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Auf einem Faß mit Wein geschwint
Welches gesehen viel Mutterkind.

Solches durch seine subtile Kunst hat gethan
Und des Teufels Lohn empfangen davon."

"Doctor Faustus at this bout
From Auerbach's cellar did ride out,
Upon a wine-cask swift rode he,

As many a mother's son did see ;

By his sorcerous art he contrived this deed,

And for it the Devil hath paid him his meed."

The awful end that befel Faustus, for this and similar sorceries, has been immortalised in English literature by Marlowe's Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.

These two paintings were all the relics of the Faustus tradition which met Goethe's eye during his student-life at Leipzig. It is scarcely necessary to add that there is no representation, in either of them, of Mephistopheles or any other familiar spirit of Faustus; unless (as is probably the case) the little dog which appears in both pictures can claim a spiritual nature. The prominence of Mephistopheles in the legend is Goethe's own work.

Since the publication of Faust, however, Auerbach's Cellar has been enriched with fresh paintings, representing scenes in the drama. Six of these, the joint work of G. Zachariæ of Leipzig and Henry Bey of Holstein, are in the upper chamber, and represent the following scenes :—

(i.) Faust and Mephistopheles in the study.

(ii) The meeting of Faust and Margaret, outside the Cathedral.

(iii.) The garden scene; Faust with Margaret, Mephistopheles with Martha.

(iv.) The appearance of Helen to Faust, in the witches'

mirror.

((v.) The scene in Auerbach's Keller; Mephistopheles drawing wine from the table; students bewildered

(vi.)

with delusions as Faust and Mephistopheles

disappear.

In the lower cellar, the chief object of interest is the large oval-fronted wine cask, on which the sorcerer is said to have ridden. This stands in solitary glory at one end of the chamber; the walls are panelled, but the vaulted roof is adorned with sketches, by Henry Bey, after Retzsch, of certain scenes in Faust.

(i.) The wine flowing from the table after Mephistopheles has bored it; Faust stands gloomily beside.

(ii.) Faust about to drink the potion in the witches' kitchen.

(iii.) Margaret and Faust in the summer-house, Mephistopheles and Martha peeping in.

(iv.) Faust, aided by Mephistopheles, killing Valentine in duel.

(v.) Mephistopheles guiding Faust up the Brocken on Walpurgis-night; the witches whirl through the air, to their Sabbat, in front; the Ignis-fatuus gleams before the climbers, from the head of a frog hopping zig-zag upwards; owls, salamanders, and other weird creatures accompanying them.

The whole scene of Auerbach's Cellar is well worth visiting. The artistic merit of the mural paintings is considerable; the mingling of the modern crowd beneath the emblems of mediæval sorcery and credulity produces a not unkindly sense of the truth of Bacon's aphorism, "antiquitas saeculi, juventus mundi." There stands the actual cask which the sixteenth century believed to have been spurred to a trot by the sorcerer of Wittenberg; there, about the year 1766, the brilliant young student, then unknown to fame, stood, with "the marionette fable of Faust murmuring with many voices. in his ears;" there, in the spiritual sense, Faust watched with

ennui and disgust the vulgar orgy of students over their wine, and the pranks of Mephistopheles at their expense, not knowing that his mocking comrade had set himself to raise this haughty disgust at mere jollity, in order that the lapse into deeper but more poetical profligacy might seem, by contrast, venial, to the intellect of restless melancholy.

Reminiscences there may be, of Frankfort and other places, scattered up and down in Faust; but in this scene only, and that of the Walpurgis-night, has Goethe thought fit to bring his masterpiece into actual connection with German localities.

TRANSLATIONS.

Lines 129-160 (In answer to Faust's invocation, the
Earth-spirit appears in a flash of red flame).

Who calls me ?

EARTH-SPIRIT.

FAUST.

Hideous vision, hence-away!

EARTH-SPIRIT.

By mighty art thou 'st drawn me here,
After long sucking at my sphere,

And now

FAUST.

Avaunt! I shudder at thy stay!

EARTH-SPIRIT.

Thou dost crave mightily to gaze upon me,
My voice to hear, mine aspect to behold!

Thy soul's strong prayer to thee hath bowed and won me,
And I stand here-What piteous fear doth hold
Thee, thee the more than mortal? where is now

Thy far-heard fame of soul and strength? art thou He whose breast made its world within, and bore And fostered it, and upward evermore,

Swelling and trembling with thine ecstasies,

To us, the World of Spirits, strove to rise?

Where art thou, Faust, whose challenge thrilled mine

ear,

Who pressed with all thy force and stormed my sphere ?

Art thou this thing, that with one breath I shake,
That to its being's inmost depths doth quake,
And crawleth from my path, a timorous worm?

FAUST.

Thou thing of flame, and shall I yield to thee?
That Faust-thy peer and equal-I am he!

EARTH-SPIRIT.

On tides of Life, in Action's storm,

Up and down I wave,

To and fro I pass and pass

Birth and the grave,

A timeless sea,

A web with changes rife,

A fiery life,

So at the whirring loom of Time I ply,
And weave the living robe of Deity.

FAUST.

O thou who all around the wide world wendest,
In strong unrest, how near I feel myself to thee !

EARTH-SPIRIT.

Thou 'rt like the spirit whom thou comprehendest,

Not like to me!

(vanishes.)

Lines 384-454 (Faust, on the point of committing suicide, is withheld by the sound of bells and chants hailing the dawn of Easter-day).

CHORUS OF ANGELS.

Christ is arisen !

Mortals whose nature

Was holden in prison

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