FAUST. Hound! detestable monster! Change him, Oh Eternal Spirit! change the worm into his dog-like form, in which it used to be his pleasure often at night-fall to run round me, to roll before the feet of the harmless wanderer, and to fasten on his shoulders when he stumbled over him. Change him again into his darling shape, that he may crawl before me in the dust on his belly, that I may trample on him, the outcast! Not the first! Misery!-Misery !— incomprehensible to the soul of man, that more than one creature sank into the depths of this wretchedness, or that the first, in the writhings of her deadly agony, should not have atoned for the sins of all the rest, in the eyes of Him that pardoneth ever! The misery of this one curdles my blood, -thou grinnest coolly over the fate of thousands! MEPHISTOPHELES. Here we are again at our wit's end. So is it with you mortals, when your overstrained faculties snap, Why mate ye yourselves with such as us, if ye cannot go through with it? Wilt fly, yet art subject to giddiness? Did we force ourselves upon thee, or thou upon us? FAUST. Gnash not thy ravenous teeth so at me! I abominate thee! Oh thou great, glorious Spirit, that didst vouchsafe to appear to me, that knowest my heart and soul, why fetter me to this vile companion that delights in evil, and revels in ruin? Art thou done? MEPHISTOPHELES. FAUST. Save her! or woe to thee! the curse of curses on thee for thousands of years! MEPHISTOPHELES. I cannot loose the bonds of the avenger,-I cannot withdraw her bolts. Save her! Who was it plunged her into perdition? I or thou? FAUST looks wildly about. MEPHISTOPHELES. Graspest thou at the thunder? It is well for ye, wretched mortals that it is not granted ye! To crush him who is an innocent obstacle, such is the practice of all tyrants to clear a way through all perplexities. FAUST. Bring me to her! She shall be free! MEPHISTOPHELES. And the danger to which thou exposest thyself? Know the guilt of blood from thy hand yet lies upon the town. Over the fatal spot hover avenging spirits, on the stoop for the returning murderer. FAUST. That from thee? Murder and death of a world upon thee, thou monster! Bring me thither I say, and free her! MEPHISTOPHELES. I will conduct you there! and to what I can do, listen! Have I all power in Heaven and on earth? I will cloud the gaoler's senses; do thou seize the keys, and bring her out with the hand of man. keep watch! the goblin steeds are ready; I will carry you off. That can I do. I Up and away! FAUST. NIGHT.-OPEN PLAIN. FAUST-MEPHISTOPHELES, careering by on black horses. FAUST. What are they busy at there on the scaffold? MEPHISTOPHEles. Don't know what they're boiling and brewing. FAUST. They soar, they swoop, they bend, they bow. MEPHISTOPHEles. A pack of witches. FAUST. They are strewing something, conjuring. MEPHISTOPHELES. Forward! Forward! DUNGEON. FAUST, with a bunch of keys and a lamp, A trembling, long unknown, doth on me fall, At seeing her thy heart doth fail! On! on! thy dalliance dallieth with death.* [He takes hold of the lock-singing is heard within. My mother the harlot, Poor me that slew; That ate me too; * Zoegern means to delay, falter. Thy irresolution will be the cause of Margaret's death, which is approaching, if thou dost not act. |