Tamb. No more there is not, I warrant thee, Techelles.

They bring in BAJAZETH and ZABINA.

Ther. We know the victory is ours, my lord;

But let us save the reverend Soldan's life,
For fair Zenocrate that so laments his state.

Tamb. That will we chiefly see unto, Theridamas,
For sweet Zenocrate, whose worthiness

Deserves a conquest over every heart.

And now, my footstool, if I lose the field,

You hope of liberty and restitution ?

Here let him stay, my masters, from the tents,

Till we have made us ready for the field.

Pray for us, Bajazeth; we are going.

210

[Exeunt TAMBURLAINE, TECHELLES, USUMCASANE,
and Persians.

Baj. Go, never to return with victory.
Millions of men encompass thee about,
And gore thy body with as many wounds!
Sharp, forkèd arrows light upon thy horse!
Furies from the black Cocytus lake,

Break up the earth, and with their firebrands,
Enforce thee run upon the baneful pikes!
Volleys of shot pierce through thy charmed skin,
And every bullet dipt in poisoned drugs!
Or, roaring cannons sever all thy joints,
Making thee mount as high as eagles soar !
Zab. Let all the swords and lances in the field
Stick in his breast as in their proper rooms!
At every pore let blood come dropping forth,

220

That lingering pains may massacre his heart,
And madness send his damnèd soul to hell!

[ACT V.

Baj. Ah, fair Zabina ! we may curse his power;
The heavens may frown, the earth for anger quake:
But such a star hath influence in his sword,
As rules the skies and countermands the gods
More than Cimmerian Styx or Destiny;
And then shall we in this detested guise,
With shame, with hunger, and with horror stay,1
Griping our bowels with retorquèd2 thoughts,
And have no hope to end our ecstasies.
Zab. Then is there left no Mahomet, no God,
No fiend, no fortune, nor no hope of end
To our infamous monstrous slaveries.
Gape earth, and let the fiends infernal view
A hell as hopeless and as full of fear

As are the blasted banks of Erebus,

Where shaking ghosts with ever-howling groans
Hover about the ugly ferryman,

To get a passage to Elysium! 3

Why should we live? O, wretches, beggars, slaves!

Why live we, Bajazeth, and build up nests

So high within the region of the air

By living long in this oppression,

That all the world will see and laugh to scorn

The former triumphs of our mightiness

In this obscure infernal servitude?

1 8vo. "aie."-4to. “aye."

230

240

250

2 I.e., "bent back in reflections on our former happiness."-Dyce. Old copies "Elisian."

Baj. O life, more loathsome to my vexèd thoughts
Than noisome parbreak1 of the Stygian snakes,
Which fills the nooks of hell with standing air,
Infecting all the ghosts with cureless griefs!
O dreary engines of my loathèd sight,

That see my crown, my honour, and my name
Thrust under yoke and thraldom of a thief,
Why feed ye still on day's accursed beams
And sink not quite into my tortured soul?
You see my wife, my queen, and emperess,
Brought up and proppèd by the hand of fame,
Queen of fifteen contributory queens,
Now thrown to rooms of black abjection,2
Smeared with blots of basest drudgery,
And villainess 3 to shame, disdain, and misery.
Accursed Bajazeth, whose words of ruth,
(That would with pity cheer Zabina's heart,
And make our souls resolve in ceaseless tears ;)
Sharp hunger bites upon, and gripes the root,
From whence the issues of my thoughts do break!
O poor Zabina! O my queen! my queen!
Fetch me some water for my burning breast,
To cool and comfort me with longer date,
That in the shortened sequel of my life
I may pour forth my soul into thine arms
With words of love, whose moaning intercourse

1 Vomit.

2 Old copies "objection."

3 Slave. Cf. iii, 2, 1. 38 :—“Is far from villany or servitude.”

Hath hitherto been stayed with wrath and hate
Of our expressless bann'd inflictions.

Zab. Sweet Bajazeth, I will prolong thy life,
As long as any blood or spark of breath
Can quench or cool the torments of my grief.

[She goes out.

Baj. Now, Bajazeth, abridge thy baneful days,
And beat thy brains out of thy conquered head,
Since other means are all forbidden me,
That may be ministers of my decay.

O, highest lamp of ever-living Jove,
Accursed day! infected with my griefs,

Hide now thy stainèd face in endless night,
And shut the windows of the lightsome Heavens !
Let ugly Darkness with her rusty coach,
Engirt with tempests, wrapt in pitchy clouds,
Smother the earth with never-fading mists!
And let her horses from their nostrils breathe
Rebellious winds and dreadful thunder-claps !
That in this terror Tamburlaine may live,
And my pined soul, resolved in liquid air,
May still excruciate his tormented thoughts!
Then let the stony dart of senseless cold
Pierce through the centre of my withered heart,
And make a passage
for my loathed life!

290

300

[He brains himself against the cage.

Re-enter ZABINA.

Zab. What do mine eyes behold? my husband dead! His skull all riven in twain! his

brains dashed out,

But

defeat,

to sun chestration, pute His fate of these personification

The brains of Bajazeth, my lord and sovereign :
O Bajazeth, my husband and my lord!

310

O Bajazeth! O Turk! O Emperor !
Give him his liquor? not I. Bring milk and fire, and
my blood I bring him again.-Tear me in pieces-
give me the sword with a ball of wild-fire upon it.—
Down with him! Down with him!-Go to my child!
Away! Away! Away!-Ah, save that infant! save him,
save him!-I, even I, speak to her.-The sun was
down-streamers white, red, black-here, here, here!—
Fling the meat in his face-Tamburlaine. Tambur-
laine-Let the soldiers be buried.-Hell! Death,
Tamburlaine, Hell!-Make ready my coach,2 my chair,
my jewels. I come! I come! I come!
321

[She runs against the cage and brains herself.

Enter ZENOCRATE with ANIPPE.

Zeno. Wretched Zenocrate! that liv'st to see Damascus walls dyed with Eygptians' blood,

3

Thy father's subjects and thy countrymen ;
Thy streets strowed with dissevered joints of men
And wounded bodies gasping yet for life:
But most accurst, to see the sun-bright troop
Of heavenly virgins and unspotted maids,
(Whose looks might make the angry god of arms
To break his sword and mildly treat of love)

1 So 4to.-8vo. "and give."

330

2 So the crazed Ophelia,-" Come, my coach," &c.-Hamlet, iv. 5. 3 So 4to.-8vo. "Egiptian."

VOL. I.

G

madness