inence overlooking the scene stands the castle of Faust, and not
far off are a cottage and a chapel. On this scene the last act opens. A
wanderer enters. He is seeking the cottage which once used to stand
here, on the very brink of the ocean. It was here that he was
shipwrecked: here, on this very spot, the waves had cast him ashore:
here stands still the cottage of the poor old peasant and his wife who
had rescued him from death. But now the sea is sparkling in the blue
distance and beneath him spreads the new country with its waving
cornfields. He enters the cottage and is welcomed by the poor old
couple (to whom Goethe has given the names Philemon and Baucis, the old
peasant and his wife who, according to the Greek legend, were the only
Phrygians who offered hospitality to Zeus, the King of the Gods, as he
was wandering about in disguise among mortals).

Faust comes out on to the garden terrace of his castle. He is now an old
man--close upon a hundred years of age. He gazes with a feeling of
happiness and satisfaction at the scene that lies below him--the wide
expanse of fertile land, the harbours and canals filled with shipping.
Suddenly the bell in the little chapel begins to ring for Vespers.

Faust's happiness is in a moment changed into bitterness and anger. This
cottage, this chapel, this little plot of land are as thorns in his
side: they are the Naboth's vineyard which he covets and which alone
interferes with his territorial rights. He has offered large sums of
money, but the peasant will not give up his home.

Mephistopheles and his helpers (the same three gigantic supernatural
beings who took part in the battle) appear. Faust vents his anger and
chagrin with regard to the peasant and the irritating ding-dong-dell of
the vesper bell. He commissions Mephistopheles to persuade the peasant
to take the money and to make him turn out of his wretched hut.
Mephistopheles and his mates go to carry out the order. A few moments
later flames are seen to rise from the cottage and chapel.
Mephistopheles returns to relate that the peasant and the wanderer
proved obstinate: in the scuffle the wanderer had been killed; the
cottage had caught fire, and old Philemon and his wife had both died of
terror.

Faust turns upon Mephistopheles with fierce anger and curses him. 'I
meant exchange!' he exclaims. 'I meant to _make it good with money_! I
meant not robbery and murder. I curse the deed. Thou, not I, shalt bear
the guil