Faustus sees these words
immediately after signing his soul over to the Devil.
These are the exact lines from the text:
Consummatum est: this bill is ended,
And Faustus hath bequeathed his soul to Lucifer.
But what this inscription on mine arm?
Homo, fuge! Whither should I fly?
If unto God, he 'll throw me down to hell.
My senses are deceived, here's nothing writ:
O yes, I see it plain, even here is writ
Homo, fuge! Yet shall not Faustus fly.
So these lines tell us that Faustus has just finished signing the document with his own blood, but on the part of his body which he cut in order to draw blood for his ink there has appeared an inscription which says Homo, fuge! This means - Run, o man!, which is a message to Faustus to run away from the Devil. Unfortunately, Faustus understands that there is no place for him to run - he cannot run to God because he will cast him to Hell for selling his soul; and obviously he cannot run away to the Devil either.
