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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.

[Exeunt all except BAJAZETH and ZABINA.
BAJ. Go, never to return with victory!
Millions of men encompass thee about,
And gore thy body with as many wounds!
Sharp forked arrows light upon thy horse!
Furies from the black Cocytus lake,

Break up the earth, and with their fire-brands
Enforce thee run upon the baneful pikes!
Vollies of shot pierce through thy charmed skin,
And every bullet dipt in poison'd 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,
That lingering pains may massacre his heart,
And madness send his damnèd soul to hell!
BAJ. Ah, fair Zabina! we may curse his power,

*pore] So the 8vo.-The 4to "dore."

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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 stayt,
Griping our bowels with retorquèd‡ thoughts,
And have no hope to end our extasies.

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
All 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¶!

Why should we live?-Oh, 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?

*

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in] Qy. on"? no

+ stay] Old eds. " aie" and "aye."

retorquèd] i. e. bent back in reflections on our former hap

piness. So the 8vo.-The 4to "retortued."

|| A] Old eds. "As."

Elysium] Old eds. " Elisian."

vexèd thoughts

BAJ. O life, more loathsome to my
Than noisome parbreak 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 tortur'd soul?
You see my wife, my queen, and emperess,
Brought up and propped by the hand of Fame,
Queen of fifteen contributory queens,

Now thrown to rooms of black abjection,
Smeared with blots of basest drudgery,

And villainess 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 shorten'd sequel of my life,

parbreak] i. e. vomit.

+ see] Old eds." sees."

abjection] Old eds. " obiection."

§ villainess] i. e. servant, slave.

ruth] So the 8vo.-The 4to "truth." ¶resolve] i. e. dissolve.

I may pour

forth my

soul into thine arms

With words of love, whose moaning intercourse
Hath hitherto been stay'd 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. [Exit.
BAJ. Now, Bajazeth, abridge thy baneful days,
And beat the brains out of thy conquer'd head,
Since other means are all forbidden me,
That may be ministers of my decay.
O highest lamp of ever-livingt 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 pin'd soul, resolv'd in liquid air,
May still excruciate his tormented thoughts!
Then let the stony dart of senseless cold
Pierce through the centre of my wither'd heart,
And make a passage for my loathed life!

[He brains himself against the cage.

* bann'd] i. e. cursed.

† the] So the 4to.-The 8vo "thy."

ever-living] So the 8vo.-The 4to "euerlasting."

Re-enter ZABINA.

ZAB. What do mine eyes behold? my husband
dead!

His skull all riven in twain! his brains dash'd out,
The brains of Bajazeth, my lord and sovereign!
O Bajazeth, my husband and my lord!
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 hert.-
The sun was down-streamers white, red, black-
Here, here, here!-Fling the meat in his face-Tam-
burlaine, Tamburlaine!-Let the soldiers be buried.-
Hell, death, Tamburlaine‡, hell!-Make ready my
coachs, my chair, my jewels.-I come, I come, I
comell!

*

[She runs against the cage, and brains herself.

give] So the 4to.-The 8vo " and give."

ther] Must mean Zenocrate, whom Zabina fancies herself to be addressing.

‡ Let the soldiers be buried.—Hell, death, Tamburlaine] So the 8vo.-Omitted in the 4to. (Where the modern editors got their reading, "Let the soldiers be cursed," I know not.)

Make ready my coach] Shakespeare seems to have remembered this passage when he made Ophelia say, "Come, my coach," &c. Hamlet, act iv. sc. 5.

|| I come, I come, I come] So the 8vo.-The 4to "I come, I come."

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