The Complete Plays (81 page)

20        
embassage
: A message by ambassador.

27        
take Meander's course
: Do as Meander has done, i.e. change sides.

30        
gratify… good
: Repay your service.

33        
And sought… deserved
: And sought to honour your rank as it deserved.

37        
Better replies
: I.e. better rewards than mere words.

42        
witless brother… lost
: Cf. 1.1.119–21.

43        
with fame and usury
: For our glory and profit.

51        
brave
: Grand, glorious.

73        
in greatest novelty
: ‘No matter how new and rare' (Jump 1967).

74        
rest attemptless
: Not make the attempt.

83        
they
: I.e. Techelles and Usumcasane.

85–6  
the Turk… apace
: The submission of the Sultan of the Turkish empire, the Pope (who presides over Western Christendom), the
Sultan of Egypt (who rules Africa) and the Byzantine Emperor would, in effect, give Tamburlaine world domination.

89        
before his room be hot
: Before he has warmed up his throne.

92        
purchase
: (i) Undertaking, (ii) cost, (iii) advantage gained, plunder.

96        
lose more labour
: Cost us more labour.

100      
turn him
: For O's
turn his
.

103      
more warriors
: The opportunity to gather more troops.

105      
for me
: As far as I am concerned.

Scene
6

2–6  
giantly presumption… jaws
: After the giants' unsuccessful war against the gods, during which they piled mountains on top of one another in an attempt to reach the heavens, Jupiter imprisoned one of them (Enceladus or Typhon (N)) under Mount Etna (whence, supposedly, its volcanic fires).

13        
doubtlessly resolve of
: Fearlessly resolve to.

14        
by profession
: (i) Avowedly, (ii) as a vocation.

15        
What
: Whatsoever.

17        
mould
: (i) Earth, (ii) mould.

mettle
: (i) Substance, (ii) metal.

19        
Let us… minds
: Let us adopt fit attitudes to encounter him.

25        
sucked
: Breathed (but like a baby suckling).

26–7  
same proportion… Resolve
: I.e. when we die, we will melt into the four elements whence we first came.

36–7  
make… life
: Determine the hateful end of my life.

40.2  
SD
Enter [the armies]
: Some editors begin a new scene here, but the action is continuous. O's
Enter
indicates that Cosroe and his forces leave the stage to fight the battle, and he returns in defeat with his conqueror.

52–69  
The thirst… earthly crown
: For a discussion of this speech see Headnote.

53        
son of… Ops
: Jupiter. Ops (N), his mother, was the goddess of
earthly
riches.

55        
empyreal
: (i) Empyrean (the highest heaven), (ii) imperial.

57        
precedent
: Perhaps with a pun on
president
(O's spelling), one who presides, sits on the throne.

65        
restless spheres
: The constantly moving carriers of the heavenly bodies in Ptolemaic astronomy.

69    
fruition
: Enjoyment.

71        
he
: Anyone.

77        
Neptune and Dis
: Jupiter's brothers. See (N).

82–90  
bloodless body… life
: According to ancient physiology, the removal of blood (heat and moisture) would cause a devastating imbalance of the bodily humours, leaving only cold and dryness.

90        
tires on
: Tears at (in falconry), alluding to the talons of the harpy (N).

ACT 3

Scene
1

0.1    
SD
BAJAZETH
: Based on Beyazit I.

1          
Barbary
: The north coast of Africa, ruled by the ‘bassoes' (pashas or bashaws) of Fez, Morocco and Algiers.

4          
Presume a bickering with
: Dare to attack.

10        
ocean… Terrene
: Atlantic… Mediterranean.

11–12  
the moon… horns
: I.e. at the full moon, when the tides are high.

13–14  
Yet would
…
yield
: Though confident that he could defeat them, Bajazeth is unwilling to engage an external enemy who would distract him from the siege of Constantinople.

25        
coal-black sea
: The Black Sea.

29        
colours
: Banners.

38–9  
take… reclaimed
: If the basso has not returned by the dawn of the fourth day, Bajazeth will take this as a sign of determined revolt by Tamburlaine.

46        
stir your siege
: (i) Lift the siege you are conducting, (ii) disturb your throne.

60        
Carnon
: Not identified. Perhaps ‘a confusion of the famous aqueduct of Constantinople with its equally famous Golden Horn, seeing that Carnon represents adequately the Turkish for horn' (Seaton 1924).

63        
countermand
: (i) Control, (ii) forbid (the approach by sea).

65        
Orcus' gulf
: Hell.

Scene
2

6          
rape
: Seizure.

11        
queen of heaven
: I.e. Juno.

13        
since
: Since then.

15        
dyes… as they are
: Gives me this lifeless pallor.

16        
if… events
: If my worst imaginings came true.

19        
all… eye
: ‘All that the moon beholds' (Jump 1967).

27        
despite
: (Here) defiance.

30        
but for necessity
: Beyond a necessary pretence.

31    
So
: Provided that.

35        
Agydas
: The name is missing from all early texts.

40        
fancy
: Love.

45        
facts
: Deeds, crimes.

50–51  
Muses' song… Pierides
: The Muses (goddesses of poetry and music) sang their finest song when challenged to a contest by the Pierides (N).

52        
Minerva… Neptune
: Athene (Minerva, goddess of wisdom) and Poseidon (Neptune, god of the sea) competed in their gifts to Attica to become the patron gods of the Athenians. Athene won and gave her name to the city. This contest is linked to that of the Muses with the Pierides in Ovid,
Metamorphoses
V, 302ff.

53        
estimate
: Sense of my own worth.

57        
the young Arabian
: Alcidamus, the King of Arabia, to whom Zenocrate was previously betrothed.

74        
comets
: Regarded as portents of impending doom.

76–87  
As when… overthrow
: An imitation of an epic simile.

77        
Cimmerian
: Black (the Cimmerians, in classical legend, lived in perpetual darkness in the far north).

80        
enforcing thunderclaps
: Thunder was sometimes attributed to the clashing of the winds.

82        
sounds the main
: Measures the depth of the ocean.

87.1  
SD
naked
: Unsheathed.

99        
stay
: Await.

101      
prolongèd fates
: Longer life.

Scene
3

1        
by this
: By now.

2        
Bithynia
: See (N). Tamburlaine takes his stand in Asia Minor to await Bajazeth's arrival from Constantinople.

3        
See… comes
: Spoken ironically. Tamburlaine contrasts Bajazeth's ‘brags' (3) with the non-appearance of his army.

5          
He… hence
: Does he think he can fight me and rescue you?

15        
janizaries
: An élite division of the Turkish infantry, but here imagined as cavalry.

16        
Mauritanian
: The province in north-west Africa was renowned for its horses.

20        
expedition
: ‘Speedy waging' (Jump 1967).

38        
rouse him… Europe
: Drive Bajazeth out of Europe.

44        
scourge… of God
: Tamburlaine proleptically assumes the title he won for defeating the Turks. Note that it is associated with divine punishment for the Turks' cruelties to Christians.

55    
pirates of Argier
: The cruelty of the Turks to their galley slaves causes them to be identified with the Barbary pirates who terrorized the Mediterranean.

58        
make quick havoc
: (i) Quickly devastate, (ii) make carnage of the living (‘quick') bodies.

76        
Alcoran
: The Koran (al-Qur'ān).

104–5  
Hercules… serpents
: The infant Hercules first displayed his strength by strangling the serpents sent by Juno to kill him in the cradle.

109      
y-sprung
: The Middle English prefix to this past participle is rare in Marlowe. Cf.
Tamburlaine
, Part Two, 4.3.119 (a borrowing from Spenser).

119      
paragon
: (i) Paramour, consort, (ii) equal.

142      
they
: Bajazeth's soldiers.

148      
marshal
: Direct (Marlowe may be comparing the swords to a marshal's rod of office).

154      
Pharsalia
: The climactic battle of Pharsalus (48
BC
) in which Pompey the Great was defeated by Julius Caesar. Marlowe's spelling recalls the title of Lucan's poem on the war, the first book of which he translated.

158      
air
: O's
lure
seems impossible, but the emendation is awkward. Perhaps
wound[ing] the senseless air
, usually an emblem of futility, is here an index of Tamburlaine's extraordinary powers. Some editors also emend
our
to
your
.

160–61  
Victory… tent
: Victory flies to Tamburlaine's colours.

175      
advocates
: Attracted into the plural by association with Bajazeth and Zabina.

188.1  
SD
They sound… stay
: I.e. trumpets sound offstage for the start of the battle, and then stop.

194      
issue conqueror
: Come out the winner.

213      
soil
: Ground on which the battle was fought. O's
foile
is a misreading of long ‘s'.

215      
strew
: Are strewn over.

222      
gat the best
: Have got the upper hand.

229      
terms
: (i) Names, (ii) statuary busts mounted on pillars.

236      
miscreants
: The ‘infidels' of Christian Europe.

248      
pilling brigantines
: Pirate ships used in plundering.

251–59  
Asant… British shore
: For the geographical details see (N).

While the Turkish fleet waits at Zacynthus (‘Asant') in the Mediterranean, the Persian fleet will circumnavigate the globe. Joining forces at Gibraltar, they will dominate the Adantic seaboard of Europe.

273  
Triumph
: (i) Rejoice, (ii) hold a triumphal procession (see Introduction, pp. xvii–xviii).

ACT 4

Scene
1

1–3  
Awake… down
: The Sultan imagines that the sounds of the siege of Damascus which Tamburlaine is now conducting in Syria should be audible in Memphis in Egypt.

4        
rogue of Volga
: Tamburlaine, here identified with the area north and west of the Caspian Sea.

18        
monstrous
: Trisyllabic.

Gorgon
: See (N); ‘prince of hell' suggests this is not merely one of the classical gorgons (such as Medusa), but the devil Demogorgon (cf.
Doctor Faustus
, 3.19).

26–7  
Environing… wood
: The weapons of the men surrounding their banner (‘standard') create the appearance of a thicket bristling with thorns.