MEPHISTOPHELES. Cling tightly to the old ribs of the crag. 120 Beware! for if with them thou warrest In their fierce flight towards the wilderness, Their breath will sweep thee into dust, and drag Thy body to a grave in the abyss. A cloud thickens the night. Hark! how the tempest crashes through the forest! The owls fly out in strange affright; The columns of the evergreen palaces Are split and shattered; The roots creak, and stretch, and groan; 130 The trunks are crushed and shattered And through the ruins of the shaken mountain The airs hiss and howl It is not the voice of the fountain, Nor the wolf in his midnight prowl. Dost thou not hear? Strange accents are ringing Aloft, afar, anear; The witches are singing! The torrent of a raging wizard song CHORUS OF WITCHES. The stubble is yellow, the corn is green, 140 150 "Twixt witches and incubi, what shall be done? Tell it who dare! tell it who dare! A VOICE. Upon a sow-swine, whose farrows were nine, CHORUS. Honour her, to whom honour is due, A VOICE. Which way comest thou! A VOICE. Over Ilsenstein; The owl was awake in the white moon-shine; I saw her at rest in her downy nest, 160 And she stared at me with her broad, bright eyne. VOICES. And you may now as well take your course on to Hell, Since you ride by so fast on the headlong blast. A VOICE. She dropped poison upon me as I passed. Here are the wounds. CHORUS OF WITCHES. Come away! come along! 170 The way is wide, the way is long, But what is that for a Bedlam throng? Stick with the prong, and scratch with the broom. The child in the cradle lies strangled at home, And the mother is clapping her hands. SEMICHORUS OF WIZARDS I. We glide in away; Like snails when the women are all And from a house once given over to sin Woman has a thousand steps to stray. SEMICHORUS II. A thousand steps must a woman take, VOICES ABOVE. Come with us, come with us, from Felsensee. 180 VOICES BELOW. With what joy would we fly through the upper sky! We are washed, we are 'nointed, stark naked are we; But our toil and our pain are for ever in vain. BOTH CHORUSES. The wind is still, the stars are fled, VOICES BELOW. Stay, oh, stay! VOICES ABOVE. Out of the crannies of the rocks, 190 Who calls? VOICES BELOW. Oh, let me join your flocks! I, three hundred years have striven BOTH CHORuses. Some on a ram and some on a prong, On poles and on broomsticks we flutter along; Forlorn is the wight who can rise not to-night. A HALF-WITCH BELOW. I have been tripping this many an hour: CHORUS OF WITCHES. 200 Come onward, away! aroint thee, aroint! sky, Who flies not to-night, when means he to fly? BOTH CHORuses. We cling to the skirt, and we strike on the ground; Witch-legions thicken around and around; MEPHISTOPHELES. 210 [They descend. What thronging, dashing, raging, rustling; What whispering, babbling, hissing, bustling; What glimmering, spurting, stinking, burning, As Heaven and Earth were overturning. There is a true witch element about us; FAUST (from a distance). Here! MEPHISTOPHELES. What! I must exert my authority in the house. Take hold on me, doctor, and with one step 220 FAUST. Spirit of Contradiction! Well, lead on- MEPHISTOPHELES. See yonder, round a many-coloured flame FAUST. Would that I were Up yonder in the glow and whirling smoke, |