8 mean lowly (i.e. a shepherd)

10 silly helpless

15 hand signature (guaranteeing safe passage)

16 thorough ‘Through’ was often thus spelled and pronounced in Elizabethan verse when the metre demanded a disyllable. There are several examples in Tamburlaine.

18 puissant mighty Cham Tartar emperor

28 precinct province

29 wean my state nurture my power

33 for … import i.e. for you do appear to be a lord

40 Phoebus Apollo, the sun

41 weeds garments

41 s.d. Such has been the practice of modern productions. The text itself does not preclude the possibility that after removing his shepherd’s cloak Tamburlaine gestures to his men to bring him his armour, which he then dons with a theatrical flourish.

42 curtle-axe heavy slashing sword

45 success result
loss unvaluèd the inestimable loss you have incurred

47 these Tamburlaine’s followers
silly … swains simple shepherds

51 tilt joust

63 deserts worth

64 conceit imagination

65 Affecting aspiring to

67 they O2–3, Q (thee O1)

69 drifts purposes

88 Rhodope a snow-capped mountain range in Thrace, famous for silver mines

94 Pegasus the mythical winged horse

96 Enchased adorned

97 valurous valuable

101 resolved melted

103 fifty-headed … waves i.e. the numerous tributaries of the Volga river

127 brave splendid

138 mails packs, baggage

139 wedges ingots

146 lanch cut

151 brunt attack

154 lineation ed.

156 furniture equipment

160 Avernus a lake anciently regarded as the entrance to the underworld

161 And O1 catchword (To O1 text).
triple-headed dog Cerberus, who guarded the entrance to the underworld

164 affections emotions

174 Fates the three goddesses, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, who governed human destiny

176 According to Ptolemaic astronomy, the sun moved in an orbit around the earth.

179 raze graze

187 portly stately emperess original spelling here and elsewhere retained for the sake of the metre

189 conduct direction

194 merchants merchant ships stems prows and hence, by synecdoche, ships

196 vail lower the topsail in homage

199 maskèd … weed disguised himself as a shepherd

200 that by which

206–7 As … light as far as Boreas (the north wind) blows or Boötes (a northern constellation) shines; i.e. the northern limit of the empire

208 competitor partner

210 Hermes the god of eloquence
prolocutor spokesman

211 pathetical moving

213 vaunts boasts

215 offer … state offer to make us dukes immediately

224 tice entice

225 Ah ed. (Are O1)

235 still forever

243 Pylades and Orestes Pylades was the faithful friend of Orestes, helping him in the murder of his mother and sharing his exile and suffering.

249–50 Nor … heart Neither to thee nor to them … shall my heart fail

251 security protection