insignia of honour. Fisher and I have the purple collar, as Friar Forest and Cranmer have the robe of fire." In an engraved portrait of Lady Jane Grey, which the translator once met with, a small necklace was so disposed round her throat that nothing appeared but a single narrow circle, the rest being concealed by a robe. Whether it was meant as a reference to this superstition, did not appear, but it seemed not unlikely. It is worth notice, that in the opening of the scene in which Margaret's brother is killed, Mephistopheles speaks of a necklace as one of the articles in the casket along with the "lion-dollars; "I saw within it some such thing, A sort of band or string of pearl." This has been explained as sneering allusion to the awful vision seen by Faust on Walpurgis night, but the inference appears to me to be overstrained. THE INTERMEZZO ; OR, OBERON AND TITANIA'S GOLDEN WEDDING FEAST. The intermezzo has not the least connexion with the story of the Drama, and consists of a number of light and graceful verses put into the mouths of a strange variety of beings, human and spiritual. Their meaning, if ever they were intended to have any, is very obscure, and the satirical allusions are far from being generally understood even in Germany; it is only a well-educated few who are well acquainted with the literary and courtly history of the time in which they were written, who can be said to understand them, but to these, it is said, the verses afford the highest gratification. The allusions in the opening to the quarrel between Oberon and Titania are sufficiently intelligible, and are probably suggested by Wieland's Oberon. A golden bridal is celebrated on the fiftieth Anniversary of a couple's marriage. The silver bridal is the twenty-fifth celebration of the same event. Brave Mieding's sons are we. On Mieding was the scene painter of the Theatre at Weimar. his death Goethe enshrined his memory in a beautiful little poem, or lament. He must have been a man of superior qualities. It would be an endless task to cite all the meanings that have been given to the different verses or the names of the speakers, if they can be so called. Perhaps the following extract from Mr. Boileau, author of the Nature and Genius of the German Language, will prove that the undertaking would be in vain. "This intermezzo in general appears to be a mere freak of Goethe's fancy. He very likely had in his mind one of the songs which were sung by students in the German Universities fifty or sixty years ago, the burthen of which song was the following barbarous Latin: Ecce quam bonum Habitare fratres in unum! Every one of the carousing party was obliged to sing an impromptu of four German lines exactly in the metre of this intermezzo. The more the verse was ridiculous and absurd, the greater was the mirth which it created. I remember, for instance, Der Teufel fuhr zum Thor hinein Mit hundert Kariolen ; Man fragte was das sollte seyn ? Die Häscher will ich holen! The devil drove through the gate into the town with one hundred cabriolets, and when he was asked what that was for, his answer was, I come to fetch the constables away.' This of course tickled the fancy of riotous students, who frequently came in contact with the constables of the University. Goethe's verses all along this intermezzo are not many degrees superior. He probably wrote them in a merry mood, as Voltaire did his Pucelle d'Orléans, bent only upon amusing himself and making others laugh, always remembering the observation of the Prince de Ligne, 'qu'il n'y a que les bêtises qui fassent rire.' Not that I mean to deny the stanzas of this intermezzo being interspersed with satirical strokes and sprightly allusions, to which Goethe never would furnish a key." A GLOOMY DAY.-THE OPEN PLAIN. This is the only scene in the drama that is written in prose. A gloomy day" is the fitting time for such a dialogue. The bond which unites Faust to Mephistopheles has now become quite insupportable to him; his passion is fearful, and he seems to terrify rather than persuade Mephistopheles into compliance with his will. The next scene, where they are discovered rushing along on the magic steeds, is intended, as well as the pale fettered figure on the Brocken, to shadow forth the approaching doom of Margaret. The "raven-stone" is a name given in Germany to the gibbet. THE PRISON. The wish expressed by Faust to feel within himself "all human woe, " is in this scene accomplished, and, too ambitious of emotion, he finds his misery insupportable; he does not wish for death, but regrets that he ever lived. "Oh! had I ne'er been born." From the song sung by Margaret at the opening of the scene, and her incapability of recognising Faust, it is at once evident that Margaret is distracted. His voice recalls her to herself, but with reason returns the consciousness of guilt; the frenzy of passion has passed away, and she prefers death to a guilty liberty. The staff is broken. The breaking a staff was once the last formality of a trial, and intimated that the sentence was irrevocably spoken. The form is still preserved in our state trials; the breaking the staff was the last ceremony performed by Lord Denman, as High Steward in the affair of Lord Cardigan. To the seat of blood they haste Beheading is still the capital punishment of Germany; the bloodseat (Blutstuhl) is a sort of chair or seat to which females are fastened and undergo the sentence; males are made to kneel on a heap of sand. The following remarks on the character of Margaret, in reference to this scene, are extracted from the London and Westminster Review, vols. 3 and 25, p. 387. "Civil law absolves the madman from any responsibility of his acts; we may hope that divine law will absolve the moral madman, the fanatic, from the responsibility of his acts. Margaret labours under a charm, under a frenzy, under the fanaticism of love; she thinks it her duty to obey blindly, to sacrifice soul as well as life to him who sways her affections. Certainly a grievous mistake; but do we, can we cease to admire her as an angel of innocence after as before her fall? We appeal to any person who has read Faust' if Margaret is not always uppermost in our affections. At last the charm is broken, Thy lips are cold,' says she; Faust loves her no longer, and Margaret, steeped in crime to the lips-Margaret, who has poisoned her mother, drowned her child, whose hands are spotted with the blood of her brother, can still say to Faust, Faust mir schaudert vor dir!' 'Faust, I shudder at thee!' Margaret labours not under vice, her body sins from unconscious error-but her soul is always pure, and her soul was innocent till under the sword of the executioner.' In a note to the foregoing extract, an explanation of the conclusion of this scene is given; it is, says the writer, the soul of Margaret that is judged. "The charm of love is broken, her moral sight restored, and the door of the prison thrust open. On one side she has presented to her life and sin, and on the other certain death. She decides without any hesitation, for death against sin. Mephistopheles has lost the soul, and with the concentrated wrath of disappointment he cries, 'She is judged,'—' Is saved,' adds the voice from Heaven. * * *** The scene changes after Faust has disappeared and follows him. From within is now from the interior of the prison, and the voice from the prison dies away upon the ears of Faust, who is rapidly moving away. The Hither to me' implies that he follows the evil spirit; but he is not yet lost, for his good angel can still call after him 'Henry' to win him back. The voice is Margaret's; but the poet, by not attributing it expressly to Margaret, wishes us to take it in the more general sense of the warning of Faust's good angel." APPENDIX. As some German reader may feel a curiosity to see a specimen of one of the numerous "Fausts" mentioned in the Preface, the following is extracted from the poem of Nicholas Lenau. It is a passage from a soliloquy, in which Faust expresses the causes of his discontent; he would rather not exist at all, than not feel within himself all the joy and all the sorrow of the world. Every kiss given on earth he wishes to feel thrilling through his frame, and every earthly sorrow he wishes to feel gnawing at his heart; this is unnatural exaggeration, and is a rich specimen of "o'erdoing Termagant." "So lang ein Kuss auf Erden glüht Ich fühl's es ist derselbe drang Der hier in meinem Herzen lebt Die Sehnsucht nach dem Untergang. Zusammenstürzen Alle-Alle." |