The Complete Plays (92 page)

17        
to bear with
: (i) Put up with, (ii) support my weight (during intercourse), (iii) bear my child.

27        
turn… wind her
: (Like meat on a spit.) Both verbs sometimes have sexual connotations.

32        
of free cost
: For nothing.

Scene
7

27        
Alexander
: I.e. Paris, who deserted Oenone (N) for Helen.

28        
he… Thebes
: The walls of Thebes were magically raised by the music of Amphion.

35–43  
Tell me… erring stars
: Faustus asks how many spheres there are above that of the moon (though ‘heavens' crosses from cosmology to divinity), and/or whether the heavenly bodies all form a
single sphere, with the earth at the centre. Mephistopheles replies that, like the four elements (arranged in concentric spheres of earth, water, air and fire), the spheres too are concentrically arranged round a single great axis, the farthest point of which (‘terminine') is the pole of the universe. Each of the planets has its own sphere. The questions are provocative, the replies orthodox.

44–5  
both situ… tempore
: Both in position and in time. Faustus asks whether the spheres all move in the same direction and complete their rotations of the earth at the same intervals.

51–7  
Who knows… intelligentia
: Faustus demonstrates his familiarity with the rotations of the planets relative to the background stars (the figures are approximations, sometimes inaccurate). The planetary spheres were traditionally under the guidance of angelic ‘intelligences' (
intelligentiae
). ‘Dominion' (celestial influence) may here be confused with ‘domination', one of the hierarchies of angels.

61        
empyreal
: Both ‘imperial' and ‘empyrean' (the fiery heaven).

63        
conjunctions… aspects
: Stars in conjunction appear close together; in opposition, to be opposite each other in the heavens; aspects are their relative positions.

65        
Per… totius
: Through unequal motion (of the planets) in respect to the whole.

92–3  
the devil… his dame
: The devil and his dam (mother) were a proverbial comic pairing.

111      
Ovid's flea
: The subject of the pseudo-Ovidian erotic
Elegia de Pulice
. The joke is repeated from 4.64–6.

115      
cloth of arras
: Luxurious tapestry from Arras in Flanders.

118      
leathern bag
: A money-bag.

130–31  
chimney-sweeper… oyster-wife
: Emblematic of dirt and poverty.

139      
the devil a penny
: Not a damned penny.

pension
: Payment for a child's board and lodging (hence payment of any kind).

144      
Martlemas-beef
: Beef killed on St Martin's day (11 November) and salted.

147      
March-beer
: Strong beer brewed in March.

progeny
: (Here) parentage, progenitors.

159–60  
I am… stockfish
: Lechery prefers an inch of ‘raw mutton' (slang for ‘food for lust': cf. 4.10–11) to a lot (an ell = 45 inches) of dried cod (‘stockfish').

160–61  
ell… letter… Lechery
: Lechery puns on the name and sound of the letter, presumably to make lewd gestures with her tongue in pronouncing it.

Chorus 2

6          
yoky
: Yoked (B's reading).

7          
to prove cosmography
: To test the accuracy of the geographers' maps.

Scene
8

12        
Quarters… equivalents
: Divide the town into four equal parts.

13–15  
Maro's… tomb… space
: Virgil was buried outside Naples, where he was reputed to have created a long tunnel by magic. The phrasing is very close to that of the Faustbook.

17        
sumptuous temple
: Presumably St Mark's in Venice.

27–8  
be bold… cheer
: Make free with his hospitality.

31–43  
this city… Africa
: The local detail (including the inaccurate positioning of the Castel Sant'Angelo on the bridge) is from the Faustbook.

33–4  
Just through… parts
: Supplied from B.

42        
pyramides
: (Four syllables) obelisks from Egypt.

51        
And take… feast
: And play a part in the feast (‘meal' and ‘feast-day') of St Peter.

52        
bald-pate
: Tonsured.

53        
summum bonum
: Highest good (scholastic term for the goodness of God).

73–4  
ghost… pardon
: The sale of papal indulgences for the souls of the dead in Purgatory had provoked the start of the Reformation.

75        
dirge
: Mass for the dead; from its Latin key word,
dirige
= ‘direct (my soul, O Lord)'.

82–3  
cursed… candle
: Excommunicated in a ritual in which the bell is rung, the book (the Bible) closed, and the candle put out. As in the Faustbook, the rite is here confused with that of exorcism.

90        
Maledicat Dominus
: May the Lord curse (him).

99        
Et omnes sancti
: And all the saints.

Scene
9

2          
Ecce signum!
: Behold the sign! (a reminiscence of the mass).

2–3  
a simple… horse-keepers
: An impressive haul for two stable-boys.

3          
eat no hay
: Be unusually well fed.

11        
etc
.: Et cetera
may be a euphemism, or Latin bombast, or a signal to the actor to improvise. The grooms pass the cup between them as they are frisked.

20        
scour you
: Knock you about (punning on scouring, polishing a drinking-vessel).

26–8  
Sanctobulorum… Mephistopheles!
: Robin's invocation sounds like bits of Latin and Greek, but is nonsense. Yet Mephistopheles comes (perhaps at the mention of his name).

tickle
: (Used ironically) thump.

28.1
SD
–35
Enter
MEPHISTOPHELES
… enterprise
: Since Mephistopheles dismisses the grooms again in lines 45–7, and there threatens different transformations, these lines are sometimes treated as an undeleted first version of the end of the scene, and omitted. But the Vintner may be included in the first curse, but then left out of the second, because Mephistopheles spares him (he could exit at line 35.1). And the grooms' initial failure to be transformed seems consistent with their sauciness.

29–32,  
O, nomine… nobis!
: The scraps of Latin (
nomine Domine
(for
Domini
): ‘name of the Lord';
Peccatum peccatorum
: ‘sin of sins';
Misericordia pro nobis
: ‘pity for us') recall phrases from the Catholic liturgy (
in nomine Domini
: ‘in the name of the Lord';
in remissionem peccatorum
: ‘for the remission of sins';
miserere nobis
: ‘have mercy on us').

Chorus 3

3          
stayed his course
: Ended his journey.

Scene
10

11        
conjurer
: I.e. one who does ordinary magic tricks.

28        
Chief… pre-eminence
: Most admired of those who have been pre-eminent in the world.

31        
motion
: Mention.

36        
his beauteous paramour
: Probably Alexander's Persian wife, Rox-ana; or perhaps the courtesan Thais.

45        
if it like your grace
: If your grace pleases. Faustus' polite formulation disguises his anxiety that the Emperor might be displeased by his inability to bring on the ‘true substantial bodies' (
46
).

50        
lively resemble
: Imitate to the life.

59        
Actaeon
: For his presumption Actaeon (N) was transformed into a stag and killed by his own hounds. Faustus' reply puns on the cuckold's horns, which are literalized later in the scene.

64–5  
this lady… neck
: This legend has not been traced.

81        
no haste but good
: Proverbial. ‘No haste but good (speed)' (Tilley H199).

Scene
11

There is no break in the action at the end of Scene 10; leaving the Emperor's court, Faustus and Mephistopheles walk into a new episode.

0.1   
SD
HORSE-COURSER
:
Horse-dealers were proverbially disreputable. Faustus cons this one with a device beyond the usual tricks of the trade.

2          
Fustian
: (G) The slip identifies Faustus as one who deceives with verbal trickery.

Mass
: By the mass; a Catholic oath surviving in Elizabethan English.

10–12  
I pray… child
: Spoken ironically; the Horse-courser spends a lot (‘has a great charge'), even without the expense of a family.

15        
water
: Water traditionally dispels enchantment.

16        
will he… waters?
: ‘Isn't he ready for anything?' (Proverbial: R. W. Dent,
Shakespeare's Proverbial Language: An Index
(Berkeley, 1981): W131.11).

21        
forty
: I.e. ‘dollars'.

22        
hey, ding, ding
: A song-refrain, often a euphemism for sexual intercourse. If the horse were not a gelding, the Horse-courser might ‘make a brave living' from stud-fees (his slick buttock was a sign of potency).

25        
water
: Urine.

33–4  
Christ… in conceit
: Faustus comforts himself with the prime example of a sinner being saved at the last minute, and promptly falls asleep as a sign of his complacency. Christ promised salvation to the repentant thief crucified with him (Luke 23:40–43).

34.2
SD
crying
: Lamenting loudly, but perhaps also weeping.

36–7  
Doctor Lopus… purgation
: Doctor Faustus' medicine (the ‘purgation') is even worse than that of Lopus, the notorious doctor-poisoner (N). Since he was executed in 1594 (i.e. after Marlowe's death) the line is probably not Marlovian and may cast doubt on the authenticity of the scene.

36        
H'as
: He has, like modern ‘he's'.

46–7  
O, yonder… master
: Mistaking Mephistopheles for a servant, the Horse-courser addresses him contemptuously (
snipper-snapper
: whipper-snapper;
hey-pass
: a magician's catch-phrase (cf. ‘hey presto'), hence a trickster).

63        
So-ho
: A hunter's cry.

83        
niggard… cunning
: Miser with my skills.

Scene
12

0.1    
SD: A'S
stage-directions here are slightly inconsistent with those at the end of Scene 11. The action is probably still continuous, but a scene may be missing.

5          
great-bellied
: Pregnant.

21–4  
the year… East
: Faustus confuses seasonal differences between northern and southern hemispheres with climatic variation between western and eastern countries. ‘Saba' (biblical Sheba) is modern Yemen.

30        
let us in
: Let us go in.

34        
beholding
: Beholden.

Scene
13

1–8    These lines are sometimes printed as a separate Chorus; but, though Wagner's function is choric, his speech is assimilated to the action of the scene.

24.1  
SD
passeth over the stage
: The formula indicates a processional entrance and exit.

39–46  
Break heart… guilt
: The Old Man talks of Faustus' spiritual state in terms of bodily suffering; and he can be saved only by Christ's blood.

40        
heaviness
: Sadness.

50.1
SD
dagger
: The dagger is a temptation to suicide, and Faustus seems about to kill himself in line 51.

75        
age
: Old man.

91        
topless
: Immeasurably high.

93–4   
Her lips… again
: The soul was believed to rise to the mouth in a kiss (in line 94, Faustus asks for a second). Succubi took human souls through sexual contact.

95        
be
: Probably just a variant for ‘is' but perhaps optative (‘Let heaven be…').

105–8  
Brighter… azured arms
: Semele's disastrous request to Jupiter to appear in his full divine form was well known (N). The nymph Arethusa was pursued by the river-god Alpheus, and was transformed into a fountain to escape him. Some commentators described him as a descendant of Apollo, but ‘monarch of the sky' suggests the sun-god himself. See (N) and Introduction, pp. xiii–xiv.