Literature, Medieval -- Translations into English; Tales
After all this he set his guests to the table, being the duke and
duchess, with all their train, for he had provided them a most sumptuous
feast both of meat, and also of drink; for he set nine messes of meat
upon the board at once. And all this must his Wagner do, to place all
things on the board, the which was brought unto him by the spirit
invisibly, of all things their hearts could desire, as wild-fowl,
venison, and all manner of dainty fish that could be thought on. Of wine
also great plenty, and of divers sorts, French wine, Cullen wine,
Crabashir wine, Renish wine, Spanish wine, Hungarian wine, Waszburg
wine, Malmsey, and Sack; in the whole there was one hundred cans
standing round about the house.
This sumptuous banquet the duke took thankfully, and afterwards he
departed homeward; but to their thinking they had neither eat nor drank,
so were they blinded while they were in the castle. But as they were in
their palace, they looked towards the castle, and beheld it all on a
flame of fire, and all those that saw it wondered to hear so strange a
noise, as if a great ordnance had been shot off. And thus the castle
burned and consumed clean away; which done, Dr. Faustus returned to the
duke, who gave him great thanks for showing of him so great a courtesy,
and gave him a hundred dollars, and liberty to depart or stay there at
his own discretion.
CHAPTER XLI.
_How Dr. Faustus, with his Company, visited the Bishop of Salisburg's
Wine-cellar._
Dr. Faustus having taken leave of the duke, he went to Wittenburg,
near about Shrovetide, and being in company with certain students, Dr.
Faustus was himself the God of Bacchus, who having well feasted the
students before with dainty fare, after the manner of Germany, where it
is counted no feast unless all the bidden guests be drunk, which Dr.
Faustus intending, said, "Gentlemen, and my guests, will it please you
to take a cup of wine with me in a place or cellar whereunto I will
bring you?" They all said willingly, "We will;" which, when Dr. Faustus
heard, he took them forth, set each of them upon a holly-wand, and so
was conjured into the Bishop of Salisburg's cellar, for thereabouts grew
excellent pleasant wine. There fell Faustus and his company a-drinking
and swilling, not of the worst, but of the best.
And as they were merry in the cellar, came to draw drink the bishop's
butler; which when he perceived so many persons there, he cried with a
loud voice, "Thieves, thieves!" This spited Dr. Faustus wonderfully,
wherefore he made every one of his company to sit on their holly-wand,
and so vanished away. And in parting, Dr. Faustus took the butler by the
hair of the head, and carried him away with them, until they came to a
mighty high-lopped tree; and on the top of that huge tree he set the
butler, where he remained in a most fearful perplexity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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