I long to break my spear upon his crest,
And prove the weight of his victorious arm;
For Fame, I fear, hath been too prodigal

In sounding through the world his partial praise.
Sold. Capolin, hast thou surveyed our powers?
Capol. Great emperors of Egypt and Arabia,
The number of your hosts united is

A hundred and fifty thousand horse;

Two hundred thousand foot, brave men at arms,
Courageous, and full of hardiness,

As frolick as the hunters in the chase

Of savage beasts amid the desert woods.

Arab. My mind presageth fortunate success;

And Tamburlaine, my spirit doth foresee

The utter ruin of thy men and thee.

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60

Sold. Then rear your standards; let your sounding drums

Direct our soldiers to Damascus walls.

Now, Tamburlaine, the mighty Soldan comes,
And leads with him the great Arabian king,
To dim thy baseness and obscurity,
Famous for nothing but for theft and spoil;
To raze and scatter thy inglorious crew
Of Scythians and slavish Persians.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

The Banquet; and to it come TAMBURLAINE, all in scarlet, THERIDAMAS, TECHELLES, USUMCASANE, BAJAZETH [in his cage], ZABINA, and others.

Tamb. Now hang our bloody colours by Damascus, Reflexing hues of blood upon their heads,

While they walk quivering on their city walls,
Half dead for fear before they feel my wrath,
Then let us freely banquet and carouse
Full bowls of wine unto the god of war
That means to fill your helmets full of gold,
And make Damascus spoils as rich to you,
As was to Jason Colchos' golden fleece.
And now, Bajazeth, hast thou any stomach?

1Ο

Baj. I, such a stomach, cruel Tamburlaine, as I could willingly feed upon thy blood-raw heart.2

Tamb. Nay thine own is easier to come by; pluck out that; and 'twill serve thee and thy wife: Well, Zenocrate, Techelles, and the rest, fall to your victuals.

Baj. Fall to, and never may your meat digest!

Ye furies, that can mask invisible,

Dive to the bottom of Avernus' pool,

1 In the "Enventorey of all the aparell of the Lord Admeralles men, taken the 13th of March 1598," we find entered "Tamberlanes breches of crymson velvett."—Henslowe's Diary, ed. Collier, p. 275.

2 With the omission of a word the passage runs into verse:

"I, such a stomach, cruel Tamburlaine,

As I could feed upon thy blood-raw heart."

I have retained the old spelling I for aye.

And in your hands bring hellish poison up
And squeeze it in the cup of Tamburlaine !
Or, winged snakes of Lerna, cast your stings,
And leave your venoms in this tyrant's dish!

Zab. And may this banquet prove as ominous
As Progne's to the adulterous Thracian king,
That fed upon the substance of his child.

Zeno. My lord, [my lord] how can you suffer these
Outrageous curses by these slaves of yours?

Tamb. To let them see, divine Zenocrate,

I glory in the curses of my foes,

Having the power from the imperial heaven

To turn them all upon their proper heads.

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Tech. I pray you give them leave, madam; this speech is a goodly refreshing to them.

Ther. But if his highness would let them be fed, it would do them more good.

Tamb. Sirrah, why fall you not to ?—are you so daintily brought up, you cannot eat your own flesh?

Baj. First, legions of devils shall tear thee in pieces. Usum. Villain, know'st thou to whom thou speakest ? Tamb. O, let him alone. Here; eat, sir ; take it from [40 my sword's point, or I'll thrust it to thy heart.

[BAJAZETH takes it and stamps upon it. Ther. He stamps it under his feet, my lord.

Tamb. Take it up, villain, and eat it; or I will make thee slice the brawns of thy arms into carbonadoes 1 and eat them..

1 Rashers.

Usum. Nay, 'twere better he killed his wife, and then he shall be sure not to be starved, and he be provided for a month's victual beforehand.

Tamb. Here is my dagger: despatch her while she is fat, for if she live but a while longer, she will fall into [50 a consumption with fretting, and then she will not be worth the eating.

Ther. Dost thou think that Mahomet will suffer this? Tech. 'Tis like he will when he cannot let 1 it.

Tamb. Go to; fall to your meat.-What, not a bit! Belike he hath not been watered to-day; give him some drink.

[They give him water to drink, and he flings it upon the ground.

Tamb. Fast, and welcome, sir, while 2 hunger make How now, Zenocrate, do not the Turk and his wife make a goodly show at a banquet?

you eat.

Zeno. Yes, my lord.

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Ther. Methinks, 'tis a great deal better than a consort

of musick.

Tamb. Yet musick would do well to cheer up Zenocrate. Pray thee, tell, why thou art so sad ?—If thou wilt have a

song, the Turk shall strain his voice. But why is it?
Zeno. My lord, to see my father's town besieged,
The country wasted where myself was born,

How can it but afflict my very soul?
If any love remain in you, my lord,
Or if my love unto your majesty

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May merit favour at your highness' hands,
Then raise your siege from fair Damascus walls,
And with my father take a friendly truce.

Tamb. Zenocrate, were Egypt Jove's own land,
Yet would I with my sword make Jove to stoop.
I will confute those blind geographers
That make a triple region in the world,
Excluding regions which I mean to trace,
And with this pen reduce them to a map,

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[Pointing to his sword.

Calling the provinces cities and towns,
After my name and thine, Zenocrate.
Here at Damascus will I make the point
That shall begin the perpendicular;

And would'st thou have me buy thy father's love
With such a loss?-Tell me, Zenocrate.

Zeno. Honour still wait on happy Tamburlaine;

Yet give me leave to plead for him my lord.

Tamb. Content thyself: his person shall be safe And all the friends of fair Zenocrate,

If with their lives they may be pleased to yield,

От may be forced to make me emperor ;

For Egypt and Arabia must be mine.—

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Feed you slave; thou may'st think thyself happy to be fed from my trencher.

Baj. My empty stomach, full of idle heat,
Draws bloody humours from my feeble parts,
Preserving life by hasting cruel death.

My veins are pale; my sinews hard and dry;
My joints benumbed; unless I eat, I die.

VOL. I.

100

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