Page 21 of Faust: First Part


  A SPIRIT STILL UNDER CULTIVATION.

  Toad-belly, spider’s feet, a pair

  Of wings! A puny baby! 4260

  Hardly an animal so far;

  But a tiny poem, maybe.

  A YOUNG COUPLE.

  We walk, short-stepped but high of heart,

  Through honeydew and flowers.

  Yes, you can trot with agile art,

  But flight is not yet ours.

  A CURIOUS TRAVELLER.

  Is this not some stage trick again?

  Unless my eyes deceive me

  I see the godlike Oberon plain;

  Though no one will believe me. 4270

  AN ORTHODOX BELIEVER.

  I see no claws, I see no tail!

  Yet there’s no doubt about them:

  These goblins, like the gods of Greece,

  Are devils even without them.

  A NORTHERN ARTIST.

  At present, all I can perceive

  Is sketchy, to be sure;

  But I’ll be ready soon to leave

  On my Italian Tour.

  A PURIST.

  How did I get here? What a stew

  Of lechery! The whole place full 4280

  Of half-dressed witches; only two

  Are powdered, how disgraceful!

  A YOUNG WITCH.

  Powder is like a petticoat

  For ladies old and greying:

  I’m naked on my billy-goat,

  And know what I’m displaying!

  A MATRON.

  We’ll not waste words on you; we know

  Our manners and our duties.

  You’re young and fresh, but even so,

  May you soon rot, my beauties! 4290

  THE CONDUCTOR.

  Fly-Snout and Gnat-Nose! This striptease

  Performance is distracting.

  Frog and Grasshopper, if you please!

  Keep time while I’m conducting!

  A WEATHERVANE [turning one way].

  What better company does one need!

  This place is simply swarming

  With nubile maidens, and indeed

  With nice young men; how charming!

  THE WEATHERVANE [turning the other way].

  I wish the earth would spring a crack

  And swallow up the lot of them! 4300

  I’d disappear to hell and back

  Myself, just to get shot of them!

  THE XENIA.*

  Gadflies and bugs is what we are,

  We’re nasty little nippers;

  We honour Satan, our papa,

  With these respectful capers.

  AUGUST VON HENNINGS.

  Just hear them buzz, just see them swarm,

  Like simple children playing!

  You’d almost think they meant no harm—

  That’s what they’ll soon be saying. 4310

  THE MUSE-MASTER.

  I’m happy to be on the loose

  Among this Blocksberg rabble:

  Witches are easy to seduce—

  The Muse is much more trouble.

  THE SOMETIME GENIUS OF THE AGE.

  One must be well-connected! Come,

  I’ll launch you! Many asses

  Have climbed the Blocksberg’s hump, there’s room

  On Germany’s Parnassus.

  THE CURIOUS TRAVELLER.

  ‘Tell me, who’s that so tall and stiff?

  How pompously he paces!’ 4320

  He’s hunting Jesuits! Sniff by sniff

  He’s smelling out their traces.

  A CRANE.*

  ‘When fishing for men’s souls, one tries

  Both clear and troubled waters.’

  He’d undertake to missionize

  The Devil’s own headquarters.

  A WORLDLING.

  For pious folk, all means will serve

  When faith’s to be expounded;

  Even on the Blocksberg, I observe,

  Conventicles are founded. 4330

  A DANCER.

  ‘Is that some further chorus? Why

  This sound of distant drumming?’

  It’s just the bitterns’ mating-cry,

  Their dreary bogland booming.

  THE DANCING-MASTER.

  The bent ones leap, the dull ones hop—

  How can they call this dancing?

  If they could see themselves, they’d stop

  Their skipping and their prancing.

  THE FIDDLER.

  This lot all hate each other’s guts

  And long for mutual slaughter; 4340

  Orpheus’s lyre tamed wild brutes,

  Bagpipes keep these in order.

  A DOGMATIST.

  Let doubters rail and critics bawl,

  I’ll stand by my conviction.

  If there’s no Devil after all,

  These devils here are fiction!

  AN IDEALIST.

  The power of my Fantasy*

  Today seems much augmented.

  I must say, if all this is me,

  I’m temporarily demented. 4350

  A REALIST.

  Is Substance now no longer sound,

  Is something wrong with Matter?

  I once stood four-square on the ground:

  Today I’m all a-totter.

  A SUPERNATURALIST.

  I am delighted to be here

  And pleased to meet these creatures;

  For devils prove to me that there

  Are higher spirit-natures.

  A SCEPTIC.

  They search for buried truth; maybe

  The flames will lead them wrong here.* 4360

  Devil and doubt both start with D,

  So I think I belong here.

  THE CONDUCTOR.

  Grasshopper! Frog! I’ll not endure

  This clumsy ululation.

  Fly-Snout and Gnat-Nose! Think of your

  Professional reputation!

  THE CLEVER ONES.

  We’re the new Sans-souci élite,*

  A merry lot of clowners!

  We made no headway on our feet,

  So now we’re upside-downers. 4370

  THE INEPT ONES.

  Once we were shod, and got our share,

  By dancing court-attendance;

  God help us now! Our feet are bare

  In these days of independence.

  WILL-O’-THE-WISPS.

  We’re from the bogs and swamps, and here

  We come to join these revels.

  We may be humbly born, but we’re

  Now smart and dashing devils!

  A SHOOTING STAR.

  O dear, I’ve fallen from on high,

  A brief and brilliant meteor! 4380

  And now flat in the grass I lie:

  Who’ll help me to my feet here?

  THE HEAVY BRIGADE.

  Make way, make way! As we dance round*

  The grass is all downtrodden.

  We’re spirits too, but spirits can

  Be very heavy-shodden.

  PUCK.

  You clodhopping calf-elephants,

  How ponderously you trample!

  Puck shall be clumsiest in this dance:

  Just follow my example! 4390

  ARIEL.

  Nature gave wings to some, in some

  The spirit elevates you.

  Follow me, I am light, so come!*

  The rose-red hill awaits you!

  THE ORCHESTRA [pianissimo].

  The drifting mist, the veil of cloud,

  Are touched by dawning day now:

  Leaves rustle, and the reeds are stirred—

  And all is blown away now.*

  26. A GLOOMY DAY. OPEN COUNTRY* [UR

  [FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES.]

  FAUST. In misery! In despair! Pitiably wandering about the country for so long, and now a prisoner! Locked up in prison as a criminal and suffering such torment, the sweet hapless creature! So this is what it has come to! This!—Vile treacherous demon, and you told
me nothing!—Yes, stand there, stand there and roll your devilish eyes in fury! Stand and affront me by your unendurable presence! A prisoner! In utter ruin, delivered over to evil spirits and the judgement of cold heartless mankind! And meanwhile you lull me with vulgar diversions,* hide her growing plight from me and leave her helpless to her fate!

  MEPHISTOPHELES. She is not the first.

  FAUST. You dog! You repulsive monster! Oh infinite Spirit,* change him back, change this reptile back into the form of a dog,* the shape he used so often when it amused him to trot along ahead of me at night, suddenly rolling at the feet of innocent wayfarers and leaping on their backs as they fell! Change him back into his, favourite shape, let him crawl before me in the sand on his belly, let me trample this reprobate under my feet!—Not the first!—Oh grief, grief that no human soul can grasp, to think that more than one creature has sunk to such depths of wretchedness, that the sins of all the others were not expiated even by the first, as it writhed in its death-agony before the eyes of the eternally merciful God! I am stricken to my life’s very marrow by the misery of this one girl—and you calmly sneer at the fate of thousands!

  MEPHISTOPHELES. Well, here we are again at the end of our wit’s tether, the point where your poor human brains always snap! Why do you make common cause with us, if you can’t stand the pace? Why try to fly if you’ve no head for heights? Did we force ourselves on you, or you on us?

  FAUST. Stop baring your greedy fangs at me, it makes me sick!—Oh you great splendid Spirit, who deigned to appear to me, who know my heart and my soul, why did you chain me to this vile companion, who gorges his appetite on ruin and drinks refreshment from destruction?

  MEPHISTOPHELES. Have you done talking?

  FAUST. Save her! Or woe betide you! May the most hideous curse lie upon you for thousands of years!

  MEPHISTOPHELES. I cannot loose the Avenger’s bonds or open his bolts!—Save her!—Who was it who ruined her? I, or you?

  [FAUST glares about him in speechless rage.]

  Are you snatching for the thunder? A good thing it was not given to you wretched mortals, to blast your adversary when he makes an innocent reply! That’s the way of tyrants, venting their spleen when they’re in an embarrassing pass.

  FAUST. Take me to her! I’ll have her set free!

  MEPHISTOPHELES. And what of the risk you’ll run? I tell you, on that town there lies blood-guilt by your hand. Over the grave of the man you killed there hover avenging spirits, waiting for the murderer to return.

  FAUST. Must I hear that from you too? May the murder and death of a world come upon you, you monster! Take me to her, I tell you, and free her!

  MEPHISTOPHELES. I will take you, and I will tell you what I can do. Have I all the power in heaven and earth? I will bemuse the gaoler’s senses, you can take his keys and bring her out with your own human hand! I’ll keep watch, the magic horses will be ready, and I’ll carry you both to safety. That I can do.

  FAUST. Let’s go at once!

  27. NIGHT. IN OPEN COUNTRY. [UR

  [FAUST and MEPHISTOPHELES storming past on black horses.]

  FAUST. What’s that moving around on the gallows-mound?*

  MEPHISTOPHELES. I don’t know what they’re doing and 4400

  stewing.

  FAUST. Up and down they hover, they stoop, they swoop.

  MEPHISTOPHELES. A guild of witches!

  FAUST. They’re scattering something, it’s a ritual deed.

  MEPHISTOPHELES. Ride on! Ride on!

  28. A PRISON [UR/F.I.

  FAUST [with a bundle of keys and a lamp, by a small iron door].

  That shudder comes again—how long a time

  Since last I felt this grief for all man’s woe!

  She lies behind this cold, damp wall, I know;

  And her loving heart’s illusion was her crime.

  Do I pause as I enter this place?

  Am I afraid to see her face? 4410

  Quick! She must die if I keep hesitating so.

  [He grasps the lock. Margareta’s voice sings from inside.]

  Who killed me dead?

  My mother, the whore!

  Who ate my flesh?

  My father, for sure!

  Little sister gathered

  The bones he scattered;

  In a cool, cool place they lie.

  And then I became a birdie so fine,

  And a way I fly—a way I fly 4420

  FAUST [unlocking the door].

  She doesn’t know her lover’s listening at the door,

  Hearing the clank of chains, straw rustling on the floor.

  [He enters the cell.]

  MARGARETA [hiding her face on her straw mattress].

  Oh! Oh! They’re coming! Bitter death!

  FAUST [softly]. Quiet! Quiet! I’ve come to set you free.

  MARGARETA [crawling towards his feet].

  If you are human, then have pity on me!

  FAUST. You’ll waken the gaolers, speak under your breath!

  [He takes up her chains to unlock them.]

  MARGARETA [on her knees]. Oh, hangman, who gave you this power

  Over me? Who said

  You could fetch me at this midnight hour?

  Have pity! Tomorrow morning I’ll be dead, 4430

  Isn’t that soon enough for you?

  [She stands up.]

  I’m still so young, still so young too!

  And already I must die!

  I was pretty too, and that’s the reason why.

  My lover was with me, now he’s far away.

  They tore my garland off, and threw the flowers away.

  Why are you clutching at me like this?

  Oh spare me! What have I done amiss?

  Let me live! Must I beg you, must I implore

  You in vain? I’ve never even seen you before! 4440

  FAUST. How can I bear this any more!

  MARGARETA. I’m in your power now, I’m ready to go.

  Just let me feed my baby first.

  I was cuddling it all last night, you know.

  They took it from me; that was just

  To hurt me. I killed it, is what they say.

  Now things will never be the same.

  They’re wicked people: they sing songs against me!

  There’s an old tale that ends that way—

  Who told them it meant me? 4450

  FAUST [throwing himself at her feet].

  It’s your lover, I’m here at your feet, I came

  To free you from this dreadful place!

  MARGARETA [kneeling down beside him].

  Oh, let’s kneel, and call on the saints for grace!

  Look, under that stair,

  Under the door,

  Hell’s boiling there!

  You can hear the voice

  Of his angry roar!

  FAUST [aloud]. Gretchen! Gretchen! 4460

  MARGARETA [hearing her name]. That was my lover’s voice!

  [She jumps to her feet. Her chains fall off.]

  Where is he? I heard him call to me.

  No one shall stop me, I am free!

  To his arms I’ll fly,

  On his breast I’ll lie!

  He stood and called ‘Gretchen’! I recognized him!

  Through the wailing and gnashing of Hell so grim,

  Through the Devil’s rage, through his scorn and sneer,

  I knew it was his voice, so loving and dear!

  FAUST. I am here!

  MARGARETA. It is you! Oh, tell me once again! 4470

  [Embracing him.] It’s him! It’s him! Where’s all my suffering, then?

  Where are my chains, my prison and my fear?

  It’s you! You’ve come to rescue me from here

  And I am saved!—

  I think it’s here again, that street

  Where I first saw you; and by and by

  We’re waiting again, Martha and I,

  In that lovely garden where we used to
meet.

  FAUST [trying to leave with her]. Come! Come with me!

  MARGARETA. Oh stay!

  I love being anywhere when you’re not away! 4480

  [Caressing him.]

  FAUST. No, don’t delay!

  Or we shall have to pay

  Most bitterly for this!

  MARGARETA. What, you’ve forgotten so soon how to kiss?

  We’re together again, my sweetest friend,

  And our kissing’s come to an end?

  In your arms, why do I tremble so?

  A whole heaven used to close in on me,

  You spoke and you looked so lovingly;

  I was stifled with kisses, you’d never let go. 4490

  Oh kiss me now!

  Or I’ll show you how!

  [She embraces him.]

  Oh! Your lips are dumb,

  They’ve nothing to say!

  Why has your love gone cold?

  Who can have come

  Between us to take it away?

  [She turns away from him.]

  FAUST. Come! Follow me! Darling, you must be bold!

  I’ll hug you later on ten-thousandfold,

  Just follow me now! It’s all I ask of you! 4500

  MARGARETA [turning to him]. But is it you, can it be really true?

  FAUST. It’s me! Come!

  MARGARETA. You undid my chains, they fell apart,

  And you will take me back to your heart.

  How is it you don’t find me a vile thing?

  Do you really know, my dear, who you are rescuing?

  FAUST. Come! Come! The deep night’s giving way to dawn!

  MARGARETA. My mother’s dead; I poisoned her, you see.

  I drowned my child when it was born.

  Hadn’t it been God’s gift to you and me?

  To you as well—It is you! Can I trust 4510

  This not to be a dream?

  Your hand! Your dear hand!—Ugh, but it’s wet! You must

  Wipe off the blood! To me there seem

  To be bloodstains on it. Oh my God,

  What did you do!

  Put away your sword,

  I beg of you!

  FAUST. Forget what happened, let it be!

  You are killing me.

  MARGARETA. Oh no, you must survive! 4520

  I’ll tell you about the graves now, I’ll describe

  Them to you. You must arrange all this,

  Tomorrow as ever is.

  You must choose the places. Mother must have the best,

  And my brother right next to her with his,

  And me a little further off—

  But not too far! Just far enough.

  And my little baby at my right breast.

  There’ll be no one else to lie with me!—

  When I clung to your side so tenderly, 4530

  Oh, that was so blessed, a joy so sweet!