Tamburlaine the Great — Part 2. Christopher Marlowe

      TAMBURLAINE.  Thanks, king of Fez:  take here thy crown again.

      Your presence, loving friends and fellow-kings,

      Makes me to surfeit in conceiving joy:

      If all the crystal gates of Jove's high court

      Were open'd wide, and I might enter in

      To see the state and majesty of heaven,

      It could not more delight me than your sight.

      Now will we banquet on these plains a while,

      And after march to Turkey with our camp,

      In number more than are the drops that fall

      When Boreas rents a thousand swelling clouds;

      And proud Orcanes of Natolia

      With all his viceroys shall be so afraid,

      That, though the stones, as at Deucalion's flood,

      Were turn'd to men, he should be overcome.

      Such lavish will I make of Turkish blood,

      That Jove shall send his winged messenger

      To bid me sheathe my sword and leave the field;

      The sun, unable to sustain the sight,

      Shall hide his head in Thetis' watery lap,

      And leave his steeds to fair Bootes' 53 charge;

      For half the world shall perish in this fight.

      But now, my friends, let me examine ye;

      How have ye spent your absent time from me?

      USUMCASANE.  My lord, our men of Barbary have march'd

      Four hundred miles with armour on their backs,

      And lain in leaguer 54 fifteen months and more;

      For, since we left you at the Soldan's court,

      We have subdu'd the southern Guallatia,

      And all the land unto the coast of Spain;

      We kept the narrow Strait of Jubalter, 55     And made Canaria call us kings and lords:

      Yet never did they recreate themselves,

      Or cease one day from war and hot alarms;

      And therefore let them rest a while, my lord.

      TAMBURLAINE.  They shall, Casane, and 'tis time, i'faith.

      TECHELLES.  And I have march'd along the river Nile

      To Machda, where the mighty Christian priest,

      Call'd John the Great, 56 sits in a milk-white robe,

      Whose triple mitre I did take by force,

      And made him swear obedience to my crown.

      ]From thence unto Cazates did I march,

      Where Amazonians met me in the field,

      With whom, being women, I vouchsaf'd a league,

      And with my power did march to Zanzibar,

      The western part of Afric, where I view'd

      The Ethiopian sea, rivers and lakes,

      But neither man nor child in all the land:

      Therefore I took my course to Manico,

      Where, 57 unresisted, I remov'd my camp;

      And, by the coast of Byather, 58 at last

      I came to Cubar, where the negroes dwell,

      And, conquering that, made haste to Nubia.

      There, having sack'd Borno, the kingly seat,

      I took the king and led him bound in chains

      Unto Damascus, 59 where I stay'd before.

      TAMBURLAINE.  Well done, Techelles!—What saith Theridamas?

      THERIDAMAS.  I left the confines and the bounds of Afric,

      And made 60 a voyage into Europe,

      Where, by the river Tyras, I subdu'd

      Stoka, Podolia, and Codemia;

      Then cross'd the sea and came to Oblia,

      And Nigra Silva, where the devils dance,

      Which, in despite of them, I set on fire.

      ]From thence I cross'd the gulf call'd by the name

      Mare Majore of the inhabitants.

      Yet shall my soldiers make no period

      Until Natolia kneel before your feet.

      TAMBURLAINE.  Then will we triumph, banquet and carouse;

      Cooks shall have pensions to provide us cates,

      And glut us with the dainties of the world;

      Lachryma Christi and Calabrian wines

      Shall common soldiers drink in quaffing bowls,

      Ay, liquid gold, when we have conquer'd him, 61    

      Mingled with coral and with orient 62 pearl.

      Come, let us banquet and carouse the whiles.