The Complete Plays (91 page)

vaunt
: B's reading. A's
daunt
looks like a compositor's error (‘d' and ‘V' are easily confused in black-letter), and both sense and alliteration are against it.

9          
To patient… plaud
: We appeal (the case of) our applause to patient ‘judgements' (with a pun), as to a higher court.

13        
Wittenberg
: For A's
Wertenberg
. The university of Luther and of the Faustbook's Faustus is probably meant; the more theologically radical university of Tübingen in Württemberg is possible but less likely.

15–17  
So soon… name
: Faustus' studies in theology, the fertile ground of sanctified (‘graced') learning, led quickly to his being graced (a technical academic term) with the title of Doctor.

21–2  
waxen wings… overthrow
: An allusion to the flight and fall of Icarus. See (N).

Scene
1

0.1   
SD
The study may have been represented by filling the discovery-space at the back of the stage with books, which were then used as props.

2          
profess
: (i) Claim expertise in, (ii) teach.

3          
commenced
: (i) Begun, (ii) taken a degree (as at Cambridge).

7          
Bene disserere… logices
: (Translated from Latin in line 8) not from Aristotle's treatises on logic, the
Prior
and
Posterior Analytics
(A's
Analutikes
(6) follows the Greek pronunciation), but the open ing definition of the
Dialectic
of Ramus (N).

logices
: Greek genitive, for A's
logicis
.

12        
On kai me on
: Greek, ‘being and non-being', a topic in metaphysics.

13        
ubi… medicus
: Where the philosopher leaves off, there the doctor begins. Not from Galen (N), but from Aristotle,
On Sense and Sense-Perception
, 1.436a.

16        
Summum… sanitas
: (Translated in line 17) adapted from Aristotle,
Nicomachean Ethics
1094a8.

19        
aphorisms
: Principles of medicine, like the
Aphorisms
attributed to Hippocrates.

28–9  
Si una… rei
: If one and the same thing be left to two people, one
(is entitled to) the thing, the other to the value of the thing (
legatur
for A's
legatus
). Very loosely based on Justinian (N),
Institutes
II.XX.8.

31        
Exhaereditare… nisi
: A father cannot disinherit (
exhaereditare
for A's
ex haereditari
) his son unless… Reminiscent of Justinian,
Institutes
II.xiii.

33        
law
: A's
Church
could be defended since Justinian's
Institutes
were central to Canon Law, but B's
law
gives them their rightful place in the
corpus juris
(‘body of the law') and makes better sense.

34        
His
: Of this.

36        
Too servile
: B's reading; A's
The devill
is nonsense.

38        
Jerome's Bible
: St Jerome (N), here pronounced with three syllables, was responsible for the standard Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate.

39        
Stipendium… est
: Romans 6:23 (translated in line 41). Neither this nor lines 42–3 are quotations from the Vulgate text.

42–3  
Sipeccasse… veritas
: 1 John 1:8 (translated in lines 44–5).

49        
Che serà, serà
: Italian proverb, translated in line 50.

53        
Lines… characters
: The illustrations of line 52's ‘necromantic books'.

schemes
: Accepted emendation of A's
sceanes
: diagrams.

characters
: Symbols.

58        
quiet poles
: Motionless poles of the (Ptolemaic) universe.

78        
Jove
: Classicizing euphemism for God.

80        
glutted with conceit
: (i) Filled with hungry longing by the thought, (ii) filled only with imagined anticipation.

92        
public schools
: Universities.

silk
: ForA's
skill
.

95        
the Prince of Parma
: Spanish governor-general of the Netherlands, 1579–92.

98        
fiery keel… bridge
: Parma's bridge over the Scheldt at Antwerp was destroyed by a Dutch fire-ship on 4 April 1585.

114–15  
with… syllogisms / Gravelled
: Confounded with succinct logical arguments.

117      
problems
: Questions posed for scholastic disputation.

119      
Agrippa
: (N) was famed for raising the phantoms (‘shadows', 120) of the dead.

124      
subjects
: Servants, spirits taking material form. B's
spirits
is the easier reading.

127      
Almain rutters
: German cavalry.

131      
Queen of Love
: Venus.

133–4  
from America… treasury
: The American gold which supplied
the wealth of Philip II of Spain is compared to the Golden Fleece carried to Greece by Jason in the Argo.

140      
in
: Supplied from A2.

141      
tongues
: Languages.

well seen
: Well versed.

145      
the Delphian oracle
: The oracle of Apollo at Delphi. A's
Dolphian
is corrected from A2.

157      
Hebrew Psalter… New Testament
: The Psalms and the opening of St John's Gospel were used in conjuring.

Scene
2

2          
sic probo
: Thus I prove it (to cap an argument).

11–12  
That follows… upon't
: Graduates (‘licentiate[s]') like you shouldn't fall into such a
non sequitur
. Wagner parodies the style of scholastic disputation, punning on the physical and logical senses of ‘follows' and ‘stand upon'.

17        
Ask… a thief
: I.e. your witness is as unreliable as one thief's testimony in support of another.

20–21  
corpus naturale… mobile
: A natural body… capable of movement.

22–5  
But that… execution
: Wagner claims that only his good nature makes it safe for them to approach so dangerous a place (or perhaps that they can't get near his standard of wit), then adds that he expects to see them hanged soon anyway.

28–32  
Truly… dear brethren
: A parody of the verbal style, as well as the pious expression, of a puritan (‘precisian').

37        
Rector
: Head of the university.

Scene
3

1–4  
gloomy shadow… breath
: Night, the shadow of the earth in Ptolemaic cosmology, rises into the sky from the south towards the constellation of Orion, the winter rising of which was associated with cloud and rain (Virgil's
nimbosus Orion, Aeneid
1, 535).

9          
anagrammatized
: B's reading; A has
and Agramathist
.

10        
breviated
: The
abbreviated
form puns on the breviary, the Catholic office-book, which included readings from the lives of the saints.

11–12  
Figures… stars
: Representations of everything pertaining to the skies, and symbols of the signs of the Zodiac and the planets.

16–23  
Sint… Mephistopheles
: May the gods of Acheron (Hell) be propitious to me; let the threefold godhead of Jehovah be gone (
or
be powerful); hail, spirits of fire, air and water [
aquatici
for A's
Aquatani
]; prince of the east, Beelzebub, monarch of burning Hell,
and Demogorgon, we ask your favour, that Mephistopheles may appear [
appareat
for A's
apariat
] and rise. Why do you delay [
quid tumoraris
for A's
quod tumeraris
]? By Jehovah, Hell, the consecrated water which I now scatter, by the sign of the cross which I now make, and by our prayers, may Mephistopheles himself now rise to us on our commands [
dicatis
for A's
dicaetis
].

35        
Quin redis… imagine!
: Why don't you return, Mephistopheles, in the guise of a friar!

47        
per accidens
: As a secondary cause (Mephistopheles too speaks the language of scholarship). A's
accident
may indicate Anglicization, or student argot.

61        
confounds hell… Elysium
: Faustus refuses to distinguish Hell from the pagan Elysian fields.

89        
these
: B's reading; A's
those
is probably a corruption from line 88.

109–10  
I'll join… Spain
: Faustus imagines closing the Straits of Gibraltar.

115      
speculation
: Contemplation, study.

Scene
4

3          
pickedevants
: Pointed beards (French
pic à devant
).

quotha
: Indeed, forsooth (used sarcastically).

4          
comings in
: Income, with a bawdy quibble.

5          
goings out
: (i) Expenditure, (ii) holes in clothes. There are similar ‘misunderstandings' throughout the clown's lines.

else
: If you don't believe me.

15        
Qui mihi discipulus
: ‘[You] who [are] my pupil', the opening of William Lily's
Carmen de Moribus
, a didactic poem used as a school textbook.

17        
beaten silk… stavesacre
: Embroidered silk and delousing powder (with puns on the ache of a servant beaten with staves and (18) acres of land).

33        
Gridirons
: Robin's misunderstanding of ‘guilders' (32). The association of gridirons with torture by fire may suggest the pains of hell.

34–6  
French crowns… English counters
: The clown implies that French
écus
are as worthless as ‘counterfeit' English coins. ‘French crowns' were associated with the baldness caused by syphilis (‘the French disease'), and ‘counter' may pun on ‘cunt'.

46        
Balioll and Belcher
: (N) The devils are summoned with comic variants on their names.

49–51  
Do ye… over
: The clown imagines himself with the costume (‘the round slop' (G)) and reputation of a daredevil.

50        
tall
: Brave.

51    
Kill devil
: Perhaps also the name of a strong drink.

55–6  
horns… clefts
: (i) The horns and cloven feet of devils, (ii) the penis (or cuckold's horns) and vulva.

59        
Banios
: Punning on
bagno
(Italian) = brothel.

66        
plackets
: Slits in petticoats; hence, in the bodies beneath.

72–3  
quasi… insistere
: As though to follow in our (= my) footprints (the irregular Latin in A may reflect Wagner's ignorance).

74        
fustian
: Originally a cloth; hence, ‘nonsense' (cf. ‘bombast').

75        
that's flat
: That's for sure.

Scene
5

29        
Veni… Mephistophile!
: Come, come, Mephistopheles!

31        
he lives
: B's reading gives better sense than A's I
live
.

35        
a deed of gift
: Mephistopheles insists on a legally binding document.

42        
Solamen… doloris
: It is a comfort to the miserable to have had companions in sorrow.

74        
Consummatum est
: It is finished (Christ's last words on the cross, in the Latin of the Vulgate, John 19:30).

77        
Homo fugel
: Flee, man! (1 Timothy 6:11).

105      
by these presents
: Not ‘gifts', but ‘documents' (a legal formula).

153      
think no more
: The ‘no' is supplied from A2.

Scene
6

This scene is inserted at this point by modern editors. In A, the action is continuous from the end of Scene 5 to the start of Scene 7.

3          
circles
: (i) Magic circles, (ii) vaginas.

8          
chafing
: (i) Quarrel, (ii) rubbing.

16        
he for… study
: He will wear the cuckold's horns; her ‘private study' hints at her ‘privates'.