 | Goethe's Faust : First Part |  |
SCENE XXII.
Melancholy Day. Open Plain.Faust and Mephistopheles.
Faust.
In misery! despairing! Long wandering in distress
over the country and now imprisoned! Shut up in a
dungeon as a malefactor, and doomed to horrible tortures,
that sweet unhappy creature! It has come to
this! To this!—Treacherous, contemptible Spirit!
This, then, thou hast concealed from me!—Stand there
—stand! Roll thy devilish eyes in thy head in sullen
rage! Stand and defy me with thy insufferable presence!
In prison! In unallieveable misery! Given
over to evil spirits, and to men without feeling, her
Judges. And meanwhile thou hast rocked me to rest
in abominable dissipations, concealed from me her ever
increasing misery, and left her to perish without help.
Mephistopheles.
She is not the first.
Faust.
Dog! Execrable monster!—Transform him thou infinite
Spirit! Transform this reptile again into his
mongrel shape, in which it pleased him to trot before me
by night, to loll at the feet of the harmless traveller,
and to hang on his shoulders when he stumbled. Change
him again into his favourite shape, that he may crawl
on his belly in the sand before me, that I may trample
him under foot, the reprobate—“Not the first!—”
Misery! Misery! The soul of man cannot conceive
that more than one creature should sink into the depths
of such wretchedness, that the first had not sufficiently
agony, before the eternal Forgiver of sins! The misery
of this one girl rages through my marrow and my life.
Thou grinnest ruthlessly over the fate of thousands
more!
Mephistopheles.
Now we are again at the boundary of our wits, where
the senses of you men, overstrained, snap short. Why
dost thou become our partner, if thou canst not carry it
through? Wouldst thou fly, when thou art not secure
from giddiness? Did we thrust ourselves on thee, or
thou on us?
Faust.
Gnash not thy ravenous fangs at me! It makes me
sick. Great and magnificent Spirit, who didst deign to
appear to me, thou who knowest my heart and my soul,
why hast thou fettered me to this shameful companion,
who battens upon mischief, and rejoices in destruction?
Mephistopheles.
Hast thou done?
Faust.
Rescue her! or woe to thee! The most horrible curse
Be upon thee for thousands of years!
Mephistopheles.
I cannot loosen the bonds of the Avenger, nor draw his bolts—
Rescue her!—Who was it that drove her to destruction? I or thou?
(Faust stares wildly around.)
Dost thou grope for a thunderbolt? 'Tis well they were
not given to you miserable mortals! To crush the
innocent standing in his path, that's the tyrant's way
of getting out of a difficulty.
Faust.
Bring me to her! She shall be free!
And the danger to which thou exposest thyself?
Remember that the guilt of blood shed by thy hand still
lies upon the town. Over the spot where a man was
slain avenging spirits lurk for the returning murderer.
Faust.
That again from thee? The murder and death of a
world be upon thee monster! Bring me there, I say,
and set her free!
Mephistopheles.
I'll bring thee there. Now hear what I can do!
Have I all power in heaven and earth? I'll cloud the
senses of the Warder; get possession of the keys for thee,
and bring her out by the hand of a mortal. I will watch.
The magic steeds are saddled, I will bear thee away.
That I can do.
Faust.
Up, and away!
| Goethe's Faust : First Part | |