Tamburlaine the Great Volume Ii Part 8

Enter TAMBURLAINE, THERIDAMAS, TECh.e.l.lES, USUMCASANE; AMYRAS and CELEBINUS leading in ORCANES, and the KINGS OF JERUSALEM, TREBIZON, and SORIA; and SOLDIERS.

TAMBURLAINE.

See now, ye [188] slaves, my children stoop your pride, [189]

And lead your bodies [190] sheep-like to the sword!-- Bring them, my boys, and tell me if the wars Be not a life that may ill.u.s.trate G.o.ds, And tickle not your spirits with desire Still to be train'd in arms and chivalry?

AMYRAS. Shall we let go these kings again, my lord, To gather greater numbers 'gainst our power, That they may say, it is not chance doth this, But matchless strength and magnanimity?

TAMBURLAINE. No, no, Amyras; tempt not Fortune so: Cherish thy valour still with fresh supplies, And glut it not with stale and daunted foes.

But where's this coward villain, not my son, But traitor to my name and majesty?

[He goes in and brings CALYPHAS out.]

Image of sloth, and picture of a slave, The obloquy and scorn of my renown!

How may my heart, thus fired with mine [191] eyes, Wounded with shame and kill'd with discontent, Shroud any thought may [192] hold my striving hands ]From martial justice on thy wretched soul?

THERIDAMAS. Yet pardon him, I pray your majesty.

TECh.e.l.lES and USUMCASANE.

Let all of us entreat your highness' pardon.

TAMBURLAINE. Stand up, [193] ye base, unworthy soldiers!

Know ye not yet the argument of arms?

AMYRAS. Good my lord, let him be forgiven for once, [194]

And we will force him to the field hereafter.

TAMBURLAINE. Stand up, my boys, and I will teach ye arms, And what the jealousy of wars must do.-- O Samarcanda, where I breathed first, And joy'd the fire of this martial [195] flesh, Blush, blush, fair city, at thine [196] honour's foil, And shame of nature, which [197] Jaertis' [198] stream, Embracing thee with deepest of his love, Can never wash from thy distained brows!-- Here, Jove, receive his fainting soul again; A form not meet to give that subject essence Whose matter is the flesh of Tamburlaine, Wherein an incorporeal [199] spirit moves, Made of the mould whereof thyself consists, Which makes me valiant, proud, ambitious, Ready to levy power against thy throne, That I might move the turning spheres of heaven; For earth and all this airy region Cannot contain the state of Tamburlaine.

[Stabs CALYPHAS.]

By Mahomet, thy mighty friend, I swear, In sending to my issue such a soul, Created of the ma.s.sy dregs of earth, The sc.u.m and tartar of the elements, Wherein was neither courage, strength, or wit, But folly, sloth, and d.a.m.ned idleness, Thou hast procur'd a greater enemy Than he that darted mountains at thy head, Shaking the burden mighty Atlas bears, Whereat thou trembling hidd'st thee in the air, Cloth'd with a pitchy cloud for being seen.-- [200]

And now, ye canker'd curs of Asia, That will not see the strength of Tamburlaine, Although it shine as brightly as the sun, Now you shall [201] feel the strength of Tamburlaine, And, by the state of his supremacy, Approve [202] the difference 'twixt himself and you.

ORCANES. Thou shew'st the difference 'twixt ourselves and thee, In this thy barbarous d.a.m.ned tyranny.

KING OF JERUSALEM. Thy victories are grown so violent, That shortly heaven, fill'd with the meteors Of blood and fire thy tyrannies have made, Will pour down blood and fire on thy head, Whose scalding drops will pierce thy seething brains, And, with our bloods, revenge our bloods [203] on thee.

TAMBURLAINE. Villains, these terrors, and these tyrannies (If tyrannies war's justice ye repute), I execute, enjoin'd me from above, To scourge the pride of such as Heaven abhors; Nor am I made arch-monarch of the world, Crown'd and invested by the hand of Jove, For deeds of bounty or n.o.bility; But, since I exercise a greater name, The scourge of G.o.d and terror of the world, I must apply myself to fit those terms, In war, in blood, in death, in cruelty, And plague such peasants [204] as resist in [205] me The power of Heaven's eternal majesty.-- Theridamas, Tech.e.l.les, and Casane, [206]

Ransack the tents and the pavilions Of these proud Turks, and take their concubines, Making them bury this effeminate brat; For not a common soldier shall defile His manly fingers with so faint a boy: Then bring those Turkish harlots to my tent, And I'll dispose them as it likes me best.-- Meanwhile, take him in.

SOLDIERS. We will, my lord.

[Exeunt with the body of CALYPHAS.]

KING OF JERUSALEM. O d.a.m.ned monster! nay, a fiend of h.e.l.l, Whose cruelties are not so harsh as thine, Nor yet impos'd with such a bitter hate!

ORCANES. Revenge it, [207] Rhadamanth and Aeacus, And let your hates, extended in his pains, Excel [208] the hate wherewith he pains our souls!

KING OF TREBIZON. May never day give virtue to his eyes, Whose sight, compos'd of fury and of fire, Doth send such stern affections to his heart!

KING OF SORIA. May never spirit, vein, or artier, [209] feed The cursed substance of that cruel heart; But, wanting moisture and remorseful [210] blood, Dry up with anger, and consume with heat!

TAMBURLAINE. Well, bark, ye dogs: I'll bridle all your tongues, And bind them close with bits of burnish'd steel, Down to the channels of your hateful throats; And, with the pains my rigour shall inflict, I'll make ye roar, that earth may echo forth The far-resounding torments ye sustain; As when an herd of l.u.s.ty Cimbrian bulls Run mourning round about the females' miss, [211]

And, stung with fury of their following, Fill all the air with troublous bellowing.

I will, with engines never exercis'd, Conquer, sack, and utterly consume Your cities and your golden palaces, And, with the flames that beat against the clouds, Incense the heavens, and make the stars to melt, As if they were the tears of Mahomet For hot consumption of his country's pride; And, till by vision or by speech I hear Immortal Jove say "Cease, my Tamburlaine,"

I will persist a terror to the world, Making the meteors (that, like armed men, Are seen to march upon the towers of heaven) Run tilting round about the firmament, And break their burning lances in the air, For honour of my wondrous victories.-- Come, bring them in to our pavilion.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE II.

Enter OLYMPIA.

OLYMPIA. Distress'd Olympia, whose weeping eyes, Since thy arrival here, behold [212] no sun, But, clos'd within the compa.s.s of a [213] tent, Have [214] stain'd thy cheeks, and made thee look like death, Devise some means to rid thee of thy life, Rather than yield to his detested suit, Whose drift is only to dishonour thee; And, since this earth, dew'd with thy brinish tears, Affords no herbs whose taste may poison thee, Nor yet this air, beat often with thy sighs, Contagious smells and vapours to infect thee, Nor thy close cave a sword to murder thee, Let this invention be the instrument.

Enter THERIDAMAS.

THERIDAMAS. Well met, Olympia: I sought thee in my tent, But, when I saw the place obscure and dark, Which with thy beauty thou wast wont to light, Enrag'd, I ran about the fields for thee, Supposing amorous Jove had sent his son, The winged Hermes, to convey thee hence; But now I find thee, and that fear is past, Tell me, Olympia, wilt thou grant my suit?

OLYMPIA. My lord and husband's death, with my sweet son's, (With whom I buried all affections Save grief and sorrow, which torment my heart,) Forbids my mind to entertain a thought That tends to love, but meditate on death, A fitter subject for a pensive soul.

THERIDAMAS. Olympia, pity him in whom thy looks Have greater operation and more force Than Cynthia's in the watery wilderness; For with thy view my joys are at the full, And ebb again as thou depart'st from me.

OLYMPIA. Ah, pity me, my lord, and draw your sword, Making a pa.s.sage for my troubled soul, Which beats against this prison to get out, And meet my husband and my loving son!

THERIDAMAS. Nothing but still thy husband and thy son?

Leave this, my love, and listen more to me: Thou shalt be stately queen of fair Argier; And, cloth'd in costly cloth of ma.s.sy gold, Upon the marble turrets of my court Sit like to Venus in her chair of state, Commanding all thy princely eye desires; And I will cast off arms to [215] sit with thee, Spending my life in sweet discourse of love.

OLYMPIA. No such discourse is pleasant in [216] mine ears, But that where every period ends with death, And every line begins with death again: I cannot love, to be an emperess.

THERIDAMAS. Nay, lady, then, if nothing will prevail, I'll use some other means to make you yield: Such is the sudden fury of my love, I must and will be pleas'd, and you shall yield: Come to the tent again.

OLYMPIA. Stay now, my lord; and, will you [217] save my honour, I'll give your grace a present of such price As all the world can not afford the like.

THERIDAMAS. What is it?

OLYMPIA. An ointment which a cunning alchymist Distilled from the purest balsamum And simplest extracts of all minerals, In which the essential form of marble stone, Temper'd by science metaphysical, And spells of magic from the mouths [218] of spirits, With which if you but 'noint your tender skin, Nor pistol, sword, nor lance, can pierce your flesh.

THERIDAMAS. Why, madam, think you to mock me thus palpably?

OLYMPIA. To prove it, I will 'noint my naked throat, Which when you stab, look on your weapon's point, And you shall see't rebated [219] with the blow.

THERIDAMAS. Why gave you not your husband some of it, If you lov'd him, and it so precious?

OLYMPIA. My purpose was, my lord, to spend it so, But was prevented by his sudden end; And for a present easy proof thereof, [220]

That I dissemble not, try it on me.

THERIDAMAS. I will, Olympia, and will [221] keep it for The richest present of this eastern world.

[She anoints her throat. [222]]

OLYMPIA. Now stab, my lord, and mark your weapon's point, That will be blunted if the blow be great.