_Of a certain Comet that appeared in Germany, and how Dr. Faustus was
desired by certain Friends of his to know the meaning thereof._
In Germany, over the town of St. Elzeben, was seen a mighty great comet,
whereat the people wondered, but Dr. Faustus being there, was asked of
certain of his friends his judgment or opinion in the matter; whereupon
he answered: "It falleth out often by the course and change of the sun
and moon, that the sun is under the earth, and the moon above; but when
the moon draweth near the change, then is the sun so strong that it
taketh away the light of the moon in such sort as she is red as blood;
and, on the contrary side, after they have been together, she soon
taketh her light from him, and so increasing in light to the full, she
will be as red as the sun was before, and change herself into divers and
sundry colours, of which springeth the prodigal monster, or, as you
call it, a comet, which is a figure or token appointed of God as a
forewarning of his displeasure: as at one time he sendeth hunger,
plague, sword, or such like, being all tokens of his judgments, which
comet cometh through the conjunction of the sun and moon, and begetteth
a monster, whose father is the sun, and whose mother is the moon: moon
and sun."