Faust I — Scenes 22 to 25
HERALD
That the wedding golden be.
Must fifty years be rounded: But _the Golden_ give to me, When the strife’s compounded.
OBERON
Spirits, if you’re here, be seen— Show yourselves, delighted!
Fairy king and fairy queen, They are newly plighted.
PUCK
Cometh Puck, and, light of limb, Whisks and whirls in measure: Come a hundred after him, To share with him the pleasure.
ARIEL
Ariel’s song is heavenly-pure, His tones are sweet and rare ones: Though ugly faces he allure, Yet he allures the fair ones.
OBERON
Spouses, who would fain agree, Learn how we were mated!
If your pairs would loving be, First be separated!
TITANIA
If her whims the wife control, And the man berate her, Take him to the Northern Pole, And her to the Equator!
ORCHESTRA.
TUTTI.
_Fortissimo_.
Snout of fly, mosquito-bill, And kin of all conditions, Frog in grass, and cricket-trill,— These are the musicians!
SOLO
See the bagpipe on our track!
’Tis the soap-blown bubble: Hear the _schnecke-schnicke-schnack_ Through his nostrils double!
SPIRIT, JUST GROWING INTO FORM
Spider’s foot and paunch of toad, And little wings—we know ’em!
A little creature ’twill not be, But yet, a little poem.
A LITTLE COUPLE
Little step and lofty leap Through honey-dew and fragrance: You’ll never mount the airy steep With all your tripping vagrance.
INQUISITIVE TRAVELLER
Is’t but masquerading play?
See I with precision?
Oberon, the beauteous fay, Meets, to-night, my vision!
ORTHODOX
Not a claw, no tail I see!
And yet, beyond a cavil, Like “the Gods of Greece,” must he Also be a devil.
NORTHERN ARTIST
I only seize, with sketchy air, Some outlines of the tourney;
Yet I betimes myself prepare For my Italian journey.
PURIST
My bad luck brings me here, alas!
How roars the orgy louder!
And of the witches in the mass, But only two wear powder.
YOUNG WITCH
Powder becomes, like petticoat, A gray and wrinkled noddy;
So I sit naked on my goat, And show a strapping body.
MATRON
We’ve too much tact and policy To rate with gibes a scolder;
Yet, young and tender though you be, I hope to see you moulder.
LEADER OF THE BAND
Fly-snout and mosquito-bill, Don’t swarm so round the Naked!
Frog in grass and cricket-trill, Observe the time, and make it!
WEATHERCOCK (_towards one side_) Society to one’s desire!
Brides only, and the sweetest!
And bachelors of youth and fire.
And prospects the completest!
WEATHERCOCK (_towards the other side_) And if the Earth don’t open now To swallow up each ranter, Why, then will I myself, I vow, Jump into hell instanter!
XENIES
Us as little insects see!
With sharpest nippers flitting, That our Papa Satan we May honor as is fitting.
HENNINGS
How, in crowds together massed, They are jesting, shameless!
They will even say, at last, That their hearts are blameless.
MUSAGETES
Among this witches’ revelry His way one gladly loses;
And, truly, it would easier be Than to command the Muses.
CI-DEVANT GENIUS OF THE AGE
The proper folks one’s talents laud: Come on, and none shall pass us!
The Blocksberg has a summit broad, Like Germany’s Parnassus.
INQUISITIVE TRAVELLER
Say, who’s the stiff and pompous man?
He walks with haughty paces: He snuffles all he snuffle can: “He scents the Jesuits’ traces.
” CRANE
Both clear and muddy streams, for me Are good to fish and sport in: And thus the pious man you see With even devils consorting.
WORLDLING
Yes, for the pious, I suspect, All instruments are fitting;
And on the Blocksberg they erect Full many a place of meeting.
DANCER
A newer chorus now succeeds!
I hear the distant drumming.
“Don’t be disturbed!
’tis, in the reeds, The bittern’s changeless booming.
” DANCING-MASTER
How each his legs in nimble trip Lifts up, and makes a clearance!
The crooked jump, the heavy skip, Nor care for the appearance.
GOOD FELLOW
The rabble by such hate are held, To maim and slay delights them: As Orpheus’ lyre the brutes compelled, The bagpipe here unites them.
DOGMATIST
I’ll not be led by any lure Of doubts or critic-cavils: The Devil must be something, sure,— Or how should there be devils?
IDEALIST
This once, the fancy wrought in me Is really too despotic: Forsooth, if I am all I see, I must be idiotic!
REALIST
This racking fuss on every hand, It gives me great vexation;
And, for the first time, here I stand On insecure foundation.
SUPERNATURALIST
With much delight I see the play, And grant to these their merits, Since from the devils I also may Infer the better spirits.
SCEPTIC
The flame they follow, on and on, And think they’re near the treasure: But _Devil_ rhymes with _Doubt_ alone, So I am here with pleasure.
LEADER OF THE BAND
Frog in green, and cricket-trill.
Such dilettants!
—perdition!
Fly-snout and mosquito-bill,— Each one’s a fine musician!
THE ADROIT
_Sans souci_, we call the clan Of merry creatures so, then;
Go a-foot no more we can, And on our heads we go, then.
THE AWKWARD
Once many a bit we sponged, but now, God help us!
that is done with: Our shoes are all danced out, we trow, We’ve but naked soles to run with.
WILL-O’-THE WISPS
From the marshes we appear, Where we originated;
Yet in the ranks, at once, we’re here As glittering gallants rated.
SHOOTING-STAR
Darting hither from the sky, In star and fire light shooting, Cross-wise now in grass I lie: Who’ll help me to my footing?
THE HEAVY FELLOWS
Room!
and round about us, room!
Trodden are the grasses: Spirits also, spirits come, And they are bulky masses.
PUCK
Enter not so stall-fed quite, Like elephant-calves about one!
And the heaviest weight to-night Be Puck, himself, the stout one!
ARIEL
If loving Nature at your back, Or Mind, the wings uncloses, Follow up my airy track To the mount of roses!
ORCHESTRA
_pianissimo_ Cloud and trailing mist o’erhead Are now illuminated: Air in leaves, and wind in reed, And all is dissipated.
[Illustration] XXIII DREARY DAY
A FIELD
FAUST MEPHISTOPHELES
FAUST
In misery!
In despair!
Long wretchedly astray on the face of the earth, and now imprisoned!
That gracious, ill-starred creature shut in a dungeon as a criminal, and given up to fearful torments!
To this has it come!
to this!
—Treacherous, contemptible spirit, and thou hast concealed it from me!
—Stand, then,—stand!
Roll the devilish eyes wrathfully in thy head!
Stand and defy me with thine intolerable presence!
Imprisoned!
In irretrievable misery!
Delivered up to evil spirits, and to condemning, unfeeling Man!
And thou hast lulled me, meanwhile, with the most insipid dissipations, hast concealed from me her increasing wretchedness, and suffered her to go helplessly to ruin!
[Illustration: _Roll the devilish eyes wrathfully in thy head_] MEPHISTOPHELES
She is not the first.
FAUST
Dog!
Abominable monster!
Transform him, thou Infinite Spirit!
transform the reptile again into his dog-shape?
in which it pleased him often at night to scamper on before me, to roll himself at the feet of the unsuspecting wanderer, and hang upon his shoulders when he fell!
Transform him again into his favorite likeness, that he may crawl upon his belly in the dust before me,—that I may trample him, the outlawed, under foot!
Not the first!
O woe!
woe which no human soul can grasp, that more than one being should sink into the depths of this misery,—that the first, in its writhing death-agony under the eyes of the Eternal Forgiver, did not expiate the guilt of all others!
The misery of this single one pierces to the very marrow of my life; and thou art calmly grinning at the fate of thousands!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Now we are already again at the end of our wits, where the understanding of you men runs wild.
Why didst thou enter into fellowship with us, if thou canst not carry it out?
Wilt fly, and art not secure against dizziness?
Did we thrust ourselves upon thee, or thou thyself upon us?
FAUST
Gnash not thus thy devouring teeth at me?
It fills me with horrible disgust.
Mighty, glorious Spirit, who hast vouchsafed to me Thine apparition, who knowest my heart and my soul, why fetter me to the felon-comrade, who feeds on mischief and gluts himself with ruin?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Hast thou done?
FAUST
Rescue her, or woe to thee!
The fearfullest curse be upon thee for thousands of ages!
MEPHISTOPHELES
I cannot loosen the bonds of the Avenger, nor undo his bolts.
Rescue her?
Who was it that plunged her into ruin?
I, or thou?
(FAUST _looks around wildly_.
) Wilt thou grasp the thunder?
Well that it has not been given to you, miserable mortals!
To crush to pieces the innocent respondent—that is the tyrant-fashion of relieving one’s self in embarrassments.
FAUST
Take me thither!
She shall be free!
MEPHISTOPHELES
And the danger to which thou wilt expose thyself?
Know that the guilt of blood, from thy hand, still lies upon the town!
Avenging spirits hover over the spot where the victim fell, and lie in wait for the returning murderer.
FAUST
That, too, from thee?
Murder and death of a world upon thee, monster!
Take me thither, I say, and liberate her!
MEPHISTOPHELES
I will convey thee there; and hear, what I can do!
Have I all the power in Heaven and on Earth?
I will becloud the jailer’s senses: get possession of the key, and lead her forth with human hand!
I will keep watch: the magic steeds are ready, I will carry you off.
So much is in my power.
FAUST
Up and away!
[Illustration] XXIV NIGHT
OPEN FIELD
(FAUST _and_ MEPHISTOPHELES _speeding onward on black horses_.
) FAUST
What weave they there round the raven-stone?
MEPHISTOPHELES
I know not what they are brewing and doing.
FAUST
Soaring up, sweeping down, bowing and bending!
MEPHISTOPHELES
A witches’-guild.
FAUST
They scatter, devote and doom!
MEPHISTOPHELES
On!
on!
[Illustration] XXV DUNGEON
FAUST
(_with a bunch of keys and a lamp, before an iron door_) A shudder, long unfelt, comes o’er me;
Mankind’s collected woe o’erwhelms me, here.
She dwells within the dark, damp walls before me, And all her crime was a delusion dear!
What!
I delay to free her?
I dread, once again to see her?
On!
my shrinking but lingers Death more near.
(_He grasps the lock: the sound of singing is heard inside_.
) _My mother, the harlot, Who put me to death;
My father, the varlet, Who eaten me hath!
Little sister, so good, Laid my bones in the wood, In the damp moss and clay:_ _Then was I a beautiful bird o’ the wood;
Fly away!
Fly away_!
FAUST _(unlocking)_ She does not dream her lover listens near;
That he the rattling chain, the rustling straw, can hear.
_(He enters_.
) MARGARET (_hiding herself on the pallet_) Woe!
woe!
They come.
O death of bitterness!
FAUST (_whispering_) Hush!
hush!
The hour is come that frees thee.
MARGARET (_throwing herself before him_) Art thou a man, then pity my distress!
FAUST
Thy cries will wake the guards, and they will seize thee!
(_He takes hold of the fetters to unlock them_.
) MARGARET (_on her knees_) Who, headsman!
unto thee such power Over me could give?
Thou’rt come for me at midnight-hour: Have mercy on me, let me live!
Is’t not soon enough when morning chime has run?
(_She rises_.
) And I am yet so young, so young!
And now Death comes, and ruin!
I, too, was fair, and that was my undoing.
My love was near, but now he’s far;
Torn lies the wreath, scattered the blossoms are.
Seize me not thus so violently!
Spare me!
What have I done to thee?
Let me not vainly entreat thee!
I never chanced, in all my days, to meet thee!
FAUST
Shall I outlive this misery?
MARGARET
Now am I wholly in thy might.
But let me suckle, first, my baby!
I blissed it all this livelong night;
They took ’t away, to vex me, maybe, And now they say I killed the child outright.
And never shall I be glad again.
They sing songs about me!
’tis bad of the folk to do it!
There’s an old story has the same refrain;
Who bade them so construe it?
FAUST (_falling upon his knees_) Here lieth one who loves thee ever, The thraldom of thy woe to sever.
MARGARET (_flinging herself beside him_) O let us kneel, and call the Saints to hide us!
Under the steps beside us, The threshold under, Hell heaves in thunder!
The Evil One With terrible wrath Seeketh a path His prey to discover!
FAUST (_aloud_) Margaret!
Margaret!
MARGARET (_attentively listening_) That was the voice of my lover!
(_She springs to her feet: the fetters fall off_.
) Where is he?
I heard him call me.
I am free!
No one shall enthrall me.
To his neck will I fly, On his bosom lie!
On the threshold he stood, and _Margaret_!
calling, Midst of Hell’s howling and noises appalling, Midst of the wrathful, infernal derision, I knew the sweet sound of the voice of the vision!
FAUST
’Tis I!
MARGARET
’Tis thou!
O, say it once again!
(_Clasping him_.
) ’Tis he!
’tis he!
Where now is all my pain?
The anguish of the dungeon, and the chain?
’Tis thou!
Thou comest to save me, And I am saved!
— Again the street I see Where first I looked on thee;
And the garden, brightly blooming, Where I and Martha wait thy coming.
FAUST (_struggling to leave_) Come!
Come with me!
