And more frequented for this mystery
Than heretofore the Delphian Oracle.
The spirits tell me they can dry the sea,

140

And fetch the treasure of all foreign wrecks,
Ay, 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 bushy 1 grove,
And have these joys in full possession.

1

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."

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.

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?me

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.

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 countenance 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 would1 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."

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 damnèd 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 him now.
"2 Scho. Yet let us see what we can do.

40

[Exeunt."

1st Schol. O, but I fear me nothing can reclaim him. 2nd Schol. Yet let us try what we can do.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Enter FAUSTUS to conjure.1

Faust. Now that the gloomy shadow of the earth

Longing to view Orion's drizzling look,

Leaps from the antarctic world unto the sky,
And dims the welkin with her pitchy breath,
Faustus, begin thine incantations,

And try if devils will obey thy hest,

Seeing thou hast prayed and sacrificed to them.
Within this circle is Jehovah's name,
Forward and backward anagrammatised,3
The breviated 4 names of holy saints,
Figures of every adjunct to the Heavens,
And characters of signs and erring 5 stars,
By which the spirits are enforced to rise :
Then fear not, Faustus, but be resolute,
And try the uttermost magic can perform.

1 The scene is laid in a grove.

2 Lines 1-4 are repeated verbatim in the first scene of the 1594 Taming of a Shrew.

So ed. 1616.-Eds. 1604, 1609, "and Agramithist."

Ed. 1616 "the abbreviated."

Wandering. Cf. a passage in the Distracted Emperor, v. 3 (a play first printed from MS. in vol. iii. of my Collection of Old Plays)::"Sir, I was friar and clerk, and all myself:

None mourned but night, nor funeral tapers bore
But erring stars."

Sint mihi Dei Acherontis propitii! Valeat numen triplex Jehova! Ignei, aerii, aquatani spiritus, salvete! Orientis princeps Belzebub, inferni ardentis monarcha, et Demogorgon, propitiamus vos, ut appareat et surgat Mephistophilis, quod tumeraris ;1 per Jehovam, Gehennam, et con- [20 secratam aquam quam nunc spargo, signumque crucis quod nunc facio, et per vota nostra, ipse nunc surgat nobis dicatus2 Mephistophilis !

Enter MEPHISTOPHILIS.

I charge thee to return and change thy shape;
Thou art too ugly to attend on me.

Go, and return an old Franciscan friar ;
That holy shape becomes a devil best.

[Exit MEPHISTOPHILIS.

I see there's virtue in my heavenly words;

Who would not be proficient in this art?
How pliant is this Mephistophilis,

Full of obedience and humility!

Such is the force of Magic and my spells :
No[w], Faustus, thou art conjuror laureat,

30

1 Ed. 1616 inserts "dragon" after "Mephistophilis." Mitford proposed "per Dagon quod numen aeris est," and the late Mr. James Crossley wished to read "quod tu mandares." A simpler correction (omitting "dragon") would be "Quid tu moraris?" We may suppose that Faustus pauses after the first part of the invocation, chides Mephistophilis for the delay, and then proceeds to employ a weightier spell. (I am glad to hear from Mr. Fleay that he long ago made the correction I propose.)

2 So ed. 1620 and later 4tos.-Ed. 1604 "dicatis."

3 Lines 33-35 are omitted in ed. 1616. For "No," J. H. Albers (vid. Wagner's Critical Commentary) suggests "Now."