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_ ACT V - SCENE IV
[Thunder. Enter LUCIFER, BELZEBUB, and MEPHISTOPHILIS.]
LUCIFER.
Thus from infernal Dis do we ascend
To view the subjects of our monarchy,
Those souls which sin seals the black sons of hell;
'Mong which, as chief, Faustus, we come to thee,
Bringing with us lasting damnation
To wait upon thy soul: the time is come
Which makes it forfeit.
MEPHIST.
And, this gloomy night,
Here, in this room, will wretched Faustus be.
BELZEBUB.
And here we'll stay,
To mark him how he doth demean himself.
MEPHIST.
How should he but in desperate lunacy?
Fond worldling, now his heart-blood dries with grief;
His conscience kills it; and his [244] labouring brain
Begets a world of idle fantasies
To over-reach the devil; but all in vain;
His store of pleasures must be sauc'd with pain.
He and his servant Wagner are at hand;
Both come from drawing Faustus' latest will.
See, where they come!
[Enter FAUSTUS and WAGNER.]
[Footnote 244: his: So 4tos 1616, 1631.--Not in 4to 1624.]
FAUSTUS.
Say, Wagner,--thou hast perus'd my will,--
How dost thou like it?
WAGNER.
Sir, So wondrous well,
As in all humble duty I do yield
My life and lasting service for your love.
FAUSTUS.
Gramercy, [245] Wagner.
[Footnote 245: Gramercy: So 4tos 1624, 1631.--2to 1616 "Gramercies."]
[Enter SCHOLARS.]
Welcome, Gentlemen.
[Exit WAGNER.]
FIRST SCHOLAR.
Now, worthy Faustus, methinks your looks are chang'd.
FAUSTUS.
O, gentlemen!
SECOND SCHOLAR.
What ails Faustus?
FAUSTUS.
Ah, my sweet chamber-fellow, had I lived with thee,
then had I lived still! but now must die eternally.
Look, sirs, comes he not? comes he not?
FIRST SCHOLAR.
O my dear Faustus, what imports this fear?
SECOND SCHOLAR.
Is all our pleasure turn'd to melancholy?
THIRD SCHOLAR.
He is not well with being over-solitary.
SECOND SCHOLAR.
If it be so, we'll have physicians,
And Faustus shall be cur'd.
THIRD SCHOLAR.
'Tis but a surfeit, sir; [246] fear nothing.
FAUSTUS.
A surfeit of deadly [247] sin, that hath damned both
body and soul.
[Footnote 246: sir: So 4tos 1616, 1624.--Not in 4to 1631.]
[Footnote 247: of deadly: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "of A deadly."]
SECOND SCHOLAR.
Yet, Faustus, look up to heaven, and remember
mercy is infinite.
FAUSTUS.
But Faustus' offence can ne'er be pardoned: the serpent that tempted Eve may be saved, but not Faustus. O gentlemen, hear me [248] with patience, and tremble not at my speeches! Though my heart pant and quiver to remember that I have been a student here these thirty years, O, would I had never [249] seen Wittenberg, never read book! and what wonders I have done, all Germany can witness, yea, all the world; for which Faustus hath lost both Germany and the world, yea, heaven itself, heaven, the seat of God, the throne of the blessed, the kingdom of joy; and must remain in hell for ever, hell. O, hell, for ever! Sweet friends, what shall become of Faustus, being in hell for ever?
[Footnote 248: me: So 4tos 1624, 1631.--Not in 4to 1616.]
[Footnote 249: never: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "nere."]
SECOND SCHOLAR.
Yet, Faustus, call on God.
FAUSTUS.
On God, whom Faustus hath abjured! on God, whom Faustus
hath blasphemed! O my God, I would weep! but the devil
draws in my tears. Gush forth blood, instead of tears!
yea, life and soul! O, he stays my tongue! I would
lift up my hands; but see, they hold 'em, they hold 'em? ('?' sic)
ALL.
Who, Faustus?
FAUSTUS.
Why, Lucifer and Mephistophilis. O gentlemen, I gave
them my soul for my cunning!
ALL.
O, God forbid!
FAUSTUS.
God forbade it, indeed; but Faustus hath done it: for
the vain pleasure of four-and-twenty years hath Faustus
lost eternal joy and felicity. I writ them a bill
with mine own blood: the date is expired; this is
the time, and he will fetch me.
FIRST SCHOLAR.
Why did not Faustus tell us of this before,
that divines might have prayed for thee?
FAUSTUS.
Oft have I thought to have done so; but the devil
threatened to tear me in pieces, if I named God,
to fetch me body and soul, if I once gave ear to
divinity: and now 'tis [250] too late.
Gentlemen, away, lest you perish with me.
[Footnote 250: 'tis: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "IT is."]
SECOND SCHOLAR.
O, what may we do to save Faustus?
FAUSTUS.
Talk not of me, but save yourselves, and depart.
THIRD SCHOLAR.
God will strengthen me; I will stay with Faustus.
FIRST SCHOLAR.
Tempt not God, sweet friend; but let us into the
next room, and pray for him.
FAUSTUS.
Ay, pray for me, pray for me; and what noise soever
you hear, come not unto me, for nothing can rescue me.
SECOND SCHOLAR.
Pray thou, and we will pray that God may have mercy
upon thee.
FAUSTUS.
Gentlemen, farewell: if I live till morning, I'll visit
you; if not, Faustus is gone to hell.
ALL.
Faustus, farewell.
[Exeunt SCHOLARS.]
MEPHIST.
Ay, Faustus, now thou hast no hope of heaven;
Therefore despair; think only upon hell,
For that must be thy mansion, there to dwell.
FAUSTUS.
O thou bewitching fiend, 'twas thy temptation
Hath robb'd me of eternal happiness!
MEPHIST.
I do confess it, Faustus, and rejoice:
'Twas I that, when thou wert i'the way to heaven,
Damm'd up thy passage; when thou took'st the book
To view the Scriptures, then I turn'd the leaves,
And led thine eye. [251]
What, weep'st thou? 'tis too late; despair! Farewell:
Fools that will laugh on earth must weep in hell.
[Exit.] [252]
[Enter GOOD ANGEL and EVIL ANGEL at several doors.]
[Footnote 251: And led thine eye: A portion of this line has evidently dropt out.]
[Footnote 252: Exit: It seems doubtful whether Lucifer and Belzebub should also make their exeunt here, or whether they remain to witness the catastrophe: see p. 132, first col.
P. 132, first column. (this play):
"MEPHIST. And, this gloomy night,
Here, in this room, will wretched Faustus be.
BELZEBUB. And here we'll stay,
To mark him how he doth demean himself." etc.]
GOOD ANGEL.
O Faustus, if thou hadst given ear to me,
Innumerable joys had follow'd thee!
But thou didst love the world.
EVIL ANGEL.
Gave ear to me,
And now must taste hell-pains [253] perpetually.
[Footnote 253: hell-pains: So 4tos 1624, 1631.--2to 1616 "HELS paines."]
GOOD ANGEL.
O, what will all thy riches, pleasures, pomps,
Avail thee now?
EVIL ANGEL.
Nothing, but vex thee more,
To want in hell, that had on earth such store.
GOOD ANGEL.
O, thou hast lost celestial happiness,
Pleasures unspeakable, bliss without end
Hadst thou affected sweet divinity,
Hell or the devil had had no power on thee:
Hadst thou kept on that way, Faustus, behold,
[Music, while a throne descends.]
In what resplendent glory thou hadst sit [254]
In yonder throne, like those bright-shining saints,
And triumph'd over hell! That hast thou lost;
And now, poor soul, must thy good angel leave thee:
The jaws of hell are open [255] to receive thee.
[Exit. The throne ascends.]
[Footnote 254: sit: So 4tos 1624, 1631.--2to 1616 "set."]
[Footnote 255: are open: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "IS READIE."]
EVIL ANGEL.
Now, Faustus, let thine eyes with horror stare
[Hell is discovered.]
Into that vast perpetual torture-house:
There are the Furies tossing damned souls
On burning forks; there bodies boil [256] in lead;
There are live quarters broiling on the coals,
That ne'er can die; this ever-burning chair
Is for o'er-tortur'd souls to rest them in;
These that are fed with sops of flaming fire,
Were gluttons, and lov'd only delicates,
And laugh'd to see the poor starve at their gates:
But yet all these are nothing; thou shalt see
Ten thousand tortures that more horrid be.
[Footnote 256: boil: So 4tos 1624, 1631.--2to 1616 "BROYLE."]
FAUSTUS.
O, I have seen enough to torture me!
EVIL ANGEL.
Nay, thou must feel them, taste the smart of all:
He that loves pleasure must for pleasure fall:
And so I leave thee, Faustus, till anon;
Then wilt thou tumble in confusion.
[Exit. Hell disappears.--The clock strikes eleven.]
FAUSTUS.
O Faustus,
Now hast thou but one bare hour to live,
And then thou must be damn'd perpetually!
Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven,
That time may cease, and midnight never come;
Fair Nature's eye, rise, rise again, and make
Perpetual day; or let this hour be but
A year, a month, a week, a natural day,
That Faustus may repent and save his soul!
O lente, lente currite, noctis equi!
The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,
The devil will come, and Faustus must be damn'd.
O, I'll leap up to heaven!--Who pulls me down?--
See, where Christ's blood streams in the firmament! [257]
One drop of blood will save me: O my Christ!--
Rend not my heart for naming of my Christ;
Yet will I call on him: O, spare me, Lucifer!--
Where is it now? 'tis gone:
And, see, a threatening arm, an [258] angry brow!
Mountains and hills, come, come, and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of heaven!
No!
Then will I headlong run into the earth:
Gape, earth! O, no, it will not harbour me!
You stars that reign'd at my nativity,
Whose influence hath [259] allotted death and hell,
Now draw up Faustus, like a foggy mist,
Into the entrails of yon [260] labouring cloud[s],
That, when you [261] vomit forth into the air,
My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths;
But let my soul mount and ascend to heaven!
[The clock strikes the half-hour.]
O, half the hour is past! 'twill all be past anon.
O, if [262] my soul must suffer for my sin,
Impose some end to my incessant pain;
Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years,
A hundred thousand, and at last [263] be sav'd!
No end is limited to damned souls.
Why wert thou not a creature wanting soul?
Or why is this immortal that thou hast?
O, Pythagoras' metempsychosis, were that true,
This soul should fly from me, and I be chang'd
Into some brutish beast! all beasts are happy,
For, when they die,
Their souls are soon dissolv'd in elements;
But mine must live still to be plagu'd in hell.
Curs'd be the parents that engender'd me!
No, Faustus, curse thyself, curse Lucifer
That hath depriv'd thee of the joys of heaven.
[The clock strikes twelve.]
It strikes, it strikes! Now, body, turn to air,
Or Lucifer will bear thee quick to hell!
O soul, be chang'd into small water-drops,
And fall into the ocean, ne'er be found!
[Thunder. Enter DEVILS.]
O, mercy, heaven! look not so fierce on me!
Adders and serpents, let me breathe a while!
Ugly hell, gape not! come not, Lucifer!
I'll burn my books!--O Mephistophilis!
[Exeunt DEVILS with FAUSTUS.]
[Enter SCHOLARS.] [264]
FIRST SCHOLAR.
Come, gentlemen, let us go visit Faustus,
For such a dreadful night was never seen;
Since first the world's creation did begin,
Such fearful shrieks and cries were never heard:
Pray heaven the doctor have escap'd the danger.
SECOND SCHOLAR.
O, help us, heaven! [265] see, here are Faustus' limbs,
All torn asunder by the hand of death!
THIRD SCHOLAR.
The devils whom Faustus serv'd have [266] torn him thus;
For, twixt the hours of twelve and one, methought,
I heard him shriek and call aloud for help;
At which self [267] time the house seem'd all on fire
With dreadful horror of these damned fiends.
SECOND SCHOLAR.
Well, gentlemen, though Faustus' end be such
As every Christian heart laments to think on,
Yet, for he was a scholar once admir'd
For wondrous knowledge in our German schools,
We'll give his mangled limbs due burial;
And all the students, cloth'd in mourning black,
Shall wait upon his heavy funeral.
[Exeunt.]
[Enter CHORUS.]
CHORUS.
Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,
And burned is Apollo's laurel-bough,
That sometime grew within this learned man.
Faustus is gone: regard his hellish fall,
Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise,
Only to wonder at unlawful things,
Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits
To practise more than heavenly power permits.
[Exit.]
Terminat hora diem; terminat auctor opus.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 257: See, where Christ's blood streams in the firmament: So 4tos 1624, 1631.--Not in 4to 1616.]
[Footnote 258: an: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "and."]
[Footnote 259: hath: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "haue."]
[Footnote 260: yon: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "your."]
[Footnote 261: you, &c.: See note *, p. 101.]
Note *, from p. 101. (Doctor Faustus, from the quarto of 1604):
"That, when you, &c.: So all the old eds.; and it is
certain that awkward changes of person are sometimes
found in passages of our early poets: but qy.,--
"That, when THEY vomit forth into the air,
My limbs may issue from THEIR smoky mouths," &c.?" ]
[Footnote 262: 0, if, &c.: 2to 1604, in the corresponding passage, has "Oh, GOD, if," &c. (see p. 101, sec. col.), and that reading seems necessary for the sense.
P. 101, sec. col. (Doctor Faustus, from the quarto of 1604):
"Ah, half the hour is past! 'twill all be past anon
O God,
If thou wilt not have mercy on my soul,
Yet for Christ's sake, whose blood hath ransom'd me,
Impose some end to my incessant pain;" etc. ]
[Footnote 263: at last: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "at THE last."]
[Footnote 264: Enter Scholars: Here, of course, a change of scene is supposed. (This is not in the earlier play.)]
[Footnote 265: heaven: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "heauens."]
[Footnote 266: devils.... have: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "DIUELL.... HATH."]
[Footnote 267: self: So 4to 1616.--2tos 1624, 1631, "same."]
[THE END]
Christopher Marlowe's play: Dr. Faustus (From The Quarto Of 1616)
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