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_ ACT III - SCENE III
[Enter ROBIN and DICK with a cup.]
DICK.
Sirrah Robin, we were best look that your devil can
answer the stealing of this same [138] cup, for the
Vintner's boy follows us at the hard heels. [139]
[Footnote 138: same: So 4tos 1616, 1624.--Not in 4to 1631.]
[Footnote 139: at the hard heels: The modern editors, ignorant of the old phraseology, thought that they corrected this passage in printing "hard at the heels."]
ROBIN.
'Tis no matter; let him come: an he follow us,
I'll so conjure him as he was never conjured in his
life, I warrant him. Let me see the cup.
DICK.
Here 'tis.
[Gives the cup to ROBIN.]
Yonder he comes: now, Robin, now or never shew thy cunning.
[Enter VINTNER.] [140]
[Footnote 140: Vintner: So all the old eds.; and presently Robin addresses this person as "vintner:" yet Dick has just spoken of him as "the Vintner's boy." See note ||, p. 93.
Note ||, from p. 93. (Doctor Faustus, from the quarto of 1604):
"Drawer: There is an inconsistency here: the Vintner
cannot properly be addressed as "Drawer." The later
4tos are also inconsistent in the corresponding
passage: Dick says, "THE VINTNER'S BOY follows us
at the hard heels," and immediately the "VINTNER"
enters." ]
VINTNER.
O, are you here? I am glad I have found you.
You are a couple of fine companions:
pray, where's the cup you stole from the tavern?
ROBIN.
How, how! we steal a cup! take heed what you say:
we look not like cup-stealers, I can tell you.
VINTNER.
Never deny't, for I know you have it; and I'll search you.
ROBIN.
Search me! ay, and spare not.
--Hold the cup, Dick [Aside to DICK, giving him the cup].--
Come, come, search me, search me.
[VINTNER searches him.]
VINTNER.
Come on, sirrah, let me search you now.
DICK.
Ay, ay, do, do.
--Hold the cup, Robin [Aside to ROBIN, giving him the cup].--
I fear not your searching: we scorn to steal your [141] cups,
I can tell you.
[VINTNER searches him.]
[Footnote 141: your: So 4tos 1616, 1631.--Not in 4to 1624.]
VINTNER.
Never out-face me for the matter; for, sure,
the cup is between you two.
ROBIN.
Nay, there you lie; 'tis beyond us both.
VINTNER.
A plague take you! I thought 'twas your knavery to take
it away: come, give it me again.
ROBIN.
Ay, much! [142] when, can you tell?--Dick, make me a
circle, and stand close at my back, and stir not for
thy life.--Vintner, you shall have your cup anon.
--Say nothing, Dick.--[Reads from a book]
O per se, O; Demogorgon; Belcher, and Mephistophilis!
[Enter MEPHISTOPHILIS.]
[Footnote 142: much: Equivalent to--by no means, not at all. This ironical exclamation is very common in our old dramatists. (Mr. Hunter,--NEW ILLUST. OF SHAKESPEARE, ii. 56,--explains it very differently.)]
MEPHIST.
You princely legions of infernal rule,
How am I vexed by these villains' charms!
From Constantinople have they brought me now,
Only for pleasure of these damned slaves.
[Exit VINTNER.]
ROBIN.
By lady, [143] sir, you have had a shrewd journey of it!
will it please you to [144] take a shoulder of mutton to supper,
and a tester [145] in your purse, and go back again?
[Footnote 143: By lady: i.e. By our Lady.]
[Footnote 144: to: So 4tos 1616, 1624.--Not in 4to 1631.]
[Footnote 145: tester: i.e. sixpence.]
DICK.
Ay, I pray you heartily, sir; for we called you
but in jest, I promise you.
MEPHIST.
To purge the rashness of this cursed deed,
First, be thou turned to this ugly shape,
For apish deeds transformed to an ape.
ROBIN.
O, brave! an ape! I pray, sir, let me have the carrying
of him about, to shew some tricks.
MEPHIST.
And so thou shalt: be thou transformed to a dog,
and carry him upon thy back. Away! be gone!
ROBIN.
A dog! that's excellent: let the maids look well
to their porridge-pots, for I'll into the kitchen
presently.--Come, Dick, come.
[Exeunt ROBIN and DICK.]
MEPHIST.
Now with the flames of ever-burning fire
I'll wing myself, and forthwith fly amain(sic)
Unto my Faustus, to the Great Turk's court.
[Exit.] _
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