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MEPHISTOPHELES (who has suddenly assumed the appearance of extreme old age).

I feel the world is waning into age;

All things are ripening fast for the last day.
With feeble, tottering feet, for the last time,
I've climbed the witches' hill- the wine of life
Is low with me and therefore 'tis that I,

An old man, think the world is on the lees.

HUCKSTER-WITCH.

Who'll buy? who'll buy? great bargains going! Rare things here to tempt the knowing!

Stop and see them !

my collection

Well deserves minute inspection.

Such variety, in vain

Would you hope to meet again,

Of the curious articles,

Which your own old woman sells :
Rare and precious! every one
Hath on earth its business done.
Will you have the dagger knife,

That hath drained a brother's life?
Or the cup that held a draft,

Which was death to him that quaffed?

This was from a royal feast,

And a queen had drugged the bowl:

This a chalice, and the priest
On him a confiding soul

Looked for comfort-poured in it

Venom of the aconite:

Here are trinkets - chain and gem
Young man, you should purchase them-
Pearls, with which the wealthy donor
Won vain woman to dishonour.

Poor things! poor things! - the best and kindest
Fall soonest, for their heart is blindest,

And feels, and loves, and does not reason
And they are lost-poor things! poor things!
Here are swords, the gift of kings,
That have done the work of treason;
Or pierced, some coward hand directing,
The sleeping or the unsuspecting.

MEPHISTOPHEles.

Old lady, you mistake the times we live in
Every one's heart to novelty is given :
Throw out your box of relics - such antiques
As these no creature fancies now or seeks.

The past is dead and gone the present passion Is novelty this trash is out of fashion.

FAUSTUS.

Scarce know I who I am or where-

They crowd and crush as at a fair.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

Forward the whirling crowd is striving,
All driven along the stream and driving,
All rushing on in one direction,

And each enjoying the reflection

That he to-night is his own sovereign,

That his own thoughts his movements govern, Unconscious that the same broad river

Bears down its wave each self-deceiver.

Who's that?

FAUSTUS.

MEPHISTOPHeles.

Her features closely scan

'Tis the first wife of the first man.

FAUSTUS.

Who say you?

MEPHISTOPHeles.

ADAM's first wife, LILITH.

Beware - beware of her bright hair,

And the strange dress that glitters there:
Many a young man she beguileth,
Smiles winningly on youthful faces,
But woe to him whom she embraces!

FAUSTUS (looking at another group).

The old grey witch how she squats down poor devil!

Panting for breath-half-dead- fainting and floun

dering

And the young vixen with her finds the revel Rather too much for her she, too, is foundering.

Nonsense

MEPHISTOPHeles.

the fun will ne'er be over.

Advance, my friend, and play the lover.
Look, man, the girl's well worth the winning -
Come, join the dances just beginning.

[FAUSTUS and MEPHISTOPHELES take partners.

FAUSTUS (dancing with the young witch).

'Twas my fortune once to see
In a dream an apple-tree;
Rosy apples -one, two, three
With a glad smile tempted me ;
And to-night again I seem,

In the trance of that sweet dream,

Lovely is the tree I wis,

And the apple pleasant is.

HIS PARTNER.

Dear little apples - ay! their price

Was more than gold in paradise

And pleasant to the sight and touch
I come from gardens rich in such.

MEPHISTOPHELES (with the old witch).

I had a troubled dream, and it
Was haggard as a night-mare fit.
I saw an old tree torn and split,
And yet it pleased me, I admit.

HIS PARTNER.

With lowest courtesy I salute
The gay knight of the Horse's Foot :
The tree of knowledge, trunk and root,
Is his - and his must be the fruit.

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PROCTOPHANTASMIST.

Cursed devils

how they murder

All attempts at keeping order:

All in vain it is to prove

To Spirits by what laws they move:

Mocking at all regulation,

Ridiculing demonstration,

See them onward still advancing,

Ghosts! like men and women dancing.

FAUSTUS'S PARTNER.

Who's this presumes to interfere?

What means the forward fellow here?

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