{ "meta": { "schema_version": "1.1", "endpoint": "/api/sources/goethe-works/faust/faust-ii/08-act-iii-helena.json" }, "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": 8, "slug": "08-act-iii-helena", "title": "Act III — Helena", "of": 12, "words": 12280, "text": "BEFORE THE PALACE OF MENELAUS IN SPARTA.\n\nHELENA enters, with the CHorus of Captive Trojan Women.\n\nPanTHa.is, Leader of the Chorus.\n\nHeEvENa.!°3\n\nMUCH admired and much reviled, — I, Helena,\n> Come from the strand where we have disembarked\nbut now,\nStill giddy from the restless rocking of the waves\nOf Ocean, which from Phrygian uplands hitherwards\nOn high, opposing backs — Poseidon's favor won\nAnd Euros' strength — have borne us to our native bay.\nBelow there, with the bravest of his warriors, now\nKing Menelaus feels the joy of his return ;\nBut thou, O bid me welcome back, thou lofty House\nWhich Tyndarus, my father, on the gentle slope,\nReturning from the Hill of Pallas, builded up;\nAnd when I here with Clytemnestra sister-like,\n\n226 Faust.\n\nWith Castor and with Pollux gayly sporting, grew,\nBefore all Sparta's houses nobly was adorned.\n\nYe valves of yon dark iron portals, ye I hail!\n\nOnce through your festive and, inviting opening\n\nIt happened that to me, from many singled out,\n\nThe coming of the bridegroom Menelaus shone.\nUnfold again for me, that I the King's command\nFulfil with strictness, as unto a spouse is meet :\n\nGive entrance now, and let all things be left behind\nWhich hitherto have stormed upon me, full of doom!\nFor, since this place all unsuspicious I forsook\n\nFor Cytherza's fane, as holy duty called,\n\nBut there the robber seized me, he the Phrygian, —\nHappened have many things, which people far and wide\nSo fain relate, but which so fain hears not the one\n\nOf whom the legend rose, and to a fable grew.\n\nCHORUS.\n\nDisdain thou not, O beautiful Dame,\nPossession proud of the highest estate !\nFor the greatest fortune is thine alone,\nThe fame of beauty that towers o'er all.\n\n_ The name of the hero heralds his path,\nThence proudly he strides ;\n\nAct IT. 227\n\nYet bends at once the stubbornest man,\n\nAnd yields to all-conquering Beauty's might.\n\nHELENA.\n\nEnough, with mine own spouse have I been hither shipped,\n\nAnd now by him beforehand to his city sent;\n\nYet what his purposes may be, I fail to guess.\n\nDo I come here as wife? Or do I come as queen?\n\nOr come, an offering for the Prince's bitter pain,\n\nAnd for the long-endured misfortune of the Greeks?\n\nFor they, the Immortals, verily fixed my Fame and Fate\n\nAmbiguously, attendants twain of doubtful worth\n\nTo Beauty, who upon this very threshold stand\n\nWith gloomy and with threatening presence at my side,\n\nThen, even, in the hollow ship, but seldom looked\n\nMy spouse on me, nor ever word of comfort spake:\n\nAs if he brooded evil, fronting me he sat.\n\nBut now, when speeding towards the strand of that deep\ncove\n\nEurotas makes, scarce had the foremost vessels' prows\n\nThe land saluted, than he spake, as urged the Gods:\n\n'\"' Here, in their ordered rank, my warriors disembark ;\n\nThem shall I muster, ranged along the ocean-strand.\n\nBut thou go ever onwards, up the hallowed banks\n\n228 Faust\n\nOf fair Eurotas, dowered with gifts of plenteous fruit,\nGuiding the stallions o'er the bloom of watery meads,\nTill there, on that most lovely plain thy journey ends,\nWhere Lacedemon, once a fruitful spreading field,\nSurrounded by austerest mountains, built its seat.\n\nSet thou thy foot within the high-towered princely House,\nAnd muster well the maids, whom there behind I left,\nTogether with the old and faithful Stewardess.\n\nLet her display to thee the wealth of treasures stored,\nEven as thy father them bequeathed, and I myself,\n\nIn war and peace accumulating, have amassed.\n\nAll things shalt thou in ancient order find : because\n\nIt is the Ruler's privilege, that he all things\n\nIn faithful keeping find, returning to his house, —\nWhere'er he may have left it, each thing in its place;\n\nFor power to change in aught possesses not the slave.\"\n\nCHORUS.\n\nLet now the splendid, accumulate wealth\nRejoice and cheer thee, in eye and heart!\n\nFor the gleam of chain and the glory of crown\nAre lying idly in haughty repose:\n\nBut enter thou in and challenge them all,\n\nAnd they will respond.\n\nAct IT. 229\n\nI rejoice to witness Beauty compete\n\nWith gold and pearl and the jewel-stone.\n\nHELENA.\n\nThereafter further came my lord's imperious speech :\n\" Now when all things in order thou inspected hast,\nThen take so many tripods as thou needful deem'st,\nAnd vessels manifold, such as desires at hand\n\nWho offers to the Gods, fulfilling holy use, —\n\nThe kettles, also bowls, the shallow basin's disk ;\n\nThe purest water from the sacred fountain fill\n\nIn lofty urns; and further, also ready hold\n\n. The well-dried wood that rapidly accepts the flame;\nAnd let the knife, well-sharpened, fail not finally ;\nYet all besides will I relinquish to thy care.\"\n\nSo spake he, urging my departure; but nothing _\nOf living breath did he, who ordered thus, appoint,\nThat shall, to honor the Olympian Gods, be slain.\n\n\"T is critical; and yet I banish further care,\n\nAnd let all things be now to the high Gods referred,\nWho that fulfil, whereto their minds may be disposed,\nWhether by men 't is counted good, or whether bad;\nIn either case we mortals, we are doomed to bear.\n\nAlready lifted oft the Offerer the axe\n\n230 faust.\n\nIn consecration o'er the bowed neck of the beast,\nAnd could not consummate the act; for enemies\n\nApproaching, or Gods intervening, hindered him.\n\nCHORUS.\n\nWhat shall happen, imagin'st thou not.\nQueen, go forwards\n\nWith courage!\n\nBlessing and evil come\n\nUnexpected to men:\n\nThough announced, yet we do not believe.\nBurned not Ilion, saw we not also\n\nDeath in the face, shamefullest death?\nAnd are we not here,\n\nWith thee companioned, joyously serving,\nSeeing the dazzling sun in the heavens,\nAnd the fairest of earth, too, —\n\nKindest one, thee, — we, the happy?\n\nHELENA.\n\nLet come, what may! Whate'er awaits me, it beseems —\nThat I without delay go up in the Royal House,\nWhich, long my need and yearning, forfeited almost,\n\nAct ITT. 231\n\nOnce more hath risen on my sight, I know not how.\nMy feet no longer bear me with such fearlessness\n\nUp the high steps, which as a child I sprang across.\n\nCHORUS.\n\nCast ye, O sisters! ye\n\nSorrowful captives,\n\nAll your trouble far from ye!\nYour mistress's joy partake,\nHelena's joy partake,\n\nWho the paternal hearth\nDelightedly now is approaching,\nTruly with late-returning\n\nBut with firmer and surer feet!\n\nPraise ye the sacredest,\n\nStill re-establishing\n\nAnd home-bringing Immortals!\nHow the delivered one\n\nSoars as on lifted wings\n\nOver asperities, while in vain\nThe prisoned one, yearningly,\nOver the fortress-parapet\n\nPineth with outspread arms!\n\n232 Faust.\n\nBut a God took hold of her,\n\nThe Expatriate,\n\nAnd from Ilion's ruins\n\nHither hath borne her again,\n\nTo the ancient, the newly embellished\nPaternal house,\n\nFrom unspeakable\n\nRaptures and torments,\n\nEarly youthful days,\n\nNow refreshed, to remember.\n\nPanTHALIS (a5 LEADER OF THE CHoRws).\n\nForsake ye now the joy-encompassed path of Song,\n\nAnd towards the portal's open valves your glances turn!\n\nWhat, Sisters, do I see? Returneth not the Queen\n\nWith swift and agitated step again to us?\n\nWhat is it now, great Queen, what could encounter thee\n\nTo move and shake thee so, within thy house's halls,\n\nInstead of greeting? 'Thou canst not conceal the thing;\n\nFor strong repulsion written on thy brow I see,\n\nAnd noble indignation, struggling with amaze.\nHELENA\n\n(who has left the wings of the portal open, excitedly).\n\nA common fear beseemeth not the child of Zeus;\n\nAct LL. 233\n\nNo lightly-passing hand of terror touches her ;\n\nBut that fell Horror, which the womb of ancient Night\nWith first of things delivered, rolled through many forms,\nLike glowing clouds that from the mountain's fiery throat\nWhirl up expanding, even heroes' breasts may shake.\nThus terribly have here to-day the Stygian Gods\n\nMine entrance in the house betokened, and I fain,\n\nEven as a guest dismissed, would take myself away\n\nFrom this oft-trodden threshold I so longed to tread.\nBut, no! hither have I retreated to the light ;\n\nNor further shall ye force me, Powers, be who ye may!\nSome consecration will I muse: then, purified,\n\nThe hearth-fire may the wife so welcome, as the lord.\n\nLEADER OF THE CHORUS.\n\nDiscover, noble Dame, unto thy servants here,\n\nWho reverently assist thee, what hath come to pass.\n\nHIELENA.\n\nWhat I beheld, shall ye with your own eyes behold,\nIf now that shape the ancient Night hath not at once\nRe-swallowed to the wonders of her deepest breast.\nBut I with words will yet declare it, that ye know.\nWhen solemnly, my nearest duty borne in mind,\nThe Royal House's gloomy inner court I trod,\n\n234 Faust.\n\nAmazed I saw the silent, dreary corridors.\n\nNo sound of diligent labor, going forwards, met\n\nThe ear, no signs of prompt and busy haste the eye;\n\nAnd not a'maid appeared to me, no stewardess\n\nSuch as is wont to greet the stranger, friendly-wise.\n\nBut when towards the ample hearth-stone I advanced,\n\nI saw, beside the glimmering ashes that remained,\n\nA veiled and giant woman seated on the ground,\n\nNot like to one who sleeps, but one deep-sunk in thought.\n\nWith words of stern command I summoned her to work,\n\nThe stewardess surmising, who meanwhile, perchance,\n\nMy spouse with forethought there had stationed when he .\nleft ;\n\nBut she, still crouched together, sat immovable.\n\nStirred by my threats at last, she lifted the right arm\n\nAs if from hearth and hall she beckoned me away.\n\nI turned indignantly from her, and swiftly sped\n\nUnto the steps whereon aloft the Thalamos\n\nAdorned is set, and near thereto the treasure-room:\n\nBut suddenly from the floor the wondrous figure sprang,\n\nBarring my way imperiously, and showed herself\n\nIn haggard height, with hollow, blood-discolored eyes,\n\nA shape so strange that eye and mind confounded are.\n\nBut to the winds I speak: for all in vain doth Speech\n\nAct LL. 235\n\nFatigue itself, creatively to build up forms.\n\nThere look, yourselves! She even ventures forth to light!\nHere are we masters, till the lord and king shall come.\nThe horrid births of Night doth Phebus, Beauty's friend,\n\nDrive out of sight to caverns, or he binds them fast.\n\n(Puorkyas appears on the threshold, between the door-posts.)\n\nCuorus. 1%\nMuch my experience, although the tresses,\nYouthfully clustering, wave on my temples;\nMany the terrible things I have witnessed,\n\nWarriors lamenting, Ilion's night,\n\nWhen it fell.\n\nThrough the beclouded, dusty and maddened\nThrongs of the combatants, heard I the Gods then\nTerribly calling, heard I the iron\n\nAccents of Discord clang through the field,\nCity-wards.\n\nAh, yet stood they, Ilion's\nRamparts; but ever the fiery glow\nRan from neighbor to neighbor walls,\n\nEver extending from here and there,\n\n236 | Faust.\n\nWith the roar of its own storm,\n\nOver the darkening city.\n\nFlying saw I, through smoke and flame,\nAnd the tongues of the blinding fire, —\nFearful angering presence of Gods,\nStalking marvellous figures,\nGiant-great, through the gloomy\n\nFire-illuminate vapors,\n\nSaw I, or was it but\n\nDread of the mind, that fashioned\nForms so affrighting? Never can\nJustly I say it! Yet that I Her,\nHorrible, here with eyes behold,\n\nIs to me known and certain:\n\nEven to my hand were palpable,\n\nDid not the terror restrain me, .\n\nHolding me back from the danger.\n\nWhich one of Phorkys'\nDaughters then art thou?\nSince I compare thee\n\nUnto that family.\n\nAct LL].\n\nArt thou, perchance, of the Graiz,\nOne of the dreaded gray-born,\nOne eye and tooth only\n\nOwning alternately ?\n\nDarest thou, Monster,\n\nHere beside Beauty,\n\nUnto high Phebus'\n\nVision display thee?\n\nStep thou forth, notwithstanding |!\nFor the Ugly beholds he not,\nEven as his hallowed glances\nNever beheld the shadow.\n\nYet a sorrowful adverse fate\n\nUs mortals compelleth, alas!\n\nTo endure the unspeakable eye-pain\nWhich She, the accurst, reprehensible,\n\nProvokes in the lovers of Beauty.\n\nYes, then hearken, if thou brazenly\nUs shalt encounter, hear the curse, —\n\nHear the threat of every abuse\n\nFrom the denouncing mouths of the Fortunate,\nWhom,the Gods themselves have fashioned |!\n\n238 faust.\n\nPHORKYAS.\"5\n\nOld is the saw, and yet its sense is high and true,\nThat Shame and Beauty ne'er together, hand in hand,\nPursued their way across the green domains of Earth.\nDeep-rooted dwells in both such force of ancient hate,\nThat wheresoever on their way one haps to meet\n\nThe other, each upon her rival turns her back:\n\nThen forth again vehemently they hasten on,\n\nShame deep depressed, but Beauty insolent and bold,\nTill her at last the hollow night of Orcus takes,\n\nIf Age hath not beforehand fully tamed her pride.\n\nSo now I find ye, shameless ones, come from abroad\nWith arrogance o'erflowing, as a file of cranes\n\nThat with their hoarse, far-sounding clangor high in air,\nA cloudy line, slow-moving, send their creaking tones\nBelow, the lone, belated wanderer to allure\n\nThat he look up; but, notwithstanding, go their way,\nAnd he goes his: and likewise will it be, with us.\nWho, then, are you, that round the Royal Palace high\nLike Menads wild, or like Bacchantes, dare to rave?\nWho, then, are you, that you the House's stewardess\nAssail and how] at, as the breed of dogs the moon?\nThink ye from me 't is hidden, of what race ye are?\n\nYe brood, in war begotten and in battle bred,\n\nAct Il. 239\n\nLustful of man, seducing no less than seduced,\nEmasculating soldiers', burghers' strength alike!\nMethinks, to see your crowd, a thick cicada-swarm\nHath settled on us, covering the green-sown fields.\nDevourers ye of others' toil! Ye snatch and taste,\nDestroying in its bud the land's prosperity !\n\nWares are ye, plundered, bartered, and in market sold!\n\nHELENA.\nWho rates the servant-maids in presence of the Dame\nAudaciously invades the Mistress' household-right :\nHer only it becometh to commend what is\nPraiseworthy, as to punish what is blamable.\nContent, moreover, am I with the service which\nThey gave me, when the lofty strength of Ilion\nBeleaguered stood, and fell in ruin: none the less\nWhen we the sorrowful and devious hardships bore\nOf errant travel, where each thinks but of himself.\nHere, too, the like from this gay throng do I expect:\nNot what the slave is, asks the lord, but how he serves.\nTherefore be silent, cease to grin and jeer at them!\nIf thou the Palace hitherto hast guarded well\nIn place of Mistress, so much to thy credit stands ;\nBut now that she herself hath come, shouldst thou retire\n\nLest punishment, in place of pay deserved, befall !\n\n240 faust.\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nTo threaten the domestics is a right assured,\n\nWhich she, the spouse august of the God-prospered king,\n\nBy many years of wise discretion well hath earned. |\n\nSince thou, now recognized, thine ancient station here\n\nAgain assum'st, as Queen and Mistress of the House,\n\nGrasp thou the reins so long relaxed, be ruler now,\n\nTake in thy keep the treasure, and ourselves thereto!\n\nBut first of all protect me, who the eldest am,\n\nFrom this pert throng, who with thee, Swan of Beauty,\nmatched,\n\nAre only stumpy-winged and cackling, quacking geese.\n\nLEADER OF THE CHORUS.\n\nHow ugly, near to Beauty, showeth Ugliness!\n\nPHoRKYAS.\nHow silly, near to understanding, want of sense!\n(Henceforth the CHORETIDS answer in turn, stepping singly forth\n\nfrom the Cuorus.)\n\nCuHoretTip [.19\n\nOf Father Erebus relate, relate of Mother Night!\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nSpeak thou of Scylla, sister-children of one flesh !\n\nAct LLL. 241\n\nCuoretip II.\n\nGood store of hideous monsters shows thy family tree!\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nGo down to Orcus! There thy tribe and kindred seek!\n\nCuoretTip III.\n\nThose who dwell there are all by far too young for thee.\n\n\"'\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nOn old Tiresias try thy lascivious arts!\n\nCuoretTip IV.\n\nOrion's nurse was great-great-grandchild unto thee!\n\nPuHorKYASs.\n\nThee harpies, I suspect, did nurse and feed on filth.\n\nCuHoretTip V.\n\nWherewith dost thou such choice emaciation feed ?\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nNot with the blood, for which thou all too greedy art.\n\nCuoretip VI.\n\nThou, hungering for corpses, hideous corpse thyself !\n\n242 Faust.\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nThe teeth of vampires in thy shameless muzzle shine!\n\nLEADER OF THE CHORUS.\n\nThine shall I stop, when I declare thee who thou art.\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nThen name thyself the first! The riddle thus is solved.\n\n| HELEna.\nNot angered, but in sorrow, do I intervene,\nProhibiting the storm of this alternate strife!\nFor nothing more énéurious meets the ruling lord\nThan quarrels of his faithful servants, underhand.\nThe echo of his orders then returns no more\nAccordantly to him in swiftly finished acts,\nBut, roaring wilfully, encompasses with storm\nHim, self-confused, and chiding to the empty air.\nNor this alone: in most unmannered anger ye\nHave conjured hither pictures of the shapes of dread,\nWhich so surround me, that to Orcus now I feel\nMy being whirled, despite these well-known native fields,\nCan it be memory? Was it fancy, seizing me?\nWas all that, I? and am J, now? and shall I henceforth be\n\nThe dream and terror of those town-destroying ones?\n\nAct LL. 243\n\nI see the maidens shudder: but, the eldest, thou\n\nComposedly standest — speak a word of sense to me!\n\nPHORKYAS.\nWhoe'er the fortune manifold of years recalls,\nSees as a dream at last the favor of the Gods.\nBut thou, so highly dowered, so past all measure helped,\nSaw'st in the ranks of life but love-desirous men,\nTo every boldest hazard kindled soon and spurred.\nThee early Theseus snatched, excited by desire,\nLike Heraclés in strength, a splendid form of man.\n\nHELENA.\n\nHe bore me forth, a ten-year-old and slender roe,\n\nAnd shut me in Aphidnus' tower, in Attica.\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nBut then, by Castor and by Pollux soon released,\n\nThe choicest crowd of heroes, wooing, round thee pressed.\nHELENA.\nYet most my secret favor, freely I confess,\nPatroclus won, the likeness of Pelides he.\nPuorkyas.\n\nWed by thy father's will to Menelaus then,\n\nThe bold sea-rover, the sustainer of his house.\n\n244 faust.\n\nHELENA.\n\nMy sire the daughter gave him, and the government:\n\nThen from our wedded nearness sprang Hermione.\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nYet when he boldly claimed the heritage of Crete,\nTo thee, the lonely one, too fair a guest appeared.\n\nHELENA.\n\nWhy wilt thou thus recall that semi-widowhood,\n\nAnd all the hideous ruin it entailed on me?\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nTo me, a free-born Cretan, did that journey bring\n\nImprisonment, as well, — protracted slavery.\n\nHELENA.\n\nAt once he hither ordered thee as stewardess,\n\nGiving in charge the fortress and the treasure-stores.\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nWhich thou forsookest, wending to the towered town\n\nOf Ilion, and the unexhausted joys of love.\n\n. HELENA.\n\nName not those joys to me! for sorrow all too stern\n\nUnendingly was poured upon my breast and brain.\n\nAct LL. 245\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nNathless, they say, dost thou appear in double form ;\n_ Beheld in Ilion, —in Egypt, too, beheld.\n\nHELENA.\n\nMake wholly not confused my clouded, wandering sense!\n\nEven in this moment, who I am I cannot tell.\n\nPHORKYAS.\nAnd then, they say, from out the hollow Realm of Shades\nAchilles yet was joined in passion unto thee,\n\nWho earlier loved thee, 'gainst all ordinances of Fate!\n\nHE Lena.\nTo him, the Vision, I, a Vision, wed myself : '°7\nIt was a dream, as even the words themselves declare.\n\nI vanish hence, and to myself a Vision grow.\n\n(She sinks into the arms of the SEMICHORUS.)\n\nCHoRUwuS.\nSilence! silence!\n\nFalse-seeing one, false-speaking one!\nOut of the hideous, single-toothed\nMouth, what should be exhaled from\n\nSuch abominable horror-throat !\n\nFaust.\n\nFor the Malevolent, seeming benevolent, —\nWolf's wrath under the sheep's woolly fleece, —\nFearfuller far is unto me than\n\nThroat of the three-headed dog.\n\nAnxiously listening stand we here.\n\nWhen? how? where shall break again forth\nFurther malice\n\nFrom the deeply-ambushed monster?\n\nNow, stead of friendly words and consoling,\nLethe-bestowing, gratefully mild,\n\nStirrest thou up from all the Past\n\nEvillest more than good things,\n\nAnd darkenest all at once\n\nBoth the gleam of the Present\n\nAnd also the Future's\n\nSweetly glimmering dawn of hope!\n\nSilence! silence!\n\nThat the Queen's high spirit,\nNigh to forsake her now,\nHold out, and upbear yet\nThe Form of all forms\n\nWhich the sun shone on ever.\n\n(Hexena has recovered, and stands again in the centre.)\n\nAct LL. 247\n\nPHORKYAS.\nForth from transient vapors comes the lofty sun of this\nbright day,\nThat, obscured, could so delight us, but in splendor daz-\nzles now.\nAs the world to thee is lovely, thou art lovely unto us;\n\nThough as ugly they revile me, well I know the Beautiful.\n\nHELENA.\n\nTottering step I from the Void that — dizzy, fainting, —\nround me closed ;\n\nAnd again would fain be resting, for so weary are my limbs.\n\nYet to Queens beseemeth chiefly, as to all men it beseems,\n\nCalm to be, and pluck up courage, whatsoe'er may menace\nthem.\n\nPuHoRKYas.\nStanding now in all thy greatness, and in all thy beauty,\nhere,\n- Says thine eye that thou commandest: what command'st\n\nthou? speak it out!\n\nHELENA.\n\nBe prepared, for much neglected in your quarrel, to atone!\n\nHaste, a sacrifice to furnish, as the king hath ordered me!\n\n248 faust.\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nAll is ready in the palace — vessels, tripods, sharpened axe,\nFor the sprinkling, fumigating: show to me the victim\n\nnow !\nHELENA.\n\nThis the king not indicated.\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nSpake it not?) O word of woe!\n\nHELENA.\n\nWhat distress hath overcome thee?\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nQueen, the offering art thou!\n\nI? HELEnNa.\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nAnd these.\n\nCHORUS.\n\nAh, woe and sorrow!\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nThou shalt fall beneath the axe.\n\nHELENA.\n\nFearful, yet foreboded! I, alas!\n\nAct [1]. 249\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nThere seemeth no escape.\n\nCHORUS.\n\nAh! and what to us will happen?\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nShe will die a noble death;\n\nBut upon the lofty beam, upholding rafter-frame and roof,\n\nAs in birding-time the throstles, ye in turn shall strug-\ngling hang !\n\n_ (HELENA and the Cuorus stand amazed and alarmed, in striking,\n\nwell-arranged groups.)\n\nPHORKYAS.\nYe Phantoms! — like to frozen images ye stand,\nIn terror thus from Day to part, which is not yours.\nMen, and the race of spectres like you, one and all,\nRenounce not willingly the bright beams of the sun;\nBut from the end may none implore or rescue them.\nAll know it, yet 't is pleasant unto very few.\n\nEnough! ye all are lost: now speedily to work!\n\n(She claps her hands: thereupon appear in the doorway muffled\ndwarfish forms, which at once carry out with alacrity the commands\nexpressed. )\n\n250 Faust.\n\nThis way, ye gloomy, sphery-bodied monster throng!\nRoll hitherwards! ye here may damage as ye will.\n\nThe altar portable, the golden-horned, set up!\n\nThe axe let shimmering lie across the silver rim!\n\nThe urns of water fill! For soon, to wash away,\n\nShall be the black blood's horrible and smutching stains,\nHere spread the costly carpets out upon the dust,\n\nThat so the offering may kneel in queenly wise,\n\nAnd folded then, although with severed head, at once\nWith decent dignity be granted sepulture!\n\nLEADER OF THE CHORUS.\n\nThe Queen is standing, sunk in thought, beside us here,\nThe maidens wither like the late-mown meadow grass ;\nMethinks that I, the eldest, in high duty bound, |\nShould words exchange with thee, primeval eldest thou!\nThou art experienced, wise, and seemest well-disposed,\nAlthough this brainless throng assailed thee in mistake.\n\nDeclare then, if thou knowest, possible escape !\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\"T is easy said. Upon the Queen it rests alone,\nTo save herself, and ye appendages with her.\n\nBut resolution, and the swiftest, needful is.\n\nAct Ll. 251\n\nCuHorus.\n\nWorthiest and most reverend of the Parcz, wisest sibyl thou,\n\nHold the golden shears yet open, then declare us Day and\nHelp!\n\nWe already feel discomfort of the soaring, swinging,\nstruggling ;\n\nAnd our limbs in dances first would rather move in joyous\ncadence,\n\nResting afterwards on lovers' breasts.\n\nHE ena.\nLet these be timid! Pain I feel, but terror none ;\nYet if thou know'st of rescue, grateful I accept!\nUnto the wise, wide-seeing mind.-is verily shown\n\nThe Impossible oft as possible. 'Then speak, and say !\n\nCHoRvs.\n\nSpeak and tell us, tell us quickly, how escape we now the\nfearful,\n\nFatal nooses, that so menace, like the vilest form of neck-\nlace,\n\nWound about our tender throats? Already, in anticipation,\n\nWe can feel the choking, smothering —if thou, Rhea,\nlofty Mother\n\nOf the Gods, to mercy be not moved.\n\n252 faust.\n\nPHORKYAS.\nHave you then patience, such long-winded course of speech\n\nTo hear in silence? Manifold the stories are.\n\nCHorws.\n\nPatience enough! Meanwhile, in hearing, still we live.\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nWhoso, to guard his noble wealth, abides at home,\nAnd in his lofty dwelling well cements the chinks\nAnd also from the pelting rain secures the roof,\n\nWith him, the long days of his life, shall all be well:\nBut whosoe'er his threshold's holy square-hewn stone\nLightly with flying foot and guilty oversteps,\n\nFinds, when he comes again, the ancient place, indeed,\n\nBut all things altered, if not utterly o'erthrown.\n\nHELENA.\n\nWherefore declaim such well-known sayings here, as these?\n\nThou wouldst narrate: then stir not up annoying themes!\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nIt is historic truth, and nowise a reproach.\n\nSea-plundering, Menelaus steered from bay to bay ;\n\nAct Ill. 253\n\nHe skirted as a foe the islands and the shores,\nReturning with the booty, which in yonder rusts.\nThen ten long years he passed in front of Ilion;\nBut for the voyage home how many know I not.\nAnd now how is it, where we stand by Tyndarus'\n\nExalted House? How is it with the regions round?\n\nHELENA.\n\nHas then Abuse become incarnated 'in. thee,\n\nThat canst not open once thy lips, except to blame?\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nSo many years deserted stood the valley-hills\n\nThat in the rear of Sparta northwards rise aloft,\n\nBehind Taygetus; whence, as yet a nimble brook,\nEurotas downward rolls, and then, along our vale\n\nBy reed-beds broadly flowing, nourishes your swans.\nBehind there in the mountain-dells a daring breed\nHave settled, pressing forth from the Cimmerian Night,\nAnd there have built a fortress inaccessible,\n\nWhence land and people now they harry, as they please.\n\nHELENA.\n\nHave they accomplished that? Impossible it seems.\n\n254 Faust.\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nThey had the time: it may be twenty years, in all.\n\nHELENA.\n\nIs one a Chief? and are they robbers many — leagued?\n\nPHORKYAS.\nNot robbers are they; yet of many one is Chief: '9\nI blame him not, although on me he also fell.\nHe might, indeed, have taken all; yet was content\n\nWith some /ree-gifts, he said: tribute he called it not.\n\nHELENA.\n\nHow looked the man?\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nBy no means ill: he pleased me well.\nCheerful and brave and bold, and nobly-formed is he,\nA prudent man and wise, as few among the Greeks.\nThey call the race Barbarians; yet I question much\nIf one so cruel be, as there by Ilion\nIn man-devouring rage so many heroes were;\nHis greatness I respected, did confide in him.\nAnd then, his fortress! That should ye yourselves behold !\n\n\"T is something other than unwieldy masonry,\n\nAct Ill, 255\n\nThe which your fathers, helter-skelter tumbling, piled, —\n\nCyclopean like the Cyclops, stones undressed at once\n\nOn stones undressed upheaving: there, however, there\n\nAll plumb and balanced is, conformed to square and rule.\n\nBehold it from without! It rises heavenward up\n\nSo hard, so tight of joint, and mirror-smooth as steel.\n\nTo climb up there — nay, even your Thought itself slides\noff ! |\n\nAnd mighty courts of ample space within, enclosed\n\nAround with structures of all character and use.\n\nThere you see pillars, pillarlets, arches great and small,\n\nBalconies, galleries for looking out and in,\n\nAnd coats of arms.\n\nCHORUS.\n\nWhat are they?\n\nPHoRKYAS.\nAjax surely bore\nA twisted serpent on his shield, as ye have seen.\nThe Seven also before Thebes had images,\nEach one upon his shield, with many meanings rich.\nOne saw there moon and star on the nocturnal sky,\nAnd goddesses, and heroes, ladders, torches, swords,\n\nAnd whatsoe'er afflicting threateneth good towns. —\n\n256 Faust.\n\nSuch symbols also bore our own heroic band,\n\nIn shining tints, bequeathed from eldest ancestry.\n\nYou see there lions, eagles, likewise claws and beaks,\nThen buffalo-horns, with wings and roses, peacock's-tails,\nAnd also bars — gold, black and silver, blue and red.\nThe like of these in halls are hanging, row on row, —\nIn halls unlimited and spacious as the world:\n\nThere might ye dance!\nCuHorus.\n\nBut tell us, are there dancers there?\n\nPuHorRKYAS.\nAy, and the best!—a blooming, gold-haired throng of.\nboys,\nBreathing ambrosial youth! So only Paris breathed,\n_ When he approached too nearly to the Queen.\n\nHELENAa.\n\nThou fall'st\nEntirely from thy part: speak now the final word!\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\n'T is thou shalt speak it: say with grave distinctness, Yes!\nThen straight will I surround thee with that fortress.\n\nAct LL. 257\n\nCHORUS.\n\nSpeak,\nO speak the one brief word, and save thyself and us!\n\nHELENA.\n\nWhat! Shall I fear King Menelaus may transgress\n\nSo most inhumanly, as thus to smite myself?\n\nPHORKYAS.\n'Hast thou forgotten how he thy Deiphobus,\nBrother of fallen Paris, who with stubborn claim\nTook thee, the willow. as his fere, did visit with\nUnheard-of mutilation? Nose and ears he cropped,\n\nAnd otherwise disfigured: 't was a dread to see.\n\nHELENA.\n\nThat did he unto him: he did it for my sake.\n\nPuHorKYas.\nBecause of him he now will do the like to thee. /\nBeauty is indivisible :''° who once possessed\nHer wholly, rather slays than only share in part. |\n(Trumpets in the distance: the Cuorus starts in terror.)\nEven as the trumpet's piercing clangor gripes and tears\nThe ear and entrail-nerves, thus Jealousy her claws\nDrives in the bosom of the man, who ne'er forgets\nW hat once was his, but now is lost, possessed no more.\n\n258 Faust.\n\nCHorRws.\n\nHear'st thou not the trumpets pealing? see'st thou not\n\nthe shine of swords?\n\nPHORKYAS.\nKing and Lord, be welcome hither! willing reckoning\n\nwill I give.\nPause.\n\nHELEna.\nWhat I may venture first to do, have I devised.\nA hostile Demon art thou, that I feel full well,\nAnd much I fear thou wilt convert the Good to Bad,\nBut first to yonder fortress now I follow thee;\nWhat then shall come, I know: but what the Queen\nthereby\nAs mystery in her deepest bosom may conceal,\n\nRemain unguessed by all! Now, Ancient, lead the way!\n\nCuorus.\nO how gladly we go,\nHastening thither !\nChasing us, Death,\nAnd, rising before us,\n\nThe towering castle's\n\nAct Ll. 259\n\nInaccessible ramparts.\nGuard us as well may they\nAs Ilion's citadel-fort,\n\nWhich at last alone\nFell, through contemptible wiles !\n\n(Mists arise and spread, obscuring the background, also the nearer\n\nportion of the scene, at pleasure.)\n\nHow is it? how?\n\nSisters, look around!\n\nWas it not cheerfullest day ?\n\nBanded vapors are hovering up\n\nOut of Eurotas' holy stream ;\n\nVanished e'en now hath the lovely\nReed-engarlanded shore from the sight ;\nLikewise the free, gracefully-proud,\nSilently floating swans,\n\nMated in joy of their swimming,\n\nSee I, alas! no more.\n\nStill — but still\n\nCrying, I hear them,\nHoarsely crying afar!\nOminous, death-presaging !\n\nAh, may to us the tones not also,\n\n260 Faust.\n\nStead of deliverance promised,\nRuin announce at the last ! —\n\nUs, the swan-like and slender,\nLong white-throated, and She,\nOur fair swan-begotten.\n\nWoe to us, woe!\n\nAll 1s covered and hid\n\nRound us with vapor and cloud:\n\nEach other behold we not!\n\nWhat happens? do we advance?\n\nHover we only with\n\nSkipping footstep along the ground?\n\nSeest thou naught? Soars not even, perchance,\nHermes before us? Shines not the golden wand.\nBidding, commanding us back again\n\nTo the cheerless, gray-twilighted,\n\nFull of impalpable phantoms,\n\nOver-filled, eternally empty Hades?\n\nYes, at once the air is gloomy, sunless vanish now the\nvapors, |\nGray and darkly, brown as buildings. Walls present\n\nthemselves before us,\n\nAct LIT. 261\n\nBlank against our clearer vision. Is 't a court? a moat,\nor pitfall ?\n\nFear-inspiring, any way! and Sisters, ah, behold us pris-\noned, —\n\nPrisoned now, as ne'er before!\n\n(Inner court-yard of a Castle,\" surrounded with rich, fantastjc\nbuildings of the Middle Ages.)\n\nLEADER OF THE CHORUS.\nPrecipitate and foolish, type of women ye!\nDependent on the moment, sport of every breeze\nThat blows mischance or luck! and neither ever ye\nSupported calmly. One is sure to contradict\nThe others fiercely, and cross-wise the others her:\nOnly in joy and pain ye howl and laugh.alike.\nBe silent now, and hearken what the Mistress here,\n\nHigh-thoughted, may determine for herself and us!\n\nHELENA.\nWhere art thou, Pythoness? Whatever be thy name,\nStep forth from out these arches of the gloomy keep!\nIf thou didst go, unto the wondrous hero-lord\nMe to announce, preparing thus reception fit,\nThen take my thanks, and lead me speedily to him!\n\nI wish the wandering closed, I wish for rest alone.\n\n262 Faust\n\nLEADER OF THE CHORUS.\n\nIn vain thou lookest, Queen, all ways around thee here;\nThat fatal shape hath vanished hence, perhaps remained\nThere in the mists, from out whose bosom hitherwards —\nI know not how — we came, swiftly, without a step.\nPerhaps, indeed, she strays, lost in the labyrinth\n\nOf many castles wondrously combined in one,\n\nSeeking august and princely welcome from the lord.\n\nBut see! up yonder moves in readiness a crowd:\n\nIn galleries, at windows, through the portals, comes\n\nA multitude of servants, hastening here and there;\n\nAnd this proclaims distinguished welcome to the guest. ,\n\n~—\n\nCHORUS.\n\nMy heart is relieved! O, yonder behold\n\nHow so orderly downward with lingering step\n\nThe crowd of the youths in dignity comes,\n\nIn regular march! Who hath given command\n\nThat they marshal in ranks, and so promptly disposed,\nThe youthfullest boys of the beautiful race?\n\nWhat shall most I admire? Is 't the delicate gait,\n\nOr the curls of the hair on the white of the brow,\n\nOr the twin-rounded cheeks, blushing red like the peach,\nAnd also, like them, with the silkiest down?\n\nAct L1. 263\n\nFain therein would I bite, yet I fear me to try;\nFor, in similar case, was the mouth thereupon\nFilled —I shudder to tell it !— with ashes.\n\nBut they, the fairest,\n\nHither they come:\n\nWhat do they bear?\n\nSteps to the throne,\n\nCarpet and seat,\n\nCurtain and tent, |\n\nOr similar gear ;\n\nWaving around, and\n\nCloudy wreaths forming\n\nO'er the head of our Queen ;\n\nFor she already ascendeth,\n\nInvited, the sumptuous couch,\n\nCome forward, now,\n\nStep by step,\n\nSolemnly ranged |\n\nWorthy, O, threefold worthy her,\n\nMay such a reception be blessed !\n\n(All that is described by the Cuorus takes place by degrees. After\n\nthe boys and squires have descended in a long procession, Faust ap-\npears above, at the head of the staircase, in knightly Court costume\n\nof the Middle Ages, and then comes down slowly and with dignity.)\n\n264 Faust.\n\nLEADER OF THE CHORUS\n\n(observing him attentively).\nIf now, indeed, the Gods to this man have not lent —\nAs oft they do to men —a brave, transcendent form,\nA winning presence, stately dignity of mien,\nFor temporary service, all he undertakes\nWill always bring him triumph, whether in fight with men,\nOr in the minor wars with fairest ladies waged.\nHin, verily, to hosts of others I prefer,\nWhom, highly-famed withal, I have myself beheld.\nWith slow and solemn step, by reverence restrained,\n\nI see the Prince approach: turn thou thy head, O Queen!\n\nFaust\n\n(approaching: a man in fetters at his side).\nInstead of solemn greeting, as beseems,\nOr reverential welcome, bring I thee,\nFast-bound in welded fetters, here, the knave\nWhose duty slighted cheated me of mine.'!\nKneel down, thou Culprit, that this lofty Dame\nMay hear the prompt confession of thy guilt!\nThis, Sovereign Mistress, is the man select\nFor piercing vision, on the turret high\n\nStationed to look around, the space of heaven\n\nAct UL . 26s\n\nAnd breadth of earth to read with sharpest glance,\nIf here or there perchance come aught to view, —\nBetween the stronghold and the circling hills\n\nIf aught may move, whether the billowy herds\nOr waves of arméd men: those we protect,\nEncounter these. To-day — what negligence!\nThou comsst, he proclaims it not: we fail\n\nIn honorable reception, most deserved, |\n\nOf such high guest. Now forfeited hath he\n\nHis guilty life, and should have shed the blood\nOf death deserved; but only thou shalt mete\nPardon or punishment, at thy good will.\n\nFIELENA.\nSo high the power, which thou hast granted me,\nAs Mistress and as Judge, although it were\n(I may conjecture) meant but as a test, —\nYet now I use the Judge's bounden right |\nTo give the Accused a hearing: speak then, thou!\n\nLynceus, THE WARDER OF THE TOWER.\nLet me kneel, and let me view her,\nLet me live, or let me die!\n\nFor enslaved, devoted to her,\nThis God-granted Dame, am I.\n\n266 Faust.\n\nWatching for the Morn's advancing\nWhere her pathways eastward run,\nAll at once, a sight entrancing,\n\nIn the South arose the sun.™3\n\nThere to look, the Wonder drew me:\nNot the glens, the summits cold,\nSpace of sky or landscape gloomy, —\nOnly Her did I behold.\n\nBeam of sight to me was given,\nLike the lynx on highest tree ;\nBut in vain I've urged and striven,\n\n*T was a dream that fettered me.\n\nCould I know, or how be aided ?\nThink of tower or bolted gate?\nVapors rose and vapors faded,\n\nAnd the Goddess came in state!\n\nEye and heart did I surrender\n\nTo the softly-shining spell :\n\nBlinding all with Beauty's splendor,\n. She hath blinded me, as well.\n\nAct ITT.\n\nI forgot the warder's duty\n\nAnd the trumpet's herald-call :\nThreaten to destroy me! Beauty\nBindeth anger, frees her thrall.\n\nHELENA.\n\nThe Evil which I brought, I dare no more\nChastise. Ah, woe tome! What fate severe\nPursues me, everywhere the breasts of men\n\nSo to infatuate, that nor them, nor aught\nBesides of worth, they spare? Now plundering,\nSeducing, fighting, hurried to and fro,\n\nHeroes and Demigods, Gods, Demons even,\nHither and thither led me, sore-perplexed. _\nSole, I the world bewildered, doubly more;\nNow threefold, fourfold, woe on woe I bring.\nRemove this guiltless man, let him go free!\n\nThe God-deluded merits no disgrace.\n\nFaust.\nAmazed, O Queen, do I behold alike\nThe unerring archer and the stricken prey.\nI see the bow, wherefrom the arrow sped\nThat wounded him. Arrows on arrows fly,\nAnd strike me. I suspect the feathered hum\n\n'\n\",\n\n268 Faust.\n\nOf bolts cross-fired through all the courts and towers.\nWhat am I now? At once rebellious thou\n\nMakest my faithfullest, and insecure\n\nMy walls. 'Thence do I fear that even my hosts\nObey the conquering and unconquered Dame.\n\nWhat else remains, but that I give to thee\n\nMyself, and all I vainly fancied mine?\n\nLet me, before thy feet, in fealty true,\n\nThee now acknowledge, Lady, whose approach\n\nWon thee at once possession and the throne!\n\nLynceus '\n(with a chest, and men who follow, bearing others).\nThou seest me, Queen, returned and free!\nThe wealthy begs a glance from thee:\nThee he beheld, and feeleth, since,\nAs beggar poor, yet rich as prince.\n\nWhat was I erst? What now am I?\nWhat shall I will? — what do, or try?\nWhat boots the eyesight's sharpest ray?\nBack from thy throne it bounds away.\n\nForth from the East we hither pressed,'\"4\nAnd all was over with the West:\n\nAct ITT.\n\nSo long and broad the people massed,\n\nThe foremost knew not of the last.\n\nThe foremost fell, the second stood;\n\nThe third one's lance was prompt and good;\nEach one a hundred's strength supplied: _\nUnnoted, thousands fell and died.\n\nWe onward pressed, in stormy chase;\nThe lords were we from place to place;\n'And where, to-day, I ruled as chief,\nThe morrow brought another thief.\n\nWe viewed the ground, but viewed in haste:\n\nThe fairest woman one embraced,\nOne took the oxen from the stall;\n\nThe horses followed, one and all.\n\nBut my delight was to espy |\nWhat rarest was, to mind and eye;\nAnd all that others might amass\n\nTo me was so much withered grass.\n\nI hunted on the treasure-trail\n\nWhere'er sharp sight could me avail:\n\nFaust.\n\nIn every pocket did I see,\n\nAnd every chest was glass to me.\n\nAnd heaps of gold I came to own,\nWith many a splendid jewel-stone:\nThe emeralds only worthy seem\n\nGreenly upon thy breast to gleam.\n\n'T wixt lip and ear let swaying sleep\nThe pearly egg of Ocean's deep;\nSuch place the rubies dare not seek,\n\nThey 're blanched beside the rosy cheek.\n\nAnd thus, the treasure's offering\n\nI here before thy presence bring:\nLaid at thy feet, be now revealed\nThe spoils of many a bloody field!\n\nThough I have brought of chests a store,\nYet iron caskets have I more.\n\nLet me attend thee, do thy will,\n\nAnd I thy treasure-vaults will fill.\n\nFor scarcely didst thou mount the throne,\n\nThan bowed to own and bent to own\n\nAct IIT. 271\n\nThy Beauty's sway, that very hour,\n\nWisdom, and Wealth, and sovereign Power.\n\nAll such I held secure, as mine;\nNow freed therefrom, behold it thine!\nI deemed its worth and value plain ;\n\nNow see I, it was null and vain.\n\nWhat I possessed from me doth pass,\nDispersed like mown and withered grass.\nOne bright and beauteous glance afford,\nAnd all its worth is straight restored !\n\nFaust.\nRemove with speed the burden boldly won,\nNot blamed, indeed, but neither with reward.\nAll is her own already, which the keep\nWithin it holds; and special offer thus\nIs useless. Go, and pile up wealth on wealth »\nIn order fit! Present the show august\nOf splendors yet unseen! The vaulted halls\nMake shine like clearest heaven! Let Paradise\nFrom lifeless pomp of life created be!\nHastening, before her footsteps be unrolled\n\nThe flower-embroidered carpets! Let her tread\n\n272 Faust.\n\nFall on the softest footing, and her glance,\n\nGods only bear undazed, on proudest pomp!\n\nLynceus.\nWhat the lord commands is slight ;\nFor the servants, labor light :\nOver wealth and blood and breath\nThis proud Beauty governeth.\nLo! thy warrior-throngs are tame;\nAll the swords are blunt and lame;\nNear the bright form we behold\nEven the sun is pale and cold;\nNear the riches of her face\nAll things empty, shorn of grace.\n\nHevena (to Faust).\nFain to discourse with thee, I bid thee come\nUp hither to my side! The empty place\n\nInvites its lord, and thus secures me mine.\n\nFaust.\nFirst, kneeling, let the dedication be\nAccepted, lofty Lady! Let me kiss\nThe gracious hand that lifts me to thy side.\n\nConfirm me as co-regent of thy realm,\n\nAct £11. : 273\n\nWhose borders are unknown, and win for thee\n\nGuard, slave and worshipper, and all in one!\n\nHELENA.\nI hear and witness marvels manifold;\nAmazement takes me, much would I inquire. .\nYet now instruct me wherefore spake the man\nWith strangely-sounding speech, friendly and strange:\nEach sound appeared as yielding to the next,\"5\nAnd, when a word gave pleasure to the ear,\n\nAnother came, caressing then the first.\n\nFaust.\nIf thee our people's mode of speech delight,\nO thou shalt be enraptured with our song,\nWhich wholly satisfies both ear and mind!\nBut it were best we exercise it now:\n\nAlternate speech entices, calls it forth.\n\nHELENA.\n\nCanst thou to me that lovely speech impart?\n\nFaust.\n\n\"T is easy: it must issue from the heart;\nAnd if the breast with yearning overflow,\nOne looks around, and asks —\n\n274 Faust.\n\nHELENA.\n\nWho shares the glow.\n\nFaust.\n\nNor Past nor Future shades an hour like this;\n\nBut-wholly in the Present —\n\nHELENA.\n\nIs our bliss.\n\nFaust.\n\nGain, pledge, and fortune in the Present stand:\n\nWhat confirmation does it ask ?\n\nHE Lena.\n\nMy hand.\n\nCuorus.\nWho would take it amiss, that our Princess\nGranteth now to the Castle's lord\nFriendliest demonstration\nFor, indeed, collectively are we\nCaptives, as ofttimes already,\nSince the infamous downfall\nOf Ilion, and the perilous,\n\nLabyrinthine, sorrowful voyage.\n\nAct III.\n\nWomen, to the love of men accustomed,\nDainty choosers are they not,\n\nBut proficients skilful ;\n\nAnd unto golden-haired shepherds,\nPerchance black, bristly Fauns, too,\nEven as comes opportunity,\n\nUnto the limbs in their vigor\n\nFully award they an equal right.\n\nNear, and nearer already sit\n\nThey, to each other drawn,\nShoulder to shoulder, knee to knee;\nHand in hand, they bend and sway\nOver the throne's\n\nSoftly-pillowed, luxurious pomp.\nMajesty here not withholds its\nSecretest raptures,\n\nWilfully, boldly revealed\n\nThus to the eyes of the people.\n\nHELENA.\n\nI feel so far away, and yet so near ;\n\nAnd am so fain to say: 'Here am I! here.\"\n\nFaust.\n\nI scarcely breathe; I tremble; speech is dead: |\n\nIt is a dream, and day and place have fled.\n\n276 faust.\n\nHELENA.\n\nI seem as life were done, and yet so new,\n\nBlent thus with thee, —to thee, the Unknown, true!\n\nFaust.\n\nTo probe this rarest fate be not impelled!\nBeing is duty, though a moment held.\n\nPuorkyas (violently entering).\n\nSpell in lovers' primers sweetly !\n\n- Probe and dally, cosset featly,\nTest your wanton sport completely !\nBut there is not time, nor place.\nFeel ye not the gloomy presage?\nHear ye not the trumpet's message?\nFor the ruin comes apace.\n\n_ Menelaus with his legions\nStorms across the hither regions ;\nCall to battle all your race!\nBy the victors execrated,\nLike Deiphobus mutilated,\nThou shalt pay for woman's grace:\nFirst shall dangle every light one,\nAt the altar, then, the Bright One\n\nFind the keen axe in its place!\n\nAct LI. 277\n\nFaust.\n\nDisturbance rash! repulsively she presses in ;\n\nNot even in danger meet is senseless violence.\n\nIj] message makes the fairest herald ugly seem ;\n\nThou, Ugliest, delightest but in evil news.\n\nYet this time shalt thou not succeed; with empty breath\nStir, shatter thou the air! 'There is no danger here,\n\nAnd unto us were danger but an idle threat.\n\n(Signals, explosions from the towers,™'© trumpets and cornets, martial\n\nmusic. A powerful armed force marches past.)\n\nNo! hero-bands, none ever braver,\nAt once shalt thou assembled see:\nHe, sole, deserves the ladies' favor,\n\nWhose arm defends them gallantly.\n\n(To the leaders of the troops, who detach themselves from the columns,\n\nand come forwards.) /\n\nWith rage restrained, in silence banded,\nAnd certain of the victory-feast,\nYe, Northern blossoms, half expanded,\nYe, flowery fervors of the East!\n\nThe light upon their armor breaking,\n\nThey plundered realm on realm, at will:\n\nFaust.\n\nThey come, and lo! the earth is quaking ;\nThey march away, it thunders still!\n\nIn Pylos we forsook the waters ;\nThe ancient Nestor is no more,\nAnd soon our lawless army scatters\n\nThe troops of kings on Grecian shore.\n\nBack from these walls, no more delaying,\nDrive Menelaus to the sea!\nThere let him wander, robbing, slaying,\n\nAs was his wish and destiny.\n\nI hail you Dukes, as forth ye sally\nBeneath the rule of Sparta's Queen!\nNow lay before her mount and valley,\n\nAnd you shall share the kingdom green!\n\nThine, German, be the hand that forges\nDefence for Corinth and her bays:\nAchaia, with its hundred gorges,\n\nI give thee, Goth, to hold and raise.\n\nTowards Elis, Franks, direct your motion ;\n\nMessene be the Saxon's state:\n\nAct IT. 279\n\nThe Norman claim and sweep the ocean,\n\nAnd Argolis again make great !\n\nThen each shall dwell in homes well-dowered,\nAnd only outer foemen meet ;\nYet still by Sparta over-towered,\n\nThe Queen's ancestral, ancient seat.\n\nEach one shall she behold, abiding\nIn lands that lack no liberal right ;\nAnd at her feet ye 'll seek, confiding,\nYour confirmation, law and light!\n\n(Faust descends from the throne: the Princes form a circle around\n\nhim, in order to receive special commands and instructions.)\n\nCnHorus.\nWho for himself the Fairest desires,\nFirst of all things, let him\nBravely and wisely a weapon acquire!\nFlattering, indeed, he may conquer\nWhat on earth is the highest ;\nBut he quietly may not possess.\nWily sneaks entice her away,\nRobbers boldly abduct her from him:\nThis to hinder be he prepared!\n\n280 Faust.\n\nTherefore now our Prince I praise,\nHolding him higher than others,\n\nSince he wisdom and strength combines,\nSo that the strong men obedient stand,\nWaiting his every beckon.\n\nThey his orders faithfully heed,\n\nEach for the profiting of himself\n\nAs for the Ruler's rewarding thanks,\nAnd for the highest renown of both.\n\nFor who shall tear her away\n\nNow, from the mighty possessor ?\n\nHis is she, and to him be she granted,\n\nDoubly granted by us, whom he,\n\nEven as her, within by sure walls hath surrounded,\n\nAnd without by a powerful host.\n\nFaust.\n\nThe gifts they 've won by our concession, —\nIn fee to each a wealthy land, —\nAre grand and fair: grant them possession !\n\nWe in the midst will take our stand.\n\nAnd they in rivalry protect thee,\nHalf-Island, girdled by the sea\n\nAct Il. 281\n\nWith whispering waves, — whose soft hill-chains connect\nthee\n\nWith the last branch of Europe's mountain-tree !\n\nThis land, before all lands in splendor,'!7\nOn every race shall bliss confer, —\nWhich to my queen in glad surrender\nYields, as it first looked up to her,\n\nWhen, 'mid Eurotas' whispering rushes\nShe burst from Leda's purple shell,\n\nSo blinding in her beauty's flushes,\nThat mother, brothers, felt the spell !\n\nThis land, which seeks thy sole direction,\nIts brightest bloom hath now unfurled:\nPrefer thy fatherland's affection\n\nTo what is wholly thine, the world!\n\nAnd though upon its ridgy backs of mountains\nThe Sun's cold arrow smites each cloven head,\nYet, where the rock is greened by falling fountains,\nThe wild-goat nibbles and is lightly fed.\n\nThe springs leap forth, the streams united follow ;\n\nGreen are the gorges, slopes, and meads below:\n\n282 Faust\n\nOn hundred hillsides, cleft with many a hollow,\n\nThou seest the woolly herds like scattered snow.\n\nDivided, cautious, graze with measured paces\nThe cattle onward to the dizzy edge,\nYet for them all are furnished sheltered places,\n\nWhere countless caverns arch the rocky ledge.\n\nPan guards them there, and nymphs of life are dwelling\nIn bushy clefts, that moist and freshest be;\nAnd yearningly to higher regions swelling,\n\nThe branches crowd aloft of tree on tree.\n\nPrimeval woods! the strong oak there is regnant,\nAnd bough crooks out from bough in stubborn state;\nThe maple mild, with sweetest juices pregnant,\n\nShoots cleanly up, and dallies with its weight.\n\nAnd motherly, in that still realm of shadows,\nThe warm milk flows, for child's and lambkin's lips:\nAt hand is fruit, the food of fertile meadows,\nAnd from the hollow trunk the honey drips.\n\n_ Here comfort is in birth transmitted ;\n\nTo cheek and lip here joy is sent:\n\nAct ITT. 283\n\nEach is immortal in his station fitted,\n\nAnd all are healthy and content.\n\nAnd thus the child in that bright season gaineth\nThe father-strength, as in a dream:\nWe wonder; yet the question still remaineth,\n\nIf they are men, when Gods they seem. |\n\nSo was Apollo shepherd-like in feature,\nThat other shepherds were as fair and fleet ;\nFor where in such clear orbit moveth Nature,\n\nAll worlds in inter-action meet.'8\n(Taking his seat beside her.)\n\nThus hath success my fate and thine attended;\nHenceforth behind us let the Past be furled!\nO, feel thyself from highest God descended !\nFor thou belongest to the primal world.\n\nThy life shall circumscribe no fortress frowning !\nStill, in eternal youth, stands as it stood,\nFor us, our stay with every rapture crowning,\n\nArcadia in Sparta's neighborhood.\n\nTo tread this happy soil at last incited,\nThy flight was towards a joyous destiny !\n\n284 faust.\n\n_ Now let our throne become a bower unblighted,\n\nOur bliss become Arcadian and free!\n\n[The scene of action 1s completely transformed. Against a range of\nrocky caverns close bowers are constructed. A shadowy grove ex-\ntends to the foot of the rocks which rise on all sides. Faust and\n\nHELENA are not seen: the Cuorus lies scattered about, sleeping. |\n\nPHORKYAS.\n\nHow long these maidens have been sleeping, know I not:\nIf they allowed themselves to dream what now mine eyes\nSo clearly saw, is equally unknown to me.\nTherefore, I wake them. They, the Young, shall be\n\namazed, —\nYe also, Bearded Ones, who sit below and wait, ''9 —\nSolution of these marvels finally to see.\nAwake! arise! and shake from off your locks the dew,\n\nThe slumber from your eyes! Listen, and cease to blink!\n\nCuorus.\nSpeak and tell us, quickly tell us, all the wonders that\nhave happened!\nWe shall hear with greater pleasure, if belief we cannot\ngive it, |\nFor both eye and mind are weary, to behold these rocks\n\nalone.\n\nAct II. 285\n\nPHORKYAS.\nChildren, you have hardly rubbed your eyes, and are you\nweary now? |\nHear me, then! Within these caverns, in the grottos\nand the arbors,\nScreen and shelter have been lent, as unto twain idyllic\nlovers,\n\nTo our Lord and to our Lady.\n\nCHORUS.\nHow? within there?\n\nPHoRKYAS.\n| Separated\nFrom the world, me only did they summon to their quiet\nservice.\nHonored thus, I stood beside them, but, as fit in one so\ntrusted,\nLooked around at something other, turning here and there\nat random, —\nSeeking roots, and bark, and mosses, being skilled in heal-\ning simples, —\nAnd the twain were left alone.\nCHorus. .\n\nSpeakest thou as if within were spaces roomy as the\nworld is :\n\n286 faust.\n\nWood and meadow, lakes and rivers, — what a fable dost\n\nthou spin !\nPHORKYAS.\n\nCertainly, ye Inexperienced! Those are unexplored re-\nCesses :\n\nHall on hall, and court on court succeeding, musingly I\ntracked.\n\nAll at once a laughter echoes through the spaces of the\ncaverns ;\n\nAs I look, a Boy is leaping from the mother's lap to father's,\n\nFrom the father to the mother: the caressing and the\ndandling,\n\nTeasing pranks of silly fondness, cry of sport and shout\nof rapture,\n\nThey, alternate, deafen me.\n\nHe, a Genius naked, wingless, like a Faun without the\nbeasthood,\n\nLeaps upon the solid pavement; yet the pavement now\nreacting, | |\n\nSends him flying high in air, and at the second bound or\nthird, he\n\nSeems.to graze the vaulted roof.\n\nCries, disquieted, the mother: '\" Leap repeatedly, at\n\npleasure,\n\nAct II. 287\n\nBut beware of flying! for prohibited is flight to thee.\"\n\nAnd thus warns the faithful father: ' Dwells in earth\nthe force elastic\n\nWhich thee upwards thus impelleth; touch but with thy\ntoe the surface,\n\nLike the son of Earth, Anteus, straightway art thou strong\nagain.\"\n\nSo he springs upon the rocky masses, from a dizzy cor-\nnice\n\nTo another, and around, as springs a ball when sharply\nsstruck.\n\nYet, a-sudden, ina crevice of the hollow gulf he's vanished,\n\nAnd it seemeth we have lost him! Mother mourns, and\nfather comforts,\n\nShoulder-shrugging, anxiously I stand. But now, again,\n\n_ what vision!\n\nAre there treasures yonder hidden? Garments striped\nwith broidered blossoms\n\nHath he worthily assumed.\n\nTassels from his shoulders swaying, fillets flutter round\nhis bosom,\n\nIn his hand the golden lyre, completely like a little Phaebus,\n\nCheerily to the brink he steps, the jutting edge: we stand\n\nastounded,\n\n288 Faust.\n\nAnd the parents in their rapture clasp each other to the\nheart.\n\nWhat around his head is shining? What it is, were hard\nto warrant, |\n\nWhether golden gauds, or flame of all-subduing strength\nof soul.\n\nSo he moves with stately gesture, even as boy himself\nproclaiming\n\nFuture Master of all Beauty, all the melodies eternal\n\nThrobbing in his flesh and blood; and you shall thus,\ndelighted, hear him, —\n\nThus shall you behold him, with a wonder never felt\n\nbefore !\nCuHorus.\n\nCall'st thou a marvel this,\nCreta 's begotten oP\nPoetic-didactical word\n\nHast thou listened to never?\nNever yet hearkened Ionia's\nNever received also Hellas'\nGodlike, heroical treasure\n\nOf ancient, primitive legends?\n\nAll that ever happens\n\nNow in the Present\n\nAct ITT,\n\nMocks like a mournful echo\nThe grander days of the Fathers.\nNot comparable is thy story\nUnto that loveliest falsehood,\nThan Truth more credible,\n\nSung of the Son of Maia!\n\nThis strong and delicate, yet\nScarcely delivered suckling,\n\nSwathe ye in purest downy bands,\n\n_ Bind ye in precious diapered stuffs,\nAs is the gossiping nurse's\nUnreasonable notion !\n\nStrongly and daintily draws, no less,\nNow the rogue the flexible,\n\nFirm yet elastic body\n\nCunningly out, and leaveth the close,\nPurple, impeding shell\n\nQuietly there in its place,\n\nLike the completed butterfly,\n\nWhich from the chilly chrysalid\nNimbly, pinion-unfolding, slips,\nBoldly and wilfully fluttering through\nSunshine-pervaded ether.\n\n290 faust.\n\nSo he, too, the sprightliest :\nThat unto thieves and jugglers —\nAll the seekers of profit, as well, —\nHe the favorable Demon was,\nDid he speedily manifest\nBy the skilfullest artifice.\nStraight from the Ruler of Ocean stole\nHe the trident, — from Arés himself\nSlyly the sword from the scabbard ;\nArrows and bow from Phebus, and then\nTongs that Hepheastos was using.\nEven from Zeus, the Father, bolts had he\nFilched, had the fire not scared him.\nEros, also, he overcame\nIn leg-tripping wrestling match ;\nThen from Cypris, as she caressed him,\nPlundered the zone from her bosom.\n[An exquisite, purely melodious music of stringed instruients resounds\nfrom the cavern.