Home

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.

Copyright information:

The text is in the public domain.

Fair use statement:

This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit.

SCENE I.

Enter the GOVERNOR of DAMASCO, 1 with three or four Citizens, and four Virgins, with branches of laurel in their hands.

Gov.

Still doth this man, or rather god of war,
Batter our walls and beat our turrets down;
And to resist with longer stubbornness,
Or hope of rescue from the Soldan's power,
Were but to bring our wilful overthrow,
And make us desperate of our threatened lives.
We see his tents have now been altered
With terrors to the last and cruellest hue.
His coal-black colours everywhere advanced,
Threaten our city with a general spoil;
10
And:if we should with common rites of arms
Offer our safeties to his clemency,
I fear the custom, proper to his sword,
Which he observes as parcel of his fame,
Intending so to terrify the world,
By any innovation or remorse
Will never be dispensed with till our deaths;
Therefore, for these our harmless virgins' sakes,
Whose honours and whose lives rely on him,
Let us have hope that their unspotted prayers,
20
Their blubberedd1 chicks, and hearty, humble moans,
Will melt his fury into some remorse,
And use us like a loving conqueror.

I Virg. If humble suits or imprecations,2
(Uttered with tears of wretchedness and blood
Shed from the heads and hearts of all our sex,
Some made your wives and some your children)
Might have entreated your obdurate breasts
To entertain some care3 of our securities
Whiles only danger beat upon our walls,
30
These more than dangerous warrants of our death
Had never been erected as they be,
Nor you depend on such weak helps as we.

Gev.

Well, lovely virgins, think our country's care,
Our love of honour, loath to be inthralled
To foreign powers and rough imperious yokes,
Would not with too much cowardice or fear,
(Before all hope of rescue were denied)
Submit yourselves and us to servitude.
Therefore in that your safeties and our own,
40
Your honours, liberties, and lives were weighed
In equal care and balance with our own,
Endure as we the malice of our stars,
The wrath of Tamburlaine and power of wars;
Or be the means the overweighing heavens
Have kept to qualify these hot extremes,
And bring us pardon in your cheerful looks.

2 Virg.

Then here before the Majesty of Heaven
And holy patrons1 of Egyptia,
With knees and hearts submissive we entreat
50
Grace to our words and pity to our looks
That this device may prove propitious,
And through the eyes and ears of Tamburlaine
Convey events of mercy to his heart;
Grant that these signs of victory we yield
May bind the temples of his conquering head,
To hide the folded furrows of his brows,
And shadow his displeased countenance
With happy looks of ruth and lenity.
Leave us, my lord, and loving countrymen;
60
What simple virgins may persuade, we will.

Gov.

Farewell, sweet virgins, on whose safe return Depends our city, liberty, and lives.
[Exeunt Governor and Citizens; manent Virgins.
EnterTamburlaine, TEchelles, Theridamas, Usum-casane, with others: Tamburlaine all in black and very melancholy.

Tamb.

What, are the turtles frayed out of their nests? Alas, poor fools! must you be first shall feel
The sworn destruction of Damascus walls?l
They knew my custom; could they not as well
Have sent ye out, when first my milk-white flags,2
ThUDugh which sweet marcy threw her gentle beams,
Reflexing them on your disdainful eyes,
As now, when fury and incensed hate
Flings slaughtering terror from my coal-black tents,
And tells for truth submissions comes too late?

1 Virg.

Most happy king and emperor of the earth,
Image of honour and nobility,
For whom the powers divine have made the world,
And on whose throne the holy Graces sit;
In whose sweet person is comprised the sum
Of nature's skill and heavenly majesty;
Pity our plights! O pity poor Damascus!
80
Pity old age, within whose silver hairs
Honour and reverence evermore have reigned!
Pity the marriage bed, where many a lord,
In prime and glory of his loving joy,
Embraceth now with tears of ruth and blood
The jealous body of his fearful wife,
Whose cheeks and hearts so punished with conceit,
To think thy puissant, never-stayed arm,
Will part their bodies, and prevent their souls
From heavens of comfort yet their age might bear,
90
Now wax all pale and withered to the death,
As well for grief our ruthless governor
Hath1 thus refused the mercy of thy hand,
(Whose sceptre angels kiss and furies dread,)
As for their liberties, their loves, or lives!
O then for these, and such as we ourselves,
For us, our infants, and for all our bloods,
That never nourished thought against thy rule,
Pity, O pity, sacred emperor,
The prostrate service of this wretched town,
100
And take in sign thereof this gilded wreath;
Whereto each man of rule hath given his hand,
And wished,2 as worthy subjects, happy means
To be investers of thy royal brows
Even with the true Egyptian diadem!

Tamb.

Virgins, in vain you labour to prevent That which mine honour swears shall be performed. Behold my sword! what see you at the point?

1 Virg.

Nothing but fear, and fatal steel, my lord.

Tamb.

Your fearful minds are thick and misty then;
110
For there sits Death; there sits imperious Death
Keeping his circuit by the slicing edge.
But I am pleased you shall not see him there;
He now is seated on my horsemen's spears,
And on their points his fleshless body feeds.
Techelles, straight go charge a few of them
To charge these dames, and show my servant, Death,
Sitting in scarlet on their armed spears.

All.

O pity us!

Tamb.

Away with them, I say, and show them Death.[The Virgins are taken out.]
I will not spare these proud Egyptians,
121
Nor change my martial observations
For all the wealth of Gihon's golden waves,
Or for the love of Venus, would she leave
The angry god of arms and lie with me.
They have refused the offer of their lives,
And know my customs are as peremptory
As wrathful planets, death, or destiny.
Enter TECHELLES.
What, have your horsemen shown the virgins Death?

Tech.

They have, my lord, and on Damascus walls,
130
Have hoisted up their slaughtered carcases.

Tamb.

A sight as baneful to their souls, I think,
As are Thessalian drugs or mithridate:1
But go, my lords, put the rest to the sword.
[Exeunt Lords.
Ah, fair Zenocrate!—divine Zenocrate!—
Fair is too foul an epithet for thee,
That in thy passion for thy country's love,
And fear to see thy kingly father's harm,
With hair dishevelled wip'st thy watery cheeks;
And, like to Flora2 in her morning pride,
140
Shaking her silver tresses in the air,
Rain'st on the earth resolved pearl in showers,
And spnnklest sapphires on thy shining face,
Where beauty, mother to the Muses, sits
And comments volumes with her ivory pen,
Taking instructions from thy flowing eyes;
Eyes, that,1 when Ebena steps to heaven,
In silence of thy solemn evening's walk,
Make, in the mantle of the richest night,
The moon, the planets, and the meteors, light;
150
There angels in their crystal armours fight
A doubtful battle with my tempted thoughts
For Egypt's freedom, and the Soldan's life;
His life that so consumes Zenocrate,
Whose sorrows lay more siege unto my soul,
Than all my army to Damascus walls:
And neither Persia's2 sovereign, nor the Turk
Troubled my senses with conceit of foil
So much by much as doth Zenocrate.
What is beauty, saith my sufferings, then?
160
If all the pens that ever poets held
Had fed the feeling of their masters' thoughts,
And every sweetness that inspired their hearts,
Their minds, and muses on admirid themes;
If all the heavenly quintessence they still
From their immortal flowers of poesy,
Wherein, as in a mirror, we perceive
The highest reaches of a human wit;
If these had made one poem's period,
And all combined in beauty's worthiness,
170
Yet should there hover in their restless heads
One thought, one grace, one wonder, at the least,
Which into words no virtue can digest.
But how unseemly is it for my sex,
My discipline of arms and chivalry,
My nature, and the terror of my name,
To harbour thoughts effeminate and faint!
Save only that in beauty's just applause,
With whose instinct the soul of man is touched;
And every warrior that is wrapt with love
180
Of fame, of valour, and of victory,
Must needs have beauty beat on his conceits:
I thus conceiving and subduing both
That which hath stoopt the chiefest of the gods,1
Even from the fiery-spangled veil of Heaven,
To feel the lowly warmth of shepherds' flames,
And mask in cottages of strowid reeds,
Shall give the world to note for all my birth,
That virtue solely is the sum of glory,
And fashions men with true nobility.—
190
Who's within there?
Enter two or three Attendants.
Hath Bajazeth been fed to-day?
Attend1 Ay, my lord.

Tamb.

Bring him forth; and let us know if the town be ransacked.
[Exeunt Attendants.
Enter TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE, and others.

Tech.

The town is ours, my lord, and fresh supply Of conquest and of spoil is offered us.

Tamb.

That's well, Techelles; what's the news?

Tech.

The Soldan and the Arabian king together, March2 on us with such eager violence,
200
As if there were no way3 but one with us.

Tamb.

No more there is not, I warrant thee, Techelles.
They bring in BAJAZETH and ZABINA.

Ther.

We know the victory is ours, my lord;
But let us save the reverend Soldan's life,
For fair Zenocrate that so laments his state.

Tamb.

That will we chiefly see unto, Theridamas,
For sweet Zenocrate, whose worthiness
Deserves a conquest over every heart.
And now, my footstool, if I lose the field,
You hope of liberty and restitution?
210
Here let him stay, my masters, from the tents,
Till we have made us ready for the field.
Pray for us, Bajazeth; we are going.
[Exeunt TAMBURLAINE, TECHELLES, USUMCASANE, and Persians.

Baj.

Go, never to return with victory.
Millions of men encompass thee about,
And gore thy body with as many wounds!
Sharp, forked arrows light upon thy horse!
Furies from the black Cocytus lake,
Break up the earth,' and with their firebrands,
Enforce thee run upon the baneful pikes!
220
Volleys of shot pierce through thy charmed skin,
And every bullet dipt in poisoned drugs!
Or, roaring cannons sever all thy joints,
Making thee mount as high as eagles soar'

Zab.

Let all the swords and lances in the field
Stick in his breast as in their proper rooms!
At every pore let blood come dropping forth,
That lingering pains may massacre his heart,
And madness send his damnid soul to hell!

Baj.

Ah, fair Zabina! we may curse his power;
230
The heavens may frown, the earth for anger quake:
But such a star hath influence in his sword,
As rules the skies and countermands the gods
More than Cimmerian Styx or Destiny;
And then shall we in this detested guise,
With shame, with hunger, and with horror stay,1
Griping our bowels with retorqued2 thoughts,
And have no hope to end our ecstasies.

Zab.

Then is there left no Mahomet, no God,
No fiend, no fortune, nor no hope of end
240
To our infamous monstrous slaveries.
Gape earth, and let the fiends infernal view
A3 hell as hopeless and as full of fear
As are the blasted banks of Erebus,
Where shaking ghosts with ever-howling groans
Hover about the ugly ferryman,
To get a passage to Elysium!4
Why should we live? O, wretches, beggars, slaves!
Why live we, Bajazeth, and build up nests
So high within the region of the air
250
By living long in this oppression,
That all the world will see and laugh to scorn
The former triumphs of our mightiness
In this obscure infernal servitude?

Baj.

O life, more loathsome to my vexid thoughts
Than noisome parbreak1 of the Stygian snakes,
Which fills the nooks of hell with standing air,
Infecting all the ghosts with cureless griefs!
O dreary engines of my loathed sight,
That see my crown, my honour, and my name
260
Thrust under yoke and thraldom of a thief,
Why feed ye still on day's accursèd beams
And sink not quite into my tortured soul?
You see my wife, my queen, and emperess,
Brought up and propped by the hand of fame,
Queen of fifteen contributory queens,
Now thrown to rooms of black abjection,2
Smeared with blots of basest drudgery,
And villainess3 to shame, disdain, and misery.
AccursÈD Bajazeth, whose words of ruth,
270
(That would with pity cheer Zabina's heart,
And make our souls resolve in ceaseless tears.)
Sharp hunger bites upon, and gripes the root,
From whence the issues of my thoughts do break!
O poor Zabina! O my queen! my queen!
Fetch me some water for my burning breast,
To cool and comfort me with longer date,
That in the shortened sequel of my life
I may pour forth my soul into thine arms
With words of love, whose moaning intercourse
280
Hath hitherto been stayed with wrath and hate
Of our expressless bann'd inflictions.

Zab.

Sweet Bajazeth, I will prolong thy life,
As long as any blood or spark of breath
Can quench or cool the torments of my grief.
[She goes out.

Baj.

Now, Bajazeth, abridge thy baneful days,
And beat thy brains out of thy conquered head,
Since other means are all forbidden me,
That may be ministers of my decay.
O, highest lamp of ever-living Jove,
290
AccursÈD day! infected with my griefs,
Hide now thy stained face in endless night,
And shut the windows of the lightsome Heavens!
Let ugly Darkness with her rusty coach,
Engirt with tempests, wrapt in pitchy clouds,
Smother the earth with never-fading mists!
And let her horses from their nostrils breathe
Rebellious winds and dreadful thunder-claps!
That in this terror Tamburlame may live,
And my pined soul, resolved in liquid air,
300
May still excruciate his tormented thoughts!
Then let the stony dart of senseless cold
Pierce through the centre of my withered heart,
And make a passage for my loathed life!
[He brains himself against the cage.
Re enter ZABINA.

Zdb.

What do mine eyes behold? my husband dead! His skull all riven in twain! his brains dashed out,—
The brains of Bajazeth, my lord and sovereign:
O Bajazeth, my husband and my lord!
O Bajazeth! O Turk! O Emperor!
310
Give him his liquor? not I. Bring milk and fire, and my blood I bring him again.—Tear me in pieces— give1 me the sword with a ball of wild-fire upon it.— Down with him! Down with him!—Go to my child! Away! Away! Away!—Ah, save that infant! save him, save him '—I, even I, speak to her.—The sun was down—streamers white, red, black—here, here, here!— Fling the meat in his face—Tamburlaine.—Tamburlaine!—Let the soldiers be buried.—Hell! Death, Tamburlaine, Hell!—Make ready my coach,2 my chair, my jewels.—I come! I come! I come!
321
[She runs against the cage and brains herself.
Enter ZENOCRATE with ANIPPE.

Zeno.

Wretched Zenocrate! that liv'st to see
Damascus walls dyed with Egyptians'3 blood,
Thy father's subjects and thy countrymen;
Thy streets strowed with dissevered joints of men
And wounded bodies gasping yet for life:
But most accurst, to see the sun-bright troop
Of heavenly virgins and unspotted maids,
(Whose looks might make the angry god of arms
To break his sword and mildly treat of love)
330
On horsemen's lances to be hoisted up
And guiltlessly endure a cruel death:
For every fell and stout Tartarian steed,
That stampt on others with their thundering hoofs,
When all their riders charged their quivering spears,
Began to check the ground and rein themselves,
Gazing upon the beauty of their looks.—
Ah Tamburlaine! wert thou the cause of this
That term'st Zenocrate thy dearest love?
Whose lives were dearer to Zenocrate
340
Than her own life, or aught save thine own love.
But see another bloody spectacle!
Ah, wretched eyes, the enemies of my heart,
How are ye glutted with these grievous objects,
And tell my soul more tales of bleeding ruth!
See, see, Anippe, if they breathe or no.

Anippe.

No breath, nor sense, nor motion in them both;
Ah, madam! this their slavery hath enforced,
And ruthless cruelty of Tamburlaine.

Zeno.

Earth, cast up fountains from thy entrails,
350
And wet thy cheeks for their untimely deaths!
Shake with their weight in sign of fear and grief!
Blush, Heaven, that gave them honour at their birth
And let them die a death so barbarous!
Those that are proud of fickle empery
And place their chiefest good in earthly pomp,
Behold the Turk and his great Emperess!
Ah, Tamburlaine! my love! sweet Tamburlaine!
That fight'st for sceptres and for slippery crowns,
Behold the Turk and his great Emperess!
360
Thou, that in conduct of thy happy stars
Sleep's! every night with conquests on thy brows,
And yet would'st shun the wavering turns of war,
In fear and feeling of the like distress
Behold the Turk and his great Emperess!
Ah, mighty Jove and holy Mahomet,
Pardon my love!—O, pardon his contempt
Of earthly fortune and respect of pity,
And let not conquest, ruthlessly pursued,
Be equally against his life incensed
370
In this great Turk and hapless Emperess!
And pardon me that was not moved with ruth
To see them live so long in misery!
Ah, what may chance to thee, Zenocrate?

Anippe.

Madam, content yourself, and be resolved
Your love hath Fortune so at his command,
That she shall stay and turn her wheel no more,
As long as life maintains his mighty arm
That fights for honour to adorn your head.
Enter PHILEMUS, a Messenger.

Zeno.

What other heavy news now brings Philemus?
380

Phil.

Madam, your father, and the Arabian king,
The first affecter of your excellence,
Comes now, as Turnus 'gainst Eneas did,
Armed with lance into the Egyptian fields,
Ready for battle 'gainst my lord, the king.

Zeno.

Now shame and duty, love and fear present
A thousand sorrows to my martyred soul.
Whom should I wish the fatal victory
When my poor pleasures are divided thus
And racked by duty from my cursèd heart?
390
My father and my first-betrothed love
Must fight against my life and present love;
Wherein the change I use condemns my faith,
And makes my deeds infkmous through the world:
But as the gods, to end the Trojans' toil
Prevented Turnus of Lavinia
And fatally enriched ^Eneas' love,
So for a final1 issue to my griefs,
To pacify my country and my love
Must Tamburlaine by their resistless pow'rs
400
With virtue of a gentle victory
Conclude a league of honour to my hope;
Then, as the Powers divine have pre-ordained,
With happy safety of my father's life
Send like defence of fair Arabia.
[They sound to the battle: and TAMBURLAINE enjoys the victory; after, the KING OF ARABIA enters wounded.
K, of Arab, What cursèd power guides the murdering hands
Of this infamous tyrant's soldiers,
That no escape may save their enemies,
Nor fortune keep themselves from victory?
Lie down, Arabia, wounded to the death,
410
And let Zenocrate's fair eyes behold
That, as for her thou bear'st these wretched arms,
Even so for her thou diest in these arms,
Leaving thy1 blood for witness of thy love.

Zeno.

Too dear a witness for such love, my lord!
Behold Zenocrate! the cursèd object,
Whose fortunes never mastered her griefs;
Behold her wounded, in conceit, for thee,
As much as thy fair body is for me.

K. of Arab.

Then shall I die with full, contented heart,
420
Having beheld divine Zenocrate,
Whose sight with joy would take away my life
As now it bringeth sweetness to my wound,
If I had not been wounded as I am.
Ah! that the deadly pangs, I suffer now,
Would lend an hour's licence to my tongue,
To make discourse of some sweet accidents
Have chanced thy merits in this worthless bondage;
And that I might be privy to the state
Of thy deserved contentment, and thy love;
430
But, making now a virtue of thy sight,
To drive all sorrow from my fainting soul,
Since death denies me farther cause of joy,
Deprived of care, niy heart with comfort dies,
Since thy desired hand shall close mine eyes.
[He dies.
Enter TAMBURLAINE, leading the SOLDAN, TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE, with others.

Tanib.

Come, happy father of Zenocrate,
A title higher than thy Soldan's name.
Though my right hand have thus enthralled thee,
Thy princely daughter here shall set thee free;
She that hath calmed the fury of my sword,
440
Which had ere this been bathed in streams of blood
As vast and deep as Euphrates or Nile,

Zeno.

O sight thrice welcome to my joyful soul,
To see the King, my father, issue safe
From dangerous battle of my conquering love!

Sold.

Well met, my only dear Zenocrate,
Though with the loss of Egypt and my crown.

Tamb.

'Twas I, my lord, that got the victory,
And therefore grieve not at your overthrow,
Since I shall render all into your hands,
450
And add more strength to your dominions
Than ever yet confirmed the Egyptian crown.
The God of war resigns his room to me,
Meaning to make me general of the world:
Jove, viewing me in arms, looks pale and wan,
Fearing my power should pull him from his throne.
Where'er I come the Fatal Sisters sweat,
And grisly Death, by running to and fro,
To do their ceaseless homage to my sword;
And here in Afric, where it seldom rains,
460
Since I arrived with my triumphant host,
Have swelling clouds, drawn from wide-gasping wounds,
Been oft resolved in bloody purple showers,.
A meteor that might terrify the earth,
And make it quake at every drop it drinks.
Millions of souls sit on the banks of Styx
Waiting the back return of Charon's boat;
Hell and Elysium1 swarm with ghosts of men,
That I have sent from sundry foughten fields,
To spread my fame through hell and up to heaven.
470
And see, my lord, a sight of strange import,
Emperors and Kings lie breathless at my feet:
The Turk and his great Empress, as it seems,
Left to themselves while we were at the fight,
Have desperately despatched their slavish lives:
With them Arabia, too, hath left his life:
All sights of power to grace my victory;
And such are objects fit for Tamburline;
Wherein, as in a mirror, may be seen
His honour, that consists in shedding blood,
480
When men presume to manage arms with him.

Sold.

Mighty hath God and Mahomet made thy hand,
Renowmed Tamburlaine! to whom all kings
Of force must yield their crowns and emperies;
And I am pleased with this my overthrow,
If, as beseems a person of thy state,
Thou hast with honour used Zenocrate.

Tamb.

Her state and person want no pomp, you see;
And for all blot of foul inchastity
I record Heaven her heavenly self is clear:
490
Then let me find no farther time to grace
Her princely temples with the Persian crown.
But here these kings that on my fortunes wait,
And have been crowned for proved worthiness,
Even by this hand that shall establish them,
Shall now, adjoining all their hands with mine,
Invest her here the Queen of Persia.
What saith the noble Soldan and Zenocrate?

Sold.

I yield with thanks and protestations Of endless honour to thee for her love.
500

Tamb.

Then doubt I not but fair Zenocrate Will soon consent to satisfy us both.

Zeno.

Else1 should I much forget myself, my lord.

Ther.

Then let us set the crown upon her head, That long hath lingered for so high a seat.

Tech.

My hand is ready to perform the deed; For now her marriage-time shall work us rest,

Usum.

And here's the crown, my lord; help set it on.2

Tamb.

Then sit thou down, divine Zenocrate;
And here we crown thee Queen of Persia,
510
And all the kingdoms and dominions
That late the power of Tamburlaine subdued.
As Juno, when the giants were suppressed,
That darted mountains at her brother Jove,
So looks my love, shadowing in her brows
Triumphs and trophies for my victories;
Or, as Latona's daughters, bent to arms,
Adding more courage to my conquering mind.
To gratify the sweet Zenocrate,
Egyptians, Moors, and men of Asia,
520
From Barbary unto the western India,
Shall pay a yearly tribute to thy sire:
And from the bounds of Afric to the banks
Of Ganges shall his mighty arm extend.
And now, my lords and loving followers,
That purchased kingdoms by your martial deeds,
Cast off your armour, put on scarlet robes,
Mount up your royal places of estate,
Environed with troops of noblemen,
And there make laws to rule your provinces.
530
Hang up your weapons on Alcides' post,1
For Tamburlaine takes truce with all the world.
Thy first-betrothed love, Arabia,
Shall we with honour, as beseems, entomb
With this great Turk and his fair Emperess.
Then, after all these solemn exequies,
We will our rites2 of marriage solemnise.

TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT.
Part the Second

PROLOGUE.

The general welcomes Tamburlaine received,
When he arrivèd last upon the1 stage,
Hath made our poet pen his Second Part,
Where death cuts off the progress of his pomp,
And murderous fates throw, all his trmmphs down.
But what became of fair Zenocrate,
And with how many cities' sacrifice
He celebrated her sad2 funeral,
Himself in presence shall unfold at large.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

TAMBURLAINE. CALYPHAS, AMYRAS, CELEBINUS, TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE,

His three Sons.

His Generals, Kings of Fez, Argier, and Morocco.

ORCANES, King of Natolia.

King of Jerusalem.

King of Trebizond.

King of Syria.

GAZELLUS, Viceroy of Byron.

URIBASSA.

SIGISMUND, King of Hungary.

FREDERICK, BALDWIN,

Lords of Buda and Bohemia.

PERDICAS, Servant to CALYPHAS.

Governor of Babylon.

MAXIMUS.

CALLAPINE, Son of BAJAZETH.

ALMEDA, his Keeper.

King of Amasia.

Physician.

Captain of Balsera.

His Son.

Another Captain.

Lords, Citizens, Soldiers, &c.

ZENOCRATE, TAMBURLAINE'S Queen. OLYMPIA, Wife of the Captain of Balsera. Turkish Concubines.

TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT.
Part the Second

ACT THE FIRST.

[1]So Greene (in Friar Bacon):

“Edward, art thou the famous Prince of Wales
Who at Damasco beat the Saracens?”

[1]1 Cf. Dido, v. 5:— “And woeful Dido by these blubbered cheeks.”

[2]Entreaties.

[3]So 410.—8vo. “cares.”

[1]The 8vo. reads “Patrones,” which is perhaps meant for “Patroness,” i.e. “ Isis.”

[1]I have added the word “walls,” as it is required to complete the line. The expression “Damascus walls” occurs repeatedly.

[2]An anacoluthon. Some such word as '' appeared “may be understood. [In the next line but one Dyce and Cunningham read “re-flexed” for the old copies' “reflexing.”]

[1]So 410.—8vo. “baue.”

[2]So 410.—8vo. “wish.”

[1]An antidote distilled from poisons.

[2]“In Englantfs Parnassus, 1600, occur the following lines by Chapman, which bear a resemblance to the poetical image in the text too striking to have been accidental:—

See where she issues in her beauty's pomp,
As Flora to salute the morning sun,
Who when she shakes her tresses in the air
Rains on the earth dissolved pearl in showers,
Which with bis beams the sun exhales to heaven.'”
—Mrouirhton,

[1]Old copies (and Dyce)give “when that,” and in 1. 149, “making.” The correction is Cunningham's.

[2]Old copies give “Perseans” and “Persians.”

[1]A very corrupt passage. I have not been able to improve upon Dyce's emendations (which had been partly anticipated by Broughton). The 8vo. reads:—

“That which hath stopt the tempest of the gods.
And martch in cottages of strowed weeds.”
The 4to. makes matters worse by reading march in coatches. Broughton suggested stoop'd for stopt and mask'd for martch, but left tempest. I should like to keep the word weeds (remembering the line mi. 2, “Jove sometimes masked in a shepherd's a12”), but Broughton's proposed reading, “cottagers' off-strowed weeds,” is ridiculous.

[1]Old copies, “An.”

[2]So 4to.—8vo. “martcht on with us.”

[3]i. e., as if we must die. The reader will remember Mistress Quickly's words, —” For after I saw him fumble with the sheets and play with flowers and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was hit one way.”

[1]8vo. “aie.”—4to. “aye.”

[2]I.e., “bent back in reflections on our former happiness.”—Dycc.

[3]Old copies “As.”

[4]Old copies “Elisian.”

[1]Vomit

[2]Old copies “objection.”

[3]Slave, Cf. iu. 2, 1. 38:— “Is far from vtllany or servitude.”

[1]So 4to.—8vo. “andgive.”

[2]So the crazed Ophelia,—” Come, my coach,” &c.—Hamlet, iv. 5.

[3]So 410.—8vo. “Egiptian.”

[1]So 410.—8vo. “small.”

[1]So 410.—8vo. “my.”

[1]Old copies “Ehisian”

[1]So 4to.—8vo. “Then.”

[2]So 4to.—Omitted in 8vo.

[1]Dyce reads “postjsj,” and Cunningham follows. I prefer the reading of the old copies, for I suspect that Marlowe had in his remembrance Horace's Epistles, i. I (11. 4, 5),—

“Veianius armis
Htrculis ad postern fixis latet abditus agro.”

It was customary among the ancients on retiring from a profession to dedicate the implements of it to the patron deity.

[2]Old copies read “celebrated rites.” It is one of the numerous cases where a marginal note has been imported into the text. The author being doubtful whether to say “our rites of marriage celebrate “or “our ntes of marriage solemnise,” the compositor promptly printed “our celebrated rites of marriage solemnise.”

[1]So 4to.--Svo. “our.”

[2]Old cop_es “stud.”

Home

The Forum

Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

The Library

Return to Title Page for The Works of Christopher Marlowe vol. 1

The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

SCENE I. - Christopher Marlowe, The Works of Christopher Marlowe vol. 1 [1590]

Edition used:

Part of: The Works of Christopher Marlowe, 3 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Copyright information:

Fair use statement:

SCENE I.

Gov.

Gev.

2 Virg.

Gov.

Tamb.

1 Virg.

Tamb.

1 Virg.

Tamb.

All.

Tamb.

Tech.

Tamb.

Tamb.

Tech.

Tamb.

Tech.

Tamb.

Ther.

Tamb.

Baj.

Zab.

Baj.

Zab.

Baj.

Zab.

Baj.

Zdb.

Zeno.

Anippe.

Zeno.

Anippe.

Zeno.

Phil.

Zeno.

Zeno.

K. of Arab.

Tanib.

Zeno.

Sold.

Tamb.

Sold.

Tamb.

Sold.

Tamb.

Zeno.

Ther.

Tech.

Usum.

Tamb.

TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT. Part the Second

TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT. Part the Second

PROLOGUE.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT. Part the Second

ACT THE FIRST.

TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT.
Part the Second

TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT.
Part the Second

TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT.
Part the Second