Literature, Medieval -- Translations into English; Tales
his head and horns, that he turned Faustus and his bear over and over,
so that the bear vanished away: whereat Faustus began to cry, "Oh!
woe to me that ever I came here!" For he thought there to have been
beguiled of the devil; and to make an end before his time appointed or
conditioned of the devil: but shortly after came to him a monstrous ape,
bidding Faustus to be of good cheer, and said, "Get upon me."
All the fire in hell seemed to Faustus to have been put out, whereupon
followed a monstrous thick fog, that he saw nothing, but shortly after
it seemed to him to wax clear, where he saw two great dragons fastened
unto a waggon, in the which the ape ascended and set Faustus therein;
forth flew the dragons into an exceeding dark cloud, where Faustus saw
neither dragons nor chariot wherein he sate, and such were the cries of
tormented souls, with mighty thunder-claps and flashing lightnings about
his ears, that poor Faustus shook for fear; upon this they came to a
water, stinking and filthy, thick like mud, into the which ran the
dragons, sinking under with waggon and all; but Faustus felt no water,
but as it were a small mist, saving that the waves beat so sore upon
him, that he saw nothing under or over him but only water, in the which
he lost his dragons, ape, and waggon; and sinking deeper and deeper, he
came at last as it were upon a high rock, where the waters parted and
left him thereon: but when the water was gone, it seemed to him he
should there have ended his life, for he saw no way but death. The rock
was so high from the bottom as heaven is from the earth. There sate he,
seeing nor hearing any man, and looked ever upon the rock. At length he
saw a little hole out of which issued fire. Thought he, "How shall I now
do? I must either fall to the bottom or burn in the fire, or sit in
despair." With that, in his madness he gave a skip into the fire-hole,
saying, "Hold, you infernal hags! take here this sacrifice as my last
end, that which I have justly deserved."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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