Western European stream·Works of Goethe·Faust (Parts I and II)·Faust II (1832)·Act V — Open Country (Philemon and Baucis)

WANDERER.

ES! 't is they, the dusky lindens ; There they stand in sturdy age:

And again shall I behold them, ) After such a pilgrimage? "T is the ancient place, the drifted Downs, the hut that sheltered me, When the billow, storm-uplifted, Hurled me shoreward from the sea! Here with blessing would I greet them, They, my hosts, the helpful pair, — Old, indeed, if now I meet them, Since they then had hoary hair. Pious folk, from whom I parted!

Be my greeting here renewed,

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If ye still, as open-hearted, Taste the bliss of doing good! Baucis '5? (4 little woman, very old). Gently, stranger! lest thou cumber Rest, whereof my spouse hath need! He but gains from longest slumber Strength for briefest waking deed. WANDERER. Tell me, mother, art thou even She, to whom my thanks I bear, — I, the youth, whose life was given By your kind, united care? Art thou Baucis, who the coldly Fading mouth refreshment gave? ( The Husband appears.) Thou, Philemon, who so boldly Drew my treasure from the wave? From your fire, so quickly burning, From your silver-sounding bell, Changed my doom, to fortune turning, When the dread adventure fell. Forth upon the sand-hills stealing, Act V. 375 Let me view the boundless sea! Let me pray, devoutly kneeling, Till my burdened heart be free! (He walks forward upon the downs.) PuiLemon (/o Baucis). Haste, and let the meal be dighted 'Neath the garden's blooming trees! Let him go, and be affrighted ! He 'll believe not what he sees. (Follows, and stands beside the WANDERER.) Where the savage waves maltreated You, on shores of breaking foam, See, a garden lies completed, Like an Eden-dream of home! Old was I, no longer eager, Helpful, as the younger are: And when I had lost my vigor, Also was the wave afar. Wise lords set their serfs in motion, Dikes upraised and ditches led, Minishing the rights of Ocean, Lords to be in Ocean's stead. See the green of many a meadow,

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Field and garden, wood and town! Come, our table waits in shadow! For the sun is going down. Sails afar are gliding yonder; Nightly to the port they fare: To their nest the sea-birds wander, For a harbor waits them there. Distant now, thou hardly seést Where the Sea's blue arc is spanned, 53 — Right and left, the broadest, freest Stretch of thickly-peopled land. Act V. a7) II. IN THE LITTLE GARDEN. Tue THREE AT THE | ABLE. | Baucis (to the Stranger). RT thou dumb? Of all we've brought here, In thy mouth shall nothing fall? PHILEMON. He would know the marvel wrought here: Fain thou speakest: tell him all! Baucis. °T was a marvel, if there's any! And the thought disturbs me still : In a business so uncanny Surely helped the Powers of III. Patino: Can the Emperor's soul be perilled, Who on him the strand bestowed ?

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Gave the mandate not the herald, Trumpeting, as on he rode? Near our downs, all unexpected, Was the work's beginning seen, Tents and huts !— but, soon erected, Rose a palace o'er the green. Bavclis. Knaves in vain by day were storming,'s4 Plying pick and spade alike; Where the fires at night were swarming, Stood, the following day, a dike. Nightly rose the sounds of sorrow, - Human victims there must bleed : Lines of torches, on the morrow, Were canals that seaward lead. He would seize our field of labor, Hut and garden, godlessly : Since he lords it as our neighbor, We to him must subject be. PHILEMON, Yet he bids, in compensation, Fair estate of newer land. Ac YV. Bauclis. Trust not watery foundation | Keep upon the hill thy stand! PHILEMON. Let us, to the chapel straying, Ere the sunset-glow has died, Chime the vespers, kneel, and, praying, Still in our old God confide!

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III. PALACE, Spacious PLeasuRE-GARDEN: BROAD, STRAIGHTLY-CUT CANAL. Faust (in extreme old age, walking about, meditative). Lynceus, THE WARDER (through the speaking-trumpet). Shaws sun goes down, the ships are veering To reach the port, with song and cheer: A heavy galley, now appearing On the canal, will soon be here. The gaudy pennons merrily flutter, The masts and rigging upward climb: Blessings on thee the seamen utter, And Fortune greets thee at thy prime. 7 (The little bell rings on the downs.) Faust (starting). Accurséd chime! As in derision It wounds me, like a spiteful shot: My realm is boundless to my vision, Act V. 381 Yet at my back this vexing blot! The bell proclaims, with envious bluster, My grand estate lacks full design : "55 The brown old hut, the linden-cluster, The crumbling chapel, are not mine. If there I wished for recreation, Another's shade would give no cheer: A thorn it is, a sharp vexation, — Would I were far away from here! U WarbDER (from above). With evening wind and favoring tide, See the gay galley hither glide! How richly, on its rapid track, Tower chest and casket, bale and sack ! (A splendid Galley, richly and brilliantly laden with the productions of Foreign Countries.) . MEPHISTOPHELES. THE THREE Micuty Men. Cuorus. Here we have landed: Furl the sail! Hail to the Master, Patron, hail! (They disembark: the goods are brought ashore.) \

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MEPHISTOPHELES. We 've proved our worth in many ways, Delighted, if the Patron praise! We sailed away with vessels twain, With twenty come to port again.15® Of great successes to relate, We only need to show our freight. Free is the mind on Ocean free: Who there can ponder sluggishly ? You only need a rapid grip: You catch a fish, you seize a ship; And when you once are lord of three, The fourth is grappled easily ; The fifth is then in evil plight ; You have the Power, and thus the Right. You count the What, and not the How: If I have ever navigated, War, Trade and Piracy, I vow, Are three in one, and can't be separated ! Tue TuHree Micuty Men. No thank and hail? No hail and thank ? As if our freight Act V. 383 To him were rank! He makes a face Of great disgust ; The royal wealth Displease him must. MEPHISTOPHELES. Expect no further Any pay; Your own good share Ye took away. Tue Micuty Men. We only took it For pastime fair; We all demand An equal share. MEPHISTOPHELES. First, arrange them In hall on hall, — The precious treasures, Together all ! If such a splendor Meets his ken, And he regards it

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More closely then, A niggard he Won't be, at least : He'll give our squadron Feast on feast. To-morrow the gay birds hither wend,"57 And I can best to them attend. (The cargo is removed.) MEPHISTOPHELES (fo Faust). With gloomy gaze, with serious brow, Of this great fortune hearest thou. Crowned is thy wisest industry, And reconciled are shore and sea; And from the shore, to swifter wakes, The willing sea the vessels takes. Speak, then, that here, from thy proud seat, Thine arm may clasp the world complete. Here, on this spot, the work was planned; Here did the first rough cabin stand ; A little ditch was traced, a groove, Where now the feathered oar-blades move. Thy high intent, thy servants' toil, From land and sea have won the spoil. From here — Ac V. Faust. | Still that accursed Here / To me a burden most severe. To thee, so clever, I declare it, — It gives my very heart a sting ; It is impossible to bear it! Yet shamed am I, to say the thing. The old ones, there, should make concession ; A shady seat would I create: The lindens, not my own possession, Disturb my joy in mine estate. There would I, for a view unbaffled, From bough to bough erect a scaffold, Till for my gaze a look be won O'er everything that I have done, — To see. before me, unconfined, The masterpiece of human mind, _ Wisely asserting to my sense The people's gain of residence. No sorer plague can us attack, Than rich to be, and something lack ! 58 The chiming bell, the lindens' breath, Oppress like air in vaults of death: My force of will, my potence grand,

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Is shattered here upon the sand. How shall I ban it from my feeling! I rave whene'er the bell is pealing. MEPHISTOPHELES. 'T is natural that so great a spite Thy life should thus imbitter quite. Who doubts it? Every noble ear, Disgusted, must the jangle hear ; And that accurséd bim-bam-booming, Through the clear sky of evening glooming, Is mixed with each event that passes, From baby's bath to burial-masses, As if, between its dam and dim, Life were a dream, in memory dim. Faust. Their obstinate, opposing strain Darkens the brightest solid gain, Till one, in plague and worry thrust, Grows tired, at last, of being just. MEPHISTOPHELES. Why be annoyed, when thou canst well despise them? Wouldst thou not long since colonize them? Ad V. 387 Faust. Then go, and clear them out with speed ! Thou knowest the fair estate, indeed, I chose for the old people's need. MEPHISTOPHELES. We 'll set them down on other land; Ere you can look, again they 'll stand: When they 've the violence outgrown, Their pleasant dwelling shall atone. (He whistles shrilly.) Tue THure—e enter. MEPHISTOPHELES, Come, as the Master bids, and let The fleet a feast to-morrow get | THe THREE. Reception bad the old Master gave: A jolly feast is what we crave. MEPHISTOPHELES (ad spectatores). It happens as it happed of old: Still Naboth's vineyard we behold! 159

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IV. DEAD OF NIGHT. Lynceus, THE WARDER (singing on the watch-tower of the Palace), | ate seeing intended, Employed for my sight, The tower 's my dwelling, The world my delight. I gaze on the Distant, I look on the Near, — The moon and the planets, The forest and deer, So see I in all things The grace without end, | And even as they please me, Myself I commend. Thou fortunate Vision, Of all thou wast 'ware, Whatever it might be, Yet still it was fair! Act V. 389 Pause. Not alone that I delight me, Have I here been stationed so: — What a horror comes, to fright me, From the darksome world below! Sparks of fire I see outgushing Through the night of linden-trees ; Stronger yet the glow is flushing, Fanned to fury by the breeze. Ah! the cabin burns, unheeded, Damp and mossy though it stand: Quick assistance here is needed, And no rescue is at hand! Ah, the good old father, mother, Else so careful of the fire, Doomed amid the smoke to smother ! — The catastrophe how dire! Now the blackening pile stands lonely In the flames that redly swell: If the good old folk be only Rescued from the burning hell! Dazzling tongues the crater launches Through the leaves and through the branches ; Withered boughs, at last ignited,

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Break, in burning, from the tree: Why must I be thus far-sighted ? Witness such calamity ? Now the little chapel crashes' "Neath a branch's falling blow ; Soon the climbing, spiry flashes Set the tree-tops in a glow. Down to where the trunks are planted Burn they like a crimson dawn. Long pause. Chant. What erewhile the eye enchanted With the centuries is gone. Faust (on the balcony, towards the downs). Above, what whining lamentation? The word, the tone, too late I heed. My warder wails: I feel vexation At heart, for this impatient deed. Yet be the lindens extirpated, Till half-charred trunks the spot deface, A look-in-the-land is soon created, Whence I can view the boundless space. Thence shall I see the newer dwelling Act V. 391 Which for the ancient pair I raise, Who, my benign forbearance feeling, Shall there enjoy their latter days. MEPHISTOPHELES AND THE THREE (Jdelow). We hither come upon the run! Forgive! not happily 't was done.'®© We knocked and beat, but none replied, And entrance ever was denied ; Of jolts and blows we gave good store, And broken lay the rotten door ; We called aloud, with direst threat But still no hearing could we get. And, as it haps, with such a deed, They would not hear, they would not heed; But we began, without delay, To drive the stubborn folks away. The pair had then an easy lot: They fell, and died upon the spot. A stranger, who was there concealed, And fought, was left upon the field; But in the combat, fierce and fast, From coals, that round about were cast, The straw took fire. Now merrily One funeral pile consumes the three. Faust. Faust. Deaf unto my commands were ye! Exchange I meant, not robbery. The inconsiderate, savage blow Icurse! Bear ye the guilt, and go! Cuorus. The proverb old still runs its course: Bend willingly to greater force! If you are bold, and face the strife, Stake house and home, and then — your life! [ Exeunt. Faust (on the balcony). The stars conceal their glance and glow, The fire sinks down, and flickers low; A damp wind fans it with its wings, And smoke and vapor hither brings. Quick bidden, and too quick obeyed ! — What hovers hither like a shade? Act V. 393 V. MIDNIGHT.161 Four Gray Women enter.

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