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Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
page 5 of 224 (02%)
scornful side of the poet's spirit, a leaning to sullenness, which can be
traced even into the earliest years of his life, a bitter leaven thrown
into a strong soul forever by early satiety? The character of Faust
especially, the man whose burning, untiring heart can neither enjoy
fortune nor do without it, who gives himself unconditionally and watches
himself with mistrust, who unites the enthusiasm of passion and the
dejectedness of despair, is not this an eloquent opening up of the most
secret and tumultuous part of the poet's soul? And now, to complete the
image of his inner life, he has added the transcendingly sweet person of
Margaret, an exalted reminiscence of a young girl, by whom, at the age of
fourteen, he thought himself beloved, whose image ever floated round him,
and has contributed some traits to each of his heroines. This heavenly
surrender of a simple, good, and tender heart contrasts wonderfully with
the sensual and gloomy passion of the lover, who, in the midst of his
love-dreams, is persecuted by the phantoms of his imagination and by the
nightmares of thought, with those sorrows of a soul, which is crushed, but
not extinguished, which is tormented by the invincible want of happiness
and the bitter feeling, how hard a thing it is to receive or to bestow."




DEDICATION.[1]

Once more ye waver dreamily before me,
Forms that so early cheered my troubled eyes!
To hold you fast doth still my heart implore me?
Still bid me clutch the charm that lures and flies?
Ye crowd around! come, then, hold empire o'er me,
As from the mist and haze of thought ye rise;
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