Vintner, Horse-Courser, Knight, Old Man, Scholars,

Friars, and Attendants.

Devils.

The Spirits representing ALEXANDER THE GREAT and his Paramour, and HELEN of Troy.

Chorus.

1

THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF

DOCTOR FAUSTUS.

Enter CHORrus.

Chorus. Not marching now in fields of Trasymene, Where Mars did mate1 the Carthaginians;

Nor sporting in the dalliance of love,

In Courts of Kings where state is overturned;
Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds,
Intends our Muse to vaunt 2 his heavenly verse :
Only this, gentlemen,—we must perform
The form of Faustus' fortunes, good or bad;
To patient judgments we appeal our plaud,
And speak for Faustus in his infancy.
Now is he born, his parents base of stock,

10

1 "Mate" ordinarily means “confound;" but the Carthaginians were victorious in the engagement at Lake Trasimenus. Cunningham says the meaning must be married the Carthaginians, espoused their cause;" but I strongly doubt whether the word "mate was so used. It would perhaps be safer to suppose that Marlowe's memory was at fault. Ed. 1616 reads "the warlike Carthagens."

2 So ed. 1616.-Eds. 1604, 1609, "daunt."

"

3 So all the 4tos. Dyce unnecessarily printed "her." Ward compares Shakespeare's Sonnet xxi. 1-2,

"So is it not with me as with that Muse

Stirr'd by a painted beauty to his verse."

In Germany, within a town called Rhodes;1
Of riper years to Wertenberg 2 he went, W. Se
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. Seque
Nothing so sweet as Magic is to him,

20

jon [Exit.

Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss. che
And this the Man that in his Study sits

fation

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."

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?

1. being & not

Then read no more, thou hast attained the end; ΙΟ

A greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit:

being

come, where philosophy

leaves aff
the Dr. Regins.

Bid on cai me on1 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 2 Aphorisms ?3
Are not thy bilis hung up as monuments,
Whereby whole cities have escaped the Plague,

20

1 This is my own emendation. Ed. 1604 reads "Oncaymæon," which I take to be a corruption of the Aristotelian ő кal μǹ ŏv (“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 æ, my emendation, which gives excellent sense, is a literal transcript of the reading of ed. 1604.

2 So ed. 1616.-Eds. 1604, 1609, "sound."

3 Medical rules.

Professor Ward

4 Prescriptions by which he had worked his cures. 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.

3

A pretty case of paltry legacies!

Exhæreditare filium non potest pater nisi, &c.4

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.

4 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.)

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