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    Contents:
  • The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1616)
  • Act 1
  • Act 1
  • Act 2
  • Act 3
  • Act 4
  • Act 4
  • Act 5

    • Christopher Marlowe, The Tragedie of Doctor Faustus (B text) (ed. Hilary Binda)

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    Table of ContentsGo to Next

    to

      Dramatis Personae

    • Chorus
    • Faustus
    • Wagner
    • Good Angel
    • Bad Angel, : (Spirit)
    • Valdes
    • Cornelius
    • First Scholar
    • Second Scholar
    • Lucifer
    • Mephistophilis
    • a Clown (Robin)
    • Beelzebub

        • Sins

      • Pride
      • Covetousness
      • Envy
      • Wrath
      • Gluttony
      • Sloth
      • Lechery
    • Dick, a clown
    • The Pope (Adrian)
    • Raymond, King of Hungary
    • Bruno
    • First Cardinal (of France)
    • Second Cardinal (of Padua)
    • The Bishop (of Rheims)
    • a Friar
    • a Vintner
    • Martino
    • Frederick
    • Benvolio
    • The German Emperor
    • Charles The Duke of Saxony
      • Darius,
      • Alexander,
      • his Paramour
    • 1st Soldier
    • 2nd Soldier
    • a Horse-courser
    • a Carter
    • a Hostess
    • The Duke of Vanholt
    • his Duchess
    • a Servant
    • Third Scholar
    • Helen (of Greece)
    • an Old Man
    • Devils, Bishops, Monks, Friars, Attendants, Soldiers, and two Cupids.

    The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1616)


    Enter Chorus.
    Not marching in the fields of Thrasimene,
    Where Mars did mate the warlike Carthagens,
    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, gentles: we must now perform
    The form of Faustus' fortunes, good or bad.
    And now to patient judgments we appeal,
    And speak for Faustus in his infancy.
    Now is he born, of parents base of stock,
    In Germany, within a town called Rhodes.
    At riper years to Wittenberg he went,
    Whereas his kinsmen chiefly brought him up.
    So much he profits in divinity,
    That shortly he was graced with Doctor's name,
    Excelling all, and sweetly can dispute
    In th'heavenly matters of theology.
    Till swoll'n 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 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.
    1.1
    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 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 that end.
    A greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit.
    Bid economy farewell, and Galen come.
    Be a physician, Faustus; heap up gold,
    And be eternized for some wondrous cure.
    Summum bonum, medicinae sanitas:
    The end of physic is our body's health:
    Why, Faustus, hast thou not attained that end?
    Are not thy bills hung up as monuments,
    Whereby whole cities have escaped the plague
    And thousand desperate maladies been cured?
    Yet art thou still but Faustus, and a man.
    Could'st 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?
    Si una eademque res legatur duobus,
    AIter rem, alter valorem rei, etcc.
    A petty case of paltry legacies!
    Exhaereditare filium non potest pater, nisi--
    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 aad 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, et nulla est in nobis veritas.
    If we say that we have no sin
    We deceive ourselves, and there is 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, letters, characters.
    Ay, these are those that Faustus most desires.
    O what a world of profit and delight,
    Of power, of honour, and 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,
    But his dominion that exceeds in this,
    Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man:
    A sound magician is a demi-god.
    Here, tire my brains to get 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,
    Then all my labours, plod I ne'er so fast.

    Enter the Good Angel and Evil Angel.
    Good Angel
    O Faustus, lay that damned book aside,
    And gaze not on it least it tempt thy soul,
    And heap God's 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 treasure is contained.
    Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky,
    Lord and Commander of these elements.
    Exeunt Angels.
    Faustus
    How am I glutted with conceipt 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 Wittenberg.
    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 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.
    Come, German Valdes and Cornelius,
    And make me blest with your sage conference. Enter Valdes.

    Valdes, sweet Valdes and Cornelius! and Cornelius.

    Know that your words have won me at the last.
    To practice magic and concealed arts.
    Philosophy is odious and obscure.
    Both law and physic are for petty wits.
    'Tis magic, magic, that hath ravished me.
    Then gentle friends aid me in this attempt,
    And I, that have with subtle syllogisms
    Gravelled the pastors of the German Church,
    And made the flowering pride of Wittenberg
    Sworn to my problems, as th'infernal spirits
    On sweet Musaes when he came to hell,
    Will be as cunning as Agrippa was,
    Whose shadow made all Europe honour him.
    Valdes
    Faustus, these books, thy wit, and our experience,
    Shall make all nations to canonize 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 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 has the white breasts of the queen of love.
    From Venice shall they drag huge argosies,
    And from America the golden fleece,
    That yearly stuffed old Phillip's 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 in minerals,
    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 wrackes,
    Yea, all the wealth that our fore-fathers hid,
    Within the messy 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 bushy grove,
    And have these joys in full possession.
    Valdes
    Then hast 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 then I.
    Faustus
    Then come and dine with me, and after meat
    We'll canvass 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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    OCLC: 921140


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