A Scene from Dr. Faustus

A Conversation between the human Dr. Faustus, willing slave of the devil, and the demon Mephistophilis, reluctant slave of the devil.

Faustus

How comes it then that thou art out of hell?

Mephistophilis

Why this is hell(!) nor am I out of it.

Think'st thou that I that saw the face of God,

And tasted the eternal joys of heaven

Am not tormented with ten thousand hells,

In being deprived of everlasting bliss?

O, Faustus, leave these frivolous demands,

Which strike a terror to my fainting soul.

Faustus

What, is great Mephistophilis so passionate

For being deprived of the joys of heaven?

Learn thou of Faustus' manly fortitude,

And scorn those joys thou never shalt possess.

Go bear these tidings to great Lucifer,

Seeing Faustus hath incurred eternal death,

By desperate thoughts against Jove's deity.

Say he surrenders up to him his soul,

So he will spare him four and twenty years,

Letting him live in all voluptuousness,

Having thee ever to attend on me,

To give me whatsoever I shall ask,

To tell me whatsoever I demand,

To slay mine enemies, and to aid my friends,

And always be obedient to my will.

Go, and return to mighty Lucifer,

And meet me in my study, at midnight,

And then resolve me of thy master's mind.

Mephistophilis

I will, Faustus. Exit.

...

Faustus

I think hell's a fable.

Mephistophilis

Ay, think so still, till experience change thy mind.