Manager monologue (Act 5) — Faust: A Tragedy

All very well!--but when a man Has forged a scheme, and sketched a plan He must have sense to use the tool The best that for the job is fit. Consider what soft wood you have to split, And who the people are for whom you write. One comes to kill a few hours o' the night; Another, with his drowsy wits oppressed, An over-sated banquet to digest; And not a few, whom least of all we choose, Come to the play from reading the Reviews. They drift to us as to a masquerade; Mere curiosity wings their paces; The ladies show themselves, and show their silks and laces, And play their parts well, though they are not paid. What dream you of, on your poetic height? A crowded house, forsooth, gives you delight! Look at your patrons as you should, You'll find them one-half cold, and one-half crude. One leaves the play to spend the night Upon a wench's breast in wild delight; Another sets him down to cards, or calls For rattling dice, or clicking billiard balls. For such like hearers, and for ends like these Why should a bard the gentle Muses tease? I tell you, give them more, and ever more, and still A little more, if you would prove your skill. And since they can't discern the finer quality, Confound them with broad sweep of triviality-- But what's the matter?--pain or ravishment?