ret_. Let go! No violence will I bear!
Take not such a murderous hold of me!
I once did all I could to gratify thee.

_Faust_. The day is breaking! Dearest! dearest!

_Margaret_. Day! Ay, it is day! the last great day breaks in!
My wedding-day it should have been!
Tell no one thou hast been with Margery!
Alas for my garland! The hour's advancing!
Retreat is in vain!
We meet again,
But not at the dancing.
The multitude presses, no word is spoke.
Square, streets, all places--
sea of faces--
The bell is tolling, the staff is broke.
How they seize me and bind me!
They hurry me off to the bloody block.[48]
The blade that quivers behind me,
Quivers at every neck with convulsive shock;
Dumb lies the world as the grave!

_Faust_. O had I ne'er been born!

_Mephistopheles [appears without_]. Up! or thou'rt lost! The morn
Flushes the sky.
Idle delaying! Praying and playing!
My horses are neighing,
They shudder and snort for the bound.

_Margaret_. What's that, comes up from the ground?
He! He! Avaunt! that face!
What will he in the sacred place?
He seeks me!

_Faust_. Thou shalt live!

_Margaret_. Great God in heaven!
Unto thy judgment my soul have I given!

_Mephistopheles [to Faust_].
Come! come! or in the lurch I leave both her and thee!

_Margaret_. Thine am I, Father! Rescue me!
Ye angels, holy bands, attend me!
And camp around me to defend me I
Henry! I dread to look on thee.

_Mephistopheles_. She's judged!

_Voice [from above_]. She's saved!

_Mephistopheles [to Faust_]. Come thou to me!
[_Vanishes with_ FAUST.]

_Voice [from within, dying away_]. Henry! Henry!

NOTES.

[Footnote 1: Dedication. The idea of Faust had early entered into Goethe's
mind. He probably began the work when he was about twenty years old. It
was first published, as a fragment, in 1790, and did not appear in its
present form till 1808, when its author's age was nearly sixty. By the
"forms" are meant, of course, the shadowy personages and scenes of the
drama.]

[Footnote 2: --"Thy messengers"--
"He maketh the winds his-messengers,
The flaming lightnings his ministers."
_Noyes's Psalms_, c. iv. 4.]

[Footnote 3: "The Word Divine." In translating the German "Werdende"
(literally, the _becoming, developing_, or _growing_) by the term _word_,
I mean the _word_ in the largest sense: "In the beginning was the Word,
&c." Perhaps "nature" would be a pretty good rendering, but "word," being