To shroud his shame in darkness of the night.
Mess. Pleaseth your Mightiness to understand,
His resolution far exceedeth all.
The first day when he pitcheth down his tents,
White is their hue, and on his silver crest,
A snowy feather spangled white he bears,
To signify the mildness of his mind,
That, satiate with spoil, refuseth blood.
But when Aurora mounts the second time
As red as scarlet is his furniture;
Then must his kindled wrath be quench'd with blood,
Not sparing any that can manage arms;
But if these threats move not submission,
Black are his colours, black, his pavilions;
His spear, his shield, his horse, his armour, plumes,
And petty feathers, menace death and hell;
Without respect of sex, degree, or age,
He razeth all his foes with fire and sword.
SOLD. Merciless villain !-peasant, ignorant
Of lawful arms or martial discipline !
Pillage and murder are his usual trades.
The slave
usurps the glorious name of war.
See, Capoline, the fair Arabian king,
That hath been disappointed by this slave
Of my fair daughter, and his princely love,
May have fresh warning to go war with us,
And be reveng'd for her disparagement. [Exeunt.
Enter TAMBURLAINE, TECHELLES, THERIDAMAS, USUMCASANE, ZENOCRATE, ANIPPE, two Moors drawing BAJAZET in a cage, and his Wife following him.
TAMB. Bring out my footstool.
[Bajazet is taken out of the cage.
BAJ. Ye holy priests of heavenly Mahomet,
That, sacrificing, slice and cut your flesh,
Staining your altars with your purple blood;
Make Heaven to frown and ev'ry fixed star
To suck up poison from the Moorish fens,
And pour it in this glorious tyrant's throat!
TAMB. The chiefest god, first mover of that
sphere,
Enchas'd with thousand ever-shining lamps,
Will sooner burn the glorious frame of Heaven,
Than it should so conspire my overthrow.
But villain! thou that wishest this to me,
Fall prostrate on the low disdainful earth,
And be the footstool of great Tamburlaine,
That I may rise unto my royal throne.
BAJ. First shalt thou rip my bowels with thy
And sacrifice my soul to death and hell,
Before I yield to such a slavery.
TAMB. Base villain, vassal, slave to Tamburlaine !
Unworthy to embrace or touch the ground,
That bears the honour of my royal weight;
Stoop, villain, stoop! stoop! for so he bids
That may command thee piecemeal to be torn,
Or scatter'd like the lofty cedar trees
Struck with the voice of thund'ring Jupiter.
BAJ. When as I look down to the damned fiends,
Fiends look on me; and thou dread god of hell
With ebon sceptre strike this hateful earth,
And make it swallow both of us at once.
[Tamburlaine gets upon him to his chair. Tamb. Now clear the triple region of the air, And let the Majesty of Heaven behold Their scourge and terror tread on emperors. Smile, stars, that reign'd at my nativity, And dim the brightness of their neighbour lamps ! Disdain to borrow light of Cynthia ! For I, the chiefest lamp of all the earth, First rising in the East with mild aspect, But fixed now in the Meridian line, Will send up fire to your turning spheres, And cause the sun to borrow light of you, My sword struck fire from his coat of steel Ev'n in Bithynia, when I took this Turk; As when a fiery exhalation, Wrapt in the bowels of a freezing cloud Fighting for passage, makes the welkin crack, And casts a flash of lightning to the earth : But ere I march to wealthy Persia, Or leave Damascus and th' Egyptian fields, As was the fame of Clymene's brain-sick son, That almost brent* the axle-tree of heaven,
So shall our swords, our lances, and our shot
Fill all the air with fiery meteors:
Then when the sky shall wax as red as blood
It shall be said I made it red myself,
To make me think of nought but blood and war.
ZAB. Unworthy king, that by thy cruelty
Unlawfully usurp'st the Persian seat,
Dar'st thou that never saw an emperor,
Before thou met my husband in the field,
Being thy captive, thus abuse his state,
Keeping his kingly body in a cage,
That roofs of gold and sun-bright palaces
Should have prepar'd to entertain his grace?
And treading him beneath thy loathsome feet,
Whose feet the kings of Africa have kiss'd.
TECH. You must devise some torment worse, my
To make these captives rein their lavish tongues.
TAMB. Zenocrate, look better to your slave.
ZENO. She is my handmaid's slave, and she shall
look
That these abuses flow not from her tongue:
Chide her, Anippe.
ANIP. Let these be warnings for you then, my slave,
Or else I swear to have you whipt, stark-naked.
BAJ. Great Tamburlaine, great in my overthrow,
Ambitious pride shall make thee fall as low,
For treading on the back of Bajazet,
That should be horsed on four mighty kings.
TAMB. Thy names, and titles, and thy dignities
Are fled from Bajazet and remain with me,
That will maintain it 'gainst a world of kings.
Put him in again.
[They put him into the cage.
BAJ. Is this a place for mighty Bajazet? Confusion light on him that helps thee thus ! TAMB. There, while he lives, shall Bajazet be kept;
And, where I go, be thus in triumph drawn;
And thou, his wife, shalt feed him with the scraps
My servitors shall bring thee from my board;
For he that gives him other food than this,
Shall sit by him and starve to death himself;
This is my mind and I will have it so.
Not all the kings and emp'rors of the earth,
If they would lay their crowns before my feet,
Shall ransom him, or take him from his cage.
The ages that shall talk of Tamburlaine,
Ev'n from this day to Plato's wond'rous year,
Shall talk how I have handled Bajazet;
These Moors, that drew him from Bithynia,
To fair Damascus, where we now remain,
Shall lead him with us wheresoe'er we go.
Techelles, and my loving followers,
Now may we see Damascus' lofty towers,
Like to the shadows of Pyramides,
That with their beauties grac'd the Memphian fields:
The golden statue of their feather'd bird
That spreads her wings upon the city's walls
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