[Scene XI—A Green; afterwards the House of Faustus]
[Enter Fautus and Mephistophilis]
Faustus
Now, Mephistophilis, the restless course
That Time doth run with calm and silent foot,
Short’ning my days and thread of vital life,
Calls for the payment of my latest years;
Therefore, sweet Mephistophilis, let us
Make haste to Wittenberg.
Mephistophilis
What, will you go on horseback or on foot?
Faustus
Nay, till I’m past this fair and pleasant green, I’ll walk on foot.
Enter a Horse-Courser
Horse-Courser
I have been all this day seeking one Master Fustian: mass, see where he is! God save you, Master Doctor!
Faustus
What, horse-courser! You are well met.
Horse-Courser
Do you hear, sir? I have brought you forty dollars for your horse.
Faustus
I cannot sell him so: if thou likest him for fifty take him.
Horse-Courser
Alas, sir, I have no more.—I pray you speak for me.
Mephistophilis
I pray you let him have him: he is an honest fellow, and he has a great charge, neither wife nor child.
Faustus
Well, come, give me your money.
[Horse-Courser gives Faustus the money.]
My boy will deliver him to you. But I must tell you one thing before you have him; ride him not into the water at any hand.
Horse-Courser
Why, sir, will he not drink of all waters?
Faustus
O yes, he will drink of all waters, but ride him not into the water: ride him over hedge or ditch, or where thou wilt, but not into the water.
Horse-Courser
Well, sir.—Now I am made man for ever. I’ll not leave my horse for forty. If he had but the quality of hey-ding-ding, hey-ding-ding, I’d made a brave living on him: he has a buttock as slick as an eel.
[Aside.]
Well, God b’ wi’ ye, sir, your boy will deliver him me: but hark you, sir; if my horse be sick or ill at ease, if I bring his water to you, you’ll tell me what it is.
Faustus
Away, you villain; what, dost think I am a horse-doctor?
[Exit Horse-Courser.]
What art thou, Faustus, but a man condemn’d to die?
Thy fatal time doth draw to final end;
Despair doth drive distrust unto my thoughts:
Confound these passions with a quiet sleep:
Tush, Christ did call the thief upon the cross;
Then rest thee, Faustus, quiet in conceit.
[Sleeps in his chair.]
Re-enter Horse-Courser, all wet, crying
Horse-Courser
Alas, alas! Doctor Fustian quotha? Mass, Doctor Lopus77 was never such a doctor. Has given me a purgation has purg’d me of forty dollars; I shall never see them more. But yet, like an ass as I was, I would not be ruled by him, for he bade me I should ride him into no water. Now I, thinking my horse had had some rare quality that he would not have had me known of, I, like a venturous youth rid him into the deep pond at the town’s end. I was no sooner in the middle of the pond, but my horse vanished away, and I sat upon a bottle of hay, never so near drowning in my life. But I’ll seek out my Doctor, and have my forty dollars again, or I’ll make it the dearest horse!—O, yonder is his snipper-snapper.—Do you hear? You hey-pass,78 where’s your master?
Mephistophilis
Why, sir, what would you? You cannot speak with him.
Horse-Courser
But I will speak with him.
Mephistophilis
Why, he’s fast asleep. Come some other time.
Horse-Courser
I’ll speak with him now, or I’ll break his glass windows about his ears.
Mephistophilis
I tell thee he has not slept this eight nights.
Horse-Courser
An he have not slept this eight weeks, I’ll speak with him.
Mephistophilis
See where he is, fast asleep.
Horse-Courser
Ay, this is he. God save you, Master Doctor! Master Doctor, Master Doctor Fustian!—Forty dollars, forty dollars for a bottle of hay!
Mephistophilis
Why, thou seest he hears thee not.
Horse-Courser
So ho, ho!—so ho, ho!
[Hollas in his ear.]
No, will you not wake? I’ll make you wake ere I go.
(Pulls Faustus by the leg, and pulls it away.)
Alas, I am undone! What shall I do?
Faustus
O my leg, my leg! Help, Mephistophilis! call the officers. My leg, my leg!
Mephistophilis
Come, villain, to the constable.
Horse-Courser
O lord, sir, let me go, and I’ll give you forty dollars more.
Mephistophilis
Where be they?
Horse-Courser
I have none about me. Come to my ostry79 and I’ll give them you.
Mephistophilis
Begone quickly.
[Horse-Courser runs away.]
Faustus
What, is he gone? Farewell he! Faustus has his leg again, and the horse-courser, I take it, a bottle of hay for his labour. Well, this trick shall cost him forty dollars more.
Enter Wagner
How now, Wagner, what’s the news with thee?
Wagner
Sir, the Duke of Vanholt doth earnestly entreat your company.
Faustus
The Duke of Vanholt! an honourable gentleman, to whom I must be no niggard of my cunning. Come, Mephistophilis, let’s away to him.
[Exeunt.]