Enter the GOVERNOR OF BABYLON upon the walls with [MAXIMUS and] others.
GOVERNOR
What saith Maximus?
MAXIMUS
My lord, the breach the enemy hath made
Gives such assurance of our overthrow
That little hope is left to save our lives,
Or hold our city from the conqueror’s hands.
Then hang out flags, my lord, of humble truce,
And satisfy the people’s general prayers
That Tamburlaine’s intolerable wrath
May be suppressed by our submission.
GOVERNOR
10 Villain, respects thou more thy slavish life
Than honour of thy country or thy name?
Is not my life and state as dear to me,
The city and my native country’s weal,
As any thing of price with thy conceit?
Have we not hope, for all our battered walls,
To live secure and keep his forces out,
When this our famous lake of Limnasphaltis
Makes walls afresh with every thing that falls
Into the liquid substance of his stream,
20 More strong than are the gates of death or hell?
What faintness should dismay our courages
When we are thus defenced against our foe
And have no terror but his threat’ning looks?
Enter another [CITIZEN above], kneeling to the GOVERNOR.
FIRST CITIZEN
My lord, if ever you did deed of ruth
And now will work a refuge to our lives,
Offer submission, hang up flags of truce,
That Tamburlaine may pity our distress
And use us like a loving conqueror.
Though this be held his last day’s dreadful siege
30 Wherein he spareth neither man nor child,
Yet are there Christians of Georgia here,
Whose state he ever pitied and relieved,
Will get his pardon if your grace would send.
GOVERNOR
How is my soul environéd,
And this eternized city Babylon
Filled with a pack of faint-heart fugitives
That thus entreat their shame and servitude!
[Enter another CITIZENabove, kneeling to the GOVERNOR.]
SECOND CITIZEN
My lord, if ever you will win our hearts,
Yield up the town, save our wives and children!
40 For I will cast myself from off these walls,
Or die some death of quickest violence
Before I bide the wrath of Tamburlaine.
GOVERNOR
Villains, cowards, traitors to our state!
Fall to the earth and pierce the pit of hell,
That legions of tormenting spirits may vex
Your slavish bosoms with continual pains!
I care not, nor the town will never yield
As long as any life is in my breast.
Enter THERIDAMAS and TECHELLES, with other SOLDIERS.
Thou desperate governor of Babylon,
50 To save thy life, and us a little labour,
Yield speedily the city to our hands,
Or else be sure thou shalt be forced with pains
More exquisite than ever traitor felt.
GOVERNOR
Tyrant, I turn the traitor in thy throat,
And will defend it in despite of thee.
Call up the soldiers to defend these walls.
TECHELLES
Yield, foolish governor. We offer more
Than ever yet we did to such proud slaves
As durst resist us till our third day’s siege.
60 Thou seest us prest to give the last assault,
And that shall bide no more regard of parley.
GOVERNOR
Assault and spare not. We will never yield.
Alarm, and they scale the walls. [Exeunt CITIZENS and GOVERNOR above, followed in by THERIDAMAS, TECHELLES, and their SOLDIERS.] Enter TAMBURLAINE [all in black, drawn in his chariot by the kings of TREBIZOND and SORIA], with USUMCASANE, AMYRAS, and CELEBINUS, with others; the two spare kings [ORCANES of Natolia, and JERUSALEM].
TAMBURLAINE
The stately buildings of fair Babylon,
Whose lofty pillars, higher than the clouds,
Were wont to guide the seaman in the deep,
Being carried thither by the cannon’s force,
Now fill the mouth of Limnasphaltis’ lake
And make a bridge unto the battered walls.
Where Belus, Ninus, and great Alexander
70 Have rode in triumph, triumphs Tamburlaine,
Whose chariot wheels have burst th’Assyrians’bones,
Drawn with these kings on heaps of carcasses.
Now in the place where fair Semiramis,
Courted by kings and peers of Asia,
Hath trod the measures, do my soldiers march;
And in the streets, where brave Assyrian dames
Have rid in pomp like rich Saturnia,
With furious words and frowning visages
My horsemen brandish their unruly blades.
Enter [below] THERIDAMAS and TECHELLES, bringing the
GOVERNOR OF BABYLON.
80 Who have ye there, my lords?
THERIDAMAS
The sturdy governor of Babylon,
That made us all the labour for the town
And used such slender reck’ning of your majesty.
TAMBURLAINE
Go bind the villain. He shall hang in chains
Upon the ruins of this conquered town.
Sirrah, the view of our vermilion tents,
Which threatened more than if the region
Next underneath the element of fire
Were full of comets and of blazing stars
90 Whose flaming trains should reach down to the earth,
Could not affright you; no, nor I myself,
The wrathful messenger of mighty Jove,
That with his sword hath quailed all earthly kings,
Could not persuade you to submission,
But still the ports were shut. Villain, I say,
Should I but touch the rusty gates of hell,
The triple-headed Cerberus would howl
And wake black Jove to crouch and kneel to me;
But I have sent volleys of shot to you,
100 Yet could not enter till the breach was made.
GOVERNOR
Nor, if my body could have stopped the breach,
Shouldst thou have entered, cruel Tamburlaine.
’Tis not thy bloody tents can make me yield,
Nor yet thyself, the anger of the Highest,
For, though thy cannon shook the city walls,
My heart did never quake, or courage faint.
TAMBURLAINE
Well, now I’ll make it quake. Go draw him up.
Hang him in chains upon the city walls,
And let my soldiers shoot the slave to death.
GOVERNOR
110 Vile monster, born of some infernal hag,
And sent from hell to tyrannize on earth,
Do all thy worst. Nor death, nor Tamburlaine,
Torture, or pain can daunt my dreadless mind.
TAMBURLAINE
Up with him, then; his body shall be scarred.
GOVERNOR
But Tamburlaine, in Limnasphaltis’ lake
There lies more gold than Babylon is worth,
Which when the city was besieged I hid.
Save but my life, and I will give it thee.
TAMBURLAINE
Then, for all your valour, you would save your life?
120 Whereabout lies it?
GOVERNOR
Under a hollow bank, right opposite
Against the western gate of Babylon.
TAMBURLAINE
Go thither, some of you, and take his gold.
[Exeunt SOLDIERS.]
The rest, forward with execution!
Away with him hence, let him speak no more.
I think I make your courage something quail.
[Exit GOVERNOR, led away by SOLDIERS.]
When this is done, we’ll march from Babylon
And make our greatest haste to Persia.
These jades are broken-winded and half tired;
130 Unharness them, and let me have fresh horse.
[SOLDIERS unharness TREBIZOND and SORIA.]
So, now their best is done to honour me,
Take them and hang them both up presently.
Vile tyrant, barbarous, bloody Tamburlaine!
TAMBURLAINETake them away, Theridamas. See them dispatched.
THERIDAMAS I will, my lord.
[Exit THERIDAMAS with the kings of TREBIZOND and SORIA.]
TAMBURLAINE
Come, Asian viceroys, to your tasks a while,
And take such fortune as your fellows felt.
ORCANES
First let thy Scythian horse tear both our limbs,
140 Rather than we should draw thy chariot,
And like base slaves abject our princely minds
To vile and ignominious servitude.
JERUSALEM
Rather lend me thy weapon, Tamburlaine,
That I may sheathe it in this breast of mine.
A thousand deaths could not torment our hearts
More than the thought of this doth vex our souls.
AMYRAS
They will talk still, my lord, if you do not bridle them.
TAMBURLAINE
Bridle them, and let me to my coach.
They bridle them. [The GOVERNOR OF BABYLON is hung up in chains. Re-enter THERIDAMAS. TAMBURLAINE mounts his chariot.]
AMYRAS
See now, my lord, how brave the captain hangs!
TAMBURLAINE
150 ’Tis brave indeed, my boy. Well done!
Shoot first, my lord, and then the rest shall follow.
THERIDAMAS
Then have at him to begin withal.
THERIDAMAS shoots [the GOVERNOR].
GOVERNOR
Yet save my life, and let this wound appease
The mortal fury of great Tamburlaine.
TAMBURLAINE
No, though Asphaltis’ lake were liquid gold
And offered me as ransom for thy life,
Yet shouldst thou die. Shoot at him all at once.
They shoot.
So, now he hangs like Baghdad’s governor,
Having as many bullets in his flesh
160 As there be breaches in her battered wall.
Go now and bind the burghers hand and foot,
And cast them headlong in the city’s lake;
Tartars and Persians shall inhabit there,
And, to command the city, I will build
A citadel, that all Assyria,
Which hath been subject to the Persian king,
Shall pay me tribute for, in Babylon.
TECHELLES
What shall be done with their wives and children, my lord?
TAMBURLAINE
Techelles, drown them all, man, woman, and child.
170 Leave not a Babylonian in the town.
TECHELLES
I will about it straight. Come, soldiers.
Exit [TECHELLESwith SOLDIERS].
TAMBURLAINE
Now, Casane, where’s the Turkish Alcoran,
And all the heaps of superstitious books
Found in the temples of that Mahomet
Whom I have thought a god? They shall be burnt.
USUMCASANE [presenting the books] Here they are, my lord.
TAMBURLAINE
Well said. Let there be a fire presently.
[They light a fire.]
In vain, I see, men worship Mahomet.
My sword hath sent millions of Turks to hell,
180 Slew all his priests, his kinsmen, and his friends,
And yet I live untouched by Mahomet.
There is a God full of revenging wrath,
From whom the thunder and the lightning breaks,
Whose scourge I am, and him will I obey.
So, Casane, fling them in the fire.
[They burn the books.]
Now, Mahomet, if thou have any power,
Come down thyself and work a miracle.
Thou art not worthy to be worshippéd
That suffers flames of fire to burn the writ
190 Wherein the sum of thy religion rests.
Why send’st thou not a furious whirlwind down
To blow thy Alcoran up to thy throne,
Where men report thou sitt’st by God himself,
Or vengeance on the head of Tamburlaine,
That shakes his sword against thy majesty
And spurns the abstracts of thy foolish laws?
Well, soldiers, Mahomet remains in hell;
He cannot hear the voice of Tamburlaine.
Seek out another godhead to adore,
200 The God that sits in heaven, if any god,
For he is God alone, and none but he.
[Re-enter TECHELLES.]
TECHELLES
I have fulfilled your highness’ will, my lord.
Thousands of men, drowned in Asphaltis’ lake,
Have made the water swell above the banks,
And fishes, fed by human carcasses,
Amazed, swim up and down upon the waves As when they swallow assafoetida,
Which makes them fleet aloft and gasp for air.
TAMBURLAINE
Well, then, my friendly lords, what now remains,
210 But that we leave sufficient garrison,
And presently depart to Persia
To triumph after all our victories?
THERIDAMAS
Ay, good my lord. Let us in haste to Persia,
And let this captain be removed the walls
To some high hill about the city here.
Let it be so. About it, soldiers.
But stay, I feel myself distempered suddenly.
TECHELLES
What is it dares distemper Tamburlaine?
TAMBURLAINE
Something, Techelles, but I know not what.
220 But forth, ye vassals! Whatsoe’er it be,
Sickness or death can never conquer me.
Exeunt.
Enter CALLAPINE, [the King of] AMASIA, [a CAPTAIN, SOLDIERS,] with drums and trumpets.
CALLAPINE
King of Amasia, now our mighty host
Marcheth in Asia Major, where the streams
Of Euphrates and Tigris swiftly runs,
And here may we behold great Babylon,
Circled about with Limnasphaltis’ lake,
Where Tamburlaine with all his army lies,
Which being faint and weary with the siege,
We may lie ready to encounter him
Before his host be full from Babylon,
10 And so revenge our latest grievous loss,
If God or Mahomet send any aid.
AMASIA
Doubt not, my lord, but we shall conquer him.
The monster that hath drunk a sea of blood
And yet gapes still for more to quench his thirst,
Our Turkish swords shall headlong send to hell;
And that vile carcass drawn by warlike kings,
The fowls shall eat, for never sepulchre
Shall grace that base-born tyrant Tamburlaine.
When I record my parents’ slavish life,
20 Their cruel death, mine own captivity,
My viceroys’ bondage under Tamburlaine,
Methinks I could sustain a thousand deaths
To be revenged of all his villainy.
Ah, sacred Mahomet! Thou that hast seen
Millions of Turks perish by Tamburlaine,
Kingdoms made waste, brave cities sacked and burnt,
And but one host is left to honour thee,
Aid thy obedient servant Callapine,
And make him, after all these overthrows,
30 To triumph over cursed Tamburlaine!
AMASIA
Fear not, my lord. I see great Mahomet
Clothèd in purple clouds, and on his head
A chapter brighter than Apoll’s crown,
Marching about the air with armèd mcn
To join with you against this Tamburlaine.
CAPTAIN
Renownèd general, mighty Callapine,
Though God himself and holy Mahomet
Should come in person to resist your power,
Yet might your mighty host encounter all
40 And pull proud Tamburlaine upon his knees
To sue for mercy at your highness’ feet.
CALLAPINE
Captain, the force of Tamburlaine is great,
His fortune greater, and the victories
Wherewith he hath so sore dismayed the world
Are greatest to discourage all our drifts.
Yet when the pride of Cynthia is at full
She wanes again, and so shall his, I hope,
For we have here the chief selected men
Of twenty several kingdoms at the least.
50 Nor ploughman, priest, nor merchant stays at home;
All Turkey is in arms with Callapine,
And never will we sunder camps and arms
Before himself or his be conqueréd.
This is the time that must eternize me
For conquering the tyrant of the world.
Come, soldiers, let us lie in wait for him,
And if we find him absent from his camp
Or that it be rejoined again at full,
Assail it and be sure of victory.
Exeunt.
[Enter] THERIDAMAS, TECHELLES, USUMCASANE. THERIDAMAS
Weep, heavens, and vanish into liquid tears!
Fall, stars that govern his nativity,
And summon all the shining lamps of heaven
To cast their bootless fires to the earth
And shed their feeble influence in the air!
Muffle your beauties with eternal clouds,
For hell and darkness pitch their pitchy tents,
And Death with armies of Cimmerian spirits
Gives battle ’gainst the heart of Tamburlaine.
10 Now, in defiance of that wonted love
Your sacred virtues poured upon his throne
And made his state an honour to the heavens,
These cowards invisibly assail his soul
And threaten conquest on our sovereign;
But if he die, your glories are disgraced,
Earth droops and says that hell in heaven is placed.
TECHELLES
O then, ye powers that sway eternal seats
And guide this massy substance of the earth,
If you retain desert of holiness,
20 As your supreme estates instruct our thoughts,
Be not inconstant, careless of your fame;
Bear not the burden of your enemies’ joys,
Triumphing in his fall whom you advanced;
But as his birth, life, health, and majesty
Were strangely blest and governèd by heaven,
So honour, heaven, till heaven dissolvèd be,
His birth, his life, his health, and majesty.
USUMCASANE
Blush, heaven, to lose the honour of thy name,
To see thy footstool set upon thy head,
30 And let no baseness in thy haughty breast
Sustain a shame of such inexcellence,
To see the devils mount in angels’ thrones
And angels dive into the pools of hell.
And though they think their painful date is out
And that their power is puissant as Jove’s,
Which makes them manage arms against thy state,
Yet make them feel the strength of Tamburlaine,
Thy instrument and note of majesty,
Is greater far than they can thus subdue;
40 For if he die, thy glory is disgraced,
Earth droops and says that hell in heaven is placed.
[Enter TAMBURLAINE in his chariot, drawn by ORCANES, King of Natolia and the King of JERUSALEM attended by AMYRAS, CELEBINUS, and PHYSICIANS.]
TAMBURLAINE
What daring god torments my body thus
And seeks to conquer mighty Tamburlaine?
Shall sickness prove me now to be a man,
That have been termed the terror of the world?
Techelles and the rest, come take your swords
And threaten him whose hand afflicts my soul.
Come let us march against the powers of heaven
And set black streamers in the firmament
50 To signify the slaughter of the gods.
Ah, friends, what shall I do? I cannot stand.
Come, carry me to war against the gods,
That thus envy the health of Tamburlaine.
THERIDAMAS
Ah, good my lord, leave these impatient words,
Which add much danger to your malady.
TAMBURLAINE
Why shall I sit and languish in this pain?
No! Strike the drums, and, in revenge of this,
Come, let us charge our spears and pierce his breast
Whose shoulders bear the axis of the world,
60 That if I perish, heaven and earth may fade.
Theridamas, haste to the court of Jove.
Will him to send Apollo hither straight
To cure me, or I’ll fetch him down myself.
TECHELLES
Sit still, my gracious lord. This grief will cease
And cannot last, it is so violent.
TAMBURLAINE
Not last, Techelles? No, for I shall die.
See where my slave, the ugly monster Death,
Shaking and quivering, pale and wan for fear,
Stands aiming at me with his murdering dart,
70 Who flies away at every glance I give,
And when I look away comes stealing on.
Villain, away, and hie thee to the field!
I and mine army come to load thy bark
With souls of thousand mangled carcasses.
Look where he goes! But see, he comes again
Because I stay. Techelles, let us march,
And weary Death with bearing souls to hell.
PHYSICIAN
Pleaseth your majesty to drink this potion,
Which will abate the fury of your fit
80 And cause some milder spirits govern you.
TAMBURLAINE
Tell me, what think you of my sickness now?
PHYSICIAN
I viewed your urine, and the hypostasis,
Thick and obscure, doth make your danger great;
Your veins are full of accidental heat,
Whereby the moisture of your blood is dried.
The humidum and calor, which some hold
Is not a parcel of the elements
But of a substance more divine and pure,
Is almost clean extinguishèd and spent,
90 Which, being the cause of life, imports your death.
Besides, my lord, this day is critical,
Dangerous to those whose crisis is as yours.
Your artiers, which alongst the veins convey
The lively spirits which the heart engenders,
Are parched and void of spirit, that the soul,
Wanting those organons by which it moves,
Cannot endure by argument of art.
Yet if your majesty may escape this day,
No doubt but you shall soon recover all.
TAMBURLAINE
100 Then will I comfort all my vital parts
And live in spite of Death above a day.
Alarm within.
[Enter a MESSENGER.]
MESSENGER My lord, young Callapine, that lately fled from
your majesty, hath now gathered a fresh army, and, hearing your absence in the field, offers to set upon us presently.
TAMBURLAINE
See, my physicians, now, how Jove hath sent
A present medicine to recure my pain!
My looks shall make them fly, and, might I follow,
There should not one of all the villain’s power
Live to give offer of another fight.
USUMCASANE
110 I joy, my lord, your highness is so strong,
That can endure so well your royal presence
Which only will dismay the enemy.
TAMBURLAINE
I know it well, Casane. Draw, you slaves!
In spite of Death I will go show my face.
Alarm. TAMBURLAINE goes in [in his chariot], and comes out again with all the rest.
TAMBURLAINE
Thus are the villains, cowards, fled for fear,
Like summer’s vapours vanished by the sun.
And could I but a while pursue the field,
That Callapine should be my slave again.
But I perceive my martial strength is spent;
120 In vain I strive and rail against those powers
That mean t’invest me in a higher throne,
As much too high for this disdainful earth.
Give me a map, then, let me see how much
Is left for me to conquer all the world,
That these my boys may finish all my wants.
One brings a map.
Here I began to march towards Persia,
Along Armenia and the Caspian Sea,
And thence unto Bithynia, where I took
The Turk and his great empress prisoners;
130 Then marched I into Egypt and Arabia,
And here, not far from Alexandria,
Whereas the Terrene and the Red Sea meet,
Being distant less than full a hundred leagues,
I meant to cut a channel to them both,
That men might quickly sail to India.
From thence to Nubia, near Borno lake,
And so along the Ethiopian sea,
Cutting the tropic line of Capricorn,
I conquered all as far as Zanzibar.
140 Then by the northern part of Africa
I came at last to Graecia, and from thence
To Asia, where I stay against my will,
Which is from Scythia, where I first began,
Backward and forwards, near five thousand leagues.
Look here, my boys, see what a world of ground
Lies westward from the midst of Cancer’s line
Unto the rising of this earthly globe,
Whereas the sun, declining from our sight,
Begins the day with our Antipodes;
150 And shall I die, and this unconquerèd?
Lo, here, my sons, are all the golden mines,
Inestimable drugs, and precious stones,
More worth than Asia and the world beside;
And from th’Antarctic Pole eastward behold
As much more land, which never was descried,
Wherein are rocks of pearl that shine as bright
As all the lamps that beautify the sky;
And shall I die, and this unconquerèd?
Here, lovely boys; [giving them the map]
what Death forbids my life,
160 That let your lives command in spite of Death.
AMYRAS
Alas, my lord, how should our bleeding hearts,
Wounded and broken with your highness’ grief,
Retain a thought of joy or spark of life?
Your soul gives essence to our wretched subjects,
Whose matter is incorporate in your flesh.
CELEBINUS
Your pains do pierce our souls; no hope survives,
For by your life we entertain our lives.
TAMBURLAINE
But sons, this subject, not of force enough
To hold the fiery spirit it contains,
170 Must part, imparting his impressions
By equal portions into both your breasts;
My flesh, divided in your precious shapes,
Shall still retain my spirit though I die,
And live in all your seeds immortally.
Then now remove me, that I may resign
My place and proper title to my son.
[To AMYRAS]
First take my scourge and my imperial crown,
And mount my royal chariot of estate,
That I may see thee crowned before I die.
180 Help me, my lords, to make my last remove.
THERIDAMAS
A woeful change, my lord, that daunts our thoughts
More than the ruin of our proper souls.
TAMBURLAINE
Sit up, my son. Let me see how well
Thou wilt become thy father’s majesty.
They crown him.
AMYRAS
With what a flinty bosom should I joy
The breath of life and burden of my soul,
If, not resolved into resolvèd pains,
My body’s mortifièd lineaments Should exercise the motions of my heart,
190 Pierced with the joy of any dignity!
O father, if the unrelenting ears
Of Death and hell be shut against my prayers,
And that the spiteful influence of heaven
Deny my soul fruition of her joy,
How should I step or stir my hateful feet
Against the inward powers of my heart,
Leading a life that only strives to die,
And plead in vain unpleasing sovereignty?
TAMBURLAINE
Let not thy love exceed thine honour, son,
200 Nor bar thy mind that magnanimity
That nobly must admit necessity.
Sit up, my boy, and with those silken reins
Bridle the steelèd stomachs of those jades.
THERIDAMAS [to AMYRAS]
My lord, you must obey his majesty,
Since fate commands, and proud necessity.
AMYRAS [ascending the chariot]
Heavens witness me, with what a broken heart
And damnèd spirit I ascend this seat,
And send my soul, before my father die,
His anguish and his burning agony!
210 Now fetch the hearse of fair Zenocrate.
Let it be placed by this my fatal chair
And serve as parcel of my funeral.
[Exeunt some.]
USUMCASANE
Then feels your majesty no sovereign ease,
Nor may our hearts, all drowned in tears of blood,
Joy any hope of your recovery?
TAMBURLAINE
Casane, no. The monarch of the earth
And eyeless monster that torments my soul
Cannot behold the tears ye shed for me,
And therefore still augments his cruelty.
TECHELLES
220 Then let some god oppose his holy power
Against the wrath and tyranny of Death,
That his tear-thirsty and unquenchèd hate
May be upon himself reverberate.
They bring in the hearse [of ZENOCRATE].
TAMBURLAINE
Now, eyes, enjoy your latest benefit,
And when my soul hath virtue of your sight,
Pierce through the coffin and the sheet of gold
And glut your longings with a heaven of joy.
So, reign, my son! Scourge and control those slaves,
Guiding thy chariot with thy father’s hand.
230 As precious is the charge thou undertak’st
As that which Clymene’s brainsick son did guide,
When wand’ring Phoebe’s ivory cheeks were scorched,
And all the earth, like Etna, breathing fire.
Be warned by him, then; learn with awful eye
To sway a throne as dangerous as his.
For if thy body thrive not full of thoughts
As pure and fiery as Phyteus’ beams,
The nature of these proud rebelling jades
Will take Occasion by the slenderest hair,
240 And draw thee piecemeal like Hippolytus,
Through rocks more steep and sharp than Caspian clifts.
The nature of thy chariot will not bear
A guide of baser temper than myself,
More than heaven’s coach the pride of Phaethon.
Farewell, my boys; my dearest friends, farewell!
My body feels, my soul doth weep to see
Your sweet desires deprived of company;
For Tamburlaine, the scourge of God, must die.
[He dies.]
AMYRAS
Meet heaven and earth, and here let all things end!
250 For earth hath spent the pride of all her fruit,
And heaven consumed his choicest living fire.
Let earth and heaven his timeless death deplore,
For both their worths will equal him no more.
[Exeunt.]