From thence he went to Austria, and so through Silesia into Saxony, unto the towns of Magdeburg, and Lipzig, and Lubeck. Magdeburg is a bishopric. In this city is one of the pitchers wherein Christ changed the water into wine in Cana in Galilee. At Lipzig nothing pleased Faustus so well as the great vessel in the castle made of wood, the which is bound about with twenty-four iron hoops, and every hoop weighed two hundred pound weight. You must go upon a ladder thirty steps high before you can look into it. He saw also the new churchyard where it was walled, and standeth upon a fair plain. The yard is two hundred paces long, and round about the side of the wall are good places, separated one from each other to see sepulchres in, which in the middle of the yard standeth very sumptuous; therein standeth a pulpit of white work and gold.
From thence he went to Lubeck and Jamberg, where he made no abode, but away again to Erford in Duriten, where he visited the Frescold; and from Erford he went home to Wittenburg, when he had seen and visited many a strange place, being from home one year and a half, in which time he wrought more wonders than are here declared.
CHAPTER XXIII.
How Dr. Faustus had sight of Paradise.
After this Dr. Faustus set forth again to visit the countries of Spain, Portugal, France, England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Muscovy, India, Cataia, Africa, Persia, and lastly, into Barbaria, amongst the Black Moors; and in all his wandering he was desirous to visit the ancient monuments and mighty hills, amongst the rest, beholding the high hill called Theno Reise, was desirous to rest upon it. From thence he went into the Isle of Britain, wherein he was greatly delighted to see the fair water and warm baths, the divers sorts of metal, with many precious stones and divers other commodities, the which Faustus brought thence with him. He was also at the Orcades behind Scotland, where he saw the tree that bringeth forth fruit, that when it is ripe, openeth and falleth in the water, wherein engendereth a certain kind of fowl and birds. These islands are in number twenty-three, but ten of them are not habitable, the other thirteen were inhabited.
From thence he went to the hill Caucasus, which is the highest in all that tropic: it lieth near the borders of Scythia. Hereon Faustus stood and beheld many lands and kingdoms. Faustus, being on such a high hill, thought to look over all the world, and beyond, for he went to Paradise, but he durst not commune with his spirit thereof; and being on the hill Caucasus, he saw the whole land of India and Scythia, and as he looked towards the east, he saw a mighty clear streak of fire coming from heaven upon earth, even as if it had been one of the beams of the sun. He saw in the water four mighty waters springing, one had his course towards India, the second towards Egypt, the third and fourth towards Armenia. When he saw these he would needs know of his spirit what waters they were, and from whence they came?
His spirit gave him gently an answer, saying, "It is Paradise that lieth so far in the east, the garden that God himself hath planted with all manner of pleasure; and the fiery streams which thou seest is the wall or fence of the garden; but the clear light which thou seest afar of, that is the angel that hath the custody thereof with a fiery sword; and although thou thinkest thyself to be hard by, thou are yet further thither from hence than thou hast ever been. The water that thou seest divided in four parts, is the water that issueth out of the well in the middle of Paradise. The first is called Ganges or Pison, the second Gihon, the third Tygris, and the fourth Euphrates; also thou seest that he standeth under Libra and Aries, right towards the Zenith; and upon this fiery wall standeth the angel Michael with his flaming sword, to keep the tree of life, which he hath in charge. But," the spirit said to Faustus, "neither thou, nor I, nor any after us, yea, all men whatsoever, are denied to visit, or come any nearer than we be."
CHAPTER XXIV.
Of a certain Comet that appeared in Germany,
and how Dr. Faustus was desired by certain Friends of his
to know the meaning thereof.
In Germany, over the town of St. Elzeben, was seen a mighty great comet, whereat the people wondered, but Dr. Faustus being there, was asked of certain of his friends his judgment or opinion in the matter; whereupon he answered: "It falleth out often by the course and change of the sun and moon, that the sun is under the earth, and the moon above; but when the moon draweth near the change, then is the sun so strong that it taketh away the light of the moon in such sort as she is red as blood; and, on the contrary side, after they have been together, she soon taketh her light from him, and so increasing in light to the full, she will be as red as the sun was before, and change herself into divers and sundry colours, of which springeth the prodigal monster, or, as you call it, a comet, which is a figure or token appointed of God as a forewarning of his displeasure: as at one time he sendeth hunger, plague, sword, or such like, being all tokens of his judgments, which comet cometh through the conjunction of the sun and moon, and begetteth a monster, whose father is the sun, and whose mother is the moon: moon and sun."