Scene from "Faust"
(Poet's title: Szene aus Faust)
Set by Schubert:
D 126
[December 12, 1814]
Part of Goethe: Faust
Dom. Amt, Orgel und Gesang. Gretchen unter vielem Volke. Böser Geist hinter Gretchen.
Böser Geist:
Wie anders, Gretchen, war dir’s,
Als du noch voll Unschuld
Hier zum Altar trat’st,
Aus dem vergriffnen Büchelchen
Gebete lalltest,
Halb Kinderspiele,
Halb Gott im Herzen!
Gretchen!
Wo steht dein Kopf?
In deinem Herzen
Welche Missetat?
Bet’st du für deiner Mutter Seele, die
Durch dich zur langen, langen Pein hinüberschlief?
Auf deiner Schwelle wessen Blut?
Und unter deinem Herzen
Regt sich’s nicht quillend schon?
Und ängstigt dich und sich
Mit ahndungsvoller Gegenwart?
Gretchen:
Weh! Weh!
Wär ich der Gedanken los,
Die mir herüber und hinüber gehen
Wider mich!
Chor:
Dies irae, dies illa,
Solvet saeclum in favilla.
Böser Geist:
Grimm fasst dich,
Die Posaune tönt!
Die Gräber beben,
Und dein Herz,
Aus Aschenruh
Zu Flammenqualen
Wieder aufgeschreckt,
Bebt auf!
Gretchen:
Wär ich hier weg!
Mir ist, als ob die Orgel mir
Den Atem versetzte,
Gesang mein Herz
Im Tiefsten löste.
Chor:
Judex ergo, cum sedebit,
Quidquid latet adparebit,
Nil inultum remanebit.
Gretchen:
Mir wird so bang!
Die Mauerpfeiler
Befangen mich,
Das Gewölbe
Drängt mich, Luft!
Böser Geist:
Verbirg dich, Sünd und Schande
Bleibt nicht verborgen!
Luft! Licht!
Wehe dir!
Chor:
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
Quem patronum rogaturus?
Cum vix justus sit securus.
Böser Geist:
Ihr Antlitz wenden
Verklärte von dir ab.
Die Hände dir zu reichen,
Schaudert’s den Reinen,
Weh!
Chor:
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
Quem patronum rogaturus?
(Sie fällt in Ohnmacht)
Cathedral. Service, Organ and Singing. Gretchen amongst a large group of people. Evil Spirit behind Gretchen.
Evil Spirit:
How different it used to be for you, Gretchen,
When you were still full of innocence
And you approached the altar over here
Holding on to your little book and
Mumbled prayers out of it:
Half childish game,
Half holding God in your heart!
Gretchen!
What are you thinking of?
In your heart,
What crime is that?
Are you praying for your mother’s soul, who,
Because of you, has gone on to long, long pain and passed away?
On your threshold, whose blood is that?
And hidden within your heart
Is there not already something welling up,
Disturbing you (and itself)
With an immediate foreboding?
Gretchen:
Aaah! Aaah!
If only I could get rid of these thoughts
That keep coming and getting into me
Again and again!
Chorus:
On the day of anger, on that day,
The world is loosened and turn to ashes.
Evil Spirit:
Wrath has taken hold of you!
The trumpet is sounding!
The graves are shaking!
And your heart,
No longer resting in ashes,
Has gone into fiery torments –
It has been roused up again
And is quaking!
Gretchen:
If only I were away from here!
It is as if the organ were
Depriving me of breath or as if
The singing were taking my heart
And releasing it into Hell.
Chorus:
Therefore when the judge takes his seat,
Anything that has been hidden will appear,
And nothing will remain unpunished.
Gretchen:
How anxious I feel!
The wall columns
Are trapping me!
The vaulting
Is pressing on me! Air!
Evil Spirit:
Hide yourself! Sin and shame
Cannot remain hidden.
Air? Light?
You have had it.
Chorus:
So what is a poor wretch like me going to say
When cross-examined by the advocate?
It is difficult even for the just to be free from care.
Evil Spirit:
They are turning their faces –
The saints are turning from you.
Reaching out their hands to you –
No, the pure are horrified to reach out.
Woe!
Chorus:
So what is a poor wretch like me going to say
When cross-examined by the advocate?
(She falls unconscious)
All translations into English that appear on this website, unless otherwise stated, are by Malcolm Wren. You are free to use them on condition that you acknowledge Malcolm Wren as the translator and schubertsong.uk as the source. Unless otherwise stated, the comments and essays that appear after the texts and translations are by Malcolm Wren and are © Copyright.
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Themes and images in this text:
Air Altars Anger and other strong emotions Blood Books Breath and breathing Churches and chapels Earthquakes Emptiness and fullness The devil Faces Fire Games and play Graves and burials Hands Hearts Heavenly choir Hell Hiding Light Mother and child Narrow and wide Organs Pain Prayers and praying Rooms Saints Sleep Songs (general) Soul Trumpets
The scene is set. In the Cathedral a Requiem is being intoned for Gretchen’s mother, and she is amongst a large crowd (literally she is ‘under’ many people, unter vielem Volke). Behind her is the Evil Spirit. It soon becomes apparent, though, that all of the different voices are within Gretchen herself; she says that she wants to be free of all these thoughts (rather than simply escape from the situation that has created them).
In the context of Faust Part One (published in 1808), this scene follows on from the death of her brother Valentin and his unforgiving condemnation of her behaviour in allowing herself to be seduced by Faust. She does not even need an external voice to convince her that she was guilty when (at Faust’s suggestion) she had given her mother ‘something to help her sleep’. Even before she met Faust, her little sister (born after her father’s death and who her mother had been too weak to look after) had died in her care. Now she seems to be thinking of ways to kill her own baby. This sweet girl, so ‘full of innocence’ as the Evil Spirit puts it, seems to have a deadly touch when it comes to her close family.
Part of the torment must be related to the fact that she had never had any malicious intent; the voice of conscience is so loud because she is (was?) a good person. As the external choir sing the Dies irae the inner voice reminds her that she is not just subject to God’s wrath but is now swayed by her own anger. Her own emotion is blowing on the seemingly extinct ashes and reigniting the flames within. Everything that was calm and settled is now erupting; an earthquake is shaking the graves of the dead (who are not resting in any sort of peace).
The organ joins in as a further voice, and Gretchen feels that it is choking her. The singing of the choir is throwing her heart into the depths of hell. She is no longer an individual member of the congregation; it is she who is crowded as all the voices in her clamour for attention and remind her that she is facing judgement. Now even the massive space of the Cathedral shrinks as the pilasters in the wall imprison her and the vaulting descends on her (this crushing torture even had a legal name: peine forte et dure).
The evil spirit mocks this experience of punishment as a futile attempt to hide or to escape judgement. By now, though, the social element of her situation (her brother’s dying words of condemnation had been a form of ‘What will the neighbours say?’) is no longer the point. She is not trying to hide from the crowd, since she knows that they know. Their voices have been internalised and what is crushing her is not loss of face but despair itself.
Gretchen has allowed herself to be persuaded that others are right to turn away from her, not to reach out to her. In an earlier scene (Part I, scene 17) by the fountain when Lieschen told her that Sibylle was now ‘eating for two’, she had come to realise that her previous habit of joining in the condemnation of ‘fallen women’ had been unthinking and indefensible. However, this new-found sympathy is not strong enough to allow her to defend herself when she feels that she is facing her judge. She can put up no resistance, she can say nothing. She falls unconscious, or, as a more literal translation of the German word ‘Ohnmacht’ would suggest, she falls into powerlessness. The voices fall silent (for now).
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Original Spelling and notes on the text Szene aus Faust Dom. Amt, Orgel und Gesang. Gretchen unter vielem Volke. Böser Geist hinter Gretchen. Böser Geist: Wie anders, Gretchen, war dir's, Als du noch voll Unschuld Hier zum Altar trat'st, Aus dem vergriffnen Büchelchen Gebete lalltest, Halb Kinderspiele, Halb Gott im Herzen! Gretchen! Wo steht dein Kopf? In deinem Herzen, Welche Missetat? Bet'st du für deiner Mutter Seele, die Durch dich zur langen, langen Pein hinüberschlief? Auf deiner Schwelle wessen Blut? - Und unter deinem Herzen Regt sich's nicht quillend schon, Und ängstet dich und sich Mit ahndungsvoller Gegenwart? Gretchen: Weh! Weh! Wär' ich der Gedanken los, Die mir herüber und hinüber gehen Wider mich! Chor: Dies irae, dies illa, Solvet saeclum in favilla, Böser Geist: Grimm faßt dich! Die Posaune tönt! Die Gräber beben! Und dein Herz, Aus Aschenruh' Zu Flammenqualen Wieder aufgeschreckt1, Bebt auf! Gretchen: Wär' ich hier weg! Mir ist als ob die Orgel mir Den Athem versetzte, Gesang mein Herz Im Tiefsten lös'te. Chor: Judex ergo cum sedebit, Quidquid latet adparebit, Nil inultum remanebit. Gretchen: Mir wird so bang2! Die Mauern-Pfeiler Befangen mich! Das Gewölbe Drängt mich! - Luft! Böser Geist: Verbirg dich! Sünd' und Schande Bleibt nicht verborgen, Luft? Licht? Weh dir! Chor: Quid sum miser tunc dicturus, Quem patronum rogaturus? Cum vix justus sit securus. Böser Geist: Ihr Antlitz wenden Verklärte von dir ab. Die Hände dir zu reichen, Schauert's den Reinen. Weh! Chor: Quid sum miser tunc dicturus, Quem patronum rogaturus? (Sie fällt in Ohnmacht) 1 Schubert changed 'aufgeschaffen' (recreated) to 'aufgeschreckt' (roused up again) 2 Schubert changed 'eng' (constricted) to 'bang' (anxious)
Confirmed with Schubert’s probable source, Goethe’s sämmtliche Schriften. Erster Band. / Theater von Goethe. Erster Theil. Faust. Die Laune des Verliebten. Die natürliche Tochter. Wien, 1810. Gedruckt bey Anton Strauß, und in Commission bey Geistinger. pages 187-189; with Goethe’s Werke, Vollständige Ausgabe letzter Hand, Zwölfter Band, Stuttgart und Tübingen, in der J.G.Cottaschen Buchhandlung, 1828, pages 199-201, and with Faust. Eine Tragödie von Goethe, Tübingen, in der J.G.Cotta’schen Buchhandlung, 1808, pages 252-255.
To see an early edition of this text, go to page 187 [197 von 412] here: http://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_%2BZ163965105