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Faust

Иоганн Вольфганг фон Гёте (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Faust, by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Title: Faust

Author: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Release Date: January 4, 2005 [EBook #14591]

Language: English







Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Chuck Greif and the PG Online Distributed
Proofreading Team






Faust





Faust





Have you not led this life quite long enough_]





Faust





FAUST

by

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY

Harry Clarke

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH, IN THE ORIGINAL METRES, BY

Bayard Taylor

An Illustrated Edition

THE WORLD PUBLISHING COMPANY

CLEVELAND, OHIO NEW YORK, N.Y.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Faust





Faust





CONTENTS


PREFACE
AN GOETHE
DEDICATION
PRELUDE AT THE THEATRE
PROLOGUE IN HEAVEN

FAUST
SCENE I. NIGHT (Faust's Monologue)
II. BEFORE THE CITY-GATE
III. THE STUDY (The Exorcism)
IV. THE STUDY (The Compact)
V. AUERBACH'S CELLAR
VI. WITCHES' KITCHEN
VII. A STREET
VIII. EVENING
IX. PROMENADE
X. THE NEIGHBOR'S HOUSE
XI. STREET
XII. GARDEN
XIII. A GARDEN-ARBOR
XIV. FOREST AND CAVERN
XV. MARGARET'S ROOM
XVI. MARTHA'S GARDEN
XVII. AT THE FOUNTAIN
XVIII. DONJON (Margaret's Prayer)
XIX. NIGHT (Valentine's Death)
XX. CATHEDRAL
XXI. WALPURGIS-NIGHT
XXII. OBERON AND TITANIA'S GOLDEN WEDDING
XXIII. DREARY DAY
XXIV. NIGHT
XXV. DUNGEON





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Faust


Preface

It is twenty years since I first determined to attempt the translation of Faust, in the original metres. At that time, although more than a score of English translations of the First Part, and three or four of the Second Part, were in existence, the experiment had not yet been made. The prose version of Hayward seemed to have been accepted as the standard, in default of anything more satisfactory: the English critics, generally sustaining the translator in his views concerning the secondary importance of form in Poetry, practically discouraged any further attempt; and no one, familiar with rhythmical expression through the needs of his own nature, had devoted the necessary love and patience to an adequate reproduction of the great work of Goethe's life.

Mr. Brooks was the first to undertake the task, and the publication of his translation of the First Part (in 1856) induced me, for a time, to give up my own design. No previous English version exhibited such abnegation of the translator's own tastes and habits of thought, such reverent desire to present the original in its purest form. The care and conscience with which the work had been performed were so apparent, that I now state with reluctance what then seemed to me to be its only deficiencies,—a lack of the lyrical fire and fluency of the original in some passages, and an occasional lowering of the tone through the use of words which are literal, but not equivalent. The plan of translation adopted by Mr. Brooks was so entirely my own, that when further residence in Germany and a more careful study of both parts of Faust had satisfied me that the field was still open,—that the means furnished by the poetical affinity of the two languages had not yet been exhausted,—nothing remained for me but to follow him in all essential particulars. His example confirmed me in the belief that there were few difficulties in the way of a nearly literal yet thoroughly rhythmical version of Faust, which might not be overcome by loving labor. A comparison of seventeen English translations, in the arbitrary metres adopted by the translators, sufficiently showed the danger of allowing license in this respect: the white light of Goethe's thought was thereby passed through the tinted glass of other minds, and assumed the coloring of each. Moreover, the plea of selecting different metres in the hope of producing a similar effect is unreasonable, where the identical metres are possible.