Mr. Faust Part 13

What an amazing man you really are!

For your own sake, I tried to offer you A splendid paradise; I brought you here At infinite cost and trouble; you have had An hour of insight and experience New and instructive to you; your best friend Has found eternal bliss: and now you turn, And just because your uttermost crazy whim Is not quite satisfied with what he grasped Thankfully, you revert, with sorry taste, To my old careless generous remarks.

I do not think your friends at home would call it A sporting att.i.tude.

FAUST

The jungle shakes-- Do you not hear it?--with the stifled, choked Laughter of leopards, elephants, hyenas, Rhinoceroses, apes, pythons, and tigers, Who hear you and are overcome with mirth....

I also laugh with them.

SATAN

Magnanimous Your laughter sounds! True, you have beaten me, And I am at your mercy. By some whim, Trick, technicality, your mind rejects A n.o.ble paradise; and to my pledge You therefore are ent.i.tled. And I stand Ready to pay it.

FAUST

Ah, at last we have Acknowledgment of it! Frankness is good Even for the Devil, Satan.

SATAN

I have been Frank with you always. And, if to your taste, I will be franker still. Your stake is won; You have your triumph: but does it quite fill The chambers of your heart? Will it suffice In place of that bright paradise you dreamed Might be your gain as loser? Ah, my friend, In copper you have won, but lost in gold!

And victory will not requite for that Your empty treasury.

FAUST

Not empty quite; You are too modest.

SATAN

Oh, if you choose, my pledge Shall be fulfilled, and I will be your dog-- Snarling a little, sometimes--snapping at Your friends and furniture and lady-loves-- But yet your dog. However, I can do Better for you than that....

FAUST

Enough! Enough!

SATAN

But hear me! You'll admit, a feather's weight, A hair's breadth only held you from the gates That Oldham entered. Almost they sufficed Your spirit; yes, a moth's wing could have blown You toward them! 'Twas so nearly I fulfilled All that I promised. Therefore when I speak, You will, for justice's sake, concede I am No absolute bungler, no coa.r.s.e-palated Plebeian, as to paradises.

FAUST

No.

I will admit that.

SATAN

Good! Now, I would make One final offer to you.

Faust, I know In other regions, beneath other skies, One haven more, the only one of earth That can be judged in glory to surpa.s.s This paradise you entered not. My faith Is absolute that it is to your need Utterly moulded. Like your heart itself, Its halls are structured, destinate for you As perfect refuge. And I say to you: Give me the leave, and I will lead you there For one supreme and ultimate trial of choice That has no doubtful outcome. And my pledge Shall still be valid! If this refuge gives Not all that you desire, you still may claim My service as your slave. Thus do you risk No atom, but have gain of one last chance To win the paradise you hunger for!

FAUST

A pleasing logic; but I do not trust The mind behind it.

SATAN

Trust it, or distrust-- What matter?--when the issue is so plain!

FAUST

Away! Away!

SATAN

Well, if this hope is vain To urge you, let despair serve in its stead As roweled spur. For see where now you stand: The mock of destiny--the man who lost All joys of the bright many that the world Cherishes! Aye, and even lost his friend, His one deep lasting friend--and stood thereafter Fixed like a donkey.... Though I led you on From paradise to paradise, and none Sufficed you--that were surely better sport-- Testing and trying with sublime contempt-- Than finger-twirling! But not thus I lead.

For now you shall, you shall have paradise!

FAUST

Deep in my soul, there is a sense that loathes Pacts with the Devil. Yet the sanctioned powers Established in the world have proved them void And ignorant of paradise.... Where lies it?

SATAN

Follow, and I will lead.

FAUST

A long path?

SATAN

Yes.

FAUST

On! But your bondage waits you at the end.

SATAN

Ah, jester, jester!... Come--give me your hand!

CURTAIN

THE THIRD ACT

_The scene is the nave of a great cathedral. Two rows of many-shafted columns stretch back to where, in the far background, rises the elaborate magnificence of the High Altar.