Baj. Come, kings and bassoes, let us glut our swords, That thirst to drink the feeble Persians' blood.

[Exit with his followers.

Zab. Base concubine, must thou be placed by me,
That am the empress of the mighty Turk?

Zeno. Disdainful Turkess and unreverend boss! 1
Callest thou me concubine, that am betrothed
Unto the great and mighty Tamburlaine?

Zab. To Tamburlaine, the great Tartarian thief! Zeno. 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 advocate.2

Zab. And sue to thee I-I tell thee, shameless girl,
Thou shalt be laundress to my waiting maid!
How lik'st thou her, Ebea ?-Will she serve?

Ebea. Madam, perhaps, she thinks she is too fine,

But I shall turn her into other weeds,

And make her dainty fingers fall to work.

170

180

Zeno. 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. Anip. Yet sometimes let your highness send for them To do the work my chambermaid disdains.

[They sound to the battle within.

1 Dyce quotes from Cotgrave :-"A fat bosse. Femme bien grasse et grosse; une coche."

So 4to.-8vo. "advocates,"

Zeno. Ye gods and powers that govern Persia,
And made my lordly love her worthy king,

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 !

Zab. Now, Mahomet, solicit God himself,

190

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,

When first he warred against the Christians!

200

[To the battle again.

Zeno. By this the Turks lie weltering in their blood, And Tamburlaine is Lord of Africa.

Zab. Thou art deceived.—I heard the trumpet 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.

Zeno. If Mahomet should come from heaven and

swear

My royal lord is slain or conquered,

Yet should he not persuade me otherwise

But that he lives and will be conqueror.

210

Enter BAJAZETH, pursued by TAMBURLAINE; they fight, and BAJAZETH is overcome.

Tamb. Now, king of bassoes, who is conqueror?

Baj. Thou, by the fortune of this damnèd foil.1
Tamb. Where are your stout contributory kings?

Enter TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, and USUMCASANE. Tech. We have their crowns-their bodies strow the field.

Tamb. Each man a crown!-Why kingly fought i' faith.

Deliver them into my treasury.

Zeno. Now let me offer to my gracious lord

His royal crown again so highly won.

Tamb. Nay, take the crown from her, Zenocrate,

220

And crown me emperor of Africa.

Zab. No, Tamburlaine: though now thou gat the best,

Thou shalt not yet be lord of Africa.

Ther. Give her the crown, Turkess; you were best.

[He takes it from her.

Zab. Injurious villains !-thieves !-runagates!

How dare you thus abuse my majesty?

Ther. Here, madam, you are empress; she is none. [Gives it to ZENOCRATE.

Tamb. Not now, Theridamas; her time is past. The pillars that have bolstered up those terms, Are fallen in clusters at my conquering feet.

230

Zab. Though he be prisoner, he may be ransomed.

1 Old copies, "soil." "Foil of course meaning sword. But the old editions read soil, which is very probably (?) right, as referring to the ill-chosen field of battle."—Cunningham. I take foil to mean “check, defeat," as in line 235, “So great a foil by any foreign foc.”

Tamb. Not all the world shall ransom Bajazeth. Baj. 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.
For though the glory of this day be lost,
Afric and Greece have garrisons enough
To make me sovereign of the earth again.
Tamb. Those walled 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 pilling1 brigandines,
That yearly sail to the Venetian gulf,

And hover in the Straits for Christians' wreck,
Shall lie at anchor in the isle Asant,2
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,

240

250

1 Plundering.

VOL. I.

• Zante.

E

And all the ocean by the British 1 shore;

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

Baj.. Yet set a ransom on me, Tamburlaine.

260

Tamb. 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. Baj. Ah, villains!-dare you touch my sacred arms? O Mahomet -O sleepy Mahomet!

Zab. O cursed Mahomet, that makes us thus The slaves to Scythians rude and barbarous !

270

Tamb. Come, bring them in; and for this happy

conquest,

Triumph and solemnise a martial feast.

1 So 4to.-8vo. "brightest."

[Exeunt.