"Cathedral. "Service and Anthem. "MARGARET and many others. EVIL SPIRIT behind MARGARET. "EVIL SPIRIT. "Margaret, how different thy lot When kneeling at the altar's foot When, from the mass-book, snatched in haste, Prayer which but half displaced The thought of childish pastime in thy mind. How is it with thy brain? Is it not in thy heart The blackening spot? Are thy prayers utter'd for thy mother's soul, Who slept, through thee, through thee, to wake no more? Whose is the blood? We can afford space for this fine passage, since the noble poet, with that sound judgment which we have before com mended, has omitted the succeeding extraordinary scene on the Hartz Mountain on Walpurgis night, which we do not hesitate to confess, is beyond our comprehension, and which we cannot therefore be expected to admire even in part. By that perversion of talent, taste, and principle which transmuted into base metal all which the late Mr. Percy Byshe Shelley might once, perhaps, have attained power to exalt into gold, he selected this particular scene, the most excep tionable both in conception and in expression, which Goethe ever composed, to present to the British public, as a specimen of the master's power; and he found a willing midwife for his abortion in the chief of the Cockney School. Lord Francis Leveson Gower has been warned by this signal failure, and he contents himself by relating one incident too striking to be allowed to perish. The revelling witches have the power of assuming any form they please.. One appears to Faust as his Margaret. The neck of the phantom has impressed round it a single streak of red, scarcely broader than the line which would be traced by a knife. It is a type of her fate. Margaret is in prison; in a fit of frenzy she has committed infanticide. It is the night before her execution, and Mephistopheles having led his victim through the round of Hellpastimes on the Hartz, informs him of the lot of his mistress, Faust is distracted, and demands power to save her. Mephistopheles lulls the jailors into sleep, obtains the keys of the dungeon, and places Faust within it. We wish we could extract the whole of the exquisite concluding scene, "MARGARET. (hiding herself in the straw on which she lies.) " Woe, woe! they wake me! bitter fate! "FAUST. "Hush, hush! I come to give thee means to fly. "MARGARET. "Art thou a man? then be compassionate. "FAUST. "Soft! thou wilt wake thy jailers with that cry. [He seizes the chains to unlock them. "MARGARET (on her knees.) "Who gave the hangman power So soon to wake and slay? Why callest thou me at midnight's hour?-- Is it not time when morn has sprung ?. [She stands up.' And I am yet so young-so young! Seize me not thus! it gives me pain. Have I e'er wrong'd thee? why then bind me so? Let not my woman's voice implore in vain Can I have hurt one whom I do not know ?". P. 254. At last she recognizes her lover.. " 'Tis I. "FAUST. "MARGARET. "Oh, say it, say it, once again, My friend, my lover! Where is now my pain? I see the church's aisle, the street, Where first we shared the kiss, the vow. "Come, come !-I feel the morning breeze's breath. <6 MARGARET. "This hand was guilty of a mother's death! What hast thou done? Put up thy sword: "FAUST. "Oh Margaret! let the past be past: Forget it, or I breathe my last.. 66 MARGARET. "No; you must live till I shall trace For each their separate burial places 1 2 F.257. You must prepare betimes to-morrow For my poor mother keep the best : He in vain urges her to flee. "6 FAUST. "Day! Margaret, day! your hour will soon be past. "MARGARET. "True, 'tis the day; the last-the last! My bridal day!-'twill soon appear. Tell it to none thou hast been here. We shall see one another, and soon shall see- We two shall meet In the crowded street: The citizens throng-the press is hot, The headsman's stroke-the sweeping steel! С6 FAUST. " Oh, had I never lived! "MEPHISTOPHELES (appears in the door-way.) "Off! or your life will be but short: My coursers paw the ground, and snort! The sun will rise, and off they bound. MARGARET. "Who is it rises from the ground? P. 259. |