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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,
Afric and Greece have garrisons enough
To make me sovereign of the earth again.

Tamb. 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 galleys and those pilling* brigandines,
That yearly sail to the Venetian gulf,
And hover in the Straits for Christians' wreck,
Shall lie at anchor in the Isle Asant,
Until the Persian fleet and men-of-war,
Sailing along the oriental sea,

Have fetch'd about the Indian continent,
Even from Persepolis to Mexico,

And thence unto the Straits of Jubaltèr;
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.
Baj. Yet set a ransom on me, Tamburlaine.
Tamb. What, think'st thou Tamburlaine es-
teems 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.

Baj. Ah, villains, dare you touch my sacred arms?

O Mahomet! O sleepy Mahomet!

Zab. O curɛèd Mahomet, that mak'st us thus The slaves to Scythians rude and barbarous ! Tamb. Come, bring them in; and for this happy conquest

Triumph, and solemnize a martial+ feast. [Exeunt.

SCENE I.

ACT IV.

Enter the SOLDAN OF EGYPT, CAPOLIN, Lords, and a
Messenger.

Sold. 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 troop of thieves and vagabonds,
Hath spread his colours to our high disgrace,
While you, faint-hearted 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

* pilling] i. e. plundering.

↑ Awake, ye men of Memphis!] These words are put into the mouth of Judas, in Fletcher's Bonduca, at the commencement of act ii.; and in Fletcher's Wit without Money, act v. sc. 2. we find "thou man of Memphis."

basilisks] Pieces of ordnance 80 called. They were of immense size; see Douce's Illust. of Shakespeare, 1.425.

Commands the hearts of his associates,
It might amaze your royal majesty.

Sold. 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.

Sold. Nay, could their numbers countervail

the stars,

Or ever-drizzling § drops of April showers,
Or wither'd leaves that autumn shaketh down,
Yet would the Soldan by his conquering power

* British] So the 4to.-The 8vo "brightest."

t martial] So the 8vo.-The 4to "materiall." monstrous] To be read as a trisyllable.

§ Or ever-drizzling] So the 4to.-The 8vo "Or drisling."

So scatter and consume them in his rage,
That not a man should* live to rue their fall.
Capo. 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,

Sold. Let him take all th' advantages he can :
Were all the world conspir'd 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;

Baj. 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!
Tamb. The chiefest god, first mover of that
sphere

Enchas'd with thousands ever-shining lamps,
Will sooner burn the glorious frame of heaven
Than it should + 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.

Baj. 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 Tambur

laine,

Unworthy to embrace or touch the ground That bears the honour of my royal weight;

Then must his kindled wrath be quench'd with Stoop, villain, stoop! stoop; ¶ for so he bids

blood,

Not sparing any that can manage arms :
But, if these threats move not submission,
Black are his colours, black pavilion;

His spear, his shield, his horse, his armour, plumes,

And jetty feathers, menace death and hell;
Without respect of sex, degree, or age,
He razeth all his foes with fire and sword.
Sold. 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 reveng'd for her disparagement.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

Enter TAMBURLAINE, TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE, ZENOCRATE, ANIPPE, two Moors drawing BAJAZETH in a cage, and ZABINA following him. Tamb. Bring out my footstool.

[They take BAJAZETH out of the cage.

*should] So the 4to.-The 8vo "shal." the devil] So the 8vo.-The 4to "he the deuill." Arabian king] Scil. Aleidamus: see p. 10, 1. 9, sec. col.

That may command thee piecemeal to be torn,
Or scatter'd like the lofty cedar-trees
Struck with the voice of thundering Jupiter.
Baj. Then, as I look down to the damned
fiends,

Fiends, look on me! and thou, dread god of

hell,

With ebon sceptre strike this hateful earth,
And make it swallow both of us at once!

[TAMBURLAINE gets up on him into his chair.
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 reign'd at my nativity,

And dim the brightness of your** neighbour lamps;

Disdain to borrow light of Cynthia !

For I, the chiefest lamp of all the earth,
First rising in the east with mild aspèct,
But fixed now in the meridian line,
Will send up fire to your turning spheres,
And cause the sun to borrow light of you.

it] So the 4to.-Omitted in the 8vo. tit should] So the 4to.-The 8vo "should it." this] So the 8vo.-The 4to "it." $into] So the 4to.-The 8vo "vnto." heart] So the 4to.-The 8vo "soui." stoop) Qy. "stoop, stoop"?

** your] Old eds. "their."-Compare the teath line of the speech.

My sword struck fire from his coat of steel,
Even in Bithynia, when I took this Turk;
As when a fiery exhalation,

Wrapt in the bowels of a freezing cloud,
Fighting for passage, make[s] the welkin crack,
And casts a flash of lightning to* the earth:
But, ere I march to wealthy Persia,

Or leave Damascus and th' Egyptian fields,
As was the fame of Clymene's brain-sick son
That almost brent+ the axle-tree of heaven,
So shall our swords, our lances, and our shot
Fill all the air with fiery meteors;

Then, when the sky shall wax as red as blood,
It shall be said I made it red myself,

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

Tech. You must devise some torment worse, my lord,

To make these captives rein their lavish tongues. Tamb. Zenocrate, look better to your slave. Zeno. 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, then, for you,|| my slave,

How you abuse the person of the king;

Or else I swear to have you whipt stark nak'd.¶ Baj. 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.
Tamb. Thy names, and titles, and thy dignities**

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Are fled from Bajazeth, and remain with me, That will maintain it 'gainst a world of kings.Put him in again. [They put him into the cage. Baj. Is this a place for mighty Bajazeth? Confusion light on him that helps thee thus ! Tamb. 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,
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,
Shall lead him with us wheresoe'er we go.-
Techelles, and my loving followers,
Now may we see Damascus' lofty towers,
Like to the shadows of Pyramides
That with their beauties grace the Memphian
fields.

The golden stature § of their feather'd 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 are ¶ ours.
Ther. Your tents of white now pitch'd before

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shalt] So the 4to.-The 8vo "shal."

✰ grace] Olds eds. "grac'd."

§ stature] So the 8vo.-The 4to "statue: " but again, in the Second Part of this play, act ii. sc. 4, we have, according to the 8vo

"And here will I set up her stature." and, among many passages that might be cited from our early authors, compare the following;

"The Statures huge, of Porphyrie and costlier matters made."

Warner's Albions England, p. 303. ed. 1596. "By them shal Isis stature gently stand." Chapman's Blind Begger of Alexandria, 1598, sig. A 3. "Was not Anubis with his long nose of gold preferred before Neptune, whose stature was but brasse?" Lyly's Midas, sig. A 2. ed. 1592.

bird] i. e. the ibis.

Tare] Old eds. "is,"

Tamb. So shall he have his life, and all the rest :
But, if he stay until the bloody flag

Be once advanc'd on my vermilion tent,
He dies, and those that kept us out so long;
And, when they see me march in black array,
With mournful streamers hanging down their
heads,

Were in that city all the world contain'd,
Not one should scape, but perish by our swords.
Zeno. Yet would you have some pity for my sake,
Because it is my country* and my father's.
Tamb. Not for the world, Zenocrate, if I have

sworn.

Come; bring in the Turk.

SCENE III.

Sold. I have, and sorrow for his bad success; But, noble lord of great Arabia,

Be so persuaded that the Soldan is

No more dismay'd with tidings of his fall,
Than in the haven when the pilot stands,
And views a stranger's ship rent in the winds,
And shivered against a craggy rock:
Yet in compassion to his wretched state,
A sacred vow to heaven and him I make,
Confirming it with Ibis' holy name,*

That Tamburlaine shall rue the day, the + hour,
Wherein he wrought such ignominious wrong
Unto the hallow'd person of a prince,
[Exeunt. Or kept the fair Zenocrate so long,
As concubine, I fear, to feed his lust.

K. of Ar. Let grief and fury hasten on revenge;
Let Tamburlaine for his offences feel

Such plagues as heaven and we can pour on him:

Entr SOLDAN, KING OF ARABIA, CAPOLIN, and Soldiers, I long to break my spear upon his crest,

with streaming colours.

Sold. Methinks we march as Meleager did,
Environed 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,
Raves in Ægyptia, 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 dare control us in our territories.
To tame the pride of this presumptuous beast,
Join your Arabians with the Soldan's power;
Let us unite our royal bands in one,

And hasten to remove Damascus' siege.

It is a blemish to the majesty

And high estate of mighty emperors,

That such a base usurping vagabond

Should brave a king, or wear a princely crown.

And prove the weight of his victorious arm;
For fame, I fear, hath been too prodigal
In sounding through the world his partial praise.
Sold. Capolin, hast thou survey'd our powers!
Capol. 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.

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

Sold. 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;

* Ibis' holy name] The ibis has been already alluded to

K. of Ar. Renowmèd¶ Soldan, have you lately in the lines (p. 27, sec. col.),—

The overthrow of mighty Bajazeth

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[heard

King of Arabia] i.e. Alcidamus; see p. 10, 1. 9, sec.

Calydonian] So the 8vo.-The 4to" Calcedonian."

§ lusty] So the 8vo.-Omitted in the 4to. and] So the 4to.-Omitted in the 870. Renowmed] See note II, p. 11. So the 810.-The 4to "Renowned."

"The golden stature of their feather'd bird, That spreads her wings upon the city-walls"; and it is well known to have been a sacred bird among the Egyptians (see Cicero De Nat. Deorum, I. 36). Compare the old play of The Taming of a Shrew; "Father, I sweare by Ibis' golden beake, More faire and radiente is my bonie Kate

Then siluer Zanthus," &c. p. 22. ed. Shakespeare Soc. In the passage of our text the modern editors substitute "Isis'" for "Ibis'."

↑ the] So the 8vo.-The 4to "and."
tand] So the 8vo.-Omitted in the 4to.

§ thy baseness and] So the Svo.-The 4to "the basess

of."

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A banquet set out; and to it come TAMBURLAINE all in
scarlet, ZENOCRATE, THERIDAMAS, TECHELLES, USUM-
CASANE, BAJAzeth drawn in his cage, ZABINA, and
others.

Tamb. Now hang our bloody colours by
Damascus,

Reflexing hues of blood upon their heads,
While they walk quivering on their city-walls,
Half-dead for fear before they feel my wrath.
Then let us freely banquet, and carouse
Full bowls of wine unto the god of war,
That means to fill your helmets full of gold,
And make Damascus' spoils as rich to you
As was to Jason Colchos' golden fleece.—
And now, Bajazeth, hast thou any stomach?
Baj. Ay, such a stomach, cruel Tamburlaine,
as I could willingly feed upon thy blood-raw
heart.

Tamb. 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.

Tamb. Sirrah, why fall you not to? are you so daintily brought up, you cannot eat your own flesh?

Baj. First, legions of devils shall tear thee in pieces.

Usum. Villain, knowest thou to whom thou speakest ?

Tamb. O, let him alone.-Here;* eat, sir; take it from + my sword's point, or I'll thrust it to thy heart.

[BAJAZETH takes the food, and stamps upon it. Ther. He stamps it under his feet, my lord. Tamb. Take it up, villain, and eat it; or I will make thee slice ‡ the brawns of thy arms into carbonadoes and eat them.

Usum. Nay, 'twere better he killed his wife, and then she shall be sure not to be starved, and he be provided for a month's victual beforehand.

Tamb. Here is my dagger: despatch 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.

Tamb. Go to; fall to your meat. What, not a bit!-Belike he hath not been watered to-day :

[They give BAJAZETH 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? Zeno. Yes, my lord.

Baj. Fall to, and never may your meat digest! give him some drink.
Ye Furies, that can mask * invisible,
Dive to the bottom of Avernus' 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!

Zeno. My lord,+ how can you suffer these
Outrageous curses by these slaves of yours?
Tamb. To let them see, divine Zenocrate,
I glory in the curses of my foes,
Having the power from the empyreal heaven
To turn them all upon their proper heads.

Ther. Methinks 'tis a great deal better than a consort ** of music.

Tamb. 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?

Zeno. My lord, to see my father's town besieg'd, The country wasted where myself was born, How can it but afflict my very soul?

Tech. I pray you, give them leave, madam; this If any love remain in you, my lord,

speech is a goodly refreshing for them.‡

Or if my love unto your majesty

Ther. But, if his highness would let them be May merit favour at your highness' hands, fed, it would do them more good.

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* Here] So the 8vo.-The 4to "there."

t it from] So the 8vo.-The 4to "it vp from."
slice] So the 8vo.-The 4to "fleece."

§ will fall] So the 8vo.-The 4to "will not fall."
let] i. e. hinder.

while] i. e. until.

** consort] i. e. band.

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