MEPHISTOPHELES.
| I’d like to fill my glass and drink to freedom’s honor,
|
| if only you had wine of better quality.
|
SIEBEL.
| Don’t let us hear such talk again!
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| I fear the landlord might not like it,
|
| else I should treat our worthy guests
|
2250
| to something rare from our cellar.
|
SIEBEL.
| Let’s have it, man. I’ll take the blame for it.
|
FROSCH.
| If you’ll produce the liquid, we’ll sing your praises to the sky
|
| But let me have a generous sample,
|
| for if I am asked to referee,
|
| I must guzzle deep and long.
|
ALTMAYER
(
aside
)
.
| I can tell they come from the Rhine.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
BRANDER.
| What would you want with that?
|
| You have no casks outside the door, or else?
|
ALTMAYER.
| Back there the landlord keeps his box of tools.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES
(
takes the auger
). (
To
FROSCH
.)
2260
| Now tell me, what’s your favorite label?
|
FROSCH.
| How do you mean? Do you have several kinds?
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| The choice is free. It’s up to you.
|
ALTMAYER
(
to
FROSCH
)
.
| Aha! Even now he licks his lips.
|
FROSCH.
| All right, if I can choose, I want some Rhenish wine.
|
| The fatherland bestows the finest gifts of all.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES
(
drills a hole into the edge of the table in front of
FROSCH
).
| Get me some wax, so we may stanch the flow.
|
ALTMAYER.
| Ah, that’s just a juggler’s trick.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES
(
to
BRANDER
)
.
BRANDER.
| Champagne for me,
|
| and make it sparkle and tingle.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES
(
bores holes; one of the others has meanwhile made the wax stoppers and begun to plug the holes
)
.
BRANDER.
2270
| Sometimes one can’t abstain from foreign stuff;
|
| what is good lies often far away.
|
| A German of fine blood dislikes the French,
|
| but he enjoys their wines the better.
|
SIEBEL
(
as
MEPHISTOPHELES
approaches his seat
)
.
| I must confess, I never liked it sour.
|
| Pour me a glass of sweet and mellow wine.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES
(
continues to bore holes
)
.
| Tokay for you; watch it flow in just a minute.
|
ALTMAYER.
| Now, gentlemen, look straight into my eyes!
|
| Ah yes, your joke’s on us, I must confess.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| Come, come! With guests of your distinction
|
2280
| such sport would be a risky venture.
|
| Be quick and speak out honestly:
|
| Which wine would be your pleasure?
|
ALTMAYER.
| Anything for me! Don’t ask a lot of questions.
|
|
(
The holes have been bored and Plugged
.)
|
MEPHISTOPHELES
(
gesturing mysteriously
)
.
| The grape from living vines is fed;
|
| The goat, it has a horned head.
|
| Wine is juice, plants yield more,
|
| From this plank the wine shall pour.
|
| Profoundly into Nature peer!
|
| Have faith, a miracle is here!
|
2290
| Now draw the stoppers, drink your fill!
|
TOGETHER
(
as they pull the stoppers, and the desired wine pours into their glasses
)
.
| Flow on, O fairest spring!
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| Be very careful not to spill a single drop.
|
| (
They drink repeatedly
.)
|
TOGETHER
(
singing
)
.
| We feel so good, so cannibalistic jolly,
|
| much like five hundred grunting sows.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| The people are free. How they enjoy themselves!
|
FAUST.
| I am inclined to leave immediately.
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| Take notice first how their bestiality
|
| will stand revealed in glowing color.
|
SIEBEL
(
drinks carelessly; the wine spills to the ground and turns into flame).
| Help! Fire! Hell’s aflame!
|
MEPHISTOPHELES
(
addressing the flame
)
.
2300
| Be still, my friendly element!
|
| (
To the students
.)
|
| This time it was the merest drop of purgatory.
|
SIEBEL.
| What do you mean? Wait, man, you will pay for this!
|
| Do you know with whom you’re dealing?
|
FROSCH.
| Don’t try this trick a second time, you hear!
|
ALTMAYER.
| Let’s ease him sideways out the door.
|
SIEBEL.
| What, sir? You have the audacity
|
| to play your hocus-pocus here on us?
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| Shut your mouth, you tub of wine!
|
SIEBEL.
| You skinny broomstick, you!
|
| I think you want to play it rough.
|
BRANDER.
2310
| Just wait. We’ll knock you black and blue.
|
ALTMAYER
(
pulls a plug from the table; fire leaps in his face
)
.
SIEBEL.
| That’s sorcery!
|
| Cut him down! He is a public enemy.
|
| (
They draw their knives and move against
MEPHISTOPHELES
.)
|
MEPHISTOPHELES
(
with solemn gestures
)
.
| False when and false where,
|
| The foul and the fair
|
| Be here, be there!
|
| (
They stand amazed and stare at each other
.)
|
ALTMAYER.
| Where am I? What a lovely land!
|
FROSCH.
| Vineyards! Can I trust my eyes?
|
SIEBEL.
| And grapes so near at hand!
|
BRANDER.
| And look! beneath the dark green arbor,
|
| what vines! and oh, what luscious grapes!
|
| (
He seizes
SIEBEL’S
nose. The others do the same, one to the other, and raise their knives
.)
|
MEPHISTOPHELES
(
more gestures
)
.
2320
| Illusion, release these eyes from error!
|
| And you take notice how the devil plays his game.
|
| (
He disappears with
FAUST
.
The students scatter.)
|
SIEBEL.
ALTMAYER.
FROSCH.
BRANDER
(
to
SIEBEL
)
.
| And yours I hold here in my hand!
|
ALTMAYER.
| It was a shock that went through bone and marrow!
|
| Bring me a chair, I think I’m fainting.
|
FROSCH.
| Will someone tell me what has happened?
|
SIEBEL.
| Where is he? If I can get my hands on him,
|
| he won’t come off alive this time.
|
ALTMAYER.
| I’m sure I saw him on a cask—
|
2330
| riding out the open cellar door—
|
| My legs feel heavier than lead.
|
| (
Turning to the table
.)
|
| Do you suppose the wine might still be running?
|
SIEBEL.
| It was a fraud, a lie, and trickery.
|
FROSCH.
| I was so sure that I was drinking wine.
|
BRANDER.
| And how about those luscious grapes?
|
ALTMAYER.
| Who says there are no miracles!
|
WITCH’S KITCHEN
A great cauldron stands on the fire over a low hearth. Various grotesque figures can be seen through the rising smoke. A she-ape sits by the cauldron, stirring and skimming it. A he-ape with his young ones sits near her, warming himself. Walls and ceilings are decorated with bizarre household implements.
Faust, Mephistopheles
.
FAUST.
| I am repelled by all this magic stew and fuss!
|
| Can you promise me that I’ll be cured
|
| by wallowing in that whirling frenzy?
|
2340
| Should I seek counsel from an ancient hag?
|
| And can that filthy, frothing cookery
|
| relieve my carcass of some thirty years?
|
| I am lost if you can think of nothing better!
|
| My dearest hope has vanished even now.
|
| Why has not nature or a noble spirit
|
| found some remedial balm for me?
|
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| Now you speak more sensibly again, my friend!
|
| You may yet naturally regain your youth,
|
| but that is written in a different book
|
2350
| and constitutes a special chapter.
|
FAUST.
MEPHISTOPHELES.
| Good! A method can be used
|
| without physicians, gold, or magic.
|
| Go out into the open field
|
| and start to dig and cultivate;
|
| keep your body and your spirit
|
| in a humble and restricted sphere,
|
| sustain yourself by simple fare,
|
| live with your herd and spread your own manure
|
| on land from which you reap your nourishment.
|
2360
| Believe me, that’s the best procedure
|
| to keep your youth for eighty years or more.
|
