He is the ham actor, who has forgotten whether he is auditioning for King Lear, Henry V or Bertie Wooster. He has forgotten his lines, kept on fluffing them, and, what is worse, his rival for the part has his off by heart, as if he really had been rehearsing for the part all his life, rather than merely pretending. The audience, embarassed by the spectacle, fled discreetly at the interval. He feels 'the long melancholy withdrawing roar' of power ebbing away from him, which had so recently surged in his favour. His very own ignorant army are no longer braying for him, and have retreated from the fray.
Perhaps he can rely on his trusty servant, but who is Faust and who is Mephistopheles in this relationship ? This couple is altogether too 'needy' for each other's company. They are locked in, or 'locked down', as it were, in a rather too oppressively close relationship. Very interesting times are predicted, with plenty of domestic turbulence. Confronted by this gruesome twosome, a marriage guidance counsellor would have their work cut out for them. Perhaps none would dare, especially in view of the fact that the couple are children, and there is not the slightest chance that either will ever grow up. Theirs is a peculiarly extreme case of arrested development, which would tax even the most brilliant psychiatrist.
(Thanks are due to Robert Browning and Matthew Arnold, who supplied the appropriate quotations).