Question

When I behold the heavens, then I repent, And curse thee, wicked Mephistophilis, Because thou hast depriv'd me of those joys.

Answer 1

The scene is not without its thematic connection with the main Faustus scenes. In the first place, the clowns reduce Faustus’ practice of magic to its lowest denominator. Their punishment by Mephistopheles also prefigures Faustus’ own the hands of the devil that he serves. Mon immediately, however, the metamorphosis of the clowns into a dog and an ape ironically comments or Faustus’ earlier dreams of transcendence through  magic. For, like the clowns, he too has been practicing magic to pursue his baser appetites, and the metamorphosis he has undergone through magic has helped to make him merely an itinerant magician who delights in playing petty tricks with petty mortals. Gone is the earlier titanic aspirant of the opening of the play. An inner degeneration has overtaken Faustus and the pity is that he is not even aware of it.