The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume I Part 88

The ignis fatuus they track out, And think they're near the treasure.

Devil alliterates with doubt, Here I abide with pleasure.

LEADER OF THE BAND

Frog and cricket in the mosses,-- Confound your gasconading!

Nose of fly and gnat's proboscis;-- Most tuneful serenading!

THE KNOWING ONES

Sans souci, so this host we greet, Their jovial humor showing; There's now no walking on our feet, So on our heads we're going.

THE AWKWARD ONES

In seasons past we s.n.a.t.c.h'd, 'tis true, Some t.i.t-bits by our cunning; Our shoes, alas, are now danced through, On our bare soles we're running.

WILL-O'-THE-WISPS

From marshy bogs we sprang to light, Yet here behold us dancing; The gayest gallants of the night, In glitt'ring rows advancing.

SHOOTING STAR

With rapid motion from on high, I shot in starry splendor; Now prostrate on the gra.s.s I lie;-- Who aid will kindly render?

THE Ma.s.sIVE ONES

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

Down sink the bending gra.s.ses.

Though spirits, yet their limbs, we know, Are huge substantial ma.s.ses.

PUCK

Don't stamp so heavily, I pray; Like elephants you're treading!

And 'mong the elves be Puck today, The stoutest at the wedding!

ARIEL

If nature boon, or subtle sprite, Endow your soul with pinions;-- Then follow to you rosy height, Through ether's calm dominions!

ORCHESTRA (_pianissimo_)

Drifting cloud and misty wreathes Are fill'd with light elysian; O'er reed and leaf the zephyr breathes-- So fades the fairy vision!

A GLOOMY DAY. A PLAIN

FAUST _and_ MEPHISTOPHELES

FAUST

In misery! despairing! long wandering pitifully on the face of the earth and now imprisoned! This gentle hapless creature, immured in the dungeon as a malefactor and reserved for horrid tortures! That it should come to this! To this!--Perfidious, worthless spirit, and this thou hast concealed from me!--Stand! ay, stand! roll in malicious rage thy fiendish eyes! Stand and brave me with thine insupportable presence! Imprisoned! In hopeless misery! Delivered over to the power of evil spirits and the judgment of unpitying humanity!--And me, the while, thou went lulling with tasteless dissipations, concealing from me her growing anguish, and leaving her to perish without help!

MEPHISTOPHELES

She is not the first.

FAUST

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

back with the reptile into his dog's shape, in which it was his wont to scamper before me at eventide, to roll before the feet of the harmless wanderer, and to fasten on his shoulders when he fell! Change him again into his favorite shape, that he may crouch on his belly before me in the dust, whilst I spurn him with my foot, the reprobate!--Not the first!--Woe! Woe! By no human soul is it conceivable, that more than one human creature has ever sunk into a depth of wretchedness like this, or that the first in her writhing death-agony should not have atoned in the sight of all-pardoning Heaven for the guilt of all the rest! The misery of this one pierces me to the very marrow, and harrows up my soul; thou art grinning calmly over the doom of thousands!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Now we are once again at our wit's end, just where the reason of you mortals snaps! Why dost thou seek our fellows.h.i.+p, if thou canst not go through with it? Wilt fly, and art not proof against dizziness? Did we force ourselves on thee, or thou on us?

FAUST

Cease thus to gnash thy ravenous fangs at me! I loathe thee!--Great and glorious spirit, thou who didst vouchsafe to reveal thyself unto me, thou who dost know my very heart and soul, why hast thou linked me with this base a.s.sociate, who feeds on mischief and revels in destruction?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Hast done?

FAUST

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

MEPHISTOPHELES

I cannot loose the bands of the avenger, nor withdraw his bolts.--Save her!--Who was it plunged her into perdition? I or thou?

FAUST (_looks wildly around_)

MEPHISTOPHELES

Would'st grasp the thunder? Well for you, poor mortals, that 'tis not yours to wield! To smite to atoms the being, however innocent, who obstructs his path, such is the tyrant's fas.h.i.+on of relieving himself in difficulties!

FAUST

Convey me thither! She shall be free!

MEPHISTOPHELES

And the danger to which thou dost expose thyself? Know, the guilt of blood, shed by thy hand, lies yet upon the town. Over the place where fell the murdered one, avenging spirits hover and watch for the returning murderer.

FAUST

This too from thee? The death and downfall of a world be on thee, monster! Conduct me thither, I say and set her free!