Twelve Centuries of English Poetry and Prose

THE ELIZABETHAN AGE-DRAMA

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

(1564-1593)

FROM

THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR
FAUSTUS.*

Enter Chorus.

CHORUS. Not marching in the fields of Thrasy

mene,1

Where Mars did mate2 the warlike Carthagens;

Nor sporting in the dalliance of love,

In courts of kings where states is over-
turn 'd;

Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds,
Intends our Muse to vaunt her 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 call'd Rhodes: +
At riper years, to Wittenberg he went,
Whereas his kinsmen chiefly brought him up.
So much he profits in divinity,

The scene of Hannibal's defeat of the Romans,
217 B. C. Marlowe means that his drama is
not to deal, like others, with wars and in-
trigues.

cope with

4 Roda, near Weimar.

The

To sound the depth of that thou wilt pro-
fess:9

Having commenc'd,10 be a divine in show,
Yet level at the end11 of every art,
And live and die in Aristotle's works.
Sweet Analytics, 'tis thou hast ravish'd me!
Bene disserere est finis logices.12

Is, to dispute well, logic's chiefest end?
Affords this art no greater miracle?
Then read no more; thou hast attain 'd that
end:

A greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit:
Bid Economy farewell, and Galen13 come:
Be a physician, Faustus; heap up gold,
And be eterniz'd for some wondrous cure:
Summum bonum medicinæ sanitas,
The end of physic is our body's health.
Why, Faustus, hast thou not attain'd that
end?

statehood, majesty 5 where
The Faust legend, which embodies the old fancy
of a compact with the Evil One, had its origin
in the life of a certain German doctor
(i. e. learned man) of evil character, Johann
Faustus, who, dying about 1538, was reputed
to have been carried off by the devil.
tales that grew up about his memory were
collected in "The History of Dr. Faustus, the
Notorious Magician and Master of the Black
Art." published at Frankfort-on-the-Main in
1587. A translation was printed in England
and Marlowe immediately dramatized
(1588); since then the story has appeared in
many forms. Marlowe's drama was probably
not printed in his lifetime. The editions
dated 1604 and 1616 differ in many particu-
lars and certainly neither of them gives us
the text as he left it. It is possible that none
of the comic scenes, the mingling of which
with tragedy came to be one of the charac-
teristics of Elizabethan drama, were from his
pen. The extracts given above present only
the central tragic theme. The 1616 text is
followed, with scene numbers inserted to cor-
respond with A. W. Ward's divisions of the 10 taken
1604 text.

Ay, we must die an everlasting death.
What doctrine call you this, Che sera, sera,
What will be, shall be? Divinity, adieu! 19
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, and omnipotence,
Is promis'd to the studious artizan!
All things that move between the quiet poles
Shall be at my command: emperors and
kings

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.

ANG. Go forward, Faustus, in that famous

art21

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 of22 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 world23

For pleasant fruits and princely delicates; 24
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 Witten-

berg;

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; 90 Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war, Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp-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

100

To practise magic and concealed arts. Philosophy is odious and obscure; Both law and physic are for petty wits: 'Tis magic, magic that hath ravish'd me. 20 conversation 21 black art, i. e., magic 22 interpret for me *Alexander Farnese, the famous Governor of the Netherlands. who subdued Antwerp in 1585 and later planned at Philip II's orders to invade England.

23 America 24 delicacies

† Ships set on fire and driven against the Antwerp bridge to burn it down.

Then, gentle friends, aid me in this attempt;
And I, that have with subtle syllogisms
Gravell❜d25 the pastors of the German church,
And made the flowering pride of Wittenberg
Swarm to my problems, as th' infernal spirits
On sweet Musæus when he came to hell,26
Will be as cunning as Agrippa27 was,
Whose shadow made all Europe honour him.
VALD. Faustus, these books, thy wit, and our
experience,
110

Shall make all nations to canonize us.
As Indian Moors28 obey their Spanish lcrds,
So shall the spirits of every element
Be always serviceable to us three;

Like lions shall they guard us when we please;

Like Almain rutters29 with their horsemen 's

staves,

Or Lapland giants, trotting by our sides; Sometimes like women, or unwedded maids, Shadowing more beauty in30 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

The Hebrew Psalter, and New Testament; And whatsoever else is requisite

We will inform thee ere our conference cease. CORN. Valdes, first let him know the words of art;

And then, all other ceremonies learn'd, 150 Faustus may try his cunning by himself. VALD. First I'll instruct thee in the rudiments, And then wilt thou be perfecter than I. FAUST. 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 there-
[Exeunt.

fore.

[SCENE II.]

Enter two Scholars.

FIRST SCHOL. I wonder what's become of Faustus, that was wont to make our schools ring with sic probo.5

120 SEC.

SCHOL. That shall we presently know; here comes his boy.

3 Roger Bacon and Albertus Magnus, mediæval 4 mattcr

him now. Yet let us see what we can do. [Exeunt.

scholars popularly reputed to have practiced | 5 "Thus I prove" (a formula in logical demonmagic.

stration,

[SCENE III.]

Enter Faustus.

Full of obedience and humility!
Such is the force of magic and my spells.

FAUST. Now that the gloomy shadow of the Re-enter Mephistophilis like a Franciscan friar.

night,

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 pray'd and sacrific'd to
them.

Within this circle is Jehovah's name,
Forward and backward anagrammatiz 'd,6
Th' abbreviated names of holy saints,
Figures of every adjunct to the heavens,
And characters of signs and erring7 stars,
By which the spirits are enforc'd to rise:
Then fear not, Faustus, to be resolute,
And try the utmost magic can perform.

No, I came hither of mine own accord. Did not my conjuring speeches raise thee? speak!

That was the cause, but yet per accidens ;9

For, when we hear one rack10 the name of God,

Abjure the Scriptures and his Saviour 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 damn'd. Therefore the shortest cut for conjuring Is stoutly to abjure all godliness, And pray devoutly to the prince of hell. FAUST. So Faustus hath

Already done; and holds this principle, There is no chief but only Belzebub; To whom Faustus doth dedicate himself. This word "damnation" terrifies not me, For I confound hell in Elysium: 11 My ghost be with the old philosophers! But, leaving these vain trifles of men's souls, Tell me what is that Lucifer thy Lord? MEPH. Arch-regent and commander of all spirits.

8 A Protestant fling at monasticism. *The rising and setting of the constellation of Orion was said to be accompanied by rain. "May the gods of Acheron [river of pain, in Hades], be propitious to me! May the triple name of Jehovah avail! Hail, spirits of fire,

FAUST.

MEPH.

O, by aspiring pride and insolence;

For which God threw him from the face of heaven.

air, and water! Beelzebub, prince of the east,
monarch of burning hell, and Demogorgon,
we propitiate you, that Mephistophilis the
Dragon, quod tumeraris [text corrupt and un-
translatable], may appear and arise in the FAUST.
name of Jehovah, Gehenna and the holy water
which I now sprinkle, and the sign of the
cross which I now make and in the name of
our vows, let Mephistophilis himself at our
command, now arise." Beelzebub, etc., were
members of the infernal hierarchy, of which
Lucifer (Satan) was commonly regarded as
chief. Marlowe makes Mephistophilis the
servant of Lucifer, to whom he later gives
the title of prince of the east, here given to
Beelzebub.

And what are you that live with Lucifer?

MEPH. Unhappy spirits that fell with Lucifer,
Conspired against our God with Lucifer,
And are for ever damn'd with Lucifer.
FAUST. Where are you damn'd?

MEPH. In hell.

FAUST.

How comes it, then, that thou art out of hell?

MEPH. Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it:12 Think'st thou that I, that saw the face of God,

And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells,
In being depriv'd of everlasting bliss?
O, Faustus, leave these frivolous demands, 80
Which strike a terror to my fainting soul!
FAUST. What, is great Mephistophilis so pas-
sionate

For being deprived of the joys of heaven?
Learn thou of Faustus manly fortitude,
And scorn those joys thou never shalt possess.
Go bear these tidings to great Lucifer:
Seeing Faustus hath incurr'd 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, 90
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 to aid 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.
MEPH. I will, Faustus.
[Exit. 100
FAUST. 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 thorough 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 country continent13 to Spain,
And both contributary to my crown:

The Emperor shall not live but by my leave, Nor any potentate of Germany.

Now, go not backward, Faustus, be resolute: Why waver'st thou? O, something soundeth in mine ear,

"Abjure this magic, turn to God again!'' Why, he loves thee not;

The god thou serv 'st is thine own appetite, 10 Wherein is fix'd the love of Belzebub: To him I'll build an altar and a church, And offer lukewarm blood of new-born babes. Enter Good Angel and Evil Angel. E. ANG. Go forward, Faustus, in that famous art.

G. ANG. Sweet Faustus, leave that execrable art.

110

So he

Now that I have obtain 'd what I desir'd,
I'll live in speculation of this art,
Till Mephistophilis return again.

FAUST.

will buy my service with his soul. Already Faustus hath hazarded that for thee.

[SCENE V.]

Faustus discovered in his study.

FAUST. NOW, Faustus,

[Exit. MEPH. But now thou must bequeath it sol

emnly,

And write a deed of gift with thine own

blood;

For that security craves Lucifer.

Must thou needs be damn'd, canst thou not FAUST.

If thou deny it, I must back to hell. Stay, Mephistophilis, and tell me, good will my soul do thy lord? Enlarge his kingdom.

what

MEPII. FAUST. Is that the reason why he tempts us thus?

14 dominion

15 A town of Hanover, Germany, formerly very

prosperous.

16 come

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