As in the prime of morning, For thee I plucked these flowers. Clearly the early sun, Maddening in misery Up in my bed sat I. Help! death and shame are nigh! *Mother of woes divine, Gracious, thy brow incline. Look upon me. * The following are the stanzas in the 'Mater dolorosa,' upon which this is founded: Stabat Mater dolorosa, Cujus animam gementem, Oh quam tristis et afflicta, Mater unigeniti. Quæ moerebet et dolebat, Nati poenas inclyti. NIGHT. Street before Margaret's door. VALENTINE a soldier, Margaret's brother. I used to sit in company, Where all themselves would glorify; And each gay comrade loud would boast, I on my And sat, no fear, no doubt had I, But listened very silently Till all the swaggererst had done. Then stroked my beard, and smiling gay, Would take a bumper up and say, Let each one praise his own; * Das Lob verschwemmen, corresponds to the Irish phrase of drowning the shamrock. ↑ Schwadroniren, to swagger, from Schwadron a squadron of dragoons. Yet not within the country's bound * Then round and round the clatter went; They shout, he's right;' and some would swear She is her sex's ornament. The boasters then were silent all. Now I am fit to tear my hair, And beat my brains out on the wall; every With snarling taunt and cutting sneer, Like a false bankrupt must I sit, And wince at each chance word I hear; And could I crush them, still I ne'er Could call them liars. Who comes here? The very two, I do believe; 'Tis them, unless my eyes deceive. * Das wasser reichen, an idiomatical expression, which may be rendered, somewhat freely perhaps, by the phrase, to hold a candle.' ↑ Ich pack ihn beim Felle, I hold him by the skin. FAUST. MEPHISTOPHELES. FAUST. As from yon vestry window there, the ray In the surrounding darkness of the night : MEPHISTOPHELES. For me, I am like the tom cat, sprightly A little sly desire, a little caterwauling : After to-morrow comes it back; 'Tis then worth while to be awake. FAUST. Doth the light I see glimmering over there, *Feuer leitern, are the long ladders used in case of fire, which in Germany are always to be found hung on hooks, under the eaves of the churches, where they are both protected from weather and ready at hand when wanted. MEPHISTOPHELES. You shall experience, soon, the pleasure, Of raising up the hidden treasure ; Good Lion Dollars* are there in't. FAUST. What, not a trinket? not a ring, MEPHISTOPHELES. I think I spied out some such thing. *Lion, Lowen, or Louvain Dollars. Dollars of Brabant, coined at the capital of that duchy, Löwen or Louvain, and bearing the arms of Brabant, (Sable, a lion rampant, gules). It is well known that about the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, the mechanical skill of Europe was principally centred in the Low Countries, and in Numismatics it has left its impress upon most nations of Europe. Our terms, shilling, groat, penny, are derived from it, and the lineal successors of the lion dollars mentioned here, were, a few years ago, the only coin that was current, unchallenged and unquestioned, all over Germany. They are still very common under the name of Brabanters. |