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Bad Ang. Go forward, Faustus, in that fa

mous art,

Wherein all nature's treasure is contain'd.

Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky,
Lord and commander of these elements.

[Exeunt Ang.

Faust. How am I glutted with conceit of this! Shall I make Spirits fetch me what I please? Resolve 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 Wittenberg:
I'll have them fill the public schools with skill, SILK
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 the provinces:
Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war,
Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp bridge,
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

* Edit, of 1624 reads, "wise."

To practise Magic and concealed Arts.
Philosophy is odious and obscure;
Both Law and Physic are for petty wits;
'Tis Magic, Magic, that hath ravish'd me.
Then, gentle friends, aid me in this attempt;
And I, that have with subtile syllogisms
Gravell'd the Pastors of the German Church,
And made the flow'ring pride of Wittenberg
Swarm to my problems, as th' infernal, Spirits
On sweet Musæus when he came to hell;
Will be as cunning as Agrippa was,

Whose shadow made all Europe honour him. Val. to Faust. These books, thy wit, and our experience,

Shall make all nations to canonize us.

As Indian Moors obey their Spanish lords,
So shall the Spirits of every Element

Be always serviceable to us three:

Like lions shall they guard us when we please;
Like Almain Rutters 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 the white breast of the Queen of Love.
From Venice they shall drag whole* argasies;
And from America the golden fleece,
That yearly stuffs old Philip's treasury;
If learned Faustus will be resolute.

Faust. to Val. As resolute am I in this
As thou to live, therefore object it not.
Corn. The miracles that magic will perform,
Will make thee vow to study nothing else.

*Edit. 1616, reads "huge."

He that is grounded in astrology,

Enrich'd with tongues, well seen in minerals,
Hath all the principles magic doth require.
Then doubt not, Faustus, but to be renown'd,
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;
Yea, all the wealth that our forefathers hid
Within the massy entrails of the earth.
Then, tell me, Faustus, what shall we three want.
Faust. Nothing, Cornelius; O this cheers my
soul !

Come show me some demonstrations magical,
That I may conjure in some bushy grove,
And have these joys in full possession.

Val. Then haste thee to some solitary grove, And bear wise Bacon's and Albanus' works, The Hebrew Psalter, and New Testament; And whatsoever else is requisite,

We will inform thee ere our conference cease. Corn, to Val. First let him know the words of

art;

And then all other ceremonies learn'd,

Faustus may try his cunning by himself.

Val. First I'll instruct thee in the rudiments, And then wilt thou be perfecter than I.

Faust. Then come and dine with me, and after meat

We'll canvass every quidity thereof;

For ere I sleep I'll try what I can do,

This night I'll conjure though I die therefore.

[Exeunt omnes.

C

Enter two SCHOLARS.

1 Scho. I wonder what's become of Faustus,

that was wont

To make our schools ring with sic probo.

Enter WAGNer.

2 Scho. That shall we presently know; here comes his boy.

1 Scho. How now, sirrah, where's thy master? Wag. God in heaven knows.

2 Scho. Why dost not thou know then? Wag. Yes, I know, but that follows not.

1 Scho. Go to, sirrah, leave your jesting, and tell where he is.

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

2 Scho. Then you will not tell us?

Wag. You are deceived, for I will tell you; yet if you were not dunces you would never ask such a question; for is he not 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 but 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:

* Precisian-a puritan.

Truly, my dear brethren, my master is within at dinner with Valdes and Cornelius, as this wine if it would speak could inform your worships; and so the Lord bless you, preserve you, and keep you, my dear brethren. [Exit.

1 Scho. O Faustus! Then I fear that which I

have long suspected,

That thou art fallen into the damned art, For which they two are infamous through the world.

2 Scho. Were he a stranger, not allied to me, The danger of his soul would make me mourn; But come, let us go and inform the Rector, It may be his grave council may reclaim him. 1 Scho. I fear me nothing will reclaim him now. 2 Scho. Yet let us see what we can do.

[Exeunt.

Thunder. Enter LUCIFER and Four DEVILS. FAUSTUS to them with this Speech.

Faust. Now that the gloomy shadow of the night,

Longing to view Orion's drizzling look,

Leaps from the antarctic world unto the sky,
And dims the welkin with his 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, anagramatis'd;
The abreviated names of holy saints;
Figures of every adjunct to the heav'ns,

C 2

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