Faust: A Tragedy
I shall not quickly give you cause
To repeat so weighty a clause;
For what with black on white is written,
We carry it home, a sure possession.
Mephistopheles.
But, as I said, you must choose a profession.
Student.
With Law, I must confess, I never was much smitten.
Mephistopheles.
I should be loath to force your inclination,
Myself have some small skill in legislation;
For human laws and rights from sire to son,
Like an hereditary ill, flow on;
From generation dragged to generation,
And creeping slow from place to place.
Reason is changed to nonsense, good to evil,
Art thou a grandson, woe betide thy case!
Of Law they prate, most falsely clept the Civil,
But for that right, which from our birth we carry,
'Tis not a word found in their Dictionary.
Student.
Your words have much increased my detestation.
O happy he, to whom such guide points out the way!
And now, I almost feel an inclination
To give Theology the sway.
Mephistopheles.
I have no wish to lead you astray.
As to this science, 'tis so hard to eschew
The false way, and to hit upon the true,
And so much hidden poison lurks within,
That's scarce distinguished from the medicine.
Methinks that here 'twere safest done
That you should listen but to one,
And _jurare in verba magistri_
Is the best maxim to assist thee.
Upon the whole, I counsel thee
To stick to words as much as may be,
For such will still the surest way be
Into the temple of certainty.
Student.
Yet in a word some sense must surely lurk.
Mephistopheles.
Yes, but one must not go too curiously to work;
For, just when our ideas fail us,
A well-coined word may best avail us.
Words are best weapons in disputing,
In system-building and uprooting,
To words most men will swear, though mean they ne'er so little,
From words one cannot filch a single tittle.
Student.
Pardon me, if I trespass on your time,
Though to make wisdom speak seems scarce a crime;
On medicine, too, I am concerned
To hear some pregnant word from one so learned.
Three years, God knows, is a short time,
And we have far to go, and high to climb;
A wise man's fingers pointing to the goal
Will save full many a groan to many a laboring soul.
Mephistopheles. [_aside_]
I'm weary of this dry pedantic strain,
'Tis time to play the genuine devil again.
[_Aloud._] The spirit of Medicine 'tis not hard to seize:
The world, both great and small, you seek to know,
That in the end you may let all things go
As God shall please.
In vain you range around with scientific eyes,
Each one at length learns only what he can;
But he who knows the passing hour to prize,
That is the proper man.
A goodly shape and mien you vaunt,
And confidence, I guess, is not your want,
Trust but yourself, and, without more ado,
All other men will straightway trust you too.
But chiefly be intent to get a hold
O' the women's minds: their endless Oh! and Ah!
So thousandfold,
In all its change, obeys a single law,
And, if with half a modest air you come,
You have them all beneath your thumb.
A title first must purchase their reliance,
That you have skill surpassing vulgar science;
Thus have you hold at once of all the seven ends,
Round which another year of labor spends.
Study to press the pulse right tenderly,
And, with a sly and fiery eye,
To hold her freely round the slender waist,
That you may see how tightly she is laced.
Student.
This seems to promise better; here we see
Where to apply and how to use the knife.
Mephistopheles.
Gray, my good friend, is every theory,
But green the golden tree of life.
Student.
I vow I feel as in a dream; my brain
Contains much more than it can comprehend;
Some other day may I come back again,
To hear your wisdom to the end?
Mephistopheles.
What I can teach all men are free to know.
Student.
One little favor grant me ere I go;
It were my boast to take home on this page
[_Presenting a leaf from his album._]
Some sapient maxim from a man so sage.
Mephistopheles.
Right willingly.
[_He writes, and gives back the book._
Student. [_reads_]
_Eritis sicut Deus scientes bonum et malum._
[_He closes the book reverently, and takes his leave._
Mephistopheles.
Follow the ancient saw, and my cousin, the famous old Serpent,
Right soon shalt thou have cause, at thy godlike knowledge to
tremble!
_Enter_ /Faust/.
Faust.
Now, whither bound?
Mephistopheles.
Where'er it pleases you;
The world, both great and small, we view.
O! how it will delight, entrance you,
The merry reel of life to dance through!
Faust.
My beard, I am afraid, is rather long;
And without easy manners, gentle breeding,
I fear there is small chance of my succeeding;
I feel so awkward 'mid the busy throng,
So powerless and so insignificant,
And what all others have I seem to want.
Mephistopheles.
Bah! never fear; the simple art of living
Is just to live right on without misgiving!
Faust.
But how shall we commence our course?
I see nor coach, nor groom, nor horse.
Mephistopheles.
We only need your mantle to unfold,
And it shall waft us on the wind.
Who makes with me this journey bold
No bulky bundle busks behind;
A single puff of inflammable air,
And from the ground we nimbly fare.
Lightly we float. I wish the best of cheer
To Doctor Faustus on his new career.
/end of act second/.
ACT III.
Scene I.
_Auerbach's Wine-cellar, Leipzig._
_A Bout of Merry Fellows._
Frosch.
Will no one sing? none crack a joke?
I'll teach you to make saucy faces!
Like old wet straw to-day you smoke,
While bright as flame your wonted blaze is.
Brander.
The blame lies with yourself, for you have given us
To-day no fun nor frolic to enliven us.
Frosch. [_throwing a glass of wine over his head_]
There hast thou both!
Brander.
Double swine!
Frosch.
You asked a joke--I gave it you in wine!
Siebel.
Out at the door with all who dare to quarrel!
Give all your pipes full play! this is no place to snarl.
Up! hollo! ho!
Altmayer.
Woe's me! the devil and his crew are here!
Some cotton, ho! he makes my ear-drum crack.
Siebel.
Roar on! for, when the vault loud echoes back,
The deep bass notes come thundering on the ear.
Frosch.
Right, right! out with each saucy fellow!
A! tara lara da!
Altmayer.
A tara lara da!
Frosch.
Our throats are now quite mellow.
[_Sings._] The holy Roman empire now,
How does it hold together?
A clumsy song!--fie! a political song!
A scurvy song! thank God, with each to-morrow,
The Roman empire can give you small sorrow;
For me, I deem I'm wealthier and wiser
For being neither Chancellor nor Kaiser.
Yet even we must have a head to rule us;
Let's choose a pope in drinking well to school us,
Come, well you know the qualification
That lifts a man to consideration.
Frosch. [_sings_]
Mount up, lady nightingale,
Greet my love ten thousand times!
Siebel.
No, sir, not once,--I'll hear no more of this.
Frosch.
But you _shall_ hear!--A greeting and a kiss!
[_He sings._] Ope the door in silent night.
Ope and let me in, I pray;
Shut the door, the morn is bright,
Shut it, love, I must away!
Siebel.
Yes! sing and sing! belaud her, and berhyme!
I'll have my laugh at that--all in good time!
She jilted me right rarely; soon
She'll make thee sing to the same tune;
'Twere fit a Kobold with his love should bless her,
On some cross-road to cocker and caress her;
Or that some old he-goat, that tramps away
From merry Blocksberg on the first of May,
Should greet her passing with a lusty baa!
An honest man of genuine flesh and blood
Is for the wench by far too good.
Batter her doors, her windows shiver,
That's all the serenade I'd give her!
Brander. [_striking the table_]
Gentlemen, hear! only attend to me,
You'll see that I know how to live.
If love-sick people here there be,
To honor them, I'm bound to give
A song brimful of the most melting passion.
I'll sing a ditty of the newest fashion!
Give ear! and with full swell sonorous,
Let each and all ring forth the chorus!
[_He sings._] In a pantry-hole there lived a rat,
On bacon and on butter,
It had a paunch as round and fat
As Doctor Martin Luther.
The cook placed poison in its way,
It felt as straitened all the day,
As if it had love in its body.
Chorus. [_shouting_]
As if it had love in its body.
Brander.
It ran within, it ran without,
And sipped in every puddle;
And scratched and gnawed, but bettered not
The fever of its noddle.
With many a twinge it tossed and tossed,
Seemed ready to give up the ghost,
As if it had love in its body.
Chorus.
As if it had love in its body.
Brander.
It left its hole for very pain,
Into the kitchen crawling,
And snuffling there with might and main,
Upon the earth lay sprawling.
The cook she laughed when she saw it die;
"It squeaks," quoth she, "with its latest sigh,
As if it had love in its body."
Chorus.
As if it had love in its body.
Siebel.
How the hard-hearted boys rejoice!
As if it were a trade so choice
To teach the rats and mice to die!
Brander.
Rats find great favor in your eyes.
Altmayer.
The oily paunch! the bald pate! he
Has eyes of sorrow for the creature:
For why? he could not fail to see
In the swoll'n rat his own best feature!
Scene II.
_Enter_ /Faust/ _and_ /Mephistopheles/.
Mephistopheles.
First thing of all I bring you here,
Into a company of jolly cheer,
That you may learn how men contrive
Without much thought or care to live.
These fellows feast their lives away
In a continual holiday;
With little wit and much content
Their narrow round of life is spent,
As playful kittens oft are found
To chase their own tails round and round.
So live they on from day to day,
As long as headache keeps away,
And by no anxious thought are crossed,
While they get credit from the host.
Brander.
These gentlemen are strangers; in their face
One reads they lack the breeding of the place;
They're not an hour arrived, I warrant thee.
Frosch.
There you are right!--Leipzig's the place, I say!
It is a little Paris in its way.
Siebel.
What, think you, may the strangers be?
Frosch.
Leave that to me!--I'll soon fish out the truth.
Fill me a bumper till it overflows,
And then I'll draw the worms out of their nose,
As easily as 'twere an infant's tooth.
To me they seem to be of noble blood,
They look so discontented and so proud.
Brander.
Quack doctors both!--Altmayer, what think you?
Altmayer.
'Tis like.
Frosch.
Mark me! I'll make them feel the screw.
Mephistopheles. [_to_ /Faust/]
They have no nose to smell the devil out,
Even when he has them by the snout.
Faust.
Be greeted, gentlemen!
Siebel.
With much respect return we the salute.
[_Softly, eyeing_ /Mephistopheles/ _from the one side._]
What! does the fellow limp upon one foot?
Mephistopheles.