University of Virginia Library

SCENE II.

Enter Wagner in night-gown and night-cap—a lamp in his hand. Faust turns impatiently towards him.
WAGNER.
Excuse me, sir, I heard your voice declaiming,
Belike some old Greek drama, and I came in
To profit by your learned recitation.
For in these days the art of declamation
Is held in highest estimation;
And I have heard asserted that a preacher,
Might boast to have an actor for his teacher.

FAUST.
Yes, when our parsons preach to make grimaces,
As in these times a no uncommon case is.

WAGNER.
Alas! when a poor wight is so confined
Amid his books, shut up from all mankind,
And sees the world scarce on a holiday,
As through a telescope, and far away,
How may he hope, with oratorial skill,
To bend the minds he knows not to his will?

FAUST.
What is not felt, no force of art may gain;
True eloquence must from the full heart pour,
And with an innate, sweet persuasive power,
The hearts of all that hear enchain.
Go to! still sit, together still to glue
Your petty piecework, dressing your ragout
From others' feasts, your piteous flames still blowing,
From sparks beneath dull heaps of ashes glowing!
Vain wonderment of children and of apes,
If with such paltry meed content thou art;
The pliant heart to heal he only shapes,
Whose words persuasive flow from heart to heart.

WAGNER.
But the delivery is, sir, as you know,
A chief thing, and, alas! here I have much to do.

FAUST.
Be thine to seek the honest gain!
No, shallow-sounding fool!
Sound sense finds utterance for itself,
Without the critic's rule;
And if in earnest ye intend to speak,
What need for words with curious care to seek?
Your speeches, which so primly ye compose,
With which ye crisp the shavings of mankind,
Are unrefreshing as the foggy wind
That through the sapless leaves in autumn blows!

WAGNER.
Alas! our life is short, but long the road
That to the goal of wisdom must be trod;
The thought at times damps all my studies' ardour,
And head and heart alike despair.
Ere we may reach the sources, what is harder
Than all the means to know that help us there?
And when scarce half the way behind us lies,
The poor fagged devil, will he nill he, dies.

FAUST.
The musty parchment, deem'st thou then to be
The well, from which one draught may slake the thirst for ever?
The quickening power of science find'st thou never
Until from thine own soul it gushes free.

WAGNER.
And yet it seems most useful to compare
The times that once were with the times that are;
To see how wise men thought in Greek and Roman ages,
And know how wondrous far advanced our modern age is.

FAUST.
O yes! ev'n to the stars, I trow, so far!
My friend, the ages that are past
Are as a book with seven seals made fast;
And what you call the spirit of the times,
At bottom but the spirit is of those
Whose mind is made the mirror of the times,
And the reflection of themselves back throws.
And then, in sooth, 'tis oft a woeful case,
To see how they confuse, distort, deface!
A heap of rubbish, and a lumber room,
At best a paltry masquerade theatrical,
With sundry learned maxims clept pragmatical,
Such as from puppet-mouths do fitly come!

WAGNER.
But, then, the world!—the human heart and mind!
Something of this to know are all inclined.

FAUST.
Yes, as such knowledge generally goes!
Who dares to call the child by its right name?
The noble few, that to true knowledge came,
Were fools enough their hearts to all to shew,
And let the vulgar throng their wisdom know;
And therefore were they burned and crucified.
I do beseech thee friend, 'tis late i'the night,
For this time be our converse laid aside.

WAGNER.
So learnedly, 'twere my supreme delight
To speak with Doctor Faust till morning-tide;
But on the morrow, being Easter, I
Your patience, with some questions more, may try.
Though with much zeal I've studied various lore,
My knowledge-thirsting soul still craveth more.

(Exit.)