The Works of Christopher Marlowe

Tamburlaine Part 1


Act: 4 Scene: 1<< <>>>
[Enter] Souldan of Egipt with three or four Lords, Capolin [, and a Messenger.]
Awake ye men of Memphis, heare the clange
Of Scythian trumpets, heare the Basiliskes,
That roaring, shake Damascus turrets downe.
The rogue of Volge holds Zenocrate,
The Souldans daughter for his Concubine,
And with a troope of theeves and vagabondes,
Hath spread his collours to our high disgrace:
While you faint-hearted base Egyptians,
Lie slumbering on the flowrie bankes of Nile,
As Crocodiles that unaffrighted rest,
While thundring Cannons rattle on their Skins.
Nay (mightie Souldan) did your greames see
The frowning lookes of fiery Tamburlaine,
That with his terrour and imperious eies,
Commandes the hearts of his associates,
It might amaze your royall majesty.
Villain, I tell thee, were that Tamburlaine
As monstrous as Gorgon , prince of Hell,
The Souldane would not start a foot from him.
But speake, what power hath he?
Mightie Lord,
Three hundred thousand men in armour clad,
Upon their prancing Steeds, disdainfully
With wanton paces trampling on the ground.
Five hundred thousand footmen threatning shot,
Shaking their swords, their speares and yron bils,
Environing their Standard round, that stood
As bristle-pointed as a thorny wood.
Their warlike Engins and munition
Exceed the forces of their martial men.
Nay could their numbers countervail the stars,
Or ever drilling drops of Aprill showers,
Or withered leaves that Autume shaketh downe:
Yet would the Souldane by his conquering power,
So scatter and consume them in his rage,
That not a man should live to rue their fall.
So might your highnesse, had you time to sore
Your fighting men, and raise your royall hoste.
But Tamburlaine, byexpedition
Advantage takes of your unreadinesse.
Let him take all th'advantages he can,
Were all the world conspird to fight for him,
Nay, were he Devill, as he is no man,
Yet in revenge of faire Zenocrate,
Whom he detaineth in despight of us,
This arme should send him downe to Erebus ,
To shroud his shame in darknes of the night.
Pleaseth your mightinesse to understand,
His resolution far exceedeth all:
The first day when he pitcheth downe his tentes,
White is their hew, and on his silver crest
A snowy Feather spangled white he beares,
To signify the mildnesse of his minde:
That satiate with spoile refuseth blod.
But when Aurora mounts the second time,
As red as scarlet is his furniture,
Then must his kindled wrath bee quencht with blood,
Not sparing any that can manage armes.
But if these threats moove not submission,
Black are his collours, blacke Pavilion,
His speare, his shield, his horse, his armour, plumes,
And Jetty Feathers menace death and hell.
Without respect of Sex, degree or age,
He raceth all his foes with fire and sword.
Mercilesse villaine, Pesant ignorant,
Of lawfull armes, or martiall discipline:
Pillage and murder are his usuall trades.
The slave usurps the glorious name of war.
See Capolin , the faire Arabian king
That hath bene disapointed by this slave,
Of my faire daughter, and his princely Love:
May have fresh warning to go war with us,
And be reveng'd for her disparadgement.
[Exeunt.]

Act: 4 Scene: 2<< <>>>
[Enter] Tamburlain, Techelles, Theridamas, Usumcasane, Zenocrate Anippe, two Moores drawing Bajazeth in his cage, and his wife following him.
Bring out my foot-stoole.
They take him out of the cage.
Ye holy Priests of heavenly Mahomet,
That sacrificing slice and cut your flesh,
Staining his Altars with your purple blood:
Make heaven to frowne and every fixed starre
To sucke up poison from the moorish Fens,
And poure it in this glorious Tyrants throat.
The chiefest God, first moover of that Spheare
Enchac'd with thousands ever shining lamps,
Will sooner burne the glorious frame of Heaven,
Then it should so conspire my overthrow.
But Villaine, thou that wishest this to me,
Fall prostrate on the lowe disdainefull earth.
And be the foot-stoole of great Tamburlain,
That I may rise into my royall throne.
First shalt thou rip my bowels with thy sword,
And sacrifice my heart to death and hell,
Before I yeeld to such a slavery.
Base villain, vassall, slave to Tamburlaine:
Unworthy to imbrace or touch the ground,
That beares the honor of my royall weight.
Stoop villaine, stoope, stoope for so he bids,
That may command thee peecemeale to be tome,
Or scattered like the lofty Cedar trees,
Strooke with the voice of thundring Jupiter.
Then as I look downe to the damned Feends,
Feends looke on me, and thou dread God of hell,
With Eban Scepter strike this hatefull earth,
And make it swallow both of us at once.
He gets up upon him to his chaire.
Now cleare the triple region of the aire,
And let the majestie of heaven beholde
Their Scourge and Terrour treade on Emperours.
Smile Stars that raign'd at my nativity,
And dim the brightnesse of their neighbor Lamps:
Disdaine to borrow light of Cynthia,
For I the chiefest Lamp of all the earth,
First rising in the East with milde aspect,
But fixed now in the Meridian line,
Will send up fire to your turning Spheares,
And cause the Sun to borrowe light of you.
My sword stroke fire from his coat of steele,
Even in Bythinia, when I took this Turke:
As when a fiery exhalation
Wrapt in the bowels of a freezing cloude,
Fighting for passage, makes the Welkin cracke,
And casts a flash of lightning to the earth.
But ere I martch to wealthy Persea,
Or leave Damascus and th'Egyptian fields,
As was the fame of Clymens brain-sicke sonne,
That almost brent the Axeltree of heaven,
So shall our swords, our lances and our shot,
Fill all the aire with fiery meteors.
Then when the Sky shal waxe as red as blood,
It shall be said, Imade it red my selfe,
To make me think of nought but blood and war.
Unworthy king, that by thy crueltie,
Unlawfully usurpest the Persean seat:
Dar'st thou that never saw an Emperour,
Before thou met my husband in the field,
Being thy Captive, thus abuse his state,
Keeping his kingly body in a Cage,
That rooffes of golde, and sun-bright Pallaces,
Should have prepar'd to entertaine his Grace?
And treading him beneath thy loathsome feet,
Whose feet the kings of Affrica have kist.
Youmust devise some torment worsse, my Lord,
To make these captives reine their lavish tongues.
Zenocrate, looke better to your slave.
She is my Handmaids slave, and she shal looke
That these abuses flow not from her tongue:
Chide her Anippe.
Let these be warnings for you then my slave,
How you abuse the person of the king:
Or els I sweare to have you whips stark nak'd.
Great Tamburlaine, great in my overthrow,
Ambitious pride shall make thee fall as low,
For treading on the back of Bajazeth,
That should be horsed on fower mightie kings.
Thy names and tytles, and thy dignities ,
Are fled from Bajazeth, and remaine with me,
That will maintaine it against a world of Kings.
Put him in againe.
[They put him into the cage.]
Is this a place for mighty Bajazeth?
Confusion light on him that helps thee thus.
There whiles he lives, shal Bajazeth be kept,
And where I goe be thus in triumph drawne:
And thou his wife shalt feed him with the scraps
My servitures shall bring the from my boord.
For he that gives him other food than this:
Shall sit by him and starve to death himselfe.
This is my minde, and I will have it so.
Not all the Kings and Emperours of the Earth:
If they would lay their crownes before my feet,
Shall ransome him, or take him from his cage.
The ages that shall talk of Tamburlain,
Even from this day to Platoes wondrous yeare,
Shall talke how I have handled Bajazeth
These Mores that drew him from Bythinia,
To faire Damascus, where we now remaine,
Shall lead him with us wheresoere we goe.
Techelles, and my loving followers,
Now may we see Damascus lofty towers,
Like to the shadowes of Pyramides,
That with their beauties grac'd the Memphion fields:
The golden stature of their feathered bird
That spreads her wings upon the citie wars,
Shall not defend it from our battering shot.
The townes-men maske in silke and cloath of gold,
And every house is as a treasurie.
The men, the treasure, and the towne is ours.
Your tentes of white now pitch'd before the gates
And gentle flags of amitie displaid.
I doubt not but the Governour will yeeld,
Offering Damascus to your Majesty.
So shall he have his life, and all the rest.
But if he stay until the bloody flag
Be once advanc'd on my vermilion Tent,
He dies, and those that kept us out so long.
And when they see me march in black aray
With mournfull streamers hanging down their heads,
Were in that citie all the world contain'd,
Not one should scape: but perish by our swords.
Yet would you have some pitie for my sake,
Because it is my countries, and my Fathers.
Not for the world Zenocrate, if I have sworn:
Come bring in the Turke.
Exeunt.

Act: 4 Scene: 3<< <>>>
[Enter] Souldane, Arabia, Capoline, with streaming collors and Souldiers
Me thinks we martch as Meliager did,
Environed with brave Argolian knightes,
To chace the savage Calidonian Boare:
Or Cephalus with lustie Thebane youths,
Against the Woolfe that angrie Themis sent,
To waste and spoile the sweet Aonian fieldes.
A monster of five hundred thousand heades,
Compact of Rapine, Pyracie, and spoile,
The Scum of men, the hate and Scourge of God,
Raves in Egyptia, and annoyeth us.
My Lord it is the bloody Tamburlaine ,
A sturdy Felon and a base-bred Thiefe,
By murder raised to the Persean Crowne,
That dares controll us in our Territories.
To tame the pride of this presumptuous Beast,
Joine your Arabians with the Souldans power:
Let us unite our royall bandes in one,
And hasten to remoove Damascus siege.
It is a blemish to the Majestie
And high estate of mightie Emperours,
That such a base usurping vagabond
Should brave a king, or weare a princely crowne.
Renowmed Souldane, have ye lately heard
The overthrow of mightie Bajazeth,
About the confines of Bythinia?
The slaverie wherewith he persecutes
The noble Turke and his great Emperesse?
I have, and sorrow for his bad successe:
But noble Lord of great Arabia,
Be so perswaded, that the Souldan is
No more dismaide with tidings of his fall,
Than in the haven when the Pilot stands
And viewes a strangers ship rent in the winds,
And shivered against a craggie rocke.
Yet in compassion of his wretched state,
A sacred vow to heaven and him I make,
Confirming it with Ibis holy name,
That Tamburlaine shall rue the day, the hower,
Wherein he wrought such ignominious wrong,
Unto the hallowed person of a prince,
Or kept the faire Zenocrate so long,
As Concubine I feare to feed his lust.
Let griefe and furie hasten on revenge,
Let Tamburlaine for his offences feele
Such plagues as heaven and we can poure on him.
I long to breake my speare upon his crest,
And proove the weight of his victorious arme:
For Fame I feare hath bene too prodigall,
In sounding through the world his partiall praise.
Capolin, hast thou survaid our powers?
Great Emperours of Egypt and Arabia ,
The number of your hostes united is,
A hundred and fifty thousand horse,
Two hundred thousand foot, brave men at armes,
Couragious and full of hardinesse:
As frolike as the hunters in the chace
Of savage beastes amid the desert woods.
My mind presageth fortunate successe,
And Tamburlaine, my spirit doth foresee
The utter ruine of thy men and thee.
Then reare your standardes, let your sounding Drummes
Direct our Souldiers to Damascus walles.
Now Tamburlaine, the mightie Souldane comes,
And leads with him the great Arabian King ,
To dim thy basenesse and obscurity,
Famous for nothing but for theft and spoile,
To race and scatter thy inglorious crue,
Of Scythians and slavish Persians.
Exeunt.

Act: 4 Scene: 4<< <>>>
The Banquet, and to it commeth Tamburlain al in scarlet, Theridamas , Techelles, Usumcasane, the Turke, with others.
Now hang our bloody collours by Damascus ,
Reflexing hewes of blood upon their heads,
While they walke quivering on their citie walles,
Halfe dead for feare before they feele my wrath:
Then let us freely banquet and carouse
Full bowles of wine unto the God of war,
That meanes to fill your helmets full of golde:
And make Damascus spoiles as rich to you,
As was to Jason Colchos golden fleece.
And now Bajazeth, hast thou any stomacke?
I, such a stomacke (cruel Tambulaine) as I could willinglyfeed upon thy blood-raw hart.
Nay, thine owne is easier to come by, plucke out that, andtwil serve thee and thy wife: Wel Zenocrate, Techelles, and the rest, fall to your victuals.
Fall to, and never may your meat digest.
Ye Furies that can maske invisible,
Dive to the bottome of Avernus poole,
And in your hands bring hellish poison up,
And squease it in the cup of Tamburlain
Or winged snakes of Lerna cast your stings,
And leave your venoms in this Tyrants dish.
And may this banquet proove as omenous,
As Prognes toth'adulterous Thracian King,
That fed upon the substance of his child.
My Lord, how can you suffer these outragious curses bythese slaves of yours?
To let them see (divine Zenocrate))
I glorie in the curses of my foes,
Having the power from the Emperiall heaven,
To turne them al upon their proper heades.
I pray you give them leave Madam, this speech is a goodly refreshing to them.
But if his highnesse would let them be fed, it would doe them more good.
Sirra, why fall you not too, are you so daintily brought up, you cannot eat your owne flesh?
First legions of devils shall teare thee in peeces.
Villain, knowest thou to whom thou speakest?
O let him alone: here, eat sir, take it from my swords point, or Ile thrust it to thy heart.
He takes it and stamps upon it.
He stamps it under his feet my Lord.
Take it up Villaine , and eat it, or I will make thee slice the brawnes of thy armes into carbonadoes, and eat them.
Nay, twere better he kild his wife, and then she shall be sure not to be starv'd, and he be provided for a mon- eths victuall before hand.
Here is my dagger, dispatch her while she is fat, for if she live but a while longer, shee will fall into a con- sumption with freatting, and then she will not bee woorth the eating.
Doost thou think that Mahomet wil suffer this?
Tis like he wil, when he cannot let it.
Go to, fal to your meat: what, not a bit? belike he hath not bene watered to day, give him some drinke. They give him water to drinke, and he flings it on the ground. Faste and welcome sir, while hunger make you eat. How now Zenocrate, dooth not the Turke and his wife make a goodly showe at a banquet?
Yes, my Lord.
Me thinks, tis a great deale better than a consort of musicke.
Yet musicke woulde doe well to cheare up Zenocrate: pray thee tel, why art thou so sad? If thou wilt have a song, the Turke shall straine his voice: but why is it?
My lord, to see my fathers towne besieg'd,
The countrie wasted where my selfe was borne,
How can it but afflict my verie soule?
If any love remaine in you my Lord,
Or if my love unto your majesty
May merit favour at your highnesse handes,
Then raise your siege from faire Damascus walles,
And with my father take a frindly truce.
Zenocrate, were Egypt Joves owne land,
Yet would I with my sword make Jove to stoope.
I will confute those blind Geographers
That make a triple region in the world,
Excluding Regions which I meane to trace,
And with this pen reduce them to a Map,
Calling the Provinces, Citties and townes
After my name and shine Zenocrate:
Here at Damascus will I make the Point
That shall begin the Perpendicular.
And wouldst thou have me buy thy Fathers love
With such a losse? Tell me Zenocrate?
Honor still weight on happy Tamburlaine:
Yet give me leave to plead for him my Lord.
Content thy selfe, his person shall be safe,
And all the friendes of faire Zenocrate,
If with their lives they will be pleasde to yeeld,
Or may be forc'd, to make me Emperour.
For Egypt and Arabia must be mine.
Feede you slave, thou maist thinke thy selfe happie to be fed from my trencher.
My empty stomacke ful of idle heat,
Drawes bloody humours from my feeble parses,
Preserving life, by hastingquell death.
My vaines are pale, my sinowes hard and drie,
My jointes benumb'd, unlesse I eat, I die.
Eat Bajazeth . Let us live in spite of them, looking some happie power will pitie and inlarge us.
Here Turk, wilt thou have a cleane trencher?
I Tyrant, and more meat.
Soft sir, you must be dieted, too much eating will make you surfeit.
So it would my lord, specially having so smal a walke, and so litle exercise.
Enter a second course of Crownes.
Theridamas, Techelles and Casane, here are the cates you desire to finger, are they not?
I (my Lord) but none save kinges must feede with these.
Tis enough for us to see them, and for Tamburlaine onely to enjoy them.
Wel, hereis now to the Souldane of Egypt , the King of Arabia, and the Governour of Damascus Now take these three crownes, and pledge me, my contributorie Kings. I crowne you here (Theridamas) King of Argier : Techelles King of Fesse, and Usumcasane King of Morocus. How say you to this (Turke) these are not your contributorie kings.
Nor shall they long be shine, I warrant them.
Kings of Argier, Morocus, and of Fesse ,
You that have martcht with happy Tamburlaine,
As far as from the frozen plage of heaven,
Unto the watry mornings ruddy bower ,
And thence by land unto the Torrid Zone,
Deserve these tytles I endow you with,
By valure and by magnanimity.
Your byrthes shall be no blemish to your fame,
For vertue is the fount whence honor springs.
And they are worthy she investeth kings.
And since your highnesse hath so well vouchsaft,
If we deserve them not with higher meeds
Then erst our states and actions have retain'd,
Take them away againe and make us slaves.
Wel said Theridamas, when holy Fates
Shall stablish me in strong Egyptia ,
We meane to traveile to th' Antartique Pole,
Conquering the people underneath our feet.
And be renowm'd, as never Emperours were.
Zenocrate, I will not crowne thee yet,
Until with greater honors I be grac'd.
Nav.
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