Tamburlaine the Great Volume Ii Part 3

FREDERICK. a.s.sure your grace, 'tis superst.i.tion To stand so strictly on dispensive faith; And, should we lose the opportunity That G.o.d hath given to venge our Christians' death, And scourge their foul blasphemous paganism, As fell to Saul, to Balaam, and the rest, That would not kill and curse at G.o.d's command, So surely will the vengeance of the Highest, And jealous anger of his fearful arm, Be pour'd with rigour on our sinful heads, If we neglect this [69] offer'd victory.

SIGISMUND. Then arm, my lords, and issue suddenly, Giving commandment to our general host, With expedition to a.s.sail the pagan, And take the victory our G.o.d hath given.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE II.

Enter ORCANES, GAZELLUS, and URIBa.s.sA, with their train.

ORCANES. Gazellus, Uriba.s.sa, and the rest, Now will we march from proud Orminius' mount To fair Natolia, where our neighbour kings Expect our power and our royal presence, T' encounter with the cruel Tamburlaine, That nigh Larissa sways a mighty host, And with the thunder of his martial [70] tools Makes earthquakes in the hearts of men and heaven.

GAZELLUS. And now come we to make his sinews shake With greater power than erst his pride hath felt.

An hundred kings, by scores, will bid him arms, And hundred thousands subjects to each score: Which, if a shower of wounding thunderbolts Should break out of the bowels of the clouds, And fall as thick as hail upon our heads, In partial aid of that proud Scythian, Yet should our courages and steeled crests, And numbers, more than infinite, of men, Be able to withstand and conquer him.

URIBa.s.sA. Methinks I see how glad the Christian king Is made for joy of our [71] admitted truce, That could not but before be terrified With [72] unacquainted power of our host.

Enter a Messenger.

MESSENGER. Arm, dread sovereign, and my n.o.ble lords!

The treacherous army of the Christians, Taking advantage of your slender power, Comes marching on us, and determines straight To bid us battle for our dearest lives.

ORCANES. Traitors, villains, d.a.m.ned Christians!

Have I not here the articles of peace And solemn covenants we have both confirm'd, He by his Christ, and I by Mahomet?

GAZELLUS. h.e.l.l and confusion light upon their heads, That with such treason seek our overthrow, And care so little for their prophet Christ!

ORCANES. Can there be such deceit in Christians, Or treason in the fleshly heart of man, Whose shape is figure of the highest G.o.d?

Then, if there be a Christ, as Christians say, But in their deeds deny him for their Christ, If he be son to everliving Jove, And hath the power of his outstretched arm, If he be jealous of his name and honour As is our holy prophet Mahomet, Take here these papers as our sacrifice And witness of thy servant's [73] perjury!

[He tears to pieces the articles of peace.]

Open, thou s.h.i.+ning veil of Cynthia, And make a pa.s.sage from th' empyreal heaven, That he that sits on high and never sleeps, Nor in one place is circ.u.mscriptible, But every where fills every continent With strange infusion of his sacred vigour, May, in his endless power and purity, Behold and venge this traitor's perjury!

Thou, Christ, that art esteem'd omnipotent, If thou wilt prove thyself a perfect G.o.d, Worthy the wors.h.i.+p of all faithful hearts, Be now reveng'd upon this traitor's soul, And make the power I have left behind (Too little to defend our guiltless lives) Sufficient to discomfit [74] and confound The trustless force of those false Christians!-- To arms, my lords! [75] on Christ still let us cry: If there be Christ, we shall have victory.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE III.

Alarms of battle within. Enter SIGISMUND wounded.

SIGISMUND. Discomfited is all the Christian [76] host, And G.o.d hath thunder'd vengeance from on high, For my accurs'd and hateful perjury.

O just and dreadful punisher of sin, Let the dishonour of the pains I feel In this my mortal well-deserved wound End all my penance in my sudden death!

And let this death, wherein to sin I die, Conceive a second life in endless mercy!

[Dies.]

Enter ORCANES, GAZELLUS, URIBa.s.sA, with others.

ORCANES. Now lie the Christians bathing in their bloods, And Christ or Mahomet hath been my friend.

GAZELLUS. See, here the perjur'd traitor Hungary, b.l.o.o.d.y and breathless for his villany!

ORCANES. Now shall his barbarous body be a prey To beasts and fowls, and all the winds shall breathe, Through shady leaves of every senseless tree, Murmurs and hisses for his heinous sin.

Now scalds his soul in the Tartarian streams, And feeds upon the baneful tree of h.e.l.l, That Zoac.u.m, [77] that fruit of bitterness, That in the midst of fire is ingraff'd, Yet flourisheth, as Flora in her pride, With apples like the heads of d.a.m.ned fiends.

The devils there, in chains of quenchless flame, Shall lead his soul, through Orcus' burning gulf, ]From pain to pain, whose change shall never end.

What say'st thou yet, Gazellus, to his foil, Which we referr'd to justice of his Christ And to his power, which here appears as full As rays of Cynthia to the clearest sight?

GAZELLUS. 'Tis but the fortune of the wars, my lord, Whose power is often prov'd a miracle.

ORCANES. Yet in my thoughts shall Christ be honoured, Not doing Mahomet an [78] injury, Whose power had share in this our victory; And, since this miscreant hath disgrac'd his faith, And died a traitor both to heaven and earth, We will both watch and ward shall keep his trunk [79]

Amidst these plains for fowls to prey upon.

Go, Uriba.s.sa, give [80] it straight in charge.

URIBa.s.sA. I will, my lord.

[Exit.]

ORCANES. And now, Gazellus, let us haste and meet Our army, and our brother[s] of Jerusalem, Of Soria, [81] Trebizon, and Amasia, And happily, with full Natolian bowls Of Greekish wine, now let us celebrate Our happy conquest and his angry fate.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE IV.

The arras is drawn, and ZENOCRATE is discovered lying in her bed of state; TAMBURLAINE sitting by her; three PHYSICIANS about her bed, tempering potions; her three sons, CALYPHAS, AMYRAS, and CELEBINUS; THERIDAMAS, TECh.e.l.lES, and USUMCASANE.

TAMBURLAINE. Black is the beauty of the brightest day; The golden ball of heaven's eternal fire, That danc'd with glory on the silver waves, Now wants the fuel that inflam'd his beams; And all with faintness, and for foul disgrace, He binds his temples with a frowning cloud, Ready to darken earth with endless night.

Zenocrate, that gave him light and life, Whose eyes shot fire from their [82] ivory brows, [83]

And temper'd every soul with lively heat, Now by the malice of the angry skies, Whose jealousy admits no second mate, Draws in the comfort of her latest breath, All dazzled with the h.e.l.lish mists of death.

Now walk the angels on the walls of heaven, As sentinels to warn th' immortal souls To entertain divine Zenocrate: Apollo, Cynthia, and the ceaseless lamps That gently look'd upon this [84] loathsome earth, s.h.i.+ne downwards now no more, but deck the heavens To entertain divine Zenocrate: The crystal springs, whose taste illuminates Refined eyes with an eternal sight, Like tried silver run through Paradise To entertain divine Zenocrate: The cherubins and holy seraphins, That sing and play before the King of Kings, Use all their voices and their instruments To entertain divine Zenocrate; And, in this sweet and curious harmony, The G.o.d that tunes this music to our souls Holds out his hand in highest majesty To entertain divine Zenocrate.

Then let some holy trance convey my thoughts Up to the palace of th' empyreal heaven, That this my life may be as short to me As are the days of sweet Zenocrate.-- Physicians, will no [85] physic do her good?

FIRST PHYSICIAN. My lord, your majesty shall soon perceive, An if she pa.s.s this fit, the worst is past.

TAMBURLAINE. Tell me, how fares my fair Zenocrate?

ZENOCRATE. I fare, my lord, as other empresses, That, when this frail and [86] transitory flesh Hath suck'd the measure of that vital air That feeds the body with his dated health, Wane with enforc'd and necessary change.

TAMBURLAINE. May never such a change transform my love, In whose sweet being I repose my life!

Whose heavenly presence, beautified with health, Gives light to Phoebus and the fixed stars; Whose absence makes [87] the sun and moon as dark As when, oppos'd in one diameter, Their spheres are mounted on the serpent's head, Or else descended to his winding train.

Live still, my love, and so conserve my life, Or, dying, be the author [88] of my death.

ZENOCRATE. Live still, my lord; O, let my sovereign live!

And sooner let the fiery element Dissolve, and make your kingdom in the sky, Than this base earth should shroud your majesty; For, should I but suspect your death by mine, The comfort of my future happiness, And hope to meet your highness in the heavens, Turn'd to despair, would break my wretched breast, And fury would confound my present rest.

But let me die, my love; yes, [89] let me die; With love and patience let your true love die: Your grief and fury hurts my second life.

Yet let me kiss my lord before I die, And let me die with kissing of my lord.

But, since my life is lengthen'd yet a while, Let me take leave of these my loving sons, And of my lords, whose true n.o.bility Have merited my latest memory.