to take him away from this 'scene of swinish bestiality.'
How different from the part that Faust plays in the old story where he
himself, not Mephistopheles, joins in the revelry and buffoonery!

Auerbach's Cellar existed till lately, though the house above it had
been rebuilt. It was the original 'Keller' that is mentioned in the old
legend. In it were to be seen two old pictures (with the date 1525). One
represented Faust sitting at table with students; in the other he is
flying off through the door astride on a wine cask.

A weird scene now ensues: the Witches' Kitchen.

Faust had asked how it was possible for him, the thought-worn
grey-haired professor, to care for, or take part in, what Mephistopheles
looked upon as 'life.' Mephistopheles therefore takes him to a witch,
from whom he is to receive a magic draught that will 'strip off some
thirty years from his body,' so that he becomes a young, man of, say,
about twenty-seven. This scene in the Witches' Kitchen is sometimes said
to represent allegorically a long course of dissipation through which
Mephistopheles takes Faust, and which of course could not be represented
otherwise without extending the action of the play beyond all reasonable
limits. It is true that, after the draught Faust's character seems
considerably changed for the worse. He develops a recklessness and a
licentiousness which scandalize even Mephistopheles himself, who tells
him that he is 'almost as bad as a Frenchman.'

Whether we should understand it thus, or not, I do not feel quite sure,
but anyhow we have in future--to the end of the first Part--to take into
account the fact that, although loathing all such swinish sensuality as
that of tippling students, and hating all forms of mean selfishness and
cunning and hypocrisy, Faust is (as so often is the case with otherwise
noble and lovable men) open to assault at that point where, as nowhere
else, the sensuous and ideal in our human nature seem to touch and
coalesce.

When they enter the Witch is not at home. In the midst of the kitchen is
a large cauldron, and at its side, skimming it and seeing that it does
not run over is a Meerkatze--a kind of female ape. The Meerkater, or
male ape, squats by the fire, warming himself, and near by are several
young apes. Mephistopheles is enraptured at the sight of the 'tender
pretty beasts,' but Faust finds them more disgusting than anything he
has ever seen.

The apes perform all kinds of antics a