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 let1 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 you eat. How now, Zenocrate, do not the Turk and his wife make a goodly show at a banquet?

Zeno. Yes, my lord.

60

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

70

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,

80

[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,

Or may be forced to make me emperor ;

For Egypt and Arabia must be mine.—

90

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

F

Zab. Eat, Bajazeth: and let us live

In spite of them,-looking some happy power
Will pity and enlarge us.

Tamb. Here, Turk; wilt thou have a clean trencher ?
Baj. Ay, tyrant, and more meat.

Tamb. Soft, sir; you must be dieted; too much eating will make you surfeit.

Ther. So it would, my lord, 'specially having so small a walk and so little exercise.

[A second course is brought in of crowns. Tamb. Theridamas, Techelles, and Casane, here [110 are the cates you desire to finger, are they not?

Ther. Ay, my lord: but none save kings must feed with these.

Tech. 'Tis enough for us to see them, and for Tamburlaine only to enjoy them.

Tamb. Well; here is now to the Soldan of Egypt, the King of Arabia, and the Governor of Damascus. Now 1 take these three crowns, and pledge me, my contributory kings. I crown you here, Theridamas, King of Argier; Techelles, King of Fez; and Usumcasane, King of [120 Moroccus. How say you to this, Turk? These are not your contributory kings.

1 I am not sure that I am right in printing the whole of this speech as prose. With slight alteration a part of it goes easily into verse :"Now take these three crowns,

And pledge me, my contributory kings.

-I crown you here, Theridamas, King of Argier;

Techelles, King of Fez; Usumcasane,

King of Moroccus. How say you to this, Turk?
These are not your contributory kings."

Baj. Nor shall they long be thine, I warrant them. Tamb. Kings of Argier, Moroccus, and of Fez, You that have marched with happy Tamburlaine As far as from the frozen plage1 of heaven, Unto the watery morning's ruddy bower, And thence by land unto the torrid zone, Deserve these titles I endow you with, By valour 2 and by magnanimity.

Your births shall be no blemish to your fame,

For virtue is the fount whence honour springs,

And they are worthy she investeth kings.

130

Ther. And since your highness hath so well vouchsafed;

If we deserve them not with higher meeds

Than erst our states and actions have retained

Take them away again and make us slaves.

Tamb. Well said, Theridamas; when holy fates
Shall 'stablish me in strong Ægyptia,

We mean to travel to the antarctick pole,
Conquering the people underneath our feet,
And be renowmed as never emperors were.
Zenocrate, I will not crown thee yet,
Until with greater honours I be graced.

140

[Exeunt.

1 Dyce's correction for "place" of the old copies. Cf. Second Part,

i. I, 1. 68.

"Old copies "value.'

ACT THE FIFTH.

SCENE I.

Enter the GOVERNOR of DAMASCO,1 with three or four Citizens, and four Virgins, with branches of laurel in their hands.

Gov. Still doth this man, or rather god of war,
Batter our walls and beat our turrets down ;
And to resist with longer stubbornness,

Or hope of rescue from the Soldan's power,
Were but to bring our wilful overthrow,

And make us desperate of our threatened lives.
We see his tents have now been altered
With terrors to the last and cruellest hue.
His coal-black colours everywhere advanced,
Threaten our city with a general spoil;

And if we should with common rites of arms
Offer our safeties to his clemency,

I fear the custom, proper to his sword,
Which he observes as parcel of his fame,

1 So Greene (in Friar Bacon) :

"Edward, art thou the famous Prince of Wales
Who at Damasco beat the Saracens ?"