Can never wash from thy distained brows! Here, Jove, receive his fainting soul again; 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 thyself consists, Which makes me valiant, proud, ambitious, Ready to levy pow'r against thy throne. That I might move the turning spheres of heav'n! For earth and all this airy region
Cannot contain the state of Tamburlaine. By Mahomet! thy mighty friend, I swear, In sending to my issue such a soul, Created of the massy dregs of earth,
The scum and tartar of the elements,
Wherein was neither courage, strength, or wit, But folly, sloth, and damned idleness, Thou hast procur'd a greater enemy
Than he that darted mountains at thy head, Shaking the burthen mighty Atlas bears; Whereat thou trembling hid'st thee in the air, Cloth'd with a pitchy cloud for being seen: And now, ye canker'd curs of Asia, That will not see the strength of Tamburlaine, Although it shine as brightly as the sun;
Now you shall see the strength of Tamburlaine,
for being seen-that thou mayest not be seen.
ser's Mother Hubberd's Tale.
"Upon his tiptoes nicely up he went
For making noise."
To gather greater numbers 'gainst our power, That they may say it is not chance doth this, But matchless strength and magnanimity? TAMB. 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, But traitor to my name and majesty?
[He goes in and brings him out. Image of sloth, and picture of a slave, The obloquy and scorn of my renown! How may my heart, thus fired with my eyes, Wounded with shame and kill'd with discontent, Shroud any thought may hold my striving hands From martial justice on thy wretched soul?
THER. Yet pardon him, I pray your majesty. TECH. AND USUM. Let all of us entreat your highness' pardon.
TAMB. Stand by, ye base, unworthy soldiers ! Know ye not yet the argument of arms?
AMY. Good my lord, let him be forgiv'n for once, And we will force him to the field hereafter.
TAME. Stand up, my boys, and I will teach ye
And what the jealousy of wars must do. O Samarcanda, (where I breathed first And joy'd the fire of this martial flesh) Blush, blush, fair city, at thine honour's foil And shame of nature, which Jakertis' stream, Embracing thee with deepest of his love,
Can never wash from thy distained brows! Here, Jove, receive his fainting soul again; 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 thyself consists, Which makes me valiant, proud, ambitious, Ready to levy pow'r against thy throne.
That I might move the turning spheres of heav'n! For earth and all this airy region
Cannot contain the state of Tamburlaine.
By Mahomet! thy mighty friend, I swear, In sending to my issue such a soul, Created of the massy dregs of earth,
The scum and tartar of the elements,
Wherein was neither courage, strength, or wit, But folly, sloth, and damned idleness,
Thou hast procur'd a greater enemy
Than he that darted mountains at thy head, Shaking the burthen mighty Atlas bears; Whereat thou trembling hid'st thee in the air, Cloth'd with a pitchy cloud for being seen: And now, ye canker'd curs of Asia,
That will not see the strength of Tamburlaine, Although it shine as brightly as the sun;
Now you shall see the strength of Tamburlaine,
* for being seen—that thou mayest not be seen. So in Spen
ser's Mother Hubberd's Tale.
"Upon his tiptoes nicely up he went
For making noise."
And, by the state of his supremacy, [Stabs Calyphas.
Approve the diff'rence 'twixt himself and you.
ORC. Thou show'st the diff'rence 'twixt ourselves
In this thy barbarous damned tyranny.
JER. Thy victories are grown so violent, That shortly heaven, fill'd with the meteors Of blood and fire thy tyrannies made,
Will pour down blood and fire on thy head, Whose scalding drops will pierce thy seething brains, And, with our bloods, revenge our blood on thee. TAMB. Villains! these terrors and these tyrannies, (If tyrannies, wars' justice ye repute)
I execute, enjoin'd me from above,
To scourge the pride of such as heav'n abhors; Nor am I made arch-monarch of the world, Crown'd and invested by the hand of Jove For deeds of bounty and nobility;
But since I exercise a greater name, The scourge of God, and terror of the world, I must apply myself to fit those terms, In war, in blood, in death, in cruelty, And plague such peasants as resisting me, [Resist] the pow'r of Heav'n's eternal majesty. Theridamas, Techelles, and Usumcasane, Ransack the tents and the pavilions
Of these proud Turks, and take their concubines, Making them bury this effeminate brat, For not a common soldier shall defile
His manly fingers with so faint a boy.
Then bring those Turkish harlots to my tent, And I'll dispose them as it likes me best; Meanwhile, take him in.
SOLD. We will, my lord.
JER. O damned monster! Nay, a fiend of hell, Whose cruelties are not so harsh as thine, Nor yet impos'd with such a bitter hate!
ORC. Revenge it, Rhadamanth and Æacus, And let your hates, extended in his pains, Expel the hate wherewith he pains our souls. TREB. May never day give virtue to his eyes, Whose sight, compos'd of fury and of fire, Doth send such stern affections to his heart. SYR. May never spirit, vein, or artier, feed The cursed substance of that cruel heart! But, wanting moisture and remorseful blood, Dry up with anger, and consume with heat. TAMB. Well, bark, ye dogs; I'll bridle all your
And bind them close with bits of burnish'd steel,
Down to the channels of your hateful throats;
And, with the pains my rigour shall inflict, I'll make ye roar, that earth may echo forth The far-resounding torments ye sustain : As when an herd of lusty Cymbrian bulls Run mourning round about, the females miss, And stung with fury of their following, Fill all the air with troublous bellowing; I will, with engines never exercis'd,
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