Enter Chorus.

Chorus. Not marching now in fields of Thrasy

mene,

Where Mars did mate* the Carthaginians;
Nor sporting in the dalliance of love,
In courts of kings where state is overturn'd;
Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds,
Intends our Muse to vaunt + her 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 call'd Rhodes:
Of riper years, to Wertenberg he went,
Whereas § his kinsmen chiefly brought him up.
So soon he profits in divinity,

The fruitful plot of scholarism grac'd,
That shortly he was grac'd with doctor's name,
Excelling all whose sweet delight disputes
In heavenly matters of theology;

*mate] i. e. confound, defeat.

+ vaunt] So the later 4tos.-2to 1604 "daunt." ther] All the 4tos "his."

§ Whereas] i. e. where.

cunning] i. e. knowledge.

now] So the later 4tos.-2to 1604 "more."

When all is done, divinity is best:
Jerome's Bible, Faustus; view it well. [Reads.
Stipendium peccati mors est. Ha! Stipendium, &c.
The reward of sin is death: that's hard. [Reads]
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,++
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 promis'd to the studious artizan !

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.

* Couldst] So the later 4tos.-2to 1604 "Wouldst."
+ men] So the later 4tos.-2to 1604 " man."
legatur] All the 4tos "legatus."

§ &c.] So two of the later 4tos.-Not in 4to 1604.
law] So the later 4tos.-2to 1604 "Church."
This] So the later 4tos.-2to 1604 "His."

** Too servile] So the later 4tos.-2to 1604 "The deuill."

tt Che sera, sera] Lest it should be thought that I am wrong in not altering the old spelling here, I may quote from Panizzi's very critical edition of the Orlando Furioso, "La satisfazion ci serà pronta." C. xviii. st. 67. tt scenes] "And sooner may a gulling weather-spie By drawing forth heavens Sceanes tell certainly," &c.

Donne's First Satyre,-p. 327, ed. 1633.

$$ tire] So the later 4tos.-2to 1604 "trie."

Enter WAGNER.*

Wagner, commend me to my dearest friends,
The German Valdes and Cornelius;
Request them earnestly to visit me.
Wag. I will, sir.

[Exit. Faust. Their conference will be a greater help

to me

Than all my labours, plod I ne'er so fast.

Enter Good Angel and Evil Angel.

G. Ang. O, Faustus, lay that damnèd book aside,

And gaze not on it, lest it tempt thy soul,
And heap God's heavy wrath upon thy head!
Read, read the Scriptures :-that is blasphemy.

E. Ang. Go forward, Faustus, in that famous

art

Wherein all Nature's treasure† is contain'd:
Be thou on earth as Jove ‡ is in the sky,
Lord and commander of these elements.§
[Exeunt Angels.
Faust. How am I glutted with conceit of this!
Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please,
Resolve me of all ambiguities,
Perform what desperate enterprise I will?
I'll have them fly to India for gold,
Ransack the ocean for orient pearl,
And search all corners of the new-found world
For pleasant fruits and princely delicates;
I'll have them read me strange philosophy,
And tell the secrets of all foreign kings;
I'll have them wall all Germany with brass,
And make swift Rhine circle fair Wertenberg;
I'll have them fill the public schools with silk, T

Enter WAGNER.

Commend me to my dearest friends," &c. + treasure] So the later 4tos.-2to 1604 "treasury." Jove] So again, p. 84, first col.,

"Seeing Faustus hath incurr'd eternal death

By desperate thoughts against Jove's deity," &c. : and I may notice that Marlowe is not singular in applying the name Jove to the God of Christians :"Beneath our standard of Joues powerfull sonne [i. e. Christ]'.

Mir. for Magistrates, p. 642, ed. 1610. "But see the judgement of almightie Joue," &c.

Id. p. 696. "O sommo Giove per noi crocifisso," &c. Pulci,-Morgante Mag. C. ii. st. 1.

these elements] So again, "Within the bowels of these elements," &c, p. 87, first col,-"these" being equiva lent to the. (Not unfrequently in our old writers these is little more than redundant.)

Resolve] i. e. satisfy, inform.

silk] All the 4tos "skill" (and so the modern editors !).

Wherewith the students shall be bravely clad;
I'll levy soldiers with the coin they bring,
And chase the Prince of Parma from our land,
And reign sole king of all the* provinces;
Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war,
Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp's bridge,+
I'll make my servile spirits to invent.

Enter VALDES and CORNELIUS.

Come, German Valdes, and Cornelius,

And make me blest with your sage conference. Valdes, sweet Valdes, and Cornelius,

Know that your words have won me at the last
To practise magic and concealed arts:
Yet not your words only, ‡ but mine own fantasy,
That will receive no object; for my head
But ruminates on necromantic skill.
Philosophy is odious and obscure;
Both law and physic are for petty wits;
Divinity is basest of the three,
Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile: §
'Tis magic, magic, that hath ravish'd me.
Then, gentle friends, aid me in this attempt;
And I, that have with concise syllogisms ||
Gravell'd the pastors of the German church,

*the] So the later 4tos.-2to 1604 "our."

the fiery keel at Antwerp's bridge] During the blockade of Antwerp by the Prince of Parma in 1585, "They of Antuerpe knowing that the bridge and the Stocadoes were finished, made a great shippe, to be a meanes to breake all this worke of the prince of Parmaes: this great shippe was made of masons worke within, in the manner of a vaulted caue: vpon the hatches there were layed myll-stones, graue-stones, and others of great weight; and within the vault were many barrels of powder, ouer the which there were holes, and in them they had put matches, hanging at a thred, the which burning vntill they came vnto the thred, would fall into the powder, and so blow vp all. And for that they could not haue any one in this shippe to conduct it, Lanckhaer, a sea captaine of the Hollanders, being then in Antuerpe, gaue them counsell to tye a great beame at the end of it, to make it to keepe a straight course in the middest of the streame. In this sort floated this shippe the fourth of Aprill, vntill that it came vnto the bridge; where (within a while after) the powder wrought his effect, with such violence, as the vessell, and all that was within it, and vpon it, flew in pieces, carrying away a part of the Stocado and of the bridge. The marquesse of Roubay Vicont of Gant, Gaspar of obles lord of Billy, and the Seignior of Torchies, beather vnto the Seignior of Bours, with many others, peare presently slaine; which were torne in pieces, and sed abroad, both vpon the land and vpon the "After Grimeston's Generall Historie of the Netherlands, devill, itd. 1609.

Co

what

29

him, and

"alone"? (This line is not in the later

" but see note 1, p. 68.-(This "Consissylogismes."

to him like a

a bell in his

or twice

certair

And made the flowering pride of Wertenberg
Swarm to my problems, as the infernal spirits
On sweet Musæus when he came to hell,
Will be as cunning* as Agrippa + was,
Whose shadow ‡ made all Europe honour him.
Vald. Faustus, these books, thy wit, and our
experience,

Shall make all nations to canònize us.

As Indian Moors obey their Spanish lords,

So shall the spirits § of every element
Be always serviceable to us three;
Like lions shall they guard us when we please;
Like Almain rutters with their horsemen's
staves,

Or Lapland giants, trotting by our sides;
Sometimes like women, or unwedded maids,
Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows
Than have the white breasts of the queen of

love:

From ** Venice shall they drag huge argosies,
And from America the golden fleece
That yearly stuffs old Philip's treasury;
If learned Faustus will be resolute.

Faust. Valdes, as resolute am I in this As thou to live therefore object it not.

Corn. The miracles that magic will perform Will make thee vow to study nothing else. He that is grounded in astrology,

Enrich'd with tongues, well seen in ++ minerals,
Hath all the principles magic doth require:
Then doubt not, Faustus, but to be renowm'd,‡‡
And more frequented for this mystery
Than heretofore the Delphian oracle.
The spirits tell me they can dry the sea,
And fetch the treasure of all foreign wrecks,
Ay, all the wealth that our forefathers hid
Within the massy entrails of the earth:
Then tell me, Faustus, what shall we three
want?

Faust. Nothing, Cornelius. O, this cheers my soul! Come, shew me some demonstrations magical, That I may conjure in some lusty grove, And have these joys in full possession.

Vald. Then haste thee to some solitary grove,

* cunning] i. e. knowing, skilful.

↑ Agrippa] i. e. Cornelius Agrippa.

shadow] So the later 4tos.-2to 1604 "shadowes."

§ spirits] So the later 4tos.-2to 1604 "subiects." || Almain rutters] See note t, p. 43.

I have the] So two of the later 4tos.-2to 1604 “in their."

**From] So the later 4tos.-2to 1604 "For." tt in] So the later 4tos.-Not in 4to 1604. It renowm'd] See note I, p. 11.