Enter the ambushed SOLDIERS*. FIRST SOLD. Come, sirs, prepare yourselves in readiness; Make haste to help these noble gentlemen: I heard them parley with the conjurer. SEC. SOLD. See, where he comes! despatch and kill the slave. FAUST. What's here? an ambush to betray my life! Then, Faustus, try thy skill.-Base peasants, stand! For, lo, these + trees remove at my command, And stand as bulwarks 'twixt yourselves and me, [FAUSTUS strikes the door ‡, and enter a DEVIL playing on a drum ; after him another, bearing an ensign; and divers with weapons; MEPHISTOPHILIS with fire-works. They set upon the SOLDIERS, and drive them out. Enter, at several doors, BENVOLIO, FREDERICK, and MARTINO, their heads and faces bloody, and besmeared with mud and dirt; all having horns on their heads. MART. What, ho, Benvolio! BENV. Here.-What, Frederick, ho! FRED. Oh, help me, gentle friend!--Where is Martino? Half smother'd in a lake of mud and dirt, Through which the Furies dragg'd me by the heels. FRED. Martino, see, Benvolio's horns again! BENV. Defend me, heaven! shall I be haunted still? * Enter the ambushed Soldiers] Here (though it seems that Faustus does not quit the stage) a change of scene is supposed. + these] So 4to 1616.-2tos 1624, 1631, "the." the door] i. e. the stage-door,-the writer here addressing himself to the actor only, for the scene lies in a wood. FRED. You hit it right; It is your own you mean; feel on your head. MART. Nay, chafe not, man; we all are † sped. That, spite of spite, our wrongs are doubled? FRED. What may we do, that we may hide our shames? He'd join long asses' ears to these huge horns, MART. What shall we, then, do, dear Benvolio? [Exeunt. Enter FAUSTUS, a HORSE-COURSER, and MEPHISTOPHILIS. HORSE-C. I beseech your worship, accept of these forty dollars. FAUST. Friend, thou canst not buy so good a horse for so small a price. I have no great need to sell him: but, if thou likest him for ten dollars more, take him, because I see thou hast a good mind to him. HORSE-C. I beseech you, sir, accept of this: I am a very poor man, and have lost very much of late by horse-flesh, and this bargain will set me up again. FAUST. Well, I will not stand with thee: give me the money [HORSE-COURSER gives FAUSTUS the money]. Now, sirrah, I must tell you that you may ride him o'er hedge and ditch, and spare him not; but, do you hear? in any case, ride him not into the water. HORSE-C. How, sir? not into the water! why, will he not drink of all waters? * Zounds] So 4tos 1624, 1631.-2to 1616, "Zons." FAUST. Yes, he will drink of all waters; but ride him not into the water o'er hedge and ditch, or where thou wilt, but not into the water. Go, bid the hostler deliver him unto you, and remember what I say. HORSE-C. I warrant you, sir.-Oh, joyful day! now am I a made man for ever! [Exit. FAUST. What art thou, Faustus, but a man condemn'd to die? Thy fatal time draws to a final end; Despair doth drive distrust into my thoughts: Re-enter the HORSE-COURSER, wet. [He sits to sleep. HORSE-C. Oh, what a cozening doctor was this! I, riding my horse into the water, thinking some hidden mystery had been in the horse, I had nothing under me but a little straw, and had much ado to escape* drowning. Well, I'll go rouse him, and make him give me my forty dollars again.-Ho, sirrah Doctor, you cozening scab! Master Doctor, awake, and rise, and give me my money again, for your horse is turned to a bottle of hay, Master Doctor! [He pulls off FAUSTUS' leg]. Alas, I am undone! what shall I do? I have pulled off his leg. FAUST. Oh, help, help! the villain hath murdered me. HORSE-C. Murder or not murder, now he has † but one leg, I'll outrun him, and cast this leg into some ditch or other. [Aside, and then runs out. FAUST. Stop him, stop him, stop him!-Ha, ha, ha! Faustus hath his leg again, and the Horse-courser a bundle of hay for his forty dollars. Enter WAGNER. How now, Wagner? what news with thee? * escape] So 4tos 1616, 1631.-2to 1624 "scape." WAG. If it please you, the Duke of Vanholt doth earnestly entreat your company, and hath sent some of his men to attend you ‡, with provision fit for your journey. FAUST. The Duke of Vanholt's an honourable gentleman, and one to whom I must be no niggard of my cunning. Come, away! [Exeunt. Enter ROBIN, DICK, the HORSE-COURSER, and a CARTER. CART. Come, my masters, I'll bring you to the best beer in Europe. What, ho, hostess! where be these whores? Enter HOSTESS. HOST. How now? what lack you? What, my old guess * ! welcome. ROB. Sirrah Dick, dost thou + know why I stand so mute? DICK. No, Robin: why is't? ROB. I am eighteen-pence on the score: but say nothing; see if she have forgotten me. HOST. Who's this that stands so solemnly by himself? What, my old guest! ROB. Oh, hostess, how do you? I hope my score stands still. HOST. Ay, there's no doubt of that; for methinks you make no haste to wipe it out. DICK. Why, hostess, I say, fetch us some beer. HOST. You shall presently.-Look up into the hall there, ho! [Exit.-Drink is presently brought in. DICK. Come, sirs, what shall we do now till mine hostess comes? CART. Marry, sirs, I'll tell you the bravest tale how a conjurer served me. You know Doctor Faustus? you] So 4to 1616.-Not in 4tos 1624, 1631. * guess] A corruption of guests (very frequent in our early dramatists), which occurs again at p. 145. So 4to 1616.-2tos 1624, 1631, "guests." + thou] So 4to 1616.-Not in 4tos 1624, 1631. now] So 4to 1616.-Not in 4tos 1624, 1631. § sir] Qy. "sirs"? but see the next speech of the Carter, and the next speech but one of the Horse-courser, who, in his narrative, uses both "sirs" and "sir." HORSE-C. Ay, a plague take him! here's some on's have cause to know him. Did he conjure thee too? CART. I'll tell you how he served me. As I was going to Wittenberg, t'other day*, with a load of hay, he met me, and asked me what he should give me for as much hay as he could eat. Now, sir, I thinking that a little would serve his turn, bad him take as much as he would for three farthings: so he presently gave me myt money and fell to eating; and, as I am a cursen‡ man, he never left eating till he had eat up all my load of hay. ALL. Oh, monstrous! eat a whole load of hay! ROB. Yes, yes, that may be; for I have heard of one that has eat a load of logs. HORSE-C. Now, sirs, you shall hear how villanously he served me. I went to him yesterday to buy a horse of him, and he would by no means sell him under forty dollars. So, sir, because I knew him to be such a horse as would run over hedge and ditch and never tire, I gave him his money. So, when I had my horse, Doctor Faustus bad me ride him night and day, and spare him no time; but, quoth he, in any case, ride him not into the water. Now, sir, I thinking the horse had had some quality § that he would not have me know of, what did I but rid || him into a great river? and when I came just in the midst, my horse vanished away, and I sate straddling upon a bottle of hay. ALL. Oh, brave doctor! HORSE-C. But you shall hear how bravely I served him for it. I went me home to his house, and there I found him asleep. I kept a hallooing and whooping in his ears; but all could not wake him. I, seeing that, took him by the leg, and never rested pulling till I had pulled me his leg quite off; and now 'tis at home in mine hostry. ROB. And has the doctor but one leg, then? that's excellent; for one of his devils turned me into the likeness of an ape's face. * As I was going to Wittenberg t'other day, &c.] See The History of Doctor Faustus, Chap. xxxv,-" How Doctor Faustus eat a load of hay." -The Carter does not appear in the earlier play. + my] So 4to 1616.-Not in 4tos 1624, 1631, cursen] i. e. christened. § some quality] So 4to 1616.-2tos 1624, 1631, "some rare quality.” rid] So 4to 1616.-2tos 1624, 1631, “ride.” |