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, anagrammatis’d,

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, aquatani spiritus, salvete!
Orientis princeps Beelzebub, inferni ardentis monarcha & Demigorgon, propitiamus vos, ut appareat & surgat Mephistophilis.

Quid tu moraris? Per Jehovam, Gehennam, & consecratam aquam quam nunc spargo,

signumque crusis quod nunc facio, & per vota nostra, ipse nunc surgat nobis dicatus Mephistophilis!

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.

I see there’s virtue in my heavenly words;

Who would not be proficient in this art?

How pliant is this Mephistophilis?

Full of obedience and humility,

Such is the force of magic and my spells.

Now Faustus, thou art conjurer laureate

That canst command great Mephistophilis,

Quin regis Mephistophilis fratris imagine.

Enter Mephistophilis.

Mephistophilis

Now, Faustus, what would’st thou have me do?

Faustus

I charge thee wait upon me whilst I live,

To do what ever Faustus shall command,

Be it to make the Moon drop from her sphere,

Or the Ocean to overwhelm the world.

Mephistophilis

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?

Mephistophilis

No, I came now hither of mine own accord.

Faustus

Did not my conjuring speeches raise thee? Speak.

Mephistophilis

That was the cause, but yet per accident,

For when we hear one rack the name of God,

Abjure the scriptures, and his Savior 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, & holds this principle:

There is no chief but only Beelzebub,

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,

Which strike a terror to my fainting soul.

Faustus

What, is great Mephistophilis so passionate,

For being deprived of the joys of heaven?

Learn thou of Faustus manly fortitude,

And scorn those joys thou never shall possess.

Go bear those 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 aide 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 resolve me of thy master’s mind.

Mephistophilis

I will, Faustus.

Exit.

Faustus

Had I as many souls as there be stars,

I’d give them all for Mephistophilis.

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,

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,

‘Til Mephistophilis return again.

Exit.

Faustus

Ah, gentlemen !

1. 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?

2. Scholar

What means Faustus?

3. Scholar

Belike he is grown into some sickness, by being over solitary.

1. Scholar

If it be so, we’ll have physicians to cure him; ‘tis but a surfeit. Never fear man.

Faustus

A surfeit of deadly sin that hath damned both body and soul.

2. Scholar

Yet, Faustus, look up to heaven; remember God’s mercies are infinite.

Faustus

But Faustus’ offense can never 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 Wertenberg, never read book. And what 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 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?

3. 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 the devil draws in my tears. Gush forth blood,

instead of tears. Yea, life and soul. Oh, he stays my tongue.

I would lift up my hands, but, see, they hold them, they hold

them.

All

Who Faustus?

Faustus

Lucifer and Mephistophilis.

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 one blood;

the date is expired, the time will come, and he will fetch Mephistophilis.

1. Schol.

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.

2. Scholar

O, what shall we do to Faustus?

Faustus

Talk not of me, but save yourselves, and, depart.

3. Scholar

God will strengthen me; I will stay with Faustus.

1. 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.

2. Scholar

Pray thou, and we will pray that God may have

mercy upon thee.

Faustus

Gentlemen, farewell. If I live ‘til morning, I’ll visit

you, if not, Faustus is gone to hell.

All

Faustus, farewell.

Exeunt Scholars.

Mephistophilis

I Faustus, now thou hast no hope of heaven,

Therefore despair; think only upon hell,

For that must be thy mansion, there to dwell.

Faustus

O, thou bewitching fiend, ‘twas thy temptation,

Hath robbed me of eternal happiness.

Mephistophilis

I do confess it Faustus, and rejoice;

Twas I, that when thou were’t i’the way to heaven,

Damned up thy passage; when thou took’st the book,

To view the scriptures, then I turned the leaves

And led thine eye.

What weep’st thou? ‘Tis too late; despair. Farewell.

Fools that will laugh on earth, most weep in hell.

Exit.

Enter the Good Angel, and the Evil Angel at several doors.

Good Angel

Oh Faustus, if thou had’st given ear to me,

Innumerable joys had followed thee.

But thou did’st love the world.

Evil Angel

Gave ear to me,

And now must taste hell’s pains perpetually.

Good Angel

O, what will all thy riches, pleasures, pomps,

Avail thee now?

Evil Angel

Nothing but vex thee more,

To want in hell, that had on earth such store.

Music while the throne descends.

Good Angel

O, thou hast lost celestial happiness,

Pleasures unspeakable, bliss without end.

Had’st thou affected sweet divinity,

Hell, or the Devil, had had no power on thee.

Had’st thou kept on that way, Faustus behold,

In what resplendent glory thou had’st set

In yonder throne, like those bright shining Saints,

And triumphed over hell. That hast thou lost,

And now poor soul must thy good angel leave thee.

The jaws of hell are open to receive thee.

Exit.

Hell is discovered.

Evil Angel

Now, Faustus, let shine eyes with horror stare

Into that vast perpetual torture-house.

There are the Furies tossing damned souls,

On burning forks; their bodies broil in lead.

There are live quarters broiling on the coals,

That ne’er can die. This ever-burning chair,

Is for o’er-tortured souls to rest them in.

These, that are fed with sops of flaming fire,

Were gluttons, and loved only delicates,

And laughed to see the poor starve at their gates.

But yet all these are nothing; thou shalt see

Ten thousand tortures that more horrid be.

Faustus

O, I have seen enough to torture me.

Evil

Nay, thou must feel them, taste the smart of all.

He that loves pleasure, must for pleasure fall.

And so I leave thee, Faustus, till anon.

Then wilt thou tumble in confusion.

Exit.

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.

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?

See, see where Christ’s blood streames in the firmament;

One drop would save my soule, half a drop, ah, my Christ!

Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ,

Yet will I call on him. Oh spare me, Lucifer!

Where is it now? ‘Tis gone,

And see where God stretcheth out his arm,

And bends his ireful brows.

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 laboring cloud,

That when you vomit forth into the air,

My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths,

So that my soul may but ascend to heaven.

Ah, half the hour is past:

The watch strikes. the half hour

‘Twill all be past anon.

Oh 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,

A hundred thousand, and at last be saved.

O, no end is limited to damned souls.

Why wert thou not a creature wanting soul?

Or, why is this immortal that thou hast?

Ah, Pythagoras’ metempsychosij , 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.

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 water drops,

And fall into the ocean, ne’er be found.

My God, my God, look not so fierce on me;

Enter Devils.

Adders, and serpents, let me breathe a while;

Ugly hell gape not, come not Lucifer;

I’ll burn my books! Ah, Mephistophilis

 Exeunt Devils with Faustus.

Enter Chorus.

[Compare Goethe:]

Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,

And burned is Apollo’s laurel bough,

That sometime grew within this learned man.

Faustus is gone; regard his hellish fall,

Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise,

Only to wonder at unlawful things,

Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits,

To practice more than heavenly power permits. Exit.

Terminat hora diem,terminat auctor opus.

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