The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus - Christopher Marlowe (affordable ebook reader .txt) 📗

and there’s no truth in us. Why then, belike we must sin, and so consequently die.

Ay, we must die an everlasting death.
What doctrine call you this, Che sera, sera,9
What will be shall be? Divinity, adieu!
These metaphysics of magicians
And necromantic books are heavenly:
Lines, circles, scenes, letters, and characters;
Ay, these are those that Faustus most desires.
O, what a world of profit and delight,
Of power, of honour, of omnipotence
Is promised to the studious artisan!
All things that move between the quiet poles
Shall be at my command: emperors and kings
Are but obeyed in their several provinces,
Nor can they raise the wind or rend the clouds;
But his dominion that exceeds in this
Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man,
A sound magician is a mighty god:
Here, Faustus, tire thy brains to gain a deity.
Wagner!

Enter Wagner.

Commend me to my dearest friends,
The German Valdes and Cornelius;
Request them earnestly to visit me.

Wagner

I will, sir.

Exit. Faustus

Their conference will be a greater help to me
Than all my labours, plod I ne’er so fast.

Enter Good Angel and Evil Angel. Good Angel

O, Faustus! lay that damned book aside,
And gaze not on it lest it tempt thy soul,
And heap God’s heavy wrath upon thy head.
Read, read the Scriptures: that is blasphemy.

Evil Angel

Go forward, Faustus, in that famous art,
Wherein all Nature’s treasure is contained:
Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky,
Lord and commander of these elements.

Exeunt Angels. Faustus

How am I glutted with conceit of this!
Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please,
Resolve me of all ambiguities,
Perform what desperate enterprise I will?
I’ll have them fly to India for gold,
Ransack the ocean for orient pearl,
And search all corners of the newfound world
For pleasant fruits and princely delicates;
I’ll have them read me strange philosophy,
And tell the secrets of all foreign kings;
I’ll have them wall all Germany with brass,
And make swift Rhine circle fair Wertenberg;
I’ll have them fill the public schools with silk,
Wherewith the students shall be bravely clad;
I’ll levy soldiers with the coin they bring,
And chase the Prince of Parma from our land,
And reign sole king of all the provinces;
Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war
Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp’s bridge,10
I’ll make my servile spirits to invent.

Enter Valdes and Cornelius.11

Come, German Valdes, and Cornelius,
And make me blest with your sage conference.
Valdes, sweet Valdes, and Cornelius,
Know that your words have won me at the last
To practice magic and concealed arts:
Yet not your words only, but mine own fantasy,
That will receive no object; for my head
But ruminates on necromantic skill.
Philosophy is odious and obscure,
Both law and physic are for petty wits;
Divinity is basest of the three,
Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile:
’Tis magic, magic, that hath ravished me.
Then, gentle friends, aid me in this attempt;
And I, that have with concise syllogisms
Gravelled the pastors of the German church,
And made the flowering pride of Wertenberg
Swarm to my problems, as the infernal spirits
On sweet Musaeus12 when he came to hell,
Will be as cunning as Agrippa13 was,
Whose shadow made all Europe honour him.

Valdes

Faustus, these books, thy wit, and our experience
Shall make all nations to canonise us.
As Indian Moors obey their Spanish lords,
So shall the spirits of every element
Be always serviceable to us three;
Like lions shall they guard us when we please;
Like Almain rutters14 with their horsemen’s staves
Or Lapland giants,15 trotting by our sides;
Sometimes like women, or unwedded maids,
Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows
Than have the white breasts of the queen of love:
From Venice shall they drag huge argosies,
And from America the golden fleece
That yearly stuffs old Philip’s treasury;
If learned Faustus will be resolute.

Faustus

Valdes, as resolute am I in this
As thou to live; therefore object it not.

Cornelius

The miracles that magic will perform
Will make thee vow to study nothing else.
He that is grounded in astrology,
Enriched with tongues, well seen in minerals,
Hath all the principles magic doth require.
Then doubt not, Faustus, but to be renowned,
And more frequented for this mystery
Than heretofore the Delphian Oracle.
The spirits tell me they can dry the sea,
And fetch the treasure of all foreign wrecks,
Ay, all the wealth that our forefathers hid
Within the massy entrails of the earth;
Then tell me, Faustus, what shall we three want?

Faustus

Nothing, Cornelius! O this cheers my soul!
Come, show me some demonstrations magical,
That I may conjure in some lusty grove,
And have these joys in full possession.

Valdes

Then haste thee to some solitary grove,
And bear wise Bacon’s and Albertus’16 works,
The Hebrew Psalter, and New Testament;
And whatsoever else is requisite
We will inform thee ere our conference cease.

Cornelius

Valdes, first let him know the words of art;
And then, all other ceremonies learned,
Faustus may try his cunning by himself.

Valdes

First I’ll instruct thee in the rudiments,
And then wilt thou be perfecter than I.

Faustus

Then come and dine with me, and after meat,
We’ll canvass every quiddity thereof;
For ere I sleep, I’ll try what I can do:
This night I’ll conjure, tho’ I die therefore.

Exeunt. Scene II Enter two Scholars.17 First Scholar I wonder what’s become of Faustus, that was wont to make our schools ring with sic probo? Second Scholar That shall we know, for see here comes his boy. Enter Wagner. First Scholar How now, sirrah! Where’s thy master? Wagner God in Heaven knows! Second Scholar Why, dost not thou know? Wagner Yes, I know. But that follows not. First Scholar Go to, sirrah! leave your jesting, and tell us where he is. Wagner That follows not necessary by force of argument, that you, being licentiates, should stand upon: therefore acknowledge your error and be attentive. Second Scholar Why, didst thou not say thou knewest? Wagner Have you any witness on’t? First Scholar Yes, sirrah, I heard you. Wagner Ask my fellow if I be a thief. Second Scholar Well, you will not tell us? Wagner Yes, sir, I will tell you: yet if you were not dunces, you would never ask me such a question; for is not he corpus naturale? and is not