As the second Part of _Faust_ is a crowded motley, containing many subjects, obviously of minor importance, such as the volcanic theory of the earth and the disquisition on paper-money, the key-note may be found in the portions which were first composed. Now Act III. contains the story of Helena, and the second part of Act V. Faust’s activity for the general welfare.
Setting out from the conception that the works of Goethe reflect the acts and incidents of his own life, I shall try to explain on that basis the meaning of the most obscure of his writings.
I have already stated that love was the stimulus of Goethe’s activity in youth and age; it is the scarlet thread running through his history. There was no difficulty in his using his love for Frederique as material for a play; that a young man should love a young girl was natural enough. The story of an old man enamoured of a young beauty was quite another matter. It was said that one of the reasons that prevented his marriage with Ulrique de Lewetzow was the fear of ridicule (Lewes, _op. cit._, ii, p. 345), a fear that plays a large part in human affairs. It is easy to understand that the old poet was in a difficulty when he came to write of senile love. Faust’s love for Helena was not that of a supposed old man who became young by doffing his beard and changing his cloak, but of a real old man whom no mystery nor magic was to make young again. And yet old Faust’s love was a true passion, and Goethe has written no finer lines than those describing it.
When the second Part begins, Faust has passed through the terrible crisis of the first Part. Wearied and restless, he seeks a new mode of life.
Life’s pulses now with fresher force awaken To greet the mild ethereal twilight o’er me; This night, thou, Earth! hast also stood unshaken, And now thou breathest, new-refreshed before me, And now beginnest, all thy gladness granting, A vigorous resolution to restore me, To seek that higher life for which I’m panting.[211]
The invoked image of the most beautiful woman in the history of the world transforms Faust’s desire of love into an overwhelming passion.
Have I still eyes? Deep in my being springs The fount of Beauty, in a torrent pouring! A heavenly gain my path of terror brings. The world was void, and shut to my exploring,— And, since my priesthood, how hath it been graced! Enduring 'tis, desirable, firm-based. And let my breath of being blow to waste, If I for thee unlearn my sacred duty! The form, that long erewhile my fancy captured, That from the magic mirror so enraptured, Was but a frothy phantom of such beauty! 'Tis Thou, to whom the stir of all my forces, The essence of my passion's courses,— Love, fancy, worship, madness,—here I render.[212]