_Faus._ How shall I speak to such a one as thou Of an intense and all-believing love, Betrayed, abandoned, trampled underfoot? Of pure and simple faith in one fair woman-- Unswerving faith--faith, absolute and whole-- And of the deadly agony that came Of finding that well-trusted woman false? All the more false for the divine truth-promise That played upon her fair and placid brow; All the more false for the hot passion-vows That leaped, in hurried whispers, from her lips! I gave her all the wealth of my rich heart-- I lived upon her love--I fed my life With the sweet poison of her lying lips In utter trust. God help me!--one dark day, In the high noon of all my happiness, My heart upraised to heaven, in gratitude For the fair promise of our coming life, She left me, for a man whose proffered love Had formed the theme of many an idle jest. But he was rich--and so--she went to him! At once the open volume of her life Lay plain before me, and I read therein, That she was--womankind! Mad with the frenzy of a shipwrecked heart, And with the old fond test-words of our love Ringing a mocking echo through my brain, I cursed the world and all the women in it, And here sought sanctuary. _Ans._ Ah, my son, This haven from the tempests of the world Should not be sought in bitterness of soul. Only the pious heart, turned heavenwards From very love of heaven, will here find rest, Till Heaven, in its good time, shall garner it. But take good heart. I’ll talk with thee to-night, And, with the help of Heaven, give thee good counsel. Be comforted--the world without is hollow, As thou, in thine hot wrath, didst reckon it. Thy wrath had reason in’t. Be comforted! [_Exit ANSELM._ _Faus._ “Only the pious heart, turned heavenwards From very love of heaven!” Fit formula To typify the fierce, embittered cynic, Who, in heart-misery, sought refuge here, As a poor, worried, over-hunted fox, Cursing his persecutors, runs to earth To lick his bleeding flanks in sulky peace, And brood, in solitude, on men and dogs! No hope! no hope! no hope! For life entombed-- For life cut off from life--a breathing man, Wrapped in a winding-sheet of his own weaving! A living heart, inurned and sepulchred! _Enter GOTTFRIED, disguised as a monk._ _Gott._ Good brother, _pax vobiscum_. _Faus._ _Benedicite!_ _Gott._ Art thou the monk who, in the world without, Was known as Faustus? _Faus._ Ay, the very same.