The Complete Plays (18 page)

And grace your calling with a greater sway.

ORTYGIUS

And as we ever aimed 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.

COSROE

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,

40   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.

MENAPHON

Your majesty shall shortly have your wish,

And ride in triumph through Persepolis.

Exeunt;
TAMBURLAINE
,
TECHELLES
,
THERIDAMAS
,
USUMCASANE
remain
.

TAMBURLAINE

50   And ride in triumph through Persepolis'!

Is it not
brave to
be a king, Techelles?

Usumcasane and Theridamas,

Is it not passing brave to be a king,

And ride in triumph through Persepolis?

TECHELLES

O my lord, 'tis sweet and full of pomp.

USUMCASANE

To be a king is half to be a god.

THERIDAMAS

A god is not so glorious as a king.

I think the pleasure they enjoy in heaven

Cannot compare with kingly joys in earth:

To wear a crown enchased with pearl and gold,

60   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.

TAMBURLAINE

Why, say, Theridamas, wilt thou be a king?

THERIDAMAS

Nay, though I praise it, I can live without it.

TAMBURLAINE

What says my other friends? Will you be kings?

TECHELLES

Ay, if I could, with all my heart, my lord.

TAMBURLAINE

Why, that's well said, Techelles. So would I,

70   And so would you, my masters, would you not?

USUMCASANE

What then, my lord?

TAMBURLAINE

Why then, Casane, 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?

THERIDAMAS

80   I know
they would
with our persuasions.

TAMBURLAINE

Why then, Theridamas, I'll first essay

To get the Persian kingdom to myself;

Then thou for Parthia, they for Scythia and Media.

And if I prosper, all shall be as sure

As if
the Turk, the
Pope, Afric, and Greece

Came creeping to us with their crowns apace.

TECHELLES

Then shall we send to this triumphing king

And bid him battle for his novel crown?

USUMCASANE

Nay, quickly then,
before his room be hot.

TAMBURLAINE

90   Twill prove a pretty jest, in faith, my friends.

THERIDAMAS

A jest, to charge on twenty thousand men?

I judge the
purchase more
important far.

TAMBURLAINE

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

100   And bid him
turn him 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 thee, Techelles. We will follow thee.

[
Exit
TECHELLES
.]

What saith Theridamas?

THERIDAMAS
                     Go on,
for me.

Exeunt.

[
Enter
]
COSROE
,
MEANDER
,
ORTYGIUS
,
MENAPHON
,
with other
SOLDIERS
.

COSROE

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 pressed out fire from their burning jaws,

So will I send this monstrous slave to hell,

Where flames shall ever feed upon his soul.

MEANDER

Some powers divine, or else infernal, mixed

Their angry seeds at his conception;

10   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.

ORTYGIUS

What god
, or fiend, or spirit of the earth,

Or monster turned to a manly shape,

Or of what
mould or
mettle he
be made,

What star or state soever govern him,

Let us put
on our meet encount'ring minds,

And, in detesting such a devilish thief,

20   In love of honour and defence of right

Be armed against the hate of such a foe,

Whether from earth, or hell, or heaven he grow.

COSROE

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,

30                 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! [
Strike 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,

40   And scorns the powers that govern Persia!

[
Exeunt
.]

Enter [the armies] to
the battle, and after the battle enter
COSROE
wounded
,
THERIDAMAS
,
TAMBURLAINE
,
TECHELLES
,
USUMCASANE
,
with others.

COSROE

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 grievèd soul,

And death arrests the organ of my voice,

Who, ent'ring at the breach thy sword hath made,

50   Sacks every vein and artier of my heart.

Bloody and insatiate Tamburlaine!

TAMBURLAINE

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 th'
empyreal heaven
,

Moved me to manage arms against thy state.

What better
precedent than
mighty Jove?

Nature, that framed us of four elements

Warring within our breasts for regiment,

60   Doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.

Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend

The wondrous architecture of the world

And measure every wand'ring planet's 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.

THERIDAMAS

And that made me to join with Tamburlaine,

70   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.

TECHELLES

And that made us, the friends of Tamburlaine,

To lift our swords against the Persian king.

USUMCASANE

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.

COSROE

The strangest men that ever nature made!

80   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 talons gripe my bleeding heart,

And like a harpy
tires on my
life.

90   Theridamas and Tamburlaine, I die,

And fearful vengeance light upon you both!

[
He dies
.]

He
[
TAMBURLAINE
]
takes the crown and puts it on.

TAMBURLAINE

Not all the curses which the Furies breathe

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!

TAMBURLAINE

Though Mars himself, the angry god of arms,

And all the earthly potentates conspire

100   To dispossess me of this diadem,

Yet will I wear it in despite of them

As great commander of this eastern world,

If you but say that Tamburlaine shall reign.

ALL

Long live Tamburlaine, and reign in Asia!

TAMBURLAINE

So, now it is more surer on my head

Than if the gods had held a parliament

And all pronounced me King of Persia.

[
Exeunt
.]

[
Enter
]
BAJAZETH
,
the
KINGS OF FEZ
,
MOROCCO
,
and
ARGIER
, [
BASSOES
,]
with others in great pomp.

BAJAZETH

Great kings of
Barbary, and
my portly bassoes,

We hear the Tartars and 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 circumcisèd Turks we have

And warlike bands of Christians renied

As hath the
ocean or
the Terrene Sea

10   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.

FEZ

Renownèd 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

20   As from the mouth of mighty Bajazeth?

BAJAZETH

Hie thee, my basso, fast to Persia.

Tell him thy lord the Turkish emperor,

Dread lord of Afric, Europe, and Asia,

Great king and conqueror of Graecia,

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
Graecia,

30   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