FREDERICK. Come, let's devise how we may add more shame To the black scandal of his hated name.
BENVOLIO. First, on his head, in quittance of my wrongs, I'll nail huge forked horns, and let them hang Within the window where he yok'd me first, That all the world may see my just revenge.
MARTINO. What use shall we put his beard to?
BENVOLIO. We'll sell it to a chimney-sweeper: it will wear out ten birchen brooms, I warrant you.
FREDERICK. What shall his eyes do?
BENVOLIO. We'll pull out his eyes; and they shall serve for buttons to his lips, to keep his tongue from catching cold.
MARTINO. An excellent policy! and now, sirs, having divided him, what shall the body do? [FAUSTUS rises.]
BENVOLIO. Zounds, the devil's alive again! FREDERICK. Give him his head, for God's sake.
FAUSTUS. Nay, keep it: Faustus will have heads and hands, Ay, all your hearts to recompense this deed. Knew you not, traitors, I was limited For four-and-twenty years to breathe on earth? And, had you cut my body with your swords, Or hew'd this flesh and bones as small as sand, Yet in a minute had my spirit return'd, And I had breath'd a man, made free from harm. But wherefore do I dally my revenge?-- Asteroth, Belimoth, Mephistophilis?
Enter MEPHISTOPHILIS, and other Devils.
Go, horse these traitors on your fiery backs, And mount aloft with them as high as heaven: Thence pitch them headlong to the lowest hell.
Yet, stay: the world shall see their misery, And hell shall after plague their treachery. Go, Belimoth, and take this caitiff hence, And hurl him in some lake of mud and dirt. Take thou this other, drag him through the woods Amongst the pricking thorns and sharpest briers; Whilst, with my gentle Mephistophilis, This traitor flies unto some steepy rock, That, rolling down, may break the villain's bones, As he intended to dismember me. Fly hence; despatch my charge immediately.
FREDERICK. Pity us, gentle Faustus! save our lives! FAUSTUS. Away!
FREDERICK. He must needs go that the devil drives. [Exeunt MEPHISTOPHILIS and DEVILS with BENVOLIO, MARTINO, and FREDERICK.]
Enter the ambushed SOLDIERS.
FIRST SOLDIER. Come, sirs, prepare yourselves in readiness; Make haste to help these noble gentlemen: I heard them parley with the conjurer.
SECOND SOLDIER. See, where he comes! despatch and kill the slave.
FAUSTUS. What's here? an ambush to betray my life! Then, Faustus, try thy skill.--Base peasants, stand! For, lo, these trees remove at my command, And stand as bulwarks 'twixt yourselves and me, To shield me from your hated treachery! Yet, to encounter this your weak attempt, Behold, an army comes incontinent! [FAUSTUS strikes the door, and enter a DEVIL playing on a drum; after him another, bearing an ensign; and divers with weapons; MEPHISTOPHILIS with fire-works. They set upon the SOLDIERS, drive them out, and exeunt.]
Enter, at several doors, BENVOLIO, FREDERICK, and MARTINO, their heads and faces bloody, and besmeared with mud and dirt; all having horns on their heads.
MARTINO. What, ho, Benvolio! BENVOLIO. Here.--What, Frederick, ho!
FREDERICK. O, help me, gentle friend!--Where is Martino?
MARTINO. Dear Frederick, here, Half smother'd in a lake of mud and dirt, Through which the Furies dragg'd me by the heels.
FREDERICK. Martino, see, Benvolio's horns again!
MARTINO. O, misery!--How now, Benvolio! BENVOLIO. Defend me, heaven! shall I be haunted still? MARTINO. Nay, fear not, man; we have no power to kill.
BENVOLIO. My friends transformed thus! O, hellish spite! Your heads are all set with horns.
FREDERICK. You hit it right; It is your own you mean; feel on your head.
BENVOLIO. Zounds, horns again!
MARTINO. Nay, chafe not, man; we all are sped.
BENVOLIO. What devil attends this damn'd magician, That, spite of spite, our wrongs are doubled?
FREDERICK. What may we do, that we may hide our shames?
BENVOLIO. If we should follow him to work revenge, He'd join long asses' ears to these huge horns, And make us laughing-stocks to all the world.
MARTINO. What shall we, then, do, dear Benvolio?
BENVOLIO. I have a castle joining near these woods; And thither we'll repair, and live obscure, Till time shall alter these our brutish shapes: Sith black disgrace hath thus eclips'd our fame, We'll rather die with grief than live with shame. [Exeunt.]
Enter FAUSTUS, a HORSE-COURSER, and MEPHISTOPHILIS.
HORSE-COURSER. I beseech your worship, accept of these forty dollars.
FAUSTUS. Friend, thou canst not buy so good a horse for so small a price. I have no great need to sell him: but, if thou likest him for ten dollars more, take him, because I see thou hast a good mind to him.
HORSE-COURSER. I beseech you, sir, accept of this: I am a very poor man, and have lost very much of late by horse-flesh, and this bargain will set me up again.
FAUSTUS. Well, I will not stand with thee: give me the money [HORSE-COURSER gives FAUSTUS the money]. Now, sirrah, I must tell you that you may ride him o'er hedge and ditch, and spare him not; but, do you hear? in any case, ride him not into the water.
HORSE-COURSER. How, sir! not into the water! why, will he notdrink of all waters?
FAUSTUS. Yes, he will drink of all waters; but ride him not into the water: o'er hedge and ditch, or where thou wilt, but not into the water. Go, bid the hostler deliver him unto you, and remember what I say.
HORSE-COURSER. I warrant you, sir!--O, joyful day! now am I a made man for ever. [Exit.]
FAUSTUS. What art thou, Faustus, but a man condemn'd to die? Thy fatal time draws to a final end; Despair doth drive distrust into my thoughts: Confound these passions with a quiet sleep: Tush, Christ did call the thief upon the Cross; Then rest thee, Faustus, quiet in conceit. [He sits to sleep.]
Re-enter the HORSE-COURSER, wet.
