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 alch
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, tire 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."

2 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.")

3 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 damnèd 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?

et end

80

And search all corners of the new-found world

I'll have them fly to India for gold,

Ransack the Ocean for orient pearl,

T

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,2
And make swift Rhine circle fair Wertenberg,

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

2 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."

I'll have them fill the public schools with silk,1
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 our Provinces ;.
Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war
Than was the fiery keel 2 at Antwerp's 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.

1 Dyce's correction for "skill" of the old copies.

90

2 "During the blockade of Antwerp by the Prince of Parma in 1585, 'They of Antuerpe knowing that the bridge and the Stocadoes were finished, made a great shippe, to be a meanes to breake all this worke of the prince of Parmaes: this great shippe was made of masons worke within, in the manner of a vaulted caue: vpon the hatches there were layed myll-stones, graue-stones, and others of great weight; and within the vault were many barrels of powder, ouer the which there were holes ; and in them they had put matches, hanging at a thred, the which burning vntill they came vnto the thred, would fall into the powder, and so blow vp all. And for that they could not haue any one in this shippe to conduct it, Lanckhaer, a sea captaine of the Hollanders, being then in Antuerpe, gaue them counsell to tye a great beame at the end of it, to make it to keepe a straight course in the middest of the streame. this sort floated this shippe the fourth of Aprill, vntill that it came vnto the bridge; where (within a while after) the powder wrought his effect, with such violence, as the vessell, and all that was within it, and vpon it, flew in pieces, carrying away a part of the Stocado and of the bridge. The marquesse of Roubay Vicont of Gant, Gaspar of Robles lord of Billy, and the Seignior of Torchies, brother vnto the Seignior of Bours, with many others, were presently slaine; which were torne in pieces, and dispersed abroad, both vpon the land and vpon the water.' Grimeston's Generall Historie of the Netherlands, p. 875, ed. 1609."-Dyce.

In

Valdes, sweet Valdes, and Cornelius,

Know that your words have won me at the last
To practise Magic and concealed arts:
Yet not your words only, but mine own fantasy
That will receive no object, for my head
But ruminates on necromantic skill.
Philosophy is odious and obscure,
Both Law and Physic are for petty wits;
Divinity1 is basest of the three,
Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vild:
'Tis Magic, Magic that hath ravished me.
Then, gentle friends, aid me in this attempt;
And I that have with concise syllogisms 2
Gravelled the pastors of the German Church,
And made the flowering pride of Wertenberg
Swarm to my problems, as the infernal spirits.
On sweet Musæus 3 when he came to hell,
Will be as cunning as Agrippa was,

Whose shadows 4 made all Europe honour him.

Vald. Faustus, these books, thy wit, and our experi

ence

Shall make all nations to canònise us.

As Indian Moors obey their Spanish Lords,

1 Lines 106-7 are omitted in later 4tos.

Dyce's correction for "consissylogismes" of eds. 1604, 1609.-Ed. 1616"subtle syllogisms."

Cf. Virgil, En., vi. 667.

4 So eds. 1604, 1609.-Ed. 1616" shadow." In Book i, of his work De Occulta Philosophia, Agrippa gives directions for the operations of sciomancy."-Ward.

So shall the spirits1 of every element

Be always serviceable to us three;

Like lions shall they guard us when we please;
Like Almain rutters 2 with their horsemen's staves
Or Lapland giants,3 trotting by our sides;
Sometimes like women or unwedded maids,
Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows

Than have the white breasts of the Queen of love :
From Venice shall they drag huge argosies,

And from America the golden fleece

That yearly stuffs old Philip's treasury;
If learned Faustus will be resolute.

Faust. Valdes, 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.
He that is grounded in Astrology,

Enriched with Tongues, well seen in Minerals,
Hath all the principles Magic doth require.
Then doubt not, Faustus, but to be renowm'd,

120

130

1 So ed. 1616.-Eds. 1604, 1609, "subjects." Perhaps "subjects" is right. Cf. 2 Tamburlaine, iv. 2, l. 37 ; v. 3, 1. 165.

2 See note 1, p. 112.

3 Cf. 2 Tamburlaine, i, 1 :

"Vast Grantland, compassed with the frozen sea
(Inhabited with tall and sturdy men,

Giants as big as hugy Polypheme)."

4 So ed. 1620, and later 4tos. (Ed. 1616 "has").-Eds. 1604, 1609, "Than in their" (a repetition from the previous line). Wagner gives "Than's in the "-which may well be styled lectio putidissima.

5 So ed. 1616.-Ed. 1604 "For."

• Omitted in ed. 1604.