Birth and desire, satiety and pain,
Recurrent yearning that is never stilled,
Agony, death, rebirth in other forms,
And agony, and desire, and agony.
But nowhere saw I happiness or peace
Or rest from cravings that like vultures tear
The fibres of the heart.
Then wandered I
Forth from my palaces in utter pain,
Seeing the world as dust and vanity,
A desert of despair, a raging sea
Of torment....
SATAN
Now why stops the Holy One?
THE HOLY ONE
It wearies me to speak, and to recall
Those perished years.... Give me to drink.
OLDHAM
He speaks
Out of familiar deeps. Seas sunder us,
But the same stars have cast their ghostly rays
Into our bosoms.
FAUST
And those cloudless eyes
Have seen what we have seen!
THE HOLY ONE
I am refreshed....
Thus long ago, in my most desolate hour,
I was refreshed by draughts from the deep springs
Of light. Beneath a pipal tree I sat
In lost despair; and thither to me came
A pilgrim; and he glanced into mine eyes
With sight that read the sickness of my soul,
And sat beside me, and in measured words
Like far-off song told me this parable:
The Buddha came to where the sea
Curled silver-white upon the land,
And murmurs of infinity
Breathed on the sand.
And there lay shells like rosy foam
Borne from the caverns of the deep,
Frail playthings drifted from the home
Of timeless, tideless sleep.
And on the sand a Fisher stood,
Drying his nets that late had seen
The silent caverns of the flood
And all the wastes between.
The Fisher lingered in his place
With countenance of mild surprise,
And looked upon the Buddha's face
With dumb, uncomprehending eyes.
And Buddha spake: "Thy nets are drawn,
Thy boat rocks idle on the sea,
Thy day turns westward, and is gone....
Come thou with me."
The Fisher marvelled: "I must toil
With nets and shells among the caves,
To win the sea's unwilling spoil
From the harsh waves."
And Buddha answered: "Cast no more
Thy nets upon the troubled sea,
Nor gather shells along the shore.
Come thou with me.
"Thou drawest shells and curious flowers
From out the blue untrodden caves.
Thou seest the passing of the hours.
Thou hearest the clamor of the waves.
"Thou openest the shell where lies
The pearl more white than driven spray--
And trackless past thy vision flies
Each passing day.
"But I will teach thee not to stir
The shell nor flower in its sleep.
For thou shalt roam the sepulchre
That chasms all their native deep.
"And vain desire, like terror grown
Deep in the chambers of thy breast,
Shall be from thee forever flown,
And thou shalt rest.
"No search for pearls shall blind thy thought,
Nor waves, with clamorous harmonies.
But in the silence where is naught
Thou shalt behold the One that is.
"And where the days now speed like foam
Across thy vision, there shall be
For thee a vast eternal home--
An Infinite Sea."
The Fisher looked on Buddha dumb--
Looked deep into that tender gaze--
Those eyes within whose depths had come
And gone the sorrows of all days.
He looked uncomprehendingly,
And wearily he shook his head;
And turned once more to drag the sea,
Knowing not what the Buddha said.
FAUST
The cup again! The Holy One is faint.
OLDHAM
He speaks a miracle!...
THE HOLY ONE
And then I knew
That pilgrim as a saint, whose lips revealed
The glory of the Buddha. I beheld
My life one poisoned network of desire
And fleshly longing and pain-sowing hope--
The evil self seeking its happiness
And shaping horror. And I cast away
Myself, and cried: What am I but a dream,
A wave within the sea, a passing cloud
Upon the radiance of eternity?
All yearning will I slay, and slay therewith
The sorrow that succeeds it!...
So the lust
Of life passed from me; so the narrow I
Merged in the infinite, from hope set free--
Heritor of Nirvana's holy calm,
Wherein the voices of the heart's unrest
Are stifled, and the soul expands to clasp
Joy, nothingness, eternity and peace.
FAUST
Peace.... Peace.... Like bells from upland monasteries
You speak the word that summons us. But where
In peace is room for all once-towering hopes--
Nay, even for the wrecked and prostrate monoliths
That mark those fallen pylons?
THE HOLY ONE
Let the earth,
Ravenous of her young, these too devour,
And dust and nothingness engulf their shapes--
Vain burdens, bitter monuments.
FAUST
And where
Shall I find deeps wherein without a sound
I can extinguish my wild will that leaps
Flamelike to meet the stars?
THE HOLY ONE
In that deep sea
Hid in thy breast. Seek thou that tide of calm,
For it lies there awaiting.
FAUST
Can it be
That life's whole burden may be cast aside
And named as nothing, and its memory
Perish forever? In the summer nights,
Comes there no stealing ecstasy to stir
The old forgotten longings?
THE HOLY ONE
In the night
And in the day, one ecstasy abides
Ceaselessly with the heart that has put off
Desire--one ecstasy of final calm.
All other voices seem harsh clamorings.
OLDHAM
Ah, Holy One, lead me thy way of peace!
For I am weary of my heart's vain wars.
My life is as a desert, where desire
Corrodes me ceaselessly. Instruct my soul
To follow thee home to the gulfs of rest!
That, in renouncement of this bitter will,
It find at last deliverance it has sought.
THE HOLY ONE
My son, thou hast spoken; thou shalt come in time
To that abode. The Buddha's light shall guide
Both thee and me, poor seekers. Bide with me;
And what I know, that shalt thou freely know,
And my peace shall be thy peace....
SATAN
Faust, the gates
Admit one form already.
FAUST
Ah, the gates
Are pearl and silver.... Would that there were space
Within them for such fevered heart as mine--
That with the restlessness of stormy winds
Beats on its barriers!
THE HOLY ONE
There is room for all
Whose souls renounce the world and life and hope
To gain that soundless silence.
OLDHAM
Faust, I feel,
Transfused with light and glory, that deep peace
Awaiting. There shall perish like a flame
The passions which have seared my tortured soul
All my life long. They die; and nothingness
Like a cool flood sweeps over me. Ah, come
Where never storm shall smite!
FAUST
I see the gates;
I see the cool breast of the silvery flood
Of refuge and oblivion.... Fare you well,
Oldham, and light go with you! For I go,
Alas, not with you....
OLDHAM
Faust, Faust, turn not back!
I, who am casting all desires in dust,
To one desire still cling: I long that joy
Of such deliverance fill you as fills me
On this first step of the sublime ascent.
FAUST
I see the light that waits you on the peak;
And my heart follows you. But my stern soul
Plucks me yet back with cold insistency
I cannot master.... Go! If I could pray,
My prayers should follow you. My visions shall;
My love shall fold you. But I cannot come
Where you shall go; I cannot cast aside
All that I surely know--this pitiful
And shattered mortal life, with its strange gleams
And shadows--and embrace the icy void
Where Being trembles on the final verge.
To bid life cease--but linger as the moon
Lingers in heaven--ah, that is horrible
Beyond life's proper horrors!... Were my pain
A single atom greater--were my soul
A single breath more weary--I would come.
But now I must confront the winds of heaven
Still master of my destinies.... To the last,
Not in such tomb-world can my spirit rest.
No golden clouds that throng Nirvana's gates
Shall tempt me there to enter and resign
My right to strain beyond all gates that be....
But you I cannot counsel....
OLDHAM
Me the peace
Already laps with wavelets of the flood.
FAUST
The flood is sundering us.
OLDHAM
Farewell, farewell,
Belovèd friend. I with the Holy One
Henceforth am linked; and grief shall follow me
In what should be your footsteps.
FAUST
Have no grief.
In the vast deeps of life's salt bitter sea
Perhaps awaits my anodyne, to heal
Life's wounds....
OLDHAM
Farewell! I go to paradise.
[_Oldham and the Holy One move slowly away
together, pass through the colonnades, and
disappear into the forest. Faust follows with his
eyes their retreating figures._
SATAN
You do not know a paradise when you see it!
Some day, when I have time, I'll start a school
To give instruction to great minds like you--
Débutant!
FAUST
Ah, I had forgotten you....
Two men are worth a thousand devils still.
SATAN
I overrated you. Now get you gone
Before I call the savagery that sleeps
Here in the jungle to annihilate you
For your unparalleled stupidity.
FAUST
Stupidity or no, I have one word
Still to say to you, my malicious friend:
To heel!
SATAN
What!
FAUST
Aye, to heel, I say! Crouch down
And follow me, my hound and servitor
From this hour forth!
SATAN
You have grown very witty.
Your wit, however, does not please me.
FAUST
Please you!
There are few things that I desire less.
To heel!
SATAN
What fiends possess you? Ah, I see!
You are still thinking of that wager made,
That jest of ours.
FAUST
I am still thinking of it.
SATAN
You do not mean that now you wish to claim
That forfeit seriously?
FAUST
I mean quite that.
SATAN
What an amazing man you really are!
For your own sake, I tried to offer you
A splendid paradise; I brought you here
At infinite cost and trouble; you have had
An hour of insight and experience
New and instructive to you; your best friend
Has found eternal bliss: and now you turn,
And just because your uttermost crazy whim
Is not quite satisfied with what he grasped
Thankfully, you revert, with sorry taste,
To my old careless generous remarks.
I do not think your friends at home would call it
A sporting attitude.
FAUST
The jungle shakes--
Do you not hear it?--with the stifled, choked
Laughter of leopards, elephants, hyenas,
Rhinoceroses, apes, pythons, and tigers,
Who hear you and are overcome with mirth....
I also laugh with them.
SATAN
Magnanimous
Your laughter sounds! True, you have beaten me,
And I am at your mercy. By some whim,
Trick, technicality, your mind rejects
A noble paradise; and to my pledge
You therefore are entitled. And I stand
Ready to pay it.
FAUST
Ah, at last we have
Acknowledgment of it! Frankness is good
Even for the Devil, Satan.
SATAN
I have been
Frank with you always. And, if to your taste,
I will be franker still. Your stake is won;
You have your triumph: but does it quite fill
The chambers of your heart? Will it suffice
In place of that bright paradise you dreamed
Might be your gain as loser? Ah, my friend,
In copper you have won, but lost in gold!
And victory will not requite for that
Your empty treasury.
FAUST
Not empty quite;
You are too modest.
SATAN
Oh, if you choose, my pledge
Shall be fulfilled, and I will be your dog--
Snarling a little, sometimes--snapping at
Your friends and furniture and lady-loves--
But yet your dog. However, I can do
Better for you than that....
FAUST
Enough! Enough!
SATAN
But hear me! You'll admit, a feather's weight,
A hair's breadth only held you from the gates
That Oldham entered. Almost they sufficed
Your spirit; yes, a moth's wing could have blown
You toward them! 'Twas so nearly I fulfilled
All that I promised. Therefore when I speak,
You will, for justice's sake, concede I am
No absolute bungler, no coarse-palated
Plebeian, as to paradises.
FAUST
No.
I will admit that.
SATAN
Good! Now, I would make
One final offer to you.
Faust, I know
In other regions, beneath other skies,
One haven more, the only one of earth
That can be judged in glory to surpass
This paradise you entered not. My faith
Is absolute that it is to your need
Utterly moulded. Like your heart itself,
Its halls are structured, destinate for you
As perfect refuge. And I say to you:
Give me the leave, and I will lead you there
For one supreme and ultimate trial of choice
That has no doubtful outcome. And my pledge
Shall still be valid! If this refuge gives
Not all that you desire, you still may claim
My service as your slave. Thus do you risk
No atom, but have gain of one last chance
To win the paradise you hunger for!
FAUST
A pleasing logic; but I do not trust
The mind behind it.
SATAN
Trust it, or distrust--
What matter?--when the issue is so plain!
FAUST
Away! Away!
SATAN
Well, if this hope is vain
To urge you, let despair serve in its stead
As roweled spur. For see where now you stand:
The mock of destiny--the man who lost
All joys of the bright many that the world
Cherishes! Aye, and even lost his friend,
His one deep lasting friend--and stood thereafter
Fixed like a donkey.... Though I led you on
From paradise to paradise, and none
Sufficed you--that were surely better sport--
Testing and trying with sublime contempt--
Than finger-twirling! But not thus I lead.
For now you shall, you shall have paradise!
FAUST
Deep in my soul, there is a sense that loathes
Pacts with the Devil. Yet the sanctioned powers
Established in the world have proved them void
And ignorant of paradise.... Where lies it?
SATAN
Follow, and I will lead.
FAUST
A long path?
SATAN
Yes.
FAUST
On! But your bondage waits you at the end.
SATAN
Ah, jester, jester!... Come--give me your hand!
CURTAIN
THE THIRD ACT
_The scene is the nave of a great cathedral. Two rows of many-shafted
columns stretch back to where, in the far background, rises the
elaborate magnificence of the High Altar.
The nave is empty, except for an occasional figure moving at the far
end of the long central aisle, and an occasional attendant in
sacerdotal robes making ready the Altar.
Faust, entering from the right, and Satan, entering from the left,
meet in the foreground. Satan is dressed in the dark robes of a
priest._
FAUST
I care not for your masquerade attire;
But let that pass.... Well, I have kept your hour.
And this perhaps is not unfitting place
To make confession that you weary me
A little. In this running to and fro
Over the earth, my inclination tires
Of your companionship. I am resolved,
If three days' time brings forth no new event,
To end this, and reclaim you to obey
My will.
SATAN
I am content; three days will serve.
FAUST
Good! Meanwhile, 'tis at least some recompense
That we return from airy Eastern domes
Glittering in blank sunlight, unto lands
Where men erect their temples to the gods
In forms whose light and shadow, stress and play
Of arch and buttress, satisfies my blood
Better than does barbaric loveliness.
The dome that poises its clear perfect curves
Rising above the palm-trees, with the look
As of a wingèd bubble lightly resting
On needless masonry--that symbolled form
Of heavenly perfection never fills
My heart as do these knotted buttresses
And writhing ribs and vaults that strain in fight--
And are victorious, as they raise to heaven
The climbing spires of such an edifice.
SATAN
Quite right--but if you'll let me interrupt--
There is a woman yonder who, I think,
Is waiting for a chance to speak to you.
She looks at you, and hesitates, and turns--
As though a little fearful to approach
So great a person.
FAUST
Where is she? I see.
I wonder if I know her.
SATAN
She is coming.
[_A young woman, hardly more than a girl, comes
from between the pillars and approaches Faust.
Satan withdraws a little as she approaches._
THE WOMAN
I did not want to interrupt your talk;
But, Mr. Faust, I wished so much to speak
To you. You do not know me?
FAUST
Why, it seems...
THE WOMAN
Of course you do not; why should you remember?
But I have seen your face so many times
When you perhaps not noticed me at all,
That I feel half-acquainted. Mr. Brander
Speaks of you, too, so much that I have grown
To think I know you.
FAUST
Ah; yes, Brander....
THE WOMAN
Still
I have not told you who I am, and you
Do not yet know me. I am Mrs. Brander.
FAUST
What! Mrs. Brander! Ah, delighted ... yes....
THE WOMAN
You had not heard that we were married?
FAUST
No.
Of course, I am astounded; it's delightful--
And most surprising.
THE WOMAN
It was very sudden--
While you were gone.
FAUST
I see. Yes, I'm surprised
And charmed. It's strange, at first I could not bring
You to my memory.
THE WOMAN
I don't believe
That you can yet!
FAUST
Why....
THE WOMAN
I don't wonder at it.
I used to whisk about and peer at you
As you came in....
FAUST
Are you then ... then are you ...
Midge?
MIDGE
Yes! exactly.
FAUST
This is very charming.
Now I remember perfectly, of course,
Dear Mrs. Brander! I shall hope to see
Brander himself to-morrow. Give him, please,
My warmest wishes.
MIDGE
We shall hope to see you
In our apartment soon. It's very tiny
And in a quite unfashionable street;
But it looks out across a bit of park
To westward, as I've always hoped it would.
Some days the sunset lights are lovely there.
You must come look at them.
FAUST
Thank you--indeed
I shall be very glad to!
MIDGE
And I know--
How shall I say it?--that you'll think me strange,
And that I cannot ever be your friend
As Mr. Brander is. I know so little--
FAUST
Dear Mrs. Brander!
MIDGE
But I am so eager
That you should give me just a little trial--
I want so much to know you, and so much
He should not lose you....
FAUST
Why, you make me feel
Quite like a monster!
MIDGE
Then you'll come?
FAUST
I'll come!
MIDGE
Good-bye--and don't forget me.
[_Midge gives him her hand, and moves away
smiling._
FAUST
Well, of all
Impossible, grotesque, outrageous tricks
That Brander could have played upon himself!
Married--the fool, the fool!--And yet she is
Curiously sweet and fresh, that kitchen-maid.
SATAN
Are you quite through?
FAUST
Quite, thank you.... It is strange....
But I forget; you are not interested.
What is it you would say now?
SATAN
I have things
Graver to speak of than admiring ladies
Or Gothic architecture. Here, to-day,
Unto your doubting eyes there shall be made
A revelation of profounder scope
Than aught that life has brought you.
FAUST
The hour strikes
Tardily; I am wearier than I was
When on this trial we entered.
SATAN
You have looked
Askance at me these many days, perplexed
To reconcile the fountains of my will
With my strange acts, and with the dark report
That you have heard concerning me. Dear friend,
Be you not angry, now I say to you
In full confession, that from day to day
I have deceived you: I have hid my face
Even from my friend: I have with doubtful mask
In alien guises tempted you, to try
Your metal. But the hour of trial is past;
The event is sure; and now I ope my heart
And show to you what few of living men
Have guessed--my final secret.
FAUST
Play no tricks.
Before me, Satan; try no mumming game.
If you speak truth, let riddles cloak it not.
SATAN
Listen, and be truth's judge. I am not such
As men esteem me; and my spirit's springs
Rise not from buried and infernal realms,
But like your own, out of the fount of God
They have their being. I, though lowliest far,
Yet am a servant of the House of God--
Deputed to mine office by His hand,
And on His mission.
FAUST
You are trifling with me.
SATAN
I speak the gospel of the living God.
FAUST
Are you not Lord of Evil? God doubtless asks
That service of you?
SATAN
God is infinite,
Likewise His wisdom. His omniscience wills
That I go forth among the haunts of men
And offer evil to their touch. Thereby,
Some spurn me--and the force whereby they spurn
Lifts them up nearer to His arms. Some take
The sin I offer, fall from grace, go down--
And lost in fathomless gulfs of wickedness,
Cry out with utter yearning to His love
That it may save them, and repentant turn
Their prodigal faces toward His doors again,
Never to wander more. But some few souls,
Who neither spurn temptation nor repent
After their fall--these unregenerate
It is mine office wholly to destroy
And cleanse the universe for the praise of God.
Thus does all evil serve His mighty throne,
And all return to Him.
FAUST
I have no power
To take the measure of the words you speak.
Why tell me such things?
SATAN
I would tell you all
And show to you at last your destiny.
The vanities of the world, the woes and sins,
Are but the acid by whose fiery touch
I sort the gold from out the transient brass
And purify and fine it that it be
Worthy God's altar. My belovèd friend,
Such was your trial; thus have I tempted you
With things averse to God, with forms and faiths
Outcast and separate from Him. You have seen
The whole world's vanities; you have come to know
That in this world's illusion is no power
Whose love is refuge: even the living death
Of cold Nirvana frights you. Thus at last,
Knowing that you are powerless, and the world
Bare of salvation for your feebleness,
You stand on this great threshold; and your eyes
That see despair and loneliness shall raise
Their sight to heaven; and peace shall fold you round;
And God, who is our Father, shall be yours.
FAUST
This is not truth! My fevered eyes are weak
To look into this glowing maze of fire
With vision. All the ramparts of the world
Reel round me. I have scoffed God all my days,
Believing pain--your province of the world--
Proof of His non-existence. And you come
Crying His glory, testifying His faith,
Exhorting me to seek Him.... I am lost
Where naught is known to me.
SATAN
He is your hope,
Your sole salvation in a universe
Where never other form shall comfort you--
A waif except for Him. So have all souls--
The holy and the pure--from age to age,
Learned, homesick for His home. Their frustrate hopes,
Their burdens heavier than by mortal strength
Can be sustained, their impotence, bow down
Each spirit: and it cries: "O God, support
My helplessness; unto Thy perfect will
Do I resign my vain and evil hopes,
My burdens; and Thy Will Be Done Forever."
Thus, with arms folded on despairing breast,
With head bowed to the inscrutable decree,
They seek Him: and a sudden glory fills
The humbled bosom; all His stars and thrones
Shine down upon it; all His majesty
Enters that lowly door, lifts up, sustains
The sundered soul; and His beneficence
With more than father-love enfolds the heart
Joined to His own forever. From His light
Reflected radiance pours; to the dark sight
Comes glimpse of the high justice of God's will;
And all roads lead to Heaven, and all hearts lie
Within His love, and all's well with the world.
[_Deep organ music begins to roll through the
arches of the cathedral. Candles are lighted one by
one on the High Altar. Worshippers begin to enter
the nave: they pass down the long central aisle
and gather in groups at the far end, near the
Altar. Faust stands leaning against a pillar,
silent and lost in meditation.
Brander enters among the worshippers. He passes
the spot where Faust is standing, glances at him and
stops, astonished._
BRANDER
You have come back! I had not heard of it.
Where have you been these many months? I long
To talk with you.
FAUST
Yes, come and see me soon.
It's a long story.... I congratulate you
Upon your marriage....
BRANDER
Then you know....
FAUST
She came
And spoke to me a little while ago.
BRANDER
It must seem strange to you beyond my power
Ever to quite unravel. But for me
All things are clear; and to my blinded sight
Morning has come--in this thing, as in all
The doubts that once enslaved me.
FAUST
Do you mean...
BRANDER
Come here aside before the service starts.
I owe it you to tell you. I have changed
In your long absence....
FAUST
These are curious words.
I do not understand.
BRANDER
To understand,
You must hear all. You know my life--how vain
Its occupations, how absorbed I moved
In this day's folly and to-morrow's lure--
How petty trifles made my whole small round
Of being--selfish trifles, nothing worth,
Stained with a cruelty that I would forget.
That night we talked together--you and I
And Oldham--in your rooms, I wandered home
Sorely distressed. For you had stirred in me
A gnawing doubt whether the whole of life
Was not mere child's play.
FAUST
I am sorry if--
BRANDER
It was the kindest act man ever did
In all my life! I peered into my heart:
I saw myself Judas to innocence,
Betraying lightly with a careless kiss
A mortal body and immortal soul;
I saw no thing in all my days to claim
A sane man's approbation; one by one
Each glittering bauble that I late had loved
Crumbled to dust beneath the parching fire
Of reason.... And that night, I walked in Hell.
FAUST
Poor Brander! And my mocking did all this?
BRANDER
Thank God for it! That night I saw my joys
Like some rank thicket of bright vanities
Masking a precipice. A sense of sin
And loathing overcame me, and the power
Of utter terror filled me. I beheld
The evil riot of gross earthy things
That had o'ergrown me. Like a burden lay
That sense upon me, and it pressed me down
To a despondence deep beyond all words,
Beyond all thought. And no escape I saw
Except the bullet....
FAUST
What a faith we pin
Upon that bullet!
BRANDER