Western European stream·Works of Goethe·Faust (Parts I and II)·Faust I (1808)·Scene XXII — Oberon and Titania's Golden Wedding

Source context

Theme

Intermezzo of elemental-world spirits: Shakespearean fairy royalty as satirical pageant within Faust's dramatic arc

Soul-faculty

Sentient Soul

Steiner

not engaged in the GA corpus

Cross-tradition

• Germanic-Nordic elemental loreOberon and Titania's court reflects a Northern European tradition of elemental hierarchies — gnomes, sylphs, undines, salamanders — populating a supersensible nature-realm structurally parallel to the fairy-spirit world Goethe stages here.
• Shakespearean fairy mythology (A Midsummer Night's Dream)Goethe's direct citation of Oberon and Titania as rulers of a fairy court establishes cross-tradition congruence with Shakespeare's dramatisation of the supersensible governance of nature-forces through archetypal royal pairs.
• Neoplatonic daimonic hierarchiesThe ranked procession of elemental spirits in Goethe's intermezzo displays structural congruence with Neoplatonic accounts of intermediate daimonic beings mediating between the divine and material realms.

INTERMEZZO.

M aNnaGER. ONS of Mieding, rest to-day ! 15° Needless your machinery : Misty vale and mountain gray,

That is all the scenery.

HERALD. That the wedding golden be, Must fifty years be rounded : But the Golden give to me, When the strife 's compounded.

_ OBERON. Spirits, if you 're here, be seen — Show yourselves, delighted ! Fairy king and fairy queen, They are newly plighted.

Faust

Puck.35!

Cometh Puck, and, light of limb, Whisks and whirls in measure: Come a hundred after him,

To share with him the pleasure.

ARIEL.152

Ariel's song is heavenly-pure, His tones are sweet and rare ones: Though ugly faces he allure,

Yet he allures the fair ones.

OBERON.

Spouses, who would fain agree, Learn how we were mated! If your pairs would loving be,

First be separated !

TITANIA.

If her whims the wife control, And the man berate her,

Take him to the Northern Pole, And her to the Equator !

Scene XXII. 277

OrcHESTRA. 'Tutt.4353 Fortissimo.

Snout of fly, mosquito-bill, And kin of all conditions, Frog in grass, and cricket-trill, —

These are the musicians!

SOLo. 154

See the bagpipe on our track! *T is the soap-blown bubble: | Hear the schnecke-schnicke-schnack

Through his nostrils double!

SPIRIT, JUST GROWING INTO ForM.155

Spider's foot and paunch of toad, And little wings — we know 'em! A little creature 't will not be,

But yet, a little poem.

A Littte Coup te.'5§

Little step and lofty leap Through honey-dew and fragrance: You 'll never mount the airy steep

With all your tripping vagrance.

278faust.
INQUISITIVE TRAVELLER.!57 Is 't but masquerading play? See I with precision? Oberon, the beauteous fay, . Meets, to-night, my vision! OrTHODOx.158 Not a claw, no tail I see! | And yet, beyond a cavil, Like "'the Gods of Greece," must he Also be a devil. NorTHERN ARTIST.!59 I only seize, with sketchy air, Some outlines of the tourney ; Yet I betimes myself prepare For my Italian journey. PouristT. My bad luck brings me here, alas! How roars the orgy, louder! And of the witches in the mass, But only two wear powder. Scene XXL, Younc WITcH. Powder becomes, like petticoat, A gray and wrinkled noddy ; So I sit naked on my goat, And show a strapping body. MATRON. We've too much tact and policy To rate with gibes a scolder ; Yet, young and tender though you be, I hope to see you moulder. LEADER OF THE BAND. Fly-snout and mosquito-bill, Don't swarm so round the Naked! Frog in grass and cricket-trill, Observe the time, and make it! WEATHERCOCK (towards one side).1© Society to one's desire! Brides only, and the sweetest ! And bachelors of youth and fre, And prospects the completest ! Faust. WEATHERCOCK (fewards the other side). And if the Earth don't open now To swallow up each ranter, | Why, then will I myself, I vow, Jump into hell instanter ! XENIES. 16! Us as little insects see! | With sharpest nippers flitting, That our Papa Satan we > May honor as is fitting. HeEnnincs.!62 How, in crowds together massed, They are jesting, shameless ! They will even say, at last, That their hearts are blameless. MUuSAGETES. Among this witches' revelry His way one gladly loses ; And, truly, it would easier be Than to command the Muses. Scene XXL. C1-DEVANT GENIUS OF THE AGE. The proper folks one's talents laud : Come on, and none shall pass us! The Blocksberg has a summit broad, Like Germany's Parnassus. InQuisiTIVE TRAVELLER. Say, who's the stiff and pompous man? He walks with haughty paces: He snuffles all he snuffle can: "He scents the Jesuits' traces." Crane. '63 Both clear and muddy streams, for me Are good to fish and sport in: And thus the pious man you see With even devils consorting. W oRLDLING.! 64 Yes, for the pious, I suspect, All instruments are fitting ; And on the Blocksberg they erect Full many a place of meeting.

282Faust.
DANCER. A newer chorus now succeeds! I hear the distant drumming. "Don't be disturbed? 't is, in the reeds, The bittern's changeless booming." Dancinc-MastTER. How each his legs in nimble trip Lifts up, and makes a clearance! The crooked jump, the heavy skip, Nor care for the appearance. Goop FEL.tow.'5 The rabble by such hate are held, To maim and slay delights them : As Orpheus' lyre the brutes compelled, The bagpipe here unites them. DoGMaTIST. I Il not be led by any lure Of doubts or critic-cavils: The Devil must be something, sure, — Or how should there be devils? Scene XXII. IDEALIST. 166 This once, the fancy wrought in me Is really too despotic : Forsooth, if I am all I see, I must be idiotic! REALIST. This racking fuss on every hand, It gives me great vexation ; And, for the first time, here I stand On insecure foundation. SUPERNATURALIST. With much delight I see the play, And grant to these their merits, Since from the devils I also may Infer the better spirits. ScEpTic. 167 The flame they follow, on and on, And think they 're near the treasure: But Devi/ rhymes with Doudt alone, So I am here with pleasure. -283 Faust. LEADER OF THE Banp. Frog in green, and cricket-trill, Such dilettants ! — perdition! Fly-snout and mosquito-bill, — Each one's a fine musician ! Tue Aproirt.!6 Sanssouci, we call the clan Of merry creatures so, then ; Go a-foot no more we can, And on our heads we go, then. THe AWKWARD. Once many a bit we sponged; but now, God help us! that is done with: Our shoes are all danced out, we trow, We've but naked soles to run with. WILL-o '-THE- WiIsps.!69 From the marshes we appear, Where we originated ; Yet in the ranks, at once, we're here As glittering gallants rated. Scene XXL. 285 SHOOTING-STAR. Darting hither from the sky, In star and fire light shooting, Cross-wise now in grass I lie: Who 'll help me to my footing ? Tue Heavy FEL.Lows. Room! and round about us, room! Trodden are the grasses : Spirits also, spirits come, And they are bulky masses. Puck. Enter not so stall-fed quite, Like elephant-calves about one! And the heaviest weight to-night Be Puck, himself, the stout one! ARIEL. If loving Nature at your back, Or Mind, the wings uncloses, Follow up my airy track To the mount of roses! Faust. ORCHESTRA. Pianissimo. Cloud and trailing mist o'erhead Are now illuminated : Air in leaves, and wind in reed, And all is dissipated.'7° Scene XXITT. 287 XXITT. DREARY Day." A Fre vp.

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