You have received me kindly heretofore,
I venture to the levee of my prince.
(Pardon me, if I fail, after the sort

Of bending courtiers here, to pay my court;
The company is far too fine for me.

They smile with scorn such folk in heaven to see.
[High hymns and solemn words are not my forte.
Pathos from me would look too like a joke; 343
Words, that from others had set angels weeping,
To laughter would your very self provoke,
<If laughter were not wholly out of keeping.
Nothing of suns or worlds have I to say,
I only see how men fret on their day;
The little god of earth is still the same

Strange thing he was, when first to life he came;
That life were somewhat better, if the light

Of heaven had not been given to spoil him quite.
Reason he calls it-see its blessed fruit, **
Than the brute beast man is a beastlier brute;
He seems to me, if I may venture on

Such a comparison, to be like one

Of those long lank-legged grasshoppers, whose song
The self-same creak, chirps, as they bound along,
Monotonous and restless in the grass,

"Twere well 'twas in grass always; but, alas,
They thrust their snouts in every filth they pass.
The Lord. Hast thou no more than this to say,
Thou, who complainest every day?

Are all things evil in thy sight?

Does nothing on the earth move right ?

Meph. Not anything, my lord-poor men so fervent And foolish are-I almost feel compassion.

The Lord. Dost thou know Faust?

Meph.

The Lord.

The doctor?

Yes; my servant.

Meph. Truly, he serves in a peculiar fashion;
Child though he be of human birth,
His food and drink are not of earth.
Foolish-even he at times will feel
The folly in such hopes to deal:—
His fancies hurry him afar ;

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Of heaven he asks its highest star;
Self-willed and spoiled, in mad pursuit,

PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN

Of earth demands its fairest fruit;

And all that both can give supplied,

Behold him still unsatisfied!

The Lord. Yes; for he serves in a perplexing scene,

That oft misleads him. Still his will is right;

Soon comes the time to lead him into light.
Now is the first prophetic green, 430

The hopes and promises of spring,

The unformed bud and blossoming;

And he who reared the tree and knows the clime

Will seek and find fair fruit in fitting time.

Meph. What will you wager you don't lose him yet, With all his promise? Had I only freedom On my own path with easy lure to lead him,

I've not a doubt of it I win the bet.

The Lord. As long as on the earth endures his life To deal with him have full and free permission; 446 * Man's hour on earth is weakness, error, strife.

Meph. Cheerfully I agree to the condition;

I have no fancy for the dead: your youth,
With full fresh cheeks, tastes daintier to my tooth.
Should a corpse call, the answer at my house

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Is, Not at home." My play is cat and mouse.

The Lord. Be it permitted: from his source divert
And draw this Spirit captive down with thee;
Till baffled and in shame thou dost admit,
“A good man, clouded though his senses be 4 ́§ €
By error, is no willing slave to it."

His consciousness of good, will it desert

The good man ?-yea, even in his darkest hours
Still doth he war with Darkness and the Powers
Of Darkness ;-for the light he cannot see
Still round him feels ;-and, if he be not free,
Struggles against this strange captivity.

Meph. Aye! feelings that have no abiding—
[Short struggles-give him to my guiding—
I cannot have a doubt about the bet.
Oh! in what triumph shall I crow at winning!
Dust he shall eat, and eat with pleasure yet,
Like that first Snake in my poor heraldry,
CWho has been eating it from the beginning.

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The Lord. Here too take your own course-you are quite free

In the concern,—with anything but loathing
I look on folk like you. My work demands
Such servants.] Of the Spirits of Denial
The pleasantest, that figures in Man's Trial,
Is Old Iniquity in his Fool's clothing; 498
[The Vice is never heavy upon hands;
CWithout the Knave the Mystery were nothing,
For Man's activity soon tires,

(A lazy being at the best)
[And sting and spur requires.

In indolent enjoyment Man would live,
And this companion, whom I therefore give,
- Goads, urges, drives-is devil and cannot rest;
But ye, pure sons of God, be yours the sight
Of Beauty, each hour brighter and more bright!
The Life, in all around, below, above,
That ever lives and works-the Infinite
Enfold you in the happy bonds of love!
And all that flows unfixed and undefined
In glimmering phantasy before the mind,
Bid Thought's enduring chain for ever bind!

[Heaven closes. The ARCHANgels disperse Meph. [alone]. I'm very glad to have it in my power To see him now and then; he is so civil:

I rather like our good old governor

Think only of his speaking to the Devil! 4.6

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erst wer

THE TRAGEDY OF FAUST

FIRST PART