mother. Catastrophically, the potion turns out to be poisonous, and the tragedy takes its course. "At the Well" and "By the City Wall" In the following scenes, Gretchen has the first premonitions that she is pregnant as a result of Faust's seduction. Gretchen and Lieschen's discussion of an unmarried mother, in the scene at the Well, confirms the reader's suspicion of Gretchen's pregnancy. Her guilt is shown in the final lines of her speech: "Now I myself am bared to sin! / Yet all of it that drove me here, / God! Was so innocent, was so dear!" In "By the City Wall", Gretchen kneels before the statue of the Virgin and prays for help. She uses the opening of the Stabat Mater, a Latin hymn from the thirteenth century thought to be authored by Jacopone da Todi. Night: Street in Front of Gretchen's Door Valentine, Gretchen's brother, is enraged by her liaison with Faust and challenges him to a duel. Guided by Mephistopheles, Faust defeats Valentine, who curses Gretchen just before he dies. Cathedral Gretchen seeks comfort in the church, but she is tormented by an Evil Spirit who whispers in her ear, reminding her of her guilt. This scene is generally considered to be one of the finest in the play. The Evil Spirit's tormenting accusations and warnings about Gretchen's eternal damnation at the Last Judgement, as well as Gretchen's attempts to resist them, are interwoven with verses of the hymn Dies irae (from the traditional Latin text of the Requiem Mass), which is being sung in the background by the cathedral choir. Gretchen ultimately falls into a faint. Walpurgis Night and Walpurgis Night's Dream A folk belief holds that during the Walpurgis Night (Walpurgisnacht) on the night of 30 April—the eve of the feast day of Saint Walpurga—witches gather on the Brocken mountain, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, and hold revels with the Devil. The celebration is a Bacchanalia of the evil and demonic powers. At this festival, Mephistopheles draws Faust from the plane of love to the sexual plane, to distract him from Gretchen's fate. Mephistopheles is costumed here as a Junker and with cloven hooves. Mephistopheles lures Faust into the arms of a naked young witch, but he is distracted by the sight of Medusa, who appears to him in "his lov'd one's image": a "lone child, pale and fair", resembling "sweet Gretchen".