aven.
[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 chang'd 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, Mephistophilis!
[Exeunt DEVILS with FAUSTUS.] [175]

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.]

Terminat hora diem; terminat auctor opus.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: mate-- i.e. confound, defeat.]

[Footnote 2: vaunt-- So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "daunt."]

[Footnote 3: her-- All the 4tos "his."]

[Footnote 4: Whereas-- i.e. where.]

[Footnote 5: cunning-- i.e. knowledge.]

[Footnote 6: So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "more."]

[Footnote 7: FAUSTUS discovered in his study-- Most probably, the Chorus,
before going out, drew a curtain, and discovered Faustus sitting.
In B. Barnes's DIVILS CHARTER, 1607, we find; "SCEN. VLTIMA.
ALEXANDER VNBRACED BETWIXT TWO CARDINALLS in his study LOOKING
VPON A BOOKE, whilst a groome draweth the Curtaine." Sig. L 3.]

[Footnote 8: Analytics, 'tis thou, &c.-- Qy. "Analytic"? (but such
phraseology was not uncommon).]

[Footnote 9: So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "the" (the printer
having mistaken "yt" for "ye").]

[Footnote 10: So the later 4tos (with various spelling).--2to 1604
"Oncaymaeon."]

[Footnote 11: and-- So the later 4tos.--Not in 4to 1604.]

[Footnote 12: Couldst-- So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "Wouldst."]

[Footnote 13: men-- So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "man."]

[Footnote 14: legatur-- All the 4tos "legatus."]

[Footnote 15: &c.-- So two of the later 4tos.--Not in 4to 1604.]

[Footnote 16: law-- So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "Church."]

[Footnote 17: This-- So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "His."]

[Footnote 18: Too servile-- So the later 4tos.--2to 1604 "The deuill."]