THE THIRD ACT

The scene is the nave of a great cathedral. Two rows of many-shafted columns stretch back to where, in the far background, rises the elaborate magnificence of the High Altar.

The nave is empty, except for an occasional figure moving at the far end of the long central aisle, and an occasional attendant in sacerdotal robes making ready the Altar.

Faust, entering from the right, and Satan, entering from the left, meet in the foreground. Satan is dressed in the dark robes of a priest.

FAUST

I care not for your masquerade attire; But let that pass.... Well, I have kept your hour. And this perhaps is not unfitting place To make confession that you weary me A little. In this running to and fro Over the earth, my inclination tires Of your companionship. I am resolved, If three days' time brings forth no new event, To end this, and reclaim you to obey My will.

SATAN

I am content; three days will serve.

FAUST

Good! Meanwhile, 'tis at least some recompense That we return from airy Eastern domes Glittering in blank sunlight, unto lands Where men erect their temples to the gods In forms whose light and shadow, stress and play Of arch and buttress, satisfies my blood Better than does barbaric loveliness. The dome that poises its clear perfect curves Rising above the palm-trees, with the look As of a wingèd bubble lightly resting On needless masonry—that symbolled form Of heavenly perfection never fills My heart as do these knotted buttresses And writhing ribs and vaults that strain in fight— And are victorious, as they raise to heaven The climbing spires of such an edifice.

SATAN

Quite right—but if you'll let me interrupt— There is a woman yonder who, I think, Is waiting for a chance to speak to you. She looks at you, and hesitates, and turns— As though a little fearful to approach So great a person.

FAUST

Where is she? I see. I wonder if I know her.

SATAN

She is coming. [A young woman, hardly more than a girl, comes from between the pillars and approaches Faust. Satan withdraws a little as she approaches.

THE WOMAN

I did not want to interrupt your talk; But, Mr. Faust, I wished so much to speak To you. You do not know me?

FAUST

Why, it seems...

THE WOMAN

Of course you do not; why should you remember? But I have seen your face so many times When you perhaps not noticed me at all, That I feel half-acquainted. Mr. Brander Speaks of you, too, so much that I have grown To think I know you.

FAUST

Ah; yes, Brander....

THE WOMAN

Still I have not told you who I am, and you Do not yet know me. I am Mrs. Brander.

FAUST

What! Mrs. Brander! Ah, delighted ... yes....

THE WOMAN

You had not heard that we were married?

FAUST

No. Of course, I am astounded; it's delightful— And most surprising.

THE WOMAN

It was very sudden— While you were gone.

FAUST

I see. Yes, I'm surprised And charmed. It's strange, at first I could not bring You to my memory.

THE WOMAN

I don't believe That you can yet!

FAUST

Why....

THE WOMAN

I don't wonder at it. I used to whisk about and peer at you As you came in....

FAUST

Are you then ... then are you ... Midge?

MIDGE

Yes! exactly.

FAUST

This is very charming. Now I remember perfectly, of course, Dear Mrs. Brander! I shall hope to see Brander himself to-morrow. Give him, please, My warmest wishes.

MIDGE

We shall hope to see you In our apartment soon. It's very tiny And in a quite unfashionable street; But it looks out across a bit of park To westward, as I've always hoped it would. Some days the sunset lights are lovely there. You must come look at them.

FAUST

Thank you—indeed I shall be very glad to!

MIDGE

And I know— How shall I say it?—that you'll think me strange, And that I cannot ever be your friend As Mr. Brander is. I know so little—

FAUST

Dear Mrs. Brander!

MIDGE

But I am so eager That you should give me just a little trial— I want so much to know you, and so much He should not lose you....

FAUST

Why, you make me feel Quite like a monster!

MIDGE

Then you'll come?

FAUST

I'll come!

MIDGE

Good-bye—and don't forget me. [Midge gives him her hand, and moves away smiling.

FAUST

Well, of all Impossible, grotesque, outrageous tricks That Brander could have played upon himself! Married—the fool, the fool!—And yet she is Curiously sweet and fresh, that kitchen-maid.

SATAN

Are you quite through?

FAUST

Quite, thank you.... It is strange.... But I forget; you are not interested. What is it you would say now?

SATAN

I have things Graver to speak of than admiring ladies Or Gothic architecture. Here, to-day, Unto your doubting eyes there shall be made A revelation of profounder scope Than aught that life has brought you.

FAUST

The hour strikes Tardily; I am wearier than I was When on this trial we entered.

SATAN

You have looked Askance at me these many days, perplexed To reconcile the fountains of my will With my strange acts, and with the dark report That you have heard concerning me. Dear friend, Be you not angry, now I say to you In full confession, that from day to day I have deceived you: I have hid my face Even from my friend: I have with doubtful mask In alien guises tempted you, to try Your metal. But the hour of trial is past; The event is sure; and now I ope my heart And show to you what few of living men Have guessed—my final secret.

FAUST

Play no tricks. Before me, Satan; try no mumming game. If you speak truth, let riddles cloak it not.

SATAN

Listen, and be truth's judge. I am not such As men esteem me; and my spirit's springs Rise not from buried and infernal realms, But like your own, out of the fount of God They have their being. I, though lowliest far, Yet am a servant of the House of God— Deputed to mine office by His hand, And on His mission.

FAUST

You are trifling with me.

SATAN

I speak the gospel of the living God.

FAUST

Are you not Lord of Evil? God doubtless asks That service of you?

SATAN

God is infinite, Likewise His wisdom. His omniscience wills That I go forth among the haunts of men And offer evil to their touch. Thereby, Some spurn me—and the force whereby they spurn Lifts them up nearer to His arms. Some take The sin I offer, fall from grace, go down— And lost in fathomless gulfs of wickedness, Cry out with utter yearning to His love That it may save them, and repentant turn Their prodigal faces toward His doors again, Never to wander more. But some few souls, Who neither spurn temptation nor repent After their fall—these unregenerate It is mine office wholly to destroy And cleanse the universe for the praise of God. Thus does all evil serve His mighty throne, And all return to Him.

FAUST

I have no power To take the measure of the words you speak. Why tell me such things?

SATAN

I would tell you all And show to you at last your destiny. The vanities of the world, the woes and sins, Are but the acid by whose fiery touch I sort the gold from out the transient brass And purify and fine it that it be Worthy God's altar. My belovèd friend, Such was your trial; thus have I tempted you With things averse to God, with forms and faiths Outcast and separate from Him. You have seen The whole world's vanities; you have come to know That in this world's illusion is no power Whose love is refuge: even the living death Of cold Nirvana frights you. Thus at last, Knowing that you are powerless, and the world Bare of salvation for your feebleness, You stand on this great threshold; and your eyes That see despair and loneliness shall raise Their sight to heaven; and peace shall fold you round; And God, who is our Father, shall be yours.

FAUST

This is not truth! My fevered eyes are weak To look into this glowing maze of fire With vision. All the ramparts of the world Reel round me. I have scoffed God all my days, Believing pain—your province of the world— Proof of His non-existence. And you come Crying His glory, testifying His faith, Exhorting me to seek Him.... I am lost Where naught is known to me.

SATAN

He is your hope, Your sole salvation in a universe Where never other form shall comfort you— A waif except for Him. So have all souls— The holy and the pure—from age to age, Learned, homesick for His home. Their frustrate hopes, Their burdens heavier than by mortal strength Can be sustained, their impotence, bow down Each spirit: and it cries: "O God, support My helplessness; unto Thy perfect will Do I resign my vain and evil hopes, My burdens; and Thy Will Be Done Forever." Thus, with arms folded on despairing breast, With head bowed to the inscrutable decree, They seek Him: and a sudden glory fills The humbled bosom; all His stars and thrones Shine down upon it; all His majesty Enters that lowly door, lifts up, sustains The sundered soul; and His beneficence With more than father-love enfolds the heart Joined to His own forever. From His light Reflected radiance pours; to the dark sight Comes glimpse of the high justice of God's will; And all roads lead to Heaven, and all hearts lie Within His love, and all's well with the world. [Deep organ music begins to roll through the arches of the cathedral. Candles are lighted one by one on the High Altar. Worshippers begin to enter the nave: they pass down the long central aisle and gather in groups at the far end, near the Altar. Faust stands leaning against a pillar, silent and lost in meditation. Brander enters among the worshippers. He passes the spot where Faust is standing, glances at him and stops, astonished.

BRANDER

You have come back! I had not heard of it. Where have you been these many months? I long To talk with you.

FAUST

Yes, come and see me soon. It's a long story.... I congratulate you Upon your marriage....

BRANDER

Then you know....

FAUST

She came And spoke to me a little while ago.

BRANDER

It must seem strange to you beyond my power Ever to quite unravel. But for me All things are clear; and to my blinded sight Morning has come—in this thing, as in all The doubts that once enslaved me.

FAUST

Do you mean...

BRANDER

Come here aside before the service starts. I owe it you to tell you. I have changed In your long absence....

FAUST

These are curious words. I do not understand.

BRANDER

To understand, You must hear all. You know my life—how vain Its occupations, how absorbed I moved In this day's folly and to-morrow's lure— How petty trifles made my whole small round Of being—selfish trifles, nothing worth, Stained with a cruelty that I would forget. That night we talked together—you and I And Oldham—in your rooms, I wandered home Sorely distressed. For you had stirred in me A gnawing doubt whether the whole of life Was not mere child's play.

FAUST

I am sorry if—

BRANDER

It was the kindest act man ever did In all my life! I peered into my heart: I saw myself Judas to innocence, Betraying lightly with a careless kiss A mortal body and immortal soul; I saw no thing in all my days to claim A sane man's approbation; one by one Each glittering bauble that I late had loved Crumbled to dust beneath the parching fire Of reason.... And that night, I walked in Hell.

FAUST

Poor Brander! And my mocking did all this?

BRANDER

Thank God for it! That night I saw my joys Like some rank thicket of bright vanities Masking a precipice. A sense of sin And loathing overcame me, and the power Of utter terror filled me. I beheld The evil riot of gross earthy things That had o'ergrown me. Like a burden lay That sense upon me, and it pressed me down To a despondence deep beyond all words, Beyond all thought. And no escape I saw Except the bullet....

FAUST

What a faith we pin Upon that bullet!

BRANDER

Thus the doubtful days Passed like a nightmare. Till, one Sabbath morn, As restlessly I paced, some random mood Led me to enter this cathedral's doors At hour of service. As I knelt, with lips Unknown to prayer, the mighty music rolled Over my heart like an all-purging flood, And a voice chanted: "He that loveth life Shall lose it; he that hateth this world's life Shall keep the life eternal." And a voice Shortly thereafter sang, in angel tones: "Come, let our feet return unto the Lord; For He hath torn, and He will heal us." And My soul cried: "Yield thy burdens to the Lord, Upon His love cast thine unworthy self, And bid His Will Be Done."

And then my soul Melted as in the warmth of His embrace. My guilt was gone like night before the sun: Light blinded me; an infinite love and joy Lifted me up, a child again, from earth Into such regions as my mortal speech Can never utter. And from that hour forth, God has been with me.... Now you know my tale.

FAUST

You teach me more of marvels than I guessed Was yet unlearned by me.

BRANDER

No words can teach These marvels to a heart that has not known God's glories.

FAUST

Then this mystery of the heart Is what men mean when of the faith of God They speak? I thought 'twas dogma, service, prayer; But this is life, is vision.

BRANDER

Aye, and more! Now do I walk in meadows of calm light; The love of God is over me; I faint Almost beneath its sweetness and wild joy. My whole heart's toil is how to merit it Even a little.

SATAN (raising his hand to bless)

By the grace of God You shall be worthy servant, O my son.

FAUST

This, then, is what God's vision-seers behold— This revelation veiled unto mine eyes— This love unfelt by me—this light of dawn Beyond our darkened night.... I was too far Estranged from Him, of too unworthy will, Bowed by too sore a burden.... [The music of the organ rolls forth once more; and, at the far end of the nave, the choir takes up the music.

Voices Singing

FAUST

With old, profound, unutterable grief My spirit speaks in me: as, many a time In childhood, at the hour of evening dusk, When all the room was still and shadowy, I, at my mother's knee, wept out my heart And knew not why I wept. And I am drawn Out of myself upon the music's tide, With nameless sorrowing, with childlike pain— As though in careless play-hours of the day I had done hurt to someone that I loved. Ah, I am homesick; and in all the world There is no knee at which I can weep out My loneliness. There is no breast of peace And silence and forgiveness for this child In any dusk-strewn chamber....

BRANDER

There is God!

FAUST

O God, can Thine arms fold me? Can my weight Of loneliness and failure and despair With the day's fruitage, find a child's release In Thy great tenderness? I am a child; And life's vast terrors gather round my soul; And I am frightened. I am weary, Lord! It darkens; and the storms creep on with night; The shadows come; the wanderer would turn home. [Faust falls to his knees; he bows his head. Again the organ throbs, the choir sings.

Voices Singing

SATAN

Let us beside our brother kneel in prayer Beseeching mercy. [Satan and Brander kneel beside Faust.

BRANDER

Brother in the Lord, Let us together from devoted hearts Repeat: "Thy Will Be Done." [Faust continues to kneel in silence. The music ceases.

BRANDER

Faust, let us pray: "Father, we do beseech Thee for Thy light"...

SATAN

Brother, pray thus: "Thy Will Be Done"...

FAUST (rising)

What will?...

BRANDER

Faust!

FAUST

Lost is my way among eternal shadows. Darkened is every light; and clouds are rolled With blackening curtain over all the stars Within my heaven. But I stand upright Now to the end, no traitor to that dawn I cannot image.

SATAN

What do you mean?

FAUST

Begone, Judas!...

Ah, Brander, would that I could yield Myself to Him who has received your burdens! But to me seems it as another sleep, Like that Nirvana which I put aside In other gardens of temptation. Sleep— Sleep that should have no waking—happy sleep— An anodyne for which my spirit yearns But dare not take—a yielding to some Will, Whose Will, we know not, nor do greatly care So long it be not our will....

Thus may yield The weary; I am weary, but not yet To such last slumber. Thus may yield the base; I am not base. Thus may those spirits yield Who, poisoned by some madness in their blood, Despise life's being; but not yet will I So utterly despise it. Though in gulfs Of yet unsounded ruin I should die At the end miserably, I still shall seek In life itself my refuge: not in God That stands apart from life, on heights of peace. All my desires, my visions, my dreams, my unrest, My loathing and my longing will I clutch And cry: "With all its bitterness on my head, My Will be done, not Thy Will!"

BRANDER

Blasphemy! Ah, Faust, what madness!...

FAUST

With calm sight, I speak No blasphemy, but truth. Shall I buy peace So easily? Toss my burdens to God's Will— Into the fathomless void of that unknown? Such were the last, the great apostacy.... I go into a darkness past your thought— Into an emptiness you know not of— A night profounder that it late has held Marsh-lights of promise. My last altar lies Smoking in ruins; and I stand alone Of all the universe. But my Will be done! My errant tortured Will, my bitter Will, My Will, my Will!

BRANDER

Flee, ere the awful wrath Of God smite down these walls, these poisoned stones, That hear your words! Flee, ere the heavens rain forth Lightnings to blast us for these horrors!

FAUST

Nay! In this dim hour of desolation's reign Upon my soul, I summon to my soul All powers that good or evil may consign To the most lonely man in all the world; I lift my voice, burdened with all the weight Of loathing and of longing, and I cry: My curse upon Thee, lure of dying hearts! May lightnings smite Thy altars back to earth!

BRANDER

Father, forgive! He knows not what he does....

CURTAIN