XXV
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, Clarke, Harry, and Taylor, Bayard
DUNGEON
FAUST
(with a bunch of keys and a lamp, before an iron door)
A shudder, long unfelt, comes o’er me; Mankind’s collected woe o’erwhelms me, here. She dwells within the dark, damp walls before me, And all her crime was a delusion dear! What! I delay to free her? I dread, once again to see her? On! my shrinking but lingers Death more near.
(He grasps the lock: the sound of singing is heard inside.)
My mother, the harlot, Who put me to death; My father, the varlet, Who eaten me hath! Little sister, so good, Laid my bones in the wood, In the damp moss and clay: Then was I a beautiful bird o’ the wood; Fly away! Fly away!
FAUST (unlocking)
She does not dream her lover listens near; That he the rattling chain, the rustling straw, can hear.
(He enters.)
MARGARET (hiding herself on the pallet) Woe! woe! They come. O death of bitterness!
FAUST (whispering) Hush! hush! The hour is come that frees thee.
MARGARET (throwing herself before him) Art thou a man, then pity my distress!
FAUST Thy cries will wake the guards, and they will seize thee! (He takes hold of the fetters to unlock them.)
MARGARET (on her knees)
Who, headsman! unto thee such power Over me could give? Thou’rt come for me at midnight-hour: Have mercy on me, let me live! Is’t not soon enough when morning chime has run?
(She rises.)
And I am yet so young, so young! And now Death comes, and ruin! I, too, was fair, and that was my undoing. My love was near, but now he’s far; Torn lies the wreath, scattered the blossoms are. Seize me not thus so violently! Spare me! What have I done to thee? Let me not vainly entreat thee! I never chanced, in all my days, to meet thee!
FAUST
Shall I outlive this misery?
MARGARET
Now am I wholly in thy might. But let me suckle, first, my baby! I blissed it all this livelong night; They took ’t away, to vex me, maybe, And now they say I killed the child outright. And never shall I be glad again. They sing songs about me! ’tis bad of the folk to do it! There’s an old story has the same refrain; Who bade them so construe it?
FAUST (falling upon his knees)
Here lieth one who loves thee ever, The thraldom of thy woe to sever.
MARGARET (flinging herself beside him)
O let us kneel, and call the Saints to hide us! Under the steps beside us, The threshold under, Hell heaves in thunder! The Evil One With terrible wrath Seeketh a path His prey to discover!
FAUST (aloud)
Margaret! Margaret!
MARGARET (attentively listening)
That was the voice of my lover!
(She springs to her feet: the fetters fall off.)
Where is he? I heard him call me. I am free! No one shall enthrall me. To his neck will I fly, On his bosom lie! On the threshold he stood, and Margaret! calling, Midst of Hell’s howling and noises appalling, Midst of the wrathful, infernal derision, I knew the sweet sound of the voice of the vision!
FAUST
’Tis I!
MARGARET
’Tis thou! O, say it once again!
(Clasping him.)
’Tis he! ’tis he! Where now is all my pain? The anguish of the dungeon, and the chain? ’Tis thou! Thou comest to save me, And I am saved!— Again the street I see Where first I looked on thee; And the garden, brightly blooming, Where I and Martha wait thy coming.
FAUST (struggling to leave)
Come! Come with me!
MARGARET