Online Library of Liberty: The Works of Christopher Marlowe vol. 1 Portable Library of Liberty

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Online Library of Liberty: The Works of Christopher Marlowe vol. 1
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SCENE III.
EnterSoldan, Arabia, Capolin,and Soldiers with streaming colours.
S
OLD
.
Methinks we march as Meleager did,
Environèd with brave Argolian knights,
To chase the savage Calydonian boar,
Or Cephalus with lusty Theban youths
Against the wolf that angry Themis sent
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 Ægyptia and annoyeth us.
My lord, it is the bloody Tamburlaine,
A sturdy felon and
1
a base-bred thief,
By murder raisèd to the Persian crown,
That dare control us in our territories.
To tame the pride of this presumptuous beast,
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,
That such a base usurping vagabond
Should brave a king, or wear a princely crown.
A
RAB
.
Renowmèd Soldan, have you lately heard
The overthrow of mighty Bajazeth
About the confines of Bithynia?
The slavery wherewith he persecutes
The noble Turk and his great emperess?
S
OLD
.
I have, and sorrow for his bad success;
But noble lord of great Arabia,
Be so persuaded that the Soldan is
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,
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And shiverèd against a craggy rock;
Yet in compassion to his wretched state,
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,
Or kept the fair Zenocrate so long
As concubine, I fear, to feed his lust.
A
RAB
.
Let grief and fury hasten on revenge;
Let Tamburlaine for his offences feel
Such plagues as we and heaven can pour on him.
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.
S
OLD
.
Capolin, hast thou surveyed our powers?
C
APOL
.
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,
As frolick as the hunters in the chase
Of savage beasts amid the desert woods.
A
RAB
.
My mind presageth fortunate success
And Tamburlaine, my spirit doth foresee
The utter ruin of thy men and thee.
S
OLD
.
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,
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Famous for nothing but for theft and spoil;
To raze and scatter thy inglorious crew
Of Scythians and slavish Persians.