Yet sometimes let your highness send for them
To do the work my chambermaid disdains.
They sound [to] the battle within, and stay.
ZENOCRATE
Ye gods and powers that govern Persia
And made my lordly love her worthy king,
190 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.
ZABINA
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
200 When first he warred against the Christians.
[They sound] to the battle again.
ZENOCRATE
By this the Turks lie welt’ring in their blood,
And Tamburlaine is lord of Africa.
ZABINA
Thou art deceived, I heard the trumpets sound
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.
ZENOCRATE
If Mahomet should come from heaven and swear
My royal lord is slain or conquerèd,
210 Yet should he not persuade me otherwise
But that he lives and will be conqueror.
BAJAZETH flies [across the stage], and he [TAMBURLAINE] pursues him [offstage]. The battle short, and they [re-] enter [fighting]. BAJAZETH is overcome.
TAMBURLAINE
Now, king of bassoes, who is conqueror?
BAJAZETH
Thou, by the fortune of this damnèd soil.
TAMBURLAINE
Where are your stout contributory kings?
Enter TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE.
TECHELLES
We have their crowns; their bodies strew the field.
TAMBURLAINE
Each man a crown? Why, kingly fought, i’faith.
Deliver them into my treasury.
[TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS and USUMCASANE hand over the crowns.]
ZENOCRATE
Now let me offer to my gracious lord
His royal crown again, so highly won.
TAMBURLAINE
Nay, take the Turkish crown from her, Zenocrate,
220 And crown me emperor of Africa.
ZABINA
No, Tamburlaine, though now thou gat the best,
Thou shalt not yet be lord of Africa.
THERIDAMAS [tO ZABINA]
Give her the crown, Turkess, you were best.
He takes it from her and gives it ZENOCRATE.
ZABINA
Injurious villains, thieves, runagates!
How dare you thus abuse my majesty?
THERIDAMAS
Here, madam, you are empress, she is none.
TAMBURLAINE [as ZENOCRATE crowns him]
Not now, Theridamas, her time is past.
The pillars that have bolstered up those terms
230 Are fall’n in clusters at my conquering feet.
ZABINA
Though he be prisoner, he may be ransomed.
TAMBURLAINE
Not all the world shall ransom Bajazeth.
BAJAZETH
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;
240 For, though the glory of this day be lost,
Afric and Greece have garrisons enough
To make me sovereign of the earth again.
TAMBURLAINE
Those wallèd 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 galleys and those pilling brigantines,
That yearly sail to the Venetian gulf,
250 And hover in the straits 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 Straits of Jubalter,
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.
260 And by this means I’ll win the world at last.
BAJAZETH
Yet set a ransom on me, Tamburlaine.
TAMBURLAINE
What, think’st thou Tamburlaine esteems thy gold?
I’ll make the kings of India, ere I die,
Offer their mines, to sue 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 love’s maid lead away.
They bind them.
BAJAZETH
Ah, villains, dare ye touch my sacred arms?
O Mahomet, O sleepy Mahomet!
ZABINA
270 O cursèd Mahomet, that makest us thus
The slaves to Scythians rude and barbarous!
TAMBURLAINE
Come, bring them in, and for this happy conquest
Triumph, and solemnize a martial feast.
Exeunt.
ACT 4
Scene 1
[Enter the] SULTAN OF EGYPT with three or four LORDS, CAPOLIN [and a MESSENGER].
SULTAN
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 Sultan’s daughter, for his concubine,
And with a troop of thieves and vagabonds
Hath spread his colours to our high disgrace,
While you faint-hearted base Egyptians
Lie slumbering on the flow’ry banks of Nile,
As crocodiles that unaffrighted rest
10 While thund’ring cannons rattle on their skins.
MESSENGER
Nay, mighty Sultan, 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.
SULTAN
Villain, I tell thee, were that Tamburlaine
As monstrous as Gorgon, prince of hell,
The Sultan would not start a foot from him.
But speak, what power hath he?
MESSENGER Mighty lord,
20 Three hundred thousand men in armour clad
Upon their prancing steeds, disdainfully
With wanton paces trampling on the ground;
Five hundred thousand footmen threat’ning 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.
SULTAN
30 Nay, could their numbers countervail the stars,
Or ever-drizzling drops of April showers,
Or withered leaves that Autumn shaketh down,
Yet would the Sultan by his conquering power
&
nbsp; So scatter and consume them in his rage
That not a man should live to rue their fall.
CAPOLIN
So might your highness, had you time to sort
Your fighting men and raise your royal host.
But Tamburlaine by expedition
Advantage takes of your unreadiness.
SULTAN
40 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.
MESSENGER
Pleaseth your mightiness to understand,
His resolution far exceedeth all.
The first day when he pitcheth down his tents,
50 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,
60 And jetty feathers menace death and hell.
Without respect of sex, degree, or age,
He razeth all his foes with fire and sword.
SULTAN
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,
70 May have fresh warning to go war with us
And be revenged for her disparagement.
[Exeunt.]
Scene 2
[A throne is brought on. Enter] TAMBURLAINE [all in white], TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE, ZENOCRATE, ANIPPE, two MOORS drawing BAJAZETH in his cage, and his wife [ZABINA] following him.
TAMBURLAINE Bring out my footstool.
They take him [BAJAZETH] out of the cage.
BAJAZETH
Ye holy priests of heavenly Mahomet,
That, sacrificing, slice and cut your flesh,
Staining his altars with your purple blood,
Make heaven to frown, and every fixèd star
To suck up poison from the moorish fens
And pour it in this glorious tyrant’s throat!
TAMBURLAINE
The chiefest God, first mover of that sphere
Enchased with thousands ever-shining lamps,
10 Will sooner burn the glorious frame of heaven
Than 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.
BAJAZETH
First shalt thou rip my bowels with thy sword
And sacrifice my heart to death and hell
Before I yield to such a slavery.
TAMBURLAINE
Base villain, vassal, slave to Tamburlaine,
20 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 thund’ring Jupiter.
BAJAZETH
Then, as I look down to the damnèd fiends,
Fiends, look on me, and, thou dread god of hell,
With ebon sceptre strike this hateful earth
And make it swallow both of us at once!
He [TAMBURLAINE] gets up upon him [BAJAZETH] to his chair.
TAMBURLAINE
30 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 fixèd now in the meridian line,
Will send up fire to your turning spheres
And cause the sun to borrow light of you.
My sword struck fire from his coat of steel
Even in Bithynia, when I took this Turk,
As when a fiery exhalation
Wrapped in the bowels of a freezing cloud,
Fighting for passage, makes 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 Clymene’s brainsick son
That almost brent the axletree of heaven,
So shall our swords, our lances, and our shot
Fill all the air with fiery meteors.
Then, when the sky shall wax as red as blood,
It shall be said I made it red myself,
To make me think of naught but blood and war.
ZABINA
Unworthy king, that by thy cruelty
Unlawfully usurp’st the Persian seat,
Dar’st thou, that never saw an emperor
Before thou met my husband in the field,
Being thy captive, thus abuse his state,
Keeping his kingly body in a cage
That roofs of gold and sun-bright palaces
Should have prepared to entertain his grace,
And treading him beneath thy loathsome feet
Whose feet the kings of Africa have kissed?
TECHELLES [to TAMBURLAINE]
To make these captives rein their lavish tongues.
TAMBURLAINE
Zenocrate, look better to your slave.
ZENOCRATE
She is my handmaid’s slave, and she shall look
That these abuses flow not from her tongue.
70 Chide her, Anippe.
ANIPPE [to ZABINA]
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.
BAJAZETH
Great Tamburlaine, great in my overthrow,
Ambitious pride shall make thee fall as low
For treading on the back of Bajazeth,
That should be horsèd on four mighty kings.
TAMBURLAINE
Thy names and titles and thy dignities
80 Are fled from Bajazeth and remain with me,
That will maintain it ’gainst a world of kings.
Put him in again.
[They put BAJAZETH into the cage.]
BAJAZETH
Is this a place for mighty Bajazeth?
Confusion light on him that helps thee thus!
TAMBURLAINE
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 servitors shall bring thee from my board.
For he that gives him other food than this
90 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 Moors that drew him from Bithynia
To fair Damascus, where we now remain,
100 Shall lead him with us wheresoe’er we go.
Techelles and my loving followers,
Now may we see Damascus’ lofty towers,
Like to the shadows of Pyramides
That with their beauties graced the Memphian fields.
The golden statue 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.
110 The men, the treasure, and the town is ours.
THERIDAMAS
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.
TAMBURLAINE
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,
120 Were in that city all the world contained,
Not one should ’scape, but perish by our swords.
ZENOCRATE
Yet would you have some pity for my sake,
Because it is my country’s, and my father’s.
TAMBURLAINE
Not for the world, Zenocrate, if I have sworn.
Come, bring in the Turk.
Exeunt.
Scene 3
[Enter the] SULTAN, [the KING OF] ARABIA, CAPOLIN, with streaming colours, and SOLDIERS.
SULTAN
Methinks we march as Meleager did,
Environèd with brave Argolian knights,
To chase the savage Calydonian boar;
Or Cephalus with lusty Theban youths,
Against the wolf that angry Themis sent
To waste and spoil the sweet Aonian fields.
A monster of five hundred thousand heads,
Compact of rapine, piracy, and spoil,
The scum of men, the hate and scourge of God,
10 Raves in Egyptia and annoyeth us.
My lord, it is the bloody Tamburlaine,
A sturdy felon and a base-bred thief
By murder raisèd to the Persian crown,
That dares control us in our territories.
To tame the pride of this presumptuous beast,
Join your Arabians with the Sultan’s power;