第52章

TAMBURLAINE.Stand up, ye base, unworthy soldiers!

Know ye not yet the argument of arms?

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

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 flesh, Blush, blush, fair city, at thine honour's foil, And shame of nature, which Jaertis' 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 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 massy dregs of earth, The scum and tartar of the elements, Wherein was neither courage, strength, or wit, But folly, sloth, and damned 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.--

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 feel the strength of Tamburlaine, And, by the state of his supremacy, Approve the difference 'twixt himself and you.

ORCANES.Thou shew'st the difference 'twixt ourselves and thee, In this thy barbarous damned 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 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 nobility;

But, since I exercise a greater name, The scourge of God 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 as resist in me The power of Heaven's eternal majesty.--

Theridamas, Techelles, and Casane,

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 damned monster! nay, a fiend of hell, Whose cruelties are not so harsh as thine, Nor yet impos'd with such a bitter hate!

ORCANES.Revenge it, Rhadamanth and Aeacus, And let your hates, extended in his pains, Excel 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, feed The cursed substance of that cruel heart;

But, wanting moisture and remorseful 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 lusty Cimbrian bulls Run mourning round about the females' miss,

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.]