 | The Second Part of The Bloody Conquests of Mighty Tamburlaine |  |
Scæna. I,
Techelles, Theridamas and their traine.Therid.
Thus haue wee martcht Northwarde from Tamburlaine,
Unto the frontier point of Soria:
And this is Balsera their chiefest hold,
Wherein is all the treasure of the land.
tech.
Then let vs bring our light Artilery,
Minions, Fauknets, and Sakars to the trench,
And enter in, to seaze vpon the gold:
How say ye Souldiers, Shal we not?
Soul.
Yes, my Lord, yes, come lets about it,
ther.
But stay a while, summon a parle, Drum,
It may be they will yeeld it quietly,
Knowing two kings, the friend to tamburlain,
Stand at the walles, with such a mighty power.
Summon the battell.
Captaine with his wife and sonne.
Cap.
What requier you my maisters?
ther.
Captaine, that thou yeeld vp thy hold to vs.
Cap.
To you? Why, do you thinke me weary of it?
Tech.
Nay Captain, thou art weary of thy life,
If thou withstand the friends of Tamburlain.
ther.
These Pioners of Argier in Affrica,
Euen in the cannons face shall raise a hill
Of earth and fagots higher than thy Fort,
And ouer thy Argins and couered waies
Shal play vpon the bulwarks of thy hold
Uolleies of ordinance til the breach be made,
That with his ruine fils vp all the trench.
And when we enter in, not heauen it selfe
Shall ransome thee, thy wife and family.
Tech.
Captaine, these Moores shall cut the leaden pipes,
That bring fresh water to thy men and thee,
And lie in trench before thy castle walles:
That no supply of victuall shall come in,
Nor issue foorth, but they shall die:
And therefore Captaine, yeeld it quietly.
Were you that are the friends of Tamburlain
Brothers to holy Mahomet himselfe,
I would not yeeld it: therefore doo your worst.
Raise mounts, batter, intrench, and vndermine,
Cut off the water, all conuoies that can,
Yet I am resolute, and so farewell.
ther.
Pioners away, and where I stuck the stake,
Intrench with those dimensions I prescribed:
Cast vp the earth towards the castle wall,
Which til it may defend you, labour low:
And few or none shall perish by their shot.
Pion.
We will my Lord.
Exeunt.
Tech.
A hundred horse shall scout about the plaines
To spie what force comes to relieue the holde.
Both we (theridamas) wil intrench our men,
And with the Iacobs staffe measure the height
And distance of the castle from the trench,
That we may know if our artillery
Will carie full point blancke vnto their wals.
ther.
Then see the bringing of our ordinance
Along the trench into the battery,
Where we will haue Galions of sixe foot broad,
To saue our Cannoniers from musket shot,
Betwixt which, shall our ordinance thunder foorth,
And with the breaches fall, smoake, fire, and dust,
The cracke, the Ecchoe and the souldiers crie
Make deafe the aire, and dim the Christall Sky.
tech.
Trumpets and drums, alarum presently,
And souldiers play the men, the holds is yours.
Enter the Captaine with his wife and sonne.
Come good my Lord, & let vs haste frō hence
Along the caue that leads beyond the foe,
No hope is left to saue this conquered hold.
Cap.
A deadly bullet gliding through my side,
Lies heauy on my heart, I cannot liue.
I feele my liuer pierc'd and all my vaines,
That there begin and nourish euery part,
Mangled and torne, and all my entrals bath'd
In blood that straineth from their orifex.
Farewell sweet wife, sweet son farewell, I die.
Olym.
Death, whether art thou gone that both we liue?
Come back again (sweet death) & strike vs both:
One minute end our daies, and one sepulcher
Containe our bodies: death, why comm'st thou not?
Wel, this must be the messenger for thee,
Now vgly death stretch out thy Sable wings,
And carie both our soules, where his remaines.
Tell me sweet boie, art thou content to die?
These barbarous Scythians full of cruelty,
And Moores, in whom was neuer pitie found,
Will hew vs peecemeale, put vs to the wheele,
Or els inuent some torture worse than that,
Therefore die by thy louing mothers hand,
Who gently now wil lance thy Iuory throat,
And quickly rid thee both of paine and life.
Son.
Mother dispatch me, or Ile kil my selfe,
For think ye I can liue, and see him dead?
Giue me your knife, good mother) or strike home:
The Scythians shall not tyrannise on me.
Sweet mother strike, that I may meet my father.
She stabs him.
Olym.
Ah sacred Mahomet, if this be sin,
And purge my soule before it come to thee.
Entert Theridamas, Techelles and all their traine.
ther.
How now Madam, what are you doing?
Olim.
Killing my selfe, as I haue done my sonne,
Whose body with his fathers I haue burnt,
Least cruell Scythians should dismember him.
tech.
Twas brauely done, and like a souldiers wife,
Thou shalt with vs to Tamburlaine the great,
Who when he heares how resolute thou wert,
Wil match thee with a viceroy or a king.
Olym.
My Lord deceast, was dearer vnto me,
Than any Uiceroy, King or Emperour.
And for his sake here will I end my daies.
ther.
But Lady goe with vs to Tamburlaine,
And thou shalt see a man greater than Mahomet.
In whose high lookes is much more maiesty
Than from the Concaue superficies.
Of Ioues vast pallace the imperiall Orbe,
Unto the shinining bower where Cynthia sits,
Like louely thetis in a Christall robe,
That treadeth Fortune vnderneath his feete,
And makes the mighty God of armes his slaue:
On whom death and the fatall sisters waite,
With naked swords and scarlet liueries:
Before whom (mounted on a Lions backe)
Rhammusia beares a helmet ful of blood,
And strowes the way with braines of slaughtered men:
By whose proud side the vgly furies run.
Ouer whose Zenith cloth'd in windy aire,
And Eagles wings ioin'd to her feathered breast,
Fame houereth, sounding of her golden Trumpe:
That to the aduerse poles of that straight line,
Which measureth the glorious frame of heauen,
The name of mightie Tamburlain is spread:
And him faire Lady shall thy eies behold. Come.
Olim
Take pitie of a Ladies ruthfull teares,
That humbly craues vpon her knees to stay,
And cast her bodie in the burning flame,
That feeds vpon her sonnes and husbands flesh.
tech.
Madam, sooner shall fire consume vs both,
Then scortch a face so beautiful as this.
In frame of which, Nature hath shewed more skill,
Than when she gaue eternall Chaos forme,
Drawing from it the shining Lamps of heauen.
ther.
Madam, I am so far in loue with you,
That you must goe with vs, no remedy.
Olim.
Then carie me I care not where you will,
And let the end of this my fatall iourney,
Be likewise end to my accursed life.
tech.
No Madam, but the beginning of your ioy,
Come willinglie, therfore.
ther.
Souldiers now let vs meet the Generall,
Who by this time is at Natolia,
Ready to charge the army of the Turke.
The gold, the siluer, and the pearle ye got,
Rifling this Fort, deuide in equall shares:
This Lady shall haue twice so much againe,
Out of the coffers of our treasurie.
Exeunt.
| The Second Part of The Bloody Conquests of Mighty Tamburlaine | |