Usum. What then, my lord? Tamb. Why then, Casane,1 shall we wish for aught The world affords in greatest novelty, And rest attemptless, faint, and destitute? Methinks we should not: I am strongly moved, That if I should desire the Persian crown, I could attain it with a wondrous ease. Ther. I know they would with our persuasions. Tamb. Why then, Theridamas, I'll first assay Then thou for Parthia; they for Scythia and Media; As if the Turk, the Pope, Afric, and Greece, Came creeping to us with their crowns apiece.2 80 Usum. Nay, quickly then, before his room be hot. Tamb. 'Twill prove a pretty jest, in faith, my friends. 90 Ther. A jest to charge on twenty thousand men ! I judge the purchase 3 more important far. Tamb. Judge by thyself, Theridamas, not me; For presently Techelles here shall haste To bid him battle ere he pass too far, And lose more labour than the gain will quiet. 1 Old copies read "Casanes." 2 So 4to.-8vo. "apace." 3 Purchase" is often found as a cant word for "thieving, filching." Here it seems to mean an "expedition in search of plunder." Then shalt thou see this Scythian Tamburlaine, Ther. Go on for me. SCENE VI. 100 [Exeunt. Enter COSROE, MEANDER, ORTYGIUS, MENAPHON, with other Soldiers. Cos. What means this devilish shepherd to aspire With such a giantly presumption. To cast up hills against the face of heaven, But as he thrust them underneath the hills, Meand. Some powers divine, or else infernal, mixed Their angry seeds at his conception; For he was never sprong of human race, 1 Old copies "his." 10 Orty. What god, or fiend, or spirit of the earth, Or monster turnèd to a manly shape, Or of what mould or mettle he be made, Let us put on our meet encountering minds; Vowing our loves to equal death and life. And burn him in the fury of that flame, That none can quench but blood and empery. Resolve, my lords and loving soldiers, now 20 30 To save your king and country from decay. Then strike up, drum; and all the stars that make And scorns the powers that govern Persia ! 40 [Exeunt; martial music. SCENE VII. Alarms. A battle; enter COSROE, wounded, THERIDAMAS, TAMBURLAINE, TECHELLES, USUMCASANE, with others. Cos. Barbarous and bloody Tamburlaine, Who, entering at the breach thy sword hath made, Tamb. The thirst of reign and sweetness of a crown That caused the eldest son of heavenly Ops, To thrust his doting father from his chair, 20 1 Dyce quotes several instances of this form of the word "artery." And measure every wandering planet's course, Still climbing after knowledge infinite, And always moving as the restless spheres, Wills us to wear ourselves, and never rest, Until we reach the ripest fruit of all, The sweet fruition of an earthly crown. Ther. And that made me to join with Tamburlaine: 30 For he is gross and like the massy earth, That moves not upwards, nor by princely deeds Doth mean to soar above the highest sort. Tech. And that made us the friends of Tamburlaine, To lift our swords against the Persian king. Usum. For as when Jove did thrust old Saturn down, Neptune and Dis gained each of them a crown, So do we hope to reign in Asia, If Tamburlaine be placed in Persia. Cos. The strangest men that ever nature made! I know not how to take their tyrannies. My bloodless body waxeth chill and cold, And with my blood my life slides through my wound; My soul begins to take her flight to hell, And summons all my senses to depart.— The heat and moisture, which did feed each other, For want of nourishment to feed them both, Is dry and cold; and now doth ghastly death, 1 40 1 "Talon" was not unfrequently spelt "talent." Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2:-" If a talent be a claw."-Pistol's "Let vultures gripe thy guts," may be, as Stevens suggested, a parody of this passage. |