The Complete Plays

by Christopher Marlowe

Let us unite our royal bands in one

  And hasten to remove Damascus’ siege.

  It is a blemish to the majesty

  20 And high estate of mighty emperors

  That such a base, usurping vagabond

  Should brave a king or wear a princely crown.

  ARABIA

  Renownèd Sultan, have ye lately heard

  The overthrow of mighty Bajazeth

  About the confines of Bithynia?

  The slavery wherewith he persecutes

  The noble Turk and his great emperess?

  SULTAN

  I have, and sorrow for his bad success.

  But, noble lord of great Arabia,

  30 Be so persuaded that the Sultan is

  No more dismayed with tidings of his fall,

  Than in the haven when the pilot stands

  And views a stranger’s ship rent in the winds,

  And shiverèd against a craggy rock.

  Yet, in compassion of his wretched state,

  A sacred vow to heaven and him I make,

  Confirming it with Ibis’ holy name,

  That Tamburlaine shall rue the day, the hour,

  Wherein he wrought such ignominious wrong

  Unto the hallowed person of a prince,

  Or kept the fair Zenocrate so long

  As concubine, I fear, to feed his lust.

  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.

  SULTAN

  Capolin, hast thou surveyed 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 full of hardiness,

  As frolic as the hunters in the chase

  Of savage beasts amid the desert woods.

  ARABIA

  My mind presageth fortunate success.

  And, Tamburlaine, my spirit doth foresee

  The utter ruin of thy men and thee.

  SULTAN

  Then rear your standards! Let your sounding drums

  Direct our soldiers to Damascus’ walls.

  Now, Tamburlaine, the mighty Sultan comes

  And leads with him the great Arabian king

  To dim thy baseness and obscurity,

  Famous for nothing but for theft and spoil,

  To raze and scatter thy inglorious crew

  Of Scythians and slavish Persians.

  [Sound drums].

  Exeunt.

  Scene 4

  The banquet [is brought on], and to it cometh TAMBURLAINEall in scarlet, [ZENOCRATE,] THERIDAMAS, TECHELLES, USUMCASANE, the TURK [BAJAZETH, drawn in his cage, ZABINA,] with 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 Colchis’ golden fleece.

  10 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 invisible,

  Dive to the bottom of Avernus’ pool,

  And in your hands bring hellish poison up

  20 And squeeze it in the cup of Tamburlaine!

  Or, wingèd snakes of Lerna, cast your stings,

  And leave your venoms in this tyrant’s dish!

  ZABINA

  And may this banquet prove as ominous

  As Procne’s to th’adulterous Thracian king

  That fed upon the substance of his child!

  ZENOCRATE My lord, 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

  30 To turn them all upon their proper heads.

  TECHELLES I pray you, give them leave, madam. This speech is a goodly refreshing to them.

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

  TAMBURLAINE [to BAJAZETH] 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, eat, sir. Take it from my

  40 sword’s point, or I’ll thrust it to thy heart.

  He [BAJAZETH] takes it and stamps upon it.

  THERIDAMAS He stamps it under his feet, my lord.

  TAMBURLAINE [to BAJAZETH] Take it up, villain, and eat it, or I will make thee slice 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 [to BAJAZETH] Here is my dagger; dispatch her

  while she is fat, for if she live but a while longer, she will fall

  50 into a consumption with fretting, and then she will not be

  worth the eating.

  THERIDAMAS [to TECHELLES] Dost thou think that Mahomet will suffer this?

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

  TAMBURLAINE [to BAJAZETH] Go to, fall to your meat. What, not a bit? Belike he hath not been watered today. Give him some drink.

  They give him water to drink, and he flings it on the ground.

  Fast, and welcome, sir, while hunger make you eat. How

  60 now, Zenocrate, doth not the Turk and his wife make a

  goodly show at a banquet?

  ZENOCRATEYes, my lord.

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

  TAMBURLAINE Yet music would do well to cheer up Zenocrate. [To 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 besieged,

  The country wasted where myself was born,

  70 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,

  80 Excluding regions which I mean to trace,

  And with this pen 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.

&nb
sp; 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

  90 Content thyself. His person shall be safe,

  And all the friends of fair Zenocrate,

  If with their lives they will be pleased to yield

  Or may be forced to make me emperor;

  For Egypt and Arabia must be mine.

  [To BAJAZETH]

  Feed, you slave; thou may’st 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 hasting cruel death.

  My veins are pale, my sinews hard and dry,

  100 My joints benumbed. 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 [offering BAJAZETH an empty plate] 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 [to TAMBURLAINE] So it Would, my lord, specially having so small a walk and so little exercise.

  110 Enter a second course 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 [raising a toast] Well, here is now to the Sultan

  of Egypt, the King of Arabia, and the Governor of Damascus.

  Now take these three crowns, and pledge me, my contributory

  kings. [He presents the crowns. I crown you here, Therid-

  120 amas, King of Argier; Techelles, King of Fez; and Usumcasane,

  King of Moroccus. 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, Moroccus, and of Fez,

  You that have marched with happy Tamburlaine

  As far as from the frozen plage of heaven

  Unto the wat’ry morning’s ruddy bower

  And thence by land unto the torrid zone,

  130 Deserve these titles I endow you with

  By valour 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 vouchsafed,

  If we deserve them not with higher meeds

  Than erst our states and actions have retained,

  Take them away again and make us slaves.

  TAMBURLAINE

  Well said, Theridamas! When holy Fates

  140 Shall ‘stablish me in strong Egyptia,

  We mean to travel to th’Antarctic Pole,

  Conquering the people underneath our feet,

  And be renowned as never emperors were.

  Zenocrate, I will not crown thee yet,

  Until with greater honours I be graced.

  [Exeunt.]

  ACT 5

  Scene 1

  [Enter] the GOVERNOR OF DAMASCUS, 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 Sultan’s power

  Were but to bring our wilful overthrow

  And make us desperate of our threatened lives.

  We see his tents have now been alterèd

  With terrors to the last and cruell’st hue;

  His coal-black colours everywhere advanced

  Threaten our city with a general spoil;

  10 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

  Will never be dispensed with till our deaths.

  Therefore, for these our harmless virgins’ sakes,

  Whose honours and whose lives rely on him,

  Let us have hope that their unspotted prayers,

  20 Their blubbered cheeks, and hearty humble moans

  Will melt his fury into some remorse,

  And use us like a loving conqueror.

  FIRST VIRGIN

  If humble suits or imprecations,

  Uttered 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 of our securities

  30 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 as we.

  GOVERNOR

  Well, lovely virgins, think our country’s care,

  Our love of honour, loath to be enthralled

  To foreign powers and rough imperious yokes,

  Would not with too much cowardice or fear,

  Before all hope of rescue were denied,

  Submit yourselves and us to servitude.

  40 Therefore, in that your safeties and our own,

  Your honours, liberties, and lives, were weighed

  In equal care and balance with our own,

  Endure as we the malice of our stars,

  The wrath of Tamburlaine and power 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 Egyptia,

  50 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 displeasèd countenance

  With happy looks of ruth and lenity.

  Leave us, my lord, and loving countrymen;

  60 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, TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE, with Others; TAMBURLAINE all in black, and very melancholy.

  TAMBURLAINE

  What, are the turtles frayed out of their nests?

  Alas, poor fools, must you be first shall feel

  The sworn destruction of Damascus?

  They know 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,

  Reflexing them on your disdainful eyes,

  70 As now when fury and incensèd hate

  Flings slaughtering terror from my coal-black tents

  And tells for truth submissions comes too late?

  F
IRST 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 comprised the sum

  Of nature’s skill and heavenly majesty:

  Pity our plights, O, pity poor Damascus!

  80 Pity old age, within whose silver hairs

  Honour and reverence evermore have reigned!

  Pity the marriage bed, where many a lord,

  In prime and glory of his loving joy,

  Embraceth now with tears of ruth and blood

  The jealous body of his fearful wife,

  Whose cheeks and hearts – so punished with conceit

  To think thy puissant never-stayèd arm

  Will part their bodies and prevent their souls

  90 From heavens of comfort yet their age might bear –

  Now wax all pale and withered to the death,

  As well for grief our ruthless governor

  Have thus refused 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 nourished thought against thy rule,

  Pity, O, pity, sacred emperor,

  100 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 wished, as worthy subjects, happy means

  To be investors of thy royal brows,

  Even with the true Egyptian diadem.

  [She offers a laurel wreath.]

  TAMBURLAINE

  Virgins, in vain ye labour to prevent

  That which mine honour swears shall be performed.

  Behold my sword – what see you at the point?

  VIRGINS

  Nothing but fear and fatal steel, my lord.

  TAMBURLAINE

  110 Your fearful minds are thick and misty, then,

  For there sits Death, there sits imperious Death,

  Keeping his circuit by the slicing edge.

  But I am pleased 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 show my servant Death,

  Sitting in scarlet on their armèd spears.

  VIRGINS

  O, pity us!

  TAMBURLAINE

  120 Away with them, I say, and show them Death.

  They [TECHELLES and others] take them away.

  I will not spare these proud Egyptians,

  Nor change my martial observations