The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (ebook reader for comics txt) 📕

thousand stars;

Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter

When he appear’d to hapless Semele;

More lovely than the monarch of the sky

In wanton Arethusa’s azur’d arms;

And none but thou shalt<165> be my paramour!

[Exeunt.] Enter the OLD MAN.<166>

OLD MAN. Accursed Faustus, miserable man,

That from thy soul exclud’st the grace of heaven,

And fly’st the throne of his tribunal-seat!

Enter DEVILS.

Satan begins to sift me with his pride:

As in this furnace God shall try my faith,

My faith, vile hell, shall triumph over thee.

Ambitious fiends, see how the heavens smile

At your repulse, and laugh your state to scorn!

Hence, hell! for hence I fly unto my God.

[Exeunt,—on one side, DEVILS, on the other, OLD MAN.] Enter FAUSTUS,<167> with SCHOLARS.

FAUSTUS. Ah, gentlemen!

FIRST SCHOLAR. What ails Faustus?

FAUSTUS. Ah, my sweet chamber-fellow, had I lived with thee,

then had I lived still! but now I die eternally. Look, comes

he not? comes he not?

SECOND SCHOLAR. What means Faustus?

THIRD SCHOLAR. Belike he is grown into some sickness by being

over-solitary.

FIRST SCHOLAR. If it be so, we’ll have physicians to cure him.

—‘Tis but a surfeit; never fear, man.

FAUSTUS. A surfeit of deadly sin, that hath damned both body

and soul.

SECOND SCHOLAR. Yet, Faustus, look up to heaven; remember God’s

mercies are infinite.

FAUSTUS. But Faustus’ offence can ne’er be pardoned: the serpent

that tempted Eve may be saved, but not Faustus. Ah, gentlemen,

hear me with patience, and tremble not at my speeches! Though

my heart pants and quivers to remember that I have been a student

here these thirty years, O, would I had never seen Wertenberg,

never read book! and what wonders I have done, all Germany can

witness, yea, all the world; for which Faustus hath lost both

Germany and the world, yea, heaven itself, heaven, the seat of

God, the throne of the blessed, the kingdom of joy; and must

remain in hell for ever, hell, ah, hell, for ever! Sweet friends,

what shall become of Faustus, being in hell for ever?

THIRD SCHOLAR. Yet, Faustus, call on God.

FAUSTUS. On God, whom Faustus hath abjured! on God, whom Faustus

hath blasphemed! Ah, my God, I would weep! but the devil draws in

my tears. Gush forth blood, instead of tears! yea, life and soul!

O, he stays my tongue! I would lift up my hands; but see, they

hold them, they hold them!

ALL. Who, Faustus?

FAUSTUS. Lucifer and Mephistophilis. Ah, gentlemen, I gave them

my soul for my cunning!<168>

ALL. God forbid!

FAUSTUS. God forbade it, indeed; but Faustus hath done it: for

vain pleasure of twenty-four years hath Faustus lost eternal joy

and felicity. I writ them a bill with mine own blood: the date

is expired; the time will come, and he will fetch me.

FIRST SCHOLAR. Why did not Faustus tell us of this before,<169>

that divines might have prayed for thee?

FAUSTUS. Oft have I thought to have done so; but the devil

threatened to tear me in pieces, if I named God, to fetch both

body and soul, if I once gave ear to divinity: and now ‘tis too

late. Gentlemen, away, lest you perish with me.

SECOND SCHOLAR. O, what shall we do to save<170> Faustus?

FAUSTUS. Talk not of me, but save yourselves, and depart.

THIRD SCHOLAR. God will strengthen me; I will stay with Faustus.

FIRST SCHOLAR. Tempt not God, sweet friend; but let us into the

next room, and there pray for him.

FAUSTUS. Ay, pray for me, pray for me; and what noise soever

ye hear,<171> come not unto me, for nothing can rescue me.

SECOND SCHOLAR. Pray thou, and we will pray that God may have

mercy upon thee.

FAUSTUS. Gentlemen, farewell: if I live till morning, I’ll visit

you; if not, Faustus is gone to hell.

ALL. Faustus, farewell.

[Exeunt SCHOLARS.—The clock strikes eleven.]

FAUSTUS. Ah, Faustus,

Now hast thou but one bare hour to live,

And then thou must be damn’d perpetually!

Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven,

That time may cease, and midnight never come;

Fair Nature’s eye, rise, rise again, and make

Perpetual day; or let this hour be but

A year, a month, a week, a natural day,

That Faustus may repent and save his soul!

O lente,<172> lente currite, noctis equi!

The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,

The devil will come, and Faustus must be damn’d.

O, I’ll leap up to my God!—Who pulls me down?—

See, see, where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament!

One drop would save my soul, half a drop: ah, my Christ!—

Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!

Yet will I call on him: O, spare me, Lucifer!—

Where is it now? ‘tis gone: and see, where God

Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!

Mountains and hills, come, come, and fall on me,

And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!

No, no!

Then will I headlong run into the earth:

Earth, gape! O, no, it will not harbour me!

You stars that reign’d at my nativity,

Whose influence hath allotted death and hell,

Now draw up Faustus, like a foggy mist.

Into the entrails of yon labouring cloud[s],

That, when you<173> vomit forth into the air,

My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths,

So that my soul may but ascend to heaven!

[The clock strikes the half-hour.]

Ah, half the hour is past! ‘twill all be past anon

O God,

If thou wilt not have mercy on my soul,

Yet for Christ’s sake, whose blood hath ransom’d me,

Impose some end to my incessant pain;

Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years,

A hundred thousand, and at last be sav’d!

O, no end is limited to damned souls!

Why wert thou not a creature wanting soul?

Or why is this immortal that thou hast?

Ah, Pythagoras’ metempsychosis, were that true,

This soul should fly from me, and I be chang’d

Unto some brutish beast!<174> all beasts are happy,

For, when they die,

Their souls are soon dissolv’d in elements;

But mine must live still to be plagu’d in hell.

Curs’d be the parents that engender’d me!

No, Faustus, curse thyself, curse Lucifer

That hath depriv’d thee of the joys of heaven.

[The clock strikes twelve.]

O, it strikes, it strikes! Now, body, turn to air,

Or Lucifer will bear thee quick to hell!

[Thunder and lightning.]

O soul, be chang’d into little water-drops,

And fall into the ocean, ne’er be found!

Enter DEVILS.

My God, my god, look not so fierce on me!

Adders and serpents, let me breathe a while!

Ugly hell, gape not! come not, Lucifer!

I’ll burn my books!—Ah, Mephistophilis!

[Exeunt DEVILS with FAUSTUS.<175>] Enter CHORUS.

CHORUS. Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,

And burned is Apollo’s laurel-bough,

That sometime grew within this learned man.

Faustus is gone: regard his hellish fall,

Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise,

Only to wonder at unlawful things,

Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits

To practice more than heavenly power permits.

[Exit.]

Terminat hora diem; terminat auctor opus.

<1> mate] i.e. confound, defeat.

<2> vaunt] So the later 4tos.—2to 1604 “daunt.”

<3> her] All the 4tos “his.”

<4> Whereas] i.e. where.

<5> cunning] i.e. knowledge.

<6> now] So the later 4tos.—2to 1604 “more.”

<7> FAUSTUS discovered in his study] Most probably, the Chorus,

before going out, drew a curtain, and discovered Faustus sitting.

In B. Barnes’s DIVILS CHARTER, 1607, we find; “SCEN. VLTIMA.

ALEXANDER VNBRACED BETWIXT TWO CARDINALLS in his study LOOKING

VPON A BOOKE, whilst a groome draweth the Curtaine.” Sig. L 3.

<8> Analytics, ‘tis thou, &c.] Qy. “Analytic”? (but such

phraseology was not uncommon).

<9> that] So the later 4tos.—2to 1604 “the” (the printer

having mistaken “yt” for “ye”).

<10> Economy] So the later 4tos (with various spelling).—2to 1604

“Oncaymaeon.”

<11> and] So the later 4tos.—Not in 4to 1604.

<12> Couldst] So the later 4tos.—2to 1604 “Wouldst.”

<13> men] So the later 4tos.—2to 1604 “man.”

<14> legatur] All the 4tos “legatus.”

<15> &c.] So two of the later 4tos.—Not in 4to 1604.

<16> law] So the later 4tos.—2to 1604 “Church.”

<17> This] So the later 4tos.—2to 1604 “His.”

<18> Too servile] So the later 4tos.—2to 1604 “The deuill.”

<19> Che sera, sera] Lest it should be thought that I am wrong

in not altering the old spelling here, I may quote from Panizzi’s

very critical edition of the ORLANDO FURIOSO,

“La satisfazion ci SERA pronta.” C. xviii. st. 67.

<20> scenes] “And sooner may a gulling weather-spie

By drawing forth heavens SCEANES tell certainly,” &c. Donne’s FIRST SATYRE,—p. 327, ed. 1633.

<21> tire] So the later 4tos.—2to 1604 “trie.”

<22> Enter WAGNER, &c.] Perhaps the proper arrangement is,—

“Wagner! Enter WAGNER. Commend me to my dearest friends,” &c.

<23> treasure] So the later 4tos.—2to 1604 “treasury.”

<24> Jove] So again, p. 84, first col.,

“Seeing Faustus hath incurr’d eternal death By desperate thoughts against JOVE’S deity,” &c.:

and I may notice that Marlowe is not singular in applying the name

JOVE to the God of Christians:—

“Beneath our standard of JOUES powerfull sonne [i.e. Christ]”. MIR. FOR MAGISTRATES, p. 642, ed. 1610. “But see the judgement of almightie JOUE,” &c. Id. p. 696. “O sommo GIOVE per noi crocifisso,” &c. Pulci,—MORGANTE MAG. C. ii. st. 1.

<25> these elements] So again, “Within the bowels of THESE

elements,” &c., p. 87, first col,—“THESE” being

equivalent to THE. (Not unfrequently in our old writers THESE

is little more than redundant.)

<26> resolve] i.e. satisfy, inform.

<27> silk] All the 4tos “skill” (and so the modern editors!).

<28> the] So the later 4tos.—2to 1604 “our.”

<29> the fiery keel at Antwerp’s bridge] During the blockade

of Antwerp by the Prince of Parma in 1585, “They of Antuerpe

knowing that the bridge and the Stocadoes were finished,

made a great shippe, to be a meanes to breake all this worke

of the prince of Parmaes: this great shippe was made of masons

worke within, in the manner of a vaulted caue: vpon the hatches

there were layed myll-stones, graue-stones, and others of great

weight; and within the vault were many barrels of powder, ouer

the which there were holes, and in them they had put matches,

hanging at a thred, the which burning vntill they came vnto

the thred, would fall into the powder, and so blow vp all.

And for that they could not haue any one in this shippe to

conduct it, Lanckhaer, a sea captaine of the Hollanders, being

then in Antuerpe, gaue them counsell to tye a great beame at the

end of it, to make it to keepe a straight course in the middest

of the streame. In this sort floated this