When I behold the heavens, then I repent,
And curse thee, wicked Mephistopheles,
Because thou hast deprived me of those joys.

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.

How prov’st thou that?

’Twas made for man, therefore is man more excellent.

If it were made for man, ’twas made for me;
I will renounce this magic and repent.

Faustus, repent; yet God will pity thee.

Thou art a spirit; God cannot pity thee.

Who buzzeth in mine ears I am a spirit?
Be I a devil, yet God may pity me;
Ay, God will pity me if I repent.

Ay, but Faustus never shall repent.

My heart’s so hardened I cannot repent.
Scarce can I name salvation, faith, or heaven,
But fearful echoes thunder in mine ears
“Faustus, thou art damned!” Then swords, and knives,
Poison, gun, halters, and envenomed steel
Are laid before me to despatch myself,
And long ere this I should have slain myself,
Had not sweet pleasure conquered deep despair.
Have not I made blind Homer sing to me
Of Alexander’s love and Oenon’s death?
And hath not he that built the walls of Thebes
With ravishing sound of his melodious harp,
Made music with my Mephistopheles?
Why should I die then, or basely despair?
I am resolved; Faustus shall ne’er repent⁠—
Come, Mephistopheles, let us dispute again,
And argue of divine astrology.
Tell me, are there many heavens above the moon?
Are all celestial bodies but one globe,
As is the substance of this centric earth?

As are the elements, such are the spheres
Mutually folded in each other’s orb,
And, Faustus,
All jointly move upon one axletree
Whose terminine is termed the world’s wide pole;
Nor are the names of Saturn, Mars, or Jupiter
Feigned, but are erring stars.

Tush!
These slender trifles Wagner can decide;
Hath Mephistopheles no greater skill?
Who knows not the double motion of the planets?
The first is finished in a natural day;

The second thus; as Saturn in thirty years; Jupiter in twelve; Mars in four; the Sun, Venus, and Mercury in a year; the moon in twenty eight days. Tush, these are freshmen’s suppositions. But tell me, hath every sphere a dominion or intelligentia?

Ay.

How many heavens, or spheres, are there?

Per inoequalem motum respectu totius.

Well, I am answered. Tell me who made the world?

I will not.

Sweet Mephistopheles, tell me.

Move me not, for I will not tell thee.

Villain, have I not bound thee to tell me anything?

Ay, that is not against our kingdom; but this is. Think thou on hell, Faustus, for thou art damned.

Think, Faustus, upon God that made the world.

Remember this.

Ay, go, accursed spirit, to ugly hell.
’Tis thou hast damned distressed Faustus’ soul.
Is’t not too late?

Too late.

Never too late, if Faustus can repent.

If thou repent, devils shall tear thee in pieces.

Repent, and they shall never raze thy skin.

Ah, Christ, my Saviour,
Seek to save distressed Faustus’ soul!

Christ cannot save thy soul, for he is just;
There’s none but I have interest in the same.

O, who art thou that look’st so terrible?

I am Lucifer,
And this is my companion-prince in hell.

O Faustus! they are come to fetch away thy soul!

We come to tell thee thou dost injure us;
Thou talk’st of Christ contrary to thy promise;
Thou should’st not think of God: think of the Devil.37

Nor will I henceforth: pardon me in this,
And Faustus vows never to look to Heaven,
Never to name God, or to pray to him,
To burn his Scriptures, slay his ministers,
And make my spirits pull his churches down.

That sight will be as pleasing unto me,
As Paradise was to Adam, the first day
Of his creation.

Thou shalt; I will send for thee at midnight.
In meantime take this book; peruse it throughly,
And thou shalt turn thyself into what shape thou wilt.