The Complete Plays (35 page)

With souls of thousand mangled carcasses.

Look where he goes! But see, he comes again

Because I stay. Techelles, let us march,

And weary Death with bearing souls to hell.

PHYSICIAN

Pleaseth your majesty to drink this potion,

Which will abate the fury of your fit

80   And cause some milder spirits govern you.

TAMBURLAINE

Tell me, what think you of my sickness now?

PHYSICIAN

I viewed your urine, and the
hypostasis
,

Thick and obscure, doth make your danger great;

Your veins are full of
accidental
heat,

Whereby the moisture of your blood is dried.

The
humidum
and calor, which some hold

Is not a parcel of the elements

But of a substance more divine and pure,

Is almost clean extinguishèd and spent,

90   Which, being the cause of life, imports your death.

Besides, my lord, this day is
critical
,

Dangerous to those whose crisis is as yours.

Your artiers, which alongst the veins convey

The lively spirits which the heart engenders,

Are parched and void of spirit, that the soul,

Wanting those
organons
by which it moves,

Cannot endure
by argument of art
.

Yet if your majesty may escape this day,

No doubt but you shall soon recover all.

TAMBURLAINE

100   Then will I comfort all my vital parts

And live in spite of Death above a day.

Alarm within
.

[
Enter a
MESSENGER
.]

MESSENGER
My lord, young Callapine, that lately fled from

your majesty, hath now gathered a fresh army, and, hearing your absence in the field, offers to set upon us presently.

TAMBURLAINE

See, my physicians, now, how Jove hath sent

A present medicine to recure my pain!

My looks shall make them fly, and, might I follow,

There should not one of all the villain's power

Live to give offer of another fight.

USUMCASANE

110   I joy, my lord, your highness is so strong,

That can
endure
so well your royal presence

Which only will dismay the enemy.

TAMBURLAINE

I know it well, Casane. Draw, you slaves!

In spite of Death I will go show my face.

Alarm
.
TAMBURLAINE
goes in [in his chariot], and comes out again with all the rest
.

TAMBURLAINE

Thus are the villains, cowards, fled for fear,

Like summer's vapours
vanished
by the sun.

And could I but a while pursue the field,

That Callapine should be my slave again.

But I perceive my martial strength is spent;

120   In vain I strive and rail against those powers

That mean t'invest me in a higher throne,

As much too high for this disdainful earth.

Give me a map, then, let me see how much

Is left for me to conquer all the world,

That these my boys may finish
all my wants
.

One brings a map
.

Here I began to march towards Persia,

Along Armenia and the Caspian Sea,

And thence unto Bithynia, where I took

The Turk and his great empress prisoners;

130   Then marched I into Egypt and Arabia,

And here, not far from Alexandria,

Whereas the Terrene and the Red Sea meet,

Being distant less than full a hundred leagues,

I meant to cut a channel to them both,

That men might quickly sail to India.

From thence to Nubia, near Borno lake,

And so along the Ethiopian sea,

Cutting the tropic line of Capricorn,

I conquered all as far as Zanzibar.

140   Then by the northern part of Africa

I came at last to Graecia, and from thence

To Asia, where I stay against my will,

Which is from Scythia, where I first began,

Backward and forwards, near five thousand leagues.

Look here
, my boys, see what a world of ground

Lies westward from the midst of Cancer's line

Unto the rising of this earthly globe,

Whereas the sun, declining from our sight,

Begins the day with our
Antipodes;

150   And shall I die, and this unconquerèd?

Lo,
here
, my sons, are all the golden mines,

Inestimable drugs, and precious stones,

More worth than Asia and the world beside;

And
from th'Antarctic
Pole eastward behold

As much more land, which never was descried,

Wherein are rocks of pearl that shine as bright

As all the lamps that beautify the sky;

And shall I die, and this unconquerèd?

Here, lovely boys; [
giving them the map
]

what Death forbids my life,

160   That let your lives command in spite of Death.

AMYRAS

Alas, my lord, how should our bleeding hearts,

Wounded and broken with your highness' grief,

Retain a thought of joy or spark of life?

Your soul
gives essence to our wretched subjects,

Whose matter is incorporate in your flesh.

CELEBINUS

Your pains do pierce our souls; no hope survives,

For by your life we entertain our lives.

TAMBURLAINE

But sons,
this subject
, not of force enough

To hold the fiery spirit it contains,

170   
Must part
, imparting his impressions

By equal portions into both your breasts;

My flesh, divided in your precious shapes,

Shall still retain my spirit though I die,

And live in all your seeds immortally.

Then now remove me, that I may resign

My place and proper title to my son.

[
To
AMYRAS
]

First take my scourge and my imperial crown,

And mount my royal chariot of estate,

That I may see thee crowned before I die.

180    Help me, my lords, to make my last remove.

[
They help him into a chair
.]

THERIDAMAS

A woeful change, my lord, that daunts our thoughts

More than the ruin of our proper souls.

TAMBURLAINE

Sit up, my son. Let me see how well

Thou wilt become thy father's majesty.

They crown him
.

AMYRAS

With what
a flinty bosom should I joy

The breath of life and burden of my soul,

If, not resolved into resolvèd pains,

My body's mortifièd lineaments Should exercise the motions of my heart,

190   Pierced with the joy of any dignity!

O father, if the unrelenting ears

Of Death and hell be shut against my prayers,

And that the spiteful influence of heaven

Deny my soul fruition of her joy,

How should
I step or stir my hateful feet

Against the inward powers of my heart,

Leading a life that only strives to die,

And plead in vain unpleasing sovereignty?

TAMBURLAINE

Let not thy love exceed thine honour, son,

200   Nor bar thy mind that magnanimity

That nobly must admit necessity.

Sit up, my boy, and with those silken reins

Bridle the
steelèd stomachs
of those jades.

THERIDAMAS
[
to
AMYRAS
]

My lord, you must obey his majesty,

Since fate commands, and proud necessity.

AMYRAS
[
ascending the chariot
]

Heavens witness me, with what a broken heart

And
damnèd
spirit I ascend this seat,

And
send
my soul, before my father die,

His anguish and his burning agony!

TAMBURLAINE

210   Now fetch the hearse of fair Zenocrate.

Let it be placed by this
my fatal chair

And serve as parcel of my funeral.

[
Exeunt some
.]

USUMCASANE

Then feels your majesty no sovereign ease,

Nor may our hearts, all drowned in tears of blood,

Joy any hope of your recovery?

TAMBURLAINE

Casane, no.
The monarch
of the earth

And eyeless monster that torments my soul

Cannot behold the tears ye shed for me,

And therefore still augments his cruelty.

TECHELLES

220   Then let some god oppose his holy power

Against the wrath and tyranny of Death,

That his tear-thirsty and unquenchèd hate

May be upon himself reverberate.

They bring in the hearse
[
of
ZENOCRATE
].

TAMBURLAINE

Now, eyes, enjoy your latest benefit,

And when
my soul hath virtue of your sight,

Pierce through the coffin and the sheet of gold

And glut your longings with a heaven of joy.

So, reign, my son! Scourge and control those slaves,

Guiding thy chariot with thy father's hand.

230   As precious is the charge thou undertak'st

As that which Clymene's brainsick son did guide,

When wand'ring Phoebe's ivory cheeks were scorched,

And all the earth, like Etna, breathing fire.

Be warned by him, then; learn with awful eye

To sway a throne as dangerous as his.

For if thy body thrive not full of thoughts

As pure and fiery as
Phyteus
' beams,

The nature
of these proud rebelling jades

Will take Occasion by the slenderest hair,

240    And draw thee piecemeal like Hippolytus,

Through rocks more steep and sharp than Caspian clifts.

The nature of thy chariot will not bear

A guide of baser temper than myself,

More than heaven's coach the pride of Phaethon.

Farewell, my boys; my dearest friends, farewell!

My body feels, my soul doth weep to see

Your sweet desires deprived of company;

For Tamburlaine, the scourge of God, must die.

[
He dies
.]

AMYRAS

Meet heaven and
earth
, and here let all things end!

250   For earth hath spent the pride of all her fruit,

And heaven consumed his choicest living fire.

Let earth and heaven his
timeless
death deplore,

For both their worths will equal him no more.

[
Exeunt
.]

[Dramatis Personae

MACHEVIL,
the Prologue
BARABAS
TWO MERCHANTS
THREE JEWS
FERNEZEJ
,
the Governor of Malta
KNIGHTS OF MALTA
OFFICERS
CALLAPINE
BASHAWS
CALYMATH
ABIGALL,
Barabas's daughter
FRIAR JACOMO
FRIAR BARNARDINE
AN ABBESS
TWO NUNS
MATHIAS,
Katherine's son
LODOWICK,
Ferneze's son
MARTIN DEL BOSCO,
Vice-admiral of Spain
ITHAMORE,
a slave
SLAVES
KATHERINE
BELLAMIRA,
a courtesan
PILIA-BORZA
TURKISH JANIZARIES
A MESSENGER
CARPENTERS
SERVANTS ATTENDANTS]

To My Worthy Friend, Master
Thomas Hammon
, of Gray's Inn, etc.

This play, composed by so worthy an author as Master
Marlowe, and the part of the Jew presented by so unimitable
an actor as
Master Alleyn
, being in this later age commended to the stage, as I ushered it unto the court, and presented it
to the
Cock-pit
, with these prologues and epilogues here
inserted, so now being newly brought to the press, I was loath
it should be published without the ornament of an epistle,
making choice of you unto whom to devote it, than whom
(of all those gentlemen and acquaintance within the compass
of my long knowledge) there is none more able to tax ignorance

10   or attribute right to merit. Sir, you have been pleased to
   grace some of mine own works with your courteous patronage.
   I hope this will not be the worse accepted because commended
   by me, over whom none can claim more power or
   privilege than yourself. I had no better a New Year's gift to
   present you with. Receive it therefore as a continuance of that
   inviolable obligement by which he rests still engaged, who, as
   he ever hath, shall always remain,

Tuissimus
,

20                                   Thomas Heywood

Gracious and great, that we so boldly dare

(‘Mongst other plays that now in fashion are)

To present this, writ many years agone,

And in that age thought second unto none,

We humbly crave your pardon. We pursue

The story of a rich and famous Jew

Who lived in Malta. You shall find him still,

In all his projects,
a sound Machevill;

And that's his character. He that hath passed