University of Virginia Library

SCENE V.

Auerbach's Cellar in Leipzig.
Drinking-bout of Jolly Fellows.
Frosch.
Will no one drink? A laugh who raises?
I'll teach you to sit making faces!
To-day you're like wet straw, I see,
Once ye could blaze quite brilliantly.

Brander.
It rests on thee; thy wit brings forth, confess,
No sottish jest, no spicy hoggishness.

Frosch
(emptying a glass of wine on Brander's head.)
There thou hast both.

Brander.
Thou double swine!

Frosch.
That one must be, 'twas your wish, not mine.

Siebel.
Who quarrels here, show him the door!
With a full breast sing a round, swipe and roar!
Up! Holla! ho!

Altmayer.
Woe's me, I'm done for. Here!
Some cotton-wool! The brute has burst my ear.

Siebel.
When round the roof the echoes go,
You soon begin the Bass's power to know.

Frosch.
Right! Out with him who takes a jest so ill!
Ah! trall-lal-lal, lal-la!

Altmayer.
Ah! trall-lal-lal, lal lal lalla!

Frosch.
Your throats are well-tuned still.
(sings)

Brander.
A scurvy song! Fie! a political song!
A sorry song! Each morn thank God up there,
The Roman Kingdom does not need your care!
I hold it now at least a gain for me,
Nor Emperor, nor Chancellor I be.
But even if we must have an overlord,
We'll choose a Pope with one accord.
Ye know what kind of quality
May turn the scale, the man raise high.

Frosch
(sings.)
Nightingale, soar far and free,
A thousand times greet my Love for me!

Siebel.
No greeting to thy Love! No more of that I'll hear!

Frosch.
I greet and kiss my dove! No bar from thee I fear!
(sings)

Siebel.
Ay, praise and celebrate her, sing it o'er and o'er!
At my own time I'll burst with laughter.
She led me on, with thee the same old game she's after.
Now may some Kobold have her for his mate!
At the cross-roads jest with his pretty sweeting,
An old buck-goat, come from the Blocksberg late,
May bleat her, galloping by a good-night greeting!
A lusty lad of flesh and blood
Is for the hussey much too good.
From me no greeting shall she get.
Save that I'll break her windows yet.

Brander
(thumping the table.)
Give o'er! give o'er! be ruled by me!
Gentlemen, confess that Life I know:
Two love-sick fools sit here, I see,
Precedence now by rank must go.
Attention, a song in the newest style!
And chant ye the chorus loud the while!

(he sings)
Her way to a cellar a rat once found
And lived on fat and butter,
And soon her little paunch grew round
As that of Doctor Luther.
The cook laid poison in her way
Her world grew narrower every day,
As though she had love in her body.

Chorus
(shouting joyously.)
As though she had love in her body.

Brander.
She roved around, she roved away
In pools her thirst assuaging,
She gnawed, scratched round the house all day,
Nought stayed the venom's raging;
She leaped in anguish, leaped again,
Soon the poor beast had enough of pain,
As though she had love in her body.

Chorus.
As though she had love in her body.

Brander.
She came for torture to the clear day,
And crept about the kitchen,
Fell on the hearth, and writhing lay,
Panting for breath, and twitching.
Then laughed her poisoner, “week, week, week!”
Ha! there she pipes out her last squeak,
As though she had love in her body.

Chorus.
As though she had love in her body.

Siebel.
What these dull fellows call enjoyment!
Poison for a rat to strew,
Is, I am sure, a fine employment!

Brander.
Do rats find favour, then, with you?

Altmayer.
This bald-head with his fat pot-belly!
His bad luck makes him mild and tame,
In the swoln rat's ill fate, I tell ye,
Seeing his own image his pity claim.

(Enter Faust and Mephistopheles.)
Mephistopheles.
Before all else I must usher thee
Here into jovial company,
To show thee how lightly life can pass away,
With folk who make each day a holiday.
With little wit, much jollity,
To dance the same old round they never fail,
Like a young cat after its tail.
And when from headache they are free
Long as the host presents no bill,
Without a care, they are jolly still.

Brander.
From travel they have just come here,
In their outlandish manners that is clear;
They've not been here an hour, I see.

Frosch,
There truly thou art right! Hurrah! Leipzig for me!
Paris in little, she educates her youth.

Siebel.
What strange folk are they, think you in sooth?

Frosch.
Let me go sample them! O'er a full glass
I'll draw, as easily as a child's tooth,
The maggots from their noses, or I'm an ass.
They come of a good House, it would appear,—
They look proud, and not well-contented here.

Brander.
Mere charlatans, I bet a pottle!

Altmayer.
Perhaps?

Frosch.
Just watch, I'll wipe that fellow's eye!

Mephistopheles
(to Faust).
Folk never guess the Devil is nigh
Until he grips them by the throttle.

Faust.
We greet you, gentlemen!

Siebel.
Thanks, we in turn salute.
(Aside, looking at Mephistopheles.)
Why halts the fellow upon one foot?

Mephistopheles.
May I beg that to your table you invite us?
Instead of the good liquor we cannot count on here,
Your company would much delight us.

Altmayer.
You are a connaisseur, 'tis clear.

Frosch.
You have lately come from Rippach, tell me pray,
Have you just spent a night in supping with Jack Ketch?

Mephistopheles.
To-day we passed him, your town to fetch;
The last time we enjoyed his conversation,
About his cousins he has much to say,
Sent many greetings to each blood-relation.

(He bows to Frosch.
Altmayer.
He had you there! He twigs!

Siebel.
A knowing chap is he!

Frosch.
Just wait, I'll best him presently!

Mephistopheles.
We heard, I think, or am I wrong?
Trained voices in full chorus singing?
How splendidly a jovial song
Must set the ceiling's echoes ringing!

Frosch.
You are a virtuoso at any rate?

Mephistopheles.
Ah no! my power is small, my love of art is great.

Altmayre.
Give us a song!

Mephistopheles.
A budget, if you incline.

Siebel.
Then give us, pray, some brand-new strain!

Mephistopheles.
We have but just come back from Spain,
That glorious land of melody and wine.
(sings)

Frosch.
Hear that! a flea! Have you well caught the jest?
A flea is truly a charming guest.

Mephistopheles.

Brander.
Be sure to tell that tailor, in a twinkling
To measure him quite perfectly,
And, lest his head the forfeit be,
To fit those breeches without wrinkling!

Mephistopheles.

Chorus
(with enthusiasm.)
We grip him, and we nip him,
When one makes us his prey.

Frosch.
Bravo! bravo! That was fine,

Siebel.
Be that the fate of every flea!

Brander.
Point your finger, and squashed is he!

Altmayer.
Hurrah for freedom! Hurrah for wine!

Mephistopheles.
To honour Liberty a glass I'd gladly drain.
If but these wines of yours were better worth the pain.

Siebel.
That we don't want to hear again!

Mephistopheles.
Our Host, I fear would take it crustily,
Or I would give each worthy guest
From our own cellar, of the best.

Siebel.
Out with it, I'll take the blame on me.

Frosch.
Give us but one good glass, our praises shall be ample.
But don't be stingy with your sample.
If I'm your taster for the job,
With a good mouthful drench my gob.

Altmater
(aside.)
They come, I fancy, from Rhine's green shore.

Mephistopheles.
Get me a gimblet now!

Brander.
What will you do with it?
You can't have got your casks outside the door?

Altmayer.
Behind there stands the Host's tool-basket, with his kit.

Mephistopheles
(takes out a gimblet: to Frosch.)
What would you sample? Take your pick!

Frosch.
How do you mean? Have you all kinds at will?

Mephistopheles.
Each freely choose, and damn the bill!

Altmayer
(to Frosch.)
Aha! already you begin your lips to lick.

Frosch.
Good then, if I may choose, Rhine wine whate'er the brand,
The very best of gifts come from the Fatherland.

Mephistopheles
(while he bores a hole in the edge of the table where Frosch sits.)
Give me a piece of wax, and soon I'll make some corks.

Altmayer.
Ah! that's the way the Juggler works.

Mephistopheles
(to Brander).
And you?

Brander.
Champagne's the wine for me,
Sparkling and foaming let it be!

(Mephistopheles bores, while one of the others makes stoppers and plugs the holes.)
Brander.
At foreign wares one can't always cavil,
Good things oft lie far from our view.
Your true-bred German hates all Frenchmen like the Devil;
But drinks their wines, and likes them too.

Siebel
(as Mephistopheles approaches his place.)
Sour stuff, I must confess, I shun always.
A glass of pure sweet wine then, pray!

Mephistopheles.
Here soon for you shall flow Tokay.

Altmayer.
Nay, gentlemen, look in my face!
I see that you are making us your jest.

Mephistopheles.
Hey! hey! To mock each noble guest
Would be too perilous a trick.
Say then what would you have, be quick!
With what wines can I serve you now?

Altmayer.
With each in turn, and soon, 'twere best!

(After all the holes have been bored and stopt.)
Mephistopheles
(with strange gestures.)
Grapes the vine bears, and no thorns,
And the buck-goat bears his horns!
The wine is juicy, the vine-branch wood,
This wooden table gives wine as good.
A piercing glance through Nature's veil,
Only believe, here's a miracle!
Now draw the plugs, quaff at your ease!

All
(as they draw the plugs the wine desired by each flows into his glass.)
Fair spring that flows with wines like these!

Mephistopheles.
Only beware that ye spill nothing, please!

(They drink, and drink again.)
All
(sing.)
Jolly as cannibals are we
Or as five hundred sows, O!

Mephistopheles.
The louts are at their ease, see how they enjoy their spree!

Faust.
Let us go now, I'm past all patience!

Mephistopheles.
But, just observe, their bestiality
Grows ripe for splendid revelations.

Siebel
(drinking carelessly the wine flows over the floor, and turns to flame.)
Help! Fire! Help here! Hell's flame's unpent!

Mephistopheles
(rebuking the flame.)
Be quiet, friendly Element! (to the Company)

This time 'twas but a drop of purgatorial fire.

Siebel.
What's this? Wait! You shall smart for this, mad Squire!
You know us not, that's evident.

Frosch.
Let him with his vile tricks again provoke us!

Altmayre.
I think 'twere best we now run him out quietly.

Siebel.
What sir? You dare such jests with me,
Play on us here your hocus-pocus?

Mephistopheles.
Shut up, old wine-cask!

Siebel.
You broomstick, you!
You dare again to treat us rudely?

Brander.
Just wait! We'll dust your jacket shrewdly!

Altmayer
(draws a plug out of the table. Fire springs out on him.)
I'm burning! burning!

Siebel.
Sorcery!
Stab him! Some outlaw he must be!

(They draw their knives and attack Mephistopheles.)
Mephistopheles
(with solemn gestures.)
Vision false, and spell
Change sense and place as well!
Here, yet there be!

(They stand in amazement, and gaze at each other.)
Altmayer.
Where am I? What a lovely land!

Frosch.
Vineyards! Or see I aright?

Siebel.
And grapes close to my hand!

Brander.
Here, neath green bowers, whose branches twine,
See what fine grapes! See what a vine!

(He seizes Siebel by the nose. All seize each other in the same way, and draw their knives.)
Mephistopheles
(as above.)
Error loose their eyes from band!
Mark how the Devil his humour shows!

(Vanishes with Faust. The Comrades release each other and separate.)
Siebel.
What's up!

Altmayer.
Eh?

Frosch.
What! Was that thy nose?

Brander
(to Siebel).
And thine I've got still in my hand!

Altmayer.
I felt a shock that seemed my limbs to tear!
I'm swooning! Quick, bring me a chair!

Frosch.
But what has happened, pray explain.

Siebel.
Where is the chap? Track him once more,
He shan't escape alive again!

Altmayer.
I saw him myself ride through the cellar door—
Upon a cask. I saw it plain—
Heavy as lead my feet are growing (turning to the table.)

Think! If the wine-stream still were flowing?

Siebel.
All was delusion, falsehood, sham.

Frosch.
Yet I drank wine, half sure I am.

Brander.
But, for those grapes? Was all but spell?

Altmayer.
Tell me, should one believe no miracle?