The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

Scene XVI

	Enter Faustus, with Scholars.73
Faustus	Ah, gentlemen!
First Scholar	What ails Faustus?
Faustus	Ah, my sweet chamber-fellow, had I lived with thee, then had I lived still! but now I die eternally. Look, comes he not, comes he not?
Second Scholar	What means Faustus?
Third Scholar	Belike he is grown into some sickness by being over solitary.
First Scholar	If it be so, we’ll have physicians to cure him. ’Tis but a surfeit. Never fear, man.
Faustus	A surfeit of deadly sin that hath damned both body and soul.
Second Scholar	Yet, Faustus, look up to Heaven: remember God’s mercies are infinite.
Faustus	But Faustus’ offence can never be pardoned: the serpent that tempted Eve may be saved, but not Faustus. Ah, gentlemen, hear me with patience, and tremble not at my speeches! Though my heart pants and quivers to remember that I have been a student here these thirty years, oh, would I had never seen Wertenberg, never read book! and what wonders I have done, all Germany can witness, yea, all the world: for which Faustus hath lost both Germany and the world, yea Heaven itself, Heaven, the seat of God, the throne of the blessed, the kingdom of joy; and must remain in hell forever, hell, ah, hell, forever! Sweet friends! what shall become of Faustus being in hell forever?
Third Scholar	Yet, Faustus, call on God.
Faustus	On God, whom Faustus hath abjured! on God, whom Faustus hath blasphemed! Ah, my God, I would weep, but the Devil draws in my tears. Gush forth blood instead of tears! Yea, life and soul! Oh, he stays my tongue! I would lift up my hands, but see, they hold them, they hold them!
All	Who, Faustus?
Faustus	Lucifer and Mephistopheles. Ah, gentlemen, I gave them my soul for my cunning!
All	God forbid!
Faustus	God forbade it indeed; but Faustus hath done it: for vain pleasure of twenty-four years hath Faustus lost eternal joy and felicity. I writ them a bill with mine own blood: the date is expired; the time will come, and he will fetch me.
First Scholar	Why did not Faustus tell us of this before, that divines might have prayed for thee?
Faustus	Oft have I thought to have done so: but the Devil threatened to tear me in pieces if I named God; to fetch both body and soul if I once gave ear to divinity: and now ’tis too late. Gentlemen, away! lest you perish with me.
Second Scholar	Oh, what shall we do to save Faustus?
Faustus	Talk not of me, but save yourselves, and depart.
Third Scholar	God will strengthen me. I will stay with Faustus.
First Scholar	Tempt not God, sweet friend; but let us into the next room, and there pray for him.
Faustus	Ay, pray for me, pray for me! and what noise soever ye hear, come not unto me, for nothing can rescue me.
Second Scholar	Pray thou, and we will pray that God may have mercy upon thee.
Faustus	Gentlemen, farewell: if I live till morning I’ll visit you: if not⁠—Faustus is gone to hell.
All	Faustus, farewell.
	Exeunt Scholars. The clock strikes eleven.
Faustus	Ah, Faustus, Now hast thou but one bare hour to live, And then thou must be damned perpetually! Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of Heaven, That time may cease, and midnight never come; Fair Nature’s eye, rise, rise again and make Perpetual day; or let this hour be but A year, a month, a week, a natural day, That Faustus may repent and save his soul! O lente, lente, currite noctis equi!74 The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike, The Devil will come, and Faustus must be damned. O, I’ll leap up to my God! Who pulls me down? See, see where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament! One drop would save my soul⁠—half a drop: ah, my Christ! Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ! Yet will I call on him: O spare me, Lucifer!⁠— Where is it now? ’tis gone; and see where God Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows! Mountains and hills come, come and fall on me, And hide me from the heavy wrath of God! No! no! Then will I headlong run into the earth; Earth, gape! O no, it will not harbour me! You stars that reigned at my nativity, Whose influence hath allotted death and hell, Now draw up Faustus, like a foggy mist Into the entrails of yon labouring clouds, That, when you vomit forth into the air, My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths, So that my soul may but ascend to Heaven.
	The clock strikes the half-hour.
	Ah, half the hour is past! ’twill all be past anon! O God! If thou wilt not have mercy on my soul, Yet for Christ’s sake whose blood hath ransomed me, Impose some end to my incessant pain; Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years⁠— A hundred thousand, and⁠—at last⁠—be saved! O, no end is limited to damned souls! Why wert thou not a creature wanting soul? Or why is this immortal that thou hast? Ah, Pythagoras’ metempsychosis! were that true, This soul should fly from me, and I be changed Unto some brutish beast! all beasts are happy, For, when they die, Their souls are soon dissolved in elements; But mine must live, still to be plagued in hell. Cursed be the parents that engendered me! No, Faustus: curse thyself: curse Lucifer That hath deprived thee of the joys of Heaven.
	The clock strikes twelve.
	O, it strikes, it strikes! Now, body, turn to air, Or Lucifer will bear thee quick to hell!
	Thunder and lightning.
	O soul, be changed into little water-drops, And fall into the ocean⁠—ne’er be found!
	Enter Devils.
	My God! my God! look not so fierce on me! Adders and serpents, let me breathe a while! Ugly hell, gape not! come not, Lucifer! I’ll burn my books!⁠—Ah, Mephistopheles!
	Exeunt Devils* with Faustus.*
	Enter Chorus.
Chorus	Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight, And burned is Apollo’s laurel-bough, That sometime grew within this learned man. Faustus is gone; regard his hellish fall, Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise Only to wonder at unlawful things, Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits To practice more than heavenly power permits.
	Exit.