He shall cling and cleave to me,
Like a sprawling child in agony,
And food and drink, illusive hovering nigh,
Shall shun his parchèd lips, and cheat his longing eye;
He shall pine and pant and strain
For the thing he may not gain,
And, though he ne’er had sold him to do evil,
He would have damned himself without help from the devil.
Scene VII.
Enter a Student.
Student.
I am but fresh arrived to-day,
And come my best respects to pay,
To one whose name, from boor to Kaiser,
None, without veneration, mention.
Mephistopheles.
I feel obliged by your attention!
You see a man than other men no wiser:
Have you made inquiry elsewhere?
Student.
Beseech you, sir, be my adviser!
I come with money to spend and spare,
With fresh young blood, and a merry heart,
On my college career to start:
My mother sent me, not without a tear,
To get some needful schooling here.
Mephistopheles.
A better place you could not find.
Student.
To speak the truth, ’tis not much to my mind.
Within these narrow cloister walls,
These antiquated Gothic halls,
I feel myself but ill at ease;
No spot of green I see, no trees,
And ’mid your formal rows of benches,
I almost seem to lose my senses.
Mephistopheles.
That all depends on custom. Don’t you see
How a young babe at first is slow
To know its mother’s breast; but soon
