FAUST
A monologue from the
play by Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from Faust. Trans. Bayard Taylor. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1898. |
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- MARGARET: Thou wilt unloose my chain,
- And in thy lap wilt take me once again.
- How comes it that thou dost not shrink from me?--
- Say, dost thou know, my friend, whom thou mak'st free?
- My mother have I put to death;
- I've drowned the baby born to thee.
- Was it not given to thee and me?
- Thee, too!--'Tis thou! It scarcely true doth seem--
- Give me thy hand! 'Tis not a dream!
- Thy dear, dear hand!--But, ah, 'tis wet!
- Why, wipe it off! Methinks that yet
- There's blood thereon.
- Ah, God! what hast thou done?
- Nay, sheathe thy sword!
- Thou must outlive us.
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- Now I'll tell thee the graves to give us:
- Thou must begin to-morrow
- The work of sorrow!
- The best place give to my mother,
- Then close at her side my brother,
- And me a little away,
- But not too very far, I pray!
- And here, on my right breast, my baby lay!
- Nobody else will lie beside me!--
- Ah, within thine arms to hide me,
- That was a sweet and a gracious bliss,
- But no more, no more can I attain it!
- I would force myself on thee and constrain it,
- And it seems thou repellest my kiss:
- And yet 'tis thou, so good, so kind to see!
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- If the grave is there,
- Death lying in wait, then come!
- From here to eternal rest:
- No further step--no, no!
- Thou goest away! O Henry, if I could go!
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- But I dare not: there's no hope any more.
- Why should I fly? They'll still my steps waylay!
- It is so wretched, forced to beg my living,
- And a bad conscience sharper misery giving!
- It is so wretched, to be strange, forsaken,
- And I'd still be followed and taken!
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- Be quick! Be quick!
- Save thy perishing child!
- Away! Follow the ridge
- Up by the brook,
- Over the bridge,
- Into the wood,
- To the left, where the plank is placed
- In the pool!
- Seize it in haste!
- 'Tis trying to rise,
- 'Tis struggling still!
- Save it! Save it!
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- No--let me go! I'll suffer no force!
- Grasp me not so murderously!
- I've done, else, all things for the love of thee.
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- Yes, the day comes,--the last day breaks for me!
- My wedding day it was to be!
- Tell no one thou has been with Margaret!
- Woe for my garland! The chances
- Are over--'tis all in vain!
- We shall meet once again,
- But not at the dances!
- The crowd is thronging, no word is spoken:
- The square below
- And the streets overflow:
- The death-bell tolls, the wand is broken.
- I am seized, and bound, and delivered--
- Shoved to the block--they give the sign!
- Now over each neck has quivered
- The blade that is quivering over mine.
- Dumb lies the world like the grave!
MORE MONOLOGUES BY GOETHE |
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