Read Ebook: Tamburlaine the Great — Part 2 by Marlowe Christopher Dyce Alexander Editor

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 446 lines and 40459 words, and 9 pages

TAMBURLAINE. Be all a scourge and terror to the world, Or else you are not sons of Tamburlaine.

CALYPHAS. But, while my brothers follow arms, my lord, Let me accompany my gracious mother: They are enough to conquer all the world, And you have won enough for me to keep.

TAMBURLAINE. Bastardly boy, sprung from some coward's loins, And not the issue of great Tamburlaine! Of all the provinces I have subdu'd Thou shalt not have a foot, unless thou bear A mind courageous and invincible; For he shall wear the crown of Persia Whose head hath deepest scars, whose breast most wounds, Which, being wroth, sends lightning from his eyes, And in the furrows of his frowning brows Harbours revenge, war, death, and cruelty; For in a field, whose superficies Is cover'd with a liquid purple veil, And sprinkled with the brains of slaughter'd men, My royal chair of state shall be advanc'd; And he that means to place himself therein, Must armed wade up to the chin in blood.

ZENOCRATE. My lord, such speeches to our princely sons Dismay their minds before they come to prove The wounding troubles angry war affords.

CELEBINUS. No, madam, these are speeches fit for us; For, if his chair were in a sea of blood, I would prepare a ship and sail to it, Ere I would lose the title of a king.

AMYRAS. And I would strive to swim through pools of blood, Or make a bridge of murder'd carcasses, Whose arches should be fram'd with bones of Turks, Ere I would lose the title of a king.

TAMBURLAINE. Well, lovely boys, ye shall be emperors both, Stretching your conquering arms from east to west:-- And, sirrah, if you mean to wear a crown, When we shall meet the Turkish deputy And all his viceroys, snatch it from his head, And cleave his pericranion with thy sword.

CALYPHAS. If any man will hold him, I will strike, And cleave him to the channel with my sword.

TAMBURLAINE. Hold him, and cleave him too, or I'll cleave thee; For we will march against them presently. Theridamas, Techelles, and Casane Promis'd to meet me on Larissa-plains, With hosts a-piece against this Turkish crew; For I have sworn by sacred Mahomet To make it parcel of my empery. The trumpets sound; Zenocrate, they come. Enter THERIDAMAS, and his train, with drums and trumpets. Welcome, Theridamas, king of Argier.

THERIDAMAS. My lord, the great and mighty Tamburlaine, Arch-monarch of the world, I offer here My crown, myself, and all the power I have, In all affection at thy kingly feet.

TAMBURLAINE. Thanks, good Theridamas.

THERIDAMAS. Under my colours march ten thousand Greeks, And of Argier and Afric's frontier towns Twice twenty thousand valiant men-at-arms; All which have sworn to sack Natolia. Five hundred brigandines are under sail, Meet for your service on the sea, my lord, That, launching from Argier to Tripoly, Will quickly ride before Natolia, And batter down the castles on the shore.

TAMBURLAINE. Well said, Argier! receive thy crown again. Enter USUMCASANE and TECHELLES. Kings of Morocco and of Fez, welcome.

TAMBURLAINE. Thanks, king of Morocco: take your crown again.

TAMBURLAINE. Thanks, king of Fez: take here thy crown again. Your presence, loving friends and fellow-kings, Makes me to surfeit in conceiving joy: If all the crystal gates of Jove's high court Were open'd wide, and I might enter in To see the state and majesty of heaven, It could not more delight me than your sight. Now will we banquet on these plains a while, And after march to Turkey with our camp, In number more than are the drops that fall When Boreas rents a thousand swelling clouds; And proud Orcanes of Natolia With all his viceroys shall be so afraid, That, though the stones, as at Deucalion's flood, Were turn'd to men, he should be overcome. Such lavish will I make of Turkish blood, That Jove shall send his winged messenger To bid me sheathe my sword and leave the field; The sun, unable to sustain the sight, Shall hide his head in Thetis' watery lap, And leave his steeds to fair Bootes' charge; For half the world shall perish in this fight. But now, my friends, let me examine ye; How have ye spent your absent time from me?

USUMCASANE. My lord, our men of Barbary have march'd Four hundred miles with armour on their backs, And lain in leaguer fifteen months and more; For, since we left you at the Soldan's court, We have subdu'd the southern Guallatia, And all the land unto the coast of Spain; We kept the narrow Strait of Jubalter, And made Canaria call us kings and lords: Yet never did they recreate themselves, Or cease one day from war and hot alarms; And therefore let them rest a while, my lord.

TAMBURLAINE. They shall, Casane, and 'tis time, i'faith.

TAMBURLAINE. Well done, Techelles!--What saith Theridamas?

TAMBURLAINE. Then will we triumph, banquet and carouse; Cooks shall have pensions to provide us cates, And glut us with the dainties of the world; Lachryma Christi and Calabrian wines Shall common soldiers drink in quaffing bowls, Ay, liquid gold, when we have conquer'd him, Mingled with coral and with orient pearl. Come, let us banquet and carouse the whiles.

Enter SIGISMUND, FREDERICK, and BALDWIN, with their train.

SIGISMUND. Now say, my lords of Buda and Bohemia, What motion is it that inflames your thoughts, And stirs your valours to such sudden arms?

FREDERICK. Your majesty remembers, I am sure, What cruel slaughter of our Christian bloods These heathenish Turks and pagans lately made Betwixt the city Zula and Danubius; How through the midst of Varna and Bulgaria, And almost to the very walls of Rome, They have, not long since, massacred our camp. It resteth now, then, that your majesty Take all advantages of time and power, And work revenge upon these infidels. Your highness knows, for Tamburlaine's repair, That strikes a terror to all Turkish hearts, Natolia hath dismiss'd the greatest part Of all his army, pitch'd against our power Betwixt Cutheia and Orminius' mount, And sent them marching up to Belgasar, Acantha, Antioch, and Caesarea, To aid the kings of Soria and Jerusalem. Now, then, my lord, advantage take thereof, And issue suddenly upon the rest; That, in the fortune of their overthrow, We may discourage all the pagan troop That dare attempt to war with Christians.

SIGISMUND. But calls not, then, your grace to memory The league we lately made with King Orcanes, Confirm'd by oath and articles of peace, And calling Christ for record of our truths? This should be treachery and violence Against the grace of our profession.

BALDWIN. No whit, my lord; for with such infidels, In whom no faith nor true religion rests, We are not bound to those accomplishments The holy laws of Christendom enjoin; But, as the faith which they profanely plight Is not by necessary policy To be esteem'd assurance for ourselves, So that we vow to them should not infringe Our liberty of arms and victory.

SIGISMUND. Though I confess the oaths they undertake Breed little strength to our security, Yet those infirmities that thus defame Their faiths, their honours, and religion, Should not give us presumption to the like. Our faiths are sound, and must be consummate, Religious, righteous, and inviolate.

FREDERICK. Assure your grace, 'tis superstition To stand so strictly on dispensive faith; And, should we lose the opportunity That God hath given to venge our Christians' death, And scourge their foul blasphemous paganism, As fell to Saul, to Balaam, and the rest, That would not kill and curse at God's command, So surely will the vengeance of the Highest, And jealous anger of his fearful arm, Be pour'd with rigour on our sinful heads, If we neglect this offer'd victory.

SIGISMUND. Then arm, my lords, and issue suddenly, Giving commandment to our general host, With expedition to assail the pagan, And take the victory our God hath given.

Enter ORCANES, GAZELLUS, and URIBASSA, with their train.

ORCANES. Gazellus, Uribassa, and the rest, Now will we march from proud Orminius' mount To fair Natolia, where our neighbour kings Expect our power and our royal presence, T' encounter with the cruel Tamburlaine, That nigh Larissa sways a mighty host, And with the thunder of his martial tools Makes earthquakes in the hearts of men and heaven.

GAZELLUS. And now come we to make his sinews shake With greater power than erst his pride hath felt. An hundred kings, by scores, will bid him arms, And hundred thousands subjects to each score: Which, if a shower of wounding thunderbolts Should break out of the bowels of the clouds, And fall as thick as hail upon our heads, In partial aid of that proud Scythian, Yet should our courages and steeled crests, And numbers, more than infinite, of men, Be able to withstand and conquer him.

URIBASSA. Methinks I see how glad the Christian king Is made for joy of our admitted truce, That could not but before be terrified With unacquainted power of our host.

Enter a Messenger.

MESSENGER. Arm, dread sovereign, and my noble lords! The treacherous army of the Christians, Taking advantage of your slender power, Comes marching on us, and determines straight To bid us battle for our dearest lives.

ORCANES. Traitors, villains, damned Christians! Have I not here the articles of peace And solemn covenants we have both confirm'd, He by his Christ, and I by Mahomet?

GAZELLUS. Hell and confusion light upon their heads, That with such treason seek our overthrow, And care so little for their prophet Christ!

ORCANES. Can there be such deceit in Christians, Or treason in the fleshly heart of man, Whose shape is figure of the highest God? Then, if there be a Christ, as Christians say, But in their deeds deny him for their Christ, If he be son to everliving Jove, And hath the power of his outstretched arm, If he be jealous of his name and honour As is our holy prophet Mahomet, Take here these papers as our sacrifice And witness of thy servant's perjury! Open, thou shining veil of Cynthia, And make a passage from th' empyreal heaven, That he that sits on high and never sleeps, Nor in one place is circumscriptible, But every where fills every continent With strange infusion of his sacred vigour, May, in his endless power and purity, Behold and venge this traitor's perjury! Thou, Christ, that art esteem'd omnipotent, If thou wilt prove thyself a perfect God, Worthy the worship of all faithful hearts, Be now reveng'd upon this traitor's soul, And make the power I have left behind Sufficient to discomfit and confound The trustless force of those false Christians!-- To arms, my lords! on Christ still let us cry: If there be Christ, we shall have victory.

Alarms of battle within. Enter SIGISMUND wounded.

SIGISMUND. Discomfited is all the Christian host, And God hath thunder'd vengeance from on high, For my accurs'd and hateful perjury. O just and dreadful punisher of sin, Let the dishonour of the pains I feel In this my mortal well-deserved wound End all my penance in my sudden death! And let this death, wherein to sin I die, Conceive a second life in endless mercy!

Enter ORCANES, GAZELLUS, URIBASSA, with others.

ORCANES. Now lie the Christians bathing in their bloods, And Christ or Mahomet hath been my friend.

GAZELLUS. See, here the perjur'd traitor Hungary, Bloody and breathless for his villany!

GAZELLUS. 'Tis but the fortune of the wars, my lord, Whose power is often prov'd a miracle.

ORCANES. Yet in my thoughts shall Christ be honoured, Not doing Mahomet an injury, Whose power had share in this our victory; And, since this miscreant hath disgrac'd his faith, And died a traitor both to heaven and earth, We will both watch and ward shall keep his trunk Amidst these plains for fowls to prey upon. Go, Uribassa, give it straight in charge.

URIBASSA. I will, my lord.

ORCANES. And now, Gazellus, let us haste and meet Our army, and our brother of Jerusalem, Of Soria, Trebizon, and Amasia, And happily, with full Natolian bowls Of Greekish wine, now let us celebrate Our happy conquest and his angry fate.

The arras is drawn, and ZENOCRATE is discovered lying in her bed of state; TAMBURLAINE sitting by her; three PHYSICIANS about her bed, tempering potions; her three sons, CALYPHAS, AMYRAS, and CELEBINUS; THERIDAMAS, TECHELLES, and USUMCASANE.

TAMBURLAINE. Black is the beauty of the brightest day; The golden ball of heaven's eternal fire, That danc'd with glory on the silver waves, Now wants the fuel that inflam'd his beams; And all with faintness, and for foul disgrace, He binds his temples with a frowning cloud, Ready to darken earth with endless night. Zenocrate, that gave him light and life, Whose eyes shot fire from their ivory brows, And temper'd every soul with lively heat, Now by the malice of the angry skies, Whose jealousy admits no second mate, Draws in the comfort of her latest breath, All dazzled with the hellish mists of death. Now walk the angels on the walls of heaven, As sentinels to warn th' immortal souls To entertain divine Zenocrate: Apollo, Cynthia, and the ceaseless lamps That gently look'd upon this loathsome earth, Shine downwards now no more, but deck the heavens To entertain divine Zenocrate: The crystal springs, whose taste illuminates Refined eyes with an eternal sight, Like tried silver run through Paradise To entertain divine Zenocrate: The cherubins and holy seraphins, That sing and play before the King of Kings, Use all their voices and their instruments To entertain divine Zenocrate; And, in this sweet and curious harmony, The god that tunes this music to our souls Holds out his hand in highest majesty To entertain divine Zenocrate. Then let some holy trance convey my thoughts Up to the palace of th' empyreal heaven, That this my life may be as short to me As are the days of sweet Zenocrate.-- Physicians, will no physic do her good?

FIRST PHYSICIAN. My lord, your majesty shall soon perceive, An if she pass this fit, the worst is past.

TAMBURLAINE. Tell me, how fares my fair Zenocrate?

ZENOCRATE. I fare, my lord, as other empresses, That, when this frail and transitory flesh Hath suck'd the measure of that vital air That feeds the body with his dated health, Wane with enforc'd and necessary change.

TAMBURLAINE. May never such a change transform my love, In whose sweet being I repose my life! Whose heavenly presence, beautified with health, Gives light to Phoebus and the fixed stars; Whose absence makes the sun and moon as dark As when, oppos'd in one diameter, Their spheres are mounted on the serpent's head, Or else descended to his winding train. Live still, my love, and so conserve my life, Or, dying, be the author of my death.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet