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MANAGER.

Come, come, no more of this absurd inventory
Of flattering phrases-courteous-complimentary.
You both lose time in words unnecessary,
Playing with language thus at fetch and carry ;
Think not of tuning now or preparation,
Strike up, my boy—no fear- no hesitation,
Till you commence no chance of inspiration.
But once assume the poet-then the fire
From heaven will come to kindle and inspire.
Strong drink is what we want to gull the people,
A hearty, brisk, and animating tipple;
Come, come, no more delay, no more excuses,
The stuff we ask you for, at once produce us.
Lose this day loitering-'twill be the same story
To-morrow - and the next more dilatory;
Then indecision brings its own delays,
And days are lost lamenting o'er lost days.
Are

you in earnest? seize this very minute.
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it,
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated-
Begin it, and the work will be completed!

You know our German bards, like bold adventurers, Bring out whate'er they please, and laugh at cen

surers,

Then do not think to-day of sparing scenery
Command enough of dresses and machinery;
Use as you please-fire, water, thunder, levin-
The greater and the lesser lights of heaven.
Squander away the stars at your free pleasure,
And build up rocks and mountains without measure.
Of birds and beasts we've plenty here to lavish,
Come, cast away all apprehensions slavish-
Strut, on our narrow stage, with lofty stature,
As moving through the circle of wide nature,
Hurry with speed more swift than words can tell,
Rapid as thought-from HEAVEN-through EARTH

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PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN.

DER HERR, THE HEAVENLY HOSTS, afterwards

MEPHISTOPHELES.

The three Archangels come forward.

RAPHAEL.

THE sun, as in the ancient days,
'Mong sister stars in rival song,
His destined path observes, obeys,
And still in thunder rolls along :
New strength and full beatitude
The angels gather from his sight,
Mysterious all-yet all is good,
All fair as at the birth of light!

GABRIEL.

Swift, unimaginably swift,

Soft spins the earth, and glories bright

Of mid-day Eden change and shift
To shades of deep and spectral night.

C

The vexed sea foams

waves leap and moan,

And chide the rocks with insult hoarse,
And wave and rock are hurried on,
And suns and stars in endless course.

MICHAEL.

And winds with winds mad war maintain,
From sea to land, from land to sea;

And heave round earth, a living chain
Of interwoven agency

Guides of the bursting thunder-peal,
Fast lightnings flash with deadly ray,
While, Lord, with Thee thy servants feel
Calm effluence of abiding day.

ALL.

New strength and full beatitude
The angels gather from thy sight;
Mysterious all, yet all is good,
All fair as at the birth of light.

MEPHISTOPHeles.

Since Thou, O Lord, dost visit us once more,

To ask how things are going on, and since
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;
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 grashoppers, 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.

Der Herr.

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?

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