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 laboring cloud[s],
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 awhile! come not, Lucifer!

Ugly hell, gape not!
I'll burn my books!

Chorus

Ah, Mephistophilis !

[Exeunt Devils with FAUSTUS.

Enter Chorus.

Cut is the branch that might have grown full straight,
And burned is Apollo's laurel bough,

That some time 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.

A MALTESE MILLIONAIRE.

By CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE.

(From "The Jew of Malta.")

BARABAS discovered in his Countinghouse, with Heaps of Gold before

So that of thus much that return was made:
And of the third part of the Persian ships,
There was the venture summed and satisfied.

As for those Sabans, and the men of Uz,

That bought my Spanish oils and wines of Greece,
Here have I purst their paltry silverlings.
Fie; what a trouble 'tis to count this trash.
Well fare the Arabians, who so richly pay
The things they traffic for with wedge of gold,
Whereof a man may easily in a day

Tell that which may maintain him all his life.
The needy groom that never fingered groat,
Would make a miracle of thus much coin:

But he whose steel-barred coffers are crammed full,
And all his lifetime hath been tired,
Wearying his fingers' ends with telling it,
Would in his age be loath to labor so,
And for a pound to sweat himself to death.
Give me the merchants of the Indian mines,
That trade in metal of the purest mold;
The wealthy Moor, that in the eastern rocks
Without control can pick his riches up,
And in his house heap pearls like pebblestones,
Receive them free, and sell them by the weight;
Bags of fiery opals, sapphires, and amethysts,

Jacinths, hard topaz, grass-green emeralds,
Beauteous rubies, sparkling diamonds,
And seld-seen costly stones of so great price,
As one of them indifferently rated,
And of a carat of this quantity,

May serve in peril of calamity

To ransom great kings from captivity.

This is the ware wherein consists my wealth;

And thus methinks should men of judgment frame
Their means of traffic from the vulgar trade,

And as their wealth increaseth, so inclose
Infinite riches in a little room.

But now how stands the wind?

Into what corner peers my halcyon's bill?1

Ha! to the east? yes: see, how stand the vanes?
East and by south: why then I hope my ships
I sent for Egypt and the bordering isles
Are gotten up by Nilus' winding banks:
Mine argosies from Alexandria,

Loaden with spice and silks, now under sail,
Are smoothly gliding down by Candy shore
To Malta, through our Mediterranean sea.
But who comes here?

Barabas, thy ships are safe,

Riding in Malta road: and all the merchants
With other merchandise are safe arrived,

And have sent me to know whether yourself
Will come and custom them."

Barabas

The ships are safe thou say'st, and richly fraught. Merchant

They are.

Barabas

Why then

go bid them come ashore,

And bring with them their bills of entry:

I hope our credit in the customhouse

Will serve as well as I were present there.

1 A stuffed kingfisher (the halcyon), suspended by a string, was supposed to show the direction of the wind. Halcyon days were calm days, the belief being that the weather was always calm when kingfishers were breeding.

Pay the duties.

Go send 'em threescore camels, thirty mules,
And twenty wagons to bring up the ware.
But art thou master in a ship of mine,
And is thy credit not enough for that?
Merchant-

The very custom barely comes to more
Than many merchants of the town are worth,
And therefore far exceeds my credit, sir.
Barabas -

Go tell 'em the Jew of Malta sent thee, man: Tush! who amongst 'em knows not Barabas? Merchant

I go. Barabas

-

So then, there's somewhat come.

Sirrah, which of my ships art thou master of? Merchant

Of the "Speranza," sir.

Barabas

And saw'st thou not

Mine argosy at Alexandria?

Thou couldst not come from Egypt, or by Caire,

But at the entry there into the sea,

Where Nilus pays his tribute to the main,
Thou needs must sail by Alexandria.

Merchant

I neither saw them, nor inquired of them:

But this we heard some of our seamen say,

They wondered how you durst with so much wealth
Trust such a crazèd vessel, and so far.

Barabas

Tush, they are wise! I know her and her strength.
But go, go thou thy ways, discharge thy ship,

And bid my factor bring his loading in. [Exit Merchant.
And yet I wonder at this argosy.

Second Merchant

Enter a second Merchant.

Thine argosy from Alexandria,

Know, Barabas, doth ride in Malta road,
Laden with riches, and exceeding store

Of Persian silks, of gold, and orient pearl.

Barabas

How chance you came not with those other ships
That sailed by Egypt?

Second Merchant ·

Sir, we saw 'em not.

VOL. XII.-28

Barabas

Belike they coasted round by Candy shore
About their oils, or other businesses.
But 'twas ill done of you to come so far
Without the aid or conduct of their ships.
Second Merchant

Sir, we were wafted by a Spanish fleet,

That never left us till within a league,
That had the galleys of the Turk in chase.

Barabas
O!

they were going up to Sicily:

Well, go,

And bid the merchants and my men dispatch And come ashore, and see the fraught discharged. Second Merchant ·

I go.

Barabas

Thus trowls our fortune in by land and sea,
And thus are we on every side enriched:
These are the blessings promised to the Jews,
And herein was old Abram's happiness:
What more may heaven do for earthly man
Than thus to pour out plenty in their laps,
Ripping the bowels of the earth for them,
Making the seas their servants, and the winds
To drive their substance with successful blasts?
Who hateth me but for my happiness?

Or who is honored now but for his wealth?
Rather had I a Jew be hated thus,
Than pitied in a Christian poverty:
For I can see no fruits in all their faith,
But malice, falsehood, and excessive pride,
Which methinks fits not their profession.
Haply some hapless man hath conscience,
And for his conscience lives in beggary.
They say we are a scattered nation:

I cannot tell, but we have scambled up

More wealth by far than those that brag of faith. . .

I must confess we come not to be kings;

That's not our fault: alas, our number's few,

And crowns come either by succession,

Or urged by force; and nothing violent,
Oft have I heard tell, can be permanent.

Give us a peaceful rule, make Christian kings,
That thirst so much for principality.

[Exit