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O lente,[172] lente currite, noctis equi!
The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike, The devil will come, and Faustus must be d.a.m.n'd.
O, I'll leap up to my G.o.d!--Who pulls me down?-- See, see, where Christ's blood streams in the firmament!
One drop would save my soul, half a drop: ah, my Christ!-- Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!
Yet will I call on him: O, spare me, Lucifer!-- Where is it now? 'tis gone: and see, where G.o.d Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!
Mountains and hills, come, come, and fall on me, And hide me from the heavy wrath of G.o.d!
No, no!
Then will I headlong run into the earth: Earth, gape! O, no, it will not harbour me!
You stars that reign'd at my nativity, Whose influence hath allotted death and h.e.l.l, Now draw up Faustus, like a foggy mist.
Into the entrails of yon labouring cloud[s], That, when you[173] vomit forth into the air, My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths, So that my soul may but ascend to heaven!
[The clock strikes the half-hour.]
Ah, half the hour is past! 'twill all be past anon O G.o.d, If thou wilt not have mercy on my soul, Yet for Christ's sake, whose blood hath ransom'd me, Impose some end to my incessant pain; Let Faustus live in h.e.l.l a thousand years, A hundred thousand, and at last be sav'd!
O, no end is limited to d.a.m.ned souls!
Why wert thou not a creature wanting soul?
Or why is this immortal that thou hast?
Ah, Pythagoras' metempsychosis, were that true, This soul should fly from me, and I be chang'd Unto some brutish beast![174] all beasts are happy, For, when they die, Their souls are soon dissolv'd in elements; But mine must live still to be plagu'd in h.e.l.l.
Curs'd be the parents that engender'd me!
No, Faustus, curse thyself, curse Lucifer That hath depriv'd thee of the joys of heaven.
[The clock strikes twelve.]
O, it strikes, it strikes! Now, body, turn to air, Or Lucifer will bear thee quick to h.e.l.l!
[Thunder and lightning.]
O soul, be chang'd into little water-drops, And fall into the ocean, ne'er be found!
Enter DEVILS.
My G.o.d, my G.o.d, look not so fierce on me!
Adders and serpents, let me breathe a while!
Ugly h.e.l.l, gape not! come not, Lucifer!
I'll burn my books!--Ah, Mephistophilis!
[Exeunt DEVILS with FAUSTUS.] [175]
Enter CHORUS.
CHORUS. Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight, And burned is Apollo's laurel-bough, That sometime grew within this learned man.
Faustus is gone: regard his h.e.l.lish fall, Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise, Only to wonder at unlawful things, Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits To practice more than heavenly power permits.
[Exit.]
Terminat hora diem; terminat auctor opus.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: mate-- i.e. confound, defeat.]
[Footnote 2: vaunt-- So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "daunt."]
[Footnote 3: her-- All the 4tos "his."]
[Footnote 4: Whereas-- i.e. where.]
[Footnote 5: cunning-- i.e. knowledge.]
[Footnote 6: So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "more."]
[Footnote 7: FAUSTUS discovered in his study-- Most probably, the Chorus, before going out, drew a curtain, and discovered Faustus sitting.
In B. Barnes's DIVILS CHARTER, 1607, we find; "SCEN. VLTIMA.
ALEXANDER VNBRACED BETWIXT TWO CARDINALLS in his study LOOKING VPON A BOOKE, whilst a groome draweth the Curtaine." Sig. L 3.]
[Footnote 8: a.n.a.lytics, 'tis thou, &c.-- Qy. "a.n.a.lytic"? (but such phraseology was not uncommon).]
[Footnote 9: So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "the" (the printer having mistaken "yt" for "ye").]
[Footnote 10: So the later 4tos (with various spelling).--2to 1604 "Oncaymaeon."]
[Footnote 11: and-- So the later 4tos.--Not in 4to 1604.]
[Footnote 12: Couldst-- So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "Wouldst."]
[Footnote 13: men-- So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "man."]
[Footnote 14: legatur-- All the 4tos "legatus."]
[Footnote 15: &c.-- So two of the later 4tos.--Not in 4to 1604.]
[Footnote 16: law-- So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "Church."]
[Footnote 17: This-- So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "His."]
[Footnote 18: Too servile-- So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "The deuill."]
[Footnote 19: Che sera, sera-- Lest it should be thought that I am wrong in not altering the old spelling here, I may quote from Panizzi's very critical edition of the ORLANDO FURIOSO, "La satisfazion ci SERA p.r.o.nta." C. xviii. st. 67.]
[Footnote 20: scenes-- "And sooner may a gulling weather-spie By drawing forth heavens SCEANES tell certainly," &c.
Donne's FIRST SATYRE,--p. 327, ed. 1633.]
[Footnote 21: tire-- So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "trie."]
[Footnote 22: Enter WAGNER, &c.-- Perhaps the proper arrangement is,]
"Wagner!
Enter WAGNER.
Commend me to my dearest friends," &c.]
[Footnote 23: treasure-- So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "treasury."]
[Footnote 24: Jove-- So again, p. 84, first col.,[See Note 59]
: "Seeing Faustus hath incurr'd eternal death By desperate thoughts against JOVE'S deity," &c.: and I may notice that Marlowe is not singular in applying the name JOVE to the G.o.d of Christians:]
