Wilt thou, to introduce us to the revel,
Assume the part of wizard or of devil?

MEPHISTOPHELES

I’m mostly used, ’tis true, to go incognito,
But on a gala-day one may his orders show. 
The Garter does not deck my suit,
But honored and at home is here the cloven foot. 
Perceiv’st thou yonder snail?  It cometh, slow and steady;
So delicately its feelers pry,
That it hath scented me already: 
I cannot here disguise me, if I try. 
But come! we’ll go from this fire to a newer: 
I am the go-between, and thou the wooer.

(To some, who are sitting around dying embers:)

Old gentlemen, why at the outskirts?  Enter! 
I’d praise you if I found you snugly in the centre,
With youth and revel round you like a zone: 
You each, at home, are quite enough alone.

GENERAL

Say, who would put his trust in nations,
Howe’er for them one may have worked and planned? 
For with the people, as with women,
Youth always has the upper hand.

MINISTER

They’re now too far from what is just and sage. 
I praise the old ones, not unduly: 
When we were all-in-all, then, truly,
Then was the real golden age.

PARVENU

We also were not stupid, either,
And what we should not, often did;
But now all things have from their bases slid,
Just as we meant to hold them fast together.

AUTHOR

Who, now, a work of moderate sense will read? 
Such works are held as antiquate and mossy;
And as regards the younger folk, indeed,
They never yet have been so pert and saucy.

MEPHISTOPHELES

(who all at once appears very old)

I feel that men are ripe for Judgment-Day,
Now for the last time I’ve the witches’-hill ascended: 
Since to the lees my cask is drained away,
The world’s, as well, must soon be ended.

HUCKSTER-WITCH

Ye gentlemen, don’t pass me thus! 
Let not the chance neglected be! 
Behold my wares attentively: 
The stock is rare and various. 
And yet, there’s nothing I’ve collected—­
No shop, on earth, like this you’ll find!—­
Which has not, once, sore hurt inflicted
Upon the world, and on mankind. 
No dagger’s here, that set not blood to flowing;
No cup, that hath not once, within a healthy frame
Poured speedy death, in poison glowing: 
No gems, that have not brought a maid to shame;
No sword, but severed ties for the unwary,
Or from behind struck down the adversary.

MEPHISTOPHELES