The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume I Part 81

Brother! what agonizing pain!

VALENTINE

I tell thee, from vain tears abstain!

'Twas thy dishonor pierced my heart, Thy fall the fatal death-stab gave.

Through the death-sleep I now depart To G.o.d, a soldier true and brave.

 

[_Dies._]

CATHEDRAL

_Service, Organ, and Anthem._

MARGARET _amongst a number of people_

EVIL-SPIRIT _behind_ MARGARET

EVIL-SPIRIT

[Ill.u.s.tration: VALENTINE'S DEATH Franz Simm]

How different, Gretchen, was it once with thee, When thou, still full of innocence, Here to the altar camest, And from the small and well-con'd book Didst lisp thy prayer, Half childish sport, Half G.o.d in thy young heart!

Gretchen!

What thoughts are thine?

What deed of shame Lurks in thy sinful heart?

Is thy prayer utter'd for thy mother's soul, Who into long, long torment slept through thee?

Whose blood is on thy threshold?-- And stirs there not already 'neath thy heart Another quick'ning pulse, that even now Tortures itself and thee With its foreboding presence?

MARGARET

Woe! Woe!

Oh, could I free me from the thoughts That hither, thither, crowd upon my brain, Against my will!

CHORUS

_Dies irae, dies illa, Solvet saeclum in favilla._

[_The organ sounds._]

EVIL-SPIRIT

Grim horror seizes thee!

The trumpet sounds!

The graves are shaken!

And thy heart From ashy rest For torturing flames Anew created, Trembles into life!

MARGARET

Would I were hence!

It is as if the organ Choked my breath, As if the choir Melted my inmost heart!

CHORUS

_Judex ergo c.u.m sedebit, Quidquid latet adparebit, Nil inultum remanebit._

MARGARET

I feel oppressed!

The pillars of the wall Imprison me!

The vaulted roof Weighs down upon me!--air!

EVIL-SPIRIT

Wouldst hide thee? sin and shame Remain not hidden!

Air! light!

Woe's thee!

CHORUS

_Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?

Quem patronum rogaturus!

c.u.m vix justus sit securus._

EVIL-SPIRIT

The glorified their faces turn Away from thee!

Shudder the pure to reach Their hands to thee!

Woe!

CHORUS

_Quid sum miser tunc dicturus_--

MARGARET

Neighbor! your smelling bottle!

[_She swoons away._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARGARET'S DOWNFALL _From the Painting by Wilhelm von Kaulbach_]

WALPURGIS-NIGHT

THE HARTZ MOUNTAINS. DISTRICT OF SCHIERKE AND ELEND

FAUST _and_ MEPHISTOPHELES