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Copernicus

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    Copernicus

    It's his birthday today, 540th. Although he himself didn't push his theories, they did become known
    and here Marlowe in his play of Faustus brilliantly questions the divine order. Science and art working together in the search for truth. For those not familiar, Mephast. is a devil and therefore part of Gods kingdom.

    1604 ('A') Text

    Come, Mephastophilis, let us dispute again
    And argue of divine astrology.
    Tell me, are there many heavens above the moon?
    Are all celestial bodies but one globe,
    As is the substance of this centric earth?
    MEPHAST. As are the elements, such are the spheres,
    Even from the moon unto the empyreal orb,
    Mutually folded in each others orb.
    And, Faustus,
    All jointly move upon one axletree,
    Whose terminus is termed the world's wide pole;
    Nor are the names of Saturn, Mars, or Jupiter
    Feigned, but are erring stars.
    FAUSTUS. But tell me, have they all one motion, both situ et tempore?
    MEPHAST. All jointly move from east to west in four and twenty hours upon
    the poles of the world, but differ in their motion upon
    the poles of the zodiac.
    FAUSTUS. Tush, these slender trifles Wagner can decide.
    Hath Mephostophilis no greater skill?
    Who knows not the double motion of the planets?
    The first is finished in a natural day.
    The second thus, as Saturn in thirty years,
    Jupiter in twelve, Mars in four, the Sun, Venus, and Mercury in a year,
    the Moon in twenty eight days. Tush, these are freshmen's supposiyions.
    But tell me, hath every sphere a dominion or intelligentia?
    MEPHAST. Ay.
    FAUSTUS. How many heavens or spheres are there?
    MEPHAST. Nine, the seven planets, the firmament, and the empyreal heaven.
    FAUSTUS. But is there not coelum igneum, et cristallinum?
    MEPHAST. No, Faustus, they be but fables.
    FAUSTUS. Well, resolve me in this question: why have we not conjunctions,
    oppositions, aspects, eclipses, all at one time,
    but in some years we have more, in some less?
    MEPHAST. Per inaequalem motum respectu totius.
    FAUSTUS. Well, I am answered. Tell me who made the world?
    MEPHAST. I will not.
    FAUSTUS. Sweet Mephastophilis, tell me.
    MEPHAST. Move me not, for I will not tell thee.
    FAUSTUS. Villain, have I not bound thee to tell me anything?
    MEPHAST. Ay, that is not against our kingdom, but this is.
    Think thou on hell, Faustus, for thou art damned.
    FAUSTUS. Think, Faustus, upon God that made the world.
    MEPHAST. Remember this.
    But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition. Pliny the younger

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