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The Complete Plays

Page 25

by Christopher Marlowe


  Yet might your mighty host encounter all

  40 And pull proud Tamburlaine upon his knees

  To sue for mercy at your highness’ feet.

  CALLAPINE

  Captain, the force of Tamburlaine is great,

  His fortune greater, and the victories

  Wherewith he hath so sore dismayed the world

  Are greatest to discourage all our drifts.

  Yet when the pride of Cynthia is at full

  She wanes again, and so shall his, I hope,

  For we have here the chief selected men

  Of twenty several kingdoms at the least.

  50 Nor ploughman, priest, nor merchant stays at home;

  All Turkey is in arms with Callapine,

  And never will we sunder camps and arms

  Before himself or his be conqueréd.

  This is the time that must eternize me

  For conquering the tyrant of the world.

  Come, soldiers, let us lie in wait for him,

  And if we find him absent from his camp

  Or that it be rejoined again at full,

  Assail it and be sure of victory.

  Exeunt.

  Scene 3

  [Enter] THERIDAMAS, TECHELLES, USUMCASANE. THERIDAMAS

  Weep, heavens, and vanish into liquid tears!

  Fall, stars that govern his nativity,

  And summon all the shining lamps of heaven

  To cast their bootless fires to the earth

  And shed their feeble influence in the air!

  Muffle your beauties with eternal clouds,

  For hell and darkness pitch their pitchy tents,

  And Death with armies of Cimmerian spirits

  Gives battle ’gainst the heart of Tamburlaine.

  10 Now, in defiance of that wonted love

  Your sacred virtues poured upon his throne

  And made his state an honour to the heavens,

  These cowards invisibly assail his soul

  And threaten conquest on our sovereign;

  But if he die, your glories are disgraced,

  Earth droops and says that hell in heaven is placed.

  TECHELLES

  O then, ye powers that sway eternal seats

  And guide this massy substance of the earth,

  If you retain desert of holiness,

  20 As your supreme estates instruct our thoughts,

  Be not inconstant, careless of your fame;

  Bear not the burden of your enemies’ joys,

  Triumphing in his fall whom you advanced;

  But as his birth, life, health, and majesty

  Were strangely blest and governèd by heaven,

  So honour, heaven, till heaven dissolvèd be,

  His birth, his life, his health, and majesty.

  USUMCASANE

  Blush, heaven, to lose the honour of thy name,

  To see thy footstool set upon thy head,

  30 And let no baseness in thy haughty breast

  Sustain a shame of such inexcellence,

  To see the devils mount in angels’ thrones

  And angels dive into the pools of hell.

  And though they think their painful date is out

  And that their power is puissant as Jove’s,

  Which makes them manage arms against thy state,

  Yet make them feel the strength of Tamburlaine,

  Thy instrument and note of majesty,

  Is greater far than they can thus subdue;

  40 For if he die, thy glory is disgraced,

  Earth droops and says that hell in heaven is placed.

  [Enter TAMBURLAINE in his chariot, drawn by ORCANES, King of Natolia and the King of JERUSALEM attended by AMYRAS, CELEBINUS, and PHYSICIANS.]

  TAMBURLAINE

  What daring god torments my body thus

  And seeks to conquer mighty Tamburlaine?

  Shall sickness prove me now to be a man,

  That have been termed the terror of the world?

  Techelles and the rest, come take your swords

  And threaten him whose hand afflicts my soul.

  Come let us march against the powers of heaven

  And set black streamers in the firmament

  50 To signify the slaughter of the gods.

  Ah, friends, what shall I do? I cannot stand.

  Come, carry me to war against the gods,

  That thus envy the health of Tamburlaine.

  THERIDAMAS

  Ah, good my lord, leave these impatient words,

  Which add much danger to your malady.

  TAMBURLAINE

  Why shall I sit and languish in this pain?

  No! Strike the drums, and, in revenge of this,

  Come, let us charge our spears and pierce his breast

  Whose shoulders bear the axis of the world,

  60 That if I perish, heaven and earth may fade.

  Theridamas, haste to the court of Jove.

  Will him to send Apollo hither straight

  To cure me, or I’ll fetch him down myself.

  TECHELLES

  Sit still, my gracious lord. This grief will cease

  And cannot last, it is so violent.

  TAMBURLAINE

  Not last, Techelles? No, for I shall die.

  See where my slave, the ugly monster Death,

  Shaking and quivering, pale and wan for fear,

  Stands aiming at me with his murdering dart,

  70 Who flies away at every glance I give,

  And when I look away comes stealing on.

  Villain, away, and hie thee to the field!

  I and mine army come to load thy bark

  With souls of thousand mangled carcasses.

  Look where he goes! But see, he comes again

  Because I stay. Techelles, let us march,

  And weary Death with bearing souls to hell.

  PHYSICIAN

  Pleaseth your majesty to drink this potion,

  Which will abate the fury of your fit

  80 And cause some milder spirits govern you.

  TAMBURLAINE

  Tell me, what think you of my sickness now?

  PHYSICIAN

  I viewed your urine, and the hypostasis,

  Thick and obscure, doth make your danger great;

  Your veins are full of accidental heat,

  Whereby the moisture of your blood is dried.

  The humidum and calor, which some hold

  Is not a parcel of the elements

  But of a substance more divine and pure,

  Is almost clean extinguishèd and spent,

  90 Which, being the cause of life, imports your death.

  Besides, my lord, this day is critical,

  Dangerous to those whose crisis is as yours.

  Your artiers, which alongst the veins convey

  The lively spirits which the heart engenders,

  Are parched and void of spirit, that the soul,

  Wanting those organons by which it moves,

  Cannot endure by argument of art.

  Yet if your majesty may escape this day,

  No doubt but you shall soon recover all.

  TAMBURLAINE

  100 Then will I comfort all my vital parts

  And live in spite of Death above a day.

  Alarm within.

  [Enter a MESSENGER.]

  MESSENGER My lord, young Callapine, that lately fled from

  your majesty, hath now gathered a fresh army, and, hearing your absence in the field, offers to set upon us presently.

  TAMBURLAINE

  See, my physicians, now, how Jove hath sent

  A present medicine to recure my pain!

  My looks shall make them fly, and, might I follow,

  There should not one of all the villain’s power

  Live to give offer of another fight.

  USUMCASANE

  110 I joy, my lord, your highness is so strong,

  That can endure so well your royal presen
ce

  Which only will dismay the enemy.

  TAMBURLAINE

  I know it well, Casane. Draw, you slaves!

  In spite of Death I will go show my face.

  Alarm. TAMBURLAINE goes in [in his chariot], and comes out again with all the rest.

  TAMBURLAINE

  Thus are the villains, cowards, fled for fear,

  Like summer’s vapours vanished by the sun.

  And could I but a while pursue the field,

  That Callapine should be my slave again.

  But I perceive my martial strength is spent;

  120 In vain I strive and rail against those powers

  That mean t’invest me in a higher throne,

  As much too high for this disdainful earth.

  Give me a map, then, let me see how much

  Is left for me to conquer all the world,

  That these my boys may finish all my wants.

  One brings a map.

  Here I began to march towards Persia,

  Along Armenia and the Caspian Sea,

  And thence unto Bithynia, where I took

  The Turk and his great empress prisoners;

  130 Then marched I into Egypt and Arabia,

  And here, not far from Alexandria,

  Whereas the Terrene and the Red Sea meet,

  Being distant less than full a hundred leagues,

  I meant to cut a channel to them both,

  That men might quickly sail to India.

  From thence to Nubia, near Borno lake,

  And so along the Ethiopian sea,

  Cutting the tropic line of Capricorn,

  I conquered all as far as Zanzibar.

  140 Then by the northern part of Africa

  I came at last to Graecia, and from thence

  To Asia, where I stay against my will,

  Which is from Scythia, where I first began,

  Backward and forwards, near five thousand leagues.

  Look here, my boys, see what a world of ground

  Lies westward from the midst of Cancer’s line

  Unto the rising of this earthly globe,

  Whereas the sun, declining from our sight,

  Begins the day with our Antipodes;

  150 And shall I die, and this unconquerèd?

  Lo, here, my sons, are all the golden mines,

  Inestimable drugs, and precious stones,

  More worth than Asia and the world beside;

  And from th’Antarctic Pole eastward behold

  As much more land, which never was descried,

  Wherein are rocks of pearl that shine as bright

  As all the lamps that beautify the sky;

  And shall I die, and this unconquerèd?

  Here, lovely boys; [giving them the map]

  what Death forbids my life,

  160 That let your lives command in spite of Death.

  AMYRAS

  Alas, my lord, how should our bleeding hearts,

  Wounded and broken with your highness’ grief,

  Retain a thought of joy or spark of life?

  Your soul gives essence to our wretched subjects,

  Whose matter is incorporate in your flesh.

  CELEBINUS

  Your pains do pierce our souls; no hope survives,

  For by your life we entertain our lives.

  TAMBURLAINE

  But sons, this subject, not of force enough

  To hold the fiery spirit it contains,

  170 Must part, imparting his impressions

  By equal portions into both your breasts;

  My flesh, divided in your precious shapes,

  Shall still retain my spirit though I die,

  And live in all your seeds immortally.

  Then now remove me, that I may resign

  My place and proper title to my son.

  [To AMYRAS]

  First take my scourge and my imperial crown,

  And mount my royal chariot of estate,

  That I may see thee crowned before I die.

  180 Help me, my lords, to make my last remove.

  [They help him into a chair.]

  THERIDAMAS

  A woeful change, my lord, that daunts our thoughts

  More than the ruin of our proper souls.

  TAMBURLAINE

  Sit up, my son. Let me see how well

  Thou wilt become thy father’s majesty.

  They crown him.

  AMYRAS

  With what a flinty bosom should I joy

  The breath of life and burden of my soul,

  If, not resolved into resolvèd pains,

  My body’s mortifièd lineaments Should exercise the motions of my heart,

  190 Pierced with the joy of any dignity!

  O father, if the unrelenting ears

  Of Death and hell be shut against my prayers,

  And that the spiteful influence of heaven

  Deny my soul fruition of her joy,

  How should I step or stir my hateful feet

  Against the inward powers of my heart,

  Leading a life that only strives to die,

  And plead in vain unpleasing sovereignty?

  TAMBURLAINE

  Let not thy love exceed thine honour, son,

  200 Nor bar thy mind that magnanimity

  That nobly must admit necessity.

  Sit up, my boy, and with those silken reins

  Bridle the steelèd stomachs of those jades.

  THERIDAMAS [to AMYRAS]

  My lord, you must obey his majesty,

  Since fate commands, and proud necessity.

  AMYRAS [ascending the chariot]

  Heavens witness me, with what a broken heart

  And damnèd spirit I ascend this seat,

  And send my soul, before my father die,

  His anguish and his burning agony!

  TAMBURLAINE

  210 Now fetch the hearse of fair Zenocrate.

  Let it be placed by this my fatal chair

  And serve as parcel of my funeral.

  [Exeunt some.]

  USUMCASANE

  Then feels your majesty no sovereign ease,

  Nor may our hearts, all drowned in tears of blood,

  Joy any hope of your recovery?

  TAMBURLAINE

  Casane, no. The monarch of the earth

  And eyeless monster that torments my soul

  Cannot behold the tears ye shed for me,

  And therefore still augments his cruelty.

  TECHELLES

  220 Then let some god oppose his holy power

  Against the wrath and tyranny of Death,

  That his tear-thirsty and unquenchèd hate

  May be upon himself reverberate.

  They bring in the hearse [of ZENOCRATE].

  TAMBURLAINE

  Now, eyes, enjoy your latest benefit,

  And when my soul hath virtue of your sight,

  Pierce through the coffin and the sheet of gold

  And glut your longings with a heaven of joy.

  So, reign, my son! Scourge and control those slaves,

  Guiding thy chariot with thy father’s hand.

  230 As precious is the charge thou undertak’st

  As that which Clymene’s brainsick son did guide,

  When wand’ring Phoebe’s ivory cheeks were scorched,

  And all the earth, like Etna, breathing fire.

  Be warned by him, then; learn with awful eye

  To sway a throne as dangerous as his.

  For if thy body thrive not full of thoughts

  As pure and fiery as Phyteus’ beams,

  The nature of these proud rebelling jades

  Will take Occasion by the slenderest hair,

  240 And draw thee piecemeal like Hippolytus,

  Through rocks more steep and sharp than Caspian clifts.

  The nature of thy chariot will not bear

  A guide of baser temper than myself,

  More than heaven’s coach the prid
e of Phaethon.

  Farewell, my boys; my dearest friends, farewell!

  My body feels, my soul doth weep to see

  Your sweet desires deprived of company;

  For Tamburlaine, the scourge of God, must die.

  [He dies.]

  AMYRAS

  Meet heaven and earth, and here let all things end!

  250 For earth hath spent the pride of all her fruit,

  And heaven consumed his choicest living fire.

  Let earth and heaven his timeless death deplore,

  For both their worths will equal him no more.

  [Exeunt.]

  THE JEW OF MALTA

  [Dramatis Personae

  MACHEVIL, the Prologue

  BARABAS

  TWO MERCHANTS

  THREE JEWS

  FERNEZEJ, the Governor of Malta

  KNIGHTS OF MALTA

  OFFICERS

  CALLAPINE

  BASHAWS

  CALYMATH

  ABIGALL, Barabas’s daughter

  FRIAR JACOMO

  FRIAR BARNARDINE

  AN ABBESS

  TWO NUNS

  MATHIAS, Katherine’s son

  LODOWICK, Ferneze’s son

  MARTIN DEL BOSCO, Vice-admiral of Spain

  ITHAMORE, a slave

  SLAVES

  KATHERINE

  BELLAMIRA, a courtesan

  PILIA-BORZA

  TURKISH JANIZARIES

  A MESSENGER

  CARPENTERS

  SERVANTS ATTENDANTS]

  [THE DEDICATORY EPISTLE]

  To My Worthy Friend, Master Thomas Hammon, of Gray’s Inn, etc.

  This play, composed by so worthy an author as Master

  Marlowe, and the part of the Jew presented by so unimitable

  an actor as Master Alleyn, being in this later age commended to the stage, as I ushered it unto the court, and presented it

  to the Cock-pit, with these prologues and epilogues here

  inserted, so now being newly brought to the press, I was loath

  it should be published without the ornament of an epistle,

  making choice of you unto whom to devote it, than whom

  (of all those gentlemen and acquaintance within the compass

  of my long knowledge) there is none more able to tax ignorance

  10 or attribute right to merit. Sir, you have been pleased to

  grace some of mine own works with your courteous patronage.

  I hope this will not be the worse accepted because commended

  by me, over whom none can claim more power or

  privilege than yourself. I had no better a New Year’s gift to

  present you with. Receive it therefore as a continuance of that

  inviolable obligement by which he rests still engaged, who, as

  he ever hath, shall always remain,

  Tuissimus,

  20 Thomas Heywood

  THE PROLOGUE SPOKEN AT COURT

 

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