Act IV, Scene iii

[Enter] SOLDAN, [KING OF] ARABIA, CAPOLIN, with streaming colours; and Soldiers

SOLDAN
Methinks we march as Meleager did,
Environed with brave Argolian knights,
To chase the savage Calydonian boar,
Or Cephalus with lusty Theban youths
Against the wolf that angry Themis sent	5
To waste and spoil the sweet Aonian fields.
A monster of five hundred thousand heads,
Compact of rapine, piracy and spoil,
The scum of men, the hate and scourge of God,
Raves in Egyptia and annoyeth us.	10
My lord, it is the bloody Tamburlaine,
A sturdy felon and a base-bred thief
By murder raised to the Persian crown,
That dares control us in our territories.
To tame the pride of this presumptuous beast,	15
Join your Arabians with the Soldan’s power;
Let us unite our royal bands in one
And hasten to remove Damascus’ siege.
It is a blemish to the majesty
And high estate of mighty emperors	20
That such a base usurping vagabond
Should brave a king or wear a princely crown.
KING OF ARABIA
Renowned Soldan, have ye lately heard
The overthrow of mighty Bajazeth
About the confines of Bithynia?	25
The slavery wherewith he persecutes
The noble Turk and his great emperess?
SOLDAN
I have, and sorrow for his bad success.
But, noble lord of great Arabia,
Be so persuaded that the Soldan is	30
No more dismayed with tidings of his fall,
Than in the haven when the pilot stands
And views a stranger’s ship rent in the winds
And shivered against a craggy rock.
Yet in compassion of his wretched state,	35
A sacred vow to heaven and him I make,
Confirming it with Ibis’ holy name,
That Tamburlaine shall rue the day, the hour,
Wherein he wrought such ignominious wrong
Unto the hallowed person of a prince,	40
Or kept the fair Zenocrate so long,
As concubine, I fear, to feed his lust.
KING OF ARABIA
Let grief and fury hasten on revenge.
Let Tamburlaine for his offences feel
Such plagues as heaven and we can pour on him.	45
I long to break my spear upon his crest
And prove the weight of his victorious arm;
For fame I fear hath been too prodigal
In sounding through the world his partial praise.
SOLDAN
Capolin, hast thou surveyed our powers?	50
CAPOLIN
Great emperors of Egypt and Arabia,
The number of your hosts united is
A hundred and fifty thousand horse.
Two hundred thousand foot, brave men-at-arms,
Courageous and full of hardiness,	55
As frolic as the hunters in the chase
Of savage beasts amid the desert woods.
KING OF ARABIA
My mind presageth fortunate success,
And, Tamburlaine, my spirit doth foresee
The utter ruin of thy men and thee.	60
SOLDAN
Then rear your standards, let your sounding drums
Direct our soldiers to Damascus’ walls.
Now, Tamburlaine, the mighty Soldan comes
And leads with him the great Arabian king
To dim thy baseness and obscurity,	65
Famous for nothing but for theft and spoil,
To raze and scatter thy inglorious crew
Of Scythians and slavish Persians.                    Exeunt