Enter WAGNER.

1st Schol. How now, sirrah! Where 's thy master? Wag. God in heaven knows!

2d Schol. Why, dost not thou know?

Wag. Yes, I know. But that follows not.

1st Schol. Go to, sirrah! leave your jesting, and tell us where he is.

Wag. That follows not necessary by force of argument, that you, being licentiates, should stand upon: therefore acknowledge your error and be attentive.

2d Schol. Why, didst thou not say thou knewest? Wag. Have you any witness on 't? 1st Schol. Yes, sirrah, I heard you. Wag. Ask my fellows if I be a thief. 2d Schol. Well, you will not tell us?

Wag. Yes, sir, I will tell you; yet if you were not dunces, you would never ask me such a question; for is not he corpus naturale? and is not that mobile? then wherefore should you ask me such a question? But that I am by nature phlegmatic, slow to wrath, and prone to lechery (to love, I would say), it were not for you to come within forty feet of the place of execution, although I do not doubt to see you both hanged the next sessions. Thus having triumphed over you, I will set my countenance like a precisian, and begin to speak thus: Truly, my dear brethren, my master is within at dinner, with Valdes and Cornelius, as this wine, if it could speak, would inform your worships; and so the Lord bless you, preserve you, and keep you, my dear brethren, my dear brethren. 1st Schol. Nay, then, I fear he has fallen into that

[Exit.

damned Art, for which they two are infamous through the world.

2d Schol. Were he a stranger, and not allied to me, yet should I grieve for him. But come, let us go and inform the Rector, and see if he by his grave counsel can reclaim him.

1st Schol. O, but I fear me nothing can reclaim him.

2d Schol. Yet let us try what we can do.

SCENE III.1

Enter FAUSTUS to conjure.

[Exeunt.

Faust. Now that the gloomy shadow of the earth

Longing to view Orion's drizzling look,

Leaps from the 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 prayed and sacrificed to them.
Within this circle is Jehovah's name,
Forward and backward anagrammatised,
The breviated names of holy saints,
Figures of every adjunct to the Heavens,
And characters of signs and erring stars,
By which the spirits are enforced to rise:
Then fear not, Faustus, but be resolute,
And try the uttermost magic can perform.

Sint mihi Dei Acherontis propitii! Valeat numen triplex Jehova! Ignei, ærii, aquæ, terræ spiritus, salvete! Orientis princeps Belzebub, inferni ardentis

1 This scene is in a grove. See the speech of Valdes near the end of Scene 1.

C

monarcha, et Demogorgon, propitiamus vos, ut appareat et surgat Mephistophilis. Quid tu moraris? per Jehovam, Gehennam, et consecratam aquam quam nunc spargo, signumque crucis quod nunc facio, et per vota nostra, ipse nunc surgat nobis dicatus Mephistophilis! 1

Enter MEPHISTOPHILIS.

I charge thee to return and change thy shape;
Thou art too ugly to attend on me.
Go, and return an old Franciscan friar;
That holy shape becomes a devil best.

[Exit MEPH.

I see there's virtue in my heavenly words;
Who would not be proficient in this art?
How pliant is this Mephistophilis,
Full of obedience and humility!

Such is the force of magic and my spells :
Now Faustus, thou art conjuror laureat,
That canst command great Mephistophilis :
Quin regis Mephistophilis fratris imagine.2

Reënter MEPHISTOPHILIS like a Franciscan friar.

Meph. Now, Faustus, what would'st thou have me to do?

1" May the gods of the lower world be propitious! Let the threefold power of Jehovah prevail ! Spirits of fire, air, water, earth, all hail ! Beelzebub, Prince of the East, ruler of infernal fires, and Demogorgon, we propitiate you, that Mephistophilis may appear and rise. Why do you delay ? By Jehovah, Gehenna, and the consecrated water which now I sprinkle, by the sign of the cross which now I make, and by our vows, (I command) the mighty Mephistophilis himself to rise before

2" But that you rule in the person of Mephistophilis, your brother."

Faust. I charge thee wait upon me whilst I live, To do whatever Faustus shall command,

Be it to make the moon drop from her sphere,
Or the ocean to overwhelm the world.

Meph. I am a servant to great Lucifer, And may not follow thee without his leave; No more than he commands must we perform. Faust. Did not he charge thee to appear to me? Meph. No, I came hither of mine own accord. Faust. Did not my conjuring speeches raise thee? Speak.

1

Meph. That was the cause, but yet per accidens ; 1
For when we hear one rack 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 damned :
Therefore the shortest cut for conjuring
Is stoutly to abjure the Trinity,

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 him,
For he confounds hell in Elysium;
His 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.
Faust. Was not that Lucifer an angel once?
Meph. Yes, Faustus, and most dearly loved of God.

1 Incidentally.

Faust. How comes it then that he is Prince of devils?

Meph. O, by aspiring pride and insolence;

For which God threw him from the face of Heaven. Faust. 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 damned with Lucifer.

Faust. Where are you damned ?

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:
Think'st thou that I who saw the face of God,
And tasted the eternal joys of Heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells,
In being deprived of everlasting bliss ?
O Faustus! leave these frivolous demands,
Which strike a terror to my fainting soul.

Faust. What, is great Mephistophilis so passionate
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 incurred 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,
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 aid my friends,
And always be obedient to my will.
Go and return to mighty Lucifer,