VI + 

Scene⁠—Anywhere. + 

Festus and Lucifer meeting. + 

Festus + 

God hath refused me: wilt thou do it for me? + 

Or shall I end with both? remake myself? + 

Lucifer + 

Now that is the one thing which I cannot do. + 

Am I not open with thee? why choose that? + 

Festus + 

Because I will it. Thou art bound to obey. + 

Lucifer + 

The world bears marks of my obedience. + 

Festus + 

Off! I am torn to pieces. Let me try + 

And gather up myself into a man, + 

As once I was. I have done with thee! Dost hear? + 

Lucifer + 

Thou canst not mean this. + 

Festus + 

Once for all⁠—I do. + 

Lucifer + 

It is men who are deceivers⁠—not the Devil. + 

The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat + 

Oneself. All sin is easy after that. + 

Festus + 

I feel that we must part: part now or never; + 

And I had rather of the two it were now. + 

Lucifer + 

This is my last walk through my favourite world: + 

And I had hoped to have enjoyed it with thee. + 

For thee I quitted Hell; for thee I warped + 

And shrivelled up my soul into a man: + 

For thee I shed my shining wings; for thee + 

Put on this mask of flesh, this mockery + 

Of motion, and this seeming shape like thine. + 

And by my woe, I swear that were I now, + 

For thy false heart, to give my spirit spring, + 

I would scatter soul and body both to Hell, + 

And let one burn the other. + 

Festus + 

If thou darest! + 

Lift but the finger of a thought of ill + 

Against me, and⁠—thou durst not. Mark, we part. + 

Lucifer + 

Well; as thou wilt. Remember that thy heart + 

Will shed its pleasures as thine eye its tears; + 

And both leave loathsome furrows. + 

Festus + 

Thinkest thou + 

That I will have no pleasures without thee, + 

Who marrest all thou makest and even more? + 

Lucifer + 

Thou canst not; save indeed some poor trite thing + 

Called moderation, every one can have; + 

And modesty, God knows, is suffering. + 

Festus + 

Now will I prove thee liar for that word, + 

And that the very vastest out of Hell. + 

With perfect condemnation I abjure + 

My soul; my nature doth abhor itself; + 

I have a soul to spare! Goes. + 

Lucifer + 

A hundred, I. + 

I have him yet: for he is mine to tempt. + 

Gold hath the hue of hell flames: but for him + 

I will lay some brilliant and delicious lure + 

Which shall be worth perdition to a seraph. + 

Most men glide quietly and deeply down: + 

Some seek the bottom like a cataract. + 

Now he shall find it, seek it how he will. + 

None ever went without once taking breath. + 

It is passion plunges men into mine arms; + 

But it matters not; Hell burns before them all. + 

It is by Hell-light they do their chiefest deeds; + 

And by Hell-light they shine unto each other; + 

And Hell through life’s thick fog ares red and round; + 

And but for Hell they would grope in utter dark. + 