The Complete Plays (31 page)

I'll have you learn to feed on provender,

And in a stable lie upon the planks.

ORCANES

But, Tamburlaine, first thou shalt kneel to us

And humbly crave a pardon for thy life.

TREBIZOND

110  The common soldiers of our mighty host

Shall bring thee bound unto the general's tent.

SORIA

And all have jointly sworn thy cruel death,

Or bind thee in eternal torment's wrath.

TAMBURLAINE
Well, sirs, diet yourselves. You know I shall have occasion shortly to
journey you
.

CELEBINUS

See, father, how Almeda the gaoler looks upon us!

TAMBURLAINE
[
to
ALMEDA
]

Villain, traitor, damned fugitive,

I'll make thee wish the earth had swallowed thee.

See'st thou not death within my wrathful looks?

120   Go, villain, cast thee headlong from a rock,

Or rip thy bowels and rend out thy heart

T'appease my wrath, or else I'll torture thee,

Searing thy hateful flesh with burning irons

And drops of scalding lead, while all thy joints

Be racked and beat asunder with the wheel.

For, if thou livest, not any element

Shall shroud thee from the wrath of Tamburlaine.

CALLAPINE

Well, in despite of thee he shall be king.

Come, Almeda, receive this crown of me.

130  I here invest thee king of Ariadan,

Bordering on Mare Rosso near to Mecca.

[CALLAPINE
offers
ALMEDA
a crown
.]

ORCANES
[to
ALMEDA
] What, take it, man!

ALMEDA
[
to
TAMBURLAINE
] Good my lord, let me take it.

CALLAPINE
[
to
ALMEDA
] Dost thou ask him leave? Here, take it.

TAMBURLAINE
[
to
ALMEDA
] Go to, sirrah, take your crown, and
make up
the half dozen.

[
ALMEDA
takes the crown
.]

So, sirrah, now you are a king you must
give arms
.

ORCANES
[
to
TAMBURLAINE
] So he shall, and wear thy head in his scutcheon.

140   

TAMBURLAINE
No, let him hang a bunch of keys on his standard, to put him in remembrance he was a gaoler, that, when I take him, I may knock out his brains with them, and lock you in the stable when you shall come sweating from my chariot.

TREBIZOND
Away! Let us to the field, that the villain may be slain.

TAMBURLAINE
[
to a
SOLDIER
] Sirrah, prepare whips, and bring my chariot to my tent. For as soon as the battle is done, I'll ride in triumph through the camp.

150   
Enter
THERIDAMAS
,
TECHELLES
,
and their train
.

How now, ye petty kings, lo, here are bugs

Will make the hair stand upright on your heads

And cast your crowns in slavery at their feet.

Welcome, Theridamas and Techelles both.

See ye this rout, and know ye this same king?

THERIDAMAS

Ay, my lord, he was Callapine's keeper.

TAMBURLAINE
Well, now you see he is a king, look to him, Theridamas, when we are fighting, lest he hide his crown as the foolish King of Persia did.

160
SORIA
No, Tamburlaine, he shall not be put to that exigent, I warrant thee.

TAMBURLAINE

You know not, sir.

But now, my followers and my loving friends,

Fight as you ever did, like conquerors.

The glory of this happy day is yours.

My stern aspect shall make fair Victory,

Hovering betwixt our armies, light on me,

Loaden with laurel wreaths to crown us all.

TECHELLES

I smile to think how, when the field is fought

170   And rich Natolia ours, our men shall sweat

With carrying pearl and treasure on their backs.

TAMBURLAINE

You shall be princes all immediately.

Come fight, ye Turks, or yield us victory.

ORCANES

No, we will meet thee, slavish Tamburlaine.

Exeunt
.

Alarm
.
AMYRAS
and
CELEBINUS
issue from the tent where
CALYPHAS
sits asleep
.

AMYRAS

Now in their glories shine the golden crowns

Of these proud Turks, much like so many suns

That half dismay the majesty of heaven.

Now, brother, follow we our father's sword

That flies with fury swifter than our thoughts

And cuts down armies with his conquering wings.

CELEBINUS

Call forth our lazy brother from the tent,

For, if my father miss him in the field,

Wrath kindled in the furnace of his breast

10   Will send a deadly lightning to his heart.

AMYRAS
[
calling into the tent
]

Brother, ho! What, given so much to sleep

You cannot leave it when our enemies' drums

And rattling cannons thunder in our ears

Our proper ruin and our father's foil?

CALYPHAS

Away, ye fools! My father needs not me,

Nor you, in faith, but that you will be thought

More childish-valorous than manly-wise.

If half our camp should sit and sleep with me,

My father were enough to scare the foe.

You do dishonour to his majesty

20   To think our helps will do him any good.

AMYRAS

What, dar'st thou then be absent from the fight,

Knowing my father hates thy cowardice

And oft hath warned thee to be still in field,

When he himself amidst the thickest troops

Beats down our foes to
flesh our taintless swords
?

CALYPHAS

I know, sir, what it is to kill a man.

It works remorse of conscience in me.

I take no pleasure to be murderous,

30   Nor care for blood when wine will quench my thirst.

CELEBINUS

O cowardly boy! Fie, for shame, come forth.

Thou dost dishonour manhood and thy
house
.

CALYPHAS

Go, go, tall stripling, fight you for us both,

And take my other
toward
brother here,

For person like to prove a second Mars.

'Twill please my mind as well to hear both you

Have won a heap of honour in the field

And left your slender carcasses behind

As if I
lay
with you for company.

AMYRAS

40   You will not go, then?

CALYPHAS

You will not go, then?

CALYPHAS

You say true.

AMYRAS

Were all the lofty mounts of Zona Mundi

That fill the midst of farthest Tartary

Turned into pearl and proffered for my stay,

I would not bide the fury of my father

When, made a victor in these haughty arms,

He comes and finds his sons have had no shares

In all the honours he proposed for us.

CALYPHAS

Take you the honour, I will take my ease;

50   My wisdom shall excuse my cowardice.

I go into the field before I need?

Alarm, and
AMYRAS
and
CELEBINUS
run in
.

The bullets fly at random where they list,

And, should I go and kill a thousand men,

I were as soon rewarded with a shot,

And sooner far than he that never fights.

And, should I go and do nor harm nor good,

I might have harm, which all the good I have,

Joined with my father's crown, would never cure.

I'll to cards. Perdicas!

[
Enter
PERDICAS
.]

PERDICAS
Here, my lord.

60  
CALYPHAS
Come, thou and I will go to cards to drive away the time.

PERDICAS
Content, my lord. But what shall we play for?

CALYPHAS
Who shall kiss the fairest of the Turks' concubines

  first, when my father hath conquered them.

PERDICAS
Agreed, i'faith.

    
They play
[
in the open tent
].

CALYPHAS
They say I am a coward, Perdicas, and I fear as little
their
taratantaras
, their swords, or their cannons as I do a
naked lady in a
net of gold
,
and
, for fear I should be afraid,
would put it off and come to bed with me.

70  
PERDICAS
Such a fear, my lord, would never make ye retire.

CALYPHAS
I would my father would le me be put in the front
of such a battle once, to try my valour.

    
Alarm
.

What a coil they keep! I believe there will be some hurt done
anon amongst them.

      
Enter
TAMBURLAINE, THERIDAMAS, TECHELLES,
    USUMCASANE, AMYRAS, CELEBINUS
,
leading the Turkish
    kings
[
ORCANES
of Natolia
,
JERUSALEM, TREBIZOND,
    SORIA
;
and
SOLDIERS
].

TAMBURLAINE

See now, ye slaves, my children
stoops
your pride

And leads your glories sheep-like to the sword.

Bring them, my boys, and tell me if the wars

Be not a life that may illustrate gods,

80   And tickle not your spirits with desire

Still to be trained in arms and chivalry?

AMYRAS

Shall we let go these kings again, my lord,

To gather greater numbers 'gainst our power,

That they may say it is not chance doth this

But matchless strength and magnanimity?

TAMBURLAINE

No, no, Amyras, tempt not Fortune so.

Cherish thy valour still with
fresh supplies
,

And glut it not with stale and daunted foes.

But where's this coward – villain, not my son,

90   But traitor to my name and majesty?

    
He goes in [the tent] and brings him
[
CALYPHAS
]
out
.

Image of sloth and picture of a slave,

The obloquy and scorn of my renown,

How
may
my heart, thus firàd with mine eyes,

Wounded with shame and killed with discontent,

Shroud any thought may hold my striving hands

From martial justice on thy wretched soul?

THERIDAMAS

Yet pardon him, I pray your majesty.

TECHELLES AND USUMCASANE

Let all of us entreat your highness' pardon.

[
They kneel
.]

TAMBURLAINE

Stand up, ye base, unworthy soldiers!

100   Know ye not yet the
argument of arms
?

AMYRAS

Good my lord, let him be forgiven for once,

And we will force him to the field hereafter.

TAMBURLAINE

Stand up, my boys, and I will teach ye arms

And what the
jealousy
of wars must do.

O Samarcanda, where I breathàd first

And joyed the fire of this martial flesh,

Blush, blush, fair city, at thine honour's foil

And shame of nature, which
Jaertis' stream
,

Embracing thee with deepest of his love,

Can never wash from thy distainàd brows!

110   Here, Jove, receive his fainting soul again –

[
He stabs
CALYPHAS
.]

A form
not meet to give that subject essence

Whose matter is the flesh of Tamburlaine,

Wherein an incorporeal spirit moves,

Made of the mould whereof
thy
self consists,

Which makes me valiant, proud, ambitious,

Ready to levy power against thy throne,

That I might move the turning spheres of heaven;

For earth and all this airy region

Cannot contain the state of Tamburlaine.

120   By Mahomet, thy mighty friend, I swear,

In sending to my issue such a soul,

Created of the
massy dregs
of earth,

T
he
scum and tartar of the elements,

Wherein was neither courage, strength, or wit,

But folly, sloth, and damnèd idleness,

Thou hast procured a greater enemy

Than he that darted mountains at thy head,

Shaking
the burden
mighty Atlas bears,

Whereat thou, trembling, hidd'st thee in the air,

130   Clothed with a pitchy cloud
for being seen
.

And now, ye
cankered curs
of Asia,

That will not see the strength of Tamburlaine

Although it shine as brightly as the sun,

Now you shall feel the strength of Tamburlaine,

And by the state of his supremacy

Approve
the difference 'twixt himself and you.

ORCANES

Thou showest the difference 'twixt ourselves and thee,

In this thy barbarous damnèd tyranny.