s,
Who hear you and are overcome with mirth....
I also laugh with them.

SATAN

Magnanimous
Your laughter sounds! True, you have beaten me,
And I am at your mercy. By some whim,
Trick, technicality, your mind rejects
A noble paradise; and to my pledge
You therefore are entitled. And I stand
Ready to pay it.

FAUST

Ah, at last we have
Acknowledgment of it! Frankness is good
Even for the Devil, Satan.

SATAN

I have been
Frank with you always. And, if to your taste,
I will be franker still. Your stake is won;
You have your triumph: but does it quite fill
The chambers of your heart? Will it suffice
In place of that bright paradise you dreamed
Might be your gain as loser? Ah, my friend,
In copper you have won, but lost in gold!
And victory will not requite for that
Your empty treasury.

FAUST

Not empty quite;
You are too modest.

SATAN

Oh, if you choose, my pledge
Shall be fulfilled, and I will be your dog--
Snarling a little, sometimes--snapping at
Your friends and furniture and lady-loves--
But yet your dog. However, I can do
Better for you than that....

FAUST

Enough! Enough!

SATAN

But hear me! You'll admit, a feather's weight,
A hair's breadth only held you from the gates
That Oldham entered. Almost they sufficed
Your spirit; yes, a moth's wing could have blown
You toward them! 'Twas so nearly I fulfilled
All that I promised. Therefore when I speak,
You will, for justice's sake, concede I am
No absolute bungler, no coarse-palated
Plebeian, as to paradises.

FAUST

No.
I will admit that.

SATAN

Good! Now, I would make
One final offer to you.

Faust, I know
In other regions, beneath other skies,
One haven more, the only one of earth
That can be judged in glory to surpass
This paradise you entered not. My faith
Is absolute that it is to your need
Utterly moulded. Like your heart itself,
Its halls are structured, destinate for you
As perfect refuge. And I say to you:
Give me the leave, and I will lead you there
For one supreme and ultimate trial of choice
That has no doubtful outcome. And my pledge
Shall still be valid! If this refuge gives
Not all that you desire, you still may claim
My service as your slave. Thus do you risk
No atom, but have gain of one last c