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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/"
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 7,
    "slug": "07-act-ii-rocky-coves-of-the-aegean-sea",
    "title": "Act II — Rocky Coves of the Aegean Sea (Galatea)",
    "of": 12,
    "words": 3277,
    "text": "SIRENS\n(couched upon the cliffs around, fluting and singing).\n\nHOUGH erewhile, by spells nocturnal,\nThee Thessalian hags infernal\n\nDownward drew, with guilt intended, —\nLook, from where thine arch is bended,\nOn the multitudinous, splendid\nTwinkles of the billowy Ocean!\nShine upon the throngs in motion\nO'er the waters, wild and free!\nTo thy service vowed are we:\n\nFairest Luna, gracious be!\n\nAct II. 199\n\nNEREIDS AND I RITONS\n(as Wonders of the Sea).\n\nCall with clearer, louder singing,\nThrough the Sea's broad bosom ringing,\nCall the tenants of the Deep!\n\nWhen the storm swept unimpeded\n\nWe to stillest depths receded ;\n\nForth at sound of song we leap.\n\nSee! delighted and elated,\n\nWe ourselves have decorated,\n\nWith our golden crowns have crowned us,\nWith our spangled girdles bound us,\nChains and jewels hung around us!\n\nAll are spoils which you purvey !\nTreasures, here in shipwreck swallowed,\nYou have lured, and we have followed\n\nYou, the Demons of our bay.\n\nSIRENS.\n\nIn the crystal cool, delicious, 1\nSmoothly sport the happy fishes, |\nPliant lives that nothing mar ;\n\nYet, ye festive crowds that gather,\n\nFaust.\n\nWe, to-day, would witness, rather,\n\nThat ye more than fishes are.\n\nNEREIDS AND I RITONS.\n\nWe, before we hither wandered,\n\nThoroughly the question pondered :\n\nSisters, Brothers, speed afar !\nBriefest travel, light endurance,\nYield the validest assurance\n\nThat we more than fishes are.\n\nSIRENS.\nOff! they have left the place,\n\nSteering away to Samothrace,?!\n\nVanished with favoring wind.\n\n[ They depart.\n\nWhat is their purpose there, in the dreary\n\nDomain of the lofty Cabiri?\n\nGods are they, but the strangest crew,\n\nEver begetting themselves anew,\n\nAnd unto their own being blind.\n\nIn thy meridian stay,\nLuna! — graciously delay,\n\nThat the Night still embrace us,\n\nAnd the Day not chase us!\n\nAct LT. 201\n\nTHALES\n(on the shore, to Homuncutus).\n\nI fain would lead thee unto Nereus old.\nNot distant are we from his cavern cold,\nBut stubbornness is his delight,\n\nThe peevish and repulsive wight.\nHowe'er the human race has tried,\n\nThe Grumbler 's never satisfied :\n\nYet he the Future hath unsealed,\n\nAnd men thereto their reverence yield,\nAnd give him honor in his station.\n\nMany his benefits have tasted.\n\nHomuNCcUuLUS.\n\nThen let us try, without more hesitation!\n\nMy glass and flame will not at once be wasted.\n\nNEREwsS.\n\nAre human voices those that reach mine ear?\n\nAt once my wrath is kindled, keen and clear.\nAspiring forms, that high as Gods would ramble,\nYet ever damned their own selves to resemble.\nIn ancient years could I divinely rest,\n\nYet was impelled to benefit the Best ;\n\n202 Faust.\n\nAnd when, at last, I saw my deeds completed,\n\nIt fully seemed as were the work defeated.\n\nTHALES.\nAnd yet we trust thee, Graybeard of the Sea!\nThou art the Wise One: drive us not from thee!\nBehold this Flame, in man's similitude:\n\nIt yields itself unto thy counsel good.\n\nNEREUS.\nWhat! Counsel? When did ever men esteem it?\nWise words in hard ears are but lifeless lore.\nOft as the Act may smite them when they scheme it,\nThe People are as self-willed as before. |\nHow warned I Paris, in paternal trust,\nBefore a foreign woman woke his lust !\nUpon the Grecian strand he stood so bold;\nI saw in spirit, and to him foretold\nThe smoky winds, the overwhelming woe,\nBeams all a-blaze, murder and death below, —\nTroy's judgment-day, held fast in lofty rhyme,\nA terror through a thousand years of time!\nMy words seemed sport unto the reckless one:\nHis lust he followed: fallen was Ilion, —\n\nA giant carcass, stiff, and hacked with steel,\n\n| Act LT.\n\nTo Pindus' eagles 't was a welcome meal.\nUlysses, too! did I not him presage\n\nThe wiles of Circe and the Cyclops' rage?\n\nHis paltering mind, his crew's inconstant strain,\nAnd what not all ?—and did it bring hiyh gain?\nTill him, though late, the favoring billow bore,\n\nA much-tossed wanderer, to the friendly shore.\n\nTHALES.\n\nSuch conduct, truly, gives the wise man pain,\nAnd yet the good man once will try again.\nAn ounce of gratitude, his help repaying,\nTons of ingratitude he sees outweighing.\nAnd nothing trifling now we beg of thee;\nThe boy here wishes to be born, and be.\n\nNEREUS.\n\nLet not my rarest mood be spoiled, I pray!\n\nFar other business waits for me to-day.\n\nI've hither bidden, by the wave and breeze,\n\nThe Graces of the Sea, the Dorides.\"\n\nOlympus bears not, nor your lucent arch,\n\nSuch lovely forms, in such a lightsome march:\nThey fling themselves, in wild and wanton dalliance,\n\nFrom the sea-dragons upon Neptune's stallions,\n\n204 Faust.\n\nBlent with the element so freely, brightly,\n\nThat even the foam appears to lift them lightly.\nIn Venus' chariot-shell, with hues of morn,\nComes Galatea, now the fairest, borne;\n\nWho, since that Cypris turned from us her face,\nIn Paphos reigns as goddess in her place.\n\nThus she, our loveliest, long since came to own,\nAs heiress, templed town and chariot-throne.\nAway! the father's hour of rapture clips\n\nHate from the heart, and harshness from the lips.\nAway to Proteus! Ask that wondrous man\n\nOf Being's and of Transformation's plan !\n\n[ He retires towards the sea.\n\nTHALES.\nWe, by this step, gain nothing : one may meet\nProteus, and straight he melts, dissolving fleet. |\nThough he remain, he only says\nThat which confuses and astonishes.\nHowever, of such counsel thou hast need;\n\nSo, at a venture, let us thither speed! |\n[ They depart.\n\nS1RENS (on the rocks above).\n\nWhat is 't, that, far advancing,\nGlides o'er the billows dancing?\n\nAct LT, 205\n\nAs, when the winds are shifted,\n\nShine snowy sails, uplifted,\n\nSo shine they o'er the waters,\nTransfigured Ocean-daughters.\n\nWe 'll clamber down, and, near them,\n\nBehold their forms, and hear them.\n\nNEREIDS AND I RITONS.\n\nWhat in our hands we bear you\nMuch comfort shall prepare you.\nChelone's buckler giant\n\nShines with its forms defiant : —\nThey 're Gods that we are bringing:\nHigh songs must you be singing!\n\nSIRENS.\nSmall to the sight,\nGreat in their might, —\n\nSaviours of the stranded,\n\nAncient Gods, and banded.\n\nNEREIDS AND I RITONS.\n\nWe bring you the Cabiri\n\nTo festals calm and cheery ;\n\nFaust,\n\nFor where their sway extendeth\nNeptune the realm befriendeth,\n\nSIRENS.\nWe yield to your claim;\nWhen a shipwreck came,\nIrresistibly you\n\nProtected the crew.\n\nNEREIDS AND TriTons.\nThree have we brought hither,93\nThe fourth refused us altogether :\nHe was the right one, said he, —\nTheir only thinker ready.\n\nSIRENS,\n\nOne God the other God\nSmites with the scoffer's rod:\nHonor all grace they bring,\nFear all evil they fling!\n\nNEREIDS AND TRITONS.\n\nSeven are they, really.\n\nSIRENS,\n\nWhere, then, stay the other three?\n\nAct Lf. 207\n\nNEREIDS AND T RITONS.\nThe truth we cannot gather:\nAsk on Olympus, rather !\nThere pines the eighth, forgotten,\nBy no one ever thought on!\nIn grace to us entreated,\n\nBut not yet all completed.\n\nThese incomparable, unchainable,™\nAre always further yearning,\n\nWith desire and hunger burning\nFor the Unattainable!\n\nSIRENS.\n\nThese are our ways:\nThe God that sways\nSun, Moon, or other blaze,\n\nWe worship: for it pays.\n\nNEREIDS AND TRITONS.\nHighest glory for us behold,\nLeading these festals cheery !\n\nSIRENS.\n\nThe heroes of the ancient time\n\nFail of their glory's prime,\n\n208 Faust.\n\nWhere and howe'er it may unfold;\nThough they have won the Fleece of Gold, —\nYe, the Cabiri!\n\n(Repeated as full chorus.)\nThough they have won the Fleece of Gold, —\nWe! Ye! the Cabiri!\n\n(The NEReE1Ds and TRITONS move past.)\n\nHomuncut_us.\nThese Malformations, every one,\nHad earthen pots for models : 95\nAgainst them now the wise men run,\n\nAnd break their stubborn noddles.\n\nTHALES.\n\nThat is the thing one wishes, just !\n\nThe coin takes value from its rust.\n\nProteus (unperceived).\nThis pleases me, the old fable-ranger !\n\nThe more respectable, the stranger.\n\nTHALES.\n\nWhere art thou, Proteus ?\n\nAct I. 209\n\nPRoTEus\n(speaking ventriloqually, now near, now at a distance).\n\nHere! and here!\n\nTHALES,\n\nI pardon thee thine ancient jeer.\nCheat not a friend with vain oration:\n\nThou speak'st, I know, from a delusive station.\n\nProteus (as if at a distance).\nFarewell !\n\nTua es (softly to Homuncutus).\n\nHe is quite near: shine brilliantly !\nFor curious as a fish is he;\n'And in whatever form he hide,\nA flame will make him hither glide.\n\nHomuNCULUS.\n\nAt once a flood of light I'll fling, -\nYet softly, lest the glass should spring.\n\nPRoTEvus\n(in the form of a giant tortoise).\n\nWhat shines so fair, so graciously ?\n\n210 faust.\n\nTHALES (covering Homuncutus).\nGood! If thou wishest, canst thou nearer see.\nBe not annoyed to take a little trouble,\nAnd show thyself on man's foundation double.\nWhat we disclose, to whomsoe'er would see it,\n\nWith our will only, by our favor, be it!\n\nProteus (in a noble form).\n\nStill world-wise pranks thou failest to forget.\n\nTHALES.\nTo change thy form remains thy pleasure yet.\n\n(He uncovers Homuncutus.)\n\nProteus (astonished).\n\nA shining dwarf! The like I ne'er did see!\n\nTHALES.\n\nHe asks thy counsel, he desires to be.\n\nHe is, as I myself have heard him say,\n\n(The thing 's a marvel!) only born half-way.\nHe has no lack of qualities ideal,\n\nBut far too much of palpable and real.%\n\nTill now the glass alone has given him weight,\n\nAnd he would fain be soon incorporate.\n\nAct I. 211\n\nProteus.\n\nThou art a genuine virgin's-son:\n\nFinished, ere thou shouldst be begun!\n\nTHALES (whispering).\nViewed from another side, the thing seems critical :\n\nHe is, methinks, hermaphroditical |\n\nProteus.\nThen all the sooner 't will succeed:\nLet him but start, 't will be arranged with speed.\nNo need to ponder here his origin;\nOn the broad ocean's breast must thou begin!\nOne starts there first within a narrow pale,9\nAnd finds, destroying lower forms, enjoyment:\nLittle by little, then, one climbs the scale,\nAnd fits himself for loftier employment.\n\nHomunculuLuws.\n\nHere breathes and blows a tender air ;\n\nAnd I delight me in the fragrance rare,\n\nProteus.\n\nYea, verily, my loveliest stripling !\n\nAnd farther on, far more enjoyable.\n\n212 Faust.\n\nAround yon narrow spit the waves are rippling,\nThe halo bright and undestroyable !\n\nThere to the host we 'l] nearer be,\n\nNow floating hither o'er the sea.\n\nCome with me there!\n\nTHALES.\n\nI 'll go along.\n\nHomuncu.us.\n\nA spirit-purpose, triply strong !\n\n1 acces V.\nTELCHINES OF RHODES.%\nOn Sea-Horses and Sea-Dragons, wielding Neptune's Trident.\n\nCHoRUus.\nE 've forged for old Neptune the trident that urges\nTo smoothness and peace the refractory surges.\nWhen Jove tears the clouds of the tempest asunder,\n'\"T is Neptune encounters the roll of the thunder :\nThe lightnings above may incessantly glow,\n\nBut wave upon wave dashes up from below,\n\nAct II.\n\nAnd all that, between them, the terrors o'erpower,\n\nLong tossed and tormented, the Deep shall devour ;\n\nAnd thence he hath lent us his sceptre to-day. —\n\nNow float we contented, in festal array.\n\nSIRENS.\n\nYou, to Helios consecrated,\n\nTo the bright Day's blessing fated, —\nYou to this high Hour we hail:\nLuna's worship shall prevail !\n\nTELCHINES.\n\nO loveliest Goddess by night over-vaulted !\nThou hearest with rapture thy brother exalted:\n\nTo listen to Rhodes thou wilt lean from the skies;\n\nTo him, there, the pzxans eternally rise.\n\nWhen the day he begins, when he ends its career,\nHis beam is the brightest that falls on us here.\nThe mountains, the cities, the sea and the shore,\nAre lovely and bright to the God they adore:\nNo mist hovers o'er us, and should one appear,\n\nA beam and a breeze, and the Island is clear!\n\nThere Pheebus his form may by hundreds behold, —\n\n214 Faust.\n\nColossal, as youth, as the Gentle, the Bold;\nFor we were the first whose devotion began\n\nTo shape the high Gods in the image of Man.\n\nPROTEUS.\n\nBut leave them to their boasting, singing!\nBeside the holy sunbeams, bringing\n\nAll life, their dead works are a jest.\n\nThey melt and cast, with zeal impassioned,\nAnd what they once in bronze have fashioned,\nThey think it's something of the best.\nThese proud ones are at last made lowly:\nThe forms of Gods, that stood and shone,\nWere by an earthquake overthrown,\n\nAnd long since have been melted wholly.\nThis earthly toil, whate'er it be,\n\nIs never else than drudgery :\n\nA better life the waves declare thee,\n\nAnd now to endless seas shall bear thee\n\nProteus-Dolphin.\n(He transforms himself.)\n*T is done! Behold!\n\nUnto thy fairest fortune waken:\n\nAct L. 215\n\nUpon my back shalt thou be taken,\nAnd wedded to the Ocean old.\n\nTHALES,\n\nYield to the wish so wisely stated,\n\nAnd at the source be thou created!\n\nBe ready for the rapid plan !\n\nThere, by eternal canons wending,\nThrough thousand, myriad forms ascending,\n\nThou shalt attain, in time, to Man.\n\n(Homuncutus mounts the Proteus-Dolphin.)\n\nProteus.\n\nIn spirit seek the watery distance!\nBoundless shall there be thine existence,\nAnd where to move, thy will be free.\nBut struggle not to higher orders!\nOnce Man, within the human borders,\nThen all is at an end for thee.\n\nTHALES.\n\nThat 's as it haps: 't is no ill fate\n\nIn one's own day to be true man and great.\n\n=\n\n216 Faust.\n\nProteus (fo THALES).\n\nSome one, perchance, of thine own kind!\nTheir lives continue long, I find;\nFor with thy pallid phantom-peers\n\nI've seen thee now for many hundred years.\n\nSIRENS (on the rocks).\n\nSee! what rings of cloudlets, gliding\nRound the moon, in circles play!\nThey are doves whom Love is guiding,\nWith their wings as white as day.\nPaphos hither sends them fleetly,\n\nAll her ardent birds, to us,\n\nAnd our festival completely\n\nCrowns with purest rapture, thus!\n\nNeREws (advancing to THALES).\n\nThough some nightly wanderer's vision\nDeem yon ring an airy spectre,\n\nWe, the spirits, with decision\nEntertain a view correcter :\n\nThey are doves, whose convoy gathers\n\nRound my daughter's chariot-shell,\n\nAct I. 217\n\nWith a flight of wondrous spell,\nLearned in old days of the fathers.\n\nTHALES.\nThat I also think is best,%\nWhich the true man comfort gives,\nWhen in warm and peaceful nest\n\nSomething holy for him lives.\n\nPsyitir anD Mars ©\n(on sea-bulls, sea-heifers and sea-rams).\n\nIn hollow caves on Cyprus' shore,\n\n' By the Sea-God still unbattered,\n\nNot yet by Seismos shattered,\n\nBy eternal winds breathed o'er,\n\nAnd still, as in days that are measured,\nContented and silently pleasured,\n\nThe chariot of Cypris we 've treasured.\nBy the murmurs, the nightly vibrations,\nO'er the waves and their sweetest pulsations,\nUnseen to the new generations,\n\nThe loveliest daughter we lead.\n\nWe fear not, as lightly we hie on,\nEither Eagle or wing-lifted Lion,\n\nEither Crescent or Cross,\n\n218 Faust,\n\nThough the sky it emboss, —\n\nThough it changefully triumphs and flashes,\nIn defeat to forgetfulness dashes,\n\nLays the fields and the cities in ashes !\nStraightway, with speed,\n\nThe loveliest of mistresses forth we lead.\n\nSIRENS.\nLightly moved, with paces graver,\nCircle round the car again ;\nLine on line inwoven, waver\nSnake-like in a linking chain, —\nStalwart Nereids, come, enring us,\nRudest women, wild and free ;\nTender Dorides, ye bring us\nHer, the Mother of the Sea, —\nGalatea, godlike woman,\nWorthiest immortality,\nYet, like those of lineage human,\n\nSweet with loving grace is she.\n\nDoriIDEs\n(in chorus, mounted on dolphins, passing NEREUS).\nLend us, Luna, light and shadow,\nShow this youthful flower and fire!\n\nAct I. 219.\n\nFor we bring beloved spouses,\nPraying for them to our sire.\n\n(To Nereus.)\nThey are boys, whom we have rescued\nFrom the breaker's teeth of dread;\nThey, on reeds and mosses bedded,\nBack to light and life we led:\nNow must they, with glowing kisses,\nThank us for the granted blisses ;\nOn the youths thy favor shed!\n\nNEREUS.\n\nLo, now! what double gains your deed requite!\n\nYou show compassion, and you take delight.\n\nDoripes.\nIf thou praisest our endeavor,\nFather, grant the fond request, —\nLet us hold them fast forever\n\nOn each young, immortal breast.\n\nNEREUS.\nTake joy in what you 've finely captured,\nAnd shape to men the youthful crew ;\n\nI cannot grant the boon enraptured\n\n220 faust\n\nWhich only Zeus can give to you.\n\nThe billows, as they heave and rock you,\nAllow to love no firmer stand,\n\nSo, when these fancies fade and mock you,\n\nSend quietly the youths to land.\n\nDorIDEs.\n\nFair boys, we must part, forsooth;\nYet we love you, we vow it!\n\nWe have asked for eternal truth,\nBut the Gods will not allow it.\n\nTHe Yourus.\n\nWe sailor-boys, if still you would\nGive love, as first you gave it,\n= We 've never had a life so good,\n\nAnd would not better have it!\n\n(GaLATEA approaches on her chariot of shell.) x\nNEREUS.\n\"T is thou, O my darling!\n\nGALATEA.\nO, Sire! what delight!\nLinger, ye dolphins! I cling to the sight. |\n\nAct I. 221\n\nNEREUS.\nAlready past, they swiftly wander\nOn, in circling courses wheeling!\nWhat care they for the heart's profoundest feeling?\nAh, would they took me with them yonder !\nYet a single glance can cheer\n\nAll the livelong barren year.\n\nTHALES.\n\nHail! All hail! with newer voices:\nHow my spirit rejoices,\n\nBy the True and the Beautiful penetrated !\nFrom Water was everything first created!\nWater doth everything still sustain !\nOcean, grant us thine endless reign!\n\nIf the clouds thou wert sending not,\n\nThe swelling streams wert spending not,\nThe winding rivers bending not,\n\nAnd all in thee were ending not,\n\nCould mountains, and plains, and the world itself, be?\n\nThe freshest existence is nourished by thee!\n\nEcuo\n(chorus of the collective circles).\n\nThe freshest existence flows ever from thee!\n\n222 Faust.\n\nNEREwuS.\n\nThey turn and wheel again, afar ;\n\nNo longer face to face they are.\n\nIn linking circles, wide extending, —\nIn their festive dances blending, —\n\n. The countless cohorts now appear.\nBut Galatea's chariot-shell\n\nStill I see, and see it well:\n\nIt shines like a star\n\nThrough the crowds intwining.\n\nLove from the tumult still is shining!\nThough ne'er so far,\n\nIt shimmers bright and clear,\n\naa\n\nEver true and near.\n\nHomuncu.us.\nThis softly heaving brine on,\n\nWhatever I may shine on\n\nIs all with beauty crowned.\n\nPROTEUS.\nWithin this moisture living,\nThy lamp now first is giving\nA clear and splendid sound.\n\nAct LT. 223\n\nNEREUvS.\n\nWhat mystery new, 'mid the crowds that are wheeling,\nIs now to our vision its wonders revealing ?\n\nWhat flames round the shell at the feet of the Queen ? — |\nNow flaring in force, and now shining serene,\n\nAs if by the pulses of love it were fed.\n\nTHALES.\n\nHomunculus is it, by Proteus misled! ...\n\nAnd these are the signs of imperious yearning,\nThe presage of swelling, impatiently spurning:\nHe'll shiver his glass on the glittering throne —\n\nHe glows and he flashes, and now he hath flown!\n\nSIRENS.\n\nWhat fiery marvel the billows enlightens,'\n\nAs one on the other is broken and brightens ?\n\nIt flashes, and wavers, and hitherward plays!\n\nOn the path of the Night are the bodies ablaze,\n\nAnd all things around are with flames overrun:\n\nThen Eros be ruler, who all things begun !\nHail, ye Waves! Hail, Sea unbounded,\nBy the holy Fire surrounded!\n\nFaust.\n\nWater, hail! Hail, Fire, the splendid!\nHail, Adventure rarely ended!\n\nALL TOGETHER.\n\nHail, ye Airs that softly flow!\nHail, ye caves of Earth below!\nHonored now and evermore\n\nBe the Elemental Four!\n\nAct Ill, 225\n\nACT III.",
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}