Kabanata Kabanata 21 · WALPURGIS-NIGHT
:
Day after to-morrow brings its message,
And one keeps watch then with delight.
FAUST
Meanwhile, may not the treasure risen be,
Which there, behind, I glimmering see?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Shalt soon experience the pleasure,
To lift the kettle with its treasure.
I lately gave therein a squint—
Saw splendid lion-dollars in ’t.
FAUST
Not even a jewel, not a ring,
To deck therewith my darling girl?
MEPHISTOPHELES
I saw, among the rest, a thing
That seemed to be a chain of pearl.
FAUST
That’s well, indeed! For painful is it
To bring no gift when her I visit.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Thou shouldst not find it so annoying,
Without return to be enjoying.
Now, while the sky leads forth its starry throng,
Thou’lt hear a masterpiece, no work completer:
I’ll sing her, first, a moral song,
The surer, afterwards, to cheat her.
(_Sings to the cither_.)
What dost thou here
In daybreak clear,
Kathrina dear,
Before thy lover’s door?
Beware! the blade
Lets in a maid.
That out a maid
Departeth nevermore!
The coaxing shun
Of such an one!
When once ’tis done
Good-night to thee, poor thing!
Love’s time is brief:
Unto no thief
Be warm and lief,
But with the wedding-ring!
VALENTINE (_comes forward_)
Whom wilt thou lure? God’s-element!
Rat-catching piper, thou!—perdition!
To the Devil, first, the instrument!
To the Devil, then, the curst musician!
MEPHISTOPHELES
The cither’s smashed! For nothing more ’tis fitting.
VALENTINE
There’s yet a skull I must be splitting!
MEPHISTOPHELES (_to_ FAUST)
Sir Doctor, don’t retreat, I pray!
Stand by: I’ll lead, if you’ll but tarry:
Out with your spit, without delay!
You’ve but to lunge, and I will parry.
VALENTINE
Then parry that!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Why not? ’tis light.
VALENTINE
That, too!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Of course.
VALENTINE
I think the Devil must fight!
How is it, then? my hand’s already lame:
MEPHISTOPHELES (_to_ FAUST)
Thrust home!
VALENTINE (_jails_)
O God!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Now is the lubber tame!
But come, away! ’Tis time for us to fly;
For there arises now a murderous cry.
With the police ’twere easy to compound it,
But here the penal court will sift and sound it.
[_Exit with_ FAUST.
MARTHA (_at the window_)
Come out! Come out!
MARGARET (_at the window_)
Quick, bring a light!
MARTHA (_as above_)
They swear and storm, they yell and fight!
PEOPLE
Here lies one dead already—see!
MARTHA (_coming from the house_)
The murderers, whither have they run?
MARGARET (_coming out_)
Who lies here?
PEOPLE
’Tis thy mother’s son!
MARGARET
Almighty God! what misery!
VALENTINE
I’m dying! That is quickly said,
And quicker yet ’tis done.
Why howl, you women there? Instead,
Come here and listen, every one!
(_All gather around him_)
My Margaret, see! still young thou art,
But not the least bit shrewd or smart,
Thy business thus to slight:
So this advice I bid thee heed—
Now that thou art a whore indeed,
Why, be one then, outright!
MARGARET
My brother! God! such words to me?
VALENTINE
In this game let our Lord God be!
What’s done’s already done, alas!
What follows it, must come to pass.
With one begin’st thou secretly,
Then soon will others come to thee,
And when a dozen thee have known,
Thou’rt also free to all the town.
When Shame is born and first appears,
She is in secret brought to light,
And then they draw the veil of night
Over her head and ears;
Her life, in fact, they’re loath to spare her.
But let her growth and strength display,
She walks abroad unveiled by day,
Yet is not grown a whit the fairer.
The uglier she is to sight,
The more she seeks the day’s broad light.
The time I verily can discern
When all the honest folk will turn
From thee, thou jade! and seek protection
As from a corpse that breeds infection.
Thy guilty heart shall then dismay thee.
When they but look thee in the face:—
Shalt not in a golden chain array thee,
Nor at
SCENE 21. WALPURGIS-NIGHT
the altar take thy place!
Shalt not, in lace and ribbons flowing,
Make merry when the dance is going!
But in some corner, woe betide thee!
Among the beggars and cripples hide thee;
And so, though even God forgive,
On earth a damned existence live!
MARTHA
Commend your soul to God for pardon,
That you your heart with slander harden!
VALENTINE
Thou pimp most infamous, be still!
Could I thy withered body kill,
’Twould bring, for all my sinful pleasure,
Forgiveness in the richest measure.
MARGARET
My brother! This is Hell’s own pain!
VALENTINE
I tell thee, from thy tears refrain!
When thou from honor didst depart
It stabbed me to the very heart.
Now through the slumber of the grave
I go to God as a soldier brave.
(_Dies_.)
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XX
CATHEDRAL
SERVICE, ORGAN _and_ ANTHEM.
(MARGARET _among much people: the_ EVIL SPIRIT _behind_
MARGARET.)
EVIL SPIRIT
HOW otherwise was it, Margaret,
When thou, still innocent,
Here to the altar cam’st,
And from the worn and fingered book
Thy prayers didst prattle,
Half sport of childhood,
Half God within thee!
Margaret!
Where tends thy thought?
Within thy bosom
What hidden crime?
Pray’st thou for mercy on thy mother’s soul,
That fell asleep to long, long torment, and through thee?
Upon thy threshold whose the blood?
And stirreth not and quickens
Something beneath thy heart,
Thy life disquieting
With most foreboding presence?
MARGARET
Woe! woe!
Would I were free from the thoughts
That cross me, drawing hither and thither
Despite me!
CHORUS
_Diesira, dies illa,
Solvet soeclum in favilla_!
_(Sound of the organ_.)
EVIL SPIRIT
Wrath takes thee!
The trumpet peals!
The graves tremble!
And thy heart
From ashy rest
To fiery torments
Now again requickened,
Throbs to life!
MARGARET
Would I were forth!
I feel as if the organ here
My breath takes from me,
My very heart
Dissolved by the anthem!
CHORUS
_Judex ergo cum sedebit,
Quidquid latet, ad parebit,
Nil inultum remanebit_.
MARGARET
I cannot breathe!
The massy pillars
Imprison me!
The vaulted arches
Crush me!—Air!
EVIL SPIRIT
Hide thyself! Sin and shame
Stay never hidden.
Air? Light?
Woe to thee!
CHORUS
_Quid sum miser tunc dicturus,
Quem patronem rogaturus,
Cum vix Justus sit securus_?
EVIL SPIRIT
They turn their faces,
The glorified, from thee:
The pure, their hands to offer,
Shuddering, refuse thee!
Woe!
CHORUS
_Quid sum miser tune dicturus_?
MARGARET
Neighbor! your cordial! (_She falls in a swoon_.)
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XXI
WALPURGIS-NIGHT
THE HARTZ MOUNTAINS.
_District of Schierke and Elend_.
FAUST MEPHISTOPHELES
MEPHISTOPHELES
DOST thou not wish a broomstick-steed’s assistance?
The sturdiest he-goat I would gladly see:
The way we take, our goal is yet some distance.
FAUST
So long as in my legs I feel the fresh existence.
This knotted staff suffices me.
What need to shorten so the way?
Along this labyrinth of vales to wander,
Then climb the rocky ramparts yonder,
Wherefrom the fountain flings eternal spray,
Is such delight, my steps would fain delay.
The spring-time stirs within the fragrant birches,
And even the fir-tree feels it now:
Should then our limbs escape its gentle searches?
MEPHISTOPHELES
I notice no such thing, I vow!
’Tis winter still within my body:
Upon my path I wish for frost and snow.
How sadly rises, incomplete and ruddy,
The moon’s lone disk, with its belated glow,
And lights so dimly, that, as one advances,
At every step one strikes a rock or tree!
Let us, then, use a Jack-o’-lantern’s glances:
I see one yonder, burning merrily.
Ho, there! my friend! I’ll levy thine attendance:
Why waste so vainly thy resplendence?
Be kind enough to light us up the steep!
WILL-O’-THE-WISP
My reverence, I hope, will me enable
To curb my temperament unstable;
For zigzag courses we are wont to keep.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Indeed? he’d like mankind to imitate!
Now, in the Devil’s name, go straight,
Or I’ll blow out his being’s flickering spark!
WILL-O’-THE-WISP
You are the master of the house, I mark,
And I shall try to serve you nicely.
But then, reflect: the mountain’s magic-mad to-day,
And if a will-o’-the-wisp must guide you on the way,
You mustn’t take things too precisely.
FAUST, MEPHISTOPHELES, WILL-O’-THE-WISP
(_in alternating song_)
We, it seems, have entered newly
In the sphere of dreams enchanted.
Do thy bidding, guide us truly,
That our feet be forwards planted
In the vast, the desert spaces!
See them swiftly changing places,
Trees on trees beside us trooping,
And the crags above us stooping,
And the rocky snouts, outgrowing,—
Hear them snoring, hear them blowing!
O’er the stones, the grasses, flowing
Stream and streamlet seek the hollow.
Hear I noises? songs that follow?
Hear I tender love-petitions?
Voices of those heavenly visions?
Sounds of hope, of love undying!
And the echoes, like traditions
Of old days, come faint and hollow.
Hoo-hoo! Shoo-hoo! Nearer hover
Jay and screech-owl, and the plover,—
Are they all awake and crying?
Is’t the salamander pushes,
Bloated-bellied, through the bushes?
And the roots, like serpents twisted,
Through the sand and boulders toiling,
Fright us, weirdest links uncoiling
To entrap us, unresisted:
Living knots and gnarls uncanny
Feel with polypus-antennae
For the wanderer. Mice are flying,
Thousand-colored, herd-wise hieing
Through the moss and through the heather!
And the fire-flies wink and darkle,
Crowded swarms that soar and sparkle,
And in wildering escort gather!
Tell me, if we still are standing,
Or if further we’re ascending?
All is turning, whirling, blending,
Trees and rocks with grinning faces,
Wandering lights that spin in mazes,
Still increasing and expanding!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Grasp my skirt with heart undaunted!
Here a middle-peak is planted,
Whence one seeth, with amaze,
Mammon in the mountain blaze.
FAUST
How strangely glimmers through the hollows
A dreary light, like that of dawn!
Its exhalation tracks and follows
The deepest gorges, faint and wan.
Here steam, there rolling vapor sweepeth;
Here burns the glow through film and haze:
Now like a tender thread it creepeth,
Now like a fountain leaps and plays.
Here winds away, and in a hundred
Divided veins the valley braids:
There, in a corner pressed and sundered,
Itself detaches, spreads and fades.
Here gush the sparkles incandescent
Like scattered showers of golden sand;—
But, see! in all their height, at present,
The rocky ramparts blazing stand.
[Illustration: _Under the old ribs of the rock retreating_,]
MEPHISTOPHELES
Has not Sir Mammon grandly lighted
His palace for this festal night?
’Tis lucky thou hast seen the sight;
The boisterous guests approach that were invited.
FAUST
How raves the tempest through the air!
With what fierce blows upon my neck ’tis beating!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Under the old ribs of the rock retreating,
Hold fast, lest thou be hurled down the abysses there!
The night with the mist is black;
Hark! how the forests grind and crack!
Frightened, the owlets are scattered:
Hearken! the pillars are shattered.
The evergreen palaces shaking!
Boughs are groaning and breaking,
The tree-trunks terribly thunder,
The roots are twisting asunder!
In frightfully intricate crashing
Each on the other is dashing,
And over the wreck-strewn gorges
The tempest whistles and surges!
Hear’st thou voices higher ringing?
Far away, or nearer singing?
Yes, the mountain’s side along,
Sweeps
SCENE 22.