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  "work": {
    "slug": "faust-ii",
    "name": "Faust II (1832)"
  },
  "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": 2,
    "slug": "02-act-i-hall-of-the-throne",
    "title": "Act I — Hall of the Throne (Imperial Court)",
    "of": 12,
    "words": 2663,
    "text": "Trumpets.\n\nEnter Court Retainers of all kinds, splendidly dressed, The\nEMPEROR advances to the throne: the ASTROLOGER on his right\nhand.\n\nE-MPEROR.7\n\nGREET you, Well-beloved and Trusty,\nAssembled here from far and wide!\n\nI see the Wise Man at my side;\n\nBut where 's the Fool, his rival lusty?\n\nSQUIRE.\n\nBehind thy mantle's flowing swell\nSuddenly on the stairs he fell:\n\nThey bore away the weight of fat ;\n\nIf dead, or drunk? none knoweth that.\n\n10 Faust.\n\nSECOND SQUIRE.\n\nAs quick as thought, through all the pother,\nHim to replace there came another,\nAdorned and prinked with wondrous art,\nYet so grotesque that all men start.\n\nThe guards their halberds cross-wise hold\nTo bar him —them he thrusts apart :\n\nLo! here he comes, the Fool so bold!\n\nMEpHISTOPHELES (kneeling before the throne).\n\nWhat 's cursed and welcomely expected ?°\nWhat is desired, yet always chased ?\n\nWhat evermore with care protected?\nWhat is accused, condemned, disgraced ?\nTo whom dar'st thou not give a hearing?\nWhose name hears each man willingly ?\nWhat is 't, before thy throne appearing ?\nWhat keeps itself away from thee?\n\nEMPEROR.\n\nSpare us thy words! the time is pressing ;\nThis is no place for riddle-guessing :\nThese gentlemen such things explain.\n\nSolve it thyself!—-to hear I'm fain.\n\nAct I. II\n\nMy old Fool went, I fear, an endless distance;\n\nTake thou his place, come here and lend assistance!\n\n(MEPHISTOPHELES goes up and stations himself on the EMperor's\nleft hand.)\n\nMuRrRMuRS OF THE Crowp.9\n\nAnother fool — for worries new ! —\nWhence came he ?— how did he get through?\nThe old one fell — he's walked his path. —\n\nHe was a barrel — this, a lath!\n\nEMPEROR.\n\nSo now, my Well-beloved and Loyal,\n\nBe welcome all, from near and far!\n\nYou meet beneath a fortunate star ;\n\nWelfare and luck are now the aspects royal.\nBut tell me why, in days so fair,'°\n\nWhen we 've withdrawn ourselves from care,\nAnd beards of beauty masquerading wear, —\nWhen gay delights for us are waiting,\n\nWhy should we plague ourselves, deliberating ?\nYet, since the task you think we cannot shun,\n\n*T is settled then, so be it done!\n\n12 Faust.\n\nCHANCELLOR.\nThe highest virtue, like a halo-zone\nCircles the Emperor's head; and he alone\nIs worthy validly to exercise it.\n°T is Justice ! —all men love and prize it,\n\nNone can forego, but all require and want it:\n\nThe people look to him, that he should grant it.\n\nBut, ah! what help can human wit impart,\n\nOr readiness of hand, or kindly heart,\n\nWhen lies the State, as if in fever fretting,\n\nAnd brooded Evil evil is begetting ?\n\n'Who looks abroad from off this height supreme\nThroughout the realm, 't is like a weary dream,\nWhere one deformity another mouldeth,\nWhere lawlessness itself by law upholdeth,\n\nAnd 't is an age of Error that unfoldeth!\n\nOne plunders flocks, a woman one,\n\nCup, cross, and candlestick from altar,\nAnd then to boast it does not palter,\n\nOf limb or life nowise undone.\n\nTo Court behold the plaintiffs urging,\nWhere puffs the judge on cushions warm,\n\nAnd swells, meanwhile, with fury surging,\n\nAct I. 13\n\nRebellion's fast-increasing storm !\n\nHis easy way through crime is broken,\nWho his accomplices selects ;\n\nAnd \" Guilty!\" hears one only spoken\nWhere Innocence itself protects.\n\nThey all pull down what they should care for, —\nDestroy their weal, in self-despite :\nHow can the sense develop, therefore,\nWhich, only, leads us to the Right?\nAt last, the man of good intent\n\nTo flatterer and briber bendeth ;\n\nThe judge, debarred from punishment,\nMates with the felon, ere he endeth.\nI've painted black, but denser screen\n\n_ [?d rather draw before the scene.\n( Pause.)\nHere measures cannot be evaded ;\n\nWhen all offend, and none are aided,\n\nHis Majesty a victim stands.\n\nGENERAL-IN-CHIEF.\nIn these wild days, how discords thicken!\nEach strikes and in return is stricken,\n\nAnd they are deaf to all commands.\n\n14 faust.\n\nThe burgher in his fortifications,\n\nThe knight upon his rocky nest,\n\nHave sworn to worry out our patience\n\nAnd keep their strength with stubborn crest.\nThe mercenaries, no whit better,\nImpatiently demand their pay,\n\nAnd, if we were not still their debtor,\n\nThey 'd start forthwith and march away.\nLet one forbid what all would practise\n\nAnd in a hornet's nest he stands:\n\nThe realm which they should guard, the fact is,\n°T is devastated by their hands.\n\nThey give the rein to wild disorder,\n\nAnd half the world is wasted now;\n\nThere still are kings beyond our border,\n\nBut none thinks it concerns him anyhow.\n\nTREASURER.\n\nTrust allies, and we soon shall rue us!\nThe subsidies they promised to us —\nLike water in leaky pipes — don't come.\nThen, Sire, in all thy states extended\n\nTo whom hath now the rule descended?\n\nWhere'er one goes, a new lord is at home,\n\\\n\nAct I. 15\n\nAnd hopes to live in independence ;\n\nHe takes his course and we look on:\n\nSuch rights we 've given to our attendants\nThat all our right to anything is gone.\n\nOn parties, too, whate'er the name be,\n\nOur trust, to-day, is far from great ;\n\nThough loud their praise or fierce their blame be,\nIndifferent is their love and hate.\n\nThe Ghibellines and Guelfs from labor\n\nAre resting — both laid on the shelf.\n\nWho, therefore, now will help his neighbor?\nEach has enough, to help himself.\n\nThe gate of gold no more unlatches,\n\nAnd each one gathers, digs, and scratches,\n\nWhile our strong-box is void indeed.\n\nLorp Hicu STEWARD.\n\nWhat evil I, as well, am having!\n\nWe're always trying to be saving,\n\nAnd ever greater Is our need:\n\nThus daily grows this task of mine.\n\nThe cooks have all they want at present, —\nWild-boar and deer, and hare and pheasant,\n\nDuck, peacock, turkey, goose, and chicken:\n\n16 Faust.\n\nThese, paid in kind, are certain picking,\n\nAnd do not seriously decline ;\n\nYet, after all, we 're short of wine.\n\nWhere casks on casks were once our cellars filling,\nRare vintages of flavors finely thrilling,\n\nThe noble lords' eternal swilling\n\nHas drained them off, till not a drop appears.\nThe City Council, too, must tap their liquor ;\nThey drink from mug, and jug, and beaker,\nTill no one longer sees or hears.\n\n\"T is I must pay for all the dances;\n\nThe Jew will have me, past all chances ;\n\nHis notes of hand and his advances\n\nWill soon eat up the coming years.\n\nBefore they 're fat the swine are taken;\nPawned is the pillow, ere one waken,\n\nThe bread is eaten ere the board it sees.\n\nTHE EMPEROR.\n(after some reflection, to MEPHISTOPHELES).\n\nSay, Fool, canst thou not add a want to these?\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nI? Not at all! I see the circling splendor —\nThyself, and thine! Should one his trust surrender,\n\nAct TI.\n\nWhere Majesty thus unopposed commands,\nWhere ready power the hostile force disbands,\nWhere loyal wills, through understanding strong,\nAnd mixed activities, around thee throng?\n\nWhat powers for evil could one see combining, —\n\nFor darkness, where such brilliant stars are shining?\n\nMurmurs.\nHe is a scamp — who comprehends. —\nHe lies his way — until it ends.—\nI know it now — what 's in his mind. —\n\nWhat then? —A project lurks behind!\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\nWhere, in this world, doth not some lack appear ?\nHere this, there that, — but money 's lacking here.\nTrue, from the floor you can't at once collect it,\nBut, deepliest hidden, wisdom may detect it.\nIn veins of mountains, under building-bases,\nCoined and uncoined, there 's gold in many places:\nAnd ask you who shall bring it to the light?\nA man endowed with Mind's and Nature's might.\n\nCHANCELLOR.\n\nNature and Mind — to Christians we don't speak so.\n\nThence to burn Atheists we seek so,\n\n18 Faust\n\nFor such discourses very dangerous be.\nNature is Sin, and Mind is Devil:\n\nDoubt they beget in shameless revel,\n\nTheir hybrid in deformity.\n\nNot so with us! — Two only races\n\nHave in the Empire kept their places,\n\nAnd prop the throne with worthy weight.\nThe Saints and Knights are they: together\nThey breast each spell of thunder-weather,\nAnd take for pay the Church and State.\nThe vulgar minds that breed confusion\n\nAre met with an opposing hand:\n\nThey 're wizards !—heretics! Delusion\nThrough them will ruin town and land.\nAnd these will you, with brazen juggle,\nWithin this high assembly smuggle?\n\nFor hearts corrupt you scheme and struggle;\n\nThe Fool's near kin are all the band.\n\n~ MEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nBy that, I know the learned lord you are!\n\nWhat you don't touch, is lying leagues afar ;\nWhat you don't grasp, is wholly lost to you;\nWhat you don't reckon, think you, can't be true;\n\nAct T. 19\n\nWhat you don't weigh, it has no weight, alas!\n\nWhat you don't coin, you 're sure it will not pass.\n\nEMPEROR.\nTherewith to help our needs you naught determine.\n_ What wilt thou, here, with such a Lenten sermon?\nI'm tired of the eternal If and How:\n\nMoney we want: good, then, procure it now!\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\nIll furnish what you wish, and more: 't is, true,\nA light task, but light things are hard to do.\nThe gold's on hand, — yet, skilfully to win it,\nThat is the art: who knows how to begin it?\nConsider only, in those days of blood\nWhen o'er the Empire poured a human flood,\nHow many men, such deadly terror stceled them,\nTook their best goods, and here and there concealed them!\n\"T was so beneath the mighty Roman sway,\nAnd ever so repeated, till our day.\nAll that was buried in the earth, to save it:\n\nThe Emperor owns the earth, and he should have it.\n\nTREASURER.\nNow, for a Fool, his words are rather bright:\n\nThat is indeed the old Imperial right.\n\n20 Faust.\n\nCHANCELLOR.\n\nSatan has laid his golden snares, to try us;\n\nSuch things as these are neither right nor pious.\n\nLorp HicuH StTewarb.\n\nLet him but bring his gifts to Court, and share them,\nAnd if things were a little wrong, I'd bear them!\n\nGENERAL-IN-CHIEF.\n\nThe Fool is shrewd, to promise each his needs ;\n\nWhence it may come the soldier never heeds.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nAnd should you think, perchance, I overreach you,\nHere 's the Astrologer — ask him to teach you!\nThe spheres of Hour and House are in his ken:\n\nWhat are the heavenly aspects ? — tell us, then!\n\nMurmurs.\n\nTwo rogues are they, — in league they. ve grown,\nDreamer and Fool —so near the throne!\n\nThe song is old —and flatly sung. —\n\nThe Fool he prompts —the Wise Man's tongue!\n\nASTROLOGER\n(speaks : MEPHISTOPHELES prompts).\n\nThe Sun himself is gold of purest ray ;\n\nAct I.\n\nThe herald, Mercury, serves for love and pay ;\nDame Venus has bewitched you all, for she,\nEarly and late, looks on you lovingly ;\n\nChaste Luna has her whims, no two alike;\nMars threatens you, although he may not strike,\nAnd Jupiter is still the splendid star.\n\nSaturn is great, though seeming small and far:\nAs metal, him we don't much venerate,\n\nOf value slight, though heavy in his weight.\n\nNow, when of Sol and Luna union 's had, —\n\nSilver with gold, — then is the world made glad:\n\nAll else, with them, is easy to attain, —\nPalaces, gardens, cheeks of rosy stain ;\nAnd these procures this highly learned man,\n\nWho that can do which none of us e'er can.\n\nEMPEROR.\n\nTwo meanings in his words I find,\n\nAnd yet they don't convince my mind.\n\nMurmurs.\nWhy tell us that ?>— stuff stale and flat!\n''T is quackery ! —'t is chemistry !\n\nI've heard the strain — and hoped in vain, —\n\nAnd though it come —'t is all a hum.\n\n22 Faust\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nThey stand around, amazed, unknowing ;\n\nThey do not trust the treasure-spell ;\n\nOne dreams of mandrake, nightly growing,\n\nThe other of the dog of Hell.\n\nWhy, then, should one suspect bewitching,\n\nAnd why the other jest and prate,\n\nWhen in their feet, they, too, shall feel the itching,\nWhen they shall walk with tottering gait?\n\nAll feel the secret operation\n\nOf Nature's ever-ruling might,\n\nAnd from the bases of Creation\n\nA living track winds up to light.\n\nIn every limb when something twitches\nIn any place uncanny, old, —\n\nDecide at once, and dig for riches!\n\nThere lies the fiddler, there the gold! ¥3\n\nMurmMurRs.\n\nIt hangs like lead my feet about. —\nI've cramp i' the arm — but that is gout. —\nI 've tickling in the greater toe. —\n\nDown all my back it pains me so. —\n\nAct TI.\n\nFrom signs like these 't is very clear\n\nThe richest treasure-ground is here.\n\nEMPEROR.\n\nHaste, then! Thou It not again make off!\nTest now thy frothy, lying graces,\n\nAnd show at once the golden places!\n\nMy sword and sceptre I will doff,\n\nMine own imperial hands I 'l] lend thee,\n\nIf thou liest not, therein befriend thee,\nBut, if thou liest, to Hell will send thee!\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nI'd find, in any case, the pathway there! —\nYet I cannot enough declare\n\nWhat, ownerless, waits everywhere.\n\nThe farmer, following his share,\n\nTurns out a gold-crock with the mould:\n\nHe seeks saltpetre where the clay-walls stand,\"\nAnd findeth rolls of goldenest gold,\n\nWith joyful fright, in his impoverished hand.\nWhat vaults there are to be exploded,\n\nAlong what shafts and mines corroded,\n\nThe gold-diviner's steps are goaded,\n\n24 Faust.\n\nUntil the Under-world is nigh!\n\nIn cellars vast he sees the precious\n\nCups, beakers, vases, plates, and dishes,\nRow after row, resplendent lie:\n\nRich goblets, cut from rubies, stand there,\nAnd, would he use them, lo! at hand there\nIs ancient juice of strength divine.\n\nYet, trust to him who's knowledge gotten,\nThe wood o' the staves has long been rotten,\nA cask of tartar holds the wine.'5\n\nNot only gold and gems are hiding,\n\nBut of proud wines the heart abiding,\n\nIn terror and in night profound:\n\nHerein assiduously explore the wise ;\nIt is a farce, by day to recognize,\n\nBut mysteries are with darkness circled round.\n\nEMPEROR.\n\nSee thou to them! What profits the Obscure?\nWhate'er has value comes to daylight, sure.\n\nAt dead of night who can the rogue betray t\n\nThen all the cows are black, the cats are gray.\n\nIf pots are down there, full of heavy gold,\n\nDrive on thy plough and turn them from the mould!\n\nAct I. 25\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\nTake hoe and spade thyself, I pray thee, —\nThou shalt be great through peasant-toil |\nA herd of golden calves, to pay thee,\nWill loose their bodies from the soil.\nAnd then at once canst thou, with rapture,\nGems for thyself and for thy mistress capture:\nTheir tints and sparkles heighten the degree\nOf Beauty as of Majesty.\n\nEMPEROR.\n\nThen quick! at once! how long will it require?\n\nASTROLOGER.\n\n(prompted by MEPHISTOPHELES).\n\nt..\n\nSire, moderate such urgence of desire!\nLet first the gay, the motley pastime end!\nNot to the goal doth such distraction tend.\nFirst self-command must quiet and assure us;\nThe upper things the lower will procure us.\nWho seeks for Good, must first be good ;\nWho seeks for joy, must moderate his blood ;\nWho wine desires, let him the ripe grapes tread ;\nWho miracles, by stronger faith be led!\n\n26 Faust.\n\nE-MPEROR.\n\nLet us the time in merriment efface!\nAnd, to our wish, Ash-Wednesday comes apace.\nMeanwhile, we 'll surely celebrate withal\n\nMore jovially the maddening Carnival.\n\n| [ Trumpets. Exeunt.\n\nMEPHISTOPHELES.\n\nHow closely linked are Luck and Merit,\nDoth never to these fools occur :\n\nHad they the Philosopher's Stone, I swear it,\nThe Stone would lack the Philosopher !\n\nAct I. eT\n\nITT.\n\nA\n~\n\na\n\nSPACIOUS HALL,",
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