Faust [part 1]. Translated Into English in the Original Metres · Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
MANAGER
You two, who oft a helping hand Have lent, in need and tribulation. Come, let me know your expectation Of this, our enterprise, in German land! I wish the crowd to feel itself well treated, Especially since it lives and lets me live; The posts are set, the booth of boards completed. And each awaits the banquet I shall give. Already there, with curious eyebrows raised, They sit sedate, and hope to be amazed. I know how one the People’s taste may flatter, Yet here a huge embarrassment I feel: What they’re accustomed to, is no great matter, But then, alas! they’ve read an awful deal. How shall we plan, that all be fresh and new,— Important matter, yet attractive too? For ’tis my pleasure-to behold them surging, When to our booth the current sets apace, And with tremendous, oft-repeated urging, Squeeze onward through the narrow gate of grace: By daylight even, they push and cram in To reach the seller’s box, a fighting host, And as for bread, around a baker’s door, in famine, To get a ticket break their necks almost. This miracle alone can work the Poet On men so various: now, my friend, pray show it.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.