Here, let me go, you fool!
[Suddenly aroused, some of the crowd surge forward
toward the platform. From the back of the
room someone hurls a chair, which strikes the great
chandelier: the lights instantly go out, leaving the
hall in total darkness. Confused cries, footsteps,
blows.
CRIES
What're you about?... Let go!... Where are the lights?...
[Suddenly two wall-brackets are illuminated, disclosing
part of the crowd massed on the platform.
As they surge back, there remains on the platform,
fallen and motionless, the figure of Faust. He raises
his head slowly.
FAUST
Ah, Satan!... worthy serf to my command!...
Go! I release you. For I would not die
With such a slave— Nay, though I die alone....
[Suddenly the door bursts open, and in surge the
maskers, in greater numbers and even wilder tumult
than before. Dancing grotesquely, linked hand in
hand, they zigzag through the hall, overturning
chairs and singing at the top of their voices.
THE MASKERS
Oh, children, children, children dear,
We cannot wait for any New Year.
So let us celebrate now and here
With rah, rah, rah and a bottle of beer!
CURTAIN
THE FIFTH ACT
The scene is once more Faust's library. The dim slanting sunlight of late afternoon streams through the open windows, touching the gold of books and the brown of furniture with an enamel-like brilliancy.