Hear my tale of tragedy:  Faustus:  "Alas, philosophy I have explored  as well as medicine and law  add to these regrettably  my studies in theology  Yet here I sit, a foolish bore  no wiser than I was before  No dog can live like this  knowledge gained is far from bliss  So I resolved my soul to free  through blackest magic and dark alchemy"  (Goethe: Faust)  And from my library old  I have this book which I am told  Holds the key to strangest lands  Places never travelled by man  It will, no doubt, open my eyes  through Hell I will finally find my Paradise  The Fool:  From browsing through this book I have learned  that all that I have ever yearned  may be accomplished easily  with words uttered feasibly  As long as I in my circle remain  nothing can harm me, the demons are chained  And with the next word I do burn  The devils back to Hell return  Faustus:  As a fool summons a devil, so will I  summon the Fallen Angel of Light  And with his widom in my sight  I will remain (both day and night)  as happy as a man can be  for no knowledge will be strange to me  Of stars in heaven I will know  As life itself I will explore  Rain and thunder I do endure, likewise  fire and ice  the elements are torturing me  with the only purpose that I shall see  and know the wisdom of the lord  Lucifer I summon thee!  Mephistopheles:  I have come to visit you this late  (although your spells are out of date)  To see who mocks the name of God  he might be of interest to my lord  Faustus:  Then I will speak, and you hear this:  In my search for eternal bliss  I will give my very soul to you  If what you claim is really true  Then you will serve me loyaly  obey my orders accurately  For me accomplish any task  bring me the moon if I should ask  When time is up you claim your prize:  My soul forever absent from heavenly paradise  As I do sign this covenant  in blood from a cut in my hand  My soul is not for God to claim  I will have twenty-four years with maidens and fame  And now I do enquire of you  The secrets of life, of Oceans blue  of stars upon the mighty sky  of moon and planets far up high  Mephistopheles:  That is not for man to know  as words can not tell what they are of  and man cannot grasp what words cannot command  for words are far more glorious than ever was man  Faustus:  Your tracherous lies are powerless  You do not convince me, for I stress:  do I not grasp love and hate,  pleasure and pain, lust and fate ?  I cannot describe these, yet I know  that in my heart with fire they flow  How I repent my loathsome deeds,  these devils do not fullfill my needs...  Mephistopheles:  Faustus, I am not at all thrilled  you try to escape, yet you have no will  but to bath in all pleasures that flesh can give  even though, as it appears, your virgin is a devil  and now is the day of your fears  I will collect what is mine after twelve years  as day and night I gave you plenty  (twelve and twelve is four-and-twenty)  thus, what was thine  is now forever mine"