Chapter 3
Most Holy One, we come, From lands far off, beyond remotest seas Of sunset. There, in midst of toil and stress And clamor, have we dwelt, till weariness Of all life's gifts impelled us to go forth To seek if anywhere a region lay Where happiness still dwelt. To you we turn As unto one upon whose face is set The seal of peace such as we dreamed not of.
SATAN
They seek the Way, the Way, most Holy One.
THE HOLY ONE
The Blessed Eightfold Way lies free to all. I cannot ope it to them. Peace, joy, bliss, Supernal glory is it to those souls Who have put by the follies of their birth And sought its refuge. But though now I stand With lighted heart upon its blissful path, I can stretch out no hand to grasp their hands And draw them toward it.
SATAN
Yet the Blessed One, In Gaya first enlightened, far and wide Taught men the Way....
THE HOLY ONE
Aye, verily.... Some mood Of evil in my heart has closed my mouth And darkened thus my eyesight. But 'tis gone.... Brethren, have comfort on my frugal stones. Ask me all ye desire.
SATAN
Most Holy One, These are my friends; I bring them in sore need Unto your wisdom. For methinks they stand Now at the cross-roads where the choice is made Of truth or vanity. I beg you, tell Unto their ears how, in your day, you came To that dark crossing.
THE HOLY ONE
I would do your will In this, and in all other services, My brethren.
You must know that in my youth I was a lusty noble of the realm Of Jeypore; and the falcon and the sword And the nautch-dancers and the palace-girls Were mine to love and master like a lord. Lordlike I lived; the caskets of the day And of the night I crowded with bright jewels Of love and joy and laughter. No desire Panted unslaked an instant at my doors-- Nay, feasts were spread for it. And poor men gazed On me with envy, muttering from their dust: "Behold, the Heavens' darling."...
OLDHAM
Other lands Know the same tale.
THE HOLY ONE
Aye, aye, all lands. And then One night, alone in mine own garden walls, Beneath the piercing stars, I gathered my life Into my hands, and looked at it, and far Beyond it at all other mortal lives; And dust fell from mine eyelids....
For I saw Birth and desire, satiety and pain, Recurrent yearning that is never stilled, Agony, death, rebirth in other forms, And agony, and desire, and agony. But nowhere saw I happiness or peace Or rest from cravings that like vultures tear The fibres of the heart.
Then wandered I Forth from my palaces in utter pain, Seeing the world as dust and vanity, A desert of despair, a raging sea Of torment....
SATAN
Now why stops the Holy One?
THE HOLY ONE
It wearies me to speak, and to recall Those perished years.... Give me to drink.
OLDHAM
He speaks Out of familiar deeps. Seas sunder us, But the same stars have cast their ghostly rays Into our bosoms.
FAUST
And those cloudless eyes Have seen what we have seen!
THE HOLY ONE
I am refreshed.... Thus long ago, in my most desolate hour, I was refreshed by draughts from the deep springs Of light. Beneath a pipal tree I sat In lost despair; and thither to me came A pilgrim; and he glanced into mine eyes With sight that read the sickness of my soul, And sat beside me, and in measured words Like far-off song told me this parable:
The Buddha came to where the sea Curled silver-white upon the land, And murmurs of infinity Breathed on the sand.
And there lay shells like rosy foam Borne from the caverns of the deep, Frail playthings drifted from the home Of timeless, tideless sleep.
And on the sand a Fisher stood, Drying his nets that late had seen The silent caverns of the flood And all the wastes between.
The Fisher lingered in his place With countenance of mild surprise, And looked upon the Buddha's face With dumb, uncomprehending eyes.
And Buddha spake: "Thy nets are drawn, Thy boat rocks idle on the sea, Thy day turns westward, and is gone.... Come thou with me."
The Fisher marvelled: "I must toil With nets and shells among the caves, To win the sea's unwilling spoil From the harsh waves."
And Buddha answered: "Cast no more Thy nets upon the troubled sea, Nor gather shells along the shore. Come thou with me.
"Thou drawest shells and curious flowers From out the blue untrodden caves. Thou seest the passing of the hours. Thou hearest the clamor of the waves.
"Thou openest the shell where lies The pearl more white than driven spray-- And trackless past thy vision flies Each passing day.
"But I will teach thee not to stir The shell nor flower in its sleep. For thou shalt roam the sepulchre That chasms all their native deep.
"And vain desire, like terror grown Deep in the chambers of thy breast, Shall be from thee forever flown, And thou shalt rest.
"No search for pearls shall blind thy thought, Nor waves, with clamorous harmonies. But in the silence where is naught Thou shalt behold the One that is.
"And where the days now speed like foam Across thy vision, there shall be For thee a vast eternal home-- An Infinite Sea."
The Fisher looked on Buddha dumb-- Looked deep into that tender gaze-- Those eyes within whose depths had come And gone the sorrows of all days.
He looked uncomprehendingly, And wearily he shook his head; And turned once more to drag the sea, Knowing not what the Buddha said.
FAUST
The cup again! The Holy One is faint.
OLDHAM
He speaks a miracle!...
THE HOLY ONE
And then I knew That pilgrim as a saint, whose lips revealed The glory of the Buddha. I beheld My life one poisoned network of desire And fleshly longing and pain-sowing hope-- The evil self seeking its happiness And shaping horror. And I cast away Myself, and cried: What am I but a dream, A wave within the sea, a passing cloud Upon the radiance of eternity? All yearning will I slay, and slay therewith The sorrow that succeeds it!...
So the lust Of life passed from me; so the narrow I Merged in the infinite, from hope set free-- Heritor of Nirvana's holy calm, Wherein the voices of the heart's unrest Are stifled, and the soul expands to clasp Joy, nothingness, eternity and peace.
FAUST
Peace.... Peace.... Like bells from upland monasteries You speak the word that summons us. But where In peace is room for all once-towering hopes-- Nay, even for the wrecked and prostrate monoliths That mark those fallen pylons?
THE HOLY ONE
Let the earth, Ravenous of her young, these too devour, And dust and nothingness engulf their shapes-- Vain burdens, bitter monuments.
FAUST
And where Shall I find deeps wherein without a sound I can extinguish my wild will that leaps Flamelike to meet the stars?
THE HOLY ONE
In that deep sea Hid in thy breast. Seek thou that tide of calm, For it lies there awaiting.
FAUST
Can it be That life's whole burden may be cast aside And named as nothing, and its memory Perish forever? In the summer nights, Comes there no stealing ecstasy to stir The old forgotten longings?
THE HOLY ONE
In the night And in the day, one ecstasy abides Ceaselessly with the heart that has put off Desire--one ecstasy of final calm. All other voices seem harsh clamorings.
OLDHAM
Ah, Holy One, lead me thy way of peace! For I am weary of my heart's vain wars. My life is as a desert, where desire Corrodes me ceaselessly. Instruct my soul To follow thee home to the gulfs of rest! That, in renouncement of this bitter will, It find at last deliverance it has sought.
THE HOLY ONE
My son, thou hast spoken; thou shalt come in time To that abode. The Buddha's light shall guide Both thee and me, poor seekers. Bide with me; And what I know, that shalt thou freely know, And my peace shall be thy peace....
SATAN
Faust, the gates Admit one form already.
FAUST
Ah, the gates Are pearl and silver.... Would that there were space Within them for such fevered heart as mine-- That with the restlessness of stormy winds Beats on its barriers!
THE HOLY ONE
There is room for all Whose souls renounce the world and life and hope To gain that soundless silence.
OLDHAM
Faust, I feel, Transfused with light and glory, that deep peace Awaiting. There shall perish like a flame The passions which have seared my tortured soul All my life long. They die; and nothingness Like a cool flood sweeps over me. Ah, come Where never storm shall smite!
FAUST
I see the gates; I see the cool breast of the silvery flood Of refuge and oblivion.... Fare you well, Oldham, and light go with you! For I go, Alas, not with you....
OLDHAM
Faust, Faust, turn not back! I, who am casting all desires in dust, To one desire still cling: I long that joy Of such deliverance fill you as fills me On this first step of the sublime ascent.
FAUST
I see the light that waits you on the peak; And my heart follows you. But my stern soul Plucks me yet back with cold insistency I cannot master.... Go! If I could pray, My prayers should follow you. My visions shall; My love shall fold you. But I cannot come Where you shall go; I cannot cast aside All that I surely know--this pitiful And shattered mortal life, with its strange gleams And shadows--and embrace the icy void Where Being trembles on the final verge. To bid life cease--but linger as the moon Lingers in heaven--ah, that is horrible Beyond life's proper horrors!... Were my pain A single atom greater--were my soul A single breath more weary--I would come. But now I must confront the winds of heaven Still master of my destinies.... To the last, Not in such tomb-world can my spirit rest. No golden clouds that throng Nirvana's gates Shall tempt me there to enter and resign My right to strain beyond all gates that be.... But you I cannot counsel....
OLDHAM
Me the peace Already laps with wavelets of the flood.
FAUST
The flood is sundering us.
OLDHAM
Farewell, farewell, Belovèd friend. I with the Holy One Henceforth am linked; and grief shall follow me In what should be your footsteps.
FAUST
Have no grief. In the vast deeps of life's salt bitter sea Perhaps awaits my anodyne, to heal Life's wounds....
OLDHAM
Farewell! I go to paradise.
[_Oldham and the Holy One move slowly away together, pass through the colonnades, and disappear into the forest. Faust follows with his eyes their retreating figures._
SATAN
You do not know a paradise when you see it! Some day, when I have time, I'll start a school To give instruction to great minds like you-- Débutant!
FAUST
Ah, I had forgotten you.... Two men are worth a thousand devils still.
SATAN
I overrated you. Now get you gone Before I call the savagery that sleeps Here in the jungle to annihilate you For your unparalleled stupidity.
FAUST
Stupidity or no, I have one word Still to say to you, my malicious friend: To heel!
SATAN
What!
FAUST
Aye, to heel, I say! Crouch down And follow me, my hound and servitor From this hour forth!
SATAN
You have grown very witty. Your wit, however, does not please me.
FAUST
Please you! There are few things that I desire less. To heel!
SATAN
What fiends possess you? Ah, I see! You are still thinking of that wager made, That jest of ours.
FAUST
I am still thinking of it.
SATAN
You do not mean that now you wish to claim That forfeit seriously?
FAUST
I mean quite that.
SATAN
What an amazing man you really are! For your own sake, I tried to offer you A splendid paradise; I brought you here At infinite cost and trouble; you have had An hour of insight and experience New and instructive to you; your best friend Has found eternal bliss: and now you turn, And just because your uttermost crazy whim Is not quite satisfied with what he grasped Thankfully, you revert, with sorry taste, To my old careless generous remarks. I do not think your friends at home would call it A sporting attitude.
FAUST
The jungle shakes-- Do you not hear it?--with the stifled, choked Laughter of leopards, elephants, hyenas, Rhinoceroses, apes, pythons, and tigers, Who hear you and are overcome with mirth.... I also laugh with them.
SATAN
Magnanimous Your laughter sounds! True, you have beaten me, And I am at your mercy. By some whim, Trick, technicality, your mind rejects A noble paradise; and to my pledge You therefore are entitled. And I stand Ready to pay it.
FAUST
Ah, at last we have Acknowledgment of it! Frankness is good Even for the Devil, Satan.
SATAN
I have been Frank with you always. And, if to your taste, I will be franker still. Your stake is won; You have your triumph: but does it quite fill The chambers of your heart? Will it suffice In place of that bright paradise you dreamed Might be your gain as loser? Ah, my friend, In copper you have won, but lost in gold! And victory will not requite for that Your empty treasury.
FAUST
Not empty quite; You are too modest.
SATAN
Oh, if you choose, my pledge Shall be fulfilled, and I will be your dog-- Snarling a little, sometimes--snapping at Your friends and furniture and lady-loves-- But yet your dog. However, I can do Better for you than that....
FAUST
Enough! Enough!
SATAN
But hear me! You'll admit, a feather's weight, A hair's breadth only held you from the gates That Oldham entered. Almost they sufficed Your spirit; yes, a moth's wing could have blown You toward them! 'Twas so nearly I fulfilled All that I promised. Therefore when I speak, You will, for justice's sake, concede I am No absolute bungler, no coarse-palated Plebeian, as to paradises.
FAUST
No. I will admit that.
SATAN
Good! Now, I would make One final offer to you.
Faust, I know In other regions, beneath other skies, One haven more, the only one of earth That can be judged in glory to surpass This paradise you entered not. My faith Is absolute that it is to your need Utterly moulded. Like your heart itself, Its halls are structured, destinate for you As perfect refuge. And I say to you: Give me the leave, and I will lead you there For one supreme and ultimate trial of choice That has no doubtful outcome. And my pledge Shall still be valid! If this refuge gives Not all that you desire, you still may claim My service as your slave. Thus do you risk No atom, but have gain of one last chance To win the paradise you hunger for!
FAUST
A pleasing logic; but I do not trust The mind behind it.
SATAN
Trust it, or distrust-- What matter?--when the issue is so plain!
FAUST
Away! Away!
SATAN
Well, if this hope is vain To urge you, let despair serve in its stead As roweled spur. For see where now you stand: The mock of destiny--the man who lost All joys of the bright many that the world Cherishes! Aye, and even lost his friend, His one deep lasting friend--and stood thereafter Fixed like a donkey.... Though I led you on From paradise to paradise, and none Sufficed you--that were surely better sport-- Testing and trying with sublime contempt-- Than finger-twirling! But not thus I lead. For now you shall, you shall have paradise!
FAUST
Deep in my soul, there is a sense that loathes Pacts with the Devil. Yet the sanctioned powers Established in the world have proved them void And ignorant of paradise.... Where lies it?
SATAN
Follow, and I will lead.
FAUST
A long path?
SATAN
Yes.
FAUST
On! But your bondage waits you at the end.
SATAN
Ah, jester, jester!... Come--give me your hand!
CURTAIN
THE THIRD ACT
_The scene is the nave of a great cathedral. Two rows of many-shafted columns stretch back to where, in the far background, rises the elaborate magnificence of the High Altar.
The nave is empty, except for an occasional figure moving at the far end of the long central aisle, and an occasional attendant in sacerdotal robes making ready the Altar.
Faust, entering from the right, and Satan, entering from the left, meet in the foreground. Satan is dressed in the dark robes of a priest._
FAUST
I care not for your masquerade attire; But let that pass.... Well, I have kept your hour. And this perhaps is not unfitting place To make confession that you weary me A little. In this running to and fro Over the earth, my inclination tires Of your companionship. I am resolved, If three days' time brings forth no new event, To end this, and reclaim you to obey My will.
SATAN
I am content; three days will serve.
FAUST
Good! Meanwhile, 'tis at least some recompense That we return from airy Eastern domes Glittering in blank sunlight, unto lands Where men erect their temples to the gods In forms whose light and shadow, stress and play Of arch and buttress, satisfies my blood Better than does barbaric loveliness. The dome that poises its clear perfect curves Rising above the palm-trees, with the look As of a wingèd bubble lightly resting On needless masonry--that symbolled form Of heavenly perfection never fills My heart as do these knotted buttresses And writhing ribs and vaults that strain in fight-- And are victorious, as they raise to heaven The climbing spires of such an edifice.
SATAN
Quite right--but if you'll let me interrupt-- There is a woman yonder who, I think, Is waiting for a chance to speak to you. She looks at you, and hesitates, and turns-- As though a little fearful to approach So great a person.
FAUST
Where is she? I see. I wonder if I know her.
SATAN
She is coming.
[_A young woman, hardly more than a girl, comes from between the pillars and approaches Faust. Satan withdraws a little as she approaches._
THE WOMAN
I did not want to interrupt your talk; But, Mr. Faust, I wished so much to speak To you. You do not know me?
FAUST
Why, it seems...
THE WOMAN
Of course you do not; why should you remember? But I have seen your face so many times When you perhaps not noticed me at all, That I feel half-acquainted. Mr. Brander Speaks of you, too, so much that I have grown To think I know you.
FAUST
Ah; yes, Brander....
THE WOMAN
Still I have not told you who I am, and you Do not yet know me. I am Mrs. Brander.
FAUST
What! Mrs. Brander! Ah, delighted ... yes....
THE WOMAN
You had not heard that we were married?
FAUST
No. Of course, I am astounded; it's delightful-- And most surprising.
THE WOMAN
It was very sudden-- While you were gone.
FAUST
I see. Yes, I'm surprised And charmed. It's strange, at first I could not bring You to my memory.
THE WOMAN
I don't believe That you can yet!
FAUST
Why....
THE WOMAN
I don't wonder at it. I used to whisk about and peer at you As you came in....
FAUST
Are you then ... then are you ... Midge?
MIDGE
Yes! exactly.
FAUST
This is very charming. Now I remember perfectly, of course, Dear Mrs. Brander! I shall hope to see Brander himself to-morrow. Give him, please, My warmest wishes.
MIDGE
We shall hope to see you In our apartment soon. It's very tiny And in a quite unfashionable street; But it looks out across a bit of park To westward, as I've always hoped it would. Some days the sunset lights are lovely there. You must come look at them.
FAUST
Thank you--indeed I shall be very glad to!
MIDGE
And I know-- How shall I say it?--that you'll think me strange, And that I cannot ever be your friend As Mr. Brander is. I know so little--
FAUST
Dear Mrs. Brander!
MIDGE
But I am so eager That you should give me just a little trial-- I want so much to know you, and so much He should not lose you....
FAUST
Why, you make me feel Quite like a monster!
MIDGE
Then you'll come?
FAUST
I'll come!
MIDGE
Good-bye--and don't forget me.
[_Midge gives him her hand, and moves away smiling._
FAUST Well, of all Impossible, grotesque, outrageous tricks That Brander could have played upon himself! Married--the fool, the fool!--And yet she is Curiously sweet and fresh, that kitchen-maid.
SATAN
Are you quite through?
FAUST Quite, thank you.... It is strange.... But I forget; you are not interested. What is it you would say now?
SATAN
I have things Graver to speak of than admiring ladies Or Gothic architecture. Here, to-day, Unto your doubting eyes there shall be made A revelation of profounder scope Than aught that life has brought you.
FAUST
The hour strikes Tardily; I am wearier than I was When on this trial we entered.
SATAN
You have looked Askance at me these many days, perplexed To reconcile the fountains of my will With my strange acts, and with the dark report That you have heard concerning me. Dear friend, Be you not angry, now I say to you In full confession, that from day to day I have deceived you: I have hid my face Even from my friend: I have with doubtful mask In alien guises tempted you, to try Your metal. But the hour of trial is past; The event is sure; and now I ope my heart And show to you what few of living men Have guessed--my final secret.
FAUST
Play no tricks. Before me, Satan; try no mumming game. If you speak truth, let riddles cloak it not.
SATAN
Listen, and be truth's judge. I am not such As men esteem me; and my spirit's springs Rise not from buried and infernal realms, But like your own, out of the fount of God They have their being. I, though lowliest far, Yet am a servant of the House of God-- Deputed to mine office by His hand, And on His mission.
FAUST
You are trifling with me.
SATAN
I speak the gospel of the living God.
FAUST
Are you not Lord of Evil? God doubtless asks That service of you?
SATAN
God is infinite, Likewise His wisdom. His omniscience wills That I go forth among the haunts of men And offer evil to their touch. Thereby, Some spurn me--and the force whereby they spurn Lifts them up nearer to His arms. Some take The sin I offer, fall from grace, go down-- And lost in fathomless gulfs of wickedness, Cry out with utter yearning to His love That it may save them, and repentant turn Their prodigal faces toward His doors again, Never to wander more. But some few souls, Who neither spurn temptation nor repent After their fall--these unregenerate It is mine office wholly to destroy And cleanse the universe for the praise of God. Thus does all evil serve His mighty throne, And all return to Him.
FAUST
I have no power To take the measure of the words you speak. Why tell me such things?
SATAN
I would tell you all And show to you at last your destiny. The vanities of the world, the woes and sins, Are but the acid by whose fiery touch I sort the gold from out the transient brass And purify and fine it that it be Worthy God's altar. My belovèd friend, Such was your trial; thus have I tempted you With things averse to God, with forms and faiths Outcast and separate from Him. You have seen The whole world's vanities; you have come to know That in this world's illusion is no power Whose love is refuge: even the living death Of cold Nirvana frights you. Thus at last, Knowing that you are powerless, and the world Bare of salvation for your feebleness, You stand on this great threshold; and your eyes That see despair and loneliness shall raise Their sight to heaven; and peace shall fold you round; And God, who is our Father, shall be yours.
FAUST
This is not truth! My fevered eyes are weak To look into this glowing maze of fire With vision. All the ramparts of the world Reel round me. I have scoffed God all my days, Believing pain--your province of the world-- Proof of His non-existence. And you come Crying His glory, testifying His faith, Exhorting me to seek Him.... I am lost Where naught is known to me.
SATAN