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The Manner in Which Doctor Faustus
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The Manner in Which Doctor Faustus
as Bacchus Kept Shrovetide
XXVIII
The greatest effort, skill and art produced by Doctor Faustus was that which he demonstrated to the Count of Anhalt, for with the aid of his spirit he accomplished not merely the things I have told about, but he created all sorts of four-footed beasts as well as winged and feathered fowl, too. Now after he had taken leave of the Count and was returned back to Wittemberg, Shrovetide approached. Doctor Faustus himself played the role of Bacchus, entertaining several learned students, whom he persuaded, after they had been well fed and sated by Faustus, had crowned him Bacchus and were in the act of celebrating him) to go into a cellar with him and to try the magnificent drinks which he would there offer and provide them, a thing to which they readily assented. Doctor Faustus then laid out a ladder in his garden, seated a man on each rung, and away he whisked, coming by night into the cellar of the Bishop of Saltzburg
Here they tasted all sorts of wine, for this bishop hath a glorious grape culture, but when the good gentlemen were just in a fine temper, the Bishop's butler by chance did come downstairs and seeing them ( for Doctor Faustus had brought along a flint so that they might better inspect all the casks), did charge them as thieves who had broken in. This offended Doctor Faustus, who, warning his fellows to prepare to leave, seized the butler by the hair and rode away with him until he saw a great high fir tree, in the top of which he deposited the frightened man. Being returned home again, he and his Shrovetide guests celebrated a valete with the wine which he had brought along in a big bottle from the Bishop's cellar. The poor butler had to hold fast all night to the tree, lest he fall out, and he almost froze to death. When day brake and he perceived the great height of the fir as well as the impossibility of climbing down (for it had no branches except in the very top), he had to call out to some peasants whom he saw drive by, and tell them what had happened to him. The peasants did marvel at all this and, coming into Saltzburg, reported it at court. This brought out a great crowd, who with much exertion and effort with ropes did bring the butler down. But he never knew who those were whom he had found in the cellar, nor who he was who had put him into the tree top.
Concerning Helen, Charmed Out of Greece
XXIX
On Whitsunday the students came unannounced to Doctor Faustus' residence for dinner, but, as they brought ample meat and drink along, they were welcome guests. The wine was soon going round at table, and they fell to talking of beautiful women, one of the students asserting that there were no woman whom he would rather see than fair Helen from Greece, for whose sake the worthy city of Troy had perished. She must have been beautiful, he said, for she had been stolen away from her husband, and a great deal of strife had arisen on her account.
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Doctor Faustus said: Inasmuch as ye are so eager to behold the beautiful figure of Queen Helen, I have provided for her wakening and will now conduct her hither so that ye may see her spirit for yourselves, just as she appeared in life (in the same way, after all, that I granted Emperor Charles V his wish to see the person of Emperor Alexander the Great and his spouse).
Forbidding that any should speak or arise from table to receive her, Faustus went out of the parlor and, coming in again, was followed at the heel by Queen Helen, who was so wondrously beautiful that the students did not know whether they were still in their right minds, so confused and impassioned were they become. For she appeared in a precious deep purple 
robe, her hair, which shone golden and quite beautifully glorious, hanging down to her knees. She had coal black eyes, a sweet countenance on a round little head. Her lips were red as the red cherries, her mouth small, and her neck like a white swan's. She had cheeks pink like a rose, an exceeding fair and smooth complexion and a. rather slim, tall and erect bearing. In summa, there was not a flaw about her to be criticized. Helen looked all around in the parlor with a right wanton mien, so that the students were violently inflamed with love for her, but since they took her to be a spirit they controlled their passion without difficulty, and she left the room again with Doctor Faustus.
After the vision had passed away, the young. men begged Faustus to be so good as to have the image appear just once more, for they would fain send a painter to his house the next day to make a counterfeit of her. This Doctor Faustus refused to do, saying that he could not make her spirit appear at just any time, but that he would procure such a portrait for them. Later, he did indeed produce one, and all the students had it copied by sending painters to his house (for it was a fair and glorious figure of a Woman). Now it is unknown to this day who got this painting away from Doctor Faustus. As concerns the students, when they came to bed they could not sleep for thinking of the figure and form which had appeared visibly before them, and from this we may learn how the Devil doth blind men with love--oh it doth often happen that a man awhoring for so long that at last he can no longer be saved from it.
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