Tamburlaine the Great — Part 1Marlowe, Christopher
General
Tamburlaine the Great — Part 1
Marlowe, Christopher
English drama; Historical drama; Timur, 1336-1405 -- Drama; Tragedies (Drama)
KING OF ARABIA. Let grief and fury hasten on revenge;
Let Tamburlaine for his offences feel
Such plagues as heaven and we can pour on him:
I long to break my spear upon his crest,
And prove the weight of his victorious arm;
For fame, I fear, hath been too prodigal
In sounding through the world his partial praise.
SOLDAN. Capolin, hast thou survey'd our powers?
CAPOLIN. Great emperors of Egypt and Arabia,
The number of your hosts united is,
A hundred and fifty thousand horse,
Two hundred thousand foot, brave men-at-arms,
Courageous and [221] full of hardiness,
As frolic as the hunters in the chase
Of savage beasts amid the desert woods.
KING OF ARABIA. My mind presageth fortunate success;
And, Tamburlaine, my spirit doth foresee
The utter ruin of thy men and thee.
SOLDAN. Then rear your standards; let your sounding drums
Direct our soldiers to Damascus' walls.--
Now, Tamburlaine, the mighty Soldan comes,
And leads with him the great Arabian king,
To dim thy baseness and [222] obscurity,
Famous for nothing but for theft and spoil;
To raze and scatter thy inglorious crew
Of Scythians and slavish Persians.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE IV.
A banquet set out; and to it come TAMBURLAINE all in
scarlet, ZENOCRATE, THERIDAMAS, TECHELLES, USUMCASANE,
BAJAZETH drawn in his cage, ZABINA, and others.
TAMBURLAINE. Now hang our bloody colours by Damascus,
Reflexing hues of blood upon their heads,
While they walk quivering on their city-walls,
Half-dead for fear before they feel my wrath.
Then let us freely banquet, and carouse
Full bowls of wine unto the god of war,
That means to fill your helmets full of gold,
And make Damascus' spoils as rich to you
As was to Jason Colchos' golden fleece.--
And now, Bajazeth, hast thou any stomach?
BAJAZETH. Ay, such a stomach, cruel Tamburlaine, as I could
willingly feed upon thy blood-raw heart.
TAMBURLAINE. Nay, thine own is easier to come by: pluck out
that; and 'twill serve thee and thy wife.--Well, Zenocrate,
Techelles, and the rest, fall to your victuals.
BAJAZETH. Fall to, and never may your meat digest!--
Ye Furies, that can mask [223] invisible,
Dive to the bottom of Avernus' pool,
And in your hands bring hellish poison up,
And squeeze it in the cup of Tamburlaine!
Or, winged snakes of Lerna, cast your stings,
And leave your venoms in this tyrant's dish?
ZABINA. And may this banquet prove as ominous
As Progne's to th' adulterous Thracian king
That fed upon the substance of his child!
ZENOCRATE. My lord, [224] how can you suffer these
Outrageous curses by these slaves of yours?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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