Faustus Read Free Page A

nay, in its name, more progressed misery, murder, and starvation than exists in an unbeneficed state of nature? Answer me that and go free.
    FRIEND: Many find it a source of strength.
    FAUSTUS: The leaf of the camomile, parboiled in water, conduces to calm. And yet I do not worship it.
    FRIEND: You spoke of a greater power—
    FAUSTUS: I spoke
of number
.
    FRIEND: Number.
    FAUSTUS: Yes. Not religion, which to the scientific mind cannot be quantified.
    FRIEND: Is it, then, worthless?
    FAUSTUS: To the scientist.
    FRIEND: Then how comes religion to cleanse?
    FAUSTUS: A candle gains in power as we still warring illumination. Were we to flood the room with light, the object of our interest, of our longing, of our worship is forgot. For it is nothing. (
Pause
)
    FRIEND: It is salvation.
    FAUSTUS: Then seek it. As each man seeks himself, in all things. This is the law of life.
    FRIEND: I understand, of course, your enthusiasm.
    FAUSTUS: … your mitigating clause?
    FRIEND: I simply suggest reserve of speech.
    FAUSTUS: Speech cannot alter the unfolding of the natural order.
    FRIEND: And what of miracle?
    FAUSTUS: Instance it—
    FRIEND: Many invoke Salvation.
    FAUSTUS: And many believe in war, yet remark that they do not fight.
    FRIEND: But:
    FAUSTUS: Say on.
    FRIEND: To impugn. The power of the Church to save …
    FAUSTUS: Proclaimed by whom but man?
    FRIEND: Christ’s word is divine.
    FAUSTUS: Proclaimed … ?
    FRIEND: By the Council of Nicaea.
    FAUSTUS: Who, if I do not err, were men.
    FRIEND: But this is heresy.
    FAUSTUS: Greater than theirs? (
Pause
) Greater than theirs?
    FRIEND: I do believe it.
    FAUSTUS: This too is an equation. There are but two paths by which men may thrive: the direct pursuit of power, and the propitiation of its possessors.
    FRIEND: But some do good.
    FAUSTUS: Yes?
    FRIEND: Do you grant it?
    FAUSTUS: If it amuses you.
    ( FAUSTUS ’
s
WIFE
enters
.)
    WIFE: Faustus.
    FAUSTUS: One moment. (
Pause
) Do I vex you? Do I confound? All of your adjurations, to recant, are but reminders to speak hypocritically, as all men speak. (
Pause
) You fear the impending limit of the circumscribed. You cling to: tradition, reason, custom, common sense, an intelligent submission. And I ask: to what?
    FRIEND: Then what is not to be despised?
    WIFE: Our love for a child, which seeks nothing for itself.
    FAUSTUS: Save immortality.
    WIFE: I was bid announce your arrival. We take you at your word—he waits for you. I do not mean to vex you in your happy completion …
    FAUSTUS: No, no. The fault is mine. (
She exits
) Well, then, you see, the poor philosopher, jerked from his native element of disputation, struggles on the bank. I must go.
    FRIEND: But is there no excellence?
    FAUSTUS: Yes. I have troubled you.
    FRIEND: Is all but
number?
I understand you to speak hyperbolically…
    FAUSTUS: I do not.
    FRIEND: But does naught exist, absent your formula?
    FAUSTUS: Else, of what worth the equation?
    FRIEND: But, the ineffable: hope, courage …
    FAUSTUS: Show it to me.
    FRIEND: In the military.
    FAUSTUS: They hone the scabbard while the saber rusts. Bravo the generals.
    FRIEND: Say in the private soldier?
    FAUSTUS: He fights from rage, fear, or shame—who does not?
    FRIEND: In the devotion of the pedagogue.
    FAUSTUS: To drill the young to say five things about seven books.
    FRIEND: Say, in the law, in jurisprudence.
    FAUSTUS: Many remark justice is blind; pity those in her sway, shocked to discover she is also deaf.
    FRIEND: Then in the service of the State.
    FAUSTUS: In what consists the State? A salubrity of climate or geography, o’erlaid by the posturings of the suborned; unwashed cupidity, license for murder… Oh, if I were king.
    FRIEND: Be still, they might elect you.
    FAUSTUS: Heaven forfend.
    FRIEND: And, e’en a king’s power is circumscribed.
    FAUSTUS: As whose is not.
    FRIEND: God’s, people say.
    FAUSTUS: Then how explain human suffering?
    FRIEND: His power is limitless to do. Ours is curtailed to