The Tragical History Of Doctor Faustus - Act I

[The clock strikes eleven]

Ah, Faustus

Now hast thou but one bare hour to live

And then thou must be damn'd perpetually!

Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven

That time may cease, and midnight never come

Fair Nature's eye, rise, rise again, and make

Perpetual day; or let this hour be but

A year, a month, a week, a natural day

That Faustus may repent and save his soul!

O lente, lente currite, noctis equi!

The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike

The devil will come, and Faustus must be damn'd

O, I'll leap up to my God! Who pulls me down?

See, see, where Christ's blood streams in the firmament!

One drop would save my soul, half a drop

Ah, my Christ! Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!

Yet will I call on him

O, spare me, Lucifer! Where is it now? 'tis gone

And see, where God stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!

Mountains and hills, come, come, and fall on me

And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!

No, no!

Then will I headlong run into the earth

Earth, gape! O, no, it will not harbour me!

You stars that reign'd at my nativity

Whose influence hath allotted death and hell

Now draw up Faustus, like a foggy mist

Into the entrails of yon labouring clouds

That, when you vomit forth into the air

My limbs may issue from your smoky mouths

So that my soul may but ascend to heaven!