Faust (trans. Bayard Taylor)/Act V/V
V.
MIDNIGHT.161
Four Gray Women enter.
First.
MY name, it is Want.
Second.
And mine, it is Guilt,
Third.
And mine, it is Care.
Fourth.
Necessity, mine.162
Three Together.
The portal is bolted, we cannot get in:
The owner is rich, we ’ve no business within.
The owner is rich, we ’ve no business within.
Want.
I shrink to a shadow.
Guilt.
I shrink unto naught.
Necessity.
The pampered from me turn the face and the thought.
Care.
Ye Sisters, ye neither can enter, nor dare;
But the keyhole is free to the entrance of Care.
(Care disappears.)
But the keyhole is free to the entrance of Care.
(Care disappears.)
Want.
Ye, grisly old Sisters, be banished from here!
Guilt.
Beside thee, and bound to thee, I shall appear!
Necessity.
At your heels goes Necessity, blight in her breath.
The Three.
The clouds are in motion, and cover each star!
Behind there, behind! from afar, from afar,
He cometh, our Brothet! he comes, he is⸻
⸻Death!
Behind there, behind! from afar, from afar,
He cometh, our Brothet! he comes, he is⸻
⸻Death!
Faust (in the Palace).
Four saw I come, but those that went were three;
The sense of what they said was hid from me,
But something like “Necessity” I heard;
Thereafter, “Death,” a gloomy, threatening word!
It sounded hollow, spectrally subdued:
Not yet have I my liberty made good:
If I could banish Magic’s fell creations,
And totally unlearn the incantations,—
Stood I, O Nature! Man alone in thee,
Then were it worth one’s while a man to be!163
Ere in the Obscure I sought it, such was I,—
Ere I had cursed the world so wickedly.
Now fills the air so many a haunting shape,
That no one knows how best he may escape.
What though One Day with rational brightness beams,
The Night entangles us in webs of dreams.
From our young fields of life we come, elate:
There croaks a bird: what croaks he? Evil fate!
By Superstition constantly insnared,
It grows to us, and warns, and is declared.
Intimidated thus, we stand alone.—
The portal jars, yet entrance is there none.
(Agitated.)
Is any one here?
The sense of what they said was hid from me,
But something like “Necessity” I heard;
Thereafter, “Death,” a gloomy, threatening word!
It sounded hollow, spectrally subdued:
Not yet have I my liberty made good:
If I could banish Magic’s fell creations,
And totally unlearn the incantations,—
Stood I, O Nature! Man alone in thee,
Then were it worth one’s while a man to be!163
Ere in the Obscure I sought it, such was I,—
Ere I had cursed the world so wickedly.
Now fills the air so many a haunting shape,
That no one knows how best he may escape.
What though One Day with rational brightness beams,
The Night entangles us in webs of dreams.
From our young fields of life we come, elate:
There croaks a bird: what croaks he? Evil fate!
By Superstition constantly insnared,
It grows to us, and warns, and is declared.
Intimidated thus, we stand alone.—
The portal jars, yet entrance is there none.
(Agitated.)
Is any one here?
Care.
Yes! must be my reply.
Faust.
And thou, who art thou, then?
Care.
Well,—here am I.
Faust.
Avaunt!
Care.
I am where I should be.
Faust.
(first angry, then composed, addressing himself).
Take care, and speak no word of sorcery!
Care.
Though no ear should choose to hear me,
Yet the shrinking heart must fear me:
Though transformed to mortal eyes,
Grimmest power I exercise.
On the land, or ocean yonder,
I, a dread companion, wander,
Always found, yet never sought,
Praised or cursed, as I have wrought!
Hast thou not Care already known?
Yet the shrinking heart must fear me:
Though transformed to mortal eyes,
Grimmest power I exercise.
On the land, or ocean yonder,
I, a dread companion, wander,
Always found, yet never sought,
Praised or cursed, as I have wrought!
Hast thou not Care already known?
Faust.
I only through the world have flown;
Each appetite I seized as by the hair;
What not sufficed me, forth I let it fare,
And what escaped me, I let go.
I ’ve only craved, accomplished my delight,
Then wished a second time, and thus with might
Stormed through my life: at first ’t was grand, completely,
But now it moves most wisely and discreetly.
The sphere of Earth is known enough to me;
The view beyond is barred immutably:
A fool, who there his blinking eyes directeth,
And o’er his clouds of peers a place expecteth!
Firm let him stand, and look around him well!
This World means something to the Capable.164
Why needs he through Eternity to wend?
He here acquires what he can apprehend.
Thus let him wander down his earthly day;
When spirits haunt, go quietly his way;
In marching onwards, bliss and torment find,
Though, every moment, with unsated mind!
Each appetite I seized as by the hair;
What not sufficed me, forth I let it fare,
And what escaped me, I let go.
I ’ve only craved, accomplished my delight,
Then wished a second time, and thus with might
Stormed through my life: at first ’t was grand, completely,
But now it moves most wisely and discreetly.
The sphere of Earth is known enough to me;
The view beyond is barred immutably:
A fool, who there his blinking eyes directeth,
And o’er his clouds of peers a place expecteth!
Firm let him stand, and look around him well!
This World means something to the Capable.164
Why needs he through Eternity to wend?
He here acquires what he can apprehend.
Thus let him wander down his earthly day;
When spirits haunt, go quietly his way;
In marching onwards, bliss and torment find,
Though, every moment, with unsated mind!
care.
Whom I once possess, shall never
Find the world worth his endeavor:
Endless gloom around him folding,
Rise nor set of sun beholding,
Perfect in external senses,
Inwardly his darkness dense is;
And he knows not how to measure
True possession of his treasure.
Luck and II] become caprices;
Still he starves in all increases;
Be it happiness or sorrow,
He postpones it till the morrow;
To the Future only cleaveth:
Nothing, therefore, he achieveth.
Find the world worth his endeavor:
Endless gloom around him folding,
Rise nor set of sun beholding,
Perfect in external senses,
Inwardly his darkness dense is;
And he knows not how to measure
True possession of his treasure.
Luck and II] become caprices;
Still he starves in all increases;
Be it happiness or sorrow,
He postpones it till the morrow;
To the Future only cleaveth:
Nothing, therefore, he achieveth.
Faust.
Desist! So shalt thou not get hold of me!
I have no mind to hear such drivel.
Depart! Thy gloomy litany
Might even befool the wisest man to evil.
I have no mind to hear such drivel.
Depart! Thy gloomy litany
Might even befool the wisest man to evil.
Care.
Shall he go, or come?—how guide him?
Prompt decision is denied him;
Midway on the trodden highway
Halting, he attempts a by-way;
Ever more astray, bemisted,
Everything beholding twisted,
Burdening himself and others,
Taking breath, he chokes and smothers,
Though not choked, in Life not sharing,
Not resigned, and not despairing!
Such incessant rolling, spinning,—
Painful quitting, hard beginning,—
Now constraint, now liberation,—
Semi-sleep, poor recreation,
Firmly in his place insnare him
And, at last, for Hell prepare him!
Prompt decision is denied him;
Midway on the trodden highway
Halting, he attempts a by-way;
Ever more astray, bemisted,
Everything beholding twisted,
Burdening himself and others,
Taking breath, he chokes and smothers,
Though not choked, in Life not sharing,
Not resigned, and not despairing!
Such incessant rolling, spinning,—
Painful quitting, hard beginning,—
Now constraint, now liberation,—
Semi-sleep, poor recreation,
Firmly in his place insnare him
And, at last, for Hell prepare him!
Faust.
Ill-omened spectres! By your treatment strays
A thousand times the human race to error:
Ye even transform the dull, indifferent days
To vile confusion of entangling terror.
’T is hard, I know, from Dæmons to escape;
The spirit’s bond breaks not, howe’er one tries it;
And yet, O Care, thy power, thy creeping shape,
Think not that I shall recognize it!
A thousand times the human race to error:
Ye even transform the dull, indifferent days
To vile confusion of entangling terror.
’T is hard, I know, from Dæmons to escape;
The spirit’s bond breaks not, howe’er one tries it;
And yet, O Care, thy power, thy creeping shape,
Think not that I shall recognize it!
Care.
So feel it now: my curse thou ’lt find,
When forth from thee I ’ve swiftly passed!
Throughout their whole existence men are blind;
So, Faust, be thou like them at last!
When forth from thee I ’ve swiftly passed!
Throughout their whole existence men are blind;
So, Faust, be thou like them at last!
(She breathes in his face.)
Faust (blinded).
The Night seems deeper now to press around me,
But in my inmost spirit all is light;165
I rest not till the finished work hath crowned me:
The master’s Word alone bestows the might.
Up from your couches, vassals, man by man!
Make grandly visible my daring plan!
Seize now your tools, with spade and shovel press!
The work traced out must be a swift success.
Quick diligence, severest ordering
The most superb reward shall bring ;
And, that the mighty work completed stands,
One mind suffices for a thousand hands.
But in my inmost spirit all is light;165
I rest not till the finished work hath crowned me:
The master’s Word alone bestows the might.
Up from your couches, vassals, man by man!
Make grandly visible my daring plan!
Seize now your tools, with spade and shovel press!
The work traced out must be a swift success.
Quick diligence, severest ordering
The most superb reward shall bring ;
And, that the mighty work completed stands,
One mind suffices for a thousand hands.