B00ARI2G5C EBOK (43 page)

Spearpoints, subdue me now,

Clubs, strike and break me now;

Lightnings, unmake me now!

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All that is vain and void

Let it be all destroyed:

Shine, star, for evermore,

Love’s everlasting core!

PATER PROFUNDUS
[
in a lower region]
.

The rocky precipice below

Weighs on a chasm still more deep;

A thousand streamlets shine and flow

Down to the foaming flood’s dread leap;

By its own energy ascending

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The tree thrusts skywards straight and tall:

All these show forth the love unending

That shapes all things and shields them all.

How wild a roar is this, as if

The forest shook, the abyss were stirred!

Yet the great torrent from the cliff

Pours down like love, its sound half-heard,

To the valley’s thirst; and by and by

Lightning has struck, its flame makes clean

The poisoned air, the sultry sky

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Where swollen thunder-clouds have been;

These are love’s messengers! They tell

Of power all-making, all-surrounding.

Oh let it burn in me as well!

Bonds of dull sense, my mind confounding,

Torment and chill me: oh release

Me from these chains that bind so tight!

Oh God, between my thoughts make peace

And to my needy heart give light!

PATER SERAPHICUS
[
in the middle region]
.

Something hovers through the swaying

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Pine-trees’ tresses: who can tell

What it is? A cloud of daying!

In it youthful spirits dwell.

CHORUS OF BLESSED BOYS
.

Father, say, what is this place?

Kind friend, is it you who call?

Here we feel such happiness:

Life is gentle to us all.

PATER SERAPHICUS
. Mortal children, midnight-born,

Minds half open, sense half dead,

From your parents’ arms soon torn,

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To the angels given instead.

You have felt a lover near you:

Come to him! But, happy few,

Earth’s rough journey was to spare you

And to leave no mark on you.

Enter into me, come down now

Into my earth-worldly eyes:

You can use them as your own now.

Look at this strange paradise!

[
He takes them into himself
.]

These are trees, and those are rocks;

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There a waterfall that gushes

Wildly from the height—it strikes

Its steep path, and down it rushes.

THE BLESSED BOYS
[
from inside him]
.

It is sad and gloomy here

Though these sights are great to see:

We are stirred with dread and fear.

Noble father, set us free!

PATER SERAPHICUS
. Rise to higher spheres and grow

Imperceptibly, as stronger

Still God’s presence there will glow,

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Pure, eternal, dimmed no longer;

For the spirits’ nurture reigning

In that free ethereal zone

And their blessed hope sustaining,

Is eternal Love made known.

CHORUS OF BLESSED BOYS
[
circling round the highest summits]
.

Dance ring-a-ringing,

All of us hand in hand

Joyfully singing,

Dance, sacred brother-band!

Heed that wise teaching!

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Him you revere,

Pure hearts upreaching

Shall see him here.

ANGELS
[
hovering in the upper atmosphere, carrying
FAUST
‘s immortal part]
.

This noble spirit saved alive

Has foiled the Devil’s will!

He who strives on and lives to strive

Can earn redemption still
.

And now that love itself looks down

To favour him with grace,

The blessed host with songs may crown

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His welcome to this place.

THE YOUNGER ANGELS
.

Holy penitents who gave

Roses of their love to scatter,

Helped us so in our great matter,

As we fought this soul to save,

Helped us gain this noble prize.

Devils fled before our eyes,

Hell’s dark spirits shrank back daunted

As we smote them with unwonted

Heaven-fire of love’s hot rain;

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Even old Satan felt that pain

Penetrate his master-mind.

We won! Rejoice, all angelkind!

THE MATURER ANGELS
. An earthbound, immature

And fragmentary,

Fireproof yet still impure

Burden we carry.

When spirit-energy

Captures the physical

Elements powerfully,

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No force angelical

Can loose the subtle bond

That has allied them:

Only the Love beyond

Time can divide them.

THE YOUNGER ANGELS
. Spirits in nebulous

Motion advancing

Round this vertiginous

Rock-peak are dancing.

Now the cloud brightens: see,

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A happy company

Circling together, new-

Freed from earth’s burden—they

Are blessed children, who

In the spring’s beauty here,

In this new higher sphere

Rejoice and play.

Let him first be with these:

To joy’s, to truth’s increase

That is his way.

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THE BLESSED BOYS
. Gladly we welcome this

Chrysalid-aspirant:

Ours now his heaven-bent

New metamorphosis.

Thus from his close cocoon

We set him free:

With angel-life so soon

How fair is he!

DOCTOR MARIANUS
[
in the highest and purest cell]
.

How wide a view up here,

The soul to lift!

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What women now draw near?

Upwards they drift,

And in their midst, with stars

Crowning her splendour,

I see heaven’s Lady pass—

Those lights attend her.

[
In ecstasy
.]

Queen and ruler of the world!

In this deep blue sky,

In thy tent of heaven unfurled,

Show me thy mystery!

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I must love thee as a man,

And my heart’s emotion

Gives what sacred love I can:

Spurn not my devotion!

We who fiercely fight for thee,

Conquerors at thy bidding,

Gentle lovers we can be

If thou hear our pleading.

Purest Virgin, noblest Mother,

Queen of our election,

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Goddess yielding to none other

In thy great perfection!

Cloudlets surround her

Light as the elements:

These are her penitents,

Sorrowing and tender.

Drinking the ether,

Needful of mercy,

Suppliants besiege her.

Though inviolate, exempted

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In thy peerless glory,

Thou mayst listen to their story

Whom sweet sin has tempted.

They were weak, in thee they trust;

Who shall save them now?

Who can break the chains of lust?

Who will help but thou?

Easily the foot can slip,

Slide to swift destruction,

Ardent eye and flattering lip

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Breathe such strong seduction.

[
The
MATER GLORIOSA
*
hovers into view
.]

CHORUS OF PENITENT WOMEN
*

In the transcendent

High regions soaring,

Lady resplendent,

See us adoring,

Hear us imploring!

MAGNA PECCATRIX
(
Luke
7:36).

By the love that on thy glorious

Son’s feet shed a balm so tearful,

While the Pharisee’s censorious

Thoughts despised that homage fearful;

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By the fragrance poured so gladly

From the jar of alabaster,

By my hair that softly, sadly

Dried thy sacred limbs, oh Master—

MULIER SAMARITANA
(
John
4
)

By that well where once they tarried,

Flocks by Abraham’s shepherds tended,

By the cooling draught I carried

Which his dear parched lips befriended;

By that pure rich fountain flowing

Now through all the world, unceasing,

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Ever in abundance growing,

In its brightness still increasing—

MARIA AEGYPTIACA
(
Acta Sanctorum
).

By the holy place where they

Laid to rest our Saviour mortal,

By the arm that barred my way

As I dared approach its portal;

By my forty years awaiting

Pardon in a desert land,

By my last and blessed greeting

Written on the burning sand—

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ALL THREE
. Such great sinners find a place

Near thee, by thy condescension,

And their penitent intention

Grows into eternal grace:

This good soul, who only once

Went astray and scarcely knew it,

Also seeks thy mercy—show it

As befits her innocence!

UNA POENITENTIUM
once known as Gretchen [pressing close]
.

Virgin and Mother, thou

Lady beyond compare, oh thou

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Who art full of glory, bow

Thy face in mercy to my great joy now!

He whom I loved—oh see,

He is undarkened, he

Comes back to me!

BLESSED BOYS
[
circling nearer]
.

How soon with limbs of might

He has outsoared us!

We nurtured him aright,

He will reward us.

Out of life’s music all

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Too soon death plucked us,

But he has learnt it all;

He will instruct us.

THE PENITENT
once known as Gretchen
.

Ringed by that noble spirit-chorus,

This neophyte of life unknown,

Scarcely awake, and strange before us,

Already makes our form his own.

See, how all earthly bonds discarding

He casts his outworn husk aside,

And an ethereal raiment parting

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His youth steps out refortified!

O Lady, grant me now to teach him!

He is dazzled still by the new day.

MATER GLORIOSA
. Come! into higher spheres

outreach him!

He must sense you to find the way.

DOCTOR MARIANUS
[
prostrated in adoration]
.

Gaze aloft—the saving eyes

See you all, such tender

Penitents; look up and render

Thanks, to blest renewal rise!

May each nobler spirit never

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Fail to serve thee; Virgin, Mother,

Queen, oh keep us in thy favour,

Goddess, kind for ever!

CHORUS MYSTICUS
.

All that must disappear

Is but a parable;

What lay beyond us, here

All is made visible;

Here deeds have understood

Words they were darkened by;

Eternal Womanhood

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Draws us on high.

(
a) Unpublished note (1797) for an overall scheme of Parts One and Two (paralipomenon BA 5
*
)

Ideal striving to achieve interaction and empathy with the whole of Nature.

Apparition of the Spirit as the genius of the world and of deeds.

Conflict between form and the formless.

Formless content preferred to empty form.

Content brings its form with it, there is never form without content.

These contradictions to be made sharper instead of reconciling them.

Clear cold scholarly striving: Wagner.

Naïve warm scholarly striving: the Student.

[
deleted:
Life Activity Essence]

Personal enjoyment of life viewed [?sought] from without Part I In naivety passion.

Enjoyment of activity outwards Part II Enjoyment with consciousness, beauty.

Enjoyment of creativity from within. Epilogue in Chaos on the way to Hell.

(
b) Unpublished synopsis (1816) of an early conception of Acts I, III, and IV (paralipomenon BA 70
*
)

At the beginning of the Second Part Faust is discovered asleep. He is surrounded by choruses of spirits, who with visible symbols and agreeable singing conjure up for him the pleasures of worldly honour, fame, power, and sovereignty. They disguise their in fact ironical propositions in flattering words and melodies. He wakes, all his previous dependence on sensuality and passion have disappeared. His spirit purified and refreshed, striving towards supreme heights.

Mephistopheles enters and gives him a light-hearted and stimulating account of the Imperial Diet at Augsburg which has been convened by the Emperor Maximilian; he makes believe it is all taking place in the square outside the window, although Faust can see nothing. Finally Mephistopheles pretends to see the Emperor in
a window of the town hall, talking to a prince. He assures Faust that the Emperor has been enquiring after him, asking where he lives and whether he might perhaps be presented at court. Faust lets himself be persuaded, and the magic cloak expedites their journey. In Augsburg they land before a solitary hall, and Mephistopheles goes to explore. Faust in the meantime reverts to his earlier abstruse ruminations and lofty demands upon himself, and when his companion returns, he makes the strange stipulation that Mephistopheles must not enter the hall but stay outside the door; and moreover, that in the Emperor’s presence there is to be no trickery or juggling with appearances. Mephistopheles complies. We find ourselves in a banqueting room, where the Emperor, who has just risen from table, steps to the window with one of the princes and confesses that he would like to have Faust’s magic cloak, which would enable him to go hunting in Tyrol and be back next day to attend the session. Faust is announced and received graciously. The Emperor’s questions are all concerned with earthly obstacles and how they can be overcome by magic. Faust’s answers hint at loftier goals and loftier means. The Emperor does not understand him, still less the courtier. The conversation becomes confused, falters, and Faust in embarrassment looks round for Mephistopheles, who immediately steps up behind him and answers in his name. This enlivens the dialogue, several other people join in, everyone is pleased with the strange guest. The Emperor demands apparitions; Faust and Mephistopheles consent. Faust absents himself to make the necessary preparations. At that moment Mephistopheles assumes Faust’s shape, to entertain the older and younger ladies, who end by thinking him a most remarkable fellow, since he can cure a wart on one’s hand with a light touch, or a corn on one’s foot by treading on it a little more roughly with his disguised cloven hoof; and one blonde maiden even permits him to dab at her face with his long skinny fingers, assured by her looking-glass that this is making her freckles disappear one after another. Evening falls, and a magic theatre rises from the ground of its own accord. The figure of Helen appears. The comments of the ladies on this beauty of beauties animate the otherwise awesome spectacle. Paris enters, and is given the same treatment by the men as his partner received from the women. The disguised Faust agrees with both parties, and a very entertaining scene develops.