APPENDIX III.
MARLOWE’S “DR. FAUSTUS.”
MR. DYCE’S recent edition of Marlowe renders it unnecessary that I should add an account of the manner in which the latter has treated the legend. His material, as I have already stated, was the English translation of Spiess’s book, published in London in 1590. I quote the first scene, because it offers both a resemblance and a contrast to the first scene of Goethe:—
Enter Chorus.
Not marching in the fields of Tharsimen,
Where Mars did mate the warlike Carthigen;
Nor sporting in the dalliance of love,
In courts of kings, where state is overturned;
Nor in the pomp of proud, audacious deeds,
Intends our muse to vaunt his heavenly verse;
Only this, gentles, we must now perform,
The form of Faustus’ fortunes, good or bad:
And now to patient judgments we appeal,
And speak for Faustus in his infancy:
Now is he born of parents base of stock,
In Germany, within a town called Rhodes;
At riper years to Wittenburg he went;
So much he profits in divinity,
That shortly he was graced with Doctor’s name,
Excelling all, and sweetly can dispute
In th’ heavenly matters of theology:
Till, swoln with cunning and a self-conceit,
His waxen wings did mount above his reach;
And melting heavens conspired his overthrow;
For falling to a devilish exercise,
And glutted now with learning’s golden gifts,
He surfeits on the cursed necromancy.
