Prologue in Heaven

The three archangels open with hymns to creation: the sun resounding through the spheres, the earth turning inconceivably fast, storms raging between sea and land. "The sight of it gives strength to the angels, though none can fathom it." Then Mephistopheles appears and reports with sardonic brevity from below: everything down there is as bad as always; humans are wretched; he can't even bring himself to torment them properly.

The Lord asks: Do you know Faust? Mephistopheles knows him — the doctor, who has mastered every branch of knowledge and found it empty, and whose hunger drives him from earth to heaven and back again. He proposes a wager: give him to me, and I will lead him gently down my path. The Lord accepts, with a revealing qualification. He is not worried — a good man, in his dark bewildered course, will not forget the way of righteousness. The gardener, he adds, knows well enough what use a young tree will be in time.

Mephistopheles accepts the terms: he wins only if Faust ever says to a moment linger awhile, you are so fair. The Lord dismisses him with mild contempt — you are free to move among men; I have never hated the likes of you, for of all spirits that negate, the roguish one moves me least. Mephistopheles descends. The archangels close with their hymn: the sight gives the angels strength, since none can fathom it, and all high works are as glorious as on the first day. The wager is in place. Everything that follows unfolds inside it.