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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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that , tiad I not reserved fire , thpre would be nothing apart for me / Faustus , pressing on his new master-slave till he is weary , the demon calls spirits to his aid , and they , in a magic song of marvellous beauty , throw Faustus into a trance . Another scene follows between Faustus and the demon , which
rivals the first in intensity of thought and fearful vigour of expression . The compact is concluded between them ; Faustus , however , is cunning enough to impose a condition on his infernal servant , which suggests the possibility of future escape . He is willing hereafter to be the slave of the demon , in return for immediate services .
4 Faustus . —If e ' er I lie upon a bed of rest , then let me perish . Canst thou by flattery so delude me that I e ' er please myself , and canst thou cheat me with enjoyment , be that my latest day If e ' er I say to the moment , stay ! for thou art beautiful ! then fix thy chains upon me , I'll perish willingly—let the bell of death sound for me—thou art free from servitude . The clock stands still , and time for me is o ' er 1 '
This dialogue is interrupted by a lad who is just come up to college , and seeks advice from the Doctor about his studies . The Devil takes Faustus ' s cloak , and makes a trial of his skilly—we mean to copy the scene by-and-by , —suffice it here to say that , by insidiously bringing before the boy ' s imagination all the evils inseparable from all the active pursuits of professional learning , he sends him away bent on renouncing all studies except for profligate pleasure .
The scene changes to Averbach ' s cellar , in Leipzig , a drinking shop where students meet . Here they are in all the wildness of noisy and boisterous gaiety : their intense and coarse joviality is idealized by wit and fancy : not an indecorous word is uttered , unless it be in the idea of a song of the king , who makes the tailor a minister for fitting his favourite flea with a pair of breeches . Even this wild scene is tame in comparison with what
follows—Hexen Kilche ( the witches' kitchen ) ; not so picturesque , but equally significant with the weird sisters on the blasted heath . This monster , with her hated imps , serves to fix the dominion of the Evil Spirit over the mind of his intended victim . Amid the seeming nonsense which she reads out of her book , especially in the witches' multiplication-table , we suspect there is more meant than meets the ear . The concluding verses have a sense
but too obvious . 4 hohe Kraft—Der Wissenschaft Der ganzen welt verborgen , Und wer nicht denkt—Dem wird sie geschenkt Er hat sie ohne Sorgen / ( * The mighty power of science , hidden from , the whole world—and he who does not think , to him it is given—he has it without tiny care /) . The world has never been without fanatics of this description ;
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748 Goethe ' sWorks .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1832, page 748, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1824/page/28/
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