Wood and Cavern.

Faust. [alone] Spirit Supreme! thou gav’st me—gav’st me all, For which I asked thee. Not in vain hast thou Turned toward me thy countenance in fire. Thou gavest me wide Nature for my kingdom, And power to feel it, to enjoy it. Not Cold gaze of wonder gav’st thou me alone, But even into her bosom’s depth to look, As it might be the bosom of a friend. The grand array of living things thou mad’st To pass before me, mad’st me know my brothers In silent bush, in water, and in air. And when the straining storm loud roars, and raves Through the dark forest, and the giant pine, Root-wrenched, tears all the neighboring branches down And neighboring stems, and strews the ground with wreck, And to their fall the hollow mountain thunders; Then dost thou guide me to the cave, where safe I learn to know myself, and from my breast Deep and mysterious wonders are unfolded. Then mounts the pure white moon before mine eye With mellow ray, and in her softening light, From rocky wall, from humid brake, upfloat The silvery shapes of times by-gone, and soothe The painful pleasure of deep-brooding thought. Alas! that man enjoys no perfect bliss, I feel it now. Thou gav’st me with this joy, Which brings me near and nearer to the gods, A fellow, whom I cannot do without. All cold and heartless, he debases me Before myself, and, with a single breath, Blows all the bounties of thy love to nought; And fans within my breast a raging fire For that fair image, busy to do ill. Thus reel I from desire on to enjoyment, And in enjoyment languish for desire.

Enter Mephistopheles.

Mephistopheles. What! not yet tired of meditation? Methinks this is a sorry recreation. To try it once or twice might do; But then, again to something new.

Faust. You might employ your time some better way Than thus to plague me on a happy day.

Mephistopheles. Well, well! I do not grudge you quiet, You need my aid, and you cannot deny it. There is not much to lose, I trow, With one so harsh, and gruff, and mad as thou. Toil! moil! from morn to ev’n, so on it goes! And what one should, and what one should not do, One cannot always read it on your nose.

Faust. This is the proper tone for you! Annoy me first, and then my thanks are due.

Mephistopheles. Poor son of Earth! without my timed assistance, How had you ever dragged on your existence? From freakish fancy’s fevered effervescence, I have worked long ago your convalescence, And, but for me, you would have marched away, In your best youth, from the blest light of day. What have you here, in caves and clefts, to do, Like an old owl, screeching to-whit, to-whoo? Or like a torpid toad, that sits alone Sipping the oozing moss and dripping stone? A precious condition to be in! I see the Doctor sticks yet in your skin.

Faust. Couldst thou but know what re-born vigor springs From this lone wandering in the wilderness, Couldst thou conceive what heavenly joy it brings, Then wert thou fiend enough to envy me my bliss.

Mephistopheles. A supermundane bliss! In night and dew to lie upon the height, And clasp the heaven and earth in wild delight, To swell up to the godhead’s stature, And pierce with clear miraculous sight The inmost pith of central Nature, To carry in your breast with strange elation, The ferment of the whole six days’ creation, With proud anticipation of—I know Not what—to glow in rapturous overflow, And melt into the universal mind, Casting the paltry son of earth behind; And then, the heaven-sprung intuition [With a gesture.] To end—I shall not say in what—fruition.

Faust. Shame on thee!

Mephistopheles. Yes! that’s not quite to your mind. You have a privilege to cry out shame, When things are mentioned by their proper name. Before chaste ears one may not dare to spout What chastest hearts yet cannot do without. I do not envy you the pleasure Of palming lies upon yourself at leisure; But long it cannot last, I warrant thee. You are returned to your old whims, I see, And, at this rate, you soon will wear Your strength away, in madness and despair. Of this enough! thy love sits waiting thee, In doubt and darkness, cabined and confined. By day, by night, she has thee in her mind; I trow she loves thee in no common kind. Thy raging passion ’gan to flow, Like a torrent in spring from melted snow; Into her heart thy tide gushed high, Now is thy shallow streamlet dry. Instead of standing here to overbrim With fine ecstatic rapture to the trees, Methinks the mighty gentleman might please To drop some words of fond regard, to ease The sweet young chick who droops and pines for him. Poor thing, she is half dead of ennui, And at the window stands whole hours, to see The clouds pass by the old town-wall along. Were I a little bird! so goes her song The live-long day, and half the night to boot. Sometimes she will be merry, mostly sad, Now, like a child, weeping her sorrows out, Now calm again to look at, never glad; Always in love.

Faust. Thou snake! thou snake!

Mephistopheles. [to himself] So be it! that my guile thy stubborn will may break!

Faust. Hence and begone, thou son of filth and fire! Name not the lovely maid again! Bring not that overmastering desire Once more to tempt my poor bewildered brain!

Mephistopheles. What then? she deems that you are gone forever; And half and half methinks you are.

Faust. No! I am nigh, and were I ne’er so far, I could forget her, I could lose her never; I envy ev’n the body of the Lord, When on the sacred cake her lips she closes.

Mephistopheles. Yes! to be honest, and confess my sins, I oft have envied thee the lovely twins That have their fragrant pasture among roses.

Faust. Avaunt, thou pimp!

Mephistopheles. Rail you, and I will laugh; The God who made the human stuff Both male and female, if the book don’t lie, Himself the noblest trade knew well enough, How to carve out an opportunity. But come, why peak and pine you here? I lead you to the chamber of your dear, Not to the gallows.

Faust. Ah! what were Heaven’s supremest blessedness Within her arms, upon her breast, to me! Must I not still be wrung with agony, That I should plunge her into such distress? I, the poor fugitive! outlaw from my kind, Without a friend, without a home, With restless heart, and aimless mind, Unblest, unblessing, ever doomed to roam; Who, like a waterfall, from rock to rock came roaring, With greedy rage into the caldron pouring; While she, a heedless infant, rears Sidewards her hut upon the Alpine field, With all her hopes, and all her fears, Within this little world concealed. And I—the God-detested—not content To seize the rocks, and in my headlong bent To shatter them to dust, with ruthless tide Her little shielding on the mountain side Bore down, and wrecked her life’s sweet peace with mine. And such an offering, Hell, must it be thine? Help, Devil, to cut short the hour of ill! What happen must, may happen when it will! May her sad fate my crashing fall attend, And she with me be ruined in the end!

Mephistopheles. Lo! how it boils again and blows Like furnace, wherefore no man knows. Go in, thou fool, and let her borrow From thee, sweet solace to her sorrow! When such a brainsick dreamer sees No road, where he to walk may please, He stands and stares like Balaam’s ass, As if a god did block the pass. A man’s a man who does and dares! In other points you’re spiced not scantly with the devil; Nothing more silly moves on earth’s wide level, Than is a devil who despairs.