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

that mobile? then wherefore should you ask me such a question? But that I am by nature phlegmatic, slow to wrath, and prone to lechery (to love, I would say), it were not for you to come within forty foot of the place of execution, although I do not doubt to see you both hanged the next sessions. Thus having triumphed over you, I will set my countenance like a precisian, and begin to speak thus:⁠—Truly, my dear brethren, my master is within at dinner, with Valdes and Cornelius, as this wine, if it could speak, would inform your worships; and so, the Lord bless you, preserve you, and keep you, my dear brethren, my dear brethren. Exit. First Scholar Nay, then, I fear he is fallen into that damned Art for which they two are infamous through the world. Second Scholar Were he a stranger, and not allied to me, yet should I grieve for him. But, come, let us go and inform the Rector, and see if he by his grave counsel can reclaim him. First Scholar O, but I fear me nothing can reclaim him. Second Scholar Yet let us try what we can do. Exeunt. Scene III Enter Faustus to conjure.18 Faustus

Now that the gloomy shadow of the earth
Longing to view Orion’s drizzling look,
Leaps from th’ antartic world unto the sky,
And dims the welkin with her pitchy breath,19
Faustus, begin thine incantations,
And try if devils will obey thy hest,
Seeing thou hast prayed and sacrificed to them.
Within this circle is Jehovah’s name,
Forward and backward anagrammatized,
The breviated names of holy saints,
Figures of every adjunct to the Heavens,
And characters of signs and erring20 stars,
By which the spirits are enforced to rise:
Then fear not, Faustus, but be resolute,
And try the uttermost magic can perform.

Sint mihi Dei Acherontis propitii! Valeat numen triplex Jehovoe! Ignei, aerii, aquatani spiritus, salvete! Orientis princeps Belzebub, inferni ardentis monarcha, et Demogorgon, propitiamus vos, ut appareat et surgat Mephistopheles. Quid tu moraris?21 per Jehovam, Gehennam, et consecratam aquam quam nunc spargo, signumque crucis quod nunc facio, et per vota nostra, ipse nunc surgat nobis dicatus Mephistopheles!

Enter Mephistopheles.

I charge thee to return, and change thy shape;
Thou art too ugly to attend on me.
Go, and return an old Franciscan friar;
That holy shape becomes a devil best.

Exit Mephistopheles.

I see there’s virtue in my heavenly words;
Who would not be proficient in this art?
How pliant is this Mephistopheles,
Full of obedience and humility!
Such is the force of magic and my spells:
Now Faustus, thou art conjuror laureat,
That canst command great Mephistopheles:
Quin regis Mephistopheles fratris imagine.

Re-enter Mephistopheles like a Franciscan Friar.22 Mephistopheles

Now, Faustus, what wouldst thou have me do?

Faustus

I charge thee wait upon me whilst I live,
To do whatever Faustus shall command,
Be it to make the moon drop from her sphere,
Or the ocean to overwhelm the world.

Mephistopheles

I am a servant to great Lucifer,
And may not follow thee without his leave
No more than he commands must we perform.

Faustus

Did not he charge thee to appear to me?

Mephistopheles

No, I came hither of mine own accord.

Faustus

Did not my conjuring speeches raise thee?
Speak.

Mephistopheles

That was the cause, but yet per accidens;
For when we hear one rack the name of God,
Abjure the Scriptures and his Saviour Christ,
We fly, in hope to get his glorious soul;
Nor will we come, unless he use such means
Whereby he is in danger to be damned:
Therefore the shortest cut for conjuring
Is stoutly to abjure the Trinity,
And pray devoutly to the Prince of Hell.

Faustus

So Faustus hath
Already done; and holds this principle,
There is no chief but only Belzebub,
To whom Faustus doth dedicate himself.
This word “damnation” terrifies not him,
For he confounds hell in Elysium;
His ghost be with the old philosophers!
But, leaving these vain trifles of men’s souls,
Tell me what is that Lucifer thy lord?

Mephistopheles

Arch-regent and commander of all spirits.

Faustus

Was not that Lucifer an angel once?

Mephistopheles

Yes, Faustus, and most dearly loved of God.

Faustus

How comes it, then, that he is Prince of devils?

Mephistopheles

O, by aspiring pride and insolence;
For which God threw him from the face of Heaven.

Faustus

And what are you that live with Lucifer?

Mephistopheles

Unhappy spirits that fell with Lucifer,
Conspired against our God with Lucifer,
And are forever damned with Lucifer.

Faustus

Where are you damned?

Mephistopheles

In hell.

Faustus

How comes it then that thou art out of hell?

Mephistopheles

Why this is hell, nor am I out of it:
Think’st thou that I who saw the face of God,
And tasted the eternal joys of Heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells,
In being deprived of everlasting bliss?
O Faustus! leave these frivolous demands,
Which strike a terror to my fainting soul.

Faustus

What, is great Mephistopheles so passionate
For being deprived of the joys of Heaven?
Learn thou of Faustus manly fortitude,
And scorn those joys thou never shalt possess.
Go bear these tidings to great Lucifer:
Seeing Faustus hath incurred eternal death
By desperate thoughts against Jove’s deity,
Say, he surrenders up to him his soul,
So he will spare him four and twenty years,
Letting him live in all voluptuousness;
Having thee ever to attend on me;
To give me whatsoever I shall ask,
To tell me whatsoever I demand,
To slay mine enemies, and aid my friends,
And always be obedient to my will.
Go and return to mighty Lucifer,
And meet me in my study at midnight,
And then resolve23 me of thy master’s mind.

Mephistopheles

I will, Faustus.

Exit. Faustus

Had I as many souls as there be stars,
I’d give them all for Mephistopheles.
By him I’ll be great Emperor of the world,
And make a bridge thorough the moving air,
To pass the ocean with a band of men:
I’ll join the hills that bind the Afric shore,
And make that country continent to Spain,
And both contributory to my crown.
The Emperor shall not live but by my leave,
Nor any potentate of Germany.
Now that I have obtained what I desired,
I’ll live in speculation of this art,
Till Mephistopheles return again.

Exit. Scene IV Enter Wagner and