The Complete Plays (49 page)

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 Albanus' works,

The
Hebrew Psalter
, and New Testament;

And whatsoever else is requisite,

We will inform thee ere our conference cease.

CORNELIUS

160   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 quaddity there of,

For ere I sleep I'll try what I can do.

This night I'll conjure, though I die therefore.

                           
Exeunt.

  
Enter two
SCHOLARS.

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,
[
carrying wine
].

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

10   where he is.

WAGNER
That follows not necessary by force of argument
that you, being licentiate, should stand upon't. Therefore,
acknowledge your error, and be attentive.

SECOND SCHOLAR
Why, didst thou not say thou knew'st?

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

20   
naturale
?
And is not 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, it would
  inform your worships. And so the Lord bless you,

30   preserve you, and keep you, my dear brethren, my dear
brethren.

Exit
[WAGNER].

FIRST SCHOLAR
Nay, then, I fear he is fall'n 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.

40   

Exeunt.

Enter
FAUSTUS
to conjure.

FAUSTUS

Now that the
gloomy shadow
of the earth,

Longing to view Orion's drizzling look,

Leaps from th'Antarctic world unto the sky

And dims the welkin with her pitchy breath,

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
,

10   The
breviated
names of holy saints,

Figures
of every adjunct to the heavens,

And characters of signs and erring 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

Jehovae! Ignei, aerii, aquatici, spiritus, salvete! Orientis

princeps, Beelzebub, inferni ardentis monarcha, et

Demogorgon, propitiamus vos, ut appareat et surgat

20   
Mephistopheles. Quid tu moraris? Per Jehovam, Gehennam,

et consecratam aquam quam nunc spargo, signumque crucis

quod nunc facio, et per vota nostra, ipse nunc surgat nobis

dicatis Mephistopheles!

[
FAUSTUS
sprinkles holy water and makes a sign of the cross
.]

Enter a
DEVIL
[
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
DEVIL
[
MEPHISTOPHELES
].

I see there's virtue in my heavenly words.

Who would not be proficient in this art?

30   How pliant is this Mephistopheles,

Full of obedience and humility!

Such is the force of magic and my spells.

Now, Faustus, thou art conjurer laureate,

That canst command great Mephistopheles.

Quin redis
, Mephistopheles, fratris imagine!

Enter
MEPHISTOPHELES
[
dressed as a friar
].

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,

40   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 now 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,

50   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 Beelzebub,

To whom Faustus doth dedicate himself.

This word ‘damnation' terrifies not him,

60   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,

70   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 for ever 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

80   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 deprivèd 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:

90   Seeing Faustus hath incurred eternal death

By desp'rate 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,

100  And meet me in my study at midnight,

And then resolve me of thy master's mind.

MEPHISTOPHELES
I will, Faustus.

Exit
[
MEPHISTOPHELES
].

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 through 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 land continent to Spain,

110   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 desire,

I'll live in
speculation
of this art

Till Mephistopheles return again.

Exit

Enter
WAGNER
and
[
ROBIN
the Clown.

WAGNER
Sirrah boy, come hither.

ROBIN
How, ‘boy'? 'Swounds, ‘boy'! I hope you have seen many boys with such
pickedevants
as I have. ‘Boy',
quotha
?

WAGNER
Tell me, sirrah, hast thou any
comings in
?

ROBIN
Ay, and
goings out
too, you may see
else
.

WAGNER
Alas, poor slave, see how poverty jesteth in his nakedness!
The villain is bare and out of service, and so hungry that
I know he would give his soul to the devil for a shoulder of
mutton, though it were blood raw.

10   
ROBIN
How? My soul to the devil for a shoulder of mutton, though't were blood raw? Not so, good friend. By'r Lady, I had need have it well roasted, and good sauce to it, if I pay so dear.

WAGNER
Well, wilt thou serve me, and I'll make thee go like
Qui mihi discipulus
?

ROBIN
How, in verse?

WAGNER
No, sirrah, in
beaten silk
and stavesacre.

ROBIN
How, how, knave's acre? [
Aside
] Aye, I thought that
was all the land his father left him. [
To
WAGNER
] Do ye hear?

20   I would be sorry to rob you of your living.

WAGNER
Sirrah, I say in stavesacre.

ROBIN
Oho, oho, ‘stavesacre'! Why then, belike, if I were your man, I should be full of vermin.

WAGNER
So thou shalt, whether thou beest with me or no. But
sirrah, leave your jesting, and bind yourself presently unto
me for seven years, or I'll turn all the lice about thee into
familiars, and they shall tear thee in pieces.

ROBIN
Do you hear, sir? You may save that labour. They are
too familiar with me already. 'Swounds, they are as bold with

30   my flesh as if they had paid for my meat and drink.

WAGNER
Well, do you hear, sirrah? [
Offering money
] Hold, take these guilders.

ROBIN
Gridirons
? What be they?

WAGNER
Why,
French crowns
.

ROBIN
Mass, but for the name of French crowns a man were as good have as many English counters. And what should I do with these?

WAGNER
Why now, sirrah, thou art at an hour's warning whensoever or wheresoever the devil shall fetch thee.