Then gratulate the king and queen,
Their troth thus newly plighted!
PUCK
Puck draws near and wheels about,
In mazy circles dancing!
Hundreds swell his joyous shout,
Behind him still advancing.
ARIEL
Ariel wakes his dainty air,
His lyre celestial stringing. —
Fools he lureth, and the fair,
With his celestial singing.
OBERON
Wedded ones, would ye agree,
We court your imitation:
Would ye fondly love as we,
We counsel separation.
TITANIA
If husband scold and wife retort,
Then bear them far asunder;
Her to the burning south transport,
And him the North Pole under.
THE WHOLE ORCHESTRA (fortissimo)
Flies and midges all unite
With frog and chirping cricket,
Our orchestra throughout the night,
Resounding in the thicket!
(Solo)
Yonder doth the bagpipe come!
Its sack an airy bubble.
Schnick, schnick, schnack, with nasal hum,
Its notes it doth redouble.
EMBRYO SPIRIT
Spider’s foot and midge’s wing,
A toad in form and feature;
Together verses it can string,
Though scarce a living creature.
A LITTLE PAIR
Tiny step and lofty bound,
Through dew and exhalation;
Ye trip it deftly on the ground,
But gain no elevation.
INQUISITIVE TRAVELLER
Can I indeed believe my eyes?
Is’t not mere masquerading?
What! Oberon in beauteous guise,
Among the groups parading!
ORTHODOX
No claws, no tail to whisk about,
To fright us at our revel;
Yet like the gods of Greece, no doubt,
He too’s a genuine devil.
NORTHERN ARTIST
These that I’m hitting off today
Are sketches unpretending;
Toward Italy without delay,
My steps I think of bending.
PURIST
Alas! ill-fortune leads me here,
Where riot still grows louder;
And ‘mong the witches gather’d here,
But two alone wear powder!
YOUNG WITCH
Your powder and your petticoat,
Suit hags, there’s no gainsaying;
Hence I sit fearless on my goat,
My naked charms displaying.
MATRON
We’re too well-bred to squabble here,
Or insult back to render;
But may you wither soon, my dear,
Although so young and tender.
LEADER OF THE BAND
Nose of fly and gnat’s proboscis,
Throng not the naked beauty!
Frogs and crickets in the mosses,
Keep time and do your duty!
WEATHERCOCK (toward one side)
What charming company I view
Together here collected!
Gay bachelors, a hopeful crew,
And brides so unaffected!
WEATHERCOCK (toward the other side)
Unless indeed the yawning ground
Should open to receive them,
From this vile crew, with sudden bound,
To Hell I’d jump and leave them.
XENIEN
With small sharp shears, in insect guise,
Behold us at your revel!
That we may tender, filial-wise,
Our homage to the devil.
HENNINGS
Look now at yonder eager crew,
How naïvely they’re jesting!
That they have tender hearts and true,
They stoutly keep protesting!
MUSAGET
Oneself amid this witchery
How pleasantly one loses;
For witches easier are to me
To govern than the Muses!
CI-DEVANT GENIUS OF THE AGE
With proper folks when we appear,
No one can then surpass us!
Keep close, wide is the Blocksberg here
As Germany’s Parnassus.
INQUISITIVE TRAVELLER
How name ye that stiff formal man,
Who strides with lofty paces?
He tracks the game where’er he can,
”He scents the Jesuits’ traces.”
CRANE
Where waters troubled are or clear,
To fish I am delighted;
Thus pious gentlemen appear
With devils here united.
WORLDLING
By pious people, it is true,
No medium is rejected;
Conventicles, and not a few,
On Blocksberg are erected.
DANCER
Another chorus now succeeds,
Far off the drums are beating.
Be still! The bitterns ‘mong the reeds
Their one note are repeating.
DANCING MASTER
Each twirls about and never stops,
And as he can he fareth.
The crooked leaps, the clumsy hops,
Nor for appearance careth.
FIDDLER
To take each other’s life, I trow,
Would cordially delight them!
As Orpheus’ lyre the beasts, so now
The bagpipe doth unite them.
DOGMATIST
My views, in spite of doubt and sneer,
I hold with stout persistence,
Inferring from the devils here,
The evil one’s existence.
IDEALIST
My every sense rules Phantasy
With sway quite too potential;
Sure I’m demented if the I
Alone is the essential.
REALIST
This entity’s a dreadful bore,
And cannot choose but vex me;
The ground beneath me ne’er before
Thus totter’d to perplex me.
SUPERNATURALIST
Well pleased assembled here I view
Of spirits this profusion;
From devils, touching angels too,
I gather some conclusion.
SCEPTIC
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 snatch’d, ’tis true,
Some tit-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 grass I lie; —
Who aid will kindly render?
THE MASSIVE ONES
Room! wheel round! They’re coming! lo!
Down sink the bending grasses.
Though spirits, yet their limbs, we know,
Are huge su
bstantial masses.
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 fellowship, 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 associate, 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 fashion 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!
MEPHISTOPHELES
I will conduct thee. And what I can do, — hear! Have I all power in heaven and upon earth? I’ll cloud the senses of the warder, — do thou possess thyself of the keys and lead her forth with human hand! I will keep watch! The magic steeds are waiting, I bear thee off. Thus much is in my power.
FAUST
Up and away!
NIGHT. OPEN COUNTRY
FAUST. MEPHISTOPHELES
(Rushing along on black horses)
FAUST
What weave they yonder round the Ravenstone?
MEPHISTOPHELES
I know not what they shape and brew.
FAUST
They’re soaring, swooping, bending, stooping.
MEPHISTOPHELES
A witches’ pack.
FAUST
They charm, they strew.
MEPHISTOPHELES
On! On!
DUNGEON
FAUST (with a bunch of keys and a lamp before a small iron door)
A fear unwonted o’er my spirit falls;
Man’s concentrated woe o’erwhelms me here!
She dwells immur’d within these dripping walls;
Her only trespass a delusion dear!
Thou lingerest at the fatal door?
Thou dread’st to see her face once more?
On! While thou dalliest, draws her death-hour near.
[He seizes the lock. Singing within.]
My mother, the harlot,
She took me and slew!
My father, the scoundrel,
Hath eaten me too!
My sweet little sister
Hath all my bones laid,
Where soft breezes whisper
All in the cool shade!
Then became I a wood-bird, and sang on the spray,
Fly away! little bird, fly away! fly away!
FAUST (opening the lock)
Ah! she forebodes not that her lover’s near, The clanking chains, the rustling straw, to hear. [He enters.]
MARGARET (hiding her face in the bed of straw)
Woe! woe! they come! oh bitter ’tis to die!
FAUST (Softly)
Hush! hush! be still! I come to set thee free.
MARGARET (throwing herself at his feet)
If thou art human, feel my misery!
FAUST
Thou wilt awake the jailer with thy cry!
[He grasps the chains to unlock them.]
MARGARET (on her knees)
Who, headsman, unto thee this power
O’er me could give?
Thou com’st for me at midnight-hour.
Be merciful, and let me live!
Is morrow’s dawn not time enough?
[She stands up.]
I’m still so young, so young —
And must so early die!
Fair was I too, and that was my undoing.
My love is now afar, he then was nigh;
Tom lies the garland, the fair blossoms strew’d.
Nay, seize me not with hand so rude!
Spare me! What harm have I e’er done to thee?
Oh let me not in vain implore!
I ne’er have seen thee in my life before!
FAUST
Can I endure this bitter agony?
MARGARET
I now am at thy mercy quite.
Let me my babe but suckle once again!
I fondled it the live-long night;
They took it from me but to give me pain,
And now, they say that I my child have slain.
Gladness I ne’er again shall know.
Then they sing songs about me,— ’tis wicked of the throng —
An ancient ballad endeth so;
Who bade them thus apply the song?
FAUST (throwing himself on the ground)
A lover at thy feet bends low,
To loose the bonds of wretchedness and woe.
MARGARET (throws herself beside him)
Oh, let us kneel and move the saints by prayer!
Look! look! yon stairs below,
Under the threshold
there,
Hell’s flames are all aglow!
Beneath the floor,
With hideous noise,
The devils roar!
FAUST (aloud)
Gretchen! Gretchen!
MARGARET (listening)
That was my lov’d one’s voice!
[She springs up, the chains fall off.]
Where is he? I heard him calling me.
Free am I! There’s none shall hinder me.
To his neck will I fly,
On his bosom will lie!
Gretchen, he called! — On yon threshold he stood;
Amidst all the howling of hell’s fiery flood,
The scoff and the scorn of its devilish crew,
The tones of his voice, sweet and loving, I knew.
FAUST
’Tis I!
MARGARET
’Tis thou! O say so once again!
[embracing him.]
’Tis he! ’Tis he! where’s now the torturing pain?
Where are the fetters? where the dungeon’s gloom?
’Tis thou! To save me thou art come!
And I am sav’d! —
Already now the street I see
Where the first time I caught a glimpse of thee.
There to the pleasant garden shade,
Where I and Martha for thy coming stay’d.
FAUST (endeavoring to lead her away)
Come! come away!
MARGARET
Oh do not haste!
I love to linger where thou stayest. [caressing him.]
FAUST
Ah haste! For if thou still delayest,
Our lingering we shall both deplore.
MARGARET
How, dearest? canst thou kiss no more!
So short a time away from me, and yet,
To kiss thou couldst so soon forget!
Why on thy neck so anxious do I feel —
When formerly a perfect heaven of bliss
From thy dear looks and words would o’er me steal?
As thou wouldst stifle me thou then didst kiss! —
Kiss me!
Or I’ll kiss thee! [She embraces him.]
Woe! woe! Thy lips are cold, —
Are dumb!
Thy love where hast thou left?
Who hath me of thy love bereft?
[She turns away from him.]
FAUST
Come! Follow me, my dearest love, be bold!
I’ll cherish thee with ardor thousand-fold;
I but entreat thee now to follow me!
MARGARET (turning toward him)
And art thou he? and art thou really he?
FAUST
’Tis I! Oh come!
MARGARET
Thou wilt strike off my chain,
And thou wilt take me to thine arms again.
How comes it that thou dost not shrink from me? —
And dost thou know, love, whom thou wouldst set free?
FAUST
Come! come! already night begins to wane.
Masters of the Theatre Page 109