Vintner, Horse-Courser, Knight, Old Man, Scholars,

Friars, and Attendants.

DUCHESS of VANHOLT.

LUCIFER.

BELZEBUB.

MEPHISTOPHILIS.

Good Angel.

Evil Angel.

The Seven Deadly Sins.

Devils.

Spirits in the shape of ALEXANDER THE GREAT, of his Paramour, and of HELEN of TROY.

Chorus.

of Trasymene,

Where Mars did mate1 the Carthaginians;

Nor sporting in the dalliance of
love,

In courts of kings where state is overturned;
Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds,
Intends our Muse to vaunt his heavenly verse:
Only this, gentlemen, we must perform
The form of Faustus' fortunes, good or bad;
To patient judgments we appeal our plaud,
And speak for Faustus in his infancy.
Now is he born, his parents base of stock,
In Germany, within a town called Rhodes ;
Of riper years to Wertenberg he went,

1 Confound. The Carthaginians were, however, victorious at Lake Trasimenus.

2 Roda, in the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg.—Bullen.

Whereas his kinsmen1 chiefly brought him up.
So soon he profits in divinity,

The fruitful plot of scholarism graced,

That shortly he was graced with doctor's name,
Excelling all whose sweet delight disputes
In heavenly matters of theology;

Till swollen with cunning of a self-conceit,
His waxen wings did mount above his reach,
And, melting, Heavens conspired his overthrow;
For, falling to a devilish exercise,

And glutted now with learning's golden gifts,
He surfeits upon cursèd necromancy.
Nothing so sweet as magic is to him,
Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss.
And this the man that in his study sits!

[Exit.

SCENE I.

FAUSTUS discovered in his Study.3

AUST. Settle thy studies, Faustus, and begin

To sound the depth of that thou wilt profess;

Having commenced, be a divine in

show,

Yet level at the end of every art,

And live and die in Aristotle's works.

should be "kins

1 Whereas, i.e. where. Perhaps "kinsmen man;" it is " uncle" in the prose History. 2 i.e. Knowledge. The word occurs throughout the play in the sense of knowledge or skill.

3 Dyce suggests that probably the Chorus, before going out, drew a curtain, and disclosed Faustus sitting in his study.

Sweet Analytics, 'tis thou hast ravished me,

Bene disserere est finis logices.

Is to dispute well logic's chiefest end?

Affords this art no greater miracle?

Then read no more, thou hast attained the end;

A greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit:

Bid on cai me on1 farewell; Galen come,

Seeing Ubi desinit Philosophus ibi incipit Medicus;
Be a physician, Faustus, heap up gold,

And be eternised for some wondrous cure.
Summum bonum medicinæ sanitas,

The end of physic is our body's health.

Why, Faustus, hast thou not attained that end?
Is not thy common talk found Aphorisms ??
Are not thy bills3 hung up as monuments,
Whereby whole cities have escaped the plague,
And thousand desperate maladies been eased?
Yet art thou still but Faustus and a man.
Couldst thou make men to live eternally,
Or, being dead, raise them to life again,
Then this profession were to be esteemed.
Physic, farewell.-Where is Justinian ?

[Reads.

[Reads.

20

[Reads.

Si una eademque res legatur duobus, alter rem, alter

valorem rei, &c.

A pretty case of paltry legacies!

Ex hæreditare filium non potest pater nisi, &c.

[Reads.

30

1 This is Mr. Bullen's emendation. Ed. 1604 reads Oncaymæon," by which Marlowe meant the Aristotelian v kal μn ov (“being and not being "). The later 4tos. give (with various spelling) "Economy," which is nonsense.

2 Maxims of medical practice.

3 Prescriptions by which he had worked his cures. Professor Ward thinks the reference is rather to "the advertisements by which, as a migratory physician, he had been in the habit of announcing his advent, and perhaps his system of cures, and which were now hung up as monuments' in perpetuum.”—Bullen.

Such is the subject of the Institute

And universal Body of the Law.
This study fits a mercenary drudge,

Who aims at nothing but external trash;

Too servile and illiberal for me.

When all is done divinity is best;

Jerome's Bible, Faustus, view it well.

[Reads.

[Reads.

Stipendium peccati mors est. Ha! Stipendium, &c.
The reward of sin is death. That's hard.

Si peccasse negamus fallimur et nulla est in nobis veritas.
If we say
that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and
there's no truth in us. Why then, belike we must sin,
and so consequently die.

Ay, we must die an everlasting death.

What doctrine call you this, Che sera sera, hem;

What will be shall be? Divinity, adieu !

These metaphysics of magicians

And necromantic books are heavenly :

Lines, circles, scenes, letters, and characters:
Ay, these are those that Faustus most desires.
O what a world of profit and delight,
Of power, of honour, of omnipotence
Is promised to the studious artisan !

All things that move between the quiet poles
Shall be at my command: emperors and kings
Are but obeyed in their several provinces,
Nor can they raise the wind or rend the clouds;
But his dominion that exceeds in this
Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man,
A sound magician is a mighty god:

Here, Faustus, tire thy brains to gain a deity.
Wagner!

The old form of spelling for "sarà."