How long have I not swept the cobwebs of delusion,
And still the world remains in the same wild confusion!
The Young Witch.
Be quiet then, and seek some other place!
Proctophantasmist.
I tell you, Spirits, in your face,
This intellectual thrall I cannot bear it;
I love to have a free unshackled spirit. [The dance goes on.]
To-day I see that all my strength is spent in vain;
I’ve had a tour, at least, to compensate my evils,
And hope, before I come to Blocksberg back again,
To crush, with one good stroke, the poets and the devils.
Mephistopheles.
He will now go, and, bare of breeches,
Sit in a pool with solemn patience;
And, when his buttocks are well sucked by leeches,
Be cured of ghosts and ghostly inspirations.
[To Faust, who has just left the dance.]
Why do you let the lovely damsel go,
That in the dance with sweet song pleased you so?
Faust.
Alas! while she so passing sweet was singing,
I saw a red mouse from her mouth outspringing.
Mephistopheles.
Pooh! on the Brocken that’s a thing of course;
Let not such trifles mar your sweet discourse.
Go, join the crew, and dance away;
Enough, the red mouse was not gray.
Faust.
Then saw I—
Mephistopheles.
What?
Faust.
Mephisto, see’st thou there
A pale yet lovely girl, in lonely distance fare?
From place to place she moveth slow;
With shackled feet she seems to go;
I must confess, she has a cast
Of Margaret, when I saw her last.
Mephistopheles.
