University of Virginia Library

Scene changes to the low ground.
Mephistopheles, Lamiæ, Oread, Homunculus.
Mephistopheles
(alone).
The Northern hags at will I wind about,—
These Foreign Spirits put one sadly out.
The Blocksberg is firm ground where'er you stray,
And well defined—you cannot lose your way;
Frau Ilse at her stone is watching still,
And Heinrich cheers you from his faithful hill;
The Schnarchers growl and snarl, and Elend hears
No change to speak of for a thousand years.
Here, who can say if he moves swift or slow,
When the ground boils and bubbles from below?
On a smooth field you take a quiet stroll,
When—thump!—behind, a mountain will uproll
Its waves: 'tis scarce a mountain—but of height
Enough to screen me from the Sphinxes' sight.
Adown the valley fires are flickering dun,
And groups dance round, that promise lots of fun.
See there a knot of girls that smirking, smiling,
Would seem to welcome me with looks beguiling.
That coyly, now retreating, now advances,
And pours upon me showers of merry glances.
But softly, softly, on them. Fond of sweets,
The traveller must snap up what he meets.

Enter Lamiæ, who seek to attract Mephistopheles.
Lamiæ.

Mephistopheles
(hesitating).
Deceivers that they are! Oh, fate accursed!
Every man tricked and tempted like the first!
Yes, all grow older, but none grows more steady.
Poor devil! wert thou not fooled enough already?
They're good for nothing. We know how the case is,
With their tight laces and patched painted faces.
Rotten in every limb—peep where you will,
Not a sound spot in them—all rotten ripe.
We know it, see it, feel it, too—and still
What man but dances when the carrions pipe?

Lamiæ
(stopping).
Look sharp—he halts—he hesitates—he lingers.
At him, girls, now, or he'll slip through our fingers.

[Advancing boldly.
Mephistopheles.
Pluck up your courage! Why these twitches
Of doubt? Pluck up and join the revel.
If in the world there were no witches,
The devil a one would be a devil.

Lamiæ
(gracefully).
Round this hero let us twine
A sportive ring, till in his eyes
One seems most fair,—till love arise,
And that soft heart to one inclines.

Mephistopheles.
Yes! Could one judge by this uncertain light,
Women, ye seem; of rank, if I see right;
You're handsome—that is, I've nothing to say
To the contrary—you're beauties in your way.

Empusa
(rushing in).
And I too. Cousins, you must let me in
As one of you.

Lamiæ.
No, if her way she win
To our circle, she'll—she is a spoil-sport quite.

Empusa
(to Mephistopheles).
Empusa with the Ass's foot
Waits your affectionate salute.
You've but a Horse's shank, 'tis true,
Yet, Cousin, I acknowledge you.

Mephistopheles.
Here, travelling without any ostentation,
Incognito, and in a foreign nation,
How could one think of meeting a relation?
But the old proverb still holds here and there,
From Hartz to Hellas Cousins everywhere.

Empusa.
You see me as I am,—I speak out plain.
I could take many shapes; but I retain
My own to-night—the Ass's head does best
To compliment my cousin and my guest.

Mephistopheles.
Clanship and kin is all in all, I see,
With these folks, but—unpleasant though it be
To meet what seems a compliment with slight—
The Ass's head, I must ignore it quite.

Lamiæ.
Beast! nasty Beast! she comes to scare
Away the Lovely and the Fair.
The Beauty and the Love, that shone
Till she came, when she comes is gone.

Mephistopheles.
And the fair cousins, slender slips and tender—
Something about them still makes me suspicious.
Behind the roses of their little cheeks,
A man may meet, perhaps, more than he seeks,
And transformations other than he wishes.

Lamia.
Try us, we're many—try it, if you've pluck:
Here, take your choice of us. I wish you luck.
What means this leer and languish? You had best
Speak plainly—make up to the prettiest.
You act the lover wretchedly—your air
Of pride amuses and repels the fair.
Do mix with girls with somewhat more of sense,
With somewhat less, too, of magnificence.
Now, girls, let fall your masks, and show the man—
He well deserves such favour—all you can.

Mephistopheles.
I've made my choice; come, dearest, loveliest,
Come to my arms! A broomstick, I protest!
And this one,—horrid face, avaunt!

Lamia.
Just served you right; what did you want?

Mephistopheles.
The Little one, I caught her; but she shapes
Herself into a lizard and escapes:
As sliding through my hands she presses,
I feel the soft smooth serpent tresses.
I catch the Tall one next—the Bacchanal
Is off—the thyrsus staff, I have it all:
Pine-stem and prickly cone, instead
Of the tall girl with the high head.
—Now for the Fat one, there a man shall
Regale himself with the substantial:
For such girl what a price would your Easterns give!
I'll try, for the last time, what my luck may do.
The skinny Fungus shrivels—falls in two,
Leaving but dust and ashes, as I live!

Lamiæ.

[Lamiæ vanish.
Mephistopheles
(shaking himself).
I've not learned much in my travels, on my word.
Absurd 'tis here, and in the North absurd.
Spectres are cross-grained creatures everywhere,
People and Poets stupid here as there.
Here and there the same sensual game is played;
And here as there illusion lends its aid.
The smile of beauty tempted me to grasp,
And horrors to my shuddering breast I clasp.
Yet would the spell had been a little stronger,
And the illusion lasting somewhat longer!
(Losing his way among the rocks.)
Where am I? where's the road? what tricks they play us!
There was a path here; path—why all is chaos.
'Twas a smooth road on which I hither bore me,
And now see what a mountain stands before me!
Here I go scrambling up and down in vain,
Where shall I find my Sphinx-women again?
The thing must be a madman's dream outright—
A chain of mountains risen up in one night.
Witch-ride! why this outdoes our witch-rides all:
They bring their Blocksberg with them to the ball.

Oread
(from the natural rock).
Climb up here! reverence the old
Last rock-stairs of the Pindus range.
By Nature formed, in me behold
A hill that knows no shock of change.
I stood unmoved the same unshattered head,
When over me Pompeius, conquered, fled.
These are but fancy-forms, the sight that mock.
They vanish with the crowing of the cock.
Such fables oftentimes I see uprise,
And sink as suddenly before the eyes.

Mephistopheles.
Honour to thee, time-honoured Headland; crowned
With the high strength of oaks that bower thee round.
The clearest moonshine hath no spear
To pierce the ebon darkness here.
But, 'mong the bushes lo! a modest light
Glides near—how strangely everything comes right!—
It is no other than Homunculus!
Whither, young fellow, are you going thus?

Enter Homunculus.
Homunculus.
Hither and thither, up, down, in and out;
From place to place still hovering about,
Impatient the free air of life to breathe,
Longing to break the glass that is my sheath—
My chrysalis; but everywhere I see
Such sights! I could not venture yet to be.
Now for a secret—I am on the track
Of two Philosophers. Their tongues, clack! clack!
Went evermore, and Nature—Nature was
The word. Keep me not from them. Of the laws
Of earthly being they must somewhat know:
Between them, I may learn some little; so
Pass into life by their experience wiser.

Mephistopheles.

Homunculus.
Yet it were not wise
The good advice chance offers here to miss.

Mephistopheles.
Away with you! We shall see more of this.

[They separate.
Anaxagoras, Thales, Homunculus.
Anaxagoras
(to Thales).
Your mind resists all reasoning. Can there be
Imagined stronger proof than what we see?

Thales.
The willing waves each little wind obey;
But, meeting with the rough rock, roll away.

Anaxagoras.
Vapours of Fire have forced this rock through earth.

Thales.
In Moisture still the Living has its birth.

Homunculus
(joins them).
Let me with both of you walk side by side:
I have for Birth and Being to provide.

Anaxagoras.
Have you, oh Thales! ever in one night,
Seen a hill rise up out of mud to light?

Thales.
Never was Nature, and her effluent powers
Of Life, referred to days and nights and hours;
She acts in calm and regulated course—
Knows nothing of this Accidental force;
Even in her works of Most sublimity,
As in the Least, no violence knows she.

Anaxagoras.
But here such was. Here fierce Plutonic flame
With Æolus's stormy vapours came,
Burst through the earth's flat crust with monstrous throes,
And in the moment a New Hill arose.

Thales.
Now, how does this assist your case? the Hill
Is there—there let it be with my good will:
Time's lost in such dispute that no fruit brings,
But holding patient folks in leading strings.

Anaxagoras.
Not long unpeopled is our New Hill left,
Its Myrmidons are crowding every cleft—
Pygmies, Emmets, Fingerlings,
—And other active little things.
(To Homunculus.)
To Royalty in thought hast never risen?
Been still sealed up a hermit in your prison?
If you can learn the arts of government,
I'll make you king—

Homunculus.
What says my Thales?

Thales.
Not with my consent.
I would not have my friend accept the crown.
Among the little all one does dwarfs down,
Even as the little placed amid the great
Partakes of greatness. Why deliberate?
See you the Cranes in blackening cloud?
Look yonder, where they gather proud,
The insurgent people threatening.
Think you they would spare the king?
Talons sharp and pointed beak
Wrath upon the small folk wreak.
The Pygmies were no doubt the first
Offenders, but how short a time
Brings the vengeance-cloud to burst
In tempest on their crime!
The Pygmy folk the Herons slew,
As round their peaceful lakes they flew,
Or lay at rest in the calm nest.
Their arrowy death-shower brings ere long,
Fearful reprisals for foul wrong—
A righteous shedding of the blood
Of the malignant little brood.
The Cranes—the Cranes are coming, in
Thousands, to avenge their kin.
What now avails them shield or spear?
What now the Herons' plundered pride?
Pygmies and Dactyls shrink in fear,
And where shall the poor Emmets hide?
Their armies waver—shrink—fly—scatter.
All's over with them—little matter.

Anaxagoras
(after a pause, with solemnity).

[Casts himself on his face.
Thales.
What a world in all he hath seen and heard!
I don't well know what has occurred.
I have not felt like him. No doubt
This mad hour puts one sadly out.
And Luna, careless of these shocks,
In her own place, as usual, rocks.

Homunculus.
Look over to the Pygmy ground.
The hill-top, that till now was round,
Is angular. A sudden shock
Thrilled through me, and I saw a rock
Fall from the moon:—with little care for
This questioning of why and wherefore,
Or friends or foes, or loss or gain,
It has crashed, and smashed, and slain.
Yet do I see with admiration,
This great contrivance of creation,
Convulsive spasms Below that move,
And agitations from Above,
In one night bringing up and down
The Mountain and the mountain's Crown.

Thales.

[Exeunt.