Faust (18 page)

Authors: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

BOOK: Faust

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WITCH
(
dancing
)
.

	I’ll shriek with glee, I’ll lose my brain,
	my Squire Satan has come back again!

MEPHISTOPHELES.

Such appellation, hag, is out of place.

WITCH.

What’s wrong, what harm is there in it?

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	It’s now a name for fairy tales and fables;
	the people are as miserable as ever—
	the Evil One is gone, the evil ones remain.
2510	You call me Baron, that will do for now.
	I am a cavalier, like other cavaliers.
	You cannot doubt the noble blood in me.
	Just take a look at my escutcheon.
	( Makes an obscene gesture .)

WITCH
(
bursts out laughing
)
.

	Ha! Ha! Ha! There’s my little devil!
	As shameless now as ever!

MEPHISTOPHELES
(
to
FAUST
).

	My friend, I hope you understand it well.
	This is the way we deal with witches.

WITCH.

Now tell me, sirs, what’s on your mind.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	Get me a glassful of your famous juice!
2520	But please, the oldest you can find—
	where years of age have multiplied its strength.

WITCH.

	With pleasure! I keep a handy bottle on my person,
	from which I snitch a little now and then.
	The stink has gone from it completely.
	Yes, indeed, I’ll gladly let you have a swig. ( Softly .)
	But if this man should drink it when he’s not prepared,
	he would die within the hour, as you know.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	He is my friend; he should be the better for the potion.
	He deserves the finest sample of your cookery.
2530	Go draw your circle, speak your spells,
	pour him a gobletful.
	( While making fantastic gestures, the WITCH draws a circle and places strange objects into it; the glasses begin to ring, the kettles hum—a kind of music ensues. Finally the WITCH picks up a large tome and motions the apes to jump into the circle. Some hold torches, and the backs of others serve her as a reading lectern. She beckons FAUST to approach. )

FAUST
(
to
MEPHISTOPHELES
).

	What is the drift of this performance?
	What’s all this nonsense, this frenzied mumbo-jumbo?
	With such repugnant business
	I am only too familiar by now.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	Don’t be foolish! This is only for a laugh or two.
	For once don’t be the stern professor!
	She adopts a healer’s hocus-pocus
	to make the juice agree with you.
	( He makes FAUST step into the circle .)

WITCH
(
begins to declaim with great pathos from the book
)
.

2540	See how it’s done!
	Make ten from one,
	The two must go,
	And three is so,
	When four is lost,
	You earn the most.
	From five to six,
	By the witch’s tricks,
	Come seven and eight
	In excellent state!
2550	And nine is lame
	And ten is tame—
	All in the witch’s numbers-game. ²⁷

FAUST.

I think the witch is running a high fever.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	You’ve barely heard the half of it.
	I know it well—it is the tenor of her book;
	I used it once and wasted time with it.
	A bald and thorough contradiction
	holds mystery for fools and clever men alike.
	My friend, it is an old as well as novel art.
2560	It was the custom then and now—
	by three and one and one and three—
	to broadcast error instead of verity.
	They teach and blabber undisturbed
	and no one really doubts these fools.
	So long as words will flow, there’ll be the notion
	that thought must be their part and parcel.

WITCH
(
continues
)
.

	When science lies buried,
	The “why is” or “what is”
	Need never be sought.
2570	No one is worried;
	All science is gratis,
	Need never be thought.

FAUST.

	What kind of nonsense is she drooling?
	Another dose of it will split my head in two.
	It seems I hear a choir
	of a hundred thousand fools.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	Enough, enough, O worthy Sibyl!
	Bring on the drink, uncork the bottle,
	and fill his goblet quickly to the brink.
2580	No harm will come to our friend from this:
	He is a man of manifold degrees
	who’s quaffed a wholesome drink or two before.

WITCH
(
while gesturing ceremoniously, she pours the potion into a bowl; as
FAUST
puts it to his lips, a delicate flame leaps up
).

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	Go to it, friend, don’t hesitate.
	Before you know, your heart will soar with joy.
	You are the devil’s intimate—
	and would retreat before a little fire?
	( The WITCH breaks the circle . FAUST steps out .)

MEPHISTOPHELES.

Now out with you. Let’s go, you must not rest.

WITCH.

I hope the drink sits well with you.

MEPHISTOPHELES
(
to the
WITCH
)
.

	If you should ever need me for a favor,
2590	don’t hesitate to call on me Walpurgis Night. ²⁸

WITCH.

	Here is a song for you! If you would sing it now and then,
	you will experience its special powers.

MEPHISTOPHELES
(
to
FAUST
)
.

	Come quickly now, and let yourself be guided;
	you must perspire thoroughly
	so that the strength will penetrate within and out.
	Later on you’ll learn to value leisure,
	and soon you’ll sense with thorough satisfaction
	how Cupid stirs and prances to and fro.

FAUST.

	Just let me quickly look into the mirror!
2600	The woman’s form was, oh, so fair!

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	No! No! The paragon of womankind
	shall come before you in the flesh.
	( Aside .)
	With that potion in your belly
	you’ll soon see Helena in every wench.

A STREET

Faust; Margaret passing by
.

FAUST.

	My fairest lady, may I dare
	to offer you my arm and company?

MARGARET.

	Am neither lady, neither fair,
	and need no escort to go home.
	( She frees herself and exits .)

FAUST.

	My God, this child is beautiful!
2610	I’ve never seen the like of it.
	She is so proper and so virtuous,
	and yet a little snippy too.
	The red of her lips, the light of her face,
	will be forever in my mind!
	The way she shyly drops her eyes
	is stamped profoundly in my heart.
	How pert and curt she was with me—
	a sheer delight, an ecstasy!
	( MEPHISTOPHELES enters .)

FAUST.

Listen! Get that girl for me!

MEPHISTOPHELES.

Which girl?

FAUST.

2620	The one who just went by.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	Oh, that one? She only left her priest just now
	who absolved her soul from every sin;
	I sneaked in right behind her bench.
	She is a very innocent young thing
	who went for nothing to confession.
	I have no power over her.

FAUST.

But she’s past fourteen already.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	You talk like Jack the Libertine,
	who craves each lovely blossom for himself.
2630	He fancies that all gifts and favors
	are free and ready for the plucking;
	but there are times without successes.

FAUST.

	My dear Professor Know-It-All,
	don’t lecture me on legal matters!
	I’ll be brief and to the point:
	Unless that sweet and youthful blood
	lies in my arms this very evening,
	by midnight you and I part company.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	Don’t ask for the impossible!
2640	I need at least two weeks, and more,
	to ferret out an opportunity.

FAUST.

	Had I but seven hours’ peace,
	I should not need the devil’s help
	to seduce that darling creature.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

	You’re talking almost like a Frenchman now;
	there is no need to be discouraged.
	What good is easy consummation?
	The pleasure is not half so keen
	as when you first must clear your way
2650	through sundry growth and thickets.
	Mold your moppet, knead her into shape,
	as you have read in those Italian stories.

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