The Complete Plays (19 page)

With triple circuit thou regreet us not,

We mean to take his morning's next arise

For messenger he will not be reclaimed,

40   And mean to fetch thee in despite of him.

BASSO

Most great and puissant monarch of the earth,

Your basso will accomplish your behest

And show your pleasure to the Persian,

As fits the legate of the stately Turk.

Exit
BASSO
.

ARGIER

They say he is the King of Persia;

But if he dare attempt to
stir your siege,

'Twere requisite he should be ten times more,

For all flesh quakes at your magnificence.

BAJAZETH

True, Argier, and tremble at my looks.

MOROCCO

50   The spring is hindered by your smothering host,

For neither rain can fall upon the earth,

Nor sun reflex his virtuous beams thereon,

The ground is mantled with such multitudes.

BAJAZETH

All this is true as holy Mahomet,

And all the trees are blasted with our breaths.

FEZ

What thinks your greatness best to be achieved

In pursuit of the city's overthrow?

BAJAZETH

I will the captive pioners of Argier

Cut off the water that by leaden pipes

Runs to the city from the mountain
Carnon;

60   Two thousand horse shall forage up and down,

That no relief or succour come by land;

And all the sea my galleys
countermand.

Then shall our footmen lie within the trench,

And with their cannons mouthed like
Orcus' gulf

Batter the walls, and we will enter in;

And thus the Grecians shall be conqueràd.

Exeunt.

[
Enter
]
AGYDAS
,
ZENOCRATE
,
ANIPPE
,
with others.

AGYDAS

Madam Zenocrate, may I presume

To know the cause of these unquiet fits

That work such trouble to your wonted rest?

'Tis more than pity such a heavenly face

Should by heart's sorrow wax so wan and pale,

When your offensive
rape by
Tamburlaine

(Which of your whole displeasures should be most)

Hath seemed to be digested long ago.

ZENOCRATE

Although it be digested long ago,

As his exceeding favours have deserved,

10   And might content the
queen of heaven as
well

As it hath changed my first-conceived disdain,

Yet,
since, a
farther passion feeds my thoughts

With ceaseless and disconsolate conceits,

Which
dyes my
looks so lifeless as they are

And might, if my extremes had full
events
,

Make me the ghastly counterfeit of death.

AGYDAS

Eternal heaven sooner be dissolved,

And all that pierceth Phoebe's silver eye,

20   Before such hap fall to Zenocrate!

ZENOCRATE

Ah, life and soul still hover in his breast

And leave my body senseless as the earth,

Or else unite you to his life and soul,

That I may live and die with Tamburlaine!

Enter
[
from behind
]
TAMBURLAINE
with
TECHELLES
and others
.

AGYDAS

With Tamburlaine? Ah, fair Zenocrate,

Let not a man so vile and barbarous,

That holds you from your father in
despite

And keeps you from the honours of a queen,

Being supposed his worthless concubine,

30   Be honoured with your love
but for necessity.

So now
the mighty Sultan hears of you,

Your highness needs not doubt but in short time

He will, with Tamburlaine's destruction,

Redeem you from this deadly servitude.

ZENOCRATE

Agydas, leave
to wound me with these words,

And speak of Tamburlaine as he deserves.

The entertainment we have had of him

Is far from villainy or servitude,

And might in noble minds be counted princely.

AGYDAS

40   How can you
fancy one
that looks so fierce,

Only disposed to martial stratagems?

Who, when he shall embrace you in his arms,

Will tell how many thousand men he slew,

And when you look for amorous discourse

Will rattle forth his
facts of
war and blood,

Too harsh a subject for your dainty ears.

ZENOCRATE

As looks the sun through Nilus' flowing stream,

Or when the morning holds him in her arms,

So looks my lordly love, fair Tamburlaine;

His talk much sweeter than the
Muses' song

50   They sung for honour 'gainst Pierides,

Or when
Minerva did
with Neptune strive;

And higher would I rear my
estimate

Than Juno, sister to the highest god,

If I were matched with mighty Tamburlaine.

AGYDAS

Yet be not so inconstant in your love,

But let
the young Arabian live
in hope

After your rescue to enjoy his choice.

You see, though first the King of Persia,

Being a shepherd, seemed to love you much,

60   Now in his majesty he leaves those looks,

Those words of favour, and those comfortings,

And gives no more than common courtesies.

ZENOCRATE

Thence rise the tears that so distain my cheeks,

Fearing his love through my unworthiness.

TAMBURLAINE
goes to her, and takes her away lovingly by the hand, looking wrath fully on
AGYDAS
,
and says nothing.

[
Exeunt
,
AGYDAS
remains
.]

AGYDAS

Betrayed by fortune and suspicious love,

Threatened with frowning wrath and jealousy,

Surprised with fear of hideous revenge,

I stand aghast, but most astonièd

To see his choler shut in secret thoughts

70   And wrapped in silence of his angry soul.

Upon his brows was portrayed ugly death,

And in his eyes the fury of his heart,

That shine as
comets, menacing
revenge,

And casts a pale complexion on his cheeks.

As when the
seaman sees the Hyades

Gather an army of
Cimmerian clouds

(Auster and Aquilon, with wingèd steeds

All sweating, tilt about the watery heavens

80   With shivering spears
enforcing thunderclaps,

And from their shields strike flames of lightning),

All fearful folds his sails, and
sounds the main,

Lifting his prayers to the heavens for aid

Against the terror of the winds and waves,

So fares Agydas for the late-felt frowns

That sent a tempest to my daunted thoughts

And makes my soul divine her overthrow.

Enter
TECHELLES
with a
naked dagger
.

TECHELLES
[
giving the dagger
]

See you, Agydas, how the king salutes you.

He bids you prophesy what it imports.

Exit
[
TECHELLES
].

AGYDAS

90   I prophesied before, and now I prove,

The killing frowns of jealousy and love.

He needed not with words confirm my fear,

For words are vain where working tools present

The naked action of my threatened end.

It says, Agydas, thou shalt surely die,

And of extremities elect the least:

More honour and less pain it may procure

To die by this resolvèd hand of thine

Than
stay the
torments he and heaven have sworn.

100   Then haste, Agydas, and prevent the plagues

Which thy
prolongèd fates may
draw on thee.

Go wander free from fear of tyrant's rage,

Removèd from the torments and the hell

Wherewith he may excruciate thy soul,

And let Agydas by Agydas die,

And with this stab slumber eternally.

[
Stabs himself
.]

[
Enter
TECHELLES
and
USUMCASCANE
.]

TECHELLES

Usumcasane, see how right the man

Hath hit the meaning of my lord the king.

USUMCASANE

Faith, and, Techelles, it was manly done;

And since he was so wise and honourable,

110   Let us afford him now the bearing hence

And crave his triple-worthy burial.

TECHELLES

Agreed, Casane. We will honour him.

[
Exeunt, bearing the body
.]

[
Enter
]
TAMBURLAINE, TECHELLES, USUMCASANE, THERIDAMAS, BASSO, ZENOCRATE
, [
ANIPPE
,]
with Others
[
with a throne
].

TAMBURLAINE

Basso,
by this thy
lord and master knows

I mean to meet him in
Bithynia.

See how
he comes
! Tush, Turks are full of brags

And menace more than they can well perform.

He meet me in the field and fetch thee hence!

Alas, poor Turk, his fortune is too weak

T'encounter with the strength of Tamburlaine.

View well my camp, and speak indifferently:

Do not my captains and my soldiers look

10   As if they meant to conquer Africa?

BASSO

Your men are valiant, but their number few,

And cannot terrify his mighty host.

My lord, the great commander of the world,

Besides fifteen contributory kings,

Hath now in arms ten thousand
janizaries

Mounted on lusty
Mauritanian steeds
,

Brought to the war by men of Tripoli;

Two hundred thousand footmen that have served

In two set battles fought in Graecia;

20   And for the
expedition of
this war,

If he think good, can from his garrisons

Withdraw as many more to follow him.

TECHELLES

The more he brings, the greater is the spoil;

For, when they perish by our warlike hands,

We mean to seat our footmen on their steeds

And rifle all those stately janizars.

TAMBURLAINE

But will those kings accompany your lord?

BASSO

Such as his highness please, but some must stay

To rule the provinces he late subdued.

TAMBURLAINE [
to his followers
]

30   Then fight courageously, their crowns are yours.

This hand shall set them on your conquering heads

That made me emperor of Asia.

USUMCASANE

Let him bring millions infinite of men,

Unpeopling western Africa and Greece,

Yet we assure us of the victory.

THERIDAMAS

Even he, that in a trice vanquished two kings

More mighty than the Turkish emperor,

Shall
rouse him out
of Europe and pursue

His scattered army till they yield or die.

TAMBURLAINE

40   Well said, Theridamas! Speak in that mood,

For ‘will' and ‘shall' best fitteth Tamburlaine,

Whose smiling stars gives him assurèd hope

Of martial triumph ere he meet his foes.

I that am termed the
scourge and
wrath of God,

The only fear and terror of the world,

Will first subdue the Turk and then enlarge

Those Christian captives which you keep as slaves,

Burdening their bodies with your heavy chains,

And feeding them with thin and slender fare,

That naked row about the Terrene Sea,

50   And when they chance to breathe and rest a space,

Are punished with bastones so grievously

That they lie panting on the galley's side

And strive for life at every stroke they give.

These are the cruel
pirates of Argier,

That damnèd train, the scum of Africa,

Inhabited with straggling runagates,

That
make quick havoc of
the Christian blood.

But, as I live, that town shall curse the time

That Tamburlaine set foot in Africa.

60            
Enter
BAJAZETH
with his
BASSOES
[
with a throne
,]
and contributory
KINGS
[
OF FEZ, MOROCCO
and
ARGIER; ZABINA
and
EBEA
].

BAJAZETH

Bassoes and janizaries of my guard,

Attend upon the person of your lord,

The greatest potentate of Africa.

TAMBURLAINE

Techelles and the rest, prepare your swords.

I mean t'encounter with that Bajazeth.

BAJAZETH

Kings of Fez, Moroccus, and Argier,

He calls me Bajazeth, whom you call lord!

Note the presumption of this Scythian slave.

I tell thee, villain, those that lead my horse

Have to their names titles of dignity;

70   And dar'st thou bluntly call me Bajazeth?