The Tragicall History of D. Faustus (1604)

Enter Chorus.
Not marching now in fields of Thracimene,
Where Mars did mate the Carthaginians,
Nor sporting in the dalliance of loue,
In courts of Kings where state is ouerturnd,
Nor in the pompe of prowd audacious deedes,
Intends our Muse to daunt his heauenly verse:
Onely this (Gentlemen) we must performe,
The forme of Faustus fortunes good or bad.
To patient Iudgements we appeale our plaude,
And speake for Faustus in his infancie:
Now is he borne, his parents base of stocke,
In Germany, within a towne calld Rhodes:
Of riper yeeres to Wertenberg he went,
Whereas his kinsmen chiefly brought him vp,
So soone tree profites in Diuinitie,
The fruitfull plot of Scholerisme grac't,
That shortly he was grac't with Doctors name,
Excelling all, whose sweete delight disputes
In heauenly matters of Theologie,
Till swolne with cunning of a selfe conceit,
His waxen wings did mount aboue his reach,
And melting heauens conspirde his ouerthrow.
For falling to a diuelish exercise,
And glutted more with learnings golden gifts,
He surffets vpon cursed Negromancy,
Nothing so sweete as magicke is to him
Which he preferres before his chiefest blisse,
And this the man that in his study sits. Exit.