The Complete Plays (84 page)

202      
Nubia
: An area between the Red Sea and the Nile, with its capital at ‘Borno' (203).

209–15  
Tyros… Mare Maggiore
: ‘The river Tyros (the Dniester) acts as a southern boundary of the province of Podalia; Stoko is on it, and Codemia lies to the north-east on another stream. Partly separating Codemia from Olbia, and thus perhaps suggesting an otherwise unnecessary sea-journey, is the thick, green, hollow square of Nigra Silva [see next note]' (Seaton 1924:29).

212      
Nigra Silva… devils dance
: The ‘Black Forest' designates the Hercynian wilderness, legendarily populated by evil spirits.

215      
Mare Maggiore
: (The greater sea) the Black Sea.

216      
period
: (Here) stop.

221      
Lachryma Christi
: (Christ's tears) a sweet wine from southern Italy.

224      
orient
: Lustrous (for O's
orienta ll).

225      
the whiles
: Until then.

ACT 2

Scene 1

2   
motion
: (Here) impulse, purpose.

8          
Varna
: The city in north-east Bulgaria, apparently mistaken for a region.

16        
Natolia
: I.e. Orcanes.

18–20  
Cutheia…
Caeasaria: See (N). The towns are in Anatolia, Mount Horminius in Bithynia.

21        
Soria
: See 1.1.63n.

31        
should
: Would.

32        
profession
: Oath.

35        
those accomplishments
: Fulfilments of oaths.

37–9  
But as… ourselves
: Just as no rules of statecraft bind us to put our trust in the oath (‘faith') they make in their own profane religion.

47        
consummate
: Consummated, fulfilled (for O's
consinuate).

50        
dispensive faith
: An oath which can be put aside by special Church dispensation (or simply dispensed with).

54        
Saul
: Cf. I Samuel 15, where Saul spared Agag, and so failed to enact God's command to destroy the Amalekites.
Balaam
: Cf. Numbers 22–3, where Balaam
obeyed
God's instruction that the children of Israel should not be cursed.

Scene 2

11        
by scores… arms
: Challenge him twenty at a time.

41        
Jove
: Euphemism for ‘God'.

45        
these papers
: The ‘scroll' of 1.1.144.

47        
shining veil of Cynthia
: The moonlit sky (cf. 1.2.50–52n).

50        
in one… circwnscriptible
: Is bound to one locality.

51        
continent
: (i) Space, (ii) land-mass.

Scene
3

8          
wherein
… I
die
: With which (death) my sins end.

18        
Tartarian
: Of Hell (Tartarus).

20–23  
That Zoacum… fiends
: In the Koran (37:60–64), the Zaqqūm-tree stands in the nethermost region of Hell, bearing fruits shaped like devil's heads which are eaten by those who are perpetually damned.

32        
Whose power… miracle
: I.e. the fortunes of war often seem like miracles.

38        
We will… trunk
: We decree that a guard keep watch over his body.

40        
give it… charge
: Give the order to do it immediately.

43        
brother
: Fellow monarch.

47        
his angry fate
: The vengeance that has fallen on Sigismond.

Scene 4

0.1   SD
The arras is drawn
: The curtain in front of the discovery-space, drawn to reveal a bedridden Zenocrate.

0.3   SD
tempering
: Mixing, blending.

9          
ivory bowers
: Eye-sockets, or eye-lids.

10        
tempered… heat
: Tamburlaine attributes to Zenocrate's eyes the sun's power to balance the humoral
temperature
(= mixture) of living bodies.

12        
jealousy… mate
: The heavens are too jealous to share the heavenly Zenocrate with a human husband.

13        
latest
: Last.

14        
dazzled
: Blinded (usually by excessive light).

17        
entertain
: Welcome.

24        
tried
: Refined, purified.

52–4  
As when… train
: I.e. as during a lunar eclipse (occurring at points in the celestial map at which the moon's orbit intersects with the ecliptic, known as the serpent's head and tail).

58–60  
And sooner… majesty
: Zenocrate would rather that the sphere of fire (the
elementum ignis
) be put out to make room for Tamburlaine's glory than see it obscured in the grave.

61        
suspect… by mine
: (i) Suspect that you might die for grief at my death, (ii) suspect, from the evidence of my death, that you too are mortal.

68        
second life
: Afterlife.

74        
latest memory
: Recollection as I die.

81        
spheres
: Her eyes, like heavenly spheres.

87–8  
Helen… a thousand ships
: Cf.
Doctor Faustus
, 13.90–92.

90        
Her
: Zenocrate's.

99        
the Fatal Sisters
: The Fates (N).

100      
triple moat of hell
: The rivers Lethe, Styx and Phlegethon.

114      
Janus' temple doors
: Opened in time of war. See (N).

129      
thou
: Zenocrate's body.

131      
lapped in lead
: Placed in a lead coffin.

140      
stature
: Statue (the spelling may represent the common variant ‘statua').

ACT 3

Scene 1

1          
Callapinus… Cybelius
: The names (or possibly titles) are taken from Lonicerus (Seaton 1929:388).

19–20  
blot our dignities… infamies
: Remove our exalted names from the book of lowly shame.

27–32  
We shall… encounter
: Callapine is confident that Fortune, despite her favours to Tamburlaine, will revert to her usual inconstancy, and favour the Turks in the coming battle.

40–42  
Some that… sufficient
: Some who, having overcome the superior numbers of Sigismond's army, think they are sufficient.

46        
Scalonia's
: For O's
Scalonians
, the inhabitants of Ascalon.

49        
neighbour
: Next.

50–53  
from Trebizond… towns
: ‘For the king of Trebizond, Marlowe's finger traces from west to east the northern seaboard of Asia Minor: Chia, Famastro, Riso, Sanfina' (Seaton 1924:30).

52        
Mare-Major sea
: The Black Sea.

59–60  
Aleppo
….
Damasco
: ‘For the king of Soria, [Marlowe] passes from Aleppo south-westward to the sea-coast near Cyprus, and chooses Soldino and Tripoli, and so inland again to Damasco' (Seaton 1924:30).

64        
battle
: Forces (whose disposition is described in the following lines).

Scene 2

0.4   SD
the town
: Larissa.

3          
exhalations
: Fiery vapours.

6          
zenith
: Highest point of the sun's, or any star's, course and influence. Tamburlaine wishes a comet (‘blazing star'), traditionally a portent of disaster, to predominate over his fortunes.

15–18  
This pillar… again
: In Marlowe's loose rhetorical grammar, ‘this pillar' seems to govern ‘forbids'.

20        
Wrought
: Embroidered.

29–33  
the stars… Zenocrate
: The stars of the southern hemisphere (‘arc'), usually invisible above the equator (‘the centre's latitude'), will travel, like pilgrims, into the northern hemisphere to gaze on Zenocrate's beauty.

34        
Thou
: Zenocrate's likeness. Tamburlaine appears to change his mind about hanging her picture on the pillar.

39        
Those
: O's
Whose
is possible but grammatically strained.

58        
thirst
: For O's
cold.

61        
caper
: Dance, leap (because they have been blown up).

62–90  
Then next… place
: The display of military technique is taken from Paul Ive's
Practise of Fortification
(1589); see Paul Kocher, ‘Marlowe's Art of War',
Studies in Philology
39 (1942), pp. 207–25

65–7  
the corners… desperate
: The arrangement of the fortifications in the shape of a star or pentagon (‘quinque-angle', 64) is not suitable for flat open (‘champian', 63) country, but for uneven ground, where its stronger and weaker sections can be disposed at the points of greater and less vulnerability. For other military terms in this passage, see (G).

74        
secret issuings
: Small doorways which allowed defensive sallies.

75        
covered ways
: Protected passages.

79        
ordnance
: (Here) ammunition.

80        
scour
: (Here) rake with gun-shot.

81        
Dismount… part
: Dislodge the enemy's cannon.

85        
mount
: Rise (through the use of dams).

98        
peal of ordnance
: Cannonshot.

99        
A ring… horse
: A ring of soldiers with pikes supported by infantrymen and cavalry.

101      
sunny motes
: Dust particles in the sunlight.

107–8  
Filling… blood
: Digested wine supposedly replenished lost blood.

124      
the Afric potentate
: Bajazeth.

126  
search
: A technical term for the probing of a wound.

136      
bravely
: Well.

153      
at a bay
: At bay (like hunted animals).

158      
puissance
: Power, might (here, three syllables).

Scene
3

3          
Balsera
: Probably Marlowe's misreading of Ortelius's Passera, a town close to the Natolian border.

hold
: Stronghold.

7          
Filling… breach
: Rubble from the breach in the enemy's walls will be used to fill in their defensive ditches.

11        
drum
: Addressed to a drummer.

14.2  SD
above
: They enter on the gallery over the stage.

26        
his ruin
: The falling rubble.

33        
any
: Omitted in all early texts.

39        
that can
: That you can.

53        
full point-blank
: With direct aim; all the way.

54        
see
: See to.

56        
gabions
: Defensive emplacements made of earth held together by a cylinder of stakes (for O's
Galions
).

62        
alarum
: Sound the attack.

Scene
4

9          
orifex
: Orifice; the wound to his liver and veins.

21        
the wheel
: An instrument of torture; victims were pinned to it and their limbs broken.

33.1  SD
burns the bodies
: Necessary in the light of lines 36 and 71–2.

48–50  
from… Cynthia sits
: I.e. from the circle of fire at the edge of the universe (the empyrean), which forms the under-surface of heaven, down to the sphere of the moon.

51        
Like lovely Thetis
: The moon in her sphere is associated with a nymph of the sea (N).

57        
Rhamnusia
: Nemesis (N).

64–5  
straight line… heaven
: I.e. the axletree of heaven.

75        
frame
: Framing, making.

79        
No remedy
: (There is) no alternative.

81        
fatal
: Fated.