 | The Second Part of The Bloody Conquests of Mighty Tamburlaine |  |
Scæna. 6.
Theridamas, Techelles, Vsumeasane.Weepe heauens, and vanish into liquid teares
Fal starres that gouerne his natiuity,
And sommon al the shining lamps of heauen
To cast their bootlesse fires to the earth.
And shed their feble influence in the aire.
Muffle your beauties with eternall clowdes,
For hell and darknesse pitch their pitchy tentes,
And Death with armies of Cymerian spirits
Now in defiance of that woonted loue,
Your sacred vertues pour'd vpon his throne,
And made his state an honor to the heauens,
These cowards inuisiblie assaile hys soule,
And threaten conquest on our Soueraigne:
But if he die, your glories are disgrac'd,
Earth droopes and saies, that hell in heauen is plac'd.
tech.
O then ye Powers that sway eternal seates,
And guide this massy substance of the earthe,
If you retaine desert of holinesse,
As your supreame estates instruct our thoughtes,
Be not inconstant, carelesse of your fame,
Beare not the burthen of your enemies ioyes,
Triumphing in his fall whom you aduaunst,
But as his birth, life, health and maiesty
Were strangely blest and gouerned by heauen,
So honour heauen til heauen dissolued be,
His byrth, his life, his health and maiesty.
Cas..
Blush heauen to loose the honor of thy name,
To see thy foot-stoole set vpon thy head,
And let no basenesse in thy haughty breast,
Sustaine a shame of such inexcellence:
To see the deuils mount in Angels throanes,
And Angels diue into the pooles of hell.
And though they think their painfull date is out,
And that their power is puissant as Ioues,
Which makes them manage armes against thy state,
Yet make them feele the strength of Tamburlain,
Thy instrument and note of Maisty.
Is greater far, than they can thus subdue.
For if he die, thy glorie is disgrac'd,
tam.
What daring God torments my body thus,
And seeks to conquer mighty Tamburlaine,
Shall sicknesse prooue me now to be a man,
That haue bene tearm'd the terrour of the world?
Techelles and the rest, come take your swords,
And threaten him whose hand afflicts my soul,
Come let vs march against the powers of heauen,
And set blacke streamers in the firmament,
To signifie the slaughter of the Gods,
Ah friends, what shal I doe I cannot stand,
Come carie me to war against the Gods,
That thus inuie the health of Tamburlaine,
ther.
Ah good my Lord, leaue these impatient words,
Which ad much danger to your malladie.
tam.
Why shal I sit and languish in this paine,
No, strike the drums, and in reuenge of this,
Come let vs chardge our speares and pierce his breast,
Whose shoulders beare the Axis of the world,
That if I perish, heauen and earth may fade,
theridamas, haste to the court of Ioue,
Will him to send Apollo hether straight,
To cure me, or Ile fetch him downe my selfe.
tech.
Sit stil my gratious Lord, this griefe wil cease.
And cannot last, it is so violent.
tam.
Not last techelles, no, for I shall die,
See where my slaue, the vglie monster death
Shaking and quiuering, pale and wan for feare,
Stands aiming at me with his murthering dart,
Who flies away at euery glance I giue,
And when I look away, comes stealing on:
Uillaine away, and hie thee to the field,
With soules of thousand mangled carkasses,
Looke where he goes, but see, he comes againe
Because I stay, techelles let vs march,
And weary Death with bearing soules to hell.
Phi.
Pleaseth your Maiesty to drink this potion.
Which wil abate the furie of your fit,
And cause some milder spirits gouerne you.
tam.
Tel me, what think you of my sicknes now?
Phi.
I view'd your vrine, and the Hipostates
Thick and obscure doth make your danger great,
Your vaines are full of accidentall heat,
Whereby the moisture of your blood is dried,
The Humidum and Calor, which some holde
Is not a parcell of the Elements,
But of a substance more diuine and pure,
Is almost cleane extinguished and spent.
Which being the cause of life, imports your death.
Besides my Lord, this day is Criticall,
Dangerous to those, whose Chrisis is as yours:
Your Artiers which alongst the vaines conuey
The liuely spirits which the heart ingenders
Are partcht and void of spirit that the soule
Wanting those Organnons by which it mooues,
Can not indure by argument of art,
Yet if your maiesty may escape this day,
No doubt, but you shal soone recouer all.
tam.
Then will I comfort all my vital parts,
And liue in spight of death aboue a day.
Alarme within.
Mess.
My Lord, yong Callapine that lately fled from
your maiesty, hath nowe gathered a fresh Armie, and
presently.
Tam.
See my Phisitions now, how Ioue hath sent
A present medicince to recure my paine:
My looks shall make them flie, and might I follow,
There should not one of all the villaines power
Liue to giue offer of another fight.
Vsum.
I ioy my Lord, your highnesse is so strong,
That can endure so well your royall presence,
Which onely will dismay the enemy.
Tam.
I know it wil Casane: draw you slaues,
In spight of death I will goe show my face.
Alarme, Tamb. goes in, and comes out againe with al the rest.
Thus are the villaines, cowards fled for feare,
Like Summers vapours, vanisht by the Sun.
And could I but a while pursue the field,
That Callapine should be my slaue againe.
But I perceiue my martial strength is spent,
In vaine I striue and raile against those powers,
That meane t'inuest me in a higher throane,
As much too high for this disdainfull earth.
Giue me a Map, then let me see how much
Is left for me to conquer all the world,
That these my boies may finish all my wantes,
One brings a Map.
Here I began to martch towards Persea,
Along Armenia and the Caspian sea,
And thence vnto Bythinia, where I tooke
The Turke and his great Empresse prisoners,
Then martcht I into Egypt and Arabia,
And here not far from Alexandria,
Being distant lesse than ful a hundred leagues,
I meant to cut a channell to them both,
That men might quickly saile to India.
From thence to Nubia neere Borno Lake,
And so along the Ethiopian sea,
Cutting the Tropicke line of Capricorne,
I conquered all as far as Zansibar,
Then by the Northerne part of Affrica.
I came at last to Græcia, and from thence
To Asia, where I stay against my will,
Which is from Scythia, where I first began,
Backeward and forwards nere fiue thousand leagues,
Looke here my boies, see what a world of ground,
Lies westward from the midst of Cancers line,
Unto the rising of this earthly globe,
Whereas the Sun declining from our sight,
Begins the day with our Antypodes:
And shall I die, and this vnconquered?
Loe here my sonnes, are all the golden Mines,
Inestimable drugs and precious stones,
More worth Asia, and the world beside,
And from th'Antartique Pole, Eastward behold
As much more land, which neuer was descried,
Wherein are rockes of Pearle, that shine as kright
As all the Lamps that beautifie the Sky,
And shal I die, and this vnconquered?
Here louely boies, what death forbids my life,
That let your liues commaund in spight of death.
Amy.
Alas my Lord, how should our bleeding harts
Wounded and broken with your Highnesse griefe,
Retaine a thought of ioy, or sparke of life?
Whose matter is incorporoat in your flesh.
Cel.
Your paines do pierce our soules, no hope suruiues,
For by your life we entertaine our liues,
tam.
But sons, this subiect not of force enough,
To hold the fiery spirit it containes,
must part, imparting his impressions,
By equall portions into both your breasts:
My flesh deuided in your precious shapes,
Shal still retaine my spirit, though I die,
And liue in all your seedes immortally:
Then now remooue me, that I may resigne
My place and proper tytle to my sonne:
First take my Scourge and my imperiall Crowne,
And mount my royall chariot of estate,
That I may see thee crown'd before I die,
Help me (my Lords) to make my last remooue.
ther.
A woful change my Lord, that daunts our thoughts,
More the ruine of our proper soules.
tam.
Sit vp my sonne, let me see how well
Thou wilt become thy fathers maiestie.
They crowne him.
Ami.
With what a flinty bosome should I ioy,
The breath of life, and burthen of my soule,
If not resolu'd into resolued paines,
My bodies mortified lineaments
should exercise the motions of my heart,
Pierc'd with the ioy of any dignity?
O father, if the vnrelenting eares
Of death and hell be shut against my praiers,
And that the spightfull influence of heauen.
Denie my soule fruition of her ioy,
Against the inward powers of my heart,
Leading a life that onely striues to die,
And plead in vaine, vnpleasing souerainty.
tam.
Let not thy loue exceed thyne honor sonne,
Nor bar thy mind that magnanimitie,
That nobly must admit necessity:
Sit vp my boy, and with those silken raines,
Bridle the steeled stomackes of those Iades.
ther.
My Lord, you must obey his maiesty,
Since Fate commands, and proud necessity.
Amy.
Heauens witnes me, with what a broken hart
And damned spirit I ascend this seat,
And send my soule before my father die,
His anguish and his burning agony.
tam.
Now fetch the hearse of faire Zenocrate,
Let it be plac'd by this my fatall chaire,
And serue as parcell of my funerall.
Cas
Then feeles your maiesty no soueraigne ease,
Nor may our hearts all drown'd in teares of blood,
Ioy any hope of your recouery?
tamb.
Casane no, the Monarke of the earth,
And eielesse Monster that torments my soule,
Cannot behold the teares ye shed for me,
And therefore stil augments his cruelty.
tech.
Then let some God oppose his holy power,
Against the wrath and tyranny of death,
That his teare-thyrsty and vnquenched hate,
May be vpon himselfe reuerberate.
They bring in the hearse.
tam
Now eies, inioy your latest benefite,
And when my soule hath vertue of your sight,
And glut your longings with a heauen of ioy.
So, raigne my sonne, scourge and controlle those slaues
Guiding thy chariot with thy Fathers hand.
As precious is the charge thou vndertak'st
As that which Clymeus brainsicke sonne did guide,
When wandring Phœbes Iuory cheeks were scortcht
And all the earth like AEtna breathing fire:
Be warn'd by him, then learne with awfull eie
To sway a throane as dangerous as his:
For if thy body thriue not full of thoughtes
As pure and fiery as Phyteus beames,
The nature of these proud rebelling Iades
Wil take occasion by the slenderest haire,
And draw thee peecemeale like Hyppolitus,
Through rocks more steepe and sharp than Caspian cliftes.
The nature of thy chariot wil not beare
A guide of baser temper than my selfe,
More then heauens coach, the pride of Phaeton.
Farewell my boies, my dearest friends, farewel,
My body feeles, my soule dooth weepe to see
Your sweet desires depriu'd my company,
For Tamburlaine, the Scourge of God must die.
Amy.
Meet heauen & earth, & here let al things end
For earth hath spent the pride of all her fruit,
And heauen consum'd his choisest liuing fire.
Let earth and heauen his timelesse death deplore,
For both their woorths wil equall him no more.
| The Second Part of The Bloody Conquests of Mighty Tamburlaine | |