Part II

SECOND PART OF THE TRAGEDY IN FIVE ACTS. A PLEASANT LANDSCAPE. Twilight. Faust, bedded on flowery turf, fatigued, restless, en- deavoring to sleep. Circle of hovering spirits in motion: graceful, diminutive figures. ARIEL. (Chant, accompanied by Molian harps.) WHEN the Spring returns serener Raining blossoms over all; When the fields with blessing greener On the earth-born children call; Then the craft of elves propitious Hastes to help where help it can : Be he holy, be he vicious, Pity they the luckless man. Who round this head in airy circles hover, Yourselves in guise of noble Elves discover! The fierce convulsions of his heart compose; Remove the burning barbs of his remorses. And cleanse his being from the suffered woes ! Four pauses makes the Night upon her courses. And now, delay not, let them kindly close ! First on the coolest pillow let him slumber, Then sprinkle him with Lethe's drowsy spray! His limbs no more shall cramps and chills encumber, When sleep has made him strong to meet the day. Perform, ye Elves, your fairest rite : Restore him to the holy Light! 2 FAUST, CHORUS {singly, by two or more, alternately and collectively). When around the green-girt meadow Balm the tepid winds exhale, Then in fragrance and in shadow Twilight spreads her misty veil : Whispers peace in accepts cheery, Rocks the heart in childhood's play. And upon these eyelids weary Shuts the golden gates of Day. Now the Night already darkles, Holy star succeeds to star; Dazzling lights and fainter sparkles Glimmer near and gleam afar: Glimmer here, the lake reflecting, Gleam in cloudless dark aboon ; While, the bliss of rest protecting. Reigns in pomp the perfect moon. Now the Hours are cancelled for thee, Pain and bliss have fled away : Thou art whole : let faith restore thee ! Trust the new, the rising Day! Vales grow green, and hills are lifting Through the shadow-rest of mom; And in waves of silver, drifting On to harvest, rolls the com. Wouldst thou win desires unbounded. Yonder see the glory bum ! Lightly is thy life surrounded — Sleep's a shell, to break and spurn! When the crowd sways, unbelieving, Show the daring will that warms ! \ He is crowned with all achieving, j/Who perceives and then performs. {A tremendous tumult announces the approach of the Sun,) ACT i. 3 ARIEL. Hearken! Hark! — the Hours, careering! Sounding loud to spirit-hearing, See the new-born Day appearing ! Rocky portals jarring shatter, Phoebus' wheels in rolling clatter, With a crash the Light draws near! Pealing rays and trumpet-blazes, — Eye is blinded, ear amazes : The Unheard can no one hear! Slip within each blossom-bell, Deeper, deeper, there to dwell, — In the rocks, beneath the leaf! . If it strikes you, you are deaf. FAUST. Life's pulses now with fresher force awaken To greet the mild ethereal twilight o'er me ; This night, thou, Earth! hast also stood unshaken. And now thou breathest new-refreshed before me. And now beginnest, all thy gladness granting, y A vigorous resolution to restore me, To seek that highest life for which I'm panting. — The world unfolded lies in twilight glimmer, A thousand voices in the grove are chanting; Vale in, vale out, the misty streaks grow dimmer ; The deeps with heavenly light are penetrated ; The boughs, refreshed, lift up their leafy shimmer From gulfs of air where sleepily they waited ; Color on color from the background cleareth, Where flower and leaf with trembling pearls are freighted And all around a Paradise appeareth. Look up! — The mountain summits, grand, supemaL Herald, e'en now, the solemn hour that neareth ; They earliest enjoy the light eternal That later sinks, till here below we find it. Now to the Alpine meadows, sloping vernal, A newer beam descends ere we divined it, And step by step unto the base hath bounded : The sun comes forth ! Alas, already blinded, I turn away, with eyesight pierced and wounded ! 4 FAUST. 'T is thus, when, unto yearning hope's endeavor, Its highest wish on sweet attainment grounded. The portals of fulfilment widely sever : But if there burst from those eternal spaces A flood of flame, we stand confounded ever ; For Life's pure torch we sought the shining traces. And seas of fire — and what a fire I — surprise us. Is 't Love? Is 't Hate? that bumingly embraces, And that with pain and joy alternate tries us? So that, our glances once more earthward throwing. We seek in youthful drapery to disguise us. Behind me, therefore, let the sun be glowing ! The cataract between the crags deep-riven, I thus behold with rapture ever-growing. From plunge to plunge in thousand streams 't is given, And yet a thousand, to the valleys shaded. While foam and spray in air are whirled and driven. Yet how superb, across the tumult braided. The painted rainbow's changeful life is bending. Now clearly drawn, dissolving now and faded. And evermore the showers of dew descending! Of human striving there's no symbol fuller : Consider, and 't is easy comprehending — tflife is not light, but the refracted color. THE EMPEROR'S CASTLE. HALL OF THE THRONE. CouNcni OP State Awaiting the Empeiuhi. Trumpets, Enter Court Retainers of all kinds, splendidly dressed. The Emperor advances to the throne: the Astrologer on his right hand. emperor. I GREET you, Well-beloved and Trusty, Assembled here from far and wide! [ see the Wise Man at my side; But Where's the Fool, his rival lusty? ACT I. 5 SQUIRE. Behind thy mantle's flowing swell Suddenly on the stairs he fell : They bore away the weight of fat; If dead, or drunk? none knoweth that. SECOND SQUIRE. As quick as thought, through all the pother Him to replace there came another, Adorned and prinked with wondrous art, Yet so grotesque that all men start. The guards their halberds cross-wise hold To bar him — ^them he thrusts apart : Lo ! here he comes, the Fool so bold ! MEPHiSTOPHELES (kneeling before the throne). What's cursed and welcomely expected? What is desired, yet always chased ? What evermore with care protected? What is accused, condemned, disgraced? To whom dar'st thou not give a hearing? Whose name hears each man willingly? What is 't, before thy throne appearing? What keeps itself away from thee ? EMPEROR. Spare us thy words! the time is pressing; This is no place for riddle-guessing : These gentlemen such things explain. Solve it thyself! — ^to hear I'm fain. My old Fool went, I fear, an endless distance ; Take thou his place, come here and lend assistance! (Mephistopheleis goes up and stations himself on the Emperor's left hand.) MURMURS OF THE CROWD. Another fool — ^f or worries new ! — Whence came he? — ^how did he get through? The old one fell — ^he's walked his path. — He was a barrel — ^this, a lath ! 6 FAUST. EMPEROR. So now, my Well-beloved and Loyal, Be welcome all, from near and far! You meet beneath a fortunate star; Welfare and luck are now the aspects royal. But tell me why, in days so fair. When weVe withdrawn ourselves from care, And beards of beauty masquerading wear, — V When gay delights for us are waiting, X Why should we plague ourselves, deliberating? Yet, since the task you think we cannot shun, 'T is settled then, so be it done ! CHANCELLOR. y The highest virtue, like a halo-zone Circles the Emporer's head ; and he alone Is worthy validly to exercise it. y^T is Justice ! — all men love and prize it. None can forego, but all require and want it : The people look to him, that he should grant it. But, ah! what help can human wit impart. Or readiness of hand, or kindly heart. When lies the State, as if in fever fretting, And brooded Evil evil is begetting? Who looks abroad from off this height supreme Throughout the realm, 't is like a weary dream. Where one deformity another mouldeth, Where lawlessness itself by law upholdeth. And 't is an age of Error that unfoldeth! One plunders flocks, a woman one. Cup, cross, and candlestick from altar, And then to boast it does not palter, Of limb or life nowise undone. To Court behold the plaintiffs urging. Where puffs the judge on cushions warm, And swells, meanwhile, with fury surging^ Rebellion's fast-increasing storm! His easy way through crime is broken, Who his accomplices selects; t And "Guilty!" hears one only spoken r* Where Innocence itself protects. They all pull down what they should care for, — Destroy their weal, in self -despite : How can the sense develop, therefore, Which, only, leads us to the Right? At last, the man of good intent To flatterer and briber bendeth; The judge, debarred from punishment, Mates with the felon, ere he endeth. I've painted black, but denser screen I'd rather draw before the scene. (Pause.) Here measures cannot be evaded ; When all offend, and none are aided, His Majesty a victim stands. QENERAIr-IN-CHIEF. In these wild days, how discords thicken I Each strikes and in return is stricken. And they are deaf to all commands. The burgher in his fortifications. The knight upon his rocky nest, Have sworn to worry out our patience And keep their strength with stubborn crest. The mercenaries, no whit better. Impatiently demand their pay. And, if we were not still their debtor. They'd start forthwith and march away. Let one forbid what all would practise And in a hornet's nest he stands : /The realm which they should guard, the fact isy y 'T is. devastated by their hands. They give the reign to wild disorder, And half the world is wasted now; There still are kings beyond our border. But none thinks it concerns him anyhow. TREASURER. Trust allies, and we soon shall rue us! The subsidies they promised to us — like water in lesiky pipes — don't come. $ FAUST, Then, Sire, in all thy states extended To whom hath now the rule descended ? Where'er one goes, a new lord is at home, And hopes to live in independence; He takes his course and we look on : » Such rights we've given to our attendants » That all our right to anything is gone. On parties, too, whatever the name be, Our trust, to-day, is far from great ; Though loud their praise or fierce their blame be. Indifferent is their love and hate. • The Ghibellines and Guelfs from labor Are resting — both laid on the shelf. Who, therefore, now will help his neighbor? Each has enough, to help himself. The gate of gold no more unlatches, And each one gathers, digs, and scratches, While our strong-box is void indeed^ LORD HIGH STEWARD. What evil I, as well, am having! We're always trying to be saving. And ever greater is our need : Thus daily grows this task of mine. The cooks have all they want at present, — Wild-boar and deer, and hare and pheasant, Duck, peacock, turkey, goose, and chicken : These, paid in kind, are certain picking, And do not seriously decline ; Yet, after all, we're short of wine. Where casks on casks were once our cellars filling. Rare vintages of flavors finely thrilling. The noble lords' eternal swilling Has drained them off, till not a drop appears. The City Council, too, must tap their liquor; YThey drink from mug, and jug, and beaker, Till no one longer sees or hears. 'T is I must pay for all the dances; The Jew will have me, past all chances ; His notes of hand and his advances Will soon eat up the coming years. ACT I, 9 Before they're fat the swine are taken; Pawned is the pillow, ere one waken, The bread is eaten ere the board it sees. EMPEROR (after some reflection, to MEPHiSTOPHEiiES). Say, Fool, canst thou not add a want to these? MEPHISTOPHELES. I ? Not at all ! I see the circling splendor — Thyself, and thine! Should one his trust surrender, Where Majesty thus unopposed commands. Where ready power the hostile force disbands. Where loyal wills, through understanding strong. And mixed activities, around thee throng? What powers for evil could one see combining, — For darkness, where such brilliant stars are shining? MURMURS. He is a scamp — ^who comprehends. — He lies his way — ^until it ends. — I know it now— what's in his mind.— What then? — ^A project lurks behind! MEPHISTOPHELES. Where, in this world, doth not some lack appear? Here this, there that, — ^but money's lacking here. True, from the floor you can't at once collect it. But, deepliest hidden, wisdom may detect it. In veins of mountains, under building-bases. Coined and uncoined, there's gold in many places : And ask you who shall bring it to the light? ^ A man endowed with Mind's and Nature's might. CHANCELLOR. XNature and Mind — ^to Christians we don't speak so. Thence to bum Atheists we seek so, For such discourses very dangerous be. ^Nature is Sin, and Mind is Devil : Doubt they beget in shameless revel, Their hybrid in deformity. 10 FAUST. Not so with us! — Two only races Have in the Empire kept their places, And prop the throne with worthy weight. The Saints and Knights are they : together They breast each spell of thunder-weather, And take for pay the Church and State. The vulgar minds that breed confusion Are met with an opposing hand : They're wizards! — heretics! Delusion Through them will ruin town and land. And these will you, with brazen juggle, Within this high assembly smuggle? For hearts corrupt you scheme and struggle; The Fool's near kin are all the band. MBPHISTOPHELES. By that, I know the learned lord you are I What you don't touch, is lying leagues afar; What you don't grasp, is wholly lost to you; What you don't reckon, think you, can't be true ; What you don't weigh, it has no weight, alas ! What you don't coin, you're sure it will not pass. ■ EMPEROR. Therewith to help our needs you naught determine. What wilt thou, here, with such a Lenten sermon? I'm tired of the eternal If and How : Money we want: good, then, procure it now! MEPHISTOPHELES. I'll furnish what you wish, and more : 't is, true, A light task, but light things are hard to do. The gold's on hand, — ^yet, skilfully to win it, That is the art: who knows how to begin it? Consider only, in those days of blood When o'er the Empire poured a human flood. How many men, such deadly terror steeled them. Took their best goods, and here and there concealed them! 'T was so beneath the mighty Roman sway, And ever so repeated, till our day. ACT I. 11 All that was buried in the earth, to save it : The Emperor owns the earth, and he should ha*^e it. TREASURER. Now, for a Fool, his words are rather bright : That is indeed the old Imperial right. CHANCELLOR. Satan has laid his golden snares, to try us; Such things as these are neither right nor pious. LORD HIGH STEWARD. Let him but bring his gifts to Court, and share them, And if things were a little wrong, I'd bear them ! GENERAL-IN-CHIEF. The Fool is shrewd, to promise each his needs ; Whence it may come the soldier never heeds. MEPHISTOPHELES. And should you think, perchance, I overreach you, Here's the Astrologer — ^ask him to teach you ! The spheres of Hour and House are in his ken : What are the heavenly aspects ? — ^tell us, then ! MURMURS. Two rogues are they, — ^in league they've grown. Dreamer and Fool — so near the throne ! The song is old — and flatly sung. — The Fool he prompts — the Wise Man's tongue! ASTROLOGER {speaks: Mephistopheles prompts). The Sun himself is gold of purest ray ; The herald. Mercury, serve for love and payj Dame Venus has bewitched you all, for she. Early and late, looks on you lovingly; Chaste Luna has her whims, no two alike ; Mar^ threatens you, although he may not strike. And Jupiter is still the splendid star. Saturn is great, though seeming small and far : 12 FAUST, As metal, him we don't much venerate, Of value slight, though heavy in his weight. Now, when of Sol and Luna union's had,; — Silver with gold, — then is the world made glad : All else, with them, is easy to attain, — Palaces, gardens, cheeks of rosy stain; And these procures this highly learned man, Who that can do which none of us e'er can. EMPEROR. Two meanings in his words I find, And yet they don't convince my mind. MURMURS. Why tell us that?— stuff stale and flat! 'T is quackery! — 't is chemistry! I've heard the strain — and hoped in vain, — And though it come — 't is all a hum. MEPHISTOPHELES. They stand around, amazed, unknowing; They do not trust the treasure-spell ; V One dreams of mandrake, nightly growing, The other of the dog of Hell. Why, then, should one suspect bewitching. And why the other jest and prate. When in their feet, they, too, shall feel the itching, When they shall walk with tottering gait? All feel the secret operation Of Nature's ever-ruling might. And from the bases of Creation A living track winds up to light. In every limb when something twitches In any place uncanny, old, — Decide at once, and dig for riches I There lies the fiddler, there the gold I MURMURS. It hangs like lead my feet about. — I've cramp i' the arm — ^but that is gout. — ACT L 13 I've tickling in the greater toe. — Down all my back it pains me so. — - From signs like these 't is very clear The richest treasure-ground is here. EMPEROR. Haste, then! Thou It not again make off! Test now thy frothy, lying graces, And show at once the golden places ! My sword and sceptre I will doff, Mine own imperial hands I'll lend thee, If thou liest not, therein befriend thee, But, if thou liest, to Hell will send theel MEPHISTOPHELES. I'd find, in any case, the pathway there ! — Yet I cannot enough declare What, ownerless, waits everywhere. The farmer, following his share. Turns out a gold-crock with the mould: He seeks saltpetre where the clay-walls stand. And findest rolls of goldenest gold, With joyful fright, in his impoverished hand. What vaults there are to be exploded. Along what shafts and mines corroded, The gold-diviner's steps are goaded. Until the Under-world is night! In cellars vast he sees the precious Cups, beakers, vases, plates, and dishes, Row after row, resplendent lie : Rich goblets, cut from rubies, stand there, And, would he use them, lo ! at hand there Is ancient juice of strength divine. Yet, trust to him who's knowledge gotten. The wood o' the staves has long been rotten, A cask of tartar holds the wine. Not only gold and gems are hiding. But of proud wines the heart abiding. In terror and in night profound : Herein assiduously explore the wise; It is a farce, by day to recognize, But mysteries are with darkness circled round. ( 14 FAUST. EMPEEIOR. See thou to them! What profits the Obscure? Whatever has value comes to daylight, sure. At dead of night who can the rogue betray f Then all the cows are black, the cats are gray. If pots are down there, full of heavy gold, Drive on thy plough and turn them from the mould! MBPHISTOPHBLES. Take hoe and spade thyself, I pray thee, — Thou shalt be great through peasant-toil! A herd of golden calves, to pay thee, Will loose their bodies from the soil. And then at once canst thou, with rapture, Gems for thyself and for thy mistress capture : Their tints and sparkles heighten the degree Of Beauty as of Majesty. EMPEROR. Then quick! at once! how long will it require f ASTROLOGER (prompted by Mephistopheles) . Sire, moderate such urgence of desire! Let first the gay, the motley pastime end ! Not to the goal doth such distraction tend. First self-command must quiet and assure us; The upper things the lower will procure us. Who seeks for Good, must first be good ; Who seeks for joy, must moderate his blood ; Who wine desires, let him the ripe grapes tread ; Who miracles, by stronger faith be led ! EMPEROR. Let us the time in merriment efface ! And, to our wish. Ash- Wednesday comes apace. Meanwhile, we'll surely celebrate withal More jovially the maddening Carnival. [Trumpets, Exeunt. MEPHISTOPHELES. How closely linked are Luck and Merit, ACT L 15 ^Doth never to these fools occur : ^Had they the Philosopher's Stone, I swear it, ^The Stone would lack the Philosopher! SPAaOUS HALL. WITH ADJOINING APARTMENTS. Arranged and Decorated for the Carnival Masquerade. HERALD. THINK not, as in our German bounds, your chance is Of Death's or Fools' or Devils' dances : Here cheerful revels you await. Our Ruler, on his Roman expedition, Hath for his profit, your fruition, Crossed o'er the Alpine high partition, And won himself a gayer State. He to the holy slipper bowed him And first the right of power besought; Then, as he went to get the Crown allowed him, For us the Fool's-cap he has also brought. Now are we all new-born, to wear it: Each tactful and experienced man, Drawn cosily o'er head and ears, doth bear it; A fool he seems, yet he must share it, And be, thereby, as sober as he can. They crowding come, I see already. Close coupling, or withdrawn unsteady, — The choruses, like youth from school. Come in or out, bring on your ranks ! Before or after — 't is the rule — With all its hundred thousand pranks, The World is one enormous Fool ! GARDEN -GIRLS. {Song, accompanied with mandolines,) That we win your praises tender 16 FAUST. We are decked in festal gear; At the Grerman Court of splendor. Girls of Florence, we appear. On our locks of chestnut glosses Wear we many a flowery bell; Silken threads and silken flosses Here must play their parts, as well. Our desert, not over-rated, Seems to us assured and clear, For by art we've fabricated Flowers that blossom all the year. Every sort of colored snipping Won its own symmetric right: Though your wit on each be tripping, In the whole you take delight. We are fair to see and blooming, Garden-girls, and gay of heart; \^For the natural way of woman vis so near akin to art. HERALD. Let us see the wealth of blossoms Basket-crowning heads that bear them. Garlanding your arms and bosoms ! Each select, and lightly wear them. Haste! and bosky arbors dressing. Let a garden here enring us ! Worthy they of closer pressing, Hucksters and the wares they bring us. GARDEN-GIRLS. Now in cheerful places chaffer, But no marketing be ours ! Briefly, clearly, let each laugher Know the meaning of his flowers. OLIVE BRANCH, WITH FRUIT. Flowery sprays I do not covet; ACT I. 17 Strife I shun, or branch above it, Foe of conflict I remain. Yet am I the marrow of nations. Pledge of happy consummations, Sign of peace on every plain. Be, to-day, my lucky fate Worthy head to decorate! WREATH OP EARS (golden). You to crown, the gifts of Ceres Here their kindly grace have sent; Unto Use what chiefly dear is Be your fairest ornament ! FANCY WREATH. Gayest blossoms, like to mallows, — • From the moss a marvel grew I Fashion calls to light, and hallows, That which Nature never knew. FANCY NOSEGAY. What our name is, Theophrastus Would not dare to say : contrast us ! Yet we hope to please you purely, If not all, yet many, surely, — Such as fain we'd have possess us, Braiding us in shining tresses. Or, a fairer fate deciding. On the heart And rest abiding. CHALLENGE. Motley fancies blossom may For the fashion of the day, Whimsical and strangely moulded, Such as Nature ne'er unfolded : Bells of gold and stems of green In the plenteous locks be seen! — Yet we ROSEBUDS lie concealed behind; Lucky, who shall freshly find! 18 FAUST, When the summer-time retumeth, And the rosebud, bursting, burneth. Who such blisses would surrender? Promise sweet, and yielding tender, They, in Flora's realm, control Swiftly eyes and sense and soul. (Under green, leafy arcades, the Garden-girls adorn and gracefully exhibit their wares,) GARDENERS. {Song, accompanied with theorbos.) Blossoms there, that sprout in quiet, Round your heads their charms are weaving; But the fruits are not deceiving, One may try the mellow diet. Sunburnt faces tempt with glowing Cherries, peaches, plums, your vision : Buy! for vain the eye's decision To the tongue's and palate's showing. Ripest fruit from sunniest closes Eat, with taste and pleasure smitten! Poems one may write on roses, But the apple must be bitten. Then permit that we be mated With your youth, so flowery-fair : Thus is also decorated. Neighbor-like, our riper ware. Under wreaths of flowery tether. As the leafy arbors suit. All may then be found together. Buds and leaves, and flower and fruit! ( With alternating songs, accompanied with mando^ lines and theorbos, both Choruses continue to set forth their wares upon steps rising aloft, and to offer them to the spectators,) ACT L 19 Mother and Daughter. MOTHER. Maiden, when thou cam'st to light. Tiny caps I wrought thee; Body tender, soft, and white. Lovely face I brought thee. As a bride I thought thee, led To the richest, wooed and wed, As a wife I thought thee. Ah ! already many a year, Profitless, is over: None of all the wooers here Now around thee hover; Though with one wast wont to dance, Gav'st another nudge and glance, — Hast not found thy lover! I to feast and revel thee Vainly took, to match one : Pawns, and hindmost man of three, Would not help thee snatch one. Every fool now wears his cap : Sweetheart, open thou thy lap! Still, perchance, mayst catch one! [Other maiden-playmates, young and beautiful, join the garden-girls ', the sound of familiar gossip is heard. Fishers and hird-catchers, with nests, fish- ing-rods, limed twigs, and other implements, appear, and' disperse themselves among the maidens. Re- ciprocal attempts to win, to catch, to escape, and to hold fast, give opportunity for the most agreeable dialogues.] WOOD-CUTTiJlS. (Enter, boisterously and boorishly,) Room! make a clearing! Room in your revel ! The trees .we level 20 FAUST, That tumble cracking : Where we're appearing Look out for whacking. Our praise adjudging, Make clear this fable! Save Coarse were drudging Within your borders, Would Fine be able To build their orders, Howe'er they fretted t Be taught in season, For you'd be freezing Had we not sweated I PULCINELLI (uncouth, almost idiotic) You, Fools, are trooping, Since birth so stooping; The wise ones we are, From burdens freer. Our caps, though sleazy^ And jackets breezy To wear are easy: It gives us pleasure To go with leisure, With slippered shuflfles Through market-scuffles, To gape at the pother, Croak at each other! Through crowded places You always trace us, Eel-like gliding, Skipping and hiding. Storming together: Moreover, whether You praise — ^reprove us, It doesn't move us. PARASITES ( fawningly-lustful) . Ye woodland bandsmen. And they, your clansmen, ACT 7. 21 The charcoal-burners, To you we turn us : For all such plodding, Affirmative nodding, Tortuous phrases. Blowing both ways — ^is Warming or chilling. Just as you're feeling : What profit from it? There might fall fire. Enormous, dire. From heaven's summit, Were there not billets And coal in wagons. To boil your skillets And warm your flagons. It roasts and frizzles; It boils and sizzles! The taster and picker. The platter-licker. He sniffs the roasting, Suspects the fishes, And clears, with boasting, His patron's dishes. DRUNKEN MAN (unconsciously) . Naught, to-day, bring melancholy! Since I feel so frank and free : Fresh delight and songs so jolly. And I brought them both with me! Thus I'm drinking, drinking, drinking! Clink your glasses, clinking, clinking! You behind there, join the rout! Clink them stout, and then it's out ! Though my wife assailed me loudly. Rumpled me through thin and thick; And, howe'er I swaggered proudly, Called me "masquerading stick": Yet I'm drinking, drinking, drinking! Clink youi glasses! clinking, clinking! 22 FAUST. Masking sticks, another bout! When youVe clinked them, drink them out! Say not mine a silly boast is ! I am here in clover laid : Trusts the host not, trusts the hostess, — She refusing, trusts the maid. Still I'm drinking, drinking, drinking! Come, ye others, clinking, clinking! Each to each ! keep up the rout ! We, I'm thinking, drink them out. How and where my fun I'm spying, Let me have it as I planned ! Let me lie where I am lying. For I cannot longer stand. CHORUS. Every chum be drinking, drinking! Toast afresh, with clinking, clinking! Bravely keep your seats, and shout! Under the table he\9 drunk out. [The Herald announces various Poets — Poets of Nature, Courtly and Knightly Minstrels, Senti- mentalists as well as Enthusiasts, In the crowd of competitors of all kinds, no one allows another to commence his declamation. One slips past with a few words:] SATIRIST. Know ye what myself, the Poet, Would the most rejoice and cheer? If I dared to sing, and utter. That which no one wants to hear. [The Night and Churchyard Poets excuse themselves, because they have just become engaged in a most interesting conversation with a newly-arisen vam- pire, and therefrom a new school of poetry may possibly be developed. The Herald is obliged to ACT I, 23 accept their excuses, and meanwhile calls forth the Grecian Mythology, which, even in modern masks, loses neither its character nor its power to charmJ] The Graces. AGLAIA. Life we bless with graces living; So be graceful in your giving I HEGEMONE. Graceful be in your receival; Wish attained is sweet retrieval. EUPHROSYNE. And in days serene and spacious, In your thanks be chiefly gracious! The Pabcm. ATROPOS. I, the eldest, to the spinning Have received the invitation; When the thread of Life's beginning There is need of meditation. Finest flax I winnow featly That your thread be softly given; Draw it through my fingers neatly, Make it thin, and smooth, and even. If too wanton your endeavor, Grasping here of joy each token. Think, the thread won't stretch forever! Have a care! it might be broken. CLOTHO. Know that, given to me for wearing, Lately were the shears supplied; Since men were not by the bearing Of our eldest edified. 24 FAUST. Useless webs she long untangled, Dragging them to air and light; Dreams of fortunes, hope-bespangled. Clipped and buried out of sight. Also I, in ignorance idle, Made mistakes in younger years, But to-day, myself to bridle. In their sheath I stick the shears. Thus restrained in proper measure. Favor I this cheerful place: You these hours of liberal pleasure Use at will, and run your race! LACHESIS. In my hands, the only skilful. Was the ordered twisting placed; Active are my ways, not wilful. Erring not through over-haste. Threads are coming, threads are reeling; In its course I each restrain: None, from off the circle wheeling. Fails to lit within the skein. If I once regardless gadded. For the world my hopes were vain : Hours are counted, years are added. And the weaver takes the chain. HERALD. You would not recognize who now appear. Though ne'er so learned you were in ancient writing; To look at them, in evil so delighting, You'd call them worthy guests, and welcome here. They are The Furies, no one will believe us, — Fair, well-proportioned, friendly, young in years: But make acquaintance, and straightway appears How snake-like are such doves to wound, deceive us. ACT I. 25 Though they are spiteful, yet on this occasion, When every fool exults in all his blame, They also do not crave angelic fame, But own themselves the torments of the nation. ALUCTO. What good of that, for you will trust us still ! — Each of us young and fair, a wheedling kitten. Hath one of you a girl with whom he's smitten, We'll rub and softly stroke his ears, until 'T is safe to tell him, spite of all his loathing, That she has also this and the other flame, — A blockhead he, or humpbacked, squint and lame, And if betrothed to him, she's good-for-nothing! We're skilled, as well, the bride to vex and sever : Why scarce a week ago, her very lover Contemptuous things to her was saying of her! Though they make up, there's something rankles ever. MEGMRA. That's a mere jest ! For, let them once be married, I go to work, and can, in every case. The fairest bliss by wilful whims displace. Man has his various moods, the hours are varied, And, holding the Desired that once did charm him. Each for the More-desired, a yearning fool. Leaves the best fortune, use has rendered cool : He flies the sun, and seeks the frost to warm him. Of ills for all I understand the brewing. And here Asmodi as my follower lead. To scatter mischief at the proper need. And send the human race, in pairs, to ruin. TISIPHONE. Steel and poison I, not malice. Mix and sharpen for the traitor: Lov'st thou others, soon or later, Ruin pours for thee the chalice. 96 FAUST. Through the moment's sweet libation See the gall and wormwood stealing! Here no bargaining, no dealing! Like the act and retaliation. No one babble of forgiving! To the rocks I cry: Revenge! is Echo's anwser: he who changes Shall be missed among the living. HERALD. Do me the favor, now, to stand aside, For that which comes is not to you allied. You see a mountain pressing through the throng. The flanks with brilliant housings grandly hung, A head with tusks, a snaky trunk below, — A mystery, yet I the key will show. A delicate woman sits upon his neck, And with a wand persuades him to her beck ; The other, throned aloft, superb to see, Stands in a glory, dazzling, blinding me. Beside him walk two dames in chains ; one fearful And sore depressed, the other glad and cheerful. One longs for freedom and one feels she's free : Let each declare us who she be ! FEAR. Smoky torches, lamps are gleaming Through the festal's wildering train; Ah! amid these faces scheming I am fastened by my chain. Off, ridiculously merry! I mistrust your grinning spite : Each relentless adversary Presses nearer in the night. Friend would here as foe waylay me. But I know the masking shapes; Yonder's one that wished to slay me, — Now, discovered, he escapes. ACT I. 27 From the world I fain would wander Through whatever gate I find; But perdition threatens yonder, And the horror holds my mind. HOPE. Good my sisters, I salute you I Though to-day already suit you, Masquerading thus demurely, Yet I know your purpose surely To reveal yourselves to-morrow. And if we, by torches lighted. Fail to feel a special pleasure. Yet in days of cheerful leisure, At our will, delight we'll borrow, Or alone or disunited Free through fairest pastures ranging. Rest and action interchanging, And in life no cares that fetter Naught forego, but strive for better. Welcome guests are all around us. Let us mingle with the rest! Surely, what is best hath found us. Or we'll somewhere find the best. PRUDENCE. Two of human foes, the greatest. Fear and Hope, I bind the faster. Thus to save you at the latest : Clear the way for me, their master. I conduct the live colossus. Turret-crowned with weighty masses; And unweariedly he crosses. Step by step, the steepest passes. But aloft the goddess planted. With her broad and ready pinions, Turns to spy where gain is granted Everywhere in Man's dominions. ^ FAUST. Round her all is bright and glorious; Splendor streams on all her courses; Victory is she — ^the victorious Goddess of all active forces. ZOILO-THBRSITES. Ho ! ho ! Fve hit the time of day. You're all together bad, I say I But what appeared my goal to me Is she up there, Dame Victory. She, with her snowy wings spread out, Thinks she's an eagle, past a doubt; And, wheresoever she may stir, That land and folk belong to her; But when a famous thing is done I straightway put my harness on, To lift the low, the high upset. The bent to straighten, bend the straight,- That, only, gives my heart a glow, And on this earth I'll have it so. HERALD. Then take, thou beggar-cur, the blow, This magic baton's stroke of skill! — So, twist and wriggle at thy will I See how the double dwarfish ape Rolls to a hideous ball in shape ! — A marvel ! 'T is an egg we view ; It puffs itself and cracks in two : A pair of twins come forth to-day, The Adder and the Bat are they. Forth in the dust one winds and creeps; One darkly round the ceiling sweeps. They haste to join in company : The third therein I would not be ! MURMURS. Come! the dance is yonder gay. — No I I would I were away. — Feel'st thou how the phantom race Flits about us in this place? — ACT I. 29 Something whkzes p^^st my hair.- Round my feet I saw it fare. — None of us are injured, though. — But we all are frightened so. — Wholly spoiled is now the fun. — Which the vermin wanted done. HERALD. Since, as Herald, I am aiding At your merry masquerading, At the gate I'm watching, fearful Lest within your revels cheerful Something slips of evil savor; And I neither shrink nor waver. Yet, I fear, the airy spectres Enter, baffling all detectors, And from goblins that deceive you I'm unable to relieve you. First, the dwarf became suspicious; Now a mightier pageant issues Yonder, and it is my duty To explain those forms of beauty: But the thing I comprehend not. How can I its meaning mention ? Help me to its comprehension ! Through the crowd you see it wend notf Lo! a four-horse chariot wondrous. Hither drawn, the tumult sunders; Yet the crowd seems not to share in 't — Nowhere is a crush apparent. Colored lights, in distance dinmier, Motley stars around it shimmer; Magic lantern-like they glimmer. On it storms, as to assault. Clear the way! I shudder! BOY CHARIOTEER. Halt! Steeds, restrain the eager pinion, Own the bridle's old dominion, Check yourselves, as I desire you, 30 FAUST, Sweep away, when I inspire you! — Honor we these festal spaces! See, the fast increasing faces, Circles, full of admiration! Herald, come! and in thy fashion, Ere we take from here our glories. Name us, and describe and show us! For we're naught but allegories, Therefore 't is thy place to know us. HERALD. No, thy name from me is hidden, — Could describe thee, were I bidden. BOY CHARIOTEER. Try it! HERALD. Granted, at the start. Young and beautiful thou art, — A half -grown boy; and yet the woman-nature Would rather see thee in completed stature. To me thou seem'st a future fickle wooer. Changing the old betrayed love for a newer. BOY CHARIOTEER. Go on ! So far, 't is very fine : Make the enigma's gay solution thine! HERALD. Black lightning of the eyes, the dark locks glowing. Yet bright with jewelled anadem, And light thy robe as flower on stem, From shoulder unto buskin flowing With tinsel-braid and purple hem! One for a maiden might surmise thee, Yet, good or ill, as it might be. The maids, e'en now, would take and prize thee: They'd teach thee soon thy ABC. BOY CHARIOTEER. ^d he, who like a splendid vision, 8 proudly on the chariot's throne t ACT I, ai H£91ALD. He seems a king, of mien Elysian ; Blest those, who may his favor own I No more has he to earn or capture ; His glance detects where anght's amiss. And to bestow his perfect rapture Is more than ownership and bliss. BOY CHARIOTEER. Thou darest not at this point desist : Describe him fully, I insist! HERAU). But undescribed is Dignity. The healthy, full-moon face I see, The ample mouth, the cheeks that fresher Shine out beneath his turban's pressure. Rich comfort in the robe he's wearing, — What shall I say of such a bearing t He seems, as ruler, known to me. BOY CHARIOTEER. Plutus, the God of Wealth, is he. He hither comes in proud attire; Much doth the Emperor him desire^ HERALD. Of thee the What and How declare to me ! BOY CHARIOTEER. I am Profusion, I am Poesy. The Poet I, whose perfect crown is sent When he his own best goods hath freely spen<* Yet, rich in mine unmeasured pelf. Like Plutus I esteem myself : I prank and cheer his festal show And whatsoe'er he lacks bestow. HERALD. Fresh charm to thee thy brag imparts. But let us now behold thine axial 32 FAUST, BOY CHARIOTEER. Just see me fillip with my fingers! What brilliance round the chariot lingers, And there a string of pearls appear! ( Continuing to fillip and snap his fingers in all directions:) Take golden spangles for neck and ears, Combs, and diadems free of flaw, And jewelled rings as ne'er ye saw ! I also scatter flamelets bright, Awaiting where they may ignite. HERALD. How strives the crowd with eager long^g, Almost upon the giver thronging! As in a dream he snaps the toys; All catch and snatch with crush and noise. But now new tricks have I detected : What each has zealously collected His trouble doth but poorly pay; The gifts take wings and fly away. The pearls are loosened from their band And beetles crawl within his hand; He shakes them off, and then instead. Poor dolt, they hum around his head I The others find their solid things Are butterflies with gaudy wings. How much the scamp to promise seems. And only gives what golden gleams! BOY CHARIOTEER. Masks to announce, I grant, thou 'rt worthy; But 'neath the shell of Being to bestir thee Is not a herald's courtly task : A sharper sight for that we ask. Yet every quarrel I evade; To thee, my Chief, be speech and question made! (Turning to Plutus.) Didst thou n«t unto me confide The tempest of the steeds I guide? Canst thou not on my guidance reckon t ACT I. 33 Am I not there, where thou dost beckon? And have I not, on pinions boldest, Conquered for thee the palm thou boldest? When in thy battles I have aided, I ever have been fortunate; Thy brow when laurels decorate. Have I not them with hand and fancy braided? PLUTUS. If there be need that I bear witness now, I'm glad to say : soul of my soul art thou ! Thine acts are always to my mind. And thou the richer art, I find. Thy service to reward, I hold The green bough higher than my crowns of gold. To all a true word spoken be : Dear Son, I much delight in thee. BOY CHARIOTEER (to the Crowd),' The greatest gifts my hand flings out, See! I have scattered round about. On divers heads there glows the tongue Of flame which I upon them flung, — Leaps back and forth among the shapes, On this remains, from that escapes. But very seldom upward streams In transient flush of mellow beams ; And unto many, ere they mark, It is extinct and leaves them dark. CHATTER OF WOMEN. Upon the chariot that man Is certainly a charlatan : There, perched behind, the clown is seen, From thirst and hunger grown so lean As one ne'er saw him; if you'd pinch, He hasn't flesh to feel and flinch. THE STARVELING. Disgusting women, off! I know That when I come, you'd have me go. 34 FAUST. When woman fed her own hearth-flame, Then Avaritia was my name; Then throve the household fresh and green, For naught went out and much came in. To chest and press I gave good heed. And that you'd call a vice, indeed I But since in later years, the fact is, Economy the wife won't practise, And, like the host of spendthrift scholars, Has more desires than she has dollars, The husband much discomfort brooks. For there are debts where'er he looks. She spends what spoil she may recover Upon her body, or her lover ; In luxury eats, and to excess Drinks with the flirts that round her press, For me that raises money's price : Male is my gender, Avarice! LEADER OF THE WOMEN. With dragons, mean may be the dragon; It's all, at best, but lying stuff I He comes, the men to spur and egg on. And now they're troublesome enough. CROWD OF WOMEN. The scarecrow! Knock him from the wagon! What means the fag, to threaten here? As if his ugly face we'd fear ! Of wood and pasteboard is each dragon : Come on — ^his words shall cost him dea.^I HERALD. Now, by my wand! Be still — let none stir! Yet for my help there's scarcely need; See how each grim and grisly monster. Clearing the space around with speed. Unfolds his fourfold wings of dread I The dragons shake themselves in anger, With flaming throats, and scaly clangor; The place is clear, the crowd has fled. ACT I. as (Plutus descends from the chariot,) HERALD. How kingly comes he from above! He beckons, and the dragons move; Then from the chariot bring the chest With gold, and Avarice thereon. See, at his feet the load they rest I •A marvel 't is, how it was done. PLUTUS (to the Chabioteeb). Now thou hast left the onerous burden here. Thou 'rt wholly free : away to thine own sphere I Here it is not! Confused and wild, to-day. Distorted pictures press around our way. Where clear thy gaze in sweet serenity, Owning thyself, confiding but in thee. Thither, where Qood and Beauty are unfurled, To Solitude! — ^and there create thy world! BOY CHABIOTEEB. Thus, as an envoy, am I worthy of thee; Thus, as my next of kindred, do I love thee. Where thou art, is abundance; where I go Each sees a splendid profit round him grow. In inconsistent life each often wavers, Whether to seek from thee, or me, the favors. Thy followers may be indolent, 't is true ; Who follows me, has always work to do. My deeds are never secret and concealed; I only breathe, and I'm at once revealed. Farewell, then ! Thou the bliss hast granted me ; But whisper low, and I return to thee ! [Exit, as he came, PLUTUS. 'T is time, now, to unchain the precious metals! The padlocks with the herald's wand I smite : The chest is opened : look ! from iron kettles It pours like golden blood before your sight. It boils, and threatens to devour, as fuel. Melting them, crown and ring and chain and jewel! 36 FAUST, ALTERNATE CRIES OF THE CROWD. See here, and there ! they boil and swim; The chest is filling to the brim 1 — Vessels of gold are burning there, And minted rolls are turning there, And ducats jingle as they jump ! — 0, how my heart begins to thump ! — All my desire I see, and more. They're rolling now along the floor. — 'T is offered you : don't be a dunce. Stoop only, and be rich at once! — Then, quick as lightning we, the rest, Will take possession of the chest. HERALD. What ails ye, fools? What mean ye all? 'T is but a joke of Carnival. To-night be your desires controlled ; Think you we'd give you goods and goldf Why, in this game there come to view Too many counters even, for you. A pleasant cheat, ye dolts! forsooth You take at once for naked truth. What's truth to you? Illusion bare Surrounds and rules you everywhere. Thou Plutus-mask, Chief unrevealed. Drive thou this people from the field! PLUTUS. Thy wand thereto is fit and free; Lend it a little while to me ! I dip it in the fiery brew, — Look out, ye maskers I all of you. It shines, and snaps, and sparkles throws; The burning wand already glows. Who crowdeth on, too near to me. Is burned and scorched relentlessly. — And now my circuit 111 commence. CRIES AND CROWDING. Woe's me I We're lost — ^there's no defence!- ACT 7. %V Let each one fly, if fly he can ! — Back! clear the way, you hindmost manl — It sparkles fiercely in mine eyes. — The burning wand upon me lies. — We all are lost, we all are lost! — Back, back! ye maskers, jammed and tossed I— Back, senseless crowd, away from there! — 0, had I wings, I'd take the air. PLUTUS. Now is the circle crowded back. And none, I think, scorched very black. The throng retires. Scared by the fires. As guaranty for ordered law, A ring invisible I draw. HERALD. A noble work is thine, to-night: I thank thy wisdom and thy might. PLUTUS. Preserve thy patience, noble friend, For many tumults yet impend. AVARICE. Thus, if one pleases, pleasantly May one survey this circle stately; For, ever foremost, crowd the women greatly^ If aught to stare at, or to taste, there be. Not yet entirely rusty are my senses! A woman fair is always fair to me : And since, to-day, it makes me no expenses, We'll go a courting confidently. But in a place so populate All words to every ear don't penetrate; So, wisely I attempt, and hope success, Myself by pantomine distinctly to express. Hand, foot, and gesture will not quite suffice. So I employ a jocular device. Like clay will I the gold manipulate ; One may transform it into any state. 38 FAUST, HERALD. What will the lean fool do ? Has he, So dry a starveling, humor? See, He kneads the gold as it were dough ! Beneath his hands 't is soft; yet, though He roll and squeeze it, for his pains Disfigured still the stuff remains. He turns to the women there, and they All scream, and try to get away, With gestures of disgust and loathing: The ready rascal stops at nothing. I fear he takes delight to see He has offended decency. I dare not silently endure it : Give me my wan J, that I may cure it! PLUTUS. The danger from without he does not see : Let him alone; his Fool's-hour fast is waning. There'll be no space for his mad pranks remaining; Mighty is Law, mightier Necessity. TUMULT AND SONG. The savage hosts, with shout and hail, From mountain-height and forest-vale Come, irresistibly as Fate: Their mighty Pan they celebrate. They know, forsooth, what none can guess, And in the empty circle press. PLUTUS. I know you well, and your illustrious Pan ! Boldly together youVe performed your plan. Full well I know what every one does not, And clear for you, as duty bids, the spot. Be Fortune still her favor lending! The strangest things may here be bred : They know not whitherward they're wending, Because they have not looked ahead. SAVAGE SONG. Furbished people, tinsel-stuff! ACT I, 39 They're coming rude, they're coming rough; In mighty leap, in wildest race, Coarse and strong they take their place. FAUNS. Fauns, pair on pair. Come dancing down. With oaken crown On crispy hair; The fine and pointed ear is seen. Leaf -like, the clustering curls between: A stubby nose, face broad and flat, The women don't object to that; For when his paw holds forth the Faun, The fairest to the dance is drawn. SATYR. See now, behind the Satyr skip. With foot of goat, lean leg and hip, — Lean and sinewy must they be : For, chamois-like, on mountains he Loveth to stand or scamper free. Then, strong in freedom of the skies. Child, wife, and man doth he despise. Who, deep in the valley's smoke and steam That they live also, snugly dream; While, pure and undisturbed, alone The upper world is all his own. GNOMES. The little crowd comes tripping there; They don't associate pair by pair. In mossy garb, with lantern bright. They move commingling, brisk and light. Each working on his separate ground, Like firefly-emmets swarming round ; And press and gather here and there, Always industrious everywhere. With the "Qt)od People" kin we own ; As surgeons of the rocks we're known. Cupping the mountains, bleeding them 40 FAUST, From fullest veins, depleting them Of store of metals, which we pile, And merrily greet : "Qt)od cheer I" the while. Well-meant the words, believe ns, then ! We are the friends of all good men. Yet we the stores of gold unseal That men may pander, pimp, and steal ; Nor iron shall fail his haughty hand Who universal murder planned: And who these three Commandments breaks But little heed o' the others takes. For that we're not responsible : We're patient — be you, too, as well I GIANTS. The wild men of the woods they're named, And in the Hartz are known and famed; In naked nature's ancient might They come, each one a giant wight. With fir-tree trunk in brawny hand, Around the loins a puffy band, The merest apron of leaf and bough: — The Pope hath no such guards, I trow. NYMPHS IN CHORUS. (They surround the great Pan.) He comes! We scan The world's great All, Whose part doth fall To mighty Pan. Ye gayest ones, advance to him. Your maddest measures dance to himt Since serious and kind is he. He wills that we should joyous be, Under the blue, o'er-vaulting roof. Ever he seemeth slumber-proof; Yet murmurs of the brooks he knows. And soft airs lull him to repose. At midday sleeping, o'er his brow The leaf is moveless on the bough : Of healthy buds the balsam there ACT 1. 41 Pervades the still, suspended air: The nymph no longer dares to leap, And where she stands, she falls asleep. But when, all unexpected, he Maketh his voice heard terribly, Like rattling thunder, roar of wave, Then each one seeks himself to save; The serried ranks disperse in fright. The hero trembles in the fight. Then honor to whom the honor is due, And hail to him who led us to you! DEPUTATION OF GNOMES. {to the great Pan). When the rich possession, shining Through the rocks in thread and vein, To the skilful wand's divining Shows its labyrinthine chain. We in vaults and caverns spacious. Troglodytes, contented bide; While in purest daylight, gracious, Thou the treasures dost divide. Now we see, wilt thou believe us. Here a wondrous fountain run, Promising with ease to give us What was hardly to be won. Lol It waits for thy attaining: Then be moved to break the spell! All the wealth which thou art gaining Profits all the world as well. PLUTUS (to the Herald). We, in the highest sense, must be collected, And let what may come, come, though unexpected Thy courage has not yet been counted short: The fearful thing we now shall see will try it; The world and History will both deny it, So write it faithfully in thy report! 42 FAUST. HERALD, (Grasping the wand which Plutus holds in his hand.) The dwarfs conduct the great Pan nigher, Yet gently, to the fount of fire. It bubbles from the throat profound, Then sinks, retreating, to the ground, And dark the open crater shows; And then again it boils and glows. Great Pan in cheerful mood stands by, Rejoiced the wondrous things to spy, And right and left the foam-pearls fly. How can he in the cheat confide f He bends and stoops, to look inside. — But now, behold ! his beard falls in : Whose is that smoothly-shaven chinf His hand conceals it from our sight. What follows is a luckless plight; The beard, on fire, flies back to smite His wreath and head and breast with flame: To pain is turned the merry game. They haste to quench the fire, but none The swiftly-kindling flames can shun, That flash and dart on other heads Till wide the conflagration spreads : Wrapped in the element, in turn The masking groups take fire and bum. But hark! what news is bruited here From mouth to mouth, from ear to eart O evermore ill-fated night. That brings to us such woe and blight! To-morrow will proclaim to all What no one wishes to befall. For everywhere the cry I hear: "The Emperor suffers pain severe I** O were the proclamation wrong! The Emperor bums and all his throng Accurst be they who him misled. With resinous twigs on breast and bead. To rave and bellow hither so, To general, fatal overthrow. ACT L «3 Youth! O Youth! wilt never thou Limit thy draught of joy, in season f-^ Majesty, wilt never thou. Omnipotent, direct with reason f The mimic woods enkindled are; The pointed tongues lick upward £&r To where the rafters interlace: A fiery doom hangs o'er the place. Our iBup of misery overflows, For who shall save us no one knows. The ash-heap of a night shall hide, To-morrow, this imperial pride. PLUTUS. Terror is enough created; Now be help inaugurated! Smite, thou hallowed wand, and make Earth beneath thee peal and quake ! Thou, the spacious breadth of air, Cooling vapors breathe and bear! Hither speed, aiound us growing, Misty films and belts overflowing. And the fiery tumult tame! Trickle, whisper, clouds, be crisper. Roll in masses, softly drenching, Mantling everywhere, and quenching I Ye, the moist, the broadly bright'ning, Change to harmless summer lightning All this empty sport of flame I — When by spirits we're molested, Then be Magic manifested. IV. PLEASURE-GARDEN. THE MORNING SUN. The Emperor, his Court, Gentlemen and Ladies : Faust, Mephistopheles. becomingly, according to the mode, not showily dressed: both kneel: 44 FAUST. s FAUST. IHE, pardon'st thou the jugglery of flamed EMPEROR {beckoning him to rise). I wish more exhibitions of the same. A-sudden stood I in a glowing sphere ; It almost seemed as if I Pluto were. There lay, like night, with little fires besprent, A rocky bottom. Out of many a vent. Whirling, a thousand savage flames ascended. Till in a single vault their streamers blended. The tongues even to the highest dome were shot. That ever was, and ever then was not. Through the far space of spiral shafts of flame The long processions of the people came; Crowding, till all the circle was o'errun, They did me homage, as they've ever done. Some from my Court I knew: to speak with candor, A Prince I seemed o'er many a salamander. MEPHISTOPHELES. That art thou, Sire! Because each element Fully accepts thy Majesty's intent. Obedient Fire is tested now by thee : Where wildest heaving, leap into the Sea, And scarce the pearly floor thy foot shall tread, A grand rotunda rises o'er thy head : Thou seest the green, translucent billows swelling, With purple edge, for thy delightful dwelling. Round thee, the central point. Walk thou at will, The liquid palaces go with thee stUll The very walls rejoice in life, disporting In arrowy flight, in chasing and consorting: Sea-marvels crowd around the glory new and fair, Shoot from all sides, yet none can enter there. There gorgeous dragons, golden-armored, float; There gapes the shark, thou laughest in his throat. However much this Court thy pride may please, Tet hast thou never seen such throngs as these. N'or from the loveliest shalt thou long be parted ; The curious Nereids come, the wild, shy-hearted, ACT I. 46 To thy bright dwelling in the endless waters, — Timid and sly as fish the youngest daughters, The elder cunning: Thetis hears the news. And will, at once, her second Peleus choose. The seat, then, on Olympus high and free — EMPEROR. The spaces of the air I leave to thee : One all too early must ascend that throne. MEPHISTOPHELES. And Earth, high Prince I already is thine own. EMPEBOR. • What fortune brought thee here, for our delig^tSy Directly from the One and Thousand Nights f If thou like Scheherazade art rich in stories, My favor shall insure thee higher glories. Be ready always, when your world of day, As often haps, disgusts me every way! LORD HIGH STEWARD {enters hastily). Highness Serene, I never dared expect To trumpet forth a fortune so select As this, supremely blessing me, Which I announce with joy to thee ; Reckoning on reckoning's balanced squarely; The usurer's claws are blunted rarely ; I'm from my hellish worry free : Things can't in Heaven more cheerful be. GENERAL-IN-CHIEF (folloWS haStUy)m Arrears of pay are settled duly, The army is enlisted newly; The trooper's blood is all alive, The landlords and the wenches thrive. EMPEROR. How breathe your breasts in broader spaeeel How cheerful are your furrowed faces! How ye advance with nimble speed ! 46 FAUST, TREASURER (appearing). Ask these^ 't is they have done the deed! FAUST. It is the Chancellor's place the matter to presento CHANCELLOR (who comes forward slowly). In my old days I'm blest, and most content. So hear and see the fortune-freighted leaf Which has transformed to happiness our grief. (He reads,) "To all to whom this cometh, be it known : A thousand crowns in worth this note doth own. It to secure, as certain pledge, shall stand All buried treasure in the Emperor's land: And 't is decreed, perfecting thus the scheme, The treasure, soon as raised, shall this redeem." EMPEROR. A most enormous cheat — ^a crime, I fear I Who forged the Emperor's sign-manual here? Has there not been a punishment condign f TREASURER. Remember! Thou the note didst undersign; Last night, indeed. Thou stood'st as mighty Pan, And thus the Chancellor's speech, before thee, ran : "Grant to thyself the festal pleasure, then The People's good — ^a few strokes of the pen !" These didst thou give : they were, ere night retreated. By skilful conjurers thousandfold repeated; And, that a like advantage all might claim. We stamped at once the series with thy name : Tens, Thirties, Fifties, Hundreds, are prepared. Thou canst not think how well the folk have fared. Behold thy town, half -dead once, and decaying, How all, alive, enjoying life, are strajringl Although thy name long since the world made glad. Such currency as now it never had. No longer needs the alphabet thy nation, For in this sign each findeth his salvatioa. ACT I. 47 EMPEROR. And with my people does it pass for gold? For pay in court and camp, the notes they hold ? Then I must yield, although the thing's amazing. LORD HIGH STEWARD. 'T was scattered everywhere, like wild-fire blazing, As currency, and none its course may stop. A crowd surrounds each money-changer's shop, And every note is there accepted duly For gold and silver's worth — ^with discount, truly. Thence is it spread to landlords, bufchers, bakers : One half the people feast as pleasure-takers; In raiment new the others proudly go, — The tradesmen cut their cloth, the tailors sew. The crowd "The Emperor's health !" in cellars wishes, Midst cooking, roasting, rattling of the dishes. MEPHISTOPHELES. If one along the lonely terrace stray. He sees the lady, in superb array. With brilliant peacock-fan before one eye; A note she looks for, as she simpers by. And readier than by wit or eloquence Before Love's favor falls the last defence. One is not plagued his purse or sack to carry; Such notes one lightly in his bosom bears. Or them with fond epistles neatly pairs : The priest devoutly in his breviary Bears his : the soldier would more freely trip, And lightens thus the girdle round his hip Your Majesty will pardon, if my carriage Seems as it might the lofty work disparage. FAUST. The overplus of wealth, in torpor bound, Which in thy lands lies buried in the ground. Is all unused ; nor boldest thought can measure The narrowest boundaries of such a treasure. Imagination, in its highest flight, Exerts itself, but cannot grasp it quite ; 48 FAUST, Yet minds, that dare explore the secrets sonndless, In boundless things possess a faith that's boundless. MEPHISTOPHELES. Such paper, stead of gold and jewelry, So handy is — one know's one's property : One has no need of bargains or exchanges, But drinks of love or wine, as fancy ranges. If one needs coin, the brokers ready stand, And if it fail, one digs awhile the land. Goblet and chain one then at auction sells. And paper, liquidated thus, compels The shame of doubters and their scornful wit. The people wish naught else ; they're used to it : From this time forth, your borders, far and wide, With jeweb, gold, and paper are supplied. EMPEROR. You've given our empire this prosperity; The pay, then, equal to the service be ! The soil intrusted to your keeping, shall you The best custodians be, to guard its value. You know the hoards, well-kept, of all the land, And when men dig, 't is you must give command. Unite then now, ye masters of our treasure, This, your new dignity, to wear with pleasure, And bring the Upper World, erewhile asunder. In happiest conjunction with the Under! TREASURER. No further strife shall shake our joint position; I like to have as partner the magician. [Exit, with Faust. EMPEROR. Man after man, the Court will I endow : Let each confess for what he'll spend, and how ! PAGE (receiving). I'll lead a jolly life, enjoy good cheer. A SECOND (the same). Ill buy at once some trinkets for my dear. ACT I. 49 CHAMBERLAIN (accepting). Wines twice as good shall down my throat go tricklin^p A SECOND {the same). I feel the dice within my pockets tickling. KNIGHT BANNERET (reflectively). My lands and castle shall be free of debt. ANOTHER (the same). I'll add to other wealth the wealth I get. EMPEROR. I hoped the gifts to bolder deeds would beckon ; But he who knows youj knows whereon to reckon, I see that, spite of all this treasure-burst, You stay exactly as you were at first. FOOL (approaching). You scatter favors : grant me also some ! EMPEROR. Thou 'rt come to life? T would go at once for rum FOOL. The magic leaves ! I don't quite comprehend. EMPEROR. That I believe; for them thou 'It badly spend. FOOL. There others drop : I don't know what to do. EMPEROR. Just pick them up ! they fall to thy share, too. [Eodt. FOOL. Five thousand crowns are mine? How unexpected! MEPHISTOPHELES. Two-legged wine-skin, art thou resurrected? 50 FAUST. FOOL. Much luck I've had, but like this never yet. MEPHISTOPHELES. Thou 'rt so rejoiced, it puts thee in a sweat. FOOL. But look at this, is 't money's-worth, indeed? MEPHISTOPHELES. 'T will bring thee what thy throat and belly need. FOOL. And cattle can I buy, and house and land? MEPHISTOPHELES. Of course ! just make an offer once, off-hand ! FOOL. Castle and wood, and chase, and fishing? MEPHISTOPHELES. All! I'd like upon Your Worship then to call. FOOL. To-night as landed owner I shall sit. [Exit. MEPHISTOPHELES {sohis) . Who now will doubt that this our Fool has wit? A GLOOMY GALLERY. Faust. Mephistopheles. mephistopheles. WHAT wilt thou with me in this gloomy gallery? Is there not still enough of sport There, in the crowded, motley Court, — Not chance for tricks, and fun, and raillery? ACT I. 51. FAUST. Don't tell me that! — ^In our old days the fun of it Didst thou wear out, and I'll have none of it. Thy wandering here and there is planned Just to evade what I demand. But I'm tormented something to obtain ; The Marshal drives me, and the Chamberlain. The Emperor orders, he will instantly Helen and Paris here before him see, — The model forms of Man and Woman, wearing, Distinctly shown, their ancient shape and bearings Now to the work I I dare not break my word. MEPHISTOPHELES. So thoughtlessly to promise was absurd. FAUST. Thou hast not, comrade, well reflected What comes of, having used thy powers : We've made him rich ; 't is now expected That we amuse his idle hours. MEPHISTOPHELES. Thou deem'st the thing is quickly fixed: Here before steeper ways we're standing; With strangest spheres wouldst thou be mixed, And, sinful, addest new debts to the old, — Think'st Helen will respond to thy commanding As freely as the paper-ghosts of gold ! With witches'-riches and with spectre-pictures. And changeling-dwarfs. 111 give no cause fpr stria- tures; But DeviPs-darlings, though you may not scold 'em, You cannot quite as heroines behold 'em. FAUST. The old hand-organ still I hear thee play ! From thee one always gets uncertain sense, The father, thou, of all impediments: For every means thou askest added pay. A little muttering, and the thing takes place; Ere one can turn, beside us here her shade is. 52 FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES. I've no concern with the old heathen race; They house within their special Hades. Yet there's a way. FAUST. Speak, nor delay thy history! MEPHISTOPHiaiES. Unwilling, I reveal a loftier mystery. — In solitude are throned the Goddesses, No Space around them, Place and Time still less; Only to speak of them embarrasses. They are The Mothers ! FAUST (terrified). Mothers I MEPHISTOPHELES. Hast thou dread f FAUST. The Mothers I Mothers! — a strange word is said. MEPHISTOPHELES. It is so. Goddesses, unknown to ye, The Mortals, — ^named by us unwillingly. Delve in the deepest depths must thou, to reach them : 'T is thine own fault that we for help beseech them. FAUST. Where is the way? MEPHISTOPHELES. No way! — To the Unreachable, Ne'er to be trodden ! A way to the UnbeseechaMe, Never to be besought I Art thou prepared ? There are no locks, no latches to be lifted ; Through endless solitudes shalt thou be drifted. Hast thou through solitudes and deserts fared? FAUST. I think 't were best to spare such speeches ; ACT I. 53 They smell too strongly of the witches, Of cheats that long ago insnared. Have I not known all earthly vanities? Learned the inane^ and taught inanities? When as I felt I spake, with sense as guide, The contradiction doubly shrill replied; Enforced by odious tricks, have I not fled To solitudes and wildernesses dread. And that I might not live alone, unheeded. Myself at last unto the Devil deeded! MEPHISTOPHELES. And hast thou swum to farthest verge of ocean. And there the boundless space beheld. Still hadst thou seen wave after wave in motion. Even though impending doom they fear compelled. Thou hadst seen something, — in the beryl dim Of peace-lulled seas the sportive dolphins swim ; Hadst seen the fljdng clouds, sun, moon, and star : Naught shalt thou see in endless Void afar, — Not hear thy foostep fall, nor meet A stable spot to rest thy feet. FAUST. Thou speak'st, as of all mystagogues the chief, Who e'er brought faithful neophytes to grief ; Only reversed: — I to the Void am sent. That Art and Power therein I may augment : To use me like the cat is thy desire, To scratch for thee the chestnuts from the fire. Come on, then ! well explore, whatever befall ; In this, thy Nothing, may I find my All ! MEPHISTOPHELES. I'll praise thee, ere we separate : I see Thou knowest the Devil thoroughly. Here, take this key! FAUST. That little thing? MEPHISTOPHELES. Take hold of it, not undervaluing! 54 FAUST, PAUST. It glows, it shines, — increases in my hand I MEPHISTOPHELES. How much 't is worth, thou soon shalt understand. The Key will scent the true place from all others : Follow it down ! — 't will lead thee to the Mothers. PAUST {shuddering). The Mothers ! Like a blow it strikes me still I What is the word, to hear which makes me chill? * MEPHISTOPHELES. Art thou SO weak, disturbed by each new wordt Wilt only hear what thou 'st already heard t To wondrous things art thou so used already. Let naught, howe'er it sound, make thee unsteady ! PAUST. Nathless in torpor lies no good for me ; The chill of dread is Man's best quality. Though from the feeling oft the world may fend us. Deeply we feel, once smitten, the Tremendous. MEPHISTOPHEIiES. Descend, then I I could also say : Ascend f 'T were all the same. Escape from the Created To shapeless forms in liberated spaces! Enjoy what long ere this was dissipated! There whirls the press, like clouds on clouds unfold- ing; Then with stretched arm swing high the key thou 'rt holding ! PAUST (inspired). Good! grasping firmly, fresher strength I win: My breast expands, let the great work begin ! MEPHISTOPHELES. At last a blazing tripod tells thee this. That there the utterly deepest bottom is. Its light to thee will then the Mothers show. ACT L 56 Some in their seats, the others stand or go. At their own will : Formation, Transformation, The Eternal Mind's eternal recreation. Forms of all creatures, — ^there are floating free. Theyll see thee not ; for only wraiths they see. So pluck up heart, — the danger then is great, — Go to the tripod ere thou hesitate. And touch it with the key I (Faust, with the key, assumes a decidedly command- ing attitude, Mephistopheles, observing him.) So, that is right! It will adhere, and follow thee to light. Composedly mounting, by thy luck upborne, Before they notice it, shalt thou return. When thou the tripod hither hast conveyed, Then call the hero, heroine, from the shade, — • The first that ever such a deed perfected : 'T is done, and thou thereto hast been selected. For instantly, by magic process warmed. To gods the incense-mist shall be transformed. FAUST. What further nowt MEPHISTOPHEaaES. Downward thy being strain ! Stamp and descend, stamping thou 'It rise again. (Faust stamps, and sinks out of sight,) If only, by the key, he something learn I I'm curious to see if he return. VI. BRILLIANTLY LIGHTED HALLS. Empebor and Princes. The Court in Movement. CHAMBERLAIN {tO MePHISTOPHELES). THE spirit-scene you've promised, still you owe us ; Our Lord's impatient; come, the phantasm showns! 66 FAUST. LORD HIGH STEWARD. Just now His Gracious Self did question me : Delay not, nor offend His Majesty! mephiStopheles. My comrade's gone to set the work in motion; How to begin, he has the proper notion In secret he the charms must cull, Must labor with a fervor tragic : Who would that treasure lift, the Beautiful, Requires the highest Art, the sage's Magic. LORD HIGH STEWARD. What arts you need, is all the same to me ; The Emperor wills that you should ready be. A BLONDE (to MePHISTOPHBLES). One word, Sir! Here you see a visage fair, — In sorry summer I another wear! There sprout a hundred brown and reddish freckles. And vex my lily skin with ugly speckles. A cure! mephistopheles. 'T is pity ! Shining fair, yet smitten, — Spotted, when May comes, like a panther-kitten I Take frog-spawn, tongues of toads, which eohobate, Under the full moon deftly distillate, And, when it wanes, apply the mixture : Next spring, the spots will be no more a fixture. A brunette. To sponge upon you, what a crowd's advancing! I beg a remedy : a frozen foot Annoys me much, in walking as in dancing; And awkwardly I manage to salute. mephistopheles. A gentle kick permit, then, from my foot! the brunetti^ Well, — ^that might happen, when the two aie lovera. ACT I. 57 MEPHISTOPHELES. My kick a more important meaning covers : Similia similibus, when one is sick. The foot cures foot, each limb its hurt can palliate ; Gome near ! Take heed ! and, pray you, don't retaliate ! THE BRUNETTE (screaming). Oh ! oh ! it stings I That was a fearful kick, Like hoof of horse. MEPHISTOPHELES. But it has cured you, quick. To dance whene'er you please, you now are able ; To press your lover's foot, beneath the table. LADY {pressing forwards). Make room for me! Too great is my affliction, My tortures worse than those described in fiction : ECis bliss, till yesterday, was in my glances, But now he turns his back, and spins with her ro- mances. MEPHISTOPHELES. The matter's grave, but listen unto me ! Draw near to him with gentle, soft advances; Then take this coal and mark him stealthily On mantle, shoulder, sleeve, — though ne'er so slight, Yet penitent at once his heart will be. The coal thereafter you must straightway swallow, And let no sip of wine or water follow : Hell sigh before your door this very night. THE LADY. It is not poison, sure? MEPHISTOPHELES (offended). Respect, where it is duel To get such coals, you'd travel many a mile : They're from the embers of a funeral pile. The fires whereof we once more hotly blew. PAGE. I love, yet still am coimted adolescent. 58 FAUST, MEPHiSTOPHELES (aside), I know not whom to listen to, at present. (To the Page.) Let not the younger girls thy fancies fetter; Those well in years know how to prize thee better. (Others crowd around him.) Already others? 'T is a trial, sooth! I'll help myself, at last, with naked truth — The worst device I — so great my misery. Mothers I Mothers ! let but Faust go free ! (Gazing around him.) The lights are burning dimly in the hall, The Court is moving onward, one and all : 1 see them march, according to degrees, Through long arcades and distant galleries. Now they assemble in the ample space Of the Knights' Hall ; yet hardly all find place. The breadth of walls is hung with arras rich, And armor gleams from every nook and niche. Here, I should think, there needs no magic word : The ghosts will come, and of their own accord. VII. HALL OF THE KNIGHTS, DIMLY LIGHTED. (The Emperor and Court have entered.) HERALD. MINE ancient oflftce, to proclaim the action, Is by the spirits' secret influence thwarted : One tries in vain; such wildering distraction Can't be explained, or reasonably reported. The chairs are ranged, the seats are ready all : The Emporer sits, fronting the lofty wall, Where on the tapestry the battles he Of the great era may with comfort see. Here now are all — ^Prince, Court, and their belonging. Benches on benches in the background thronging ; Vnd lovers, too, in these dim hours enchanted, ACT I, 59 Beside their loved ones lovingly are planted. And now, since all have found convenient places, We're ready : let the spirits show their faces. Trumpets. ASTROLOGER. Begin the Drama I 'T is the Sire's command: Ye walls, be severed straightway, and expand 1 Naught hinders ; magic answers our desire : The arras flies, as shrivelled up by fire ; The walls are split, unfolded : in the gloom A theatre appears to be created : By mystic light are we illuminated. And I ascend to the proscenium. MEPHISTOPHELES {rising to view in the prompter's box.) I hope to win, as prompter, general glory; For prompting is the Devil's oratory. {To the Astrologer,) Thou know'st the tune and time the stars that lead; Thou wilt my whispers like a master heed. ASTROLOGER. By power miraculous, we here behold A massive temple of the days of old. like Atlas, who erewhile the heavens upbore, The serried columns stand, an ample store : Well may they for the weight of stone sufioe, Since two might bear a mighty edifice. ARCHITECT. That the antique f As fine it can't be rated ; I'd sooner style it awkward, over-weighted. Coarse is called noble, and unwieldy, grand : Give me the slender shafts that soar, expand I To lift the mind, a pointed arch may boast; Such architecture edifies us most. ASTROLOGEP. Receive with reverence the star-granted hours; Let magic words bind Reason's restless powers. 60 FAU8T. But in return unbind, to circle free, The wings of splendid, daring Phantasy! What you have boldly wished, see now achieved! Impossible 't is — therefore to be believed. (Faust rises to view on the other side of proscenium.) In priestly surplice, crowned, a marvellous man, He now fulfils what he in faith began. With him, a tripod from the gulf comes up : I scent the incense-odors from the cup. He arms himself, the work to consecrate, And henceforth it can be but fortunate. FAUST (sublimely). Ye Mothers, in your name, who set your throne In boundless Space, eternally alone. And yet companioned I All the forms of Being, In movement, lifeless, ye are round you seeing. Whate'er once was, there bums and brightens free In splendor — ^f or 't would fain eternal be ; And ye allot it, with all-potent might. To Day's pavilions and the vaults of Night. Life seizes some, along his gracious course ; Others arrests the bold Magician's force; And he, bestowing as his faith inspires, Displays the Marvellous, that each desires. ASTROLOGER. The glowing key has scarcely touched the cup. And lo ! through all the space, a mist rolls up : It creeps about, and like a cloudy train, Spreads, rounding, narrowing, parting, closed again. And now, behold a spirit-masterpiece I Music is bom from every wandering fleece. The tones of air, I know not how they flow; Where'er they move all things melodious grow. The pillared shaft, the triglyph even rings : I think, indeed, the whole bright temple sings. The vapors settle; as the light film clears, A beauteous youth, with rhythmic step, appears. Here ends my task ; his name I need not tell : Who doth not know the gentle Paris wellf ACT I, W LADY. O, what a youtMul bloom and strength I seel A SECOND. Fresh as a peach, and full of juice, is he! A THIRD. The finely drawn, the sweetly swelling lip ! A FOURTH. From such a cup, no doubt, you'd like to fdpf A FIFTH. He's handsome, if a little unrefined. A SIXTH. He might be somewhat graeef uUer, to my mind. KNIGHT. The shepherd I detect; I find him wearing No traces of the Prince, or courtly bearing. ANOTHER. O, yes! half -naked is the youth not bad; But let us see him first in armor clad I LADY. He seats himself, with such a gentle grace t KNIGHT. You'd find his lap, perchance, a pleasant plaoef ANOTHER. He lifts his arm so lightly o'er his head. CHAMBERLAIN. T is not allowed: how thoroughly ill-bred I LADY. You lords find fault with all things evermorBc CHAMBERLAIN. To stretch and yawn before the Emperarf e2 FAU8T. LADY. He only aets : he thinks he's quite alone. CHAMBEBLAIK. £yen the play should be politely shown. LADY. Now sleep falls on the graceful youth so sweetly. CHAMBERLAIN. Now will he snore: 't is natural, completely! YOUNG LADY. Mixed with the incense-steam, what odor precious Steals to my bosom, and my heart refreshes t OLDER LADY. Forsooth, it penetrates and warms the feeling! It comes from him. OLDEST LADY. His flower of youth, unsealing. It is : Youth's fine ambrosia, ripe, unfading. The atmosphere around his form pervading. (Helena comes forward.) MEPHISTOPHELES. So, that is shet My sleep she would not waste: She's pretty, truly, but she's not my taste. ASTR0L00E9(« There's nothing more for me to do, I trow; As man of honor, I confess it now. The Beauty comes, and had I tongues of fire, — So many songs did Beauty e'er inspire, — Who sees her, of his wits is dispossessed. And who possessed her was too highly blessed. FAUST. Tave I still eyes? Deep in my being springs le fount of Beauty, in a torrent pouring! heavenly gain my path of terror brings. ACT I. 63 The world was void, and shut to my exploring, — And, since my priesthood, how hath it been graced ! Enduring 't is, desirable, firm-based. And let my breath of being blow to waste, If I for thee unlearn my sacred duty! The form, that long erewhile my fancy captured, That from the magic mirror so enraptured, Was but a frothy phantom of such beauty! 'T is Thou, to whom the stir of all my forces. The essence of my passion's courses, — Love, fancy, worship, madness, — here I render! me;phistopheles {from the box). Be calm ! — ^you lose your role, to be so tender ! OLDER LADY. Tall r,nd well-formed ! Too small the head, alone. YOUNGER LADY. Just see her foot ! A heavier ne'er was shown. DIPLOMATIST. Princesses of her style I've often seen : From head to foot she's beautiful, I ween. COURTIER. She near the sleeper steals, so soft and sly. LADY. How ugly, near that youthful purity ! POET. Her beauty's light is on him like a dawn. LADY. E'ndymion and Luna — as they're drawn! POET. Quite right! The yielding goddess seems to sink And o'er him bend, his balmy breath to drink. ]Snviable fate — a kiss ! — the cup is full I <54 FAUST. DUENNA. Before all people ! — that is more than cool. FAUST. A fearful favor to the boy! MEPHISTOPHELES. Be still! Suffer the shade to do whatever it will ! COURTIER. She slips away, light-footed: he awakes. LADY. Just as I thought! Another look she takes. COURTIER. He stares : what haps, to him a marvel is. LADY. But none to her, what she before her sees! COURTIER. She turns around to him with dignity. LADY. T see, she means to put him through his paces : All men, in such a case, act stupidly. Then, too, he thinks that first he's won her graces. KNIGHT. Majestically fine! — She pleases me. LADY. The courtesan! How very vulgar she! PAGE. Just where he is, is where I'd like to be ! COURTIER. Who would not fain be caught in such sweet meshes Y ACT 1. 65 LADY. Through many a hand hath passed that jewel precious ; The gilding, too, is for the most part gone. ANOTHER. She has been worthless from her tenth year on. KNIGHT. Each takes the best that chance for him obtains; I'd be contented with these fair remains. A LEARNED MAN. I freely own, though I distinctly see, 'T is doubtful if the genuine one she be. The Present leads us to exaggeration, And I hold fast the written, old relation. I read that, truly, ere her bloom was blighted, The Trojan gray-beards greatly she delighted. And here, methinks, it tallies perfectly: I am not young, yet she delighteth me. ASTROLOOER. No more a boy I A bold, heroic form, He clasps her, who can scarce resist the storm. With arm grown strong he lifts her high and free : Means he to bear her off? FAUST. Rash fool, let be ! Thou dar'stt Thou hear'st not? Hold!— Ill be obeyed. MEPHISTOPHELES. The spectral drama thou thyself hast made ! ASTROLOGER. A word more ! After all we've seen to-day, I call the piece: The Rape of Helena. FAUST. What! Rapef Am I for nothing heret To stead me, Is not this key still shining in my hand f 66 FAUST, Through realms of terror, wastes, and waves it led me, Through solitudes, to where I firmly stand. Here foothold is! Realities here centre! The strife with spirits here the mind may venture. And on its grand, its double lordship enter ! How far she was, and nearer, how divine! I'll rescue her, and make her doubly mine. Ye Mothers! Mothers! crown this wild endeavor! Who knows her once must hold her, and forever ! ASTROLOGER. What art thou doing, Faust? 0, look at him! He seizes her: the form is growing dim. He turns the key against the youth, and, lo ! It touches him — Woe's me! Away now! Woe on woe! (Explosion, Faust lies upon the earth. The Spirits dissolve in vapor,) MEPHISTOPHELES {taking Faust upon his shoulders). You have it now I One's self with fools to hamper. At last even on the Devil puts a damper. Darkness. Tumult,

A HIGH-ARCHED, NARROW, GOTHIC CHAM- BER, FORMERLY FAUST'S, UNCHANGED. MEPHISTOPHELES {coming forth from behind a curtain. While he holds it up and looks behind him, Faust is seen lying stretched out upon an antiquated bed), I IE there, ill-starred! seduced, unwise, J To bonds that surely hold the lover! Whom Helena shall paralyze Not soon his reason will recover. {Looking around him.) ACT II. 67 I look abonty and through the glimmer Unchanged, uninjured, all appears: The colored window-panes, methinks, are dimmer, The cobwebs have increased with years. The ink is dry, the paper old and brown, But each thing in its place I find: Even the quill is here laid down. Wherewith his compact with the Devil he sigpied. Yea, deeper in, the barrel's red With trace of blood I coaxed him then to shed. A thing so totally unique The great collectors would go far to seek. Half from its hook the old fur-robe is falling. That ancient joke of mine recalling. How once I taught the boy such truth As still, it may be, nourishes the youth. The wish returns, with zest acuter. Aided by thee, thou rough disguise. Once more to take on airs as college tutor. As one infallible in one's own eyes. The savans this assurance know: The Devil lost it, long ago ! (He shakes the fur which he has taken doton: mothSf crickets, and beetles fly out,) CHORUS OF INSliCTS. Welcome, and hail to thee ! Patron, to-day: We're fljdng and humming, We hear and obey. Singly and silently Us thou hast sown; Hither, by thousands. Father, we've flown. The imp in the bosom Is snugly concealed; But lice in the fur-coat Are sooner revealed. MEPHISTOPilELES. What glad surprise I feel, from this young life b stowed ! 68 FAUST. One reaps in time, if one has only sowed. Once more I'll shake the ancient fleeces out : Still here and there a chance one flies about. — Off, and around I in hundred thousand nooks Hasten to hide yourselves — among the books. There, in the pasteboard's wormy holes, Here, in the smoky parchment scrolls, In dusty jars, that broken lie. And yonder skull with empty eye. In all this trash and mould unmatched, Crotchets forever must be hatched. {He puts on the fur-mantle.) Come, once again upon my shoulders fall ! Once more am I the Principal. But 't is no good to ape the college ; For where are those who will my claim acknowledge? {He pulls the hell, which gives out a shrill, penetrating sound, causing the halls to tremble and the doors to fly open.) FAMULUS (tottering hither down the long, dark gallery). What a sound I What dreadful quaMng! Stairs are rocking, walls are shaking; Through the colored windows brightening I behold the sudden lightning; Floors above me crack and rumble, Lime and lumber round me tumble, And the door, securely bolted. Is by magic force unfolded. — There ! How terrible ! a Giant Stands in Faust's old fur, defiant! As he looks, and beckons thither, I could fall, my senses wither. Shall I fly, or shall I wait? What, O what shall be my fate! MEPHiSTOPHELBS (beckoning). 'Come hither, Friend! Your name is Nicodemns. FAMULUS. Most honored Sir, such is my name — Oremua! ACT II. 69 MEPHISTOPHEIiES. Dispense with that! FAMULUS. joy ! you know me yet. MEPHISTOPHELES. Old, and a student still, — ^I don't forget, Most mossy Sir ! Also a learned man Continues study, since naught else he can. 'T is thus one builds a moderate house of cards; The greatest minds ne'er end them, afterwards. Your master is a skilful fellow, though : The noble Doctor Wagner all must know. The first in all the learned world is he, Who now together holds it potently. Wisdom increasing, daily making clearer. How thirst for knowledge listener and hearer 1 A mighty crowd around him flocks. None for the rostrum e'er were meeter : The keys he holds as doth Saint Peter, The Under and the Upper he unlocks. His light above all others sparkles surer. No name or fame beside him lives : Even that of Faust has grown obscurer; 'T is he alone invents and gives. FAMULUS. Pardon, most honored Sir! if I am daring To contradict you, in .declaring All that upon the subject has no bearing; For modesty is his allotted part The incomprehensible disappearing Of that great man to him is most uncheering; From his return he hopes new strength and joy of heart. As in the days of Doctor Faust, the room. Since he's away, all things unchanged, Waits for its master long estranged. To venture in, I scarce presume. — What stars must govern now the skies! It seemed as if the basement quivered ; 70 FAUST. The door-posts trembled, bolts were shivered : You had not entered, otherwise. MEPHISTOPHELES. Where may his present dwelling bef Lead me to him ! Bring him to me ! FAKULUS. His prohibition is so keen ! I do not dare to intervene. For months, his time unto the great work giving, In most secluded silence he is living. The daintiest of distinguished learners, His face is like a charcoal-burner's. From nose to ears all black and deadened ; His eyes from blowing flames are reddened : Thus he, each moment, pants and longs, And music make the clattering tongs. MEPHISTOPHELES. An entrance why should he deny met 111 expedite his luck, if hell but try me! (The Famulus goes off: Mephitopheles seats himself with gravity.) Scarce have I taken my position here, When there, behind, I see a guest appear. I know him ; he is of the school new-founded, And his presumption will be quite unbounded. • baccalaureus (storming along the corridor). Doors and entrances are open ! Well, — at last there's ground for hoping That no more, in mouldy lumber. Death-like, doth the Living slumber. To himself privations giving. Till he dies of very living! All this masonry, I'm thinking, To its overthrow is sinking; And, unless at once we hurry. Us will crash and ruin bury. ACT II. 71 Daring though I be, 't were murther Should I dare to venture further. What is that I see before mef Here, (what years have rolled o'er me!) Shy and unsophisticated, I as honest freshman waited; Here I let the gray-beards guide me, Here their babble edified me ! Out of dry old volumes preaching, What they knew, they lied in teaching; What they knew themselves believed not| Stealing life, that years retrieved not. What! — ^in yonder cell benighted One still sits, obscurely lighted ! Nearer now, I see, astounded, Still he sits, with furs surrounded, — Truly, as I saw him last. Roughest fleeces round him cast ! Then adroit he seemed to be, Not yet understood by me : But to-day 't will naught avail him — Oh, 111 neither fear nor fail him ! If, ancient Sir, that bald head, sidewards bending, Hath not been dipped in Lethe's river cold. See, hitherward your grateful scholar wending, Outgrown the academic rods of old. You're here, as then when I began ; But I am now another man. MEPHISTOPHELES. I'm glad my bell your visit brought me. Your talents, then, I rated high ; The worm, the chrysalid soon taught me The future brilliant butterfly. Your curly locks and ruffle-laces A childish pleasure gave; you wooed the graces. A queue, I think, youVe never worn ? 72 FAUST. But now your head is cropped and shorn. Quite bold and resolute you appear. But don't go, absolute, home from here! BACCALAUREUS. Old master, in your old place leaning, Think how the time has sped, the while! Spare me your words of double meaning! We take them now in quite another style. You teased and vexed the honest youth; You found it easy then, in truth, To do what no one dares, to-day. MEPHISTOPHELES. If to the young the simple truth we say, The green ones find it nowise pleasant play; But afterwards, when years are over. And tbey the truth through their own hide discover, Then they conceive, themselves have found it out : "The master was a fool !" one hears them shout. BACCALAUREUS. A rogue, perhaps! What teacher will declare The truth to us, exactly fair and square? Each knows the way to lessen or exceed it, Now stem, now lively, as the children need it. MEPHISTOPHELES. Beyond a doubt, there is a time to learn; But you are skilled to teach, I now discern. Since many a moon, some circles of the sun, The riches of experience you have won. BACCALAUREUS. Experience! mist and froth alone! Nor with the mind at all coequal : "Confess, what one has always known Is not worth knowing, in the sequel I MEPHiSTOPHELi;s (after a pause). It's long seemed so to me. I was a fool : My shallowness I now must ridicule. ACT II. 73 BACCALAUREUS. I^m glad of that I I hear some reason yet — The first old man of sense I ever m^et ! MEPHISTOPHELES. I sought for hidden treasures, grand and golden, And hideous coals and ashes were my share. BACCALAUREUS. Confess that now your skull, though bald and olden, Is worth no more than is yon empty, there! MEPHISTOPHELES (amiably), Know'st thou, my friend, how rude thou art to me f BACCALAUREUS. One lies, in German, would one courteous be. MEPHISTOPHELES (wheeling his chair still nearer to the proscenium, to the spectators). Up here am I deprived of light and air: Shall I find shelter down among you there? BACCALAUREUS. It is presumptuous, that one will try Still to be something, when the time's gone by. Man's life lives in his blood, and where, in sooth. So stirs the blood as in the veins of youth? There living blood in freshest power pulsates. And newer life from its own life creates. Then something's done, then moves and works the man ; The weak fall out, the sturdy take the van. While half the world beneath our yoke is brought. What, then, have you accomplished? Nodded — thought — Dreamed, and considered — plan, and always plan! Age is an ague-fever, it is clear. With chills of moody want and dread; When one has passed his thirtieth year, One then is just the same as dead. 'T were best, betimes, to put you out o' the way. 74 FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES. The Devil, here, has nothing more to say. BACCALAUREUS. Save through my will, no Devil can there be. MEPHISTOPHELES {(iside). The Devil, though, will trip thee presently! BACCALAUREUS. This is Youth's noblest calling and most fit! The world was not, ere I created it; The sun I drew from out the orient sea; The moon began her changeful course with me ; The Day put on his shining robes, to greet me ; The Earth grew green, and burst in flower to meet me, And when I beckoned, from the primal night The stars unveiled their splendors to my sight. Who, save myself, to you deliverance brought From commonplaces of restricted thought? I, proud and free, even as dictates my mind. Follow with joy the inward light I find, And speed along, in mine own ecstasy. Darkness behind, the Glory leading me ! [Exit. MEPHISTOPHELES. Go hence, magnificent Original! — What grief on thee would insight cast! Who can think wise or stupid things at all, That were not thought already in the Pastt Yet even from him we're not in special peril; He will, erelong, to other thoughts incline : The must may foam absurdly in the barrel, Nathless it turns at last to wine. {To the younger parterre, which does not applaud,) My words, I see, have left you cold; For you, my children, it may fall so : Consider now, the Devil's old ; To understand him, be old also ! ACT IL 76 LABORATORY. After the manner of the Middle Ages; extensive, pon- derous apparatus for fantastic purposes. WAGNER (at the furnace), THE loud bell chimes with fearful clangory The sooty walls feel the vibration; Soon must the long suspense be ended Of my most earnest expectation. It shines, the darknesses are rended : Within the phial's inmost chamber It gleams, as doth a living ember, — Yea, a carbuncle, burning, brightening, It rays the darkness with its lightning. Now white and clear the lustres blend! that I hold, nor lose it more! Ah, God! what rattles at the doorf MEPHISTOPHELES ( entering) . Welcome ! I mean it as a friend. WAGNER (anxiously). Be welcome to the planet of the hour! (Whispering,) Yet breath and speech suspend I A work of power, A splendid work, will soon be here displayed, MEPHISTOPHELES ( whispering ) . What is it, then? WAGNER (whispering). A man is being made. MEPHISTOPHELES. A man? And what enamored pair Have you within the chimney hidden? WAGNER. Nay, God forbid ! This procreation is most rare : 76 FAUST. Of the old, senseless mode we're now well ridden. The tender point, whence Life commenced its course, The outward stress of gracious inward force, Which took and gave, itself delineating. First i^ear, then foreign traits assimilating, We now of all its dignity divest : The beast therein may further find a zest. But Man must learn, with his great gifts, to win , Henceforth a purer, loftier origin. (Turning towards the furnace,) It brightens, — see ! Sure, now, my hopes increase That if, from many hundred substances. Through mixture — since on mixture all depends — The human substance gently be compounded. And by a closed retort surrounded. Distilled, and fed, and slowly founded, Then in success the secret labor ends. (Again turning towards the furnace,) 'T will be! the mass is working clearer! Conviction gathers, truer, nearer! The mystery which for Man in Nature lies We dare to test, by knowledge led; And that which she was wont to organize We crystallize, instead. MEPHISTOPHELES. Who lives, learns many secrets to unravel; For him, upon this earth, there's nothing new can be : I've seen already, in my years of travel, Much crystallized humanity. WAGNER (up to this time continuously attentive to the phial). It mounts, it lightens, grows, — ^'t is won! A moment more, and it is done! Insane, at first, appears a great intent; We yet shall laugh at chance in generation; A brain like this, for genuine thinking meant, Will henceforth be a thinker's sure creation. (Rapturously inspecting the phial.) ACT II. 77 The glass vibrates with sweet and powerful tone ; It darkens, clears: it must arrive at being! And now in delicate shape is shown A pretty manikin, moving, living, seeing! What more can we, what more the world demand? The secret, solved, all men may reach : Hark! as the ringing tones expand. They form a voice, result in speech. HOMUNCULUS (in the phial y to Wagner). How goes it. Daddy? It was then no jest! Come, press me tenderly upon thy breast ! But not too hard, for fear the glass might shatter! This is the quality of matter : For what is natural, scarce the world has place; What's artificial, needs restricted space. (To Mephistopheles.) Thou rogue. Sir Cousin! here I find thee, too? And at the proper time ! My thanks are due : A lucky fortune led thee here to me ; Since I exist, then I must active be. I'd fain begin my work without delay : Thou art adroit in shortening my way. WAGNER. But first, a word ! I'm shamed that answers fail me ; For old and young with problems so assail me. Now, for example, none e'er comprehended How soul and body wedded are and blended, — Hold fast, as if defying separation Yet never cease their mutual irritation. Therefore — MEPHISTOPHELES. Desist I I'd rather ask him why The man and wife agree so wretchedly. To thee, my friend, the thing will ne'er be clear : There's work to do : for that the little fellow's here. 78 FAUST. H0MUNCULU8. What's to be done? MEPHiSTOPHELES (pointing to a side-dooryr Thy talents here employ! WAGNER (still gazing at the phial). Forsooth, thou art the very loveliest boy! [The aide-door opens: Faust is seen stretched out upon a couch.) HOMUKCULUS (ostonished) . Signifieant! — ( The phial slips out of Wagne^i^s hands, hovers over Yav8t, and shines upon him.) Fair scenery! — Waters, moving In forest shadows : women there, undressing, The loveliest forms! — ^the picture is improving. One, marked by beauty, splendidly expressing Descent from Gods or high heroic races. Now dips her foot in the translucent shimmer: The living flame of her sweet form displaces The yielding crystal, cool around the swimmer. But what a sound of wings ! What rapid dashing Across the glassy pool, what fluttering, splashing! The maidens fly, alarmed; but only she. The queen, looks on, composed and terror-free And sees with proud and womanly delight The swan-prince press her knee with plumage white. Importunately tame: he grows acquainted. — But all at once floats up a vapor pale. And covers with its closely-woven veil The loveliest picture ever dreamed or painted. MEPHISTOPHELES. How much hast thou to tell, — ^what stories merry! So small thou art, so great a visionary! Nothing see I! — HOMUNCULUS. Of course. Thou, from the North, ACT 11. 79 And in the age of mist brought forth, In knighthood's and in priestcraft's murky den, How should thy sight be clearer, then? In gloom alone art thou at home. {Gazing around,) Brown masonry, repellent, crumbling slowly, Arch-pointed, finical, fantastic, lowly! — If this man wakes, another danger's nigh; At once upon the spot he'll die. Wood-fountains, swans, and naked beauties, Such was his dream of presage fair: How should these dark surroundings suit his Desires, when them / scarce can bear? Away with him! MEPHISTOPHELES. I hail the issue's chances. HOMUNCULUS. Command the warrior to the fight. Conduct the maiden to the dances. And all is finished, as is right. Just now — ^there breaks on me a light — 'T is Classical Walpurgis-Night ; Whate'er may come, it is the best event. So bring him to his proper element! MEPHISTOPHELES. The like of that I never heard one mention. HOMUNCULUS. How should it have attracted your attention? Only romantic ghosts are known to you ; A genuine phantom must be classic too. MEPHISTOPHELES. But whitherward shall then we travel, tell me! Your antique cronies in advance repel me. HOMUNCULUS. Northwestwards, Satan, is thy park and pale, But we, this time, southeastwards sail. 80 FAUST, Peneus, there, the great plain wanders through, By thickets, groves, and silent coves, and meadow grasses; The level stretches to the mountain passes, And o'er it lies Pharsalus, old and new. MEPHISTOPHELES. Alas ! have done I Bring not that fell collision Of tyrant and of slave before my vision ! I'm tired of that: for scarcely is it done Than they the same thing have again beg^n ; And no one marks that he's the puppet blind Of sly Asmodi, lurking there behind. They fight, we're told their freedom's right to save ; But, clearlier seen, 't is slave that fights with slave. HOMUNCULUS. Leave unto me their f ractiousness and clatter. Each must protect himself, as best he can. From boyhood up, and thus becomes a man. How this one shall recover, is our matter. Hast thou a method, let it tested be ! But hast thou none, so leave the case to me! MEPHISTOPHELES. There's many a Brocken-method I might try. But pagan bolts, I find, the way deny. The Grecian race was little worth, alway; It dazzles with the senses' freer play. To cheerful sins the heart of man entices; While ours are ever counted gloomy vices. Now, what shall be? HOMUNCULUS. Shyness was ne'er thy blame. When I to thee Thessalian witches name, I've not said nothing, that I know. MEPHISTOPHELES ( lustfully ) . Thessalian witches ! Well ! The persons, those. ACT II. 81 Whom I inquired for, long ago. Night after night beside them to repose, I think would hardly suit : but so, A mere espial, trial,— HOMUNCULUS. Here! cast o'er The knight your magic mantle, and infold him I The rag will still, as heretofore, Upon his airy course — and thine — ^uphold him. Ill light the way. WAGNER (anxiously), Audi? HOMUNCULUS. Ehf You Will stay at home, most weighty work to do. Unfold your ancient parchments, and collect Life's elements as your recipes direct. One to the other with due caution fitting. The What consider, more the How and Why I Meanwhile, about the world at random flitting, I mmj detect the dot upon the "I." The lofty aim will then accomplished be; Such an endeavor merits such requital : Ckdd, honor, giory, healthy forces vital. And science, too, and virtue, — ^possibly. Farewell ! WAGNER (sorrowfully). Farewell I It doth depress my heart : I fear, already, we forever part. MEPHISTOPHELES. Down to Peneus, with his aid I Sir Cousin is a deft attendant. (Ad spectatores,) Upon the creatures we have made We are, ourselves, at last, dependent. 82 FAUST. in. CLASSICAL WALPURGIS-NIGHT THE PHARSALIAN FIEI/DS. Darkness. ERICHTHO. TO this night's awful festival, as oft before, I enter here, Eriehtho, I, the gloomy one : Not so atrocious as the evil poets draw. In most superfluous slander — for they never cease Their blame or praises . . . Over-whitened I behold The vale, with waves of tents that glimmer gray afar, The after-vision of that fatal, fearful night. How oft is it repeated ! — ^will forever be Forever re-enacted! No one grants the realm Unto another : unto him whose might achieved And rules it, none ; for each, incompetent to rule His own internal self, is all too fain to sway His neighbor's will, even as his haughty mind inclines. But here a lesson grand was battled to the end, How force resists and grapples with the greater force. The lovely, thousand-blossomed wreath of Freedom rends, And bends the stubborn laurel round the Ruler's brow. Here, of his days of early greatness Pompey dreamed : Before the trembling balance CsBsar yonder watched! It will be weighed: the world knows unto whom it turned. The watch-fires flash and glow, spendthrift of ruddy flame; Reflections of the squandered blood the earth exhales, And, lured by rare and marvellous splendor of the night. The legion of Hellenic legends gathers here, "^ound all the flres uncertain hover, or at ease t near them, fabulous forms of ancient days. . . . ACT II, «3 The moon, imperfect, truly, but of clearest beam, Arises, scattering mellow radiance everywhere: Vanish the phantom tents, the fires are burning blue. But o'er my head what unexpected meteor! It shines, illuminates the sphere of earth below. I scent the Living! therefore it becomes me not Them to approach, I being harmful unto them : An evil name it brings me, and it profits naught. Already now it sinks: discreetly I withdraw. [Exit, The Airy Travellers above. HOMUNCULUS. Once again the circle follow. O'er the flames and horrors hover! Ghostly 't is in vale and hollow, Spectral all that we discover. MEPHISTOPHELES. If, as through my window nightly In the grewsome North, I see Spectres hideous and unsightly, Here is home, as there, to me. HOMUNCULUS. See! a tall one there is striding On before us, in the shade. MEPHISTOPHELES. Through the air she saw us gliding. And it seems she is afraid. HOMUNCULUS. Let her stride ! The knight be taken Now, and set upon the strand: Here to life again he'll waken, Seeking it in fable-land. FAUST {as he touches the earth). Where is she?— 84 FAU^T. HOMUNCULUS. It's moi-e than w6 can tell, But to inquire would here be well. Thou 'rt free to hasten, ere the day, From flame to flame, and seek her so : Who to the Mothers found his way Has nothing more to undergo. MEPHISTOPHELES. I also claim my share in the excursion ; Yet know no better plan for our diversion, Than that each one, amid these fires, Should seek such fortunes as he most desires. Then, as a sign to reunite us. Let, little one, thy lantern sound and light us ! HOMUNCULUS. Thus shall it shine, and thus shall ring I {The glass shines and rings powerfully.) And now, away to many a marvellous thing! FAUST {solus), ,^ ^, Where is shef — ^But no further question make! If this were not the soil that bore her feet, If not the wave that to her coming beat, Tet 't is the air that knows the tongue she spake. Here, by a marvel ! Here, on Grecian land I I felt at once the earth whereon I stand. Through me, the sleeper, fresher spirit stealing, I rise refreshed, Antaeus in my feeling. Together here I find the strangest store; Let me this labyrinth of flames explore. [Goes avxfky, MEPHISTOPHELES {prying around) , And as among these fires I wander, aimless, I find myself so strange, so disconcerted : Quite naked most, a few are only shirted; The Griffins insolent, the Sphinxes shameless, And what not all, with pinions and with tresses, Before, behind, upon one's eyesight presses! — ACT iL as Indeeeney, t is tme, is our ideal, But the Antiqae is too alive and real ; One mnst with modem thought the thing bemaster. And in the fashion variously o'erplaster: — Disgusting race! Yet I, perforce, must meet them. And as new guest with due decorum greet them. — Hail, then. Fair Ladies! Graybeards wise, good cheer. GBIFFIK {snarling). Not graybeards! Graybeards? No one likes to hear One call him gray. For in each word there rings The source, wheiefrom its derivation springs. Gray, growling, g^rewsome, grinning, .gp^ves, and grimly Etymologically accord, nor dimly, And make us grim. MEPHISTOPHEIiES. And yet, why need you stiffen f You like the grif in your proud title, "Griffin." GRIFFIN {<i8 above, and continuously so). Of course! for this relation is found fit; Though often censured, oftener praised was it. Let one but grip at maidens, crowns, and gold : Fortune is gracious to the Griper bold. ANTS {of the colossal kind). You speak of gold, much had ourselves collected; In rocks and caverns secretly we trapped it : The Arimaspean race our store detected, — They're laughing now, so far away they've snapped it. THE GRIFFINS. We soon shall force them to confess. THE ARIliASPi;ANSf But not in this free night of jubilee. Before the morrow all will squandered be; This time our efforts will obtain success. 86 FAUST. MEPHISTOPHELES {who h(i8 seated himself between the Sphikxbs). How soon I feel familiar here, among you ! I understand you, one and all. SPHINX. Our spirit-tones, when we have sung you. Become, for you, material. Now name thyself, till we shall know thee better. MEPHISTOPHELES. With many names would men my nature fetter. Are Britons heref So round the world they wheel, To stare at battle-fields, historic traces. Cascades, old walls, and classic dreary places; And here were something worthy of their zeal. Their Old Plays also testify of me; Men saw me liiere as ''Old Iniqidly." SPHINX. How did they hit on thatf MEPHISTOPHELES. I know not, verily. SPHINX. Perhaps! Hast thou in star-lore any power f What say'st thou of the aspects of the hourf MEPHISTOPHELES {looking up). Star shoots on star, the cloven moon doth ride In brilliance ; in this place I'm satisfied : I warm myself against thy lion's hide. It were a loss to rise from out these shades: — Propose enigmas, or at least charades! SPHINX. Express thyself, and 't will a riddle be. Try once thine own analysis : 't were merry. "To both Devout and Wicked necessary: To those, a breast-plate for ascetic fighting; ACT II. 87 To these, boon-eomrade, in their pranks uniting; And both amnsing Zens, the fnn-delighting.^ FIRST GBIFFIK (snarling), I like not him ! SBOOND GRIFFIN {snarling more gruffly). What will the fellow heref BOTH. The Nasty One is not of us, 't is dear! MEPHiSTOPHELES (brutdlly), Think'st thou, perhaps, thy guest has nails to scrateh, That with thy sharper talons cannot match f Just try it once ! SPHINX {gently). Stay, shouldst tliou find it well; But from our ranks thou wilt thyself expel. In thine own land thou 'rt wont thyself to pamper, Tet here, I think, thy spirits feel a damper. MEPHISTOPHELES. Thine upper part entices; naught is fairer; But, further down, the beast excites my terror. SPHINX. Bitter, False one, will be thy expiation; Our claws are sound and worthy proof. But thou with withered horseVhoof , Art ill at ease in our association. {The Sirens prelude above.) MEPHISTOPHELES. On yonder poplars by the river, What are the birds that swing above f SPHINX. Beware ! The very best that ever Existed^ they have lured to love. S8 FAUST. SIRENS. Ah, why vitiate your senses, Where those Uglinesses daxkenf We, in crowds, come hither: hearken How the accordant strain commenceS| Meet for Sirens' soft pretences! SPHINXES {mocking them, in the same melody). Let them to descend he hidden I In the branches they have hidden Hideous falcon-claws they're wearing, And youll feel their cruel tearing. Once you lend them willing ear. SIRENS. Banish hate and envy rather! We the purest pleasures gather, Under Heaven's auspicious sphere! On the earth and on the ocean. We, with cheerful beckoning motion. Bid the wanderer welcome here. MEPHISTOPHELES. These are of novelties the neatest, Where from the throat and harp-string sweetest The tones around each other twine. They're lost on me, these tinkling trickles; The sound my ear-drum pats and tickles. But cannot reach this heart of mine. SPHINXES. Speak not of heart! Fool, so to call it! ' An old and wrinkled leathern wallet Would better suit that face of thine. FAUST (approaching). How strange! I, satisfied, behold these oreatores,- In the Repulsive, grand and solid features: A fate propitious I behold advance. Whither transports me now this sol6ti&B glaneeT ACT IL 89 {Pointing to the Sphinxes). Once before these took CEdipus his stand: {Pointing to the Sirens.) These made Ulysses write in hempen band : {Pointing to the Ants.) By these the highest treasure was amassed: {Pointing to the Griffins.) • By these 't was held inviolate and fast : Fresh spirit fills me, face to face with these — Grand are the Forms, and grand the Memories! MEPHISTOPHELES. Once thou hadst cursed such crude antiques, But now, it seems, they've comfort given; For when a man his sweetheart seeks, Welcome to him are monsters, even. FAUST {to the Sphinxes). Te woman-forms, give ear, and say Hath one of you seen Helena? sphinxes. Before her day our line expired in Greece ; Our very last was slain by Hercules : Yet ask of Chiron, if thou please. He gallops rbund throughout this ghostly nighty And if he halt for thee, thy chance is bright. SIRENS. Thou art not to failure fated! How Ulysses, lingering, learned us, Nor, regardless passing, spumed us, Manifold hath he narrated: All to thee shall be confided, Seekest thou our meads, divided By the dark-green arms of Ocean. SPHINX. Let not thyself thus cheated be ! Not like Ulysses bound, — ^but we Will witii good counsel thee environ : ^ FAUST, If thou canst find the noble Chiron, Thou It learn what I have promised thee. [Faust goes away, MEPHISTOPHELES ( Ul-temperedly ) . What croaks and flaps of wings go past I One cannot see, they fly so fast, In single file, from first to last : A hunter would grow tired of these. SPHINX. The storm-wind like, that winter harrows, Reached hardly by Alcides' arrows, They are the swift Stymphalides; And not ill-meant their greetings creak, With goose's foot and vulture's beak. They fain would join us in our places, And show themselves as kind^d races. MEPHISTOPHELES {as if intimidated). Some other brute is hissing shrill. SPHINX. Be not afraid, though harsh the psean ! They are the hydra-heads, the old Lemasan, Cut from the trunk, yet think they're something still. But say, what means your air distressed? Why show your gestures such unrest f Where will you got Then take your leave! That chorus, there, I now perceive, Turns like a weathercock your neck. Advance I — Greet as you will each lovely countenance ! They are the Lamise, wenches vile, Witii brazen brows and lips that smile, Such as the satyr-folk have found so fair: A cloven foot may venture all things there. MEPHISTOPHELES. But stay you here, that I again may find youf SPHINX. Yes ! Join the airy rabble, there behind you ! ACT II. 91 From Egypt we, long since, with all our peers, Acemstomed were to reign a thousand years. If for our place your reverence be won. We rule for you the days of Moon and Sun. We sit before the Pyramids For the judgment of the Races, ' Inundation, War, and Peace, — With eternal changeless faces. PENEUS {surrounded with Nymphs and Tributary Streams), s PEKEUS. TIR yourselves, ye whispering rushes, Rusde, slender willow-bushes. Sister reeds, breathe softer, crisper. Trembling poplar-branches, whisper To the interrupted dream! Fearful premonitions wake me, Secret shudders thrill and shake me In my rippUng, sleeping stream. FAUST {advancing to the river) » Here, behind the vines that dangle O'er the thicket's bowery tangle. If I heard aright, were noises Similar to human voices. Babbling seemed the wave to patter, And the breeze in sport to chatter. NYMPHS {to Faust). For thee were it better To lie here, reviving In coolness thy body, Outwearied with striving, — The rest, that eludes thee. To taste, and be free : Well rustle and murmur. And whisper to thee. n FAUST. FAUST. I am awake! Let them delay me, The incomparahle Forms ! — and sway me, As yonder to my sight confessed ! How strangely am I moved, how nearly ! Are they but dreams f or memories, merely f Already once was I so blest. Beneath the swaying bushes hiding. The full, fresh waves are softly ^ding; They scarcely rustle on their path : A hundred founts from all sides hasten, To fill a pure and sparkling basin, The hollowed level of a bath. The fair young limbs of women trouble The watery glass that makes them double, And doubles, thus, the eye's delight: In joyous bath each other aiding, Or boldly swimming, shyly wading. Then cry, and splash, and foamy fight. It were enough, the picture viewing, — My healthy eyesight here renewing, — Yet I desire the still unseen. My gaze would pierce through yonder cover, Whose leafy wealth is folded over The vision of the stately Queen. Strange! across the crystal skimming, - From the coves the swans are swimming, Moving in majestic state: Floating calmly and united, But how proud and self -delighted. Head and neck they lift elate! . . . One, his feathers proudly pluming, Boldly on his grace presuming. Leads the others in the race; With his whitest plumage showing Wave-like on the wave he's throwing, Speeds he to the sacred place. . . . The others back and forth together Swim on with smoothly shining feather, And soon, in mimic battle met. Shall chase aside iJie maids affrighted, Till, for their own protection slighted, Their bounden service they forget. NYMPHS. Sisters, bend and lay the ear On the turf beside the river! Sound of hoofs, if right I hear, Swift approaching, seems to shiver. Would I knew whose rapid flight Brings a message to the Night ! FAUST. As I think, the earth is ringing • From a charger, hither springing. See there! See there! A fortune comes, most fair: Shall I attain its blessing f O, marvel past expressing! A rider trots towards us free : Spirit and strength in him I see, — Upon a snow-white steed careering. . . . I know him now, I hail with awe The famous son of Philyra ! — Halt, Chiron, halt! I've something for thy hearing. CHIRON. What then f What is it? FAUST. Thy course delay! CHIRON. I rest not. FAUST. Take me with thee, then, I prayl CHIRON. Mount! and I thus can ask, at leisure, Whither thy way. Thou standest on the shore; 111 bear thee through the flood, with pleasure. U FAUST. FAUST (mounting). Whither thou wilt. I thank thee evermpre. . . The mighty man, the pedagogue, whose place And fame it was, to teach a hero-race, — The splendid circle of the Argonauts, And all whose deeds made quick the Poet's thoughts. CHIRON. We will not further speak of these I As Mentor even Pallas is not venerated; And, after all, they manage as they please. As if they'd not been educated. FAUST. The leech, who knoweth flower and fruit, Whose lore can sound the deepest root, — Who heals the sick, and soothes the wounded place, Him, here, in mind and body I embrace t CHIRON. When heroes, near me, felt the smart. My helpful knowledge failed them seldom; But, at the last, I left mine art To priest and simple-gathering beldam. FAUST. Thy speech the true great man betrays. Who cannot hear a word of praise; His modesty would fain confound us To think his equals still were round us. CHIRON. Thou seemest skilled to feign such matter — People and Prince alike to flatter. FAUST. But surely thou wilt grant to me That thou the greatest of thy time didst see. Upon their paths of proud achievement trod. And lived thy days, a serious demigod. Among .those grand, heroic forms of old. Whom didst thou for the best and worthiest holdf ACT II. 95 CHIRON. Of those beneath the Argonauts' bright banner, Each worthy was in his peculiar manner. And by the virtue of his strength selective Suf&ced therein, where others were defective. Castor and Pollux were as victors hailed. Where ^auty and the grace of youth prevailed : Decision, the swift deed for others' aid. Gave the fair crown before the Boreads laid: Reflective, prudent, strong, in council wise. So Jason ruled, delight of women's eyes: Then Orpheus, gentle, silent, brooding, lowering, But when he struck the lyre, all-overpowering. Sharp-sighted Lynceus, who by day and dark Through shoreward breakers steered the sacred bark- Danger is best endured where men are brothers ; When one achieves, then praise him all the others. FAUST. But Hercules thy speech is wronging — CHIRON. Ah, me ! awaken not my longing ! . . . I had not seen, in Fields Elysian, How PhoBbus, Ares, Hermes, shine; But there arose before my vision A form that all men called divine. A king by birth, as ne'er another, A youth magnificent to view; Though subject to his elder brother, And to the loveliest women, too. No second such hath Gaea granted, Or Hebe led to Heaven again; For him the songs are vainly chanted, The marble hewn for him in vain. FAUST. Though ever to his form addicted. His grace the sculptors could not wreak. The fairest Man hast thou depicted, Now of the fairest Woman speak! 96 FAUST, CHIRON. What I — Little worth is woman's beaaty. So oft an image dumb we sec : I only praise, in loving- duty, A being bright and full of glee. For Beauty in herself delighteth; And irresistibly she smiteth When sweetly she with Grace uniteth, Like Helena, when her I bore. FAUST. Her didst thou bear? CHIRON. This back she pressed. FAUST. Was I not wild enough, before? And now such seat, to make me blest! CHIRON. Just so she grasped me by the hair As thou dost. FAUST. 0, I scarcely dare To trust my senses I — tell me more! She is my only aspiration ! Whence didst thou bear her — ^to what shore? CHIRON. Not difficult is the relation. 'T was then, when came the Dioscuri bold To free their sister from the robbers' hold ; But these, accustomed not to be subdued. Regained their courage and in rage pursued. The swamps below Eleusis did impede The brothers' and the sister's flying speed: The brothers waded: splashing through the reed, I swam : then off she sprang, and pressing me On the wet mane, caressing me, She thanked with sweetly-wise and conscious tongue. How charming was she! — dear to age, so young! ACT 11. 97 FAUST. But seven years old! — CHIRON. Philologists, I see, Even as they cheat themselves, have cheated tiiee. 'T is curious with your mythologic dame: The Poet takes her when he needs her name ; She grows not old, stays ever young and warm, And of the most enticing form; Seduced in youth, in age enamoring still, — Enough! no time can bind the Poet's will. FAUST. Then let no bonds of Time be thrown around her! Even as on PheraB's isle Achilles found her, Beyond the bounds of Time. What blessing rare. In spite of Fate such love to win and wear ! And shall not I, by mightiest desire, Unto my life that sole fair form acquire. That shape eternal, peer of Gods above. Tender as grand, sublime as sweet with loveT Thou saw'st her once ; to-day I saw her beam. The dream of Beauty, beautiful as Dream! My soul, my being, now is bound and chained; I cannot live, unless she be attained. CHIRON. Thou, Stranger! feePst, as man, such ecstasy; Among us. Spirits, mad thou seem'st to be. Yet, as it haps, thy fortune now is omened ; For every year, though only for a moment, It is my wont to call at Manto's dwelling, — She, Esculapius' child, whose prayers are swelling Unto her father, that, his fame to brighten, The brains of doctors he at last enlighten. And them from rashly dealing death may frighten. I like her best of all the guild of Sibyls, — Helpful and kind, with no fantastic fribbles; She hath the art, if thou the time canst borrow. With roots of power to give thee healing thorough. ^8 FAUST. FAUST. But I will not be healed I my aim is mighty : I will not be, like others, meanly flighty I CHIRON. The noble fountain's cure neglect thou not: But quick dismount I We've reached the spot. FAUST. And whither, in this dreary night, hast thou To land through pebbly rivers brought me nowt CHIRON. Here Rome and Greece in battle tried their powers; Here flows Peneus, there Olympus towers, — The greatest realm that e'er was lost in sand. The monarch flies, the conquering burghers stand. Look up and see, in moonlight shining clear, The memorable, eternal Temple near! MANTO (dreaming within). From horse-hoofs tremble The sacred steps of the Temple! The Demigods draw near. CHIRON. Quite right! (ypen your eyes, and see who's heret MANTO (awaking). Welcome ! Thou dost not fail, I see. CHIRON. And still thy temple stands for thee I MANTO. And speedest thou still unremittingt CHIRON. And thou in peaceful calm art sitting. While I rejoice in restless heels t ACT IL M MANTO. I waity and Time around me wheels. And hef CHIRON. The vortex of this night Hath whirled him hither to thy sight. Helen, with mad, distracted senses, Helen he'd win by all pretences, And knows not how or where the task commences; Bnt he deserves the Esculapian cure. MANTO. To whom the Impossible is lure I love. (Chiron is already far away.) Rash one, advance! there's joy for thee! This dark way leads thee to Persephone. Under Olympus' hollow foot, Secret, she waits prohibited salute. I smuggled Orpheus in to her, of old : Use thy chance better! Oil! — ^be bold! [They descend. ON THE UPPER PENEUS, AS BEFORE. SIRENS. PLUNGE in cool Peneus' wave ! There 't is well to sport in swimming, Songs with chorded voices hymning, That the ill-starred folk we save. Health is none where water fails! Let our hosts, with sounding psBan, Hasten to the blue ^gsean. Where each joy shall swell our sails* (Earthquake,) Back the frothy wave is flowing. Now no longer downward going; Shakes the bed, the waters roar. Cracks and smokes the stony shore. 100 FAUST, Let us fly! Come, every one! By this marvel profit none. Leave, ye guests, this wild commotion For the cheerful sports of Ocean, Shining, where the quivering reaches, Lightly heaving, bathe the beaches, — There, where Luna's double splendor Freshens us with night-dews tender. There the freest life delights us ; Here the threatening Earthquake frights us: Who is prudent, haste away! Fearful is it, here to stay. SEISMOS (growling and jolting in the depths). Once again the force applying, Bravely with the shoulders prying, We to get above are trying, Where to us must all give way. SPHINXES. What a most repulsive shaking, Terrible and hideous quaking! What a quivering and shocking. Hither rolling, thither rocking! What vexation and dismay! But we shall not change our station, Were all Hell in agitation. . . . Now behold a dome upswelling. Wonderful ! 'T is he, compelling,— He, the hoary, antiquated. He who Delos' isle created, Bidding it from ocean break. For the childed woman's sake. He, with all his force expended, Rigid arms and shoulders bended, Like an Atlas in his gesture Pushes up the earth's green vesture, Loam and grit, and sand and shingle, Where the shore and river mingle : Thus OUT valley's bosom quiet ACT II. 101 Cross-wise tears he, in his riot. In unwearied force defiant, He, a caryatid-giant, Bears a fearful weight of boulders. Buried still below his shoulders; But no further shall be granted. For the Sphinxes here are planted. SEISMOS. The work alone IVe undertaken; The credit will be given to me : Had I not jolted, shoved, and shaken. How should this world so beauteous bef How stood aloft your mountains ever, In pure and splendid blue of air, Had I not heaved with huge endeavor Till they, like pictures, charm you there t When, where ancestral memory brightens. Old Night and Chaos saw me sore betrayed. And in the company of Titans With Pelion and Ossa as with balls we played, None could in ardent sport of youth surpass us, Until, outwearied, at the last. Even as a double cap, upon Parnassus His summits wickedly we cast. Apollo, now, upon that mount of wonder Finds with the Muses his retreat: For even Jove, and for his bolts of thunder, I heaved and held the lofty seat. Thus have I forced the fierce resistance And struggled upward from the deep; And summon now to new existence The joyous dwellers of the steep. SPHINXES. 'T is true, the hill would seem primeval, And warranted of old to stand. Had we not witnessed its upheaval. Toiling and towering from the land. A bushy forest, spreading, clothes its face. And rooks on rocks are pressing to their place. 102 FAUST. A Sphinx, therefrom, is by no fear o'ertaken : We shall not let our sacred seats be shaken. GRIFFINS. Qold in spangle, leaf, and spark Glimmers through the fissures deA, Quick, lest others should detect it, Haste, ye Emmets, and collect it! CHORUS OF EMMETS. Upward have thrown it, As they, the giant ones, Quick-footed, pliant ones, Climb it and own it! Rapidly in and out! In each such fissure Is every crumb about Wealth for the wisher! Seek for them greedily, Even the slightest: Everywhere speedily (father the brightest! Diligent be, and bold — Swarm to the fountain : Only bring in the Gold! Heed not the Mountain! ORIFFINS. Come in ! come in ! — ^the treasure heap I Our claws upon it we shall keep. The most efficient bolts they are; The greatest wealth they safely bar. PYGMIES. Verily, here we sit securely; How it happened, is not clear. Ask not whence we came; for surely 'T is enough that we are here. Unto Life's delighted dwelling Suitable is every land ; Where a rifted rock is swelling. ACT II, 103 Also is the Dwarf at hand. Male and female, busy, steady, We as models would suffice : Who can tell if such already Labored so in Paradise? Here our lot as best we measure, And our star of fate is blest : Mother Earth brings forth with pleasure. In the East as in the West. DACTYLS. If she, in a single night, The Pygmies brought to light. Pygmies of all she'll create yet. And each find his mate yet! PYGMY-ELDERS. Be ye, in haste, Conveniently placed! Labor, and lead Strength unto speed! Peace is yet with ye, Build now the smithy,— The host be arrayed With armor and blade! Emmets, laborious. Working victorious. Scorning to settle, Furnish us metal! Dactyls, your host. Smallest and most, Hear the requiring. Bring wood for firing! Heap in the chambers Fuel, untiring: Furnish us embers ! GENERALISSIMO. With arrow and bow, Encounter the foe! By yonder tanks 104 FAUST, The heron-ranks, The countless-nested, The haughty-breasted, At one quick blow Shoot, and bring low! All together. That we may feather Our helmets so. EMMETS AND DACTYLS. Who now will save us! We bring the iron. And chains enslave us. To break our fetters Were now defiant; We bide our season, — Meanwhile, be pliant! THE CRANES OF IBYCUS. Murder-cries and moans of dying! Startled wings that flap in flying! What lament, what pain and fright Pierces to our airy height! All have fallen in the slaughter. Reddening with their blood the water; Pygmy-lust, misformed and cruel, Robs the heron of his jewel. On their helms the plumage waves, — Yonder fat-paunched, bow-legged knaves! Comrades of our files of motion, Serried wanderers of ocean, ' You we summon to requital In a cause to you so vital. Strength and blood let no one spare! Endless hate to them we swear! {They disperse, croaking in the air,) MEPHISTOPHELES (ow the plain). With ease the Northern witches I controlled, But o'er these foreign sprites no power I hold. The Blocksberg is a most convenient place; ACT II, 105 Howe'er one strays, one can his path retrace. Dame Use watches for us from her stone, And Henry sits upon his mountain-throne: The Snorers snarl at Elend — snorting peers, — And all is finished for a thousand years. But here, who knows if, even where he stand, Beneath his feet may not puff up the landt I cheerily wander through a level glade. And, all at once, behind me heaved, is made A mountain — scarcely to be called so, true; Yet high enough the Sphinxes from my view To intercept. . . . Still many a fire flares out Adown the vale, the mad concern about. ... Still dance and hover, beckoning and retreating, The gay groups round me, with their knavish greeting But gently now ! For spoiled by stealthy pleasure, One always seeks to snatch some dainty treasure. LAMI^. (drawing MEt»HiSTOPHELES after them). Quicker and quicker! And further take him! Then hesitating. Chattering and prating! 'T is fun to make him— Old, sinful Tricker!— Follow behind us: To penance comes he With halt-foot clumsy; He marches hobbling. And forwards wobbling His leg he trails In haste to find us; We fly — ^he fails. MEPHISTOPHELES (standing still). Accurst fate! Deceived, as oft! Since Adam's time seduced and scoffed! Though old we grow, not wisely schooled : Enough already I've been fooled! We know, how wholly worthless is the race, 106 FAUST. With body corseted and painted face ; Of health responsive own they not a tittle, Where'er one grasps them, every limb is brittle. The thing is known, and patent to our glances, And yet, whene'er the trollops pipe, one dances. LAMi^ (pausing). Halt! he reflects; his steps delay: Turn back to meet him, lest he get away f MEPHISTOPHELES (striding forwards). Forwards I the doubt, my strength benumbing, I won't encourage foolishly; For were the witches not forthcoming, Why, who the devil would Devil be I LAMi^ (very graciously). Round this here lightly moving. Let his heart, the choice approving, One of us select for loving I MEPHISTOPHELES. True, in this uncertain lustre. Seem ye fair maids, in a cluster; Fain would I to you be juster. EMPUSA (pressing forwards). Not me, too? I'm also fittted In your train to be admitted! IiAMIi£. She's one too many; for, in short, She always ruins all our sport. EMPUSA (to MePHISTOPHELBS). Empusa, with the ass's foot. Thy cousin dear, gives thee salute 1 Only a horse's hoof is thine. And yet. Sir Cousin, greeting fine I MEPHISTOPHELES. Strangers I here anticipated, ACT IL 107 And find, alas I my near-related : The old tale — ^instances by dozens — From Hartz to Hellas always cousins t EMPUSA. I act with promptness and decision; In many forms conld meet thy vision Yet in thy honor now, instead, Have I pnt on the ass's head. MEPHISTOPHELES. Great things, I see, are here portended, Thns with the race as kinsman blended : Let come what may, since I have known her- The ass's head — ^I'd fain disown her. LAMIiE. Leave her, the TJgijl She doth scare Whatever lovely seems and fair; Whate'er was lovely, fair to see. When she comes, ceases so to be. MEPHISTOPHELES. These cousins also, — soft, delicious, Are one and all to me suspicious: I fear, beneath their cheeks of roses Some metamorphosis reposes. But try — take hold I For we are many. And if thou hast a lucky penny, Secure thyself the highest prize! What means thy wanton organ-grinding T A wretched wooer 't is, we're finding, Yet swagger'st thus, and seem'st so wiset • . Now one of us will he lay hand on. So by degrees your masks abandon, And show your natures to his eyes ! MEPHISTOPHELES. The fairest here have I selected. . . , (Clasping her,) 108 FAUST. Oy wliat a broomstick, unexpected) (Grasping another,) And this onet . . . Vilest countenanodt Think not thou 'rt worth a better chance! MEPHISTOPHELES. That little one, she warms my gizzard. . , . But through my hand she slips, a lizard; Her smooth braids, snaky-like, intwine. I try the tall one, yet she worse is, — I only grasp a Bacchic thyrsus, The head a scaly cone of pine. What follows next? Behold a fat one: Perhaps 111 find delight in that one, So. once for all, the chance renew ! The Turks, for one so puffy, flabby. Would pay a price by no means shabby . • . But, ah I the puff-ball bursts in two I LAMLSi. Now scatter widely, hovering, feigning, In lightning-like, dark flight enchaining The interloping witch's-son I Uncertain circles, awful, poiseless! Horrid bat-wings, flying noiseless! He 'scapes too cheaply, when it's done. MijPHiSTOPHELES {shaking himself). Vve not become, it seems, a great deal shrewder; The North's absurd, 't is here absurder, ruder. The spectres here preposterous as there, People and poets shallow ware. This masquerade resembles quite — As everywhere — a dance of appetite. I sought a lovely masked procession, And caught such things, I stood aghast. . . . I'd give myself a false impression, If this would only longer last. (Losing himself among the rocJcaJ) ACT II. - 109 Where am I then? and whither sped? There was a path ; 't is now a dread. By level ways IVe wandered hither, Where rubble now is piled together. I clamber up and down in vain ; Where shall I find my Sphinx again f I had not dreamed so mad a sight, — A mountain in a single night I A bold witch-journey, to my thought : Their Blocksberg with them they have brought OREAD {from the ncUural rock). Come up to me I My mountain old In its primeval form behold! Revere the steep and rocky stairs, ascending Where Pindus' offshoots with the plain are blending! Unshaken, thus I heaved my head When o'er my shoulders Pompey fled. Beside me this illusive rock Will vanish at the crow of cock. I see such fables oft upthrown. And suddenly again go down. MEPHISTOPHELES. Honor to thee, thou reverend Head, With strength of oak engarlandedl The clearest moonlight never cleaves The darkness of your crowded leaves. I see between the bushes go A light, with unpretending glow. How all things fit and balance thus I 'T is verily Homunculus. Now whence thy way, thou little lover? HOMUNCULUS. From place to place I flit and hover, And, in the best sense, I would fain exist. And most impatient am, my glass to shatter : But what till now IVe witnessed, is 't Then strange if I mistrust the matter? Yet 111 be confidential, if thou list: 110 FAUST. I follow two Philosophers this way. 'T was ''Nature!" "Nature !"— all I heard them say; 111 cling to them, and see what they are seeing, For they must understand this earthly being. And I ^all doubtless learn, in season, Where to betake me with the soundest reason. MEPHISTOPHELES. Then do it of thy own accord I For here, where spectres from their hell come, Is the philosopher also welcome. That so his art and favor delectate you, At once a dozen new ones hell create you. Unless thou errest, thou wilt ne'er have sense ; Wouldst thou exist, thyself the work commence! HOMUNCULUS. Good counsel, also, is not to reject. MEPHISTOPHELES. Then go thy way I We further will inspect. [They separate, ANAXAGORAS (to ThALES). Thy stubborn mind will not be rightened : What else is needful, that thou be enlightened? THALES. To every wind the billows yielding are ; Yet from the cliff abrupt they keep themselves afar. ANAXAGORAS. By fiery vapors rose this rock you're seeing. THALES. In moisture came organic life to being. HOMUNCULUS (petween the two). To walk with you may I aspire t To come to being is my keen desire. ACT II. Ill ANAXA60RAS. Hast thou, Thales ! ever in a night Brought forth from mud such mountain to the light f THALES. Nature, the living current of her powers, Was never bound to Day and Night and Hours ; She makes each form by rules that never fail. And 't is not Force, even on a mighty scale. ANAXAGORAS. But here it wclsI — ^Plutonic fire, the shaperl Explosive force of huge .^lolian vapor Broke through the level Earth's old crust primeval. And raised the new hill with a swift upheaval ! THALES. What further shall therefrom result? The hill Is there : 't is well I — so let it stand there still ! In such a strife one loses leisure precious, Yet only leads the patient folk in leashes. ANAXAGORAS. The Mountain's rocky clefts at once Are peopled thick with Myrmidons, With Pygmies, Emmets, Fingerlings, And other active little things. (To HOMUNCULUS.) To greatness hast thou ne'er aspired, But lived an eremite retired ; Canst thou persuade thy mind to govern, 111 have thee chosen as their sovereign. HOMUNCULUS. What says my Thales t THALES. — ^Will not recommend : For small means only unto small deeds tend, But great means make the small man great 112 FAUST. See there! The Cranes, with purpose heinous! — The troubled populace they menace, And they would menace thus the king. With pointed beaks and talons ample The little men they pierce and trample : Doom comes already thundering. It was a crime, the heron-slaughter, Beset amid their peaceful water; But from that rain of arrows deadly A fell revenge arises redly, And calls the kindred o'er the flood To spill the Pygmies' guilty blood. What use for shield and helm and spear f Or for the dwarfs the heron-feather t Dactyl and Emmet hide together : Their cohorts scatter, seek the rear! ANAXAGORAS (after a pause, solemnly). Though I the subterranean powers approve, Yet help, in this case, must be sought above. . . . thou aloft, in grace and vigor vernal, Tri-named, tri-f eatured, and eternal. By all my people's woe I cry to thee, Diana, Luna, Hecat6 ! Thou breast-expanding One, thou deeply-pondering, Thou calmly -shining One, majestic wandering, The fearful craters of thy shade unseal. And free from spells thine ancient might reveal! (Pause.) Am I too swiftly heard? Has then my cry To yonder sky. The course of Nature from its orbit stirred ? And greater, ever greater, drawing near. Behold the Goddess' orbed throne appear, Enormous, fearful in its grimness, With fires that redden throu^di the dimness! . . ACT II. U3 No nearer! Disk of dread, tremendous, Lest thou, with land and sea, to ruin send us ! Then were it true, Thessalian Pythonesses With guilty spells, as Song confesses. Once from thy path thy steps enchanted, Till fatal gifts by thee were granted? . . . The shield of splendor slowly darkles, Then suddenly splits, and shines, and sparkles! What rattling and what hissing follow, With roar of winds and thunders hollow! — Before thy throne I speak my error. . . . 0, pardon! I invoked the terror. {Casts himself upon his fate.) THALES. How many things can this man see and hear? What happed, is not to me entirely clear; IVe not, like him, experienced it. The Hours are crazy, we'll admit; For Luna calmly shines, and free, In her high place, as formerly. HOMUNCULUS. Look yonder where the Pygmies fled! The round Hill has a pointed head. I felt a huge rebound and shock; Down from the moon had fallen the rock, And then, without the least ado. Both foe and friend it smashed and slew. I praise such arts as these, that show Creation in a night fulfilled ; That from above and from below At once this mountain-pile could build. THALES. Be still! 'T was but imagined so. Farewell, then, to the ugly brood! That thou wast not their king, is good. Off to the cheerful festals of the Sea! There as a marvellous guest, thej^ll honor thee. [They depart. lU FAUST. MEPHISTOPHELES {climbing up the opposite side). Here must I climb by steep and rocky stairways^ And roots of ancient oaks — ^the vilest rare ways I Upon my Hartz, the resinous atmosphere Gives hint of pitch, to me almost as dear As sulphur is, — ^but here, among these Greeks, For such a smell one long* and vainly seeks ; And curious am I — ^for 't is worth the knowing — To find wherewith they keep their fires of Hell a-going. DRYAD. At home, be wise as it befits thee there; Abroad, thou hast no cleverness to spare. Thou shouldst not homeward turn thy mind, but here The honor of the ancient oaks revere. MEPHISTOPHELES. One thinks on all relinquished there ; Use made it Paradise, and keeps it fair. But say, what is 't, in yonder cave Obscure, a crouching triple-shape resembling t DRYAD. The Phorkyadsl Go there, if thou art brave; Address them, if thou canst, untrembling I MEPHISTOPHELES. Why not! . . I something see, and am dumbfounded! Proud as I am, I must confess the truth : I've never seen their like, in sooth, — Worse than our hags, an Ugliness unbounded I How can the Deadly Sins then ever be Found ugly in the least degree. When one this triple dread shall seet We would not suffer them to dwell Even at the dreariest door of Hell ; But here, in Beauty's land, the Greek, They're famed, because they're called antique. . . . They stir, they seem to scent my coming; Like vampire-bats, they're squeaking, twittering, himuning. ACT II, 115 THE PH0RKYAD8. Give me the eye, my sisters, that it spy Who to our temple ventures now so nigh. ICEPHISTOPHELES. Most honored Dame ! Approaching, by your leave^ Grant that your triple blessing I receive. I come, though still unknown, yet, be it stated. If I mistake not, distantly related. Old, reverend Gk>d8, already did I see ; To Ops and Rhea have I bowed the knee; The Parcae even — your sisters — ^yesterday, Or day before, they came across my way; And yet the like of you ne'er met my sight : Silent am I, and ravished with delight. THE PHORKTADS. This spirit seems to have intelligence. MEPHISTOPHELES. I am amazed no poet has the sense To sing your praises, — say, how can it be That we no pictures of your beauty sect Should not, through you, the chisel strive to wean us From shapes like those of Juno, Pallas, Venus f THE PHORKTADS. Sunken in solitude and stillest night, The mind of us ne'er took so far a flight. MEPHISTOPHELES. How should it, then f since here, concealed from view, None ever see you, none are seen by you I • But. choose those dwelling-places, and be known, Where Art and Splendor share an equal throne ; Where swift, with double tread, day after day, A marble block as hero walks away; Where — THE PHORKTADS. Cease, and rouse in us no longer vision! What profit, if we knew them with precision' 116 FAUST. We, bom in night, akin to gloom alone, Unto ourselves almost, to others quite, unknown. MEPHISTOPHELES. In such a case there's little more to say, But one one's self to others can convey. One eye supplies you three, one tooth aa weD, So were it mythologically possible In two the being of the Three to cover, And unto me the third fair form make over, A short time, only. ONi;. Will it do, forsooth f THE OTHERS. Well try it! — ^but without or eye or tooth. MEPHISTOPHELES. Now just the best thing have you taken away. How shall I then the image stem display f one;. 'T is easily done : just close one eye. And let thy one side-tusk be seen thereby : In profile, thus, with not a trait diminished. Thy sisterly resemblance will be finished. MEPHISTOPHELES. So be it, then ! THE PHORKTADS. So be it ! MEPHISTOPHELES (as Phorktad in profile). Me behold, The much-beloved son of Chaos old ! THE PHORKYADS. Daughters of Chaos are we, by good right. MEPHISTOPHELES. Disgrace ! They'll call me now hermaphrodite. ACT II. 117 THE PHORKTADS. In our new sister-triad what a beauty ! Two eyes have we, two teeth, for further duty. MEPHISTOPHELBS. Now from all eyes I'll hide this visage fell. To fright the devils in the pool of Hell. [Exit, ROCKY COVES OF THE iEGEAN SEA. The Moon delaying in the Zenith, SIRENS {couched upon the cliffs around, fluting and singing), THOUGH erewhile, by spells nocturnal Thee Thessalian hags infernal Downward drew, with guilt intended, — Look, from where thine arch is bended, On the multitudinous, splendid Twinkles of the billowy Ocean! Shine upon the throngs in motion O'er the waters, wild and free! To thy service vowed are we : Fairest Luna, gracious be! NEREIDS AND TRITONS {as Wonders of the Sea). Call with clearer, louder singing. Through the Sea's broad bosom ringing, Call the tenants of the Deep! When the storm swept unimpeded We to stillest depths receded ; Forth at sound of song we leap. See! delighted and elated, We ourselves have decorated. With our golden crowns have crowned us, With our spangled girdles bound us, Chains and jewels hung around us ! All are spoils which you purvey! US FAUST, Treasures, here in shipwreck swallowed. Ton have jtured, and we have followed Yon, the Diemons of our bay. SIBEKS. In the crystal cool, delicious, Smoothly sport the happy fishes, Pliant lives that nothing mar; Yet, ye festive crowds that gather. We, to-day, would witness, rather, That ye more than fishes are. NEREIDS AND TRITONS. We, before we hither wandered. Thoroughly the question pondered: Sisters, Brothers, speed afar I Briefest travel, light endurance. Yield the validest assurance That we more than fishes are. [They depart. SIRENS. Off I they have left the place, Steering away to Samothrace, Vanished with favoring wind. What is their purpose there, in the dreaiy Domain of the lofty Cabirit Gk>ds are they, but the strangest crew, Ever begetting themselves anew. And unto their own being blind. In thy meridian stay, Luna I — graciously delay. That the Night still embrace us, And the Day not chase us I THALES {on the shore, to HoMUNCUiiUS). I fain would lead thee unto Nereus old. Not distant are we from his cavern cold. But stubbornness is his delight. The peevish and repulsive wight ACT IL 119 Howe'er the hnman race has tried, The Grumbler's never satisfied: Yet he the Futnre hath unsealed. And men thereto their reverence yield, And give him honor in his station. Many his benefits have tasted. HOMUNCULUS. Then let us try, without more hesitation! My glass and flame will not at once be wasted. KEREUS. Are human voices those that reach mine earf At once my wrath is kindled, keen and clear. Aspiring forms, tliat high as Gods would ramble. Yet ever damned their own selves to resemble. In ancient years could I divinely rest. Yet was impelled to benefit the Best; And when, at last, I saw my deeds completed, It fully seemed as were the work defeated. THALES. And yet we trust thee, Graybeard of the Sea I Thou art the Wise One : drive us not from thee I Behold this Flame, in man's similitude: It yields itself unto thy counsel good. NEREUS. What I Counsel t When did ever men esteem itf Wise words in hard ears are but lifeless lore. Oft as the Act may smite them when they scheme it, The People are as self-willed as before. How warned I Paris, in paternal trust. Before a foreign woman woke his lust I Upon the Grecian strand he stood so bold ; I saw in spirit, and to him foretold The smoky winds, the overwhelming woe. Beams all a-blaze, murder and death below, — Troy's judgment-day, held fast in lofty rhyme, A terror through a thousand years of time I My words seemed sport unto the reckless one : His lust he followed : fallen was Uion, — 120 FAUST. A giant carcass, stiff, and hacked with steel. To Pindus' eagles *t was a welcome meal. Ulysses, too ! did I not him presage The wiles of Circe and the Cyclops' rage ? His paltering mind, his crew's inconstant strain. And what not all? — and did it hring him gainf Till him, though late, the favoring billow bore, A much-tossed wanderer, to the friendly shore. THALES. Such conduct, truly, gives the wise man pain. And yet the good man once will try again. An ounce of gratitude, his help repaying. Tons of ingratitude he sees outweighing. And nothing trifling now we beg of thee ; The boy here wishes to be born, and be. NEREUS. Let not my rarest mood be spoiled, I pray! Far other business waits for me to-day. I've hither bidden, by the wave and breeze. The Graces of the Sea, the Dorides. Olympus bears not, nor your lucent arch. Such lovely forms, in such a lightsome march : They fling themseh^es, in wild and wanton dalliance, From the sea-dragons upon Neptune's stallions, Blent with the element so freely, brightly. That even the foam appears to lift them lightly. In Venus' chariot-shell, with hues of mom. Comes Galatea, now the fairest, borne; Who, since that Cypris turned from us her face. In Paphos reigns as goddess in her place. Thus she, our loveliest, long since came to own, As heiress, templed town and chariot-throne. Away I the father's hour of rapture clips Hate from the heart, and harshness from the lips. Away to Proteus ! Ask that wondrous man Of Being's and of Transformation's plan I {He retires towards the sea, THALES. We, by this step, gain nothing : one may meet ACT 11. 121 Proteus, and straight he melts, dissolving fleet. Though he remains, he only says That which confuses and astonishes. However, of such counsel thou hast need ; So, at a venture, let us thither speed ! [They depart. SIRENS (on the rocks above). What is 't, that, far advancing. Glides o'er the billows dancing? As, when the winds are shifted, Shine snowy sails, uplifted. So shine they o'er the waters. Transfigured Ocean-daughters. We'll clamber down, and, near them, Behold their forms, and hear them. NEREIDS AND TRITONS. What in our hands we bear you Much comfort shall prepare you. Chelone's buckler giant Shines with its forms defiant: — They're Grods that we are bringing High songs must you be singing! SIRENS. Small to the sight. Great in their might,— Saviours of the stranded, Ancient Grods, and banded. NEREIDS AND TRITONS. We bring you the Cabiri To festals calm and cheery; For where their sway extendeth Neptune the realm befriendeth. SIRENS. We 3rield to your claim; When a shipwreck came, Irresistibly you Protected the crew. 122 FAUST. NEREIDS AND TRITONS. Three have we brought hither, The fourth refused us altogether: He was the right one, said he, — Their only thinker ready. SIRENS. One Gk)d the other God Smites with the scoffer's rod : Honor all grace they bring. Fear all evil they fling! NEREIDS AND TRITONS. Seven are they, really. SIRENS. Where, then, stay the other three f NEREIDS AND TRITONS. The truth we cannot gather : Ask on Olympus, rather I There pines the eighth, forgotten, By no one ever thought on I In grace to us entreated. But not yet all completed. These incomparable, unchainable, Are always further yearning, With desire and hunger burning For the unattainable ! SIRENS. These are our ways: The Gk>d that sways Sun, Moon, or other blaze, We worship : for it pays. NEREIDS AND TRITONS. Highest glory for us behold. Leading these festals cheery! ACT II. 123 SIRENS. The heroes of the ancient time Fail of their glory prime, Where and howe'er it may unfold; Though they have won the fleece of Qold^ — • Ye, the Cabiri! {Repeated as full chorus,) Though they have won the fleece of Gk>ld, — Wei Ye! the Cabiri! (The NERmDS and Tritons move past.) HOMUNCULUS. These Malformations, every one, Had earthen pots for models: Against them now the wise men run, And break their stubborn noddles. THALES. That is the thing one wishes, just! The coin takes value from its rust. PROTEUS (unperceived) , This pleases me, the old fable-ranger! The more respectable, the strangfer. THALES. Where art thou, Proteus? PROTEUS (speaking ventriloqually, now near, now at a distance). Here ! and here ! THALES. I pardon thee thine ancient jeer. Cheat not a friend with vain oration : Thou speak'st, I know, from a delusive station. PROTEUS (as if at a distance). Farewell ! THALES (softly to HOMUNCULUS). He is quite near: shine brilliantly! For curious as a flsh is he ; 124 FAUST, And in whatever form he hide, A flame will make him hither glide. HOMUNCULUS. At once a flood of light I'll fling, Yet softly, lest the glass should spring. PROTEUS (in the form of a giant tortoise) . What shines so fair, so graciously! THALES (covering Homunculus). Good ! If thou wishest, canst thou nearer see. Be not annoyed to take a little trouble, And show thyself on man's foundation double. What we disclose, to whomsoever would see it, With our will only, by our favor, be it ! PROTEUS (in a noble form). Still world- wise pranks thou f ailest to forget. THALES. To change thy form remains thy pleasure yet. (He uncovers Homunculus.) PROTEUS (astonished), A shining dwarf ! The like I ne'er did see ! THALES. He asks thy counsel, he desires to be. He is, as I myself have heard him say, (The thing's a marvel!) only bom half-way. He has no lack of qualities ideal, But far too much of palpable and real. Till now the glass alone has given him weight, And he would fain be soon incorporate. PROTEUS. Thou art a genuine virgin's-son : Finished, ere thou shouldst be begun f THALES (whispering). Viewed from another side, the thing seems critical : He is, methinks, hermaphroditical ! ACT II, i2f PROTEUS. Then all the sooner 't will succeed : Let him but start, 't will be arranged with speed. No need to ponder here his origin ; On the broad ocean's breast must thou begin I One starts there first within a narrow pale, And finds, destroying lower forms, enjoyment : Lattle by little, then, one climbs the scale, And fits himself for loftier employment. HOMUNCULUS. Here breathes and blows a tender air ; And I delight me in the fragrance rare. PROTEUS. Yea, verily, my loveliest stripling! And farther on, far more enjoyable. Around yon narrow spit the waves are rippfing, The halo bright and undestroyable ! There to the host we'll nearer be. Now floating hither o'er the sea. Come with me there ! THALES. I'll go along. HOMUNCULUS. A spirit-purpose, triply strong! TELCHINES OF RHODES. On Sea-Horses and Sea-Dragons, wielding Neptune's Trident. CHORUS. WE'VE forged for old Neptune the trident that urges To smoothness and peace the refractory surges. When Jove tears the clouds of the tempest asunder, 126 FAUST, 'T is Neptune encounters the roll of the thunder : The lightnings above may incessantly glow. But wave upon wave dashes up from below. And all that, between them, the terrors o'erpower, Long tossed and tormented, the Deep shall devour; And thence he hath lent us his sceptre to-day. — Now float we contented, in festal array. SIRENS. You, to Helios consecrated, To the bright Day's blessing fated, — Ton to this high Hour we hail : Luna's worship shall prevail ! TELCHIKES. loveliest Goddess by night over-vaulted ! Thou hearest with rapture thy brother exalted : To listen to Rhodes thou wilt lean from the skies ; To him, there, the psans eternally rise. When the day he begins, when he ends its career. His beam is the brightest that falls on us here. The mountains, the cities, the sea and the shore, Are lovely and bright to the God they adore : No mist hovers o'er us, and should one appear, A beam and a breeze, and the Island is clear! There Phoebus his form may by hundreds behold, — Colossal, as youth, as the Gentle, the Bold ; For we were the first whose devotion began To shape the high Gods in the image of Man. PROTHUS. But leave them to their boasting, singing! . Beside the holy simbeams, bringing All life, their dead works are a jest. They melt and cast, with zeal impassioned, And what they once in bronze have fashioned, They think it's something of the best. These proud ones are at last made lowly : The forms of Gods, that stood and shone, Were by an earthquake overthrown, And long since have been melted wholly. ACT II. 127 This earthly toil; whatever it be. Is never else than drudgery : A better life the waves declare thee, And now to endless seas shall bear thee Proteus-Dolphin. {He transforms himself,) 'T is done! Behold! Unto thy fairest fortune waken : Upon my back shalt thou be taken, And wedded to the Ocean old. THALES. Yield to the wish so wisely stated. And at the source be thou created ! Be ready for the rapid plan ! There, by eternal canons wending. Through thousand, myriad forms ascending. Thou shalt attain, in time, to Man. (HOMUNCULUS mounts the Proteus-Dolphin.) PROTBUS. In spirit seek the watery distance! Boundless shaU there be thine existence, And where to move, thy will be free. But struggle not to higher orders ! Once Man, within the human borders. Then all is at an end for thee. THALES. That's as it haps : 't is no ill fate In one's own day to be true man and great. PROTEUS (to ThALES). Some one, perchance, of thine own kind! Their lives continue long, I find ; For with thy pallid phantom-peers I've seen thee now for many hundred years. SIRENS (on the rocks). See! what rings of cloudlets, gliding Round the moon, in circles play ! 128 FAUST, They are doves whom Love is guiding. With their wings as white as day. Paphos hither sends them fleetly, All her ardent birds, to us, And our festival completely Crowns with purest rapture, thus! NEREUS (advancing to Thales). Though some nightly wanderer's vision Deem yon ring an airy spectre, We, the spirits, with decision Entertain a view correcter : They are doves, whose convoy gathers Round my daughter's chariot-shell. With a flight of wondrous spell, Learned in old days of the fathers. THALES. That I also think is best, Which the true man comfort gives, When in warm and peaceful nest Something holy for him lives. PSYLLI AND MARSI {on sea-hulls, sea-heifers and sea-rams). In hollow caves on Cyprus' shore. By the Sea-Gk>d still unbattered, Not yet by Seismos shattered, By eternal winds breathed o'er, And still, as in days that are measured, Contented and silently pleasured, The chariot of Cypris we've treasured. By the murmurs, the nightly vibrations, O'er the waves and their sweetest pulsations. Unseen to the new generations, The loveliest daughter we lead. We fear not, as lightly we hie on, Either Eagle or wing-lifted Lion, Either Crescent or Cross, "'hough the sky it emboss, — ough it changefully triumphs and flashes. ACT IL 12» In defeat to f orgetfulness dashes, Lays the fields and the cities in ashes! Straightway, with speed, The loveliest of mistresses forth we lead. SIRENS. Lightly moved, with paces graver, Circle round the car again ; Line on line inwoven, waver Snake-like in a linking chain, — Stalwart Nereids, come, enring us. Rudest women, wild and free; Tender Dorides, ye bring us Her, the Mother of the Sea, — Galatea, godlike woman. Worthiest immortality, Yet, like those of lineage human, Sweet with loving grace is she. DORIDES (in chorus, mounted on dolphins, passing Nkreus). Lend us, Luna, light and shadow. Show this youthful flower and fire ! For we bring beloved spouses. Praying for them to our sire. (To Nereus.) They are boys, whom we have rescued From the breaker's teeth of dread ; They, on reeds and mosses bedded, Back to light and life we led : Now must they, with glowing kisses, Thank us for the granted blisses ; On the youths thy favor shed I nereus. Lo, now! what double gains your deed requite! You show compassion, and you take delight. DORIDES. If thou praisest our endeavor. Father, grant the fond request, — Let us hold them fast forever On each young, immortal breast- 130 FAUST. NEREUS. Take joy in what you've finely captured. And shape to me the youthful crew; I cannot grant the boon enraptured Which only Zeus can give to you. The billows, as they heave and rock you, Allow to love no firmer stand, So, when these fancies fade and mock you. Send quietly the youths to land. DORIDES. Fair bo3rs, we must part, forsooth; Yet we love you, we vow it ! We have asked for eternal truth. But the Gods will not allow it. the; youths. We sailor-boys, if still you would Give love, as first you gave it. We've never had a life so good. And would not better have it ! (Galatea approaches on her chariot of shell,) NEREUS. 'T is thou, my darling ! GALATEA. 0, Sire! what delight! Linger, ye dolphins ! I cling to the sight. NEREUS. Already past, they swiftly wander On, in circling courses wheeling! What care they for the heart's profoundest feeling t Ah, would they took me with them yonder ! Yet a single glance can cheer All the livelong barren year. THALES. Hail! All hail! with newer voices: How my spirit rejoices, ACT IL m By the Tnie and the Beautiful penetrated ! From Water was everything first created! Water doth everything still sustain ! Ocean, grant us thine endless reign ! If the clouds thou wert sending not. The swelling streams wert spending not. The winding rivers bending not, And all in thee were ending not, Could mountains, and plains, and the world itself, bef Thr freshest existence is nourished by thee! ECHO (chorus of the collective circles). The freshest existence flows ever from thee I KEREUS. They turn and wheel again, afar; No longer face to face they are. In linking circles, wide extending, — In their festive dances blending, — The countless cohorts now appear. But Ghdatea's chariot-shell Still I see, and see it well : It shines like a star Through the crowds intwining. Love from the tumult still is shining! Though ne'er so far, It shimmers bright and clear, Ever true and near. HOMUNCULUS. This softly heaving brine on. Whatever I may shine on Is all with beauty crowned. PROTEUS. Within this moisture living, Thy lamp now first is giving A clear and splendid sound. NEREUS. What mystery new, 'mid the crowds that are wheeling Is now to our vision its wonders revealing t 132 FAUST. What flames round the shell at the feet of the Queen f- Now flaring in force, and now shining serene, As if by the pulses of love it were fed. THALES. Homunculus is it, by Proteus misled ! . . And these are the sig^s of imperious yearning. The presage of swelling, impatiently spuming: He'll shiver his glass on the glittering throne — He glows and he flashes, and now he hath flown ! SIRENS. What fiery marvel the billows enlightens. As one on the other is broken and brightens? It flashes, and wavers, and hitherward plays I On the path of the Night are the bodies ablaze. And all things around are with flames overrun : Then Eros be ruler, who all things begun ! Hail, ye Waves! Hail, Sea unbounded, By the holy Fire surrounded ! Water, hail! Hail, Fire, the splendid! Hail, Adventure rarely ended! ALL TOGETHER. Hail, ye Airs that softly flow ! Hail, ye caves of Earth below! Honored now and evermore Be the Elemental Four!

BEFORE THE PALACE OF MENELAUS IN SPARTA. Helena enters, with the Chorus o/ Captive Trojan Women, Panthalis, Leader of the Chorus, HELENA. I MUCH admired and much reviled, — I, Helena, 9 Come from the strand where we have disembarked but now, Still giddy from the restles? rocking of the waves ACT III. 133 Of Ocean, which from Phrygian uplands hitherwards On high, opposing backs — Poseidon's favor won And Euros' strength — ^have borne us to our native bay. Below there, with the bravest of his warriors, now King Menelaus feels the joy of his return ; But thou, bid me welcome back, thou lofty House Which Tyndarus, my father, on the gentle slope, Returning from the Hill of Pallas, builded up ; And when I here with Clytemnestra sister-like, With Castor and with Pollux gayly sporting, grew, Before all Sparta's houses nobly was adorned. Ye valves of yon dark iron portals, ye I hail ! Once through your festive and inviting opening It happened that to me, from many singled out, The coming of the bridegroom Menelaus shone. Unfold again for me, that I the King's command Fulfil with strictness, as unto a spouse is meet : Give entrance now, and let all things be left behind Which hitherto have stormed upon me, full of doom! For, since this place all unsuspicious I forsook For CytherflBa's fane, as holy duty called. But there the robber seized me, he the Phrygian, — Happened have many things, which people far and wide So fain relate, but which so fain hears not the one Of whom the legend rose, and to a fable grew. CHORUS. Disdain thou not, beautiful Dame, Possession proud of the highest estate ! For the greatest fortune is thine alone. The fame of beauty that towers o'er all. The name of the hero heralds his path, Thence proudly he strides; Yet bends at once the stubbomest man, And yields to all-conquering Beauty's might HELENA. • Enough, with mine own spouse have I been hither shipped, And now by him beforehand to his city sent j 134 FAUST, Yet what his purposes may be, I fail to guess. Do I come here as wife? Or do I come as queen T Or come, an offering for the Prince's bitter pain, And for the long-endured misfortune of the Greeks T For they, the Immortals, verily fixed my Fame and Fate Ambiguously, attendants twain of doubtful worth To Beauty, who upon this very threshold stand With gloomy and with threatening presence at my side. Then, even, in the hollow ship, but seldom looked My spouse on me, nor ever word of comfort spake : As if he brooded evil, fronting me he sat. But now, when speeding towards the strand of that deep cove Eurotas makes, scarce had the foremost vessek' prows The land saluted, than he spake, as urged the Gk)ds : "Here, in their ordered rank, my warriors disembark ; Them shall I muster, ranged along the ocean-strand. But thou go ever onwards, up the hallowed banks Of fair Eurotas, dowered with gifts of plenteous fruit. Guiding the stallions o'er the bloom of watery meads, Till there, on that most lovely plain thy journey ends, Where Lacedemon, once a fruitful spreading field, Surrounded by austerest mountains, built its seat. Set thou thy foot within the high-towered princely House, And muster well the maids, whom there behind I left, Together with the old and faithful Stewardess. Let her display to thee the wealth of treasures stored, Even as thy father them bequeathed, and I myself, In war and peace accumulating, have amassed. All things shalt thou in ancient order find : because It is the Ruler's privilege, that he all things In faithful keeping find, returning to his house, — Where'er he may have left it, each thing in its place ; For power to change in aught possesses not the slave." CHORUS. Let now the splendid, accumulate wealth Rejoice and cheer thee, in eye and heart! For the gleam of chain and the glory of crown ACT in. 135 Are lying idly in haughty repose : But enter thou in and challenge them all, And they will respond. I rejoice to witness Beauty compete With gold and pearl and the jewel-stone. HELENA. Thereafter further came my lord's imperious speech : ''Now when all things in order thou inspected hast, Then take so many tripods as thou needful deem'st, And vessels manifold, such as desires at hand Who offers to the Gods,, fulfilling holy use, — The kettles, also howls, the shallow hasin's disk ; The purest water from the sacred fountain fill In lofty urns; and further, also ready hold The well-dried wood that rapidly accepts the flame ; And let the knife, well-sharpened, fail not finally; Yet all besides will I relinquish to thy care." So spake he, urging my departure ; but no thing Of living breath did he, who ordered thus, appoint, That shall, to honor the Olympian Gods, be slain. 'T is critical ; and yet I banish further care. And let all things be now to the high Gods referred. Who that fulfil, whereto their minds may be disposed, Whether by men 't is counted good, or whether bad ; In either case we mortals, we are doomed to bear. Already lifted oft the Offerer the axe In consecration o'er the bowed neck of the beast. And could not consummate the act ; for enemies Approaching, or Gods intervening, hindered him. CHORUS. What shall happen, imagin'st thou not. Queen, go forwards With courage! Blessing and evil come ' Unexpected to men : Though announced, yet we do not believe. Burned not Hion, saw we not also Death in the face, shamefullest death? And are we not here, 136 FAUST. With thee companioned, joyously serving, Seeing the dazzling sun in the heavens, And the fairest of earth, too, — Eandest one, thee, — ^we, the happy t HELENA. Let come, what may ! Whatever awaits me, it beseems That I without delay go up in the Royal House, Which, long my need and yearning, forfeited almost. Once more hath risen on my sight, I know not how. My feet no longer bear me with such fearlessness Up the high steps, which as a child I sprang across. CHORUS. Cast ye, sisters ! ye Sorrowful captives, All your trouble far from ye ! Your mistress's joy partake, Helena's joy partake. Who the paternal hearth Delightedly now is approaching. Truly with late-returning But with firmer and surer feet! Praise ye the sacredest. Still re-establishing And home-bringing Immortals! How the delivered one Soars as on lifted wings Over asperities, while in vain The prisoned one, yearningly, Over the fortress-parapet Pineth with outspread arms! But a God took hold of her, The Expatriate, And from Ilion's ruins Hither hath borne her again. To the ancient, the newly embellished Paternal house. From unspeakable ACT III. 137 Raptures and torments, Early youthful days, Now refreshed, to remember. PANTHALIS (as LEADER OP THE ChOBUS). Forsake ye now the joy-encompassed path of Song, And toward's the portal's open valves your glances turn! What, Sisters, do I see T Retumeth not the Queen With swift and agitated step again to usT What is it now, great Queen, what could encounter thee To move and shake thee so, within thy house's halls, Instead of greeting! Thou canst not conceal the thing; For strong repulsion written on thy brow I see. And noble indignation, struggling with amaze. HELENA (who hcLS left the wings of the portal open, excitedly), A common fear beseemeth not the child of Zieus ; No lightly-passing hand of terror touches her ; But that fell Horror, which the womb of ancient Night With first of things delivered, rolled through many forms. Like glowing clouds that from the mountain's fiery throat Whirl up expanding, even heroes' breasts may shake. Thus terribly have here to-day the Stygian Gods Mine entrance in the house betokened, and I fain. Even as a guest dismissed^ would take myself away From this oft-trodden threshold I so longed to tread. But, no ! hither have I retreated to the light ; Nor further shall ye force me. Powers, be who ye may ! Some consecration will I muse : then, purified. The hearth-fire may the wife so welcome, as the lord. LEADER OF THE CHORUS. Discover, noble Dame, unto thy servants here, Who reverently assist thee, what hath come to pass. HELENA. What I beheldi shall ye with your own eyes behold, 138 FAUST. If now that shape the ancient Night hath not at once Re-swallowed to the wonders of her deepest breast. But I with words will yet declare it, that ye know. When solemnly, my nearest duty borne in mind, The Royal House's gloomy inner court I trod, Amazed I saw the silent, dreary corridors. No sound of diligent labor, going forwards, met The ear, no sig^s of prompt and busy haste the eye; And not a maid appeared to me, no stewardess Such as is wont to greet the stranger, friendly-wise. But when towards the ample hearth-stone I advanced, I saw, beside the glimmering ashes that remained, A veiled and giant woman seated on the ground. Not like to one who sleeps, but one deep-sunk in thought. With words of stern command I summoned her to work, The stewardess surmising, who meanwhile, perchance, My spouse with forethought there had stationed when he left; But she, still crouched together, sat immovable. Stirred by my threats at last, she lifted the right arm As if from hearth and hall she beckoned me away. I turned indignantly from her, and swiftly sped Unto the steps whereon aloft the Thalamos Adorned is set, and near thereto the treasure-room : But suddenly from the floor the wondrous figure sprang. Barring my way imperiously, and showed herself In haggard height, with hollow, blood-discolored eyes, A shape so strange that eye and mind confounded are. But to the winds I speak : for all in vain doth Speech Fatigue itself, creatively to build up forms. There look, yourselves! She even ventures forth to Hght! Here are we masters, till the lord and king shall come. The horrid births of Night doth Phoebus, Beauty's friend, Drive out of sight to caverns, or he binds them fast. (Phorkyas appears on the threshold, between the door-posts.) ACT III. 139 CHORUS. Much my experience, although the tresses, Youthfully clustering, wave on my temples ; Many the terrible things I have witnessed, Warriors lamenting, Hion's night, When it fell. Through the beclouded, dusty and maddened Throngs of the combatants, heard I the Gk>ds then Terribly calling, heard I the iron Accents of Discord clang through the field, City-wards. Ah, yet stood they, Hion's Ramparts ; but ever the fiery glow Ban from neighbor to neighbor walls. Ever extending from here and there. With the roar of its own storm, Over the darkening city. Flying saw I, through smoke and flame. And the tongues of the blinding fire. Fearful angering presence of Gods, Stalking marvellous figures. Giant-great, through the gloomy Fire-illuminate vapors. Saw I, or was it but Dread of the mind, that fashioned Forms so affrighting t Never can Justly I say itt Yet that I Her, Horrible, here with eyes behold. Is to me known and certain : Even to my hand were palpable, Did not the terror restrain me, Holding me back from the danger. Which one of Phorkys' Daughters then art thouT Since I compare thee Unto that family. 140 FAUST. Art thou, perchance, of the Grai», One of the dreaded gray-bom, One eye and tooth only Owning alternately? Darest thou, Monster, Here beside Beauty, Unto high Phoebus' Vision display thee? Step thou forth, notwithstanding! For the Ugly beholds he not, Even as his hallowed glances Never beheld the shadow. Yet a sorrowful adverse fate, Us mortals compelleth, alas ! To endure the unspeakable eye-pain Which She, the accurst, reprehensible, Provokes in the lovers of Beauty. Yes, then hearken, if thou brazenly Us shalt encounter, hear the curse, — Hear the threat of every abuse From the denouncing mouths of the Fortunate, Whom the Gods themselves have fashioned ! PHORKYAS. Old is the saw, and yet its sense is high and true. That Shame and Beauty ne'er together, hand in hand, Pursued their way across the green domains of Earth. Deep-rooted dwells in both such force of ancient hate, That wheresoever on their way one haps to meet The other, each upon her rival turns her back : Then forth again vehemently they hasten on. Shame deep depressed, but Beauty insolent and bold. Till her at last the hollow night of Orcus takes, If Age hath not beforehand fully tamed her pride. So now I find ye, shameless ones, come from abroad With arrogance overflowing, as a file of cranes That with their hoarse, far-sounding clangor high in air, ACT III. 141 A dondy liney slow-moTing, send their creakmg tones Belowy the k>ney belated wanderer to allure That he look up; but, nothwithstanding, go their way, And he goes his: and likewise wiU it be, with ns. Who, then, are you, that round the Royal Palace high Like Mamads wild, or like Bacchantes, dare to ravet Who, then, are you, that you the House's stewardess Assail and hoid at, as the breed of dogs the moont Think ye from me 't is hidden, of what race ye areT Ye brood, in war b^;otten and in battle bred, Lustful of man, seducing no less than seduced. Emasculating soldiers', burghers' strength alike! Methinks, to see your crowd, a thick cicada-swarm Hath settled on us, covering the green-sown fields. Devourers ye of others' toil ! Ye snatch and taste. Destroying in its bud the land's prosperity! Wares are ye, plundered, bartered, and in market sold ! HELENA. Who rates the servant-maids in presence of the Dame Audaciously invades the Mistress' household-right: Her only it becometh to commend what is Praiseworthy, as to punish what is blamable. Content, moreover, am I with the service which They g^ve me, when the lofty strength of Ilion Beleaguered stood, and fell in ruin : none the less When we the so rr ow fu l and devious hardships bore Of errant travel, where each thinks but of himself. Here, too, the like from this gay throng do I ex]>ect: Not what the slave is, asks the lord, but how he serves. Therefore be silent, cease to grin and jeer at them! If thou the Palace hitherto hast guarded well In place of Mistress, so much to thy credit stands ; But now that she herself hath come, shouldst thou retire Lest punishment, in place of pay deserved, befall ! PHORKYAS. To threaten the domestics is a right assured, Which she, the spouse august of the Grod-prospere king, By many years of wise discretion well hath earned. 142 FAUST. Since thotti now recognized, thine ancient station here Again assum'st, as Queen and Mistress of the House, Grasp thou the reigns so long relaxed, be ruler now» Take in thy keep the treasure, and ourselves thereto ! But first of all protect me, who the eldest am, From this pert throng, who with thee. Swan of Beauty matched. Are only stumpy-winged and cackling, quacking geese. LEADiat OF THE CHORUS. How ugly, near to Beauty, showeth Ugliness ! PHORKTAS. How silly, near to understanding want of sense! {Henceforth the Chorktids answer in turn, stepping singly forth from the Chorus.) CHORETID I. Of Father Erebus relate, relate of Mother Night! PHORKYAS. Speak thou of Scylla, sister-children of one flesh ! CHORETID II. Gk>od store of hideous monsters shows thy family tree ! PHORKYAS. Go down to Orcus ! There thy tribe and kindred seek 1 CHORETID III. Those who dwell there are all by far too young for thee. PHORKYAS. On old Tiresias try thy lascivious arts ! CHORETID IV. Orion's nurse was great-great-grandchild unto thee! PHORKYAS. Thee harpies, I suspect, did nurse and feed on filth. CHORETID V. Wherewith dost thou such choice emaciation feedt ACT III. 148 PHORKYAS. Not with the blood, for which thou all too greedy art. CHORETID VI. Thou, hungering for corpses, hideous corpse thyself! PHORKYAS. The teeth of vampires in thy shameless muzzle shine ! IJ5ADI«R OF THE CHORUS. Thine shall I stop, when I declare thee who thou art. PHORKYAS. Then name thyself the first! The riddle thus is solved. HELENA. Not angered, but in sorrow, do I intervene, Prohibiting the storm of this alternate strife ! For nothing more injurious meets the ruling lord Than quarrels of his faithful servants, imderhand. The echo of his orders tTien returns no more Accordantly to him in swiftly finished acts, But, roaring wilfully, encompasses with storm Him, self -confused, and chiding to the empty air. Nor this alone : in most unmannered anger ye Have conjured hither pictures of the shapes of dread, Which so surround me, that to Orcus now I feel My being whirled, despite these well-known native fields. Can it be memory? Was it fancy, seizing met Was all that, It and am I, nowt and shall I hence- forth be The dream and terror of those town-destroying onest I see the maidens shudder : but, the eldest, thou Composedly standest — speak a word of sense to me! PHORKYAS. Whoe'er the fortune manifold of years recalls. Sees as a dream at last the favor of the Qods, But thou, so highly dowered, so past all measure helped, Saw'st in the ranks of life but love-desirous men. 144 FAUST. To every boldest hazard kindled soon and spurred. Thee early Theseus snatched, excited by desire, Like Heracles in strength, a splendid form of man. HELENA. He bore me forth, a ten-year-old and slender roe, And shut me in Aphidnus' tower, in Attica. PHORKYAS. But then, by Castor and by Pollux soon released, The choicest crowd of heroes, wooing, round thee pressed. HELENA, Yet most my secret favor, freely I confess, Patroclus won, the likeness of Pelides he. PHORKYAS. Wed by thy father's will to Menelaus then, The bold sea-rover, the sustainer of his house. HELENA. My sire the daughter gave him, and the government : Then from our wedded nearness sprang Hermione. PHORKYAS. Yet when he boldly claimed the heritage of Crete, To thee, the lonely one, too fair a guest appeared. HELENA. Why wilt thou thus recall that semi-widowhood, And all the hideous ruin it entailed on met PHORKYAS. To me, a free-born Cretan, did that journey bring Imprisonment, as well, — protracted slavery. HELENA. At once he hither ordered thee as stewardess. Giving in charge the fortress and the treasure-stores. ACT III. 145 PHORKYAS. Which thou forsookest, wending to the towered town Of Ilion, and the unexhausted joys of love. HELENA. Name not those joys to me I for sorrow all too stern Unendingly was poured upon my breast and brain. PHORKYAS. Nathless, they say, dost thou appear in double form; Beheld in Ilion, — ^in Egypt, too, beheld. HELENA. Make wholly not confused my clouded, wandering sense! Even in this moment, who I am I cannot tell. PHORKYAS. And then, they say, from out the hollow Realm ?»f Shades Achilles yet was joined in passion unto thee. Who earlier loved thee, /gainst all ordinances of Fate ! HELENA. To him, the Vision, I, a Vision, wed myself : It was a dream, as even the words themselves declare. I vanish hence, and to myself a Vision grow. {She sinks into the arms of the Semichorus.) CHORUS. Silence! silence! False-seeing one, false-speaking one! Out of the hideous, single-toothed Mouth, what should be exhaled from Such abominable horror-throat! For th^ Malevolent, seeming benevolent, — Wolf's wrath under the sheep's woolly fleece, — Fearf uller far is unto me than Throat of the three-headed dog. Anxiously listening stand we here. Whent how? where shall break again forth 146 FAUST. Further malice From the deeply-ambushed monster T Now, stead of friendly words and consoling, Lethe-bestowing, gratefully mild, Stirrest thou up from all the Past EviUest more than good things, And darkenest all at once Both the gleam of the Present And also the Future's Sweetly glimmering dawn of hope! Silence! silence! That the Queen's high spirit. Nigh to forsake her now. Hold out, and upbear yet The Form of all f omts Which the sun shone on ever. (Helena has recovered, and stands again in the centre.) PH0RKTA8. Forth from transient vapors comes the lofty sun of this bright day. That, obscured, could so delight us, but in splendor dazzles now. As the world to thee is lovely, thou art lovely unto us ; Though as ugly they revile me, well I know the Beautiful. HELENA. Tottering step I from the Void that — dizzy, fainting, — round me closed; And again would fain be resting, for so weary are my limbs. Yet to Queens beseemeth chiefly, as to all men it beseems. Calm to be, and pluck up courage, whatsoe'er may menace them. PHORKYAS. Standing now in all thy greatness, and in all thy beauty, here. ACT III. 147 Says thine eye that thon commandest: what oom- mand'st thont speak it out! HELENA. Be prepared, for mneh neglected in your quarrel, to atone! Haste, a sacrifice to furnish, as the king hath ordered me! PHORKYAS. All is ready in the palace — ^vessels, tripods, sharpened axe, For the sprinkling, fumigating: show to me the vic- tim now! HELENA. This the king not indicated. PHORKYAS. Spake it nott O word of woe ! HELENA. What distress hath overcome theeT PHORKYAS. Queen, the offering art thou ! It And these. HELENA. PHORKYAS. CHORUS. Ah, woe and sorrow! PHORKYAS. Thou shalt fall beneath the axe. HELENA. Fearful, yet foreboded! I, alas! PHORKYAS. There seemeth no escape. 148 FAUST. CHORUS. Ah! and what to us will happen T PHORKYAS. She will die a noble death ; But upon the lofty beam, upholding rafter-frame and roof, As in birding-time the throstles, ye in turn shall strug- gling hang ! ( Helena and the Chorus stand amazed and alarmed, in striking, well-arranged groups,) PHORKYAS. Ye Phantoms ! — ^like to frozen images ye stand, In terror thus from Day to part, which is not yours. Men, and the race of spectres like you, one and all. Renounce not willingly the bright beams of the sun ; But from the end may none implore or rescue them. All know it, yet 't is pleasant unto very few. Enough I ye all are lost : now speedily to work ! (She claps her hands; thereupon appear in the door- way muffl'^d dwarfish forms, which at once carry out with alacrity the commands expressed,) This way, ye gloomy, sphery-bodied monster throng! Roll hitherwards ! ye here may damage as ye will. The altar portable, the golden-homed, set up I The axe let shimmering lie across the silver rim ! The urns of water fill ! For soon, to wash away. Shall be the black blood's horrible and smutching stains. Here spread the costly carpets out upon the dust, That so the offering may kneel in queenly wise. And folded then, although with severed head, at once With decent dignity be granted sepulture! LEADER OP THE CHORUS. The Queen is standing, sunk in thought, beside us here, The maidens wither like the late-mown meadow grass ; Methinks that I, the eldest, in high duty bound, Should words exchange with thee, primeval eldest thou I ACT III, 149 Thou art experienced, wise, and seemest well-disposed, Although this brainless throng assailed thee in mistake. Declare then, if thou knowest, possible escape! PHORKYAS. 'T is easy said. Upon the Queen it rests alone. To save herself, and ye appendages with her. But resolution, and the swiftest, needful is. CHORUS. Worthiest and most reverend of the Parcse, wisest sibyl thou, Hold the golden shears yet open, then declare us Day and Help! We already feel discomfort of the soaring, swinging, struggling; And our limbs in dances first would rather move in joyous cadence. Resting afterwards on lovers' breasts. HELENA. Let these be timid I Pain I feel, but terror none ; Yet if thou know'st of rescue, grateful I accept! Unto the wise, wide-seeing mind is verily shown The Impossible oft as possible. Then speak, and say ! CHORUS. Speak and tell us, tell us quickly, how escape we now the fearful. Fatal nooses, that so menace, like the vilest form of necklace. Wound about our tender throats? Already, in antici. pation, We can feel the choking, smothering — if thou, Rhea, lofty Mother Of the Gods, to mercy be not moved. PHORKYAS. Have you then patience, such long-winded course of speech To hear in silence? Manifold the stories are. 150 FAUST. CHORUS. Patience enough ! Meanwhile, in hearing, still we live. PHOEKYAS. WhosOy to guard his noble wealth, abides at home, And in his lofty dwelling well cements the chinks And also from the pelting rain secures the roof, With him, the long days of his life, shall all be well : But whosoe'er his threshold's holy square-hewn stone Lightly with flying foot and guil^ oversteps, Finds, when he comes again, tlie ancient place, indeed. But all things altered, if not utterly overthrown. HELENA. Wherefore declaim such well-known sayings here; as these T Thou wouldst narrate: then stir not up annoying themes ! PHORKTAS. It is hisitoric truth, and nowise a reproach. Sea-plundering, Menelaus steered from bay to bay; He skirted as a foe the islands and the shores, Returning with the booty, which in yonder rusts. Then ten long years he passed in front of Ilion ; But for the voyage home how many know I not. And now how is it, where we stand by Tyndarus' Exalted House T Hov is it with the regions round t HELENA. Has then Abuse become incarnated in thee. That canst not open once thy lips, except to blame T PHORKYAS. So many years deserted stood the valley-hills That in the rear of Sparta northwards rise aloft, Behind Taygetus; whence, as yet a nimble brook, Eurotas downward rolls, and then, along our vale By reed-beds broadly flowing, nourishes your swans. Behind there in the mountain-dells a daring breed Have settled, pressing forth from the Cimmerian Night, And there have built a fortress inaccessible. ACT III, 151 Whence land and people now they harry, as they please. ^ HELEKA. Have they accomplished thatT Impossible it seems. PHORKYAS. They had the time : it may be twenty years, in all. HELENA. Is one a Chief? and are they robbers many — leagued T PHORKYAS. Not robbers are they ; yet of many one is Chief : I blame him not, although on me he also fell. He might, indeed, have taken all ; yet was content With some free-gifts, he said : tribute he called it not. HELENA. How looked the manT PHORKYAS. By no means ill : he pleased me well. Cheerful and brave and bold, and nobly-formed is he, A prudent man and wise, as few among the Greeks. They call the race Barbarians; yet I question much If one so cruel be, as there by Ilion In man-devouring rage so many heroes were; His greatness I respected, did confide in him. And then, his fortress! That should ye yourselves behold! T is something other than unwieldy masonry, The which your fathers, helter-skelter tumbling, piled,--- Cyclopean like the Cyclops, stones undressed at once On stones undressed upheaving : there, however, there All plumb and balanced is, conformed to square and rule. Behold it from without I It rises heavenward up So hard, so tight of joint, and mirror-smooth as steel. To climb up there — nay, even your Thought itself slides off! And mighty courts of ample space within, enclosed 152 FAUST, Around with structures of all character and use. There you see pillars, pillarets, arches great arid small, Balconies, galleries for looking out and in, And coats of arms. CHORUS. What are they? PHOBKYAS. Ajax surely bore A twisted serpent on his shield, as ye have seen. The Seven also before Thebes had images, Each one upon his shield, with many meanings rich. One saw there moon and star on the nocturnal sky. And goddesses, and heroes, ladders, torches, swords, And whatsoe'er afflicting threateneth good towns. Such symbols also bore our own heroic band, In shining tints, bequeathed from eldest ancestry. You see there lions, eagles, likewise claws and beaks. Then buffalo-horns, with wings and roses, peacock's- tails. And also bars — gold, black and silver, blue and red. The like of these in halls are hanging, row on row, — In halls unlimited and spacious as the world : There might ye dance ! CHORUS. But tell us, are there dancers there t PHORKYAS. Ay, and the best ! — a blooming, gold-haired throng of boys. Breathing ambrosial youth I So only Paris breathed. When he approached too nearly to the Queen. HELENA. Thou f all'st Entirely from thy part : speak now the final word I PHORKYAS. 'Tis thou shalt speak it: say with grave distinctness, Yes! Then straight will I surround thee with that fortress. ACT III, 153 CHORUS. Speak, speak the one brief word, and save thyself and ns! HELENA. What ! Shall I fear King Menelaus may transgress So most inhumanly, as thus to smite myself? PHOBKYAS. Hast thou forgotten how he thy Deiphobus, Brother of fallen Paris, who with stubborn claim Took thee, the widow, as his fere, did visit with Unheard-of mutilation? Nose and ears he cropped, And otherwise disfigured : 't was a dread to see. HELENA. That did he unto him : he did it for my sake. PHORKTAS. Because of him he now will do the like to thee. Beauty is indivisible : who once possessed Her wholly, rather slays than only share in part. ( Trumpets in the distance : the Chorus starts in terror. ) Even as the trumpet's piercing clangor gripes and tears The ear and entrail-nerves, thus Jealousy her claws Drives in the bosom of the man, who ne'er forgets What once was his, but now is lost, possessed no more. CHORUS. Hear'st thou not the trumpets pealing? see'st thou not the shine of swords? PHORKYAS. King and Lord, be welcome hither! willing reckoning will I give. CHORUS. What of us? PHORKYAS. You know it clearly, see her death before your eyes ; There, within, your own shall follow : nay, there is no help for you! 154 FAUST. Pause. HELENA. What I may venture first to do, have I devised. A hostile DsBmon art thou, that I feel full well, And much I fear thou wilt convert the Good to Bad. But first to yonder fortress now I follow thee ; What then shall come, I know : but what the Queen thereby As mystery in her aeepest bosom may conceal, Remain unguessed by all! Now, Ancient, lead the way! CHORUS. O how gladly we go. Hastening thither! Chasing us, Death, And, rising before us. The towering castle's Inaccessible ramparts. Guard us as well may they As Ilion's citadel-fort. Which at last alone Fell, through contemptible wiles! {Mists arise and spread, obscuring the background, also the nearer portion of the scene, at pleasure.) How is itf howf Sisters, look around I Was it not cheerfuUest dayf Banded vapors are hovering up Out of Eurotas' holy stream; Vanished e'en now hath the lovely Reed-engarlanded shore from the sight, Likewise the free, gracefully-proud, Silently floating swans, Mated in joy of their swimming, See I, alas ! no more. Still— but still Crying, I hear them. Hoarsely crying afar! ACT in. 156 Ominous, death-presaging I Ah, may to us the tones not also, Stead of deliverance promised. Ruin announce at the last I — Us, the swan-like and slender, Long white-throated, and She, Our fair swan-begotten. Woe to us, woe! All is covered and hid Round us with vapor and cloud : Each other behold we not! What happens? do we advance? Hover we only with Skipping footstep along the ground? Seest thou naught? Soars not even, perchance, Hermes before us ? Shines not the golden wand, Bidding, commanding us back again To the cheerless, gray-twilighted, Full of impalpable phantoms. Over-filled, eternally empty Hades? Yes, at once the air is gloomy, sunless vanish now the vapors, Gray and darkly, brown as buildings. Walls present themselves before us. Blank against our clearer vision. Is 't a court? a moat, or pitfaU? Fear-inspiring, any way! and Sisters, ah, behold us prisoned, — Prisoned now, as ne'er before I (Inner court-yard of a Cctstle, surrounded with riehf fantastic buildings of the Middle Ages,) LEADER OF THE CHORUS. Precipitate and foolish, type of women ye I Dependent on the moment, sport of every breeze That blows mischance or luck I and neither ever ye Supported calmly. One is sure to contradict The others fiercely, and. cross-wise the others hers 156 FAUST, Only in joy and pain ye howl and laugh alike. Be silent now, and hearken what the Mistress here, High-thoughted, may determine for herself and ns! HELENA. Where art thou, Pythoness ? Whatever be thy name, Step -forth from out these arches of the gloomy keep ! If thou didst go, unto the wondrous hero-lord Me to announce, preparing thus reception fit, Then take my thanks, and lead me speedily to him ! I wish the wandering closed, I wish for rest alone. LEADER OF THE CHORUS. In vain thou lookest, Queen, all ways around thee here; That fatal shape hath vanished hence, perhaps re- mained There in the mists, from out whose bosom hither- wards — I know not how — ^we came, swiftly, without a step. Perhaps, indeed, she strays, lost in the labyrinth Of many castles wondrously combined in one. Seeking august and princely welcome from the lord. But see I up yonder moves in readiness a crowd : In galleries, at windows, through the portals, comes A multitude of servants, hastening here and there ; And this proclaims distinguished welcome to the guest. CHORUS. My heart is relieved I 0, yonder behold How so orderly downward with lingering step The crowd of the youths in dignity comes. In regular march! Who hath given command That they marshal in ranks, and so promptly disposed, The youthfullest boys of the beautiful race? What shall most I admire? Is 't the delicate gait, Or the curls of the hair on the white of the brow, Or the twin-rounded cheeks, blushing red like the peach. And also, like them, with the silkiest downt Fain therein would I bite, yet I fear me to try ; ^ ACT III. 157 For, in similar case, was the mouth thereupon Filled — I shudder to tell it f— with ashes. But they, the fairest, Hither they come : What do they bear? Steps to the throne Carpet and seat, Curtain and tent. Or similar gear; Waving around, and Cloudy wreaths forming O'er the head of our Queen; For she already ascendeth. Invited, the sumptuous couch. Come forward, now. Step by step. Solemnly ranged! Worthy, 0, threefold worthy her, May such a reception be blessed ! • (All that is described by the Chorus takes place by degrees. After the boys and squires have descended in a long procession, Faust appears above, at the head of the staircase, in knightly Court costume of the Middle Ages, and then comes down slowly and with dignity,) LIIADER OF THE CHORUS (observing him attentively). If now, indeed, the Gods to this man have not lent— ^ As oft they do to men — a brave, transcendent form, A winning presence, stately dignity of mien, For temporary service, all he undertakes Will always bring him triumph, whether in fight with men, Or in the minor wars with fairest ladies waged. Him, verily, to hosts of others I prefer. Whom, highly-famed withal, I have myself beheld. With slow and solemn step, by reverence restrained, I see the Prince approach: turn thou thy head, O Queen f 158 FAUST, FAUST (approciching : a man in fetters at his side). Instead of solemn greeting, as beseems, Or reverential welcome, bring I thee, Fast-bound in welded fetters, here, the knave Whose duty slighted cheated me of mine. Kneel down, thou Culprit, that this lofty Dame May hear the prompt confession of thy guilt! This, Sovereign Mistress, is the man select For piercing vision, on the turret high Stationed to look around, the space of heaven And breadth of earth to read with sharpest glance, If here or there perchance come aught to view, — Between the stronghold and the circling hills If aught may move, whether the billowy herds Or waves of armed men : those we protect. Encounter these. To-day — ^what negligence! Thou comest, he proclaims it not: we fail In honorable reception, most deserved. Of such high guest. Now forfeited hath he His guilty life, and should have shed the blood Of death deserved; but only thou shalt mete Pardon or punishment, at thy good will. HELENA. So high the power, which thou hast granted me. As Mistress and as Judge, although it were (I may conjecture) meant but as a test, — Yet now I use the Judge's bounden right To give the Accused a hearing : speak then, thou ! LYNCEUS, THE WARDEB OF THE TQWEB. Let me kneel, and let me view her, Let me live, or let me die ! For enslaved, devoted to her. This Gk>d-granted Dame, am I. Watching for the Mom's advancing Where her pathways eastward run. All at once, a sight entrancing, In the South arose the sun. ACT HI. 159 There to look, the Wonder drew me : Not the glens, the summits cold, Space of sky ,or landscape gloomy, — Only Her did I behold. Beam of sight to me was given, Like the lynx on highest tree; But in vain IVe urged and striven, 'T was a dream that fettered me. Could I know, or how be aided? Think of tower or bolted gate? Yapors rose and vapors faded, And the Goddess came in state I Eye and heart did I surrender To the softly-shining spell: Blinding all with Beauty's splendor, She hath blinded me, as well. I forgot the warder's duty And the trumpet's herald-call : Threaten to destroy me! Beauty Bindeth angers, frees her thrall. HELENA. The Evil which I brought, I dare no more Chastise. Ah, woe to me I What fate severe Pursues me, everywhere the breasts of men So to infatuate, that nor them, nor aught Besides of worth, they spare? Now plundering. Seducing, fighting, hurried to and fro. Heroes and Demigods, Gk>ds, Demons even. Hither and thither led me, sore-perplexed. Sole, I the world bewildered, doubly more; Now threefold, fourfold, woe on woe I bring. Remove this guiltless man, let him go free ! The (jk)d-deluded merits no disgrace. FAUST. Amazed, O Queen, do I behold alike i60 FAUST. The unerring archer and the stricken prey. I see the bow, wherefrom the arrow sped That wounded him. Arrows on arrows fly, And strike me. I suspect the feathered hum Of bolts cross-fired through all the courts and towers. What am I now? At once rebellious thou Makest my faithfullest, and insecure My walls. Thence do I fear that even my hosts Obey the conquering and unconquered Dame. What else remains, but that I give to thee Myself, and all I vainly fancied mine? Let me, before thy feet, in fealty true. Thee now acknowledge, Lady, whose approach Won thee at once possession and the throne ! LYNCEUS (vnth a chest, and men who follow, bearing others). Thou seest me, Queen, returned and free! The wealthy begs a glance from thee: Thee he beheld, and feeleth, since. As beggar poor, yet rich as prince. What was I erst? What now am I? What shall I will? — what do, or try? What boots the eyesight's sharpest ray? Back from thy throne it bounds away. Forth from the East we hither pressed, And all was over with the West: So long and broad the people massed, The foremost knew not of the last. The foremost fell, the second stood; The third one's lance was prompt and good ; Each one a hundred's strength supplied : Unnoted, thousands fell and died. We onward pressed, in stormy chase; The lords were we from place to place ; And where, to-day, I ruled as chief. The morrow brought another thief. ACT III. 161 We viewed the ground, but viewed in haste: The fairest woman one embraced, One took the oxen from the stall ; The horses followed, one and all. But my delight was to espy What rarest was, to mind and eye; And all that others might amass To me was so much withered grass. I hunted on the treasure-trail Where'er sharp sight could me avail : In every pocket did I see. And every chest was glass to me. And heaps of gold I came to own. With many a splendid jewel-stone: The emeralds only worthy seem Greenly upon thy breast to gleam. 'Twixt lip and ear let swaying sleep The pearly egg of Ocean's deep ; Such place the rubies dare not seek, They're blanched beside the rosy cheek. And thus, the treasure's offering I here before thy presence bring: Laid at thy feet, be now revealed The spoils of many a bloody field! Though I have brought of chests a store. Yet iron caskets have I more. Let me attend thee, do thy will. And I thy treasure-vaults will fill. For scarcely didst thou mount the throne. Than bowed to own and bent to own Thy Beauty's sway, that very hour, Wisdom, and Wealth, and soverign Power. All such I held secure, as mine; Now freed therefrom, behold it thine! 162 FAUST, I deemed its worth and value plain ; Now see I, it was null and vain. What I possessed from me doth pass. Dispersed like mown and withered grass. One bright and beauteous glance afford, And all its worth is straight restored I FAUST. Remove with speed the burden boldly won, Not blamed, indeed, but neither with reward. All is her own already, which the keep Within it holds ; and special offer thus Is useless. Go, and pile up wealth on wealth In order fit ! Present the show august Of splendors yet unseen ! The vaulted halls Make shine like clearest heaven! Let Paradise From lifeless pomp of life created be I Hastening, before her footsteps be unrolled The flower-embroidered carpets I Let her tread Fall on the softest footing, and her glance, Gods only bear undazed, on proudest pomp ! LTNCEUS. What the lord commands is slight; For the servants, labor light : Over wealth and blood and breath This ptoud Beauty govemeth. Lol thy warrior-throngs are tame; All the swords are blunt and lame; Near the bright form we behold Even the sun is pale and cold; Near the riches of her face All things empty, shorn of grace. HELENA {to Faust). Fain to discourse with thee, I bid thee come Up hither to my side! The empty place Invites its lord, and thus secures me mine. paust. First, kneeling, let the dedication be ACT III. 163 Accepted, lofty Lady I Let me kiss The gracious hand that lifts me to thy side. Confirm me as co-regent of thy realm, Whose borders are unknown, and win for thee Guard, slave and worshipper, and all in one! HELENA. I hear and witness marvels manifold ; Amazement takes me, much would I inquire. Yet now instruct me wherefore spake the man With strangely-sounding speech, friendly and strange : Each sound appeared as yielding to the next, And, when a word gave pleasure to the ear, Another came, caressing then the first. FAUST. If thee our people's mode of speech delight, O thou shalt be enraptured with our song. Which wholly satisfies both ear and mind ! But it were best we exercise it now: Alternate speech entices, calls it forth. HELENA. Canst thou to me that lovely speech impart? FAUST. T is easy: it must issue from the heart; And if the breast with yearning overflow. One looks around, and asks — HELENA. Who shares the glow. FAUST. Nor Past nor Future shades an hour like this; But wholly in the Present — HELENA. Is our bliss. FAUST. Gain, pledge, and fortune in the Present stand : What confirmation does it askt 164 FAUST. HELENA. My hand. CHORUS. Who would take it amiss, that our Prin<;e8s Granteth now to the Castle's lord Friendliest demonstration? For, indeed, collectively are we Captives, as ofttimes already, Since the infamous downfall Of Hion, and the perilous, Labyrinthine, sorrowful voyage. Women, to the love of men accustomed. Dainty choosers are they not. But proficients skilful; And unto golden-haired shepherds, Perchance black, bristly Fauns, too, Even as comes opportunity. Unto the limbs in their vigor Fully award they an equal right. Near, and nearer already sit They, to each other drawn. Shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee; Hand in hand, they bend and sway Over the throne's Softly-pillowed, luxurious pomp. Majesty here not withholds its Secretest raptures. Wilfully, boldly, revealed Thus to the eyes of the people. HELENA. I feel so far away, and yet so near; And am so fain to say : "Here am I ! here." FAUST. I scarcely breathe ; I tremble ; speech is dead : It is a dream, and day and place have fled. HELENA. I seem as life were done, and yet so new, Blent thus with thee, — to thee, the Unknown, true! ACT in. 16S FAUST. To probe this rarest fate be not impelled! Being is duty, though a moment held. PHORKYAS {violently entering). Spell in lovers' primers sweetly! Probe and dally, cosset featly, Test your wanton sport completely ! But there is not time, nor place. Feel ye not the gloomy presage? Hear ye not the trumpet's message? For the ruin comes apace. Menelaus with his legions Storms across the hither regions; Call to battle all your race! By the victors execrated, Like Deiphobus mutilated, Thou shalt pay for woman's grace: First shall dangle every light one, At the altar, then, the Bright One Find the keen axe in its place ! FAUST. Disturbance rash ! repulsively she presses in ; Not even in danger meet is senseless violence. HI message makes the fairest herald ugly seem; Thou, Ugliest, delightest but in evil news. Yet this time shalt thou not succeed; with empty breath Stir, shatter thou the air ! There is no danger here. And unto us were danger but an idle threat. (Signals, explosions from the towers, trumpets and cornets, martial music. A powerful armed force marches past.) No ! hero-bands, none ever braver, At once shalt thou assembled see : He, sole, deserves the ladies' favor. Whose arm defends them gallantly. (To the leaders of the troops, \vho detach themselves from the columns, and come fonoards.) 166 FAUST. With rage restrained, in silence banded. And certain of the victory-feast, Ye, Northern blossoms, half expanded. Ye, flowery fervors of the East! The light upon their armor breaking. They plundered realm on realm, at will : They come, and lo! the earth is quaking; They march away, it thunders still! In Pylos we forsook the waters; The ancient Nestor is no more. And soon our lawless army scatters The troops of kings on Grecian shore. Back from these walls, no more delaying. Drive Menelaus to the sea! There let him wander, robbing, slaying, As was his wish and destiny. I hail you Dukes, as forth ye sally Beneath the rule of Sparta's Queen! Now lay before her mount and valley. And you shall share the kingdom green! Thine, German, be the hand that forges Defence for Corinth and her bays: Achaia, with its hundred gorges, I give thee, Goth, to hold and raise. Towards Elis, Franks, direct your motion; Messene be the Saxon's state : The Norman claim and sweep the ocean. And Argolis again make great! Then each shall dwell in homes well-dowered. And only outer foemen meet; Yet still by Sparta over-towered, The Queen's ancestral, ancient seat. Each one shall she behold, abiding ACT III. 167 In lands that lack no liberal right; And at her feet ye'U seek, confiding, Your confirmation, law and light! (Faust descends from the throne : the Princes form a circle around him, in order to receive special com- mands and instructions,) CHORUS. Who for himself the Fairest desires. First of all things, let him Bravely and wisely a weapon acquire! Flattering, indeed, he may conquer What on earth is the highest ; But he quietly may not possess. Wily sneaks entice her away, Robbers boldly abduct her from him : This to hinder be he prepared ! Therefore now our Prince I praise. Holding him higher than others. Since he wisdom and strength combines, So that the strong men obedient stand, Waiting his every beckon. They his orders faithfully heed. Each for the profiting of himself As for the Ruler's rewarding thanks. And for the highest renown of both. For who shall tear her away Now, from the mighty possessor? His is she, and to him be she granted, Doubly granted by us, whom he, Even as her, within by sure walls hath suiTounded, And without by a powerful host. FAUST. The gifts they've won by our concession, — In fee to each a wealthy land, — Are grand and fair: grant them possession! We in the midst will take our stand. 168 FAUST. And they in livalry protect thee, Half -Island, girdled by the sea With whispering waves, — ^whose soft hill-chains con- nect thee With the last branch of Europe's mountain-tree! This land, before all lands in splendor. On every race shall bliss confer, — Which to my queen in glad surrender Yields, as it first looked up to her. When, 'mid Eurotas' whispering rushes She burst from Leda's purple shell. So blinding in her beauty's flushes, That mother, brothers, felt the spell! This land, which seeks thy sole direction. Its brightest bloom hath now unfurled: Prefer thy fatherland's affection To what is wholly thine, the world! And though upon its ridgy backs of mountains The Sun's cold arrow smites each cloven head. Yet, where the rock is greened by falling fountains. The wild-goat nibbles and is lightly fed. The springs leap forth, the streams united follow; Green are the gorges, slopes, and meads below : On hundred hillsides, cleft with many a hollow. Thou seest the woolly herds like scattered snow. Divided, cautious, graze with measured paces The cattle onward to the dizzy edge. Yet for them all are furnished sheltered places, Where countless caverns arch the rocky ledge. Pan guards them there, and nymphs of life are dwell- ing In bushy clefts, that moist and freshest be ; And yearningly to higher regions swelling, The branches crowd aloft of tree on tree. ACT in. 169 Primeval woods! the strong oak there is regnant, And bough crooks out from bough in stubborn state; The maple mild, with sweetest juices pregnant, Shoots cleanly up, and dallies with its weight. And motherly, in that still realm of shadows, The warm milk flows, for child's and lambkin's lips : At hand is fruit, the food of fertile meadows, And from the hollow trunk the honey drips. Here comfort is in birth transmitted ; To cheek and lip here joy is sent : Each is inmiortal in his station fitted, And all are healthy and content. And thus the child in that bright season gaineth The father-strength, as in a dream : We wonder; yet the question still remaineth. If they are men, when Gods they seem. So was Apollo shepherd-like in feature. That other shepherds were as fair and fleet; For where in such clear orbit moveth Nature, All worlds in inter-action meet. {Taking his seat beside her.) Thus hath success my fate and thine attended ; Henceforth behind us let the Past be furled! O, feel thyself from highest God descended! Foi' thou belongest to the primal world. Thy life shall circumscribe no fortress frowning! Still, in eternal youth, stands as it stood, For us, our stay with every rapture crowning, Arcadia in Sparta's neighborhood. To tread this happy soil at last incited. Thy flight was towards a joyous destiny! Now let our throne become a bower unblighted, Our bliss become Arcadian and free! [The scene of action is completely transformed. Against a range of rocky caverns close bowers are iro FAUST. constructed, A shadowy grove extends to the foot of the rocks which rise on all sides. FausTt and Helbka are not seen: the Chor0S lies scattered about, sleeping,] PHORKYAS. How long these maidens have been sleeping, know I not: If they allowed themselves to dream what now mine eyes So clearly saw, is equally unknown to me« Therefore, I wake them. They, the Young, shall be amazed, — Ye also. Bearded Ones, who git below and wait» — Solution of these marvels finally to see. Awake ! arise ! «id shake from off your lotka the dew, The slumber from your eyes! Listen, and cease to blink! CHORUS. Speak and tell us, quickly tell us, all the wonders that have happened! We shall hear with greater pleasure, if belief we can- not give it, For both eye and mind are weary, to behold these rocks alone. PHORKYAS. Children, you have hardly rubbed your eyes, and are you weary nowt Hear me, then! Within these caverns, in the grottos and the arbors. Screen and shelter have been lent, as unto twain idyllic lovers. To our Lord and to our Lady. CHORUS. Howt within there f PHORKYAS. Separated From the world, me only did tbey summon to their quiet service. ACT III. 171 Honored thus, I stood beside them, but, as fit in one so trusted, Looked arcmnd at something other, turning here and there at random, — Seeking roots, and bark, and mosses, being skilled in healing simples, — And the twain were left alone. CHORUS. Speakest thou as if within were spaces roomy as the world is: Wood and meadow, lakes and rivers, — what a fable dost thou spin I PHOBKTAS. Certainly, ye Inexperienced! Those are unexplored reeouies? Hall on hall, and court on court succeeding, musingly I tracked. All at once a laughter echoes through the spaces of the caverns; As I look, a Boy is leaping from the mother'a lap to father's. From the father to the mother : the caressing and the dandbng. Teasing pranks of silly fondness, cry of aport and shout of rapture, They, alternate, deafen me. He> a Qenius naked, wingless, like a Faun without the beasthood. Leaps upon the solid pavement: yet the pavemoat now reacting. Sends him flying high in air, and at the seoond bound or third, he Seems to graze the vaulted roof. Cries, disquieted, the mother: "Leap repeatedly, at pleasure. But beware of flying I for prohibited is flight to thee." And thus warns the faithful father : "Dwells in earth the force elastic Which thee upwards thus impelleth; touch but with thy toe the surf aoe, 172 FAUST, Like the son of Earth, Antaeus, straightway art thou strong again." So he springs upon the rocky masses, from a dizzy cornice To another, and around, as springs a ball when sharply struck. Yet, a-sudden, in a crevice of the hollow gulf he's van- ished, And it seemeth we have lost him I Mother mourns^ and father comforts. Shoulder-shrugging, anxiously I stand. But now, again, what vision! Are there treasures yonder hidden ? Garments striped with broidered blossoms Hath he worthily assumed. Tassels from his shoulders swaying, fillets flutter round his bosom, In his hand the golden lyre, completely like a little Phoebus, Cheerily to the brink he steps, the jutting edge: we stand astounded. And the parents in their rapture clasp each other to the heart. What around his head is shining? What it is, were hard to warrant, Whether golden gauds, or flame of all-subduing strength of soul. So he moves with stately gesture, even as boy himself proclaiming Future Master of all Beauty, all the melodies eternal Throbbing in his flesh and blood ; and you shall thus, delighted, hear him, — Thus shall you behold him, with a wonder never felt before! CHORUS. CalPst thou a marvel this, Greta's begotten? Poetic-didactical word Hast thou listened to never t Never yet hearkened Ionia's ACT III. 173 Never received also Hellas' (Godlike, heroical treasure Of ancient, primitive legends t AU that ever happens Now in the Present Mocks like a mournful echo The grander days of the Fathers. Not comparable is thy story Unto that loveliest falsehood, Than Truth more credible, Sung of the Son of Maial This strong and delicate, yet Scarcely delivered suckling, Swathe ye in purest downy bands, Bind ye in precious diapered stnfCs, As is the gossiping nurse's Unreasonable notion! Strongly and daintily draws, no less. Now the rogue the flexible. Firm yet elastic body Cunningly out, and leaveth the close. Purple, impeding shell Quietly there in its place. Like the completed butterfly. Which from the chilly chrysalid Nimbly, pinion-unfolding, slips, Boldly and wilfully fluttering through Sunshine-pervaded ether. So he, too, the sprightliest : That unto thieves and jugglers — All the seekers of profit, as well, — He the favorable Dasmon was. Did he speedily manifest By the skilf ullest artifice. Straight from the Ruler of Ocean stole He the trident — from Ares himself Slyly the sword from the scabbard; Arrows and bow from Phcebus, and then Tongs that Hephadstos was using. 174 FAUST, Even from Zeus^ the Fk^er, bolts hftd he Filched, had the fii« not mutud Mm. Eros, also, he orercame In leg-tripping wrestling match; Then from Cypris, as «he caressed him. Plundered the zone from her bosom. [An exquisite, purely milodiouB muHa of tMnged instruments ritounds from the casern* AU become attentive, and soon appear to be deeply moved. From this point to the pause desiynated, there is a fuU musical accompaniment.] PHORKTAS. Hark! the music, pure and golden; Free from fables be at last! All your Qods^ the medlejr olden, Let depart! their day is past. You no more are comprehended ; We i^squire a higher part: By the heart must be expended What shall work upon the heart. (She retires towards the rocks.) CfiORtJB. If the flattering music presses. Fearful Being, to thine ears. We, restored to healtii, eonfees us Softened to the joy of tears. Let the sun be missed from hea^eeuy When the soul is bright with mom! What the world has never given Now within our hearts is bom. ( Helena. Faust. Euphoriok in the costume edready described*) BUPRORION. Hear ye songs of childish pleamne^ Ye are moved to playful glee; ACT III, 176 Seeing me thus danee in measuiey Leap yonr hearts parentally. HELENA. Love, in human wise to bless us. In a noble Pair must be; But divinely to possess us, It must form a precious Three. FAuar. All we seek has therefore found us; I am thine and thou art mine! So we stand as Love hath bound us : Other fortune we rasiign. CHOBUS. Many years shall they, delighted, Gather from the shining boy Double bliss for hearts united: In their union what a joy! BUPROPION. Let me be skipping. Let me be leaping! To soar and circle. Through ether sweeping, Is now the passion That me hath won. FAUST. But gently! gently! Not rashly faring; Lest plunge and ruin Repay thy daring, Perchance destroy thee. Our daiiing son I BUPHOEION. I will not longer Stagnate below here I Let go my tresses. My hands let go, here! 176 FAUST. Let go my garments ! They all are mine. HELENA. think! Bethink thee To whom thou helongesti How it would grieve us, And how thou wrongest The fortune fairest, — Mine, His, and Thine! CHORUS. Soon shall, I fear me, The sweet bond untwine! HELENA AND FAUST. Curb, thou Unfortunate! For our desiring, Thine over-importunate Lofty aspiring! Rurally quiet, Brighten the plain ! EUPHORION. Since you will that I try it. My flight I restrain. (Winding in dance through the CmyRVS, and drawing them toith him,) Round them I hover free; Gay is the race: Is this the melody? Move I with grace t HELENA. Yes, that is featly done: Lead them through, every <mef Mazes of art! PAuar. Soon let it ended be I Sight of such jugglery Troubles my heart. ACT III. 177 CHORUS {toith EuPHORiOK^ dancing nimbly and singing, in interlinking ranks). When thou thine arms so fair Charmingly lif test, The curls of thy shining hair Shakest and shiftest; When thou, with foot so light, Btushest the earth in flight, Hither and forth again Leading the linked chain. Then is thy goal in sight, Loveliest Boy! All of our hearts in joy Round thee unite. Pause. EUPHOBIOK. Not yet repose, Ye light-footed roes! Now to new play Forth, and away! I am the hunter. You are the game. CHORUS. Wouldst thou acquire us, Be not so fast! We are desirous Only, at last, Clasping thy beauty. Kisses to claim! EUPHORION. Through groves and through hedges I O'er cliffs and o'er ledges ! Lightly what fell to me, That i detest: What I compel to me Pleases me best. 178 FAV8T. HELElTA AND FAUST. How perverse, how wild he's growing! Vain to hope for moderation; Now it sounds like bugles blowing, Over vale and forest pealing: What disorder! What a brawl f CHORtJS (entering singly, in haste). Forth from us with swiftness ran he! Spuming us with scornful feeling. Now he drags from out the many Here, the wildest one of all. EUPHORiON (bearing a young Maidek). Here I drag the little racer, And by force will I embrace her; For my bliss and for my zest Press the fair, resisting breast. Kiss the mouth, repellent still, — Manifest my strength and will. Let me go! This frame infoldeth Also courage, strength of soul : Strong as thine, our will upholdeth. When another would control. I am in a strait, ttiou deemestf What a force thine arm would claim! Hold me. Fool, and ere thou dreamest I will scorch thee, in my game. (She turns to flame and flashes up in the air.) To the airy spaces follow. Follow me to caverns hollow. Snatch and hold thy vanished aim! BUPHORIOir (shaking off the flames). Rocks all around me here. Over the forests hung! Why should they bound me heref ACT III. JT9 Still am I fresh and young. Temp^aiA are waking nov. Billows are breaking now : Both far away I heart Fain would be near. (He leaps ever farther up the rocks.) HELENA, FAUST, AND CHORUS, Chamois-like, dost thou aspiret Fearful of the fall are we. EUPHOmOK. I must clamber ever higher, Ever further must X see. Now, where I am, I spy I Midst of the Isle am I : Midst of Pelops' land, Kindred in soul, I standi OHOBUS. Bide thou by grove and hill, Peacefully, rather I We from the vineyards will Qrapes for thee gather, — Grapes from^he ridges tanned. Figs, and the apple's gold : Ah! yet the lovely land, Loving, behold! BUPHOBION. Dream ye the peaceful dayt Dream, then, who mayl Wart is the countersign: Victory — ^word divine! CHORUS. Who peace and unity Scometh> for war*s array. With impunity Slays his hope of a better day. 180 FAUST. EUPHORION. They, who this land have led Through danger and dread, Free, boundlessly brave. Lavish of blood they gave, — May they, with glorious Untamable might. Make us victorious. Now, in the fight! CHORUS. Look aloft! he seeks the FamesB, Yet to us not small he seems. As for battle, as in harness, He like steel and silver gleams. EUPHORION. Walls and towers no more immuring. Each in vigor stands confessed! Fortress firm and most enduring Is the soldier's iron breast. Would ye dwell in freemen's houses t Arm, and forth to combat wild! See, as Amazons, your spouses, And a hero every child! CHORUS. Hallowed Poesy, Heavenward mounting, see! Shining, the fairest star. Farther, and still more far! Yet, from the distance blown, Hear we the lightest tone. And raptured are. 1;PPH0RI0N. No, 't is no child which thou beholdest — A youth in arms, with haughty brow! And with the Strongest, Freest, Boldest, His soul is pledged, in manly vow. ACT in, 181 I got For, lo! The path to Glory opens now. HELENA AND FAUST. Thou thy being scarcely leamest^ Scarcely feePst the Day's glad beam, When from giddy steeps thou yeamest For the place of pain supreme! Are then we Naught to theet Is the gracious bond a dreamt EUPHORION. And hear ye thunders on the ocean f From land the thunder-echoes calif In dust and foam, with fierce commotion, The armies shock, the heroes fall! The command Is, sword in hand. To die : 't is certain, once for all. HELENA^ FAUST, AND CHORUS. What a horror! We shall rue it! Ah, is Death command to theet EUPHORION. Shall I from the distance view itt No! the fate be shared by me! THE ABOVE. Danger his arrogance brings : Fatally bold! EUPHORION. Yes! — and a pair of wings See me unfold! Thither! I must! — and thus! Grant me the flight ! [He casts himself into the air : the garments hear hiv a moment, his head is illuminated, and a streal light follows.^ 182 FAUST. CHORtrs. Icarus I Icarus ! Sorrowful sight 1 [A beautiful Youth falls at the feet of the parents. We imagine that in the dead body we perceive a well-known form; yet the corporeal part vanishes at once, ^md the aureole rises like a eomet towards heaven. The ^etrmenty mamHe, mid lyre remain upon the ffround.] HBLEKA AND l^AUl^. Joy is f ollowedi when scaree enjoyed. By bitterest moan. BUPH(MaoN (from the <teplM). Leave me here^ in the i^oomy Void, Mother, not tiios alone! Pause. CHORUS [Dir^.] Not alone! where'er thou biifest; For we know thee what thou art. Ah! if from the Day thou faidest, Still to thee will ding each heart. Scarce we venture to lament thee. Singing, envious of thy fate; For in storm and sun were lent thee Song and courage, fair and great. Ah! for earthly fortune fashioned, Strength was thine, and proud descent: Early erring, o'er-impassioned, Youth, alas! from thee was rent. For the world thine eye was rarest. All the heart to thee was known: Thine were loves of women fairest, And a song thy very own. Yet thou rannest nncontrolledly In the net the fancies draw, Thus thyself divorcing boldly ACT III. 183 As from custom, so from law; Till the highest thought expended Set At last thy courage free : Thou wouldst win achievement splendid, But it was not given to thee. Unto whom, thent Question dreary. Destiny will never heed; When in evil days and weary, Silently the people bleed. But new songs shall still elate them : Bow no longer and deplore! For the soil shall generate them, As it hath done heretofore. Complete pause. The music ceases, hele;na (to Faust). Also in me, alas I an old word proves its truth, That Bliss and Beauty ne'er enduringly unite. Tom is the link of Life, no less than that of Love ; So, both. lamenting, painfully I say: Farewell! And oast myself again — once only — in thine arms. Receive, Persephone, receive the boy and me. (She embraces Faust: her corporeal part disappears ^ her garment and veil remain in his arms,) PHORKYAS (to Faust). Hold fast what now alone remains to thee f The garment let not go ! Already twitch The Demons at its skirts, and they would fain To the Nether Regions drag it ! Hold it fast ! It is no more the Goddess thou hast lost, But godlike is it. For thy use employ The grand and priceless gift, and soar aloft I 'T will bear thee swift from all things mean and low To ether high, so long thou canst endure. Well meet again, far, very far from here. (Helena's garments dissolve into clouds, surround Faust, lift him aloft in the air^ and move away with him,) 184 FAUST. PHOBKTAS {takes up Euphobion's tunic, mantle, and lyre from the earth, steps forward to the proscenium, hold$ aloft these remains, and speaks). Good leavings have I still discovered ! The Flame has vanished where it hovered, Yet for the world no tears I spend. Enough remains to start the Poets living, And envy in their guilds to send ; And, if their talents are beyond my giving. At least the costume I can lend. (She seats herself upon a column in the proscenium,) PANTHALIS. Now hasten, maidens! we are from the magic freed. The old Thessalian trollop's mind-compelling spell, — Freed from the jingling drone of much-bewildering sound, The ear confusing, and still more the inner sense. Down, then, to Hades! since beforehand went the Queen, With solemn step descending. Now, upon the track, Let straightway follow her the step of faithful maids t Her shall we find beside the unf athomed, gloomy King. CHORUS. Queens, of course, are satisfied everywhere : Even in Hades take they highest rank. Proudly associate with their peers, With Persephone closely allied: We, however, in the background Of the asphodel-besprinkled meadows, With the endless rows of poplars And the fruitless willows ever mated, — What amusement, then, have wet Bat-like to squeak and twitter In whispers un cheery and ghostly! LEADER OP THE CHORUS. Who hath not won a name, and seeks not noble works. Belongs but to the elements : away then, ye ! ACT III, 185 My own intense desire is with my Queen to be ; Service and faith secure the individual life. [Exit ALL. Given again to the daylight are we, Persons no more, 't is true, — We feel it and know it, — But to Hades return we never ! Nature, the Ever-living, Makes to us spirits Validest claim, and we to her also. A PART OF THE CHORUS. We, in trembling whispers, swaying rustle of a thou- sand branches Sweetly rocked, will lightly lure the rills of life, the rootbom, upwards To the twigs; and, or with foliage or exuberant gush of blossoms, Will we freely deck their flying hair for prosperous airy growth. Then, when falls the fruit, will straightway gather gladdened herds and people. Swiftly coming, briskly pressing, for the picking and the tasting: All, as if before the early Gk>ds, will then around us bend. A SECOND PART. We, beside these rocks, upon the far-off shining, glassy mirror, Coaxingly will bend and fluctuate, moving with the gentle waters; We to every sound will hearken, song of bird or reedy piping; Though the dreadful voice of Pan, a ready answer shall we give : Comes a murmur, we re-murmur, — ^thunder, we our thunders waken In reverberating crashes, doubly, trebly, tenfold flunf 186 FAUST, A THIRD PART. Sisters, we, of nimbler fancy, hasten with the brooklets onward ; For allure us yonder distant, richly-mantled mountain ranges. Ever downwards, ever deeper, in meandering curves we water First the meadow, then the pasture; then the garden round the house, Marked by slender peaks of cypress, shooting clearly into ether O'er the landscape and the waters and the fading line of shore. A FOUETH PART. Fare, ye others, at your pleasure ; we will girdle and o'errustle The eompletely^planted hillside, where the sprouting vines are green. There at every hour the passion of the vintagier is witnessed. And the loving diligence, that hath so doubtful a result. Now with hoe and now with shovel, then with hilling, pruning, tying. Unto lUl the Gods be prayeth, chiefly to the Sun's bright god. Small concern hath pampered Bacchus for his faithful servant's welfare, But in arbors rests, and caverns, toying with the youngest Faun. For his semi-drunken visions whatsoever he hath needed, It is furnished him in wine-^skins, and in amphor» and vessels. Right and left in cool recesses, cellared for eternal time. But if now the Gods together, Helios before the others, Have with breeze and dew and warmth and glow the berries filled with juice. Where the vintager in silence labored, all is life and motion^ ACT IV. 187 Every trellis stirs and rustles, and they go from stake to stake. Baskets creftk and buckiets rattle, gmaniitg tubs ar« borne on back, All towards the vat enormous and the treaders' lusty dance; So is then Uie 8aer«d bounty of the pure-bom, juicy berries Rudely trodden; foaming, spirting, they are mixed and grimly crushed. Now ihR ear is pierced with cymbals and the dash of brisen bosses, For, behold, is Dionysos from his mysteries revealed ! Forth he comes with goat-foot Satyrs, whirling goat- foot Satyresses, While amid the rout Silenus' big-eared beast unruly brays. Naught is spared! The cloven hoofs tread down all decent custom; All the senses whirl bewildered, fearfully the ear is stunned. Drunkards fumble for the goblets, over-full are heads and paunches; Here and there hath one misgivings, yet increases thus the tumult; For, the fresher must to gamer, empty they the ancient skin! [ The curtain falU. Phobkyjls, in the proscenvumy rises to a giant height, steps down from the cothnmi, removes her mask a/nd veil, and reveals herself as Mephistophelbs, in order, so far as it wkit/ be necessary, to comment upon the piece by way of Epilogue.]

HIGH MOUNTAINS. Strong, serrated rocky peaks, A cloud appro€iches. pauses, and settles down upon a projecting ledge. It then divides. 188 FAUST. FAUST {steps forth), DOWN-GAZING on the deepest solitudes below, I tread deliberately this summit's lonely edge, Relinquishing my cloudy car, which hither bore Me softly through the shining day o'er land and sea. Unscattered, slowly moved, it separates from me. Off eastward strives the mass with rounded, rolling march: And strives the eye, amazed, admiring, after it. In motion it divides, in wave-like, changeful guise ; Yet seems to shape a figure. — ^Yes I mine eyes not err ! — On sun-illumined pillows beauteously reclined, Colossal, truly, but a godlike woman-form, I see ! The like of Juno, Leda, Helena, Majestically lovely, floats before my sight! Ah, now 't is broken I Towering broad and f ormlessly. It rests along the east like distant icy hills. And shapes the grand significance of fleeting days. Yet still there clings a light and delicate band of mist Around my breast and brow, caressing, cheering me. Now light, delayingly, it soars and higher soars, And folds together. — Cheats me an ecstatic form, As early-youthful, long-foregone and highest bliss T The first glad treasures of my deepest heart break forth; Aurora's love, so light of pinion, is its typey The swiftly-felt, the first, scarce-comprehended glance, Outshining every treasure, when retained and held. Like Spiritual Beauty mounts the gracious Form, Dissolving not, but lifts itself through ether far, And from my inner being bears the best away. {A SevenAeague hoot trips forward: another tmwe- diately follows, Mephistopheles steps out of them. The Boots stride onward in haste,) MEPHISTOPHELES. I call that genuine forward-striding! But what thou meanest, I'd have thee own, That in such horrors art abiding, imid these yawning jags of stone T ACT JV. 189 It was not here I learned to know them well ; Such was, indeed, the hottom-gronnd of Hell. FAUST. In foolish legends thou art never lacking; Again thy store thou set'st about unpacking. MEPHISTOPHELES {seHoUSly). When Qod the Lord — ^wherefore, I also know, — Banned us from air to darkness deep and central, Where round and round, in fierce, intensest glow, Eternal fires were whirled in Earth's hot entrail. We found ourselves too much illuminated. Yet crowded and uneasily situated. The Devils all set up a coughing, sneezing, At every vent without cessation wheezing: With sulphur-stench and acids Hell dilated. And such enormous gas was thence created. That very soon Earth's level, far extended, Thick as it was, was heaved, and split, and rended I The thing is plain, no theories overcome it : What formerly was bottom, now is sunmiit. Hereon they base the law there's no disputing, To give the undermost the topmost footing : For we escaped from fiery dungeons there To overplus of lordship of the air ; — A mystery manifest and well concealed. And to the people only late revealed. FAUST. To me are mountain-masses grandly dumb: I ask not, Whence? and ask not, Why? they come. When Nature in herself her being founded. Complete and perfect then the globe she rounded, Glad of the summits and the gorges deep, Set rock to rock, and mountain steep to steep. The hills with easy outlines downward moulded, Till gently from their feet the vales unfolded ! They green and grow; with joy therein she ranges, Requiring no insane, convulsive changes. 190 FAUST, MEPHISTOPHEU&a. Yes, so yon talk! You think it elear as snn; But he knows otherwise, who saw it done. For I was there, while still below was surging The red abyss, and streamed the flaming tide,— When Moloch's hammer, welding rocks and forgiiigy Scattered the mountain-ruins far and wide. O'er all the land the foreign blocks yon spy there ; Who solves the force that hurled them to their place? The lore of learned men is all awry there ; There lies the rock, and we must let it He there ; We've thought already— to our own disgrace. Only the common, faithful people know. And nothing shakes them in their firm believing : Their wisdom ripened long ago, — A marvel *t is, of Satan's own achieving. On crutch of faith my traveller climbs the ridges. Past Devil's Rocks and over Devil's Bridges. VAUST. Well, — 't is remarkable and new To note how Devils Nature view. HEPHISTOPHELBS. What's all to mef Her shape let Nature w«ar ! The point ot honor is, the Devil was there ! We are the folk to eompiass grand designs : Tumulty and Force, and Nonsense! See the signs! — ^ Yet now, with sober reason to address thee, Did nothing on our outside shell impress theet From this exceeding height thou saw'st unfurled The g^oiy of the Kingdoms of the World. Yet, as thou art, unsatisfied. Didst feel no lust of power and pride T FAUST. I did I A mighty plan my fancy won : Canst guess itf MBPHISTOPHELBS. That is quickly done, 'd take some town, — a capital, perchance, — ACT IV. 191 Its core, the people's need of snstenanoe } With crooked alleysi pointed gables, Beets, cabbage, onions, on the market-tables ; With meat-stands, where the bine fiies muster, Ana round fat joints like gourmands cluster : There shalt thou find, undoubtedly, Stench, always, and activity. Then ample squares^ and streets whose measure Assumes an air of lordly leisure ; And last, without u gate to bar. The boundless suburbs stretefaing far. 'T were joy to see the coafches go, The noisy crowding to and fro. The endless running, hither, thither. Of scattered ants that stream together: And whether walking^ driving, riding, Ever their central point abiding. Honored by thousands, should be I. Therewith I would not be contented I One likes to see the people multiply. And in their wise with comfort fed, — Developed even, taught, well-bred. Yet one has only, when all's said, The stun of rebek thus augmented. MEPHISTOPHELIS. Then I should build, with conscious power and grace, A pleasure-castle in a pleasant place ; Where hill and forest, level, meadow, field. Grandly transformed, should park and garden yield. Before green walls of foliage velvet meadows. With ordered paths and artful-falling shadows; Plunge of caseades o'er rocks with skill combined, And fountain- jets of every form and kind. There grandly shooting upwards from the middle, While round the sides a thousand spirt and piddle. Then for the fairest women, fresh and rosy, I'd build a lodge, convenient and cosey; And so the bright and boundless time I should 192 FAUST, Pass in the loveliest social solitude. Women, I say; and, once for all, believe That in the plural I the sex conceive! FAUST. Sardanapalus ! Modern, — ^poor ! MEPHISTOPHELES. Then might one guess whereunto thou hast striven » Boldly-sublime it was, I'm sure. Since nearer to the moon thy flight was driven, Would now thy mania that realm secure T FAUST. Not so ! This sphere of earthly soil Still gives us room for lofty doing. Astounding plans e'en now are brewing: I feel new strength for bolder toil. MEPHISTOPHELES. So, thou wilt Glory earn T 'T is plain to see That heroines have been thy company. FAUST. Power and Estate to win, inspires my thought f The Deed is everything, the Glory naught. MEPHISTOPHELES. Yet Poets shall proclaim the matter, Thy fame to future ages flatter. By folly further folly scatter ! FAUST. All that is far beyond thy reach. How canst thou know what men beseech f Thy cross-grained self, in malice banned, How can it know what men demand? MEPHISTOPHELES. According to thy will so let it be ! Confide the compass of thy whims to me I ACT IF. 193 FAUST. Mine eye was drawn to view the open Oeean : It swelled aloft, self -heaved and over-vanlting, And then withdrew, and shook its waves in motion, Again the breadth of level strand assaulting. Then I was vexed, since arrogance can spite The spirit free, which values every right, And through excited passion of the blood Discomfort it, as did the haughty flood. I thought it chance, my vision did I strain ; The billow paused, then thundered back again, Retiring from the goal so proudly won : The hour returns, the sport's once more begun. MEPHISTOPHELES (od spectatores) , 'T is nothing new whatever that one hears ; I've known it many a hundred thousand years. FAUST ( continuing impassio nedly ) . The Sea sweeps on, in thousand quarters flowing. Itself unfruitful, barrenness bestowing; It breaks and swells, and rolls, and overwhelms The desert stretch of desolated realms. There endless waves hold sway, in strength erected And then withdrawn, — ^and nothing is effected. If aught could drive me to despair, 't were, truly The aimless force of elements unruly. Then dared mv mind its dreams to over-soar : Here would I fight, — subdue this fierce uproar! And possible 't is I — Howe'er the tides may fill, They gently fawn around the steadfast hill ; A moderate height resists and drives asunder, A moderate depth allures and leads them on. So, swiftly, plans within my mind were drawn : Let that high joy be mine forevermore, To shut the lordly Ocean from the shore, The watery waste to limit and to bar. And push it back upon itself afar I From step to step I settled how to fight it : Such is my wish : dare thou to expedite it! 194 FAUST. (Drums and martial music in the rear of the spectators, from the distance, on the right hand,) MBPHISTOPHBLES. How easy, that! — ^Hear'st thou the drums afarf FAUST. Who's wise likes not to hear of coming war. MEPHI8T0PHE14BS. In War or Peace, 't is wise to use the chance, And draw some profit from each eircuiostance. One watches, marks the moment, and is bold : Here's opportunity I^now, Faust, take hold ! FAUST. Spare me the squandering of thy riddle-pelf I What means it, once for all f Explain thyself ! MKPHISTOPHELES. Upon my way, to me it was discoiwred That mighty troubles o'er the Emperor horered : Thou knowest him. The while we twain, beside him^ With wealth iUusive bounteously supplied him, Then all the world was to be had for pay ; For as a jrouth he held imperial sway. And he was pleased to try it, whether Both interests would not smoothly pair. Since 't were desirable and fair To govern and enjoy, together. FAUST. A mighty error! He who would eommand Must in oommanding find his highest blessini* : Then, let his breast with force of will expand, But what he wills, be past another's guessing 1 What to his faithful he hath whispered, that Is turned to act, and men amaze thereat: Thus will he ever be the highest-placed And worthiest t'— En joyment makes debased. ACT IF. 19A HEPHISTOPHELES. Such is he not! He did enjoy, even he! Meanwhile the realm was torn by anarchy, Where great and small were warring with each other, And brother drove and slaughtered brother, Castle to cftstlei town 'gainst town arrayed, The nobles and the guilds of trade> The Bishop, with his chapter and congregation, — All meeting eyes but looked retaliation* In churches death and murder; past the gates, The merchants travelled under evil fates; And all grew bolder, since no rule was drawn For life, but : Self -^def ence ! — So thin^^ iv«nt on. FAUST. They went, they limped, they fell, arose a^^ain, Then tumbled headlong, and in heaps reatain. MEPHISTOPHELES. Such a condition no man dared abuse. Each would be something, .each set forth hi* dues; The smallest even as full-measured passed : Yet for the best it grew too bad at last. The Capable, they then arose with energy, And said : ''Who gives us Peace, shall ruler be. The Emperor can and will not I— Be elected An Emperor new, anew the realm directed, Each one secure and sheltered stand, And in a fl^esh-constructed land Justice and Peace be mated and perfected I" I»AUST, Priest-like, that sounds. KXPHISTOPHELXS. Priests Were they, to be tur^ ; They meant their well-fed bellies to secure ; They, more than all, therein were implicated. The riot rose, the riot was consecrated. And now our Emperor, whom we gave delight^ Comes hitherward, perchance for one last fight. 196 FAUST. FAUST. I pity him; he was so frank, forgiving. MEPHISTOPHELES. Come, well look on ! There's hope while one is living ! Let us release him from this narrow valley ! He's saved a thousand times, if once he rally. Who knows how yet the dice may fall? If he has fortune, vassals come withal. [They cross over the middle range of mountains, and view the arrangement of the army in the valley. Drums and military music resound from helowJ] MEPHISTOPHELES. A good position is, I see, secured them ; Well join, then victory will be assured them. FAUST. What further, I should like to knowT Cheat! Blind delusion! Hollow show! MEPHISTOPHELES. No, — stratagems, for battle-winning! Be steadfast for the grand beginning, And think upon thy lofty aim! If we secure the realm its rightful claimant, Then shalt thou boldly kneel, and claim The boundless strand in feoff, as payment. FAUST. In many arts didst thou excell : Come, win a battle now, as well ! MEPHISTOPHELES. No, thou shalt win it ! Here, in brief, Shalt thou be G«neral-in-Chief. FAUST. A high distinction thou wouldst lend, — There to conmiand, where naught I comprehend ! ACT IV, IW MEPHISTOPHHLES. Leave to the Staff the work and blame, Then the Field-Marshial's sure of fame! Of War-Uncouncils I have had enough, And my War-Council fashion of the stuff Of primal mountains' primal human might : He's blest, for whom its elements unite ! FAUST. What do I see, with arms, in yonder place f Hast thou aroused the mountain-race T MEPHISTOPHELES. No ! But I've brought, like Peter Squence, From all the raff the quintessence. The Three Mighty Men appear. MEPHISTOPHELES. My fellows draw already near! Thou seest, of very different ages. Of different garb and armor they appear: They will not serve thee ill when battle ragea. (Ad spectatores,) Now every child delights to see The harness and the helm of knightly action And allegoric, as the blackguards be. They'll only all the more give satisfaction. BULLY (young, lightly armed, clad in motley). When one shall meet me, face to face. My fisticuffs shall on his chops be showered ; And midway in his headlong race, Fast by his flying hair I'll catch the coward. HAVBQUICK (manly, well-armed, richly clad). Such empty brawls are only folly ! They spoil whate'er occasion brings. In taking, be unwearied wholly. And after, look to other things! 198 FAUST. HOTJ)PAST (well in year9, 9tronglth<*rmed, without raiment) Yet little gain thereafter lingers ! Soon slips great wealth between your fingers* Borne by the tides of life as down they run. 'T is weU to take, indeed, but better still to hi^d : Be by the gray old ehurl controlled, And thou shalt plundered be by none. (They descend the mountain together.) ON THE HEADLAND, Drums and military music frpm below. The Em- peror's tent is pitched. Emperor. GeneraIj-in*Chief. Life-Guardsmen. GENEiUl4-IN-0HIEF. IT still appears the prudentest of courses That here, in this appropriate vale» We have withdrawn and strongly massed our forces : I firmly trust we shall not fail. EMPEROR. What comes of it will soon be brought to light ; Yet I dislike this yielding, semi-flight. GKNERAli-XN'CHIBF. Look down, my Prince, where our right flank is plated 1 The field which War desires hath here been granted: Not steep the bills, yet access not preparingi To us advantage, to the foe insnaring; Their cavalry will hardly dare surround Our strength half hidy on undulating ground. EMPEROR. My commendation, only, need I speak; Now arm and courage have the test they seek. ACT IF. 1W GENERAL-IN-CHIEF. Here, on the middle meadow's level spuoed Thou seest the phalanx, eager in their plaees. In air the lanees gleam and sparkle, kiissed By sunshine, through the filmy morning mist. How darkling sways the grand and powerful square! The thouaands bum for great achievements therd. Therein canst thou perceive the strength of masked ; And thine, be sure, the foemen's strength surpasses. EMPEROR. Now first do I enjoy the stirring sight: An army, thus, appears of double might. 6ENSRAIi-IN-0HIEF. But of our left I've no report to make^ Brave heroes garrison the rooky brake ; The stony cliffs, by gleams of weapons specked, The entrance to the close defile protect. Here, as I guess, the f oemen's force will shatter, Forced unawares upon the bloody matter. EMPEROR. And there they march, false kin, one like the other! Even as they styled me Uncle, Cousin, Brother, Assuming more, and ever more defying, The sceptre's power, the throne's respect, denying; Then, in their feuds, the realm they devastated, And now as Eebels march, against me mated ! Awhile with halting minds the masses go. Then ride the stream, wherever it may flow. GENEBAL-Iir-CHIEF. A faithful man, sent out some news to win, Comes down the rocks ; may he have lucky been ! FIRST SPY. Luckily have we succeeded; Helped by bold and cunning art. Here and there have pressed, and heeded, But 't is ill news we impart. 200 FAUST. Many, purest homage pledging, Like the faithful, fealty swore, — For inertness now alleging People's danger, strife in store. EMPEROR. They learn from selfishness self-preservation, Not duty, honor, grateful inclination. You do not think that, when your reckoning's shown, The neighbor's burning house shall fire your own I GENERAL-IN-CHIEF. The Second comes, descending slowly hither; A weary man, whose strength appears to wither, SECOND SPY. First with comfort we detected What their plan confused was worth; Then, at once and unexpected. Came another Emperor forth. As he bids, in ordered manner March the gathering hosts away; His unfolded lying banner All have followed. — Sheep are they! EMPEROR. Now, by a Rival Emperor shall I gain : That / am Emperor, thus to me is plain. But as a soldier I the mail put on ; Now for a higher aim the sword be drawn ! At all my shows, however grand to see, Did nothing lack : but Danger lacked, to me. Though you but tilting at the ring suggested, My heart beat high to be in tourney tested; And had you not from war my mind dissuaded. For glorious deeds my name were now paraded. But independence then did I acquire. When I stood mirrored in the realm of fire : In the dread element I dared to stand ; — 'T was but a show, and yet the show was grand. Of fame and victory I have dreamed alone ; But for the base neglect I now atone ! ACT IF, 201 {The Heralds are despatched to challenge the Rival Emperor to single combat.) Faust enters, in armor, with half -closed visor. The Threb Mighty Men, armed and clothed, as already described, FAUST. We come, and hope our coining is not chidden ; Prudence may help, though by the need unbidden. The mountain race, thou know'st, think and explore, — Of Nature and the rocks they read the lore. The Spirits, forced from the level land to sever, Are of the rocky hills more fain than ever. Silent, they work through labyrinthine passes. In rich, metallic fumes of noble gases. On solving, testing, blending, most intent: Their only passion, something to invent. With gentle touch df spiritual power They build transparent fabrics, hour by hour; For they, in crystals and their silence, furled, Behold events that rule the Upper World. EMPEROR. I understand it, and can well agree; But say, thou gallant man, what's that to mef FAUST. The Sabine old, the Norcian necromancer. Thy true and worthy servant, sends thee answer : What fearful fate it was, that overhung him ! The fagots crackled, fire already stung him; The billets dry were closely round him fixed. With pitch and rolls of brimstone intermixed; Not Man, nor God, nor Devil, him could save, — The Emperor plucked him from his fiery grave. It was in Rome. Still is he bound unto thee ; Upon my path his anxious thoughts pursue thee ; Himself since that dread hour forgotten, he Questions the stars, the depths, alone for thee. • Us he commissioned, by the swiftest courses Thee to assist. Great are the mountain's forces; 202 FAUST, There Nature works ail-potently and free, Though stupid priests therein but magic see. EMPEROR. On days of joy, when we the guests are greeting^ Who for their gay delight are gayly meeting, Each gives us pleasure, as they push and pull. And crowd, man after man, the chambers full ; Yet chiefly welcome is the brave man, thus. When as a bold ally he brings to us Now, in the fateful morning hour, his talents, While Destiny uplifts her trembling balance. Yet, while the fates of this high hour unfold. Thy strong hand from the willing sword withhold,^- Honor the moment, when the hosts are striding. For or against me, to the field deciding! Self is the Man ! Who crown and throne would claim Must personally be worthy of the same. And may the Phantom, which against us stands. The self-styled Emperor, Lord of all our lands, The army's Duke, our Princes* feudal head. With mine own hand be hurled among the dead ! FAUST. Howe'ey the need that thy great work be finished, Risked were thy head, the chances were diminished. Is not the helm adorned with plume and crest f The head it shields, that steels our courage best. Without a head, what should the members bridle t Let it but sleep, they sink supine and idle. If it be injured, all the hurt confess in 't, And all revive, when it is convalescent. Then soon the arm its right shall reassert. And lift the shield to save the skull from hurt: The sword perceives at once its honored trust. Parries with vigor, and repeats the thrust : The gallant foot its share of luck will gain, And plants itself upon the necks of slain. EMPEROR. Such is my wrath; I'd meet him thus, undamited, And see his proud head as my footstool planted ! ACT IV, 203 HSRALDS (returning). Little honor was accorded ; We have met with scorn undoubted : Our defiance, nobly worded. As an empty farce they flouted : 'lio, your Lord is but a vision, — Echo of a vanished prime : When we name him, says Tradition : *He was — once upon a timeP " FAUST. It's happened as the best would fain have planned, Who, firm and faithful, still beside thee stand. There comes the foe, thy army waits and wishes ; Order attack ! the moment is auspicious. EMPEROR. Yet I decline to exercise command. {To the Gbneral-in-Chiep.) Thy duty, Prince, be trusted to thy hand I GBNBRAL-IN-CHIEP. Then let the right wing now advance apace! The enemy's left, who just begin ascending, Shall, ere the movement close, give up their place. Before the youthful force our field defending. FAUST. Permit me, then, that this gay hero may Be stationed in thy ranks, without delay, — That with thy men most fully he consort. And thus incorporate, ply his vigorous sport! (He points to the Mighty Man on the right.) BULLT (coming forward). Who shows his face to me, before he turn Shall find his cheekbones and his chops are shattered : Who shows his back, one sudden blow shall earn, Then head and pig-tail dangling hang, and battered! And if thy men, like me, will lunge With mace and sword, beside each other, 204 FAUST, Man over man the foe shall plunge And in theix* own deep blood shall smother! [Exit. GENERAL-IN-CHIEP. Let then our centre phalanx follow slow, — Engage with caution, yet with might, the foe ! There to the right, already overtaken, Our furious force their plan has rudely shaken ! FAUST (pointing to the middle one). Let also this one now obey thy word! HAVEQUICK (cowcs/ortoorcl). Unto the host's heroic duty Shall now be joined the thirst for booty ; And be the goal, where all are sent, The Rival Emperor's sumptuous tent ! He shall not long upon his seat be lorded : To lead the phalanx be to me accorded ! SPEEDBOOTY (sutler ess, fawning upon him). Though never tied to him by priest, He is my sweetheart dear^ at least. Our autumn 't is, of ripest gold I Woman is fierce when she takes hold, And when she robs, is merciless : All is allowed, so forth to victory press! [Exeunt both. GBNERAL-IN-CHIEP. Upon our left, as was to be foreseen. Their right is strongly huiied. Yon rocks between, Ours will resist their furious beginning, And hinder them the narrow pass from winning. FAUST (beckons to the Mighty Man on the left). I beg you, Sire, let this one also aid ; 'T is well when even the strong are stronger made. holdfast (coming forwards). Now let the left wing have no fear ! The ground is surely held, where I appear: ACT IV. 205 I am the Ancient you were told of : No lightning splits what I keep hold of! [ExU, MEPHISTOPHELES (descending from above). And now behold, how, more remote, From every jagged rocky throat Comes forth an armed host, increasing, Down every narrow pathway squeezing. With helm and harness, sword and spear, A living rampart in our rear, And wait the sign to charge the foemeni {Aside, to the knowing ones,) Yon must not ask whence comes the omen. I have not been a careless scont, But cleared the halls of armor round about. They stood a-f oot, they sat on horses, Like Lords of Earth and real forces : Once Emperors, Kings, and Knights were they. Now empty shells, — the snails have crawled away. Full many ghosts, arrayed so, have for us Revamped the Middle Ages thus. Whatever Devils now the shells select, This once 't will still create effect. (Aloud.) Hark! in advance they stir their anger, Each jostling each with brassy clangor! The banner-rags of standards flutter flowing, That restless waited for the breeze's blowing. Here standeth ready, now, an ancient race; Li the new conflict it would fain have place. ( Tremendous peal of trumpets from above : a percepU ible wavering in the hostile army.) FAUST. The near horizon dims and darkles ; Yet here and there with meaning sparkles A ruddy and presaging glow ; The blades are red where strife is sorest, The atmosphere, the rocks, the forest. The very heavens the combat show. 206 FAUST. MEPHI8T0PHELE8. The right flank holds its ground with vigor: There, towering over all, defiant. Jack Bully works, the nimble giant. And drives them with his wonted rigor. EMPEROR. I first beheld one arm uplifted, But now a dozen tossed and shifted: Unnatural such things appear. PAUST. Hast thou not heard of vapors bandedi O'er the Sicilian coasts expanded f There, hovering in daylight clear. When mid-air gleams in rarer phases. And mirrored in especial hazes, A vision wonderful awakes : There back and forth are cities bending. With gardens rising and descendingi As form on form the ether breaks. EMPEROR. Yet how suspicious ! I behold The tall spears tipped with gleams of gold : Upon our phalanx' shining lances A nimble host of flamelets dances : Too spectral it appears to me. FAUST. Pardon me, Lord, those are the traces Of spirits of the vanished races, — The fires of Pollux and of Castor, Whom seamen call on in disaster: They here collect their final strength for tliee. EMPEROR. But say, to whom are we indebted. That Nature hath our plans abetted. With shows of rarest potency t MEPHISTOPHELES. To whom, indeed, but that old Roman ACT IF. 207 Whose care for thee at last is proved t By the strong menace of thy f oemen His deepest nature has heen moved. His gratitude would see thee now delivered, Though his own being for thy sake be shivered. EMPEROR. They cheered my march, with every pomp invested ; I felt my power, I meant to see it tested ; So, carelessly, I found it well, as ruler, To send the white beard where the air was cooler. I robbed the Clergy of a pleasant savor. And, truly, have not thus acquired their favor. Shall I, at last, since many years are over, The payment for that merry deed recover t PAUST. Free-hearted help heaps interest: Look up, and cease to watch the f oemen I Methinks that he will send an omen : Attend ! the sign is now expressed. EMPEROR. An Eagle hovers in the heavenly vault: A Griffin follows, menacing assault. FAUST. Give heed ! It seems most favorable. The Griffin is a beast of fable : How dare he claim a rival regal. And meet in fight a genuine Eagle f EMPEROR. And now, in circles wide extended. They wheel involved, — then, like a flash, Upon each other swiftly dash. That necks be cleft and bodies rended! FAUST. Mark now the evil Gbiffin quail ! Rumpled and torn, the foe he feareth. 208 FAUST. And with his drooping lion's-tail, Plunged in the tree-tops, disappeareth. EMPEEOR. EVen as presaged, so may it be ! I take the sign, admiringly. MEPHiSTOPHELi;S (towards the right). From the force of blows repeated Have our enemies retreated; And in fight uncertain, shifting, Towards their right they now are drifting, Thus confusing, by their courses, All the left flank of their forces. See ! our phalanx, firmly driven. Moves to right, and, like the levin, Strikes them in the weak position. — Now, like waves in wild collision. Equal powers, with rage opposing. In the double fight are closing. Gloriously the weapons rattle ; We, at last, have won the battle! EMPEROR (on the left, to Faust). Look! it yonder seems suspicious; For our post the luck's capricious. Not a stone I see them throw there ; Mounted are the rocks below there. And the upper ones deserted. Now! — ^to one huge mass converted Nearer moves the foe, unshaken, And perchance the pass hath ti^en. Such the unholy plan's conclusion ! All your arts are but delusion. Pause, MEPHISTOPHELES. There come my ravens, croaking presage; What nature, then, may be their message f X fear we stand in evil plight. ACT IV. 209 EMPEROR. What mean these fatal birds enchanted t Their inky sails are hither slanted. Hot from the rocky field of fight. MEPHiSTOPHELES (to the Ravens). Sit at mine ears, your flight retarded! He is not lost whom you have guarded ; Your counsePs logical and right. FAUST (to the Emperor). Thou hast, of course, been told of pigeons. Taught to return from distant regions To nests upon their native coast. Here, differently, the plan's succeeded; The pigeon-post for Peace is needed, But War requires the raven-post. MEPHISTOPHELES. The birds announce us sore mischances. See, yonder, how the foe advances Against our heroes' rocky wall, The nearest heights even now attaining I Should they succeed the pass in gaining, Our fortunes, then, were critical. EMPEROR. Defeat and cheat at last are on me ! Into your meshes you have drawn me : I shudder, since they bind me fast. MEPHISTOPHELES. Courage I Not yet the die is cast. Patience and knack, for knot-untying! The close will be the fiercest stand. Sure messengers for me are flying : Command that I may give command ! GENERAL-IN-CHIEF (who has meanwhile arrived). To follow these hast thou consented ; Thence all the time was I tormented : 210 FAUST. No fortune comes of jugglery. The battle's lost, I cannot mend it; 'T was they began, and they may -end it : My baton I return to thee. EMPEROR. Retain it for the better season Which Fortune still to us may send I I dread the customers with reason, — The ravens and their ugly friend. {To Mephistopheles.) As for the baton, thou must leave it; Thou 'rt not, methinks, the proper man. Conmiand the fight, canst thou retrieve it! Let happen all that happen can ! [Exit into the tent with the General-in-Chief. mephistopheles. The blunt stick still be his protection ! 'T would naught avail in our direction; There was a sort of Cross thereon. FAUST. What's to be done? MEPHISTOPHELES. The thing is done I — Now, my black cousins, speed upon your duties To the mountain-lake t The Undines, watery beauties, Entreat, the appearance of their floods to spare I By female arts, beyond our sharpest seeing. They can divide the Appearance from the Being, And all will swear the Being's there ! Pause, TAUST. Our ravens must, with flattery beladen, Have sweetly coaxed each winsome water-maiden ; The trickling streams at once descend. The bald and rocky shoulders of the mountains Give birth to full and swiftly-flowing fountains; Their victory is at an end. ACT IV, 211 MBPHiarOPHELBS. To such reception they're not used : The boldest climbers grow confused. FAUST. Now brook roars down to brook with mighty bubble; Then from the mouths of glens they issue double, And fling themselves, in arches, o'er the pale; Then suddenly spread along the rocky level, And to and f^ foam onward in their revel, As down a stairway hurled into the vale. What boots their g^ant, hero-like resistance f The billow bursts, and bears them down the distance; Before such wild uproar even I must quail. MEPHISTOPHBLES. Nothing I see of all this moist illusion : To human eyes, alone, it brings confusion, And in the wondrous chance I take delight. They fly in headlong, hurried masses ; That they are drowning, think the asses ; Though on the solid land, they see an ocean, And run absurdly with a swimming motion. It is a most bewildering plight. {The Bavena return.) To the high Master will I praise you duly ; But would you test yourselves as masters f uUy, Then hasten to that smithy eerie. Where the dwarf -people, never weary, Hammer the sparks from ore and stone. Demand, while there you prate and flatter, A fire to shine, and shoot, and scatter. As in the highest sense 't is known. 'T is true that distant lightning, quivering far-lights. And falling, quick as wink, of highest star-lights, May happen any summer night; But lightning, loose among the tangled bushes, And stars that hiss and fizzle in the rushes, Are shows that seldom meet the sight. Take no great pains, you understand;' But first entreat, and then command! 212 FAUST. {Exeunt the Ravens. All takes place as prescribed.) Upon the foe falls Night's thick curtain. And step and march become uncertain 1 In every quarter wandering blazes, And sudden glare, that blinds and dazes! All that seems fine; yet we should hear Their wild, commingled cries of fear. FAUST. The hollow armor from the vaulted chambers In the free air its ancient strength remembers : It rattles there, and clatters all around, — A wonderful, a cheating sound. MEPHISTOPHELES. Quite right! The forms there's no restraining: Already knightly whacks are raining, As in the splendid times of old. The brassarts there, as well as cuisses, Are Guelf s and Ghibellines ; and this is Renewal of the feud they hold. Firm in transmitted hate they anchor, And show implacably their rancor: Now far and wide the noise hath rolled. At last, the Devils find a hearty Advantage in the hate of Party, Till dread and ruin end the tale : Repulsive sounds of rage and panic, With others, piercing and Satanic, Resound along the frightened vale ! {Warlike tumult in the Orchestra, finally passing %Mo lively martial measures.) THE RIVAL EMPEROR'S TENT. Throne: Rich Surroundings. Havequick. Speedboott. SPEBDBOOTT. O O, we are here the first, I seel ACT IV. 213 HAVEQUICK. No raven flies so swift as we. SPEEDBOOTY. O, how the treasure-piles extend! Where shall I once begin t where endt HAVEQUICK. Bnt all the space is full! And now I know not what to take, I vow ! SPEEDBOOTY. This carpet is the thing I need ! My couch is often hard indeed. « HAVEQUICK. Here hangs a morning-star, so strong, The like of which IVe wanted long. SPEEDBOOTY. This crimson mantle, bound with gold, Is like the one my dreams foretold. HAVEQUICK (taking the weapon). With this, a man is quickly sped; One strikes him dead, and goes ahead. Thou art already laden so, And nothing right thy sack can show. This rubbish, rather, here forsake, And one of yonder caskets take ! The army's modest pay they hold, Their bellies full of purest gold. SPEEDBOOTY. what a murderous weight is there ! 1 cannot lift it, cannot bear. HAVEQUICK. Quick, bend and squat to take the pack! I'll heave it on thy sturdy back. 214 FAU8T. SPEEDBOOTT. me ! Alack ! the burden slips : The weight has crushed my back and hips. (The chest falls and bursts open,) HAVEQUICK. There lies the red gold in a heap ! Quick, rake and take what thou canst keep ! SPEEDBOOTT {cfouching down). Quick, let the booty fill my lap ! 'T will still be quite enough, mayhap. HAVEQUICK. So ! there's enough ! Now haste, and go ! (She rises.) The apron has a holci ah woe I . Wherever thou dost walk or stand, Thou sowest treasure on the land. GUABDSHEK (of OUr EliPEBOR). What seek ye here with wanton eyesT Ye rummage the Imperial prize! HAVEQUICK. We hazarded our limbs for pay, And now we take our share of prey. In hostile tents 't is always so, And we are soldiers too, you know. GUABDSHEK. Among our troops he comes to grief Who's both a soldier and a thief : Who serves our Emperor fair and free, Let him an honest soldier be ! HAVEQUICK. yes! such honesty we know: 'T is Contrihutionf — call it so ! In the same mould you all are made. '^Give !" is the password of yoUr trade. « ACT ir. ai5 [IPdctiml. (To Speei»oott.) With what thou hast, the coast well dear: As goests we aie not wekome here. FIB8T GUARDSMAN. Why didst thou not at onoe bestow On the seamp's face a smashing blowt SECOND. I know not, — had not strength to strike : They seemed to me so phantom-like. TUIKD. Something there was disturbed my sight, — A flash : I eonld not see ari^t. FOURTH. I, also, ean declare it not : The whole day long it was so hot, So sultry, close, and terrible ; One man stood firm, another fell; We groped and fought, with valor rash, The f oemen fell at every slash ; Before one's eyes there was a mist, And something roared, and hummed, and hissed; So to the end, and here are we, And how it happened, cannot see. (The Ehpebob enters, accompanied by Four Prinoes. The Guardsmen retire.) EMPEROR. Now fare he, as he may I For us is won the battle. And o'er the plain the foe have fled like frightened cattle. The trait'rous treasure, here, the empty throne, we've found. That, hung with tapestry, contracts the space around. Enthroned in honor we, true guardsmen us protecting, The people's envoys are imperially expecting. The messengers of joy arrive from every side, And, loyal now to us, the realm is pacified. 216 FAUST, Though in our fight, perchance, some jugglery was woven, Yet, at the last, our own unaided strength we've proven. True, accidents sometimes for combatants are good; A stone may fall from heaven, on foes a shower of blood ; From rocky caves may ring tremendous strains of wonder. That lift our hearts with faith, and drive the foe asunder. The Conquered yielded, scourged by Scorn's immortal rod; The Victor, as he boasts, exalts the favoring God ; And all responsive shout, unordered, unentreated : "We praise Thee, God our Lord !" from million throats repeated. Yet as the highest praise, so rarely else expressed, I turn my pious glance on mine own grateful breast. A young and lively Prince may give his days to pleasure ; Him teach the years^ at last, the moment's use to measure. Therefore, without delay, I call ye, for support. Beside me, worthy Four, in realm and house and court. {To the First.) Thine was, Prince! the host's arrangement, wise inspection, Then, in the nick of time, heroic, bold direction : Act now in peace, as Time thine offices may show ! Arch-Marshal shalt thou be : the sword I here bestow. ARCH-MARSHAL. Thy faithful host, till now employed for civil order, Thee and thy throne secured, shall strengthen next thy border : Then let us be allowed, when festal throngs are poured Through thine ancestral halls, to dress for thee the board. Before thee brightly borne, and brightly held beside thee, ACT IV, 217 Thy Majesty's support, the sword shall guard and guide thee ! EMPEROR (to the Second). He who as gallant man can also gracious be, Thou, — be Arch-Chamberlain! — not light the placoi for thee. Thou art the highest now of all the house-retainers Whose strife makes service bad, — ^the threateners and complainers : Let thy example be an honored sign to these, How they the Prince and Court, and all, should see]^> to please ! ARCH-CHAICBERLAIN. To speed thy high design, thy grace is fair precursor: The Better to assist, and injure not the Worser, — Be frank, yet cunning not, and calm without deceit ! If thou but read my heart, I'm honored as is meet. But let my fancy now to festal service hasten ! Thou goest to the board, I bear the golden basin, And hold thy rings for thee, that on such blissful daya Thy hands may be refreshed, as I beneath thy gaze. EMPEROR. Too serious am I still, to plan such celebration ; Yet be it so ! We need a glad inauguration. {To the Third.) I choose thee Arch-High-Steward! Therefore hence- forth be Chase, poultry-yard, and manor subject unto thee ! Give me at all times choice of dishes I delight in. As with the month they come, and cooked with appe- tite in ! ARCH-HIGH-STEWARD. A rigid fast shall be the penalty I wish. Until before thee stands a goodly-savored dish. The kitchen-folk shall join, and gladly heed my reasons To bring the distant near and expedite the seasons. 218 FAUST. Yet rare and early things shall not delight thee long : Thy taste desires, instead, the simple and the strong. EicpEROR (to the Fourth). Since here, perforce, we plan but feasts, and each is sharer, Be thou for me transformed, young hero, to Cup- Bearer! Arch Cup-Bearer, take heed, that all those vaults of mine Richly replenished be with noblest taps of wine ! Be temperate thyself, howe'er temptation presses. Nor let occasion's lure mislead thee to excesses I ARCH OUP-BBAKEB. My Prince, the young themselves, if trust in them be shown. Are, ere one looks around, already men full-grown. I at the lordly feast shall also take my station. And give thy sideboard's pomp the noblest decoration Of gorgeous vessels, golden, silver, grand to see; Yet first the fairest cup will I select for thee, — A rlear Venetian glass, good cheer within it waiting, Helping the taste of wine, yet ne'er intoxicating. One oft confides too much on such a treasured store : Thy moderation, though. High Lord, protects thee more. EMPEROR. What, in this earnest hour, for you have I intended. From valid mouth confidingly you've comprehended. The Emperor's word is great, his gift is therefore sure. But needs, for proper force, his written signature : The high sign-manual fails. Here, for commission needful, I see the right man come, of the right moment heedful. (The ARCHBiSHOP-ARCH-CHAHOEiiLOR enters.) EMPEROR. If in the keystone of the arch the vault confide, T is then securely built, for endless time and tide. ACT IF. 219 Thou seest Four Princes here I To them we've just expounded How next our House and Court shall be more stably founded. Nowy all the realm contains, within its bounds enclosed, Shall be, with weight and power, upon Ye Five im- posed! Your landed wealth shall be before all others splendid ; Therefore at once have I your properties extended From their inheritance, who raised 'gainst us the hand. You I award, ye Faithful, many a lovely land. Together with the right, as you may have occasion, To spread them by exchange, or purchase, or invasion : Then be it clearly fixed, that you unhindered use Whatever prerogatives have been the landlord's dues. When ye, as Judges, have the final sentence spoken, By no appeal from your high Court shall it be broken : Then levies, tax and rent, pass-money, tolls and fees Are yours, — of mines and salt and coin the royalties. That thus my gratitude may validly be stated. You next to Majesty hereby Pve elevated. ARCHBISHOP. In deepest thanks to thee we humbly all unite : Thou mak'st us strong and sure, and strengthenest thy might. BHFEROB. Yet higher dignities I give for your fulfilling. Still for my realm I live, and still to live am willing; Yet old ancestral lines compel the prudent mind To look from present deeds to that which looms behind. I, also, in my time, must meet the sure Redresser ; Your duty be it, then, to choose me a successor. Crowned, at the altar raise his consecrated form, That so may end in peace what here began in storm! ARCH-CHANCELLOR. With pride profound, yet humbly, as our guise evinces, Behold, before thee bowed, the first of earthly princes ! So long the faithful blood our living veins shall fill. We are the body which obeys thy lightest will. 220 FAUST. EMPEROR. Now, to conclude, let all that we have here asserted, Be, for the future time, to document converted ! 'T is true that ye, as lords, have your possession free, With this condition, though, that it unparcelled be ; And what ye have from us, howe'er ye swell the treas- ure, Shall to the eldest son descend in equal measure. ARCH-CHANCELLOR. On parchment I, at once, shall gladly tabulate. To bless the realm and us, the statute of such weight : The copy and the seals the Chancery shall firocure us, Thy sacred hand shall then validly assure us. EMPEROR. Dismissal now I grant, that you, assembled^ may Deliberate upon the great, important day. {The Secular Princes retire,) ARCHBISHOP {remains and speaks pathetically). The Chancellor withdrew, the Bishop stands before thee: A warning spirit bids that straightway he implores thee! His heart paternal quakes with anxious fear for thee. EMPEROR. In this glad hour what may thy dread misgiving bet ARCHBISHOP. Alas, in such an hour, how much my pain must greaten. To find thy hallowed head in covenant with Satan ! True, to the throne, it seems, hast thou secured thy right; But, woe ! in God the Lord's, the Holy PontiflPs spite. Swift shall he punish when he learns the truth — the latter: Thy sinful realm at once with holy ban hell shatter! He still remembers how^ amid thy highest state, ACT IV. 221 When newly crowned, thou didst the wizard liberate. Thy diadem but made thy heart for Christians harden, For on that head accurst fell its first beam of pardon. Now beat thy breast, and from thy guilty stores, this Unto the Sanctuary a moderate mite repay ! The spacious sweep of hills, where stood thy tent erected, — Where Evil Spirits then, united, thee protected, — Where late the Liar-Prince thy hearing did secure, — Devpte thou, meekly taught, to pious use and pure, With hill and forest dense, far as they stretch extended, And slopes that greenly swell for pastures never ended, Then crystal lakes of fish, unnumbered brooks that flow In foamy windings down, and braid the vale below ; The broad vale then, itself, with mead, and lawn, and hollow I Thus penitence is shown, and pardon soon shall follow. EMPEROR. For this, my heavy sin, my terror is profound : By thine own measure shalt thou draw the borders round. ARCHBISHOP. First be the spot profane, where sin was perpetrated. To God's high service soon and wholly dedicated ! With speed the walls arise to meet the mind's desire; The rising morning sun already lights the choir; The growing structure spreads, the transept stands exalted ; Joy of Believers, then, the nave is lifted, vaulted; And while they press with zeal within the portals grand, The first clear call of bells is swept across the land. Pealed from the lofty towers that heavenwards have striven : The penitent draws near, new life to him is given. The consecration-day — 0, may it soon be sent ! — Thy presence then shall be the highest ornament. EMPEROR. So great a work shall be my pious proclamation ^22 FAUST. To praise the Lord our Gk)d, and work mine expiation. Enough! I feely e'en now, how high my thoughts aspire. ARCHBISHOP. As Chancellory next, the formal treaty I require. EMPKBOB. A formal document, — the Church needs full requital! Bring it to me, and I with joy will sign her title I ARCHBISHOP (has taken leave, but turns hack again at the door) . At once unto the work devote, that it may stand. Tithes, leties, tax, — the total income of the land, Forever. Much it needs, to be supported fairly, And careful maintenance will also cost us rarely : And, that it soon be built, on such a lonesome wold. Thou It from thy booty spare to us some little gold. Moreover, we shall want — ^here, most, we claim assis- tance — Lumber, and lime, and slate, and such like, from a distance. The people these shall haul, thus from the pulpit taught; The Church shall bless the man, whose team for her has wrought. [Exit. EMPEROR. The sin is very sore, wherewith my soul is weighted : Much damage unto me the Sorcerers have created. ARCHB^HOP (returning once again, with profoundest genuflections) . Pardon, Prince ! to him, that vile, notorious man, The Empire's coast was given ; but him shall smite the ban, Unless thy penitence the Church's wrath relaxes There, too, with tithes and gifts, and revenues and taxes. EMPEROR (ill-humoredly). The land doth not exist : far in thp sea it lies. ACT F. 223 ARCHBISHOP. Who patient is, and right, his day shall yet arise. Your word for us remains, and makes secure our trover! [Exit EMPEROR {80lU8). I might as well, at last, make all the Empire over!