Tech. No cowards and faint-hearted runaways 130 Look for orations when the foe is near : Our swords shall play the orator for us. 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! ask a parle first. The Soldiers enter. Open the mails, yet guard the treasure sure; And 'gainst the general we will lift our swords, 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 the Scythian Tamburlaine? 1 So 4to.-8vo. "mountain foot." 2 Bags or trunks (Fr. malle). 150 3 So 8vo. Marlowe uses "lance" and "lanch" indifferently. Tamb. Who seek'st thou, Persian ?—I am Tamburlaine. 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 vauts 1 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, And with my hand turn fortune's wheel about : And Jove himself will stretch his hand from Heaven 1 So 8vo. In the Second Part, ii. 4, we find “vaults.” 160 170 7 To ward the blow and shield me safe from harm. He sends this soldan's daughter rich and brave, If thou wilt stay with me, renowmèd1 man, 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 Join with me now in this my mean estate, 200 1 I have retained the recognised form "renowmed" wherever it occurs in the 8vo. 2 Cf. 1594 Taming of a Shrew : "Christian merchants that with Russian stems Plough up huge furrows in the Tyrrhene main." 3 Lower their flags. And when my name and honour shall be spread Or fair Böötes 2 sends his cheerful light, Tamb. Nor are Apollo's oracles more true, Tech. We are his friends, and if the Persian king We are assured of by our friend's success. Usum. And kingdoms at the least we all expect, Besides the honour in assurèd conquests, When kings shall crouch unto our conquering swords When with their fearful tongues they shall confess, 210 220 Ther. What strong enchantments tice my yielding soul! These are resolvèd, noble Scythians :4 But shall I prove a traitor to my king? Tamb. No, but the trusty friend of Tamburlaine. 1 Perhaps Marlowe remembered Ovid's "Et quamvis Boreas jactatis insonet alis.”—Trist., iii. 10, l. 45. 2 8vo." Botèes."-4to. "Boetes." I.e. sharer; as in Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 6:-"Myself in counsel his competitor." 4 Old copies" are these." The modern editors read- "What strong enchantments tice my yielding soul To these resolvèd noble Scythians?” Ther. Won with thy words, and conquered with thy looks, I yield myself, my men, and horse to thee, To be partaker of thy good or ill, As long as life maintains Theridamas. Tamb. Theridamas, my friend, take here my hand, Which is as much as if I swore by Heaven, And call'd the gods to witness of my vow. Thus shall my heart be still combined with thine And both our souls aspire celestial thrones. Tech. Welcome, renowmèd Persian, to us all! 230 Tamb. These are my friends, in whom I more rejoice Than doth the king of Persia in his crown, And by the love of Pylades and Orestes, Whose statues 1 we adore in Scythia, Thyself and them shall never part from me Make much of them, gentle Theridamas, 240 1 So 4to.-8vo. "statutes." "As the Scythians worshipped Pylades and Orestes in temples," says the editor of 1826, "we have adopted the reading of the 4to, as being most probably the correct one." What Ovid says is "Mirus amor juvenum, quamvis abiere tot anni, In Scythia magnum nunc quoque nomen habet." |