What are the figures near the gibbet doing? Weaving, 'twould seem! Some filthy broth MEPHISTOPHELES. - No rather boiling, brewing mumbling some incantation. FAUST. East they move, and west they move now bend down in prostration. MEPHISTOPHELES. Witches worshipping their master. FAUST. They scatter something on the earth, and now seem pouring a libation They sprinkle something in the air. PRISON. FAUST (with a bunch of keys and a lamp, before an iron wicket). 'Tis many a day since I have trembled thus. Misery on misery heaped -a heavy burden, More than man can endure, has weighed me down. To die for that her brain was wild and frenzied. Dost fear to look upon that face again! Delays not death. My father, inhuman, For supper hath ta'en me - FAUST (opening the wicket). She feels not that her love is listening Hear the chains, as they clank, and the straw rustling. MARGARET (hiding her face in the straw of her bed). [He enters. Woe! woe! they come! they come! death! FAUST (in a low voice). Hush! hush! 'tis I who come to rescue thee! MARGARET (rolling herself at his feet). Art thou a man? Have pity upon me. FAUST. Hush! hush! these screams and shrieks will wake the keepers. [He takes hold of the chains to unlock them. MARGARET (throwing herself on her knees to him). Savage, who gave this cruel power to thee? It is not more than midnight now have mercy! Is it too long a time to wait till morn? And I am still so young but he is gone And I was fair, and that was my undoing. if love were here Oh, Oh, do not grasp me with such violence Spare me FAUST. I must I must endure this misery! MARGARET. I know that I am wholly in thy power- To this poor child of mine: all the long night And they sing songs about me 'twas ill done; It was ill done so the old ballad runs. Who told them I was meant in it? FAUST (throws himself down). A lover, Margaret, lies at thy feet; He comes to undo these bonds - unloose these fetters. MARGARET (throws herself beside him). Let us kneel down, and call upon the saints. See! see! beneath us hell boils up Is raving there below in hideous din! the devil Now am I free, none, none shall keep me from him. I'll clasp his neck, will lean upon his bosom; - I heard him call, he's standing on the threshold, ---I heard him call the name of Margaret; Amid the noises and the howls of hell, And threats, and taunts, and laughs of devilish scorn, I heard my own love's voice his loving voice! "Tis I. FAUST. MARGARET. "Tis thou! 'Tis he, 'tis ha oh, tell me so once more! my pangs, where are they now? Dungeon, and chains, and scaffold, where are they? 'Tis thou, and thou hast come to rescue me. I am already free: look there's the street Where we first met where first I saw my love And yonder is the cheerful garden, smiling, Where I and Martha waited to receive thee. - |