V
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, Clarke, Harry, and Taylor, Bayard
MEPHISTOPHELES (takes the gimlet)
(To FROSCH.)
Now, give me of your taste some intimation.
FROSCH
How do you mean? Have you so many kinds?
MEPHISTOPHELES
The choice is free: make up your minds.
ALTMAYER (to FROSCH)
Aha! you lick your chops, from sheer anticipation.
FROSCH
Good! if I have the choice, so let the wine be Rhenish! Our Fatherland can best the sparkling cup replenish.
MEPHISTOPHELES
(boring a hole in the edge of the table, at the place where FROSCH sits)
Get me a little wax, to make the stoppers, quick!
ALTMAYER
Ah! I perceive a juggler’s trick.
MEPHISTOPHELES (to BRANDER)
And you?
BRANDER
Champagne shall be my wine, And let it sparkle fresh and fine!
MEPHISTOPHELES
(bores: in the meantime one has made the wax stoppers, and plugged the holes with them.)
BRANDER
What’s foreign one can’t always keep quite clear of, For good things, oft, are not so near; A German can’t endure the French to see or hear of, Yet drinks their wines with hearty cheer.
SIEBEL
(as MEPHISTOPHELES approaches his seat) For me, I grant, sour wine is out of place; Fill up my glass with sweetest, will you?
MEPHISTOPHELES (boring)
Tokay shall flow at once, to fill you!
ALTMAYER
No—look me, Sirs, straight in the face! I see you have your fun at our expense.
MEPHISTOPHELES
O no! with gentlemen of such pretence, That were to venture far, indeed. Speak out, and make your choice with speed! With what a vintage can I serve you?
ALTMAYER
With any—only satisfy our need.
(After the holes have been bored and plugged)
MEPHISTOPHELES (with singular gestures)
Grapes the vine-stem bears, Horns the he-goat wears! The grapes are juicy, the vines are wood, The wooden table gives wine as good! Into the depths of Nature peer,— Only believe there’s a miracle here!
Now draw the stoppers, and drink your fill!
ALL
(as they draw out the stoppers, and the wine which has been desired flows into the glass of each)