The frowning looks of fiery Tamburlaine,
That with his terror and imperious eyes,
Commands the hearts of his associates,
It might amaze your royal majesty.

Sold. Villain, I tell thee, were that Tamburlaine
As monstrous 1 as Gorgon prince of hell,

The Soldan would not start a foot from him.

But speak, what power hath he?

Three hundred thousand men in armour clad,
Upon their prancing steeds disdainfully,

With wanton paces trampling on the ground:
Five hundred thousand footmen threatening shot,
Shaking their swords, their spears, and iron bills,
Environing their standard round, that stood
As bristle-pointed as a thorny wood:
Their warlike engines and munition

Exceed the forces of their martial men.

20

Sold. Nay, could their numbers countervail the

stars,

Or ever-drizzling 2 drops of April showers,

Or withered leaves that Autumn shaketh down,
Yet would the Soldan by his conquering power

So scatter and consume them in his rage,

3

That not a man should live to rue their fall.

Capo. So might your highness, had you time to sort

30

1 A trisyllable, of course.

2 So 4to.-8vo. "Or drisling drops."

3 So 4to.-8vo. "shal."

Your fighting men, and raise your royal host;
But Tamburlaine, by expedition,
Advantage takes of your unreadiness.

Sold. Let him take all the advantages he can.
Were all the world conspired to fight for him,
Nay, were he devil, as he is no man,
Yet in revenge of fair Zenocrate,
Whom he detaineth in despite of us,

This arm should send him down to Erebus,
To shroud his shame in darkness of the night.
Mess. Pleaseth your Mightiness to understand,
His resolution far exceedeth all.

The first day when he pitcheth down his tents,
White is their hue, and on his silver crest,
A snowy feather spangled white he bears,
To signify the mildness of his mind,
That, satiate with spoil, refuseth blood.

But when Aurora mounts the second time

As red as scarlet is his furniture;

Then must his kindled wrath be quenched with blood, Not sparing any that can manage arms;

But if these threats move not submission,

Black are his colours, black pavilion ;

40

50

His spear, his shield, his horse, his armour, plumes, 60

And jetty feathers, menace death and hell;

Without respect of sex, degree, or age,

He razeth all his foes with fire and sword.

Sold. Merciless villain !-peasant, ignorant

Of lawful arms or martial discipline!
Pillage and murder are his usual trades.

The slave usurps the glorious name of war.
See, Capolin, the fair Arabian king,

That hath been disappointed by this slave
Of my fair daughter, and his princely love,
May have fresh warning to go war with us,
And be revenged for her disparagement.

70

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Enter TAMBURLAINE, TECHELles, Theridamas, UsumCASANE, ZENOCRATE, ANIPPE, two Moors drawing - BAJAZETH in a cage, and his Wife following him.

Tamb. Bring out my footstool.

[BAJAZETH is taken out of the cage.

Baj. Ye holy priests of heavenly Mahomet, That, sacrificing, slice and cut your flesh, Staining his altars with your purple blood; Make Heaven to frown and every fixèd star To suck up poison from the moorish fens,

And pour it in this glorious 2 tyrant's throat!

Tamb. The chiefest god, first mover of that sphere, Enchased with thousands ever-shining lamps,

Will sooner burn the glorious frame of Heaven,
Than it should3 so conspire my overthrow.

But, villain! thou that wishest this to me,

Fall prostrate on the low disdainful earth,

1 So 4to.-Omitted in 8vo.

2 Boastful.

3 So 4to.-8vo. "should it."

ΙΟ

And be the footstool of great Tamburlaine,

That I may rise into my royal throne.

Baj. First shalt thou rip my bowels with thy sword, And sacrifice my soul to death and hell,

Before I yield to such a slavery.

Tamb. Base villain, vassal, slave to Tamburlaine !
Unworthy to embrace or touch the ground,
That bears the honour of my royal weight;
Stoop, villain, stoop!-Stoop! for so he bids
That may command thee piecemeal to be torn,
Or scattered like the lofty cedar trees
Struck with the voice of thundering Jupiter.

Baj. Then, as I look down to the damnèd fiends,
Fiends look on me! and thou, dread god of hell,
With ebon sceptre strike this hateful earth,

And make it swallow both of us at once!

20

[TAMBURLAINE gets up on him to his chair.

Tamb. Now clear the triple region of the air,

And let the Majesty of Heaven behold
Their Scourge and terror tread on emperors.
Smile stars, that reigned at my nativity,

And dim the brightness of your1 neighbour lamps !
Disdain to borrow light of Cynthia !
For I, the chiefest lamp of all the earth,
First rising in the East with mild aspèct,
But fixed now in the Meridan line,
Will send up fire to your turning spheres,
And cause the sun to borrow light of you.

1 Old copies "their."

130

40

rand

My sword struck fire from his coat of steel
Even in Bithynia, when I took this Turk;
As when a fiery exhalation,

Wrapt in the bowels of a freezing cloud
Fighting for passage, makes the welkin crack,
And casts a flash of lightning to the earth:
But ere I march to wealthy Persia,
Or leave Damascus and the Egyptian fields,
As was the fame of Clymene's brain-sick son,
That almost brent the axle-tree of heaven,
So shall our swords, our lances, and our shot
Fill all the air with fiery meteors:

Then when the sky shall wax as red as blood
It shall be said I made it red myself,

To make me think of nought but blood and war.
Zab. Unworthy king, that by thy cruelty
Unlawfully usurp'st the Persian seat,
Dar'st thou that never saw an emperor,
Before thou met my husband in the field,
Being thy captive, thus abuse his state,
Keeping his kingly body in a cage,
That roofs of gold and sun-bright palaces
Should have prepared to entertain his grace?
And treading him beneath thy loathsome feet,
Whose feet the kings of Africa have kissed.

50

60

Tech. You must devise some torment worse, my lord, To make these captives rein their lavish tongues. Tamb. Zenocrate, look better to your slave.

Zeno. She is my handmaid's slave, and she shall look