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. Parvenu. 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. Author. 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.

Pedler-Witch.

Look here,

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-

* A sort of fundholder.

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

Mephistopheles. Gossip, you know little of these times,

What has been, has been; what is done, is past.

They shape themselves into the innovations
They breed, and innovation drags us with it.
The torrent of the crowd sweeps over us,
You think to impel, and are yourself impelled.
Faust. Who is that yonder ?
Mephistopheles.

Lilith.

Faust. Who?

Mark her well. It is

Mephistopheles. Lilith, the first wife of Adam. Beware of her fair hair, for she excels

All women in the magic of her locks;

And when she winds them round a young man's neck,

She will not ever set him free again.

Faust. There sit a girl and an old woman

they

Seem to be tired with pleasure and with play. Mephistopheles. There is no rest to-night for any one:

When one dance ends another is begun ;
Come, let us to it. We shall have rare fun.
[FAUST dances and sings with a Girl, and
MEPHISTOPHELES with an Old Woman.
Brocto-Phantasmist. What is this cursed
multitude about?

Have we not long since proved to demonstration
That ghosts move not on ordinary feet?
But these are dancing just like men and women.
The Girl. What does he want then at our

ball?

Faust.

Is far above us all in his conceit :

Oh! he

Whilst we enjoy, he reasons of enjoyment;
And any step which in our dance we tread,
If it be left out of his reckoning,

Is not to be considered as a step.

There are few things that scandalise him not: And when you whirl round in the circle now, As he went round the wheel in his old mill, He says that you go wrong in all respects, Especially if you congratulate him

Upon the strength of the resemblance.

Brocto-Phantasmist.

Fly!

Vanish! Unheard of impudence! What, still

there!

In this enlightened age too, since you have been
Proved not to exist!-But this infernal brood
Will hear no reason and endure no rule.
Are we so wise, and is the pond still haunted?

How long have I been sweeping out this rubbish
Of superstition, and the world will not

Come clean with all my pains !—it is a case
Unheard of!

The Girl. Then leave off teazing us so. Brocto-Phantasmist. I tell you, spirits, to your faces now,

That I should not regret this despotism
Of spirits, but that mine can wield it not.
To-night I shall make poor work of it,
Yet I will take a round with you, and hope
Before my last step in the living dance
To beat the poet and the devil together.
Mephistopheles. At last he will sit down in
some foul puddle;

That is his way of solacing himself;
Until some leech, diverted with his gravity,
Cures him of spirits and the spirit together.

[To FAUST, who has seceded from the

dance.

Why do you let that fair girl pass from you, Who sung so sweetly to you in the dance? Faust. A red mouse in the middle of her singing

Sprung from her mouth.

Mephistopheles.

friend,

That was all right, my

Be it enough that the mouse was not grey.
Do not disturb your hour of happiness
With close consideration of such trifles.

Faust. Then saw I

Mephistopheles.

Faust.

What?

Seest thou not a pale

Fair girl, standing alone, far, far away?

She drags herself now forward with slow steps, And seems as if she moved with shackled feet: I cannot overcome the thought that she

Is like poor Margaret.

Mephistopheles.

Let it be-pass on—

No good can come of it-it is not well
To meet it—it is an enchanted phantom,
A lifeless idol; with its numbing look,
It freezes up the blood of man; and they
Who meet its ghastly stare are turned to stone,
Like those who saw Medusa.

Faust.

Oh, too true! Her eyes are like the eyes of a fresh corpse Which no beloved hand has closed, alas! That is the heart which Margaret yielded to

me

Those are the lovely limbs which I enjoyed! Mephistopheles. It is all magic, poor deluded fool;

She looks to every one like his first love.

Faust. Oh, what delight! what woe! I can

not turn

My looks from her sweet piteous countenance. How strangely does a single blood-red line, Not broader than the sharp edge of a knife, Adorn her lovely neck!