Tamburlaine the Great, Part 1 by Christopher Marlowe (free ebook reader for iphone TXT) 📕

SOLDAN. Nay, could their numbers countervail the stars, Or ever-drizzling<189> drops of April showers, Or wither’d leaves that autumn shaketh down, Yet would the Soldan by his conquering power So scatter and consume them in his rage, That not a man should<190> live to rue their fall.

CAPOLIN. So might your highness, had you time to sort Your fighting men, and raise your royal host; But Tamburlaine by expedition Advantage takes of your unreadiness.

SOLDAN. Let him take all th’ advantages he can: Were all the world conspir’d to fight for him, Nay, were he devil,<191> as he is no man, Yet in revenge of fair Zenocrate, Whom he detaineth in despite of us, This arm should send him down to Erebus, To shroud his shame in darkness of the night.

MESSENGER. Pleaseth your mightiness to understand, His resolution far exceedeth all. The first day when he pitcheth down his tents, White is their hue, and on his silver crest A snowy feather spangled-white he bears, To signify the mildness of his mind, That, satiate with spoil, refuseth blood: But, when Aurora mounts the second time, As red as scarlet is his furniture; Then must his kindled wrath be quench’d with blood, Not sparing any that can manage arms: But, if these threats move not submission, Black are his colours, black pavilion; His spear, his shield, his horse, his armour, plumes, And jetty feathers, menace death and hell; Without respect of sex, degree, or age, He razeth all his foes with fire and sword.

SOLDAN. Merciless villain, peasant, ignorant Of lawful arms or martial discipline! Pillage and murder are his usual trades: The slave usurps the glorious name of war. See, Capolin, the fair Arabian king,<192> That hath been disappointed by this slave Of my fair daughter and his princely love, May have fresh warning to go war with us, And be reveng’d for her disparagement. [Exeunt.]

SCENE II.

Enter TAMBURLAINE, TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE, ZENOCRATE, ANIPPE, two MOORS drawing BAJAZETH in a cage, and ZABINA following him.

TAMBURLAINE. Bring out my footstool. [They take BAJAZETH out of the cage.]

BAJAZETH. Ye holy priests of heavenly Mahomet, That, sacrificing, slice and cut your flesh, Staining his altars with your purple blood, Make heaven to frown, and every fixed star To suck up poison from the moorish fens, And pour it<193> in this glorious tyrant’s throat!

TAMBURLAINE. The chiefest god, first mover of that sphere Enchas’d with thousands ever-shining lamps, Will sooner burn the glorious frame of heaven Than it should<194> so conspire my overthrow. But, villain, thou that wishest this<195> to me, Fall prostrate on the low disdainful earth, And be the footstool of great Tamburlaine, That I may rise into<196> my royal throne.

BAJAZETH. First shalt thou rip my bowels with thy sword, And sacrifice my heart<197> to death and hell, Before I yield to such a slavery.

TAMBURLAINE. Base villain, vassal, slave to Tamburlaine, Unworthy to embrace or touch the ground That bears the honour of my royal weight; Stoop, villain, stoop! stoop;<198> for so he bids That may command thee piecemeal to be torn, Or scatter’d like the lofty cedar-trees Struck with the voice of thundering Jupiter.

BAJAZETH. Then, as I look down to the damned fiends, Fiends, look on me! and thou, dread god of hell, With ebon sceptre strike this hateful earth, And make it swallow both of us at once! [TAMBURLAINE gets up on him into his chair.]

TAMBURLAINE. Now clear the triple region of the air, And let the Majesty of Heaven behold Their scourge and terror tread on emperors. Smile, stars that reign’d at my nativity, And dim the brightness of your<199> neighbour lamps; Disdain to borrow light of Cynthia! For I, the chiefest lamp of all the earth, First rising in the east with mild aspect, But fixed now in the meridian line, Will send up fire to your turning spheres, And cause the sun to borrow light of you. My sword struck fire from his coat of steel, Even in Bithynia, when I took this Turk; As when a fiery exhalation, Wrapt in the bowels of a freezing cloud, Fighting for passage, make[s] the welkin crack, And casts a flash of lightning to<200> the earth: But, ere I march to wealthy Persia, Or leave Damascus and th’ Egyptian fields, As was the fame of Clymene’s brain-sick son That almost brent<201> the axle-tree of heaven, So shall our swords, our lances, and our shot Fill all the air with fiery meteors; Then, when the sky shall wax as red as blood, It shall be said I made it red myself, To make me think of naught but blood and war.

ZABINA. Unworthy king, that by thy cruelty Unlawfully usurp’st the Persian seat, Dar’st thou, that never saw an emperor Before thou met my husband in the field, Being thy captive, thus abuse his state, Keeping his kingly body in a cage, That roofs of gold and sun-bright palaces Should have prepar’d to entertain his grace? And treading him beneath thy loathsome feet, Whose feet the kings<202> of Africa have kiss’d?

TECHELLES. You must devise some torment worse, my lord, To make these captives rein their lavish tongues.

TAMBURLAINE. Zenocrate, look better to your slave.

ZENOCRATE. She is my handmaid’s slave, and she shall look That these abuses flow not from<203> her tongue.— Chide her, Anippe.

ANIPPE. Let these be warnings, then, for you,<204> my slave, How you abuse the person of the king; Or else I swear to have you whipt stark nak’d.<205>

BAJAZETH. 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 four mighty kings.

TAMBURLAINE. Thy names, and titles, and thy dignities<206> Are fled from Bajazeth, and remain with me, That will maintain it ‘gainst a world of kings.— Put him in again. [They put him into the cage.]

BAJAZETH. Is this a place for mighty Bajazeth? Confusion light on him that helps thee thus!

TAMBURLAINE. There, whiles<207> he lives, shall Bajazeth be kept; And, where I go, be thus in triumph drawn; And thou, his wife, shalt<208> feed him with the scraps My servitors shall bring thee from my board; For he that gives him other food than this, Shall sit by him, and starve to death himself: This is my mind, and I will have it so. Not all the kings and emperors of the earth, If they would lay their crowne before my feet, Shall ransom him, or take him from his cage: The ages that shall talk of Tamburlaine, Even from this day to Plato’s wondrous year, Shall talk how I have handled Bajazeth: These Moors, that drew him from Bithynia To fair Damascus, where we now remain, Shall lead him with us wheresoe’er we go.— Techelles, and my loving followers, Now may we see Damascus’ lofty towers, Like to the shadows of Pyramides That with their beauties grace<209> the Memphian fields. The golden stature<210> of their feather’d bird,<211> That spreads her wings upon the city-walls, Shall not defend it from our battering shot: The townsmen mask in silk and cloth of gold, And every house is as a treasury; The men, the treasure, and the town are<212> ours.

THERIDAMAS. Your tents of white now pitch’d before the gates, And gentle flags of amity display’d, I doubt not but the governor will yield, Offering Damascus to your majesty.

TAMBURLAINE. 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 array, With mournful streamers hanging down their heads, Were in that city all the world contain’d, Not one should scape, but perish by our swords.

ZENOCRATE. Yet would you have some pity for my sake, Because it is my country<213> and my father’s.

TAMBURLAINE. Not for the world, Zenocrate, if I have sworn.— Come; bring in the Turk. [Exeunt.]

SCENE III.

Enter SOLDAN, KING OF ARABIA,<214> CAPOLIN, and SOLDIERS, with streaming colours.

SOLDAN. Methinks we march as Meleager did, Environed with brave Argolian knights, To chase the savage Calydonian<215> boar, Or Cephalus, with lusty<216> Theban youths, Against the wolf that angry Themis sent To waste and spoil the sweet Aonian fields. A monster of five hundred thousand heads, Compact of rapine, piracy, and spoil, The scum of men, the hate and scourge of God, Raves in Aegyptia, and annoyeth us: My lord, it is the bloody Tamburlaine, A sturdy felon, and<217> a base-bred thief, By murder raised to the Persian crown, That dare control us in our territories. To tame the pride of this presumptuous beast, Join your Arabians with the Soldan’s power; Let us unite our royal bands in one, And hasten to remove Damascus’ siege. It is a blemish to the majesty And high estate of mighty emperors, That such a base usurping vagabond Should brave a king, or wear a princely crown.

KING OF ARABIA. Renowmed<218> Soldan, have you lately heard The overthrow of mighty Bajazeth About the confines of Bithynia? The slavery wherewith he persecutes The noble Turk and his great emperess?

SOLDAN. I have, and sorrow for his bad success; But, noble lord of great Arabia, Be so persuaded that the Soldan is No more dismay’d with tidings of his fall, Than in the haven when the pilot stands, And views a stranger’s ship rent in the winds, And shivered against a craggy rock: Yet in compassion to his wretched state, A sacred vow to heaven and him I make, Confirming it with Ibis’ holy name,<219> That Tamburlaine shall rue the day, the<220> hour, Wherein he wrought such ignominious wrong Unto the hallow’d person of a prince, Or kept the fair Zenocrate so long, As concubine, I fear, to feed his lust.

KING OF ARABIA. Let grief and fury hasten on revenge; Let Tamburlaine for his offences feel Such plagues as heaven and we can pour on him: I long to break my spear upon his crest, And prove the weight of his victorious arm; For fame, I fear, hath been too prodigal In sounding through the world his partial praise.

SOLDAN. Capolin, hast thou survey’d our powers?

CAPOLIN. Great emperors of Egypt and Arabia, The number of your hosts united is, A hundred and fifty thousand horse, Two hundred thousand foot, brave men-at-arms, Courageous and<221> full of hardiness, As frolic as the hunters in the chase Of savage beasts amid the desert woods.

KING OF ARABIA. My mind presageth fortunate success; And, Tamburlaine, my spirit doth foresee The utter ruin of thy men and thee.

SOLDAN. Then rear your standards; let your sounding drums Direct our soldiers to Damascus’ walls.— Now, Tamburlaine, the mighty Soldan comes, And leads with him the great Arabian king, To dim thy baseness and<222> obscurity, Famous for nothing but for theft and spoil; To raze and scatter thy inglorious crew Of Scythians and slavish Persians. [Exeunt.]

SCENE IV.

A banquet set out; and to it come TAMBURLAINE all in scarlet, ZENOCRATE, THERIDAMAS, TECHELLES, USUMCASANE, BAJAZETH drawn in his cage, ZABINA, and others.

TAMBURLAINE. Now hang our bloody colours by Damascus, Reflexing hues of blood upon their heads, While they walk quivering on their city-walls, Half-dead for fear before they feel my wrath. Then let us freely banquet, and carouse Full bowls of wine unto the god of war, That means to fill your helmets full of gold, And make Damascus’ spoils as rich to you As was to Jason Colchos’ golden fleece.— And now, Bajazeth, hast thou any stomach?

BAJAZETH. Ay, such a stomach, cruel Tamburlaine, as I could willingly feed upon thy blood-raw heart.

TAMBURLAINE. Nay, thine own is easier to come by: pluck out that; and ‘twill serve thee and thy wife.—Well, Zenocrate, Techelles,