The tragical history of Dr. Faustus
Scene II.
- Before FAUSTUS'S House.
Enter two SCHOLARS
- 1st Scholar: I wonder what's become of Faustus that was wont to make our schools ring with sic probo? 1
- 2nd Scholar: That shall we know, for see here comes his boy.
Enter WAGNER
- 1st Scholar: How now, sirrah! Where's thy master?
- Wagner: God in heaven knows!
- 2nd Scholar: Why, dost not thou know?
- Wagner: Yes, I know. But that follows not.
- 1st Scholar: Go to, sirrah! Leave your jesting, and tell us where he is.
- Wagner: That follows not necessary by force of argument, that you, being licentiate, should stand upon't: therefore, acknowledge your error and be attentive.
- 2nd Scholar: Why, didst thou not say thou knew'st?
- Wagner: Have you any witness on't?
- 1st Scholar: Yes, sirrah, I heard you.
- Wagner: Ask my fellow if I be a thief.
- 2nd Scholar: Well, you will not tell us?
- Wagner: 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? 2 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, 3 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 Scholar: Nay, then, I fear he has fallen into that damned Art, for which they two are infamous through the world.
- 2nd Scholar: 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 Scholar: O, but I fear me nothing can reclaim him.
- 2nd Scholar: Yet let us try what we can do. [Exeunt]
Notes
- "Thus I prove"—a common formula in scholastic discussions.
- "'Corpus naturale seu mobile' is the current scholastic expression for the subject-matter of physics."—Ward.
- Puritan.
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