Re-enter MEPHISTOPHILIS.
FAUSTUS. What means this show? speak, Mephistophilis.
MEPHIST. Nothing, Faustus, but to delight thy mind,
And let thee see what magic can perform.
FAUSTUS. But may I raise such spirits when I please?
MEPHIST. Ay, Faustus, and do greater things than these.
FAUSTUS. Then, Mephistophilis, receive this scroll, [58]
A deed of gift of body and of soul:
But yet conditionally that thou perform
All covenants and articles between us both!
MEPHIST. Faustus, I swear by hell and Lucifer
To effect all promises between us both!
FAUSTUS. Then hear me read it, Mephistophilis.
[Reads.]
ON THESE CONDITIONS FOLLOWING. FIRST, THAT FAUSTUS MAY BE A
SPIRIT IN FORM AND SUBSTANCE. SECONDLY, THAT MEPHISTOPHILIS
SHALL BE HIS SERVANT, AND BE BY HIM COMMANDED. THIRDLY, THAT
MEPHISTOPHILIS SHALL DO FOR HIM, AND BRING HIM WHATSOEVER HE
DESIRES. [59] FOURTHLY, THAT HE SHALL BE IN HIS CHAMBER OR HOUSE
INVISIBLE. LASTLY, THAT HE SHALL APPEAR TO THE SAID JOHN FAUSTUS,
AT ALL TIMES, IN WHAT SHAPE AND FORM SOEVER HE PLEASE. I, JOHN
FAUSTUS, OF WITTENBERG, DOCTOR, BY THESE PRESENTS, DO GIVE BOTH
BODY AND SOUL TO LUCIFER PRINCE OF THE EAST, AND HIS MINISTER
MEPHISTOPHILIS; AND FURTHERMORE GRANT UNTO THEM, THAT, FOUR-AND-
TWENTY YEARS BEING EXPIRED, AND THESE ARTICLES ABOVE-WRITTEN
BEING INVIOLATE, FULL POWER TO FETCH OR CARRY THE SAID JOHN FAUSTUS,
BODY AND SOUL, FLESH AND [60] BLOOD, INTO THEIR HABITATION WHERESOEVER.
BY ME, JOHN FAUSTUS.
MEPHIST. Speak, Faustus, do you deliver this as your deed?
FAUSTUS. Ay, take it, and the devil give thee good of it!
MEPHIST. So, now, Faustus, ask me what thou wilt.
FAUSTUS. First I will question with [61] thee about hell.
Tell me, where is the [62] place that men call hell?
MEPHIST. Under the heavens.
FAUSTUS. Ay, so are all things else; but whereabouts?
MEPHIST. Within the bowels of these elements,
Where we are tortur'd and remain for ever:
Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscrib'd
In one self-place; but where we are is hell,
And where hell is, there must we ever be:
And, to be short, when all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be hell that are [63] not heaven.
FAUSTUS. I think hell's a fable. [64]
MEPHIST. Ay, think so still, till experience change thy mind.
FAUSTUS. Why, dost thou think that Faustus shall be damn'd?
MEPHIST. Ay, of necessity, for here's the scroll
In which thou hast given thy soul to Lucifer.
FAUSTUS. Ay, and body too; and what of that?
Think'st thou that Faustus is so fond to imagine
That, after this life, there is any pain?
No, these are trifles and mere old wives' tales.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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