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The Works of Christopher Marlowe

Tamburlaine Part 2

Act: 4 Scene: 1<<

Alarme: Amyras and Celebinus, issues from the tent where Caliphas sits a sleepe.

Amyras

Now in their glories shine the golden crownes

Of these proud Turks, much like so many suns

That halfe dismay the majesty of heaven:

Now brother, follow we our fathers sword,

That flies with fury swifter than our thoughts,

And cuts down armies with his conquering wings.

Celebinus

Call foorth our laisie brother from the tent,

For if my father misse him in the field,

Wrath kindled in the furnace of his breast,

Wil send a deadly lightening to his heart.

Amyras

Brother, ho, what, given so much to sleep

You cannot leave it, when our enemies drums

And ratling cannons thunder in our eares.

Our proper ruine, and our fathers foile?

Calyphas

Away ye fools, my father needs not me,

Nor you in faith, but that you wil be thought

More childish valourous than manly wise:

If halfe our campe should sit and sleepe with me,

My father were enough to scar the foe:

You doo dishonor to his majesty,

To think our helps will doe him any good.

Amyras

What, dar'st thou then be absent from the fight,

Knowing my father hates thy cowardice,

And oft hath warn'd thee to be stil in field,

When he himselfe amidst the thickest troopes

Beats downe our foes to flesh our taintlesse swords?

Calyphas

I know sir, what it is to kil a man,

It works remorse of conscience in me,

I take no pleasure to be murtherous,

Nor care for blood when wine wil quench my thirst.

Celebinus

O cowardly boy, fie for shame, come foorth.

Thou doost dishonor manhood, and thy house.

Calyphas

Goe, goe tall stripling, fight you for us both,

And take my other toward brother here,

For person like to proove a second Mars .

Twill please my mind as wel to heare both you

Have won a heape of honor in the field,

And left your slender carkasses behind,

As if I lay with you for company.

Amyras

You wil not goe then?

Calyphas

You say true.

Amyras

Were all the lofty mounts of Zona mundi,

That fill the midst of farthest Tartary,

Turn'd into pearle and proffered for my stay,

I would not bide the furie of my father:

When made a victor in these hautie arms ,

He comes and findes his sonnes have had no shares

In all the honors he proposde for us.

Calyphas

Take you the honor, I will take my ease,

My wisedome shall excuse my cowardise:

I goe into the field before I need?

Alarme, and Amyras and Celebinus run in.

The bullets fly at random where they list.

And should I goe and kill a thousand men,

I were as soone rewarded with a shot,

And sooner far than he that never fights.

And should I goe and do nor harme nor good,

I might have harme, which all the good I have

Join'd with my fathers crowne would never cure.

Ile to cardes: Perdicas.

[Enter Perdicas.]

Perdicas

Here my Lord.

Calyphas

Come, thou and I wil goe to cardes to drive away the time.

Perdicas

Content my Lord, but what shal we play for?

Calyphas

Who shal kisse the fairest of the Turkes Concubines first, when my father hath conquered them.

Perdicas

Agreed yfaith.

They play.

Calyphas

They say I am a coward, (Perdicas) and I feare as litle their tara, tantaras, their swordes or their cannons, as I doe a naked Lady in a net of golde, and for feare I should be affraid, would put it off and come to bed with me.

Perdicas

Such a feare (my Lord) would never make yee retire.

Calyphas

I would my father would let me be put in the front of such a battaile once, to trie my valour. Alarme. What a coyle they keepe, I beleeve there will be some hurt done anon amongst them.

[They go in the tent.]

Enter [with Souldiers] Tamburlain, Theridamas, Techelles, Usumcasane, Amyras, Celebinus, leading the Turkish kings.

Tamburlaine

See now ye slaves, my children stoops your pride

And leads your glories sheep-like to the sword.

Bring them my boyes, and tel me if the warres

Be not a life that may illustrate Gods,

And tickle not your Spirits with desire

Stil to be train'd in armes and chivalry?

Amyras

Shal we let goe these kings again my Lord

To gather greater numbers gainst our power,

That they may say, it is not chance doth this,

But matchlesse strength and magnanimity?

Tamburlaine

No, no Amyras, tempt not Fortune so,

Cherish thy valour stil with fresh supplies:

And glut it not with stale and daunted foes.

But wher's this coward, villaine, not my sonne,

But traitor to my name and majesty.

He goes in and brings him out.

Image of sloth, and picture of a slave,

The obloquie and skorne of my renowne,

How may my hart, thus fired with mine eies,

Wounded with shame, and kill'd with discontent,

Shrowd any thought may horde my striving hands

From martiall justice on thy wretched soule.

Theridamas

Yet pardon him I pray your Majesty.

Techelles and Usumcasane

Let al of us intreat your highnesse pardon.

Tamburlaine

Stand up, ye base unworthy souldiers,

Know ye not yet the argument of Armes?

Amyras

Good my Lord, let him be forgiven for once,

And we wil force him to the field hereafter.

Tamburlaine

Stand up my boyes, and I wil teach ye arms,

And what the jealousie of warres must doe.

O Samarcanda, where I breathed first,

And joy'd the fire of this martiall flesh,

Blush, blush faire citie, at thine honors foile,

And shame of nature which Jaertis streame,

Embracing thee with deepest of his love,

Can never wash from thy distained browes.

Here Jove, receive his fainting soule againe,

A Forme not meet to give that subject essence,

Whose matter is the flesh of Tamburlaine,

Wherein an incorporeall spirit mooves,

Made of the mould whereof thy selfe consists,

Which makes me valiant, proud, ambitious,

Ready to levie power against thy throne,

That I might moove the turning Spheares of heaven,

For earth and al this aery region

Cannot containe the state of Tamburlaine.

[Stabs Calyphas.]

By Mahomet, thy mighty friend I sweare,

In sending to my issue such a soule,

Created of the messy dregges of earth,

The scum and tartar of the Elements,

Wherein was neither corrage, strength or wit,

But follie, sloth, and damned idlenesse:

Thou hast procur'd a greater enemie,

Than he that darted mountaines at thy head,

Shaking the burthen mighty Atlas beares:

Whereat thou trembling hid'st thee in the aire,

Cloth'd with a pitchy cloud for being seene.

And now ye cankred curres of Asia,

That will not see the strength of Tamburlaine,

Although it shine as brightly as the Sun.

Now you shal feele the strength of Tamburlain,

And by the state of his supremacie,

Approove the difference twixt himself and you.

Orcanes

Thou shewest the difference twixt our selves and thee

In this thy barbarous damned tyranny.

Jerusalem

Thy victories are growne so violent,

That shortly heaven, fild with the meteors

Of blood and fire thy tyrannies have made,

Will poure down blood and fire on thy head:

Whose scalding drops wil pierce thy seething braines,

And with our bloods, revenge our bloods on thee.

Tamburlaine

Villaines, these terrours and these tyrannies

(If tyrannies wars justice ye repute)

I execute, enjoin'd me from above,

To scourge the pride of such as heaven abhors:

Nor am I made Arch-monark of the world,

Crown'd and invested by the hand of Jove,

For deeds of bounty or nobility:

But since I exercise a greater name,

The Scourge of God and terrour of the world,

I must apply my selfe to fit those tearmes,

In war, in blood, in death, in crueltie,

And plague such Pesants as resist in me

The power of heavens eternall majesty.

Theridamas, Techelles, and Casane ,

Ransacke the tents and the pavilions

Of these proud Turks, and take their Concubines,

Making them burie this effeminate brat,

For not a common Souldier shall defile

His manly fingers with so faint a boy.

Then bring those Turkish harlots to my tent,

And Ile dispose them as it likes me best,

Meane while take him in.

Souldiers

We will my Lord.

[Exeunt with the body of Calyphas.]

Jerusalem

O damned monster, nay a Feend of Hell,

Whose cruelties are not so harsh as shine,

Nor yet imposd, with such a bitter hate.

Orcanes

Revenge it Radamanth and Eacus,

And let your hates extended in his paines,

Expell the hate wherewith he paines our soules.

Trebizon

May never day give vertue to his eies,

Whose sight composde of furie and of fire

Doth send such sterne affections to his heart.

Soria

May never spirit, vaine or Artier feed

The cursed substance of that cruel heart,

But (wanting moisture and remorsefull blood)

Drie up with anger, and consume with heat.

Tamburlaine

Wel, bark ye dogs. Ile bridle al your tongues

And bind them close with bits of burnisht steele,

Downe to the channels of your hatefull throats,

And with the paines my rigour shall inflict,

Ile make ye roare, that earth may eccho foorth

The far resounding torments ye sustaine,

As when an heard of lusty Cymbrian Buls,

Run mourning round about the Femals misse,

And stung with furie of their following,

Fill all the aire with troublous bellowing:

I will with Engines, never exercisde,

Conquer, sacke, and utterly consume

Your cities and your golden pallaces,

And with the flames that beat against the clowdes

Incense the heavens, and make the starres to melt,

As if they were the teares of Mahomet

For hot consumption of his countries pride:

And til by vision, or by speech I heare

Immortall Jove say, Cease my Tamburlaine,

I will persist a terrour to the world,

Making the Meteors, that like armed men

Are seene to march upon the towers of heaven,

Run tilting round about the firmament,

And breake their burning Lances in the aire,

For honor of my woondrous victories.

Come bring them in to our Pavilion.

Exeunt.

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