Behold my sword; what see you at the point ?
FIRST Virg. Nothing but fear and fatal steel, my

lord. Tamb. Your fearful minds are thick and misty,

then,

For there sits Death; there sits imperious* Death,
Keeping his circuit by the slicing edge.
But I am pleas'd you shall not see him there;
He now is seated on my horsemen's spears,
And on their points his fleshless body feeds.-
Techelles, straight go charge a few of them
To charge these dames, and show my servant Death,
Sitting in scarlet on their armed spears.

VIRGINS. Oh, pity us!
TAMB. Away with them, I say, and shew them
Death! [The Virgins are taken out by

TECHELLES and others.
I will not spare these proud Egyptians,
Nor change my martial observations
For all the wealth of Gihon’s golden waves,
Or for the love of Venus, would she leave
The angry god of arms and lie with me.
They have refus'd the offer of their lives,
And know my customs are as peremptory
As wrathful planets, death, or destiny.

Re-enter TECHELLES. What, have your horsemen shown the virgins Death?

Tech. They have, my lord, and on Damascus' walls Have hoisted up their slaughter'd carcasses.

Tamb. A sight as baneful to their souls, I think, As are Thessalian drugs or mithridate : But go, my lords, put the rest to the sword.

[Exeunt all except Tamburlaine. Ah, fair Zenocrate !-divine Zenocrate! Fair is too foul an epithet for thee,That in thy passion* for thy country's love, And fear to see thy kingly father's harm, With hair dishevell’d wip'st thy watery cheeks; And, like to Flora in her morning's pride, Shaking her silver tresses in the air, Rain'st on the earth resolvedt pearl in showers, And sprinklest sapphires on thy shining face, Where Beauty, mother to the Muses, sits, And comments volumes with her ivory pen, Taking instructions from thy flowing eyes ; Eyes, when that Ebena steps to heaven, I In silence of thy solemn evening's walk, Making the mantle of the richest night, The moon, the planets, and the meteors, light; There angels in their crystal armours fight || A doubtful battle with my tempted thoughts For Egypt's freedom and the Soldan's life,

His life that so consumes Zenocrate;
Whose sorrows lay more siege unto my soul,
Than all my army to Damascus' walls;
And neither Persia'st sovereign nor the Turk
Troubled my senses with conceit of foil
So much by much as doth Zenocrate.
What is beauty, saith my sufferings, then ?
If all the pens that ever poets held
Had fed the feeling of their masters' thoughts,
And every sweetness that inspir’d their hearts,
Their minds, and muses on admirèd themes ;
If all the heavenly quintessence they still 1
From their immortal flowers of poesy,
Wherein, as in a mirror, we perceive
The highest reaches of a human wits 1 -
If these had made one poem's period,
And all combin'd in beauty's worthiness,
Yet should there hover in their restless heads
One thought, one grace, one wonder, at the least,
Which into words no virtue can digest.
But how unseemly is it for my sex,
My discipline of arms and chivalry,
My nature, and the terror of my name,

To harbour thoughts effeminate and faint !
"Save only that in beauty's just applause,
A , With whose instinct the soul of man is touch'd ;

And every warrior that is rapt with love word Of fame, of valour, and of victory,

TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT.

Must needs have beauty beat on his conceits:
I thus conceiving and subduing both,
That which hath stopt the tempest of the gods, *
Even from the fiery-spangledt veil of heaven,
To feel the lovely warmth of shepherds’ flames,
And mask i in cottages of strowed weeds,
Shall give the world to note, for all my birth,
That virtue solely is the sum of glory,
And fashions men with true nobility.-
Who's within there?

* gods] “ A line appears to have been omitted in both the old copies, after the word gods. The reader will easily supply the sense.” Ed. 1826.-" I would read as follows:

* Save only that in beauty's just applause,
With whose instinct the soul of man is touch'd,
That which hath stopt the tempest of the gods,
Even from the fiery-spangled veil of heaven,
To feel the lovely warmth of shepherds' fames,
And march in cottages of strowed weeds,
And every warrior that is rapt with love
Of fame, of valour, and of victory,
Must needs have beauty beat on his conceits :
I, thus conceiving, and subduing both,
Shall give the world to note, for all my birth,

That virtue solely is the sum of glory,' &c.
The editor [of 1826) says, ' A line appears to have been onnitted
in both the old copies after the word gods.' The reader will
easily supply the sense.' If my reading is right, there appears
to be no omission of lines, or defect in the sense.” J. M. in
Gent. Mag. for Jan. 1841.

+ fiery-spangled) So the 8vo.-The 4to“ spangled firie.”

# mask] Is surely the right reading. The 8vo has “martch,” wat? ✓ the 4to“ march.”

cottages] So the 8vo.—The 4to “ coatches."

Enter Attendants. Hath Bajazeth been fed to-day?

ATTEND||. Ay, my lord.

TAMB. Bring him forth; and let us know if the town be ransacked.

[Exeunt Attendants.

Enter TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE,

and others. Tech. The town is ours, my lord, and fresh supply Of conquest and of spoil is offer'd us.

Tamb. That's well, Techelles. What's the news?

Tech. The Soldan and the Arabian king together March on us with such eager violence, As if there were no way but one with us. Tamb. No more there is not, I warrant thee,

Techelles.

Attendants bring in BAJAZETH in his cage, followed

by ZABINA. Exeunt Attendants. Ther. We know the victory is ours, my lord ;

|| Attend.] Old eds. " An.” (a misprint probably), which the modern editors understand as “ Anippe" (the waiting-maid of Zenocrate).

# March on us with] So the 4to.—The 8vo“ Martcht on with vs with.”

$ As if there were no way but one with us] i. e, as if we were to lose our lives. This phrase, which is common in our early writers, was not obsolete in Dryden's time: “ for, if he heard the malicious trumpeter proclaiming his name before bis betters, he knew there was but one way with him.” Preface to All for