University of Virginia Library

SCENE III.

Witches' Kitchen.
A cauldron is seen boiling on a low hearth. Numbers of strange fantastic figures tumbling up and down in the smoke. A Mother-Cat-Ape sits beside the cauldron, taking off the scum, and keeping it from boiling over. An Old Cat-Ape beside her warming himself with his young ones. Roof and walls are covered over with a strange assortment of furniture, and implements used by witches.
Enter Faust and Mephistopheles.
FAUST.
I cannot brook this noisy bedlam crew:
Deem'st thou I shall my worn-out age renew
Within this den of sheer insanity?
Shall an old beldam give me what I lack?
Can all the brewings of her scullery
Shake off full thirty summers from my back?
Woe's me, if better project thou hast none!
I feel my noblest hopes already gone.
Has Nature then, and has some noble Spirit,
No balsam for the body to repair it?

MEPHISTOPHELES.
My friend, with your great sense I cannot but be smitten!
Nature, too, boasts a plan to renovate your age;
But in a wondrous volume is it written,
And wondrous is the chapter and the page.

FAUST.
But I must know it.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
Good! the poorest man may try it,
Without or witch, or quack, or gold to buy it;
And yet it works a certain cure.
Go take thee with the peasant to the moor,
And straight begin to hew and hack;
Confine thee there, with patient mood,
Within the narrow beaten track,
And nourish thee with simplest food;
Live with the brute a brute, and count it not too low
To dung the corn-fields thine own hands shall mow;
Than this I know on earth no med'cine stronger,
To make, by fourscore years, both soul and body younger!

FAUST.
I was not trained to this—was never made
To labour with the pick-axe and the spade.
My spirit soars too high for your vile clay.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
Then must we take the witch into our pay.

FAUST
But why this self-same ugly Jezebel?
Could you not brew the drink yourself as well?

MEPHISTOPHELES.
That were a dainty pastime to be sure!
Meanwhile I might have built a thousand bridges,
Across a thousand mountain-ridges.
Not art, and science strict, are here enough,
But patience too, and perseverance tough.
A thoughtful soul toils on through many a silent year,
Time only makes the busy ferment clear.
Besides that the ingredients all,
They are most strange and mystical!
'Tis true I gave them the receipt from hell,
But how to make the drug I cannot tell.
(Looking at the Cat-Apes.)
Lo! what a tiny gay parade!
Here's the man, and there's the maid!
(Addressing them.)
It seems that your good mother has gone out?

THE CAT-APES.
Up the chimney,
Went she out,
To a drinking bout!

MEPHISTOPHELES.
Is it her wont to gossip long without?

THE ANIMALS.
As long as we sit here and warm our feet.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
(to FAUST.)
What think you of the brutes? are they not neat?

FAUST.
I never saw such tasteless would-be-drolls!

MEPHISTOPHELES.
Pooh! pooh!—I know no greater delectation
On earth, than such a merry conversation.
(To the brutes.)
Now let us hear, you pretty dolls,
What stir you round in the cauldron so?

THE BRUTES.
Soup for beggars, through and through,
Thin and watery, we brew.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
You will have customers enow.

THE FATHER CAT-APE.
(comes up and fawns upon Mephistopheles.)
Come rattle the dice,
Make me rich in a trice,
Come, come, let me gain!
My case is so bad,
It scarce could be worse,
Were I right in my purse,
I'd be right in my brain!

MEPHISTOPHELES.
How happy would the apish creature be,
To get a ticket in the lottery!

(Meanwhile the young Cat-Apes have been playing with a large globe, and roll it forwards.)
THE FATHER CAT-APE.
Such is the world,
So doth it go,
Up and down,
To and fro!
Like glass doth it tinkle,
Like glass doth it twinkle,
Breaks in a minute,
Has nothing within it;
Here doth it sparkle,
There doth it darkle,
I am alive!
My dear son, I say,
Keep out of the way!
You will die, you will die!
It is but of clay,
And in pieces will fly!

MEPHISTOPHELES.
What make you with the sieve?

THE FATHER CAT-APE.
(bringing down the sieve.)
When comes a thief,
On the instant we know him.
(He runs off to the Mother Cat-Ape, and lets her look through the sieve.)
Look through the sieve!
See'st thou the thief,
And fearest to show him?

MEPHISTOPHELES.
(coming near the fire.)
And this pot?

FATHER CAT-APE AND HIS WIFE.
The silly sot!
He knows not the pot!
And the cauldron not!

MEPHISTOPHELES.
You ill-bred urchin you!

THE FATHER CAT-APE.
Come, sit thee down,
We'll give thee a crown,
And a sceptre too!

(He obliges Mephistopheles to sit down, and gives him a long brush for a sceptre.)
FAUST.
(Who, while Mephistopheles was engaged with the animals, had been standing before a mirror, alternately approaching to it and retiring from it.)
What see I?—what a lovely image here,
Within this magic mirror, do I see!
O Love, thy swiftest pinion lend thou me,
That it may waft me to her balmy sphere!
Alas! when I attempt to come more nigh,
I see her still receding from mine eye,
And in a cloudy distance disappear!
The fairest form of woman that hath met
My eyes, among fair Eva's daughters yet!
There lies she, on that downy couch reposing,
Within herself the heaven of heavens enclosing!
Can it then be that earth a thing so fair contains?

MEPHISTOPHELES.
Of course: for when a god has vex'd his brains
For six long days, and, when his work is done,
Says Bravo to himself, he must produce
Something above the common I should think.
This time gaze on so long as thou shalt choose;
I know how to procure you such an one,
From whom thou may'st thy fill of pleasure drink;
And blest the man, for whom Fate shall decide,
To lead home such a treasure as his bride!
(Faust continues gazing on the mirror. Mephistopheles stretches himself on the arm-chair, and, playing with the brush, goes on as follows.)
Here sit I like a king upon a throne,
A sceptre I have here, my crown they bring anon.

THE ANIMALS.
(Who had in the interval been making strange antic motions through one another, bring a crown to Mephistopheles, with loud shouts.)
O be but so good,
With sweat and with blood,
Your crown to glue,
As monarchs do!
(They use the crown rather roughly, in consequence of which it falls into two pieces, with which they jump about.)
Alas! alas!
It falls with a crash!
We hear and we see,
And we rhyme merrily!

FAUST.
(gazing on the mirror.)
Woe's me! her beauty doth my wits confound.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
(pointing to the brutes.)
And even my good brain is whirling round and round.

THE BRUTES.
And if we well speed,
As speed well we ought,
'Tis a pretty conceit,
'Tis a clever thought.

FAUST.
(as above.)
My breast begins with fire to glow!
Come now, Mephisto—let us go!

MEPHISTOPHELES.
(as above.)
One must, at least, confess that they
Are honest poets in their way.

(The kettle, which had been neglected by the Mother Cat-Ape, begins to boil over: A great flame arises, and runs up the chimney. The Witch comes through the flame, down the chimney, with a terrible noise.)
THE WITCH.
Ow! ow! ow! ow!
Thou damned brute! thou cursed sow!
To leave the kettle, and singe the frow!
Thou curst imp, thou!
(Turning to Faust and Mephistopheles.)
Who are these there?
How came they here?
What do they want?
They are scouts! they are scouts!
Out with the louts!
A fiery arrow
Consume their marrow!

(She plunges the ladle into the kettle, and spurts out flame on Faust, Mephistopheles, and the Brutes. These last whine.)
MEPHISTOPHELES.
(Who, in the mean time, had turned round the butt-end of the brush, now dashes in amongst the pots and glasses.)
(While the Witch, foaming with rage and fury, draws back.)

THE WITCH.
O my liege lord! forgive the rough salute!
I did not see the horse's foot:
And where too have you left your pair of ravens?

MEPHISTOPHELES.
For this time you may thank the heavens
That you have come so cheaply off;
It is, I must confess, long time enough,
And more than should be, honest mother,
Since you and I last spake together.
Besides, the march of modern cultivation
Has made the devil too a man of fashion;
All things are now so smooth, the famous Northern Devil
Meets everywhere with treatment most uncivil.
And now must horns, and claws, and tail, and hoof,
From an enlightened age be kept aloof:
As for the horse's foot, once of such notoriety,
It would now bar me quite from good society;
And I, as modern dandies do, must use
A stuffing to fill up my boots and shoes.

THE WITCH,
dancing.
Heyday! it almost turns my brain
To see Squire Satan here again!

MEPHISTOPHELES.
Woman, you must not call me by that name!

THE WITCH.
And wherefore not? I see no cause for shame.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
That name has had its station long assigned
With other fables: but the human kind,
With all its wisdom, still seems much the same.
The wicked one is gone, the wicked stay behind.
You call me Baron now, less would be rude—
I am a cavalier like other cavaliers,
You cannot mean to doubt my noble blood,
Here is a coat of arms that all the world reveres.

(He makes an indecent gesture.)
THE WITCH.
(laughing immoderately).
Ha! ha! now I perceive Old Nick is here!
You are a knave still as you always were.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
(aside to FAUST.)
My friend, this hour in lessons rich is,
How one ought to deal with witches.

THE WITCH.
Now say, good sirs, what would you have with me?

MEPHISTOPHELES.
A glass of your restoring beverage,
And of the oldest let it be;
You know the strength is doubled with its age.

THE WITCH.
Most willingly. Here I have got a phial
Of which myself at times make trial,
'Tis now a pleasant mellow potion!
You shall not meet with a denial.
(Softly.)
Yet if this worthy man drinks it without precaution,
He cannot live, you know, a single hour thereafter.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
He is a friend, his health let me look after;
He well deserves the best your kitchen has,
And he may drink it without harm.
Come, draw your circle, speak your charm,
And let him have a flowing glass.

(The Witch, with strange gestures, draws a circle and places many curious things within it; meanwhile the glasses begin to tinkle, and the kettle to sound and make music. She brings a large book, puts the Cat-Apes into the circle, and makes them serve as a desk to lay the book on, and hold the torches. She winks to Faust to come near.)
FAUST.
(to MEPHISTOPHELES).
Now say, what would she with this witchery?
These antic gestures, this wild bedlam-stuff,
This most insipid of all mummery,
I know it well, I hate it well enough.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
(He obliges Faust to enter the circle.)
(The Witch begins to declaim from the book with great emphasis.)

FAUST.
Methinks the woman speaks as she were mad.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
O never fear, she is not yet half done.
I know the volume well, the rest is quite as bad;
I have lost many a precious hour thereon;
For a plain contradiction still must be,
To sages as to fools, an equal mystery.
My friend, this practice is no novelty:
In every time and place have men been found,
By means of three and one, and one and three,
Plain truth with wildest fables to confound.
So prate and prattle they in all the schools;
What man of sense would plague him with such fools?
Men pin their faith to words, in sounds high sapience weening,
Though words were surely made to have a meaning.

THE WITCH.
(goes on reading from the book.)
The mighty power
Of secret lore,
For which vain mortals burrow;
The simple mind
The prize will find,
Without or care or sorrow.

FAUST.
What bibble-babble pours she out before us?
She makes my skull split with her brainless chatter.
I feel as if I heard the ceaseless clatter
Of thirty thousand idiots in a chorus.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
Enough, kind Sibyl; thanks for thy good will!
Now bring your jug here, and the goblet fill
With this prime juice, till it be brimming o'er.
My friend here is a man of high degrees,
And he may drink unscath'd what quantity you please;
He has swill'd many a goodly draught before.

(The Witch, with many ceremonies, pours the beverage into a cup. While Faust brings it to his mouth a light flame arises.)
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Come, quaff it boldly over, without thinking!
The draught will make thy heart to burn with love.
Art with the devil hand and glove,
And from a fire-spurt would'st be shrinking?

(The Witch looses the circle. Faust steps out.)
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Come, quickly out, you must not rest.

THE WITCH.
I hope the swig will wonders work on thee!

MEPHISTOPHELES.
And, if you have aught to request from me,
You need but name it on Walpurgis' feast.

THE WITCH.
There is a song!—at times sung, you will find
It hath a wondrous working on your mind.

MEPHISTOPHELES.
(to FAUST.)
Come, for the present I must be the squire,
And you for once submit to wear the bridle.
You must keep quiet, and let yourself perspire,
That through your inmost frame the potent juice may pierce.
When we have time to spare, I shall rehearse
Some lessons on the art of being nobly idle,
And soon thy heart with ecstasy shall know,
How Cupid 'gins to move, and boundeth to and fro.

FAUST.
(turning again towards the mirror.)
Indulge me with one glance!—one moment spare!
It was a virgin-form surpassing fair!

MEPHISTOPHELES.
No! No! with aid like mine thou soon shalt see
The paragon of woman bodily.
(Aside.)
Anon, if this good potion does its duty,
He'll see in every wench the Trojan beauty.