Emperor.
It looks suspicious! For I there
See all the lofty spear-tops glare;
And through our phalanx, on each lance
I see a nimble flamelet dance:
Too spectral seems to me the sight!
Faust.
Pardon, my lord! The traces they
Of spirit-natures pass’d away,
A reflex of the mighty Pair,
By whom were sailors wont to swear:
Here they collect their final might.
Emperor.
To whom are we beholden, say,
That nature, for our weal to-day,
Her rarest powers should here unite?
Mephis.
To whom save him, that master high,
Thy fate who bears within his breast?
The strong threat of thine enemy
His soul hath stirr’d to deep unrest.
His gratitude will see thee sav’d,
Though death in the attempt he brav’d.
Emperor.
They cheer’d, with pomp around my march they press’d;
I now was something: That I fain would test,
So, without thought, it pleas’d me, then and there,
To grant to that white beard the cooling air.
Thus of the clergy I the sport have cross’d,
And have, in sooth, thereby their favor lost;
Now shall I, when so many years are pass’d,
Of that glad deed the fruitage reap at last?
Faust.
Rich interest bears the generous deed.
Now heavenward be thy glance directed:
An omen he will send; give heed!
Straight it appears — as I expected.
Emperor.
An eagle hovers in the heavenly height;
A griffin, with wild threats, attends his flight.
Faust.
Give heed! Auspicious seems the sign.
Your griffin is of fabl’d line;
How, self-forgetting, can he dare
Himself with genuine eagle to compare!
Emperor.
Forthwith, in widespread circles wending,
Around they wheel; now, through the sky,
Impetuous, they together fly,
Each other’s throat and plumage rending.
Faust.
Mark how the sorry griffin, torn
And ruffl’d sore, his flight now steereth,
With drooping lion-tail, forlorn,
And ‘mid the tree-tops disappeareth.
Emperor.
So be it, e’en as these portend!
With wonder fill’d, I wait the end.
Mephis.
(Towards the right.) Press’d by our onslaught, oft-repeated,
Our foes must yield, well nigh defeated,
Yet, waging still a dubious fight,
Onward they press toward their right,
And thus embarrass in the fray
The left flank of their chief array.
Our phalanx its firm point doth bring,
Like lightning ‘gainst their dexter wing,
The foe, where weakest, they engage.
Now, as when storm-vex’d billows rage,
Wildly contend, with equal might,
Both armies in the double fight.
More glorious deed was never done,
Ours is the field, the victory’s won!
Emperor.
(On the left side, to Faust.)
Suspicious yonder it doth seem;
Our station hazardous I deem,
No stones they hurl against the foe,
Scal’d are the lower rocks, and lo!
Deserted those above appear;
The foe, — in solid mass, draw near;
With might and main still pressing on,
Perchance the passage they have won:
Of skill unholy such the end!
Your arts to futile issues tend!
[Pause.
Mephis.
Hither, my ravens twain are winging!
For us what message are they bringing?
We are, I fear, in evil plight.
Emperor.
What want these birds, mischance portending?
They come their swarthy sails extending,
Straight from the hot and rocky fight.
Mephis.
(To the ravens.) Close to mine ears now take your post.
Whom you protect, is never lost;
For shrewd your counsel is and right.
Faust.
(To the Emperor.) Of pigeons thou hast heard, returning
Homeward, for nest and fledglings yearning,
Steering their flight from far-off lands.
But here a difference obtaineth:
Pigeons suffice while peace still reigneth,
But war the raven-post demands.
Mephis.
The message tells of sore distresses.
See yonder how the tumult presses
Our heroes’ rocky wall around!
The nearest heights are now ascended,
Win they the pass by ours defended,
In sorry plight we should be found.
Emperor.
So I deluded am at last!
Around me you have drawn your net;
I’ve shudder’d, since it held me fast!
Mephis.
Take courage! Naught is lost as yet;
Patience unties the hardest knot!
Still sharpest is the final stand.
My trusty messengers I’ve got;
Command me, that I may command.
General-in-Chief.
(Who meanwhile has arrived.) With these thou hast thyself alli’d,
I long have griev’d to see them at thy side;
No stable good doth conjuring earn.
To change the battle now I can’t pretend;
They have begun it, they may end!
My staff I unto thee return.
Emperor.
It for some better hour retain,
Which Fate for us may have in store.
This fellow and his ravens twain,
His horrid comrades, I abhor!
(To Mephistopheles.)
The staff I can’t on thee bestow,
Thou seemest not the proper man;
Command, and save us from the foe!
Then happen may what happen can.
[Exit into the tent with the General-in-Chief.
Mephis.
Him may the stupid staff defend!
To us small profit would it lend;
There was a kind of cross thereon.
Faust.
What is to do?
Mephis.
Why, all is done!
Now haste, my cousins, swart and fleet,
To the great mountain lake; the Undines greet,
And for a seeming flood, entreat them fair!
The actual they indeed, through female art,
Hard to conceive, from semblance know to part;
That it the actual is, then each will swear.
[Pause.
Faust.
The water-maidens must our raven-pair
Rightly have flatter’d and with cunning rare:
Yonder it drops already; see
From many a bare rock’s barren side,
Gushes the full, swift-flowing tide —
’Tis over with their victory.
Mephis.
Strange greeting give the rushing streams —
Perplex’d the boldest climber seems.
Faust.
Already downward brook to brook is sweeping,
Doubl’d from many a gorge again they’re leaping;
A stately water-arch one stream doth throw;
Now o’er the rock’s broad level smoothly gliding,
Anon, with flash and roar, again dividing,
It plunges stepwise to the vale below.
To stem the flood what boots t
heir brave endeavor?
Them from the mighty flood may none deliver.
Before the tumult wild myself must quail!
Mephis.
Nothing I see of all these watery lies;
They bring illusion but to human eyes;
With joy the wondrous change I hail.
Headlong the masses pour, a shining throng;
The fools imagine they will soon be drown’d,
And while they snort upon the solid ground,
Like swimmers laughably they move along.
Now reigns confusion all around.
[The ravens return.
To the high master you I will commend.
Yourselves, would ye as masters prove — attend;
Straight to the glowing smithy fare,
To the dwarf-folk, who tireless there
Strike sparks from metal and from stone —
With them, while chattering, desire
A shining, dazzling, bursting fire,
As to man’s highest fancy shown.
True, lightning-flashes gleaming from afar,
And, swift as vision, fall of loftiest star,
May happen every summer night;
But flashes amid tangl’d bushes found,
And stars that hiss upon the humid ground —
These are in sooth, no common sight:
So must ye, without much annoy,
Entreaties first, and then commands, employ.
[Exeunt the ravens. All happens as prescribed.
Mephis.
Thick darkness o’er the foe is spreading!
They in uncertainty are treading!
Deluding flashes everywhere;
Then blindness, from the sudden glare! —
All that has wondrously succeeded;
But now some terror-sound is needed.
Faust.
The hollow weapons from the armories,
Feel themselves stronger in the open breeze;
They rattle there above, and clatter on —
A wonderful discordant tone.
Mephis.
Quite right. They can be rein’d no more;
As in the gracious times of yore,
The sound of knightly blows is rife;
Armlets and leg-protecting gear,
As Guelphs and Ghibellines appear,
Swift to renew the eternal strife:
Firm in transmitted hate, they close,
While far and wide resound their blows,
The rancor ending but with life.
At last, in every devil’s fête
Most potently works party hate,
Till the last horror closes all;
Discordant sounds of rout and panic,
Between whiles, piercing, shrill, Satanic,
Through the wide valley rise and fall.
[War tumult in the Orchestra, passing at last into cheerful military music.
The Rival Emperor’s Tent. Throne, Rich Surroundings.
Havequick, Speed-Booty.
Speed-Booty.
So here the first we are, I see!
Havequick.
No raven flies so fast as we.
Speed-Booty.
What treasure-heaps lie here and there!
Where to begin? To finish, where?
Havequick.
So full the space, I’m hard to please:
I know not what I first should seize!
Speed-Booty.
This carpet is the thing for me,
My bed is apt too hard to be.
Havequick.
Here a steel club is hanging, such,
Long, as mine own, I’ve wish’d to clutch.
Speed-Booty.
The mantle red, with golden seams —
I’ve seen its fellow in my dreams.
Havequick.
(Taking the weapon.)
With this full soon the work is done:
One strikes him dead, and passes on.
Much hast thou pack’d, yet, for thy pains,
Nothing of worth thy sack contains:
This plunder in its place may rest.
One among many, take this chest!
The host’s appointed pay they hold;
Within its belly is pure gold.
Speed-Booty.
A murderous weight is this! I may
Nor lift, nor carry it away.
Havequick.
Duck quickly! Thou must bend! I’ll pack
The booty on thy stalwart back.
Speed-Booty.
Alack! alack! ’Tis all in vain!
The load will break my back in twain.
[The chest falls, and springs open.
Havequick.
There lies of ruddy gold a heap;
Be quick, the prize away to sweep!
Speed-Booty.
(Stoops down.) Now fling it in my lap with speed!
There’s plenty to supply our need.
Havequick.
Now there’s enough! Away then, pack!
[She rises.
The apron has a hole, alack!
Where thou dost stand, and where dost go,
The treasure lavishly dost sow.
Halberdiers.
(Of our Emperor.) Sacred this place! What do ye here?
Why pillage thus the Emperor’s gear?
Havequick.
Cheaply we sold our limbs, I trow!
Our share of spoil we gather now,
In hostile tents, the victors’ due;
And we — why we are soldiers too.
Halberdiers.
It suits not in our ranks to be
Soldier at once and thief. For he
To serve our Emperor who would claim,
Must bear an honest soldier’s name!
Havequick.
Such honesty we know, by you
’Tis Contribution styl’d! Ye, too,
Upon the self-same footing live:
The password of your trade is — Give!
(To Speed-Booty.)
Off with thy prey, right speedily!
For here no welcome guests are we.
[Exeunt.
First Halberdier.
Say, wherefore didst thou not bestow
Upon the rascal’s cheek a blow?
Second.
I know not; me my strength forsook;
So phantom-like to me their look!
Third.
Something there came to mar my sight.
It glimmer’d — I saw naught aright.
Fourth.
In sooth, I know not what to say.
So hot it was the livelong day!
Fearful, oppressive, close, as well;
While one man stood, another fell;
We grop’d, still striking at the foe;
Opponents fell at every blow —
Floated before our eyes a mist;
Then in our ear it buzz’d, humm’d, hiss’d.
So on it went — now are we here;
The manner of it is not clear!
[Enter the Emperor,with four Princes. The Halberdiersretire.
Emperor.
Be with him as it may, the day is ours. Sore-batter’d,
Over the level plain the foe in flight are scatter’d.
Here stands the vacant throne; with tapestry hung round,
The traitor’s treasure too narrows the tented ground.
By our own guards defended, we wait with exultation,
And with imperial pomp, the envoys of each nation.
Here from all sides arrive glad tidings hour by hour:
The realm is pacified, and gladly owns our power.
Though in our fight perchance some magic arts were wrought,
Yet at the last, ourselves — we, only we, have fought.
To combatants, in sooth, chance still may work for good —
From Heaven falls a stone, on foemen it rains blood;
Strange sounds of wondrous power from rocky caves may flow,
&
nbsp; Which lift our courage high, and strike with fear the foe.
Object of lasting scorn, prostrate the vanquish’d lies,
While to the favoring God the victor’s praises rise;
All blend with him, nor need that he should give the word —
“We praise Thee, Lord our God!” from million throats is heard.
Yet as the highest praise, my own breast I’ll explore,
Searching with pious glance, which rarely happ’d before.
A young and joyous prince, of time may waste the dower:
Him years will teach, at last, th’ importance of the hour.
Hence to ally myself with you, most worthy four,
For house, and court, and realm, will I delay no more.
(To the First.)
Thine was, O Prince, the wise arrangement of the host,
And in the crisis thou heroic skill could’st boast;
Therefore work thou as may with times of peace accord.
Arch-Marshal name I thee; to thee I give the sword.
Arch-Marshal.
Thy host, within the realm till now employ’d alone,
Shall on the border guard thy person and thy throne.
Then be it ours, when crowds make glad on festive day
Thy large ancestral hall, thy banquet to array.
I’ll hold it at thy side, or bear it thee before,
Of highest majesty the escort evermore.
Emperor.
(To the Second.) With valor who, like thee, doth courtesy unite,
Arch-Chamberlain shall be. The duties are not light.
Of all the house-retainers chief art thou; them I find
But sorry servants, still to household strife inclin’d:
In honor held, may they, from thy example, see
How they to prince, to court, to all, may gracious be.
Arch-Chamberlain.
The master’s lofty thought to further, bringeth grace:
Ever to aid the good, nor injure e’en the base,
Frank, without guile to be, and calm without disguise,
That thou should’st know me, Sire, this boon alone I prize.
Dare fancy to that feast press on with pinions bold —
Thou goest to the board, I reach the ewer of gold,
Thy rings I take, that while joy reigneth and delight,
Thy hand may be refresh’d, while gladdens me thy light.
Emperor.
Too earnest feel I now to think of joyous fest;
Yet be it so — a glad commencement still is best!
(To the Third.)
Arch-Steward thee I choose. Therefore henceforth to thee
The chase, the poultry-yard, the farm shall subject be.
Choice of my favorite dishes still for me prepare,
As them the month brings round, and dress’d with proper care.
Arch-Steward.
Strict fasting be for me the duty that I boast,
Until before thee plac’d the dish to please thee most:
The kitchen-service shall with me co-operate,
The far to bring anear, seasons to ante-date.
Thee charm not viands rare, wherewith thy board is grac’d;
Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Page 256