felicity. I writ them a bill with mine own blood:  the date is expired; the time will come, and he will fetch me. FIRST SCHOLAR. Why did not Faustus tell us of this before,169 that divines might have prayed for thee? FAUSTUS. Oft have I thought to have done so; but the devil threatened to tear me in pieces, if I named God, to fetch both body and soul, if I once gave ear to divinity:  and now 'tis too late. Gentlemen, away, lest you perish with me. SECOND SCHOLAR. O, what shall we do to save170 Faustus? FAUSTUS. Talk not of me, but save yourselves, and depart. THIRD SCHOLAR. God will strengthen me; I will stay with Faustus. FIRST SCHOLAR. Tempt not God, sweet friend; but let us into the next room, and there pray for him. FAUSTUS. Ay, pray for me, pray for me; and what noise soever ye hear,171 come not unto me, for nothing can rescue me. SECOND SCHOLAR. Pray thou, and we will pray that God may have mercy upon thee. FAUSTUS. Gentlemen, farewell:  if I live till morning, I'll visit you; if not, Faustus is gone to hell. ALL. Faustus, farewell.           [Exeunt SCHOLARS.—The clock strikes eleven.]       FAUSTUS. Ah, Faustus, Now hast thou but one bare hour to live, And then thou must be damn'd perpetually! Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven, That time may cease, and midnight never come; Fair 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,172 lente currite, noctis equi! The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike, The devil will come, and Faustus must be damn'd. O, I'll leap up to my God!—Who pulls me down?—      See, see, where Christ's blood streams in the firmament! One drop would save my soul, half a drop:  ah, my Christ!—      Ah, 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 God! No, no! Then will I headlong run into the earth:      Earth, gape! O, no, it will not harbour me! You stars that reign'd at my nativity, Whose influence hath allotted death and hell, Now draw up Faustus, like a foggy mist. Into the entrails of yon labouring cloud[s], That, when you173 vomit forth into the air, My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths, So that my soul may but ascend to heaven!           [The clock strikes the half-hour.]      Ah, half the hour is 

 Prev. P 29/56 next