MEPHISTOPHELES
Each may his own selection make.
ALTMAYER (to FROSCH)
Ha! Ha! You lick your lips already at the thought.
FROSCH
Good, if I have my choice, the Rhenish I propose;
For still the fairest gifts the fatherland bestows.
MEPHISTOPHELES (boring a hole in the edge of the table opposite to where FROSCH is sitting)
Get me a little wax—and make some stoppers—quick!
ALTMAYER
Why, this is nothing but a juggler's trick!
MEPHISTOPHELES (to BRANDER)
And you?
BRANDER
Champagne's the wine for me;
Right brisk, and sparkling let it be!
[MEPHISTOPHELES bores, one of the party has in the meantime prepared the, wax-stoppers and stopped the holes.]
BRANDER
What foreign is one always can't decline,
What's good is often scatter'd far apart.
The French your genuine German hates with all his heart,
Yet has a relish for their wine.
SIEBEL (as MEPHISTOPHELES approaches him)
I like not acid wine, I must allow,
Give me a glass of genuine sweet!
MEPHISTOPHELES (bores)
Tokay
Shall, if you wish it, flow without delay.
ALTMAYER
Come! look me in the face! no fooling now!
You are but making fun of us, I trow.