Let it be placed by this my fatal chair, And serve as parcel of my funeral. Usum. Then feels your majesty no sovereign ease, Tamb. Casane, no; the monarch of the earth, Tech. Then let some God oppose his holy power 220 [They bring in the hearse of ZENOCRATE. Tamb. Now eyes enjoy your latest benefit, And when my soul hath virtue of your sight, Pierce through the coffin and the sheet of gold, And glut your longings with a heaven of joy. So reign, my son; scourge and controul those slaves, Guiding thy chariot with thy father's hand. As precious is the charge thou undertakest As that which Clymene's brain-sick son did guide, 230 When wandering Phoebe's ivory cheeks were scorched, And all the earth, like Ætna, breathing fire; Be warned by him, then; learn with awful eye To sway a throne as dangerous as his; For if thy body thrive not full of thoughts ་་ 1 Dyce conjectures that “Phyteus" is another form of “ Pythius.” The nature of these proud rebelling jades Will take occasion by the slenderest hair, 240 Through rocks more steep and sharp than Caspian clifts.1 The nature of thy chariot will not bear A guide of baser temper than myself, More than Heaven's coach the pride of Phaeton. For Tamburlaine, the scourge of God, must die. [He dies. Amy. Meet heaven and earth, and here let all things end, For earth hath spent the pride of all her fruit, 1 So the 8vo. Cf. Greene (in Orl. Fur.),— "And up through the rifts Of the Dorian cliffs." Dyce prints cliffs. 250 2 Untimely. THE Tragedy of Dr. Faustus was entered on the Stationers' Books January 7, 1600-1, but the 4to. of 1604 is the earliest edition yet discovered. A copy (probably unique) of this edition is in the Bodleian Library. The title is :- -The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. As it hath bene Acted by the Right Honorable the Earle of Nottingham his seruants. Written by Ch. Marl. London Printed by V. S. for Thomas Bushell 1604. The text of ed. 1604 was first printed by Dyce, and more recently the precious 4to. has been inspected by Professor A. W. Ward, who published an edition of Faustus in 1878. A second 4to., of which there is a unique copy in the town library of Hamburg, appeared in 1609 with the following title :-The Tragicall History of the horrible Life and death of Doctor Faustus. Written by Ch. Marl. Imprinted at. London by G. E. for John Wright and are to be sold at Christ-church gate. 1609. This edition agrees in almost every particular with the preceding. Its readings are reported in Wagner's edition (1877). The third 4to., which contains some scenes wholly re-written and others printed for the first time, was published in 1616 with the following title :-The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. Written by Ch. Marl. London, Printed for John Wright, and are to be sold at his shop without Newgate, at the signe of the Bible, 1616. In the Introduction I have discussed fully the origin of these changes and additions. Other 4tos. agreeing in the main with ed. 1616 appeared in 1620, 1624, and 1631. In 1663 the play was issued once more in 4to. (with a very corrupt text). I have followed the text of the first 4to., recording the reading of the later 4tos. where it seemed necessary. In all cases where I have adopted a later reading, the text of the editio princeps is given in a footnote. I have printed in an Appendix the scenes that were re-cast or added in ed. 1616; but where the changes and additions are not extensive, they are given in the footnotes. As Dr. Faustus is a series of dramatic scenes rather than a regular drama, I have made a division merely into scenes-not into acts and scenes. The same arrangement has been adopted in Professor Ward's edition. VOL. I. |
