FAUSTUS. How! now in hell!
Nay, an this be hell, I'll willingly be damn'd here:
What! walking, disputing, &c.[94]
But, leaving off this, let me have a wife,[95]
The fairest maid in Germany;
For I am wanton and lascivious,
And cannot live without a wife.
MEPHIST. How! a wife!
I prithee, Faustus, talk not of a wife.
FAUSTUS. Nay, sweet Mephistophilis, fetch me one, for I will have
one.
MEPHIST. Well, thou wilt have one? Sit there till I come: I'll
fetch thee a wife in the devil's name.
[Exit.]
Re-enter MEPHISTOPHILIS with a DEVIL drest like a WOMAN,
with fire-works.
MEPHIST. Tell me,[96] Faustus, how dost thou like thy wife?
FAUSTUS. A plague on her for a hot whore!
MEPHIST. Tut, Faustus,
Marriage is but a ceremonial toy;
If thou lovest me, think no[97] more of it.
I'll cull thee out the fairest courtezans,
And bring them every morning to thy bed:
She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,
Be she as chaste as was Penelope,
As wise as Saba,[98] or as beautiful
As was bright Lucifer before his fall.
Hold, take this book, peruse it thoroughly:
[Gives book.]
The iterating[99] of these lines brings gold;
The framing of this circle on the ground
Brings whirlwinds, tempests, thunder, and lightning;
Pronounce this thrice devoutly to thyself,
And men in armour shall appear to thee,
Ready to execute what thou desir'st.
FAUSTUS. Thanks, Mephistophilis: yet fain would I have a book
wherein I might behold all spells and incantations, that I
might raise up spirits when I please.
MEPHIST. Here they are in this book.
[Turns to them.]
FAUSTUS. Now would I have a book where I might see all characters
and planets of the heavens, that I might know their motions and
dispositions.
MEPHIST. Here they are too.
[Turns to them.]
FAUSTUS. Nay, let me have one book more,--and then I have done,--
wherein I might see all plants, herbs, and trees, that grow upon
the earth.
MEPHIST. Here they be.
FAUSTUS. O, thou art deceived.
MEPHIST. Tut, I warrant thee.
[Turns to them.]
FAUSTUS. When I behold the heavens, then I repent,
And curse thee, wicked Mephistophilis,
Because thou hast depriv'd me of those joys.
MEPHIST. Why, Faustus,
Thinkest thou heaven is such a glorious thing?
I tell thee, 'tis not half so fair as thou,
Or any man that breathes on earth.
FAUSTUS. How prov'st thou that?
MEPHIST. 'Twas made for man, therefore is man more excellent.
FAUSTUS. If it were made for man, 'twas made for me:
I will renounce this magic and repent.
Enter GOOD ANGEL and EVIL ANGEL.
GOOD ANGEL. Faustus, repent; yet God will pity thee.
EVIL ANGEL. Thou art a spirit; God cannot pity thee.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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