Verse play · 1808
Faust: The First Part
Translated by Bayard Taylor (1870)
Dr. Heinrich Faust, a scholar sick of the limits of human knowledge, is wagered over in Heaven and then bargains his soul to the devil Mephistopheles in return for a moment of fulfilment. Mephistopheles draws him through the tavern, the witches' kitchen and a Walpurgis-Night revel, and into a love affair with the young Margaret, whose mother, brother and child are destroyed in its wake. Margaret, imprisoned for infanticide and awaiting execution, refuses Faust's offer of escape and gives herself up to God; a voice from above declares her saved.
Contents · 28 parts
- Dedication32 lines
- Prelude on the Stageabout 210 lines
- Prologue in Heavenabout 120 lines
- Night (Faust's Monologue)about 470 lines
- Before the City-Gateabout 380 lines
- The Study (The Exorcism)about 360 lines
- The Study (The Compact)about 560 lines
- Auerbach's Cellar in Leipzigabout 320 lines
- Witches' Kitchenabout 330 lines
- Street80 lines
- Eveningabout 150 lines
- Promenade65 lines
- The Neighbor's Houseabout 180 lines
- A Street55 lines
- Gardenabout 160 lines
- A Garden-Arbor30 lines
- Forest and Cavernabout 160 lines
- Margaret's Room41 lines
- Martha's Gardenabout 140 lines
- At the Fountain50 lines
- Donjon (Margaret's Prayer)36 lines
- Night (Valentine's Death)about 180 lines
- Cathedral62 lines
- Walpurgis-Nightabout 420 lines
- Walpurgis-Night's Dream (Oberon and Titania's Golden Wedding)about 180 lines
- Dreary Day30 paragraphs
- Night (Open Field)7 lines
- Dungeonabout 240 lines