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

Friars, and Attendants.

DUCHESS OF VANHOLT.

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

Chorus.

THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF

DOCTOR FAUSTUS.

میٹر

THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF

DOCTOR FAUSTUS.

Enter CHORUS.

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 3 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,

ΙΟ

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,—

In Germany, within a town called Rhodes;1
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, Heaven conspired his overthrow;
For falling to a devilish exercise,

4

And glutted now with learning's golden gifts,
He surfeits upon cursed 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.

2 Ed. 1616 "Wittenberg" (which, of course, is the correct form).

3 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!"

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