Faust (Parts 1 and 2) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | Part 1, Scenes 21-22

[Music] part one scene 21 of faust valporgus night faust and mephistopheles are walking in the mountains soon witches and warlocks are arriving mephistopheles and faust reach their campfires mephistopheles chats to a general a government minister and an author they meet various witches and spirits faust pronounces it affair to beat all fairs suddenly he

sees a girl who looks like gretchen mephistopheles says it's medusa he says whoever sees her thinks she's his own sweetheart mephistopheles and faust go off to the theater to see an amateur production in part one scene 22 valporgis night's dream the play they see is valporgus night's dream also called oberon and titania's golden

wedding shakespearean characters the fairy king and queen oberon and titania have been quarreling and playing tricks on each other they are happily reunited in celebrating their 50th anniversary the mischievous puck sings the air spirit aerial dances members of the orchestra the cast and the audience comment on the play the vaul porgis night festival and other

topics for the most part the two valporgis night scenes are divorced from the rest of the story neither faust nor mephistopheles appears in scene 22 and the scene is frequently left out of stage productions of part one same goes for seam 21. scenes 21 and 22 seem to contain mostly snide remarks about various groups and

individuals the best example of this is guerta's several digs at author and publisher friedrich nikolai one of germany's foremost enlightenment thinkers and an ardent critic of goethe and other early representatives of romanticism goethe and nikolai had a lifelong literary feud in addition to satires and negative reviews of goethe's work nikolai also refused to publish a number