4 bootless unavailing

8 Cimmerian dark, infernal. See note to Part One, III, ii, 77 above.

19 desert of holiness that which deserves religious worship

20 estates ranks, authorities

22 Bear … burden do not join in the chorus

31 Sustain … inexcellence bear so vile a shame

34 i.e though the powers of darkness think their time of submission is over

38 note distinguishing mark

58 charge level
his Atlas’s, with whom Tamburlaine is compared in Part One, II, i, 10–11

62 Apollo the god of medicine

73 bark ship

76 stay delay

82 hypostasis sediment

84–97 The ‘accidental [abnormal] heat’ has parched Tamburlaine’s arteries and ‘dried up in his blood the radical moisture (humidum) which is necessary for the preservation of his natural heat (calor).’ This depletion of moisture and heat prevents his soul’s functions and slows his bodily activities by impeding the circulation of ‘spirits’, thus threatening his death. (See Johnstone Parr, Tamburlaine’s Malady, University AL, 1953, p. 15)

87 parcel part

91 day is critical i.e. the stars are in an unfavourable conjunction for effecting a cure

93 artiers arteries

96 organons organs of the body which act as instruments of the soul (here, perhaps, in the sense of the fluid or ‘spirits’ that animate such organs)

97 argument of art i.e. the science of medicine

106 recure cure

111 endure make sturdy or robust

112 only alone

132 Whereas where

134 cut a channel make a canal. The Suez Canal had been suggested before Marlowe’s day.

146 the midst of Cancer’s line just off the coast of north-west Africa where, according to Ortelius, the meridian 0° intersects the Tropic of Cancer

149 antipodes here, the inhabitants of the western hemisphere

154–5 And from … descried Australia, which had not yet been ‘descried’ (discovered) but about which rumours were current

162 grief suffering

164–5 Your soul … flesh Your soul has bequeathed an animating spirit (‘essence’) to our unhappy selves (‘wretched subjects’), since our bodies are part of your flesh. See Introduction, pp. xxvii–xxviii.

167 entertain maintain

168 subject material body

170 his impressions its spiritual power

176 proper own (also 1. 182)

177 scourge whip

185–90 With … dignity How hard my heart would be if I could enjoy my life and the possession of my own soul [i.e. with Tamburlaine about to die], or if my body did not dissolve into extreme pain and its afflicted limbs (‘mortified lineaments’) were still able to carry out the promptings of a heart that could be touched to joy by earthly dignities (adapted from Ellis-Fermor).

195–8 How … sovereignty How could I act against the inner promptings of my heart, exercising unwanted sovereignty while my deepest desires pull me towards death?

200 magnanimity fortitude

203 steeled stomachs obdurately proud spirits

207 damned condemned to suffer

208 send may the heavens send. Amyras wants to share in his father’s death-agony.

212 parcel part

216 monarch of the earth Death

222 his Death’s

223 be … reverberate rebound

225 when … sight When (after death) Tamburlaine’s soul, having been freed from the body, will have the power of vision which in life belongs only to the eyes, he will be able to see the spirit of Zenocrate.

231 Clymen’s O2 (Clymeus O1)
Clymen’s … son Phaŏton, son of Apollo and Clymene. See note to Part One, IV, ii, 49 above.

232 Phoebe the moon

234 awful awe-inspiring

237 Phyteus Pythius, another name for Apollo, the sun god

238 these … jades the conquered kings

239 take … hair seize the slightest opportunity

240 Hippolytus killed when his horses bolted and dragged him to death