The two tragical Discourses of mighty Tamburlaine, the Scythian Shepherd. etc.  

The Prologue.  
FRom jigging veins of rhyming mother wits,  
And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay,  
we'll lead you to the stately tent of War.  
Where you shall hear the Scythian Tamburlaine:  
Threatening the world with high astounding terms  
And scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword  
View but his picture in this tragic glass,  
And then applaud his fortunes as you please.   

Actus. 1.  

Scaena. 1.  Mycetes, Cosroe, Meander, Theridamas, Ortygius, Ceneus, with others. Mycetes. 
BRother Cosroe, I find myself aggrieved,  
Yet insufficient to express the same:  
For it requires a great and thundering speech:  
Good brother tell the cause unto my Lords,  
I know you have a better wit than I.  Cos. 
Unhappy Persia, that in former age  
Hast been the seat of mighty Conquerors,  
That in their prowess and their policies,  
Have triumphed over Afrique, and the bounds  
Of Europe, where the Sun dares scarce appear,  
For freezing meteors and congealed cold:  
Now to be ruled and governed by a man,  
At whose birthday Cynthia with Saturn joined,  
And jove, the Sun and mercury denied  
To shed his influence in his fickle brain,  
Now Turks and Tartars shake their swords at that  
Meaning to mangle all thy Provinces,  Mycet. 
Brother, I see your meaning well enough.  
And through your Planets I perceive you think,  
I am not wise enough to be a king,  
But I refer me to my noble men,  
That know my wit, and can be witnesses:  
I might command you to be slain for this,  
Meander, might I not?  Meand. 
Not for so small a fault my sovereign Lord  Mycet. 
I mean it not, but yet I know I might,  
Yet live, yea, live, Mycetes wils it so:  
Meander, thou my faithful Counsellor,  
Declare the cause of my conceived grief,  
Which is (God knows) about that Tamburlaine.  
That like a Fox in midst of harvest time,  
Doth pray upon my flocks of Passengers.  
And as I hear, doth mean to pull my plumes,  
Therefore 'tis good and meet for to be wise.  Meand. 
Oft have I heard your Majesty complain,  
Of Tamburlaine, that sturdy Scythian thief,  
That robs your merchants of Persepolis,  
Treading by land unto the Western Isles,  
And in your confines with his lawless train,  
Daily commits incivil outrages.  
Hoping (misled by dreaming prophecies)  
To reign in Asia, and with barbarous Armies,  
To make himself the Monarch of the East:  
But ere he march in Asia, or display  
His vagrant Ensign in the persian fields,  
Your Grace hath taken order by Theridama,  
Charged with a thousand horse, to apprehend  
And bring him Captive to your highness throne,  Myce. 
Full true thou speakst, & like thyself my lord  
Whom I may term a Damon for thy love.  
Therefore 'tis best, if so it like you all,  
To send my thousand horse incontinent,  
To apprehend that paltry Scythian.  
How like you this, my honourable Lords?  
Is it not a kingly resolution?  Cosr. 
It cannot choose, because it comes from you.  Myce. 
Then hear thy charge, valiant Theridama  
The chiefest Captain of Mycetes host,  
The hope of Persia, and the very legs  
Whereon our state doth lean, as on a staff,  
That holds us up, and foils our neighbour foes,  
Thou shalt be leader of this thousand horse,  
Whose foaming gall with rage and high disdain,  
Have sworn the death of wicked Tamburlaine.  
Go groaning forth, but come thou smile home,  
As did Sir Paris with the Grecian Dame,  
Return with speed, time passeth swift away,  
Our life is frail, and we may die today.  Ther. 
Before the Moon renew her borrowed light,  
Doubt not my Lord and gracious Sovereign,  
But Tamburlaine, and that Tartarian rout,  
Shall either perish by our warlike hands,  
Or plead for mercy at your highness feet.  Myce. 
Go, stout Theridama, thy words are swords  
And with thy looks thou conquerest all thy foes:  
I long to see thee back return from thence,  
That I may view these milk-white steeds of mine.  
All laden with the heads of killed men,  
And from their knees, even to their hooves below,  
Besmeared with blood, that makes a dainty show.  The. 
Then now my Lord, I humbly take my leave.  Exit. Myc. 
Therid. farewell ten thousand times,  
Ah, Menaphon, why stayest thou thus behind,  
When other men press forward for renown?  
Go Menaphon, go into Scythia,  
And foot by foot follow Theridamas:  Cos. 
Nay, pray you let him stay, a greater  
Fits Menaphon, than warring with a Thief:  
Create him Prorex of Africa,  
That he may win the Babylonians hearts,  
Which will revolt from persian government,  
Unless they have a wiser king than you.  Myc. 
Unless they have a wiser king than you?  
These are his words, Meander set them down.  Cos. 
And add this to them, that all Asia  
Lament to see the folly of their King.  Myc. 
Well here I swear by this my royal seat.  Cos. 
You may do well to kiss it then.  Myc. 
Embossed with silk as best beseems my state.  
To be revenged for these contemptuous words.  
O where is duty and allegiance now?  
Fled to the Caspean or the Ocean main?  
What, shall I call thee brother? No, a foe,  
Monster of Nature, shame unto thy stock,  
That dar'st presume thy Sovereign for to mock.  
Meander come, I am abused Meander.  Exit. Manent Cosroe & Menaphon. Mena. 
How now my Lord, what, mated and amazed  
To hear the king thus threaten like himself?  Cos. 
Ah Menaphon, I pass not for his threats,  
The plot is laid by persian Noble men,  
And Captains of the Medean garrisons,  
To crown me Emperor of Asia,  
But this it is that doth excruciate  
The very substance of my vexed soul!  
To see our neighbours that were wont to quake  
And tremble at the persian monarch name,  
Now sits and laughs our regiment to scorn,  
And that which might resolve me into tears:  
Men from the farthest equinoctial line,  
Have swarmed in troops into the Eastern India:  
Lading their ships with gold and precious stones:  
And made their spoils from all our provinces.  Mena. 
This should entreat your highness to rejoice,  
Since Fortune gives you opportunity,  
To gain the title of a Conqueror,  
By curing of this maimed empery,  
Afrique and Europe bordering on your land,  
And continent to your Dominions:  
How easily may you with a mighty host,  
Pass into Graecia, as did Cyrus once.  
And cause them to withdraw their forces home,  
lest you subdue the pride of Christendom!  Cos. 
But Menaph. what means this trumpet's sound  Mena. 
Behold, my Lord Ortygius, and the rest,  
Bringing the Crown to make you Emperor.  Enter Ortigius & Conerus bearing a Crown with others. Ort. 
Magnificent and mighty Prince Cosroe,  
We in the name of other persian states,  
And commons of this mighty Monarchy,  
Present thee with th'imperial Diadem.  Cene. 
The warlike Soldiers, & the Gentlemen,  
That heretofore have filled Persepolis  
With Afrique Captains, taken in the field:  
Whose ransom made them march in coats of gold,  
With costly jewels hanging at their ears,  
And shining stones upon their lofty Crests,  
Now living idle in the walled towns,  
Wanting both pay and martial discipline.  
Begin in troops to threaten civil war.  
And openly exclaim against the King.  
Therefore to stay all sudden mutinies,  
We will invest your Highness Emperor:  
Whereat the Soldiers will conceive more joy,  
Then did the Macedonians at the spoil  
Of great Darius and his wealthy host.  Cosr. 
Well, since I see the state of Persia droop,  
And languish in my brother's government:  
I willingly receive th'imperial crown,  
And vow to wear it for my country's good:  
In spite of them shall malice my estate.  Ortyg. 
And in assurance of desired success,  
We here do crown thee Monarch of the East,  
Emperor of Asia, and of Persia,  
Great Lord of Medea and Armenia:  
Duke of Africa and Albania,  
Mesopotamia and of Parthia,  
East India and the late discovered Isles,  
Chief Lord of all the wide vast Euxine sea,  
And of the ever raging Caspian Lake:  
Long live Cosroe mighty Emperor.  Cosr. 
And jove may never let me longer live,  
Than I may seek to gratify your love,  
And cause the soldiers that thus honour me,  
To triumph over many Provinces.  
By whose desires of discipline in Arms,  
I doubt not shortly but to reign sole king,  
And with the Army of Theridamas,  
Whether we presently will fly (my Lords)  
To rest secure against my brother's force.  Ortyg 
We knew my Lord, before we brought the crown,  
Intending your investion so near,  
The residence of your despised brother,  
The Lord would not be too exasperate,  
To injure or suppress your worthy title.  
Or if they would, there are in readiness  
Ten thousand horse to carry you from hence,  
In spite of all suspected enemies.  Cosr. 
I know it well my Lord, & thank you all,  Ortyg. 
Sound up the trumpets then,  
God save the King.  Exeunt.  

Actus. 1. Scoena. 2:  Tamburlaine leading Zenocrate: Techelles, Usumeasane, other Lords and Soldiers laden with treasure. Tam. 
COme lady, let not this appal your thoughts  
The jewels and the treasure we have ta'en  
Shall be reserved, and you in better state,  
Than if you were arrived in Siria.  
even in the circle of your Father's armies:  
The mighty soldan of Egyptia.  Zeno. 
Ah Shepherd, pity my distressed plight,  
(If as thou seem'st, thou art so mean a man)  
And seek not to enrich thy followers,  
By lawless rapine from a silly maid.  
Who travelling with these Medean Lords  
To Memphis, from my uncles country of Medea,  
Where all my youth I have vene governed,  
Have passed the army of the mighty Turk:  
Bearing his privy signet and his hand:  
To safe conduct us thorough Africa:  Mag. 
And since we have arrived in Scythia,  
Besides rich presents from the puissant Cham,  
We have his highness letters to command  
Aid and assistance if we stand in need.  Tam. 
But now you see these letters & commands,  
Are countermanded by a greater man:  
And through my provinces you must expect  
Letters of conduct from my mightiness,  
If you intend to keep your treasure safe.  
But since I love to live at liberty,  
As easily may you get the soldan's crown,  
As any prizes out of my precinct.  
For they are friends that help to wean my state,  
Till men and kingdoms help to strengthen it:  
And must maintain my life exempt from servitude.  
But tell me Madam, is your grace betrothed:  Zen. 
I am (my Lord,) for so you do import.  Tam. 
I am a Lord, for so my deeds shall prove,  
And yet a shepherd by my Parentage:  
But Lady, this fair face and heavenly hue,  
Mud grace his bed that conquers Asia:  
And means to be a terror to the world,  
Measuring the limits of his Empery  
By East and west, as Phoebus doth his course:  
Lie here ye weeds that I disdain to wear,  
This complete armour, and this curtle-axe  
Are adjuncts more beseeming Tamburlaine.  
And Madam, whatsoever you esteem  
Of this success, and loss unvalued,  
Both may invest you Empress of the East:  
And these that seem but silly country Swains,  
May have the leading of so great an host,  
As with their weight shall make the mountains quake.  
even as when windy exhalations,  
Fighting for passage, tilt within the earth.  Tec. 
As princely Lions when they rouse themselves,  
Stretching their paws, and threatening herds of Beasts.  
So in his Armour looketh Tamburlaine:  
methinks I see kings kneeling at his feet,  
And he with frowning brows and fiery looks,  
Spurning their crowns from off their captive heads.  Vsum. 
And making thee and me Techelles, kings,  
That even to death will follow Tamburlaine.  Tam. 
Nobly resolved, sweet friends and followers,  
These Lords (perhaps) do scorn our estimates:  
And think we prattle with distempered spirits,  
But since they measure our deserts so mean,  
That in conceit bear Empires on our spears,  
Affecting thoughts coequal with the clouds,  
They shall be kept our forced followers,  
Till with their eyes thee view us Emperors.  Zen. 
The Gods, defenders of the innocent,  
Will never prosper your intended drifts,  
That thus oppress poor friendless passengers.  
Therefore at least admit us liberty,  
Even as thou hop'st to be eternised,  
By living Asia's mighty Emperor.  Agid. 
I hope our ladies' treasure and our own,  
May serve for ransom to our liberties:  
Return our Mules and empty Camels back,  
That we may travail into Siria,  
Where her betrothed Lord Alcidamus,  
Expects th'arrival of her highness person.  Mag. 
And wheresoever we repose ourselves,  
We will report but well of Tamburlaine.  Tamb. 
Disdains Zenocrate to live with me?  
Or you my Lords to be my followers?  
Think you I way this treasure more than you?  
Not all the Gold in India's wealthy arms,  
Shall buy the meanest soldier in my train.  
Zenocrate, lovelier than the Love of jove,  
Brighter than is the silver Rhodolfe,  
Fairer than whitest snow on Scythian hills,  
Thy person is more worth to Tamburlaine,  
Than the possession of the persian Crown.  
Which gracious starts have promised at my birth,  
A hundredth Tartars shall attend on thee,  
Mounted on Steeds, swifter than Pegasus.  
Thy Garments shall be made of Medean silk,  
Enchased with precious jewels of mine own:  
More rich and valorous than Zenocrate's.  
With milk-white Hearts upon an ivory sled,  
Thou shalt be drawn amidst the frozen Pools,  
And scale the icy mountains lofty tops:  
Which with thy beauty will be soon resolved.  
My martial prizes with five hundred men,  
Won on the fifty headed Volga's waves.  
Shall all we offer to Zenocrate,  
And then myself to fair Zenocrate.  Tech. 
What now? In love?  Tam. 
Techelles, women must be flattered.  
But this is she with whom I am in love.  Enter a Soldier. Sould. 
News, news.  Tamb. 
How now, what's the matter?  Sould. 
A thousand persian horsemen are at hand,  
Sent from the King to overcome us all.  Tam. 
How now my Lords of Egypt & Zenocrate?  
Now must your jewels be restored again:  
And I that triumphed so be overcome.  
How say you Lordings, Is not this your hope?  Agid. 
We hope yourself will willingly restore them.  Tamb. 
Such hope, such fortune have the thousand horse.  
Soft ye my Lords and sweet Zenocrate.  
You must be forced from me ere you go:  
A thousand horsemen: We five hundred foot?  
An odds too great, for us to stand against:  
But are they rich: And is their armour good?  Sould. 
Their plumed helms are wrought with beaten gold.  
Their swords enameled, and about their necks  
Hangs massy chains of gold down to the waste,  
In every part exceeding brave and rich.  Tam. 
Then shall we fight courageously with them.  
Or look you, I should play the Orator?  Tech. 
No: cowards and faint-hearted runaways,  
Look for orations when the foe is near.  
Our sword shall play the Orators for us.  Vsum. 
Come let us meet them at the mountain foot,  
And with a sudden and an hot alarm  
Drive all their horses headlong down the hill.  Tech. 
Come let us march.  Tam. 
Stay Techelles, ask a parley first,  The Soldiers enter. 
Open the Males, yet guard the treasure sure,  
Lay out our golden wedges to the view,  
That their reflections may amaze the Persians.  
And look we friendly on them when they come:  
But if they offer word or violence,  
we'll fight five hundred men at arms to one,  
Before we part with our possession.  
And 'gainst the General we will lift our swords.  
And either launch his greedy thirsting throat,  
Or take him prisoner, and his chain shall serve  
For Manacles, till he be ransomed home.  Tech, 
I hear them come, shall we encounter them?  Tam. 
Keep all your standings, and not stir a foot,  
myself will bide the danger of the brunt.  Enter Theridamas with others. Ther. 
Where is this Scythian Tamburlaine?  Tam. 
Whom seekst thou persian? I am Tamburlaine.  Ther. 
Tamburlaine? A Scythian Shepherd, so embellished  
With Nature's pride, and richest furniture,  
His looks do menace heaven and dare the Gods,  
His fiery eyes are fixed upon the earth.  
As if he now devised some Stratagem:  
Or meant to pierce avernu's darksome vaults.  
To pull the triple headed dog from hell.  tamb. 
Noble and mild this persian seems to be,  
If outward habit judge the inward man,  tech. 
His deep affections make him passionate.  tamb. 
With what a majesty he rears his looks:  
In thee (thou valiant man of Persia)  
I see the folly of thy Emperor:  
Art thou but Captain of a thousand horse,  
That vy Characters graven in thy brows,  
And by thy martial face and stout aspect,  
deserv'st to have the leading of an host?  
Forsake thy king and do but join with me  
And we will triumph over all the world.  
I hold the Fates bound fast in iron chains,  
And with my hand turn Fortune's wheel about,  
And sooner shall the Sun fall from his Sphere,  
Than Tamburlaine be slain or overcome.  
Draw forth thy sword, thou mighty man at Arms,  
Intending but to raze my charmed skin:  
And jove himself will stretch his hand from heaven.  
To ward the blow, and shield me safe from harm,  
See how he rains down heaps of gold in showers.  
As if he meant to give my Soldiers pay,  
And as a sure and grounded argument,  
That I shall be the Monarch of the East.  
He sends this sultan's daughter rich and brave,  
To be my Queen and portly Empress,  
If thou wilt stay with me, renowned man,  
And lead thy thousand horse with my conduct,  
Besides thy share of this Egyptian prize,  
Those thousand horse shall sweat with martial spoil  
Of conquered kingdoms, and of Cities sacked,  
Both we will walk upon the lofty cliffs,  
And Christian Merchants that with Russian stems  
Blow up huge furrows in the Caspian sea.  
Shall vail to us, as Lords of all the Lake.  
Both we will reign as Consuls of the earth,  
And mighty kings shall be our Senators,  
jove sometime masked in a shepherds weed,  
And by those steps that he hath scaled the heavens,  
May we become immortal like the Gods.  
join with me now in this my mean estate,  
(I call it mean, because being yet obscure,  
The Nations far removed admire me not)  
And when my name and honour shall be spread,  
As far as Boreas claps his brazen wings,  
Or fair Boötes sends his cheerful light.  
Then shalt thou be Competitor with me,  
And sit with Tamburlaine. in all his majesty.  Ther. 
Not Hermes Prolocutor to the Gods,  
Could use persuasions more pathetical.  Tam. 
Nor are Apollo's Oracles more true,  
Than thou shalt find my vaunts substantial.  Tec. 
We are his friends, and if the persian king  
Should offer present Duke domes to our state,  
We think it loss to make exchange for that,  
We are assured of by our friend's success.  Vsum. 
And kingdoms at the least we all expect.  
Besides the honour in assured conquests:  
Where kings shall crouch unto our conquering swords,  
And hosts of soldiers stand amazed at us,  
When with their fearful tongues they shall confess  
These are the men that all the world admires,  Ther. 
What strong enchantments 'tice my yielding soul  
Are these resolved noble Scythians?  
But shall I prove a Traitor to my King?  Tam. 
No, but the trusty friend of Tamburlaine.  Ther. 
Won with thy words, & conquered with thy looks,  
I yield myself, my men & horse to thee:  
To be partaker of thy good or ill,  
As long as life maintains Theridamas.  Tam. 
Theridamas my friend, take here my hand.  
Which is as much as if I swore by heaven,  
And called 'the Gods to witness of my vow,  
Thus shall my heart be still combined with thine,  
Until our bodies turn to Elements:  
And both our souls aspire celestial thrones.  
Techelles, and Casane, welcome him.  Tech. 
Welcome renowned persian to us all.  Cas. 
Long may theridamas remain with us.  Tam. 
These are my friends in whom I more rejoice,  
Than doth the King of Persia in his Crown:  
And by the love of Pylades and Orestes,  
Whose statutes we adore in Scythia,  
thyself and them shall never part from me,  
Before I crown you kings in Asia.  
Make much of them gentle Theridamas,  
And they will never leave thee till the death.  ther. 
Nor thee, nor them, thrice noble Tamburlaine  
Shall want my heart to be with gladness pierced  
To do you honour and security.  Tam. 
A thousand thanks worthy theridamas:  
And now fair Madam, and my noble Lords,  
If you will willingly remain with me,  
You shall have herors, as your merits be:  
Or else you shall be forced with slavery.  Agid. 
We yield unto thee happy Tamburlaine  tamb. 
For you then Madam, I am out of doubt  Zeno. 
I must be pleased perforce, wretched Zenocrate.  Exeunt.   

Actus. 2.  

Scaena. 1.  Cosroe, Menaphon, Ortygius, Ceneus, with other Soldiers. Cosroe. 
THus far are we towards Theridamas,  
And valiant Tamburlaine, the man of fame,  
The man that in the forehead of his fortune,  
Bears figures of renown and miracle:  
But tell me, that hast seen him, Menaphon,  
What stature wields he, and what parsonage:  Mena. 
Of stature tall, and straightly fashioned,  
Like his desire, lift upwards and divine,  
Sa large of limbs, his joints so strongly knit,  
Such breadth of shoulders as might mainly bear  
Old Atlas' burden, twixt his manly pitch,  
A pearl more worth, than all the world is placed:  
Wherein by curious sovereignty of Art,  
Are fixed his piercing instruments of sight:  
Whose fiery circles bear encompassed  
A heaven of heavenly bodies in their Spheres:  
That guides his steps and actions to the throne.  
Where honour sits invested royally:  
Pale of complexion: wrought in him with passion,  
Thirsting with sovereignty with love of arms,  
His lofty brows in folds, do figure death,  
And in their smoothness, amity and life:  
About them hangs a knot of Amber heir.  
Wrapped in curls, as fierce Achilles was,  
On which the breath of heaven delights to play,  
Making it dance with wanton majesty:  
His arms and singers long and snowy,  
Betokening valour and excess of strength:  
In every part proportioned like the man,  
Should make the world subdued to Tamburlaine.  Cos 
Well hast thou portrayed in thy terms of life,  
The face and parsonage of a wondrous man:  
Nature doth strive with Fortune and his stars,  
To make him famous in accomplished worth:  
And well his merits show him to be made:  
His Fortune's master, and the king of men.  
That could persuade at such a sudden pinch,  
With reasons of his valour and his life,  
A thousand sworn and overmatching foes:  
Then when our powers in points of swords are joined  
And closed in compass of the killing bullet,  
Though straight the passage and the port be made,  
That leads to Palace of my brother's life,  
Proud is his fortune if we pierce it not.  
And when the princely persian Diadem,  
Shall overweigh his weary witless head,  
And fall like mellowed fruit, with shakes of death,  
In fair Persia noble tamburlaine  
Shall be my Regent, and remain as King:  Ort. 
In happy hour we have set the Crown  
Upon your kingly head, that seeks our honour,  
In joining with the man, ordained by heaven  
To further every action to the best.  Cen. 
He that with Shepherds and a little spoil,  
Durst in disdain of wrong and tyranny,  
Defend his freedom 'gainst a Monarchy.  
What will he do supported by a king:  
Leading a troup of Gentlemen and Lords,  
And stuffed with treasure for his highest thoughts,  Cos. 
And such shall wait on worthy Tamburlaine.  
Our army will be forty thousand strong,  
When Tamburlaine and brave Theridamas  
Have met us by the river Araris:  
And all conjoined to meet the witless King.  
That now is marching near to Parthia.  
And with unwilling soldiers faintly armed,  
To seek revenge on me and Tamburlaine.  
To whom sweet Menaphon, direct me straight.  Mena. 
I will my Lord.  Exeunt.  

Act. 2. Scaena. 2,  Mycetes, Meander, with other Lords and Soldiers. Mycetes. 
COme my Meander, let us to this gear,  
I tell you true my heart is swollen with wrath,  
On this same thievish villain tamburlaine.  
And of that false Cosroe, my traitorous brother  
Would it not grieve a King to be so abused.  
And have a thousand horsemen ta'en away?  
And which is worst to have his Diadem  
Sought for by such scald knaves as love him net.  
I think it would: well then, by heavens I swear,  
Aurora shall not peep out of her doors,  
But I will have Cosroe by the head,  
And kill proud Tamburlaine with point of sword.  
Tell you the rest (Meander) I have said.  Mean. 
Then having passed Armenian deserts now,  
And pitch our tents under the georgian hills.  
Whose tops are covered with Tartarian thieves,  
That lie in ambush, waiting for a prey:  
What should we do but bid them battle straight,  
And rid the world of those detested troops;  
lest if we let them linger here a while,  
They gather strength by power of fresh supplies.  
This country swarms with vile outrageous men,  
That live by rapine and by lawless spoil,  
Fit Soldiers for the wicked Tamburlaine.  
And he that could with gifts and promises.  
Inveigle him that led a thousand horse,  
And make him false his faith unto his King,  
Will quickly win such as are like himself.  
Therefore cheer up your minds, prepare to fight,  
He that can take or slaughter tamburlaine,  
Shall rule the Province of Albania.  
Who brings that traitor's head theridamas,  
Shall have a government in Medea:  
Beside the spoil of him and all his train:  
But if Cosroe (as our Espials say,  
And as we know) remains with tamburlaine,  
His highness pleasure is that he should live,  
And be reclaimed with princely lenity.  A Spy. 
An hundred horsemen of my company  
scouting abroad upon these champion plains,  
Have viewed the army of the Scythians,  
Which make reports it far exceeds the Kings.  Mean. 
Suppose they be in number infinite,  
Yet being void of Martial discipline,  
All running headlong after greedy spoils:  
And more regarding gain than victory:  
Like to the cruel brothers of the earth,  
Sprung of the teeth of dragon's venomous,  
Their careless swords shall launch their fellows threats  
And make us triumph in their overthrow.  Myc. 
Was there such brethren, sweet Meander, say  
That sprung of teeth of dragon's venomous.  Meand. 
So Poets say, my Lord.  Myce. 
And 'tis a pretty toy to be a Poet.  
Well, well (Meander) thou art deeply read:  
And having thee, I have a jewel sure:  
Go en my Lord, and give your charge I say,  
Thy wit will make us Conquerors today.  Mean. 
Then noble soldiers, to entrap these thieves,  
That live confounded in disordered troops,  
If wealth or riches may prevail with them,  
We have our Camels laden all with gold:  
Which you that be but common soldiers,  
Shall fling in every corner of the field:  
And while the base borne Tartars take it up,  
You fighting more for honour than for gold,  
Shall massacre those greedy minded slaves.  
And when their scattered army is subdued:  
And you march on their slaughtered carcases,  
Share equally the gold that bought their lives,  
And live like Gentlemen in Persia,  
Strike up the Drum and march courageously,  
Fortune herself doth sit upon our Crests.  Myc. 
He tells you true, my masters, so he does.  
Drumis, why sound ye not when Meand. speaks.  Exeunt  

Actus. 2. Scaena. 3.  Cosroe, Tamburlaine, Theridamas, Techelles, Usumeasane, Ortygius. with others. Cosroe. 
NOw worthy Tamburlaine, have I reposed,  
In thy approved Fortunes all my hope,  
What thinkst thou man, shall come of our attempts.  
For even as from assured oracle,  
I take thy doom for satisfaction.  Tamb. 
And so mistake you not a whit my Lord.  
For Fates and Oracles, heaven have sworn,  
To royal the deeds of tamburlaine:  
And make them blessed that share in his attempts.  
And doubt you not, but if you favour me,  
And let my Fortunes and my valour sway,  
To some direction in your martial deeds,  
The world will strive with hosts of men at arms.  
To swarm unto the Ensign I support,  
The host of Xerxes, which by fame is said  
To drink the mighty Parthian Araris,  
Was but a handful to that we will have.  
Our quivering Lances shaking in the air,  
And bullets like jove's dreadful Thunderbolts,  
enrolled in flames and fiery smouldering mists,  
Shall threat the Gods more than Cyclopian wars,  
And with our Sun-bright armour as we march,  
we'll chase the Stars from heaven, and dim their eyes  
That stand and muse at our admired arms.  therid. 
You see my Lord, what working words he hath.  
But when you see his actions stop his speech,  
Your speech will stay, or so extol his worth,  
As I shall be commended and excused  
For turning my poor charge to his direction.  
And these his two renowned friends my Lord,  
Would make one thrust and strive to be retained  
In such a great degree of amity.  tech. 
With duty not with amity we yield  
Our utmost service to the fair Cosroe.  Cos. 
Which I esteem as portion of my crown.  
Usumeasane and techelles both,  
When she that rules in Rhamnis' golden gates,  
And makes a passage for all prosperous Arms:  
Shall make me solely Emperor of Asia,  
Then shall your meeds and valours be advanced  
To rooms of honour and Nobility.  Tam. 
Then haste Cosroe to be king alone.  
That I with these my friends and all my men,  
May triumph in our long expected Fate,  
The King your Brother is now hard at hand,  
Meet with the fool, and rid your royal shoulders  
Of such a burden, as outweighs the sands  
And all the craggy rocks of Caspia.  Mess. 
My Lord, we have discovered the enemy  
Ready to charged you with a mighty army.  Cos. 
Come Tamburlaine, now whet thy winged sword  
And lift thy lofty arm into the clouds,  
That it may reach the King of Persia's crown,  
And set it safe on my victorious head.  tam. 
See where it is, the keenest Curtle-axe.  
That ere made passage thorough persian Arms,  
These are the wings shall make it fly as swift,  
As doth the lightning: or the breath of heaven,  
And kill as sure as it swiftly flies.  Cos. 
Thy words assure me of kind success:  
Go valiant Soldier, go before and charge  
The fainting army of that foolish King.  tamb. 
Usumeasane and techelles come,  
We are enough to scar the enemy,  
And more than needs to make an Emperor.   
To the Battle, and Mycetes comes out alone with his Crown in his hand offering to hide it. Myc. 
accursed be he that first invented war,  
They knew not, ah, they knew not simple men,  
How those were hit by pelting Cannon shot,  
Stand staggering like a quivering Aspen leaf,  
Fearing the force of Boreas boisterous blasts.  
In what a lamentable case were I,  
If Nature had not given me wisdoms lore?  
For Kings are clouts that every man shoots at,  
Our Crown the pin that thousands seek to cleave,  
Therefore in policy I think it good  
To hide it close: a goodly Stratagem,  
And far from any man that is a fool.  
So shall not I be known, or if I be,  
They cannot take away my crown from me.  
Here will I hide it in this simple hole.  Enter Tamburlain. tam. 
What fearful coward straggling from the camp  
When Kings themselves are present in the field.  Myc. 
Thou liest.  tam. 
Base villain, darest thou give the lie?  Myc. 
Away, I am the King: go, touch me not.  
Thou breakest the law of Arms unless thou kneel.  
And cry me mercy, noble King.  Tam 
Are you the witty King of Persia?  Myce. 
I marry am I: have you any suit to me?  Tam. 
I would entreat you to speak but three wise words.  Myce. 
So I can when I see my time.  Tam. 
Is this your Crown?  Myce. 
ay, Didst thou ever see a fairer?  Tamb. 
You will not sell it, will ye?  Myce. 
Such another word, and I, will have thee executed.  
Come give it me.  Tamb. 
No, I took it prisoner.  Myce. 
You lie, I gave it you.  tam. 
Then 'tis mine.  Myce. 
No, I mean, I let you keep it.  tamb. 
Well, I mean you shall have it again.  
Here take it for a while, I lend it thee,  
Till I may see thee hemmed with armed men.  
Then shalt thou see me pull it from thy head:  
Thou art no match for mighty Tamburlaine.  Myce. 
O Gods, is this tamburlaine the thief,  
I marvel much he stole it not away.  Sound trumpets to the battle, and he runs in.  
Cosroe, Tamburlaine, Theridamas, Menaphon, Meander, Ortygius, Techelles. Usumeasane, with others. Tamb. 
Hold thee Cosroe, wear two imperial Crowns.  
Thinks thee Invested now as royally,  
Even by the mighty hand of tamburlaine,  
As if as many kings as could encompass thee,  
With greatest pomp had crowned thee Emperor.  Cosr. 
So do I thrice renowned man at arms,  
And none shall keep the crown but tamburlaine:  
Thee do I make my Regent of Persia,  
And General Lieutenant of my Armies.  
Meander, you that were our brother's Guide,  
And chiefest Counsellor in all his acts,  
Since he is yielded to the stroke of War,  
On your submission we with thanks excuse,  
And give you equal place in our affairs.  Mean. 
Most happy Emperor in humblest terms  
I vow my service to your Majesty.  
With utmost virtue of my faith and duty.  Cosr. 
Thanks good Meander, than Cosroe reign  
And govern Persia in her former pomp:  
Now send embassage to thy neighbour Kings,  
And let them know the persian King is changed:  
From one that knew not what a King should do,  
To one that can command what longs thereto:  
And now we will to fair Persepolis,  
With twenty thousand expert soldiers.  
The Lords and Captains of my brother's camp,  
With little slaughter take Meander's course,  
And gladly yield them to my gracious rule:  
Ortygius and menaphon, my trusty friends,  
Now will I gratify your former good,  
And grace your calling with a greater sway.  Ort. 
And as we ever and at your behoof,  
And sought your state, all honour it deserved,  
So will we with our powers and our lives,  
Endeavour to preserve and prosper it.  Cos. 
I will not thank thee (sweet Ortygius)  
Better replies shall prove my purposes.  
And now, Lord tamburlaine, my brother's Camp  
I leave to thee, and to theridamas,  
To follow me to fair Persepolis.  
Then will we march to all those Indian Mines,  
My witless brother to the Christians lost:  
And ransom them with fame and usury.  
And till thou overtake me tamburlaine,  
(Staying to order all the scattered troops)  
Farewell Lord Regent, and his happy friends,  
I long to sit upon my brother's throne,  Mena. 
Your Majesty shall shortly have your wish.  
And ride in triumph through Persepolis.  Exeunt. Manent Tamb. Tech. Ther. Vsum. tamb. 
And ride in triumph through Persepolis?  
Is it not brave to be a King, techelles?  
Usumeasane and theridamas,  
Is it not passing brave to be a King,  
And ride in triumph through Persepolis?  tech. 
O my Lord, 'tis sweet and full of pomp.  Vsum. 
To be a King, is half to be a God.  ther. 
A God is not so glorious as a King:  
I think the pleasure they enjoy in heaven  
Can not compare with kingly joys in earth,  
To wear a Crown enchased with pearl and gold,  
Whose virtues carry with it life and death,  
To ask, and have: command, and be obeyed.  
When looks breed love, with looks to gain the prize;  
Such power attractive shines in princes' eyes.  tam. 
Why say theridamas, wilt thou be a king?  the. 
Nay, though I praise it, I can live without it.  tam. 
What says my other friends, will you be kings?  tec. 
ay, if I could with all my heart my Lord.  tam. 
Why, that's well said techelles, so would I,  
And so would you my masters, would you not?  Vsum. 
What then my Lord?  tam. 
Why then Casanes shall we wish for aught  
The world affords in greatest novelty,  
And rest attemptless faint and destitute?  
methinks we should not, I am strongly moved,  
That if I should desire the persian Crown,  
I could attain it with a wondrous ease,  
And would not all our soldiers soon consent,  
If we should aim at such a dignity?  ther. 
I know they would with our persuasions.  tam. 
Why then theridamas, I'll first assay,  
To get the persian Kingdom to myself:  
Than thou for Parthia, they for Scythia and Medea.  
And if I prosper, all shall be as sure,  
As if the Turk, the Pope, Afrique and Greece,  
Came creeping to us with their crowns apace.  tech. 
Then shall we send to this triumphing King,  
And bid him battle for his novel Crown?  Vsum. 
Nay quickly then, before his room be hot.  tam. 
'twill prove a pretty jest (in faith) my friends.  the. 
A jest to charged on twenty thousand men?  
I judge the purchase more important far.  tam. 
Judge by thyself theridamas, not me,  
For presently techelles here shall haste,  
To bid him battle ere he pass too far,  
And lose more labour than the gain will quite.  
Then shalt thou see the Scythian tamburlaine,  
Make but a jest to win the persian crown.  
techelles, take a thousand horse with thee,  
And bid him turn his back to war with us,  
That only made him King to make us sport.  
We will not steal upon him cowardly,  
But give him warning and more warriors.  
Haste the techelles, we will follow thee.  
What saith theridamas?  ther. 
Go on for me.  Exeunt.  

Actus. 2. Scaena. 6.  Cosroe, Meander, Ortygius, Menaphon, with other Soldiers. Cos. 
What means this devilish shepherd to aspire  
With such a Giantly presumption.  
To cast up hills against the face of heaven:  
And dare the force of angry jupiter.  
But as he thrust them underneath the hills,  
And priest out fire from their burning jaws:  
So will I send this monstrous slave to hell,  
Where flames shall ever feed upon his soul.  mean. 
Some powers divine, or else infernal, mixed  
Their angry seeds at his conception:  
For he was never sprung of human race,  
Since with the spirit of his fearful pride,  
He dares so doubtlessly resolve of rule.  
And by profession be ambitious.  Ort. 
What God or Fiend, or spirit of the earth,  
Or Monster turned to a manly shape,  
Or of what mould or metal he be made,  
What star or state soever govern him,  
Let us put on our meet encountering minds,  
And in detesting such a devilish Thief,  
In love of honour & defence of right,  
Be armed against the hate of such a foe,  
Whether from earth, or hell, or heaven he grow.  Cos. 
Nobly resolved, my good Ortygius.  
And since we all have sucked one wholesome air,  
And with the same proportion of Elements,  
Resolve, I hope we are resembled,  
Vowing our loves to equal death and life,  
Let's cheer our soldiers to encounter him,  
That grievous image of ingratitude:  
That fiery thirster after sovereignty:  
And burn him in the fury of that flame,  
That none can quench but blood and Empery.  
Resolve my Lords and loving soldiers now,  
To save your King and country from decay:  
Then strike up Drum, and all the Stars that make  
The loathsome Circle of my dated life,  
Direct my weapon to his barbarous heart,  
That thus opposeth him against the Gods,  
And scorns the Powers that govern Persia.  Enter to the Battle, & after the battle, enter Cosroe wounded, Theridamas, tamburlaine, Techelles, Usumeasane, with others. Cos. 
Barbarous and bloody Tamburlaine,  
Thus to deprive me of my crown and life.  
Treacherous and false theridamas,  
Even at the morning of my happy state,  
Scarce being seated in my royal throne,  
To work my downfall and untimely end.  
An uncouth pain torments my grieved soul,  
And death arrests the organ of my voice.  
Who entering at the breach thy sword hath made,  
Sacks every vain and artery of my heart,  
Bloody and insatiate Tamburlaine.  tam. 
The thirst of reign and sweetness of a crown,  
That caused the eldest son of heavenly Ops,  
To thrust his doting father from his chair,  
And place himself in the Imperial heaven,  
Moved me to manage arms against they state,  
What better precedent than mighty jove?  
Nature that framed us of four Elements,  
Warring within our breasts for regiment,  
Doth teach us all to have aspiring minds:  
Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend  
The wondrous Architecture of the world:  
And measure every wandering planets course.  
Still climbing after knowledge infinite,  
And always moving as the restless Spheres.  
Wills us to wear ourselves and never rest.  
Until we reach the ripest fruit of all.  
That perfect bliss and sole felicity.  
The sweet fruition of an earthly crown.  Ther. 
And that made me to join with Tamburlaine  
For he is gross and like the massy earth,  
That moves not upwards, nor by princely deeds  
Doth mean to soar above the highest sort.  Tec. 
And that made us the friends of Tamburlaine.  
To lift our swords against the persian King.  Vsum. 
For as when jove did thrust old Saturn down.  
Neptune and Dis gained each of them a Crown.  
So do we hope to reign in Asia,  
If Tamburlaine be placed in Persia.  Cos. 
The strangest men that ever nature made,  
I know not how to take their tyrannies.  
My bloodless body waxeth chill and cold,  
And with my blood my life slides through my wound.  
My soul begins to take her flight to hell.  
And summons all my senses to depart:  
The heat and moisture which did feed each other,  
For want of nourishment to feed them both.  
Is dry and cold, and now doth ghastly death  
With greedy talents gripe my bleeding heart,  
And like a Harper tires on my life.  
Theridamas and Tamburlaine, I die,  
And fearful vengeance light upon you both.  He takes the Crown and puts it on. tam. 
Not all the curses which the furies breath,  
Shall make me leave so rich a prize as this:  
Theridamas, techelles, and the rest,  
Who think you now is king of Persia?  All. 
Tamburlaine, tamburlaine.  Tamb. 
Though Mars himself the angry God of arms,  
And all the earthly Potentates conspire,  
To dispossess me of this Diadem:  
Yet will I wear it in despite of them,  
As great commander of the Eastern world,  
If you but say that tamburlaine shall reign.  Al. 
Long live tamburlaine, and reign in Asia.  tamb. 
So, now it is more surer on my head,  
Than if the Gods had held a Parliament:  
And all pronounced me king of Persia.   
Finis Actus 2.   

Actus. 3.  

Scaena. 1.  Baiazeth, the kings of Fess. Moroco, and Argier. with others, in great pomp. Baiazeth. 
GReat Kings of Barbary, and my portly Bassoes,  
We hear, the Tartars & the Eastern thieves  
Under the conduct of one Tamburlaine,  
Presume a bickering with your Emperor:  
And thinks to rouse us from our dreadful siege  
Of the famous Grecian Constantinople.  
You know our Army is invincible:  
As many circumcised Turks we have,  
And warlike bands of Christians renied,  
As hath the Ocean or the Terrene sea  
Small drops of water, when the Moon begins  
To join in one her semicircled horns:  
Yet would we not be braved with foreign power,  
Nor raise our siege before the Grecians yield.  
Or breathless lie before the city walls.  Fess. 
Renowned Emperor, and mighty General  
What if you sent the Bassoes of your guard.  
To charge him to remain in Asia.  
Or else to threaten death and deadly arms,  
As from the mouth of mighty Bajazeth.  Bai. 
Hie thee my bassa fast to Persia,  
Tell him thy Lord the Turkish Emperor,  
Dread Lord of Afrique, Europe and Asia.  
Great King and conqueror of Grecia,  
The Ocean, Terrene, and the coal-black sea,  
The high and highest Monarch of the world.  
Wills and Commands (for say not I entreat)  
Not once to set his foot in Africa,  
Or spread his colours in Grecia.  
lest he incur the fury of my wrath.  
Tell him, I am content to take a truce,  
Because I hear he bears a valiant mind.  
But if presuming on his silly power,  
He be so mad to manage Arms with me,  
Then stay thou with him, say I bid thee so.  
And if before the Sun have measured heaven  
With triple circuit thou regreet us not,  
We mean to take his morning's next arise.  
For messenger, he will not be reclaimed,  
And mean to fetch thee in despite of him.  Bass. 
Most great and puissant Monarch of the earth,  
Your bassa will accomplish your behest:  
And show your pleasure to the persian.  
As fits the Legate of the stately Turk.  Exit Bass. Arg. 
They say he is the King of Persia.  
But if he dare attempt to stir your siege,  
'twere requisite he should be ten times more,  
For all flesh quakes at your magnificence.  Bai. 
True (Argier) and tremble at my looks.  Moro. 
The spring is hindered by your smothering host,  
For neither rain can fall upon the earth,  
Nor Sun reflex his virtuous beams thereon.  
The ground is mantled with such multitudes.  Bai. 
All this is true as holy Mahomet,  
And all the trees are blasted with our breathes.  Fess. 
What thinks your greatness best to be achieved  
In pursuit of the City's overthrow?  Bai. 
I will the captive pioneers of Argier,  
Cut of the water, that by leaden pipes  
Runs to the city from the mountain Carnon,  
Two thousand horse shall forage up and down,  
That no relief or succour come by Land.  
And all the sea my Galleys countermand.  
Then shall our footmen lie within the trench,  
And with their Cannons mouthed like Orcus' gulf  
Batter the walls, and we will enter in:  
And thus the Grecians shall be conquered.  Exeunt  

Actus. 3. Scaena. 2.  Agidas, Zenocrate, Anippe, with others. 
MAdam Zenocrate, may I presume  
To know the cause of these unquiet fits:  
That work such trouble to your wonted rest:  
'tis more than pity such a heavenly face  
Should by heart's sorrow wax so wan and pale.  
When your offensive rape by tamburlaine,  
(Which of your whole displeasures should be most)  
Hath seemed to be digested long ago.  Zen. 
Although it be digested long ago  
As his exceeding favours have deserved,  
And might content the Queen of heaven as well:  
As it hath changed my first conceived disdain.  
Yet since a farther passion feeds my thoughts,  
With ceaseless and disconsolate conceits.  
Which dies my looks so lifeless as they are.  
And might, if my extremes had full events,  
Make me the ghastly counterfeit of death.  Agid. 
Eternal heaven sooner be dissolved.  
And all that pierceth Phoebe's silver eye,  
Before such hap fall to zenocrate.  zen. 
Ah, life, and soul still hover in his Breast.  
And leave my body senseless as the earth.  
Or else unite you to his life and soul,  
That I may live and die with Tamburlaine.  Enter Tamburlaine with Techelles and others. Agid. 
With tamburlaine? Ah fair zenocrate.  
Let not a man so vile and barbarous,  
That holds you from your father in despite,  
And keeps you from the honours of a Queen.  
Being supposed his worthless Concubine.  
Be honoured with your love, but for necessity.  
So now the mighty soldan hears of you,  
Your Highness needs not doubt but in short time,  
He will with Tamburlaine's destruction  
Redeem you from this deadly servitude.  Zen. 
leave to wound me with these words.  
And speak of tamburlaine as he deserves:  
The entertainment we have had of him,  
Is far from villainy or servitude.  
And might in noble minds be counted princely.  Agid. 
How can you fancy one that looks so fierce,  
Only disposed to martial Stratagems?  
Who when he shall embrace you in his arms,  
Will tell how many thousand men he slew.  
And when you look for amorous discourse,  
Will rattle forth his facts of war and blood.  
Too harsh a subject for your dainty ears.  Zen. 
As looks the sun through Nilus flowing stream,  
Or when the morning holds him in her arms.  
So looks my Lordly love, fair tamburlaine:  
His talk much sweeter than the muse's song,  
They sung for honour 'gainst Pierides.  
Or when Minerva did with Neptune strive,  
And higher would I rear my estimate,  
Than juno sister to the highest God.  
If I were matched with mighty tamburlaine,  Agid. 
Yet be not so inconstant in your love,  
But let the young Arabian live in hope,  
After your rescue to enjoy his choice.  
You see though first the King of Persia  
(Being a Shepherd) seemed to love you much,  
Now in his majesty he leaves those looks,  
Those words of favour, and those comfortings,  
And gives no more than common courtesies.  Zen. 
Thence rise the tears that so distain my checks,  
Fearing his love through my unworthiness.  Tamburlaine goes to her, & takes her away lovingly by the hand, looking wrathfully on Agidas, and says nothing. Agid. 
Betrayed by fortune and suspicious love.  
Threatened with frowning wrath and jealousy.  
Surprised with fear of hideous revenge.  
I stand aghast: but most astonished  
To see his choler shut in secret thoughts,  
And wrapped in silence of his angry soul.  
Upon his brows was portrayed ugly death,  
And in his eyes the fury of his heart.  
That shine as Comets, menacing revenge,  
And casts a pale complexion on his cheeks.  
As when the Seaman sees the Hyades  
Gather an army of Cemerian clouds,  
(Auster and Aquilon with winged Steads  
All sweating, tilt about the watery heavens,  
With shivering spears enforcing thunderclaps.  
And from their shields strike flames of lightning)  
All fearful folds his sails, and sounds the main,  
Lifting his prayers to the heavens for aid,  
Against the terror of the winds and waves.  
So fares Agidas for the late felt frowns  
That sent a tempest to my daunted thoughts,  
And makes my soul divine her overthrow.  Enter Techelles with a naked dagger. tech. 
See you Agidas how the King salutes you.  
He bids you prophesy what it imports.  Exit. Agid. 
I prophesied before and now I prove,  
The killing frowns of jealousy and love.  
He needed not with words confirm my fear,  
For words are vain where working tools present  
The naked action of my threatened end.  
It says, Agidas, thou shalt surely die.  
And of extremities elect the least,  
More honour and less pain it may procure,  
To die by this resolved hand of thine,  
Than stay the torments he and heaven have sworn.  
Then haste Agidas, and prevent the plagues:  
Which thy prolonged Fates may draw on thee:  
Go wander free from fear of tyrant's rage.  
Removed from the Torments and the hell:  
Wherewith he may excruciate thy soul.  
And let Agidas by Agidas die.  
And with this stab slumber eternally.  tech. 
Usumeasane, see how right the man  
Hath hit the meaning of my Lord the King.  Vsum. 
Faith, and techelles, it was manly done;  
And since he was so wise and honourable,  
Let us afford him now the bearing hence.  
And crave his triple worthy burial.  tech. 
Agreed Casane, we will honour him.   

Act. 3. Scaena. 3,  Tamburlain, Techelles, Usumeasane, Theridamas, bassa, Zenocrate, with others. Tamburlaine. 
basso, by this thy Lord and master knows,  
I mean to meet him in Bithynia:  
see how he comes? Tush. Turks are full of brags  
And menace more than they can well perform:  
He meet me in the field and fetch thee hence?  
Alas (poor Turk) his fortune is too weak,  
T'encounter with the strength of Tamburlaine.  
View well my Camp, and speak indifferently,  
Do not my captains and my soldiers look  
As if they meant to conquer Africa.  Basl. 
Your men are valiant but their number few,  
And cannot terrify his mighty host,  
My Lord, the great Commander of the world,  
Besides fifteen contributory kings,  
Hath now in arms ten thousand janissaries,  
Mounted on lusty Mauritanian Steeds.  
Brought to the war by men of Tripoli.  
Two hundred thousand footmen that have served  
In two set battles fought in Grecia:  
And for the expedition of this war,  
If he think good, can from his garrisons,  
Withdraw as many more to follow him.  tech. 
The more he brings, the greater is the spoil,  
For when they perish by our warlike hands,  
We mean to seat our footmen on their Steeds.  
And rifle all those stately janisars.  tam. 
But will those Kings accompany your Lord?  Bass. 
Such as his Highness please, but some must stay  
To rule the provinces he late subdued.  tam. 
Then fight courageously, their crowns are yours  
This hand shall set them on your conquering heads:  
That made me Emperor of Asia.  Vsum. 
Let him bring missions infinite of men,  
Unpeopling Western Africa and Greece:  
Yet we assure us of the victory.  ther. 
even he that in a trice vanquished two kings,  
More mighty than the Turkish Emperor:  
Shall rouse him out of Europe, and pursue  
His scattered army till they yield or die.  tamb. 
Well said theridamas, speak in that mood,  
For Will and Shall best fitteth Tamburlaine,  
Whose smiling stars gives him assured hope  
Of martial triumph, ere he meet his foes:  
I that am termed the Scourge and Wrath of God,  
The only fear and terror of the world,  
Will first subdue the Turk, and then enlarge  
Those Christian Captives, which you keep as slaves,  
Burdening their bodies with your heavy chains.  
And feeding them with thin and slender fare,  
That naked row about the Terrene sea.  
And when they chance to breathe and rest a space,  
Are punished with bastons so grievously,  
That they lie panting on the galleys side.  
And strive for life at every stroke they give,  
These are the cruel pirates of Argier,  
That damned train, the scum of Africa.  
Inhabited with straggling Runagates,  
That make quick havoc of the Christian blood.  
But as I live that town shall curse the time  
That Tamburlaine set foot in Africa:  Enter Baiazeth with his Bassoes and contributory Kings. Bai. 
Bassoes and janissaries of my Guard,  
Attend upon the person of your Lord,  
The greatest Potentate of Africa.  Tam. 
Techelles, and the rest prepare your sword  
I mean t'encounter with that Bajazeth.  Bai. 
Kings of Fez, Moroccus and Argier,  
He calls me Bajazeth, whom you call Lord.  
Note the presumption of this Scythian slave:  
I tell thee villain, those that lead my horse  
Have to their names titles of dignity,  
And dar'st thou bluntly call me Bajazeth?  Tam. 
And know thou Turk, that those which lead my horse,  
Shall lead thee Captive thorough Africa.  
And dar'st thou bluntly call me tamburlaine?  Bai. 
By Mahomet, my kinsman's sepulchre.  
And by the holy Alcaron I swear,  
He shall be made a chaste and lustless Eunuch,  
And in my seraglio tend my Concubines:  
And all his Captains that thus stoutly stand,  
Shall draw the chariot of my Empress.  
Whom I have brought to see their overthrow.  Tamb. 
By this my sword that conquered Persia,  
Thy fall shall make me famous through the world:  
I will not tell thee how I'll handle thee,  
But every common soldier of my Camp  
Shall smile to see thy miserable state.  Fess. 
What means the mighty Turkish Emperor  
To talk with one so base as tamburlaine.  Moro. 
Ye moors and valiant men of Barbary.  
How can ye suffer these indignities.  Arg. 
Leave words and let them feel your lances points.  
Which glided through the bowels of the Greeks.  Bai. 
Well said my stout contributory kings,  
Your threefold army and my hugy host,  
Shall swallow up these base born Persians,  tech. 
Puissant, renowned and mighty Tamburlaine,  
Why stay we thus prolonging all their lives'?  ther. 
I long to see those crowns won by our swords  
That we may reign as kings of Africa.  Vsum. 
What Coward would not fight for such a prize?  Tamb. 
Fight all courageously and be you kings.  
I speak it, and my words are oracles.  Bai. 
Zabina, mother of three braver boys,  
Than Hercules, that in his infancy  
Did pash the jaws of Serpents venomous:  
Whose hands are made to gripe a warlike Lance.  
Their shoulders broad, for complete armour fit,  
Their limbs more large and of a bigger size  
Than all the brats ysprung from Typhon's loins:  
Who, when they come unto their father's age,  
Will batter Turrets with their manly fists.  
And on thy head wear my Imperial crown,  
Until I bring this sturdy Tamburlaine,  
And all his Captains bound in captive chains.  zab. 
Such good success happen to Bajazeth,  Tam. 
zenocrate, the loveliest Maid alive,  
Fairer than rocks of pearl and precious stone,  
The only Paragon of tamburlaine,  
Whose eyes are brighter than the Lamps of heaven.  
And speech more pleasant than sweet harmony:  
That with thy looks canst clear the darkened Sky:  
And calm the rage of thundering jupiter:  
Sit down by her: adorned with my Crown,  
As if thou wert the Empress of the world.  
Stir not zenocrate until thou see  
Me march victoriously with all my men,  
Triumphing over him and these his kings.  
Which I will bring as Vassals to thy feet.  
Till then take thou my crown, vaunt of my worth,  
And manage words with her as we will arms.  zen. 
And may my Love, the king of Persia  
Return with victory, and free from wound.  Bai. 
Now shalt thou feel the force of Turkish arms,  
Which lately made all Europe quake for fear:  
I have of Turks, Arabians, moors and Jews  
Enough to cover all Bithynia,  
Let thousands die, their slaughtered Carcases  
Shall serve for walls and bulwarks to the rest:  
And as the heads of Hydra, so my power  
Subdued, shall stand as mighty as before:  
If they should yield their necks unto the sword,  
Thy soldiers arms could not endure to strike  
So many blows as I have heads for thee.  
Thou knowest not (foolish hardy Tamburlaine)  
What 'tis to meet me in the open field,  
That leave no ground for thee to march upon.  Tam. 
Our conquering swords shall marshal us the way  
We use to march upon the slaughtered foe:  
Trampling their bowels with our horses hoofs:  
Brave horses, bred on the white Tartarian hills:  
My Camp is like to julius Caesar's host,  
That never fought but had the victory:  
Nor in Pharsalia was there such hot war,  
As these my followers willingly would have:  
Legions of Spirits fleeting in the air,  
Direct our Bullets and our weapons points  
And make our strokes to wound the senseless lure,  
And when she sees our bloody Colours spread.  
Then Victory begins to take her flight,  
Resting herself upon my milk-white Tent:  
But come my Lords, to weapons let us fall.  
The field is ours, the Turk, his wife and all.  Exit, with his followers. Bai. 
Come Kings and Bassoes let us glut our swords  
That thirst to drink the feeble persian's blood.  Exit, with his followers. zab. 
Base Concubine, must thou be placed by me  
That am the Empress of the mighty Turk?  zen. 
Disdainful Turkess and unreverend Boss,  
Call'st thou me Concubine that am betrothed  
Unto the great and mighty tamburlaine?  Zab. 
To tamburlaine the great Tartarian thief?  Zen. 
Thou wilt repent these lavish words of thine,  
When thy great bassa, master and thyself.  
Must plead for mercy at his kingly feet,  
And sue to me to be your Advocates.  Zab. 
And sue to thee? I tell thee shameless girl,  
Thou shalt be Laundress to my waiting maid.  
How lik'st thou her Ebea, will she serve?  Ebea. 
madam, she thinks perhaps she is too fine.  
But I shall turn her into other weeds.  
And make her dainty fingers fall to work.  Zen. 
hearst thou Anippe, how thy drudge doth talk,  
And how my slave, her mistress menaceth.  
Both for their sauciness shall be employed,  
To dress the common soldiers meat and drink.  
For we will scorn they should come near ourselves.  Anip. 
Yet sometimes let your highness send for them  
To do the work my chamber maid disdains.  They sound the battle within, and stay Zen. 
Ye Gods and powers that govern Persia.  
And made my lordly Love her worthy King:  
Now strengthen him against the Turkish Bajazeth,  
And let his foes like flocks of fearful Roes,  
Pursued by hunters, fly his angry looks,  
That I may see him issue Conqueror.  Zab. 
Now Mahomet, solicit God himself,  
And make him rain down murdering shot from heaven  
To dash the Scythians brains, and strike them dead,  
That dare to manage arms with him,  
That offered jewels to thy sacred shrine.  
When first he warred against the Christians.  To the battle again. Zen. 
By this the Turks lie weltering in their blood sound,  
And tamburlaine is Lord of Africa:  Zab. 
Thou art deceived, I heard the Trumpets  
As when my Emperor overthrew the Greeks:  
And led them Captive into Africa.  
Straight will I use thee as thy pride deserves:  
Prepare thyself to live and die my slave.  Zen. 
If Mahomet should come from heaven and swear,  
My royal Lord is slain or conquered.  
Yet should he not persuade me otherwise.  
But that he lives and will be Conqueror.  Baiazeth flies, and he pursues him. The battle short, and they enter, Baiazeth is overcome. Tam. 
Now king of Bassoes, who is Conqueror?  Bai. 
Thou, by the fortune of this damned foil,  Tam. 
Where are your stout contributory kings?  Enter Techelles, Theridamas, Usumeasane. Tech. 
We have their crowns their bodies strow the field.  Tam. 
Each man a crown? why kingly fought i'faith  
Deliver them into my treasury.  Zen. 
Now let me offer to my gracious Lord.  
His royal Crown again, so highly won:  tam. 
Nay take the Turkish Crown from her, zen.  
And crown me Emperor of Africa.  Zab. 
No Tamburlaine, though now thou got the best  
Thou shalt not yet be Lord of Africa.  ther. 
Give her the Crown Turkess you were best.  He takes it from her, and gives it Zenocrate, zab. 
Injurious villains, thieves, runagates,  
How dare you thus abuse my Majesty?  ther. 
Here Madam, you are Empress, she is none,  tam. 
Not now theridamas, her time is past:  
The pillars that have bolstered up those terms,  
Are fallen in clusters at my conquering feet.  zab. 
Though he be prisoner, he may be ransomed:  tamb. 
Not all the world shall ransom Bajazeth.  Bai. 
Ah fair zabina, we have lost the field.  
And never had the Turkish Emperor  
So great a foil by any foreign foe.  
Now will the Christian miscreants be glad,  
Ringing with joy their superstitious bells:  
And making bonfires for my overthrow.  
But ere I die those foul Idolaters  
Shall make me bonfires with their filthy bones,  
For though the glory of this day be lost.  
Afrique and Greece have garrisons enough  
To make me Sovereign of the earth again.  Tam. 
Those walled garrisons will I subdue,  
And write myself great Lord of Africa:  
So from the East unto the furthest West,  
Shall Tamburlaine extend his puissant arm.  
The Galls and those pilling Brigandines,  
That yearly sail to the Venetian gulf,  
And hover in the straights for Christians wrack,  
Shall lie at anchor in the Isle Asant.  
Until the persian Fleet and men of war,  
Sailing along the Oriental sea,  
Have fetched about the Indian continent:  
Even from Persepolis to Mexico,  
And thence unto the straights of Gibraltar:  
Where they shall meet, and join their force in one  
Keeping in awe the Bay of Portingale.  
And all the Ocean by the British shore:  
And by this means I'll win the world at last.  Bai. 
Yet set a ransom on me tamburlaine.  Tam. 
What, thinkst thou Tamburlaine esteems thy gold,  
I'll make the kings of India ere I die,  
Offer their mines (to sew for peace) to me,  
And dig for treasure to appease my wrath:  
Come bind them both and one lead in the Turk.  
The Turkess let my loves maid lead away.  They bind them. Bai. 
Ah villains, dare ye touch my sacred arms.  
O Mahomet, Oh sleepy Mahomet.  zab. 
O cursed Mahomet that makest us thus  
The slaves to Scythians rude and barbarous.  Tam. 
Come bring them in, & for this happy conquest  
Triumph, and solemnize a martial feast.  Exeunt.  
Finis Actus tertii.   

Actus. 4.  

Scaena. 1.  soldan of Egypt with three or four Lords, Capolin soldan. 
AWake ye men of Memphis, hear the clang  
Of Scythian trumpets, hear the Basilisks,  
That roaring, shake Damascus turrets down,  
The rogue of Volga holds zenocrate,  
The soldan's daughter for his Concubine,  
And with a troup of thieves and vagabonds.  
Hath spread his colours to our high disgrace:  
While you fainthearted base Egyptians,  
Lie slumbering on the flowery banks of Nile,  
As Crocodiles that unaffrighted rest,  
While thundering Cannons rattle on their Skins.  Mess. 
Nay (mighty soldan) did your greatness see  
The frowning looks of fiery Tamburlaine,  
That with his terror and imperious eyes,  
Commands the hearts of his associates,  
It might amaze your royal majesty.  Soul. 
Villain. I tell thee, were that tamburlaine,  
As monstrous as Gorgon, prince of Hell,  
The Soldan would not start a foot from him.  
But speak, what power hath he?  Mess. 
Mighty Lord,  
Three hundred thousand men in armour clad,  
Upon their prancing Steeds, disdainfully  
With wanton paces trampling on the ground.  
Five hundred thousand footmen threatening shot,  
Shaking their swords, their spears and iron bills,  
Environing their Standard round, that stood  
As bristle-pointed as a thorny wood.  
Their warlike Engines and munition  
Exceed the forces of their martial men.  Soul. 
Nay could their numbers countervail the stars  
Or ever drizzling drops of April showers,  
Or withered 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 live to rue their fall,  Cap. 
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.  Soul. 
Let him take all th'advantages he can,  
Were all the world conspired to fight for him,  
Nay, were he Devil, 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.  Mess. 
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 quenched 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 raceth all his foes with fire and sword.  Soul. 
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,  
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 revenged for her disparagement.   

Actus. 4. Scaena. 2.  Tamburlain, Techelles, Theridamas, Usumeasane, Zenocrate, Anippe, two moors drawing Baiazeth in his cage, and his wife following him. Tamb. 
BRing out my footstool.  They take him out of the cage. Bai 
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 fired star  
To suck up poison from the moorish Fens,  
And pour it in this glorious tyrant's throat.  tam. 
The chiefest God first mover of that Sphere,  
Enchased with thousands ever shining lamps,  
Will sooner burn the glorious frame of Heaven.  
Then it should so conspire my overthrow.  
But Villain, thou that wishest this to me,  
Fall prostrate on the low disdainful earth.  
And be the footstool of great Tamburlaine,  
That I may rise into my royal throne.  Bai. 
First shalt thou rip my bowels with thy sword,  
And sacrifice my heart to death and hell,  
Before I yield to such a slavery.  tamb. 
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 for so he bids,  
That may command thee piecemeal to be torn,  
Or scattered like the lofty Cedar trees,  
struck with the voice of thundering jupiter.  Bai. 
Then as I look down to the damned Fiends.  
Fiends look on me, and thou dread God of hell.  
With Evan Sceptre strike this hateful earth,  
And make it swallow both of us at once.  He gets up upon him to his chair. Tamb. 
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 reigned at my nativity:  
And dim the brightness of their 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 fired now in the Meridian line,  
Will send up fire to your turning Spheres,  
And cause the Sun to borrow light of you.  
My sword stroke fire from his coat of steel,  
Even in Bithynia, when I took this Turk:  
As when a fiery exhalation  
Wrapped in the bowels of a freezing cloud,  
Fighting for passage, make the Welkin crack,  
And casts a flash of lightning to the earth.  
But ere I march to wealthy Persia,  
Or leave Damascus and th'Egyptian fields,  
As was the fame of Clymeus brainsick son,  
That almost brent 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 nought but blood and war.  Zab. 
Unworthy king, that by thy cruelty,  
Unlawfully usurpest 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 prepared to entertain his Grace?  
And treading him beneath thy loathsome feet,  
Whose feet the kings of Africa have kissed.  tech. 
You must devise some torment worse, my Lord  
To make these captives rain their lavish tongues.  tam. 
zenocrate, look better to your slave:  zen. 
She is my handmaid's slave, and she shall look  
That these abuses flow not from her tongue:  
Chide her Anippe.  Anip. 
Let these be warnings for you then my slave,  
How you abuse the person of the king:  
Or else I swear to have you whipped stark naked.  Bai. 
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.  tam. 
Thy names and titles, and thy dignities  
Are fled from Bajazeth, and remain with me,  
That will maintain it against a world of Kings.  
Put him in again.  Bai. 
Is this a place for mighty Bajazeth?  
Confusion light on him that helps thee thus.  tam. 
There whiles he lives, shall Bajazeth be kept,  
And where I go be thus in triumph drawn:  
And thou his wife shalt feed him with the scraps  
My servitures 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 crowns 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 moor 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 Pyramids,  
That with their beauties graced the memphian fields.  
The golden stature of their feathered bird  
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 is ours.  Ther. 
Your tents of white now pitched before the gates  
And gentle flags of amity displayed.  
I doubt not but the Governor will yield,  
Offering Damascus to your Majesty.  Tam. 
So shall he have his life, and all the rest.  
But if he stay until the bloody flag  
Be once advanced 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 contained.  
Not one should scape: but perish by our swords.  zen. 
Yet would you have some pity for my sake,  
Because it is my countries, and my Fathers.  Tam. 
Not for the world Zenocrate, if I have sworn:  
Come bring in the Turk.  Exeunt.  

Act. 4. Scaena. 3,  Soldan, Arabia, Capoline, with steaming colour: and Soldiers. soldan. 
methinks we march as Meleager did,  
Environed with brave Argolian knights:  
To chase the savage Caldonian Boar,  
Or Cephalus with lusty The bane 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 Egyptia, and annoyeth us.  
My Lord it is the bloody Tamburlaine.  
A sturdy Felon and a base-bred Thief.  
By murder raised to the persian Crown.  
That dares 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.  Ara. 
Renowned Soldan, have ye lately heard  
The overthrow of mighty Bajazeth,  
About the confines of Bithynia?  
The slavery wherewith he persecutes  
The noble Turk and his great Empress.  Soul. 
I have, and sorrow for his bad success:  
But noble Lord of great Arabia,  
Be so persuaded, that the soldan is  
No more dismayed 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 of his wretched state,  
A sacred vow to heaven and him I make,  
Confirming it with lbis holy name,  
That Tamburlaine shall rue the day, the hour,  
Wherein he wrought such ignominious wrong.  
Unto the hallowed person of a prince,  
Or kept the fair zenocrate so long.  
As Concubine, I fear to feed his lust.  Ara. 
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:  Soul. 
Capolin, hast thou surveyed our powers.  Cap. 
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 full of hardiness:  
As frolic as the hunters in the chase:  
Of savage beasts amid the desert woods.  Arab. 
My mind presageth fortunate success,  
And tamburlaine, my spirit doth foresee  
The utter ruin of thy men and thee.  Soul. 
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 obscurity.  
Famous for nothing but for theft and spoil,  
To race and scatter thy inglorious crew,  
Of Scythians and slavish Persians.  Exeunt.  

Actus: 4. Scaena 5.  The Banquet, and to it cometh Tamburlain all in scarlet, Theridamas. Techelles, Usumeasane, the Turk, with others. Tamb. 
NOw hang our bloody colours by Damascus.  
Reflexing hews 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?  Bai. 
ay, such a stomach (cruel Tamburlaine) as I could  
Willingly feed upon thy blood-raw heart.  tam. 
Nay, thine own is easier to come by, pluck out that,  
And 'twill serve thee and thy wife: Well zenocrate,  
techelles, and the rest, fall to your victuals.  Bai. 
Fall to, and never may your meat digest,  
Ye Furies that can mask invisible,  
Dive to the bottom of avernu's pool,  
And in your hands bring hellish poison up.  
And squeeze it in the cup of Tamburlaine.  
Or winged snakes of Lerna cast your stings,  
And leave your venoms in this tyrant's dish.  zab. 
And may this banquet prove as ominous,  
As Progne's to th'adulterous Thracian King.  
That fed upon the substance of his child.  zen. 
My Lord, how can you suffer these outrageous curses  
By these slaves of yours?  tam. 
To let them see (divine zenocrate)  
I glory in the curses of my foes.  
Having the power from the Imperial heaven,  
To turn them all upon their proper heads.  tech. 
I pray you give them leave Madam, this speech is a goodly refreshing to them.  Ther. 
But if his highness would let them be fed, it would do them more good.  tam. 
Sirrah, why fall you not too, are you so daintily brought up, you cannot eat your own flesh?  Bai. 
First legions of devils shall tear thee in pieces.  Vsum. 
Villain, knowest thou to whom thou speakest  tam. 
O let him alone: here, eat sir, take it from my sword's point, or I'll thrust it to thy heart.  He takes it and stamps upon it. ther 
He stamps it under his feet my Lord.  tam. 
Take it up Villain and eat it, or I will make thee slice the brawns of thy arms into carbonadoes, and eat them.  vsu. 
Nay, 'twere better he killed his wife, & then she shall be sure not to be starved, & he be provided for a months victual before hand.  tam. 
Here is my dagger, dispatch her while she is fat, for if she live but a while longer, she will fall into a consumption with fretting, and then she will not be worth the eating.  ther. 
Dost thou think that Mahomet will suffer this  tech. 
'tis like he will, when he cannot let it.  tam. 
Go to, fall to your meat: what not a bit? belike he hath not been watered today, give him some drink.  They give him water to drink, and he flings it on the ground. 
Fast and welcome sir, while hunger make you eat. How now zenocrate, doth not the Turk and his wife make a goodly show at a banquet?  Zen. 
Yes. my Lord.  ther 
methinks, 'tis a great deal better than a consort of music.  tam. 
Yet music would do well to cheer up zenocrate: pray thee tell, why art thou so sad? If thou wilt have a song, the Turk shall strain his voice: but why is it?  Zen. 
My lord, to see my father's town besieged,  
The country wasted where myself was borne,  
How can it but afflict my very soul?  
If any love remain in you my Lord,  
Or if my love unto your majesty  
May merit favour at your highness hands,  
Then raise your siege from fair Damascus walls,  
And with my father take a friendly truce.  tamb. 
Zenocrate, were Egypt jove's own land,  
Yet would I with my sword make jove to stoop,  
I will confute those blind Geographers  
That make a triple region in the world,  
Excluding Regions which I mean to trace  
And with this pen reduce them to a Map.  
Calling the Provinces, Cities and towns  
After my name and thine zenocrate:  
Here at Damascus will I make the Point  
That shall begin the Perpendicular.  
And wouldst thou have me buy thy Father's love  
With such a loss? Tell me zenocrate?  Zen. 
Honour still weight on happy tamburlaine:  
Yet give me leave to plead for him my Lord.  Tam. 
Content thyself, his person shall be safe.  
And all the friends of fair Zenocrate,  
If with their lives they will be pleased to yield,  
Or may be forced to make me Emperor.  
For Egypt and Arabia must be mine.  
Feed you slave, thou mayst think thyself happy to be fed from my trencher.  Bai. 
My empty stomach full of idle heat,  
Draws bloody humours from my feeble parts,  
Preserving life, by hasting cruel death.  
My veins are pale, my sinews hard and dry,  
My joints benumbed, unless I eat, I die.  Zab. 
Eat Bajazeth, Let us live in spite of them,  
Looking some happy power will pity and enlarge us.  tam. 
Here Turk, wilt thou have a clean trencher?  Bai. 
I Tyrant, and more meat.  tam. 
Soft sir, you must be dieted, too much eating will make you surfeit.  ther. 
So it would my lord, specially having so small a walk, and so little exercise.  Enter a second course of Crowns. tam. 
Theridamas, techelles and Casane, here are the cates you desire to finger, are they not?  ther. 
I (my Lord) but none save kings must feed with these.  tech. 
'tis enough for us to see them, and for tamburlaine only to enjoy them.  tam. 
Well, Here is now to the Soldan of Egypt the King of Arabia, and the Governor of Damascus. Now take these three crowns, and pledge me, my contributory Kings.  
I crown you here (Theridamas) King of Argier: Techelles King of Fez, and Usumeasane King of Moroccus. How say you to this (Turk) these are not your contributory kings.  Bai. 
Nor shall they long be thine, I warrant them.  tam. 
Kings of Argier, Moroccus, and of Fez.  
You that have marched with happy Tamburlaine,  
As far as from the frozen place of heaven.  
Unto the watery morning's ruddy hour.  
And thence by land unto the Torrid Zone,  
Deserve these titles I endow you with.  
By value and by magnanimity.  
Your births shall be no blemish to your fame.  
For virtue is the fount whence honour springs.  
And they are worthy she investeth kings.  ther. 
And since your highness hath so well vouchsafed,  
If we deserve them not with higher meeds  
Than erst our states and actions have retained,  
Take them away again and make us slaves.  Tam. 
Well said Theridamas, when holy Fates  
Shall stablish me in strong Egyptia.  
We mean to travail to th'Antarctic Pole,  
Conquering the people underneath our feet.  
And be renowned, as never Emperors were.  
zenocrate, I will not crown thee yet,  
Until with greater honours I be graced.   
Finis Actus quarti.   

Actus: 5.  

Scaena. 1.  The Governor of Damasco, with three or four Citizens, and four Virgins with branches of Laurel in their hands. Governor. 
still doth this man or rather God of war,  
Batter our walls, and beat our Turrets down  
And to resist with longer stubborness,  
Or hope of rescue from the soldan's power,  
Were but to bring our wilful overthrow,  
And make us desperate of our threatened lives:  
We see his tents have now been altered,  
With terrors to the last and cruelest hue:  
His coal-black colours everywhere advanced,  
Threaten our city with a general spoil:  
And if we should with common rites of Arms,  
Offer our safeties to his clemency,  
I fear the custom proper to his sword,  
Which he observes as parcel of his fame:  
Intending so to terrify the world,  
By any innovation or remorse,  
Will never be dispensed with till our deaths,  
Therefore, for these our harmless virgins sakes,  
Whose honours and whose lives rely on him:  
Let us have hope that their unspotted prayers  
Their blubbered cheeks and hearty humble moans  
Will melt his fury into some remorse:  
And use us like a loving Conqueror.  Virg. 
If humble suits or imprecations,  
(uttered with tears of wretchedness and blood,  
Shed from the heads and hearts of all our Sex.  
Some made your wives, and some your children)  
Might have entreated your obdurate breasts.  
To entertain some care of our securities.  
Whiles only danger beat upon our walls,  
These more than dangerous warrants of our death  
Had never been erected as they be,  
Nor you depend on such weak helps as we  Go. 
Well, lovely Virgins, think our countries care  
Our love of honour loath to be enthralled  
To foreign powers, and rough imperious yokes:  
Would not with too much cowardice or fear,  
Before all hope of rescue were denied,  
Submit yourselves and us to servitude.  
Therefore in that your safeties and our own  
Your honours, liberties and lives were weighed  
In equal care and balance with our own,  
Endure as we the malice of our stars.  
The wrath of Tamburlaine, and power of wars.  
Or be the means the overweighing heavens  
Have kept to qualify these hot extremes.  
And bring us pardon in your cheerful looks.  2. Virg. 
Then here before the majesty of heaven,  
And holy patrons of Egyptia,  
With knees and hearts submissive we entreat,  
Grace to our words and pity to our looks  
That this devise may prove propitious,  
And through the eyes and ears of tamburlaine,  
Convey events of mercy to his heart:  
Grant that these signs of victory we yield  
May bind the temples of his conquering head,  
To hide the folded furrows of his brows,  
And shadow his displeased countenance,  
With happy looks of ruth and lenity,  
Leave us my Lord, and loving countrymen,  
What simple Virgins may persuade, we will.  Go. 
Farewell (sweet Virgins) on whose safe return  
Depends our city, liberty, and lives.  Exeunt.  

Actus. 5. Scaena. 2.  Tamburlaine. Techelles Theridamas, Usumeasane, with others: Tamburlaine all in black, and very melancholy. Tamb. 
WHat, are the Turtles fraid out of their nests?  
Alas poor fools, must you be first shall feel  
The sworn destruction of Damascus.  
They know my custom: could they not as well  
Have sent ye out, when first my milk-white flags  
Through which sweet mercy threw her gentle beams  
Reflexing them on your disdainful eyes:  
As now when fury and incensed hate  
Flings slaughtering terror from my coal-black tents.  
And tells for truth, submissions comes too late.  1. Virgin. 
Most happy King and Emperor of the earth.  
Image of Honour and Nobility.  
For whom the Powers divine have made the world.  
And on whose throne the holy Graces sit.  
In whose sweet person is comprised the Sum  
Of nature's Skill and heavenly majesty.  
Pity our plights, O pity poor Damascus:  
Pity old age, within whose silver hairs  
Honour and reverence evermore have reigned,  
Pity the marriage bed, where many a Lord  
In prime and glory of his loving joy.  
Embraceth now with tears of ruth and blood,  
The jealous body of his fearful wife,  
Whose cheeks and hearts so punished with conceit,  
To think thy puissant never stayed arm  
Will part their bodies, and prevent their souls  
From heavens of comfort, yet their age might bear,  
Now wax all pale and withered to the death,  
As well for grief our ruthless Governor  
Have thus refused the mercy of thy hand,  
(Whose sceptre Angels kiss, and Furies dread)  
As for their liberties, their loves or lives,  
O then for these, and such as we ourselves,  
For us, for infants, and for all our bloods,  
That never nourished thought against thy rule,  
pity, O pity, (sacred Emperor)  
The prostrate service of this wretched town.  
And take in sign thereof this gilded wreath,  
Whereto each man of rule hath given his hand,  
And wished as worthy subjects happy means,  
To be investers of thy royal brows,  
Even with the true Egyptian Diadem.  tam. 
Virgins, in vain ye labour to prevent  
That which mine honour swears shall be performed:  
Behold my sword, what see you at the point?  Virg. 
Nothing but fear and fatal steel my Lord.  tam. 
Your fearful minds are thick and misty then  
For there sits Death, there sits imperious Death.  
Keeping his circuit by the slicing edge.  
But I'm pleased you shall not see him there,  
He now is seated on my horsemen's spears:  
And on their points his fleshless body feches.  
Techelles, straight go charge a few of them  
To charged these Dames, and show my servant death:  
Sitting in scarlet on their armed spears.  Omnes. 
O pity us.  tam. 
Away with them I say and show them death.  They take them away. 
I will not spare these proud Egyptians.  
Nor change my Martial observations,  
For all the wealth of Gehon's golden waves.  
Or for the love of Venus, would she leave  
The angry God of Arms, and lie with me.  
They have refused the offer of their lives,  
And know my customs are as peremptory  
As wrathful Planets, death, or destiny.  Enter Techelles. 
What, have your horsemen shown the virgin's Death?  tech. 
They have my Lord, and on Damascus walls  
Have hoist up their slaughtered carcases.  tam. 
A sight as baneful to their souls I think  
As are Thessalian drugs or mithridate.  
But go my Lords, put the rest to the sword.  Exeunt. 
Ah fair Zenocrate, divine Zenocrate,  
Fair is too foul an Epithet for thee,  
That in thy passion for thy country's love,  
And fear to see thy kingly Father's harm,  
With hair disheveled wipest thy watery cheeks:  
And like to Flora in her morning's pride,  
Shaking her silver tresses in the air.  
train'st on the earth resolved pearl in showers,  
And sprinklest sapphires on thy shining face,  
Where Beauty, mother to the Muses sits,  
And comments volumes with her Ivory pen:  
Taking instructions from thy flowing eyes,  
Eyes when that Ebena steps to heaven.  
In silence of thy solemn evenings walk.  
Making the mantle of the richest night.  
The Moon, the Planets, and the meteor's light,  
There Angels in their crystal armours fight  
A doubtful battle with my tempted thoughts,  
For Egypt's freedom and the soldan's life:  
His life that so consumes Zenocrate,  
Whose sorrows lay more siege unto my saul,  
Than all my Army to Damascus walls.  
And neither Persians Sovereign, nor the Turk  
Troubled my senses with conceit of foil,  
So much by much, as doth zenocrate.  
What is beauty saith my sufferings then?  
If all the pens that ever poets held,  
Had fed the feeling of their masters thoughts,  
And every sweetness that inspired their hearts,  
Their minds, and muses on admired themes:  
If all the heavenly Quintessence they still  
From their immortal flowers of Poesy,  
Wherein as in a mirror we perceive  
The highest reaches of a human wit.  
If these had made one Poem's period  
And all combined in Beauty's worthiness,  
Yet should there hover in their restless heads,  
One thought, one grace, one wonder at the least,  
Which into words no virtue can digest:  
But how unseemly is it for my Sex  
My discipline of arms and Chivalry,  
My nature and the terror of my name.  
To harbour thoughts effeminate and faint?  
Save only that in/ Beauty's just applause,  
With whose instinct the soul of man is touched.  
And every warrior that is rapt with love,  
Of fame, of valour, and of victory  
Must needs have beauty beat on his conceits,  
I thus conceiving and subduing both:  
That which hath stopped the tempest of the Gods,  
Even from the fiery spangled vail of heaven,  
To feel the lovely warmth of shepherds flames,  
And march in cottages of strowed weeds,  
Shall give the world to note for all my birth,  
That Virtue solely is the sum of glory,  
And fashions men with true nobility.  
Who's within there? Enter two or three .Hath Bajazeth been fed today?  An. 
ay, my Lord.  tamb. 
Bring him forth, & let us know if the town be ransacked.  Enter Techelles, Theridamas, Usumeasane & others. tech 
The town is ours my Lord, and fresh supply  
Of conquest, and of spoil is offered us:  tam. 
That's well techelles, what's the news?  tech. 
The soldan and the Arabian king together  
March on us with such eager violence,  
As if there were no way but one with us.  tam. 
No more there is not I warrant thee techelles  They bring in the Turk. ther. 
We know the victory is ours my Lord,  
But let us save the reverend soldan's life,  
For fair Zenocrate, that so laments his state.  tamb. 
That will we chiefly see unto, theridamas.  
For sweet zenocrate, whose worthiness  
Deserves a conquest over every heart:  
And now my footstool, if I lose the field,  
You hope of liberty and restitution:  
Here let him stay my masters from the tents,  
Till we have made us ready for the field.  
Pray for us Bajazeth, we are going.  Exeunt. Bai. 
Go, never to return with victory:  
Millions of men encompass thee about.  
And gore thy body with as many wounds,  
Sharp forked arrows light upon thy horse:  
Furies from the black Cocytus lake,  
Break up the earth, and with their firebrands,  
Enforce thee run upon the baneful pikes.  
Volleys of shot pierce through thy charmed Skin.  
And every bullet dipped in poisoned drugs,  
Or roaring Cannons sever all thy joints.  
Making thee mount as high as Eagles soar.  zab. 
Let all the swords and Lances in the field,  
Stick in his breast, as in their proper rooms,  
At every poor let blood come dropping forth.  
That lingering pains may massacre his heart.  
And madness send his damned soul to hell.  Bai. 
Ah fair zabina, we may curse his power,  
The heavens may frown, the earth for anger quake,  
But such a Star hath influence in his sword,  
As rules the Skies, and countermands the Gods,  
More than Cimmerian Styx or destiny:  
And then shall we in this detested guise,  
With shame, with hunger, and with horror aye  
Griping our bowels with retorqued thoughts,  
And have no hope to end our ecstasies.  zab. 
Then is there left no Mahomet, no God,  
No Fiend, no Fortune, nor no hope of end?  
To our infamous monstrous slaveries:  
Gape earth, and let the Fiends infernal view,  
As hell, as hopeless and as full of fear  
As are the blasted banks of Erebus:  
Where shaking ghosts with ever howling groans,  
Hover about the ugly ferry-man, to get a passage to elysian  
why should we live, O wretches, beggars slaves  
Why live we Bajazeth, and build up nests,  
So high within the region of the air,  
By living long in this oppression,  
That all the world will see and laugh to scorn.  
The former triumphs of our mightiness,  
In this obscure infernal servitude:  Bai. 
O life more loathsome to my vexed thoughts,  
Than noisome parbreak of the Stygian Snakes,  
Which fills the nooks of Hell with standing air,  
Infecting all the Ghosts with cureless griefs:  
O dreary Engines of my loathed sight,  
That sees my crown, my honour and my name,  
Thrust under yoke and thraldom of a thief.  
Why feed ye still on days accursed beams,  
And sink not quite into my tortured soul.  
You see my wife, my Queen and Empress,  
Brought up and propped by the hand of fame,  
Queen of fifteen contributory Queens,  
Now thrown to rooms of black abjection,  
Smeared with blots of basest drudgery:  
And Villainess to shame, disdain, and misery:  
Accursed Bajazeth, whose words of ruth,  
That would with pity cheer Zabina's heart:  
And make our souls resolve in ceaseless tears,  
Sharp hunger bites upon and gripes the root:  
From whence the issues of my thoughts do break,  
O poor zabina, O my Queen, my Queen,  
Fetch me some water for my burning breast,  
To cool and comfort me with longer date,  
That in the shortened sequel of my life,  
I may pour forth my soul into thine arms,  
With words of love: whose moaning intercourse  
Hath hitherto been stayed, with wrath and hate  
Of our expressless band inflictions:  zab. 
Sweet Bajazeth, I will prolong thy life,  
As long as any blood or spark of breath  
Can quench or cool the torments of my grief.  She goes out: Bai. 
Now Bajazeth, abridge thy baneful days,  
And beat thy brains out of thy conquered head:  
Since other means are all forbidden me,  
That may be ministers of my decay.  
O highest Lamp of everliving jove,  
Accursed day infected with my griefs,  
Hide now thy stained face in endless night,  
And shut the windows of the lightsome heavens,  
Let ugly darkness with her rusty coach  
engirt with tempests wrapped in pitchy clouds,  
Smother the earth with never fading mists:  
And let her horses from their nostrils breath  
Rebellious winds and dreadful thunderclaps:  
That in this terror tamburlaine may live.  
And my pined soul resolved in liquid ay,  
May still excruciate his tormented thoughts.  
Then let the stony dart of senseless cold,  
Pierce through the centre of my withered heart,  
And make a passage for my loathed life.  He brains himself against the cage. Enter Zabina. Zab. 
What do mine eyes behold, my husband dead?  
His skull all riven in twain, his brains dashed out?:  
The brains of Bajazeth, my Lord and Sovereign?:  
O Bajazeth, my husband and my Lord,  
O Bajazeth, O Turk, O Emperor, give him his liquour Not I, bring milk and fire, and my blood I bring him again, tear me in pieces, give me the sword with a ball of wildfire upon it. Down with him, down with him. Go to my child, away, away, away. Ah, save that Infant, save him, save him. ay, even I speak to her, the Sun was down. Streamers white. Red, Black, here here, here. Fling the meat in his face. Tamburlaine, tamburlaine, Let the soldiers be buried. Hell, death, Tamburlaine, Hell, make ready my Coach, my chair, my jewels, I come, I come, I come.  She runs against the Cage and brains herself Zenocrate with Anippe, 
Wretched Zenocrate, that livest to see,  
Damascus walls died with Egyptian blood.  
Thy Father's subjects and thy countrymen:  
Thy streets strowed with dissevered joints of men,  
And wounded bodies gasping yet for life.  
But most accursed, to see the Sun-bright troup  
Of heavenly virgins and unspotted maids,  
Whose looks might make the angry God of arms,  
To break his sword, and mildly treat of love,  
On horsemen's Lances to be hoist up,  
And guiltlessly endure a cruel death.  
For every fell and stout Tartarian Stead,  
That stamped on others with their thundering hooves  
When all their riders charged their quivering spears  
Began to check the ground, and rain themselves:  
Gazing upon the beauty of their looks:  
Ah Tamburlaine, wert thou the cause of this  
That term'st Zenocrate thy dearest love?  
Whose lives were dearer to Zenocrate  
Than her own life, or ought save thine own love.  
But see another bloody spectacle.  
Ah wretched eyes, the enemies of my heart,  
How are ye glutted with these grievous objects,  
And tell my soul more tales of bleeding ruth?  
See, see Anippe if they breath or no.  Anip. 
No breath nor sense, nor motion in them both  
Ah Madam, this their slavery hath enforced,  
And ruthless cruelty of Tamburlaine.  Zen. 
Earth cast up fountains from thy entrails,  
And wet thy cheeks for their untimely deaths:  
Shake with their weight in sign of fear & grief:  
Blush heaven, that gave them honour at their birth,  
And let them die a death so barbarous.  
Those that are proud of fickle Empery,  
And place their chiefest good in earthly pomp:  
Behold the Turk and his great Empress.  
Ah tamburlaine, my love, sweet tamburlaine,  
That fights for Sceptres and for slippery crowns,  
Behold the Turk and his great Empress,  
Thou that in conduct of thy happy stars,  
Sleep'st every night with conquest on thy brows,  
And yet wouldst shun the wavering turns of war,  
In fear and feeling of the like distress,  
Behold the Turk and his great Empress.  
Ah mighty jove and holy Mahomet,  
Pardon my Love, oh pardon his contempt,  
Of earthly fortune, and respect of pity,  
And let not conquest ruthlessly pursued  
Be equally against his life incensed,  
In this great Turk and hapless Empress.  
And pardon me that was not moved with ruth,  
To see them live so long in misery:  
Ah what may chance to thee zenocrate?  Anip, 
Madam content yourself and be resolved,  
Your Love hath fortune so at his command,  
That she shall stay and turn her wheel no more,  
As long as life maintains his mighty arm,  
That fights for honour to adorn your head.  Enter a Messenger. Zen. 
What other heavy news now brings Philemus?  Phi. 
Madam, your father and th' Arabian king,  
The first affecter of your excellence,  
Comes now as Turnus 'gainst Aeneas did.  
Armed with lance into the Egyptian fields,  
Ready for battle 'gainst my Lord the King.  Zen. 
Now shame and duty, love and fear presents  
A thousand sorrows to my martyred soul:  
Whom should I wish the fatal victory,  
When my poor pleasures are divided thus,  
And racked by duty from my cursed heart:  
My father and my first betrothed love,  
Must fight against my life and present love:  
Wherein the change I use condemns my faith,  
And makes my deeds infamous through the world.  
But as the Gods to end the Trojans toil,  
Prevented Turnus of Lavinia.  
And fatally enriched Aeneas' love.  
So for a final Issue to my griefs,  
To pacify my country and my love,  
Must Tamburlaine by their resistless powers,  
With virtue of a gentle victory,  
Conclude a league of honour to my hope,  
Then as the powers divine have preordained,  
With happy safety of my father's life,  
Send like defence of fair Arabia.  They sound to the battle. And Tamburlaine enjoys the victory, after Arabia enters wounded. Ar. 
What cursed power guides the murdering hands,  
Of this infamous Tyrants soldiers.  
That no escape may save their enemies:  
Nor fortune keep themselves from victory.  
Lie down Arabia, wounded to the death,  
And let Zenocrate's fair eyes behold  
That as for her thou bear'st these wretched arms.  
even so for her thou diest in these arms:  
Leaving thy blood for witness of thy love.  zen. 
Too dear a witness for such love my Lord,  
Behold Zenocrate, the cursed object  
Whose Fortunes never mastered her griefs:  
Behold her wounded in conceit for thee,  
As much as thy fair body is for me.  Ar. 
Then shall I die with full contented heart,  
Having beheld divine Zenocrate,  
Whose sight with joy would take away my life,  
As now it bringeth sweetness to my wound,  
If I had not been wounded as I am.  
Ah that the deadly pangs I suffer now,  
Would lend an hours license to my tongue:  
To make discourse of some sweet accidents  
Have chanced thy merits in this worthless bondage.  
And that I might be privy to the state,  
Of thy deserved contentment and thy love:  
But making now a virtue of thy sight,  
To drive all sorrow from my fainting soul:  
Since Death denies me further cause of joy.  
Deprived of care, my heart with comfort dies.  
Since thy desired hand shall close mine eyes.  Enter Tamburlain leading the Soldan, Techelles, Theridamas, Usumeasane, with others. Tam. 
Come happy Father of Zenocrate,  
A title higher than thy soldan's name:  
Though my right hand have thus enthralled thee  
Thy princely daughter here shall set thee free.  
She that hath calmed the fury of my sword.  
Which had ere this been bathed in streams of blood,  
As vast and deep as Euphrates or Nile.  Zen: 
O sight thrice welcome to my joyful soul.  
To see the king my Father issue safe,  
From dangerous battle of my conquering Love.  Soul. 
Well met my only dear Zenocrate,  
Though with the loss of Egypt and my Crown.  tam. 
'twas I my lord that got the victory,  
And therefore grieve not at your overthrow.  
Since I shall render all into your hands.  
And add more strength to your dominions  
Then ever yet confirmed th'Egyptian Crown.  
The God of war resigns his room to me,  
Meaning to make me General of the world,  
jove viewing me in arms, looks pale and wan,  
Fearing my power should pull him from his throne,  
Where ere I come the fatal sister's sweat,  
And grisly death by running to and fro,  
To do their ceaseless homage to my sword:  
And here in Afrique where it seldom rains,  
Since I arrived with my triumphant host,  
Have swelling clouds drawn from wide gasping wounds.  
been oft resolved in bloody purple showers,  
A meteor that might terrify the earth,  
And make it quake at every drop it drinks:  
Millions of souls sit on the banks of Tamburlaine,  
Waiting the back return of Charon's boat,  
Hell and Elysian swarm with ghosts of men,  
That I have sent from sundry foughten fields.  
To spread my fame through hell and up to heaven:  
And see my Lord, a sight of strange import,  
Emperors and kings lie breathless at my feet,  
The Turk and his great Empress as it seems,  
Left to themselves while we were at the fight.  
Have desperately dispatched their slavish lives:  
With them Arabia too hath left his life,  
All sights of power to grace my victory:  
And such are objects fit for Tamburlaine.  
Wherein as in a mirror may be seen,  
His honour, that consists in shedding blood,  
When men presume to manage arms with him.  Soul. 
Mighty hath God & Mahomet made thy hand  
(Renowned Tamburlaine) to whom all kings  
Of force must yield their crowns and Emperies,  
And I am pleased with this my overthrow:  
If as beseems a person of thy state,  
Thou hast with honour used Zenocrate.  tamb. 
Her state and person wants no pomp you see,  
And for all blot of foul inchastity,  
I record heaven, her heavenly self is clear:  
Then let me find no further time to grace  
Her princely Temples with the persian crown:  
But here these kings that on my fortunes wait:  
And have been crowned for proved worthiness,  
Even by this hand that shall establish them,  
Shall now, adjoining all their hands with mine,  
Invest her here my Queen of Persia,  
What saith the noble Soldan and Zenocrate:  Soul. 
I yield with thanks and protestations  
Of endless honour to thee for her love.  Tamb. 
Then doubt I not but fair Zenocrate  
Will soon consent to satisfy us both.  Zen. 
Else should I much forget myself, my Lord,  Ther. 
Then let us set the crown upon her head,  
That long hath lingered for so high a seat.  Tech. 
My hand is ready to perform the deed,  
For now her marriage time shall work us rest:  Vsum. 
And her's the crown my Lord, help set it on  Tam. 
Then sit thou down divine Zenocrate,  
And here we crown thee Queen of Persia,  
And all the kingdoms and dominions  
That late the power of Tamburlaine subdued:  
As juno, when the Giants were suppressed,  
That darted mount aims at her brother jove:  
So looks my Love, shadowing in her brows  
Triumphs and Trophies for my victories:  
Or as Latona's daughter bent to arms,  
Adding more courage to my conquering mind,  
To gratify the sweet zenocrate,  
Egyptians, moors and men of Asia,  
From Barbary unto the western indy,  
Shall pay a yearly tribute to thy Sire.  
And from the bounds of Afrique to the banks  
Of Ganges, shall his mighty arm extend.  
And now my Lords and loving followers,  
That purchased kingdoms by your martial deeds,  
Cast off your armour, put on scarlet robes.  
Mount up your royal places of estate,  
Environed with troops of noble men,  
And there make laws to rule your provinces:  
Hang up your weapons on Alcides' post,  
For Tamburlaine takes truce with all the world,  
Thy first betrothed, Love Arabia,  
Shall we with honour (as beseems) entomb,  
With this great Turk and his fair Empress:  
Then after all these solemn Exequies,  
We will our celebrated rites of marriage solemnize,   
Finis Actus quinti & ultimi huius primae partis.    

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  


Tamburlaine, the great.   portrait of Tamburlaine   

THE SECOND PART OF The bloody Conquests of mighty Tamburlaine. With his impassionate fury, for the death of his Lady and love, fair Zenocrate: his form of exhortation and discipline to his three sons, and the manner of his own death.  

The Prologue.  
THe general welcomes Tamburlaine received,  
When he arrived last upon our stage,  
Hath made our Poet pen his second part,  
Where death cuts off the progress of his pomp.  
And murderous Fates throws all his triumphs down,  
But what became of fair Zenocrate,  
And with how many cities sacrifice  
He celebrated her said funeral,  
Himself in presence shall unfold at large.   

Actus. 1.  

Scaena. 1.  Orcanes, king of Natolia, Gazellus, viceroy of Byron, Upibassa, and their train, with drums and trumpets. Orcanes- 
EGregious Viceroys of these Eastern parts  
Placed by the issue of great Bajazeth:  
And sacred Lord the mighty Callapin:  
Who lives in Egypt, prisoner to that slave,  
Which kept his father in an iron cage:  
Now have we marched from fair Natolia  
Two hundred leagues, and on Danubius banks,  
Our warlike host in complete armour rest,  
Where Sigismond the king of Hungary  
Should meet our person to conclude a truce.  
What? Shall we parley with the Christian?  
Or cross the stream, and meet him in the field.  Byr. 
King of Natolia, let us treat of peace,  
We all are glutted with the Christians' blood,  
And have a greater foe to fight against,  
Proud Tamburlaine, that now in Asia,  
Near guyron's head doth set his conquering feet,  
And means to fire Turkey as he goes:  
'gainst him my Lord must you address your power.  Vpibas. 
Besides, king Sigismond hath brought from Christendom,  
More than his Camp of stout Hungarians,  
slavonians, Almans, Rutters, Muffs, and Danes,  
That with the halberd, Lance, and murdering Axe,  
Will hazard that we might with surety hold.  
Though from the shortest Northern Parallel,  
Vast Gruntland compassed with the frozen sea,  
Inhabited with tall and sturdy men,  
Giants as big as hugy Polypheme:  
Millions of Soldiers cut the artic line,  
Bringing the strength of Europe to these Arms.  
Our Turkey blades shall glide through all their throats,  
And make this champion mead a bloody Fen,  
Danubius' stream that runs to Trebizon,  
Shall carry wrapped within his scarlet waves,  
As martial presents to our friends at home.  
The slaughtered bodies of these Christians.  
The Terrene main wherein Danubius falls,  
Shall by this battle be the bloody Sea.  
The wandering Sailors of proud Italy,  
Shall meet those Christians fleeting with the tide,  
Beating in heaps against their argosies.  
And make fair Europe mounted on her bull,  
Trapped with the wealth and riches of the world,  
Alight and wear a woeful mourning weed.  Byr. 
Yet stout Orcanes, Prorex of the world,  
Since Tamburlaine hath mustered all his men,  
Marching from Cairon northward with his camp,  
To Alexandria, and the frontier towns,  
Meaning to make a conquest of our land:  
'tis requisite to parley for a peace  
With Sigismond the king of Hungary:  
And save our forces for the hot assaults  
Proud Tamburlaine intends Natolia.  Orc. 
Viceroy of Byron, wisely hast thou said:  
My realm, the Centre of our Empery  
Once lost, All Turkey would be overthrown:  
And for that cause the Christians shall have peace.  
Slavonians, Almains, Rutters, Muffs, and Danes  
Fear not Orcanes, but great Tamburlaine.  
Nor he but Fortune that hath made him great.  
We have revolted Grecians, Albanese,  
Sicilians, Jews, Arabians, Turks, and Moors,  
Natolians, Sorians, black Egyptians,  
Illyrians, Thracians, and Bythimans,  
Enough to swallow forceless Sigismond  
Yet scarce enough t'encounter Tamburlaine,  
He brings a world of people to the field,  
From Scythia to the Oriental Plague  
Of India, where raging Lantchidol  
Beats on the regions with his boisterous blows,  
That never seaman yet discovered:  
All Asia is in Arms with tamburlaine,  
Even from the midst of fiery Cancers tropic,  
To Amazonia under Capricorn.  
And thence as far as archipelago.  
All Afrique is in Arms with tamburlaine.  
Therefore Viceroys the Christians must have peace.   

Act. 1. Scaena. 2,  Sigismond, Frederick, Baldwine, and their train with drums and trumpets. Sigis. 
ORcanes (as our Legates promised thee)  
we with our Peers have crossed Danubius,  
to treat of friendly peace or deadly war:  
Take which thou wilt, for as the Romans used stream  
I here present thee with a naked sword,  
Wilt thou have war, then shake this blade at me,  
If peace, restore it to my hands again:  
And I will sheathe it to confirm the same.  Orc 
Stay Sigismond, forgettest thou I am he  
That with the Cannon shook Vienna walls.  
And made it dance upon the Continent:  
As when the massy substance of the earth,  
Quiver about the axle-tree of heaven.  
Forgettest thou that I sent a shower of darts  
Mingled with powdered shot and feathered steel  
So thick upon the blink-eyed burgher's heads,  
That thou thyself, than county-palatine,  
The king of Boheme, and the Ostrich Duke,  
Sent heralds out, which basely on their knees  
In all your names desired a truce of me?  
Forgettest thou, that to have me raise my siege,  
Wagons of gold were set before my tent:  
Stamped with the princely Foul that in her wings  
carries the fearful thunderbolts of jove,  
How canst thou think of this and offer war?  Sig. 
Vienna was besieged, and I was there,  
Then county-palatine, but now a king:  
And what we did, was in extremity:  
But now Orcanes, view my royal host,  
That hides these plains, and seems as vast and wide,  
As doth the Desert of Arabia.  
To those that stand on Bagdad's lofty Tower,  
Or as the Ocean to the Traveller  
That rests upon the snowy Apennines:  
And tell me whether I should stoop so low,  
Or treat of peace with the Natolian king?  Byr. 
Kings of Natolia and of hungary,  
We came from Turkey to confirm a league,  
And not to dare each other to the field:  
A friendly parley might become ye both.  Fred. 
And we from Europe to the same intent,  
Which if your General refuse or scorn,  
Our Tents are pitched, our men stand in array.  
Ready to charge you ere you stir your feet.  Nat. 
So priest are we, but yet if Sigismond  
Speak as a friend, and stand not upon terms,  
Here is his sword, let peace be ratified  
On these conditions specified before,  
Drawn with advise of our Ambassadors.  Sig. 
Then here I sheath it, and give thee my hand,  
Never to draw it out, or manage arms  
Against thyself or thy confederates:  
But whilst I live will be at truce with thee.  Nat. 
But (Sigismond) confirm it with an oath,  
And swear in sight of heaven and by thy Christ.  Sig. 
By him that made the world and saved my soul  
The son of God and issue of a Maid,  
Sweet jesus Christ, I solemnly protest,  
And vow to keep this peace inviolable.  Nat. 
By sacred Mahomet, the friend of God,  
Whose holy Alcaron remains with us,  
Whose glorious body when he left the world,  
Closed in a coffin mounted up the air,  
And hung on stately Mecca's Temple roof,  
I swear to keep this truce inviolable:  
Of whose conditions, and our solemn oaths  
Signed with our hands, each shall retain a scroll,  
As memorable witness of our league.  
Now Sigismond, if any Christian King  
Encroach upon the confines of thy realm,  
Send word, Orcanes of Natolia  
Confirmed this league beyond Danubius' stream,  
And they will (trembling) sound a quick retreat,  
So am I feared among all Nations.  Sig. 
If any heathen potentate or king  
Invade Natolia, Sigismond will send  
A hundred thousand horse trained to the war,  
And backed by stout lancers of Germany.  
The strength and sinews of the imperial seat.  Nat. 
I thank thee Sigismond, but when I war,  
All Asia Minor, Africa, and Greece  
Follow my Standard and my thundering Drums:  
Come let us go and banquet in our tents:  
I will dispatch chief of my army hence  
To fair Natolia, and to Trebizon,  
To stay my coming 'gainst proud Tamburlaine,  
Friend Sigismond, and peers of Hungary,  
Come banquet and carouse with us a while,  
And then depart we to our territories.  Exeunt.  

Actus. 1. Scaena. 3.  Callapine with Almeda, his keeper. Callap. 
SWeet Almeda, pity the ruthful plight  
Of Callapine, the son of Bajazeth,  
Born to be Monarch of the Western world:  
Yet here detained by cruel Tamburlaine.  Alm. 
My Lord I pity it, and with my heart  
With your release, but he whose wrath is death,  
My soveraigue Lord, renowned Tamburlaine.  
Forbids you further liberty than this.  Cal. 
Ah were I now but half so eloquent  
To paint in words, what I'll perform in deeds,  
I know thou wouldst depart from hence with me.  Al. 
Not for all Afrique, therefore move me not.  Cal. 
Yet hear me speak my gentle Almeda.  Al. 
No speech to that end, by your favour sir.  Cal. 
By Cario runs.  Al. 
No talk of running, I tell you sir.  Cal. 
A little further, gentle Almeda.  Al. 
Well sir, what of this?  Cal. 
By Cario runs to Alexandria Bay,  
Darotes' streams, wherein at anchor lies  
A Turkish Galley of my royal fleet,  
Waiting my coming to the riverside,  
Hoping by some means I shall be released,  
Which when I come aboard will hoist up sail,  
And soon put forth into the Terrene sea:  
Where twixt the Isles of Cyprus and of Crete,  
We quickly may in Turkish seas arrive.  
Then shalt thou see a hundred kings and more  
Upon their knees, all bid me welcome home.  
Amongst so many crowns of burnished gold,  
Choose which thou wilt, all are at thy command,  
A thousand Galleys manned with Christian slaves  
I freely give thee, which shall cut the straits,  
And bring armadoes from the coasts of Spain,  
Fraughted with gold of rich America:  
The Grecian virgins shall attend on thee,  
Skilful in music and in amorous lays:  
As fair as was Pygmalion's ivory girl,  
Or lovely Io metamorphosed.  
With naked; Negroes shall thy coach be drawn,  
And as thou rid'st in triumph through the streets,  
The pavement underneath thy chariot wheels  
With Turkey Carpets shall be covered:  
And cloth of Arras hung about the walls,  
Fit objects for thy princely eye to pierce.  
A hundred Bassoes clothed in crimson silk  
Shall ride before the on Barbarian Steeds:  
And when thou goest, a golden canopy  
Enchased with precious stones, which shine as bright  
As that fair veil that covers all the world:  
When Phoebus leaning from his hemisphere,  
Descendeth downward to th'Antipodes.  
And more than this, for all I cannot tell.  Alm. 
How far hence lies the Galley, say you?  Cal. 
Sweet Almeda, scarce half a league from hence.  Alm. 
But need we not be spied going aboard?  Cal. 
Betwixt the hollow hanging of a hill  
And crooked bending of a craggy rock,  
The sails wrapped up, the mast and tacklings down,  
She lies so close that none can find her out,  Alm. 
I like that well: but tell me my Lord, if I should let you go, would you be as good as your word? Shall I be made a king for my labour?  Cal. 
As I am Callapine the Emperor,  
And by the hand of Mahomet I swear,  
Thou shalt be crowned a king and be my mate,  Alm. 
Then here I swear, as I am Almeda,  
Your Keeper under Tamburlaine the great,  
(For that's the style and title I have yet)  
Although he sent a thousand armed men  
To intercept this haughty enterprise,  
Yet would I venture to conduct your Grace,  
And die before I brought you back again.  Cal. 
Thanks gentle Almeda, then let us haste,  
lest time be past, and lingering let us both.  Al. 
When you will my Lord, I am ready,  Cal. 
even straight: and farewell cursed Tamburlaine.  
Now go I to revenge my father's death.  Exeunt  

Actus. 1. Scaena. 4.  Tamburlaine with zenocrate, and his three sons, Calyphas, Amyras, and Celebinus, with drums and trumpets. Tamb. 
NOw bright zenocrate, the world's fair eye,  
Whose beams illuminate the lamps of heaven,  
Whose cheerful looks do clear the cloudy air  
And clothe it in a crystal livery,  
Now rest thee here on fair Larissa Plains,  
Where Egypt and the Turkish Empire parts,  
Between thy sons that shall be Emperors,  
And every one Commander of a world.  zen. 
Sweet Tamburlaine, when wilt thou leave these arms  
And save thy sacred person free from scathe:  
And dangerous chances of the wrathful war.  Tam. 
When heaven shall cease to move on both the poles  
& when the ground whereon my soldiers march  
Shall rise aloft and touch the horned Moon,  
And not before my sweet zenocrate:  
Sit up and rest thee like a lovely Queen.  
So, now she sits in pomp and majesty:  
When these my sons, more precious in mine eyes  
Than all the wealthy kingdoms I subdued:  
Placed by her side, look on their mother's face,  
But yet methinks their looks are amorous,  
Not martial as the sons of Tamburlaine  
Water and air being symbolised in one:  
Argue their want of courage and of wit,  
Their hair as white as milk and soft as Down.  
Which should be like the quills of Porcupines.  
As black as jet, and hard as Iron or steel,  
Bewrays they are too dainty for the wars.  
Their fingers made to quaver on a Lute,  
Their arms to hang about a Lady's neck:  
Their legs to dance and caper in the air:  
Would make me think them Bastards, not my sons,  
But that I know they issued from thy womb,  
That never looked on man but Tamburlaine.  zen 
My gracious Lord, they have their mothers looks  
But when they list, their conquering father's heart:  
This lovely boy the youngest of the three,  
Not long ago bestrid a Scythian Steed:  
Trotting the ring, and tilting at a glove:  
Which when he tainted with his slender rod,  
He reigned him straight and made him so curvet,  
As I cried out for fear he should have fallen,  Tam. 
Well done my boy, thou shalt have shield and lance  
Armour of proof, horse, helm, & Curtle-axe  
And I will teach thee how to charge thy foe,  
And harmless run among the deadly pikes.  
If thou wilt love the wars and follow me,  
Thou shalt be made a King and reign with me.  
Keeping in iron cages Emperors.  
If thou exceed thy elder Brother's worth,  
And shine in complete virtue more than they,  
Thou shalt be king before them, and thy seed  
Shall issue crowned from their mother's womb,  Cel. 
Yes father, you shall see me if I live,  
Have under me as many kings as you,  
And march with such a multitude of men,  
As all the world shall tremble at their view.  tam. 
These words assure me boy, thou art my son,  
When I am old and cannot manage arms,  
Be thou the scourge and terror of the world,  Amy. 
Why may not I my Lord, as well as he,  
Be termed the scourge and terror of the world?  tam. 
Be all a scourge and terror to the world,  
Or else you are not sons of Tamburlaine.  Cal. 
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.  tam. 
Bastardly boy, sprung from some cowards lions:  
And not the issue of great Tamburlaine,  
Of all the provinces I have subdued  
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 superfluities  
Is covered with a liquid purple veil,  
And sprinkled with the brains of slaughtered men,  
My royal chair of state shall be advanced:  
And he that means to place himself therein  
Must armed wade up to the chin in blood.  zen. 
My Lord, such speeches to our princely sons,  
Dismays their minds before they come to prove  
The wounding troubles angry war affords.  Cel. 
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,  Amy. 
And I would strive to swim through pools of blood,  
Or make a bridge of murdered Carcases,  
Whose arches should be framed with bones of Turks,  
Ere I would lose the title of a king.  tam. 
Well lovely boys, you 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.  Cal. 
If any man will hold him, I will strike,  
And cleave him to the channel with my sword,  tamb. 
Hold him, and cleave him too, or I'll cleave thee  
For we will march against them presently.  
Theridamas, Techelles, and Casane  
Promised to meet me on Larissa plains  
With hosts apiece against this Turkish crew,  
For I have sworn by sacred Mahomet,  
To make it parcel of my Empery,  
The trumpets sound Zenocrate, they come.   

Actus: 1. Scaena. 5.  Enter Theridamas, and his train with Drums and Trumpets. Tamb. 
WElcome Theridamas, king of Argier,  Ther, 
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.  tam. 
Thanks good theridamas.  ther. 
Under my colours march ten thousand Greeks  
And of Argier and Africa'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 Tripoli,  
Will quickly ride before Natolia:  
And batter down the castles on the shore.  tam. 
Well said Argier, receive thy crown again.   

Actus. 1. Scaena. 6.  Enter Techelles and Usumeasane together. Tamb. 
KIngs of Moroccus and of Fez, welcome.  Vsu. 
Magnificent & peerless Tamburlaine,  
I and my neighbour King of Fez have brought  
To aid thee in this Turkish expedition,  
A hundred thousand expert soldiers:  
From Azamor to Tunys near the sea,  
Is Barbary unpeopled for thy sake,  
And all the men in armour under me,  
Which with my crown I gladly offer thee.  tam. 
Thanks king of Moroccus, take your crown again.  tech. 
And mighty Tamburlaine, our earthly God,  
Whose looks make this inferior world to quake,  
I here present thee with the crown of Fez,  
And with an host of moors trained to the war,  
Whose coal-black faces make their foes retire,  
And quake for fear, as if infernal jove  
Meaning to aid them in this Turkish arms,  
Should pierce the black circumference of hell,  
With ugly Furies bearing fiery flags,  
And millions of his strong tormenting spirits:  
From strong Tesella unto Biledull,  
All Barbary is unpeopled for thy sake.  tam. 
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 opened 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 rends 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 turned to men, he should be overcome:  
Such lavish will I make of Turkish blood,  
That jove shall send his winged Messenger  
To bid me sheath 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 Boetes 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:  Vsum. 
My Lord our men of Barbary have marched  
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 subdued the Southern Guallatia,  
And all the land unto the coast of Spain.  
We kept the narrow strait of Gibralter,  
And made Canarea 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.  Tam. 
They shall Casane, and 'tis time i'faith.  Tech. 
And I have marched along the river Nise  
To Machda, where the mighty Christian Priest  
Called john the great, sits in a milk-white rob,  
Whose triple Mitre I did take by force,  
And made him swear obedience to my crown.  
From thence unto Cazates did I march,  
Where Amazonians met me in the field:  
With whom (being women) I vouchsafed a league,  
And with my power did march to zansibar  
The Western part of Afrique, where I viewed.  
The Ethiopian sea, rivers and lakes:  
But neither man nor child in all the land:  
Therefore I took my course to Manico.  
Where unresisted I removed my camp:  
And by the coast of Byather at last,  
I came to Cubar, where the Negroes dwell,  
And conquering that, made haste to Nubia,  
There having sacked Borno the Kingly seat,  
I took the king, and lead him bound in chains  
Unto Damasco, where I stayed before.  Tamb. 
Well done Techelles: what saith Theridamas:  ther. 
I left the confines and the bounds of Afrique  
And made a voyage into Europe,  
Where by the river Tyros I subdued  
Stoka, Padalia, and Codemia.  
Then crossed the sea and came to Oblia.  
And Nigra Silva, where the devils dance,  
Which in despite of them I set on fires  
From thence I crossed the Gulf, call by the name  
Mare magioré, of th'inhabitants;  
Yet shall my soldiers make no period  
Until Natolia kneel before your feet.  tamb. 
Then will we triumph, banquet and carouse,  
Cooks shall have pensions to provide us eats,  
And glut us with the dainties of the world,  
Lachrima Christi and Calabrian wines  
Shall common Soldiers drink in quaffing bouls,  
ay, liquid gold when we have conquered him.  
Mingled with coral and with oriental pearls:  
Come let us banquet and carouse the whiles.  Exeunt.  
Finis Actus primi.   

Actus. 2.  

Scaena. 1.  Sigismond, Frederick, Baldwine, with their train. Sigis. 
NOw say my Lords of Buda and Bohemia,  
What motion is it that inflames your thoughts,  
And stirs your valures to such sudden arms?  Fred. 
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 Verna 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 dismissed the greatest part  
Of all his army, pitched against our power  
Betwixt Cutheia and Orminius' mount:  
And sent them marching up to Belgasar,  
Acantha, Antioch, and Caesaria,  
To aid the kings of Soria and jerusalem.  
Now thou my Lord, advantage take hereof,  
And issue suddenly upon the rest:  
That in the fortune of their overthrow,  
We may discourage all the pagan troup,  
That dare attempt to war with Christians.  Sig. 
But calls not then your Grace to memory  
The league we lately made with king Orcanes,  
Confirmed 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.  Bald. 
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 esteemed assurance for ourselves,  
So what we vow to them should not infringe  
Our liberty of arms and victory.  Sig. 
Though I confess the oaths they undertake,  
Breed little strength to our security,  
Yet those infirmities that thus defame  
Their faiths, their honours, and their religion,  
Should not give us presumption to the like,  
Our faiths are sound, and must be consummated,  
Religious, righteous, and inviolate.  Fred. 
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 poured with rigour on our sinful heads,  
If we neglect this offered victory.  Sig. 
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.  Exeunt,  

Actus, 2. Scaena, 2.  Orcanes, Gazellus, Uribassa with their train. Orcanes. 
GAzellus, Uribassa, and the rest,  
Now will we march from proud orminus' 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,  Gaz. 
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 off 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.  Vrib. 
methinks I see how glad the christian King  
Is made, for joy of your admitted truce:  
That could not but before be terrified:  
With unacquainted power of our host.  Enter a messenger. Mess 
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.  Orc. 
Traitors, villains, damned Christians,  
Have I not here the articles of peace,  
And solemn covenants we have both confirmed,  
He by his Christ, and I by Mahomet:  Gaz. 
Hell and confusion light upon their heads,  
That with such treason seek our overthrow,  
And cares so little for their prophet Christ.  Orc. 
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 servants perjury.  
Open thou shining vail of Cynthia  
And make a passage from the imperial heaven  
That he that sits on high and never sleeps,  
Nor in one place is circumscriptible,  
But everywhere 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 esteemed omnipotent,  
If thou wilt prove thyself a perfect God,  
Worthy the worship of all faithful hearts,  
Be now revenged upon this traitor's soul,  
And make the power I have left behind  
(Too little to defend our guiltless lives)  
Sufficient to discomfort 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.   
Sound to the battle, and Sigismond comes out wounded. Sig. 
Discomfited is all the Christian host,  
And God hath thundered vengeance from on high,  
For my accursed 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. Or. 
Now lie the Christians bathing in their bloods,  
And Christ or Mahomet hath been my friend.  Gaz. 
See here the perjured traitor Hungary,  
Bloody and breathless for his villainy.  Orc. 
Now shall his barbarous body be a prey  
To beasts and fowls, and all the winds shall breathe  
Through shady leaves of every senseless tree,  
Murmurs and hisses for his heinous sin.  
Now scalds his soul in the Tartarian streams,  
And feeds upon the baneful tree of hell,  
That zoacum, that fruit of bitterness,  
That in the midst of fire is engrafted,  
Yet flourisheth as Flora in her pride,  
With apples like the heads of damned Fiends,  
The devil's there in chains of quenchless flame,  
Shall lead his soul through Orcus burning gulfs  
From pain to pain, whose change shall never end:  
What sayest thou yet Gazellus to his foil:  
Which we referred to justice of his Christ,  
And to his power, which here appears as full  
As rays of Cynthia to the clearest sight?  Gaz. 
'tis but the fortune of the wars my Lord,  
Whose power is often proved a miracle.  Orc. 
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 disgraced 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 pray upon.  
Go Uribassa, give it straight in charge.  Vri. 
I will my Lord.  Exit Vrib. Orc. 
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.  Exeunt.  

Actus. 2. Scaena vltima.  The Arras is drawn and Zenocrate lies in her bed of state, Tamburlaine sitting by her: three Physicians about her bed, tempering potions. Theridamas, Techelles, Usumeasane, and the three sons. Tamburlaine, 
Black is the beauty of the brightest day,  
The golden ball of heavens eternal fire,  
That danced with glory on the silver waves:  
Now wants the fuel that inflame 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 bowers,  
And tempered 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 looked 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 runs through Paradise  
To entertain divine zenocrate.  
The Cherubins and holy Seraphins  
That sing and play before the king of kings,  
We 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'imperial 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?  Phis. 
My Lord, your Majesty shall soon perceive:  
And if she pass this fit, the worst is past.  tam. 
Tell me, how fares my fair Zenocrate:  zen. 
I fare my Lord, as other Empresses,  
That when this frail and transitory flesh,  
Hath sucked the measure of that vital air  
That feeds the body with his dated health,  
Wanes with enforced and necessary change.  tam. 
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 make the sun and Moon as dark  
As when opposed 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 anchor of my death.  zen. 
Live still my Lord, O let my sovereign live,  
And sooner let the fiery Element  
Dissolve, and make your kingdom in the Sky,  
Than this base earth should shroud your majesty:  
For should I but suspect your death by mine,  
The comfort of my future happiness  
And hope to meet your highness in the heavens,  
Turned to despair, would break my wretched breast,  
And fury would confound my present rest.  
But let me die my Love, yet let me die,  
With love and patience let your true love die:  
Your grief and fury hurts my second life,  
Yet let me kiss my Lord before I die,  
And let me die with kissing of my Lord.  
But since my life is lengthened yet a while,  
Let me take leave of these my loving sons,  
And of my Lords whose true nobility  
Have merited my latest memory:  
Sweet sons farewell, in death resemble me,  
And in your lives your father's excellency.  
Some music, and my fit will cease my Lord.  They call music. tam. 
Proud fury and intolerable fit,  
That dares torment the body of my Love,  
And scourge the Scourge of the immortal God:  
Now are those Spheres where Cupid used to sit,  
Wounding the world with wonder and with love,  
Sadly supplied with pale and ghastly death:  
Whose darts do pierce the Centre of my soul,  
Her sacred beauty hath enchanted heaven,  
And had she lived before the siege of Troy,  
Helen, whose beauty summoned Greece to arms,  
And drew a thousand ships to Tenedos,  
Had not been named in Homer's Iliads:  
Her name had been in every line he wrote:  
Or had those wanton Poets, for whose birth  
Old Rome was proud, but gazed a while on her,  
Nor Lesbia, nor Corrinna had been named,  
zenocrate had been the argument  
Of every Epigram or elegy.  The music sounds, and she dies. tam. 
What, is she dead? Techelles, draw thy sword,  
And wound the earth, that it may cleave in twain,  
And we descend into th'infernal vaults,  
To hail the fatal Sisters by the hair,  
And throw them in the triple more of Hell,  
For taking hence my fair zenocrate.  
Casane and theridamas to arms,  
Raise cavalieroes higher than the clouds:  
And with the cannon break the frame of heaven,  
Batter the shining palace of the Sun,  
And shiver all the starry firmament:  
For amorous jove hath snatched my love from hence,  
Meaning to make her stately Queen of heaven,  
What God soever holds thee in his arms,  
Giving thee Nectar and Ambrosia,  
Behold me here divine zenocrate,  
Raving, impatient, desperate and mad,  
Breaking my steeled lance, with which I burst  
The rusty beams of janus Temple doors,  
Letting out death and tyrannising war:  
To march with me under this bloody flag,  
And if thou pitiest Tamburlaine the great,  
Come down from heaven and live with me again.  ther. 
Ah good my Lord be patient, she is dead,  
And all this raging cannot make her live,  
If words might serve, our voice hath rent the air,  
If tears, our eyes have watered all the earth:  
If grief, our murdered hearts have strained forth blood  
Nothing prevails, for she is dead my Lord.  tam. 
For she is dead: thy words do pierce my soul  
Ah sweet theridamas, say so no more,  
Though she be dead, yet let me think she lives,  
And feed my mind that dies for want of her:  
Where ere her soul be, thou shalt stay with me  
Embalmed with Cassia, Amber Greece and Myrrh,  
Not leapt in lead but in a sheet of gold,  
And till I die thou shalt not be interred.  
Then in as rich a tomb as Mausolus,  
We both will rest and have one Epitaph  
Writ in as many several languages,  
As I have conquered kingdoms with my sword,  
This cursed town will I consume with fire,  
Because this place bereft me of my Love:  
The houses burnt, will look as if they mourned  
And here will I set up her stature,  
And march about it with my mourning camp,  
Drooping and pining for zenocrate.  The Arras is drawn.   

Actus. 3.  

Scaena. 1,  Enter the kings of Trebisond and Soria, one bringing a sword, & another a sceptre: Next Natolia and jerusalem with the Imperial crown: After Calapine, and after him other Lords: Orcanes and jerusalem crown him, and the other give him the sceptre. Orca. 
CAlepinus Cyricelibes, otherwise Cybelius, son and successive heir to the late mighty Emperor Bajazeth, by the aid of God and his friend Mahomet, Emperor of Natolia, jerusalem, Trebizon, Soria, Amasia, Thracia, Illyria, Carmonia And all the hundred and thirty Kingdoms late contributory to his mighty father. Long live Callepinus, Emperor of Turkey.  Cal. 
Thrice worthy kings of Natolia, and the rest,  
I will requite your royal gratitudes  
With all the benefits my Empire yields:  
And were the sinews of th'imperial seat  
So knit and strengthened, as when Bajazeth  
My royal Lord and father filled the throne,  
Whose cursed fate hath so dismembered it,  
Then should you see this Thief of Scythia,  
This proud usurping king of Persia,  
Do us such honour and supremacy,  
Bearing the vengeance of our father's wrongs,  
As all the world should blot our dignities  
Out of the book of base born infamies.  
And now I doubt not but your royal cares  
Hath so provided for this cursed foe,  
That since the heir of mighty Bajazeth  
(An Emperor so honoured for his virtues)  
Revives the spirits of true Turkish hearts,  
In grievous memory of his father's shame,  
We shall not need to nourish any doubt,  
But that proud Fortune, who hath followed long  
The martial sword of mighty Tamburlaine,  
Will now retain her old inconstancy,  
And raise our honours to as high a pitch  
In this our strong and fortunate encounter,  
For so hath heaven provided my escape,  
From all the cruelty my soul sustained,  
By this my friendly keeper's happy means,  
That jove sur charged with pity of our wrongs,  
Will pour it down in showers on our heads:  
Scourging the pride of cursed Tamburlaine.  Orc. 
I have a hundred thousand men in arms,  
Some, that in conquest of the perjured Christian.  
Being a handful to a mighty host,  
Think them in number yet sufficient,  
To drink the river Nile or Euphrates,  
And for their power, enough to win the world.  Ier. 
And I as many from jerusalem,  
judaea, Gaza, and Scalonians bounds,  
That on mount Sinai with their ensigns spread,  
Look like the particoloured clouds of heaven,  
That show fair weather to the neighbour morn.  Treb. 
And I as many bring from Trebizon,  
Chio Famastro and Amasia,  
All bordering on the Mare-major sea:  
Riso, Sancina, and the bordering towns,  
That touch the end of famous Euphrates.  
Whose courages are kindled with the flames,  
The cursed Scythian sets on all their towns,  
And vow to burn the villains cruel heart.  Sor. 
From Soria with seventy thousand strong,  
ta'en from Aleppo, Soldino, Tripoli,  
And so unto my city of Damasco,  
I march to meet and aid my neighbour kings,  
All which will join against this Tamburlaine,  
And bring him captive to your highness feet.  Orc. 
Our battle then in martial manner pitched,  
According to our ancient use, shall bear  
The figure of the semicircled Moon:  
Whose horns shall sprinkle through the tainted air,  
The poisoned brains of this proud Scythian.  Cal. 
Well then my noble Lords, for this my friend,  
That freed me from the bondage of my foe:  
I think it requisite and honourable,  
To keep my promise, and to make him king,  
That is a Gentleman (I know) at least.  Alm. 
That's no matter sir, for being a king,  
For Tamburlaine came up of nothing.  Ier. 
Your Majesty may choose some pointed time,  
Performing all your promise to the full:  
'tis nought for your majesty to give a kingdom.  Cal. 
Then will I shortly keep my promise Almeda  Alm. 
Why, I thank your Majesty.  Exeunt.  

Actus. 2. Scaena. 2.  Tamburlaine with Usumeasane, and his three sons, four bearing the hearse of Zenocrate, and the drums sounding a doleful march, the Town burning. Tamb. 
SO, burn the turrets of this cursed town,  
Flame to the highest region of the air:  
And kindle heaps of exhalations,  
That being fiery meteors, may presage,  
Death and destruction to th'inhabitants  
Over my Zenith hang a blazing star,  
That may endure till heaven be dissolved,  
Fed with the fresh supply of earthly dregs,  
Threatening a death and famine to this land,  
Flying Dragons, lightning, fearful thunderclaps,  
singe these fair plains, and make them seem as black  
As is the Island where the Furies mask  
Compassed with Lethe, Styx and Phlegeton,  
Because my dear Zenocrate is dead.  Cal. 
This Pillar placed in memory of her,  
Where in Arabian, Hebrew, Greek, is writ  
This town being burnt by Tamburlaine the great,  
Forbids the world to build it up again.  Amy. 
And here this mournful streamer shall be placed  
Wrought with the persian and Egyptian arms,  
To signify she was a princess borne,  
And wife unto the Monarch of the East.  Celib. 
And here this table as a Register  
Of all her virtues and perfections.  tam. 
And here the picture of zenocrate,  
To show her beauty, which the world admired,  
Sweet picture of divine Zenocrate,  
That hanging here, will draw the Gods from heaven:  
And cause the stars fixed in the Southern ark,  
Whose lovely faces never any viewed,  
That have not passed the centre's latitude.  
As pilgrims travail to our Hemisphere.  
Only to gaze upon Zenocrate.  
Thou shalt not beautify Larissa plains.  
But keep within the circle of mine arms.  
At every town and castle I besiege,  
Thou shalt be set upon my royal tent.  
And when I meet an army in the field,  
Whose looks will shed such influence in my camp,  
As if Bellona, Goddess of the war  
Threw naked swords and sulphur balls of fire,  
Upon the heads of all our enemies.  
And now my Lords, advance your spears again,  
Sorrow no more my sweet Casane now:  
Boys leave to mourn, this town shall ever mourn,  
Being burnt to cinders for your mother's death.  Cal. 
If I had wept a sea of tears for her,  
It would not ease the sorrow I sustain.  Amy. 
As is that town, so is my heart consumed,  
With grief and sorrow for my mother's death.  Cel. 
My mother's death hath mortified my mind,  
And sorrow stops the passage of my speech.  Tamb. 
But now my boys, leave off, and list to me,  
That mean to teach you rudiments of war:  
I'll have you learn to sleep upon the ground,  
March in your armour throw watery Fens,  
Sustain the scorching heat and freezing cold,  
Hunger and cold right adjuncts of the war.  
And after this, to scale a castle wall,  
Besiege a fort, to undermine a town,  
And make whole cities caper in the air.  
Then next, the way to fortify your men,  
In champion grounds, what figure serves you best,  
For with the quinque-angle form is meet,  
Because the corners there may fall more flat:  
Whereas the Fort may fittest be assailed,  
And sharpest where th'assault is desperate.  
The ditches must be deep, the Counterscarps  
Narrow and steep, the walls made high and broad,  
The Bulwarks and the rampires large and strong,  
With cavalieroes and thick counterforts,  
And room within to lodge six thousand men.  
It must have privy ditches, countermines,  
And secret issuings to defend the ditch.  
It must have high Argins and covered ways  
To keep the bulwark fronts from battery,  
And Parapets to hide the Muscatiers:  
Casemates to place the great Artillery,  
And store of ordinance that from every flank  
May scour the outward curtains of the Fort,  
Dismount the Cannon of the adverse part,  
Murder the Foe and save their walls from breach.  
When this is learned for service on the land,  
By plain and easy demonstration,  
I'll teach you how to make the water mount,  
That you may dry-foot march through lakes & pools,  
Deep rivers, havens, creeks, and little seas,  
And make a Fortress in the raging waves,  
Fenced with the concave of a monstrous rock,  
Invincible by nature of the place.  
When this is done, then are ye soldiers,  
And worthy sons of Tamburlaine the great,  Cal. 
My Lord, but this is dangerous to be done,  
We may be slain or wounded ere we learn.  tam. 
Villain, art thou the son of Tamburlaine,  
And fear'st to die, or with a Curtle-axe  
To hew thy flesh and make a gaping wound:  
Hast thou beheld a peal of ordinance strike  
A ring of pikes, mingled with shot and horse,  
Whose shattered limbs, being tossed as high as heaven,  
Hang in the air as thick as sunny motes,  
And canst thou Coward stand in fear of death:  
Hast thou not seen my horsemen charge the foe,  
Shot through the arms, cut overthwart the hands,  
Dying their lances with their streaming blood,  
And yet at night carouse within my tent,  
Filling their empty veins with airy wine,  
That being concocted, turns to crimson blood,  
And wilt thou shun the field for fear of wounds:  
View me thy father that hath conquered kings,  
And with his host march round about the earth,  
Quite void of scars, and clear from any wound,  
That by the wars lost not a dram of blood,  
And see him lance his flesh to teach you all.  He cuts his arm. 
A wound is nothing be it near so deep,  
Blood is the God of Wars rich livery.  
Now look I like a soldier, and this wound  
As great a grace and majesty to me,  
As if a chair of gold enamelled,  
Enchased with Diamonds, sapphires, Rubies  
And fairest pearl of wealthy India  
Were mounted here under a canopy:  
And I sat down, clothed with the massy rob,  
That late adorned the Afrique Potentate.  
Whom I brought bound unto Damascus walls.  
Come boys and with your fingers search my wound,  
And in my blood wash all your hands at once,  
While I sit smiling to behold the sight.  
Now my boys, what think you of a wound?  Cal. 
I know not what I should think of it,  
methinks 'tis a pitiful sight.  Cel. 
'tis nothing: give me a wound father.  Amy. 
And me another my Lord.  tam. 
Come sirrah, give me your arm.  Cel. 
Here father, cut it bravely as you did your own  tam. 
It shall suffice thou darest abide a wound  
My boy, Thou shalt not lose a drop of blood,  
Before we meet the army of the Turk.  
But then run desperate through the thickest throngs,  
Dreadless of blows, of bloody wounds and death:  
And let the burning of Larissa walls  
My speech of war, and this my wound you see  
Teach you my boys to bear courageous minds,  
Fit for the followers of great tamburlaine.  
Usumeasane now come let us march  
Towards Techelles and Theridamas,  
That we have sent before to fire the towns,  
The towers and cities of these hateful Turks,  
And hunt that Coward, faintheart, runaway,  
With that accursed traitor Almeda,  
Till fire and sword have found them at a bay.  Vsu. 
I long to pierce his bowels with my sword,  
That hath betrayed my gracious Sovereign,  
That cursed and damned Traitor Almeda.  Tam. 
Then let us see if coward Callapin  
Dare levy arms against our puissance,  
That we may tread upon his captive neck,  
And treble all his father's slaveries.  Exeunt.  

Actus. 3. Scaena. 1,  Techelles, Theridamas and their train. Therid. 
THus have we marched Northward from Tamburlaine,  
Unto the frontier point of Soria:  
And this is Balsera their chiefest hold,  
Wherein is all the treasure of the land.  tech. 
Then let us bring our light Artillery,  
Minions, Fauknets, and sakers to the trench,  
Filling the ditches with the walls wide breach,  
And enter in, to seize upon the gold:  
How say ye Soldiers, Shall we not?  Soul. 
Yes, my Lord, yes, come let's about it,  ther. 
But stay a while, summon a parley, Drum,  
It may be they will yield it quietly,  
Knowing two kings, the friend to Tamburlaine,  
Stand at the walls, with such a mighty power.  Summon the battle. Captain with his wife and son. Cap. 
What require you my masters?  ther. 
Captain, that thou yield up thy hold to us.  Cap. 
To you. Why, do you think me weary of it?  Tech. 
Nay Captain, thou art weary of thy life,  
If thou withstand the friends of Tamburlaine.  ther. 
These pioneers of Argier in Africa,  
Even in the cannon's face shall raise a hill  
Of earth and faggots higher than thy Fort,  
And over thy Argins and covered ways  
Shall play upon the bulwarks of thy hold  
Volleys of ordinance till the breach be made,  
That with his ruin fills up all the trench.  
And when we enter in, not heaven itself  
Shall ransom thee, thy wife and family.  Tech. 
Captain, these moors shall cut the leaden pipes,  
That bring fresh water to thy men and thee,  
And lie in trench before thy castle walls:  
That no supply of victual shall come in,  
Nor issue forth, but they shall die:  
And therefore Captain, yield it quietly.  Cap. 
Were you that are the friends of Tamburlaine  
Brothers to holy Mahomet himself,  
I would not yield it: therefore do your worst.  
Raise mounts, batter, entrench, and undermine,  
Cut off the water, all convoys that can,  
Yet I am resolute, and so farewell.  ther. 
pioneers away, and where I stuck the stake,  
Entrench with those dimensions I prescribed:  
Cast up the earth towards the castle wall,  
Which till it may defend you, labour low:  
And few or none shall perish by their shot.  Pion. 
We will my Lord.  Exeunt. Tech. 
A hundred horse shall scout about the plains  
To spy what force comes to relieve the hold.  
Both we (theridamas) will entrench our men,  
And with the jacob's staff measure the height  
And distance of the castle from the trench,  
That we may know if our artillery  
Will carry full point blank unto their walls.  ther. 
Then see the bringing of our ordinance  
Along the trench into the battery,  
Where we will have galleons of six foot broad,  
To save our Canoneers from musket shot,  
Betwixt which, shall our ordinance thunder forth,  
And with the breaches fall, smoke, fire, and dust,  
The crack, the echo and the soldiers cry  
Make deaf the air, and dim the Crystal Sky.  tech. 
Trumpets and drums, alarum presently,  
And soldiers play the men, the holds is yours.   
Enter the Captain with his wife and son. Olym. 
Come good my Lord, & let us haste from hence  
Along the cave that leads beyond the foe,  
No hope is left to save this conquered hold.  Cap. 
A deadly bullet gliding through my side,  
Lies heavy on my heart, I cannot live.  
I feel my liver pierced and all my veins,  
That there begin and nourish every part,  
Mangled and torn, and all my entrails bathed  
In blood that straineth from their orifex.  
Farewell sweet wife, sweet son farewell, I die.  Olym. 
Death, whether art thou gone that both we live:  
Come back again (sweet death) & strike us both:  
One minute end our days, and one sepulchre  
Contain our bodies: death, why com'st thou not:  
Well, this must be the messenger for thee,  
Now ugly death stretch out thy Sable wings,  
And carry both our souls, where his remains.  
Tell me sweet boy, art thou content to die?  
These barbarous Scythians full of cruelty,  
And moors, in whom was never pity found,  
Will hew us piecemeal, put us to the wheel,  
Or else invent some torture worse than that,  
Therefore die by thy loving mother's hand,  
Who gently now will lance thy ivory throat,  
And quickly rid thee both of pain and life.  Son. 
Mother dispatch me, or I'll kill myself,  
For think ye I can live, and see him dead:  
Give me your knife, good mother) or strike home:  
The Scythiens shall not tyrannize on me.  
Sweet mother strike, that I may meet my father.  She stabs him. Olym. 
Ah sacred Mahomet, if this be sin,  
Entreat a pardon of the God of heaven,  
And purge my soul before it come to thee.  Enter Theridamas, Techelles and all their train. ther. 
How now Madam, what are you doing?  Olim. 
Killing myself, as I have done my son,  
Whose body with his fathers I have burnt,  
lest cruel Scythians should dismember him.  tech. 
'twas bravely done, and like a soldiers wife,  
Thou shalt with us to Tamburlaine the great,  
Who when he hears how resolute thou wert,  
Will match thee with a viceroy or a king.  Olym. 
My Lord deceased, was dearer unto me,  
Than any Viceroy, King or Emperor.  
And for his sake here will I end my days.  ther. 
But Lady go with us to Tamburlaine,  
And thou shalt see a man greater than Mahomet.  
In whose high looks is much more majesty  
Than from the Concave superficies.  
Of jove's vast palace the imperial Orb,  
Unto the shining bower where Cynthia sits,  
Like lovely thetis in a Crystal rob,  
That treadeth Fortune underneath his feet,  
And makes the mighty God of arms his slave:  
On whom death and the fatal sister's wait,  
With naked swords and scarlet liveries:  
Before whom (mounted on a lion's back)  
Rhammusia bears a helmet full of blood,  
And strews the way with brains of slaughtered men:  
By whose proud side the ugly furies run.  
hearkening when he shall bid them plague the world,  
Over whose zenith clothed in windy air,  
And Eagles wings joined to her feathered breast,  
Fame hovereth, sounding of her golden Trump:  
That to the adverse poles of that straight line,  
Which measureth the glorious frame of heaven,  
The name of mighty Tamburlaine is spread:  
And him fair Lady shall thy eyes behold. Come.  Olim 
Take pity of a lady's ruthful tears,  
That humbly craves upon her knees to stay,  
And cast her body in the burning flame,  
That feeds upon her sons and husband's flesh.  tech. 
Madam, sooner shall fire consume us both,  
Then scorch a face so beautiful as this.  
In frame of which, Nature hath showed more skill,  
Than when she gave eternal Chaos form,  
Drawing from it the shining Lamps of heaven.  ther. 
Madam, I am so far in love with you,  
That you must go with us, no remedy.  Olim. 
Then carry me I care not where you will,  
And let the end of this my fatal journey,  
Be likewise end to my accursed life.  tech. 
No Madam, but the beginning of your joy,  
Come willingly, therefore.  ther. 
soldiers now let us meet the General,  
Who by this time is at Natolia,  
Ready to charge the army of the Turk.  
The gold, the silver, and the pearl ye got,  
Rifling this Fort, divide in equal shares:  
This Lady shall have twice so much again,  
Out of the coffers of our treasury.  Exeunt.  

Actus: 3. Scaena. 5.  Callepine, Orcanes, jerusalem, Trebizon, Soria; Almeda; with their train. Messenger. 
Renowned Emperor, mighty Callepine,  
God's great lieutenant over all the world:  
Here at Aleppo with an host of men  
Lies Tamburlaine, this king of Persia:  
In number more than are the quivering leaves  
Of Ida's forest, where your highness hounds,  
With open cry pursues the wounded Stag:  
Who means to girt Anatolia's walls with siege,  
Fire the town and overrun the land.  Cal. 
My royal army is as great as his,  
That from the bounds of Phrigia to the sea  
Which washeth Cyprus with his brinish waves,  
Covers the hills, the valleys and the plains.  
viceroys and Peers of Turkey play the men,  
Whet all your swords to mangle Tamburlaine  
His sons, his Captains and his followers,  
By Mahomet not one of them shall live.  
The field wherein this battle shall be fought,  
For ever, term, the persian's sepulchre,  
In memory of this our victory.  Orc. 
Now, he that calls himself the scourge of jove,  
The Emperor of the world, and earthly God,  
Shall end the warlike progress he intends,  
And travail headlong to the lake of hell:  
Where legions of devils knowing he must die  
Here in Natolia, by your highness hands)  
All brandishing their brands of quenchless fire,  
Stretching their monstrous paws, grin with their teeth.  
And guard the gates to entertain his soul.  Cal. 
Tell me Viceroys the number of your men,  
And what our Army royal is esteemed.  Ier. 
From Palestina and jerusalem,  
Of Hebrews, three score thousand fighting men  
Are come since last we showed your majesty.  Orc. 
So from Arabia desert, and the bounds  
Of that sweet land, whose brave Metropolis  
re-edified the fair Semiramis,  
Came forty thousand warlike foot and horse,  
Since last we numbered to your Majesty.  treb. 
From trebizon in Asia the less,  
Naturalised Turks and stout Bythinians  
Came to my bands full fifty thousand more,  
That fighting, knows not what retreat doth mean,  
Nor ere return but with the victory,  
Since last we numbered to your majesty.  Sor. 
Of Sorians from Halla is repaired  
And neighbour cities of your highness land,  
Ten thousand horse, and thirty thousand foot,  
Since last we numbered to your majesty:  
So that the Army royal is esteemed  
Six hundred thousand valiant fighting men.  Callep. 
Then welcome Tamburlaine unto thy death.  
Come puissant Viceroys, let us to the field,  
(The persian's Sepulchre) and sacrifice  
Mountains of breathless men to Mahomet.  
Who now with jove opens the firmament,  
To see the slaughter of our enemies.   

Actus. 2. Scaena. 1.  Tamburlaine with his three sons, Usumeasane with other. Tam. 
HOw now Casane? See a knot of kings,  
Sitting as if they were a telling tidles.  Vsu. 
My Lord, your presence makes them pale and wan.  
Poor souls they look as if their deaths were near.  tamb. 
Why, so he is Casane, I am here,  
But yet I'll sane their lives and make them slaves.  
Ye petty kings of Turkey I am come,  
As Hector did into the Grecian camp.  
To overdare the pride of Graecia.  
And set his warlike person to the view  
Of fierce Achilles, rival of his fame,  
I do you honour in the simile.  
For if I should as Hector did Achilles,  
(The worthiest knight that ever brandish sword)  
Challenge in combat any of you all,  
I see how fearfully ye would refuse,  
And fly my glove as from a Scorpion.  Orc. 
Now thou art fearful of thy Army's strength,  
Thou wouldst with over match of person fight,  
But shepherds issue, base borne tamburlaine,  
Think of thy end, this sword shall lance thy throat.  Tamb. 
Villain, the shepherds issue, at whose birth  
Heaven did afford a gracious aspect,  
And joined those stars that shall be opposite,  
Even till the dissolution of the world;  
And never meant to make a Conqueror;  
So famous as is mighty Tamburlaine:  
Shall so torment thee and that Callapine,  
That like a roguish runaway, suborned  
That villain there, that slave, that Turkish dog,  
To false his service to his Sovereign,  
As ye shall curse the birth of Tamburlaine.  Cal. 
Rail not proud Scythian, I shall now revenge  
My father's vile abuses and mine own.  Ier. 
By Mahomet he shall be tied in chains,  
Rowing with Christians in a Brigandine,  
About the Grecian Isles to rob and spoil:  
And turn him to his ancient trade again.  
methinks the slave should make a lusty thief.  Cal. 
Nay, when the battle ends, all we will meet,  
And sit in council to invent some pain,  
That most may vex his body and his soul:  Tam. 
Sirrah, Callapine, I'll hang a clog about your neck for running away again, you shall not trouble me thus to come and fetch you.  
But as for you (Viceroy) you shall have bits,  
And harnessed like my horses, draw my coach:  
And when ye stay, be lashed with whips of wire,  
I'll have you learn to feed on provender,  
And in a stable lie upon the planks:  Orc. 
But Tamburlaine, first thou shalt kneel to us  
And humbly crave a pardon for thy life.  treb. 
The common soldiers of our mighty host  
Shall bring thee bound unto the general's tent.  Sor. 
And all have jointly sworn thy cruel death,  
Or bind thee in eternal torments wrath.  tam. 
Well sirs, diet yourselves, you know I shall have occasion shortly to journey you.  Cel. 
See father, how Almeda the jailor looks upon us.  tam. 
Villain, traitor, damned fugitive,  
I'll make thee wish the earth had swallowed thee:  
Seest thou not death within my wrathful looks.  
Go villain, cast thee headlong from a rock,  
Or rip thy bowels, and rend out thy heart,  
T'appease my wrath, or else I'll torture thee,  
Searing thy hateful flesh with burning irons,  
And drops of scalding lead, while all thy joints  
Be racked and beat asunder with the wheel,  
For if thou livest, not any Element  
Shall shroud thee from the wrath of tamburlaine  Cal. 
Well, in despite of thee he shall be king:  
Come Almeda, receive this crown of me,  
I here invest thee king of Ariadan,  
Bordering on Mare Roso near to Mecca.  Or. 
What, take it man.  Al. 
Good my Lord, let me take it.  Cal. 
Dost thou ask him leave: here, take it.  tam. 
Go too sirrah, take your crown, and make up the half dozen.  
So sirrah, now you are a king you must give arms.  Or. 
So he shall, and we are thy head in his Scutcheon:  tamb. 
No, let him hang a bunch of keys on his standard, to put him in remembrance he was a jailor, that when I take him, I may knock out his brains with them, and lock you in the stable, when you shall come sweating from my chariot.  treb. 
Away, let us to the field, that the villain may be slain.  tamb. 
Sirrah, prepare whips, and bring my chariot to my Tent: For as soon as the battle is done, I'll ride in triumph through the Camp.  Enter Theridamas, Techelles and their train. 
How now ye petty kings, lo, here are Bugs  
Will make the hair stand upright on your heads,  
And cast your crowns in slavery at their feet.  
Welcome theridamas and techelles both,  
See ye this rout, and know ye this same king:  ther. 
ay, my Lord, he was Calapine's keeper.  tam. 
Well, now you see he is a king, look to him theridamas, when we are fighting, lest he hide his crown as the foolish king of Persia did.  Sor. 
No Tamburlaine, he shall not be put to that Exigent, I warrant thee.  tam. 
You know not sir:  
But now my followers and my loving friends,  
Fight as you ever did, like Conquerors,  
The glory of this happy day is yours:  
My stern aspect shall make fair Victory,  
Hovering betwixt our armies, light on me,  
Laden with Laurel wreaths to crown us all.  tech. 
I smile to think, how when this field is fought,  
And rich Natolia ours, our men shall sweat  
With caring pearl and treasure on their backs,  tamb. 
You shall be princes all immediately:  
Come fight ye Turks, or yield us victory.  Or. 
No, we will meet thee slavish Tamburlaine.  Exeunt   

Actus. 4.  

Scaena. 1.  Alarm: Amyras and Celebinus, issues from the tent where Caliphas sits asleep. 
NOw in their glories shine the golden crowns  
Of these proud Turks, much like so many suns  
That half dismay the majesty of heaven:  
Now brother follow we our father's sword,  
That flies with fury swifter than our thoughts,  
And cuts down armies with his conquering wings,  Cel. 
Call forth our lazy brother from the tent,  
For if my father miss him in the field,  
Wrath kindled in the furnace of his breast,  
Will send a deadly lightning to his heart.  Amy. 
Brother, ho, what, given so much to sleep  
You cannot leave it, when our enemies' drums  
And rattling cannons thunder in our ears  
Our proper ruin, and our father's foil:  Cal. 
Away ye fools, my father needs not me,  
Nor you in faith, but that you will be thought  
More childish valorous than manly wise:  
If half our camp should sit and sleep with me,  
My father were enough to scar the foe:  
You do dishonour to his majesty,  
To think our helps will do him any good.  Amy. 
What, dar'st thou then be absent from the fight,  
Knowing my father hates thy cowardice,  
And oft hath warned thee to be still in field,  
When he himself amidst the thickest troops  
Beats down our foes to flesh our taintless swords.  Cal. 
I know sir, what it is to kill a man,  
It works remorse of conscience in me,  
I take no pleasure to be murderous,  
Nor care for blood when wine will quench my thirst.  Cel. 
O cowardly boy, fie for shame, come forth.  
Thou dost dishonour manhood, and thy house.  Cal. 
Go, go tall stripling, fight you for us both,  
And take my other toward brother here,  
For person like to prove a second Mars,  
'twill please my mind as well to hear both you  
Have won a heap of honour in the field,  
And left your slender carcases behind,  
As if I lay with you for company.  Amy. 
You will not go then:  Cal 
You say true.  Amy. 
Were all the lofty mounts of Zona mundi,  
That fill the midst of farthest Tartary,  
Turned into pearl and proffered for my stay,  
I would not bide the fury of my father:  
When made a victor in these haughty arms.  
He comes and finds his sons have had no shares  
In all the honours he proposed for us.  Cal. 
Take you the honour, I will take my ease,  
My wisdom shall excuse my cowardice:  
I go into the field before I need:  Alarm, and Amy, and Celeb. run in. 
The bullets fly at random where they list.  
And should I go and kill a thousand men,  
I were as soon rewarded with a shot,  
And sooner far than he that never fights.  
And should I go and do nor harm nor good,  
I might have harm, which all the good I have  
joined with my father's crown would never cure.  
I'll to cards: Perdiccas.  Perd. 
Here my Lord.  Cal. 
Come, thou and I will go to cards to drive away the time.  Per. 
Content my Lord, but what shall we play for?  Cal. 
Who shall kiss the fairest of the Turks Concubine's first, when my father hath conquered them.  Per. 
Agreed i'faith.  They play. Cal. 
They say I am a coward, (Perdiccas) and I fear as little their tara, tantaras, their sword or their cannons, as I do a naked Lady in a net of gold, and for fear I should be afraid, would put it off and come to bed with me.  Per. 
Such a fear (my Lord) would never make ye retire.  Cal. 
I would my father would let me be put in the front of such a battle once, to try my valour.  Alarm. 
What a coil they keep, I believe there will be some hurt done anon amongst them.  Enter Tamburlain, Theridamas, Techelles, Usumeasane, Amyras, Celebinus, leading the Turkish kings. Tam. 
See now ye slaves, my children stoops your pride  
And leads your glories sheep-like to the sword.  
Bring them my boys, and tell me if the wars  
Be not a life that may illustrate Gods,  
And tickle not your Spirits with desire  
Still to be trained in arms and chivalry:  Amy. 
Shall we let go these kings again my Lord  
To gather greater numbers 'gainst our power,  
That they may say, it is not chance doth this,  
But matchless strength and magnanimity.  tamb. 
No, no Amyras, tempt not Fortune so,  
Cherish thy valour still with fresh supplies:  
And glut it not with stale and daunted foes,  
But where's this coward, villain, not my son,  
But traitor to my name and majesty.  He goes in and brings him out. 
Image of sloth, and and picture of a slave,  
The obloquy and scorn of my renown,  
How may my heart, thus fired with mine eyes,  
Wounded with shame, and killed with discontent,  
Shroud any thought may hold my striving hands  
From martial justice on thy wretched soul.  ther. 
Yet pardon him I pray your Majesty.  tech. & Vsu. 
Let all of us entreat your highness pardon  tam. 
Stand up, ye base unworthy soldiers,  
Know ye not yet the argument of Arms?  Amy. 
Good my Lord, let him be forgiven for once,  
And we will force him to the field hereafter.  tam. 
Stand up my boys, and I will teach ye arms,  
And what the jealousy of wars must do.  
O Samarcanda, where I breathed first,  
And joyed the fire of this martial flesh,  
Blush, blush fair city, at thine honours foil,  
And shame of nature with jaertis' stream,  
Embracing thee with deepest of his love,  
Can never wash from thy distained brows.  
Here jove, receive his fainting soul again,  
A Form not meet to give that subject essence,  
Whose matter is the flesh of Tamburlaine,  
Wherein an incorporeal spirit moves,  
Made of the mould whereof of thyself consists.  
Which makes me valiant, proud, ambitious,  
Ready to levy power against thy throne,  
That I might move the turning Spheres of heaven,  
For earth and all this airy region  
Cannot contain the state of Tamburlaine.  
By Mahomet, thy mighty friend I swear,  
In sending to my issue such a soul,  
Created of the massy dregs of earth,  
The scum and tartar of the Elements,  
Wherein was neither courage, strength or wit,  
But folly, sloth, and damned idleness:  
Thou hast procured a greater enemy,  
Than he that darted mountains at thy head.  
Shaking the burden mighty Atlas bears:  
Whereat thou trembling hidest thee in the air.  
Clothed with a pitchy cloud for being seen.  
And now ye cankered curs of Asia,  
That will not see the strength of Tamburlaine,  
Although it shine as brightly as the Sun.  
Now you shall feel the strength of Tamburlaine,  
And by the state of his supremacy,  
Approve the difference twixt himself and you.  Orc. 
Thou showest the difference twixt ourselves and thee.  
In this thy barbarous damned tyranny.  Ier. 
Thy victories are grown so violent,  
That shortly heaven, filled with the meteors  
Of blood and fire thy tyrannies have made,  
Will pour down blood and fire on thy head:  
Whose scalding drops will pierce thy seething brains,  
And with our bloods, revenge our bloods on thee.  Tamb. 
villains, these terrors and these tyrannies  
(If tyrannies wars justice ye repute)  
I execute, enjoined me from above:  
To scourge the pride of such as heaven abhors,  
Nor am I made Arch-monarch of the world,  
Crowned 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 terror of the world,  
I must apply myself to fit those terms,  
In war, in blood, in death, in cruelty,  
And plague such Peasants as resisting me,  
The power of heavens eternal majesty.  
Theridamas, techelles, and Casane,  
Ransack the tents and the pavilions  
Of these proud Turks, and take their Concubines.  
Making them bury this effeminate brat,  
For not a common Soldier shall defile  
His manly fingers with so faint a boy.  
Then bring those Turkish harlots to my tent,  
And I'll dispose them as it likes me best,  
meanwhile take him in.  Soul. 
We will my Lord.  jer 
O damned monster, nay a Fiend of Hell,  
Whose cruelties are not so harsh as thine,  
Nor yet imposed, with such a bitter hate.  Orc. 
Revenge it Radamanth and Aeacus,  
And let your hates extended in his pains,  
Expel the hate wherewith he pains our souls.  treb. 
May never day give virtue to his eyes,  
Whose sight composed of fury and of fire  
Doth send such stern affections to his heart,  Sor. 
May never spirit, vain or artery feed  
The cursed substance of that cruel heart,  
But (wanting moisture and remorseful blood)  
Dry up with anger, and consume with heat.  tam. 
Well, bark ye dogs, I'll bridle all your tongues  
And bind them close with bits of burnished steel,  
Down to the channels of your hateful throats,  
And with the pains my rigour shall inflict,  
I'll make ye roar, that earth may echo forth  
The far resounding torments ye sustain,  
As when an herd of lusty Cymbrian Bulls,  
Run mourning round about, the Females miss,  
And stung with fury of their following,  
Fill all the air with troublous bellowing:  
I will with Engines, never exercised,  
Conquer, sack, and utterly consume  
Your cities and your golden palaces,  
And with the flames that beat against the clouds  
Incense the heavens. and make the stars to melt,  
As if they were the tears of Mahomet  
For hot consumption of his country's pride:  
And till by vision, or by speech I hear  
Immortal jove say, Cease my Tamburlaine,  
I will persist a terror to the world,  
Making the Meteors, that like armed men  
Are seen to march upon the towers of heaven,  
Run tilting round about the firmament,  
And break their burning Lances in the air,  
For honour of my wondrous victories.  
Come bring them in to our Pavilion.  Exeunt.  

Actus. 4. Scaena. 3,  Olympia alone. 
Distressed Olympia, whose weeping eyes  
Since thy arrival here beheld no Sun,  
But closed within the compass of a tent,  
Hath stained thy cheeks, & made thee look like death  
devise some means to rid thee of thy life.  
Rather than yield to his detested suit,  
Whose drift is only to dishonour thee.  
And since this earth, dewed with thy brinish tears,  
Affords no herbs, whose taste may poison thee,  
Nor yet this air, beat often with thy sighs,  
Contagious smells, and vapours to infect thee,  
Nor thy close Cave a sword to murder thee,  
Let this invention be the instrument.  Enter Theridamas. The. 
Well met Olympia, I sought thee in my tent  
But when I saw the place obscure and dark,  
Which with thy beauty thou wast wont to light,  
Enraged, I ran about the fields for thee,  
Supposing, amorous jove had sent his son,  
The winged Hermes, to convey thee hence:  
But now I find thee, and that fear is past.  
Tell me Olympia, wilt thou grant my suit?  Olym. 
My Lord and husbands death, with my sweet sons,  
With whom I buried all affections,  
Save grief and sorrow which torment my heart,  
Forbids my mind to entertain a thought  
That tends to love, but meditate on death,  
A fitter subject for a pensive soul.  Ther. 
Olympia, pity him, in whom thy looks  
Have greater operation and more force  
Than Cynthia's in the watery wilderness,  
For with thy view my joys are at the full,  
And ebb again, as thou depart'st from me.  Olim. 
Ah, pity me my Lord, and draw your sword,  
Making a passage for my troubled soul,  
Which beats against this prison to get out,  
And meet my husband and my loving son.  ther. 
Nothing, but still thy husband and thy son?  
Leave this my Love, and listen more to me,  
Thou shalt be stately Queen of fair Argier,  
And clothed in costly cloth of massy gold,  
Upon the marble turrets of my Court  
Sit like to Venus in her chair of state,  
Commanding all thy princely eye desires,  
And I will cast off arms and sit with thee,  
Spending my life in sweet discourse of love.  Olym. 
No such discourse is pleasant in mine ears,  
But that where every period ends with death,  
And every line begins with death again:  
I cannot love to be an Empress.  ther. 
Nay Lady, then if nothing will prevail,  
I'll use some other means to make you yield,  
Such is the sudden fury of my love,  
I must and will be pleased, and you shall yield:  
Come to the tent again.  Olym. 
Stay good my Lord, and will you save my honour,  
I'll give your Grace a present of such price,  
As all the world cannot afford the like.  ther. 
What is it.  Olym. 
An ointment which a cunning alchemist  
Distilled from the purest Balsamum,  
And simplest extracts of all Minerals,  
In which the essential form of Marble stone,  
Tempered by science metaphysical,  
And Spells of magic from the mouths of spirits,  
With which if you but 'noint your tender Skin,  
Nor Pistol, Sword, nor Lance can pierce your flesh.  Ther. 
Why Madam, think ye to mock me thus palpably?  Olim. 
To prove it, I will 'noint my naked throat,  
Which when you stab, look on your weapon's point,  
And you shall see't rebated with the blow.  ther. 
Why gave you not your husband some of it, if you loved him, and it so precious?  Olym. 
My purpose was (my Lord) to spend it so,  
But was prevented by his sudden end.  
And for a present easy proof hereof,  
That I dissemble not, try it on me,  ther. 
I will Olympia, and will keep it for  
The richest present of this Eastern world.  She 'noints her throat. Olym. 
Now stab my Lord, and mark your weapon's point  
That will be blunted if the blow be great.  ther. 
Here then Olympia.  
What, have I slain her? Villain, stab thyself:  
Cut off this arm that murdered my Love:  
In whom the learned rabbis of this age,  
Might find as many wondrous miracles,  
As in the Theoria of the world.  
Now Hell is fairer than Elysian,  
A greater Lamp than that bright eye of heaven,  
From whence the stars do borrow all their light  
Wanders about the black circumference,  
And now the damned souls are free from pain,  
For every Fury gazeth on her looks:  
Infernal Dis is courting of my Love,  
Inventing masks and stately shows for her,  
Opening the doors of his rich treasury,  
To entertain this Queen of chastity,  
Whose body shall be combed with all the pomp  
The treasure of my kingdom may afford.  Exit, taking her away.  

Actus. 4. Scaena. 4.  Tamburlaine drawn in his chariot by Trebizon and Soria with bits in their mouths, reins in his left hand, in his right hand a whip, with which he scourgeth them, Techelles, Theridamas, Usumeasane, Amyras, Celebinus: Natolia, and jerusalem led by with five or six common soldiers. Tam. 
HOlla, ye pampered jades of Asia:  
What, can ye draw but twenty miles a day,  
And have so proud a chariot at your heels,  
And such a Coachman as great Tamburlaine?  
But from Asphaltis, where I conquered you,  
To Byron here where thus I honour you:  
The horse that guide the golden eye of heaven,  
And blow the morning from their nostrils,  
Making their fiery gate above the clouds,  
Are not so honoured in their Governor,  
As you (ye slaves) in mighty Tamburlaine.  
The headstrong jades of Thrace, Alcides tamed,  
That King Egeus fed with human flesh,  
And made so wanton that they knew their strengths,  
Were not subdued with valour more divine,  
Than you by this unconquered arm of mine.  
To make you fierce, and fit my appetite,  
You shall be fed with flesh as raw as blood,  
And drink in pails the strongest Muscadel:  
If you can live with it, then live, and draw  
My chariot swifter than the racking clouds:  
If not, then die like beasts, and fit for nought  
But perches for the black and fatal Ravens.  
Thus am I right the Scourge of highest jove,  
And see the figure of my dignity,  
By which I hold my name and majesty.  Ami. 
Let me have coach my Lord, that I may ride,  
And thus be drawn with these two idle kings.  tam. 
Thy youth for bids such ease my kingly boy,  
They shall tomorrow draw my chariot,  
While these their fellow kings may be refreshed,  Orc. 
O thou that swayest the region under earth,  
And art a king as absolute as jove,  
Come as thou didst in fruitful sicily,  
surveying all the glories of the land:  
And as thou took'st the fair Proserpina,  
joying the fruit of Ceres' garden plot,  
For love, for honour, and to make her Queen,  
So for just hate, for shame, and to subdue  
This proud contemner of thy dreadful power,  
Come once in fury and survey his pride,  
Haling him headlong to the lowest hell.  ther. 
Your Majesty must get some bits for these,  
To bridle their contemptuous cursing tongues,  
That like unruly never broken jades,  
Break through the hedges of their hateful mouths,  
And pass their fixed bounds exceedingly.  Tech. 
Nay, we will break the hedges of their mouths  
And pull their kicking colts out of their pastures,  Vsu 
Your Majesty already hath devised  
A mean, as fit as may be to restrain  
These coltish coach-horse tongues from blasphemy.  Cel. 
How like you that sir king? why speak you not?  Ier. 
Ah cruel Brat, sprung from a tyrant's loins,  
How like his cursed father he begins,  
To practise taunts and bitter tyrannies?  Tam. 
I Turk, I tell thee, this same Boy is he,  
That must (advanced in higher pomp than this)  
Rifle the kingdoms I shall leave unsacked.  
If jove esteeming me too good for earth,  
Raise me to match the fair Aldeboran,  
Above the threefold astracism of heaven,  
Before I conquer all the triple world.  
New fetch me out the Turkish Concubines,  
I will prefer them for the funeral  
They have bestowed on my abortive son.  The Cōncubines are brought in. 
Where are my common soldiers now that fought  
So Lion-like upon Asphaltis plains?  Soul. 
Here my Lord.  Tam. 
Hold ye tall soldiers, take ye Queens apiece  
(I mean such Queens as were kings Concubines)  
Take them, divide them and their jewels too,  
And let them equally serve all your turns.  Soul. 
We thank your majesty.  tam. 
Brawl not (I warn yond for your lechery,  
For every man that so offends shall die,  Ore. 
Injurious tyrant, wilt thou so defame  
The hateful fortunes of thy victory,  
To exercise upon such guiltless Dames,  
The violence of thy common Soldiers lust.  Tam. 
Live content then (ye slaves) and meet not me  
With troops of harlots at your slothful heels  Lad. 
O pity us my Lord, and save our honours.  tam. 
Are ye not gone ye villains with your spoils?  They run away with the Ladies. Ier. 
O merciless infernal cruelty.  Tam. 
Save your honours? 'twere but time indeed,  
Lost long before you knew what honour meant.  ther. 
It seems they meant to conquer us my Lord,  
And make us jesting Pageants for their trulls.  tam. 
And now themselves shall make our Pageant,  
And common soldiers jest with all their trulls,  
Let them take pleasure soundly in their spoils,  
Till we prepare our march to Babylon,  
Whether we next make expedition.  tech. 
Let us not be idle than my Lord,  
But presently be priest to conquer it.  tam. 
We will techelles, forward than ye jades:  
Now crouch ye kings of greatest Asia,  
And tremble when ye hear this Scourge will come,  
That whips down cities, and controlleth crowns,  
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.  
Shall all be laden with the martial spoils  
We will convey with us to Persia.  
Then shall my native city Samarcanda  
And crystal waves of fresh jaertis' stream,  
The pride and beauty of her princely seat,  
Be famous through the furthest continents,  
For there my Palace royal shall be placed:  
Whose shining Turrets shall dismay the heavens,  
And cast the fame of Ilion's Tower to hell.  
Thorough the streets with troops of conquered kings,  
I'll ride in golden armour like the Sun,  
And in my helm a triple plume shall spring,  
Spangled with Diamonds dancing in the air,  
To note me Emperor of the threefold world.  
Like to an almond tree ymounted high,  
Upon the lofty and celestial mount,  
Of every green Selinus quaintly decked  
With blooms more white than hericina's brows,  
Whose tender blossoms tremble every one,  
At every little breath that thorough heaven is blown:  
Then in my coach like Saturn's royal son,  
Mounted his shining chariots, gilt with fire.  
And drawn with princely Eagles through the path,  
Paved with bright Crystal, and enchased with stars,  
When all the Gods stand and gazing at his pomp.  
So will I ride through Samarcanda streets,  
Until my soul dissevered from this flesh,  
Shall mount the milk-white way and meet him there.  
To Babylon my Lords, to Babylon.  Exeunt.  
Finis Actus quarti.   

Actus. 5.  

Scaena. 1.  Enter the Governor of Babylon upon the walls with others. Gouer. 
WHat saith Maximus?  Max. 
My Lord, the breach the enemy hath made  
Gives such assurance of our overthrow,  
That little hope is left to save our lives,  
Or hold out city from the conquerors hands.  
Then hang out flags (my Lord of humble truce,  
And satisfy the people's general prayers,  
That Tamburlaine's intolerable wrath  
May be suppressed by our submission.  Gou. 
Villain, respects thou more thy slavish life,  
Than honour of thy country or thy name?  
Is not my life and state as dear to me,  
The city and my native country's weal,  
As any thing of price with thy conceit?  
Have we not hope, for all our battered walls,  
To live secure, and keep his forces out,  
When this our famous lake of Limnasphaltis  
Makes walls a fresh with every thing that falls  
Into the liquid substance of his stream,  
More strong than are the gates of death or hell,  
What faintness should dismay our courages,  
When we are thus defenced against our Foe,  
And have no terror but his threatening looks?  Enter another, kneeling to the Governor. 
My Lord, if ever you did deed of tuth,  
And now will work a refuge to our lives,  
Offer submission, hang up flags of truce,  
That Tamburlaine may pity our distress,  
And use us like a loving Conqueror,  
Though this be held his last days dreadful siege,  
Wherein he spareth neither man nor child,  
Yet are there Christians of Georgia here,  
Whose state he ever pitied and relieved:  
Will get his pardon if your grace would send.  Gouer. 
How is my soul environed,  
And this eternized city Babylon,  
Filled with a pack of faintheart Fugitives,  
That thus entreat their shame and servitude?  Another. 
My Lord, if ever you will win our hearts,  
Yield up the town, save our wives and children:  
For I will cast myself from off these walls,  
Or die some death of quickest violence,  
Before I bide the wrath of Tamburlaine.  Gouer. 
villains, cowards, Traitors to our state,  
Fall to the earth, and pierce the pit of Hell,  
That legions of tormenting spirits may ver  
Your slavish bosoms with continual pains,  
I care not, nor the town will never yield  
As long as any life is in my breast.  Enter Theridamas and Techelles, with other soldiers. 
Thou desperate Governor of Babylon,  
To save thy life, and us a little labour,  
Yield speedily the city to our hands,  
Or else be sure thou shalt be forced with pains,  
More exquisite than ever Traitor felt.  Gou. 
Tyrant, I turn the traitor in thy throat,  
And will defend it in despite of thee.  
Call up the soldiers to defend these walls.  tech. 
Yield foolish Governor, we offer more  
Than ever yet we did to such proud slaves,  
As durst resist us till our third days siege:  
Thou seest us priest to give the last assault,  
And that shall bide no more regard of parley.  Gou. 
Assault and spare not, we will never yield.  Alarm, and they scale the walls. Enter Tamburlain, with Usumeasane. Amyras, and Celebinus, with others, the two spare kings. Tam. 
The stately buildings of fair Babylon,  
Whose lofty Pillars, higher than the clouds,  
Were wont to guide the seaman in the deep.  
Being carried thither by the cannon's force,  
Now fill the mouth of Limnasphaltis' lake,  
And make a bridge unto the battered walls,  
Where Belus, Ninus and great Alexander  
Have rode in triumph, triumphs Tamburlaine,  
Whose chariot wheels have burst th' Assyrians bones,  
Drawn with these kings on heaps of carcases,  
Now in the place where fair Semiramis,  
Courted by kings and peers of Asia,  
Hath trodden the measures, do my soldiers march,  
And in the streets, where brave Assyrian Dames  
Have rid in pomp like rich Saturnia,  
With furious words and frowning visages,  
My horsemen brandish their unruly blades.  Enter Theridamas and Techelles bringing the Governor of Babylon. 
Who have ye there my Lords?  Ther. 
The sturdy Governor of Babylon,  
That made us all the labour for the town,  
And used such slender reckoning of you majesty.  tam. 
Go bind the villain, he shall hang in chains,  
Upon the ruins of this conquered town,  
Sirrah, the view of our vermilion tents,  
Which threatened more than if the region  
Next underneath the Element of fire,  
Were full of Comets and of blazing stars,  
Whose flaming trains should reach down to the earth  
Could not affright you, no, nor I myself,  
The wrathful messenger of mighty Jove,  
That with his sword hath quailed all earthly kings.  
Could not persuade you to submission,  
But still the ports were shut: villain I say,  
Should I but touch the rusty gates of hell,  
The triple headed Cerberus would howl,  
And wake black jove to crouch and kneel to me.  
But I have sent volleys of shot to you,  
Yet could not enter till the breach was made,  Gou. 
Nor if my body could have stopped the breach,  
Shouldst thou have entered, cruel tamburlaine:  
'tis not thy bloody tents can make me yield,  
Nor yet thyself, thè anger of the highest,  
For though thy cannon shook the city walls,  
My heart did never quake, or courage faint.  tam. 
Well, now I'll make it quake, go draw him up,  
Hang him up in chains upon the city walls,  
And let my soldiers shoot the slave to death.  Gouern. 
Vile monster, borne of some infernal hag,  
And sent from hell to tyrannize on earth,  
Do all thy worst, nor death, nor Tamburlaine,  
Torture or pain can daunt my dreadless mind.  tam. 
Up with him then, his body shall be scared.  Gou 
But Tamburlaine, in Limnasphaltis' lake,  
There lies more gold than Babylon is worth,  
Which when the city was besieged I hid,  
Save but my life and I will give it thee.  tam. 
Then for all your valour, you would save your life,  
Where about lies it?  Gou. 
Under a hollow bank, right opposite  
Against the Western gate of Babylon.  tam 
Go thither some of you and take his gold,  
The rest forward with execution,  
Away with him hence, let him speak no more:  
I think I make your courage something quail,  
When this is done, we'll march from Babylon,  
And make our greatest haste to Persia:  
These jades are broken winded, and half tired,  
Unharness them, and let me have fresh horse:  
So, now their best is done to honour me,  
Take them, and hang them both up presently.  Tre. 
Vild Tyrant, barbarous bloody Tamburlaine  Tamb. 
Take them away Theridamas, see them dispatched.  Ther 
I will my Lord.  tam. 
Come Asian Viceroys, to your tasks a while  
And take such fortune as your fellows felt.  Orc. 
First let thy scythian horse tear both our limbs  
Rather than we should draw thy chariot.  
And like base slaves abject our princely minds  
To vile and ignominious servitude.  Ier. 
Rather lend me thy weapon Tamburlaine,  
That I may sheathe it in this breast of mine,  
A thousand deaths could not torment our hearts  
More than the thought of this doth vex our souls.  Amy. 
They will talk still my Lord, if you do not bridle them.  tam. 
Bridle them, and let me to my coach.  They bridle them. Amy. 
See now my Lord how brave the Captain hangs.  tam. 
'tis brave indeed my boy, well done,  
Shoot first my Lord, and then the rest shall follow.  ther. 
Then have at him to begin withal.  Theridamas shoots. Gou 
Yet save my life, and let this wound appease  
The mortal fury of great Tamburlaine.  tam. 
No, though Asphaltis lake were liquid gold,  
And offered me as ransom for thy life,  
Yet shouldst thou die, shoot at him all at once.  They shoot. 
So now he hangs like Bagdad's Governor,  
Having as many bullets in his flesh,  
As there be breaches in her battered wall.  
Go now and bind the burgher's hand and foot,  
And cast them headlong in the City's lake:  
Tartars and Persians shall inhabit there,  
And to command the city, I will build  
A citadel, that all Africa  
Which hath been subject to the persian king,  
Shall pay me tribute for, in Babylon.  tech. 
What shall be done with their wives and children my Lord.  tam, 
Techelles, Drown them all, man, woman, and child,  
Leave not a Babylonian in the town.  tech 
I will about it straight, come Soldiers.  Exit tam. 
Now Casane, where's the Turkish Alcaron,  
And all the heaps of superstitious books,  
Found in the Temples of that Mahomet?  
Whom I have thought a God, they shall be burnt.  Cas. 
Here they are my Lord.  tam. 
Well said, let there be a fire presently,  
In vain 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 untouched 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 down thyself and work a miracle,  
Thou art not worthy to be worshipped,  
That suffers flames of fire to burn the writ  
Wherein the sum of thy religion rests.  
Why send'st thou not a furious whirlwind down,  
To blow thy Alcaron up to thy throne,  
Where men report, thou sittest by God himself,  
Or vengeance on the head of Tamburlaine,  
That shakes his sword against thy majesty.  
And spurns the Abstracts of thy foolish laws.  
Well soldiers, Mahomet remains in hell,  
He cannot hear the voice of Tamburlaine,  
Seek out another Godhead to adore,  
The God that sits in heaven, if any God,  
For he is God alone, and none but he.  tech. 
I have fulfilled your highness will, my Lord,  
Thousands of men drowned in Asphaltis Lake,  
Have made the water swell above the banks,  
And fishes feed by human carcases,  
Amazed, swim up and down upon the waves,  
As when they swallow Assafoetida,  
Which makes them fleet aloft and gasp for air,  tam. 
Well then my friendly Lords what now remains  
But that we leave sufficient garrison  
And presently depart to Persia,  
To triumph after all our victories.  ther. 
ay, good my Lord, let us in haste to Persia,  
And let this Captain be removed the walls,  
To some high hill about the city here.  tam. 
Let it be so, about it soldiers:  
But stay, I feel myself distempered suddenly.  tech. 
What is it dares distemper Tamburlaine?  tam. 
Something techelles but I know not what,  
But forth ye vassals, whatsoe'er it be,  
Sickness or death can never conquer me.  Exeunt  

Actus. 5. Scaena. 4.  Enter Callapine, Amasia, with drums and trumpets. Callap. 
KIng of Amasia, now our mighty host,  
Marcheth in Asia maior where the streams,  
Of Euphrates and Tigris swiftly runs,  
And here may we behold great Babylon,  
Circled about with Limnasphaltis Lake,  
Where tamburlaine with all his army lies,  
Which being faint and weary with the siege,  
we may lie ready to encounter him.  
Before his host be full from Babylon,  
And so revenge our latest grievous loss,  
If God or Mahomet send any aid.  Ama. 
Doubt not my lord, but we shall conquer him  
The Monster that hath drink a sea of blood,  
And yet gapes still for more to quench his thirst,  
Our Turkish swords shall headlong send to hell,  
And that vile Carcase drawn by warlike kings,  
The Fowls shall eat, for never sepulchre  
Shall grace that base-born Tyrant tamburlaine.  Cal. 
When I record my Parents slavish life,  
Their cruel death, mine own captivity,  
My viceroy's bondage under tamburlaine,  
methinks I could sustain a thousand deaths,  
To be revenged of all his Villainy.  
Ah sacred Mahomet, thou that hast seen,  
Millions of Turks perish by Tamburlaine,  
Kingdoms made waste, brave cities sacked & burnt,  
And but one host is left to honour thee.  
And thy obedient servant Callapine,  
And make him after all these overthrows,  
To triumph over cursed Tamburlaine.  Ama 
Fear not my Lord, I see great Mahomet  
Clothed in purple clouds, and on his head  
A Chaplet brighter than Apollo's crown,  
Marching about the air with armed men,  
To join with you against this Tamburlaine.  
Renowned General mighty Callapine,  
Though God himself and holy Mahomet,  
Should come in person to resist your power,  
Yet might your mighty host encounter all,  
And pull proud Tamburlaine upon his knees,  
To sue for mercy at your highness feet,  Cal. 
Captain the force of Tamburlaine is great,  
His fortune greater, and the victories  
Wherewith he hath so soar dismayed the world,  
Are greatest to discourage all our drifts,  
Yet when the pride of Cynthia is at full,  
She wanes again, and so shall his I hope,  
For we have here the chief selected men  
Of twenty several kingdoms at the least:  
Nor ploughman, Priest, nor Merchant stays at home.  
All Turkey is in arms with Callapine.  
And never will we sunder camps and arms,  
Before himself or his be conquered.  
This is the time that must eternize me,  
For conquering the Tyrant of the world.  
Come Soldiers, let us lie in wait for him  
And if we find him absent from his camp,  
Or that it be rejoined again at full,  
Assail it and be sure of victory.  Exeunt.  

Actus. 5. Scaena. 6.  Theridamas, Techelles, Usumeasane. 
Weep heavens, and vanish into liquid tears  
Fall stars that govern his nativity,  
And summon all the shining lamps of heaven  
To cast their bootless fires to the earth.  
And shed their feeble influence in the air.  
Muffle your beauties with eternal clouds,  
For hell and darkness pitch their pitchy tents,  
And Death with armies of Cimmerian spirits  
Gives battle 'gainst the heart of Tamburlaine.  
Now in defiance of that wonted love,  
Your sacred virtues poured upon his throne,  
And made his state an honour to the heavens,  
These cowards invisibly assail his soul,  
And threaten conquest on our Sovereign:  
But if he die, your glories are disgraced,  
Earth droops and says, that hell in heaven is placed,  tech. 
O then ye Powers that sway eternal seats,  
And guide this massy substance of the earth,  
If you retain desert of holiness,  
As your supreme estates instruct our thoughts,  
Be not inconstant, careless of your fame,  
Bear not the burden of your enemy's joys,  
Triumphing in his fall whom you advanced,  
But as his birth, life, health and majesty  
Were strangely blessed and governed by heaven,  
So honour heaven till heaven dissolved be,  
His birth, his life, his health and majesty.  Cas.. 
Blush heaven to lose the honour of thy name,  
To see thy footstool set upon thy head,  
And let no baseness in thy haughty breast,  
Sustain a shame of such inexcellence:  
To see the devils mount in Angels thrones,  
And Angels dive into the pools of hell.  
And though they think their painful date is out,  
And that their power is puissant as jove's,  
Which makes them manage arms against thy state,  
Yet make them feel the strength of Tamburlaine,  
Thy instrument and note of majesty.  
Is greater far than they can thus subdue.  
For if he die, thy glory is disgraced,  
Earth droops and says that hell in heaven is placed.  tam. 
What daring God torments my body thus,  
And seeks to conquer mighty Tamburlaine,  
Shall sickness prove me now to be a man,  
That have been termed the terror 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 black streamers in the firmament,  
To signify the slaughter of the Gods,  
Ah friends, what shall I do I cannot stand,  
Come carry me to war against the Gods,  
That thus envy the health of Tamburlaine,  ther. 
Ah good my Lord, leave these impatient words,  
Which add much danger to your malady.  tam. 
Why shall I sit and languish in this pain,  
No, strike the drums, and in revenge of this,  
Come let us charged our spears and pierce his breast,  
Whose shoulders bear 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 hither straight,  
To cure me, or I'll fetch him down myself.  tech. 
Sit still my gracious Lord, this grief will cease,  
And cannot last, it is so violent.  tam. 
Not last techelles, no, for I shall die,  
See where my slave, the ugly monster death  
Shaking and quivering, pale and wan for fear,  
Stands aiming at me with his murdering dart,  
Who flies away at every glance I give,  
And when I look away, comes stealing on:  
Villain away, and hie thee to the field,  
I and mine army come to load thy bark  
With souls of thousand mangled carcases,  
Look where he goes, but see, he comes again  
Because I stay, techelles let us march,  
And weary Death with bearing souls to hell.  Phi. 
Pleaseth your Majesty to drink this potion.  
Which will abate the fury of your fit,  
And cause some milder spirits govern you.  tam. 
Tell me, what think you of my sickness now?  Phi. 
I viewed your urine, and the Hipostates  
Thick and obscure doth make your danger great,  
Your veins are full of accidental heat,  
Whereby the moisture of your blood is dried,  
The Humidum and Calor, which some hold  
Is not a parcel of the Elements,  
But of a substance more divine and pure,  
Is almost clean extinguished and spent.  
Which being the cause of life, imports your death.  
Besides my Lord, this day is Critical,  
Dangerous to those, whose crisis is as yours:  
Your arteries which alongst the veins convey  
The lively spirits which the heart engenders  
Are parched and void of spirit that the soul  
Wanting those organons by which it moves,  
Can not endure by argument of art.  
Yet if your majesty may escape this day,  
No doubt, but you shall soon recover all.  tam. 
Then will I comfort all my vital parts,  
And live in spite of death above a day.  Alarm within. Mess. 
My Lord, young Callapine that lately fled from your majesty, hath now gathered a fresh Army, and hearing your absence in the field, offers to set upon us presently.  Tam. 
See my Physicians now, how jove hath sent,  
A present medicine to recure my pain:  
My looks shall make them fly, and might I follow,  
There should not one of all the villains power  
Live to give offer of another fight.  Vsum. 
I joy my Lord, your highness is so strong,  
That can endure so well your royal presence,  
Which only will dismay the enemy.  Tam. 
I know it will Casane: draw you slaves,  
In spite of death I will go show my face.  Alarm, Tam. goes in, and comes out again with all the rest. 
Thus are the villains, cowards fled for fear,  
Like Summer's vapours, vanished by the Sun.  
And could I but a while pursue the field,  
That Callapine should be my slave again.  
But I perceive my martial strength is spent,  
In vain I strive and rail against those powers,  
That mean t'invest me in a higher throne,  
As much too high for this disdainful earth.  
Give me a Map, then let me see how much  
Is left for me to conquer all the world,  
That these my boys may finish all my wants,  One brings a Map. 
Here I began to march towards Persia,  
Along Armenia and the Caspian sea,  
And thence unto Bythinia, where I took  
The Turk and his great Empress prisoners,  
Then marched I into Egypt and Arabia,  
And here not far from Alexandria,  
Whereas the Terren and the red sea meet,  
Being distant less than still a hundred leagues,  
I meant to cut a channel to them both,  
That men might quickly sail to India.  
From thence to Nubia near Borno Lake,  
And so along the Ethiopian sea,  
Cutting the tropic line of Capricorn,  
I conquered all as far as Zansibar,  
Then by the Northern part of Africa.  
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,  
Backward and forwards near five thousand leagues,  
Look here my boys, 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 antipodes:  
And shall I die, and this unconquered?  
Lo here my sons, are all the golden Mines,  
Inestimable drugs and precious stones,  
More worth than Asia, and the world beside,  
And from th'Antarctic Pole, Eastward behold  
As much more land, which never was descried,  
Wherein are rocks of Pearl, that shine as bright  
As all the Lamps that beautify the Sky,  
And shall I die, and this unconquered?  
Here lovely boys, what death forbids my life,  
That let your lives command in spite of death.  Amy. 
Alas my Lord, how should our bleeding hearts  
Wounded and broken with your highness grief,  
Retain a thought of joy, or spark of life?  
Your soul gives essence to our wretched subjects.  
Whose matter is incorporate in your flesh.  Cel. 
Your pains do pierce our souls, no hope survives,  
For by your life we entertain our lives,  tam. 
But sons, this subject not of force enough,  
To hold the fiery spirit it contains,  
must part, imparting his impressions,  
By equal portions into both your breasts:  
My flesh divided in your precious shapes,  
Shall still retain my spirit, though I die,  
And live in all your seeds immortally:  
Then now remove me, that I may resign  
My place and proper title to my son:  
First take my Scourge and my imperial Crown,  
And mount my royal chariot of estate,  
That I may see thee crowned before I die,  
Help me (my Lords) to make my last remove.  ther. 
A woeful change my Lord, that daunts our thoughts,  
More than the ruin of our proper souls.  tam. 
Sit up my son, let me see how well  
Thou wilt become thy father's majesty.  They crown him. Ami 
With what a flinty bosom should I joy.  
The breath of life, and burden of my soul,  
If not resolved into resolved pains,  
My bodies mortified lineaments  
should exercise the motions of my heart,  
Pierced with the joy of any dignity?  
O father, if the unrelenting ears  
Of death and hell be shut against my prayers,  
And that the spiteful influence of heaven.  
Deny my soul fruition of her joy,  
How should I step or stir my hateful feet,  
Against the inward powers of my heart,  
Leading a life that only strives to die,  
And plead in vain, unpleasing sovereignty.  tam. 
Let not thy love exceed thine honour son,  
Nor bar thy mind that magnanimity,  
That nobly must admit necessity;  
Sit up my boy, and with those silken rains,  
Bridle the steeled stomachs of those jades.  ther. 
My Lord, you must obey his majesty,  
Since Fate commands, and proud necessity.  Amy. 
heavens witness me, with what a broken heart  
And damned spirit I ascend this seat,  
And send my soul before my father die,  
His anguish and his burning agony.  tam. 
Now fetch the hearse of fair Zenocrate,  
Let it be placed by this my fatal chair,  
And serve as parcel of my funeral.  Cas. 
Then feels your majesty no sovereign ease,  
Nor may our hearts all drowned in tears of blood,  
joy any hope of your recovery?  tamb. 
Casane no, the Monarch of the earth,  
And eyeless Monster that torments my soul,  
Cannot behold the tears ye shed for me,  
And therefore still augments his cruelty.  tech. 
Then let some God oppose his holy power,  
Against the wrath and tyranny of death,  
That his tear-thirsty and unquenched hate,  
May be upon himself reverberate.  They bring in the hearse. tam 
Now eyes, enjoy your latest benefit,  
And when my soul hath virtue of your sight,  
Pierce through the coffin and the sheet of gold,  
And glut your longings with a heaven of joy.  
So, reign my son, scourge and control those slaves  
Guiding thy chariot with thy Father's hand.  
As precious is the charge thou undertakest  
As that which clymen's brainsick son did guide,  
When wandering Phoebe's ivory cheeks were scorched  
And all the earth like AEtna breathing fire:  
Be warned by him, then learn with awful eye  
To sway a throne as dangerous as his:  
For if thy body thrive not full of thoughts  
As pure and fiery as Phyteus' beams,  
The nature of these proud rebelling jades  
Will take occasion by the slenderest hair,  
And draw thee piecemeal like Hippolytus,  
Through rocks more steep and sharp than Caspian cliffs.  
The nature of thy chariot will not bear  
A guide of baser temper than myself,  
More than heavens coach, the pride of Phaeton.  
Farewell my boys, my dearest friends, farewell,  
My body feels, my soul doth weep to see  
Your sweet desires deprived my company,  
For Tamburlaine, the Scourge of God must die.  Amy. 
Meet heaven & earth, & here let all things end  
For earth hath spent the pride of all her fruit,  
And heaven consumed his choicest living fire.  
Let earth and heaven his timeless death deplore,  
For both their worths will equal him no more,    
FINIS.