The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 174

MEPHISTOPHELES: Gossip, you know little of these times. _310 What has been, has been; what is done, is past, They shape themselves into the innovations They breed, and innovation drags us with it.

The torrent of the crowd sweeps over us: You think to impel, and are yourself impelled. _315

FAUST: What is that yonder?

MEPHISTOPHELES: Mark her well. It is Lilith.

FAUST: Who?

MEPHISTOPHELES: Lilith, the first wife of Adam.

Beware of her fair hair, for she excels All women in the magic of her locks; And when she winds them round a young man's neck, _320 She will not ever set him free again.

FAUST: There sit a girl and an old woman--they Seem to be tired with pleasure and with play.

MEPHISTOPHELES: There is no rest to-night for any one: When one dance ends another is begun; _325 Come, let us to it. We shall have rare fun.

[FAUST DANCES AND SINGS WITH A GIRL, AND MEPHISTOPHELES WITH AN OLD WOMAN.]

FAUST: I had once a lovely dream In which I saw an apple-tree, Where two fair apples with their gleam To climb and taste attracted me. _330

NOTES: _327-_334 So Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script ("Westminster Review", July, 1870); wanting, 1822, 1824, 1839.

THE GIRL: She with apples you desired From Paradise came long ago: With you I feel that if required, Such still within my garden grow.

PROCTO-PHANTASMIST: What is this cursed mult.i.tude about? _335 Have we not long since proved to demonstration That ghosts move not on ordinary feet?

But these are dancing just like men and women.

NOTE: _335 Procto-Phantasmist]Brocto-Phantasmist editions 1824, 1839.

THE GIRL: What does he want then at our ball?

FAUST: Oh! he Is far above us all in his conceit: _340 Whilst we enjoy, he reasons of enjoyment; And any step which in our dance we tread, If it be left out of his reckoning, Is not to be considered as a step.

There are few things that scandalize him not: _345 And when you whirl round in the circle now, As he went round the wheel in his old mill, He says that you go wrong in all respects, Especially if you congratulate him Upon the strength of the resemblance.

PROCTO-PHANTASMIST: Fly! _350 Vanish! Unheard-of impudence! What, still there!

In this enlightened age too, since you have been Proved not to exist!--But this infernal brood Will hear no reason and endure no rule.

Are we so wise, and is the POND still haunted? _355 How long have I been sweeping out this rubbish Of superst.i.tion, and the world will not Come clean with all my pains!--it is a case Unheard of!

NOTE: _355 pond wanting in Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script.

THE GIRL: Then leave off teasing us so.

PROCTO-PHANTASMIST: I tell you, spirits, to your faces now, _360 That I should not regret this despotism Of spirits, but that mine can wield it not.

To-night I shall make poor work of it, Yet I will take a round with you, and hope Before my last step in the living dance _365 To beat the poet and the devil together.

MEPHISTOPHELES: At last he will sit down in some foul puddle; That is his way of solacing himself; Until some leech, diverted with his gravity, Cures him of spirits and the spirit together. _370 [TO FAUST, WHO HAS SECEDED FROM THE DANCE.]

Why do you let that fair girl pa.s.s from you, Who sung so sweetly to you in the dance?

FAUST: A red mouse in the middle of her singing Sprung from her mouth.

MEPHISTOPHELES: That was all right, my friend: Be it enough that the mouse was not gray. _375 Do not disturb your hour of happiness With close consideration of such trifles.

FAUST: Then saw I--

MEPHISTOPHELES: What?

FAUST: Seest thou not a pale, Fair girl, standing alone, far, far away?

She drags herself now forward with slow steps, _380 And seems as if she moved with shackled feet: I cannot overcome the thought that she Is like poor Margaret.

MEPHISTOPHELES: Let it be--pa.s.s on-- No good can come of it--it is not well To meet it--it is an enchanted phantom, _385 A lifeless idol; with its numbing look, It freezes up the blood of man; and they Who meet its ghastly stare are turned to stone, Like those who saw Medusa.

FAUST: Oh, too true!

Her eyes are like the eyes of a fresh corpse _390 Which no beloved hand has closed, alas!

That is the breast which Margaret yielded to me-- Those are the lovely limbs which I enjoyed!

NOTE: _392 breast editions 1839; heart 1822, 1824.

MEPHISTOPHELES: It is all magic, poor deluded fool!

She looks to every one like his first love. _395

FAUST: Oh, what delight! what woe! I cannot turn My looks from her sweet piteous countenance.

How strangely does a single blood-red line, Not broader than the sharp edge of a knife, Adorn her lovely neck!

MEPHISTOPHELES: Ay, she can carry _400 Her head under her arm upon occasion; Perseus has cut it off for her. These pleasures End in delusion.--Gain this rising ground, It is as airy here as in a...

And if I am not mightily deceived, _405 I see a theatre.--What may this mean?

ATTENDANT: Quite a new piece, the last of seven, for 'tis The custom now to represent that number.

'Tis written by a Dilettante, and The actors who perform are Dilettanti; _410 Excuse me, gentlemen; but I must vanish.

I am a Dilettante curtain-lifter.

JUVENILIA.

QUEEN MAB.

A PHILOSOPHICAL POEM, WITH NOTES.

[An edition (250 copies) of "Queen Mab" was printed at London in the summer of 1813 by Sh.e.l.ley himself, whose name, as author and printer, appears on the t.i.tle-page (see "Bibliographical List"). Of this edition about seventy copies were privately distributed. Sections 1, 2, 8, and 9 were afterwards rehandled, and the intermediate sections here and there revised and altered; and of this new text sections 1 and 2 were published by Sh.e.l.ley in the "Alastor" volume of 1816, under the t.i.tle, "The Daemon of the World". The remainder lay unpublished till 1876, when sections 8 and 9 were printed by Mr. H. Buxton Forman, C.B., from a printed copy of "Queen Mab" with Sh.e.l.ley's ma.n.u.script corrections. See "The Sh.e.l.ley Library", pages 36-44, for a description of this copy, which is in Mr. Forman's possession. Sources of the text are (1) the editio princeps of 1813; (2) text (with some omissions) in the "Poetical Works" of 1839, edited by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley; (3) text (one line only wanting) in the 2nd edition of the "Poetical Works", 1839 (same editor).

"Queen Mab" was probably written during the year 1812--it is first heard of at Lynmouth, August 18, 1812 ("Sh.e.l.ley Memorials", page 39)--but the text may be a.s.sumed to include earlier material.]

ECRASEZ L'INFAME!--Correspondance de Voltaire.

Avia Pieridum peragro loca, nullius ante Trita solo; juvat integros accedere fonteis; Atque haurire: juvatque novos decerpere flores.