Read The Complete Plays Online
Authors: Christopher Marlowe
TAMBURLAINE
And know thou, Turk, that those which lead my horse
Shall lead thee captive thorough Africa;
And dar'st thou bluntly call me Tamburlaine?
BAJAZETH
By Mahomet my kinsman's sepulchre,
And by the holy
Alcoran I
swear
He shall be made a chaste and lustless eunuch,
And in my sarell tend my concubines,
And all his captains that thus stoutly stand
80Â Â Â Shall draw the chariot of my emperess,
Whom I have brought to see their overthrow.
TAMBURLAINE
By this my sword that conquered Persia,
Thy fall shall make me famous through the world.
I will not tell thee how I'll handle thee,
But every common soldier of my camp
Shall smile to see thy miserable state.
FEZ
[
to
BAJAZETH
]
What means the mighty Turkish emperor
To talk with one so base as Tamburlaine?
MOROCCO
Ye Moors and valiant men of Barbary,
90Â Â Â How can ye suffer these indignities?
ARGIER
Leave words and let them feel your lances' points,
Which glided through the bowels of the Greeks.
BAJAZETH
Well said, my stout contributory kings!
Your threefold army and my hugy host
Shall swallow up these base-born Persians.
TECHELLES
Puissant, renowned, and mighty Tamburlaine,
Why stay we thus prolonging all their lives?
THERIDAMAS
I long to see those crowns won by our swords,
That we may reign as kings of Africa.
USUMCASANE
100Â Â Â What coward would not fight for such a prize?
TAMBURLAINE
Fight all courageously, and be you kings!
I speak it, and my words are oracles.
BAJAZETH
Zabina, mother of three braver boys
Than
Hercules, that
in his infancy
Did pash the jaws of serpents venomous,
Whose hands are made to gripe a warlike lance,
Their shoulders broad, for complete armour fit,
Their limbs more large and of a bigger size
Than all the brats
y-sprung from
Typhon's loins,
Who, when they come unto their father's age,
110Â Â Â Will batter turrets with their manly fists:
Sit here upon this royal chair of state
And on thy head wear my imperial crown,
Until I bring this sturdy Tamburlaine
And all his captains bound in captive chains.
ZABINA
Such good success happen to Bajazeth!
TAMBURLAINE
Zenocrate, the loveliest maid alive,
Fairer than rocks of pearl and precious stone,
The only
paragon of
Tamburlaine,
Whose eyes are brighter than the lamps of heaven,
120Â Â Â And speech more pleasant than sweet harmony,
That with thy looks canst clear the darkened sky
And calm the rage of thund'ring Jupiter:
Sit down by her, adorned with my crown,
As if thou wert the empress of the world.
Stir not, Zenocrate, until thou see
Me march victoriously with all my men,
Triumphing over him and these his kings,
Which I will bring as vassals to thy feet.
Till then, take thou my crown, vaunt of my worth,
130Â Â Â And manage words with her as we will arms.
ZENOCRATE
And may my love, the King of Persia,
Return with victory and free from wound!
BAJAZETH
Now shalt thou feel the force of Turkish arms
Which lately made all Europe quake for fear.
I have of Turks, Arabians, Moors, and Jews,
Enough to cover all Bithynia.
Let thousands die, their slaughtered carcasses
Shall serve for walls and bulwarks to the rest;
140Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â And as the heads of Hydra, so my power,
Subdued, shall stand as mighty as before.
If
they should
yield their necks unto the sword,
Thy soldiers' arms could not endure to strike
So many blows as I have heads for thee.
Thou knowest not, foolish-hardy Tamburlaine,
What 'tis to meet me in the open field,
That leave no ground for thee to march upon.
TAMBURLAINE
Our conquering swords shall
marshal us
the way
We use to march upon the slaughtered foe,
150Â Â Â Trampling their bowels with our horses' hoofs â
Brave horses, bred on the white Tartarian hills.
My camp is like to Julius Caesar's host,
That never fought but had the victory;
Nor in
Pharsalia was
there such hot war
As these my followers willingly would have.
Legions of spirits fleeting in the
air,
Direct our bullets and our weapons' points,
And make our strokes to wound the senseless air;
And when she sees our bloody colours spread,
160Â Â Â Then
Victory begins
to take her flight,
Resting herself upon my milk-white tent.
But come, my lords, to weapons let us fall!
The field is ours, the Turk, his wife, and all.
Exit
[
TAMBURLAINE
,]
with his followers
.
BAJAZETH
Come, kings and bassoes, let us glut our swords
That thirst to drink the feeble Persians' blood!
Exit
[
BAJAZETH
,]
with his followers
.
ZABINA
Base concubine, must thou be placed by me
That am the empress of the mighty Turk?
ZENOCRATE
Disdainful Turkess and unreverend boss,
Call'st thou me concubine, that am betrothed
170Â Â Â Unto the great and mighty Tamburlaine?
ZABINA
To Tamburlaine, the great Tartarian thief!
ZENOCRATE
Thou wilt repent these lavish words of thine
When thy great basso-master and thyself
Must plead for mercy at his kingly feet,
And sue to me to be your
advocates.
ZABINA
And sue to thee? I tell thee, shameless girl,
Thou shalt be laundress to my waiting-maid.
How lik'st thou her, Ebea? Will she serve?
EBEA
Madam, she thinks perhaps she is too fine.
But I shall turn her into other weeds,
180Â Â Â And make her dainty fingers fall to work.
ZENOCRATE
Hear'st thou, Anippe, how thy drudge doth talk,
And how my slave, her mistress, menaceth?
Both, for their sauciness, shall be employed
To dress the common soldiers' meat and drink,
For we will scorn they should come near ourselves.
ANIPPE
Yet sometimes let your highness send for them
To do the work my chambermaid disdains.
They sound
[
to
]
the battle within, and stay
.
ZENOCRATE
Ye gods and powers that govern Persia
And made my lordly love her worthy king,
190Â Â Â Now strengthen him against the Turkish Bajazeth,
And let his foes, like flocks of fearful roes
Pursued by hunters, fly his angry looks,
That I may see him
issue conqueror.
ZABINA
Now, Mahomet, solicit God himself,
And make him rain down murdering shot from heaven
To dash the Scythians' brains, and strike them dead
That dare to manage arms with him
That offered jewels to thy sacred shrine
200Â Â Â When first he warred against the Christians.
[
They sound
]
to the battle again
.
ZENOCRATE
By this the Turks lie welt'ring in their blood,
And Tamburlaine is lord of Africa.
ZABINA
Thou art deceived, I heard the trumpets sound
As when my emperor overthrew the Greeks
And led them captive into Africa.
Straight will I use thee as thy pride deserves;
Prepare thyself to live and die my slave.
ZENOCRATE
If Mahomet should come from heaven and swear
My royal lord is slain or conquerèd,
210Â Â Â Yet should he not persuade me otherwise
But that he lives and will be conqueror.
BAJAZETH
flies
[
across the stage
],
and he
[
TAMBURLAINE
]
pursues him
[
offstage
].
The battle short, and they
[
re
-]
enter
[
fighting
].
BAJAZETH
is overcome
.
TAMBURLAINE
Now, king of bassoes, who is conqueror?
BAJAZETH
Thou, by the fortune of this damnèd
soil.
TAMBURLAINE
Where are your stout contributory kings?
Enter
TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE
.
TECHELLES
We have their crowns; their bodies
strew the
field.
TAMBURLAINE
Each man a crown? Why, kingly fought, i'faith.
Deliver them into my treasury.
[
TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS
and
USUMCASANE
hand over the crowns
.]
ZENOCRATE
Now let me offer to my gracious lord
His royal crown again, so highly won.
TAMBURLAINE
Nay, take the Turkish crown from her, Zenocrate,
220Â Â Â And crown me emperor of Africa.
ZABINA
No, Tamburlaine, though now thou
gat the best,
Thou shalt not yet be lord of Africa.
THERIDAMAS
[
tO
ZABINA
]
Give her the crown, Turkess, you were best.
He takes it from her and gives it
ZENOCRATE
.
ZABINA
Injurious villains, thieves, runagates!
How dare you thus abuse my majesty?
THERIDAMAS
Here, madam, you are empress, she is none.
TAMBURLAINE
[
as
ZENOCRATE
crowns him
]
Not now, Theridamas, her time is past.
The pillars that have bolstered up those
terms
230Â Â Â Are fall'n in clusters at my conquering feet.
ZABINA
Though he be prisoner, he may be ransomed.
TAMBURLAINE
Not all the world shall ransom Bajazeth.
BAJAZETH
Ah, fair Zabina, we have lost the field,
And never had the Turkish emperor
So great a foil by any foreign foe.
Now will the Christian
miscreants be
glad,
Ringing with joy their superstitious bells,
And making bonfires for my overthrow.
But ere I die, those foul idolaters
Shall make me bonfires with their filthy bones;
240Â Â Â For, though the glory of this day be lost,
Afric and Greece have garrisons enough
To make me sovereign of the earth again.
TAMBURLAINE
Those wallèd garrisons will I subdue,
And write myself great lord of Africa.
So from the east unto the furthest west
Shall Tamburlaine extend his puissant arm.
The galleys and those
pilling brigantines,
That yearly sail to the Venetian gulf,
250Â Â Â And hover in the straits for Christians' wrack,
Shall lie at anchor in the isle
Asant
Until the Persian fleet and men-of-war,
Sailing along the oriental sea,
Have fetched about the Indian continent,
Even from Persepolis to Mexico,
And thence unto the Straits of Jubalter,
Where they shall meet and join their force in one,
Keeping in awe the Bay of Portingale
And all the ocean by the British shore.
260Â Â Â And by this means I'll win the world at last.
BAJAZETH
Yet set a ransom on me, Tamburlaine.
TAMBURLAINE
What, think'st thou Tamburlaine esteems thy gold?
I'll make the kings of India, ere I die,
Offer their mines, to sue for peace, to me,
And dig for treasure to appease my wrath.
Come, bind them both, and one lead in the Turk.
The Turkess let my love's maid lead away.
They bind them
.
BAJAZETH
Ah, villains, dare ye touch my sacred arms?
O Mahomet, O sleepy Mahomet!
ZABINA
270   O cursèd Mahomet, that makest us thus
The slaves to Scythians rude and barbarous!
TAMBURLAINE
Come, bring them in, and for this happy conquest
Triumph, and
solemnize a martial feast.
Exeunt
.
[
Enter the
]
SULTAN OF EGYPT
with three or four
LORDS, CAPOLIN
[
and a
MESSENGER
].
SULTAN
Awake, ye
men of Memphis! Hear the clang
Of Scythian trumpets! Hear the basilisks
That, roaring, shake Damascus' turrets down!
The
rogue of Volga holds
Zenocrate,
The Sultan's daughter, for his concubine,