H 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.
MEPHIST. But I am an instance to prove the contrary,
For I tell thee I am damn'd and now in hell.
FAUSTUS. Nay, an this be hell, I'll willingly be damn'd:
What! sleeping, eating, walking, and disputing!
But, leaving this, let me have a wife,
The fairest maid in Germany;
For I am wanton and lascivious,
And cannot live without a wife.
MEPHIST. Well, Faustus, thou shalt have a wife.
[MEPHISTOPHILIS fetches in a WOMAN-DEVIL.]
FAUSTUS. What sight is this?
MEPHIST. Now, Faustus, wilt thou have a wife?
FAUSTUS. Here's a hot whore, indeed: no, I'll no wife.
MEPHIST. Marriage is but a ceremonial toy,
And, if thou lov'st me, think no more of it.
I'll cull thee out the fairest courtezans,
And bring them every morning to thy bed:
She whom thine [65] eye shall like, thy [66] heart shall have,
Were she as chaste as was [67] Penelope,
As wise as Saba, or as beautiful
As was bright Lucifer before his fall.
Here, take this book, peruse it well:
|