The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume I Part 109

The ancient saw still rings today: Force with a willing mind obey; If boldly thou canst stand the test, Stake house, court, life, and all the rest!

[_Exeunt._]

FAUST

The stars their glance and radiance veil; Smoulders the sinking fire, a gale Fans it with moisture-laden wings, Vapor to me and smoke it brings.

Rash mandate--rashly, too, obeyed!-- What hither sweeps like spectral shade?

MIDNIGHT

_Four gray women enter_

FIRST

My name, it is Want.

SECOND

And mine, it is Blame.

THIRD

My name, it is Care.

FOURTH

Need, that is my name.

THREE (_together_)

The door is fast-bolted, we cannot get in; The owner is wealthy, we may not within.

WANT

There fade I to shadow.

BLAME

There cease I to be.

NEED

His visage the pampered still turneth from me.

CARE

Ye sisters, ye cannot, ye dare not go in; But Care through the key-hole an entrance may win.

[CARE _disappears_.]

WANT

Sisters, gray sisters, away let us glide!

BLAME

I bind myself to thee, quite close to thy side.

NEED

And Need at your heels doth with yours blend her breath.[35]

THE THREE

Fast gather the clouds, they eclipse star on star.

Behind there, behind, from afar, from afar, There comes he, our brother, there cometh he-- Death.

FAUST (_in the palace_)

Four saw I come, but only three went hence.

Of their discourse I could not catch the sense; There fell upon mine ear a sound like breath, Thereon a gloomy rhyme-word followed--Death; Hollow the sound, with spectral horror fraught!

Not yet have I, in sooth, my freedom wrought; Could I my pathway but from magic free, And quite unlearn the spells of sorcery, Stood I, oh nature, man alone 'fore thee, Then were it worth the trouble man to be!

Such was I once, ere I in darkness sought, And curses dire, through words with error fraught, Upon myself and on the world have brought; So teems the air with falsehood's juggling brood, That no one knows how them he may elude!

If but one day s.h.i.+nes clear, in reason's light-- In spectral dream envelopes us the night; From the fresh fields, as homeward we advance-- There croaks a bird: what croaks he? some mischance!

Ensnared by superst.i.tion, soon and late; As sign and portent, it on us doth wait-- By fear unmanned, we take our stand alone; The portal creaks, and no one enters,--none.

(_Agitated_)

Is some one here?

CARE

The question prompteth, yes!

FAUST

What art thou then?

CARE

Here, once for all, am I.

FAUST

Withdraw thyself!

CARE