Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Page 222
Another case, of ebony.
And things — magnificent they are,
More costly than the first, by far.
MARTHA
You must not name it to your mother!
It would to shrift, just like the other.
MARGARET
Nay look at them! now only see!
MARTHA (dresses her up)
Thou happy creature!
MARGARET
Woe is me!
Them in the street I cannot wear,
Or in the church, or anywhere.
MARTHA
Come often over here to me,
The gems put on quite privately;
And then before the mirror walk an hour or so,
Thus we shall have our pleasure too.
Then suitable occasions we must seize,
As at a feast, to show them by degrees:
A chain at first, pearl ear-drops then, — your mother
Won’t see them, or we’ll coin some tale or other.
MARGARET
But, who, I wonder, could the caskets bring?
I fear there’s something wrong about the thing!
[A knock.]
Good heavens! can that my mother be?
MARTHA (peering through the blind)
’Tis a strange gentleman, I see.
Come in!
[MEPHISTOPHELES enters.]
MEPHISTOPHELES
I’ve ventur’d to intrude today.
Ladies, excuse the liberty, I pray.
[He steps back respectfully before MARGARET.]
After dame Martha Schwerdtlein I inquire!
MARTHA
’Tis I. Pray what have you to say to me?
MEPHISTOPHELES (aside to her)
I know you now, — and therefore will retire;
At present you’ve distinguished company.
Pardon the freedom, Madam, with your leave,
I will make free to call again at eve.
MARTHA (aloud)
Why, child, of all strange notions, he
For some grand lady taketh thee!
MARGARET
I am, in truth, of humble blood —
The gentleman is far too good —
Nor gems nor trinkets are my own.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Oh ’tis not the mere ornaments alone;
Her glance and mien far more betray.
Rejoiced I am that I may stay.
MARTHA
Your business, Sir? I long to know —
MEPHISTOPHELES
Would I could happier tidings show!
I trust mine errand you’ll not let me rue;
Your husband’s dead, and greeteth you.
MARTHA
Is dead? True heart! Oh misery!
My husband dead! Oh, I shall die!
MARGARET
Alas! good Martha! don’t despair!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Now listen to the sad affair!
MARGARET
I for this cause should fear to love.
The loss my certain death would prove.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Joy still must sorrow, sorrow joy attend.
MARTHA
Proceed, and tell the story of his end!
MEPHISTOPHELES
At Padua, in St. Anthony’s,
In holy ground his body lies;
Quiet and cool his place of rest,
With pious ceremonials blest.
MARTHA
And had you naught besides to bring?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Oh yes! one grave and solemn prayer;
Let them for him three hundred masses sing!
But in my pockets, I have nothing there.
MARTHA
No trinket! no love-token did he send!
What every journeyman safe in his pouch will hoard
There for remembrance fondly stored,
And rather hungers, rather begs than spend!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Madam, in truth, it grieves me sore,
But he his gold not lavishly hath spent.
His failings too he deeply did repent,
Ay! and his evil plight bewail’d still more.
MARGARET
Alas! That men should thus be doomed to woe!
I for his soul will many a requiem pray.
MEPHISTOPHELES
A husband you deserve this very day;
A child so worthy to be loved.
MARGARET
Ah no,
That time hath not yet come for me.
MEPHISTOPHELES
If not a spouse, a gallant let it be.
Among heaven’s choicest gifts, I place,
So sweet a darling to embrace.
MARGARET
Our land doth no such usage know.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Usage or not, it happens so.
MARTHA
Go on, I pray!
MEPHISTOPHELES
I stood by his bedside.
Something less foul it was than dung;
’Twas straw half rotten; yet, he as a Christian died.
And sorely hath remorse his conscience wrung.
“Wretch that I was,” quoth he, with parting breath,
“So to forsake my business and my wife!
Ah! the remembrance is my death.
Could I but have her pardon in this life!” —
MARTHA (weeping)
Dear soul! I’ve long forgiven him, indeed!
MEPHISTOPHELES
“Though she, God knows, was more to blame than I.”
MARTHA
He lied! What, on the brink of death to lie!
MEPHISTOPHELES
If I am skill’d the countenance to read,
He doubtless fabled as he parted hence. —
“No time had I to gape, or take my ease,” he said,
“First to get children, and then get them bread;
And bread, too, in the very widest sense;
Nor could I eat in peace even my proper share.”
MARTHA
What, all my truth, my love forgotten quite?
My weary drudgery by day and night!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Not so! He thought of you with tender care.
Quoth he: “Heaven knows how fervently I prayed,
For wife and children when from Malta bound; —
The prayer hath heaven with favor crowned;
We took a Turkish vessel which conveyed
Rich store of treasure for the Sultan’s court;
Its own reward our gallant action brought;
The captur’d prize was shared among the crew,
And of the treasure I received my due.”
MARTHA
How? Where? The treasure hath he buried, pray?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Where the four winds have blown it, who can say?
In Naples as he stroll’d, a stranger there, —
A comely maid took pity on my friend:
And gave such tokens of her love and care,
That he retained them to his blessed end.
MARTHA
Scoundrel! to rob his children of their bread!
And all this misery, this bitter need,
Could not his course of recklessness impede!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Well, he hath paid the forfeit, and is dead.
Now were I in your place, my counsel hear;
My weeds I’d wear for one chaste year,
And for another lover meanwhile would look out.
MARTHA
Alas, I might search far and near,
Not quickly should I find another like my first!
There could not be a fonder fool than mine,
Only he loved too well abroad to roam;
Loved foreign women too, and foreign wine,
And loved besides the dice accurs’d.
MEPHISTOPHELES
All had gone swimmingly, no do
ubt,
Had he but given you at home,
On his side, just as wide a range.
Upon such terms, to you I swear,
Myself with you would gladly rings exchange!
MARTHA
The gentleman is surely pleas’d to jest!
MEPHISTOPHELES (aside)
Now to be off in time, were best!
She’d make the very devil marry her.
(To MARGARET)
How fares it with your heart?
MARGARET
How mean you, Sir?
MEPHISTOPHELES (aside)
The sweet young innocent!
(aloud)
Ladies, farewell!
MARGARET
Farewell!
MARTHA
But ere you leave us, quickly tell!
I from a witness fain had heard,
Where, how, and when my husband died and was interr’d.
To forms I’ve always been attached indeed,
His death I fain would in the journals read.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Ay, madam, what two witnesses declare
Is held as valid everywhere;
A gallant friend I have, not far from here,
Who will for you before the judge appear.
I’ll bring him straight.
MARTHA
I pray you do!
MEPHISTOPHELES
And this young lady, we shall find her too?
A noble youth, far traveled, he
Shows to the sex all courtesy.
MARGARET
I in his presence needs must blush for shame.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Not in the presence of a crownèd king!
MARTHA
The garden, then, behind my house, we’ll name,
There we’ll await you both this evening.
A STREET
FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES
FAUST
How is it now? How speeds it? Is’t in train?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Bravo! I find you all aflame!
Gretchen full soon your own you’ll name.
This eve, at neighbor Martha’s, her you’ll meet again;
The woman seems expressly made
To drive the pimp and gipsy’s trade.
FAUST
Good!
MEPHISTOPHELES
But from us she something would request.
FAUST
A favor claims return, as this world goes.
MEPHISTOPHELES
We have on oath but duly to attest
That her dead husband’s limbs, outstretch’d, repose
In holy ground at Padua.
FAUST
Sage indeed!
So I suppose we straight must journey there!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Sancta simplicitas! For that no need! Without much knowledge we have but to swear.
FAUST
If you have nothing better to suggest,
Against your plan I must at once protest.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Oh, holy man! methinks I have you there!
In all your life, say, have you ne’er
False witness borne, until this hour?
Have you of God, the world, and all it doth contain,
Of man, and that which worketh in his heart and brain,
Not definitions given, in words of weight and power,
With front unblushing, and a dauntless breast?
Yet, if into the depth of things you go,
Touching these matters, it must be confess’d,
As much as of Herr Schwerdtlein’s death you know!
FAUST
Thou art and dost remain liar and sophist too.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Ay, if one did not take a somewhat deeper view!
Tomorrow, in all honor, thou
Poor Gretchen wilt befool, and vow
Thy soul’s deep love, in lover’s fashion.
FAUST
And from my heart.
MEPHISTOPHELES
All good and fair!
Then deathless constancy thou’lt swear;
Speak of one all o’ermastering passion —
Will that too issue from the heart?
FAUST
Forbear!
When passion sways me, and I seek to frame
Fit utterance for feeling, deep, intense,
And for my frenzy finding no fit name,
Sweep round the ample world with every sense,
Grasp at the loftiest words to speak my flame,
And call the glow, wherewith I burn,
Quenchless, eternal, yea, eterne —
Is that of sophistry a devilish play?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Yet am I right!
FAUST
Mark this, my friend,
And spare my lungs; who would the right maintain,
And hath a tongue wherewith his point to gain,
Will gain it in the end.
But come, of gossip I am weary quite;
Because I’ve no resource, thou’rt in the right.
GARDEN
MARGARET on FAUST’s arm. MARTHA with MEPHISTOPHELES walking up and down.
MARGARET
I feel it, you but spare my ignorance,
The gentleman to blame me stoops thus low.
A traveler from complaisance
Still makes the best of things; I know
Too well, my humble prattle never can
Have power to entertain so wise a man.
FAUST
One glance, one word from thee doth charm me more
Than the world’s wisdom or the sage’s lore.
[He kisses her hand.]
MARGARET
Nay! trouble not yourself! A hand so coarse,
So rude as mine, how can you kiss!
What constant work at home must I not do perforce!
My mother too exacting is.
[They pass on.]
MARTHA
Thus, sir, unceasing travel is your lot?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Traffic and duty urge us! With what pain
Are we compelled to leave full many a spot,
Where yet we dare not once remain!
MARTHA
In youth’s wild years, with vigor crown’d,
’Tis not amiss thus through the world to sweep;
But ah, the evil days come round!
And to a lonely grave as bachelor to creep
A pleasant thing has no one found.
MEPHISTOPHELES
The prospect fills me with dismay.
MARTHA
Therefore in time, dear sir, reflect, I pray.
[They pass on.]
MARGARET
Ay, out of sight is out of mind!
Politeness easy is to you;
Friends everywhere, and not a few,
Wiser than I am, you will find.
FAUST
O dearest, trust me, what doth pass for sense
Full oft is self-conceit and blindness!
MARGARET
How?
FAUST
Simplicity and holy innocence —
When will ye learn your hallow’d worth to know!
Ah, when will meekness and humility,
Kind and all-bounteous nature’s loftiest dower —
MARGARET
Only one little moment think of me!
To think of you I shall have many an hour.
FAUST
You are perhaps much alone?
MARGARET
Yes, small our household is, I own,
Yet must I see to it. No maid we keep,
And I must cook, sew, knit, and sweep,
Still early on my feet and late;
My mother is in all things, great and small,
So accurate!
Not that for thrift there is such pressing need,
Than others we might make more show indeed;
My father l
eft behind a small estate,
A house and garden near the city-wall.
But fairly quiet now my days, I own;
As soldier is my brother gone;
My little sister’s dead; the babe to rear
Occasion’d me some care and fond annoy;
But I would go through all again with joy,
The darling was to me so dear.
FAUST
An angel, sweet, if it resembled thee!
MARGARET
I reared it up, and it grew fond of me.
After my father’s death it saw the day;
We gave my mother up for lost, she lay
In such a wretched plight, and then at length
So very slowly she regain’d her strength.
Weak as she was, ’twas vain for her to try
Herself to suckle the poor babe, so I
Reared it on milk and water all alone;
And thus the child became as ‘twere my own;
Within my arms it stretched itself and grew,
And smiling, nestled in my bosom too.
FAUST
Doubtless the purest happiness was thine.
MARGARET
But many weary hours, in sooth, were also mine.
At night its little cradle stood
Close to my bed; so was I wide awake
If it but stirred;
One while I was obliged to give it food,
Or to my arms the darling take;
From bed full oft must rise, whene’er its cry I heard,
And, dancing it, must pace the chamber to and fro;
Stand at the wash-tub early; forthwith go
To market, and then mind the cooking too —
Tomorrow like today, the whole year through.
Ah, sir, thus living, it must be confess’d
One’s spirits are not always of the best;
Yet it a relish gives to food and rest.
[They pass on.]
MARTHA
Poor women! we are badly off, I own;
A bachelor’s conversion’s hard, indeed!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Madam, with one like you it rests alone,
To tutor me a better course to lead.
MARTHA
Speak frankly, sir, none is there you have met?
Has your heart ne’er attach’d itself as yet?
MEPHISTOPHELES
One’s own fire-side and a good wife are gold
And pearls of price, so says the proverb old.
MARTHA
I mean, has passion never stirred your breast?
MEPHISTOPHELES
I’ve everywhere been well received, I own.
MARTHA
Yet hath your heart no earnest preference known?
MEPHISTOPHELES
With ladies one should ne’er presume to jest.
MARTHA
Ah! you mistake!
MEPHISTOPHELES
I’m sorry I’m so blind!
But this I know — that you are very kind.
[They pass on.]
FAUST
Me, little angel, didst thou recognize,
When in the garden first I came?
MARGARET