Tamburlaine the Great — Part 2Marlowe, Christopher
History
Tamburlaine the Great — Part 2
Marlowe, Christopher
English drama; Historical drama; Timur, 1336-1405 -- Drama; Tragedies (Drama)
TAMBURLAINE. Stand up, [193] ye base, unworthy soldiers!
Know ye not yet the argument of arms?
AMYRAS. Good my lord, let him be forgiven for once, [194]
And we will force him to the field hereafter.
TAMBURLAINE. Stand up, my boys, and I will teach ye arms,
And what the jealousy of wars must do.--
O Samarcanda, where I breathed first,
And joy'd the fire of this martial [195] flesh,
Blush, blush, fair city, at thine [196] honour's foil,
And shame of nature, which [197] Jaertis' [198] stream,
Embracing thee with deepest of his love,
Can never wash from thy distained brows!--
Here, Jove, receive his fainting soul again;
A form not meet to give that subject essence
Whose matter is the flesh of Tamburlaine,
Wherein an incorporeal [199] spirit moves,
Made of the mould whereof thyself consists,
Which makes me valiant, proud, ambitious,
Ready to levy power against thy throne,
That I might move the turning spheres of heaven;
For earth and all this airy region
Cannot contain the state of Tamburlaine.
[Stabs CALYPHAS.]
By Mahomet, thy mighty friend, I swear,
In sending to my issue such a soul,
Created of the massy dregs of earth,
The scum and tartar of the elements,
Wherein was neither courage, strength, or wit,
But folly, sloth, and damned idleness,
Thou hast procur'd a greater enemy
Than he that darted mountains at thy head,
Shaking the burden mighty Atlas bears,
Whereat thou trembling hidd'st thee in the air,
Cloth'd with a pitchy cloud for being seen.-- [200]
And now, ye canker'd curs of Asia,
That will not see the strength of Tamburlaine,
Although it shine as brightly as the sun,
Now you shall [201] feel the strength of Tamburlaine,
And, by the state of his supremacy,
Approve [202] the difference 'twixt himself and you.
ORCANES. Thou shew'st the difference 'twixt ourselves and thee,
In this thy barbarous damned tyranny.
KING OF JERUSALEM. Thy victories are grown so violent,
That shortly heaven, fill'd with the meteors
Of blood and fire thy tyrannies have made,
Will pour down blood and fire on thy head,
Whose scalding drops will pierce thy seething brains,
And, with our bloods, revenge our bloods [203] on thee.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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