Let the Thing Be
All Resolutions
Mephistopheles. Let the thing be! ... Such to encounter is not good ... Medusas's tale to thee is known.
Faust. Forsooth, the eyes they are of one whom, dying, no hand with loving pressure closed; that is the breast whereon I once was lying—The body sweet, beside which I reposed!
(Facing p. 123.)
Description:
Two men leaning against a rock witness a nightmarish scene: demons torment a woman, dark, hooded silhouettes bear torches, and reptiles and distorted figures crawl across the ground.
The caption reads in French:
Meph. : Laisse cet objet, on ne se trouve jamais bien de le regarder … Tu as bien entendu raconter l’histoire de Méduse ?
Faust : Assurément ce sont là les yeux d’un mort, qu’une main amie n’a point fermés ; c’est là le sein que Marguerite m’a livré, c’est le corps charmant que j’ai possédé.
English caption source: Faust, trans. by Bayard Taylor (New York: Arden Book Company, n.d.).
