Post by Andrew on Jul 5, 2012 6:44:29 GMT -10
FAUSTUS. My heart's so hardened, I cannot repent.
Scarce can I name salvation, faith, or heaven,
But fearful echoes thunder in mine ears,
"Faustus, thou art damn'd!" then swords, and knives,
Poison, guns, halters, and envenomed steel
Are laid before me to dispatch myself;
And long ere this I should have killed myself,
Had not sweet pleasure conquered deep despair.
Have not I made blind Homer sing to me
Of Alexander's love and Oenon's death?
And hath not he, that built the walls of Thebes
With ravishing sound of his melodious harp,
Made music with my Mephistopheles?
Why should I die then or basely despair?
I am resolved, Faustus shall never repent!
Come, Mephistopheles, let us dispute again,
And argue of divine astrology.
Tell me, are there many spheres above the moon?
Are all celestial bodies but one globe,
As is the substance of this centric earth?
MEPHIST. As are the elements, such are the heavens,
Even from the moon unto the empyreal orb,
Mutually folded in each other's orbs.
And, Faustus,
All jointly move upon one axletree,
Whose terminè is termed the world's wide pole.
Nor are the names of Saturn, Mars, or Jupiter
Feigned, but are erring stars.
FAUSTUS. But, tell me, have they all one motion, both situ et
tempore?
MEPHIST. All jointly move from east to west in twenty-four hours
upon the poles of the world but differ in their motions upon
the poles of the zodiac.
FAUSTUS. Tsk,
These slender questions, Wagner can decide.
Hath Mephistopheles no greater skill?
Who knows not the double motion of the planets?
The first is finished in a natural day.
The second thus; Saturn in thirty years; Jupiter in twelve;
Mars in four; the Sun, Venus, and Mercury in a year; the Moon in
twenty-eight days. These are freshmen's questions.
But tell me, hath every sphere a dominion or intelligentia?
MEPHIST. Yes.
FAUSTUS. How many heavens or spheres are there?
MEPHIST. Nine; the seven planets, the firmament, and the empyreal heaven.
FAUSTUS. Well, resolve me in this question; why have we not
conjunctions, oppositions, aspects, eclipses, all at one time,
but in some years we have more, in some less?
Scarce can I name salvation, faith, or heaven,
But fearful echoes thunder in mine ears,
"Faustus, thou art damn'd!" then swords, and knives,
Poison, guns, halters, and envenomed steel
Are laid before me to dispatch myself;
And long ere this I should have killed myself,
Had not sweet pleasure conquered deep despair.
Have not I made blind Homer sing to me
Of Alexander's love and Oenon's death?
And hath not he, that built the walls of Thebes
With ravishing sound of his melodious harp,
Made music with my Mephistopheles?
Why should I die then or basely despair?
I am resolved, Faustus shall never repent!
Come, Mephistopheles, let us dispute again,
And argue of divine astrology.
Tell me, are there many spheres above the moon?
Are all celestial bodies but one globe,
As is the substance of this centric earth?
MEPHIST. As are the elements, such are the heavens,
Even from the moon unto the empyreal orb,
Mutually folded in each other's orbs.
And, Faustus,
All jointly move upon one axletree,
Whose terminè is termed the world's wide pole.
Nor are the names of Saturn, Mars, or Jupiter
Feigned, but are erring stars.
FAUSTUS. But, tell me, have they all one motion, both situ et
tempore?
MEPHIST. All jointly move from east to west in twenty-four hours
upon the poles of the world but differ in their motions upon
the poles of the zodiac.
FAUSTUS. Tsk,
These slender questions, Wagner can decide.
Hath Mephistopheles no greater skill?
Who knows not the double motion of the planets?
The first is finished in a natural day.
The second thus; Saturn in thirty years; Jupiter in twelve;
Mars in four; the Sun, Venus, and Mercury in a year; the Moon in
twenty-eight days. These are freshmen's questions.
But tell me, hath every sphere a dominion or intelligentia?
MEPHIST. Yes.
FAUSTUS. How many heavens or spheres are there?
MEPHIST. Nine; the seven planets, the firmament, and the empyreal heaven.
FAUSTUS. Well, resolve me in this question; why have we not
conjunctions, oppositions, aspects, eclipses, all at one time,
but in some years we have more, in some less?
