'Twas such a shock, through all my limbs that passed. Bring me a chair-I'm sinking fast. FROSCH. But what may it all be? Tell me, I pray. SIEBEL. Where is the fellow? Could I catch him, ALTMAJER. Through the cellar door myself did watch him, Upon a barrel ride away. Heavy as lead my feet are growing, [Turns towards the table. By Jove! I wonder is the wine still flowing. SIEBEL. All was deception, lying, and illusion. FROSCH. I thought I drank wine-'twas a strange delusion. BRANDER. What with the grapes,-how was it possible? ALTMAJER. Now, tell me not to believe a miracle? WITCHES' KITCHEN.* A large caldron stands over the fire on a low hearth. In the steam that rises from it divers phantoms appear. A she-monkey sits by the caldron and skims it, and takes care that it does not run over ; the he sits near it with the young one and warms himself. The walls and roof are decked out with extraordinary witch furniture. FAUST. MEPHISTOPHELES. FAUST. This bedlam witchcraft sickens me. Dost promise me recovery, indeed, * Menzel devotes a whole chapter to the judicial proceedings in Germany against witches, at the period when Faust flourished, viz., the early part of the 16th century, of which it may be enough to say, that they commonly terminated tragically. His account of the belief as to their practices prevalent at that time may be interesting :-"The accused woman can raise storms, kill from a distance, occasion sickness by a look, brew love potions, kindle unnatural hate and love, &c., with the help of the devil. She learned the art from another woman, who either had introduced her to the devil in the shape of a sweetheart, From this filth of lunacy ?* From an old woman do I counsel need? generally as a youth, or from whom she had received the witch ointment. She strips herself, anoints herself with the ointment, seizes a broom, distaff, spit, he-goat, or oven-fork, cat, &c., &c., mounts it, calls out, "Out above, and towards nowhere," and proceeds through the chimney-pot to the great Witches' Sabbath, on the Blocksberg,* in the Walpurgis-night. Here all the witches assemble, dance with their backs turned to one another, and perform obscene rites to a black goat, which, in the end, takes fire and consumes, and the witches gather the ashes for magic purposes. Each then returns to the steed she has provided for the adventure, and returns home. Thenceforth the devil comes to the woman as a gallant, carries on an intrigue with her, and gives her power to practice sorcery, but keeps her in poverty and ill-usage.”—MENZEL, chap. 496. * Wust, means filth, not chaos. + Sudelköcherei, kitchen-stuff, off-scourings. the scullery. Sudelküche is * "Upon the Blocksberg, or Broken, is the chief dance for all Germany. In Sweden the place is called Blokula. It signifies, as regards the time (the first of May), and the symbol (the worshipping and consuming of the goat, as of the symbol of fertility), a remnant of ancient heathenism. In Swabia the witches assembled in the Henburg, near Balingen."-MENZEL. Note to chapter on Witch Prosecutions. Woe me, if nothing more to you is known, MEPHISTOPHELES. My friend, now speak you sensibly once more: I choose to know it. FAUST. MEPHISTOPHEles. Well, then, without gold, Physic, or witchcraft, to effect this change, To hoe and dig, thyself shut in, Body and mind alike, within A narrow circle, closely pent; Be the simplest food thy nourishment; Live with beasts as a beast, and think no ill To manure yourself the land you till. This, believe me, is the method true, At eighty years old one's youth to renew. |