Fasces

“ THE STORY OF THE ACTION Act I. —Faust, an aged philosopher, who has grown weary of life, and of the vain search for the source of all knowledge, decides, after a nightlong vigil, to end his existence by taking poison. In the act of raising the cup to his lips his hand is arrested by the sound of merry voices of maidens singing in the early morning of the joy of living. ”

“ In a small circle one is not alone,
FAUST I'd rather be above, though, I must own!
Already fire and eddying smoke I view;
The impetuous millions to the devil ride;
Full many a riddle will be there untied.
MEPHISTOPHELES Ay! and full many a riddle tied anew.
But let the great world rave and riot!
Here will we house ourselves in quiet.
A custom 'tis of ancient date,
Our lesser worlds within the great world to create! ”

“ The true Fable, if it rise to its high requirements, ever aims at one great end and purpose—the representation of human motive, and the improvement of human conduct, and yet it so conceals its design under the disguise of fictitious characters, by clothing with speech the animals of the field, the birds of the air, the trees of the wood, or the beasts of the forest, that the reader shall receive advice without perceiving the presence of the adviser. ”

“ When I realised that I had undertaken to lecture on Faust, I thought it my duty to study Goethe's German commentators—some of them at least; for to study all would consume a lifetime. A few of the works of these commentators I already possessed—some, I am sorry to say, with their pages yet uncut. ”

“ Lean faces, too, with burning, sunken eyes, under bald heads yellow from the labors of futile scholasticism, contrasted with young and eager countenances, grave faces, warlike faces, and the ruddy cheeks of the financial class. ”

“ From bodies flows, makes bodies fair to sight;
A body in his course can check him,
His doom, I therefore hope, will soon o'ertake him,
With bodies merged in nothingness and night.
Faust. Ah, now I see thy high vocation! In gross thou canst not harm creation, And so in small hast now begun.
Mephistopheles. And, truth to tell, e'en here, not much have done. ”

“ Faust. This was the poodle's essence then! A travelling clark? Ha! ha! The casus is too funny.
Mephistopheles. I bow to the most learned among men! 'Faith you did sweat me without ceremony.
Faust. What is thy name?
Mephistopheles. The question seems too small
For one who holds the word so very cheaply,
Who, far removed from shadows all,
For substances alone seeks deeply.
Faust. With gentlemen like him in my presence,
The name is apt to express the essence,
Especially if, when you inquire,
You find it God of flies, [14] Destroyer, Slanderer, Liar.
Well now, who art thou then? ”

“ But even in the oldest of the Faust-legends, and far more of course in Goethe's Faust, we are attracted by a 'pathetic' element, viz., the unsatisfied and insatiable longing of a human soul for Knowledge—for Truth—and its still intenser yearnings after ideal Beauty. ”

“ Your face is of the style Louis XII., hardly any color, well-formed nose; and you have the thing that pleases women, a something, I don't know what it is, which men take no account of themselves; it is in the air, the manner, the tone of the voice, the dart of the eye, the gesture,—in short, in a number of little things which women see and to which they attach a meaning which escapes us. ”

“ Come, draw thy circle, speak thine adjuration,
And fill thy goblet full and free!
THE WITCH
(with fantastic gestures draws a circle and places mysterious
articles therein; meanwhile the glasses begin to ring, the
caldron to sound, and make a musical accompaniment.
Finally she brings a great book, and stations in the circle
the Apes, who are obliged to serve as reading-desk, and to
hold the torches. She then beckons FAUST to approach.)
FAUST (to MEPHISTOPHELES)
Now, what shall come of this? ”

“ For thou art right, because I must submit.
GARDEN. MARGARET on FAUST'S arm. MARTHA with MEPHISTOPHELES.
[Promenading up and down.]
Margaret. The gentleman but makes me more confused
With all his condescending goodness.
Men who have travelled wide are used
To bear with much from dread of rudeness;
I know too well, a man of so much mind
In my poor talk can little pleasure find.
Faust. One look from thee, one word, delights me more Than this world's wisdom o'er and o'er. [Kisses her hand.] ”

“ I see most men, as in the hippodrome, divided into factions, some for one side and some for another, and shouting with their parties. But you are above fear, flattery, and every ignoble sentiment, and so naturally look at truth with an unprejudiced eye. ”

“ And lastly, what rather concerns us here, his Teutonic Mythology, his Reynard the Fox, and the collection of German Popular Tales, which he and his brother William published, have thrown a flood of light on the early history of all the branches of our race, and have raised what had come to be looked on as mere nursery fictions and old wives’ fables—to a study fit for the energies of grown men, and to all the dignity of a science. ”

“ As many an Italian tale can show.
Faust.
I need no tricks to whet my zest.
Mephistopheles.
I tell thee plainly without jest,
As things stand here, we cannot win
The fort by hotly rushing in;
To gain fair lady’s favour, you
Must boldly scheme, and gently do.
Faust. ”

“ Faust.
In truth I see the eyes of one that’s dead,
On which no closing hand of love was laid.
That is my Margaret’s kindly breast,
That the sweet body I caressed.
Mephistopheles.
There lies the witchcraft o’t, thou fool!
A phantom takes thy wit to school:
She is the love of every lover’s brain.
Faust. ”

“ Faust. Do stay but just one moment longer, then, Tell me good news and I'll release thee.
Mephistopheles. Let me go now! I'll soon come back again, Then may'st thou ask whate'er shall please thee.
Faust. I laid no snare for thee, old chap!
Thou shouldst have watched and saved thy bacon.
Who has the devil in his trap
Must hold him fast, next time he'll not so soon be taken. ”

“ From the cipher of the vast material universe, the Macrocosm, we turn away, as Faust did, with unsatisfied yearnings. Whither then shall we turn? Where shall we grasp Nature—not the empty vision, but the warm living form? ”

“ All praise to the mocker and the thrasher! May their tribe increase! But if we are to indulge in comparisons, give me the wood thrush, the hermit, and the veery; with tones that the mocking-bird can never imitate, and a simplicity which the Fates—the wise Fates, who will have variety—have put forever beyond his appreciation and his reach. ”

“ Three classes of fables have been noticed: (1) the rational—in which the actors and speakers are solely human beings or the gods of mythology, (2) the non-rational—in which the heroes are solely animals, trees, vegetables, or inanimate objects, (3) the mixed—in which the rational and non-rational are combined.
Classes of fables
Now what distinguishes all these from myth and legend is the presence of the evident and acknowledged didactic purpose. What distinguishes the first class, the rational fable, from a parable is the low plane of the motive. Above the utilitarian the fable never rises. ”

“ And is there not a fourth class which is again different, and in which most of the things formerly mentioned are contained,—every kind of dress, most sorts of arms, walls and enclosures, whether of earth or stone, and ten thousand other things? all of which being made for the sake of defence, may be truly called defences, and are for the most part to be regarded as the work of the builder or of the weaver, rather than of the Statesman. ”

“ Such a crowd, some well mounted, some ill, but all flying along as best they might, the subaltern as good as the general, jostling and pushing, spurring and driving, with every thought thrown to the winds save that they should have the blood of this absurd fox! Truly, they are an extraordinary people, the English! ”

“ Faust [unlocking] . She little dreams, her lover is so near, The clanking chains, the rustling straw can hear; [He enters.]
Margaret [burying herself in the bed] . Woe! woe! They come. O death of bitterness!
Faust [softly] . Hush! hush! I come to free thee; thou art dreaming.
Margaret [prostrating herself before him] . Art thou a man, then feel for my distress.
Faust. Thou'lt wake the guards with thy loud screaming! ”

“ How Faction sowrs the Blood, and gnaws upon the Mind.
Strong and Majestick does your Stile appear,
Your Notions weighty, your Reflections clear.
With nicest Art, you turn each Polish'd Line,
To make your Darling Celsus in full Lustre shine. ”

“ Other great questions come to haunt the mind with joy and admiration, and we can see all the beauties of life on exhibition by that great power with which the fascia is endowed. The soul of man with all the streams of pure living water seems to dwell in the fascia of his body. ”

“ Like Faust, who found himself when, blinded by the sun, he turned his face to the earth, so we shall have to forget our epistemological heaven and remember mother earth; we shall have to give up our delightful German puzzles and play our living part in the flow of social purpose. ”

“ A strange spectacle, arousing astonishment and indignation, incredulity and ridicule, this mediæval comedy in the very midst of our modern civilization! One class of human beings assumes the airs of ancient Egyptian or Indian caste, in the midst of our Caucasian humanity. It lays claim to titles which once signified certain offices, but today have no sense whatever. ”

“ The consciousness of æsthetic pleasure and its expression are of tardy growth. A fifteenth-century scholar like Fazio, trying to vent his artistic admiration, does not get beyond the language of commonplace wonder. ”

“ Come, come, this is no Time for Fooling, says the Fox; set me upon Terra Firma first, and then I'll tell ye the History.
The Moral.
When a Man is in Misery, there must be no Trifling in the Case. 'Tis a Barbareus Humour to stand Bantering out of Season. 'Tis no Time or Place for Raillery, when a Life's at Stake. ”

“ FROM FAUST—SECOND PART.
SCENE THE LAST.
ANGELS.
[Hovering in the higher regions of air, and bearing the immortal part of Faust.]
The spirit-region's noble limb
⁠Hath 'scaped the Archfiend's power;
For we have strength to rescue him
⁠Who labours every hour. ”

“ On the other hand, English metre compels the use of inversions, admits many verbal liberties prohibited to prose, and so inclines towards various flexible features of its sister-tongue that many lines of Faust may be repeated in English without the slightest change of meaning, measure, or rhyme. There are words, it is true, with so delicate a bloom upon them that it can in no wise be preserved ”

“ Besides the long and elaborate epics, like Roland, and the romances in verse and prose, there were numberless short stories in verse (the fabliaux) , which usually dealt with the incidents of everyday life, especially with the comical ones. Then there were the fables, the most famous of which are the stories of Reynard the Fox, which were satires upon the customs of the time, particularly the weaknesses of the priests and monks. ”

“ The behavior of primitive races towards their chiefs, kings, and priests, is controlled by two principles which seem rather to supplement than to contradict each other. They must both be guarded and be guarded against. ”

“ FAUST
There must be such queer birds, however.
MARGARET
Live with the like of him, may I never!
When once inside the door comes he,
He looks around so sneeringly,
And half in wrath:
One sees that in nothing no interest he hath:
'Tis written on his very forehead
That love, to him, is a thing abhorréd.
I am so happy on thine arm,
So free, so yielding, and so warm,
And in his presence stifled seems my heart.
FAUST
Foreboding angel that thou art! ”

“ From each translation springs a party, and from each misunderstanding a failure, and each party believes that it has the only true text, and each faction believes that it possesses the light. Often enough power itself is a faction, and there are in revolutions men who swim against the current ”

“ Now, the idea of this improvement came, I make no doubt, from our system, under which society is divided into castes, for the sake of harmony and subordination, and these castes are designated by colors and shades of colors that are significant of their stations and pursuits—the individual, as in the new police, being known by the number. Our own language being exceedingly sententious, is capable of expressing the most elaborate of these combinations in a very few sounds. ”

“ The Laws of Humanity, and Hospitality must be kept Sacred upon any Terms: for the Wounding of a Friend for the fake of a Jest, is an Intemperance, and an Immorality, not to be Endur'd. There was somewhat of This in the Fox's leading the Frolique. ”

“ What perverse and malignant influence can have excited the people either to incur or to suffer their present situation? Were we not well acquainted with the arts of factions, the activity of bad men, and the effect of their union, I should be almost tempted to believe this change in the French supernatural. ”

“ The history of Faust and Margaret, notwithstanding the magical or diabolic background on which it figures, is a simple story of flesh and blood, a story which would remain equally true and equally affecting were the demon and the witches removed altogether from the scene. ”