The Works of Christopher Marlowe

Tamburlaine Part 2

Act: 5 Scene: 1
Tamburlaine
The stately buildings of faire Babylon,
Whose lofty Pillers, higher than the cloudes,
Were woont to guide the seaman in the deepe,
Being carried thither by the cannons force,
Now fil the mouth of Limnasphaltes lake,
And make a bridge unto the battered walles.
Where Belus, Ninus and great Alexander
Have rode in triumph, triumphs Tamburlaine,
Whose chariot wheeles have burst th'Assirians bones,
Drawen with these kings on heaps of carkasses.
Now in the place where faire Semiramis,
Courted by kings and peeres of Asia,
Hath trode the Meisures, do my souldiers martch,
And in the streets, where brave Assirian Dames
Have rid in pompe like rich Saturnia,
With furious words and frowning visages,
My horsemen brandish their unruly blades.
Enter [below] Theridamas and Techelles bringing the Governour of Babylon.
Who have ye there my Lordes?
Tamburlaine
Go bind the villaine, he shall hang in chaines,
Upon the ruines of this conquered towne.
Sirha, the view of our vermillion tents,
Which threatned more than if the region
Next underneath the Element of fire,
Were full of commtes and of blazing stars,
Whose flaming traines should reach down to the earth
Could not affright you , no, nor I my selfe,
The wrathfull messenger of mighty Jove,
That with his sword hath quail'd all earthly kings,
Could not perswade you to submission,
But stil the ports were shut: villaine I say,
Should I but touch the rusty gates of hell,
The triple headed Cerebus would howle,
And wake blacke Jove to crouch and kneele to me,
But I have sent volleies of shot to you,
Yet could not enter till the breach was made.
Tamburlaine
Wel, now Ile make it quake, go draw him up,
Hang him up in chaines upon the citie walles,
And let my souldiers shoot the slave to death.
Tamburlaine
Up with him then, his body shalbe scard.
Tamburlaine
Then for all your valour, you would save your life.
Where about lies it?
Tamburlaine
Go thither some of you and take his gold,
The rest forward with execution,
Away with him hence, let him speake no more:
I think I make your courage something quaile.
[Exeunt souldiers several ways, some with Governour.]
When this is done, we'll martch from Babylon,
And make our greatest haste to Persea:
These Jades are broken winded, and halfe tyr'd,
Unharnesse them, and let me have fresh horse:
So, now their best is done to honour me,
Take them, and hang them both up presently.
Tamburlaine
Take them away Theridamas, see them dispatcht.
Tamburlaine
Come Asian Viceroies, to your taskes a while
And take such fortune as your fellowes felt.
Tamburlaine
Bridle them, and let me to my coach.
Tamburlaine
Tis brave indeed my boy, wel done,
Shoot first my Lord, and then the rest shall follow.
Tamburlaine
No, though Asphaltis lake were liquid gold,
And offer'd me as ransome for thy life,
Yet shouldst thou die, shoot at him all at once. They shoote.
So now he hangs like Bagdets Governour,
Having as many bullets in his flesh,
As there be breaches in her battered wall.
Goe now and bind the Burghers hand and foot,
And cast them headlong in the cities lake:
Tartars and Perseans shall inhabit there,
And to command the citie, I will build
A Cytadell, that all Assiria
Which hath bene subject to the Persean king,
Shall pay me tribute for, in Babylon.
Tamburlaine.
Techelles, Drowne them all, man, woman, and child,
Leave not a Babylonian in the towne.
Tamburlaine
Now Casane, wher's the Turkish Alcaron,
And all the heapes of supersticious bookes,
Found in the Temples of that Mahomet ,
Whom I have thought a God? they shal be burnt.
Tamburlaine
Wel said, let there be a fire presently.
In vaine I see men worship Mahomet,
My sword hath sent millions of Turks to hell,
Slew all his Priests, his kinsmen, and his friends,
And yet I live untoucht by Mahomet:
There is a God full of revenging wrath,
From whom the thunder and the lightning breaks,
Whose Scourge I am, and him will I obey.
So Casane, fling them in the fire.
Now Mahomet, if thou have any power,
Come downe thy selfe and worke a myracle,
Thou art not woorthy to be worshipped,
That suffers flames of fire to burne the writ
Wherein the sum of thy religion rests.
Why send'st thou not a furious whyrlwind downe,
To blow thy Alcaron up to thy throne,
Where men report, thou sitt'st by God himselfe,
Or vengeance on the head of Tamburlain,
That shakes his sword against thy majesty,
And spurns the Abstracts of thy foolish lawes.
Wel souldiers, Mahomet remaines in hell,
He cannot heare the voice of Tamburlain,
Seeke out another Godhead to adore,
The God that sits in heaven, if any God,
For he is God alone, and none but he.
Tamburlaine
Wel then my friendly Lordes, what now remaines
But that we leave sufficient garrison
And presently depart to Persea,
To triumph after all our victories.
Tamburlaine
Let it be so, about it souldiers:
But stay, I feele my selfe distempered sudainly.
Tamburlaine
Something Techelles, but I know not what,
But foorth ye vassals, what so ere it be,
Sicknes or death can never conquer me.
Act: 5 Scene: 3
Tamburlaine
What daring God torments my body thus,
And seeks to conquer mighty Tamburlaine,
Shall sicknesse proove me now to be a man,
That have bene tearm'd the terrour of the world?
Techelles and the rest, come take your swords,
And threaten him whose hand afflicts my soul,
Come let us march against the powers of heaven,
And set blacke streamers in the firmament,
To signifie the slaughter of the Gods.
Ah friends, what shal I doe, I cannot stand,
Come carie me to war against the Gods,
That thus invie the health of Tamburlaine.
Tamburlaine
Why, shal I sit and languish in this paine?
No, strike the drums, and in revenge of this,
Come let us chardge our speares and pierce his breast,
Whose shoulders beare the Axis of the world,
That if I perish, heaven and earth may fade.
Theridamas, haste to the court of Jove,
Will him to send Apollo hether straight,
To cure me, or Ile fetch him downe my selfe.
Tamburlaine
Not last Techelles, no, for I shall die.
See where my slave, the uglie monster death
Shaking and quivering, pale and wan for feare,
Stands aiming at me with his murthering dart,
Who flies away at every glance I give,
And when I look away, comes stealing on:
Villaine away, and hie thee to the field,
I and myne armie come to lode thy barke
With soules of thousand mangled carkasses.
Looke where he goes, but see, he comes againe
Because I stay: Techelles let us march,
And weary Death with bearing soules to hell.
Tamburlaine
Tel me, what think you of my sicknes now?
Tamburlaine
Then will I comfort all my vital parts,
And live in spight of death above a day.
Tamburlaine
See my Phisitions now, how Jove hath sent
A present medicine to recure my paine:
My looks shall make them flie, and might I follow,
There should not one of all the villaines power
Live to give offer of another fight.
Tamburlaine
I know it wil Casane: draw you slaves,
In spight of death I will goe show my face.
Alarme, Tamburlaine goes in, and comes out againe with al the rest.
Thus are the villaines, cowards fled for feare,
Like Summers vapours, vanisht by the Sun.
And could I but a while pursue the field,
That Callapine should be my slave againe.
But I perceive my martial strength is spent,
In vaine I strive and raile against those powers,
That meane t'invest me in a higher throane,
As much too high for this disdainfull earth.
Give me a Map, then let me see how much
Is left for me to conquer all the world,
That these my boies may finish all my wantes.
One brings a Map.
Here I began to martch towards Persea,
Along Armenia and the Caspian sea,
And thence unto Bythinia, where I tooke
The Turke and his great Empresse prisoners,
Then martcht I into Egypt and Aralia,
And here not far from Alexandria,
Whereas the Terren and the red sea meet,
Being distant lesse than ful a hundred leagues,
I meant to cut a channell to them both,
That men might quickly saile to India.
From thence to Nubia neere Borno Lake,
And so along the Ethiopian sea,
Cutting the Tropicke line of Capricorne,
I conquered all as far as Zansibar .
Then by the Northerne part of Affrica ,
I came at last to Graecia, and from thence
To Asia, where I stay against my will,
Which is from Scythia, where I first began,
Backeward and forwards nere five thousand leagues.
Looke here my boies, see what a world of ground,
Lies westward from the midst of Cancers line,
Unto the rising of this earthly globe,
Whereas the Sun declining from our sight,
Begins the day with our Antypodes:
And shall I die, and this unconquered?
Loe here my sonnes, are all the golden Mines,
Inestimable drugs and precious stones,
More worth than Asia, and the world beside,
And from th'Antartique Pole, Eastward behold
As much more land, which never was descried,
Wherein are rockes of Pearle, that shine as bright
As all the Lamps that beautifie the Sky,
And shal I die, and this unconquered?
Here lovely boies, what death forbids my life,
That let your lives commaund in spight of death.
Tamburlaine
But sons, this subject not of force enough,
To hold the fiery spirit it containes,
Must part, imparting his impressions,
By equall portions into both your breasts:
My flesh devided in your precious shapes,
Shal still retaine my spirit, though I die,
And live in all your seedes immortally:
Then now remoove me, that I may resigne
My place and proper tytle to my sonne:
First take my Scourge and my imperiall Crowne, [To Amyras.]
And mount my royall chariot of estate,
That I may see thee crown'd before I die.
Help me (my Lords) to make my last remoove.
Tamburlaine
Sit up my sonne, let me see how well
Thou wilt become thy fathers majestie.
Tamburlaine
Let not thy love exceed thyne honor sonne,
Nor bar thy mind that magnanimitie,
That nobly must admit necessity:
Sit up my boy, and with those silken raines,
Bridle the steeled stomackes of those Jades.
Tamburlaine
Now fetch the hearse of faire Zenocrate,
Let it be plac'd by this my fatall chaire,
And serve as parcell of my funerall.
Tamburlaine
Casane no, the Monarke of the earth,
And eielesse Monster that torments my soule,
Cannot behold the teares ye shed for me,
And therefore stil augments his cruelty.
Tamburlaine
Now eies, injoy your latest benefite,
And when my soule hath vertue of your sight,
Pierce through the coffin and the sheet of gold,
And glut your longings with a heaven of joy.
So, raigne my sonne, scourge and controlle those slaves,
Guiding thy chariot with thy Fathers hand.
As precious is the charge thou undertak'st
As that which Clymens brainsicke sonne did guide,
When wandring Phœbes Ivory cheeks were scortcht
And all the earth like Aetna breathing fire:
Be warn'd by him then, learne with awfull eie
To sway a throane as dangerous as his:
For if thy body thrive not full of thoughtes
As pure and fiery as Phyteus beames,
The nature of these proud rebelling Jades
Wil take occasion by the slenderest haire,
And draw thee peecemeale like Hyppolitus,
Through rocks more steepe and sharp than Caspian cliftes.
The nature of thy chariot wil not beare
A guide of baser temper than my selfe,
More then heavens coach, the pride of Phaeton.
Farewel my boies, my dearest friends, farewel,
My body feeles, my soule dooth weepe to see
Your sweet desires depriv'd my company,
For Tamburlaine, the Scourge of God must die.