Act 4 - Scene 2

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_ ACT IV - SCENE II

[NOTE: FOOTNOTES OF THIS PAGE ARE PLACED AT THE END OF THIS PAGE.]

[Enter BENVOLIO, MARTINO, FREDERICK, and SOLDIERS.]

MARTINO.
Nay, sweet Benvolio, let us sway [174] thy thoughts
From this attempt against the conjurer. [175]

BENVOLIO.
Away! you love me not, to urge me thus:
Shall I let slip so great an injury,
When every servile groom jests at my wrongs,
And in their rustic gambols proudly say,
"Benvolio's head was grac'd with horns today?"
O, may these eyelids never close again,
Till with my sword I have that [176] conjurer slain!
If you will aid me in this enterprise,
Then draw your weapons and be resolute;
If not, depart: here will Benvolio die,
But Faustus' death shall quit my [177] infamy.

FREDERICK.
Nay, we will stay with thee, betide what may,
And kill that [178] doctor, if he come this way.

BENVOLIO.
Then, gentle Frederick, hie thee to the grove,
And place our servants and our followers
Close in an [179] ambush there behind the trees.
By this, I know the conjurer is near:
I saw him kneel, and kiss the Emperor's hand,
And take his leave, laden with rich rewards.
Then, soldiers, boldly [180] fight: if Faustus die,
Take you the wealth, leave us the victory.

FREDERICK.
Come, soldiers, follow me unto the grove:
Who kills him shall have gold and endless love.

[Exit FREDERICK with SOLDIERS.]

BENVOLIO.
My head is lighter, than it was, by the horns;
But yet my heart's [181] more ponderous than my head,
And pants until I see that [182] conjurer dead.

MARTINO.
Where shall we place ourselves, Benvolio?

BENVOLIO.
Here will we stay to bide the first assault:
O, were that damned hell-hound but in place,
Thou soon shouldst see me quit my foul disgrace!

[Re-enter FREDERICK.]

FREDERICK.
Close, close! the conjurer is at hand,
And all alone comes walking in his gown;
Be ready, then, and strike the [183] peasant down.

BENVOLIO.
Mine be that honour, then. Now, sword, strike home!
For horns he gave I'll have his head anon.

MARTINO.
See, see, he comes!

[Enter FAUSTUS with a false head.]

BENVOLIO.
No words. This blow ends all:
Hell take his soul! his body thus must fall.

[Stabs FAUSTUS.]

FAUSTUS.
[falling.]

O!

FREDERICK.
Groan you, Master Doctor?

BENVOLIO.
Break may his heart with groans!--Dear Frederick, see,
Thus will I end his griefs immediately.

MARTINO.
Strike with a willing hand.

[BENVOLIO strikes off FAUSTUS' head.]

His head is off.

BENVOLIO.
The devil's dead; the Furies now [184] may laugh.

FREDERICK.
Was this that stern aspect, that awful frown,
Made the grim monarch of infernal spirits
Tremble and quake at his commanding charms?

MARTINO.
Was this that damned head, whose art [185] conspir'd
Benvolio's shame before the Emperor?

BENVOLIO.
Ay, that's the head, and there [186] the body lies,
Justly rewarded for his villanies.

FREDERICK.
Come, let's devise how we may add more shame
To the black scandal of his hated name.

BENVOLIO.
First, on his head, in quittance of my wrongs,
I'll nail huge forked horns, and let them hang
Within the window where he yok'd me first,
That all the world may see my just revenge.

MARTINO.
What use shall we put his beard to?

BENVOLIO.
We'll sell it to a chimney-sweeper: it will wear out
ten birchen brooms, I warrant you.

FREDERICK.
What shall his [187] eyes do?

BENVOLIO.
We'll pull [188] out his eyes; and they shall
serve for buttons to his lips, to keep his tongue
from catching cold.

MARTINO.
An excellent policy! and now, sirs, having divided him,
what shall the body do?

[FAUSTUS rises.]

BENVOLIO.
Zounds, the devil's alive again!

FREDERICK.
Give him his head, for God's sake.

FAUSTUS.
Nay, keep it: Faustus will have heads and hands,
Ay, all [189] your hearts to recompense this deed.
Knew you not, traitors, I was limited
For four-and-twenty years to breathe on earth?
And, had you cut my body with your swords,
Or hew'd this flesh and bones as small as sand,
Yet in a minute had my spirit return'd,
And I had breath'd a man, made free from harm.
But wherefore do I dally my revenge?--
Asteroth, Belimoth, Mephistophilis?

[Enter MEPHISTOPHILIS, and other Devils.]

Go, horse these traitors on your fiery backs,
And mount aloft with them as high as heaven:
Thence pitch them headlong to the lowest hell.
Yet, stay: the world shall see their misery,
And hell shall after plague their treachery.
Go, Belimoth, and take this caitiff hence,
And hurl him in some lake of mud and dirt.
Take thou this other, drag him through [190] the woods
Amongst [191] the pricking thorns and sharpest briers;
Whilst, with my gentle Mephistophilis,
This traitor flies unto some steepy rock,
That, rolling down, may break the villain's bones,
As he intended to dismember me.
Fly hence; despatch my charge immediately.

FREDERICK.
Pity us, gentle Faustus! save our lives!

FAUSTUS.
Away!

FREDERICK.
He must needs go that the devil drives.

[Exeunt MEPHISTOPHILIS and DEVILS with BENVOLIO, MARTINO, and FREDERICK.]

 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 174: sway: So 4tos 1616, 1631.--2to 1624 "stay."]

[Footnote 175: this attempt against the conjurer: See note, * p. 95.

Note *, from p. 95. (Doctor Faustus, from the quarto of 1604):

"Mephistophilis, transform him straight: According to THE HISTORY OF DR. FAUSTUS, the knight was not present during Faustus's "conference" with the Emperor; nor did he offer the doctor any insult by doubting his skill in magic. We are there told that Faustus happening to see the knight asleep, "leaning out of a window of the great hall," fixed a huge pair of hart's horns on his head; "and, as the knight awaked, thinking to pull in his head, he hit his hornes against the glasse, that the panes thereof flew about his eares: thinke here how this good gentleman was vexed, for he could neither get backward nor forward." After the emperor and the courtiers, to their great amusement, had beheld the poor knight in this condition, Faustus removed the horns. When Faustus, having taken leave of the emperor, was a league and a half from the city, he was attacked in a wood by the knight and some of his companions: they were in armour, and mounted on fair palfreys; but the doctor quickly overcame them by turning all the bushes into horsemen, and "so charmed them, that every one, knight and other, for the space of a whole moneth, did weare a paire of goates hornes on their browes, and every palfry a paire of oxe hornes on his head; and this was their penance appointed by Faustus." A second attempt of the knight to revenge himself on Faustus proved equally unsuccessful. Sigs. G 2, I 3, ed. 1648." ]

[Footnote 176: that: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "the."]

[Footnote 177: my: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "thy."]

[Footnote 178: that: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "the."]

[Footnote 179: an: So 4to 1616.--Not in 4tos 1624, 1631.]

[Footnote 180: boldly: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "brauely."]

[Footnote 181: heart's: So 4tos 1624, 1631.--2to 1616 "heart."]

[Footnote 182: that: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "the."]

[Footnote 183: the: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "that."]

[Footnote 184: now: so 4to 1616.--Not in 4tos 1624, 1631.]

[Footnote 185: art: Old eds. "heart" (which, after all, may be right).]

[Footnote 186: there: So 4tos 1624, 1631.--2to 1616 "here."]

[Footnote 187: his: So 4tos 1624, 1631.--Not in 3to sic 1616.]

[Footnote 188: pull: So 4tos 1624, 1631.--2to 1616 "put."]

[Footnote 189: all: Old eds. "call."]

[Footnote 190: through: So 4tos 1616, 1624.--2to 1631 "thorow."]

[Footnote 191: Amongst: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "Among."] _

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