That like to serpents stung, Piercing the weather. None from his fellow starts; But, playing manly parts, And like true English hearts, Stuck close together. When down their bows they threw, And forth their bilboes drew, And on the French they flew: Not one was tardy. Arms were from shoulders sent, This while our noble King, His broad sword brandishing, Down the French host did ding, And many a deep wound lent; Bruised his helmet. With his brave brother; Clarence, in steel so bright, Scarce such another! Warwick in blood did wade, Oxford, the foe invade, 56 And cruel slaughter made, 64 72 104 80 THE ELIZABETHAN AGE-DRAMA CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE (1564-1593) FROM THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS.* Enter Chorus. CHORUS. Not marching in the fields of Thrasymene,1 Where Mars did mate2 the warlike Carthagens; Nor sporting in the dalliance of love, In courts of kings where states is overturn 'd; Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds, Intends our Muse to vaunt her heavenly verse: 10 Only this, gentles, we must now perform 1 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 intrigues. 2 cope with 4 Roda, near Weimar. 5 where The it 3 statehood, majesty 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 (1. 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 characteristics 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 correspond with A. W. Ward's divisions of the 1604 text. [Reads. Si una eademque res legatur duobus, alter rem, alter valorem rei, &c.16 A petty case of paltry legacies! [Reads. [Exit. FAUST. Their conference 10 will be a greater help to me Than all my labours, plod I ne'er so fast. 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. Exhæreditare filium non potest pater, nisi, E. ANG. Go forward, Faustus, in that famous Ay, we must die an everlasting death. 50 art21 70 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 22 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 80 For pleasant fruits and princely delicates; 24 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, 90 And reign sole king of all the provinces; Enter Valdes and Cornelius. To practise magic and concealed arts. 23 America 24 delicacies 100 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. Ships set on fire and driven against the Antwerp bridge to burn it down. |