Not all the gold in India's wealthy arms
Shall buy the meanest soldier in my train.
Zenocrate, lovelier than the love of Jove,
Brighter than is the silver Rhodope,1
Fairer than whitest snow on Scythian hills,-
Thy person is more worth to Tamburlaine,
Than the possession of the Persian crown,
Which gracious stars have promised at my birth.
A hundred Tartars shall attend on thee,
Mounted on steeds swifter than Pegasus;
Thy garments shall be made of Median silk,2
Enchased with precious jewels of mine own,
More rich and valurous 3 than Zenocrate's.
With milk-white harts upon an ivory sled,
Thou shalt be drawn amidst the frozen pools,
And scale the icy mountains' lofty tops,
Which with thy beauty will be soon resolved.
My martial prizes with five hundred men,
Won on the fifty-headed Volga's waves,
Shall we all offer to Zenocrate,-

And then myself to fair Zenocrate.

Tech. What now!-in love?

Tamb. Techelles, women must be flattered: But this is she with whom I am in 6 love.

1 Old copies "Rhodolfe."

2 Cf. 1594 Taming of a Shrew :—

"Thou shalt have garments wrought of Median silk Enchas'd with precious jewels brought from far." 3 i.e. valuable.

4 8vo. "Pooles."-4to. "poles."

5 8vo. omits "all."-4to. reads "We all shall," 6 8vo. "it."-Omitted in the 4to.

90

100

Enter a Soldier.

Sold. News! news!

Tamb. How now-what's the matter?

Sold. A thousand Persian horsemen are at hand, 110 Sent from the king to overcome us all.

Tamb. How now, my lords of Egypt, and Zenocrate ! How!-must your jewels be restored again,

And I, that triumphed so, be overcome?

How say you, lordings,—is not this your hope?

Agyd. We hope yourself will willingly restore them. Tamb. Such hope, such fortune, have the thousand horse.

Soft ye, my lords, and sweet Zenocrate!

You must be forced from me ere you go. I

A thousand horsemen !-We five hundred foot !—

120

An odds too great for us to stand against.

But are they rich ?—and is their armour good?

Sold. Their plumèd helms are wrought with beaten

gold,

Their swords enamelled, and about their necks

Hangs1 massy chains of gold, down to the waist,
In every part exceeding brave 2 and rich.

Tamb. Then shall we fight courageously with them? Or look you I should play the orator?

1 So the 8vo. Modern editors (including Dyce) read "hang." It is very common to find in old writers a plural subject joined to a singular verb. See Abbott's Shakespearean Grammar (§ 333). I have retained the seeming anomaly wherever it occurs in the editio princeps.

• Gaily dressed. The use of the word "brave" in this sense is very

common.

LIBRARY

Tech. No: cowards and faint-hearted runaways

Look for orations when the foe is near:

Our swords shall play the orator for us.

130

Usum. Come! let us meet them at the mountain top,1

And with a sudden and a hot alarum,

Drive all their horses headlong down the hill.

Tech. Come, let us march!

Tamb. Stay, Techelles! ask a parle first.

The Soldiers enter.

Open the mails,2 yet guard the treasure sure;
Lay out our golden wedges to the view,
That their reflections may amaze the Persians;
And look we friendly on them when they come;
But if they offer word or violence,
We'll fight five hundred men at arms to one,
Before we part with our possession.

And 'gainst the general we will lift our swords,
And either lanch3 his greedy thirsting throat,
Or take him prisoner, and his chain shall serve
For manacles, till he be ransomed home.

140

Tech. I hear them come; shall we encounter them? Tamb. Keep all your standings and not stir a foot, Myself will bide the danger of the brunt.

Enter THERIDAMAS and others.

Ther. Where is this Scythian Tamburlaine?

1 So 4to.-8vo. "mountain foot."

2 Bags or trunks (Fr. malle).

So 8vo. Marlowe uses "lance" and "lanch" indifferently.

150

Tamb. Whom seek'st thou, Persian ?—I am Tambur

laine.

Ther. Tamburlaine !—

A Scythian shepherd so embellished

With nature's pride and richest furniture !

His looks do menace Heaven and dare the gods:
His fiery eyes are fixed upon the earth,

As if he now devised some stratagem,

Or meant to pierce Avernus' darksome vauts1
To pull the triple-headed dog from hell.

Tamb. Noble and mild this Persian seems to be,

If outward habit judge the inward man.

Tech. His deep affections make him passionate. Tamb. With what a majesty he rears his looks! In thee, thou valiant man of Persia,

I see the folly of thy emperor.

Art thou but captain of a thousand horse,
That by characters graven in thy brows,
And by thy martial face and stout aspèct,
Deserv'st to have the leading of a host!
Forsake thy king, and do but join with me,
And we will triumph over all the world;
I hold the fates bound fast in iron chains,
And with my hand turn fortune's wheel about:
And sooner shall the sun fall from his sphere,
Than Tamburlaine be slain or overcome.
Draw forth thy sword, thou mighty man at arms,
Intending but to raze my charmed skin,

And Jove himself will stretch his hand from Heaven

1 So 8vo. In the Second Part, ii, 4, we find "vaults."

160

170

To ward the blow and shield me safe from harm.
See how he rains down heaps of gold in showers,
As if he meant to give my soldiers pay!
And as a sure and grounded argument,
That I shall be the monarch of the East,
He sends this soldan's daughter rich and brave,
To be my queen and portly emperess.

If thou wilt stay with me, renowmèd1 man,
And lead thy thousand horse with my condúct,

Besides thy share of this Egyptian prize,

180

Those thousand horse shall sweat with martial spoil 190

Of conquered kingdoms and of cities sacked;

Both we will walk upon the lofty cliffs,

And Christian merchants that with Russian stems 2

Plough up huge furrows in the Caspian sea,

Shall vail to us, as lords of all the lake.
Both we will reign as consuls of the earth,
And mighty kings shall be our senators.

Jove sometimes maskèd in a shepherd's weed,

And by those steps that he hath scaled the heavens
May we become immortal like the gods.
Join with me now in this my mean estate,
(I call it mean because being yet obscure,
The nations far removed admire me not,)

200

1 I have retained the recognised form "renowmèd" wherever it occurs in the 8vo.

* Cf. 1594 Taming of a Shrew :

"Italian merchants that with Russian stems

Plough up huge furrows in the Tyrrhene main."
Merchants = merchantmen: stems = prows.

Lower their flags.