{
  "meta": {
    "schema_version": "1.1",
    "endpoint": "/api/sources/goethe-works/faust/faust-i/13-scene-10-the-neighbors-house.json"
  },
  "work": {
    "slug": "faust-i",
    "name": "Faust I (1808)"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "slug": "goethe-works",
      "name": "Works of Goethe",
      "url": "/sources/goethe-works/"
    },
    {
      "slug": "faust",
      "name": "Faust (Parts I and II)",
      "url": "/sources/faust/"
    }
  ],
  "chapter": {
    "num": 13,
    "slug": "13-scene-10-the-neighbors-house",
    "title": "Scene X — The Neighbor's House",
    "of": 28,
    "words": 1357,
    "text": "Martua (solus).\n\nOD forgive my husband, yet he\nHas n't done his duty by me!\nOff in the world he went straightway, —\nLeft me lie in the straw where I lay,\nAnd, truly, I did naught to fret him:\nGod knows I loved, and can't forget him!\n(She weeps.)\n\nPerhaps he's even dead! Ah, woe! —\n\nHad IJ a certificate to show!\n\n\" MarcareT (comes).\n\nDame Martha!\n\nMarTHBA.\n\nMargaret! what 's happened thee?\n\nMARGARET.\n\nI scarce can stand, my knees are trembling !\n\nI find a box, the first resembling,\n\nScene X. 177\n\nWithin my press! Of ebony, —\nAnd things, all splendid to behold,\nAnd richer far than were the old.\n\nMarTHA.\n\nYou must n't tell it to your mother!\n\n°T would go to the priest, as did the other.\n\nMARGARET.\n\nAh, look and see —just look and see!\n\nMartua (adorning her).\nO, what a blessed luck for thee!\n\nMarGARET.\n\nBut, ah! in the streets I dare not bear them,\n\nNor in the church be seen to wear them.\n\nMARTHA.\n\nYet thou canst often this way wander,\nAnd secretly the jewels don,\nWalk up and down an hour, before the mirror yonder, —\nWe 'll have our private joy thereon.\n\n178 faust.\n\nAnd then a chance will come, a holiday,\nWhen, piece by piece, can one the things abroad display,\nA chain at first, then other ornament:\n\nThy mother will not see, and stories we 'll invent.\n\nMARGARET.\n\nWhoever could have brought me things so precious?\n\nThat something 's wrong, I feel suspicious,\n(A knock.)\n\nGood Heaven! My mother can that have been?\n\nMartua (peeping through the blind).\n\n\"T is some strange gentleman. — Come in!\n(MEPHISTOPHELES enters.)\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nThat I so boldly introduce me,\n\nI beg you, ladies, to excuse me.\n(Steps back reverently, on seeing Marcar&T.)\n\nFor Martha Schwerdtlein I'd inquire!\n\nMartTHa.\n\nI'm she: what does the gentleman desire?\n\nScene X. 179\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES (aside to her).\n\nIt is enough that you are she:\nYou 've a visitor of high degree.\nPardon the freedom I have ta'en, —\n\nWill after noon return again.\n\nMartua (aloud).\n\nOf all things in the world! Just hear —\nHe takes thee for a lady, dear!\n\nMarGaRET.\n\nI am a creature young and poor :\nThe gentleman 's too kind, I'm sure.\n\nThe jewels don't belong to me.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nAh, not alone the jewelry !\nThe look, the manner, both betray —\nRejoiced am I that I may stay!\n\nMarTHA.\n\nWhat is your business? I would fain —\n\n180 Faust.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nI would I had a more cheerful strain !\nTake not unkindly its repeating :\n\nYour husband 's dead, and sends a greeting.\n\nMARTHA.\n\nIs dead? Alas, that heart so true!\nMy husband dead! Let me die, too!\n\nMARGARET.\n\nAh, dearest dame, let not your courage fail !\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nHear me relate the mournful tale!\n\nMARGARET.\n\nTherefore I 'd never love, believe me!\n\nA loss like this to death would grieve me.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nJoy follows woe, woe after joy comes flying.\n\nMarTHa.\n\nRelate his life's sad close to me!\n\nScene X. 181\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nIn Padua buried, he is lying\nBeside the good Saint Antony,'™?\nWithin a grave well consecrated,\n\nFor cool, eternal rest created.\n\nMarTHA.\n\nHe gave you, further, no commission ?\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES. —\n\nYes, one of weight, with many sighs:\nThree hundred masses buy, to save him from perdition !\n\nMy hands are empty, otherwise.\n\nMarTHA.\n\nWhat! Not a pocket-piece? no jewelry?\nWhat every journeyman within his wallet spares,\nAnd as a token with him bears,\n\nAnd rather starves or begs, than loses?\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nMadan, it is a grief to me;\nYet, on my word, his cash was put to proper uses.\nBesides, his penitence was very sore,\n\nAnd he lamented his ill fortune all the more.\n\n182 Faust.\n\nMARGARET.\n\nAlack, that men are so unfortunate!\n\nSurely for his soul's sake full many a prayer I 'll proffer.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nYou well deserve a speedy marriage-offer :\n\nYou are so kind, compassionate.\n\nMARGARET.\n\nO, no! As yet, it would not do.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nIf not a husband, then a beau for you!\nIt is the greatest heavenly blessing,\n\nTo have a dear thing for one's caressing.\n\nMARGARET.\n\nThe country's custom is not so.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nCustom, or not! It happens, though.\n\nMartTHa.\nContinue, pray!\n\nScene X. 183\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nI stood beside his bed of dying.\n\"T was something better than manure, —\nHalf-rotten straw: and yet, he died a Christian, sure,\nAnd found that heavier scores to his account were lying.\nHe cried: \"I find my conduct wholly hateful!\nTo leave my wife, my trade, in manner so ungrateful!\nAh, the remembrance makes me die!\n\nbP]\n!\n\nWould of my wrong to her I might be shriven\n\nMartTHa (weeping).\n\nThe dear, good man! Long since was he forgiven.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\n\"Yet she, God knows! was more to blame than I.\"\n\nMarTHA.\n\nHe lied! What! On the brink of death he slandered?\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nIn the last throes his senses wandered,\nIf I such things but half can judge.\nHe said: \"I had no time for play, for gaping freedom :\n\nFirst children, and then work for bread to feed '°em, —\n\n184 faust.\n\nFor bread, in the widest sense, to drudge,\n\nAnd could not even eat my share in peace and quiet!\"\n\nMartTHA.\n\nHad he all love, all faith forgotten in his riot?\nMy work and worry, day and night?\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nNot so: the memory of it touched him quite.\nSaid he: ' When I from Malta went away\n\nMy prayers for wife and little ones were zealous,\nAnd such a luck from Heaven befell us,\n\nWe made a Turkish merchantman our prey,\nThat to the Soldan bore a mighty treasure.\nThen I received, as was most fit,\n\nSince bravery was paid in fullest measure,\n\nMy well-apportioned share of it.\"\n\nMarTHA.\n\nSay, how? Say, where? If buried, did he own it?\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nWho knows, now, whither the four winds have blown it?\n\nA fair young damsel took him in her care,\n\nScene X. 185\n\n<3\n\nAs he in Naples wandered round, unfriended ;\nAnd she much love, much faith to him did bear,\nSo that he felt it till his days were ended.\n\nMarTHA.\n\nThe villain! From his children thieving !\nEven all the misery on him cast\n\nCould not prevent his shameful way of living!\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nBut see! He's dead therefrom, at last.\nWere I in your place, do not doubt me,\nI'd mourn him decently a year,\n\nAnd for another keep, meanwhile, my eyes about me.\n\nMartTHa.\n\nAh, God! another one so dear\nAs was my first, this world will hardly give me.\nThere never was a sweeter fool than mine,\nOnly he loved to roam and leave me,\nAnd foreign wenches and foreign wine,\nAnd the damned throw of dice, indeed.\n\n186 Faust.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nWell, well! That might have done, however,\nIf he had only been as clever,\n\nAnd treated your slips with as little heed.\n\nI swear, with this condition, too,\n\nI would, myself, change rings with you.\n\nMarTHA.\n\nThe gentleman is pleased to jest.\n\nMEpPHISTOPHELES (aside).\n\nI'll cut away, betimes, from here:\nShe 'd take the Devil at his word, I fear.\n\n(To Marcaret.)\n\nHow fares the heart within your breast ?\n\nMARGARET.\n\nWhat means the gentleman?\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES (aside).\nSweet innocent, thou art!\n\n(Aloud. )\nLadies, farewell !\n\nScene X.\n\nMARGARET.\n\nFarewell !\n\nMartTHA.\n\nA moment, ere we part !\n\nI'd like to have a legal witness,\n\nWhere, how, and when he died, to certify with fitness.\n\nIrregular ways I 've always hated ;\n\nI want his death in the weekly paper stated.'°3\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nYes, my good dame, a pair of witnesses\nAlways the truth establishes.\n\nI have a friend of high condition,\nWho 'II also add his deposition.\n\nI'll bring him here.\n\nMarTHA.\n\nGood Sir, pray do!\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nAnd this young lady will be present, too?\nA gallant youth! has travelled far :\nLadies with him delighted are.\n\n188 Faust.\n\nMARGARET.\n\nBefore him I should blush, ashamed.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nBefore no king that could be named!\n\nMarTHA.\n\nBehind the house, in my garden, then,\n\nThis eve we 'll expect the gentlemen.\n\nScene XI.\n\nXI.\nSTREET.\nFaust. MEPHISTOPHELES.",
    "project_translation": false,
    "license": null,
    "methodology_url": null
  }
}