The Works of Christopher Marlowe

Tamburlaine Part 2


Act: 1 Scene: 3
My Lord the great and mighty Tamburlain,
Arch-Monarke of the world, I offer here,
My crowne, my selfe, and all the power I have,
In all affection at thy kingly feet.
Under my collors march ten thousand Greeks,
And of Argier and Affriks frontier townes
Twise twenty thousand valiant men at armes,
All which have sworne to sacke Natolia:
Five hundred Briggandines are under saile,
Meet for your service on the sea, my Lord,
That ranching from Argier to Tripoly,
Will quickly ride before Natolia:
And batter downe the castles on the shore.
I left the confines and the bounds of Affrike
And made a voyage into Europe ,
Where by the river Tyros I subdew'd
Stoka, Padalia, and Codemia.
Then cross the sea and came to Oblia ,
And Nigra Silva, where the Devils dance,
Which in despight of them I set on fire:
From thence I cross the Gulfe, call'd by the name
Mare magiore, of th'inhabitantes:
Yet shall my souldiers make no period
Untill Natolia kneele before your feet.

Act: 2 Scene: 4
Ah good my Lord be patient, she is dead,
And all this raging cannot make her live,
If woords might serve, our voice hath rent the aire,
If teares, our eies have watered all the earth:
If griefe, our murthered harts have straind forth blood.
Nothing prevailes, for she is dead my Lord.

Act: 3 Scene: 3
Thus have wee martcht Northwarde from Tamburlaine,
Unto the frontier point of Soria :
And this is Balsera their chiefest hold,
Wherein is all the treasure of the land.
But stay a while, summon a parle, Drum,
It may be they will yeeld it quietly,
Knowing two kings, the friends to Tamburlain,
Stand at the walles, with such a mighty power.
Captaine, that thou yeeld up thy hold to us.
These Pioners of Argier in Affrica ,
Even in the cannons face shall raise a hill
Of earth and fagots higher than thy Fort,
And over thy Argins and covered waies
Shal play upon the bulwarks of thy hold
Volleies of ordinance til the breach be made,
That with his wine fils up all the trench.
And when we enter in, not heaven it selfe
Shall ransome thee, thy wife and family.
Pioners away, and where I stuck the stake,
Intrench with those dimensions I prescribed:
Cast up the earth towards the castle wall,
Which til it may defend you, labour low:
And few or none shall perish by their shot.
Then see the bringing of our ordinance
Along the trench into the battery,
Where we will have Gabions of sixe foot broad,
To save our Cannoniers from musket shot,
Betwixt which, shall our ordinance thunder foorth,
And with the breaches fall, smoake, fire, and dust,
The cracke, the Ecchoe and the souldiers crie
Make deafe the aire, and dim the Christall Sky.

Act: 3 Scene: 4
How now Madam, what are you doing?
But Lady goe with us to Tamburlaine,
And thou shalt see a man greater than Mahomet ,
In whose high lookes is much more majesty
Than from the Concave superficies,
Of Joves vast pallace the imperiall Orbe,
Unto the shining bower where Cynthia sits,
Like lovely Thetis in a Christall robe:
That treadeth Fortune underneath his feete,
And makes the mighty God of armes his slave:
On whom death and the fatall sisters waite,
With naked swords and scarlet liveries:
Before whom (mounted on a Lions backe)
Rhamnusia beares a helmet ful of blood,
And strowes the way with braines of slaughtered men:
By whose proud side the ugly furies run,
Harkening when he shall bid them plague the world.
Over whose Zenith cloth'd in windy aire,
And Eagles wings join'd to her feathered breast,
Fame hovereth, sounding of her golden Trumpe:
That to the adverse poles of that straight line,
Which measureth the glorious frame of heaven,
The name of mightie Tamburlain is spread:
And him faire Lady shall thy eies behold.
Come.
Madam, I am so far in love with you,
That you must goe with us, no remedy.
Souldiers now let us meet the Generall,
Who by this time is at Natolie,
Ready to charge the army of the Turke.
The gold, the silver, and the pearle ye got,
Rifling this Fort, device in equall shares:
This Lady shall have twice so much againe,
Out of the coffers of our treasurie.

Act: 3 Scene: 5
I, my Lord, he was Calapines keeper. Theridamas, when we are fighting, least hee hide his crowne as the foolish king of Persea did.

Act: 4 Scene: 1
Yet pardon him I pray your Majesty.

Act: 4 Scene: 2
Wel met Olympia, I sought thee in my tent,
But when I saw the place obscure and darke,
Which with thy beauty thou wast woont to light,
Enrag'd I ran about the fields for thee,
Supposing amorous Jove had sent his sonne,
The winged Hermes, to convey thee hence:
But now I finde thee, and that feare is past.
Tell me Olympia, wilt thou graunt my suit?
Olympia, pitie him, in whom thy looks
Have greater operation and more force
Than Cynthias in the watery wildernes,
For with thy view my joyes are at the full,
And eb againe, as thou departst from me.
Nothing, but stil thy husband and thy sonne?
Leave this my Love, and listen more to me.
Thou shalt be stately Queene of faire Argier,
And cloth'd in costly cloath of messy gold,
Upon the marble turrets of my Court
Sit like to Venus in her chaire of state,
Commanding all thy princely eie desires,
And I will cast off armes and sit with thee,
Spending my life in sweet discourse of love.
Nay Lady, then if nothing wil prevaile,
Ile use some other means to make you yeeld,
Such is the sodaine fury of my love,
I must and wil be pleasde, and you shall yeeld:
Come to the tent againe.
What is it?
Why Madam, thinke ye to mocke me thus palpably?
Why gave you not your husband some of it,
If you loved him, and it so precious?
I wil Olympia, and will keep it for
The richest present of this Easterne world.
Here then Olympia. [Stabs her.]
What, have I slaine her? Villaine, stab thy selfe:
Cut off this arme that murthered my Love:
In whom the learned Rabies of this age,
Might find as many woondrous myracles,
As in the Theoria of the world.
Now Hell is fairer than Elisian,
A greater Lamp than that bright eie of heaven,
From whence the starres doo borrow all their light,
Wanders about the black circumference,
And now the damned soules are free from paine,
For every Fury gazeth on her lookes:
Infernall Dis is courting of my Love,
Inventing maskes and stately showes for her,
Opening the doores of his rich treasurie,
To entertaine this Queene of chastitie,
Whose body shall be tomb'd with all the pompe
The treasure of my kingdome may affoord.

Act: 4 Scene: 3
Your Majesty must get some byts for these,
To bridle their contemptuous cursing tongues,
That like unruly never broken Jades,
Breake through the hedges of their hateful mouthes,
And passe their fixed bounces exceedingly.
It seemes they meant to conquer us my Lord,
And make us jeasting Pageants for their Trulles.

Act: 5 Scene: 1
Thou desperate Governour of Babylon,
To save thy life, and us a litle labour,
Yeeld speedily the citie to our hands,
Or els be sure thou shalt be forc'd with paines,
More exquisite than ever Traitor felt.
The sturdy Governour of Babylon,
That made us all the labour for the towne,
And usde such slender reckning of your majesty.
I will my Lord.
Then have at him to begin withall.
I, good my Lord, let us in hast to Persea,
And let this Captaine be remoov'd the walles,
To some high hill about the citie here.

Act: 5 Scene: 3
Weepe heavens, and vanish into liquid teares,
Fal starres that governe his nativity,
And sommon al the shining lamps of heaven
To cast their bootlesse fires to the earth,
And shed their feble influence in the aire.
Muffle your beauties with eternall clowdes,
For hell and darknesse pitch their pitchy tentes,
And Death with armies of Cymerian spirits
Gives battile gainst the heart of Tamburlaine.
Now in defiance of that woonted love,
Your sacred vertues pour'd upon his throne,
And made his state an honor to the heavens,
These cowards invisiblie assaile his soule,
And threaten conquest on our Soveraigne:
But if he die, your glories are disgrac'd,
Earth droopes and saies, that hell in heaven is plac'd.
Ah good my Lord, leave these impatient words,
Which ad much danger to your malladie.
A woful change my Lord, that daunts our thoughts,
More than the wine of our proper soules.
My Lord, you must obey his majesty,
Since Fate commands, and proud necessity.