DUNGEON
FAUST (WITH A BUNCH OF KEYS AND A LAMP, BEFORE A SMALL
IRON DOOR)
I
gasp with long-forgotten horror's breath,
I'm seized by every human sorrowing.
She lives behind dank walls and slime.
A fair delusion her only crime!
You hesitate to go within.
You fear to see her once again!
Forward! Weak wavering advances death.
HE SEIZES THE LOCK. SOUND OF SINGING FROM WITHIN
My mother, the whore,
Took life from me!
My father, the rogue,
Has eaten me!
My small sister alone
Has buried my bones
Down in a cool, cool place.
I've changed into a beautiful bird;
Fly away, fly apace!
FAUST (UNLOCKING)
She doesn’t dream her love can hear the raw,
Rough clink of chains, the rustling of the straw.
HE ENTERS
MARGARET (HIDING ON HER PALLET)
Oh! They are coming. Bitter death!
FAUST (SOFTLY)
Ssh! Ssh! I've come to set you free.
MARGARET ( TURNING OVER TO FACE HIM)
If you are human, feel my misery!
FAUST
Your cries will rouse the night guards from their rest.
HE SEIZES THE CHAINS TO UNLOCK THEM
MARGARET (ON HER KNEES)
Who gave you, hangman, heavy
Power over me!
At midnight now you’re taking me already.
Have mercy, let me live, let be!
Is dawn not soon enough for you to come?
SHE STANDS UP
I’m still so young, so young!
Yet I must die!
I once was beautiful, and that was my
Downfall. My friend, once near, is far off now;
The wreath lies ripped and scattered are the flowers.
Don’t grip as strongly as you do!
Spare me! What have I done to you?
Don’t let me plead and beg in vain;
I do not even know your name!
FAUST
How shall I bear this grief, this pain!
MARGARET
I am now wholly in your power.
Just let me feed my child first now.
All night heart-close I held it, then
To grieve me they took it away;
I murdered it- that’s what they say.
I never shall have joy again.
They sing these songs about me! It’s wicked that they
do!
An old folk tale has such an end,
Who says that it is true?
FAUST (CASTING HIMSELF DOWN)
A lover lies here at your feet,
To break the chains of pain and grief.
MARGARET
Oh, let us kneel, and call on holy ones on high!
See! under these stone steps, close by,
Beneath this threshold, swell
Legions from hell!
There evil’s king,
With fear-filling fury,
Makes a hideous din!
FAUST (LOUDLY)
Gretchen! Gretchen!
MARGARET (ATTENTIVE)
That was the voice of my friend.
SHE LEAPS UP. THE CHAINS FALL OFF
Where is he? I heard him call! I’m free!
And none shall keep him now from me.
I’ll hang upon his neck, and I…
Close on his breast I’ll lie!
Gretchen! he called me from the threshold stone-
Through all of hell’s howling and clattering storm,
Through all of the fury of devilish scorn,
I knew his sweet and loving tone.
FAUST
I’m here!
MARGARET
You’re here! O say it once
again!
SEIZING HIM
He is! He is! Where is my fear and pain?
Where is the fear of prison? The chains?
You've come! Come to rescue me!
And I am free!-
Again I see the street where I
Saw you at first, at first while passing by,
And the cheerful garden too,
Where I and Martha walked with you.
FAUST (PUSHING TOWARD THE DOOR)
Come on! Come on!
MARGARET
Stay here!
Stay here!
For I am happiest while you are near!
CARESSING HIM
FAUST
Hurry! Fly!
If you don’t fly
We will pay dearly for all this!
MARGARET
What! You can no longer kiss?
My friend, so short a time gone missing,
To so unlearn your kissing?
Why do I fear to hang upon your neck? Once it would be
That from your words, your glance, would spread
A whole, fair heaven overhead-
You kissed as if you’d smother me.
Kiss me now!
Then I’ll kiss you!
SHE EMBRACES HIM
Ah me! Your lips are cold-
Are mute.
Where is your love,
My love?
Who broke love’s hold?
FAUST
Come!
Follow me! My love, be brave again!
I’ll
fill your heart with a thousand times more flame!
Just
follow me! That’s all I beg of you!
MARGARET
And
is it you? And is it really you?
FAUST
It’s
truly me! Come on!
MARGARET
You loose
my chains,
You
take me in your arms again.
But
why do you not shrink from me?
Do
you not know, my friend, whom you are setting free?
FAUST
Come! Already night yields up its power!
MARGARET
I have killed my mother. I have drowned
My child. Wasn't it to be
A gift, a gift to you and me?
You too.- It’s you! I scarce believe it yet.
Give me your hand! It’s not a dream!
Your dearest hand!- Ah! but it is wet!
Wipe it clean now!- Clean! - it seems
It’s blood.
Oh God! What have you done!
Put up your sword, put up,
I beg you- please!
FAUST
Oh! Let what now has gone be gone,
You’re killing me.
MARGARET
No! you must live! I shall
Describe to you the graves.
And you must tend them all,
Tomorrow, right away;
So give the best place to my mother,
And right beside her lay my brother;
Me, a bit to the side,
Not too far aside!-
No one else will lie by me!
Nestling by you once would be
A sweet and gracious happiness.
But that’s now something I can’t do;
Seems I must force myself on you,
As if pushed back. Nonetheless,
It’s you- so good, so pious is your gaze.
FAUST
You feel it’s so- then come, oh, come!
MARGARET
Out there?
FAUST
Into free air.
MARGARET
If there’s the grave,
If death’s in wait- then come will you!
From here to an everlasting bed of rest
And further- not one step!
You’re going? O Heinrich, would I could go too!
FAUST
You can! Just will it so! The door is free.
MARGARET
I may not go; no hope is left for me.
They’d track me down. What use is it to flee?
To have to beg is agony,
And with a guilty heart as well!
To roam strange realms is misery,
And they’d still catch me- I can tell!
FAUST
I’ll stay by you.
MARGARET
Go quickly! Quick, I pray!
Save your poor child! Away!
Just stay on the track
That runs by the brook,
Across the small bridge
And into the forest,
Left, where the planks still reach
Into the pond.
Quickly, grab on!
It wants to surface,
Still struggles- see!
Save it! Save it!
FAUST
Grip onto your sanity!
It’s but one step, and you are free!
MARGARET
If only we were past the mountain! Alone,
My mother sits there on a stone-
An icy grip seizes my hair!
My mother sits there on a stone;
Her head is wagging there-
She doesn't wave, she doesn't beckon, her head is
heavy for
She slept so long, she wakes no more.
She slept so that we would have our bliss.
They were such times of happiness!
FAUST
No word, no pleading is enough,
So I must dare to bear you off.
MARGARET
No, leave me, leave! I'll not put up with force!
Don’t grip like murder; for it's true:
I have done all the rest for love of you.
FAUST
The day dawns! Love! my love!
MARGARET
Day! Yes, day is dawning. The last day dawns in gray!
It was to be my wedding day!
Tell no one you've already been with Gretchen.
My wreath- oh grief!
But what is done is done!
We’ll yet meet once
But not to dance.
No noise is heard, although crowds throng.
Square, street, and alley
Cannot hold the rally.
They break the wand, the bell has rung,
They seize and bind me! I’m led
Already to the block. It’s time.
And each neck feels the dread
Of that sharp blade that's drawn for mine.
Mute lies the world like the grave!
FAUST
Oh, would I’d never been born!
MEPHISTOPHELES (APPEARING OUTSIDE)
Up! Or you’re lost; be warned.
This stalling and chattering! Needless wavering!
My horses are shivering,
The sky is flushed with light.
MARGARET
What rose from the ground to my sight?
Him! Him! Oh, send him off!
Oh, why is he in this holy spot?
He wants me!
FAUST
You shall live!
MARGARET
Judgement of God! To You I give myself!
MEPHISTOPHELES
Come! Come! I’ll leave you both forever lost.
MARGARET
Thine am I, Father! Save me now!
Your angels! Your holy host,
Cluster around me, guard me with your power!
Heinrich! I fear for you.
MEPHISTOPHELES
She is condemned!
VOICES (FROM ABOVE)
She is
saved!
MEPHISTOPHELES (TO FAUST)
Come
here to me!
(HE VANISHES WITH FAUST)
VOICE (FROM WITHIN, DYING AWAY)
Heinrich! Heinrich!
THE
END OF PART ONE
