THE INEVITABLE DAY
(From The Tragedy of Dr. Faustus)
Christopher Marlowe
Faustus, O Faustus!
Now has thou but one bare hour to live,
And then thou must be damned perpetually!
Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of Heaven,
That time may cease, and midnight never come;
For nature’s eye, rise, rise again, and make
Perpetual day: or let this hour be but
A year, a month, a week, a natural day,
That Faustus may repent and save his soul!
O lente, lente currite, noctis equi!
The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,
The devil will come, and Faustus must be damned
O, I’ll leap up to Heaven!---Who pulls me down?
See, where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament!
One drop of blood will save me; O my Christ!---
Rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!
Yet will I call on him; O spare me, Lucifer!
Where is it now? ‘tis gone; and see where God
Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!
Mountains and hills, come, come and fall on me
And hide me from the heavy wrath of Heaven!
No! No!
Then will I headlong run into the earth:
Gape, earth! O, no, it will not harbour me!
Your stars that reigned at may nativity.
Whose influence hath allotted death and Hell,
Now draw up Faustus, like a foggy mist,
Into the entrails of yon labouring cloud,
That, when you vomit forth into the air,
My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths:
But let my soul mount and ascend to Heaven!
O, half the hour is past! ‘twill all be past anon!
O God!
If thou will not have mercy on my soul,
Yet for Christ’s sake whose blood hath ransomed me,
Impose some end into my incessant pain;
Let Faustus live in Hell for a thousand years---
A hundred thousand, and at last be saved!
No end is limited to damned souls
Why wert thou not creature wanting soul?
Or why is it this immortal that thou hast?
O, Pythagoras, metempsychosis! Were that true,
This soul should fly from me, and I be changed
Into 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 joys of Heaven.
It strikes, it strikes! Now, body, turn to air,
Or Lucifer will bear thee quick t Hell!
O soul, be changed into small water drops,
And fall into the ocean---never be found!
My God! My god! Look not so fierce on me!
Adders and serpents, let me breathe a while!
Ugly Hell, gape not! Come not, Lucifer!
I’ll burn my books!---O Mephistophilis!
(From The Tragedy of Dr. Faustus)
Christopher Marlowe
Faustus, O Faustus!
Now has thou but one bare hour to live,
And then thou must be damned perpetually!
Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of Heaven,
That time may cease, and midnight never come;
For nature’s eye, rise, rise again, and make
Perpetual day: or let this hour be but
A year, a month, a week, a natural day,
That Faustus may repent and save his soul!
O lente, lente currite, noctis equi!
The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,
The devil will come, and Faustus must be damned
O, I’ll leap up to Heaven!---Who pulls me down?
See, where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament!
One drop of blood will save me; O my Christ!---
Rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!
Yet will I call on him; O spare me, Lucifer!
Where is it now? ‘tis gone; and see where God
Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!
Mountains and hills, come, come and fall on me
And hide me from the heavy wrath of Heaven!
No! No!
Then will I headlong run into the earth:
Gape, earth! O, no, it will not harbour me!
Your stars that reigned at may nativity.
Whose influence hath allotted death and Hell,
Now draw up Faustus, like a foggy mist,
Into the entrails of yon labouring cloud,
That, when you vomit forth into the air,
My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths:
But let my soul mount and ascend to Heaven!
O, half the hour is past! ‘twill all be past anon!
O God!
If thou will not have mercy on my soul,
Yet for Christ’s sake whose blood hath ransomed me,
Impose some end into my incessant pain;
Let Faustus live in Hell for a thousand years---
A hundred thousand, and at last be saved!
No end is limited to damned souls
Why wert thou not creature wanting soul?
Or why is it this immortal that thou hast?
O, Pythagoras, metempsychosis! Were that true,
This soul should fly from me, and I be changed
Into 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 joys of Heaven.
It strikes, it strikes! Now, body, turn to air,
Or Lucifer will bear thee quick t Hell!
O soul, be changed into small water drops,
And fall into the ocean---never be found!
My God! My god! Look not so fierce on me!
Adders and serpents, let me breathe a while!
Ugly Hell, gape not! Come not, Lucifer!
I’ll burn my books!---O Mephistophilis!
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