They have got up a theatre.
What make you here?
A Servant.
You are just come in time.
’Tis a new piece, the last of all the seven,
For such the number that with us is given.
A dilettante ’twas that wrote the rhyme,
And dilettanti are the actors too.
Excuse me, sirs,—no disrespect to you,
If I seem curt: I am the dilettante
To draw the curtain; and our time is scanty.
Mephistopheles.
Just so; I only wish you were so clever
To know your home;
Then from the Blocksberg you would never
Have lust to roam!
Scene II.
Intermezzo.[n15]
Walpurgis-Night’s Dream;
or
Oberon and Titania’s Golden Hightide.
Director of the Theatre.
We players here may take our ease;
For all we need for scenery
Is mount and mead, and trees, and seas
Of Nature’s leafy greenery.
Herald.
The golden high-tide is it then,
When fifty years pass over;
But doubly golden is it when
All brawls and strifes they cover.
Oberon.
Ye spirits, who obey my law,
Are to this feast invited,
When Oberon and Titania
In love are reunited.
Puck.
Puck comes in first, and turns athwart,
His merry circles wheeling;
And hundreds more behind him dart,
Loud shouts of laughter pealing.
Ariel.
I fill the air with thrilling song
Of virtue quite enchanting;
Though ugly imps I lure along,
The fair are never wanting!
Oberon.
When man and wife begin to strive,
Just give them length of tether!
They will learn in peace to live,
