Prologue for the Theatre   
   
   
MANAGER.  DRAMATIC POET.  MERRYMAN.

MANAGER

Ye twain, in trouble and distress      
True friends whom I so oft have found,      
Say, for our scheme on German ground,      
What prospect have we of success?      
Fain would I please the public, win their thanks;           5   
They live and let live, hence it is but meet.      
The posts are now erected, and the planks,      
And all look forward to a festal treat.      
Their places taken, they, with eyebrows rais’d,      
Sit patiently, and fain would be amaz’d.           10   
I know the art to hit the public taste,      
Yet ne’er of failure felt so keen a dread;      
True, they are not accustomed to the best,      
But then appalling the amount they’ve read.      
How make our entertainment striking, new,           15   
And yet significant and pleasing too?      
For to be plain, I love to see the throng,      
As to our booth the living tide progresses;      
As wave on wave successive rolls along,      
And through heaven’s narrow portal forceful presses;           20   
Still in broad daylight, ere the clock strikes four,      
With blows their way towards the box they take;      
And, as for bread in famine, at the baker’s door,      
For tickets are content their necks to break.      
Such various minds the bard alone can sway,           25   
My friend, oh work this miracle to-day!      
   
POET

Oh of the motley throng speak not before me,      
At whose aspect the Spirit wings its flight!      
Conceal the surging concourse, I implore thee,      
Whose vortex draws us with resistless might.           30   
No, to some peaceful heavenly nook restore me,      
Where only for the bard blooms pure delight,      
Where love and friendship yield their choicest blessing,      
Our heart’s true bliss, with god-like hand caressing.      
   
What in the spirit’s depths was there created,           35   
What shyly there the lip shaped forth in sound;      
A failure now, with words now fitly mated,      
In the wild tumult of the hour is drown’d;      
Full oft the poet’s thought for years hath waited      
Until at length with perfect form ’tis crowned;           40   
What dazzles, for the moment born, must perish;      
What genuine is posterity will cherish.      
   
MERRYMAN

This cant about posterity I hate;      
About posterity were I to prate,      
Who then the living would amuse? For they           45   
Will have diversion, ay, and ’tis their due.      
A sprightly fellow’s presence at your play,      
Methinks should also count for something too;      
Whose genial wit the audience still inspires,      
Knows from their changeful mood no angry feeling;           50   
A wider circle he desires,      
To their heart’s depths more surely thus appealing.      
To work, then! Give a master-piece, my friend;      
Bring Fancy with her choral trains before us,      
Sense, reason, feeling, passion, but attend!           55   
Let folly also swell the tragic chorus.      
   
MANAGER

In chief, of incident enough prepare!      
A show they want, they come to gape and stare.      
Spin for their eyes abundant occupation,      
So that the multitude may wondering gaze,           60   
You by sheer bulk have won your reputation,      
The man you are all love to praise.      
By mass alone can you subdue the masses,      
Each then selects in time what suits his bent.      
Bring much, you something bring for various classes,           65   
And from the house goes every one content.      
You give a piece, abroad in pieces send it!      
’Tis a ragout—success must needs attend it;      
’Tis easy to serve up, as easy to invent.      
A finish’d whole what boots it to present!           70   
Full soon the public will in pieces rend it.      
   
POET

How mean such handicraft as this you cannot feel!      
How it revolts the genuine artist’s mind!      
The sorry trash in which these coxcombs deal,      
Is here approved on principle, I find.           75   
   
MANAGER

Such a reproof disturbs me not a whit!      
Who on efficient work is bent,      
Must choose the fittest instrument.      
Consider! ’tis soft wood you have to split;      
Think too for whom you write, I pray!           80   
One comes to while an hour away;      
One from the festive board, a sated guest;      
Others, more dreaded than the rest,      
From journal-reading hurry to the play.      
As to a masquerade, with absent minds, they press,           85   
Sheer curiosity their footsteps winging;      
Ladies display their persons and their dress,      
Actors unpaid their service bringing.      
What dreams beguile you on your poet’s height?      
What puts a full house in a merry mood?           90   
More closely view your patrons of the night!      
The half are cold, the half are rude.      
One, the play over, craves a game of cards;      
Another a wild night in wanton joy would spend.      
Poor fools the muses’ fair regards.           95   
Why court for such a paltry end?      
I tell you, give them more, still more ’tis all I ask,      
Thus you will ne’er stray widely from the goal;      
Your audience seek to mystify cajole;—      
To satisfy them—that’s a harder task.           100   
What ails thee? art enraptured or distressed?      
   
POET

Depart! elsewhere another servant choose      
What! shall the bard his godlike power abuse?      
Man’s loftiest right, kind nature’s high bequest,      
For your mean purpose basely sport away?           105   
Whence comes his mastery o’er the human breast,      
Whence o’er the elements his sway,      
But from the harmony that, gushing from his soul,      
Draws back into his heart the wondrous whole?      
With careless hand when round her spindle, Nature           110   
Winds the interminable thread of life;      
When ’mid the clash of Being every creature      
Mingles in harsh inextricable strife;      
Who deals their course unvaried till it falleth,      
In rhythmic flow to music’s measur’d tone?           115   
Each solitary note whose genius calleth,      
To swell the mighty choir in unison?      
Who in the raging storm sees passion low’ring?      
Or flush of earnest thought in evening’s glow?      
Who every blossom in sweet spring-time flowering           120   
Along the loved one’s path would strow?      
Who, Nature’s green familiar leaves entwining,      
Wreathe’s glory’s garland, won on every field?      
Makes sure Olympus, heavenly powers combining?      
Man’s mighty spirit, in the bard reveal’d!           125   
   
MERRYMAN

Come then, employ your lofty inspiration,      
And carry on the poet’s avocation,      
Just as we carry on a love affair.      
Two meet by chance, are pleased, they linger there,      
Insensibly are link’d, they scarce know how;           130   
Fortune seems now propitious, adverse now,      
Then come alternate rapture and despair;      
And ’tis a true romance ere one’s aware.      
Just such a drama let us now compose.      
Plunge boldly into life—its depths disclose!           135   
Each lives it, not to many is it known,      
’Twill interest wheresoever seiz’d and shown;      
Bright pictures, but obscure their meaning:      
A ray of truth through error gleaming,      
Thus you the best elixir brew,           140   
To charm mankind, and edify them too.      
Then youth’s fair blossoms crowd to view your play,      
And wait as on an oracle; while they,      
The tender souls, who love the melting mood,      
Suck from your work their melancholy food;           145   
Now this one, and now that, you deeply stir,      
Each sees the working of his heart laid bare.      
Their tears, their laughter, you command with ease,      
The lofty still they honour, the illusive love.      
Your finish’d gentlemen you ne’er can please;           150   
A growing mind alone will grateful prove.      
   
POET

Then give me back youth’s golden prime,      
When my own spirit too was growing,      
When from my heart th’ unbidden rhyme      
Gush’d forth, a fount for ever flowing;           155   
Then shadowy mist the world conceal’d,      
And every bud sweet promise made,      
Of wonders yet to be reveal’d,      
As through the vales, with blooms inlaid,      
Culling a thousand flowers I stray’d.           160   
Naught had I, yet a rich profusion!      
The thirst for truth, joy in each fond illusion.      
Give me unquell’d those impulses to prove;—      
Rapture so deep, its ecstasy was pain,      
The power of hate, the energy of love,           165   
Give me, oh give me back my youth again!      
   
MERRYMAN

Youth, my good friend, you certainly require      
When foes in battle round are pressing,      
When a fair maid, her heart on fire,      
Hangs on your neck with fond caressing,           170   
When from afar, the victor’s crown,      
To reach the hard-won goal inciteth;      
When from the whirling dance, to drown      
Your sense, the night’s carouse inviteth.      
But the familiar chords among           175   
Boldly to sweep, with graceful cunning,      
While to its goal, the verse along      
Its winding path is sweetly running;      
This task is yours, old gentlemen, to-day;      
Nor are you therefore less in reverence held;           180   
Age does not make us childish, as folk say,      
It finds us genuine children e’en in eld.      
   
MANAGER

A truce to words, mere empty sound,      
Let deeds at length appear, my friends!      
While idle compliments you round,           185   
You might achieve some useful ends.      
Why talk of the poetic vein?      
Who hesitates will never know it;      
If bards ye are, as ye maintain,      
Now let your inspiration show it.           190   
To you is known what we require,      
Strong drink to sip is our desire;      
Come, brew me such without delay!      
To-morrow sees undone, what happens not to-day;      
Still forward press, nor ever tire!           195   
The possible, with steadfast trust,      
Resolve should be the forelock grasp;      
Then she will ne’er let go her clasp,      
And labours on, because she must.      
   
On German boards, you’re well aware,           200   
The taste of each may have full sway;      
Therefore in bringing out your play,      
Nor scenes nor mechanism spare!      
Heaven’s lamps employ, the greatest and the least,      
Be lavish of the stellar lights,           205   
Water, and fire, and rocky heights,      
Spare not at all, nor birds, nor beast,      
Thus let creation’s ample sphere      
Forthwith in this our narrow booth appear,      
And with considerate speed, through fancy’s spell,           210   
Journey from heaven, thence through the world, to hell!      

Prologue in Heaven   
   
   
THE LORD.  THE HEAVENLY HOSTS.  Afterwards MEPHISTOPHELES.

The three Archangels come forward

RAPHAEL

The Sun, in ancient guise, competing      
With brother spheres in rival song,      
With thunder-march, his orb completing,      
Moves his predestin’d course along;      
His aspect to the powers supernal           5   
Gives strength, though fathom him none may;      
Transcending thought, the works eternal      
Are fair as on the primal day.      
   
GABRIEL

With speed, thought baffling, unabating,      
Earth’s splendour whirls in circling flight;           10   
Its Eden-brightness alternating      
With solemn, awe-inspiring night;      
Ocean’s broad waves in wild commotion,      
Against the rocks’ deep base are hurled;      
And with the spheres, both rock and ocean           15   
Eternally are swiftly whirled.      
   
MICHAEL

And tempests roar in emulation      
From sea to land, from land to sea,      
And raging form, without cessation,      
A chain of wondrous agency,           20   
Full in the thunder’s path careering,      
Flaring the swift destructions play;      
But, Lord, Thy servants are revering      
The mild procession of thy day.      
   
THE THREE

Thine aspect to the powers supernal           25   
Gives strength, though fathom thee none may;      
And all they works, sublime, eternal,      
Are fair as on the primal day.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Since thou, O Lord, approachest us once more,      
And how it fares with us, to ask art fain,           30   
Since thou hast kindly welcom’d me of yore,      
Thou see’st me also now among thy train.      
Excuse me, fine harangues I cannot make,      
Though all the circle look on me with scorn;      
My pathos soon thy laughter would awake,           35   
Hadst thou the laughing mood not long forsworn.      
Of suns and worlds I nothing have to say,      
I see alone mankind’s self-torturing pains.      
The little world-god still the self-same stamp retains,      
And is as wondrous now as on the primal day.           40   
Better he might have fared, poor wight,      
Hadst thou not given him a gleam of heavenly light;      
Reason, he names it, and doth so      
Use it, than brutes more brutish still to grow.      
With deference to your grace, he seems to me           45   
Like any long-legged grasshopper to be,      
Which ever flies, and flying springs,      
And in the grass its ancient ditty sings.      
Would he but always in the grass repose!      
In every heap of dung he thrusts his nose.           50   
   
THE LORD

Hast thou naught else to say? Is blame      
In coming here, as ever, thy sole aim?      
Does nothing on the earth to thee seem right?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

No, Lord! I find things there, as ever, in sad plight.      
Men, in their evil days, move my compassion;           55   
Such sorry things to plague is nothing worth.      
   
THE LORD

Know’st thou my servant, Faust?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                The doctor?      
   
THE LORD

                Right.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

He serves thee truly in a wondrous fashion.           60   
Poor fool! His food and drink are not of earth.      
An inward impulse hurries him afar,      
Himself half conscious of his frenzied mood;      
From heaven claimeth he the fairest star,      
And from the earth craves every highest good,           65   
And all that’s near, and all that’s far,      
Fails to allay the tumult in his blood.      
   
THE LORD

Though in perplexity he serves me now,      
I soon will lead him where more light appears;      
When buds the sapling, doth the gardener know           70   
That flowers and fruit will deck the coming years.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

What wilt thou wager? Him thou yet shall lose,      
If leave to me thou wilt but give,      
Gently to lead him as I choose!      
   
THE LORD

So long as he on earth doth live,           75   
So long ’tis not forbidden thee.      
Man still must err, while he doth strive.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

I thank you; for not willingly      
I traffic with the dead, and still aver      
That youth’s plump blooming cheek I very much prefer.           80   
I’m not at home to corpses; ’tis my way,      
Like cats with captive mice to toy and play.      
   
THE LORD

Enough! ’tis granted thee! Divert      
This mortal spirit from his primal source;      
Him, canst thou seize, thy power exert           85   
And lead him on thy downward course,      
Then stand abash’d, when thou perforce must own,      
A good man in his darkest aberration,      
Of the right path is conscious still.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

’Tis done! Full soon thou’lt see my exultation;           90   
As for my bet no fears I entertain.      
And if my end I finally should gain,      
Excuse my triumphing with all my soul.      
Dust he shall eat, ay, and with relish take,      
As did my cousin, the renowned snake.           95   
   
THE LORD

Here too thou’rt free to act without control;      
I ne’er have cherished hate for such as thee.      
Of all the spirits who deny,      
The scoffer is least wearisome to me.      
Ever too prone is man activity to shirk,           100   
In unconditioned rest he fain would live;      
Hence this companion purposely I give,      
Who stirs, excites, and must, as devil, work.      
But ye, the genuine sons of heaven, rejoice!      
In the full living beauty still rejoice!           105   
May that which works and lives, the ever-growing,      
In bonds of love enfold you, mercy-fraught,      
And Seeming’s changeful forms, around you flowing,      
Do ye arrest, in ever-during thought! (Heaven closes, the Archangels disperse.)      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES (ALONE)

The ancient one I like sometimes to see,           110   
And not to break with him am always civil;      
’Tis courteous in so great a lord as he,      
To speak so kindly even to the devil.

   
Dramatis Personæ   
   
   
Characters in the Prologue for the Theatre
THE MANAGER.  THE DRAMATIC POET.  MERRYMAN.

Characters in the Prologue in Heaven
THE LORD.
RAPHAEL, GABRIEL, MICHAEL, (The Heavenly Host).
MEPHISTOPHELES.

Characters in the Tragedy
FAUST.  MEPHISTOPHELES.  WAGNER, a Student.
MARGARET.  MARTHA, Margaret’s Neighbour.
VALENTINE, Margaret’s Brother. OLD PEASANT.  A STUDENT.
ELIZABETH, an Acquaintance of Margaret’s.
FROSCH, BRANDER, SIEBEL, ALTMAYER, (Guests in Auerbach’s Wine Cellar.)
Witches; old and young; Wizards, Will-o’-the-Wisp, Witch Pedlar, Protophantasmist, Servibilis, Monkeys, Spirits, Journeymen, Country-folk, Citizens, Beggar, Old Fortune-teller, Shepherd, Soldier, Students, &c.

In the Intermezzo
OBERON.  TITANIA.  ARIEL.  PUCK, &c. &c.

   
Faust. Part I   
   
1–499   
   
   
   
NIGHT


A high vaulted narrow Gothic chamber. FAUST, restless, seated at his desk.
FAUST

I HAVE, alas! Philosophy,      
Medicine, Jurisprudence too,      
And to my cost Theology,      
With ardent labour, studied through.      
And here I stand, with all my lore,           5   
Poor fool, no wiser than before.      
Magister, doctor styled, indeed,      
Already these ten years I lead,      
Up, down, across, and to and fro,      
My pupils by the nose,—and learn,           10   
That we in truth can nothing know!      
That in my heart like fire doth burn.      
’Tis true I’ve more cunning than all your dull tribe,      
Magister and doctor, priest, parson, and scribe;      
Scruple or doubt comes not to enthrall me,           15   
Neither can devil nor hell now appal me—      
Hence also my heart must all pleasure forego!      
I may not pretend, aught rightly to know,      
I may not pretend, through teaching, to find      
A means to improve or convert mankind.           20   
Then I have neither goods nor treasure,      
No worldly honour, rank, or pleasure;      
No dog in such fashion would longer live!      
Therefore myself to magic I give,      
In hope, through spirit-voice and might,           25   
Secrets now veiled to bring to light,      
That I no more, with aching brow,      
Need speak of what I nothing know;      
That I the force may recognise      
That binds creation’s inmost energies;           30   
Her vital powers, her embryo seeds survey,      
And fling the trade in empty words away.      
O full-orb’d moon, did but thy rays      
Their last upon mine anguish gaze!      
Beside this desk, at dead of night,           35   
Oft have I watched to hail thy light:      
Then, pensive friend! o’er book and scroll,      
With soothing power, thy radiance stole!      
In thy dear light, ah, might I climb,      
Freely, some mountain height sublime,           40   
Round mountain caves with spirits ride,      
In thy mild haze o’er meadows glide,      
And, purged from knowledge-fumes, renew      
My spirit, in thy healing dew!      
Woe’s me! still prison’d in the gloom           45   
Of this abhorr’d and musty room!      
Where heaven’s dear light itself doth pass,      
But dimly through the painted glass!      
Hemmed in by volumes thick with dust,      
Worm-eaten, hid ’neath rust and mould,           50   
And to the high vault’s topmost bound,      
A smoke-stained paper compassed round;      
With boxes round thee piled, and glass,      
And many a useless instrument,      
With old ancestral lumber blent—           55   
This is thy world! a world! alas!      
And dost thou ask why heaves thy heart,      
With tighten’d pressure in thy breast?      
Why the dull ache will not depart,      
By which thy life-pulse is oppress’d?           60   
Instead of nature’s living sphere,      
Created for mankind of old,      
Brute skeletons surround thee here,      
And dead men’s bones in smoke and mould.      
   
Up! Forth into the distant land!           65   
Is not this book of mystery      
By Nostradamus’ proper hand,      
An all-sufficient guide? Thou’lt see      
The courses of the stars unroll’d;      
When nature doth her thoughts unfold           70   
To thee, thy soul shall rise, and seek      
Communion high with her to hold,      
As spirit doth with spirit speak!      
Vain by dull poring to divine      
The meaning of each hallow’d sign.           75   
Spirits! I feel you hov’ring near;      
Make answer, if my voice ye hear!  (He opens the book and perceives the sign of the Macrocosmos.)      
   
Ah! at this spectacle through every sense,      
What sudden ecstasy of joy is flowing!      
I feel new rapture, hallow’d and intense,           80   
Through every nerve and vein with ardour glowing.      
Was it a god who character’d this scroll,      
The tumult in my spirit healing,      
O’er my sad heart with rapture stealing,      
And by a mystic impulse, to my soul,           85   
The powers of nature all around revealing.      
Am I a God? What light intense!      
In these pure symbols do I see,      
Nature exert her vital energy.      
Now of the wise man’s words I learn the sense;           90   
   
        “Unlock’d the spirit-world doth lie,      
        Thy sense is shut, thy heart is dead!      
        Up scholar, lave, with courage high,      
        Thine earthly breast in the morning-red!”  (He contemplates the sign.)      
   
How all things live and work, and ever blending,           95   
Weave one vast whole from Being’s ample range!      
How powers celestial, rising and descending,      
Their golden buckets ceaseless interchange!      
Their flight on rapture-breathing pinions winging,      
From heaven to earth their genial influence bringing,           100   
Through the wild sphere their chimes melodious ringing!      
   
A wondrous show! but ah! a show alone!      
Where shall I grasp thee, infinite nature, where?      
Ye breasts, ye fountains of all life, whereon      
Hang heaven and earth, from which the withered heart           105   
For solace yearns, ye still impart      
Your sweet and fostering tides—where are ye—where?      
Ye gush, and must I languish in despair?  (He turns over the leaves of the book impatiently, and perceives the sigh of the Earth-spirit.)      
   
How all unlike the influence of this sign!      
Earth-spirit, thou to me art nigher,           110   
E’en now my strength is rising higher,      
E’en now I glow as with new wine;      
Courage I feel, abroad the world to dare,      
The woe of earth, the bliss of earth to bear,      
With storms to wrestle, brave the lightning’s glare,           115   
And mid the crashing shipwreck not despair.      
   
Clouds gather over me—      
The moon conceals her light—      
The lamp is quench’d—      
Vapours are rising—Quiv’ring round my head           120   
Flash the red beams—Down from the vaulted roof      
A shuddering horror floats,      
And seizes me!      
I feel it, spirit, prayer-compell’d, ’tis thou      
Art hovering near!           125   
Unveil thyself!      
Ha! How my heart is riven now!      
Each sense, with eager palpitation,      
Is strain’d to catch some new sensation!      
I feel my heart surrender’d unto thee!           130   
Thou must! Thou must! Though life should be the fee!  (He seizes the book, and pronounces mysteriously the sign of the spirit. A ruddy flame flashes up; the spirit appears in the flame.)      
   
SPIRIT

Who calls me?      
   
FAUST  (turning aside)

              Dreadful shape!      
   
SPIRIT

                With might,      
Thou hast compelled me to appear,           135   
Long hast been sucking at my sphere,      
And now—      
   
FAUST

        Woe’s me! I cannot bear thy sight!      
   
SPIRIT

To see me thou dost breathe thine invocation,      
My voice to hear, to gaze upon my brow;           140   
Me doth thy strong entreaty bow—      
Lo! I am here!—What cowering agitation      
Grasps thee, the demigod! Where’s now the soul’s deep cry?      
Where is the breast, which in its depths a world conceiv’d      
And bore and cherished? which, with ecstacy,           145   
To rank itself with us, the spirits, heaved?      
Where art thou, Faust? whose voice I heard resound,      
Who towards me press’d with energy profound?      
Art thou he? Thou,—who by my breath art blighted,      
Who, in his spirit’s depths affrighted,           150   
Trembles, a crush’d and writhing worm!      
   
FAUST

Shall I yield, thing of flame, to thee?      
Faust, and thine equal, I am he!      
   
SPIRIT

In the currents of life, in action’s storm,      
        I float and I wave           155   
        With billowy motion!      
        Birth and the grave      
        A limitless ocean,      
        A constant weaving      
        With change still rife,           160   
        A restless heaving,      
        A glowing life—      
Thus time’s whirring loom unceasing I ply,      
And weave the life-garment of deity.      
   
FAUST

Thou, restless spirit, dost from end to end           165   
O’ersweep the world; how near I feel to thee!      
   
SPIRIT

Thou’rt like the spirit, thou dost comprehend,      
Not me!  (Vanishes.)      
   
FAUST

Not thee?      
Whom then?           170   
I, Gods own image!      
And not rank with thee!  (A knock.)      
Oh death! I know it—’tis my famulus—      
My fairest fortune now escapes!      
That all these visionary shapes           175   
A soulless groveller should banish thus! (WAGNER in his dressing gown and night-cap, a lamp in his hand. FAUST turns round reluctantly.)      
   
WAGNER

Pardon! I heard you here declaim;      
A Grecian tragedy you doubtless read?      
Improvement in this art is now my aim,      
For now-a-days it much avails. Indeed           180   
An actor, oft I’ve heard it said, as teacher,      
May give instruction to a preacher.      
   
FAUST

Ay, if your priest should be an actor too,      
As not improbably may come to pass.      
   
WAGNER

When in his study pent the whole year through,           185   
Man views the world, as through an optic glass,      
On a chance holiday, and scarcely then,      
How by persuasion can he govern men?      
   
FAUST

If feeling prompt not, if it doth not flow      
Fresh from the spirit’s depths, with strong control           190   
Swaying to rapture every listener’s soul,      
Idle your toil; the chase you may forego!      
Brood o’er your task! Together glue,      
Cook from another’s feast your own ragout,      
Still prosecute your paltry game,           195   
And fan your ash-heaps into flame!      
Thus children’s wonder you’ll excite,      
And apes’, if such your appetite;      
But that which issues from the heart alone,      
Will bend the hearts of others to your own.           200   
   
WAGNER

The speaker in delivery will find      
Success alone; I still am far behind.      
   
FAUST

A worthy object still pursue!      
Be not a hollow tinkling fool!      
Sound understanding, judgment true,           205   
Find utterance without art or rule;      
And when in earnest you are moved to speak,      
Then is it needful cunning words to seek?      
Your fine harangues, so polish’d in their kind,      
Wherein the shreds of human thought ye twist,           210   
Are unrefreshing as the empty wind,      
Whistling through wither’d leaves and autumn mist!      
   
WAGNER

Oh God! How long is art,      
Our life how short! With earnest zeal      
Still as I ply the critic’s task, I feel           215   
A strange oppression both of head and heart.      
The very means how hardly are they won,      
By which we to the fountains rise!      
And haply, ere one half the course is run,      
Check’d in his progress, the poor devil dies.           220   
   
FAUST

Parchment, is that the sacred fount whence roll      
Waters, he thirsteth not who once hath quaffed?      
Oh, if it gush not from thine inmost soul,      
Thou has not won the life-restoring draught.      
   
WAGNER

Your pardon! ’tis delightful to transport           225   
Oneself into the spirit of the past,      
To see in times before us how a wise man thought,      
And what a glorious height we have achieved at last.      
   
FAUST

Ay truly! even to the loftiest star!      
To us, my friend, the ages that are pass’d           230   
A book with seven seals, close-fasten’d, are;      
And what the spirit of the times men call,      
Is merely their own spirit after all,      
Wherein, distorted oft, the times are glass’d.      
Then truly, ’tis a sight to grieve the soul!           235   
At the first glance we fly it in dismay;      
A very lumber-room, a rubbish-hole;      
At best a sort of mock-heroic play,      
With saws pragmatical, and maxims sage,      
To suit the puppets and their mimic stage.           240   
   
WAGNER

But then the world and man, his heart and brain!      
Touching these things all men would something know.      
   
FAUST

Ay! what ’mong men as knowledge doth obtain!      
Who on the child its true name dares bestow?      
The few who somewhat of these things have known,           245   
Who their full hearts unguardedly reveal’d,      
Nor thoughts, nor feelings, from the mob conceal’d,      
Have died on crosses, or in flames been thrown.—      
Excuse me, friend, far now the night is spent,      
For this time we must say adieu.           250   
   
WAGNER

Still to watch on I had been well content,      
Thus to converse so learnedly with you.      
But as to-morrow will be Easter-day,      
Some further questions grant, I pray;      
With diligence to study still I fondly cling;           255   
Already I know much, but would know everything.  (Exit.)      
   
FAUST  (alone)

How him alone all hope abandons never,      
To empty trash who clings, with zeal untired,      
With greed for treasure gropes, and, joy-inspir’d,      
Exults if earth-worms second his endeavour.           260   
   
And dare a voice of merely human birth,      
E’en here, where shapes immortal throng’d intrude?      
Yet ah! thou poorest of the sons of earth,      
For once, I e’en to thee feel gratitude.      
Despair the power of sense did well-nigh blast,           265   
And thou didst save me ere I sank dismay’d,      
So giant-like the vision seem’d, so vast,      
I felt myself shrink dwarf’d as I survey’d!      
   
I, God’s own image, from this toil of clay      
Already freed, with eager joy who hail’d           270   
The mirror of eternal truth unveil’d,      
Mid light effulgent and celestial day:—      
I, more than cherub, whose unfetter’d soul      
With penetrative glance aspir’d to flow      
Through nature’s veins, and, still creating, know           275   
The life of gods,—how am I punish’d now!      
One thunder-word hath hurl’d me from the goal!      
   
    Spirit! I dare not lift me to thy sphere.      
    What though my power compell’d thee to appear,      
    My art was powerless to detain thee here.           280   
    In that great moment, rapture-fraught,      
    I felt myself so small, so great;      
    Fiercely didst thrust me from the realm of thought      
    Back on humanity’s uncertain fate!      
    Who’ll teach me now? What ought I to forego?           285   
    Ought I that impulse to obey?      
    Alas! our every deed, as well as every woe,      
    Impedes the tenor of life’s onward way!      
   
E’en to the noblest by the soul conceiv’d,      
Some feelings cling of baser quality;           290   
And when the goods of this world are achiev’d,      
Each nobler aim is termed a cheat, a lie.      
Our aspirations, our soul’s genuine life,      
Grow torpid in the din of earthly strife.      
Though youthful phantasy, while hope inspires,           295   
Stretch o’er the infinite her wing sublime,      
A narrow compass limits her desires,      
When wreck’d our fortunes in the gulf of time.      
In the deep heart of man care builds her nest,      
O’er secret woes she broodeth there,           300   
Sleepless she rocks herself and scareth joy and rest;      
Still is she wont some new disguise to wear,      
She may as house and court, as wife and child appear,      
As dagger, poison, fire and flood;      
Imagined evils chill thy blood,           305   
   
    And what thou ne’er shall lose, o’er that dost shed the tear.      
    I am not like the gods! Feel it I must;      
    I’m like the earth-worm, writhing in the dust,      
    Which, as on dust it feeds, its native fare,      
    Crushed ’neath the passer’s tread, lies buried there.           310   
   
Is it not dust, wherewith this lofty wall,      
With hundred shelves, confines me round;      
Rubbish, in thousand shapes, may I not call      
What in this moth-world doth my being bound?      
Here, what doth fail me, shall I find?           315   
Read in a thousand tomes that, everywhere,      
Self-torture is the lot of human-kind,      
With but one mortal happy, here and there?      
Thou hollow skull, that grin, what should it say,      
But that thy brain, like mine, of old perplexed,           320   
Still yearning for the truth, hath sought the light of day.      
And in the twilight wandered, sorely vexed?      
Ye instruments, forsooth, ye mock at me,—      
With wheel, and cog, and ring, and cylinder;      
To nature’s portals ye should be the key;           325   
Cunning your wards, and yet the bolts ye fail to stir.      
Inscrutable in broadest light,      
To be unveil’d by force she doth refuse,      
What she reveals not to thy mental sight,      
Thou wilt not wrest me from her with levers and with screws.           330   
Old useless furnitures, yet stand ye here,      
Because my sire ye served, now dead and gone.      
Old scroll, the smoke of years dost wear,      
So long as o’er this desk the sorry lamp hath shone.      
Better my little means hath squandered quite away,           335   
Than burden’d by that little here to sweat and groan!      
Wouldst thou possess thy heritage, essay,      
By use to render it thine own!      
What we employ not, but impedes our way,      
That which the hour creates, that can it use alone!           340   
But wherefore to yon spot is riveted my gaze?      
Is yonder flasket there a magnet to my sight?      
Whence this mild radiance that around me plays,      
As when, ’mid forest gloom, reigneth the moon’s soft light?      
   
Hail precious phial! Thee, with reverent awe,           345   
Down from thine old receptacle I draw!      
Science in thee I hail and human art.      
Essence of deadliest powers, refin’d and sure,      
Of soothing anodynes abstraction pure,      
Now in thy master’s need thy grace impart!           350   
I gaze on thee, my pain is lull’d to rest;      
I grasp thee, calm’d the tumult in my breast;      
The flood-tide of my spirit ebbs away;      
Onward I’m summon’d o’er a boundless main,      
Calm at my feet expands the glassy plain,           355   
To shores unknown allures a brighter day.      
   
Lo, where a car of fire, on airy pinion,      
Comes floating towards me! I’m prepar’d to fly      
By a new track through ether’s wide dominion,      
To distant spheres of pure activity.           360   
This life intense, this godlike ecstasy—      
Worm that thou art such rapture canst thou earn?      
Only resolve with courage stern and high,      
Thy visage from the radiant sun to turn!      
Dare with determin’d will to burst the portals           365   
Past which in terror others fain would steal!      
Now is the time, through deeds, to show that mortals      
The calm sublimity of gods can feel;      
To shudder not at yonder dark abyss,      
Where phantasy creates her own self-torturing brood,           370   
Right onward to the yawning gulf to press,      
Around whose narrow jaws rolleth hell’s fiery flood;      
With glad resolve to take the fatal leap,      
Though danger threaten thee, to sink in endless sleep!      
Pure crystal goblet! forth I draw thee now,           375   
From out thine antiquated case, where thou      
Forgotten hast reposed for many a year!      
Oft at my father’s revels thou didst shine,      
To glad the earnest guests was thine,      
As each to other passed the generous cheer.           380   
The gorgeous brede of figures, quaintly wrought,      
Which he who quaff’d must first in rhyme expound,      
Then drain the goblet at one draught profound,      
Hath nights of boyhood to fond memory brought.      
I to my neighbour shall not reach thee now,           385   
Nor on thy rich device shall I my cunning show.      
Here is a juice, makes drunk without delay;      
Its dark brown flood thy crystal round doth fill;      
Let this last draught, the product of my skill,      
My own free choice, be quaff’d with resolute will,           390   
A solemn festive greeting, to the coming day!  (He places the goblet to his mouth.)  (The ringing of bells, and choral voices.)      
   
Chorus of ANGELS

    Christ is arisen!      
    Mortal, all hail to thee,      
    Thou whom mortality,      
    Earth’s sad reality,           395   
    Held as in prison.      
   
FAUST

What hum melodious, what clear silvery chime      
Thus draws the goblet from my lips away?      
Ye deep-ton’d bells, do ye with voice sublime,      
Announce the solemn dawn of Easter-day?           400   
Sweet choir! are ye the hymn of comfort singing,      
Which one around the darkness of the grave,      
From seraph-voices, in glad triumph ringing,      
Of a new covenant assurance gave?      
   
Chorus of WOMEN

    We, his true-hearted,           405   
    With spices and myrrh,      
    Embalmed the departed,      
    And swathed him with care;      
    Here we conveyed Him,      
    Our Master, so dear;           410   
    Alas! Where we laid Him,      
    The Christ is not here,      
   
Chorus of ANGELS

    Christ is arisen!      
    Blessed the loving one,      
    Who from earth’s trial throes,           415   
    Healing and strengthening woes,      
    Soars as from prison.      
   
FAUST

Wherefore, ye tones celestial, sweet and strong,      
Come ye a dweller in the dust to seek?      
Ring out your chimes believing crowds among,           420   
The message well I hear, my faith alone is weak;      
From faith her darling, miracle, hath sprung.      
Aloft to yonder spheres I dare not soar,      
Whence sound the tidings of great joy;      
And yet, with this sweet strain familiar when a boy,           425   
Back it recalleth me to life once more.      
Then would celestial love, with holy kiss,      
Come o’er me in the Sabbath’s stilly hour,      
While, fraught with solemn meaning and mysterious power,      
Chim’d the deep-sounding bell, and prayer was bliss;           430   
A yearning impulse, undefin’d yet dear,      
Drove me to wander on through wood and field;      
With heaving breast and many a burning tear,      
I felt with holy joy a world reveal’d.      
Gay sports and festive hours proclaim’d with joyous pealing,           435   
This Easter hymn in days of old;      
And fond remembrance now doth me, with childlike feeling,      
Back from the last, the solemn step, withhold.      
O still sound on, thou sweet celestial strain!      
The tear-drop flows,-Earth, I am thine again!           440   
   
Chorus of DISCIPLES

    He whom we mourned as dead,      
    Living and glorious,      
    From the dark grave hath fled,      
    O’er death victorious;      
    Almost creative bliss           445   
    Waits on his growing powers;      
    Ah! Him on earth we miss;      
    Sorrow and grief are ours.      
    Yearning he left his own,      
    Mid sore annoy;           450   
    Ah! we must needs bemoan.      
    Master, thy joy!      
   
Chorus of ANGELS

    Christ is arisen,      
    Redeem’d from decay.      
    The bonds which imprison           455   
    Your souls, rend away!      
    Praising the Lord with zeal,      
    By deeds that love reveal,      
    Like brethren true and leal      
    Sharing the daily meal,           460   
    To all that sorrow feel      
    Whisp’ring of heaven’s weal,      
    Still is the master near,      
    Still is he here!      
   
BEFORE THE GATE           465   
   
Promenaders of all sorts pass out.      
   
ARTISANS

Why choose ye that direction, pray?      
   
OTHERS

To the hunting-lodge we’re on our way.      
   
THE FIRST

We towards the mill are strolling on.      
   
A MECHANIC

A walk to Wasserhof were best.           470   
   
A SECOND

The road is not a pleasant one.      
   
THE OTHERS

What will you do?      
   
A THIRD

                I’ll join the rest.      
   
A FOURTH

Let’s up to Burghof, there you’ll find good cheer,      
The prettiest maidens and the best of beer,           475   
And brawls of a prime sort.      
   
A FIFTH

                You scapegrace! How;      
Your skin still itching for a row?      
Thither I will not go, I loathe the place.      
   
SERVANT GIRL

No, no! I to the town my steps retrace.           480   
   
ANOTHER

Near yonder poplars he is sure to be.      
   
THE FIRST

And if he is, what matters it to me!      
With you he’ll walk, he’ll dance with none but you,      
And with your pleasures what have I to do?      
   
THE SECOND

To-day he will not be alone, he said           485   
His friend would be with him, the curly-head.      
   
STUDENT

Why how those buxom girls step on!      
Come, brother, we will follow them anon.      
Strong beer, a damsel smartly dress’d,      
Stinging tobacco,—these I love the best.           490   
   
BURGHER’S DAUGHTER

Look at those handsome fellows there!      
’Tis really shameful, I declare,      
The very best society they shun,      
After those servant girls forsooth, to run.      
   
SECOND STUDENT  (to the first)

Not quite so fast! for in our rear,           495   
Two girls, well-dress’d, are drawing near;      
Not far from us the one doth dwell,      
And sooth to say, I like her well.      
They walk demurely, yet you’ll see,

Faust. Part I   
   
500–999   
   
   
That they will let us join them presently.           500   
   
THE FIRST

Not I! restraints of all kinds I detest.      
Quick! let us catch the wild-game ere it flies,      
The hand on Saturday the mop that plies,      
Will on the Sunday fondle you the best.      
   
BURGHER

No, this new Burgomaster, I like him not, God knows,           505   
Now, he’s in office, daily more arrogant he grows;      
And for the town, what doth he do for it?      
Are not things worse from day to day?      
To more restraints we must submit;      
And taxes more than ever pay.           510   
   
BEGGAR  (sings)

    Kind gentleman and ladies fair,      
    So rosy-cheek’d and trimly dress’d,      
    Be pleas’d to listen to my prayer,      
    Relieve and pity the distress’d.      
    Let me not vainly sing my lay!           515   
    His heart’s most glad whose hand is free.      
    Now when all men keep holiday,      
    Should be a harvest-day to me.      
   
ANOTHER BURGHER

On holidays and Sundays naught know I more inviting      
Than chatting about war and war’s alarms,           520   
When folk in Turkey, up in arms,      
Far off, are ’gainst each other fighting.      
We at the window stand, our glasses drain,      
And watch adown the stream the painted vessels gliding      
Then joyful we at eve come home again,           525   
And peaceful times we bless, peace long-abiding.      
   
THIRD BURGHER

Ay, neighbour! So let matters stand for me!      
There they may scatter one another’s brains,      
And wild confusion round them see—      
So here at home in quiet all remains!           530   
   
OLD WOMAN  (to the BURGHERS’ DAUGHTERS)      
   
Heyday! How smart! The fresh young blood!      
Who would not fall in love with you?      
Not quite so proud! ’Tis well and good!      
And what you wish, that I could help you to.           535   
   
BURGHER’S DAUGHTER

Come, Agatha! I care not to be seen      
Walking in public with these witches. True,      
My future lover, last St. Andrew’s E’en,      
In flesh and blood she brought before my view.      
   
ANOTHER

And mine she show’d me also in the glass,           540   
A soldier’s figure, with companions bold;      
I look around, I seek him as I pass,      
In vain, his form I nowhere can behold.      
   
SOLDIERS

    Fortress with turrets      
    And walls high in air,           545   
    Damsel disdainful,      
    Haughty and fair,      
    There be my prey!      
    Bold is the venture,      
    Costly the pay!           550   
   
    Hark how the trumpet      
    Thither doth call us,      
    Where either pleasure      
    Or death may befall us.      
    Hail to the tumult!           555   
    Life’s in the field!      
    Damsel and fortress      
    To us must yield.      
    Bold is the venture,      
    Costly the pay!           560   
    Gaily the soldier      
    Marches away.      
   
FAUST AND WAGNER
   
FAUST

Loosed from their fetters are streams and rills      
Through the gracious spring-tide’s all-quickening glow;           565   
Hope’s budding joy in the vale doth blow;      
Old Winter back to the savage hills      
Withdraweth his force, decrepid now.      
Thence only impotent icy grains      
Scatters he as he wings his flight,           570   
Striping with sleet the verdant plains;      
But the sun endureth no trace of white;      
Everywhere growth and movement are rife,      
All things investing with hues of life:      
Though flowers are lacking, varied of dye,           575   
Their colours the motley throng supply.      
Turn thee around, and from this height,      
Back to the town direct thy sight.      
Forth from the hollow, gloomy gate,      
Stream forth the masses, in bright array.           580   
Gladly seek they the sun to-day;      
The Lord’s Resurrection they celebrate:      
For they themselves have risen, with joy,      
From tenement sordid, from cheerless room,      
From bonds of toil, from care and annoy,           585   
From gable and roof’s o’er-hanging gloom,      
From crowded alley and narrow street,      
And from the churches’ awe-breathing night,      
All now have come forth into the light.      
Look, only look, on nimble feet,           590   
Through garden and field how spread the throng,      
How o’er the river’s ample sheet,      
Many a gay wherry glides along;      
And see, deep sinking in the tide,      
Pushes the last boat now away.           595   
E’en from yon far hill’s path-worn side,      
Flash the bright hues of garments gay.      
Hark! Sounds of village mirth arise;      
This is the people’s paradise.      
Both great and small send up a cheer;           600   
Here am I man, I feel it here.      
   
WAGNER

Sir Doctor, in a walk with you      
There’s honour and instruction too;      
Yet here alone I care not to resort,      
Because I coarseness hate of every sort.           605   
This fiddling, shouting, skittling, I detest;      
I hate the tumult of the vulgar throng;      
They roar as by the evil one possess’d,      
And call it pleasure, call it song.      
   
PEASANTS(under the linden-tree)
        610   
   
Dance and song
   
  The shepherd for the dance was dress’d,      
  With ribbon, wreath, and coloured vest,      
  A gallant show displaying.      
  And round about the linden-tree,           615   
  They footed it right merrily.      
      Juchhe! Juchhe!      
      Juchheisa! Heisa! He!      
  So fiddle-bow was braying      
   
  Our swain amidst the circle press’d,           620   
  He push’d a maiden trimly dress’d,      
  And jogg’d her with his elbow;      
  The buxom damsel turn’d her head,      
  “Now that’s a stupid trick!” she said      
      Juchhe! Juchhe!           625   
      Juchheisa! Heisa! He!      
  Don’t be so rude, good fellow!      
   
  Swift in the circle they advanced,      
  They danced to right, to left they danced,      
  And all the skirts were swinging.           630   
  And they grew red, and they grew warm,      
  Panting, they rested arm in arm,      
      Juchhe! Juchhe!      
      Juchheisa! Heisa! He!      
  To hip their elbow bringing.           635   
   
  Don’t make so free! How many a maid      
  Has been betroth’d and then betray’d;      
  And has repented after!      
  Yet still he flatter’d her aside,      
  And from the linden, far and wide,           640   
      Juchhe! Juchhe!      
      Juchheisa! Heisa! He!      
  Rang fiddle-bow and laughter.      
   
OLD PEASANT

Doctor, ’tis really kind of you,      
To condescend to come this way,           645   
A highly learned man like you,      
To join our mirthful throng to-day.      
Our fairest cup I offer you,      
which we with sparkling drink have crown’d,      
And pledging you, I pray aloud,           650   
That every drop within its round,      
While it your present thirst allays,      
May swell the number of your days.      
   
FAUST

I take the cup you kindly reach,      
Thanks and prosperity to each!  (The crowd gather round in a circle.)           655   
   
OLD PEASANT

Ay, truly! ’tis well done, that you      
Our festive meeting thus attend;      
You, who in evil days of yore,      
So often show’d yourself our friend!      
Full many a one stands living here,           660   
Who from the fever’s deadly blast,      
Your father rescu’d, when his skill      
The fatal sickness stay’d at last.      
A young man then, each house you sought,      
Where reign’d the mortal pestilence.           665   
Corpse after corpse was carried forth,      
But still unscath’d you issued thence.      
Sore then your trials and severe;      
The Helper yonder aids the helper here.      
   
ALL

Heaven bless the trusty friend, and long           670   
To help the poor his life prolong!      
   
FAUST

To Him above in homage bend,      
Who prompts the helper and Who help doth send.  (He proceeds with WAGNER.)      
   
WAGNER

What feelings, great man, must thy breast inspire,      
At homage paid thee by this crowd! Thrice blest           675   
Who from the gifts by him possessed      
Such benefit can draw! The sire      
Thee to his boy with reverence shows;      
They press around, inquire, advance,      
Hush’d is the fiddle, check’d the dance.           680   
Where thou dost pass they stand in rows,      
And each aloft his bonnet throws,      
But little fails and they to thee,      
As though the Host came by, would bend the knee.      
   
FAUST

A few steps further, up to yonder stone!           685   
Here rest we from our walk. In times long past,      
Absorb’d in thought, here oft I sat alone,      
And disciplin’d myself with prayer and fast.      
Then rich in hope, with faith sincere,      
With sighs, and hands in anguish press’d,           690   
The end of that sore plague, with many a tear,      
From heaven’s dread Lord, I sought to wrest.      
The crowd’s applause assumes a scornful tone.      
Oh, could’st thou in my inner being read,      
How little either sire or son,           695   
Of such renown deserves the meed!      
My sire, of good repute, and sombre mood,      
O’er nature’s powers and every mystic zone,      
With honest zeal, but methods of his own,      
With toil fantastic loved to brood;           700   
His time in dark alchemic cell,      
With brother adepts he would spend,      
And there antagonists compel,      
Through numberless receipts to blend.      
A ruddy lion there, a suitor bold,           705   
In tepid bath was with the lily wed.      
Thence both, while open flames around them roll’d,      
Were tortur’d to another bridal bed.      
Was then the youthful queen descried      
With varied colours in the flask;—           710   
This was our medicine; the patients died,      
“Who were restored?” none cared to ask.      
With our infernal mixture thus, ere long,      
These hills and peaceful vales among,      
We rag’d more fiercely than the pest;           715   
Myself the deadly poison did to thousands give;      
They pined away, I yet must live,      
To hear the reckless murderers blest.      
   
WAGNER

Why let this thought your soul o’ercast?      
Can man do more than with nice skill,           720   
With firm and conscientious will,      
Practise the art transmitted from the past?      
If thou thy sire dost honour in thy youth,      
His lore thou gladly wilt receive;      
In manhood, dost thou spread the bounds of truth,           725   
Then may thy son a higher goal achieve.      
   
FAUST

How blest, in whom the fond desire      
From error’s sea to rise, hope still renews!      
What a man knows not, that he doth require,      
And what he knoweth, that he cannot use.           730   
But let not moody thoughts their shadow throw      
O’er the calm beauty of this hour serene!      
In the rich sunset see how brightly glow      
Yon cottage homes, girt round with verdant green!      
Slow sinks the orb, the day in now no more;           735   
Yonder he hastens to diffuse new life.      
Oh for a pinion from the earth to soar,      
And after, ever after him to strive!      
Then should I see the world below,      
Bathed in the deathless evening-beams,           740   
The vales reposing, every height a-glow,      
The silver brooklets meeting golden streams.      
The savage mountain, with its cavern’d side,      
Bars not my godlike progress. Lo, the ocean,      
Its warm bays heaving with a tranquil motion,           745   
To my rapt vision opes its ample tide!      
But now at length the god appears to sink;      
A new-born impulse wings my flight,      
Onward I press, his quenchless light to drink,      
The day before me, and behind the night,           750   
The pathless waves beneath, and over me the skies.      
Fair dream, it vanish’d with the parting day!      
Alas! that when on spirit-wing we rise,      
No wing material lifts our mortal clay.      
But ’tis our inborn impulse, deep and strong,           755   
Upwards and onwards still to urge our flight,      
When far above us pours its thrilling song      
The sky-lark, lost in azure light,      
When on extended wing amain      
O’er pine-crown’d height the eagle soars,           760   
And over moor and lake, the crane      
Still striveth towards its native shores.      
   
WAGNER

To strange conceits oft I myself must own,      
But impulse such as this I ne’er have known:      
Nor woods, nor fields, can long our thoughts engage,           765   
Their wings I envy not the feather’d kind;      
Far otherwise the pleasures of the mind,      
Bear us from book to book, from page to page!      
Then winter nights grow cheerful; keen delight      
Warms every limb; and ah! when we unroll           770   
Some old and precious parchment, at the sight      
All heaven itself descends upon the soul.      
   
FAUST

Thy heart by one sole impulse is possess’d;      
Unconscious of the other still remain!      
Two souls, alas! are lodg’d within my breast,           775   
Which struggle there for undivided reign:      
One to the world, with obstinate desire,      
And closely-cleaving organs, still adheres;      
Above the mist, the other doth aspire,      
With sacred vehemence, to purer spheres.           780   
Oh, are there spirits in the air,      
Who float ’twixt heaven and earth dominion wielding,      
Stoop hither from your golden atmosphere,      
Lead me to scenes, new life and fuller yielding!      
A magic mantle did I but possess,           785   
Abroad to waft me as on viewless wings,      
I’d prize it far beyond the costliest dress,      
Nor would I change it for the robe of kings.      
   
WAGNER

Call not the spirits who on mischief wait!      
Their troop familiar, streaming through the air,           790   
From every quarter threaten man’s estate,      
And danger in a thousand forms prepare!      
They drive impetuous from the frozen north,      
With fangs sharp-piercing, and keen arrowy tongues;      
From the ungenial east they issue forth,           795   
And prey, with parching breath, upon thy lungs;      
If, waft’d on the desert’s flaming wing,      
They from the south heap fire upon the brain,      
Refreshment from the west at first they bring,      
Anon to drown thyself and field and plain.           800   
In wait for mischief, they are prompt to hear;      
With guileful purpose our behests obey;      
Like ministers of grace they oft appear,      
And lisp like angels, to betray.      
But let us hence! Grey eve doth all things blend,           805   
The air grows chill, the mists descend!      
’Tis in the evening first our home we prize—      
Why stand you thus, and gaze with wondering eyes?      
What in the gloom thus moves you?      
   
FAUST

                Yon black hound           810   
See’st thou, through corn and stubble scampering round?      
   
WAGNER

I’ve mark’d him long, naught strange in him I see!      
   
FAUST

Note him! What takest thou the brute to be?      
   
WAGNER

But for a poodle, whom his instinct serves      
His master’s track to find once more.           815   
   
FAUST

Dost mark how round us, with wide spiral curves,      
He wheels, each circle closer than before?      
And, if I err not, he appears to me      
A line of fire upon his track to leave.      
   
WAGNER

Naught but a poodle black of hue I see;           820   
’Tis some illusion doth your sight deceive.      
   
FAUST

Methinks a magic coil our feet around,      
He for a future snare doth lightly spread.      
   
WAGNER

Around us as in doubt I see him shyly bound,      
Since he two strangers seeth in his master’s stead.           825   
   
FAUST

The circle narrows, he’s already near!      
   
WAGNER

A dog dost see, no spectre have we here;      
He growls, doubts, lays him on his belly, too,      
And wags his tail—as dogs are wont to do.      
   
FAUST

Come hither, Sirrah! join our company!           830   
   
WAGNER

A very poodle, he appears to be!      
Thou standest still, for thee he’ll wait;      
Thou speak’st to him, he fawns upon thee straight;      
Aught thou mayst lose, again he’ll bring,      
And for thy stick will into water spring.           835   
   
FAUST

Thou’rt right indeed; no traces now I see      
Whatever of a spirit’s agency.      
’Tis training—nothing more.      
   
WAGNER

                A dog well taught      
E’en by the wisest of us may be sought.           840   
Ay, to your favour he’s entitled too,      
Apt scholar of the students, ’tis his due!  (They enter the gate of the town.)      
   
STUDY
   
FAUST  (entering with the poodle)

    Now field and meadow I’ve forsaken;      
    O’er them deep night her veil doth draw;           845   
    In us the better soul doth waken,      
    With feelings of foreboding awe,      
    All lawless promptings, deeds unholy,      
    Now slumber, and all wild desires;      
    The love of man doth sway us wholly,           850   
    And love to God the soul inspires.      
   
Peace, poodle, peace! Scamper not thus; obey me!      
Why at the threshold snuffest thou so?      
Behind the stove now quietly lay thee,      
My softest cushion to thee I’ll throw.           855   
As thou, without, didst please and amuse me      
Running and frisking about on the hill,      
So tendance now I will not refuse thee;      
A welcome guest, if thou’lt be still.      
   
    Ah! when the friendly taper gloweth,           860   
    Once more within our narrow cell,      
    Then in the heart itself that knoweth,      
    A light the darkness doth dispel.      
    Reason her voice resumes; returneth      
    Hope’s gracious bloom, with promise rife;           865   
    For streams of life the spirit yearneth,      
    Ah! for the very fount of life.      
   
Poodle, snarl not! with the tone that arises,      
Hallow’d and peaceful, my soul within,      
Accords not thy growl, thy bestial din.           870   
We find it not strange, that man despises      
What he conceives not;      
That he the good and fair misprizes—      
Finding them often beyond his ken;      
Will the dog snarl at them like men?           875   
   
But ah! Despite my will, it stands confessed,      
Contentment welleth up no longer in my breast.      
Yet wherefore must the stream, alas, so soon be dry,      
That we once more athirst should lie?      
Full oft this sad experience hath been mine;           880   
Nathless the want admits of compensation;      
For things above the earth we learn to pine,      
Our spirits yearn for revelation,      
Which nowhere burns with purer beauty blent,      
Than here in the New Testament.           885   
To ope the ancient text an impulse strong      
Impels me, and its sacred lore,      
With honest purpose to explore,      
And render into my love German tongue.  (He opens a volume, and applies himself to it.)      
   
’Tis writ, “In the beginning was the Word!”           890   
I pause, perplex’d! Who now will help afford?      
I cannot the mere Word so highly prize;      
I must translate it otherwise,      
If by the spirit guided as I read.      
“In the beginning was the Sense!” Take heed,           895   
The import of this primal sentence weigh,      
Lest thy too hasty pen be led astray!      
Is force creative then of Sense the dower?      
“In the beginning was the Power!”      
Thus should it stand: yet, while the line I trace,           900   
A something warns me, once more to efface.      
The spirit aids! from anxious scruples freed,      
I write, “In the beginning was the Deed!”      
   
    Am I with thee my room to share,      
    Poodle, thy barking now forbear,           905   
    Forbear thy howling!      
    Comrade so noisy, ever growling,      
    I cannot suffer here to dwell.      
    One or the other, mark me well,      
    Forthwith must leave the cell.           910   
    I’m loath the guest-right to withhold;      
    The door’s ajar, the passage clear;      
    But what must now mine eyes behold!      
    Are nature’s laws suspended here?      
    Real is it, or a phantom show?           915   
    In length and breadth how doth my poodle grow!      
    He lifts himself with threat’ning mien,      
    In likeness of a dog no longer seen!      
    What spectre have I harbour’d thus!      
    Huge as a hippopotamus,           920   
    With fiery eye, terrific tooth!      
    Ah! now I know thee, sure enough!      
    For such a base, half-hellish brood,      
    The key of Solomon is good.      
   
SPIRITS  (without)
        925   
   
    Captur’d there within is one!      
    Stay without and follow none!      
    Like a fox in iron snare,      
    Hell’s old lynx is quaking there,      
        But take heed!           930   
    Hover round, above, below,      
        To and fro,      
    Then from durance is he freed!      
    Can ye aid him, spirits all,      
    Leave him not in mortal thrall!           935   
    Many a time and oft hath he      
    Served us, when at liberty.      
   
FAUST

The monster to confront, at first,      
The spell of Four must be rehears’d;      
   
        Salamander shall kindle,           940   
        Writhe nymph of the wave,      
        In air sylph shall dwindle,      
        And Kobold shall slave.      
   
Who doth ignore      
The primal Four,           945   
Nor knows aright      
Their use and might,      
O’er spirits will he      
Ne’er master be!      
   
    Vanish in the fiery glow,           950   
    Salamander!      
    Rushingly together flow.      
    Undine!      
    Shimmer in the meteor’s gleam,      
    Sylphide!           955   
    Hither bring thine homely aid,      
    Incubus! Incubus!      
    Step forth! I do adjure thee thus!      
None of the Four      
Lurks in the beast:           960   
He grins at me, untroubled as before;      
I have not hurt him in the least.      
A spell of fear      
Thou now shalt hear.      
    Art thou, comrade fell,           965   
    Fugitive from Hell?      
    See then this sign,      
    Before which incline      
    The murky troops of Hell!      
With bristling hair now doth the creature swell.           970   
   
    Canst thou, reprobate,      
    Read the uncreate,      
    Unspeakable, diffused      
    Throughout the heavenly sphere,      
    Shamefully abused,           975   
    Transpierced with nail and spear!      
   
Behind the stove, tam’d by my spells,      
Like an elephant he swells;      
Wholly now he fills the room,      
He into mist will melt away.           980   
Ascend not to the ceiling! Come,      
Thyself at the master’s feet now lay!      
Thou seest that mine is no idle threat.      
With holy fire I will scorch thee yet!      
Wait not the might           985   
That lies in the triple-glowing light!      
Wait not the might      
Of all my arts in fullest measure!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES
(As the mist sinks, comes forward from behind the stove, in the dress of a travelling scholar)
   
Why all this uproar? What’s the master’s pleasure?           990   
   
FAUST

This then the kernel of the brute!      
A traveling scholar? Why I needs must smile.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Your learned reverence humbly I salute!      
You’ve made me swelter in a pretty style.      
   
FAUST

Thy name?           995   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

          The question trifling seems from one,      
Who it appears the Word doth rate so low;      
Who, undeluded by mere outward show,      
To Being’s depths would penetrate alone.

   
Faust. Part I   
   
1000–1499   
   
   
   
FAUST

With gentlemen like you indeed           1000   
The inward essence from the name we read,      
As all too plainly it doth appear,      
When Beelzebub, Destroyer, Liar, meets the ear.      
Who then art thou?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                Part of that power which still           1005   
Produceth good, whilst ever scheming ill.      
   
FAUST

What hidden mystery in this riddle lies?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

The spirit I, which evermore denies!      
And justly; for whate’er to light is brought      
Deserves again to be reduced to naught;           1010   
Then better ’twere that naught should be.      
Thus all the elements which ye      
Destruction, Sin, or briefly, Evil, name,      
As my peculiar element I claim.      
   
FAUST

Thou nam’st thyself a part, and yet a whole I see.           1015   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

The modest truth I speak to thee.      
Though folly’s microcosm, man, it seems,      
Himself to be a perfect whole esteems:      
Part of the part am I, which at the first was all,      
A part of darkness, which gave birth to light,           1020   
Proud light, who now his mother would enthrall,      
Contesting space and ancient rank with night.      
Yet he succeedeth not, for struggle as he will,      
To forms material he adhereth still;      
From them he streameth, them he maketh fair,           1025   
And still the progress of his beams they check;      
And so, I trust, when comes the final wreck,      
Light will, ere long, the doom of matter share.      
   
FAUST

Thy worthy avocation now I guess!      
Wholesale annihilation won’t prevail,           1030   
So thou’rt beginning on a smaller scale.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

And, to say truth, as yet with small success.      
Oppos’d to naught, this clumsy world,      
The something—it subsisteth still;      
Not yet is it to ruin hurl’d,           1035   
Despite the efforts of my will.      
Tempests and earthquakes, fire and flood, I’ve tried;      
Yet land and ocean still unchang’d abide!      
And then of humankind and beasts, the accursed brood,—      
Neither o’er them can I extend my sway.           1040   
What countless myriads have I swept away!      
Yet ever circulates the fresh young blood.      
It is enough to drive me to despair!      
As in the earth, in water, and in air,      
A thousand germs burst forth spontaneously;           1045   
In moisture, drought, heat, cold, they still appear!      
Had I not flame selected as my sphere      
Nothing apart had been reversed for me.      
   
FAUST

So thou with thy cold devil’s fist      
Still clench’d in malice impotent           1050   
Dost the creative power resist,      
The active, the beneficent!      
Henceforth some other task essay,      
Of Chaos thou the wondrous son!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

We will consider what you say,           1055   
And talk about it more anon!      
For this time have I leave to go?      
   
FAUST

Why thou shouldst ask, I cannot see.      
Since thee I now have learned to know,      
At thy good pleasure, visit me.           1060   
Here is the window, here the door,      
The chimney, too, may serve thy need.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

I must confess, my stepping o’er      
Thy threshold a slight hindrance doth impede;      
The wizard-foot doth me retain.           1065   
   
FAUST

The pentagram thy peace doth mar?      
To me, thou son of hell, explain,      
How camest thou in, if this thine exit bar?      
Could such a spirit aught ensnare?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Observe it well, it is not drawn with care,           1070   
One of the angles, that which points without,      
Is, as thou seest, not quite closed.      
   
FAUST

Chance hath the matter happily dispos’d!      
So thou my captive art? No doubt!      
By accident thou thus art caught!           1075   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

In sprang the dog, indeed, observing naught;      
Things now assume another shape,      
The devil’s in the house and can’t escape.      
   
FAUST

Why through the window not withdraw?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

For ghosts and for the devil ’tis a law.           1080   
Where they stole in, there they must forth. We’re free      
The first to choose; as to the second, slaves are we.      
   
FAUST

E’en hell hath its peculiar laws, I see!      
I’m glad of that! a pact may then be made,      
The which you gentlemen will surely keep?           1085   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

What e’er therein is promised thou shalt reap,      
No tittle shall remain unpaid.      
But such arrangements time require;      
We’ll speak of them when next we meet;      
Most earnestly I now entreat,           1090   
This once permission to retire.      
   
FAUST

Another moment prithee here remain,      
Me with some happy word to pleasure.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Now let me go! ere long I’ll come again,      
Then thou may’st question at thy leisure.           1095   
   
FAUST

’Twas not my purpose thee to lime;      
The snare hast entered of thine own free will:      
Let him who holds the devil, hold him still!      
So soon he’ll catch him not a second time.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

If it so please thee, I’m at thy command;           1100   
Only on this condition, understand;      
That worthily thy leisure to beguile,      
I here may exercise my arts awhile.      
   
FAUST

Thou’rt free to do so! Gladly I’ll attend;      
But be thine art a pleasant one!           1105   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                My friend,      
This hour enjoyment more intense,      
Shall captivate each ravish’d sense,      
Than thou could’st compass in the bound      
Of the whole year’s unvarying round;           1110   
And what the dainty spirits sing,      
The lovely images they bring.      
Are no fantastic sorcery.      
Rich odours shall regale your smell,      
On choicest sweets your palate dwell,           1115   
Your feelings thrill with ecstasy.      
No preparation do we need,      
Here we together are. Proceed.      
   
SPIRITS

    Hence overshadowing gloom,      
    Vanish from sight!           1120   
    O’er us thine azure dome,      
    Bend, beauteous light!      
    Dark clouds that o’er us spread,      
    Melt in thin air!      
    Stars, your soft radiance shed,           1125   
    Tender and fair.      
    Girt with celestial might,      
    Winging their airy flight,      
    Spirits are thronging.      
    Follows their forms of light           1130   
    Infinite longing!      
    Flutter their vestures bright      
    O’er field and grove!      
    Where in their leafy bower      
    Lovers the livelong hour           1135   
    Vow deathless love.      
    Soft bloometh bud and bower!      
    Bloometh the grove!      
    Grapes from the spreading vine      
    Crown the full measure;           1140   
    Fountains of foaming wine      
    Gush from the pressure.      
    Still where the currents wind,      
    Gems brightly gleam.      
    Leaving the hills behind           1145   
    On rolls the stream;      
    Now into ample seas,      
    Spreadeth the flood;      
    Laving the sunny leas,      
    Mantled with wood.           1150   
    Rapture the feather’d throng,      
    Gaily careering,      
    Sip as they float along;      
    Sunward they’re steering;      
    On towards the isles of light           1155   
    Winging their way,      
    That on the waters bright      
    Dancingly play.      
    Hark to the choral strain,      
    Joyfully ringing!           1160   
    While on the grassy plain      
    Dancers are springing;      
    Climbing the steep hill’s side,      
    Skimming the glassy tide,      
    Wander they there;           1165   
    Others on pinions wide      
    Wing the blue air;      
    All lifeward tending, upward still wending,      
    Towards yonder stars that gleam,      
    Far, far above;           1170   
    Stars from whose tender beam      
    Rains blissful love.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Well done, my dainty spirits! now he slumbers!      
Ye have entranc’d him fairly with your numbers!      
This minstrelsy of yours I must repay,—           1175   
Thou art not yet the man to hold the devil fast!—      
With fairest shapes your spells around him cast,      
And plunge him in a sea of dreams!      
But that this charm be rent, the threshold passed,      
Tooth of rat the way must clear.           1180   
I need not conjure long it seems,      
One rustles hitherward, and soon my voice will hear.      
The master of the rats and mice,      
Of flies and frogs, of bugs and lice,      
Commands thy presence; without fear           1185   
Come forth and gnaw the threshold here,      
Where he with oil has smear’d it.—Thou      
Com’st hopping forth already! Now      
To work! The point that holds me bound      
Is in the outer angle found.           1190   
Another bite—so-now ’tis done—      
Now, Faustus, till we meet again, dream on.      
   
FAUST  (awaking)

Am I once more deluded! must I deem      
That thus the throng of spirits disappear?      
The devil’s presence, was it but a dream?           1195   
Hath but a poodle scap’d and left me here?      
   
STUDY      
   
FAUST. MEPHISTOPHELES.      
   
FAUST

A knock? Come in! Who now would break my rest?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

’Tis I!           1200   
   
FAUST

        Come in!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                Thrice be the words express’d.      
   
FAUST

Then I repeat, Come in!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                ’Tis well,      
I hope that we shall soon agree!           1205   
For now your fancies to expel,      
Here, as a youth of high degree,      
I come in gold-lac’d scarlet vest,      
And stiff-silk mantle richly dress’d,      
A cock’s gay feather for a plume,           1210   
A long and pointed rapier, too;      
And briefly I would counsel you      
To don at once the same costume,      
And, free from trammels, speed away,      
That what life is you may essay.           1215   
   
FAUST

In every garb I needs must feel oppress’d,      
My heart to earth’s low cares a prey.      
Too old the trifler’s part to play,      
Too young to live by no desire possess’d.      
What can the world to me afford?           1220   
Renounce! renouce! is still the word;      
This is the everlasting song      
In every ear that ceaseless rings,      
And which, alas, our whole life long,      
Hoarsely each passing moment sings.           1225   
But to new horror I awake each morn,      
And I could weep hot tears, to see the sun      
Dawn on another day, whose round forlorn      
Accomplishes no wish of mine—not one.      
Which still, with froward captiousness, impains           1230   
E’en the presentiment of every joy,      
While low realities and paltry cares      
The spirit’s fond imaginings destroy.      
Then must I too, when falls the veil of night,      
Stretch’d on my pallet languish in despair,           1235   
Appalling dreams my soul affright;      
No rest vouchsafed me even there.      
The god, who throned within my breast resides,      
Deep in my soul can stir the springs;      
With sovereign sway my energies he guides,           1240   
He cannot move external things;      
And so existence is to me a weight.      
Death fondly I desire, and life I hate.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

And yet, methinks, by most ’twill be confess’d      
That Death is never quite a welcome guest.           1245   
   
FAUST

Happy the man around whose brow he binds      
The bloodstain’d wreath in conquest’s dazzling hour;      
Or whom, excited by the dance, he finds      
Dissolv’d in bliss, in love’s delicious bower!      
O that before the lofty spirit’s might,           1250   
Enraptured, I had rendered up my soul!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Yet did a certain man refrain one night,      
Of its brown juice to drain the crystal bowl.      
   
FAUST

To play the spy diverts you then?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                I own,           1255   
Though not omniscient, much to me is known.      
   
FAUST

If o’er my soul the tone familiar, stealing,      
Drew me from harrowing thought’s bewild’ring maze,      
Touching the ling’ring chords of childlike feeling,      
With sweet harmonies of happier days:           1260   
So curse I all, around the soul that windeth      
Its magic and alluring spell,      
And with delusive flattery bindeth      
Its victim to this dreary cell!      
Curs’d before all things be the high opinion,           1265   
Wherewith the spirit girds itself around!      
Of shows delusive curs’d be the dominion,      
Within whose mocking sphere our sense is bound!      
Accurs’d of dreams the treacherous wiles,      
The cheat of glory, deathless fame!           1270   
Accurs’d what each as property beguiles,      
Wife, child, slave, plough, whate’er its name!      
Accurs’d be mammon, when with treasure      
He doth to daring deeds incite:      
Or when to steep the soul in pleasure,           1275   
He spreads the couch of soft delight!      
Curs’d be the grape’s balsamic juice!      
Accurs’d love’s dream, of joys the first!      
Accurs’d be hope! accurs’d be faith!      
And more than all, be patience curs’d!           1280   
   
CHORUS OF SPIRITS  (invisible)
   
    Woe! Woe!      
    Thou hast destroy’d      
    The beautiful world      
    With violent blow;           1285   
    ’Tis shiver’d! ’tis shatter’d!      
    The fragments abroad by a demigod scatter’d!      
    Now we sweep      
    The wrecks into nothingness!      
    Fondly we weep           1290   
    The beauty that’s gone!      
    Thou, ’mongst the sons of earth,      
    Lofty and mighty one,      
    Build it once more!      
    In thine own bosom the lost world restore!           1295   
    Now with unclouded sense      
    Enter a new career;      
    Songs shall salute thine ear,      
    Ne’er heard before!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

My little ones these spirits be.           1300   
Hark! with shrewd intelligence,      
How they recommend to thee      
Action, and the joys of sense!      
In the busy world to dwell,      
Fain they would allure thee hence:           1305   
For within this lonely cell,      
Stagnate sap of life and sense.      
   
Forbear to trifle longer with thy grief,      
Which, vulture-like, consumes thee in this den.      
The worst society is some relief,           1310   
Making thee feel thyself a man with men.      
Nathless, it is not meant, I trow,      
To thrust thee ’mid the vulgar throng.      
I to the upper ranks do not belong;      
Yet if, by me companion’d, thou           1315   
Thy steps through life forthwith wilt take,      
Upon the spot myself I’ll make      
Thy comrade;—      
Should it suit thy need,      
I am thy servant, am thy slave indeed!           1320   
   
FAUST

And how must I thy services repay?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Thereto thou lengthen’d repite hast!      
   
FAUST

                No! No!      
The devil is an egoist I know:      
And, for Heaven’s sake, ’tis not his way           1325   
Kindness to any one to show.      
Let the condition plainly be exprest!      
Such a domestic is a dangerous guest.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

I’ll pledge myself to be thy servant here,      
Still at thy back alert and prompt to be;           1330   
But when together yonder we appear,      
Then shalt thou do the same for me.      
   
FAUST

But small concern I feel for yonder world;      
Hast thou this system into ruin hurl’d,      
Another may arise the void to fill.           1335   
This earth the fountain whence my pleasures flow,      
This sun doth daily shine upon my woe,      
And if this world I must forego,      
Let happen then,—what can and will.      
I to this theme will close mine ears,           1340   
If men hereafter hate and love,      
And if there be in yonder spheres      
A depth below or height above.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

In this mood thou mayst venture it. But make      
The compact! I at once will undertake           1345   
To charm thee with mine arts. I’ll give thee more      
Than mortal eye hath e’er beheld before.      
   
FAUST

What, sorry Devil, hast thou to bestow?      
Was ever mortal spirit, in its high endeavour,      
Fathom’d by Being such as thou?           1350   
Yet food thou hast which satisfieth never,      
Hast ruddy gold, that still doth flow      
Like restless quicksilver away,      
A game thou hast, at which none win who play,      
A girl who would, with amorous eyen,           1355   
E’en from my breast, a neighbour snare,      
Lofty ambition’s joy divine,      
That, meteor-like, dissolves in air.      
Show me the fruit that, ere ’tis pluck’d, doth rot,      
And trees, whose verdure daily buds anew!           1360   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Such a commission scares me not,      
I can provide such treasures, it is true;      
But, my good friend, a season will come round,      
When on what’s good we may regale in peace.      
   
FAUST

If e’er upon my couch, stretched at my ease, I’m found,           1365   
Then may my life that instant cease!      
Me canst thou cheat with glozing wile      
Till self-reproach away I cast,—      
Me with joy’s lure canst thou beguile;—      
Let that day be for me the last!           1370   
Be this our wager!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                Settled!      
   
FAUST

                Sure and fast!      
When to the moment I shall say,      
“Linger awhile! so fair thou art!”           1375   
Then mayst thou fetter me straightway,      
Then to the abyss will I depart!      
Then may the solemn death-bell sound,      
Then from thy service thou art free,      
The index then may cease its round.           1380   
And time be never more for me!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

I shall remember: pause, ere ’tis too late.      
   
FAUST

Thereto a perfect right hast thou.      
My strength I do not rashly overrate.      
Slave am I here, at any rate,           1385   
If thine, or whose, it matters not, I trow.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

At thine inaugural feast I will this day      
Attend, my duties to commence.—      
But one thing!—Accidents may happen, hence      
A line or two in writing grant, I pray.           1390   
   
FAUST

A writing, Pedant! dost demand from me?      
Man, and man’s plighted word, are these unknown to thee?      
Is’t not enough, that by the word I gave,      
My doom for evermore is cast?      
Doth not the world in all its currents rave,           1395   
And must a promise hold me fast?      
Yet fixed is this delusion in our heart;      
Who, of his own free will, therefrom would part?      
How blest within whose breast truth reigneth pure!      
No sacrifice will he repent when made!           1400   
A formal deed, with seal and signature,      
A spectre this from which all shrink afraid.      
The word its life resigneth in the pen,      
Leather and wax usurp the mastery then.      
Spirits of evil! what dost thou require?           1405   
Brass, marble, parchment, paper, dost desire?      
Shall I with chisel, pen, or graver write?      
Thy choice is free; to me ’tis all the same.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Wherefore thy passion so excite      
And thus thine eloquence inflame?           1410   
A scrap is for our compact good.      
Thou under-signest merely with a drop of blood.      
   
FAUST

If this will satisfy thy mind,      
Thy whim I’ll gratify, howe’er absurd.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Blood is a juice of very special kind.           1415   
   
FAUST

Be not afraid that I shall break my word!      
The scope of all my energy      
Is in exact accordance with my vow.      
Vainly I have aspired too high;      
I’m on a level but with such as thou;           1420   
Me the great spirit scorn’d, defied;      
Nature from me herself doth hide;      
Rent is the web of thought; my mind      
Doth knowledge loathe of every kind.      
In depths of sensual pleasure drown’d,           1425   
Let us our fiery passions still!      
Enwrapp’d in magic’s veil profound,      
Let wondrous charms our senses thrill!      
Plunge we in time’s tempestuous flow,      
Stem we the rolling surge of chance!           1430   
There may alternate weal and woe,      
Success and failure, as they can,      
Mingle and shift in changeful dance!      
Excitement is the sphere for man.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Nor goal, nor measure is prescrib’d to you,           1435   
If you desire to taste of every thing,      
To snatch at joy while on the wing,      
May your career amuse and profit too!      
Only fall to and don’t be over coy!      
   
FAUST

Hearken! The end I aim at is not joy;           1440   
I crave excitement, agonizing bliss,      
Enamour’d hatred, quickening vexation.      
Purg’d from the love of knowledge, my vocation,      
The scope of all my powers henceforth be this,      
To bare my breast to every pang,—to know           1445   
In my heart’s core all human weal and woe,      
To grasp in thought the lofty and the deep,      
Men’s various fortunes on my breast to heap,      
And thus to theirs dilate my individual mind,      
And share at length with them the shipwreck of mankind.           1450   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Oh, credit me, who still as ages roll,      
Have chew’d this bitter fare from year to year,      
No mortal, from the cradle to the bier,      
Digests the ancient leaven! Know, this Whole      
Doth for the Deity alone subsist!           1455   
He in eternal brightness doth exist,      
Us unto darkness he hath brought, and here      
Where day and night alternate, is your sphere.      
   
FAUST

But ’tis my will!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                Well spoken, I admit!           1460   
But one thing puzzles me, my friend;      
Time’s short, art long; methinks ’twere fit      
That you to friendly counsel should attend.      
A poet choose as your ally!      
Let him thought’s wide dominion sweep,           1465   
Each good and noble quality,      
Upon your honoured brow to heap;      
The lion’s magnanimity,      
The fleetness of the hind,      
The fiery blood of Italy,           1470   
The Northern’s steadfast mind.      
Let him to you the mystery show      
To blend high aims and cunning low;      
And while youth’s passions are aflame      
To fall in love by rule and plan!           1475   
I fain would meet with such a man;      
Would him Sir Microcosmus name.      
   
FAUST

What then am I, if I aspire in vain      
The crown of our humanity to gain,      
Towards which my every sense doth strain?           1480   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Thou’rt after all-just what thou art.      
Put on thy head a wig with countless locks,      
And to a cubit’s height upraise thy socks,      
Still thou remainest ever, what thou art.      
   
FAUST

I fell it, I have heap’d upon my brain           1485   
The gather’d treasure of man’s thought in vain;      
And when at length from studious toil I rest,      
No power, new-born, springs up within my breast;      
A hair’s breadth is not added to my height,      
I am no nearer to the infinite.           1490   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Good sir, these things you view indeed,      
Just as by other men they’re view’d;      
We must more cleverly proceed,      
Before life’s joys our grasp elude.      
The devil! thou hast hands and feet,           1495   
And head and heart are also thine;      
What I enjoy with relish sweet,      
Is it on that account less mine?      
If for six stallions I can pay,

Faust. Part I   
   
1500–1999   
   
   
Do I not own their strength and speed?           1500   
A proper man I dash away,      
As their two dozen legs were mine indeed.      
Up then, from idle pondering free,      
And forth into the world with me!      
I tell you what;—your speculative churl           1505   
Is like a beast which some ill spirit leads,      
On barren wilderness, in ceaseless whirl,      
While all around lie fair and verdant meads.      
   
FAUST

But how shall we begin?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                We will go hence with speed,           1510   
A place of torment this indeed!      
A precious life, thyself to bore,      
And some few youngster evermore!      
Leave that to neighbour Paunch!—withdraw,      
Why wilt thou plague thyself with thrashing straw?           1515   
The very best that thou dost know      
Thou dar’st not to the striplings show.      
One in the passage now doth wait!      
   
FAUST

I’m in no mood to see him now.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Poor lad! He must be tired, I trow;           1520   
He must not go disconsolate.      
Hand me thy cap and gown; the mask      
Is for my purpose quite first rate.  (He changes his dress.)      
Now leave it to my wit! I ask      
But quarter of an hour; meanwhile equip,           1525   
And make all ready for our pleasant trip!  (Exit FAUST.)      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (in FAUST’S long gown)

Mortal! the loftiest attributes of men,      
Reason and Knowledge, only thus contemn,      
Still let the Prince of lies, without control,      
With shows, and mocking charms delude thy soul,           1530   
I have thee unconditionally then!      
Fate hath endow’d him with an ardent mind,      
Which unrestrain’d still presses on for ever,      
And whose precipitate endeavour      
Earth’s joys o’erleaping, leaveth them behind.           1535   
Him will I drag through life’s wild waste,      
Through scenes of vapid dulness, where at last      
Bewilder’d, he shall falter, and stick fast;      
And, still to mock his greedy haste,      
Viands and drink shall float his craving lips beyond—           1540   
Vainly he’ll seek refreshment, anguish-tost,      
And were he not the devil’s by his bond,      
Yet must his soul infallibly be lost!      
   
A STUDENT enters
  1   
   
STUDENT

But recently I’ve quitted home,           1545   
Full of devotion am I come      
A man to know and hear, whose name      
With reverence is known to fame.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Your courtesy much flatters me!      
A man like other men you see;           1550   
Pray have you yet applied elsewhere?      
   
STUDENT

I would entreat your friendly care!      
I’ve youthful blood and courage high;      
Of gold I bring a fair supply;      
To let me go my mother was not fain;           1555   
But here I longed true knowledge to attain.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

You’ve hit upon the very place.      
   
STUDENT

And yet my steps I would retrace.      
These walls, this melancholy room,      
O’erpower me with a sense of gloom;           1560   
The space is narrow, nothing green,      
No friendly tree is to be seen:      
And in these halls, with benches filled, distraught,      
Sight, hearing fail me, and the power of thought.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

It all depends on habit. Thus at first           1565   
The infant takes not kindly to the breast,      
But before long, its eager thirst      
Is fain to slake with hearty zest:      
Thus at the breasts of wisdom day by day      
With keener relish you’ll your thirst allay.           1570   
   
STUDENT

Upon her neck I fain would hang with joy;      
To reach it, say, what means must I employ?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Explain, ere further time we lose,      
What special faculty you choose?      
   
STUDENT

Profoundly learned I would grow,           1575   
What heaven contains would comprehend,      
O’er earth’s wide realm my gaze extend,      
Nature and science I desire to know.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Your are upon the proper track, I find;      
Take heed, let nothing dissipate your mind.           1580   
   
STUDENT

My heart and soul are in the chase!      
Though to be sure I fain would seize,      
On pleasant summer holidays,      
A little liberty and careless ease.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Use well your time, so rapidly it flies;           1585   
Method will teach you time to win;      
Hence, my young friend, I would advise,      
With college logic to begin!      
Then will your mind be so well braced,      
In Spanish boots so tightly laced,           1590   
That on ’twill circumspectly creep,      
Thought’s beaten track securely keep,      
Nor will it, ignis-fatuus like,      
Into the path of error strike.      
Then many a day they’ll teach you how           1595   
The mind’s spontaneous acts, till now      
As eating and as drinking free,      
Require a process;—one! two! three!      
In truth the subtle web of thought      
Is like the weaver’s fabric wrought:           1600   
One treadle moves a thousand lines,      
Swift dart the shuttles to and fro,      
Unseen the threads together flow,      
A thousand knots one stroke combines.      
Then forward steps your sage to show,           1605   
And prove to you, it must be so;      
The first being so, and so the second,      
The third and fourth deduc’d we see;      
And if there were no first and second,      
Nor third nor fourth would ever be.           1610   
This, scholars of all countries prize,—      
Yet ’mong themselves no weavers rise.—      
He who would know and treat of aught alive,      
Seeks first the living spirit thence to drive:      
Then are the lifeless fragments in his hand,           1615   
There only fails, alas! the spirit-band.      
This process, chemists name, in learned thesis,      
Mocking themselves, Naturæ encheiresis.      
   
STUDENT

Your words I cannot full comprehend.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

In a short time you will improve, my friend,           1620   
When of scholastic forms you learn the use;      
And how by method all things to reduce.      
   
STUDENT

So doth all this my brain confound,      
As if a mill-wheel there were turning round.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

And next, before aught else you learn,           1625   
You must with zeal to metaphysics turn!      
There see that you profoundly comprehend,      
What doth the limit of man’s brain transcend;      
For that which is or is not in the head      
A sounding phrase will serve you in good stead.           1630   
But before all strive this half year      
From one fix’d order ne’er to swerve!      
Five lectures daily you must hear;      
The hour still punctually observe!      
Yourself with studious zeal prepare,           1635   
And closely in your manual look,      
Hereby may you be quite aware      
That all he utters standeth in the book;      
Yet write away without cessation,      
As at the Holy Ghost’s dictation!           1640   
   
STUDENT

This, Sir, a second time you need not say!      
Your counsel I appreciate quite;      
What we possess in black and white,      
We can in peace and comfort bear away.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

A faculty I pray you name.           1645   
   
STUDENT

For jurisprudence, some distaste I own.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

To me this branch of science is well known,      
And hence I cannot your repugnance blame.      
Customs and laws in every place,      
Like a disease, an heir-loom dread,           1650   
Still trail their curse from race to race,      
And furtively abroad they spread.      
To nonsense, reason’s self they turn;      
Beneficence becomes a pest;      
Woe unto thee, that thou’rt a grandson born!           1655   
As for the law born with us, unexpressed;—      
That law, alas, none careth to discern.      
   
STUDENT

You deepen my dislike. The youth      
Whom you instruct, is blest in sooth!      
To try theology I feel inclined.           1660   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

I would not lead you willingly astray,      
But as regards this science, you will find      
So hard it is to shun the erring way,      
And so much hidden poison lies therein,      
Which scarce can you discern from medicine.           1665   
Here too it is the best, to listen but to one,      
And by the master’s words to swear alone.      
To sum up all—To words hold fast!      
Then the safe gate securely pass’d,      
You’ll reach the fane of certainty at last.           1670   
   
STUDENT

But then some meaning must the words convey.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Right! But o’er-anxious thought, you’ll find of no avail,      
For there precisely where ideas fail,      
A word comes opportunely into play      
Most admirable weapons words are found,           1675   
On words a system we securely ground,      
In words we can conveniently believe,      
Nor of a single jot can we a word bereave.      
   
STUDENT

Your pardon for my importunity;      
Yet once more must I trouble you:           1680   
On medicine, I’ll thank you to supply      
A pregnant utterance or two!      
Three years! how brief the appointed tide!      
The field, heaven knows, is all too wide!      
If but a friendly hint be thrown,           1685   
’Tis easier then to feel one’s way.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (aside)

I’m weary of the dry pedantic tone,      
And must again the genuine devil play.      
   
(Aloud)

Of medicine the spirit’s caught with ease,      
The great and little world you study through,           1690   
That things may then their course pursue,      
As heaven may please.      
In vain abroad you range through science’ ample space,      
Each man learns only that which learn he can;      
Who knows the moment to embrace,           1695   
He is your proper man.      
In person you are tolerably made,      
Nor in assurance will you be deficient:      
Self-confidence acquire, be not afraid,      
Others will then esteem you a proficient.           1700   
Learn chiefly with the sex to deal!      
Their thousands ahs and ohs,      
These the sage doctor knows,      
He only from one point can heal.      
Assume a decent tone of courteous ease,           1705   
You have them then to humour as you please.      
First a diploma must belief infuse,      
That you in your profession take the lead:      
You then at once those easy freedoms use      
For which another many a year must plead;           1710   
Learn how to feel with nice address      
The dainty wrist;—and how to press,      
With ardent furtive glance, the slender waist,      
To feel how tightly it is laced.      
   
STUDENT

There is some sense in that! one sees the how and why.           1715   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Grey is, young friend, all theory:      
And green of life the golden tree.      
   
STUDENT

I swear it seemeth like a dream to me.      
May I some future time repeat my visit,      
To hear on what your wisdom grounds your views?           1720   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Command my humble service when you choose.      
   
STUDENT

Ere I retire, one boon I must solicit:      
Here is my album, do not, Sir, deny      
This token of your favour!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                Willingly!  (He writes and returns the book.)           1725   
   
STUDENT  (reads)

ERITIS SICUT DEUS, SCIENTES BONUM ET MALUM  (He reverently closes the book and retires.)      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Let but this ancient proverb be your rule,      
My cousin follow still, the wily snake,      
And with your likeness to the gods, poor fool,      
Ere long be sure your poor sick heart will quake!           1730   
   
FAUST  (enters)

Whither away?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

’Tis thine our course to steer.      
The little world, and then the great we’ll view.      
With what delight, what profit too,      
Thou’lt revel through thy gay career!           1735   
   
FAUST

Despite my length of beard I need      
The easy manners that insure success;      
Th’ attempt I fear can ne’er succeed;      
To mingle in the world I want address;      
I still have an embarrass’d air, and then           1740   
I feel myself so small with other men.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Time, my good friend, will all that’s needful give;      
Be only self-possessed, and thou hast learn’d to live.      
   
FAUST

But how are we to start, I pray?      
Steeds, servants, carriage, where are they?           1745   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

We’ve but to spread this mantle wide,      
’Twill serve whereon through air to ride,      
No heavy baggage need you take,      
When we our bold excursion make,      
A little gas, which I will soon prepare,           1750   
Lifts us from earth; aloft through air,      
Light laden we shall swiftly steer;—      
I wish you joy of your new life-career.      
   
AUERBACH’S CELLAR IN LEIPZIG
A Drinking Party
FROSCH

No drinking? Naught a laugh to raise?      
None of your gloomy looks, I pray!           1755   
You, who so bright were wont to blaze,      
Are dull as wetted straw to-day.      
   
BRANDER

’Tis all your fault; your part you do not bear,      
No beastliness, no folly.      
   
FROSCH  (pours a glass of wine over his head)

                There,           1760   
You have them both!      
   
BRANDER

                You double beast!      
   
FROSCH

’Tis what you ask’d me for, at least!      
   
SIEBEL

Whoever quarrels, turn him out!      
With open throat drink, roar, and shout.           1765   
Hollo! Hollo! Ho!      
   
ALTMAYER

Zounds, fellow, cease your deaf’ning cheers!      
Bring cotton-wool! He splits my ears.      
   
SIEBEL

’Tis when the roof rings back the tone,      
Then first the full power of the bass is known.           1770   
   
FROSCH

Right! out with him who takes offence!      
A! tara lara da!      
   
ALTMAYER

A! tara lara da!      
   
FROSCH

Our throats are tuned. Come let’s commence!      
   
(Sings)

    The holy Roman empire now,           1775   
    How holds it still together?      
   
BRANDER

An ugly song! a song political!      
A song offensive! Thank God, every morn      
To rule the Roman empire, that you were not born!      
I bless my stars at least that mine is not           1780   
Either a kaiser’s or a chancellor’s lot.      
Yet ’mong ourselves should one still lord it o’er the rest;      
That we elect a pope I now suggest.      
Ye know, what quality ensures      
A man’s success, his rise secures.           1785   
   
FROSCH  (sings)

    Bear, lady nightingale above,      
    Ten thousand greetings to my love.      
   
SIEBEL

No greetings to a sweetheart! No love-songs shall there      
be!      
   
FROSCH

Love-greetings and love kisses! Thou shalt not hinder me!           1790   
   
(Sings)

    Undo the bolt! in silly night,      
    Undo the bolt! the lover wakes.      
    Shut to the bolt! when morning breaks.      
   
SIEBEL

Ay, sing, sing on, praise her with all thy might!      
My turn to laugh will come some day.           1795   
Me hath she jilted once, you the same trick she’ll play.      
Some gnome her lover be! where cross-roads meet,      
With her to play the fool; or old he-goat,      
From Blocksberg coming in swift gallop, bleat      
A good night to her, from his hairy throat!           1800   
A proper lad of genuine flesh and blood,      
Is for the damsel far too good;      
The greeting she shall have from me,      
To smash her window-panes will be!      
   
BRANDER  (striking on the table)

Silence! Attend! to me give ear!           1805   
Confess, sirs, I know how to live:      
Some love-sick folk are sitting here!      
Hence, ’tis but fit, their hearts to cheer,      
That I a good-night strain to them should give.      
Hark! of the newest fashion is my song!           1810   
Strike boldly in the chorus, clear and strong!      
   
(He sings)

        Once in a cellar lived a rat,      
        He feasted there on butter,      
        Until his paunch became as fat      
        As that of Doctor Luther.           1815   
        The cook laid poison for the guest,      
        Then was his heart with pangs oppress’d,      
        As if his frame love wasted.      
   
Chorus  (shouting)

        As if his frame love wasted.      
   
BRANDER

        He ran around, he ran abroad,           1820   
        Of every puddle drinking.      
        The house with rage he scratch’d and gnaw’d,      
        In vain,—he fast was sinking;      
        Full many an anguish’d bound he gave,      
        Nothing the hapless brute could save,           1825   
        As if his frame love wasted.      
   
CHORUS

        As if his frame love wasted.      
   
BRANDER

        By torture driven, in open day,      
        The kitchen he invaded,      
        Convulsed upon the hearth he lay,           1830   
        With anguish sorely jaded;      
        The poisoner laugh’d, Ha! ha! quoth she,      
        His life is ebbing fast, I see,      
        As if his frame love wasted.      
   
CHORUS

        As if his frame love wasted.           1835   
   
SIEBEL

How the dull boors exulting shout!      
Poison for the poor rats to strew      
A fine exploit it is no doubt.      
   
BRANDER

They, as it seems, stand well with you!      
   
ALTMAYER

Old bald-pate! with the paunch profound!           1840   
The rat’s mishap hath tamed his nature;      
For he his counterpart hath found      
Depicted in the swollen creature.      
   
FAUST AND MEPHISTOPHELES
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

I now must introduce to you           1845   
Before aught else, this jovial crew,      
To show how lightly life may glide away;      
With tse folk here each day’s a holiday.      
With little wit and much content,      
Each on his own small round intent,           1850   
Like sportive kitten with its tail;      
While no sick-headache they bewail,      
And while their host will credit give,      
Joyous and free from care they live.      
   
BRANDER

They’re off a journey, that is clear,—           1855   
From their strange manners; they have scarce been here      
An hour.      
   
FROSCH

          You’re right! Leipzig’s the place for me!      
’Tis quite a little Paris; people there      
Acquire a certain easy finish’d air.           1860   
   
SIEBEL

What take you now these travellers to be?      
   
FROSCH

Let me alone! O’er a full glass you’ll see,      
As easily I’ll worm their secret out,      
As draw an infant’s tooth. I’ve not a doubt      
That my two gentlemen are nobly born,           1865   
They look dissatisfied and full of scorn.      
   
BRANDER

They are but mountebanks, I’ll lay a bet!      
   
ALTMAYER

Most like.      
   
FROSCH

            Mark me, I’ll screw it from them yet!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (to FAUST)

These fellows would not scent the devil out,           1870   
E’en though he had them by the very throat!      
   
FAUST

Good-morrow, gentlemen!      
   
SIEBEL

                Thanks for your fair salute.  (Aside, glancing at MEPHISTOPHELES.)      
How! goes the fellow on a halting foot?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Is it permitted here with you to sit?           1875   
Then though good wine is not forthcoming here,      
Good company at least our hearts will cheer.      
   
ALTMAYER

A dainty gentleman, no doubt of it.      
   
FROSCH

You’re doubtless recently from Rippach? Pray,      
Did you with Master Hans there chance to sup?           1880   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

To-day we pass’d him, but we did not stop!      
When last we met him he had much to say      
Touching his cousins, and to each he sent      
Full many a greeting and kind compliment.  (With an inclination towards FROSCH.)      
   
Altmayer  (aside to FROSCH)

You have it there!           1885   
   
SIEBEL

                Faith! he’s a knowing one!      
   
FROSCH

Have patience! I will show him up anon!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

We heard erewhile, unless I’m wrong,      
Voices well trained in chorus pealing?      
Certes, most choicely here must song           1890   
Re-echo from this vaulted ceiling!      
   
FROSCH

That you’re an amateur one plainly sees!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Oh no, though strong the love, I cannot boast much skill.      
   
ALTMAYER

Give us a song!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                As many as you will.           1895   
   
SIEBEL

But be it a brand new one, if you please!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

But recently returned from Spain are we,      
The pleasant land of wine and minstrelsy.  (Sings)      
    A king there was once reigning,      
    Who had a goodly flea—           1900   
   
FROSCH

Hark! did you rightly catch the words? a flea!      
An odd sort of a guest he needs must be.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (sings)

    A king there was once reigning,      
    Who had a goodly flea,      
    Him loved he without feigning,           1905   
    As his own son were he!      
    His tailor then he summon’d,      
    The tailor to him goes:      
    Now measure me the youngster      
    For jerkin and for hose!           1910   
   
BRANDER

Take proper heed, the tailor strictly charge,      
The nicest measurement to take,      
And as he loves his head, to make      
The hose quite smooth and not too large!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

In satin and in velvet,           1915   
Behold the yonker dressed;      
Bedizen’d o’er with ribbons,      
A cross upon his breast.      
Prime minister they made him,      
He wore a star of state;           1920   
And all his poor relations      
Were courtiers, rich and great.      
   
The gentlemen and ladies      
At court were sore distressed;      
The queen and all her maidens           1925   
Were bitten by the pest,      
And yet they dared not scratch them,      
Or chase the fleas away.      
If we are bit, we catch them,      
And crack without delay.           1930   
   
CHORUS  (shouting)

If we are bit, &c.      
   
FROSCH

Bravo! That’s the song for me!      
   
SIEBEL

Such be the fate of every flea!      
   
BRANDER

With clever finger catch and kill!      
   
ALTMAYER

Hurrah for wine and freedom still!           1935   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Were but your wine a trifle better, friend,      
A glass to freedom I would gladly drain,      
   
SIEBEL

You’d better not repeat those words again!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

I am afraid the landlord to offend;      
Else freely I would treat each worthy guest           1940   
From our own cellar to the very best.      
   
SIEBEL

Out with it then! Your doings I’ll defend.      
   
FROSCH

Give a good glass, and straight we’ll praise you, one and all.      
Only let not your samples be too small;      
For if my judgment you desire,           1945   
Certes, an ample mouthful I require.      
   
Altmayer  (aside)

I guess they’re from the Rhenish land.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Fetch me a gimlet here!      
   
BRANDER

                Say, what therewith to bore?      
You cannot have the wine-casks at the door?           1950   
   
ALTMAYER

Our landlord’s tool-basket behind doth yonder stand.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (takes the gimlet)
(To FROSCH)
Now only say! what liquor will you take?
   
FROSCH

How mean you that? have you of every sort?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Each may his own selection make.      
   
ALTMAYER  (to FROSCH)

Ha! Ha! You lick your lips already at the thought.           1955   
   
FROSCH

Good, If I have my choice, the Rhenish I propose;      
For still the fairest gifts the fatherland bestows.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES
(boring a hole in the edge of the table opposite to where Frosch is sitting)

Give me a little wax—and make some stoppers—quick!      
   
ALTMAYER

Why, this is nothing but a juggler’s trick!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (to BRANDER)

And you?           1960   
   
BRANDER

          Champagne’s the wine for me;      
Right brisk, and sparkling let it be!  (MEPHISTOPHELES bores; one of the party has in the meantime prepared the wax-stoppers and stopped the holes.)      
   
BRANDER

What foreign is one always can’t decline,      
What’s good is often scatter’d far apart.      
The French your genuine German hates with all his heart,           1965   
Yet has a relish for their wine.      
   
SIEBEL
(as MEPHISTOPHELES approaches him)

I like not acid wine, I must allow,      
Give ma a glass of genuine sweet!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (bores)

                Tokay      
Shall, if you wish it, flow without delay.           1970   
   
ALTMAYER

Come! look me in the face! no fooling now!      
You are but making fun of us, I trow.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Ah! ah! that would indeed be making free      
With such distinguished guests. Come, no delay;      
What liquor can I serve you with, I pray?           1975   
   
ALTMAYER

Only be quick, it matters not to me.  (After the holes are bored and stopped.)      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (with strange gestures)

        Grapes the vine-stock bears,      
        Horns the buck-goat wears!      
        Wine is sap, the vine is wood,      
        The wooden board yields wine as good.           1980   
        With a deeper glance and true      
        The mysteries of nature view!      
        Have faith and here’s a miracle!      
        Your stoppers draw and drink your fill!      
   
ALL  (as they draw the stoppers and the wine chosen by each runs into his glass)

Oh beauteous spring, which flows so far!           1985   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Spill not a single drop, of this beware!  (They drink repeatedly.)      
   
ALL  (sing)

        Happy as cannibals are we,      
        Or as five hundred swine.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

They’re in their glory, mark their elevation!      
   
FAUST

Let’s hence, nor here our stay prolong.           1990   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Attend, of brutishness ere long      
You’ll see a glorious revelation.      
   
SIEBEL
(drinks carelessly; the wine is spilt upon the ground, and turns to flame)

Help! fire! help! Hell is burning!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES
(addressing the flames)

                Stop,      
Kind element, be still, I say!  (To the Company.)           1995   
Of purgatorial fire as yet ’tis but a drop.      
   
SIEBEL

What means the knave! For this you’ll dearly pay!      
Us, it appears, you do not know.      
   
FROSCH

Such tricks a second time he’d better show!

   
Faust. Part I   
   
2000–2499   
   
   
   
ALTMAYER

Methinks’twere well we pack’d him quietly away.           2000   
   
SIEBEL

What, sir! with us your hocus-pocus play!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Silence, old wine-cask!      
   
SIEBEL

                How! add insult, too!      
Vile broomstick!      
   
BRANDER

                Hold, or blows shall rain on you!           2005   
   
Altmayer
(draws a stopper out of the table; fire springs out against him)

I burn! I burn!      
   
SIEBEL

                ’Tis sorcery, I vow!      
Strike home! The fellow is fair game, I trow!  (They draw their knives and attack MEPHISTOPHELES.)      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (with solemn gestures)

        Visionary scenes appear!      
        Words delusive cheat the ear!           2010   
        Be ye there, and be ye here!  (They stand amazed and gaze at each other.)      
   
ALTMAYER

Where am I? What a beauteous land!      
   
FROSCH

Vineyards! unless my sight deceives?      
   
SIEBEL

And clust’ring grapes too, close at hand!      
   
BRANDER

And underneath the spreading leaves,           2015   
What stems there be! What grapes I see!  (He seizes SIEBEL by the nose. The others reciprocally do the same, and raise their knives.)      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (as above)

Delusion, from their eyes the bandage take!      
Note how the devil loves a jest to break!  (He disappears with FAUST; the fellows draw back from one another.)      
   
SIEBEL

What was it?      
   
ALTMAYER

              How?           2020   
   
FROSCH

                Was that your nose?      
   
BRANDER  (to SIEBEL)

And look, my hand doth thine enclose!      
   
ALTMAYER

I felt a shock, it went through every limb!      
A chair! I’m fainting! All things swim!      
   
FROSCH

Say what has happened, what’s it all about?           2025   
   
SIEBEL

Where is the fellow? Could I scent him out,      
His body from his soul I’d soon divide!      
   
ALTMAYER

With my own eyes, upon a cask astride,      
Forth through the cellar-door I saw him ride—      
Heavy as lead my feet are growing.  (Turning to the table.)           2030   
I wonder is the wine still flowing!      
   
SIEBEL

’Twas all delusion, cheat and lie.      
   
FROSCH

’Twas wine I drank, most certainly.      
   
BRANDER

But with the grapes how was it, pray?      
   
ALTMAYER

That none may miracles believe, who now will say?           2035   
   
WITCHS’ KITCHEN

  A large caldron hangs over the fire on a low hearth; various figures appear in the vapour rising from it. A FEMALE MONKEY sits beside the caldron to skim it, and watch that it does not boil over. The MALE MONKEY with the young ones is seated near, warming himself. The walls and ceiling are adorned with the strangest articles of witch-furniture.      
   
FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES
   
FAUST

This senseless, juggling witchcraft I detest!      
Dost promise that in this foul nest      
Of madness, I shall be restored?           2040   
Must I seek counsel from an ancient dame?      
And can she, by these rites abhorred,      
Take thirty winters from my frame?      
Woe’s me, if thou naught better canst suggest!      
Hope has already fled my breast.           2045   
Has neither nature nor a noble mind      
A balsam yet devis’d of any kind?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

My friend, you now speak sensibly. In truth,      
Nature a method giveth to renew thy youth:      
But in another book the lesson’s writ;—           2050   
It forms a curious chapter, I admit.      
   
FAUST

I fain would know it.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                Good! A remedy      
Without physician, gold, or sorcery:      
Away forthwith, and to the fields repair,           2055   
Begin to delve, to cultivate the ground,      
Thy senses and thyself confine      
Within the very narrowest round,      
Support thyself upon the simplest fare,      
Live like a very brute the brutes among,           2060   
Neither esteem it robbery      
The acre thou dost reap, thyself to dung;      
This is the best method, credit me,      
Again at eighty to grow hale and young.      
   
FAUST

I am not used to it, nor can myself degrade           2065   
So far, as in my hand to take the spade.      
This narrow life would suit me not at all.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Then we the witch must summon after all.      
   
FAUST

Will none but this old beldame do?      
Canst not thyself the potion brew?           2070   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

A pretty play our leisure to beguile!      
A thousand bridges I could build meanwhile.      
Not science only and consummate art,      
Patience must also bear her part.      
A quiet spirit worketh whole years long;           2075   
Time only makes the subtle ferment strong.      
And all things that belong thereto,      
Are wondrous and exceeding rare!      
The devil taught her, it is true;      
But yet the draught the devil can’t prepare.  (Perceiving the beasts.)           2080   
Look yonder, what a dainty pair!      
Here is the maid! the knave is there!      
   
(To the beasts)

It seems your dame is not a home?      
   
THE MONKEYS

        Gone to carouse,      
        Out of the house,           2085   
        Thro’ the chimney and away!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

How long is it her wont to roam?      
   
THE MONKEYS

While we can warm our paws she’ll stay.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (to FAUST)

What think you of the charming creatures?      
   
FAUST

I loathe alike their form and features!           2090   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Nay, such discourse, be it confessed,      
Is just the thing that pleases me the best.      
   
(To the MONKEYS)

Tell me, ye whelps, accursed crew!      
What stir ye in the broth about?      
   
MONKEYS

Coarse beggar’s gruel here we stew.           2095   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Of customers you’ll have a rout.      
   
THE HE-MONKEY  (approaching and fawning on MEPHISTOPHELES)

        Quick! quick! throw the dice,      
        Make me rich in a trice,      
        Oh give me the prize!      
        Alas, for myself!           2100   
        Had I plenty of pelf,      
        I then should be wise.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

How blest the ape would think himself, if he      
Could only put into the lottery!  (In the meantime the young MONKEYS have been playing with a large globe, which they roll forwards)      
   
THE HE-MONKEY

        The world behold;           2105   
        Unceasingly roll’d,      
        It riseth and falleth ever;      
        It ringeth like glass!      
        How brittle, alas!      
        ’Tis hollow, and resteth never.           2110   
        How bright the sphere,      
        Still brighter here!      
        Now living am I!      
        Dear son, beware!      
        Nor venture there!           2115   
        Thou too must die!      
        It is of clay;      
        ’Twill crumble away;      
        There fragments lie.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Of what use is the sieve?           2120   
   
THE HE-MONKEY  (taking it down)

        The sieve would show,      
        If thou wert a thief or no?  (He runs to the SHE-MONKEY, and makes her look through it.)      
        Look through the sieve!      
        Dost know him the thief,      
        And dar’st thou not call him so?           2125   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (approaching the fire)

And then this pot?      
   
THE MONKEYS

        The half-witted sot!      
        He knows not the pot!      
        He know not the kettle!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

        Unmannerly beast!           2130   
        Be civil at least!      
   
THE HE-MONKEY

Take the whisk and sit down in the settle!  (He makes MEPHISTOPHELES sit down.)      
   
FAUST
(who all this time has been standing before a looking-glass, now approaching, and now retiring from it)

What do I see? what form, whose charms transcend      
The loveliness of earth, is mirror’d here!      
O Love, to waft me to her sphere,           2135   
To me the swiftest of thy pinions lend!      
Alas! If I remain not rooted to this place,      
If to approach more near I’m fondly lur’d,      
Her image fades, in veiling mist obscur’d!—      
Model of beauty both in form and face!           2140   
Is’t possible? Hath woman charms so rare?      
In this recumbent form, supremely fair,      
The essence must I see of heavenly grace?      
Can aught so exquisite on earth be found?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

The six days’ labour of a god, my friend,           2145   
Who doth himself cry bravo, at the end,      
By something clever doubtless should be crown’d.      
For this time gaze your fill, and when you please      
Just such a prize for you I can provide;      
How blest is he to whom kind fate decrees,           2150   
To take her to his home, a lovely bride!
(FAUST continues to gaze into the mirror. MEPHISTOPHELES stretching himself on the settle and playing with the whisk, continues to speak.)      
Here sit I, like a king upon his throne;      
My sceptre this;—the crown I want alone.      
   
The Monkeys  (who have hitherto been making all sorts of strange gestures, bring MEPHISTOPHELES a crown, with loud cries)

        Oh, be so good,      
        With sweat and with blood           2155   
        The crown to lime!  (They handle the crown awkwardly and break it in two pieces, with which they skip about.)      
        ’Twas fate’s decree!      
        We speak and see!      
        We hear and rhyme.      
   
FAUST  (before the mirror)

Woe’s me! well-nigh distraught I feel!           2160   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES
(pointing to the beasts)      
And even my own head almost begins to reel.      
   
THE MONKEYS

        If good luck attend,      
        If fitly things blend,           2165   
        Our jargon with thought      
        And with reason is fraught!      
   
FAUST  (as above)

A flame is kindled in my breast!      
Let us begone! nor linger here!
      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (in the same position)

It now at least must be confessed,           2170   
That poets sometimes are sincere.  (The caldron which the SHE-MONKEY has neglected begins to boil over; a great flame arises, which streams up the chimney. The WITCH comes down the chimney with horrible cries.)      
   
THE WITCH

Ough! ough! ough! ough!      
Accursed brute! accursed sow!      
The caldron dost neglect, for shame!      
Accursed brute to scorch the dame!  (Perceiving FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES)           2175   
Whom have we here?      
Who’s sneaking here?      
Whence are ye come?      
With what desire?      
The plague of fire           2180   
Your bones consume!  (She dips the skimming-ladle into the caldron and throws flames at FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES, and the MONKEYS. The MONKEYS whimper.)      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (twirling the whisk which he holds in his hand, and striking among the glasses and pots)

        Dash! Smash!      
        There lies the glass!      
        There lies the slime!      
        ’Tis but a jest;           2185   
        I but keep time,      
        Thou hellish pest,      
        To thine own chime!  (While the WITCH steps back in rage and astonishment.)      
Dost know me! Skeleton! Vile scarecrow, thou!      
Thy lord and master dost thou know?           2190   
What holds me, that I deal not now      
Thee and thine apes a stunning blow?      
No more respect to my red vest dost pay?      
Does my cock’s feather no allegiance claim?      
Have I my visage masked to-day?           2195   
Must I be forced myself to name?      
   
THE WITCH

Master, forgive this rude salute!      
But I perceive no cloven foot.      
And your two ravens, where are they?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

This once I must admit your plea;—           2200   
For truly I must own that we      
Each other have not seen for many a day.      
The culture, too, that shapes the world, at last      
Hath e’en the devil in its sphere embraced;      
The northern phantom from the scene hath pass’d,           2205   
Tail, talons, horns, are nowhere to be traced!      
As for the foot, with which I can’t dispense,      
’Twould injure me in company, and hence,      
Like many a youthful cavalier,      
False calves I now have worn for many a year.           2210   
   
THE WITCH  (dancing)

I am beside myself with joy,      
To see once more the gallant Satan here!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Woman, no more that name employ!      
   
THE WITCH

But why! what mischief hath it done?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

To fable-books it now doth appertain;           2215   
But people from the change have nothing won.      
Rid of the evil one, the evil ones remain.      
Lord Baron call thou me, so is the matter good;      
Of other cavaliers the mien I wear.      
Dost make no question of my gentle blood;           2220   
See here, this is the scutcheon that I bear!  (He makes an unseemly gesture.)      
   
THE WITCH  (laughing immoderately)

Ha! Ha! Just like yourself! You are, I ween,      
The same mad wag that you have ever been!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (to FAUST)

My friend, learn this to understand, I pray!      
To deal with witches this is still the way.           2225   
   
THE WITCH

Now tell me, gentlemen, what you desire?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Of your known juice a goblet we require.      
But for the very oldest let me ask;      
Double its strength with years doth grow.      
   
THE WITCH

Most willingly! And here I have a flask,           2230   
From which I’ve sipp’d myself ere now;      
What’s more, it doth no longer stink;      
To you a glass I joyfully will give.
(Aside.)      
If unprepar’d, however, this man drink,      
He hath not, as you know, an hour to live.           2235   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

He’s my good friend, with whom ’twill prosper well;      
I grudge him not the choicest of thy store.      
Now draw thy circle, speak thy spell,      
And straight a bumper for him pour!  (The WITCH, with extraordinary gestures, describes a circle, and places strange things within it. The glasses meanwhile begin to ring, the caldron to sound, and to make music. Lastly, she brings a great book; places the MONKEYS in the circle to serve her as a desk, and to hold the torches. She beckons FAUST to approach.)      
   
FAUST  (to MEPHISTOPHELES)

Tell me, to what doth all this tend?           2240   
Were will these frantic gestures end?      
This loathsome cheat, this senseless stuff      
I’ve known and hated long enough.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Mere mummery, a laugh to raise!      
Pray don’t be so fastidious! She           2245   
But as a leech, her hocus-pocus plays,      
That well with you her potion may agree.  (He compels FAUST to enter the circle.)  (The WITCH, with great emphasis, begins to declaim the book.)      
   
        This must thou ken:      
        Of one make ten,      
        Pass two, and then           2250   
        Make square the three,      
        So rich thou’lt be.      
        Drop out the four!      
        From five and six,      
        Thus essays the witch,           2255   
        Make seven and eight.      
        So all is straight!      
        And nine is one,      
        And ten is none,      
        This is the witch’s one-time-one!           2260   
   
FAUST

The hag doth as in fever rave.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

To these will follow many a stave.      
I know it well, so rings the book throughout;      
Much time I’ve lost in puzzling o’er its pages,      
For downright paradox, no doubt,           2265   
A mystery remains alike to fools and sages,      
Ancient the art and modern too, my friend.      
’Tis still the fashion as it used to be,      
Error instead of truth abroad to send      
By means of three and one, and one and three.           2270   
’Tis ever taught and babbled in the schools.      
Who’d take the trouble to dispute with fools?      
When words men hear, in sooth, they usually believe,      
That there must needs therein be something to conceive.      
   
THE WITCH  (continues)

        The lofty power           2275   
        Of wisdom’s dower,      
        From all the world conceal’d!      
        Who thinketh not,      
        To him I wot,      
        Unsought it is reveal’d.           2280   
   
FAUST

What nonsense doth the hag propound?      
My brain it doth well-nigh confound.      
A hundred thousand fools or more,      
Methinks I hear in chorus roar.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Incomparable Sibyl cease, I pray!           2285   
Hand us the liquor without more delay.      
And to the very brim the goblet crown!      
My friend he is, and need not be afraid;      
Besides, he is a man of many a grade,      
Who hath drunk deep already.  (The WITCH, with many ceremonies, pours the liquor into a cup; as FAUST lifts it to his mouth, a light flame arises.)           2290   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                Gulp it down!      
No hesitation! It will prove      
A cordial, and your heart inspire!      
What! with the devil hand and glove,      
And yet shrink back afraid of fire?  (The WITCH dissolves the circle. FAUST steps out.)           2295   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Now forth at once! thou dar’st not rest.      
Witch
And much, sir, may the liquor profit you!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (to the WITCH)

And if to pleasure thee I aught can do,      
Pray on Walpurgis mention thy request.      
   
Witch

Here is a song, sung o’er, sometimes you’ll see,           2300   
That ’twill a singular effect produce.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (to FAUST)

Come, quick, and let thyself be led by me;      
Thou must perspire, in order that the juice      
Thy frame may penetrate through every part.      
Then noble idleness I thee will teach to prize,           2305   
And soon with ecstasy thou’lt recognise      
How Cupid stirs and gambols in thy heart.      
   
FAUST

Let me but gaze one moment in the glass!      
Too lovely was that female form!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                Nay! nay!           2310   
A model which all women shall surpass,      
In flesh and blood ere long thou shalt survey.
(Aside.)      
As works that draught, thou presently shalt greet      
A Helen in each woman thou dost meet.      
   
A STREET
FAUST (MARGARET passing by)

FAUST

Fair lady, may I thus make free           2315   
To offer you my arm and company?      
   
MARGARET

I am no lady, am not fair,      
Can without escort home repair.  (She disengages herself and exit.)      
   
FAUST

By heaven! This girl is fair indeed!      
No form like hers can I recall.           2320   
Virtue she hath, and modest heed,      
Is piquant too, and sharp withal.      
Her cheek’s soft light, her rosy lips,      
No length of time will e’er eclipse!      
Her downward glance in passing by,           2325   
Deep in my heart is stamp’d for aye;      
How curt and sharp her answer too,      
To ecstasy the feeling grew!  (MEPHISTOPHELES enters.)      
   
FAUST

This girl must win for me! Dost hear?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Which?           2330   
   
FAUST

        She who but now passed.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                What! She?      
She from confession cometh here,      
From every sin absolved and free;      
I crept near the confessor’s chair.           2335   
All innocence her virgin soul,      
For next to nothing went she there;      
O’er such as she I’ve no control!      
   
FAUST

She’s past fourteen.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                You really talk           2340   
Like any gay Lothario,      
Who every floweret from its stalk      
Would pluck, and deems nor grace, nor truth,      
Secure against his arts, forsooth!      
This ne’er the less won’t always do.           2345   
   
FAUST

Sir Moralizer, prithee, pause;      
Nor plague me with your tiresome laws!      
To cut the matter short, my friend,      
She must this very night be mine,—      
And if to help me you decline,           2350   
Midnight shall see our compact end.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

What may occur just bear in mind!      
A fortnight’s space, at least, I need,      
A fit occasion but to find.      
   
FAUST

With but seven hours I could succeed;           2355   
Nor should I want the devil’s wile,      
So young a creature to beguile.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Like any Frenchman now you speak,      
But do not fret, I pray; why seek      
To hurry to enjoyment straight?           2360   
The pleasure is not half so great,      
As when at first around, above,      
With all the fooleries of love,      
The puppet you can knead and mould      
As in Italian story oft is told.           2365   
   
FAUST

No such incentives do I need.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

But now, without offense or jest!      
You cannot quickly, I protest,      
In winning this sweet child succeed.      
By storm we cannot take the fort,           2370   
To stratagem we must resort.      
   
FAUST

Conduct me to her place of rest!      
Some token of the angel bring!      
A kerchief from her snowy breast,      
A garter bring me,—any thing!           2375   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

That I my anxious zeal may prove,      
Your pangs to sooth and aid your love,      
A single moment will we not delay,      
Will lead you to her room this very day.      
   
FAUST

And shall I see her?—Have her?           2380   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                No!      
She to a neighbour’s house will go;      
But in her atmosphere alone,      
The tedious hours meanwhile you may employ,      
In blissful dreams of future joy.           2385   
   
FAUST

Can we go now?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                ’Tis yet too soon.      
   
FAUST

Some present for my love procure!  (Exit.)      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Presents so soon! ’tis well! success is sure!      
Full many a goodly place I know,           2390   
And treasures buried long ago;      
I must a bit o’erlook them now.  (Exit.)      
   
EVENING. A SMALL AND NEAT ROOM
MARGARET
(braiding and binding up her hair)

I would give something now to know,      
Who yonder gentleman could be!      
He had a gallant air, I trow,           2395   
And doubtless was of high degree:      
That written on his brow was seen—      
Nor else would he so bold have been.  (Exit.)      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Come in! tread softly! be discreet!      
   
FAUST  (after a pause)

Begone and leave me, I entreat!           2400   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (looking round)

Not every maiden is so neat  (Exit.)      
   
FAUST  (gazing round)

Welcome sweet twilight, calm and blest,      
That in this hallow’d precinct reigns!      
Fond yearning love, inspire my breast,      
Feeding on hope’s sweet dew thy blissful pains!           2405   
What stillness here environs me!      
Content and order brood around.      
What fulness in this poverty!      
In this small cell what bliss profound!  (He throws himself on the leather arm-chair beside the bed)      
Receive me thou, who hast in thine embrace,           2410   
Welcom’d in joy and grief the ages flown!      
How oft the children of a by-gone race      
Have cluster’d round this patriarchal throne!      
Haply she, also, whom I hold so dear,      
For Christmas gift, with grateful joy possess’d,           2415   
Hath with the full round cheek of childhood, here,      
Her grandsire’s wither’d hand devoutly press’d.      
Maiden! I feel thy spirit haunt the place,      
Breathing of order and abounding grace.      
As with a mother’s voice it prompteth thee,           2420   
The pure white cover o’er the board to spread,      
To strew the crisping sand beneath thy tread.      
Dear hand! so godlike in its ministry!      
The hut becomes a paradise through thee!      
And here—  (He raises the bed-curtain.)           2425   
How thrills my pulse with strange delight!      
Here could I linger hours untold;      
Thou, Nature, didst in vision bright,      
The embryo angel here unfold.      
Here lay the child, her bosom warm           2430   
With life; while steeped in slumber’s dew,      
To perfect grace, her godlike form,      
With pure and hallow’d weavings grew!      
   
And thou! ah here what seekest thou?      
How quails mine inmost being now!           2435   
What wouldst thou here? what makes thy heart so sore?      
Unhappy Faust! I know thee now no more.      
   
Do I a magic atmosphere inhale?      
Erewhile, my passion would not brook delay!      
Now in a pure love-dream I melt away.           2440   
Are we the sport of every passing gale?      
   
Should she return and enter now,      
How wouldst thou rue thy guilty flame!      
Proud vaunter—thou wouldst hide thy brow,—      
And at her feet sink down with shame.           2445   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

    Quick! quick! below I see her there.      
   
FAUST

    Away! I will return no more!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

    Here is a casket, with a store      
    Of jewels, which I got elsewhere      
    Just lay it in the press; make haste!           2450   
    I swear to you, ’twill turn her brain;      
    Therein some trifles I have placed,      
    Wherewith another to obtain.      
    But child is child, and play is play.      
   
FAUST

    I know not—shall I?           2455   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                Do you ask?      
Perchance you would retain the treasure?      
If such your wish, why then, I say,      
Henceforth absolve me from my task,      
Nor longer waste your hours of leisure.           2460   
I trust you’re not by avarice led!      
I rub my hands, I scratch my head,—  (He places the casket in the press and closes the lock.)      
Now quick! Away!      
That soon the sweet young creature may      
The wish and purpose of your heart obey;           2465   
Yet stand you there      
As would you to the lecture-room repair,      
As if before you stood,      
Arrayed in flesh and blood,      
Physics and metaphysics weird and grey!—           2470   
Away!  (Exeunt.)      
   
MARGARET  (with a lamp)

        Here ’tis so close, so sultry now,  (She opens the window.)      
Yet out of doors ’tis not so warm.      
I feel so strange, I know not how—      
I wish my mother would come home.           2475   
Through me there runs a shuddering—      
I’m but a foolish timid thing!  (While undressing herself she begins to sing.)      
    There was a king in Thule,      
    True even to the grave;      
    To whom his dying mistress           2480   
    A golden beaker gave.      
   
    At every feast he drained it,      
    Naught was to him so dear,      
    And often as he drained it,      
    Gush’d from his eyes the tear.           2485   
   
    When death came, unrepining      
    His cities o’er he told;      
    All to his heir resigning,      
    Except his cup of gold.      
   
    With many a knightly vassal           2490   
    At a royal feast sat he,      
    In yon proud hall ancestral,      
    In his castle o’er the sea.      
   
    Up stood the jovial monarch,      
    And quaff’d his last life’s glow,           2495   
    Then hurled the hallow’d goblet      
    Into the flood below.      
   
    He saw it splashing, drinking,      
    And plunging in the sea;

Faust. Part I   
   
2500–2999   
   
   
    His eyes meanwhile were sinking,           2500   
    And never again drank he.  (She opens the press to put away her clothes, and perceives the casket.)      
How comes this lovely casket here? The press      
I locked, of that I’m confident.      
’Tis very wonderful! What’s in it I can’t guess;      
Perhaps ’twas brought by some one in distress,           2505   
And left in pledge for loan my mother lent.      
Here by a ribbon hangs a little key!      
I have a mind to open it and see!      
Heavens! only look! what have we here!      
In all my days ne’er saw I such a sight!           2510   
Jewels! which any noble dame might wear,      
For some high pageant richly dight!      
This chain—how would it look on me!      
These splendid gems, whose may they be?  (She puts them on and steps before the glass.)      
Were but the ear-rings only mine!           2515   
Thus one has quite another air.      
What boots it to be young and fair?      
It doubtless may be very fine;      
But then, alas, none cares for you,      
And praise sounds half like pity too.           2520   
Gold all doth lure,      
Gold doth secure      
All things. Alas, we poor!      
   
PROMENADE
FAUST walking thoughtfully up and down. To him MEPHISTOPHELES

MEPHISTOPHELES

By all rejected love! By hellish fire I curse,      
Would I knew aught to make my imprecation worse!           2525   
   
FAUST

What aileth thee? what chafes thee now so sore?      
A face like that I never saw before!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

I’d yield me to the devil instantly,      
Did it not happen that myself am he!      
   
FAUST

There must be some disorder in thy wit!           2530   
To rave thus like a madman, is it fit?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Think! only think! The gems for Gretchen brought,      
Them hath a priest now made his own!—      
A glimpse of them the mother caught,      
And ’gan with secret fear to groan.           2535   
The woman’s scent is keen enough;      
Doth ever in the prayer-book snuff;      
Smells every article to ascertain      
Whether the thing is holy or profane,      
And scented in the jewels rare,           2540   
That there was not much blessing there.      
“My child,” she cries, “ill-gotten good      
Ensnares the soul, consumes the blood;      
With them we’ll deck our Lady’s shrine,      
She’ll cheer our souls with bread divine!”           2545   
At this poor Gretchen ’gan to pout;      
’Tis a gift-horse, at least, she thought,      
And sure, he godless cannot be,      
Who brought them here so cleverly.      
Straight for a priest the mother sent,           2550   
Who, when he understood the jest,      
With what he saw was well content.      
“This shows a pious mind!” Quoth he:      
“Self-conquest is true victory.      
The Church hath a good stomach, she, with zest,           2555   
Whole countries hath swallow’d down,      
And never yet a surfeit known.      
The Church alone, be it confessed,      
Daughters, can ill-got wealth digest.”      
   
FAUST

It is a general custom, too.           2560   
Practised alike by king and jew.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

With that, clasp, chain, and ring, he swept      
As they were mushrooms; and the casket,      
Without one word of thanks, he kept,      
As if of nuts it were a basket.           2565   
Promised reward in heaven, then forth he hied—      
And greatly they were edified.      
   
FAUST

And Gretchen!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

              In unquiet mood      
Knows neither what she would or should;           2570   
The trinkets night and day thinks o’er,      
On him who brought them, dwells still more.      
   
FAUST

The darling’s sorrow grieves me, bring      
Another set without delay!      
The first, methinks, was no great thing.           2575   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

All’s to my gentleman child’s play!      
   
FAUST

Plan all things to achieve my end!      
Engage the attention of her friend!      
No milk-and-water devil be,      
And bring fresh jewels instantly!           2580   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Ay, sir! Most gladly I’ll obey. (FAUST exit.)      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Your doting love-sick fool, with ease,      
Merely his lady-love to please,      
Sun, moon, and stars in sport would puff away.  (Exit.)      
   
THE NEIGHBOUR’S HOUSE


MARTHA  (alone)

God pardon my dear husband, he
        2585   
Doth not in truth act well by me!      
Forth in the world abroad to roam,      
And leave me on the straw at home.      
And yet his will I ne’er did thwart,      
God knows, I lov’d him from my heart.  (She weeps.)           2590   
Perchance he’s dead!—oh wretched state!—      
Had I but a certificate!  (MARGARET comes)      
   
MARGARET
Dame Martha!
   
MARTHA

              Gretchen?      
   
MARGARET

                Only think!           2595   
My knees beneath me well-nigh sink!      
Within my press I’ve found to-day,      
Another case, of ebony.      
And things—magnificent they are,      
More costly than the first, by far.           2600   
   
MARTHA

You must not name it to your mother!      
It would to shrift, just like the other.      
   
MARGARET

Nay look at them! now only see!      
   
MARTHA  (dresses her up)

Thou happy creature!      
   
MARGARET

                Woe is me!           2605   
Them in the street I cannot wear,      
Or in the church, or any where.      
   
MARTHA

Come often over here to me,      
The gems put on quite privately;      
And then before the mirror walk an hour or so,           2610   
Thus we shall have our pleasure too.      
Then suitable occasions we must seize,      
As at a feast, to show them by degrees:      
A chain at first, pearl ear-drops then,—your mother      
Won’t see them, or we’ll coin some tale or other.           2615   
   
MARGARET

But, who, I wonder, could the caskets bring?      
I fear there’s something wrong about the thing!  (A knock.)      
Good heavens! can that my mother be?      
   
MARTHA  (peering through the blind)

’Tis a strange gentleman, I see.      
Come in!  (MEPHISTOPHELES enters)           2620   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

          I’ve ventur’d to intrude to-day.      
Ladies, excuse the liberty, I pray.  (He steps back respectfully before MARGARET.)      
After dame Martha Schwerdtlein I inquire!      
   
MARTHA

’Tis I. Pray what have you to say to me?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (aside to her)

I know you now,—and therefore will retire;           2625   
At present you’ve distinguished company.      
Pardon the freedom, Madam, with your leave,      
I will make free to call again at eve.      
   
MARTHA  (aloud)

Why, child, of all strange notions, he      
For some grand lady taketh thee!           2630   
   
MARGARET

I am, in truth, of humble blood—      
The gentleman is far too good—      
Nor gems nor trinkets are my own.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Oh ’tis not the mere ornaments alone;      
Her glance and mien far more betray.           2635   
Rejoiced I am that I may stay.      
   
MARTHA

Your business, Sir? I long to know—      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Would I could happier tidings show!      
I trust mine errand you’ll not let me rue;      
Your husband’s dead, and greeteth you.           2640   
   
MARTHA

Is dead? True heart! Oh misery!      
My husband dead! Oh, I shall die!      
   
MARGARET

Alas! good Martha! don’t despair!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Now listen to the sad affair!      
   
MARGARET

I for this cause should fear to love.           2645   
The loss my certain death would prove.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Joy still must sorrow, sorrow joy attend.      
   
MARTHA

Proceed, and tell the story of his end!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

At Padua, in St. Anthony’s,      
In holy ground his body lies;           2650   
Quiet and cool his place of rest,      
With pious ceremonials blest.      
   
MARTHA

And had you naught besides to bring?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Oh yes! one grave and solemn prayer;      
Let them for him three hundred masses sing!           2655   
But in my pockets, I have nothing there.      
   
MARTHA

No trinket! no love-token did he send!      
What every journeyman safe in his pouch will hoard      
There for remembrance fondly stored,      
And rather hungers, rather begs than spend!           2660   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Madam, in truth, it grieves me sore,      
But he his gold not lavishly hath spent.      
His failings too he deeply did repent,      
Ay! and his evil plight bewail’d still more.      
   
MARGARET

Alas! That men should thus be doomed to woe!           2665   
I for his soul will many a requiem pray.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

A husband you deserve this very day;      
A child so worthy to be loved.      
   
MARGARET

                Ah no,      
That time hath not yet come for me.           2670   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

If not a spouse, a gallant let it be.      
Among heaven’s choicest gifts, I place,      
So sweet a darling to embrace.      
   
MARGARET

Our land doth no such usage know.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Usage or not, it happens so.           2675   
   
MARTHA

Go on, I pray!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                I stood by his bedside.      
Something less foul it was than dung;      
’Twas straw half rotten; yet, he as a Christian died.      
And sorely hath remorse his conscience wrung.           2680   
“Wretch that I was,” quoth he, with parting breath,      
“So to forsake my business and my wife!      
Ah! the remembrance is my death,      
Could I but have her pardon in this life!”—      
   
MARTHA  (weeping)

Dear soul! I’ve long forgiven him, indeed!           2685   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

“Though she, God knows, was more to blame than I.”      
   
MARTHA

He lied! What, on the brink of death to lie!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

If I am skill’d the countenance to read,      
He doubtless fabled as he parted hence.—      
“No time had I to gape, or take my ease,” he said,           2690   
“First to get children, and then get them bread;      
And bread, too, in the very widest sense;      
Nor could I eat in peace even my proper share.”      
   
MARTHA

What, all my truth, my love forgotten quite?      
My weary drudgery by day and night!           2695   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Not so! He thought of you with tender care.      
Quoth he: “Heaven knows how fervently I prayed,      
For wife and children when from Malta bound;—      
The prayer hath heaven with favour crowned;      
We took a Turkish vessel which conveyed           2700   
Rich store of treasure for the Sultan’s court;      
It’s own reward our gallant action brought;      
The captur’d prize was shared among the crew      
And of the treasure I received my due.”      
   
MARTHA

How? Where? The treasure hath he buried, pray?           2705   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Where the four winds have blown it, who can say?      
In Naples as he stroll’d, a stranger there,—      
A comely maid took pity on my friend;      
And gave such tokens of her love and care,      
That he retained them to his blessed end.           2710   
   
MARTHA

Scoundrel! to rob his children of their bread!      
And all this misery, this bitter need,      
Could not his course of recklessness impede!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Well, he hath paid the forfeit, and is dead.      
Now were I in your place, my counsel hear;           2715   
My weeds I’d wear for one chaste year,      
And for another lover meanwhile would look out.      
   
MARTHA

Alas, I might search far and near,      
Not quickly should I find another like my first!      
There could not be a fonder fool than mine,           2720   
Only he loved too well abroad to roam;      
Loved foreign women too, and foreign wine,      
And loved besides the dice accurs’d.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

All had gone swimmingly, no doubt,      
Had he but given you at home,           2725   
On his side, just as wide a range.      
Upon such terms, to you I swear,      
Myself with you would gladly rings exchange!      
   
MARTHA

The gentleman is surely pleas’d to jest!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (aside)

Now to be off in time, were best!           2730   
She’d make the very devil marry her.  (To MARGARET.)      
How fares it with your heart?      
   
MARGARET

                How mean you, Sir?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (aside)

The sweet young innocent!  (aloud)      
                Ladies, farewell!           2735   
   
MARGARET

Farewell!      
   
MARTHA

          But ere you leave us, quickly tell!      
I from a witness fain had heard,      
Where, how, and when my husband died and was interr’d.      
To forms I’ve always been attached indeed,           2740   
His death I fain would in the journals read.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Ay, madam, what two witnesses declare      
Is held as valid everywhere;      
A gallant friend I have, not far from here,      
Who will for you before the judge appear.           2745   
I’ll bring him straight.      
   
MARTHA

                I pray you do!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

And this young lady, we shall find her too?      
A noble youth, far travelled, he      
Shows to the sex all courtesy.           2750   
   
MARGARET

I in his presence needs must blush for shame.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Not in the presence of a crowned king!      
   
MARTHA

The garden, then, behind my house, we’ll name,      
There we’ll await you both this evening.      
   
A STREET
FAUST. MEPHISTOPHELES

FAUST

How is it now? How speeds it? Is’t in train?           2755   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Bravo! I find you all aflame!      
Gretchen full soon your own you’ll name.      
This eve, at neighbour Martha’s, her you’ll meet again;      
The woman seems expressly made      
To drive the pimp and gipsy’s trade.           2760   
   
FAUST

Good!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

      But from us she something would request.      
   
FAUST

A favour claims return as this world goes.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

We have on oath but duly to attest,      
That her dead husband’s limbs, outstretch’d repose           2765   
In holy ground at Padua.      
   
FAUST

                Sage indeed!      
So I suppose we straight must journey there!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Sancta simplicitas! For that no need!      
Without much knowledge we have but to swear.           2770   
   
FAUST

If you have nothing better to suggest,      
Against you plan I must at once protest.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Oh, holy man! methinks I have you there!      
In all your life say, have you ne’er      
False witness borne, until this hour?           2775   
Have you of God, the world, and all it doth contain,      
Of man, and that which worketh in his heart and brain,      
Not definitions given, in words of weight and power,      
With front unblushing, and a dauntless breast?      
Yet, if into the depth of things you go,           2780   
Touching these matters, it must be confess’d,      
As much as of Herr Schwerdtlein’s death you know!      
   
FAUST

Thou art and dost remain liar and sophist too.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Ay, if one did not take a somewhat deeper view!      
To-morrow, in all honour, thou           2785   
Poor Gretchen wilt befool, and vow      
Thy soul’s deep love, in lover’s fashion.      
   
FAUST

And from my heart.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                All good and fair!      
Then deathless constancy thou’lt swear;           2790   
Speak of one all o’ermastering passion,—      
Will that too issue from the heart?      
   
FAUST

                Forbear!      
When passion sways me, and I seek to frame      
Fir utterance for feeling, deep, intense,           2795   
And for my frenzy finding no fit name,      
Sweep round the ample world with every sense,      
Grasp at the loftiest words to speak my flame,      
And call the glow, wherewith I burn,      
Quenchless, eternal, yea, eterne—           2800   
Is that of sophistry a devilish play?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Yet am I right!      
   
FAUST

                Mark this, my friend,      
And spare my lungs; who would the right maintain,      
And hath a tongue wherewith his point to gain,           2805   
Will gain it in the end.      
But come, of gossip I am weary quite;      
Because I’ve no resource, thou’rt in the right.      
   
A GARDEN
MARGARET on FAUST’S arm. MARTHA with MEPHISTOPHELES walking up and down

MARGARET

I feel it, you but spare my ignorance,      
The gentleman to shame me stoops thus low.           2810   
A traveller from complaisance,      
Still makes the best of things; I know      
Too well, my humble prattle never can      
Have power to entertain so wise a man.      
   
FAUST

One glance, one word from thee doth charm me more,           2815   
Than the world’s wisdom or the sage’s lore.  (He kisses her hand.)      
   
MARGARET

Nay! trouble not yourself! A hand so coarse,      
So rude as mine, how can you kiss!      
What constant work at home must I not do perforce!      
My mother too exacting is.  (They pass on.)           2820   
   
MARTHA

Thus, sir, unceasing travel is your lot?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Traffic and duty urge us! With what pain      
Are we compelled to leave full many a spot,      
Where yet we dare not once remain!      
   
MARTHA

In youth’s wild years, with vigour crown’d,           2825   
’Tis not amiss thus through the world to sweep;      
But ah, the evil days come round!      
And to a lonely grave as bachelor to creep,      
A pleasant thing has no one found.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

The prospect fills me with dismay.           2830   
   
MARTHA

Therefore in time, dear sir, reflect, I pray.  (They pass on.)      
   
MARGARET

Ay, out of sight is out of mind!      
Politeness easy is to you;      
Friends everywhere, and not a few,      
Wiser than I am, you will find.           2835   
   
FAUST

O dearest, trust me, what doth pass for sense      
Full oft is self-conceit and blindness!      
   
MARGARET

                How?      
   
FAUST

Simplicity and holy innocence,—      
When will ye learn your hallow’d worth to know!           2840   
Ah, when will meekness and humility,      
Kind and all-bounteous nature’s loftiest dower—      
   
MARGARET

Only one little moment think of me!      
To think of you I shall have many an hour.      
   
FAUST

You are perhaps much alone?           2845   
   
MARGARET

Yes, small our household is, I own,      
Yet must I see to it. No maid we keep,      
And I must cook, sew, knit, and sweep,      
Still early on my feet and late;      
My mother is in all things, great and small,           2850   
So accurate!      
Not that for thrift there is such pressing need;      
Than others we might make more show indeed:      
My father left behind a small estate,      
A house and garden near the city-wall.           2855   
But fairly quiet now my days, I own;      
As soldier is my brother gone;      
My little sister’s dead; the babe to rear      
Occasion’d me some care and fond annoy;      
But I would go through all again with joy,           2860   
The darling was to me so dear.      
   
FAUST

An angel, sweet, if it resembled thee!      
   
MARGARET

I reared it up, and it grew fond of me.      
After my father’s death it saw the day;      
We gave my mother up for lost, she lay           2865   
In such a wretched plight, and then at length      
So very slowly she regain’d her strength.      
Weak as she was, ’twas vain for her to try      
Herself to suckle the poor babe, so I      
Reared it on milk and water all alone;           2870   
And thus the child became as ’twere my own;      
Within my arms it stretched itself and grew,      
And smiling, nestled in my bosom too.      
   
FAUST

Doubtless the purest happiness was thine.      
   
MARGARET

But many weary hours, in sooth, were also mine.           2875   
At night its little cradle stood      
Close to my bed; so was I wide awake      
If it but stirred;      
One while I was obliged to give it food,      
Or to my arms the darling take;           2880   
From bed full oft must rise, whene’er its cry I heard,      
And, dancing it, must pace the chamber to and fro;      
Stand at the wash-tub early; forthwith go      
To market, and then mind the cooking too—      
To-morrow like to-day, the whole year through.           2885   
Ah, sir, thus living, it must be confess’d      
One’s spirits are not always of the best;      
Yet it a relish gives to food and rest.  (They pass on.)      
   
MARTHA

Poor women! we are badly off, I own;      
A bachelor’s conversion’s hard, indeed!           2890   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Madam, with one like you it rests alone,      
To tutor me a better course to lead.      
   
MARTHA

Speak frankly, sir, none is there you have met?      
Has your heart ne’er attach’d itself as yet?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

One’s own fire-side and a good wife are gold           2895   
And pearls of price, so says the proverb old.      
   
MARTHA

I mean, has passion never stirred your breast?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

I’ve everywhere been well received, I own.      
   
MARTHA

Yet hath your heart no earnest preference known?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

With ladies one should ne’er presume to jest.           2900   
   
MARTHA

Ah! you mistake!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                I’m sorry I’m so blind      
But this I know-that you are very kind.  (They pass on.)      
   
FAUST

Me, little angel, didst thou recognize,      
When in the garden first I came?           2905   
   
MARGARET

Did you not see it? I cast down my eyes.      
   
FAUST

Thou dost forgive my boldness, dost not blame      
The liberty I took that day,      
When thou from church didst lately wend thy way?      
   
MARGARET

I was confused. So had it never been;           2910   
No one of me could any evil say.      
Alas, thought I, he doubtless in thy mien,      
Something unmaidenly or bold hath seen?      
It seemed as if it struck him suddenly,      
Here’s just a girl with whom one may make free!           2915   
Yet I must own that then I scarcely knew      
What in your favour here began at once to plead;      
Yet I was angry with myself indeed,      
That I more angry could not feel with you.      
   
FAUST

Sweet love!           2920   
   
MARGARET

            Just wait awhile!  (She gathers a star-flower and plucks off the leaves one after another.)      
   
FAUST

                A nosegay may that be?      
   
MARGARET

No! It is but a game.      
   
FAUST

                How?      
   
MARGARET

                Go, you’ll laugh at me!  (She plucks off the leaves and murmurs to herself.)           2925   
   
FAUST

What murmurest thou?      
   
MARGARET  (half aloud)

                He loves me—loves me not.      
   
FAUST

Sweet angel, with thy face of heavenly bliss!      
   
MARGARET  (continues)

He loves me—not—he loves me-not—  (Plucking off the last leaf with fond joy.)      
                He loves me!           2930   
   
FAUST

                Yes!      
   
And this flower-language, darling, let it be,      
A heavenly oracle! He loveth thee!      
Know’st thou the meaning of, He loveth thee?  (He seizes both her hands.)      
   
MARGARET

I tremble so!           2935   
   
FAUST

              Nay! Do not tremble, love!      
Let this hand-pressure, let this glance reveal      
Feelings, all power of speech above;      
To give oneself up wholly and to feel      
A joy that must eternal prove!           2940   
Eternal!—Yes, its end would be despair.      
No end!—It cannot end!  (MARGARET presses his hand, extricates herself, and runs away. He stands a moment in thought and then follows her.)      
   
MARTHA  (approaching)

Night’s closing.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                Yes, we’ll presently away.      
   
MARTHA

I would entreat you longer yet to stay;           2945   
But ’tis a wicked place, just here about;      
It is as if the folk had nothing else to do,      
Nothing to think of too,      
But gaping watch their neighbours, who goes in and out;      
And scandal’s busy still, do whatsoe’er one may.           2950   
And our young couple?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                They have flown up there.      
The wanton butterflies!      
   
MARTHA

                He seems to take to her.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

And she to him. ’Tis of the world the way!           2955   
   
A SUMMER-HOUSE
(MARGARET runs in, hides behind the door, holds the tip of her finger to her lip, and peeps through the crevice.)
   
MARGARET

He comes!      
   
FAUST

          Ah, little rogue, so thou      
Think’st to provoke me! I have caught thee now!  (He kisses her.)      
   
MARGARET  (embracing him, and returning the kiss)

Dearest of men! I love thee from my heart!  (MEPHISTOPHELES knocks.)           2960   
   
FAUST  (stamping

Who’s there?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

              A friend!      
   
FAUST

                A brute!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                ’Tis time to part.      
   
MARTHA  (comes)

Ay, it is late, good sir.           2965   
   
FAUST

                Mayn’t I attend you, then?      
   
MARGARET

Oh no—my mother would—adieu, adieu!      
   
FAUST

And must I really then take leave of you?      
Farewell!      
   
MARTHA

          Good-bye!           2970   
   
MARGARET

                Ere long to meet again!  (Exeunt FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES.)      
   
MARGARET

Good heavens! how all things far and near      
Must fill his mind,—a man like this!      
Abash’d before him I appear,      
And say to all things only, yes.           2975   
Poor simple child, I cannot see,      
What ’tis that he can find in me.  (Exit.)      
   
FOREST AND CAVERN

FAUST  (alone)

Spirit sublime! Thou gav’st me, gav’st me all      
For which I prayed! Not vainly hast thou turn’d      
To me thy countenance in flaming fire:           2980   
Gavest me glorious nature for my realm,      
And also power to feel her and enjoy;      
Not merely with a cold and wondering glance,      
Thou dost permit me in her depths profound,      
As in the bosom of a friend to gaze.           2985   
Before me thou dost lead her living tribes,      
And dost in silent grove, in air and stream      
Teach me to know my kindred. And when roars      
The howling storm-blast through the groaning wood,      
Wrenching the giant pine, which in its fall           2990   
Crashing sweeps down its neighbour trunks and boughs,      
While hollow thunder from the hill resounds;      
Then thou dost lead me to some shelter’d cave,      
Dost there reveal me to myself, and show      
Of my own bosom the mysterious depths.           2995   
And when with soothing beam, the moon’s pale orb      
Full in my view climbs up the pathless sky,      
From crag and dewy grove, the silvery forms      
Of by-gone ages hover, and assuage

Faust. Part I   
   
3000–3499   
   
   
The joy austere of contemplative thought.           3000   
   
Oh, that naught perfect is assign’d to man,      
I feel, alas! With this exalted joy,      
Which lifts me near and nearer to the gods,      
Thou gav’st me this companion, unto whom      
I needs must cling, though cold and insolent,           3005   
He still degrades me to myself, and turns      
Thy glorious gifts to nothing, with a breath.      
He in my bosom with malicious zeal      
For that fair image fans a raging fire;      
From craving to enjoyment thus I reel           3010   
And in enjoyment languish for desire.  (MEPHISTOPHELES enters.)      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Of this lone life have you not your fill?      
How for so long can it have charms for you?      
’Tis well enough to try it if you will;      
But then away again to something new!           3015   
   
FAUST

Would you could better occupy your leisure,      
Than in disturbing thus my hours of joy.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Well! Well! I’ll leave you to yourself with pleasure,      
A serious tone you hardly dare employ.      
To part from one so crazy, harsh, and cross,           3020   
Were not in truth a grievous loss.      
The live-long day, for you I toil and fret;      
Ne’er from his worship’s face a hint I get,      
What pleases him, or what to let alone.      
   
FAUST

Ay truly! that is just the proper tone!           3025   
He wearies me, and would with thanks be paid!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Poor Son of Earth, without my aid,      
How would thy weary days have flown?      
Thee of thy foolish whims I’ve cured,      
Thy vain imaginations banished,           3030   
And but for me, be well assured,      
Thou from this sphere must soon have vanished.      
In rocky hollows and in caverns drear,      
Why like an owl sit moping here?      
Wherefore from dripping stones and moss with ooze embued,           3035   
Dost suck, like any toad, thy food?      
A rare, sweet pastime. Verily!      
The doctor cleaveth still to thee.      
   
FAUST

Dost comprehend what bliss without alloy      
From this wild wand’ring in the desert springs?—           3040   
Couldst thou but guess the new life-power it brings,      
Thou wouldst be fiend enough to envy me my joy.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

What super-earthly ecstasy! at night,      
To lie in darkness on the dewy height,      
Embracing heaven and earth in rapture high,           3045   
The soul dilating to a deity;      
With prescient yearnings pierce the core of earth,      
Feel in your labouring breast the six-days’ birth,      
Enjoy, in proud delight what no one knows,      
While your love-rapture o’er creation flows,—           3050   
The earthly lost in beatific vision,      
And then the lofty intuition—  (With a gesture.)      
I need not tell you how—to close!      
   
FAUST

Fie on you!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

            This displeases you? “For shame!”           3055   
You are forsooth entitled to exclaim;      
We to chaste ears it seems must not pronounce      
What, nathless, the chaste heart cannot renounce.      
Well, to be brief, the joy as fit occasions rise,      
I grudge you not, of specious lies.           3060   
But long this mood thou’lt not retain.      
Already thou’rt again outworn,      
And should this last, thou wilt be torn      
By frenzy or remorse and pain.      
Enough of this! Thy true love dwells apart,           3065   
And all to her seems flat and tame;      
Alone thine image fills her heart,      
She loves thee with an all-devouring flame.      
First came thy passion with o’erpowering rush,      
Like mountain torrent, swollen by the melted snow;           3070   
Full in her heart didst pour the sudden gush,      
Now has thy brooklet ceased to flow.      
Instead of sitting throned midst forests wild,      
It would become so great a lord      
To comfort the enamour’d child,           3075   
And the young monkey for her love reward.      
To her the hours seem miserably long;      
She from the window sees the clouds float by      
As o’er the lofty city-walls they fly,      
“If I a birdie were!” so runs her song,           3080   
Half through the night and all day long.      
Cheerful sometimes, more oft at heart full sore;      
Fairly outwept seem now her tears,      
Anon she tranquil is, or so appears,      
And love-sick evermore.           3085   
   
FAUST

Snake! Serpent vile!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (aside)

Good! If I catch thee with my guile!      
   
FAUST

Vile reprobate! go get thee hence;      
Forbear the lovely girl to name!      
Nor in my half-distracted sense,           3090   
Kindle anew the smouldering flame!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

What wouldest thou! She thinks you’ve taken flight;      
It seems, she’s partly in the right.      
   
FAUST

I’m near her still—and should I distant rove,      
Her I can ne’er forget, ne’er lose her love;           3095   
And all things touch’d by those sweet lips of hers,      
Even the very Host, my envy stirs.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

’Tis well! I oft have envied you indeed,      
The twin-pair that among the roses feed.      
   
FAUST

Pander, avaunt!           3100   
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                Go to! I laugh, the while you rail,      
The power which fashion’d youth and maid,      
Well understood the noble trade;      
So neither shall occasion fail.      
But hence!—A mighty grief I trow!           3105   
Unto thy lov’d one’s chamber thou      
And not to death shouldst go.      
   
FAUST

What is to me heaven’s joy within her arms?      
What though my life her bosom warms!—      
Do I not ever feel her woe?           3110   
The outcast am I not, unhoused, unblest,      
Inhuman monster, without aim or rest,      
Who, like the greedy surge, from rock to rock,      
Sweeps down the dread abyss with desperate shock?      
While she, within her lowly cot, which graced           3115   
The Alpine slope, beside the waters wild,      
Her homely cares in that small world embraced,      
Secluded lived, a simple, artless child.      
Was’t not enough, in thy delirious whirl      
To blast the steadfast rocks;           3120   
Her, and her peace as well,      
Must I, God-hated one, to ruin hurl!      
Dost claim this holocaust, remorseless Hell!      
Fiend, help me to cut short the hours of dread!      
Let what must happen, happen speedily!           3125   
Her direful doom fall crushing on my head,      
And into ruin let her plunge with me!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Why how again it seethes and glows!      
Away, thou fool! Her torment ease!      
When such a head no issue sees,           3130   
It pictures straight the final close.      
Long life to him who boldly dares!      
A devil’s pluck thou’rt wont to show;      
As for a devil who despairs,      
Nothing I find so mawkish here below.           3135   
   
MARGARET’S ROOM

MARGARET  (alone at her spinning wheel)

My peace is gone,      
  My heart is sore,      
I find it never,      
  And nevermore!      
   
Where him I have not,           3140   
  Is the grave; and all      
The world to me      
  Is turned to gall.      
   
My wilder’d brain      
  Is overwrought;           3145   
My feeble senses      
  Are distraught.      
   
My peace is gone,      
  My heart is sore,      
I find it never,           3150   
  And nevermore!      
   
For him from the window      
  I gaze, at home;      
For him and him only      
  Abroad I roam.           3155   
   
His lofty step,      
  His bearing high,      
The smile of his lip,      
  The power of his eye,      
   
His witching words,           3160   
  Their tones of bliss,      
His hand’s fond pressure      
  And ah—his kiss!      
   
My peace is gone,      
  My heart is sore,           3165   
I find it never,      
  And nevermore.      
   
My bosom aches      
  To feel him near;      
Ah, could I clasp           3170   
  And fold him here!      
   
Kiss him and kiss him      
  Again would I,      
And on his kisses      
  I fain would die.           3175   
   
MARTHA’S GARDEN
MARGARET and FAUST

MARGARET

Promise me, Henry!      
   
FAUST

                What I can!      
   
MARGARET

How thy religion fares, I fain would hear.      
Thou art a good kind-hearted man,      
Only that way not well-disposed, I fear.           3180   
   
FAUST

Forbear, my child! Thou feelest thee I love;      
My heart, my blood I’d give, my love to prove,      
And none would of their faith or church bereave.      
   
MARGARET

That’s not enough, we must ourselves believe!      
   
FAUST

Must we?           3185   
   
MARGARET

          Ah, could I but thy soul inspire!      
Thou honourest not the sacraments, alas!      
   
FAUST

I honour them.      
   
MARGARET

                But yet without desire;      
’Tis long since thou hast been either to shrift or mass.           3190   
Dost thou believe in God?      
   
FAUST

                My darling, who dares say,      
Yes, I in God believe?      
Question or priest or sage, and they      
Seem, in the answer you receive,           3195   
To mock the questioner.      
   
MARGARET

                Then thou dost not believe?      
   
FAUST

Sweet one! my meaning do not misconceive!      
Him who dare name?      
And who proclaim,           3200   
Him I believe?      
Who that can feel,      
His heart can steel,      
To say: I believe him not?      
The All-embracer,           3205   
All-sustainer,      
Holds and sustains he not      
Thee, me, himself?      
Lifts not the Heaven its dome above?      
Doth not the firm-set earth beneath us lie?           3210   
And beaming tenderly with looks of love,      
Climb not the everlasting stars on high?      
Do we not gaze into each other’s eyes?      
Nature’s impenetrable agencies,      
Are they not thronging on thy heart and brain,           3215   
Viewless, or visible to mortal ken,      
Around thee weaving their mysterious chain?      
Fill thence thy heart, how large soe’er it be;      
And in the feeling when thou utterly art blest,      
Then call it, what thou wilt,—           3220   
Call it Bliss! Heart! Love! God!      
I have no name for it!      
’Tis feeling all;      
Name is but sound and smoke      
Shrouding the glow of heaven.           3225   
   
MARGARET

All this is doubtless good and fair;      
Almost the same the parson says,      
Only in slightly different phrase.      
   
FAUST

Beneath Heaven’s sunshine, everywhere,      
This is the utterance of the human heart;           3230   
Each in his language doth the like impart;      
Then why not I in mine?      
   
MARGARET

                What thus I hear      
Sounds plausible, yet I’m not reconciled;      
There’s something wrong about it; much I fear           3235   
That thou art not a Christian.      
   
FAUST

                My sweet child!      
   
MARGARET

Alas! it long hath sorely troubled me,      
To see thee in such odious company.      
   
FAUST

How so?           3240   
   
MARGARET

        The man who comes with thee, I hate,      
Yea, in my spirit’s inmost depths abhor;      
As his loath’d visage, in my life before,      
Naught to my heart e’er gave a pang so great.      
   
FAUST

Him fear not, my sweet love!           3245   
   
MARGARET

                His presence chills my blood.      
Towards all beside I have a kindly mood;      
Yet, though I yearn to gaze on thee, I feel      
At sight of him strange horror o’er me steal;      
That he’s a villain my conviction’s strong.           3250   
May Heaven forgive me, if I do him wrong!      
   
FAUST

Yet such strange fellows in the world must be!      
   
MARGARET

I would not live with such an one as he.      
If for a moment he but enter here,      
He looks around him with a mocking sneer,           3255   
And malice ill-conceal’d;      
That he with naught on earth can sympathize is clear      
Upon his brow ’tis legibly revealed,      
That to his heart no living soul is dear.      
So blest I feel, within thine arms,           3260   
So warm and happy,—free from all alarms;      
And still my heart doth close when he comes near.      
   
FAUST

Foreboding angel! check thy fear!      
   
MARGARET

It so o’ermasters me, that when,      
Or wheresoe’er, his step I hear,           3265   
I almost think, no more I love thee then.      
Besides, when he is near, I ne’er could pray.      
This eats into my heart; with thee      
The same, my Henry, it must be.      
   
FAUST

This is antipathy!           3270   
   
MARGARET

                I must away.      
   
FAUST

For one brief hour then may I never rest,      
And heart to heart, and soul to soul be pressed?      
   
MARGARET

Ah, if I slept alone! To-night      
The bolt I fain would leave undrawn for thee;           3275   
But then my mother’s sleep is light,      
Were we surprised by her, ah me!      
Upon the spot I should be dead.      
   
FAUST

Dear angel! there’s no cause for dread.      
Here is a little phial,—if she take           3280   
Mixed in her drink three drops, ’twill steep      
Her nature in a deep and soothing sleep.      
   
MARGARET

What do I not for thy dear sake!      
To her it will not harmful prove?      
   
FAUST

Should I advise it else, sweet love?           3285   
   
MARGARET

I know not, dearest, when thy face I see,      
What doth my spirit to thy will constrain;      
Already I have done so much for thee,      
That scarcely more to do doth now remain.  (Exit.)      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (enters)

MEPHISTOPHELES

The monkey! Is she gone?           3290   
   
FAUST

                Again hast played the spy?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Of all that pass’d I’m well apprized,      
I heard the doctor catechised,      
And trust he’ll profit much thereby!      
Fain would the girls inquire indeed           3295   
Touching their lover’s faith and creed,      
And whether pious in the good old way;      
They think, if pliant there, us too he will obey.      
   
FAUST

Thou monster, does not see that this      
Pure soul, possessed by ardent love,           3300   
Full of the living faith,      
To her of bliss      
The only pledge, must holy anguish prove,      
Holding the man she loves, fore-doomed to endless death!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Most sensual, supersensualist? The while           3305   
A damsel leads thee by the nose!      
   
FAUST

Of filth and fire abortion vile!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

In physiognomy strange skill she shows;      
She in my presence feels she knows not how;      
My mask it seems a hidden sense reveals;           3310   
That I’m a genius she must needs allow,      
That I’m the very devil perhaps she feels.      
So then to-night—      
   
FAUST

                What’s that to you?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

I’ve my amusement in it too!           3315   
   
AT THE WELL

MARGARET and BESSY, with pitchers
BESSY

Of Barbara hast nothing heard?      
   
MARGARET

I rarely go from home,—no, not a word.      
   
BESSY

’Tis true: Sybilla told me so to-day!      
That comes of being proud, methinks;      
She played the fool at last.           3320   
   
MARGARET

                How so?      
   
BESSY

                They say      
That two she feedeth when she eats and drinks.      
   
MARGARET

Alas!      
   
BESSY

      She’s rightly served, in sooth,           3325   
How long she hung upon the youth!      
What promenades, what jaunts there were,      
To dancing booth and village fair!      
The first she everywhere must shine,      
He always treating her to pastry and to wine           3330   
Of her good looks she was so vain,      
So shameless too, that to retain      
His presents, she did not disdain;      
Sweet words and kisses came anon—      
And then the virgin flower was gone.           3335   
   
MARGARET

Poor thing!      
   
BESSY

            Forsooth dost pity her?      
At night, when at our wheels we sat,      
Abroad our mothers ne’er would let us stir.      
Then with her lover she must chat,           3340   
Or on the bench or in the dusky walk,      
Thinking the hours too brief for their sweet talk;      
Her proud head she will have to bow,      
And in white sheet do penance now!      
   
MARGARET

But he will surely marry her?           3345   
   
BESSY

                Not he!      
He won’t be such a fool! a gallant lad      
Like him, can roam o’er land and sea,      
Besides, he’s off.      
   
MARGARET

                That is not fair!           3350   
   
BESSY

If she should get him, ’twere almost as bad!      
Her myrtle wreath the boys would tear;      
And then we girls would plagued her too,      
For we chopp’d straw before her door would strew!  (Exit.)      
   
MARGARET  (walking towards home)

How stoutly once I could inveigh,           3355   
If a poor maiden went astray;      
Not words enough my tongue could find,      
’Gainst others’ sin to speak my mind!      
Black as it seemed, I blacken’d it still more,      
And strove to make it blacker than before.           3360   
And did myself securely bless—      
Now my own trespass doth appear!      
Yet ah!—what urg’d me to transgress,      
God knows, it was so sweet, so dear!      
   
ZWINGER
Enclosure between the City-wall and the Gate.
(In the niche of the wall a devotional image of the Mater dolorosa, with flower-pots before it.)

MARGARET  (putting fresh flowers in the pots)

Ah, rich in sorrow, thou,           3365   
Stoop thy maternal brow,      
And mark with pitying eye my misery!      
The sword in thy pierced heart,      
Thou dost with bitter smart,      
Gaze upwards on thy Son’s death agony.           3370   
To the dear God on high,      
Ascends thy piteous sigh,      
Pleading for his and thy sore misery.      
Ah, who can know      
The torturing woe,           3375   
The pangs that rack me to the bone?      
How my poor heart, without relief,      
Trembles and throbs, its yearning grief      
Thou knowest, thou alone!      
Ah, wheresoe’er I go,           3380   
With woe, with woe, with woe,      
My anguish’d breast is aching!      
When all alone I creep,      
I weep, I weep, I weep,      
Alas! my heart is breaking!           3385   
The flower-pots at my window      
Were wet with tears of mine,      
The while I pluck’d these blossoms,      
At dawn to deck thy shrine!      
When early in my chamber           3390   
Shone bright the rising morn,      
I sat there on my pallet,      
My heart with anguish torn.      
Help! from disgrace and death deliver me!      
Ah! rich in sorrow, thou,           3395   
Stoop thy maternal brow,      
And mark with pitying eye my misery!      
   
NIGHT. STREET BEFORE MARGARET’S DOOR

VALENTINE  (a soldier, MARGARET’S brother)

When seated ’mong the jovial crowd,      
Where merry comrades boasting loud      
Each named with pride his favourite lass,           3400   
And in her honour drain’d his glass;      
Upon my elbows I would lean,      
With easy quiet view the scene,      
Nor give my tongue the rein until      
Each swaggering blade had talked his fill.           3405   
Then smiling I my beard would stroke,      
The while, with brimming glass, I spoke;      
“Each to his taste!—but to my mind,      
Where in the country will you find,      
A maid, as my dear Gretchen fair,           3410   
Who with my sister can compare?”      
Cling! Clang! so rang the jovial sound!      
Shouts of assent went circling round;      
Pride of her sex is she!—cried some;      
Then were the noisy boasters dumb.           3415   
   
And now!—I could tear out my hair,      
Or dash my brains out in despair!—      
Me every scurvy knave may twit,      
With stinging jest and taunting sneer!      
Like skulking debtor I must sit,           3420   
And sweat each casual word to hear!      
And though I smash’d them one and all,—      
Yet them I could not liars call.      
   
    Who comes this way? who’s sneaking here?      
    If I mistake not, two draw near.           3425   
    If he be one, have at him;—well I wot      
    Alive he shall not leave this spot!      
   
FAUST. MEPHISTOPHELES

FAUST

How from yon sacristy, athwart the night,      
Its beams the ever-burning taper throws,      
While ever waning, fades the glimmering light,           3430   
As gathering darkness doth around it close!      
So night-like gloom doth in my bosom reign.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

I’m like a tom-cat in a thievish vein,      
That up fire-ladders tall and steep,      
And round the walls doth slyly creep;           3435   
Virtuous withal, I feel, with, I confess,      
A touch of thievish joy and wantonness.      
Thus through my limbs already burns      
The glorious Walpurgis night!      
After to-morrow it returns,           3440   
Then why one wakes, one knows aright!      
   
FAUST

Meanwhile, the treasure I see glimmering there,      
Will it ascend into the open air?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Ere long thou wilt proceed with pleasure,      
To raise the casket with its treasure;           3445   
I took a peep, therein are stored,      
Of lion-dollars a rich hoard.      
   
FAUST

And not a trinket? not a ring?      
Wherewith my lovely girl to deck?      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

I saw among them some such thing,           3450   
A string of pearls to grace her neck.      
   
FAUST

’Tis well! I’m always loath to go,      
Without some gift my love to show.      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

Some pleasures gratis to enjoy,      
Should surely cause you no annoy.           3455   
While bright with stars the heavens appear,      
I’ll sing a masterpiece of art:      
A moral song shall charm her ear,      
More surely to beguile her heart.  (Sings to the guitar.)      
Kathrina say,           3460   
Why lingering stay      
At dawn of day      
Before your lover’s door?      
Maiden, beware,      
Nor enter there,           3465   
Lest forth you fare,      
A maiden never more.      
   
Maiden take heed!      
Reck well my rede!      
Is’t done, the deed?           3470   
Good night, you poor, poor thing!      
The spoiler’s lies,      
His arts despise,      
Nor yield your prize,      
Without the marriage ring!           3475   
   
VALENTINE  (steps forward)

Whom are you luring here? I’ll give it you!      
Accursed rat-catchers, your strains I’ll end!      
First, to the devil the guitar I’ll send!      
Then to the devil with the singer too!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

The poor guitar! ’tis done for now.           3480   
   
VALENTINE

Your skull shall follow next, I trow!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (to FAUST)

Doctor, stand fast! your strength collect!      
Be prompt, and do as I direct.      
Out with your whisk, keep close, I pray,      
I’ll parry! do you thrust away!           3485   
   
VALENTINE

Then parry that!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                Why not?      
   
VALENTINE

                That too!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

With ease!      
   
VALENTINE

            The devil fights for you!           3490   
Why how is this? my hand’s already lamed!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES  (to FAUST)

Thrust home!      
   
VALENTINE  (falls)

              Alas!      
   
MEPHISTOPHELES

                There! Now the lubber’s tamed!      
But quick, away! We must at once take wing;           3495   
A cry of murder strikes upon the ear;      
With the police I know my course to steer,      
But with the blood-ban ’tis another thing.      
   
MARTHA  (at the window)

Without! without!