 | The Second Part of The Bloody Conquests of Mighty Tamburlaine |  |
Scæna. I.
Alarme: Amyras and Celebinus, issues from the tent where Caliphas sits a sleepe.Now in their glories shine the golden crownes
Of these proud Turks, much like so many suns
That halfe dismay the maiesty of heauen:
Now brother follow we our fathers sword,
That flies with fury swifter than our thoughts,
And cuts down armies with his conquerings wings,
Cel.
Call foorth our laisie brother from the tent,
For if my father misse him in the field,
Wrath kindled in the furnace of his breast,
Wil send a deadly lightening to his heart.
Amy.
Brother, ho, what, giuen so much to sleep
You cannot leaue it, when our enemies drums
And ratling cannons thunder in our eares
Our proper ruine, and our fathers foile?
Cal.
Away ye fools, my father needs not me,
Nor you in faith, but that you wil be thought
More childish valourous than manly wise:
If halfe our campe should sit and sleepe with me,
My father ware enough to scar the foe:
You doo dishonor to his maiesty,
To think our helps will doe him any good.
Amy.
What, dar'st thou then be absent frō the fight,
Knowing my father hates thy cowardise,
And oft hath warn'd thee to be stil in field,
When he himselfe amidst the thickest troopes
Beats downe our foes to flesh our taintlesse swords.
Cal.
I know sir, what it is to kil a man,
I take no pleasure to be murtherous,
Nor care for blood when wine wil quench my thirst.
Cel.
O cowardly boy, fie for shame, come foorth.
Thou doost dishonor manhood, and thy house.
Cal.
Goe, goe tall stripling, fight you for vs both,
And take my other toward brother here,
For person like to prooue a second Mars,
Twill please my mind as wel to heare both you
Haue won a heape of honor in the field,
And left your slender carkasses behind,
As if I lay with you for company.
Amy.
You wil not goe then?
Cal
You say true.
Amy.
Were all the lofty mounts of Zona mundi,
That fill the midst of farthest Tartary,
Turn'd into pearle and proffered for my stay,
I would not bide the furie of my father:
When made a victor in these hautie arms.
He comes and findes his sonnes haue had no shares
In all the honors he proposde for vs.
Cal.
Take you the honor, I will take my ease,
My wisedome shall excuse my cowardise:
I goe into the field before I need?
Alarme, and Amy. and Celeb. run in.
The bullets fly at random where they list.
And should I goe and kill a thousand men,
I were as soone rewarded with a shot,
And sooner far than he that neuer fights.
And should I goe and do nor harme nor good,
I might haue harme, which all the good I haue
Ioin'd with my fathers crowne would neuer cure.
Perd.
Here my Lord.
Cal.
Come, thou and I wil goe to cardes to driue
away the time.
Per.
Content my Lord, but what shal we play for?
Cal.
Who shal kisse the fairest of the Turkes Concubines
first, when my father hath conquered them.
Per.
Agreed yfaith.
They play.
Cal.
They say I am a coward, (Perdicas) and I
feare as litle their tara, tantaras, their swordes or their
cannons, as I doe a naked Lady in a net of golde, and
for feare I should be affraid, would put it off and come
to bed with me.
Per.
Such a feare (my Lord) would neuer make yee retire.
Cal.
I would my father would let me be put in the
front of such a battaile once, to trie my valour.
What a coyle they keepe, I beleeue there will be some
hurt done anon amongst them.
Enter Tamburlain, Theridamas, Techelles, Vsumeasane, Amyras, Celebinus, leading the Turkish kings.
Tam.
See now ye slaues, my childrē stoops your pride
And leads your glories sheep-like to the sword.
Bring them my boyes, and tel me if the warres
Be not a life that may illustrate Gods,
And tickle not your Spirits with desire
Stil to be train'd in armes and chiualry?
Amy.
Shal we let goe these kings again my Lord
To gather greater numbers gainst our power,
That they may say, it is not chance doth this,
tamb.
No, no Amyras, tempt not Fortune so,
Cherish thy valour stil with fresh supplies:
And glut it not with stale and daunted foes,
But wher's this coward, villaine, not my sonne,
But traitor to my name and maiesty.
He goes in and brings him out.
Image of sloth, and and picture of a slaue,
The obloquie and skorne of my renowne,
How may my hart, thus fired with mine eies,
Wounded with shame, and kill'd with discontent,
Shrowd any thought may holde my striuing hands
From martiall iustice on thy wretched soule.
ther.
Yet pardon him I pray your Maiesty.
tech. & Vsu.
Let al of vs intreat your highnesse pardon
tam.
Stand vp, ye base vnworthy souldiers,
Know ye not yet the argument of Armes?
Amy.
Good my Lord, let him be forgiuen for once,
And we wil force him to the field hereafter.
tam.
Stand vp my boyes, and I wil teach ye arms,
And what the iealousie of warres must doe.
O Samarcanda, where I breathed first,
And ioy'd the fire of this martiall flesh,
Blush, blush faire citie, at thine honors foile,
And shame of nature with Iaertis streame,
Embracing thee with deepest of his loue,
Can neuer wash from thy distained browes.
Here Ioue, receiue his fainting soule againe,
A Forme not meet to giue that subiect essence,
Whose matter is the flesh of Tamburlain,
Wherein an incorporeall spirit mooues,
Made of the mould whereof thy selfe consists.
Ready to leuie power against thy throne,
That I might mooue the turning Spheares of heauē,
For earth and al this aery region
Cannot containe the state of Tamburlaine.
By Mahomet, thy mighty friend I sweare,
In sending to my issue such a soule,
Created of the massy dregges of earth,
The scum and tartar of the Elements,
Wherein was neither corrage, strength or wit,
But follie, sloth, and damned idlenesse:
Thou hast procur'd a greater enemie,
Than he that darted mountaines at thy head,
Shaking the burthen mighty Atlas beares:
Whereat thou trembling hid'st thee in the aire.
Cloth'd with a pitchy cloud for being seene.
And now ye cankred curres of Asia,
That will not see the strength of Tamburlaine,
Although it shine as brightly as the Sun.
Now you shal feele the strength of Tamburlain,
And by the state of his supremacie,
Approoue the difference twixt himself and you.
Orc.
Thou shewest the difference twixt our selues and thee.
In this thy barbarous damned tyranny.
Ier.
Thy victories are growne so violent,
That shortly heauen, fild with the meteors
Of blood and fire thy tyrannies haue made,
Will poure down blood and fire on thy head:
Whose scalding drops wil pierce thy seething braines,
And with our bloods, reuenge our bloods on thee.
Tamb.
Uillaines, these terrours and these tyrannies
I execute, enioin'd me from aboue:
To scourge the pride of such as heauen abhors,
Nor am I made Arch-monark of the world,
Crown'd and inuested by the hand of Ioue,
For deeds of bounty or nobility:
But since I exercise a greater name,
The Scourge of God and terrour of the world,
I must apply my selfe to fit those tearmes,
In war, in blood, in death, in crueltie,
And plague such Pesants as resisting me,
The power of heauens eternall maiesty.
Theridamas, techelles, and Casane,
Ransacke the tents and the pauilions
Of these proud Turks, and take their Concubines.
Making them burie this effeminate brat,
For not a common Souldier shall defile
His manly fingers with so faint a boy.
Then bring those Turkish harlots to my tent,
And Ile dispose them as it likes me best,
Meane while take him in.
Soul.
We will my Lord.
Ier.
O damned monster, nay a Feend of Hell,
Whose cruelties are not so harsh as thine,
Nor yet imposd, with such a bitter hate.
Orc.
Reuenge it Radamanth and Eacus,
And let your hates extended in his paines,
Expell the hate wherewith he paines our soules.
treb.
May neuer day giue vertue to his eies,
Whose sight composde of furie and of fire
Doth send such sterne affections to his heart,
Sor.
May neuer spirit, vaine or Artier feed
But (wanting moisture and remorsefull blood)
Drie vp with anger, and consume with heat.
tam.
Wel, bark ye dogs, Ile bridle al your tongues
And bind them close with bits of burnisht steele,
Downe to the channels of your hatefull throats,
And with the paines my rigour shall inflict,
Ile make ye roare, that earth may eccho foorth
The far resounding torments ye sustaine,
As when an heard of lusty Cymbrian Buls,
Run mourning round about, the Femals misse,
And stung with furie of their following,
Fill all the aire with troublous bellowing:
I will with Engines, neuer exercisde,
Conquer, sacke, and vtterly consume
Your cities and your golden pallaces,
And with the flames that beat against the clowdes
Incense the heauens. and make the starres to melt,
As if they were the teares of Mahomet
For hot consumption of his countries pride:
And til by vision, or by speach I heare
Immortall Ioue say, Cease my Tamburlaine,
I will persist a terrour to the world,
Making the Meteors, that like armed men
Are seene to march vpon the towers of heauen,
Run tilting round about the firmament,
And breake their burning Lances in the aire,
For honor of my woondrous victories.
Come bring them in to our Pauilion.
Exeunt.
| The Second Part of The Bloody Conquests of Mighty Tamburlaine | |