The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume I Part 47

Captur'd there within is one!

Stay without and follow none!

Like a fox in iron snare, h.e.l.l's old lynx is quaking there, But take heed'!

Hover round, above, below, To and fro, Then from durance is he freed!

Can ye aid him, spirits all, Leave him not in mortal thrall!

Many a time and oft hath he Served us, when at liberty.

FAUST

The monster to confront, at first, The spell of Four must be rehears'd;

Salamander shall kindle, Writhe nymph of the wave, In air sylph shall dwindle, And Kobold shall slave.

Who doth ignore The primal Four, Nor knows aright Their use and might, O'er spirits will he Ne'er master be!

Vanish in the fiery glow, Salamander!

Rus.h.i.+ngly together flow, Undine!

s.h.i.+mmer in the meteor's gleam, Sylphide!

Hither bring thine homely aid, Incubus! Incubus!

Step forth! I do adjure thee thus!

None of the Four Lurks in the beast; He grins at me, untroubled as before; I have not hurt him in the least.

A spell of fear Thou now shalt hear.

Art thou, comrade fell, Fugitive from h.e.l.l?

See then this sign, Before which incline The murky troops of h.e.l.l!

With bristling hair now doth the creature swell.

Canst thou, reprobate, Read the uncreate, Unspeakable, diffused Throughout the heavenly sphere, Shamefully abused, Transpierced with nail and spear!

Behind the stove, tam'd by my spells, Like an elephant he swells; Wholly now he fills the room, He into mist will melt away.

Ascend not to the ceiling! Come, Thyself at the master's feet now lay!

Thou seest that mine is no idle threat.

With holy fire I will scorch thee yet!

Wait not the might That lies in the triple-glowing light!

Wait not the might Of all my arts in fullest measure!

MEPHISTOPHELES (_as the mist sinks, comes forward from behind the stove, in the dress of a traveling scholar_)

Why all this uproar? What's the master's pleasure?

FAUST

This then the kernel of the brute!

A traveling scholar? Why I needs must smile.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Your learned reverence humbly I salute!

You've made me swelter in a pretty style.

FAUST

Thy name?

MEPHISTOPHELES

The question trifling seems from one, Who it appears the Word doth rate so low; Who, undeluded by mere outward show, To Being's depths would penetrate alone.

FAUST

With gentlemen like you indeed The inward essence from the name we read, As all too plainly it doth appear, When Beelzebub, Destroyer, Liar, meets the ear.

Who then art thou?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Part of that power which still Produceth good, whilst ever scheming ill.

FAUST

What hidden mystery in this riddle lies?

MEPHISTOPHELES

The spirit I, which evermore denies!

And justly; for whate'er to light is brought Deserves again to be reduced to naught; Then better 'twere that naught should be.

Thus all the elements which ye Destruction, Sin, or briefly, Evil, name, As my peculiar element I claim.

FAUST

Thou nam'st thyself a part, and yet a whole I see.

MEPHISTOPHELES

The modest truth I speak to thee.

Though folly's microcosm, man, it seems, Himself to be a perfect whole esteems: Part of the part am I, which at the first was all, A part of darkness, which gave birth to light-- Proud light, who now his mother would enthrall, Contesting s.p.a.ce and ancient rank with night.

Yet he succeedeth not, for struggle as he will, To forms material he adhereth still; From them he streameth, them he maketh fair, And still the progress of his beams they check; And so, I trust, when comes the final wreck, Light will, ere long, the doom of matter share.

FAUST

Thy worthy avocation now I guess!

Wholesale annihilation won't prevail, So thou'rt beginning on a smaller scale.

MEPHISTOPHELES

And, to say truth, as yet with small success.

Oppos'd to naught, this clumsy world, The something--it subsisteth still; Not yet is it to ruin hurl'd, Despite the efforts of my will.

Tempests and earthquakes, fire and flood, I've tried; Yet land and ocean still unchang'd abide!

And then of humankind and beasts, the accursed brood,-- Neither o'er them can I extend my sway.

What countless myriads have I swept away!