Scene V.
A Prison.
Faust, with a bundle of keys in his hand and a lamp, before an iron door.
Faust.
A strange cold shuddering dread comes o’er me, all
The up-heaped wretchedness of time.
Here dwells she now behind this damp cold wall,
And dear delusion was her only crime!
Fear’st thou to go to her?
Tremblest to meet her eye?
Quick! thy delay but brings her death more nigh.
[He seizes the lock. Singing heard from within.
My mother, the wanton,
That choked my breath![n16]
My father, the villain,
That dined on my death!
My sister dear,
In the cool green shade
My bones she laid;
Then was I a glad little bird in the May;
Fly away! fly away!
Faust. [opening the door]
She dreams not that her loved one is so near,
The clinking chains and rustling straw to hear.
Margaret. [hiding herself on the bed]
Woe, woe! they come.—To bitter death they call.
Faust. [softly]
Hush! hush! I come to free thee from their thrall!
Margaret. [throwing herself at his feet]
Art thou a man? feel for my hapless plight.
Faust.
Thy cries will wake the watchers of the night!
[He takes hold of the chains to unloose them.
Margaret. [on her knees]
Who gave thee, hangman, such a power
To drag me from my cell at midnight hour?
Have pity on me! Be not so harsh!—so rough!
Surely to-morrow morn is soon enough. [She stands up.]
So young, so very young, am I,
And must already die!
