SEMICHORUS OF WIZARDS 1: 
We glide in
Like snails when the women are all away; 175
And from a house once given over to sin
Woman has a thousand steps to stray.

SEMICHORUS 2: 
A thousand steps must a woman take,
Where a man but a single spring will make.

VOICES ABOVE: 
Come with us, come with us, from Felsensee. 180

NOTE: 
180 Felsensee 1862 ("Relics of Shelley”, page 96);
     Felumee 1822; Felunsee editions 1824, 1839.

VOICES BELOW: 
With what joy would we fly through the upper sky! 
We are washed, we are ’nointed, stark naked are we;
But our toil and our pain are forever in vain.

NOTE: 
183 are editions 1839; is 1822, 1824.

BOTH CHORUSES: 
The wind is still, the stars are fled, 185
The melancholy moon is dead;
The magic notes, like spark on spark,
Drizzle, whistling through the dark.  Come away!

VOICES BELOW: 
Stay, Oh, stay!

VOICES ABOVE: 
Out of the crannies of the rocks 190
Who calls?

VOICES BELOW: 
Oh, let me join your flocks! 
I, three hundred years have striven
To catch your skirt and mount to Heaven,—­
And still in vain.  Oh, might I be
With company akin to me! 195

BOTH CHORUSES: 
Some on a ram and some on a prong,
On poles and on broomsticks we flutter along;
Forlorn is the wight who can rise not to-night.

A HALF-WITCH BELOW: 
I have been tripping this many an hour: 
Are the others already so far before? 200
No quiet at home, and no peace abroad! 
And less methinks is found by the road.

CHORUS OF WITCHES: 
Come onward, away! aroint thee, aroint! 
A witch to be strong must anoint—­anoint—­
Then every trough will be boat enough; 205
With a rag for a sail we can sweep through the sky,
Who flies not to-night, when means he to fly?

BOTH CHORUSES: 
We cling to the skirt, and we strike on the ground;
Witch-legions thicken around and around;
Wizard-swarms cover the heath all over. 210

[THEY DESCEND.]

MEPHISTOPHELES: 
What thronging, dashing, raging, rustling;
What whispering, babbling, hissing, bustling;
What glimmering, spurting, stinking, burning,
As Heaven and Earth were overturning. 
There is a true witch element about us; 215
Take hold on me, or we shall be divided:—­
Where are you?

NOTE: 
217 What! wanting, 1822.

FAUST [FROM A DISTANCE]: 
Here!