Faust. Adolphe d'Ennery
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COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Copyright © 2012 by Frank J. Morlock
FIRST EDITION
Published by Wildside Press LLC
www.wildsidebooks.com
DEDICATION
This play is dedicated to Gerry Tetrault,
For fifty-odd years of friendship.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Faust
Mephistopheles
Valentin
Wagner
Fridolin
An Indian
An Angel
Second Indian
A student
Third Indian
First worker
Second worker
Marguerite
Sulphurine
The Sorceress
Olympia
Daphne
A young woman
Sybille
Gudulle
Lisette
The statue of Helen
(Workers, strollers, sorcerers, monkeys, cats, demons, Indians, people, slaves, pages, lords and ladies, guests, coryphées, Nubians, guards, Palanquin bearers)
Characters in the Apotheosis
SCENE I
PROLOGUE
Faust’s Laboratory.
To the left an entrance facing the public, one descends from it into the stage by a few steps—on the same side at the back, a credenza on which are books, papers. To the right an alchemists’ furnace—on the same side a window and a door.
Wagner
(Entering—holding an open book) Fridolin! Fridolin!
Fridolin
Master Wagner?
Wagner
For a moment leave the furnace and come closer.
Fridolin
(Who is at the furnace, a bellows in hand) Here I am, Master Wagner—
Wagner
My lad, who do you think is the wisest—me or Master Faust?
Fridolin
I think it’s you, Master.
Wagner
And why do you think that it’s me, my friend?
Fridolin
Because you told me so, Master.
Wagner
Imbecile! (Charging tone) Go blow! To the furnace! To the furnace!
Fridolin
I’m going—I’m going.
Wagner
Stop. (Pulling him by the ear) What, double moron that you are, you don’t understand that Master Faust has spent his life in studying the causes and effects to fathom what is, while as for me, I intend to create that which is not.
Fridolin
I understand it very well, Master, since you tell me so.
Wagner
Well! He studies what is.
Fridolin
Yes.
Wagner
I study what is not.
Fridolin
Yes—
Wagner
Therefore, I am more wise than he.
Fridolin
Yes—
Wagner
Much more wise than he, because....
Fridolin
Because you tell no so—
Wagner
Brute! Go to your furnaces—!
Fridolin
Yes, Master. (Noise of rapping outside) Master, they’re knocking.
Wagner
Well—! Go open.
Fridolin
(Going calmly to the furnace) Ah. (Shouting) Come in!
Magnus
(Entering) Is this the dwelling of the savant—Doctor Faustus?
Fridolin
This is it.
Magnus
I wish to speak to him.
Wagner
The Doctor is absent—if you’d like to come back?
Magnus
No, I’m going to wait for him. (Sits in a large armchair)
Wagner
Say, there, that’s the Master’s armchair.
Magnus
It must be that of his guest, of his oldest friend.
Wagner
His friend?
Magnus
I am Doctor Magnus. (Wagner and Fridolin bow with respect) It’s been thirty years since Doctor Faustus and I have been writing each other without ever seeing each other. We are indeed both old, and I didn’t want to die without having shaken the hand of the greatest Savant of Germany—
It’s for that I’ve come express from Nurnberg.
Fridolin
(To Wagner) The greatest—? Then it’s not you?
Wagner
(After having made a gesture to Fridolin to remain at his furnace) Is it really true that the science of Master Faustus is so great?
Magnus
Why that question?
Wagner
Because I think I’m as learned as he—
Fridolin
More!
Magnus
(To Wagner) You! And from where comes it that you scorn your Master so much?
Wagner
Why I don’t scorn him, I esteem myself.
Fridolin
More.
Magnus
Speak, then.
Wagner
I don’t place Master Faust above me because I think with a little study I will end by doing what he has done, while he will never do—what I will do.
Fridolin
There you go!
Magnus
What’s that?
Wagner
You know that God created man in his image?
Magnus
I know that in their pride men pretend that.