In Germany, within a town called Rhodes;'
Of riper years to Wertenberg 2 he went,
Whereas his kinsmen chiefly brought him up.
So soon he profits in Divinity,

The fruitful plot of scholarism graced,
That shortly he was graced with Doctor's name,
Excelling all whose sweet delight disputes
In heavenly matters of Theology;

Till swollen with cunning, of a self-conceit,
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!

20

[Exit.

SCENE I.

FAUSTUS discovered in his Study.

Faust. Settle thy studies, Faustus, and begin To sound the depth of that thou wilt profess;

1 I.e. Roda, in the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg.

Ed. 1616" Wittenberg" (which, of course, is the correct form). This line is omitted in ed. 1616. "Is there such a word as scholarism?" asks Wagner. Strange that he should have forgotten Greene's sneer at the poets, "who set the end of scholarism in an English blankverse!"

• So later eds.-Eds. 1604, 1609, "more."

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, 'tis thou hast ravished me,
Bene disserere est finis logices.

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:

Bid on cai me on farewell, Galen come,

Seeing Ubi desinit Philosophus ibi incipit Medicus ;
Be a physician, Faustus, heap up gold,
And be eternised for some wondrous cure.
Summum bonum medicinæ sanitas,

The end of physic is our body's health.

Why, Faustus, hast thou not attained that end?
Is not thy common talk found Aphorisms ?3
Are not thy bills hung up as monuments,
Whereby whole cities have escaped the Plague,

1 This is my own emendation. Ed. 1604 reads "Oncaymæon," which I take to be a corruption of the Aristotelian dy kal μǹ by ("being and not being "). The later 4tos. give (with various spelling) "Economy," inserting the word "and" before "Galen." But "Economy," though retained by all the editors, is nonsense. With the substitution of i for y and e for a, my emendation, which gives excellent sense, is a literal transcript of the reading of ed. 1604.

So ed. 1616.-Eds. 1604, 1609, "sound." • Medical rules.

• Prescriptions by which he had worked his cures. Professor Ward thinks the reference is rather to "the advertisements by which, as a migratory physician, he had been in the habit of announcing his advent, and perhaps his system of cures, and which were now 'hung up as monuments' in perpetuum."

And thousand desperate maladies been eased?
Yet art thou still but Faustus and a man.
Couldst thou make man to live eternally,
Or, being dead, raise them to life again,
Then this profession were to be esteemed.
Physic, farewell.—Where is Justinian?

Si una eademque res legatur duobus, alter rem, alter valorem rei, &c.

A pretty case of paltry legacies!

Exhæreditare filium non potest pater nisi, &c.

Such is the subject of the Institute
And universal Body of the Law.5
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;
Jerome's Bible, Faustus, view it well.

Stipendium peccati mors est. Ha! Stipendium, &c.
The reward of sin is death. That's hard.

30

39

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.

1 So ed. 1616.-Eds. 1604, 1609, "Wouldst."

Old copies "legatus."

Ed. 1616 "petty."

So ed. 1620.-Omitted in earlier copies.

So ed. 1616.-Eds. 1604, 1609, "Church."

So ed. 1616.-Ed. 1604 "His." (Wagner's note is wrong.)

So ed, 1616.-Ed. 1604 "The deuill,"

What doctrine call you this, Che sera sera,1
What will be shall be? Divinity, adieu !
These metaphysics of Magicians
And necromantic books are heavenly:
Lines, circles, scenes,2 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, tire3 thy brains to gain a Deity.
Wagner !4

Enter WAGNER.

Commend me to my dearest friends,

The German Valdes and Cornelius ;

Request them earnestly to visit me.

1 Old spelling for "sarà.”

* Dyce compares Donne's first satire, ed. 1633:"And sooner may a gulling weather-spie

By drawing forth heaven's sceanes tell certainly."

(Later eds. of Donne read "scheme.")

* So ed. 1616.-Eds. 1604, 1609, “trie.”

50

60

♦ I have adopted the arrangement proposed by Dyce. The old eds. read:

Wagner, commend," &c.

"Enter Wagner,

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.

Enter Good Angel and Evil Angel.

G. Ang. O Faustus! lay that damned book aside,
And gaze not on it lest it tempt thy soul,
And heap God's heavy wrath upon thy head.
Read, read the Scriptures: that is blasphemy.
E. Ang. Go forward, Faustus, in that famous art,
Wherein all Nature's treasure1 is contained:
Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky,
Lord and commander of these elements.

70

[Exeunt Angels.

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 Wertenberg,

1 So eds. 1609, 1616.-Ed. 1604 "treasury."

80

So Burden addresses Friar Bacon in Greene's Friar Bacon and

Friar Bungay:

"Thou mean'st ere many years or days be past

To compass England with a wall of brass."