Chapter Chapter 15 · MARGARET’S ROOM

re with power?

How deeply am I moved, this hour!

What seek I? Why so full my heart, and sore?

Miserable Faust! I know thee now no more.

Is there a magic vapor here?

I came, with lust of instant pleasure,

And lie dissolved in dreams of love’s sweet leisure!

Are we the sport of every changeful atmosphere?

And if, this moment, came she in to me,

How would I for the fault atonement render!

How small the giant lout would be,

Prone at her feet, relaxed and tender!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Be quick! I see her there, returning.

FAUST

Go! go! I never will retreat.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Here is a casket, not unmeet,

Which elsewhere I have just been earning.

Here, set it in the press, with haste!

I swear, ’twill turn her head, to spy it:

Some baubles I therein had placed,

That you might win another by it.

True, child is child, and play is play.

FAUST

I know not, should I do it?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Ask you, pray?

Yourself, perhaps, would keep the bubble?

Then I suggest, ’twere fair and just

To spare the lovely day your lust,

And spare to me the further trouble.

You are not miserly, I trust?

I rub my hands, in expectation tender—

(_He places the casket in the press, and locks it again_.)

Now quick, away!

The sweet young maiden to betray,

So that by wish and will you bend her;

And you look as though

To the lecture-hall you were forced to go,—

As if stood before you, gray and loath,

Physics and Metaphysics both!

But away! [_Exeunt_.

MARGARET (_with a lamp_)

It is so close, so sultry, here!

(_She opens the window_)

And yet ’tis not so warm outside.

I feel, I know not why, such fear!—

Would mother came!—where can she bide?

My body’s chill and shuddering,—

I’m but a silly, fearsome thing!

(_She begins to sing while undressing_)

There was a King in Thule,

Was faithful till the grave,—

To whom his mistress, dying,

A golden goblet gave.

Naught was to him more precious;

He drained it at every bout:

His eyes with tears ran over,

As oft as he drank thereout.

When came his time of dying,

The towns in his land he told,

Naught else to his heir denying

Except the goblet of gold.

He sat at the royal banquet

With his knights of high degree,

In the lofty hall of his fathers

In the Castle by the Sea.

There stood the old carouser,

And drank the last life-glow;

And hurled the hallowed goblet

Into the tide below.

He saw it plunging and filling,

And sinking deep in the sea:

Then fell his eyelids forever,

And never more drank he!

(_She opens the press in order to arrange her clothes, and perceives

the casket of jewels_.)

How comes that lovely casket here to me?

I locked the press, most certainly.

’Tis truly wonderful! What can within it be?

Perhaps ’twas brought by some one as a pawn,

And mother gave a loan thereon?

And here there hangs a key to fit:

I have a mind to open it.

What is that? God in Heaven! Whence came

Such things? Never beheld I aught so fair!

Rich ornaments, such as a noble dame

On highest holidays might wear!

How would the pearl-chain suit my hair?

Ah, who may all this splendor own?

(_She adorns herself with the jewelry, and steps before the

mirror_.)

Were but the ear-rings mine, alone!

One has at once another air.

What helps one’s beauty, youthful blood?

One may possess them, well and good;

But none the more do others care.

They praise us half in pity, sure:

To gold still tends,

On gold depends

All, all! Alas, we poor!

[Illustration]

PROMENADE

(FAUST, _walking thoughtfully up and down. To him_ MEPHISTOPHELES.)

MEPHISTOPHELES

By all love ever rejected! By hell-fire hot and unsparing!

I wish I knew something worse, that I might use it for

swearing!

FAUST

What ails thee? What is’t gripes thee, elf?

A face like thine beheld I never.

MEPHISTOPHELES

I would myself unto the Devil deliver,

If I were not a Devil myself!

FAUST

Thy head is out of order, sadly:

It much becomes thee to be raving madly.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Just think, the pocket of a priest should get

The trinkets left for Margaret!

The mother saw them, and, instanter,

A secret dread began to haunt her.

Keen scent has she for tainted air;

She snuffs within her book of prayer,

And smells each article, to see

If sacred or profane it be;

So here she guessed, from every gem,

That not much blessing came with them.

“My child,” she said, “ill-gotten good

Ensnares the soul, consumes the blood.

Before the Mother of God we’ll lay it;

With heavenly manna she’ll repay it!”

But Margaret thought, with sour grimace,

“A gift-horse is not out of place,

And, truly! godless cannot be

The one who brought such things to me.”

A parson came, by the mother bidden:

He saw, at once, where the game was hidden,

And viewed it with a favor stealthy.

He spake: “That is the proper view,—

Who overcometh, winneth too.

The Holy Church has a stomach healthy:

Hath eaten many a land as forfeit,

And never yet complained of surfeit:

The Church alone, beyond all question,

Has for ill-gotten goods the right digestion.”

FAUST

A general practice is the same,

Which Jew and King may also claim.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Then bagged the spangles, chains, and rings,

As if but toadstools were the things,

And thanked no less, and thanked no more

Than if a sack of nuts he bore,—

Promised them fullest heavenly pay,

And deeply edified were they.

FAUST

And Margaret?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Sits unrestful still,

And knows not what she should, or will;

Thinks on the jewels, day and night,

But more on him who gave her such delight.

FAUST

The darling’s sorrow gives me pain.

Get thou a set for her again!

The first was not a great display.

MEPHISTOPHELES

O yes, the gentleman finds it all child’s-play!

FAUST

Fix and arrange it to my will;

And on her neighbor try thy skill!

Don’t be a Devil stiff as paste,

But get fresh jewels to her taste!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Yes, gracious Sir, in all obedience!

[_Exit_ FAUST.

Such an enamored fool in air would blow

Sun, moon, and all the starry legions,

To give his sweetheart a diverting show.

[_Exit_.

[Illustration]

THE NEIGHBOR’S HOUSE

MARTHA (_solus_)

God forgive my husband, yet he

Hasn’t done his duty by me!

Off in the world he went straightway,—

Left me lie in the straw where I lay.

And, truly, I did naught to fret him:

God knows I loved, and can’t forget him!

(_She weeps_.)

Perhaps he’s even dead! Ah, woe!—

Had I a certificate to show!

MARGARET (_comes_)

Dame Martha!

MARTHA

Margaret! what’s happened thee?

MARGARET

I scarce can stand, my knees are trembling!

I find a box, the first resembling,

Within my press! Of ebony,—

And things, all splendid to behold,

And richer far than were the old.

MARTHA

You mustn’t tell it to your mother!

’Twould go to the priest, as did the other.

MARGARET

Ah, look and see—just look and see!

MARTHA (_adorning her_)

O, what a blessed luck for thee!

MARGARET

But, ah! in the streets I dare not bear them,

Nor in the church be seen to wear them.

MARTHA

Yet thou canst often this way wander,

And secretly the jewels don,

Walk up and down an hour, before the mirror yonder,—

We’ll have our private joy thereon.

And then a chance will come, a holiday,

When, piece by piece, can one the things abroad display,

A chain at first, then other ornament:

Thy mother will not see, and stories we’ll invent.

MARGARET

Whoever could have brought me things so precious?

That something’s wrong, I feel suspicious.

(_A knock_)

Good Heaven! My mother can that have been?

MARTHA (_peeping through the blind_)

’Tis some strange gentleman.—Come in!

(MEPHISTOPHELES _enters_.)

SCENE 16.