The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
By Christopher Marlowe.




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Editor’s Note
The earliest known edition of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus is that of 1604; there is a second edition with date of 1609, agreeing in almost every particular with the first; a third edition with new scenes and many alterations, was published in 1616. The text here given is that of 1604, with some readings adopted from the edition of 1616, in general agreement with the texts of Dyce and Bullen. It is very doubtful if any of the additions in the edition of 1616 are by Marlowe;  Mr. Bullen thinks that some of them are. They are often ingenious, and sometimes they are improvements. They appear to be written by a clever and facile imitator of Marlowe’s style. The comic additions are taken from the prose History of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of  Dr. John Faustus; the serious additions are closely moulded on Marlowe’s early work. We know that in 1602 William Bride and Samuel Rowley received four pounds for making “adicyones” to Faustus. I have retained the excellent plan, introduced by Professor Ward and adopted by  Mr. Bullen, of dividing the play into scenes only: it is a dramatic poem rather than a regular drama.



Dramatis Personae


The Pope


Cardinal of Lorrain


Emperor of Germany


Duke of Vanholt


Faustus


Valdes, Friend to Faustus


Cornelius, Friend to Faustus


Wagner, Servant to Faustus


Clown


Robin


Ralph


Vintner, Horse-Courser, Knight, Old Man, Scholars, Friars, and Attendants


Duchess Of Vanholt


Lucifer


Belzebub


Mephistopheles


Good Angel


Evil Angel


The Seven Deadly Sins


Devils


Spirits in the shapes of Alexander the Great, of his Paramour, and of Helen of Troy


Chorus




The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus





Chorus
Reads.




Not marching now in fields of Thrasymene,

Where Mars did mate 1 the Carthaginians;

Nor sporting in the dalliance of love,

In courts of kings where state is overturned;

Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds,

Intends our Muse to vaunt her heavenly verse:

Only this, gentlemen⁠—we must perform

The form of Faustus’ fortunes, good or bad:

To patient judgments we appeal our plaud,

And speak for Faustus in his infancy.

Now is he born, his parents base of stock,

In Germany, within a town called Rhodes; 2

Of riper years to Wertenberg he went,

Whereas his kinsmen 3 chiefly brought him up.

So soon he profits in divinity,

The fruitful plot of scholarism graced,

That shortly he was graced with doctor’s name,

Excelling all whose sweet delight disputes

In heavenly matters of theology;

Till swollen with cunning 4 of a self-conceit,

His waxen wings did mount above his reach,

And, melting, heavens conspired his overthrow;

For, falling to a devilish exercise,

And glutted now with learning’s golden gifts,

He surfeits upon cursed necromancy;

Nothing so sweet as magic is to him,

Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss.

And this the man that in his study sits!




Exit.





Scene I




Faustus discovered 5 in his study.


Faustus

Settle thy studies, Faustus, and begin

To sound the depth of that thou wilt profess;

Having commenced, be a divine in show,

Yet level at the end of every art,

And live and die in Aristotle’s works.

Sweet Analytics, ’tis thou hast ravished me,

Bene disserere est finis logices.

Is to dispute well logic’s chiefest end?

Affords this art no greater miracle?

Then read no more; thou hast attained that end;

A greater subject fitteth Faustus’ wit:

Bid on cai me on 6 farewell; Galen come,

Seeing, Ubi desinit Philosophus, ibi incipit Medicus;

Be a physician, Faustus, heap up gold,

And be eternised for some wondrous cure.

Summum bonum medicinae sanitas,

The end of physic is our body’s health.

Why, Faustus, hast thou not attained that end?

Is not thy common talk found Aphorisms? 7

Are not thy bills 8 hung up as monuments,

Whereby whole cities have escaped the plague,

And thousand desperate maladies been eased?

Yet art thou still but Faustus and a man.

Couldst thou make men to live eternally,

Or, being dead, raise them to life again,

Then this profession were to be esteemed.

Physic, farewell.⁠—Where is Justinian?




Reads.




Si una eademque res legatur duobus, alter rem, alter valorem rei,  etc.
A pretty case of paltry legacies!




Reads.




Ex hoereditare filium non potest pater nisi,  etc.
Such is the subject of the Institute,

And universal Body of the Law.

This study fits a mercenary drudge,

Who aims at nothing but external trash;

Too servile and illiberal for me.

When all is done, divinity is best;

Jerome’s Bible, Faustus, view it well.




Reads.




Stipendium peccati mors est. Ha! Stipendium,  etc.
The reward of sin is death. That’s hard.




Reads.




Si peccasse negamus fallimur et nulla est in nobis veritas;
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,