Hell

Torcello, Last Judgement mosaic, 12th century
Torcello, Last Judgement mosaic, 12th century

FAUSTUS

Tell me, where is the place that men call hell?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Under the heavens.

FAUSTUS

			Ay, but whereabouts?

MEPHISTOPHELES

Within the bowels of these elements,
Where we are tortured and remain for ever.
Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscribed
In one self place, for where we are is hell,
And where hell is must we ever be.
And, to conclude, when all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be hell that is not heaven.

FAUSTUS

Come, I think hell's a fable.

* * *

Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus Scene 5, c. 1592, edited by Robert Lindey, Penguin 2003

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