New Poetry Blog no 168 Goethe's Faust Part One

FAUST PART ONE

based on the German of Faust- A Tragedy by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

copyright Mark Scrivener 2014
For any use besides private reading please contact Mark Scrivener on narrowroads@hotmail.com This version is strictly copyright © Mark Scrivener 2016

CONTENTS

DEDICATION
PRELUDE IN THE THEATRE
PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN
NIGHT
BEFORE THE GATE
STUDY
STUDY 2
AUERBACH'S CELLAR IN LEIPZIG
WITCH'S KITCHEN
A STREET
EVENING
PROMENADE
THE NEIGHBOUR'S HOUSE
STREET
GARDEN
A LITTLE SUMMER HOUSE
WOOD AND CAVE
GRETCHEN'S ROOM
MARTHA'S GARDEN
AT THE WELL
BY THE CITY WALL
NIGHT (2)
CATHEDRAL
WALPURGIS NIGHT
WALPURGIS NIGHT DREAM
TROUBLED DAY
NIGHT OPEN FIELD
DUNGEON


DEDICATION

You near once more, you floating forms, who passed
My troubled view in early days’ confusion.
Oh, should I try this time to hold you fast?
Now shall my heart still draw towards that illusion?
You crowd on me! Then you may rule my gaze.
Oh, how you rise around from mist and haze.
My heart feels stirred, as in far younger days,
By magic breath surrounding your lost ways.

You bring with you the scenes of joyful times,
And many long-loved shades rise in my view;
And like an old, half-fading tale I find
First love and friendship both spring up with you.
My pain grows fresh and it laments anew
The labyrinthine, erring course of life,
And names the good- those whom false fortune’s flight
Stole from fair hours to vanish from my sight.

They do not hear the songs that follow on,
Those souls to whom I sang my first. Today
The friendly troop is long dispersed and gone;
|First echoing response has died away.
My song now rings out to an unknown throng;
Their very cheers just bring my heart dismay.
Of those my song once pleased all those not dead
Are distant, scattered through the world instead.

I’m seized by long-unwonted yearning here
For that serene and earnest spirit-land.
My moving song floats murmuring, like clear,
Aeolian harp strings touched by the wind’s light hand.
I tremble, tear is following on tear.
My stern, strict heart grows soft. From where I stand,
What I possess seems far away from me,
And what has vanished becomes reality.


PRELUDE IN THE THEATRE
Director. Theatre Poet. Comic Actor.

DIRECTOR

You both who have so often stood by me
In trials of need and trouble’s sting,
What hopes for this, our venturing
Have you this time in Germany?
Great is my wish to please the multitude,
Especially since they live and let us live.
The posts are in, the seats are set up true,
And all look to a feast from what we give.
They sit already with their eyebrows raised;
Relaxed there now, they'd like to be amazed.
I know what reconciles the people, yet
I've never felt in such a tricky spot.
I know they're not accustomed to the best;
Although it's true they've read a frightful lot.
How shall we act so all is fresh and new,
With meaning's depth and yet so pleasing too?
For frankly I like seeing crowds stream in,
Surge towards our booth, and press into the place,
With powerful, repeating labouring,
On past the narrow portal way of grace.
In bright day, even earlier than four,
Up to the ticket box they fight and kick,
And as for bread, in famine, at the baker's door,
To get a ticket almost break a neck.
Only the poet works this wonder way
On many different folk; friend, do it today!

POET

Don't speak of that most motley mass to me,
For at the very sight our spirits fly.
Keep surging crowds concealed, that contrary
Of our will leads us to the whirlpool's eye.
No, bring me to a corner of calm heaven,
The only place a poet's joy will blossom,
Where love and friendship nurture and create,
With godlike hand, the blessings on the heart.
What's issued from our heart's own deeper powers,
And shyly stammered on our lips in quiet,
A failure or perhaps success of ours,
Is swallowed up by one wild moment's might.
It often goes for years before it flowers,
Appearing in its finished form. The light
Of glitter's born but for the moment's stages;
What's genuine's preserved for coming ages.

COMIC ACTOR

Don't give that coming ages stuff to me.
If all I talked of was posterity
Who'd give the present world its fun?
It wants it and it will have it too.
The presence of a good, stout lad, look you,
Is something too, when all is done.
He who's at home, imparting all with ease,
Won't be a victim of the people's whim.
He wants a great, big circle please,
So he's more certain of impressing them.
Let it be good, your best in perfect fashion.
Let's have imagination, with all its chorus,
The understanding, reason, feeling, passion-
But mind! Don't leave out folly for us!

DIRECTOR

Have plenty happening especially.
You come to look and you love most to see.
Spin out so many things before their eyes
That all the audience can gape amazed.
You'll win a wide appeal, that treasured prize,
And you'll be loved and highly praised.
You only master mass by mass, my friend.
Each seeks what suits them in the end.
He who brings much, brings many some good touch;
And home they go, quite pleased by such.
You give a piece, so let it be in pieces!
With such a stew fair fortune never ceases.
It's easy to think up and easy to present.
What use would be the whole that you'd invent?
The public picks it all to pieces finally.

POET

You do not feel how awful such a trade can be!
How little pure artists are pleased by such!
Fine Mister Blotch-it-up, I see
Already that's your standard touch.

DIRECTOR

Well, such reproaches do not injure me.
Men thinking to work effectively
Must hold the best tools for the task.
Recall you're splitting softwood. Look, I ask-
For whom is it you really write?
Sheer boredom drives one out tonight,
One's full from overflowing food that day,
And what's the worst yet, many might
Have come from reading what the papers say.
Preoccupied, as to a masquerade, they press,
Each winged by merest curiosity.
The ladies show their jewelled beauty to the best,
Performing for us here for free.
What do you dream on your poetic height?
Why do full houses gladden you?
Peer closely at your patrons here tonight-
Half cold, half crude. When our play's through,
One hopes for card play and yet another chooses
A wild night on a wench's breast. So please explain,
Why do you plague the gracious muses,
You poor mad fools, for such an aim?
I tell you give us more and always, always more,
And you will never miss the bull's eye then.
Just try to mystify all men,
To satisfy them's hard, that's sure-
What's got you now? Creative ecstasy or pain?

POET

Push off and find yourself another slave!
For should a poet see what nature gave,
His highest right, the human right, be bent
To sinful waste to suit your role?
How does he sway each single soul?
How does he conquer every element?
Does not his inward harmony sound out
A unison that wraps the world into his heart?
And if the thread of Nature, ever-long,
Is forced on the impassive-turning spindle,
If crowds, discordant, of all beings ring
Through one another, a tiresome jangle,
Who parts the stream of uniform creation,
So livingly, in rhythm's flow? Who's he
Who calls each thing to universal consecration
And makes it pulse in splendid harmony?
Who lets the storm rage in a passion's power?
Who fills the evening glow with earnest thoughts?
And who will strew each beautiful spring flower
Upon the path his loved one walks?
Who plaits the plain, green leaves into a wreath,
A crown, for merit of all sorts to show it?
Who binds and guards Olympus from beneath?
The human power revealed within the poet.

COMIC ACTOR

Then use these fine, fair powers to aid
And carry on your poet's trade
Just like a love affair is carried out.
By chance you 're near. You're moved. You hang about.
And time by time you're drawn in by degrees.
Your bliss first grows, then you compete to please.
At first you're charmed and then love's pains advance-
And, before you know it, it's a real romance.
Let's have this in the piece we're giving.
Just catch hold of full human living.
Though lived by all, it's only known by few.
Wherever you grab hold it interests you.
Kaleidoscopic scenes with little clarity,
Much error, a spark of full reality;
Yes, that's the way the best drink's brewed,
That makes the whole world feel refreshed, renewed.
For then the fairest flower of the youth
Come see the play and hear its revelation.
Then every tender soul imbibes, in truth,
Melancholy nourishment from your creation.
For as now this, now that emotion's stirred,
All see their inner feelings in your words.
The young are still prepared to laugh and weep all night;
They still crave verve, enjoy illusion on the stage.
For those who've finished growing, nothing's right.
The grateful ones are still of growing age.

POET

So give to me those times once more
When I was growing still; when from within
Full-crowding songs, new-born, would pour
As from an ever-flowing spring.
It seemed a mist still veiled the world.
A bud still promised miracle.
I plucked the thousand flowers which filled
All valleys with sweet, rich profusion.
I'd nothing, yet I was fulfilled:
My urge for truth, joy of illusion.
Give me those drives yet unrestrained,
The deep and anguished happiness,
The force of hate, love's power and bliss.
Oh, give me back my youthful days!

COMIC ACTOR

But youth, good friend, is what is needed most
When foes beset you in a fight;
When on your neck a loving host
Of women hang in sheer delight;
When in fast race, afar you glance
The hard-earned goal, the wreath's in view;
When after wild and whirling dance
You feast and drink whole nights. But you
We need to pluck familiar tone
Upon the strings with fiery grace,
|With beautiful digressions roam,
Concluding at your chosen place.
For that's your role, old sirs, today,
For we don't venerate you any less.
For age won't make us childish, as some say,
It finds what still is truly child in us.

DIRECTOR

Enough exchange of chat and banter;
Let's finally see deeds. Each one
Turns compliments upon the other,
When something useful could be done.
What use is talk of moods? Refrain,
And you will never find the mood inspired.
Now if you're poets, as you claim,
Command the poetry desired.
You know just what we need, don't you?
To slurp down some high, potent brew.
So start the mix and don't delay!
Tomorrow you won't do what you don't do today.
We should not let an hour slip by.
The resolute will bravely grasp
The possibilities before they fly;
And hold them by the slightest tuft,
Then work on further for they must.

You know that on our German stage
Each one tries what he likes- feel free.
And so today, for me, don't save
On stage effects and scenery.
So use the great and little heaven's light,
Squander the stars; there's no lack at all
Of water, fire, rocky wall
And birds and beasts for your delight.
So pace out on the narrow house of board
All that creation can afford
And with deliberate speed, range well
From heaven through the world to hell.

PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN

The Lord. The Heavenly Hosts. Later Mephistopheles. Three Archangels come forward.

RAPHAEL

In ways of old the sun sounds forth,
Where brother spheres as rivals sing,
Full-ending his pre-written course
With far-resounding thundering.
His aspect gives the angels might,
Though none may fathom his foundation.
Works, great beyond thought’s grasp, are bright
As on the first day of creation.

GABRIEL

And swiftly, swift beyond all grasping,
There spins the splendour of earth's light-
A paradise of brightness passing
To dark and shiver-filled, deep night.
And in broad streams up-foams the ocean
|Upon the rocks' deep-founded base;
And rock and sea sweep on in motion
In planets' swift eternal race.

MICHAEL

And tempests roar in rivalry
From sea to land, from land to sea;
In fury forge wide chains that flare
With deepest working through the air.
There flashing desolations sear
The path before the thunder play;
Yet Lord, Your messengers revere
The gentle changes of Your day.

ALL THREE

This aspect gives the angels might,
While none may fathom Your foundation.
And all of Your high works are bright
As on the first day of creation.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Since You, O Lord, once again draw near
To ask how things are going down with us,
And since You used to like to see me, here
Am I where all Your household helpers fuss.
Please pardon, but I can't work high-worded styles,
Though all this circle mock and scoff.
I'm sure, my pathos would just make You laugh,
Had You not sworn off laughing this long while.
I've nothing grand to spout of sun and worlds,
I only see that humans plague themselves.
The world's small god is still the same, old way-
As deeply strange as on the dawn of its first day.
They'd lead a somewhat better life
If you'd withheld a seeming sheen of heaven's light.
They call it reason, merely using this
To be more bestial than any beast.
It seems, please pardon if it's impolite,
That his is that long-legged* grasshopper's plight, (*legged one syllable not leggéd)
That tries to fly yet springs along
And in the grasses sings the same, old song.
Yet would he only lie within the grasses!
He pokes his nose in any poo he passes.

THE LORD

You've nothing further but this strain?
Come you but ever to complain?
Is nothing on the earth now ever right by you?

MEPHISTOPHELES

No, Lord! I find it there, as ever, bad right through.
I feel so saddened by the wretched lives of men
That even I am loath to torment them.

THE LORD

Do you know Faust?

MEPHISTOPHELES

The doctor?

THE LORD

My servant.

MEPHISTOPHELES

In truth, his way of serving's strange enough!
That madcap's drink and food's not earthly stuff.
His ferment urges him afar.
He's half-aware of his own craziness.
From heaven he demands the highest stars
And from the earth all highest happiness.
Yet nothing, from both near and far,
Can calm deep trouble brewing in his breast.

THE LORD

If He but serves Me in confusion's night,
Soon I shall lead him into greater light.
The gardener knows, although the sapling's green,
In coming years the flower and fruit are seen.

MEPHISTOPHELES

What will you bet? You'll still lose him I say
As long as I may have your leave
To lead him gently down my way.

THE LORD

As long as he's on earth alive
You're not forbidden to go ahead.
The human errs while yet it strives.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Thanks there. For never towards the dead
Have I a bias, so to speak.
For most of all I love the full, fresh cheek.
If corpses call, I'm not at home that day.
A cat upon a mouse, that's how I play.

THE LORD

Very well. Then you may have your day.
So drag his spirit from its ancient spring
And lead, if you can seize and cling,
Off there upon your downward way.
Then stand ashamed when finally you say,
A good man, with a dim, impulsive force,
Is well aware of rightly-rising course.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Good. Fine. And little time I'll take,
No fear I'll lose this bet. And for my sake,
When I attain my aim, my stake,
You'll let my heart fill with triumphant might.
Dust he'll devour and with delight,
Just like my cousin, the famous snake.

THE LORD

There too you may appear as free.
Your type has never had My hate.
Of all the spirits that deny, for Me
The roguish knave is least of weight.
The human's doing all too lightly slips to dream
And soon loves unconditional rest. Therefore
I'm pleased to partner them with one who's sure
To work and goad, with active devil-scheme.

But you, true sons of God, delight
In rich and vibrant beauty's sight.
May-Coming-To-Being, that ever works and lives,
Encompass you with gracious bounds of love.
And what's afloat in shimmering sheen-creation
Hold fast with lasting contemplation.

THE HEAVENS CLOSE, THE ARCHANGELS SEPARATE

MEPHISTOPHELES (ALONE)

I like to see the Old One from time to time;
And take pains not to break with Him. From the level
Of such a Great Lord, it is rather fine
To speak so humanly with the very devil.

NIGHT
A HIGH-VAULTED, NARROW GOTHIC CHAMBER. A RESTLESS FAUST IS SEATED IN HIS ARMCHAIR AT HIS DESK.

FAUST

Ah, how I've studied philosophy
And law and medicine as well,
And saddest yet theology,
Full-through with hot, hard-sweated zeal.
Now here I stand, a poor fool, I'm sure,
No smarter than I was before!
Called master, even doctor; oh, how
For ten long years already now,
Up, down, across and all around it goes-
This pulling my pupils by the nose;
To see we can know nothing true!
That really burns my heart right through.
Sure, I am brighter than those nitwit screechers:
The doctors and masters, clerks and preachers.
I'm plagued by neither doubt nor scruple,
Nor do I tremble at hell or devil-
So too all joy is torn from me. Just so.
I don't pretend I know what's right to know;
I don't pretend that I could teach what could
Make mankind better, turn it to good.
As well I've neither goods nor gold,
Nor honour and the splendour of the world.
No dog would endure this life any more!
So I've given myself to magic's lore,
To see, through spirit strength and speech,
If many secrets come in reach.
With bitter sweat then I'll not go.
Impelled to say what I don't know.
Then I'll know what, at this world's heart,
Is binding in its inmost part
And see the seminal, the creative core,
And rummage around in words no more.

Oh, that you looked, full-shining moon,
For the last time on my pain and gloom.
For I, so many midnights here,
Have held watch at this desk and chair.
Then over a book and paper sea,
Forlorn, old friend, you shone on me,
Could I but go, in your loved light,
To wander on a mountain height,
To glide with spirits round mountain caves,
Drift over fields in your twilight hue,
Be freed from fumes of knowledge, bathe
Myself to health here in your dew!

Oh no! Am I still stuck within this prison?
This dark wall-hole where even the vision
Of heaven's light is dimmed and stained
In breaking through the painted panes!
Boxed in by book piles here, all spread
With dust, where gnawing worms have been.
Books reach the vaults up overhead,
With smoke-stained papers stuck between;
Case, glass and box surround me too,
With instruments, forced-in, unfurled-
Ancestral junk that blocks the view.
This is my world! Call this a world!

Do you still ask why should your heart
Be bound by fear within your breast?
Why unexplained, a pain so sharp
Blocks every impulse of life's zest?
Instead of living Nature's space
Where God made man to have a home,
Here only mould and fumes embrace
Beast skeletons and dead men's bones.

Up! Flee forth to the far, wide land!
This book of mystery, by my side,
In Nostrodamus' own hand,
Will it not be sufficient guide?
You'll grasp the paths of stars and when
You're taught by Nature too, the force
Of your own soul wells from its source;
How spirit speaks to spirit then.
In vain does dry perception try
To make the sacred symbols clear:
You silent spirits, hovering by;
Now answer me, if you can hear.

HE OPENS THE BOOK AND GLIMPSES THE SIGN OF THE MACROCOSM

Oh, at this sight what rapture streams in me
Through all my senses instantly!
I feel how youthful, sacred bliss of life new-glows;
Through all my nerves and veins it flows.
Was it a god who drew this figure's form
That stills the strife of inner storm
And fills with joy my poor, worn heart;
And with mysterious power imparts
A revelation of the sources
Of Nature's wide-embracing forces?
Am I a god? All grows so light.
Within these pure lines the whole
Of Nature's working lies before my soul.
Now first I know wise ones are right-
"The spirit world's not locked away;
Your sense is shut, your heart is dead.
Disciple, up! Without dismay,
Bathe earthly breast in dawn's fine red!"

HE EXAMINES THE DIAGRAM

How all within the wholeness weave
And with the others work and live.
How heaven's powers pass up and down
And hand the golden buckets on,
With blessing-scented winging,
They press from heaven through earth's realm,
All through the All harmoniously ringing!

What pageantry! Yet only that! Oh, true
And endless Nature, where shall I grasp you?
Where are your breasts? Oh, wellsprings of all life,
On these the earth and heaven hang,
The parched heart seeks you in its strife,
|You gush, you nourish- do I pine in vain?

HE TURNS THE PAGES OF THE BOOK RELUCTANTLY AND NOTICES THE SYMBOL OF THE EARTH SPIRIT

How differently it works on me- this sign!
You, spirit of earth, you're drawing nearer;
I feel now how my powers are higher.
I glow already as from new wine,
Feel courage; venture out to find world's worth,
And bear the woe of earth, the joy of earth;
Brave-fight with all-surrounding storm,
Not fear the grating shipwreck's crashing doom.
Clouds gather over me-
The moon conceals its light-
|The lamp is out!
And mists arise- and red rays spark
Around my head- a shivering breath
Comes floating down from vaults above
And seizes me!
Oh, spirit that I begged to see,
I feel you floating through:
Reveal yourself!
Oh, how it tears my heart in two!
My senses reel,
So stirred by strange, new things I feel.
My heart is wholly giving into you.
You must, you must! Though it could cost my life!

HE SEIZES THE BOOK AND MYSTERIOUSLY PRONOUNCES THE SIGN OF THE SPIRIT. A RED FLAME FLASHES UP, THE SPIRIT WITHIN IT.

SPIRIT

Who calls me!

FAUST (TURNING AWAY)

Terrifying sight!

SPIRIT

Now powerfully you've drawn me here,
You've long been nourished in my sphere,
And now-

FAUST
O grief! I cannot bear your might.

SPIRIT

You begged so breathlessly to see me here.
To know my voice, to view my face;
Your powerful plea has won my grace,
And here am I! - What pitiful fear
Engulfs the superman! Where is you soul-sent call?
Where is the breast that wove a world, that bore it all,
That nurtured it, then with joy-born, trembling bliss
Puffed up to spirit realm to equal us?
And are you Faust, whose voice rang out to me,
Who forced towards me with every faculty,
He, who enveloped in my breath, I'm seeing
So shaken in all depths of being,
A scared, retreating, writhing worm?

FAUST

Shall I give way to you, you form of flame?
I am, am Faust, like you, the same.

SPIRIT

In floods of life, in all deeds' vast storm,
Up and down my waves
Weave to and fro-
Birth and grave,
An endless ocean
In eternal motion,
A changing weaving,
A glowing living,
I create at the loud-rushing loom of all time,
And weave living vestment that clothes the Divine.

FAUST

You who roam the world from end to end,
You ever-active spirit, how near I feel to you!

SPIRIT

You're like the spirit you comprehend,
Not me!
FAUST (OVERWHELMED)

Not you?
Then whom?
I, image of the Godhead,
Not the same as you!

A KNOCK

Oh death! I know it- it is my famulus-
|My fairest fortune thus is brought
To nothingness. Oh, that this vision's fullness ought
To be disturbed by that dry prowler's dust.

WAGNER IN NIGHTGOWN AND NIGHTCAP ENTERS, A LAMP IN HIS HAND. FAUST TURNS UNWILLINGLY

WAGNER

Please pardon me, I heard you speak a part;
You know by rote some tragic, old Greek play?
I'd like to profit from this art,
For it achieves so much today.
I've often heard it claimed a preacher
Should take an actor as his teacher.

FAUST

Yes, when the preacher is a ham,
And truly, sometimes it turns out that way.

WAGNER

Oh, banished in this museum as I am,
I see the world but on a holiday,
As through a spyglass, far apart...
How can I learn persuasion's art?

FAUST

If you don't feel it first, no hunt will bring
What doesn't flow from your soul's spring,
And with pleasure's primal force imparts
Its power to all your hearers' hearts.
Keep sitting! Glue it all together;
Cook stew from scraps left by another,
And blow a scanty flame that flashes
From out of your own heap of ashes.
You will amaze the child and ape,
If it's your taste to play that part.
Warm rays from heart to hearts won't radiate
If no glow comes from your own heart.

WAGNER

Yet winning speech is all delivery;
And still I feel that's all quite far from me.

FAUST

Seek only honest recompense.
Don't be like some bell-tinkling fool.
For understanding and good sense
Require little art to rule.
With earnest speaking isn't it absurd
To spend time hunting for a word?
Yes, for your speeches that glitter so,
Yet give us but curled snippets, bits to please,
Are like those stale and misty winds that blow
In autumn, rustling through the withered leaves.

WAGNER

Though art is long, oh, God,
Our life is short indeed!
Through striving, keen and critical, I find
I'm often troubled in my heart and mind.
How hard it is to have the means to lead
One to the final fountainhead.
Before, poor devil, you're halfway there
Your body's in the cold earth's care.

FAUST

Is parchment then the sacred, living spring
One sip of which will still your thirst forever?
You will not be refreshed by anything
That does not rise from your own soul's endeavour.

WAGNER

Please pardon! But it gives great satisfaction
To see the spirits of the past in action;
To comprehend how wise ones thought before our age;
How brilliantly we brought all to a further stage.

FAUST

Yes, right up to the stars on high.
You know, my friend, for us the times gone by
Are like a book with seven seals.
What you would call the spirit of the past
Is just the spirit of the ones who'd cast
Time's mirror bent by what each feels.
It often makes a shameful mess!
One glimpse of it will make you run away:
A lumber room, a rubbish bin, no less...
At best it's but a high, flag-waving play,
With excellent, pragmatic platitudes:
Most suitable for puppet interludes.

WAGNER

What of the world? The human heart and mind?
To know of these is everybody's aim.

FAUST

With what's called knowing! But who's inclined
To call the child by its right name?
Of the few who knew of something on that side,
Those fool enough, not guarding their full hearts, revealing,
To the rabble, their visions and their feeling,
They always have been burnt and crucified.
But please, my friend, it's grown late in the night,
And we must say, for now, adieu.

WAGNER

I'd like to stay forever that I might
Keep talking of such learned things with you.
Tomorrow's first of Easter holiday;
Then I shall ask more, if I may.
I've studied with great zeal the vast and small,
I know much, but I want to know it all.

HE EXITS

FAUST (ALONE)

How not to lose all hope he ever turns
Towards trash and triviality;
With greedy hands he grubs for gems, yet he
Is thrilled to find earth's wriggling worms.

Dare such a human voice resound here too,
Where fullness of the spirits was at play?
And yet this time I give my thanks to you,
You poorest of the sons of dust and clay.
You tore me back from my dark, desperate state,
That would have smashed my senses with its force.
Oh, that vision was all-vast, so great
It rightly made me see myself as dwarfed.

I, image of the Godhead, already I
Drew near the mirror of eternal truth,
And savoured heaven's light like clearest sky,
And shed my merely earth-born sheath.
I, more than Cherub, whose free force unfurled
To flow through veins of Nature's world,
Create and taste the life of gods, or so
With inklings I presumed to know...
How now indeed I have to pay!
One thunder word has swept me right away.

I cannot dare compare with you; and though
I did possess the power to draw you near.
I had no power to hold you with me here.
In that one moment's bliss-filled glow,
I felt myself so small, so great;
Then cruelly you thrust me down,
Back to the human's vague, uncertain fate.
Who'll teach me now? What shall I shun?
Alas, our deeds themselves, as much as sorrow's force,
May halt and hinder our life's course.

What's finest, what the spirit can conceive,
Draws strange and stranger stuff into its weave;
When we attain to this world's good, we deem
What's better fraud or mere delusion's dream.
And higher, glorious feelings, those that gave us life,
Grow torpid in the crush of earthly strife.

Though daydreams once with daring flight were free
To spread with hope towards some eternal realm,
A little space now seems enough for me,
When every fortune fails within the swirl of time.
Deep in the heart's a nest where Care has lain
And there can work with secret pain.
It stirs uneasily, disturbing joy and rest;
It ever dons new masks, confusing life,
It might appear as house and yard, as child and wife,
Flame, water, poison, dagger's steel.
You quake at blows you never feel,
And you must ever weep for what you've never lost.

I'm not godlike! So deep is the feeling that I must
Admit I'm like the worms that tunnel dust;
That while they live and feed in dusty joy,
The wanderer's footsteps bury and destroy.

Is it not dust that from this wall height here
With its hundred shelves now narrows in on me,
The junk, the thousand knick-knacks that I see,
That push on me in this moth sphere?
Shall I find here that which I lack?
Perhaps I'll read a thousand books to glean
That people everywhere are on the rack,
That here and there a happy one has been?
You hollow skull, why are you grinning so,
Except your brain, like mine, sought carefree day
But was confused in heavy dusk's last glow,
And wanting truth, most sadly lost the way?
These instruments, they're surely mocking me,
With wheel and cog and cylinder and catch.
I stood before the gate, you were my key,
But though your wards are complex, they can't lift the latch.
For in bright day still filled with mystery
Is Nature - and you cannot steal her veils.
What she won't show your spirit will not be
Rough-wrenched from her with levers or with nails.
These things I didn't need, old gear,
You're here because my father used this mess.
You ancient scroll, you've been smoke-browning here,
As long as this dim lamp has smouldered at this desk.
Far better I had wasted my small wares
Than sweat beneath the burden of this littleness!
What you inherit from forefather's care
You need to earn in order to possess.
What's not used is a heavy weight to bear.
Just what the moment makes, that's all that's any use.

Why does that spot fix fast my sight,
That flask, a magnet to my eyes' delight?
Why am I flooded with a lovely light,
Like glide of moon-glow in a forest's night?

I greet you now, unique and precious phial,
With reverence I fetch you down awhile.
In you I praise true human wit and art.
You essence of all fair, sleep-bringing juices,
You extract of all fine and deadly forces,
Extend your favour to your master's heart.
I see you and my pain is softened,
I grasp you and my striving's lessened,
The spirit's flood tide slowly ebbs away,
I'm led towards far, wide ocean deeps; I greet
The mirroring flood that shimmers at my feet,
Towards new-seen shores I'm lured by new day.

A fiery chariot sweeps down to me
Upon light wings! I feel I am prepared
To push on through the ether's pathways there
To refined, new spheres of high activity.
This higher life, delight of gods, such bliss,
First but a worm, are you deserving this?
Yes, brave-resolving, turn your back upon
The living light of earth's all-gracious sun,
And fearless, force on through that portal's gate
That everyone would like to sneak on by.
This is the time through deeds to demonstrate
That human honour does not yield to gods on high,
And will not quake before that darkened cave,
Where fancy's damned within its own tormenting,
When striving towards that passage, not relenting,
Though round its narrow mouth all hell's ablaze;
And takes this step with good cheer, even if
It were to risk a flowing into nothingness.

Now come on down, you pure crystal bowl,
From your old, dusty case that's kept you whole.
For many years I have not thought of you.
You shone out at my father's joyous feasts,
And cheered the serious-minded guests
When you were passed around amongst that crew.
It was the drinker's task to clarify
Your many artful, splendid scenes in rhymes
And empty you in one good try;
It brings to mind so many nights of youthful times.
I shall not pass you to a neighbour now,
I won't display my wit upon your art's fine power.
Here is a drink most swift-intoxicating;
A brown juice fills it to the brim. I will,
With all my soul, now take my final fill,
As festive, lofty greeting to the morning's breaking.

HE SETS THE BOWL TO HIS MOUTH. BELLS CHIMING AND CHORAL SINGING.

CHORUS OF ANGELS

Christ has ascended!
Mortals all happiness
On whom invidious,
Passed-down, insidious,
Binding faults tended.

FAUST

What deep, deep hum, what bright tone, draws and claims
The glass here from my lips with such a power?
Already do these muted chimes proclaim
The Easter festival's first celebratory hour?
Do you now sing, you choirs, the song of comfort's might,
Once sung with angel's lips around the grave's cold night,
To pledge a covenant so newly now?

CHORUS OF WOMEN

With spices we brought
We tended Him so,
We faithful ones thought
How to lay Him below;
Linens to bind
Around Him with care;
Ah! and we find
Christ no more here.

CHORUS OF ANGELS

Christ has ascended!
Blessed the One loving us,
Who the most-troubling but

Healing and strenuous
Test took unbended.

FAUST

Why do you seek, you mighty and mild,
Celestial tones, seek me in dust?
Ring out where softer men might be beguiled.
I hear your message: all I lack is faith and trust.
And miracle is faith's own dearest child.
I dare not strive up towards those spheres,
That ring out with such gracious tidings here,
And yet accustomed to this sound from my youth on,
Even now it calls me back into life's realm.
In early life the loving kiss of heaven
Would touch me in the holy Sabbath stillness;
So full of promise were the bell tones in their fullness,
And with a fervent joy my prayer was given.
Then inconceivably sweet yearning
Drove me through forest and through field;
Amid my tears, by thousands burning,
I felt a world in me unfurled.
This song proclaimed, announced youth's lively games,
Spring festival's free joy. I'm kept,
Remembering that childlike feeling here again,
From taking that last earnest step.
Ring on, sweet heaven's song, now as before,
My tears rise up, the earth holds me once more!

CHORUS OF DISCIPLES

If the grave-given One's
Raised up already,
If the high, living One's
Risen in glory,
If, in becoming's gladness,
He's near creating's bliss;
Ah! on the earth's dark breast ,
We are still bound to sadness.
Leaving His own
Languishing for Him;
Ah! we bemoan,
Master, Your fortune!

CHORUS OF ANGELS

Christ has ascended
From the lap of corruption;
Cast off your bands and
Joy in your freedom!
Praise Him with deeds most fair,
Showing your love and care,
Feeding all others there,
Teaching out everywhere,
Promising bliss to share,
Your own true Master's near,
For you He's here!

BEFORE THE GATE

PEOPLE OF ALL SORTS OUT FOR A WALK

SEVERAL APPRENTICES

Why do you go that way?

OTHERS

We're off to the "Hunter's Lodge" today

THE FIRST

But we would rather wander to the mill.

AN APPRENTICE

The "River Inn's" the place, take my advice.

A SECOND

The path to it is not so nice.

THE OTHERS

What'll you do then?

A THIRD

Go where the others will.

A FOURTH

Come up to "Burgdorf." You may be sure that you
Will find the finest girls, the best beer too,
And quarrels that are quite first rate.

A FIFTH

You overblown buffoon: now does your hide
Itch, for a third time, to be tried?
It just gives me the creeps. Forget that place.

SERVING GIRL

No! I'm returning to the town below.

ANOTHER

We'll find him by the poplars, I am sure.

THE FIRST

That's nothing great to me; you know
He'll stick by your side, only yours:
Dance on the green with you alone.
|What do I care for joys you own?

STUDENT

Jove, how those strapping wenches go!
Come brother, we must take them into tow;
A good strong beer, a tobacco with a bite,
A nicely dressed-up serving girl- that's what I like.

CITIZEN'S DAUGHTER

Just look at those good-looking boys!
It's really a disgrace, it seems to me,
When they could have the very best of company,
They just run after girls like those.

SECOND STUDENT (TO THE FIRST)

But not so fast! Behind us are a pair
That are got up quite neat and nice.
And one's my neighbour and I swear
I've fallen for her form and face.
They walk at their demure pace
But in the end they'll go with us.

THE FIRST

No, brother! I don't like restraining ways.
Be quick, we'll lose our quarry if we stall.
The hand that leads the broom on Saturdays,
On Sundays will caress you best of all.

CITIZEN

I am not pleased by this new mayor in any way.
Now he is in, he grows just bolder by the day.
|What's he do for the town, I say?
Each day it's growing worse. What's more,
You're meant now, more than ever, to obey,
And ever pay more than you did before.

BEGGAR (SINGING)

My noble sirs and ladies blessed
With cheeks of red and finest dress,
Be pleased to look upon me here,
And see and soften my distress.
Don't let my hurdy-gurdy gear
Grind on in vain. You'll only see
True joy by giving, wise ones say.
This day, for all a holiday,
Make it a harvest day for me!

ANOTHER CITIZEN

On holidays and Sundays, I know of nothing better
Than some small talk of wars and rumoured wars,
When way down yonder on Turkish shores,
The nations hammer one another.
You take a window, drink a little glass,
And see the motley ships glide down the river ways;
Then turn for home, when day is past,
And bless the peace and peaceful days.

THIRD CITIZEN

Yes, neighbour, yes! That's what I say as well.
Just let them crack each other on the skull,
And mix up everything they're known;
As long as all stays just the same at home.

OLD WOMAN (TO THE CITIZEN'S DAUGHTER)

My! how well-dressed; such fine, young things. Why at the sight,
Who wouldn't be infatuated?
Don't be so proud. It's quite all right.
And what you want, I know just how to make it.

CITIZEN'S DAUGHTER

Come Agatha, I'm do not want to be
Seen going with such witches openly...
Though on St. Andrew's night she let me see
My future sweetheart bodily-

ANOTHER

She showed me mine within a crystal sphere:
A soldier with some daring fellows there.
I look around, I seek him everywhere.
And yet- he just will not appear.

SOLDIERS

Cities that harbour
High battlements,
Girls of a proud,
Scorn-giving pretence,
These would I win!
Bold is the labour,
Bright the reward.

We let the trumpets
Do all the courting,
Whether to joy or
Ruinous strife.
That is a storming!
That is a life!
Women and cities
Have to give in!
Bold is the labour,
Bright the reward.
And all the soldiers
Go marching forward.

ENTER FAUST AND WAGNER

FAUST

The streams and brooks break free from hard ice-crust,
Through springtime's gracious, stimulating glance.
Within the valley, green grows hope's happiness.
Old winter, in his weakness, must
Retreat to rugged mountain peaks.
From there, as he flees, he's only throwing
Some powerless showers of pellet-like ice
In streaks now over fields' green-growing.
Ah, but the sun will suffer no white:
Over all rules a building and striving, the sun
Seeks to enliven all with colour-shine.
In this quarter flowers aren't yet spread,
It takes the bright-clothed crowd instead.
Just turn around, from this high heath,
Look back now on the town beneath.
From the dark and hollow gate
Multi-coloured throngs escape.
Everyone's eager to sun himself now.
They celebrate the resurrection's power.
For they themselves arise new-made
From lowly homes with stuffy rooms,
From bonds of handiwork and trade,
From pressing roofs and gabled gloom,
From the streets' squeezing narrowness,
From the churches' venerable night,
They're all brought out into the light.
Just see! How nimbly crowds fragment and press
Through gardens and through fields. Look how,
On all the breadths and lengths of river-flow
So many merry skiffs are stirring now,
And overloaded till near sinking,
See that last barge as off it goes.
The very mountain's far paths are blinking
With flash of folk in colourful bright clothes.
Already village crowds I hear,
The people's own true heaven's near;
Contented, great and small shout joyously.
I'm human here, here such may be.

WAGNER

Though, Doctor sir, to stroll with you
Is benefit and honour too;
I would not stray out here alone, for I'm
A foe to vulgar wastes of time.
This fiddling, shrieking, skittle throng
Just seems a hateful row. They romp about
As if in an evil spirit drove them out,
And call it joy, and call it song.

PEASANTS (UNDER THE LINDEN TREE)

The shepherd for the dance had dressed
In ribbons, wreath, gay-coloured vest,
Put on a neat, smart show.
And round the linden, lass and lad
Already danced along like mad.
Hurray! Hurray!
Hurrah-ah-rah! Ho-hey!
So went the fiddle bow.

Now hastily he pushed on through,
And jabbed one of the girls there too,
A sharp swift elbow blow.
The lively wench then turned about
And said, "Now you're a stupid lout!"
Hurray! Hurray!
Hurrah-ah-rah! Ho-hey!
"Don't be so rude and low."

Still swiftly went their circling flight,
Now dancing left, now dancing right,
All skirts were flying so!
They grew quite red, they grew quite warm,
And panting rested arm in arm,
Hurray! Hurray!
Hurrah-ah-rah Ho-hey!
And hip on elbow so.

"Don't be familiar with me!
How many have their brides-to-be
Deceived and cheated so!"
And yet he coaxed her to one side
And from the linden rang out wide:
Hurray! Hurray!
Hurrah-ah-rah! Ho-hey!
The shouts and fiddle bow.

OLD PEASANT

Good doctor, it is fine of you
That you don't scorn us here today
And down among this press of humble people,
Though you're so highly learned, go your way.
So also take the finest mug
We filled with fresh, good drink. And first
As I bring it, I loudly wish
That it not only stills your thirst,
But that each drop that it contains
May be one day that your life gains.

FAUST

Accepting your refreshing brew,
I wish all health and thank them too.

THE PEOPLE GATHER AROUND IN A CIRCLE

OLD PEASANT

In truth, it's very well it happens
That you appear this joyous day;
For earlier in evil times,
You worked for good in will and way.
How many who stand living here,
Your father snatched out just in time
From burning fever as he brought
The epidemic into line.
You too that time, a young man still,
Went in each house where plague was found;
How many corpses one carried out,
But you came out still strong and sound.
Withstanding much hard testing too;
The helper on high helped helpers through.

ALL

Health to the man who's truly tried,
Long may his help be by our side!

FAUST

Stand bowed to Him on high who sends
All help, and teaches help, my friends.

HE GOES ON WITH WAGNER

WAGNER

What lofty feelings you, great man, must gather
From this throng's reverence! Yes, he has much
True happiness who can draw such
Advantage from his gifts. The father
Points you out to his boy. Folk touch
And ask and press and rush around;
The dancers pause, no fiddles sound.
They stand in rows when you go near,
They throw their caps up toward the sky;
A little more and they would bow down here
As if the sacred host went by.

FAUST

Now it is but a few more steps up to that stone,
We'll rest here from our rambling. This is where,
Quite filled with thought, I'd often sit alone
And rack myself with fasting and with prayer.
Here rich in hope, in faith firm-set,
By wringing hands, by tears and sighing.
I thought I'd force the Lord, and get
An end to all that plague, that dying.
The crowd's applause just sounds like mockery.
Oh, would you read within my inmost part
How little father and son should be
So given glory for their art.
My father was- was a dark man of honour,
That over nature and her sacred circles mused,
In honesty, yet after his own views,
In an eccentric, labouring manner.
In other adept's company,
And after endless formulae,
Within the locked black kitchen, he
Would mix the opposites together.
Within a tepid bath, a daring wooer there,
A "Red Lion" wed the "Lily"; and with care
The two were pained upon an open flame
And passed from one "Bride Chamber" to another.
In bright hues there appeared inside
The glass, the "Young Queen". Truth to tell,
Here was the medicine, the patients died,
And no-one asked, "Now who got well?"
So with this hellish and concocted brew,
Throughout these hills and valleys too,
Far worse than plague itself we raged.
And I myself to thousands gave this poisoned cure;
They withered away, but I must endure
To hear the shameless killers praised.

WAGNER

How could that cause you such distress!
For is it not enough for honest men
That arts we pass on down to them
They practice with strict conscientiousness?
You honour your own father, as a youth,
So you absorb his teachings whole.
When grown you add to knowledge- then, in truth,
Your son may climb up to a higher goal.

FAUST

Oh, happy's he who still can hope
To leave this sea of error round us all.
For what's not known, that's what you need to cope,
And what is known, your need for that is small,
Still let's not let this hour of beauty grow
Quite stunted by such troubled talking, but
Just see now how the dusk-burnt sun's last glow
Is glimmering upon each green-edged hut.
The day's outlived, the yielding sunbeams shift,
They fly to further new life far away.
Oh, that from out my body wings could lift;
I'd flee, forever following the day!
I'd see, within eternal evening's beam,
All at my feet, the quiet world below,
Each valley hushed, each height a fire gleam,
Where silver streams to golden rivers flow.
Wild mountains with their gorges, none denies
My godlike race, already now the sea,
With its warmed bays, is opening under me,
Spread out before astonished eyes.
Yet off at last the goddess seems to sink;
But new, new impulse wakes, I'd find
I'd hurry forward, eternal light my drink,
The day before me and the night behind,
The heavens over me and under me the waves.
A glorious dream now, even as it flees us quite.
Ah! for the spirit's wings have grown so light,
That we've no bodied wing that so behaves.
For still in each one born there's traces
Of feelings lifting upward, up and on.
When he hears, vanishing in far, blue spaces,
The trilling tremble of a skylark's song,
When over steep, spruce-covered height,
Outspread, the eagles hover round.
When over flats and seas, in flight,
The crane strives onward, homeward bound.

WAGNER

I've often found such hours of fancy's touch,
Yet I have never felt an urge like you as such.
You see your fill of forest, field and brook;
I've never envied wings that birds employ.
Quite otherwise we're borne by spirit joy
From page to page, from book to book.
Then winter nights grow gracious, charmed and fair,
A blissful life warms every limb right through,
And oh! if you unroll a precious parchment there,
Then all of heaven will come down to you.

FAUST

You do yourself but know one urge's quest;
Oh, never learn to know the other!
Alas, two souls are dwelling in my breast,
Each wants to part itself from its own brother.
The one, with clinging organs, coarse love lust,
Holds to the world, the other's sovereignty
Uplifts it powerfully from dust
Towards regions of high ancestry.
If there be spirits of the air,
Between the earth and heaven ruling, weaving,
Descend from golden haze of atmosphere,
And lead me off to new and varied living!
If only I'd a magic cloak whose wing
Would carry me to new and varied lands.
For richest robes it would not leave my hands,
I wouldn't trade it for the mantle of a king.

WAGNER

Don't call the well-know swarms that stream and flee,
In misty circles spreading overhead,
From every quarter for humanity
Preparing peril, thousand-faceted.
From out the north they bare sharp spirit teeth,
Attacking us with arrow-pointed tongues.
Then from the east they parch the world beneath
And eat into your unprotected lungs.
If on the south wind, from the desert sent,
They heap on glow on glow upon your brain;
The west brings hosts, at first refreshing, bent
On drowning you and every field and plain.
They like eavesdropping, for they joy in harm,
They like obeying, for they like deceiving;
They act as if just sent from heaven’s calm,
And lisp their lies like angels’ breathing.
The world’s already wrapped in grey. Let’s go!
The air grows cool, the mist sinks low.
Now home’s most treasured when dusk’s about-
Why stand so, so astonished, gazing out?
What in this dusk makes you so troubled?

FAUST

You see the black dog brushing through the crops and stubble?

WAGNER

Long since. It didn’t seem important in the least.

FAUST

Observe it well. What would you call that beast?

WAGNER

A poodle; judging from its path I’d say
It’s searching for its master’s track.
FAUST

Note how it hunts, how its wide, spiral way
Is ever closing in on us. Its back,
If I see truly, leaves a swirl of flames
Behind it as it goes along.

WAGNER

I see a black-haired poodle, nothing strange.
Perhaps a trick of sight makes it seem wrong.

FAUST

It draws soft magic coils, it seems to me,
Around our feet to form a future fetter.

WAGNER

I see it prance around us, with uncertainty,
Because it sees two strangers rather than its master.

FAUST

The circles narrow, it’s already near.

WAGNER

You see, a dog and not a ghost comes here.
It pauses, growls, lies on its belly too,
And wags its tail: all things dogs do.

FAUST

Now be our friend! Come here to us.

WAGNER

It’s just a poodle-foolish beast.
If you stand still, it waits by too.
You speak to it, it tries to climb on you.
It brings back things you drop. It’s quick
To leap into stream to fetch your stick.

FAUST

You are quite right. I cannot find a trace
Of any spirit, training takes its place.

WAGNER

And when a dog is truly trained,
Even a wise man’s heart is gained.
Indeed, this one deserves your favour, he
Is the students’ excellent scholar, you see.

THEY EXIT BY THE GATE

STUDY

FAUST (ENTERING WITH POODLE)

I have forsaken field and meadow,
All sheltered in a deep night-shadow;
With sacred and foreboding awe,
Our better soul wakes in our core.
Wild impulses are sleeping, cooled
Like all impetuous action's power;
By love of humankind we're ruled,
The love of God reigns in us now.

Be quiet poodle! Don’t run everywhere.
Why sniff the threshold, as you do?
Lie down behind the oven there,
And my best cushion I'll give you.
When outside on the hillside way
Through running and leaping you pleased us best,
So now accept my care and stay
Here as a quiet and welcome guest.

Ah, when within my narrow cell
The friendly lamp glow burns once more,
It grows bright in my breast as well,
Within the heart that knows its core.
Then once more reason starts to speak,
Then once more hope begins to flower;
You yearn to reach life’s streams, to seek
The very wellspring of life’s power.

Stop growling, poodle! For the sacred tones,
That now encompass my whole soul,
Do not accord with such a brutish howl.
I know how many people mock and moan,
Reject whatever they've not understood;
And mutter much about the fair and good,
So often finding them a burden… but must you,
A dog, start growling at them too?

Oh! But already now, with my best will,
Contentment flows no longer from heart’s fill.
Why must the stream run dry so quickly, then
Leave us to lie in thirst again?
I’ve been through this so many times,
And yet this want is answered- for we learn
To prize the super-earthly, and we yearn,
We long for revelation’s signs,
Which nowhere fairer flame, with worth expressed,
Than in the gospel’s words. I sense a call
To open up this ancient text;
With honest feeling now to reach
And take the sacred, great original
And set it down in my loved native speech. .

(HE OPENS A GREAT VOLUME AND PREPARES TO WRITE)

It is written: “ In the beginning was the Word!”
I stop already. Who can help me forward?
I cannot make the word so high a prize,
I must translate this otherwise,
If right-illumined by the spirit- hence
It is written: “ In the beginning was the Sense.”
Consider well this first line’s taste;
Your pen must not run on with too much haste.
Does sense create all things and weave their course?
It ought to stand: “ In the beginning was the Force.”
Yet even as I write these words down too,
Already something warns me they won’t do.
Now spirit helps. It shows me what I need;
With confidence I write: “In the beginning was the Deed.”

If we’re to share this room at all,
Poodle, you must not howl
You must not bark!
Such troubling friends, let me remark,
Are not allowed to stay so near.
One of us, you hear,
Has to go, it’s clear.
I fear you are not welcome any more.
You’re free to go. There’s the open door.
But what is this I see?
Can this be so? How can this be?
Is this reality
Or are these shadow dreams?
How long and broad my poodle seems.
How powerfully he rises up.
That is not a canine shape!
What ghost have I brought to the house!
He now looks like a river horse!
With fiery eyes, with terrifying teeth
Oh! Now I see through your false sheath!
With such half-hellish spawn the key
Of Solomon gives mastery.

SPIRITS (IN THE CORRIDOR OUTSIDE)

One is imprisoned within!
Stay outside, don’t follow him.
Like a fox in a snare,
One old hell lynx trembles there.
But now, give heed!
Hover, floating to and fro,\
High and low;
And he'll get out and be freed.
Help where it’s fitting,
Don’t leave him sitting!
For favours did fall
From him for us all.

FAUST

First, to counter this beast’s core,
I need the Spell of Four:

Salamander shall shine.
Undine weave here,
Sylph disappear,
Kobolt toil and mine.

Those who don’t know
The elements’ flow,
All their forces
And their resources,
Won’t master fleeing,
Spiritual being.

Vanish in flaming glow,
Salamander!
Rush together, smoothly flow,
Undine!
Shine with meteor-fair gleam,
Sylph!
Bring homely helpfulness,
Incubus! Incubus!
Step forward and end this address.

None of the four
Hides in its core,
It lies quite calmly and grins at me,
I haven’t hurt it yet I see,
Hear stronger teachers’
Conjuring speeches.

Are you, come tell,
A fugitive from hell?
Then see this sign
That makes malign
Black legions bow.

The hair is bristling: it’s swelling now.

Accursed, base being
Are you not seeing
The never-begotten,
Unutterable
One permeating all heaven,
Pierced by mankind’s evil?

There behind the stove, still pent,
Swelling like an elephant,
It fills the whole space. Now it's willing
To melt in mist and so retreat.
Don't rise up to the ceiling!
Lay down at your master’s feet.
You'll see that I don’t threaten in vain.
I’ll singe you now with sacred flame.
Don’t wait to fight
The threefold, dazzling light!
Don’t wait to fight
The strongest art that I’ve at hand!

THE MIST CLEARS AND MEPHISTOPHELES
STEPS FORTH FROM BEHIND THE OVEN,
DRESSED AS A TRAVELLING SCHOLAR

MEPHISTOPHELES

Why all the noise? What does my lord command?

FAUST

So this was the kernel of the cur!
A travelling scholar , the casus makes me laugh.

MEPHISTOPHELES

I must salute you, greatly learned sir
You didn’t make me sweat by half.

FAUST

What are you called?

MEPHISTOPHELES

That question seems so small
For one who scorns the word so much; who’s fleeing
So far from mere appearance, all
His striving works towards depths of being.

FAUST

With sirs like you the being’s aim
Is mostly read out from the name.
And it is all too plainly shown
When you’re called lord of flies, destroyer, lying one.
All right- who are you then?

MEPHISTOPHELES

A part of the power that would
Will ever for the bad and ever makes the good.

FAUST

What meaning do these riddling words disguise?

MEPHISTOPHELES

I am the spirit that ever denies!
And rightly so, for all that is created
Deserves to be annihilated.
It would be best if it could not begin.
So everything, what you call sin,
Destruction too- in short, where evil’s meant,
I’m in my own true element.

FAUST

You say you’re part, yet stand before me whole?

MEPHISTOPHELES

The modest truth is all I've told.
Though man, that microcosmic fool, well might,
As usual, just deem himself a whole,
I’m part of that great part that to begin was all:
Part of the dark that from itself gave birth to light;
Imperious light that now competes for space,
Disputing mother night’s old place;
Yet can’t succeed. No matter how it strives, it will
Remain enchained to bodies still.
It streams from bodies, makes them beautiful,
And other bodies block its way,
And so I hope soon comes the day
When it and bodies to destruction fall.

FAUST

So now I know your worthy duty!
You can’t destroy a lot of booty,
So you will start on something small.

MEPHISTOPHELES

And frankly little is done that way at all.
Yes, that which sets itself against the Nothing,
This clumsy universe, this Something,
As much as I’ve already tried,
Just how to harm it leaves me mystified.
Though flame, storm, wave, and rain I send,
The sea and land stay peaceful in the end.
That brood of beasts and men, that damned stuff of creation,
You cannot do it any harm:
How much already I’ve put down!
And always fresh, new blood returns to circulation.
Enough to drive one crazy with despair!
From earth, from water, and from the air,
A thousand fertile seeds are sown;
In dry and damp, in warm and cold.
And if I’d not reserved the flame of old,
I’d now have nothing for my own.

FAUST

So you oppose the ever-moving,
The curative, creative might,
The icy devil’s fist thus choosing
To clench in vain, malicious spite.
You should start trying something new,
Oh, ancient, chaos’ strange son.

MEPHISTOPHELES

We’ll really have to think that through-
So more next time we meet! May one
Take one’s good leave this time and go?

FAUST
I don’t see why you’re asking me.
I’ve made your strange acquaintance, so
Come visit as you will- feel free.
Here is the window, there’s the door,
The chimney too is on display.

MEPHISTOPHELES

I must say I’d have strolled out long before
Had not a tiny hindrance blocked my way:
The witch’s foot, your threshold spell.

FAUST

The pentagram there gives you pain?
Now tell me this, you son of hell,
If it bars you then how did you get in?
Yes, how was such a spirit cheated?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Observe with care. It isn’t quite completed.
One angle-tip, out-facing from my view,
Is, as you see, just opened out a bit.

FAUST

That was an excellent, chance hit!
So you’re my prisoner now, are you?
A lucky accident, it would appear.

MEPHISTOPHELES

The poodle noticed nothing as he bounced in here.
But now the thing is turned about:
The devil finds he can’t get out.

FAUST

Yet why not use the window’s way?

MEPHISTOPHELES

It is a law that fiends and ghosts obey:
Where we’ve slipped in, that’s where we must go out.
We’re free to choose the first, by the second we are bound.

FAUST

In hell itself then rules are found?
That’s good, for it would let one make a sure
And binding pact with gentlemen like you.

MEPHISTOPHELES

What’s promised you’ll taste fully, for
You’ll not be cheated of one thing you’re due.
Yet that’s not fixed with so much speed;
We shall discuss it presently.
But now I beg you urgently,
For this one time let me be freed.

FAUST

Just stay a moment longer in this room
And give some good report or news.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Now let me go! I shall return quite soon,
Then you may ask whatever you may choose.

FAUST

I didn’t trip this trap for you;
You strolled into the snare yourself
With devil held, you hold like glue!
He won’t be caught a second time without much stealth.

MEPHISTOPHELES

If it’s your pleasure, I’m prepared to stay,
To stay here too as company;
But on condition my art’s way
May pass time’s passing worthily.

FAUST

I’ll view it gladly. So be free;
But see your art works pleasingly.

MEPHISTOPHELES

You’ll gain more for your senses, friend,
Before this hour comes to an end,
Than in a year’s monotony.
For what the tender spirits sing,
The beautiful pictures that they bring,
Are not an empty magic’s sway.
For they’ll entrance your sense of smell,
Your palate please by their rare play,
Your touch enrapture by their spell.
No preparation’s needed then-
We are together, now begin!

SPIRITS

Vanish, you dark
Arches above!
Let the blue sky
Look in from high
With friendly love!
Would that the darkling
Clouds would all go!
Small stars are sparkling,
Milder suns glow,
Shine from above.
Wavering ones,
Spirit of beauty’s
Heavenly sons,
Bending down, hover,
Go floating over.
Yearning affection
Trails their direction;
And their out-flowing
Robes, ribbons blowing,
Over lands going,
Cover the arbours,
Where, deep in thought,
Lovers incline,
Pledging life’s course.
Arbour on arbour!
Sprouting of vine!
Grapes in most massive
Bunches go tumbling
Into the vats of
Crowded wine presses;
Wines fall and foam,
Rush in small rivers,
Rippling though pure,
Precious, clear stones,
Leaving heights lying,
Back there recumbent,
Broaden to lakes
Round the abundant,
Green-covered hills.
Wild fowl there will
Sip in delight,
Take sunward flight,
Fly towards the bright
Islands which seem
Rocking on billows,
Stirring in dream.
There, where before us,
Joyously chorus
Those whose dance wheels
Over the fields;
All of them scatter,
Free, without fetter.
Some of them climb
Over the peaks,
Some of them swim
Over the lakes,
More float in air-
All toward life there,
All toward far sight
Of loving starlight,
Most blissful grace.

MEPHISTOPHELES

He sleeps! Well done- soft, airy youths, your number
Have truly sung him into slumber.
I am indebted for this concert’s grace.
You are not yet the man to hold the devil fast.
Play-weave about with sweet dream figures, pass
Him down into an ocean of illusion.
To break this threshold’s magic cast
I need a rat’s tooth. And for this collusion
I shall not need to conjure long;
One’s rustling near and straight away will hear my song.
The lord of rats and busy mice,
Of blowflies, bedbugs, frogs and lice,
Now orders you to venture near
And gnaw into the threshold here
Where I have dotted it with oil-
You hop already to despoil!
Now straight to work! The tip that bans my kind
Is furthest from me, past that line.
Just one more bite, the work is done-
Now, Faust, until we meet again, dream on.

FAUST (AWAKENING)

Have I been tricked once more ? So does it seem
That this now-vanished spirit company
Just spun a fancied devil from false dreams,
And here a poodle simply fled from me?

STUDY

FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES

FAUST

A knock? Come in! Who wants to bother me?

MEPHISTOPHELES

It is I.

FAUST

Come in!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Now you must make it three.

FAUST

Come in then.

MEPHISTOPHELES

That’s how you’ll please me.
I hope we’ll get on well together!
To chase away your fancy’s bother,
Here I’m a noble squire- see
My suit of red with braids of gilt,
A little cloak of heavy silk,
My cock’s bright feather on my hat,
Long, pointed rapier one side.
In brief, let me advise you that
You dress the same way and decide,
Thus being free and not held fast,
To learn what living is a last.

FAUST

In any clothes I’d feel the pain of this
Restricted earth-imprisoned stay.
I am too old to merely play,
Too young to be without a wish.
What has the world to offer me?
Renounce, renounce you shall- entirely!
Yes, that is the eternal song
That in each person’s ears is ringing,
That thus, throughout our whole life long,
Each hour is ever hoarsely singing.
I only wake with horror in the morning,
And could weep bitterly to see the sun
Proclaim the risen day that in its forming
Will not fulfill one wish, not one;
With stubborn quibbling it will crush all traces,
All hints of any faint delight;
What stirs as heart’s creative might
It hinders with a thousand hideous grimaces.
What’s more, when night descends then I lie down
So anxiously upon my bed,
That there for me no rest is found,
But wild dreams frighten me instead.
The god that dwells within my heart,
Though inmost depths stir to his call,
Though ruling all my powers, his art
Can’t move the world outside at all.
So all existence is so burdened that
Life’s hateful to me, I desire death.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Yet death is never an entirely welcome guest.

FAUST

O happy he who dies with triumph’s glance,
A bloody laurel round his brow; or tires
After maddened, swift and frantic dance
And in a girl’s soft arms expires!
Oh, that before that high-born spirit’s power,
In rapture I’d sunk down- a lifeless pile!

MEPHISTOPHELES

And yet somebody failed, one late night hour,
To drink the brown juice from a phial.

FAUST

It looks like spying is your sport.

MEPHISTOPHELES

All-knowing I am not, and yet I know a lot.

FAUST

Though from a fearful turmoil, I
Was drawn by sweet-familiar ringing;
Though echoes of glad times gone by
Fooled what is left of childhood feeling;
I curse what circles soul's own ways
With lures, glitz, and trickery,
And bans it to this sad, sad cave
With force of sham and flattery!
Cursed first of all the high importance
In which the spirit wraps its being,
Cursed be the dazzle of appearance
That crowds on us from all our seeing.
Cursed be what feigns in dreams of fame,
False dreams of long-enduring name,
Cursed what so flatters as possession’s power,
As wife and child, as servant and as plough.
And cursed be Mammon when, with treasure,
He spurs us on to daring deeds,
Or lures us to idle leisure,
Adjusts the cushions to our needs.
Cursed be the fluid balm of grape.
Cursed be the highest gift of love. Let fall
A curse on hope! A curse on faith!
And cursed be patience most of all!

SPIRIT CHOIR (INVISIBLE)

Woe! Woe!
With forceful fist
You’ve destroyed and scattered
The beautiful world;
It tumbles, it’s shattered!
A demi-god has struck, uncaring!
We’re bearing
The ruins into the void;
Despairing,
We lament lost beauty’s worth.
Great one in
The sons of earth,
Build again,
More splendid-bright,
Build it up within your heart!
And a new life path
Begin
With clearest sight,
Let new songs ring,
Ring and sound forth!

MEPHISTOHELES

Small ones these be
Serving me.
Hear their sage advice to you-
Out to deeds and pleasure too!
Into wide creation,
From this isolation,
Where sense and sap grow still,
They would lure your will.

Hear this- don’t play so with your grieving
Which feeds on your life like a vulture; even
The worst companionship would find
You feeling like a man within mankind.
This does not mean we’ll see
You thrust into the rabble’s state;
Although I’m not one of the great,
Yet if you're closely joined with me
To take your steps through life, then I’m
Quite happy to submit my time
To be yours on the spot. So then
I shall be your friend,
And, if I suit you,
I’ll be your humble servant too!

FAUST

And what, for you, must I do in return?

MEPHISTOPHELES

There’s lots of time for that, so don’t insist.

FAUST

No, no, the devil is an egotist,
Not lightly serving God’s concern,
To give what’s needed for another. First list
All your conditions face to face,
Such servants brings much danger to one’s place.

MEPHISTOPHELES

I’ll bind myself to service to you here,
Be at your call without a rest. When we
Are yonder over there drawn near,
Then you shall do the same for me.

FAUST

That “yonder” is no trouble in my eyes.
Once you have smashed to bits this world,
Then let the other one arise.
For from this earth comes all my gladness,
And this sun shines upon my sadness;
Once I can part from them, let be unfurled
What will and can then, in whatever guise.
I’ll hear no more of this: of whether
One finds in that realm hate and love;
Or if, within those spheres hereafter,
There’s some Below and some Above.

MEPHISTOPHELES

With such an outlook you can risk a try.
Commit yourself. As coming weeks slip by,
With joy you’ll view my art’s vast scene,
I’ll give to you what no man’s ever seen.

FAUST

And what, poor devil, will you be giving?
When will the human spirit, with its noble striving,
Be grasped by such as live by lies?
For have you food that never satisfies,
Red gold that ceaseless runs and flies
Right through your fingers like quicksilver’s kin?
A game that you can never win,
A girl that as I hold her tight
Already binds my neighbour with her eyes,
Great honour’s most divine delight
That like some meteor swift-flies?
Show me the fruit that rots before it’s picked,
And trees that daily will renew their green.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Well, tasks like that don’t have me licked;
I’ll serve you with such treasure’s gleam.
And yet a time will also come, my friend,
To feast in peace upon those things which please.

FAUST

If ever I lie tranquil on a bed of ease,
Then let that instant be my end!
If flattering you fool me so,
That I’m pleased with my self and way,
Deceive me so with pleasure’s glow,
Then let that be my final day!
This bet I offer.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Done.

FAUST

And done I say!
If I, to any moment, say- Remain,
And linger on, you are so fair!
Then you may cast me into chains,
Then gladly I shall perish there!
Then may the tones of death-knell toll,
Then from your service you’ll be free,
The clock may stop, the hands may fall,
For then let time be done for me!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Consider well, for we shall not forget.

FAUST

You have a perfect right to that.
I did not lightly rate my bet.
If I'm a servant, this I swear,
To you or what else- who could care?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Today, at once now, at the doctor’s feast
I’ll do my duty serving you.
One thing! In terms with life and death
I’d beg from you a line or two.

FAUST

Demanding writing too, pedantic bird?
And have you never known a man or man’s true word?
And isn’t it enough my speaking can
Direct my days for all eternity?
Does not the world in all its streams rush on
And shall a promise fasten me?
Yet this illusion lies within our hearts, and who
Would willingly be free of it?
Oh, happy’s he whose heart clear-bears the true,
No sacrifice will he regret!
But only parchment, written up, all stamped and neat,
Is like a ghost before which all retreat.
The word has died within the pen,
For wax and leather rule it then.
Foul spirit, what shall I complete?
Brass, marble, parchment, paper sheet?
And will a chisel, pen or stylus do?
I give you every freedom for your choice.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Now why adopt this heated voice,
And overdone rhetoric too?
Just any scrap of paper’s fine.
Just take a little drop of blood and sign.

FAUST

Well, if it makes you happy- I'm
Prepared to let this farce stay in the act.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Blood is a very special fluid

FAUST

You needn’t fear that I shall break this pact
With all my might I'm striving toward
Precisely what I pledged, in fact.
I'd puffed-up thoughts about my role,
But I’m just one of your degree.
The mighty spirit scorned my soul,
And nature’s shut her gates on me.
The thread of thinking’s snapped. All knowing
Has long been sickening to me.
In deeps of sensuality
Let us quench passion’s fiery glowing!
In never-yet-pierced veils of magic might
Be every wonder ready for our sight!
We’ll plunge into the rush of time, we’ll swing
Into the whirl of happening!
Then may the pleasure and the pain,
The chagrin and the gain,
Swap with each other, as they can;
Only restless-active makes the man.

MEPHISTOPHELES

For you no mark or measure’s set.
If it please you to taste of everything
Or snatch up something on the wing;
May what delights, go well with you. Just grip
Right onto me and don’t be shy!

FAUST

I’ve said that joy is not the question. I
Shall now devote myself to giddy passion, find
Most painful of enjoyments, like the bind
Of loving hate or quickening distress.
Completely cured of all this,
This will to knowledge, then my heart
In future will not shut out pain and strife.
Whatever’s portioned out as mankind’s part
I wish to taste in my own inward life,
Grasp in my spirit high points and the low,
Pile on my breast all of its weal and woe,
Thus widen my own self to self of humankind,
And so like it, be shipwrecked in the end.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Oh, believe me, who, for many a thousand year,
Has chewed upon this hard old thing,
That from the cradle to the bier,
No man’s digested this old leavening.
Take it from one of us. The whole design
Is made but for a god. He finds
Himself in an eternal shine;
He’s thrown us into darkness with his might,
You’re only fit for day and night.

FAUST

But I alone will!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Well said, friend!
I fear but one thing makes you wrong:
That time is short and art is long.
You ought to be instructed then.
So find some poet, if you please.
Let him rove through what thoughts he’s bred,
And all the noble qualities
Heap up upon your honourable head,
The lion’s daring,
The hind’s fleet footedness,
Italian’s fiery blood and bearing,
The northerner’s tough steadfastness.
Let him teach you the secret mix
Of generosity and tricks:
With warm and youthful impulses you can
Then fall in love according to a plan.
I’d like to meet a man like that- good day
Sir Microcosm, I would say.

FAUST

What am I then, if there’s a bar
On ever gaining mankind’s crown,
That all our senses strive to own?

MEPHISTOPHELES

You’re ultimately- what you are.
Put on a periwig that has a million curls,
Or fit your feet with boots with yard-high soles,
You’ll still remain just what you are.

FAUST

I feel that I have gathered up in vain
The treasures of the human spirit. When
At last I sit and ponder it is plain
No new force wells within; I am not then
One hair breath higher because of it,
No nearer to the infinite.

MEPHISTOPHELES

My friend, you see the thing as those
Who merely see the thing. We must
Look sharper here, don’t you suppose,
Before the joy of living flies from us.
Confound it! Hands, feet, head and bum,
Are yours to have and own- that’s fine.
But things I find are really fun,
Now why are they at all less mine?
If I’ve six stallions as my own,
There strength is mine too, isn’t it?
I rush along and what a man I’ve grown,
As if I had two dozen pairs of feet.
Look alive! Let all reflecting be
And plunge into the world quite free.
I say the fool who ponders everything
|Is like a beast upon an arid heath
That some strange, evil spirit leads round in a ring,
While beautiful green meadows lie beneath.

FAUST

How shall we set about it?

MEPHISTOPHELES

We’ll simply flee.
What sort of torture chamber could this be?\
What kind of life is this for you,
To bore yourself and the youngsters too?
Leave it to neighbour Paunch to lead.
Why plague yourself by threshing straw?
The best of what you know, indeed,
You may not tell the youths you get.
Right now I hear one in the hall.

FAUST

I really can’t see him just yet.

MEPHISTOPHELES

The poor boy’s waited long to call,
He mustn’t go away upset.
Come, give me now your cap and gown;
On me this costume reeks renown.

HE CHANGES CLOTHES

Just leave it to my ready wit!
I only need a quarter hour for it.
And meantime you prepare for our fine trip!

FAUST EXITS

MEPHISTOPHELES (IN FAUST’S LONG GOWN)

Despise all knowledge and all reason’s seeing,
All-highest power within the human being,
And just allow yourself to be,
In works of fraud and sorcery,
Thus strengthened by the spirit of lies,
And then, in any case, I’ll get your soul.
For fate has given him a spirit that’s so driving
It presses forward without control,
Leaps over all the joys that earth provides,
In its so over-hasty striving.
I’ll drag him through wild life and right
Through shallow triviality,
I’ll make him flounder, stiffen and stick tight.
In his insatiability
The drink shall float before his greedy lips,
In vain he’ll beg me for refreshing sips;
And even if had not signed
A bargain with a fiendish friend,
He’d still come to a nasty end.

A STUDENT ENTERS

STUDENT

I’ve only come quite recently;
I’ve come, in all humility,
To meet and speak with one all name
With reverence that is quite plain.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Your courtesy most pleases me.
You see a man like any that may be.
But have you made some calls on others?

STUDENT

I beg you, take me in these quarters.
I’ve come with every good resolve,
Fresh blood, a moderate bit of gold.
My mother would hardly let me depart.
While out, I’d like to learn a useful art.

MEPHISTOPHELES

You’re at the right location then.

STUDENT

Frankly, I would I could be off again:
I don’t like being here at all;
In all these walls, in all these halls,
I feel so very cramped. I see
Not one green thing, not even a tree.
And all the schoolroom benches hurt me,
My hearing, sense and thought desert me.

MEPHISTOPHELES

It’s just a habit; wait and see.
A child upon its mother’s breast,
That won’t at first take willingly,
Is quite soon sucking like the rest.
So you’ll find wisdom’s breasts, my boy,
Will every day bring you more joy.

STUDENT

I’d hang upon her neck with great delight,
If you can tell me how to reach that right.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Before continuing, please tell me
What is your chosen faculty?

STUDENT

I’d like great learning, want to try
To grasp all in the earth and sky.
All that's in knowledge I would know
And all that shines in Nature's day.

MEPHISTOPHELES

You’re on the proper track, although
Take care you do not go astray.

STUDENT

With body and with soul I’ll strive;
Yet I admit it’s good to raise
Some free time, just for being alive,
On sunny, summer holidays.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Make use of time, it flows so quickly past,
But system conquers it at last.
My dear friend, my advice to you
Is study logic first right through.
For when your mind is well and truly trained
And laced in “Spanish Boots” and maimed,
It’ll creep more carefully along
The paths of thought and not go on
Like something darting everywhere,
Will-o’-the-wisping here and there.
Then you’ll be taught, as your days fly,
That what you did once in a single try,
Like eating and drinking, unhampered and free,
Must be in order, one, two, three!
It's true, thought’s working is like this-
A weaver’s ceaseless masterpiece;
One pedal rules a thousand lines,
The shuttle shoots forth to and fro,
Lines flow unseen, and at a blow
A thousand threads are intertwined.
And then steps in philosophy
And proves that's how that it must be:
If first were so, and second so,
Then third and fourth would be so too-
If first and second were not though,
Then third and fourth would never do.
Though praised by pupils everywhere,
None find they win the weaver’s flair.
And he who studies what a living thing’s about
Seeks first to drive the spirit out;
He has each part now in his hand,
But lacks, I fear- the spirit’s band.
“Manipulating Nature's sphere",
So it is called by Chemistry-
Not knowing its self-mockery.

STUDENT

I didn’t quite get all of it.

MEPHISTOPHELES

That will improve though, after a bit,
When you have learnt to lessen creation
And use a proper classification.

STUDENT

I feel confused by all you’ve said,
As though a mill wheel turned within my head.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Before all other things you must
Bite into Metaphysic’s crust.
There study and profoundly claim
What won’t go in the human brain.
For what is grasped and what’s not too,
A splendid word will always do.
Above all, for your first half year,
It’s best to keep strict order here.
So take five classes every day
And be there on the bell, I say!
Be well prepared before hand too,
Each paragraph quite studied through,
So you can tell, without a look,
That nothing’s said that’s not there in the book.
And eagerly take down each note,
As if the holy spirit spoke.

STUDENT

You shall no have to tell me twice!
I see how that makes useful sense;
For what you’ve got in black and white
You can bear home with confidence.

MEPHISTOPHELES

You’ve yet to choose a faculty!

STUDENT

I’m just not comfortable, I fear, with law.

MEPHISTOPHELES

I cannot blame you there, I’m sure.
I know about this field’s deformity
Like lasting illness rules and rights pass over
From one sad generation to another-
Soft-shift from place to place, thief-like.
Sound sense turns nonsense then; kind deeds to blight.
You’re still a youth, alas for you!
The rights we’re born with, sad but true,
Are never given their right due.

STUDENT

I loathe it even more. I am
In luck to learn from such a man.
I’m almost leaning towards Theology.

MEPHISTOPHELES

I would not wish to lead you so astray. You see,
Where knowledge of this sort applies,
It is so hard to shun false paths- within
This work so much well-hidden poison lies,
It’s hard to separate it from the medicine.
Here too it’s best if only one is heard;
One swears upon one master’s word.
In all- hold onto words! Thus sure,
Through this, the safest portal’s door,
You’ll enter the temple of certainty.

STUDENT

Yet thoughts must go with words to some degree.

MEPHISTOPHELES

All right! But do not be too anxious over that,
For just there, where ideas fall flat,
A word turns up in a nick of time. Trust me,
Words let you have fine altercation,
Or bring a system to creation.
In words you can believe unshaken,
For from a word there’s nothing can be taken.

STUDENT

Forgive me holding you with many questions,
Still I must trouble you once more.
Concerning medicine, I’m sure
You also have some strong suggestions.
Three years just flee so quickly past,
And God, the field is all too vast.
If only one had but one hint, just that alone
Would help one feel one's way to further levels.

MEPHISTOPHELES (ASIDE)

I’m fed up with this dust-dry tone;
Again I must right-play the devil.

(ALOUD)

The spirit of medicine’s easily grasped;
You work through macro- and then microcosm,
And then you let things go at last
As God wills them.
In vain you roam on being scientific,
For each one learns just what he can.
But he who seizes on the moment that’s specific,
He is your clued-up man.
You’re passably well-built. Audacity
Won’t fail you either, and if you
Will only trust yourself you’ll see
That other souls will trust you too.
Particularly learn a lot
About the managing of women;
For their eternal sighs and woes,
So thousandfold,
Can all be cured at one spot;
And if you’re just halfway discreet,
You’ll have them all right at your feet.
First off a title makes them trust
Your art transcends the common art;
For greetings you can tap each personal sweet part
Which others must skirt round for years. You grasp
Just how to press the little pulse
And clasp her, with a sly and fiery glance,
Around her slender, pretty waist
To see how tightly she is laced.

STUDENT

That’s more my thing. You see just why and how that way.

MEPHISTOPHELES

All theory, my dear friend, is grey;
The golden tree of life is green.

STUDENT

I swear to you, to me it’s like a dream.
So may I trouble you another time to sound
Your depths of wisdom to their very ground?

MEPHISTOPHELES

I’ll gladly do now what I can.

STUDENT

I cannot possibly be off again
Until I pass my album to you. Grant this good
Sign of your favour, if you would.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Very well.

HE WRITES AND HANDS IT BACK

STUDENT (READING)

Eritis sicut Deus scientes bonum et malum.
You’ll be like God, knowing good and evil.

STUDENT CLOSES THE BOOK REVERENTIALLY AND
EXITS

MEPHISTOPHELES

Just follow that and with it my cousin, the snake;
One day your likeness to God will make
You shiver and shake.

FAUST ENTERS\

FAUST

And where shall we go now?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Wherever you want, don’t wait.
We’ll see the little world and then the great.
And with what joy, what gain you’ll find
You’ll sponge on through this course of mine.

FAUST

With my long beard you know that I’ll
Quite fail to lead the light life-style.
So this attempt’s no good. I’ve never grasped
How one’s to fit into the world at large.
I feel so small in front of others, I
Forever feel embarrassed if I try.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES

Good friend, that will all pass, have no misgiving;
When you can trust yourself, you’ll learn the art of living.

FAUST

How are we going? Who will get
The horses, coach and coachmen too?

MEPHISTOPHELES

We’ll just spread out my cloak a bit
And that will bear us through the blue.
So take this daring step and go,
But please don’t take much luggage though.
A little fire air, that I shall now prepare,
Will lift us swiftly from earth’s care.
And when we’re light we’ll quickly rise from here.
My friend, congratulations on your new career!

AUERBACH’S CELLAR IN LEIPZIG

MERRY GROUP OF DRINKING COMPANIONS

FROSCH

Will no one laugh? Will no one drink?
I’ll teach you to pull faces. I think
You’re really like wet straw some days,
Yet other times you burn light’s blaze.

BRANDER

Fault falls on you; you’ve added nothing new!
No stupid jokes and no obscenity.

FROSCH (POURING A GLASS OF WINE OVER BRANDER’S HEAD)

There you have both!

BRANDER

You swine twice through!

FROSCH

You wanted it, we give it free!

SIEBEL
P
Now those who want to fight get out!
With open breast sing round songs, swill and shout!
Right! Holla! Ho!

ALTIMEYER

Woe’s me! I’m lost, I fear!
Some cotton wool! The beggar’s split my ear!

SIEBEL
When echoes fill this vaulted space,
You really feel the basic power of bass.

FROSCH

That’s right, let’s toss out those who take exception.
Ah! Tara lara da!

ALTMAYER

Ah! Tara lara da!

FROSH

Our throats are now tuned to perfection.

HE SINGS

The Holy Roman Empire,
How does it hold together?

BRANDER

A nasty song! Phew, a political song,
A tiresome song! Thank God each morning time
That you don’t have to care about that realm.
At least I take it as a richly beneficial thing
That I am neither chancellor nor king.
But we must have a leader too;
We shall elect a pope. And you
All know what qualification can
Tip up the scales and raise the man.

FROSCH (SINGS)

Lady Nightingale, soar up above,
Ten thousand times greet my fair love.

SIEBEL

I will not hear of it! No greetings for that one!

FROSCH

My dear one greet and kiss! You cannot stop my fun!

HE SINGS

Draw the latch! in night’s still hour.
Draw the latch! your love wakes now.
Bolt it fast! It’s dawn at last.

SIEBEL

Yes sing, go on, sing up and boast and praise her loudly.
I’ll have my laugh when it is due.
She took me in and she will do the same to you.
And may a goblin be her love tonight
And may he flirt with her where crossroads lie,
May some old billy, back from Blocksberg’s height,
Bleat out good night there as he gallops by.
I’d wish her some fine lad of flesh now, but
That’s much too good for that cheap slut.
There’s but one greeting I would claim:
I’d smash her every window pane.

BRANDER (BANGING ON THE TABLE)

Pay heed! Pay heed! Now hear my bit!
Good sirs, admit! I know what’s fit;
Some lovesick lads sit here and thus,
In keeping with their state, I must
Treat them to this good night salute!
Take heed! A song of newest type!
Sing its refrain with all your might!

HE SINGS

In a cellar nest there was a rat
| Living but on fat and butter,
Such a sack-like belly getting that
He looked like Doctor Luther.
Some poison bait the cook put out,
The world grew narrow round about-
As if he had love in his system.

CHORUS (GLEEFULLY)

As if he had love in his system.

BRANDER

He ran around and out he raced
And guzzled from each puddle’s pool,
He gnawed and scratched throughout the place,
Nothing eased the frenzied fool;
He sprang with many an anguished leap,
But soon, poor beast, he was quite beat-
As if he had love in his system.

CHORUS

As if he had love in his system.


BRANDER

In fear he fled into the kitchen,
With bright day full sight granting,
Fell by the stove and lay there twitching
With pitiful, frantic panting.
His poisoner laughed at his death,
“See how he gasps out his last breath-
As if he had love in his system.”

CHORUS

As if he had love in his system.

SIEBEL

How pleased the morons are at that!
It takes much skill it seems to me
To poison an unlucky rat.

BRANDER

They’re high in your regard, I see.

ALTMAYER

A big pot-belly with a bald patch;
Misfortune’s made him tame and weak,
And now he sees in bloated rats
A natural image for his physique.

FAUST AND MEPHISTOPHELES ENTER

MEPHISTOPHELES

I must, before much time can slip,
Bring you some bright companionship,
So that you see how lightly life can run.
The folk here make each day a day of fun.
With little wit and much ease, each threads
His dance upon a narrow, circling trail-
A kitten following its tail.
When not lamenting aching heads
And while the host gives credit, they’re
Quite happy and without a care.

BRANDER

They’ve just come in here from a trip.
You see their funny manner. It’s my tip
They haven’t been here yet an hour.

FROSCH

My word, you’re right! So let me praise my Leipzig now!
It’s a little Paris that gives its people culture’s power.

SIEBEL

What do you think they are about?

FROSCH

Leave it to me! For over a full glass
I’ll draw forth these fine fellow’s past
As lightly as a child’s first tooth comes out.
They seem to me to be of high descent,
They look so proud, so full of discontent.

BRANDER
They’re swindlers- bet my bottom dollar!

ALTMAYER

Perhaps.

FROSCH

You watch. I’ll get them steamed.

MEPHISTOPHELES

These simpletons would not detect the fiend,
Not even when he’s got them by the collar.

FAUST

My greetings, friends!

SIEBEL

Much thanks! The same but multiplied.

SOFTLY. LOOKING ASKANCE AT MEPHISTOPHELES

Why does that fellow limp one side?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Is it all right with you if we sit by?
Instead of decent drinks, which one cannot get here,
Companionship shall satisfy.

ALTMEYER

You’re very spoilt- it would appear.

FROSCH

Departed late from Rippach? You supped, I see,
With Mr. Jack Ass before you set upon your way?

MEPHISTOPHELES

We had to ride on past today;
But talked a lot last time we met, and he
Had much to say of his dear, near relations,
And asked I send you all his warmest salutations.

HE BOWS TOWARDS FROSCH

ALTMAYER (SOFTLY)

You have it! That one knows.

SIEBEL

A crafty customer.

FROSCH

Just wait. I’ll get him yet, the cur!

MEPHISTOPHELES

We heard, unless I’m greatly wrong,
A chorus of skilled voices ringing;
I’m sure these vaults would sound along,
Re-echoing with excellence, your singing.

FROSCH

You are, perhaps, a virtuoso?

MEPHISTOPHELES

I fear not. My desire’s strong. My power so-so.

ALTMAYER

Give us a song!

MEPHISTOPHELES

As many as are mine.

SIEBEL

Then something in a brand-new vein!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Now we have just returned from visiting Spain,
The lovely land of song and wine.

HE SINGS

Now once there lived a king
Who had an enormous flea-

FROSCH
Hear that? A flea! You get it, get the jest?
A flea’s a lovely sort of guest.

MEPHISTOPHELES (SINGING)

Now once there lived a king
Who had an enormous flea
That he loved like anything,
Like an only son was he.
He bade his tailor come,
The man came to his call-
You dress this noble one,
Fit him with pants and all.

BRANDER

And don’t forget to make the tailor see
His measuring is most exact;
And if he likes his head intact,
The trousers must be wrinkle-free.

MEPHISTOPHELES

In silk and velvet, he
Was done up for the part-
Beribboned finery,
A cross upon his heart.
At once made Minister,
With star of great degree;
His brothers and sisters were
Made court nobility.

The lords and ladies there
Were tortured by this brood,
The queen and maid, both fair,
Were bitten and were chewed.
They weren’t allowed to crack them,
They weren’t allowed to scratch.
But we can get right at them
And crack and choke our catch.

CHORUS (SHOUTING)

But we can get right at them
And crack and choke our catch.

FROSCH

Bravo! Bravo! that was great!

SIEBEL

All fleas should go to such a fate!

BRANDER

Point your fingers, nip neat and fine!

ALTMAYER

Now long live freedom! And long live wine!

MEPHISTOPHELES

I would, to honour freedom, like to lift my glass,
Were but your wine of somewhat better class.

SIEBEL

Let us not hear of that again!

MEPHISTOPHELES

I merely feared the landlord might complain
Were I to give each honoured guest
A vintage worthy of the best.

SIEBEL

Go on! I’ll shoulder any blame.

FROSCH

Well, if they’re good , then you’ll be praised up to the skies,
But make your sample some fair size,
For if I am to judge at all,
I like to have my mouth quite full.

ALTMAYER (SOFTLY)

Yes, they’re from Rhineland, now I’m sure.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Get me an augur then.

BRANDER

But what will you prepare?
You surely don’t have casks outside the door?

ALTMAYER

The landlord’s tools are over there.

MEPHISTOPHELES (TAKING THE AUGER)

(TO FROSCH)

What would you like to taste? Feel free.

FROSCH

What do you mean? Have you so many kinds?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Well, each is free to make up his own mind.

ALTMAYER (TO FROSCH)

Aha! You start to lick your lips, I see.

FROSCH

Good! Now if I am to choose, I’ll have a nice Rhine wine.
Our fatherland bestows the best of every line.

MEPHISTOPHELES (BORING A HOLE IN THE TABLE WHERE FROSCH IS SITTING)

Give me a little wax so I can make the stoppers.

ALTMAYER

Oh, it is merely some old trick of jugglers.

MEPHISTOPHELES (TO BRANDER)

And you?

BRANDER

A good champagne for me,
One really sparkling prettily.

MEPHISTOPHELES BORES. SOMEONE, MEANTIME, HAS MADE THE WAX STOPPERS AND PLUGGED THE HOLES

BRANDER

Don’t pass by all that’s not our own.
Good often lies quite far away.
Although an honest German leaves the French alone,
He’ll drink their wine up any day.

SIEBEL (AS MEPHISTOPHELES NEARS HIS PLACE)

I must confess, I do not like the dry;
Give me a glass that’s really sweet.

MEPHISTOPHELES (BORING A HOLE)

For you Tokay would be a treat.

BRANDER

No, gentlemen, look me in the eye!
I see that this is just a jest.

MEPHISTOPHELES

My, my! With such distinguished guests
That would be tempting gentle fate.
Be quick! Come out and tell me straight-
What wine would you like served, my friend?

ALTMAYER

Why waste time asking? They’re all great.

AFTER ALL THE HOLES HAVE BEEN PIERCED AND STOPPED

MEPHISTOPHELES (WITH CURIOUS GESTURES)

Vines bear grapes aloft,
Billy goat bears horns up top;
The wine is juicy, wood the vine,
The wooden table can thus give wine.
Deep insight into nature’s way!
Here is a wonder, believe just what I say!

Now pull the corks, enjoy your fill!

ALL (AS THEY PULL THE STOPPERS OUT AND THE DESIRED WINE FLOWS INTO EACH GLASS)

A lovely fountain flows for us at will!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Just have a care no drop of this stuff spills!

(THEY DRINK REPEATEDLY)

ALL (SINGING)

We feel as fine as cannibals,
Just like five hundred sows.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Just look how well it goes when folk are free!

FAUST

I do not wish to stay here longer.

MEPHISTOPHELES

But first watch this, their bestiality
Will soon be shown in all its splendour.

SIEBEL (DRINKING CARELESSLY SO THAT THE WINE FLOWS TO THE FLOOR AND TURNS INTO FLAME)

Help! Fire! Help! This flame’s hell-sent!

MEPHISTOPHELES (SPEAKING TO THE FLAME)

Be peaceful, friendly element!

(TO THE COMPANIONS)

This time was but a drop of purgatory’s flame.

SIEBEL

What’s that mean? You’ll pay dearly for this game.

Seems you don’t know us, clever gent.

FROSCH

Just let him try that one on us again.

ALTMAYER

I think we’ll tell him just to quietly go away.

SIEBEL

What sir! You dare to come and play

Your hocus-pocus on good men.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Shut up! old wine cask!

SIEBEL

Broomstick man

Will you try rudeness on us too?

BRANDER

Just wait; for blows shall rain on you!

ALTMAYER (PULLS A CORK OUT OF THE TABLE, FLAMES SPURT OUT AT HIM)

I’m burning! I’m burning!

SIEBEL

Spells for sure!

Get him! This creep’s outside the law!

THEY DRAW KNIVES AND ADVANCE ON MEPHISTOPHELES

MEPHISTOPHELES (WITH EARNEST GESTURES)

False words, scenes in air,

Make sense and place elsewhere,

Be here, yet be there!

(THEY STAND ASTONISHED AND LOOK AT ONE ANOTHER)

ALTMAYER

Where am I? What a beautiful land!

FROSCH

Look vineyards! Do I see rightly?

SIEBEL

Grapes right at my hand!

BRANDER

Beneath green-clustered leaves, what shapes!

Look, what a vine! Look, what fine grapes!

HE GRABS SIEBEL BY THE NOSE. THE OTHERS DO SIMILARLY AND RAISE THEIR KNIVES

MEPHISTOPHELES

Error, loose blindfolds from this band!

And note the jokes the devil throws.

HE DISAPPEARS WITH FAUST. THE COMPANIONS FALL

APART AND SEPARATE

SIEBEL

What’s up?

ALTMAYER

Was that your nose?

BRANDER (TO SIEBEL)

And I’ve got yours too in my hand!

ALTMAYER

That was a shock that went through every limb.
A chair. I’ll faint. My eyes are dim.

FROSCH

Now tell me, what was going on?

SIEBEL

Where is that rat? If I track him,
He will not be alive for long.

ALYMAYER

He rode a cask: I saw the thing-
Out through the cellar door he’s gone-
My feet both feel lead-heavy loads.

TURNING TOWARDS THE TABLE

Say! Do you think the wine still flows?

SIEBEL

It was all lies and tricky show.

FROSCH

It seemed like drinking good wine though.

BRANDER

But how about those grapes we saw?

ALTMAYER

Now tell me you are sure
There are no wonders any more!



WITCH’S KITCHEN

ON A LOW HEARTH A BIG KETTLE STANDS OVER A FIRE. IN THE STEAM THAT RISES FROM IT VARIOUS SHAPES REVEAL THEMSELVES. A FEMALE MONKEY SITS BY THE KETTLE SKIMMING IT AND MAKING SURE IT DOESN’T OVERFLOW. THE MALE MONKEY , WITH THE LITTLE ONES, SITS NEAR HER, WARMING HIMSELF. THE WALLS AND CEILINGS ARE DECORATED WITH THE STRANGEST IMPLEMENTS OF WITCHCRAFT.

FAUST AND MEPHISTOPHELES ENTER

FAUST

I’ve set against this mad-brewed magic thing!
You pledge I’ll be restored now in
This chaos of insanity?
Do I desire help from this old wife?
Shall her froth-slopping cookery
Take thirty years from off my life?
I'm lost if you have nothing with more merit.
All hope's already vanishing.
But hasn’t nature or some noble spirit
Come up with balm or some such thing?

MEPHISTOPHELES

You’re talking sense once more. Now look,
One way is naturally rejuvenating;
But it is written in a different book,
A curious chapter for your taking.

FAUST

I’d like to know it.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Good! A means that needs no gold
Or quacks or sorcery- just go,
Get out there in the field and fold
And start to learn to dig and hoe.
And hold yourself and your thoughts in
A sphere thus strictly limiting;
There live with beasts as beast, don’t feel it as a loss
To dress the fields you harvest with your dung!
Believe, the best way known is this,
For eighty years you’ll keep quite young!

FAUST

I am not used to that and I can’t bring myself
To take a spade in hand for health.
A narrow life like that is not my style.

MEPHISTOPHELES

So we still need the witch’s wiles.

FAUST

But why this old wife? Don’t you think
That you yourself could brew the drink?

MEPHISTOPHELES

A splendid pastime! I could make
A thousand bridges in the time it takes.
Not only science, skill and art,
But also patience plays a part.
A quiet spirit works for years- this course
Gives time to give the fermentation force.
And all that goes into the brew;
Quite wonderful things they are! I own
The devil taught her how, that’s true,
But he can’t make it all alone.

NOTICING THE ANIMALS

It seems your mistress isn’t home.

ANIMALS

At banquet,
Out from home,
Through chimney alone.

MEPHISTOPHELES

How long’s she normally outdoors?

ANIMALS

As long as we shall warm our paws.

MEPHISTOPHELES (TO FAUST)

How do you find these tender beasts?

FAUST

I’ve never seen anything more ridiculous.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Oh, no, a little chat like this

Is just the thing that I like best.

TO THE ANIMALS

Explain to me, cursed puppet group,

What are you stirring in that stew?

ANIMALS

We’re cooking thinned-out beggar’s soup.

MEPHISTOPHELES

You will have many for that brew.

MALE MONKEY (APPROACHING MEPHISTOPHELES

AND FAWNING)

O let the dice roll,
And give me the gold
And let me win all!
How bad in our place,
Much gold would increase
My wit now as well!

MEPHISTOPHELES

This ape would prize his luck could he

Just get into the lottery!

MEANWHILE THE YOUNG MONKEYS HAVE BEEN PLAYING WITH A BALL WHICH THEY NOW ROLL FORWARD

MALE MONKEY

The world's like this;

Goes up and down,

Rolls endlessly;

It rings like glass-

Breaks easily!

Has hollow sound.

Here it shines lightly,

And here more brightly:

Alive am I!

Dear son, I say,

Stay right away!

You needs must die!

It’s made of clay,

Its pieces fly.

MEPHISTOPHELES (POINTING)

So why the sieve?

MALE MONKEY (GETTING IT DOWN)

Were you a thief,

I’d know it straight away.

HE RUNS TO THE FEMALE MONKEY AND LETS HER LOOK THROUGH IT

Look through it, be brief,

You know who’s the thief,

Don’t you, but dare not say?

MEPHISTOPHELES (NEARING THE FIRE)

What of this pot?

MALE AND FEMALE

The stupid clot!
He knows not the pot,
He knows not the kettle!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Rude, beastly pair!

THE MALE MONKEY

Now sit in big chair,
Take duster and settle!

HE FORCES MEPHISTOPHELES TO SIT

FAUST
(WHO DURING THIS TIME HAS BEEN STANDING BEFORE A MIRROR, NOW STEPPING CLOSER TO IT, NOW STEPPING AWAY AGAIN)

What do I see? What sight in heaven's gleam
Is shown within this magic mirror's sheen!
O, love, lend me your swiftest, wide-winged power
And guide me to her presence now!
But if I don’t stay put; yes, if I dare
To venture near, if I persist,
She starts to vanish in a mist-
A woman’s fairest image there!
Yet could it be? Could woman be so fair?
In this reclining figure do I see
The quintessential heavenly?
Could such a one be found on earth?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Of course, if a god has struggled six full days
And at the end sings his own praise,
He’s brought some clever thing to birth.
So gaze till filled up for this while;
I’ve ways to find a small pearl of your own,
And happy’s he who sees fair fortune smile,
And as her bridegroom leads her home.

FAUST IS STILL GAZING INTO THE MIRROR. MEPHISTOPHELES STRETCHES OUT IN THE ARMCHAIR

AND, PLAYING WITH THE DUSTER, CONTINUES SPEAKING

Well, here I sit, a king enthroned. Indeed,

I have the sceptre here, the crown is all I need.

THE ANIMALS (WHO SO FAR HAVE BEEN MAKING STRANGE MOVEMENTS AROUND ONE ANOTHER, BRING MEPHISTOPHELES A CROWN WITH GREAT CLAMOURING)

O just be so good,

With sweat and blood,

This crown now to lime!

(THEY TAKE THE CROWN CLUMSILY, BREAKING IT IN TWO. THEN THEY JUMP AROUND WITH THE PIECES.)

It’s done now, let be.

We chatter and see,

We hear and we rhyme-

FAUST (AT THE MIRROR)

O grief! I'm sure I'll lose my mind.

MEPHISTOPHELES (POINTING TO THE ANIMALS)

My head is nearly reeling at their sports.

ANIMALS

And if we have luck,

And if our rhymes tuck,

Why- then we have thoughts!

FAUST (AS ABOVE)

My heart is starting to catch flame!

Oh, let us flee from here at once!

MEPHISTOPHELES (AS IN ABOVE POSITION)

As poets, one thing they can claim:

Theirs is a very candid stance.

THE KETTLE CAULDRON THAT THE FEMALE MONKEY TO LOOK AFTER, SENDS A GREAT FLAME BLAZING UP THE CHIMNEY. THE WITCH COMES DOWN THROUGH THE FLAME WITH A DREADFUL SHRIEKS

THE WITCH

Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!

You damned, fool beast, you cursed, old sow!

Neglecting the pot, you’ve singed your mistress now!

Damned beastly pair!

NOTICING MEPHISTOPHELES AND FAUST

What have we here?

Why are you here?

What do you want?

How’s it you came?

The pain of flame

Upon your frame!

SHE DIPS THE SKIMMING SPOON INTO THE KETTLE AND SPLATTERS FLAME TOWARDS FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES AND THE CREATURES. THE ANIMALS WHIMPER.

MEPHISTOPHELES

(REVERSING THE BRUSH HE HOLDS IN HIS HAND, SMASHING INTO THE GLASSES AND POTS)

In two! In two!

There lies the brew!

There lies the glass!

Just fun, a farce,

The beat, hag-arse,

To melodies from you.

HE CONTINUES WHILE THE WITCH RETREATS IN RAGE AND HORROR

You know me now? Monster! Skeleton!

Do you now know your master and your lord?

What’s stopping me from striking on,

And smashing you and all your monkey horde?

Is my red coat not honoured in this place?

Do you not see my rooster feather? Shame!

Or have I covered up my face?

And do I have to give my name?

THE WITCH

My lord, forgive me my rough hello!

I see no horse hoof down below,

And your two ravens, where are they?

MEPHISTOPHELES

This once no further blame, for I

Admit that quite some time’s gone by

Since we last met. Since that far day

All things have had a lick of culture’s brew,

Likewise the devil you once knew.

Yes, that old Nordic phantom is no more;

Do you see horn, or tail, or claw?

And as regards the foot, which I still need to use,

It would give folk the wrong idea,

Therefore I have employed, as do so many youths,

False calves for many a good year.

THE WITCH

I lose my sense and reason here,

To see my squire Satan now once more !

MEPHISTOPHELES

No woman, no; that name just brings me pain!

THE WITCH

But why, what has it done to you?

MEPHISTOPHELES

It’s long been stuff of fable, though I'm sure

That humans are no better off. It's true

The evil one has gone, but evil ones remain.

So call me baron now and everything is fine.

I am a cavalier, like other cavaliers;

And don’t you dare to doubt my noble line.

See, this is how my coat of arms appears!

HE MAKES AN INDECENT GESTURE

THE WITCH (LAUGHING IMMODERATELY)

Ha, ha! That is your style, fine sir!

You’re just the rogue you ever were.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Learn this, my friend! Without a hitch,

This is the way to get around a witch.

THE WITCH

Now gentlemen, what can I do for you?

MEPHISTOPHELES

A good glass of your well-known brew!
Please make it of your oldest too;
The years just multiply its power.

THE WITCH

Most gladly! Here I have a bit,
That I occasionally sip,
That has no longer the slightest stink;
I’ll gladly give you a small glass now.

SOFTLY

But if, quite unprepared, this man should take a drink,
He will, as you well know, not live more than an hour.

MEPHISTOPHELES

He is a friend, who’ll feel the benefit it weaves;
I wish to grant the best your brewing gives.
So draw your circle, speak your spell,
And then give him a good glass full!

THE WITCH WITH STRANGE GESTURES, DRAWS A CIRCLE AND PLACES WONDEROUS THINGS IN IT. MEANWHILE THE GLASSES START TO RING, THE KETTLES START TO RESOUND, MAKING MUSIC. AT LAST SHE FETCHES A GREAT BOOK, PLACES THE MONKEYS IN THE CIRCLE IN SUCH A WAY THAT THEY MAKE HER LECTERN AND HOLD THE TORCH FOR HER. SHE BECKONS FAUST TO STEP INSIDE WITH HER.

FAUST
No- tell me, where’s all this lead? This throng
Of frenzied gestures, mad carry-on?
A most disgusting fraud- such stuff
Is known to me and hated well-enough.

MEPHISTOPHELES

What rot! It’s just a laugh- don’t fuss.
Don’t be so stiff, severe and strict!
She must, like a doctor, have some hocus-pocus
So you can feel the fullest benefit.

HE FORCES FAUST TO STEP INTO THE CIRCLE

THE WITCH (STARTING TO RECITE OUT OF THE BOOK WITH GREAT EMPHASIS)

You must see then!
From One make Ten,
Let Two go, when
Three’s made alike-
You’re rich all right.
Then lose the four!
From five and six,
So says the witch,
Make Seven and Eight,
It’s finished straight:
And Nine is One,
And Ten is None.
That is the witches’ one-times-one.

FAUST

I think the old crone speaks in fever.

MEPHISTOPHELES

It’s still, my friend, nowhere near over;

I know it well, thus babbles the whole book;

I spent some many hours upon this jewel-

A stream of contradiction looks

As arcane to the wise as to the greatest fool.

his art is old and new, friend. See-
It was the fashion through the ages,
Through three and one and one and three,
To spread not truth but error’s stages.
And so some chat, teach undisturbed;
For who would tangle with such fools?
For mostly people think, if they just hear a word,
That it must let them form some thought as well.

THE WITCH (CONTINUING)

The science with
High power is
From all the world concealed.
He who thinks not
Receives the lot,
Not trying it’s revealed.

FAUST

Why does she pile the nonsense higher?

I feel as though my head is breaking.

I think I hear a whole mad choir,

A hundred thousand idiots speaking.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Enough, oh worthy Sibyl, enough!

Bring on your drink, swift-fill the cup

Right to the very brim now- such

Won’t harm my friend at all. For he

Is one of many a degree,

Who has already gulped down much.

THE WITCH, WITH MUCH CEREMONY, POURS THE DRINK INTO A CUP, FROM WHICH, AS FAUST LIFTS IT TO HIS MOUTH, A SLIGHT FLAME SHOOTS FORTH

MEPHISTOPHELES

Straight down with it! Keep on, go to!

It’ll give your heart much joy. Be game!

The devil’s bosom buddy, you

Should not shy from a little flame.

THE WITCH BREAKS THE CIRCLE. FAUST STEPS OUT

MEPHISTOPHELES

Now get out fast! You must not rest!

THE WITCH

And may this potion do you good.

MEPHISTOPHELES (TO THE WITCH)

If I can favour any small request,

Just tell me at Walpurgis, if you would.

THE WITCH

Here is a song. If it’s sung now and then

You’ll sense a special, good effect.

MEPHISTOPHELES (TO FAUST)

Come quickly, let me lead; we won’t neglect

To make you sweat and so direct

The potion’s force inside and out again.

In time I’ll teach the prize of noble idleness,

And soon you’ll sense with deepest, inner bliss

How Cupid stirs himself and springs this way and that.

FAUST

Once more just let me glance at that reflection!

That image was so beautiful!

MEPHISTOPHELES

No! You’ll soon see that woman of perfection,

Alive before your eyes in full.

SOFTLY

And with this drink in you, there soon will be

A Helen in each girl you see.

A STREET

FAUST, MARGARET PASSING BY

FAUST

My fair young lady, may I dare

To offer my arm's escorting care?

MARGARET

I'm neither fair nor highly born

And can go home from here alone.

SHE FREES HERSELF AND EXITS

FAUST

By heaven, how that girl just shines!

I've never seen her like: so fair,

So proper, virtue-rich, combined

With just a touch of pertness there.

Her lip's soft red, her cheek's light sheen,

Will stay with me till days have been.

The very dropping of her gaze

Has shone into my heart's deep ways.

And how she spoke, so brusque and short,

Was just enchanting too, I thought.

MEPHISTOPHELES ENTERS

FAUST

Listen. You must get me that pretty miss!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Now, which?

FAUST

She went on by just then.

MEPHISTOPHELES

That one? She's just come from a priest,

Who had absolved her from all sin;

I crept up near and listened in.

She’s such an innocent young lass

She’d really nothing to confess!

So over her I have no power.

FAUST

She’s over right age anyhow.

MEPHISTOPHELES

You speak just like a Jack-the-Rake,

Each lovely flower he craves to take,

All favours fancies, thinks no strict,

Close honour can’t be lightly picked;

There’s always some that must be missed.

FAUST

My honoured master Moralist,

Just leave me free from legal yoke.

I’m telling you, just short and straight,

If that desire of my sight

Does not rest in my arms tonight,

Then we shall part on midnight’s stroke.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Just think what’s needed in this case!

I’d need at least some two weeks’ space,

To map with care each general feature.

FAUST

If I’d just seven hours out-laid,

I wouldn’t need the devil’s aid,

Just to seduce that little creature.

MEPHISTOPHELES

You speak quite like a Frenchman would-

But please don’t anger at delay;

Why seek enjoyment straight away?

The joy you feel isn't half as good

As when you first go to and fro

In every sort of roundabout, odd way-

Like kneading and perfecting figured clay,

As many foreign stories show.

FAUST

I’ve appetite without all that.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Without a joke or jest, just flat

And final- with this beauty now,

You can’t just rush in anyhow.

With storm we shall take nothing; we
Must now resort to strategy.

FAUST

Get me some little angel treasure!
Oh, lead me to her place of rest!
Bring me a kerchief from her breast,
A ribbon of my love’s desire!

MEPHISTOPHELES

I’ll show I’m willing now to so
Promote and serve your pain and woe;
So we won’t brook one stroke’s delay,
But lead you to her room today.

FAUST

And shall I see her? Feel her glow?

MEPHISTOPHELES

No, she'll be at her neighbour’s, so

You’ll be alone so you can know

Hope’s future joys and fill your dear,

Warm feelings with her atmosphere.

FAUST

We’re going now?

MEPHISTOPHELES

No, it’s too early yet.

FAUST

Seek out a gift that I can give!

(HE EXITS)

MEPHISTOPHELES

Gifts first? That’s good! That's how success is hit!

I know of many brilliant spots

Where ancient buried treasure rots-

So I must scout around a bit.

(HE EXITS)

EVENING

A TIDY, LITTLE ROOM

MARGARET (BRAIDING AND TYING UP HER HAIR)

I’d give a lot to know and say

Just who that gentleman was today.

He looked most valiant, a sign

That he comes from a noble line.

I read that from his brow, else he

Would not have been so bold with me.

(SHE EXITS)

(ENTER MEPHISTOPHELES AND FAUST)

MEPHISTOPHELES

Come on, come in on silent feet.

FAUST (AFTER A QUIET PAUSE)

Now please leave me alone. Retreat!

MEPHISTOPHELES (NOSING AROUND)

Not every girl is quite so neat.

(HE EXITS)

FAUST

Oh, welcome sweet, soft twilight shine,

You who weave through this sanctuary!

Now grip my heart, oh, sweetest love-born pain,

Oh, you who live by sipping on hope's dew!

A feeling of tranquillity,

Of order and contentment too,

Breathes here. How full this poverty!

What blessedness in this cell’s view!

(HE THROWS HIMSELF INTO AN ARMCHAIR NEAR

THE BED)

Oh, take me now- you chair with arms spread out;

You held the joy and pain of worlds now gone.

How often at this old forefather's throne

A troop of children clustered round about!

Perhaps my dear, as child full-cheeked, would stand,

Give thanks for Christmas gift and, so devout,

Then kiss an elder one’s age-withered hand.

Oh girl, I feel your spirit play

And whisper through the order and completeness-

How mother-like it leads you day by day,

Prompts you to spread the tablecloth with neatness,

Smooth-scatter sand upon the flagstones' way.

Oh lovely hand! With godlike power!

Through you this hut becomes a heaven now.

And here!

HE LIFTS A BED CURTAIN

What shivers of delight seize me!
Here I could while away full hours. It seems,
O Nature, that here you built up in light dreams
Her inborn angel to maturity!

And you! What brought you to this town?
I feel so stirred within my inmost core.
What are you doing ? Why is your heart weighed down?
Poor Faust! I do not know you any more.

Does some enchanted fragrance rove
Around me? Instant pleasure was the snare-
But now I feel dissolved in dreams of love.
Are we the sport of every breath of air?

And if this moment she walked in, how you
Would then feel punished for your crime, your fall;
Great boastful clown, you’d feel so small,
Lie at her feet and melt like dew!

MEPHISTOPHELES (ENTERING)

She’s down below; no time to waste!

FAUST

Off! Off! I’ll never return- never!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Here is a casket- somewhat heavy-

Procured from another place.

Put in that press these offerings,

I swear to you, she’ll lose her senses,

I got for you some little things

To broach more strongly-build defences-

But girls are girls and play is play.

FAUST

Don’t know, should I?

MEPHISTOPHELES

You still ask, eh?

Perhaps you like to keep the treasure?

May I advise you keep your lust

From lovely daylight, so you’ll just

Spare me from toiling for your pleasure.

You’re not a skinflint too, I trust?

I scratch my head, I wring my hands-

HE PUTS THE CASKET INTO THE CLOTHES PRESS

AND CLICKS THE LOCK SHUT AGAIN

Let’s go! Quick! Forward!

It’s just to lead this sweet girl toward

The will and wish your heart commands.

Yet still you stall,

As though you stood within a lecture hall

And there, in grey reality, with you

Stood physics and metaphysics too!

Away!

THEY EXIT

MARGARET (WITH A LAMP)

Here it’s so sultry, close and hot,

(SHE OPENS A WINDOW)

And yet outside it’s not so warm.

There’s something strange, I don’t know what-

I wish my mother would come home.

A shiver ran right through my frame-

Oh, what a silly, fearful girl I am!

(SHE STARTS TO SING AS SHE UNDRESSES)

In Thule there lived a king,

Stayed true to his last breath-

His lady gave to him

A gold cup at her death.

And nothing was more dear,

He used it every meal;

His eyes would brim with tears

Each time he drank his fill.

Near death he counted up

His kingdom town by town;

His heirs got all, all but

His goblet of renown.

He sat and dined where all

His faithful knights could be-

His high ancestral hall,

His castle by the sea.

There stood the old carouser

And drank his life’s last glow,

And threw the sacred beaker

Into the flood below.

He saw it falling, twinkling,

Then sink in ocean’s roar-

His eyes, they too were sinking,

He'd drink not one drop more.

(SHE OPENS THE CLOTHES PRESS TO PUT HER CLOTHES AWAY AND NOTICES THE CASKET)

How did this pretty casket get in this?

I’m sure I locked the clothing press.

It’s surely wonderful! And what’s inside? Perhaps

It’s brought as a security-

My mother’s made a loan on it.

There on the ribbon’s one small key,

I think I’ll see if it’s a fit!

What’s this! My God! In all my life

I’ve never seen such things in all my days!

What a jewel! Fit for a noble wife

To wear on highest holidays.

How would this necklace look on me?

Who’d own such shining splendour? Who?

SHE PUTS THEM ON AND STEPS BEFORE THE MIRROR

If only I’d such earrings too!

How straight away they change my face.

What use are beauty and youth alone?

They’re well and good, yet on their own

They leave you in your lowly place.

And praise is half pity, for

Towards gold still bends,

On gold depends

Everything. Ah! we poor!

PROMENADE

FAUST IN THOUGHT WALKING UP AND DOWN

MEPHISTOPHELES ENTERS AND GOES TO HIM

MEPHISTOPHELES

By every scorn-seared love! By all the elements of hell!

I wish I knew what’s worse to curse with it as well!

FAUST

What’s wrong? What bites so bitterly?

I’ve never seen such looks in all my life!

MEPHISTOPHELES

I’d give myself right over to the devil if…

If only the devil wasn’t me!

FAUST

Is everything upstairs still humming?

This crazy raging is most becoming.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Just think- her gift, those precious jewels I got,

A two-bit priest just took the lot!

Her mother gets to see the thing

And straight away starts shuddering.

Her sense of smell is most aware,

She’s always sniffing in a book of prayer,

One whiff of property makes it quite plain,

If something is holy or profane;

She took one sniff and found the stuff

Was not at all near blessed enough.

My child, she cries, unrighteous wealth

Ensnares the soul, dilutes the health.

To God’s own Mother let these be given,

She’ll give us joy with manna from Heaven!

Poor Margaret had her lips pressed tightly,

What of a gift horse, she thought quietly.

In truth, a giver that’s so kind

Could not be godless; wrong-inclined.

Her mother got a priest to come;

He hardly heard about our fun,

But gazed well-pleased at everything.

He said: You sensed what’s right again!

Those overcoming self will gain.

The church’s belly’s big and strong,

It’s gobbled up whole lands complete,

Yet never has too much to eat;

Thus only the church, my dears, is free

To swallow down unrighteous property.

FAUST

That practice though is nothing new;

A king or count can do it too.

MEPHISTOPHELES

He plucked up necklace, brooch and rings

As if they were some pointless things

And gave them thanks, no less or more,

Than for some bag of nuts, well-fried,

Said heaven’s great reward was sure

And they were highly edified.

FAUST

And Gretchen?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Sits full of restlessness,

Knows neither what she should or will on this,

Thinks on the gems both day and night,

Still more on him who sent that sight.

FAUST

My loved one’s trouble saddens me.
Get her new jewels immediately!
The first were not much anyway.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Oh yes, to the gentleman it’s all child’s play!

FAUST

Get on with what I say to you!
And make up to her neighbour too!
Just be a devil, don’t go to mush,
And bring some new, real-sparkling stuff!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Yes, gracious lord, with all my heart.

FAUST EXITS

MEPHISTOPHELES

Such a love-struck fool would puff apart
The sun, the moon, and all the stars above,
Just as an idle pastime for his love.

HE EXITS

THE NEIGHBOUR’S HOUSE

MARTHA (ALONE)

God pardon my dear husband- he

Has not done very well by me!

To see the world he slips away

And leaves me lonely in the hay.

God knows, I truly loved him so-

I didn’t get him all upset.

SHE WEEPS

Perhaps he’s dead by now- oh, no!-

If only I'd a death certificate.

MARGARET ENTERS

MARGARET

Frau Martha!

MARTHA

Gretchen dear, what’s wrong?

MARGARET

My knees are sinking under me!

I found a box of ebony

Once more in my clothes press- a throng

Of many dazzling jewels and rings,

Far richer than the other things.

MARTHA

You mustn’t tell your mother or

She’ll cart them to confession as before.

MARGARET

See these and these! Look at these too!

MARTHA (PUTTING SOME ON HER)

O, you lucky creature- you!

MARGARET

Too bad I can’t be seen with these
In street or church, or where I please.

MARTHA

Just come here often, none need know,
And try these jewels on secretly;
And stroll before the mirror for an hour or so,
We’ll have our fun in privacy;
Then some occasion comes up, some festivity,
And bit by bit you can let people see.
A small chain first, then on the ear- a pearl;
Your mother will not notice, else we’ll spin some tale.

MARGARET

And yet who could have sent the caskets here?

There’s something not quite right, I fear.

A KNOCK

Oh God! My mother- could it be her?

MARTHA ( PEEPING THROUGH THE CURTAINS)

A strange gentleman- please come in, sir!

MEPHISTOPHELES ENTERS

MEPHISTOPHELES

I’ll walk straight in, I’ll be so free,

If both the ladies pardon me.

HE STEPS BACK RESPECTFULLY FROM MARGARET

It’s with Frau Martha Schwerdtlein I’m to speak.

MARTHA

I’m here. What does the good sir seek?

MEPHISTOPHELES (SOFTLY TO HER)

It is enough I’ve met you, for I see

You have right noble company.

Forgive the freedom I’ve presumed-

I’ll come again this afternoon.

MARTHA (ALOUD)

Think, girl, of all things on this earth!

This sir thinks you of noble birth!

MARGARET

I’m only young and poor you’ll find.

Oh God! good sir, you’re far too kind

These pretty things are not my own

MEPHISTOPHELES

Oh no, it’s not the jewels alone;

You have that high-born gaze, that noble way,

I’m really pleased that I may stay.

MARTHA

Your message sir? We wait to know.

MEPHISTOPHELES

I wish I’d better tidings though!

I hope you’ll pardon me this meeting-

Your husband’s dead, and sends his greeting.

MARTHA

He’s dead! The faithful heart! Woe! Woe!

My husband’s dead! I’ll die, I know!

MARGARET

Oh please, dear woman, don’t despair!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Then hear the whole, quite sad affair!

MARGARET

I hope I’m not in love, one day,

The grief would kill me if he passed away.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Joy brings sorrow; sorrow, joy, you know.

MARTHA

So tell me of his end, I pray.

MEPHISTOPHELES

In Padua he’s down below,

Nearby St Anthony’s rich clay;

His is a spot that’s truly blessed,

An eternally cool bed of rest.

MARTHA

But have you nothing more to bring?

MEPHISTOPHELES

A great request, with weighty care,

To have three hundred masses sung for him!

But for the rest my pockets are both bare.

MARTHA

What! Not a luck piece! No jewellery!

A keepsake that some journeyman might stack

Into the bottom of his travelling sack

And rather beg or starve than lose,

MEPHISTOPHELES

Madam, I’m truly sad to bear such news.

And yet, he didn't waste his gold, not he.

He repented greatly each failing and each flaw

As well- yes, and bewailed his bad luck even more.

MARGARET

Ah, people are so luckless in this world!

I’ll send in prayer many requiems his way.

MEPHISTOPHELES

You’re worthy to be wedded right this day:

You’re such a lovable, fine girl.

MARGARET

No, that’s not possible as yet.

MEPHISTOPHELES

If not a husband, take a sweetheart- it

Is one of heaven’s greatest balms

To hold a loved one in one’s arms.

MARGARET

That’s not at all the custom here.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Well, custom or not, it happens, my dear.

MARTHA

But tell me more!

MEPHISTOPHELES

I stood next to this dying bed,

Not quite manure; on the whole

Half-rotted straw, and yet he died a Christian soul,

Aware that he’d not paid much of his bill. He said,

“How I must hate myself, now leaving life,

For having left my good trade and my wife.

The memory just makes me die.

If she’d forgive before this life is run.”

MARTHA

The poor, good man! I’ve long forgiven all he’s done.

MEPHISTOPHELES

“Although, God knows, she was far worse than I.”

MARTHA

He lied! What- lying on the brink of death!

MEPHISTOPHELES

He was delirious by his last breath

If I can just half judge events.

“I did,” he said, “ not have to gape to pass the time,

First children, then obtaining bread for them,

And bread, that’s in the widest sense,

Not one time could I eat my part of it in peace.”

MARTHA

Did he forget all of the love and faithfulness,

The drudgery the whole day through!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Not so; he had most heartfelt thoughts of you.

He said, “ I prayed, as we left Malta’s shore,

With fevour for my wife and children’s sake,

So heaven beamed upon our wake,

We took a Turkish vessel with a store

Compiled from some great Sultan’s treasury.

Our courage paid and, as was fit,

I too was given what was due to me,

My truly well-earned part of it.

MARTHA

What? Where? Perhaps he buried it somehow?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Who knows where the four winds have blown it now?

A beautiful, young woman took his arm

As he strolled round Naples with a stranger’s gaze;

She lavished on him love and loyal charm-

He felt this till his happy end of days.

MARTHA

The ratbag! Robbing child and wife!

No misery, no need or wrong,

Could hinder his most shameful life!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Yes see! That’s why he’s dead and gone.

Were I at present in your place,

I’d mourn a chaste and modest year,

Then meanwhile aim for some new treasure, some new face.

MARTHA

Oh God, one like my first, I fear,

Will not be found with ease in this world’s ring.

He really could be a right fool at times,

For he was just too fond of wandering;

And foreign women, and foreign wine,

And those accursed, damned games of dice.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Now, now- that could have almost been clear-sailing,

If, for his part, he’d been as nice

And tolerant about your failings.

With such good terms, I swear to you,

Perhaps I’d swap our rings now too.

MARTHA

Oh sir, you like to play the joker’s part!

MEPHISTOPHELES (TO HIMSELF)

High time I scampered, dropped this act!

She’d even make the devil keep his pact.

(TO GRETCHEN)

And how do things stand in your heart?

MARGARET

What do you mean, good sir?

MEPHISTOPHELES (TO HIMSELF)

You good and innocent child.

(ALOUD)

Farewell, dear ladies.

MARGARET

Farewell.

MARTHA

Don’t rush off- stay awhile!

I’d like a testament to show

Where, how and when my dear passed on, was laid below.

I’ve always liked to do things properly-

The paper noting his obituary.

MEPHISTOPHELES

The witness of two lips I always known

To seal the truth. I’m not alone,

I have a fine companion who

Will swear before a judge for you.

I’ll bring him here.

MARTHA

O yes, please do!

MEPHISTOPHELES

And will this sweet girl be here too?

A fine, far-travelled lad is he-

Pays ladies every courtesy.

MARGARET

I’d blush before one of such worth.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Before no king upon this earth!

MARTHA

Behind my house within the garden, when

The evening falls, we'll meet the gentlemen.

STREET

FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES

FAUST

What gives? Some progress? Is it soon?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Ah, bravo! Are you found aflame!

Soon Gretchen shall be your sweet gain.

Tonight you’ll see her in Frau Martha’s room:

That woman’s just ideal it seems

To spin out pimp and gypsy schemes.

FAUST

That’s good.

MEPHISTOPHELES

One thing is wanted of us too.

FAUST

Well, all good deeds must get their due.

MEPHISTOPHELES

We’ve first to set down, legally attesting,

That her dear husband’s limbs are resting

In Padua, outstretched in holy ground.

FAUST

Oh, brilliant!So first we have to journey there.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Sancta Simplicitus! No need for that, dear clown,

Just testify without a care.

FAUST

This plan is through if you've no better ideas spare.

MEPHISTOPHELES

O saintly man! once more the holy crown!

Is this the first occasion in life’s course

You’ve trumpeted false testimony?

On God, the world, what moves it all, were you not phoney;

Was man, what reigns in heart and head, not all baloney,

Infused with definitions of the greatest force?

With brazen brow and bold-set breast?

If deep within you venture to the true,

You’ll surely straight away admit you knew

As much of them as Schwerdtlein’s place of rest.

FAUST

You are and stay a sophist and a liar!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Yes, if you probe no deeper in the mire.

Tomorrow, so sincere and brave,

Won’t you fool Gretchen, poor, young dove,

And swear she has your soul’s deep love?

FAUST

True from my heart.

MEPHISTOPHELES

That’s well and good.

What springs from faith and love’s eternal spell,

That once and overall-mighty impulse, would

That come straight from the heart as well?

FAUST

Stop that! It will!- For when I feel

True feelings forming, for the storming

I seek for names, find none quite real,

Then through the world I seek with every sense

And grasp for highest words and hence

This glow, this glow with which I flame,

Call endless, eternal, as a name-

Is this a devilish play of lies?

MEPHISTOPHELES

I am still right!

FAUST

Hear me! Mark this thing-

I beg of you to spare my lungs-

Whoever holds he’s right and has a tongue

Can seem to win.

But come, I’ve had enough of noise. I'll just

Admit you’re right, but mainly for I must.

GARDEN

MARGARET ON FAUST’S ARM. MARTHA WITH MEPHISTOPHELES WALKING UP AND DOWN

MARGARET

I feel you shield me and downplay

Your true thoughts, causing me to blush.

A traveller is used to doing such-

Takes what he finds in some good way.

I know too well that such a travelled one

Won't be amused by my poor speech for long.

FAUST

A glance from you, a word, is worth

More than all wisdom of this earth.

HE KISSES HER HAND

MARGARET

Don’t put yourself out now! How could you kiss my hand?

It is so ugly- rough and thick!

What work I’ve done with it! You understand

My mother’s ways are just so strict.

THEY PASS

MARTHA

And you, good sir, you always see new faces?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Ah, trade and duty keep one on the go!

I’m deeply pained to leave so many places;

Yet I just cannot stay, you know.

MARTHA

Yes, in the rush of youth it’s fine

To roam around the world, so free and brave,

And yet there comes that evil time-

Alone, a bachelor, you’re creeping towards the grave,

That’s never good for anyone.

MEPHISTOPHELES

With dread I see it far, far on.

MARTHA

And so, good sir, take heed now while there’s time.

THEY PASS

MARGARET

Yes! out of sight is out of mind!

You wear politeness with great ease;

But often you’d find friends who please

With bright views that leave me behind.

FAUST

O best! believe me, what’s called bright is often more

Conceit and narrowness of mind.

MARGARET

How so?

FAUST

Oh, open, innocent natures never know

Their own true sacred worth! You may be sure

The highest gifts, like meekness, modesty,

That flow from giving, love-filled natures do-

MARGARET

Just think on me when you’ve some moments free,

I shall have time enough to think of you.

FAUST

You’re often then alone?

MARGARET

Though ours is but a little home

I’ve much to get done on my own.

We have no maid, so I must cook and sweep and knit

And sew and run from dawn to dusk.

My mother thinks that all things must

Be made so accurate.

Not that she really needs to skimp so much. In fact,

Our reach is wider than many of our kind.

My father left a fair amount behind,

A little house and garden close to town.

I lead a rather quiet life. My brother-

He is a soldier now.

My little sister died.

She took much loving care, I often sighed.

Yet I would gladly bear that burden over,

I loved that child so much.

FAUST

An angel, if like you.

MARGARET

I brought her up; she really loved me too.

My father’s death was just before her birth;

My mother looked not long for earth

As she lay there in misery;

But she grew better, as the time went, gradually.

She couldn’t think, in her poor health,

Of nursing the poor mite herself;

And so I brought her up alone,

With water and milk; she grew my own.

And in her arms, and on my lap,

She smiled, she squirmed…and she grew up.

FAUST

You surely knew the purest happiness.

MARGARET

But surely also many hours of stress.

At night her cradle stood by me,

Right by my bed and if she stirred but slightly

I woke, for she

Might need to drink and be laid by me lightly,

And if not quiet, up in the gloom,

To skip her gently up and down the room;

Yet early I’d be at the wash and soon

Off to the market, then at the stove I’d stay…

And always tomorrow like today.

Such living, good sir, isn’t always blessed

With cheer- but food tastes good, and so does rest.

THEY PASS BY

MARTHA

And yet poor women still are badly off:

A bachelor's not likely to be swayed.

MEPHISTOPHELES

It would but take one like yourself

To lead me into better ways.

MARTHA

Be frank, good sir, you’re yet to find that one?

Your heart’s not bound to somewhere in the sun?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Your own hearth and a splendid wife

Are pearls and gold- if the saying’s right.

MARTHA

You’ve never had the leaning though, I mean.

MEPHISTOPHELES

I’ve met with great politeness everywhere I’ve been.

MARTHA

I meant to ask: it’s never mattered to your heart?

MEPHISTOPHELES

With ladies one should never play the joker’s part.

MARTHA

Oh, you don’t understand!

MEPHISTOPHELES

I am most sorry! Mind,

I do know this- that you are very kind.

THEY PASS BY

FAUST

You knew me from the street before when I

Came in the garden here today?

MARGARET

You didn’t see? The way I lowered my eyes.

FAUST

And you forgive the freedom I presumed?

The impudence I showed the other day

As you came from cathedral gloom?

MARGARET

I was upset. It never happened here before.

No one could ever say bad things of me.

“Oh,” I thought, “ has he seen something free,

Not modest, in my bearing?” Even more,

He seemed on sudden urge to sense

He’d straight off strike a bargain with this wench.

Let me confess! I didn’t know, what else

Was stirred to your advantage. I just knew

That I was angry with myself

That I could not be angrier with you.

FAUST

Sweet love!

MARGARET

Just wait awhile!

SHE PLUCKS A DAISY AND PULLS THE PETALS OFF, ONE

AFTER THE OTHER

FAUST

For what? A bunch?

MARGARET

No, just a game- don’t smile.

FAUST

How?

MARGARET

Go away! You’ll laugh.

SHE PULLS OUT PETALS AND MURMURS

FAUST

What are your whispers weaving?

MARGARET (HALF AUDIBLY)

He loves me- loves me not.

FAUST

Oh, shining face of heaven.

MARGARET (CONTINUING)

Loves me- not me- loves me- not me-

(SHE PULLS OFF THE LAST LEAF WITH CHARMING JOY)

He loves me!

FAUST

Yes, my love! Let this fair flower word

Be like a godlike speech- he loves you!

So now you fully understand- he loves you!

HE CLASPS BOTH HER HANDS

MARGARET

It makes me shiver!

FAUST

Oh, do not tremble! Let this look,

This handclasp speak to you of what

Is inexpressible:

And so give over to it fully- feel

A joy that must , must be forever there!

Forever! - For its end would be despair.

Without end! Without end!

MARGARET CLASPS HIS HANDS, THEN FREES HERSELF AND RUNS AWAY. HE STANDS FOR A MOMENT THINKING, THEN FOLLOWS HER

MARTHA (COMING UP)

The night comes.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Yes, and we must be away.

MARTHA

I’d beg you make a longer stay.

But this is not much of a place, it’s true.

You’d think folk had no business at all,

Or work to do,

But spying on their neighbour’s every call.

You’re gossip’s goal, no matter what you’ve done.

How’s our fine pair?

MEPHISTOPHELES

They flew on up the path that way;

Like butterflies at play.

MARTHA

He likes her I would say.

MEPHISTOPHELES

She likes him too. Well, that’s the way things run.

A LITTLE SUMMER HOUSE

MARGARET BOUNCES IN, HIDES BEHIND THE DOOR, HOLDING HER FINGER TO HER LIPS, AND PEEPS THROUGH THE CRACK

MARGARET

He’s coming!

FAUST (ENTERING)

You tease me then depart!

Now you’re caught!

HE KISSES HER

MARGARET (EMBRACING HIM AND RETURNING THE KISS)

Best of men! I love you from my heart!

MEPHISTOPHELES KNOCKS

FAUST (STAMPING HIS FOOT)

Who’s there?

MEPHISTOPHELES

A friend!

FAUST

A beast!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Our time has truly gone.

MARTHA (ENTERING)

Yes, it is late, good sir.

FAUST

Well, may I take you home?

MARGARET

I fear my mother would- good-bye!

FAUST

Must I go then?

Good-bye!

MARTHA

Adieu!

MARGARET

Soon may we meet again!

FAUST AND MEPHISTOPHELES EXIT

MARGARET

Dear God! Oh, all that one could find

Of thoughts in such a man’s deep mind.

I stand ashamed in front of him,

Just saying yes to everything.

I am but poor, unknowing… I cannot see

Just what it is he finds in me.

SHE EXITS

WOOD AND CAVE

FAUST (ALONE)

Exalted Spirit, You gave me, gave me all,

All that I asked. For it was not in vain

You turned your countenance towards me in fire.

You gave me nature’s splendour for my kingdom

And power to enjoy and feel her. Not

Just giving that cold wonder of one visit,

But vision down into her depths of heart,

Shown like the heart of some true friend. Before me

You lead the endless lines of living beings

And teach me to appreciate and know

My brothers in still bushes, air and water.

And when the storm roars, rattling through the forest,

And a giant fir, in crashing, strips and crushes

The trunks and branches of its neighbours, its fall

Resounding dull and hollow from the hill,

Then you lead me to some safe cave and draw

Me to myself and in my inner life

Reveal profound and hidden wonders. And when

Before my sight the pure moon arises,

Soft-soothing me, the silver shapes of past

Generations float up from rock walls, moist bushes,

And soften the stern joys of contemplation.

Oh, now I feel how nothing perfect’s given

To humankind. You gave me this delight,

That brings me near and nearer to the Gods,

And yet you gave me a companion whom

I can no longer do without, though his

Cold impudence shrinks me in my own eyes,

Untiringly he fans wild fire in

My heart for her fair image. So I stagger

From desire to enjoyment, and in the midst

Of that enjoyment, languish for desire.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Have you not led this life for long enough?

How can it please you still? Although

It may be good some time to taste life rough;

You must then reap where new things grow.

FAUST

I wish that you had more to do

Than plague me on this God-good day.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Now! Now! I’d happily leave you;

That isn’t, in earnest- what you meant to say.

In truth, your friendship: graceless, gruff and crazied,

Would be but little loss to me.

All day my hands are full! What you will praise,

What you will not, can never quite be gauged

From changes in your Lordship's physiognomy.

FAUST

That’s just about his right, true tone.

He wants my deepest thanks for boring me.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Poor earth son, what was life alone

Without my useful company?

For whole long times I’ve cured you of that

Vague claptrap called Imagination;

Already you’d have strolled, if not

For me, right off this globe’s creation.

Why do you perch like some hoot owl in gloom

In rock ravine and cavern tomb?

What nourishment do you slurp up from dripping stone

And soggy moss, in this frog home?

A fair and pleasant pastime that!

The doctor’s in your system yet.

FAUST

Do you intuit what new life-giving power

I find from wandering in wilderness ?

Oh yes, could you but guess it now,

You’re fiend enough to envy me my bliss.

MEPHISTOPHELES

A super-earthly joy, that’s true!

To lie on mountains in the night and dew,

And earth and heaven joyously embrace

And swell yourself to seeming godlike grace,

And gropingly divine earth’s core, with zest

Feel all creation’s six days in your breast,

Soon into all, with love’s bliss overflowing now,

Quite gone’s the son of earth’s creation,

And then the lofty intuition-

WITH A GESTURE

Concludes- I may not say just how.

FAUST

Shame on you!

MEPHISTOPHELES

You won’t hear of that, it’s plain.

Of course, you have the right to cry- for shame.

One cannot name with pure ears about

What chaste and pure hearts can’t do without.

Just to the point- I’m granting you the pleasure

Of having self-delusions in some measure;

But you won’t work this longer here.

Indeed once more you’re losing track,

If you wait on you’ll be ground back

By madness, horror or by fear.

Enough! Your sweet love sits at home distraught,

To her all’s cramped and troubled too.

She can’t keep you out of her thought,

She’s filled with overpowering love for you.

Your wild love flooded through her at the start,

Like some small stream that’s swelled with melting snow.

You poured it out into her heart,

And now again your stream is low.

Instead of lording over the wood,

It seems to me it would be good

If our great sir were to reward

That puppy when he’s so adored.

For her, time’s pitifully long.

She stands by the window, sees the clouds on high,

Over the town wall, drift by.

If I were but a bird!- so goes her song

Day long and half the dark night long.

Sometimes cheerful, mostly sad is she,

Sometimes weeps most bitterly,

And then again seems calm enough,

And always in love.

FAUST

Serpent! Snake!

MEPHISTOPHELES (TO HIMSELF)

Good! You take my bait!

FAUST

Swine! Out of here with your pretences!

Don’t talk of that most lovely girl!

Don’t spark desire for her body’s pearl

Once more before my reeling, half-crazed senses!

MEPHISTOPHELES

What do you want? She thinks you have flown through,

And that’s already half what’s true.

FAUST

I’m near to her though I were far. I can

Forget her never or lose her now.

I envy even the holy body when

Her lips touch on the sacred wafer’s power.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Well put, my friend. I’ve often envied you

The twins that browse beneath the roses’ dew.

FAUST

Be gone, you pimp!

MEPHISTOPHELES

That’s fine! You scold, I laugh. You see

The god that fashioned lads and maids

Could see at once the noblest of all trades:

Creating opportunity.

Away from here, this woeful gloom,

You’re going to your loved one’s room,

In no sense to your death.

FAUST

What’s that divine delight within her charms?

When I am warm within her arms

Shall I not sense her mute distress?

Am I not fugitive? The homeless one?

Inhuman- lacking purpose, aim and peace?

A roaring waterfall that rock to rock wild-lashing runs

Desire’s rage right down to the abyss?

And to one side is she, child-innocent,

In her small hut on little alpine field,

All homely deeds enfolding sense

Within her little world, peace-sealed.

And I, despised by gods,

Find it not enough

To seize upon the rocks

And pound them into dust!

I have to undermine her peace! Hell’s price

Is paid, so you can have your sacrifice!

Fiend, help me, shorten this fierce-fearing time!

What must come, let it come right now!

Let her fate fall together thus with mine,

And she with me plunge to the final hour!

MEPHISTOPHELES

And how you seethe again, you glow!

Be off and comfort her, you dunce!

For when a pinhead sees no way to go

He thinks the end has come at once.

Long life to all with bravery!

Indeed, you show some somewhat devilish airs.

The world’s own greatest absurdity

Must be a devil who despairs.

GRETCHEN’S ROOM

GRETCHEN (AT THE SPINNING WHEEL ALONE)

Now my calm has gone,

My heart's so sore;

I’ll never find peace now,

No, nevermore.

Where you’re not in sight

Is grave-dark night,

The whole world now

Turns bitter-sour.

And my poor head

Is such a mess.

And my poor mind

Breaks with distress.

Now my calm has gone,

My heart's so sore;

I’ll never find peace now,

No, nevermore.

I watch by window

For him alone;

And but to meet him

Leave my home.

His noble figure,

His high-born stride,

And his smiling lips,

And the power of his eyes,

His voice’s magic

Flow, the bliss

Of his hand’s touch,

And oh! His kiss!

Now my calm has gone,

My heart's so sore;

I’ll never find peace now,

No, nevermore.

My yearning heart

Would flee from here,

Till I could catch him

And hold him near,

And kiss him as

I’d wish that day,

And on his kisses

I’d pass away!

MARTHA’S GARDEN

MARGARET, FAUST

MARGARET

Now promise, Heinrich!

FAUST

All I can!

MARGARET

Tell me, how do you rate religion's role?

Though truly you're a true, good man,

I feel it's not held highly in your soul.

FAUST

You feel I'm good to you.. Leave it, my dove.

I'd lay down flesh and blood for those I love.

Nor would I steal faith, church and feeling's weave.

MARGARET

That isn’t right. You must believe!

FAUST

Must you?

MARGARET

I wish my words could sway events.

You do not honour holy sacraments.

FAUST

I honour them.

MARGARET

Without the wish.

It’s long since you’ve attended confession or a mass.

Do you believe in God?

FAUST

My dear one, who may say:

I believe in God?

The wise or those of priestly way

Reply but seem to wield scorn’s rod

On those who ask them.

MARGARET

So you’re not believing?

FAUST

Fairest one, do not mistake my meaning!

For who may name

Him? Who proclaim-

I believe in Him?

Who feels they’d dare,

Without a care,

Say- I do not believe?

The All-Encompasser,

The All-Sustainer,

Does he not sustain, encompass,

You, me. Himself?

Does not the sky arch overhead?

Is not the earth so firm beneath?

Do not the friendly-gazing,

Eternal stars still glide above us?

Do I not gaze into your eyes?

And does not all arise

Towards head and heart and weave

In everlasting mysteries,

Invisible visible, by your side?

Then fill your heart till it is full of this,

And when the feeling fills you fully with its bliss,

Then call it what you wish-

Heart’s happiness, or love, or God!

I haven’t any names

For it! The feeling is all;

Names are sound and smoke,

A mist on heaven’s glow.

MARGARET

That’s well and good; the preacher spoke

In somewhat likewise ways, although

His words just had a slightly different air.

FAUST

It’s spoken everywhere-

By all the hearts beneath fair heaven’s day,

Each in its own good way;

So why not I in mine?

MARGARET

When I hear you say it, all seems fine,

And yet it will not stand up for I see

That you’ve no Christianity.

FAUST

Dear one!

MARGARET

It’s long made my heart ache

To see the sort of friends you make.

FAUST

How’s that?

MARGARET

The man you always have with you.

I hate within my inmost soul. It’s true

That nothing, not in all my days,

Has stabbed my heart so as the gaze

As the most unpleasant features of that man.

FAUST

Oh do not fear him, dearest one.

MARGARET

His presence stirs my heart’s distaste.

Towards others I have all good will;

However much I long to see you, still

I sense a secret horror when I’m faced

With him; I see him as a villain too!

God pardon me, if it’s untrue!

FAUST

The world must have its odd ones too.

MARGARET

I cannot live with those like him.

You know, whenever he comes in,

He looks round with a mocking grin,

Half-threatening.

He shows no sympathy towards anything;

It’s written on his brow- in whole

That he can’t love another soul.

Within your arms all’s well with me,

So very, very warm, so free,

But he just makes me freeze inside right through.

FAUST

You dear, foreboding angel, you!

MARGARET

It overwhelms me so

That if he merely comes our way

I even think I don't love you. I know

That when he’s near I can no longer pray-

That eats into my heart. But you.

You, Heinrich, you must feel it too.

FAUST

You just feel some antipathy!

MARGARET

I must go now.

FAUST

Oh, can I never be

For one short hour at peace upon your breast,

With heart to heart and soul to soul close-pressed?

MARGARET

Oh! if I only slept alone!

I’d gladly leave the bolt unlocked tonight;

My mother stirs at any tone,

If she surprised our soul’s delight,

I’d probably die on the spot!

FAUST

You angel, you; no need- fear not.

Here is a little flask! Just drip

Three droplets in her drink to make

A deep and nature-pleasing sleep.

MARGARET

What would I not do for your sake?

She won’t be harmed in any sense?

FAUST

Would I advise, dear, were it thus?

MARGARET

I don't know why...if I just look on you,

My best of men, I'm drawn to want your will.

I've done so much already that I feel

There's little that remains for me to do.

(SHE EXITS)

(MEPHISTOPHELES ENTERS)

MEPHISTOPHELES

The little monkey! Has she gone?

FAUST

So then, again, you spied?

MEPHISTOPHELES

I overheard it all, right through.

Just then, my Doctor, you were catechised.

I hope it will do good to you.

It interests the women to surmise

If one is pious, plain in faith’s old way.

They think, “He bows down there, so he’ll do what we say.”

FAUST

You do not see, you monstrous cur,

How this most true and loving soul,

Filled with her faith that’s just

Alone for her

The true salvation, trembles so to hold

The man that she most loves to be completely lost.

MEPHISTOPHELES

You supersensual sensual suitor,

A young girl leads you by the nose.

FAUST

You filth- and flame-born freak of nature!

MEPHISTOPHELES

A masterly grasp of physiognomy she shows.

My presence worries her, she knows not why it’s thus,

This mask of mine hints at a hidden evil;

She feels that I’m some wicked genius,

Perhaps, indeed, the very devil.

Well, now- tonight-?

FAUST

What’s it to you?

MEPHISTOPHELES

I get my pleasure from it too.

AT THE WELL

GRETCHEN AND LIESCHEN WITH JUGS

LIESCHEN

You’ve heard about what Barb has done?

GRETCHEN

No, not a word. I’m not much out of late.

LIESCHEN

Today that Sybil told me straight

She’s finally been taken in.

That comes from having airs!

GRETCHEN

How’s that?

LIESCHEN

It stinks!

She’s feeding two now when she eats and drinks.

GRETCHEN

Oh!

LIESCHEN

She had it coming all along.

She hung upon that fellow for so long!

Yes, she was ever parading,

Off to the village and to dancing,

She must be first all of the time,

Forever treated so to pastries and to wine;

So stuck up over looking fine,

She was so brazen, had no shame at all,

Accepting gifts to let him call.

So they caressed and carried on-

And now the little flower has gone.

GRETCHEN

The poor, poor thing!

LIESCHEN

What! What pity can you feel?

When we were at the spinning wheel,

Or when our mothers kept us in at night,

She held he sweet, sweet lover tight,

On door bench or in darkened alleyway,

No hour seemed too long that way.

So let her cringe in sinner’s shirt,

And do her penance in the church!

GRETCHEN

He will surely take her for his wife!

LIESCHEN

He’d be a fool! Quick lads have air

Enough for breathing other where.

He’s gone already.

GRETCHEN

That is not fair!

LIESCHEN

If she gets him, let her beware.

The boys will rip her wreath from her,

And we’ll strew chaff before her door!

SHE EXITS

GRETCHEN (GOING HOME)

How I could boldly scorn and rail

When some unlucky girl would fail!

On others’ sins my tongue would play;

I could not find enough to say.

However black, I’d paint it with a blacker brush,

Yet it was never black enough.

I’d bless myself and swell with pride,

Now I have naked sin inside!

Yet- all that brought me down to this,

God! was so good! Oh, was just bliss!

BY THE CITY WALL

IN A RECESS IN A WALL IS A DEVOTIONAL PICTURE OF THE MATER DOLOROSA, WITH A JUG OF FLOWERS BEFORE IT.

GRETCHEN (PLACING FRESH FLOWERS IN THE JUG)

Incline,

O grief-rich one,

Your gracious gaze towards my distress!

With heart sword-pierced

By thousand-fold grief,

You look up to your own Son’s death.

To the Father on high

You gaze and each sigh

Ascends for his and your distress.

Who senses

The wrenches

Of pain deep in my bones?

With fear my poor heart’s turning;

Its trembling and its yearning,

You know, just you alone!

Wherever I am going,

Through all my breast is flowing

What woe, what woe, what woe!

At once in my own keeping,

I weep, I weep, I’m weeping;

My heart is broken so.

The pot plants at my window,

I wet with tears like dew,

When early in the morning,

I picked these flowers for you.

When early sun was slipping

Into my little room,

Already I was sitting

Upon my bed in gloom.

Help! save me from this shame and death!

Incline,

O grief-rich one,

Your gracious gaze towards my distress!

NIGHT

STREET BEFORE GRETCHEN’S DOOR

VALENTINE (A SOLDIER, GRETCHEN’S BROTHER)

When I’d sit at a drinking bout,

Where many like to boast and shout,

And my companions burst forth loudly

About a woman’s beauty; proudly

Washed down their praises with strong toasts-

I’d calmly sit and hear their boasts,

My arm propped on a bench, I knew

I’d wait till swaggering was through.

I’d smile and stroke my beard and then,

A brimming glass held in my hand,

I’d say- Yes, each to his own, my friend;

But is there one in this whole land

Who’s like my Gretel? It's quite plain

None hold a candle to her flame.

Hear! Hear! Clink! Clink! It went around;

Then one would cry- He’s right, she’s best,

She’s like a pearl above the rest.

Then boasters sat without a sound.

And now- I could tear out my hair!

Run up the wall in my despair!

With stabbing jeers, nose in the air,

All rats may taunt without a care!

And like a debtor I shall sit,

And each chance word shall make me sweat!

And though my fists could send them flying,

I still could not claim they were lying.

Who’s coming now? Who’s sneaking through?

If I’m not wrong, now there are two.

If it is he, I’ll have his hide.

He shall not leave this place alive.

FAUST MEPHISTOPHELES

FAUST

How from the window the eternal flame

Of Sacristy’s small lamp is flickering;

It glimmers outwards, ever-weakening,

While all around a pressing darkness reigns!

My night-caught heart is just like that.

MEPHISTOPHELES

And I feel like a slender cat

That up a fire ladder crawls

And strokes himself against the walls.

Yes, here I feel quite virtuous -

A bit of thief’s delight, a bit of randiness.

Walpurgis night’s magnificence

Already spooks through limb and sense.

Two nights away its dark will break;

Yes, then you know why you’re awake.

FAUST

But is the treasure to rise in the air

Which I see glimmering back there?

MEPHISTOPHELES

You’ll soon experience the pleasure

Of lifting up that pot of treasure.

I took a peep not long ago-

Fine silver lion-coins all aglow.

FAUST

But are no jewels there, no ring,

To decorate my darling girl?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Oh no, I noticed such a thing,

It seemed some sort of string of pearls.

FAUST

That’s good. It pains me if I go

To her without gifts, as you know.

MEPHISTOPHELES

It should not bother you to be

Enjoying something now for free.

Now that the sky glows full of stars, I’ll bring

A true art work before her hearing;

I’ll sing for her a moral thing,

More surely to entice her feeling.

SINGS TO THE ZITHER

Why stand before

Your loved one’s door,

Oh, Kathy, for

The early dawn is burning?

Let be, be done,

He’ll let you in,

A pure one,

But pure not returning.

Beware, dears- do!

When it is through,

Good night to you,

Good night, you poor, poor things!

Don’t come to grief,

Avoid belief

In any thief,

Until you wear his ring!

VALENTINE (STEPPING FORWARD)

Whom do you lure? God’s element!

You damnable ratcatcher, you!

To hell first with the instrument,

To hell then with the singer too!

MEPHISTOPHELES

The zither is in two! There’s nothing left at all.

VALENTINE

And now for splitting skulls as well.

MEPHISTOPHELES (TO FAUST)

Good doctor, don’t give way! Be quick!

Stay close, and follow on my lead!

So out now with your mopping stick!

I’ll parry, you thrust out with speed.

VALENTINE

So parry then!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Why not? Most civil!

VALENTINE

And that!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Delighted!

VALENTINE

Seems I fight the devil!

What’s this? My hand’s already lame.

MEPHISTOPHELES (TO FAUST)

Thrust home!

VALENTINE (FALLING)

O no!

MEPHISTOPHELES

So now the rascal’s tamed!

But now let’s vanish! Away at once! Let’s go!

There rise the murderous cries already. Though

With mere police I get on famously,

Blood-vengeance calls don't work for me.

MARTHA (FROM THE WINDOW)

Come out! Come out!

GRETCHEN (FROM THE WINDOW)

Quick, bring a light!

MARTHA (AS ABOVE)

They quarrel, brawl- they shout and fight.

PEOPLE

One’s dead already- see!

MARTHA (COMING OUT)

But which way did the killers run?

GRETCHEN (COMING OUT)

Who lies here?

PEOPLE

Your mother’s son.

GRETCHEN

All-mighty God! What misery!

VALENTINE

I’m dying. That’s soon said, you know;

And sooner still it’s done.

Why are those women weeping so?

Come, listen, little one!

(ALL GATHER AROUND HIM)

Dear Gretchen, look! you are still young,

Not bright enough, all said and done,

And now you’ve gone astray.

I’ll tell you this in confidence:

You’re now a whore, so there’s no sense

In hiding it away.

GRETCHEN

My brother! God! What do you mean?

VALENTINE

Leave our Lord God out of this scene!

What’s done, I'm sad to say is done,

As things will work out, so they come.

You start with one, in secrecy,

Then more will come to join the spree,

And when a dozen have been down,

You may as well have all the town.

When first one’s shame appears,

There born in secret, far from sight,

One draws the dark, dark cloak of night

Down over its rough head and ears;

You’d like to slay it instantly.

And yet it grows and it gets bigger,

In daylight shows its naked figure,

But grows no prettier to see.

The uglier its face and way

The more it seeks the light of day.

And I can see a time, I think,

When honest citizens will shrink

From you, you harlot, as from the touch

Of an infected corpse’s clutch.

And when your eyes meet theirs, the pain

Will cause your heart to faint and falter!

No more you’ll wear a golden chain!

No more stand near the holy altar!

Nor with lace collar, fine and bright,

Take pleasure at a dance at night!

In some dark corner’s grief you’ll be

With beggars and cripples for company;

And even if God pardons you,

On earth you’re damned your whole life through!

MARTHA

Command your soul to God’s good grace!

Why load such slander on your case?

VALENTINE

Could I but get you, you withered bag,

You pimping, pandering, shameless hag!

I’d hope to find forgiveness then,

In some good measure for my sins!

GRETCHEN

My brother! O hell’s agony!

VALENTINE

I say just this- let crying be!

For when you let your honour go,

You gave my heart its hardest blow.

So through death’s sleep I pass on to

My God, as soldier, brave and true.

HE DIES

CATHEDRAL

SERVICE, ORGAN AND SINGING. GRETCHEN AMONG MANY PEOPLE. EVIL SPIRIT BEHIND HER

EVIL SPIRIT

How otherwise, oh Gretchen,

It was with you when you,

Still full of innocence,

Came to the altar here,

And from the well-worn little book

You babbled prayers,

Half child-at-play

Half God within your heart!

Gretchen!

Where dwell your thoughts?

Within your heart

What misdeed’s harboured?

Are you now praying for your mother’s soul

That overslept to lasting, lasting pain?

And whose blood stains your threshold stones?

Already now beneath your heart

Does it not stir and swell

To frighten you and it

With its foreboding presence?

GRETCHEN

Oh, grief!

Were I but free of all the thoughts

Which sweep on back and forth in me,

Fighting me.

ORGAN TONE.

CHOIR

Dies irae, dies illa

Solvet saeclum in favilla.

(Day of Wrath, millennial day,

Earth to ash will pass away.

- 13th century hymn of Thomas of Celo)

EVIL SPIRIT

Wrath takes you!

The trumpet peals!

The graves are quaking!

And your heart

From ashen rest

To flame-fed torture

Rises up again

So quivering!

GRETCHEN

I wish I were

Far away from here! I feel as if

The organ’s robbing me

Of breath- song dissolves

My heart down to its deeps.

CHOIR

Judex ergo cum sedebit,

Quidquid latet adparebit,

Nil inultum remanebit.

(Before the judge all hidden-away

Things come into light of day-

Nothing unavenged will stay.)

GRETCHEN

I feel hemmed in!

The wall’s high pillars

Imprison me!

How the vault

Crushes me!- air!

EVIL SPIRIT

Conceal yourself! Sin, shame

Won’t stay concealed.

Air? Light?

Woe to you!

CHOIR

Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?

Quem patronum rogaturus?

Cum vix justus sit securus.

( I, the wretched, what shall I say,

Who implore upon that day,

When the just can hardly stay?)

EVIL SPIRIT

Transfigured ones

Avert their faces from you.

To stretch their hands towards you

Makes the pure shudder.

Woe!

CHOIR

Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?

( I, the wretched, what shall I say?)

GRETCHEN

Neighbour! Smelling salts!

SHE PASSES OUT.

WALPURGIS NIGHT

HARZ MOUNTAINS. THE REGION OF SHIERKE AND ELEND. FAUST AND MEPHISTOPHELES

MEPHISTOPHELES

Now wouldn’t you prefer a broomstick pole?

I wish I had the best of goats- for we

Are far still, on this pathway, from our goal.

FAUST

As long as I feel fresh upon these limbs, to hold

This knotted staff’s enough for me.

Why speed our course with other things?

To steal through labyrinthine valley ways,

Then scale rock heights, where sparkling sprays

Of never-failing waterfalls are fed from springs;

These are the joys that such a journey brings!

Sweet spring frees birch trees with its spell,

Already fir trees feel its power-

Why shouldn't it infuse our limbs as well?

MEPHISTOPHELES

In truth, I do not feel that now!

I’m wintery within the gloom.

I wish the snow and frost upon my way.

And look, how sadly shines the half-full moon;

Its red disc, reeking but a tardy ray,

Gives poor, dim light; at each step there’s a risk

Of running up against a rock or tree.

Just let me call a will-o’-the-wisp.

I see one there that’s burning merrily.

Hey there, my friend! Your company I claim.

Why squander such a brilliant flame?

Please light our upward pathway with its force.

WILL-O’-THE-WISP

I hope that my respect will help control

My very light and flighty soul-

For normally we trace a zigzag course.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Oh, ho! You’re thinking to ape humankind!

Go straight now by the devil’s sign!

Or I shall blow your brilliant flicker out.

WILL-O’-THE-WISP

You’re master of the house; without a doubt,

I’ll do my best to serve you nicely;

But note this please, the mountain’s magic-mad tonight,

And if a will-o’-the-wisp is now your leading light ,

Don’t take his pointers too precisely.

FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES, WILL-O’-THE WISP

(IN ALTERNATING SONG)

We, it seems, have come into

Spheres of magic and of dreams.

Lead us well, show noble gleams,

So that soon we move on through,

Through these wide and wasted spaces.

Row on row the trees change places,

Slip beneath our swift-borne flight;

And the crags bow down their might;

And each long and rocky nose,

How it snorts, and how it blows!

Past the stones and grasses flows

Each small stream, each hurries on.

Is that babbling? Is that song?

Love’s most gracious, lost lament,

Voice of heaven’s days now spent?

What we hope? What we adore?

And the echo, testament,

Times from old, sounds forth once more.

Oohoo! Shoohoo! Near us play

Screech owl, lapwing and the jay,

They are still awake, are they?

Are those newts in bush and hedge?

Bellied-big with long, thin legs!

Roots like serpents wind and creep

All around the rocks and sands,

Stretching like strange, eerie bands,

Try to scare us, catch our feet;

Out of sturdy, living gnarls

Fibres reach like giant squid arms

After wanderers. Mice all throng,

Thousand-hued and swarm along

Through the moss and through the heather!

Fireflies mass in a crowd,

Hordes and hordes all swarm together-

As bewildering escorting cloud.

Tell me, are we standing still,

Are we rushing on past places?

All appears to whirl until

Rocks and trees are making faces,

Will-o’-the-wisps swirl through the spaces,

Swell and multiply at will.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Grip my mantle with all your might!

Here upon this mid-peak’s height,

You can wonder at the show,

Gaze on Mammon’s mountain glow.

FAUST

How through the mountain bases spreads

A strange and troubled, dawn-like sheen!

And even from the deepest chasms sheds

A rising light in each ravine.

Here vapours rise, there cloud forms spread,

Here gleams a glow through mist and haze,

There creeps along a slender thread,

Then gushes forth, a spring before our gaze.

It shifts and winds on for a stretch

Through valleys with a hundred veins,

Then pressed into a corner cleft

Becomes a single strand again.

And nearby sparks strew forth and fall,

Out-sprayed like dazzling, golden sand,

Just look! the height of rocky wall

Is kindled to a flaming brand.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Does not Lord Mammon with magnificence

Illuminate the palace for the feast?

You’re fortunate to witness these events;

I sense already the rowdy guests.

FAUST

Oh, how the gale now rages through the air!

It blasts my neck like blows from fists!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Grip to the ancient ribs of rock, beware-

Don’t be down-hurled into this tomb abyss.

Mist thickens night. Just hear

The crashing in the forest there!

Frightened off, the owls are flying.

Pillars of wild-sighing,

Ever-green palaces shatter.

Branches creak and crack and clatter!

The trunks are groaning mightily!

The roots gape, grating noisily!

In a terrifying-tangled fall

Down they crash, each onto all;

And through the debris-strewn abyss,

The wild winds howl and hiss.

Do you hear voices here on high?

In the distance, closer by?

On the mountain, all along

Streams a fury now of magic song!

WITCHES (IN CHORUS)

The witches ride to Brocken’s scene,

The stubble is yellow, corn is green.

And there a great crowd’s gathering,

Lord Urian sits over them.

So we go over dale and hill,

The witches fart, the he-goats smell.

VOICE

Old Balbo’s coming here alone,

Upon a farrowing fat sow she’s flown.

CHORUS

Give honour now, when honour's due!

Dame Balbo forward! to lead the crew!

A mother on a good, sound swine;

The whole witch horde will ride behind.

VOICE

Which way now did you come?

VOICE

Over Ilstenstein I flew!

I peeped into an owl’s nest passing through.

It made great eyes at me.

VOICE

Oh, go to hell!

Why ride so fast, pray tell?

VOICE

She took some of my skin,

Just see my wounded limbs!

WITCHES’ CHORUS

The way is broad, the way is long,

Then why this pointless, maddened throng?

The broomsticks scratch, the pitchforks poke-

If the mother bursts, the child will choke.

HALF CHORUS OF WITCH-MASTERS

We creep like shell-bound snails, we’re sure

The women are all far before.

For going to foul evil’s door,

They go a thousand steps before.

THE OTHER HALF

That doesn’t bother us, indeed

The women can fly on with speed;

For let her hurry without stop,

A man can do it in one hop.

VOICE (FROM ABOVE)

Come up, come up from rock-bound lake!

VOICE (FROM BELOW)

We’d like to be on your poetic height.

We wash until we shine from head to toe

Yet we’re unfruitful, even so.

BOTH CHORUSES

The wind is still, the starlight flies,

The troubled moon is glad to hide.

Now whizzing by, the magic choir

Sprays many thousand sparks of fire.

VOICE (FROM BELOW)

Stop, I’m left!

VOICE (FROM ABOVE)

Who calls from rocky clefts?

VOICE (FROM BELOW)

Take me too! Oh, take me!

I’ve climbed three centuries

Already, yet cannot reach the peak.

And my own kind is all I wish to seek.

BOTH CHOIRS

The broom or stick will carry you,

The billy goat or pitchfork too;

Those who can’t lift themselves tonight

Are doomed forever to their plight.

HALF-WITCH (FROM BELOW)

For such a time I’ve tripped behind,

The rest are far ahead I find!

I had no peace in my own place,

Yet here I can’t keep up the pace.

CHORUS OF WITCHES

The salve gives courage to the witches,

Sails can be made with rags and stitches;

Any trough can make a ship. We say

You’ll never fly if not today.

BOTH CHOIRS

And when we sweep and fly around

The peak, then swoop down near the ground,

We cover heath land, far and wide,

With swarms from witch-hood’s wild night ride.

THEY SETTLE DOWN

MEPHISTOPHELES

They press and push, they rustle and rattle!

They swish and swirl, they tussle and tattle!

It shines and sparkles, stinks and burns-

The real witch element returns!

Just stick with me! or we’ll be parted soon.

Where are you?

FAUST (IN THE DISTANCE)

Here!

MEPHISTOPHELES

What! Separated already now?

I must use my domestic power.

Room! Squire Voland comes. Room! Lovely rabble, room!

Here, doctor, cling to me! Now in one leap we’ll zoom

Away from crowds of company.

It’s too mad, even for the likes of me.

There near us something gleams with quite a special glow,

It draws me towards that shrubbery.

Come, come! we’ll slip in there, let’s go.

FAUST

You may as well lead on, you spirit of contradiction!

Yet still I think that this is really bright-

We travel to the Brocken on Walpurgisnight,

Then set about to end in isolation.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Just see there, multi-coloured flames

Have made a cheerful club. It’s plain,

In little groups one’s not alone.

FAUST

Yet I’d prefer that higher zone.

I see the fires; smoke-swirls swell.

The crowd streams towards the evil one;

There many riddles would be undone.

MEPHISTOPHELES

And many new evolved as well.

Just let the great world whizz on by,

Let us dwell here in peace, say I.

It has, in fact, long been related

That in the greater world, the smaller are created.

I see young witches in a naked state,

And older, who are cleverly well-dressed.

Be friendly, that’s my only wish;

The effort’s small, the fun is great.

The sounding of some instruments I hear.

Damn din. One must get used to it, I fear.

Come on! Come on! There’s nothing for it but

For me to go and take you to this lot

And thus bind you anew. Now go

And tell me, isn’t this some space, my friend?

Just look out there, you barely glimpse the end,

A hundred fires burning in a row.

They dance, they chat, they cook and drink, embrace;

Now tell me where is there a better place!

FAUST

But when you introduce me at the revel,

Will you appear as sorcerer or devil?

MEPHISTOPHELES

I’m used to going incognito, as you know,

But on a gala day one lets one’s order show.

It’s not a garter that shows my due,

But here the cloven foot is held in honour true.

You see the snail there? Towards us it comes creeping,

With tentative and groping face;

It’s sensed I’m something out of keeping.

For even if I wished, I can’t hide in this place.

Come then! We’ll visit each fire, see what’s brewing;

I’ll do the courting, you the wooing.

TO SOME WHO ARE SITTING AROUND GLOWING COALS

Old sirs, why are you at the end down here?

I’d praise you now if you were nicely in the middle,

Engulfed by bustle and youthful hustle,

One is alone enough at home, I fear.

GENERAL

Who'd trust the nations, for although

One has already done so much for them,

The people will, like women, don't you know,

Forever like the younger men.

MINISTER OF STATE

Now all has strayed far from the line;

I praise the good, old-timer days;

When we all mattered, I must say,

That truly was the golden time.

PARVENU

And truly we weren’t total clots,

And often did, what we should not;

Now everything is topsy-turvy,

Just when we wished to keep it steady.

AUTHOR

Who, after all, now wants to read a work

That’s balanced and intelligent!

And what concerns our dear young folk,

It’s never been just so impertinent.

MEPHISTOPHELES

(WHO ALL AT ONCE APPEARS VERY OLD)

I feel that folk are ripe for doom's last day,

This is my last climb to the Blocksberg’s crown;

As my small cask runs low, I say

The world itself is running down.

JUNK SHOP WITCH

Do not rush by, sirs! I must mention

This great, new opportunity!

Just give all of the great variety

Of my fine wares some close attention.

There’s nothing in this shop of mine-

(Each is unmatched on all this earth)

That’s not done hearty harm, some time,

To humans or the world's true worth.

No dagger that’s not made blood flow, no cup

That hasn’t poured a hot and poisoned wine,

Consuming so some healthy chap;

No gem that hasn’t led astray a kind

And charming girl; no sword not used to snap

A bond, or maybe stab a rival from behind.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Old aunt! poor is your grasp of these new days.

Done and happened! Happened, done!

Just shift your gaze to novel ways!

For only novelty draws everyone.

FAUST

I must keep focused, self-aware!

For this is what I call a fair!

MEPHISTOPHELES

The swirling mass strives upward here;

You think you push, yet you’re pushed from the rear.

FAUST

Who’s that?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Just watch her with great care.

That’s Lilith.

FAUST

Who?

MEPHISTOPHELES

First wife of Adam. But beware,

Of her most beautiful, long hair,

It is her gem: unique and single snare.

When she has got the young man in its boon,

It won't let go again too soon.

FAUST

A young witch and an old sit there. No doubt,

They are already quite danced out.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Tonight, you know, all know no rest.

A new dance starts. Come on, we’ll take them on with zest.

FAUST (DANCING WITH THE YOUNG ONE)

Now once the fairest dream I dreamed,

I saw an apple tree that seemed

To have two apples, shining fair-

They tempted me, I climbed it there.

THE FAIR ONE

For apples you’ve a great desire,

Since Paradise it’s been on fire.

I feel a stirring of delight

That in my garden too they’re bright.

MEPHISTOPHELES (DANCING WITH THE OLD ONE)

Now once a vulgar dream I dreamed,

I saw a cloven tree; it seemed

That it possessed a great big split,

Big as it was, I fancied it.

THE OLD ONE

I give best greeting now- my dear

Knight of the cloven hoof is here!

And if your branch is big, then you

Won’t fear a slit that’s quite large too.

PROKTOPHANTASMIST

Damn rotten lot! how dare you cross my seeing?

Have you not long ago had proofs complete

That spirits never stand on normal feet?

And now you dance- like other human beings!

THE FAIR ONE (DANCING)

What is he doing at our fair?

FAUST (DANCING)

That one! You’ll find him anywhere.

What others dance, he must inspect,

If he can’t criticize each step,

For him it may as well have not occurred.

Indeed, he’s angered most when we go forward.

But if you turn in circles set apart,

As he does in his dull and ancient mill,

He would, perhaps, not take it ill,

Especially if you acknowledged him to start.

PROKTOPHANTASMIST

You’re still here? This won’t do in any way.

So vanish! We’ve enlightened you away!

This fiendish rabble knows no rules. We’re most

Intelligent, yet Tegel castle has its ghost.

Although I’ve spent so long on sweeping out illusion,

It’s never clean- it’s just beyond all reason!

THE FAIR ONE

Just listen here, stop boring us to bits!

PROKTOPHANTASMIST

You spirits all, just get this clear,

I’ll not stand spirit despotism here;

My spirit can’t rule over it.

THE DANCING CONTINUES

I see today there’s nothing I can do;

Still I am always ready for another trip,

And hope, before I take my final step,

To so subdue all fiends and poets too.

MEPHISTOPHELES

He’ll sit in any puddle he can find,

That’s how he gets relief below;

For when the leeches latch themselves on his behind,

He’s rid of spirits and of spirit in one go.

TO FAUST, WHO HAS STEPPED OUT OF THE DANCE

Why do you leave that beauty now alone?

So lovely was the way she sang.

FAUST

A little reddish mouse just sprang

From her mouth as she was singing now.

MEPHISTOPHELES

O, that’s all right! Don’t worry so, I say.

It is enough it wasn’t grey.

Who questions such things in a lover’ s hour?

FAUST

Then I saw-

MEPHISTOPHELES

What?

FAUST

Mephisto, see that place,

That beautiful, pale girl, alone and far away?

She drags herself but slowly through the space,

It seems her feet are both chained in some way.

I must confess, I fancy she

Seems like fair Gretchen now to me.

MEPHISTOPHELES

That does no good. Leave it! Beware!

It is a magic image; lifeless idol there.

Best to avoid her. Understand!

That frozen gaze can freeze the blood of man,

Turn you to stone upon the spot;

You’ve heard of the Medusa, have you not?

FAUST

In truth, they are the eyes of one that’s dead,

Not closed by loving hand. That breast

Is hers, on which she let me lay my head;

That’s her sweet body that I caressed.

MEPHISTOPHELES

You easily-led fool! That is the sorcery!

She seems to each his love. Now don't you see?

FAUST

What bliss! What grief! I have to stay,

I cannot draw my eyes away.

How strange that her fair neck should be adorned

With just a single, thin, red line,

No broader than a thin knife’s back.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Quite so! I see it too. Be warned,

She takes it in her arms when she’s inclined,

For Perseus cut it with one hack.

This fondness for illusion still!

Come on, just climb this little hill!

Here it’s as jolly as the Prater;

And if I’m not bewitched, I’m sure

I actually see a theatre.

What’s on, my friend?

SERVIBILIS

We’re starting now once more,

The last of seven things, a new release;

It’s custom here to put lots in our brew.

A dilettante wrote the piece,

And dilettantes act it too.

Excuse, good sirs, I’ll slip from sight;

For I must dilettante up the curtain.

MEPHISTOPHELES

To find you on the Blocksberg’s height

Is good, for that’s where you belong for certain.

(A NOTE ON WALPURGIS NIGHT DREAM

The Walpurgis Night Dream -a sort of amateur pageant, possibly being watched by Faust and Mephistopheles, adds to the surreal atmosphere. The little verses are satires or comments on various people and things. Mieding was a stage manager and scene painter. Oberon, Puck and Titania are "fairies" from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream while Ariel , the airy spirit, is from The Tempest. The Northern Artist relates to Goethe himself whose views were enriched by his own Italian Journey. Xenien are the satiric verses in the style of the Roman poet Martial. Hennings portrayed as a sort of literary snob, published a journal called The Genius of the Age that had attacked Schiller (poet and playwright and Goethe's friend). His book of poems was called Musagent (leader of the muses). Ci-Devant possible refers to the name change of the journal at 1800 to Genius of the 19th Century. Orpheus could calm the beasts with music. An Idealist is a philosopher who lays great emphasis on the mind's role in creating reality. The realist emphasises observation of a world regarded as wholly external. "Flames" are supposed to lead the sensitive to treasure. The Nimble Ones who are sans- souci (without care) change their allegiances easily and have reversed so much they walk on their heads, while the Useless have ended up with bare feet. The massive are the masses (particularly in this case in the French Revolution). )

WALPURGIS NIGHT DREAM

or

OBERON AND TITANIA’S GOLDEN WEDDING

Intermezzo

THEATRE MANAGER

So today for once we rest,

Brave sons of painter Mieding.

Ancient crag and valley mist.

That’s all the scenery’s needing.

HERALD

A wedding is a golden one

With fifty years in store ;

But when the quarrelling is done,

I love that gold much more..

OBERON

If you spirits are around

Reveal yourselves to view;

Here the king and queen are bound

To now be bound anew.

PUCK

Puck now comes and cuts across,

And slides his feet in line;

And a hundred follow this,

To share a joyful time.

ARIEL

Ariel is moved to song,

In heaven tones so true;

Bringing quite a frightful throng,

But beauty’s offspring too.

OBERON

Couples wish to get along,

So learn what we impart.

Two can stay in love for long-

They only need to part.

TITANIA

He is sulking, she has whims,

So grab them both with haste.

Send her off to southern lands,

He to far northern waste.

ORCHESTRA, TUTTI (FORTISSIMO)

Nose of mosquito, snout of fly,

With relatives around,

Frog in leaf, grass cricket’s cry,

All make our music sound.

SOLO

How the bagpipe with its sack

Is big soap bubble swelling;

Hear how skirling snicker-snack

From its blunt nose is welling.

SPIRIT (WHICH IS FORMING ITSELF FOR THE FIRST TIME)

Spider’s foot, toad-belly features,

With small wings of a sprite,

These will not make up some creatures,

Just lines that come out right.

A LITTLE COUPLE

Little steps and leaps so high

Through scents and honey dew;

Though fleet enough for me are you,

We never really fly.

INQUISITIVE TRAVELLER

Is this some masquerade’s disguise?

Trust I what seems so clear?

Is Oberon, the fair god, here

Today before my eyes?

ORTHODOX

There’s no claws and no tail piece,

Yet I’ve no doubt it’s true,

Just like the ancient gods of Greece,

That he’s a devil too.

NORTHERN ARTIST

All that I’m doing still today

Are only sketches really.

Still I get set for when I may

Take my Italian journey.

PURIST

Oh, my bad luck brings me such places!

Such goings-on won’t do!

In all this witch horde only two

Are wearing powder on their faces.

YOUNG WITCH

Such powder, like a petticoat,

Suits grannies, grey and worn.

But I sit naked on my goat

And show my strapping form.

MATRON

We’re too well-mannered to engender

Fault-finding with your lot.

Yet as you are, still young and tender,

I hope you start to rot.

ORCHESTRA LEADER

Nose of mosquito, snout of fly,

Keep off that naked girl!

Frog in leaf, grass cricket’s cry,

Just keep in time as well!

WEATHERVANE (TURNING TO ONE SIDE)

The best companions you could wish;

Each girl- a bride to be;

And young friends, man for man, make this

Most promising to see!

WEATHERVANE ( TURNING TO THE OTHER SIDE)

And if the ground won’t open wide

And swallow them inside;

Then I’ll take to my heels, pell-mell,

And leap straight into hell.

XENIEN

As little insects we are here

With sharp, small nippers ready,

To becomingly revere

Lord Satan who is our daddy.

HENNINGS

Oh, how they crowd, swarm to the fray,

Naively joke together;

And in the end they’ll dare to say

They were good-hearted ever .

MUSAGET

I love to lose myself within

This host of witches, for

I’ve far more chance of leading them

Than muses- that’s for sure!

CI-DEVANT GENIUS OF THE AGE (“Musagetes- the genius of the age”)

The proper people get you places.

Come, grab on to my coat.

The Blocksberg like our German Parnassus

Has a very long, broad top.

INQUISITIVE TRAVELLER

Tell me, who’s that stiff-backed man,

Who strides with such proud steps?

He noses round now where he can,

“He sniffs out Jesuits.”

CRANE

Yes, in the clear I like to fish,

But also in the murky waters.

That’s why the pious sir can mix

Quite well here in the devil's quarters.

CHILD OF THE WORLD

Believe me, for the pious lot

All things can serve their goals.

They make up, here on Blocksberg’s top,

Lots of conventicles.

DANCER

Is that another chorus song?

I hear a distant drumming.

Don’t fret! In reeds there swarms a throng

Of philosophic bitterns booming.

DANCING MASTER

How each one lifts his limbs, gets by

By hook or else by crook-

The bent ones leap, plump hop up high,

Not asking how they look.

FIDDLER

They hate each other, rotten rabble,

Each wants the rest deceased;

The bagpipe unifies the babble,

As Orpheus did beast.

DOGMATIST

I won’t be muddled by the shouters-

The critics or the doubters;

The devil must be real, you see,

Or else how could this devil be?

IDEALIST

Within my sight, imagination

Rules with too strong a grip;

In truth, if I’m all this creation,

Today I am a twit.

REALIST

This is a trial, the real- a dream...

So vexed by all I meet;

This is the first time that I’ve been

Unsteady on my feet.

SUPERNATURALIST

I’m in a really happy mood,

I find all this just bliss;

For from the devils I conclude

Good spirits must exist.

SKEPTIC

They follow little flames, not great;

Think they track near the treasure.

As devil and doubt alliterate,

I find this place a pleasure.

ORCHESTRAL LEADER

Nose of mosquito, snout of fly,

Damn dilettante crew!

Leaf-frog, grass-born cricket’s cry,

Stay musicians, will you!

THE NIMBLE ONES

Sans-souci, that’s our troop of sweet,

Bright creatures- it is said.

We go no longer on our feet,

So we go on our heads.

THE USELESS ONES

We used to wheedle many a bite;

God help us, but time rolls!

We danced right through our shoes at night,

And now we run on naked soles.

WILL O’ THE WISPS

From reeking swamps we come,

Where we arose in swarms,

But once we join the fun,

We’re glittering, gallant forms.

SHOOTING STAR

From the height I shot, a flower

Of fire and star flight,

Lying in the grasses now,

Who’ll help me get upright?

THE MASSIVE (the masses)

Make room, make room! Give way all you!

Small grass gets trampled flat.

Spirits come, but spirits too

Have limbs both strong and fat.

PUCK

Do not tread your massive way

Like calves of elephants;

May the sturdiest on this day

Be weighty Puck’s advance.

ARIEL

If fair, living nature’s grace

Or spirit gave you wings,

Follow my light, airy trace

Up the hill of rose-fair rings.

ORCHESTRA (PIANISSIMO)

Clouds that trail and mist that weaves

Dawn-gleams light overhead.

Wind flows through the reeds and leaves

And everything has fled.

TROUBLED DAY- FIELD

FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES

FAUST

In misery! Despairing! Long and pitifully astray upon the earth and now imprisoned! With terrible torments shut up like an evil-doer in a dungeon, that beautiful, unhappy creature! Things have gone so far! So far! Treacherous, vile, abominable spirit; this you have kept secret from me! Just stand there, stand! In rage roll your devilish eyes around in your head! Stand and defy me with your intolerable presence! Shut away! In irretrievable misery! Given over to evil spirits and judging, unfeeling humankind! While you lulled me with insipid diversions you concealed her growing grief from me and left her to perish helplessly!

MEPHISTOPHELES

She is not the first.

FAUST

Dog! Detestable monster and abomination! Transform him, You Infinite Spirit! Transform this worm back into his canine shape. Change him back to that in which he was pleased to trot before me during a nightly break, rolling himself at the feet of the harmless wanderer and clinging onto the shoulders of any who had fallen. Change him back to his favourite shape so that he may crawl, cringing before me, on the sand and there I may kick and trample him with my feet, Vile outcast of all! Not the first! Grief! Oh, grief! Beyond the grasp of the human soul to think that more than one creature has sunk to the depths of such misery, that the first did not go through enough in writhing death agony for all the others in the eyes of the eternally-forgiving One! I’m stirred and agitated right through to my very marrow, my life’s core, by the need and misery of this one person- you grin, composed and calm, over the fate of thousands!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Now here we are already, once more at our wit’s border, where your human sense and understanding snap. Why did you form bonds of companionship with us, if you cannot go through with it? Did we press ourselves on you, or you on us?

FAUST

Don’t snarl and bare your greedy teeth like that at me! It fills me with disgust! Great and glorious Spirit, you who found me worthy enough to appear before me, you who know my heart and know my soul, why chain me to this infamous companion who gloats over grievous harm and relishes destruction?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Are you finished?

FAUST

Save her! Or all grief be upon you! The most gruesome of curses be upon you for thousands of years!

MEPHISTOPHELES

I cannot loosen the avenger’s fetters, nor open his bolted bars. Save her! Who was it who plunged her to destruction? I or you?

FAUST LOOKS AROUND WILDLY

Are you grasping after thunder? It’s well that it wasn’t given to you miserable mortals! To smash to pieces the innocent objector, that is the manner of the tyrant, that is his method for getting relief from his embarrassment.

FAUST

Take me to her! She shall be freed!

MEPHISTOPHELES

And the danger to which you will expose yourself? Know that blood-guilt from your hand still lies over the town. For over the places of slayings hover avenging spirits that lurk waiting for the returning murderer.

FAUST

That too from you? The death and murder of a whole world fall on you, you monster! Lead me to her, I say, and set her free!

MEPHISTOPHELES

I’ll lead you there and as for the rest of what I can do- listen! Do you think I have all the power of heaven and earth? I’ll surround the gaoler’s senses with mist, then you seize hold of the keys and lead her out by human hand! I'll stand watch! The enchanted horses are ready... I carry you both away. That much can I do.

FAUST

Up and away!

NIGHT OPEN FIELD

FAUST AND MEPHISTOPHELES STORM ACROSS ON BLACK HORSES

FAUST

What are they weaving round the Ravenstone?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Don’t know what they’re brewing and making?

FAUST

Floating up, floating down, bending and bowing.

MEPHISTOPHELES

A witches’ guild.

FAUST

They strew and hallow.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Pass by! Pass by!

DUNGEON

FAUST (WITH A BUNCH OF KEYS AND A LAMP, BEFORE A SMALL IRON DOOR)

I gasp with long-forgotten horror's breath,

I'm seized by every human sorrowing.

She lives behind dank walls and slime.

A fair delusion her only crime!

You hesitate to go within.

You fear to see her once again!

Forward! Weak wavering advances death.

HE SEIZES THE LOCK. SOUND OF SINGING FROM WITHIN

My mother, the whore,

Took life from me!

My father, the rogue,

Has eaten me!

My small sister alone

Has buried my bones

Down in a cool, cool place.

I've changed into a beautiful bird;

Fly away, fly apace!

FAUST (UNLOCKING)

She doesn’t dream her love can hear the raw,

Rough clink of chains, the rustling of the straw.

HE ENTERS

MARGARET (HIDING ON HER PALLET)

Oh! They are coming. Bitter death!

FAUST (SOFTLY)

Ssh! Ssh! I’ve come to set you free.

MARGARET ( TURNING OVER TO FACE HIM)

If you are human, feel my misery!

FAUST

Your cries will rouse the night guards from their rest.

HE SEIZES THE CHAINS TO UNLOCK THEM

MARGARET (ON HER KNEES)

Who gave you, hangman, heavy

Power over me!

At midnight now you’re taking me already.

Have mercy, let me live, let be!

Is dawn not soon enough for you to come?

SHE STANDS UP

I’m still so young, so young!

Yet I must die!

I once was beautiful, and that was my

Downfall. My friend, once near, is far off now;

The wreath lies ripped and scattered are the flowers.

Don’t grip as strongly as you do!

Spare me! What have I done to you?

Don’t let me plead and beg in vain;

I do not even know your name!

FAUST

How shall I bear this grief, this pain!

MARGARET

I am now wholly in your power.

Just let me feed my child first now.

All night heart-close I held it, then

To grieve me they took it away;

I murdered it- that’s what they say.

I never shall have joy again.

They sing these songs about me! It’s wicked that they do!

An old folk tale has such an end,

Who says that it is true?

FAUST (CASTING HIMSELF DOWN)

A lover lies here at your feet,

To break the chains of pain and grief.

MARGARET

Oh, let us kneel, and call on holy ones on high!

See! under these stone steps, close by,

Beneath this threshold, swell

Legions from hell!

There evil’s king,

With fear-filling fury,

Makes a hideous din!

FAUST (LOUDLY)

Gretchen! Gretchen!

MARGARET (ATTENTIVE)

That was the voice of my friend.

SHE LEAPS UP. THE CHAINS FALL OFF

Where is he? I heard him call! I’m free!

And none shall keep him now from me.

I’ll hang upon his neck, and I…

Close on his breast I’ll lie!

Gretchen! he called me from the threshold stone-

Through all of hell’s howling and clattering storm,

Through all of the fury of devilish scorn,

I knew his sweet and loving tone.

FAUST

I’m here!

MARGARET

You’re here! O say it once again!

SEIZING HIM

He is! He is! Where is my fear and pain?

Where is the fear of prison? The chains?

You’ve come! Come to rescue me!

And I am free!-

Again I see the street where I

Saw you at first, at first while passing by,

And the cheerful garden too,

Where I and Martha walked with you.

FAUST (PUSHING TOWARD THE DOOR)

Come on! Come on!

MARGARET

Stay here! Stay here!

For I am happiest while you are near!

CARESSING HIM

FAUST

Hurry! Fly!

If you don’t fly

We will pay dearly for all this!

MARGARET

What! You can no longer kiss?

My friend, so short a time gone missing,

To so unlearn your kissing?

Why do I fear to hang upon your neck? Once it would be

That from your words, your glance, would spread

A whole, fair heaven overhead-

You kissed as if you’d smother me.

Kiss me now!

Then I’ll kiss you!

SHE EMBRACES HIM

Ah me! Your lips are cold-

Are mute.

Where is your love,

My love?

Who broke love’s hold?

FAUST

Come! Follow me! My love, be brave again!

I’ll fill your heart with a thousand times more flame!

Just follow me! That’s all I beg of you!

MARGARET

And is it you? And is it really you?

FAUST

It’s truly me! Come on!

MARGARET

You loose my chains,

You take me in your arms again.

But why do you not shrink from me?

Do you not know, my friend, whom you are setting free?

FAUST

Come! Already night yields up its power!

MARGARET

I have killed my mother. I have drowned

My child. Wasn’t it to be

A gift, a gift to you and me?

You too.- It’s you! I scarce believe it yet.

Give me your hand! It’s not a dream!

Your dearest hand!- Ah! but it is wet!

Wipe it clean now!- Clean! - it seems

It’s blood.

Oh God! What have you done!

Put up your sword, put up,

I beg you- please!

FAUST

Oh! Let what now has gone be gone,

You’re killing me.

MARGARET

No! you must live! I shall

Describe to you the graves.

And you must tend them all,

Tomorrow, right away;

So give the best place to my mother,

And right beside her lay my brother;

Me, a bit to the side,

Not too far aside!-

No one else will lie by me!

Nestling by you once would be

A sweet and gracious happiness.

But that’s now something I can’t do;

Seems I must force myself on you,

As if pushed back. Nonetheless,

It’s you- so good, so pious is your gaze.

FAUST

You feel it’s so- then come, oh, come!

MARGARET

Out there?

FAUST

Into free air.

MARGARET

If there’s the grave,

If death’s in wait- then come will you!

From here to an everlasting bed of rest

And further- not one step!

You’re going? O Heinrich, would I could go too!

FAUST

You can! Just will it so! The door is free.

MARGARET

I may not go; no hope is left for me.
They’d track me down. What use is it to flee?
To have to beg is agony,
And with a guilty heart as well!
To roam strange realms is misery,
And they’d still catch me- I can tell!

FAUST

I’ll stay by you.|
|
MARGARET

Go quickly! Quick, I pray!
Save your poor child! Away!
Just stay on the track
That runs by the brook,
Across the small bridge
And into the forest,
Left, where the planks still reach
Into the pond.
Quickly, grab on!
It wants to surface,
Still struggles- see!
Save it! Save it!

FAUST

Grip onto your sanity!
It’s but one step, and you are free!

MARGARET

If only we were past the mountain! Alone,

My mother sits there on a stone-

An icy grip seizes my hair!

My mother sits there on a stone;

Her head is wagging there-

She doesn’t wave, she doesn’t beckon, her head is heavy for

She slept so long, she wakes no more.

She slept so that we would have our bliss.

They were such times of happiness!

FAUST

No word, no pleading is enough,

So I must dare to bear you off.

MARGARET

No, leave me, leave! I'll not put up with force!

Don’t grip like murder; for it's true:

I have done all the rest for love of you.

FAUST

The day dawns! Love! my love!

MARGARET

Day! Yes, day is dawning. The last day dawns in gray!

It was to be my wedding day!

Tell no one you’ve already been with Gretchen.

My wreath- oh grief!

But what is done is done!

We’ll yet meet once

But not to dance.

No noise is heard, although crowds throng.

Square, street, and alley

Cannot hold the rally.

They break the wand, the bell has rung,

They seize and bind me! I’m led

Already to the block. It’s time.

And each neck feels the dread

Of that sharp blade that's drawn for mine.

Mute lies the world like the grave!

FAUST

Oh, would I’d never been born!

MEPHISTOPHELES (APPEARING OUTSIDE)

Up! Or you’re lost; be warned.

This stalling and chattering! Needless wavering!

My horses are shivering,

The sky is flushed with light.

MARGARET

What rose from the ground to my sight?

Him! Him! Oh, send him off!

Oh, why is he in this holy spot?

He wants me!

FAUST

You shall live!

MARGARET

Judgement of God! To You I give myself!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Come! Come! I’ll leave you both forever lost.

MARGARET

Thine am I, Father! Save me now!

Your angels! Your holy host,

Cluster around me, guard me with your power!

Heinrich! I fear for you.

MEPHISTOPHELES

She is condemned!

VOICES (FROM ABOVE)

She is saved!

MEPHISTOPHELES (TO FAUST)

Come here to me!

(HE VANISHES WITH FAUST)

VOICE (FROM WITHIN, DYING AWAY)

Heinrich! Heinrich!