Wherein all Nature's treasure23 is contain'd: Be thou on earth as Jove24 is in the sky, Lord and commander of these elements.25 [Exeunt Angels.]
FAUSTUS. How am I glutted with conceit of this! Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please, Resolve26 me of 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 world
For pleasant fruits and princely delicates; I'll have them read me strange philosophy, And tell the secrets of all foreign kings;
I'll have them wall all Germany with brass, And make swift Rhine circle fair Wertenberg;
I'll have them fill the public schools with silk,27
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, And reign sole king of all the28 provinces;
Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war,
Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp's bridge,29
I'll make my servile spirits to invent. Enter VALDES and CORNELIUS.
Come, German Valdes, and Cornelius,
And make me blest with your sage conference. Valdes, sweet Valdes, and Cornelius,
Know that your words have won me at the last
To practice magic and concealed arts:
Yet not your words only,30 but mine own fantasy, That will receive no object; for my head
But ruminates on necromantic skill. Philosophy is odious and obscure; Both law and physic are for petty wits; Divinity is basest of the three,
Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile:31
'Tis magic, magic, that hath ravish'd me. Then, gentle friends, aid me in this attempt; And I, that have with concise syllogisms32
Gravell'd the pastors of the German church, And made the flowering pride of Wertenberg Swarm to my problems, as the infernal spirits On sweet Musaeus when he came to hell,
Will be as cunning33 as Agrippa34 was,
Whose shadow35 made all Europe honour him.
VALDES. Faustus, these books, thy wit, and our experience,
5
Shall make all nations to canonize us.
As Indian Moors obey their Spanish lords, So shall the spirits36 of every element
Be always serviceable to us three;
Like lions shall they guard us when we please;
Like Almain rutters37 with their horsemen's staves, Or Lapland giants, trotting by our sides;
Sometimes like women, or unwedded maids, Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows
Than have the38 white breasts of the queen of love: From39 Venice shall they drag huge argosies,
And from America the golden fleece That yearly stuffs old Philip's treasury; If learned Faustus will be resolute.
FAUSTUS. Valdes, as resolute am I in this
As thou to live: therefore object it not.
CORNELIUS. The miracles that magic will perform
Will make thee vow to study nothing else. He that is grounded in astrology,
Enrich'd with tongues, well seen in40 minerals, Hath all the principles magic doth require:
Then doubt not, Faustus, but to be renowm'd,41
And more frequented for this mystery Than heretofore the Delphian oracle. The spirits tell me they can dry the sea,
And fetch the treasure of all foreign wrecks, Ay, all the wealth that our forefathers hid Within the massy entrails of the earth:
Then tell me, Faustus, what shall we three want?
FAUSTUS. Nothing, Cornelius. O, this cheers my soul! Come, shew me some demonstrations magical,
That I may conjure in some lusty grove, And have these joys in full possession.
VALDES. Then haste thee to some solitary grove, And bear wise Bacon's and Albertus'42 works,
The Hebrew Psalter, and New Testament; And whatsoever else is requisite
We will inform thee ere our conference cease.
CORNELIUS. Valdes, first let him know the words of art;
And then, all other ceremonies learn'd, Faustus may try his cunning43 by himself.
VALDES. First I'll instruct thee in the rudiments, And then wilt thou be perfecter than I.
FAUSTUS. Then come and dine with me, and, after meat, We'll canvass every quiddity thereof;
For, ere I sleep, I'll try what I can do:
This night I'll conjure, though I die therefore. [Exeunt.]
Enter two SCHOLARS.44
6
FIRST SCHOLAR. I wonder what's become of Faustus, that was wont to make our schools ring with sic probo.
SECOND SCHOLAR. That shall we know, for see, here comes his boy. Enter WAGNER.
FIRST SCHOLAR. How now, sirrah! where's thy master? WAGNER. God in heaven knows.
SECOND SCHOLAR. Why, dost not thou know? WAGNER. Yes, I know; but that follows not.
FIRST SCHOLAR. Go to, sirrah! leave your jesting, and tell us where he is.
WAGNER. That follows not necessary by force of argument, that you, being licentiates, should stand upon:45 therefore acknowledge
your error, and be attentive.
SECOND SCHOLAR. Why, didst thou not say thou knewest? WAGNER. Have you any witness on't?
FIRST SCHOLAR. Yes, sirrah, I heard you. WAGNER. Ask my fellow if I be a thief. SECOND SCHOLAR. Well, you will not tell us?
WAGNER. 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 foot 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, would46 inform your worships: and so, the Lord bless you,
preserve you, and keep you, my dear brethren, my dear brethren!47 [Exit.]
FIRST SCHOLAR. Nay, then, I fear he is fallen into that damned art for which they two are infamous through the world.
SECOND SCHOLAR. 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.
FIRST SCHOLAR. O, but I fear me nothing can reclaim him!
SECOND SCHOLAR. Yet let us try what we can do. [Exeunt.]
7
Enter FAUSTUS to conjure.48
FAUSTUS. Now that the gloomy shadow of the earth, Longing to view Orion's drizzling look,
Leaps from th' antartic 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 pray'd and sacrific'd to them.
Within this circle is Jehovah's name, Forward and backward anagrammatiz'd,49
Th' abbreviated50 names