(Thy instrument and note of majesty,)
Is greater far than they can thus subdue:
For if he die thy glory is disgraced;
Earth droops and says that hell in heaven is placed.
Enter TAMBURLAINE (drawn in his chariot as before),
AMYRAS, CELEBINUS, and Physicia n.
Tamb. What daring god torments my body thus,
And seeks to conquer mighty Tamburlaine ?
Shall sickness prove me now to be a man,
That have been termed the terror of the world?
Techelles and the rest, come, take your swords,
And threaten him whose hand afflicts my soul.
Come, let us march against the powers of heaven,
And set black streamers in the firmament,
To signify the slaughter of the gods.
Ah, friends, what shall I do? I cannot stand.
Come carry me to war against the gods
That thus envy the health of Tamburlaine.
Ther. Ah, good my lord, leave these impatient words, Which add much danger to your malady.
Tamb. Why, shall I sit and languish in this pain?
No, strike the drums, and in revenge of this,
Come, let us charge our spears and pierce his breast,
Whose shoulders bear the axis of the world,
That, if I perish, heaven and earth may fade.
Theridamas, haste to the court of Jove,
Will him to send Apollo hither straight,
To cure me, or I'll fetch him down myself.
Tech. Sit still, my gracious lord; this grief will cease, And cannot last, it is so violent.
Tamb. Not last, Techelles ?—No! for I shall die.
See, where my slave, the ugly monster, Death,
Shaking and quivering, pale and wan for fear,
Stands aiming at me with his murdering dart,
Who flies away at every glance I give,
And, when I look away, comes stealing on.
Villain, away, and hie thee to the field!
I and mine army come to load thy back
With souls of thousand mangled carcases.
Look, where he goes; but see, he comes again,
Because I stay: Techelles, let us march
And weary Death with bearing souls to hell.
Phy. Pleaseth your majesty to drink this potion,
Which will abate the fury of your fit,
And cause some milder spirits govern you.
Tamb. Tell me what think you of my sickness now? Phy. I viewed your urine, and the hypostasis Thick and obscure, doth make your danger great; Your veins are full of accidental heat, Whereby the moisture of your blood is dried.
The humidum and calor, which some hold
Is not a parcel of the elements,
But of a substance more divine and pure,
Is almost clean extinguished and spent ;
Which, being the cause of life, imports your death.
Besides, my lord, this day is critical,
1 Old copies "Hipostates."
Dangerous to those whose crisis is as yours;
Your artiers, which alongst the veins convey
The lively spirits which the heart engenders,
Are parched and void of spirits, that the soul,
Wanting those organons by which it moves,
Cannot endure, by argument of art.
Yet, if your majesty may escape this day,
No doubt but you shall soon recover all.
Tamb. Then will I comfort all my vital parts,
And live, in spite of death, above a day.
Mes. My lord, young Callapine, that lately fled from your majesty, hath now gathered a fresh army, and hearing your absence in the field, offers to set upon us presently.1
Tamb. See, my physicians now, how Jove hath sent A present medicine to recure my pain.
My looks shall make them fly, and might I follow,
There should not one of all the villain's power
Live to give offer of another fight.
Usum. I joy, my lord, your highness is so strong, That can endure so well your royal presence,
Which only will dismay the enemy.
1 Perhaps the Messenger's speech should have been printed as verse. Only a very slight alteration is needed :
"My lord, young Callapine, that lately fled
Your majesty, hath gathered a fresh army,
And hearing of your absence in the field,
Offers to set upon us presently."
Tamb. I know it will, Casane. Draw, you slaves;
In spite of death, I will go show my face.
Alarums.-TAMBURLAINE goes out, and comes in
with the rest.
Tamb. Thus are the villain 1 cowards fled for
Like summer vapours vanished by the sun;
And could I but awhile pursue the field,
That Callapine should be my slave again.
But I perceive my martial strength is spent.
In vain I strive and rail against those powers,
That mean to invest me in a higher throne,
As much too high for this disdainful earth.
Give me a map; then let me see how much
Is left for me to conquer all the world,
That these, my boys, may finish all my wants.
Here I began to march towards Persia,
Along Armenia and the Caspian Sea,
And thence unto Bithynia, where I took
The Turk and his great empress prisoners.
Thence marched I into Egypt and Arabia,
And here, not far from Alexandria,
Whereas the Terrene and the Red Sea meet,
Being distant less than full a hundred leagues,
I meant to cut a channel to them both,
That men might quickly sail to India.2
1 Old copies "villaines." The reading in the text is Dyce's.
2 An anticipation of the Suez Canal!
From thence to Nubia near Borno lake,
And so along the Ethiopian sea,
Cutting the Tropic line of Capricorn,
I conquered all as far as Zanzibar.
Then, by the northern part of Africa,
I came at last to Græcia, and from thence
To Asia, where I stay against my will;
Which is from Scythia, where I first began,
Backward[s] and forwards near five thousand leagues.
Look here, my boys; see what a world of ground
Lies westward from the midst of Cancer's line,
Unto the rising of this earthly globe;
Whereas the sun, declining from our sight,
Begins the day with our Antipodes !
And shall I die, and this unconquerèd?
Lo, here, my sons, are all the golden mines,
Inestimable drugs and precious stones,
More worth than Asia and the world beside;
And from the Antarctic Pole eastward behold
As much more land, which never was descried,
Wherein are rocks of pearl that shine as bright
As all the lamps that beautify the sky!
And shall I die, and this unconquerèd ?
Here, lovely boys; what death forbids my life,
That let your lives command in spite of death.
Amy. Alas, my lord, how should our bleeding
Wounded and broken with your highness' grief,
Retain a thought of joy or spark of life?
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