Eyes, when that Ebena steps to heaven
In silence of thy solemn evening’s walk,
Making the mantle of the richest night,
The moon, the planets, and the meteors, light. (143–50)
But Tamburlaine’s words are not separable from its theatrical action. Words are weapons to be ‘manage[d]’ (3.3.131) in verbal duels, part of the play’s expression of power. The action itself combines static, symmetrical tableaux with relentless forward movement, as though enacting the tension between the end-stopped single line and the larger verse-paragraph. Tamburlaine is constantly breaking the rules, defying conventions, yet he turns his defiance into ceremonies, rituals, of conflict. The effect is to render the audience’s reactions excitedly uncertain. Marlowe tightens the dramatic structure by interweaving the siege of Damascus with the tormenting of Bajazeth, and both with the reactions of Zenocrate (whose part is almost entirely an invention). Tamburlaine’s victories are both glamorous and repellant.
The Second Part of the Bloody Conquests of Mighty Tamburlaine (1588) is a sequel, and is generally felt to be a weaker play. Marlowe had used up most of the historical materials in Part One and had little interest in the real Timur’s comfortable old age in Samarkand. Part Two was therefore assembled from a variety of sources, and tellingly little of the new material directly concerns Tamburlaine himself. The hero is no longer so securely at the centre of things; he is slightly displaced by all the new characters and is caught in a wider history just as he moves in a wider geography (taken from the 1570 atlas of Abraham Ortelius). The perfidy and subsequent defeat of the Christians is an adaptation of the events leading up to the later battle of Varna (1444), as reported, for instance, in Antonius Bonifinius, Rerum Ungaricarum Decades (1543). Olympia’s ruse to escape the attentions of Theridamas is borrowed from Canto 2.9 of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (1516). (Other, smaller borrowings are recorded in the Notes.) The little Olympia sub-plot has certain obvious resonances with the main action: Olympia’s devotion to her dead husband is like and unlike Tamburlaine’s to the dead Zenocrate, as her murder of her son is like and unlike Tamburlaine’s murder of Calyphas. When she contrives to be stabbed in the throat, her death is oddly reminiscent of Tamburlaine stabbing his arm. Yet the action remains disconnected from the main plot. The play has greater thematic coherence than dramatic unity.
Its organizing theme is death, and its distinctive poetry is funereal. Zenocrate’s death reverses the language of Part One (‘Black is the beauty of the brightest day’, 2.4.1), and Tamburlaine’s finest words are his great lament, with its solemn refrain:
Now walk the angels on the walls of heaven,
As sentinels to warn th’immortal souls
To entertain divine Zenocrate. (15–17)
Tamburlaine can still rise to hymning himself, even recalling (4.1) the earlier speech on the aspiring mind in Part One, but he does so as he kills his own son. And we recognize the play’s distinctive leitmotif of mortality when it returns in his captains’ choric threnody for Tamburlaine himself at the beginning of the play’s last scene.
The dramatic rhythm is slow, gradually arraying the forces of Tamburlaine against those of his enemies, cataloguing the armies and the vast distance of their marches, and finally harnessing them to its central dramatic symbol, Tamburlaine’s chariot. In the opening dumb show of George Gascoigne and Francis Kinwelmarsh’s Jocasta (1566),
there came in upon the stage a king with an imperial crown upon his head, very richly apparelled… sitting in a chariot very richly furnished, drawn in by four kings in their doublets and hosen, with crowns also upon their heads, representing unto us Ambition, by the history of Sesostris, king of Egypt.
In Tamburlaine, the emblem of ambition is staged in all its grim cruelty, an extraordinary realization of the persistent language of triumph. Yet it is as though, without knowing it, Tamburlaine is also taking part in the greater triumph of Death. The historical Timur did return to Samarkand, as Tamburlaine here plans to; but ‘death cuts off the progress of his pomp / And murd’rous Fates throws all his triumphs down’ (Prologue, 4–5). The chariot becomes the symbol of his limitation as well as of his triumph.
Part Two is a more ideologically self-conscious play. Tamburlaine seems now to be caught inside a more traditional representation of the smallness of human ambition in the face of death. Traditionally, mortal thoughts led to a sober contemplation of religion, normally Christianity. But Marlowe withholds any unambiguous reassurances from his audience: Orcanes attributes his victory over the Christians to divine punishment, but his henchman is sceptical: ‘’Tis but the fortune of the wars, my lord, / Whose power is often proved a miracle’ (2.3.31–2). It is also disturbing that Tamburlaine is so ready to excuse his atrocities by embracing the description of him as ‘the scourge of God’ which had traditionally been used to explain him away.
Both Parts of Tamburlaine were published together in an anonymous octavo edition of 1590 (the basis for the text printed here); and their popularity is attested by further quarto editions of 1592 and 1605. They were much imitated.
TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT, PART ONE
TO THE GENTLEMEN READERS AND
OTHERS THAT TAKE PLEASURE IN
READING HISTORIES
9 fond… jestures: Foolish… comic action.
14 graced: Favoured (by popular audiences).
24 degree: Rank.
26 R.J.: Richard Jones, the publisher responsible for both parts of Tamburlaine.
PROLOGUE
1 jigging veins: The doggerel styles of the comic ‘jigs’ which were performed after plays.
rhyming: Unlike Tamburlaine’s heroic blank verse.
mother-wits: Mere natural wits. The opening line makes two contemptuous references to Elizabethan popular theatre.
2 such conceits… pay: Either the kind of wit that earns a living from clowning, or such tricks as pay the clowns’ wages.
7 glass: Mirror.
ACT 1
Scene 1
11 freezing… cold: Snow and ice.
meteors: Meteorological phenomena.
13–15 At whose birthday… brain: Mycetes was born under the conjunction of the changeable Moon (Cynthia) and dull Saturn, and without the benign influences of Jupiter (greatness), the Sun (majesty) and Mercury (wisdom, eloquence).
15 their: For O’s his, a mistaken anticipation of the use of the pronoun later in the line.
19 through your planets: Mycetes understands Cosroe’s astrological lore.
33 pull my plumes: Like his ‘flocks’ of travellers (32), Mycetes will be easy pickings (like domestic fowl for a fox).
36–8 Scythian thief… Isles: From Scythia (a traditionally barbarous region in central Asia, north of the Black Sea), Tamburlaine intercepts the overland trade route from the capital of Persia to Britain and Ireland. Trading (38) is the reading of the second octavo; other early texts read Treading.
39 confines: Borders, hence territories.
41 dreaming prophecies: Prophetic dreams, or perhaps prophecies as meaningless as dreams.
45 vagrant ensign: Nomadic banner.
50 Damon: A byword for friendship. See (N).
63 gall: Bile, rancour. The antecedent of ‘Whose’ is unclear; the line perhaps conflates the horses with their riders, but they are an odd subject for ‘Have sworn’ (64).
66 the Grecian dame: Helen of Troy.
67–8 Time… today: Like the rhyme, the proverbs (Tilley T323, 327) are banal.
69 borrowed: From the sun.
87 task: Necessary to metre and sense, but missing from all early texts.
89 Assyria: This emendation of O’s Affrica seems necessary to both geography and metre. Cf. line 164. Babylon once formed part of the Assyrian empire.
98 kiss it: One would sometimes kiss an object (e.g. the Bible) on which one swore an oath. Cosroe may also be punning on ‘seat’ (=arse) in response to Mycetes’s reference to his throne (97).
99 Embossed: Richly decorated
.
107 mated: (Here) daunted.
109 pass: (Here) care.
111 Median: From Media, the north-eastern part of the Persian empire.
118 resolve: Melt, dissolve.
119 equinoctial line: The equator (apparently indicating people from much farther west; or perhaps an error for the northern tropic).
130 Cyrus: Cyrus the Great of Persia (N) overran the Ionian Greek cities of Asia Minor. Though the armies of his son Darius I invaded Greece, only his son Xerxes led his own forces into Europe in 480 BC.
131–2 forces… Christendom: Perhaps referring to the Byzantine empire.
135.1 SD CENEUS: O’s Conerus is a phantom character, produced by a misreading of this name.
137 states: (Here) peers, noblemen.
153–4 Macedonians… host: Alexander the Great of Macedon (N) defeated Darius III in 333 and 331 BC.
159 them shall malice: Those who will resent.
166 late-discovered isles: The West Indies or islands in the eastern oceans.
182 too exasperate: So exasperated as.
Scene 2
8 mean: Low-born.
10 silly: (Here) defenceless.
15 privy signet: Document of authorization, with the royal seal. hand: Signature.
16 thorough Africa: I.e. to Egypt. In some medieval traditions, ‘Africa’ designated the Turkish empire. See Seaton 1924:20.
18 the puissant Cham: The Great Khan, ruler of Mongolia and Tartary.
28 prizes… precinct: Treasure out of my hands.
29 For… my state: I.e. he needs booty to feed his infant power.
33 for… import: I.e. he acts like a lord.
41 Lie… weeds: His change of clothes marks symbolically his transition from shepherd to conqueror.
45 success… unvaluèd: Outcome and incalculable loss.
50–51 exhalations… earth: Earthquakes were attributed to winds trying to escape from beneath the earth’s surface.
tilt: Joust, battle.
57 Spurning: (i) Kicking, (ii) treating disdainfully.
61 our estimates: The reputations we give ourselves.
64 conceit: (Here) imagination.
88 Rhodope: For O’s Rhodolfe. See (N). The Thracian mountain, famous for its silver mines, may be recalled because it was supposedly named after a queen of Thrace who claimed to be lovelier than Juno.
103 fifty-headed Volga: The river Volga with its fifty tributaries.
104 Shall all we offer: All of these we shall offer.
118 Such hope… horse: The Persian horsemen hope so too, but they will themselves be captured.
129 play the orator: Tamburlaine mocks the tradition of big speeches before battles. His enemies’ wealth will be an adequate stimulus for his troops.
133 top: The quarto’s reading, correcting O’s foot in the light of line 135.
134 alarm: Alarum, battle-cry.
144 possession: (Four syllables) winnings.
147 chain: Chain of office.
160 Avernus’ darksome vaults: Hell (N).
161 triple-headed dog: Cerberus (N). (One of the labours of Hercules was to drag him up from the underworld.)
163 outward habit judge: Appearance (or clothing) reveals.
169 characters graven… brows: Signs indelibly written in your face (‘characters’ is accented on the second syllable).
170 stout aspect: Valiant appearance (‘aspect’ is accented on the second syllable).
187 portly: (Here) stately.
189 conduct: Guidance (accented on the second syllable).
194 merchants: Merchant ships.
stems: Timber prows.
199–200 Jove… heavens: Because Jupiter usurped the throne of heaven and, coincidentally, sometimes disguised himself (‘maskèd’) as a shepherd, Tamburlaine takes him as a precedent for his own aspirations. There may also be the suggestion that the gods began as human beings.
215 Should… state: Should offer to aggrandize us with dukedoms right now.
216 We think… exchange: We would think that a poor exchange.
225 resolvèd noble Scythians: Theridamas is surprised to find bar barians with these qualities.
243 Pylades and Orestes: See (N). When captured by the Taurians of Scythia, who wished to make a human sacrifice, the friends offered to die in each other’s place.
250 Shall want… pierced: I.e. I would gladly have my heart pierced.
258 For you… doubt: Tamburlaine is sure that Zenocrate too must have been won over.
ACT 2
Scene 1
1 Thus far: Cosroe has heard of Theridamas’s and Tamburlaine’s alliance (35–9) and is advancing to meet them at the ‘river Araris’ (63 and note).
8 lift: Lifted.
12 A pearl: I.e. his head.
15–17 fiery circles… throne: His eyes are like the heavenly spheres and bear the stars propitious to his fortune.
21 in folds… figure: When furrowed… prefigure.
27 sinewy: O’s snowy is probably an error for sinowy, a variant spelling.
29–30 the man / Should: The man who is destined to.
31 terms of life: Lively terms.
33 Nature… his stars: His natural gifts, his fortune and the influence of his stars all compete.
42 strait… port: Narrow… gate. Cf. Matthew 7:14: ‘Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life.’
43 palace: The image seems to be dictated by the topographical metaphor (and alliteration) of lines 40–44.
44 Proud… if: He will be very lucky if.
63 river Araris: Probably a mistake for the river Araxes in Persia, caused by an apparent reference to a river Araris in Virgil, Eclogue I, 61–2.
Scene 2
3–4 On… of: Both mean ‘because of.
10 Aurora: See (N). Mycetes threatens quick vengeance, at first light.
27 false: (Here) betray.
31 Albania: In Ortelius’s atlas, a province to the west of the Caspian Sea.
40 champian: Variant form of ‘champaign’, flat open country.
42 Which: I.e. the observers on horseback.
47–8 cruel brothers… dragons: In Greek mythology, when Cadmus sowed the earth with dragon’s teeth, armed warriors sprang up and then started to fight each other.
59–71 to entrap… Persia: A device recommended by sixteenth-century strategists. Cf. Tamburlaine’s use of his gold in 1.2.
Scene 3
2 approvèd: Proven (by experience).
5 I take… satisfaction: I am satisfied by your judgement.
7 oracles of heaven: Early texts omit of.
11–12 sway… in: Exercise some command over.
15–16 The host of Xerxes… Araris: The huge armies of Xerxes (see (N) and 1.1.13on) drank rivers, including the Araxes, dry. See Herodotus, Histories VII.21.
21 Cyclopian wars: The Cyclopes (N) who forged Jupiter’s thunder bolts are confused with the giants or Titans, both of whom made war on the Olympian gods.
25 working: (i) Moving, (ii) effective.
26 top: In all early texts, stop is nonsense.
33 and: The reading of the quarto, against O’s not.
37 she: Nemesis, the personification of divine vengeance for human presumption, whose temple was located at Rhamnus in Attica.
57 wings: I.e. the cross-piece of the cutlass (‘curtle-axe’, 55).
59–60 sure… assure: Apparently a disyllable and a trisyllable.
Scene 4
0.2 SD offering: Attempting
3 those were: Those who were.
9 the pin: It held the clout in place; to ‘cleave’ it was to hit the bull’s-eye.
11 close: Secretly.
12 far from: Uncharacteristic of.
18 give the lie: I.e. accuse me of lying.
22 witty: Wise.
25 when I see my time: When the occasion arises. Mycetes is trying to sound ‘witty’ (22).
41.1 SD Sound… battle: Give the signal to resume the battle.
Scene 5
0.4 SD presenting… crown: Having refused to take Mycetes’s crown in the previous scene, Tamburlaine now apparently presents it to Cosroe, who already has the one he acquired in 1.1.
20 embassage: A message by ambassador.
27 take Meander’s course: Do as Meander has done, i.e. change sides.
30 gratify… good: Repay your service.
33 And sought… deserved: And sought to honour your rank as it deserved.
37 Better replies: I.e. better rewards than mere words.
42 witless brother… lost: Cf. 1.1.119–21.
43 with fame and usury: For our glory and profit.
51 brave: Grand, glorious.
73 in greatest novelty: ‘No matter how new and rare’ (Jump 1967).
74 rest attemptless: Not make the attempt.
83 they: I.e. Techelles and Usumcasane.
85–6 the Turk… apace: The submission of the Sultan of the Turkish empire, the Pope (who presides over Western Christendom), the Sultan of Egypt (who rules Africa) and the Byzantine Emperor would, in effect, give Tamburlaine world domination.
89 before his room be hot: Before he has warmed up his throne.
92 purchase: (i) Undertaking, (ii) cost, (iii) advantage gained, plunder.
96 lose more labour: Cost us more labour.
100 turn him: For O’s turn his.
103 more warriors: The opportunity to gather more troops.
105 for me: As far as I am concerned.
Scene 6
2–6 giantly presumption… jaws: After the giants’ unsuccessful war against the gods, during which they piled mountains on top of one another in an attempt to reach the heavens, Jupiter imprisoned one of them (Enceladus or Typhon (N)) under Mount Etna (whence, supposedly, its volcanic fires).
13 doubtlessly resolve of: Fearlessly resolve to.
14 by profession: (i) Avowedly, (ii) as a vocation.
15 What: Whatsoever.
17 mould: (i) Earth, (ii) mould.
mettle: (i) Substance, (ii) metal.
19 Let us… minds: Let us adopt fit attitudes to encounter him.
25 sucked: Breathed (but like a baby suckling).
26–7 same proportion… Resolve: I.e. when we die, we will melt into the four elements whence we first came.
36–7 make… life: Determine the hateful end of my life.
40.2 SD Enter [the armies]: Some editors begin a new scene here, but the action is continuous. O’s Enter indicates that Cosroe and his forces leave the stage to fight the battle, and he returns in defeat with his conqueror.
The Complete Plays Page 55