Faustus Read Online Free Page A

you have me swear? Did you tax me to swear?
    MAGUS: I do not know, how, in faith, I may unclothe my craft.
    FAUSTUS: Did you not have me mime a ceremony, to do just that?
    MAGUS: Indeed, it was but to augment th’ effect… ’tis not for the uninitiated …
    FAUSTUS: Oh. Do I transgress a magical divide? Do I encroach upon the netherworld …? Shall I avertmy unschooled gaze lest it be seared by the mysteries …? Poor uninitiate, to wander, sightless in the sacred grove. Do I offend? I beg pardon; but have I not contracted for your energy? And now have you, as comes to any artist, o’er reached yourself? Must you renounce your excellence, and crawl to kennel like a beaten dog, your poor trick revealed? How unlike the omnipotent priest you impersonate. (
Pause
) Have you not been paid? Why do you hesitate?
    MAGUS: I held, sir, but the one moment to compose my thought. For onlookers, discovering an illusion, fall into self-contempt, and, indeed, oft, to anger. I strove but for a happy way to effect the restoration. I assure you I intended no disrespect. (
Of purse
) You have over-rewarded me, who did not, in fact, perform. If I, in my search for a graceful exit, caused offense, I humbly beg your pardon. Please guard this pledge of my sincerity. (
The
MAGUS
restores the purse to
FAUSTUS .) The journal may be found beneath your feet.
    (
The
MAGUS
begins to exit
.)
    FAUSTUS: Wait, friend, wait, I beg you hear me, though, indeed, I have no merit to plead. I have, I second you, traduced whatever claim upon your gracious-ness. And I have mocked you. In giddy self-absorption. I have no excuse, and can but beg your pardon.
    MAGUS: I do not comprehend you, sir.
    FAUSTUS: Indeed you do, oh, stay, and forgive me. Wait, while I delineate it: We had engaged you. To perform, who bought your time, and owe you, in return, attention …
    MAGUS: Not were my play to fail…
    FAUSTUS: In any case, civility. From which we may not be exempted. I am in breach. And plead, not as your contractor, but as one man to his like, you feign a god, and I a philosopher. Forgive me. Who most completely regrets his offense.
    MAGUS: (
Pause
) It were above me to forgive you.
    FAUSTUS: Oh no, naught but our parity wipes the slate clean.
    MAGUS: None but you has the power to suggest it.
    FAUSTUS: Must that debar me from my suit?
    MAGUS: You plead your right to waive preferment.
    FAUSTUS: I do.
    MAGUS: And yet, I cannot waive my subordination.
    FAUSTUS: Oh, my friend. Which makes my gaffe the less excusable. I am ashamed of my intemperate speech and offer my sincere apology. (
Pause
)
    MAGUS: You entice me to my better self.
    FAUSTUS: I ask your pardon.
    MAGUS: Were I to forward but its simulacrum?
    FAUSTUS: Come, sir, finally, let us be friends. Shall we not be friends? Mired together, in this what shall we say …?
Aid
me … in …?
    MAGUS: In a dark wood.
    FAUSTUS: In this underworld. Which you and I know as the world’s nickname. Two philosophers, two showmen, seeking to astound, are we not?
    MAGUS: You, sir, through your perception, I through trickery…
    FAUSTUS: Each though, libel to frightened slander. Do I tax the conceit? My yokemate, as we pull the world on?
    MAGUS: You o’er flatter me …
    FAUSTUS: As we: reason and folly, two paired oxen, wrestle the wagon of the world … ah, you smile, and now, encouraged by your approbation, having tapped its depth shall I now try its elasticity? Where did I leave my burden?
    MAGUS: In a dark wood …
    FAUSTUS: In the dark wood, yes, our rough conveyance, fast in the mire, no purchase, night coming on …
    MAGUS: You have neglected the storm.
    FAUSTUS: I stipulate it per tradition. And the cart, aid me, my friend.
    MAGUS: Upon whose side we daub the name Humanity …
    FAUSTUS: … oh, precious perishable cargo … left to the strength …
    MAGUS: Abandoned to the faltering strength …
    FAUSTUS: Of its mismatched beasts of travail: philosophy and Magic … its castrated fattened cattle: Amuse me from this