The Complete Plays (20 page)

TAMBURLAINE

And know thou, Turk, that those which lead my horse

Shall lead thee captive thorough Africa;

And dar'st thou bluntly call me Tamburlaine?

BAJAZETH

By Mahomet my kinsman's sepulchre,

And by the holy
Alcoran I
swear

He shall be made a chaste and lustless eunuch,

And in my sarell tend my concubines,

And all his captains that thus stoutly stand

80   Shall draw the chariot of my emperess,

Whom I have brought to see their overthrow.

TAMBURLAINE

By this my sword that conquered Persia,

Thy fall shall make me famous through the world.

I will not tell thee how I'll handle thee,

But every common soldier of my camp

Shall smile to see thy miserable state.

FEZ
[
to
BAJAZETH
]

What means the mighty Turkish emperor

To talk with one so base as Tamburlaine?

MOROCCO

Ye Moors and valiant men of Barbary,

90   How can ye suffer these indignities?

ARGIER

Leave words and let them feel your lances' points,

Which glided through the bowels of the Greeks.

BAJAZETH

Well said, my stout contributory kings!

Your threefold army and my hugy host

Shall swallow up these base-born Persians.

TECHELLES

Puissant, renowned, and mighty Tamburlaine,

Why stay we thus prolonging all their lives?

THERIDAMAS

I long to see those crowns won by our swords,

That we may reign as kings of Africa.

USUMCASANE

100   What coward would not fight for such a prize?

TAMBURLAINE

Fight all courageously, and be you kings!

I speak it, and my words are oracles.

BAJAZETH

Zabina, mother of three braver boys

Than
Hercules, that
in his infancy

Did pash the jaws of serpents venomous,

Whose hands are made to gripe a warlike lance,

Their shoulders broad, for complete armour fit,

Their limbs more large and of a bigger size

Than all the brats
y-sprung from
Typhon's loins,

Who, when they come unto their father's age,

110   Will batter turrets with their manly fists:

Sit here upon this royal chair of state

And on thy head wear my imperial crown,

Until I bring this sturdy Tamburlaine

And all his captains bound in captive chains.

ZABINA

Such good success happen to Bajazeth!

TAMBURLAINE

Zenocrate, the loveliest maid alive,

Fairer than rocks of pearl and precious stone,

The only
paragon of
Tamburlaine,

Whose eyes are brighter than the lamps of heaven,

120   And speech more pleasant than sweet harmony,

That with thy looks canst clear the darkened sky

And calm the rage of thund'ring Jupiter:

Sit down by her, adorned with my crown,

As if thou wert the empress of the world.

Stir not, Zenocrate, until thou see

Me march victoriously with all my men,

Triumphing over him and these his kings,

Which I will bring as vassals to thy feet.

Till then, take thou my crown, vaunt of my worth,

130   And manage words with her as we will arms.

ZENOCRATE

And may my love, the King of Persia,

Return with victory and free from wound!

BAJAZETH

Now shalt thou feel the force of Turkish arms

Which lately made all Europe quake for fear.

I have of Turks, Arabians, Moors, and Jews,

Enough to cover all Bithynia.

Let thousands die, their slaughtered carcasses

Shall serve for walls and bulwarks to the rest;

140              And as the heads of Hydra, so my power,

Subdued, shall stand as mighty as before.

If
they should
yield their necks unto the sword,

Thy soldiers' arms could not endure to strike

So many blows as I have heads for thee.

Thou knowest not, foolish-hardy Tamburlaine,

What 'tis to meet me in the open field,

That leave no ground for thee to march upon.

TAMBURLAINE

Our conquering swords shall
marshal us
the way

We use to march upon the slaughtered foe,

150   Trampling their bowels with our horses' hoofs –

Brave horses, bred on the white Tartarian hills.

My camp is like to Julius Caesar's host,

That never fought but had the victory;

Nor in
Pharsalia was
there such hot war

As these my followers willingly would have.

Legions of spirits fleeting in the
air,

Direct our bullets and our weapons' points,

And make our strokes to wound the senseless air;

And when she sees our bloody colours spread,

160   Then
Victory begins
to take her flight,

Resting herself upon my milk-white tent.

But come, my lords, to weapons let us fall!

The field is ours, the Turk, his wife, and all.

Exit
[
TAMBURLAINE
,]
with his followers
.

BAJAZETH

Come, kings and bassoes, let us glut our swords

That thirst to drink the feeble Persians' blood!

Exit
[
BAJAZETH
,]
with his followers
.

ZABINA

Base concubine, must thou be placed by me

That am the empress of the mighty Turk?

ZENOCRATE

Disdainful Turkess and unreverend boss,

Call'st thou me concubine, that am betrothed

170   Unto the great and mighty Tamburlaine?

ZABINA

To Tamburlaine, the great Tartarian thief!

ZENOCRATE

Thou wilt repent these lavish words of thine

When thy great basso-master and thyself

Must plead for mercy at his kingly feet,

And sue to me to be your
advocates.

ZABINA

And sue to thee? I tell thee, shameless girl,

Thou shalt be laundress to my waiting-maid.

How lik'st thou her, Ebea? Will she serve?

EBEA

Madam, she thinks perhaps she is too fine.

But I shall turn her into other weeds,

180   And make her dainty fingers fall to work.

ZENOCRATE

Hear'st thou, Anippe, how thy drudge doth talk,

And how my slave, her mistress, menaceth?

Both, for their sauciness, shall be employed

To dress the common soldiers' meat and drink,

For we will scorn they should come near ourselves.

ANIPPE

Yet sometimes let your highness send for them

To do the work my chambermaid disdains.

They sound
[
to
]
the battle within, and stay
.

ZENOCRATE

Ye gods and powers that govern Persia

And made my lordly love her worthy king,

190   Now strengthen him against the Turkish Bajazeth,

And let his foes, like flocks of fearful roes

Pursued by hunters, fly his angry looks,

That I may see him
issue conqueror.

ZABINA

Now, Mahomet, solicit God himself,

And make him rain down murdering shot from heaven

To dash the Scythians' brains, and strike them dead

That dare to manage arms with him

That offered jewels to thy sacred shrine

200   When first he warred against the Christians.

[
They sound
]
to the battle again
.

ZENOCRATE

By this the Turks lie welt'ring in their blood,

And Tamburlaine is lord of Africa.

ZABINA

Thou art deceived, I heard the trumpets sound

As when my emperor overthrew the Greeks

And led them captive into Africa.

Straight will I use thee as thy pride deserves;

Prepare thyself to live and die my slave.

ZENOCRATE

If Mahomet should come from heaven and swear

My royal lord is slain or conquerèd,

210   Yet should he not persuade me otherwise

But that he lives and will be conqueror.

BAJAZETH
flies
[
across the stage
],
and he
[
TAMBURLAINE
]
pursues him
[
offstage
].
The battle short, and they
[
re
-]
enter
[
fighting
].
BAJAZETH
is overcome
.

TAMBURLAINE

Now, king of bassoes, who is conqueror?

BAJAZETH

Thou, by the fortune of this damnèd
soil.

TAMBURLAINE

Where are your stout contributory kings?

Enter
TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE
.

TECHELLES

We have their crowns; their bodies
strew the
field.

TAMBURLAINE

Each man a crown? Why, kingly fought, i'faith.

Deliver them into my treasury.

[
TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS
and
USUMCASANE
hand over the crowns
.]

ZENOCRATE

Now let me offer to my gracious lord

His royal crown again, so highly won.

TAMBURLAINE

Nay, take the Turkish crown from her, Zenocrate,

220   And crown me emperor of Africa.

ZABINA

No, Tamburlaine, though now thou
gat the best,

Thou shalt not yet be lord of Africa.

THERIDAMAS
[
tO
ZABINA
]

Give her the crown, Turkess, you were best.

He takes it from her and gives it
ZENOCRATE
.

ZABINA

Injurious villains, thieves, runagates!

How dare you thus abuse my majesty?

THERIDAMAS

Here, madam, you are empress, she is none.

TAMBURLAINE
[
as
ZENOCRATE
crowns him
]

Not now, Theridamas, her time is past.

The pillars that have bolstered up those
terms

230   Are fall'n in clusters at my conquering feet.

ZABINA

Though he be prisoner, he may be ransomed.

TAMBURLAINE

Not all the world shall ransom Bajazeth.

BAJAZETH

Ah, fair Zabina, we have lost the field,

And never had the Turkish emperor

So great a foil by any foreign foe.

Now will the Christian
miscreants be
glad,

Ringing with joy their superstitious bells,

And making bonfires for my overthrow.

But ere I die, those foul idolaters

Shall make me bonfires with their filthy bones;

240   For, though the glory of this day be lost,

Afric and Greece have garrisons enough

To make me sovereign of the earth again.

TAMBURLAINE

Those wallèd 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 brigantines,

That yearly sail to the Venetian gulf,

250   And hover in the straits for Christians' wrack,

Shall lie at anchor in the isle
Asant

Until the Persian fleet and men-of-war,

Sailing along the oriental sea,

Have fetched about the Indian continent,

Even from Persepolis to Mexico,

And thence unto the Straits of Jubalter,

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.

260   And by this means I'll win the world at last.

BAJAZETH

Yet set a ransom on me, Tamburlaine.

TAMBURLAINE

What, think'st thou Tamburlaine esteems 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
.

BAJAZETH

Ah, villains, dare ye touch my sacred arms?

O Mahomet, O sleepy Mahomet!

ZABINA

270   O cursèd Mahomet, that makest us thus

The slaves to Scythians rude and barbarous!

TAMBURLAINE

Come, bring them in, and for this happy conquest

Triumph, and
solemnize a martial feast.

Exeunt
.

[
Enter the
]
SULTAN OF EGYPT
with three or four
LORDS, CAPOLIN
[
and a
MESSENGER
].

SULTAN

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 Sultan's daughter, for his concubine,