then he shall be sure not to be starved, and be provided for a month's victual beforehand.

TAMB. Here is my dagger: despatch her while she is fat, for if she live but a while longer, she will fall into a consumption with fretting, and then she will not be worth the eating.

THER. Dost thou think that Mahomet will suffer this?

TECH. 'Tis like he will when he cannot let it.

TAMB. Go to; fall to your meat.—What, not a bit! Belike he hath not been watered to day; give him some drink.

[They give him water to drink, and he flings it on

the ground.

TAMB. Fast, and welcome, sir, while hunger

make you eat.

How now,

Zenocrate, do not the Turk and his wife make a goodly show at a banquet?

ZENO. Yes, my lord.

THER. Methinks 'tis better than a consort of musick.

TAMB. Yet musick would do well to cheer up Zenocrate. Pray thee, tell, why thou art so sad?-If thou wilt have a song, the Turk shall strain his voice. But why is it?

ZENO. My lord, to see my father's town besieg'd, The country wasted where myself was born, How can it but afflict my very soul?

If any love remain in you, my lord,

VOL. I.

* Until.

5

Or if my love unto your majesty

May merit favour at your highness' hands,
Then raise your siege from fair Damascus' walls,
And with my father take a friendly truce.

TAMB. Zenocrate, were Egypt Jove's own land,
Yet would I with my sword make Jove to stoop.
I will confute those blind geographers

That make a triple region in the world,
Excluding regions which I mean to trace,
And with this pen reduce them to a map,
Calling the provinces cities and towns,
After my name and thine, Zenocrate.
Here at Damascus will I make the point
That shall begin the perpendicular;

And would'st thou have me buy thy father's love
With such a loss ?-Tell me, Zenocrate.

ZENO. Honour still wait on happy Tamburlaine; Yet give me leave to plead for him, my lord.

TAMB. Content thyself: his person shall be safe And all the friends of fair Zenocrate,

If with their lives they may be pleas'd to yield, be forc'd to make me emperor;

Or

may

For Egypt and Arabia must be mine.

Feed you slave; thou may'st think thyself happy to be fed from my trencher.

BAJ. My empty stomach, full of idle heat,

Draws bloody humours from my feeble parts,

Preserving life by hast'ning cruel death.

My veins are pale; my sinews hard and dry;
My joints benumb'd; unless I eat, I die.

ZAB. Eat, Bajazet; and let us live in spite of them, looking some happy power will pity and enlarge us.

TAMB. Here, Turk; wilt thou have a clean trencher?

BAJ. Aye, tyrant, and more meat.

TAMB. Soft, sir; you must be dieted; too much eating will make you surfeit.

THER. So it would, my lord, especially having so small a walk and so little exercise.

[A second course is brought in of crowns. TAMB. Theridamas, Techelles, and Casane, here are the cates you desire to finger, are they not? THER. Aye my lord: but none save kings must feed with them.

TECH. 'Tis enough for us to see them, and for Tamburlaine only to enjoy them.

TAMB. Well; here is now to the Soldan of Egypt, the King of Arabia, and the Governor of Damascus, Now take these three crowns, and pledge me, my contributory kings.-I crown you here Theridamas, King of Argier; Techelles, King of Fez; and Usumcasane, King of Morocco. How say you to this, Turk? These are not your contributory kings. BAJ. Nor shall they long be thine, I warrant them. TAMB. Kings of Argier, Morocco, and of Fez, You that have march'd with happy Tamburlaine As far as from the frozen place of heaven, Unto the wat'ry morning's ruddy bower, And thence by land unto the torrid zone,

Deserve these titles I endow you with,
By valour and by magnanimity.

Your birth shall be no blemish to your fame,
For virtue is the fount whence honour springs,
And they are worthy she investeth kings.
THER. And since your highness hath so well
vouchsafed,

If we deserve them not with higher meeds
Than erst our states and actions have retain'd
Take them away again and make us slaves.
TAMB. Well said, Theridamas; when holy fates
Shall stablish me in strong Egyptia,

We mean to travel to th' antarctick pole,
Conq'ring the people underneath our feet,
And be renown'd as never emperors were.
Zenocrate, I will not crown thee yet,
Until with greater honours I be grac'd.

[Exeunt.

ACT THE FIFTH.

SCENE I.

Enter the GOVERNOR of DAMASCUS, with three or four CITIZENS, and four VIRGINS, with branches of laurel in their hands.

Gov. Still doth this man, or rather god of war,
Batter our walls and beat our turrets down;
And to resist with longer stubbornness,

Or hope of rescue from the Soldan's power,

Were but to bring our wilful overthrow,
And make us desperate of our threat'ned lives.
We see his tents have now been altered
With terrors to the last and cruel'st hue.
His coal-black colours every where advanc’d,
Threaten our city with a gen'ral spoil ;
And if we should with common rites of arms
Offer our safeties to his clemency,
I fear the custom, proper to his sword,
Which he observes as parcel of his fame,
Intending so to terrify the world,
By any innovation or remorse
Will never be dispens’d with ’till our deaths;
Therefore, for these our harmless virgins' sakes,
Whose honours and whose lives rely on him,
Let us have hope that their unspotted pray’rs,
Their blubber'd cheeks, and hearty, humble moans,
Will melt his fury into some remorse,
And use us like a loving conqueror. *

1 Virg. If humble suits or imprecations,
(Utter'd with tears of wretchedness and blood
Shed from the heads and hearts of all our sex
Some made your wives, and some your children)
Might have entreated your obdurate breasts
To entertain some care of our securities
While only danger beat upon our walls,
These more than dangerous warrants of our death

. And use us like a loving conqueror-i. e. and that he will use us like, &c.