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SCENE I

PROLOGUE

Faust’s Laboratory.

To the left an entrance facing the public, one descends from it into the stage by a few steps—on the same side at the back, a credenza on which are books, papers. To the right an alchemists’ furnace—on the same side a window and a door.

Wagner

(Entering—holding an open book) Fridolin! Fridolin!

Fridolin

Master Wagner?

Wagner

For a moment leave the furnace and come closer.

Fridolin

(Who is at the furnace, a bellows in hand) Here I am, Master Wagner—

Wagner

My lad, who do you think is the wisest—me or Master Faust?

Fridolin

I think it’s you, Master.

Wagner

And why do you think that it’s me, my friend?

Fridolin

Because you told me so, Master.

Wagner

Imbecile! (Charging tone) Go blow! To the furnace! To the furnace!

Fridolin

I’m going—I’m going.

Wagner

Stop. (Pulling him by the ear) What, double moron that you are, you don’t understand that Master Faust has spent his life in studying the causes and effects to fathom what is, while as for me, I intend to create that which is not.

Fridolin

I understand it very well, Master, since you tell me so.

Wagner

Well! He studies what is.

Fridolin

Yes.

Wagner

I study what is not.

Fridolin

Yes—

Wagner

Therefore, I am more wise than he.

Fridolin

Yes—

Wagner

Much more wise than he, because....

Fridolin

Because you tell no so—

Wagner

Brute! Go to your furnaces—!

Fridolin

Yes, Master. (Noise of rapping outside) Master, they’re knocking.

Wagner

Well—! Go open.

Fridolin

(Going calmly to the furnace) Ah. (Shouting) Come in!

Magnus

(Entering) Is this the dwelling of the savant—Doctor Faustus?

Fridolin

This is it.

Magnus

I wish to speak to him.

Wagner

The Doctor is absent—if you’d like to come back?

Magnus

No, I’m going to wait for him. (Sits in a large armchair)

Wagner

Say, there, that’s the Master’s armchair.

Magnus

It must be that of his guest, of his oldest friend.

Wagner

His friend?

Magnus

I am Doctor Magnus. (Wagner and Fridolin bow with respect) It’s been thirty years since Doctor Faustus and I have been writing each other without ever seeing each other. We are indeed both old, and I didn’t want to die without having shaken the hand of the greatest Savant of Germany—

It’s for that I’ve come express from Nurnberg.

Fridolin

(To Wagner) The greatest—? Then it’s not you?

Wagner

(After having made a gesture to Fridolin to remain at his furnace) Is it really true that the science of Master Faustus is so great?

Magnus

Why that question?

Wagner

Because I think I’m as learned as he—

Fridolin

More!

Magnus

(To Wagner) You! And from where comes it that you scorn your Master so much?

Wagner

Why I don’t scorn him, I esteem myself.

Fridolin

More.

Magnus

Speak, then.

Wagner

I don’t place Master Faust above me because I think with a little study I will end by doing what he has done, while he will never do—what I will do.

Fridolin

There you go!

Magnus

What’s that?

Wagner

You know that God created man in his image?

Magnus

I know that in their pride men pretend that.

Wagner

Well, I intend to create a living being. Understand, Doctor, I intend to create someone in my image; finally I intend to give it life.

Fridolin

Heavens! You are going to get married?

Wagner

Fie! That’s an old way which besides they could contest the invention with me.

Fridolin

Ah! It’s not possible.

Wagner

It’s a hackneyed way.

Magnus

Hackneyed! Hackneyed! But which could really be used for a long time.

Wagner

As for me, I intend to give existence to it, without associating a simple woman in my glory.

Fridolin

Ah! Bah!

Wagner

Yes—with the aid of combined substances, extracts and essences—

Fridolin

That’s fine that is—And what sex will he or she be?

Wagner

I intend to create something lovable, gracious, spiritual—

Fridolin

It’s a woman—

Wagner

A model of submission.

Fridolin

It’s a man—

Wagner

Faithful.

Fridolin

It’s a dog in that case.

Wagner

I’ve exhausted all the formulas; I’ve been ready to succeed, but at the supreme moment, I always lack something—

Magnus

You lack spirit.

Fridolin

There you go.

Wagner

What do you mean, spirit?

Magnus

(Rising) The breath, the soul, in the end life—

Wagner

Yes, life—! Absolutely, it only lacked that to animate my creature.

Magnus

It’s a little thing. (Giving him a flask) And by pouring this into the mix—the contents of this little viol—I believe it will be able to guarantee you success.

Wagner

What—in there?

Magnus

It’s what you lack.

Wagner

There’s spirit in there?

Magnus

Yes.

Wagner

There’s soul, breath—?

Magnus

(Cocking his ear) Be quiet. Hide that very carefully—your Master—

Wagner

My Master! Ah! I am going to be his, now. (Goes to right)

Faust

(Enters, bouquet in hand) I was able to master the storm; I was able to turn away lightning—and I am unable to restore to these flowers a little of their lost freshness—(Places the bouquet to the left) (Noticing Magnus) A stranger!

Magnus

A friend! Magnus, your old correspondent from Nurnberg.

Faust

Magnus. (To Fridolin and Wagner) Leave us.

Wagner

(Aside) Patience! I will soon have my slave whom I’ll order about in my turn.

Faust

Will you be gone? Obey!

Fridolin

Yes, Master.

Wagner

(To Fridolin) Get going, obey! (He leaves)

Fridolin

(Aside, following him) What could I indeed create? Me, too! (Faust brings up an armchair for Magnus)

Faust

(Sitting to the right, Magnus to the left) The savant, the illustrious Magnus at my home.

Magnus

Illustrious, savant—! My friend, we give ourselves these titles before the vulgar; but when we are alone, let’s agree that the greatest among us is, indeed, little, and that the wisest know they don’t know very much.

Faust

Yes, yes—to know that one doesn’t know, that’s the most real fruit of human study.

Wagner

No one is here to hear us. You’ve consecrated your whole life to work—are you quite satisfied with the result of your long career?

Faust

(Shaking his hand) And you?

Magnus

Alas! So many fine years wasted, friend! I wanted to appreciate the mysteries of creation.

Faust

We pale when confronted with the unknown secrets of nature.

Magnus

And backs bent and head whitened—leaning over our books—

Faust

And one day, you raise your eyes, everything has changed around you, time has fled, carrying off the objects of your affection, all that made you smile, all that you used to love, and if, by chance, a friend survives who extends to you his old, trembling hand—(He extends his hand and presses Magnus’s) There are so many regrets in this silent embrace.

Magnus

And when one sees young couples who are going about joyfully, arms entwined, as they say—what have I done with my youth?

Faust

And when one hears under the big green trees, or behind the flowering briars, words of love which are exchanged, the give and take of kisses as they say to themselves: What have I done with my heart?

Magnus

Yes, study bears a bitter fruit—and that fruit is called deception.

Faust

(Rising and passing to the left) It’s my fault, heaven warned me of it a hundred times. I shut my ears.

Magnus

(Ironic) Ah! Ah! Heaven spoke to you? (Rising) Health to the elect of the Lord!

Faust

God speaks to all men, for each of them he has a language. He’s the God of Armies, and he speaks to soldiers in the voice of trumpets; the poet hears a celestial voice which sings in his heart; God speaks also for others in the murmur of the water, in the perfume of flowers, in the song of birds. As for me, shut in this somber laboratory, absorbed completely in study, from my youth it was the clocks that seemed to me to be speaking to me. (Gesture by Magnus) Don’t smile, Doctor, I really heard what seemed celestial voices mixed with their voices of bronze; yes the clocks said to me, when I was twenty, each Sunday and at Christmas and Palm Sunday “Greetings, greetings to youth—this is the hour when everything smiles—the hour of prayer, the hour of love; it’s the time when hearts choose each other, it’s the time when marriages are blessed. Come pray, come love, too” And I remained plunged in study! Then arrived mature age and the voice of clocks became more grave “Greeting, greetings once more, greetings; this is the season in which the tree bears its fruit, the age man is married and a parent. Time’s flying, friend don’t consume your life in sterile studies, come prepare for the joys of your last years; think of choosing the arm that will support shaking feet, think of creating hearts that will pray around you, which will piously guard your memory” And I still kept working. Then old age came—why is it I no longer hear them? My house is still in the same place, the church is still nearby—and yet I no longer hear the clocks. Ah, it’s been too long that I closed my heart and my ear to the advice of their friendly voices; they used to speak to me of happiness, of love, of hope—but I’m eighty years old, and no question, the clocks have nothing more to tell me.

Magnus

Yes—yes—pleasure, wealth, glory—so many treasures unknown and disdained by us.

Faust

We took a false path—our life is a failure.

Magnus

(Forcefully) And to start over.

Faust

Start over!

Magnus

We need to become young again.

Faust

To make youth bloom again.

Magnus

Why not? Nothing dies in nature. The day which ends at twilight begins again at dawn, and the tree that sees its last fruit fall, feels itself burgeoning already with new flowers. You see this bouquet withered after a month. (Passing to the left, and taking the bouquet) Well, it’s going to be reborn. (Gesture by Faustus) Ah! I’m making you smile! And if I told you that a time will come when thought will cross the Ocean more rapidly than lightning, you will laugh—and you will be wrong—if I am speaking to you of a power capable to causing sleep by a single gesture, of animating simply with a glance—you will laugh—and you will be wrong—If I tell you, finally, that this living fluid which animates me is perhaps transmitted by breath, by contact, by will—you will laugh again—and you will be wrong. (He points to the bouquet which has regained all its freshness)

Faust

(Astonished as he takes it) It’s true! It’s true! Yes, yes—it’s a great miracle, Master—but there’s nothing in it that surprises me.

Magnus

Truly? Lord Faust knows the wisest doctors?

Faust

Yes, I know of one. (Going to the left) I have there a bunch of miracles made by him—a thousand times more sublime than yours—

Magnus

And this bunch?

Faust

(Presenting the Evangelist to him) Here it is—take and open it—you will find in it how the blind see, and the deaf hear—how paralytics walk, how the dead emerge from the tomb and are reborn to life—take it.

Magnus

So be it! (Goes to take the book, lets out a scream, and pushes it away) Why, what is this book?

Faust

This book? It’s the Evangelist? And you!—You are Satan! (He extends the book to him; Magnus changes clothes and appearance and appears under features and costume of Mephistopheles) Out of here! Get thee away, damned one, get thee away!

Mephistopheles

Well played, my Master, you detected me.

Faust

And I order you to leave.

Mephistopheles

If you send me away fast, I might think you were afraid.

Faust

Afraid of you! Stay put.

Mephistopheles

Thanks—

Faust

Your name?

Mephistopheles

Mephistopheles.

Faust

Mephistopheles? Oh! Oh! You occupy a distinguished rank in the infernal legions.

Mephistopheles

Can we talk? (Sits down)

Faust

I know in advance what you have to say to me: you are going to propose to me the fulfillment of some wish, and you will demand my soul in exchange.

Mephistopheles

Fie! That’s old and hackneyed—what you are saying to me, Doctor? Why, look at me, will you? Am I a vulgar demon? Where are my horns? Where are my claws? Am I the devil of the Sabbath? The mysterious toothless old devil of your monks? I am young. I deal in business like a gallant gentleman, not like an old usurer.

Faust

Well—explain yourself.

Mephistopheles

First of all, I disdain all contracts between us: I give and demand nothing. No, I am not proposing to you an eternal pact of damnation, an old worm-eaten parchment signed with a drop of your blood. I am coming to offer you the objects of your nightly dreams, of your secret sighs, of your endless regrets. I will give you your youth and I will demand nothing of you; glory, love, riches, and I will ask for nothing.

Faust

But that will be for you a bargain of a dupe, and I find you indeed quite young. (He leans on the back of an armchair)

Mephistopheles

A dupe’s bargain? Yes, if God made of man as your pride persuades you, a being of reason. Yes, if the insatiability of your heart does not fetch up, in love, jealousy, hate, and some little crime which will deliver your soul to me. (Rising) Yes, if in youth you have not only enthusiasm and faith, generosity in glory and charity in riches. Take from all the wealth I am offering you only the flower of purity, grand, good, and divine in them, and I will truly have made a fool’s bargain. But if, as I think, man is a wretched creature who has eyes not to see, ears not to hear; if the sap of youth which is going to boil in your exhausted veins, with it the scum of evil passions, you will damn yourself indeed by yourself, and I have no need except, in advance, you assure me your soul by a good receipt or by a result to order—

Faust

I understand—and all these precious gifts you are offering me—

Mephistopheles

Well?

Faust

I refuse them.

Mephistopheles

You refuse them? What! Despite experience which will know where stop you in which the snares of hell are born? Despite your memory that I will leave living in you—this wisdom slowly acquired which will warn you of the danger.

Faust

I refuse.

Mephistopheles

You refuse to be young?

Faust

Yes.

Mephistopheles

You refuse to be handsome?

Faust

Yes.

Mephistopheles

You refuse to be loved?

Faust

Loved!—Wait—

Mephistopheles

Loved by all those to whom you say—I love you—

Faust

Shut up.

Mephistopheles

Accompanied by all the riches.

Faust

Enough.

Mephistopheles

Intoxicated by all the glory—adored by all the women—

Faust

(Forcefully) Leave me! Well—no!—talk—talk some more.

Mephistopheles

(Aside) Here we go. (Aloud) Accept, Faust, accept; say a word and you will see at your feet the souls of the most haughty and the hearts of the most tender—(Clocks sound; Faust cocks an ear) Accept, and you will choose your love affairs among the most beautiful girls.

Faust

(Moves away—Mephistopheles passes to the left) Silence, accursed one, silence! It’s the voice of clocks. They are speaking to me as they used to. Listen—listen—what they are saying to me—is—“Greetings, greetings also to old age, to the man who in his long career has conquered evil passions, and to the man stronger than the demon who puts his confidence in the Lord; to the old geezer bent over the tomb who repulses with disdain the treasures of the earth, who goes to sleep in his faith, to awake glorious and resplendent in eternity.” Lord!—Lord! My soul is completely yours! And you accursed one—Be gone! Be gone!

Mephistopheles

I obey; but remember that I am offering you love, riches and power—wherever you may be, I will be—call me, you will see me appear.

Faust

Holy clocks, my heart listened to you and I am going to pray in the house of the Lord. (Heads toward the door)

Mephistopheles

(Disappearing) Too late—you will call me back. (He vanishes ) (Faust leaves, after a moment Fridolin and Wagner enter)

Fridolin

What’s wrong? They left, Master.

Wagner

Ah! I can finally attempt the great experiment! Quick, the furnace, the bellows.

Fridolin

(Going to the furnace) There, Master, there—

Wagner

Ah! This is the supreme moment! Blow!

Fridolin

Yes, Master.

Wagner

When I think that I am going to have a woman kneaded by my hand!— My heart beats at the thought of my immense enterprise!

Fridolin

And to say that it is I who shall have blown the fire of this sublime decoction.

Wagner

To say that I shall have a slave always at my feet! Whose life will be spent forseeing all my wishes, fulfilling humbly my orders.

Fridolin

That does it, Master—that does it—Oh! I have emotions.

Wagner

You have indeed put in there all the objects on the list I gave you?

Fridolin

Yes, Master—but I didn’t suspect that they were the ingredients necessary for the manufacture of a woman.

Wagner

Then—everything’s on there?

Fridolin

(Showing a paper) I have the list.

Wagner

Give it to me! Let’s check it. (Reading tenderly) The heart of a turtle—dove—

Fridolin

Quite small, quite small! Not much heart, that, Master.

Wagner

My friend, don’t ask the impossible. (Reading) The sweetness of a lamb.

Fridolin

I put in the whole lamb.

Wagner

You did well—I insist that she be very sweet—(Reading) Beauty.

Fridolin

I think you will be content.

Wagner

(Continuing) Grace, trickiness, cunning, cleverness.

Fridolin

Oh! A bitch!

Wagner

All this in moderation—not too much bitch.

Fridolin

It has to be part of the account.

Wagner

Finally, soul, the breath—Ah! This is what’s missing.

Fridolin

The viol of Doctor Magnus.

Wagner

(Showing it) There it is. (Fridolin wants to grasp it and looks at it with religion) He assures that this must animate my creature. Let’s busy ourselves quickly with the great work—of my creation. Blow! (He pours in the contents of the viol—an explosion is heard. The cauldron bursts. Wagner falls to the left and Fridolin to the right, screaming, face to the ground. Sulphurine appears) (Sulphurine emerges from the cauldron, looks around her with astonishment and runs from one object to the next)

Wagner

(Raising his head) Fridolin! Fridolin!

Fridolin

(Raising his head) Master?

Wagner

Did I succeed?

Fridolin

You succeeded—in making me very frightened.

Wagner

(Looking at Sulphurine) Ah!—Yes, yes, the work is accomplished—There’s my slave—look—

Fridolin

It’s true!

Wagner

Did I make a male or did I make a female?

Fridolin

The devil! I don’t know. (Going to Sulphurine who pushes him away with force) Oh!—What a fist! It’s a man, Master!

Wagner

A man—! (Looking at her closely) Why no—you don’t know anything about it! She’s a woman! A real woman!—Slave! My pretty slave! (Sulphurine looks at him in astonishment without replying) Ah! I’ve created a woman—marvelous—she’s not talking.

Fridolin

She doesn’t talk. You are then mute, say, Madame.

Sulphurine

(Coming closer) No—what do you want with me?

Wagner

She speaks!

Fridolin

Ah! She’s not as perfect as you said.

Sulphurine

Who pulled me from our world?

Wagner

Who? Why me—me—my slave.

Fridolin

We—it was us—slave.

Sulphurine

Who brought me here? What are these objects that surround me? (She touches Wagner and Fridolin) What’s this?

Wagner

These are men, my slave.

Fridolin

Good-looking men.

Sulphurine

Villainous men. (Going to the window)

Fridolin

What! Who’s villainous?

Wagner

She doesn’t know anything yet—I will form her taste.

Sulphurine

Ah! I want to go down there!

Wagner

I will take you there, my slave.

Sulphurine

Escort me.

Wagner

I will take you there much later. I want to contemplate you, admire my work—I want—

Sulphurine

(Forcefully) Escort me right now! Instantly!

Wagner

But—

Sulphurine

(Imperiously) I wish it!

Wagner

I obey—I obey, my slave. (To Fridolin who laughs) Useless for you to laugh—I am a greater savant than Master Faustus. It is I who created this woman.

Sulphurine

(With rage) Hurry up! I’m waiting.

Wagner

At your orders, my slave. (He leaves, dragged by Sulphurine)

Fridolin

(Following them) Great savant! Great savant! I was the one who blew the fire! (He disappears by the right)

C U R T A I N