The history of the damnable life and deserved death of Doctor John Faustus, 1592, together with The second report of Faustus, containing his appearances and the deeds of Wagner, 1594.
History
The history of the damnable life and deserved death of Doctor John Faustus, 1592, together with The second report of Faustus, containing his appearances and the deeds of Wagner, 1594.
Faust, -approximately 1540 -- Legends
When Doctor Faustus called to mind, that his time from day to day drew
nigh, he began to live a swinish and Epicurish Life, wherefore he
commanded his Spirit Mephostophiles, to bring him seven of the fairest
women that he had seen in all the time of his travel: which being
brought, first one, and then another, he lay with them all, in so much
that he liked them so well, that he continued with them in all manner
of love, and made them to travel with him in all his journeys. These
women were two Netherlanders, one Hungarian, one English, two Wallons,
one Francklander: and with these sweet personages he continued long,
yea even to his last end.
CHAPTER LIV
_How Doctor Faustus found a mass of money when he had consumed
twenty-two of his years_
To the end that the Devil would make Faustus his only heir, he shewed
unto him where he should go and find a mighty huge mass of money, and
that he should have it in an old Chapel that was fallen down, half a
mile distant from Wittenberg, there he bade him to dig and he should
find it, the which he did, and having digged reasonable deep, he saw a
mighty huge serpent, the which lay on the treasure itself, the treasure
itself lay like a huge light burning: but D. Faustus charmed the
serpent that he crept into a hole, and when he digged deeper to get up
the treasure, he found nothing but coals of fire: there also he heard
and saw many that were tormented, yet notwithstanding he brought away
the coals, and when he was come home, it was all turned into silver and
gold, as after his death was found by his servant, the which was almost
about estimation, a thousand gilders.
CHAPTER LV
_How Doctor Faustus made the Spirit of fair Helena
of Greece his own Paramour and bedfellow
in his twenty-third year_
To the end that this miserable Faustus might fill the lust of his
flesh, and live in all manner of voluptuous pleasures, it came in his
mind after he had slept his first sleep,[39] and in the twenty-third
year past of his time, that he had a great desire to lie with fair
Helena of Greece, especially her whom he had seen and shewed unto
the Students of Wittenberg, wherefore he called unto him his Spirit
Mephostophiles, commanding him to bring him the fair Helena, which he
also did. Whereupon he fell in love with her, and made her his common
Concubine and bedfellow, for she was so beautiful and delightful a
piece, that he could not be one hour from her, if he should therefore
have suffered death, she had so stolen away his heart: and to his
seeming, in time she was with child, and in the end brought him a
man child, whom Faustus named Justus Faustus: this child told Doctor
Faustus many things that were to come, and what strange matters were
done in foreign countries: but in the end when Faustus lost his life,
the mother and the child vanished away both together.
[Footnote 39: The German text has “at midnight, when he awoke.”]
CHAPTER LVI
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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