Vintner, Horse-Courser, Knight, Old Man, Scholars,

Friars, and Attendants.

DUCHESS OF VANHOLT.

LUCIFER.

BELZEBUB.

MEPHISTOPHILIS.

GOOD ANGEL.

EVIL ANGEL.

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS.

DEVILS.

Spirits in the shape of ALEXANDER THE GREAT, of his paramour, and of HELEN OF TROY.

CHORUS.

THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF

DOCTOR FAUSTUS.

Enter CHORus.

Chorus. Not marching now in fields of Trasymene,1 Where Mars did mate the Carthaginians;

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, gentlemen, we must perform
The form of Faustus' fortunes, good or bad;
To patient judgments we appeal our plaud,
And speak for Faustus in his infancy.
Now is he born, his parents base of stock,
In Germany, within a town called Rhodes;
Of riper years to Wertenberg he went,
Whereas his kinsmen chiefly brought him up.
So soon he profits in divinity,

The fruitful plot of scholarism graced,

2

That shortly he was graced with doctor's name,
Excelling all whose sweet delight disputes
In heavenly matters of theology;

8

Till swollen with cunning of a self-conceit,

1 In the battle at Lake Trasumenus, 217 B.C., Hannibal overwhelmed the Romans and killed more than fifteen thousand, including the leader Flaminius.

2 Presumably, Roda in Saxe-Altenburg.

8 This word is used throughout the play in the sense of skill or knowledge.

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 cursèd 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!

SCENE I.

FAUSTUS discovered in his Study.

[Exit.1

Faust. 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, 't is thou hast ravished me, [Reads. Bene disserere est finis logices.2

Is to dispute well logic's chiefest end?

Affords this art no greater miracle?

Then read no more, thou hast attained the end;
A greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit:

4

Bid ov Kai un ov3 farewell; Galen * come,

Seeing Ubi desinit Philosophus ibi incipit Medicus;

1 It is possible, as Dyce suggests, that before going out, the Chorus, by drawing a curtain, discover Faustus.

2 The sense of this and the other Latin phrases is given in succeeding lines.

8 The edition of 1604 has “Oncaymaeon," by which Marlowe meant Aristotle's "being and not being."

4 A celebrated Greek physician and philosopher of about 130 A.D. He composed some 500 treatises, of which 83 (genuine) have been preserved.

Be a physician, Faustus, heap up gold,
And be eternised for some wondrous cure.
Summum bonum medicinæ sanitas,

[Reads.

The end of physic is our body's health.
Why, Faustus, hast thou not attained that end?
Is not thy common talk found Aphorisms? 1
Are not thy bills 2 hung up as monuments,
Whereby whole cities have escaped the plague,
And thousand desperate maladies been eased?
Yet art thou still but Faustus and a man.
Couldst 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? 3
Si una eademque res legatur duobus, alter rem, alter
valorem rei, etc.

A pretty case of paltry legacies!

Ex hæreditare filium non potest pater nisi, etc.
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 and illiberal for me.

When all is done divinity is best;

4

Jerome's Bible, Faustus, view it well.

Stipendium peccati mors est. Ha!

1 Medical maxims.

[Reads.

[Reads.

[Reads.

Stipendium, etc.

2 Prescriptions, or advertisements, which he used as a travelling physician.

3 Byzantine emperor, under whose direction the body of Roman law was composed and annotated.

4 The Latin version of the Scriptures and the authorized version for the Roman Catholic church. It was prepared by Jerome about the close of the fourth century.

The reward of sin is death. That's hard.

[Reads. Si peccasse negamus fallimur et nulla est in nobis

veritas.

If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and there's 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, scenes, letters, and characters:
Ay, these are those that Faustus most desires.
O what a world of profit and delight,
Of power, of honour, of 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,
Nor can they raise the wind or rend the clouds;
But his dominion that exceeds in this
Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man,
A sound magician is a mighty god:

Here, Faustus, tire thy brains to gain a deity.
Wagner!

Enter WAGNER.

Commend me to my dearest friends,
The German Valdes and Cornelius;
Request them earnestly to visit me.

Wag. I will, sir.

[Exit.

Faust. Their conference will be a greater help to

me

Than all my labours, plod I ne'er so fast.