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TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



certain other characters in Goethe's " Faust," are 

 also introduced with a view to variety and relief; 

 and the same may be urged in justification of the 

 broad, and coarse, as well as farcical scenes intro- 

 duced in Marlowe's tragedy. But, with regard to 

 these latter offenses, a very acceptable exonera- 

 tion may be discovered. We find it in old rec- 

 ords of his time that one " William Bride, and 

 one Samuel Rowled received £4 for their ady- 

 cions to Dr. Faustus, in 1602," i. e., before its 

 first publication in 4to, and probably before it 

 was acted. The ears of the "groundlings" of 

 that day required to be tickled with stuff of that 

 sort, just as in our own day the eyes, both of the 

 groundlings and upperlings, require — or are con- 

 stantly assumed by managers to require — a gross- 

 ness of an equal though a different kind. It is 

 fairly open to opinion that Marlowe did not write 

 the coarse nonsense in the above drama, although 

 he may have interpolated a passage or two. For 

 instance : The Doctor, having had a quarrel with 

 Mephistopheles on some question of astronomy, 

 is abruptly left by the latter, and then Faustus 

 calls upon Christ " to save distressed Faustus ' 

 soul!" Whereupon, Lucifer and Belzebub, hav- 

 ing been apprised by Mephistopheles of the dan- 

 ger of losing their prey, enter suddenly to bring 

 him to his senses. With this view they " enter- 

 tain " him, with a sight of the Seven Deadly Sins, 

 who appear in succession. One of these (viz., 

 Envy) is certainly not unworthy of Marlowe, in 

 his grotesque vein : 



" I am Envy ! begotten of a chimney-sweep 

 and an oyster-M r ife. I cannot read, and therefore 

 wish all books burned. I am lean with seeing 

 others eat. that there would come a famine all 

 over the world ! that all might die, and I live alone. 

 Then, thou shouldst see how fat I'd be ! But 

 (to Lucifer) must thou sit while I stand ? Come 

 down with a vengeance 1 " 



Among other entertaining things Faustus wish- 

 es to have a good look at Hell. He exclaims to j 

 Lucifer in passionate accents, " Oh, might I see 

 Hell — and return again safe — how happy were I 

 then!" 



After this we have more vulgar tricks, not so 

 much like magic for the " lower orders," as con- 

 juring tricks for country clowns ; and all this we 

 may, without offense, set down to the account of 

 the £4 paid to " right wittie " Master W. Bride, 

 and the very worthy and ingenious Master Row- 

 led, for their pleasant " adycions." It may be 

 asked, " How did Marlowe relish this ? " Why, 

 just as Shakespeare relished, or disregarded, the 

 many interpolations made in his plays. Besides, 



these things were continually done. In those days, 

 they did not care a straw about such matters. 

 But the profound tragic pathos and power of 

 Marlowe begins to show itself as he is approach- 

 ing the closing scenes of the tragedy. His Me- 

 phistopheles has previously displayed, occasion- 

 ally, both pathos and dignity ; and Milton found 

 some thoughts worthy of being placed in the 

 mouth of his grand Satan. In one of the early 

 scenes, the devil says, in reply to a question 

 about the infernal regions : 



"Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed 

 In one self place; but where we are is Hell.' 1 '' 



Marlowe's Faustus. 



The closing movements in " El Magico Pro- 

 digioso" are conducted with great dignity and 

 impassioned earnestness. Cyprian has sold his 

 soul to the Demon for various services to be ren- 

 dered ; but, by a puzzling kind of theological 

 contradiction, he is doomed to die, not in fulfill- 

 ment of his contract with the Demon, but by 

 public execution as one of the early Christian 

 martyrs of Antioch. How the fiend could allow 

 this to happen is perplexing, for surely he must 

 have known that it would be very difficult to 

 carry off the soul of a man who had earned the 

 crown of martyrdom. Justina also abjures the 

 gods of her country, and dies on the scaffold as a 

 convert to Christianity. Having always refused 

 herself to Cyprian in life, she very pathetically 

 reminds him, while they are both in the con- 

 demned cell, that she had said she could only 

 love him in death, and that now she is 'ready to 

 fulfill her promise. They both declare ' them- 

 selves prepared to endure any tortures, and Cyp- 

 rian grandly adds that one who has given his 

 soul for her should make light of giving up his 

 body to God : 



" Cyp. Quien el alma di6 por ti, 



Que hard en dar por Dios el cuerpo? 

 " Just. Que en la muerte te queria 



Dije ; y pues a morir Uego 



Coutigo, Cypriano, ya, 



Cumpli mis ofrecimientoe."— Jornada, III. 



Soon after this scene a terrible storm shakes 

 the whole city, to the dismay of the governor, and 

 all the people who appear to crowd round him in 

 the hall of justice. The last scene then opens, 

 and discovers a scaffold, upon which the heads 

 and bodies of Cyprian and Justina are seen ; while 

 in the air above them the Demon is seated upon 

 a winged serpent. He addresses the spectators, 

 declaring the purity of Justina, and that the two 

 martyrs have ascended to the " spheres of the 

 sacred throne of God," who commands him, most 



