See yonder, round a many-coloured flame A merry-club is huddled all together: Even with such little people as sit there One would not be alone.
Would that I were Up yonder in the glow and whirling smoke Where the blind million rush impetuously To meet the evil ones; there might I solve Many a riddle that torments me!
Many a riddle there is tied anew
Inextricably. Let the great world rage!
We will stay here safe in the quiet dwellings.
"Tis an old custom. Men have ever built
Their own small world in the great world of all.
I see young witches naked there, and old ones
Wisely attired with greater decency.
Be guided now by me, and you shall buy
A pound of pleasure with a dram of trouble.
I hear them tune their instruments-one must
Get used to this damned scraping. Come, I'll
Among them; and what there you do and see, As a fresh compact 'twixt us two shall be.
How say you now? this space is wide enough-
Look forth, you cannot see the end of it-
A hundred bonfires burn in rows, and they
Who throng around them seem innumerable:
Dancing and drinking, jabbering, making love,
And cooking, are at work. Now tell me, friend,
What is there better in the world than this?
In introducing us, do you assume The character of wizard or of devil?
In truth, I generally go about
In strict incognito; and yet one likes
To wear one's orders upon gala days.
I have no ribbon at my knee; but here
At home the cloven foot is honourable.
See you that snail there?—she comes creeping up, And with her feeling eyes hath smelt out something:
I could not, if I would, mask myself here.
Come now we'll go about from fire to fire:
I'll be the pimp, and you shall be the lover.
[To some old Women, who are sitting round a heap
of glimmering coals.
Old gentlewomen, what do you do out here?
You ought to be with the young rioters
Right in the thickest of the revelry-
But every one is best content at home.
Who dare confide in right or a just claim?
So much as I had done for them! and now-
With women and the people 'tis the same,
Youth will stand foremost ever,-age may go To the dark grave unhonoured.
People assert their rights; they go too far;
But, as for me, the good old times I praise.
Then we were all in all; 'twas something worth
One's while to be in place and wear a star;
That was indeed the golden age on earth.
We too are active, and we did and do
What we ought not perhaps ; and yet we now
Will seize, whilst all things are whirled round and
round,
A spoke of Fortune's wheel, and keep our ground.
Who now can taste a treatise of deep sense
And ponderous volume! 'Tis impertinence
To write what none will read, therefore will I
To please the young and thoughtless people try.
MEPHISTOPHELES. (Who at once appears to have grown very old.)
I find the people ripe for the last day,
Since I last came up to the wizard mountain;
And as my little cask runs turbid now,
So is the world drained to the dregs.
Gentlemen; do not hurry on so fast,
And lose the chance of a good pennyworth.
I have a pack full of the choicest wares
Of every sort, and yet in all my bundle
Is nothing like what may be found on earth;
Nothing that in a moment will make rich
Men and the world with fine malicious mischief.-
There is no dagger drunk with blood; no bowl
From which consuming poison may be drained
By innocent and healthy lips; no jewel,
The price of an abandoned maiden's shame ;
No sword which cuts the bond it cannot loose,
Or stabs the wearer's enemy in the back;
No