I trust I may my senses keep unmoved!

Meph. Upwards the thronging mass is struggling all ; You think to shove—and you yourself are shoved ! Faust. Who then is that?

Before he wedded Eve; beware, beware,

Of the excelling beauty of her hair,

In which she shineth so surpassingly!

When a young man she may with that ensnare,
She lets him not so soon again get free.

Faust. There then sit two-one old, the other young,

They have already deftly danced and sprung.

Meph. No stop or pause to-night! See! they begin Another dance! come! with them let's join in! Faust (dancing with the Young Witch). A beauteous dream once came to me,

I in it saw an apple-tree;

Two luscious apples on it hung,

They tempted me, I to them sprung.

The beautiful Witch. The apple aye could man entice

Down from the days of Paradise;
I feel me much rejoiced to know,
Such, too, within my garden grow.

Meph. (with the Old Witch). A wild, strange dream

The Old Witch. I to the cloven-footed knight My heartiest greetings give to-night;

M

Proctophantasmist. You cursed rabble! what is it you

dare?

Have you not all long since been made aware,
That spirits stand not on such feet

As those on which mankind must go?
Yet here you 're dancing, light and fleet,
Just as we common mortals do!

The beautiful Witch (dancing). What does he do, then, at our ball?

Faust. He's present everywhere and censures all
How others dance, he must appraise and rate,
And if of every step he cannot prate,

It were as well that step had neʼer been ta’en ;
He loudest grumbles when we progress gain,
Advancing forwards; if we traced,

One dull, unvarying circle still,
In such a course as must be paced
Around his old and worn-out mill,
He'd call that right perhaps; especially
If he might on the point consulted be.

;

Proctophantasmist. Still here!—it is unheard of;— vanish! go!

We have enlighten'd all the world, you know;
This devil's crew-they lay no stress

On form or rule ;-we are so wise!

And yet there's Tegel, ne'ertheless,
Still sprite-disturb'd and haunted lies!
And what a time have I not sweeping been
At the delusion, yet 'tis never clean;
It is unheard of!

The beautiful Witch. Pray forbear! And cease, at least, to plague us here.

Proctophantasmist. I tell you, phantoms, to your face, -my soul

Will not, of spirits, ever brook controul;
By my own spirit no such sway is wrought;

[They dance onward.

To-night, I see, I shall succeed in naught !
Yet still myself in readiness I hold

My journey ever onward to pursue,

And hope, before my latest step I've told,
To triumph o'er the devils and poets too.
Meph.

*

*

*

*

[To FAUST, who has stepped aside out of the dance.

Why hast thou let the beauteous maid withdraw,
Who to thee, in the dance, so sweetly sang ?
Faust. Ah! in the middle of her song, I saw
A dun-red mouse that from her mouth outsprang !
Meph. Tush! to such trifles here no heed we pay,—
'Tis well you did not find the mouse was grey;
I' the hour of bliss who for such things would care?
Faust. Then saw I

Meph.

Faust.

What?

Mephisto', see'st thou there,

Lone and far off, that figure pale and fair?
With pain it moves, its step is sad and slow,
It seems with chain'd and fetter'd feet to go;
I must confess that it appears to me

In figure like poor Margaret to be!

Meph. Gaze not upon it, for with ill 'tis fraught, 'Tis without life, a shape by magic wrought, An idol dead. To meet it is not good,

Her chilling glance benumbs the human blood,

And man is almost frozen into stone;

The fable of Medusa thou hast known.

Faust. In truth the eyes she gazes with, are those
Of a dead corse no loving hand could close!
That is the breast which Margaret yielded me,
And that the form I clasp'd-that form so dear!
Meph. Thou easy-cheated fool! 'Tis sorcery;
She doth to every one the same appear!
The form of her he loves doth always borrow!

Faust. What rapture! yet, alas! what poignant sorrow!

I cannot, cannot, from that glance

A moment turn my countenance;

How wondrously the fairness of her neck,
That single, narrow, crimson line doth deck,
No broader than a knife-back.

Meph.

Ah! most true!

Now that you mention it, I see it too;

I can perceive she may, if so she will,

Her own head carry underneath her arm,Perseus has cut it off for her. But still

Have such delusions for you such a charm? Come! up the hill! away, away,

All is as merry here to-day

As on the Prater! and unless I err
Or am bewitch'd, I see a theatre !

What's here to do?

Servibilis.

Directly will be given

A bran new piece-the newest piece of seven ;

It is a usage common with us here

To let so many in a night appear;
A Dilettante's pen together tack'd it,
And they are Dilettanti who will act it.
But, sirs, my absence pray allow,

For I must to my post away;

My Dilettante duty now,

To raise the curtain for the play.

Meph. When on the Blocksberg hill I find You placed 'tis much unto my mind,

It just the proper place must be,

For you and all your company.