Part 24 (1/2)

FROSCH

And yet it seemed as I were drinking wine.

BRANDER

But with the grapes how was it, pray?

ALTMAYER

Shall one believe no miracles, just say!

VI

WITCHES' KITCHEN

(Upon a low hearth stands a great caldron, under which a fire is burning. Various figures appear in the vapors which rise from the caldron. An ape sits beside it, skims it, and watches lest it boil over. The he-ape, with the young ones, sits near and warms himself. Ceiling and walls are covered with the most fantastic witch-implements.)

FAUST MEPHISTOPHELES

FAUST

These crazy signs of witches' craft repel me!

I shall recover, dost thou tell me, Through this insane, chaotic play?

From an old hag shall I demand a.s.sistance?

And will her foul mess take away Full thirty years from my existence?

Woe's me, canst thou naught better find!

Another baffled hope must be lamented: Has Nature, then, and has a n.o.ble mind Not any potent balsam yet invented?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Once more, my friend, thou talkest sensibly.

There is, to make thee young, a simpler mode and apter; But in another book 'tis writ for thee, And is a most eccentric chapter.

FAUST

Yet will I know it.

MEPHISTOPHELES

Good! the method is revealed Without or gold or magic or physician.

Betake thyself to yonder field, There hoe and dig, as thy condition; Restrain thyself, thy sense and will Within a narrow sphere to flourish; With unmixed food thy body nourish; Live with the ox as ox, and think it not a theft That thou manur'st the acre which thou reapest;- That, trust me, is the best mode left, Whereby for eighty years thy youth thou keepest!

FAUST

I am not used to that; I cannot stoop to try it- To take the spade in hand, and ply it.

The narrow being suits me not at all.