University of Virginia Library

ACT IV

SCENE I

Scene.—The Walpurgis Night
[The summit of the Brocken. The Scene represents the verge of a great chasm with mountain peaks jutting up from the depths below. Across the gulf stands a high mountain with jagged sides. On the R. in front is a path descending to rocks. On the left, an uplifted crag overlooking the depths below.
[In a hollow at the foot of the crag the Witch is seated by her cauldron. The Scene opens with thunder and lightning and a raging wind. On separate peaks that rise from the gulf Witches are posted as sentinels.
1st Witch.
What cry is in the air?

2nd Witch.
Our master comes.
I saw him riding by the raven stone.

3rd Witch.
Give warning down the gulf: from peak to peak,
Down to the lake that fills the crater bowl,
Follow the owlet's cry.

Voice.
[Below.]
He comes!

2nd Voice.
He comes!

3rd Voice.
Away! Away! He is here.

Voices.
Away! Away!

[Witches disappear as
[Mephistopheles and Faust ascend the rocky path R.
Faust.
I'll go no farther! Whither wouldst thou lead?

Mephistopheles.
Upward to yonder crag whose nodding crown
Leans o'er the sulphurous vale.

Faust.
I'll climb no more!
Through shrieking caverns and o'er desert fells,
By cliff and headland down whose shuddering sides
The roaring cataract cleaves its thunder-road,—
Borne upward as a feather on the gale
Still have I followed thee!

Mephistopheles.
As still thou shalt
Till I have shown thee all! Hark! 'tis the hour.

Chorus
[From below.]
The witches ride to the Brocken top,
Upward and onward they may not stop.

[Mephistopheles draws Faust to the edge of the abyss.
Mephistopheles.
Dost see them swarming in the mists below?
Now poised for flight, and herding in the sky
They blacken out the moon.

Chorus
Upward and onward across the night
To the topmost beacon we take our flight!

[During the Chorus there is a flight of Witches across the sky.
Mephistopheles.
Far down below
They scale each slope and crag, a myriad throng.
Round gnarled roots like serpents intercoiling,
O'er rock and boulder leaping, skipping, scudding,—
See how they press and jostle, push and scramble
To reach their master's feet! Yet some there are
That stumble on the path. Up! up! and on!
The Devil's road grows easier at the last!

[As he speaks, the crags and mountain tops gradually fill with shadowy forms whose voices echo across the gulf.
1st Witch.
Whence comest thou?

2nd Witch.
Round by the Ilsen rock
I saw the white owl blinking on its nest.

3rd Witch.
Old Baubo rides upon a farrow sow.

4th Witch.
Aye! Baubo first and all the flock to follow.

Mephistopheles.
On then! and on! lest I should flay and score ye.

Voice.
[From below.]
Hi! there! Ho!

Mephistopheles.
Nay, heed him not, press on!

1st Witch.
Who is it calls from the rocky lake below?

Voice.
[From below.]
I've climbed and climbed three hundred years and more,
Yet cannot reach the top!

[A wild laugh from the Witches as Mephistopheles looks down the gulf.
Mephistopheles.
Old Dotard, no!
Hast not yet learned that towards the Devil's porch
The lighter step of woman wins the lead?
While club-foot man, a laggard even in sin,
Toils slowly at her heels. Trudge on, old fool!
Thou shalt reach the goal at last. Trudge on! Trudge on!

[Wild laughter again.
Chorus
With a rag for a sail
We soar on the gale,
Then swoop and fall
At our master' call.

Faust.
What are these shapes and wherefore are they here?

Mephistopheles.
To-night Sir Mammon holds high holiday,
And these my vassal slaves are all his guests.
A goodly throng—see how they laugh and chatter!
Sweet witches all—they have their working days,
But now in wanton measure to and fro
They fill a vacant hour of liberty.
Dance on! Dance on!

[The Witches dance; singing as they move.
Witches' Chorus

[As the sound dies away the Witches gradually disappear.
Faust.
What crazy world is this?

Mephistopheles.
A world where worlds are made—a busy hive
Of murmuring bees whose poisoned honey-bags
Yield to men's lips that bitter-sweet called Love.
Here beauty ere it takes on mortal shape
Sips at the fount of sin, then onward speeding,
Enters Life's portals, gathering as it goes
The voices and the blossoms of the Spring.
Here the rough gold first takes its glittering sheen
To sate the greedy pangs of avarice;
Here crowns are fashioned, and on yonder anvil
For every crown a beaten blade is forged
To fit the usurper's hand. Glory and Power,
Ambition and the countless painted toys
That draw men onward in the race toward Hell
Here, by deft hands are decked and garlanded
To lure the world! my world!

Faust.
And is it here
Thou dost think to stay the memory of those tears
That drip and fall upon my coward soul
Like rain through ruined woods?

Mephistopheles.
Good Doctor, no;
This is but preface to the feast to come.
See, here is more.
[They approach the Witch's cauldron.
Old huckster, I should know thee.

Faust.
And I too well!

Witch.
And I, I know ye both!

Mephistopheles.
What hast thou here to please this Lord I serve?

Witch.
Good store of richest wares of every fashion
Most cunningly assorted. Scan them well!
For all have served their turn! That dagger there
Still bears upon it the red rust of blood!
Of all these jewelled cups there is not one
That hath not borne to lips now marble-white
The sleepy wine of death. There is no gem
Of all this glittering heap but once hath served
To bring a maid to shame.

Faust.
Foul hag, be dumb!

Mephistopheles.
She doth mistake our errand.—All that's done
Is done.—To-night we seek from out the past
A fairer vision.

Witch.
Master, pay me then!
'Twas on the Brocken I should claim my fee;
So stood our bargain.

Mephistopheles.
Wouldst thou threaten me?
I'll pay thee nought till I shall pay thee all.

Witch.
[Aside.]
Then ere night ends I'll earn my fee in full,
And trick thee with a vision fair and foul
That shall affright ye both.

Mephistopheles.
Cease! mumbling hag.

Faust.
Is this thy power? whose vilest ministers
Still mock and scoff at thee?

Mephistopheles.
Wouldst know my power?
I who have changed thy lean and withered age
To this new garb of youth? Stand, then, and hearken
While from the void my hounds of Hell give tongue.

[A roll of thunder with lightning gleam.
Chorus
[From below.]
Cling fast! cling fast!
The owlet is hiding
On the tail of the blast
Our master is riding.

Mephistopheles.
Dost hear those thunder steeds whose clattering hoofs
Tear the night's covering to a tattered sheet?
Ride on! Ride on! my lightning lamps shall guide ye.
[Drawing Faust to the brink of the chasm.
Look where old Chaos takes a newer fashion
As down the abyss the cloven mountains fall,
And shifting forests slide into the gulf.
Doth that content thee?

[During this speech the rocks have sundered and fallen. Uprooted trees have crashed into the abyss, and the mountain across the gulf has been so shattered as to leave a vast cavern in its side.
Faust.
Aye! no more! no more!
I have seen enough.

Mephistopheles.
[Laughing.]
Nay, tremble not, good Doctor!
The work of demolition's always noisy;
Yet here it has served our turn; for yonder cleft
Carved by the thunder, yields a fitting stage
Whereon we'll summon for thy amorous glance
From out their scattered tombs those Queens of Love
Whom Time hath still left peerless.
[To the Witch.]
On, old Granny!
Quick! stir thy brew! and let the sport begin,
As high encamped upon this airy shelf
My Lord shall watch the pageant as it grows,
And claim of all these buried vanished lips
Whose kiss he fain would win! Lead on! Lead on!

[A group of young Witches leave the cauldron and draw Faust with chains of flowers up to the summit of the crag where Mephistopheles is already standing. And as he follows them half entranced, the Chorus is heard across the gulf and the Vision of Helen of Troy is gradually revealed.
Chorus.
Once more upon the purple main
That scudding sail doth bear her home,
Troy's cindered towers are fired again
And flare across the crimsoned foam.

Mephistopheles.
See how they press around her, all her train,
She for whose lips the world was drenched in blood,
Yet note that changeless beauty bears no trace
Of all her countless slain.

Faust.
Helen?

Mephistopheles.
Aye, Helen,
My loyal subject Queen who shattered Troy,
And dyed the Ægean with a Tyrrian stain.

Faust.
Draw closer, closer, till I touch those lips.

Mephistopheles.
Nay! wait awhile! I know an Orient bough
Whereon there hangs a riper, ruddier fruit
Embrowned by Egypt's sun. Lead on, sweet hag!
The feast is not half served.

Witch.
[From her cauldron.]
Nay, Sire, there is more,
As thou shalt learn before the cauldron cools.

[The Vision of Helen has faded as the Chorus is renewed.
Chorus

[During the Chorus the Vision of Cleopatra is revealed, preceded by Egyptian Dancing Girls.
Mephistopheles.
Dost see her, Faust? The ruin that she wrought
Lies buried deep beneath the shifting Nile,
While she whose conquering beauty laughed at Time
Sails o'er the centuries to greet her Lord.
Fair Cleopatra, kindred serpent soul,
I hail thee peerless still!

Faust.
And I! And I!

Mephistopheles.
Doth that not tempt thee?

Faust.
Let me but print one kiss
Between those breasts that cushioned Antony;
There is no more to win.

[The Vision fades.
Mephistopheles.
Wait till the close,
Then thou shalt choose at will.
[To Witch.
Go back to Rome.

Witch.
Aye, back to Rome, and back and back again!

Chorus
She stands by Tiber's reddened flood!
That door she guards is Love's last tomb,
Those gilded breasts are smeared with blood
Wrung from the ruined heart of Rome.

[During the Chorus the Vision of Messalina appears.
Mephistopheles.
Look where she stands, passion's ungrudging slave,
Who leased a throne to wear a strumpet's crown.
Hail! Messalina, whose enfolding arms
Caught to thee nightly all the lust of Rome,
Those crimson lips have drained the lees of Love
In many a Stygian stew: yet drink again,—
My master holds the cup.

Faust.
Nay, let her pass;
'Tis not so fair.

Mephistopheles.
Then count the feast as ended.
Where falls thy choice?

Witch.
My master, wait awhile.
Yet one remains, the last and best of all.

Mephistopheles.
Wretch, wilt thou trick me?

Witch.
Look again and see.

[The Vision of Messalina fades as the Chorus is repeated.
Chorus
The Springtime comes, the Springtime goes,
The lily changes to the rose,
Now Spring hath fled,
And Summer is dead,
And dead the Lily! and dead the Rose!

[During the Chorus the lonely figure of Margaret is revealed with chains about her wrists, her dead child lying at her feet.
Mephistopheles.
[To Witch.]
Foul hag, I'll scorch thee!

Witch.
Master, I am paid!

[With a wild yell she rises into the air and vanishes across the gulf.
Faust.
Look! it is Margaret! What to me the past?
What any queen re-risen from the grave?
I can see nothing but that lovely form.
But what is that lies frozen at her feet?

Mephistopheles.
What lieth at her feet thou shouldst know.

Faust.
Those eyes are turned upon me! Margaret, stay!
Across the gulf of Hell I'll fly to thee.
Go, bear me to that prison where she lies,
Her anguish is my anguish, all her sin
Is mine to suffer, aye, or mine to cure.
To her! to her! bear me away. On! On!

[There is a crash of thunder, and of a sudden the gulf swarms with Witches who shriek amidst the thunder as Faust and Mephistopheles disappear.

SCENE II

Scene.—A prison cell
[Margaret is lying in a stupor chained on a bed of straw at the back. The sound of a key in the lock is heard, and Faust and Mephistopheles enter.
Mephistopheles.
See! there she lies! Quick, rouse her! We must fly.
Drugged lies the jailor; but I cannot say
When he may wake and blunder on us here.

Faust.
[Gazing on Margaret.]
The woe of the whole earth catches at my heart.
And then! Ah, stand and roll thy devilish eyes:
This is thy work! Lo, in a dungeon shut,
Delivered up to torment and to night!
From me thou hast concealed this ruin, me
With hollow dissipations hast thou lulled.

Mephistopheles.
She's not the first!

Faust.
Abortion! Not the first!
Did not the first in her death agony
Expiate all the guilt of all the rest?
Her single misery to my marrow pierces,
And thou art grinning at the doom of thousands.

Mephistopheles.
Why dost thou make a compact with the Devil
And canst not see it out? Did I on thee
Thrust myself? Come, confess! Or thou on me?

Faust.
Rescue her: or the curse of ages on thee!

Mephistopheles.
Rescue her? Who then plunged her into ruin?
Whose kisses stretched her on that bed of straw?
Whose hot embraces cast those chains on her?
[Faust looks wildly round.
Wilt grasp the thunder? Lucky thou canst not.

Faust.
She shall be free!

Mephistopheles.
O maudlin murderer,
Weep over thy victim sentimental tears!

Faust.
Free her—or—

Mephistopheles.
Gently! I will watch without
And keep the jailor mazed in a deep sleep,
But not for long! Drag her away with thee.
The magic steeds are ready. Quick!

Faust.
Begone!

[Exit Mephistopheles.
[Faust approaches Margaret who starts up dishevelled.
Margaret.
Oh, they are come for me! O death of deaths!

Faust.
Margaret! I have come to set thee free once more.
Come let us fly—give me your hand, come, come.

Margaret.
[Looking at him.]
Who art thou? Oh, it is not morning yet.
Sir, let me live till dawn! And I am still
So young, and fair, but that was my undoing.
[Faust seizes the chains, endeavouring to unlock them.
What have I done to thee? Use me not roughly!

Faust.
Margaret, look on me! I am thy lover.

Margaret.
[Looking earnestly at him.]
I ne'er saw thee before in all my life.
I had a lover, but he's far away.
Love, did I weary thee?

Faust.
Can I outlive
These stabbing words?

Margaret.
Ah, let me suckle first
My baby: but they've taken it away,
And they sing songs about me in the street.
They should not do it.

Faust.
I love thee for ever.

Margaret.
See he is coming! The evil one: Hell heaves
In thunder—see he makes towards his prey.

Faust.
Margaret!

Margaret.
Ah, that was my lover's voice.
Margaret! So now in the howl of Hell
Still on his bosom I shall lie again.
'Tis he! The garden once again I see
Where thou and I walked up and down in bliss.

Faust.
[Struggling with her.]
Come! Come away!

Margaret.
Dost thou not care to kiss me?
Once didst thou kiss as thou wouldst stifle me.

Faust.
Follow me, darling—oh, delay no more!

Margaret.
But is it thou, thou surely?

Faust.
It is I.
Come, come away!

Margaret.
My mother I have killed
But out of love for thee!

Faust.
Can I endure?

Margaret.
The baby too, our baby, I have drowned.

Faust.
Oh, swiftly, swiftly! the night vanishes.

Margaret.
It tries to rise, it struggles still; quick, seize it.

Faust.
One step and thou art free: I must use force.

[He seizes her to bear her away.
Margaret.
Oh, grasp me not so murderously, sir.

Faust.
Day! day is dawning.

Margaret.
Yes, 'tis the last day.
Hark to the crowd! They push me to the block:
Now o'er each neck the blade is quivering
That quivers over mine! Dumb lies the world.

[She falls back on his arm.
Faust.
God! She is dying! I shall never free her.

[Mephistopheles entering quickly.
Mephistopheles.
Fast, fast! to all love-making put an end,
My coursers shiver in the morning air.
Away!

Faust.
No! She is dying: cold she grows.

Mephistopheles.
Leave her if she is cold: no moment more.

Faust.
I will not—cannot—Margaret! Margaret!

Mephistopheles.
Wouldst thou die with her?

Faust.
I can leave her not.

Mephistopheles.
The living wait thee! Stay not by the dead!

Faust.
Leave me! I go not!

Mephistopheles.
Come to fresher faces,
Others have warm blood still.

[Margaret dies.
Faust.
Ah! she is dead!
No motion: chill all o'er!

Mephistopheles.
Faust, wilt thou come?

Faust.
Never!

Mephistopheles.
Farewell then!

[Exit Mephistopheles.
[Faust lays her reverently on the bed, composing her limbs.
Faust.
I with thee must die.
For I am fainting with thy faintness, I
Am going with thee fast. I ebb and sink
After thee, and my blood thy blood pursues.
Hath thy heart stopped? Mine slow and slower beats.
Still is thy pulse? My pulse is faltering!
Where'er thou goest I with thee shall go,
Whether thou catch me into highest Heaven,
Or I involve thee in the lowest Hell.
Margaret, Margaret! after thee I come
And rush behind thee in thy headlong flight.
Dim grows the world.
[Mephistopheles appears in the dress he wore in the Prologue.
Is this the film of death?
Do I behold thee, Mephistopheles,
Or some superior angel? Now no more
The sneering smile and jaunty step I see;
I feel that thou art Evil yet dost wear
Evil's auguster immortality.
Say wherefore art thou come?

Mephistopheles.
Remember, Faust,
Thy compact. Though it pleased me to take on
A lighter shape more easily to lure thee,
Yet know I am that Spirit who rebelled
With whom a million angels mutinied.
Behold the thunder-scar and withered cheek!
With me, then, was thy holy compact signed.

Faust.
Though I should die yet thou canst fright me not.
Even from thy lips shall I believe the tale
Of burning coals and everlasting fire
And all the windy jargon of the priests?

Mephistopheles.
Far other is that Hell where thou shalt live.
As I did serve thee faithfully on earth,
Thou faithfully shalt serve me after death.
Listen! On dreadful errands shalt thou go,
On journeys fraught with mischief to the soul,
Shalt be a whisperer in the maiden's ears
Drawing her to defilement—shalt persuade
The desperate to self-slaughter, thou shalt guide
The murderer to his work, thou shalt instil
Into the child its first polluting thought,
And bring to the world's apple many an Eve.
In taverns shalt thou drink invisibly
Urging the drinkers on, and thou shalt walk
With painted women to and fro the streets.
So, Faust, shalt thy eternity be spent
Seducing and polluting human souls,
Purveying anguish, madness, through the world.
This was thy compact: this shalt thou fulfil.

Faust.
Horrible! horrible! Yet do I defy thee.
Hast thou fulfilled thy promise, brought an hour—
A single hour—to which I could cry “Stay,
Thou art so fair”?

Mephistopheles.
That hour shall come;
My service is not ended. Countless years
Are left thee yet ere life's full cup be drained.
Up, then, and on!

Faust.
Weary and stale the life
Thou gavest me; from pleasure hurled to pleasure,
And evermore satiety and hate.
Weary and stale is all that's yet to come.
Though countless years, chained ever at thy side,
Be still my doom, my spirit newly winged
Outspeeds the flight of time. That flower I crushed
And trod beneath my feet, see where it springs
And blooms again in Heaven's serener air.
Beyond the night I see the final dawn
Wherein from out that ruin I have wrought,
Purged at the last, my soul shall win its way
Whither her soul hath sped. The laggard years,
That chain me prisoner to this desert earth,
Though in their sum they should consume all time,
Were all too short for what is left to do.
Up, then, and on! I shall abide the end;
Still I fight upward, battle to the skies,
And still I soar for ever after her.
I shall go past thee, Mephistopheles,
For ever upward to the woman soul!
How long? How long?

[Rolling clouds ascend obscuring the stage, until the First Scene, the neutral mountains, is discovered again. During the change a Chorus of invisible Angels is heard from above.
Chorus

[When the scene is fully revealed, Margaret is seen lying robed in white at the feet of Raphael, the Other Angels attending. Mephistopheles remains below.
Mephistopheles.
Lo! on this neutral ground I reappear
To claim of the Most High the soul of Faust.
Is not the wager won? Have I not drawn
A high aspiring spirit from his height,
Plunged it at will in lust and wantonness?
Hath not this servant of the King of Heaven,
This famous Doctor, proud philosopher,
Seduced a maiden to a grave of shame,
To drug her Mother, and to drown her Child?
While he with his own hand her Brother slew!
Have I not now reclaimed a soul for Night?
Have I not now the great world wager won?
Answer!

[An Angel alights on the topmost peak as in the Prologue.
The Angel.
The great world wager thou hast lost,
And, seeking to confound, hast saved a soul.
When for thine own ends thou didst fire his heart
For Margaret, and inflamed his lustful blood
So that they sinned together, yet that sin
So wrapped them that a higher, holier love
Hath sprung from it; where once their bodies burned
Their spirits glow together, what was fire
Is light, and that which scorched doth kindle now.
Thou, thou hast sped him on a nobler flight,
Thou, thou hast taught him to aspire anew,
Thou through the woman soul hast brought him home.
[Angels are seen bearing the soul of Faust upwards towards Margaret.
Hither the spirit angel-wafted floats
While she her saving arms outspreads to him.

Mephistopheles.
Still to the same result I war with God:
I will the evil, I achieve the good.