Conquer, sack, and utterly consume

Your cities and your golden palaces,

And, with the flames that beat against the clouds,
Incense the Heavens, and make the stars to melt,
As if they were the tears of Mahomet,

For hot consumption of his country's pride;
And, till by vision or by speech I hear

66

Immortal Jove say cease, my

Tamburlaine,"

I will persist, a terror to the world,

Making the meteors (that, like armed men,
Are seen to march upon the tow'rs of Heav'n)
Run tilting round about the firmament,
And break their burning lances in the air,
For honour of my wond'rous victories.
Come, bring them in to our pavilion.

SCENE III.

OLYMPIA discovered alone.

[Exeunt.

OLYM. Distress'd Olympia, whose weeping eyes, Since thy arrival here beheld no sun,

But clos'd within the compass of the tent,

Have stain'd thy cheeks, and made thee look like

death,

Devise some means to rid thee of thy life,

Rather than yield to his detested suit,

Whose drift is only to dishonour thee;

And since this earth, dew'd with thy brinish tears Affords no herbs, whose taste may poison thee, Nor yet this air, beat often with thy sighs, Contagious smells and vapours to infect thee,

Nor thy close cave a sword to murder thee;

Let this invention be the instrument.

Enter THERIDAMAS.

THER. Well met, Olympia; I sought thee in my

tent,

But when I saw the place obscure and dark,
Which with thy beauty thou wast wont to light;
Enrag'd, I ran about the fields for thee,
Supposing am'rous love had sent his son,
The winged Hermes, to convey thee hence;
But now I find thee, and that fear is past.
Tell me, Olympia, wilt thou grant my suit?
OLYM. My lord and husband's death, with my
sweet son's,

(With whom I buried all affections

Save grief and sorrow, which torment my heart)
Forbid my mind to entertain a thought

That tends to love, but meditate on death,

A fitter subject for a pensive soul.

THER. Olympia, pity him, in whom thy looks.
Have greater operation and more force
Than Cynthia's in the wat'ry wilderness,

For with thy view my joys are at the full,

And ebb again as thou departest from me.

OLYM. Ah, pity me, my lord! and draw your sword,

Making a passage for my troubled soul,

Which beats against this prison to get out,

And meet my husband and my loving son.

THER. Nothing but still thy husband and thy son!

Leave this, my love, and listen more to me.
Thou shalt be stately queen of fair Argier;
And cloth'd in costly cloth of massy gold,
Upon the marble turrets of my court
Sit like to Venus in her chair of state,
Commanding all thy princely eye desires;
And I will cast off arms to sit with thee,
Spending my life in sweet discourse of love.

OLYM. No such discourse is pleasant in mine ears,
But that where ev'ry period ends with death,
And ev'ry line begins with death again.

I cannot love, to be an emperess.

THER. Nay, lady, then, if nothing will prevail, I'll use some other means to make

you yield: Such is the sudden fury of my love,

I must and will be pleas'd, and you shall yield:

Come to the tent again.

OLYM. Stay now, my lord; if you will save my

honour,

I'll give your grace a present of such price,

As all the world can not afford the like.

THER. What is it?

OLYM. An ointment which a cunning alchymist,

Distilled from the purest balsamum

And simplest extracts of all minerals,

In which th' essential form of marble stone,
Temper'd by science metaphysical,

And spells of magic from the mouths of spirits,
With which if you but 'noint your tender skin,
Nor pistols, sword, nor lance, can pierce your flesh.

THER. Why, madam, think you to mock me thus palpably?

OLYM. To prove it, I will 'ncint my naked throat, Which, when you stab, look on your weapon's point, And you shall see't rebated with the blow.

THER. Why gave you not your husband some of it,

If you loved him, and it so precious?

OLYM. My purpose, was my lord, to spend it so, But was prevented by his sudden end; And for a present, easy proof thereof,

That I dissemble not, try it on me.

THER. I will, Olympia, and I'll keep it for

The richest present of this eastern world.

[She anoints her throat.

OLYM. Now stab, my lord, and mark your

weapon's point,

That will be blunted if the blow be great.

THER. Here then, Olympia.

[Stabs her.

What, have I slain her! Villain, stab thyself;

Cut off this arm that murdered thy love,
In whom the learned Rabbis of this age
Might find as many wondrous miracles
As in the Theoria of the world.

Now hell is fairer than Elysium;

A greater lamp than that bright eye of heaven,
From whence the stars do borrow all their light,
Wanders about the black circumference;
And now the damned souls are free from pain,
For every fury gazeth on her looks;

Infernal Dis is courting of my love,

Inventing masks and stately shows for her,
Opening the doors of his rich treasury

To entertain this queen of chastity;

Whose body shall be tomb'd with all the pomp

The treasure of this kingdom may afford.

SCENE IV.

[Exit, with the body.

Enter TAMBURLAINE drawn in his Chariot by the
Kings of Trebizond, and Syria, with bits in their
mouths, reins in his left hand, and in his right
hand a whip with which he scourgeth them, accom-
panied with TECHELLES, THERIDA MAS, USUM-
CASANE, AMYRAS, CELEBINUS: NATOLIA and
JERUSALEM led by five or six common Soldiers.
TAMB. Holla, ye pamper'd jades of Asia!
What! can ye draw but twenty miles a-day,
And have so proud a chariot at your heels,
And such a coachman as great Tamburlaine,
But from Asphaltis, where I conquer'd you,
To Byron here, where thus I honour you?
The horse that guide the golden eye of Heav'n,
And blow the morning from their nostrils,
Making their fiery gait above the clouds,

Are not so honour'd in their

governor,

As you, ye slaves, in mighty Tamburlaine.

The headstrong jades of Thrace, Alcides tam'd,
That King Egeus fed with human flesh,

And made so wanton, that they knew their strengths