author - "Christopher Marlowe"
of worth, it would prove a great disgrace to so honourable and stately a history. Great folly were it in me to commend unto your wisdoms either the eloquence of the author that writ them or the worthiness of the matter itself. I therefore leave unto your learned censures<4> both the one and the other, and myself the poor printer of them unto your most courteous and favourable protection; which if you vouchsafe to accept, you shall evermore bind me to employ what travail and service I can to the advancing and pleasuring of your excellent degree. Yours, most humble at commandment, R[ichard] J[ones], printer.
THE FIRST PART OF TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT.
THE PROLOGUE.
From jigging veins of rhyming mother-wits, And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay, We'll lead you to the stately tent of war, Where you shall hear the Scythian Tamburlaine Threatening the world with high astounding terms, And scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword. View but his picture in this tragic glass,
gt; me of all ambiguities, Perform what desperate enterprise I will? I'll have them fly to India for gold, Ransack the ocean for orient pearl, And search all corners of the new-found world For pleasant fruits and princely delicates; I'll have them read me strange philosophy, And tell the secrets of all foreign kings; I'll have them wall all Germany with brass, And make swift Rhine circle fair Wertenberg; I'll have them fill the public schools with silk,<27> Wherewith the students shall be bravely clad; I'll levy soldiers with the coin they bring, And chase the Prince of Parma from our land, And reign sole king of all the<28> provinces; Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war, Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp's bridge,<29> I'll make my servile spirits to invent.
Enter VALDES and CORNELIUS.
Come, German Valdes, and Cornelius, And make me blest with your sage conference. Valdes, sweet Valdes, and Cornelius, Know that your words have won me at the last To practice magic and co
d before him.
BARABAS. So that of thus much that return was made;And of the third part of the Persian shipsThere was the venture summ'd and satisfied.As for those Samnites,<17> and the men of Uz,That bought my Spanish oils and wines of Greece,Here have I purs'd their paltry silverlings.<18>Fie, what a trouble 'tis to count this trash!Well fare the Arabians, who so richly payThe things they traffic for with wedge of gold,Whereof a man may easily in a dayTell<19> that which may maintain him all his life.The needy groom, that never finger'd groat,Would make a miracle of thus much coin;But he whose steel-barr'd coffers are cramm'd full,And all his life-time hath been tired,Wearying his fingers' ends with telling it,Would in his age be loath to labour so,And for a pound to sweat himself to death.Give me the merchants of the Indian mines,That trade in metal of the purest mould;The wealthy Moor, that in the eastern rocksWithout control can pick his riches up,And in his hous
lk,Wherewith the students shall be bravely clad;I'll levy soldiers with the coin they bring,And chase the Prince of Parma from our land,And reign sole king of all the provinces;Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war,Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp's bridge,I'll make my servile spirits to invent.
Enter VALDES and CORNELIUS.
Come, German Valdes, and Cornelius,And make me blest with your sage conference.Valdes, sweet Valdes, and Cornelius,Know that your words have won me at the lastTo practice magic and concealed arts:Yet not your words only, but mine own fantasy,That will receive no object; for my headBut ruminates on necromantic skill.Philosophy is odious and obscure;Both law and physic are for petty wits;Divinity is basest of the three,Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile:'Tis magic, magic, that hath ravish'd me.Then, gentle friends, aid me in this attempt;And I, that have with concise syllogismsGravell'd the pastors of the German church,And made the flowering pri
of worth, it would prove a great disgrace to so honourable and stately a history. Great folly were it in me to commend unto your wisdoms either the eloquence of the author that writ them or the worthiness of the matter itself. I therefore leave unto your learned censures<4> both the one and the other, and myself the poor printer of them unto your most courteous and favourable protection; which if you vouchsafe to accept, you shall evermore bind me to employ what travail and service I can to the advancing and pleasuring of your excellent degree. Yours, most humble at commandment, R[ichard] J[ones], printer.
THE FIRST PART OF TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT.
THE PROLOGUE.
From jigging veins of rhyming mother-wits, And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay, We'll lead you to the stately tent of war, Where you shall hear the Scythian Tamburlaine Threatening the world with high astounding terms, And scourging kingdoms with his conquering sword. View but his picture in this tragic glass,
gt; me of all ambiguities, Perform what desperate enterprise I will? I'll have them fly to India for gold, Ransack the ocean for orient pearl, And search all corners of the new-found world For pleasant fruits and princely delicates; I'll have them read me strange philosophy, And tell the secrets of all foreign kings; I'll have them wall all Germany with brass, And make swift Rhine circle fair Wertenberg; I'll have them fill the public schools with silk,<27> Wherewith the students shall be bravely clad; I'll levy soldiers with the coin they bring, And chase the Prince of Parma from our land, And reign sole king of all the<28> provinces; Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war, Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp's bridge,<29> I'll make my servile spirits to invent.
Enter VALDES and CORNELIUS.
Come, German Valdes, and Cornelius, And make me blest with your sage conference. Valdes, sweet Valdes, and Cornelius, Know that your words have won me at the last To practice magic and co
d before him.
BARABAS. So that of thus much that return was made;And of the third part of the Persian shipsThere was the venture summ'd and satisfied.As for those Samnites,<17> and the men of Uz,That bought my Spanish oils and wines of Greece,Here have I purs'd their paltry silverlings.<18>Fie, what a trouble 'tis to count this trash!Well fare the Arabians, who so richly payThe things they traffic for with wedge of gold,Whereof a man may easily in a dayTell<19> that which may maintain him all his life.The needy groom, that never finger'd groat,Would make a miracle of thus much coin;But he whose steel-barr'd coffers are cramm'd full,And all his life-time hath been tired,Wearying his fingers' ends with telling it,Would in his age be loath to labour so,And for a pound to sweat himself to death.Give me the merchants of the Indian mines,That trade in metal of the purest mould;The wealthy Moor, that in the eastern rocksWithout control can pick his riches up,And in his hous
lk,Wherewith the students shall be bravely clad;I'll levy soldiers with the coin they bring,And chase the Prince of Parma from our land,And reign sole king of all the provinces;Yea, stranger engines for the brunt of war,Than was the fiery keel at Antwerp's bridge,I'll make my servile spirits to invent.
Enter VALDES and CORNELIUS.
Come, German Valdes, and Cornelius,And make me blest with your sage conference.Valdes, sweet Valdes, and Cornelius,Know that your words have won me at the lastTo practice magic and concealed arts:Yet not your words only, but mine own fantasy,That will receive no object; for my headBut ruminates on necromantic skill.Philosophy is odious and obscure;Both law and physic are for petty wits;Divinity is basest of the three,Unpleasant, harsh, contemptible, and vile:'Tis magic, magic, that hath ravish'd me.Then, gentle friends, aid me in this attempt;And I, that have with concise syllogismsGravell'd the pastors of the German church,And made the flowering pri