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 dismiss'd the greatest part
Of all his army, pitch'd against our power
Betwixt Cutheia and Orminius' mount,
And sent them marching up to Belgasar,
Acantha, Antioch, and Cæsarea,

To aid the kings of Soria ‡ and Jerusalem.
Now, then, my lord, advantage take thereof, §
And issue suddenly upon the rest;

• Damascus] Here the old eds. " Damasco." See note*, p. 31.

↑ And made, &c.] A word dropt out from this line. Soria] See note t, p. 44.

thereof] So the 8vo.-The 4to "heereof."

That, in the fortune of their overthrow,
We may discourage all the pagan troop
That dare attempt to war with Christians.

Sig. But calls not, then, your grace to me
mory

The league we lately made with King Orcanes,
Confirm'd 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 esteem'd assurance for ourselves,
So that 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 religion,||
Should not give us presumption to the like.

*him] i. e. the king of Natolia.

+ orient] Old eds. "orientall" and "oriental."-Both in our author's Faustus and in his Jew of Malta we have "orient pearl."

t that we vow] i. e. that which we vow. So the 8vo.The 4to "what we vow." Neither of the modern editors understanding the passage, they printed "we that vow.' § faiths] So the 8vo.-The 4to "fame.

"

|| and religion] Old eds. "and their religion."

E

Our faiths are sound, and must be cònsummate,* 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 blasphèmous 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 pour'd with rigour on our sinful heads,

If we neglect this + offer'd 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.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

Enter ORCANES, GAZELLUS, and URIBASSA, with their train.

Orc. Gazellus, Uribassa, and the rest, Now will we march from proud Orminius' 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 of 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 steelèd crests,

consummate] Old eds. "consinuate." The modern editors print "continuate," a word which occurs in Shakespeare's Timon of Athens, act i. sc. 1., but which the metre determines to be inadmissible in the present passage.-The Revd. J. Mitford proposes "continent," in the sense of-restraining from violence.

this] So the 8vo.-The 4to "the."

martial] So the 4to.-The 8vo "materiall."

And numbers, more than infinite, of men,
Be able to withstand and conquer him.

Uri. Methinks I see how glad the Christian

king

Is made for joy of our* 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, damnèd Christians!
Have I not here the articles of peace
And solemn covenants we have both confirm'd,
He by his Christ, and I by Mahomet?

Gaz. Hell and confusion light upon their heads,
That with such treason seek our overthrow,
And care 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 servant's perjury!

[He tears to pieces the articles of peace.
Open, thou shining veil of Cynthia,
And make a passage from th' empyreal heaven,
That he that sits on high and never sleeps,
Nor in one place is circumscriptible,
But every where 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 esteem'd omnipotent,
If thou wilt prove thyself a perfect God,
Worthy the worship of all faithful hearts,
Be now reveng'd upon this traitor's soul,
And make the power I have left behind
(Too little to defend our guiltless lives)
Sufficient to discomfit§ and confound

*our] So the 4to.-The Svo " your."

With] So the 4to.-The Svo "Which."

thy servant's] He means Sigismund. So a few lines after, "this traitor's perjury."

§ discomfit] Old eds. "discomfort." (Compare the first line of the next scene.)

Enter ORCANES, GAZELLU3, URIBASSA, with others. Orc. Now lie the Christians bathing in their bloods,

And Christ or Mahomet hath been my friend. Gaz. See, here the perjur'd traitor Hungary, Bloody and breathless for his villany!

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 ingraff'd,
Yet flourisheth, as Flora in her pride,
With apples like the heads of damned fiends.
The devils there, in chains of quenchless flame,
Shall lead his soul, through Orcus' burning gulf,
From pain to pain, whose change shall never end.
What say'st thou yet, Gazellus, to his foil,
Which we referr'd 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 prov'd a miracle.

Orc. Yet in my thoughts shall Christ be honoured,

lords] So the 8vo.-The 4to "lord."

↑ Christian] So the Svo.-The 4to "Christians." Zoacum] Or Zakkúm.-The description of this tree is taken from a fable in the Koran, chap. 37." Ed. 1826.

The arras is drawn, and ZENOCRATE is discovered lying in her bed of state; TAMBURLAINE sitting by her; three Physicians about her bed, tempering potions; her three sons, CALYPHAS, AMYRAS, and CELEBINUS; THERIDAMAS, TECHELLES, and USUMCASANE.

Tamb. Black is the beauty of the brightest day; The golden ball of heaven's eternal fire, That danc'd with glory on the silver waves, Now wants the fuel that inflam'd 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 brows,¶ And temper'd 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 look'd upon this** loathsome earth,