"One plainly sees it, quoth Doctor Faustus, under that gravity which
in human life we call dignity, but of which we read nothing in the
Gospel. We despise the hangman, we detest the hanged; and yet,
saith Duns Scotus, could we turn aside the heavy curtain, or stand
high enough a-tiptoe to peep through its chinks and crevices, we
should perhaps find these two characters to stand justly among the
most innocent in the drama. He who blinketh the eyes of the poor
wretch about to die doeth it out of mercy; those who preceded him,
bidding him in the garb of justice to shed the blood of his fellow-
man, had less or none. So they hedge well their own grounds, what
care they? For this do they catch at stakes and thorns, at quick
and rotten--"
Here Master Silas interrupted the discourse of the devil's own
doctor, delivered and printed by him before he was the devil's, to
which his worship had listened very attentively and delightedly.
But Master Silas could keep his temper no longer, and cried,
fiercely, "Seditious sermonizer! hold thy peace, or thou shalt
answer for 't before convocation."
SIR THOMAS.
"Silas! thou dost not approve, then, the doctrine of this Doctor
Duns?"
SIR SILAS.
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