52–69 The thirst… earthly crown: For a discussion of this speech see Headnote.
53 son of… Ops: Jupiter. Ops (N), his mother, was the goddess of earthly riches.
55 empyreal: (i) Empyrean (the highest heaven), (ii) imperial.
57 precedent: Perhaps with a pun on president (O’s spelling), one who presides, sits on the throne.
65 restless spheres: The constantly moving carriers of the heavenly bodies in Ptolemaic astronomy.
69 fruition: Enjoyment.
71 he: Anyone.
77 Neptune and Dis: Jupiter’s brothers. See (N).
82–90 bloodless body… life: According to ancient physiology, the removal of blood (heat and moisture) would cause a devastating imbalance of the bodily humours, leaving only cold and dryness.
90 tires on: Tears at (in falconry), alluding to the talons of the harpy (N).
ACT 3
Scene 1
0.1 SD BAJAZETH: Based on Beyazit I.
1 Barbary: The north coast of Africa, ruled by the ‘bassoes’ (pashas or bashaws) of Fez, Morocco and Algiers.
4 Presume a bickering with: Dare to attack.
10 ocean… Terrene: Atlantic… Mediterranean.
11–12 the moon… horns: I.e. at the full moon, when the tides are high.
13–14 Yet would… yield: Though confident that he could defeat them, Bajazeth is unwilling to engage an external enemy who would distract him from the siege of Constantinople.
25 coal-black sea: The Black Sea.
29 colours: Banners.
38–9 take… reclaimed: If the basso has not returned by the dawn of the fourth day, Bajazeth will take this as a sign of determined revolt by Tamburlaine.
46 stir your siege: (i) Lift the siege you are conducting, (ii) disturb your throne.
60 Carnon: Not identified. Perhaps ‘a confusion of the famous aqueduct of Constantinople with its equally famous Golden Horn, seeing that Carnon represents adequately the Turkish for horn’ (Seaton 1924).
63 countermand: (i) Control, (ii) forbid (the approach by sea).
65 Orcus’ gulf: Hell.
Scene 2
6 rape: Seizure.
11 queen of heaven: I.e. Juno.
13 since: Since then.
15 dyes… as they are: Gives me this lifeless pallor.
16 if… events: If my worst imaginings came true.
19 all… eye: ‘All that the moon beholds’ (Jump 1967).
27 despite: (Here) defiance.
30 but for necessity: Beyond a necessary pretence.
31 So: Provided that.
35 Agydas: The name is missing from all early texts.
40 fancy: Love.
45 facts: Deeds, crimes.
50–51 Muses’ song… Pierides: The Muses (goddesses of poetry and music) sang their finest song when challenged to a contest by the Pierides (N).
52 Minerva… Neptune: Athene (Minerva, goddess of wisdom) and Poseidon (Neptune, god of the sea) competed in their gifts to Attica to become the patron gods of the Athenians. Athene won and gave her name to the city. This contest is linked to that of the Muses with the Pierides in Ovid, Metamorphoses V, 302ff.
53 estimate: Sense of my own worth.
57 the young Arabian: Alcidamus, the King of Arabia, to whom Zenocrate was previously betrothed.
74 comets: Regarded as portents of impending doom.
76–87 As when… overthrow: An imitation of an epic simile.
77 Cimmerian: Black (the Cimmerians, in classical legend, lived in perpetual darkness in the far north).
80 enforcing thunderclaps: Thunder was sometimes attributed to the clashing of the winds.
82 sounds the main: Measures the depth of the ocean.
87.1 SD naked: Unsheathed.
99 stay: Await.
101 prolongèd fates: Longer life.
Scene 3
1 by this: By now.
2 Bithynia: See (N). Tamburlaine takes his stand in Asia Minor to await Bajazeth’s arrival from Constantinople.
3 See… comes: Spoken ironically. Tamburlaine contrasts Bajazeth’s ‘brags’ (3) with the non-appearance of his army.
5 He… hence: Does he think he can fight me and rescue you?
15 janizaries: An élite division of the Turkish infantry, but here imagined as cavalry.
16 Mauritanian: The province in north-west Africa was renowned for its horses.
20 expedition: ‘Speedy waging’ (Jump 1967).
38 rouse him… Europe: Drive Bajazeth out of Europe.
44 scourge… of God: Tamburlaine proleptically assumes the title he won for defeating the Turks. Note that it is associated with divine punishment for the Turks’ cruelties to Christians.
55 pirates of Argier: The cruelty of the Turks to their galley slaves causes them to be identified with the Barbary pirates who terrorized the Mediterranean.
58 make quick havoc: (i) Quickly devastate, (ii) make carnage of the living (‘quick’) bodies.
76 Alcoran: The Koran (al-Qur’ān).
104–5 Hercules… serpents: The infant Hercules first displayed his strength by strangling the serpents sent by Juno to kill him in the cradle.
109 y-sprung: The Middle English prefix to this past participle is rare in Marlowe. Cf. Tamburlaine, Part Two, 4.3.119 (a borrowing from Spenser).
119 paragon: (i) Paramour, consort, (ii) equal.
142 they: Bajazeth’s soldiers.
148 marshal: Direct (Marlowe may be comparing the swords to a marshal’s rod of office).
154 Pharsalia: The climactic battle of Pharsalus (48 BC) in which Pompey the Great was defeated by Julius Caesar. Marlowe’s spelling recalls the title of Lucan’s poem on the war, the first book of which he translated.
158 air: O’s lure seems impossible, but the emendation is awkward. Perhaps wound[ing] the senseless air, usually an emblem of futility, is here an index of Tamburlaine’s extraordinary powers. Some editors also emend our to your.
160–61 Victory… tent: Victory flies to Tamburlaine’s colours.
175 advocates: Attracted into the plural by association with Bajazeth and Zabina.
188.1 SD They sound… stay: I.e. trumpets sound offstage for the start of the battle, and then stop.
194 issue conqueror: Come out the winner.
213 soil: Ground on which the battle was fought. O’s foile is a misreading of long ‘s’.
215 strew: Are strewn over.
222 gat the best: Have got the upper hand.
229 terms: (i) Names, (ii) statuary busts mounted on pillars.
236 miscreants: The ‘infidels’ of Christian Europe.
248 pilling brigantines: Pirate ships used in plundering.
251–59 Asant… British shore: For the geographical details see (N).
While the Turkish fleet waits at Zacynthus (‘Asant’) in the Mediterranean, the Persian fleet will circumnavigate the globe. Joining forces at Gibraltar, they will dominate the Adantic seaboard of Europe.
273 Triumph: (i) Rejoice, (ii) hold a triumphal procession (see Introduction, pp. xvii–xviii).
ACT 4
Scene 1
1–3 Awake… down: The Sultan imagines that the sounds of the siege of Damascus which Tamburlaine is now conducting in Syria should be audible in Memphis in Egypt.
4 rogue of Volga: Tamburlaine, here identified with the area north and west of the Caspian Sea.
18 monstrous: Trisyllabic.
Gorgon: See (N); ‘prince of hell’ suggests this is not merely one of the classical gorgons (such as Medusa), but the devil Demogorgon (cf. Doctor Faustus, 3.19).
26–7 Environing… wood: The weapons of the men surrounding their banner (‘standard’) create the appearance of a thicket bristling with thorns.
51 spangled white: Decorated with silver spangles (?). We are asked to imagine an intenser flash of snowy white.
61 jetty: Jet-black.
68 See: See to it that.
71 fresh warning… us: Renewed notice to join us in
war.
Scene 2
3–4 sacrificing… blood: Perhaps a misunderstanding of Shi’ite Muslim penitential practices commemorating the murder of al-Hussein, grandson of the prophet, by the oppressive rulers of his day. Seaton (1929) found a possible source in François de Belleforest, Cosmographie Universelle (1575), II, 597.
5–6 every fixèd star… fens: The sun and stars were thought to draw up infectious vapours from bogs and fenland.
7 glorious: Boastful.
8–9 God… lamps: God, the prime mover, sets in motion the primum mobile, which in turn imparts its motion to the other heavenly spheres (see Aristotle, Metaphysics 12.6), including here spcifically that of the fixed stars.
27 god of hell: Pluto.
30 triple region of the air: The air was traditionally divided into three parts: the highest region heated by the sphere of fire and the movement of the heavenly spheres, the middle region cold, the lowest region heated by the reflection of the sun’s rays against the earth. Tamburlaine asks for all three to be translucent.
37 aspect: (i) Appearance, (ii) position and influence (of a heavenly body).
38 meridian line: The highest point of noon.
43–6 As when… earth: The traditional explanation of lightning.
49 Clymene’s brainsick son: The story (‘fame’) of Phaethon (N), son of Apollo and Clymene, is Tamburlaine’s climactic instance of fire in heaven.
50 brent: Burnt.
the axletree of heaven: The axis which was supposed to run through the centre of the earth and around which the heavenly bodies revolved.
52 fiery meteors: The weapons whizzing through the air will become blazing comets (portents of impending doom).
82 in again: Back into the cage.
96 Plato’s wondrous year: Plato’s Timaeus (39d) predicts a time when the planets will return to their original positions, and the present phase of the world will end.
103–4 Like… Memphian fields: I.e. like copies (‘shadows’) of the obelisks (‘Pyramides’: four syllables) of Memphis.
105 statue: A legendary golden statue of an eagle in Damascus (mentioned in the medieval romance Bevis of Hampton ), or perhaps of the ibis, the sacred bird of Egypt (cf. 4.3.37).
108 mask: (Here) dress (richly, as in a masque).
120 their: The streamers’.
Scene 3
1–6 Methinks… Aonian fields: See (N). The Sultan compares his march against Tamburlaine with the feats of classical hunters. Meleager, with help from the warriors of the Argolid in Greece, slew the monstrous Calydonian boar (but himself died as a consequence); Cephalus hunted the uncatchable Teumessian fox (rather than ‘wolf’), sent by Themis to punish the Thebans (‘Aonian’ = Greek) for the death of the Sphinx.
22 brave: (Here) defy.
37 Ibis: Sacred bird of the Egyptians, perhaps linked to 4.2.105. A mistake for Isis?
49 partial: Biased (in his favour).
Scene 4
0.2 SD all in scarlet: Philip Henslowe records payments for ‘Tamerlane’s breeches of crimson velvet’ (Henslowe’s Diary, ed.
R. A. Foakes and R. T. Rickert (Cambridge, 1961), p. 322).
10 stomach: (i) Hunger, (ii) anger.
17–22 Ye Furies… dish: See (N). Bajazeth asks the goddesses of vengeance for a poison from Hell (‘Avernus’ pool’), or for the venom of the snakes from the Lernean swamp.
17 mask: (Here) hide.
24 Procne: She fed her son to her husband. See (N).
31 proper: Own.
44 brawns… carbonadoes: Muscles… grilled strips of meat.
59 while: Until.
63–4 consort of music: (i) Musical harmony, (ii) group of musicians.
79 triple region: I.e. Africa, Asia and Europe.
80 trace: (i) Travel, traverse, (ii) chart.
81 pen: I.e. sword.
reduce them to: (i) Transform them into, (ii) subjugate them.
85 the perpendicular: In the old ‘T-in-O’ maps – so called because their division of the world into three regions (Asia in the upper part of the circle, Africa in the lower left-hand part, and Europe in the lower right) formed a‘T’ inside an ‘O’ – the T’s downstroke passed through Jerusalem, the centre of the world. Or ‘perpendicular’ = first meridian of longitude.
88 still: Forever.
91 friends: Kinsmen.
98 bloody humours: Traditional physiology maintained that health depended on the balance of the four bodily fluids, or ‘humours’ (blood, phlegm, choler, bile). Here, Bajazeth’s need for food is so severe that his stomach feeds on his own blood; paradoxically, the body’s attempt to preserve itself actually hastens death.
102–3 looking… enlarge us: Hoping some kindly force will pity us and set us free.
107 Soft: Stay, wait.
108 surfeit: Become ill from over-eating.
110.1 SD second course of crowns: Either real crowns, or sweetmeats in the shape of them.
127–9 As far… torrid zone: From the frozen north to the far east, and then to the tropics.
127 plage: Region (emended from O’s place: cf. Part Two 1.1.68).
128 bower: O reads hower, corrected in later octavos and quarto.
131 valour: Emending O’s value.
134 they… she investeth: Those are worthy whom she (virtue or honour) makes.
135 so well vouchsafed: So graciously granted (them).
137 states: Ranks.
142 underneath our feet: In the southern hemisphere.
ACT 5
Scene 1
0.2 SD branches of laurel: The ‘signs of victory’ of line 55.
13 I fear… sword: I fear that his personal practice in war.
14 parcel: An essential part.
20 unspotted: Virginal.
21 blubbered… hearty: Tear-stained… heart-felt.
25–6 tears… and hearts: I.e. the Virgins wept tears of blood in their earlier petitions to the Governor. Cf. line 85.
27 made: I.e. being.
30 only danger: The threat (as distinct from the present certainty) of disaster.
31 warrants: Assurances (referring to the black banners).
40 in that: Considering that.
45 overweighing: Overruling (continuing the imagery of the ‘balance’, lines 41–42).
46 qualify: Mitigate, moderate.
49 holy patrons: Divine protectors.
54 Convey events… heart: Suggest to him the idea of a merciful resolution.
55 signs of victory: I.e. the laurel branches they are holding.
58 shadow: Conceal.
64 turtles: Turtle-doves.
65 be first: Be the first who.
68–70 when first… eyes: A main verb must be understood, e.g. ‘when first my milk-white flags appeared’.
77 the holy Graces: Deities of gracious kindness.
87 Whose… with conceit: Whose cheeks and hearts, so pained by the thought. In the extraordinarily suspended syntax of this speech, the ‘cheeks and hearts’ govern ‘wax’ (91).
88 never-stayèd arm: To stay one’s arm = to spare.
89–90 prevent… bear: Deprive their souls of heavens of comfort which they might still enjoy in old age.
100 prostrate service: Offer of service, delivered in a state of prostration (perhaps literally prostrating themselves).
102 of rule: In a position of authority.
103–5 And wished… diadem: And wished that they might have the opportunity, as worthy subjects, to invest you with the crown of Egypt.
111–12 For… slicing edge: Death has jurisdiction (like a judge on his ‘circuit’) wherever Tamburlaine swings his sword.
115 fleshless body: Death is usually represented as a skeleton.
117 charge: Charge at, with a cruel pun on ‘charge’ = order (116).
118 scarlet: (i) The robes of a judge, (ii) blood.
122 observations: Observances, rituals.
123 Gihon: The river Gihon, in Eden (Genesis 2:13), identified with the Nile. Its
‘golden waves’ (also mentioned by Spenser, Faerie Queene I.vii.43) perhaps arise from confusion with the gold of the river Pison (Genesis 2:11–12).
125 god of arms: Mars, Venus’ lover.
127 peremptory: (Stressed on the first and third syllables) absolute.
133 Thessalian: Thessaly was renowned as a place of magic and drugs. mithridate: An antidote; here used in the sense of ‘poison’.
135–90 Ah, fair Zenocrate… nobility: On the language of this speech, see Headnote, pp. 579–80.
137 passion: (Here) sorrow, compassion.
142 resolvèd pearl: I.e. the dew.
144–5 Beauty… ivory pen: I.e. Zenocrate is so beautiful that Beauty herself (here substituted for Memory as the origin of poetry) is reduced to the role of commentator on the poem of her face.
146–50 Taking instructions… light: I.e. Zenocrate’s eyes illuminate the night skies (but the construction is very loose).
147 Ebena: Night (literally, ‘the ebony one’), Marlowe’s coinage.
151–9 There angels… Zenocrate: Tamburlaine is tempted to spare his victims by the angelic beauty of Zenocrate, whose power to defeat him he fears more than any of his earlier enemies.
158 conceit of foil: The thought of defeat.
160 What is beauty… then?: My suffering demands, ‘What is beauty (that it can cause such suffering)?’
162 fed the feeling: Described precisely (?). Writing about one’s emotion increases the feeling it describes (perhaps with a pun on the ‘feeding’ of a pen with ink).
165 still: Distil.
169 period: (i) Sentence, (ii) end, goal.
173 Which… can digest: Which no power can reduce to words.
179 whose instinct: The instinct for which.
182 beat on his conceits: Hammer on his thoughts.
183 conceiving and subduing, both: Both experiencing and resisting these thoughts.
184–90 That which… nobility: Love has caused the gods to become shepherds, and though Tamburlaine feels it, he is determined by overcoming it to show that though born a shepherd he possesses a higher nobility.
184 stopped the tempest: Some editors emend to stooped the topmost.
187 strewèd weeds: Herbs and rushes scattered on the floor.
201 no way but one: The proverbial phrase (Tilley W148) implies, ‘nothing but disaster’, but Tamburlaine (202) turns the phrase to his own account: If there can be only one outcome, let us be the winners.
The Complete Plays Page 56