378 Tucker Brooke, 



O horrid act I O execrable evill ! 

 Another Faiistus, haplesse hopelesse man, 

 What wilt thou doe, when as that litle sand 

 Of thy soone emptied houreglasse is spent? 



Most frequently Faustus and Mephistophilis are but nicknames, 

 one for any quack or conjuror, the other for a mischievous go-be- 

 tween or messenger. In Middleton's Blurt, Master Constable 

 (1602) Truepenny, a servant, is asked by Hipohto : 'Sirrah 

 McphostopliUes, did not you bring letters from my sister to the 

 Frenchman?'"' In the second scene of Dekker's Satiromastix 

 (1602), Tucca says to Horace: 



So, thou must run ,of an errand for mee, Mephostophiles. 

 Hor. To doe you pleasure, Captayne, I will, but whether ? 

 Tiic. To hell, thou knowst the way, to hell, my fire and brimstone, to hell' 



Sim Eyre in TIic Shoemaker's Holiday (1600) bids his wife 

 'avaunt, avaunt, avoid, Mephistophilus' ;*'* and Juniper in Jonson's 

 Case is Altered^^ employs the same phrase: 'thou art not lunatic, 

 art thou ? an thou be'st, avoid, Mephostophilus !' In the Alcliemist 

 (IV. iv), Surly says of Subtle, 'he is the Faustus. That casteth 

 figures and can conjure'; and in A Tale of a Tub (IV. v) Puppy 

 wishes for 'a conjuring stick of doctor Faustus.' 

 Fletcher's Wife for a Mouth (V. ii) makes Tony say to the rascally 

 servant, Podramo : 



Then he may pleasure the king at a dead pinch too. 

 Without a Mephistophilus, such as thou art. 



In the last scene of Massinger's Picture (1630), Sophia says to her 



husband : 



Why? you know 

 How to resolve yourself what my intents are. 

 By the help of Mephistophilus, and your picture. 



In The Young Admiral (1633) by Shirley (IV. i), Flavia asks, 

 'Where is Mephistophilus ?' and Pazzorello cries, 'No more devils, 

 if you love me.' 



The first scene of Glapthorne's Jl'it in a Constable (1639) con- 

 tains an invective against the bookish youth who prefers to 'walke 



"■'Act II, scene i. 

 '"' Act V, scene iv. 

 "^ Act II, scene iv (scene viii, 1. 148 of Selin's ed.). 



