Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593). Doctor Faustus.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
Scene II
Enter two S
2nd Schol.That shall we know, for see here comes his boy.
1st Schol.How now, sirrah! Where’s thy master?
Wag.God in heaven knows!
2nd Schol.Why, dost not thou know?
Wag.Yes, I know. But that follows not.
1st Schol.Go to, sirrah! Leave your jesting, and tell us where he is.
Wag.That follows not necessary by force of argument, that you, being licentiate, should stand upon’t: therefore, acknowledge your error and be attentive.
2nd Schol.Why, didst thou not say thou knew’st?
Wag.Have you any witness on’t?
1st Schol.Yes, sirrah, I heard you.
Wag.Ask my fellow if I be a thief.
2nd Schol.Well, you will not tell us?
Wag.Yes, sir, I will tell you; yet if you were not dunces, you would never ask me such a question; for is not he corpus naturale? and is not that mobile? Then wherefore should you ask me such a question? But that I am by nature phlegmatic, slow to wrath, and prone to lechery (to love, I would say), it were not for you to come within forty feet of the place of execution, although I do not doubt to see you both hang’d the next sessions. Thus having triumph’d over you, I will set my countenance like a precisian, and begin to speak thus:—Truly, my dear brethren, my master is within at dinner, with Valdes and Cornelius, as this wine, if it could speak, would inform your worships; and so the Lord bless you, preserve you, and keep you, my dear brethren, my dear brethren.
1st Schol.Nay, then, I fear he has fallen into that damned Art, for which they two are infamous through the world.
2nd Schol.Were he a stranger, and not allied to me, yet should I grieve for him. But come, let us go and inform the Rector, and see if he by his grave counsel can reclaim him.
1st Schol.O, but I fear me nothing can reclaim him.
2nd Schol.Yet let us try what we can do.[Exeunt.