The owls fly out in strange The owl was awake in the white moon

Upon a sow-swine, whose farrows were Come with us, come with us, from

I have been tripping this many an Something attracts me in those bushes.

hour:

Are the others already so far before?
No quiet at home, and no peace abroad!
And less methinks is found by the road.

Chorus of Witches.

Come

This way we shall slip down there in a minute.

Faust. Spirit of Contradiction! Well, lead on

Come onward, away! aroint thee, 'Twere a wise feat indeed to wander

aroint!

anoint

out

A witch to be strong must anoint- Into the Brocken upon May-day night, And then to isolate oneself in scorn, Disgusted with the humours of the

Then every trough will be boat enough; With a rag for a sail we can sweep through the sky,

Who flies not to-night, when means he to fly?

Both Choruses.

We cling to the skirt, and we strike on the ground;

Witch legions thicken around and around;

Wizard-swarms cover the heath all over. [They descend.

Mephistopheles.

What thronging, dashing, raging, rustling;

time.

Mephistopheles. See yonder, round a many-coloured flame

A merry club is huddled altogether:
Even with such little people as sit
there

One would not be alone.
Faust.

Would that I were Up yonder in the glow and whirling smoke,

Where the blind million rush impetuously

To meet the evil ones; there might I solve

What whispering, babbling, hissing, Many a riddle that torments me!

bustling;

Mephistopheles.

What glimmering, spurting, stinking, Many a riddle there is tied anew

burning,

As Heaven and Earth were overturning.

Inextricably.

rage!

Yet

Let the great world

We will stay here safe in the quiet dwell- I could not, if I would, mask myself

ings.

'Tis an old custom. built

here. Men have ever Come now, we'll go about from fire to fire:

Their own small world in the great world I'll be the pimp, and you shall be the

of all.

I see young witches naked there, and old ones

Wisely attired with greater decency.

Be guided now by me, and you shall buy

lover.

[To some old Women, who are sitting round a heap of glimmering coals.

Old gentlewomen, what do you do out here?

You ought to be with the young rioters

A pound of pleasure with a dram of Right in the thickest of the revelry—

The character of wizard or of devil?

But every one is best content at home.

We too are active, and we did and do Mephistopheles. In truth, I generally What we ought not, perhaps; and yet

go about

In strict incognito; and yet one likes
To wear one's orders upon gala days.

we now

Will seize, whilst all things are whirled round and round,

I have no ribbon at my knee; but A spoke of Fortune's wheel, and keep

To write what none will read, therefore will I

To please the young and thoughtless people try.

Beware of her fair hair, for she excels
All women in the magic of her locks;
And when she winds them round a
young man's neck,

Mephistopheles (who at once appears to have grown very old). I find the people ripe for the last day, Since I last came up to the wizard She will not ever set him free again.

No sword which cuts the bond it cannot With you I feel that if required,

is past,

Such still within my garden grow.

That ghosts move not on ordinary feet? They shape themselves into the innova- But these are dancing just like men and

There are few things that scandalise Who sang so sweetly to you in the

him not:

And when you whirl round in the circle

now,

dance?

Faust. A red mouse in the middle of her singing

As he went round the wheel in his old Sprang from her mouth.

mill,

He says that you go wrong in all

respects,

Especially if you congratulate him
Upon the strength of the resemblance.

Fly!

Procto-Phantasmist. Vanish! Unheard-of impudence! What, still there!

In this enlightened age too, since you

have been

Mephistopheles.

right, my friend:

That was all

Be it enough that the mouse was not

Seest thou not a pale,

Fair girl, standing alone, far, far away? Proved not to exist!-But this infernal She drags herself now forward with slow

steps,

brood Will hear no reason and endure no rule. And seems as if she moved with shackled

Are we so wise, and is the pond still

haunted?

How long have I been sweeping out

this rubbish

Of superstition, and the world will not
Come clean with all my pains!—it is a

case

Unheard of!

The Girl.

teasing us so.

No good can come of it—it is not well To meet it-it is an enchanted phantom, A lifeless idol; with its numbing look, Then leave off It freezes up the blood of man; and they Who meet its ghastly stare are turned

Cures him of spirits and the spirit to- My looks from her sweet piteous coun

tenance.

gether. [To FAUST, who has seceded from How strangely does a single blood-red the dance. line,

Why do you let that fair girl pass from Not broader than the sharp edge of a knife,

you,