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Faustus in his study.
Faust.
30Settle thy studies Faustus, and begin
to sound the depth of that thou wilt profess.
Having commenced, be a divine in show,
Yet level at the end of every art
And live and die in Aristotle's works.
35Sweet Analytics, 'tis thou hast ravished me.
Bene disserere est finis logices.
Is to dispute well logic's chiefest end?
Affords this art no greater miracle?
Then read no more; thou hast attained that end.
40A greater subject fitteth Faustus' wit.
Bid economy farewell, and Galen come.
Be a physician, Faustus; heap up gold
And be eternized for some wondrous cure.
Summum bonum, medicinae sanitas:
45The end of physic is our body's health:
Why, Faustus, hast thou not attained that end?
Are not thy bills hung up as monuments,
Whereby whole cities have escaped the plague
And thousand desperate maladies been cured?
50Yet art thou still but Faustus and a man.
Could'st thou make men to live eternally,
Or being dead, raise them to life again,
Then this profession were to be esteemed.
Physic farewell. Where is Justinian?
55Si una eademque res legatur duobus,
AIter rem, alter valorem rei, etc.
A petty case of paltry legacies!
Exhaereditare filium non potest pater, nisi--
Such is the subject of the institute,
60And universal body of the law.
This study fits a mercenary drudge,
Who aims at nothing but external trash,
Too servile aad illiberal for me.
When all is done, divinity is best;
65Jerome's Bible, Faustus, view it well.
Stipendium peccati, mors est." Ha! Stipendium, &c:
The reward of sin is death? That's hard.
Si peccasse, negamus, fallimur, et nulla est in nobis veritas.
If we say that we have no sin
70We deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us.
Why then belike we must sin,
And so consequently die.
Ay, we must die, an everlasting death.
What doctrine call you this: Che sera, sera,
75What will be, shall be? Divinity, adieu.
These metaphysics of magicians
And necromantic books are heavenly;
Lines, circles, letters, characters.
Ay, these are those that Faustus most desires.
80O what a world of profit and delight,
Of power, of honour, and omnipotence
Is promised to the studious artisan?
All things that move between the quiet poles
Shall be at my command. Emperors and Kings,
85Are but obeyed in their several provinces,
But his dominion that exceeds in this,
Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man:
A sound magician is a demi-god.
Here, tire my brains to get a Deity. Enter Wagner.
90Wagner, commend me to my dearest friends,
The German Valdes and Cornelius.
Request them earnestly to visit me.
Wag.
I will sir. Exit. Faust.
Their conference will be a greater help to me,
95Then all my labours, plod I ne'er so fast.
Enter the Good Angel and Evil Angel.
Good A.
O Faustus, lay that damned book aside,
And gaze not on it least it tempt thy soul
And heap God's heavy wrath upon thy head.
100Read, read the scriptures: that is blasphemy.
Bad A.
Go forward, Faustus, in that famous art
Wherein all nature's treasure is contained.
Be thou on earth as Jove is in the sky,
Lord and Commander of these elements.
Exeunt Angels.
Faust.
105How am I glutted with conceipt of this!
Shall I make spirits fetch me what I please,
Resolve me of all ambiguities,
Perform what desperate enterprise I will?
I'll have them fly to India for gold,
110Ransack the ocean for orient pearl,
And search all corners of the new-found world
For pleasant fruits, and princely delicates.
I'll have them read me strange philosophy,
And tell the secrets of all foreign Kings.
115I'll have them wall all Germany with brass,
And make swift Rhine, circle faire Wittenberg.
I'll have them fill the public schools with silk,
Wherewith the students shall be bravely clad.
I'll levy soldiers with the coin they bring,
120And chase the Prince of Parma from our land,
And reign sole king of all the provinces.
Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war
Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp's bridge
I'll make my servile spirits to invent.
125Come, German Valdes and Cornelius,
And make me blest with your sage conference. Enter Valdes.
Valdes, sweet Valdes and Cornelius! and Cornelius.
Know that your words have won me at the last
To practice magic and concealed arts.
130Philosophy is odious and obscure.
Both law and physic are for petty wits.
'Tis magic, magic that hath ravished me.
Then gentle friends aid me in this attempt,
And I, that have with subtle syllogisms
135Gravelled the pastors of the German Church
And made the flowering pride of Wittenberg
Sworn to my problems, as th'infernal spirits
On sweet Musaes when he came to hell,
Will be as cunning as Agrippa was,
140Whose shadow made all Europe honour him.
Val.
Faustus, these books, thy wit, and our experience,
Shall make all nations to canonize us,
As Indian moors, obey their Spanish lords.
So shall the spirits of every element
145Be always serviceable to us three.
Like lions shall they guard us when we please,
Like Almaine rutters with their horsemen's staves,
Or Lapland giants trotting by our sides.
Sometimes like women or unwedded maids,
150Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows
Than has the white breasts of the queen of love.
From Venice shall they drag huge argosies,
And from America the golden fleece,
That yearly stuffed old Phillip's treasury,
155If 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.
160He that is grounded in Astrology,
Enriched with tongues, well seen in minerals,
Hath all the principles magic doth require.
Then doubt not, Faustus, but to be renowned,
And more frequented for this mystery,
165Then heretofore the Delphian oracle.
The spirits tell me they can dry the sea,
And fetch the treasure of all foreign wrackes,
Yea, all the wealth that our fore-fathers hid
Within the messy entrails of the earth;
170Then 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 grove,
And have these joys in full possession.
Val.
175Then hast thee to some solitary grove,
And bear wise Bacon's, and Albanus' works,
The Hebrew Psalter, and New Testament;
And whatsoever else is requisite
We will inform thee ere our conference cease.
Cor.
180Valdes, first let him know the words of art,
And then all other ceremonies learned,
Faustus may try his cunning by himself.
Val.
First I'll instruct thee in the rudiments,
And then wilt thou be perfecter then I.
Faust.
185Then come and dine with me, and after meat
We'll canvass every quiddity thereof;
For ere I sleep, I'll try what I can do:
This night I'll conjure though I die therefore. Exeunt.
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