MEPHISTOPHELES.
2960
| “And yet, God knows, she was much more to blame than I.”
|
MARTHA.
| The liar! What! He lied with one foot in the grave!
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| I think he raved a bit before he breathed his last,
|
| if I’m but half a connoisseur;
|
| “I had no time,” he said, “for fun or recreation:
|
| First the children, then their daily bread,
|
| and bread in all its broadest meaning;
|
| I could hardly ever eat in peace.”
|
MARTHA.
| Then all my love and loyalty meant nothing,
|
| nor the drudgery by day and night.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
2970
| Not so! His heart was deeply touched by it.
|
| He said: “When I embarked in Malta’s harbor
|
| I prayed for wife and children ardently;
|
| and so the heavens smiled on us
|
| and let us catch a Turkish merchant ship
|
| which had a Sultan’s treasure in its hold.
|
| Then valor got its just reward
|
| and, as is only right and proper,
|
| I received my well-apportioned share.”
|
MARTHA.
| Oh really? Where? Has he buried it somewhere?
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
2980
| Who knows; it could be anywhere.
|
| A pretty girl took him in tow
|
| when all alone he walked the streets of Naples;
|
| she gave him so much love and loyalty,
|
| he felt the consequences to his dying day.
|
MARTHA.
| The dirty thief! The robber of his children!
|
| All our misery and dire need did not suffice
|
| to draw his shameful life from sin.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| Well spoken, and for that, you see, he’s dead.
|
| But now, if I were in your place,
|
2990
| I’d spend a year in decent mourning
|
| while angling for a new prospective swain.
|
MARTHA.
| Oh my! To find another one quite like my first
|
| will be no easy undertaking in this world.
|
| He was the sweetest little pickle-herring.
|
| But he liked too much to roam about—
|
| foreign wine and foreign women,
|
| and worst of all, those cursed dice.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| Oh, well, all this might yet have been just fine,
|
| had he been smart enough to overlook
|
3000
| the things you overlooked in him.
|
| I swear to you, except for this condition,
|
| I would myself exchange my ring with yours.
|
MARTHA.
| The gentleman seems pleased to jest with me.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES
(
aside
)
.
| I’d better run while I’m still able,
|
| or else she’d hold the devil by his word.
|
| (
To
GRETCHEN
.)
|
| And may I ask about your heart, young lady?
|
MARGARET.
| What does the gentleman mean?
|
MEPHISTOPHELES
(
aside
)
.
| You innocent, sweet thing!
|
| (
Aloud
.)
|
| Ladies, farewell!
|
MARGARET.
MARTHA.
| Oh, one more thing about my husband.
|
| I should like to have a document to show
|
3010
| the when, the how and why of his demise.
|
| I always was a friend of law and order
|
| and want to see him dead in our local paper.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| Why yes, by two attested statements
|
| the truth is always well confirmed;
|
| I have an excellent companion
|
| whom I will ask to make a deposition.
|
| I’ll bring him here.
|
MARTHA.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| And our maiden here will then be present?—
|
| A gallant youth! Has traveled much;
|
3020
| shows every courtesy to the ladies.
|
MARGARET.
| I would blush before a gentleman like that.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
MARTHA.
| Behind the house, there in the garden
|
| we will await the both of you tonight.
|
A STREET
Faust, Mephistopheles
.
FAUST.
| How is it? Will it work? Are we ready?
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| Bravo! Do I find you all afire?
|
| It won’t be long, and Gretchen will be yours.
|
| Tonight you’ll see her at her neighbor’s house.
|
| The woman there is without peer
|
3030
| in gypsy deals and pimping.
|
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| But something of a quid pro quo will be required.
|
FAUST.
| Well, one good turn deserves another.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| All we do is make a proper deposition:
|
| To wit, her husband’s limp cadaver rests
|
| in peace in Padua’s consecrated ground.
|
FAUST.
| That’s wise! We’ll have to make the journey first.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| Sancta Simplicitas!
That is beside the point; just testify, don’t make a fuss.
|
FAUST.
| If you’ve got nothing better, our plan is null and void.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
3040
| You holy man! You image of a saint!
|
| Is this the only instance in your life
|
| that you have borne false witness?
|
| Have you not shown imposing power
|
| defining God, the world, and every moving thing,
|
| as well as man and all his inward stirrings,
|
| with brazen face and swollen chest?
|
| But if you probe the matter to the core,
|
| you must confess you’ve never known much more
|
| than now you know of brother Schwerdtlein’s death.
|
FAUST.
3050
| You’ll always be a sophist and a liar.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| True enough; except I’ve peered a little deeper.
|
| For will you not, in words of great propriety
|
| befog poor Gretchen,
31
come tomorrow,
|
| and swear your heart and soul belong to her?
|
FAUST.
| And that with all my heart!
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| That’s good of you!
|
| And then you’ll speak of faith and love eternal,
|
| of a single, overpowering urge—
|
| will that flow so easily from your heart?
|
FAUST.
| Enough, I say it
will
.—When I am deeply stirred
|
3060
| and through the raging tumult seek
|
| and grope in vain for name and speech,
|
| sweep through the world with all my senses,
|
| reach for the highest words that come to me,
|
| and the ardor in which I burn
|
| I call infinite, eternal fire—
|
| can that be called a devil’s game of lies?
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
FAUST.
| Listen now! Mark this well,
|
| I beg of you, and let me save my breath—
|
| Anyone intent on winning,
|
3070
| if he but use his tongue, will win.
|
| But come, I’m tired of this idle chatter,
|
| for you have won your point, since what I do, I must.
|
MARTHA’S GARDEN
Margaret on Faust’s arm. Martha and
Mephistopheles walking up and down
.
MARGARET.
| I’m sure, sir, you’re only being kind.
|
| You condescend and make me feel unworthy.
|
| A traveler becomes accustomed
|
| to be content with what he finds.
|
| My simple words could never entertain
|
| a gentleman of your experience.
|
FAUST.
| One glance from you, a single word, holds more
|
3080
| than all the wisdom of this world.
|
| (
He kisses her hand
.)
|
MARGARET.
| Don’t trouble yourself—how can you kiss my hand?
|
| It is a rough and ugly hand!
|
| Think of all the work that I have done.
|
| My mother is so very fussy.
|
| (
They pass on
.)
|
MARTHA.
| And you, sir, do you travel all the time?
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| Ah yes, our trade and duty keep us on the move.
|
| With deep regret one leaves some charming place—
|
| but once for all, one cannot stay and rest!
|
MARTHA.
| It is all right, when one is young and gay,
|
3090
| to roam the whole wide world at will;
|
| but a bachelor who falls on evil days
|
| and drags his person to the grave alone
|
| is never truly happy and at peace.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| I shudder when I look at it that way.
|
MARTHA.
| Hence, worthy sir, take counsel in good time.
|
| (
They pass on
.)
|
MARGARET.
| Yes, out of sight is out of mind!
|
| Your courtesy is second nature;
|
| you have friends in many places
|
| who are much cleverer than I.
|
FAUST.
3100
| What the world calls cleverness, my dearest,
|
| is really narrowness and rank conceit.
|
MARGARET.
FAUST.
| Why should simplicity and innocence
|
| be unaware of self and of their sacred worth?
|
| Why are humility and lowliness the finest gifts
|
| of a loving, bounteous Nature—
|
