Faust.
My leave! do I make devil’s law?
The liberty, methinks, is all your own.
I see you here to-day with pleasure,
Go now, and come back at your leisure.
Here is the door, there is the window, and
A chimney, if you choose it, is at hand.
Mephistopheles.
Let me speak plain! there is a small affair,
That, without your assistance, bars my way,
The goblin-foot upon the threshold there—
Faust.
The pentagram stands in your way![n6]
Ha! tell me then, thou imp of sin,
If this be such a potent spell
To bar thy going out, how cam’st thou in?
What could have cheated such a son of hell?
Mephistopheles.
Look at it well, the drawing is not true;
One angle, that towards the door, you see,
Left a small opening for me.
Faust.
So so! for once dame Fortune has been kind,
And I have made a prisoner of you!
Chance is not always blind.
Mephistopheles.
The cur sprang in before it looked about;
But now the thing puts on a serious air;
The devil is in the house and can’t get out.
Faust.
You have the window, why not jump out there?
Mephistopheles.
It is a law which binds all ghosts and sprites;
Wherever they creep in, there too they must creep out;
I came in at the door, by the door I must go out.
Faust.
So so! then hell too has its laws and rights,
Thus might one profit by the powers of evil,
And make an honest bargain with the devil.
Mephistopheles.
The devil, sir, makes no undue exaction,
And pays what he has promised to a fraction;
But this affair requires consideration,
We’ll leave it for some future conversation.
For this time, I beseech your grace,
Let me be gone; I’ve work to do.
Faust.
Stay but one minute, I’ve scarce seen your face.
Speak; you should know the newest of the new.
Mephistopheles.
