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    Contents:
  • The Tragicall History of D. Faustus (1604)
  • Scene 1
  • Scene 2
  • Scene 3
  • Scene 4
  • Scene 5
  • Scene 7
  • Scene 8
  • Scene 9
  • Scene 10
  • Scene 11
  • Scene 12
  • Scene 13
  • Scene 14

    • Christopher Marlowe, The Tragicall History of D. Faustus (A text) (ed. Hilary Binda)

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    Table of ContentsGo to Next

    to

      Dramatis Personae

    • Chorus
    • Faustus
    • Wagner
    • Good Angel
    • Evil Angel
    • Valdes
    • Cornelius
    • First Scholar
    • Second Scholar
    • Mephistophilis
    • Robin, a Clown
    • Lucifer
    • Beelzebub

        • Sins

      • Pride
      • Covetousness
      • Wrath
      • Gluttony
      • Envy
      • Sloth
      • Lechery
    • The Pope
    • The Cardinal of Lorraine
    • a Friar
    • Ralph, a clown
    • a Vintner
    • The Emperor
    • a Knight
    • Alexander
    • his Paramour
    • a Horse-courser
    • The Duke of Vanholt
    • Duchess
    • Third Scholar
    • Helen (of Greece)
    • an Old Man
    • Devils
    • Friars
    • Attendants

    The Tragical History of D. Faustus (1604)


    Enter Chorus.
    Not marching now in fields of Thrasimene,
    Where Mars did mate 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 daunt 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 borne, his parents base of stock,
    In Germany, within a town called 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 graced,
    That shortly he was graced with doctor's name,
    Excelling all, whose sweet delight disputes
    In heavenly matters of theology,
    'Til 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 more with learning's golden gifts,
    He surfeits upon cursed 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.

    Sc. 1 Enter Faustus in his Study.
    Faustus
    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.
    Sweet Analytics 'tis thou has ravished me:
    Bene disserere est finis logicis.
    Is, to dispute well, Logic's chiefest end?
    Affords this Art no greater miracle?
    Then read no more, thou has attained the end;
    A greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit.
    Bid Oncaymaeon farewell; Galen come:
    Seeing, Ubi desinit philosophus, ibi incipit medicus,
    Be a physician Faustus, heap up gold,
    And be eternis'd for some wondrous cure.
    Summum bonum medicinae sanitas:
    The end of physic is our bodies health.
    Why, Faustus, has thou not attained that end?
    Is not thy common talk sound aphorisms?
    Are not thy bills 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.
    Wouldst thou make man to live eternally?
    Or, being dead, raise them to life again?
    Then this profession were to be esteemed.
    Physic farewell. Where is Justinian?
    Si una eademque res legatur duobus,
    Alter rem alter valorem rei, &c.
    A pretty case of paltry legacies:
    Exhaereditari filium non potest pater nisi, &c.
    Such is the subject of the institute
    And universal body of the Church.
    His study fits a mercenary drudge,
    Who aims at nothing but external trash,
    The devil and illiberal for me :
    When all is done, divinity is best;
    Jerome's Bible, Faustus, view it well:
    Stipendium peccati mors est. Ha! Stipendium, &c.
    The reward of sin is death: that's hard.
    Si peccasse negamus, fallimur, & nulla est in nobis veritas.:
    If we say that we have no sin,
    We deceive our selves, 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 honor, 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 try thy brains to gain a deity.

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

    Faustus
    Their conference will be a greater help to me,
    Than all my labours, plod I ne'er so fast.

    Enter the Good Angel and the Evil Angel.
    Good. Angel
    O Faustus, lay that damned book aside,
    And gaze not on it, lest it tempt thy soul,
    And heap Gods heavy wrath upon thy head,
    Read, read the scriptures, that is blasphemy.
    Evil Angel
    Go forward, Faustus, in that famous art,
    Wherein all nature's treasury is contained:
    Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky,
    Lord and commander of these elements. Exeunt.

    Faustus
    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 faire Wertenberg;
    I'll have them fill the public schools with silk,
    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 our provinces;
    Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war,
    Then was the fiery keel at Antwarpe's bridge,
    I'll make my servile spirits to invent.
    Come, German Valdes and Cornelius,
    And make me blest with your sage conference.
    Valdes,sweet Valdes, and Cornelius,

    Enter Valdes and Cornelius.
    Know that your words have won me at the last,
    To practice 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 ravished Mephistophilis,
    Then, gentle friends, aide me in this attempt.
    And I that have with concise syllogisms
    Gravell'd the pastors of the German church,
    And made the flowering pride of Wertenberg
    Swarm to my problems, as the infernal spirits,
    On sweet Musoeus when he came to hell,
    Will be as cunning as Agrippa was,
    Whose shadows made all Europe honor him.
    Valdes
    Faustus, these books thy wit and our experience
    Shall make all nations to canonize us:
    As Indian Moores obey their Spanish Lords,
    So shall the subjects of every element
    Be always serviceable to us three,
    Like lions shall they guard us when we please,
    Like Almaine 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 in their white breasts of the queen of love,
    For Venice shall they drag huge Argoces,
    And from America the golden fleece,
    That yearly stuffs old Philips treasury,
    If learned Faustus will be resolute.
    Faustus
    Valdes as resolute am I in this
    As thou to live; therefore object it not.
    Cornelius
    The miracles that magic will perform,
    Will make thee vow to study nothing else,
    He that is grounded in Astrology,
    Enriched with tongues, well seen inminerals,
    Hath all the principles magic doth require.
    Then doubt not, (Faustus, but to be renowned,
    And more frequented for this mystery,
    Then heretofore the Delphian Oracle.
    The spirits tell me they can dry the sea,
    And fetch the treasure of all foreign wracks,
    Ay, all the wealth that our forefathers hid
    Within the massy entrails of the earth.
    Then tell me, Faustus, what shall we three want?
    Faustus
    Nothing, Cornelius; O this cheers my soul.
    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
    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 canvas every quiddity thereof,
    For ere I sleep I'll try what I can do;
    This night I'll conjure though I die therefore.

    Exeunt.



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    This text is based on the following book(s):
    OCLC: 921140


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