Faustus Part 15

_Pope_. Let me be the first to curse, O Satan; as a pope, I have an undoubted right to the precedence.

_Satan_. Observe these men, ye devils, and see how they outdo ye. No, Pope; thou didst it when thy lips kissed the feet of my Leviathan.

Choose, Faustus.

Faustus stepped forward; raging despair was engraven in frightful characters on his shadowy face. He--! Who can express what he said?

The devils trembled at his words, and were astonished at his audacity.

Since h.e.l.l first existed, no such stillness had reigned in the dark, frightful kingdom, the abode of eternal misery. Faustus broke it, and required Satan to fulfil his promise.

_Satan_. Fool! how canst thou imagine that I, ruler of h.e.l.l, will keep my word, as there is no example of a prince of earth ever having kept his word when he got nothing by so doing? If thou canst forget that thou art a man, forget not that thou standest before the Devil. My fiendish subjects turned pale at thy temerity; thy horrid words made my firm and imperishable throne tremble; and I thought for a moment that I had risked too much. Away! thy presence makes me uneasy; and thou art a proof that man can do more than the Devil can bear. Drag him, ye fiends, into the most frightful corner; let him there languish in solitude, and madden at the recollection of his deeds, and of this moment, which he can never atone for. Let no shade approach him. Go, thou accursed one, and hover alone and abandoned in that land where neither hope, comfort, nor sleep are found. Those doubts which have tormented thee in life shall for ever gnaw thy soul, and no one shall explain to thee that mystery, the pursuit of which has brought thee here. This is the most painful punishment of all to a philosopher like thee. Drag him away, I repeat; torture him.

Seize that Pope, and plunge him into the hottest pool; for their equals are not to be found in h.e.l.l.

After their departure, Satan said to himself, smiling:

"When men wish to represent any thing abominable, they paint the Devil: let us, therefore, in revenge, when we wish to represent any thing infamous, depict man; and philosophers, popes, priests, conquerors, ministers, and authors, shall serve us as models."

Footnotes:

{134} It is not out of fear that I refrain from giving the names of the German princes who appear in this work, but because, having discovered the secret springs of their actions, I should too often have to contradict their lying, flattering, ignorant historians; and men who willingly allow themselves to be deceived, might perhaps doubt the truth of my a.s.sertions. Hercules himself could not clear away all the ordure which these historians have heaped up.--_Original_.

{249} See _Taxae Cancellariae Apostolicae_, &c., printed at Rome and Paris.