Were not subdu'd with valour more divine
Than you by this unconquer'd arm of mine.
To make you fierce, and fit my appetite,
You shall be fed with flesh as raw as blood,
And drink in pails the strongest muscadel;
If you can live with it, then live, and draw
My chariot swifter than the racking clouds;
If not, then die like beasts, and fit for nought
But perches for the black and fatal ravens.
Thus am I right the scourge of highest Jove;
And see the figure of my dignity

By which I hold my name and majesty!

AMY. Let me have coach, my lord, that I may

ride,

And thus be drawn by these two idle kings.

TAMB. Thy youth forbids such ease, my kingly boy; They shall to-morrow draw my chariot,

While these their fellow kings may be refresh'd.

ORC. O thou that sway'st the region under earth, And art a king as absolute as Jove, Come as thou didst in fruitful Sicily, Surveying all the glories of the land, And as thou took'st the fair Proserpina, Joying the fruit of Ceres' garden-plot, For love, for honour, and to make her queen, So for just hate, for shame, and to subdue This proud contemner of thy dreadful power, Come once in fury and survey his pride, Haling him headlong to the lowest hell.

THER. Your majesty must get some bits for these,

To bridle their contemptuous, cursing tongues,
That, like unruly, never-broken jades,

Break through the hedges of their hateful mouths,
And pass their fixed bounds exceedingly.

TECH. Nay, we will break the hedges of their
mouths,

And pull their kicking colts out of their pastures.
USUM. Your majesty already hath devis'd

A mean, as fit as may be, to restrain

These coltish coach-horse tongues from blasphemy. CEL. How like you that, sir king? why speak ye not?

JER. Ah, cruel brat, sprung from a tyrant's loins! How like his cursed father he begins

To practice taunts and bitter tyrannies!

TAMB. Aye, Turk, I tell thee, this same boy is he
That must (advanc'd in higher pomp than this)
Rifle the kingdoms I shall leave unsack'd,
If Jove, esteeming me too good for earth,
Raise me to match the fair Aldeboron,
Above the threefold Astracism of heav'n,
Before I conquer all the triple world.
Now, fetch me out the Turkish concubines;
I will prefer them for the funeral

They have bestow'd on my abortive son.

[The Concubines are brought in.

Where are my common soldiers now, that fought

So lion-like upon Asphaltis' plains?

SOLD. Here, my lord.

1

TAMB. Hold ye, tall soldiers, take ye queens a

piece

I mean such queens as were king's concubines-
Take them; divide them, and their jewels too,
And let them equally serve all your turns.
SOLD. We thank you.

TAMB. Brawl not (I warn you) for your letchery:
'For ev'ry man that so offends shall die.
ORC. Injurious tyrant, wilt thou so defame
The hateful fortunes of thy victory,

To exercise upon such guiltless dames

The violence of thy common soldier's lust?

#

TAMB. Live continent then, ye slaves, and meet

not me

With troops of harlots at your slothful heels.

LADIES. O pity us, my lord, and save our honours.
TAMB. Are ye not gone, ye villains, with your
[They run away with the ladies.
JER. O merciless, infernal cruelty!

spoils?

TAMB, Save your honours! "Twere but time in-
deed,

Lost long before ye knew what honours meant.
THER. It seems they meant to conquer us, my lord,
And make us jesting pageants for their trulls.
TAMB. And now themselves shall make Our
pageants,

And common soldiers jest with all their trulls.
Let them take pleasure soundly in their spoils,
The old editions read content.

Till we prepare our march to Babylon,
Whither we next make expedition.

TECH. Let us not be idle then, my lord,
But presently be prest to conquer

it.

TAMB. We will, Techelles. Forward then, ye jades. Now crouch, ye kings of greatest Asia,

And tremble, when ye hear this scourge will come
That whips down cities and controuleth crowns,
Adding their wealth and treasure to my store.
The Euxine sea, north to Natolia ;

The Tyrrhene, west; the Caspian, north north-east;
And on the south, Sinus Arabicus;
Shall all be laden with the martial spoils,
We will convey with us to Persia.
Then shall my native city, Samarcanda,
And chrystal waves of fresh Jakertis' stream,
The pride and beauty of her princely seat,
Be famous through the farthest continents,
For there my palace-royal shall be plac'd,
Whose shining turrets shall dismay the heavens,
And cast the fame of Ilion's tow'r to hell.
Thorough the streets, with troops of conquer'd kings,
I'll ride in golden armour like the sun;
And in my helm a triple plume shall spring,
Spangled with diamonds dancing in the air,
To note me emp'ror of the three-fold world,
Like to an almond tree, mounted high
Upon the lofty and celestial mount
Of ever green Selinis quaintly deck'd

With blooms more white than Hericina's brows,

Whose tender blossoms tremble ev'ry one,

At ev'ry little breath that thorough heav'n is blown.*
Then in my coach, like Saturn's royal son
Mounted, his shining chariots gilt with fire,
And drawn with princely eagles through the path,
Pav'd with bright chrystal, and enchas'd with stars,
When all the gods stand gazing at his pomp,
So will I ride through Samarcanda streets,
Until my soul, dissever'd from this flesh,

This simile is borrowed from the following stanza in Spenser's Faerie Queene :

"

Upon the top of all his loftie crest,

A bunch of heares discolour'd diversly,

With sprincled pearle and gold full richly drest,

Did shake and seem'd to dance for jollity,

Like to an almond tree ymounted hye

On top of greene Selinis all alone,

With blossoms brave bedecked daintily;

Whose tender locks do tremble every one

At everie little breath that under heaven is blowne." Both the play and this part of the Faerie Queene were published in 1590, but from the letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, prefixed to the latter, we may presume that it was published early in that year. That the simile was borrowed from Spenser, either by the author of the play, or more probably by some interpolator, is evident from the following circumstances:-The versification of the dramatist is generally correct, and almost invariably consists of lines of ten syllables, but finding in the fifth line of this stanza the wordymounted,' and probably considering it to be too obsolete for the stage he has dropped the initial letter leaving only nine syllables and an unrythmical line: 2. He has at the end of his image adopted Spenser's, concluding Alexandrine, which is, I think, an insulated instance of the use of a line of that length throughout the play.