FAUST

Shall I outlive this misery?

MARGARET

Now am I wholly in thy might. 
But let me suckle, first, my baby! 
I blissed it all this livelong night;
They took ’t away, to vex me, maybe,
And now they say I killed the child outright. 
And never shall I be glad again. 
They sing songs about me! ’tis bad of the folk to do it! 
There’s an old story has the same refrain;
Who bade them so construe it?

FAUST (falling upon his knees)

Here lieth one who loves thee ever,
The thraldom of thy woe to sever.

MARGARET (flinging herself beside him)

O let us kneel, and call the Saints to hide us! 
Under the steps beside us,
The threshold under,
Hell heaves in thunder! 
The Evil One
With terrible wrath
Seeketh a path
His prey to discover!

FAUST (aloud)

Margaret!  Margaret!

MARGARET (attentively listening)

That was the voice of my lover!

(She springs to her feet:  the fetters fall off.)

Where is he?  I heard him call me. 
I am free!  No one shall enthrall me. 
To his neck will I fly,
On his bosom lie! 
On the threshold he stood, and Margaret! calling,
Midst of Hell’s howling and noises appalling,
Midst of the wrathful, infernal derision,
I knew the sweet sound of the voice of the vision!

FAUST

’Tis I!

MARGARET

      ’Tis thou!  O, say it once again!

    (Clasping him.)

’Tis he! ’tis he!  Where now is all my pain? 
The anguish of the dungeon, and the chain? 
’Tis thou!  Thou comest to save me,
And I am saved!—­
Again the street I see
Where first I looked on thee;
And the garden, brightly blooming,
Where I and Martha wait thy coming.

FAUST (struggling to leave)

Come!  Come with me!

MARGARET

Delay, now! 
So fain I stay, when thou delayest!

  (Caressing him.)

FAUST

Away, now! 
If longer here thou stayest,
We shall be made to dearly rue it.

MARGARET

Kiss me!—­canst no longer do it? 
My friend, so short a time thou’rt missing,
And hast unlearned thy kissing? 
Why is my heart so anxious, on thy breast? 
Where once a heaven thy glances did create me,
A heaven thy loving words expressed,
And thou didst kiss, as thou wouldst suffocate me—­
Kiss me! 
Or I’ll kiss thee!