The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus - Christopher Marlowe (suggested reading .TXT) 📗

class="calibre1">any noyse or rumbling about the house, be not therewith afraid,

for there shall no evill happen unto you,” &c. THE HISTORY OF

DOCTOR FAUSTUS, ubi supra.

<172> O lente, &c.]

“At si, quem malles, Cephalum complexa teneres, Clamares, LENTE CURRITE, NOCTIS EQUI.” Ovid,—AMOR. i. xiii. 39.

<173> That, when you, &c.] So all the old eds.; and it is certain

that awkward changes of person are sometimes found in passages

of our early poets: but qy.,—

“That, when THEY vomit forth into the air, My limbs may issue from THEIR smoky mouths,” &c.?

<174> and I be chang’d

Unto some brutish beast] “Now, thou Faustus, damned wretch,

how happy wert thou, if, as an unreasonable beast, thou mightest

dye without [a] soule! so shouldst thou not feele any more doubts,”

&c. THE HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS, Sig. K. ed. 1648.

<175> Exeunt DEVILS with FAUSTUS] In THE HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS,

his “miserable and lamentable end” is described as follows: it

took place, we are informed, at “the village called Rimlich,

halfe a mile from Wittenberg.”—“The students and the other that

were there, when they had prayed for him, they wept, and so went

forth; but Faustus tarried in the hall; and when the gentlemen

were laid in bed, none of them could sleepe, for that they attnded

to heare if they might be privy of his end. It happened that

betweene twelve and one a clocke at midnight, there blew a mighty

storme of winde against the house, as though it would have blowne

the foundation thereof out of his place. Hereupon the students

began to feare and goe out of their beds, comforting one another;

but they would not stirre out of the chamber; and the host of

the house ran out of doores, thinking the house would fall. The

students lay neere unto the hall wherein Doctor Faustus lay, and

they heard a mighty noyse and hissing, as if the hall had beene

full of snakes and adders. With that, the hall-doore flew open,

wherein Doctor Faustus was, that he began to cry for helpe,

saying, Murther, murther! but it came forth with halfe a voyce,

hollowly: shortly after, they heard him no more. But when it was

day, the students, that had taken no rest that night, arose and

went into the hall, in the which they left Doctor Faustus; where

notwithstanding they found not Faustus, but all the hall lay

sprinkled with blood, his braines cleaving to the wall, for the

devill had beaten him from one wall against another; in one corner

lay his eyes, in another his teeth; a pittifull and fearefull

sight to behold. Then began the students to waile and weepe for

him, and sought for his body in many places. Lastly, they came

into the yard, where they found his body lying on the horse-dung,

most monstrously torne and fearefull to behold, for his head and

all his joynts were dashed in peeces. The fore-named students and

masters that were at his death, have obtained so much, that they

buried him in the village where he was so grievously tormented.

After the which they returned to Wittenberg; and comming into the

house of Faustus, they found the servant of Faustus very sad,

unto whom they opened all the matter, who tooke it exceeding

heavily. There found they also this history of Doctor Faustus

noted and of him written, as is before declared, all save only

his end, the which was after by the students thereto annexed;

further, what his servant had noted thereof, was made in another

booke. And you have heard that he held by him in his life the

spirit of faire Helena, the which had by him one sonne, the which

he named Justus Faustus: even the same day of his death they

vanished away, both mother and sonne. The house before was so

darke that scarce any body could abide therein. The same night

Doctor Faustus appeared unto his servant lively, and shewed unto

him many secret things, the which he had done and hidden in his

lifetime. Likewise there were certaine which saw Doctor Faustus

looke out of the window by night, as they passed by the house.”

Sig. K 3, ed. 1648.

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