Here for the first time stand I

On my feet not steadily.

SUPERNATURALIST.

The scene I with much pleasure view,
And in this people much delight;
From devils I conclusions true,

About good spirits, can draw aright.

SCEPTIC.*

The flames they follow, close upon

Its trace, and think the treasure near;

Devil and cavil† rhyme alone,

At the right spot am I here.

CAPELL MEISTER.

Grasshoppers and bull frogs, those

Accursed amateurs,

Snout of fly and midges' nose,
The orchestra is yours.

*Dogmatic, Idealist, Realist, Supernaturalist, Sceptic, are the representatives of Theological schools.

+ Auf Teufel reimt der Zweifel nur, literally, Only Doubt rhymes to Devil.'

CLEVER ONES.

Sansouci, they christen so

The roaring host of jolly blades;
No more upon our feet we go,

And so we walk upon our heads.

CLUMSY ONES.

Many a bit we spunged of yore,
But all that is passed and gone ;*
Our shoes in dancing we outwore,
Now on naked soles we run.

WILDFIRES.

From the bog do we advance,

Whence we first have sprung;

Here see us gallants in the dance,
The gayest of the throng.

FALLING STAR.

I shot from the heaven afar,

In fiery glory of a star;

Here long in the grass have lain,

Who will help me up again.

* Gott befohlen, recommended to God, i. c. bid adieu to.

THE MASSIVE ONES.

Room, room, and roundabout,
Down the grass it bears;

Spirits are coming, spirits stout,
Right plump limbs are theirs.

PUCK.

Do not tread so heavily,

Like young elephants;

To be the stoutest this day of joy, The sturdy Puck himself presents.

ARIEL.

If nature, loving, bright, and gay,
If the spirit wings bestows,
Follow my light track to-day,

To where blows the mountain rose.

ORCHESTRA.

Pianissimo.

Drifting clouds and vapours white,

Burst above us into light;

Breeze in leaves, and winds that hover

O'er the rushes. All is over!

GLOOMY DAY.-FIELD.

FAUST.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

FAUST.

In wretchedness !-despairing !-long wandering miserably about the world-and now a prisoner ! The affectionate, unhappy creature, shut up in a dungeon, as an evil-doer, for hideous tortures! To this! this!-Treacherous-worthless Spirit! and thou hast concealed it from me! Stay, only stay! Roll thine hellish eyes, in thy rancour! Stay and insult me with thine unbearable presence! A prisoner!-in irreparable misery! Given over to evil spirits, and to condemning, unfeeling men! And whilst thou wert lulling me in tasteless dissipations, thou concealedst from me her accumulating misery, and let her perish without help.

MEPHISTOPHELES.

She is not the first!

Y

FAUST.

Hound! detestable monster! Change him, Oh Eternal Spirit! change the worm into his dog-like form, in which it used to be his pleasure often at night-fall to run round me, to roll before the feet of the harmless wanderer, and to fasten on his shoulders when he stumbled over him. Change him again into his darling shape, that he may crawl before me in the dust on his belly, that I may trample on him, the outcast! Not the first! Misery!-Misery !incomprehensible to the soul of man, that more than one creature sank into the depths of this wretchedness, or that the first, in the writhings of her deadly agony, should not have atoned for the sins of all the rest, in the eyes of Him that pardoneth ever! The misery of this one curdles my blood,-thou grinnest coolly over the fate of thousands!

MEPHISTOPHELES.

Here we are again at our wit's end. So is it with you mortals, when your overstrained faculties snap. Why mate ye yourselves with such as us, if ye cannot go through with it? Wilt fly, yet art subject to giddiness? Did we force ourselves upon thee, or thou upon us?