Stand and defy me with thy
intolerable
presence!
Faust, a Tragedy by Goethe
Foliage rustles, reeds pipe loud,
All the show has vanished.
DREARY DAY. [46]
_Field_.
FAUST. MEPHISTOPHELES.
_Faust_. In wretchedness! In despair! Long hunted up and down the earth, a
miserable fugitive, and caught at last! Locked up as a malefactor in
prison, to converse with horrible torments--the sweet, unhappy creature!
Even to this pass! even to this! --Treacherous, worthless spirit, and this
thou hast hidden from me! --Stand up here--stand up! Roll thy devilish eyes
round grimly in thy head!
Stand and defy me with thy intolerable presence!
Imprisoned! In irretrievable misery! Given over to evil spirits and to the
judgment of unfeeling humanity, and me meanwhile thou lullest in insipid
dissipations, concealest from me her growing anguish, and leavest her
without help to perish!
_Mephistopheles_. She is not the first!
_Faust_. Dog! abominable monster! Change him, thou Infinite Spirit! change
the worm back into his canine form, as he was often pleased in the night
to trot before me, to roll before the feet of the harmless wanderer, and,
when he fell, to hang on his shoulders. Change him again into his favorite
shape, that he may crawl before me on his belly in the sand, and that I
may tread him under foot, the reprobate! --Not the first! Misery! Misery!
inconceivable by any human soul!
