Faustus : $b his life, death, and doomKlinger, Friedrich Maximilian
General
Faustus : $b his life, death, and doom
Klinger, Friedrich Maximilian
Faust, -approximately 1540 -- Fiction
The Devil, having shown Faustus all that was remarkable in and about the
capital of France, took him to Calais; and, crossing the Channel, they
arrived in London at the very moment that hideous abortion, the Duke of
Gloucester, made himself Protector of the kingdom, and was endeavouring
to take away the crown from the children of his brother, the late king.
He had removed the father by means of poison, and had already persuaded
the queen (who, upon the first discovery of his projects, had fled for
refuge, with her children, to Westminster Sanctuary) to deliver up to him
the youthful heir of the throne, together with his brother York. Faustus
was present when Doctor Shaw, by the command of the Protector, informed
the astonished people from the pulpit, that the yet living mother of the
duke and the deceased king had admitted various lovers; that the late
king was the offspring of such adultery; and that no one of the royal
line, except the Protector, could boast of a legitimate birth. He saw
those noblemen executed who would not accede to the execrable plot; and
the Devil conducted him into the Tower at the very moment when Tyrrell
and his assistant murdered the lawful king and his brother, and buried
them beneath the threshold of the dungeon. He was a witness of the base
submission of the Parliament, and of the coronation of the frightful
tyrant. He witnessed the negotiation of the queen to support the
murderer of her sons in his usurped throne, by giving him the hand of her
eldest daughter, in order that she herself might still retain a shadow of
sovereignty; although at the same time she had entered into a secret
alliance with the Earl of Richmond, who was destined to be her avenger.
Faustus felt himself so enraged, that not all the charms of the blooming
Englishwomen could keep him any longer in this cursed isle, which he
quitted with hatred and disgust; for neither in Germany nor in France had
he seen crimes committed with so much coolness and impunity. When they
were on the point of embarking, the Devil said to him:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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