Act III, Scene iii

[Enter] TAMBURLAINE, TECHELLES, USUMCASANE, THERIDAMAS, BASSO, ZENOCRATE, with others

TAMBURLAINE
Basso, by this thy lord and master knows
I mean to meet him in Bithynia.
See how he comes! Tush, Turks are full of brags
And menace more than they can well perform.
He meet me in the field and fetch thee hence!	5
Alas, poor Turk, his fortune is too weak
T’encounter with the strength of Tamburlaine.
View well my camp, and speak indifferently,
Do not my captains and my soldiers look
As if they meant to conquer Africa?	10
BASSO
Your men are valiant but their number few,
And cannot terrify his mighty host.
My lord, the great commander of the world.
Besides fifteen contributory kings
Hath now in arms ten thousand janissaries	15
Mounted on lusty Mauritanian steeds
Brought to the war by men of Tripoli,
Two hundred thousand footmen that have served
In two set battles fought in Graecia,
And for the expedition of this war,	20
If he think good, can from his garrisons
Withdraw as many more to follow him.
TECHELLES
The more he brings, the greater is the spoil,
For when they perish by our warlike hands
We mean to seat our footmen on their steeds	25
And rifle all those stately janissars.
TAMBURLAINE
But will those kings accompany your lord?
BASSO
Such as his highness please, but some must stay
To rule the provinces he late subdued.
TAMBURLAINE
[To his men] Then fight courageously, their crowns are
yours.	30
This hand shall set them on your conquering heads
That made me emperor of Asia.
USUMCASANE
Let him bring millions infinite of men,
Unpeopling western Africa and Greece,
Yet we assure us of the victory.	35
THERIDAMAS
Even he, that in a trice vanquished two kings
More mighty than the Turkish emperor,
Shall rouse him out of Europe and pursue
His scattered army till they yield or die.
TAMBURLAINE
Well said, Theridamas, speak in that mood,	40
For ‘will’ and ‘shall’ best fitteth Tamburlaine,
Whose smiling stars gives him assured hope
Of martial triumph, ere he meet his foes.
I, that am termed the scourge and wrath of God,
The only fear and terror of the world,	45
Will first subdue the Turk, and then enlarge
Those Christian captives which you keep as slaves.
Burdening their bodies with your heavy chains
And feeding them with thin and slender fare
That naked row about the Terrene sea,	50
And, when they chance to breathe and rest a space,
Are punished with bastones so grievously
That they lie panting on the galley’s side
And strive for life at every stroke they give.
These are the cruel pirates of Argier,	55
That damnèd train, the scum of Africa,
Inhabited with straggling runagates,
That make quick havoc of the Christian blood.
But, as I live, that town shall curse the time
That Tamburlaine set foot in Africa.	60
Enter BAJAZETH with his Bassoes and contributory KINGS [OF FEZ, MOROCCO, and ARGIER, ZABINA and EBEA]
BAJAZETH
Bassoes and janissaries of my guard,
Attend upon the person of your lord,
The greatest potentate of Africa.
TAMBURLAINE
Techelles and the rest, prepare your swords,
I mean t’encounter with that Bajazeth.	65
BAJAZETH
Kings of Fez, Morocco and Argier,
He calls me Bajazeth, whom you call lord!
Note the presumption of this Scythian slave!
I tell thee, villain, those that lead my horse
Have to their names titles of dignity,	70
And dar’st thou bluntly call me Bajazeth?
TAMBURLAINE
And know thou, Turk, that those which lead my horse
Shall lead thee captive thorough Africa.
And dar’st thou bluntly call me Tamburlaine?
BAJAZETH
By Mahomet my kinsman’s sepulchre	75
And by the holy Alcoran, I swear
He shall be made a chaste and lustless eunuch,
And in my sarell tend my concubines,
And all his captains that thus stoutly stand
Shall draw the chariot of my emperess,	80
Whom I have brought to see their overthrow.
TAMBURLAINE
By this my sword that conquered Persia,
Thy fall shall make me famous through the world.
I will not tell thee how I’ll handle thee,
But every common soldier of my camp	85
Shall smile to see thy miserable state.
KING OF FEZ
What means the mighty Turkish emperor
To talk with one so base as Tamburlaine?
KING OF MOROCCO
Ye Moors and valiant men of Barbary,
How can ye suffer these indignities?	90
KING OF ARGIER
Leave words and let them feel your lances’ points,
Which glided through the bowels of the Greeks.
BAJAZETH
Well said, my stout contributory kings,
Your threefold army and my hugy host
Shall swallow up these base-born Persians.	95
TECHELLES
Puissant, renowned and mighty Tamburlaine,
Why stay we thus prolonging all their lives?
THERIDAMAS
I long to see those crowns won by our swords
That we may reign as kings of Africa.
USUMCASANE
What coward would not fight for such a prize?	100
TAMBURLAINE
Fight all courageously and be you kings.
I speak it, and my words are oracles.
BAJAZETH
Zabina, mother of three braver boys
Than Hercules, that in his infancy
Did pash the jaws of serpents venomous,	105
Whose hands are made to grip a warlike lance,
Their shoulders broad for complete armour fit,
Their limbs more large and of a bigger size
Than all the brats ysprung from Typhon’s loins,
Who, when they come unto their father’s age,	110
Will batter turrets with their manly fists,
Sit here upon this royal chair of state,
And on thy head wear my imperial crown
Until I bring this sturdy Tamburlaine
And all his captains bound in captive chains.	115
ZABINA
Such good success happen to Bajazeth.
TAMBURLAINE
Zenocrate, the loveliest maid alive,
Fairer than rocks of pearl and precious stone,
The only paragon of Tamburlaine,
Whose eyes are brighter than the lamps of heaven	120
And speech more pleasant than sweet harmony,
That with thy looks canst clear the darkened sky
And calm the rage of thund’ring Jupiter,
Sit down by her, adorned with my crown
As if thou wert the empress of the world.	125
Stir not, Zenocrate, until thou see
Me march victoriously with all my men,
Triumphing over him and these his kings
Which I will bring as vassals to thy feet.
Till then take thou my crown, vaunt of my worth,	130
And manage words with her as we will arms.
ZENOCRATE
And may my love, the King of Persia,
Return with victory and free from wound.
BAJAZETH
Now shalt thou feel the force of Turkish arms,
Which lately made all Europe quake for fear.	135
I have of Turks, Arabians, Moors and Jews
Enough to cover all Bithynia.
Let thousands die, their slaughtered carcasses
Shall serve for walls and bulwarks to the rest;
And as the heads of Hydra, so my power,	140
Subdued, shall stand as mighty as before:
If they should yield their necks unto the sword,
Thy soldiers’ arms could not endure to strike
So many blows as I have heads for thee.
Thou knowest not, foolish-hardy Tamburlaine,	145
What ’tis to meet me in the open field,
That leave no ground for thee to march upon.
TAMBURLAINE
Our conquering swords shall marshal us the way
We use to march upon the slaughtered foe,
Trampling their bowels with our horses’ hoofs –	150
Brave horses, bred on the white Tartarian hills.
My camp is like to Julius Caesar’s host
That never fought but had the victory,
Nor in Pharsalia was there such hot war
As these my followers willingly would have.	155
Legions of spirits fleeting in the air
Direct our bullets and our weapons’ points,
And make your strokes to wound the senseless air;
And when she sees our bloody colours spread,
Then Victory begins to take her flight,	160
Resting herself upon my milk-white tent.
But come, my lords, to weapons let us fall.
The field is ours, the Turk, his wife and all.
Exit, with his followers
BAJAZETH
Come, kings and bassoes, let us glut our swords
That thirst to drink the feeble Persians’ blood.	165
Exit, with his followers
ZABINA
Base concubine, must thou be placed by me
That am the empress of the mighty Turk?
ZENOCRATE
Disdainful Turkess and unreverend boss,
Call’st thou me concubine that am betrothed
Unto the great and mighty Tamburlaine?	170
ZABINA
To Tamburlaine the great Tartarian thief?
ZENOCRATE
Thou wilt repent these lavish words of thine
When thy great basso-master and thyself
Must plead for mercy at his kingly feet
And sue to me to be your advocates.	175
ZABINA
And sue to thee? I tell thee, shameless girl,
Thou shalt be laundress to my waiting-maid.
How lik’st thou her, Ebea, will she serve?
EBEA
Madam, she thinks perhaps she is too fine,
But I shall turn her into other weeds,	180
And make her dainty fingers fall to work.
ZENOCRATE
Hear’st thou, Anippe, how thy drudge doth talk,
And how my slave, her mistress, menaceth?
Both for their sauciness shall be employed
To dress the common soldiers’ meat and drink,	185
For we will scorn they should come near ourselves.
ANIPPE
Yet sometimes let your highness send for them
To do the work my chambermaid disdains.
They sound [to] the battle within, and stay
ZENOCRATE
Ye gods and powers that govern Persia
And made my lordly love her worthy king,	190
Now strengthen him against the Turkish Bajazeth,
And let his foes like flocks of fearful roes
Pursued by hunters fly his angry looks,
That I may see him issue conqueror.
ZABINA
Now Mahomet, solicit God himself	195
And make him rain down murdering shot from heaven
To dash the Scythians’ brains, and strike them dead
That dare to manage arms with him
That offered jewels to thy sacred shrine
When first he warred against the Christians.	200
[Trumpets sound] to the battle again
ZENOCRATE
By this the Turks lie weltering in their blood
And Tamburlaine is lord of Africa.
ZABINA
Thou art deceived, I heard the trumpets sound
As when my emperor overthrew the Greeks
And led them captive into Africa.	205
Straight will I use thee as thy pride deserves;
Prepare thyself to live and die my slave.
ZENOCRATE
If Mahomet should come from heaven and swear
My royal lord is slain or conquered,
Yet should he not persuade me otherwise	210
But that he lives and will be conqueror.
BAJAZETH flies [across the stage] and [TAMBURLAINE] pursues him [off]. The battle [is] short, and they [re-]enter. BAJAZETH is overcome
TAMBURLAINE
Now, king of bassoes, who is conqueror?
BAJAZETH
Thou, by the fortune of this damnèd foil.
TAMBURLAINE
Where are your stout contributory kings?
Enter TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE
TECHELLES
We have their crowns, their bodies strew the field.	215
TAMBURLAINE
Each man a crown? Why kingly fought i’faith.
Deliver them into my treasury.
ZENOCRATE
Now let me offer to my gracious lord
His royal crown again, so highly won.
TAMBURLAINE
Nay, take the Turkish crown from her, Zenocrate,	220
And crown me emperor of Africa.
ZABINA
No Tamburlaine, though now thou gat the best,
Thou shalt not yet be lord of Africa.
THERIDAMAS
Give her the crown, Turkess, you were best.
He takes it from her and gives it [to] ZENOCRATE
ZABINA
Injurious villains, thieves, runagates,	225
How dare you thus abuse my majesty?
THERIDAMAS
Here madam, you are empress, she is none.
TAMBURLAINE
Not now, Theridamas, her time is past:
The pillars that have bolstered up those terms
Are fallen in clusters at my conquering feet.	230
ZABINA
Though he be prisoner, he may be ransomed.
TAMBURLAINE
Not all the world shall ransom Bajazeth.
BAJAZETH
Ah, fair Zabina, we have lost the field,
And never had the Turkish emperor
So great a foil by any foreign foe.	235
Now will the Christian miscreants be glad,
Ringing with joy their superstitious bells
And making bonfires for my overthrow.
But ere I die those foul idolators
Shall make me bonfires with their filthy bones,	240
For though the glory of this day be lost,
Afric and Greece have garrisons enough
To make me sovereign of the earth again.
TAMBURLAINE
Those walled garrisons will I subdue
And write myself great lord of Africa.	245
So from the East unto the furthest West
Shall Tamburlaine extend his puissant arm.
The galleys and those pilling brigandines
That yearly sail to the Venetian gulf
And hover in the straits for Christians’ wrack,	250
Shall lie at anchor in the Isle Asant
Until the Persian fleet and men-of-war,
Sailing along the oriental sea,
Have fetched about the Indian continent
Even from Persepolis to Mexico,	255
And thence unto the Straits of Jubalter,
Where they shall meet and join their force in one,
Keeping in awe the Bay of Portingale
And all the ocean by the British shore.
And by this means I’ll win the world at last.	260
BAJAZETH
Yet set a ransom on me Tamburlaine.
TAMBURLAINE
What, think’st thou Tamburlaine esteems thy gold?
I’ll make the kings of India ere I die
Offer their mines to sue for peace to me,
And dig for treasure to appease my wrath.	265
Come bind them both and one lead in the Turk.
The Turkess let my love’s maid lead away.
They bind them
BAJAZETH
Ah villains, dare ye touch my sacred arms?
O Mahomet, O sleepy Mahomet!
ZABINA
O curséd Mahomet that mak’st us thus	270
The slaves to Scythians rude and barbarous!
TAMBURLAINE
Come bring them in, and for this happy conquest
Triumph, and solemnize a martial feast.               Exeunt