How name ye that stiff formal man,

Who strides with lofty paces?

He tracks the game where'er he can,

"He scents the Jesuits' traces."

CRANE

Where waters troubled are or clear,

To fish I am delighted;

Thus pious gentlemen appear

With devils here united.

WORLDLING

By pious people, it is true,

No medium is rejected;

Conventicles, and not a few,

On Blocksberg are erected.

DANCER

Another chorus now succeeds,

Far off the drums are beating.

Be still! The bitterns 'mong the reeds

Their one note are repeating.

DANCING MASTER

Each twirls about and never stops,

And as he can he fareth.

The crooked leaps, the clumsy hops,

Nor for appearance careth.

FIDDLER

To take each other's life, I trow,

Would cordially delight them!

As Orpheus' lyre the beasts, so now

The bagpipe doth unite them.

DOGMATIST

My views, in spite of doubt and sneer,

I hold with stout persistence,

Inferring from the devils here,

The evil one's existence.

IDEALIST

My every sense rules Phantasy

With sway quite too potential;

Sure I'm demented if the _I_

Alone is the essential.

REALIST

This entity's a dreadful bore,

And cannot choose but vex me;

The ground beneath me ne'er before

Thus totter'd to perplex me.

SUPERNATURALIST

Well pleased assembled here I view

Of spirits this profusion;

From devils, touching angels too,

I gather some conclusion.

SCEPTIC

The ignis fatuus they track out,

And think they're near the treasure.

Devil alliterates with doubt,

Here I abide with pleasure.

LEADER OF THE BAND

Frog and cricket in the mosses,--

Confound your gasconading!

Nose of fly and gnat's proboscis;--

Most tuneful serenading!

THE KNOWING ONES

Sans souci, so this host we greet,

Their jovial humor showing;

There's now no walking on our feet,

So on our heads we're going.

THE AWKWARD ONES

In seasons past we snatch'd, 'tis true,

Some tit-bits by our cunning;

Our shoes, alas, are now danced through,

On our bare soles we're running.

WILL-O'-THE-WISPS

From marshy bogs we sprang to light,

Yet here behold us dancing;

The gayest gallants of the night,

In glitt'ring rows advancing.

SHOOTING STAR

With rapid motion from on high,

I shot in starry splendor;

Now prostrate on the grass I lie;--

Who aid will kindly render?

THE MASSIVE ONES

Room! wheel round! They're coming! lo!

Down sink the bending grasses.

Though spirits, yet their limbs, we know,

Are huge substantial masses.

PUCK

Don't stamp so heavily, I pray;

Like elephants you're treading!

And 'mong the elves be Puck today,

The stoutest at the wedding!

ARIEL

If nature boon, or subtle sprite,

Endow your soul with pinions;--

Then follow to you rosy height,

Through ether's calm dominions!

ORCHESTRA (_pianissimo_)

Drifting cloud and misty wreathes

Are fill'd with light elysian;

O'er reed and leaf the zephyr breathes--

So fades the fairy vision!

A GLOOMY DAY. A PLAIN

FAUST _and_ MEPHISTOPHELES

FAUST

In misery! despairing! long wandering pitifully on the face of the

earth and now imprisoned! This gentle hapless creature, immured in the

dungeon as a malefactor and reserved for horrid tortures! That it

should come to this! To this!--Perfidious, worthless spirit, and this

thou hast concealed from me!--Stand! ay, stand! roll in malicious rage

thy fiendish eyes! Stand and brave me with thine insupportable

presence! Imprisoned! In hopeless misery! Delivered over to the power

of evil spirits and the judgment of unpitying humanity!--And me, the

while, thou went lulling with tasteless dissipations, concealing from

me her growing anguish, and leaving her to perish without help!

MEPHISTOPHELES

She is not the first.

FAUST

Hound! Execrable monster!--Back with him, oh thou infinite spirit!

back with the reptile into his dog's shape, in which it was his wont

to scamper before me at eventide, to roll before the feet of the

harmless wanderer, and to fasten on his shoulders when he fell! Change

him again into his favorite shape, that he may crouch on his belly

before me in the dust, whilst I spurn him with my foot, the

reprobate!--Not the first!--Woe! Woe! By no human soul is it

conceivable, that more than one human creature has ever sunk into a

depth of wretchedness like this, or that the first in her writhing

death-agony should not have atoned in the sight of all-pardoning

Heaven for the guilt of all the rest! The misery of this one pierces

me to the very marrow, and harrows up my soul; thou art grinning

calmly over the doom of thousands!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Now we are once again at our wit's end, just where the reason of you

mortals snaps! Why dost thou seek our fellowship, if thou canst not go

through with it? Wilt fly, and art not proof against dizziness? Did we

force ourselves on thee, or thou on us?

FAUST

Cease thus to gnash thy ravenous fangs at me! I loathe thee!--Great

and glorious spirit, thou who didst vouchsafe to reveal thyself unto

me, thou who dost know my very heart and soul, why hast thou linked me

with this base associate, who feeds on mischief and revels in

destruction?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Hast done?

FAUST

Save her!--or woe to thee! The direst of curses on thee for thousands

of years!

MEPHISTOPHELES

I cannot loose the bands of the avenger, nor withdraw his bolts.--Save

her!--Who was it plunged her into perdition? I or thou?

FAUST (_looks wildly around_)

MEPHISTOPHELES

Would'st grasp the thunder? Well for you, poor mortals, that 'tis not

yours to wield! To smite to atoms the being, however innocent, who

obstructs his path, such is the tyrant's fashion of relieving himself

in difficulties!

FAUST

Convey me thither! She shall be free!

MEPHISTOPHELES

And the danger to which thou dost expose thyself? Know, the guilt of

blood, shed by thy hand, lies yet upon the town. Over the place where

fell the murdered one, avenging spirits hover and watch for the

returning murderer.

FAUST

This too from thee? The death and downfall of a world be on thee,

monster! Conduct me thither, I say and set her free!

MEPHISTOPHELES

I will conduct thee. And what I can do,--hear! Have I all power in

heaven and upon earth? I'll cloud the senses of the warder,--do thou

possess thyself of the keys and lead her forth with human hand! I will

keep watch! The magic steeds are waiting, I bear thee off. Thus much

is in my power.

FAUST

Up and away!

NIGHT. OPEN COUNTRY

FAUST. MEPHISTOPHELES

(_Rushing along on black horses_)

FAUST

What weave they yonder round the Ravenstone?

MEPHISTOPHELES

I know not what they shape and brew.

FAUST

They're soaring, swooping, bending, stooping.

MEPHISTOPHELES

A witches' pack.

FAUST

They charm, they strew.

MEPHISTOPHELES

On! On!

DUNGEON

FAUST (_with a bunch of keys and a lamp before a small iron door_)

A fear unwonted o'er my spirit falls;

Man's concentrated woe o'erwhelms me here!

She dwells immur'd within these dripping walls;

Her only trespass a delusion dear!

Thou lingerest at the fatal door?

Thou dread'st to see her face once more?

On! While thou dalliest, draws her death-hour near.

[_He seizes the lock. Singing within._]

My mother, the harlot,

She took me and slew!

My father, the scoundrel,

Hath eaten me too!

My sweet little sister

Hath all my bones laid,

Where soft breezes whisper

All in the cool shade!

Then became I a wood-bird, and sang on the spray,

Fly away! little bird, fly away! fly away!

FAUST (_opening the lock_)

Ah! she forebodes not that her lover's near,

The clanking chains, the rustling straw, to hear.

[_He enters._]

MARGARET (_hiding her face in the bed of straw_)

Woe! woe! they come! oh bitter 'tis to die!

FAUST (_Softly_)

Hush! hush! be still! I come to set thee free.

MARGARET (_throwing herself at his feet_)

If thou art human, feel my misery!

FAUST

Thou wilt awake the jailer with thy cry!

[_He grasps the chains to unlock them._]

MARGARET (_on her knees_)

Who, headsman, unto thee this power

O'er me could give?

Thou com'st for me at midnight-hour.

Be merciful, and let me live!

Is morrow's dawn not time enough?

[_She stands up._]

I'm still so young, so young--

And must so early die!

Fair was I too, and that was my undoing.

My love is now afar, he then was nigh;

Tom lies the garland, the fair blossoms strew'd.

Nay, seize me not with hand so rude!

Spare me! What harm have I e'er done to thee?

Oh let me not in vain implore!

I ne'er have seen thee in my life before!

FAUST

Can I endure this bitter agony?

MARGARET

I now am at thy mercy quite.

Let me my babe but suckle once again!

I fondled it the live-long night;

They took it from me but to give me pain,

And now, they say that I my child have slain.

Gladness I ne'er again shall know.

Then they sing songs about me,--'tis wicked of the throng--

An ancient ballad endeth so;

Who bade them thus apply the song?

FAUST (_throwing himself on the ground_)

A lover at thy feet bends low,

To loose the bonds of wretchedness and woe.

MARGARET (_throws herself beside him_)

Oh, let us kneel and move the saints by prayer!

Look! look! yon stairs below,

Under the threshold there,

Hell's flames are all aglow!

Beneath the floor,

With hideous noise,

The devils roar!

FAUST (_aloud_)

Gretchen! Gretchen!

MARGARET (_listening_)

That was my lov'd one's voice!

[_She springs up, the chains fall off_.]

Where is he? I heard him calling me.

Free am I! There's none shall hinder me.

To his neck will I fly,

On his bosom will lie!

Gretchen, he called!--On yon threshold he stood;

Amidst all the howling of hell's fiery flood,

The scoff and the scorn of its devilish crew,

The tones of his voice, sweet and loving, I knew.

FAUST

'Tis I!

MARGARET

'Tis thou! O say so once again!

[_embracing him_.]

'Tis he! 'Tis he! where's now the torturing pain?

Where are the fetters? where the dungeon's gloom?

'Tis thou! To save me thou art come!

And I am sav'd!--

Already now the street I see

Where the first time I caught a glimpse of thee.

There to the pleasant garden shade,

Where I and Martha for thy coming stay'd.

FAUST (_endeavoring to lead her away_)

Come! come away!

MARGARET

Oh do not haste!

I love to linger where thou stayest. [_caressing him_.]

FAUST

Ah haste! For if thou still delayest,

Our lingering we shall both deplore.

MARGARET

How, dearest? canst thou kiss no more!

So short a time away from me, and yet,

To kiss thou couldst so soon forget!

Why on thy neck so anxious do I feel--

When formerly a perfect heaven of bliss

From thy dear looks and words would o'er me steal?

As thou wouldst stifle me thou then didst kiss!--

Kiss me!

Or I'll kiss thee! [_She embraces him._]

Woe! woe! Thy lips are cold,--

Are dumb!

Thy love where hast thou left?

Who hath me of thy love bereft?

[_She turns away from him._]

FAUST

Come! Follow me, my dearest love, be bold!

I'll cherish thee with ardor thousand-fold;

I but entreat thee now to follow me!

MARGARET (_turning toward him_)

And art thou he? and art thou really he?

FAUST

'Tis I! Oh come!

MARGARET

Thou wilt strike off my chain,

And thou wilt take me to thine arms again.

How comes it that thou dost not shrink from me?--

And dost thou know, love, whom thou wouldst set free?

FAUST

Come! come! already night begins to wane.

MARGARET

I sent my mother to her grave,

I drown'd my child beneath the wave.

Was it not given to thee and me--thee too?

'Tis thou thyself! I scarce believe it yet.

Give me thy hand! It is no dream! 'Tis true!

Thine own dear hand!--But how is this? 'Tis wet!

Quick, wipe it off! Meseems that yet

There's blood thereon.

Ah God! what hast thou done?

Put up thy sword,

I beg of thee!

FAUST

Oh, dearest, let the past forgotten be!

Death is in every word.

MARGARET

No, thou must linger here in sorrow!

The graves I will describe to thee,

And thou to them must see

Tomorrow:

The best place give to my mother,

Close at her side my brother,

Me at some distance lay--

But not too far away!

And the little one place on my right breast.

Nobody else will near me lie!

To nestle beside thee so lovingly,

That was a rapture, gracious and sweet!

A rapture I never again shall prove;

Methinks I would force myself on thee, love,

And thou dost spurn me, and back retreat--

Yet 'tis thyself, thy fond kind looks I see.

FAUST

If thou dost feel 'tis I, then come with me!

MARGARET

What, there? without?

FAUST

Yes, forth in the free air.

MARGARET

Ay, if the grave's without,--If death lurk there!

Hence to the everlasting resting-place,

And not one step beyond!--Thou'rt leaving me?

Oh Henry! would that I could go with thee!

FAUST

Thou canst! But will it! Open stands the door.

MARGARET

I dare not go! I've naught to hope for more.

What boots it to escape? They lurk for me!

'Tis wretched to beg, as I must do,

And with an evil conscience thereto!

'Tis wretched, in foreign lands to stray;

And me they will catch, do what I may!

FAUST

With thee will I abide.

MARGARET

Quick! Quick!

Save thy poor child!

Keep to the path

The brook along,

Over the bridge

To the wood beyond,

To the left, where the plank is,

In the pond.

Seize it at once!

It fain would rise,

It struggles still!

Save it. Oh save!

FAUST

Dear Gretchen, more collected be!

One little step, and thou art free!

MARGARET

Were we but only past the hill

There sits my mother upon a stone--

My brain, alas, is cold with dread!--

There sits my mother upon a stone,

And to and fro she shakes her head;

She winks not, she nods not, her head it droops sore;

She slept so long, she waked no more;

She slept, that we might taste of bliss:

Ah I those were happy times, I wis!

FAUST

Since here avails nor argument nor prayer,

Thee hence by force I needs must bear.

MARGARET

Loose me! I will not suffer violence!

With murderous hand hold not so fast!

I have done all to please thee in the past!

FAUST

Day dawns! My love! My love!

MARGARET

Yes! day draws near,

The day of judgment too will soon appear!

It should have been my bridal! No one tell,

That thy poor Gretchen thou hast known too well.

Woe to my garland!

Its bloom is o'er!

Though not at the dance--

We shall meet once more.

The crowd doth gather, in silence it rolls;

The squares, the streets,

Scarce hold the throng.

The staff is broken,--the death-bell tolls,--

They bind and seize me! I'm hurried along,

To the seat of blood already I'm bound!

Quivers each neck as the naked steel

Quivers on mine the blow to deal--

The silence of the grave now broods around!

FAUST

Would I had ne'er been born!

MEPHISTOPHELES (_appears without_)

Up! or you're lost.

Vain hesitation! Babbling, quaking!

My steeds are shivering,

Morn is breaking.

MARGARET

What from the floor ascendeth like a ghost?

'Tis he! 'Tis he! Him from my presence chase!

What would he in this holy place?

It is for me he cometh!

FAUST

Thou shalt live!

MARGARET

Judgment of God! To thee my soul I give!

MEPHISTOPHELES (_to_ FAUST)

Come, come! With her I'll else abandon thee!

MARGARET

Father, I'm thine! Do thou deliver me!

Ye angels! Ye angelic hosts! descend,

Encamp around to guard me and defend!--

Henry! I shudder now to look on thee!

MEPHISTOPHELES

She now is judged!

VOICES (_from above_)

Is saved!

MEPHISTOPHELES (_to_ FAUST)

Come thou with me!

[_vanishes with_ FAUST.]

VOICE (_from within, dying away_)

Henry! Henry!

END OF PART I.

FAUST--SELECTIONS FROM PART II (1832)

ACT THE FIRST

A PLEASING LANDSCAPE

FAUST, _reclining upon flowery turf, restless, seeking sleep_

TWILIGHT

_Circle of spirits, hovering, flit around;--Graceful, tiny forms_.

ARIEL

_Song, accompanied by Æolian harps_

When, in vernal showers descending,

Blossoms gently veil the earth,

When the fields' green wealth, up-tending,

Gleams on all of mortal birth;

Tiny elves, where help availeth,

Large of heart, there fly apace;

Pity they whom grief assaileth,

Be he holy, be he base.

Ye round this head on airy wing careering,

Attend, in noble Elfin guise appearing;

Assuage the cruel strife that rends his heart,

The burning shaft remove of keen remorse,

From rankling horror cleanse his inmost part:

Four are the pauses of the nightly course;

Them, without rest, fill up with kindly art.

And first his head upon cool pillow lay,

Then bathe ye him in dew from Lethe's stream;

His limbs, cramp-stiffen'd, will more freely play,

If sleep-refreshed he wait morn's wakening beam.

Perform the noblest Elfin-rite,

Restore ye him to the holy light!

CHORUS (_singly, two or more, alternately and together_)

Softly when warm gales are stealing

O'er the green-environed ground,

Twilight sheddeth all-concealing

Mists and balmy odors round:

Whispers low sweet peace to mortals,

Rocks the heart to childlike rest,

And of day-light shuts the portals

To these eyes, with care oppressed.

Night hath now descended darkling,

Holy star is linked to star;

Sovereign fires, or faintly sparkling,

Glitter near and shine afar;

Glitter here lake-mirror'd, yonder

Shine adown the clear night sky;

Sealing bliss of perfect slumber,

Reigns the moon's full majesty.

Now the hours are cancelled; sorrow,

Happiness, have passed away:

Whole thou shalt be on the morrow!

Feel it! Trust the new-born day!

Swell the hills, green grow the valleys,

In the dusk ere breaks the morn;

And in silvery wavelets dallies,

With the wind, the ripening corn.

Cherish hope, let naught appall thee!

Mark the East, with splendor dyed!

Slight the fetters that enthrall thee;

Fling the shell of sleep aside!

Gird thee for the high endeavor;

Shun the crowd's ignoble ease!

Fails the noble spirit never,

Wise to think, and prompt to seize.

[_A tremendous tumult announces the uprising of the Sun._]

ARIEL

Hark, the horal tempest nears,

Sounding but for spirit ears,

Lo! the new-born day appears;

Clang the rocky portals, climb

Phoebus' wheels with thund'rous chime:

Breaks with tuneful noise the light!

Blare of trumpet, clarion sounding,

Eye-sight dazing, ear astounding!

Hear not the unheard; take flight!

Into petaled blossoms glide

Deeper, deeper, still to bide,

In the clefts, 'neath thickets! ye,

If it strike you, deaf will be.

FAUST

Life's pulses reawakened freshly bound,

The mild ethereal twilight fain to greet.

Thou, Earth, this night wast also constant found,

And, newly-quickened, breathing at my feet,

Beginnest now to gird me with delight;

A strong resolve dost rouse, with noble heat

Aye to press on to being's sovereign height.

The world in glimmering dawn still folded lies;

With thousand-voicèd life the woods resound;

Mist-wreaths the valley shroud; yet from the skies

Sinks heaven's clear radiance to the depths profound;

And bough and branch from dewy chasms rise,

Where they had drooped erewhile in slumber furled;

Earth is enamelled with unnumber'd dyes,

Leaflet and flower with dew-drops are impearled;

Around me everywhere is paradise.

Gaze now aloft! Each mountain's giant height

The solemn hour announces, herald-wise;

They early may enjoy the eternal light,

To us below which later finds its way.

Now are the Alpine slopes and valleys dight

With the clear radiance of the new-born day,

Which, downward, step by step, steals on

apace.--It blazes forth,--and, blinded by the ray,

With aching eyes, alas! I veil my face.

So when a hope, the heart hath long held fast,

Trustful, still striving toward its highest goal,

Fulfilment's portals open finds at

last;--Sudden from those eternal depths doth roll

An over-powering flame;--we stand aghast!

The torch of life to kindle we were

fain;--A fire-sea,--what a fire!--doth round us close;

Love is it? Is it hate? with joy and pain,

In alternation vast, that round us glows?

So that to earth we turn our wistful gaze,

In childhood's veil to shroud us once again!

So let the sun behind me pour its rays!

The cataract, through rocky cleft that roars,

I view, with growing rapture and amaze.

From fall to fall, with eddying shock, it pours,

In thousand torrents to the depths below,

Aloft in air up-tossing showers of spray.

But see, in splendor bursting from the storm,

Arches itself the many-colored bow,

And ever-changeful, yet continuous form,

Now drawn distinctly, melting now away,

Diffusing dewy coolness all around!

Man's efforts there are glassed, his toil and strife;

Reflect, more true the emblem will be found:

This bright reflected glory pictures life!

IMPERIAL PALACE. THRONE-ROOM

_Council of State, in expectation of the_ EMPEROR

TRUMPETS

_Enter courtiers of every grade, splendidly attired. The

Emperor ascends the throne; to the right the_ ASTROLOGER.

EMPEROR

I greet you, trusty friends and dear,

Assembled thus from far and wide!--

I see the wise man at my side,

But wherefore is the fool not here?

PAGE

Entangled in thy mantle's flow.

He tripped upon the stair below;

The mass of fat they bare away,

If dead or drunken--who can say?

SECOND PAGE

Forthwith another comes apace,

With wondrous speed to take his place;

Costly, yet so grotesque his gear,

All start amazed as he draws near.

Crosswise the guards before his face,

Entrance to bar, their halberds hold--

Yet there he is, the fool so bold.

MEPHISTOPHELES (_kneeling before the throne_)

What is accursed and gladly hailed?

What is desired and chased away?

What is upbraided and assailed?

What wins protection every day?

Whom darest thou not summon here?

Whose name doth plaudits still command?

What to thy throne now draweth near?

What from this place itself hath banned?

EMPEROR

For this time thou thy words may'st spare!

This is no place for riddles, friend;

They are these gentlemen's affair,--

Solve them! an ear I'll gladly lend.

My old fool's gone, far, far away, I fear;

Take thou his place, come, stand beside me here!

[MEPHISTOPHELES _ascends and places himself at the_

EMPEROR'S _left._]

_Murmur of the Crowd_

Here's a new fool--for plague anew!

Whence cometh he?--How passed he through?

The old one fell--he squander'd hath.--

He was a tub--now 'tis a lath.--

EMPEROR

So now, my friends, beloved and leal,

Be welcome all, from near and far!

Ye meet 'neath an auspicious star;

For us above are written joy and weal.

But tell me wherefore, on this day,

When we all care would cast away,

And don the masker's quaint array,

And naught desire but to enjoy,

Should we with state affairs ourselves annoy?

But if ye think it so must be indeed,

Why, well and good, let us forthwith proceed!

CHANCELLOR

The highest virtue circles halo-wise

Our Cæsar's brow; virtue, which from the throne,

He validly can exercise alone:

Justice!--What all men love and prize,

What all demand, desire, and sorely want,

It lies with him, this to the folk to grant.

But ah! what help can intellect command,

Goodness of heart, or willingness of hand,

When fever saps the state with deadly power,

And mischief breedeth mischief, hour by hour?

To him who downward from this height supreme

Views the wide realm, 'tis like a troubled dream,

Where the deformed deformity o'ersways,

Where lawlessness, through law, the tyrant plays,

And error's ample world itself displays.

One steals a woman, one a steer,

Lights from the altar, chalice, cross,

Boasts of his deed full many a year,

Unscathed in body, without harm or loss.

Now to the hall accusers throng;

On cushioned throne the judge presides;

Surging meanwhile in eddying tides,

Confusion waxes fierce and strong.

He may exalt in crime and shame,

Who on accomplices depends;

Guilty! the verdict they proclaim,

When Innocence her cause defends.

So will the world succumb to ill,

And what is worthy perish quite;

How then may grow the sense which still

Instructs us to discern the right?

E'en the right-minded man, in time,

To briber and to flatterer yields;

The judge, who cannot punish crime,

Joins with the culprit whom he shields.--

I've painted black, yet fain had been

A veil to draw before the scene.

_Pause_

Measures must needs be taken; when

All injure or are injured, then

E'en Majesty becomes a prey.

FIELD MARSHAL

In these wild days what tumults reign!

Each smitten is and smites again,

Deaf to command, will none obey.

The burgher, safe behind his wall,

Within his rocky nest, the knight,

Against us have conspired, and all

Firmly to hold their own unite.

Impatient is the hireling now,

With vehemence he claims his due;

And did we owe him naught, I trow,

Off he would run, nor bid adieu.

Who thwarts what fondly all expect,

He bath disturbed a hornet's nest;

The empire which they should protect,

It lieth plundered and oppress'd.

Their furious rage may none restrain;

Already half the world's undone;

Abroad there still are kings who reign--

None thinks 'tis his concern, not one.

TREASURER

Who will depend upon allies!

For us their promised subsidies

Like conduit-water, will not flow.

Say, Sire, through your dominions vast

To whom hath now possession passed!

Some upstart, wheresoe'er we go,

Keeps house, and independent reigns.

We must look on, he holds his own;

So many rights away we've thrown,

That for ourselves no right remains.

On so-called parties in the state

There's no reliance, now-a-days;

They may deal out or blame or praise,

Indifferent are love and hate.

The Ghibelline as well as Guelph

Retire, that they may live at ease!

Who helps his neighbor now? Himself

Each hath enough to do to please.

Barred are the golden gates; while each

Scrapes, snatches, gathers all within his reach--

Empty, meanwhile, our chest remains.

STEWARD

What worry must I, also, bear!

Our aim each day is still to spare--

And more each day we need; my pains,

Daily renewed, are never o'er.

The cooks lack nothing;--deer, wild-boar,

Stags, hares, fowls, turkeys, ducks and geese,--

Tribute in kind, sure payment, these

Come fairly in, and none complains.

But now at last wine fails; and if of yore

Up-piled upon the cellar-floor,

Cask rose on cask, a goodly store,

From the best slopes and vintage; now

The swilling of our lords, I trow,

Unceasing, drains the very lees.

E'en the Town-council must give out

Its liquor;--bowls and cups they seize;

And 'neath the table lies the drunken rout.

Now must I pay, whate'er betides;

Me the Jew spares not; he provides

Anticipation-bonds which feed

Each year on that which must succeed;

The swine are never fattened now;

Pawned is the pillow or the bed,

And to the table comes fore-eaten bread.

EMPEROR (_after some reflection, to_ MEPHISTOPHELES)

Say, fool, another grievance knowest thou?

MEPHISTOPHELES

I, nowise. On this circling pomp to gaze,

On thee and thine! There can reliance fail

Where majesty resistless sways,

And ready power makes foemen quail?

Where loyal will, through reason strong,

And prowess, manifold, unite,

What could together join for wrong,

For darkness, where such stars give light?

_Murmur of the Crowd_

He is a knave--he comprehends--

He lies--while lying serves his ends--

Full well I know--what lurks behind--

What next?--Some scheme is in the wind!--

MEPHISTOPHELES

Where is not something wanting here on earth?

Here this,--there that: of gold is here the dearth.

It cannot from the floor be scrap'd, 'tis true;

But what lies deepest wisdom brings to view.

In mountain-veins, walls underground,

Is gold, both coined and uncoined, to be found.

And if ye ask me,--bring it forth who can?

Spirit-and nature-power of gifted man.

CHANCELLOR

Nature and spirit--christians ne'er should hear

Such words, with peril fraught and fear.

These words doom atheists to the fire.

Nature is sin, spirit is devil; they,

Between them, doubt beget, their progeny,

Hermaphrodite, mis-shapen, dire.

Not so with us! Within our Cæsar's land

Two orders have arisen, two alone,

Who worthily support his ancient throne:

Clergy and knights, who fearless stand,

Bulwarks 'gainst every storm, and they

Take church and state as their appropriate pay.

Through lawless men, the vulgar herd

To opposition have of late been stirred;

The heretics these are, the wizards, who

The city ruin and the country too.

With thy bold jests, to this high sphere,

Such miscreants wilt smuggle in;

Hearts reprobate to you are dear;

They to the fool are near of kin.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Herein your learned men I recognize!

What you touch not, miles distant from you lies;

What you grasp not, is naught in sooth to you;

What you count not, cannot, you deem, be true;

What you weigh not, that hath for you no weight;

What you coin not, you're sure is counterfeit.

EMPEROR

Therewith our needs are not one whit the less.

What meanest thou with this thy Lent-address?

I'm tired of this eternal If and How.

'Tis gold we lack; so good, procure it thou!

MEPHISTOPHELES

I'll furnish more, ay, more than all you ask.

Though light it seems, not easy is the task.

There lies the gold, but to procure it thence,

That is the art: who knoweth to commence?

Only consider, in those days of terror,

When human floods swamped land and folk together,

How every one, how great soe'er his fear,

All that he treasured most, hid there or here;

So was it 'neath the mighty Roman's sway,

So on till yesterday, ay, till today:

That all beneath the soil still buried lies--

The soil is Cæsar's, his shall be the prize.

TREASURER

Now for a fool he speaketh not amiss;

Our Cæsar's ancient right, in sooth, was this.

CHANCELLOR

Satan for you spreads golden snares; 'tis clear,

Something not right or pious worketh here.

STEWARD

To us at court if welcome gifts he bring,

A little wrong is no such serious thing.

FIELD MARSHAL

Shrewd is the fool, he bids what all desire;

The soldier, whence it comes, will not inquire.

MEPHISTOPHELES

You think yourselves, perchance, deceived by me;

Ask the Astrologer! This man is he!

Circle round circle, hour and house, he knows.--

Then tell us, how the heavenly aspect shows.

_Murmur of the Crowd_

Two rascals--each to other known--

Phantast and fool--so near the throne--

The old, old song,--now trite with age--

The fool still prompts--while speaks the sage.--

ASTROLOGER (_speaks_, MEPHISTOPHELES _prompts_)

The sun himself is purest gold; for pay

And favor serves the herald, Mercury;

Dame Venus hath bewitched you from above,

Early and late, she looks on you with love;

Chaste Luna's humor varies hour by hour;

Mars, though he strike not, threats you with his power,

And Jupiter is still the fairest star;

Saturn is great, small to the eye and far;

As metal him we slightly venerate,

Little in worth, though ponderous in weight.

Now when with Sol fair Luna doth unite.

Silver with gold, cheerful the world and bright!

Then easy 'tis to gain whate'er one seeks;

Parks, gardens, palaces, and rosy cheeks;

These things procures this highly learned man.

He can accomplish what none other can.

EMPEROR

Double, methinks, his accents ring,

And yet they no conviction bring.

_Murmur_

Of what avail!--a worn-out tale--

Calendery--and chemistry--

I the false word--full oft have heard--

And as of yore--we're hoax'd once more.

MEPHISTOPHELES

The grand discovery they misprize,

As, in amaze, they stand around;

One prates of gnomes and sorceries,

Another of the sable hound.

What matters it, though witlings rail,

Though one his suit 'gainst witchcraft press,

If his sole tingle none the less,

If his sure footing also fail?

Ye of all swaying Nature feel

The secret working, never-ending,

And, from her lowest depths up-tending,

E'en now her living trace doth steal.

If sudden cramps your limbs surprise,

If all uncanny seem the spot--

There dig and delve, but dally not!

There lies the fiddler, there the treasure lies!

_Murmur_

Like lead it lies my foot about--

Cramp'd is my arm--'tis only gout--

Twitchings I have in my great toe--

Down all my back strange pains I know--

Such indications make it clear

That sumless treasuries are here.

EMPEROR

To work--the time for flight is past.--

Put to the test your frothy lies!

These treasures bring before our eyes!

Sceptre and sword aside I'll cast,

And with these royal hands, indeed,

If thou lie not, to work proceed.

Thee, if thou lie, I'll send to hell!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Thither to find the way I know full well!--

Yet can I not enough declare,

What wealth unown'd lies waiting everywhere:

The countryman, who ploughs the land,

Gold-crocks upturneth with the mould;

Nitre he seeks in lime-walls old,

And findeth, in his meagre hand,

Scared, yet rejoiced, rouleaus of gold.

How many a vault upblown must be,

Into what clefts, what shafts, must he

Who doth of hidden treasure know,

Descend, to reach the world below!

In cellars vast, impervious made,

Goblets of gold he sees displayed,

Dishes and plates, row after row;

There beakers, rich with rubies, stand;

And would he use them, close at hand

Well stored the ancient moisture lies;

Yet--would ye him who knoweth, trust?--

The staves long since have turned to dust,

A tartar cask their place supplies!

Not gold alone and jewels rare,

Essence of noblest wines are there,

In night and horror veiled. The wise,

Unwearied here pursues his quest.

To search by day, that were a jest;

'Tis darkness that doth harbor mysteries.

EMPEROR

What can the dark avail? Look thou to that!

If aught have worth, it cometh to the light.

Who can detect the rogue at dead of night?

Black are the cows, and gray is every cat.

These pots of heavy gold, if they be there--

Come, drive thy plough, upturn them with thy share!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Take spade and hoe thyself;--dig on--

Great shalt thou be through peasant toil--

A herd of golden calves anon

Themselves shall tear from out the soil;

Then straight, with rapture newly born,

Thyself thou canst, thy sweet-heart wilt adorn.

A sparkling gem, lustrous, of varied dye,

Beauty exalts as well as majesty.

EMPEROR

To work, to work! How long wilt linger?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Sire,

Relax, I pray, such vehement desire!

First let us see the motley, joyous show!

A mind distraught conducts not to the goal.

First must we calmness win through self-control,

Through things above deserve what lies below.

Who seeks for goodness, must himself be good;

Who seeks for joy, must moderate his blood;

Who wine desires, the luscious grape must press;

Who craveth miracles, more faith possess.

EMPEROR

So be the interval in gladness spent!

Ash-Wednesday cometh, to our heart's content.

Meanwhile we'll solemnize, whate'er befall,

More merrily the joyous Carnival.

[_Trumpets. Exeunt._]

MEPHISTOPHELES

That merit and success are link'd together,

This to your fools occurreth never;

Could they appropriate the wise man's stone,

That, not the wise man, they would prize alone.

* * * * *

ACT THE SECOND

HIGH-VAULTED, NARROW GOTHIC CHAMBER,

FORMERLY FAUST'S, UNALTERED

MEPHISTOPHELES (_stepping from behind a curtain. While

he raises it and looks back_, FAUST _is seen, stretched

upon an old-fashioned bed_)

Lie there, ill-starred one! In love's chain,

Full hard to loose, he captive lies!

Not soon his senses will regain

Whom Helena doth paralyze.

(_Looking round_)

Above, around, on every side

I gaze, uninjured all remains:

Dimmer, methinks, appear the color'd panes,

The spiders' webs are multiplied,

Yellow the paper, and the ink is dry;

Yet in its place each thing I find;

And here the very pen doth lie,

Wherewith himself Faust to the Devil signed,

Yea, quite dried up, and deeper in the bore,

The drop of blood, I lured from him of yore--

O'erjoyed to own such specimen unique

Were he who objects rare is fain to seek--;

Here on its hook hangs still the old fur cloak,

Me it remindeth of that merry joke,

When to the boy I precepts gave, for truth,

Whereon, perchance, he's feeding now, as youth.

The wish comes over me, with thee allied,

Enveloped in thy worn and rugged folds,

Once more to swell with the professor's pride!

How quite infallible himself he holds;

This feeling to obtain your savants know;

The devil parted with it long ago.

[_He shakes the fur cloak which he has taken down;

crickets, moths, and chafers fly out._]

CHORUS OF INSECTS

We welcome thy coming,

Our patron of yore!

We're dancing and humming,

And know thee once more.

Us singly, in silence,

Hast planted, and lo!

By thousands, oh Father,

We dance to and fro.

The rogue hides discreetly

The bosom within;

We looseskins fly rather

Forth from the fur skin.

MEPHISTOPHELES

O'erjoyed I am my progeny to know!

We're sure to reap in time, if we but sow.

I shake the old fur-mantle as before,

And here and there out flutters one or more.--

Above, around, hasten, belovèd elves,

In hundred thousand nooks to hide yourselves!

'Mid boxes there of by-gone time,

Here in these age-embrownèd scrolls,

In broken potsherds, foul with grime,

In yonder skulls' now eyeless holes!

Amid such rotten, mouldering life,

Must foolish whims for aye be rife.

[_Slips into the fur mantle_.]

Come shroud my shoulders as of yore!

Today I'm principal once more;

But useless 'tis, to bear the name:

Where are the folk to recognize my claim?

[_He pulls the bell, which emits a shrill penetrating

sound, at which the halls shake and the doors

spring open._]

FAMULUS (_tottering up the long dark passage_)

What a clamor! What a quaking!

Stairs are rocking, walls are shaking:

Through the windows' quivering sheen,

Are the stormful lightnings seen;

Springs the ceiling,--thence, below,

Lime and mortar rattling flow:

And, though bolted fast, the door

Is undone by magic power!

There, in Faust's old fleece bedight,

Stands a giant,--dreadful sight!

At his glance, his beck, at me!

I could sink upon my knee.

Shall I fly, or shall I stay?

What will be my fate today?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Come hither, friend!--Your name is Nicodemus?

FAMULUS

Most honor'd Sir, such is my name.--Oremus!

MEPHISTOPHELES

That we'll omit!

FAMULUS

O joy, me you do not forget.

MEPHISTOPHELES

I know it well: old, and a student yet;

My mossy friend, even a learned man

Still studies on, because naught else he can:

Thus a card-house each builds of medium height;

The greatest spirit fails to build it quite.

Your master, though, that title well may claim--

The noble Doctor Wagner, known to fame,

First in the learned world! 'Tis he, they say,

Who holds that world together; every day

Of wisdom he augments the store!

Who crave omniscience, evermore

In crowds upon his teaching wait;

He from the rostrum shines alone;

The keys doth like Saint Peter own,

And doth of Hell and Heaven ope the gate;

As before all he glows and sparkles,

No fame, no glory but grows dim,

Even the name of Faustus darkles!

Inventor there is none like him.

FAMULUS

Pardon, most honor'd Sir, excuse me, pray--

If I presume your utterance to gainsay--

This bears not on the question any way;

A modest mind is his allotted share.

The disappearance, unexplained as yet,

Of the great man, his mind doth sorely fret;

Comfort from his return and health are still his prayer.

The chamber, as in Doctor Faustus' day,

Maintains, untouched, its former state,

And for its ancient lord doth wait.

Venture therein I scarcely may.

What now the aspect of the stars?--

Awe-struck the very walls appear;

The door-posts quivered, sprang the bars--

Else you yourself could not have entered here.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Where then bestowed himself hath he?

Lead me to him! bring him to me!

FAMULUS

Alas! Too strict his prohibition,

Scarce dare I, without his permission.

Months, on his mighty work intent,

Hath he, in strict seclusion spent.

Most dainty 'mong your men of books,

Like charcoal-burner now he looks,

With face begrimed from ear to nose;

His eyes are blear'd while fire he blows;

Thus for the crisis still he longs;

His music is the clang of tongs.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Admittance unto me deny?

To hasten his success, the man am I.

[_Exit_ FAMULUS. MEPHISTOPHELES _seats himself with a solemn air._]

Scarce have I ta'en my post, when lo!

Stirs from behind a guest, whom well I know;

Of the most recent school, this time, is he,

And quite unbounded will his daring be.

BACCALAUREUS (_storming along the passage_)

Open find I door and gate!

Hope at last springs up elate,

That the living shall no more

Corpse-like rot, as heretofore,

And, while breathing living breath,

Waste and moulder as in death.

Here partition, screen, and wall

Are sinking, bowing to their fall,

And, unless we soon retreat,

Wreck and ruin us will greet.

Me, though bold, nor soon afraid,

To advance shall none persuade.

What shall I experience next?

Years ago, when sore perplexed,

Came I not a freshman here,

Full of anxious doubt and fear,

On these gray-beards then relied,

By their talk was edified?

What from musty tomes they drew,

They lied to me; the things they knew

Believed they not; with falsehood rife,

Themselves and me they robbed of life.

How?--Yonder is the murky glare,

There's one still sitting in the Chair--

Drawing near I wonder more--

Just as him I left of yore,

There he sits, in furry gown,

Wrapped in shaggy fleece, the brown!

Then he clever seemed, indeed,

Him as yet I could not read;

Naught will it avail today;

So have at him, straight-away!

If Lethe's murky flood not yet hath passed,

Old Sir, through your bald pate, that sideways bends,

The scholar recognize, who hither wends,

Outgrown your academic rods at last.

The same I find you, as of yore;

But I am now the same no more.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Glad am I that I've rung you here.

I prized you then not slightingly;

In grub and chrysalis appear

The future brilliant butterfly.

A childish pleasure then you drew

From collar, lace, and curls.--A queue

You probably have never worn?--

Now to a crop I see you shorn.

All resolute and bold your air--

But from the _absolute_ forbear!

BACCALAUREUS

We're in the ancient place, mine ancient Sir,

But think upon time's onward flow,

And words of double-meaning spare!

Quite otherwise we hearken now.

You fooled the simple, honest youth;

It cost but little art in sooth,

To do what none today will dare.

MEPHISTOPHELES

If to the young the naked truth one speaks,

It pleases in no wise the yellow beaks;

But afterward, when in their turn

On their own skin the painful truth they learn,

They think, forsooth, from their own head it came;

"The master was a fool," they straight proclaim.

BACCALAUREUS

A rogue perchance!--For where's the teacher found

Who to our face, direct, will Truth expound?

Children to edify, each knows the way,

To add or to subtract, now grave, now gay.

MEPHISTOPHELES

For learning there's in very truth a time;

For teaching, I perceive, you now are prime.

While a few suns and many moons have waned,

A rich experience you have doubtless gained!

BACCALAUREUS

Experience! Froth and scum alone,

Not with the mind of equal birth!

Confess! what men have always known,

As knowledge now is nothing worth.

MEPHISTOPHELES (_after a pause_)

I long have thought myself a fool;

Now shallow to myself I seem, and dull.

BACCALAUREUS

That pleases me! Like reason that doth sound;

The first old man of sense I yet have found!

MEPHISTOPHELES

I sought for hidden treasures, genuine gold--

And naught but hideous ashes forth I bore!

BACCALAUREUS

Confess that pate of yours, though bare and old,

Than yonder hollow skull is worth no more!

MEPHISTOPHELES (_good-naturedly_)

Thou know'st not, friend, how rude is thy reply.

BACCALAUREUS

In German to be courteous is to lie.

MEPHISTOPHELES (_still moving his wheel-chair ever nearer

to the proscenium, to the pit_)

Up here I am bereft of light and air;

I perhaps shall find a refuge with you there?

BACCALAUREUS

When at their worst, that men would something be,

When they are naught, presumptuous seems to me.

Man's life is in the blood, and where, in sooth,

Pulses the blood so strongly as in youth?

That's living blood, which with fresh vigor rife,

The newer life createth out of life.

There all is movement, something there is done;

Falleth the weak, the able presses on!

While half the world we 'neath our sway have brought,

What have ye done? Slept, nodded, dream'd, and thought,

Plan after plan rejected;--nothing won.

Age is, in sooth, a fever cold,

With frost of whims and peevish need:

When more than thirty years are told,

As good as dead one is indeed:

You it were best, methinks, betimes to slay.

MEPHISTOPHELES

The devil here has nothing more to say.

BACCALAUREUS

Save through my will, no devil dares to be.

MEPHISTOPHELES (_aside_)

The devil now prepares a fall for thee!

BACCALAUREUS

The noblest mission this of youth's estate.

The world was not, till it I did create;

The radiant Sun I led from out the sea;

Her changeful course the Moon began with me;

The Day arrayed herself my steps to meet,

The Earth grew green, and blossom'd me to greet:

At my command, upon yon primal Night,

The starry hosts unveiled their glorious light.

Who, beside me, the galling chains unbound,

Which cramping thought had cast your spirits round?

But I am free, as speaks my spirit-voice,

My inward light I follow, and rejoice;

Swift I advance, enraptur'd, void of fear,

Brightness before me, darkness in the rear. [_Exit._]

MEPHISTOPHELES

Go, in thy pride, Original, thy way!--

True insight would, in truth, thy spirit grieve!

What wise or stupid thoughts can man conceive,

Unponder'd in the ages passed away?--

Yet we for him need no misgiving have;

Changed will he be, when a few years are past;

Howe'er absurdly may the must behave,

Nathless it yields a wine at last.--

(_To the younger part of the audience, who do not applaud._)

Though to my words you're somewhat cold,

Good children, me you don't offend;

Reflect! The devil, he is old;

Grow old then, him to comprehend!

LABORATORY

(_After the fashion of the middle ages; cumbrous, useless

apparatus, for fantastic purposes_)

WAGNER (_at the furnace_)

Soundeth the bell, the fearful clang

Thrills through these sooty walls; no more

Upon fulfilment waits the pang

Of hope or fear;--suspense is o'er;

The darknesses begin to clear,

Within the inmost phial glows

Radiance, like living coal, that throws,

As from a splendid carbuncle, its rays;

Athwart the gloom its lightning plays.

A pure white lustre doth appear;

O may I never lose it more!--

My God! what rattles at the door?

MEPHISTOPHELES (_entering_)

Welcome! As friend I enter here.

WAGNER

Hail to the star that rules the hour!

(_Softly_)

On breath and utterance let a ban be laid!

Soon will be consummate a work of power.

MEPHISTOPHELES (_in a whisper_)

What is it, then?

WAGNER

A man is being made.

MEPHISTOPHELES

A man? and pray what loving pair

Have in your smoke-hole their abode?

WAGNER

Nay! Heaven forbid! As nonsense we declare

The ancient procreative mode;

The tender point, life's spring, the gentle strength

That took and gave, that from within hath pressed,

And seized, intent itself to manifest,

The nearest first, the more remote at length,--

This from its dignity is now dethron'd!

The brute indeed may take delight therein,

But man, by whom such mighty gifts are own'd,

Must have a purer, higher origin.

(_He turns to the furnace_)

It flashes, see!--Now may we trustful hold,

That if, of substances a hundred-fold,

Through mixture,--for on mixture it depends--

The human substance duly we compose,

And then in a retort enclose,

And cohobate; in still repose

The work is perfected, our labor ends.

(_Again turning to the furnace_)

It forms! More clear the substance shows!

Stronger, more strong, conviction grows!

What Nature's mystery we once did style,

That now to test, our reason tries,

And what she organized erewhile,

We now are fain to crystallize.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Who lives, doth much experience glean;

By naught in this world will he be surprised;

Already in my travel-years I've seen

Full many a race of mortals crystallized.

WAGNER (_still gazing intently on the phial_)

It mounts, it glows, and doth together run,

One moment, and the work is done!

As mad, a grand design at first is view'd;

But we henceforth may laugh at fate,

And so a brain, with thinking-power embued,

Henceforth your living thinker will create.

(_Surveying the phial with rapture_)

The glass resounds, with gracious power possessed;

It dims, grows clear; living it needs must be!

And now in form of beauty dressed,

A dainty mannikin I see.

What more can we desire, what more mankind?

Unveiled is now what hidden was of late;

Give ear unto this sound, and you will find,

A voice it will become, articulate.--

HOMUNCULUS (_in the phial, to_ WAGNER)

Now, Fatherkin, how goes it? 'Twas no jest!

Come, let me to thy heart be fondly pressed--

Lest the glass break, less tight be thine embrace

This is the property of things: the All

Scarcely suffices for the natural;

The artificial needs a bounded space.

(_To_ MEPHISTOPHELES)

But thou, Sir Cousin, Rogue, art thou too here?

At the right moment! Thee I thank. 'Tis clear

To us a happy fortune leadeth thee;

While I exist, still must I active be,

And to the work forthwith myself would gird;

Thou'rt skill'd the way to shorten.

WAGNER

Just one word!

I oft have been ashamed that knowledge failed,

When old and young with problems me assailed.

For instance: no one yet could comprehend,

How soul and body so completely blend,

Together hold, as ne'er to part, while they

Torment each other through the live-long day.

So then--

MEPHISTOPHELES

Forbear! The problem solve for me,

Why man and wife so wretchedly agree?

Upon this point, my friend, thou'lt ne'er be clear;

The mannikin wants work, he'll find it here.

HOMUNCULUS

What's to be done?

MEPHISTOPHELES (_pointing to a side door_)

Yonder thy gifts display!

WAGNER (_still gazing into the phial_)

A very lovely boy, I needs must say!

(_The side door opens_; FAUST _is seen stretched upon a

couch_)

HOMUNCULUS (_amazed_)

Momentous!

(_The phial slips from_ WAGNER's _hands, hovers over_

FAUST, _and sheds a light upon him_)

Girt with beauty!--Water clear

In the thick grove; fair women, who undress;

Most lovely creatures!--grows their loveliness:

But o'er the rest one shines without a peer,

As if from heroes, nay from gods she came;

In the transparent sheen her foot she laves;

The tender life-fire of her noble frame

She cools in yielding crystal of the waves.--

Of swiftly moving wings what sudden noise?

What plash, what plunge the liquid glass destroys?

The maidens fly, alarmed; alone, the queen,

With calm composure gazes on the scene;

With womanly and proud delight, she sees

The prince of swans press fondly to her knees,

Persistent, tame; familiar now he grows.--

But suddenly up-floats a misty shroud,

And with thick-woven veil doth over-cloud

The loveliest of all lovely shows.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Why thou in sooth canst everything relate!

Small as thou art, as phantast thou art great.

I can see nothing--

HOMUNCULUS

I believe it. Thou,

Bred in the north, in the dark ages, how,

In whirl of priesthood and knight-errantry,

Have for such sights thy vision free!

In darkness only thou'rt at home.

(_Looking round_)

Ye brown, repulsive blocks of stone,

Arch-pointed, low, with mould o'ergrown!

Should he awake, new care were bred,

He on the spot would straight be dead.

Wood-fountains, swans, fair nymphs undressed,

Such was his dream, presageful, rare;

In place like this how could he rest,

Which I, of easy mood, scarce bear!

Away with him!

MEPHISTOPHELES

I like your plan, proceed!

HOMUNCULUS

Command the warrior to the fight,

The maiden to the dancers lead!

They're satisfied, and all is right.

E'en now a thought occurs, most bright;

'Tis classical

Walpurgis-night--Most fortunate! It suits his bent,

So bring him straightway to his element!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Of such I ne'er have heard, I frankly own.

HOMUNCULUS

Upon your ear indeed how should it fall?

Only romantic ghosts to you are known;

Your genuine ghost is also classical.

MEPHISTOPHELES

But whitherward to travel are we fain?

Your antique colleagues are against my grain.

HOMUNCULUS

North-westward, Satan, lies thy pleasure-ground;

But, this time, we to the south-east are bound.--

An ample vale Peneios floweth through,

'Mid bush and tree its curving shores it laves;

The plain extendeth to the mountain caves,

Above it lies Pharsalus, old and new.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Alas! Forbear! For ever be eschewed

Those wars of tyranny and servitude!

I'm bored with them: for they, as soon as done,

Straight recommence; and no one calls to mind

That he in sooth is only played upon

By Asmodeus, who still lurks behind.

They battle, so 'tis said, for freedom's rights--

More clearly seen, 'tis slave 'gainst slave who fights.

HOMUNCULUS

Leave we to men their nature, quarrel-prone!

Each must defend himself, as best he can,

From boyhood up; so he becomes a man.

The question here is, how to cure this one?

(_Pointing to_ FAUST)

Hast thou a means, here let it tested be;

Canst thou do naught, then leave the task to me.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Full many a Brocken-piece I might essay,

But bolts of heathendom foreclose the way.

The Grecian folk were ne'er worth much, 'tis true,

Yet with the senses' play they dazzle you;

To cheerful sins the human heart they lure,

While ours are reckoned gloomy and obscure.

And now what next?

HOMUNCULUS

Of old thou wert not shy;

And if I name Thessalian witches,--why,

I something shall have said,--of that I'm sure.

MEPHISTOPHELES (_lustfully_)

Thessalian witches--well! the people they

Concerning whom I often have inquired.

Night after night, indeed, with them to stay,

That were an ordeal not to be desired;

But for a trial trip--

HOMUNCULUS

The mantle there

Reach hither, wrap it round the knight!

As heretofore, the rag will bear

Both him and thee; the way I'll light.

WAGNER (_alarmed_)

And I?

HOMUNCULUS

At home thou wilt remain,

Thee most important work doth there detain;

The ancient scrolls unfolding cull

Life's elements, as taught by rule,

And each with other then combine with care;

Upon the _What_, more on the _How_, reflect!

Meanwhile as through a piece of world I fare,

I may the dot upon the "I" detect.

Then will the mighty aim accomplish'd be;

Such high reward deserves such striving;--wealth,

Honor and glory, lengthen'd life, sound health,

Knowledge withal and virtue--possibly.

Farewell!

WAGNER

Farewell! That grieves my heart full sore!

I fear indeed I ne'er shall see thee more.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Now to Peneios forth we wend!

We must not slight our cousin's aid.

(_To the spectators_)

At last, in sooth, we all depend

On creatures we ourselves have made.

* * * * *

ACT THE THIRD

BEFORE THE PALACE OF MENELAUS IN SPARTA

_Enter_ HELENA, _with a chorus of captive Trojan women_

PENTHALIS, _leader of the chorus_

HELENA

The much admired and much upbraided, Helena,

From yonder strand I come, where erst we disembark'd,

Still giddy from the roll of ocean's billowy surge,

Which, through Poseidon's favor and through Euros' might,

On lofty crested backs hither hath wafted us,

From Phrygia's open field, to our ancestral bays.

Yonder King Menelaus, glad of his return,

With his brave men of war, rejoices on the beach.

But oh, thou lofty mansion, bid me welcome home,

Thou, near the steep decline, which Tyndareus, my sire,

From Pallas' hill returning, here hath builded up;

Which also was adorned beyond all Sparta's homes,

What time with Clytemnestra, sister-like, I grew,

With Castor, Pollux, too, playing in joyous sport.

Wings of yon brazen portals, you I also hail!

Through you, ye guest-inviting, hospitable gates,

Hath Menelaus once, from many princes chosen,

Shone radiant on my sight, in nuptial sort arrayed.

Expand to me once more, that I the king's behest

May faithfully discharge, as doth the spouse beseem.

Let me within, and all henceforth behind remain,

That, charged with doom, till now darkly hath round me stormed!

For since, by care untroubled, I these sites forsook,

Seeking Cythera's fane, as sacred wont enjoined,

And by the spoiler there was seized, the Phrygian,

Happened have many things, whereof men far and wide

Are fain to tell, but which not fain to hear is he

Of whom the tale, expanding, hath to fable grown.

CHORUS

Disparage not, oh glorious dame,

Honor'd possession of highest estate!

For sole unto thee is the greatest boon given;

The fame of beauty that all over-towers!

The hero's name before him resounds,

So strides he with pride;

Nathless at once the stubbornest yields

To beauty, the presence which all things subdues.

HELENA

Enough! I with my spouse, ship-borne, have hither sped,

And to his city now by him before am sent.

But what the thought he harbors, that I cannot guess.

Come I as consort hither? Come I as a queen?

Come I as victim for the prince's bitter pangs,

And for the evils dire, long suffered by the Greeks?

Conquered I am; but whether captive, know I not:

For the Immortal Powers fortune and fame for me

Have doomed ambiguous; direful ministers that wait

On beauty's form, who even on this threshold here,

With dark and threat'ning mien, stand bodeful at my side!

Already, ere we left the hollow ship, my spouse

Looked seldom on me, spake no comfortable word;

As though he mischief brooded, facing me he sat.

But now, when to Eurotas' deeply curving shores

Steering our course, scarce had our foremost vessel's beak

The land saluted, spake he, as by God inspired:

"Here let my men of war, in ordered ranks, disbark;

I marshal them, drawn up upon the ocean strand;

But thou, pursue thy way, not swerving from the banks,

Laden with fruit, that bound Eurotas' sacred stream,

Thy coursers guiding o'er the moist enamelled meads,

Until thou may'st arrive at that delightful plain,

Where Lacedæmon, once a broad fruit-bearing field,

By mountains stern surrounded lifteth now its walls.

Set thou thy foot within the tower-crown'd princely house,

Assemble thou the maids, whom I at parting left,

And with them summon too the wise old stewardess.

Bid her display to thee the treasures' ample store,

As by thy sire bequeathed, and which, in peace and war,

Increasing evermore, I have myself up-piled.

All standing shalt thou find in ancient order; for,

This is the prince's privilege, that to his home,

When he returns at last, safe everything he finds,

Each in its proper place, as he hath left it there.

For nothing of himself the slave hath power to change."

CHORUS

Oh gladden now, with glorious wealth,

Ever increasing, thine eye and heart!

For beautiful chains, the adornment of crowns,

Are priding themselves, in haughty repose;

But step thou in, and challenge them all,

They arm themselves straight;

I joy to see beauty contend for the prize,

With gold, and with pearls, and with jewels of price.

HELENA

Forthwith hath followed next this mandate of my lord:

"Now when in order thou all things hast duly seen,

As many tripods take, as needful thou may'st deem,

And vessels manifold, which he at hand requires,

Who duly would perform the sacrificial rite,

The caldrons, and the bowls, and shallow altar-plates;

Let purest water, too, from sacred fount be there,

In lofty pitchers; further, store of season'd wood,

Quick to accept the flame, hold thou in readiness;

A knife, of sharpest edge, let it not fail at last.

But I all other things to thy sole care resign."

So spake he, urging me at once to part; but naught,

Breathing the breath of life, the orderer appoints,

That, to the Olympians' honor, he to slaughter doom'd:

Suspicious seems it! yet, dismiss I further care;

To the high Gods' decree be everything referred,

Who evermore fulfil, what they in thought conceive;

It may, in sooth, by men, as evil or as good

Be counted, it by us, poor mortals, must be borne.

Full oft the ponderous axe on high the priest hath raised,

In consecration o'er the earth-bowed victim's neck.

Nor could achieve the rite, for he was hinderèd,

Or by approaching foe, or intervening God.

CHORUS

What now will happen, canst thou not guess;

Enter, queen, enter thou in,

Strong of heart!

Evil cometh and good

Unexpected to mortals;

Though foretold, we credit it not.

Troya was burning, have we not seen

Death before us, terrible death!

And are we not here,

Bound to thee, serving with joy,

Seeing the dazzling sunshine of heaven,

And of earth too the fairest,

Kind one--thyself--happy are we!

HELENA

Come what come may! Whate'er impends, me it behoves

To ascend, without delay, into the royal house,

Long missed, oft yearned-for, well-nigh forfeited;

Before mine eyes once more it stands, I know not how.

My feet now bear me not so lightly as of yore,

When up the lofty steps I, as a child, have sprung.

CHORUS

Fling now, O sisters, ye

Captives who mourn your lot,

All your sorrows far from you.

Share ye your mistress' joy!

Share ye Helena's joy,

Who to the dear paternal hearth,

Though returning full late in sooth,

Nathless with surer, firmer tread

Joyfully now approaches!

Praise ye the holy ones,

Happy restoring ones,

God's, the home-leaders, praise ye!

Soars the enfranchised one,

As upon out-spread wings,

Over the roughest fate, while in vain

Pines the captured one, yearning-fraught

Over the prison-battlements

Arms out-stretching, in anguish.

Nathless her a god hath seized,

The exiled one,

And from Ilion's wreck

Bare her hitherward back once more,

To the ancient, the newly-adornèd

Father-house,

After unspeakable

Pleasure and anguish,

Earlier youthful time,

Newly quicken'd, to ponder.

PENTHALIS (_as leader of the chorus_)

Forsake ye now of song the joy-surrounded path,

As toward the portal-wings turn ye forthwith your gaze!

What see I, sisters? Here, returneth not the queen?

With step of eager haste, comes she not back to us?--

What is it, mighty queen, that in the palace-halls,

Instead of friendly hail, could there encounter thee,

And shatter thus thy being? Thou conceal'st it not;

For I abhorrence see, impressed upon thy brow,

And noble anger, that contendeth with surprise.

HELENA (_who has left the folded doors open, excited_)

No vulgar fear beseems the daughter of high Zeus,

And her no lightly-fleeting terror-hand may touch;

But that dire horror which, from womb of ancient Night,

In time primeval rising, still in divers shapes,

Like lurid clouds, from out the mountain's fiery gorge,

Whirls itself forth, may shake even the hero's breast.

Thus have the Stygian Gods, with horror fraught, today

Mine entrance to the house so marked, that fain I am,

Back from the oft-time trod, long-yearned-for threshold now,

Like to a guest dismissed, departing, to retire.

Yet no, retreated have I hither to the light;

No further shall ye drive me, Powers, who'er ye be!

Some expiation, I'll devise, then purified,

The hearth-flame welcome may the consort as the lord.

LEADER OF THE CHORUS

Discover, noble queen, to us thy handmaidens,

Devotedly who serve thee, what hath come to pass!

HELENA

What I have seen ye, too, with your own eyes, shall see,

If ancient Night, within her wonder-teeming womb,

Hath not forthwith engulfed, once more, her ghastly birth;

But yet, that ye may know, with words I'll tell it you:--

What time the royal mansion's gloomy inner court,

Upon my task intent, with solemn step I trod,

I wondered at the drear and silent corridors.

Fell on mine ear no sound of busy servitors,

No stir of rapid haste, officious, met my gaze;

Before me there appeared no maid, no stewardess,

Who every stranger erst, with friendly greeting, hailed.

But when I neared at length the bosom of the hearth,

There saw I, by the light of dimly smouldering fire,

Crouched on the ground, a crone, close-veiled, of stature huge,

Not like to one asleep, but as absorbed in thought!

With accent of command I summon her to work,

The stewardess in her surmising, who perchance

My spouse, departing hence, with foresight there had placed;

Yet, closely muted up, still sits she, motionless;

At length, upon my threat, up-lifts she her right arm,

As though from hearth and hall she motioned me away.

Wrathful from her I turn, and forthwith hasten out,

Toward the steps, whereon aloft the Thalamos

Rises adorned, thereto the treasure-house hard by;

When, on a sudden, starts the wonder from the floor;

Barring with lordly mien my passage, she herself

In haggard height displays, with hollow eyes, blood-grimed,

An aspect weird and strange, confounding eye and thought.

Yet speak I to the winds; for language all in vain

Creatively essays to body forth such shapes.

There see herself! The light she ventures to confront!

Here are we master, till the lord and monarch comes;

The ghastly brood of Night doth Phoebus, beauty's friend,

Back to their caverns drive, or them he subjugates.

[PHORKYAS _stepping on the threshold, between the door-posts._]

CHORUS

Much have I lived through, although my tresses

Youthfully waver still round my temples;

Manifold horrors have mine eyes witnessed;

Warfare's dire anguish, Ilion's night,

When it fell;

Through the o'erclouded, dust over-shadow'd

Tumult of war, to gods have I hearken'd,

Fearfully shouting; hearken'd while discord's

Brazen voices clang through the field

Rampart-wards.

Ah, yet standing were Ilion's

Ramparts; nathless the glowing flames

Shot from neighbor to neighbor roof,

Ever spreading from here and there,

with their tempest's fiery blast,

Over the night-darkened city.--

Flying, saw I through smoke and glare,

And the flash of the tonguèd flames,

Dreadful, threatening gods draw near;

Wondrous figures, of giant mould,

Onward striding through the weird

Gloom of fire-luminous vapor.

Saw I them, or did my mind,

Anguish-torn, itself body forth

Phantoms so terrible--never more

Can I tell; but that I this

Horrible shape with eyes behold,

This of a surety know I!

Yea, with my hands could clutch it even,

Did not fear, from the perilous

Venture, ever withhold me.

Tell me, of Phorkyas'

Daughters which art thou?

For to that family

Thee must I liken.

Art thou, may be, one of the gray-born?

One eye only, and but one tooth

Using still alternately?

One of the Graiæ art thou?

Darest thou, Horror,

Thus beside beauty,

Or to the searching glance

Phoebus' unveil thee?

Nathless step thou forward undaunted;

For the horrible sees he not,

As his hallowed glances yet

Never gazed upon shadows.

But a tragical fate, alas,

Us, poor mortals, constrains to bear

Anguish of vision, unspeakable,

Which the contemptible, ever-detestable,

Doth in lovers of beauty wake!

Yea, so hearken then, if thou dar'st

Us to encounter, hear our curse,

Hark to each imprecation's threat,

Out of the curse-breathing lips of the happy ones,

Who by the gods created are!

PHORKYAS

Trite is the word, yet high and true remains the sense:

That Shame and Beauty ne'er together, hand in hand,

Their onward way pursue, earth's verdant path along.

Deep-rooted in these twain dwelleth an ancient grudge,

So that, where'er they happen on their way to meet,

Upon her hated rival turneth each her back;

Then onward speeds her course with greater vehemence,

Shame filled with sorrow, Beauty insolent of mood,

Till her at length embraces Orcus' hollow night,

Unless old age erewhile her haughtiness hath tamed.

You find I now, ye wantons, from a foreign shore,

With insolence o'erflowing, like the clamorous flight

Of cranes, with shrilly scream that high above our heads,

A long and moving cloud, croaking send down their noise,

Which the lone pilgrim lures wending his silent way,

Aloft to turn his gaze; yet on their course they fare,

He also upon his: so will it be with us.

Who are ye then, that thus around the monarch's house,

With Maenad rage, ye dare like drunken ones to rave?

Who are ye then that ye the house's stewardess

Thus bay, like pack of hounds hoarsely that bay the moon?

Think ye, 'tis hid from me, the race whereof ye are?

Thou youthful, war-begotten, battle-nurtured brood,

Lewd and lascivious thou, seducers and seduced,

Unnerving both, the soldier's and the burgher's strength!

Seeing your throng, to me a locust-swarm ye seem,

Which, settling down, conceals the young green harvest-field.

Wasters of others' toil! ye dainty revellers,

Destroyers in its bloom of all prosperity!

Thou conquer'd merchandise, exchanged and marketed!

HELENA

Who in the mistress' presence chides her handmaidens,

Audacious, doth o'erstep her household privilege;

For her alone beseems, the praise-worthy to praise,

As also that to punish which doth merit blame.

Moreover with the service am I well-content,

Which these have rendered me, what time proud Ilion's strength

Beleaguer'd stood, and fell and sank; nor less indeed

When we, of our sea-voyage the dreary changeful woe

Endured, where commonly each thinks but of himself.

Here also I expect the like from this blithe train;

Not what the servant is, we ask, but how he serves.

Therefore be silent thou, and snarl at them no more!

If thou the monarch's house till now hast guarded well,

Filling the mistress' place, that for thy praise shall count;

But now herself is come, therefore do thou retire,

Lest chastisement be thine, instead of well-earn'd meed!

PHORKYAS

The menial train to threat, a sacred right remains,

Which the illustrious spouse of heaven-favor'd lord

Through many a year doth earn of prudent governance.

Since that, now recognized, thy ancient place as queen,

And mistress of the house, once more thou dost resume,

The long-time loosen'd reins grasp thou; be ruler here,

And in possession take the treasures, us with them!

Me before all protect, who am the elder-born,

From this young brood, who seem, thy swan-like beauty near,

But as a basely wingèd flock of cackling geese!

LEADER OF THE CHORUS

How hideous beside beauty showeth hideousness!

PHORKYAS

How foolish by discretion's side shows foolishness!

[_Henceforth the choristers respond in turn, stepping

forth singly from the chorus._]

FIRST CHORISTER

Tell us of Father Erebus, tell us of Mother Night!

PHORKYAS

Speak thou of Scylla, speak of her, thy sister-born!

SECOND CHORISTER

From thy ancestral tree springs many a monster forth.

PHORKYAS

To Orcus hence, away! Seek thou thy kindred there!

THIRD CHORISTER

Who yonder dwell, in sooth, for thee are far too young.

PHORKYAS

Tiresias, the hoary, go, make love to him!

FOURTH CHORISTER

Orion's nurse of old, was thy great-grand-daughter.

PHORKYAS

Harpies, so I suspect, did rear thee up in filth.

FIFTH CHORISTER

Thy cherished meagreness, whereon dost nourish that?

PHORKYAS

'Tis not with blood, for which so keenly thou dost thirst.

SIXTH CHORISTER

For corpses dost thou hunger, loathsome corpse thyself!

PHORKYAS

Within thy shameless jaw the teeth of vampires gleam.

SEVENTH CHORISTER

Thine I should stop were I to tell thee who thou art.

PHORKYAS

First do thou name thyself; the riddle then is solved.

HELENA

Not wrathful, but in grief, step I between you now,

Forbidding such alternate quarrel's angry noise;

For to the ruler naught more hurtful can befall,

Than, 'mong his trusty servants, sworn and secret strife;

The echo of his mandate then to him no more

In swift accomplished deed responsively returns;

No, stormful and self-will'd, it rages him around,

The self-bewilder'd one, and chiding still in vain.

Nor this alone; ye have in rude unmanner'd wrath

Unblessèd images of dreadful shapes evoked,

Which so encompass me, that whirl'd I feel myself

To Orcus down, despite these my ancestral fields.

Is it remembrance? Was it frenzy seized on me?

Was I all that? and am I? shall I henceforth be

The dread and phantom-shape of those town-wasting ones?

The maidens quail: but thou, the eldest, thou dost stand,

Calm and unmoved; speak, then, to me some word of sense!

PHORKYAS

Who of long years recalls the fortune manifold,

To him heaven's highest favor seems at last a dream.

But thou, so highly favored, past all bound or goal,

Saw'st, in thy life-course, none but love-inflamèd men,

Kindled by impulse rash to boldest enterprise.

Theseus by passion stirred full early seized on thee,

A man of glorious form, and strong as Heracles.

HELENA

Forceful he bore me off, a ten-year slender roe,

And in Aphidnus' keep shut me, in Attica.

PHORKYAS

But thence full soon set free, by Castor, Pollux too,

In marriage wast thou sought by chosen hero-band.

HELENA

Yet hath Patroclus, he, Pelides' other self,

My secret favor won, as willingly I own.

PHORKYAS

But thee thy father hath to Menelaus wed,

Bold rover of the sea, and house-sustainer too.

HELENA

His daughter gave he, gave to him the kingdom's sway;

And from our wedded union sprang Hermione.

PHORKYAS

But while he strove afar, for Crete, his heritage,

To thee, all lonely, came an all too beauteous guest.

HELENA

Wherefore the time recall of that half-widowhood,

And what destruction dire to me therefrom hath grown!

PHORKYAS

That voyage unto me, a free-born dame of Crete,

Hath also capture brought, and weary servitude.

HELENA

As stewardess forthwith, he did appoint thee here,

With much intrusted,--fort and treasure boldly won.

PHORKYAS

All which thou didst forsake, by Ilion's tower-girt town

Allured, and by the joys, the exhaustless joys of love.

HELENA

Remind me not of joys: No, an infinitude

Of all too bitter woe o'erwhelm'd my heart and brain.

PHORKYAS

Nathless 'tis said thou didst in two-fold shape appear;

Seen within Ilion's walls, and seen in Egypt too.

HELENA

Confuse thou not my brain, distraught and desolate!

Here even, who I am in sooth I cannot tell.

PHORKYAS

'Tis also said, from out the hollow shadow-dream,

Achilles, passion-fired, hath joined himself to thee,

Whom he hath loved of old, 'gainst all resolves of Fate.

HELENA

As phantom I myself, to him a phantom bound;

A dream it was--thus e'en the very words declare.

I faint, and to myself a phantom I become.

[She sinks into the arms of the semi-chorus._]

CHORUS

Silence! Silence!

False seeing one, false speaking one, thou!

Through thy horrible, single-tooth'd lips,

Ghastly, what exhaleth

From such terrible loathsome gulf!

For the malignant one, kindliness feigning,

Rage of wolf 'neath the sheep's woolly fleece,

Far more terrible is unto me than

Jaws of the hound three-headed.

Anxiously watching stand we here:

When? How? Where of such malice

Bursteth the tempest

From this deep-lurking brood of Hell?

Now, 'stead of friendly words, freighted with comfort,

Lethe-bestowing, gracious and mild,

Thou art summoning from times departed,

Thoughts of the past most hateful,

Overshadowing not alone

All sheen gilding the present,

Also the future's

Mildly glimmering light of hope.

Silence! Silence!

That fair Helena's soul,

Ready e'en now to take flight,

Still may keep, yea firmly keep

The form of all forms, the loveliest,

Ever illumined of old by the sun.

[HELENA _has revived, and again stands in the midst._]

* * * * *

(_The scene is entirely changed. Close arbors recline against a series

of rocky caverns. A shady grove extends to the base of the encircling

rocks_. FAUST _and_ HELENA _are not seen. The_ CHORUS _lies sleeping,

scattered here and there_.)

PHORKYAS

How long these maids have slept, in sooth I cannot tell;

Or whether they have dreamed what I before mine eyes

Saw bright and clear, to me is equally unknown.

So wake I them. Amazed the younger folks shall be,

Ye too, ye bearded ones, who sit below and wait,

Hoping to see at length these miracles resolved.

Arise! Arise! And shake quickly your crisped locks!

Shake slumber from your eyes! Blink not, and list to me!

CHORUS

Only speak, relate, and tell us, what of wonderful hath chanced!

We more willingly shall hearken that which we cannot believe;

For we are aweary, weary, gazing on these rocks around.

PHORKYAS

Children, how, already weary, though you scarce have rubbed your eyes?

Hearken then! Within these caverns, in these grottoes, in these bowers,

Shield and shelter have been given, as to lover-twain idyllic,

To our lord and to our lady--

CHORUS

How, within there?

PHORKYAS

Yea, secluded

From the world; and me, me only, they to secret service called.

Highly honored stood I near them, yet, as one in trust beseemeth,

Round I gazed on other objects, turning hither, turning thither,

Sought for roots, for barks and mosses, with their properties acquainted;

And they thus remained alone.

CHORUS

Thou would'st make believe that yonder, world-wide spaces lie within,

Wood and meadow, lake and brooklet; what strange fable spinnest thou!

PHORKYAS

Yea, in sooth, ye inexperienced, there lie regions undiscovered:

Hall on hall, and court on court; in my musings these I track.

Suddenly a peal of laughter echoes through the cavern'd spaces;

In I gaze, a boy is springing from the bosom of the woman

To the man, from sire to mother: the caressing and the fondling,

All love's foolish playfulnesses, mirthful cry and shout of rapture,

Alternating, deafen me.

Naked, without wings, a genius, like a faun, with nothing bestial,

On the solid ground he springeth; but the ground, with counter-action,

Up to ether sends him flying; with the second, third rebounding

Touches he the vaulted roof.

Anxiously the mother calleth: Spring amain, and at thy pleasure;

But beware, think not of flying, unto thee is flight denied.

And so warns the faithful father: In the earth the force elastic

Lies, aloft that sends thee bounding; let thy toe but touch the surface,

Like the son of earth, Antæus, straightway is thy strength renewed.

And so o'er these rocky masses, on from dizzy ledge to ledge,

Leaps he ever, hither, thither, springing like a stricken ball.

But in cleft of rugged cavern suddenly from sight he vanished;

And now lost to us he seemeth, mother waileth, sire consoleth,

Anxiously I shrug my shoulders. But again, behold, what vision!

Lie there treasures hidden yonder? Raiment broidered o'er with flowers

He becomingly hath donned;

Tassels from his arms are waving, ribbons flutter on his bosom,

In his hand the lyre all-golden, wholly like a tiny Phoebus,

Boldly to the edge he steppeth, to the precipice; we wonder,

And the parents, full of rapture, cast them on each other's heart;

For around his brow what splendor! Who can tell what there is shining?

Gold-work is it, or the flaming of surpassing spirit-power?

Thus he moveth, with such gesture, e'en as boy himself announcing

Future master of all beauty, through whose limbs, whose every member,

Flow the melodies eternal: and so shall ye hearken to him,

And so shall ye gaze upon him, to your special wonderment.

CHORUS

This call'st thou marvelous,

Daughter of Creta?

Unto the bard's pregnant word

Hast thou perchance never listened?

Hast thou not heard of Ionia's,

Ne'er been instructed in Hellas'

Legends, from ages primeval,

Godlike, heroical treasure?

All, that still happeneth

Now in the present,

Sorrowful echo 'tis,

Of days ancestral, more noble;

Equals not in sooth thy story

That which beautiful fiction,

Than truth more worthy of credence,

Chanted hath of Maia's offspring!

This so shapely and potent, yet

Scarcely-born delicate nursling,

Straight have his gossiping nurses

Folded in purest swaddling fleece,

Fastened in costly swathings,

With their irrational notions.

Potent and shapely, ne'ertheless,

Draws the rogue his flexible limbs,

Body firm yet elastic,

Craftily forth; the purple shell,

Him so grievously binding,

Leaving quietly in its place;

As the perfected butterfly,

From the rigid chrysalid,

Pinion unfolding, rapidly glides,

Boldly and wantonly sailing through

Sun-impregnated ether.

So he, too, the most dextrous,

That to robbers and scoundrels,

Yea, and to all profit-seekers,

He a favoring god might be,

This he straightway made manifest,

Using arts the most cunning.

Swift from the ruler of ocean he

Steals the trident, yea, e'en from Arès

Steals the sword from the scabbard;

Arrow and bow from Phoebus too,

Also his tongs from Hephæstos

Even Zeus', the father's, bolt,

Him had fire not scared, he had ta'en.

Eros also worsted he,

In limb-grappling, wrestling match;

Stole from Cypria as she caressed him,

From her bosom, the girdle.

(_An exquisite, purely melodious lyre-music resounds from

the cave. All become attentive, and appear soon to be

inwardly moved; henceforth, to the pause indicated,

there is a full musical accompaniment._)

PHORKYAS

Hark those notes so sweetly sounding;

Cast aside your fabled lore:

Gods, in olden time abounding,--

Let them go! their day is o'er.

None will comprehend your singing;

Nobler theme the age requires:

From the heart must flow, up-springing,

What to touch the heart aspires.

[_She retires behind the rock._]

CHORUS

To these tones, so sweetly flowing,

Dire one! dost incline thine ears,

They in us, new health bestowing,

Waken now the joy of tears.

Vanish may the sun's clear shining,

In our soul if day arise,

In our heart we, unrepining,

Find what the whole world denies.

(HELENA, FAUST, EUPHORION _in the costume indicated above_)

EUPHORION

Songs of childhood hear ye ringing,

Your own mirth it seems; on me

Gazing, thus in measure springing,

Leap your parent-hearts with glee.

HELENA

Love, terrestrial bliss to capture,

Two in noble union mates;

But to wake celestial rapture,

He a precious three creates.

FAUST

All hath been achieved. For ever

I am thine, and mine thou art,

Blent our beings are--oh never

May our present joy depart!

CHORUS

Many a year of purest pleasure,

In the mild light of their boy,

Crowns this pair in richest measure.

Me their union thrills with joy!

EUPHORION

Now let me gambol,

Joyfully springing!

Upward to hasten

Through ether winging,

This wakes my yearning,

This prompts me now!

FAUST

Gently! son, gently!

Be not so daring!

Lest ruin seize thee

Past all repairing,

And our own darling

Whelm us in woe!

EUPHORION

From earth my spirit

Still upward presses;

Let go my hands now,

Let go my tresses,

Let go my garments,

Mine every one!

HELENA

To whom, bethink thee,

Now thou pertainest!

Think how it grieves us

When thou disdainest

Mine, thine, and his,--the all

That hath been won.

CHORUS

Soon shall, I fear me,

The bond be undone!

HELENA _and_ FAUST

Curb for thy parents' sake,

To us returning,

Curb thy importunate

Passionate yearning!

Make thou the rural plain

Tranquil and bright.

EUPHORION

But to content you

Stay I my flight.

(_Winding among the_ CHORUS _and drawing them forth to dance_)

Round this gay troop I flee

With impulse light.

Say is the melody,

Say is the movement right?

HELENA

Yea, 'tis well done; advance,

Lead to the graceful dance

These maidens coy!

FAUST

Could I the end but see!

Me this mad revelry

Fills with annoy.

EUPHORION _and the_ CHORUS

(_Dancing and singing, they move about in interweaving lines_)

Moving thine arms so fair

With graceful motion,

Tossing thy curling hair

In bright commotion;

When thou with foot so light

Over the earth doth skim,

Thither and back in flight,

Moving each graceful limb;

Thou hast attained thy goal,

Beautiful child,

All hearts thou hast beguiled,

Won every soul. [_Pause._]

EUPHORION

Gracefully sporting,

Light-footed roes,

New frolic courting

Scorn ye repose:

I am the hunter,

Ye are the game.

CHORUS

Us wilt thou capture,

Urge not thy pace;

For it were rapture

Thee to embrace,

Beautiful creature,

This our sole aim!

EUPHORION

Through trees and heather,

Bound all together,

O'er stock and stone!

Whate'er is lightly won,

That I disdain;

What I by force obtain,

Prize I alone.

HELENA _and_ FAUST

What vagaries, sense confounding!

Naught of measure to be hoped for!

Like the blare of trumpet sounding,

Over vale and forest ringing.

What a riot! What a cry!

CHORUS (_entering quickly one by one_)

Us he passed with glance scorn-laden;

Hastily still onward springing,

Bearing now the wildest maiden

Of our troop, he draweth nigh.

EUPHORION (_bearing a young maiden_)

I this wilful maid and coy

Carry to enforced caress;

For my pleasure, for my joy

Her resisting bosom press,

Kiss her rebel lips, that so

She my power and will may know.

MAIDEN

Loose me! in this frame residing,

Burns a spirit's strength and might;

Strong as thine, our will presiding

Swerveth not with purpose light.

Thinkest, on thy strength relying,

That thou hast me in a strait?

Hold me, fool! thy strength defying,

For my sport, I'll scorch thee yet!

[_She flames up and flashes into the air_.]

Follow where light breezes wander,

Follow to rude caverns yonder,

Strive thy vanish'd prey to net!

EUPHORION (_shaking off the last flames_)

Rocks all around I see,

Thickets and woods among!

Why should they prison me?

Still am I fresh and young.

Tempests, they loudly roar,

Billows, they lash the shore;

Both far away I hear;

Would I were near!

[_He springs higher up the rock._]

HELENA, FAUST, _and_ CHORUS

Wouldst thou chamois-like aspire?

Us thy threaten'd fall dismays!

EUPHORION

Higher must I climb, yet higher,

Wider still must be my gaze.

Know I now, where I stand:

'Midst of the sea-girt land,

'Midst of great Pelops' reign,

Kin both to earth and main.

CHORUS

Canst not near copse and wold

Tarry, then yonder,

Ripe figs and apple-gold

Seeking, we'll wander;

Grapes too shall woo our hand,

Grapes from the mantling vine.

Ah, let this dearest land,

Dear one, be thine!

EUPHORION

Dream ye of peaceful day?

Dream on, while dream ye may!

War! is the signal cry,

Hark! cries of victory!

CHORUS

War who desireth

While peace doth reign,

To joy aspireth

Henceforth in vain.

EUPHORION

All whom this land hath bred,

Through peril onward led,

Free, of undaunted mood,

Still lavish of their blood,

With soul untaught to yield,

Rending each chain!

To such the bloody field,

Brings glorious gain.

CHORUS

High he soars,--mark, upward gazing,--

And to us not small doth seem:

Victor-like, in harness blazing,

As of steel and brass the gleam!

EUPHORION

Not on moat or wall relying,

On himself let each one rest!

Firmest stronghold, all defying,

Ever is man's iron breast!

Dwell for aye unconquered would ye?

Arm, by no vain dreams beguiled!

Amazons your women should be,

And a hero every child!

CHORUS

O hallowed Poesie,

Heavenward still soareth she!

Shine on, thou brightest star,

Farther and still more far!

Yet us she still doth cheer;

Even her voice to hear,

Joyful we are.

EUPHORION

Child no more; a stripling bearing

Arms appears, with valor fraught

Leagued with the strong, the free, the daring,

In soul already who hath wrought.

Hence away!

No delay!

There where glory may be sought.

HELENA _and_ FAUST

Scarcely summoned to life's gladness,

Scarcely given to day's bright gleam,

Downward now to pain and sadness

Wouldst thou rush, from heights supreme!

Are then we

Naught to thee?

Is our gracious bond a dream?

EUPHORION

Hark! What thunders seaward rattle,

Echoing from vale to vale!

'Mid dust and foam, in shock of battle,

Throng on throng, to grief and bale!

And the command

Is, firm to stand;

Death to face, nor ever quail.

HELENA, FAUST, _and_ CHORUS

Oh what horror! Hast thou told it!

Is then death for thee decreed?

EUPHORION

From afar shall I behold it?

No! I'll share the care and need!

HELENA, FAUST _and_ CHORUS

Rashness to peril brings,

And deadly fate!

EUPHORION

Yet--see a pair of wings

Unfoldeth straight!

Thither--I must, I must--

Grudge not my flight!

[_He casts himself into the air; his garments support him

for a moment; his head flames, a trail of light follows him._]

CHORUS

Icarus! Icarus!

Oh woeful sight!

(_A beautiful youth falls at the parents' feet; we imagine

that in the dead we recognize a well-known form; yet

suddenly the corporeal part vanishes; the aureole rises

like a comet to heaven; dress, mantle, and lyre remain

lying on the ground._)

HELENA _and_ FAUST

Follows on joy new-born

Anguishful moan!

EUPHORION'S VOICE, (_from the depths_)

Leave me in realms forlorn,

Mother, not all alone! [_Pause._]

CHORUS (_dirge_)

Not alone--for hope we cherish,

Where thou bidest thee to know!

Ah, from daylight though thou perish,

Ne'er a heart will let thee go!

Scarce we venture to bewail thee,

Envying we sing thy fate:

Did sunshine cheer, or storm assail thee,

Song and heart were fair and great.

Earthly fortune was thy dower,

Lofty lineage, ample might,

Ah, too early lost, thy flower

Withered by untimely blight!

Glance was thine the world discerning,

Sympathy with every wrong,

Woman's love for thee still yearning,

And thine own enchanting song.

Yet the beaten path forsaking,

Thou didst run into the snare;

So with law and usage breaking,

On thy wilful course didst fare;

Yet at last high thought has given

To thy noble courage weight,

For the loftiest thou has striven--

It to win was not thy fate.

Who does win it? Unreplying,

Destiny the question hears,

When the bleeding people lying,

Dumb with grief, no cry uprears!--

Now new songs chant forth, in sorrow

Deeply bowed lament no more;

Them the earth brings forth tomorrow,

As she brought them forth of yore!

[_Full pause. The music ceases._]

* * * * *

ACT THE FIFTH

OPEN COUNTRY

WANDERER

Yes, 'tis they, their branches rearing,

Hoary lindens, strong in age;--

There I find them, reappearing,

After my long pilgrimage!

'Tis the very spot;--how gladly

Yonder hut once more I see,

By the billows raging madly,

Cast ashore, which sheltered me!

My old hosts, I fain would greet them,

Helpful they, an honest pair;

May I hope today to meet them?

Even then they aged were.

Worthy folk, in God believing!

Shall I knock? or raise my voice?

Hail to you if, guest receiving,

In good deeds ye still rejoice!

BAUCIS (_a very aged woman_)

Stranger dear, beware of breaking

My dear husband's sweet repose!

Strength for brief and feeble waking

Lengthened sleep on age bestows.

WANDERER

Mother, say then, do I find thee,

To receive my thanks once more,

In my youth who didst so kindly,

With thy spouse, my life restore?

Baucis, to my lips half-dying,

Art thou, who refreshment gave?

[_The husband steps forth._]

Thou Philemon, strength who plying,

Snatched my treasure from the wave?

By your flames, so promptly kindled,

By your bell's clear silver sound--

That adventure, horror-mingled,

Hath a happy issue found.

Forward let me step, and gazing

Forth upon the boundless main,

Kneel, and thankful prayers upraising,

Ease of my full heart the strain!

[_He walks forward upon the downs._]

PHILEMON (_to_ BAUCIS)

Haste to spread the table, under

The green leafage of our trees.

Let him run, struck dumb with wonder,

Scarce he'll credit what he sees.

[_He follows the wanderer. Standing beside him._]

Where the billows did maltreat you,

Wave on wave in fury rolled,

There a garden now doth greet you,

Fair as Paradise of old.

Grown more aged, as when stronger,

I could render aid no more;

And, as waned my strength, no longer

Rolled the sea upon the shore;

Prudent lords, bold serfs directing,

It with trench and dyke restrained;

Ocean's rights no more respecting,

Lords they were, where he had reigned.

See, green meadows far extending;--

Garden, village, woodland, plain.

But return we, homeward wending,

For the sun begins to wane.

In the distance sails are gliding,

Nightly they to port repair;

Bird-like, in their nests confiding,

For a haven waits them there.

Far away mine eye discerneth

First the blue fringe of the main;

Right and left, where'er it turneth,

Spreads the thickly-peopled plain.

IN THE GARDEN

_The three at table_

BAUCIS (_to the stranger_)

Art thou dumb? No morsel raising

To thy famished lips?

PHILEMON

I trow,

He of wonders so amazing

Fain would hear; inform him thou.

BAUCIS

There was wrought a wonder truly,

Yet no rest it leaves to me;

Naught in the affair was duly

Done, as honest things should be!

PHILEMON

Who as sinful can pronounce it?

'Twas the emperor gave the shore;--

Did the trumpet not announce it

As the herald passed our door?

Footing firm they first have planted

Near these downs. Tents, huts, appeared;

O'er the green, the eye, enchanted,

Saw ere long a palace reared.

BAUCIS

Shovel, axe, no labor sparing,

Vainly plied the men by day;

Where the fires at night shone flaring,

Stood a dam, in morning's ray.

Still from human victims bleeding,

Wailing sounds were nightly borne;

Seaward sped the flames, receding;

A canal appeared at morn!

Godless is he, naught respecting;

Covets he our grove, our cot;

Though our neighbor, us subjecting,

Him to serve will be our lot.

PHILEMON

Yet he bids, our claims adjusting,

Homestead fair in his new land.

BAUCIS

Earth, from water saved, mistrusting,

On thine own height take thy stand.

PHILEMON

Let us, to the chapel wending,

Watch the sun's last rays subside;

Let us ring, and prayerful bending,

In our father's God confide!

PALACE

_Spacious ornamental garden; broad, straight canal._ FAUST

_in extreme old age, walking about, meditating._

LYNCEUS, THE WARDER (_through a speaking trumpet_)

The sun sinks down, the ships belated

Rejoicing to the haven steer.

A stately galley, deeply freighted,

On the canal, now draweth near;

Her chequer'd flag the breeze caresses

The masts unbending bear the sails:

Thee now the grateful seaman blesses,

Thee at this moment Fortune hails.

[_The bell rings on the downs._]

FAUST (_starting_)

Accursed bell! Its clamor sending,

Like spiteful shot it wounds mine ear!

Before me lies my realm unending;

Vexation dogs me in the rear;

For I, these envious chimes still hearing,

Must at my narrow bounds repine;

The linden grove, brown but thence peering,

The moldering church, these are not mine.

Refreshment seek I, there repairing?

Another's shadow chills my heart,

A thorn, nor foot nor vision sparing,--

O far from hence could I depart!

WARDER (_as above_)

How, wafted by the evening gales,

Blithely the painted galley sails;

On its swift course, how richly stored!

Chest, coffer, sack, are heaped aboard.

_A splendid galley, richly and brilliantly laden with the

produce of foreign climes._

MEPHISTOPHELES. THE THREE MIGHTY COMRADES

CHORUS

Here do we land,

Here are we now.

Hail to our lord;

Our patron, thou!

(_They disembark. The goods are brought ashore._)

MEPHISTOPHELES

So have we proved our worth--content

If we our patron's praises earn:

With but two ships abroad we went,

With twenty we to port return.

By our rich lading all may see

The great successes we have wrought.

Free ocean makes the spirit free:

There claims compunction ne'er a thought!

A rapid grip there needs alone;

A fish, a ship, on both we seize.

Of three if we the lordship own,

Straightway we hook a fourth with ease,

Then is the fifth in sorry plight--

Who hath the power, has still the right;

The _What_ is asked for, not the _How_.

Else know I not the seaman's art:

War, commerce, piracy, I trow,

A trinity, we may not part.

THE THREE MIGHTY COMRADES

No thank and hail;

No hail and thank!

As were our cargo

Vile and rank!

Disgust upon

His face one sees

The kingly wealth

Doth him displease!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Expect ye now

No further pay;

For ye your share

Have ta'en away.

THE THREE MIGHTY COMRADES

To pass the time,

As was but fair;

We all expect

An equal share.

MEPHISTOPHELES

First range in order,

Hall on hall,

These wares so costly,

One and all!

And when he steps

The prize to view,

And reckons all

With judgment true,

He'll be no niggard;

As is meet,

Feast after feast

He'll give the fleet,

The gay birds come with morning tide;

Myself for them can best provide.

[_The cargo is removed._]

MEPHISTOPHELES (_to_ FAUST)

With gloomy look, with earnest brow

Thy fortune high receivest thou.

Thy lofty wisdom has been crowned;

Their limits shore and sea have bound;

Forth from the shore, in swift career,

O'er the glad waves, thy vessels steer;

Speak only from thy pride of place,

Thine arm the whole world doth embrace.

Here it began; on this spot stood

The first rude cabin formed of wood;

A little ditch was sunk of yore

Where plashes now the busy oar.

Thy lofty thought, thy people's hand,

Have won the prize from sea and land.

From here too--

FAUST

That accursed here!

It weighs upon me! Lend thine ear;--

To thine experience I must tell,

With thrust on thrust, what wounds my heart;

To bear it is impossible--

Nor can I, without shame, impart:

The old folk there above must yield;

Would that my seat those lindens were;

Those few trees not mine own, that field,

Possession of the world impair.

There I, wide view o'er all to take,

From bough to bough would scaffolds raise;

Would, for the prospect, vistas make

On all that I have done to gaze;

To see at once before me brought

The master-work of human thought,

Where wisdom hath achieved the plan,

And won broad dwelling-place for man.--

Thus are we tortured;--in our weal,

That which we lack, we sorely feel!

The chime, the scent of linden-bloom,

Surround me like a vaulted tomb.

The will that nothing could withstand,

Is broken here upon the sand:

How from the vexing thought be safe?

The bell is pealing, and I chafe!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Such spiteful chance, 'tis natural,

Must thy existence fill with gall.

Who doubts it! To each noble ear,

This clanging odious must appear;

This cursed ding-dong, booming loud,

The cheerful evening-sky doth shroud,

With each event of life it blends,

From birth to burial it attends,

Until this mortal life doth seem,

Twixt ding and dong, a vanished dream!

FAUST

Resistance, stubborn selfishness,

Can trouble lordliest success,

Till, in deep angry pain one must

Grow tired at last of being first!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Why let thyself be troubled here?

Is colonizing not thy sphere?

FAUST

Then go, to move them be thy care!

Thou knowest well the homestead fair,

I've chosen for the aged pair--

MEPHISTOPHELES

We'll bear them off, and on new ground

Set them, ere one can look around.

The violence outlived and past,

Shall a fair home atone at last.

[_He whistles shrilly._]

THE THREE _enter_

MEPHISTOPHELES

Come! straight fulfil the lord's behest;

The fleet tomorrow he will feast.

THE THREE

The old lord us did ill requite;

A sumptuous feast is ours by right.

MEPHISTOPHELES (_to the spectators_)

What happ'd of old, here happens too:

Still Naboth's vineyard meets the view.

(I _Kings_, xvi.)

DEEP NIGHT

LYNCEUS THE WARDER (_on the watch-tower singing_)

Keen vision my birth-dower,

I'm placed on this height,

Still sworn to the watch-tower,

The world's my delight.

I gaze on the distant,

I look on the near,

On moon and on planet,

On wood and the deer:

The beauty eternal

In all things I see;

And pleased with myself

All bring pleasure to me.

Glad eyes, look around ye

And gaze, for whate'er

The sight they encounter,

It still hath been fair!

(_Pause_)

Not alone for pleasure-taking

Am I planted thus on high;

What dire vision, horror-waking,

From yon dark world scares mine eye!

Fiery sparkles see I gleaming

Through the lindens' two-fold night;

By the breezes fanned, their beaming

Gloweth now with fiercer light!

Ah! the peaceful hut is burning;

Stood its moss-grown walls for years;

They for speedy help are yearning--

And no rescue, none appears!

Ah the aged folk, so kindly,

Once so careful of the fire,

Now, to smoke a prey, they blindly

Perish, oh misfortune dire!

'Mid red flames, the vision dazing,

Stands the moss-hut, black and bare;

From the hell, so fiercely blazing,

Could we save the honest pair!

Lightning-like the fire advances,

'Mid the foliage, 'mid the branches;

Withered boughs,--they flicker, burning,

Swiftly glow, then fall;--ah me!

Must mine eyes, this woe discerning,

Must they so far-sighted be!

Down the lowly chapel crashes

'Neath the branches' fall and weight;

Winding now, the pointed flashes

To the summit climb elate.

Roots and trunks the flames have blighted,

Hollow, purple-red, they glow!

(_Long pause. Song_)

Gone, what once the eye delighted,

With the ages long ago!

FAUST (_on the balcony, toward the downs_)

From above what plaintive whimper?

Word and tone are here too late!

Wails my warder; me, in spirit

Grieves this deed precipitate!

Though in ruin unexpected

Charred now lie the lindens old,

Soon a height will be erected,

Whence the boundless to behold.

I the home shall see, enfolding

In its walls, that ancient pair,

Who, my gracious care beholding,

Shall their lives end joyful there.

MEPHISTOPHELES _and_ THE THREE (_below_)

Hither we come full speed. We crave

Your pardon! Things have not gone right!

Full many a knock and kick we gave,

They opened not, in our despite;

Then rattled we and kick'd the more,

And prostrate lay the rotten door;

We called aloud with threat severe,

Yet sooth we found no listening ear.

And as in such case still befalls,

They heard not, would not hear our calls;

Forthwith thy mandate we obeyed,

And straight for thee a clearance made.

The pair--their sufferings were light,

Fainting they sank, and died of fright.

A stranger, harbor'd there, made show

Of force, full soon was he laid low;

In the brief space of this wild fray,

From coals, that strewn around us lay,

The straw caught fire; 'tis blazing free,

As funeral death-pyre for the three.

FAUST

To my commandments deaf were ye!

Exchange I wished, not robbery.

For this your wild and ruthless part;--

I curse it! Share it and depart!

CHORUS

The ancient saw still rings today:

Force with a willing mind obey;

If boldly thou canst stand the test,

Stake house, court, life, and all the rest!

[_Exeunt._]

FAUST

The stars their glance and radiance veil;

Smoulders the sinking fire, a gale

Fans it with moisture-laden wings,

Vapor to me and smoke it brings.

Rash mandate--rashly, too, obeyed!--

What hither sweeps like spectral shade?

MIDNIGHT

_Four gray women enter_

FIRST

My name, it is Want.

SECOND

And mine, it is Blame.

THIRD

My name, it is Care.

FOURTH

Need, that is my name.

THREE (_together_)

The door is fast-bolted, we cannot get in;

The owner is wealthy, we may not within.

WANT

There fade I to shadow.

BLAME

There cease I to be.

NEED

His visage the pampered still turneth from me.

CARE

Ye sisters, ye cannot, ye dare not go in;

But Care through the key-hole an entrance may win.

[CARE _disappears_.]

WANT

Sisters, gray sisters, away let us glide!

BLAME

I bind myself to thee, quite close to thy side.

NEED

And Need at your heels doth with yours blend her breath.[35]

THE THREE

Fast gather the clouds, they eclipse star on star.

Behind there, behind, from afar, from afar,

There comes he, our brother, there cometh he--

Death.

FAUST (_in the palace_)

Four saw I come, but only three went hence.

Of their discourse I could not catch the sense;

There fell upon mine ear a sound like breath,

Thereon a gloomy rhyme-word followed--Death;

Hollow the sound, with spectral horror fraught!

Not yet have I, in sooth, my freedom wrought;

Could I my pathway but from magic free,

And quite unlearn the spells of sorcery,

Stood I, oh nature, man alone 'fore thee,

Then were it worth the trouble man to be!

Such was I once, ere I in darkness sought,

And curses dire, through words with error fraught,

Upon myself and on the world have brought;

So teems the air with falsehood's juggling brood,

That no one knows how them he may elude!

If but one day shines clear, in reason's light--

In spectral dream envelopes us the night;

From the fresh fields, as homeward we advance--

There croaks a bird: what croaks he? some mischance!

Ensnared by superstition, soon and late;

As sign and portent, it on us doth wait--

By fear unmanned, we take our stand alone;

The portal creaks, and no one enters,--none.

(_Agitated_)

Is some one here?

CARE

The question prompteth, yes!

FAUST

What art thou then?

CARE

Here, once for all, am I.

FAUST

Withdraw thyself!

CARE

My proper place is this.

FAUST (_first angry, then appeased. Aside_)

Take heed, and speak no word of sorcery.

CARE

Though by outward ear unheard,

By my moan the heart is stirred;

And in ever-changeful guise,

Cruel force I exercise;

On the shore and on the sea,

Comrade dire hath man in me

Ever found, though never sought,

Flattered, cursed, so have I wrought.

Hast thou as yet Care never known?

FAUST

I have but hurried through the world, I own.

I by the hair each pleasure seized;

Relinquished what no longer pleased,

That which escaped me I let go,

I've craved, accomplished, and then craved again;

Thus through my life I've storm'd--with might and main,

Grandly, with power, at first; but now indeed,

It goes more cautiously, with wiser heed.

I know enough of earth, enough of men;

The view beyond is barred from mortal ken;

Fool, who would yonder peer with blinking eyes,

And of his fellows dreams above the skies!

Firm let him stand, the prospect round him scan,

Not mute the world to the true-hearted man

Why need he wander through eternity?

What he can grasp, that only knoweth he.

So let him roam adown earth's fleeting day;

If spirits haunt, let him pursue his way;

In joy or torment ever onward stride,

Though every moment still unsatisfied!

CARE

To him whom I have made mine own

All profitless the world hath grown:

Eternal gloom around him lies;

For him suns neither set nor rise;

With outward senses perfect, whole,

Dwell darknesses within his soul;

Though wealth he owneth, ne'ertheless

He nothing truly can possess.

Weal, woe, become mere phantasy;

He hungers 'mid satiety;

Be it joy, or be it sorrow,

He postpones it till the morrow;

Of the future thinking ever,

Prompt for present action never.

FAUST

Forbear! Thou shalt not come near me!

I will not hear such folly. Hence!

Avaunt! This evil litany

The wisest even might bereave of sense.

CARE

Shall he come or go? He ponders;--

All resolve from him is taken;

On the beaten path he wanders,

Groping on, as if forsaken.

Deeper still himself he loses,

Everything his sight abuses,

Both himself and others hating,

Taking breath--and suffocating,

Without life--yet scarcely dying,

Not despairing--not relying.

Rolling on without remission:

Loathsome ought, and sad permission,

Now deliverance, now vexation,

Semi-sleep,--poor recreation,

Nail him to his place and wear him,

And at last for hell prepare him.

FAUST

Unblessèd spectres! Ye mankind have so

Treated a thousand times, their thoughts deranging;

E'en uneventful days to mar ye know,

Into a tangled web of torment changing!

'Tis hard, I know, from demons to get free,

The mighty spirit-bond by force untying;

Yet Care, I never will acknowledge thee,

Thy strong in-creeping, potency defying.

CARE

Feel it then now; as thou shalt find

When with a curse from thee I've wended:

Through their whole lives are mortals blind--

So be thou, Faust, ere life be ended!

[_She breathes on him._]

FAUST (_blind_)

Deeper and deeper night is round me sinking;

Only within me shines a radiant light.

I haste to realize, in act, my thinking;

The master's word, that only giveth might.

Up, vassals, from your couch! my project bold,

Grandly completed, now let all behold!

Seize ye your tools; your spades, your shovels ply;

The work laid down, accomplish instantly!

Strict rule, swift diligence,--these twain

The richest recompense obtain.

Completion of the greatest work demands

One guiding spirit for a thousand hands.

GREAT FORE-COURT OF THE PALACE

_Torches_

MEPHISTOPHELES (_as overseer leading the way_)

This way! this way! Come on! come on!

Le Lemures, loose of tether,

Of tendon, sinew, and of bone,

Half natures, patched together!

LEMURES (_in chorus_)

At thy behest we're here at hand;

Thy destined aim half guessing--

It is that we a spacious land

May win for our possessing.

Sharp-pointed stakes we bring with speed,

Long chains wherewith to measure.

But we've forgotten why indeed

To call us was thy pleasure.

MEPHISTOPHELES

No artist-toil we need today:

Sufficeth your own measure here:

At his full length the tallest let him lay!

Ye others round him straight the turf uprear;

As for our sires was done of yore,

An oblong square delve ye once more.

Out of the palace to the narrow home--

So at the last the sorry end must come!

LEMURES (_digging, with mocking gestures_)

In youth when I did live and love,

Methought, it was very sweet!

Where frolic rang and mirth was rife,

Thither still sped my feet.

Now with his crutch hath spiteful age

Dealt me a blow full sore:

I stumbled o'er a yawning grave,

Why open stood the door!

FAUST (_comes forth from the palace, groping his way by

the door posts_)

How doth the clang of spades delight my soul!

For me my vassals toil, the while

Earth with itself they reconcile,

The waves within their bounds control,

And gird the sea with stedfast zone--

MEPHISTOPHELES (_aside_)

And yet for us dost work alone,

While thou for dam and bulwark carest;

Since thus for Neptune thou preparest,

The water-fiend, a mighty fête;

Before thee naught but ruin lies;

The elements are our allies;

Onward destruction strides elate.

FAUST

Inspector!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Here.

FAUST

As many as you may,

Bring crowds on crowds to labor here;

Them by reward and rigor cheer;

Persuade, entice, give ample pay!

Each day be tidings brought me at what rate

The moat extends which here we excavate.

MEPHISTOPHELES (_half aloud_)

They speak, as if to me they gave

Report, not of a moat--but of a grave.[36]

FAUST

A marsh along the mountain chain

Infecteth what's already won;

Also the noisome pool to drain--

My last, best triumph then were won:

To many millions space I thus should give,

Though not secure, yet free to toil and live;

Green fields and fertile; men, with cattle blent,

Upon the newest earth would dwell content,

Settled forthwith upon the firm-based hill,

Up-lifted by a valiant people's skill;

Within, a land like Paradise; outside,

E'en to the brink, roars the impetuous tide,

And as it gnaws, striving to enter there,

All haste, combined, the damage to repair.

Yea, to this thought I cling, with virtue rife,

Wisdom's last fruit, profoundly true:

Freedom alone he earns as well as life,

Who day by day must conquer them anew.

So girt by danger, childhood bravely here,

Youth, manhood, age, shall dwell from year to year;

Such busy crowds I fain would see,

Upon free soil stand with a people free;

Then to the moment might I say;

Linger awhile, so fair thou art!

Nor can the traces of my earthly day

Through ages from the world depart!

In the presentiment of such high bliss,

The highest moment I enjoy--'tis this.

(FAUST _sinks back, the_ LEMURES _lay hold of him and

lay him upon the ground_.)

* * * * *

[Footnote 1: For lack of space, scientists and historians have been

excluded.]

[Footnote 2: The chief original sources for the life of Goethe are his

own autobiographic writings, his letters, his diaries, and his

conversations. Of the autobiographic writings the most important are

(1) _Poetry and Truth from my Life_, which ends with the year 1775;

(2) _Italian Journey_, covering the period from September, 1786, to

June, 1788; (3) _Campaign in France_ and _Siege of Antwerp_, dealing

with episodes of the years 1792 and 1793; (4) _Annals (Tag- und

Jahreshefte)_, which are useful for his later years down to 1823. His

letters, forty-nine volumes in all, and his diaries, thirteen volumes,

are included in the great Weimar edition of Goethe's works. His

conversations, so far as they were recorded, have been well edited by

W. von Biedermann, ten volumes, Leipzig, 1889-1896.]

[Footnote 3: This earlier version was long supposed to be lost, but in

1910 a copy of the original manuscript was discovered at Zürich and

published. Its six books correspond very nearly to the first four of

the final version.]

[Footnote 4: Translator: Charles Wharton Stork.]

[Footnote 5: Adapted from E.A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 6: Translator: E.A. Bowring. (All poems in this section

translated by E.A. Bowring, W.E. Aytoun and Theodore Martin appear by

permission of Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.)]

[Footnote 7: Translator: E.A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 8: Adapted from E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 9: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 10: Translator: E.A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 11: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 12: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 13: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 14: Translator: E.A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 15: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 16: Translator: E.A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 17: W.E. Aytoun and Theodore Martin.]

[Footnote 18: Translator: A.I. du P. Coleman.]

[Footnote 19: Translators: W.E. Aytoun and Theodore Martin.]

[Footnote 20: Translators: W. E. Aytoun and Theodore Martin.]

[Footnote 21: The title of a lyric piece composed by Schiller in honor

of the marriage of the hereditary prince of Weimar to the Princess

Maria of Russia, and performed in 1804.]

[Footnote 22: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 23: Translation: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 24: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 25: Translator: A. I. du P. Coleman.]

[Footnote 26: Translator: A. I. du P. Coleman.]

[Footnote 27: Translator: E. A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 28: Translator: A. I. du P. Coleman.]

[Footnote 29: Translator: E.A. Bowring.]

[Footnote 30: Translator: A. L. du P. Coleman.]

[Footnote 31: Harvard Classics (Copyright P. F. Collier & Son).]

[Footnote 32: Harvard Classics (Copyright P. F. Collier & Son).]

[Footnote 33: Permission The Macmillan Co., New York, and G. Bell &

Sons, Ltd., London.]

[Footnote 34: Permission The Macmillan Co., New York, and G. Bell and

Sons, Ltd., London.]

[Footnote 35: Not and Tod, the German equivalents for Need and Death,

form a rhyme. As this cannot be rendered in English, I have introduced

a slight alteration into my translation.]

[Footnote 36: The play of words contained in the original cannot be

reproduced in translation, the German for Moat being Graben, and for

grave Grab.]