Faust (trans. Bayard Taylor)/Act I/VI
VI.
BRILLIANTLY LIGHTED HALLS.
Emperor and Princes. The Court in Movement.
Chamberlain (to Mephistopheles).
THE spirit-scene you ’ve promised, still you owe us;
Our Lord ’s impatient; come, the phantasm show us!
Our Lord ’s impatient; come, the phantasm show us!
Lord High Steward.
Just now His Gracious Self did question me:
Delay not, nor offend His Majesty!
Delay not, nor offend His Majesty!
Mephistopheles.
My comrade ’s gone to set the work in motion;
How to begin, he has the proper notion.
In secret he the charms must cull,
Must labor with a fervor tragic:
Who would that treasure lift, the Beautiful,—
Requires the highest Art, the sage’s Magic.
How to begin, he has the proper notion.
In secret he the charms must cull,
Must labor with a fervor tragic:
Who would that treasure lift, the Beautiful,—
Requires the highest Art, the sage’s Magic.
Lord High Steward.
What arts you need, is all the same to me;
The Emperor wills that you should ready be.
The Emperor wills that you should ready be.
A Blonde (to Mephistopheles).
One word, Sir! Here you see a visage fair,—
In sorry summer I another wear!
There sprout a hundred brown and reddish freckles,
And vex my lily skin with ugly speckles.
A cure!
In sorry summer I another wear!
There sprout a hundred brown and reddish freckles,
And vex my lily skin with ugly speckles.
A cure!
Mephistopheles.
’T is pity! Shining fair, yet smitten,—
Spotted, when May comes, like a panther-kitten!
Take frog-spawn, tongues of toads, which cohobate,
Under the full moon deftly distillate,
And, when it wanes, apply the mixture:
Next spring, the spots will be no more a fixture.
Spotted, when May comes, like a panther-kitten!
Take frog-spawn, tongues of toads, which cohobate,
Under the full moon deftly distillate,
And, when it wanes, apply the mixture:
Next spring, the spots will be no more a fixture.
A Brunette.
To sponge upon you, what a crowd ’s advancing!
I beg a remedy: a frozen foot
Annoys me much, in walking as in dancing;
And awkwardly I manage to salute.
I beg a remedy: a frozen foot
Annoys me much, in walking as in dancing;
And awkwardly I manage to salute.
Mephistopheles.
A gentle kick permit, then, from my foot!46
The Brunette.
Well,—that might happen, when the two are lovers.
Mephistopheles.
My kick a more important meaning covers:
Similia similibus, when one is sick.
The foot cures foot, each limb its hurt can palliate;
Come near! Take heed! and, pray you, don’t retaliate!
Similia similibus, when one is sick.
The foot cures foot, each limb its hurt can palliate;
Come near! Take heed! and, pray you, don’t retaliate!
The Brunette (screaming)
Oh! oh! it stings! That was a fearful kick,
Like hoof of horse.
Like hoof of horse.
Mephistopheles.
But it has cured you, quick.
To dance whene’er you please, you now are able;
To press your lover’s foot, beneath the table.
To dance whene’er you please, you now are able;
To press your lover’s foot, beneath the table.
Lady (pressing forwards).
Make room for me! Too great is my affliction,
My tortures worse than those described in fiction:
His bliss, till yesterday, was in my glances,
But now he turns his back, and spins with her romances.
My tortures worse than those described in fiction:
His bliss, till yesterday, was in my glances,
But now he turns his back, and spins with her romances.
Mephistopheles.
The matter ’s grave, but listen unto me!
Draw near to him with gentle, soft advances;
Then take this coal and mark him stealthily
On mantle, shoulder, sleeve,—though ne’er so slight,
Yet penitent at once his heart will be.
The coal thereafter you must straightway swallow,
And let no sip of wine or water follow:
He ’ll sigh before your door this very night.
Draw near to him with gentle, soft advances;
Then take this coal and mark him stealthily
On mantle, shoulder, sleeve,—though ne’er so slight,
Yet penitent at once his heart will be.
The coal thereafter you must straightway swallow,
And let no sip of wine or water follow:
He ’ll sigh before your door this very night.
The Lady.
It is not poison, sure?
Mephistopheles (offended).
Respect, where it is due!
To get such coals, you ’d travel many a mile:
They ’re from the embers of a funeral pile,
The fires whereof we once more hotly blew.
To get such coals, you ’d travel many a mile:
They ’re from the embers of a funeral pile,
The fires whereof we once more hotly blew.
Page.
I love, yet still am counted adolescent.
Mephistopheles (aside).
I know not whom to listen to, at present.
(To the Page.)
Let not the younger girls thy fancies fetter;
Those well in years know how to prize thee better.—
(Others crowd around him.)
Already others? ’T is a trial, sooth!
I ‘ll help myself, at last, with naked truth—
The worst device!—so great my misery.
O Mothers! Mothers! let but Faust go free!
(Gazing around him.)
The lights are burning dimly in the hall,
The Court is moving onward, one and all:
I see them march, according to degrees,
Through long arcades and distant galleries.
Now they assemble in the ample space
Of the Knights’ Hall; yet hardly all find place.
The breadth of walls is hung with arras rich,
And armor gleams from every nook and niche.
Here, I should think, there needs no magic word:
The ghosts will come, and of their own accord.
(To the Page.)
Let not the younger girls thy fancies fetter;
Those well in years know how to prize thee better.—
(Others crowd around him.)
Already others? ’T is a trial, sooth!
I ‘ll help myself, at last, with naked truth—
The worst device!—so great my misery.
O Mothers! Mothers! let but Faust go free!
(Gazing around him.)
The lights are burning dimly in the hall,
The Court is moving onward, one and all:
I see them march, according to degrees,
Through long arcades and distant galleries.
Now they assemble in the ample space
Of the Knights’ Hall; yet hardly all find place.
The breadth of walls is hung with arras rich,
And armor gleams from every nook and niche.
Here, I should think, there needs no magic word:
The ghosts will come, and of their own accord.