The Complete Plays (30 page)

THERIDAMAS

Pioners, away! And where I stuck the stake

Entrench with those dimensions I prescribed.

Cast up the earth towards the castle wall,

Which, till it may defend you, labour low,

And few or none shall perish by their shot.

PIONERS
We will, my lord.

Exeunt
[
PIONERS
].

TECHELLES

A hundred horse shall scout about the plains

To spy what force comes to relieve the hold.

Both we, Theridamas, will entrench our men,

50   And with the Jacob's staff measure the height

And distance of the castle from the trench,

That we may know if our artillery

Will carry
full point-blank
unto their walls.

THERIDAMAS

Then
see
the bringing of our ordinance

Along the trench into the battery,

Where we will have
gabions
of six foot broad

To save our cannoneers from musket shot,

Betwixt which shall our ordnance thunder forth,

And with the breach's fall, smoke, fire, and dust,

The crack, the echo, and the soldiers' cry,

60   Make deaf the air and dim the crystal sky.

TECHELLES

Trumpets and drums,
alarum
presently!

And, soldiers, play the men. The hold is yours!

[
Exeunt
.]

Enter the
CAPTAIN
with his wife
[
OLYMPIA
]
and
SON
.

OLYMPIA

Come, good my lord, and let us haste from hence

Along the cave that leads beyond the foe.

No hope is left to save this conquered hold.

CAPTAIN

A deadly bullet gliding through my side

Lies heavy on my heart. I cannot live.

I feel my liver pierced, and all my veins

That there begin and nourish every part

Mangled and torn, and all my entrails bathed

In blood that straineth from their
orifex
.

Farewell, sweet wife! Sweet son, farewell! I die.

10  [
He dies
.]

OLYMPIA

Death, whither art thou gone, that both we live?

Come back again, sweet Death, and strike us both!

One minute end our days, and one sepulchre

Contain our bodies! Death, why com'st thou not?

[
She draws a knife
.]

Well, this must be the messenger for thee.

Now, ugly Death, stretch out thy sable wings,

And carry both our souls where his remains.

Tell me, sweet boy, art thou content to die?

These barbarous Scythians, full of cruelty,

20   And Moors in whom was never pity found,

Will hew us piecemeal, put us to
the wheel
,

Or else invent some torture worse than that.

Therefore, die by thy loving mother's hand,

Who gently now will lance thy ivory throat

And quickly rid thee both of pain and life.

SON

Mother, dispatch me, or I'll kill myself.

For think ye I can live, and see him dead?

Give me your knife, good mother, or strike home.

The Scythians shall not tyrannize on me.

30   Sweet mother, strike, that I may meet my father!

She stabs him
.

OLYMPIA

Ah, sacred Mahomet, if this be sin,

Entreat a pardon of the God of heaven,

And purge my soul before it come to thee!

[
She
burns the bodies
.]
Enter
THERIDAMAS
,
TECHELLES
,
and all their train.
[
OLYMPIA
tries to kill herself
.]

THERIDAMAS

How now, madam, what are you doing?

OLYMPIA

Killing myself, as I have done my son,

Whose body with his father's I have burnt,

Lest cruel Scythians should dismember him.

TECHELLES

'Twas bravely done, and like a soldier's wife.

Thou shalt with us to Tamburlaine the Great,

40   Who, when he hears how resolute thou wert,

Will match thee with a viceroy or a king.

OLYMPIA

My lord deceased was dearer unto me

Than any viceroy, king, or emperor,

And for his sake here will I end my days.

THERIDAMAS

But lady, go with us to Tamburlaine,

And thou shalt see a man greater than Mahomet,

In whose high looks is much more majesty

Than
from
the concave superficies

Of Jove's vast palace, the empyreal orb,

Unto the shining bower where Cynthia sits

50   
Like lovely Thetis
in a crystal robe;

That treadeth Fortune underneath his feet

And makes the mighty god of arms his slave;

On whom Death and the Fatal Sisters wait

With naked swords and scarlet liveries;

Before whom, mounted on a lion's back,

Rhamnusia
bears a helmet full of blood

And strews the way with brains of slaughtered men;

By whose proud side the ugly Furies run,

Hearkening when he shall bid them plague the world;

60   Over whose zenith, clothed in windy air

And eagle's wings joined to her feathered breast,

Fame hovereth, sounding of her golden trump,

That to the adverse poles of that
straight line

Which measureth the glorious
frame
of heaven

The name of mighty Tamburlaine is spread –

And him, fair lady, shall thy eyes behold.

Come.

OLYMPIA
[
kneeling
]

Take pity of a lady's ruthful tears,

That humbly craves upon her knees to stay

70   And cast her body in the burning flame

That feeds upon her son's and husband's flesh.

TECHELLES

Madam, sooner shall fire consume us both

Than scorch a face so beautiful as this,

In frame of which Nature hath showed more skill

Than when she gave eternal chaos form,

Drawing from it the shining lamps of heaven.

THERIDAMAS

Madam, I am so far in love with you

That you must go with us.
No remedy
.

OLYMPIA

80   Then carry me I care not where you will,

And let the end of this my
fatal
journey

Be likewise end to my accursèd life.

TECHELLES

No madam, but the beginning of your joy.

Come willingly, therefore.

THERIDAMAS

Soldiers, now let us meet the general,

Who by this time is at Natolia,

Ready to charge the army of the Turk.

The gold, the silver, and the pearl ye got

Rifling this fort, divide in equal shares.

90   This lady shall have twice so much again

Out of the coffers of our treasury.

Exeunt
.

[
Enter
]
CALLAPINE
,
ORCANES
,
JERUSALEM
,
TREBIZOND
,
SORIA
,
ALMEDA
,
with their train
. [
To them a
MESSENGER
.]

MESSENGER

Renownèd emperor, mighty Callapine,

God's great lieutenant over all the world,

Here at Aleppo
with an host of men

Lies Tamburlaine, this king of Persia –

In number more than are the quivering leaves

Of
Ida's forest
, where your highness' hounds

With open cry pursues the wounded stag –

Who means to girt
Natolia's
walls with siege,

Fire the town, and overrun the land.

CALLAPINE

My royal army is as great as his,

10   That from the bounds of Phrygia to the sea

Which washeth Cyprus with his brinish waves,

Covers the hills, the valleys, and the plains.

Viceroys and peers of Turkey,
play the men
!

Whet all your swords to mangle Tamburlaine,

His sons, his captains, and his followers.

By Mahomet, not one of them shall live!

The field wherein this battle shall be fought

For ever term the Persians' sepulchre

20   In memory of this our victory.

ORCANES

Now he that calls himself the scourge of Jove,

The emperor of the world, and earthly god,

Shall end the warlike progress he intends

And travel headlong to the lake of hell

Where legions of devils, knowing he must die

Here in Natolia by your highness' hands,

All brandishing their brands of quenchless fire,

Stretching their monstrous paws, grin with their teeth

And guard the gates to entertain his soul.

CALLAPINE

Tell me, viceroys, the number of your men,

30   And what our army royal is esteemed.

JERUSALEM

From Palestina and Jerusalem,

Of Hebrews three score thousand fighting men

Are come since last we
showed
your majesty.

ORCANES

So from Arabia desert, and the bounds

Of that sweet land whose brave
metropolis

Re-edified the fair Semiramis,

Came forty thousand warlike foot and horse

Since last we numbered to your majesty.

TREBIZOND

From Trebizond in
Asia the Less
,

40   Naturalized Turks and stout Bithynians

Came to my bands full fifty thousand more

That, fighting, knows not what retreat doth mean,

Nor e'er return but with the victory,

Since last we numbered to your majesty.

SORIA

Of Sorians
from Halla is repaired
,

And neighbour cities of your highness' land,

Ten thousand horse and thirty thousand foot

Since last we numbered to your majesty;

50   So that the army royal is esteemed

Six hundred thousand valiant fighting men.

CALLAPINE

Then welcome, Tamburlaine, unto thy death.

Come, puissant viceroys, let us to the field –

The Persians' sepulchre – and sacrifice

Mountains of breathless men to Mahomet,

Who now with Jove opens the firmament

To see the slaughter of our enemies.

[
Enter
]
TAMBURLAINE
with his three
SONS
[
CALYPHAS
,
AMYRAS
,
CELEBINUS
],
USUMCASANE
,
with other
[SOLDIERS
].

TAMBURLAINE

How now, Casane? See, a
knot
of kings,

Sitting as if they were a-telling riddles.

USUMCASANE

60   My lord, your presence makes them pale and wan.

Poor souls, they look as if their deaths were near.

TAMBURLAINE

Why, so he is, Casane. I am here.

But yet I'll save their lives and make them slaves.

Ye petty kings of Turkey, I am come

As
Hector
did into the Grecian camp

To overdare the pride of Graecia

And set his warlike person to the view

Of fierce Achilles, rival of his fame.

I do you honour in the simile;

70   For if I should, as Hector did Achilles

(The worthiest knight that ever brandished sword)

Challenge in combat any of you all,

I see how fearfully ye would refuse

And fly
my glove
as from a scorpion.

ORCANES

Now
thou art fearful of thy army's strength,

Thou wouldst with overmatch of person fight.

But, shepherd's issue, baseborn Tamburlaine,

Think of thy end. This sword shall lance thy throat.

TAMBURLAINE

Villain, the shepherd's issue, at whose birth

Heaven
did afford a gracious aspect

80   And joined those stars that shall be opposite

Even till the dissolution of the world,

And never meant to make a conqueror

So famous as is mighty Tamburlaine,

Shall so torment thee and that Callapine

That like a roguish runaway suborned

That villain
there, that slave, that Turkish dog,

To false his service to his sovereign,

As ye shall curse the birth of Tamburlaine.

CALLAPINE

Rail not, proud Scythian, I shall now revenge

90   My father's vile abuses and mine own.

JERUSALEM

By Mahomet, he shall be tied in chains,

Rowing with Christians in a brigantine

About the Grecian isles to rob and spoil,

And turn him to
his ancient trade
again.

Methinks the slave should make a lusty thief.

CALLAPINE

Nay, when the battle ends, all we will meet

And sit in council to invent some pain

That most may vex his body and his soul.

TAMBURLAINE
Sirrah Callapine, I'll hang a
clog
about your
100  neck for running away again. You shall not trouble me thus
     to come and fetch you.

But as for you, viceroy, you shall have bits

And, harnessed like my horses, draw my coach,

And, when ye stay, be lashed with whips of wire.