A thoughtful soul toils on through many a silent year.
Time only makes the busy ferment clear,
Besides that the ingredients all
Are passing strange and mystical!
’Tis true the devil taught them how to do it,
But not the devil with his own hands can brew it.
[Looking at the Cat-Apes.] Lo! what a tiny gay parade!
Here’s the man, and there’s the maid!
[Addressing them.] It seems that your good mother has gone out?
The Cat-Apes.
Up the chimney,
Went she out,
To a drinking bout!
Mephistopheles.
Is it her wont to gossip long without?
The Animals.
As long as we sit here and warm our feet.
Mephistopheles. [to Faust]
What think you of the brutes? are they not neat?
Faust.
I never saw such tasteless would-be-drolls!
Mephistopheles.
Pooh! pooh!—I know no greater delectation
On earth, than such a merry conversation.
[To the brutes.] Now let us hear, you pretty dolls,
What are you stirring there in the pot?
The Brutes.
Soup for beggars, hissing and hot,
Thin and watery, that’s the stew.
Mephistopheles.
Your customers will not be few.
The Father Cat-Ape. [comes up and fawns upon Mephistopheles]
Come rattle the dice,
Make me rich in a trice,
Come, come, let me gain!
My case is so bad,
It scarce could be worse:
Were I right in my purse,
I’d be right in my brain!
Mephistopheles.
How happy would the apish creature be,
To buy a ticket in the lottery!
[Meanwhile the young Cat-Apes have been playing with a large globe, and roll it forwards.
The Father Cat-Ape.
Such is the world,
So doth it go,
Up and down,
To and fro!
Like glass it tinkles,
Like glass it twinkles,
