O highest lamp of ever-living* Jove,
Accursed day, infected with my griefs,
Hide now thy stainèd face in endless night,
And shut the windows of the lightsome heavens!
Let ugly Darkness with her rusty coach,
Engirt with tempests, wrapt in pitchy clouds,
Smother the earth with never-fading mists,
And let her horses from their nostrils breathe
Rebellious winds and dreadful thunder-claps,
That in this terror Tamburlaine may live,
And my pin'd soul, resolv'd in liquid air,
May still excruciate his tormented thoughts!
Then let the stony dart of senseless cold
Pierce through the centre of my wither'd heart,
And make a passage for my loathed life!

[He brains himself against the cage.

Re-enter ZABINA.

Zab. What do mine eyes behold? my husband dead!

Thy father's subjects and thy countrymen ;
The streets strow'd with dissever'd joints of men,
And wounded bodies gasping yet for life;
But most accurs'd, to see the sun-bright troop
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 hoisted up,
And guiltlessly endure a cruel death;
For every fell and stout Tartarian steed,
That stamp'd on others with their thundering
hoofs,
[spears,
When all their riders charg'd their quivering
Began to check the ground and rein 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 aught save thine own love.
But see, another bloody spectacle !

His skull all riven in twain! his brains dash'd Ah, wretched eyes, the enemies of my heart,

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 liquor? 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
wild-fire upon it.-Down with him! down with
him!-Go to my child; away, away, away! ah,
save that infant! save him, save him!—I, 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.

Enter ZENOCRATE with ANIPPE.

Zeno. Wretched Zenocrate! that liv'st to see Damascus' walls dy'd with Egyptians' ** blood,

• ever-living] So the 8vo.-The 4to. "euerlasting." † give] So the 4to.-The 8vo “and give.” ther] Must mean Zenocrate, whom Zabina fancies herself to be addressing.

& Let the soldiers be buried.-Hell, death, Tamburlaine] So the 8vo.-Omitted in the 4to. (Where the modern editors got their reading, "Let the soldiers be cursed," I know not)

Make ready my coach] Shakespeare seems to have remembered this passage when he made Ophelia say, "Come, my coach," &c. Hamlet, act iv. sc. 5.

¶ I come, I come, I come] So the 8vo.-The 4to "I come, I come."

** Egyptians'] So the 4to.-The Svo "Egiptian.'

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 emperess!
Ah, Tamburlaine my love, sweet Tamburlaine,
That fight'st for sceptres and for slippery crowns,
Behold the Turk and his great emperess!
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 emperess!
Ah, mighty Jove and holy Mahomet,
Pardon my love! O, pardon his contempt
Of earthly fortune and respect of pity;
And let not conquest, ruthlessly pursu'd,

Tamb. 'Twas I, my lord, that gat the victory;
And therefore grieve not at your overthrow,
Since I shall render all into your hands,
And add more strength to your dominions
Than ever yet confirm'd 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,

Tamb. Her state and person want 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 crown'd for proved worthiness

Fearing my power should* pull him from his Even by this hand that shall establish them,

throne:

Where'er I come the Fatal Sisters sweat,+
And grisly Death, by running to and fro,
To do their ceaseless homage to my sword:
And here in Afric, where it seldom rains,
Since I arriv'd with my triumphant host,
Have swelling clouds, drawn from wide-gaping +
wounds,

Been oft resolv'd § 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 Styx,
Waiting the back-return of Charon's boat;
Hell and Elysium ¶ 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 despatch'd 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.

Shall now, adjoining all their hands with

mine,

Invest her here the ‡ Queen of Persia.
What saith the noble Soldan, and Zenocrate?
Sold. 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.

Zeno. Else should I much forget myself, my

lord.

Ther. Then let us set the crown upon her head,

That long hath linger'd for so high a seat.

Tech. My hand is ready to perform the deed; For now her marriage-time shall work us rest.

Usum. And here's the crown, my lord; help

set it on.¶

Tamb. 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 subdu'd.
As Juno, when the giants were suppress'd,
That darted mountains 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[e], sweet Zenocrate,

Sold. Mighty hath God and Mahomet made Egyptians, Moors, and men of Asia,

THE SECOND PART OF

ᎢᎪᎷᏴᏌᎡᏞᎪINE ᎢᎻᎬ ᏩᎡᎬᎪᎢ. THE

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