Tamburlaine the Great Read Online

Wel sirs, diet your selves, you knowe I shall have occasion shortly to journey you.

CELEBINUS. See father, how Almeda the Jaylor lookes upon us.

TAMBURLAINE.

Villaine, traitor, damned fugitive,

Ile make thee wish the earth had swallowed thee:

Seest thou not death within my wrathfull looks?

Goe villaine, cast thee headlong from a rock,

Or rip thy bowels, and rend out thy heart,

T'appease my wrath, or els Ile torture thee,

Searing thy hatefull flesh with burning yrons,

And drops of scalding lead, while all thy joints

Be rackt and beat asunder with the wheele,

For if thou livest, not any Element

Shal shrowde thee from the wrath of Tamburlaine.

CALLAPINE.

Wel, in despight of thee he shall be king:

Come Almeda, receive this crowne of me,

I here invest thee king of Ariadan,

Bordering on Mare Roso neere to Meca.

ORCANES. What, take it man.

ALMEDA. Good my Lord, let me take it.

CALLAPINE. Doost thou aske him leave? Here, take it.

TAMBURLAINE. Go too sirha, take your crown, and make up the halfe dozen.

So sirha, now you are a king you must give armes.

ORCANES. So he shal, and weare thy head in his Scutchion.

TAMBURLAINE. No, let him hang a bunch of keies on his sanderd, to put him in remembrance he was a Jailor, that when I take him, I may knocke out his braines with them, and lock you in the stable, when you shall come sweating from my chariot.

TREBIZON. Away, let us to the field, that the villaine may be slaine.

TAMBURLAINE. Sirha, prepare whips, and bring my chariot to my Tent: For as soone as the battaile is done, Ile ride in triumph through the Camp.

Enter Theridamas, Techelles, and their traine.

How now ye pety kings, loe, here are Bugges

Wil make the haire stand upright on your heads,

And cast your crownes in slavery at their feet.

Welcome Theridamas and Techelles both,

See ye this rout, and know ye this same king?

TAMBURLAINE. Wel, now you see hee is a king, looke to him.

THERIDAMAS. I, my Lord, he was Calapines keeper.

Theridamas, when we are fighting, least hee hide his crowne as the foolish king of Persea did.

SORIA. No Tamburlaine, hee shall not be put to that exigent, I warrant thee.

TAMBURLAINE.

You knowe not sir:

But now my followers and my loving friends,

Fight as you ever did, like Conquerours,

The glorie of this happy day is yours:

My sterne aspect shall make faire Victory,

Hovering betwixt our armies, light on me,

Loden with Lawrell wreathes to crowne us all.

TECHELLES.

I smile to think, how when this field is fought,

And rich Natolia ours, our men shall sweat

With carrieng pearle and treasure on their backes.

TAMBURLAINE.

You shall be princes all immediatly:

Come fight ye Turks, or yeeld us victory.

ORCANES.

No, we wil meet thee slavish Tamburlain.

Exeunt.

IV.i

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 cowardise,

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 holde 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 Tamburlain,

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 massy 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 thine,

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 speach 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.

IV.ii

[Enter] Olympia alone.

OLYMPIA.

Distrest Olympia, whose weeping eies

Since thy arrivall here beheld no Sun,

But closde within the compasse of a tent,

Hath stain'd thy cheekes, and made thee look like death,

Devise some meanes to rid thee of thy life,

Rather than yeeld to his detested suit,

Whose drift is onely to dishonor thee.

And since this earth, dew'd with thy brinish teares,

Affoords no hearbs, whose taste may poison thee,

Nor yet this aier, beat often with thy sighes,

Contagious smels, and vapors to infect thee,

Nor thy close Cave a sword to murther thee,

Let this invention be the instrument.

Enter Theridamas.

THERIDAMAS.

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 convay thee hence:

But now I finde thee, and that feare is past.

Tell me Olympia, wilt thou graunt my suit?

OLYMPIA.

My Lord and husbandes death, with my sweete sons,

With whom I buried al affections,

Save griefe and sorrow which torment my heart,

Forbids my mind to entertaine a thought

That tends to love, but meditate on death,

A fitter subject for a pensive soule.

THERIDAMAS.

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.

OLYMPIA.

Ah, pity me my Lord, and draw your sword,

Making a passage for my troubled soule,

Which beates against this prison to get out,

And meet my husband and my loving sonne.

THERIDAMAS.

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 massy 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.

OLYMPIA.

No such discourse is pleasant in mine eares,

But that where every period ends with death,

And every line begins with death againe:

I cannot love to be an Emperesse.

THERIDAMAS.

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.

OLYMPIA.

Stay good my Lord, and wil you save my honor,

Ile give your Grace a present of such price,

As all the world cannot affoord the like.

THERIDAMAS.

What is it?

OLYMPIA.

An ointment which a cunning Alcumist

Distilled from the purest Balsamum,

And simplest extracts of all Minerals,

In which the essentiall fourme of Marble stone,

Tempered by science metaphisicall,

And Spels of magicke from the mouthes of spirits,

With which if you but noint your tender Skin,

Nor Pistol, Sword, nor Lance can pierce your flesh.

THERIDAMAS.

Why Madam, thinke ye to mocke me thus palpably?

OLYMPIA.

To proove it, I wil noint my naked throat,

Which when you stab, looke on your weapons point,

And you shall se't rebated with the blow.

THERIDAMAS.

Why gave you not your husband some of it,

If you loved him, and it so precious?

OLYMPIA.

My purpose was (my Lord) to spend it so,

But was prevented by his sodaine end.

And for a present easie proofe hereof,

That I dissemble not, trie it on me.

THERIDAMAS.

I wil Olympia, and will keep it for

The richest present of this Easterne world.

She noints her throat.

OLYMPIA.

Now stab my Lord, and mark your weapons point

That wil be blunted if the blow be great.

THERIDAMAS.

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.

Exit, taking her away.

IV.iii

[Enter] Tamburlaine drawen in his chariot by Trebizon and Soria with bittes in their mouthes, reines in his left hand, in his right hand a whip, with which he scourgeth them, Techelles, Theridamas, Usumcasane, Amyras, Celebinus: [Orcanes king of] Natolia, and Jerusalem led by with five or six common souldiers.

TAMBURLAINE.

Holla, ye pampered Jades of Asia:

What, can ye draw but twenty miles a day,

And have so proud a chariot at your heeles,

And such a Coachman as great Tamburlaine?

But from Asphaltis, where I conquer'd you,

To Byron here where thus I honor you?

The horse that guide the golden eie of heaven,

And blow the morning from their nosterils,

Making their fiery gate above the cloudes,

Are not so honoured in their Governour,

As you (ye slaves) in mighty Tamburlain.

The headstrong Jades of Thrace, Alcides tam'd,

That King Egeus fed with humaine flesh,

And made so wanton that they knew their strengths,

Were not subdew'd with valour more divine,

Than you by this unconquered arme of mine.

To make you fierce, and fit my appetite,

You shal be fed with flesh as raw as blood,

And drinke in pailes the strongest Muscadell:

If you can live with it, then live, and draw

My chariot swifter than the racking cloudes:

If not, then dy like beasts, and fit for nought

But perches for the black and fatall Ravens.

Thus am I right the Scourge of highest Jove,

And see the figure of my dignitie,

By which I hold my name and majesty.

AMYRAS.

Let me have coach my Lord, that I may ride,

And thus be drawen with these two idle kings.

TAMBURLAINE.

Thy youth forbids such ease my kingly boy,

They shall to morrow draw my chariot,

While these their fellow kings may be refresht.

ORCANES.

O thou that swaiest the region under earth,

And art a king as absolute as Jove,

Come as thou didst in fruitfull Scicilie,

Survaieng all the glories of the land:

And as thou took'st the faire Proserpina,

Joying the fruit of Ceres garden plot,

For love, for honor, and to make her Queene,

So for just hate, for shame, and to subdew

This proud contemner of thy dreadfull power,

Come once in furie and survay his pride,

Haling him headlong to the lowest hell.

THERIDAMAS.

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 boundes exceedingly.

TECHELLES.

Nay, we wil break the hedges of their mouths

And pul their kicking colts out of their pastures.

USUMCASANE.

Your Majesty already hath devisde

A meane, as fit as may be to restraine

These coltish coach-horse tongues from blasphemy.

CELEBINUS.

How like you that sir king? why speak you not?

JERUSALEM.

Ah cruel Brat, sprung from a tyrants loines,

How like his cursed father he begins,

To practize tauntes and bitter tyrannies?

TAMBURLAINE.

I Turke, I tel thee, this same Boy is he,

That must (advaunst in higher pompe than this)

Rifle the kingdomes I shall leave unsackt,

If Jove esteeming me too good for earth,

Raise me to match the faire Aldeboran,

Above the threefold Astracisme of heaven,

Before I conquere all the triple world.

Now fetch me out the Turkish Concubines,

I will prefer them for the funerall

They have bestowed on my abortive sonne.

The Concubines are brought in.

Where are my common souldiers now that fought

So Lion-like upon Asphaltis plaines?

SOULDIERS. Here my Lord.

TAMBURLAINE.

Hold ye tal souldiers, take ye Queens apeece

(I meane such Queens as were kings Concubines)

Take them, devide them and their jewels too,

And let them equally serve all your turnes.

SOULDIERS.

We thank your majesty.

TAMBURLAINE.

Brawle not (I warne you) for your lechery,

For every man that so offends shall die.

ORCANES.

Injurious tyrant, wilt thou so defame

The hatefull fortunes of thy victory,

To exercise upon such guiltlesse Dames,

The violence of thy common Souldiours lust?

TAMBURLAINE.

Live continent then (ye slaves) and meet not me

With troopes of harlots at your sloothful heeles.

LADIES.

O pity us my Lord, and save our honours.

TAMBURLAINE.

Are ye not gone ye villaines with your spoiles?

They run away with the Ladies.

JERUSALEM.

O mercilesse infernall cruelty.

TAMBURLAINE.

Save your honours? twere but time indeed,

Lost long before you knew what honour meant.

THERIDAMAS.

It seemes they meant to conquer us my Lord,

And make us jeasting Pageants for their Trulles.

TAMBURLAINE.

And now themselves shal make our Pageant,

And common souldiers jest with all their Truls.

Let them take pleasure soundly in their spoiles,

Till we prepare our martch to Babylon,

Whether we next make expedition.

TECHELLES.

Let us not be idle then my Lord,

But presently be prest to conquer it.

TAMBURLAINE.

We wil Techelles, forward then ye Jades:

Now crowch ye kings of greatest Asia,

And tremble when ye heare this Scourge wil come,

That whips downe cities, and controwleth crownes,

Adding their wealth and treasure to my store.

The Euxine sea North to Natolia,

The Terrene west, the Caspian north north-east,

And on the south Senus Arabicus,

Shal al be loden with the martiall spoiles

We will convay with us to Persea.

Then shal my native city Samarcanda

And christall waves of fresh Jaertis streame,

The pride and beautie of her princely seat,

Be famous through the furthest continents,

For there my Pallace royal shal be plac'd:

Whose shyning Turrets shal dismay the heavens,

And cast the fame of Ilions Tower to hell.

Thorow the streets with troops of conquered kings,

Ile ride in golden armour like the Sun,

And in my helme a triple plume shal spring,

Spangled with Diamonds dancing in the aire,

To note me Emperour of the three fold world:

Like to an almond tree ymounted high,

Upon the lofty and celestiall mount,

Of ever greene Selinus queintly dect

With bloomes more white than Hericinas browes,

Whose tender blossoms tremble every one,

At every little breath that thorow heaven is blowen:

Then in my coach like Saturnes royal son,

Mounted his shining chariot, gilt with fire,

And drawen with princely Eagles through the path,

Pav'd with bright Christall, and enchac'd with starres,

When all the Gods stand gazing at his pomp:

So will I ride through Samarcanda streets,

Until my soule dissevered from this flesh,

Shall mount the milk-white way and meet him there.

To Babylon my Lords, to Babylon.

Exeunt.

V.i

Enter the Governour of Babylon upon the walles with [Maximus and] others.

GOVERNOUR.

What saith Maximus?

MAXIMUS.

My Lord, the breach the enimie hath made

Gives such assurance of our overthrow,

That litle hope is left to save our lives,

Or hold our citie from the Conquerours hands.

Then hang out flagges (my Lord) of humble truce,

And satisfie the peoples generall praiers,

That Tamburlains intollorable wrath

May be suppresst by our submission.

GOVERNOUR.

Villaine, respects thou more thy slavish life,

Than honor of thy countrie or thy name?

Is not my life and state as deere to me,

The citie and my native countries weale,

As any thing of price with thy conceit?

Have we not hope, for all our battered walles,

To live secure, and keep his forces out,

When this our famous lake of Limnasphaltis

Makes walles a fresh with every thing that falles

Into the liquid substance of his streame,

More strong than are the gates of death or hel?

What faintnesse should dismay our courages,

When we are thus defenc'd against our Foe,

And have no terrour but his threatning lookes?

Enter another [1. Citizen], kneeling to the Governour.

1. CITIZEN.

My Lord, if ever you did deed of ruth,

And now will work a refuge to our lives,

Offer submission, hang up flags of truce,

That Tamburlaine may pitie our distresse,

And use us like a loving Conquerour.

Though this be held his last daies dreadfull siege,

Wherein he spareth neither man nor child,

Yet are there Christians of Georgia here,

Whose state he ever pitied and reliev'd,

Wit get his pardon if your grace would send.

GOVERNOUR.

How is my soule environed,

And this eternisde citie Babylon,

Fill'd with a packe of faintheart Fugitives,

That thus intreat their shame and servitude?

[Enter 2. Citizen.]

2. CITIZEN.

My Lord, if ever you wil win our hearts,

Yeeld up the towne, save our wives and children:

For I wil cast my selfe from off these walles,

Or die some death of quickest violence,

Before I bide the wrath of Tamburlaine.

GOVERNOUR.

Villaines, cowards, Traitors to our state,

Fall to the earth, and pierce the pit of Hel,

That legions of tormenting spirits may vex

Your slavish bosomes with continuall paines,

I care not, nor the towne will never yeeld

As long as any life is in my breast.

Enter Theridamas and Techelles, with other souldiers.

THERIDAMAS.

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.

GOVERNOUR.

Tyrant, I turne the traitor in thy throat,

And wil defend it in despight of thee.

Call up the souldiers to defend these wals.

TECHELLES.

Yeeld foolish Governour, we offer more

Than ever yet we did to such proud slaves,

As durst resist us till our third daies siege:

Thou seest us prest to give the last assault,

And that shal bide no more regard of parlie.

GOVERNOUR.

Assault and spare not, we wil never yeeld.

Alarme, and they scale the walles.

Enter Tamburlaine, [drawn in his chariot by the kings of Trebizon and Soria,] with Usumcasane, Amyras, and Celebinus, with others, the two spare kings [Orcanes, King of Natolia, and King of Jerusalem, led by souldiers].

TAMBURLAINE.

The stately buildings of faire Babylon,

Whose lofty Pillers, higher than the cloudes,

Were woont to guide the seaman in the deepe,

Being caried 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 horsmen brandish their unruly blades.

Enter [below] Theridamas and Techelles bringing the Governor of Babylon.

Who have ye there my Lordes?

THERIDAMAS.

The sturdy Governour of Babylon,

That made us all the labour for the towne,

And usde such slender reckning of your majesty.

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 Commets 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 Cerberus 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.

GOVERNOUR.

Nor if my body could have stopt the breach,

Shouldst thou have entred, cruel Tamburlaine:

Tis not thy bloody tents can make me yeeld,

Nor yet thy selfe, the anger of the highest,

For though thy cannon shooke the citie walles,

My heart did never quake, or corrage faint.

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.

GOVERNOUR.

Vile monster, borne of some infernal hag,

And sent from hell to tyrannise on earth,

Do all thy wurst, nor death, nor Tamburlaine,

Torture or paine can daunt my dreadlesse minde.

TAMBURLAINE.

Up with him then, his body shalbe scard.

GOVERNOUR.

But Tamburlain, in Lymnasphaltis lake,

There lies more gold than Babylon is worth,

Which when the citie was besieg'd I hid,

Save but my life and I wil give it thee.

TAMBURLAINE.

Then for all your valour, you would save your life.

Where about lies it?

GOVERNOUR.

Under a hollow bank, right opposite

Against the Westerne gate of Babylon.

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.

TREBIZON.

Vild Tyrant, barbarous bloody Tamburlain.

TAMBURLAINE.

Take them away Theridamas, see them dispatcht.

THERIDAMAS.

I will my Lord.

[Exit with the Kings of Trebizon and Soria.]

TAMBURLAINE.

Come Asian Viceroies, to your taskes a while

And take such fortune as your fellowes felt.

ORCANES.

First let thy Scythyan horse teare both our limmes

Rather then we should draw thy chariot,

And like base slaves abject our princely mindes

To vile and ignominious servitude.

JERUSALEM.

Rather lend me thy weapon Tamburlain,

That I may sheath it in this breast of mine,

A thousand deathes could not torment our hearts

More than the thought of this dooth vexe our soules.

AMYRAS.

They will talk still my Lord, if you doe not bridle them.

TAMBURLAINE.

Bridle them, and let me to my coach.

They bridle them.

[Souldiers hang the Governour of Babylon in chaines on the walles. Enter Theridamas below.]

AMYRAS.

See now my Lord how brave the Captaine hangs.

TAMBURLAINE.

Tis brave indeed my boy, wel done,

Shoot first my Lord, and then the rest shall follow.

THERIDAMAS.

Then have at him to begin withall.

Theridamas shootes.

GOVERNOUR.

Yet save my life, and let this wound appease

The mortall furie of great Tamburlain.

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.

TECHELLES.

What shal be done with their wives and children my Lord.

TAMBURLAINE.

Techelles, Drowne them all, man, woman, and child,

Leave not a Babylonian in the towne.

TECHELLES.

I will about it straight, come Souldiers.

Exit.

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.

USUMCASANE. Here they are my Lord.

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.

[Enter Techelles.]

TECHELLES.

I have fulfil'd your highnes wil, my Lord,

Thousands of men drown'd in Asphaltis Lake,

Have made the water swell above the bankes,

And fishes fed by humaine carkasses,

Amasde, swim up and downe upon the waves,

As when they swallow Assafitida,

Which makes them fleet aloft and gaspe for aire.

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.

THERIDAMAS.

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.

TAMBURLAINE.

Let it be so, about it souldiers:

But stay, I feele my selfe distempered sudainly.

TECHELLES.

What is it dares distemper Tamburlain?

TAMBURLAINE.

Something Techelles, but I know not what,

But foorth ye vassals, what so ere it be,

Sicknes or death can never conquer me.

Exeunt.

V.ii

Enter Callapine, Amasia, [Captaine, Souldiers,] with drums and trumpets.

CALLAPINE.

King of Amasia, now our mighty hoste,

Marcheth in Asia major, where the streames,

Of Euphrates and Tigris swiftly runs,

And here may we behold great Babylon,

Circled about with Limnasphaltis Lake,

Where Tamburlaine with all his armie lies,

Which being faint and weary with the siege,

Wee may lie ready to encounter him,

Before his hoste be full from Babylon,

And so revenge our latest grievous losse,

If God or Mahomet send any aide.

AMASIA.

Doubt not my lord, but we shal conquer him.

The Monster that hath drunke a sea of blood,

And yet gapes stil for more to quench his thirst,

Our Turkish swords shal headlong send to hell,

And that vile Carkasse drawne by warlike kings,

The Foules shall eate, for never sepulchre

Shall grace that base-borne Tyrant Tamburlaine.

CALLAPINE.

When I record my Parents slavish life,

Their cruel death, mine owne captivity,

My Viceroies bondage under Tamburlaine,

Me thinks I could sustaine a thousand deaths,

To be reveng'd of all his Villanie.

Ah sacred Mahomet, thou that hast seene

Millions of Turkes perish by Tamburlaine,

Kingdomes made waste, brave cities sackt and burnt,

And but one hoste is left to honor thee:

Aid thy obedient servant Callapine,

And make him after all these overthrowes,

To triumph over cursed Tamburlaine.

AMASIA.

Feare not my Lord, I see great Mahomet

Clothed in purple clowdes, and on his head

A Chaplet brighter than Apollos crowne,

Marching about the ayer with armed men,

To joine with you against this Tamburlaine.

Renowmed Generall mighty Callapine,

Though God himselfe and holy Mahomet,

Should come in person to resist your power,

Yet might your mighty hoste incounter all,

And pull proud Tamburlaine upon his knees,

To sue for mercie at your highnesse feete.

CALLAPINE.

Captaine, the force of Tamburlaine is great,

His fortune greater, and the victories

Wherewith he hath so sore dismaide the world,

Are greatest to discourage all our drifts,

Yet when the pride of Cynthia is at full,

She waines againe, and so shall his I hope,

For we have here the chiefe selected men

Of twenty severall kingdomes at the least:

Nor plowman, Priest, nor Merchant staies at home,

All Turkie is in armes with Callapine.

And never wil we sunder camps and armes,

Before himselfe or his be conquered.

This is the time that must eternize me,

For conquering the Tyrant of the world.

Come Souldiers, let us lie in wait for him

And if we find him absent from his campe,

Or that it be rejoin'd again at full,

Assaile it and be sure of victorie.

Exeunt.

V.iii

[Enter] Theridamas, Techelles, Usumcasane.

THERIDAMAS.

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 hys 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.

TECHELLES.

O then ye Powers that sway eternal seates,

And guide this massy substance of the earthe,

If you retaine desert of holinesse,

As your supreame estates instruct our thoughtes,

Be not inconstant, carelesse of your fame,

Beare not the burthen of your enemies joyes,

Triumphing in his fall whom you advaunst,

But as his birth, life, health and majesty

Were strangely blest and governed by heaven,

So honour heaven til heaven dissolved be,

His byrth, his life, his health and majesty.

USUMCASANE.

Blush heaven to loose the honor of thy name,

To see thy foot-stoole set upon thy head,

And let no basenesse in thy haughty breast,

Sustaine a shame of such inexcellence:

To see the devils mount in Angels throanes,

And Angels dive into the pooles of hell.

And though they think their painfull date is out,

And that their power is puissant as Joves,

Which makes them manage armes against thy state,

Yet make them feele the strength of Tamburlain,

Thy instrument and note of Majesty,

Is greater far, than they can thus subdue.

For if he die, thy glorie is disgrac'd,

Earth droopes and saies that hel in heaven is plac'd.

[Enter Tamburlaine, drawn by the captive kings; Amyras, Celebinus, Physitians.]

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.

THERIDAMAS.

Ah good my Lord, leave these impatient words,

Which ad much danger to your malladie.

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.

TECHELLES.

Sit stil my gratious Lord, this griefe wil cease,

And cannot last, it is so violent.

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.

PHISITIAN.

Pleaseth your Majesty to drink this potion,

Which wil abate the furie of your fit,

And cause some milder spirits governe you.

TAMBURLAINE.

Tel me, what think you of my sicknes now?

PHISITIAN.

I view'd your urine, and the Hipostasis

Thick and obscure doth make your danger great,

Your vaines are full of accidentall heat,

Whereby the moisture of your blood is dried,

The Humidum and Calor, which some holde

Is not a parcell of the Elements,

But of a substance more divine and pure,

Is almost cleane extinguished and spent,

Which being the cause of life, imports your death.

Besides my Lord, this day is Criticall,

Dangerous to those, whose Chrisis is as yours:

Your Artiers which alongst the vaines convey

The lively spirits which the heart ingenders

Are partcht and void of spirit, that the soule

Wanting those Organnons by which it mooves,

Can not indure by argument of art.

Yet if your majesty may escape this day,

No doubt, but you shal soone recover all.

TAMBURLAINE.

Then will I comfort all my vital parts,

And live in spight of death above a day.

Alarme within.

[Enter a Messenger.]

MESSENGER. My Lord, yong Callapine that lately fled from your majesty, hath nowe gathered a fresh Armie, and hearing your absence in the field, offers to set upon us presently.

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.

USUMCASANE.

I joy my Lord, your highnesse is so strong,

That can endure so well your royall presence,

Which onely will dismay the enemy.

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 Arabia,

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 Græcia, 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.

AMYRAS.

Alas my Lord, how should our bleeding harts

Wounded and broken with your Highnesse griefe,

Retaine a thought of joy, or sparke of life?

Your soul gives essence to our wretched subjects,

Whose matter is incorporat in your flesh.

CELEBINUS.

Your paines do pierce our soules, no hope survives,

For by your life we entertaine our lives.

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.

THERIDAMAS.

A woful change my Lord, that daunts our thoughts,

More than the ruine of our proper soules.

TAMBURLAINE.

Sit up my sonne, let me see how well

Thou wilt become thy fathers majestie.

They crowne him.

AMYRAS.

With what a flinty bosome should I joy,

The breath of life, and burthen of my soule,

If not resolv'd into resolved paines,

My bodies mortified lineaments

Should exercise the motions of my heart,

Pierc'd with the joy of any dignity?

O father, if the unrelenting eares

Of death and hell be shut against my praiers,

And that the spightfull influence of heaven,

Denie my soule fruition of her joy,

How should I step or stir my hatefull feete,

Against the inward powers of my heart,

Leading a life that onely strives to die,

And plead in vaine, unpleasing soverainty.

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.

THERIDAMAS.

My Lord, you must obey his majesty,

Since Fate commands, and proud necessity.

AMYRAS.

Heavens witnes me, with what a broken hart

And damned spirit I ascend this seat,

And send my soule before my father die,

His anguish and his burning agony.

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.

USUMCASANE.

Then feeles your majesty no sovereraigne ease,

Nor may our hearts all drown'd in teares of blood,

Joy any hope of your recovery?

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.

TECHELLES.

Then let some God oppose his holy power,

Against the wrath and tyranny of death,

That his teare-thyrsty and unquenched hate,

May be upon himselfe reverberate.

They bring in the hearse.

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 Ætna 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.

[Dies.]

AMYRAS.

Meet heaven and earth, and here let al things end,

For earth hath spent the pride of all her fruit,

And heaven consum'd his choisest living fire.

Let earth and heaven his timelesse death deplore,

For both their woorths wil equall him no more.

Finis