Western European stream·Works of Goethe·Faust (Parts I and II)·Faust I (1808)·Scene XX — Cathedral

Source context

Theme

spiritual persecution, guilt-conscience, and Gretchen's soul under the weight of ecclesial condemnation

Soul-faculty

Sentient Soul

Steiner

not engaged in the GA corpus

Cross-tradition

• Catholic penitential theologyThe Dies Irae intoned by the Evil Spirit mirrors the scholastic doctrine of conscience as accusatory inner tribunal, structurally paralleling the soul's arraignment before divine judgment in Thomistic moral theology.
• Kabbalistic concept of the accusing angel (Samael)The Evil Spirit's function as inward accuser — crushing the soul with memory of sin rather than offering redemption — displays cross-tradition congruence with the Kabbalistic role of Samael as the force that binds the soul to its unredeemed past.

(MarGaRET among much people: the Evit Spirit behind —

M arGareétT.)

Evit Spirit.

b OW otherwise was it, Margaret, When thou, still innocent,

Here to the altar cam'st,

And from the worn and fingered book

Thy prayers didst prattle,

Half sport of childhood,

Half God within thee!

Margaret !

Where tends thy thought?

Within thy bosom

What hidden crime?

Pray'st thou for mercy on thy mother's soul,

That fell asleep to long, long torment, and through thee?

Upon thy threshold whose the blood?

Scene XX. 247

And stirreth not and quickens Something beneath thy heart, Thy life disquieting

With most foreboding presence?

M arGARET. Woe! woe! Would I were free from the thoughts That cross me, drawing hither and thither, Despite me! CHORUS. Dies ire, dies illa,'* Solvet seclum in favilla !

(Sound of the organ.)

Evi SPIRIT.

Wrath takes thee! The trumpet peals! The graves tremble! And thy heart From ashy rest

To fiery torments

Now again requickened, Throbs to life!

248Faust.
MarGaRET. Would I were forth! I feel as if the organ here My breath takes from me, My very heart Dissolved by the anthem ! Cuorus. fudex ergo cum sedebit,5 Quidquid latet, adparebit, Nil inultum remanebit. MarGaRET. | I cannot breathe! The massy pillars Imprison me! The vaulted arches Crush me! — Air! Evi Spirit. Hide thyself! Sin and shame Stay never hidden. Air? Light? Woe to thee! Scene XX. CHORUS. Quid sum miser tunc dicturus,'*® Quem patronem rogaturus, Cum vix gustus sit securus 2 Eviv SPIRIT. They turn their faces, The glorified, from thee: The pure, their hands to offer, Shuddering, refuse thee ! Woe! | CHORUS. Quid sum miser tunc dicturus ? MarcaretT. Neighbor! your cordial !**7 (She falls in a swoon.)

250faust.
XXI. WALPURGIS-NIGHT."™

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