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, [30 would inform your worships; and so the Lord bless you, preserve you, and keep you, my dear brethren, my dear brethren.2 [Exit. 1st Schol. Nay, then, I fear he is fallen into that damned Art, for which they two are infamous through the world.

and 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.

1 So ed. 1616.-Ed. 1604 "it would."

• In ed, 1616 and later 4tos. the repetition is not found.

Ed. 1616 and later 4tos, read :

"I Scho. O Faustus!

Then I fear that which I have long suspected,
That thou art fallen into that damned art,
For which they two are infamous through the world.
"a 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 counsel may reclaim him.
"1 Scho, I fear me nothing will reclaim him now.
"a Scho. Yet let us see what we can do.

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[Exeunt."

1st Schol. O, but I fear me nothing can reclaim him. and Schol. Yet let us try what we can do.

SCENE III.

Enter FAUSTUS to conjure1

[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,3
The breviated names of holy saints,
Figures of every adjunct to the Heavens,
And characters of signs and erring 5 stars,
By which the spirits are enforced to rise:
Then fear not, Faustus, but be resolute,
And try the uttermost magic can perform.

1 The scene is laid in a grove.

10

Lines 1-4 are repeated verbatim in the first scene of the 1594 Taming of a Shrew.

So ed. 1616.-Eds. 1604, 1609, "and Agramithist."

Ed. 1616"the abbreviated."

Wandering. Cf. a passage in the Distracted Emperor, v. 3 (a play first printed from MS. in vol. iii, of my Collection of Old Plays):"Sir, I was friar and clerk, and all myself:

None mourned but night, nor funeral tapers bore
But erring stars."

Sint mihi Dei Acherontis propitii ! Valeat numen triplex Jehova! Ignei, aerii, aquatani spiritus, salvete! Orientis princeps Belzebub, inferni ardentis monarcha, et Demogorgon, propitiamus vos, ut appareat et surgat Mephistophilis, quod tumeraris ;1 per Jehovam, Gehennam, et con- [20 secratam aquam quam nunc spargo, signumque crucis quod nunc facio, et per vota nostra, ipse nunc surgat nobis dicatus Mephistophilis !

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 MEPHISTOPHILIS.

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 :
No[w], Faustus, thou art conjuror laureat,

30

1 Ed. 1616 inserts "dragon" after "Mephistophilis." Mitford proposed "per Dagon quod numen aeris est," and the late Mr. James Crossley wished to read "quod tu mandares." A simpler correction (omitting "dragon") would be "Quid tu moraris?" We may suppose that Faustus pauses after the first part of the invocation, chides Mephis tophilis for the delay, and then proceeds to employ a weightier spell. (I am glad to hear from Mr. Fleay that he long ago made the correction I propose.)

So ed. 1620 and later 4tos.-Ed. 1604 "dicatis."

Lines 33-35 are omitted in ed. 1616. For "No," J. H. Albers (vid. Wagner's Critical Commentary) suggests "Now."

That can'st command great Mephistophilis :
Quin regis Mephistophilis fratris imagine.

Re-enter MEPHISTOPHILIS like a Franciscan Friar1

Meph. Now, Faustus, what would'st thou have me [to]

do?

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,

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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 hither3 of mine own accord.
Faust. Did not my conjuring speeches raise thee?

Speak.

Meph. That was the cause, but yet per accidens ;*
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:

50

1 Dyce quotes from the prose-tract The History of Dr. Faustus — "After Dr. Faustus had made his promise to the devill, in the morning betimes he called the spirit before him, and commanded him that he should alwayes come to him like a fryer after the order of Saint Francis with a bell in his hand like Saint Anthony, and to ring it once or twice before he appeared, that he might know of his certaine coming."

A common feat of magicians and witches.

So ed. 1620.-The earlier 4tos. "now hither."

♦ So ed. 1620.-Earlier 4tos, "accident."

VOL. I.

P

Therefore the shortest cut for conjuring
Is stoutly to abjure the Trinity,1
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.
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

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70

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,

1 Ed, 1616 "all godliness,”

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