No More Learning

FAUSTUS: I think hell's a fable.

MEPHISTOPHILIS: Aye, think so still, till experience
change thy mind. [_Exit_.

FAUSTUS: If heaven was made for man, 'twas made for me.
I will renounce this magic and repent.

[_Enter the_ GOOD _and_ EVIL ANGELS.

GOOD ANGEL: Faustus, repent! Yet God will pity
thee.

EVIL ANGEL: Thou art a spirit; God cannot pity thee.

FAUSTUS: My heart is hardened; I cannot repent.

EVIL ANGEL: Too late.

GOOD ANGEL: Never too late, if Faustus will repent.

[_Exeunt_ ANGELS.

FAUSTUS: O Christ, my Saviour, my Saviour,
Help to save distressed Faustus' soul.

[_Enter_ LUCIFER.
LUCIFER: Christ cannot save thy soul, for He is just;
Thou call'st on Christ, contrary to thy promise;
Thou shouldst not think on God; think on the Devil.

FAUSTUS: Nor will Faustus henceforth; pardon him for this,
And Faustus vows never to look to Heaven.


ACT II

SCENE I. --_Rome. Enter_ CHORUS.

CHORUS: Learned Faustus,
To find the secrets of astronomy
Graven in the book of Jove's high firmament,
Did mount him up to scale Olympus' top;
Where, sitting in a chariot burning bright,
Drawn by the strength of yoked dragons' necks,
He views the clouds, the planets, and the stars.
From east to west his dragons swiftly glide,
And in eight days did bring him home again.
Now, mounted new upon a dragon's back,
He, as I guess, will first arrive at Rome
To see the Pope and manner of his court,
And take some part of holy Peter's feast,
The which this day is highly solemnised.

[_Exit. Enter_ FAUSTUS _and_ MEPHISTOPHILIS.

FAUSTUS: Hast thou, as erst I did command,
Conducted me within the walls of Rome?

MEPHISTOPHILIS: This is the goodly palace of the
Pope.

FAUSTUS: Sweet Mephistophilis, thou pleasest me.
Whilst I am here on earth, let me be cloy'd
With all things that delight the heart of man.
My four-and-twenty years of liberty
I'll spend in pleasure and in dalliance.
Now in this show let me an actor be,
That this proud Pope may Faustus' cunning see.