Leave this, my love, and listen more to me.'
Thou shalt be stately queen of fair Argier ;
And cloth'd in costly cloth of massy gold,
Upon the marble turrets of

my

court
Sit like to Venus in her chair of state,
Commanding all thy princely eye desires;
And I will cast off arms to sit with thee,
Spending my life in sweet discourse of love.

Olym. No such discourse is pleasant in mine ears,
But that where ev'ry period ends with death,
And ev'ry line begins with death again.
I cannot love, to be an emperess.

THER. Nay, lady, then, if nothing will prevail, I'll use some other means to make you yield: Such is the sudden fury of my love, I must and will be pleas'd, and you shall yield: Come to the tent again. OLYM. Stay now, my lord; if you

will save my honour, I'll give your grace a present of such price, As all the world can not afford the like.

THER. What is it?

OLYM. An ointment which a cunning alchymist, Distilled froin the purest balsamum And simplest extracts of all minerals, In which th' essential form of marble stone, Temper'd by science metaphysical, And spells of magic from the mouths of spirits, With which if you but ’noint your tender skin, Nor pistols, sword, nor lance, can pierce your flesh.

Ther. Why, madam, think you to mock me thus

palpably? Olym. To prove it, I will 'ncint my.naked throat, Which, when you stab, look on your weapon's point, And you shall see't rebated with the blow. Ther. Why gave you not your husband some

of it, If you loved him, and it so precious ?

Olym. My purpose, was my lord, to spend it so, But was prevented by his sudden end ; And for a present, easy proof thereof, That I dissemble not, try it on me.

Ther, I will, Olympia, and I'll keep it for The richest present of this eastern world.

[She anoints her throat. OLYM. Now stab, my lord, and mark your

weapon's point, That will be blunted if the blow be great. THER. Here then, Olympia.

[Stabs her. What, have I slain her! Villain, stab thyself; Cut off this arm that murdered thy love, In whom the learned Rabbis of this age Might find as many wondrous miracles As in the Theoria of the world. Now hell is fairer than Elysium; A greater lamp than that bright eye of heaven, From whence the stars do borrow all their light, Wanders about the black circumference ; And now the damned souls are free from pain, For every fury gazeth on her looks;

Infernal Dis is courting of my love,

Inventing masks and stately shows for her,
Opening the doors of his rich treasury

To entertain this queen of chastity;

Whose body shall be tomb'd with all the pomp
The treasure of this kingdom may afford.

SCENE IV.

[Exit, with the body.

Enter TAMBURLAINE drawn in his Chariot by the
Kings of Trebizond, and Syria, with bits in their
mouths, reins in his left hand, and in his right
hand a whip with which he scourgeth them, accom-
panied with TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUM-
CASANE, AMYRAS, CELEBINUS: NATOLIA and
JERUSALEM led by five or six common Soldiers.
TAMB. Holla, ye pamper'd jades of Asia!
What! can ye draw but twenty miles a-day,
And have so proud a chariot at your heels,
And such a coachman as great Tamburlaine,
But from Asphaltis, where I conquer'd you,
To Byron here, where thus I honour you?
The horse that guide the golden eye of Heav'n,
And blow the morning from their nostrils,
Making their fiery gait above the clouds,
Are not so honour'd in their governor,
As you, ye slaves, in mighty Tamburlaine.
The headstrong jades of Thrace, Alcides tam'd,
That King Egeus fed with human flesh,

And made so wanton, that they knew their strengths

Were not subdu'd with valour more divine
Than you by this unconquer'd arm of mine.
To make you fierce, and fit my appetite,
You shall be fed with flesh as raw as blood,
And drink in pails the strongest muscadel;
If you can live with it, then live, and draw
My chariot swifter than the racking clouds;
If not, then die like beasts, and fit for nought
But perches for the black and fatal ravens.
Thus am I right the scourge of highest Jove;
And see the figure of my dignity
By which I hold my name and majesty!
Amy. Let me have coach, my lord, that I may

ride,
And thus be drawn by these two idle kings.

TAMB. Thy youth forbids such ease, my kingly boy; They shall to-morrow draw my chariot, While these their fellow kings may be refreshd.

ORC. O thou that sway'st the region under earth, And art a king as absolute as Jove, Come as thou didst in fruitful Sicily, Surveying all the glories of the land, And as thou took'st the fair Proserpina, Joying the fruit of Ceres' garden-plot, For love, for honour, and to make her queen, So for just hate, for shame, and to subdue This proud contemner of thy dreadful power, Come once in fury and survey his pride, Haling him headlong to the lowest hell.

Ther. Your majesty must get some bits for these,

To bridle their contemptuous, cursing tongues,
That, like unruly, never-broken jades,

Break through the hedges of their hateful mouths, And pass their fixed bounds exceedingly.

TECH. Nay, we will break the hedges of their mouths,

And pull their kicking colts out of their pastures. USUM. Your majesty already hath devis'd

A mean, as fit as may be, to restrain

These coltish coach-horse tongues from blasphemy. CEL. How like you that, sir king? why speak ye not?

JER. Ah, cruel brat, sprung from a tyrant's loins! How like his cursed father he begins

To practice taunts and bitter tyrannies!

TAMB. Aye, Turk, I tell thee, this same boy is he That must (advanc'd in higher pomp than this) Rifle the kingdoms I shall leave unsack'd, If Jove, esteeming me too good for earth, Raise me to match the fair Aldeboron, Above the threefold Astracism of heav'n, Before I conquer all the triple world. Now, fetch me out the Turkish concubines; I will prefer them for the funeral

They have bestow'd on my abortive son.

[The Concubines are brought in.

Where are my common soldiers now, that fought

So lion-like upon Asphaltis' plains?

SOLD. Here, my lord.