[38] What's this ye
undertake?
Faust, a Tragedy by Goethe
_Mephistopheles_. No rest from that till night is through.
Another dance is up; come on! let us fall to.
_Faust_ [_dancing with the young one_]. A lovely dream once came to me;
In it I saw an apple-tree;
Two beauteous apples beckoned there,
I climbed to pluck the fruit so fair.
_The Fair one_. Apples you greatly seem to prize,
And did so even in Paradise.
I feel myself delighted much
That in my garden I have such.
_Mephistopheles_ [_with the old hag_]. A dismal dream once came to me;
In it I saw a cloven tree,
It had a ------ but still,
I looked on it with right good-will.
_The Hog_. With best respect I here salute
The noble knight of the cloven foot!
Let him hold a ------ near,
If a ------ he does not fear.
_Proctophantasmist_.
[38] What's this ye undertake? Confounded crew!
Have we not giv'n you demonstration?
No spirit stands on legs in all creation,
And here you dance just as we mortals do!
_The Fair one_ [_dancing_]. What does that fellow at our ball?
_Faust_ [_dancing_]. Eh! he must have a hand in all.
What others dance that he appraises.
Unless each step he criticizes,
The step as good as no step he will call.
But when we move ahead, that plagues him more than all.
If in a circle you would still keep turning,
As he himself in his old mill goes round,
He would be sure to call that sound!
And most so, if you went by his superior learning.
_Proctophantasmist_. What, and you still are here!
