FAUST.
 
 FAUST 
 
 A TRAGEDY 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE 
 
 TRANSLATED, IN THE ORIGINAL METRES 
 BY 
 
 BAYARD TAYLOR 
 
 WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES 
 
 FREDERICK WARNE & CO., LTD. 
 LONDON & NEW YORK
 
 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
 
 PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. 
 
 THIS translation has had the advantage of being 
 the work of a Poet of some repute, who was a 
 master of both English and German, and who had 
 long studied Goethe's masterpiece. His edition 
 has been simply reproduced. But it has been 
 found necessary to compress the notes, which were 
 very voluminous. For this purpose, those relating 
 to the conflicting views of the numerous German 
 commentators have been omitted, and certain pas- 
 sages from Goethe's letters to and conversation 
 with his friends about the period of production, 
 &c., &c. But all the notes illustrating the text 
 and explaining the allegory have been carefully 
 retained.
 
 THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 IT is twenty years since I first determined to attempt 
 the translation of Faust, in the original metres. At that 
 time, although more than a score of English translations 
 of the First Part, and three or four of the Second Part, 
 were in existence, the experiment had not yet been 
 made. The prose version of Hayward seemed to have 
 been accepted as the standard, in default of anything 
 more satisfactory : the English critics, generally sus- 
 taining the translator in his views concerning the 
 secondary importance of form in Poetry, practically dis- 
 couraged any further attempt ; and no one, familiar with 
 hythmical expression through the needs of his own 
 aature, had devoted the necessary love and patience to an 
 adequate reproduction of the great work of Goethe's life. 
 
 Mr. Brooks was the first to undertake the task, and 
 the publication of his translation of the First Part (in 
 1856) induced me, for a time, to give up my own design. 
 No previous English version exhibited such abnegation 
 of the translator's own tastes and habits of thought, 
 such reverent desire to present the original in its purest 
 form. The care and conscience with which the work 
 had been performed were so apparent, that I now state 
 with reluctance what then seemed to me to be its only 
 deficiencies, a lack of the lyrical fire and fluency of th 
 original in some passages, and an occasional lowering of 
 the tone through the use of words which are literal, but
 
 THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. vii 
 
 not equivalent. The plan of translation adopted by Mr. 
 Brooks was so entirely my own, that when further resi- 
 dence in Germany and a more careful study of both 
 parts of Faust hod satisfied me that the field was still 
 open, that the means furnished by the poetical affinity 
 of the two languages had not yet been exhausted, 
 nothing remained for me but to follow him in all essential 
 particulars. His example confirmed me in the belief 
 that there were few difficulties in the way of a nearly 
 literal yet thoroughly rhythmical version of Faust, which 
 might not be overcome by loving labour. A comparison 
 of seventeen English translations, in the arbitrary metres 
 adopted by the translators, sufficiently showed the danger 
 of allowing licence in this respect : the white light of 
 Goethe's thought was thereby passed through the tinted 
 glass of other minds, and assumed the colouring of each. 
 Moreover, the plea of selecting different metres in the 
 hope of producing a similar effect is unreasonable, where 
 the identical metres are possible. 
 
 The value of form, in a poetical work, is the first 
 question to be considered. No poet ever understood 
 this question more thoroughly than Goethe himself, or 
 expressed a more positive opinion in regard to it. The 
 alternative modes of translation which he presents 
 (reported by Riemer, quoted by Mrs. Austin, in her 
 " Characteristics of Goethe," and accepted by Mr. Hay- 
 ward), are quite independent of his views concerning the 
 value of form, which we find given elsewhere, in the 
 clearest and most emphatic manner. 1 Poetry is not 
 simply a fnshion of expression : it is the form of expres- 
 
 1 "You are right," said Goethe; "there are great and mys- 
 terious agencies included in the various forms of Poetry. If the 
 substance of my ' Roman Elegies ' were to be expressed in the ton 
 and measure of Byron's 'Don Juan,' it would really have vi 
 ttrocious effect. " Eckermann
 
 iii fAUHT. 
 
 tiion absolutely required by a certain class of ideas. 
 Poetry, indeed, may be distinguished from Prose by the 
 single circumstance, that it is the utterance of whatever 
 in man cannot be perfectly uttered in any other than a 
 rhythmical form : it is useless to say that the naked 
 meaning is independent of the form : on the contrary, 
 the form contributes essentially to the fulness of the 
 meaning In Poetry which endures through its own 
 inherent vitality, there is no forced union of these two 
 elements. They are as intimately blended, and with the 
 same mysterious beauty, as the sexes in the ancient 
 Hermaphroditus. To attempt to represent Poetry in 
 Prose, is very much like attempting to translate music 
 into speech. 1 
 
 The various theories of translation from the Greek and 
 Latin poets have been admirably stated by Dryden in hia 
 Preface to the " Translations from Ovid's Epistles," and 
 I do not wish to continue the endless discussion, 
 especially as our literature needs examples, not opinions. 
 A recent expression, however, carries with it so much 
 authority, that I feel bound to present some considera- 
 tions which the accomplished scholar seems to have 
 overlooked. Mr. Lewes 2 justly says: "The effect of 
 poetry is a compound of music and suggestion ; this 
 music and this suggestion are intermingled in words, 
 which to alter is to alter the effect. For words in poetry 
 are not, as in prose, simple representatives of objects and 
 ideas : they are parts of an organic whole, they are 
 tones in the harmony." He thereupon illustrates the 
 effect of translation by changing certain well-known 
 English stanzas into others, equivalent in meaning, but 
 
 1 " Goethe's poems exercise a great sway over me, not only by 
 their meaning, bat also by their rhythm. It is a language which 
 timulates me to composition." Beethoven. 
 
 Life of Goetbe (Book VU.
 
 THE TRANSLATORS PJRSFACH. il 
 
 lacking their felicity of words, their grace and melody. 
 I cannot accept this illustration as valid, because Mr. 
 Lewes purposely omits the very quality which an honest 
 translator should exhaust his skill in endeavouring to 
 reproduce. He turns away from the one best word or 
 phrase in the English lines he quotes, whereas the trans- 
 lator seeks precisely that one best word or phrase 
 (having all the resources of his language at command), 
 to represent what is said in anot/ier language. More 
 than this, his task is not simply mechanical : he must 
 feel, and be guided by, a secondary inspiration. Sur- 
 rendering himself to the full possession of the spirit 
 which shall speak through him, he receives, also, a 
 portion of the same creative power. Mr. Lewes reaches 
 this conclusion : " If, therefore, we reflect what a poem 
 Faust is, and that it contains almost every variety of 
 style and metre, it will be tolerably evident that no one 
 unacquainted with the original can form an adequate 
 idea of it from translation," l which is certainly correct of 
 any translation wherein something of the rhythmical 
 variety and beauty of the original is not retained. That 
 very much of the rhythmical character may be retained 
 In English, was long ago shown by Mr. Oarlyle, 2 in the 
 passages which he translated, both literally and rhythmi 
 cally, from the Helena (Part Second). In fact, we have 
 so many instances of the possibility of reciprocally trans- 
 ferring the finest qualities of English and German poetry, 
 that there is no sufficient excuse for an unmetrical trans- 
 
 1 Mr. Lewes gives the following advice : "The English reader 
 would perhaps best succeed who should first read Dr. Anster's 
 brilliant paraphrase, and then carefully go through Hayward's 
 prose translation." This is singularly at variance with the view 
 he has just expressed. Dr. Anster's version is an almost incredible 
 dilution of the original, written in other metres ; while Hayward' 
 entirely omits the element of poetry. 
 
 1 Foreign Review, 1828.
 
 i FAUST, 
 
 lation of Fautt. I refer especially to such subtile and 
 melodious lyrics as " The Castle by the Sea," of Uhland, 
 and the " Silent Land " of Salis, translated by Mr. Long- 
 fellow ; Goethe's " Minstrel " and " Coptic Song," by Dr. 
 Hedge ; Heine's " Two Grenadiers," by Dr. Furness, and 
 many of Heine's songs by Mr. Leland ; and also to the 
 German translations of English lyrics, by Freiligrath and 
 Strodtmann. 
 
 I have a more serious objection, however, to urge 
 against Mr. Hayward's prose translation. Where all the 
 restraints of verse are flung aside, we should expect, at 
 least, as accurate a reproduction of the sense, spirit, and 
 tone of the original, as the genius of our language will 
 permit. So far from having given us such a reproduction, 
 Mr. Hayward not only occasionally mistakes the exact 
 meaning of the German text, 1 but, wherever two phrases 
 may be used to express the meaning with equal fidelity, 
 he very frequently selects that which has the less grace, 
 strength, or beauty. 2 For there are few things which 
 
 1 On his second page, the line Mein, Lied ertont der unbekannten 
 Menge, ' ' My song sounds to the unknown multitude, " is trans- 
 lated : "My sorrow voices itself to the strange throng." Other 
 English translators, I notice, have followed Mr. Hayward in mis- 
 taking Lied for Leid. 
 
 * I take but one out of numerous instances, for the sake of illus- 
 tration. The close of the Soldier's Song (Part I., Scene II.) i* : 
 " Kiihn is das Miihen, 
 
 Herrlich der Lohn J 
 
 Und die Soldaten 
 
 Ziehen davon." 
 Literally : 
 
 Bold is the endeavour, 
 
 Splendid the pay I 
 
 And the soldiers 
 
 March away. 
 This Mr. Hayward translates : 
 
 Bold the adventure, 
 
 Noble the reward 
 
 And the soldiers 
 
 Are off.
 
 THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. xi 
 
 may not be said, in English, in a twofold manner, one 
 poetic, and the other prosaic. In German, equally, a 
 word which in ordinary use has a bare prosaic character 
 may receive a fairer and finer quality from its place in 
 verse. The prose translator should certainly be able to 
 feel the manifestation of this law in both languages, and 
 should so choose his words as to meet their reciprocal 
 requirements. 
 
 While, therefore, I heartily recognise Mr. Hayward's 
 lofty appreciation of Faust, while I honour him for the 
 patient and conscientious labour he has bestowed upon his 
 translation, I cannot but feel that he has himself illus- 
 trated the unsoundness of his argument. Nevertheless, 
 the circumstance that his prose translation of Faust has 
 received so much acceptance proves those qualities of 
 the original work which cannot be destroyed by a test 
 no violent. From the cold bare outline thus produced, 
 the reader unacquainted with the German language 
 ffould scarcely guess what glow of colour, what richness 
 of changeful life, what fluent grace and energy of move- 
 ment have been lost in the process. We must, of course, 
 gratefully receive such an outline, where a nearer ap- 
 proach to the form of the original is impossible, but, 
 until the latter has been demonstrated, we are wrong to 
 remain content with the cheaper substitute. 
 
 It seems to me that in all discussions upon this subject 
 the capacities of the English language have received but 
 scanty justice. The intellectual tendencies of our race 
 have always been somewhat conservative, and its 
 standards of literary taste or belief, once set up, are not 
 varied without a struggle The English ear is suspicious 
 of new metres and unaccustomed forms of expression- 
 there are critical detectives on the track of every author, 
 and a violation of the accepted canons is followed by a 
 summons to judgment. Thus the tendency is to con
 
 i FAUST. 
 
 tract rather than to expand the acknowledged excellences 
 Df the language. The difficulties in the way of a nearly 
 literal translation of Faust in the original metres have 
 been exaggerated, because certain affinities between the 
 two languages have not been properly considered. With 
 all the splendour of versification in the work, it contains 
 but few metres of which the English tongue is not 
 equally capable. Hood has familiarised us with dactylic 
 (triple) rhymes, and they are remarkably abundant and 
 skilful in Mr. Lowell's " Fable for the Critics : " even the 
 unrhymed iambic hexameter of the Helena occurs now 
 and then in Milton's Samson Agonistes. It is true that 
 the metrical foot into which the German language most 
 naturally falls is the trochaic, while in English it is the 
 iambic : it is true that German is rich, involved, and 
 tolerant of new combinations, while English is simple, 
 direct, and rather shy of compounds ; but precisely these 
 differences are so modified in the German of Faust that 
 there is a mutual approach of the two languages. In 
 Faiist, the iambic measure predominates ; the style is 
 compact ; the many licences which the author allows 
 himself are all directed towards a shorter mode of con- 
 struction. On the other hand, English metre compels 
 the use of inversions, admits many verbal liberties pro 
 hibited to prose, and so inclines towards various flexible 
 features of its sister-tongue that many lines of Faust 
 may be repeated in English without the slightest change 
 of meaning, measure, or rhyme. There are words, it is 
 true, with so delicate a bloom upon them that it can in 
 no wise be preserved ; but even such words will alwayt 
 lose less when they carry with them their rhythmical 
 atmosphere. The flow of Goethe's verse is sometimes so 
 similar to that of the corresponding English metre, that 
 not only its harmonies and caesural pauses, but even itt 
 punctuation, may be easily retained.
 
 THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. srii 
 
 I am satisfied that the difference between a translation 
 of Fau-st in prose or metre is chiefly one of labour, and 
 of that labour which is successful in proportion as it is 
 joyously performed. My own task has been cheered by 
 the discovery, that the. more closely I reproduced the 
 language of the original, the more of its rhythmical 
 tharacter was transferred at the same time. If, now and 
 then, there was an inevitable alternative of meaning 01 
 music, I gave the preference to the former. By the 
 term " original metres " 1 do not mean a rigid, unyield- 
 ing adherence to eveiy foot, line, and rhyme of the 
 German original, although this has very nearly been 
 accomplished. Since the greater part of the work is 
 written in an irregular measure, the lines varying from 
 three to six feet, and the rhymes arranged according to 
 the author's will, I do not consider that an occasional 
 change in the number of feet, or order of rhyme, is any 
 violation of the metrical plan. The single slight liberty 
 I have taken with the lyrical passages is in Margaret's 
 song, " The King of Thule," in which, by omitting 
 the alternate feminine rhymes, yet retaining the metre, 
 I was enabled to make the translation strictly literal. 
 If, in two or three instances, I have left a line unrhymed, 
 I have balanced the omission by giving rhymes to other 
 lines which stand unrhymed in the original text. For 
 the same reason, I make no apology for the imperfect 
 rhymes, which are frequently a translation as well as a 
 necessity. With all its supreme qualities, Faust is far 
 from being a technically perfect work. 
 
 The feminine and dactylic rhymes, which have been 
 for the most part omitted by all metrical translators 
 except Mr. Brooks, are indispensable. The characteristic 
 tone of many passages would be nearly lost, without 
 chem. They give spirit and grace to the dialogue, point 
 to the aphoristic portions (especially in the Second Part),
 
 ri* FAUST. 
 
 and an ever-changing music to the lyrical passages. Th 
 English language, though not so rich as the German in 
 such rhymes, is less deficient than is generally supposed. 
 The difficulty to be overcome is one of construction 
 rather than of the vocabulary. The present participle 
 can only be used to a limited extent, on account of its 
 weak termination, and the want of an accusative form 
 to the noun also restricts the arrangement of words in 
 English verse. I cannot hope to have been always suc- 
 cessful ; but I have at least laboured long and patiently, 
 hearing constantly in mind not only the meaning of the 
 original and the mechanical structure of the lines, but 
 also that subtile and haunting music which seems to 
 govern rhythm instead of being governed by it. 
 
 The Second Part of Faust has been translated five 
 times into English (by Birch, Bernays, Macdonald, 
 Archer Gurney, and Anster). Inasmuch as this part 
 was included in Goethe's original design, the First Part, 
 although apparently complete as a tragic episode, is in 
 reality but a fragment, wherein the deeper problems' 
 upon which the work is based are left unsolved. I con- 
 sider, therefore, that the Second Part is necessary (as 
 necessary, indeed, as the Paradise to the Divina Corn- 
 media of Dante) ; and my aim will be to make that 
 necessity clear, alike to the English reader and to those 
 who follow various German and English critics in dis- 
 paraging the original
 
 THE FAUST-LEGEND. 
 
 THE slow revival of science in Germany, France, and Italy, 
 
 which 
 
 furnished the ignorant multitude with many new names 
 passed with them for those of sorcerers, and gradually displaced 
 the traditions of Virgilius, Merlin, and others who had figured in 
 their lore for many centuries. Raymond Lully, Roger Bacon, 
 Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, the Abbot Tritheim (Tritheuiius), 
 and many other sincere though confused workers, were believed by 
 the people to be in league with evil spirits, and their names became 
 nuclei, around which gathered all manner of floating traditions. 
 The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, from the movements in human 
 thought which they brought forth, were naturally rich in such 
 stories, for even the most advanced minds still retained a half- 
 belief in occult spiritual forces. Melancthon, himself, is onr chiei 
 evidence in relation to the person and character of the Faust of the 
 legend. 
 
 It is possible that there was another person of this name, and of 
 some local reputation, in the fifteenth century. George Sabellicus, 
 a noted charlatan, of whom the Abbot Tritheim writes in 1509, 
 called himself Faustus minor. The name (signifying fortunate, of 
 good omen) was not unusual ; it was the baptismal name of the 
 younger Sociuus, who taught his Unitarian doctrines in Poland and 
 Transylvania, and whom some have very absurdly attempted to 
 connect with the legend ; for he was not born until 1539. The 
 Johann Faust of the popular stories was undoubtedly an individual 
 
 of that name, born towards the close of the fifteenth century, in 
 the little town of Knittlingen, near Maulbronn, in Wiirtemberg. 
 Hi* parents were poor, but he was enabled by the bequest of a rica 
 ancle to study medicine. He attended the University of Cracow 
 (where he probably received his Doctor s degree), studied magic, 
 which was there taught as an accepted branch of knowledge, and 
 appears to have afterwards travelled for many years through 
 Europe. Manlius, the disciple of Melancthon, quotes the latter as 
 having said: "This fellow Faust escaped from our town of 
 Wittenberg, after our Duke John had given the order to have him 
 imprisoned. He also escaped from Nuremberg, under the like cir- 
 This sorcerer Faust, an abominable beast, a common
 
 rvl FAUST. 
 
 <ewer (cloaca) of many devils, boasted that he, by his magic arts, had 
 enabled the Imperial armies to win their victories in Italy." It 
 was probably the famous battle of Pavia (1525) of which Faust 
 spoke, as the time of his visit to Wittenberg appears to have been 
 about the year 1530. 
 
 Another evidence of Faust is found in the Index Sanitatia of th 
 physician, Philip Begardi, which was published at Worms in 1539. 
 He therein says : " Since several years he has gone through all 
 egions, provinces and kingdoms, made his name known to every- 
 oody, and is highly renowned for his great skill, not alone iu 
 medicine, but also in chiromancy, necromancy, physiognomy, vision! 
 in crystal, and the like other arts. And also not only renowned, 
 but written down and known as an experienced master. Himself 
 admitted, nor denied that it was so, and that his name was Fanstus, 
 and called himself philosophum philosophorum. But how many 
 have complained to me that they were deceived by him verily a 
 great number ! " 
 
 The third witness is the theologian, Johatm Cast, who in his 
 Serrnimes Convivial describes a dinner given by Faust at Basle, al 
 which he was present. After mentioning the two devils who 
 attended Faust in the form of a dog and a horse, he says : " The 
 wretch came to an end in a terrible manner ; for the Devil strangled 
 him. His dead body lay constantly on its face on the bier, 
 although it had been five times turned upwards. " Gast probably 
 makes this last statement on the strength of some popular rumour. 
 
 Faust seems to have gradually passed out of notice, and we have no 
 particulars of his death which possess the least authenticity. 
 Mdaucthon, in his discourses as Professor at Wittenberg, Luthei 
 
 in his " table-talk," and the other Protestant theologians of that 
 period, almost without exception, expressed their belief in a per- 
 sonal, visible Devil, then specially active in their part of the 
 w arid. Luther even describes the annoyances to which the Devil 
 subjects him, with a candour which cannot now be imitated ; and 
 the same belief naturally took grosser and more positive forms 
 among the common people. The wandering life of Johann Faust, 
 as physician and necromancer, must have made his name well known 
 throughout Germany ; his visit to Wittenberg and the reference to 
 him in the three works ah cady quoted, would distinguish him above 
 others of his class, and every iloating rumour of diabolical compact, 
 power, and final punishment would thenceforth gather around his 
 name as iron filings around a magnet. 
 
 The various books of magic entitled Faust's ffdllenzwang 
 (Infernal Influences) we/e all published with false early dates, after 
 Faust's name became generally known, and are therefore of no value 
 ts evidence. The attempt, aiso, to connect him with Fust, Gutten- 
 berg's associate in printing, has no foundation whatever. 
 
 The original form of the legend is the book published bv Spiess. 
 to Frankfurt, in 1587. Its title runs thus : " History of Dr. Joh. 
 Faust, the notorious sorcerer ond black-artist : How he bound
 
 LEGEND. XY 
 
 Aimself to the Devil for a certain time : What singular adventures 
 befell him therein, what he did and carried on until finally he 
 received his well-deserved pay. Mostly from his own posthumous 
 writings ; for all presumptuous, rash and godless men, as a terrible 
 example, abominable instance and well-meant warning, collected 
 and put in print. James, IIIL, Submit yourselves therefore to God : 
 fesist the Devil, and he will flee from you." The book must have 
 been instantly and widely popular, for a second edition was 
 published in 1588 ; a Low-German version in Liibeck and an 
 English ballad on the subject, the same year ; an English transla- 
 tion in 1590, two Dutch translations in 1592, and one French in 
 1598. From the first of these Marlowe obtained the material for his 
 tragedy of " Dr. Faustus," which appears to have been first acted in 
 London in 1593, the year of his death. It was published in 1604, 
 and no doubt formed part of the repertory of the companies ol 
 English strolling-players who were accustomed to visit Germany. 
 
 In the Dutch translation dates are given, apparently for the pur- 
 pose of making the story more credible. The year 1491 is men- 
 tioned as that of Faust's birth ; his first compact with the Devil, 
 for seventeen yt:ars, was made on the 23rd of October, 1514 ; his 
 second, for seven years, on the 3rd of August, 1531 ; and he was 
 finally carried off by the Devil at midnight, on the 23vd of October, 
 1538. The term of twenty-four years, which is not a mystical 
 number, is thus obtained by adding the two mystical terms, 17 and 
 7. In the English translation the village of Kindling, in Silesia, is 
 given as Faust's birthplace ; another tradition, adopted in the 
 original Frankfurt work, says Roda, near Weimar. 
 
 This oldest book repeats Melancthon's statement of Faust's 
 studies at Cracow, and his fame as a physician and sorcerer. It 
 then describes the manner of his summoning the Devil at night, in 
 a forest near Wittenberg. Afterwards the evil spirit visits him in 
 his dwelling, and three several " disputations " take place, at the 
 third of which the spirit gives his name as Mephostophiles. The 
 compact for the term of twenty-ftnir years is thereupon concluded. 
 When Faust pierces his hand with the point of a knife in order to 
 sign the compact, the blood flows into the form of the words 
 Homo Fugel signifying : "0 man, fly from him!" Mephos- 
 tophiles first serves him in the form of a monk, supplying him with 
 food and wine from the cellars of the Bishop of Salzburg and other 
 prelates, and with rich garments from Augsberg and Frankfurt, 
 *o that Faust and his Famulus, Christopher Wagner, are enabled 
 to live in the utmost luxury. It was not long, however, before 
 f aust desired to marry, but this was in no wise permitted, Mephos- 
 topiiiles saying that marriage was pleasing to God, and therefore a 
 riolation of the compact. This feature of the legend grew directly 
 from the questions of the Reformation ; and there was a special 
 meaning in giving the evil spirit the form of a monk. Wagner, 
 moreover, is said to have been the sou of a Catholic priest, picked 
 qp by Faust as a boy of fifteu, and by him educated.
 
 ivifl FAUST. 
 
 Then follow many chapters wherein Faust questions Mephoeto* 
 philes in regard to the creation of the worm, the seasons, th 
 planets, Hell and the infernal hierarchy, and is himself taken to 
 the latter place in a chariot drawn by dragons. Afterwards, he 
 wishes to visit the different parts of the earth : Mephostophiles 
 changes himself into a horse, " but with wings like a dromedary," 
 and flies with him through the air. They travel to all parts of 
 Europe and finally coine to Rome, where Faust lives three days in 
 th Vatican, invisible. As often as the Pope makes the sign of the 
 cross, he blows in his face : he also eats off the Pope's table and 
 drinks the wine from his goblets, until His Holiness commands all 
 the bells of Rome to be rung, to dispel the evil magic. Faust then 
 goes to Constantinople, where he appears in the Sultan's palace in 
 the form of Mahomet, and lives in state. He next traverses Egypt, 
 then Morocco, the Orkney Islands, Scythia, Arabia, and Persia, 
 and finally, " from the highest peak of the Island of Caucasus " has 
 a distant view of the Garden of Eden. After his return to Germany 
 he visits the Court of the Emperor Charles V. at Innsbruck, and at 
 the desire of the latter calls up before him the shades of Alexander 
 the Great and his wife. Many pranks are also related, which he 
 plays upon the kniglits attending the Emperor. 
 
 The remaining part of the book is principally taken up with an 
 account of the tricks and magical illusions with which Faust 
 diverted himself in Leipzig, Erfurt, Gotha, and other parts of 
 Northern Germany. He here resembles Till Eulenspiegel much 
 more than the ambitioiis student of Cracow, who " took to himsell 
 the wings of an eagle, and would explore all the secrets of heaven 
 and earth." He swallows a pair of horses and a load of hay ; he 
 cuts off heads and replaces them ; makes flowers bloom at Christmas, 
 draws wine from a table, calls Helen of Troy from the shades at the 
 request of a company of students ; and shows himself everywhere 
 as a gay, jovial companion, full of pranks, but exercising his super- 
 natural power quite as often for good as for evil purposes. Finally 
 in the twenty-tnird year of his compact, Mephostophiles brings thr 
 Grecian Helena to him - f he becomes infatuated with her beauty, 
 lives with her, and by her has a son whom he names Justus Faustus. 
 
 com- 
 
 near 
 the 
 
 students an address wherein he expresses his great penitence, and 
 hv willingness that the Devil should have his body, provided hi* 
 soul may receive pardon. At midnight a fearful storm arose : the 
 next morning the walls and floor of the room were sprinkled with 
 the bloody fragments of Faust, who had been so torn to pieces that 
 no member was left whole. Helena and her child had disappeared. 
 Wagner, by Faust's will, became heir to Ids property, part of which 
 was a dwelling in the town of Wittenberg. 
 The great popularity of the legend in this form led to the pre^ 
 Widmann'u larger and more ambitious work, which was
 
 LEGEND. ill 
 
 published at Hamburg, in 1599. Its title is: "The Veritable 
 History of the hideous and abominable sins and vices, also of many 
 wonderful and strange adventures, which D. Johannes Faustus, a 
 notorious black-artist and arch -sorcerer, by meaus of his black art, 
 committed even until his terrible ending. Fitted out and ex- 
 pounded with necessary reminders and admirable instances, for 
 manifold instruction and warning." The story is substantially the 
 same as in Spiess' s book, but many additional anecdotes are inserted, 
 and all the details are amplified. Instead of three "disputations " 
 between Faust and MephostopHles, there are ten, and each is fol- 
 lowed as, in fact, every chapter in tne work by a long-winded 
 theological discourse, called a Reminder (Erinnerung). These 
 Reminders are pedantic and fiercely Protestant in character : no 
 opportunity is let slip to illustrate the vices of Faust by references 
 to the Roman Church and its Popes. The name of the Famulus is 
 Changed to Johann Wayger, and two or three stories, taken from 
 Luther's table-talk, are arbitrarily applied to Faust ; whence the 
 work is not considered by scholars to be so fair a representation of 
 the popular traditions as that of Spiess. 
 
 A new edition of Widmann's book, revised but not improved by 
 Dr. Pfitzer, was published in Nuremberg in 1674, aud revived the 
 somewhat faded popularity of the legend. The references to Faust 
 in the Centuries of Cainerarius (1602) and in. Neumann's Disquisitio 
 Historica, were known only to the scholars, and Pfitzer' s reprint of 
 Widmann was therefore welcomed by the people, several edition* 
 having been called for in a few years. By this time it was also 
 represented as a puppet-play, and the knowledge of Faust and his 
 history thus became universal in Germany. 
 
 The only other work which requires notice is an abbreviation of 
 the legend, with some variations, written in a lively narrative style, 
 and published at Frankfurt and Leipzig in the year 1728. The title 
 is as follows: "The Compact concluded by the Devil with Dr. 
 Johann Faust, notorious through the whole world as a sorcerer and 
 arch-professor of the Black Art, together with his adventurous 
 course of life and its terrifying end, all most minutely described. 
 Now again newly revised, compressed into an agreeable brevity, 
 and furnished in print as a hearty admonition and warning to all 
 wilful sinners, by One with Christian Intentions." This quaint 
 and curious narrative was certainly known to Goethe, as well as 
 Widmaun'e work. It is the hist appearance of the legend in a 
 popular form : thenceforth, through many channels, the latter 
 found its way into literature. 
 
 The original book of Spiess was followed in 1694 by an account 
 of the life of Christopher Wagner, whom the Devil accompanied in 
 the form of an ape, tinder the name of Auerhahn (moor-cock). It i 
 an evident imitation of the story of Faust ; there is a similar com- 
 pact, there are magical tricks, adventures, and airy travels, with a 
 like tragical conclusion. This book was translated into English 
 the same year, and immediately afterwards into Dutch ; but then
 
 rx FAUST. 
 
 appears to have been no further German edition until 1712, when 
 tie original, with soine additions, was reprinted in Berlin. Ip 1742, 
 a play entitled "The Vicious Life and Terrible End of Joh. 
 Christoph Wagner" was acted in the Frankfurt theatre. 
 
 The stamp of the sixteenth century of its beliefs, its super- 
 stitions, its struggles and its antagonisms is unmistakably ia- 
 pressed on the legend. The singular individual, half genius, half 
 impostor, who bore the name of Faust, must have typified then, as 
 now, the activity of blind, formless, unresting forces in the nature 
 of the people ; and through all the coarseness and absurdity of the 
 stories which they have gathered around him, there are constant 
 suggestions of the general craving for some withheld knowledge or 
 right. In spite of Widmann's "Reminders" and the "One with 
 Christian Intentions," it is very doubtful whether the moral of 
 Faust's ending overcame the sympathy of the people with hit 
 courage or their admiration of his power. There are elements in 
 the legend, the value of which even a purblind poet could not help 
 eeing, yet which the loftiest genius may admit to be almost beyond 
 his grasp. It is not the least of Goethe's deserts, that, although in 
 his youth ' ' a new Faust was announced in every quarter of Ger- 
 many," he took ujv the tneme already hackneyed by smaD talant*. 
 and made it bJB o^n sokJy and foi ever.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 AN 
 
 DEDICATION xxi^ 
 
 PRELUDE ON THE STAGE ..,,... 1 
 
 PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN T 
 
 Be ENE I. NIGHT (Faust's Monologue) ..... 13 
 
 II. BEFORE THE CITY-GATE . . . . . 25 
 
 III. THE STUDY (The Exorcism) 3t 
 
 IV. THE STUDY (The Compact) . , . . . 45 
 V. AUERBACH'S CELLAR . . . . .59 
 
 VI. WITCHES' KITCHEN ...... 68 
 
 VII. A STREET 76 
 
 fill. EVENING 79 
 
 IX. PROMENADE 83 
 
 X. THE NEIGHBOUR'S HOUSE 85 
 
 XI. STREET 89 
 
 XII. GARDEN 91 
 
 XIII. A GARDEN- ARBOUR . , . . . .95 
 
 XIV. FOREST AND CAVERN 96 
 
 XV. MARGARET'S ROOM ...... 101 
 
 XVI. MARTHA'S GARDEN 102 
 
 XVII. AT THE FOUNTAIN 106 
 
 XVIII. DONJON (Margaret's Prayer) 108 
 
 XIX. NIGHT ( Valentine's Death) . . c .109 
 
 XX. CATHEDRAL ... .... 114 
 
 XXI. WALPURGIS-NIGHT . . . . . .116 
 
 XXII. OBERON AND TITANIA'S GOLDBN WEDDING . . 127 
 
 XXIII. DREARY DAY 132 
 
 XXIV. NIGHT . . . . ' . . . . . 134 
 XXV. DUNGEON . . 134
 
 udl CONTENTS. 
 
 SECOND PABT OF THE TKAGEDY. 
 
 i-AQK 
 
 iXTKODUOTIOX ...,,,. 143 
 
 ACT i 
 
 am 
 
 I. A PLEASANT LANDSOAPK .... 149 
 
 II. THE EMPEROR'S CASTLE 15S 
 
 III. SPACIOUS HALL (Carnival Masquerade) . . .162 
 
 IV. PLEASURE-GARDEN (Paper-Money Scheme) . . . 188 
 V. A GLOOMY GALLERY (The Af others) . . . .193 
 
 VI. BRILLIANTLY LIGHTED HALLS . . , . . 197 
 
 VII. HALL OF THE KNIGHTS (Parts and Selena) . . 200 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 I. A GOTHIC CHAMBER, FORMERLY FAUST'S . . , 20ft 
 
 II. LABORATORY (Homnnculus) 218 
 
 III. CLASSICAL WALPURGIS-NIGHT 219 
 
 I. THE PHARSALIAN FIELDS . , , ,219 
 
 II. PENEUS 226 
 
 III. ON THE UPPER PENEUS, AS BEFORE . . 233 
 
 IV. ROCKY COVES ON THE ^EGEAN SEA . . . 248 
 V. TELCHINKS OF RHODES 255 
 
 ACT 111. 
 
 THE HELENA .....,,. 261 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 I. HIGH MOUNTAINS 809 
 
 II. ON THE HEADLAND (The Battle) . . , . 818 
 
 III. THE RIVAL EMPEROR'S TENT . 830 
 
 ACT V. 
 
 I. OPEN COUNTRY ...,,, 339 
 
 II. IN THE LlTTLB GARDEN ..,*.. 841 
 
 HI. PALACE 342 
 
 IV. DEAD OF NIGHT 346 
 
 V. MIDNIGHT (Fausft Blindness) 349 
 
 VI. GRBAT OUTKR COURT OF THE PALACE (Faust's Death) 35J 
 
 VII. MOUNTAIN-GORGES, FOREST, ROCK, DESERT . . 361 
 
 NOTES .... . \ \ . . ' . . 371 
 THK CHRONOLOGY OJT FAUST .... .418
 
 AN GOETHE. 
 
 Erhabener Geist, im Geisterreich verloren ! 
 Wo immer Deine lichte Wohnung sey, 
 Zum hoh'ren Schaffen bist Du neugeboren, 
 Und singest dort die volVre Litanei. 
 Von jenem Streben das Du auserkoren, 
 Vom reinsten sEther, drin Du athmest frei, 
 O neige Dich zu gnddigem Erwiedern 
 Des letzten Wiederkalls von Deinen Liedern ! 
 
 Den alien Musen die bestdubten Kronen 
 
 Nahmst Du, zu neuem Glanz, mit kuhner Hand 
 
 Du lost die Rathsel dltester Monen 
 
 Durch j ungeren Glauben, hdleren Verstand, 
 
 Und machst, wo rege Menschengeister wohnen, 
 
 Die ganze Erde Dir zum Vaterland , 
 
 Und Deine Jiinger sehn in Dir, verwundert, 
 
 Verkorpert schon das werdende Jahrhundert. 
 
 Was Du gesungen, Aller Lust und Klagen, 
 Des Lebens Wiedersprilche, neu vermdhlt, 
 Die Harfe tausendstimmig frisch geschlagen, 
 Die Shakspeare einst, die einst Homer gewahlt, 
 Darf ich in fremde Kldnge ubertragen 
 Das Alles, wo so Mancher schon gefehlt ? 
 Lass Deinen Geist in meiner Stimme klingen, 
 Und was Du sangst, lass mich es Dir nachsingen I 
 
 B. T.
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 Again ye come, ye hovering Forms ! I find ye, 
 
 As early to my clouded sight ye shone ! 
 
 Shall I attempt, this once, to seize and bind ye f 
 
 Still o'er my heart is that illusion thrown ? 
 
 Ye crowd more near ! Then, be the reign assigned ye, 
 
 And sway me from your misty, shadowy zone ! 
 
 My bosom thrills, with youthful passion shaken, 
 
 From magic airs that round your march awaken. 
 
 Of joyous days ye bring the blissful vision ; 
 
 The dear, familiar phantoms rise again, 
 
 And, like an old and half-extinct tradition, 
 
 First Love returns, with Friendship in his train. 
 
 Renewed is Pain : with mournful repetition 
 
 Life tracks his devious, labyrinthine chain, 
 
 And names the Good, whose cheating fortune tore them 
 
 From happy hours, and left me to deplore them. 
 
 They hear no longer these succeeding measures, 
 The souls, to whom my earliest songs I sang ; 
 Dispersed the friendly troop, with all its pleasures, 
 And still, alas ; the echoes first that rang ! 
 I bring the unknown multitude my treasures 1 
 Their very plaudits give my heart a pang, 
 And those beside, whose joy my Song so flattered, 
 If still they live, wide through the world are scattered 
 
 And grasps me now a long-unwonted yearning 
 For that serene and solemn Spirit-Land : 
 My song, to faint JSolian murmurs turning, 
 Sways like a harp-string by the breezes fanned. 
 I thrill and tremble ; tear on tear is burning, 
 And the stern heart is tenderly rmma.TiTip.fl. 
 What I possess, I see far distant lying, 
 And what I lost, grows real and undying.
 
 FAUST 
 
 PRELUDE ON THE STAGE. 
 
 MANACEI:. DRAMATIC POET. MERRY- ANDREW. 
 
 MANAGER. You two, who oft a helping hand 
 Have lent, in need and tribulation, 
 Come, let me know your expectation 
 Of this, our enterprise, in German land! 
 I wish the crowd to feel itself well treated, 
 Especially since it lives and lets me live; 
 The posts are set, the booth of boards completed, 1 
 And each awaits the banquet I shall give. 
 Already there, with curious eyebrows raised, 
 They sit sedate, and hope to be amazed. 
 I know how one the People's taste may flatter, 
 Yet here a huge embarrassment I feel : 
 What they're accustomed to, is no great matter, 
 But then, alas! they've read an awful deal. 
 How shall we plan, that all be fresh and new, 
 Important matter, yet attractive too? 
 For 'tis my pleasure to behold them surging, 
 When to our booth the current sets apace, 
 And with tremendous, oft-repeated urging, 
 Squeeze onward through the narrow gate of grace: 
 By daylight even, they push and cram in 
 To reach the seller's box, a fighting host, 
 And as for bread, around a baker's door, in famine, 
 To get a ticket break their necks almost.
 
 2 FAUST. 
 
 This miracle alone can work the Poet 
 
 On men so various: now, my friend, pray show it. 
 
 POET. Speak not to me of yonder motley masses, 
 Whom but to see, puts out the fire of Song! 
 Hide from my view the surging crowd that passes, 
 And in its whirlpool forces us along! 
 No, lead me where some heavenly silence glasses 
 The purer joys that round the Poet throng, 
 Where Love and Friendship still divinely fashion 
 The bonds that bless, the wreaths that crown his passion! 
 
 Ah, every utterance from the depths of feeling 
 The timid lips have stammeringly expressed, 
 Now failing, now, perchance, success revealing, 
 Gulps the wild Moment in its greedy breast; 
 Or oft, reluctant years its warrant sealing, 
 Its perfect stature stands at last confessed! 
 What dazzles, for the Moment spends its spirit: 
 What's genuine, shall Posterity inherit. 
 
 MERRY-ANDREW. Posterity! Don't name the word to me! 
 If I should choose to preach Posterity, 
 Where would you get cotemporary fun? 
 That men will have it, there's no blinking: 
 A fine young fellow's presence, to my thinking, 
 Is something worth, to every one. 
 Who genially his nature can outpour, 
 Takes from the People's moods no irritation; 
 The wider circle he acquires, the more 
 Securely works his inspiration. 
 Then pluck up heart, and give us sterling coin! 
 Let Fancy be with her attendants fitted, 
 Sense, Reason, Sentiment, and Passion join, 
 But have a care, lest Folly be omitted! 
 
 MANAGER. Chiefly, enough of incident prepare! 
 They come to look, and they prefer to stare. 
 Reel off a host of threads before their faces, 
 So that they gape in stupid wonder: then 
 By sheer diffuseness you have won their graces, 
 And are, at once, most popular of men. 
 Only by mass you touch the mass; for any
 
 PRELUDE. 3 
 
 Will finally, himself, his bit select: 
 
 Who offers much, brings something unto many, 
 
 And each goes home content with the effect. 
 
 If you've a piece, why, just in pieces give it: 
 
 A hash, a stew, will bring success, believe it! 
 
 'Tis easily displayed, and easy to invent. 
 
 What use, a Whole compactly to present? 
 
 Your hearers pick and pluck, as soon as they receive it! 
 
 POET. You do not feel, how such a trade debases; 
 How ill it suits the Artist, proud and true! 
 The botching work each fine pretender traces 
 Is, I perceive, a principle with you. 
 
 MANAGEB. Such a reproach not in the least offends; 
 A man who some result intends 
 Must use the tools that best are fitting. 
 Reflect, soft wood is given to you for splitting, 
 And then, observe for whom you write! 
 If one comes bored, exhausted quite, 
 Another, satiate, leaves the banquet's tapers, 
 And, worst of all, full many a wight 
 Is fresh from reading of the daily papers. 
 Idly to us they come, as to a masquerade, 
 Mere curiosity their spirits warming: 
 The ladies with themselves, and with their finery, aid, 
 Without a salary their parts performing. 
 What dreams are yours in high poetic places? 
 You're pleased, forsooth, full houses to behold? 
 Draw near, and view your patrons' faces! 
 The half are coarse, the half are cold. 
 One, when the play is out, goes home to cards; 
 A wild night on a wench's breast another chooses: 
 Why should you rack, poor, foolish bards, 
 For ends like these, the gracious Muses? 
 I tell you, give but more more, ever more, they ask: 
 Thus shall you hit the mark of gain and glory. 
 Seek to confound your auditory! 
 To satisfy them is a task. 
 What ails you now? Is't suffering, or pleasure? 
 
 POET. Go, find yourself a more obedient slave! 
 What! shall the Poet that which Nature gave,
 
 4 FAUST. 
 
 The highest right, supreme Humanity, 
 
 Forfeit so wantonly, to swell your treasure? 
 
 Whence o'er the heart his empire free? 
 
 The elements of Life how conquers he? 
 
 Is't not his heart's accord, urged outward far and dim, 
 
 To wind the world in unison with him? 
 
 When on the spindle, spun to endless distance, 
 
 By Nature's listless hand the thread is twirled, 
 
 And the discordant tones of all existence 
 
 In sullen jangle are together hurled, 
 
 Who, then, the changeless orders "of creation 
 
 Divides, and kindles into rhythmic dance? 
 
 Who brings the One to join the general ordination, 
 
 Where it may throb in grandest consonance? 
 
 Who bids the storm to passion stir the bosom? 
 
 In brooding souls the sunset burn above? 
 
 Who scatters every fairest April blossom 
 
 Along the shining path of Love? 
 
 Who braids the noteless leaves to crowns, requiting 
 
 Desert with fame, in Action's every field? 
 
 Who makes Olympus sure, the Gods uniting? 
 
 The might of Man, as in the Bard revealed. 
 
 MERRY-ANDREW. So, these fine forces, in conjunction, 
 
 Propel the high poetic function, 
 
 As in a love -ad venture they might play! 
 
 You meet by accident ; you feel, you stay, 
 
 And by degrees your heart is tangled ; 
 
 Bliss grows apace, and then its course is jangled; 
 
 You're ravished quite, then comes a touch of woe, 
 
 And there's a neat romance, completed ere you know! 
 
 Let us, then, such a drama give! 
 
 Grasp the exhaustless life that all men live! 
 
 Each shares therein, though few may comprehend: 
 
 Where'er you touch, there's interest without end. . 
 
 In motley pictures little light, 
 
 Much error, and of truth a glimmering mite, 
 
 Thus the best beverage is supplied, 
 
 Whence all the world is cheered and edified. 
 
 Then, at your play, behold the fairest flower 
 
 Of youth collect, to hear the revelation!
 
 PRELUDE. o 
 
 Each tender soul, with sentimental power, 
 
 Sucks melancholy food from your creation; 
 
 And now in this, now that, the leaven works, 
 
 For each beholds what in his bosom lurks. 
 
 They still are moved at once to weeping or to laughter, 
 
 Still wonder at your flights, enjoy the show they see: 
 
 A mind, once formed, is never suited after; 
 
 One yet in growth will ever grateful be. 
 
 POET. Then give me back that time of pleasures, 
 While yet in joyous growth I sang, 
 When, like a fount, the crowding measures 
 Uninterrupted gushed and sprang! 
 Then bright mist veiled the world before me, 
 In opening buds a marvel woke, 
 As I the thousand blossoms broke, 
 Which every valley richly bore me! 
 I nothing had, and yet enough for yoxith 
 Joy in Illusion, ardent thirst for Truth. 
 Give, unrestrained, the old emotion, 
 The bliss that touched the verge of pain, 
 The strength of Hate, Love's deep devotion, 
 O, give me back my youth again! 
 
 MEBRY-ANDREW. Youth, good my friend, you certainly 
 
 require 
 
 When foes in combat sorely press you; 
 When lovely maids, in fond desire, 
 Hang on your bosom and caress you; 
 When from the hard-won goal the wreath 
 Beckons afar, the race awaiting; 
 When, after dancing out your breath, 
 You pass the night in dissipating: 
 But that familiar harp with soul 
 To play, with grace and bold expression, 
 And towards a self-erected goal 
 To walk with many a sweet digression, 
 This, aged Sirs, belongs to you, 2 
 And we no less revere you for that reason: 
 Age childish makes, they say, but 'tis not true; 
 We're only genuine children still, in Age's season! 
 
 MANAGER. The words you've bandied are sufficient;
 
 6 FAUST. 
 
 'Tis deeds that I prefer to see; 
 
 In compliments you're both proficient, 
 
 But might, the while, more useful be. 
 
 What need to talk of Inspiration? 
 
 'Tis no companion of Delay. 
 
 If Poetry be your vocation, 
 
 Let Poetry your will obey! 
 
 Full well you know what here is wanting; 
 
 The crowd for strongest drink is panting, 
 
 And such, forthwith, I'd have you brew. 
 
 What's left undone to-day, To-morrow will not do, 
 
 Waste not a day in vain digression: 
 
 With resolute, courageous trust 
 
 Seize every possible impression, 
 
 And make it firmly your possession; 
 
 You'll then work on, because you must. 
 
 Upon our German stage, you know it, 
 
 Each tries his hand at what he will; 
 
 So, take of traps and scenes your fill, 
 
 And all you find, be sure to show it! 
 
 Use both the great and lesser heavenly light, 
 
 Squander the stars in any number, 
 
 Beasts, birds, trees, rocks, and all such lumber, 
 
 Fire, water, darkness, Day and Night! 
 
 Thus, in our booth's contracted sphere, 
 
 The circle of Creation will appear, 
 
 And move, as we deliberately impel, 
 
 From Heaven, across the World, to Hell!
 
 PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN. 
 
 THE LORD. THE HEAVENLY HOSTS. Afterwards 
 MEPHISTOPHELES. 
 
 The THREE ARCHANGELS come forward. 3 
 
 RAPHAEL. The sun-orb sings, in emulation, 
 'Mid brother -spheres, his ancient round: 
 His path predestined through Creation. 
 He ends with step of thunder-sound. 
 The angels from his visage splendid 
 Draw power, whose measure none can say; 
 The lofty works, uncomprehended, 
 Are bright as on the earliest day. 
 
 GABRIEL. And swift, and swift beyond conceiving, 
 The splendour of the world goes round, 
 Day's Eden- brightness still relieving 
 The awful Night's intense profound: 
 The ocean-tides in foam are breaking, 
 Against the rocks' deep bases hurled, 
 And both, fhe spheric race partaking, 
 Eternal, swift, are onward whirled! 
 
 MICHAEL. And rival storms abroad are surging, 
 From sea to land, from land to sea. 
 A chain of deepest action forging 
 Round all, in wrathful energy. 
 There flames a desolation, blazing 
 Before the Thunder's crashing way: 
 Yet, Lord, Thy messengers are praising 
 The gentle movement of Thy Day. 
 
 THE THREE. Though still by them uncomprehended, 
 From these the angels draw their power,
 
 8 FAUST. 
 
 And all Thy works, sublime and splendid, 
 Are bright as in Creation's hour. 
 
 MEPHIS. Since Thou, O Lord, deign'st to approach again 
 And ask us how we do, in manner kindest, 
 And heretofore to meet myself wert fain, 
 Among thy menials, now, my face Thou findest. 
 Pardon, this troop I cannot follow after 
 With lofty speech, though by them scorned and spurned 
 My pathos certainly would move Thy laughter. 
 If Thou hadst not all merriment unlearned. 
 Of suns and worlds I've nothing to be quoted; 
 How men torment themselves, is all I've noted. 
 The little god o' the world sticks to the same old way, 
 And is as whimsical as on Creation's day. 
 Life somewhat better might content him, 
 But for the gleam of heavenly light which Thou has lent 
 
 him: 
 
 He calls it Reason thence his power's increased, 
 To be far beastlier than any beast. 
 Saving Thy Gracious Presence, he to me 
 A long-legged grasshopper appears to be, 
 That springing flies, and flying springs, 
 And in the grass the same old ditty sings. 
 Would he still lay among the grass he grows in! 
 Each bit of dung he seeks, to stick his nose in. 
 
 THE LORD. Hast thou. then, nothing more to mention? 
 Com'st ever, thus, with ill intention? 
 Find'st nothing right on earth, eternally? 
 
 MEPHIS. Xo, Lord ! I find things, there, still bad as they 
 
 can be. 
 
 Man's misery even to pity moves my nature; 
 Fve scarce the heart to plague the wretched creature. 
 
 THE LORD. Know'st Faust? 
 
 MEPHIS. The Doctor Faust? 
 
 THE LORD. My servant, be! 
 
 MEPHIS. Forsooth! He serves you after strange devices: 
 No earthly meat or drink the fool suffices: 
 His spirit's ferment far aspireth; 
 Half conscious of his frenzied, crazed unrest, 
 The fairest stars from Heaven he required],
 
 PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN. I 
 
 jfroin Earth, the highest raptures and the beat, 
 And all the Near and Far that he desireth 
 Fails to subdue the tumult of his breast 
 
 THB LORD. Though still confused his service unto Me, 
 I soon shall lead him to a clearer morning. 
 Sees not the gardener, even while buds his tree, 
 Both flower and fruit the future years adorning ? 
 
 MEPHIS. What will you bet 1 There's still a chance U 
 
 gain him, 
 
 If unto me full leave you give, 
 Gently upon my road to train him ! 
 
 THE LORD. As long as he on earth shall live, 
 So long I make no prohibition. 
 While Man's desires and aspirations stir, 
 He cannot choose but err.* 
 
 MEPHIS. My thanks ! I find the dead no acquisition, 
 And never cared to have them in iny keeping. 
 I much prefer the cheeks where ruddy blood is leaping, 
 And when a corpse approaches, close my house : 
 It goes with me, as with the cat the mouse. 
 
 THE LORD. Enough ! What thou hast asked is granted. 
 Turn off this spirit from his fountain-head ; 
 To trap him, let thy .snares be planted, 
 And him, with thee, be downward led ; 
 Then stand abashed, when thou art forced to say : 
 A good man, through obscurest aspiration, 
 Has still an instinct of the one true way.' 
 
 MEPHIS. Agree. 1 ! But 'tis a short prolxttion. 
 About my bet I feel no trepidation. 
 If I fulfil my expectation, 
 You'll let me triumph with a swelling breast : 
 Dust shall he eat, and with a zest, 
 Is did a certain snake, my near relation. 
 
 THE LORD. Therein thou'rt free, according to thy merit* : 
 The like of thee have never moved My hate. 
 Of all the bold, denying Spirits, 
 The waggish knave least trouble doth create. 
 Man's active nature, flagging, seeks too soon the level ; 
 Unqualified repose he learns to crave ; 
 Whence, willingly, the comrade him I gave,
 
 10 FAUST. 
 
 Who works, excites, and must create, as Devil, 
 
 But ye, God's sons in love and duty, 7 
 
 Enjoy the rich, the ever-living Beauty! 
 
 Creative Power, that works eternal schemes, 
 
 Clasp you in bonds of love, relaxing never, 
 
 And what in wavering apparition gleams 
 
 Fix in its place with thoughts that stand for ever! 
 
 [Heaven closes : the ARCHANGELS separate. 
 MEPHIS. (solus). I like, at times, to hear The Ancient's 
 
 word, 
 
 And have a care to be most civil: 
 It's really kind of such a noble Lord 
 So humanly to gossip with the Devil !
 
 FIRST PART OF THE TRAGEDY.
 
 I. 
 
 NIGHT. 
 
 A lofty -arched, narrow, Gothic cJwmber. FAUST, in a 
 chair at his desk, restless. 
 
 FAUST. I've studied now Philosophy 
 
 And Jurisprudence, Medicine, 
 
 And even, alas! Theology, 
 
 From end to end, with labour keen ; 
 
 And here, poor fool! with all my lore 
 
 I stand, no wiser than before: 
 
 I'm Magister yea, Doctor hight, 
 
 And straight or cross-wise, wrong or right, 
 
 These ten years long, with many woes, 1 "; 
 
 I've led my scholars by the nose, 
 
 And see, that nothing can be known! 
 
 That knowledge cuts me to the bone. 
 
 I'm cleverer, true, than those fops of teachers, 
 
 Doctors and Magisters, Scribes and Preachers ; 
 
 Neither scruples nor doubts come now to smite me. 
 
 Nor Hell nor Devil can longer affright me. 
 
 For this, all pleasure am I foregoing; 
 
 I do not pretend to aught worth knowing, 
 
 I do not pretend I could be a teacher 
 
 To help or convert a fellow-creature. 
 
 Then, too, I've neither lands nor gold, 
 
 Nor the world's least pomp or honour hold 
 
 No dog would endure such a curst existence ! 
 ,' Wherefore, from Magic I seek assistance, 
 ,^That many a secret perchance I reach ^ 
 v Through spirit-power and spirit-speech. / 
 
 And thus the bitter task forego
 
 U FAUST. 
 
 Of Baying the things I do not know, . 
 
 That I may detect the inmost force 
 
 Which binds the world, and guides its course; 
 
 Its germs, productive powers explore, 
 
 And rummage in empty words no more ! 
 
 O full and splendid Moon, whom I 
 Have, from this desk, seen climb the sky 
 So many a midnight, would thy glow ' 
 For the last time beheld my woe ! 
 Ever thine eye, most mournful friend, 
 O'er books and papers saw me bend ; 
 But would that I, on mountains grand, 
 Amid thy blessed light could stand, 
 With spirits through mountain-caverns hojjjr, I j 
 Float in tby twilight the meadows oyjpr, 
 , And, freed from the fumes of lore that swathe me, 
 To health in thy dewy fountains bathe me ! 
 
 Ah, me ! this dungeon still I see. 
 This drear, accursed masonry, 
 Where even the welcome daylight strain/ 
 But duskly through the painted pane.*. 
 Hemmed in by many a toppling heap 
 Of books worm-eaten, gray with dust, 
 Which to the vaulted ceiling creep, 
 (A-gainst the smoky paper thrust, 
 With glasses, boxes, round me stacked, 
 And instruments together hurled. 
 Ancestral lumber, stuffed and packed 
 Such is my world : and what a world ! ^ 
 
 And do I ask, wherefore my heart 
 Falters, oppressed with unknown needs ! 
 Why some inexplicable smart 
 / ^ All movement of my life impedes I 
 Alas ! in living Nature's stead, 
 Where God His human creature set, 
 bt smoke an { mould the fleshless dead 
 And boues of innate surround HIP vet !
 
 SCENE I. 15 
 
 Fly! Up, and seek the broad, free land! 
 And this one Book of Mystery 
 From Nostradamus' very hand, 8 
 Is't not sufficient company? 
 When I the starry courses know, 
 And Nature's wise instruction seek, 
 With light of power my soul shall glow, 
 As when to spirits spirits speak. 
 'Tis vain, this empty brooding here, N 
 Though guessed the holy symbols be ) 
 Ye, Spirits, come ye hover near 
 Oh, if you hear me, answer mo! 
 
 [He opens the Book, and perceives the sign of 
 
 the Macrocosm. 9 
 
 Ha! what a sudden rapture leaps from this 
 I view, through all my senses swiftly flowing! 
 I feel a youthful, holy, vital bliss 
 -In every vein and fibre newly glowing. 
 Was it a God, who traced this sign, 
 \Vith calm across my tumult stealing, 
 My troubled heart to joy unsealing, 
 With impulse, mystic and divine, 
 The powers of Nature here, around my path, reveal ing ! 
 Am I a God ? so clear mine eyes ! 
 In these pure features I behold 
 Creative Nature to my soul unfold. 
 What says the sage, now first I recognize : 
 "The spirit- world no closures fasten; 
 Thy sense is shut, thy heart is dead : 
 Disciple, up! untiring, hasten 
 To bathe thy breast in morning-red!" 
 
 [He contemplates the sign. 
 How each the Whole its substance gives, 
 Each in the other works and lives ! 
 Like heavenly forces rising and descending, 
 Their golden urns reciprocally lending, 
 With wings that winnow blessing 
 From Heaven through Earth I see them pressing 
 Filling the All with harmony unceasing! 
 How grand a show ! but, ah ! a show alone.
 
 16 FAUST. 
 
 Thee, boundless Nature, how make thee my own ? 
 Where you, ye breasts ? Founts of all Being, shining, 
 Whereon hang Heaven's and Earth's desire, 
 Whereto our withered hearts aspire, 
 Ye flow, ye feed : and am I vainly pining ] >*' 
 
 [He turns the leaves impatiently, and perceivet t/u 
 
 sign of the Earth-Spirit. 
 How otherwise upon me works this sign 1 
 Thou, Spirit of the Earth, art nearer : 
 Even now my powers are loftier, clearer ; 
 I glow, as drunk with new-made wine : 
 New strength and heart to meet the world incite me, 
 The woe of earth, the bliss of earth, invite me, 
 And thoxigh the shock of storms may smite me, 
 No crash of shipwreck shall have power to fright me f 
 Clouds gather over me 
 The moon conceals her light 
 The lamp's extinguished ! 
 Mists rise, red, angry rays are darting 
 Around my head ! There falls 
 A horror from the vaulted roof, 
 And seizes me ! 
 
 I feel thy presence, Spirit I invoke ! 
 Reveal thyself ! 
 
 Ha ! in my heart what rending stroke ! 
 With new impulsion 
 My senses heave in this convulsion ! 
 I feel thee draw my heart, absorb, exhaust me : 
 Thou must ! thou must ! and though my life it cost me ! 
 
 [He seizes the book, and mysteriously pronouncet th* 
 sign of the Spirit. A ruddy flame flashes thi 
 SPIRIT appears in the flame. 
 
 SPIRIT. Who calls me ? 
 
 FAUST (with averted head). Terrible to see ! 
 
 SPIRIT. Me hast thou long with might attracted, 
 Long from my sphere thy food exacted, 
 And now 
 
 FAUST. Woe ! I endure not thee ! 
 
 SPIRIT. To view me is thine aspiration. 
 My voice to hear, my countenance to see t
 
 t. If 
 
 fhy powerful yearning moveth me, 
 
 Here am I ! what mean perturbation 
 
 Thee, superhuman, shakes I Thy soul's high calling, wh^re 1 
 
 Where is the breast, which from itself a world did bear, 
 
 And shaped and cherished which with joy expanded, 
 
 To be our peer, with us, the Spirits, banded ? 
 
 Where art thou, Paust, whose voice has pierced to me, 
 
 Who towards me pressed with all thine energy ? 
 
 He art thou, who, my presence breathing, seeing, 
 
 Trembles through all the depths of being, 
 
 A writhing worm, a terror-stricken form t 
 
 FAUST. Thee, form of flame, shall I then fearl 
 Ves, I am Faust : I am thy peer ! 
 SPIRIT. In the tides of Life, in Action's storm, 
 
 A fluctuant wave, 
 
 A shuttle free, 
 
 Birth and the Grave, 
 
 An eternal sea, 
 
 A weaving, flowing 
 
 Life, all-glowing, 
 
 Thus at Time's humming loom 'tis my hand prepare* 
 The garment of Life which the Deity wears ! 
 
 FAUST. Thou, who around the wide world wendest, 
 Thou busy Spirit, how near I feel to thee ! 
 
 SPIRIT. Thou'rt like the Spirit which thou compre- 
 
 hendest. 
 Not me ! [Disappears. 
 
 FAUST (overwhelmed). Not thee I 
 Whom then ? 
 I, image of the Godhead ! 
 
 Not even like thee ! [A knock 
 
 Death ! I know it 'tis my Famulus 1 " 
 My fairest luck finds no fruition : 
 In all the fulness of my vision 
 The soulless sneak disturbs me thus ! 
 
 Enter WAGNER, 11 in dressing-gown a/nd night-cap, a lamp in 
 
 his hand. FAUST twrns impatiently. 
 WAGXER. Pardon, I heard your declamation ; 
 Twas sure an old Greek tragedy you read ?
 
 18 FAUST. 
 
 In such an art I crave some preparation, 
 Since now it stands one in good stead. 
 I've often heard it said, a preacher 
 Might learn, with a comedian for a teacher. 
 
 FAUST. Yes, when the priest comedian is by nature, 
 As haply now and then the case may be. 
 
 WAGNER. Ah, when one studies thus, a prisoned creature. 
 That scarce the world on holidays can see, 
 Scarce through a glass, by rare occasion, 
 How shall one lead it by persuasion? 
 
 FAUST. You'll never attain it, save you know the feeling, 
 Save from the soul it rises clear, 
 Serene in primal strength, compelling 
 The hearts and minds of all who hear. 
 You sit for ever, gluing, patching ; 
 You cook the scraps from others' fare ; 
 And from your heap of ashes hatching 
 A starveling flame, ye blow it bare! 
 Take children's, monkeys' gaze admiring, 
 If such your taste, and be content; 
 But ne'er from heart to heart you'll speak inspiring, 
 Save your own heart is eloquent ! 
 
 WAGNEB. Yet through delivery orators succeed ; 
 I feel that I am far behind, indeed. 
 
 FAUST. Seek thou the honest recompense! 
 Beware, a tinkling fool to be ! 
 With little art, clear wit and sense 
 Suggest their own delivery ; 
 And if thou'rt moved to speak in earnest, 
 What need, that after words thou y earnest? 
 Yes, your discourses, with their glittering show, 
 Where ye for men twist shredded thought like paper," 
 Are unref reshing as the winds that blow 
 The rustling leaves through chill autumnal vapour! 
 
 WAGNER. Ah, God! but Art is long, 
 And Life, alas ! is fleeting. 
 And oft, with zeal my critic-duties meeting, 
 In head and breast there's something wrong. 
 How hard it is to compass the assistance 
 Whereby one rises to the source !
 
 SCENE 1. 19 
 
 Ajttd, haplj, ere one travels half the course 
 Must the poor devil quit existence. 
 
 FAUST. Is parchment, then, the holy fount before thee, 
 A. draught wherefrom thy thirst for ever slakes ? 
 No true refreshment can restore thee, 
 Save what from thine own soul spontaneous breaks. 
 
 WAGNER. Pardon ! a great delight is granted 
 When, in the spirit of the ages planted, 
 We mark how, ere our time, a sage has thought, 
 Ajad then, how far his work, and grandly, we have brought 
 
 FAUST. yes, up to the stars at last ! 
 Listen, my friend : the ages that are past 
 Are now a book with seven seals protected : 
 What you the Spirit of the Ages call 
 Is nothing but the spirit of you all, 
 Wherein the Ages are reflected. 
 So, oftentimes, you miserably mar it ! 
 At the first glance who sees it runs away. 
 An offal-barrel and a lumber-garret, 
 Or, at the best, a Puncii-and-Judy play, L ' 
 With maxims most pragmatical and hitting, 
 As in the mouths of puppets are befitting ! 
 
 WAGNER. But then, the world the human heart and brain! 
 Of these one covets some slight apprehension. 
 
 FAUST. Yes, of the kind which men attain ! 
 Who dares the child's true name in public mention f 
 The few, who thereof something really learned, 
 Unwisely frank, with hearts that spurned concealing, 
 And to the mob laid bare each thought and feeling, 
 Have evermore been crucified and burned. 
 I pray you. Friend, 'tis now the dead of night ; 
 Our converse here must be suspended. 
 
 WAGNER. I would have shared your watches with delight, 
 That so our learned talk might be extended. 
 To-morrow, though, 111 ask, in Easter leisure, 
 Thifl and the other question, at your pleasure. 
 Most zealously I seek for erudition : 
 Much do I know but to know all ifl my ambition. [Exit 
 
 FAUST ($ohu). That brain, alone, not loses hope, whoae / 
 choice is
 
 26 FAUST. 
 
 To stick in shallow trash for evermore, 
 Which digs with eager hand for buried ow, 
 And, when it finds an angel-worm, rejoices > 
 
 Dare such a human voice disturb the flow, 
 
 Around me here, of spirit-presence fullest t 
 
 And yet, this once my thanks I owe 
 
 To thee, of all earth's sons the poorest, dullest i 
 
 For thou hast torn me from that desperate state 
 
 Which threatened soon to overwhelm my senses : 
 
 The apparition was so giant-great, 
 
 It dwarfed and withered all my soul's pretencer, : 
 
 I, image of the Godhead, who began 
 
 Deeming Eternal Truth secure in nearness 
 
 To sun myself in heavenly light and clearness, 
 
 And laid aside the earthly man ; 
 
 I. more than Cherub, whose free force had planu<*i 
 
 To flow through Nature's veins in glad pulsation, 
 
 To reach beyond, enjoying in creation 
 
 The life of Gods, behold my expiation ! 
 
 A thunder-word hath swept me from my stand. 
 
 With thee I dare not venture to compare me. 
 
 Though I possessed the power to draw thee near me, 
 
 The power to keep thee was denied my hand. 
 
 When that ecstatic moment held me, 
 
 I felt myself so small, so great ; 
 
 But thou hast ruthlessly repelled me 
 
 Back upon Man's uncertain fate. 
 
 What shall I shun ? Whose guidance borrow ? 
 
 Shall I accept that stress and strife ? 
 
 Ah ! every deed of ours, no less than every sorrow. 
 
 Impedes the onward march of life. 
 
 Some alien substance more and more is cleaving 
 To all the mind conceives of grand and fair ; 
 When this world's Good is won by our achieving, 
 The Better, then, is named a cheat and snare. 
 The fine emotions, whence our lives we mouM,
 
 SCENE I. 21 
 
 Lie in the earthly tumult dumb and cold. 
 If hopeful Fancy once, in daring flight, 
 Her longings to the Infinite expanded. 
 Yet now a narrow space contents her quite. 
 Since Time's wild wave so many a fortune stranded. 
 Care at the bottom of the heart is lurking : 
 Her secret pangs in silence working, 
 She, restless, rocks herself, disturbing joy and rest: 
 In newer masks her face is ever drest, 
 By turns as house and land, as wife and child, pre- 
 sented, 
 
 As water, fire, as poison, steel: 
 We dread the blows we never feel, 
 And what we never lose is yet by us lamented ! 
 I am not like the Gods! That truth is felt too deep: 
 The worm am I, that in the dust doth creep, 
 That, while in dust it lives and seeks its bread, 
 Is crushed and buried by the wanderer's tread. 
 
 Is not this dust, these walls within them hold, 
 The hundred shelves, which cramp and chain mo, 
 The frippery, the trinkets thousand-fold, 
 That in this mothy den restrain me? 
 Here shall I find the help I need? 
 Shall here a thousand volumes teach me only 
 That men, self -tortured, everywhere must bleed, 
 And here and there one happy man sits lonely? 
 What mean'st thou by that grin, thou hollow skuil, 
 Save that thy brain, like mine, a cloudy mirror, 
 Sought once the shining day, and then, in twilight dull, 
 Thirsting for Truth, went wretchedly to Error ? 
 Ye instruments, forsooth, but jeer at me 
 With wheel and cog, and shapes uncouth of wonder ; 
 T found tho portal, you the keys should be ; 
 Your \v arc's are deftly wrought, but drive no bolts asunder ! 
 Mysterious even in open day, 
 Nature retains her veil, despite our clamours : 
 That which she doth not willingly display 
 Cannot be wrenched from her with levers, screws, and 
 hammers.
 
 23 FAUST. 
 
 Ye ancient tools, whose use I never knew, 
 
 Here, since my father used ye, still ye moulder : 
 
 Thou, ancient scroll, hast worn thy smoky hue 
 
 Since at this desk the dim lamp wont to smoulder. 
 
 Twere better far, had I my little idly spent, 
 
 Than now to sweat beneath its burden, I confess it I 
 
 What from your fathers' heritage is lent, 
 
 Earn it anew, to really possess it ! 
 
 What serves not, is a sore impediment : 
 
 The Moment's need creates the thing to serve and blew it ! 
 
 Yet, wherefore turns my gaze to yonder point so lightly ? 
 
 Is yonder flask a magnet for mine eyes ? 
 
 Whence, all around me, glows the air so brightly, 
 
 As when in woods at night the mellow moonbeam lies f 
 
 I hail thee, wondrous, rarest vial ! 
 I take thee down devoutly, for the trial : 
 Man's art and wit I venerate in thee. 
 Thou summary of gentle slumber-juices, 
 Essence of deadly finest powers and uses, 
 Unto thy master show thy favour free ! 
 j[ see thee, and the stings of pain diminish ; 
 T grasp thee, and my struggles slowly finish : 
 My spirit's flood-tide ebbeth more and more. 
 Out on the open ocean speeds my dreaming ; 
 The glassy flood before my feet is gleaming, 
 A. new day beckons to a newer shore ! 
 
 A fiery chariot, bome on buoyant pinions, 
 
 Sweeps near me now ! I soon shall ready be 
 
 To pierce the ether's high, unknown dominions, 
 
 To reach new spheres of pure activity ! 
 
 This godlike rapture, this supreme existence, 
 
 Do I, but now a worm, deserve to track ? 
 
 Yes, resolute to reach some brighter distance, 
 
 On Earth's fair sun I turn my back ! 
 
 Yes, let me dare those gates to fling asunder, 
 
 Which every man would fain go slinking by ! 
 
 Tw time, through deeds this word of truth to thunder:
 
 SCMNE I. 23 
 
 fhat with the height of Gods Man's dignity may vie ! 
 
 Kor from that gloomy gulf to shrink affrighted, 
 
 Where Fancy doth hei-sell to self-born pangs compel, 
 
 To struggle toward that pass benighted, 
 
 Around whose narrow mouth flame all the fires of Hell, 
 
 To take this step with cheerful resolution, 
 
 Though Nothingness should be the certain, swift conclusion i 
 
 And now come down, thou cup of crystal clearest 1 
 Fresh from thine ancient cover thou appearest, 
 So many years forgotten to my thought ! 
 Thou shon'st at old ancestral banquets cheery, 
 The solemn guests thou madest merry, 
 When one thy wassail to the other brought. 
 The rich and skilful figures o'er thee wrought, 
 The drinker's duty, rhyme-wise to explain them, 
 Or in one breath below the mark to drain them, 
 From many a night of youth my memory caught. 
 Now to a neighbour shall I pass thee never, 
 Nor on thy curious art to test my wit endeavour : 
 Here is a juice whence sleep is swiftly born. 
 It fills with browner flood thy crystal hollow ; 
 I chose, prepared it : thus I follow, 
 With all my soul the final drink I swallow, 
 A solemn festal cup, a greeting to the morn ! 
 
 [He sets the goblet to his mouth. Chime of belli and 
 
 choral song. 
 CHORUS oy ANGELS. 14 Christ is arisen i 
 
 Joy to the Mortal Ono, 
 
 Whom the unmerited, 
 
 Clinging, inherited 
 
 Needs did imprison. 
 FAUST. What hollow humming, what a sharp, deal 
 
 stroke, 
 
 Drives from my lip the goblet's, at their meeting 1 
 Announce the booming bells already woke 
 The first glad hour of Easter's festal greeting ? 
 Ye choirs, have ye begun the sweet, consoling chant, 
 Which, through the night of Death, the angels uiinistraixt 
 Qod/* new Covenant repeating \
 
 24 fAU&T 
 
 CHORUS o WOMEN. With spices and precious 
 
 Balm, we arrayed him ; 
 
 Faithful and gracious, 
 
 We tenderly laid him : 
 
 Linen to bind him 
 
 Cleanlily wound we : 
 
 Ah ! when we would find him, 
 
 Christ no more found we ! 
 CHOKT B OF ANGKLS. Christ is ascended ! 
 
 Bliss hath invested him, 
 
 Woes that molested him, 
 
 Trials that tested him, 
 
 Gloriously ended ! 
 
 FATTST. Why, here in dust, entice me with your ."pcli, 
 Y e gentle, powerful sounds of Heaven ? 
 Peal rather there, where tender natures dwell. 
 Your messages I hear, but faith has not been given j 
 The dearest child of Faith is Miracle. 
 1 venture not to soar to yonder regions 
 Whence the glad tidings hither ttoat ; 
 And yet, from childhood up familiar with the note. 
 To Life it now renews the old allegiance. 
 Once Heavenly Love sent down a burning kiss 
 Upon ii) y brow, in Sabbath silence holy ; 
 And, filled with mystic presage, chimed the church-ttill 
 
 slowly, 
 
 And prayer dissolved me in a fervent bliss. 
 A sweet, unconiprehended yearning 
 Drove forth my feet through woods and meadows free, 
 And while a thousand tears were burning, 
 1 felt a world arise for me. 
 
 These chants, to youtli and all its sports appealing, 
 Proclaimed the Spring's rejoicing holiday ; 
 And Memory holds me now, with childish feeling, 
 Back from the last, the solemn way. 
 Sound on, ye hymns of Heaven, so sweet and mild I 
 My tears gush forth : the Earth takes back her chin) > 
 Ctto&ua,ur DISCIPLES. Ha He, victoriously, 
 Burst from the vaulted 
 Untve, ami
 
 SCESK LL 25 
 
 Now sits exalted t 
 Is He, in glow of birth, 
 Rapture creative near 1 u 
 Ah ! to the woe of earth 
 Still are we native here. 
 We, his aspiring 
 Followers, Him we inisa ; 
 Weeping, desiring, 
 Master, Thy bliss ! 
 OHO rum OF AXGELS. Christ is arisen, 
 
 Out of Corruption's womb ; 
 Burst ye the prison, 
 Break from your gloom ! 
 Praising and pleading him, 
 Lovingly needing him, 
 Brotherly feeding him, 
 Preaching and speeding hiua 4 
 Blessing, succeeding Him, 
 Thus is the Master uear, 
 Thus is He here I 
 
 n. 
 
 BEFORE THE CITY-GATE, 
 Pedestrians of all kinds come /art/*. 
 
 SEVERAL APPRENTICES. Why do you go that way T 
 OTHERS. We're for the Huntors'-lodge, to-day. 
 THE FIRST. We'll saunter to the Mill, in yonder hollow. 
 AN APPRENTICE. Go to the River Tavern, I should say 
 SECOND APP. But then, it's not a pleasant way. 
 Tiu? OTHERS. And what will you ? 
 
 A. ?L'HIHD. As goes the crowd, I follow 
 
 4 FOURTH. Come up to ^urgdorf ? There you'll find 
 good cheer,
 
 26 FAUST. 
 
 The finest lasses and the best of beer, 
 And jolly rows and squabbles, trust m ! 
 
 A FIFTH. You swaggering fellow, is your hid* 
 A. third time itching to be tried? 
 I won't go there, your jolly rows disgust me ! 
 
 SERVANT-GIRL. No, no ! I'll turn and go to townagaiib. 
 
 ANOTHER. Well surely find him by those poplars yonder. 
 
 THE FIRST. That's no great luck for me, 'tis plain. 
 You'll have him, when and where you wander : 
 Ilia partner in the dance you'll be, 
 Hut what is all your fun to me ? 
 
 THE OTHER. He's surely not alone to-day : 
 He'll be with Curly-head, I heard him say. 
 
 A STUDENT. Deuce ! how they step, the buxom wenches I 
 Home, Brother ! we must see them to the benches. 
 A strong, old beer, a pipe that stings and bites, 
 A girl in Sunday clothes, these three are my delights. 
 
 CITIZEN'S DAUGHTER. Just see those handsome fellows 
 
 there ! 
 
 It's really shameful, I declare ; 
 To follow servant-girls, when they 
 Might have the most genteel society to-day ! 
 
 SECOND STUDENT (to the First). Not ([uite *> fast ! Two 
 
 others come behind, 
 Those, dressed so prettily and neatly. 
 My neighbour's one of them, I find, 
 A girl that takes my heart, completely. 
 They go their way with looks demure, 
 But they'll accept us, after all, I'm sure. 
 
 THE FIRST. No, Brother ! not for me their formal ways. 
 Quick ! lest our game escape us in the press : 
 The hand that wields the broom on Saturdays 
 Will best, on Sundays, fondle and caress. 
 
 CITIZEN. He suits me not at all, our new-made Bui go- 
 master ! 
 
 Since he's installed, his arrogance grows faster. 
 How has he helped the town, I say ? 
 Things worsen, what improvement uanies he ? 
 Obedience~~more than ever, claims he, 
 And more than, ever we IUUHI uay I
 
 SCENE n. a? 
 
 BKGOAR (sings). Good gentlemen and lovely ladies, 
 So red of cheek and fine of dress, 
 Behold, how needful here your aid is, 
 And see and lighten my distress ! 
 Let me not vainly sing my ditty ; 
 He 's only glad who gives away : 
 A holiday, that shows your pity, 
 Shall be for me a harvest-day ! 
 ANOTHER. CITIZEN. On Sundays, holidays, there's naught 
 
 I take delight in, 
 
 Like gossiping of war, and war's array, 
 When down in Turkey, far away, 
 The foreign people are a-fighting. 
 One at the window sits, with glass and friends, 
 And sees all sorts of ships go down the river gliding : 
 And blesses then, as home he wends 
 At night, our times of peace abiding. 
 
 THIRD CITIZEN. Yes, Neighbour ! that's my notion, too : 
 Why, let them break their heads, let loose their passions, 
 And mix things madly through and through, 
 So, here, we keep our good old fashions ! 
 
 OLD WOMAN (to the Citizen's Daughter). Dear me, hov 
 
 fine ! So handsome, and so young ! 
 Who wouldn't lose his heart, that met you ] 
 Don't be so proud ! I'll hold my tongue, 
 )oid what you'd like I'll undertake to get you. 
 CITIZEN'S DAUGHTER. Come, Agatha! I shun the witch'i 
 
 sight 
 
 Before folks, lest there be misgiving : 
 'Tis true, she showed me, on Saint Andrew's Night, 16 
 My future sweetheart, just a^jhe were living. 
 
 THE OTHER. She showed me mine, in crystal clear, 17 
 With several wild young blades, a soldier-lover : 
 I seek him everywhere, I pry and peer, 
 ^nd yet, somehow, his face I can't discover. 
 Castles with lofty 
 Ramparts and tower*, 
 Maidens disdainful 
 In Beauty's array, 
 Both shall be out* |
 
 28 FAUST. 
 
 Bold is the ventura, 
 
 Splendid the pay ! 
 
 Lads, let the trumpets 
 
 For us be suing, 
 
 Calling to pleasure, 
 
 Calling to ruin. 
 
 Stormy our life k ; 
 
 Such is its boon ! 
 
 Maidens and castlea 
 
 Capitulate soon. 
 
 Bold is the venture, 
 
 Splendid the pay ! 
 
 And the soldiers go marching, 
 
 Marching away ! 
 
 FAUST amd WAGNER. 
 
 FATTST. Released from ice are brook and river 
 By the quickening glance of the gracious Spring 
 The colours of hope to the valley cling, 
 And weak old Winter himself must shiver, 
 Withdrawn to the mountains, a crownless king : 
 Whence, ever retreating, he sends again 
 Impotent showers of sleet that darkle 
 In belts across the green o' the plain. 
 But the sun will permit no white to sparkle J 
 Everywhere form in development moveth ; 
 He will brighten the world with the tints he loveth 
 And, lacking blossoms, blue, yellow, and red, 
 He takes these gaudy people instead. 
 Turn thee about, and from this height 
 Back on the town direct thy sight. 
 Out of the hollow, gloomy gate, 
 The motley throngs come forth elate : 
 Each will the joy of the sunshine hoard, 
 To honour the Day of the Risen Lord ! 
 They feel, themselves, their resurrection : 
 From the low, dark rooms, scarce habitable ; 
 From the bonds of Work, from Trade's restriction j 
 From the pressing weight of roof and gable ; 
 the narrow, crushing streets and alleys :
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 From the churches' solemn and reverend night, 
 All come forth to the cheerful light 
 How lively, see ! the multitude sallies, 
 Scattering through gardens and fields remote. 
 While over the river, that broadly dallies, 
 Dances so many a festive boat ; 
 And overladen, nigh to sinking, 
 The last full wherry takes the stream. 
 Yonder afar, from the hill-paths blinking, 
 Their clothes are colours that softly gleam. 
 I hear the noise of the village, even ; 
 Here is the People's proper Heaven ; 
 Here high and low contented see ! 
 Here I am Man, dare man to be ! 
 
 WAGNEK. To stroll with you, Sir Doctor, flatter* 
 Tis honour, profit, unto me. 
 But I, alone, would shun these shallow matters. 
 Since all that's coarse provokes my enmity. 
 This fiddling, shouting, ten-pin rolling 
 I hate, these noises of the throng : 
 They rave, as Satan were their sports controlling, 
 &ud call it mirth, and call it song ! 
 
 PEASANTS under the Linden-Tret. 
 (Dance and Song.) 
 
 All for the dance the shepherd dressed, 
 In ribbons, wreath, and gayest vest 
 
 Himself with care arraying : 
 Around the linden lass and lad 
 Already footed it like mad : 
 
 Hurrah ! hurrah ! 
 
 Hurrah tarara-la ! 
 
 The fiddle-bow was playing. 
 
 He broke the ranks, no whit afraid, 
 And with his elbow punched a maid. 
 Who stood, the dance surveying : 
 The buxom wench, she turned and said 
 " Now, you I c&ll a stupid-head ! "
 
 30 FAUST. 
 
 Hurrah! hurrah! 
 
 Hurrah tarara-la ! 
 
 "Be decent, while you're staying!" 
 
 Then round the circle went their flight, 
 They danced to left, they danced to right, 
 
 Their kirtles all were playing. 
 They first grew red, and then grew warm, 
 And rested, panting, arm in arm 
 
 Hurrah! hurrah! 
 
 Hurrah tarara-la ! 
 
 And hips and elbows straying. 
 
 Now, don't be so familiar here! 
 How many a one has fooled his dear, 
 
 Waylaying and betraying! 
 And yet, he coaxed her soon aside, 
 And round the linden sounded wide: 
 
 Hurrah! hurrah! 
 
 Hurrah tarara-la ! 
 And the fiddle-bow was playing. 
 
 OLD PEASANT. Sir Doctor, it is good of you," 
 That thus you condescend, to-day, 
 Among this crowd of merry folk, 
 A highly-learned man, to stray. 
 Then also take the finest can, 
 We fill with fresh wine, for your sake : 
 I offer it, and humbly wish 
 That not alone your thirst it slake, 
 That, as the drops below its brink, 
 So many days of life you drink! 
 
 FAUST. I take the cup you kindly reach, 
 With thanks and health to all and each. 
 
 [The People gather in a circle about him. 
 
 OLD PEASANT. In truth, 'tis well and fitly timed, 
 That now our day of joy you share, 
 Who heretofore, in evil days, 
 Gave us so much of helping care. 
 Still many a man stands living here,
 
 SCENE fl. 3i 
 
 Saved by your father's skilful hand, 
 That snatched him from the fever's rage 
 And stayed trhe plague in all the land. 
 Then also you, though but a youth, IJ 
 Went into every house of pain : 
 Many the corpses carried forth, 
 But you in health came out again. 
 No test or trial you evaded : 
 A Helping God the helper aided. 
 
 ALL. Health to the man, so skilled and tried. 
 That for our help he long may bide ! 
 
 FAUST. To Him above bow down, my friends, 
 Who teaches help, and succour sends ! 
 
 [He goes on with WAOISEH. 
 
 WAONEK. With what a feeling, thou great man, must thou 
 Receive the people's honest veneration ! 
 How lucky he, whose gifts his station 
 With such advantages endow ! 
 Thou'rt shown to all the younger generation : 
 Each asks, and presses near to gaze ; 
 The fiddle stops, the dance delays. 
 Thou goest, they stand in rows to see, 
 And all the caps are lifted high ; 
 A little more, and they would bend the knee 
 As if the Holy Host came by. 
 
 FAUST. A few more steps ascend, as far as yonder stone I 
 Here from our wandering will we rest contented. 
 Here, lost in thought, I've lingered oft alone, 
 When foolish fasts and. prayers my life tormented. 
 Here, rich in hope and firm in faith, 
 With tears, wrung hands and sighs, I've striven, 
 The end of that far-spreading death 
 Entreating from the Lord of Heaven ! 
 Now like contempt the crowd's applauses seem : 
 Couldnt thou but read, within mine inmost spirit, 
 How little now I deem 
 That sire or son such praises merit ! 
 My father's was a sombre, brooding brain, 
 Which through the holy spheres of Nature groped an4 
 wandered,
 
 32 FAUST. 
 
 And honestly, in his own fashion, pondered 
 
 With labour whimsical, and pain : 
 
 Who, in his dusky work-shop bending, 
 
 With proved adepts in company, 
 
 Made, from his recipes unending, 
 
 Opposing substances agree. 
 
 There was a Lion red, a wooer daring, 20 
 
 Within the Lily's tepid bath espoused, 
 
 And both, tormented then by flame unsparing, 
 
 By turns in either bridal chamber housed. 
 
 If then appeared, with colours splendid, 
 
 The young Queen in her crystal shell, 
 
 This was the medicine the patients' woes soon ended, 
 
 And none demanded who got well? 
 
 Thus we, our hellish boluses compounding, 
 
 Among these vales and hills surrounding, 
 
 Worse than the pestilence, have passed. 
 
 Thousands were done to death from poison of my giving 
 
 And I must hear, by all the living, 
 
 The shameless murderers praised at last! 
 
 WAGNEB. Why, therefore, yield to such depression ? 
 A good man does his honest share 
 In exercising, with the strictest care, 
 The art bequeathed to his possession ! 
 Dost thou thy father honour, as a youth ? 
 Then may his teaching cheerfully impel thee ; 
 Dost thou, as man, increase the stores of truth ? 
 Then may thine own son afterwards excel thee. 
 
 FAUST. O happy he, who still renews 
 The hope, from Error's deeps to rise for ever! 
 That which one does not know, one needs to use : 
 And what one knows, one uses never. 
 But let us not, by such despondence, so 
 The fortune of this hour embitter ! 
 Mark how, beneath the evening sunlight's glow, 
 The green-embosomed houses glitter ! 
 The glow retreats, done is the day of toil ; 
 It yonder hastes, new fields of life exploring ; 
 Ah, that no wing can lift me from the soil, 
 Upon its track to follow, follow soaring !
 
 SCENE 11. 33 
 
 Then would I see eternal Evening gild 
 
 The silent world beneath me glowing, 
 
 On fire each mountain-peak, with peace each valley filled, 
 
 The silver brook to golden rivers flowing. 
 
 The mountain-chain, with all its gorges deep, 
 
 Would then no more impede my godlike motion ; 
 
 And now before mine eyes expands the ocean 
 
 With all its bays, in shining sleep ! 
 
 Yet, finally, the weary god is sinking ; 
 
 The new-born impulse fires my mind, 
 
 I hasten on, his beams eternal drinking, 
 
 The Day before me and the Night behind, 
 
 Above me heaven unfurled, the floor of waves beneath me, 
 
 A glorious dream ! though now the glories fade. 
 
 Alas ! the wings that lift the mind no aid 
 
 Of wings to lift the body can bequeath me. 
 
 Yet in each soul is born the pleasure 
 
 Of yearning onward, upward and away, 
 
 When o'er our heads, lost in the vaulted azure, 
 
 The lark sends down his flickering lay, 
 
 When over crags and piny highlands 
 
 Fhe poising eagle slowly soars, 
 
 And over plains and lakes and islands 
 
 The crane ^Us by to other shores. 
 
 WAGNER. I've had, myself, at times, some odd caprices, 
 But never yet such impulse felt, as this is. 
 One soon fatigues, on woods and fields to look, 
 Nor would I beg the bird his wing to spare us : 
 How otherwise the mental raptures bear us 
 From page to page, from book to book ! 
 Then winter nights take loveliness uiitold, 
 As warmer life in every limb had crowned you ; 
 And when your hands unroll some parchment rare and oM, 
 All Heaven descends, and opens bright around you ; 
 
 FAUST. One impulse art thou conscious of, at best; 
 0, never seek to know the other ! 
 Two souls, alas ! reside within my breast, 
 And each withdraws from, and repels, its brother. 
 One with tenacious organs holds iu lave 
 And clinging kist the world in iu> embrace* ;
 
 34 FAUST. 
 
 The other strongly sweeps, this dust *bove, 
 
 Into the high ancestral spaces. 
 
 If there be airy spirits near, 
 
 'Twixt Heaven and Earth on potent errands fleeing, 
 
 Let them drop down the golden atmosphere, 
 
 And bear me forth to new and varied being I 
 
 Yea, if a magic mantle once were mine, 
 
 To waft me o'er the world at pleasure, 
 
 I would not for the costliest stores of treasure 
 
 Not for a monarch's robe the gift resign. 
 
 WAGNER. Invoke not thus the well-known throng, 
 Which through the firmament diifused is faring, 
 And danger thousand-fold, our race to wrong, 
 In every quarter is preparing. 
 Swift from the North the spirit-fangs so sharp 31 
 Sweep down, and with their barbed points assail you ; 
 Then from the East they come, to dry and warp 
 Your lungs, till breath and being fail you : 
 If from the Desert sendeth them the South, 
 With fire on fire your throbbing forehead crowning, 
 The West leads on a host, to cure the drouth 
 Only when meadow, field, and you are drowning. 
 They gladly hearken, prompt for injury, 
 Gladly obey, because they gladly cheat us ; 
 From Heaven they represent themselves to be, 
 And lisp like angels, when with lies they meet ui 
 But, let us go ! 'Tis gray and dusky all : 
 The air is cold, the vapours fall 
 At night, one learns his house to prize : 
 Why stand you thus, with such astonished eyes ? 
 What, in the twilight, can your miiid so trouble ? 
 
 FAUST. Seest thou the black dog coursing there, through 
 corn and stubble i ^ 
 
 WAGNER. Long since : yet deemed him not important in 
 the least 
 
 FATTST. Inspect him close : for what tak'st thou the beast ? 
 
 WAGNER. Why, for a poodle who has lost his master. 
 And scents about, his track to find. 
 
 FAUST. Seest thou the spiral circles, narrowing faster, 
 Which he, approaching, round us seems to wind ?
 
 SCENE III. Sfi 
 
 A streaming trail of fire, if I see rightly, 
 Follows his path of mystery. 
 
 WAGNER. It may be that your eyes deceive you slightly ; 
 Naught but a plain black poodle do I see. 
 
 FAUST. It seems to me that with enchanted cunning 
 He snares our feet, some future chain to bind. 
 
 WAGNER. I see him timidly, in doubt, around us running, 
 Bince, in his master's stead, two strangers doth he find. 
 
 FAUST. The circle narrows : he is near ! 
 
 WAGNER. A dog thou seest, and not a phantom, here ! 
 Behold him stop upon his belly crawl 
 His tail set wagging; canine habits, all ! 
 
 FAUST. Come, follow us ! Come here, at least ! 
 
 WAGNER. 'Tis the absurdest, drollest beast 
 Stand still, and you will see him wait ; 
 Address him, and he gambols straight ; 
 If something's lost, he'll quickly bring it, 
 Your cane, if in the stream you fling it. 
 
 FAUST. No doubt you're right : no trace of mind, I own, 
 Is in the beast : I see but drill, alone. 
 
 WAGNER. The dog, when he's well educated, 
 Is by the wisest tolerated. 
 Yes, he deserves your favour thoroughly, 
 The clever scholar of the students, he ! 
 
 [They pass in the city-gate 
 
 III: 
 
 THE STUDY. 
 
 FAUST (erderiny with the poodle). 
 
 Behind me, tield and meadow sleeping 
 I leave in deep, prophetic night, 
 Within whose dread and holy keeping 
 The better soul awakee to light
 
 36 FA UST. 
 
 The wild desires no longer win us, 
 The deeds of passion cease to chain ; 
 The love of Man revives within us, 
 The love of God revives again. 
 
 Be still, thou poodle ! make not such racket and riot ! 
 
 Why at the threshold wilt snuffing be ? 
 
 Behind the stove repose thee in quiet ! 
 
 My softest cushion I give to thee. 
 
 As thou, up yonder, with running and leaping 
 
 Amused us hast, on the mountain's crest, 
 
 So now I take thee into my keeping, 
 
 A welcome, but also a silent, guest. 
 
 Ah, when within our narrow chamber 
 The lamp wnth friendly lustre glows, 
 Flames in the breast each faded ember. 
 And in the heart, itself that knows. 
 Then Hope again lends sweet assistance, 
 And Reason then resumes her speech : 
 One yearns, the rivers of existence, 
 The very founts of Life to reach. 
 
 Snarl not, poodle ! To the sound that rises, 
 
 The sacred tones that my soul embrace, 
 
 This bestial noise is out of place. 
 
 We are used to see that Man despises 
 
 What he never comprehends, 
 
 And the Good and the Beautiful vilipends, 
 
 Finding them often hard to measure : 
 
 Will the dog, like Man, snarl his displeasure I 
 
 But ah ! I feel, though will thereto be strongei , 
 Contentment flows from out my breast no longer 
 Why must the stream so soon run dry and fail ui, 
 And burning thirst again assail us ? 
 Therein I've borne so much probation ! 
 And yet this want may be supplied ua ; 
 We call the Supernatural to guide UB ; 
 We pine and thirst for Revelation.
 
 111. T 
 
 Which no\\ here worthiei is, more nob'.y wnt, 
 
 Than heie, in our New Testament. 
 
 I feel impelled, its meaning to determine, 
 
 With honest purpose, once for all, 
 
 The hallowed Original 
 
 To change to my beloved German. 
 
 \Hc upwis a volume and commfitct* 
 
 Tw written ; " In the Beginning was the Word." '* 
 
 Here am I balked : who, now, can help afford 1 
 
 The Word ? impossible so high to rate it ; 
 
 And otherwise must I translate it, 
 
 If by the Spirit I am truly taught. 
 
 Then thus : "In the Beginning was the Thought,* 1 
 
 This first line let me weigh completely, 
 
 Lest my impatient pen proceed too fleetly. 
 
 la it the Thouyht which works, creates, indee II 
 
 " In the Beginning was the Power," I read. 
 
 Vet, as I write, a warning is suggested, 
 
 That I the sense may not have fairly tested 
 
 The Spirit aids me : now I see the light ! 
 
 " In the Beginning was the Act" I write. 
 
 If I must share my chamber with the'5, 
 
 Poodle, stop that howling, prithee I 
 
 Cease to bark and bellow ! 
 
 Such a noisy, disturbing fellow 
 
 I '11 no longer suffer near me. 
 
 One of us, dost hear me ! 
 
 Must leave, I fear me. 
 
 No longer guest-right I bestow ; 
 
 The door is open, art free to go. 
 
 But what do I see in the creature \ 
 
 Is that in the course of nature 1 
 
 Is't actual fact? or Fancy's shows? 
 
 How long and broad my poodle gro^sl 
 
 He rises mightily : 
 
 A canine form that cannot be ! 
 
 What a spectre I 've harboured thus ' 
 
 He resembles a hippopotamus
 
 38 FA UST. 
 
 With fiery eyes, teeth terrihle to see : 
 O, now am I sure of thee ! 
 For all of thy half-hellish brood 
 The Key of Solomon is good. 24 
 
 SPIRITS (m the corridor). Some one, within, if CHUght 
 
 Stay without, follow him not ! 
 
 Like the fox in a snare, 
 
 Quakes the old hell-lynx there. 
 
 Take heed look about ! 
 
 Back and forth hover. 
 
 Under and over, 
 
 And he'll work himself out. 
 
 If your aid can avail him, 
 
 Let it not fail him ; 
 
 For he, without measure, 
 
 Has wrought for our pleasure. 
 FAUST. First to encounter the beast, 
 
 The Words of the Four be addressed : 
 
 Salamander, shine glorious ! 
 
 Wave, Undine, as bidden 1 
 
 Sylph, be thou hidden ! 
 
 Gnome, be laborious ! 
 
 Who knows not their sense 
 (These elements), 
 Their properties 
 And power not sees, 
 No mastery he inherits 
 Over the Spirits. 
 
 Vanish in flaming ether, 
 
 Salamander ! 
 
 Flow foamingly together, 
 
 Undine! 
 
 Shine in meteor-sheen. 
 
 Sylph; 
 
 Bring help to hearth and shell 
 
 Incubus ! [ncubus ! 
 
 Step forward, and finish thru i
 
 SCENE 111. 5 
 
 Of tiu Four, no feature 
 
 Lurke in the creature. 
 
 Quiet he liea, and grins disdain : 
 
 Not yet, it seems, have I given hlft paitt 
 
 Now, to undisguise thee, * 
 Hear me exorcise thee ! 
 A.rt thou, my gay one, 
 Hell's fugitive stray-one f 
 The sign witness now, 
 Before which they bow, 
 The cohorts of Hell ! 
 
 With hair all bristling, it begins to swell. 
 
 Base Being, hearest thou ? 
 Knowest and fearest thou 
 The One, unoriginate, 27 
 
 Named inexpressibly, 
 
 Through all Heaven impermeat-t. 
 
 Pierced irredressibly ! 
 
 Behind the stove still banned, 
 
 See it, an elephant, expand ! 
 
 It fills the space entire, 
 
 Mist-like melting, ever faster. 
 
 Tis enough : ascend no higher, 
 
 Lay thyself at the feet of the Master ! 
 
 Thou seest, not vain the threats I bring thb* : 
 
 With holy fire I'll scorch and sting thee ! 
 
 Wait not to know 
 
 The threefold dazzling glow ! 
 
 Wait not to know 
 
 The strongest art within my hands ! 
 
 WKVHI8TOPHELE8, 28 while the vapour it dissipating, xtepg forth 
 
 from behind the stove, in the costume of a Travelling Scholar. 
 Why such a noise ? What are my lord's commands t 
 
 FAOST. This was the poodle's real core, 
 A. travelling scholar, then ? The casue is diverting. 
 
 MKPHIS. The learned gentleman I bow before : 
 You've made me roundly sweat, th*t' curtain !
 
 40 
 
 FAUS*. What ia thy flame ? 
 
 MEPHIS. A question smafl ft seems, 
 For one whose mind the Word 1 so mu 
 Who, scorning all external 
 The depths of being only prizes. 
 
 FAUST. With all you gentlemen, the name 'e a test;- 
 Whereby the nature usually is expressed. 
 Clearly the latter it implies 
 
 In names like Beelzebub, Destroyed Father of Lies." 
 Who art thou, then ? 
 
 MEPHIS. Part of that Power, not understood, 
 Which always wills the Bad, and always works the Good 
 
 FAUST. What hidden sense in this enigma lies ? 
 
 MEPHIS. I am the Spirit that Denies ! " 
 And justly so : for all things, from the Void 
 Called forth, deserve to be destroyed : 
 'Twere better, then, were naught created. 
 Thus, all which you as Sin have rated, 
 Destruction, aught with Evil blent, 
 That is niy proper element. 
 
 FAUST. Thou nam'st thyself a part, yet show'st complete' 
 to me? 
 
 MEPHIS. The modest truth I speak to thee. 
 If Man, that microcosmic fool, can see 
 Himself a whole so frequently, 
 Part of the Part am I, once All, in primal Night, 
 Part of the Darkness which brought forth the Light, 
 The haughty Light, which now disputes the space, 
 And claims of Mother Night her ancient place. 
 And yet, the struggle fails ; since Light, howe'er it weaves 
 Still, fettered, unto bodies cleaves : 
 It flows from bodies, bodies beautifies ; 
 By bodies is its course impeded ; 
 And so, but little time is needed, 
 I hope, ere, as the bodies die, it dies ! 
 
 FAUST. I see the plan thou art pursuing : 
 Thou canst not compass general ruin, 
 And hast on smaller scale begun. 
 
 MEPHH. And truly 'tis not much, when all is don*. 
 That which to Naught is in resistance set,
 
 SOXJSTX 111. 41 
 
 The Something of this clumsy world, has yet, 
 
 With all that I have undertaken, 
 
 Not been by me disturbed or shaken : 
 
 From earthquake, tempest, wave, volcano's brand, 
 
 Back into quiet settle sea and land ! 
 
 And that damned stuff, the bestial, human brood, 
 
 What use, in having that to play with ? 
 
 How many have I made away with ! 
 
 And ever circulates a newer, fresher blood. 
 
 It makes me furious, such things beholding : 
 
 From Water, Earth, and Air unfolding, 
 
 A thousand germs break forth and grow, 
 
 In dry. aud wet, and warm, and chilly ; , 
 
 And had I not the Flame reserved, why, really, 
 
 There's nothing special of niy own to show 1 
 
 FAUST. So, to the actively eternal 
 Creative force, in cold disdain 
 You now oppose the fist infernal, 
 Whose wicked clench is all in vain J 
 Some other labour seek thou rather, 
 Queer Son of Chaos, to begin ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Well, well consider : thou canst gather 
 My views, when next I venture in. 
 Might I, perhaps, depart at present ? 
 
 FAUST. Why thou shouldst ask, I don't perceive. 
 Though our acquaintance is so recent, 
 For further visits thou hast leave. 
 The window's here, the door is yonder ; 
 A chimney, also, you behold. 
 
 MEPHIS. I must confess that forth I may not wander. 
 My steps by one slight obstacle controlled, 
 The wizard's-foot, that on your threshold made is. 31 
 
 FAUST. The pentagram prohibits thee 1 
 Why, tell me now, thou Son of Hades, 
 If that prevents, how cam'st thou in to me ? 
 Could such a spirit be so cheated ? 
 
 MEPHIS. Inspect the thing : the drawing's not com- 
 pleted. 
 
 The outer angle, you may see, 
 Is open left the lines don't fit it 
 c
 
 42 FAUST. 
 
 FAUST. WelL,- Chance, this time, has fairly hit it ! 
 And thus, thou'rt prisoner to me ? 
 It seems the business has succeeded. 
 
 MEPHIS. The poodle naught remarked, as after thee he 
 
 speeded j 
 
 But other aspects now obtain : 
 The Devil can't get out again, 
 
 FAUST. Try, then, the open window-pane ! 
 
 MEPHIS. For Devils and for spectres this is law : 
 Where they have entered in, there also they withdraw. 
 The first is free to us ; we're governed by the second. 
 
 FAUST. In Hell itself, then, laws are reckoned 1 
 That's well ! So might a compact be 
 Made with you gentlemen and binding, surely ? 
 
 MEPHIS. All that is promised shall delight thee purely ; 
 No skinflint bargain shalt thou see. 
 But this is not of swift conclusion ; 
 We'll talk about the matter soon. 
 And now, I do entreat this boon 
 Leave to withdraw from my intrusion, 
 
 FAUST. One moment more I ask thee to remain, 
 Some pleasant news, at least, to tell me. 
 
 MEPHIS. Release me, now ! I soon shall come again ; 
 Then thou, at will, may'st question and compel me. 
 
 FAUST. I have not snares around thee cast ; 
 Thyself hast led thyself into the meshes. 
 Who traps the Devil, holds him fast ! 
 Not soon a second time he'll catch a prey so precioua 
 
 MEPHIS. An't please thee, also I'm content to stay, 
 And serve thee in a social station ; 
 But stipulating, that I may 
 With arts of mine afford thee recreation. 
 
 FAUST. Thereto I willingly agree, 
 If the diversion pleasant be. 
 
 MEPHIS. My friend, thoult win, past all pretences, 
 More in this hour to soothe thy senses, 
 Than in the year's monotony. 
 That which the dainty spirits sing thee, 
 The lovely pictures they shall bring thee, 
 Are more than magic's empty show.
 
 SCENE III. 43 
 
 Thy scent will be to bliss invited ; 
 
 Thy palate then with taste delighted. 
 
 Thy nerves of touch ecstatic glow! 
 
 All unprepared, the charm I spin: 
 
 We're here together, so begin! 
 SPIRITS." Vanish, ye darkling 
 Arches above him! 
 Loveliest weather, 
 Bom of blue ether, 
 Break from the sky! 
 O that the darkling 
 Clouds had departed! 
 Starlight is sparkling, 
 Tranquiller-hearted 
 Suns are on high. 
 Heaven's own children 
 In beauty bewildering, 
 Waveringly bending, 
 Pass as they hover ; 
 Longing unending 
 Follows them over. 
 They, with their glowing 
 Garments, out-flowing, 
 Cover, in going, 
 Landscape and bower, 
 Where, in seclusion, 
 Lovers are plighted, 
 Lost in illusion. 
 Bower on bower! 
 Tendrils unblighted! 
 Lo ! in a shower 
 Grapes that o'ercluster 
 Gush into must, or 
 Flow into rivers 
 Of foaming and flashing 
 Wine, that is dashing 
 Gems, as it boundeth 
 Down the high places, 
 And spreading, surroundeth 
 With crystalline spaces,
 
 44 FAUST. 
 
 In happy embraces, 
 
 Blossoming forelands, 
 
 Emerald shore-lands ! 
 
 And the winged races 
 
 Drink, and fly onwanW- 
 
 Fly ever sunward 
 
 To the enticing 
 
 Islands, that flatter, 
 
 Dipping and rising 
 
 Light on the water I 
 
 Hark, the umpiring 
 
 Sound of th sir quiring f 
 
 See, the entrancing 
 
 Whirl of their dancing ! 
 
 All in the air are 
 
 Freer and fairer. 
 
 Some of them scaling 
 
 Boldly the highlands, 
 
 Otheru are sailing, 
 
 Circling the islands ; 
 
 OtKers are flying ; 
 
 Life-ward all hieing, 
 
 All for the distant 
 
 Star of existent 
 
 Rapture and Love ! 
 
 MEPHIS. He sleeps ! Enough, ye fays! your airy numhei 
 Have sung him truly into slumber : 
 For this performance I your debtor prove. 
 Not yet art thou the man, to catch the Fiend ajid hold himJ~ 
 With fairest images of dreams infold him, 
 Plunge him in seas of sweet untruth ! 
 Yet. for the threshold's magic which controlled hi, 
 The Devil needs a rat's quick tooth. 
 I use no lengthened invocation : 
 Here rustles one that boon will work my liberation. 
 
 The lord of rats and eke of mice, 
 Of flies and bed-bugs, frogs and lice, 
 Summons thee hither to the door-sill, 
 To gnaw it where, with just a morsel
 
 SCENE IV. 46 
 
 Of oil, ho paints the spot for thee: 
 
 There com'st thou, hopping on to me ! 
 
 To work, at once ! The point which made me craven 
 
 Is forward, on the ledge, engraven. 
 
 Another bite makes free the door : 
 
 So, dream thy dreams, Faust, until we meet once more 
 
 FAUST (awaking). Aru I again so foully cheated? 
 Remains there naught of lofty spirit-sway, 
 But that a dream the Devil counterfeited, 
 And that a poodle ran away ? 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE STUDY. 
 FAUST. MEPHISTOPHELES. 
 
 FA n ST. A knock ? Come in ! Again my quiet broken 
 
 MEPHIS. "Tis I ! 
 
 FAUST. Come in ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Thrice must the words be spoken. 
 
 FAUST. Come in, then ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Thus thou pleasest me. 
 I hope we'll suit each other well ; 
 For now, thy vapours to dispel, 
 I come, a squire of high degree, 
 In scarlet coat, with golden trimming, 
 A cloak in silken lustre swimming, 
 A tall cock's-feather in my hat, 
 A long, sharp sword for show or quarrel, - 
 And I advise thee, brief and flat, 
 To don the self-same gay apparel, 
 That, from this den released, and free, 
 Life be at last revealed to thee ! 
 
 FAUST. This life of earth, whatever my 
 Would pain me in itu wonted fashion.* 4 
 Too old am I to Uay with
 
 48 FAUST. 
 
 Too young, to be without desire. 
 
 What from the world have I to gain f 
 
 Fhou shalt abstain renounce refrain ! 
 
 Such is the everlasting song 
 
 That in the ears of all men rings, 
 
 That unrelieved, our whole life long, 
 
 Each hour, in passing, hoarsely sings. 
 
 In very terror I at morn awake, 
 
 Upon the verge of bitter weeping, 
 
 To see the day of disappointment break, 
 
 To no one hope of mine not one its promise keeping : 
 
 That even each joy's presentiment 
 
 With wilful cavil would diminish, 
 
 With grinning masks of life prevent 
 
 My mind its fairest work to finish ! 
 
 Then, too, when night descends, how anxiously 
 
 Upon my couch of sleep I lay me : 
 
 There, also, comes no rest to me, 
 
 But some wild dream is sent to fray me. 
 
 The God that in my breast is owned 
 
 Can deeply stir the inner sources; 
 
 The God, above my powers enthroned, 
 
 He cannot change external forces. 
 
 So, by the burden of my days oppressed, 
 
 Death is desired, and Life a thing unblest ! 
 
 MBPHIS. And yet is never Death a wholly welcome guest 
 EAUST. fortunate, for whom, when victory glances, 
 
 The bloody laurels on the brow he bindeth ! 
 
 Whom, after rapid, maddening dances, 
 
 In clasping maiden-arms he findeth ! 
 
 would that I, before that spirit-power, 
 
 Ravished and rapt from life, had sunken ! 
 
 MEPHIS. And yet, by some one, in that nightly hour, 
 
 A certain liquid was not drunken. 
 
 FAUST. Eavesdropping, ha ! thy pleasure seems to be. 
 MBPHIS. Omniscient am I not ! yet much is known to nw 
 FATJST. Though some familiar tone, retrieving 
 
 My thoughts from torment, led me on, 
 
 And sweet, clear echoes came, deceiving 
 
 A faith bequeathed from Childhood's dawn.
 
 SCENE IV. 47 
 
 Yet now I curse whate'er entices 
 
 And snares the soul with visions vain ; 
 
 With dazzling cheats and dear devices 
 
 Confines it in this cave of pain! 
 
 Cursed be, at once, the high ambition 
 
 Wherewith the mind itself deludes! 
 
 Cursed be the glare of apparition 
 
 That on the finer sense intrudes ! 
 
 Cursed be the lying dream's impression 
 
 Of name, and fame, and laurelled brow! 
 
 Cursed, all that natters as possession, 
 
 As wife and child, as knave and plough! 
 
 Cursed Mammon be, when he with treasures 
 
 To restless action spurs our fate ! 
 
 Cursed when, for soft, indulgent leisures, 
 
 He lays for us the pillows straight ! 
 
 Cursed be the vine's transcendent nectar, 
 
 The highest favour Love lets fall ! 
 
 Cursed, also, Hope ! cursed Faith, the spectre ! 
 
 And cursed be Patience most of all! 
 
 CHORUS OF SPIRITS (invisible). 35 Woe! woe! 
 
 Thou hast it destroyed, 
 
 The beautiful world, 
 
 With powerful fist : 
 
 In ruin 'tis hurled, 
 
 By the blow of a demigod shattered! 
 
 The scattered 
 
 Fragments into the Void we carry, 
 
 Deploring 
 
 The beauty perished beyond restoiing. 
 
 Mightier 
 
 For the children of men, 
 
 Brightlier 
 
 Build it again, 
 
 In thine own bosom build it anew; 
 
 Bid the new career 
 
 Commence, 
 
 With clearer sense, 
 
 And the new songs of cheer 
 
 Be sung thereto !
 
 48 FAUST 
 
 MSPUIS. These are the small dependants 
 
 Who give me attendance. 
 
 Hear them, to deeds and passion 
 
 Counsel in shrewd old-fashion 1 
 
 Into the world of strife, 
 
 Out of this lonely life 
 
 That of senses and sap has betrayed thee, 
 
 They would persuade thee. 
 
 This nursing of the pain forego thee, 
 
 That, like a vulture, feeds upon thy breast J 
 
 The worst society thou find'st will show theo 
 
 Thou art a man among the rest. 
 
 But 'tis not meant to thrust 
 
 Thee into the mob thou hatest ! 
 
 I am not one of the greatest, 
 
 Yet, wilt thou to me entrust 
 
 Thy steps through life, I'll guide thee, 
 
 Will willingly walk beside thee.- 
 
 Will serve thee at once and for ever 
 
 With best endeavour, 
 
 And, if thou art satisfied, 
 
 Will as servant, slave, with thee abide. 
 
 FAUST. And what shall be my counter-service therefor ' 
 MEPHIS. The time is long : thou need'st not now insist 
 FAUST. No no ! The Devil is an egotist, 
 
 And is not apt, without a why or wherefore, 
 
 " For God's sake," others to assist. 
 
 Speak thy conditions plain and clear ! 
 
 With such a servant danger cornes, I fear. 
 
 MEPHIS. Here, an unwearied slave, I'll wear thy tether, 
 
 And to thine every nod obedient be : 
 
 When There again we come together, 
 
 Then shalt thou do the same for me. 
 
 FAUST. The There my scruples naught increases. 
 
 When thou hast dashed this world to pieces, 
 
 The others, then, its place may fill 
 
 Here, on this earth, my pleasures have their sources ; 
 
 Yon sun beholds my sorrows in his courses ; 
 
 And when from these my life itself divorce*. 
 
 l<*jt happen all that can or will !
 
 SCENE IV. 49 
 
 PI) bear no more : 'ti vain to ponder 
 If there we cherish love or hate, 
 Or, in the spheres we dream of yonder, 
 A High and Low our souls await. 
 
 MEPHIS. In this sense, even, canst thou venture. 
 Come, bind thyself by prompt indenture, 
 And thou mine arts with joy shalt see : 
 What no man ever saw, I'll give to thee 
 
 FAUST. Canst thou, poor Devil, give me whatsoever I 
 When was a human soul, in its supreme endeavour, 
 E'er understood by such as thou i 
 Yet, hast thou food which never satiates, now, 
 The restless, ruddy gold hast thou, 
 That runs, quicksilver-like, one's fingers through, 
 A game whose winnings no man ever knew, 
 A maid, that, even from my breast, 
 Beckons my neighbour with her wanton glances, 
 And Honour's god-like zest, 
 The meteor that a moment dances, 
 Show me the fruits that, ere they're gathered, rot, 
 And trees that daily with new leafage clothe them ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Such a demand alarms me not : 
 Such treasures have I, and can show them. 
 But still the time may reach us, good my friend, 
 When peace we crave and more luxurious diet. 
 
 FAUST. When on an idler's bed I stretch myself in quiet, 
 There let, at once, my record end ! 
 Canst thou with lying flattery rule me, 
 Until, self-pleased, myself I eee, 
 Canst thou with rich enjoyment fool me, 
 Let that day be the last for me ! 
 The bet I offer. 
 
 MEPHIS. Done ! 
 
 FAUST. And heartily ! 
 
 When thus I hail the Moment flying : 
 " Ah, still delay tnou art so fair ! " * 
 Then bind me in thy bonds undying, 
 My final ruin then declare ! 
 Then let the death-bell chime the token. 
 Then art thou from thy service free t 
 
 C2
 
 90 FAUST. 
 
 The clock may stop, the hand be broken, 
 Then Time be finished unto me ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Consider well : my memory good is rated- 
 
 FAUST. Thou hast a perfect right thereto. 
 My powers I have not rashly estimated : 
 A slave am I, whate'er I do 
 If thine, or whose ? 'tis needless to debate it. 
 
 MEPHIS. Then at the Doctors'-banquet I, to-day, 37 
 Will as a servant wait behind thee. 
 But one thing more ! Beyond all risk to bind thee. 
 Give me a line or two, I pray. 
 
 FAUST. Demand'st thou, Pedant, too, a document? 
 Hast never known a man, nor proved his word's intert ? 
 Is't not enough, that what I speak to-day 
 Shall stand, with all my future days agreeing! 
 In all its tides sweeps not the world away, 
 And shall a promise bind my being? 
 Yet this delusion in our hearts we bear : 
 Who would himself therefrom deliver ? 
 Blest he, whose bosom Truth makes pure and fair 1 
 No sacrifice shall he repent of ever. 
 Nathless a parchment, writ and stamped with care, 
 A spectre is, which all to shun endeavour. 
 The word, alas ! dies even in the pen, 
 And wax and leather keep the lordship then. 
 What wilt from me, Base Spirit, say? 
 Brass, marble, parchment, paper, clay? 
 The terms with graver, quill, or chisel, stated! 
 I freely leave the choice to thee. 
 
 MEPHIS. Why heat thyself, thus instantly, 
 With eloquence exaggerated ? 
 Each leaf for such a pact is good ; 
 And to subscribe thy name thou'lt take a drop of blood. 
 
 FAUST. If thou therewith art fully satisfied, 
 So let us by the farce abide. 
 
 MEPHIS. Blood is a juice of rarest quality. 
 
 FAUST. Fear not that I this pact shall seek to Beyer) 
 The promise that I make to thee 
 Is just the sum of my endeavour. 
 I have myself inflated all too high :
 
 SCENE /F, 51 
 
 My proper place IB thy estate : 
 
 The Mighty Spirit deigns me no reply. 
 
 And Nature shuts on me her gate. 
 
 The thread of Thought at last is broken. 
 
 And knowledge brings disgust unspoken. 
 
 Let us the sensual deeps explore, 
 
 To quench the fervours of glowing passion 1 
 
 Let every marvel take form and fashion 
 
 Through the impervious veil it wore ! 
 
 Plunge we in Time's tumultuous dance, 
 
 In the rush and roll of Circumstance 1 
 
 Then may delight and distress, 
 
 And worry and success, 
 
 Alternately follow, as best they can: 
 
 Restless activity proves the man ! 
 
 MEPHIS. For you no bound, no term is set. 
 Whether you everywhere be trying, 
 Or snatch a rapid bliss in flying, 
 May it agree with you, what you get ! 
 Only fall to, and show no timid balking. 
 
 FAUST. But thou hast heard, 'tis not of joy we're talking 
 I take the wildering whirl, enjoyment's keenest pain. 
 Enamoured hate, exhilarant disdain. 
 My bosom, of its thirst for knowledge sated, 
 Shall not, henceforth, frou any pang be wrested, 
 And all of life for all mankind created 
 Shall be within mine inmost being tested : 
 The highest, lowest forms my soul shall borrow, 
 Shall heap upon itself their bliss and sorrow, 
 And thus, my own sole self to all their selves expanded, 
 I too, at last, shall with them all be stranded ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Believe me, who for many a thousand year 
 The same tough meat have chewed and tested, 
 That from the cradle to the bier 
 No man the ancient leaven has digested ! 
 Trust one of us, this Whole supernal 
 Is made but for a God's delight 1 
 He dwells in splendour single and eternal, 
 But us he thrusts in darkness, out of sight, 
 Vnd you he dowers with Day and Night
 
 52 FA UST. 
 
 FACTST. Nay, but I will ! 
 
 M Bring. A go<xl reply! 
 
 One only fear still needs repeating : 
 The art is long, the time is fleeting. 
 Then let thyself be taught, say I ! 
 Go, league thyself with a poet, 
 Give the rein to his imagination, 
 Then wear the crown, and show it, 
 Of the qualities of his creation, 
 The courage of the lion's breed. 
 The wild stag's speed, 
 The Italian's fiery blood, 
 Tin- North's firm fortitude ! 
 Let him find for thee the secret tether 
 That binds the Noble and Mean together, 
 And teach thy pulses of youth and pleasure 
 To love by rule, and hate by measure ! 
 I'd like, myself, such a one to see : 
 Sir Microcosm his name should be. 
 
 FAUST. Wnat am 1, then, if 'tis denied my part 
 The crown of all humanity to win me, 
 Wherc-to yearns every sen^e within me ? 
 
 MKPHIS. Why, on the whole, thou'rt what thou art 
 Set wigs of million curls upon thy head, to raise thee, 
 Wear shoes an ell in height, the truth betrays thee, 
 And thou remain est what thou art. 
 
 FAUST. I feel, indeed, that I have made the trea^u* 
 Of human thought and knowledge mine, in vain ; 
 And if I now sit down in restful leisure, 
 No fount of newer strength is in my brain : 
 I am no hair's-breadtk more in height, 
 Nor nearei to the Infinite, 
 
 METHIS. Good Sir, you see the facts precisely 
 A.S they are seen by each and all. 
 We must arrange them now, more wisely, 
 Before the joys of life shall palL 
 Why, Zounds ! Both hands and feet are, truij 
 A,nd head and virile forces thine : 
 Yet all that I indulge in newly, 
 Is't thence less wh^'Jy mine ?
 
 SCENE I?. 53 
 
 If I've jflx stallions in my stall, 
 
 Are not their forces also lent me? 
 
 [ speed along, completest man of all, 
 
 As though my legs were four-and-twenty. 
 
 Take hold, then ! let reflection rest, 
 
 And plunge into the world with zest ! 
 
 I say to thee, a speculative wight 
 
 Is like a beast on moorlands lean, 
 
 That round and round some fiend misleads to svil plight, 
 
 While all about lie pastures fresh and green. 
 
 FAUST. Then how shall we begin ? 
 
 MEPIIIS. We'll try a wider sphere 
 
 What place of martyrdom is here ! 
 Is't life, I ask, is't even prudence, 
 To bore thyself and bore the students? 
 Let Neighbour Paunch to that attend ! 
 Why plague thyself with threshing straw for ever 1 
 The best thou learnesl, in the end 
 Thou dar'st not tell the youngsters never ! 
 I hear one's footsteps, hither steering. 
 
 FAUST. To see him now I have no heart. 
 
 MEPHIS. So long the poor boy waits a hearing, 
 He must not unconsoled depart. 
 Thy cap and mantle straightway lend me ! 
 I'll play the comedy with art. [He disguises himself 
 
 My wits, be certain, will befriend me. 
 But fifteen minutes' time is all I need ; 
 For our fine trip, meanwhile, prepare thyself with speed ! 
 
 [Exit FAUST 
 
 MEPHIS. (in FAUST'S long month'). Reason and Knowledgt 
 
 only thou despise, 
 
 The highest strength in man that lies ! 
 Let but the Lying Spirit bind thee 
 With magic works and shows that blind thee, 
 And I shall have thee fast and sure ! 
 Fate such a bold, untrammelJed spirit gave hiss? 
 As forwards, onwards, ever must endure ; 
 Whose over-hasty impulse drave him 
 Past earthly joys he might secure. 
 Dragged through the wildest life, will I enslare him,
 
 64 FAUST. 
 
 Through flat and stale indifference ; 
 
 With struggling, chilling, checking, so deprave him 
 
 That, to his hot, insatiate sense, 
 
 The dream of drink shall mock, but never lave him : 
 
 Refreshment shall his lips in vain implore 
 
 Had he not made himself the Devil's, naught could save him 
 
 Still were he lost for evermore ! 
 
 A STUDENT enters. 
 
 STUD. A short time, only, am I here, 
 And come, devoted and sincere, 
 To greet and know the man of fame, 
 Whom men to me with reverence name. 
 
 MEPHIS. Your courtesy doth flatter me : 
 You see a man, as others be. 
 Have you, perchance, elsewhere begun ? 
 
 STUD. Receive me now, I pray, as one 
 Who comes to you with courage good, 
 Somewhat of cash, and healthy blood : 
 My mother was hardly willing to let me ; 
 But knowledge worth having I fain would get me. 
 
 MEPHIS. Then you have reached the right place now. 
 
 STUD. I 'd like to leave it, I must avow : 
 t find these walls, these vaulted spaces 
 Are anything but pleasant places. 
 'Tis all so cramped and close and mean ; 
 One sees no tree, no glimpse of green, 
 And when the lecture-halls receive me, 
 Seeing, hearing, and thinking leave nie. 
 
 MEPHIS. All that depends on habitude. 
 So from its mother's breasts a child 
 At first, reluctant, takes its food, 
 But soon to seek them is beguiled. 
 Thus, at the breasts of Wisdom clinging, 
 Thou 'It find each day a greater rapture bringing. 
 
 STUD. I'll bang thereon with joy, acd freely drain them ; 
 But tell me, pray, the proper means to gain them. 
 
 MEPHIS. Explain, before you further speak, 
 The special faculty you seek. 
 
 STUD. I crave ihe highest enxlition ;
 
 SCENE IV. 65 
 
 And fain would make my acquisition 
 All that there is in Earth and Heaven, 
 In Nature and in Science too. 
 
 MEPHIS. Here is the genuine path for you ; 
 Yet strict attention must be given. 
 
 STUD. Body and soul thereon I'll wreak ; 
 Yet, truly, I've some inclination 
 On summer holidays to seek 
 A little freedom and recreation. 
 
 MEPHIS. Use well your time ! It flies BO swiftly froia 
 
 us; 
 
 But time through order may be won, I promise. 
 So, Friend, (my views to briefly sum,) 
 First, the collegium logicwn. 
 There will your mind be drilled and braced, 
 As if in Spanish boots 'twere laced, 
 And thus, to graver paces brought, 
 'Twill plod along the path of thought, 
 Instead of shooting here and there, 
 A will-o'-the-wisp in murky air. 
 Days will be spent to bid you know, 
 What once you did at a single blow, 
 Like eating and drinking, free and strong, 
 That one, two, three ! thereto belong. 
 Truly the fabric of mental fleece 
 Resembles a weaver's masterpiece, 
 Where a thousand threads one treadle throw*, 
 Where fly the shuttles hither and thither, 
 Unseen the threads are knit together, 
 And an infinite combination grows. 
 Then, the philosopher steps in 
 And shows, no otherwise it could have been : 
 The first was so, the second so, 
 Therefore the third and fourth are so ; 
 Were not the first and second, then 
 The third and fourth had never been. 
 The scholars are everywhere believer*, 
 But never succeed in being weavers. 
 He who would study organic existence, 
 First drives out the soul with rigid persistency j
 
 56 FA VST. 
 
 Then the parts in his hand he may hold and ( class, 
 But the spiritual link is lost, alas ! 
 Encheiresin natures, this Chemistry names, 318 
 Nor knows how herself she banters and blames I 
 
 STUD. I cannot understand you quite. 
 
 MEPHIS. Your mind will shortly be set aright. 
 When you have learned, all things reducing, 
 To classify them for your using. 
 
 STUD. I feel as stupid, from all you've said, 
 As if a mill-wheel whirled in my head ! 
 
 MEPIIIS. Arid after first and foremost duty ~ 
 Of Metaphysics lean the use and beauty ! 
 See that you most profoundly gain 
 What does not suit the human brain ! 
 A splendid word to serve, you'll find 
 For what goes in or won't go in your mind 
 But first, at least this half a year, 
 To order rigidly adhere ; 
 Five hours a day, you understand, 
 And when the clock strikes, be on hand ! 
 Prepare beforehand for your part 
 With paragraphs all got by heart, 
 So you can better watch, and look 
 That naught is said but what is in the book : 
 Yet in thy writing as unwearied be, 
 As did the Holy Ghost dictate to thee ! 
 
 STUD. No need to tell me twice to do it ! 
 I think, how useful 'tis to write ; 
 For what one has, in black and white, 
 One carries home and then goes through it 
 
 MEPHIS. Yet choose thyself a faculty ! 
 
 STUD. I canuot reconcile myself to Jurisprudence. 
 
 MEPHIS. Nor can 1 therefore greatly blame you students? 
 I know what science this has come to be. 
 All rights and laws are still transmitted 
 Like an eternal sickness of the race, 
 From generation unto generation fitted, 
 And shifted round from place to place. 
 Reason becomes a sham, Beneficence a worry : 
 Thou tut a grandchild, therefore woe to thee 1
 
 SCENE IV. 67 
 
 The right born with us, ours in verity, 
 This to consider, there's, alas ! no hurry. 
 
 STUD. My own disgust is strengthened by your speech. : 
 O lucky he, whom you shall teach ! 
 I've almost for Theology decided. 
 
 MEPHIS. I should not wish to see you here misguided : 
 For, as regards this science, let me hint 
 Tis very hard to shun the false direction ; 
 There's so much secret poison lurking in 't, 
 So like the medicine, it baffles your detection. 
 Hear, therefore, one alone, for that is best, in sooth 
 And simply take your master's words for truth. 
 On words let your attention centre ! 
 Then through the safest gate you'll enter 
 The temple-halls of Certainty. 
 
 STUD. Yet in the word must some idea be. 
 
 MEPHIS. Of course ! But only shun too over-sharp < 
 
 tension, 
 
 For just where fails the comprehension, 
 A word steps promptly in as deputy. 
 With words 'tis excellent disputing ; 
 Systems to words 'tis easy suiting ; 
 On words 'tis excellent believing ; 
 No word can ever lose a jot from thieving. 
 
 STUD. Pardon ! With many questions I detain yon, 
 Yet must I trouble you again. 
 Of Medicine I still would fain 
 Hear one strong word that might explain you, 
 Three years is but a little space, 
 And, God ! who can the tield embrace ? 
 If one some index could be shown, 
 'Twere easier groping forward, truly. 
 
 MEPHIS. (aaide). I'm tired enough of this dry tone, 
 Must play the Devil again, and fully. [Aloud. 
 
 To grasp the spirit of Medicine is easy : 
 Learn of the great and little world your fill, 
 To let it go at last, so please ye, 
 Just as God will ! 
 
 In vain that through the realms of science you may drift ? 
 Each one learns only just what learn he can :
 
 58 .FAUST. 
 
 et he who grasps the Moment's gift, 
 
 He is the proper man. 
 
 Well-made you are, 'tis not to be denied 
 
 The rest a bold address will win you ; 
 
 If you but in yourself confide, 
 
 At once confide all others in you. 
 
 To lead the women, learn the special feeling f 
 
 Their everlasting aches and groans, 
 
 In thousand tones, 
 
 Have all one source, one mode of healing ; 
 
 And if your acts are half discreet, 
 
 You'll always have them at your feet 
 
 A title first must draw and interest them, 
 
 And show that yours all other arts exceeds ; 
 
 Then, as a greeting, you are free to touch and test theia. 
 
 While, thus to do, for years another pleads. 
 
 You press and count the pulse's dances, 
 
 And then, with burning sidelong glances, 
 
 You clasp the swelling hips, to see 
 
 If tightly laced her corsets be. 
 
 STUD. That's better, now ! The How and Where, one see* 
 
 MEPHIS. My worthy friend, gray are all theories, 
 And green alone Life's golden tree. 
 
 STUD. I swear to you, 'tis like a dream to me. 
 Might I again presume, with trust unbounded, 
 To hear your wisdom thoroughly expounded ? 
 
 MEPHIS. Most willingly, to what extent I may. 
 
 STUD. I cannot really go away : 
 Allow me that my album first I reach you, 
 Grant me this favour, I beseech you ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Assuredly. [He writes, and returns the book. 
 
 STUD, (reads). Eritis sicut Deus, scientes bonum et inalwrn. 
 \Closes the book with reverence, and withdraw*. 
 
 MEPHIS. Follow the ancient text, and the snake thou wast 
 
 ordered to trample ! 
 With all thy likeness to God, thoult yet be a sorry example I 
 
 FAUST enters. 
 
 FAUST. Now, whither shall we go 1 
 MEPHIO. As best it pleases the*
 
 SCENE V. 69 
 
 The little world, and then the great, well see.* 
 With what delight, what profit winning, 
 Shalt thou sponge through the term beginning! 
 
 FAUST. Yet with the flowing beard I wear, 
 Both ease and grace will fail me there. 
 The attempt, indeed, were a futile strife ; 
 I never could learn the ways of life. 
 I feel so small before others, and thence 
 Should always find embarrassments. 4 * 
 
 MEPHIS. My friend, thou soon shalt lose all such misgiving ; 
 Be thou but self-possessed, thou hast the art of living ! 
 
 FAOBT. How shall we leave the house, and start ? 
 Where hast thou servant, coach and horses ? 
 
 MEPHIS. We '11 spread this cloak with proper art, 
 Then through the air direct our courses. 
 But only, on so bold a flight, 
 Be sure to have thy luggage light 
 A little burning air, which I shall soon prepare 110, 
 Above the earth will nimbly bear us, 
 And, if we 're light, we '11 travel swift and clear : 
 I gratulate thee on thy new career ! 
 
 V. 
 
 AUERBACH'S CELLAK IN LEIPZIG. 41 
 
 Carousal of Jolly Companions. 
 
 FROSCH. Is no one laughing < no one drinking t 
 1 11 teach you how to grin, I'm thinking. 
 To-day you're like wet straw, so tame ; 
 And usually you 're all aflame. 
 
 BRANUER. Now that's your fault; from you we nothing 
 
 see, 
 No beastliness and no stupidity. 
 
 FROSCH. (Pourt a glow of urine over BRANDER'S head). 
 The TV '*, both Aether !
 
 80 FAUST. 
 
 BRAJNTDBR. Twice a swine ! 
 
 FROSCH. You wanted them : I 've given you mine. 
 SIEBEL. Turn out who quarrels out the door ! 
 With open throat sing chorus, drink and roar ! 
 TJp < holla ! ho ! 
 
 ALTMAYER. Woe's me, the fearful bellow ! 
 Bring cotton, quick ! He's split my ears, that fellow. 
 
 SIEBEL. When the vault echoes to the song, 
 One first perceives the bass is deep and strong. 
 
 FROSCH. Well said ! and out -with him that takes th<- 
 least offence ! 
 
 Ah, tar a, lara, da I 
 ALTMAYEK. Ah, tara, lara, da I 
 
 FROSCH. The throats are tuned, commence ! [Siiigt, 
 
 The dear old holy Roman realm, 
 How does it hold together f 
 
 BRANDER. A nasty song ! Fie ! a political song 
 A most offensive song ! Thank God, each morning, there- 
 fore, 
 
 That you have not the Roman realm to care forl 
 At least, I hold it so much gain for me, 
 That I nor Chancellor nor Kaiser be. 
 Yet also we must have a ruling head, I hoptv 
 And so we '11 choose ourselves a Pope. 
 You know the quality that can 
 Decide the choice, and elevate the man. 
 
 FROSUH (sings). Soar up, soar up, Dame Nightingale t ^ 
 
 Ten thousand times my siwetheart hail I 
 SIEBEL. No, greet my sweetheart not ! I tell you, I 'II 
 
 resent it. 
 
 FROSCH. My sweetheart greet and kiss ! I dare you to 
 prevent it ! [Sings. 
 
 Draw the latch ! the darkness malces : 
 Draw the latch I the lover wakes. 
 Shut the latch ! the morning breaks. 
 SIEBEL. Yes, sing away, sing on, and praise, and brag of 
 
 her ! 
 
 1 11 wait my proper time for laughter : 
 Me by the nose she lead, and now she 11 lead you after 
 Her paramour should be an ugly gnome,
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 ci 
 
 four roods cross, in wanton play to meet hex : 
 An old he-goat, from Blocksberg couiing home, 
 Should his good-night in lustful gallop bleat her ! 
 A fellow made of genuine flesh and blood 
 Is for the wench a deal too good. 
 Greet her ? Not I : unless, when meeting, 
 To smash her windows be a greeting ! 
 
 BRAIDER (pounding on tlie table). Attention 1 Hearken 
 
 now to ine ! 
 
 Confess, Sirs, 1 know how to live. 
 Enamoured persons here have we, 
 And I, as suits their quality, 
 Must sometning fresh for their advantage give. 
 Take heed ! 'Tis of the latest cut, my strain, 
 And all strike in at each refrain ! [He tiny* 
 
 There was a rat in the cellar-nest, 
 Whom fat and butter made smoother : 
 He had a paunch beneath his vest 
 Like that of Doctor Luther. 
 The cook kid poison cunningly, 
 And then as sore oppressed was he 
 As if he had love in his bosom. 
 CHORUS (shouting). As if he had love in his bosom ! 
 BR^NDER. He ran around, he ran about, 
 His thirst in puddles laving ; 
 He gnawed and scratched the house throughout, 
 But nothing cured his raving. 
 He whirled and jumped, with torment niad, 
 Arid soon enough the poor beast had, 
 As if he had love in his bosom. 
 CHORUS. As if he had love in his bosom ! 
 BHANDER. And driven at last, in open day, 
 He ran into the kitchen, 
 Fell on the hearth, and squirming lay, 
 In the last convulsion twitching. 
 Then Laughed the murderess in her glee : 
 ** Ha ! ha ! he's at his last gasp," said she. 
 "As if he had love in his bosom ! " 
 CHORUS. As if be had love in his bosom ! 
 SIKBKU Hnw the dull fools enjoy the matter !
 
 63 FAUST. 
 
 To me it is a proper art 
 
 Poison for such poor rats to scatter. 
 
 BRANDEB. Perhaps you'll warmly take their part? 
 
 ALTMAYEB. The bald-pate pot-belly I have lioted : 
 Misfortune tames him by degrees ; 
 For in the rat by poison bloated 
 His own most natural form he sees. 
 
 FAUST cmd MEPHISTOPHELES, 
 
 MEPHIS. Before all else, I bring thee hithe? 
 Where boon companions meet together, 
 To let thee see how smooth life runs away. 
 Here, for the folk, each day's a holiday ; 
 With little wit, and ease to suit them, 
 They whirl in narrow, circling trails, 
 Like kittens playing with their tails ; 
 And if no headache persecute them, 
 So long the host may credit give, 
 They merrily and careless live. 
 
 BBANDEB. The fact is easy to unravel, 
 Their air's so odd, they've just returned from travel : 
 A single hour they 've not been here. 
 
 FBOSCH. You've verily hit the truth ! Leipzig to me is 
 
 dear ; 
 Paris in miniature, how it refines its people ! 
 
 SIEBEL. Who are the strangers, should you guess ? 
 
 FBOSCH. Let me alone ! I'll set them first to drinking, 
 And then, as one a child's tooth draws, with cleverness, 
 111 worm their secret out, I'm thinking. 
 They're of a noble house, that's very clear : 
 Haughty and discontented they appear. 
 
 BBANDBB. They're mountebanks, upon a revel 
 
 ALTMAYER. Perhaps. 
 
 FBOSCH. Look out, I'll smoke them now 
 
 MEPHIS. (to FAUST). Not if he had them by the neck, I vow. 
 Would e'er these people scent the Devil ! 
 
 FAUST. Fair greeting, gentlemen ! 
 
 SEBBBL. Our thanks : we give the same. 
 
 [Murmurs, inspecting MEPHIS. from 
 In one foot is the fellow lame I
 
 SCENE Y. 43 
 
 MEPHIS. Is it permitted that we share your leisure ? 
 In place of cheering drink, which one seeks vainly here, 
 Your company shall give us pleasure. 
 
 ALTMAYEB. A most fastidious person you appear. 
 FEOSCH. No doubt 'twas late when you from Rippach 
 
 started? 43 
 And supping there with Hans occasioned your delay f 
 
 MEPHIS. We passed, without a call, to-day. 
 A.t our last interview, before we parted 
 Much of his cousins did he speak, entreating 
 That we should give to each his kindly greeting. 
 
 [He bows to FROSCH. 
 
 ALTMAYER (aside). You havu it now ! he understands. 
 SIEBBL. A knave sharp-set I 
 
 FROSCH. Just wait awhile : I'll have him yet. 
 MEPHIS. If I am right, we heard the sound 
 Of well-trained voices, singing chorus ; 
 And truly, song must here rebound 
 Superbly from the arches o'er us. 
 
 FROSCH. Are you, perhaps, a virtuoso 1 
 MEPHIS. no ! my wish is great, my power is only so-tio. 
 ALTMAYER. Give us a song ! 
 
 MEPHIS. If you desire, a number, 
 
 SIEBEL. So that it be a bran-new strain ! 
 MEPHIS. We've just retraced our way from Spain, 
 The lovely land of wine, and song, and slumber. [Sings. 
 
 There was a king once reigning, 
 Who had a big black flea 
 
 FROSCH. Hear, hear ! A flea ! D'ye rightly take the jest I 
 I call a flea a tidy guest. 
 
 MEPHIS. (sings). There was a king once reigning, 
 Who had a big black flea, 
 And loved him past explaining, 
 As his own son were he. 
 He called his man of stitches ; 
 The tailor came straightway : 
 Here, measure the lad for breeches, 
 And measure his coat, I say ! 
 
 BBAKDER. But mind, allow the tailor no capricen ; 
 Enjoin upon him, as his head is dear,
 
 64 FAUST. 
 
 To most exactly measure, sew aud shear, 
 Bo that the breeches have no creases ! 
 MEPHIS. In silk and velvet gleaming 
 
 He now was wholly drest 
 
 Had a coat with ribbons streaming,, 
 
 A cross upon his breast. 
 
 He had the first of stations, 
 
 A minister's star and name ; 
 
 And also all his relations 
 
 Great lords at court became. 
 
 And the lords and ladies of honour 
 Were plagued, awake and in bed ; 
 The queen she got them upon her, 
 The maids were bitten and bled. 
 And they did not dare to brush them, 
 Or scratch them, day or night : 
 We crack them and we crush them, 
 At once, whene'er they bite. 
 CHORUS (shouting). We crack them and we crush them, 
 
 At once, whene'er they bite ! 
 FBOSCH. Bravo ! bravo ! that was fine. 
 SIEBEL. Every flea may it so befal ! 
 BRAIDER. Point your fingers and nip them all f 
 ALTMAVER. Hurrah for Freedom ! Hurrah for wine ! 
 MEPHIS. I fain would drink with you, my glass to Free 
 
 dom clinking, 
 
 If 'twere better wine that here I see you drinking. 
 SIEBEL. Don't let us hear that speech again ! 
 MEPHIS. Did I not fear the landlord might complain, 
 Td treat these worthy guests, with pleasure, 
 To some from out our cellar's treasure. 
 
 SIEBEL. Just treat, and let the landlord me arraign ! 
 FROSCH. And if the wine be good, our praises shall be ample 
 But do not give too very small a sample ; 
 For, if its quality I decide, 
 With a good mouthful I must be supplied. 
 
 ALTMAYER (aside). They're from the Rhine ! I guessed &? 
 
 much, before. 
 MEPHIS. Bring me a gimlet here !
 
 SCENE V. 65 
 
 BBANDER. What shall therewith be done t 
 You've not the casks already at the door ? 
 
 AITMAYER. Yonder, within the landlord's box of tools, 
 
 there's one ! 
 MEPHIS. (takes the gimlet). (To FROSCH.) Now, give me of 
 
 your taste some intimation. 
 
 FROSCH. How do you mean 1 Have you so many kinds t 
 MBPHIS. The choice is free : make up your minds. 
 ALTM VYER (to FKOSCH). Aha ! you lick your chops, from 
 
 sheer anticipation. 
 FKOSCH. Good ! if I have the choice, so let the wine be 
 
 Rhenish! 
 Our Fatherland can best the sparkling cup replenish. 
 
 MEPHIS. (boring a hole in the edge of the table, at the plact 
 where FROSCH sits). Get me a little wax, to make the 
 stoppers, quick ! 
 
 ALTMAYER. Ah ! I perceive a juggler's trick. 
 MEPHIS. (to BRAJS'DER). And you? 
 
 BRANDER. Champagne shall be my wine 
 
 And let it sparkle fresh and fine ! 
 
 [MEPHIS. bores: in the mean time one has made th 
 
 wax stoppers and plugged the holes with them. 
 What's foreign one can't always keep quite clear of, 
 For good things, oft, are not so near ; 
 A German can't endure the French to see or hear of, 
 5Tet drinks their wines with hearty cheer. 
 
 SIEBEL. (as MEPHIS. approaches his seat). For me, I grant, 
 
 sour wine is out of place ; 
 Fill up my glass with sweetest, will you ? 
 
 MEPHIS. (boring). Tokay shall flow at once, to fill you ! 
 AI/TMAYER. No look me, Sirs, straight in the face ! 
 I see you have your fun at our expense. 
 
 MEPHIS. O no ! with gentlemen of such pretence, 
 That were to venture far, indeed. 
 Speak out, and make your choice with speed ! 
 With what a vintage can I serve you ? 
 
 ALTMAYER. With any only satisfy our need. 
 
 [After the holes have been bored and plugged 
 MBPHIS. (with singular gestures). Grapes the vine-stem bears 
 Horns the he-goat wears I
 
 66 FAUST. 
 
 The grapes are juicy, the vines are wood, 
 
 The wooden table gives wine as good ! 
 
 Into the depths of Nature peer, 
 
 Only believe, there's a miracle here f 
 
 Now draw the stoppers, and drink your fill ! - 
 
 AT.T. (as they draw out the stoppers, and the wine which hat 
 been desired flows into the glass of each). beautiful 
 fountain, that flows at will ! 
 
 MEPHIS. But have a care, that you nothing spill ! 
 
 [They drink repeatedly 
 
 ALL (sing). As 'twere five hundred hogs, -we feel 
 So caunibalic jolly ! 
 
 MEPHIS. See, now, the race is happy it is free ! 
 
 FAUST. To leave them is my inclination. 
 
 MEPHIS. Take notice, first ! their bestiality 
 Will make a brilliant demonstration. 
 
 SIEBEL (drinks carelessly : the urine spills upon the earth, and 
 turns to flame]. Help ! Fire ! Help ! Hell-fire is sent ! 
 
 MEPHIS. (charming away the flame). Be quiet, friendly 
 element ! [To the revellers. 
 
 A bit of purgatory 'twas for this time, merely. 
 
 SIEBBL. What mean you? Wait ! you'll pay for't dearly! 
 You'll know us, to your detriment. 
 
 FROSCH. Don't try that game a second time upon us ! 
 
 ALTMAYER. I think we'd better send him packing quietly. 
 
 SIEBEL. What, Sir ! you dare to make so free, 
 And play your hocus-pocus on us ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Be still, old wine-tub. 
 
 SIEBEL. Broomstick, you ! 
 
 You face it out, impertinent and heady ? 
 
 BRANDER. Just wait ! a shower of blows is ready. 
 
 ALTMAYEB (draws a stopper out of the table : fare fliet in hit 
 face}. I burn ! I burn ! 
 
 SIEBEL. 'Tis magic ! Strike 
 
 The knave is outlawed ! Cat him as you like ! 
 
 [They draw their knives, and rush upon MEPHIS. 
 
 MEPHIS. (with solemn gestures). False word and form of air, 
 Change place, and sense ensnare ! 
 Be here and there ! 
 
 [They ftand amazed, and look at each other
 
 SCENE V. 67 
 
 ALTMAYER. Where am I? What a lovely land f 
 FROSCH. Vines 1 Can I trust my eyes ? 
 SIEBEL. And purple grapes at hand ! 
 BRANDEB. Here, over this green arbour bending, 
 See, what a vine ! what grapes depending ! 
 
 [He takes SIEBEL by the nose : the others do the saint 
 
 reciprocally, and raise their knives. 
 MEPHIS. (as above). Loose, Error, from their eyes the 
 
 band, 
 And how the Devil jests, be now enlightened ! 
 
 [He disappears with FAUST : the revellers start ant 
 
 separate. 
 
 SIEBEL. What happened ? 
 ALTMAYER. How ? 
 
 FROSCH. Was that your nose I tightened } 
 
 BBANDER (to SIEBEL). And yours that, still I have in 
 
 hand? 
 
 ALTMAYER. It was a blow that went through every limb ! 
 Give me a chair ! I sink ! my senses swim. 
 FROSCH. But what has happened, tell me now ? 
 SIEBEL. Where is he ] If 1 catch the scoundrel hiding, 
 He shall not leave alive, I vow. 
 
 ALTMAYJER. I saw him with these eyes upon a wine-cask 
 
 riding 
 
 Out of the cellar-door, just now. 
 Still in my feet the fright like lead is weighing. 
 
 \He turns towards the table. 
 
 Why ! If the fount of wine should still be playing t 
 SIEBEL. 'Twas all deceit, and lying, false design ! 
 FROSCH. And yet it seemed as I were drinking wine. 
 BRANDER. But with the grapes how was it, pray ? 
 ALTMATEK. Shall one believe no miracles, just say >
 
 68 FAUST. 
 
 VI. 
 
 WITCHES' KITCHEN. 44 
 
 Upon a low hearth stands a great caldron, under which afire 
 is burning. Various figures appear in the vapours which 
 rise from the caldron. An ape sits beside it, .skims it, and 
 watches lest it boil over. The he-ape, with the young ones, 
 sits near and warms himself. Ceiling and walls are covered 
 with the most fantastic witch-implements. 
 
 FAUST. HEPHISTOPHELES. 
 
 FAUST. These crazy signs of witches' craft repel me ! 
 I shall recover, dost thou tell me, 
 rhrough tliis insane, chaulic play? 
 From an old hag shall I demand assistance ? 
 And will her foul mess take away 
 Full thirty years from my existence 1 te 
 Woe's me, canst thou naught better find ! 
 Another battled hope must be lamented : 
 Has Nature, then, and has a noble mind 
 Not any potent balsam yet invented ? 
 
 MEPHIS. Once more, my friend, thou talkest sensibly. 
 There is, to make thee young, a simpler mode and apter ; 
 But in another book 'tis writ for thee, 
 And is 8 most eccentric chapter. 
 
 FATTST. Yet will I know it. 
 
 MEPHIS. Good ! the method is revealed. 
 
 Without or gold or magic or physician. 
 Betake thyself to yonder field. 
 There hoe and dig, as thy condition ; 
 Restrain thyself, thy sense and will 
 Within a narrow sphere to flourish ; 
 With unmixed food thy body nourish ; 
 Lfrre with the ox aa ox, and think it not a tkaft
 
 SCENE VI. . 69 
 
 That thou manur'st the acre which thou reapest ; 
 
 That, trust me, is the best mode left, 
 
 Whereby for eighty years thy youth thou keepest ! 
 
 FAUST. I am not used to that ; I cannot, stoop to try it 
 To take the spade in hand, and ply it. 
 The narrow being suits me not at all. 
 
 MEPHIS. Then to thine ;iid the witch must call. 
 
 FAUST. Wherefore the hag, and her alone 1 
 Canst thou thyself not brew the potion ? 
 
 MEPHIS. That were a charming sport, I own : 
 I'd build a thousand bridges meanwhile, I've a notion. 
 Not Art and Science serve, alone ; 
 Patience must in the work be shown. 
 Long is the calm brain active in creation ; 
 Time, only, strengthens the fine fermentation. 
 And all, belonging thereunto, 
 Is rare and strange, howe'er you take it : 
 The Devil taught the thing, 'tis true, 
 
 And yet the Devil cannot make it. [Perceiving (he Anvmals. 
 See, what a delicate race they be ! 
 
 That is the maid ! the man is he ! [To t)u; Animal*,. 
 
 It seem* the mistress has gone away ? 
 
 THE ANIMALS. Carousing, to-day ! 
 Off and about, 
 By the chimney out ! 
 
 MEPHIS. What time takes she for dissipating 1 
 
 THE ANIMALS. While we to warm our paws are waiting. 
 
 MEPHIS. (to FAUST). How findest thou the ten' lei 
 creatures ? 
 
 FAUST. Absurder than I ever yet did see. 
 
 MEPHIS. Why, just such talk as this, for me, 
 Is that which nas the most attractive leatures \ 
 
 [To the Animal& 
 
 But tell me now, ye curseM puppets, 
 Why do ye stir the porridge so ? 
 
 THE ANIMALS. We're cooking watery soup for beggar*. 
 
 MEPHIS. Then a great public you can show. 
 
 THE HE- APE (comes up a/nd fa/wns on MEPHIS.). 
 cast thou the dice ! 
 Make me rich in a trice,
 
 70 FAUST. 
 
 Let me win in good season ! 
 Things are badly controlled, 
 And had I but gold, 
 So had I my reason. 
 
 MEPHTS. How would the ape be sure his luck enhances. 
 Could he but try the lottery's chances ! 
 
 [In the mean time the young a/pea have been playing 
 
 with a large ball, which they now roll forward, 
 THE HE- APE. The world's the ball : 
 Doth rise and fall, 
 And roll incessant : 
 Like glass doth ring, 
 A hollow thing, 
 How soon wilTt spring, 
 And drop, quiescent 1 ? 
 Here bright it gleams, 
 Here brighter seems : 
 1 live at present ! 
 Dear son, I say, 
 Keep thou away ! 
 Thy doom is spoken I 
 'Tis made of clay, 
 And will be broken. 
 MEPHIS. What means the sieve 1 
 THE HE- APE (taking it down). Wert thou the thief,** 
 
 I 'd know him and shame him. 
 [He runs to the SHE-APE, and lets her look through 
 it. 
 
 Look through the sieve ! 
 Know'st thou the thief, 
 And darest not name him 1 
 
 MEPHIS. (approaching the fare). And what's this pot I 
 HE-APK AND SHE-APE. The fool knows it not 1 
 He knows not the pot, 
 He knows not the kettle ! 
 MEPHIS. Impertinent beast ! 
 THE HE-APE. Take the brush here, at least, 
 And sit down on the settle ! 
 
 [He invites MEPHIS. to fit down
 
 SCENE n. n 
 
 FAUST (who during all this time hat been standing before a 
 mirror, now approaching and now retreating from it). 
 What do I see ? What heavenly form revealed 
 Shows through the glass from Magic's fair dominions I 
 
 lend me, Love, the swiftest of thy pinions, 
 And bear me to her beauteous field ! 
 
 Ah, if I leave this spot with fond designing, 
 
 If I attempt to venture near, 
 
 Dim, as through gathering mist, her charms appear J 
 
 A woman's form, in beauty shining ! 
 
 Can woman, then, so lovely be? 
 
 And must I find her body, there reclining, 
 
 Of all the heavens the bright epitome 1 
 
 Can Earth with such a thing be mated 1 
 
 MEPHIS. Why, surely, if a God first plagues Himself six 
 
 days, 
 
 Then, self-contented, Bravo ! says, 
 Must something clever be created. 
 This time, thine eyes be satiate ! 
 1 11 yet detect thy sweetheart and ensnare her, 
 And blest is he, who has the lucky fate, 
 Some day, as bridegroom, home to bear her. 
 
 [FATTST gazes continually in the mirror. MEPHIS. 
 stretching himself out on the settle, and playing 
 with the brush, continues to speak. 
 So sit I, like the King upon his throne : 
 
 1 hold the sceptre, here, and lack the crown alone. 
 
 THE ANIMALS (who up to this time have been making ali 
 kinds of fantastic movements together, bring a crown to MEPHIS. 
 with great noise). be thou so good 
 
 With sweat and with blood 
 The crown to belime ! 
 
 [They handle the crown awkwardly and break it intc 
 two pieces, with which they spring around. 
 'Tis done, let it be ! 
 We speak and we see, 
 We hear and we rhyme ! 
 
 FAXTST (before the mirror). Woe's me ! I fear to lose my 
 wits.
 
 TJ FAUST. 
 
 MEPHIS. (pointing to the Anvmali). My own head, now, is 
 
 really nigh to sinking. 
 THE ANTMALS. If lucky our hits, 
 
 And everything fits, 
 "Tis thoughts, and we're thinking ! 
 
 FAUST (as above). My bosom burns with that sweet vision ; 
 Let us, with speed, away from here ! 
 
 MEPHIS. (in the same attitude}. One must, at least, make 
 
 this admission- 
 They 're poets, genuine and sincere. 
 
 [The caldron, which the SHE- APE /MM up to this time 
 neglected to watch, begins to boil over: there ensues 
 a great flame which blazes up the chimney. The 
 WITCH comes careering down through the flame, 
 with terrible cries. 
 THE WITCH. Ow ! ow ! ow ! ow ! 
 
 The damned beast the curse'd sow ! 
 To leave the kettle, and singe the Frau ! 
 Accursed fere ! 
 
 [Perceiving FAUST and MEPHIS. 
 What is that here ? 
 Who are you here 1 
 What want you thus ? 
 Who sneaks to us ? 
 The fire pain 
 Burn bone and brain ! 
 
 [She plunge* the skimming-ladle in the caldron, and 
 scatters flames towards FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELKS, 
 and the Animals. The Animals whimper. 
 MEPHIS. (reversing the brush, which he has been holding t 
 hif hand, and striking among the jars and glassns), 
 in two ! in two ! 
 There lies the brew ! 
 There lies the glass ! 
 The joke will pass, 
 As time, foul ass ! 
 To the singing of thy crew. 
 
 [via the WITCH starts back, full of wrath amd r*orror 
 H* ! knows't thou me ? Abomination, thou !
 
 SCENE VI. 73 
 
 Know'st thou, at last, thy Lord and Master I 
 
 What hinders me from smiting now 
 
 Thee and thy monkey-sprites with fell disaster I 
 
 Hast for the scarlet coat no reverence ? 
 
 Dost recognize no more the tall cock's-feather I 
 
 Have I concealed this countenance I 
 
 Must tell niy name, old face of leather ? 
 
 THE WITCH. pardon, Sir, the rough salute ! 
 Yet I perceive no cloven foot ; 
 And both your ravens, where are they now ? 
 
 MEPHIS. This time, 111 let thee 'scape the debt ; 
 For since we two together met, 
 'Tis verily full many a day now. 
 Culture, which smooth the whole world licks, 
 Also unto the Devil sticks. 
 
 The days of that old Northern phantom now are over : 
 Where canst thou horns and tail and claws discover ? 
 And, as regards the foot, which I can't spare, in truth, 
 'Twould only make the people shun me ; 
 Therefore I've worn, like many a spindly youth, 
 False calves these many years upon me. 
 
 THE WITCH (dancing). Reason and sense forsake my 
 
 brain, 
 csince I behold Squire Satan here again ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Woman, from such a name refrain ! 
 
 THE WITCH. Why so ? What has it done to thee ] 
 
 MEPHIS. It's long been written in the Book of Fable ; 
 Yet, therefore, no whit better men we see : 
 The Evil One has left, the evil ones are stable. 
 Sir Baron call me thou, then is the matter good ; 
 A cavalier am I, like others in my bearing. 
 Thou ha-st no doubt about my noble blood : 
 See, here's the coat-of-arms that I am wearing ! 
 
 [He makes an indecent gesture. 
 
 THE WITCH (laughs immoderately). Ha ! ha ! That's just 
 
 your way, I know : 
 A rogue you are, and you were always so. 
 
 MEPHIS. (to FAUST). My friend, take proper heed, I pray! 
 To manage witches, this is just the way. 
 
 TH.K WITCH. Wherein, Sirs, can I be of use ? 
 D
 
 T4 FAUST. 
 
 MEPHIS. Give us a goblet of the well-known juice ! 
 But, I must beg you, of the oldest brewage ; 
 The years a double strength produce. 
 
 THB WITCH. With all my heart ! Now, here's a bottle, 
 Wherefrom, sometimes, I wet my throttle, 
 Which, also, not the slightest, stinks ; 
 
 And willingly a glass I'll fill him. [ Whispering. 
 
 Yet, if this man without due preparation drinks, 
 As well thou know'st, within an hour 'twill kill him. 
 
 MEPHIS. He is a friend of mine, with whom it will agree, 
 And he deserves thy kitchen's best potation : 
 Come, draw thy circle, apeak thine adjuration, 
 And fill thy goblet full and free ! 
 
 [The WITCH with fantastic gestures draws a circle 
 and places mysterious articles therein ; meanwhile 
 the glasses begin to ring, the caldron to sound, and 
 make a musical accompaniment. Finally she bringi 
 a great book, and stations in the circle the Apes, 
 who are obliged to serve as reading-desk, and to hold 
 the torches. She then beckons FAUST to approach. 
 FAUST (to MEPHIS.). Now, what shall come of this? the 
 
 creatures antic, 
 
 The crazy stuff, the gestures frantic, 
 All the repulsive cheats I view, 
 Are known to me, and hated, too. 
 
 MEPHIS. O, nonsense ! That's a thing for laughter ; 
 Don't be so terribly severe ! 
 She juggles you as doctor now, that, after, 
 The beverage may work the proper cheer. 
 
 [He persuades FAUST to step into the circle. 
 THB WITCH (begins to declaim,, with much emphasis from 
 the book). See, thus it's done I 
 Make ten of one, 
 And two let be, 
 Make even three, 
 And rich thou'lt be, 
 Cast o'er the four ! 
 From five and six 
 (The witch's tricks) 
 Make seven and eight,
 
 SCENE VI. 71 
 
 Tis finished straight ! 
 And nine is one, 
 And ten is none. 
 
 This is the witch's once-one's-one !** 
 FAUST. She talks like one who raves in fever. 
 MEPHIS. Thou'lt hear much more before we leave her 
 'Tis all the same : the book I can repeat, 
 Such time I've squandered o'er the history : 
 A contradiction thus complete 
 
 Is always for the wise, no less than fools, a mystery. 
 The art is old and new, for verily 
 All ages have been taught the matter, 
 By Three and One, and One and Three, 
 Error instead of Truth to scatter. 
 They prate and teach, and no one interferes ; 
 All from the fellowship of fools are shrinking. 
 Man usually believes, if only words he hears, 
 That also with them goes material for thinking ! 
 THE WITCH (continues). The lofty skill 
 Of Science, still 
 From all men deeply hidden ! 
 Who takes no thought, 
 To him 'tis brought, 
 "Pis given unsought, unbidden ! 
 .FAUST. What nonsense she declaims before us ! 
 My head is nigh to split, I fear : 
 1 1 seems to me as if I hear 
 A hundred thousand fools in chorus. 
 
 MEPHIS. Sibyl excellent, enough of adjuration ' 
 fcat hither bring us thy potation, 
 And quickly fill the beaker to the brim ! 
 This drink will bring my friend no injuries : 
 fie is a man of manifold degrees, 
 And many draughts are known to him. 
 
 [The WITCH, with many ceremonies, pours the drink 
 into a cup ; as FAUST sets it to his lips, a light 
 flame arises. 
 
 Down with it quickly ! Drain it off ! 
 Twill warm thy WH with new desire :
 
 76 FAUST. 
 
 Art with the Devil hand and glove, 
 And wilt thou be afraid of fire ? 
 
 [The WITCH breaks the circle : FAUST steps forth. 
 
 MBPHIS. And now, away ! Thou dar'st not rest. 
 
 THE WITCH. And much good may the liquor do thee ! 
 
 MBPHIS. (to the WITCH). Thy wish be on Walpurgis Night 
 
 expressed ; 
 What boon I have, shall then be given unto thee. 
 
 THE WITCH. Here is a song, which, if you sometimes sing, 
 You'll find it of peculiar operation. 
 
 MEPHIS. (to FAUST). Come, walk at once ! A rapid 
 
 occupation 
 
 Must start the needful perspiration, 
 And through thy frame the liquor's potence fling. 
 The noble indolence I'll teach thee then to treasure, 
 And soon thuu'lt be aware, with keenest thrills of pleasure, 
 How Cupid stirs and leaps, on light and restless wing. 
 
 FAUST. One rapid glance within the mirror give me. 
 How beautiful that woman-form ! 
 
 MEPHIS. No, no ! The paragon of all, believe me, 
 Thou soon shaxt see, alive and warm. [Aside. 
 
 Thou'lt find, this drink thy blood compelling, 
 Each woman beautiful as Helen ' 
 
 VII. 
 
 A STREET. 
 FAUST. MARGARET passing fo 
 
 FAUST. Fair lady, let it not offend you, 
 That arm and escort I would lend you ! 
 
 MAKG. 47 I'm neither lady, neither fair. 
 And home I can go without yonr care. 
 
 [She releases herdf, and e^ 
 
 FAUST. By Heaven, the girl is wondrous fair ! 
 Of all I'vft seen, beyond compare ;
 
 SCENE VII. 77 
 
 So sweetly virtuous and pure, 
 
 And yet a little pert, be sure ! 
 
 The lip so red, the cheek's clear dawn, 
 
 I'll not forget while the world rolls on! 
 
 How she cast down her timid eyes, 
 
 Deep in my heart imprinted lies : 
 
 How short and sharp of speech was she, 
 
 Why, 't was a real ecstasy * 
 
 MEPHISTO. enters. 
 
 FAUST. Hear, of that girl Pd have possession! 
 
 MEPHIS. Which, then? 
 
 FAUST. The one who just went by. 
 
 MEPHIS. She, there? She's coming from confession, 
 Of every sin absolved ; for I, 
 Behind her chair, was listening nigh, 
 So innocent is she, indeed, 
 That to confess she had no need. 
 I have no power o'er souls so green. 
 
 FAUST. And yet, she's older than fourteen. 
 
 MEPHIS. How now! You're talking like Jack Rake, 
 Who every flower for himself would take, 
 And fancies there are no favours more, 
 Nor honours, save for him in store ; 
 Yet always doesn't the thing succeed. 
 
 FAUST. Most Worthy Pedagogue, take heed! 
 Let not a word of moral law be spoken! 
 I claim, I tell thee, all my right ; 
 And if that image of delight 
 Rest not within mine arms to-night, 
 At midnight is our compact broken. 
 
 MEPHIS. But think, the chances of the case ! 
 I need, at least, a fortnight's space, 
 To find an opportune occasion. 
 
 FAUST. Had I but seven hours for all, 
 I should not on the Devil call, 
 But win her by my own persuasion. 
 
 MEPHIS. You almost like a Frenchman prate; 
 Yet, pray, don't take it as annoyance ! 
 Why, all at once, exhaust the joyance?
 
 78 FAUST. 
 
 Your bliss is by no means so great 
 
 As if you'd use, to get control, 
 
 All sorts of tender rigmarole, 
 
 And knead and shape her to your thought, 
 
 As in Italian tales 'tis taught. 
 
 FAUST. Without that, I have appetite. 
 
 MEPHIS. But now, leave jesting out of sight! 
 I tell you, once for all, that speed 
 With this fair girl will not succeed ; 
 By storm she cannot captured be ; 
 We must make use of strategy. 
 
 FAUST. Get me something the angel keeps ! 
 Lead me thither where she sleeps ! 
 Get me a kerchief from her breast, 
 A garter that her knee has pressed! 
 
 MEPHIS. That you may see how much I'd fain 
 Further and satisfy your pain, 
 We will no longer lose a minute ; 
 I'll find her room to-day, and take you in it. 
 
 FAUST. And shall I see possess her? 
 
 MEPHIS. No! 
 
 Unto a neighbour she must go, 
 And meanwhile thou, alone, mayst glow 
 With every hope of future pleasure, 
 Breathing her atmosphere in fullest measure. 
 
 FAUST. Can we go thither? 
 
 MEPHIS. 'Tis too early yet. 
 
 FAUST. A gift for her I bid thee get ! [Exit. 
 
 MEPHIS. Presents at once ? That's good : he 's certain 
 
 to get at her ! 
 
 Full many a pleasant place I know, 
 And treasures, buried long ago : 
 I must, perforce, look up the matter. [Exit.
 
 SCENE 
 
 vm. 
 
 EVENING. 
 A SMALL, NEATLY KEPT CHAMBER. 
 
 MARGARET (plaiting and binding up the braids of her hair}. 
 Pd something give, could I but say 
 Who was that gentleman, to-day. 
 Surely a gallant man was he, 
 And of a noble family ; 
 So much could I in his face behold, 
 And he wouldn't, else, have been so bold 1 [Exit. 
 
 MEPHISTOPHELES. FAUST. 
 
 MEPHIS. Come in, but gently : follow me ! 
 
 FAUST, (after a moment's silence). Leave me alone, I beg 
 
 of thee ! 
 MEPHIS. (prying about). Not every girl keeps things so 
 
 neat. 
 FAUST (looking around). welcome, twilight soft and 
 
 sweet, 
 
 That breathes throughout this hallowed shrine ! 
 Sweet pain of love, bind thou with fetters fleet 
 The heart that on the dew of hope must pine 1 
 How all around a sense impresses 
 Of quiet, order, and content ! 
 This poverty what bounty blesses ! 
 What bliss within this narrow den is pent ! 
 
 \He throws himself into a leathern arm-chair near 
 
 thebed. 
 
 Receive ine, thou, that in thine open arms 
 Departed joy and pain wert wont to gather ! 
 How oft the children, with their ruddy charms, 
 Hung here, around this throne, where sat the father ! 
 Perchance my love, amid the childish band.
 
 80 FAUST. 
 
 Grateful for gifts the Holy Christmas gave her, 
 
 Here meekly kissed the grandstre's withered hand 
 
 I feel, maid ! thy very soul 
 
 Of order and content around me whisper, 
 
 Which leads thee with its motherly control, 
 
 The cloth upon thy board bids smoothly thee unroll, 
 
 The sand beneath thy feet makes whiter, crisper. 
 
 dearest hand, to thee 'tis given 
 
 To change this hut into a lower heaven ! 
 
 And here ! [He lifts one of the bed-curtaint. 
 
 What sweetest thrill is in my blood ! 
 Here could I spend whole hours, delaying : 
 Here Nature shaped, as if in sportive playing, 
 The angel blossom from the bud. 
 
 Here lay tHe child, with Life's warm essence 
 
 The tender bosom filled and fair, 
 
 And here was wrought, through holier, purer presence. 
 
 The form diviner beings wear ! 
 
 And 1 1 What drew me here with power ? 
 How deeply am I moved, this hour ! 
 What seek I i Why so full my heart, and acre ? 
 Miserable Faust ! I know thee now no more. 
 
 IB there a magic vapour here ? 
 
 1 came, with lust of instant pleasure, 
 
 And lie dissolved in dreams of love's sweet leisure : 
 Are we the sport of every changeful atmosphere ! 
 
 And if, this moment, came she in to me, 
 How would I for the fault atonement render ! 
 How small the giant lout would be, 
 Prone at her feet, relaxed and tender ! 
 
 MEPHIB. Be quick ! I see her there, returning 
 
 FAUST. Go ! go ! I never will retreat 
 
 MBPHIS. Here is a casket, not unmeet, 
 Which elsewhere I have just been earning. 
 Here, set it in the press, with haste ! 
 I swear, 'twill turn her head, to spy it :
 
 mi. si 
 
 baubles I therein had placed, 
 That you might win another by it. 
 rrue, child is child, and play is play. 
 FAUST. T know not, should I do it? 
 MEPHIS. Ask you, pray T 
 
 Yourself, perhaps, would keep the bubble t 
 Then 1 suggest, 'twere fair and just 
 To spare the lovely day your lust, 
 And spare to me the further trouble. 
 You are not miserly, I trust ? 
 I rub my hands, in expectation tender 
 
 [He places the casket in the press, and locks it again. 
 Now qiiick, away ! 
 The sweet young maiden to betray, 
 So that by wish and will you bend her ; 
 And you look as though 
 To the lecture-hall you were forced to go, 
 As if stood before you, gray and loath, 
 Physics and Metaphysics both ! 
 
 But away 1 [Exeunt. 
 
 MAKO. (with a lamp). It is so close, so sultry, here ! 
 
 [She opens the window 
 And yet 'tis not so warm outside. 
 I feel, I know not why, such fear ! 
 Would mother came ! where can she bide ? 
 My body's chill and shuddering, 
 I'm but a silly, fearsome thing ! 
 
 [She begins to sing, while undressing, 
 There was a King in Thulu, 
 Was faithful till the grave, 
 To whom his mistress, dying, 
 A golden goblet gave. 
 
 Naught was to him more precious ; 
 He drained it at every bout : 
 His eyes with tears ran over, 
 As oft as he drank thereout 
 
 When came his time of dying, 
 The towns in his land he told,
 
 81 FAUST. 
 
 Naught else to his heir denying 
 Except the goblet of gold. 
 
 He sat at the royal banquet 
 With his knights of high degree, 
 In the lofty hall of his fathers 
 In the Castle by the Sea, 
 
 There stood the old carouser, 
 And drank the last life-glow ; 
 And hurled the hallowed goblet 
 Into the tide below. 
 
 He saw it plunging and filling, 
 And sinking deep in the sea : 
 Then fell his eyelids for ever, 
 And never more drank he ! 
 
 [She opens the press in order to arrange her clothet, and 
 perceives the casket of jewels. 
 
 How comes that lovely casket here to me ? 
 
 I locked the press; most certainly. 
 
 Tis truly wonderful ! What can within it be t 
 
 Perhaps 'twas brought by some one as a pawn, 
 
 And mother gave a loan thereon ? 
 
 And here there hangs a key to fit : 
 
 I have a mind to open it. 
 
 What is that ? God in Heaven ! Whence came 
 
 Such things ? Never beheld I aught so fair ! 
 
 Rich ornaments, such as a noble dame 
 
 On highest holidays might wear ! 
 
 How would the pearl-chain suit my hair I 
 
 Ah, who may all this splendour own ? 
 
 [She adorns herself teith the jewellery, and eteps befor* 
 the mirror. 
 
 Were but the ear-rings mine, alone ! 
 
 One has at once another air. 
 
 What helps one's beauty, youthful blood I 
 
 One may possess them, well and good ; 
 
 Bat none the more do others care.
 
 SCENE IX. S3 
 
 They praise us half in pity, sure 
 
 To gold still tends, 
 
 On gold depends 
 
 All, all ! Alas, we poor ! 
 
 IX. 
 
 PROMENADE. 
 
 FAUST, walking thoughtfully up and down. To him 
 MEPHISTOPHELES . 
 
 MEPHIS. By all love ever rejected! By hellfire hot 
 
 and unsparing! 
 
 I wish I knew something worse, that I might use it for 
 swearing ! 
 
 FAUST. What ails thee? What is't gripes thee, elf? 
 A face like thine beheld I never. 
 
 MEPHIS. I would myself unto the Devil deliver, 
 If I were not a Devil myself ! 
 
 FAUST. Thy head is out of order, sadly : 
 It much becomes thee to be raving madly. 
 
 MEPHIS. Just think, the pocket of a priest should get 
 The trinkets left for Margaret! 
 The mother saw them, and, instanter, 
 A secret dread began to haunt her. 
 Keen scent has she for tainted air ; 
 She snuffs within her book of prayer, 
 And smells each article, to see 
 If sacred or profane it be ; 
 So here she guessed, from every gem, 
 That not much blessing came with them. 
 "My child," she said, "ill-gotten good 
 Ensnares the soul, consumes the blood. 
 Before the Mother of God we'll lay it ; 
 With heavenly manna she'll repay it!"
 
 84 FAUST. 
 
 But Margaret thought, with sour grimace, 
 
 "A gift-horse is not out of place, 
 
 And, truly ! godless cannot be 
 
 The one who brought such things to me." 
 
 A parson came, by the mother bidden : 
 
 He saw, at once, where the game was hidden, 
 
 And viewed it with a favour stealthy. 
 
 He spake: "That is the proper view, 
 
 Who overcometh, winneth too. 
 
 The Holy Church has a stomach healthy : 
 
 Hath eaten many a land as forfeit, 
 
 And never yet complained of surfeit : 
 
 The Church alone, beyond all question, 
 
 Has for ill-gotten goods the right digestion." 
 
 FAUST. A general practice is the same, 
 Which Jew and King may also claim. 
 
 MEPHIS. Then bagged the spangles, chains, and rings, 
 As if but toadstools were the things, 
 And thanked no less, and thanked no more 
 Then if a sack of nuts he bore, 
 Promised them fullest heavenly pay, 
 And deeply edified were they. 
 
 FAUST. And Margaret? 
 
 MEPHIS. Sits unrestful still, 
 
 And knows not what she should, or will ; 
 Thinks on the jewels, day and night, 
 But more on him who gave her such delight. 
 
 FAUST. The darling's sorrow gives me pain. 
 Get thou a set for her again ! 
 The first was not a great display. 
 
 MEPHIS. O yes, the gentleman finds it all child's-play : 
 
 FAUST. Fix and arrange it to my will ; 
 And on her neighbour try thy skill ! 
 Don't be a Devil stiff as paste, 
 But get fresh jewels to her taste! 
 
 MEPHIS. Yes, gracious Sir, in all obedience ! [Exit FAUST 
 Such an enamoured fool in air would blow 
 Sun, moon, and all the starry legions, 
 To give his sweetheart a diverting show. [Exit.
 
 SCENE X. 85 
 
 THE NEIGHBOUR'S HOUSE 
 
 MAETHA (solus). 
 
 MABTHA. God forgive my husband, yet he 
 Hasn't done his duty by me! 
 Off in the world he went straightway, 
 Left me lie in the straw where I lay, 
 And, truly, I did naught to fret him : 
 
 God knows I loved, and can't forget 'him ! [She wept, 
 
 Perhaps he's even dead ! Ah, woe ! 
 Had I a certificate to show ! 
 
 MARG. (comes). Dame Martha ! 
 
 MARTHA. Margaret ! whatfs happened thee 1 
 
 MARG. I scarce can stand, my knees are trembling ! 
 I find a box, the first resembling, 
 Within my press ! Of ebony, 
 And things, all splendid to behold, 
 And richer far than were the old. 
 
 MARTHA. You mustn't tell it to your mother I 
 'Twould go to the priest, as did the other. 
 
 MARG. Ah, look and see just look and see ! 
 
 MARTHA (adorning her). O, what a blessed luck for thee ! 
 
 MARG. But, ah ! in the streets I dare not bear them, 
 Nor in the church be seen to wear them. 
 
 MARTHA. Yet thou canst often this w?y wander, 
 And secretly the jewels don, 
 
 Walk up and down an hour, before the mirror yonder, 
 We'll have our private joy thereon. 
 And then a chance will come, a holiday, 
 When, piece by piece, can one the things abroad display, 
 A chain at first, then other ornament : 
 Thy mother will not ee, and stories well invent. 
 
 MARG. Whoever could have brought me things so precious I
 
 86 fAUST. 
 
 That something's wrong, I feel suspicions. [A knock. 
 
 Good Heaven ! My mother can that have been ? 
 
 MARTHA (peeping through the blind). 'Tis some strangt 
 gentleman. Come in ! 
 
 MEPHISTOPHELES entert. 
 
 MEPHIS. That 1 so boldly introduce me, 
 I beg you, ladies, to excuse me. 
 
 [Steps back reverently, on teeing MARO. 
 
 For Martha Schwerdtlein I'd inquire ! 
 
 MARTHA. I'm she : what does the gentleman desire ? 
 
 MEPHIS. (aside to her). It is enough that you are she : 
 You've a visitor of high degree. 
 Pardon the freedom I have ta'en, 
 Will after noon return again. 
 
 MARTHA (aloud). Of all things in the world ! Just hear 
 He takes thee for a lady, dear ! 
 
 MARG. I am a creature young and poor : 
 The gentleman's too kind, I'm sure. 
 The jewels don't belong to me. 
 
 MEPHIS. Ah, not alone the jewelry J 
 The look, the manner, both betray 
 Rejoiced am I that I may stay ! 
 
 MARTHA. What is your business ? I would fain 
 
 MEPHIS. I would I had a more cheerful strain ! 
 Take not unkindly its repeating : 
 Your husband's dead, and sends a greeting. 
 
 MARTHA. Is dead ? Alas, that heart so true ! 
 My husband dead ! Let me die, too ! 
 
 MARG. Ah, dearest dame, let not your courage fail I 
 
 MEPHIS. Hear me relate the mournful tale !. 
 
 MARG. Therefore I'd never love, believe me ! 
 A. loss like this to death would grieve me. 
 
 MEPHIS. Joy follows woe, woe after joy comes flying 
 
 MARTHA. Relate his life's sad close to me ! 
 
 MEPHIS. In Padua buried, he is lying 
 Beside the good Saint Antony, 48 
 Within a grave well consecrated, 
 For cool, eternal rest created. 
 
 MARTHA. He gave you, further, no commission i
 
 SCENE X. 89 
 
 MEPHIS. Yes, one of weight, with many sighs : 
 Three hundred masses buy, to save him from perdition ! 
 My hands are empty, otherwise. 
 
 MARTHA. What ! Not a pocket-piece ? no jeweliy 1 
 What every journeyman within his wallet spares, 
 And as a token with him bears, 
 And rather starves or begs, than loses ? 
 
 MEPHIS. Madam, it is a grief to ine ; 
 Yet, on my word, his cash was put to proper uses. 
 Besides, his penitence was very sore, 
 And he lamented his ill fortune all the more. 
 
 MARG* Alack, that men are so unfortunate ! 
 Surely for his soul's sake full many a prayer I'll proffer. 
 
 MEPHIS. You well deserve a speedy marriage-offer : 
 You are so kind, compassionate. 
 
 MAKO. O, no ! As yet, it would not do. 
 
 MEPHIS. If not a husband, then a beau for you ! 
 It is the greatest heavenly blessing, 
 To have a dear thing for one's caressing. 
 
 MARO. The country's custom is not so. 
 
 MEPHIS. Custom, or not ! It happens, though. 
 
 MAKTHA. Continue, pray ! 
 
 MEPHIS. I stood beside his bed of dying 
 
 Twas something better than manure, 
 Half-rotten straw : and yet, he died a Christian, sure, 
 And found that heavier scores to his account were lying. 
 He cried : " I find my conduct wholly hateful ! 
 To leave my wife, my trade, in manner so ungrateful ! 
 Ah, the remembrance makes me die ! 
 Would of my wrong to her I might be shriven ! " 
 
 MARTHA (weeping). The dear, good man ! Long since was 
 he forgiven. 
 
 MEPHIS. " Yet she, God knows ! was more to blame 
 than I." 
 
 MARTHA. He lied ! What ! On the brink of death h 
 slandered ? 
 
 MEPHIS. In the last throes his senses wandered, 
 If I such things but half can judge. 
 He said : " I had no time for play, for gaping freedom : 
 First children, and then work for bread to feed 'em,-*
 
 88 FAUST. 
 
 For bread, in the widest sense, to drudge, 
 
 And could not even eat my share in peace and quiet ! " 
 
 MARTHA. Had he all love, all faith forgotten in his nut 1 
 My work and worry, day and night 1 
 
 MEPHIS. Not so : the memory of it touched him quite. 
 Said he : ' When I from Malta went away . 
 My prayers for wife and little ones were zealous, 
 And such a luck from Heaven befell us, 
 We made a Turkish merchantman our prey, 
 That to the Soldan bore a mighty treasure. 
 Then I received, as was most fit, 
 Since bravery was paid in fullest measure, 
 My well-apportioned share of it'' 
 
 MARTHA. Say, how ? Say, where 1 If buried, did h* 
 
 own it? 
 MEPHIS. Who knows, now, whither the four winds have 
 
 blown it 1 
 
 A fair young damsel took him in her care, 
 As he in Naples wandered round, unfriended ; 
 And she much love, much faith to him did bear, 
 So that he felt it till his days were ended. 
 
 MARTHA. The villain ! From his children thieving 
 Even all the misery on him cast 
 Could not prevent his shameful way of living ! 
 
 MEPHIS. But see! He's dead therefrom, at last. 
 Were I in your place, do not doubt me, 
 I'd mourn him decently a year, 
 And for another keep, meanwhile, my eyes about me. 
 
 MARTHA. Ah, God ! another one so dear 
 As was my first, this world will hardly give me. 
 There never was a sweeter fool than mine, 
 Only he loved to roam and leave me, 
 And foreign wenches and foreign wine, 
 And the damned throw of dice, indeed. 
 
 MEPHIS. Well, well ! That might have done, however, 
 If he had only been as clever, 
 And treated yowr slips with as little heed. 
 I swear, with this condition, too, 
 I would, myself, change rings with you. 
 MAKTBA. The gentleman is pleased to jest
 
 SCENE XL 89 
 
 MEPHIS. (aside). Ill cut away, betimes, from here : 
 She'd take the Devil at his word, I fear. [To MARGARET. 
 How fares the heart within your breast ? 
 
 MARG. What means the gentleman ? 
 
 MEPHIS. (aside). Sweet innocent, thou art ! 
 
 [Alwd, 
 Ladies, farewell ! 
 
 MARG. Farewell ! 
 
 MARTHA. A moment, ere we part ! 
 
 I'd like to have a legal witness, 
 
 Where, how, and when he died, tc certify with fitness. 
 Irregular ways I've always hated ; 
 I want his death in the weekly paper stated. 
 
 MJSI-HIS. Yes, my good dame, a pair of witnese 
 Always the truth establishes. 
 I have a friend of high condition, 
 Who'll also add his deposition. 
 I'll bring him here. 
 
 MARTHA. Good Sir, pray do ! 
 
 MEPHIS. And this young lady will be present, too : 
 A gallant youth ! has travelled far : 
 Ladies with him delighted are. 
 
 MARG. Before him I should blush, ashamed. 
 
 MEPHIS. Before no king that could be named ! 
 
 MARTHA. Behind the house, in my garden, then, 
 This ove we'll expect the gentlemen. 
 
 XI. 
 
 STREET. 
 FAUST. MEPHISTOPHELES 
 
 FAUST. How is it 1 under way ? and soon complete ? 
 
 MBPHIS. An, bravo ! Do I End you burning '< 
 Well, Margaret soon will still your yearning : 
 kt Neighbour Martha's you'll this evening meet
 
 90 FAUST 
 
 A fitter woman ne'er was made 
 To ply the pimp and gipsy trade ! 
 
 FAUST. 'Tis weU. 
 
 MEPHIS. Yet something is required from Oft. 
 
 FAUST. One service pays the other thus. 
 
 MEPHIS. We've but to make a deposition valid 
 That now her husband's limbs, outstretched and pallid, 
 At Padua rest, in consecrated soil 
 
 FAUST. Most wise ! And first, of course, we'll make the 
 journey thither? 
 
 MEPHIS. Sancta simplicitas I no need of such a toil ; 
 Depose, with knowledge or without it, either ! 
 
 FAUST. If you've naught better, then, I'll teai your pretty 
 plan ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Now, there you are ! O holy man ! 
 Is it the first time in your life you're driven 
 To bear false witness in a case ? 
 Of God, the world and all that in it has a place, 
 Of Man, and all that moves the being of his race, 
 Have you not terms and definitions given 
 With brazen forehead, daring breast ? 
 And, if you'll probe the thing profoundly, 
 Knew you so much and you'll confess it roundly J - 
 As here of Schwerdtlein's death and place of rest ? 
 
 FAUST. Thou art, and thou remain'st, a sophist, liar. 
 
 MEPHIS. Yes, knew I not more deeply thy desire. 
 For wilt thou not, no lover fairer, 
 Poor Margaret flatter, and ensnare her, 
 And all thy soul's devotion swear her I 
 
 FAUST. And from my heart. 
 
 MEPHIS. 'Tis very fine 1 
 
 Thine endless love, thy faith assuring, 
 The one almighty force enduring, 
 Will that, too, prompt this heart of thine ? 
 
 FAUST. Hold ! hold ! It will ! If such my flan** 
 And for the sense and power intense 
 I seek, and cannot find, a name ; 
 Then range with all my senses through creation, 
 Craving the speech of inspiration, 
 A.nd call this ardour, so supernal.
 
 SCENE XII. 91 
 
 Endless, eternal and eternal, 
 Is that a devilish lying game f 
 
 MEPHIS. And yet I'm right I 
 
 FAUST. Mark this, I beg of the* 
 
 And spare my lungs henceforth : whoever 
 Intends to have the right, if but his tongue be clever^ 
 Will have it, certainly. 
 
 But come : the further talMng brings disgust, 
 For thou art ri^ht, especially since I must.* 
 
 XII. 
 
 GARDEN. 
 
 MARGARET on FAUST'S arm. MARTHA cmd MEPHISTOPHELJM 
 
 walking up and down. 
 
 MARO. I feel, the gentleman allo\\s for me, 
 Demeans himself, and shames me by it ; 
 A traveller is so used to be 
 Kindly content with any diet 
 I know too well that my poor gossip can 
 Ne'er entertain such an experienced man. 
 
 FAUST. A look from thee, a word, more entertains 
 Than all the lore of wisest brains. [He kisses her hand. 
 
 MARQ. Don't incommode yourself ! How could you evei 
 
 kiss it! 
 
 It is BO ugly, rough to see ! 
 What work I do, how hard and steady is it ! 
 Mother is much too close with me. [They pass. 
 
 MAKTHA. And you, Sir, travel always, do you itot ? 
 
 MEPHIS. Alas, that trade and duty us so harry ! 
 With what a pang one leaves so many a spot, 
 And dares not even now and then to tarry ! 
 
 MARTHA. In young wild years it suits your ways, 
 This round and round the world in freedom sweeping ;
 
 92 FAUST. 
 
 But then come on the evil days, 
 
 And so, as bachelor, into his grave a-creeping, 
 
 None ever found a thing to praise. 
 
 MEPHIS. I dread to see how such a fate advances. 
 
 MARTHA. Then, worthy Sir, improve betimes yoxu 
 chances ! [They paw 
 
 MARO. Yes, out of sight is out of mind 1 
 Four courtesy an easy grace is ; 
 But you have friends in other places, 
 And sensibler than I, you'U find. 
 
 FAUST. Trust me, dear heart ! what men call sensible 
 Is oft mere vanity and narrowness. 
 
 MARG. How so ? 
 
 FAUST. Ah, that simplicity and innocence ne'er know 
 Themselves, their holy value, and their spell ! 
 That meekness, lowliness, the highest graces 
 Which Nature portions out so lovingly 
 
 MAKO. So you but think a moment's space on rae, 
 All times I'll have to think on you, all places ! 
 
 FAUST. No doubt you're much alone 1 
 
 MARO. Yes, for our household small has grown, 
 Yet must be cared for, you will own. 
 We have no maid : I do the knitting, sewing, sweeping, 
 The cooking, early work and late, in fact ; 
 And mother, in her notions of housekeeping, 
 Is so exact ! 
 
 Not that she needs so much to keep expenses down ; 
 We, more than others, might take comfort, rather 
 A nice estate was left us by my father, 
 A house, a little garden near the town. 
 But now. my days have less of noise and hurry ; 
 My brother is a soldier, 
 My little sister's dead. 
 True, with the child a troubled life I led, 
 Yet I would take again, and willing, all the worry, 
 So very dear was she. 
 
 FAUST. An angel, if like thee ! 
 
 MARO. I brought it up, and it was fond of me. 
 Father had died before it saw the light, 
 And mother's case seemed hopeless quite,
 
 SCENE XII. 93 
 
 So weak and miserable she lay ; 
 
 And she recovered, then, so slowly, day by day. 
 
 She could not think, herself, of giving 
 
 The poor wee thing its natural living ; 
 
 And so I nursed it all alone 
 
 With milk and water : 'twas my own. 
 
 Lulled in my lap with many a song, 
 
 It smiled, and tumbled, and grew strong. 
 
 FAUST. The purest bliss was surely then thy dower. 
 
 MARG. But surely, also, many a weary hour. 
 I kept the baby's cradle near 
 My bed at night : if t even stirred, I'd guess it, 
 And waking, hear. 
 
 And I must nurse it, warm beside me press it, 
 And oft, to quiet it, my bed forsake, 
 And dandling back and forth the restless creature take. 
 Then at the washtub stand, at morning's break ; 
 And then the marketing and kitchen-tending, 
 Day after day, the same thing, never-ending. 
 One's spirits, Sir, are thus not always good, 
 But then one learns to relish rest and food. [They past 
 
 MARTHA. Yes, the poor women are bad off, 'tis true ; 
 A stubborn bachelor there's no converting. 
 
 MEPHIS. It but depends upon the like of you, 
 And I should turn to better ways than flirting. 
 
 MARTHA. Speaks plainly, Sir, have you no one detected 5 
 Has not your heart been anywhere subjected 1 
 
 MBPHIS. The proverb says : One's own warm hearth 
 And a good wife, are gold and jewels worth. 
 
 MARTHA. I mean, have you not felt desire, though ne'ei 
 so slightly 1 
 
 MEPHIS. I've everywhere, in fact, been entertained 
 politely. 
 
 MARTHA. I meant to say, were you not touched in 
 earnest, ever? 
 
 MEPHIS. One should allow one's self to jest with ladies 
 never. 
 
 MARTHA. Ah, jtou don't understand ! 
 
 MEPHIS. I'm sorry I'm so blind : 
 
 But I am sure that you are very kind. [Tlity past.
 
 94 FAUST 
 
 FAUST. And me, them angel ! didst them recognise, 
 As through the garden-gate I came ? 
 
 MARG. Did you not see it ? I cast down my eyes. 
 
 FAUST. And thou forgiVst my freedom, and the blame 
 To iny impertinence befitting, 
 As the Cathedral thou wert quitting ? 
 
 MARG. I was confused, the like ne'er happened me ; 
 No one could ever speak to my discredit. 
 Ah, thought I, in my conduct has he read it 
 Something immodest or unseemly free 1 
 le seemed to have the sudden feeling 
 That with this wench 'twere very easy dealing. 
 I will confess, I knew not what appeal 
 On your behalf, here, in my bosom grew ; 
 But I was angry with myself, to feel 
 That I could not be angrier with you. 
 
 FAUST. Sweet darling ! 
 
 MABO. Wait a while ! 
 
 [She plucks a star-flower, so and pulh of the 
 one after the other. 
 
 FAUST. Shall that a nosegay be ? 
 
 MARG. No, it is just in play. 
 
 FAUST. How ? 
 
 MARG. Go ! you'll laugh at me. 
 
 [She pulls off the leaves and murmurt. 
 
 FAUST. What murmurest thou ? 
 
 MARG. (half aloud). He loves me loves me not 
 
 FAUST. Thou sweet, angelic soul ! 
 
 MARG. (continues). Loves me not loves me not 
 
 [plucking the last leaf, she cries with frank delight l 
 He loves me ! 
 
 FAUST. Yes, child ! and let this blossom-word 
 
 For thee be speech divine ! He loves thee ! 
 Ah, know'st thou what it means ? He loves thee ! 
 
 [He grasps both her handt. 
 
 MARG. I'm all a-tremble ! 
 
 FAUST. O tremble not ! but let this look, 
 
 Let this warm clasp of hands declare thee 
 What is unspeakable ! 
 To yield one wholly, and to feel a rapture
 
 SCENE XIII. 95 
 
 In yielding, that must be eternal ! 
 Eternal ! for the end would be despair. 
 No, no, no ending ! no ending ! 
 
 MARTHA (coming forward). The night is falling. 
 
 MEPHIS. Ay ! we must away 
 
 MARTHA. I'd ask you, longer here to tarry, 
 But evil tongues in this town have full play. 
 It's as if nobody had nothing to fetch and carry,* 1 
 Nor other labour, 
 
 But spying all the doings of one's neighbour : 
 And one becomes the talk, do whatsoe'er one may. 
 Where is our couple now? 
 
 MEPHIS. Flown up the alley yonder, 
 
 The wilful summer-birds ! 
 
 MARTHA. He seems of her still fonder. 
 
 MEPHIS. And she of him. So runs the world away 
 
 XIII. 
 
 A GARDEN-ARBOUR 
 
 MARGARET comes in, conceals herself behind the door, puts hei 
 finger to her lips, and peeps through the crack. 
 
 MARG. He comee ! 
 
 FAUST (entering). Ah, rogue ! a tease thou art : 
 I have thee ! [He kisses her. 
 
 MARG. (clasp ing him, and returning the kiss). Dearest man ! 
 I love thee from my heart 
 
 [MBPHIS. knocks. 
 
 FAUST (stamping his foot). Who's there ? 
 MEPHIS. A friend ! 
 
 FAUST. A beast ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Tis time to separate. 
 
 MARTHA (coming). Yea, Sir, 'tis late. 
 FAUST. May I not, then, upon you wait f
 
 96 FAUST. 
 
 MARO. My mother would farewell ! 
 
 FATTST. Ah, can I not remain f 
 
 Farewell ! 
 
 MARTHA. Adieu ! 
 
 MABQ. And soon to meet again ! 
 
 [Exeunt FATJST and MBPHISTOFHELES. 
 
 MARG. Dear God ! However is it, such 
 A man can think and know so much ? 
 I stand ashamed and in amaze, 
 And answer " Yes " to all he says, 
 A poor, unknowing child ! anil he 
 I can't think what he finds in me ! [Exit 
 
 XIV. 
 
 FOREST AND CAVERN. 
 
 FAUST (solvx). 
 
 FATTST. Spirit sublime, thou gav'st me, gav'st i^e aU 
 For which I prayed. Not unto me in vain 
 Hast thou thy countenance revealed in fire. 
 Thou gav'st me Nature as a kingdom grand, 
 With power to feel and to enjoy it. Thou 
 Not only cold, amazed acquaintance yield'st, 
 But grantest, that in her profoundest breast 
 I gaze, as in the bosom of a friend. 
 The ranks of living creatures thou dost lead 
 Before me, teaching me to know my brothers 
 In air and water and the silent wood. 
 And when the storm in forests roars and grinds, 
 The giant firs, in falling, neighbour boughs 
 And neighbour trunks with crushing weight near dowa, 
 And falling, fill the hills with hollow thunders, 
 Then to the cave secure thou leadest me, 
 Then ahow'st me nune own self, and in my breast
 
 SCENE XIV. 97 
 
 The deep, mysterious miracles unfold. 
 And when the perfect moon hefore my gaze 
 Comes up with soothing light, around me floa.; 
 From every precipice and thicket damp 
 The silvery phantoms of the ages past, 
 And temper the austere delight of thought 
 
 That nothing can be perfect unto Man 
 I now am conscious. With this ecstacy, 
 Which brings me near and nearer to the Gods, 
 Thou gav'st the comrade, whom I now no mo>a 
 Can do without, though, cold and scornful, he 
 Demeans me to myself, and with a breath, 
 A word, transforms thy gifts to nothingness. 
 Within my breast he fans a lawless fire, 
 Unwearied, for that fair and lovely form: 
 Thus in desire I hasten to enjoyment, 
 And in enjoyment pine to feel desire. 
 
 MEPHISTOPHELES enters. 
 
 MEPHIS. Have you not led this life quite long enough " 
 How can a further test delight you 1 
 'Tis very well, that once one tries the stuff, 
 But something new must then requite you. 
 
 FAUST. Would there were other work for thee 1 
 To plague my day auspicious thou returnest. 
 
 MEPHIS. Well ! I'll engage to let thee b : 
 Thou darest not tell me so in earnest. 
 The loss of thee were truly very slight, 
 A comrade crazy, rude, repelling : 
 One has one's hands full all the day and night j 
 If what one does, or leaves undone, is right, 
 From such a face as thine there is no telling. 
 
 FAUST. There is, again, thy proper tone ! 
 That thou hast bored me, I must thankful be ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Poor Son of Earth, how couldst thou thus alon 
 Have led thy life, bereft of me ] 
 I, for a time, at least, have worked thy cure f 
 Thy fancy's rickets plague thee not at all : 
 Hud I not been, so hadst thou, sure,
 
 98 FAUST. 
 
 Walked thyself off this earthly ball. 
 
 Why here to caverns, rocky hollows slinking, 
 
 Sit'st thou, as 'twere an owl a-blinking ? 
 
 Why suck'st, from sodden moss and dripping stona, 
 
 Toad-like, thy nourishment alone ? 
 
 A fine way, this, thy time to fill ! 
 
 The Doctor's in thy body still. 
 
 FAUST. What fresh and vital forces, canst thou 
 Spring from my commerce with the wilderness 1 
 But, if thou hadst the power of guessing, 
 Thouwouldst be devil enough to grudge my soul the blessing 
 
 MEPHIS. A blessing drawn from supernatural fountains ! 
 In night and dew to lie upon the mountains ; 
 All Heaven and Earth in rapture penetrating ; 
 Thyself to Godhood haughtily inflating ; 
 To grub with yearning force through Earth's dark marrow, 
 Compress the six days' work within thy bosom narrow, 
 To taste, I know not what, in haughty power, 
 Thine own ecstatic life on all things shower, 
 Thine earthly self behind thee cast, 
 And then the lofty instinct, thus [With a gesture: 
 
 at last, 
 I daren't say how to pluck the final flower ! 
 
 FAUST. Shame on thee ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Yes, thou findest that unpleasant ' 
 
 Thou hast the moral right to cry me " shame ! " at present. 
 One dares not that before chaste ears declare, 
 Which chaste hearts, notwithstanding, cannot spare ; 
 And, once for all, I grudge thee not the pleasure 
 Of lying to thyself in moderate measure. 
 But such a course thou wilt not long endure ; 
 Already art thou o'er-excited, 
 And, if it hist, wilt soon be plighted 
 To madness and to horror, sure. 
 Enough of that ! Thy love sits lonely yonder, 
 By all things saddened and oppressed ; 
 Her thoughts and yearnings seek thee, tenderer, fonder, 
 A mighty love is in her breast 
 First came thy passion's flood aud poured around her 
 At when from melted snow a streamlet overflows ;
 
 SCENE XIV. 99 
 
 Thou hast therewith so filled and drowned her, 
 
 That now thy stream all shallow shows. 
 
 Methinks, instead of in the forests lording, 
 
 The nohle Sir should find it good, 
 
 The love of this young silly hlood 
 
 At once to set about rewarding, 
 
 Her time is miserably long ; 
 
 She haunts her window, watching clouds that stray 
 
 O'er the old city- wail, and far awaj. 
 
 " Were I a little bird ! "' so runs her song, 
 
 Day long, and half night long. 
 
 Now she is lively, mostly sad. 
 
 Now, wept beyond her tears ; 
 
 Then again quiet she appears, 
 
 Always love-mad. 
 
 FAUST. Serpent ! serpent ! 
 
 MEPHIS (aside). Ha ! do I trap thee ! 
 
 FAUST. Get thee away with thine offences, 
 Reprobate ! Name not that fairest thing, 
 Nor the desire for her sweet body bring 
 Again before my half-distracted senses ! 
 
 MEPHIS. What wouldst thou, then? She thinks that 
 
 thou art flown ; 
 And half and half thou art, I own. 
 
 FAUST. Yet am I near, and love keeps watch and ward ; 
 Though I were ne'er so far, it cannot falter : 
 I envy even the Body of the Lord 
 The touching of her lips, before the altar. 
 
 MEPHIS. "Pis very well ! My envy oft reposes 
 On your twin-pair, that feed among the roses. 
 
 FAUST. Away, thou pimp ! 
 
 MEPHIS. You rail, and it is fun to me. 
 
 The God, who fashioned youth and maid, 
 Perceived the noblest purpose of His trade, 
 And also made their opportunity. 
 Go on ! It is a woe profound ! 
 'Tis for your sweetheart's room you're bound, 
 And not for death, indeed. 
 
 FAUST. What are, within her arms, the heavenly blisses 1 
 Though I be glowing with her kisses,
 
 100 FAUST. 
 
 Do I not always share her need? 
 
 I am the fugitive, all houseless roaming, 
 
 The monster without aim or rest, 
 
 That like a cataract, down rocks and gorges foaming, 
 
 Leaps, maddened, into the abyss's breast ! 
 
 And side-wards she, with young unwakened senses, 
 
 Within her cabin on the Alpine field 
 
 Her simple, homely life commences, 
 
 Her little world therein concealed. 
 
 And I, God's hate flung o'er me, 
 
 Had not enough, to thrust 
 
 The stubborn rocks before me 
 
 And strike them into dust! 
 
 She and her peace I yet must undermine : 
 
 Thou, Hell, hast claimed this sacrifice as thine! 
 
 Help, Devil! through the coming pangs to push me; 
 
 What must be, let it quickly be! 
 
 Let fall on me her fate, and also crush me, 
 
 One ruin whelm both her and me ! 
 
 MEPIIIS. Again it seethes, again it glows! 
 Thou fool, go in and comfort her ! 
 When such a head as thine no outlet knows, 
 It thinks the end must soon occur. 
 Hail him, who keeps a steadfast mind! 
 Thou, else, dost well the devil-nature wear : 
 Naught so insipid in the world I find 
 As is a devil in despair.
 
 SCENE XV. 101 
 
 XV. 
 
 MARGARETS ROOM. 
 
 MABGABET at the spinning-wheel alone. 
 
 My peace is gone, 
 My heart is sore : 
 1 never shall find it, 
 Ah, nevermore ! 
 
 Save I have him near, 
 The grave is here ; 
 The world is gall 
 And bitterness all. 
 
 My poor weak head 
 Is racked and crazed ; 
 My thought is lost, 
 
 My peace is gone, 
 Mv heart is sore : 
 I never shall find i\ 
 Ah, nevermore ! 
 
 To see him, him only. 
 At the pane I sit ; 
 To meet him, him oni/ r 
 The house I quit 
 
 His lofty gait, 
 
 His noble size, 
 
 The smile of his month, 
 
 The power of hia eyes,
 
 102 FAUST. 
 
 And the magic flow 
 Of his talk, the bliss 
 In the clasp of his hand, 
 And, ah ! his kiss ! 
 
 My peace is gone, 
 My heart is sore: 
 I never shall find it, 
 Ah, never more! 
 
 My bosom yearns 
 For him alone ; 
 Ah, dared I clasp him, 
 And hold, and own! 
 
 And kiss his mouth, 
 To heart's desire, 
 And on his kisses 
 At last expire ! 
 
 XVI. 
 
 MARTHA'S GARDEN. 
 MARGARET. FAUST. 
 
 MARG. Promise me, Henry ! 
 
 FAUST. What I can I 
 
 MARG. How is't with thy religion, pray? 
 Thou art a dear, good-hearted man, 
 And yet, I think, dost not incline that way. 
 
 FAUST. Leave that, my child! Thou knowest my 
 
 love is tender ; 
 
 For love, my blood and life would I surrender, 
 And as for Faith and Church, I grant to each his own. 
 
 MARG. That's not enough : we must believe thereon. 
 
 FAUST. Must we ?
 
 SCENE XVI. 103 
 
 MARG. Would that I had some influence ! 
 Then, too, thou honourest not the Holy Sacraments. 
 
 FAUST. I honour them. 
 
 MARO. Desiring no possession. 
 
 Tis long since thou hast been to mass or to confession. 
 Belifveat thou in God ? 
 
 FAUST. My darling, who shall dare 
 " I believe in God ! " to say ? 
 Ask priest or sage the answer to declare, 
 And it will seem a mocking play, 
 A sarcasm on the asker. 
 
 MA.RG. Then thou believest not ! 
 
 FAUST. Hear me not falsely, sweetest countenance! 
 Who dare express Him ? 
 And who profess Him, 
 Saying : I believe in Him I 
 Who, feeling, seeing, 
 Deny His being, 
 Saying : I believe Him not I 
 The All-enfolding, 
 The All-upholding, 
 Folds and -upholds he not 
 Thee, me, Himself? 
 Arches not there the sky above us I 
 Lies not beneath us, firm, the earth 1 
 And rise not, on us shining, 
 Friendly, the everlasting stars'? 
 Look I not, eye to eye, on thee, 
 And feel'st not, thronging 
 To head and heart, the force, 
 Still weaving its eternal secret, 
 Invisible, visible, round thy life I 
 Vast as it is, fill with that force thy heart, 
 And when thou in the feeling wholly blessed art, 
 Call it, then, what thou wilt, 
 Gall it Bliss ! Heart ! Love ! God 1 
 I have no name to give it ! 
 Feeling is all in all : 
 The Name ia sound and smoke, 
 Obscuring Heaven's clear glow,
 
 104 FAUST. 
 
 MA no. All that is fine and good, to hear it oo: 
 Much the same way the preacher spoke, 
 Only with slightly different phrases. 
 
 FAUST. The same thing, in all places, 
 All hearts that beat beneath the heavenly day 
 Each in its language say ; 
 Then why not I, in mine, as well ? 
 
 MARGI. To hear it thus, it may seem passable ; 
 And yet, some hitch in't there must be 
 For thou hast no Christianity. 
 
 FATJST. Dear love ! 
 
 MARCI. I've long been grieved to see 
 
 That thou art in such company. 
 
 FAUST. How so ? 
 
 MARG. The man who with thee goes, thy mat/v 
 
 Within my deepest, inmost soul I hate. 
 In all my life there's nothing 
 Has given my heart so keen a pang of loathing, 
 As his repulsive face has done. 
 
 FAUST. Nay, fear him not, my sweetest one ! 
 
 MARO. I feel his presence like something ill. 
 I've else, for all, a kindly will, 
 But, much as my heart to see thee yearneth, 
 The secret horror of him returneth ; 
 And I think the man a knave, as I live ! 
 If I do him wrong, may God forgive ! 
 
 FAUST. There must be such queer birds, however, 
 
 MARG. Live with the like of him, may I never ! 
 When once inside the door comes he, 
 He looks around so sueermgly, 
 And half in wrath : 
 
 One sees that in nothing no interest he hath 
 'Tis written on his very forehead 
 That love, to him, is a thing abhorred. 
 I am so happy on thine arm, 
 So free, so yielding, and so warm, 
 And in his presence stifled seems my heart 
 
 FAUST. Foreboding angel that thou art ! 
 
 MARO. It overcomes me in such 
 Tb*t wheresoe'er he meets us- even.
 
 SCENE XVI. 105 
 
 I feel as though I'd lost my love for thee. 
 When he is by, I could not pray to Heaven. 
 That burns within me like a flame, 
 ^nd surely, Henry, 'tis with thee the same. 
 
 FAUST. There, now, is thine antipathy ! 
 
 MAEG. But I must go. 
 
 FAUST. Ah, shall there never be 
 
 A quiet hour, to see us fondly plighted, 
 With breast to breast, and soul to soul united 1 
 
 MABG. Ah, if I only slept alone ! 
 I'd draw the bolts to-night, for thy desire ; 
 But mother's sleep so light has grown, 
 And if we were discovered by her, 
 'Twould be my death upon the spot I 
 
 FAUST. Thou angel, fear it not ! 
 Here is a phial : in her drink 
 But three drops of it measure, 
 And deepest sleep will on her senses sink. 
 
 MAEG. What would I not, to give thee pleasure ? 
 It will not harm her, when one tries it ? 
 
 FAUST. If 't would, my love, would I advise it I 
 
 MAEG. Ah, dearest man, if but thy face I see, 
 I know not what compels me to thy will : 
 So much have I already done for thee, 
 That scarcely more is left me to fulfil [Exit 
 
 Enter MEPHISTOPBELES. 
 
 MEPHIS. The monkey ! Is she gone ? 
 
 FAUST. Hast played the spy again 1 
 
 MEPHIS. I've heard, most fully, how she drew thee. 
 The Doctor has been catechised, 'tis plain ; 
 Great good, I hope, the thing will do thee. 
 The girls have much desire to ascertain 
 If one is prim and good, as ancient rules compel : 
 If there he's led, they think, hell follow them as weli 
 
 FAUST. Thou, monster, wilt not see nor own 
 How this pure soul, of faith go lowly, 
 So loving and ineffable, 
 The faith alona
 
 106 FAUST. 
 
 That her salvation is, with scruples holy 
 
 Pines, lest she hold as lost the man she loves so well 1 
 
 MEPHIS. Thou, full of sensual, super-sensual desire, 
 A girl by the nose is leading thee. 
 
 FAUST. Abortion, thou, of filth and fire ! 
 
 MEPHIS. And then, how masterly she reads physiognomy 
 When I am present she's impressed, she knows not how ; 
 She in my mask a hidden sense would read : 
 She feels that surely I'm a genius now, 
 Perhaps the very Devil, indeed ! 
 Well, well, to-night f 
 
 FAUST. What's that to thee J 
 
 MBPHIS. Yet my delight 'twill also be i 
 
 xvn. 
 
 AT THE FOUNTAIN. 
 MARGARET <md LISBBTH, with pitcher*. 
 
 LISBETH. Hast nothing heard of Barbara ? 
 
 MARG. No, not a word. I go so little out. 
 
 LISBETH. It's true, Sibylla said, to-day. 
 She's played the fool at last, there's not a doubt 
 Such taking-on of airs ! 
 
 MARG. How so ? 
 
 LISBETH. It stinks ! 
 
 She's feeding two, whene'er she eats and drinks. 
 
 MARG. Ah! 
 
 LISBETH. And so, at last, it serves her rightly 
 She clung to the fellow so long and tightly ! 
 That was a promenading ! 
 At village and dance parading ! 
 As the first they must everywhere shine, 
 And he treated her always to pies and wine, 
 And she made a to-do with her face so fine ;
 
 SCENE XVII. 10? 
 
 So mean and shameless was her behaviour, 
 She took all the presents the fellow gave her. 
 'Twas kissing and coddling, on and on ! 
 So now, at the end, the flower is gone. 
 
 MARG. The poor, poor thing ! 
 
 LISBBTH. Dost pity her, at that I 
 
 When one of us at spinning sat, 
 And mother, nights, ne'er let us out the door 
 She sported with her paramour. 
 On the door-bench, in the passage dark, 
 The length of the time they'd never mark. 
 So now her head no more she'll lift, 
 But do church-penance in her sinner's shift ! 
 
 MAKG. Hell surely take her for his wife. 
 
 LISBETU. He'd be a fool ! A brisk young blade 
 Has room, elsewhere, to ply his trade. 
 Besides, he's gone. 
 
 MARG. That is not fair ! 
 
 LISBBTH. If him she gets, why let her beware ! 
 The boys shall dash her wreath on the floor, 
 And we'll scatter chaff before her door ! M [ExA 
 
 MARG. (returning home). How scornfully I once reviled, 
 When some poor maiden was beguiled ! 
 More speech than any tongue suffices 
 I craved, to censure others' vices. 
 Black as it seemed, I blackened still, 
 And blacker yet was in my will ; 
 And blessed myself, and boasted high, 
 And now- a living sin am I ! 
 Yet all that drove my heart thereto^ 
 God .1 was so good, BO dear, so true I
 
 108 FAUST. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 DONJON. 84 
 
 In a niche of the wall a shrine, with an image of the Mater 
 Dolor osa. Pots of flowers before it. 
 
 MARGARET (putting fresh, flowers m the pots). 
 
 MABG. Incline, Maiden, 
 Thou sorrow-laden, 
 Thy 1*0010118 countenance upon my pain ! 
 
 The sword Thy heart in, 
 
 With anguish smarting, 
 
 Thou lookest up to where Thy Son is slain ! 
 
 Thou seest the Father ; 
 
 Thy sad sighs gather, 
 
 And bear aloft Thy sorrow and His pain ! 
 
 Ah, past guessing, 
 
 Beyond expressing, 
 
 The pangs that wring my flesh and bon I 
 
 Why this anxious heart so burneth, 
 
 Why it trembleth, why it yeameth, 
 
 Knowest Thou, and Thou alone ! 
 
 Where'er I go, what sorrow, 
 What woe, what woe and sorrow 
 Within my bosom aches ! 
 Alone, and ah ! unsleeping, 
 I'm weeping, weeping, weeping, 
 The heart within me breaks.
 
 SCENE XIX. 109 
 
 The pots before my window, 
 Alas ! my tears did wet, 
 As in the early morning 
 For thee these flowers I set. 
 
 Within my lonely chamber 
 The morning sun shone red : 
 I sat, in utter sorrow, 
 Already on my bed. 
 
 Help! rescue me from death and stain! 
 
 O Maiden! 
 
 Thou sorrow-laden, 
 
 Incline Thy countenance upon my pain. 
 
 XIX. 
 NIGHT. 
 
 STREET BEFORE MARGARET'S DOOR. 
 VALENTINE (a soldier, MARGARET'S brother). 
 
 VALENTINE, When I have sat at some carouse, 
 Where each to each his brag allows, 
 And many a comrade praised to me 
 His pink of girls right lustily, 
 With brimming glass that spilled the toast, 
 And elbows planted as in boast : 
 I sat in unconcerned repose, 
 And heard the swagger as it rose. 
 And stroking then my beard, I'd say, - 
 Smiling, the bumper in my hand : 
 " Each well enough in her own way, 
 But is there one in all the land 
 Like sister Margaret, good as gold. 
 One that to her can a candle hold ? " 
 Cling! clang! "Here's to her!" went around
 
 110 FAUST. 
 
 The board: "He speaks the truth!" cried some; 
 
 "In her the flower o' the sex is found!" 
 
 And all the swaggerers were dumb. 
 
 And now ! I could tear my hair with vexation, 
 
 And dash out my brains in desperation! 
 
 With turned-up nose each scamp may face me, 
 
 With sneers and stinging taunts disgrace me, 
 
 And, like a bankrupt debtor sitting, 
 
 A chance -dropped word may set me sweating! 
 
 Yet, though I thresh them all together, 
 
 I cannot call them liars, either. 
 
 But what comes sneaking, there, to view? 
 If I mistake not, there are two. 
 If he's one, let me at him drive ! 
 He shall not leave the spot alive. 
 
 FAUST. MEPHISTOPHELES. 
 
 FAUST. How from the window of the sacristy 
 Upward th' eternal lamp sends forth a glimmer, 
 That, lessening side-wards, fainter grows and dimmer, 
 Till darkness closes from the sky ! 
 The shadows thus within my bosom gather. 
 
 MEPHIS. I'm like a sentimental tom-cat, rather, 
 That round the tall fire-ladders sweeps, 
 And stealthy, then, along the coping creeps: 
 Quite virtuous, withal, I come, 
 A little thievish and a little frolicsome. 
 I feel in every limb the presage 
 Forerunning the grand Walpurgis -Night : 
 Day after to-morrow brings its message, 
 And one keeps watch then with delight. 
 
 FAUST. Meanwhile, may not the treasure risen bo, 
 Which there, behind, I glimmering see? 
 
 MEPHIS. Shalt soon experience the pleasure, 
 To lift the kettle with its treasure. 
 I lately gave therein a squint 
 Saw splendid lion-dollars in 't. 66 
 
 FAUST. Not even a jewel, not a ring, 
 To deck therewith my darling girl ?
 
 SCENE XIX. Ill 
 
 MEPHIS. I saw, among the rest, a thing 
 That seemed to be a chain of pearL 
 
 FAUST. That's well, indeed ! For painful is it 
 To bring no gift when her I visit 
 
 MEPHIS. Thou shouldst not find it so annoying, 
 Without return to be enjoying. 
 IJow, while the sky leads forth its starry throng. 
 Thou It hear a masterpiece, no work complete! : 
 111 sing her, first, a moral song, 
 The sui.ii-, afterwards, to cheat her. [Sinys to tiu either 
 
 What dost thou here 
 In daybreak clear, 
 Kathrina dear. 
 Before thy lover's dooi ! 
 Beware ! the blade 
 Lets in a maid, 
 That out a maid 
 Departeth nevermore i 
 
 The coaxing shun 
 
 Of such an one ! 
 
 When once 'tis done 
 
 Good-night to thee, poor thing ! 
 
 Love's time is brief : 
 
 Unto no thief 
 
 Be warm and lief, 
 
 But with the wedding-ring ! 
 
 VAunmNB (cymes forward). Whom wilt thou lure ? God'i 
 
 element ! 
 
 Rat-catching piper, thou ! perdition ! w 
 To the Devil, first, the instrument ! 
 To the Devil, then, the curst musician ! 
 
 MBPHIS. The cither's smashed ! For nothing more 'til 
 fitting. 
 
 VALENTINE. There's yet a skull I must be splitting ! 
 
 MEPHIS. (to FAUST). Sir Doctor, don't retreat, I pray 1 
 Stand by : I'll lead, if you'll but tarry : 
 Out with your spit, without delay ! 
 You've but to lunge, and I will parry.
 
 112 FAUST. 
 
 VALENTINE. Then parry that ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Why not? 'tis light 
 
 VALENTINE. That, too ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Of course. 
 
 VALENTINE. I think the Devil must fight ! 
 
 How is it, then ? my hand's already lame. 
 
 MEPHIS. (to FAXJST). Thrust home ! , 
 
 VALENTINE (falls'). O God ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Now is the lubber tame ! 
 
 But come, away ! 'Tis time for us to fly ; 
 For there arises now a murderous cry. 
 With the police 'twere easy to compound it, 
 But here the penal court will sift and sound it. 
 
 [Exit with FAUST. 
 
 MARTHA (at the window). Come out ! come out ! 
 
 MAKG. (at the window). Quick, bring a light ! 
 
 MARTHA (as above). They swear and storm, they yell and 
 fight! 
 
 PEOPLE. Here lies one dead already see ! 
 
 MARTHA (coming from the house}. The murderers, whither 
 have they run 1 
 
 MARQ. (wining out). Who lies here 1 
 
 PEOPLE. 'Tis thy mother's sot 
 
 MARG. Almighty God ! what misery ! 
 
 VALENTINE. I'm dying ! That is quickly said, 
 And quicker yet 'tis done. 
 Why howl, you women there 1 Instead, 
 Come here and listen, every one ! 
 
 [All gather around him. 
 My Margaret, see ! still young thou art, 
 But not the least bit shrewd or smart, 
 Thy business thus to slight : 
 So this advice I bid thee heed- 
 Now that thou art a w indeed, 
 
 Why, be one then, outright ! 
 
 MARG. My brother ! God ! such words to me I 
 
 VALENTINE. In this game let our Lord God be I 
 Whatfg done's already done, alas ! 
 What follows it, must come to pass. . 
 
 With one begin'st thou secretly.
 
 SCENE XIX. 113 
 
 Then soon will others come to thee, 
 
 And when a dozen thee have known, 
 
 Thou'rt also free to all the town. 
 
 When Shame is born and first appears^ 
 
 She is in secret brought to light, 
 
 And then they draw the veil of night 
 
 Over her head and ears ; 
 
 Her life, in fact, they're loath to spare her. 
 
 But let her growth and strength display, 
 
 She walks abroad unveiled by day, 
 
 Yet is not grown a whit the fairer. 
 
 The uglier she is to sight, 
 
 The more she seeks the day's broad light 
 
 The time I verily can discern 
 
 When all the honest folk will turn 
 
 From thee, thou jade ! and seek protection 
 
 As from a corpse that breeds infection. 
 
 Thy guilty heart shall then dismay thee, 
 
 When they but look thee in the face : 
 
 Shalt not in a golden chain array thee, 
 
 Nor at the altar take thy place ! 
 
 Shalt not, in lace and ribbons flowing, 
 
 Make merry when the dance is going ! 
 
 But in some corner, woe betide thee ! 
 
 Among the beggars and cripples hide thee ; 
 
 And so, though even God forgive, 
 
 On earth a damned existence live ! 
 MARTHA. Commend your soul to God for pardon, 
 
 That you your heart with slander harden ! 
 VAUSNTIJTE. Thou pimp most infamous, be still ! 
 
 Could I thy withered body kill, 
 
 'Twould bring, for all my sinful pleasure, 
 
 Forgiveness in the richest measure. 
 MARO. My brother ! This IB Hell's own pain ! 
 VALBKTINB. I tell thee, from thy tears refrain ! 
 
 When thou from honour didst depart 
 
 It stabbed me to the very heart. 
 
 Now through the slumber of the grave 
 
 I go to God as a soldier brave. [dies.
 
 114 FAUST. 
 
 XX. 
 
 CATHEDRAL 
 SERVICE, ORGAN, AND ANTHEM, 
 
 MARGARET, among much people : the EVIL SPIRIT 
 behind MARGARET. 
 
 EVIL SPIRIT. How otherwise was it, Margaret, 
 When thou, still innocent, 
 Here to the altar cam'st, 
 And from the worn and fingered book 
 Thy prayers didst prattle, 
 Half sport of childhood, 
 Half God within thee 1 
 Margaret ! 
 
 Where tends thy thought I 
 Within thy bosom 
 What hidden crime t 
 
 Pra/st thou for mercy on thy mother's eotd, 
 That fell asleep to long, long torment, and through thee I 
 Upon thy threshold whose the blood t 
 And stirreth not and quickens 
 Something beneath thy heart, 
 Thy life disquieting 
 With most foreboding presence f 
 
 MARG. Woe ! woe ! 
 Would I were free from the thoughts 
 That cross me, drawing hither and thither, 
 Despite me I 
 
 CHORUS. Diet vr<e, diet tiln* 1 
 
 Sofaet sctdwm infamlla t 
 
 [Sound of the organ. 
 
 Kvix, SMHTT. Wrath takes thee 1 
 The trumpet peals I
 
 SCENE XX. 
 
 115 
 
 The graves tremble! 
 
 And thy heart 
 
 From ashy rest 
 
 To fiery torments 
 
 Now again requickened, 
 
 Throbs to life! 
 MABG. Would I were forth ! 
 
 I feel as if the organ here 
 
 My breath takes from me, 
 
 My very heart 
 
 Dissolved by the anthem! 
 CHORUS. Judex ergo cum sedebit, 
 
 Quidquid latet adparebit, 
 
 Nil inultum remanebit. 
 ?'AKG. I cannot breathe ! 
 
 The massy pillars 
 
 Imprison me ! 
 
 The vaulted arches 
 
 Crush me ! Air ! 
 EVIL SPIBIT. Hide thyself ! Sin and shame 
 
 Stay never hidden. 
 
 Air? Light? 
 
 Woe to thee! 
 CHORUS. Quid sum miser tune dicturus, 
 
 Quern patronum rogaturus, 
 
 Cum vix Justus sit securus I 
 EVIL SPIBIT. They turn their faces, 
 
 The glorified, from thee : 
 
 The pure, their hands to offer 
 
 Shuddering, refuse thee ! 
 
 Woe! 
 
 CHORUS. Quid sum miser tune dicturus ? 
 
 MABO. Neighbour ! your cordial ! M 
 
 [She fatts in a swoon.
 
 116 FAUST. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 WALPUBQTS NIGHT." 
 
 THE HAETZ MOUNTAINS. District of Pchierke cvnd Elend. 
 FAUST. MEPHISTOPHBLBS. 
 
 MEPHIS. Dost thou not wish a broomstick-steed's 
 
 ance? 
 
 The sturdiest he-goat I would gladly see : 
 The way we take, our go;il is yet some distance. 
 
 FATJST. So long as in my legs I feel the fresh existence, 
 This knotted staff suffices me. 
 What need to shorten so the way ? 
 Along this labyrinth of vales to wander, 
 Then climb the rocky ramparts yonder, 
 Wherefrom the fountain flings eternal spray, 
 Is such delight, my steps would fain delay. 
 The spring-time stirs within the fragrant birches, 
 And even the fir-tree feels it now : 
 Should then our limbs escape its gentle searches ? 
 
 MEPHIS. I notice no such thing, I vow ! 
 Tis winter still within my body : 
 Upon my path I wish for frost and snow. 
 How sadly rises, incomplete and ruddy, 
 The moon's lone disk, with its belated glow. 
 And lights so dimly, that, as one advances, 
 At every step one strikes a rock or tree ! 
 Let us, then, use a Jack-o'-lantern's glance* : 
 I see one yonder, burning merrily. 
 Ho, there ! my friend ! I'll levy thine attendance : 
 Why waste so vainly thy resplendence ? 
 Be kind enough to light us up the steep ! 
 
 WiLW-THJ5-Wi8P. My reverence. I hope, will me wimble
 
 SCENE XXL 11? 
 
 To curb my temperament unstable ; 
 For zigzag courses we are wont to keep. 
 
 MEPHIS. Indeed ? he'd like mankind to imitate f 
 Now, in the Devil's name, go straight, 
 Or I'll blow out hie being's flickering spark ! 
 
 WILL-O'-THE-WISP. You are the master of the house, I mark, 
 And I shall try to serve you nicely. 
 But then, reflect : the mountain's magic-mad to-day, 
 And if a will-o'-the-wisp must guide you on the way, 
 ITou mustn't take things too precisely. 
 
 FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES, WILL-O'-THB-WISP (in alternating 
 song). We, it seems, have entered newly 
 
 In the sphere of dreams enchanted. 
 
 Do thy bidding, guide us truly, 
 
 That our feet be forwards planted 
 
 In the vast, the desert space? ! 
 
 See them swiftly changing places, 
 
 Trees on trees beside us trooping, 
 
 And the crags above us stooping, 
 
 And the rocky snouts, outgrowing, 
 
 Hear them snoring, hear them blowing? 
 
 O'er the stones, the grasses, flowing 
 
 Stream and streamlet seek the hollow. 
 
 Hear I noises ? songs that follow 1 
 . Hear I tender love-petitions ? 
 
 Voices of those heavenly visions ? 
 
 Sounds of hope, of love undying ? 
 
 And the echoes, like traditions 
 
 Of old days, come faint and hollow, 
 
 Hoo-hoo ! Shoo-hoo ! Nearer hoer 
 Jay and screech-owl, and the plover, 
 Are they all awake and crying t 
 Is't the salamander pushes, 
 Bloated-bellied, through the bushes! 
 And the roots, like serpents twisted, 
 Through the sand and boulders toiling- 
 Fright us, weirdest links uncoiling 
 To entrap us, unresisted : 
 Living knots and gnari* uncanny
 
 118 FAUST, 
 
 Feel with polypus-antennae 
 For the wanderer. Mice are flying, 
 Thousand-coloured, herd-wise hieing 
 Through the moss and through the heather I 
 And the fire-flies wink and darkle, 
 Crowded swarms that soar and sparkle, 
 And in wildering escort gather ! 
 
 Tell me, if we still are standing, 
 Or if further we're ascending ? 
 All is turning, whirling, blending, 
 Trees and rocks with grinning faces, 
 Wandering lights that spin in mazes, 
 Still increasing and expanding ! 
 MBPHIS. Grasp my skirt with heart undaunted I 
 
 Here a middle-peak is planted, 
 
 Whence one seeth, with amaze, 
 
 Mammon in the mountain blaze. 
 
 FAUST. How strangely glimmers through the hollow* 
 
 A dreary light, like that of dawn ! 
 
 Its exhalation tracks and follows 
 
 The deepest gorges, faint and wan. 
 
 Here steam, there rolling vapour sweepeth ; 
 
 Here burns the glow through film and haze : 
 
 Now like a tender thread it creepeth, 
 
 Now like a fountain leaps and plays. 
 
 Here winds away, and in a hundred 
 
 Divided veins the valley braids : 
 
 There, in a corner pressed and sundered, 
 
 Itself detaches, spreads and fades. 
 
 Here gush the sparkles incandescent 
 
 Like scattered showers of golden sand ; 
 
 But, see ! in all their height, at present, 
 
 The rocky ramparts blazing stand. 
 
 MRPHM. Has not Sir Mammon grandly lighted 
 
 His palace for this festal night 1 
 
 Tis lucky thou hast seen the sight ; 
 
 The boisterous guests approach that were invited. 
 FAUST. How raves the tempest through the air ! 
 
 With what fierce blows upon my neck 'tis beating !
 
 SCENE XXI. 119 
 
 MKPHIS. Under the old ribs of the rock retreating, 
 Hold fast, lest tliou be hurled down the abysses theraf 
 The night with the mist is black ; 
 Hark ! how the forests grind and crack 1 
 Frightened, the owlets are scattered : 
 Hearken ! the pillars are shattered, 
 The evergreen palaces shaking ! 
 Boughs are groaning and breaking, 
 The tree-trunks terribly thunder, 
 The roots are twisting asunder ! 
 In frightfully intricate crashing 
 Each on the other is dashing, 
 And over the wreck-strewn gorges 
 The tempest whistles and surges ! 
 Hear'st thou voices higher ringing f 
 Far away, or nearer singing ? 
 Yes, the mountain's sides along, 
 Sweeps an infuriate glamouring song ! 
 
 WITCHES (in chorus). The witches ride to the Brock en's top, 
 The stubble is yellow, and green the crop. 
 There gathers the crowd for carnival : 
 Sir Urian sits over all. 61 
 And so they go over stone and stock ; 
 
 The witch she s, and s the buck. 
 
 A VOICE. Alone, old Baubo's coming now ; * 
 
 She rides upon a farrow-sow. 
 
 CHORUS. Then honour to whom the honour is due I 
 Dame Baubo's first, to lead the crew ! 
 A tough old sow and the mother thereon, 
 Then follow the witches, every one. 
 A VOICE. Which way com'st thou hither 1 
 VOICE. O'er the Ilsen-rtone, 
 
 I peeped at the owl in her nest alone : 
 How she stared and glared ! 
 
 VOICE. Betake thee to Hell ! 
 Why so fast and so fell? 
 
 VOICE. She has scored and has flayed me : 
 See the wounds she has made me i 
 
 WITCHES (chorus). The way is wide, the way i long : 
 See, what a wild and cra?y throng I
 
 130 FAUST. 
 
 The broom it scratches, the fork it thruste, 
 The child is stifled, the mother bursts. 
 WIZARDS (nemichonu). As doth the snail in shell, w 
 
 crawl : 
 
 Before us go the women all. 
 When towards the Devil's House we tread, 
 Woman's a thousand steps ahead. 
 
 OTHER SEMICHORUS. We do not measure with such care : 
 Woman in thousand steps is there, 
 But howsoe'er she hasten may, 
 Man in one leap has cleared the way. 
 VOICE (from above). Come on, come on, from Rocky 
 
 Lake! 
 
 VOICE (from below). Aloft we'd fain ourselves betake. 
 We've washed, and are bright as ever you will, 
 Yet we're eternally sterile still. 
 
 BOTH CHORUSES. The wind is hushed, the star shoots by, 
 The dreary moon forsakes the sky ; 
 The magic notes, like spark on spark, 
 Drizzle, whistling through the dark. 
 VOICE (jrvm below). Halt, there ! Ho, there ! 
 VOICE (from above). Who calls from the rocky cleft below 
 
 there? 
 
 VOICE (below). Take me, too ! take me, too ! 
 I'm climbing now three hundred yearev 
 And yet the summit cannot see : 
 Among my equals I would be. 
 
 BOTH CHORUSES. Bears the broom and bears the stock, 
 Bears the fork and bears the buck : 
 Who cannot raise himself to-night 
 Is evermore a ruined wight. 
 
 HALF- WITCH (below). So long I stumble, ill bestead, 
 And the others are now so far ahead ! 
 At home I've neither rest nor cheer, 
 And yet I cannot gain them here. 
 CHORUS or WITCHES. To cheer the witch will salv? 
 
 avail ; 
 
 A rag will answer for a sail ! 
 Each trough a goodly ship supplies ; 
 He ne'er will lly, who now not fliea.
 
 SCENE XXL 121 
 
 BOTH CHORUSES. When round the summit whirls oui 
 
 flight, 
 
 Then lower, and on the ground alight ; 
 And far and wide the heather press 
 With witchhood's swarms of wantonness ! 
 
 [They settle doum. 
 
 MEPHIS. They crowd and push, they roar and clatter ! 
 They whirl and whistle, pull and chatter ! 
 They shine, and spirt, and stink, and burn I 
 The true witch-element we learn. 
 Keep close ! or we are parted, in our turn. . 
 Where art thou ? 
 
 FAUST (in the distance). Here ! 
 
 MEPHIS. What ! whirled so far astray 1 
 
 Then house-right I must use, and clear the way. 
 Make room ! Squire Voland comes ! M Room, gentle rabble, 
 
 room ! 
 
 Here, Doctor, hold to me : in one jump we'll resume 
 An easier space, and from the crowd be free : 
 It 's too much, even for the like of me. 
 Yonder, with special light, there's something shining clearer 
 Within those bushes ; I've a mind to see. 
 Come on ! we'll slip a little nearer. 
 
 FAUST. Spirit of Contradiction ! On ! I '11 follow straight 
 Tis planned most wisely, if I judge aright : 
 We climb the Brocken's top in the Walpurgis-Night, 
 That arbitrarily, here, ourselves we isolate. 
 
 MEPHIS. But see, what motley flames among the heather I 
 There is a lively club together : 
 In smaller circles one is not alone. 
 
 FAUST. Better the summit, I must own : 
 There fire and whirling smoke I see. 
 They seek the Evil One in wild confusion : 
 Many enigmas there might find solution. 
 
 MEPHIS. But there enigmas also knotted be. 
 Leave to the multitude their riot ! 
 Here will we house ourselves in quiet. 
 It is an old, transmitted trade, 
 That in the greater world the little worlds are mad*. 
 I tee stark-nude young witches congregate.
 
 Ill FAUST. 
 
 And old ones, vetted and hidden shrewdly : 
 
 On my account be kind, nor treat them rudely i 
 
 The trouble's small, the fun is great 
 
 I hear the noise of instruments attuning, 
 
 Tile din ! yet one must learn to bear the crooning. 
 
 Come, come along ! It must be, I declare 1 
 
 111 go ahead and introduce thee there, 
 
 Thine obligation newly earning. 
 
 That is no little space : what sa/st thou, friend 1 
 
 Look yonder ! thou canst scarcely see the end : 
 
 A hundred fires along the ranks are burning. 
 
 They dance, they chat, they cook, they drink, they court , 
 
 Now where, just tell me, is there better sport ? 
 
 FAUST. Wilt thou, to introduce us to the revel, 
 Assume the part of wizard or of devil ? 
 
 MEFHIS. I'm mostly used, 'tis true, to go incognito, 
 But on a gala-day one may his orders show. 
 The Garter does not deck my suit, 
 But honoured and at home is here the cloven foot. 
 Perceiv'st thou yonder snail ? It cometh, slow and steady ; 
 So delicately its feelers pry, 
 That it hath scented me already : 
 I cannot here disguise me, if I try. 
 But come ! well go from this fire to a newer : 
 I am the go-between, and thou the wooer. 
 
 [To some, who we sitting around dying tmbert ; 
 Old gentlemen, why at the outskirts ? Enter ! 
 I'd praise you if I found you snugly in the centre, 
 With youth and revel round you like a zone : 
 You each, at home, are quite enough alone. 
 
 GENERAL. Say, who would put his trust in nations, 
 Howe'er for them one may have worked and planned ? 
 For with the people, as with women, 
 Youth always has the upper hand. 
 
 MINISTER. They're now too far from what is just and 
 
 sage. 
 
 I praise the old ones, not unduly : 
 When we were all-in-all, then, truly, 
 Then was the real golden age. 
 
 We also were not stupid, eithei,
 
 SCSNE in. 123 
 
 And what we should not, often did ; 
 
 But now all things have from their bases slid, 
 
 Just ae we meant to hold them fast together. 
 
 AUTHOR. Who, now, a work of moderate sense will read f 
 Such works are held as antiquate and mossy ; 
 And as regards the younger folk, indeed, 
 They never yet have been so pert and saucy. 
 
 MEPHIS. (who all at once appears very old).** I feel that uieu 
 
 are ripe for Judgment^Day, 
 
 Now for the last time I've the witches'-hill ascended : 
 Since to the lees my cask is drained away, 
 The world's, as well, must soon be ended. 
 
 HUCKSTER- WITCH. Ye gentlemen, don't pass me thus ! 
 Let not the chance neglected be ! 
 Behold my wares attentively : 
 The stock is rare and various. 
 And yet, there's nothing I've collected 
 No shop, on earth, like this you'll find ! 
 Which has not, once, sore hurt inflicted 
 Upon the world, and on mankind. 
 No dagger's here, that set not blood to flowing ; 
 No cup, that hath not once, within a healthy frame 
 Poured speedy death, in poison glowing : 
 No gems, that have not brought a maid to shame ; 
 No sword, but severed ties for the unwary, 
 Or from behind struck down the adversary. 
 
 MEPHIS. Gossip ! the times thou badly comprehendest : 
 What's done has happed what haps, is done ! 
 'Twere better if for novelties thou sendest : 
 By euch alone can we be won. 
 
 FAUST. Let me not lose myself in all this pother ! 
 This is a fair, as never was another ! 
 
 MKPHIS. The whirlpool swirls to get above : 
 Thou'rt shoved thyself, imagining to shove. 
 
 FAUST. But who's that 1 
 
 MEPHIS. Ncte her especially, 
 
 TisLilith. 
 
 FAUST. Who I 
 
 MEPHIS. Adam's first wife IB -^he. 
 
 Beware the lure within her lovely tresses,
 
 124 FAUST. 
 
 The splendid sole adornment of her hair ! 
 When she succeeds therewith a youth to snare, 
 Not soon again she frees him from her jesses. 
 
 FAUST. Those two, the old one with the young one sitting, 
 They've danced already more than fitting. 
 
 MEPHIS. No rest to-night for young or old ! 
 They start another dance : come now, let us take hold ! 
 FAUST (dancing with the young witch). A lovely dream onoa 
 
 came to me ; 
 
 I then beheld an apple-tree, 
 And there two fairest apples shone : 
 They lured me so, I climbed thereon. 
 THE FAIR ONE. Apples have been desired by you, 
 Since first in Paradise they grew ; 
 And I am moved with joy, to know 
 That such within my garden grow. 
 MEPHIS. (dancing with the old one). A dissolute dream once 
 
 came to me : 
 Therein I saw a cloven tree, 
 
 Which had a ; 
 
 Yet, as 'twas, I fancied it. 
 THB OLD ONE. I offer here my best salute 
 Unto the knight with cloven foot ! 
 
 Let him a prepare, ' 
 
 If him does not scare. 
 
 PKOKTOPHANTASMiST. 6 * Accurse'd folk ! How dare you 
 
 venture thus ? 
 
 Had you not, long since, demonstration 
 That ghosts can't stand on ordinary foundation ? 
 And now you even dance, like one of us ! 
 
 THE FAA OHB (dancing). Why does he come, then, to oui 
 
 baUt 
 
 FAUOT (dancing). U, everywhere on him you Ml ! 
 When others dance, he weighs the matter : 
 If he can't every step bechatter, 
 Then 'tis the same as were the step not made ; 
 But if you forwards go, hia ire is most displayed. 
 If you would whirl in regular gyration 
 As he does in his dull old mill,
 
 SCENE XXI 125 
 
 He'd show, at any rate, good-will, 
 
 Especially if you heard and heeded his hortation. 
 
 PROKTOPHANTASMIST. You still are here? Nay, tin a 
 
 " thing unheard ! 
 
 Vanish, at once ! We've said the enlightening word. 
 The pack of devils by no rules is daunted : 
 We are so wise, and yet is Tegel haunted. 67 
 To clear the folly out, how have I swept and stirred ! 
 'Twill ne'er be clean : why, 'tis a thing unheard ! 
 
 THE FAIR ONE. Then cease to bore us at our ball ! 
 
 PROKTOPHANTASMIST. I tell you, spirits, to your face, 
 I give to spirit-despotism no place ; 
 
 My spirit cannot practise it at alL [The dance wntinuet, 
 
 Naught will succeed, I see, amid such revels ; 
 Yet something from a tour I always save, 
 And hope, before my last step to the grave, 
 To overcome the poets and the devils. 
 
 MEPHIS. He now will seat himself in the nearest puddle ; 
 The solace this, whereof he's most assured ; 
 And when upon his rump the leeches hang and fuddle, 
 He'll be of spirits and of Spirit cured. 
 
 [To FAUST, who has left the danct : 
 WTierefore forsakest thou the lovely maiden, 
 That in the dance so sweetly sang 1 
 
 FAUST. Ah ! in the midst of it there sprang 
 A red mouse from her mouth sufficient reason ! * 
 
 MEPHIS. That's nothing ! One must not so squeamish 
 
 be; 
 
 So the mouse was not gray, enough for thee. 
 Who'd think of that in love's selected season ! 
 
 FAUST. Then saw I 
 
 MEPHIS. What 1 
 
 FAUST. Mephisto, seest thou there, 
 
 Alone and far, a girl most pale and fair 1 
 She falters on, her way scarce knowing, 
 As if with fettered feet that stay her going. 
 I must confess, it seems to me 
 As if my kindly Margaret were she. 
 
 MEPHIS. Let the thing be ! All thence have evil drawn : 
 It is a magic shape, a lifeless eidolon.
 
 126 FAUST. 
 
 Such to encounter is not good : 
 
 Their blank, set stare benumbs the human blood, 
 
 And one is almost turned to atone. 
 
 Medusa's tale to thee is known. 
 
 FAUST. Forsooth, the eyes they are of one whom, dying, 
 No hand with loving pressure closed ; 
 That is the breast whereon I once was lying, 
 The body sweet, beside which I reposed ! 
 
 MEPHIB. 'Tis magic all, thou fool, seduced so easily I 
 Unto each man his love she seems to be. 
 
 FAUST. The woe, the rapture, so ensnare me, 
 That from her gaze I cannot tear ine ! 
 And, strange ! around her fairest throat 
 A single scarlet band is gleaming, 
 No broader than a knife-blade seeming ! 
 
 MBPHIS. Quite right ! The mark I also note. 
 Her head beneath her arm she'll sometimes cany j 
 Twas Perseus lopped it, her old adversary. 
 Thou craVst the same illusion still ! 
 Come, let us mount this littlfe hill ; 
 The Prater shows no livelier stir, 89 
 And, if they've not bewitched my sense, 
 I verily see a theatre. 
 What's going on ? 
 
 SBBviBiLis. 70 'Twill shortly recommence ; 
 A new performance 'tis the last of seven. 
 To give that number is the custom here : 
 Twas by a Dilettante written, 
 And Dilettante in the parts appear. 
 That now I vanish, pardon, I entreat you I 
 As Dilettante I the curtain raise. 
 
 MBPHIS. When I upon the Blocksberg meek you, 
 I tuid it good : for that's your proper place
 
 SCENE XXII. 127 
 
 XXII. 
 
 WALPURGIS-NIGHT'S DREAM. 
 OBERON AND TITANIA'S GOLDEN WEDDING. 71 
 
 Intermezzo. 
 
 MANAGER. Sons of Mieding, rest to-day!" 
 Needless your machinery : 
 Misty vale and mountain gray, 
 That is all the scenery. 
 
 HERALD. That the wedding golden be, 
 Must fifty years be rounded : 
 But the Golden give to me, 
 When the strife's compounded. 
 
 OBERON. Spirits, if you're here, be seen- 
 Show yourselves, delighted ! 
 Fairy king and fairy queen, 
 They are newly plighted. 
 
 PUCK. Cometh Puck, and, light of limb, 
 Whisks and whirls in measure : 
 Come a hundred after him, 
 To share with him the pleasure. 
 
 ARIEL. 73 Ariel's song is heavenly-pure, 
 His tongues are sweet and rare ones : 
 Though ugly faces he allure, 
 V!et 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 ! 
 
 TTTANIA. If her whims the wife control. 
 And the man berate her, 
 Take him to the Northern Pole, 
 And her to the Equator !
 
 is* FAtrsi. 
 
 ORCHESTRA. Turn. Fortissimo. 
 Snout of fly, mosquito-bill, 
 And kin of all conditions, 
 Frog in grass, and cricket-trill, 
 These are the musicians ! 
 
 Sou). See the bagpipe on our track 
 Tis the soap-blown bubble : 
 Hear the schnecke-schnicke-schnack 
 Through his nostrils double ! 
 
 [Spirit jiixt 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. 74 Little step and lofty leap 
 Through honey-dew and fragrance : 
 You'll never mount the airy steep 
 With all your tripping vagrance. 
 
 INQUISITIVE TRAVELLER. 76 Left but masquerading play 
 See I with precision ? 
 Oberon, the beauteous fay, 
 Meets, to-night, iny vision ! 
 
 ORTHODOX. 76 Not a claw, no tail I see I 
 And yet, beyond a cavil, 
 Like " the Gods of Greece," must he 
 Also be a devil. 
 
 NORTHERN ARTIST. 77 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 ; 
 80 I sit naked on my goat, 
 And show a strapping body.
 
 129 
 
 MATKOK. We've too much tact and policy 
 To rate with gibes a scolder ; 
 Yet, young and tender though you be, 
 I hope to see yo'i moulder. 
 
 LEADER OF THE BAND. Fiy-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). 79 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). An<j if the Earth 
 
 don't open now 
 To swallow up each ranter, 
 Why, then will I myself, I vow, 
 Jump into hell instanter ! 
 
 XENiBS. 7 ' Us as little insecte seal 
 With sharpest nippers flitting, 
 That our Papa Satan we 
 May honour as is fitting. 
 
 HBNNiNGS. 80 How, in crowds together rnasHtd, 
 Phey 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-DBVANT GENIUS OF THE AOK. The proper lofts 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 pompom 
 
 man? 
 
 He walks with haughty paces : 
 He snuffles all he snuffle can : 
 
 " He scent e the Jesuits' trace**
 
 130 FAUST 
 
 CRANK, Both clear and muddy stream*, 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 1 
 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 nimbi* 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 bagpipes 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. 88 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.
 
 SCENE XXII. 131 
 
 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. Sanssouci, 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. 84
 
 132 FAUST. 
 
 XXIII. 
 DREARY DAY. 
 
 A FIELD 
 FAUST. MEPHISTOPHELES. 
 
 FAX-BT. In misery ! In despair ! Long wretchedly astraj 
 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 con- 
 cealed it from me ! Stand, then, stand ! Roll the devilish 
 eyes wrath fully 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 ! 
 
 MEPHIS. 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 favourite likeness, that he may 
 crawl upon his belly in the dust before me, that I may 
 trample him, the outkwed, under foot ! Not the first ! '0 
 woe ! woe whieh 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 th 
 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 rate of 
 thousands!
 
 SCENE XXHL 133 
 
 MEPHIS. 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 ? 
 
 MEPHIS. Hast thou done ? 
 
 FAUST. Rescue her, or woe to thee ! The fearfullest 
 curse be upon thee for thousands of ages ! 
 
 MEPHIS. I cannot loosen the bonds of the Avenger, noi 
 undo bis bolts. Rescue her ? Who was it that plunged hex 
 into ruin ? I, or thou ? [FAUST looks a/round 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 ! 
 
 MEPHIS. And the danger to which thou wilt expose thy- 
 self ! 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 lib- 
 erate her ! 
 
 MEPHIS. 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 w in 
 xny pow*. 
 
 FAUST. Op and away 1
 
 134 FAUST. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 NIGHT. 
 OPEN FIELD. 
 
 FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES speeding onward on black horses 
 
 FAUST. What weave they there round the raven-stone? 86 
 
 MEPHIS. I know not what they are brewing and doing. 
 
 FAUST. Soaring up, sweeping down, bowing and bending ! 
 
 MEPHIS. A witches' -guild. 
 
 FAUST. They scatter, devote and doom! 
 
 MEPHIS. On! on! 
 
 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 !
 
 SCENE XXV. 136 
 
 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. 
 MARG. (hiding herself on the pallet). Woe ! woe ! They 
 
 come. O death of bitterness ! 
 FAUST (whispering). Hush! hush! The hour is come 
 
 that frees thee. 
 MARG. (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. 
 
 MABG. (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 rung? 
 
 [She 
 
 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 ? 
 MARG. Now am I wholly in thy might. 
 But let me suckle, first, my baby ! 
 I blessed 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.
 
 18 FAUST. 
 
 They sing songs about me ! 'tis bad of the folk to do it ! 
 There's an W. story has the same refrain ; 
 Who bade them so construe it 1 
 
 FAUST (Jailing upon hit knees). Here lieth one who lov 
 
 thee ever. 
 The thraldom of thy woe to sever. 
 
 MARO. (flinging herself beside him). let us kneel, and 
 
 call the Saints to hide us 1 
 Under the steps beside us, 
 The threshold under, 
 Hell heaves in thunder I 
 The Evil One 
 With terrible wrath 
 Seeketh a path 
 His prey to discover ! 
 
 FAUST (aloud). Margaret! Margaret! 
 
 MARG. (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 I 
 
 FAUST. 'Tifl I ! 
 
 MARO. "Tis thou ! 0, say it once again ! 
 
 [Clasping htm. 
 
 Tifl he ! 'tis he ! Where now is all my pain ? 
 The anguish of the dungeon, and the chain 1 
 "Tia thou ! Thou coniest 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 ! 
 
 MARO. Delay, now ! 
 
 So fain I stay, when thou delayest ! [Caressing him.
 
 SCENE XXV. |37 
 
 FAURT. Away, now ! 
 If longer here thou stayeat, 
 We shall be made to dearly rue it 
 
 MARO. Kiss me ! canst no longer do it i 
 My friend, so short a time thou'rt missing, 
 And hast unlearned thy kissing ? 
 Why is my heart so anxious, on thy breast ? 
 Where once a heaven thy glances did create me, 
 A heaven thy loving words expressed, 
 And thou didst kiss, as thou wouldst suffocate mtr 
 Kiss me f 
 
 Or I'll kiss thee ! [She embrac* /am. 
 
 Ah, woe ! thy lips are chill I 
 AndstilL 
 
 How changed in fashion 
 Thy passion ! 
 Who has done me this ill ? [She turns away from him 
 
 FAUST. Come, follow me ! My darling, be more bold : 
 I'll clasp thee, soon, with warmth a thousand-fold ; 
 But follow now ! 'Tis all I beg of thee. 
 
 MARO. (turning to him). And is it thou ? Thou, surely, 
 certainly ? 
 
 FAUST. Tis I ! Come on ! 
 
 MARG. Thou wilt unloose my chain, 
 
 And in thy lap wilt take me once again. 
 How comes it that thou dost not shrink from me I 
 Say, dost thou know, my friend, whom thou mak'st free J 
 
 FAOBT. Come ! come ! The night already vanisheth 
 
 MARO. My mother have I put to death ; 
 I've drowned the baby born to thee. 
 Was it not given to thee and me ? 
 Thee, too ! 'Tis thou ! It scarcely true doth aecra 
 Give me thy hand ! "Tifl not a dream ! 
 Thy dear, dear hand ! But, ah, 'tis wet ! 
 Why, wipe it off ! Methinks that yet 
 There's blood thereon. 
 Ah, God ! what hast thon done f 
 Nay, sheathe thy sword at last f 
 Do not affray me !
 
 138 FAUST. 
 
 FAUST. O, let the past be past! 
 Thy words will slay me ! 
 
 MARG. No, no! Thou must outlive us. 
 Now I'll tell thee the graves to give us: 
 Thou must begin to-morrow 
 The work of sorrow! 
 The best place give to my mother, 
 Then close at her side my brother, 
 And me a little away, 
 But not too very far, I pray ! 
 And here, on my right breast, my baby lay! 
 Nobody else will lie beside me ! 
 Ah, within thine arms to hide me, 
 That was a sweet and a gracious bliss, 
 But no more, no more can I attain it ! 
 I would force myself on thee and constrain it, 
 And it seems thou repellest my kiss : 
 And yet 'tis thou, so good, so kind to see! 
 
 FAUST. If thou feel'st it is I, then come with me ! 
 MARG. Out yonder? 
 FAUST. To freedom. 
 MARG. If the grave is there, 
 
 Death lying in wait, then come! 
 From here to eternal rest : 
 No further step no, no ! 
 Thou goest away ! O Henry, if I could go ! 
 
 FAUST. Thou canst ! Just will it ! Open stands the door. 
 MARG. I dare not go : there's no hope any more. 
 Why should I fly? They'll still my steps waylay! 
 It is so wretched, forced to beg my living, 
 And a bad conscience sharper misery giving! 
 It is so wretched, to be strange, forsaken, 
 And I'd still be followed and taken! 
 FAUST. I'll stay with thee. 
 MARG. Be quick! Be quick! 
 Save thy perishing child! 
 Away ! Follow the ridge 
 Up by the brook, 
 Over the bridge, 
 Into the wood,
 
 SCENE XXV. 139 
 
 To the left, where the plank is placed 
 
 In the pool ! 
 
 Seize it in haste I 
 
 "Tis trying to rise, 
 
 'Tis struggling still ! 
 
 Save it ! Save it ! 
 
 FAUST. Recall thy wandering will I 
 One step, and thou art free at last ! 
 
 MABG. If the mountain we had only passed ! 
 There sits my mother upon a stone, 
 I feel an icy shiver ! 
 There sits my mother upon a stone, 
 And her head is wagging ever. 
 
 She beckons, she nods not, her heavy head falls o'er ; 
 She slept so long that she wakes no more, 
 She slept while we were caressing : 
 Ah, those were the days of blessing ! 
 
 FAUST. Here words and prayers are nothing worth ; 
 I'll venture, then, to bear thee forth. 
 
 MABO. No let me go ! Ill suffer no force 1 
 Grasp me not so murderously ! 
 I've done, else, all things for the love of thee. 
 
 FAUST. The day dawns : Dearest ! Dearest S 
 
 MABQ. Day ? Yes, the day comes, the last day breaki 
 
 for me ! 
 
 My wedding-day it was to be ! 
 Tell no one thou hast been with Margaret t 
 Woe for my garland ! The chances 
 Are over 'tis all in vain ! 
 We shall meet once again. 
 But not at the dances ! 
 The crowd is thronging, no word is spoken . 
 The square below 
 And the streets overflow : 
 The death-bell tolls, the wand is broken. 
 I am seized, am bound, and delivered 
 Shoved to the block they give the sign 
 Now over each neck has quivered 
 The blade that is quivering over mine. 
 Dumb lies the world like the grave 1
 
 140 FAUST. 
 
 FAUST. had I ne'er been born ! 
 
 MEPHXS. (appears outside). Off! or you're lost ere mom. 
 Useless talking, delaying and praying ! 
 My horses are neighing : 
 The morning twilight is near. 
 
 MABG. What rises up from the threshold here t 
 He ! he ! suffer him not ! 
 What does he want in this holy spot 1 
 He seeks me ! 
 
 FAUST. Thou shalt live. 
 
 MABQ. Judgment of God ! myself to thee I give. 
 
 MEPHIS. (to FAUST). Come ! or 1 11 leave her in the lurch, 
 and thee ! 
 
 MAKG. Thine am I, Father ! rescue me ! 
 Ye angels, holy cohorts, guard me, 
 Camp around, and from evil ward me ! 
 Henry ! I shudder to think of thse. 
 
 MEPHIB. She is judged! 
 
 VOIOB (from above). She is saved ! 
 
 MRPHIS. (to FAUSIJ Hither to me ! 
 
 [He disappears with FAUST 
 
 Voios (frynt, wun/vji^ 'J.j/vny waijj. Henry 1 Heurv t
 
 SECOND PART OF THE TRAGEDY 
 IN FIVE ACTS.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 TO THE SECOND PART. 
 
 how much prepossession I encounter, in 
 claiming for the Second Part of Faust a higher intellec- 
 tual character, if a lower dramatic and poetical value, 
 than the First Part. In Mr. Hayward's Appendix, and 
 Mr. Lewes' Life of Goethe, the Second Part is virtually 
 declared to be a secondary, unimportant work, chaotic in 
 detail and without any consistent design as a whole ; ip 
 short, the mistake of Goethe's old age, instead of being, 
 as it really is, the conception of his prime, partly 
 written, and entirely planned, before the publication 
 of the First Part. 
 
 The first mistake which many of the critics have made 
 is hi attempting any comparison of the two parts. 
 While the moral and intellectual problem, which is first 
 stated in the Prologue in Heaven, advances through 
 richer and broader phases of development to its final 
 solution, the story which comes to an end in Margaret's 
 dungeon is not resumed. The Second Part opens 
 abruptly in a broad, bright, crowded world; we not 
 only breathe a new atmosphere, but we come back to 
 Faust and Mephistopheles as if after a separation of 
 many years, and find that our former acquaintances hav*
 
 144 
 
 changed in the interval, even as ourselves. "It must 
 be remembered," says Goethe, "that the First Part is 
 the development of a somewhat obscure individual con- 
 dition. It is almost wholly subjective ; it is the expres- 
 sion of a confused, restricted, and passionate nature." 
 On the other hand, we learn from the study of Goethe's 
 life that the wealth of the material which he had ac- 
 cumulated for the Second Part occasioned an embarrass- 
 ment in regard to the form, which partly accounts for 
 the long postponement of the work. He expressly 
 declares that the Second Part of the drama must be 
 performed upon a different, a broader, and more elevated 
 stage of action ; that one who has not lived in the world 
 and acquired some experience will not know how to com- 
 prehend it ; and that, like an unsolved riddle, it will 
 repeatedly allure the reader to the renewed study of its 
 secret meanings. 
 
 The early disparagement which the Second Part of 
 Faust received is only in our day beginning to give way 
 to an intelligent recognition of its grand design, ita 
 wealth of illustration, and the almost inexhaustible 
 variety and beauty of its rhythmical forms. 
 
 The reader to whom this part is a new land must, 
 however, of necessity be furnished with a compass and 
 an outline chart before he enters it He may, other- 
 wise, lose his way in its tropical jungles, before reaching 
 that " peak in Darien," from which Keats, like Balboa, 
 beheld a new side of the world. I consider that a brief 
 previous statement of the argument is absolutely 
 required. 
 
 We must forget the tragical story of the First Part, 
 and return to the compact between Faust and Mephis 
 topheles, where the latter declares: "The little world 
 and then the great, we'll see." The former world is at
 
 INTRODUCTION. U5 
 
 an end, and, after an opening scene which symbolizes 
 the healing influences of Time and Nature, Faust and 
 his companion appear at the Court of the German 
 Emperor. The ruined condition of the realm gives 
 Mephistopheles a chance of acquiring place and power 
 for Faust, through the introduction of a new financial 
 system. While this is in progress, the days of the Carnival 
 furnish the occasion for a Masquerade, crowded with 
 allegorical figures, representing Society and Government. 
 Goethe found that no detached phases of life were ade- 
 quate to his purpose. Faust, in the First Part, is an 
 individual, in narrow association with other individuals : 
 here he is thrown into the movement of the world, the 
 phenomena of human development, and becomes, to a 
 certain extent, typical of Man. Hence the allegorical 
 character of the Masquerade, which is confusing, from 
 the great range and mixture of its symbolism. 
 
 The Emperor's wish to have Paris and Helena called 
 from the Shades (as in the original Legend) is expressed 
 when Faust is already growing weary of the artificial 
 life of the Court. Mephistopheles sends him to the 
 mysterious Mothers, that he may acquire the means of 
 evoking the models of Beauty ; and at this point the 
 artistic, or sesthetic element the sense of the Beautiful 
 in the human mind is introduced as a most important 
 agent of human culture, gradually refining and purify- 
 ing Faust's nature, and lifting it for ever above all the 
 meanness and littleness of the world. Mephistopheles is 
 bound by bis compact to serve, even in fulfilling this 
 aspiration which he cannot comprehend ; but he obeys 
 unwillingly, and with continual attempts to regain hi 
 diminishing power. After the apparition of Helena, and 
 Faust's rash attempt to possess at once the Ideal of the 
 Beautiful, the scene changes to the latter'a old Gothic
 
 U6 FAUST. 
 
 chamber, where we meet the Student of the First Part 
 as a Baccalaureus, and find Wagner, in his laboratory, 
 engaged in creating a Homunculus. This whimsical 
 sprite guides Faust and Mephistopheles to the Classical 
 Walpurgis-Night, where the former continues his pil- 
 grimage towards Helena (the Beautiful), while the latter, 
 true to his negative character, finally reaches his ideal of 
 Ugliness in the Phorkyads. The allegory of the Classical 
 Walpurgis-Night is also difficult to be unravelled, but it 
 is not simply didactic, like that of the Carnival Mas- 
 querade. A purer strain of poetry breathes through it, 
 and the magical moonlight which shines upon its closing 
 Festals of the Sea prepares us for the sunbright atmo- 
 sphere of the Helena. 
 
 This interlude, occupying the Third Act, is another 
 allegory, complete in itself, and only lightly attached tc 
 the course of the drama. While it exhibits, in the latter 
 connection, the aesthetic purification of Faust's nature, 
 its leading motive is the reconciliation of the Classic and 
 Romantic elements in Art and Literature. Euphorion, 
 the child of Faust and Helena, who vanishes in flame, 
 leaving only his garments and lyre behind him, is then 
 presented to us as Byron, and the Act closes with a 
 transmigration of " the fair humanities of old religion 
 into the spirit and sentiment of Modern Poetry. 
 
 The Fourth Act exhibits Faust to us, enlightened and 
 elevated above his former self, and anxious for a grand 
 and worthy sphere of activity. His aim is, to bend 
 Nature to the service of Man, to bar the ocean from a 
 great stretch of half-submerged land, and thus conquer 
 the aimless force of the unruly elements. Mephis- 
 topheles takes advantage of the political dissensions of 
 the Empire, and the appearance of a new claimant for 
 the crown, at the head of an army, to proffer his owv
 
 INTEODUCTION. 147 
 
 and Faust's services to the Emperor. A battle takes 
 place ; the rebels are defeated, through the magic arts of 
 Mephistopheles, and Faust receives the sea-shore in feoff 
 for ever. 
 
 The Fifth Act opens on the accomplished work. 
 Faust, a hundred years old, inhabits a palace, in the 
 midst of a green, thickly-peopled land, diked from the 
 sea. But he has not yet found the one moment of 
 supreme happiness. A pestilential marsh still remains 
 to be drained; and he has not succeeded in gaining the 
 coveted possession of a sand-hill near his palace, the 
 residence of an old couple who have charge of a little 
 chapel on the downs. Mephistopheles endeavours to 
 implicate him in the guilty seizure of this Naboth's vine- 
 yard, but is again baffled. Faust, become blind, finds a 
 clearer light dawning upon his spirit : while the work 
 men are employed upon the canal which completes his 
 great work, he perceives that he has created free and 
 happy homes for the coming generations of men, and the 
 fore-feeling of satisfied achievement impels him to say to 
 the passing Moment : " Ah, still delay, thou art so 
 fair ! " When the words are uttered, he sinks upon the 
 earth, dead. 
 
 The struggle of Mephistopheles with the angels for 
 the possession of Faust's soul, and a scene in Heaven, 
 where Margaret appears, like Beatrice in Dante's 
 Paradiso, as the spiritual guide of her redeemed lover, 
 close the drama. Although the condition of the compact 
 has been fulfilled, Mephistopheles loses his \vager. In 
 willing the Bad, he has worked the Good : the " obscure 
 aspiration " in Faust's nature has lifted itself, through 
 Love, Experience, the refining power of the Beautiful, 
 and beneficent activity, to more than an instinct, to a 
 knowledge of "the one true way." The Epilogue in
 
 148 FAUST. 
 
 Heaven carries us back to the Prologue, and indicates to 
 us, through a wondrous, mystic symbolism, the victorious 
 vitality of Good and the omnipotence of the Divine 
 Love. 
 
 Briefly, then, Act I. represents Society and Govern- 
 ment ; Acts II. and III. the development of the Idea of 
 the Beautiful as the highest human attribute, with 
 almost a saving power ; Act. IV., War ; and Act V., 
 Beneficent Activity, crowned by Grace and Redemption. 
 The financial scheme, the discussion of geological theories, 
 the union of the Classic and Romantic, and the intro 
 duction of those three tricksy spirits, the Boy Charioteer, 
 Homunculus, and Euphorion (whom I interpret 
 as different personifications of Goethe's own Poetic 
 Genius), must be considered as digressions from the 
 direct course of the plot. 
 
 In concluding this labour of years, I venture to 
 wpress the hope that, however I may have fallen short 
 of reproducing the original in another, though a kindred 
 language, I may, at least, have assisted in naturalizing 
 the masterpiece of German literature among us, and to 
 that extent have explained the supreme place which has 
 been accorded to Goethe among the poets of the world. 
 Where I have differed from the German critics and com- 
 mentators, I would present the plea, that the laws of 
 construction are similar, whether one builds a cottage or 
 a palace ; and the least of authors, to whom metrical 
 expression is a necessity, may have some natural instinct 
 of the conceptions of the highest 
 
 a T.
 
 ACT I. 
 
 A PLEASANT LANDSCAPE. 
 TWILIGHT. 
 
 FAUST, bedded on flowery turf , fatigued, restless, endeavour- 
 ing to sleep. Circle of hovering spirits in motion : 
 graceful diminutive figures. 
 
 AniEL. 1 (Chant accompanied by JEolian harp.) 
 When the Spring returns serener 
 Raining blossoms over all ; 
 When the fields with blessing greener 
 On the earth-born children call ; 
 Then the craft of elves propitious 
 Hastes to help where help it can : 
 Be he holy, be he vicious, 
 Pity they the luckless man. 
 
 Who round this head in airy circles hover, 
 yourselves in guise of noble Elves discover 1 
 The fierce convulsions of his heart compose ; 
 Remove the burning barbs of his remorses, 
 And cleanse his being from the suffered woes ! 
 Four pauses makes the Night upon her courses, 1 
 And now, delay not, let them kindly close ! 
 First on the coolest pillow let him slumber, 
 Then sprinkle him with Lethe's drowsy spray ! 
 His limbs no more shall cramps and chills encumber 
 When sleep has made him strong to meet the day.
 
 150 FAUST. 
 
 Perform, ye Elves, your fairest rite : 
 Restore him to the holy Light I 
 
 CHOE0B 1 (tingly, fy two or more, alternately and collectively) 
 
 When around the green-girt meadow 
 
 Balm the tepid winds exhale, 
 
 Then in fragrance and in shadow 
 
 Twilight spreads her misty veil : 
 
 Whispers peace in accents cheery, 
 
 Rocks the heart in childhood's play, 
 
 And upon these eyelids weary 
 
 Shute the golden gates of Day. 
 
 Now the Night already darkles, 
 Holy star succeeds to star ; 
 Dazzling lights and fainter sparkles 
 Glimmer near and gleam afar ; 
 Glimmer here, the lake reflecting, 
 Gleam in cloudless dark aboon ; 
 While, the bliss of rest protecting, 
 Reigns in pomp the perfect moon. 
 
 Now the Hours are cancelled for thee, 
 Pain and bliss have fled away : 
 Thou art whole : let faith restore thee ! 
 Trust the new, the rising Day ! 
 Vales grow green, and hills are lifting 
 Through the shadow-rest of morn ; 
 And in waves of silver, drifting 
 On to harvest, rolls the corn. 
 
 Wouldst thou win desires unbounded, 
 Yonder see the glory burn ! 
 Lightly is thy life surrounded 
 Sleep's a shell, to break and spurn .' 
 When the crowd sways, unbelieving, 
 Show the daring will that warms ! 
 He is crowned with all achieving, 
 Who perceives and then performs. 
 [A tremendous twnult annowncet the approach of thi
 
 ACT L 1 
 
 ARIEL, Hearken ! Hark ! the Hours careering J 
 Sounding loud to spirit-hearing, 
 See the new-born day appearing I 
 Rocky portals jarring shatter, 
 Phoebus' wheels in rolling -darter, 
 With a crash the Light draws near 1 
 Pealing rays and trumpet-blazes, 
 Eye is blinded, ear amazes : 
 The Unheard can no one hear 1 
 Slip within each blossom-bell, 
 Deeper, deeper, there to dwell, 
 In the rocks, beneath the leaf I 
 If it strikes you, you are deaf. 
 
 FAUST. Life's pulses now with fresher force awaken 
 To greet the mild ethereal twilight o'er me ; 
 This night, thou, Earth ! hast also stood unshaken, 
 And now thou breathest new-refreshed before me, 
 And now beginnest, all thy gladness granting, 
 A vigorous resolution to restore me, 
 To seek that highest life for which I 'm panting. 
 The world unfolded lies in twilight glimmer, 
 A thousand voices in the grove are chanting ; 
 Vale in, vale out, the misty streaks grow dimmer f 
 The deeps with heavenly light are penetrated ; 
 The boughs, refreshed, lift up their leafy shimmer 
 From gulfs of air where sleepily they waited ; 
 Colour on colour from the background cleareth, 
 Where flower and leaf with trembling pearls are freighted 
 And all around a Paradise appeareth. 
 
 Look up I The mountain summits, grand, supernal, 4 
 
 Herald, e'en now, the solemn hour that neareth ; 
 
 They earliest enjoy the light eternal 
 
 That later sinks, till here below we find it. 
 
 Now to the Alpine meadows, sloping vernal, 
 
 A newer beam descends ere we divined it, 
 
 And step by step unto the base hath bounded : 
 
 The sun comes forth ! Alas, already blinded, 
 
 I turn away, with eyesight pierced and wounded !
 
 162 FAUST. 
 
 'T is thus, when, onto yearning hope's endeavoot 
 Its highest wiah on sweet attainment grounded, 
 The portals of fulfilment widely sever : 
 But if there burst from those eternal spaces 
 A flood of flame, we stand confounded ever ; 
 For Life's pure torch we sought the shining traces, 
 And seas of fire and what a fire ! surprise us. 
 Is 't love ? Is 't Hate ? that burningly embraces, 
 And that with pain and joy alternate tries us ? 
 So that, our glances once more earthward throwing; 
 We seek in youthful drapery to disguise us. 
 
 Behind me, therefore, let the sun be glowing I 
 
 The cataract, between the crags deep-riven, 
 
 I thus behold with rapture ever-growing. 
 
 From plunge to plunge in thousand streams 't is give* 
 
 And yet a thousand, to the valleys shaded 
 
 While foam and spray in air are whirled and driven . 
 
 Jet how superb, across the tumult braided, 
 
 The painted rainbow's changeful life is bending, 
 
 Now clearly drawn, dissolving now and faded, 
 
 And evermore the showers of dew descending 1 
 
 Of human striving there's no symbol fuller : 
 
 Consider, and 't is easy comprehending 
 
 life i* not light, but the refracted colour.
 
 ACT I. 153 
 
 II. 
 
 THE EMPEROR'S CASTLE. 
 
 HALL OF THE THRONE. 
 
 COUNCIL or STATE AWAITING THE EMPEROR. 
 
 Trumpets. 
 
 Enter COURT RETAINERS of all kinds, splendidly dressed. 
 The EMPEROR advances to the throne : the ASTROLOGER 
 on his right hand. 
 
 EMPKKOB. I greet you, Well-beloved and Trusty, 
 Assembled here from far and wide ! 
 I see the Wise Man at my side ; 
 But where's the Fool, his rival lusty ? 
 
 SQUIRE. Behind thy mantle's flowing swell 
 Suddenly on the stairs he fell : 
 They bore away the weight of fat ; 
 If dead, or drunk ? none knoweth that. 
 
 SECOND SQUIB E. As quick as thought, through all the pothei 
 Him to replace there came another, 
 Adorned and prinked with wondrous art, 
 Yet so grotesque that all men start. 
 The guards their halberds cross-wise hold 
 To bar him them he thrusts apart : 
 Lo ! here he comes, the Fool so bold ! 
 
 MEPHIS. (kneeling before the throne). What's cursed and 
 
 we! comely expected ? 
 What is desired, yet always chased ? 
 What evermore with care protected I 
 What is accused, condemned, disgraced T 
 To whom darest thou not give a hearing I 
 name h.^ars each man willingly ?
 
 154 FAUST. 
 
 What ifl % before thy throne appearing T 
 What keeps itself away from thee ? 
 
 EMPEBOB. Spare us thy words ! the time is pressing ; 
 This ia no place for riddle guessing : 
 These gentlemen such things explain. 
 Solve it thyself ! to hear I'm fain. 
 My old Fool went, I fear, an endless distance : 
 Take thou his place, come here and lend assistance ! 
 
 [MEPHIS. goes up <md stations himself on t 
 
 EMPEBOB'S left hcmd. 
 MURMURS OF THE CROWD. Another fool for worries new !- 
 
 Whence came he 1 how did he get through? 
 
 The old one fell he 's walked his path. 
 
 He was a barrel this a lath ! 
 EMPEROR. So now, my Well-beloved and Loyal, 
 Be welcome all, from near and far ! 
 Yen meet beneath a fortunate star ; 
 Welfare and luck are now the aspects royaL 
 But tell me why, in days so fair, 
 When we' ve withdrawn ourselves from care, 
 And beards of beauty masquerading wear, 
 When gay delights for us are waiting, 
 Why should we plague ourselves, deliberating 
 Yet, since the task you think we cannot shun, 
 T is settled, then, so be it done ! 
 
 CHANCELLOB. The highest virtue, like a halo-zone 
 Circles the Emperor's head ; and he alone 
 Is worthy validly to exercise it. 
 T is justice ! all men love and prize it, 
 None can forego, but all require and want it : 
 The people look to him, that he should grant it. 
 But, ah ! what help can human wit impart 
 Or readiness of hand, or kindly heart, 
 When lies the State, as if in fever fretting, 
 Ana brooded Evil evil is begetting 1 
 Who looks abroad from off this height supreme 
 throughout the realm, 't is like a weary dream, 
 Where one deformity another mouldeth, 
 Where lawlessness itself by law upholdeth, 
 And 't is an age of Error that unfoldeth !'
 
 ACT 1. Itti 
 
 One plunders flocks, a woman one, 
 
 Cup, cross, and candlestick from altar, 
 
 And then to boast it does not palter, 
 
 Of limb or life nowise undone. 
 
 To Court behold the plaintiffs urging, 
 
 Where puffs the judge on cushions warm, 
 
 And swells, meanwhile, with fury surging, 
 
 Rebellion's fast-increasing storm ! 
 
 His easy way through crime is broken, 
 
 Who his accomplices selects ; 
 
 And " Guilty ! " hears one only spoken 
 
 Where Innocence itself protects. 
 
 They all pull down what they should care for, 
 
 Destroy theit weal, in self-despite : 
 
 How can the sense develop, therefore, 
 
 Which, only, leads us to the Right ? 
 
 At last, the man of good intent 
 
 To flatterer and briber bendeth ; 
 
 The judge, debarred from punishment, 
 
 "Uates with the felon, ere he endeth. 
 
 I 've painted black, but denser screen 
 
 I 'd rather draw before the scene. f Pause 
 
 Here measures cannot be evaded ; 
 
 When all offend, and none are aided, 
 
 His Majesty a victim stands. 
 
 GENEBAI^IN-CHIEF. In these wild day, how discords 
 
 thicken ! 
 
 Each strikes and in return is stricken, 
 And they are deaf to all commands. 
 The burgher in his fortifications, 
 The knight upon his rocky nest, 
 Have sworn to worry out our patience 
 And keep their strength with stubborn crest 
 The mercenaries, no whit better, 
 Impatiently demand their pay, 
 And, if we were not still their debtor, 
 They 'd start forthwith and march away. 
 Let one forbid what all would practise 
 And in a hornet's nest he stands : 
 The realm which they hhould guard, the fact la,
 
 166 fAUST. 
 
 T u devasted bj their hands. 
 They give the rein to wild disorder, 
 And half the world is wasted now ; 
 There still are kings beyond our border, 
 But none thinks it concerns him anyhow. 
 
 TREASURER. Trust allies, and we soon shall rue us 
 The subsidies they promised to us 
 Like water in leaky pipes don't come. 
 Then, Sire, in all thy states extended 
 To whom hath now the rule descended ! 
 Where'er one goes, a new lord is at home, 
 And hopes to live in independence ; 
 He takes his course and we look on : 
 Such rights we 've given to our attendant* 
 That all our right to anything is gone. 
 On parties, too, whate'er the name be, 
 Our trust, to-day, is far from great 
 Though loud their praise or fie: oe their blame be, 
 Indifferent is their love and hate. 
 The Ghibellines and Ouelfs from labour 
 Are resting both laid on the shelf. 
 Who, therefore, now will help his neighbour I 
 Each has enough, to help himself. 
 The gate of gold no more unlatches, 
 And each one gathers, digs, and scratches, 
 While our strong-box is void indeed. 
 
 LORD HIGH STEWARD. What evil I, as well, am having 
 We 're alwayfe trying to be saving, 
 And ever greater is our need : 
 Thus daily grows this task of mine. 
 The cooks have all they want at present, 
 Wild-boar and deer, and hare and pheasant 
 Duck, peacock, turkey, goose, and chicken: 
 These, paid in kind, aie certain picking, 
 And do not seriously decline ; 
 Yet, after all, we 're short of wine. 
 Where casks on casks were once our cellars filling, 
 Rare vintages of flavours finely thrilling, 
 The noble lords' eternal swilling 
 H drained them off, till not a drop appears.
 
 ACT l. 157 
 
 The City Council, too, must tap their liquor ; 
 They drink from mug, and jug, and beaker, 
 Till no one longer sees or hears. 
 'T is I must pay for all the dances ; 
 The Jew will have me, past all chances ; 
 His notes of hand and his advances 
 Will soon eat up the coming years. 
 Before they 're fat the swine are taken ; 
 Pawned is the pillow, ere one waken ; 
 The bread is eaten ere the board it sees. 
 
 EMPEROR (after some reflection, to MEPHIB.). Say, FooL 
 canst thou not add a want to these ? 
 
 MEPHIS. I ? Not at all ! I see the circling splendour 
 Thyself, and thine ! Should one his trust surrender, 
 Where Majesty thus unopposed commands, 
 Where ready power the hostile force disbands, 
 Where loyal wills, through understanding strong, 
 And mixed activities, around thee throng ? 
 What powers for evil could one see combining, 
 For darkness, where such brilliant stars are shining 1 
 
 MURMURS. He is a scamp who comprehends. 
 He lies his way until it ends. 
 I know it now what 's in his mind.- 
 What then 1 ? A project lurks behind ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Where, in this world, doth not some lack appear! 
 Here this, here that, but money 's lacking here. 
 True, from the floor you can't at once collect it, 
 But, deepliest hidden, wisdom may detect it. 
 In veins of mountains, under building-bases, 
 Coined and uncoined, there 's gold in many places : 
 And ask you who shall bring it to the light ? 
 A man endowed with Mind and Nature's might. 
 
 CHANCELLOR, Nature and Mind to Christians we don'l 
 
 speak so. 
 
 Thence to burn Atheists we seek so, 
 For such discourses very dangerous be. 
 Nature is Sin, and Mind is Devil : 
 Doubt they beget in shameless revel, 
 Their hybrid in deformity. 
 Not so with u ! Two only
 
 158 FAUST. 
 
 Have in the Empire kept their places. 
 And prop the throne with worthy weight. 
 The Saints and Knights are they : togethe* 
 They breast each spell of thunder-weather, 
 And take for pay the Church and State. 
 The vulgar minds that breed confusion 
 Are met with an opposing hand : 
 They 're wizards ! heretics ! Delusion 
 Through them will ruin town and land. 
 And these will you, with brazen juggle, 
 Within this high assembly smuggle ? 
 For hearts corrupt you scheme and struggle ; 
 The Fool's near kin are all the band. 
 
 MEI-IIIS. By that, I know the learned lord you are i 
 What you don't touch, is lying leagues afar ; 
 What you don't grasp, is wholly lost to you ; 
 What you don't reckon, think you, can't be true ; 
 What you don't weigh, it has no weight, alas ! 
 What you don't coin, you 're sure it will not pass. 
 
 EMPEROR. Therewith to help our needs you naught deter- 
 mine. 
 
 What wilt thou, here, with such a Lenten sermon ? 
 I 'm tired of the eternal If and How : 
 Money we want : good, then, procure it now ! 
 
 MEPHIS. I '11 furnish what you wish, and more : 't is, true, 
 A light task, but light things are hard to do. 
 The gold 's on hand, yet, skilfully to win it, 
 That is the art : who knows how to begin it? 
 Consider only, in those days of blood 
 When o'er the Empire poured a human flood, 
 How many men, such deadly terror steeled them, 
 Took their best goods, and here and there concealed them ? 
 'T was so beneath the mighty Roman sway, 
 And ever so repeated till our day. 
 All that was buried in the earth, to save it : 
 The Emperor owns the earth, and he should have it 
 
 TREASURES. Now, for a Fool, his words are rather bright : 
 That is indeed the old Imperial right. 
 
 CHANCELLOR. Satan has hud his golden snares, to try us ; 
 Such thing* aa these are neither right nor pious.
 
 ACT L 159 
 
 LORD HIGH STEWARD. Let him but bring bis gifts to 
 
 Court ; and share them, 
 
 And if things were a little wrong, I M bear them ! 
 GENERAL-IN-CHIEF. The Fool is shrewd, to promise iach 
 
 his needs ; 
 Whence it may come the soldier never heeds. 
 
 MEPHIS. And should you think, perchance, I overreach 
 
 you, 
 
 Here 's the Astrologer ask him to teach you ! 
 The spheres of Hour and House are in his ken,* 
 What are the heavenly aspects ! tell us, then ? 
 
 MURMURS. Two rogues are they, in league they 've grown. 
 
 Dreamer and Fool so near the throne ! 
 
 The song is old and flatly sung. 
 
 The Fool he prompts the Wise Man's tongue ! 
 ASTROLOGER (speaks: MEPHIS. prvmpti). The Sun hiniaeU 
 
 is gold of purest ray ; 
 
 fhe herald, Mercury, serves for love and pay ; 
 Dame Venus has bewitched you all, for she, 
 Early and late, looks on you lovingly ; 
 Chaste Luna has her whims, no two alike ; 
 Mars threatens you, although he may not strike, 
 And Jupiter is still the splendid star. 
 Saturn is great, though seeming small and far ; 
 As metal, him we don't much venerate, 
 Of value slight, though heavy in his weight 
 Now, when of Sol and Luna union 's had, 
 Silver with gold, then is the world made glad : 
 All else, with them, is easy to attain, 
 Palaces, gardens, cheeks of rosy stain ; 
 And these procures this highly learned man, 
 Who that can do which none of us e'er can. 
 
 EMPEROR. Two meanings in his words I find, 
 And yet they don't convince my mind. 
 
 MURMURS. Why tell us that 1 stuff stale and flat 
 
 'T is quackery ! 't is chemistry ! 
 
 I've heard the strain and hoped in vain, 
 
 And though it come 't is all a hum. 
 MEPHIS. They stand around, amazed, unknowing; 
 They do not trust the treasure-spell
 
 (60 FAUST. 
 
 One dreams of mandrake, nightly growing, 
 
 The other of the dog of HelL 
 
 Why, then, should one suspect bewitching, 
 
 And why the other jest and prate, 
 
 When in their feet, they, too, shall feel the itching 
 
 When they shall walk with tottering gait ? 
 
 All feel the secret operation 
 
 Of Nature's ever-ruling might, 
 
 And from the bases of Creation 
 
 A living track winds up to light 
 
 In every limb when something twitches 
 
 In any place uncanny, old, 
 
 Decide at once, and dig for riches ! 
 
 There lies the fiddler, there the gold ! * 
 
 MUKMURS. It hangs like lead my feet about. 
 I 've cramp i' the arm but that is gout. 
 I Ve tickling in the greater toe. 
 Down all my back it pains me so. 
 From signs like these 't is very clear 
 The richest treasure-ground is here. 
 EMPEROR. Haste then ! Thou 'It not again make off J 
 
 Test now thy frothy, lying graces, 
 
 And show at once the golden places ! 
 
 My sword and sceptre I will doff, 
 
 Mine own imperial hands I '11 lend thee, 
 
 If thou liest not, therein befriend thee, 
 
 But, if thou liest, to Hell will send thee ! 
 
 MBPHIS, I 'd find, in any case, the pathway there H- 
 
 Yet I cannot enough declare 
 
 What, ownerless, waits everywhere. 
 
 The farmer, following his share, 
 
 Turns out a gold-crock with the mould : 
 
 He seeks saltpetre where the clay-walls stand, 7 
 
 And findeth rolls of goldenest gold, 
 
 With joyful fright, in his impoverished hand. 
 
 What vaults there are to be exploded, 
 
 Along what shafts and mines corroded, 
 
 The gold-diviner's steps are goaded, 
 
 Until the Under-world is nigh ! 
 
 In cellars vast he sees the preciou*
 
 1. in 
 
 beakers, vases, plates, and dishes, 
 Row after row, resplendent lie : 
 Rich goblets, cut from rubies, stand there, 
 And, would he use them, lo ! at hand there 
 Is ancient juice of strength divine. 
 Yet, trust to him who 's knowledge gotten, 
 The wood o' the staves has long been rotten, 
 A cask of tartar holds the wine. 8 
 Not only gold and gems are hiding, 
 B But of proud wines the heart abiding, 
 In terror and in night profound : 
 Herein assiduously explore the wise ; 
 It is a farce, by day to recognize, 
 But mysteries are with darkness circled round. 
 
 EMPEROK. See thou to them ! What profits the Obscure 1 
 Whate'er has value comes to daylight, sure. 
 At dead of night who can the rogue betray 1 
 Then all the cows are black, the cats are gray. 
 If pots are down there, full of heavy gold, 
 Drive on thy plough, and turn them from the mould. 
 
 MBPHIS. Take hoe and spade thyself, I pray thee, 
 Thou shalt be great through peasant-toil ! 
 A herd of golden calves, to pay thee, 
 Will loose their bodies from the soil. 
 And then at once canst thou, with rapture, 
 Gems for thyself and for thy mistress capture : 
 Their tints and sparkles heighten the degree 
 Of Beauty as of Majesty. 
 
 EMPEROR. Then quick ! at once ! how long will it require I 
 
 ASTROLOGER (prompted by MEPHIS.). Sire, moderate such 
 
 urgence of desire ! 
 
 Let first the gay, the motley pastime end ! 
 Not to the goal doth such distraction tend. 
 First self-command must quiet and assure ue j 
 The upper things the lower will procure us. 
 Who seeks for Good, must first be good ; 
 Who seeks for joy, must moderate his blood ; 
 Who wine desires, let him the ripe grapes tread j 
 Who miracles, by stronger faith be led ! 
 
 EMPEROR. Let us the time in merriment efface 1
 
 188 fAUST. 
 
 And, to our wish, Ash-Wednesday comes apace. 
 Meanwhile, we'll surely celebrate withal 
 More ioviaUy the maddening Carnival 
 
 [Tnimpett. Ex*u,t. 
 
 MBPHIS. How closely linked are Luck and Merit, 
 Doth never to these fools occur : 
 Had they the Philosopher's Stone, I swear it, 
 The stone would lack the Philosopher ! 
 
 III. 
 
 SPACIOUS HALL, 
 
 WITH ADJOINING APARTMENTS, 
 
 Arranged and Decorated for the Carnival Masquerade. 9 
 
 HERALD. Think not, as in our German bounds, yora 
 
 chance is 
 
 Of Death's or Fook' or Devils' dances ; 
 Here cheerful revels you await. 
 Our Ruler, on his Roman expedition, 
 Hath for his profit, your fruition, 
 Crossed o'er the Alpine high partition, 
 And won himself a gayer State. 
 He to the holy slipper bowed him 
 And first the right of power, besought ; 
 Then, as he went to get the Crown allowed him, 
 For us the Fool's-cap he has also brought 
 Now are we all new-born, to wear it ; 
 Each tactful and experienced man, 
 Drawn cosily o'er head and ears, doth bear it ; 
 A fool he seems, yet he must share it, 
 And be, thereby, as sober as he can. 
 They crowding come, I see already, 
 Closa coupling, or withdrawn unsteady,
 
 ACT I. 163 
 
 The choruses, like youth from school. 
 Come in or out, bring on your ranks ! 
 Before or after 'tis the rule 
 With all its hundred thousand pranks, 
 The World is one enormous Fool ! 
 
 GABDEN-GIKLS. (Song, accompanied with mandolines.} 
 
 That we win your praises tender 
 
 We are decked in festal gear ; 
 
 At the German Court of splendour, 
 
 Girls of Florence, we appear. 
 
 On our locks of chestnut glosses 
 Wear we many a flowery bell ; 
 Silken threads and silken flosses 
 Here must play their parts, as well 
 
 Our desert, not over-rated, 
 Seems to us assured and clear, 
 For by art we've fabricated 
 Flowers that blossom all the year. 
 
 Every sort of coloured snipping 
 Won its own synunetric right : 
 Though your wit on each be tripping^ 
 In the whole you take delight 
 
 We are fair to see and blooming, 
 Garden-girls, and gay of heart : 
 For the natural way of woman 
 Is so near akin to art. 
 
 HERALD. Let us see the wealth of blossoms 
 
 Basket-crowning heads that bear them, 
 Garlanding your arms and bosoms ! 
 Each select, and lightly wear them. 
 Haste ! and bosky arbours dressing, 
 Let a garden here enring us ! 
 Worthy they of closer pressing, 
 Hucksters and the wares they bring us. 
 
 GARDEN- GIRLS. Now in cheerful places chaffer, 
 But no marketing be our* *
 
 164 FA UXT. 
 
 Briefly, clearly, let each laugher 
 
 Know the meaning of his flowers. 
 
 OLITB BRANCH, WITH FRUIT." Flowery sprays 1 do not 
 covet ; 
 
 Strife I shun, or branch above it, 
 
 Foe of conflict I remain. 
 
 Yet am I the marrow of nations, 
 
 Pledge of happy consummations, 
 
 Sign of peace on every plain. 
 
 Be, to-day, my lucky fate 
 
 "Worthy head to decorate ! 
 WREATH OF EARS (golden). You to crown, the gifts of Cerea 
 
 Here their kindly grace have sent ; 
 
 Unto Use what chiefly dear is 
 
 Be your fairest ornament ! 
 FAUCY WREATH. Gayest blossoms, like to mallows,- 
 
 From the moss a marvel grew ! 
 
 Fashion calls to light, and hallows, 
 
 That which Nature never knew. 
 FAWOY NOSEOAT. What our name is, Theophrastm u 
 
 Would not dare to say : contrast us I 
 
 Yet we hope to please you purely, 
 
 If not all, yet many, surely, 
 
 Such as fain we'd have possess ua, 
 
 Braiding us in shining tresses, 
 
 Or, a fairer fate deciding, 
 
 On the heart find rest abiding. 
 CHALLENGE. Motley fancies blossom may 
 
 For the fashion of the day, 
 
 Whimsical and strangely moulded, 
 
 Such as Nature ne'er unfolded : 
 
 Bells of gold and stems of green 
 
 In the plenteous locks be seen. ! 
 
 Yet we 
 ROSKBUDS lie concealed behind ; 
 
 Lucky, who shall freshly find ! 
 
 When the summer-time returneth, 
 
 And the rosebud, bursting, burnetb, 
 
 Who snch blisses would surrender ? 
 
 Promise sweet, and yielding tender,
 
 ACT I. left 
 
 They, in Flora's realm, control 
 Swiftly eyes and sense and souL 
 [Under green, leafy arcades, the GARDEN- GIRLS 
 
 adorn and gracefully exhibit their wares. 
 GAJIDENERS. (Song, accompanied with theorbos.) 
 Blossoms there, that sprout in quiet, 
 Round your heads their charms are weaving ; 
 But the fruits are not deceiving, 
 One may try the mellow diet. 
 
 Sunburnt faces tempt with glowing 
 Cherries, peaches, plums, your vision : 
 Buy ! for vain the eye's decision 
 To the tongue's and palate's showing. 
 
 Ripest fruit from sunniest closes 
 Eat, with taste and pleasure smitten ! 
 Poems one may write on roses, 
 But the apple must be bitten. 
 
 Then permit that we be mated 
 With your youth, so flowery-fair : 
 Thus is also decorated, 
 Neighbour-like, our riper ware. 
 
 Under wreaths of flowery tether, 
 As the leafy arbours suit, 
 All may then be found together, 
 Buds and leaves, and flower and fruit ! 
 [ With alternating songs, accompanied urith mandolinet 
 and theorbos, both Choruses continue to set forth 
 their wares upon steps rising aloft, and to offer 
 them to the spectators. 
 
 MOTHER and DAUGHTER. 
 MOTHER. Maiden, when thou cam'sfr to light, 
 Tiny caps I wrought thee ; 
 Body tender, soft, and white, 
 Lovely face I brought thee. 
 AJB a bride I thought thee, lad
 
 166 FAUST. 
 
 To the richest, wooed and wed, 
 As a wife I thought thee. 
 
 Ah ! already many a year, 
 
 Profitless, is over : 
 
 None of all the wooers here 
 
 Now around thee hover ; 
 
 Though with one was wont to dance, 
 
 GaVst another nudge and glance, 
 
 Hast not found thy lover ! 
 
 I to feast and revel thee 
 Vainly took, to match one : 
 Pawns, and hindmost man of three, 
 Would not help thee snatch one. 
 Every fool now wears his cap : 
 Sweetheart, open thou thy lap ! 
 Still, perchance, mayst catch one ! 
 [Other maiden-playmates, young and beautiful, join 
 the garden-girls : the sound of familiar gossip it 
 heard. Fishers and bird-catchers, with nets, 
 fishing-rods, limed twigs, and other implement*, 
 appear, and disperse themselves among the maidens. 
 Reciprocal attempts to win, to catch, to escape, and 
 to hold fast, give opportunity for the most agreeablt 
 dialogues. 
 WOOD-CUTTBBS 12 (Enter, boisterously and boorishly). 
 
 Room ! make a clearing ! 
 
 Room in your revel ! 
 
 The trees we level 
 
 That tumble cracking : 
 
 Where we're appearing 
 
 Look out for whacking. 
 
 Our praise adjudging, 
 
 Make clear this fable ! 
 
 Save Coarse were drudging 
 
 Within your borders, 
 
 Would Fine be able 
 
 To build their orders, 
 
 Howe'er they fretted I
 
 ACT I. 167 
 
 Be taught in season, 
 
 For you'd be freezing 
 
 Had we not sweated ! 
 
 PULCINELLI (uncouth, almost idiotic). You, Fools, are 
 trooping, 
 
 Since birth so stooping ; 
 
 The wise ones we are, 
 
 From burdens freer. 
 
 Our caps, though sleazy, 
 
 And jackets breezy 
 
 To wear are easy : 
 
 It gives us pleasure 
 
 To go with leisure, 
 
 With slippered shuffles 
 
 Through market-scuffles, 
 
 To gape at the pother, 
 
 Croak at each other ! 
 
 Through crowded places 
 
 You always trace us, 
 
 Eel-like gliding, 
 
 Skipping and hiding, 
 
 Storming together : 
 
 Moreover, whether 
 
 You praise reprove us, 
 
 It does n't move us. 
 PARASITES (jawningly lustful). Ye woodland bandsmen. 
 
 And they, your clansmen, 
 
 The charcoal-burners, 
 
 To you we turn us : 
 
 For all such plodding, 
 
 Affirmative nodding, 
 
 Tortuous phrases, 
 
 Blowing both ways is 
 
 Warming or chilling, 
 
 Just as you 're feeling : 
 
 What profit from it? 
 
 There might fall fire, 
 
 Enormous, dire, 
 
 From heaven's summit, 
 
 Were there not billets,
 
 168 FAUST, 
 
 And coal in waggouis, 
 
 To boil your skillets 
 
 And warm your flagons. 
 
 It roasts and frizzles ; 
 
 It boils and sizzles ! 
 
 The taster and picker, 
 
 The platter-licker, 
 
 He sniffs the roasting, 
 
 Suspects the fishes, 
 
 And clears, with boasting, 
 
 His patron's dishes. 
 DRUNKEN MAN 13 (unconsciously). Naught, to-day, bring 
 
 melancholy ! 
 
 Since I feel so frank and free : 
 Fresh delight and songs so jolly, 
 And I brought them both with me ! 
 Thus I 'm drinking, drinking, drinking I 
 Clink your glasses, clinking, clinking ! 
 You behind there, join the rout ! 
 Clink them stout, and then it 's out ! 
 
 Though my wife assailed me loudly, 
 Rumpled me through thin and thick ; 
 And, howe'er I swaggered proudly, 
 Called me " masquerading stick " : 
 Yet I 'm drinking, drinking, drinking ; 
 Clink your glasses ! clinking, clinking ! 
 Masking sticks, another bout ! 
 When you Ve clinked them, drink them out ! 
 
 Say not mine a silly boast is ! 
 
 I am here in clover laid : 
 
 Trusts the host not, trusts the hostess, 
 
 She refusing, trusts the maid. 
 
 Still I 'm drinking, drinking, drinking 1 
 
 Come, ye others, clinking, clinking ! 
 
 Each to each ! keep up the rout ; 
 
 We, I 'm thinking, drink them owt 
 
 How and where my fun I 'm spying, 
 Let me have it as I planned 1
 
 ACT 1. 169 
 
 Let me lie where I am lying, 
 
 For I cannot longer stand. 
 CHORUS. Every chum be drinking, drinking I 
 
 Toast afresh, with clinking, clinking ! 
 
 Bravely keep your seats, and shout ! 
 
 Under the table he 's drunk out. 
 
 [The HERAID announces various Poets Poets of No- 
 lure, Courtly and Knightly Minstrels, Sentimentalist* 
 as well as Enthusiasts. In the crowd of competi- 
 tors of all kinds, no one allows another to commenc 
 his declamation. One slips past with a few wordt. 
 SATIRIST. Know ye what myself, the Poet, 
 
 Would the most rejoice and cheer! 
 If I dared to sing, and utter, 
 That which no one wants to hear. 
 [The Night and Churchyard Poets excuse themselves, 
 because they have just become engaged in a mod 
 interesting conversation with a newly-arisen vam- 
 pire, aitd therefrom a new school of poetry may 
 possibly be developed. The HERALD is obliged to 
 accept their excuses, and meanwhile calls forth tht 
 Grecian Mythology, which, even in modern masks, 
 loses neither its character nor its power to charm. 
 
 THE GRACES. " 
 AGLAIA. Life we bless with graces living; 
 
 So be graceful in your giving ! 
 HEQEMONE. Graceful be in your receival ; 
 
 Wish attained is sweet retrieval 
 EUFHROSYNE. And in days serene and spacioue, 
 
 In your thanks be chiefly gracious I 
 
 THE PAROJi. 11 
 
 ATBOPOS. I, the eldest, to the spinning 
 Have received the invitation ; 
 When the thread of Life 's beginning 
 There ifl need of meditation. 
 
 Finest flax I winnow featly 
 That your thread be softly given ;
 
 170 FAUST. 
 
 Draw it through my fingers neatly, 
 Make it thin, and smooth, and even. 
 
 If too wanton your endeavour, 
 Grasping here of joy each token, 
 Think the thread won't stretch for ever I 
 Have a care ! it might be broken. 
 
 GI/OTHO. Know that, given to me for wearing, 
 Lately were the shears supplied ; 
 Since men were not by the bearing 
 Of our eldest edified. 
 
 Useless webs she long untangled, 
 Dragging them to air and light ; 
 Dreams of fortune, hope-bespangled, 
 Clipped and buried out of sight 
 
 Alan I, in ignorance idle, 
 
 Made mistakes in younger years, 
 
 But to-day, myself to bridle, 
 
 In their sheath I stick the shears. 
 
 Thus restrained in proper measure, 
 Favour I this cheerful place : 
 You these hours of liberal pleasure 
 Use at will, and run your race ! 
 
 LACHESIS. In my hands, the only skilful, 
 Was the ordered twisting placed ; 
 Active are my ways, not wilful, 
 Erring not through over-haste. 
 
 Threads are coming, threads are reeling { 
 In its course I each restrain : 
 None, from off the circle wheeling, 
 Fails to fit within the skein. 
 
 If I once regardless gadded, 
 For the world my hopes were vain : 
 Hours are counted, years are added, 
 And the weaver takes the chain
 
 ACT L IT] 
 
 HBRALD. You would not recognize who now appear, 
 Though ne'er so learned you were in ancient writing ; 
 To look at them, in evil so delighting, 
 You'd call them worthy guests, and welcome here. 
 
 They are THE FURIES, 16 no one will believe us, 
 Fair, well-proportioned, friendly, young in years : 
 But make acquaintance, and straightway appears 
 How snake-like are such doves to wound, deceive OH. 
 
 Though they are spiteful, yet on this occasion, 
 When every fool exults in all his blame, 
 They also do not crave angelic fame, 
 But own themselves the torments of the nation. 
 
 AXECTO. What good of that, for you will trust us stiD ! 
 Each of us young and fair, a wheedling kitten. 
 Hath one of you a girl with whom he 's smitten, 
 We '11 rub and softly stroke his ears, until 
 
 T is safe to tell him, spite of all his loathing, 
 That she has also this and the other flame, 
 A blockhead he, or humpbacked, squint and lame, 
 And if betrothed to him, she 's good-for-nothing 1 
 
 We 're skilled, as well, the bride to vex and sever : 
 Why scarce a week ago, her very lover 
 Contemptuous things to her was saying of her ! 
 Though they make up, there's something rankles ever. 
 
 MEQ^ERA. That 's a mere jest ! For, let them once b< 
 
 married, 
 
 I go to work, and can, in every case, 
 The fairest bliss by wilful whins displace. 
 Man has his various moods, the hours are varied, 
 
 And, holding the Desired that once did charm him, 
 Each for the More-desired, a yearning fool, 
 Leaves the best fortune, use has rendered cool : 
 He flies the sun, and seeks the frost to warm him.
 
 173 FAUST. 
 
 Of ills for all I understand the brewing, 
 And here Asmodi as my follower lead, 1 * 
 To scatter mischief at the proper need, 
 And send the human race, in pairs, to ruin, 
 TISIPHONE. Steel and poison I, not malice, 
 Mix and sharpen for the traitor : 
 Lov^st thou others, soon or later, 
 Ruin pours for thee the chalice. 
 
 Through the moment's sweet libation 
 See the gall and wormwood stealing 1 
 Here no bargaining, no dealing ! 
 Like the act and retaliation. 
 
 No one babble of forgiving ! 
 
 To the rocks I cry : Revenge I is 
 
 Echo's answer : he who changes 
 
 Shall be missed among the living. 
 HERALD. Do me the favour, now, to stand aside, 
 For that which comes is not to you allied. 
 Vou see a mountain pressing through the throng, 18 
 The flanks with brilliant housings grandly hung, 
 A head with tusks, a snaky trunk below, 
 A mystery, yet I the key will show. 
 A delicate woman sits upon his neck, 
 And with a wand persuades him to her beck ; 
 The other, throned aloft, superb to see, 
 Stands in a glory, dazzling, blinding me. 
 Beside him walk two dames in chains ; one fearfu 
 And sore depressed, the other glad and cheerful. 
 One longs for freedom and one feels she 's free : 
 Let each declare us who she be ! 
 
 FEAR. Smoky torches, lamps are gleaming 
 
 Through the festal's wildering train ; 
 
 Ah ! amid these faces scheming 
 
 I am fastened by my chain. 
 
 "Off, ridiculously merry ! 
 I mistrust you* grinning gpite : 
 Each relentless adversary 
 Presses nearer in the night
 
 ACT I. 173 
 
 Friend would here as foe waylay me, 
 But I know the masking shapes ; 
 Yonder 's one that wished to sky me, 
 Now, discovered, he escapes. 
 
 From the world I fain would wander 
 Through whatever gate I find ; 
 But perdition threatens yonder, 
 And the horror holds my mind. 
 
 HOPE. Good my sisters, I salute you ! 
 
 Though to-<lay already suit you 
 
 Masquerading thus demurely, 
 
 Yet I know your purpose surely 
 
 To reveal yourselves to-morrow. 
 
 And if we, by torches lighted, 
 
 Fail to feel a special pleasure, 
 
 Yet in days of cheerful leisure, 
 
 At our will, delight we '11 borrow, 
 
 Or alone or disunited 
 
 Free through f<urest pastures ranging, 
 
 Rest and action interchanging, 
 
 And in life no cares that fetter 
 
 Naught forego, but strive for better. 
 
 Welcome guests are all around us, 
 
 Let us mingle with the rest ! 
 
 Surely, what is best hath found us, 
 
 Or we '11 somewhere find the best. 
 PRUDENCE. Two of human foes, the greatest, 
 
 Fear and Hope, I bind the faster, 
 
 Thus to save you atrthe latest : 
 
 Clear the way for me, their master. 
 
 I conduct the live colossus, 
 Turret-crowned with weighty masse* | 
 And unweariedly he crosses, 
 Step by step, the steepest passes. 
 
 But aloft the goddess planted, 
 With her broad and ready pinion*
 
 174 FAUST. 
 
 Turns to spy where gain is granted 
 Everywhere in Man's dominions. 
 
 Round her all is bright and glorious ; 
 Splendour streams on all her courses : 
 Victory is she the victorious 
 Goddess of all active forces. 
 
 Zolu>-THERSiTES. 19 Ho ! ho ! I 've hit the time of day. 
 You 're all together bad, I say ! 
 But what appeared my goal to me 
 Is she up there, Dame Victory. 
 She, with her snowy wings spread out, 
 Thinks she 's an eagle, past a doubt ; 
 And, wheresoever she may stir, 
 That land and folk belong to her ; 
 But when a famous thing is done 
 I straightway put my harness on, 
 To lift the low, the high upset, 
 The bent to straighten, bend the straight, 
 That, only, gives my heart a glow, 
 And on this earth I '11 have it so. 
 HERALD. Then take, thou beggar-cur, the blow, 
 This magic baton's stroke of skill ! 
 So, twist and wriggle at thy will ! 
 See how the double dwarfish ape 
 Rolls to a hideous ball in shape ! 
 A marvel ! 'T is an egg we view ; 
 It puffs itself and cracks in two : 
 A pair of twins come forth to-day, 
 The Adder and the Bat are they. 
 Forth in the dust one winds and creeps j 
 One darkly round the ceiling sweeps. 
 They haste to join in company : 
 The third therein I would not be ! 
 
 Come ! the dance is yonder gay. 
 No ! I would I were away. 
 Feel'st thou how the phantom race 
 Flits about us in this place ? 
 Something whizzes past my hair. 
 Round my feet I saw it fare.
 
 ACT I. 175 
 
 None of us are injured, though. . 
 
 But we all are frightened so. 
 
 Wholly spoiled is now the fun. 
 
 Which the vermin wanted done. 
 HERALD. Since, as Herald, I am aiding 
 At your merry masquerading, 
 At the gate I 'm watching, fearful 
 Lest within your revels cheerful 
 Something slips of evil savour ; 
 And I neither shrink nor waver. 
 Yet, I fear, the airy spectres 
 Enter, baffling all detectors, 
 And from goblins that deceive you 
 I 'm unable to relieve you. 
 First, the dwarf became suspicious ; 
 Now a mightier pageant issues 
 Yonder, and it is my duty 
 To explain those forms of beauty : 
 But the thing I comprehend not, 
 How can I its meaning mention ? 
 Help me to its comprehension ! 
 Through the crowd you see it wend noM 
 Lo ! a four-horse chariot wondrous, 
 Hither drawn, the tumult sunders ; 
 Yet the crowd seems not to share in 't 
 Nowhere is a crush apparent. 
 Coloured lights, in distance dimmer, 
 Motley stars around it shimmer ; 
 Magic-lantern-like they glimmer. 
 On it storms, as to assault. 
 Clear the way ! I shudder ! 
 EOT CHAKIOTEER. Halt I 
 
 Steeds, restrain the eager pinion, 
 Own the bridle's old dominion, 
 Check yourselves, as I desire you, 
 Sweep away, when I inspire you l 
 Honour we these festal spaces I 
 See, the fast increasing faces, 
 Circles, full of admiration ! 
 Herald, come ! and in thy fashion,
 
 i7 FAUST. 
 
 Ere we take from here our glories, 
 Name us, and describe and show ua I 
 For we 're naught but allegories, 
 Therefore 't is thy place to know UB. 
 HERALD. No, thy name from me is hidden, 
 
 I could describe thee, were I bidden. 
 Bor CHARIOTEER. Try it ! , 
 
 HKKALK Granted, at the start, 
 
 Young and beautiful thou art, 
 A half -grown boy ; and yet the woman-naturt 
 Would rather see thee in completed stature. 
 To me thou seem'st a future fickle wooer, 
 Changing the old betrayed love for a newer. 
 . BOT CHARIOTEER. Go on ! So far, 't is very fine : 
 
 Make the enigma's gay solution thine ! 
 HERALD. Black lightning of the eyes, the dark lock* 
 
 glowing, 20 
 
 Yet bright with jewelled anadem, 
 And light thy robe as flower on stem, 
 From shoulder unto buskin flowing 
 With tinsel-braid and purple hem ! 
 One for a maiden might surmise thee, 
 Yet, good or ill, as it might be, 
 The maids, e'en now, would take and prize thee : 
 They 'd teach thee soon thy ABC. 
 BOY CHARIOTEER. And he, who like a splendid vision, 
 
 Sits proudly on the chariot's throne ? 
 HERALD. He seems a king, of mien Elysian ; 
 Blest those, who may his favour own ! 
 No more has he to earn or capture ; 
 His glance detects where aught 's amiss, 
 And to bestow his perfect rapture 
 Is more than ownership and bliss. 
 BOY CHARIOTEER. Thou darest not at this point desist 
 
 Describe him fully, I insist ! 
 HERALD. But undescribed is Dignity, 
 The healthy, full-moon face I see, 
 The ample mouth, the cheeks that fresher 
 Shine out beneath his turban's pressure.
 
 ACT I. 177 
 
 Rich comfort in the robe he's wearing, 
 
 What shall I say of such a bearing? 
 
 He seems, as ruler, known to me. 
 BOY CHARIOTEER. Plutus, the God of Wealth, is he 
 
 He hither comes in proud attire ; 
 
 Much doth the Emperor him desire. 
 HERALD. Of thee the What and How declare to met 
 BOY CHARIOTEER. I am Profusion, I am Poesy. 21 
 
 The Poet I, whose perfect crown is sent 
 
 When he his own best goods hath freely spent. 
 
 Yet, rich in mine unmeasured pelf, 
 
 .Like Plutus I esteem myself : 
 
 I prank and cheer his festal show 
 
 And whatsoe'er he lacks bestow. 
 HERALD. Fresh charm to thee thy brag imparts, 
 
 But let us now behold thine arts ! 
 BOY CHARIOTEER. Just see me fillip with my fingers I 
 
 What brilliance round the chariot lingers, 
 
 And there a string of pearls appears ! 
 
 [continuing to fillip and snap his fingers in all 
 directions : 
 
 Take golden spangles for neck and oars, 
 
 Combs, and diadems free of flaw, 
 
 And jewelled rings as ne'er ye saw! 
 
 I also scatter flamelets bright, 
 
 Awaiting where they may ignite. 
 HERALD. How strives the crowd .with eager longing, 
 
 Almost upon the giver thronging ! 
 
 As in a dream he snaps the toys ; 
 
 All catch and snatch with crush and noise. 
 
 But now new tricks have I detected 
 
 What each has zealously collected 
 
 His trouble doth but poorly pay ; 
 
 The gifts take wings and fly away. 
 
 The pearls are loosened from their band, 
 
 And beetles crawl within his hand ; 
 
 He shakes them off, and then instead, 
 
 Poor dolt, they hum around his head! 
 
 The others find their solid things 
 
 Are butterflies with gaudy wings.
 
 178 FAUST. 
 
 How much the scamp to promise seems, 
 
 And only gives what golden gleams ! 
 
 BOY CHABIOTEER. Masks to announce, I grant, thou'rt 
 worthy ; 
 
 But 'neath the shell of Being to bestir thee 
 
 Is not a herald's courtly task : 
 
 A sharper sight for that we ask. 
 
 Yet every quarrel I evade ; 
 
 To thee, my Chief, he speech and question made ! 
 
 [Turning to PLTTTU& 
 
 Didst thou not unto me confide 
 
 The tempest of the steeds I guide ? 
 
 Canst thou not on my guidance reckon ? 
 
 Am I not there, where thou dost beckon t 
 
 And have I not, on pinions boldest, 
 
 Conquered for thee the palm thou boldest ? 
 
 When in thy battles I have aided, 
 
 I ever have been fortunate ; 
 
 Thy brow when laurels decorate, 
 
 Have I not them with hand and fancy braided ? n 
 PLUTUS. If there be need that I bear witness now, 
 
 I'm glad to say : soul of my soul art thou 1 
 
 Thine acts are always to my mind, 
 
 And thou the richer art, I find. 
 
 Thy service to reward, I hold 
 
 The green bough higher than my crowns of gold. 
 
 To all a true word spoken be : 
 
 Dear Son, I much delight in thee. 
 
 BOY CHARIOTEEB (to the Crowd). The greatest gifts my 
 hand flings out, 
 
 See ! I have scattered round about. 
 
 On divers heads there glows the tongue 
 
 Of flame which I upon them flung, 
 
 Leaps back and forth among the shapes, 
 
 On this remains, from that escapes, 
 
 But very seldom upward streams 
 
 In transient flush of mellow beams ; 
 
 And unto many, ere they mark, 
 
 It is extinct and leaves them dark. 
 CHATTER OF WOMEN. Upon the chariot that man
 
 ACT I. 179 
 
 Is certainly a charlatan : 
 
 There, perched behind, the clown is seen. 
 
 From thirst and hunger grown so lean 
 
 As one ne'er saw him ; if you'd pinch, 
 
 He has n't flesh to feel and flinch. 
 THE STARVELING. Disgusting women, off ! I know 
 
 That when I come, you'd have me go. 
 
 When woman fed her own hearth-flame, 
 
 Then Avaritia was my name ; a 
 
 Then throve the household fresh and greeu, 
 
 For naught went out and much came in. 
 
 To chest and press I gave good heed, 
 
 And that you'd call a vice, indeed ! 
 
 But since in later years, the fact is, 
 
 Economy the wife won't practise, 
 
 And, like the host of spendthrift scholaia, 
 
 Has more desires than she has dollars, 
 
 The husband much discomfort brooks, 
 
 For there are debts where'er he looks. 
 
 She spends what spoil she may recover 
 
 Upon her body, or her lover ; 
 
 In luxury eats, and to excess 
 
 Drinks with the flirte that round her proas ; 
 
 For me that raises money's price ; 
 
 Male is my gender, Avarice ! 
 
 LEADEB: OF THE WOMEN. With dragons, mean may b 
 the dragon ; 
 
 It's all, at best, but lying stuff ! 
 
 He comes, the men to spur and egg on, 
 
 And now they 're troublesome enough. 
 CROWD OF WOMEN. The scarecrow ! Knock him from 
 
 the waggon ! 
 
 What means the fag, to threaten heret 
 As if his ugly face we'd fear ! 
 Of wood and pasteboard is each dragon : 
 Come on his words shall cost him dear ] 
 HEKALD. Now, by my wand ! Be still let none ttir I 
 
 Yet for my help there's scarcely need ; 
 
 See how each grim and grisly monster, 
 
 Clea-Mig the space around with speed,
 
 180 FAUST. 
 
 Unfolds his fourfold wings of dread ! 
 
 The dragons shake themselves in anger, 
 
 With flaming throats, and scaly clangour ; 
 
 The place is clear, the crowd has fled. 
 
 [Piimjs descends from the chariot. 
 HERALD. How kingly comes he from above ! 
 
 He beckons, and the dragons move ; 
 
 Then from the chariot bring the chest 
 
 With gold, and Avarice thereon. 
 
 See, at his feet the load they rest ! 
 
 A. marvel 'tis, how it was done. 
 
 PITJTOS (to the CHARIOTEER). Now thou hast left th 
 onerous burden here, 
 
 Thou'rt wholly free : away to thine own sphere I 
 
 Here it is not ! Confused and wild, to-day, 
 
 Distorted pictures press around our way. 
 
 Where clear thy gaze in sweet serenity, 
 
 Owning thyself, confiding but in thee, 
 
 Thithar, where Good and Beauty are unfurled, 
 
 To Solitude ! and there create thy world ! 
 BOY CHARIOTEER. Thus, as an envoy, am T worthy of 
 thee ; 
 
 Thus, as my next of kindred, do I love thee. 
 
 Where thou art, is abundance ; where I go 
 
 Each sees a splendid profit round him grow. 
 
 In inconsistent life each often wavers, 
 
 Whether to seek from thee, or me, the favours 
 
 Thy followers may be indolent, 'tis true ; 
 
 Who follows me, has always work to do. 
 
 My deeds are never secret and concealed ; 
 
 I only breathe, and I'm at once reveakd. 
 
 Farewell, then ! Thou the bliss hast granted me ; 
 
 But whisper low, and I return to thee ! 
 
 [Exrit, at he came 
 PLUTUS "Tig time, now to unchain the precious metals 1 
 
 The padlocks with the herald's wand I smite : 
 
 The chest is opened : look ! from iron kettles 
 
 It pours like golden blood before your sight. 
 
 It boils, and threatens to devour, as fuel, 
 
 Melting them, crown and ring and chain and jewel I
 
 ACT 1. 181 
 
 CRIES OF THE CROWD. See here, and there I 
 they boil and swim ; 
 The chest is filling to the brim 1 
 Vessels of gold are filling there, 
 And minted rolls are turning there. 
 And ducats jingle as they jump ! 
 O, how my heart begins to thump 1 
 All my desire I see, and more. 
 They're rolling now along the floor. 
 Tis offered you : don't be a dunce, 
 Stoop only, and be rich at once ! 
 Then, quick as lightning we, the rest, 
 Will take possession of the chest. 
 HERALD. What ails ye, fools ? What mean ye all I 
 'Tis but a joke of Carnival 
 To-night be your desires controlled ; 
 Think you we'd give you goods and gold? 
 Why, in this game there come to view 
 Too many counters even, for you. 
 A pleasant cheat, ye dolts ! forsooth 
 You take at once for naked truth. 
 What's truth to you ? Illusion bare 
 Surrounds and rules you everywhere. 
 Thou Plutus-mask, Chief unrevealed, 
 Drive thou this people from the field t 
 PLXJTDB. Thy wand thereto is fit and free ; 
 Lend it a little while to me 1 
 I dip it in the fiery brew, 
 Look out, ye maskers ! all of you. 
 It shines, and snaps, and sparkles throws ; 
 The burning wand already glows. 
 Who crowdeth on, too near to me, 
 Is burned and scorched relentlessly. 
 And now my circuit I'll commence. 
 CRIES AND CROWDING. Woe's me! We're lost there's 
 
 no defence I 
 
 Let each one fly, if fly he can ! 
 Back ! clear the way, you hindmost man 1 
 It sparkles fiercely in mine eyes. 
 The burning wand upon me Uea.
 
 183 FAUST. 
 
 We all are lost, we all are lost! 
 
 Back, back ! ye maskers, jammed and tossed I 
 
 Back, senseless crowd, away from there I 
 
 0, had I wings, I'd take the air. 
 PIUTUS. Now is the circle crowded back, 
 
 And none, I think, scorched very black. 
 The throng retires, 
 Scared by the fires. 
 As guaranty for ordered law, 
 A ring invisible I draw. 
 HERALD. A noble work is thine, to-night : 
 
 I thank thy wisdom and thy might. 
 PLUTUS. Preserve thy patience, noble friend, 
 
 For many tumults yet impend. 
 AVARICE. Thus, if one pleases, pleasantly 
 
 May one survey this circle stately ; 
 
 For, ever foremost, crowd the women greatly, 
 
 If aught to stare at, or to taste, there be. 
 
 Not yet entirely rusty are my senses ! 
 
 A woman fair is always fair to me : 
 
 And since, to-day, it makes me no expenses, 
 
 We'll go a courting confidently. 
 
 But in a place so populate 
 
 All words to every ear don't penetrate ; 
 
 So, wisely 1 attempt, and hope success, 
 
 Myself by pantomime distinctly to express. 
 
 Hand, foot, and gesture will not quite suffice, 
 
 So I employ a jocular device. 
 
 Like clay will I the gold manipulate ; 
 
 One may transform it into any state. 
 HERALD. What will the lean fool do 1 Has he, 
 
 So dry a starveling, humour ? See, 
 
 He kneads the gold as it were dough ! 
 
 Beneath his hands 'tis soft ; yet, though 
 
 He roll and squeeze it, for his pains 
 
 Disfigured still the stuff remains. 
 
 He turns to the women there, and they 
 
 All scream, and try to get away, 
 
 With gestures of disgust and loathing - 
 
 The ready rascal stops at nothing.
 
 ACT I 183 
 
 I fear he takes delight to see 
 He has offended decency. 
 I dare not silently endure it : 
 Give me my wand, that I may cure it I 
 PLUTUS. The danger from without he does not see : 
 Let him alone ; his Fool's-hour fast is waning. 
 There'll be no space for his mad pranks remaining ; 
 Mighty is Law, mightier Necessity. 
 TUMULT AND SONG. The savage hosts, with shout and 
 
 hail, 
 
 From mountain-height and forest-vale 
 Come, irresistibly as Fate : 
 Their mighty Pan they celebrate. 
 They know, forsooth, what none can guess, 
 And in the empty circle press. 
 PLOT-US. I know you well, and your illustrious Pan ! 
 Boldly together you've performed your plan. 
 Full well I know what every one does not, 
 And clear for you, as duty bids, the spot 
 Be Fortune still her favour lending ! 
 The strangest things may here be bred : 
 They know not whitherward they're wending, 
 Because they have not looked ahead. 
 SAVAGB SONG. Furbished people, tinsel-stuff ! 
 They're coming rude, they're coming rough ; 
 In mighty leap, in wildest race, 
 Coarse and strong they take their place. 
 FAUNS. Fauns, pair on pair, 
 Come dancing down, 
 With oaken crown 
 On crispy hair ; 
 
 The fine and pointed ear is seen, 
 Leaf-like, the clustering curls between; 
 A stubby nose, face broad and flat, 
 The women don't object to that ; 
 For when his paw holds forth the Faun , 
 The fairest to the dance is drawn. 
 SATTB. See now, behind, the Satyr skip, 
 With foot of goat, lean leg and hip, 
 Lean and ainewy must they be :
 
 184 FAUST 
 
 For, chamois-like, on mountains he 
 Loveth to stand or scamper free. 
 Then, strong in freedom of the skies 
 Child, wife, and man doth he despise, 
 Who, deep in the valley's smoke and steam 
 That they live also, snugly dream; 
 While, pure and undisturbed, alone 
 The upper world is all his own. 
 
 GNOMES. ** The little crowd comes tripping there : 
 They don't associate pair by pair. 
 In mossy garb, with lantern bright, 
 They move commingling, brisk and light, 
 Each working on his separate ground, 
 Like firefly -emmets swarming round; 
 And press and gather here and there, 
 Always industrious everywhere. 
 With the "Good People" kin we own; 
 As surgeons of the rocks we're known. 
 Cupping the mountains, bleeding them 
 From fullest veins, depleting them 
 Of store of metals, which we pile, 
 And merrily greet: "Good cheer!" the while. 
 Well-meant the words, believe us, then! 
 We are the friends of all good men. 
 Yet we the stores of gold unseal 
 That men may pander, pimp, and steal; 
 Nor iron shall fail his haughty hand 
 Who universal murder planned: 
 And who these three Commandments breaks 
 But little heed o' the others takes, 
 For that we're not responsible: 
 We're patient be you, too, as well! 
 
 GIANTS. The wild men of the woods they're named, 
 And in the Hartz are known and famed 
 In naked nature's ancient might 
 They come, each one a giant wight, 
 With fir-tree trunk in brawny hand, 
 Around the loins a puffy band, 
 The merest apron of leaf and bough: 
 The Pope hath no such guards, I trow.
 
 ACT I. 18ft 
 
 NTMPHS TS CHOKUS. (They surround the great PAX.) He 
 
 comes ! We scan 
 The world's great AH, 
 Whoe part doth fall 
 To nighty Pan. 
 
 Ye gayest ones, advance to hint, 
 Your maddest measures dance to him* 
 Since serious and kind is he, 
 He wills that we should joyous be. 
 Under the blue, o'er-vaulting roof, 
 Ever be seemeth slumber-proof ; 
 Yet murmurs of the brooks he knows, 
 And soft airs lull him to repose. 
 At midday sleeping, o'er his brow 
 The leaf is moveless on the bough : 
 Of healthy buds the balsam there 
 Pervades the still, suspended air : 
 The nymph no longer dares to leap, 
 And where she stands, she falls asleep* 
 But when, all unexpected, he 
 Maketh his voice heard terribly, 
 Like rattling thunder, roar of wave, 
 Then each one seeks himself to save ; 
 The serried ranks disperse in fright, 
 The hero trembles in the fight 
 Then honour to whom the honour is due, 
 And hail to him who led us to you ! 
 
 OP GNOMES (to the great PAN\ When the 
 rich possession, shining 
 
 Through the rocks in thread and vein, 
 
 To the skilful wand's divining 
 
 Shows its labyrinthine chain, 
 
 We in vaults and caverns spacioua 
 Troglodytes, contented bide ; 
 While in purest daylight, gracious 
 Thou the treasures dost divide. 
 
 Now we see, wilt thou believe us, 
 Here a wondrous fountain TOR
 
 186 FAUST. 
 
 Promising with ease to give u 
 What was hardly to be won. 
 
 Lo ! It waits for thy attaining : 
 Then be moved to break the spell ! 
 All the wealth which thou art gaining 
 Profits all the world as welL 
 
 PMTTUS (to the HERALD). We, in the highest sense, must 
 
 be collected, 
 
 And let what may come, come, though unexpected. 
 Thy courage has not yet been counted short : 
 The fearful thing we now shall see will try it ; 
 The world and History will both deny it, 
 So write it faithfully in thy report ! 
 
 HEKALD (grasping the wand which PLTJTTTS holds in hu 
 hand). The dwarfs conduct the great Pan nigher, 
 
 Yet gently, to the fount of fire. 
 
 It bubbles from the throat profound, 
 
 Then sinks, retreating to the ground, 
 
 And dark the open crater shows ; 
 
 And then again it boils and glows. 
 
 Great Pan in cheerful mood stands by, 
 
 Rejoiced the wondrous things to spy, 
 
 And right and left the foam-pearls fly. 
 
 How can he in the cheat confide 1 
 
 He bends and stoops, to look inside. 
 
 But now, behold ! his beard falls in : 
 
 Whose is that smoothly-shaven chin ' 
 
 His hand conceals it from our sight. 
 
 What follows is a luckless plight ; 
 
 The beard, on fire, flies back to smite 
 
 His wreath and head and breast with flame : 
 
 To pain is turned the merry game. 
 
 They haste to quench the fire, but none 
 
 The swiftly-kindling flames can shun, 
 
 That flash and dart on other heads 
 
 Till wide the conflagration spreads : 
 
 Wrapped in the element, in turn 
 
 The m asking groups take fire and burn.
 
 ACT 1. 187 
 
 But hark ! what news is bruited here 
 
 From mouth to mouth, from ear to ear ! 
 
 O evermore ill-fated night, 
 
 That brings to us such woe and blight } 
 
 To-morrow will proclaim to all 
 
 What no one wishes to befall, 
 
 For everywhere the cry I hear : 
 
 w The Emperor suffers pain severe f * 
 
 O were the proclamation wrong ! 
 
 The Emperor burns and all his throng. 
 
 Accurst be they who him misled, 
 
 With resinous twigs on breast and head, 
 
 To rave and bellow hither so. 
 
 To general, fatal overthrow. 
 
 O Youth ! O Youth ! wilt never thou 
 
 Limit chy draught of joy, in season ? 
 
 O Majesty, wilt never thou, 
 
 Omnipotent, direct with reason ? 
 
 The mimic woods enkindled are ; 
 
 The pointed tongues lick upward fax 
 
 To where the rafters interlace : 
 
 A. fiery doom hangs o'er the place. 
 
 Our cup of misery overflows, 
 
 For who shall save us no one knowa, 
 
 The ash-heap of a night shall hide, 
 
 To-morrow, this imperial pride. 
 
 PLPTUS. Terror is enough created ; 
 Now be help inaugurated ! 
 Smite, thou hallowed wand, and make 
 Earth beneath thee peal and quake t 
 Thou, the spacious breadth of air, 
 Cooling vapours breathe and bear! 
 Hither speed, around us growing, 
 Misty films and belts o'erflowing, 
 And the fiery tumult tame ! 
 Trickle, whisper, clouds, be crisper, 
 Roll in masses, softly drenching, 
 Mantling everywhere, and quenching! 
 Ye, the moist, the broadly bright'ning
 
 18P FAUST. 
 
 Change to harmless summer lightning 
 All this empty sport of flame ! 
 When by spirits we're molested, 
 Then be Magic manifested. 
 
 IV. 
 
 PLEASURE GARDEN. 
 THE MORNING SUN. 
 
 The EMPEROR, his Court, Gentlemen <md Ladies: FAUBT, 
 MEPHISTOPHELES, becomingly, according to the mode, not 
 thovrily dressed : both kneel. 
 
 FAUST. Sire, pardon'st thou the jugglery of flame ? 
 
 EMPEROR (beckoning hvm to rise). I wish more exhibitions 
 
 of the same. 
 
 A -sudden stood I in a glowing sphere ; 
 It almost seemed as if I Pluto were. 
 There lay, like night, with little fires besprent, 
 A rocky bottom. Out of many a vent, 
 Whirling, a thousand savage flames ascended, 
 Till in a single vault their streamers blended. 
 The tongues even to the highest dome were shot, 
 That ever was, and ever then was not. 
 Through the far space of spiral shafts of flame 
 The long processions of the people came ; 
 Crowding, till all the circle was o'errun, 
 They did me homage, as they've ever done. 
 Some from my Court I knew : to speak with candour, 
 A Prince I seemed o'er many a salamander. 
 
 MEPHIS. That art thou, Sire ! Because each element' 
 Fully accepts thy Majesty's intent 
 Obedient Fire is tested now by thee : 
 Where wildest heaving, leap into the Sea, 
 And scarce the pearly floor thy foot shall tread* 
 A. grand rotunda rises o'er thy head :
 
 ACT L 189 
 
 Thou seest the green, translucent billows swelling, 
 With purple edge, for thy delightful dwelling, 
 Bound thee, the central point. Walk thou at will, 
 The liquid palaces go with thee still ! 
 The very walls rejoice in life, disporting 
 In arrowy flight, in chasing and consorting : 
 Sea-marvels crowd around the glory new and faii^ 
 Shoot from all sides, yet none can enter there. 
 There gorgeous dragons, golden-armoured, float ; 
 There gapes the shark, thou laughest in his throat 
 However much this Court thy pride may please, 
 Yet hast thou never seen such throngs aa these. 
 Nor from the loveliest shalt thou long be parted ; 
 The curious Nereids come, the wild, shy-hearted, 
 To thy bright dwelling in the endless waters, 
 Timid and sly, as fish the youngest daughters, 
 The elder cunning : Thetis hears the news 
 And will, at once, her second Peleus choose. 
 The seat, then, on Olympus high and free 
 
 EMPEROR. The spaces of the air I leave to thee : 
 One all too early must ascend that throne. 
 
 MEPHIS. And Earth, high Prince ! already is thine own. 
 
 EMPEROR. What fortune brought thee here, for our 
 
 delights, 
 
 Directly from the One and Thousand Nights f 
 If thou like Scheherazade art rich in stories, 
 My favour shall insure thee higher glories. 
 Be ready always, when your world of day, 
 As often haps, disgusts me every way ! 
 
 LORD HIGH STEWARD (enters hastily). Highness Serene, I 
 
 never dared expect 
 To trumpet forth a fortune so select 
 As this, supremely blessing me, 
 Which 1 announce with joy to thee : 
 Reckoning on reckoning's balanced squarely ; 
 The usurer's claws are blunted rarely ; 
 I'm from my hellish worry free 
 Things can't in Heaven more cheerful l. 
 
 GKNBRAiriN-CHiEF (follvwt hastily). Arrears of pay are 
 settled duly,
 
 190 FAUST. 
 
 The army to enlisted newly ; 
 
 The trooper's blood is all alive, 
 
 rhe landlords and the wenches thrive. 
 
 EMPEROR. How breathe your breasts in broader spaces ! 
 How cheerful are your furrowed faces 1 
 How ye advance with nimble speed ! 
 
 TREASURER (appearing). Ask these, 'tis they have done 
 the deed ! 
 
 FAUST. It is the Chancellor's place the matter to present. 
 
 CHANCELLOR (who comes forward slowly). In my old days 
 
 I'm blest, and most content 
 So hear and see the fortune-freighted leaf 
 TVhich has transformed to happiness our grief. [He reads. 
 * To all to whom this coineth, be it known ; 
 A thousand crowns in worth this note doth owu. 
 It to secure, as certain pledge, shall stand 
 All buried treasure in the Emperor's land : 
 And 'tis decreed, perfecting thus the scheme, 
 The treasure, soon as raised, shall this redeem." 
 
 EMPEROR. A most enormous cheat a crime, I fear ! 
 Who forged the Emperor's sign-manual here ? 
 Has there not been a punishment condign ? 
 
 TREASURER. Remember ! Thou the note didst undersign ; 
 Last night, indeed. Thou stood'st as mighty Pan, 
 And thus the Chancellor's speech, before thee, ran : 
 " Grant to thyself the festal pleasure, then 
 The People's good a few strokes of the pen ! " 
 These didst thou give : they were, ere night retreated, 
 By skilful conjurers thousandfold repeated ; 
 And, that a like advantage all might claim, 
 We stamped at once the series with thy name : 
 Tens, Thirties, Fifties, Hundreds, are prepared. 
 Thou canst not think how well the folk have fared. 
 Behold thy town, half-dead once, and decaying, 
 How aii, alive, enjoying life, are straying ! 
 Although thy name long since the world made glad, 
 Such currency as now it never had. 
 No longer needs the alphabet thy nation, 
 For in this sign each findeth his salvation. 
 
 EITPKROR. And with my people does it pass for old !
 
 40T 1. 191 
 
 For pay in court and camp, the notes they hold t 
 Then I must yield, although the thing's amazing. 
 
 Low> HIGH STEWARD. "IVas scattered everywhere, like 
 
 wild-fire blazing, 
 
 As currency, and none its course may stop. 
 A crowd surrounds each money-changer's shop, 
 And every note is there accepted duly 
 For gold and silver's worth with discount, truly. 
 Thence it is spread to landlords, butchers, bakers : 
 One half the people feast as pleasure-takers ; 
 In raiment new the others proudly go, 
 The tradesmen cut their cloth, the tailors sew, 
 The crowd " The Emperor's health ! " in cellars wishes, 
 Midst cooking, roasting, rattling of the dishes. 
 
 MEPHIS. If one along the lonely terrace stray, 
 He sees the lady, in superb array, 
 With brilliant peacock-fan, before one eye ; 
 A note she looks for, as she simpers by, 
 And readier than by wit or eloquence 
 Before Love's favour falls the last defence. 
 One is not plagued his purse or sack to carry ; 
 Buch notes one lightly in his bosom bears, 
 Or them with fond epistles neatly pairs: 
 The priest devoutly in his breviary 
 Bears his : the soldier would more freely trip, 
 And lightens thus the girdle round his hip. 
 Your Majesty will pardon, if my carriage 
 Seems as it might the lofty work disparage. 
 
 FAUST. The overplus of wealth, in torpor bound, 
 Which in thy lands lies buried in tLe ground, 
 IB all unused ; nor boldest thought can measure 
 The narrowest boundaries of such a treasure. 
 Imagination, in its highest flight, 
 Exerts itself, but cannot grasp it quite ; 
 Yet minds, that dare explore the secrets soundless, 
 In boundless things possess a faith that's boundles* 
 
 MEPHIS. Such paper, stead of gold and jewelry, 
 So handy is one knows one's property : 
 One has no need of bargains or exchanges, 
 But drinks of love or wine, aa fancy ranges.
 
 199 
 
 If one needs coin, the brokers ready stand, 
 And if it fail, one digs awhile the land. 
 Goblet and chain one then at auction sells, 
 And paper, liquidated thus, compels 
 The shame of doubters and their scornful wit. 
 The people wish naught else ; they're used to it : 
 From this time forth, your borders, far and wide, 
 With jewels, gold, and paper are supplied. 
 
 EMPEROR. You Ve given our empire this prosperity ; 
 The pay, then, equal to the service be ! 
 The soil intrusted to your keeping, shall you 
 The best custodians be, to guard its value. 
 Vou know the hoards, well-kept, of all the land, 
 And when men dig, 'tis you must give command. 
 Unite then now, ye masters of our treasure, 
 This, your new dignity, to wear with pleasure, 
 And bring the Upper World, erewhile asunder, 
 In happiest conjunction with the Under ! 
 
 TREASURER. No further strife shall shake our Joint 
 
 position ; 
 I like to have as partner the magician. [Exit, urith FAUST. 
 
 EMPEROR. Man after man, the Court will I endow : 
 Let each confess for what he'll spend, and how ! 
 
 PAGB (receiving). I'll lead a jolly life, enjoy good cheer. 
 A SECOND (the same). I'll buy at once some trinkets foi 
 
 my dear. 
 CHAMBERLAIN (accepting). Wines twice as good shall down 
 
 my throat go trickling. 
 A SECOND (the same). I feel the dice within my pockets 
 
 tickling. 
 KNIGHT BANNERHT (reflectively) My lands and castle 
 
 shall be free of debt 
 ANOTHER (the same). I'll add to other wealth the wealth I 
 
 get. 
 
 EMPEROR. I hoped the gifts to bolder deeds would beckon; 
 But he who knows you, knows whereon to reckon. 
 I see that, spite of all this treasure-burst, 
 ?ou stay exactly as you were at nrst. 
 
 Fool (approaching). You scatter favours : grant me also
 
 ACT 1. 193 
 
 EMPEROR. Thou'rt come to life f 'Twould go at once for 
 
 rum. 
 
 FOOL. The magic leaves ! I don't quite comprehend. 
 EMPEROR. That I believe ; for them thoult badly spend. 
 FOOL. There others drop : I don't know what to do. 
 EMPEROR. Just pick them up ! they fall to thy share, too. 
 
 [Exit. 
 
 FOOL. Five thousand crowns are mine? How unexpected! 
 MEPHIS. Two-legged wine-skin, art thou resurrected ? 
 FOOL. Much luck I've had, but like this never yet. 
 MBPHIS. Thou'rt so rejoiced, it puts thee in a sweat 
 FOOL. But look at this, is't money's-worth, indeed 1 
 MEPHIS. 'Twill bring thee what thy throat and belly need. 
 FOOL. And cattle can I buy, and house and land ? 
 MEPHIS. Of course ! just make an offer once, off-hand ! 
 FOOL. Castle and wood, and chase, and fishing ? 
 MEPHIS. All! 
 
 I'd like upon Your Worship then to calL 
 FOOL. To-night as landed owner I shall sit. [Exit. 
 
 MEPHIS (unliifi). Who now will doubt that this our Fool 
 has will 
 
 V. 
 
 A GLOOMY GALLERY. 
 FAUST. MEPHISTOPHELES. 
 
 MEPHIS. What wilt thou with me in this gloomy gallery 1 
 Is there not still enough of sport 
 There, in the crowded, motley Court, 
 V t chance for tricks, and fun, and raillery 1 
 
 FAUST. Don't tell me that ! In our old day* the fun 
 
 of it 
 
 Didst thou wear out, and I'll have none of it. 
 Thy wandering here and there is planned 
 Just to evade what I demand.
 
 194 FAUST. 
 
 But I'm tormented something to obtain ; 
 
 The Marshal drives me, and the Chamberlain. 
 
 The Emperor orders, he will instantly 
 
 Helen and Paris here before him see, 
 
 The model forms of Man and Woman, wearing, 
 
 Distinctly shown, their ancient shape and bearing. 
 
 Now to the work 1 I dare not break my word. 
 
 MBPHIS. So thoughtlessly to promise was absuri 
 
 FAUST. Thou hast not, comrade, well reflected 
 What comes of having used thy powers : 
 We've made him rich ; 'tis now expected 
 That we amuse his idle hours. 
 
 MEPHK. Thou deem'st the thing is quickly fixed : 
 Here before steeper ways we're standing ; 
 With strangest spheres would'st thou be mixed, 
 And, sinful, addest new debts to the old, 
 Think'st Helen will respond to thy commanding 
 As freely as the paper-ghosts of gold ! 
 With witches'-riches and with spectre-pictures, 
 And changeling-dwarfs, I'll give no cause for strictures f 
 But Devil's darlings, though you may not scold 'em. 
 You cannot quite as heroines behold 'em. 
 
 FAUST. The old hand-organ still I hear thee play 1 
 From thee one always gets uncertain sense, 
 The father, thou, of all impedimenta : 
 For every means thou askest added pay. 
 A little muttering, and the thing takes place ; 
 Ere one can turn, beside us here her shade is. 
 
 MEPHIS. I've no concern with the old heathen race ; 
 They house within their special Hades . 
 Yet there's a way. 
 
 FAUST. Speak, nor delay thy history ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Unwilling, I reveal a loftier mystery. 
 In solitude are throned the Goddesses, 
 No space around them, Place and Time still less ; 
 Only to speak of them embarrasses. 
 They are THE MOTHBKS ! * 
 
 FAUST (terrified). Mothers! 
 
 MFHIS. Hast thou dread t 
 
 FAUST. The Mothers ' Mothers ! a strange word is said,
 
 ACT /. 195 
 
 MKPHTS. It fa so. Goddesses, unknown to ye, 
 The Mortals, named by us unwillingly. 
 Delve in the deepest depths must thou, to reach them : 
 Tis thine own fault that we for help beseech them. 
 
 FAUST. Where is the way ? 
 
 MEPHIS. No way ! To the Unreachable, 
 Ne'er to be trodden ! A way to the Unbeseechable, 
 Never to be besought ! Art thou prepared 1 
 There are no locks, no latches to be lifted ; 
 Through endless solitudes shalt thou be drifted. 
 Hast thou through solitudes and deserts fared 1 
 
 FAUST. I think 'twere best to spare such speeches; 
 They smell too strongly of the witches, 
 Of cheats that long ago insnared. 
 Have I not known all earthly vanities t 
 Learned the inane, and taught inanities ? 
 When as I felt I spake, with sense as guide, 
 The contradiction doubly shrill replied ; 
 Enforced by odious tricks, have I not fled 
 To solitudes and wildernesses dread, 
 And that I might not live alone, unheeded, 
 Myself at last unto the Devil deeded ! 
 
 MEPHIS. And hadst thou swum to farthest verge of ocean 
 And there the boundless space beheld, 
 Still hadst thou seen wave after wave in motion, 
 Even though impending doom thy fear compelled. 
 Thou hadst seen something, in the beryl dim 
 Of peace-lulled seas the sportive dolphins swim ; 
 Hadst seen the flying clouds, sun, moon, and star : 
 Naught shalt thou see in endless Void afar, 
 Not hear thy footstep fall, nor meet 
 A stable spot to rest thy feet 
 
 FAUST. Thou speak'st, as of all mystagogues the chief, 
 Who e'er brought faithful neophytes to grief ; 
 Only reversed : I to the Void am sent, 
 That Art and power therein I may augment : 
 To use me like the cat is thy desire, 
 To scratch for thee the chestnuts from the fire. 
 Come on, then ! well explore, whate'er befall ; 
 In this, thy Nothing, may I find my All !
 
 196 FAUST. 
 
 MBPHTS. Ill praise thee, ere we separate : I oee 
 Thou knowest the Devil thoroughly. 
 Here, take this key I 87 
 
 FAUST. That little thing ? 
 
 MEPHIS. Take hold of it, not undervaluing ! 
 
 FAUST. It glows, it shines, increases in my hand 1 
 
 MEPHIS. How much 'tis worth, thou soon shalt under 
 
 stand. 
 
 The Key will scent the true place from all others : 
 Follow it down ! 'twill lead thee to the Mothers. 
 
 FAUST (shuddering). The Mothers ! Like a blow it strikes 
 
 me still! 
 What is the word, to hear which makes me chill ? 
 
 MEPHIS. Art thou so weak, disturbed by each new word 1 
 Wilt only hear what thou'st already heard ] 
 To wondrous things art thou so used already, 
 Let naught, howe'er it sound, make thee unsteady f 
 
 FATJST. Nathless in torpor lies no good for me ; 
 The chill of dread is Man's best quality. 
 Though from the feeling oft the world may fend us, 
 Deeply we feel, once smitten, the Tremendous. 
 
 MEPHIS. Descend, then ! I could also say : Ascend ! 
 'Twere all the same. Escape from the Created 
 To shapeless forms in liberated spaces ! 
 Enjoy what long ere this was dissipated ! 
 There whirls the press, like clouds on clouds unfolding ; 
 Then with stretched arm swing high the key thou'rt hold- 
 ing! 
 
 FAUST (i-nsjnred). Good I grasping firmly, fresher strength 
 
 I win : 
 My breast expands, let the great work begin ! 
 
 MEPHIS. At last a blazing tripod tells thee this, 
 That there the utterly deepest bottom is. 
 Its light to thee will then the Mothers show, 
 Some in their seats, the others stand or go, 
 At their own will : Formation, Transformation, 
 The Eternal Mind's eternal recreation, 
 Forms of all creatures, there are floating free. 
 They'll see thee not ; for only wraiths they see. 
 Bo pluck up heart, the danger then is great,
 
 ACT I. 197 
 
 Qo to the tripod ere them hesitate, 
 And touch it with the key ! 
 
 [FAUST, with the key, assumet a decidedly command- 
 ing attitude. MEPHIS. observing him. 
 So, that is right I 
 
 It will adhere, and follow thee to light 
 Composedly mounting, by thy luck upborne, 
 Before they notice it, shalt thou return. 
 When thou the tripod hither hast conveyed, 
 Then call the hero, heroine, from the shade, 
 The first that ever such a deed perfected : 
 "Pis done, and thou thereto hast been selected. 
 For instantly, by magic process warmed, 
 To gods the incense-mist shall be transformed. 
 
 FAUST. What further now 1 
 
 MEPHIS. Downward thy being strain ! 
 Stamp and descend, stamping thou'lt rise again. 
 
 [FAUST stamps, and rinkt out of tight. 
 If only, by the key, he something learn I 
 I'm curious to see if he return. 
 
 VI. 
 
 BRILLIANTLY LIGHTED HALLS. 
 EMPEROR AND PRINCES. THE COUKT IN MOVKMZNT. 
 
 CHAMBERLAIN (to MEPHISTOPHEI^S). The spirit seen* 
 
 you've promised, still you owe us ; 
 Our Lord's impatient ; come, the phantasm show us ! 
 
 LORD HIGH STEWARD. Just now His Gracious Self did 
 
 question me : 
 Delay not, nor offend His Majesty I 
 
 MEPHIS. My comrade's gone to set the work in motion ; 
 How to begin, he has the proper notion. 
 In secret he the charms must cull, 
 Must labour with a fervour tragic :
 
 191 FAUST. 
 
 Who would that treasure lift, the Beautiful, 
 Requires the highest Art, the sage's Magic. 
 
 LORD HIGH STEWARD. What arts you need, ia all th 
 
 same to me ; 
 The Emperor wills that you should ready be. 
 
 A BLONDS (to MBPHIS.). One word, Sir ! Here you see a 
 
 visage fair, 
 
 In sorry summer I another wear ! 
 There sprout a hundred brown and reddish freckles, 
 And vex my lily skin with ugly speckles. 
 A cure ! 
 
 MEPHIS. 'Tis pity ! Shining fair, yet smitten, 
 Spotted, when May comes, like a panther-kitten ! 
 Take frog-spawn, tongues of toads, which cohobate, 
 Under the full moon deftly distillate, 
 And, when it wanes, apply the mixture : 
 Next spring, the spots will be no more a fixture. 
 
 A BRUNETTE. To sponge upon you, what & crowd's 
 
 advancing ! 
 
 I beg a remedy : a frozen foot 
 Annoys me much, in walking as in dancing ; 
 And awkwardly I manage to salute. 
 
 MEPHIS. A gentle kick permit, then, from my foot ! 
 
 THE BRUNETTE. Well, that might happen, when the 
 two are lovers. 
 
 MEPHIS. My kick a more important meaning covers : 
 Similia svmilibus, when one is sick. 
 The foot cures foot, each limb its hurt can palliate ; 
 Come near ! Take heed ! and, pray you, don't retaliate ! 
 
 THE BRUNETTE (screaming). Oh ! Oh ! it stings ! That 
 
 was a fearful kick, 
 Like hoof of horse. 
 
 MEPHIS. But it has cured you, quick. 
 
 To dance whene'er you please, you now are able ; 
 To press your lover's foot, beneath the table. 
 
 LADY (pressing forwards). Make room for me ! Too great 
 
 is my affliction, 
 
 My tortures worse than those described in fiction : 
 Hi bliss, till yesterday, was in my glances, 
 But now he turns his back, and spins with her romances.
 
 ACT L 191 
 
 The matter's grave, but listen unto me ! 
 Draw near to him with gentle, soft advances ; 
 Then take this coal and mark him stealthily 
 On mantle, shoulder, sleeve, though ne'er so slight, 
 Yet penitent at once his heart will he. 
 The coal thereafter you must straightway swallow, 
 And let no sip of wine or water follow : 
 He'll sigh before your door this very night 
 THE LADY. It is not poison sure ? 
 
 MBPHIS. (offended). Respect, where it u dm ! 
 
 To get such coals, you'd travel many a mile : 
 They're from the embers of a funeral pile, 
 The fires whereof we once more hotly blew. 
 PAQB. I love, yet still am counted adolescent. 
 MEPHIS. (aside). I know not whom to listen to, at present 
 
 [To the Page. 
 
 Let not the younger girls thy fancies fetter ; 
 Those well in years know how to prize thee better. 
 
 [Others crowd around him. 
 Already others 1 Tis a trial, sooth ! 
 I'll help myself, at last, with naked truth 
 The worst device ! so great my misery. 
 
 Mothers ! Mothers ! let but Faust go free ! 
 
 [Gazing around him 
 
 The lights are burning dimly in the hall, 
 The Court is moving onward, one and all : 
 
 1 see them march, according to degrees, 
 Through long arcades and distant galleries. 
 Now they assemble in the ample space 
 
 Of the Knights' Hall ; yet hardly all find place, 
 The breadth of walls is hung with arras rich, 
 
 And armour gleams from every nook and niche. 
 
 Here, I should think, there needs no magic word ; 
 The ghosts will come, and of their own accord.
 
 200 FAUST. 
 
 VII. 
 
 HALL OF THE KNIGHTS, DIMLY LIGHTED. 
 
 The Emperor and Court have entered. 
 
 HERALD. Mine ancient office, to proclaim the action, 
 Is by the spirits' secret influence thwarted : 
 One tries in vain ; such wildering distraction 
 Can't be explained, or reasonably reported. 
 The chairs are ranged, the seats are ready all : 
 The Emperor sits, fronting the lofty wall, 
 Where, on the tapestry the battles he 
 Of the great era may with comfort see. 
 Here now are all Prince, Court, and their belonging^ 
 Benches on benches in the background thronging ; 
 And lovers, too, in these dim hours enchanted, 
 Beside their loved ones lovingly are planted. 
 And now, since all have found convenient places, 
 We're ready : let the spirits show their faces! [7'rumpeftt, 
 
 ASTROLOGER. Begin the Drama ! 'Tis the Sire's command : 
 Ye walls, be severed straightway, and expand ! 
 Naught hinders ; magic answers our desire : 
 The arras flies, as shrivelled up by fire ; 
 The walla are split, unfolded : in the gloom 
 A theatre appears to be created : 
 By mystic light are we illuminated, 
 And I ascend to the proscenium. 
 
 MKPHIS. (rising to view in the prompter's box). I hope to 
 
 win, as prompter, general glory ; 
 
 For prompting is the Devil's oratory. [To the Astrologer. 
 
 Thou know'st the tune and time the stars that lead ; 
 Thou wilt my whispers like a master heed. 
 
 ASTROLOGER. By power miraculous, we here behold 
 A massive temple of the days of old.
 
 ACT L 201 
 
 Like Atlas, who erewhile the heavens upbore, 
 The serried columns stand, an ample store : 
 Well may they for the weight of stone suffice, 
 Since two might bear a mighty edifice. 
 
 ARCHITECT. 29 That the antique 1 As fine it can't be rated ; 
 I'd sooner style it awkward, over-weighted. 
 Coarse is called noble, and unwieldy, grand : 
 Give me the slender shafts that soar, expand ! 
 To lift the mind, a pointed arch may boast ; 
 Such architecture edifies us most. 
 
 ASTKOLOGBR. Receive with reverence the star- granted 
 
 hours ; 
 
 Let magic words bind Reason's restless powers, 
 But in return unbind, to circle free, 
 The wings of splendid, daring Phantasy ! 
 What you have boldly wished, see now achieved ! 
 Impossible 'tis therefore to be believed. 
 
 [FAUST rises to view on the other aide of the 
 
 proscenium. 
 
 In priestly surplice, crowned, a marvellous man, 
 He now fulfils what he in faith began. 
 With him, a tripod from the gulf comes up : 
 I scent the incense-odours from the cup. 
 He arms himself, the work to consecrate, 
 And henceforth it can be but fortunate. 
 
 FAUST (sublimely). Ye Mothers, in your name, who set 
 
 your throne 
 
 In boundless Space, eternally alone, 
 And yet companioned ! All the forms of Being, 
 In movement, lifeless, ye are round you seeing. 
 Whate'er once was, there burns and brightens free 
 In splendour for 'twould fain eternal be ; 
 And ye allot it, with all-potent might, 
 To Day's pavilions and the vaults of Night 
 Life seizes some, along his gracious course ; 
 Others arrests the bold Magician's force ; 
 And he, bestowing as his faith inspires, 
 Displays the Marvellous, that each desire*. 
 
 AST&OLOGER. The glowing key has scarcely touched the 
 cup,
 
 202 FAUST. 
 
 And lo ! through all the space, a mist rolls up : 
 It creepe about, and like a cloudy train, 
 Spreads, rounding, narrowing, parting, closed again. 
 And now, behold a spirit-masterpiece! 
 Music is born from every wandering fleece. 
 The tones of air, I know not how they flow ; 
 Where'er they move all things melodious grow. 
 The pillared shaft, the triglyph even rings : 
 I think, indeed, the whole bright temple sings. 
 The vapours settle ; as the light film clears, 
 A beauteous youth, with rhythmic step, appears 
 Here ends my task ; his name I need not tell : 
 Who doth not know the gentle Paris well ? 
 
 LADY. 0, what a youthful bloom and strength I see 
 
 A SECOND. Fresh as a peach, and full of juice, is he 1 
 
 A THIRD. The finely drawn, the sweetly swelling lip ! 
 
 A FOURTH. From such a cup, no doubt, you'd like to 
 rip? 
 
 A FIFTH. He's handsome, if a little unrefined. 
 
 A SIXTH. He might be somewhat gracefuller, to my 
 mind. 
 
 KNIGHT. The shepherd I detect ; I find him wearing 
 No traces of the Prince, or courtly bearing. 
 
 ANOTHER. 0, yes ! half-naked is the youth not bad ; 
 But let us see him first in armour clad ! 
 
 LADY. He seats himself, with such a gentle grace ! 
 
 KNIGHT. You'd find his lap, perchance, a pleasant place I 
 
 ANOTHER. He lifts his arm so lightly o'er his head. 
 
 CHAMBERLAIN. 'Tis not allowed : how thoroughly ill- 
 bred ! 
 
 LADY. You lords find fault with all things evermore. 
 
 CHAMBERLAIN. To stretch and yawn before the Emperor 1 
 
 LADY He only acts : he thinks he's quite alone. 
 
 CHAMBERLAIN. Even the play should be politely shown. 
 
 LADY Now sleep falls on the graceful youth so sweetly. 
 
 CHAMBERLAIN. Now will he snore: 'tis natural, com- 
 pletely 1 
 YOUNG LADY. Mixed with the incense-steam, what odoui 
 
 precious 
 Steals to my bosom, and my heart refreshes ?
 
 ACT I. 203 
 
 OLDER LADY. Forsooth, it penetrates and warms the 
 
 feeling ! 
 It comes from him. 
 
 OLDEST LADY. His flower of youth, unsealing, 
 It is : Youth's fine ambrosia, ripe, unfading, 
 The atmosphere around his form pervading. 
 
 [HELENA comes forward. 
 
 MEPHIS. So, that is she? M# sleep she would not waste: 
 She's pretty, truly, but she's not my taste. 
 
 ASTROLOGER. There's nothing more for me to do, I trow ; 
 As man of honour, I confess it now. 
 The Beauty comes, and had I tongues of fire, 
 So many songs did Beauty e'er inspire, 
 Who sees her, of his wits is dispossessed, 
 And who possessed her was too highly blessed. 
 
 FATJST. Have I still eyes ? Deep in my being springs 
 The fount of Beauty, in a torrent pouring ! 
 A heavenly gain my path of terror brings. 
 The world was void, and shut to my exploring, 
 And, since my priesthood, how hath it been graced ! 
 Enduring, 'tis, desirable, firm-based. 
 And let my breath of being blow to waste, 
 If I for thee unlearn my sacred duty! 
 The form, that long erewhile my fancy captured, 89 
 That from the magic mirror so enraptured, 
 Was but a frothy phantom of such beauty ! 
 "Tis Thou, to whom the stir of all my forces, 
 The essence of my passion's courses, 
 Love, fancy, worship, madness, here I render! 
 
 MEPHIS. (from the box). Be calm! you lose your r61e, 
 to be so tender ! 
 
 OLDER LADY. Tall and well-formed! Too small the 
 
 head, alone. 
 
 .. YOUNGER LADY. Just see her foot! A heavier ne'er 
 was shown. 
 
 DIPLOMATTST. Princesses of her style I've often seen : 
 From head to foot she's beautiful, I ween. 
 
 COURTIER. She near the sleeper steals, so soft and sly. 
 
 LADY. How ugly, near that youthful purity ! 
 
 POET, Her beauty's light is on him like a dawn.
 
 204 FAUST. 
 
 LADY. Endymion and Luna as they're drawn ! 
 
 POBT. Quite right ! The yielding goddess seems to sink, 
 And o'er him bend, his balmy breath to drink. 
 Enviable fate a kiss ! the cup is full ! 
 
 DUBNNA. Before all people ! that is more than cooL 
 
 FAUST. A fearful favour to the boy ! 
 
 MBPHIS. Be still ! 
 
 Suffer the shade to do wnate'er it wm ! 
 
 COURTIER. She slips away, light-footed : he awakes. 
 
 LADY. Just as I thought ! Another look she takes. 
 
 COURTIER. He stares : what haps, to him a marvel is. 
 
 LADY. But none to her, what she before her sees ! 
 
 COURTIER. She turns around to him with dignity. 
 
 LADY. I see, she means to put him through his paces : 
 ATI men, in such a case, act stupidly. 
 Then, too, he thinks that first he's won her graces. 
 
 KNIGHT. Majestically fine ! She pleases me. 
 
 LADY. The courtesan ! How very vulgar she ! 
 
 PAGE. Just where he is, is where I'd like to be ! 
 
 COURTIER. Who would not fain be caught in such sweet 
 meshes? 
 
 LADY. Through many a hand hath passed that jewel pre- 
 cious ; 
 The gilding, too, is for the most part gone. 
 
 ANOTHER. She has been worthless from her tenth yeax 
 on. 
 
 KNIGHT. Each takes the best that chance for him obtains . 
 I'd be content with these fair remains. 
 
 A LEARNED MAN. I freely own, though I distinctly see, 
 "Tis doubtful if the genuine one she be. 
 The Present leads us to exaggeration, 
 And I hold fast the written, old relation. 
 I read that, truly, ere her bloom was blighted, 
 The Trojan gray-beards greatly she delighted. 
 And here, methinks, it tallies perfectly : 
 I am not young, yet she delighteth me. 
 
 ASTROLOGER. No more a boy ! A bold, heroic fora, 
 He clasps her, who can scarce resist the storm. 
 With arm grown strong he lifts her high and free : 
 Means he to bear her off I
 
 ACT I. 205 
 
 FAUST. Rash fool, let be ! 
 
 Thou dar'st ? Thou hear' at not ! Hold ! I'll be obeyed. 
 
 MEPHIS. The spectral drama thou thyself hast made. 
 
 ASTROLOGER. A word more ! After all we've seen to-day, 
 I call the piece : The Rape of Helena. 
 
 FAUST. What ! Rape ? Am I nothing here ? To stead me, 
 Is not this key still shining in my hand? 
 Through realms of terror, wastes, and waves it led me, 
 Through solitudes, to where I firmly stand. 
 Here foothold is! Realities here centre! 
 The strife with spirits here the mind may venture, 
 And on its grand, its double lordship enter! 
 How far she was, and nearer, how divine ! 
 I'll rescue her, and make her doubly mine. 
 Ye Mothers! Mothers! crown this wild endeavour ! 
 Who knows her once must hold her, and for ever ! 
 
 ASTROLOGER. What art thou doing, Faust ? O, look at 
 
 him! 
 
 He seizes her : the form is growing dim. 
 He turns the key against the youth, and, lo ! 
 It touches him Woe's me ! Away now ! Woe on woe ! 
 [Explosion. FAUST lies upon the earth. The Spirit 
 dissolves in vapour. 
 
 MEPHIS. (taking FAUST upon his shoulders). You have it 
 
 now! One's self with fools to hamper, 
 At last even on the*Devil puts a damper. 
 
 [Darkness. Tumult.
 
 206 FAUST. 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 A HIGH-ARCHED, NARROW, GOTHIC CHAMBER 
 FORMERLY FAUST'S, UNCHANGED. 
 
 MEPHISTOPHELES coming forth from behind a curtain. 
 While he holds it up and looks behind him, FAUST is 
 seen lying stretched out upon an antiquated bed. 
 
 MEPHIS. Lie there, ill-starred ! seduced, unwiae, 
 To bonds that surely hold the lover ! 
 Whom Helena shall paralyze 
 
 Not soon his reason will recover. [Looking around him, 
 I look about, and through the glimmer 
 Unchanged, uninjured, ail appear* : 
 The coloured window-panes, methijiks, are dimmer, 
 The cobwebs have increased with years. 
 The ink is dry, the paper old and brown, 
 But each thing in its place I find : 
 Even the quill is here laid down, 
 Wherewith his compact with the Devil he signed. 
 Yea, deeper in, the barrel's red 
 With trace of blood I coaxed him then to shed. 
 A thing so totally unique 
 The great collectors would go far to seek. 
 Half from its hook the old fur-robe is falling, 
 That ancient joke of mine recalling, 
 How once I taught the boy such truth 
 Afl still, it may be, nourishes the youth. 
 The wish returns, with zest acuter,
 
 ACT II. v 307 
 
 Aided by thee, thou rough disguise, 
 Once more to take on airs as college tutcr^ 
 As one infallible in one's own eyes. 
 The savans this assurance know : 
 The Devil lost it, long ago ! 
 
 [He shakes the fur which he has taken down: moth* 
 
 crickets, cmd beetles fly out. 
 CHOKUB OF INSECTS. Welcome, and hail to thee 
 
 Patron, to-day : 
 
 We're flying and brimming. 
 
 We hear and obey. 
 
 Singly and silently 
 
 Us thou hast sown ; 
 
 Hither, by thousands, 
 
 Father, we've flown. 
 
 The imp in the bosom 
 
 Is snugly concealed ; 
 
 But lice in the fur-coat 
 
 Are sooner revealed. 
 MEPHIB. What glad surprise I fell, from this young lift 
 
 One reaps in time, if one has only sowed. 
 Once more I'll shake the ancient fleeces out : 
 Still here and there a chance one flies about. 
 Off, and around ! in hundred thousand nooks 
 Hasten to hide yourselves among the books, 
 There, in the pasteboard's wormy holes, 
 Here, in the smoky parchment scrolls, 
 In dusty jars, that broken lie, 
 And yonder skull with empty eye. 
 In all this trash and mould unmatched, 
 Crotchets for ever must be hatched. 31 
 
 [He puts on the fur-mnntU 
 Come, once again upon my shoulders fall ! 
 Once more am I the Principal. 
 But 'tis no good to ape the college ; 
 For where are those who will my chum acknowledge ? 
 [He pulls the bell, which gives out a shrill, penetrating 
 sound, causing the halls to tremble and the doors U 
 fly open.
 
 208 FAUST. 
 
 FAMULUS (tottering hither down the long, dark gallery) 
 
 What a sound ! What dreadful quaking ! 
 
 Stairs are rocking, walls are shaking ; 
 
 Through the coloured windows brightening 
 
 I behold the sudden lightning ; 
 
 Floors above me crack and rumble, 
 
 Lime and lumber round me tumble, 
 
 And the door, securely bolted, 
 
 Is by magic force unfolded. 
 
 There ! How terrible ! a Giant 
 
 Stands in Faust's old fur, defiant I 
 
 As he looks, and beckons thither, 
 
 I could fall, my senses wither. 
 
 Shall I fly, or shall I wait 1 
 
 What, what shall be my fate ! 
 MEPHIS. (beckoning). Come hither, Friend ! Your name M 
 
 Nicodemus. 
 
 FAMULUS. Most honoured Sir, such is my name Oremus I 
 MEPHIB. Dispense with that ! 
 
 FAMULUS. joy, you know me yet. 
 
 MEPHIS. Old, and a student still, I don't forget. 
 Most mossy Sir ! Also a learned man 
 Continues study, since naught else he can. 
 'Tis thus one builds a moderate house of cards ; 
 The greatest minds ne'er end them, afterwards. 
 Your master is a skilful fellow, though ; 
 The noble Doctor Wagner all must know. 
 The first in all the learned world is he, 
 Who now together holds it potently, 
 Wisdom increasing, daily making clearer. 
 How thirst for knowledge listener and hearer f 
 A mighty crowd around him flocks. 
 None for the rostrum e'er were meeter : 
 The keys he holds as doth Saint Peter, 
 The Under and the Upper he unlocks. 
 His light above all others sparkles surer, 
 No name or fame beside him lives : 
 Even that of Faust has grown obscurer ; 
 T is he alone invents and gives. 
 FAMULUS. Pardon, most honoured Sir ! if I am daring
 
 ACT II. 209 
 
 To contradict you, in declaring 
 
 All that upon the subject has no bearing ; 
 
 For modesty is his allotted part. 
 
 The incomprehensible disappearing 
 
 Of that great man to him is most uncheering ; 
 
 From his return he hopes new strength and joy of heart 
 
 As in the days of Doctor Faust, the room, 
 
 Since he's away, all things unchanged, 
 
 Waits for its master, long estranged. 
 
 To venture in, I scarce presume. 
 
 What stars must govern now the skiea ! 
 
 It seemed as if the basements quivered ; 
 
 The door-posts trembled, bolts were shivered : 
 
 You had not entered, otherwise. 
 MBPHIS. Where may his present dwelling be I 
 
 Lead me to him ! Bring him to me ! 
 FAMULUS. His prohibition is so keen ! 
 
 I do not dare to intervene. 
 
 For months, his time unto the great work giving, 
 
 In most secluded silence he is living. 
 
 The daintiest of distinguished learners, 
 
 His face is like a charcoal-burner's, 
 
 From nose to ears all black and deadened ; 
 
 Hi a eyes from blowing flames are reddened : 
 
 Thus he, each moment, pants and longs, 
 
 And music make the clattering tongs. 
 MBPHIS. And entrance why should he deny me? 
 
 I'll expedite his luck, if he'll but try me ! 
 
 [The FAMULUS goes off: MEPHISTOPHELES seat* him- 
 self with gravity. 
 
 Scarce have I taken my position here, 
 
 When there, behind, I see a guest appear. 
 
 I know him ; he is of the school new-founded, 
 
 And his presumption will be quite unbounded. 
 BACCALAUREUS 32 (storming along the corridor). 
 Doors and entrances are open ! 
 Well, at last there 's ground for hoping 
 That no more, in mouldy lumber, 
 Death -like, doth the Living slumber,
 
 210 FAUST. 
 
 To himself privations giving. 
 Till he dies of very living I 
 
 All this masonry, I'm thinking, 
 To its overthrow is sinking ; 
 And, unless at once we hurry, 
 Us will crush and ruin bury. 
 Daring though I be, 't were murtnor 
 Should I dare to venture further. 
 
 What is that I see before me ? 
 
 Here, (what years have since rolled o'er me!) 
 
 Shy and unsophisticated, 
 
 I as honest freshman waited ; 
 
 Here I let the gray-beards guide me, 
 
 Here their babble edified me ! 
 
 Out of dry old volumes preaching, 
 What they knew, they lied in teaching ; 
 What they knew, themselves believed not, 
 Stealing life, that years retrieved not. 
 What ! in yonder cell benighted 
 One still sits, obscurely lighted ! 
 
 Nearer now, I see, astounded, 
 
 Still he sits, with furs surrounded, 
 
 Truly, as I saw him last, 
 
 Roughest fleeces round him cast ! 
 
 Then adroit he seemed to be, 
 
 Not yet understood by me : 
 
 But to-day 't will naught avail him 
 
 O, I'll neither fear nor fail him ! 
 
 If, ancient Sir, that bald head, sidewards bending 
 Hath not been dipped in Lethe's river cold, 
 Sec, hitherward, your grateful scholar wending, 
 Outgrown the academic rods of old. 
 You're here, as then when I began ; 
 But I am now another man. 
 
 MEPHIS. I 'm glad my bell your visit brought me. 
 four talents, then, I rated high ;
 
 ACT II. ail 
 
 The worm, the chiysalid soon taught me 
 
 The future brilliant butterfly. 
 
 Your curly locks and ruffle-laces 
 
 A childish pleasure gave ; you wooed the grace*. 
 
 A queue, I think, you've never worn ! 
 
 But now your head is cropped and shorn. 
 
 Quite bold and resolute you appear. 
 
 But don't go, absolute, home from here ! M 
 
 BACCALAUREUS. Old master, in your old place leaning, 
 Think how the time has sped, the while ! 
 Spare me your words of double meaning ! 
 We take them now in quite another style. 
 You teased and vexed the honest youth ; 
 You found it easy then, in truth, 
 To do what no one dares, to-day. 
 
 MEPHIH. If to the young the simple truth we say, 
 The green ones find it nowise pleasant play ; 
 But afterwards, when years are over, 
 And they the truth through their own hide discover, 
 Then they conceive, themselves have found it out : 
 " The master was a fool ! " one hears them shout. 
 
 BACCALAUREUS. A rogue, perhaps ! What teacher will 
 
 declare 
 
 The truth to us, exactly fair and square ? 
 Each knows the way to lessen or exceed it, 
 Now stern, now lively, as the children need it 
 
 MEPHIS. Beyond a doubt, there is a time to learn ; 
 But you are skilled to teach, I now discern. 
 Since many a moon, some circles of the sun, 
 The riches of experience you have won. 
 
 BACCALAUREUS. Experience ! mist and troth alone ; 
 Nor with the mind at all coequal : 
 Confess, what one has always known 
 IB not worth knowing, in the sequel ! 
 
 MEPHTS. (after a pause). If s long seemed so to me. I 
 
 was a fool : 
 My shallowness I now must ridicule. 
 
 BACCALAUREUS. I'm glad of that ! I hear some reason 
 
 yet 
 The first old man of sense I ever met !
 
 311 FAUST. 
 
 MKPHIS. I eonght for hidden treasures, grand and golden, 
 And hideous coals and ashes were my share. 
 
 BACOALATTBBUS. Confess that now your skull, though bald 
 
 and olden, 
 Is worth no more than is yon empty, there ! 
 
 MBPHIS. (amiably) . KnoVst thou, my Mend, how rude 
 thou art to me 1 
 
 BAOOALAUBEUS. One lies, in German, would one courteous 
 be. 
 
 MEPHIS. (wheeling his chair still nearer to the proscenium, to 
 the spectators). Up here am I deprived of light and 
 air: 
 Shall I find shelter down among you there ? 
 
 BAOOAIAURBUS. It is presumptuous, that one will try 
 Still to be something, when the time 's gone by. 
 Man's life lives in his blood, and where, in sooth, 
 So stirs the blood as in the veins of youth ? 
 There living blood in freshest power pulsates, 
 And newer life from its own life creates. 
 Then something's done, then moves and works the man ; 
 The weak fall out, the sturdy take the van. 
 While half the world beneath our yoke is brought, 
 What, then, have you accomplished 1 Nodded thought- 
 Dreamed, and considered plan, and always plan ! 
 Age is an ague-fever, it is clear, 
 With chills of moody want and dread ; 
 When one has passed his thirtieth year, 
 One then is just the same as dead. 34 
 T were best, betimes, to put you out o' the way. 
 
 MBPHIS. The Devil, here, has nothing more to say. 
 
 BACCALAUREUS. Save through my will, no Devil can thero 
 be. 
 
 MBPHIS. (aside). The Devil, though, will trip thee pre- 
 sently ! 
 
 BAOOALATTKBUS. This is Youth's noblest Calling and most 
 
 fit ! 
 
 The \\orld was not, ere I created it ; 
 The sun I drew from out the orient sea ; 
 The moon began her changeful course with me ; 
 The Day put on his shining robes, to greet me ;
 
 ACT 11. 213 
 
 The Earth grew green, and burst in flower to meet me, 
 
 And when I beckoned, from the primal night 
 
 The stars unveiled their splendours to my sight. 
 
 Who, save myself, to you deliverance brought 
 
 From commonplaces of restricted thought i 
 
 I, proud and free, even as dictates my mind, 
 
 Follow with joy the inward light I find, 
 
 And speed along, in mine own ecstasy, 
 
 Darkness behind, the Glory leading me ! \Exit. 
 
 MEPHIS. Go hence, magnificent Original I- 
 What grief on thee would insight cast ! 
 Who can think wise or stupid things at all, 
 That were not thought already in the Past ? 
 Yet even from him we 're not in special peril ; 
 He will, ere long, to other thoughts incline : 
 The must may foam absurdly in the barrel, 
 Nathless it turns at last to wine. 
 
 [To the younger parterre, which does not appfava 
 My words, I see, have left you cold ; 
 For you, my children, it may fall so : 
 Cons.der now, the Devil 's old ; 
 To understand him, be old also ! 
 
 II. 
 
 LABORATORY. 
 
 After the manner of the Middle Ages ; extensive, ponderous 
 apparatus for fantastic purposes. 
 
 WAONEB (at the fwrnnce). The loud bell chimes with fear- 
 ful clangour, 
 
 The sooty walls feel the vibration ; 
 Soon must the long suspense be ended 
 Of my most earnest expectation. 
 It shines, the darknesses are rended :
 
 J14 FAUST 
 
 Within the phial's inmost chamber 
 It gleams, as doth a living ember, 
 Yea, a carbuncle, burning, brightening, 
 It rays the darkness with its lightning. 
 Now white and clear the lustres blend ! 
 that I hold, nor lose it more ! 
 Ah, God ! what rattles at the door 1 
 
 MEPHIS. (entering). Welcome ! I mean it as a friend. 
 
 WAGNER (anxiously). Be welcome to the planet of the 
 hour; . [Whispering. 
 
 Yet breath and speech suspend ! A work of power, 
 A splendid work, will soon be here displayed. 
 
 MEPHIS. (whispering). What is it, then ? 
 
 WAGNER (whispering). A man is being made. 
 
 MEPHIS. A man 1 And what enamoured pair 
 Have you within the chimney hidden ? 
 
 WAGNER. Nay, God forbid ! This procreation is most 
 
 rare : 
 
 Of the old, senseless mode we're now well ridden. 
 The tender point, whence Life commenced its course, 
 The outward stress of gracious inward force, 
 Which took and gav* ^tself delineating, 
 First near, then foreign traits assimilating, 
 We now of all its dignity divest : 
 The beast therein may further find a zest, 
 But Man must learn with his great gifts to win 
 Henceforth a purer, loftier origin. 
 
 [Turning tmoards thefumac* 
 
 It brightens, see ! Sure, now, my hopes increase 
 That if, from many hundred substances, 
 Through mixture since on mixture all depends 
 The human substance gently be compounded, 
 And by a closed retort surrounded, 
 Distilled, and fed, and slowly founded, 
 Then in success the secret labour ends. 
 
 [Aga/i/n turning towards the furnace, 
 *T will be ! the mass is working clearer ! 
 Conviction gathers, truer, nearer ! 
 The mystery which -for Man in Nature liec 
 W dare to teat, by knowledge led ;
 
 ACT II. 211 
 
 And that which she was wont to organize 
 We crytallize, instead. 
 
 MEPHIS. Who lives, learns many secrets to unravel ; 
 For him, upon this earth, there's nothing new can be : 
 I've seen already, in my years of travel, 
 Much crystallized humanity. 
 
 WAONEE (up to this time continuously attentive to the phial). 
 It mounts, it lightens, grows, 't is won ! 
 A moment more, and it is done ! 
 Insane, at first, appears a great intent : 
 We yet shall laugh at chance in generation ; 
 A brain like this, for genuine thinking meant, 
 Will henceforth be a thinker's sure creation. 
 
 [Rapturously inspecting the phial 
 The glass vibrates with sweet and powerful tone ; 
 It darkens, clears : it must arrive at being ! 
 And now in delicate shape is shown 
 A pretty manikin, moving, living, seeing ! 
 What more can we, what more the world demand I 
 The secret, solved, all men may reach : 
 Hark ! as the ringing tones expand, 
 They form a voice, result in speech. 
 
 HOMTJKCULUS M (in the phial, to WAGNTSB). How goes it, 
 
 Daddy ] It was then no jest ! 
 Come, press me tenderly upon thy breast ! 
 But not too hard, for fear the glass might shatter ! 
 This is the quality of matter : 
 For what is natural, scarce the world has place ; 
 What 's artificial, needs restricted space. [To MEPHIS. 
 
 Thou rogue, Sir Cousin ! here I find thee, too 1 
 And at the proper time ! My thanks are due : 
 A lucky fortune led thee here to me ; 
 Since I exist, then I must active be. 
 I'd fain begin my work without delay : 
 Thou art adroit in shortening my way. 
 
 WAONBK. But first, a word I I 'm shamed that answers 
 
 fail me ; 
 
 For old and young with problems so assail me. 
 Now, for example, none e'er comprehended 
 How soul and body wedded are and blended,-
 
 216 FAUST. 
 
 Hold fast, as If defying separation, 
 Fet never cease their mutual irritation. 
 Therefore 
 
 MEPHIS. Desist ! I'd rather ask him why 
 The man and wife agree so wretchedly. 
 To thee, my friend, the thing will ne'er be clear : 
 There's work to do : for that the little fellow's here. 
 
 HOMUNCULUB. What's to be done 1 
 
 MEPHIS. (pointing to a side-door). Thy talents here employ! 
 
 WAGNER (still gazing at the phial). Forsooth, thou art the 
 very loveliest boy ! 
 
 [The side-door opens : FAUST it seen stretched out upon 
 a couch. 
 
 HOMUNCULUS (astonished). Significant ! 
 
 [The phial slips out of WAGNER'S hands, hover t ova 
 
 FAUST, and shines upon him. 
 Fair scenery ! x Waters, moving 
 In forest shadows : women there, undressing, 
 The loveliest forms ! the picture is improving. 
 One, marked by beauty, splendidly expressing 
 Descent from Gods or high heroic races, 
 Now dips her foot in the translucent shimmer : 
 The living flame of her sweet form displaces 
 The yielding crystal, cool around the swimmer. 
 But what a sound of wings ! What rapid dashing 
 Across the glassy pool, what fluttering, splashing ! 
 The maidens fly, alarmed ; but only she, 
 The queen, looks on, composed and terror-free, 
 And sees with proud and womanly delight 
 The swan-prince press her knee with plumage white, 
 Importunately tame : he grows acquainted. 
 But all at once floats up a vapour pale, 
 And covers with its closely-woven veil 
 The loveliest picture ever dreamed or painted. 
 
 MEPHIS. How much hast thou to tell, what storie* 
 
 merry! 
 
 So small art thou, so great a visionary I 
 Nothing see I ! 
 
 HOMUNCUIUB. Of course. Thou, from the Nortk 
 And in the age of mist brought forth,
 
 ACT II, 217 
 
 In knighthood's and in priestcraft's murky den, 
 
 How should thy sight be clearer, then ? 
 
 In gloom alone art thou at home. [Gazing around. 
 
 Brown masonry, repellent, crumbling, slowly, 
 
 Arch-pointed, finical, fantastic, lowly ! 
 
 If this man wakes, another danger's nigh ; 
 
 At once upon the spot hell die. 
 
 Wood-fountains, swans, and naked beauties, 
 
 Such was his dream of presage fair : 
 
 How should these dark surroundings suit his 
 
 Desires, when them / scarce can bear 1 
 
 Away with him ! 
 
 MEPHIS. I hail the issue's chances. 
 
 HOMUNCTJLTTS. Command the warrior to the figh*, 
 Conduct the maiden to the dances, 
 And all is finished, as is right. 
 Just now there breaks on me a light 
 T is Classical Walpurgis-Night ; 
 Wnate'er may come, it is the best event, 
 So bring him to his proper element ! 
 
 MEPHIS. The like of that I never heard one mention. 
 
 HOMUNCTTLTTB. How should it have attracted your atten- 
 tion! 
 
 Only romantic ghosts are known to you ; 
 A genuine phantom must be classic tuo. 
 
 MEPHIS. But whitherward shall then we travel, tell me ! 
 Your antique cronies in advance repel me. 
 
 HOMUNC0LUS. Northwestwards, Satan, is thy park and 
 
 pale, 
 
 But we, this time, southeastwards sail. 
 Peneus, there, the great plain wanders through, 
 By thickets, groves, and silent coves, and meadow grasses ; 
 The level stretches to the mountain passes, 
 And o'er it lies Pharealus, old and new. 
 
 MEPHM. Alan ! have done I Bring not that fell collision 
 Of tyrant and of slave before my vision ! 
 I'm tired of that : for scarcely is it done 
 Than they the same thing have again begun ; 
 And no one marks that he 's the puppet blind 
 Of sly A?modi, lurking there behind.
 
 818 FAUST 
 
 They fight, we're told, their freedom's right to save ; 
 But, clearlier seen, 't ia slave that fights with slave. 
 
 HOMUNCULUB. Leave unto men their fractiousnesa and 
 
 clatter: 
 
 Each must protect himself, as best he can, 
 From boyhood up, and thus becomes a man. 
 How this one shall recover, is our matter. 
 Hast thou a method, let it tested be ! 
 But hast thou none, so leave the case to me I 
 
 MKPHIS. There's many a Brocken-method I might try, 
 But pagan bolts, I find, the way deny. 
 The Grecian race was little worth, alway ; 
 It dazzles with the senses' freer play, 
 To cheerful sins the heart of man entices ; 
 While ours are ever counted gloomy vices. 
 Now, what shall be ? 
 
 HoMUNOUiTTS. Shyness was ne'er thy blame. 
 
 When I to thee Thessalian witches name, 
 I've not said nothing, that I know. 
 
 MEPHIS. (lustfully). Thessalian witches I Well I Thi 
 
 persons, those, 
 
 Whom I inquired for, long ago. 
 Night after night beside them to repose, 
 I tliiTilr would hardly suit : but so, 
 A mere espial, trial, 
 
 HOMUNCULUS. Here ! cast o'er 
 
 The knight your magic mantle, and infold him ! 
 The rag will still, as heretofore, 
 Upon his airy course and thine uphold him. 
 Ill light the way. 
 
 WAGNEB, (anxiously). And 1 1 
 
 HOMUNCULUS. Eh 1 You 
 
 Will stay at home, most weighty work to do. 
 Unfold your ancient parchments, and collect 
 Life's elements as your recipes direct, 
 One to the other with due caution fitting. 
 The What consider, more the How and Why t 
 Meanwhile, about the world at random flitting, 
 I may detect the dot upon the " I." " 
 The lofty ain> will then accomplished be ;
 
 ACT II. 219 
 
 Such an endeavour merits such requital : 
 Gold, honour, glory, healthy forces vital, 
 And science, too, and virtue, possibly. 
 Farewell ! 
 
 WAGNER (sorrowfully). Farewell! It doth depress my 
 
 heart : 
 I fear, already, we for ever part. 
 
 MEPHIS. Down to Peneus, with his aid! 
 Sir Cousin is a deft attendant. [Ad spectatores. 
 
 Upon the creatures we have made 
 We are, ourselves, at last, dependent. 
 
 ITI 
 CLASSICAL WALPURGIS-NIGHT. 38 
 
 THE PHARSALIAN FIELDS. 
 
 Darkness. 
 
 EEICHTHO. To this night's awful festival, as oft before, 
 I enter here, Erichtho, I, the gloomy one : 
 Not so atrocious as the evil poets draw, 
 In most superfluous slander for they never cease 
 Their blame or praises . . . Over-whitened I behold 
 The vale, with waves of tents that glimmer gray afar, 
 The after-vision of that fatal, fearful night. 
 How oft is it repeated ! will it for ever be 
 For ever re-enacted ! No one grants the realm 
 Unto another : unto him whose might achieved 
 And rules it, none ; for each, incompetent to rule 
 His own internal self, is all too fain to sway 
 His neighbour's will, even as his haughty mind inclinet 
 But here a lesson grand was battled to the end, 
 How force resists and grapples with the greater force,
 
 230 FAUST. 
 
 The lovely, thousand-blossomed wreath of Freedom rend*, 
 And bends the stubborn laurel round the Ruler's brow. 
 Here, of his days of early greatness Pompey dreamed : 
 Before the trembling balance Ctesar yonder watched ! 
 It will be weighed : the world knows unto whom it turned 
 The watch-fires flash and glow, spendthrift of ruddy flame ; 
 Reflections of the squandered blood the earth exhales, 
 And, lured by rare and marvellous splendour of the night, 
 The legion of Hellenic legends gathers here. 
 Round all the fires uncertain hover, or at ease 
 
 Sit near them, fabulous forms of ancient days 
 
 The moon, imperfect, truly, but of clearest beam, 
 Arises, scattering mellow radiance everywhere : 
 Vanish the phantom tents, the fires are burning blue. 
 
 But o'er my head what unexpected meteor ! 
 
 It shines, illuminates the sphere of earth below. 
 
 I scent the Living ! therefore it becomes me not 
 
 Them to approach, I being harmful unto them : 
 
 An evil name it brings me, and it profits naught. 
 
 Already now it sinks : discreetly I withdraw. [Exit, 
 
 The Airy Travellers above. 
 HOMUNCTJLUS. Once again the circle follow, 
 
 O'er the flames and horrors hover ! 
 
 Ghostly 't is in vale and hollow, 
 
 Spectral all that we discover. 
 MXPHIS. If, as through my window nightly, 
 
 In the grewsome North, I see 
 
 Spectres hideous and unsightly, 
 
 Here is home, as there, to me. 
 HoMuacTTLUS. See ! a tall one there is striding 
 
 On before us in the shade. 
 MEPHIS. Through the air she saw us gliding, 
 
 And it seems she is afraid. 
 HOMUITOOTTTS. Let her stride ! The knight be taken 
 
 Now, and set upon the strand : 
 
 Here to life again he '11 waken, 
 
 Seeking it in fable-land. 
 FATTBT (as he touches the earth). Where is she ?
 
 ACT II. M) 
 
 It's more than we can tell 
 
 But to inquire would here be well. 
 
 Thou'rt free to hasten, ere the day, 
 
 From flame to flame, and seek her so : 
 
 Who to the Mothers found his way, 
 
 Has nothing more to undergo. 
 MEPHIS. I also claim my share in the excursion ; 
 
 Yet know no better plan for our diversion, 
 
 Than that each one, amid these fires, 
 
 Should seek such fortunes as he most desires. 
 
 Then, as a sign to reunite us, 
 
 Let, little one, thy lantern sound and light us ! 
 HOMUNCULUS. Thus shall it shine, and thus shall ring ! 
 
 [The glass shines and rings powerfully 
 And now, away to many a marvellous thing ! 
 
 FAUST (solus). Where is she ? But no further question 
 
 make ! 
 
 If this were not the soil that bore her feet, 
 If not the wave that to her coming beat, 
 Yet 't is the air that knows the tongue she spake. 
 Here, by a marvel ! Here, on Grecian land ! * 
 I felt at once the earth whereon I stand. 
 Through me, the sleeper, fresher spirit stealing, 
 I rise refreshed, Antaeus in my feeling. 
 Together here I find the strangest store ; 
 Let me this labyrinth of flames explore. [Goet atony. 
 
 MEPHIS. (prying around). And as among these fires 1 
 
 wander, aimless, 
 
 I find myself so strange, so disconcerted : * 
 Quite naked most, a few are only shirted ; 
 The Griflins insolent, the Sphinxes shameless, 
 And what not all, with pinions and with tresses, 
 Before, behind, upon one's eyesight presses ! 
 Indecency, 'tis true, is our ideal, 
 But the Antique is too alive and real ; 
 One must with modern thought the thing bemaster 
 And in the fashion variously o'erplaster : 
 Disgusting race ! Yet I, perforce, must meet them, 
 And as new guest with due decorum greet them. 
 Hail, then, Fair Ladies ! Graybeards wise, good cheer
 
 222 FAUST. 
 
 GiarYDf (snarling). Not greybeards! Graybearda! No 
 
 one likes to hear 
 
 One call him gray. For in each word there rings 
 The source, wherefrom its derivation springs. 41 
 Gray, growling, grewsome, grinning, graves, and grimly, 
 Etymologically accord, nor dimly, 
 And make us grim. 
 
 MBPHIS. And yet, why need you stiffen ? 
 
 You like the grif in your proud title, " Griffin." 
 
 GKIFFIN (as above, cmd continuously so). Of course ! foi 
 
 this relation is found fit ; 
 Though often censured, oftener praised was it. 
 Let oue but grip at maidens, crowns, and gold : 
 Fortune is gracious to the Griper bold. 
 
 Axra (of the colossal kind). You speak of gold, much hao 
 
 ourselves collected ; 
 
 In rocks and caverns secretly we trapped it : 
 The Arimaspean race our store detected, 
 They're laughing now, so far away they've snapped it 
 
 THE GKIFFINS. We soon shall force them to confess. 
 
 THE ARiMASPEANS. 42 But not in this free night of jubilee. 
 Before the morrow, all will squandered be ; 
 This time our efforts will obtain success. 
 
 MEPHIS. (who has seated himself between the SPHINXES). Ho\ 
 
 soon I feel familiar here, among you ! 
 I understand you, one and all. 
 
 SPHINX. Our spirit-tones, when we have sung you, 
 Become, for you, material. 
 Now name thyself, till *e shall know thee better. 
 
 MEPHIS. With many names would men my nature fetter 
 Are Britons here ? So round the world they wheel, 
 To stare at battle-fields, historic traces, 
 Cascades, old walls, and classic dreary places ; 
 And here were something worthy of their zeal 
 Their Old Plays also testify of me ; 
 Men saw me there as " Old Iniquity." 
 
 SPHINX. How did they hit on that? 
 
 MEPHIS. I know not, verily 
 
 SPHINX Perhaps! Hast thou in star-lore any power? 
 What say'st thou of the aspects of the hour I
 
 ACT II. 223 
 
 MEPHIS. (looking up). Star shoots on star, the cloven 
 
 moon doth ride 
 
 In brilliance ; in this place I'm satisfied : 
 I warm myself against thy lion's hide. 
 It were a loss to rise from out these shades: 
 Propose enigmas, or at least charades! 
 
 SPHIXX. Express thyself, and 't will a riddle be.* 
 Try once thine own analysis : 't were merry. 
 " To both Devout and Wicked necessary : 
 To those, a breast-plate for ascetic fighting ; 
 To these, boon-comrade, in their pranks uniting ; 
 And both amusing Zeus, the fun delighting." 
 FIRST GRIFFIN (snarling'), I like not him ! 
 SECOND GRIFFIN (marling more gruffly). What will th 
 
 fellow here ? 
 
 BOTH. The Nasty One is not of us, f is clear ! 
 MEPHIS. (brutally). Think'st thou, perhaps, thy guest hai 
 
 nails to scratch, 
 
 That with thy sharper talons cannot match ? 
 Just try it once ! 
 
 SPHINX (gently). Stay, should'st thou find it well,; 
 But from our ranks thou wilt thyself expeL 
 In thine own land thou'rt wont thyself to pamper, 
 Yet here, I think, thy spirits feel a damper. 
 
 MEPHIS. Thine upper part entices ; naught is fairer ; 
 But, further down, the beast excites my terror. 
 
 SPHINX. Bitter, False one, will be thy expiation ; 
 Our claws are sound and worthy proof, 
 But thou, with withered horse's-hoof, 
 
 Art ill at ease in our association. [The SIRENS prelude above. 
 MEPHIS. On yonder poplars by the river, 
 What are tie birds that swing above ? 
 SPHINX. Beware ! The very best that ever 
 Existed, they have lured to love. 
 ." Ah, why vitiate your senses, 
 Where those Uglinesses darken? 
 We, in crowds, come hither : hearken 
 Bow the accordant strain commence*, 
 Meet for Sirens' soft pretences !
 
 224 FAUST. 
 
 SPHINXES (mocking them, in the same melody). Let them to 
 
 descend be bidden 1 
 In the branches they have hidden 
 Hideous falcon-claws they're wearing, 
 And you'll feel their cruel tearing, 
 Once you lend them willing ear. 
 SIBENS. Banish hate and envy, rather ! 
 We the purest pleasures gather, 
 Under Heaven's auspicious sphere ! 
 On the earth and on the ocean, 
 We, with cheerful beckoning motion, 
 Bid the wanderer welcome here. 
 MBPHIS. These are of novelties the neatest, 
 
 Where from the throat and harp-string sweetert 
 The tones around each other twine. 
 They're lost on me, these tinkling trickles ; 
 The sound my ear-drum pats and tickles, 
 But cannot reach this heart of mine. 
 SPHINXES. Speak not of heart ! Fool, so to call it ! 
 An old and wrinkled leathern wallet 
 Would better suit that face of thine. 
 
 FAUST (approaching). How strange 1 I, satisfied, behold 
 
 In the Repulsive, grand and solid features : * 
 
 A fate propitious I behold advance. 
 
 Whither transports me now this solemn glance I 
 
 [Pointing to the SPHINXES. 
 Once before these took CEdipue his stand : 
 
 [Pointing to the SI&ENS. 
 These made Ulysses writhe in hempen band : 
 
 [Poimtvng to the Am* 
 By these the highest treasure was amassed : 
 
 [Pointing to the GRIFFINE 
 By these 't was held inviolate and fast : 
 Fresh spirit fills me, face to face with these 
 Grand are the Forms, and grand the Memories ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Once thou hadst cursed such crude antiques, 
 But now, it seems, they've comfort given ; 
 For when a man his sweetheart seeks, 
 Welcome to him are monsters, even.
 
 ACT II. 225 
 
 FAUST (to the SPHINXES). Ye woman-forms, give ear, 
 
 and say 
 Hath one of you seen Helena? 
 
 SPHINXES. Before her day our line expired in Greece; 
 Our very last was slain by Hercules : 
 Yet ask of Chiron, if thou please. 
 He gallops round throughout this ghostly night, 
 And if he halt for thee, thy chance is bright. 
 SIRENS. Thou art not to failure fated ! 
 
 How Ulysses, lingering, learned us, 
 Nor, regardless passing, spurned us, 
 Manifold hath he narrated : 
 All to thee shall be confided, 
 Seekest thou our meads, divided 
 By the dark-green arms of Ocean. 
 SPHINX. Let not thyself thus cheated be! 
 Not like Ulysses bound, but we 
 Will with good counsel thee environ : 
 If thou canst find the noble Chiron, 
 Thou'lt learn what 1 have promised thee. 
 
 [FAUST goes away. 
 MEPHIS. (ill-temper -edly). What croaks and flaps of 
 
 wings go past! 
 
 One cannot see, they fly so fast, 
 In single file, from first to last : 
 A hunter would grow tired of these. 
 SPHINX. The storm-wind like, that winter harrows, 
 Reached hardly by Alcides' arrows, 
 They are the swift Stymphalides ; 
 And not ill -meant their greetings creak, 
 With goose's foot and vulture's beak. 
 They fain would join us in our places, 
 And show themselves as kindred races. 
 MEPHIS. (as if intimidated). Some other brute is hissing 
 
 shrill. 
 
 SPHINX. Be not afraid, though harsh the paean! 
 They are the hydra-heads, the old Lernsean, 
 Cut from the trunk, yet think they're something still: 
 But say, what means your air distressed? 
 Why show your gestures such unrest?
 
 226 FAUST. 
 
 Where will you go 1 Then take your leave ! 
 That chorus, there, I now perceive, 
 Turns like a weather-cock your neck. Advance I- 
 Greet as you will each lovely countenance ! 
 They are the Lamiro, wenches vile, 
 With brazen brows and lips that smile, 
 Such as the satyr-folk have found so fair : 
 A cloven foot may venture all things there. 
 
 MEPHIS. But stay you here, that I again may find you ! 
 SPHINX. Yes ! Join the airy rabble, there behind you ! 
 Yrom Egypt we, long since, with all our peers, 
 Accustomed were to reign a thousand years. 
 If for our place your reverence be won, 
 J7e rule for you the days of Moon and Sun. 
 
 We sit before the Pyramids 
 
 For the judgment of the Races, 
 
 Inundation, War, and Peace, 
 
 With eternal changeless faces. 
 
 IL 
 
 PENEUS 
 (nvrrvwded with NYMPHS <md Tributary Stream*). 
 
 Stir yourselves, ye whispering rushes, 
 Rustle, slender willow-bushes, 
 Sister reeds, breathe softer, crisper, 
 Trembling poplar-branches, whisper 
 To the interrupted dream ! 
 Fearful premonitions wake me, 
 Secret shudders thrill and shake me 
 In my rippling, sleeping stream. 
 FAUST (advancing to the river). Here, behind the vines 
 
 that dangle 
 
 O'er the thicket's bowery tangle, 
 , If I heard aright, were noises 
 
 Similar to human voices.
 
 ACT II. 227 
 
 Babbling seemed the wave to patter, 
 And the breeze in sport to chatter. 
 NYMPHS (to FAUST). For thee were it better 
 
 To lie here, reviving 
 
 In coolness thy body, 
 
 Outwearied with striving, 
 
 The rest, that eludes thee, 
 
 To taste, and be free : 
 
 We'll rustle and murmur, 
 
 And whisper to thee 
 FATTST. I am awake ! Let them delay me, 
 
 The incomparable Forms ! and sway me, 
 
 As yonder to my sight confessed ! 
 
 How strangely am I moved, how nearly ! 
 
 Are they but dreams ? or memories, merely J 
 
 Already once was I so blest 
 
 Beneath the swaying bushes hiding, 
 
 The full, fresh waves are softly gliding ; 
 
 They scarcely rustle on their path : 
 
 A hundred founts from all sides hasten, 
 
 To fill a pure and sparkling basin, 
 
 The hollowed level of a bath. 
 
 The fair young limbs of women trouble 
 
 The watery glass that makes them doubly 
 
 And doubles, thus, the eye's delight : 
 
 In joyous bath each other aiding, 
 
 Or boldly swimming, shyly wading, 
 
 Then cry, and splash, and foamy fight 
 
 It were enough, the picture viewing, 
 
 My healthy eyesight here renewing, 
 
 Yet I desire the still unseen. 
 
 My gaze would pierce through yonder cover, 
 
 Whose leafy wealth is folded over 
 
 The vision of the stately Queen. 
 
 Strange ! across the crystal skimming, 
 
 From '.he coves the swans are swimming, 
 
 Moving in majestic state : 
 
 Floating calmly and united, 
 
 But how proud and self-delighted,
 
 228 FAUST. 
 
 Head and neck they lift elate ! . . , 
 One, his feathers proudly pluming., 
 Boldly on his grace presuming, 
 Leads the others in the race ; 
 With his whitest plumage showing 
 Wave-like on the wave he's throwing, 
 Speeds he to the sacred place. . . 
 The others back and forth together 
 Swim on with smoothly shining feather, 
 And soon, in mimic battle met, 
 Shall chase aside the maids affrighted, 
 Till, for their own protection slighted, 
 Their bounden service they forget. 
 NYMPHS. Sisters, bend and lay the ear 
 On the turf beside the river ! 
 Sound of hoofs, if right I hear, 
 Swift approaching, seems to shiver. 
 Would I knew whose rapid flight 
 Brings a message to the Night ! 
 FAUST. As I think, the earth is ringing 
 From a charger, hither springing. 
 See there ! See there ! 
 A fortune comes, most fair : 
 Shall I attain its blessing? 
 0, marvel past expressing ! 
 A rider trots towards us free : 
 Spirit and strength in him I see, 
 Upon a snow-white steed careering. . . 
 I know him now, I hail with awe 
 The famous son of Philyra ! 
 Halt, Chiron, halt ! I've something for thy hearing. 
 CHIRON. 47 What then ? What is it 1 
 FAUST. Thy course delay ! 
 
 CHIRON. I rest not. 
 
 FAUST. Take me with thee, then, I pray ! 
 
 CHIRON. Mount ! and I thus can ask, at leisure, 
 Whither thy way. Thou standest on the shore ; 
 I'll bear thee through the flood, with pleasure, 
 
 FAUST (mounting). Wfcither thou wilt I thank the* 
 evermore. . ,
 
 ACT II. 
 
 229 
 
 The mighty man, the pedagogue, whose place 
 
 And fame it was, to teach a hero-race, 
 
 The splendid circle of the Argonauts, 
 
 And all whose deeds made quick the Poet's thoughts. 
 
 CHIRON. We will not further speak of ibeae ! 
 As Mentor even Pallas is not venerated ; 
 And, after all, they manage as they please, 
 As if they'd not been educated. 
 
 FAUST. The leech, who knoweth flower and fruit 
 Whose lore can sound the deepest root, 
 Who heals the sick, and soothes the wounded place, 
 Him, here, in mind and body I embrace ! 
 
 CHIKON. When heroes, near me, felt the smart, 
 My helpful knowledge failed them seldom ; 
 But, at the last, I left mine art 
 To priest and simple-gathering beldam. 
 
 FAUST. Thy speech the true great man betrays, 
 Who cannot hear a word of praise ; 
 His modesty would fain confound us 
 To think his equals still were round us. 
 
 CHIKON. Thou seemest skilled to feign such matter 
 People and Prince alike to flatter. 
 
 FAUST. But surely thou wilt grant to me 
 That thou the greatest of thy time didst see, 
 Upon their paths of proud achievement trod, 
 And lived thy days, a serious demigod. 
 Among those grand, heroic forms of all, 
 Whom didst thou for the best and worthiest hold I 
 
 CHIRON. Of those beneath the Argonaut's bright banner, 
 Each worthy was in his peculiar manner, 
 And by the virtue of his strength selective 
 Sufficed therein, where others were defective. 
 Castor and Pollux were as victors hailed, 
 Where beauty and the grace of youth prevailed : 
 Decision, the swift deed for other's aid, 
 Gave the fair crown before the Boreads laid : 
 Reflective, prudent, strong, in council wise, 
 So Jason ruled, delight of women's eyes : 
 Then Orpheus, gentle, silent, brooding, lowering, 
 But when he struck the lyre, all -overpowering.
 
 330 FAUST. 
 
 Sharp-sighted Lynceus, who by day and dark 
 Through shoreward breakers steered the sacred hark. 
 Danger is best endured where men are brothers ; 
 When one achieves, then praise him all the others. 
 FAUST. But Hercules thy speech is wronging 
 
 CHIRON. Ah, me ! awaken not my longing ! . . * 
 I had not seen, in Fields Elysian, 
 How Phoebus, Are's, Hermes, shine ; 
 But there arose before my vision 
 A form that all men call divine. 
 A king by birth, as ne'er another, 
 A youth magnificent to view ; 
 Though subject to his elder brother, 
 And to the loveliest women, too. 
 No second such hath Gsea granted, 48 
 Or Hebe led to Heaven again ; 
 For him the songs are vainly chanted, 
 The marble hewn for him in vain. 
 
 FAUST. Though ever to his form addicted, 
 His grace the sculptors could not wreak. 
 The fairest Man hast thou depicted, 
 Now of the fairest Woman speak ! 
 
 CHIKON. What ! Little worth is woman's beauty, 
 So oft an image dumb we see : 
 I only praise, in loving duty, 
 A being bright and full of glee. 
 For beauty in herself delighteth ; 
 And irresistibly she smiteth 
 When sweetly she with Grace uniteth, 
 Like Helena, when her I bore. 
 
 FAUST. Her didst thou bear 1 
 
 CHIEON. This back she pressed 
 
 FAUST. Was I not wild enough, before ; 
 And now such seat, to make me blest ! 
 
 OHIBON . Just so she grasped me by the hair 
 As thou dost. 
 
 FAUST. 0, I scarcely dare 
 
 To trust my senses ! tell me more ! 
 She is my only aspiration ! 
 Whence didst thou bear her to what shore !
 
 ACT 71. 231 
 
 CHTKOIT. Not difficult is the relation. 
 Twas then, when came the Dioscuri bold 
 To free their sister from the robbers' hold ; 
 But these, accustomed not to be subdued, 
 Regained their courage and in rage pursued. 
 The swamps below Eleusis did impede 
 The brothers' and the sister's flying speed : 
 The brothers waded : splashing through the reed, 
 I swam : then off she sprang, and pressing me 
 On the wet mane, caressing me, 
 She thanked with sweetly-wise and conscious tongue. 
 How charming was she ! dear to age, so young ! 
 
 FAUST. But seven years old ! 
 
 CHIRON. Philologists, I see 
 
 Even as they cheat themselves, have cheated thee. 
 'TiB curious with your mythologic dame: 
 The Poet takes her when he needs her name ; 
 She grows not old, stays ever young and warm, 
 And of the most enticing form ; 
 Seduced in youth, in age enamouring still, 
 Enough ! no time can bind the Poet's will 
 
 FAUST. Then let no bonds of Time be thrown arouno 
 
 her! 
 
 Even as on Pherae's isle Achilles found her, 
 Beyond the bounds of Time. What blessing rar^ 
 In spite of Fate such love to win and wear 1 
 And shall not I, by mightiest desire, 
 Unto my life that sole fair form acquire, 
 That shape eternal, peer of Gods above, 
 Tender as grand, sublime as sweet with love T 
 Thou saVst her once ; to^ay I saw her beam, 
 The dream of Beauty, beautiful as Dream ! 
 My soul, my being, now ifl bound and chained; 
 I cannot live, unless she be attained. 
 
 CHIBON. Thou, Stranger ! feel'st, as man, such ecstaaj ! 
 Among us, Spirits, mad thou seem'st to be. 
 Yet, as it haps, thy fortune now is omened ; 
 For every year, though only for a moment, 
 It ifl my wont to call at Manto's dwelling,
 
 23 J FAUST. 
 
 She, Esculapiufl* child, whose prayers are swelling 
 Unto her father, that, his fame to brighten, 
 The brains of doctors he at last enlighten, 
 And them from rashly dealing death may frighten, 
 I like her best of all the guild of Sibyls, 
 Helpful and kind, with no fantastic fribbles ; 
 She hath the art, if thou the time canst borrow, 
 With roots of power to give thee healing thorough. 
 
 FAUST. But I will not be healed ! my aim is mighty ! 
 I will not be, like others, meanly nighty ! 
 
 CHIRON. The noble fountain's cure neglect thou not : 
 But quick dismount ! We've reached the spot. 
 
 FAUST. And whither, in this dreary night, hast thou 
 To land through pebbly rivers brought me now ? 
 
 CHIRON. Here Rome and Greece in battle tried their 
 
 powers ; 
 
 Here flows Peneus, there Olympus towers, 
 The greatest realm that e'er was lost in sand. 
 The monarch flies, the conquering burghers stand. 
 Look up and see, in moonlight shining clear, 
 The memorable, eternal Temple near ! 
 
 MANTO 49 (dreaming within}. From horse-hoofs tyemble 
 The sacred steps of the Temple ! 
 The Demigods draw near. 
 
 CHIRON. Quite right ! 
 Open your eyes, and see who's here ! 
 
 MAJTTO (awaking). Welcome ! Thou dost not fail, I see. 
 
 CHIRON. And still thy temple stands for thee ! 
 
 MAJJTO. And speedest thou still unremitting ? 
 
 CHIRON. And thou in peaceful calm art sitting, 
 While I rejoice in restless heels 1 
 
 MANTO. I wait, and Time around me wheels. 
 And he t 
 
 (J IIIKUN. The vortex of this night 
 
 Hath whirled him hither to thy sight. 
 Helen, with mad, distracted senses, 
 Helen, he'd win by all pretences, 
 And knows not how or where the task commencee ; 
 But he deserves the Esculapian cure.
 
 ACT 11. 233 
 
 MANTO. To whom the Impossible w Iran 
 t loy e. [CHIRON is already far atoay. 
 
 Rash one, advance ! there's joy for thee ! 
 This dark way leads thee to Persephone. 
 Under Olympus' hollow foot, 
 Secret, she waits prohibited salute. 
 I smuggled Orpheus in to her, of old : 
 Use thy chance better ! On ! be bold I [ They descend 
 
 IIL 
 
 ON THE UPPEE PENEUS, AS BEFOEE. 
 
 SIRENS. Plunge in cool Peneus' wave I 
 There 'tis well to sport in swimming, 
 Songs with chorded voices hymning, 
 That the ill-starred folk we save. 
 Health is none where water fails ! 
 Let our hosts, with sounding paean, 
 Hasten to the blue JEgaean, 
 
 Where each joy shall swell our sails. [Earthquake 
 Back the frothy wave is flowing, 
 Now no longer downward going ; 
 Shakes the bed, the waters roar, 
 Cracks and smokes the stony shore. 
 Let us fly ! Come, every one ! 
 By this marvel profit none. 
 Leave, ye guests, this wild commotion 
 For the cheerful sports of Ocean, 
 Shining, where the quivering reaches, 
 Lightly heaving, bathe the beaches, 
 There, where Luna's double splendour 
 Freshens us with night-dews tender. 
 There the freest life delights us ; 
 Here the threatening Earthquake frights u : 
 Who is prudent, haste away ! 
 Fearful is it, here to stay. 
 x
 
 234 FAUST. 
 
 SMSMOS* (growling and jolting n the depth*). Once again 
 the force applying, 
 
 Bravely with the shoulders prying, 
 
 We to get above are trying, 
 
 Where to us must all give way. 
 STHLNXES. What a most repulsive shaking, 
 
 Terrible and hideous quaking, 
 
 What a quivering and shocking, 
 
 Hither rolling, thither rocking ! 
 
 What vexation and dismay ! 
 
 But we shall not change our station. 
 
 Were all Hell in agitation. . . . 
 
 Now behold a dome upswelling, 
 
 Wonderful ! 'Tis he, compelling, 
 
 He, the hoary antiquated, 
 
 He who Delos' isle created, 
 
 Bidding it from ocean break, 
 
 For the childed woman's sake. 
 
 He, with all his force expended, 
 
 Rigid arms and shoulders bended, 
 
 Like an Atlas in his gesture 
 
 Pushes up the earth's green vesture, 
 
 Loam and grit, and sand and shingle^ 
 
 Where the shore and river mingle : 
 
 Thus our valley's bosom quiet 
 
 Cross-wise tears he, in his riot 
 
 In unwearied force defiant, 
 
 He, a caryatid-giant, 
 
 Bears a fearful weight of bouldero, 
 
 Buried still below his shoulders ; 
 
 But no further shall be granted, 
 
 For the Sphinxes here are planted. 
 SBSMOS. The work alone I've undertaken ; 
 
 The credit will be given to me : 
 
 Had I not jolted, shoved, and shaken, 
 
 How should this world so beauteous be \ 
 
 How stood aloft your mountains ever, 
 
 In pure and splendid blue of air, 
 
 Had I not heaved with huge endeavour 
 
 Till they, like pictures, charm you there t
 
 ACT II. 236 
 
 When, where ancestral memory brightens, 
 
 Old Night and Chaos saw me sore betrayed, 
 
 And in the company of Titans 
 
 With Pelion and Ossa as with balls we played, 
 
 None could in ardent sport of youth surpass us, 
 
 Until, outwearied, at the last, 
 
 Even as a double cap, upon Parnassus 
 
 His summits wickedly we cast. 
 
 Apollo, now, upon that mount of wonder 
 
 Finds with the Muses his retreat : 
 
 For even Jove, and for his bolts of thunder, 
 
 I heaved and held the lofty seat. 
 
 Thus have I forced the fierce resistance 
 
 And struggled upward from the deep ; 
 
 And summon now to new existence 
 
 The joyous dwellers of the steep. 
 
 SPHINXES. 'Tis true, the hill would seem primeval, 
 And warranted of old to stand, 
 Had we not witnessed its upheaval, 
 Toiling and towering from the land. 
 A bushy forest, spreading, clothes its face, 
 And rocks on rocks are pressing to their place. 
 A Sphinx, therefrom, is by no fear o'ertaken: 
 We shall not let our sacred seats be shaken. 
 
 GRIFFINS. 81 Gold in spangle, leaf, and spark 
 Glimmers through the fissures dark. 
 Quick, lest others should detect it, 
 Haste, ye Emmets, and collect it ! 
 CHORUS OF EMMETS. As they the giant ones, 
 
 Upward have thrown it, 
 
 Quick-footed, pliant ones, 
 
 Climb it and own it ! 
 
 Rapidly in and out! 
 
 In each such fissure 
 
 Is every crumb about 
 
 Wealth for the wisher! 
 
 Seek for them greedily. 
 
 Even the slightest: 
 
 Everywhere speedily 
 
 Gather the brightest!
 
 136 FAUST. 
 
 Dfli^ent be, and bold 
 Swarm to the fountain : 
 Only bring in the Gold ! 
 Heed not the Mountain ! 
 
 GRIFTOTS. Come in ! come in 1 the treasure heap; 
 Our claws upon it we shall keep. 
 The most efficient bolts they are ; 
 The greatest wealth they safely bar. 
 PYGMIES. Verily, here we sit securely ; 
 How it happened, is not clear. 
 Ask not whence we came ; for surely 
 'Tis enough that we are here. 
 Unto Life's delighted dwelling 
 Suitable is every land ; 
 Where a rifted rock is swelling, 
 Also is the Dwarf at hand. 
 Male and female, busy, steady, 
 We as models would suffice : 
 Who can tell if such already 
 Laboured so in Paradise 1 
 Here our lot as best we measure, 
 And our star of fate is blest ; 
 Mother Earth brings forth with pleasure, 
 In the East as in the West. 
 DACTTM. If she, in a single night, 
 
 The Pygmies brought to light, 
 Pygmiest of all she'll create yet, 
 And each find his mate yet ! 
 Prainr-KLDBEs. Be ye, in haste, 
 
 Conveniently placed I 
 Labour, and lead 
 Strength unto speed ! 
 Peace is yet with ye, 
 Build now the smithy,- 
 The host Le arrayed 
 With armour and blada I 
 Emmets, laborious, 
 Working victorious, 
 Scorning to settle, 
 Furnish us metal J
 
 ACT II. 237 
 
 Dactyls, your host, 
 
 Smallest and most, 
 
 Hear the requiring, 
 
 Bring wood for firing ! 
 
 Heap in the chambers 
 
 Fuel, untiring: 
 
 Furnish us embers! 
 GENERALISSIMO. With arrow and bow, 
 
 Encounter the foe ! 
 
 By yonder tanks 
 
 The heron-ranks, 
 
 The countless-nested, 
 
 The haughty-breasted, 
 
 At one quick blow 
 
 Shoot, and bring low ! 
 
 All together, 
 
 That we may feather 
 
 Our helmets so. 
 EMMETS AND DACTYLS. Who now will save us! 
 
 We bring the iron, 
 
 And chains enslave us. 
 
 To break our fetters 
 
 Were now defiant ; 
 
 We bide our season, 
 
 Meanwhile, be pliant ! 
 THE CRANES OF IBYCUS. 82 Murder-cries and moans of 
 
 dying! 
 
 Startled wings that flap in flying! 
 What lament, what pain and fright 
 Pierces to our airy height! 
 All have fallen in the slaughter, 
 Reddening with their blood the water! 
 Pygmy-lust, misformed and cruel, 
 Robs the heron of his jewel. 
 On their helms the plumage waves, 
 Yonder f at-paunched, bow-legged knaves ! 
 Comrades of our files of motion, 
 Serried wanderers of ocean, 
 You we summon to requital 
 In a cause to you so vital.
 
 238 FAUST. 
 
 Strength and blood let no one spare ! 
 Endless hate to them we swear ! 
 
 [They disperse, croaking tn the avr 
 
 MXFHIS. (on the plain). With ease the Northern witches 1 
 
 controlled, 
 
 But o'er these foreign sprites no power I hold. 
 The Blocksberg is a most convenient place ; 
 Howe'er one strays, one can his path retrace. 
 Dame Use watches for us from her stone, 
 And Henry sits upon his mountain-throne : 
 The Snorers snarl at Elend snorting peers, 
 And all is finished for a thousand years. 
 But here, who knows if, even where he stand, 
 Beneath his feet may not puff up the land 1 
 I cheerily wander through a level glade, 
 And, all at once, behind me heaved, is made 
 A mountain scarcely to be called so, true ; 
 Yet high enough the Sphinxes from my view 
 To intercept. . . . Still many a fire flares out 
 Adown the vale, the mad concern about. . . 
 Still dance and hover, beckoning and retreating, 
 The gay groups round me, with their knavish greeting. 
 But gently now ! For, spoiled by stealthy pleasure, 
 One always seeks to snatch some dainty treasure. 
 
 LAJILB. B (drawing MEPHIS. after them). Quicker and 
 
 quicker ! 
 
 And further take him ! 
 Then hesitating, 
 Chattering and prating I 
 Tis fun to make him 
 Old, sinful Tricker ! 
 Follow behind us : 
 To penance comes he 
 With halt-foot clumsy 
 He marches hobbling, 
 And forwards wobbling; 
 His leg he trails 
 In haste to find UB ; 
 We fly he fail*
 
 ACT II. 239 
 
 MEPHIS. (standing still). Accursed fate ! Deceived, as oft ! 
 Since Adam's time seduced and scoffed ! 
 Though old we grow, not wisely schooled : 
 Enough already I've been fooled ! 
 We know, how wholly worthless is the race, 
 With body corseted and painted face ; 
 Of health responsive own they not a tittle, 
 Where'er one grasps them, every limb is brittle. 
 The thing is known, and patent to our glances, 
 And yet, whene'er the trollops pipe, one dances. 
 
 LAMIJE (paiising). Halt! he reflects; his steps delay: 
 Turn back to meet him, lest he get away ! 
 
 MEPHIS. (striding forwards). Forwards ! the doubt, my 
 
 strength benumbing, 
 I won't encourage foolishly ; 
 For were the witches not forthcoming, 
 Why, who the devil would Devil be ! 
 
 LAMLS (very graciously}. Round this hero lightly moving, 
 Let his heart, the choice approving, 
 One of us select for loving ! 
 MEPHIS. True, in this uncertain lustre, 
 Seem ye fair maids, in a cluster ; 
 Fain would I to you be juster. 
 EMPUSA (pressing forwards). Not me, too? I'm also 
 
 fitted 
 
 In your train to be admitted! 
 LAMI^E. She's one too many ; for, in short, 
 
 She always ruins all our sport. 
 
 EMPUSA (to MEPHIS). Empusa, with the ass's foot, 84 
 Thy cousin dear, gives thee salute! 
 Only a horse's hoof is thine, 
 And yet, Sir Cousin, greeting fine! 
 MEPHIS. Strangers I here anticipated, 
 
 And, find, alas! my near-related: 
 The old tale instances by dozens 
 From Hartz to Hellas always cousins! 
 EMPUSA. I act with promptness and decision; 
 In many forms could meet thy vision: 
 Yet in thy honour now, instead, 
 Have I put on the ass's head.
 
 240 FAUST. 
 
 MBFHIS. Great things, I see, are here portended, 
 
 Thus with the race as kinsman blended : 
 
 Let come what may, since I have known hei 1 
 
 The ass's head I'd fain disown her. 
 LAMIJE. Leave her, the Ugly ! She doth scare 
 
 Whatever lovely seems and fair ; 
 
 Whate'er was lovely, fair to see, 
 
 When she conies, ceases so to be. 
 MEPHIS. These cousins also, soft, delicious, 
 
 Are one and all to me suspicious : 
 
 I fear, beneath their cheeks of roses 
 
 Some metamorphosis reposes. 
 LAHL& But try take hold ! For we are many, 
 
 And if thou hast a lucky penny, 
 
 Secure thyself the highest prize ! 
 
 What means thy wanton organ-grinding! 
 
 A wretched wooer 'tis, we're finding, 
 
 Yet swagger'st thus, and seem'st so wise ! . . . 
 
 Now one of us will he lay hand on, 
 
 So by degrees your masks abandon, 
 
 And show your natures to his eyes ! 
 Harms. The fairest here have I selected. . . . 
 
 [Clasping her. 
 
 0, what a broomstick, unexpected ! 
 
 [Grasping another 
 
 And this one ? . . . Vilest countenance ! 
 LAMLE. Think not thou'rt worth a better chance 1 
 MEPHIS. That little one, she warms my gizzard. . . . 
 
 But through my hand she slips, a lizard ; 
 
 Her smooth braids, snaky-like, intwine. 
 
 I try the tall one, yet she worse is, 
 
 I only grasp a Bacchic thyrsus, 
 
 The head a scaly cone of pine. 
 
 What follows next 1 Behold a fat one : 
 
 Perhaps I'll find delight in that one, 
 
 So, once for all, the chance renew ! 
 
 The Turks, for one so puffy, flabby, 
 
 Would pay a price by no means shabby . . . 
 
 But ah ! the puff-ball bursts in two 1
 
 ACT II. 1 41 
 
 LAWIJE. Now scatter widely, hovering, feigning, 
 
 In lightning-like, dark flight enchaining 
 
 The interloping witch's-son I 
 
 Uncertain circles, awful, poiseless ! 
 
 Horrid bat-wings, flying noiseless ! 
 
 He 'scapes too cheaply, when it's done. 
 MEPHIS. (shaking himself). I've not become, it seems, a 
 great deal shrewder ; 
 
 The North's absurd, 'tis here absurder, ruder, 
 
 The spectres here preposterous as there, 
 
 People and poets shallow ware. 
 
 This masquerade resembles quite 
 
 As everywhere a dance of appetite. 
 
 I sought a lovely masked procession, 
 
 And caught such things, I stood aghast. , 
 
 I'd give myself a false impression, 
 
 If this would only longer last. 
 
 [Losing himself among the rock. 
 
 Where am I then ? and whither sped ? 
 
 There was a path ; 'tis now a dread. 
 
 By level ways I've wandered hither, 
 
 Where rubble now is piled together. 
 
 I clamber up and down in vain ; 
 
 Where shall I find my Sphinx again I 
 
 I had not dreamed so mad a sight. 
 
 A mountain in a single night ! 
 
 A bold witch-journey, to my thought : 
 
 Their Blocksberg with them they have brought 
 OREAD (from thf natural rock). K Come up to me ! My 
 mountain old 
 
 In its primeval form behold ! 
 
 Revere the steep and rocky stairs, ascending 
 
 Where Pindus' offshoots with the plain are blending 1 
 
 Unshaken, thus I heaved my head 
 
 When o'er my shoulders Pompey fled. 
 
 Beside me this illusive rock 
 
 Will vanish at the crow of cock. 
 
 I see such fables oft upthrown, 
 
 And suddenly again go down. 
 MEPHIS. Honour to thee, thou rayareod Head,
 
 J42 FAUST. 
 
 With strength of oak engarlanded ! 
 The clearest moonlight never cleaves 
 The darkness of your crowded leaven. 
 I see between the bushes go 
 A light, with unpretending glow. 
 How all things fit and balance thus ! 
 "Pis verily Homunculus. 
 Now whence thy way, thou little lover f 
 HOMUNCULUS. From place to place I flit and over, 
 And, in the best sense, I would fain exist, 
 And most impatient am, my glass to shatter : 
 But what tiU now I've witnessed, is't 
 Then strange if I mistrust the matter ? 
 Yet I'll be confidential, if thou list : 
 I follow two Philosophers this way. 
 'Twas " Nature ! " " Nature ! " all I heard them say ; 
 I'll cling to them, and see what they are seeing, 
 For they must understand this earthly being, 
 And I shall doubtless learn, in season, 
 Where to betake me with the soundest reason. 
 
 MKPHIS. Then do it of thy own accord ! 
 For here, where spectres from their hell come, 
 Is the philosopher also welcome. 
 That so his art and favour delectate you, 
 At once a dozen new ones he'll create you. 
 Unless thou errest, thou wilt ne'er have sense ; 
 Wouldst thou exist, thyself the work commence ! 
 HOMUKOULUS. Good counsel, also, is not to reject. 
 MBPHIS. Then go thy way ! We further will inspect. 
 
 [They separate. 
 ANAXAGORAS (to THALES). M Thy stubborn mind will not t* 
 
 rightened : 
 What else is needful, that thou be enlightened 1 
 
 THALES. To every wind the billows yielding are ; 
 Yet from the cliff abrupt they keep themselves afar. 
 
 ANAXAGORAS. By fiery vapours rose this rock you're seeing. 
 THALES. In moisturt came organic life to being. 
 HOMUNCULUS (between the two). To walk with you may T 
 
 aspire? 
 To come to being is my keen desire.
 
 ACT II. 24J 
 
 AKAXAGORAS. Hast thou, Thales 1 ever in a night 
 
 Brought forth from mud such mountain to the light t 
 THALES. Nature, the living current of her powers, 
 
 Was never bound to Day and Night and Hours ; 
 
 She makes each form by rules that never fail, 
 
 And 'tis not force, even on a mighty scale. 
 ANAXAGORAS. But here it was I Plutonic fire, the shaper I 
 
 Explosive force of huge ^Eolian vapour 
 
 Broke through the level Earth's old crust primeval, 
 
 And raised the new hill with a swift upheaval ! 
 THAMES. What further shall therefrom result ] The hill 
 
 Is there : 'tis well ! so let it stand there still ! 
 
 In such a strife one loses leisure precious, 
 
 Yet only leads the patient folk in leashes. 
 AHAXAGORAS. The Mountain's rocky clefts at once 
 
 Are peopled thick with Myrmidons, 
 
 With Pygmies, Emmets, Fingerlings, 
 
 And other active little things. [To HOMUNOCIJ.S 
 
 To greatness hast thou ne'er aspired, 
 
 But lived an eremite retired ; 
 
 Canst thou persuade thy mind to govern, 
 
 I'll have thee chosen as their sovereign. 
 HOMWCULUS. What aays my Thales ? 
 THALES. Will not recommend : 
 
 For small means only unto small deeds tend, 
 
 But great means make the small man great. 
 
 See there ! The Cranes, with purpose heinoua I 
 
 The troubled populace they menace, 
 
 And they would menace thus the king. 
 
 With pointed beak and talons ample 
 
 The little men they pierce and trample : 
 
 Doom comes already thundering. 
 
 It was a crime, the heron-slaughter, 
 
 Beset amid their peaceful water ; 
 
 But from that rain of arrows deadly 
 
 A fell revenge arises redly, 
 
 And calls the kindred o'er the flood 
 
 To spill the Pygmies' guilty blood. 
 
 Wh,t use for shield and helm and spear I
 
 J44 FAUST. 
 
 Or for the dwarfs the heron-feather 1 
 Dactyl and Emmet hide together : 
 Their cohorts scatter, seek the rear ! 
 ANAXAOORAS (after a pause, solemnly). Though I the sub 
 
 terranean powers approve, 
 Yet help, in this case, must be sought above. . . . 
 thou aloft, in grace and vigour vernal, 
 Tri-named, tri-featured, and eternal, 
 By all my people's woe I cry to thee, 
 Diana, Luna, Hecate ! 
 
 Thou breast-expanding One, thou deeply-pondering, 
 Thou calmly-shining One, majestic wandering, 
 The fearful craters of thy shade unseal, 
 And free from spells thine ancient might reveal ! 
 
 [Pause, 
 
 Am I too swiftly heard? 
 
 Has then my cry 
 
 To yonder sky, 
 
 The course of Nature from its orbit stirred? 
 And greater, ever greater, drawing near, 
 Behold the Goddess' orb^d throne appear, 
 Enormous, fearful in its grimness, 
 With fires that redden through the dimness ! . . . 
 No nearer ! Disk of dread, tremendous, 
 Lest thou, with land and sea, to ruin send us f 
 Then were it true, Thessalian Pythonesses 67 
 With guilty spells, as Song confesses, 
 Once from thy path thy steps enchanted, 
 Till fatal gifts by thee were granted ? . . . 
 The shield of splendour slowly darkles, 
 Then suddenly splits, and shines, and sparkle* I 
 What rattling and what hissing follow, 
 With roar of winds and thunders hollow ! 
 Before thy throne I speak my error. . . . 
 O, pardon ! I invoked the terror. 
 
 [Casts himself upon his foot 
 
 THAIES. How many things can this man see and hear ? 
 What happed, is not to me entirely clear ; 
 I've not, like him, experienced it 
 The Hours are crazy, we'll admit ;
 
 ACT II. 245 
 
 For Luna calmly shines, and free, 
 
 In her high place, as formerly. 
 HoMTTNCuras. Look yonder where the Pygmies fled ! 
 
 The round Hill has a pointed head. 
 
 I felt a huge rebound and shock ; 
 
 Down from the moon had fallen the rock, 
 
 And then, without the least ado, 
 
 Both foe and friend it smashed and slew 
 
 I praise such arts as these, that show 
 
 Creation in a night fulfilled ; 
 
 That from above and from below 
 
 At once this mountain-pile could build. 
 THALES. Be still ; 'twas but imagined so. 
 
 Farewell, then, to the ugly brood! 
 
 That thou wast not their king, is good. 
 
 Off to the cheerful f estals of the Sea ! 
 
 There, as a marvellous guest, they'll honour thee. 
 
 [They depart. 
 
 MEPHIS. (climbing up the opposite tide). Here must I 
 climb by steep and rocky stairways, 
 
 And roots of ancient oaks the vilest rare way* 1 
 
 Upon my Hartz, the resinous atmosphere 
 
 Gives hints of pitch, to me almost as dear 
 
 As sulphur is, but here, among these Greeks, 
 
 For such a smell one long and vainly seeks ; 
 
 And curious am I for 'tis worth the knowing- 
 To find wherewith they keep their fires of Hell a-going 
 DKYAD. At home, be wise as it befits thee there ; 
 
 Abroad, thou hast no cleverness to spare. 
 
 Thou shouldst not homeward turn thy mind, but here 
 
 The honour of the ancient oaks revere. 
 MEPHIS. One thinks on all relinquished there ; 
 
 Use made it Paradise, and keeps it fair. 
 
 But say, what is't, in yonder cave 
 
 Obscure, a crouching triple-shape resembling t 
 DKYAD. The Phorkyads ! M Go there, if thou art brave , 
 
 Address them, if thou canst, untrembling ! 
 MEPHIS. Why not! . . I something see, and am dumb- 
 founded ! 
 
 Proud as 1 am, I must confess the truth :
 
 246 FAUST. 
 
 I've never seen their like, in sooth, 
 
 Worse than our hags, an Ugliness unbounded I 
 
 How can the Deadly Sins then ever be 
 
 Found ugly in the least degree, 
 
 When one this triple dread shall see ? 
 
 We would not suffer them to dwell 
 
 Even at the dreariest door of Hell ; 
 
 But here, in Beauty's land, the Greek, 
 
 They're famed, because they're called antiqut. . , 
 
 They stir, they seem to scent my coming ; 
 
 Like vampire-bats, they're squeaking, twittering, hum- 
 ming. 
 
 THE PHORKYADS. Give me the eye, my sisters, that il 
 spy 
 
 Who to our temple ventures now so nigh. 
 MEPBOS. Most honoured Dame ! Approaching, by youi 
 leave, 
 
 Grant that your triple blessing I receive. 
 
 I come, though still unknown, yet, be it stated, 
 
 If I mistake not, distantly related. 
 
 Old, reverend Gods, already did I see ; 
 
 To Ops and Rhea have I bowed the knee ; 
 
 The Parcae even your sisters yesterday, 
 
 Or day before, they came across my way ; 
 
 And yet the like of you ne'er met my sight : 
 
 Silent am I, and ravished with delight. 
 THE PHORKYADS. This spirit seems to have intelligence. 
 MEPHIS. I am amazed no poet has the sense 
 
 To sing your praises, say, how can it be 
 
 That we no pictures of your beauty see ? 
 
 Should not, through you, the chisel strive to wean us 
 
 ^rom shapes like those of Jnno, Pallas, Venus 1 
 THZ PHORKYADS. Sunken in solitude and stillest night 
 
 The mind of us ne'er took so far a flight 
 Mfii-Hi.s. How should it, then ? since here, concealed from 
 view, 
 
 None ever see you, none are seen by you ! 
 
 But choose those dwelling-places, and be known, 
 
 Where Art and Splendour share an equal throne ; 
 
 Where swift, with double tread, day after day,
 
 ACT II. 247 
 
 A marble block as hero walks away ; 
 
 Where 
 THE PHOBKYADS. Cease, and rouse in us no longer vision! 
 
 What profit, if we knew them with precision? 
 
 We, born in night, akin to gloom alone, 
 
 Unto ourselves almost, to others quite, unknown. 
 MEPHIS. In such a case there's little more to say, 
 
 But one one's self to others can convey. 
 
 One eye supplies you three, one tooth as well, 
 
 So were it mythologically possible 
 
 In two the being of the Three to cover, 
 
 And unto me the third fair form make over, 
 
 A short time, only. 
 
 ONE. Will it do, forsooth? 
 
 THE OTHERS. We'll try it ! but without or eye or tooth. 
 MEPHIS. Now just the best thing have you taken away. 
 
 How shall I then the image stern display? 
 ONE. 'Tis easily done : just close one eye, 
 
 And let thy one side-tusk be seen thereby : 
 
 In profile thus, with not a trait diminished. 
 
 Thy sisterly resemblance will be finished. 
 MEPHIS. So be it, then! 
 THE PHOBKYADS. So be it! 
 
 MEPHIS. (as PHOBKYAD in profile). Me behold, 
 
 The much-beloved son of Chaos old ! 
 THE PHOBKYADS. Daughters of Chaos are we, by good 
 
 right. 
 
 MEPHIS. Disgrace! They'll call me now hermaphrodite. 
 THE PHOBKYADS. In our new sister-triad what a 
 
 beauty ! 
 
 Two eyes have we, two teeth, for further duty. 
 MEPHIS. Now from all eyes I'll hide this visage fell, 
 
 To fright the devils in the pool of Hell. [Exit.
 
 248 FAUST. 
 
 IV. 
 
 EOOKY OOVES OF THE -ffiOEAN SEA. 
 
 The Moon delaying in the Zenith, SIRENS couched upon the 
 cliffs wound, fluting and singing. 
 
 SIRENS. Though erewhile, by spells nocturnal, 
 
 Thee Thessalian hags infernal 
 
 Downward drew, with guilt intended, 
 
 Look, from where thine arch is bended, 
 
 On the multitudinous, splendid 
 
 Twinkles of the billowy Ocean ! 
 
 Shine upon the throngs in motion 
 
 O'er the waters, wild and free ! 
 
 To thy service vowed are we : 
 
 Fairest Luna, gracious be ! 
 
 NBKBIDS AND TRITONS (as wonders of the sea). Call with 
 clearer, louder singing 
 
 Through the Sea's broad bosom ringing 
 
 Call the tenants of the Deep ! 
 
 When the storm swept unimpeded 
 
 We to stiUest depths receded ; 
 
 Forth at sound of song we leap. 
 
 See ! delighted and elated, 
 
 We ourselves have decorated, 
 
 With our golden crowns have crowned na ( 
 
 With our spangled girdles bound us, 
 
 Chains and jewels hung around us ! 
 
 Are all spoils which you purvey ! 
 
 Treasures, here in shipwreck swallowed, 
 
 You have lured, and we have followed 
 
 You, the Daemons of our bay. 
 SIRENS. In the crystal cool, delicious, 
 
 Smoothly sport the happy fishes, 
 
 Pliant lives that nothing mar ; 
 
 Yet, ye festive crowds that gather,
 
 ACT II. 249 
 
 We, to-day, would witness, rather, 
 
 That ye more than fishes are. 
 NESBIDS AND TRITOKS. We, before we hither wandered, 
 
 Thoroughly the question pondered : 
 
 Sisters, Brothers, speed afar ! 
 
 Briefest travel, light endurance, 
 
 Yield the validest assurance' 
 
 That we more than fishes are. [They depart. 
 
 SIKENS. Off ! they have left the place, 
 
 Steering away to Samothrace,' 1 * 
 
 Vanished with favouring wind. 
 
 What is their purpose there, in the dreary 
 
 Domain of the lofty Cabin ? 
 
 Gods are they, but the strangest crew, 
 
 Ever begetting themselves anew, 
 
 And unto their own being blind. 
 
 In thy meridian stay, 
 Luna ! graciously delay, 
 That the Night still embrace us, 
 And the Day not chase us ! 
 THALES (on the shore, to HOMTJKCULTTS). I fain would lead 
 
 thee unto Nereus old. 
 Not distant are we from his cavern cold, 
 But stubbornness is his delight, 
 The peevish and repulsive wight 
 Howe'er the human race has tried, 
 The Grumbler's never satisfied : 
 Yet he the Future hath unsealed, 
 And men thereto their reverence yield, 
 And give him honour in his station. 
 Many his benefits have tasted. 
 
 HOMUNCULUS. Then let us try, without more hesitation ! 
 My glass and flame will not at once be wasted. 
 
 NEREUS. Are human voices those that reach mine ear t 
 At once my wrath is kindled, keen and clear. 
 Aspiring forms, that high as Gods would ramble, 
 Yet ever damned their own selves to resemble. 
 In ancient years could I divinely rest, 
 Yet was impelled to benefit the Bert ; 
 Ifc
 
 250 FAUST. 
 
 And when, at last, I saw my deeds completed, 
 It fully seemed as were the work defeated. 
 
 THALBS. And yet we trust thee, Graybeard of the Sea \ 
 Thou art the Wise One : drive us not from thee ! 
 Behold this Flame, in man's similitude : 
 It yields itself unto thy counsel good. 
 
 NEBETJS. What ! Counsel ? (When did ever men esteem it 1 
 Wise words in hard ears are but* lifeless lore. 
 Oft as the Act may smite them when they scheme it, 
 The People are as self-willed as before. 
 How warned I Paris, in paternal trust, 
 Before a foreign woman woke his lust ! 
 Upon the Grecian strand he stood so bold j 
 I saw in spirit, and to him foretold 
 The smoky winds, the overwhelming woe, 
 Beams all a-blaze, murder and death below, 
 Froy's judgment-day, held fast in lofty rhyme, 
 A terror through a thousand years of time ! 
 My words seemed sport unto the reckless one : 
 His lust he followed : fallen was Ilion, 
 A giant carcass, stiff, and hacked with steel, 
 To Pindus' eagles 'twas a welcome meaL 
 Dlysses, too ! did I not him presage 
 The wiles of Circe and the Cyclops' rage 1 
 His paltering mind, his crew's inconstant strain, 
 And what not all ? and did it bring him gain ? 
 Till him, though late, the favouring billow bore, 
 A much-tossed wanderer, to the friendly shore. 
 
 THALES. Such conduct, truly, gives the wise man pain, 
 And yet the good man once will try again. 
 An ounce of gratitude, his help repaying, 
 Tons of ingratitude he sees outweighing. 
 And nothing trifling now we beg of thee ; 
 The boy here wishes to be born, and be. 
 
 NERETJS. Let not my rarest mood be spoiled, I pray | 
 Far other business waits for me to-day. 
 I've hither bidden, by the wave and breeze, 
 The Graces of the Sea, the Dorides. 00 
 Olympus bears not, noi your lucent arch, 
 Such lovely forms, in such a lightsome march ;
 
 ACT 17. 61 
 
 They fling themselves, in wild and wanton dalliance, 
 
 Prom the sea-dragons upon Neptune's stallions, 
 
 Blent with the element so freely, brightly, 
 
 That even the foam appears to lift them lightly. 
 
 In Venus' chariot-shell, with hues of morn, 
 
 Comes Galatea, now the fairest, borne ; 
 
 Who, since that Cypris turned from us her face, 
 
 In Paphos reigns as goddess in her place. 
 
 Thus she, our loveliest, long since came to own, 
 
 As heiress, templed town and chariot-throne. 
 
 Away ! the father's hour of rapture clips 
 
 Hate from the heart, and harshness from the lipe. 
 
 Away to Proteus ! Ask that wondrous man 
 
 Of Being's and of Transformation's plan ! 
 
 [He retires towards the tea. 
 
 THALBS. We, by this step, gain nothing : one may meet- 
 Proteus, and straight he melts, dissolving fleet. 
 Though he remain, he only says 
 That which confuses and astonishes. 
 However, of such counsel thou hast need ; 
 Bo, at a venture, let us thither speed ! [They depart. 
 
 SIKENS (on the rocks abwe.) What is't, that, far ad- 
 vancing, 
 
 Glides o'er the billows dancing 1 
 As, when the winds are shifted, 
 Shine snowy sails, uplifted, 
 So shine they o'er the waters, 
 Transfigured Ocean-daughters. 
 We'll clamber down, and, near them, 
 Behold their forms, and hear them. 
 
 NKKIDS AND TRITONS. What in our hands we bear you 
 Much comfort shall prepare you. 
 Chelone's buckler giant 
 Shines with its forms defiant : 
 They're Gods that we are bringing ; 
 High songs must you be singing ! 
 SIEENB. Small to the sight, 
 
 Great in their might, 
 Saviours of the stranded, 
 Ancient Gods, and banded.
 
 852 FAUST. 
 
 NBRBIDS AND TRITONS. We bring you the Cabiil 
 To festals calm and cheery ; 
 For where their sway extendetfa 
 Neptune the realm befriendeth. 
 SIRENS. We yield to your claim ; 
 
 When a shipwreck came, 
 Irresistibly you 
 Protected the crew. 
 
 NEREIDS AND TRITONS. Three have we brought hither, 
 The fourth refused us altogether : 
 He was the right one, said he, 
 Their only thinker ready. 
 SIRENS. One God the >ther God 
 
 Smites with the scoffer's rod t 
 Honour all grace they bring 
 Fear all evil they fling ! 
 
 NEREIDS AND TRITONS. Seven are they, really. 
 SIRENS. Where, then, stay the other three ? 
 NEREIDS AND TRITONS. The truth we cannot gather., 
 Ask on Olympus, rather ! 
 There pines the eighth, forgotten, 
 By no one ever thought on ! 
 In grace to us entreated, 
 But not yet all completed. 
 
 These incomparable, unchainable, 
 Are always further yearning, 
 With desire and hunger burning 
 For the Unattainable ! 
 
 SIRENS. These are our ways : 
 
 The God that sways 
 Bun, Moon, or other blaze, 
 We worship : for it pays. 
 NKREIDS AND TRITONS. Highest glory for us behold, 
 
 Leading these festals cheery ! 
 SIRENS. The heroes of the ancient time 
 Fail of their glory's prime, 
 Where and howe'er it may unfold ; 
 Though they have won the Fleece of Gold,
 
 ACT 1L 253 
 
 If e, tha Cabin ! [Repeated as full chorut. 
 
 Though they have won the Fleece of Gold, 
 
 We ! Ye ! the Cabin ! 
 
 [The NEREIDS and TRITONS move past. 
 I foMUNCULUs. These Malformations, every one, 
 Had earthern pots for models : w 
 Against them now the wise men run, 
 And break their stubborn noddles. 
 THALES. That is the thing one wishes, just ! 
 The coin takes value from its rust. 
 PROTEUS (unperceived). This pleases me, the old fable-ranger 1 
 
 The more respectable, the stranger. 
 THALES. Where art thou, Proteus ? 
 PROTEUS, (speaking ventriloquially, now near, now at a di- 
 
 tance). Here ! and here 1 
 THALES. I pardon thee thine ancient jeer. 
 
 Cheat not a friend with vain oration : 
 Thou speak'st, I know, from a delusive station. 
 PROTEUS (as if at a distance}. Farewell ! 
 THALES (softly to HOMUNCULUS). He is quite near : 
 
 shine brilliantly ! 
 
 For curious as a fish is he ; 
 And in whatever form he hide, 
 A flame will make him hither glide. 
 
 HOMUNCULUS. At once a flood of light I'll fling, 
 Yet softly, lest the glass should spring. 
 
 PROTEUS (in the form of a giant tortoise). What shines so 
 
 fair, so graciously? 
 THALES (covering HOMUNCULUS). Good ! If thou wishest, 
 
 canst thou nearer see. 
 Be not annoyed to take a little trouble, 
 And show thyself on man's foundation double. 
 What we disclose, to whomsoe'er would see it. 
 With our will only, by our favour, be it ! 
 
 PROTEUS (in a noble form). Still world-wise pranks thou 
 
 failest to forget. 
 THALES. To change thy form remains thy pleasure yet. 
 
 [He uncovers HOMUNCULUS. 
 
 PBOTEUS (astonished). A shining dwarf ! The like I ne'ei 
 .did see !
 
 254 FA UST. 
 
 THALER. He asks thy counsel, he desires to be. 
 He is, as I myself have heard him say, 
 (The thing's a marvel ! ) only born half-way. 
 He has no lack of qualities ideal, 
 But far too much of palpable and real 
 Till now the glass alone has given him weight. 
 And he would fain be soon incorporate. 
 
 PROTEUS. Thou art a genuine virgin's-son : 
 Finished, ere thou shouldst be begun ! 
 
 THAUBS (whispering). Viewed from another side, the thing 
 
 seems critical : 
 He is, methinks, hennaphroditical ! 
 
 PROTEUS. Then all the sooner 'twill succeed : 
 Let him but start, 'twill be arranged with speed. 
 No need to ponder here his origin ; 
 On the broad ocean's breast must thou begin 1 
 One starts there first within a narrow pale, 63 
 And finds, destroying lower forms, enjoyment : 
 Little by little, then, one climbs the scale, 
 And fits himself for loftier employment. 
 
 HOMUNCULUS. Here breathes and blows a tender air : 
 And I delight me in the fragrance rare. 
 
 PROTEUS. Yea, verily, my loveliest stripling { 
 And farther on, far more enjoyable. 
 Around yon narrow spit the waves are rippling; 
 The halo bright and undestroyable ! 
 There to the host we'll nearer be, 
 Now floating hither o'er the sea. 
 Come with me there ! 
 
 THAUIS. I'll go along. 
 
 HoMTjNCtnvcrs. A spirit-purpose, triply strong !
 
 ACT II. 366 
 
 TELOHINES OP RHODES. 1 * 
 
 On SearHorses and Sea-Dragons, wielding Neptune's Trident. 
 
 CHORUS. We've forged for old Neptune the trident that 
 
 urges 
 
 To smoothness and peace the refractory surges 
 When Jove tears the cloud of the tempest asunder, 
 'Tis Neptune encounters the roll of the thunder : 
 The lightnings above may incessantly glow, 
 But wave upon wave dashes up from below, 
 And all that, between them, the terrors o'erpower, 
 Long tossed and tormented, the Deep shall devour ; 
 And thence he hath lent us his sceptre to-day. 
 Now float we contented, in festal array. 
 
 SIRENS. You, to Helios consecrated, 
 
 To the bright Day's blessing fated, 
 You to this high Hour we hail : 
 Luna's worship shall prevail ! 
 
 TELCHTNBS. loveliest Goddess by night over- vaulted I 
 Thou hearest with rapture thy brother exalted : 
 To listen to Rhodes thou wilt lean from the skies j 
 To him, there, the paeans eternally rise. 
 When the day he begins, when he ends its career, 
 His beam is the brighest that falls on us here. 
 The mountains, the cities, the sea and the shore, 
 Are lovely and bright to the God they adore : 
 No mist hovers o'er us, and should one appear, 
 A beam and a breeze, and the Island is clear ! 
 There Phoebus his form may by hundreds behold, 
 Colossal, as youth, as the Gentle, the Bold ; 
 For we were the first whose devotion began 
 To shape the high Gods in the image of Man. 
 
 PROTEUS. But leave them to their boasting, singing ! 
 Beside the holy sunbeams, bringing
 
 256 FAUST. 
 
 All life, their dead works are a jest. 
 
 They melt and cast, with, zeal impassioned, 
 
 And what they once in bronze have fashioned, 
 
 They think it's something of the best. 
 
 There proud ones are at last made lowly : 
 
 Tlie forms of Gods, that stood and shone, 
 
 Were by an earthquake overthrown, 
 
 And long since have been melted wholly. 
 
 This earthly toil, whate'er it be, 
 
 Is never else than drudgery : 
 
 A better life the waves declare thee, 
 
 And now to endless seas shall bear thee 
 
 Proteus-Dolphin. [He transforms himsetj 
 
 Tis done ! Behold ! 
 Unto thy fairest fortune waken : 
 Upon my back shalt thou be taken, 
 And wedded to the Ocean old. 
 
 THALES. Yield to the wish, so wisely stated, 
 And at the source be thou created ! 
 Be ready for the rapid plan ! 
 There, by eternal canons wending, 
 Through thousand, myriad forms ascending, 
 Thou shalt attain, in time, to Man. 
 
 [HoMUNCULUS mounts the Proteus-Dolphin. 
 PROTETJS. In spirit seek the watery distance 1 
 Boundless shall there be thine existence, 
 And where to move, thy will be free. 
 But struggle not to higher orders ! 
 Once Man, within the human borders, 
 Then all is at an end for thee. 
 THALES. That's as it haps : 'tis no ill fate 
 
 In one's own day to be true man and great. 
 PBOTETJS (to THALES). Some one, perchance, of thine own 
 
 kind! 
 
 Their lives continue long, I find ; 
 For with thy pallid phantom-peers 
 I've seen thee now for many hundred years. 
 
 (on the rocks). See ! what rings of cloudlets 
 gliding 
 Bound the nvxtn, in circles play !
 
 ACT If. 267 
 
 They are doves whom Love is guiding, 
 
 With their wings as white as day. 
 
 Paphos hither sends them fleetly, 
 
 All her ardent birds, to us, 
 
 And our festival completely 
 
 Crowns with purest rapture, thus I 
 NEREUS (advancing to THALES). Though some nightly 
 
 wanderer's vision 
 Deem yon ring an airy spectre, 
 We, the spirits, with decision 
 Entertain a view corrector : 
 They are doves, whose convoy gathers 
 Round my daughter's chariot-shell, 
 With a flight of wondrous spell, 
 Learned in old days of the fathers. 
 THALES. That I also think is best, 
 Which the true man comfort gives, 
 When in warm and peaceful nest 
 Something holy for him lives. 
 
 PSYLLI AND MABSI w (on seas-bulk, sea Keifert and sea- 
 rams). In hollow caves on Cyprus' shore, 
 By the Sea-God still unbattered, 
 Not yet by Seismos shattered, 
 By eternal winds breathed o'er, 
 And still, as in days that are measured, 
 Contented and silently pleasured, 
 The chariot of Cypris we've treasured. 
 By the murmurs, the nightly vibrations, 
 O'er the waves and their sweetest pulsation* 
 Unseen to the new generations, 
 The loveliest daughter we lead. 
 We fear not, as lightly we hie on, 
 Either Eagle or wing-lifted Lion, 
 Either Crescent or Cross, 
 Though the sky it emboss, 
 Though it changefully triumphs and flashes. 
 In defeat to forgetfulness dashes, 
 Lays the fields and the cities in ashes ! 
 Straightway, with speed, 
 The loveliest of mistresses forth we lead.
 
 258 FAUST. 
 
 SOULNS. Lightly moved, with paces graver, 
 Circle round the car again ; 
 Line on line inwoven, waver 
 Snake-like in a linking chain. 
 Stalwart Nereids, come, enring us, 
 Budest women, wild and free ; 
 Tender Dorides, ye bring us 
 Her, the Mother of the Sea, 
 Galatea, godlike woman, 
 Worthiest immortality, 
 Yet, like those of lineage human, 
 Sweet with loving grace is she. 
 
 DOKIDES (in chorus, mounted on dolphin, passing NERKTTB) 
 Lend us, Luna, light and shadow, 
 Show this youthful flower and fire ! 
 For we bring beloved spouses, 
 Praying for them to our sire. [To N ERBUS 
 
 They are boys, whom we have rescued 
 From the breaker's teeth of dread ; 
 They, on reeds and mosses bedded, 
 Back to light and life we led : 
 Now must they, with glowing kisseg, 
 Thank us for the granted blisses ; 
 On the youths thy favour shed ! 
 NKREUS. Lo, now ! what double gains your deed requite i 
 
 You show compassion, and you take delight 
 DORIDES. If thou praisest OUT endeavour, 
 Father, grant the fond request, 
 Let us hold them fast for ever 
 On each young, immortal breast. 
 NBREUS. Take joy in what you've finely captured, 
 And shape to men the youthful crew ; 
 I cannot grant the boon enraptured 
 Which only Zeus can give to you. 
 The -billows, as they heave and f ock you, 
 Allow to love no firmer stand, 
 So, when these fancies fade and mock you, 
 Send quietly the youths to land. 
 DORIDES. Fair boys, we must part, forsooth ; 
 Yet we love you, we vow it !
 
 ACT II. 259 
 
 We have asked for eternal truth, 
 But the Gods will not allow it 
 
 TH* YOUTHS. We sailor-boys, if still 'you would 
 Give love, as first you gave it, 
 We've never had a life so good, 
 And would not better have it ! 
 
 [GALATKA approach*! on her chariot of shell 1 ' 
 
 NEREOB. Tis thou, my darling ! 
 
 GALATEA. 0, Sire ! what delight ! 
 
 Linger, ye dolphins ! I cling to the sight 
 
 NEREUS. Already past, they swiftly wander 
 On, in circling courses wheeling ! 
 What care they for the heart's profoundest feeling f 
 Ah, would they took me with them yonder ! 
 Yet a single glance can cheer 
 All the livelong barren year. 
 
 THALBS. Hail ! All hail ! with newer voice* ; 
 How my spirit rejoices, 
 By the True and the Beautiful penetrated 1 
 From Water was everything first created I 
 Water doth everything still sustain ! 
 Ocean, grant us thine endless reign ! 
 If the clouds thou wert sending not, 
 The swelling streams wert spending not, 
 The winding rivers bending not, 
 And all in thee were ending not, 
 
 Could mountains, and plains, and the world itself, be t 
 The freshest existence is nourished by thee ! 
 
 ECHO (chorus of the collective circles'). The freshest existence 
 flows ever from thee ! 
 
 NEREUS. They turn and wheel again, afar ; 
 No longer face to face they are. 
 In linking circles, wide extending, 
 In their festive dances blending, 
 The countless cohorts now appear. 
 But Galatea's chariotrshell 
 Still I see, and see it well : 
 It shines like a star 
 Through the crowds intwining. 
 Love from the tumult still is shining }
 
 f60 FAUST. 
 
 Though ne'er so for, 
 
 It shimmers bright and clear, 
 
 Ever true and near. 
 
 IIoMUNCUiiTJB. This softly heaving brine ou, 
 Whatever I may shine on 
 Is all with beauty crowned. 
 PROTEUS, Within this moisture living, 
 
 Thy lamp now first is giving 
 A clear and splendid sound. 
 NEREUS. What mystery new, 'mid the crowds that are 
 
 wheeling, 
 
 Is now to our vision its wonders revealing ? 
 What flames round the shell at the feet of the Queen ? 
 Now flaring in force, and now shining serene, 
 As if by the pulses of love it were fed. 
 
 THALES. Homunculus is it, by Proteus misled ! . . . 
 And these are the signs of imperious yearning, 
 The presage of swelling, impatiently spurning : 
 Hell shiver his glass on the glittering throne 
 He glows and ht flashes, and now he hath flown ! 
 
 SIKBNS. What fiery marvel the billows enlightens, 
 As one on the other is broken and brightens ? 
 It flashes, and wavers, and hitherward plays ! 
 On the path of the Night are the bodies ablaze, 
 And all things around are with flames overrun : 
 Then Eros be ruler, who all things begun ! 
 
 Hail, ye Waves ! Hail, Sea unbounded, 
 By the holy Fire surrounded ! 
 Water, hail ! Hail, Fire, the splendid 1 
 Hail, Adventure rarely ended ! 
 AiL TOGETHER. Hail, ye Airs that softly flov ; 
 Hail, ye caves of Earth below I 
 Honoured now and evermore 
 Be the Elemental Four f
 
 ACT III. 261 
 
 ACT III. 
 
 BEFORE THE PALACE OF MENELAUS 
 SPARTA. 
 
 HELENA enters, with the CHORDS of Captive Trojan 
 PANTHALIS, Leader of the Chorus. 
 
 HELENA. 87 I, much admired and much reviled, I Helena, 
 Come from the strand where we have disembarked but now, 
 Still giddy from the restless rocking of the waves 
 Of Ocean, which from Phrygian uplands hitherwards 
 On high, opposing backs Poseidon's favour won 
 And Euros' strength have borne us to our native bay. 
 Below there, with the bravest of his warriors, now 
 King Menelaus feels the joy of his return ; 
 But thou, bid me welcome back, thou lofty Houw 
 Which Tyndarus, my father, on the gentle slope, 
 Returning from the Hill of Pallas, builded up ; 
 And when I here with Clytemnestra sister-like, 
 With Castor and with Pollux gaily sporting, grew, 
 Before all Sparta's houses nobly was adorned. 
 Ye valves of yon dark iron portals, ye I hail ! 
 Once through your festive and inviting opening 
 It happened that to me, from many singled out, 
 The coming of the bridegroom Menelaus shone. 
 Unfold again for me, that I the King's command 
 Fulfil with strictness, as unto a spouse is meet : 
 Give entrance now, and let all things be left behind 
 Which hitherto have stormed upon me, full of doom 1 
 For, since this place all unsuspicious I forsook 
 For Cytheraea's fane, as holy duty called,
 
 369 fAUST. 
 
 But there the robber seized me, he the Phrygian, 
 Happened have many thiogs, which people far and wide 
 So fain relate, but whicn BO fain hears not the one 
 Of whom the legend rose, and to a fable grew. 
 CHORUS. Disdain thou not, beautiful Dame, 
 Possession proud of the highest estate ! 
 For the greatest fortune is thine alone, 
 The fame of beauty that towers o'er all 
 The name of the hero heralds his path, 
 Thence proudly he strides ; 
 Yet bends at once the stubbornest man, 
 And yields to all-conquering Beauty's might, 
 HKLKNA. Enough, with mine own spouse have I been 
 
 hither shipped, 
 
 And now by him beforehand to his city sent ; 
 Yet what his purposes may be, I fail to guess. 
 Do I come here as wife ? Or do I come as queen ! 
 Or come, an offering for the Prince's bitter pain, 
 And for the long-endured misfortune of the Greeks 1 
 For they, the Immortals, verily fixed my Fame and Fate 
 Ambiguously, attendants twain of doubtful worth 
 To Beauty, who upon this very threshold stand 
 With gloomy and with threatening presence at my side. 
 Then, even, in the hollow ship, but seldom looked 
 My spouse on me, nor ever word of comfort spake : 
 As if he brooded evil, fronting me he sat. 
 But now, when speeding towards the strand of that deep 
 
 cove 
 
 Eurotas makes, scarce had the foremost vessels' prows 
 The land saluted, than he spake, as urged the Gods : 
 " Here, in their ordered rank, my warriors disembark ; 
 Them shall I muster, ranged along the ocean-strand. 
 But thou go ever onwards, up the hallowed banks 
 Of fair Eurotas, dowered with gifts of plenteous fruit, 
 Guiding the stallions o'er the bloom of watery meads, 
 Till there, on that most lovely plain thy journey ends, 
 Where Lacedemon, once a fruitful spreading field, 
 Surrounded by austerest mountains, built its seat. 
 Set thou thy foot within the high-towered princely House, 
 And muster well the maids, whom there behind I left,
 
 AVT III. 263 
 
 Together with the old and faithful Stewardess. 
 
 Let her display to thee the wealth of treasures stored, 
 
 Even as thy father them bequeathed, and I myself, 
 
 In war and peace accumulating, have amassed. 
 
 All things shalt thou in ancient order find : because 
 
 It is the Ruler's privilege, that he all things 
 
 In faithful keeping find, returning to his house, 
 
 Where'er he may have left it, each thing in its place ; 
 
 For power to change in aught possesses not the slave." 
 
 CHORUS. Let now the splendid, accumulate wealth 
 Rejoice and cheer thee, in eye and heart ! 
 For the gleam of chain and the glory of crown 
 Are lying idly in haughty repose : 
 But enter thou in and challenge them all, 
 And they will respond. 
 I rejoice to witness Beauty compete 
 With gold and pearl and the jewel-stone. 
 
 HELENA. Thereafter further came my lord's imperiotu 
 
 " Now when all things in order thou inspected hast, 
 
 Then take so many tripods as thou needful deem'st, 
 
 And vessels manifold, such as desires at hand 
 
 Who offers to the Gods, fulfilling holy use, 
 
 The kettles, also bowls, the shallow basin's disk ; 
 
 The purest water from the sacred fountain fill 
 
 In lofty urns ; and further, also ready hold 
 
 The well-dried wood that rapidly accepts the flame ; 
 
 And let the knife, well-sharpened, fail not finally ; 
 
 Yet all besides will I relinquish to thy care." 
 
 So spake he, urging iny departure ; but no thing 
 
 Of living breath did he, who ordered thus, appoint, 
 
 That shall, to honour the Olympian Gods, be slain. 
 
 'Tis critical ; and yet I banish further care, 
 
 And let all things be now to the high Gods referred, 
 
 Who that fulfil, whereto their minds may be disposed, 
 
 VThether by men 'tis counted good, or whether bad ; 
 
 In either case we mortals, we are doomed to bear. 
 
 Already lifted oft the Offerer the axe 
 
 In consecration o'er the bowed neck of the beast.
 
 264 FAUST. 
 
 And could not consummate the act ; for enemies 
 Approaching, or Gods intervening, hindered him. 
 
 CHORUS. What shall happen, imagin'st thou not 
 Queen, go forwards 
 With courage ! 
 Blessing and evil come 
 Unexpected to men : 
 
 Though announced, yet we do not believe. 
 Burned not Ilion, saw we not also 
 Death in the face, shamefullest death? 
 And are we not here, 
 With thee companioned, joyously serving, 
 Seeing the dazzling sun in the heavens, 
 And the fairest of earth, too, 
 Kindest one, thee, we, the happy ? 
 
 HELENA. Let come, what may ! Whate'er awaits me, h 
 beseems 
 
 That I without delay go up in the Royal House, 
 Which, long my need and yearning, forfeited almost, 
 Once more hath risen on my sight, I know not how. 
 My feet no longer bear me with such fearlessness 
 Up the high steps, which as a child I sprang across. 
 
 CHORUS. Cant ye, sisters ! ye 
 Sorrowful captives, 
 All your troubles far from ye I 
 Your mistress's joy partake, 
 Helena's joy partake, 
 Who the paternal hearth 
 Delightedly now is approaching, 
 Truly with late-returning 
 But with firmer and surer feet 1 
 
 Praise ye the sacredest, 
 
 Still re-establishing 
 
 And home-bringing Immortals I 
 
 How the delivered one 
 
 Soars as on lifted wings 
 
 Over asperities, while in vain
 
 ACT III. *M 
 
 The prisoned one, yearningly, 
 Over the fortress-parapet 
 Pineth with outspread arms I 
 
 But a God took hold of her, 
 
 The Expatriate, 
 
 And from Ilion's ruins 
 
 Hither hath born her again, 
 
 To the ancient, the newiy embellished 
 
 Paternal house, 
 
 From unspeakable 
 
 Raptures and torments, 
 
 Early youthful days, 
 
 Now refreshed, to remember. 
 
 PANTHAUS (as DEADER OF THE CHORUS). Forsake ye now 
 
 the joy-encompassed path of Song, 
 
 And towards the portal's open valves your glances turn ! 
 What, Sisters, do I see ? Returneth not the Queen 
 With swift and agitated step again to us ? 
 What is it now, great Queen, what could encounter thee 
 To move and shake thee so, within thy house's halls, 
 Instead of greeting 1 Thou canst not conceal the thing ; 
 For strong repulsion written on thy brow I see, 
 And noble indignation, struggling with amaze. 
 
 HELENA (who has left the wrings of the portal open, excitedly} 
 A common fear beseemeth not the child of Zeus ; 
 No lightly-passing hand of terror touches her ; 
 But that fell Horror, which the womb of ancient Night 
 With first of things delivered, rolled through many forms, 
 Like glowing clouds that from the mountain's fiery throat 
 Whirl up expanding, even heroes' breasts may shake, 
 fhus terribly have here to-day the Stygian Gods 
 Mine entrance in the house betokened, and I fain, 
 Even as a guest dismissed, would take myself away 
 From this oft-trodden threshold I so longed to tread. 
 But, no ! hither have I retreated to the light ; 
 Nor further shall ye force me, Powers, be who ye may I 
 Some consecration will I muse : then, purified, 
 The hearth-fire may the wife so welcome, as the lord.
 
 266 FAUST. 
 
 LKADEI OF THB CHORUS. Discover, noble Dame, tsnto 
 
 thy servants here, 
 Who reverently assist thee, what hath come to pass. 
 
 HELENA. What I beheld, shall ye with your own eyes 
 
 behold, 
 
 If now that shape the ancient Night hath not at once 
 Re-swallowed to the wonders of her deepest breast. 
 But I with words will yet declare it, that ye know. 
 When solemnly, my nearest duty borne in mind, 
 The Royal House's gloomy inner court I trod, 
 Amazed I saw the silent, dreary corridors. 
 No sound of diligent labour, going forwards, met 
 The ear, no signs of prompt and busy haste the eye ; 
 And not a maid appeared to me, no stewardess 
 Such as is wont to greet the stranger, friendly-wise. 
 But when towards the ample hearth-stone I advanced, 
 I saw, beside the glimmering ashes that remained, 
 A veiled and giant woman seated on the ground, 
 Not like to one who sleeps, but one deep-sunk in thought. 
 With words of stern command I summoned her to work, 
 The stewardess surmising, who meanwhile, perchance, 
 My spouse with forethought there had stationed when he left , 
 But she, still crouched together, sat immovable. 
 Stirred by my threats at last, she lifted the right arm 
 As if from hearth and hall she beckoned me away. 
 I turned indignantly from her, and swiftly sped 
 Unto the steps whereon aloft the Thalamos 
 Adorned is set, and near thereto the treasure-room : 
 But suddenly from the floor the wondrous figure sprang, 
 Barring my way imperiously, and showed herself 
 In haggard height, with hollow, blood-discoloured eyes, 
 A shape so strange that eye and mind confounded are. 
 But to the winds I speak : for all in vain doth Speech 
 Fatigue itself, creatively to build up forms. 
 There look, yourselves ! She even ventures forth to light ! 
 Here are we masters, till the lord and king shall come. 
 The horrid births of Night doth Phoebus, Beauty's friend, 
 Drive out of sight to caverns, or he binds them fast. 
 
 [PHORKYAS appccurt <m the thrahold, between the 
 daor-posts.
 
 ACT 111. 267 
 
 CHORUS.* Much my experience, although the treases, 
 Youthfully clustering, wave on my temples ; 
 Many the terrible things I have witnessed, 
 Warriors lamenting, Ilion's night, 
 When it fell. 
 
 Through the beclouded, dusty and maddened 
 Throngs of the combatants, heard 1 the Gods then 
 Terribly calling, heard I the iron 
 Accents of Discord clang through the field, 
 City-wards. f 
 
 Ah, yet stood they, Ilion's 
 Ramparts ; but ever the fiery glow 
 Ran from neighbour to neighbour walla, 
 Ever extending from here and there, 
 With the roar of its own storm, 
 Over the darkening city. 
 
 Flying saw I, through smoke and flame. 
 And the tongues of the blinding fire, 
 Fearful angering presence of Gods, 
 Stalking marvellous figures, 
 Giant-great, through the gloomy 
 Fire illuminate vapours. 
 
 Saw I, or was it but 
 Dread of the mind, that fashioned 
 Forms so affrighting ? Never can 
 Justly I say it? Yet that I Her. 
 Horrible, here with eyes behold, 
 Is to me known find certain : 
 Even to my hand were palpable, 
 Did not the terror restrain me, 
 Holding me back from the clanger, 
 
 Which one of Phorkys' 
 Daughters then art thou? 
 Since I compare <hee 
 Unto that family,
 
 368 FAUST. 
 
 Art thou, perchance, of the Graiae, 
 One of the dreaded gray-born, 
 One eye and tooth only 
 Owning alternately ? 
 
 Barest thou, Monster, 
 
 Here beside Beauty, 
 
 Unto high Phoebus' 
 
 Vision display thee? 
 
 Step thou forth, notwithstanding ! 
 
 For the Ugly beholds he not, 
 
 Even as his hallowed glances 
 
 Never beheld the shadow. 
 
 Yet a sorrowful adverse fate, 
 
 Us mortals compelleth, alas ! 
 
 To endure the unspeakable eye-pain 
 
 Which She, the accurst, reprehensible, 
 
 Provokes in the lovers of Beauty. 
 
 Yes, then hearken, if thou brazenly 
 
 Us shalt encounter, hear the curse, 
 
 Hear the threat of every abuse 
 
 From the denouncing mouths of the Fortunate^ 
 
 Whom the Gods themselves have fashioned ! 
 
 PHOBKYA8. 69 Old is the saw, and yet its sense is high and 
 
 true, 
 
 That Shame and Beauty ne'er together, hand in hand, 
 Pursued their way across the green domains of Earth. 
 Deep-rooted dwells in both such force of ancient hate, 
 That wheresoever on their way one haps to meet 
 The other, each upon her rival turns her back : 
 Then forth again vehemently they hasten on, 
 Shame deep depressed, but Beauty insolent and bold, 
 Till her at last the hoUow night of Orcus takes, 
 If Age hath not beforehand fully tamed her pride. 
 So now I find ye, shameless ones, come from abroad 
 With arrogance o'erflowing, as a file of cranes 
 That with their hoarse, far-sounding clangour high in air, 
 A. cloudy line, slew-moving, send their creaking tones
 
 ACT III. 28$ 
 
 Below, the loan, belated wanderer to allure 
 That he look up ; but, notwithstanding, go their way, 
 And he goes his : and likewise will it be, with us. 
 Who, then, are you, that round the Royal Palace high 
 Like Maenads wild, or like Bacchantes, dare to rave ? 
 Who, then, are you, that you the House's stewardess 
 Assail and howl at, as the breed of dogs the moon ? 
 Think ye from me 'tis hidden, of what race ye are ? 
 Ye brood, in war begotten and in battle bred, 
 Lustful of man, seducing no less than seduced, 
 Emasculating soldiers', burghers' strength alike ! 
 Methiuks, to see your crowd, a thick cicada-swarm 
 Hath settled on us, covering the green-sown fields. 
 Devourers ye of others' toil ! Ye snatch and taste, 
 Destroying in its bud the hind's prosperity ! 
 Wares are ye, plundered, bartered, and in market sold ! 
 
 HELENA. Who rates the servant-maids in presence of the 
 
 Dame 
 
 Audaciously invades the Mistress' household-right : 
 Her only it becometh to commend what is 
 Praiseworthy, as to punish what is blamable. * 
 Content, moreover, am I with the service which 
 They gave me, when the lofty strength of Hion 
 Beleaguered stood, and fell in ruin : none the less 
 When we the sorrowful and devious hardships bore 
 Of errant travel, where each thinks but of himself. 
 Here, too, the like from this gay throng do I expect : 
 Not what the slave is, asks the lord, but how he serves. 
 Therefore, be silent, cease to grin and jeer at them ! 
 If thou the Palace hitherto hast guarded well 
 In place of Mistress, so much to thy credit stands ; 
 But now that she herself hath come, shouldst thou retire 
 Lest punishment, in place of pay deserved, befall ! 
 
 PHORKYAS. To threaten the domestics is a right assured, 
 Which she, the spouse august of the God-prospered king, 
 By many years of wise discretion well hath earned. 
 Since thou, now recognised, thine ancient station here 
 Again assum'st, as Queen and Mistress of the House, 
 Grasp thou the reigns so long relaxed, be ruler now, 
 Take in thy knep the treasure, and ourselves thereto )
 
 270 
 
 .But first of all protect me, who the eldest am, 
 
 From this pert throng, who with thee, Swan of Beauty 
 
 matched, 
 
 AJC only stumpy-winged and cackling, quacking geese. 
 LEADER OF THE CHORUS. How ugly, near to Beauty, showeth 
 
 Ugliness ! 
 
 PHORKYAS. How silly, near to understanding, want of 
 sense ! 
 
 [Henceforth the CHORETIDS answer vn turn, stepping 
 
 singly forth from the CHORTTS. 
 OHORETID L Of Father Erebus relate, relate of Mother 
 
 Night ! 
 PHORKYAS. Speak thou of Scylla, sister-children of one 
 
 CHORETID EL Good store of hideous monsters shows thy 
 
 family tree ! 
 PHORKYAS. Go down to Orcus ! There thy trihe and 
 
 kindred seek ! 
 CHORETID III. Those who dwell there are all by far too 
 
 young for thee. 
 
 PHORKYAS. On old Tiresias try thy lascivious arts ! 
 CHORBTID IV. Orion's nurse was great-great-grandchild 
 
 unto thee ! 
 PHORKYAS. Thee harpies, I suspect, did nurse and feed on 
 
 filth. 
 CHOBBTID Y. Wherewith dost thou such choice emaciation 
 
 feedt 
 PHORKYAS. Not with the blood, for which thou all too 
 
 greedy art. 
 CHORETID VL Thou, hungering for corpses, hideous corpse 
 
 thyself ! 
 PHORKYAS. The teeth of vampires in thy shameless muzzle 
 
 shine ! 
 LKADBR OF THE CHORUS. Thine shall I stop, when I declare 
 
 thee who thou art. 
 PHORKYAS. Then name thyself the first ! The riddle thus 
 
 is solved. 
 
 HELENA. Not angered, but in sorrow, do I intervene, 
 Prohibiting the storm of this alternate strife ! 
 For nothing more injurious meets the ruling lord
 
 ACT IIL 271 
 
 Than quarrels of hfe fcdthful servants, underhand. 
 
 The echo of his orders then returns no more 
 
 Accordantly to \\\n\ in swiftly finished acts, 
 
 But, roaring wilfully, encompasses with storm 
 
 Him, self-confused and chiding to the empty air. 
 
 Nor this alone : in most unmannered anger ye 
 
 Have conjured hither pictures of the shapes of dread, 
 
 Which so surround me, that to Orcus now I feel 
 
 My being whirled, despite these well-known native fieldtt. 
 
 Can it be memory 1 Was it fancy, seizing me ? 
 
 Was all that, I ] and am I, now ? and shall I henceforth be 
 
 The dream and terror of those town-destroying ones 1 
 
 I see the maidens shudder : but, the eldest, thou 
 
 Composedly standest speak a word of sense to me ! 
 
 PHORKYAS. Whoe'er the fortune manifold of years recalls, 
 Sees as a dream at last the favour of the Gods. 
 But thou, so highly dowered, so past all measure helped, 
 Saw'st in the ranks of life but love-desirous men, 
 To every boldest hazard kindled soon and spurred. 
 Thee early Theseus snatched, excited by desire, 
 Like Heracles in strength, a splendid form of man. 
 
 HELENA. He bore me forth, a ten-year-old and slendei 
 
 roe, 
 And shut me in Aphidnus' tower, in Attica. 
 
 PHORKYAS. But then, by Castor and by Pollux soon 
 
 The choicest crowd of heroes, wooing, round thee pressed. 
 HELENA. Yet most my secret favour, freely I confess, 
 Patroclus won, the likeness of Pelides he. 
 
 PHORKYAS. Wed by thy father's will to Menelaus then, 
 The bold sea-rover, the sustainer of his house. 
 
 HBLENA. My sire the daughter gave him, and the govern- 
 ment : 
 Then from our wedded nearness sprang Hennione. 
 
 PHORKYAS. Yet when be boldly churned the heritage of 
 
 Crete, 
 To thee, the lonely one, too fair a guest appeared. 
 
 HELENA. Why wilt thou thus recall that semi-widow- 
 hood, 
 And all the hideous ruin it entailed on me I
 
 272 FAUST. 
 
 PHOBKTA& To me, a free-born Cretan, did that journey 
 
 bring 
 Imprisonment, as well, protracted slavery. 
 
 HELENA. At once he hither ordered thee as stewardess, 
 Giving in charge the fortress and the treasure-stores. 
 
 PHOKKYAS. Which thou forsookest, wending to the towered 
 
 town 
 Of Ilion, and the unexhausted joys of love. 
 
 HELENA. Name not those joys to me ! for sorrow all too stern 
 Unendingly was poured upon my breast and brain. 
 
 PHORKYAS. Nathless, they say, dost thou appear in double 
 
 form ; 
 Beheld in Ilion, in Egypt, too, beheld. 
 
 HELENA. Make wholly not confused my clouded, wandering 
 
 Even in this moment, who I am I cannot telL 
 
 PHORKYAS. And then, they say, from out the hollow 
 
 Realm of Shades 
 
 Achilles yet was joined in passion unto thee, 
 Who earlier loved thee, 'gainst all ordinances of Fate ! 
 
 HELENA. To him, the Vision, I, a Vision, wed myself : 
 It was a dream, as even the words themselves declare. 
 I vanish hence, and to myself a Vision grow. 
 
 [She sinks into the arms of the SEMICHOKUS, 
 CHORUS. Silence ! silence ! 
 
 False-seeing one, false-speaking one 1 
 
 Out of the hideous, single-toothed 
 
 Mouth, what should be exhaled from 
 
 Such abominable horror-throat ! 
 
 For the Malevolent, seeming benevolent, 
 
 Wolfs wrath under the sheep's woolly fleece, 
 
 Fearfuller far is unto me than 
 
 Throat of the three-headed dog. 
 
 Anxiously listening stand we here. 
 
 When? how? where shall break again forth 
 
 Further malice 
 
 From the deeply-ambushed monster 1 
 
 Now, stead of friendly words and consoling, 
 Lethe-bestowing, gratefully mild.
 
 ACT III. 273 
 
 Stirrept thon up from all the Paa* 
 
 Evillest more than good things, 
 
 And darkenest all at once 
 
 Both the gleam of the Present 
 
 And also the Future's 
 
 Sweetly glimmering dawn of hope i 
 
 Silence ! silence ! 
 That the Queen's high spirit, 
 Nigh to forsake her now, 
 Hold out, and upbear yet 
 The Form of all forms 
 Which the sun shone on ever. 
 
 [HELENA IMS recovered, and stands again in tht 
 
 centre. 
 PHOBKYAS. Forth from transient vapours comes the lofty 
 
 sun of this bright day, 
 That, obscured, could so delight us, but in splendour dazzles 
 
 now. 
 
 As the world to thee is lovely, thou art lovely unto us ; 
 Though as ugly they revile me, well I know the Beautiful 
 HELENA. Tottering step I from the Void that dizzy, 
 
 fainting, round me closed ; 
 
 And again would fain be resting, for so weary are my limbs. 
 Yet to Queens beseemeth chiefly, as to all men it beseems, 
 Calm to be, and pluck up courage, whatsoe'er may menace 
 
 them. 
 PHOBKYAS. Standing now in all thy greatness, and in all 
 
 thy beauty, here, 
 Says thine eye that thou commandest : what command'st 
 
 thou ? speak it out ! 
 HELENA. Be prepared, for much neglected in your quarrel, 
 
 to atone ! 
 
 Haste, a sacrifice to furnish, as the king hath ordered me I 
 PHOBKYAS. All is ready in the palace vessels, tripods, 
 
 sharpened axe, 
 For the sprinkling, fumigating : show to me the victim 
 
 now ! 
 
 HELENA. This the king not indicated. 
 PHOBKYAB. Spake it not ? O word of woe ! 
 
 K2
 
 274 FAUST. 
 
 HELENA. What distress hath overcome thee ? 
 
 PHORKYAS. Queen, the offering art thou ! * 
 
 HELENA. It 
 
 PHORKYAB. And these. 
 
 CHORUS. Ah, woe and sorrow ! 
 
 PHORKYAS. Thou shalt fall beneath the axe, 
 
 HELENA. Fearful, yet foreboded ! I, alas ! 
 
 PHORKYAS. There seemeth no escape. 
 
 CHORUS. Ah ! and what to us will happen 1 
 
 PHORKYAS. She will die a noble death ; 
 
 But upon the lofty beam, upholding rafter-frame and roof, 
 As in birding-time the throstles, ye in turn shall struggling 
 
 llcUl' p ! 
 
 [HELENA and the CHORUS stand amazed and alarmed, 
 
 in striking, weU-arranged groups. 
 PHORKYAS. Ye Phantoms I like to frozen images ye 
 
 In terror thus from Day to part, which is not yours. 
 Men, and the race of spectres like you, one and all, 
 Renounce not willingly the bright beams of the sun ; 
 But from the end may none implore or rescue them. 
 All know it, yet 'tis pleasant unto very few. 
 Enough ! ye all are lost : now speedily to work ! 
 
 [She da/pa her hands : thereupon appear in the door' 
 way muffled dwarfish forms, which at once ca/rr) 
 out with alacrity the commands expressed. 
 This way, ye gloomy, sphery-bodied monster throng 1 
 Roll hitherwards ! ye here may damage as ye wilL 
 The altar portable, the golden-horned, set up ! 
 The axe let shimmering lie across the silver rim ! 
 The urns of water fill ! For soon, to wash away, 
 Shall be the black blood's horrible and smutching stains. 
 Here spread the costly carpets out upon the dust, 
 That so the offering may kneel in queenly wise, 
 And folded then, although with severed head, at once 
 With decent dignity be granted sepulture ! 
 
 LEADER OF THE CHORUS. The Queen is standing, sunk is 
 
 thought, beside us here, 
 
 The maidens wither like the late-mown meadow 
 MetliiTjk* that I, the eldest, in high duty bound,
 
 ACT 111. 276 
 
 Should words exchange with thee, primeval eldest thou ! 
 Thou art experienced, wise, and seemest well-disposed, 
 Although this brainless throng assailed thee in mistake. 
 Declare then, if thou knowest, possible escape ! 
 
 PHORKYAS. 'Tis easy said. Upon the Queen it rests 
 
 alone, 
 
 To save herself, and ye appendages with her. 
 But resolution, and the swiftest, needful is. 
 
 CHORUS. Worthiest and most reverend of the Parcse, wisest 
 
 sibyl thou, 
 Hold the golden shears yet open, then declare us Day and 
 
 Help! 
 
 We already feel discomfort of the soaring, swinging, strug- 
 gling ; 
 And our limbs in dances first would rather move in joyous 
 
 cadence, 
 Resting afterwards on lovers' breasts. 
 
 HELENA. Let these be timid ! Pain I feel, but terror 
 
 none ; 
 
 Yet if thou know'st of rescue, grateful I accept ! 
 Unto the wise, wide-seeing mind is verily shown 
 The Impossible oft as possible. Then speak, and say ! 
 CHORUS. Speak and tell us, tell us quickly, how escape we 
 
 now the fearful, 
 
 Fatal nooses, that so menace, like the vilest form of necklace, 
 Wound about our tender throats ? Already, in anticipation, 
 We can feel the choking, smothering if thou, Rhea, lofty 
 
 Mother 
 Of the Gods, to mercy be not moved. 
 
 PHORKYAS. Have you then patience, such long-winded 
 
 course of speech 
 To hear in silence ? Manifold the stories are. 
 
 CHORUS. Patience enough ! Meanwhile, in hearing, still 
 
 we live. 
 PHORKYAS. Whoso, to guard his noble wealth, abides a| 
 
 home, 
 
 And in his lofty dwelling well cements the chinks 
 And also from the pelting rain secures the root, 
 With him, the long days of his life, shall all be well : 
 But whosoe'er his threshold's holy square-hewn atone
 
 27 FAUST. 
 
 Lightly with flying foot and guilty oversteps, 
 
 Finds, when he comes again, the ancient place indeed, 
 
 But all things altered, if not utterly o'erthrown. 
 
 HELENA. Wherefore declaim such well-known sayings here; 
 
 as these ? 
 Thou wouldst narrate : then stir not up annoying theme* ! 
 
 PHOEKYAS. It is historic truth, and nowise a reproach. 
 Sea-plundering, Menelaus steered from bay to bay 1 
 He skirted as a foe the islands and the shores, 
 Returning with the booty, which in yonder rusts. 
 Then ten long years he passed in front of llion ; 
 But for the voyage home how many know I not 
 And now how is it, where we stand by Tyndarus* 
 Exalted House ? How is it with the regions round t 
 
 HELENA. Has then Abuse become incarnated in thee, 
 That canst not open once thy lips, except to blame ? 
 
 PHOEKYAS. So many years deserted stood the valley-hills 
 That in the rear of Sparta northwards rise aloft, 
 Behind Taygetus ; whence, as yet a nimble brook, 
 Eurotas downward rolls, and then, along our vale 
 By reed-beds broadly flowing, nourishes your swans. 
 Behind there in the mountain-dells a daring breed 
 Have settled, pressing forth from the Cimmerian Night, 
 And there have built a fortress inaccessible, 
 Whence land and people now they harry, as they please. 
 
 HELENA. Have they accomplished that? Impossible it 
 seems. 
 
 PHOEKYAS. They had the time : it may be twenty years, 
 inalL 
 
 H ELENA. Is one a Chief 1 and are they robbers many- 
 leagued ? 
 
 PHOEKYAS. Not robbers are they 1 yet of many one is 
 
 Chief; 
 
 I blame him not, although on me he also fell 
 He might, indeed, have taken all ; yet was content 
 With some free-gifts, he said : tribute he called it not 
 
 HELENA. How looked the man ? 
 
 PHOEKYAS. By no means ill : he pleased me well. 
 
 Cheerful and brave and bold, and nobly-formed is he, 
 A prudent man and wise, as few among the Greeks.
 
 ACT III. 277 
 
 They call the race Barbarians ; yet I question much 
 
 If one so cruel be, as there by Ilion 
 
 In man-devouring rage so many heroes were ; 
 
 His greatness I respected, did confide in Turn. 
 
 And then, his fortress ! That should ye yourself behold 1 
 
 'Tis something other than unwieldy masonry, 
 
 The which your fathers, helter-skelter tumbling, piled, 
 
 Cyclopean like the Cyclops, stones undressed at once 
 
 On stones undressed upheaving : there, however, there 
 
 All plumb and balanced is, conformed to square and rule. 
 
 Behold it from without ! It rises heavenward up 
 
 So hard, so tight of joint, and mirror-smooth as steel 
 
 To climb up there nay, even your Thought itself slide 
 
 off! 
 
 And mighty courts of ample space within, enclosed 
 Around with structures of all character and use. 
 There you see pillars, pillarets, arches great and small. 
 Balconies, galleries for looking out and in, 
 And coats of arms. 
 
 CHORUS. What are they ? 
 
 PHORKYAS. Ajax surely bore 
 
 A twisted serpent on his shield, as ye have seen. 
 The Seven also before Thebes had images, 
 Each one upon his shield, with many meanings rich. 
 One saw there moon and star on the nocturnal sky, 
 And goddesses, and heroes, ladders, torches, swords, 
 And whatsoe'er afflicting threateneth good towns. 
 Such symbols also bore our own heroic band, 
 In shining tints, bequeathed from eldest ancestry. 
 You see there lions, eagles, likewise claws and beaks, 
 Then buffalo-horns, with wings and xoses, peacocks' tails, 
 And also bars gold, black and silver, blue and red. 
 The like of these in halls are hanging, row on row, 
 In halls unlimited and spacious as the world : 
 There might ye dance ! 
 
 CHORUS. But tell us, are there dancers there 1 
 
 PHORKYAS. Ay, and the best ! a blooming, gold-haired 
 
 throng of boys, 
 
 Breathing ambrosial youth ! So only Paris breathed, 
 Vhen he approached too nearly to the Queen.
 
 278 FAUST. 
 
 HHLENA, Thou fall'st 
 
 Entirely from thy part : speak now the final word ! 
 
 PHORKYAS. 'Tis thou shalt speak it : say with gravt 
 
 distinctness, Yes ! 
 Then straight will I surround thee with that fortress. 
 
 CHORUS. Speak, 
 
 O speak the one brief word, and save thyself and us ! 
 
 HELENA. What ! Shall I fear King Menelaus may 
 
 transgress 
 So most inhumanly, as thus to smite myself? 
 
 PHORYKAS. Hast thou forgotten how he thy Deiphobus, 
 Brother of fallen Paris, who with stubborn claim 
 Took thee, the widow, as his fere, did visit with 
 Unheard-of mutilation ? Nose and ears he cropped, 
 And otherwise disfigured : 'twas a dread to see. 
 
 HELENA. That did he unto him : he did it for my sake. 
 PHORKYAS. Because of him he now will do the like to 
 
 thee. 
 
 Beauty is indivisible : who once possessed 
 Her wholly, rather slays than only shares in part 
 
 [Trumpets in the distance: the CHORUS sta/rts in 
 
 terror. 
 
 Even as the trumpet's piercing clangour gripes and tears 
 The ear and entrail-nerves, thus Jealousy her claws 
 Drives in the bosom of the man, who ne'er forgets 
 What once was his, but now is lost, possessed no more. 
 
 CHORUS. Hear'st thou not the trumpets pealing? see'et 
 
 thou not the shine of swords ? 
 PHORKYAS. King and Lord, be welcome hither ! willing 
 
 reckoning will I give.' 
 CHORUS. What of us? 
 PHORKYAS. You know it 'dearly, see her death before 
 
 your eyes ; 
 
 There, within, your own shall follow : nay, there is no help 
 for you ! [Pause. 
 
 HELENA. What I may venture first to do, have I devised. 
 A hostile Daemon art thou, that I feel full well, 
 And much I fear thou wilt convert the Good to Bad, 
 But first to yonder fortress now I follow thee ; 
 VThat then shall come, I know : but what the Que*n thereby
 
 ACT III. ^ 379 
 
 AB mystery In her deepest bosom may conceal, 
 
 Remain unguessed by all ! Now, Ancient, lead the way ! 
 
 CHOBUS. how gladly we go, 
 Hastening thither ! 
 Chasing us, Death, 
 And, rising before us, 
 The towering castle's 
 Inaccessible ramparts. 
 Guard us as well may they 
 As Dion's citadel-fort, 
 Which at last alone 
 Fell, through comtemptible wiles ! 
 [Mists arise and tpread, obscuring the background) 
 alto the nearer portion of the scene, at pleasure. 
 
 How is it ? how ? 
 
 Sisters, look around ! 
 
 Was it not cheerfullest day t 
 
 Banded vapours are hovering up 
 
 Out of Eurotas' holy stream ; 
 
 Vanished e'en now hath the lovely 
 
 Reed-engarlanded shore from the sight ; 
 
 Likewise the free, gracefully proud, 
 
 Silently floating swans, 
 
 Mated in joy of their swimming, 
 
 See I, alas ! no more. 
 
 Still but still 
 Crying, I hear them, 
 Hoarsely crying afar I 
 Ominous, death presaging ! 
 Ah, may to us the tones not also, 
 Stead of deliverance promised, 
 Ruin announce at the last ! 
 Us, the swan-like and slender, 
 Long white-throated, and She, 
 Our fair swan-begotten. 
 Woe to us, Woe 1
 
 280 FAUST. 
 
 All IB covered and hid 
 
 Bound us with vapour and cloud t 
 
 Each other behold we not ! 
 
 What happens ? do we advance 1 
 
 Hover we only with 
 
 Skipping footstep along the ground 1 
 
 Seest thou naught 1 Soars not even, perchance. 
 
 Hermes before us ? Shines not the golden wand, 
 
 Bidding, commanding us back again 
 
 To the cheerless, gray-twilighted, 
 
 Full of impalpable phantoms, 
 
 Over-filled, eternally empty Hades? 
 
 Yes, at once the air is gloomy, sunless vanish now the 
 
 vapours, 
 
 Gray and darkly, brown as buildings. Walls present them- 
 selves before us, 
 Blank against our clearer vision. Is't a court ? a moat, 01 
 
 pitfall? 
 Fear-inspiring, any way ! and Sisters, ah, behold us 
 
 prisoned, 
 Prisoned now, as ne'er before ! 
 
 [Inner court-yard of a Castle, surrounded with nch, 
 
 fantastic buildings of the Middle Ages. 
 LEADER OF THE CHORUS. Precipitate and foolish, type of 
 
 women ye ! 
 
 Dependent on the moment, sport of every breeze 
 That blows mischance or luck ! and neither ever ye 
 Supported calmly. One is sure to contradict 
 The others fiercely, and cross-wise the others her : 
 Only in joy and pain ye howl and laugh alike. 
 Be silent now, and hearken what the Mistress here, 
 High-thoughted, may determine for herself and us ! 
 
 HELEN>. Where art thou, Pythoness? Whatever be thy 
 
 name. 
 
 Step forth from out these arches of the gloomy keep 1 
 If thou didst go, unto the wondrous hero-lord 
 Me to announce, preparing thus reception fit, 
 Then take my thanks, and lead me speedily to him f 
 I wish the wandering closed, I wish for rest alone.
 
 ACT III. 281 
 
 LEADER OF THE CHORUS. In vain thou lookest, Queen, all 
 
 ways around thee here ; 
 
 That fatal shape hath vanished hence, perhaps remained 
 There in the mists, from out whose bosom hitherwards 
 I know not how we came, swiftly, without a step. 
 Perhaps, indeed, she strays, lost in the labyrinth 
 Of many castles wondrously combined in one, 
 Seeking august and princely welcome from the lord. 
 But see ! up yonder moves in readiness a crowd : 
 In galleries, at windows, through the portals, comes 
 A. multitude of servants, hastening here and there ; 
 And this proclaims distinguished welcome to the guest 
 
 CHORUS. My heart is relieved ! 0, yonder behold 
 How so orderly downward with lingering step 
 The crowd of the youths in dignity comes, 
 In regular march ! Who hath given command 
 rhat they marshal in ranks, and so promptly disposed, 
 The youthfullest boys of the beautiful race ? 
 What shall most I admire ? Is't the delicate gait, 
 Or the curls of the hair on the white of the brow, 
 Or the twin-rounded cheeks, blushing red like the pe*oh, 
 And also, like them, with the silkiest down ? 
 Fain therein would I bite, yet I fear me to try j 
 For, in similar case, was the mouth thereupon 
 Filled I shudder to tell it ! with ashes. 
 
 But they, the fairest, 
 Hither they come : 
 What do they bear I 
 Steps to the throne 
 Carpet and seat, 
 Curtain and tent, 
 Or similar gear ; 
 Waving around, and 
 Cloudy wreaths forming 
 O'er the head of our Queen 
 For she already ascendeth, 
 Invited, the sumptuous coucb 
 Come, forward, now, 
 Step by step,
 
 282 FAUST. 
 
 Solemnly ranged 1 
 Worthy, 0, threefold worthy her, 
 May such a reception be blessed ' 
 [All that is described by the CHORUS takes place by 
 degrees. After the boys and squires have descended 
 t a long procession, FAUST appears above, at the 
 head of the staircase, in knightly Court costume of 
 the Middle Ages, and then comes down slowly and 
 with dignity. 
 LEADER OP THB CHOKTTS (observing him intently). 
 
 If now, indeed, the Gods to this man have not lent, 
 
 AB oft they do to men a brave, transcendent form, 
 
 A winning presence, stately dignity of mien, 
 
 For temporary service, all he undertakes 
 
 Will always bring him triumph, whether in fight with men, 
 
 Or in the minor wars with fairest ladies waged. 
 
 Him, verily, to hosts of others I prefer, 
 
 Whom highly-famed withal, I have myself beheld. 
 
 With slow and solemn step, by reverence restrained, 
 
 t see the Prince approach : turn thou thy head, Queen ! 
 FAUST (approaching : a man in fetters at his side). 
 
 Instead of solemn greeting, as beseems, 
 
 Or reverential welcome, bring I thee, 
 
 Fast-bound in welded fetters, here, the knave 
 
 Whose duty slighted cheated me of mine. 
 
 Kneel down, thou Culprit, that this lofty Dame 
 
 May hear the prompt confession of thy guilt ! 
 
 HUB, Sovereign Mistress, is the man select 
 
 For piercing vision, on the turret high 
 
 Stationed to look around, the space of heaven 
 
 And breadth of earth to read with sharpest glance, 
 
 If here or there perchance come aught to view, 
 
 Between the stronghold and the circling hills 
 
 If aught may move, whether the billowy herds 
 
 Or waves of armed men : those we protect, 
 
 Encounter these. To-day what negligence I 
 
 IThou comest, he proclaims it not : we fail 
 
 In honourable reception, most deserved, 
 
 Of such high guest Now forfeited hath he 
 
 His guilty life, and should have shed the blood
 
 ACT III. 283 
 
 Of death deserved ; but only thou ehalt mete 
 Pardon or punishment, at thy good will. 
 
 HELENA. So high the power, which thou has granted me, 
 As Mistress and as Judge, although it were 
 (I may conjecture) meant but as a test, 
 Yet now I use the Judge's bounden right 
 To give the Accused a hearing : speak then, thor 
 
 LTNOKUS, THK WABDEK OF THE TOWEK. Let me kneel 
 
 and let me view her, 
 Let me live, or let me die ! 
 For enslaved, devoted to her, 
 This God-granted Dame, am I. 
 
 Watching for the Morn's advancing 
 Where her pathways eastward run, 
 All at once, a sight entrancing, 
 In the South arose the sun. 
 
 There to look, the Wonder drew m . 
 Not the glens, the summits cold, 
 Space of sky or landscape gloomy,* 
 Only Her did I behojd. 
 
 Beam of sight to me was given, 
 Like the lynx on highest tree ; 
 But in vain I've urged and striven, 
 Twas a dream that fettered me. 
 
 Could I know, or how be aided 1 
 Think of tower or bolted gate! 
 Vapours rose and vapours faded, 
 And the Goddess came in state ! 
 
 Eye and heart did I surrender 
 To the softly-shining spell : 
 Blinding all with Beauty's splenJour 
 She hath blinded me, as well 
 
 I forgot the warder's duty 
 And the trumpet's herald-call : 
 Threaten to destroy me ! Beauty 
 Bindetn anger, frees her thrall.
 
 284 FAUST. 
 
 HELENA. The Evil which I brought, I dare no more 
 Chastise; Ah, woe to me ! What fate severe 
 Pursues me, everywhere the breasts of men 
 So to infatuate, that nor them, nor aught 
 Besides of worth, they spare ? Now plundering, 
 Seducing, fighting, hurried to and fro, 
 Heroes and Demigods, Gods, Demons even, 
 Hither and thither led me, sore-perplexed. 
 Sole, I the world bewildered, doubly more ; 
 Now threefold, fourfold, woe on woe I bring. 
 Remove this guiltless man, let him go free ' 
 The God-deluded merits no disgrace. 
 
 FAUST. Amazed, Queen, do I behold alika 
 The unerring archer and the stricken prey. 
 I see the bow, wherefrom the arrow sped 
 That wounded him. Arrows on arrows fly, 
 And strike me. I suspect the feathered hum 
 Of bolts cross-fired through all the courts and towers. 
 What am I now ? At once rebellious thou 
 Makest my faithfullest, and insecure 
 My walls. Thence do I fear that even my hosts 
 Obey the conquering and unconquered Dame. 
 What else remains, but that I give to thee 
 Myself, and all I vainly fancied mine ? 
 Let me, before thy feet, in fealty true, 
 Thee now acknowledge, Lady, whose approach 
 Won thee at once possession and the throne ! 
 
 LTOCEUS (with a chest, and men who follow, bearing others] 
 Thou seest me, Queen, returned and free ! 
 The wealthy begs a glance from thee : 
 Thee he 'beheld, and feeleth, since, 
 As beggar poor, yet rich as prince. 
 
 What was I erst ! What now am I ? 
 What shall I will ? what do, or try 1 
 What boots the eyesight's sharpest ray ? 
 Back from thy throne it bounds away. 
 
 Forth from the East we hither pressed, 71 
 And all wag over with the West :
 
 ACT III. 288 
 
 So long and broad the people massed, 
 The foremost knew not of the last 
 
 The foremost fell, the second stood j 
 The third one's lance was prompt and good j 
 Each one a hundred's strength supplied : 
 Unnoted, thousands fell and died. 
 
 We onward pressed, in stormy chase ; 
 The lords were we from place to place ; 
 And where, to-day, / ruled as chief, 
 The morrow brought another thief. 
 
 We viewed the ground, but viewed in haste 
 The fairest woman one embraced, 
 One took the oxen from the stall ; 
 The horses followed one and all. 
 
 But my delight was to espy 
 What rarest was, to mind and eye ; 
 And all that others might amass 
 To me was so much withered grass. 
 
 I hunted on the treasure-trail 
 Where'er sharp sight could me avail : 
 In every pocket did I see, 
 And every chest was glass to me. 
 
 And heaps of gold I came to own, 
 With many a splendid jewel-stone : 
 The emeralds only worthy seem 
 Greenly upon thy breast to gleam. 
 
 Twixt lip and ear let swaying sleep 
 The pearly egg of Ocean's deep ; 
 Such place the rubies dare not seek. 
 They're blanched beside the rosy cheek
 
 28 FAUST. 
 
 And thus, the treasure's offering 
 I here before thy presence bring : 
 Laid at thy feet, be now revealed 
 The spoils of many a bloody field I 
 
 Though I have brought of chests a store, 
 Yet iron caskets have I more. 
 Let me attend thee, do thy will, 
 And I thy treasure-vaults will filL 
 
 For scarcely didst thou mount the throne, 
 Than bowed to own and bent to own 
 Thy Beauty's sway, that very hour, 
 Wisdom, and Wealth, and sovereign Powet, 
 
 All such I held secure, as mine ; 
 Now freed therefrom, behold it thine 1 
 1 deemed its worth and value plain ; 
 Now see I, it was null and vain. 
 
 What I possessed from me doth pass, 
 Dispersed like mown and withered gnu*. 
 One bright and beauteous glance afford, 
 And all its worth is straight restored ! 
 
 FAUST. Remove with speed the burden boldly won. 
 Not blamed, indeed, but neither with reward. 
 All is her own already, which the keep 
 Within it holds ; and special offer thus 
 In useless. Go, and pile up wealth on wealth 
 In order fit ! Present the show august 
 Of splendours yet unseen ! The vaulted halls 
 Make shine like clearest heaven ! Let Paradise 
 From lifeless pomp of life created be ! 
 Hastening, before her footsteps be unrolled 
 The flower-embroidered carpets ! Let her tread 
 Fall on the softest footing, and her glance, 
 Gods only bear undazed, on proudest pomp ! 
 
 LYUUECS. What the lord commands is slight ', 
 For the servants, labour light : 
 Over wealth and blood and breath
 
 ACT in. 287 
 
 This proud Beauty governeth. 
 
 Lo 1 thy warrior-throngs are tame ; 
 
 AH the swords are blunt and lame g 
 
 Near the bright form we behold 
 
 Even the sun is pale and cold ; 
 
 Near the riches of her face 
 
 All things empty, shorn of grace. 
 
 HELENA (to FAUST). Fain to discourse with thee, I bid 
 
 thee come 
 
 dp hither to my side ! The empty place 
 Invites its lord, and thus secure me mine. 
 
 FAUST. First, kneeling, let the dedication be 
 Accepted, lofty Lady ! Let me kiss 
 The gracious hand that lifts me to thy side. 
 Confirm me as co-regent of thy realm, 
 Whose borders are unknown, and win for thee 
 Guard, slave and worshipper, and all in one ! 
 
 HELENA. I hear and witness marvels manifold ; 
 Amazement takes me, much would I inquire. 
 Yet now instruct me wherefore spake the man 
 With strangely-sounding speech, friendly and strange : 
 Each sound appeared as yielding to the next, 72 
 And, when a word gave pleasure to the ear, 
 Another came, caressing then the first. 
 
 FAUST. If thee our people's mode of speech delight* 
 thou shalt be enraptured with our song, 
 Which wholly satisfies both ear and mind ! 
 But it were best we exercise it now : 
 Alternate speech entices, calls it forth. 
 
 HELENA. Canst thou to me that lovely speech impart I 
 
 FAUST. "Tis easy : it must issue from the heart ; 
 And if the breast with yearning overflow, 
 One looks around, and asks 
 
 HELENA. Who shares the glow I 
 
 FAUST. Nor Past nor Future shades an hour like this ; 
 But wholly in the Present 
 
 HELENA. Is our bliss. 
 
 FAUST. Gain, pledge, and fortune in the Present stand ; 
 What confirmation does it ask 1 
 
 HELENA. My hand.
 
 268 FAUST. 
 
 CHOBUS. Who would take it amiss, that our Princess 
 Granteth now to the Castle's lord 
 Friendliest demonstration ? 
 For, indeed, collectively are we 
 Captives, as ofttimee already, 
 Since the infamous downfall 
 Of Ilion, and the perilous, 
 Labyrinthine, sorrowful voyage. 
 
 Women, to the love of men accustomed, 
 Dainty choosers are they not, 
 But proficients skilful ; 
 And unto golden-haired shepherds, 
 Perchance black, bristly Fauns, too, 
 Even as comes opportunity, 
 Unto the limbs in their vigour 
 Fully award they an equal right 
 
 Near, and nearer already sit 
 They, to each other drawn, 
 Shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee ; 
 Hand in hand, they bend and sway 
 Over the throne's 
 Softly-pillowed, luxurious pomp 
 Majesty here not withholds its 
 Secretest raptures, 
 Wilfully, boldly revealed 
 Thus to the eyes of the people. 
 HELENA. I feel so far away, and yet so near ; 
 And am so fain to say : " Here am I ! here." 
 
 FAUST. I scarcely breathe ; I tremble ; speech is dead: 
 It is a dream, and day and place have fled. 
 
 HELENA. I seem as life were done, and yet so new, 
 Blent thus with thee, to thee, the Unknown, true ! 
 FAUST. To probe this rarest fate be not impelled ! 
 Being is duty, though a moment held. 
 
 PHORKYAS (violently entering). 
 Spell in lovers' primers sweetly t 
 Probe and dally, cosset featly.
 
 ACT III. 389 
 
 Test your wanton sport completely I 
 But there is not time, nor place. 
 Feel ye not the gloomy presage ? 
 Hear ye not the trumpet's message! 
 For the ruin comes apace. 
 Menelaus with his legions 
 Storms across the hither regions ; 
 Call to battle all your race 1 
 By the victors execrated, 
 Like Deiphobus mutilated, 
 Thou sbalt pay for woman's grace : 
 First shall dangle every light one, 
 At the altar, then, the Bright One 
 Find the keen axe in its place ! 
 FAUST. Disturbance rash ! repulsively she presses in ; 
 Not eyen in danger meet is senseless violence. 
 Ill message makes the fairest herald ugly seem ; 
 Thou, Ugliest, delightest but in evil news. 
 Yet this time shalt thou not succeed ; with empty breath 
 Stir, shatter thou the air ! There is no danger here, 
 And unto us were danger but an idle threat. 
 
 [Signals, explosions from the towers, trumpets and 
 cornets, martial music. A powerful armed force 
 marches past, 
 
 No ! hero-bands, none ever braver, 
 At once shalt thou assembled see : 
 He, sole, deserves the ladies' favour, 
 Whose arm defends them gallantly. 
 
 [To the leaders of the troops, who detach themselves 
 from the columns, and come forwards. 
 
 With rage restrained, in silence banded, 
 And certain of the victory-feast, 
 Ye, Northern blossoms, half expanded, 
 Ye, flowery fervours of the East ! 
 
 The light upon their armour breaking, 
 They plundered realm on realm, at will : 
 They come, and lo 1 the earth is quaking ; 
 They march away, it thunders still !
 
 290 FAUST. 
 
 In Pylos we forsook the waters ; 
 The ancient Nestor is no more, 
 And soon our lawless army scatters 
 The troops of kings on Grecian shore. 
 
 Back from these walls, no more delaying, 
 Drive Menelaus to the sea ! 
 There let him wander, robbing, slaying, 
 As was his wish and destiny. 
 
 I hail you Dukes, as forth ye sally 
 Beneath the rule of Sparta's Queen ! 
 Now ky before her mount and valley, 
 And you shall share the kingdom green 1 
 
 Thine, German, be the hand that forges 
 Defence for Corinth and her bays : 
 Achaia, with its hundred gorges, 
 I give thee, Goth, to hold and raise. 
 
 Towards Elis, Franks, direct your motion ; 
 Messene be the Saxon's state : 
 The Norman claim and sweep the ocean, 
 And Argolis again made great ! 
 
 Then each shall dwell in homea well-dowered, 
 And only outer foemen meet ; 
 Yet still by Sparta over-towered, 
 The Queen's ancestral, ancient seat 
 
 Each one shall she behold, abiding 
 In lands that lack no liberal light ; 
 And at her feet yell seek, confiding, 
 Tour confirmation, law and light ! 
 
 [FAUST descends from the throne: the Princes fon 
 
 a circle around him, in order to receive tpecia 
 
 command* and instructions 
 
 CHORUS. Who for himself the Fairest desirea, 
 First of all things, let him
 
 ACT III. 291 
 
 Bravely and wisely a weapon acquire! 
 Flattering, indeed, he may conquer 
 What on earth is the highest ; 
 But he quietly may not possess. 
 Wily sneaks entice her away, 
 Robbers boldly abduct her from him : 
 This to hinder be he prepared ! 
 
 Therefore now our Prince I praise, 
 Holding him higher than others, 
 Since he wisdom and strength combines, 
 So that the strong men obedient stand, 
 Waiting his every beckon. 
 They his orders faithfully heed, 
 Each for the profiting of himself 
 As for the Ruler's rewarding thanks, 
 And for the highest renown of both. 
 
 For who shall tear her away, 
 
 Now, from the mighty possessor? 
 
 His is she, and to him be she granted, 
 
 Doubly granted by us, whom he, 
 
 Even as her, within by sure walls hath surrounded, 
 
 And without by a powerful host. 
 
 FAUST. The gifts they've won by our concession, 
 In fee to each a wealthy land, 
 Are grand and fair: grant them possession! 
 We in the midst will take our stand. 
 
 And they in rivalry protect thee, 
 
 Half-Island, girdled by the sea [thee 
 
 With whispering waves, whose soft hill-chains connect 
 With the last branch of Europe's mountain-tree! 
 
 This land, before all lands in splendour, 
 On every race shall bliss confer, 
 Which to my queen in glad surrender 
 Yields, as it first looked up to her,
 
 292 FAUST. 
 
 When, 'mid Emotes* whispering rashes 
 She burst from Leda's purple shell, 
 So blinding in her beauty's flushes, 
 That mother, brothers, felt the spell I 
 
 This land which seeks thy sole direction 
 Its brightest bloom hath now unfurled : 
 Prefer thy fatherland's affection 
 To what is wholly thine, the world ! 
 
 And though upon its ridgy backs of mountain* 
 The Sun's cold arrow smites each cloven head, 
 Yet, where the rock is greened by falling fountains, 
 The wild-goat nibbles and is lightly fed. 
 
 The springs leap forth, the streams united follow ; 
 Green are the gorges, slopes, and meads below : 
 On hundred hillsides, cleft with many a hollow, 
 Thou seest the woolly herds like scattered snow. 
 
 Divided, cautious, graze with measured paces 
 The cattle onward to the dizzy edge, 
 Yet for them all are furnished sheltered places, 
 Where countless caverns arch the rocky ledge. 
 
 Pan guards them there, and nymphs of life are dwelling 
 In bushy clefts, that moist and freshest be ; 
 And yearningly to higher regions swelling, 
 The branches crowd aloft of tree on tree. 
 
 Primeval woods ? the strong oak there is regnant, 
 And bough crooks out from bough in stubborn state ; 
 The maple mild, with sweetest juices pregnant, 
 Shoots cleanly up, and dallies with its weight. 
 
 And motherly, in that still realm of shadows, 
 The warm milk flows, for child's and lambkin's lips : 
 At hand is fruit, the food of fertile meadows, 
 And from the hollow trunk the honey drips.
 
 ACT III 293 
 
 Here comfort is in birth transmitted ; 
 To cheek and lip here joy is sent : 
 Each is immortal in his station fitted, 
 And all are healthy and content. 
 
 And thus the child in that bright season gaineth 
 The father-strength, as in a dream : 
 We wonder ; yet the question still remaineth, 
 If they are men, when Gods they seem. 
 
 So was Apollo shepherd-like in feature, 
 That other shepherds were as feiir and fleet ; 
 For where in such clear orbit moveth Nature, 
 All worlds in inter-action meet 78 
 
 {Taking his seat beside her 
 Thus hath success my fate and thine attended ; 
 Henceforth behind us let the Past be furled ! 
 0, feel thyself from highest God descended 1 
 For thou belongest to the primal world. 
 
 Thy life shall circumscribe no fortress frowning I 
 Still, in eternal youth, stands as it stood, 
 For us, our stay with every rapture crowning, 
 Arcadia in Sparta's neighbourhood. 
 
 To tread this happy soil at last incited, 
 
 Thy flight was towards a joyous destiny ! 
 
 Now let our throne become a bower unblighted, 
 
 Our bliss become Arcadian and free ! 
 
 [The scene of action is completely transformed. 
 Against a range of rocky caverns close bowers are 
 constructed. A shadowy grove extends to fix foot of 
 ike rocks which rise on all sides. FAUST and 
 HELENA are not seen : the CHOKUS lies scattered 
 about, sleeping. 
 
 PHORKYAS. How long these maidens have been sleeping, 
 
 know I not : 
 
 If they allowed themselves to dream what now mine eyes 
 So clearly saw, is equally unknown to me.
 
 294 FA UST. 
 
 Therefore, I wake them. They, the Young, shall b 
 
 Ye also, Bearded Ones, who ait below and wait, 
 Solution of these marvels finally to see. 
 Awake ! arise ! and shake from off your locks the dew, 
 The slumber from your eyes ! Listen, and cease to blink ! 
 CHORUS. Speak and tell us, quickly tell us, all the wonders 
 
 that have happened ! 
 We shall hear with greater pleasure, if belief we cannot give 
 
 it, 
 For both eye and mind are weary, to behold these rocks 
 
 alone. 
 PHORKYAS. Children, you have hardly rubbed your eyes, 
 
 and are you weary now ? 
 Hear me, then ! Within these caverns, in the grottos and 
 
 the arbours, 
 Screen and shelter have been lent, as unto twain idyllic 
 
 lovers, 
 To our Lord and to our Lady. 
 
 CHORUS. How ? within there ? 
 
 PHORKYAS. Separated 
 
 From the world, me only did they summon to their quiet 
 
 service. 
 Honoured thus, I stood beside them, but, as tit in one so 
 
 trusted, 
 Looked around at something other, turning here and there at 
 
 random, 
 Seeking roots, and bark, and mosses, being skilled in healing 
 
 simples, 
 And the twain were left alone. 
 
 CHORUS. Speakest thou as if within were spaces roomy as 
 
 the world is : 
 Wood and meadow, lakes and rivers, what a table dost thou 
 
 spin ! 
 PHORKYAS. Certainly, ye Inexperienced ! Those are 1 
 
 unexplored recesses : 
 Flail on hall, and court on court succeeding, musingly I 
 
 tracked. 
 All at once R laughter echoes through the spaces of th 
 
 caverns;
 
 ACT III. 295 
 
 As I look, a Boy is leaping from the mother's lap to 
 
 father's, 
 From the father to the mother: the caressing and the 
 
 dandling, 
 Teasing pranks of silly fondness, cry of sport and shout of 
 
 rapture, 
 
 They, alternate, deafen me. 
 He, a Genius naked, wingless, like a Faun without the 
 
 beasthood, 
 
 Leaps upon the solid pavement ; yet the pavement now re- 
 acting, 
 Sends him flying high in air, and at the second bound 01 
 
 third, he 
 
 Seems to graze the vaulted roof. 
 
 Cries, disquieted, the mother : " Leap repeatedly, at pleasure, 
 But beware of flying ! for prohibited is flight to thee." 
 And thus warns the faithful father : " Dwells in earth the 
 
 force elastic 
 Which thee upwards thus impelleth ; touch but with thy toe 
 
 the surface, 
 Like the son of Earth, Anteus, straightway art thou strong 
 
 again. 1 * 
 
 So be springs upon the rocky masses, from a dizzy cornice 
 To another, and around, as springs a ball when sharply 
 
 struck. 
 
 Yet, a-sudden, in a crevice of the hollow gulf he's vanished, 
 And it seemeth we have lost him ! Mother mourns, and 
 
 father comforts, 
 Shoulder-shrugging, anxiously I stand. But now, again, 
 
 what vision ! 
 Are there treasures yonder hidden ? Garments striped with 
 
 broidered blossoms 
 Hath he worthily assumed. 
 Tassels from his shoulders Bwaying, fillets flutter round hia 
 
 bosom, 
 
 In his hand the golden lyre, completely like a little Phoebus, 
 Cheerily to the brink he steps, the jutting edge : we stand 
 
 astounded, 
 And the parents in their rapture clasp each other to the 
 
 heart
 
 296 FAUST. 
 
 What around hia head is shining ? What it is, were hard to 
 
 warrant, 
 Whether golden gauds, or flame of all-subduing strength of 
 
 soul. 
 
 So he moves with stately gesture, even as boy himself pro- 
 claiming 
 
 Future Master of all Beauty, all the melodies eternal 
 Throbbing in his flesh and blood; and you shall thus, delighted, 
 
 hear him, 
 
 Thus shall you behold him, with a wonder never felt before 
 CHOKUS. Call'st thou a marvel this, 
 Greta's begotten] 74 
 Poetic-didactical word 
 Hast thou listened to never f 
 Never yet hearkened Ionia's, 
 Never received also Hellas' 
 Godlike, heroical treasure 
 Of ancient, primitive legends I 
 
 All that ever happens 
 Now in the Present 
 Mocks like a mournful echo 
 The grander days of the Father* 
 Not comparable is thy story 
 Unto that loveliest falsehood, 
 Than Truth more credible, 
 Sung of the Son of Maia ! 
 
 This strong and delicate, yet 
 
 Scarcely delivered suckling, 
 
 Swathe ye in purest downy bands, 
 
 Bind ye in precious diapered stufla, . 
 
 As is the gossiping nurse'* 
 
 Unreasonable notion ! 
 
 Strongly and daintily draws, no lean* 
 
 Now the rogue the flexible, 
 
 Firm yet elastic body 
 
 Cunningly out, and leaveth the clow, 
 
 Purple, impeding shell 
 
 Quietly there in its place,
 
 ACT III. 297 
 
 Like the completed butterfly, 
 
 Which from the chilly chrysalid 
 
 Nimbly, pinion-unfolding, slips, 
 
 Boldly and wilfully fluttering through 
 
 Sunshine-pervaded ether. 
 
 So he, too, the sprightliest : 
 
 That unto thieves and jugglers 
 
 All the seekers of profit, as well, 
 
 He the favourable Daemon was, 
 
 Did he speedily manifest 
 
 By the skilfullest artifice. 
 
 Straight from the Ruler of Ocean etolo 
 
 He the trident, from Are's himself 
 
 Slyly the sword from the scabbard ; 
 
 Arrows and bow from Phoebus, and then 
 
 Tongs that Hephaestos was using. 
 
 Even from Zeus, the Father, bolts had ho 
 
 Filched, had the fire not scared Him. 
 
 Eros, also, he overcame 
 
 In leg-tripping wrestling match ; 
 
 Then from Cypris, as she caressed hint, 
 
 Plundered the zone from her bosom. 
 
 [An exquisite, purely melodious music of stringed 
 
 instruments resounds from the cavern. AU become 
 
 attentive, cmd soon appear to be deeply moved. 
 
 From this point to the pause designated, there it a 
 
 full musical accompaniment. 
 PHORKYAS. Hark ! the music, pure and golden ; 
 Free from fables be at last ! 
 All your Gods, the medley olden, 
 Let depart ! their day is past. 
 
 Yon no more are comprehended ; 
 We require a higher part : 
 By the heart must be expended 
 What shall work upon the heart. 
 
 [She retires toward* the rocki. 
 
 CHORUS. If the flattering music presses, 
 Fearful Being, to thine ears,
 
 298 FAUST. 
 
 We, restored to health, confess us 
 Softened to the joy of tears. 
 
 Let the sun be missed from heaven, 
 When the soul is bright with morn ! 
 What the world has never given 
 Now within our hearts is born. 
 
 HELENA. FAUST. EUPHOBION in the costume already described. 
 EuPHORiON. 78 Hear ye songs of childish pleasure, 
 
 Ye are moved to playful glee ; 
 
 Seeing me thus dance in measure, 
 
 Leap your hearts parentally. 
 HELENA. Love, in human wise to bless us, 
 
 In a noble Pair must be ; 
 
 But divinely to possess us, 
 
 It must form a precious Three. 
 FAUST. All we seek has therefore found us ; 
 
 I am thine and thou art mine ! 
 
 So we stand as Love hath bound us ; 
 
 Other fortune we resign. 
 CHOBUS. Many years shall they, delighted, 
 
 Gather from the shining boy 
 
 Double bliss for hearts united : 
 
 In their union what a joy ! 
 EUPHOBION. Let me be skipping, 
 
 Let me be leaping! 
 
 To soar and circle, 
 
 Through ether sweeping, 
 
 Is now the passion 
 
 That me hath won. 
 FAUST. But gently ! gently ! 
 
 Not rashly faring ; 
 
 Lest plunge and ruin 
 
 Repay thy daring, 
 
 Perchance destroy thee, 
 
 Our darling son! 
 EUPHOBION. I will not longer 
 
 Stagnate below here! 
 
 Let go my tresses,
 
 ACT III. 299 
 
 My hands let go, here ! 
 Let go my garments ! 
 They all are mine. 
 HELENA. O think! Bethink thee 
 To whom thou belongest! 
 How it would grieve us, 
 And how thou wrongest 
 The fortune fairest, 
 Mine, His, and Thine ! 
 CHOBUS. Soon shall, I fear me, 
 The sweet bond untwine ! 
 
 HELENA AND FAUST. Curb, thou Unfortunate! 
 For our desiring, 
 Thine over-importunate 
 Lofty aspiring! 
 Rurally quiet, 
 Brighten the plain! 
 
 EUPHORION. Since you will that I try it, 
 My flight I restrain. 
 
 [Winding in dance through the CHOBUS, and 
 
 drawing them with him. 
 Round them I hover free 
 Gay is the race : 
 Is this the melody? 
 Move I with grace? 
 HELENA. Yes. that is featly done: 
 
 Lead them through, every one, 
 Mazes of art! 
 
 FAUST. Soon let it ended be ! 
 Sight of such jugglery 
 Troubles my heart. 
 
 CHOBUS (with EUPHORION dancing nimbly and singing, in 
 interlinking ranks). When thou thine arms so fair 
 Charmingly liftest, 
 The curls of thy shining hair 
 Shakes-t and shif test ; 
 When thou, with foot so light, 
 Brushest the earth in flight, 
 Hither and forth again 
 Leading the linked chain.
 
 300 FAUST. 
 
 Then is thy goal in sight, 
 
 Loveliest Boy 1 
 
 All of our hearts in joy 
 
 Round thee unite. t Pause. 
 
 EUPHORION. Not yet repose, 
 
 Ye light-footed roe* j 
 
 Now to new play 
 
 Forth, and away I 
 
 I am the hunter, 
 
 You are the game. 
 CHORUS. Wouldst thou acquire i&&, 
 
 Be not so fast ! 
 
 We are desirous 
 
 Only, at last, 
 
 Clasping thy beauty, 
 
 Kisses to claim ! 
 EUPHOBION. Through groves and through hedges 1 
 
 O'er cliffs and o'er ledges ! 
 
 Lightly what fell to me, 
 
 That I detest : 
 
 What I compel to me 
 
 Pleases me best. 
 
 HELENA AND FAUST. How perverse, how wild he's 
 growing ! 
 
 Vain to hope for moderation ; 
 
 Now it sounds like bugles blowing, 
 
 Over vale and forest pealing : 
 
 What disorder ! What a brawl ! 
 
 CHORUS (entering singly, in haste). Forth from us with 
 swiftness ran he ! 
 
 Spurning us with scornful feeling, 
 
 Now he drags from out the many 
 
 Here, the wildest one of all. 
 
 EUPHORION (bearing a yowng MAIDEN). Here I drag the 
 little racer, 
 
 And by force will I embrace her ; 
 
 For my bliss and for my zest 
 
 Press the fair, resisting breast, 
 
 Kiss the mouth, repellent still, 
 
 Manifest my strength and wilL
 
 ACT IIL 301 
 
 MAIDEN. Let me go ! This frame Infoldeth 
 
 Also courage, strength of soul : 
 
 Strong as thine, our will upholdeth, 
 
 When another would control, 
 
 I am in a strait, thou deemestl 
 
 What a force thine arm would claim ! 
 
 Hold me, Fool, and ere thou dreamest 
 
 I will scorch thee, in my game. 
 
 [She turn* to flame and flashes upintkeair 
 
 To the airy spaces follow, 
 
 Follow me to caverns hollow, 
 
 Snatch and hold thy vanished aim ! 
 
 ECPHOKION (shaking off the last flames). Rocks all around 
 me here, 
 
 Over the forests hung ! 
 
 Why should they bound me here ? 
 
 Still am I fresh and young. 
 
 Tempests are waking now, 
 
 Billows are breaking now : 
 
 Both far away I hear ; 
 
 Fain would be near. 
 
 [He leaps ever farther up the rockt. 
 
 HELENA, FAUST, AND CHORUS. Chamois-like, dost thou 
 aspire? 
 
 Fearful of the fall are we. 
 EUPHOBION. I must clamber ever higher, 
 
 Ever further must I see. 
 
 Now, where I am, I spy ? 
 Midst of the Isle am I : 
 Midst of Pelops' land, 
 Kindred in soul I stand ! 7 * 
 CHOBUS. Bide thou by grove and hill, 
 Peacefully, rather ! 
 We from the vineyards will 
 Grapes for thee gather, 
 Grapes from the ridges tanned, 
 Figs, and the apple's gold : 
 Ah ! yet the lovely land, 
 Loving, behold !
 
 502 PA UST. 
 
 EOTHORION. Dream ye the peaceful day f 
 
 Dream, then, who may ! 
 
 War ! is the countersign : 
 
 Victory word divine i 
 CHORUS. Who peace and unity 
 
 Scorneth, for war's array, 
 
 With impunity 
 
 Slays his hope of a better day. 
 EUPHORION. They, who this land have led 
 
 Through danger and dread, 
 
 Free, boundlessly brave, 
 
 Lavish of blood they gave,- 
 
 May they, with glorious 
 
 Untamable might. 
 
 Make us victorious, 
 
 Now, in the fight ! 
 CHOJMJB. Look aloft ! he seeks the Farnesa, 
 
 Yet to us not small he seems. 
 
 As for battle, as in harness, 
 
 He like steel and silver gleams. 
 EUPHOBION. Walls and towers no more immuring. 
 
 Each in vigour stands confessed ! 
 
 Fortress firm and most enduring 
 
 Is the soldier's iron breast 
 
 Would ye dwell in freemen's houses I 
 
 Arm, and forth to combat wild f 
 
 See, as Amazons, your spouses, 
 
 And a hero every child ! 
 CHORUS. Hallowed Poesy, 
 
 Heavenward mounting, see I 
 
 Shining, the fairest star, 
 
 Farther, and still more far I 
 
 Yet, from the distance blown, 
 
 Hear we the lightest tone, 
 
 And raptured are. 
 KUPHORION. No, 't ifl no child which thou beholdest- 
 
 A youth in arms, with haughty brow ! 
 
 And with the Strongest, Freest, Boldest, 
 
 His oul is pledged, in manly vow.
 
 ACT HI. 303 
 
 I go 
 
 For, lo ! 
 
 The path to glory opens now. 77 
 HELENA AND FAUST. Thou thy being scarcely learnest. 
 
 Scarcely feel'st the Day's glad beam. 
 
 When from giddy steeps thou yearnest 
 
 For the place of pain supreme! 
 
 Are then we 
 
 Naught to thee? 
 
 Is the gracious bond a dream? 
 EUPHORION. And hear ye thunders on the ocean? 
 
 From land the thunder-echoes call? 
 
 In dust and foam, with fierce commotion, 
 
 The armies shock, the heroes fall ! 
 
 The command 
 
 Is, sword in hand, 
 
 To : 'tis certain, once for all. 
 
 HELENA, FAUST, AND CHORUS. What a horror! We 
 shall rue it! 
 
 Ah, is Death command to thee? 
 EUPHORION. Shall I from the distance view it? 
 
 No ! the fate be shared by me ! 
 THE ABOVE. Danger his arrogance brings : 
 
 Fatally bold! 
 EUPHOBION. Yes ! and a pair of wings 
 
 See me unfold ! 
 
 Thither ! I must ! and thus ! 
 
 Grant me the flight ! 
 [He casts himself into the air : the garments bear him 
 
 a moment, his head is illuminated, and a streak of 
 
 light follows. 
 CHORUS. Icarus! Icarus! 
 
 Sorrowful sight ! 
 [A beautiful Youth falls at the feet of the parents. 
 
 We imagine that in the dead body we perceive a 
 
 well-known form ; yet the corporeal part vanishes 
 
 at once, and the aureole rises like a comet towards 
 
 heaven. The garment, mantle, and lyre remain 
 
 upon the ground.
 
 304 FAUST. 
 
 HELENA AND FAUST. Joy is followed, when scarce 
 
 enjoyed, 
 
 By bitterest moan. 
 EUPHOEION (from the depths). Leave me here, in the 
 
 gloomy Void, 
 Mother, not thus alone ! [Pause. 
 
 OHOBVS [Dvrgc].'* Not alone ! where'er thou bideat ; 
 For we know thee what thou art. 
 Ah ! if from the Day thou hidest, 
 Still to thee will cling each heart. 
 Scarce we venture to lament thee, 
 Singing, envious of thy fate ; 
 For in storm and sun were lent thee 
 Song and courage, fair and great. 
 
 Ah ! for earthly fortune fashioned, 
 Strength was thine, and proud descent : 
 Early erring, o'er-impassioned, 
 Youth, alas ! from thee was rent. 
 For the world thine eye was rarest, 
 All the heart to thee was known : 
 Thine were loves of women fairest, 
 And a song thy very own. 
 
 Yet thou rannest uncontrolledly 
 
 In the net the fancies draw, 
 
 Thus thyself divorcing boldly 
 
 As from custom, so from law ; 
 
 Till the highest thought expended 
 
 Set at last thy courage free : 
 
 Thou wouldst win achievement splendid 
 
 But it was not given to thee. 
 
 Unto whom, then 1 Question dreary, 
 
 Destiny will never heed ; 
 
 When in evil days and weary, 
 
 Silently the people bleed. 
 
 But new songs shall still elate them : 
 
 Bow no longer and deplore !
 
 ACT HI. 305 
 
 For the soil shall generate them, 
 As it hath done heretofore. 
 
 [Complete pause. The music ceases. 
 HELENA (to FAUST). Also in me, alas! an old word proves 
 
 its truth, 
 
 That Bliss and Beauty ne'er enduringly unite. 
 Torn is the link of Life, no less than that of Love ; 
 So, both lamenting, painfully I say : Farewell ! 
 And cast myself again once only in thine arms. 
 Receive, Persephone, receive the boy and me. 
 
 [She embraces FAUST : her corporeal part disappears, 
 
 her garment ana, veil remam in his arms. 
 PHORKYAS (to FAUST). Hold fast what now aione remains 
 
 to thee ! 
 
 The garment let not go ! Already twitch 
 The Demons at its skirts, and they would fain 
 To the Nether Regions drag it ! Hold it fast ! 
 It is no more the Goddess thou hast lost, 
 But godlike is it. For thy use employ 
 The grand and priceless gift, and soar aloft ! 
 'Twill bear thee swift from all things mean and low 
 To ether high, so long thou canst endure. 
 We'll meet again, far, very far from here. 
 
 [HELENA'S garments dissolve into clouds, 79 surround 
 FAUST, lift him aloft in the air, and move away 
 with him. 
 
 PHORKYAS (takes up EUKBORION'S tunic, mantle, and lyre 
 from, the earth, steps forward to the proscenium, holds 
 aloft these remains, and speaks). 
 Good leavings have I still discovered 1 
 The flame has vanished where it hovered, 
 Yet for the world no tears I spend. 
 Enough remains to start the Poets living, 
 And envy in their guilds to send ; 
 And, if their talents are beyond my giving, 
 At least the costume I can lend. 
 
 [She seats herself upon a column in the proscenium. 
 PANTHALIS. Now hasten, maidens 1 we are from the magic 
 
 freed, 
 The old Thessalian trollop'* mind-compelling spell, 
 
 U
 
 SU6 FA UST. 
 
 Freed from the jingling drone of much-bewildering sound, 
 The ear confusing, and still more the inner sense. 
 Down, then, to Hades ! since beforehand went the Queen, 
 With solemn step descending. Now, upon the track, 
 Let straightway follow her the step of faithful maids ! 
 Her shall we find beside the unfathomed, gloomy King. 
 CHORUS. Queens, of course, are satisfied everywhere : 
 Even in Hades take they highest rank, 
 Proudly associate with their peers, 
 With Persephone closely allied : 
 We, however, in the background 
 Of the asphodel-besprinkled meadows, 
 With the endless rows of poplars 
 And the fruitless willows ever mated, 
 What amusement, then, have we ? 
 Bat-like to squeak and twitter 
 In whispers uncheery and ghostly ! 
 LEADER OF THE CHORUS. Who hath not won a name, and 
 
 seeks not noble works, 
 
 Belongs but to the elements : away then, ye ! 
 My own intense desire is with my Queen to be ; 
 Service and faith secure the individual life. [Exit. 
 
 ALL. Given again to the daylight are we, 
 Persons no more, 'tis true, 
 We feel it and know it, 
 But to Hades return we never ! 
 Nature, the Ever-living, 
 Makes to us spirits 
 Validest claim, and we to her also. 
 A PART OF THE CHORUS. We, in trembling whispers, 
 
 swaying rustle of a thousand branches 
 
 Sweetly rocked, will lightly lure the rills of life, the root- 
 born, upwards 
 To the twigs; and, or with foliage or exuberant gush of 
 
 blossoms, 
 Will we freely deck their flying hair for prosperous airy 
 
 growth. 
 
 Then, when falls the fruit, will straightway gather glad- 
 dened herds and people,
 
 ACT III. so? 
 
 Swiftly coining, briskly pressing, for the picking and the 
 
 tasting : 
 
 AH, as if before the early Gods, will then around us bend. 
 A SECOND PART. We, beside these rocks, upon the far-off 
 
 shining, glassy mirror, 
 Coaxingly will bend and fluctuate, moving with the gentle 
 
 waters ; 
 We to every sound will hearken, song of bird or reedy 
 
 piping ; 
 Though the dreadful voice of Pan, a ready answer shall we 
 
 give: 
 Comes a murmur, we re-murmur, thunder, we our thunden 
 
 waken 
 
 In reverberating crashes, doubly, trebly, tenfold flung I 
 A THIRD PART. Sisters, we, of nimbler fancy, hasten witi 
 
 the brooklets onward ; 
 For allure us yonder distant, richly-mantled mountain 
 
 ranges. 
 Ever downwarde, ever deeper, in meandering curves we 
 
 water 
 First the meadow, then the pasture ; then the garden round 
 
 the house, 
 Marked by slender peaks of cypress, shooting clearly into 
 
 ether 
 O'er the landscape and the waters and the fading line of 
 
 shore. 
 A FOURTH PART. Fare, ye others, at your pleasure , we 
 
 will girdle and o'errustle , 
 The completely-planted hillside, where the sprouting vine 
 
 are green. 
 
 There at every hour the passion of the vintager is witnessed, 
 And the loving diligence, that hath so doubtful a result. 
 Now with hoe and now with shovel, then with hilling, prun- 
 
 ing, tying, 
 Unto all the Gods he prayeth, chiefly to the Sun's bright 
 
 god. 
 Small concern hath pampered Bacchus for hia faithful 
 
 servant's welfare, 
 But in arbours rests, and caverns, toying with the youngest 
 
 Faun.
 
 508 FAUST. 
 
 For his semi-drunken vision* whatsoever he hath needed, 
 It is furnished him in wine-skins, and in amphorae and 
 
 vessels, 
 
 Right and left in cool recesses, cellared for eternal time. 
 But if now the Gods together, Helios before the others, 
 Have with breeze and dew and warmth and glow the berries 
 
 filled with juice, 
 Where the vintager in silence laboured, all is life and 
 
 motion, 
 Every trellis stirs and rustles, and they go from stake to 
 
 stake. 
 Baskets creak and buckets rattle, groaning tubs are borne on 
 
 back, 
 
 A.U towards the vat enormous and the treaders' lusty dance ; 
 So is then the sacred bounty of the pure-born, juicy berries 
 Rudely trodden ; foaming, spirting, they are mixed and 
 
 grimly crushed. 
 Now the ear is pierced with cymbals and the clash of brazen 
 
 For, behold, is Dionysos from his mysteries revealed ! 
 
 Forth he comes with goat-foot Satyrs, whirling goat-foot 
 
 While amid the rout Silenus' big-eared beast unruly brays. 
 Naught is spared ! The cloven hoofs tread down all decent 
 
 custom ; 
 
 All the senses whirl bewildered, fearfully the ear is stunned. 
 Drunkards fumble for their goblets, over-full are heads and 
 
 paunches ; 
 Here and there hath one misgivings, yet increases thus the 
 
 tumult; 
 
 For, the fresher must to garner, empty they the ancient 
 skin! 
 
 [The curtain falls. PHOKKYAS, in the proscenium, 
 rises to a giant height, steps down from the 
 cothurni, removes her mask and veil, and reveals 
 herself as MEPHISTOPHELES, in order, so far as it 
 may be necessary, to comment upon the piece by way 
 of Epilogue.]
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 309 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 . 
 I. 
 
 HIGH MOUNTAINS. 
 
 strong, serrated rocky peaks. A cloud approaches, pauses, and 
 settles down upon a projecting ledge. It then divides. 
 
 FAUST (steps forth). Down-gazing on the deepest solitudes 
 
 below, 
 
 I tread deliberately this summit's lonely edge, 
 Relinquishing my cloudy car, which hither bore 
 Me softly through the shining day o'er land and sea. 
 Unscattered, slowly moved, it separates from me. 
 Off" eastward strives the mass with rounded, rolling march : 
 And strives the eye, amazed, admiring, after it. 
 In motion it divides, in wave-like, changeful guise ; 
 Yet seems to shape a figure, Yes ! mine eyes not err ! 
 On suz-illumined pillows beauteously reclined, 
 Colossal, truly, but a godlike woman-form, 
 I see ! The like of Juno, Leda, Helena, 
 Majestically lovely, floats before my sight ! 
 Ah, now 'tis broken ! Towering broad and formlesslj , 
 It rests along the east like distant icy hills, 
 And shapes the grand significance of fleeting days. 
 Yet still there clings a light and delicate band of mist 
 Around my breast and brow, caressing, cheering ma 
 Now light, delayingly, it soars and higher soars, 
 And folds together. Cheats me an ecstatic form, 
 As early-youthful, long-forajone and highest bliss 1 
 The first glad treasures of my deepest heart break forth ;
 
 310 FAUST. 
 
 Aurora's love, so light of pinion, is its type, 
 The swiftly-felt, the first, scarce-comprehended glance, 
 Outshining every treasure, when retained and held. 
 Like Spiritual Beauty mounts the gracious Form, 
 Dissolving not, but lifts itself through ether far, 
 And from my inner being bears the best away. 
 
 [A Seven-league Boot trips forward : " another imme- 
 diately follows. MEPHISTOPHELES steps out oj 
 them. The Boots stride onward in haste. 
 
 MEPHIS. I call that genuine forward-striding 1 
 But what thon mean'st, I'd have thee own, 
 That in such horrors art abiding, 
 Amid these yawning jags of stone ? 
 It was not here I learned to know them well ; 
 Such was, indeed, the bottom-ground of HelL 
 
 FAUST. In foolish legends thou art never lacking ; 
 Again thy store thou set'st about unpacking. 
 
 MEPHIS. (seriously). When God the Lord wherefore. I 
 
 also know, 
 
 Banned us from air to darkness deep and central, 
 Where round and round, in fierce, intensest glow, 
 Eternal fires were whirled in Earth's hot . "ntrail 
 We found ourselves too much illuminated, 
 STet crowded and uneasily situated. 
 The Devils all set up a coug? ; ng, sneezing, 
 At every vent without cessation wheezipg : 
 With sulphur stench and acids Hell dilated, 
 And such enormous gas was then created, 
 That very soon Earth's level, far extended, 
 Thick as it was, was heaved, and split, and rended \ 
 The thing is plain, no theories o'ercome it : 
 What formerly was bottom, now is summit. 
 Hereon they base the law there's no disputing, 
 To give the undermost the topmost footing : 
 For we escaped from fiery dungeons there 
 To overplus of lordship of the air ; 
 A mystery manifest and well concealed, 
 And to the people only late revealed. 
 
 FAUST. To me are mountain-masses grandly dumb : 
 I ask not, Whence t and ask not. Why ? they come.
 
 ACT IV. a 
 
 When Nature in herself her being founded, 
 Complete and perfect then the globe she rounded, 
 Glad of the summits and the gorges deep, 
 Set rock to rock, and mountain steep to steep, 
 The hilla with easy outlines downward moulded, 
 Till gently from their feet the vales unfolded ! 
 They green and grow ; with joy therein she ranges, 
 Requiring no insane, convulsive changes. 
 
 MEPHIS. Yes, so you talk ! You think it clear as 3ua ; 
 But he knows otherwise, who saw it done. 
 For I was there, while still below was surging 
 The red abyss, and streamed the flaming tide, 
 When Moloch's hammer, welding rocks and forging, 
 Scattered the mountain-ruins far and wide. 
 O'er all the land the foreign blocks you spy there ; 
 Who solves the force that hurled them to their place I 
 The lore of learned men is all awry there ; 
 There lies the rock, and we must let it lie there ; 
 We've thought already to our own disgrace. 
 Only the common, faithful people know, 
 And nothing shakes them in their firm believing . 
 Their wisdom ripened long ago, 
 A. marvel 'tis, of Satan's own achieving. 
 On crutch of faith my traveller climbs the ridges, 
 Past Devil's Rocks and over Devil's Bridges. 
 
 FAUST. Well, 'tis remarkable and new 
 To note how Devils Nature view. 
 
 MEPHIS. What's all to me ? Her shape let Nature wear i 
 The point of honour is, the Devil was there ! 
 We are the folk to compass grand designs : 
 Tumult, and Force, and Nonsense ! See the signal- 
 Yet now, with sober reason to address thee, 
 Did nothing on our outside shell impress thee 1 
 From this exceeding height thou saVst unfurled 
 The glory of the Kingdoms of the World. 
 Yet, as thou art, unsatisfied, 
 Didst feel no lust of power and pride ? 
 
 FAUST. I did ! A mighty plan my fancy warn ; 
 Canst guess it ? 
 
 Mi>Htt. That is quickly done.
 
 312 FAUST. 
 
 J*d take some town, a capital, perchance, 
 
 Its core, the people's need of sustenance ; 
 
 With crooked alleys, pointed gables, 
 
 Beets, cabbage, onions, on the market-tables ; 
 
 With meat-stands, where the blue flies muster, 
 
 And round fat joints like gourmands cluster : 
 
 There shalt thou find, undoubtedly, 
 
 Stench, always, and activity. 
 
 f hen ample squares, and streets whose measure 
 
 Assumes an air of lordly leisure ; 
 
 And last, without a gate to bar, 
 
 The boundless suburbs stretching far. 
 
 'Twere joy to see the coaches go, 
 
 The noisy crowding to and fro, 
 
 The endless running, hither, thither, 
 
 Of scattered ants that stream together : 
 
 And whether walking, driving, riding, 
 
 Ever their central point abiding, 
 
 Honoured by thousands, should be I. 
 
 FAUST. Therewith I would not be contented t 
 One likes to see the people multiply, 
 And in their wise with comfort fed, 
 Developed even, taught, well-bred, 
 Yet one has only, when all's ; aid, 
 The sum of rebels thus augmented. 
 
 MEPHIS. Then I should build, with conscious power and 
 
 grace, 
 
 A pleasure-castle in a pleasant place ; 
 Where hill and forest, level, meadow, field, 
 Grandly transformed, should park and garden yield- 
 Before green walls of foliage velvet meadows, 
 With ordered paths and artful-falling shadows ; 
 Plunge of cascades o'er rocks with skill combined, 
 And fountain-jets of every form and kind, 
 There grandly shooting upwards from the middle, 
 While round the sides a thousand spirt and piddle, 
 Then for the fairest women, fresh and rosy, 
 I'd build a lodge, convenient and cosey ; 
 And so the bright and boundless time I shoull 
 Pass in the loveliest social solitude.
 
 ACT 17. 313 
 
 Women, I say ; and, once for all, believe 
 That in the plural I the sex conceive ! 
 
 FAUST. Sardanapalus 1 Modern, poor! 
 
 MBPHIS. Then might one guess whereunto thou hast 
 
 striven! 
 
 Boldly-sublime it was, I'm sure. 
 Since nearer to the moon thy flight was driven, 
 Would now thy mania that realm secure ? 
 
 FAUST. Not so ! This sphere of earthly soil 
 Still gives us room for lofty doing. 
 Astounding plans e'en now are brewing : 
 I feel new strength for bolder toiL 
 
 MEPHIS. So, thou wilt Glory earn? 'Tis plain to see 
 That heroines have been thy company. 
 
 FAUST. Power and Estate to win, inspires my thought ! 
 The Deed is everything, the Glory naught. 
 
 MEPHIS. Yet Poets shall proclaim the matte^ 
 Thy fame to future ages flatter, 
 By folly further folly scatter ! 
 
 FAUST. All that is far beyond thy reach. 
 How canst thou know what men beseech? 
 Thy cross-grained self, in malice banned, 
 How can it know what men demand ? 
 
 MEPHIS. According to thy will so let it be ! 
 Confide the compass of thy whims to me ! 
 
 FAUST. Mine eye was drawn to view the open Ocean : 
 It swelled aloft, self-heaved and over-vaulting, 
 And then withdrew, and shook its waves in motion, 
 Again the breadth of level strand assaulting. 
 Then I was vexed, since arrogance can spite 
 The spirit free, which values every right, 
 And through excited passion of the blood 
 Discomfort it, as did the haughty flood. 
 I thought it chance, my vision did I strain ; 
 The billow paused, then thundered back again, 
 Retiring from the goal so proudly won : 
 The hour returns, the sporf s once more begun. 
 
 MEPHIS. (ad spectatoret). Tia nothing new whatever thai 
 
 one hears ; 
 I've known it many a hundred thousand years. 
 
 22
 
 514 FAUST. 
 
 FAUST (continuing impassionedly). The Sea sweeps on, in 
 
 thousand quarters flowing, 
 [tself unfruitful, barrenness bestowing ; 
 [t breaks and swells, and rolls, and overwhelms 
 The desert stretch of desolated realms. 
 There endless waves hold sway, in strength erected 
 And then withdrawn, and nothing is effected. 
 If aught could drive me to despair, 'twere, truly 
 The aimless force of elements unruly. 
 Then dared my mind its dreams to over-soar : 
 Here would I fight, subdue this fierce uproar ! 
 And possible 'tis ! Howe'er the tides may fill, 
 They gently fawn around the steadfast hill ; 
 A moderate height resists and drives asunder, 
 A moderate depth allures and leads them on. 
 So, swiftly, plans within my mind were drawn ! 
 Let that high joy be mine for evermore, 
 To shut the lordly Ocean from the shore, 
 The watery waste to limit and to bar, 
 And push it back upon itself afar ! 
 From step to step I settled how to fight it : 
 Such is my wish : dare thou to expedite it ! 
 
 \Drwms and martial music in the rear of the spectators, 
 from the distance, on the right hand. 
 
 MBPHIS. How easy, that ! Hear'st thou the drums afar i 
 
 FAUST. Who's wise likes not to hear of coming war. 
 
 MEPHIS. In War or Peace, 'tis wise to use the chance, 
 And draw some profit from each circumstance. 
 One watches, marks the moment, and is bold : 
 Here's opportunity ! now, Faust, take hold ! 
 
 FAUST. Spare me the squandering of thy riddle-pelf ! 
 What means it, once for all ? Explain thyself ! 
 
 MBPHIS. Upon my way, to me it was discovered 
 That mighty troubles o'er the Emperor hovered : 
 Thou knowest him. The while we twain, beside him, 
 With wealth illusive bounteously supplied him, 
 Then all the world was to be had for pay ; 
 For as a youth he held imperial sway, 
 And he was pleased to try it, whether 
 Both interests would not smoothly pair,
 
 ACT IV. 315 
 
 Since 'twere desirable and fair 
 To govern and enjoy, together. 
 
 FAUST. A mighty error! He who would command 
 Must in commanding find his highest blessing : 
 Then, let his breast with force of will expand, 
 But what he wills, be past another's guessing ! 
 What to his faithful he hath whispered, that 
 Is turned to act, and men amaze thereat: 
 Thus will he ever be the highest-placed 
 And worthiest ! Enjoyment makes debased. 
 
 MEPHIS. Such is he not! He did enjoy, even he! 
 Meanwhile the realm was torn by anarchy, 
 Where great and small were warring with each other, 
 And brother drove and slaughtered brother, 
 Castle to castle, town 'gainst town arrayed, 
 The nobles and the guilds of trade, 
 The Bishop, with his chapter and congregation, 
 All meeting eyes but looked retaliation. 
 In churches death and murder ; past the gates, 
 The merchants travelled under evil fates ; 
 And all grew bolder, since no rule was drawn 
 For life, but : Self-defence ! So things went on. 
 
 FAUST. They went, they limped, they fell, arose again . 
 Then tumbled headlong, and in heaps remain. 
 
 MEPHIS. Such a condition no man dared abuse. 
 Each would be something, each set forth his dues ; 
 The smallest even as full-measured passed : 
 Yet for the best it grew too bad at last. 
 The Capable, they then arose with energy, 
 And said: "Who gives us Peace, shall ruler be. 
 The Emperor can and will not ! Be elected 
 An Emperor new, anew the realm directed. 
 Each one secure and sheltered stand, 
 And in a fresh -constructed land 
 Justice and Peace be mated and perfected ! " 
 
 FAUST. Priest-like, that sounds. 
 
 MEPHIS. Priests were they, to be sure 
 
 They meant their well-fed bellies to secure ; 
 They, more than all, therein were implicated. 81 
 The riot rose, the riot was consecrated,
 
 316 FAUST. 
 
 And now our Emperor, whom we gave delight, 
 Comes hitherward, perchance for one last fight 
 
 FAUST. I pity him ; he was so frank, forgiving. 
 
 MBPHIS. Come, we'll look on ! There's hope while one us 
 
 living 1 
 
 Let us release him from this narrow valley ! 
 He's saved a thousand times, if once he rally. 
 Who knows how yet the dice may fall ? 
 If he has fortune, vassals come withaL 
 
 [They cross over the middle range of mountains, a/nd 
 view the arrangement of the army in the valley. 
 Drums and military music resound from below. 
 
 MEPHIS. A good position is, I see, secured -them ; 
 We'll join, then victory will be assured them. 
 
 FAUST. What further, I should like to know! 
 Cheat ! Blind delusion ! Hollow show I 
 
 MEPHIS. No, stratagems, for battle-winning ! 
 Be steadfast for the grand beginning, 
 And think upon thy lofty aim ! 
 If we secure the realm its rightful claimant, 
 Then shalt thou boldly kneel, and claim 
 The boundless strand in feoff, as payment. 
 
 FAUST. In many arts didst thou excel : 
 Come, win a battle now, as well 1 
 
 MEPHIS. No, thou shalt win it I Here, in brief^ 
 Shalt thou be General-in-Chief. 
 
 FAUST. A high distinction thou wouldst lend, 
 There to command, where naught I comprehend ! 
 
 MEPHIS. Leave to the Staff the work and blame, 
 Then the Field-Marshal's sure of fame ! 
 Of War-Uncouncils I have had enough, 
 And my War-Council fashion of the stuff 
 Of primal mountains' primal human might : 
 He's blest, for whom its elements unite ! 
 
 FAUST. What do I see, with arms, in yonder place t 
 Hast thou aroused the mountain-race ? 
 
 MEPHIS. No ! But I've brought, like Peter Science, 18 
 From all the raff the quintessence. 
 
 [The Three Mighty Men appear 
 MEPHIS. My fellows draw already near !
 
 ACT IV. 311 
 
 Thou seest, of very different ages, 
 
 Of different garb and armour they appear : 
 
 They will not serve thee ill when battle rages. 
 
 [Ad tpectatoree. 
 
 Now every child delights to see 
 The harness and the helm of knightly action ; 
 And allegoric, as the blackguards be, 
 They'll only all the more give satisfaction. 
 
 BULLY (young, lightly-armed, dad in motky). When one 
 
 shall meet me, face to face, 
 My fisticuffs shall on his chops be showered ; 
 And midway in his headlong race, 
 Fast by his flying hair I'll catch the coward. 
 
 HAVEQUICK (manly, well-armed, richly clad). Such empty 
 
 brawls are only folly ! 
 They spoil whate'er occasion brings. 
 In taking, be unwearied wholly, 
 And after, look to other things ! 
 
 HOLDFAST (well in years, strongly-armed, without raiment}. 
 Yet little gain thereafter lingers ! 
 Soon slips great wealth between your fingers, 
 Borne by the tidaa of Life as down they run. 
 'Tis well to take, indeed, but better still to hold : 
 Be by the gray old churl controlled, 
 Ajid thou shalt plundered be by none. 
 
 [They descend the mountain together.
 
 3l FAUST. 
 
 n. 
 
 ON THE HEADLAND. 
 
 Drums and military music from Mow. The EMPEROR'S tent it 
 pitched. 
 
 EMPEROR. GsifERAiriN-CHrEF. LIFE-GXTARDSMEN. 
 
 GENERAL-IN- CHIEF. It still appeals the prudentest ol 
 
 courses 
 
 That here, in this appropriate vale, 
 We have withdrawn and strongly massed onr forces : 
 I firmly trust we shall not fail 
 
 EMPEROR. What comes of it will soon be brought to light, . 
 Yet I dislike this yielding, semi-flight. 
 
 GENERAL-IN-CHIEF. Look down, my Prince, where oui 
 
 right flank is planted ! 
 
 The field which War desires hath here been granted : 
 Not steep the hills, yet access not preparing, 
 To us advantage, to the foe insnaring ; 
 Their cavalry will hardly dare surround 
 Our strength half hid, on undulating ground, 
 
 EMPEROR. My commendation, only, need I speak ; 
 Now arm and courage have the test they seek 
 
 GENERAL-IN-CHIEF. Here, on the middle meadow's level 
 
 Thou seest the phalanx, eager in their places. 
 In air the lances gleam and sparkle, kissed 
 By sunshine, through the filmy morning mist 
 How darkling sways the grand and powerful square I 
 The thousands burn for great achievements there. 
 Therein canst thou perceive the strength of masses ; 
 And thine, be sure, the foemen's strength surpasses. 
 
 EMPEROR. Now first do I enjoy the stirring sight : 
 in army, thus, appears of double might. 
 
 GKNERAL-JJN -CHIRK. But of our left I've no report to maka
 
 ACT IV. 518 
 
 Bravtj heroes garrison the rocky brake ; 
 
 The stony clitfs, by gleams of weapons specked. 
 
 The entrance to the close defile protect 
 
 Here, as I guess, the foemen's force will shatter, 
 
 Forced unawares upon the bloody matter. 
 
 EMPEROR. And there they march, false kin, one like the 
 
 other ! 
 
 Even as they styled me Uncle, Cousin, Brother, 
 Assuming more, and ever more defying, 
 The sceptre's power, the throne's respect, denying ; 
 Then, in their feuds, the realm they devastated, 
 And now as Rebels march, against me mated 1 
 Awhile with halting minds the masses go, 
 Then ride the stream, wherever it may flow. 
 
 GENERAL-IN-CHIEF. A faithful man, sent out some news 
 
 to win, 
 
 Comes down the rocks : may he have lucky been 1 
 FIRST SPY. Luckily have we succeeded ; 
 Helped by bold and cunning art, 
 Here and there have pressed, and heeded, 
 But 'tis ill news we impart. 
 Many, purest homage pledging, 
 Like the faithful, fealty swore, 
 For inertness now alleging 
 People's danger, strife in store. 
 
 EMPEBOR. They learn from selfishness self-preservation, 
 Not duty, honour, grateful inclination. 
 You do not think that, when your reckoning's shown, 
 The neighbour's burning house shall fire your own ! 
 
 GENERAL-IN-CHIEF. The Second comes, descending slowly 
 
 hither; 
 
 A. weary man, whose strength appears to wither. 
 SECOND SPY. First with comfort we detected 
 What their plan confused was worth ; 
 Than, at once and unexpected, 
 Came another Emperor forth. 
 As he bids, in ordered manner 
 March the gathering hosts away ; 
 His unfolded lying banner 
 All have followed. Sheep are they I
 
 320 FAUST. 
 
 EMPEROR. Now, by a Rival Emperor shall I gain : 
 That I am Emperor, thus to me is plain. 
 But as a soldier I the mail put on ; 
 Now for a higher aim the sword be drawn ! 
 At all my shows, however grand to see, 
 Did nothing lack : but Danger lacked, to me. 
 Though you but tilting at the ring suggested, 
 My heart beat high to be in tourney tested ; 
 And had you not from war my mind dissuaded, 
 For glorious deeds my name were now paraded. 
 But independence then did I acquire, 
 When I stood mirrored in the realm of fire : 
 In the dread element I dared to stand ; 
 'Twas but a show, and yet the show was grand. 
 Of fame and victory I have dreamed alone ; 
 But for the base neglect I now atone ! 
 
 [2 he HEHALDS are despatched to challenge the Rival 
 Emperor to single combat. 
 
 FAUST enters, in armour, with half-closed visor. The THREE 
 MIGHTY MEN, armed and clothed, as already described. 
 
 FAUST. We come, and hope our coming is not chidden ; 
 Prudence may help, though by the need unbidden. 
 The mountain race, thou know'st, think and explore, 
 Of Nature and the rocks they read the lore. 
 The Spirits, forced from the level land to sever, 
 Are of the rocky hills more fain than ever. 
 Silent, they work through labyrinthine passes, 
 In rich, metallic fumes of noble gases, 
 On solving, testing, blending, most intent : 
 Their only passion, something to invent. 
 With gentle touch of spiritual power 
 They build transparent fabrics, hour by hour ; 
 For they, in crystals and their silence, furled, 
 Behold events that rule the Upper world. 
 
 EMPEROR. I understand it, and can well agree ; 
 But say, thou gallant man, what's that to me ? 
 
 FAUST. The Sabine old, the Norcian necromancer,** 
 Thy true and worthy servant, sends thee answer : 
 What fearful fate it was, that overhung him !
 
 ACT IV. S31 
 
 The faggots crackled, fire already stung him ; 
 The billets dry were closely round him fixed, 
 With pitch and rolls of brimstone intermixed ; 
 
 Not Man, nor God, nor Devil, him could save, 
 
 The Emperor plucked him from his fiery grave. 
 It was in Rome. Still is he bound unto thee ; 
 Upon thy path his anxious thoughts pursue thee ; 
 Himself since that dread hour forgotten, he 
 Questions the stars, the depths, alone for thee. 
 Us he commissioned, by the swiftest courses 
 Thee to assist Great are the mountain's forcea ; 
 There Nature works ail-potently and free, 
 Though stupid priests therein but magic see. 
 
 EMPEROR. On days of joy, when we the gueste are 
 
 greeting, 
 
 Who for their gay delight are gaily meeting, 
 Each gives us pleasure, as they push and pull, 
 And crowd, man after man, the chambers full , 
 Yet chiefly welcome is the brave man, thus, 
 When as a bold ally he brings to us 
 Now, in the fateful morning hour, his talents, 
 While Destiny uplifts her trembling balance. 
 Yet, while the fates of this high hour unfold, 
 Thy strong hand from the willing sword withhold, 
 Honour the moment, when the hosts are striding, 
 For or against me, to the field deciding ! 
 Self is the Man ! Who crown and throne would claim 
 Must personally be worthy of the same. 
 And may the Phantom, which against us stands, 
 The self-styled Emperor, Lord of all our hinds, 
 The army's Duke, our Princes' feudal head, 
 With mine own hand be hurled among the dead ! 
 
 FAUST. Howe'er the need that thy great work be finished, 
 Risked were thy head, the chances were diminished. 
 Is not the helm adorned with plume and crest ? 
 The head it shields, that steels our courage best 
 Without a head, what should the members bridle 3 
 Let it but sleep, they sink supine and idle, 
 If it be injured, all the hurt confess in't, 
 And all revive, when it is convalescent
 
 323 FAUST. 
 
 Then soon the arm ite right shall reassert, 
 And lift the shield to save the skull from hurt : 
 The sword perceives at once its honoured trust, 
 Parries with vigour, and repeats the thrust : 
 The gallant foot its share of luck will gain, 
 And plants itself upon the necks of slain. 
 EMPEROR. Such is my wrath ; I'd meet him thus, un- 
 daunted, 
 
 And see his proud head as my footstool planted 1 
 HEKAXDS (returning). Little honour was accorded ; 
 We have met with scorn undoubted : 
 Our .defiance, nobly worded, 
 As an empty farce they flouted : 
 " Lo, your Lord is but a vision, 
 Echo of a vanished prime : 
 When we name him, says Tradition : 
 ' He was once upon a, time ! ' " 
 
 FAUST, If s happened as the best would fain have planned, 
 Who, firm and faithful, still beside thee stand. 
 There comes the foe, thy army waits aud wishes ; 
 Order attack ! the moment is auspicious. 
 EMPEROR. Yet I decline to exercise command. 
 
 [To the GENERAL-Hf-CHIEF. 
 
 Thy duty, Prince, be trusted to thy hand ! 
 
 GBNBKAL-IN-CIEF. Then let the right wing now advance 
 
 apace ! 
 
 The enemy's left, who just begin ascending, 
 Shall, ere the movement close, give up their place, 
 Before the youthful force our field defending. 
 
 FAUST. Permit me, then, that this gay hero may 
 Be stationed in thy ranks, without delay, 
 That with thy men most fully he consort, 
 And thus incorporate, ply his vigorous sport ! 
 
 [He points to the MIGHTY MAN on the right. 
 
 BULLY (coming forward). Who shows his face to me, before 
 
 he turn 
 
 Shall find his cheekbones and his chops are shattered : 
 Who shows his back, one sudden blow shall earn, 
 Then head and pig-tail dangling hang, and battered ' 
 And if thy men, like me, will lunge
 
 ACT IV. 323 
 
 With mace and sword, beside each other, 
 
 Man over man the foe shall plunge 
 
 And in their own deep blood shall smother 1 [Exit. 
 
 GENERAL-IN-CHIEF. Let then our centre phalanx follow 
 slow, 
 
 Engage with caution, yet with might, the foe I 
 
 There to the right, already overtaken, 
 
 Our furious force their plan has rudely shaken ! 
 FAUST (pointing to the middle one). Let also this one now 
 
 obey thy word I 
 HAVEQUICK (comes forward). Unto the host's heroic duty 
 
 Shall now be joined the thirst for booty ; 
 
 And be the goal, where all are sent, 
 
 The Rival Emperor's sumptuous tent ! 
 
 He shall not long upon his seat be lorded : 
 
 To lead the phalanx be to me accorded ! 
 SPEEDBOOTY (sutleress, /aiming upon him). Though never 
 tied to him by priest, 
 
 He is my sweetheart dear, at least 
 
 Our autumn 'tis, of ripest gold ! 
 
 Woman is tierce when she takes hold, 
 
 And when she robs, is merciless : 
 
 All is allowed, ao forth to victory press ! [Exeunt botk. 
 GENERAL-IN-CHIEF. Upon our left, as was to be foreseen, 
 
 Their right is strongly hurled. Yon rocks between, 
 
 Ours will resist their furious beginning, 
 
 And hinder them the narrow pass from winning. 
 FAUST (beckons to the MIGHTY MAN on the left). I beg you, 
 Sire, let this one also aid ; 
 
 'Tis well when even the strong are stronger made, 
 HOLDFAST (coming forwards). Now let the left wing have 
 no fear ! 
 
 The ground IB surely held, where I appear : 
 
 I am the Ancient you were told of : 
 
 No lightning splits what I keep hold of ! \ Exit. 
 
 MEPHIS. (descending from above). And now behold, how, 
 more remote, 
 
 From every jagged rocky throat 
 
 Comes forth an arme'd host, increasing, 
 
 Down every narrow pathway squeezing,
 
 324 FAUST. 
 
 With helm and harness, sword and spew, 
 
 A living rampart in our rear, 
 
 And wait the sign to charge the foemen? 
 
 [Aside, to the knowing one* 
 
 You must not ak whence comes the omen. 
 
 I have not been a careless scout, 
 
 But cleared the halls of armour round about 
 
 They stood a-foot, they sat on horses, 
 
 Like Lords of Earth and real forces : 
 
 Once Emperors, Kings, and Knights were they, 
 
 Now empty shells, the snails have crawled away. 
 
 Full many ghosts, arrayed so, have for us 
 
 Revamped the Middle Ages thus. 
 
 Whatever Devils now the shells select, 
 
 This once 'twill still create effect. [Aloud. 
 
 Hark ! in advance they stir their anger, 
 
 Each jostling each with brassy clangour ! 
 
 The banner-rags of standards flutter flowing, 
 
 That restless waited for the breeze's blowing. 
 
 Here standeth ready, now, an ancient race ; 
 
 In the new conflict it would fain have place. 
 
 [Tremendous peal of trumpets from above: a perceptiblt 
 
 wavering in tlie hostile army. 
 FAUST. The near horizon dims and darkles ; 
 
 Yet here and there with meaning sparkles 
 
 A ruddy and presaging glow ; 
 
 The blades are red where strife is sorest, 
 
 The atmosphere, the rocks, the forest, 
 
 The very heavens the combat show. 
 MJBPHIS. The right flank holds its ground with vigour 
 
 There, towering over all, defiant, 
 
 Jack Bully works, the nimble giant, 
 
 And drives them with his wonted rigour. 
 EMPEROR. I first beheld one arm uplifted, 
 
 But now a dozen tossed and shifted : 
 
 Unnatural such things appear. 
 FAUST. Hast thou not heard of vapours banded 
 
 O'er the Sicilian coasts expanded ? 
 
 There, hovering in daylight clear, 
 
 When mid-air gleams in rarer phases,
 
 ACT IV. 325 
 
 And mirrored in especial hazes, 
 
 A vision wonderful awakes : 
 
 There back and forth are cities bending, 
 
 With gardens rising and descending, 
 
 As form on form the ether breaks. 
 
 EMPEROR. Yet how suspicious! I behold 
 The tall spears tipped with gleams of gold : 
 Upon our phalanx' shining lances 
 A nimble host of flamelets dances : 
 Too spectral it appears to me. 
 
 FAUST. Pardon rne, Lord, those are the traces 
 Of spirits of the vanished races, 
 The fires of Pollux and of Castor, 
 Whom seamen call on in disaster : 
 They here collect their final strength for thee. 
 
 EMPEROR. But say, to whom are we indebted, 
 That Nature hath our plans abetted, 
 With shows of rarest potency? 
 
 MEPHTS. To whom, indeed, but that old Roman 
 Whose care for thee at last is proved? 
 By the strong menace of thy foemen 
 His deepest nature has been moved. 
 His gratitude would see thee now delivered, 
 Though his own being for thy sake be shivered. 
 
 EMPEROR. They cheered my march, with every pomp 
 
 invested ; 
 
 I felt my power, I meant to see it tested; 
 So, carelessly, I found it well, as ruler, 
 To send the white beard where the air was cooler. 
 I robbed the Clergy of a pleasant savour, 
 And, truly, have not thus acquired their favour. 
 Shall I, at last, since many years are over, 
 The payment for that merry deed recover? 
 
 FAUST. Free-hearted help heaps interest: 
 Look up, and cease to watch the foemen ! 
 Methinks that he will send an omen : 
 Attend ! the sign is now expressed. 
 
 EMPEROR. An Eagle hovers in the heavenly vault : 
 A Griffin follows, menacing assault. 
 
 FAUST. Give heed ! It seems most favourable
 
 326 VAUST. 
 
 The Griffin is a beast of fable : 
 How dare he claim a rival regal, 
 And meet in fight a genuine Eagle ? 
 
 EMPEROR. And now, in circles wide 
 They wheel involved, then, like a flasn, 
 Upon each other swiftly dash, 
 That necks be cleft and bodies rended ! 
 
 FAUST. Mark now the evil Griffin quail ! 
 Rumpled and torn, the foe he feareth, 
 And with his drooping lion's-tail, 
 Plunged in the tree-tops, disappeareth. 
 
 EMPEROR. Even as presaged, so may it be ! 
 I take the sign admiringly. 
 MBPHIS. (towards the right}. 
 
 From the force of blows repeated 
 
 Have our enemies retreated ; 
 
 And in fight, uncertain, shifting, 
 
 Towards their right they now are drifting, 
 
 Thus confusing, by their courses, 
 
 All the left flank of their forces. 
 
 See ! our phalanx, firmly driven, 
 
 Moves to right, and, like the levin, 
 
 Strikes them in the weak position, 
 
 Now, like waves in wild collision, 
 
 Equal powers, with rage opposing, 
 
 In the double fight are closing. 
 
 Gloriously the weapons rattle ; 
 
 We, at last, have won the battle ! 
 EMPBBOK (on the left, to FAUST). 
 
 Look ! it yonder seems suspicious ; 
 
 For our post the luck's capricious. 
 
 Not a stone I see them throw there ; 
 
 Mounted are the rocks below there, 
 
 And the upper ones deserted. 
 
 Now ! to one huge mass converted 
 
 Nearer moves the foe, unshaken, 
 
 And perchance the pass hath taken. 
 
 Such the unholy plan's conclusion ! 
 
 All your arts are but delusion. [Pause 
 
 MEPHIS. There come my ravens, croaking presage ;
 
 ACT IV. 327 
 
 What nature, then, may be their message t 
 
 I fear we stand in evil plight. 
 EMPEROR. What mean these fatal birds enchanted I 
 
 Their inky sails are hither slanted, 
 
 Hot from the rocky field of fight 
 MEFHIS. (to the Ravens). 
 
 Sit at mine ears, your flight retarded ! 
 
 He is not lost whom you have guarded ; 
 
 Your counsel's logical and right. 
 FAUST (to the EMPEROR). 
 
 Thou hast, of course, been told of pigeons. 
 
 Taught to return from distant regions 
 
 To nests upon their native coast. 
 
 Here, differently, the plan's succeeded ; 
 
 The pigeon-post for Peace is needed, 
 
 But War requires the raven-poet. 
 MEPHIS. The birds announce us sore mischance*. 
 
 See, yonder, how the foe advances 
 
 Against our heroes' rocky wall, 
 
 The nearest heights even now attaining I 
 
 Should they succeed the pass in gaining, 
 
 Our fortunes, then, were critical. 
 EMPEROR. Defeat and cheat at last are on me 1 
 
 Into your meshes you have drawn me : 
 
 1 shudder, since they bind me fast. 
 MKPHIS. Courage ! Not yet the die is cast 
 
 Patience and knack, for knot-untying ! 
 
 The close will be the fiercest stand. 
 
 Sure messengers for me are flying : 
 
 Command that I may give command I 
 GKNERAI/-IN-CHIEF (who has 'meanwhile arriveeF^ 
 
 To follow these hast thou consented ; 
 
 Thence all the time was I tormented : 
 
 No fortune comes of jugglery. 
 
 The battle's lost, I cannot mend it ; 
 
 Twas they began, and they may end it ; 
 
 My baton I return to thee. 
 EMPEROR. Retain it for the better season 
 
 Which Fortune still to us may send ! 
 
 I dread the customers with reason,
 
 328 FAUST. 
 
 The ravens and their ugly Mend [To MEPHH, 
 As for the baton, thou must leave it , 
 Thou'rt not, methinks, the proper man. 
 Command the fight, canst thou retrieve it I 
 Let happen all that happen can ! 
 
 [Exit into the tent with the GENERAX-IN-CHIBR 
 MBPHIB. The blunt stick still be his protection 1 
 Twould naught avail in our direction ; 
 There was a sort of Cross thereon. 
 FAUST. What's to be done ? 
 
 MEPHIS. The thing is done I " 
 
 Now, my black cousins, speed upon your duties 
 To the mountain-lake ! The Undines, watery beauties, 
 Entreat, the appearance of their floods to spare ! 
 By female arts, beyond our sharpest seeing, 
 They can divide the Appearance from the Being, 
 And all will swear the Being's there ! [Paute. 
 
 FAUST. Our ravens must, with flattery beladen, 
 Have sweetly coaxed each winsome water-maiden; 
 The trickling streams at once descend. 
 The bald and rocky shoulders of the mountains 
 Give birth to full and swiftly-flowing fountains ; 
 Their victory is at an end. 
 
 MEPHIS. To such reception they're not used : 
 The boldest climbers grow confused. , 
 
 FAUST. Now brook roars down to brook with mighty 
 
 bubble ; 
 
 Then from the mouths of glens they issue double, 
 And fling themselves, in arches, o'er the pale ; 
 Then suddenly spread along the rocky level, 
 And to and fro foam onward in their revel, 
 As down a stairway hurled into the vale. 
 What boots their gallant, hero-like resistance ? 
 The billow bursts, and bears them down the distance ; 
 Before such wild uproar even I must quail. 
 
 MEPHIS. Nothing I see of all this moist illusion : 
 To human eyes, alone, it brings confusion, 
 And in the wondrous chance I take delight. 
 They fly in headlong, hurried masses ; 
 That they are drowning, think the asses :
 
 ACT IV. 329 
 
 Though on the solid land, they see an ocean, 
 
 And run absurdly with a swimming motion. 
 
 It is a most bewildering plight. [The Raveiu ,-etur* 
 
 To the high Master will I praise you duly ; 
 
 But would you test yourselves as masters fully, 
 
 Then hasten to that smithy eerie, 
 
 Where the dwarf-people, never weary, 
 
 Hammer the sparks from ore and stone. 
 
 Demand, while there you prate and flatter, 
 
 A fire to shine, and shoot, and scatter, 
 
 As in the highest sense 'tis known. 
 
 "Tis true that distant lightning, quivering far-lignts, 
 
 And falling, quick as wink, of highest star-lights, 
 
 May happen any summer night ; 
 
 But lightning, loose among the tangled bushes, 
 
 And stars that hiss and fizzle in the rushes, 
 
 Are shows that seldom meet the sight. 
 
 Take no great pains, you understand ; 
 
 But first entreat, and then command ! 
 
 [Exeunt the Ravens. All takes place as prescribed, 
 
 Upon the foe falls Night's thick curtain, 
 
 And step and march become uncertain ! 
 
 In every quarter wandering blazes, 
 
 And sudden glare, that blinds and dazes I 
 
 All that seems fine ; yet we should hear. 
 
 Their wild, commingled cries of fear. 
 
 FAUST. The hollow armour from the vaulted chambers 
 
 In the free air its ancient strength remembers : 
 
 It rattles there, and clatters all around, 
 
 A wonderful, a cheating sound. 
 
 MEPHIS. Quite right ! The forms there's no restraining : 
 
 Already knightly whacks are raining, 
 
 As in the splendid times of old. 
 
 The brassarts there, as well as cuisses, 
 
 Are Guelfs and Ghibellines ; and this is 
 
 Renewal of the feud they hold. 
 
 Firm in transmitted hate they anchor, 
 
 And show implacably their rancour : 
 
 Now far and wide the noise hath rolled. 
 
 At last, the Devils find a hearty 
 M
 
 330 FAUST. 
 
 t 
 
 Advantage in the hate of Party, 
 Till dread and ruin end the tale: 
 Repulsive sounds of rage and panic, 
 With others, piercing and Satanic, 
 Resound along the frightened vale ! 
 
 [Warlike tumult in the Orchestra, passing into lively 
 martial measures. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE RIVAL EMPEROR'S TENT. 
 
 THRONE: RICH SURROUNDINGS. 
 
 HAVEQUICK. SPEEDBOOTY. 
 
 SPEEDBOOTY. So, we are here the first, I see! 
 
 HAVEQUICK. No raven flies so swift as we. 
 
 SPEEDBOOTY. O, how the treasure-piles extend! 
 Where shall I once begin? where end? 
 
 HAVEQUICK. But all the space is full ! And now 
 I know not what to take, I vow ! 
 
 SPEEDBOOTY. This carpet is the thing I need! 
 My couch is often hard indeed. 
 
 HAVEQUICK. Here hangs a morning-star, so strong, 
 The like of which I've wanted long. 
 
 SPEEDBOOTY. This crimson mantle, bound with gold, 
 Is like the one my dreams foretold. 
 
 HAVEQUICK (taking the weapon). With this, a man is 
 
 quickly sped ; 
 
 One strikes him dead, and goes ahead. 
 Thou art already laden so, 
 And nothing right thy sack can show. 
 This rubbish, rather, here forsake, 
 And one of yonder caskets take ! 
 The army's modest pay they hold, 
 Their bellies full of purest gold.
 
 ACT IV. 331 
 
 SPEEDBOOTY. O what a murderous weight is there 1 
 I cannot lift it, cannot bear. 
 
 HAVEQUICK. Quick, bend and squat to take the pack 1 
 111 heave it on thy sturdy back. 
 
 SPEEDBOOTY. O me! Alack ! the burden slips : 
 The weight has crushed my back and hips. 
 
 [The chest falls and bursts open, 
 HAVEQUIOK. There lies the red gold in a heap ! 
 Quick, rake and take what thou canst keep ! 
 
 SPEEDBOOTY (crouching down) Quick, let the booty fill my 
 
 lap! 
 Twill still be quite enough, mayhap. 
 
 HAVEQUICK. So! there's enough ! Now haste, and go I 
 
 [She rite*. 
 
 The apron has a hole, ah woe 1 
 Wherever thou dost walk or stand, 
 Thou sowest treasure on the land. 
 
 GUARDSMEN (of our EMPEROR). What seek ye here with 
 
 wanton eyes ? 
 Ye rummage the Imperial prize ! 
 
 HAVEQUICK. We hazarded our limbs for pay, 
 And now we take our share of prey. 
 In hostile tents 'tis always so, 
 And we are soldiers too, you know. 
 
 GUARDSMEJT. Among our troops he comes to grief 
 Who's but a soldier and a thief : 
 Who serves our Emperor fair and free, 
 Let him an honest soldier be ! 
 
 HAVEQUICK. O yes ! such honesty we know : 
 "Pis Contribution, call it so ! 
 In the same mould you all are made : 
 " Give 1 " is the password of your trade. 
 
 (To SPEEDBOOTT). With what thou hast, the coast well 
 
 clear : 
 As guests we are not welcome here. [Exeunt, 
 
 FIRST GUARDSMAN. Why didst thou not at once bestow 
 On the scamp's face a smashing blow 1 
 
 SECOND. I know not, had not strength to strike ; 
 They seemed to me PO phantom-like.
 
 332 FAUST. 
 
 THHLD. Something there was disturbed my sight, 
 A flash : I could not see aright. 
 
 FOUBTH. I, also, can declare it not : 
 The whole day long it was so hot, 
 So sultry, close, and terrible ; 
 One man stood firm, another fell ; 
 We groped and fought, with valour rash, 
 The foemen fell at every slash ; 
 Before one's eyes there was a mist, 
 And something roared, and hummed, and hissed } 
 So to the end, and here are we, 
 And how it happened, cannot see. 
 
 The EMPEBOB enters, accompanied by FOTTB PBINOBS. 
 
 The GUABDSMEN retire. 
 EMPEROB. Now fare he, as he may ! For us is won tht 
 
 battle, 
 
 And o'er the plain the foe have fled like frightened cattle. 
 The traifrons treasure, here, the empty throne, we've 
 
 found, 
 
 That, hung with tapestry, contracts the space around. 
 Enthroned in honour we, true guardsmen us protecting, 
 The people's envoys are imperially expecting. 
 The messengers of joy arrive from every side, 
 And, loyal now to us, the realm is pacified. 
 Though in our fight, perchance, some jugglery was woven, 
 Yet, at the last, our own unaided strength we've proven. 
 True, accidents sometimes for combatants are good ; 
 A stone may fall from heaven, on foes a shower of blood ; 
 From rocky caves may ring tremendous strains of wonder, 
 That lift our hearts with faith, and drive the foe asunder. 
 The Conquered yielded, scourged by Scorn's immortal rod ; 
 The Victor, as he boasts, exalts the favouring God ; 
 And all responsive shout, unordered, unentreated : 
 " We praise Thee, God our Lord ! " from minion throati 
 
 repeated. 
 
 Yet as the highest praise, so rarely else expressed, 
 I turn my pious glance on mine own grateful breast. 
 A young and lively Prince may give his days to pleasure ; 
 Him teach the years, at last, the moments use to measure.
 
 ACT IV. 333 
 
 rherefore, without delay, I call ye, for support, 
 Beside me, worthy Four, in realm and house and court. 
 
 [To the FIRST. 
 
 rhine was, O Prince ! the host's arrangement, wise inspec- 
 tion, 
 
 Then, in the nick of time, heroic, bold direction : 
 Act now in peace, as Time thine offices may show ! 
 Arch-Marshal shalt thou be : the sword I here bestow. 
 ARCH-MARSHAL. Thy faithful host, till now employed for 
 
 civil order, 
 Thee and thy throne secured, shall strengthen next thy 
 
 border : 
 
 Then let us be allowed, when festal throngs are poured 
 Through thine ancestral halls, to dress for thee the board. 
 Before thee brightly borne, and brightly held beside thee, 
 Thy Majesty's support, the sword shall guard and guide 
 
 thee! 
 EMPEROR (to the SECOND). He who as gallant man can 
 
 also gracious be, 
 Thou, be Arch-Chamberlain ! not light the place, for 
 
 thee. 
 
 Thou art the highest now of all the house retainers 
 Whose strife makes service bad, the threateners and con* 
 
 plainers : 
 
 Let thy example be an honoured sign to these, 
 How they the Prince and Court, and all, should seek to 
 
 please ! 
 ARCH-CHAMBERLAIN. To speed thy high design, thy grace 
 
 is fair precursor : 
 
 The Better to assist, and injure not the Worser, 
 Be frank, yet cunning not, and calm without deceit t 
 If thou but read my heart, I'm honoured as is meet. 
 But let my fancy now to festal service hasten ! 
 Thou goest to the board, I bear the golden basin, 
 And hold thy rings for thee, that on such blissful days 
 Thy hands may be refreshed, as I beneath thy gaze. 
 
 EMPEROR. Too serious am I still, to plan such celebration ,- 
 Yet be it so ! We need a glad inauguration. [To the THIRD. 
 I choose thee Arch-High-Stewaid ! Therefore henceforth be 
 Chase, poultry-yard, and manor subject unto thee !
 
 334 FAUST. 
 
 Give me at all times choice of dishes I delight in, 
 As with the month they come, and cooked with appetite in ! 
 AacH-HiGH-SxEWARD. A rigid fast shall be the penalty I 
 
 wish, 
 
 Until before thee stands a goodly-savoured dish. 
 The kitchen-folk shall join, and gladly heed my reasons 
 To bring the distant near and expedite the seasons. 
 Y"e,t rare and early things shall not delight thee long : 
 Thy taste desires, instead, the simple and the strong. 
 
 EMPKBOK (to the FOURTH). Since here, perforce, we plan 
 
 but feasts, and each is sharer, 
 
 Be thou for me transformed, young hero, to Cup-bearer ! 
 Arch Cup-Bearer, take heed, that all those vaults of mine 
 Richly replenished be with noblest taps of wine ! 
 Be temperate thyself, howe'er temptation presses, 
 Nor let occasion's lure mislead thee to excesses ! 
 
 ARCH-CUP-BEARKR. My Prince, the young themselves, if 
 
 trust in them be shown, 
 
 Are, ere one looks around, already men full-grown. 
 I at the lordly feast shall also take my station, 
 And give thy sideboard's pomp the noblest decoration 
 Of gorgeous vessels, golden, silver, grand to see ; 
 Yet first the fairest cup will I select for thee, 
 A clear Venetian glass, good cheer within it waiting, 
 Helping the taste of wine, yet ne'er intoxicating. 
 One oft confides too much on such a treasured store : 
 Thy moderation, though, High Lord, protects thee more. 
 EMPEROR. What, in this earnest hour, for you have I 
 
 intended, 
 
 From valid mouth confidingly you've comprehended. 
 The Emperor's word is great, his gift is therefore sure, 
 But needs, for proper force, his written signature : 
 The high sign-manual fails. Here, for commission needful, 
 I see the right man come, of the right moment heedful 
 
 The ARCHBTSHOP-AROH-CHANCELLOK enters. 
 EMPEROR. If in the keystone of the arch the vault confide, 
 TIB then gecuiely built, for endless time and tide. 
 Thou eest Four Princea here ! To them we've just ex- 
 ixranded,
 
 ACT IV. 335 
 
 How next our House and Court shall be more stably 
 
 founded. 
 
 Now, all the realm contains, within its bounds enclosed 
 Shall be, with weight and power, upon Ye Five imposed ! 
 Your landed wealth shall be before all others splendid ; 
 Therefore at once have I your properties extended 
 From their inheritance, who raised 'gainst us the hand. 
 You I award, ye Faithful, many a lovely land, 
 Together with the right, as you may have occasion, 
 To spread them by exchange, or purchase, or invasion : 
 Then be it clearly fixed, that you unhindered use 
 Whate'er prerogatives have been the landlord's dues. 
 When ye, as Judges, have the final sentence spoken, 
 By no appeal from your high Court shall it be broken : 
 Then levies, tax and rent, pass-money, tolls and fees 
 Are yours, of mines and salt and coin the royalties. 
 That thus my gratitude may validly be stated, 
 You next to Majesty hereby I've elevated. 
 
 ARCHBISHOP. In deepest thanks to thee we humbly all 
 
 unite: 
 
 Thou mak'st us strong and sure, and strengthenest thy 
 might. 
 
 EMPEROR. Yet higher dignities I give for your fulfilling 
 Still for my realm I live, and still to live am willing ; 
 Yet old ancestral lines compel the prudent mind 
 To look from present deeds to that which looms behind. 
 I, also, in my time, must meet the sure Redresser ; 
 Your duty be it, then, to choose me a successor. 
 Crowned, at the altar raise his consecrated form, 
 That so may end in peace what here began in storm! 
 
 ARCH-CHANCELLOR. With pride profound, yet humbly, 
 
 as our guise evinces, 
 
 Behold, before thee bowed, the first of earthly princes ! 
 So long the faithful blood our living veins shall fill, 
 We are the body which obeys thy lightest will. 
 
 EMPEROR. Now, to conclude, let all that we have here 
 
 Be, for the future time, to document converted! 
 'Tis true that ye, as lords, have your possession free, 
 With this condition, though, that it unparcelled be ;
 
 536 PAU8T. 
 
 And what ye have from us, howe'er ye swell the treasure, 
 Shall to the eldest son descend in equal measure. 
 
 ABCH-CHANCELLOR. On parchment I, at once, shall gladly 
 
 tabulate, 
 
 To bless the realm and us, the statute of such weight : 
 The copy and the seals the Chancery shall procure us, 
 Thy sacred hand shall then validity assure us. 
 
 EMPBROK. Dismissal now I grant, that you, assembled 
 
 may. 
 Deliberate upon the great, important day. 
 
 [The Secular Princes retire. 
 
 ARCHBISHOP (remains and speaks pathetically}. The Chan^ 
 
 cellor withdrew, the Bishop stands before thee : 
 A warning spirit bids that straightway he implore thee ! 
 His heart paternal quakes with anxious fear for thee. 
 
 EMFBROR. In this glad hour what may thy dread mis- 
 giving be 1 
 
 ABCHBISHOP. Alas, in such an hour, how much my pain 
 
 must greaten, 
 
 To find thy hallowed head in covenant with Satan ! 
 True, to the throne, it seems, hast thou secured thy right ; 
 But, woe ! in God the Lord's, the Holy Pontiff's spite. 
 Swift shall he punish when he learns the truth the latter : 
 Thy sinful realm at once with holy ban hell shatter ! 
 He still remembers how, amid thy highest state, 
 When newly crowned, thou didst the wizard liberate. 
 Thy diadem but made thy heart for Christians harden, 
 For on that head accurst fell its first beam of pardon. 
 Now beat thy breast, and from thy guilty stores, this day, 
 Unto the Sanctuary a moderate mite repay ! 
 The spacious sweep of hills, where stood thy tent erected, 
 Where Evil Spirits then, united, thee protected, 
 Where late the Liar-Prince thy hearing did secure, 
 Devote thou, meekly taught, to pious use and pure, 
 With hill and forest dense, far as they stretch extended, 
 And slopes that greenly swell for pastures never ended, 
 Then crystal lakes of fish, unnumbered brooks that flow 
 In foamy windings down, and braid the vale below ; 
 The broad vale then, itself, with mead, and lawn, and hollow ! 
 Thus penitence is shown, and pardon soon shall follow
 
 ACT IT. 537 
 
 EMPEROR. For this, my heavy sin, my terror ia profound : 
 By thine own measure shalt thou draw the borders round. 
 ARCHBISHOP. First be the spot profane, where sin wv 
 
 perpetrated, 
 
 To God's high service soon and wholly dedicated ! 
 With speed the walls arise to meet the mind's desire ; 
 The rising morning sun already lights the choir j 
 The growing structure spreads, the transept stands exalted ; 
 Joy of Believers, then, the nave is lifted, vaulted ; 
 And while they press with zeal within the portals grand, 
 The first clear call of bells is swept across the land, 
 Pealed from the lofty towers that heavenwards have striven : 
 The penitent draws near, new life to him is given. 
 The consecration-day 0, may it soon be sent ! 
 Thy presence then shall be the highest ornament 
 
 EMPEROR. So great a work shall be my pious proclama- 
 tion 
 
 To praise the Lord our God, and work mine expiation. 
 Enough ! I feel, e'en now, how high my thoughts aspire. 
 ARCHBISHOP. As Chancellor, next, the formal treaty I 
 
 require. 
 EMPEROR. A formal document, the Church needs full 
 
 requital: 
 Bring it to me, and I with joy will sign her title ! 
 
 ARCHBISHOP (has taken leave, but twrns back again at the 
 door). At once unto the work devote, that it may 
 stand, 
 
 Tithes, levies, tax, the total income of the land, 
 For ever. Much it needs, to be supported fairly, 
 And careful maintenance will also cost us rarely : 
 And, that it soon be built, on such a lonesome wold, 
 Thou'lt from thy booty spare to us some little gold. 
 Moreover, we shall want here, most, we claim assistance 
 Lumber, and lime, and slate, and such like, from a distance. 
 The people these shall haul, thus from the pulpit taught ; 
 The Church shall bless the man, whose team for her has 
 wrought. \. Ey *- 
 
 EMPEROR. The sin fe very sore, wherewith my soul u 
 
 weighted : 
 Much damage unto me the Sorcerers have created. 
 
 M3
 
 588 FAUST. 
 
 ARCH BISHOP (returning once again, with profoundest gtnufln* 
 tions). Pardon, Prince ! to him, that vile notorious 
 man, 
 
 The Empire's coast was given ; but him shall smite the ban, 
 Unless thy penitence the Church's wrath relaxes 
 There, too, with tithes and gifts, and revenues and taxes. 
 EMPEROR (ill-humouredly}. The hind doth not exist : far in 
 
 the sea it lies. 
 ARCHBISHOP. Who patient is, and right, his day shall yet 
 
 arise, 
 four word for tis remains, and makes secure our trover ! 
 
 [Exit. 
 
 EMPXROR (solus). I might as well, at last, make all the 
 Empire over !
 
 ACT V. 
 
 ACT V. 
 
 OPEN COUNTRY. 
 
 WANDERER. Yes! 'tis they, the dusky lindens; 
 There they stand in sturdy age : 
 And again shall I behold them, 
 After such a pilgrimage? 
 'Tis the ancient place, the drifted 
 Downs, the hut that sheltered me, 
 When the billow, storm-uplifted, 
 Hurled me shoreward from the sea! 
 Here with blessing would I greet them, 
 They, my hosts, the helpful pair, 
 Old, indeed, if now I meet them, 
 Since they then had hoary hair, 
 Pious folk, from whom I parted! 
 Be my greeting here renewed, 
 If ye still, as open-hearted, 
 Taste the bliss of doing good! 
 
 BAUCIS (a little woman, very old). Gently, stranger! lest 
 
 thou cumber 
 
 Rest, whereof my spouse hath need ! 
 He but gains from longest slumber 
 Strength for briefest waking deed. 
 
 WANDERER. Tell me, mother, art thou even 
 She, to whom my thanks I bear, 
 I, the youth, whose life was given 
 By your kind, united care?
 
 340 FAUST. 
 
 Art thou Baucis, who the coldly 
 Fading mouth refreshment gave? 
 
 [The Husband appear* 
 Thou, Philemon, who BO boldly 
 Drew my treasure from the wave 1 
 From your fire, so quickly burning, 
 From your silver-sounding bell, 
 Changed my doom, to fortune turning, 
 When the dread adventure felL 
 Forth upon the sand-hills stealing, 
 Let me view the boundless sea ! 
 Let me pray, devoutly kneeling, 
 Till my burdened heart be free ! 
 
 [He walks forward upon the down*. 
 
 PHILEMON (to BAUCIS). Haste, and let the meal be dighted 
 'Neath the garden's blooming trees ! 
 Let him go, and be affrighted ! 
 He'll believe not what he sees. 
 
 [Follows, and stands beside the WAKDI 
 Where the savage waves maltreated 
 You, on shores of breaking foam, 
 See, a garden lies completed, 
 Like an Eden-dream of home 1 
 Old was I, no longer eager, 
 Helpful, as the younger are : 
 And when I had lost my vigour, 
 Also was the wave afar. 
 Wise lords set their serfs in motion, 
 Dikes upraised and ditches led, 
 Minishing the rights of Ocean, 
 Lords to be in Ocean's stead. 
 See the green of many a meadow, 
 Field and garden, wood and town t 
 Come, our table waits in shadow ! 
 For the sun is going down. 
 Sails afar are gliding yonder ; 
 Nightly to the port they fare : 
 To their nest the sea-birds wander 
 For a harbour waits them there. 
 Distant now, thou hardly seest
 
 ACT V. 341 
 
 Where the Sea's blue arc is spanned, 
 Right and left, the broadest, freest 
 Stretch of thickly-peopled land. 
 
 II. 
 
 IN THE LITTLE GARDEN. 
 THE THREE AT THE TABLE. 
 
 BAUCIS (to the Stranger). Art thou dumb 1 Of all we've 
 brought here, 
 
 In thy mouth shall nothing fall ? 
 PHILEMON. He would know the marvel wrought here : 
 
 Fain thou speakest : tell him all ! 
 BAUCIS. 'Twas a marvel, if there's any ! 
 
 And the thought disturbs me still : 
 
 In a business so uncanny 
 
 Surely helped the Powers of HL 
 PHILEMON. Can the Emperor's soul be perilled, 
 
 Who on him the strand bestowed ? 
 
 Gave the mandate not the herald, 
 
 Trumpeting, as on he rode 1 
 
 Near our downs, all unexpected, 
 
 Was the work's beginning seen, 
 
 Tents and huts ! but soon erected, 
 
 Rose a palace o'er the green. 
 BAUCIS. Knaves in vain by day were storming, 
 
 Plying pick and spade alike ; 
 
 Where the fires at night were swarming, 
 
 Stood, the following day, a dike. 
 
 Nightly rose the sounds of sorrow, 
 
 Human victims there must bleed : 
 
 Lines of torches, on the morrow, 
 
 Were canals that seaward lead. 
 
 He would seize our field of labour,
 
 342 
 
 Hut and garden, godlessly : 
 
 Since he lords it as our neighbour, 
 
 We to him must subject be. 
 
 PHILEMON. Yet he bids, in compensation, 
 Fair estate of newer land. 
 
 BAUCIS. Trust not watery foundation ! 
 Keep upon the hill thy stand ! 
 
 PHTLBMON. Let us, to the chapel straying, 
 Ere the sunset-glow has died, 
 Chime the vespers, kneel, and, praying, 
 Still in our old God confide ! 
 
 m. 
 
 PALACE. 
 
 SPACIOUS PLEArtURK-GABDEN : BROAD, RTRAIGHTLY-CUT 
 CAN AX. 
 
 FAUST (in extreme old age, walking about, meditative). 
 
 LYJTCEUS, THB WARDER (through the speaJring^rumpet), 
 
 The sun goes down, the ships are veering 
 
 To reach the port, with song and cheer : 
 
 A heavy galley, now appearing 
 
 On the canal, will soon be here. 
 
 The gaudy pennons merrily flutter, 
 
 The masts and rigging upward climb : 
 
 Blessings on thee the seamen utter, 
 
 And forlwne greets thee at thy prime. 
 
 [The. Httle bell rings on the down* 
 FACST (starting). Accursed chime ! As in derision 
 
 It wounds me, like a spiteful shot : 
 
 My realm ia boundless to my vision, 
 
 Yet at my back this vexing blot ! 
 
 'Hje bell proclaims, with envious bluster,
 
 ACT r. 348 
 
 My grand estate lacks full design : 
 The brown old hut, the linden-cluste^ 
 The crumbling chapel, are not mine. 
 If there I wished for recreation, 
 Another's shade would give no cheer I 
 A thorn it is, a sharp vexation, 
 Would I were far away from here ! 
 WARDER (from above). With evening wind and favouring 
 
 tide, 
 
 See the gay galley hither glide 1 
 How richly, on its rapid track, 
 Tower chest and casket, bale and sack ! 
 
 [A splendid Galley, richly and brilliantly laden with 
 the productions of foreign Countries. 
 
 MEPHISTOPHELES. THE THREE MIGHTY MBIT. 
 
 OHOBU& Here we have landed : 
 Furl the sail ! 
 Hail to the Master, 
 Patron, hail 1 
 
 [They disembark : the goods are brought ashore. 
 MRPHIS. We've proved our worth in mauy ways 
 
 Delighted, if the Patron praise ! 
 
 We sailed away with vessels twain, 
 
 With twenty come to port again. 86 
 
 Of great successes to relate, 
 
 We only need to show our freight 
 
 Free is the mind on Ocean free : 
 
 Who there can ponder sluggishly ? 
 
 You only need a rapid grip : 
 
 You catch a fish, you seize a ship ; 
 
 And when you once are lord of three, 
 
 The fourth is grappled easily ; 
 
 The fifth \s then in evil plight ; 
 
 You have the Power, and thus the Right 
 
 You count the PVhat, and not the How : 
 
 If I hav ever navigated, 
 
 War, Trade and Piracy, I vow, 
 
 Are three in one, and can't be separated !
 
 544 FAUST. 
 
 THE THREE MIGHTY MEN. No thank and hail 
 
 No hail and thank ? 
 
 AB if our freight 
 
 To him were rank I 
 
 He makes a face 
 
 Of great disgust ; 
 
 The royal wealth 
 
 Displease him must 
 MEPHIS. Expect no further 
 
 Any pay; 
 
 Your own good sharo 
 
 Ye took away. 
 THIS MIGHTY MEN. We only took it 
 
 For pastime fail ; 
 
 We all demand 
 
 An equal share. 
 MEPHIS. First, arrange them 
 
 In hall on hall, 
 
 The precious treasurea 
 
 Together all ! 
 
 If such a splendour 
 
 Meets his ken, 
 
 And he regards it 
 
 More closely then, 
 
 A niggard he 
 
 Won't be, at least : 
 
 He'll give our squadron 
 
 Feast on feast. 
 
 To-morrow the gay birds hither wend, 
 
 And I can best to them attend, 
 
 [The cargo is removed. 
 MEPHIS. (to FAUST). With gloomy gaze, with seriou* 
 
 brow, 
 
 Of this great fortune hearest thou. 
 Crowned is thy wisest industry, 
 And reconciled are shore and sea ; 
 And from the shore, to swifter wakes, 
 The willing sea the vessels takes. 
 Speak, then, that here, from thy proud seat 
 Thine arm may clasp the world complete.
 
 ACT 7. 344 
 
 Here, on this spot, the work was planned ; 
 
 Here did the first rough cabin stand ; 
 
 A little ditch was traced, a groove, 
 
 Where now the feathered oar-blades move. 
 
 Thy high intent, thy servants' toil, 
 
 From land and sea have won the spoil. 
 
 From here 
 FAUST. Still that accursed Here I 
 
 To me a burden most severe. 
 
 To thee, so clever, I declare it, 
 
 It gives my very heart a sting ; 
 
 It is impossible to bear it ! 
 
 Yet shamed am I, to say the thing. 
 
 The old ones, there, should make concession 
 
 A shady seat would I create : 
 
 The lindens, not my own possession, 
 
 Disturb my joy in mine estate. 
 
 There would I, for a view unbaffled, 
 
 From bough to bough erect a scaffold, 
 
 Till for my gaze a look be won 
 
 O'er everything that I have done, 
 
 To see before me, unconfined, 
 
 The masterpiece of human mind, 
 
 Wisely asserting to my sense 
 
 The people's gain of residence. 
 
 No sorer plague can us attack, 
 
 Than rich to be, and something hick J 
 
 The chiming bell, the lindens' breath, 
 
 Oppress like air in vaults of death : 
 
 My force of will, my potence grand, 
 
 Is shattered here upon the sand. 
 
 How shall I ban it from my feeling 1 
 
 I rave whene'er the bell is pealing. 
 MEPHIS. Tis natural that so great a spite 
 
 Thy life should thus imbitter quite. 
 
 Who doubts it ? Every noble ear, 
 
 Disgusted, must the jangle hear ; 
 
 And that accursed bim-bam-booming, 
 
 Through the clear sky of evening glooming 
 
 Is mixed with each event that passes.
 
 346 FAUST. 
 
 From baby's bath to burial -masses, 
 As if, between its bam and him, 
 Life were a dream, in memory dim. 
 FAUST. Their obstinate, opposing strain 
 Darkens the brightest solid gain, 
 Till one, in plague and worry thrust 
 Grows tired, at last, of being just. 
 MEPHIS. Why be annoyed, when thou canst well 
 
 despise them? 
 Wouldst thou not long since colonize them ? 
 
 FAUST. Then go, and clear them out with speed 1 
 Thou knowest the fair estate, indeed, 
 I chose for the old people's need. 
 
 MEPHIS. Well set them down on other hind ; 
 Ere you can look, again they'll stand : 
 When they've the violence outgrown, 
 Their pleasant dwelling shall atone. [.Efc whistle* shrilly. 
 
 THE THREE enter. 
 
 MEPHIS. Come, as the Master bids, and let 
 The fleet a feast to-morrow get ! 
 
 THK THREE. Reception bad the old Master gave : 
 A jolly feast is what we crave. 
 
 MEPHIS. (ad spectator es}. It happens as it happed of old: 
 Still Naboth's vineyard we behold ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 DEAD OF NIGHT. 
 
 LYWCIXJS, THE WAKIJKK, (singing on the ivatch-tower of the 
 Palace). 
 
 For seeing intended, 
 Employed for my sight. 
 The tower's my dwelling, 
 The world my delight
 
 ACT r. *4T 
 
 I gaze on the Distant, 
 
 I look on the Near, 
 
 The moon and the planets 
 
 The forest and deer. 
 
 So see I in all things 
 
 The grace without end, 
 
 And even as they please rad, 
 
 Myself 1 commend. 
 
 Thou fortunate Vision, 
 
 Of all thou wast 'ware, 
 
 Whatever it might be, 
 
 Yet still it was fair ! [Potwa 
 
 Not alone that I delight me, 
 
 Have I here been stationed so : 
 
 What a horror comes, to fright me, 
 
 From the darksome world below 1 
 
 Sparks of fire I see outgushing 
 
 Through the night of linden-trees 5 
 
 Stronger yet the glow is flushing, 
 
 Fanned to fury by the breeze. 
 
 Ah ! the cabin burns, unheeded, 
 
 Damp and mossy though it stand : 
 
 Quick assistance here is needed, 
 
 And no rescue is at hand 1 
 
 Ah, the good old father, mother, 
 
 Else so careful of the fire, 
 
 Doomed amid the smoke to smother ) 
 
 The catastrophe how dire ! 
 
 Now the blackening pile stands lonely 
 
 In the flames that redly swell : 
 
 If the good old folk be only 
 
 Rescued from the burning hell ! 
 
 Dazzling tongues the crater launches 
 
 Through the leaves and through the brancnna ; 
 
 Withered boughs, at last ignited, 
 
 Break, in burning, from the tree : 
 
 Why must I be thus far-sighted t 
 
 Witness such calamity ? 
 
 Now the little chapel crashes 
 
 *Neath a branch's falling blow :
 
 548 FAUST. 
 
 Soon the climbing, spiry flashes 
 Set the tree -tops in a glow. 
 Down to where the trunks are planted 
 Bum they like a crimson dawn. [Long pauM. Oka**. 
 What erewhile the eye enchanted 
 With the centuries is gone. 
 FAUST (on the balcony towards the down*). Above, what 
 
 whining lamentation ? 
 The word, the tone, too late I heed. 
 My warder wails : I feel vexation 
 At heart, for this impatient deed. 
 Yet be the lindens extirpated, 
 Till half-charred trunks the spot deface, 
 A look-in-the-land is soon created, 
 Whence I can view the boundless space. 
 Thence shall I see the newer dwelling 
 Which for the ancient pair I raise, 
 Who, my benign forbearance feeling, 
 Shall there enjoy their latter days. 
 
 MBPHIS. AND THE THBBE (below). We hither come upow 
 the run ! 
 
 Forgive ! not happily 'twas done. 87 
 
 We knocked and beat, but none replied, 
 
 And entrance ever was denied ; 
 
 Of jolts and blows we gave good store, 
 
 And broken lay the rotten door ; 
 
 We called aloud, with direst threat, 
 
 But still no hearing could we get. 
 
 And, as it haps, with such a deed, 
 
 They would not hear, they would not heed ; 
 
 But we began, without delay, 
 
 To drive the stubborn folks away. 
 
 The pair had then an easy lot : 
 
 They fell, and died upon the spot. 
 
 A stranger, who was there concealed, 
 
 And fought, was left upon the field ; 
 
 But in the combat, fierce and fast, 
 
 From coals, that round about were cast, 
 
 The straw took fire. Now merrily 
 
 One funeral pile consumes the three.
 
 ACT V. 349 
 
 FAUST. Deaf unto my commands were ye I 
 
 Exchange I meant, not robbery. 
 
 The inconsiderate, savage blow 
 
 I curse ! Bear ye the guilt, and go 1 
 CHORUS. The proverb old still runs its course : 
 
 Bend willingly to greater force ! 
 
 If you are bold, and face the strife, 
 
 Stake house and home, and then your life ! 
 
 [Exeunt. 
 
 FAUST (on the balcony). The stars conceal their glance and 
 glow, 
 
 The fire sinks down, and nickers low ; 
 
 A damp wind fans it with its wings, 
 
 And smoke and vapour hither brings. 
 
 Quick bidden, and too quick obeyed 1 
 
 What hovers hither like a shade ? 
 
 V. 
 
 MIDNIGHT. 
 
 Four Gray Women enter. 
 
 FIRST. My name, it is Want. 
 
 SECOND. And mine, it is Guilt 
 
 THIRD. And mine, it is Care. 
 
 FOURTH. Necessity, mine. 88 
 
 THREE TOGETHER. The portal is bolted, we cannot get in : 
 The owner is rich, we've no business within. 
 
 WANT. I shrink to a shadow. 
 
 GUH.T. I shrink unto naught 
 
 NECESSITY. The pampered from me turn the face and th< 
 thought 
 
 CARE. Ye sisters, ye neither can enter, nor dare ; 
 But the keyhole is free to the entrance of Care. 
 
 [CARE dis*pj*ars
 
 850 FA08T. 
 
 WAMT. Ye, grisly old Sisters, be banished from here 1 
 
 GTTILT. Beside thee, and bound to thee, I shall appear ! 
 
 NECESSITY. At your heels goes Necessity, blight in hex 
 breath. 
 
 THE THREE. The clouds are in motion, and cover each 
 
 star ! 
 Behind there, behind ! from afar, from afar, 
 
 He cometh, our Brother 1 he comes, he is 
 
 Death 1 
 
 FAUST (in the Palace). Four saw I come, but those that 
 
 went were three ; 
 
 The sense of what they said was hid from me, 
 But something like " Necessity " I heard ; 
 Thereafter, " Death," a gloomy, threatening word J 
 It sounded hollow, spectrally subdued : 
 Not yet have I my liberty made good : 
 If I could banish Magic's fell creations, 
 And totally unlearn the incantations, 
 Stood I, O Nature ! Man alone in thee, 
 Then were it worth one's while a man to be J 
 Ere in the Obscure I sought it, such was I, 
 Ere I had cursed the world so wickedly. 
 Now fills the air so many a haunting shape, 
 That no one knows how best he may escape. 
 What though One Day with rational brightness beams. 
 The Night entangles us in webs of dreams. 
 From our young fields of life we come, elate : 
 There croaks a bird : what croaks he ? Evil fate 1 
 By Superstition constantly insnared, 
 It grows to us, and warns, and is declared. 
 Intimidated thus, we stand alone. 
 
 The portal jars, yet entrance is there none. [Agitated. 
 
 Is any one here? 
 
 CAKE. Yes ! must be my reply. . 
 
 FAUST. And thou, who art thou, then? 
 
 CAKE. Well, here am I. 
 
 FAUST. A vaunt! 
 
 CAKE. I am where I should be. 
 
 FAUST (first angry, ther, composed, addressing hvmtelf). Take 
 care, and speak no word of sorcery !
 
 ACT V. 351 
 
 CABK. Though no ear should choose to hear m*. 
 
 Yet the shrinking heart must fear me ; 
 
 Though transformed to mortal eyes, 
 
 Grimmest power I exercise. 
 
 On the land, or ocean yonder, 
 
 I, a dread companion, wander, 
 
 Always found, yet never sought, 
 
 Praised or cursed, as I have wrought i 
 Hast thou not Care already known ? 
 
 FAUST. I only through the world have flown : 
 "Each appetite I seized as by the hair ; 
 What not sufficed me, forth I let it fare, 
 And what escaped me, I let go. 
 I've only craved, accomplished my delight, 
 Then wished a second time, and thus with might 
 Stormed through my life : at first 'twas grand, completely 
 But now it moves most wisely and discreetly. 
 The sphere of Earth is known enough to me ; 
 The view beyond is barred immutably : 
 A fool, who there his blinking eyes directeth, 
 And o'er his clouds of peers a place expecteth ! 
 Firm let him stand, and look around him well I 
 This World means something to the Capable. 
 Why needs he through Eternity to wend 1 
 He here acquires what he can apprehend. 
 Thus let him wander down his earthly day ; 
 When spirits haunt, go quietly his way ; 
 In marching onwards, bliss and torment find, 
 Though, every moment, with unsated mind ! 
 OJUUE. Whom I once possess, shall never 
 
 Find the world worth his endeavour: 
 
 Endless gloom around him folding, 
 
 Eise nor set of sun beholding, 
 
 Perfect in external senses, 
 
 Inwardly his darkness dense is ; 
 
 And he knows not how to me 
 
 True possession of his treasure. 
 
 Luck and 111 become caprices ; 
 
 Still he starves in all increases ; 
 
 Be it happiness or sorrow,
 
 302 FAUSt. 
 
 He postpones it till the morrow ; 
 To the Future only cleaveth : 
 Nothing, therefore, he achieveth. 
 FATTST. Desist ! So shalt thou not get hold of me i 
 I have no mind to hear such drivel. 
 Depart ! Thy gloomy litany 
 Might even befool the wisest man to eviL 
 
 CARE. Shall he go, or come? how guide him I 
 Prompt decision is denied hi ; 
 Midway on the trodden highway 
 Halting, he attempts a by-way ; 
 Ever more astray, bemisted, 
 Everything beholding twisted, 
 Burdening himself and others, 
 Taking breath, he chokes and smothers^ 
 Though not choked, in Life not sharing^ 
 Not resigned, and not despairing ! 
 Such incessant rolling, spinning, 
 Painful Quitting, hard beginning, 
 Now constraint, now liberation, 
 Semi-sleep, poor recreation, 
 Firmly in nis place insnare him 
 And, at hist, for Hell prepare him ! 
 FATTST. Ill-omened spectres ! By your treatment strays 
 A. thousand times the human race to error : 
 Ye even transform the dull, indifferent days 
 To vile confusion of entangling terror. 
 Tifl hard, I know, from Daemons to escape ; 
 The spirit's bond breaks not, howe'er one tries it; 
 And yet, Care, thy power, thy creeping shape, 
 Think not that I shall recognise it ! 
 
 GAKK. So feel it now : my curse thoult find, 
 When forth from thee I've swiftly passed ! 
 Throughout their whole existence men are blind 
 So, Faust, be thou like them at last ! 
 
 [She breathes in Mi face. 
 FAUST (blinded). The Night seems deeper now to preai 
 
 around me, 
 
 But in my inmost spirit all is light ; 
 I rest not till the finished work hath crowned me
 
 ACT P. 363 
 
 God's Word alone confers on me the might. 
 
 Up from your couches, vassals, man by man ! 
 
 Make grandly visible my daring plan ! 
 
 Seize now your tools, with spade and shovel press I 
 
 The work traced out must be a swift success. 
 
 Quick diligence, severest ordering 
 
 The most superb reward shall bring ; 
 
 And, that the mighty work completed stands, 
 
 One mind suffices for a thousand hands. 
 
 VI. 
 
 GREAT OUTER COURT OF THE PALACE, 
 
 Torches. 
 
 MEPHTS. (in advance, as Overseer). Come here, come here 
 
 Come on, come on ! 
 Ye Lemures, loose-hung creatures ! 
 Of sinew, ligament, and bone 
 Your knitted semi-natures ! 
 
 LEMURES (in Chorus). Without delay are we at hand, 
 And half 'tis our impression 
 That this concerns a spacious land, 
 Whereof we'll have possession. 
 The pointed stakes, we bring them all, 
 The measuring-chain, for distance ; 
 But we've forgotten why the call 
 Was made for our assistance. 
 
 MEPHIS. Here is no need of your artistic zeal : 
 Proceed as you may think it best ! 
 Your tallest lay full length, from head to heel, 
 And lift the turt around him, all the rest ! 
 As for our fathers made, prepare 
 To excavate a lengthened square ! 
 From palace to the narrow house transferred, 
 Such is, at last, the issue most absurd.
 
 554 FAUST. 
 
 LBMUKM* (digging with mocking gestures). In youth when 
 
 I did love, did love, 
 Methought it was very sweet ; 
 When 'twas jolly and merry every way, 
 And I blithely moved my feet 
 
 But now old Age, with his stealing steps, 
 Hath clawed me with his crutch : 
 I stumbled over the door of a grave ; 
 Why leave they open such ? 
 
 FAUST (comes forth from the Palace, groping his way along 
 the doorposts). How I rejoice, to hear the clattering 
 spade! 
 
 It is the crowd, for me in service moiling, 
 Till Earth be reconciled to toiling, 
 Till the proud waves be stayed, 
 And the sea girded with a rigid zone. 
 MEPHIS. (aside). And yet, thou'rt labouring for ne alone, 
 With all thy dikes and bulwarks daring ; 
 Since thou for Neptune art preparing 
 The Ocean-Devil carousal great. 
 In every way shall ye be stranded } 
 The elements with us are banded, 
 And ruin is the certain fate. 
 FAUST. Overseer ! 
 MEPHIS. Here ! 
 
 FAUST. However possibly 
 
 Collect a crowd of men with vigour, 
 Spur by indulgence, praise, or rigour, 
 Reward, allure, conscript, compel ! 
 Each day report me, and correctly note 
 How grows in length the undertaken moat. 
 MBPHIS. (half aloud). When they to me the inforraatio 
 
 gave, 
 
 They spake not of a moat, but of o grave.** 
 FAUST. Below the hills a marshy plain 
 
 Infects what I so long have been retrieving ; 
 This stagnant pool likewise to drain 
 Were now my latest and my beat achieving 
 To many millions let me furnish soil,
 
 ACT V. 356 
 
 Though not secure, yet free to active toil ; 
 
 Green, fertile fields, where men and herds go forth 
 
 At once, with comfort, on the newest Earth, 
 
 And swiftly settled on the hill's firm base, 
 
 Created by the bold, industrious race. 
 
 A land like Paradise here, round about : 
 
 Up to the brink the tide may roar without, 
 
 And though it gnaw, to burst with force the limit, 
 
 By common impulse all unite to hem it. 
 
 Yes I to this thought I hold with firm persistence ; 
 
 The last result of wisdom stamps it true : 
 
 He only earns his freedom and existence, 
 
 Who daily conquers them anew. 
 
 Thus here, by dangers girt, shall glide away 
 
 Of childhood, manhood, age, the vigorous day : 
 
 And such a throng I fain would see, 
 
 Stand on free soil among a people free I 
 
 Then dared I hail the Moment fleeing : 
 
 " Ah, still delay thou art so fair ! " 
 
 The traces cannot, of mine earthly being, 
 
 In ons perish, they are there ! 
 
 In proud fore-feeling of such lofty bliss, 
 
 I now enjoy the highest Moment, this ' 
 
 [FAUST sinks back : the LEMUKES take him and lay 
 
 him upon the ground, 
 MEPHIS. No joy could sate him, and suffice no bliss ! 
 
 To catch but shifting shapes was his endeavour : 
 
 The latest, poorest, emptiest Moment this, 
 
 He wished to hold it fast for ever. 
 
 Me he resisted in such vigorous wise, 
 
 But Time is lord, on earth the old man lies. 
 
 The clock stands still 
 CHOBTTS. Stands still ! silent as midnight, now I 
 
 The index falls. 
 
 MEPHIS. It falls ; and it is finished, here I 
 
 CHOKUS. 'Tis past ! 
 MEPHIS. Past ! stupid word. 
 
 If past, then why ? 
 
 Past and pure Naught, complete monotony ! 
 
 What good for us, this endlessly creating 1
 
 356 FAUST. 
 
 What is created then annihilating ? 
 
 " And now tfs past 1 " Why read a page so twisted 1 
 
 Tis just the same as if it ne'er existed, 
 
 Yet goes in circles round as if it had, however : 
 
 I'd rather choose, instead, the Void for ever. 
 
 SEPULTURE. 
 
 Solo. Who then hath built the house BO ill, 
 With shovel and with spade ? 
 
 LEMURES. Chorus. For thee, dull guest, in hempen vest, 
 It all too well was made. 
 
 LEMUR. Solo. Who then so ill hath decked the hall ? 
 No chairs, nor table any ! 
 
 LEMURES. Chorus. 'Twas borrowed to return at call : 
 The creditors are so many. 
 
 MEPHIS. The Body lies, and if the Spirit flee, 
 I'll show it speedily my blood-signed title. 
 But, ah ! they've found such methods of requital, 
 His souls the Devil must oft abstracted see ! 
 One now offends, the ancient way ; 
 Upon the new we're not yet recommended : 
 Once, I alone secured my prey, 
 But now by helpers need to be befriended. 
 In all things we must feel the spite ! 
 Transmitted custom, ancient right, 
 Nothing, indeed, can longer one confide in. 
 Once with the last breath left the soul her house ; 
 I kept good watch, and like the nimblest mouse, 
 Whack ! was she caught, and fast my claws her hide fca 
 Now she delays, and is not fain to quit 
 The dismal place, the corpse's hideous mansion ; 
 The elements, in hostile, fierce expansion, 
 Drive her v at last, disgracefully from it 
 And though I fret and worry till I'm weary, 
 When .' How t and Where ? remains the fatal query : 
 Old Death is now no longer swift and strong ; 
 Even the WTiether has been doubtful long. 
 Oft I beheld with lust the rigid members :
 
 ACT V. 357 
 
 Twas only sham ; Life kindled from its embers. 
 
 [Fantastic, whirling gesture! of wnywratw 
 Come on ! Strike up the double quick, anew, 
 With, straight or crooked horns, ye gentlemen infernal ! 
 Of the old Devil-grit and kernel, 
 And bring at once the Jaws of Hell with you I 
 Hell hath a multitude of jaws, in short, 91 
 To use as suiteth place and dignity ; 
 But we, however, in this final sport, 
 Will henceforth less considerate be. 
 
 [The fearful Jaws of HeU open, on the left. 
 The side-tusks yawn : then from the throat abysmal 
 The raging, fiery torrents flow, 
 And in the vapours of the background dismal 
 I see the city flame in endless glow. 
 Up to the teeth the breakers lash the red arena ; 
 The Damned, in hope of help, are swimming through ; 
 But, caught and mangled by the fell hyena, 
 Their path of fiery torment they renew. 
 In every nook new horrors flash and brighten, 
 In narrow space so much of dread supreme ! 
 Well have you done, the sinners thus to frighten ; 
 But still they'll think it lie, and cheat, and dream ! 
 
 [To the stout Devils, with short, straight horm. 
 Now, paunchy scamps, with cheeks so redly burning ! 
 Ye glow, so fat with hellish sulphur fed ; 
 With necks thick-set and stumpy, never turning, 
 Watch here below, if phosphor-light be shed : 
 It is the Soul, the winged Psyche is it ; 
 Pluck off the wings, 'tis but a hideous worm : 
 First with my stamp and seal the thing I'll visit, 
 Then fling it to the whirling, fiery storm I 
 The lower parts be well inspected, 
 Ye Bloats ! perform your duty well : 
 If there the Soul her seat selected 
 We cannot yet exactly tell 
 Oft in the navel doth she stay : 
 Look out for that, she thence may slip away ! 
 
 [To the lean Devils, with long, (rooked horni 
 Ye lean buffoons, file-leaders strange and giant,
 
 568 fAUST. 
 
 Grasp In the air, yourselves no respite give ! 
 Strong in the arms, with talons sharp and pliant, 
 That ye may seize the fluttering fugitive 1 
 In her old home discomforted she lies, 
 And Genius, surely, seeks at once to rise. 
 
 [Glory from above, on the right 
 THE HEAVENLY HOST. Envoys, unhindered 
 Heavenly kindred, 
 Follow us here ! 
 Sinners forgiving, 
 Dust to make living I 
 Lovingest features 
 Unto all creatures 
 Show in your swaying, 
 Delaying career ! 
 
 MEPHIB, Discords I hear, a harsh, disgusting strumming, 
 ' Flung from above with the unwelcome Day ; 
 Tis that emasculate and bungled humming 
 Which Pious Cant delights in, every way. 
 You know how we, atrociously contented, 
 Destruction for the human race have planned : 
 But the most infamous that we've invented 
 Is just the thing their prayers demand. 
 The fops, they come as hypocrites, to fool us ! 
 Thus many have they snatched, before our eyes : 
 With our own weapons they would overrule us ; 
 They're also Devils in disguise. 
 To lose this case would be your lasting shame ; 
 On to the grave, and fortify your claim ! 
 CHOKUB OF ANGELS (scattering roses). Roses, ye glowing ont, 
 Balsam-bestowing ones ! 
 Fluttering, quivering, 
 Sweetness delivering, 
 Branching unblightedly. 
 Budding delightedly, 
 Bloom and be seen ! 
 Springtime declare him. 
 In purple and green ! 
 Paradise bear him. 
 The Sleeper
 
 ACT P. 359 
 
 MKPHIS. (to the Satan*) Why do ye jerk and squat ? It 
 
 this Hell's rule? 
 
 Stand to your ground, and let them sprinkle ! 
 Back to his place each gawky fool ! 
 They think, perhaps, with such a flowery crinkle, 
 As if 'twere snow, the Devils' heat to cool : 
 Your breath shall make it melt, and shrink, and wrinkle. 
 Now blow, ye Blowers ! 'Tis enough, enough ! 
 Before your breath fades all the floating stuff. 
 Not so much violence, shut jaws and noses ! 
 Forsooth, ye blow too strongly at the roses. 
 The proper measure can you never learn ? 
 They sting not only, but they wither, burn 1 
 They hover on with flames of deadly lustre : 
 Resist them ye, and close together cluster ! 
 Your force gives out ; all courage fails you so ? 
 The Devils scent the strange, alluring glow. 
 ANGELS. Blossoms of gratitude, 
 
 Flames of beatitude, 
 
 Love they are bearing now, 
 
 Rapture preparing now, 
 
 As the heart may ! 
 
 Truth in its nearness, 
 
 Ether in clearness, 
 
 Give the Eternal Hosts 
 
 Everywhere Day ! 
 
 MEPHIH. O curse and ehame upon such dolts be sped ! 
 Each Satan stands upon his head 1 
 In somersaults the stout ones whirl and swerve, 
 And into Hell plunge bottom-uppermost 
 Now may your bath be hot as you deserve ! 
 But T remain, unflinching, at my post. 
 
 [Beating off the hovering rose* 
 Off, will-o'-the-wisps ! Bright as ye seem to be, 
 When caught, the vilest clinging filth are ye. 
 Why flutter thus ? Off with you, quick ! 
 Like pitch and sulphur on my neck they stick, 
 OHOKTTB or ANGELS. What not appertained 
 
 To you, cease to share it 1 
 
 What inwardly paineth,
 
 360 FAUST. 
 
 Refuse ye to bear it ! 
 
 If it press in with might, 
 
 Use we our stronger right : 
 
 Love but the Loving 
 
 Leads to the Light ! 
 
 MIPHIS. My head, heart, liver, by the flames are rent i 
 An over-devilish element ! 
 Sharper than Hell's red conflagration ! 
 Thence so enormous is your lamentation, 
 Unfortunate enamoured ! who, so spurned, 
 Your heads towards the sweethearts' side have turned. 
 Mine, too I What twists my head in like position I 
 With them am I not sworn to competition ? 
 The sight of them once made my hatred worse. 
 Hath then an alien force transpierced my nature ? 
 I like to see them, youths of loveliest stature ; 
 What now restrains me, that I dare not curse t 
 And if I take their cozening bait so, 
 Who else, henceforth, the veriest fool will be t 
 The stunning fellows, whom I hate so, 
 How very charming they appear to me I 
 Tell me, sweet children, ere I miss you, 
 Are ye not of the race of Lucifer 1 
 You are so fair, forsooth, I'd like to kiss you j 
 It seems to me as if ye welcome were. 
 I feel as comfortable and as trustful, 
 As though a thousand times ere this we'd met ! 
 So surreptitiously catlike-lustful : 
 With every glance ye're fairer, fairer yet. 
 0, nearer come, 0, grant me one sweet look ! 
 
 ANGELS. We cornel Why shrink? Canst not our presence 
 
 brook? 
 Now we approach : so, if thou canst, remain ! 
 
 [The AJTGELS, coming forward, occupy the whole space, 
 MBPHIS. (who is crowded into the proscenium). 
 Us, Spirits damned, you brand with censure, 
 Yet you are wizards by indenture ; 
 For man and woman, luring, you enchain. 
 What chance the curst adventure brings me t 
 IB this Love's chosen element ?
 
 ACT F. 361 
 
 Fhe fire o'er all my body stingo me ; 
 My neck I scarcely feel, so hotly sprent 
 Ye hover back and forth ; sink down and settle ! 
 Move your sweet limbs with more of worldly mettle ' 
 The serious air befits you well, awhile, 
 But I should like, just once, to see you smile ; 
 That were, for me, an everlasting rapture. 
 I mean, as lovers look, the heart to capture 5 
 About the mouth a simper there must be. 
 Thee, tall one, as enticing I'll admit thee ; 
 The priestly mien does not at all befit thee, 
 So Idok at me the least bit wantonly ! 
 You might be nakeder, and modest made so : 
 Your shirts' long drapery is over-moral 
 They turn ! and, from the rear surveyed so, 
 With their attraction there's no need to quarrel ! 
 CHORUS or ANGELS. Love still revealing, 
 
 Flames, become clearer ! 
 
 All, cursed with error, 
 
 Truth be their healing 1 
 
 Glad self-retrieval 
 
 Free them from Evil, 
 
 In the all-folding Breast, 
 
 Blessed, to rest ! 
 MEPHIS. (collecting himself). How is't with me? Like 
 
 Job, the boils have cleft me 
 From head to foot, so that myself I shun ; 
 Yet triumph also, when my self-inspection's done,- - 
 When self and tribe I have confided in, 
 The noble Devil-parts, at least, are left me ! 
 This love-attack's a rash upon the skin. 
 Burned out already are the scurvy fires, 
 And one and all I damn you, as the case required / 
 
 CHORUS OF ANGELS. Hallowed gloriee 1 
 Round whom they brood, 
 Wakes unto being 
 Of bliss with the Good. 
 Join ye, the Glorified, 
 Rise to your goal 1
 
 363 FAUST. 
 
 Airs are all purified, 
 
 Breathe now the Soul ! 
 
 [They rise, bearing away the immortal part of FAUS*. 
 MKPHIS. (looking around him). But how I at once I find 
 
 them failing I 
 
 This race of minors takes me by surprise ! 
 They with their booty heavenwards are sailing ; 
 Thence on this grave they cast their greedy eyes I 
 My rare, great treasure they have peculated : 
 The lofty soul, to me hypothecated, 
 They've rapt away from me in cunning wise. 
 But unto whom shall I appeal for justice ? 
 Who would secure to me my well-earned right? 
 Tricked so in one's old days, a great disgust is ; 
 And I deserve it, this infernal spite. 
 I've managed in a most disgraceful fashion j 
 A great investment has been thrown away : 
 By lowest lust seduced, and senseless passion, 
 The old, case-hardened Devil went astray. 
 And if, from all this childish-silly stuff 
 His shrewd experience could not wrest him, 
 So is, forsooth, the folly quite enough, 
 Which, in conclusion, hath possessed him. 
 
 vn. 
 
 MOUNTAIN-GORGES, FOREST, ROCK, DESERT. 
 
 HOLY AKCHOEITES, 
 Divided in ascending planes, posted among the ravine*. 
 
 CHOBUB AITD ECHO. Forests are waving grand, 
 Rocks, they are huge at hand, 
 Clutching, the roots expand, 
 Thickly the tree-trunks stand ; 
 Foaming comes wave on wave ; 
 Shelter hath deepest cave ;
 
 ACT V. 363 
 
 Lions are prowling dumb, 
 
 Friendly where'er we couie, 
 
 Honouring the sacred place, 
 
 Refuge of Love and Grace ! 
 PATBB ECSTATICUS * (hovering up and down). 
 
 Endless ecstatic fire, 
 
 Glow of the pure desire, 
 
 Pain of the pining breast, 
 
 Rapture of God possessed ! 
 
 Arrows, transpierce ye me, 
 
 Lances, coerce ye me, 
 
 Bludgeons, so batter me, 
 
 Lightnings, so shatter me, 
 
 That all of mortality's 
 
 Vain unrealities 
 
 Die, and the Star above 
 
 Beam but Eternal Love I 
 PATER PEOFTTNDTJS * (Lower Region). 
 As at my feet abysses cloven 
 Rest on abysses deep below ; 
 As thousand severed streams are woven 
 To foamy floods that plunging go ; 
 As, up by self-impulsion driven, 
 The tree its weight sustains in air, 
 To Love, almighty Love, 'tis given 
 All things to form, and all to bear. 
 Around me sounds a savage roaring, 
 As rocks and forests heaved and swayet^ 
 Yet plunges, bounteous in its pouring, 
 The wealth of waters down the glade, 
 Appointed, then, the vales to brighten ; 
 The bolt, that flaming struck and burst, 
 The atmosphere to cleanse and lighten, 
 Which pestilence in its bosom nursed, 
 Love's heralds both, the powers proclaiming, 
 Which, aye creative, us infold. 
 May they, within my bosom flaming, 
 Inspire the min<? - Confused and cold. 
 Which frets itself, through blunted senses, 
 As by the sharpest fetter-smart !
 
 364 FAUST. 
 
 God, soothe Thou my thoughts bewildered, 
 Enlighten Thou my needy heart ! 
 PATER SBRAPHICUS M (Middle Regions). What a cloud of 
 
 morning hovers 
 
 O'er the pine-trees' tossing hair ! 
 Can I guess what life it covers ? 
 They are spirits, young and fair. 
 CHORUS OF BLESSED Boys. 95 Tell us, Father, where ve 
 
 wander ; 
 
 Tell us, Kind One, who are we ! 
 Happy are we ; for so tender 
 Unto all, it is, To Be. 
 PATER SBBAPHICTTS. Boys, brought forth in midnights 
 
 haunted. 
 
 Half-unsealed the sense and brain, 
 For the parents lost when granted, 
 For the angels sweetest gain ! 
 That a loving heart is nigh you 
 You can feel : then come to me ! 
 But of earthly ways that try you, 
 Blest ones ! not a trace have ye. 
 Enter in mine eyes : enjoy them, 
 Organs for the earthly sphere ! 
 As your own ye may employ them : 
 Look upon the landscape here ! 
 
 [He takes them into himself. 
 Those are trees, there rocks defend us ; 
 Here, a stream that leaps below, 
 And with plunges, wild, tremendous, 
 Shorteneth its journey so. 
 BLESSED BOYS (from within him). To a vision grand w 
 
 waken, 
 
 But the scenes too gloomy show ; 
 We with fear and dread are shaken : 
 Kindest Father, let us go ! 
 PATKK SERAPHJCUS. Upward rise to higher borders t 
 
 Ever grow, insensibly, 
 
 Aa, by pure, eternal orders, 
 
 God's high Presence strengthens ye ! 
 
 Such the Spirits' sustentation,
 
 ACT V. 365 
 
 With the freest ether blending ; 
 Love's eternal Revelation, 
 To Beatitude ascending. 
 CHORUS OF BLESSED BOYS (circling around the highett 
 
 twm/m/it). Hands now curing y, 
 Joyously wheeling ! 
 Soar ye and sing ye, 
 With holiest feeling ! 
 The Teacher before ye, 
 Trust, and be bold ! 
 Whom ye adore, ye 
 Him shall behold, 
 
 ANGELS (soaring in the higher atmosphere, bearing tht 
 immortal part of FATJST). The noble Spirit now is free. 
 And saved from evil scheming : 
 Whoe'er aspires unweariedly 
 Is not beyond redeeming. 
 And if he feels the grace of Love 
 That from On High is given, 
 The Blessed Hosts, that wait above, 
 Shall welcome him to Heaven ! 
 
 THE YOUNGER ANGELS. They, the roses, freely spendcd 
 By the penitent, the glorious, 
 Helped to make the fight victorious, 
 And the lofty work is ended. 
 We this precious Soul have won us ; 
 Evil ones we forced to shun us ; 
 Devils fled us, when we hit them : 
 *Stead of pangs of Hell, that bit them, 
 Love-pangs felt they, sharper, vaster : 
 Even he, old Satan-Masver, 
 Pierced with keenest pain, retreated. 
 Now rejoice ! The work's completed ! 
 THK MORE PERFECT ANGELS. Earth's residue to bear 
 Hath sorely pressed us ; 
 It were not pure and fair, 
 Though 'twere asbestus. 
 When every element 
 The mind's high forces 
 Have seized, subdued, and bUnt
 
 66 FAUST. 
 
 No Angel divorces 
 
 Twin -natures single grown, 
 
 That inly mate them : 
 
 Eternal Love, alone, 
 
 Can separate them. 
 THE YOUNGER ANGELS. Mist-like on heights above, 
 
 We now are seeing 
 
 Nearer and nearer move 
 
 Spiritual Being. 
 
 The clouds are growing dear ; 
 
 And moving throngs appear 
 
 Of Blessed Boys, 
 
 Free from the earthly gloom, 
 
 In circling poise, 
 
 Who taste the cheer 
 
 Of the new spring-time hloom 
 . Of the upper sphere. 
 
 Let them inaiigurate 
 
 Him to the perfect state, 
 
 Now, as their peer ! 
 THE BLKSSBD BOYS. Gladly receive we now 
 
 Him, as a chrysalis : 
 
 Therefore achieve we now 
 
 Pledge of our bliss. 
 
 The earth-flakes dissipate 
 
 That cling around him ! 
 
 See, he is fair and great ! 
 
 Divine Life hath crowned him. 
 DOCTOR MARIANTTS % (m the highest, pwrest celt). 
 
 Free is the view at last, 
 
 The spirit lifted : 
 
 There women, floating past, 
 
 Are upward drifted : 
 
 The Glorious One therein, 
 
 With star-crown tender, 
 The pure, the Heavenly Queen, 
 I know her splendour. [Enraptured* 
 
 Highest Mistress of the World ! 
 Let me in the azure 
 Tent of Heaven, in light unfurled
 
 ACT 7. 367 
 
 Here thy Mystery measure ! 
 Justify sweet thoughts that move 
 Breast of man to meet thee, 
 And with holy bliss of love 
 Bear him up to greet thee ! 
 With unconquered courage we 
 Do thy bidding highest ; 
 But at once shall gentle be, 
 When thou pacifiest. 
 Virgin, pure in brightest sheeu, 
 Mother sweet, supernal, 
 Unto us Elected Queen, 
 Peer of Gods Eternal ' 
 
 Light clouds are circling 
 
 Around her splendour, 
 
 Penitent women 
 
 Of natures tender, 
 
 Her knees embracing, 
 
 Ether respiring, 
 
 Mercy requiring ! 
 Thou, in immaculate ray, 
 Mercy not leavest, 
 And the lightly led astray, 
 Who trust thee, receivest ! 
 In their weakness fallen at length, 
 Hard it is to save them : 
 Who can crush, by native strength^ 
 Vices that enslave them ? 
 Whose the foot that may not slip 
 On the surface slanting ? 
 Whom befool not eye and lip, 
 Breath and voice enchanting ! 
 
 [The MATEK GLOBIOSA soars into the spate. 
 
 CHOKUS or WOMEN PENITENTS. To heights thou'rf 
 
 Of endless Eden : 
 Receive our pleading, 
 Transcendent Maiden, 
 With Mercy laden !
 
 168 FAUST. 
 
 MAGKA PECOATRIX. W (St. Luke, vii 36.) 
 By the love before him kneeling, 
 Hi, Thy Son, a godlike vision ; 
 By the tears like balsam stealing, 
 Spite of Pharisees' derision ; 
 By the box, whose ointment preciont 
 Shed ita spice and odours cheery ; 
 By the locks, whose softest meshes 
 Dried the holy feet and weary ! 
 
 MULIER SAMARITANA. (St. John, iv.) 
 By that well, the ancient station 
 Whither Abram's flocks were driven : 
 By the jar, whose restoration 
 To the Saviour's lips was given j 
 By the fountain, pure and vernal, 
 Thence its present bounty spending, 
 Overflowing, bright, eternal, 
 Watering the worlds unending ! 
 
 MARIA ^EGYPTIACA. (Acta Sanctorum.) 
 By the place, where the Immortal 
 Body of the Lord hath lain ; 
 By the arm, which, from the portal, 
 Warning, thrust me back again ; 
 By the forty years' repentance 
 In the lonely desert-land ; 
 By the blissful farewell sentence 
 Which I wrote upon the sand ! 
 
 THE THREE. Thou Thy presence not deniest 
 Unto sinful women ever, 
 Liftest them to win the highest 
 Gain of penitent endeavour, 
 So, from this good soul withdraw not 
 Who but once forgot, transgressing. 
 Who her loving error saw not 
 Pardon adequate, and blessing ! 
 
 UHA PCBNTTEKTIUM * (formerly named Margaret. 
 
 closer). 
 
 Incline, Maiden, 
 With Mercy laden, 
 In light unfading,
 
 ACT r. 569 
 
 Thy gracious countenance upon my bliss ! 
 
 My loved, my lover, 
 
 His trials over 
 
 In yonder world, returns to me in this ! 
 BLESSED BOYS (approaching in hovering yvrcie). With 
 mighty limbs he towers 
 
 Already above us ; 
 
 He, for this love of ours, 
 
 Will richlier love us. 
 
 Early were we removed, 
 
 Ere Life could reach us ; 
 
 Yet he hath learned and proved, 
 
 And he will teach us. 
 
 THB PENITENT (formerly named Margaret). The spirit- 
 choir around him seeing, 
 
 New to himself, he scarce divines 
 
 His heritage of new-born Being, 
 
 When like the Holy Host he shines. 
 
 Behold, how he each band hath cloven, 
 
 The earthly life had round him thrown, 
 
 And through his garb, of ether woven, 
 
 The early force of youth is shown ! 
 
 Vouchsafe to me that I instruct him ! 
 
 Still dazzles him the Day's new glare. 
 MATER GLORIOSA. Rise, thou, to higher spheres ! Conduct 
 
 him 
 
 Who, feeling thee, shall follow there ! " 
 DOOTOK MART AN us (prostrate, adoring). Penitents, look 
 up, elate, 
 
 Where she beams salvation ; 
 Gratefully to blessed fate 
 Grow, in re-creation ! 
 Be our souls, as they have been, 
 Dedicate to Thee ! 
 Virgin Holy, Mother, Queen, 
 Goddess, gracious be ! 
 CHORUS MYSTICTTS. All things transitory 
 But as symbols are sent : 
 Earth's insufficiency 
 Sere grows to Event :
 
 870 FAUST. 
 
 The Indescribable, 
 
 Here it is done : 
 
 The Woman-Soul leadetb us 
 
 Upward and OJL 1
 
 NOTES. 
 
 Denn bei den altcn lieben Todten 
 Braucht man Erklarung, will man Nbtea ; 
 Die Neuen glaubt man blank zu verstehn, 
 Doch ohne Dolmetsch wird's auch uicht gehn. 
 
 Gorriir. 
 
 NOTES TO FIRST PART. 
 
 1. The posts are set, the booth of boards completed. 
 
 THE "booth of boards" purposely refers to the rude, transport 
 
 ble puppet theatres in which Goethe first saw Faust represented. 
 
 There is already a foreshadowing of some of the qualities of Faust 
 
 and Mephistopheles in the Poet and Manager. 
 
 2. This, aged Sirs, belongs to you. 
 
 It ia the Poets whom the Merry- Andrew thus addresses. His 
 assertion of the perpetual youth of Genius is not ironical, but (as 
 appears from the Manager's remarks) is intended as a compliment. 
 
 8. CHANT OF THE ARCHANGELS. 
 
 The three Archangels advance in the order of their dignity, as it 
 is given in the "Celestial Hierarchy" of Dionysius Areopagita; 
 who was also Dante's authority on this point (Paradiso, Canto 
 XXVIII.). Raphael, the inferior, commences, and Michael, the 
 chief, closes the chant 
 
 4. Pardon, this troop I cannot follow after. 
 Mephistopheles here refers to the Chant of the Archangels. His 
 mocking spirit is at once manifested in these lines, and in hi 
 ironical repetition of " the earliest day." 
 
 6. While Man's desires and aspirations stir, 
 
 He cannot choose but err. 
 
 The original of this ia the single, well-known line : Es irrt der 
 Mensch, so long er strebt. It has seemed to me impossible to give 
 the full meaning of these words that error is a natural accpmpani- 
 inert of the rtruggles and aspirations of Man in a single line. 
 
 8. A good man, through obscurest aspiration, 
 
 Has still an instinct of the one true way. 
 
 In these lines the direction of the plot is indicated. They 
 suggest, in advance, its moral denouement, at the close of the Second
 
 372 fACTSI'. 
 
 Part Goethe, on one occasion, compared the "Prologue in 
 He*ren" to the overture of Mozart's Don Giovanni, in which a 
 lertain musical phrase occurs which is not repeatt d until the finale; 
 ind hi* comparison had reference to the ide expressed in thes 
 lines. 
 
 7. But ye, Qods MMS in love and diLty. 
 
 Here the Lord, turning away from Mephistoplwles, suddenly 
 iddresses the Archangels and the Heavenly Hosts. 
 
 8. From Nostradamus' very hand. 
 
 The astrologer Nostradamus (whose real name ws Michel de 
 K6tre-Dame) was born at St. Remy, in Provence, in the year 1503. 
 At first celebrated as a physician, he finally devoted himself to 
 astrology, and published, in 1555, a collection of prophecies in 
 rhymed quatrains, entitled Les Prophets de Michel Nostradamus, 
 which created an immediate sensation, and found many believers ; 
 esi>ecially as the death of Henry II. of France seemed to verify one 
 of his mystical predictions. He was appointed physician to Charles 
 IX. and continued the publication of his prophecies, asserting, 
 however, that the study of the planetary aspects was not alone 
 sufficient, but that the gift of second-sight, which God grants only 
 to a few chosen persons, is also necessary. He died in the year 
 1566 ; and even as late as the year 1781 his prophecies were 
 included in the Roman Index Expurgatorius, for the reason that 
 they declare the downfall of the Papacy. 
 
 9. The Sign of the Macrocosm. 
 
 The term " Macrocosm " was used by Pico di Mirandoi*, 
 Paracelsus, and other mystical writers, to denote the universe. 
 They imagined a mysterious correspondence between the Macrocosm 
 (the world in large) and the Microcosm (the world in little), or 
 Man ; and most of the astrological theories were based on the 
 influence of the former upon the latter. From some of Goethe's 
 notes, still in existence, we learn that during the time when the 
 eonception of Faust first occupied his mind (1770-73), he read 
 Welling's Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum, Paracelsus, Valentinus, the 
 Aurea Catena Homeri, and even the Latin poet Manilius. 
 
 Mr. Blackie, in his Notes, quotes a description of the Macrocosm 
 from a Latin work of Robert Fludd, published at Oppenheim in 
 1619 ; but the theory had already been given in the fleptaplus of 
 Pico di Mirandola (about 1490). The universe, according to him, 
 consists of three worlds, the earthly, the heavenly, and the super- 
 ueavenly. The first includes our planet and its enveloping space, 
 is far as the orbit of the moon ; the second, the sun and stars ; the 
 third, the Governing Divine influences. The same phenomena 
 belong to each, but have different grades of manifestation. Thus 
 the physical element of fire exists in the earthly sphere, the warmth 
 Bf the sun in the heavenly, and a seraphic, spiritual fire in the
 
 NOTES. 373 
 
 empyrean ; the first burns, the second quickens, the third loves. 
 " In addition to these three worlds (the Macrocosm)," says Pico, 
 "there is a fourth (the Microcosm), containing all embraced within 
 them. This is Man, in whom are included a body formed of the 
 elements, a heavenly spirit, reason, an angelic soul, and a 
 rcemblance to God. " 
 
 10. Death ll know it 'tis my Famulus / 
 The Latin word famulus (servant) was applied, in the Middle 
 Ages, to the shield-bearers of the knights, and also to person* 
 owing the obligation of service to the feudal lords. The Famulus 
 ef Faust, however, is at the same time a student, an amanuensis, 
 an assistant in his laboratory, and a servitor, in the academic sense. 
 The term is still applied, in the German Universities, to those poor 
 students who fill various minor offices for the sake of eking out 
 their means by the small salaries attached to them. 
 
 11. WAGNER. 
 
 The name and perhaps also the primal suggestion of the 
 character of Faust's Famulus is taken from the old legend, IB 
 which Christopher Wagner, after Faust's tragic end, succeeds to his 
 knowledge and enters on a similar, if not so brilliant a career. 
 
 It is an interesting coincidence that one of Goethe's early 
 associates, during his residence in Strasburg and Frankfort, was 
 Heinrich Leopold Wagner (who died in 1779), and who was also an 
 author. Goethe not only read to him the early scenes of Faust, but 
 imparted to him, in confidence, the fate of Margaret, as he meant 
 to develope it ; and Wagner was faithless enough to make use of 
 the material for a tragedy of his own The Infanticide which was 
 published in 1776. Schiller's poem, with the same title (apparently 
 suggested by Wagner's play), and Burger's ballad of "The Pastor 
 of Taubenheim's Daughter," in which the subject is very similar 
 were both written in the year 1781. 
 
 12. Where ye for men twist shredded thought like paper, 
 This line, which reads, literally, "In which ye twist (or curl) 
 paper-shreds for mankind," has been curiously misunderstood by 
 most translators. The article der before Menschheit was supposed 
 by Hayward to be in the genitive instead of the dative case, and he 
 (fives the phrase thus : "in which ye crisp the shreds of humanity!" 
 Blackie even says "the shavings of mankind," and most of the 
 other English versions repeat the mistake, in one or another form. 
 In the French of Blaze and Stapfer, however, the reading is correct. 
 Goethe employs the word Schnitzel (shreds or clippings) as a 
 contemptuous figure of speech for the manner in which thought is 
 presented to mankind in the discourses described by Faust. There- 
 fore by using the expression "shredded thought'' in English, th* 
 axact sense of the original is preserved.
 
 374 FAUST. 
 
 18. Or, at the best, a Puwh-and-Judy play. 
 
 The German phrase, Haupt-und Stoats-action, was applied, about 
 Ihe end of the seventeenth century, to the popular puppet-plays 
 *hich represented famous passages of history. It seems to have 
 teen, originally, a form of announcement invented by some 
 proprietor of a wandering puppet-theatre, and may therefore be 
 equivalently translated, as a "First-Class Political Performance !" 
 The phrase was afterwards applied to plays acted upon the stage, 
 and Goethe even makes use of it to designate Shakespeare's 
 historical dramas. In the puppet-plays the heroic figures 
 (Alexander, Pompey, Charlemagne, etc.) were in the habit of 
 uttering the most grandiloquent, oracular sentences ; they wer 
 as didactic in speech as they were reckless and melodramatic in 
 action. 
 
 The word pragmatical, which I have adopted as it stands in the 
 original, has a somewhat different signification in German. It 
 indicates here, at least a pedantic assumption and ostentation, 
 in addition to the sense of meddlesome interference which it 
 possesses in English. 
 
 14. CHORTTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 In this first chorus I have been forced, by the prime necessity of 
 preserving the meaning, to leave the second line unrhymed. Th 
 word schleichenden, in the fourth line, which I have endeavoured to 
 express by "clinging" (Hayward has "creeping," Blackie 
 "through his veins creeping," and Dr. Hedge "trailing"), is 
 nearly equivalent to the English phrase "dogging one's steps." 
 The nrst of the three Angelic Choruses rejoices over Christ's release 
 from Mortality, the second exalts him as the "Loving One," and 
 the third celebrates hia restoration to the Divine creative activity. 
 
 15. Is he, in glow of birth, 
 Rapture creative near ? 
 
 These two lines, in the original, are a marvel of compressed 
 expression. The closest literal translation is: "Is He, in the 
 bliss of developing into (higher) being, near to the joy of creating," 
 that is, the bliss of being born into the higher life to which He 
 has ascended is scarcely less than the joy of the Divine creative 
 activity. The Disciples, left behind and still sharing the woes of 
 Earth, bewail the beatitude which parts Him from them. 
 
 16. TM true, she showed me, on Saint Andrew's Night. 
 St. Andrew's Night is the 29th of November. It is celebrate^ 
 in some parts of Germany, by forms of divination very similar ta 
 those which are practised in Scotland on Hallow E'en (Octobei 
 list). The maidens, as in Keats's Eve of Saint Agnes, believe that 
 by calling upon St. Andrew, undressed, before getting into bed, th* 
 future sweetheart will appear to them in a dream. Another plan 
 , to pour melted lead through the wards of a key wherein there if
 
 NOTES. 375 
 
 the form of a cross, into s basin of water fetched between eleven 
 'clock and midnight : the cooling lead will then take the form of 
 tools which indicate the trade of the destined lover. 
 
 17. She showed me mine, in crystal clear. 
 A magic crystal, sometimes in the form of a sphere, but 
 frequently, no doubt, as a lens, was employed for the purpose of 
 divination. The methods, in fact, were varied to suit the super- 
 stition which employed them. In Pictor*s " Varieties of Ceremonial 
 Magic" (given in Scheible's Kloster), twenty-seven forms of 
 divination are described at length, but Crystallomancy is not 
 among them. The ancients employed between forty and fifty 
 different methods. 
 
 18. Sir Doctor, it u good of you. 
 
 It is very rarely that the first and third lines of a quatrain are 
 unrhymed in German. I have no doubt that Goethe intended to 
 represent, by a less musical verse, the more prosaic nature and 
 speech of the common people. The words he employs in the two 
 addresses of the Old Peasant are the simplest and plainest ; the tone 
 of the verse is entirely that of prose. 
 
 19. Then also you, though but a youth. 
 
 Duntzer conjectures that Goethe derived the idea of this helpful 
 activity of Faust, upon which rests the episode with the peasants, 
 from the history of* Nostradamus. In the year 1525, when the 
 latter was twenty-two years old, Provence was devastated by a 
 pestilence. The young physician went boldly from house to house, 
 through the villages, and saved the lives of many of the sick, 
 himself escaping all infection. 
 
 20. There was a Lion red, a wooer daring. 
 
 The jargon of the mediaeval alchemists, from Raymond Lully to 
 Paracelsus, is used in this description. The system taught that all 
 substances, especially nntals, had either masculine or feminine 
 qualities, as well as inherent affinities and antipathies. Cam- 
 panella's doctrine, that all the elements of matter were endowed 
 with sense and feeling, was very generally adopted by his successors 
 in the art. Goethe drew his description of the preparation of the 
 panacea partly from Paracelsus, and partly from Welling's Opus 
 Mago-Cabbalisticum. 
 
 The "Lion red" is cinnabar, called a "wooer daring" on account 
 of the action of quicksilver in rushing to an intimate union (an 
 amalgam) with all other metals. The Lily is a preparation of 
 uitimony, which bore the name of Lilium Paracelsi. Red, more- 
 over, is the masculine, and white the feminine colour. The alembic 
 containing these substances was first placed in a "tepid bath" a 
 vessel of warm water and gradually heated ; then "tormented by 
 flame unsparing" ("open name," in the original), the two were 
 driven from one "bridal chamber" to another, that is. theil
 
 376 FAUST. 
 
 wedded fumes were forced, by the heat, from the alembic into a 
 glass retort. If then, the "young Queen," the sublimated com- 
 pound of the two substances, appeared with a brilliant colour 
 ruby or royal purple being most nighly esteemed in the retort, 
 "this waa the medicine." The product reminds us of calomel, 
 which is usually formed by the sublimated union of mercury and 
 chlorine. 
 
 21. Swift from the North the tpirtt-fanga so sharp. 
 
 The belief in evil spirits inhabiting the nether regions of the 
 atmosphere is very ancient. Paul calls Satan "the prince of the 
 power of the air" (Ephenans, ii. 2), and thus gives Christian 
 currency to a much older superstition. In the poem Zodiacus Vitce, 
 of Marcellus Palingenius (written about the year 1527), the different 
 atmospheric demons are minutely described. Their names are 
 Typhurgus (Mist-bringer), Aplestus (the Insatiable), Philokreus 
 (Lover of Flesh), and Miastor (the Befouler). Wagner's classifica- 
 tion indicates the effects of the four winds upon the weather and 
 the human frame. In Germany, the east wind is dry and keen, 
 and the west wind brings rain. 
 
 " The air is not so full of flies in summer, as it is at all times of 
 invisible devils : this Paracelsus stiffly maintains." Burton, Anat.. 
 Parti. 
 
 2. Seest thou the black dog coursing there, through corn an>i 
 
 stubble? 
 
 The appearance of Mephistopheles in the form of a dog is a part 
 of the old legend. Manlius, in the report of his conversation with 
 Melancthon, quotes the latter as having said : "He (Faust) had a 
 dog with him, which was the devil. " 
 
 23. 'Tis written: "In the Beginning was the Word." 
 This passage is not, as Blackie supposes, a fortunate inspiration 
 of Goethe. It is directly suggested by the legend. In Widmann's 
 "Veritable History of Dr. Faust" (Hamburg, 1599), I find, in the 
 fifteenth chapter, that Mephistopheles thus answers Faust's pro- 
 position to discuss with him certain questions of theology : "In so 
 far as it concerns the Bible, which thou again art of a mind to read, 
 there shall be no more permitted to thee than, namely : the first, 
 second, and fifth books of Moses ; all the others, except Job, shalt 
 thou let be ; and likewise in the New Testament thou mayest read 
 the three Disciples that write of the deeds of Christ, that is to say, 
 the tax-gatherer, the painter and the doctor (meaning Mattheum, 
 Marcum and Lucam) ; but John thalt thou avoid, and I forbid aL-o 
 the chatterer Paul, and such others as wrote Epistles." 
 
 24. The Key of Solomon is good. 
 
 Solomon's fame as a magician is mentioned by Josephus, and also 
 by Origen, who was acquainted with a work on the manner of citing 
 ipiriU to appear, ascribed to the Hebrew king. There seems to b
 
 MOTES. 377 
 
 no doubt that Solomon was a chief authority with the Jewish 
 exorcists, from whom his name and some of his supposed formula 
 of invocation were transmitted, until we find them in the Cabbala 
 of the Middle Ages. The Clavicula Salomonis is mentioned by 
 Welling, Paracelsus, and other writers, and some copies have been 
 preserved. It is claimed that the genuine original contained only 
 instructions by which good spirits might be invoked to assist in 
 gOpd works, but the variations give also the method of summoning 
 evil spirits. In Fausfs Dreifacher Hollenzwang (copied in 
 Scheible's Kloster), the Clavicula Salomonis is given as it was 
 communicated to Pope Sylvester by Constantino, and translated in 
 the Vatican, under Pope Julius II. It is called " The Necromantic 
 Key of Solomon, or the Key to the Magic Wisdom of Solomon, and 
 to compel the Spirits to every Manner of Service," and commences: 
 "At first, pray (or sing) the following canticum hebraicum Aba, 
 zarka, maccaf, sofar, holech, (segolta), pazergadol," etc. Then 
 follow a number of similar invocations, together with the "Seal of 
 the highest wisdom of Solomon," a very complicated figure of 
 hexagonal form, which must be held in the hand. Faust, as 
 the reader will remark, employs an entirely different method of 
 exorcism. 
 
 25. The Words of the Fowr be addressed. 
 
 The universal belief in elementary spirits, during the Middle 
 Ages, was a natural inheritance from the ancient faith. So much 
 of their former half-divinity clung to them that they were assigned 
 an intermediate place between men and genuine spirits. They were 
 supposed to have positive and unchangeable forms, of a finer, more 
 ethereal flesh and blood, and to be soulless, although the children 
 born of their intercourse with human beings received human souls. 
 They were classified, according to the element in which they lived, 
 as Salamanders (in Fire), Undines (in Water), Sylphs (in Air), and 
 Gnomes (in Earth). Of these, the two latter classes were supposed 
 to be most familiar and friendly. 
 
 Faust, it will be noticed, uses "the Words of the Four," buf 
 without effect. He then repeats the adjuration, in another and 
 stronger form. Here, however, the word Kobold (Gnome) is 
 omitted, and Incubus, the dwarfish, triksy, household spirit, is 
 substituted. In German fairy-lore, there is a relationship between 
 the two, but they are not identical There seems to be no reason 
 for the change ; and, as Goethe attached no great importance to 
 the passage, the rhyme, alone, may have suggested it. 
 
 26. Now, to undisguise thee, 
 
 Hear me exorcise thee I 
 
 The original is : " Thou shalt hear me more strongly exorcise ! " 
 Suspecting that an infernal spirit dwells in the beast, Faust makee 
 "the sign" of the cross, and the effect is immediately manifest 
 Dnntzer nays, " He presents to him the name of Jesus,' which it 
 ofcrtainly * misconception. Blackie quotes a passage from CoT*Km 
 26
 
 378 FAUST. 
 
 Agrippa, declaring that evil spirits are affrighted by the sign 
 of the cross. 
 
 Goethe, also, may have remembered the verse in the Epistle 
 of James (ii. 19): "Thou believest that there is one God; 
 thou doest well : the devils also believe, and tremble." 
 
 27. The One, unoriginate. 
 
 Here Christ is described, but not named. The four lines ar* 
 literally: 
 
 The Onoriginated, 
 
 Dillused through aU the Heavens, 
 
 28. MEPHISTOPHELES. 
 
 Th original form of this name was Mephostophiles. There has 
 been much discussion in regard to its meaning ; but Diintzer'a 
 conjecture is probably correct, that it was imperfectly formed by 
 some one who knew little Greek, and was intended to signify not 
 loving {he light. The expressions which Mephistopheles uses, ill 
 explaining his nature to Faust, would seem to indicate that this 
 was also Goethe's understanding of the name. 
 
 Although, in most of the popular Faust-stories, Mephistopheles is 
 often referred to as "the Devil," it was well understood that h 
 was only a devil. In "Faust's Miraculous Art and Book of 
 Marvels, or the Black Raven " (1469), the powers and potentates of 
 the Infernal Kingdom are thus given : King, Lucifer ; Viceroy, 
 Belial; Gubernatores, Satan, Beekebub, Astaroth, Pluto; Chiej 
 Princes, Ariel, Mephistophilis, Marbuel, Ariel, Aniguel, Anisel, 
 and Barfael. 
 
 Goethe took only the name and a few circumstances connected 
 with the first appearance of Mephistopheles from the legend ; the 
 character, from first to last, is his own creation. Although he 
 sometimes slyly used it (though less frequently than Faust) as a 
 mask through which to speak with his own voice, he evidently drew 
 the germ of some characteristics from his early associate, Merck. 
 
 "Merck and I, "said Goethe to Eckermann, in 1831, "always 
 
 went together, like Faust and Mephistopheles All his 
 
 pranks and tricks sprang from the basis of a higher culture ; but, 
 as he was not a productive nature, on the contrary, he possessed a 
 strongly marked negative tendency, he was far more ready to blame 
 than praise, and involuntarily sought out everything which might 
 enable him to indulge his habit." 
 
 29. In names like Beelzebub, Destroyer, Pother of Lies. 
 In the original, the first of these names is given as Flieyengott, 
 Fly-god. For the sake cf metre, I have substituted our familiar 
 Hebrew equivalent, Beelzebub or, more correctly, Baalsebub. 
 " Destroyer " and Liar, or " Father of Lies," are also familiar to us 
 u Abaddon and Satan. Faust must be supposed to accept th
 
 &OTES. 379 
 
 wders of the infernal hierarchy, as given in the cabalistic writings, 
 Whence his endeavour to identify the particular fiend whom he ha* 
 invoked. 
 
 80. 1 am the Spirit that Denies. 
 
 In declaring himself, first, to be part of that power " which 
 always wills the Bad, and always works the Good," Mephistpphelea 
 is unexpectedly frank. His expression coincides exactly with the 
 declaration of The Lord, as to the service he is obliged to perform. 
 
 In the passage which follows, he is equally honest, and the above 
 line clearly describes the part which he plays, from beginning to 
 end. He is the Spirit of Negation, and his being exists through 
 opposition to the positive Truth, and Order, and Beauty, which 
 proceed from the never-ending creative energy of the Deity. The 
 masks which we find him assuming in the Second Part of Faust are 
 all explained by this necessity of Negation. His irreverence and 
 Irony are not only a part of his nature, but they are further in- 
 creased by the impotence of his efforts which he freely admits in 
 the following passages to disturb the Divine system. 
 
 Mephistopheles draws his theory of the primeval darkness from 
 the Theogony of Hesiod. His reference to " bodies " shows that he 
 understands the physical and spiritual identity of light and life. 
 Since we have seen that, in Widmann's Faust-book, he prohibits to 
 Faust the reading of the Gospel of John, we may surmise a con- 
 nection between his hostility to light and these verses from th 
 first chapter of that Gospel : 
 
 "In him was life ; and the life was the light of men. 
 
 ' And the light shineth in darkness ; and the darkness compre- 
 hended it not. ' Y 
 
 31. The wizard's foot, that on yowr threshold made is. 
 In the original, Drudenfuss. Drud, from one root with Druid, 
 was the old German word for "wizard." The wizard's-foot, 01 
 pentagram, was supposed to possess an especial potency against evil 
 spirits. It is simply a fi^e-rayed star, thus : 
 
 A 
 
 Its efficacy undoubtedly sprang from the circumstance that it 
 resolves itself into three triangles, and is thus a triple symbol of the 
 Trinity. Paracelsus ascribes a similar, though a lesser, degree of 
 Krtue to the hexagram. Another peculiarity of the pentagram is, 
 that it may be drawn complete from one point, without lifting the 
 pencil, and therefore belongs to those involuntary hieroglyphic! 
 which we sometimes make, in moments of abstraction.
 
 J80 FAUST. 
 
 82. SONO OF TUB SPIRITS. 
 
 Thia remarkable chant is known in Germany (Goethe himseL 
 being, I believe, the first to so designate it) as the Einschldfenmgs- 
 lied, or Lullaby. It is one of the few things in the work which 
 hare proved to be a little too much for the commentators, and they 
 have generally let it alone. By dropping all philosophical theories, 
 however, and applying to it only the conditions of Poetic Art, we 
 ihall find it easily comprehensible. Faust is hardly aware (although 
 Mephistopheles is) that a part of his almost despairing impatience 
 springs from the lack of all enjoyment of physical life ; and the 
 first business of these attendant spirits is to unfold before his en- 
 ihanted eyes a series of dim, dissolving views sweet, formless, 
 fantastic, and thus all the more dangerously alluring of sensuous 
 delight. The pictures are blurred, as in a semi-dream : they present 
 nothing positive, upon which Faust's mind could fix, or by which 
 it might be startled : but they leave an impression behind, which 
 gradually works itself into form. The echo of the wild, weird, 
 interlinked melody remains in his soul, and he is not supposed to 
 be conscious of its operation, even when, in the following scene, he 
 exclaims to Mephistopheles : 
 
 " Let us the sensual deeps explore, 
 To quench the fervours of glowing passion I " 
 
 The rhythmical translation of this song which, without the 
 original rhythm and rhyme, would lose nearly all its value is a 
 head and heart breaking task. I can only say that, after returning 
 to it again and again, during a period of six years, I can offer 
 uothing better. 
 
 33. / come, a squire of high degree. 
 
 The word Junker, which Mephistopheles uses, corresponds 
 exactly with " squire," as a term of chivalry. In the text of the 
 puppet-play, when he makes his appearance the second time, he is 
 described as wohlgekleidet^- respectably dressed. His costume on 
 the puppet-stage was a red tunic, under, a long mantle of black 
 silk, and a cock's-feather in his hat Goethe purposely retains this 
 tostume, because it is sufficiently appropriate to his conception of 
 the character, which he expressly declares is too negative to be 
 davmonic. 
 
 34. This life of earth, whatever my attire, 
 Would pain me in its wonted fashion. 
 
 The first fragment of the Paralipomena possibly belongs here, 
 although there is also a place for it towards the close of the scene. 
 In the following lines, omitted alike in the editions of 1790 and 
 1808, Mephistopheles continues to advise a change of costume : 
 
 MKPHISTOPHKLES. 
 
 When with externals thon art well endowed, 
 All will around thee Hock, and natter ; 
 A chap who's not a little vain or proud, 
 Had better hang, and end the matter.
 
 NOTES. 381 
 
 I have not been able to find any evidence concerning the date of 
 iheee rejected passages of Faust. 
 
 35. CHORUS OF SPIRIT*. 
 
 Faust's corse, which includes even the sentiment of childish 
 faith that overcame him on the Easter morning, places him, uncon- 
 sciously, in the power of Mephistopheles. The Chorus of Spirits 
 indicates, in a few powerful lines, his rupture with the order ol 
 life. The first words of Mephistopheles which follow, would lead 
 the reader to suppose that the spirits were infernal, and thus a sin- 
 gular discrepancy between their character and their expressions is 
 implied. In Leutbecher's work, however, I find a hint of what I 
 believe to be the true intention of this Chorus. He says : " The 
 fmre spirits who direct the harmonies of existence lament over his 
 (Faust's) step, and encourage him to commence another and fairer 
 career. But Mephistopheles calls these voices precociously shrewd, 
 and proposes the conditions of his compact, promising delights 
 which, in advance, appear worthless to Faust." The lament is 
 certainly not ironical. 
 
 36. When thus I hail the Moment flying : 
 " Ah, still delay thou art so fair I " 
 
 Here Faust becomes earnest and definite. The one moment of 
 supreme contentment is for him a symbol of endless capacity for 
 happiness. The wager with Mephistopheles rests upon this couplet, 
 which the reader must bear in his memory until he meets with it 
 again, at the close of the Second Part 
 
 There is no condition of this nature in the Faust-legends. The 
 compact there is, that Faust shall have whatever he desires for the 
 term of twenty-four years, when he passes, body and soul, into the 
 power of Mephistopheles. The only slight resemblance to this 
 passage, in any of the various versions, may be found in the 
 Augsburg play, where Mephistopheles says: "Faust, have I not 
 said to thee, thou canst thyself break the hour-glass of thy time ? 
 Thou hast done it in this moment. " 
 
 37. Then at the Doctors' -banquet I, to-day. 
 Mephistopheles refers to the inauguration feast, given on taking 
 
 a degree. 
 
 38. Encheiresin naturae, tM Chemistry names. 
 
 With the introduction of the Student (whom we shall meet 
 igain, in the Second Part, as Baccalaureus), Mephistopheles not 
 only assumes the mantle of Faust, but Goethe also assumes the 
 mask of Mephistopheles. The episode, which is wholly his own 
 Invention, was written during his intercourse with Merck, and 
 while his experience of academic teaching was still fresh and far 
 from edifying. 
 
 The "Spanish boots," of which Mephistopheles speaks, weiw
 
 382 FAUST. 
 
 instruments of torture used in the Middle Ages. They were case* 
 of wood, into which wedges were driven until the calves of tne 
 victim's legs were compressed into the smallest possible space. 
 
 The phrase encheiresin naturae signifies, properly, "a treatment 
 f Nature." Here, however, Goethe seems rather to indicate the 
 mysterious, elusive force by which Nature operates. 
 
 39. The little world, and then the great, we'll see. 
 The programme of both parts of Faust is given in this line. No 
 reference to the cabalistic Microcosm and Macrocosm is intended : 
 "the little world " is here Faust's individual experience of human 
 desires and passions. " The great world " is life on a broader stage 
 of action ; the narrow interests of the individual are merged in 
 those of the race ; and Government, War, activity on a grand scale 
 and for universal, permanent ends, succeed, in order that Faust'i 
 knowledge of the life of man shall be rounded into completeness. 
 The Second Part of the work is devoted to this latter experience. 
 
 40. I feel so small before others, and thence 
 
 Should always find embarrassments. 
 
 The following passage is the second of the Paralipomena, and 
 was undoubtedly designed as an answer to the above lines. It 
 seems to have been written at a later period, and we may conjecture 
 that Goethe omitted the lines because they are not in accord with 
 the manner of Mephistopheies throughout the scene : 
 
 Learn then from me to meet Society I 
 
 I come, both cheerful and collected, 
 
 And every heart is well-affected ; 
 
 I laugh, and each one laughs with me. 
 
 Rely, like me, upon your own pretences ; 
 
 There's something to be dared, you must reflect : 
 
 For eyen women easily forgive offences 
 
 If one respectfully forgets respect. 
 
 Not in divining-rods nor mandrake tragic, 
 
 But in good humour lies the best of magic : 
 
 If Tm in unison with all, 
 
 I do not see how trouble could befall. 
 
 Then to the work, and show no hesitation I 
 
 I only dread the preparation. 
 
 41. AUERBACH'S CELLAR IN LEIPZIG. 
 
 The locality of this scene possesses a double interest, through its 
 connection with the early Faust-legend and with the academic yean 
 of the young Goethe. If the stranger who visits Leipzig will seek 
 the large, ancient house, No. 1, Qrimmaische Strasse, near the 
 Market-Place, the sign " ATTERBACHS KELLER," nearly on a levei 
 with the sidewalk, will guide him down into the two vaulte4 
 chambers which have echoed to the wit and song and revelry of foul 
 centuries oi jolly companions. He may still take Faust's and 
 Goethe's place, at the head of the table in the farther room, order 
 kw wine from the eventieth or eightieth successor of the origina]
 
 JSTOTS8. 383 
 
 landlord, and, while awaiting the preparation of some old-fashionea 
 dish, study the two curious paintings, which have filled semi- 
 eircular spaces under the arches perhaps since the year 1525. 
 
 Legends of Faust are as plentiful in Germany as those of ko- 
 bolds or subterranean emperors ; but these pictures, I believe are 
 the only local records left to our day. 
 
 42. Soar up, Soar up, Dame Nightingale. 
 The couplet which Frosch sings belongs to several of the early 
 aongs of the people. The "Message of Love," written in 1639, 
 commences : 
 
 " Soar up, Dame Nightingale, speed high, 
 And to my sweetheart's window fly l v ' 
 
 Another song, of the same period, has these lines : 
 
 " Dame Nightingale, Dame Nightingale, 
 Many thousand time* my sweetheart hall I 
 
 The term "Dame Nightingale" was first used by the Minne- 
 lingers as early as the eleventh century, and has been perpetuated 
 in the popular songs and ballads. The second fragment which 
 Frosch sings, to annoy Siebel (who has been jilted and resents these 
 strains of love), appears to be Goethe's. 
 
 43. No doubt 'twas late when you from Rippach started t 
 Now draw the stoppers and drink your Jill ! 
 
 Rippach is the last post-station before reaching Leipzig, on tht 
 road from Weissonfels. The remark of Frosch is a part of the 
 "chaff" with which the older Burschen were accustomed to enter- 
 tain the Foxes, or Freshmen. "Hans von Rippach " is a slang 
 name, denoting a coarse, awkward, boorish fellow, in fact, an 
 equivalent for the Scotch Sawney, as it is used in some localities. By 
 hinting that Faust and Mephistopheles have been supping with 
 Hans von Rippach, Frosch takes a delicate way of saying that they 
 are ignorant country clowns, in comparison with the reiined Paris- 
 ians of Leipzig. 
 
 Goethe took the specimen of jugglery from the legend, where, 
 however, it is not performed by Mephistopheles but by Faust. 
 
 44. Witches' Kitchen. 
 
 Neither this scene nor the Walpurgis-Night (Scene XXI.) has any 
 connection with the Faust-legend. The chief motive of the Witches' 
 Kitchen is, of course, the passional rejuvenation of Faust, as intro- 
 ductory to the episode of Margaret ; but Goethe, with a wilful 
 spirit, not unfrequently manifested in his life and writings, soems to 
 have also designed burlesqueing the machinery of witchcraft and ita 
 use in literature. 
 
 There has been a great deal of not very important discussion as 
 to the meaning of the word MterkotfA. It has been translated
 
 384 FAUST. 
 
 "Monkey," "Baboon," "Cat-Ape," "Cat," and "Little Ring- 
 tailed Monkey." I follow Mephistopheles, himself, in using the 
 word " Ape,'' ( Wie glucklich wurde sich der A/e sch'dtzen f ) which 
 will answer as well as any other for those who insist on symbolism. 
 Goethe probably took his Meerkatzen from the legend of Reinekf 
 Fuchs, wherein they are introduced. 
 
 45. Full thirty years from my existence. 
 
 There is here an apparent contradiction between the age of Faust 
 and that which is implied in the first scene. The deduction of 
 thirty years, we must suppose, should leave him as a youth of 
 twenty, to begin his new experience of life ; yet we can hardly 
 imagine the man who has been teaching for only ten years, and has 
 barely attained his Doctor's degree, to be more than thirty-five. 
 Duntzer thinks this is an oversight of Goethe, arising from the long 
 interval between the composition of the two scenes. 
 
 45.* Wertthou the thief. 
 
 The art of divination by means of a sieve (koskinomancy) was 
 known to the ancients : it is mentioned in the third idyl of Theo- 
 critus. In the life of Campanella the Dominican monk, with 
 whose work, De Sensu Serum, Goethe appears to have been ac- 
 quainted the following story occurs: "Some boys had lost a 
 mantle, and in order to find out whither it had taken its flight, they 
 hung up a sieve by the middle on a peg, and then uttered the words 
 ' In the name of St. Peter and in the name of St. Paul, has not so 
 and so stolen the mantle ? ' They went over a number of names in 
 the same manner, but the sieve remained immovable, till they 
 pronounced the name of Flavius, and then it began to wheel round 
 about. Campanella, who saw it, was much astonished, and prayed 
 with the boys that God would not suffer them to be blinded by the 
 devil ; and, on making the trial again, as soon as the name of 
 Flavius was pronounced, it began to wheel round about in a circle." 
 Adelung, Blackie's translation. 
 
 46. This is the Witch's once-one' s-one I 
 
 The common schoolboy term for the multiplication-table in 
 Germany is Einmaleins, from its commencement, Einmal eins isi 
 tins once one is one I The jargon which the witch declaims from 
 the book is nothing but a nonsensical parody of the cabalistic 
 formula of the Middle Ages, wherein mystical properties are attri- 
 buted to numbers. 
 
 In the Paralipomena, there is a verse which is generally attri- 
 buted to the omitted Disputation, yet which seems more appropriatt 
 bi this place. Mephistopheles says (apparently to Faust) : 
 
 Now, once for all, mark this, I pray 
 A maxim weighty for thine actions I 
 No mystery tie numbers here convey, 
 Yet there's a great one in the fractions
 
 NOTES. 385 
 
 47. MARGAKKT. 
 
 We now take leave of the original Faust-legend, which will not 
 again be encountered until the appearance of Helena, in the Second 
 Part. The episode of Margaret is Goethe's own creation, from 
 beginning to end, and herb, even more than in the first monologue 
 of Faust, he "delved in his own breast " for the passion which he 
 represents. Margaret is drawn partly from her namesake, whom 
 Goethe, as a boy of sixteen, imagined he loved ; and partly from 
 his betrothed, Lili (Anna Elizabeth SchOnemann, the daughter of a 
 banker iu Frankfurt), for whom he felt probably the strongest love 
 of his life, at the time these scenes of his Faust were written. 
 
 48. In Padua, buried, he is lying, 
 Beside the good Saint Antony. 
 
 If this is anything more than a random statement of Mephis- 
 topheles, the irony is neither keen nor especially important. Th 
 Saint is not the Antony of the Desert and the temptations and the 
 Irish ballad, but Antonio of Padua, a relative of Godfrey of Bouil- 
 lon. He was born in Lisbon in 1195, preached with such fervour 
 that even the fishes rose to the surface of the sea to listen to him, 
 and died in Padua in 1231. The splendid basilica in which hii 
 ashes rest was not completed until two centuries later. His chapel, 
 with its alti rilievi by Lombardi, Sansovino, and others, still 
 attracts the student of art. 
 
 Interments within the walls of cathedrals and churches in Italy 
 Were not prohibited until the year 1809. 
 
 49. For thou art right, especially since I must 
 Faust, in this line, admits his dependence on the aid of Mephis 
 fopheles, and the necessity of giving false testimony in order to 
 procure an interview with Margaret. No change in the character 
 of his passion is implied. 
 
 There is a passage in the Paralipomena which seems naturally to 
 belong here, although some of the German commentators have 
 <nven it a different place. Mepbistopheles says, apparently after 
 Faust's departure, when he has impatiently spoken the above 
 tin*: 
 
 "Tis hard Indeed, the younker's ways commanding : 
 
 Tet, as his tutor, I've no fear 
 
 I shall not rule the madcap, notwithstanding, 
 
 And nothing else concerns me here. 
 
 His own desires I let him follow slowly, 
 
 Tliat mine, as well, may be accomplished wholly 
 Much do I talk, yet always leave him frc.e ; 
 If what he does should quite too stupid I*, 
 My wisdom, then, must make a revelation, 
 And I must drag him forth, as by the hair ; 
 Yet, while one strives the fully to rejwiir, 
 One gives for other folly freh occasion.
 
 386 FAUST. 
 
 50. She plucks a star-flower. 
 
 The original. Sternblume, may mean either a china aster, 
 a star-of-Bethlehem, a variety of primrose or of jonquil. 
 Various modes of amorous divination by means of flowers 
 were known to the ancients (one of them is mentioned by 
 Theocritus), and the minnesinger Walther von der Vogelweide 
 describes a very similar method of ascertaining whether a 
 lover's affection is returned. The single daisy (Gdnseblumchen 
 in German) is sometimes used for the same purpose, but it 
 is a garden-flower, of course, which Margnret plucks. 
 
 51. 1C cu if nobody had nothing to fetch and carry. 
 The effect of a doable negative in German is precisely the same 
 as in English, and it belongs equally to the vulgar dialect. Goethe 
 introduces it intentionally here as well as hi Scene XVI., where 
 Margaret says, speaking of Mephistopheles : "One sees that in 
 nothing no interest he hath. " I have not felt at liberty to correct 
 these purposed inelegances, as most translators have done. They 
 are trifling touches, it is true, but they belong to the author's 
 design. 
 
 52. " Were I a little bird I " so runs her tong. 
 This it an old song of the people in Germany. Herder published 
 it in bis Volksliedcr, in 1779 ; but it was no doubt already familial 
 to Goethe in his childhood. 
 
 53. And vx'll scatter chaff before her door. 
 
 The word h&ckerling signifies either chaff or chopped straw. The 
 old German custom, which is still observed in some parts of the 
 country, allowed the bridal wreath only to chaste maidens. If one of 
 sullied reputation ventured to assume it, the wreath was torn froin 
 her head, and sometimes replaced with one of straw, while on th 
 eve of the marriage chaff or chopped straw was scattered before her 
 door. A widow who marries again is allowed to wear a wreath, but 
 not the myrtle of the maiden bride. 
 
 Church-penance for unchastity was also formerly common hi 
 England. In Germany the guilty person was obliged to kneel 
 before the altar, clad in a "sinners shift," while the clergyman 
 Mverely rated her conduct, and read her petition for pardon. 
 
 54. DONJON. 
 
 The word Ztringer, which Goethe uses, corresponds to our 
 "rtronghold" or " donjon keep," but is also sometimes applied to 
 the open angular space between the wall of a town and one of the 
 fortified /pates. Goethe seems to use the word in the latter sense. 
 The shriiie of a saint was frequently placed in the re-entering angle, 
 between which and the city-wall there would be a partly enclosed 
 pace. Mephistophelea represent* Margaret as watching the clouds 
 "over the old city-wall," from her window, whence her home must
 
 NOTES. 587 
 
 have b*en in the street nearest to it, and the shrine of the Mater 
 Dolorosa, being close at hand, would become her accustomed place 
 f prayer. I have followed all other translators in using the word 
 ionjon, simply because we have no English word to describe the 
 locality. 
 
 55. Saw splendid Hem-dollars irit. 
 
 The remark of Faust refers, apparently, to some buried treasure 
 which Mephistopheles has promised to raise for him. " Lion-dol- 
 lars" are of Dutch coinage, and so called both from the city of the 
 Louvain (in German, LOVKU lion), in Brabant, where they were first 
 struck, and from the ligure of a lion on the obverse. They are also 
 sometimes named " Brabaixters." A few specimens are still oc- 
 casionally seen in Germany : their value is about eighty-five cents. 
 Hayward is mistaken in saying that the lion-dollar is a Bohemian 
 coin. 
 
 56. Rat-catching piper, thou/ 
 
 Browning's poem of " The Pied Piper of Hamelin " is so well- 
 known that I need not give the old German legend to which Valen- 
 tine's exclamation refers. Goethe's song, Dcr Rattenfanger, ex- 
 presses still more clearly the meaning which he attaches to the 
 phrase. The man who charms innocent maidens by his seductive 
 arts, even as the piper by the notes of his magical pipe charmed the 
 rats of Hamelin, is a rat-catcher. 
 
 67. Dies iree, dies itta. 
 
 Goethe has elsewhere acknowledged the powerful impressiot 
 which this old Latin chant made upon himself. Some have attri- 
 buted its authorship to Gregory the Great, and others to Bernhard 
 of Clairvaux; but the scholars seem now to be generally agreed that 
 it is not of later origin than the thirteenth century, and that 
 Thomas of Celano was probably its author. It was accepted by the 
 Roman Church, as one of the sequentia of the requiem, before the 
 year 1385. The original text is engraved upon a marble tablet in 
 the church of St. Francesco in Mantua. The present form of the 
 chant is supposed to have been given by Felix Hammerlin (in the 
 early part of the fifteenth century), who omitted the former opening 
 stanzas, and added some others at the close. In this form it has 
 appeared in the Catholic missals, since the Council of Trent The 
 chant has been translated upwards of seventy times into German, 
 and fifteen times into English. 
 
 58. Neighbmirl your cordial/ 
 
 The original word, Ffoschchen, means simply a phial ; but it is 
 evidently the neighbour's pocket-flagon of smelling-salts for which 
 Margaret asks. In most of the English versions we find ' ' smelling- 
 bottle," but Mr. W. Taylor of Norwich, in his "Historic Survey of 
 German Poetry " (London 1880), says "Your Dram-bottl !"
 
 388 FAUST. 
 
 59. 
 
 The title and character of the Witches' Sabbath on the summit 
 
 Willibald and Wunnibald, and emigrated with them from England 
 to Germany, as followers of St. Boniface, in the eighth century. 
 She died as abbess of a convent at Heidenheim, in Franconia, and 
 after the extirpation of the old Teutonic faith became one of the 
 most popular saints, not only in Germany, but also in Holland and 
 England. The first of May, which was given to her in the calendar, 
 was the ancient festival day of the Druids, when they made sacri- 
 fices upon their sacred mountains, and kindled their May-fires. 
 Inasmuch as their gods became devils to their Christian descend- 
 ants, the superstition of a conclave of wizards, witches, and fiends 
 on the Brocken or Blocksberg naturally arose, and the name of 
 the pious Walpurgis thus became irrevocably attached to the 
 diabolical anniversary. The superstition probably grew from the 
 circumstance that the Druidic rites were celebrated by night, and 
 secretly, as their followers became few. 
 
 60. How raves the tempett through the air I 
 The word wbich I have translated "tempest," is Windsbraut 
 (wind's-bride) in the original. It is the word employed by Luther, 
 in his translation of the Bible, for the italicized words in the follow- 
 ing verse from Acts (rrvii. 14) : "But not long after there arose 
 against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon." A sudden and 
 violent storm is still called Windsbraut by the common people, in 
 some parts of Germany. 
 
 61. Sir Urian sits over all. 
 
 Sir Urian is a name which was formerly used to designate an un- 
 known person, or one whose name, even if known, it was not thought 
 proper to mention. In this sense it was sometimes applied to the 
 Devil. In the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach, the unprin- 
 cipled Prince of Punturtois, is called Urian. 
 
 62. Alone, old Baubo's coming now. 
 
 Baubo, in the Grecian myths, was the old nurse of Demeter, 01 
 Ceres ; who, when the latter was plunged in grief for the loss of 
 Persephone, endeavoured to divert her by indecent stories and 
 actions, and thus, finally, provoked her to laughter. Goethe, 
 therefore, makes her symbolize the gross, shameless sensuality, 
 which, according to all popular traditions, characterized the con- 
 gregations of the witches, wizards, and devils. 
 
 68. Make room/ Squire Voland comes f 
 
 " In the poets of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries we fre. 
 luently meet with the word Volant as a designation of the Devil.
 
 NOTES. 389 
 
 In Berthold's Diary we find the Evil One once named as Squire Vol- 
 land in the play of Frau Jutta as the Evil Volland. The word 
 rwans either 'seducer' or ' the Wicked One.' " Diintzer. 
 
 64. MEPHISTOPHELES ( who allot once appears very old). 
 
 The remaining fragments (Paralipomena) which belong to th 
 VFalpurgis- Night may properly be given here : 
 
 MEFHISTOPHKLEB. 
 
 Though but a bagpipe, give us music I Haste I 
 We have, like many noble fellows, 
 Much appetite and little taste. 
 
 MEPHISTOPHELKS. 
 
 The piper famous 
 Of Hamelin, also mine old friend, 
 The dear rat-catcher who can tame us, 
 How goes 
 
 THE RAT-CATCHER OF HAMKLIM. 
 I'm very well indeed, I thank you ; 
 I am a hale and well-fed man, 
 Of twelve Philanthropies the patron, 
 And therewithal [a charlatan}. 
 
 65. Adam't first wife i Jie. 
 
 Burton, in his " Anatomy of Melancholy," says : "The Talmu- 
 dists say that Adam had a wife called Lilis before he married Eve, 
 and of her he begat nothing but devils. " 
 
 The name, from the Hebrew root, Lil t darkness, signifies th/ 
 Nocturnal. The word occurs in Isaiah (xxxiv. 14) ; in the Vulgate 
 it is translated Lamia, in Luther's Bible Kobold, and in our English 
 version screech-owl. According to the Rabbinical writings, Lilith 
 was created at the same time with Adam, in such a manner that he 
 and she were joined together by the back, as it is written, ' ' male 
 and female created He them, and called their name Adam.'' In 
 this condition they did not agree at all, but quarrelled and tore each 
 other continually. Then the Lord repented that he had made them 
 BO, and separated them into two independent bodies ; but even thus 
 they would not live in peace, and when Lilith devoted herself to 
 witchcraft and courted the society of Devils, Adam left her 
 altogether. A new wife, Eve, was afterwards created, to compen- 
 sate him for his domestic misfortune. 
 
 Lilith is described as having beautiful hair, in the meshes of 
 which lurk a multitude of evil spirits. She has such power over 
 infants for eight days after birth for boys, and twenty days for 
 girls that she is able to cause their death. It was therefore the cus- 
 tom to hang aii amulet, inscribed with the names of the angels Senoi, 
 Sansenoi, and Sanmangeloph, around the child's neck at birth ; and 
 from the Latin exorcism Lilla obi ! sung by the mother, some have 
 derived our word Lullaby, although it has also a more obvious deriva- 
 tion. Lilith was equally aseductress of young men, using her golden
 
 S90 FAUST. 
 
 bur w lure to captivate them ; bnt the youth who loved he* 
 always died, and after his death a single hair from her head was found 
 twisted around his heart. Mr. Dante Gabriel Rossetti has embodied 
 this tradition in a fine sonnet. 
 
 66. PKOKTOPHANTASMIST. 
 
 In Goethe's original manuscript and in the first edition of Faust 
 this name is given as " Broktophantasmist, " as in Shelley's English 
 and Stapfer's French version. The mistake was therefore Goethe's 
 and not theirs, as later translators have charged. The word (from 
 WPKT&S. the buttocks) points so directly to Friedrich Nicolai, the 
 Berlin author and publisher, that there is no difficulty in interpret- 
 ing Goethe's satire. 
 
 67. We are, so vrite, and yet is Tegel haunted. 
 Nicolai's arrogant manner is parodied in this passage. Since he 
 does not believe in the spirits, it is incredible that they will not 
 vanish. His annoyance at their appearance in Tegel a small castle, 
 a few miles north-west of Berlin, originally built as a hunting-lodge 
 by the Elector of Brandenburg, and more recently known as the 
 home and burial-place of Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt 
 is explained by the circumstance that in 1797 apparitions were de- 
 clared to have visited the castle. So much excitement was created 
 by the report, that an official visit to Tegel was made by the 
 authorities, and attempts were instituted, but without success, to 
 discover the cause of the ghostly sights and sounds. 
 
 68. A red mouse from her mouth. 
 
 Goethe here refers to an old superstition concerning one of the 
 many forms of diabolical possession. 
 
 69. The Prater shows no livelier stir. 
 
 The Prater (from the Latin pratum, a meadow) is the famous 
 public park of Vienna, which the Emperor Joseph II. dedicated 
 "To the Human Race." It is an island enclosed by arms of the 
 Danube, covered with a fine forest which is intersected in all direc- 
 tions by magnificent drives and walks. On holidays, Sundav 
 afternoons, and pleasant summer evenings half the population of 
 Vienna may be found in the Prater, which is one of the liveliest and 
 checrfullest places of recreation in Europe. 
 
 70. SEKVIBILIB. 
 This term corresponds to the " supernumerary " of our theatres. 
 
 71. OBKRON'AND TITANIA'S GOLDEN WEDDING. 
 
 * ** * d
 
 NOTES 891 
 
 72. Soru of Mieding, reat in-day. 
 
 Mieding was a thiatre-decorator at Weimar, and a great favourite 
 of Goethe and the Ducal Court. After his death, in 1782, Goethe 
 celebrated him in the poem, " Mieding' s Death." 
 
 78. ARIEL. 
 
 Ariel is caDed frum the " Tempeat " to join his fellow-elve* 
 Here he evidently 'represent* Poetry, the pure element, above 
 and untouched by the fashions of the day. 
 
 74. A LITTLE COUPLE. 
 
 Hartung thinks the Counts Stolberg are the couple ; but this is 
 improbable, since they are afterwards introduced as the Weather- 
 rock. Diintzer asserts that the verse represent* the union of bad 
 music and commonplace poetry. 
 
 75. INQUISITIVE TBAVELLEB 
 
 Tnis is'Nicolai, in another mask. The meaning of his reference 
 to Oberon is not very clear, unless the latter represents the classic 
 school. When he speaks the second time in this Intermezzo the 
 Inquisitive Traveller describes himself much more distinctly. 
 
 76. ORTHODOX. 
 
 Here speaks the class of bigots who persecuted Leasing, assailed 
 Klopstock and Goethe, and declared Schiller's splendid poem, 
 "The Gods of Greece," to be "a combination of the most out- 
 rageous idolatry and the dreariest atheism." This phrase is from 
 Count Friedrich Stolberg, who became one of the mouth-pieces of 
 the sect. His attack is thus answered in the Xenien .- 
 
 "When thou the Qoda of Grew* blasphemed, then cast thee Apollo 
 Down from Parnassus ; and now goest thou to Heaven instead." 
 
 77. NORTHERN ARTIST. 
 
 Some suppose this to be the Danish artist Carstens, who died u 
 Rome, in 1798 ; others select Fernow, a writer on art, who spent some 
 years in Rome with Carstens ; others again insist that it is Goethe 
 himself. Inasmuch as the point made in the verse has become very 
 obscure, and was probably not originally brilliant, the reader may 
 take his choice of these conjectures. 
 
 78. WEATHERCOCK. 
 Undoubtedly the Counts Stolberg. 
 
 79. XENIBS. 
 
 The word signifies gifts, presented to a visitor. After theh 
 publication in the Afiisenalmanach, the storm which arose against 
 them became so furious that they were denounced in some quarters at 
 having been directly inspired by the Devil. Hence the allusion to 
 ' Papa Satan."
 
 392 
 
 80. HBNNIXGS. 
 
 The Danish Chamberlain Friedrich von Hennings, in his literary 
 journal, the " Genius of the Age," attacked Goethe and Sjjffler. 
 
 The first verse parodies his abuse of Goethe and Schiller; the 
 second hints that he would be more at home among Blocksberg 
 witches than as a leader of the Muses ; and the third satirizes his 
 practice of giving a place on the German Parnassus to such authors 
 as flattered himby an obsequious respect for his critical views. 
 
 81. CRANE. 
 
 " Lavater was a thoroughly good man, but he was subjected to 
 powerful illusions, and the severe and total truth was not his con 
 
 cern : he deceived himself and others. His gait was like that 
 
 of a crane, for which reason he appears as the Crane on the Blocks- 
 berg." Goetheto Eckerrmamn, 1829. 
 
 82. WORLDLING. 
 
 WeUkind, literally "world-child," a term which Goethe applies 
 to himself in his epigrammatic poem. 
 
 83. IDIALIST. 
 
 It is generally admitted that this is Fichte, who, to borrow th 
 words of a German commentator, "comprehended the Not-Me 
 itself as a product of the self-determined Me, and not as something 
 existing externally to the Me." When Goethe heard that a com- 
 pany of riotous students had collected before Fichte's house and 
 smashed his windows in with stones, he remarked that Fichte 
 might now convince himself, in the most disagreeable way, that it 
 was possible "for a Not-Me to exist, externally to the Me." 
 
 84. And aU is dissipated. 
 
 The transition from this Intermezzo to the succeeding scene of 
 Faust is too violent, and we cannot help wishing that the course of 
 the drama had not been thus interrupted. Goethe, however, not 
 only projected, but partly wrote an additional scene, devoted exclu- 
 sively to the pure diabolism of the mediaeval traditions. While we 
 must admit that a correct instinct led him to withhold it, we still 
 must feel that an intermediate scene is necessary. The gap which 
 we recognize was felt by the author, whose work was produced at 
 long intervals of time, and in fragments the character of which was 
 determined by his moods of mind. But he always preferred an 
 abrupt chasm to an unsatisfactory bridge. 
 
 The projected scene is generally styled " The Broken Scene " by 
 the German commentators, although Hartung takes the liberty of 
 calling it " The Court of Satan." I translate it (with the exception 
 of one short passage) precisely as it is given in the Paralipomena, 
 with its rapid short-hand outlines, its incomplete dialogues and 
 omitted lines, and leave all comment to the reader :
 
 NOTES. 
 
 393 
 
 THB HAKTZ MOUNTAINS. 
 A HIGHER REGION. 
 
 After the Intermezzo: Solitude, Desert, blasts of trumpet*. Lightning, 
 chunder from above. Columns of fire, stifling smoke. Rock projecting there- 
 from : 'tis Satan. Much people around : delay : means of pressing through : 
 injury : cries. Chant : they stand in the inner circle : the heat almost insup- 
 portable. Who stands next in the circle. Satan's address : presentation! : 
 investitures. Sinking of the apparition. Volcano. Disorderly dissolution, 
 breaking and storming away. 
 
 SUMMIT OF THE BROCKEK. . 
 
 SATAH on *;, Throne. A Crowd of People around. FAUST and ME^HISTOPHKLBH 
 in the nearett circle. 
 
 SATAN (speaking from the throni). 
 The goats to the left hand, 
 The bucks to the right 1 
 The goats, they have scented 
 The bucks with delight : 
 And though in their nostrils 
 The sense were increased, 
 The goats would endure it, 
 Nor shrink in the least. 
 
 CHORUS. Fall down on your face*, 
 Your Master adore I 
 lie teaches the people, 
 With pleasure, his lore. 
 To his oracles hearken : 
 Hell show yon the clews 
 To the endless existence 
 That Nature renews ! 
 
 SATAN (turning to the right). 
 two things are before you, 
 Both splendid and grand ; 
 The glittering gold 
 
 The one is purveyor, 
 The other devours ; 
 Then blest, who possess* 
 Together their powers 1 
 
 A VOICE. What sayi then Ui 
 
 Master? 
 
 Remote from his station, 
 I catch not so clearly 
 The precious oration. 
 I cannot detect them, 
 The beautiful clews, 
 Nor see the existence 
 That Nature renews I 
 
 SATAN (turning to the tejt). 
 Two things are before you 
 Of brilliancy clear : 
 The glittering gold 
 
 Then learn, all ye women, 
 Through gold to enjoy 
 
 CHORDS. Fall down on your faces. 
 Adoringly stirred I 
 blest, who is nearest 
 And heareth the word I 
 
 A VOICE. I stand at a distance 
 And listen o steady, 
 O 
 
 Tet many a word has 
 Escaped me already. 
 Who'll clearly repeat them? 
 Who'll show me the clews 
 To the endless existence 
 That Nature renews ? 
 
 MEPHIS. (Jo a young witch). 
 Why weep'st thou, lovely little dear 
 'Tis not the place to shed a tear. 
 Hast thou been in the crowd too 
 rudely pushed and penned? 
 
 MAIDEN. Ah, no I The Master 
 speaks so singular 
 
 And all are so delighted, it appears ; 
 Perhaps the great one, only, com- 
 
 MEPHIB. But, sweetheart, come 
 
 now, dry thy tears I 
 80 that the Devil's meaning reach 
 thine ears, 
 
 SATAN. Ye young ones before na 
 To stand ye are bidden ; 
 I see that on broomsticks 
 Ye hither have ridden: 
 
 SEPARATE AUDIB 
 
 X. Let me attain to that-- 
 
 The power whereto thou knowest nu 
 
 aspirant, 
 
 Then gratefully, though born a De- 
 mocrat, 
 
 HI kiss thy hoofs no less, O Tyrant ! 
 
 MASTER OF CEREMONIES. The 
 
 hoofs I but once may that befall : 
 
 Thou must make up thy mind to go 
 
 still further. 
 X. What, then, requires the ritual! 
 
 SATAN. Viasal.thou tested art I 
 Now o'er a million souls thy freehold 
 
 reaches: 
 He who can praise like thee ths 
 
 Devil's 
 
 Shall never lack in sycophautlr 
 
 .peeche..
 
 394 FA UST. 
 
 ANOTHER PART OF THE BBOCKRS 
 LOWER Rrxjioit. 
 
 Vision * Judgment. Crowd. They climb a tree. Remarks of tho popto 
 On burning soil. The Idol naked. The hands bonnd on the back. 
 
 CHANT Where hot and fresh flows human blood, 
 
 For magic spells the reelr is good. 
 The brotherhood, both black and gray, 
 Wins power for works that shun the day. 
 What hints of blood, we most require ; 
 What spills it, answers our desire. 
 Round flre and blood a measure tread I 
 For now in flre shall blood be shed. 
 
 The wench she points, we know the sigmj 
 The toper drinks, 'tis blood, not wine. 
 The look, the drink, end whaf a begun ; 
 The dagger's bare, the deed is done. 
 Flows ne'er alone a fount of blood, 
 But other streamlets join the flood : 
 From place to place they gush and glide, 
 And gather more to swell the tide. 
 
 The head falls off: the blood leaps and extinguishes the fire. Night 
 tumult. Chattering of Devil's changelings. Thereby Faust learns. 
 
 Some of the German commentators suppose that the " black and 
 gray brotherhood " of this concluding chant of the Franciscan and 
 Dominican monastic orders, and therefore that the fragment refers 
 directly to the Inquisition. Diintzer asserts that the heading 
 "Another Part of the Brock en" indicates that this is a separate 
 outline for the whole scene, intended as a substitute for the fore- 
 going fragments, not as a continuation of them. 
 
 85. THE RAVBNSTONE. 
 
 The " Ravenstone " is the old German word for a place of execu- 
 tion. Byron probably remembered the expression, from Shelley's 
 oral translation, when he wrote, in a rejected chorus of th 
 " Deformed Transformed " : 
 
 " The raven sits 
 On the raven-stone." 
 
 86. My mother, the harlot. 
 
 The song which Margaret sings is a Yariation of one in the Low 
 German dialect, in a story called the Machandel-Boom (The Juniper. 
 Tree ; the English translator, mistaking Machandel for Jfandel, 
 renders it " almond-tree "), included by the brothers Grimm in theil 
 'veil-known collection of popular fairy lore.
 
 NOTES. 395 
 
 NOTES TO THE SECOND PART. 
 
 1. ARIEL. 
 
 This first scene has the character of a Prologue to the Second 
 Part of Faust, the action of which commences with the following 
 scene. An indefinite period of time separates the two parts of the 
 drama. Neither in his own life nor in his poetical creations did 
 Goethe ever give space to remorse for an irrevocable deed. When 
 Faust disappears with Mephistopheles, all his later torture of soul 
 has been already suggested t the reader, and nothing of it can 
 properly be introduced here, where the whole plan and scope of the 
 work is changed. 
 
 2. Four pauses makes the Night upon her courses. 
 Goethe here refers to the four vigilice, or night-watches, of the 
 Romans, each of three hours ; so that the whole, from six in the 
 evening until six in the morning, include both sunset and sunrise. 
 
 3. CHORUS. 
 
 The four verses of the Chorus correspond to the four vigilice* 
 The first describes the evening twilight ; the second, the dead of 
 night; the third, the coming of the dawn; and the fourth, the 
 awaking to the day. The direction in regard to the chanting of 
 the verses by the alternate or collective voices of the elves was 
 added, in view of the possible representation of the drama upon 
 the stage. 
 
 4. Look up/ The mountain summits, grand, supernal. 
 The scene described is Swiss, and from the neighbourhood of th 
 uake of the Four Forest Cantons. Goethe's projected journey to 
 Italy in 1797 terminated with a tour in that region, in company 
 irith the artist Meyer. 
 
 5. The spheres of Hour and House are in his ken. 
 
 The astrologers divided the celestial hemisphere into twelve parts, 
 which were called Houses. In casting a horoscope, it was neces- 
 sary to have, first, the hour of birth and the latitude and longitude 
 of the birthplace. The location of the sun, moon, planets, and the 
 signs of the zodiac in the different houses, was then ascertained. 
 As each house represented a special human interest or passion, and 
 each planet a special controlling force, the various combinations 
 which thus arose furnished the material out of which the horoscope 
 was constructed. 
 
 The speech of the Astrologer, prompted by Mephistopheles, refen 
 to the seven metals, to which the mediaeval alchemists attached the 
 names of the seven planets. The sun is gold, the moon silver ; 
 Mercury is quicksilver, Venus copper, Mars iron Jupiter tin, and 
 Saturn lead
 
 396 FAUST. 
 
 6. There lies the fiddler, there the gold/ 
 
 Clemens Brentano, in his " Boy's Wonder-horn," states that it i:- 
 a common superstition in Germany, that, when one accidentally 
 stumbles, he is passing over the spot where a fiddler is buried. 
 
 The expressions of Mephistopheles refer to the power of divination 
 supposed to be possessed by certain persons. 
 
 7. He seeks saltpetre where the clay-walls stand. 
 
 Old walls, especially in damp cellars and subterranean passages, 
 become covered with an incrustation of saltpetre, the collection of 
 which was formerly a government monopoly. 
 
 8. A cask of tartar holds the wine. 
 
 It is a general belief in Germany that when a cask of wine has 
 been kept for centuries, it gradually deposits a crust of tartar, which 
 may acquire such a consistency as to hold the liquid when the 
 staves have rotted away. The wine thus becomes its own cask, and 
 preserves itself in a thick, oily state. It is then supposed to possess 
 wonderful medicinal powers. 
 
 9. CARNIVAL MASQUERADE. 
 
 In the "Carnival Masquerade " we reach the first entangling epi 
 sode of the Second Part of Faust. That the entire scene is an 
 allegory is evident ; and we can scarcely be mistaken in assuming 
 its chief motive to be the representation of the human race in its 
 
 social and political organisation. 
 The scene of the Masquerade is 
 
 not in Italy, as some suppose, 
 
 but at the German Court, after the Emperor's return from his coro- 
 nation by the Pope, at Rome. Maximilian I. was the first German 
 Emperor who omitted this ceremony. 
 
 10. OLIVE-BRANCH, WITH FRUIT. 
 
 If the allegory is consistently developed, we must suppose that 
 the Olive-Branch, the Wreath of Ears, and the Fancy-Wreath are 
 types of female character, or of the different forms of attraction 
 whereby women draw towards them the complementary male 
 characters. 
 
 11. What our name is, Theophrastiis. 
 
 The reference is not to Theophrastus Paracelsus, but to Theo- 
 phrastus of Lesbos, born B.C. 390, the disciple of Plato and the 
 uccessor of Aristotle. Among his extant works is a " Natural 
 History of Plants," a translation of which, by Sprengel, was pub- 
 lished at Altona, in 1822 ; and his name was probably thereby sug- 
 gested to Goethe. 
 
 The "Fancy Nosegay" seems to be designed as a type of the 
 wilful, artful, bewildering power of woman, which does not attract 
 all of the opposite sex, but the more surely fascinates a portion of it. 
 12. WOOD-CUTTERS. PULCINELLI. PARASITES. 
 
 The ruder and less attractive nay, frequently repellent -ele- 
 ments of Society are represented in these three classes
 
 NOTES. 397 
 
 18. DRUNKEN MAN. 
 
 Goethe's object, here, is to represent sensual indulgence, of which 
 intemperance is but one form. 
 
 14. THE GRACES. 
 
 Here the masks r epresent social qualities and forces, not varieties 
 of individual character. In the Graces we see giving, receiving, 
 and thanking or acknowledging, not in the narrower sense of an 
 act, but as symbolical of the intercourse of men the communica- 
 tion of one nature to another, the impressions bestowed and re- 
 ceived, the reciprocal appreciation of character. 
 
 According to Hesiod, the Graces were Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and 
 Thalia. In place of the latter Goethe substituted Hegemone (one 
 of the two Graces revered by the Athenians), perhaps for the reason 
 that the name of Thalia is better known as that of a Muse. 
 
 15. THE PARC*. 
 
 Here, Goethe has purposely changed the parts of Atropos and 
 Clotho. The former carefully spins a soft and even thread, warning 
 the maskers that it must not be stretched too far, even in enjoy- 
 ment. Clotho, the youngest of the Fates, announces that the 
 shears have been given to her, because Atropos prolonged useless 
 lives and clipped the threads of the young and nopeful, and she, 
 therefore, thrusts the shears into the sheath, in order to make 110 
 similar mistakes. I confess I am unable to explain the exact sig- 
 nificance of this action. Some find in it a hint that the ancient 
 gloomy, inexorable idea of Fate is banished from modern society; 
 others that the needful moderation and self-control will make th 
 threatening shears unnecessary. 
 
 16. They are THE FTTRIES. 
 
 Here we have the activity of evil forces in society. Goethe 
 changes the Erinnys of the Greeks, who were represented as fierce, 
 baleful figures, with snakes and torches in their hands, into fair, 
 young, wheedling creatures, seemingly harmless as doves. Hia 
 design cannot be for a moment doubtei The unresting Alecto of 
 modern society is the insinuation that breeds mistrust, the slander 
 that wears an innocent face, the power that in a thousand ways 
 thrusts itself between approaching hearts and drives them apart. 
 Megaera typifies the alienation which arises from selfish whims, 
 from indifference or satiety; and Tisiphone alone, the avenging 
 Fury, remains true to her ancient name and office. 
 
 17. And here Asmodi as my follower lead. 
 Asmodi (or Aahmedai), the Destroyer, was an evil demon of the 
 Hebrews. He is mentioned in the Talmud, and Jewish tradition 
 reports that he once drove Solomon from his kingdom. Since, in 
 the Book of Tobias, he kills in succession the seven husbands of 
 Sara he has been credited with special enmity to married happi-
 
 398 FAUST. 
 
 ness. In this quality he appears as the follower of Megsera. Ai 
 " Asniodeua " we find him in Wieland's Oberon, and the Diabk 
 Poiteux of Lesage, through which he is almost as widely known at 
 Hephistopheles. 
 
 18. You tee a mountain pressing through the throng. 
 The Herald's expression, " For that which comes is not to you 
 allied," seems to indicate a change in the character of the allegory; 
 and I am disposed to agree with those who attach a political mean- 
 ing to the coming masks, rather than with those who would include 
 the latter in the representation of society. The former interpreta- 
 tion is certainly the more simple and complete. The elephant is 
 Civil Government, or The State, as another form of organised 
 human life. He is guided by Prudence, while on either hand walk 
 Fear and Hope, in fetters. Fear, who shrinks from every under- 
 taking, and Hope, who would undertake all things without con- 
 rideriug results, are, as Prudence declares, "two of the greatest of 
 human foes." They thus represent the political elements of blind 
 conservatism and reckless passion for change. In an ordered and 
 intelligent State both these forces are chained, Prudence guides the 
 colossal organism, and the Goddess of all victorious active forces 
 its aloft on her throne. Each change in the course of the allegory, 
 the reader will observe, commences with the bright and attractive 
 *spects of life and then advances to the opposite. 
 
 19. ZofLO-THERSITES. 
 
 Goethe takes Thersites from the Iliau, and unites him to the 
 Thracian barrator, Zoilus, who, in the third century before Christ, 
 became so renowned by his venomous abuse of Plato, Isocrates, and 
 especially Homer, that his name was applied by the Greeks to all 
 vulgar, malicious scolds. The two characters, combined, represent 
 the class of political slanderers, defamers of all good works, pes- 
 liniista in the most off en si ve sense. The characteristics of this class 
 are exhibited in still stronger and more repulsive forms, when 
 Zoflo- Thersites is changed into the Adder and Bat by the magic 
 wand of the Herald. 
 
 The " Murmurs of the Crowd " are here introduced, as in Scene 
 II., to supply the place of a Chorus, and assist in describing the 
 action. 
 
 20. Black lightning of the eyes, the dark locks glowing. 
 The costume of the Boy Charioteer, as described by the Herald, 
 is that of the Apollo Musagetes. 
 
 21. I am Profusion, I am Poesy! 
 
 The episode of Plutus and the Boy Charioteer is a double 
 allegory. The first and most direct interpretation is that which 
 belongs to the characters as a portion of the masquerade. The boy 
 ia not only Poetry, but the poetic element as it is manifested in 
 ill Art; and we may therefore say that he represents the highest
 
 NOTES. 399 
 
 Intellectual possessions, * Plurus represents material possessions. 
 Further on, we shall see the manner in which the cifU of both am 
 received by the multitude. 
 
 22. Thy brow when laurels decvrato 
 
 Have I not them with hand and fancy braided ) 
 The Chancellor von Muller, in his work, " Goethe as a Man of 
 Action, was the first and only one to discover the kev to these ex- 
 pressions. The noble and intimate relation which for fifty years 
 existed between the Grand Duke Karl August and Goethe th 
 Ruler and the Poet is here most delicately and feelingly drawn. 
 The manner in which the Grand Duke assisted Goethe in his flight 
 into Italy; the care with which he watched lest the duties of his 
 office should interfere with his poetic and scientific activity : the 
 beautiful renown given by the latter in return for this freedom, 
 are all indicated in a few lines. When the Herald first describes 
 Plutus, it is neither Faust nor Wealth whom we see, but Karl 
 August act Goethe saw him : 
 
 " Blest those, who may his favour own I 
 No more has he to earn or capture; 
 His glance detects where aught's amiss, 
 And to bestow his perfect rapture 
 U more than ownership and bliss." 
 
 The oonespondence between Goethe and the Grand Duke so 
 thoroughly justifies this interpretation, that I do not see how it can 
 be avoided. 
 
 28. Then Avaritia wan my name. 
 
 Mephistophelcs, true to his character of Negation, wears the mask 
 of Avarice, which is the opposite of active and ostentatiously ex- 
 hibited wealth. His address to the women is suggested by the dif- 
 ference of gender between the ancient Latin word, avaritia, which, 
 is feminine, and the German, der GWz, which is masculine. The 
 Women are perhaps introduced here, instead of the former mixed 
 crowd, because avarice is more repulsive to their nature and habits 
 than to those of the men. 
 
 24. GNOMES. 
 
 Duntzer assert* that the Fauns represent unrestricted indulgence 
 in all forms of sensual appetite ; the Satyrs the arrogant will of 
 Ruler who looks down upon and despises the people ; the Gnomes 
 the unbounded greed of power and wealth ; and the Giants the 
 stupid and stubborn nature of those counsellors who surround the 
 throne and endeavour to crush every movement arising from the 
 development of the people. Neither this nor any other of the more 
 particular elucidations of the scene seems to me infallible. Accord- 
 ing to Hartung, the Fauns are peasants (Bauem), and the Satyrs 
 demagogues. 
 
 The Gnomes are the only ones who have something more than an 
 allegorical part to play. They are evidently introduced as th
 
 400 FAUST. 
 
 guardians of buried treasure, in connection with the financial 
 scheme of Mephistophelea. 
 
 25. They house within their special Hades. 
 Goethe now returns to the original Faust-legend in giving Faust 
 the task of invoking the shades of Paris and Helena. In the 
 legend, however, Mephistopheles voluntarily produces Helena as a 
 wccuba, to be the spouse of Faust : here he remains true to his 
 Gothic character and his negation of Beauty. The heathen race, 
 he confesses, has its own special Hades, with which he has no con- 
 cern. His disinclination to assist Faust is so very evident that we 
 may almost ascribe to him an instinct of the elevating and purify- 
 ing influence which Helena, as the symbol of the Beautiful, will 
 afterwards exercise. Being, nevertheless, bound by the terms of 
 the compact, he consents to point out the method of invocation, 
 leaving the performance to Faust. 
 
 26. They are THE MOTHBBS ! 
 
 Here is the second enigma, a complete and satisfactory solution 
 of which is not to be expected. 
 
 Plutarch's mention of the Mothers is to be found in his Life of 
 Marcellus : " In Sicily there is a town called Engyium, not indeed 
 great, but very ancient and ennobled by the presence of the 
 Goddesses, called the Mothers. The temple, they say, was built by 
 the Cretans ; and they show some spears and brazen helmets, in- 
 scribed with the names of Meriones, and (with the same spelling as 
 in Latin) of Ulysses, who consecrated them to the Goddesses. " 
 
 The reader must bear in mind that Paris and Helena are togethei 
 typical of the highest and purest physical embodiment of the idea 
 of Beauty the Human Form and that Helena, alone, afterward* 
 becomes the symbol, both of Beauty and of the Classic element in 
 Art and Literature. The Mothers, therefore, (admitting the signi- 
 ficance of the name, which suggested their use to Goethe) must ol 
 necessity symbolize the original action of those elemental forces in 
 Man, out of which grew the aesthetic development of the race, in 
 whatever form. We may find the primitive source of all science in 
 material necessity ; our other knowledge is based upon the opera t ion 
 of natural laws : but the Idea of the Beautiful has a more mysterious 
 origin, springs from a diviner necessity, and finds only hints, not 
 perfect results, in the operations of Nature. 
 
 27. Here, take this key I 
 
 The symbols of the Key and the Tripod have given rise to much 
 speculation. Their meaning, of course, is entirely dependent upon 
 that which may be attributed to the Mothers, since the key is to 
 guide Faust to the latter, and then enable him to gain possession 
 of the tripod, the incense-smoke of which will shape itself into th 
 Ideals of Human Beauty. Schnetger and Kreyssig agree that the 
 tripod is a symbol of the profoundest wisdom, and the formej 
 attaches to it the idea of "intuition."
 
 NOTES. 401 
 
 28. A gentle kick permit, then, from my foot I 
 The motive of this scene seems to be to renew the contrast be- 
 tween the shallow, artificial society of the great world, and pure 
 devotion to ideal aims. At the same time it enables Mephiatopheles 
 to resume his old character, and Goethe (through him) to satirise 
 the homoeopathic theory of medicine, in the cure of the Brunette. 
 
 In the Paralipomena there are two fragments which seem to 
 belong here : 
 
 1TRPHI8TOPHELB8. 
 
 Court-doctors mast do every service: 
 We with the stars begin, and then 
 dome down at last to corns and bunion*. 
 
 The dapper race of courtiers here 
 
 Was only born for our vexation : 
 
 If some poor devil once is right, 'tis clear 
 
 The King thereof will never hear narration. 
 
 29. ARCHITECT. 
 
 The scene upon the stage is a Doric temple ; the massive character 
 of the pillars is here hinted, and the triglyphs are afterwards men- 
 tioned. By introducing the Architect, Goethe means not only to 
 satirise the exclusive devotion of the German mind to Gothic art, 
 but also to show hoVr the Classic and Romantic repel each other 
 when first brought into contact. 
 
 30. The form, that long erewhik my fancy captured. 
 
 This is one of the few references to the First Part, which we find 
 in the Second. Faust remembers the form which he saw in the 
 magic mirror, in the Witches'- Kitchen (First Part, Scene VI.), and 
 which, we may now be sure, was neither Margaret nor Helena. 
 
 Kreyssig alone, of all the German commentators, seems to have 
 tomprehended the spirit of this scene. He says : " The Artist has 
 seen his Ideal. His joy, his yearning, rises to a burning desire, 
 to a resolution so powerful that nothing can intimidate it. Again 
 the old, passionate blood seethes, although now wanned by a nobler 
 fire. The impetuous, rash attempt to win at one blow as a per- 
 manent possession that which has only been revealed in a fleeting 
 glimpse, fails, like his former attempt, through that radicl law, 
 which only gives the most precious gifts in return for labour and 
 patience. The apparition vanishes, and in the abrupt reaction we 
 see him, who would fain be superhuman, lying senseless on the 
 earth. The first assault of his ambitions claim has been resisted, 
 but his resolution remains irrevocable. He cannot, now, remain 
 longer at the Emperor's Court. The man of ideal vision and 
 creation must equally fail to find hia place there, as formerly among 
 the dissolute groups of the Blocksberg. The period of his intel- 
 lectually-artistic development and maturity commences, and the 
 poet inaugurates it by a series of sometimes varied and fantastic 
 allegories, in order to complete it afterwards in the Third Act, the 
 cenes of which are excellent and truly dramatic, in spite of all theu 
 symbolism and allegory. "
 
 403 FAUST. 
 
 81. Crotchets for ever must be hatched. 
 
 There is a pan in the German which cannot be given. Orillcn 
 means both crickets and crotchets or splenetic humours, the first 
 reference being to the insects which Mephistopheles has shaken out 
 
 Taking these two words in connection with the foregoing satire of 
 Mephistopheles, we may conjecture that the " Chorus of Insects ' 
 is intended to represent all the whims, crotchets, and theories of 
 mechanical scholarship, the verminiferous life which is bred in 
 the mould of pedantry. 
 
 82. BACCALATTKEUS. 
 
 The new Famulus, who is a spiritual descendant of the Wagnei 
 of the First Part, is introduced to give Mephistopheles the oppor- 
 tunity of continuing his irony. 
 
 83. But don't go, absolute, home from here. 
 There is a philosophical antithesis implied in the words "reso- 
 lute" and "absolute," in this couplet. Mephistopheles uses the 
 former word in its double sense of " determined " and " dissolved,' 
 while the latter, according to Kreyssig, is a sarcastic allusion to the 
 Hegelian philosophy. It would seem from what follows, however, 
 that Goethe had Fichte in his mind, rather than Hegel. 
 
 84. When one has passed his thirtieth year. 
 
 One then is just the same as dead. 
 
 The reference to Fichte is here not to be mistaken. The follow- 
 ing passage occurs in his works : " When they have passed their 
 thirtieth year, one well might wish, for their own reputation and 
 the advantage of the world, that they would die ; since, from that 
 age on, their lives will only be an increasing damage to themselves 
 and their associations." 
 
 85. HOMTJNCULTJB. 
 
 This whimsical, artificial mannikin is, in reality, the chief per- 
 sonage in Act II. Since he is no less an enigma to the critics than 
 the mysterious " Mothers," and suggests even a greater variety of 
 meanings in the course of his adventures, it will not be so easy to 
 give, in advance, a full and satisfactory explanation of his character. 
 The name and mode of origin of Homunculus are taken from Para- 
 celsus, and some hint of the character, possibly, from Sterne. 
 Paracelsus gives minute and exact directions how the Homuncului 
 may be created ; and the attempt has no doubt been actually 
 made thousands of times. Sterne, in the second chapter of Tristram 
 Shandy, treats the subject with more than his usual wit and grace, 
 averring that the Homunculus is as much a man and a brother at 
 the Lord Chancellor of England. The attraction which such a con- 
 ception I in tellectually speaking) presented to Goethe's mind maybi 
 wadily Kiiesaed
 
 NOTES. 403 
 
 88. Fair scenery I 
 
 In this passage Homunculus describes the dream of the sleeping 
 Faust, which is visible to him alone. 
 
 37. / may detect the dot upon the " I." 
 
 This expression (which Goethe sometimes uses in his correspon- 
 dence to denote finish, completion) is explained by the endeavour 
 of Homunculus, afterwards, to break the glass in which his artificial 
 being is confined, and commence a free and natural existence. 
 
 38. CLASSICAL WALPTTOGIS-NIGHT. 
 
 This allegory occupies the same place in the Second Act as the 
 Carnival Masquerade in the first, and, like it, is a digression from 
 the direct course of the drama. Unlike it, however, its substance 
 is poetic rather than didactic. 
 
 When we have once accepted his double intention of conducting 
 Faust to a higher plane of life through the awakening and develop- 
 ment of his sense of Beauty, and, at the same time, of bringing 
 together the Classic and Romantic elements in Literature and Art, 
 in order to reconcile them in a region lofty enough to abolish all 
 fashions of Race and Time, we have no difficulty in fancying how 
 the plan of a Classical Walpurgis-Night must have presented itself 
 to Goethe's mind, as a pendant to the Walpurgis-Night of the First 
 Part, which is Gothic, Mediaeval, Romantic. 
 
 39. Here, on Grecian land. 
 
 Faust recovers from his trance as soon as he touches the classic 
 soil : his artistic instinct tells hi at once that he is on the track 
 of Helena. 
 
 40. I find myself so strange, so disconcerted. 
 
 Mephistopheles, on title other hand, is entirely out of his proper 
 element. His disgust with the nudity 'of the antique forms is an 
 admirable bit of humour, through which we can detect Goethe's own 
 well-known defence of the chastity of ancient art. The delicate 
 satire of the line, Dock das Antike find! ich zu kbendiy, is lost in 
 translation. We may almost surmise that when Mephistopheles speaka 
 of overplastering the figures according to the fashion, Goethe re- 
 ferred to the indecent rehabilitation of the statues in the Vatican. 
 
 Mephistopheles finally addresses himself to the Griffins and 
 Sphinxes, as the most grotesque and unbeautiful of the forma 
 around him. 
 
 41. The source, wherefrom its derivation springs. 
 Diintzer explains that this passage is in ridicule of certain philo- 
 logists, who, in Goethe's day, grouped words together at random 
 according to their initial letters, and then attempted to trace them 
 to a common root. The answer of Mephistopheles is a play upon 
 the words Gfreif (Griffin) and greifen (to gun) sufficiently like 
 thfl English words to b* intelligible in trauslatiou. The Griflin
 
 404 FAUST. 
 
 accepts this explanation, and confirms it by slightly changing the 
 Latin proverb Fortes fortwna jwvat, which he applies to his own 
 advantage. 
 
 42. THE ABIMASPEA.NS. 
 
 According to Herodotus, the Arimaspeans were a one-eyed rac 
 who inhabited a distant part of the Scythian steppes and were 
 engaged in continual conflict with the gold-guarding Griffins. The 
 colossal Ants which were somewhat larger than foxes and dwelt 
 in Central Asia, threw out gold-dust in making their subterranean 
 
 1 confess I can offer no satisfactory explanation of the appearance 
 of these creatures, beyond that of their repulsive forms. 
 
 43. Express thytelf, and 'tttrill a riddle be. 
 
 It is evident that the Sphinxes immediately recognized Mephisto- 
 
 pheles, and their questions are only "chaffing." When they say 
 
 that their spirit-tones become material, to him, they hint that he 
 
 sees nothing more than their semi-bestial form. In the answer of 
 
 when he appeared, teased him and beat him with a whip. 
 
 44. SIRENS. 
 
 The Sirens are first mentioned by Homer as two in number, but 
 two more were afterwards added by the Athenians. They were 
 located in various places Crete, Sicily, or Capri and there were 
 contradictory accounts of their origin and character. It was gene- 
 rally believed, however, that they were fated only to live until some 
 one should pass their island without being captivated by their song 
 whence the corresponding myths of the Argonauts and Ulysses. 
 
 After the confused and uncertain forms with which the Classical 
 Walpurgis-Night opens, Goethe seems to have selected the Sirene 
 as a point of departure for the opposite paths of Faust and Mephis- 
 topheles. They were generally represented as beautiful maidens to 
 the waist, the lower half having a bird-form, with hideous falcon 
 claws. The grotesque and beautiful are more intimately blended 
 in the woman and lion of the Sphinx : in the Sirens Beauty and 
 Ugliness are simply and sharply joined to each other. After 
 leaving" them, Faust begins to rise towards his Ideal, while Mephia- 
 topheles descends towards his. 
 
 45. In the Repulsive, grand and solid features. 
 This line throws a clear light all along the path we have chosen. 
 Faust recognizes the far-off predictions of the Beautiful in the forms 
 of Indian and Egyptian art, the forerunners of that of Greece. He 
 is even reconciled to what is repulsive in them, by their association 
 with the early memories of Grecian History and Literature. He i 
 filled with fresh spirit, for he now feels that he has a clue which
 
 ffOTES. 405 
 
 shall guide him to Helena. To Mephistopheles, who remembers 
 Faust's disgust for the grotesque phantoms of the Blocksberg, his 
 satisfaction is of course incomprehensible. 
 
 The Sphinxes direct Faust to Chiron, the Centaur, who is not 
 jnly purely Greek, but also the last struggle of the artistic Ideal of 
 Beauty with animal forms ; while, after recalling the Stymphalic 
 birds and the heads of the Lernsean Hydra for the benefit of Mephis- 
 topheles, they shrewdly send him after the Lamise, who have aroused 
 his desire at the first view. 
 
 46. PBNETTS. 
 
 The Pharsalian Fields lie upon the Enipens, a branch of the 
 Peneus, and many of the commentators charge Goethe with having 
 made a mistake ; but it is very evident that he meant to include in 
 the scene the whole region from Pharsalus to the base of Olympus 
 and the shores of the JEgean Sea. 
 
 In the river-god, Peneus, with his attendant Nymphs and Tribu- 
 tary Streams, we reach a higher plane of development. Here the 
 fojms, though representing Nature, are entirely human, and an 
 atmosphere of Poetry, as well as of Art, encircles them. The verse 
 changes, also, suggesting a clearer moonlight and fresher air. 
 
 47. CHIRON. 
 
 The Centaur Chiron was the son of Saturn and Philyra, the 
 laughter of Oceanus. Homer calls him the wisest and most just of 
 the Centaurs. He was said to have taught the human race oaths, 
 joyous sacrificial services; and music. In his grotto on Pelion he 
 educated the grandest Grecian heroes, among them Peleus, Ajax, 
 Achillas, jEsctdapius, Theseus, and Jason. 
 
 Schuetger has a very ingenious explanation of the symbolical 
 significance of Chiron in this scene. He interprets the expression 
 of the Sphinx to Faust : 
 
 Our very last was slain by Hercules, 
 
 as indicating the overthrow of the monstrous forma of early Art ; 
 and Hercules therefore marks the commencement of the Human 
 period. 
 
 48. No second such hath Qaea granted. 
 
 There is a seeming contradiction in this passage. When Faust 
 suggests the name of Hercules, which Chiron has omitted from the 
 list of his Argonautic pupils and friends, the Centaur's burst of 
 enthusiasm for the hero whose poisoned arrow accidentally caused 
 his own death is, to say the least, unexpected ; while Faust's 
 following speech, 
 
 " The fairest Man hast them depicted. 
 Now of the fairest Woman speak I* 
 
 couples Hercules with Helena as the Ideals of male and fomal* 
 beauty. But it was Parit and Helena whom he called from the 
 Shades. We must assume that when he speaks of the latter pair to 
 Mephistopheles, in Scene V. Act I., as "the model forms of Man
 
 406 FAUST. 
 
 and Woman, " he is merely repeating the conre 1 1 tionaJ ideas of the 
 Emperor and the Court circle. 
 
 49. MANTO. 
 
 Goethe has wilfully taken Manto from blind Tiresias, "prophet 
 old," whose daughter she was, and given her ^Esculapius as a fattier, 
 perhaps to account for her familiarity with Chiron, and enable the 
 latter, through her, to send Faust further on his ardent pilgrimage. 
 She was, in reality, devoted to the service of Apollo. After her 
 ather's death, she wandered to Italy, where her son, Oknus, founded 
 and named for her the city of Mantua. 
 
 50. SEISMOS. 
 
 Goethe makes a personification of the Earthquake (Xeurn6s\ " 
 order the better to satirize the Plutonists. 
 
 51. GRIFFINS. 
 
 For their significance, we must remember the extent to which 
 Goethe was irritated by the general acceptance of the Plutonic 
 theory. The Griffins and Ants, we may guess, represent those who 
 at once give in their adherence to every new scientific rtgime, and 
 fancy that its principles are so many great intellectual treasures, 
 which they hasten to collect and possess. The Pygmies and Dactyls 
 (Thumblings and Fiugerlings) are the crowds of students and smat- 
 terers who are unable to free themselves from the chains of the new 
 theorist ; who find themselves, without knowing how it happened, 
 under his authority, intellectual serfs, forced to service and obedi- 
 ence, without any reference to their own wills. The Pygmy-Elders 
 and the Generalissimo are, of course, the rulers : it would hardly 
 be too much to say that the former represent the members of the 
 French Academy, and that the latter is Elie de Beaumont or 
 Leonid von Buch. Homer's account of the battle between the 
 Pyginies and the Cranes suggested the introduction of the Herons 
 as Neptunists. The Generalissimo orders the slaughter of these 
 water-haunting birds, that the Pygmies may feather their helmets 
 with the crested plumes. 
 
 52. THE CRANES or IBYOTJS. 
 
 The " fat-paunched, bow-legged knaves " of Plutonists are trium- 
 phant, jind wear the plumes they have plundered from the slaugh- 
 tered Neptunists. But the Cranes, in their airy voyage, have seen 
 the murder, and like the "Cranes of Ibycus," in Schiller's ballad, 
 they are the agents appointed by Fate to revenge +he deed. 
 
 Ibycus, the poet, on hia way from Rhegram to attend tta 
 Isthmian games, was attacked by robbers in the pine-grove dedi- 
 cated to Neptune, near Corinth. Far from all help, cut down, and 
 dying, with his last breath he called to a flock of cranes, flying in 
 a long file over the grove, and invoked them to bear abroad the 
 news of the murder. His body was found, carried to Corinth, and 
 recognized ; and the grief of the populace, assemoied at the games
 
 NOTES. 407 
 
 ivas loud for the loss of their fayomite singer, Ibycus. Suddenly, 
 during a pause in the performance, while the great amphitheatre 
 was silent, a file of cranes passed overhead, and a mocking voic 
 was heard, saying, " There are the Cranes of Ibycus ! " The sus- 
 picions of the people were instantly aroused, the speaker and his 
 accomplice were picked out from the audience, and the amphitheatre 
 became a tribunal of judgment. The murderers confessed the deed, 
 and the Cranes revenged Ibyeus. Such is the story which Schiller 
 has embodied in one of his most admirable ballads. 
 
 When Goethe wrote, in 1827, " Certainly some young man of 
 genius will arise, who shall have the courage to oppose this crazy 
 unanimity," he anticipated the overthrow of the Plutonic theory. 
 In his selection of Schiller's "Cranes of Ibycus," to summon hii 
 Neptunic kindred to the revenge which is only announced, not 
 immediately performed, there is a touching suggestion of his own 
 loneliness. The "endless hate" which is sworn is not the true 
 substance of hate (which Goethe declared to be a passion only 
 possible to youth) : it is merely an impatient exclamation, veiling 
 a pang of longing for the great friend who had passed away, and of 
 disappointment that no one came to his side to help him turn his 
 intrenched defence into an open assault. 
 
 53. LAMLA. 
 
 The original Lamia, the daughter of Belus and Libya, was 
 beloved by Jupiter, and then transformed, through Juno's jealousy, 
 into a hideous, child-devouring monster. Lilith, the nocturnal, 
 female vampire of the Hebrews, mentioned in Isaiah, is rendered 
 Lamia in the Vulgate. In the plural, they appear to have corre- 
 sponded, very nearly, to the witches of the Middle Ages, who, 
 indeed, were then frequently called Lamice. Keats's poem of 
 "Lamia," in which the bride, recognized by the keen-eyed sage, 
 teturns to her original serpent form, represents another of the super- 
 ftitions attached to the race. 
 
 Mephistopheles (probably remembering the Thessalian witches 
 promised by Homunculus) is attracted by forms having so much 
 family likeness to those with which he is familiar. 
 
 54. J&npusa, ninth the ass's foot. 
 
 Empusa (the " one-footed," as the name denotes) had one human 
 foot and one ass's hoof, and is therefore fairly entitled to call Mephis- 
 topheles "cousin." Goethe probably took her, as well as some other 
 characters of the Classical Walpurgis-Night, from BOttiger, with 
 whose works he was well acquainted. Euipusa is mentioned in 
 "The Frogs" of Aristophanes, and also in the life of ApoUonius 
 Tyana, by Philostratua She had not the same habit of transfor- 
 mation as the other Lamia*, but surpassed them all in her hideoui 
 appearance and her cannibalic habits. 
 
 Mephistopheles, however, is too ugly and repulsive for cve 
 these. They simply amuse themselves with him, and then send 
 him further. The transf*tiou8 which they undergo when h
 
 408 FAUST. 
 
 attempts to grasp them are characteristic of the Lamise, but, at the 
 same time, they suggest some additional meaning. What it is I 
 cannot guess, and Innd nothing in any of the commentaries which 
 throws the least light on the passage. Diintzer's explanation ia 
 entirely inadequate. 
 
 55. OBKAD (from the natural rock). 
 
 Here the Oread is the spirit of a primeval mountain, created 
 According to the Neptunic theory. 
 
 56. ANAXAGOBAB (to THALES). 
 
 The representatives of the two geological theories are now intro- 
 duced. Goethe's choice of Anaxagoras and Thales is too evidently 
 dictated by what is known of the systems of those philosophers to 
 need any further explanation. The former wrote of eclipses, earth- 
 quakes, and meteoric stones ; the latter derived all life and physical 
 phenomena from water ; yet both based their theories on " Nature," 
 nd equally sought to solve her mysteries. 
 
 67. Then were it true, Thessalitm Pythonesses. 
 This ia a reference to an old Grecian myth, mentioned in the 
 Gorgias of Plato and the Clouds of Aristophanes. Horace, also 
 (Carm. V.), has the lines : 
 
 " Qua fidera excantata voce Thestala 
 Lvmamque cctlo deripit." 
 
 We are to suppose that only a meteoric stone has fallen, but that 
 AJiaxagoras, in his excited fancy, imagines that the orb of the 
 noon is rushing down upon the earth. Thales perceives nothing 
 but that "the Hours are crazy " ; the moon is shining quietly in 
 her place. But a meteoric mass has really fallen, giving a pointed 
 head to the round Hill of Seismos, and crushing Pygmies and Cranei 
 hi one common destruction. Perhaps Goethe meant to hint, satiri- 
 cally, that the theory of creation " from above " (as Homunculus 
 says) is quite as rational as that of creation by upheaval. If so, he 
 has curiously anticipated one of the most recent scientific ideas, 
 that of the growth and physical change of planets, by accretion 
 from the meteoric belts. 
 
 68. The Phorkyads/ 
 
 The Phorkyads, or, more correctly, Phorfcids, were the three 
 daughters of Phorkys (Darkness) and Keto (The Abyss). Their 
 names were Deiuo, Pephredo, and Enyo : Hesiod, in his Theogony, 
 gives only the two last. They were also called the Oraiat. They 
 were said to have, in common, but one eye and one tooth, which 
 they used alternately, and to dwell at the uppermost end of the 
 earth, where neither sun nor moon beheld them. They represent 
 the climax of all which the Greek imagination has created of 
 horrible and repulsive. Mephistapheles, consequently, is ravished 
 ith delight : he has foond the Ideal Ugliness.
 
 NOTES. 409 
 
 59. Steering away to Samothraec. 
 
 We must suppose that the scene opens on the Thessalian coast, 
 aear the mouth of the Peneus, and therefore almost in sight of the 
 mountain-isle of Samothrace. The purpose of the Nereids and 
 Tritons, in their journey thither, will be presently revealed. Mean- 
 while Thales conducts Homunculus to Nereus, the Graybeard of the 
 Sea, whom Hesiod describes as just and friendly, and well-disposed 
 towards the human race. 
 
 60. The Oraeet of the Sea, the Doridct. 
 
 The Dorides were the daughters of Nereus and the sea-nymph 
 Doris, but are called Nereids in the Grecian mythology. Goethe's 
 object in calling them Dorides, and presenting them as the daughters 
 of Nereus, while the Nereids are introduced without any hint of 
 their relationship, has puzzled the commentators ; and since any 
 attempt at explanation must be merely conjecture, without evidence, 
 I leave the question as it stands. There seems, also, to be no 
 ground whatever for the declaration of Nereus that Galatea was 
 worshipped at Paphos in the place of Cypris (Aphrodite). Thus 
 far, none of the Olympian Gods or Goddesses have been introduced ; 
 and the fresco of Galatea by Raphael, which Goethe knew, together 
 with the description of a very similar picture, mentioned by Philo- 
 stratus, undoubtedly suggested to him the propriety of giving her 
 the place which really belongs to Aphrodite, as the representative 
 of Helena (Beauty). 
 
 It is possible that the reason why Nereus refuses to help Homun- 
 culus to being, and refers him to Proteus, is, that Goethe intend* 
 Hie former to be an embodiment of accomplished, completed exist* 
 ence, while the latter represents Transformation, and therefore 
 since Homunculus must begin with the lowest form of organic life- 
 he must be first consulted. 
 
 61. Three have w brought hither. 
 
 The Cabin were originally three. In Memphis they had a temple 
 and were worshipped as the sons of Phthas (Heplisestos). They 
 appear to have been colonized on Samothrace by the Phoenicians, 
 
 the phallic worship of the Egyptians. Three female deities were 
 subsequently added to their number ; but Creuzer insists that there 
 were seven, corresponding to the seven planets, with a possible 
 eighth, representing the sun. The names of the first three were 
 Axierus, Axiokersus, and Axiokersa, and the fourth, Kadmilni, 
 being added as a uniting principle, they became together, according 
 to Creuzer, a symbol of the spheral harmony. This may explain 
 Goethe's allusion to the fourth. 
 
 The Hebrew word, Kabbinm, is translated by Gesenius, " Th 
 
 Mighty." Furst says that Kabbirim was the name of the sevea 
 
 sons of Tzadik, in Phoenician mythology. The Arabic word ' 
 
 (great), still in use, is evidently the same. 
 
 38
 
 410 FAUST. 
 
 62. Had earthen pots for models. 
 
 Creuzer asserted that the Cabin were originally worshipped undei 
 the form of thick-bellied earthen jars, or pots. Schelling's interpre- 
 tation of the names had been opposed, not only by Creuzer, but by 
 Paulus, De Sacy, Welcker, and others, whence the mention of 
 " stubborn noddles." 
 
 63. One starts there first within a narrow pale. 
 Homer describes the transformations of Proteus in the Fourth 
 Book of the Odyssey, where Menelaus forces him to .appear in his 
 proper form. Thales makes use of the curiosity of Proteus to 
 accomplish the same result. 
 
 64. TELCHINES OF RHODES. 
 
 The Telchines of Rhodes, who were called Sons of the Sea, were 
 the first workers in metals. They made the knife of Kronos and 
 the trident of Poseidon, and cast the first images of the Gods in 
 bronze. Their appearance, here, indicates the dawn of the age of 
 higher Grecian art. Pliny and Theophrastus are Goethe's authorities 
 for the sunny weather and pure atmosphere of Rhodes. The very 
 movement of the verse suggests brightness ; we feel that the sun 
 and air are not those of Rhodes alone, but of all Classical art and 
 literature. 
 
 The Telchines exalt Luna as the sister of Phoebus, who was the 
 tutelar deity of Rhodes : the conclusion of their chorus seems to 
 indicate the union of Religion and Art, and suggests Coleridge's 
 " fair humanities of old religion." Proteus exalts organic being, 
 life in the waters, over the dead works of the Telchines, and hints 
 at the overthrow of the Rhodian Colossus by an earthquake. 
 
 65. PSTLLI AND MARSI. 
 
 Goethe took from Pliny the Psylli and Marsi, who were snake- 
 charmers in Southern Italy and on the Libyan shore. He arbitrarily 
 makes them guardians of the chariot of Cypris, in which they still 
 conduct Galatea by night, " unseen to the new generations," fearing 
 neither the Roman eagle, the winged lion of Venice, the crescent of 
 the Saracen, nor the cross of the Crusader. Why they are here 
 introduced is not so easy to explain. Duntzer insists that, being 
 magicians, they represent the magic power of Beauty ! Schnetger 
 says they are nearer to Galatea than the Telchiues of Rhodes, 
 because they destroy snakes, which are ugly, and which, according 
 to the Bible, are hostile to woman 1 
 
 66. Galatea approaches on her chariot of shell. 
 Galatea, the lovely Nereid, here takes the place of Helena, as 
 Homunculus takes the place of Faust. She is the Ideal Beauty, the 
 ea-born successor of Aphrodite. 
 
 67. HELENA. 
 
 The Third Act is known in Germany as The Helena, not only 
 because it was separately published in 1827 under the title of
 
 trows. in 
 
 * Helena : * Classico-Romantic Phantasmagoria," but also because 
 it is a complete allegorical poem in itself, inserted in the Second 
 Part of Faust by very loose threads of attachment 
 
 <J8. CHORUS. 
 
 The opening of the act appears to be imitated from " Th 
 Eumenides " of ^Eschylus. Until the appearance of Fanst, the form 
 of the verse is purely classic, the iambic hexameter, and after- 
 wards the trochaic octameter, alternating with the irregular yet 
 wonderfully metrical strophes of the Chorus. Some features in the 
 description of the burning of Troy, in this Chorus, are taken from 
 the jEneid, but the form and character are Goethe's own. 
 
 69. PHORKYAS. 
 
 The reader will not have forgotten the transformation of Mephis- 
 topheles into a Phorkyad, in the Classical "Walpurgis-Night, and 
 will thus understand how he, as the Spirit of Negation, here appears 
 in a female mask, as Ugliness, to torment and threaten Beauty. 
 Carlyle says /. ' ' There is a sarcastic malice in the ' wise old 
 Stewardess' which cannot be mistaken." 
 
 70. Queen, the offering art thou. 
 
 Goethe here follows one of the many Greek legends in relation to 
 Helena. Although Homer relates that Menelaus threw away his 
 gword, overcome by her beauty, when he again met her, yet there 
 are frequent references in the poets (Euripides, among others) to a 
 story of her having been sacrificed. Goethe makes a skilful use of 
 it, to account for Helena's migration from Classic to Romantic soil. 
 Phorkyas maliciously amuses herself with the terror of the Chorus : 
 the summoning of the dwarfs to prepare for the sacrifice is but a 
 grim joke; she is bound, as Mephistopheles, to obey Faust's 
 command. Her threat of death to the Chorus is suggested by the 
 punishment which Telemachus, in the Odyssey (Book XXII.), 
 inflicts on the faithless maids. 
 
 71. Forth from the East we hither pressed. 
 
 The second address of Lynceus describes the migration of the 
 races from the East, under which the whole Classical world wai 
 buried, until it slowly arose from the inundation to assist in shap- 
 ing a new phase of human culture. The chief import of the verses 
 seems to be, that all which War and Colonization achieved 
 territory, power, wealth, permanence becomes null and vain 
 beside this new vision. It can only be restored, and to a better 
 value, through the abiding presence of the Beautiful, the worship 
 of which is the crowning element of civilization. 
 
 72. Each sownd appeared.as yielding to the next. 
 Goethe has taken a Persian legend (related in his own West- 
 (EsUicher Divan) of two lovers, Behram-gour and Dilaram, who in- 
 Tented rhyme in their amoroua dialogues, and has upplied it her*
 
 412 fAVST. 
 
 with consummate skill, as a mean* of bringing Faust and Helena 
 nearer The gifts are not all on one side : the Romantic welcomes 
 and worships the Classic, but in return it adds the music of rhyme 
 to the proportion of metre. Thus the new element continues to 
 absorb the old, through the loving mutual approach of the two. 
 The allegory becomes so incarnate in the chief characters that it 
 impresses us like an actual human passion, and is so described by 
 the Chorus. The very soul and being of the antique world the 
 proportion, the reality of form, and the sublime repose of Classic 
 Art are wedded, in a union perfect as that of love, to the senti- 
 ment, the passior, and the freedom of Romantic Art: and the 
 latter, equally yielding, forgets Time, Place, and Race, and feels 
 only that it now possesses the supreme Ideal of Beauty. 
 
 73. All worlds in inter-action meet. 
 The original : 
 
 Den n wo Natur 1m reinen Kreise waltet, 
 Ergreifen all Welten sich, 
 
 is one of those pregnant expressions which make the translator 
 despair, for, the more thoroughly he is penetrated with the mean- 
 ing, the less does it seem possible to express that meaning in any 
 words. The literal translation is, "For where Nature sways in a 
 pure circle (or orbit), all worlds (human and divine) reciprocally 
 take hold on one another." 
 
 74. CalTst thou a marvel thit, 
 Onto'* begotten t 
 
 The son of Faust and Helena, as he is first described by Phorkyas, 
 Is Poetry, not an individual In his naked beauty, his pranks and 
 his sportive, wilful ways, he suggests not only the greater freedom 
 of the Romantic element, but also the classic mytha of Cupid and 
 the child Hermes (Mercury). 
 
 The Chorus describes the birth and childish tricks of Hermes, ;ia 
 they are related in Homer's hymn and Lucian's dialogues of the 
 Gods. There is, perhaps, a " poetic-didactical word " for th 
 reader, in their relation, as well as for Phorkyas. Hermes may 
 possihly typify the Poetic Genius, which boldly steals the attributei 
 of all the Gods, and even longs to grasp the thunderbolts of Zeus, 
 the Father. 
 
 75. ETTPHOBION. 
 
 In the original legend, Faust has by Helena a son, to whom he 
 gives the name of Justus Faustus, and who disappears with her 
 when his compact with Mephistopheles comes to an end. In one 
 of the ancient Grecian mythg, Helena bears a son to Achilles 
 (recalled from Hades) on the island of Leuke. This son, born with 
 wings, was called Euphorion (the swift or lightly wafted), and w^j 
 liain by the lightning of Jupiter. Goethe unites the two stories.
 
 NOTES. 41 J 
 
 Mid adds his own symbolism to the airy, wilful spirit, resulting 
 from them. 
 
 76. Midst of Pelops* land, 
 
 Kindred in soul, I itand/ 
 
 We may accept the lawlessness of Euphorion as, to a certain 
 extent, reflecting Byron's wild, unregulated youth. Some of tht 
 German commentators, however, force the parallel quite too far, 
 endeavouring to discover definite incidents of the poet's history in 
 his dances with the Chorus, and his pursuit of the maiden who 
 turns into flame. The individual character of Euphorion is very 
 gradually introduced, and is first declared in the above lines. 
 
 77. The path to Olory opens now. 
 
 The Chorus entreats Euphorion to bide in the peaceful Arcadian 
 land of Poetry ; and his answer is entirely in accord with the spirit 
 of the Philhellenes, during the Greek Revolution. The heroic 
 struggle of the Suliotes, in which even women and children shared, is 
 indicaied in the preceding verses, and then follows the closing 
 chant, in which the wail of the coming dirge is fore-felt through 
 the peal of trumpets and the clash of cymbals. I am not able to 
 state whether Goethe had read Byron's last poem, written at 
 Missolonghi, on his thirty-six birthday, when he wrote the con- 
 cluding portion of the Helena. It is strangely suggested here, in 
 spite of the allegory, and the difference of metre. 
 
 78. CHORUS. [Dirge. ] 
 
 Here all allegory is thrown aside : the four stanzas are a lament, 
 not for Euphorion, but for Byron. They express Goethe's feeling 
 for the poet, while the profound impression created throughout 
 Europe by the news of his death was still fresh. 
 
 79. Helena's garments dissolve into clouds. 
 Since Faust is only temporarily typical of the Artist, the sym- 
 bolism embodied in the disappearance of Helena, and his elevation 
 upon the clouds into which her garments are transformed, is not 
 difficult to guess. The Ideal Beauty is revealed to few ; but even 
 its robe and veil form a higher ether over all the life of Man. In 
 the direct course of the drama, asthetic culture is the means by 
 which Faust rises from all forms of vulgar ambition to that nobler 
 activity which crowns his life. 
 
 80. A Seven-league Soot trips forward. 
 
 Goethe means to indicate by this image, and the first word* of 
 Mephistopheles, that Faust has been borne far away from his previous 
 life, to that the former is obliged to make usu of the seven- 1 ~ 
 boots of the fairy tale, in order to overtake him.
 
 4U FAUST, 
 
 81. They, more than all, therein were implicated. 
 W must suppose that Mephistopheles, bound to obedience, 
 unwillingly serves in the fulfilment of plans which he cannot com- 
 prebend. Although he implicates Faust in the coming military 
 movements, ostensibly for the purpose of acquiring possession of the 
 ocean-strand through the help which the latter shall furnish to the 
 Emperor, he is ever watchful to bring the affair to another issue. 
 In the passage commencing, " A mighty error I " Faust gives us 
 Goethe's impression of Napoleon. Mephistopheles naturally casts 
 upon the priesthood the heaviest responsibility for the anarchy of 
 the realm, and here, again, we have another view which Goethe 
 frequently expressed. 
 
 82. Not But Pve brought, like Peter Squence. 
 Shakespeare's Peter Quince becomes, in some English farce into 
 which the comic parts of the " Midsummer Night's Dream " were 
 worked, pedant and schoolmaster ; and in Gryphius's translation of 
 this farce was introduced to Germany as "Herr Peter Squenze."- 
 Ditntzer. 
 
 83. The Sabine old, the Norcian necromancer. 
 
 "From whatever cause the mountains of Norcia, between thb 
 Sabine land and the Duchy of Spoleto, acquired the name in old 
 times, they are called to this day the Mountains of the Sibyls. 
 Old writers of Romance made use of this locality in order to conduct 
 their heroes through the most wonderful adventures, and thus 
 increased the belief in those magical figures, the first outlines of 
 which were drawn by the Legend. An Italian story, Guerino 
 Meschino, and an old French work, relate strange occurrences, by 
 which curious travellers have been surprised in that region ; and 
 Messer Cecco di Ascoli, who was burned in Florence in the year 
 1827, on account of his necromantic writings, is still remembered, 
 through the interest felt in his history by the chroniclers, painters, 
 and poets." 
 
 84. The thing is done I 
 
 The apparent advantage of the enemy, in carrying the position 
 occupied by the left wine of the Emperor's army, makes Faust's 
 aid (through Mephistopheles) indispensable to victory. The latter, 
 therefore, employs all his magic devices, in turn. Goethe seems to 
 have ransacked the superstitions of History, and combined their 
 most picturesque features. We are reminded of the storm and 
 flood described by Plutarch, of St. Jago fighting for Spain, of the 
 apparitions and roises which are reported to have accompanied 
 many famous battles; but the most effective agent, after alL is 
 tnaunitUd party hate.
 
 ffOTBS. 41ft 
 
 85. With twenty come to fort again 
 
 Mephistopheles, still forced to serve, turns his commercial into 
 a piratical voyage, and hopes to secure Faust's complicity in Evil by 
 tempting him to accept the precious spoils of all climes, and the 
 vessels which he has accumulated. His argument, that War, 
 Trade, and Piracy are "three in one," makes no impression on 
 Faust, who, as we learn from the Three Mighty Men, turns away 
 from the bribe in disgust. 
 
 86. No sorer plague can us attack, 
 
 Than rich to be, and something lack. 
 
 The reader must remember Faust's age, and his long course ol 
 successful achievement, in order to understand his present im- 
 patience and petulance. He loses all joy in his vast possessions, 
 because the neighbouring sand-hill, whereon he wishes to build a 
 lookout for a view over all his new, thickly-peopled realm, is the 
 property of another who refuses to sell or exchange it. Goethe has 
 borrowed this incident from the story of Frederick the Great and 
 the miller of Potsdam. 
 
 87. Forgive I not happily 'twas done. 
 
 Faust, impatient at being so long thwarted in his plans, so far 
 yields to Mephistopheles that he consents to employ force. Here it 
 yet another and the last chance for the Spirit of Evil to win his 
 wager. Like Jezebel, he compasses the death of Naboth- Philemon. 
 The result is incendiarism and murder, not forcible removal ; and 
 Faust, instead of accepting the coveted property, curses the rash, 
 inhuman deed. 
 
 83. Necessity, mine. 
 
 1 have followed Dr. Anster in thus translating Noth, which 
 may also be rendered "trouble" and "need," for the reason that 
 Care, in this scene, includes the former meaning, and Want th 
 latter. 
 
 The character of the three gray sisters, Want, Guilt, and 
 Necessity, is explained when they declare that they cannot enter 
 the house of the Rich ; but Care, the atra cura of Horace, has free 
 entrance everywhere. Goethe's conception of her being seems to be 
 the embodied Worry, and the other three have no further apparent 
 significance than to separate her from the other tormenting powers 
 of life, and thus the more clearly define her nature. 
 
 89. LEMURES. 
 
 Goethe has here borrowed (probably from Percy's Seliquet, 
 which he knew) the original song of Lord Vaux, a part of which 
 Shakespeare puts into the mouth of the grave-digger in " Hamlet" 
 But he has taken only the first half of the verses, completing them 
 with other lines of his own. Therefore I have only translated thea 
 latter.
 
 416 FAUST. 
 
 90. They tpake not of a moat, but of* grave. 
 The original line contains a pun which cannot be given 
 translation : 
 
 Man sprieht, wle man mir Nachricht gab, 
 Von keinem Oraben, doch vom Grab. 
 
 91. Hell hath a multitude, of jaws, in short. 
 Goethe's first plan was to send Mephistopheles into the present 
 of The Lord, for the purpose of announcing that he had won. 
 This, however, would have interfered with the effect of the closing 
 scene, and he selected, instead, the machinery of the Miracle-plays, 
 as better adapted to his purpose. The open jaws of Hell, as thej 
 are still represented in many chapels of Catholic countries, and th 
 two varieties of Devils, are intentionally introduced as a coarse, 
 almost vulgar framework for a scene which is meant to include the 
 sharpest contrast of two principles, Heaven stooping down, and 
 Hell rising up to take hold of the soul of Man. 
 
 92. PATER ECSTATIOTTB. 
 
 It is generally agreed and the tendency of Goethe's mind during 
 his last years justifies the belief that the three Patres symbolize 
 different forms or manifestations of devotional feeling. Their appear- 
 ance, as we afterwards feel, was suggested by the necessity of avoid- 
 ing a sndden transition from the blasphemous sensuality of Mephia- 
 topheles to the " indescribable " exaltation of the closing mystery ; 
 but they also have their appropriate plane in this ever-rising and 
 ver-swelling symphony, with its one theme of the accordance of 
 Human and Divine Love. 
 
 93. PATER PROFUNDUS. 
 
 We might almost say that the Pater Ecstaticus represents Devo- 
 tion as manifested through temperament or exalted sensation ; the 
 Pater Protundus, Devotion as it shapes the intellect, which per- 
 ceives symbols in all things, feels the limitations of the senses, and 
 aspires towards Divine Truth as tht highest form of knowledge ; 
 and finally, the Pater Seraphicus Devotion as it possesses the soul 
 in the purest glow of self-abnegation. 
 
 94. PATER SBRAPHICUS. 
 
 This name was given to St. Francis of Assisi, who is mentioned 
 by Dante (Paradise, XL), and Goethe may possibly have borne 
 him in mind, without borrowing anything from the story of hia 
 life. 
 
 95. CHORUS OF BLESSED BOYS. 
 
 These boys, whom Goethe calls "midnight-born," are the spirit! 
 f those who died in birth, barely given to Life and then taken 
 from it before the awakening of sense or mind. The meaning 
 eems to be that they are still undeveloped in the spiritual world, 
 m other words, that, in the scale of ascending Being, they hsv?
 
 NOTES 417 
 
 missed our sphere, and feel only the delight of existence (aUm in 
 das Daseyn so gelind), without the intelligence, froiE which must 
 be born the aspiration for what is still beyond and above them. 
 
 96. DOOTOE MARIANCS. 
 
 Some see in this name a reference to Marianus Scotus, who died, 
 as an eremite, in 1086. Others, again, suppose it to be the celestial 
 name of Faust, although the soul of the hitter bas not yet awakened 
 to the change. 
 
 97. MAGNA PBCCATRIX. 
 
 I have retained the references attached to this and the two fol- 
 lowing sianzas, because I am not sure whether they were originallj 
 written by Goethe, or afterwards added by Riemer. Mary Magda- 
 lene and the Woman of Samaria require no comment ; Mary of 
 Egypt is described in the Ada Sanctorum, as an infamous woman of 
 Alexandria, who, after seventeen years of vice, made a pilgrimage 
 to Jerusalem. On approaching the door of the Church of the Holy 
 Sepulchre, an invisible arm thrust her away. Weeping, overcome 
 with the sudden sense of her nnworthiness, she prayed to the 
 Virgin, and was then lifted as by hands and borne into the Temple, 
 and a voice said to her : " Go beyond the Jordan, and thou wilt 
 find peace." She went into the Desert, where she lived alone 
 forty -eight years, only visited by a monk who brought her the last 
 sacrament, and for whom, when she died, she left a message written 
 upon the sand. 
 
 These three sinful yet penitent and glorified women are made 
 intercessors for the soul of Margaret, which has not yet been 
 admitted to the higher spheres. 
 
 98. UNA 
 
 Margaret sees her full pardon in the face of the Mater Gloriosa, 
 before it is spoken, and the prayer (First Part, Scene XVIII. ) which 
 was a despairing cry for help now becomes a strain of unutterable joy. 
 The Blessed Boys approach, bearing the soul of Faust, already over- 
 towering them as it grows into consciousness of the new being. By 
 him, who has learned so much of Life, they shall be taught at last 
 Margaret, no longer an ignorant maiden, but an inspired Soul, sees 
 the beauty and glory of the original nature of Faust, now redeemed, 
 releasing itself from its earthly disguises and shining like the Holj 
 Host. But we hear no voice : we only know that it awakens. 
 
 99. Who, feeling thee, shall follow there. 
 The literal translation of these two lines must be added : 
 
 " Come lift thyself to higher spheres ! 
 When he has a spirto*! sense of thy presence, he will follow." 
 
 The reader who knows the original need not be told how difficult il 
 is to reiser the word ahnct.
 
 THE CHRONOLOGY OF FAUST. 
 
 FAXTST is the only great work in the literature of any language 
 which requires a biography. The first child of Goethe's brain an 1 
 the last which knew the touch of his hand, its growth runs parallel 
 with his life, and reflects all forms of his manifold study and expe- 
 rience. While, therefore, its plan is simple, grand, and consistent 
 from beginning to end, the performance embraces so many varieties 
 of style and such a multitude of not always homogeneous elements, 
 that a chronological arrangement of the parts becomes necessary as 
 a guide to the reader. 
 
 During the illness which lasted for nearly a year after Goethe s 
 return from Leipzig in 1768, while he was discussing religions 
 questions with Fraulein von Klettenberg, reading cabalistic works 
 and making experiments in alchemy, the subject of Faust, which 
 was already familiar to him as a child, through the puppet-plays, 
 took powerful and permanent hold on his imagination. * He carried 
 it about with him in Strasburg, concealing it from Herder during 
 their intercourse in the winter of 1770-71, and postponing it to 
 write his first great work, Goto von Berlichingen. He passed the 
 summer of 1772 at Wetzlar, but did not begin the composition ol 
 Werther, which was the direct result of his residence there, until 
 
 The premonitioiu of the "Storm and Stress" period, which were by thfc 
 time felt throughout Germany, directed the attention of many authors to wards 
 Faust, as a subject for dramatic poetry. Leasing was the first to take hold 
 of it, but only fragments of three or four scenes of his tragedy have been 
 preserved. The work was completed before his journey to Italy in 1775, and 
 despatched from Dresden to Leipzig in a box which was lost, and never after- 
 wards came to light Captain von Blankenburg, in 1784, gave the following 
 testimony concerning the tragedy, the manuscript of which he had read : 
 " He undertook his work at a time when in every quarter of Germany Fausts 
 vert announced at forthcoming ; and I know that he completed it. I have 
 been positively informed that he only delayed its publication in order that 
 the other Faustt might first appear." 
 
 Of these other Fausts one was published at Munich in 1775, another at 
 Mannheim in 1776, that of the painter Mttller, Goethe's friend, in 1778, a 
 fragment by Lenz in 1777, and a fifth in Salzburg, in 1782. Between the 
 
 C- -.ication of Goethe's " Fragment" in 1790 and that of the completed First 
 in 1808, nine additional FnuaU, by various authors, made their appear- 
 ance ; and between the latter date and the publication of the Second Part, in 
 1882, fourteen more ! Therefore, including the work of Lessing, the material ol 
 the Fanat-legend was employed by twenty-nine different authors, during tho 
 period which Goethe devoted to the elaboration of hu own original desijra <
 
 CBRUNOLOGf Of fAUST. 41 
 
 the following year. "Faust," h says to Eckermann, originated 
 (in manuscript ?) at the same time as Werther. " Thus the concep- 
 tion which he had grasped at the age of twenty had been shaping 
 itself in his brain for four years, before any part of it was put into 
 words. Gotter, whose acquaintance he had made in Wetzlar, sends 
 him in the summer of 1773 a poetical letter, in which he says : 
 ' ' Send me, in return, thy Doctor Faust, as toon as he has stormed out 
 f thy head. " 
 
 It is not probable that more than the opening monologue was 
 written in 1773. Perhaps one or two of the first scenes with 
 Margaret were added the following year ; for when Klopstock 
 visited Frankfurt in September, 1774, Goethe read to him " some 
 scenes " of Faust, which the older poet then heartily praised, though 
 he spoke slightingly of the same scenes after they were published. 
 In January, 1775, Goethe read all that he had completed up to 
 that time to his friend Jacobi, who wrote to him in 1791, alluding 
 to the published "Fragment": "1 knew nearly the whole of 
 Faust already, and precisely for that reason I was doubly and trebly 
 impressed by it. I have the same feeling now as I had sixteen 
 years ago." Except the "Cathedral" and "Dungeon" scenes, 
 nearly all the parts in which Margaret is introduced, as well as 
 " Auerbach's Cellar," and the conversation of Mephistopheles with 
 the Student, were written in the spring of 1775. It is very evident 
 that Merck was also allowed to see the manuscript, and that 
 Goethe's design was freely discussed among his friends. The pub- 
 lisher Mylius, in Berlin, writes to Merck towards the end of 1774, 
 that he will take the manuscript of Goethe's Stella for twenty 
 thalers (!), although he fears that the author may expect "fifty 
 thalers for his next work, and perhaps a hundred louis d'or for hi 
 Doctor Faust ! " 
 
 Goethe says : " I brought the work with me to "Weimar in 1775. 
 I had written it on foolscap, without any erasures ; for I was very 
 careful not to write down a line which was not good and might not 
 be allowed to stand." In this form he read it to the Court circle, 
 which at that time included Wieland, Knebel, and Musaeus. As 
 nearly as can be ascertained, the manuscript comprised the first 
 half of Scene I., the latter half of Scene IV., and the following 
 series of scenes to XVIII., with the exception of VI. and XIV. In 
 addition to these, there were probably several scenes which were 
 afterwards omitted before the publication of the work, and one 
 (Scene XXIII., in prose) which was restored, many years later. It 
 is also evident that the plan of the whole work was at least roughly 
 outlined by this time. Its development, however, except throng. 
 that secret, unconscious growth which kept it alive under the pro- 
 duction of so many other works, was now arrested for a long whil< 
 The conceptions of a young poet are always in advance of hia power 
 but there is a good attendant genius who thwarts and delays the 
 performance until the auspicious season. 
 
 In 1780, after the completion of Iphigenia in Tauris and wnik
 
 420 FAUST. 
 
 his mind was still bathed in the Grecian atmosphere, Goethe wrot* 
 portions of the Helena, for the Second Part of Faust. There seems 
 to be no doubt that the manuscript was read to the Duke, Karl 
 August, his mother, the Duchess Amalia, to Herder and Knebel ; 
 but the scenes must have been afterwards suppressed, for the exist- 
 ing Helena is certainly of a later origin. This is, nevertheless, the 
 only positive evidence that anything was added to the work between 
 1775audl788. 
 
 Goethe's journey to Italy was not only the realization of an early 
 desire, but it was also a necessary escape from the irksome duties of 
 his position at Weimar. He broke away forcibly from affairs ol 
 state in order to recuperate himself for poetry, and his eagerness 
 and anxiety may be guessed from the circumstance that he kept 
 his plan secret from every one exrept the Duke, fearing that he 
 would never succeed if his intention should become known. It 
 was the old superstition of keeping silence while lifting a buried 
 treasure. The only manuscript he took with him was that of Faust, 
 which he had brought From Frankfurt, and which was now so 
 yellow and worn and frayed, that he says it might almost have 
 passed for an ancient codex. Nevertheless, he did not succeed in 
 returning to the work until the spring of 1788, just before his final 
 departure from Rome. He writes in March : " It is a different 
 thing, of course, to complete the work now, instead of fifteen years 
 ago ; but I think nothing is lost, since I feel sure of having re- 
 gained the thread. In so far as regaids the tone of the whole, also, 
 I am comforted : I have already finished a new scene, and if the 
 paper were only smoked, I think no one could pick it out from the 
 old ones." This new sceno is the "Witches' Kitchen." It is 
 doubtful whether the "Cathedral" and "Forest and Cavern" 
 were also added in Rome, or after his return to Weimar. 
 
 Finally, in 1790, in GBachen's Leipzig edition of Goethe's works, 
 Paust appeared as "A Fragment. The impression which the 
 publication produced was not encouraging : the fragment was not 
 generally understood, and the power exhibited in the separata 
 scenes was only partially appreciatf d. * Goethe, occupied with 
 ffilhelm Master and Hermann wnd Dorothea, banished it for a 
 time from his thoughts ; and the first instigation which led him to 
 resume the work came from Schiller, who thus wrote to him on the 
 29th of November, 1794 : " But 1 have no less desire to read thosr 
 fragments of your Fau*t which are not yet printed ; for loonies* 
 that what I have already read seems to me the torso of Hercules. 
 In these scenes there is a power and fulness of genius which clearly 
 
 * Heyne, in Gottingen, wrote : " There are fine passages in it, but with them 
 there are such things as only he could give to the worid, who takes all oth 
 men to be blockhead." Wielaud expressed his regret that it was such a patch- 
 work of earlier and later labours. Schiller was then unsatisfied with ti, 
 it produced, and only Korner and August Schlegel seem to have 
 oPMtimwU of Goethe's design and the grandeur of his fragmentary
 
 CHRONOLOGY OF FAUST. i 
 
 reveal the highest master-hand, and I wish to follow as far a* 
 possible the bold and lofty nature which breathes through them." 
 Goethe wrote in answer : " I can at present communicate nothing 
 f Faust ; I do not dare to untie the package in which he is im- 
 prisoned. I could not copy without continuing the work, and I 
 have no courage for that, now. If anything can restore it to me in 
 the future, it is surely your sympathy." 
 
 It seems, however, that during the following winter Goethe took 
 the manuscript to Jena, and discussed the plan of the work with 
 Schiller, for in the summer of 1795, Wilhelm von Humboldt writes 
 to the latter, thanking him for his information concerning Faimt. 
 " The plan," he says, " is gigantic : what a pity, therefore, that it 
 will never be anything else than a plan ! " If Frau von Kalb's 
 memory is to be trusted, Goethe wrote about this time the 
 Interview between Mephistopheles and the Baccalaureus (Part 
 Second, Act II.), which has generally been referred to a much later 
 date. 
 
 There is no evidence that the First Part of Faust was resumed 
 before 1797, when the "Dedication" and the "Prologue in 
 Heaven" were probably written, together with the Intermezzo 
 (Oberon and Titania's Golden Wedding), which was afterwards 
 inserted by accident rather than design. In 1798 the " Prelude on 
 the Stage *' and perhaps the conclusion of Scene I., together with 
 Scenes II. and III. , appear to have been written. It is probable that 
 the concluding scene of the First Part (the "Dungeon ') was either 
 produced or rewritten at this time. Goethe writes to Schiller that 
 he is favoured by "the lyrical mood of Spring," and in several 
 letters announces the progress he is making in the work. During 
 the year 1799 little, if anything, was accomplished ; but in 1800 
 Goethe commenced the composition of the Helenti, which is fre- 
 quently mentioned in his correspondence with Schiller during that 
 year. He writes on one occasion : " During these ei^htdays, I have 
 Fortunately been able to hold fast the conception of the situations, 
 of which you already know, and my* Helena has actually entered on 
 the stage. But now the beauty in the rtle of my heroine attracts 
 me so much that I shall be disconsolate if I must at last (since the 
 whole can only be represented as a spectral appearance) transform 
 her into a grinning mask. " Schiller answers, apparently referring to 
 former conversations : " It is a very important advantage, that you 
 consciously advance from the (artistically) pure to the impure, in- 
 stead of seeking a method of soaring from the impure to the pure, 
 as is the case with the rest of us barbarians. In Faust, therefore, 
 you must everywhere assert your right of force " (Faustrecht. ?n 
 untranslable pun). 
 
 la the autumn of 1800 Goethe laid the Helena aside, and devoted 
 himself seriously to the completion of the First Part. He wrote the 
 Walpurgis-Night and the scene of Valentine's death, and then en- 
 deavoured to fill the gap remaining between the IiUermesxo and th 
 " Dungeon " scene. In this he was unsuccessful, and all hi* re-
 
 422 FAUST. 
 
 maining labour from that time until the publication of the First 
 Part, complete, in 1808, was probably merely that of adjustment 
 and revision. The depression which weighed upon him after Schil- 
 ler's death in 1805 affected his interest in Faust more than in any 
 other of his literary plans. 
 
 When the First Part finally appeared, the following portions of 
 the Second Part appear to have been already in existence : Scene I., 
 and possibly a part of Scene II., of Act I. ; Scene I. of Act II.; 
 nearly the first half of Act III. (Helena) ; and some fragments Oi 
 Act V. There is no doubt that Goethe knew, as he wrote to Zelter 
 nearly twenty years afterwards, "what was still necessary to be 
 written, but was not yet decided in regard to the how." It is not 
 necessary to recapitulate here all the interruptions, the varying 
 literary and scientific interests, which came between the plan and 
 its fulfilment. Goethe was fifty-nine years old when the First Part 
 was published, and the years passed by in other labours until he 
 was seventy-five, before the impulse to complete the Second Part 
 returned to him. 
 
 In 1824 he gave to Eckermann a programme which he had pre- 
 pared for the completion of Wahrheit und Dichtung. It contained 
 a prose outline of the continuation of Faust, and Eckennann wrote 
 in reply : " Whether this plan of Faust shouM be communicated or 
 held in reserve, is a doubt which can only be solved after the frag- 
 ments already in existence have been carefully examined, and it is 
 clear whether the hope of completing the work must be given up or 
 not." This hint seems to have aroused Goethe : the plan was with- 
 held, and the work was commenced, certainly in the following 
 year. The Helena, to which he felt most strongly attracted, re- 
 ceived a new interest for him through the idea of representing 
 Ryron in the child Euphorion, and the Act was finished in 1 826. It 
 was published in 1827, in the fourth volume of " Goethe's Works, 
 with the Author's Final Revisions," under the title of " Helena : a 
 Classico- Romantic Phantasmagoria, " and at once excited the greatest 
 interest and curiosity. From Edinburgh to Moscow the European 
 critics seem to have been both delighted and puzzled by it. Carlyle 
 wrote an admirable paper upon it, in which he shows great shrewd- 
 aess in unriddling its symbolism. The encouragement which such 
 a reception of the single act gave to Goethe stimulated him anew 
 to complete the work, and for four years longer it became the leading 
 motive of his life. 
 
 In the beginning of 1828 the first three scenes of the First Act- 
 Faust's Awakening, the Emperor's Court, and the Carnival Mas- 
 querade were published in the twelfth volume of his works, and 
 were received with an enthusiasm equal to that which the Helena 
 tailed forth. Goethe, now nearly eighty years old, worked slowly 
 and with a laggard power of invention ; but he held to his concep- 
 tions with the same tenacity as in his earliest literary youth, and 
 Buffered no favourable mood of body or mind to pass without adding 
 ome line i. Thp portions already completed were fastened toother.
 
 CHRONOLOGY OF FAUST 433 
 
 with blank sheets of a different colour between, indicating the ran* 
 pet to be filled ; and he rejoiced from month to month, as the HE 
 written gave place to the written colour. During 1829 and 1830 the 
 First Act was completed, and the whole of the Second Act includ 
 ing the Classical Walpurgis-Night, was written ; so that at the 
 beginning of 1831, there only remained the Fourth Act and the 
 opening scenes of the Fifth. This was the most laborious part of 
 the task, and has left upon it palpable traces of labour ; but by the 
 end of July the work was done, and on his eighty-second birthday 
 August 28, 1831, Goethe sealed up the complete manuscript of the 
 Second Part, to be opened and published after his death. " From 
 this time on," he said to Eckermann, " I look upon iny life as a 
 perfect gift, and it is really indifferent what I may further do or 
 whether I shall do anything." Seven months afterwards he was 
 dead. 
 
 Faust is, in the most comprehensive sense, a drama of the Life ol 
 Man. The course of its moral and intellectual plot, as first designed 
 by the author, is now and then delayed by the material added to it 
 during the different Chases of his own development, but was never 
 changed. This plot is chiefly unfolded to the reader through the 
 medium of two elements, which, from first to last, are combined in 
 i^ yet may easily be separated. The difficulties in the way of its 
 comprehension have been caused by the introduction of a third 
 accidental, and unnecessary element, which is so interwoven witj 
 the others (especially in the Second Part), that the reader is ofte* 
 led away from the true path before he is aware of it. 
 
 The first of the elements, and the one which gives individual 
 colouring and reality to the characters, Goethe drew from his own 
 experience. All the earlier scenes, he declares, were subjectively 
 written : Mephistopheles and Faust were the opposite poles of hii 
 own nature. His own ambition, disappointment, love, unrest, ar 
 all reflected throughout the First Part ; and the poise of his ripei 
 nature, his aesthetic passion and bin religious feeling, in the opening 
 of the First Act, the Helena, and the Fifth Act of the Second Part 
 The second element, drawn from his objective study of men and his 
 observation of the world, is blended with the former, but especially 
 manifests itself in the aphoristic character of much of the Second 
 Part, and in the symbolism which he so constantly em ploys for the 
 sake of more compressed expression. 
 
 What I have called the accidental element is illustrated by th* 
 Intermezzo, which was wilfully inserted ; by the literary satire in 
 the Witches' Kitchen and the Walpurgis-Night ; and in the Second 
 Part by the paper-money scene in the First Act, the controversy o* 
 the Neptunists and Plutonists in the Second and the Fourth, ano 
 the introduction of Byron in the Third. All these features must b 
 eliminated from the moral and intellectual course of the action, 
 with which they have not the slightest connection. Indeed, th 
 whole of the Classical Walpurgis-Night, admirable and wonderful 
 M it , in parts, forms a very roundabout mode of transition from
 
 424 fAUST, 
 
 th* Emperor Court to the allegory of Helena. Only by holding 
 fast to the leading idea can we safely follow its labyrinthine 
 windings. 
 
 What Goethe himself said of Faust in his eightieth year, in 
 peaking of Stapfer's French translation, may be quoted in conclu- 
 non, as an estimate equally modest and just : " The commendation 
 which the work has received, far and near, may perhaps be owing 
 to this quality that it permanently preserres the period of develop- 
 ment of a human soul, which is tormented by all that afflicts man- 
 kind, shaken also by all that disturbs it, repelled by all that it finds 
 repellent, and made happy by all that it desires. The author is 
 at present far removed from such conditions : the world, likewise, 
 has to some extent other struggles to undergo ; nevertheless, the 
 state of men, in joy and sorrow, remains very much the same ; and 
 the latest-uorn will still find c;iuse to acquaint himself with what 
 has been enjoyed am) suffered before him, in order to adapt himself 
 f) that which awaits him." 
 
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