here hell is, there must we ever be:
And, to be short, when all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be hell that are not heaven.

_Faustus._ I think hell's a fable.

_Meph._ Ay, think so still, till experience change thy mind.

_Faustus._ Why, dost thou think that Faustus shall be damned?

_Meph._ Ay, of necessity, for here's the scroll
In which thou hast given thy soul to Lucifer.

_Faustus._ Ay, and body too; and what of that?
Thinkest thou that Faustus is so fond to imagine
That, after this life, there is any pain?
No, these are trifles and mere old wives' tales.

_Meph._ But I am an instance to prove the contrary,
For I tell thee I am damned and now in hell.

_Faustus._ Nay, an this be hell, I'll willingly be damned.

_The Jew of Malta_ repeats the fundamental failure of _Doctor Faustus_,
but partially redeems it by avoiding its errors of construction. In this
play the dramatist has recovered his sense of harmony: he places his
central figure in circumstances that befit him, and maintains a
consistent balance between the strength of his character and the nature
of his deeds. The Jew does nothing that really jars on our conception of
him as a great villain. Nor in the minor scenes is there anything to
disturb the general impression of darkness. The gentleness of Abigail,
whose love and obedience alone draw her into the net of crime, only
makes her surroundings appear more cruel; while the introduction of the
Governor, the Grand Seignior's son, and a Vice-Admiral of Spain raises
the level of wickedness to something like dignified rank. Nevertheless,
the fact remains that the play is fundamentally unsound. True tragedy
should present more than a great change between the first and last
scenes; the change should be lamentable. We should feel that a much
better ending might, and would, have come but for the circumstance that
forms the crisis, or for other circumstances at the beginning of the
play. If we consider such tragic careers as those of Hamlet, Lear,
Macbeth and Othello we recognize that each might have come to a
different conclusion if it had not been for the blight of a father's
death or a single act of folly, of ambition or jealousy. These men all
excite our sympathy, especially Hamlet, whose tragedy is due not at all
to himself but to the overshadowing of another's crime. Macbeth and
Othell