Mr. Faust

SATAN

He is your hope,
Your sole salvation in a universe
Where never other form shall comfort you—
A waif except for Him. So have all souls—
The holy and the pure—from age to age,
Learned, homesick for His home. Their frustrate hopes,
Their burdens heavier than by mortal strength
Can be sustained, their impotence, bow down
Each spirit: and it cries: "O God, support
My helplessness; unto Thy perfect will
Do I resign my vain and evil hopes,
My burdens; and Thy Will Be Done Forever."
Thus, with arms folded on despairing breast,
With head bowed to the inscrutable decree,
They seek Him: and a sudden glory fills
The humbled bosom; all His stars and thrones
Shine down upon it; all His majesty
Enters that lowly door, lifts up, sustains
The sundered soul; and His beneficence
With more than father-love enfolds the heart
Joined to His own forever. From His light
Reflected radiance pours; to the dark sight
Comes glimpse of the high justice of God's will;
And all roads lead to Heaven, and all hearts lie
Within His love, and all's well with the world.
[Deep organ music begins to roll through the arches
of the cathedral. Candles are lighted one by one
on the High Altar. Worshippers begin to enter the
nave: they pass down the long central aisle and
gather in groups at the far end, near the Altar.
Faust stands leaning against a pillar, silent and lost
in meditation.
Brander enters among the worshippers. He passes
the spot where Faust is standing, glances at him and
stops, astonished.

BRANDER

You have come back! I had not heard of it.
Where have you been these many months? I long
To talk with you.

FAUST

Yes, come and see me soon.
It's a long story.... I congratulate you
Upon your marriage....

BRANDER

Then you know....

FAUST

She came
And spoke to me a little while ago.

BRANDER

It must seem strange to you beyond my power
Ever to quite unravel. But for me
All things are clear; and to my blinded sight
Morning has come—in this thing, as in all
The doubts that once enslaved me.

FAUST

Do you mean...

BRANDER

Come here aside before the service starts.
I owe it you to tell you. I have changed
In your long absence....

FAUST

These are curious words.
I do not understand.

BRANDER

To understand,
You must hear all. You know my life—how vain
Its occupations, how absorbed I moved
In this day's folly and to-morrow's lure—
How petty trifles made my whole small round
Of being—selfish trifles, nothing worth,
Stained with a cruelty that I would forget.
That night we talked together—you and I
And Oldham—in your rooms, I wandered home
Sorely distressed. For you had stirred in me
A gnawing doubt whether the whole of life
Was not mere child's play.

FAUST

I am sorry if—

BRANDER

It was the kindest act man ever did
In all my life! I peered into my heart:
I saw myself Judas to innocence,
Betraying lightly with a careless kiss
A mortal body and immortal soul;
I saw no thing in all my days to claim
A sane man's approbation; one by one
Each glittering bauble that I late had loved
Crumbled to dust beneath the parching fire
Of reason.... And that night, I walked in Hell.

FAUST

Poor Brander! And my mocking did all this?

BRANDER

Thank God for it! That night I saw my joys
Like some rank thicket of bright vanities
Masking a precipice. A sense of sin
And loathing overcame me, and the power
Of utter terror filled me. I beheld
The evil riot of gross earthy things
That had o'ergrown me. Like a burden lay
That sense upon me, and it pressed me down
To a despondence deep beyond all words,
Beyond all thought. And no escape I saw
Except the bullet....

FAUST

What a faith we pin
Upon that bullet!

BRANDER

Thus the doubtful days
Passed like a nightmare. Till, one Sabbath morn,
As restlessly I paced, some random mood
Led me to enter this cathedral's doors
At hour of service. As I knelt, with lips
Unknown to prayer, the mighty music rolled
Over my heart like an all-purging flood,
And a voice chanted: "He that loveth life
Shall lose it; he that hateth this world's life
Shall keep the life eternal." And a voice
Shortly thereafter sang, in angel tones:
"Come, let our feet return unto the Lord;
For He hath torn, and He will heal us." And
My soul cried: "Yield thy burdens to the Lord,
Upon His love cast thine unworthy self,
And bid His Will Be Done."

And then my soul
Melted as in the warmth of His embrace.
My guilt was gone like night before the sun:
Light blinded me; an infinite love and joy
Lifted me up, a child again, from earth
Into such regions as my mortal speech
Can never utter. And from that hour forth,
God has been with me.... Now you know my tale.

FAUST

You teach me more of marvels than I guessed
Was yet unlearned by me.

BRANDER

No words can teach
These marvels to a heart that has not known
God's glories.

FAUST

Then this mystery of the heart
Is what men mean when of the faith of God
They speak? I thought 'twas dogma, service, prayer;
But this is life, is vision.

BRANDER

Aye, and more!
Now do I walk in meadows of calm light;
The love of God is over me; I faint
Almost beneath its sweetness and wild joy.
My whole heart's toil is how to merit it
Even a little.

SATAN (raising his hand to bless)

By the grace of God
You shall be worthy servant, O my son.

FAUST

This, then, is what God's vision-seers behold—
This revelation veiled unto mine eyes—
This love unfelt by me—this light of dawn
Beyond our darkened night.... I was too far
Estranged from Him, of too unworthy will,
Bowed by too sore a burden....
[The music of the organ rolls forth once more; and,
at the far end of the nave, the choir takes up the
music.

Voices Singing

FAUST

With old, profound, unutterable grief
My spirit speaks in me: as, many a time
In childhood, at the hour of evening dusk,
When all the room was still and shadowy,
I, at my mother's knee, wept out my heart
And knew not why I wept. And I am drawn
Out of myself upon the music's tide,
With nameless sorrowing, with childlike pain—
As though in careless play-hours of the day
I had done hurt to someone that I loved.
Ah, I am homesick; and in all the world
There is no knee at which I can weep out
My loneliness. There is no breast of peace
And silence and forgiveness for this child
In any dusk-strewn chamber....

BRANDER

There is God!

FAUST

O God, can Thine arms fold me? Can my weight
Of loneliness and failure and despair
With the day's fruitage, find a child's release
In Thy great tenderness? I am a child;
And life's vast terrors gather round my soul;
And I am frightened. I am weary, Lord!
It darkens; and the storms creep on with night;
The shadows come; the wanderer would turn home.
[Faust falls to his knees; he bows his head. Again
the organ throbs, the choir sings.

Voices Singing

SATAN

Let us beside our brother kneel in prayer
Beseeching mercy.
[Satan and Brander kneel beside Faust.

BRANDER

Brother in the Lord,
Let us together from devoted hearts
Repeat: "Thy Will Be Done."
[Faust continues to kneel in silence. The music
ceases.

BRANDER

Faust, let us pray:
"Father, we do beseech Thee for Thy light"...

SATAN

Brother, pray thus: "Thy Will Be Done"...

FAUST (rising)

What will?...

BRANDER

Faust!

FAUST

Lost is my way among eternal shadows.
Darkened is every light; and clouds are rolled
With blackening curtain over all the stars
Within my heaven. But I stand upright
Now to the end, no traitor to that dawn
I cannot image.

SATAN

What do you mean?

FAUST

Begone,
Judas!...

Ah, Brander, would that I could yield
Myself to Him who has received your burdens!
But to me seems it as another sleep,
Like that Nirvana which I put aside
In other gardens of temptation. Sleep—
Sleep that should have no waking—happy sleep—
An anodyne for which my spirit yearns
But dare not take—a yielding to some Will,
Whose Will, we know not, nor do greatly care
So long it be not our will....

Thus may yield
The weary; I am weary, but not yet
To such last slumber. Thus may yield the base;
I am not base. Thus may those spirits yield
Who, poisoned by some madness in their blood,
Despise life's being; but not yet will I
So utterly despise it. Though in gulfs
Of yet unsounded ruin I should die
At the end miserably, I still shall seek
In life itself my refuge: not in God
That stands apart from life, on heights of peace.
All my desires, my visions, my dreams, my unrest,
My loathing and my longing will I clutch
And cry: "With all its bitterness on my head,
My Will be done, not Thy Will!"

BRANDER

Blasphemy!
Ah, Faust, what madness!...

FAUST

With calm sight, I speak
No blasphemy, but truth. Shall I buy peace
So easily? Toss my burdens to God's Will—
Into the fathomless void of that unknown?
Such were the last, the great apostacy....
I go into a darkness past your thought—
Into an emptiness you know not of—
A night profounder that it late has held
Marsh-lights of promise. My last altar lies
Smoking in ruins; and I stand alone
Of all the universe. But my Will be done!
My errant tortured Will, my bitter Will,
My Will, my Will!

BRANDER

Flee, ere the awful wrath
Of God smite down these walls, these poisoned stones,
That hear your words! Flee, ere the heavens rain forth
Lightnings to blast us for these horrors!

FAUST

Nay!
In this dim hour of desolation's reign
Upon my soul, I summon to my soul
All powers that good or evil may consign
To the most lonely man in all the world;
I lift my voice, burdened with all the weight
Of loathing and of longing, and I cry:
My curse upon Thee, lure of dying hearts!
May lightnings smite Thy altars back to earth!

BRANDER

Father, forgive! He knows not what he does....

CURTAIN

THE FOURTH ACT

The scene is a public lecture-hall. To the left rises a platform, on which stands a reading-desk. To the right are rows of chairs arranged as for an audience. In the front row of these sit four old men, patiently and silently waiting. One is reading a newspaper.

Suddenly there bursts into the hall a rout of wildly gay and dancing maskers: Harlequin, Columbine, a Pig, Pantaloon, an enormously tall Ghost, Clowns, a Skeleton, Ballet-girls, Oriental Princesses, Monks, Courtiers, Turks and Jew Pedlers. The first few attempt to draw back on seeing the chairs and the four old men; but they are pushed on by those behind. Once in, they all circle about in a crazy dance, singing over and over the same verse.

THE MASKERS

Oh, children, children, New Year's Day
Is more than half a year away.
And we might get most awful dry
If we should wait for the Fourth of July.
So let us celebrate now and here
With rah, rah, rah and a bottle of beer!
[One of the maskers, who is dressed as a clown,
raises his hands, ineffectually trying to hush the
rest.

CLOWN (shouting)

Stop! Stop! I want to teach another verse
To you before we go back to the others.
[Loud laughter. The song continues.

THE SKELETON (shouting)

Isn't one bad enough?

CLOWN

A poor thing—but
It is mine own.

THE PIG

So much the worse for you!

ONE OF THE OLD MEN (rising)

Gentlemen! There's to be a lecture here.

CLOWN

Is that all? Well, I'll give it you myself.

A MONK

Not if we see you first!

THE PIG

My God! Let's run!

SKELETON

Back! Or the others will drink all the punch!
[The mob of maskers turbulently surges out again,
leaving the hall quiet and empty except for the four
old men.

AN OLD MAN

They are a noisy lot.

SECOND OLD MAN

Yes.

THE FIRST OLD MAN

There must be
Party upstairs?

SECOND OLD MAN

Yes, I suppose there is.

FIRST OLD MAN

They begin early.

THIRD OLD MAN

Early? Yes, or late.
This is the end of last night's party, which
Began at twelve, and likely'll last till noon.
I know, for I'm the janitor.

FIRST OLD MAN

Well! Well!
[Two men enter, look around and take seats in the
chairs set for the audience. One carries a small black
surgical case; the other has a green bag under his
arm.

DOCTOR

We seem to be a little early—or
Have we made some mistake?

LAWYER

No, ten's the hour.
But I was anxious that we should be prompt,
And so have rather overdone our haste.

DOCTOR

It doesn't matter; we can wait a bit.
How curiously impatient, though, you are
To hear this talk! I personally have doubts
Whether it's worth our trouble.

LAWYER

Well, I know
The man, however slightly; you do not,
And so can hardly share my expectation.
But he has been, throughout these many years,
So secretive, so self-contained, so deep
In matters that I could not guess, that now,
When he at last promises to proclaim
Some strange discovery, I half believe
It will be worth our coming.
[Two women enter together. The younger one is
leading a child by the hand. The older, a gaunt,
spinsterly-looking figure, peers about with a near-sighted
glance.

MERCHANT'S WIFE

Take that seat.
And now be quiet.

CHILD

Mother, will he have
The Devil with him?

MERCHANT'S WIFE

I don't know. The child
Has been completely crazy since I told her
That I would bring her with me.

OLD WOMAN

I am just
A little curious myself. I learned
When I was young all that they thought was known
About the Devil; and if this Mr. Faust
Has really made some new discovery
About him, it seems well that even the young
Should be informed of it.
[A number of detached men and women enter and
take seats silently. They are followed by two
plumbers in overalls, carrying the tools of their
trade still with them.

YOUNG PLUMBER

Whew, but the boss will skin us for this trick!

OLD PLUMBER

Go, if you like. But I intend to stay.
I have not been, through seventeen long years,
Philosopher myself, now to let slip
A chance of hearing such a talk as this.

YOUNG PLUMBER

Oh, I won't go.

OLD PLUMBER

You'd better not. They say
That all the rumors wholly underrate
The real importance of his talk to-day.
I've been informed, on good authority,
That he will have the Devil on the platform
And publicly enchain him to a cart
For all of us to see.
[The two plumbers have taken their seats. A man
behind them leans forward now and interrupts them.

BUTCHER

What's that? A cart?
He means to drive the Devil as a horse?

OLD PLUMBER

Quite probably, quite probably.

BUTCHER

Well, that
Will be outrageous, in these troubled times
Of strikes and lock-outs. Without any doubt,
If he goes trying to harness up the Devil,
It will precipitate a teamsters' strike.
Using non-union horses always does.

YOUNG PLUMBER

Do you think that? Why, that would be a shame,
When times are bad already.

CHILD

Mother, Mother!
Will there be moving pictures?

MERCHANT'S WIFE

I don't know.
Don't talk so loud.
[Two prosperous-looking men enter. One is elderly,
the other young.

BANKER

Do not apologize
Now that you've brought me. As I said at first,
I am prepared to see a mountebank
Perform his pretty tricks of eloquence
To set the crowd agape. Why, once a week
The Ethical Society hires one
To work the same performance—quite the same
Each time. Unearth a few forgotten doubts,
Or dig your elbow into some new dogma,
And you will see the mob fawn at your feet,
Believing you the greatest mind since Plato.

RICH YOUNG MAN

I'm sure he isn't that kind.

BANKER

We shall see!
And afterwards, the drinks shall be on you.
[A gawky young man who has flour in his hair, and
a vivacious and pertly dressed girl enter together.

GIRL

I go to all the lectures that I can.
I do think culture is the grandest thing;
And one acquires it so easily
Nowadays that one shouldn't let it slip.

BAKER

I'd go to lectures, too, if I could go
Always with you.

GIRL

Well, now, perhaps I'll try
To educate you!

BAKER

Oh, I wish you would!
[Satan enters, dressed as an artisan. He takes a
seat in the far corner, out of sight of the platform.
Two young men enter. Both have books under their
arms.

YOUNG STUDENT

His is the subtlest mind I ever knew.
The gulfs through which he whirled bewildered me
When he would talk. So I am quite prepared
For a great treat to-day.

YOUNGER STUDENT

Oh, I forgot
My note-book. Can you tear a sheet from yours?

SATAN (to a man beside him who rises, apparently tired of waiting)

What, going? Well, I wouldn't, if I were you.
You ought to hear this: I have had a hand
In getting him to speak; and I am sure
There will be something doing.

THE MAN

Well, I'll stay,
Since you, of the committee, vouch for it.
[More people enter and take their seats.

YOUNG PLUMBER (to his companion)

What do you get by being philosopher?
I don't see how you do it. I could never
Think about nothing all the time, like you.

OLD PLUMBER

Perhaps your mind is not just made for it.
It takes a thinker, that it does. And I
Did not get into it so easy, either.
I read a lot of books before I saw
The greatness of Philosophy. Now I wonder
How I got on without it. Why, to-day
I could not clean a sewer in peace of mind
If I did not know that, when I got home,
I could philosophize on Space and Time.

YOUNG PLUMBER

It must be wonderful to know these things.
[Brander and Midge enter together. They seem to
find some difficulty in choosing their seats.

MIDGE

Are you quite sure that we can hear him here?

BRANDER

Yes; and besides, I do not wish to sit
Too near the front. I'd rather not have come
At all to-day. But you...

MIDGE

Oh, don't go back
Now on your promise! I must hear him speak.
I must, I must. I cannot tell you why;
I do not know. But I have never seen
A face that seemed to promise me so much—
Things that I cannot utter, cannot think.

BRANDER

I never want to see his face again.
I shall try not to listen.

CHILD

Mother, when
Will the show start?

MERCHANT'S WIFE

Hush, very soon! Yes, see—
There he is coming in.

CHILD

Oh, goody, goody!
[Faust enters the hall and mounts the platform.
He busies himself for a moment adjusting the reading
desk; then turns toward the audience, gripping
the desk steadily, and waits a moment more for the
stir to subside.

FAUST

I come before you with unwilling lips—
Not led by eagerness, or wont of speech;
Being not of those who easily proclaim
Small miracles to move you. But the force
Of grave necessity has bid me cast
All thought save one aside, and in your midst,
Utter strange words, with lips that must obey
The soul that wills not silence.

For I come
Announcing not the common verities
Of learned books, or laboratory lore,
Or ancient heresies; as speaks the fool,
So speak I—from my heart. What I have seen,
That shall you see, and with grim gladness hold
Close in your hearts. Yes, all the world shall see it—
I am a tower burning to light the world!
(He pauses a moment, meditatively)

OLD WOMAN (whispering)

He has a good opinion of himself.

FAUST

I have beheld the toil and pain of life,
Its emptiness and defeat; I have beheld
Hearts, weary with recurrence of the days
That held no sweetness, turn in trust to where
In high aërial spaces far from earth
God in his heaven to all the weary ones
Offers a refuge. And in such a mood
Was I, too, led toward heaven by one whom now
I know my foe—Satan. Toward God I turned,
Seeking in Him fulfilment of all hopes
That earth had thwarted. Then, in the hour of prayer
And revelation, from my deepest breast
Flashed lightnings. And I saw the Lord of Hosts
High on a mountain, inaccessible
To yearning men, who, mastered by a dream,
Turn skyward from our dark and struggling earth.
I saw the crafty Satan urging on
The heavenward-yearning myriads, while the world
Lay like a stagnant quagmire, to his sway
Wholly abandoned, and man's mortal house
Burned in fierce conflagration of corruption.
And lo! the lightnings from my heart smote forth
Across the heavens; and God dissolved like cloud,
And through the cloud peered Satan's sinister face.

Friends: God is dead; your God and mine is dead.
And Satan in his place—Satan who is
The father of the gods—lures on your hearts
Unto an idol in the untrodden skies,
That, while ye dream oblivious in the void,
The earth may crumble. Or if God there be,
He is the God of dying hearts and spent—
A deity of chaos, for whose ends
One thing alone is mete—ruin of life,
Of loathings and of longings that on earth
Restlessly grapple with the powers of Hell.
I know not if in regions yet unguessed
Some gods may dwell, of nature fit to guide
Us, the adventurers of an earthly fight.
But I have seen with eyes that cannot lie
That they reside not in this Devil's net—
This heavenly trust, this labyrinth of peace,
Which draws men on to nothingness....

And I cry
With all the passion of my baffled soul—
Cast down your God! Cast down your peace and trust
In His far Will! It is a solace mete
For slaves, not men. With bitter hand, destroy
This idol of destruction! Smite all haunts
Of faith and resignation and defeat
And rest and peace and comfort. Heaven and earth
Alike are poisoned: somnolence in heaven,
Decay on earth is regnant. Every faith
And law and nation must in wreck go down
For us who see the death that taints their halls;
And ruin shall walk reckless through the world,
Destroying tombs where life is daily slain!
(Faust pauses)

BRANDER (rises suddenly from his place in the audience)

My friends, I came to listen, not to speak.
But when such words as these from impious lips
Fall lightly, I must rise here to refute
Their poisonous message. Three days since, I stood
With this man in the sacred halls of God,
And witnessed in his heart the glory grow
Of God's bright hope. Then suddenly from Hell,
Or from his own deep, labyrinthine heart,
Sprang fiends to snatch him back from heaven's clear gate
And God's deliverance. And his bitter lips,
By thirst so nearly quenched made bitterer yet,
Cried blasphemies against the powers of heaven
And all bright starry hopes that light our days
With faith and glory. And the hand of God,
Inscrutably withheld, smote him not dumb,
But suffered him to go. Now in our sight
He rises to proclaim his searing doubt,
His hot destroying passion, and tears down
Our fairest altars. I, who was his friend,
Hereby renounce him; and in sober words
Counsel all men to flee the company
Of one who hates the great hopes of the world!
[As Brander sits down, there is some scattered applause
in the audience. Faces are turned toward him.
Midge sits motionless, her face buried in her hands.

FAUST

I scarce foresaw that my laborious task
Should profit by the aid of willing hands
So freely offered. Well, the Devil moves still
Unchained on earth; and while he toils, your toil
Is of small matter. You have ranged yourself
With things fast dying; and our feet—the feet
Of trampling hordes—shall pass above your head,
As we shall pass over all creeds and laws,
All stately chambers and respected homes
And hearths and council-halls and sleek vile marts—
We, the destroyers of destruction!

BUTCHER

Here!
Don't you go shaking any fist at me!

GIRL

I think it's awful. Someone ought to stop him.

MERCHANT'S WIFE

The man is crazy!

OLD PLUMBER

Say! Would you destroy
Space and Time, too?

YOUNG PLUMBER

Hooray for hell broke loose!

BUTCHER

Out with him! He's an anarchist!

BANKER

I'm not
Religious; but I cannot stand for that.

YOUNG STUDENT

Oh, let him have a chance!

BUTCHER

Not if I know it!
Damn such a man!
[Satan suddenly rises in his place with commanding
gestures. The people stare at him, and after a moment
are silent to hear him speak.

SATAN

My friends, I think we all—
Or most of us—agree that talk like this
Is a destructive influence, to be met
With frowns, in justice to society.
Such words disgrace humanity, affront
Respectability, and fill with shame
Our hearts for such a speaker. Yet the rogue
Requires but rope to save the law the toil
Of trial and execution. I bespeak,
Therefore, your patience for this gentleman;
Till he has time to wind the hempen knot
Securely round his throat, let us sit by
And hear him further.

FAUST

Thank you. You begin
Well in my service.

SATAN

Aye, indeed, indeed!
You don't suppose a mouse-trap baits itself?
Friends, let us hear him.

RICH YOUNG MAN

That sounds sensible.

YOUNG PLUMBER

Let each dog have his day.

OLD PLUMBER

Sit down! Shut up!

YOUNG PLUMBER

Leave me alone!

SATAN

One moment more, I pray,
Of your kind patience. Sir, ere you proceed,
I have a word to give you. I have heard
Tales of your cleverness in foiling twice
The Devil who sought to lead you to resign
Your will to his. Perhaps it was not well
That you so spurned his euthanasia.
By your own devious path, you come at last
To where all facts are vain, all visions fade,
And your old wager is a laughing-stock,
So valueless your will, so vain your power
To shape one end of hope. Life crumbles, falls,
Around you; and your kind with horror see
Your utter nakedness. But I have brought
A little present for you: not so nice
As two the Devil once offered in its place;
Yet 'twill suffice. Men who would cheat the Devil
Come, with a curious unanimity,
To where the lump of lead becomes a boon
Unto the soul rejecting easier sleep.
The Devil claims his own in his own day.
(He approaches the platform, and offers to Faust a pistol)

YOUNG STUDENT

What is he saying?

CHILD

Are they going to shoot?

YOUNG PLUMBER

Bang yourself one! That's what it's for.

BUTCHER

Good riddance!
There isn't room on earth for jokes like you!

FAUST (accepts the pistol)

In such a spirit as you offer it,
I do accept this token. In my hand
At least it shall lie safe, nor be a god:
I worship not the bullet.... But beware
What mummer's part you play in this strange scene.
For by the victory I have won of late,
I am your master! And in grovelling dust
Before me you shall cringe, though all the world
Shun me, your conqueror. Vilest of slaves!
Accept your servitude!

BUTCHER

Here! That's enough!

GIRL

You brute!

SATAN

Your slave. Command, and it shall be
Fulfilled. A little snarling now and then
Means naught.

YOUNG PLUMBER

I will not let an honest man,
A worthy citizen, be spoken to
Like that by a damn anarchist while I
Can raise a hand!

BUTCHER

Nor I!

MERCHANT'S WIFE

Go after him!

FAUST

Silence! Let not your eager efforts prove
You are the beast-herd he would bid you be!

YOUNG PLUMBER

What! Let us show him how to talk to us!

SATAN

See, on his forehead, see! Where the deep lines
Meet—do you see the blackened cross that grows
Each moment darker with the curse of God!
He is branded, he is Cain!

FAUST

Down, slave! Fulfil
Now my command, you who my bondsman are!
Seal on these eyes—too blind to take the light—
Darkness! And let me, turning from them, know
They have not peered into my open heart.
You are still my slave—though they are only fools.

YOUNG PLUMBER

Damn your infernal soul!

BUTCHER

Hit him a crack!

OLD WOMAN

Stop all your noise.

BUTCHER

Here, let me go, you fool!
[Suddenly aroused, some of the crowd surge forward
toward the platform. From the back of the
room someone hurls a chair, which strikes the great
chandelier: the lights instantly go out, leaving the
hall in total darkness. Confused cries, footsteps,
blows.

CRIES

What're you about?... Let go!... Where are the lights?...
[Suddenly two wall-brackets are illuminated, disclosing
part of the crowd massed on the platform.
As they surge back, there remains on the platform,
fallen and motionless, the figure of Faust. He raises
his head slowly.

FAUST

Ah, Satan!... worthy serf to my command!...
Go! I release you. For I would not die
With such a slave— Nay, though I die alone....
[Suddenly the door bursts open, and in surge the
maskers, in greater numbers and even wilder tumult
than before. Dancing grotesquely, linked hand in
hand, they zigzag through the hall, overturning
chairs and singing at the top of their voices.

THE MASKERS

Oh, children, children, children dear,
We cannot wait for any New Year.
So let us celebrate now and here
With rah, rah, rah and a bottle of beer!

CURTAIN

THE FIFTH ACT

The scene is once more Faust's library. The dim slanting sunlight of late afternoon streams through the open windows, touching the gold of books and the brown of furniture with an enamel-like brilliancy.

Brander and Faust's butler stand just inside the door.

BUTLER

I am afraid you cannot see him now.
The doctor is still here. I do not know
If anyone may see him.

BRANDER

I will wait
A moment, and perhaps may see the doctor
As he goes out. Have things been bad to-day?

BUTLER

Yes, sir.
[The doctor enters from the door on the left. The
butler goes out.

BRANDER

How is he?

DOCTOR

As one might expect.
The fever's gone; but strength has gone with it:
No one can tell how long his heart will stand
The strain.

BRANDER

You see no hope?

DOCTOR

I only see
That we are doing all we can for him.
Beyond that, I can say no more than you.

BRANDER

You think I should not see him?

DOCTOR

Oh, no harm.
You might have seen him when you came this morning
If you had waited. You can see him here.
He wanted to be in this room again,
And I make no objection. Well, good-bye.
[The doctor goes out. Brander moves restlessly
about the room. A moment later, the door on the
left opens, and Faust, reclining in an invalid's chair,
is wheeled into the room by the butler. He is clad in
a long dressing-gown; he is very pale. The butler,
after placing the chair before the fireplace, goes
out. Brander remains doubtfully in the background;
Faust does not observe his presence.

FAUST

Again these walls!—home to what barren dreams!—
And home to me! O dreams and bitterness,
How are you gilded by this setting light
Of afternoon! Meseems I have not been
Happy save here, where all unhappiness
Of mine had source and root. That forest holds
Now nothing grievous to my eyes that see
What once they saw not. Sweetness like the light
Of setting suns now lingers over it
In my enchambering memory— Life, life
With all its glow and wonder pours a flood
On this strait room whence I have watched the world—
Whence I must go with all my love and wonder
As though no love and wonder I had won.
[Faust bends his head, sinking into a daze of thought.
Brander doubtfully approaches him, and at last
touches his shoulder.

BRANDER

I have been heavy-hearted; but that thus
I find you, overwhelms me....

FAUST

Why thus sad
Over milk so irrevocably spilled?

BRANDER

I cannot utter what is in my heart.
It is as though I had with my own hand
Stricken you down. And yet I did not dream
Of what would follow.... O Faust, Faust, forgive me!

FAUST

Forgive you? Aye, and thank you! Greater things
Hung imminent than you dreamed of. For you set
Wild lightnings free in me that smote the dark
Furled round me; and they grew and flashed and flamed
Even as I fell. Aye, Brander, you who strove
For my salvation should rejoice at last—
Now, past all doubts and wanderings, I am saved!

BRANDER

Saved! Ah, impossible!

FAUST

Saved! And the light
Of glory fills me, though my physical frame
Totters on dissolution. I believe!...
The night is over.

BRANDER

Faust! O dearest friend!
My heart refuses now to grasp such joy.
If it were possible! Can, can it be
That God has bent once more, and with cool touch
Dispelled the feverous mists? Oh, I could weep
With happiness to dream it!

FAUST

Nay, my words
Mean more than you interpret. I am saved—
Not as you count salvation. Nay, I come
To one last refuge, finding all others vain.
The common joys, the peace of nescience,
The trust in some far Will, the hope to flame
A beacon in the darkness of men's dreams:
Driven forth from these, one citadel still lifts
Heaven-fronting: there I stand, delivered, free,
Master again—that citadel, my soul.
I have escaped from all the bondages;
And now bow down to nothing. Joy or pain,
Defeat or conquest, good or evil, now
Lure me no more. I will put hope in nothing
Save in that whole strange glistening mortal life
That past me streams unto an end sublime
Whereof you know not. All our ends are folly,
And win not what they seek; yet there is joy
In seeking; and one end there is that shows
A brighter glow. I am the watcher set
Upon the heights. In my impassioned sight
All life is holy that strives unto life:
Death only is damnation. I will be
More happy than the happiest man, more strong
Than is the strongest! I will climb on the neck
Of this great monster, Life, and guide its course—
For I am master—toward that end I see
Hidden afar off.

BRANDER

You are sick and spent.
I should not thus—

FAUST

Fear not; I do not wander.
Or can you understand? No, no, you cannot.
And yet some tenderness from days long past
Stirs in me with a hope for you once more—
Hear me for one last time.
[Faust touches a bell. The butler enters.

FAUST

Bring to me, please,
That large black-covered manuscript I wrote
Last night until the doctor took it from me.
It is among the papers on my desk.
[The butler searches, finds the note-book and places
it on the table beside Faust. The butler goes out.
Faust sits turning over the pages of the manuscript.

FAUST

Here to posterity I bequeath my soul—
Worthless, perhaps, as heritage, but the all
I have to give to them I love so much.
These pages shall cry kinship to the few
Who, finding solace nowhere, yet shall find
Solace in fierce destruction that assails
The folly and the madness of mankind.
(He begins to read from the manuscript)

Satan recedes; but thou who seemest near—
O unborn man, whose soul is of my soul,
Whose glory is of my glory—all my love
Floods out like light from the down-going sun
Toward thee, the nursling of a lofty line.
Thou art my faith—man the divine to come—
Man whom I loathe for that which he is not—
Man, even now half divine because of all
That shall spring from him in the days to be.
Thou, too, shalt fight with Satan, as I fought,
Yea, in eternal battles till the end.
Thou shalt go with him past the lure of lust,
The lure of power, the lure of that great sleep
Nirvana; past the yet more luring sleep
Where dreams assuage the soul to be a dream.
Thou shalt go with him, yet apart from him
And all his works. He has no part in thee.
He is the chaos seething at earth's core—
Remnant of times when out of chaos sprang
Life's upward impulse. He is the darkness spread
Ere yet was light—the matter ere was form—
The vast inertia that on motion's heels
Clings viper-like. Of life and form and growth
He is negator; and his ceaseless joy
Is to impede and drag to chaos back
The shoot that toward the light triumphant springs.

But vain his victories, though he lingers yet
With slowly narrowing frontiers. Past his will,
Slowly the sons of light transcend, remould
Their day and destiny; slowly there is born
Order from chaos, flowers from formless mud,
Light from the darkness, Faust's from Satan's soul.

With laughing and with wonder and with triumph
I take that life and clasp it to my breast—
I, part of all, and all a part of me—
Streaming a river flashing in the sun.
I am drunk with the glory of that which tramps me down
And passes and transcends me—and is mine!

I, one with thee, O child of Flame, behold
Thy harvest—when the passion of the years
Turns earthward, and in mastered order sets
The house that is our dwelling. And therein,
In the gold light of summer afternoons,
With thee I too, careless and laughing, play
Mid dreams and wonders that our will has made—
Bathe in the beauty that our eyes have poured
Upon the hills—and drink in thirsty draughts
The happiness we have rained upon the earth.

I see, with ultimate unshaken vision!
I see the earthly paradise; I see
Men winged with wonder on the future throne
Up infinite vistas where life's feet shall climb.
Out of the dust, out of the plant and worm,
Out of ourselves about whose feet still clings
The reptile-slime of our creation—lo!
Our children's children rise; and all my love
Draws toward them and the light upon their brows.
This is my faith; this is my happiness;
This is my hope of heaven; this is my God.

BRANDER

The eternal God in heaven forgive you this!

FAUST

The Devil I can foil, but not my friends!
Strange allies to his cause! Well, dusk was long
My portion; now all gathering storms of hate
Are less than naught to me. Six months ago,
When here I stood that memorable night,
My gloom was starless; now one fiery star
Pierces it. And this broken frame of mine
Cannot annul that much of victory—
The solace born of passion to destroy
That shall survive me if indeed I die.
Alone my life was lived; if now I go,
It is alone into a quiet grave
Above whose mound the fairer future days
Shall pass, and I not know them. Yet my night
Takes foregleam from the vision of that dawn
And I am solaced. And I leave my solace
As heritage to the ever widening few
Who after me shall triumph more than I
In dawns of flaming.

BRANDER

O my friend, my friend,
I would my tongue could cry as my heart cries—
Turn back from darkness before the hour has struck!
Even yet may mercy fold you. God is great
And tender; and perhaps His love may clasp
Even your aloofness, if at last your heart
Calls in repentance to Him. O Faust, Faust,
Sink your vain pride of spirit—kneel to Him—
Beseech His mercy ere it is too late!

FAUST

I am no melancholy death-bed scene
To claim your tears, dear Brander. Doubtless days
Of infinite scope lie yet before me, since
No oracle has foretold that I shall die.
But if I die, then go I singing down,
Not praying or repentant, to my grave.
I would smite again the altar! I would smite
The hearts bowed before it; all the world
And the Beyond-world would I rend, having seen
Serpents in their secret places.

BRANDER

Has no breath
Of heavenly love touched this corrosive core
Of hell-fire in you?

FAUST

There is none whose power
Is half so mighty.

BRANDER

Through last night's long hours,
Poor Midge, alone and comfortless, wept out
Her heart, believing all that you had said.
And when I spoke to her, she cried: "Go, go!
I am lost where none can help me; all my dreams
Shudder and perish, even as he has perished;
Yet they shall live again—but he will die!" ...
Thus darkness falls from you upon men's hearts.
I know not if God's deep forgiving love
To such as you is granted....

FAUST

Midge could tell
A truer tale. Her eyes were full of light
And wonder as she heard me.

BRANDER

And she now
Weeps comfortless!

FAUST

And shall I then regret?
Is her soul yours, that you appraise and know?
Life stirs in her: and like the agonies
Of all life's birth, it shakes her: yet one day
She shall rise strong, sister to mighty winds,
A new and holy wonder in her eyes.
Tell her from me that I have not forgotten
My promise in the church that I would come.
But if I come not, let her come to me!—
Let her come with me on my luminous road.

BRANDER

Pity her, and the hosts that with her stand
Shelterless from the blasts of your wild hate.

FAUST

Who loves must hate, who hates must burn with love....
I hate the world; but like the breath of life,
Sustaining me even yet a little while,
Is my surpassing love for its great hopes.
Aye, in the hour when I knew myself alone,
My hate cried: Smite!—because of thy great love
For one irradiant form that is to be.
Now is my hate a lamp of tenderness—
Now I destroy because I love beyond—
I build, I triumph with bright domes that rise
In laughing loveliness into the morning!

BRANDER

I love you and I pity you—and I go.

FAUST

We shall not meet again.
[Brander goes out.

FAUST

He will go down
Not singing, no, not singing!...
(He once more takes up the manuscript, and turns
to the last pages)
And now, when from my shoulders like a load
Begins to slip the weariness of life,
And a new vigor fills me—now it seems
That death is hovering close. O Grisly One,
Whom once I thought a not unwelcome guest
To my cold troubled house, I am not glad
To hear thy steps without. For in my halls
Lights kindle, and the music sobs and sings
In ecstasy of other guests than thee....
(He takes up his pen and turns to the end of the
manuscript, as if to write)
Can this poor strength suffice me to complete
These final words? Nay, better to leave unsaid
The few last lines my vanity desires
To tell and justify my end and fall
Like flourish of bright trumpets. Let them sleep
Unuttered; for the burden of my song
Is voiced already in these labored leaves;
And it is well, unfinished and unclosed
Should stop this record, whose concluding words
Of fairer hope, of sheerer miracle,
Some greater hand than mine shall some day write
And seal the chronicle—nay, never seal it!
[The butler enters.

BUTLER

There is a man waiting to see you, sir.

FAUST

Let him come in.

BUTLER

I beg your pardon, sir—
Can I do nothing for you?

FAUST

Thank you, nothing.
[The butler goes out again, Satan enters. He is
dressed in a long black cloak of foreign cut; for the
first time, he has the look of sinister majesty appropriate
to the Prince of Hell.

SATAN

Master, your slave is here!

FAUST

This fooling still?

SATAN

What little service would my conqueror wish?

FAUST

Peace from your childish talk. The game is done.
Quite well you knew that, came I victor forth,
I would not, for all treasure in the world,
Have such an one as servant, who can serve
No end that I desire.

SATAN

Aha! At last
Light penetrates that cobwebbed cranium,
And I can laugh in public! All these months,
I several times have come perilously near
Bursting with mirth at the rare spectacle.

FAUST

Pray you, laugh freely.

SATAN

Nay, my mirth is spent.
My heart is moved even toward an enemy,
When on his head defeat its torrent pours.
I offer you my sympathy.

FAUST

My thanks
Are in appropriate measure tendered you.

SATAN

Distrust me not, for lo, the game is done—
There are no battles more, no testings more
To set between us. From the heart of life
Have forces risen—aye, from the people's breast!—
To seal the measure of defeat; and now
Why shall we quarrel further?

FAUST

Why, indeed?

SATAN

I hear that you are working on a book
Recounting your adventures with the Devil.
I hope 'tis finished: it had better be!
You will not write large libraries, my friend,
In what of life remains to you.

FAUST

It is
Completed wholly.

SATAN

May I look at it?

FAUST

You may not.

SATAN

Ah, 'tis a surprise for me!

FAUST

Possibly.

SATAN

Well, you work late into dusk.
Dusk falls about you; soon the night will come,
And silence.... Has an oracle in your heart
Whispered the tidings of that night? Or have
The pages of the prophets told to you
What waits within that darkness?

FAUST

There waits sleep.
But I have lived, and do not fear life's last
Inevitable word.