suspicions of her 
 brother have been roused ; Faust repairs to the rendezvous 
 with an uneasy conscience (1. 3297) ; Mephistopheles sings 
 - his diabolical serenade ; and, in a moment, the attempt to 
 keep the assignation results in the murder of Valentine, 
 the flight of Faust, the death of Gretchen' s mother, and 
 the utter abandonment of Gretchen. 
 
 Diintzer, as is well known, objects to the intervention of 
 Valentine as having no intimate connexion with his sister^s 
 fall : but, if we watch the sequence of events, it will be 
 evident that it has a most intimate connexion with her fate.. 
 But this is not all. Failing to see the true sequence of 
 events, Duntzer makes a variety of objections to Goethe's 
 treatment of the scene. He thinks it strange that the dying 
 Valentine should make no reference to the death of his 
 mother ; strangle, that Faust should continue his visits to 
 Margaret after her mother had been poisoned by his means ; 
 strange, that Margaret, after the notoriety of her fall, should 
 
NOTANDA. 277 
 
 venture to present herself at the Cathedral. These objec- 
 tions are repeated not only by Turner and Morshead but 
 by Bacharach and Selss. Goethe, however, is easily de- 
 fended from his friends. If we once recognise the fact 
 that the night of the -duel in the Street is the night of 
 the assignation in the Garden, it will be plain that the 
 mother and the son expire on the same night, each ignorant 
 of the other's fate; that after the interview in the Garden 
 Faust never again sees Margaret till he sees her in the 
 Prison; and that Margaret's fall is so far from being 
 notorious that it is not suspected even by Martha, who 
 stigmatises the denunciation of Valentine as a wicked 
 slander — Ldstrung (1. 3407). 
 
 In the Fragment the scenes at the Well, on the Espla- 
 nade, and in the Cathedral are separated by considerable 
 intervals of time ; but if the night of the duel on the Street 
 is the night of the assignation in the Garden, it follows 
 that the intervening scenes at the Well and on the Espla- 
 nade must be laid on the same day, and that the scene in 
 the Cathedral must belaid immediately after. Undoubtedly 
 these scenes in their present position retain the traces of 
 the original conception of the Fragment. But the Ach 
 neige and the Dies irae is each such an entire and perfect 
 chrysolite that Goethe, in the exercise of a wise discretion, 
 declined to touch them. It has not been with impunity, 
 however, that the Poet trusted to the intelligence of his 
 readers. Diintzer, failing to see the dramatic denouement 
 which Goethe has given, laments the absence of ' the 
 beautiful gradation ' of the three scenes which he did 
 not think fit to give. Pradez sees the incompatibility of 
 Duntzer's view with Goethe's actual design ; but in oppos- 
 ing him he surpasses even Diintzer. Fastening on the 
 language of the three scenes, he concludes that there must 
 
278 NOTANDA, 
 
 be an interval of ' four good months at least ' between the 
 scene at the Cathedral and the scene in the Well — ' 11 faut, 
 d'aprSs ce que Marguerite y r6vele {und unter deinem 
 Herzen regt sich's nicht quillend sckon), compter au 
 moins quatre bons mois ' (p. 482) ; and he exclaims ' voilA 
 une fille dont, k I'^poque de Piques, Faust, seul araant 
 qu'elle ait eu, ignorait encore I'existence, et qui, avant 
 Pentecdte, fee trouverait enceinte de quatre mois et demi ' 
 (p. 503). It is strange that so enthusiastic an admirer 
 should have attributed such an absurdity to, Goethe — 
 and equally strange that a translator of Faust should 
 haye regarded as a ' revelation ' of Margaret what is in 
 reality a lying suggestion of the Evil Spirit. When a 
 great writer appears to be absurd we may be sure he is 
 not understood. Criticism is more likely to be wrong 
 than genius. 
 
 While Goethe stands vindicated as a dramatic artist 
 his claim as a moral teacher, though not so obvious, may 
 safely be asserted. In the Tragedy two principles are laid 
 down, the one in heaven and the other upon earth. The 
 one proclaims that amidst all the turmoil of the passions a 
 genuine man never loses his consciousness of right {frol. 
 86) ; the other proclaims that in spite of all the allurements 
 of the evil principle the soul of a genuine man will never 
 be satisfied with evil (1. 1340). These principles consti- 
 tute a moral which, like a golden thread, runs through 
 the gorgeous tissue of the drama. Mephistopheles, who 
 sees nothing but vice and misery in the world, has no 
 conception of the strength of principles like these ; and 
 he regards Faust as only proof against temptation 
 because he lives in a sphere in which he cannot well be 
 tempted. If he can only get him out into the world, 
 and endue with the passions and the powers of youth, 
 
NOTANDA. 279 
 
 he feels sure of his victim — so sure, that he thinks he 
 has him, bargain or no bargain — unbedingt (1. 1501), 
 Hence the air of superiority which, with all his appar- 
 ent deference, he assumes in his intercourse with Faust. 
 Hence it is that his manner is so insolent and cold (1. 2888), 
 He plays with Faust, to use his own metaphor in the 
 Prologue, as a cat does with a mouse. He is the Spirit of 
 Contradiction as well as the Spirit of Denial. If Faust is 
 eager, Mephistopheles suggests delay (1. 2285) ; if Faust is 
 gloomy, Mephistopheles is in the highest spirits (I.3298); 
 if Faust experiences the joy of spring, the body of Mephis- 
 topheles is all winter (1. 3492). It is true the demon has 
 entered into a compact with the man, and has undertaken 
 to secure him every earthly pleasure. But his very com- 
 pact is a fraud. Under the pretence of satisfying the 
 desires of Faust he only tantalises and torments him 
 (1. 1510). Hence it is that he interrupts him in the Garden- 
 house (1. 2851); that he baulks him in the assignation 
 (1. 3187); that he isolates him on the Brocken (1. 3676); 
 that he horrifies him with the phantom of Medusa {1. 3837). 
 The Mephistopheles of Goethe, in fact, is at once the lago 
 of . Shakespeare and the Imp of Fraud of Milton. He 
 betrays his companion under the guise of being zealous 
 for his service ; and he so effectually conceals his treason 
 that Faust himself has no suspicion of the traitor. The 
 episode of Gretchen is the crowning triumph of the 
 Fiend. Faust is betrayed into a momentary weakness, 
 and by the malignant arts of Mephistopheles he is unin- 
 tentionally involved in the murder of Valentine, the 
 poisoning of Gretchen' s mother, and the misery and 
 death of Gretchen. 
 
 In accordance with the legend, the Faust of Marlowe sells 
 his soul in order ' to live in all voluptuousness ' ; but the 
 
28o NOTANDA. 
 
 Faust of Goethe defies all mere voluptuousness to satisfy 
 his soul. It is true he succumbs to a great and sudden 
 temptation ; but even in that suprenle moment he does not 
 utter the words Verweile dock (1. 1346), and he foils the 
 Tempter (1. 2851). All the efforts of Mephistopheles to 
 degrade him are abortive. If he is induced to enter the 
 cellar of Auerbach he is disgusted with the orgy ; if he 
 is maddened with desire in the Kitchen of the Witch, he 
 recovers his sense of purity in the Chamber of Gretchen ; 
 if he is betrayed by overpowering passion in the Garden- 
 house, he flies overwhelmed with shame and remorse into 
 the Forest ; if he asks for the assignation in the Garden, 
 he is conscience-stricken when he goes to keep it (I.3297); 
 if he flies from Gretchen, he flies, ignorant of her condition, 
 unconscious of the consequences of his sin, and pursued 
 by the terrors of the law; and, finally, if he is taken to 
 the Devil's Carnival upon the Brocken, he soon becomes 
 disgusted with the diabolical debauch, and his guide does 
 not venture to show him the abominations enacted on the 
 summit of the Mount of Scandal. In spite of all his aber- 
 rations he is still the guter Mensch of the Prologue ; in 
 spite of all the pleasures which his evil genius supplies, he 
 disdains to feed on dust {Prol. 92). 
 
 The effect of moral principle upon Gretchen is equally 
 apparent. Little better than a child, with a strict and 
 exacting mother (1. 2758), and with a loose and foolish 
 neighbour as her friend and confidante, she suddenly falls a 
 victim to the fascination of noble bearing and intellect, and 
 youth and love, as united in the person of the rejuvenated 
 Faust. But if she falls, her peace of mind is gone ; if she 
 has sinned, she retains her reverence for religion (1. 3175); 
 and if she assents to the fatal assignation, it is only because 
 she is unable to resist her lover's will. In the Fragment, 
 
NOT AND A. 
 
 281 
 
 it is true, she is degraded to a mere mistress ; but in the 
 TVagedy she is elevated into a martyr. Goethe, with that 
 artful reserve and cunning reticence for which he is re- 
 markable, does not fully disclose the true secret of her 
 character till the very conclusion of the drama. In the 
 closing scene of the Second Part of the Tragedy (11. 1007- 
 loio), the Three Penitents present Gretchen to the Mater 
 Gloriosa, exclaiming : — 
 
 Gonn auch dieser guten Seele, 
 Die sich einmal nur vergessen, 
 Uie nicht ahnte dass sie fehle, 
 Dein Verzeihen angemessen ! 
 
 From this it is evident that Margaret's sin had its beginning 
 and its ending in the Garden-house of Martha. She falls, 
 but she falls unwittingly, and she falls but once — einmal 
 nur. It is this that constitutes the terror and the pity of 
 her fate : and it is this, at the same time, that points 
 the final moral of the Poet. The prayer of the Penitents 
 is heard, and Margaret is forgiven. Not only is she 
 raised, but she is permitted to assist in the elevation of 
 her lover. Faust is entrusted to her care by the Mater 
 Gloriosa, in order that she may guide him into a higher 
 sphere ; and the Tragedy of Faust, which is in reality 
 The Trial of Faust, concludes with the words of the 
 Chorus Mysticus — 
 
 All was similitude 
 
 Which hath now fleeted ; 
 Here there is plenitude, 
 
 All is completed ; 
 Done is what humanly 
 
 None could descry ; 
 Love, ever Womanly, 
 
 Eeclions on high ! 
 
POENITENTES loquuntur. 
 
 Pardon thou this soul, so winning. 
 Who but once herself foVgot, 
 
 Sinned without a thought of sinning. 
 Pardon and reject her not ! 
 
NOTANDA. 283 
 
 JEin ewiges Meer (1, 152), 
 
 The ewiges Meer may be a reminiscence of Spinoza's 
 infinite substance of which the modes are as the waves 
 of the sea — shapes that rise, and die away, and never 
 really are. Carlyle recalls the Webstuhl (1. 155) when 
 he speaks of ' that grand Miraculous Tissue, and Living 
 Tapestry, named French Revolution, which did weave itself 
 then, in very fact, on the loud-sounding Loom of Time.' In 
 his Commentary on Job (vii. 6) Dr. Adam Clarke gives an 
 extract from the Teemour Nameh which bears a curious 
 resemblance to the whole passage; — 'Praise be to God 
 who hath woven the web of human affairs in the Loom of 
 His will and of His wisdom ; and hath made the waves of 
 times and of seasons to flow from the fountain of His 
 providence into the Ocean of His power.' 
 
 yenem Drang (1. 278). 
 
 This must refer to the previous words, — Ichfuhle Muth 
 mtch in die Welt zu wagen (1. iii). The train of thought 
 would seem to be as follows : — Faust has been repelled 
 in his attempt to enter the world of spirits in search 
 of the knowledge which he has failed to acquire in the 
 schools (1. 275) ; he is debarred from entering the world of 
 action by his previous life (1. 279), and moreover worldly 
 
284 NOTANDA.. 
 
 success would be fatal to all nobility of feeling (1. 285), 
 and would be attended with cares and anxieties of its 
 own (1. 291) ; his books are unable to fill the void in his 
 heart (1. 308), his instruments are mocking him (1. 315), 
 and the only effectual cure for his misery is death (h 367). 
 Mephistopheles is eyeing him in his despair (1. 1225). 
 
 Walz' und Bicgel {\.. 316). 
 
 No meaning is conveyed to my mind by the ' cylinder 
 and collars,' of Lebahn, or the 'cylinders and circles' of 
 Bacharach, or the ' cylinders and bows ' of Buchheim, or 
 the ' cylinder and handle ' of Beta — and still less by the 
 ' stirrup-shaped handle ' of Schroer, the ' smoothing iron ' 
 of Selss, and the ' shapes uncouth of wonder ' of Bayard 
 Taylor. The ' rouleaux et ferrures ' of Sabatier, and the 
 ' toute armure ' of Pradez, seem to me to be evasions of the 
 difficulty and not translations of the phrase. I am told by 
 an accomplished engineer familiar with German terms of 
 art that there is no mechanical appliance of which the 
 phrase can be regarded as a technical description. Fliigel's 
 German Lexicon, however, defines Biigelas 'any piece of 
 wood or metal that is bent ;' and Johnson defines a Retort 
 as ' a chymical glass vessel with a bent neck to which the 
 receiver is fitted.' As Jehan de Molendino says of the 
 alembics in the cell of Dom Claude Frollo, tout est done 
 cornu ici, les id^es et les bouteilles. A retort would 
 naturally find a place among the glasses — Glasern (1. 53), 
 which Faust has in his study, and which we may well 
 regard as a relic of the times when his father and his 
 fellow-adepts watched for the colours of the Young Queen ' 
 in the glass — im Glas (1. 694). 
 
NOTANDA. 285 
 
 Das Widrige (1. 688). 
 
 This is generally translated ' contraries,' ' opposing 
 substances,' and ' antagonistic elements.' It is so trans- 
 lated by Lebahn, and Bacharach, and Buchheim ; by 
 Bayard Taylor, Birds, and Beta ; and by Blaze da Bury, 
 Sabatier, and Pradez. I cannot but think, however, that 
 Professor Selss is right in translating it ' the bitter physic ' 
 (p. 267). Faust is giving Wagner an account of the 
 preparation of the elixir which Faust and his father ad- 
 ministered as a specific for the plague. 
 
 The following extracts from the Hundred Aphorisms 
 demonstrating ihe Preparation of the Grand Elixir by 
 Bare Urbigerus, corASimedin The Lives of the A Ichymical 
 Philoso-^hers, published in London in 18 15, illustrate the 
 meaning of the Young Queen's colours : — " If our Virgin- 
 in her confinement, before she is set at liberty, does not 
 manifest her extreme beauty with all her internal, divers, 
 delicate, natural colours, wonderfully charming and very 
 pleasant to the eye, it signifies that she has not sufficiently 
 enjoyed the spiritual company of the Dragon. . . . The con- 
 stant and essential colours that appear in the digestion of 
 the matter, and before it comes to a perfection, aje three, 
 viz., black, which signifies the putrefaction and conjunction 
 of the elements; zwA2V?e, which demonstrates its purification; 
 and red, which denotes its maturation," 
 
 Wie nennst du dich (1. 973). 
 
 It may be observed that Mephistopheles does not give 
 his name, and that in the only place in the text where he is 
 actually named he is called Me^histo (1. 3826). Goethe 
 
286 NOTAISTDA. 
 
 could give no direct answer to the question of Zelter as to 
 the origin of the name [Bokn, 374) ; though by making his 
 Fiend the enemy of Light (1. 997) he would seem to counte- 
 nance its derivation from the words, M^)-^ Ss-rb ipi\iiv, which 
 recall the Mephostophilus of Shakespeare. If we accept 
 this derivation we know his nature when we know his name 
 (1. 977). As the Spirit of Denial he takes the same view of 
 the universe when standing over the dead body of Faust 
 {sup. 370) as he takes when he first introduces himself 
 into his presence (I.985). But it is rather as the Spirit of 
 Mischief than as the Spirit of Denial that he plays his part 
 in the tragedy of Faust (1. 1506). It is, not as a demon that 
 he is presented to us, but as, a man. He does not appear 
 upon the stage with the cloven hoof, or with the horse's 
 foot, or with any outward and visible sign which would 
 betoken his diabolic nature. On the contrary, he poses as 
 a young noble (1. 1181), as a cavalier (1. 2156), and, gene- 
 rally, as a person of distinction (1. 1822). As he himself 
 says, he is a portion of the Primeval Darkness (1. 996) ; but 
 whatever may be his secret nature, in outward appearance 
 at least, to use the words of Edgar in King Lear, the 
 Prince of Darkness is a gentleman. In no other capacity, 
 indeed, could he be the companion and the guide of Faust 
 in his intercourse with the world, whether small or great. 
 
 Laube bet Laube (1. iii6). 
 
 Here Goethe is his own interpreter. Brander, in the 
 Wine Cellar, exclaims (1. 1963) : — 
 
 Hier unter diesem griinen Laube, 
 
 Seht^ welch ein Stock ! Seht, welche Traube 1 
 
 The bower is a trellis-work of vines ; the vine suggests the 
 grape— the grape, the flow of wine — the flow of wine, a 
 
NOTANDA. 287 
 
 mountain stream — the mountain stream, a lake enclosed by 
 hills — and lake and hill, the sense of universal gladness. 
 
 All those sharp fancies, by dowu-lapsing thought 
 Stream'd onward, lost their edges, and did creep 
 
 RoU'd on each other, rounded, smooth'd, and brought 
 Into the gulfs of sleep. 
 
 A Dream of Fair Women. 
 
 Geisterchor (1. 1253). 
 
 KoUer regards this as a chorus of the ' good spirits 
 hovering around the human conscience.' Leutbecher 
 considers them to be 'the pure spirits who direct the 
 harmonies of existence.' Schroer sees in their intervention 
 a reminiscence of the ' good angel ' of the legend. Pradez 
 thinks that Mephistopheles makes the spirits that serve 
 him pose as messengers from heaven. In reality, they are 
 simply what they profess to be, — the attendant spirits who 
 had watched over Mephistopheles in the corridor and aided 
 bim in his escape from the study. Here they are employed 
 to overcomte Faust's reluctance to enter the world by 
 assuring him that he is a being of a superior order. The 
 intervention of ' pure spirits ' or ' good angels ' in the con- 
 test between the Tempter and the Man would, I think, be 
 inconsistent with the conception of the Prologue, 
 
 Dock hast du SJieise (1. 1324). 
 
 Buchheim, the editor of Hayward, observes that 'neither 
 he, nor most other translators, saw the drift of this speech, 
 which is, with the exception of the last two lines, through- 
 out interrogatory' (p. 403). I venture to think, on the 
 
288 NOTANDA, 
 
 contrary, that the speech is not interrogatory but sarcastic 
 and defiant ; and accordingly \ have adopted the punc- 
 tuation of the older editions of Faust. Buchheira thinks 
 ' it must simply be assumed that Faust really wishes for 
 volatile and changeable pleasures ' [lb.',. But this is what 
 Faust emphatically denies (1. 1411) : — 
 
 Du hdrestj'a, von Freud' ist nicht die Rede. 
 
 What Faust demands on his entering the world of action is 
 not pleasure, but knowledge — not the knowledge of things 
 beyond our reach, in the pursuit of which he had been 
 baffled, but knowledge of the infinite contradictions and 
 complexities of human life (1. 1416). This explains what 
 follows. Mephistopheles, as the Spirit of Contradiction, 
 tells him that life, between the cradle and the grave 
 (1. 1424), is too short for man' to attain this knowledge — 
 that such knowledge is only for a God — that it is idle to 
 be swelled up with the old leaven of curiosity, den alien 
 Sauerteig (1. 1425), which fermented in the breast of Eve — 
 and that he must not hope to verify the saying of the 
 Serpent (1. ib^y^Eritis sicut Deus, scientes bonum. et 
 malum. 
 
 Ellenhohe Socken (1. 1454). 
 
 A note by Mr. Symons in the Henry Irving Shakespeare 
 suggests an explanation of this hyperbole. In commenting 
 on Hamlet's expression — nearer to heaven by the altitude 
 of a chopine-r-Mr. Symons quotes a passage from Coryafs 
 Crudities which tells us how the women of Venice, to give 
 themselves an appearance of height, mounted themselves 
 on ' a thing made of wood and covered with leather of 
 
NOTAND-A. 289 
 
 sundry colours,' which was called a 'chapiney.' 'There 
 are many of these chapineys of great height,' he says, 
 ' even half-a-yard high, which maketh many of their 
 women, that are very short, seem much taller than the 
 tallest women we have in England.' Heywood, in his Rafe 
 of Lucrece, speaks of 'the Italian in her high chapine.' 
 Goethe would seem to allude to Louis XIV, — just as he 
 would seem to allude to Louis XVI. in the Witch's 
 Kitchen, and, possibly, to Godoy, the Spanish favourite, in 
 the song of Mephistopheles, ' on his return from Spain.' 
 
 Ich bin lebendig{\. 2055). 
 
 It appears from a note of Pradez that these words have 
 presented a difficulty to the most recent of the German 
 commentators, Schroer. ' Le sens, dit-il, est sans doute 
 que la boule roulante qui repr^sente le monde semble dire 
 qa'elle mt' (p. 469). Pradez, very naturally, is dissatisfied 
 with this conjecture, but he gives another which seems 
 more unsatisfactory still. ' La tirade,' he says, ' est 
 consid6r6e par nous comme un dialogue, oii, sous I'image 
 d'une boule brillante et roulante, le monde trouve un censeur 
 dans le Kater, et un pan^gyriste dans le Katzchen, qui 
 aurait, ainsi, a prononcer le vers discutS ' (p. 470). This 
 is very far-fetched, and, as Johnson would say, not worth 
 the carriage . The language is compressed but the meaning 
 is obvious enough — ' / am full of life but. I don't dream of 
 rolling the great globe before me— and you, my son, would 
 do well to follow my example.' 
 
 Where is the world of eight years past ? 'Twsis there— 
 
 I look for it — 'tis gone— aglobe of glass, 
 Crack'd, shiver'd, vanish'd, scarcely gazed on ere 
 A silent change dissolves the glittering mass ! 
 
 Don yuan. 
 U 
 
290 NOTANDA. 
 
 Ein Gartenhduschen (1. 2849). 
 
 In the Fragment, as already stated, the scene in the 
 Garden-house is immediately followed by the Meine Ruh 
 ist hih of Gretchen, and the inference is obvious. Apart 
 from this inference, indeed, the scene is destitute of mean- 
 ing. Between the kiss of Margaret and the knock of 
 Mephistopheles a brief interval must be assumed, during 
 which the stage is occupied by Mephistopheles and Martha. 
 From the words of Gretchen, which must be taken as 
 addressed to Martha, it is clear that the scene closes a 
 long interview in which the conversation had been monopo- 
 lised by Faust (1. 2855), as in the previous interview it had 
 been practically monopolised by Gretchen —a reminiscence 
 of Frederica {Autohiog. 376). With regard to the following 
 scene — Wald und Hohle — Bayard Taylor holds that 
 ' Goethe's first design was, evidently, to drive Faust from 
 Margaret's presence through the remorse following the 
 deed,' and that ' his transfer of the scene to its present 
 place substitutes a moral resistance in advance of the 
 deed for the earlier motive.' Turner and Morshead take 
 the same view, and apparently Diintzer also takes it. But 
 unfortunately for this theory Goethe repektedlyTntimates 
 in the Forest scene that the deed had been already done 
 (11. 2893, 293s, 2980,' 3005). 
 
 Marlhens Garten (1. 3058). 
 
 Versfrich mir, Heinrich ! (1. 3058)— what is the mean- 
 ing of these words ? What is the promise which Margaret 
 is afraid to ask ? The History of Dr. Faustus narrates 
 ' how Dr. Faustus would have married, and how the Devil 
 had almost killed him for it.' To the same effect in 
 
NOTANDA. 291 
 
 Marlowe's Tragical History, Mephistophilis is repre- 
 sented as saying ' Tut, Faustus, marriage is but a cere- 
 monial toy.'_ In Goethe's conception of the story, Faust 
 is a homeless wanderer and sees that he and Margaret 
 should part (L 2992). This is not the view of Margaret. 
 The idea of marriage is suggested to her by Mephis- 
 topheles (1. 2587) ; marriage she thinks is the reparation 
 due' to Barbara (1. 3213) ; marriage is the object of her 
 dying thoughts (1. 4221) ; and it may well be that in her 
 introduction of the subject of religion and her rapid transi- 
 tion to the sacraments, she is thinking of the sacrament of 
 marriage. The conversation on religion ends, unfortu- 
 nately, in the assignation which Mephistopheles had 
 suggested, and to facilitate which he had furnished the 
 deadly Sleeping-draught. The fatal night is fixed, and 
 Mephistopheles closes the scene with the ominous words : — 
 Hob' ich dock meine Freude dran ! 
 
 Zwinger (1. 3230). 
 
 The meaning which Dr. Johnson gives to the word Espla- 
 nade — ' the empty space between the glacis of a citadel 
 and the first houses of a town ' — is exactly the meaning 
 which Goethe, in his Autobiography, gives to the word 
 Zwinger — 'the circuit of the path inside the city -walls' 
 {Bohn, 9). In the Fragment, the Ach neige had, perhaps, 
 a deeper significance than it has in the Tragedy. But 
 even in its present position it must be remembered that 
 Margaret has been alarmed by the fate of Barbara, and 
 that owing to the prolonged absence, and apparent deser- 
 tion, of her lover (1. 2959), she might well have prepared 
 her votive offering to the Virgin on the morning of his 
 tmexpected return. 
 
2c,2 NOT AND A. 
 
 Nacht (1. 3263). 
 
 This is the night of the assignation in the Garden — the 
 night for which the demon has prepared his frolic. Goethe 
 leaves it to the imagination of the reader to guess how 
 Mephistopheles had contrived to arouse the suspicions of 
 Valentine. . As to the sneers of Valentine's comrades 
 (1. 3284), Pradez remarks ' on sera oblig6 de convenir qu'il 
 ne d6clare pas en avoir d6j4 subi ; car; dans ce cas, ce 
 n'est pas soil qu'il aurait dit, mais muss'' (p. 484). Faust 
 is full of misgivings as he goes to keep his appointment, 
 and gloom gathers round his conscience just as darkness 
 closes round the light of the eternal lamp (1. 3294). The 
 scene contains the cardinal fact in the chronology of Faust, 
 that Walpurgis-night comes the day but one after the 
 assignation and the duel (1. 3305) : — 
 
 Die kommt uns uhermorgen wieder. 
 
 Wal^urgisnacht (1. 3478). 
 
 It will be observed that, as it was early spring when 
 Faust took his walk with Wagner (1. 551), so it is still 
 early spring when he ascends the Brocken with Mephisto 
 (1. 3488)— a fresh proof of the minute care with which 
 Goethe marked the time of action. If anyone wishes to 
 know the meaning and derivation of the word Prokto- 
 ^hantasmisi he is referred to his Greek Lexicon. In 
 the Tragedy of 1808 the word was Brockto^hantasinisi, 
 or the Ghost-seer of the Brocken. The person intended 
 is Nicolai, a Berlin bookseller, who was the proprietor of 
 a Periodical, the author of a book of Travels, and also 
 the author of a parody on the Sorrows of Werther, 
 
NOTANDA. 293 
 
 What has made him famous, however, is not his literary 
 claims, but the spectral illusions by which, owing to some 
 mental perturbation, or some disorder in the sensories, he 
 was long haunted, and which were finally dispelled by the 
 application of leeches. ' In the Walpurgis-night scene the 
 author of Faust takes an unworthy revenge on the parodist 
 of Werther. He ridicules his Review as an old-fashioned 
 mill (1. 3798) ; he describes him as ready to pick up material 
 for a book of Travels on the Brocken (1. 3812) ; he makes 
 him address the Witches as if they, too, were mere illusions 
 (1. 3802) ; and finally he represents him as sitting down in a 
 puddle that the leeches may apply themselves to his person, 
 and relieve him from the new phantasmagoria by which 
 he is oppressed (1. 3815). The apparition of the Medusa, 
 which startles Faust upon the Brocken (1. 3826), is a mere 
 eidolon — ein Idol (1. 3833) — a ghastly phantom conjured 
 up by Mephistopheles for the purpose of tormenting Faust. 
 It is a fresh instance of the malignant delight in mischief 
 which is the prime characteristic of the Fiend. It cannot 
 be regarded as a warning which rouses the conscience of 
 Faust, and, to use the words of von Loeper, leads him back 
 to his deserted mistress ; for he does not return to his 
 deserted mistress till long months after the appearance. 
 Neither is it a mere psychological phenomenon, as Pradez 
 supposes (p. 489) ; and if it is an intimation of the punish- 
 ment of the infanticide, Faust, who has just parted from 
 Margaret, has no suspicion of the true significance of the 
 phantom, just as he had no suspicion of the true signifi- 
 cance of the warning in the Garden. Goethe, with his 
 mysterious air, has introduced the Snail (1. 3709), without 
 any intimation of his motive. Curiously enough, the Shrine 
 of St. Sebaldus at Nuremberg is supported by snails. 
 
294 NOTANDA. 
 
 Truber Tag. (1. 4042). 
 
 In speaking of "the critifcisra of Diintzer, Pradez says, 
 " Ce savant estime qu'il y a contradiction 'chronologique 
 entre le vers. Die kommt tins ubermorgen wieder, qui 
 annonce la sabbat pour le sur-lendemain, et les premiers 
 mots de la scene en prose, oi Marguerite est dite avoir 
 mis6rablement vagabond^ long tem^s" (p. 481). Pradez 
 himself thinks that the phrase lange verirrt is hyperbolic- 
 ally false though psychologically true (p. 485). Both fail 
 to see that an interval of months must be supposed between 
 Walpurgis-night and the Cloudy Day on which Faust is 
 first informed of Margaret's fate. What is regarded as a 
 chronological contradiction is merely a violation of the 
 Unities in which Goethe is more than justified by Shake- 
 speare. Faust appears to have been originally composed 
 in prose, and to have been siibsequently versified. In his 
 Letters from Italy, when speaking of the original form 
 of his I^higenia, Goethe says: — "The fragment which 
 lies befor'e me is rather a sketch than a finished piece ; it 
 is written in poetical prose, which occasionally falls into 
 a sort of iambic rhythm, and even imitates other syllabic 
 metres." This is an exact description of the prose in the 
 Truber Tag — it is in reality broken verse : — 
 
 Im Elend ! Verzweifelnd ! 
 Erbarmlich auf der Erde lange verirrt, 
 Und nun gefangen ! Als Missethaterin 
 Im Kerker zu entsetzUcben 
 
 Qualen eingesperrt, 
 Das holde, unselige Geschopf ! 
 Bis dahin ! Dahin ! — 
 V^erratheiischer, nichtswiirdiger Geist, 
 Und das hast du mir verheimlicht ! 
 
NOTANDA. 295 
 
 Blutstuhl (1. 4232), 
 
 This will be best explained by giving Scott's account of 
 the execution of Sir Archibald de Hagenbach in A nne of 
 Geierstein : — "The cars, so lately placed to obstruct the 
 passage of the street, were now joined together, and served 
 to support a platform, or scaffold, which had been hastily 
 constructed of planks. On this was placed a chair, in 
 which sat a tall man, with his head, necfc, and shoulders 
 
 bare, the rest of his body clothed in bright armour 
 
 He appeared to be bound to the chair. On his right, and 
 close beside him, stood the Priest of St. Paul's muttering 
 prayers, with his breviary in his hand ; while, on his left, 
 and somewhat behind the captive, appeared a tall man, 
 attired in red, and leaning with both hands on the naked 
 sword which has been described on a former occasion. .... 
 The priest drew back, the executioner stepped forward, the 
 sword was brandished, the blow was struck, and the victim's 
 head rolled on the scaffold" {Chap. xvi). 
 
 Isi gerettet .' (1. 4251). 
 
 According to Schlegel the words Sie ist gerichtet, refer 
 to the sentence of death pronounced by the Judge, while 
 the following words, Sie ist gerettet, refer to the salvation 
 of her soul. But the salvation of poor Gretchen's ^oul 
 seems not to have been assured till long after, if we may 
 trust the words which The Three Penitents address to the 
 Mater Gloriosa. -It may appear a bold thing to differ from 
 Schlegel, but it seems to me that the Voice from above 
 which exclaims. She is saved, has no reference to her 
 ultimate salvation, but intimates that she is saved by 
 death from the ignominy of a public execution. 
 
It is not our province, who only gather his works, and give thevt 
 you, to praise him. It is yours that reade him. And there we 
 hope, to your divers capacities, you willfinde enough, both to draw, 
 and hold you : for his wit can no more lie hid, than it could be 
 lost. Reade him, therefore; and againe, and againe : And if 
 then you doe not like him, surely you are in some manifest dangef, 
 not to understand him. And so we leave you to other of his 
 Friends, whom if you need, can bee your guides : if you neede 
 them, not, you can leade your selves, and others. '' And such 
 Readers we wish him. — The Editors of the Folio Shakespeare, 
 To the great Variety of Readers. 
 
 i