A GLOOMY DAY.-A PLAIN. FAUST.-MEPHISTOPHELES. FAUST. IN misery! Despairing! Long a wretched wanderer upon the earth and now a prisoner! The dear unhappy being, cooped up in the dungeon as a malefactor for horrid tortures! Even to that! to that! Treacherous worthless Spirit, and this hast thou concealed from me! Stand, only stand! roll thy devilish eyes infuriated in thy head! Stand and brave me with thy unbearable presence! A prisoner! In irremediable misery! Given over to evil spirits, and to sentence-passing, unfeeling humanity! And me, in the mean time, hast thou been lulling with tasteless dissipations, concealing her grow ing wretchedness from me, and leaving her to perish without help. MEPHISTOPHeles. She is not the first. FAUST. Dog! horrible monster!-Turn him, thou Infinite Spirit! turn the reptile back again into his dog's shape, in which he was often pleased to trot before me by night, to roll before the feet of the harmless wanderer, and fasten on his shoulders when he tumbles down. Turn him again into his favourite shape, that he may crouch on his belly before me in the sand, whilst I spurn him with my foot, the reprobate! Not the first! Misery! misery! It is inconceivable by any human soul, that more than one creature can have sunk into such a depth of misery,—that the first, in its writhing deathagony, was not sufficient to atone for the guilt of all the rest in the sight of the Ever-Pardoning. The misery of this one grinds me to the quick; thou art grinning calmly at the fate of thousands. MEPHISTOPHeles. Now are we already at our wits ends again! just where the sense of you mortals snaps with overstraining. Why dost thou enter into fellowship with us, if thou canst not go through with it? Will'st fly, and art not safe from dizziness? Did we force ourselves on thee, or thou thyself on us? FAUST. Gnash not thy greedy teeth thus defyingly at me! I loathe thee! Great, glorious Spirit, thou who deignedst to appear to me, thou who knowest my heart and my soul, why yoke me to this shame-fellow, who feeds on mischief, and battens on destruction! Hast done? MEPHISTOPHEles. FAUST. Save her! or woe to thee! The most horrible curse on thee for thousands of years! MEPHISTOPHEles. I cannot loosen the shackles of the avenger, nor undo his bolts.-Save her!-Who was it that plunged her into ruin? I or thou? (FAUST looks wildly around.) Art thou grasping after the thunder? Well, that is not given to you wretched mortals! To dash to pieces one who meets you in all innocence--that is just the tyrant's way of venting himself in perplexities. FAUST. Bring me thither! She shall be free! MEPHISTOPHEles. And the danger to which you expose yourself? Know, blood-guiltiness by your hand still lies upon the town. Avenging spirits hover over the place of the slain, and lie in wait for the returning murderer. FAUST. That, too, from thee? Murder and death of a world upon thee, monster! free her! Conduct me hence, I say, and MEPHISTOPHELES. I will conduct thee, and what I can, hear! Have I |