Read The Complete Plays Online
Authors: Christopher Marlowe
THERIDAMAS
Pioners, away! And where I stuck the stake
Entrench with those dimensions I prescribed.
Cast up the earth towards the castle wall,
Which, till it may defend you, labour low,
And few or none shall perish by their shot.
PIONERS
We will, my lord.
Exeunt
[
PIONERS
].
TECHELLES
A hundred horse shall scout about the plains
To spy what force comes to relieve the hold.
Both we, Theridamas, will entrench our men,
50Â Â Â And with the Jacob's staff measure the height
And distance of the castle from the trench,
That we may know if our artillery
Will carry
full point-blank
unto their walls.
THERIDAMAS
Then
see
the bringing of our ordinance
Along the trench into the battery,
Where we will have
gabions
of six foot broad
To save our cannoneers from musket shot,
Betwixt which shall our ordnance thunder forth,
And with the breach's fall, smoke, fire, and dust,
The crack, the echo, and the soldiers' cry,
60Â Â Â Make deaf the air and dim the crystal sky.
TECHELLES
Trumpets and drums,
alarum
presently!
And, soldiers, play the men. The hold is yours!
[
Exeunt
.]
Enter the
CAPTAIN
with his wife
[
OLYMPIA
]
and
SON
.
OLYMPIA
Come, good my lord, and let us haste from hence
Along the cave that leads beyond the foe.
No hope is left to save this conquered hold.
CAPTAIN
A deadly bullet gliding through my side
Lies heavy on my heart. I cannot live.
I feel my liver pierced, and all my veins
That there begin and nourish every part
Mangled and torn, and all my entrails bathed
In blood that straineth from their
orifex
.
Farewell, sweet wife! Sweet son, farewell! I die.
10Â Â [
He dies
.]
OLYMPIA
Death, whither art thou gone, that both we live?
Come back again, sweet Death, and strike us both!
One minute end our days, and one sepulchre
Contain our bodies! Death, why com'st thou not?
[
She draws a knife
.]
Well, this must be the messenger for thee.
Now, ugly Death, stretch out thy sable wings,
And carry both our souls where his remains.
Tell me, sweet boy, art thou content to die?
These barbarous Scythians, full of cruelty,
20Â Â Â And Moors in whom was never pity found,
Will hew us piecemeal, put us to
the wheel
,
Or else invent some torture worse than that.
Therefore, die by thy loving mother's hand,
Who gently now will lance thy ivory throat
And quickly rid thee both of pain and life.
SON
Mother, dispatch me, or I'll kill myself.
For think ye I can live, and see him dead?
Give me your knife, good mother, or strike home.
The Scythians shall not tyrannize on me.
30Â Â Â Sweet mother, strike, that I may meet my father!
She stabs him
.
OLYMPIA
Ah, sacred Mahomet, if this be sin,
Entreat a pardon of the God of heaven,
And purge my soul before it come to thee!
[
She
burns the bodies
.]
Enter
THERIDAMAS
,
TECHELLES
,
and all their train.
[
OLYMPIA
tries to kill herself
.]
THERIDAMAS
How now, madam, what are you doing?
OLYMPIA
Killing myself, as I have done my son,
Whose body with his father's I have burnt,
Lest cruel Scythians should dismember him.
TECHELLES
'Twas bravely done, and like a soldier's wife.
Thou shalt with us to Tamburlaine the Great,
40Â Â Â Who, when he hears how resolute thou wert,
Will match thee with a viceroy or a king.
OLYMPIA
My lord deceased was dearer unto me
Than any viceroy, king, or emperor,
And for his sake here will I end my days.
THERIDAMAS
But lady, go with us to Tamburlaine,
And thou shalt see a man greater than Mahomet,
In whose high looks is much more majesty
Than
from
the concave superficies
Of Jove's vast palace, the empyreal orb,
Unto the shining bower where Cynthia sits
50Â Â Â
Like lovely Thetis
in a crystal robe;
That treadeth Fortune underneath his feet
And makes the mighty god of arms his slave;
On whom Death and the Fatal Sisters wait
With naked swords and scarlet liveries;
Before whom, mounted on a lion's back,
Rhamnusia
bears a helmet full of blood
And strews the way with brains of slaughtered men;
By whose proud side the ugly Furies run,
Hearkening when he shall bid them plague the world;
60Â Â Â Over whose zenith, clothed in windy air
And eagle's wings joined to her feathered breast,
Fame hovereth, sounding of her golden trump,
That to the adverse poles of that
straight line
Which measureth the glorious
frame
of heaven
The name of mighty Tamburlaine is spread â
And him, fair lady, shall thy eyes behold.
Come.
OLYMPIA
[
kneeling
]
Take pity of a lady's ruthful tears,
That humbly craves upon her knees to stay
70Â Â Â And cast her body in the burning flame
That feeds upon her son's and husband's flesh.
TECHELLES
Madam, sooner shall fire consume us both
Than scorch a face so beautiful as this,
In frame of which Nature hath showed more skill
Than when she gave eternal chaos form,
Drawing from it the shining lamps of heaven.
THERIDAMAS
Madam, I am so far in love with you
That you must go with us.
No remedy
.
OLYMPIA
80Â Â Â Then carry me I care not where you will,
And let the end of this my
fatal
journey
Be likewise end to my accursèd life.
TECHELLES
No madam, but the beginning of your joy.
Come willingly, therefore.
THERIDAMAS
Soldiers, now let us meet the general,
Who by this time is at Natolia,
Ready to charge the army of the Turk.
The gold, the silver, and the pearl ye got
Rifling this fort, divide in equal shares.
90Â Â Â This lady shall have twice so much again
Out of the coffers of our treasury.
Exeunt
.
[
Enter
]
CALLAPINE
,
ORCANES
,
JERUSALEM
,
TREBIZOND
,
SORIA
,
ALMEDA
,
with their train
. [
To them a
MESSENGER
.]
MESSENGER
Renownèd emperor, mighty Callapine,
God's great lieutenant over all the world,
Here at Aleppo
with an host of men
Lies Tamburlaine, this king of Persia â
In number more than are the quivering leaves
Of
Ida's forest
, where your highness' hounds
With open cry pursues the wounded stag â
Who means to girt
Natolia's
walls with siege,
Fire the town, and overrun the land.
CALLAPINE
My royal army is as great as his,
10Â Â Â That from the bounds of Phrygia to the sea
Which washeth Cyprus with his brinish waves,
Covers the hills, the valleys, and the plains.
Viceroys and peers of Turkey,
play the men
!
Whet all your swords to mangle Tamburlaine,
His sons, his captains, and his followers.
By Mahomet, not one of them shall live!
The field wherein this battle shall be fought
For ever term the Persians' sepulchre
20Â Â Â In memory of this our victory.
ORCANES
Now he that calls himself the scourge of Jove,
The emperor of the world, and earthly god,
Shall end the warlike progress he intends
And travel headlong to the lake of hell
Where legions of devils, knowing he must die
Here in Natolia by your highness' hands,
All brandishing their brands of quenchless fire,
Stretching their monstrous paws, grin with their teeth
And guard the gates to entertain his soul.
CALLAPINE
Tell me, viceroys, the number of your men,
30Â Â Â And what our army royal is esteemed.
JERUSALEM
From Palestina and Jerusalem,
Of Hebrews three score thousand fighting men
Are come since last we
showed
your majesty.
ORCANES
So from Arabia desert, and the bounds
Of that sweet land whose brave
metropolis
Re-edified the fair Semiramis,
Came forty thousand warlike foot and horse
Since last we numbered to your majesty.
TREBIZOND
From Trebizond in
Asia the Less
,
40Â Â Â Naturalized Turks and stout Bithynians
Came to my bands full fifty thousand more
That, fighting, knows not what retreat doth mean,
Nor e'er return but with the victory,
Since last we numbered to your majesty.
SORIA
Of Sorians
from Halla is repaired
,
And neighbour cities of your highness' land,
Ten thousand horse and thirty thousand foot
Since last we numbered to your majesty;
50Â Â Â So that the army royal is esteemed
Six hundred thousand valiant fighting men.
CALLAPINE
Then welcome, Tamburlaine, unto thy death.
Come, puissant viceroys, let us to the field â
The Persians' sepulchre â and sacrifice
Mountains of breathless men to Mahomet,
Who now with Jove opens the firmament
To see the slaughter of our enemies.
[
Enter
]
TAMBURLAINE
with his three
SONS
[
CALYPHAS
,
AMYRAS
,
CELEBINUS
],
USUMCASANE
,
with other
[SOLDIERS
].
TAMBURLAINE
How now, Casane? See, a
knot
of kings,
Sitting as if they were a-telling riddles.
USUMCASANE
60Â Â Â My lord, your presence makes them pale and wan.
Poor souls, they look as if their deaths were near.
TAMBURLAINE
Why, so he is, Casane. I am here.
But yet I'll save their lives and make them slaves.
Ye petty kings of Turkey, I am come
As
Hector
did into the Grecian camp
To overdare the pride of Graecia
And set his warlike person to the view
Of fierce Achilles, rival of his fame.
I do you honour in the simile;
70Â Â Â For if I should, as Hector did Achilles
(The worthiest knight that ever brandished sword)
Challenge in combat any of you all,
I see how fearfully ye would refuse
And fly
my glove
as from a scorpion.
ORCANES
Now
thou art fearful of thy army's strength,
Thou wouldst with overmatch of person fight.
But, shepherd's issue, baseborn Tamburlaine,
Think of thy end. This sword shall lance thy throat.
TAMBURLAINE
Villain, the shepherd's issue, at whose birth
Heaven
did afford a gracious aspect
80Â Â Â And joined those stars that shall be opposite
Even till the dissolution of the world,
And never meant to make a conqueror
So famous as is mighty Tamburlaine,
Shall so torment thee and that Callapine
That like a roguish runaway suborned
That villain
there, that slave, that Turkish dog,
To false his service to his sovereign,
As ye shall curse the birth of Tamburlaine.
CALLAPINE
Rail not, proud Scythian, I shall now revenge
90Â Â Â My father's vile abuses and mine own.
JERUSALEM
By Mahomet, he shall be tied in chains,
Rowing with Christians in a brigantine
About the Grecian isles to rob and spoil,
And turn him to
his ancient trade
again.
Methinks the slave should make a lusty thief.
CALLAPINE
Nay, when the battle ends, all we will meet
And sit in council to invent some pain
That most may vex his body and his soul.
TAMBURLAINE
Sirrah Callapine, I'll hang a
clog
about your
100Â Â neck for running away again. You shall not trouble me thus
     to come and fetch you.
But as for you, viceroy, you shall have bits
And, harnessed like my horses, draw my coach,
And, when ye stay, be lashed with whips of wire.