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;
Divinity 1 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.

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

3 Cf. Virgil, Æn., 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,

1

So shall the spirits 1 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 5 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 6 Minerals,
Hath all the principles Magic doth require.
Then doubt not, Faustus, but to be renowm'd,

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

2 See note 1, p. 112.

3 Cf. 2 Tamberlaine, 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."

6 Omitted in ed. 1604.

And more frequented for this mystery
Than heretofore the Delphian Oracle.

140

The spirits tell me they can dry the sea,

And fetch the treasure of all foreign wrecks,

I, all the wealth that our forefathers hid

Within the massy entrails of the earth;

Then tell me, Faustus, what shall we three want?
Faust. Nothing, Cornelius! O this cheers my soul !
Come show me some demonstrations magical,
That I may conjure in some bushy1 grove,
And have these joys in full possession.

Vald. Then haste thee to some solitary grove
And bear wise Bacon's and Albertus' 2 works,
The Hebrew Psalter and New Testament;
And whatsoever else is requisite

We will inform thee ere our conference cease.

Corn. Valdes, first let him know the words of art; And then, all other ceremonies learned,

Faustus may try his cunning by himself.

150

Vald. First I'll instruct thee in the rudiments,

And then wilt thou be perfecter than I.

160

Faust. Then come and dine with me, and after meat,

We'll canvas every quiddity thereof;

1 So ed. 1616.-Ed. 1604 "lusty;" ed. 1609 “little.”

་་

2 All the old copies read Albanus." The correction is Mitford's. "It is at the same time open to conjecture whether Marlowe did not, as Düntzer suggests, refer to Pietro d'Abano (Petrus de Apono), an Italian physician and alchemist who narrowly escaped burning by the Inquisition. He was born about 1250 and died about 1316, and wrote a work called Conciliator Differentiarum Philosophorum et Medicorum." -Ward.

For ere I sleep I'll try what I can do:

This night I'll conjure tho' I die therefore.

[Exeunt

1st Schol. I wonder what's become of Faustus that was wont to make our schools ring with sic probo?

2nd Schol. That shall we know, for see here comes his

boy.

Enter WAGNER.

1st Schol. How now, sirrah! Where's thy master? Wag. God in heaven knows.

2nd Schol. Why, dost not thou know?

Wag. Yes, I know. But that follows not.

1st Schol. Go to, sirrah! leave your jesting, and tell us where he is.

ΙΟ

Wag. That follows not necessary by force of argument, that you, being licentiates, should stand upon : 2 therefore acknowledge your error and be attentive.

2nd Schol. Why, didst thou not say thou knewest ?
Wag. Have you any witness on't?
1st Schol. Yes, sirrah, I heard you.
Wag. Ask my fellows if I be a thief.
2nd Schol. Well, you will not tell us?

Wag. Yes, sir, I will tell you; yet if you were not dunces, you would never ask me such a question; for [20

1 Before Faustus' house.

2 So ed. 1616.-Ed. 1604 "upon't."

3 Lines 14-17 are omitted in ed. 1616 and later 4tos.

эт

222

The Tragical History of

[SCENE II.

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 counte-
nance 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 1 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.

2nd 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."

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

3 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.
"2 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.

"I Scho. I fear me nothing will reclaim me now.
"2 Scho, Yet let us see what we can do.

40

[Exeunt."