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Scene XI
Scene XI
A Green; afterwards the House of Faustus
[Enter Faustus and Mephistophilis]
Faust. Now, Mephistophilis, the restless course That Time doth run with
calm and silent foot, Short`ning my days and thread of vital life, Calls for
the payment of my latest years; Therefore, sweet Mephistophilis, let us Make
haste to Wittenberg.
Meph. What, will you go on horseback or on foot?
Faust. Nay, till I`m past this fair and pleasant green, I`ll walk on
foot.
Enter a Horse - Courser
Horse - C. I have been all this day seeking one Master Fustian: mass, see
where he is! God save you, Master Doctor!
Faust. What, horse - courser! You are well met.
Horse - C. Do you hear, sir? I have brought you forty dollars for your
horse.
Faust. I cannot sell him so: if thou likest him for fifty take him.
Horse - C. Alas, sir, I have no more. - I pray you speak for me.
Meph. I pray you let him have him: he is an honest fellow, and he has a
great charge, neither wife nor child.
Faust. Well, come, give me your money. [Horse - Courser gives Faustus the
money.] My boy will deliver him to you. But I must tell you one thing before
you have him; ride him not into the water at any hand.
Horse - C. Why, sir, will he not drink of all waters?
Faust. O yes, he will drink of all waters, but ride him not into the
water: ride him over hedge or ditch, or where thou wilt, but not into the
water.
Horse - C. Well, sir. - Now I am made man for ever. I`ll not leave my
horse for forty. If he had but the quality of hey - ding - ding, hey - ding -
ding, I`d made a brave living on him: he has a buttock as slick as an eel.
[Aside.] Well, God b` wi` ye, sir, your boy will deliver him me: but hark you,
sir; if my horse be sick or ill at ease, if I bring his water to you, you`ll
tell me what it is.
Faust. Away, you villain; what, dost think I am a horse - doctor?
Exit Horse - Courser.
What art thou, Faustus, but a man condemn`d to die?
Thy fatal time doth draw to final end;
Despair doth drive distrust unto 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.
Sleeps in his chair.
Re - enter Horse - Courser, all wet, crying
Horse - C. Alas, alas! Doctor Fustian quotha? Mass, Doctor Lopus^1 was
never such a doctor. Has given me a purgation has purg`d me of forty dollars;
I shall never see them more. But yet, like an ass as I was, I would not be
ruled by him, for he bade me I should ride him into no water. Now I, thinking
my horse had had some rare quality that he would not have had me known of, I,
like a venturous youth rid him into the deep pond at the town`s end. I was no
sooner in the middle of the pond, but my horse vanished away, and I sat upon a
bottle of hay, never so near drowning in my life. But I`ll seek out my Doctor,
and have my forty dollars again, or I`ll make it the dearest horse! - O,
yonder is his snipper - snapper. - Do you hear? You hey - pass,^2 where`s your
master?
[Footnote 1: Dr. Lopez, physician to Queen Elizabeth, was hanged in 1594 on
the charge of conspiring to poison the Queen.]
[Footnote 2: A juggler`s term, like "presto, fly!" Hence applied to the
juggler himself. - Bullen.]
Meph. Why, sir, what would you? You cannot speak with him.
Horse - C. But I will speak with him.
Meph. Why, he`s fast asleep. Come some other time.
Horse - C. I`ll speak with him now, or I`ll break his glass windows about
his ears.
Meph. I tell thee he has not slept this eight nights.
Horse - C. An he have not slept this eight weeks, I`ll speak with him.
Meph. See where he is, fast asleep.
Horse - C. Ay, this is he. God save you, Master Doctor! Master Doctor,
Master Doctor Fustian! - Forty dollars, forty dollars for a bottle of hay!
Meph. Why, thou seest he hears thee not.
Horse - C. So ho, ho! - so ho, ho!
(Hollas in his ear.)
No, will you not wake? I`ll make you wake ere I go. (Pulls Faustus by the
leg, and pulls it away.) Alas, I am undone! What shall I do?
Faust. O my leg, my leg! Help, Mephistophilis! call the officers. My leg,
my leg!
Meph. Come, villain, to the constable.
Horse - C. O lord, sir, let me go, and I`ll give you forty dollars more.
Meph. Where be they?
Horse - C. I have none about me. Come to my ostry^3 and I`ll give them
you.
[Footnote 3: Inn.]
Meph. Begone quickly.
Horse - Courser runs away.
Faust. What, is he gone? Farewell he! Faustus has his leg again, and the
horse - courser, I take it, a bottle of hay for his labour. Well, this trick
shall cost him forty dollars more.
Enter Wagner
How now, Wagner, what`s the news with thee?
Wag. Sir, the Duke of Vanholt doth earnestly entreat your company.
Faust. The Duke of Vanholt! an honourable gentleman, to whom I must be no
niggard of my cunning. Come, Mephistophilis, let`s away to him.
Exeunt.
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