Scene I: Open Country
The Wanderer
Yes! Here are the dusky lindens,
Standing round, in mighty age.
And here am I, returning to them,
After so long a pilgrimage!
It still appears the same old place:
Here’s the hut that sheltered me,
When the storm-uplifted wave,
Hurled me shore-wards from the sea!
My hosts are those I would bless,
A brave, a hospitable pair,
Who if I meet them, I confess,
Must already be white haired.
Ah! They were pious people!
Shall I call, or knock? – Greetings,
If, as open-hearted, you still
Enjoy good luck, in meetings!
Baucis (A little woman, very aged.)
Gentle stranger! Quietly, quietly!
Peace! Let my husband rest!
Long sleep lends the elderly,
Little time to work, at best.
The Wanderer
Tell me, Mother: are you that wife
To whom thanks should be given:
Who brought a young man back to life,
When wife and husband worked as one?
Are you that Baucis who tirelessly
Restored my almost-vanished breath?
(Her husband appears.)
Are you that Philemon, who bravely
Saved my wealth from watery death?
Your swiftly burning fire,
Your silvery sounding bell,
In chance, dread and dire,
Was the outcome that befell.
And now let me walk about,
And view the boundless ocean:
Let me kneel, and be devout:
Mind troubled with emotion.
(He walks on, over the downs.)
Philemon (To Baucis.)
Hurry now, and lay the table,
Underneath the garden trees.
Let him go: as in the fable,
He’ll not credit what he sees.
(He follows, and stands beside the Wanderer.)
Where wave on wave, foaming wildly,
Savagely mistreated you,
See a garden planted, widely,
See the Paradisial view.
I was too old to seize the day,
Unfit to work as long ago:
And while my powers ebbed away,
The tide extended its wide flow.
Clever Lords set their bold servants
Digging ditches, building dikes,
To gain the mastery of ocean,
Diminishing its natural rights.
See green meadow bordering meadow,
Field and garden, wood and town. –
But it’s time to eat, so follow,
Sunset is approaching now.
See the sails, far away there,
Seeking port before the night.
The birds fly homeward through the air:
Their harbour too heaves in sight.
So gaze then, at the whole horizon,
Where the blue sea used to flow,
Right and left there, to your vision,
Densely peopled space below.
Scene II: In the Little Garden
(The three of them at table.)
Baucis (To the stranger.)
Are you dumb? And will you lift
Not a morsel to your mouth?
Philemon
He wants to comprehend the gift:
Tell him, freely then: speak out.
Baucis
Well! It was a marvel, really!
It troubles me to this day:
Then its whole nature, surely,
Was peculiar, in its way.
Philemon
Is the Emperor, then, at fault,
Who granted him the land?
Didn’t a herald make his halt,
Crying out what was planned?
Not far away there, on the dunes,
The first bold step was made,
Tents, huts! – And on the downs,
A palace, quickly raised.
Baucis
For days, work rumbled on in vain,
Pick and shovel, blow on blow:
Where the night’s fires flamed,
Next day a dam would follow.
Human blood was forced to flow,
At night, rose the sound of pain:
The seaward floating fiery glow
Was a canal, come dawn again.
He’s a godless man: he’d steal
Our hut, and our few acres:
But like subjects we must kneel,
When we boast such neighbours.
Philemon
Yet he’s offered us another
Holding, on his new-won land!
Baucis
Never trust what’s built on water,
On the heights maintain your stand.
Philemon
Let’s make our way to the chapel,
To watch the last glow of light,
Kneel, pray, and sound the bell,
And trust in God’s ancient might!
Scene III: The Palace
(Spacious pleasure-gardens: a broad straight canal. Faust in extreme old age, walking about, thoughtfully.)
Lynceus, the Warder (Through a speaking trumpet.)
The sun is fading, the last boats
Sail swiftly to the harbour here.
One large vessel gently floats,
Down the canal: and draws near.
The bright flags flutter merrily,
The masts are trimmed, in time:
The boatmen all praise you gladly,
Fortune celebrates your prime.
(The little bell on the dunes rings out.)
Faust (Startled.)
Accursed ringing! Wounding me
With shame: a treacherous blow:
My realm’s laid out there, endlessly,
But, at my back, this vexes so,
Proclaiming, with its jealous sound:
My great estate is less than fine,
The old hut, all the trees around,
The crumbling chapel, are not mine.
And even if I wished to rest there,
A strange shadow makes me shudder,
It’s a thorn in my eye, and deeper:
Oh! Would I were somewhere other!
The Warder (From above.)
The boat is sailing, brightly dressed,
Towards us, on the evening breeze!
Heaped, with boxes, sacks and chests,
From its journey on the seas!
(A splendid boat, richly and brightly loaded with foreign goods.)
(Mephistopheles. The Three Mighty Warriors.)
Chorus
Here we land,
Already, here.
Hail to our Lord,
Our patron dear!
(They disembark: the goods are unloaded.)
Mephistopheles
We’ve proven ourselves in every way,
Pleased, if we win our patron’s praise.
We took two ships when we sailed before
With twenty ships we dock, once more.
What we’ve achieved, each fine thing,
You’ll see from the cargo that we bring.
The ocean’s freedom frees the mind
There all thought is left behind!
You only need a handy grip,
You catch a fish, or take a ship,
And once you’re lord of all three,
The fourth one’s tackled easily:
The fifth one’s in an evil plight,
You have the might, and so the right.
You wonder what, and never how.
I know a little of navigation:
War, trade, and piracy, allow,
As three in one, no separation.
The Three Mighty Warriors
No thanks for us!
No thanks at all!
As if we’ve brought
A stench, that’s all.
He pulls a
Nasty face again:
These royal goods
Don’t please him then.
Mephistopheles
Don’t expect more
Pay for it!
What you’ve had
Is what you get.
The Warriors
That was only
To pass the time:
We want an equal
Share in crime.
Mephistopheles
Then first set out in
Hall on hall,
The costly treasures,
One and all!
And coming to
The splendid show,
He’ll think it all the
More, you know,
He won’t be mean,
With you, at least,
He’ll give the fleet,
Feast on feast.
Tomorrow motley birds attend,
I want to take good care of them.
(The cargo is removed.)
(To Faust.)
This splendid fortune you embrace
With wrinkled brow, and gloomy face!
Your noble wisdom has been crowned,
Sea’s reconciled with solid ground:
From the shore, on swifter track,
The sea wills out the ship, and back:
So speak, that here, from your spire,
Your arms might grip the world entire.
From this place the trench was cut,
Here stood the first wooden hut:
A little ditch was traced from here,
Where now vessels’ wakes appear.
Your servants’ toil, your thought so wise,
Have won the Earth and Ocean’s prize.
From here on –
Faust
– that accursed here!
That always brings me wretched fear,
To you who are so clever, I say it,
It gives my heart sting on sting,
It’s impossible for me to bear it.
I’m ashamed to even speak the thing.
The old ones up there should yield,
I want the limes as my retreat,
The least tree in another’s field,
Detracts from my whole estate.
There, to stand and look around,
I’ll build a frame from bough to bough,
My gaze revealing, under the sun,
A view of everything I’ve done,
Overseeing, as the eye falls on it,
A masterpiece of the human spirit,
Forging with intelligence,
A wider human residence.
That’s the worst suffering can bring,
Being rich, to feel we lack something.
The bell’s chime, the lindens’ breeze,
Like tombs in churchyards stifle me.
The exercise of my all-conquering will
Is shattered in the sand, here, and lies still.
How can I drive it from my nature!
The bell peals, and I’m an angry creature.
Mephistopheles
It’s natural! Intense frustration
Drives a man to desperation.
Who doubts it! That clang I fear
Falls cruelly on a noble ear.
And that wretched bing-bang-bong,
Through the clear evening sky, that gong,
Is joined to every chance event,
From first bath to last interment.
As if between its bing and bong
Life’s a dream, and then is gone.
Faust
Such obstinacy and opposition
Diminishes the noblest position,
Until in endless pain, one must
Grow deeply weary of being just.
Mephistopheles
Why bother yourself so much about them?
Shouldn’t you long ago have colonised them?
Faust
Then go and push them aside for me! –
You know the land, with my approval,
Set aside for the old folks removal.
Mephistopheles
We’ll take them up, and set them down,
They’ll stand, once more: I’ll be bound:
When they’ve survived a little force,
They’ll be reconciled to it, of course.
(He whistles shrilly.)
Come: perform your Lord’s command!
And tomorrow let the feast be planned.
The Three Warriors
This old Lord received us badly,
A feast now is our right: believe me.
Mephistopheles (To the audience.)
And here we see, as long ago
Naboth’s vineyardstill on show. (Kings I:21)
Scene IV: Dead of Night
Lynceus, the Warder (Singing on the watch-tower of the palace.)
For seeing, I’m born,
For watching, employed,
To the tower, I’m sworn,
While the world, I enjoy.
I gaze at the far,
I stare at the near,
The moon and the star,
The forest and deer:
The eternally lovely
Adornment, I view,
And as it delights me
I delight myself too.
You, fortunate eyes,
All you’ve seen, there,
Let it be as it may,
Yet it was so fair!
(Pause.)
I’m not positioned here, on high,
Just for my own enjoyment:
What horror, meant to terrify,
Threatens from the firmament!
I see sparks of fire gushing
Through the lindens’ double night,
Fanned by the wind’s rushing,
Ever stronger grows the light.
Ah! Within, the hut is burning,
Damp and mossy though it stand:
Swift help, in this direction turning,
Is needed, yet no aid’s to hand.
Ah! The pious old couple,
So careful ever of the fire,
Made a prey to smoke, to stifle,
On this dreadful pyre!
The flame burns on: glowing red,
It’s now a blackened mossy pile:
If only those good folk are rescued,
From those fires of hell, run wild!
A bright tongue of lightning heaves,
Through the branches, through the leaves:
Breaking, snapping, catching swiftly,
Withered branches flicker, glow.
Why have I such powers to see!
Why are mine the eyes that know!
The little chapel now collapses,
With the falling branches’ weight.
Already with bright snakelike flashes,
The treetops, gripped, meet their fate.
Glowing crimson, to their hollow
Roots, the trunks now burn with ease. –
(A long pause. Chant.)
What used to please my eyes, below,
Has vanished with the centuries.
Faust (On the balcony, towards the downs.)
What whining song is that, above?
Too late its word and tone reach me.
The watchman wails: yes, I’m moved:
Annoyed by this impatient deed.
But let the lime-trees be erased,
A horror now of half-burnt timber,
A watchtower can soon be raised,
To gaze around at boundless splendour.
From there I’ll see my new creation,
One set aside for that old pair: at least,
They’ll feel benign consideration,
Enjoying their last days in peace.
Mephistopheles and the Three Warriors (Below.)
Here we come, and at the double:
Pardon us! We’ve caused you trouble.
We knocked, and knocked on the door,
But it seemed locked for evermore:
We rattled it, and shook it too,
Until the planks broke in two:
We called aloud, and threatened, then,
But there was no reply, again.
And as happens in such cases,
They heard nothing, hid their faces:
But we commenced without delay
To drive the stubborn folk away.
That pair knew scant anxiety,
They died of terror, peacefully.
A stranger, who was hiding there,
And wished to fight, we tried to scare.
But in the fast and furious bout,
From the coals that lay about,
The straw took fire. Now all three,
In that one pyre, burn merrily.
Faust
Were you deaf to what I said?
I wanted them moved, not dead.
This mindless, and savage blow,
Earns my curse: share it, and go!
Chorus
The ancient proverb says of course:
Yield willingly to a greater force!
While if you’re bold and opt for strife,
You’ll stake your house, and home – and life.
(They exit.)
Faust (On the balcony.)
Stars hide their faces, and their glow,
The fire sinks, and flickers low:
A moist breeze fans the dying ember,
Bringing smoke and vapour closer.
Quickly said, too quickly done, I fear! –
Now, what hovers like a shadow, here?
Scene V: Midnight
(Four Grey Women enter.)
The First
I am called Want.