128 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



Keller is connected with the Margaret episode, the students being 

 represented as friends of Valentine, who is leaving for the wars. 

 From the drinking bout Faust and Mephistopheles go to watch the 

 faithful returning from mass, and they meet Margaret, who has 

 been praying to the Virgin for her brother's safety. The next three 

 scenes follow the old version more closely, although with many 

 omissions and minor changes; also with one unimportant but annoy- 

 ing inconsistency which we have not space to discuss. In the fifth 

 scene Mephistopheles urges Faust to "finish what is begun" and 

 gives him the potion. The sixth scene closes with the entry of Faust 

 into Margaret's dwelling. In Act III the order of events is decidedly 

 modified. From the gossip -of the village girls at the fountain, Mar- 

 garet turns to the church, where she is tormented at her prayers by 

 the mockery of Mephistopheles. Outside the cathedral the student 

 friends converse about Margaret's guilt. Valentine comes proudly 

 in at the head of his troop, to be told of his sister's shame. Faust 

 and his ally appear and the duel occurs, followed by the heart-break- 

 ing interview between brother and sister. Act IV contains a brief 

 Brocken scene, wherein Faust is shown Helen, Cleopatra and Messa- 

 lina. Just as he is yielding, however, the witch who presented the 

 rejuvenating potion in Act I causes him to see Margaret in her misery 

 with her dead babe at her feet. The second scene takes us to the 

 prison cell and deathbed of Margaret. 



At this point comes the great departure from Goethe, and, in my 

 humble opinion, an absolutely fatal mistake. No man can ever forget 

 the impressive ending of the first part of Faust. The voice from 

 above declares that Margaret is saved; Mephistopheles disappears 

 with Faust; the dying voice from within is heard faintly calling the 

 lover's cherished name. There is final tragedy. But this will not 

 do for Mr. Phillips and Mr. Carr. Faust declares that he will follow 

 his lost love: 



Margaret, Margaret! after thee I come 

 And rush behind thee in thy headlong flight. 



Then the hero and the arch-fiend argue in four pages of really fine 

 verse about the former's fate. Finally, while Margaret is seen at 



