The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 01 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 477 pages of information about The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 01.

The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 01 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 477 pages of information about The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 01.

This displeases you?  “For shame!”
You are forsooth entitled to exclaim;
We to chaste ears it seems must not pronounce
What, nathless, the chaste heart cannot renounce. 
Well, to be brief, the joy as fit occasions rise,
I grudge you not, of specious lies. 
But long this mood thou’lt not retain. 
Already thou’rt again outworn,
And should this last, thou wilt be torn
By frenzy or remorse and pain. 
Enough of this!  Thy true love dwells apart,
And all to her seems flat and tame;
Alone thine image fills her heart,
She loves thee with an all-devouring flame. 
First came thy passion with o’erpowering rush,
Like mountain torrent, swollen by the melted snow;
Full in her heart didst pour the sudden gush,
Now has thy brooklet ceased to flow. 
Instead of sitting throned midst forests wild,
It would become so great a lord
To comfort the enamor’d child,
And the young monkey for her love reward. 
To her the hours seem miserably long;
She from the window sees the clouds float by
As o’er the lofty city-walls they fly. 
“If I a birdie were!” so runs her song,
Half through the night and all day long. 
Cheerful sometimes, more oft at heart full sore;
Fairly outwept seem now her tears,
Anon she tranquil is, or so appears,
And love-sick evermore.

FAUST

Snake!  Serpent vile!

MEPHISTOPHELES (aside)

Good!  If I catch thee with my guile!

FAUST

Vile reprobate! go get thee hence;
Forbear the lovely girl to name! 
Nor in my half-distracted sense
Kindle anew the smouldering flame!

MEPHISTOPHELES

What wouldest thou!  She thinks you’ve taken flight;
It seems, she’s partly in the right.

FAUST

I’m near her still—­and should I distant rove,
Her I can ne’er forget, ne’er lose her love;
And all things touch’d by those sweet lips of hers,
Even the very Host, my envy stirs.

MEPHISTOPHELES

’Tis well!  I oft have envied you indeed,
The twin-pair that among the roses feed.

FAUST

Pander, avaunt!

MEPHISTOPHELES

Go to!  I laugh, the while you rail;
The power which fashion’d youth and maid
Well understood the noble trade;
So neither shall occasion fail. 
But hence!—­A mighty grief I trow! 
Unto thy lov’d one’s chamber thou
And not to death shouldst go.

FAUST

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 01 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.