Hartung  considers  that  the  forms  and  forces  of  social  life
are  directly  presented,  and  finds  a  class  oi  persons,  not  of
idms,  behind  each  mask.  He  seems  to  include  the  elephant
and  its  attendants  (generally  accepted  ^  the  symbol  of  the
State)  among  the  social  allegories,  but  sees,  in  the  conclu-
sion, the  overthrow  of  civil  order.
Deycks  and  Kbstlin  reject  the  idea  of  a  complete  and  con-
sistent allegory  of  Society  and  Government.  The  latter,
moreover,  gives  a  different  explanation  of  the  final  catastro-
phe, which  is  quoted  in  its  appropriate  place.
Kreyssig  says  of  the  scene :  "  Here  the  poet  introduces
that  singular  masquerade  in  which  the  action  of  the  next  fol-
lowing scenes  is  announced  and  allegorically  hinted,  and
which,  to  the  dispassionate  mind,  if  not  exactly  the  most  dif-
ficult to  be  comprehended,  is  yet  one  of  the  most  entangled
and  unrefreshing  portions  of  the  whole  poem.  Here  the  dic-
tion first  displays  all  those  ostentatious  singularities,  which
have  brought  the  Second  Part  of  Faust  into  such  bad  repute
with  a  part  of  the  reading  world.  Here  the  poet  first  mani-
fests, in  easy  latitude,  his  known  tendency  to  mysterious,
symbolic  pranks,  and  loads  the  poem  with  a  multitude  of
adjuncts  which  seem  to  us  unnecessary  for  the  comprehen-
sion and  proper  effect  of  the  whole  —  but  rich  material  for
-the  interpreters  who  are  skilled  in  aesthetic  filigree-work."


339  FAUST.
