MEPHISTOPHELES See where he is, fast asleep.
HORSE-COURSER Ay, this is he. God save ye, Master Doctor.
60 Master Doctor, Master Doctor Fustian! Forty dollars, forty
dollars for a bottle of hay!
MEPHISTOPHELES Why, thou seest he hears thee not.
HORSE-COURSER (holler in his ear) So-ho, ho! So-ho, ho! No, will you not wake? I’ll make you wake ere I go.
[The HORSE-COURSER] pull[s] him by the leg, and pull[s] it away.
Alas, I am undone! What shall I do?
FAUSTUS O my leg, my leg! Help, Mephistopheles! Call the officers! My leg, my leg!
MEPHISTOPHELES Come, villain, to the constable.
HORSE-COURSER O Lord, sir, let me go, and I’ll give you forty dollars more.
70
MEPHISTOPHELES Where be they?
HORSE-COURSER I have none about me. Come to my hostry, and I’ll give them you.
MEPHISTOPHELES Begone, quickly.
HORSE-COURSER runs away.
FAUSTUS What, is he gone? Farewell, he! Faustus has his leg again, and the horse-courser, I take it, a bottle of hay for his labour. Well, this trick shall cost him forty dollars more.
Enter WAGNER.
How now, Wagner, what’s the news with thee?
WAGNER Sir, the duke of Vanholt doth earnestly entreat your
80 company.
FAUSTUS The duke of Vanholt! An honourable gentleman, to whom I must be no niggard of my cunning. Come, Mephistopheles, let’s away to him.
Exeunt.
[Scene 12]
[Enter FAUSTUS with MEPHISTOPHELES.] Enter to them the DUKE [OF VANHOLT] and the DUCHESS. The DUKE speaks.
DUKE Believe me, Master Doctor, this merriment hath much pleased me.
FAUSTUS My gracious lord, I am glad it contents you so well. But it may be, madam, you take no delight in this. I have heard that great-bellied women do long for some dainties or other. What is it, madam? Tell me, and you shall have it.
DUCHESS Thanks, good Master Doctor. And, for I see your
courteous intent to pleasure me, I will not hide from you the
thing my heart desires; and were it now summer, as it is
10 January and the dead time of the winter, I would desire no
better meat than a dish of ripe grapes.
FAUSTUS Alas, madam, that’s nothing. [Aside to MEPHISTOPHELES] Mephistopheles, begone!
Exit MEPHISTOPHELES.
Were it a greater thing than this, so it would content you, you should have it.
Enter MEPHISTOPHELES with the grapes.
Here they be, madam. Will’t please you taste on them?
[The DUCHESS tastes the grapes.]
DUKE Believe me, Master Doctor, this makes me wonder above
the rest, that, being in the dead time of winter and in the
20 month of January, how you should come by these grapes.
FAUSTUS If it like your grace, the year is divided into two circles over the whole world, that when it is here winter with us, in the contrary circle it is summer with them, as in India, Saba, and farther countries in the East; and by means of a swift spirit that I have, I had them brought hither, as ye see. How do you like them, madam? Be they good?
DUCHESS Believe me, Master Doctor, they be the best grapes that e’er I tasted in my life before.
FAUSTUS
I am glad they content you so, madam.
DUKE
30 Come, madam, let us in,
Where you must well reward this learnèd man
For the great kindness he hath showed to you.
DUCHESS
And so I will, my lord, and whilst I live
Rest beholding for this courtesy.
FAUSTUS I humbly thank your grace.
DUKE Come, Master Doctor, follow us and receive your reward.
Exeunt.
[Scene 13]
Enter WAGNER alone.
WAGNER
I think my master means to die shortly,
For he hath given to me all his goods.
And yet methinks, if that death were near,
He would not banquet and carouse and swill
Amongst the students, as even now he doth,
Who are at supper with such belly-cheer
As Wagner ne’er beheld in all his life.
See where they come. Belike the feast is ended.
[Exit WAGNER.]
Enter FAUSTUS with two or three SCHOLARS [and MEPHISTOPHELES].
FIRST SCHOLAR Master Doctor Faustus, since our conference
about fair ladies – which was the beautifull’st in all the world
10 – we have determined with ourselves that Helen of Greece
was the admirablest lady that ever lived. Therefore, Master
Doctor, if you will do us that favour as to let us see that
peerless dame of Greece, whom all the world admires for
majesty, we should think ourselves much beholding unto you.
FAUSTUS
Gentlemen,
For that I know your friendship is unfeigned,
And Faustus’ custom is not to deny
The just requests of those that wish him well,
You shall behold that peerless dame of Greece,
20 No otherways for pomp and majesty
Than when Sir Paris crossed the seas with her
And brought the spoils to rich Dardania.
Be silent then, for danger is in words.
Music sounds and HELEN passeth over the stage.
SECOND SCHOLAR
Too simple is my wit to tell her praise,
Whom all the world admires for majesty.
THIRD SCHOLAR
No marvel though the angry Greeks pursued
With ten years’ war the rape of such a queen,
Whose heavenly beauty passeth all compare.
FIRST SCHOLAR
30 Since we have seen the pride of nature’s works
And only paragon of excellence,
Enter an OLD MAN.
Let us depart, and for this glorious deed
Happy and blest be Faustus evermore.
FAUSTUS
Gentlemen, farewell. The same I wish to you.
Exeunt SCHOLARS.
OLD MAN
Ah, Doctor Faustus, that I might prevail
To guide thy steps unto the way of life,
By which sweet path thou mayst attain the goal
That shall conduct thee to celestial rest!
Break heart, drop blood, and mingle it with tears,
40 Tears falling from repentant heaviness
Of thy most vile and loathsome filthiness,
The stench whereof corrupts the inward soul
With such flagitious crimes of heinous sins,
As no commiseration may expel
But mercy, Faustus, of thy Saviour sweet,
Whose blood alone must wash away thy guilt.
FAUSTUS
Where art thou, Faustus? Wretch, what hast thou done?
Damned art thou, Faustus, damned! Despair and die!
Hell calls for right, and with a roaring voice
50 Says, ‘Faustus, come! Thine hour is come.’
MEPHISTOPHELES gives him a dagger.
And Faustus will come to do thee right.
[FAUSTUS prepares to stab himself.]
OLD MAN
Ah, stay, good Faustus, stay thy desperate steps!
I see an angel hovers o’er thy head,
And with a vial full of precious grace
Offers to pour the same into thy soul.
Then call for mercy and avoid despair.
FAUSTUS
Ah, my sweet friend, I feel thy words
To comfort my distressèd soul.
Leave me a while to ponder on my sins.
OLD MAN
I go, sweet Faustus, but with heavy cheer,
60 Fearing the ruin of thy hopeless soul.
[Exit the OLD MAN.]
FAUSTUS
Accursèd Faustus, where is mercy now?
I do repent, and yet I do despair.
Hell strives with grace for conquest in my breast.
What shall I do to shun the snares of death?
MEPHISTOPHELES
Thou traitor, Faustus, I arrest thy soul
For disobedience to my sovereign lord.
Revolt, or I’ll in piecemeal tear thy flesh.
FAUSTUS
Sweet Mephistopheles, entreat thy lord
To pardon my unjust presumption,
70 And with my blood again I will confirm
My former vow I made to Lucifer.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Do it then quickly, with unfeignèd heart,
Lest greater danger do attend thy drift.
[FAUSTUS cuts his arm and writes with his blood.]
FAUSTUS
Torment, sweet friend, that base and crooked age
That durst dissuade me from thy Lucifer,
With greatest torments that our hell affords.
MEPHISTOPHELES
His faith is great. I cannot touch his soul.
But what I may afflict his body with
I will attempt, which is but little worth.
80
FAUSTUS
One thing, good servant, let me crave of thee
To glut the longing of my heart’s desire:
That I might have unto my paramour
That heavenly Helen which I saw of late,
Whose sweet embracings may extinguish clean
These thoughts that do dissuade me from my vow,
And keep mine oath I made to Lucifer.
MEPHISTOPHELES
Faustus, this, or what else thou shalt desire,
Shall be performed in twinkling of an eye.
Enter HELEN.
FAUSTUS
90 Was this the face that launched a thousand ships
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.
[They kiss.]
Her lips sucks forth my soul. See where it flies!
Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.
[They kiss again.]
Here will I dwell, for heaven be in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.
Enter OLD MAN.
I will be Paris, and for love of thee
Instead of Troy shall Wittenberg be sacked,
And I will combat with weak Menelaus,
100 And wear thy colours on my plumèd crest.
Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel
And then return to Helen for a kiss.
O, thou art fairer than the evening air,
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars.
Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter
When he appeared to hapless Semele,
More lovely than the monarch of the sky
In wanton Arethusa’s azured arms;
And none but thou shalt be my paramour.
Exeunt [FAUSTUS and HELEN, with MEPHISTOPHELES].
OLD MAN
110 Accursèd Faustus, miserable man,
That from thy soul exclud’st the grace of heaven
And fliest the throne of His tribunal seat!
Enter the 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 smiles
At your repulse and laughs your state to scorn!
Hence, hell! For hence I fly unto my God.
Exeunt.
[Scene 14]
Enter FAUSTUS with the 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?
[The SCHOLARS speak among themselves.]
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. [To FAUSTUS] ’Tis but a surfeit. Never fear, man.
10
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 Wittenberg, never read book! And what
20 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
30 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 Mephistopheles. Ah, gentlemen! I gave them my soul for my cunning.
ALL God forbid!
FAUSTUS God forbade it indeed, but Faustus hath done it.
For vain pleasure of four-and-twenty years hath Faustus lost
eternal joy and felicity. I writ them a bill with mine own
40 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, 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 Faustus?
FAUSTUS Talk not of me, but save yourselves and depart.
50 THIRD SCHOLAR God will strengthen me. I will stay with Faustus.
FIRST SCHOLAR [to the THIRD 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, 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
60 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 damned 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!
70 O lente, lente currite noctis equi!
The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,
The devil will come, and Faustus must be damned.
O, I’ll leap up to my God! Who pulls me down?
Se
e, 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!
80 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 reigned 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,
That when you vomit forth into the air,
90 My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths,
So that my soul may but ascend to heaven.
The watch strikes.
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 ransomed me,
Impose some end to my incessant pain.
Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years,
100 A hundred thousand, and at last be saved.
O, no end is limited to damnèd 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 changed
Unto some brutish beast.
All beasts are happy, for, when they die,
Their souls are soon dissolved in elements,
But mine must live still to be plagued in hell.
110 Curst be the parents that engendered me!
No, Faustus, curse thyself. Curse Lucifer,
That hath deprived thee of the joys of heaven.
The clock striketh 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 changed into little waterdrops,
And fall into the ocean, ne’er be found!
My God, my God, look not so fierce on me!
Enter [LUCIFER, MEPHISTOPHELES, and other] DEVILS.
Adders and serpents, let me breathe a while!
Ugly hell, gape not. Come not, Lucifer!
120 I’ll burn my books. Ah, Mephistopheles!
[The DEVILS] exeunt with him.
[EPILOGUE]
Enter CHORUS.
CHORUS
Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,
The Complete Plays Page 38