_How four Jugglers cut one another's Heads off, and set them on again,
and Faustus deceived them._
Dr. Faustus came in Lent unto Frankland fair, where his spirit
Mephistophiles gave him to understand that in an inn were four jugglers
that cut one another's heads off: and after their cutting off sent them
to the barber to be trimmed, which many people saw.
This angered Faustus, for he meant to have himself the only cook in the
devil's banquet, and went to the place where they were, to beguile them,
and as the jugglers were together, ready one to cut off another's head,
there stood also the barber ready to trim them, and by them upon the
table stood likewise a glass full of stilled waters, and he that was the
chiefest among them stood by it. Thus they began; they smote off the
head of the first, and presently there was a lily in the glass of
distilled water, where Faustus perceived this lily as it was springing,
and the chief juggler named it the tree of life. Thus dealt he with the
first, making the barber wash and comb his head, and then he set it on
again. Presently the lily vanished away out of the water; hereat the man
had his head whole and sound again. The like did he with the other
two; and as the turn and lot came to the chief juggler, that he also
should be beheaded, and that this lily was most pleasant, fair, and
flourishing green, they smote his head off, and when it came to be
barbed, it troubled Faustus his conscience, insomuch that he could not
abide to see another do anything, for he thought himself to be the
principal conjurer in the world; wherefore Dr. Faustus went to the table
whereat the other jugglers kept that lily, and so he took a small knife
and cut off the stalk of the lily, saying to himself, "None of them
shall blind Faustus." Yet no man saw Faustus to cut the lily; but when
the rest of the jugglers thought to have set on their master's head,
they could not; wherefore they looked on the lily, and found it
bleeding. By this means the juggler was beguiled, and so died in his
wickedness; yet no one thought that Dr. Faustus had done it.