XXV
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, Clarke, Harry, and Taylor, Bayard
MARGARET
Be quick! Be quick! Save thy perishing child! Away! Follow the ridge Up by the brook,
If the grave is there, Death lying in wait, then come!
Over the bridge, Into the wood, To the left, where the plank is placed In the pool! Seize it in haste! ’Tis trying to rise, ’Tis struggling still! Save it! Save it!
FAUST
Recall thy wandering will! One step, and thou art free at last!
MARGARET
If the mountain we had only passed! There sits my mother upon a stone,— I feel an icy shiver! There sits my mother upon a stone, And her head is wagging ever. She beckons, she nods not, her heavy head falls o’er; She slept so long that she wakes no more. She slept, while we were caressing: Ah, those were the days of blessing!
FAUST
Here words and prayers are nothing worth; I’ll venture, then, to bear thee forth.
MARGARET
No—let me go! I’ll suffer no force! Grasp me not so murderously! I’ve done, else, all things for the love of thee.
FAUST
The day dawns: Dearest! Dearest!
MARGARET
Day? Yes, the day comes,—the last day breaks for me! My wedding-day it was to be! Tell no one thou has been with Margaret! Woe for my garland! The chances Are over—’tis all in vain! We shall meet once again, But not at the dances! The crowd is thronging, no word is spoken: The square below And the streets overflow: The death-bell tolls, the wand is broken. I am seized, and bound, and delivered— Shoved to the block—they give the sign! Now over each neck has quivered The blade that is quivering over mine. Dumb lies the world like the grave!
FAUST
O had I ne’er been born!
MEPHISTOPHELES (appears outside)
Off! or you’re lost ere morn. Useless talking, delaying and praying! My horses are neighing: The morning twilight is near.
MARGARET
What rises up from the threshold here? He! he! suffer him not! What does he want in this holy spot? He seeks me!
FAUST
Thou shalt live.
MARGARET
Judgment of God! myself to thee I give.
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST)
Come! or I’ll leave her in the lurch, and thee!
MARGARET
Thine am I, Father! rescue me! Ye angels, holy cohorts, guard me, Camp around, and from evil ward me! Henry! I shudder to think of thee.
MEPHISTOPHELES
She is judged!
VOICE (from above)
She is saved!
MEPHISTOPHELES (to FAUST)
Hither to me!
(He disappears with FAUST.)
VOICE (from within, dying away)
Henry! Henry!