AN. Aye, my lord.

TAMB. Bring him forth; and let us know if the town be ransack'd.

[Exit An. Enter TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE, and others.

TECH. The town is our's, my lord, and fresh supply Of conquest and of spoil is offered us.

TAMB. That's well, Techelles ;-what's the news? TECH. The Soldan and the Arabian king together March on us with such eager violence,

As if there were no way but one with us.

TAMB. No more there is not, I warrant thee, Techelles.

BAJAZET and ZABINA, are brought in.

THER. We know the victory is ours, my lord;

But let us save the reverend Soldan's life,

For fair Zenocrate that so laments his state.

TAMB. That will we chiefly see unto, Theridamas,

For sweet Zenocrate, whose worthiness

Deserves a conquest over ev'ry heart.

And now, my footstool, if I lose the field,

You hope of liberty and restitution?

Here let him stay, my masters, from the tents,

Till we have made us ready for the field.

Pray for us, Bajazet; we are going.

[Exeunt Tamburlaine, Techelles, Usumcasane,

and Persians.

BAZ. Go! never to return with victory. Millions of men encompass thee about, And gore thy body with as many wounds!

Sharp, forked arrows light upon thy horse!
Furies from the black Cocytus lake,

Break up the earth, and with their fire-brands,
Enforce thee run upon the baneful pikes!
Vollies of shot pierce through thy charmed skin,
And ev'ry bullet dipt in poison'd drugs!
Or, roaring cannons sever all thy joints,
Making thee mount as high as eagles soar!

ZAB. Let all the swords and lances in the field
Stick in his breast as in their proper rooms!
At ev'ry pore let blood come dropping forth,
That ling'ring pains may massacre his heart,
And madness send his damned soul to hell!

BAJ. Ah, fair Zabina! we may curse his power;
The heav'ns may frown, the earth for anger quake:
But such a star hath influence on his sword,
As rules the skies and countermands the Gods,
More than Cimmerian Styx or destiny:

And then shall we in this detested guise,
With shame, with hunger, and with horror live,*
Griping our bowels with retorqued thoughts,
And have no hope to end our extacies.

ZAB. Then is there left no Mahomet, no God,
No fiend, no fortune, nor no hope of end
To our infamous, monstrous slaveries.
Gape, earth, and let the fiends infernal view.
A hell as hopeless and as full of fear

As are the blasted banks of Erebus,

. Live is here substituted for die in the 8vo. and aye in the 4to.

Where shaking ghosts with ever-howling groans

Hover about the ugly ferryman,

To get a passage to Elysium!

Why should we live? O, wretches, beggars, slaves!

Why live we, Bajazet, and build up nests

So high within the region of the air

By living long in this oppression,

That all the world will see and laugh to scorn

The former triumphs of our mightiness

In this obscure infernal servitude?

BAJ. O life, more loathsome to my vexed thoughts
Than noisome parbreak of the Stygian snakes,
Which fill the nooks of hell with standing air,
Infecting all the ghosts with cureless griefs!
O dreary engines of my loathed sight

That see my crown, my honour, and my name
Thrust under yoke and thraldom of a thief,
Why feed ye still on day's accursed beams
And sink not quite into my tortured soul?
You see my wife, my queen, and emperess,
Brought up and propped by the hand of fame,
Queen of fifteen contributory queens,
Now thrown to rooms of black abjection,
Smeared with blots of basest drudgery
And villainess to shame, disdain, and misery.
Accursed Bajazet, whose words of ruth,
(That would with pity cheer Zabina's heart,
And make our souls resolve in ceaseless tears;)
Sharp hunger bites upon, and gripes the root,
From whence the issues of my thoughts do break;

O poor Zabina! O my queen! my queen!
Fetch me some water for my burning breast,
To cool and comfort me with longer date,

That in the shorten'd sequel of my life
I may pour
forth my
soul into thine arms
With words of love, whose moaning intercourse
Hath hitherto been stayed with wrath and hate,
Of our expressless hard inflictions.

ZAB. Sweet Bajazet! I will prolong thy life,
As long as any blood or spark of breath
Can quench or cool the torments of my grief.

[She goes out.

BAJ. Now, Bajazet, abridge thy baneful days,
And beat the brains out of thy conquer'd head,
Since other means are all forbidden me,
That may be ministers of my decay.
O, highest lamp of ever-living Jove,
Accursed day! infected with my griefs,
Hide now thy stained face in endless night,
And shut the windows of the lightsome Heavens!
Let ugly darkness with her rusty coach,
Engirt with tempests, wrapt in pitchy clouds,
Smother the earth with never-fading mists!
And let her horses from their nostrils breathe
Rebellious winds and dreadful thunder-claps !
That in this terror Tamburlaine may live,
And my pin'd soul, resolv'd in liquid air,
May still excruciate his tormented thoughts!
Then let the stony dart of senseless cold

band, in both the 8vo. and to.

Pierce through the centre of my wither'd heart,

And make a passage for my

loathed life!

[He brains himself against the cage.

Enter ZA BINA.

ZAB. What do mine eyes behold? my husband

dead!

His skull all riv'n in twain! his brains dash'd out,
The brains of Bajazet, my lord and sovereign:
O, Bajazet, my husband and my lord!

O Bajazet! O Turk! O Emperor!

Give him his liquor? not I. Bring milk and fire, and my blood I bring him again.-Tear me in pieces, and give me the sword with a ball of wild-fire upon it. Down with him! Down with him!-Go to, my child! Away! Away! Away!-Ah, save that infant! save him, save him!-I, even I, speak to her, the sun was down.-Streamers white, red, black-here, here, here!-Fling the meat in his face, Tamburlaine.Tamburlaine !-Let the soldiers be cursed.-Hell! Death, Tamburlaine, Hell!-Make ready my coach, my chair, my jewels.-I come! I come! I come!

[She runs against the cage and brains herself.
Enter ZENOCRATE with ANIPPE.

ZENO. Wretched Zenocrate ! that liv'st to see
Damascus' walls dy'd with Egyptian blood,
Thy father's subjects and thy countrymen;
Thy streets strewed with dissever'd joints of men
And wounded bodies gasping yet for life;
But most accurst, to see the sun-bright troop
Of heav'nly virgins and unspotted maids,