My sword struck fire from his coat of steel,
Even in Bithynia, when I took this Turk ;
As when a fiery exhalation,

Wrapt in the bowels of a freezing cloud
Fighting for passage, make[s] the welkin crack,
And casts a flash of lightning to the earth:
But ere I march to wealthy Persia,

Or leave Damascus and the Egyptian fields,
As was the fame of Clymene's brain-sick son,
That almost brent the axle-tree of heaven,
So shall our swords, our lances, and our shot
Fill all the air with fiery meteors :

Then when the sky shall wax as red as blood
It shall be said I made it red myself,

To make me think of nought but blood and war..
Zab. Unworthy king, that by thy cruelty
Unlawfully usurp'st the Persian seat,
Dar'st thou that never saw an emperor,
Before thou met my husband in the field,
Being thy captive, thus abuse his state,
Keeping his kingly body in a cage,
That roofs of gold and sun-bright palaces
Should have prepared to entertain his grace?
And treading him beneath thy loathsome feet,
Whose feet the kings of Africa have kissed.

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Tech. You must devise some torment worse, my lord, To make these captives rein their lavish tongues. Tamb. Zenocrate, look better to your slave.

Zeno. She is my handmaid's slave, and she shall look

That these abuses flow not from 1 her tongue:

Chide her, Anippe.

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Anip. Let these be warnings for you then, my slave,

How you abuse the person of the king;

Or else I swear to have you whipt, stark-naked.
Baj. Great Tamburlaine, great in my overthrow,
Ambitious pride shall make thee fall as low,
For treading on the back of Bajazeth,
That should be horsèd on four mighty kings.

Tamb. Thy names, and titles, and thy dignities
Are fled from Bajazeth and remain with me,
That will maintain it 'gainst a world of kings.
Put him in again.

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[They put him into the cage. Baj. Is this a place for mighty Bajazeth? Confusion light on him that helps thee thus !

Tamb. There, whiles he lives, shall Bajazeth be kept;

And, where I go, be thus in triumph drawn`;

And thou, his wife, shalt 2 feed him with the scraps

My servitors shall bring thee from my board;
For he that gives him other food than this,
Shall sit by him and starve to death himself;
This is my mind and I will have it so.
Not all the kings and emperors of the earth,
If they would lay their crowns before my feet,
Shall ransom him, or take him from his cage.
The ages that shall talk of Tamburlaine,

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Even from this day to Plato's wondrous year,1
Shall talk how I have handled Bajazeth;
These Moors, that drew him from Bithynia,
To fair Damascus, where we now remain,
Shall lead him with us wheresoe'er we go.
Techelles, and my loving followers,
Now may we see Damascus' lofty towers,
Like to the shadows of Pyramides,

That with their beauties grace the Memphian fields:
The golden stature of their feathered bird

That spreads her wings upon the city's walls
Shall not defend it from our battering shot :
The townsmen mask in silk and cloth of gold,
And every house is as a treasury:

The men, the treasure, and the town is ours.

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Ther. Your tents of white now pitched before the

gates,

And gentle flags of amity displayed,

I doubt not but the governor will yield,

Offering Damascus to your majesty.

Tamb. So shall he have his life and all the rest:

But if he stay until the bloody flag

Be once advanced on my vermilion tent,

He dies, and those that kept us out so long.

And when they see us march in black array,

With mournful streamers hanging down their heads, 120

1 See Plato's Timaeus, p. 39.

Old copies, "grac'd."

The word "statue" is often written "stature." See Nares' Glossary.

Were in that city all the world contained,
Not one should 'scape, but perish by our swords.
Zeno. Yet would you have some pity for my sake,
Because it is my country, and my father's.

Tamb. Not for the world, Zenocrate; I've sworn.
Come; bring in the Turk.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Enter SOLDAN, ARABIA, CAPOLIN, and Soldiers with streaming colours.

Sold. Methinks we march as Meleager did,
Environed with brave Argolian knights,
To chase the savage Calydonian boar,
Or Cephalus with lusty Theban youths
Against the wolf that angry Themis sent
To waste and spoil the sweet Aonian fields,
A monster of five hundred thousand heads,
Compact of rapine, piracy, and spoil.

The scum of men, the hate and scourge of God,
Raves in Ægyptia and annoyeth us.
My lord, it is the bloody Tamburlaine,
A sturdy felon and1 a base-bred thief,
By murder raised to the Persian crown,
That dare control us in our territories.

To tame the pride of this presumptuous beast,

1 So 4to.-Omitted in 8vo.

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Join your Arabians with the Soldan's power,
Let us unite our royal bands in one,

And hasten to remove Damascus' siege..
It is a blemish to the majesty

And high estate of mighty emperors,

That such a base usurping vagabond

Should brave a king, or wear a princely crown.

Arab. Renowmèd Soldan, have you lately heard The overthrow of mighty Bajazeth

About the confines of Bithynia?

The slavery wherewith he persecutes

The noble Turk and his great emperess?

Sold. I have, and sorrow for his bad success; But noble lord of great Arabia,

Be so persuaded that the Soldan is

No more dismayed with tidings of his fall,
Than in the haven when the pilot stands,
And views a stranger's ship rent in the winds,
And shivered against a craggy rock;
Yet in compassion to his wretched state,
A sacred vow to heaven and him I make,
Confirming it with Ibis' holy name.

That Tamburlaine shall rue the day, the hour,
Wherein he wrought such ignominious wrong
Unto the hallowed person of a prince,

Or kept the fair Zenocrate so long
As concubine, I fear, to feed his lust.

Arab. Let grief and fury hasten on revenge;

Let Tamburlaine for his offences feel

Such plagues as we and heaven can pour on him.

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