©Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia

AUERBACH'S CELLAR 139
ALTMAYER. No, gentlemen, this won't do!
Now look me straight in the face, old mountebank:
I see you but bamboozle us !-
MEPHISTOPHELES.
Yes! yes!
A very likely story-to play tricks
On noble guests like you! now fast-make ready­
Out with the word-pray, sir, what wine shall I give
you ?-
ALTMAYER.
Any and all! whatever I can get.
(After all the holes are bored and stopped, MEPHIS-
TOPHELES, with strange gestures.)
Grapes are of the vine-branch born;
The buck-goat's is a branch of horn
Wine is sap-and grapes are wood,
The wooden board yields wine as good.
All is clear to him that seeth-
Lift the veil and look beneath,
It is but a deeper glance
Under Nature's countenance-
Now behold-your prophet saith­
Miracles-if you have faith.
Every man draw up his stopper,
And drink such wine as he thinks proper.
ALL (as they draw the stoppers, and the wine each has
chosen runs into his glass).
Flow on, bright rill-flow on and fill
Our hearts with joy-flow on at will !
MEPHISTOPHELES. Drink-but be cautious how you
spill :
There's danger if a drop but falls.
[They drink repeatedly.
ALL (sing).
That we will-that we will !­
Happy as the cannibals:
Like five hundred swine we swill.
MEPHISTOPHELES. Look at them, they're the happiest
of men.
©Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia