Tamburlaine the Great, Part 1 by Christopher Marlowe (feel good books to read TXT) 📖

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?

TAMBURLAINE. To let them see, divine Zenocrate, I glory in the curses of my foes, Having the power from the empyreal heaven To turn them all upon their proper heads.

TECHELLES. I pray you, give them leave, madam; this speech is a goodly refreshing for them.<225>

THERIDAMAS. But, if his highness would let them be fed, it would do them more good.

TAMBURLAINE. Sirrah, why fall you not to? are you so daintily brought up, you cannot eat your own flesh?

BAJAZETH. First, legions of devils shall tear thee in pieces.

USUMCASANE. Villain, knowest thou to whom thou speakest?

TAMBURLAINE. O, let him alone.—Here;<226> eat, sir; take it from<227> my sword’s point, or I’ll thrust it to thy heart. [BAJAZETH takes the food, and stamps upon it.]

THERIDAMAS. He stamps it under his feet, my lord.

TAMBURLAINE. Take it up, villain, and eat it; or I will make thee slice<228> the brawns of thy arms into carbonadoes and eat them.

USUMCASANE. Nay, ‘twere better he killed his wife, and then she shall be sure not to be starved, and he be provided for a month’s victual beforehand.

TAMBURLAINE. Here is my dagger: despatch her while she is fat; for, if she live but a while longer, she will fall<229> into a consumption with fretting, and then she will not be worth the eating.

THERIDAMAS. Dost thou think that Mahomet will suffer this?

TECHELLES. ‘Tis like he will, when he cannot let<230> it.

TAMBURLAINE. Go to; fall to your meat. What, not a bit!—Belike he hath not been watered to-day: give him some drink. [They give BAJAZETH water to drink, and he flings it on the ground.] Fast, and welcome, sir, while<231> hunger make you eat.—How now, Zenocrate! doth not the Turk and his wife make a goodly show at a banquet?

ZENOCRATE. Yes, my lord.

THERIDAMAS. Methinks ‘tis a great deal better than a consort<232> of music.

TAMBURLAINE. Yet music would do well to cheer up Zenocrate. Pray thee, tell why art thou so sad? if thou wilt have a song, the Turk shall strain his voice: but why is it?

ZENOCRATE. My lord, to see my father’s town besieg’d, The country wasted where myself was born, How can it but afflict my very soul? If any love remain in you, my lord, Or if my love unto your majesty May merit favour at your highness’ hands, Then raise your siege from fair Damascus’ walls, And with my father take a friendly truce.

TAMBURLAINE. Zenocrate, were Egypt Jove’s own land, Yet would I with my sword make Jove to stoop. I will confute those blind geographers That make a triple region in the world, Excluding regions which I mean to trace, And with this pen<233> reduce them to a map, Calling the provinces, cities, and towns, After my name and thine, Zenocrate: Here at Damascus will I make the point That shall begin the perpendicular: And wouldst thou have me buy thy father’s love With such a loss? tell me, Zenocrate.

ZENOCRATE. Honour still wait on happy Tamburlaine! Yet give me leave to plead for him, my lord.

TAMBURLAINE. Content thyself: his person shall be safe, And all the friends of fair Zenocrate, If with their lives they will be pleas’d to yield, Or may be forc’d to make me emperor; For Egypt and Arabia must be mine.— Feed, you slave; thou mayst think thyself happy to be fed from my trencher.

BAJAZETH. My empty stomach, full of idle heat, Draws bloody humours from my feeble parts, Preserving life by hastening<234> cruel death. My veins are pale; my sinews hard and dry; My joints benumb’d; unless I eat, I die.

ZABINA. Eat, Bajazeth; let us live in spite of them, looking some happy power will pity and enlarge us.

TAMBURLAINE. Here, Turk; wilt thou have a clean trencher?

BAJAZETH. Ay, tyrant, and more meat.

TAMBURLAINE. Soft, sir! you must be dieted; too much eating will make you surfeit.

THERIDAMAS. So it would, my lord, ‘specially<235> having so small a walk and so little exercise. [A second course is brought in of crowns.]

TAMBURLAINE. Theridamas, Techelles, and Casane, here are the cates you desire to finger, are they not?

THERIDAMAS. Ay, my lord: but none save kings must feed with these.

TECHELLES. ‘Tis enough for us to see them, and for Tamburlaine only to enjoy them.

TAMBURLAINE. Well; here is now to the Soldan of Egypt, the King of Arabia, and the Governor of Damascus. Now, take these three crowns, and pledge me, my contributory kings. I crown you here, Theridamas, king of Argier; Techelles, king of Fez; and Usumcasane, king of Morocco.<236>—How say you to this, Turk? these are not your contributory kings.

BAJAZETH. Nor shall they long be thine, I warrant them.

TAMBURLAINE. Kings of Argier, Morocco, and of Fez, You that have march’d with happy Tamburlaine As far as from the frozen plage<237> of heaven Unto the watery Morning’s ruddy bower, And thence by land unto the torrid zone, Deserve these titles I endow you with By valour<238> and by magnanimity. Your births shall be no blemish to your fame; For virtue is the fount whence honour springs, And they are worthy she investeth kings.

THERIDAMAS. And, since your highness hath so well vouchsaf’d, If we deserve them not with higher meeds Than erst our states and actions have retain’d, Take them away again,<239> and make us slaves.

TAMBURLAINE. Well said, Theridamas: when holy Fates Shall stablish me in strong Aegyptia, We mean to travel to th’ antarctic pole, Conquering the people underneath our feet, And be renowm’d<240> as never emperors were.— Zenocrate, I will not crown thee yet, Until with greater honours I be grac’d. [Exeunt.]

ACT V.

SCENE I.

Enter the GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS<241> with three or four CITIZENS, and four VIRGINS with branches of laurel in their hands.

GOVERNOR. Still doth this man, or rather god of war, Batter our walls and beat our turrets down; And to resist with longer stubbornness, Or hope of rescue from the Soldan’s power, Were but to bring our wilful overthrow, And make us desperate of our threaten’d lives. We see his tents have now been altered With terrors to the last and cruel’st hue; His coal-black colours, every where advanc’d, Threaten our city with a general spoil; And, if we should with common rites of arms Offer our safeties to his clemency, I fear the custom proper to his sword, Which he observes as parcel of his fame, Intending so to terrify the world, By any innovation or remorse<242> Will never be dispens’d with till our deaths. Therefore, for these our harmless virgins’ sakes,<243> Whose honours and whose lives rely on him, Let us have hope that their unspotted prayers, Their blubber’d<244> cheeks, and hearty humble moans, Will melt his fury into some remorse, And use us like a loving conqueror.<245>

FIRST VIRGIN. If humble suite or imprecations (Utter’d with tears of wretchedness and blood Shed from the heads and hearts of all our sex, Some made your wives, and some your children,) Might have entreated your obdurate breasts To entertain some care<246> of our securities Whiles only danger beat upon our walls, These more than dangerous warrants of our death Had never been erected as they be, Nor you depend on such weak helps<247> as we.

GOVERNOR. Well, lovely virgins, think our country’s care, Our love of honour, loath to be enthrall’d To foreign powers and rough imperious yokes, Would not with too much cowardice or<248> fear, Before all hope of rescue were denied, Submit yourselves and us to servitude. Therefore, in that your safeties and our own, Your honours, liberties, and lives were weigh’d In equal care and balance with our own, Endure as we the malice of our stars, The wrath of Tamburlaine and power<249> of wars; Or be the means the overweighing heavens Have kept to qualify these hot extremes, And bring us pardon in your cheerful looks.

SECOND VIRGIN. Then here, before the Majesty of Heaven And holy patrons of Aegyptia, With knees and hearts submissive we entreat Grace to our words and pity to our looks, That this device may prove propitious, And through the eyes and ears of Tamburlaine Convey events of mercy to his heart; Grant that these signs of victory we yield May bind the temples of his conquering head, To hide the folded furrows of his brows, And shadow his displeased countenance With happy looks of ruth and lenity. Leave us, my lord, and loving countrymen: What simple virgins may persuade, we will.

GOVERNOR. Farewell, sweet virgins, on whose safe return Depends our city, liberty, and lives. [Exeunt all except the VIRGINS.]

Enter TAMBURLAINE, all in black and very melancholy, TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE, with others.

TAMBURLAINE. What, are the turtles fray’d out of their nests? Alas, poor fools, must you be first shall feel The sworn destruction of Damascus? They knew<250> my custom; could they not as well Have sent ye out when first my milk-white flags, Through which sweet Mercy threw her gentle beams, Reflexed<251> them on their<252> disdainful eyes, As<253> now when fury and incensed hate Flings slaughtering terror from my coal-black tents,<254> And tells for truth submission<255> comes too late?

FIRST VIRGIN. Most happy king and emperor of the earth, Image of honour and nobility, For whom the powers divine have made the world, And on whose throne the holy Graces sit; In whose sweet person is compris’d the sum Of Nature’s skill and heavenly majesty; Pity our plights! O, pity poor Damascus! Pity old age, within whose silver hairs Honour and reverence evermore have reign’d! Pity the marriage-bed, where many a lord, In prime and glory of his loving joy, Embraceth now with tears of ruth and<256> blood The jealous body of his fearful wife, Whose cheeks and hearts, so punish’d with conceit,<257> To think thy puissant never-stayed arm Will part their bodies, and prevent their souls From heavens of comfort yet their age might bear, Now wax all pale and wither’d to the death, As well for grief our ruthless governor Hath<258> thus refus’d the mercy of thy hand, (Whose sceptre angels kiss and Furies dread,) As for their liberties, their loves, or lives! O, then, for these, and such as we ourselves, For us, for infants, and for all our bloods, That never nourish’d<259> thought against thy rule, Pity, O, pity, sacred emperor, The prostrate service of this wretched town; And take in sign thereof this gilded wreath, Whereto each man of rule hath given his hand, And wish’d,<260> as worthy subjects, happy means To be investers of thy royal brows Even with the true Egyptian diadem!

TAMBURLAINE. Virgins, in vain you labour to prevent That which mine honour swears shall be perform’d. Behold my sword; what see you at the point?

FIRST VIRGIN. Nothing but fear and fatal steel, my lord.

TAMBURLAINE. Your fearful minds are thick and misty, then, For there sits Death; there sits imperious<261> Death, Keeping his circuit by the slicing edge. But I am pleas’d you shall not see him there; He now is seated on my horsemen’s spears, And on their points his fleshless body feeds.— Techelles, straight go charge a few of them To charge these dames, and shew my servant Death, Sitting in scarlet on their armed spears.

VIRGINS. O, pity us!

TAMBURLAINE. Away with them, I say, and shew them Death! [The