Kitabı oku: «Tamburlaine the Great — Part 2», sayfa 4

SCENE IV

Alarms within.  Enter the CAPTAIN, with OLYMPIA, and his SON.

 
OLYMPIA.  Come, good my lord, and let us haste from hence,
Along the cave that leads beyond the foe:
No hope is left to save this conquer'd hold.
 
 
CAPTAIN.  A deadly bullet, gliding through my side,
Lies heavy on my heart; I cannot live:
I feel my liver pierc'd, and all my veins,
That there begin and nourish every part,
Mangled and torn, and all my entrails bath'd
In blood that straineth 148 from their orifex.
Farewell, sweet wife! sweet son, farewell! I die.
 

[Dies.]

 
OLYMPIA.  Death, whither art thou gone, that both we live?
Come back again, sweet Death, and strike us both!
One minute and our days, and one sepulchre
Contain our bodies!  Death, why com'st thou not
Well, this must be the messenger for thee:
 

[Drawing a dagger.]

 
Now, ugly Death, stretch out thy sable wings,
And carry both our souls where his remains.—
Tell me, sweet boy, art thou content to die?
These barbarous Scythians, full of cruelty,
And Moors, in whom was never pity found,
Will hew us piecemeal, put us to the wheel,
Or else invent some torture worse than that;
Therefore die by thy loving mother's hand,
Who gently now will lance thy ivory throat,
And quickly rid thee both of pain and life.
 
 
SON.  Mother, despatch me, or I'll kill myself;
For think you I can live and see him dead?
Give me your knife, good mother, or strike home: 149    
The Scythians shall not tyrannize on me:
Sweet mother, strike, that I may meet my father.
 

[She stabs him, and he dies.]

 
OLYMPIA.  Ah, sacred Mahomet, if this be sin,
Entreat a pardon of the God of heaven,
And purge my soul before it come to thee!
 

[She burns the bodies of her HUSBAND and SON,

and then attempts to kill herself.]

Enter THERIDAMAS, TECHELLES, and all their train.

 
THERIDAMAS.  How now, madam! what are you doing?
 
 
OLYMPIA.  Killing myself, as I have done my son,
Whose body, with his father's, I have burnt,
Lest cruel Scythians should dismember him.
 
 
TECHELLES.  'Twas bravely done, and like a soldier's wife.
Thou shalt with us to Tamburlaine the Great,
Who, when he hears how resolute thou wert, 150    
Will match thee with a viceroy or a king.
 
 
OLYMPIA.  My lord deceas'd was dearer unto me
Than any viceroy, king, or emperor;
And for his sake here will I end my days.
 
 
THERIDAMAS.  But, lady, go with us to Tamburlaine,
And thou shalt see a man greater than Mahomet,
In whose high looks is much more majesty,
Than from the concave superficies
Of Jove's vast palace, the empyreal orb,
Unto the shining bower where Cynthia sits,
Like lovely Thetis, in a crystal robe;
That treadeth Fortune underneath his feet,
And makes the mighty god of arms his slave;
On whom Death and the Fatal Sisters wait
With naked swords and scarlet liveries;
Before whom, mounted on a lion's back,
Rhamnusia bears a helmet full of blood,
And strows the way with brains of slaughter'd men;
By whose proud side the ugly Furies run,
Hearkening when he shall bid them plague the world;
Over whose zenith, cloth'd in windy air,
And eagle's wings join'd 151 to her feather'd breast,
Fame hovereth, sounding of 152 her golden trump,
That to the adverse poles of that straight line
Which measureth the glorious frame of heaven
The name of mighty Tamburlaine is spread;
And him, fair lady, shall thy eyes behold.
Come.
 
 
OLYMPIA.  Take pity of a lady's ruthful tears,
That humbly craves upon her knees to stay,
And cast her body in the burning flame
That feeds upon her son's and husband's flesh.
 
 
TECHELLES.  Madam, sooner shall fire consume us both
Than scorch a face so beautiful as this,
In frame of which Nature hath shew'd more skill
Than when she gave eternal chaos form,
Drawing from it the shining lamps of heaven.
 
 
THERIDAMAS.  Madam, I am so far in love with you,
That you must go with us:  no remedy.
 
 
OLYMPIA.  Then carry me, I care not, where you will,
And let the end of this my fatal journey
Be likewise end to my accursed life.
 
 
TECHELLES.  No, madam, but the 153 beginning of your joy:
Come willingly therefore.
 
 
THERIDAMAS.  Soldiers, now let us meet the general,
Who by this time is at Natolia,
Ready to charge the army of the Turk.
The gold and 154 silver, and the pearl, ye got,
Rifling this fort, divide in equal shares:
This lady shall have twice so much again
Out of the coffers of our treasury.
 

[Exeunt.]

SCENE V

Enter CALLAPINE, ORCANES, the KINGS OF JERUSALEM, TREBIZON, and SORIA, with their train, ALMEDA, and a MESSENGER.

 
MESSENGER.  Renowmed 155 emperor, mighty 156 Callapine,
God's great lieutenant over all the world,
Here at Aleppo, with an host of men,
Lies Tamburlaine, this king of Persia,
(In number more than are the 157 quivering leaves
Of Ida's forest, where your highness' hounds
With open cry pursue the wounded stag,)
Who means to girt Natolia's walls with siege,
Fire the town, and over-run the land.
 
 
CALLAPINE.  My royal army is as great as his,
That, from the bounds of Phrygia to the sea
Which washeth Cyprus with his brinish waves,
Covers the hills, the valleys, and the plains.
Viceroys and peers of Turkey, play the men;
Whet all your 158 swords to mangle Tamburlaine,
His sons, his captains, and his followers:
By Mahomet, not one of them shall live!
The field wherein this battle shall be fought
For ever term'd 159 the Persians' sepulchre,
In memory of this our victory.
 
 
ORCANES.  Now he that calls himself the 160 scourge of Jove,
The emperor of the world, and earthly god,
Shall end the warlike progress he intends,
And travel headlong to the lake of hell,
Where legions of devils (knowing he must die
Here in Natolia by your 161 highness' hands),
All brandishing their 162 brands of quenchless fire,
Stretching their monstrous paws, grin with 163 their teeth,
And guard the gates to entertain his soul.
 
 
CALLAPINE.  Tell me, viceroys, the number of your men,
And what our army royal is esteem'd.
 
 
KING OF JERUSALEM.  From Palestina and Jerusalem,
Of Hebrews three score thousand fighting men
Are come, since last we shew'd your 164 majesty.
 
 
ORCANES.  So from Arabia Desert, and the bounds
Of that sweet land whose brave metropolis
Re-edified the fair Semiramis,
Came forty thousand warlike foot and horse,
Since last we number'd to your majesty.
 
 
KING OF TREBIZON.  From Trebizon in Asia the Less,
Naturaliz'd Turks and stout Bithynians
Came to my bands, full fifty thousand more,
(That, fighting, know not what retreat doth mean,
Nor e'er return but with the victory,)
Since last we number'd to your majesty.
 
 
KING OF SORIA.  Of Sorians 165 from Halla is repair'd, 166    
And neighbour cities of your highness' land, 167    
Ten thousand horse, and thirty thousand foot,
Since last we number'd to your majesty;
So that the army royal is esteem'd
Six hundred thousand valiant fighting men.
 
 
CALLAPINE.  Then welcome, Tamburlaine, unto thy death!—
Come, puissant viceroys, let us to the field
(The Persians' sepulchre), and sacrifice
Mountains of breathless men to Mahomet,
Who now, with Jove, opens the firmament
To see the slaughter of our enemies.
 

Enter TAMBURLAINE with his three SONS, CALYPHAS, AMYRAS,

and CELEBINUS; USUMCASANE, and others.

 
TAMBURLAINE.  How now, Casane! see, a knot of kings,
Sitting as if they were a-telling riddles!
 
 
USUMCASANE.  My lord, your presence makes them pale and wan:
Poor souls, they look as if their deaths were near.
 
 
TAMBURLAINE.  Why, so he 168 is, Casane; I am here:
But yet I'll save their lives, and make them slaves.—
Ye petty kings of Turkey, I am come,
As Hector did into the Grecian camp,
To overdare the pride of Graecia,
And set his warlike person to the view
Of fierce Achilles, rival of his fame:
I do you honour in the simile;
For, if I should, as Hector did Achilles,
(The worthiest knight that ever brandish'd sword,)
Challenge in combat any of you all,
I see how fearfully ye would refuse,
And fly my glove as from a scorpion.
 
 
ORCANES.  Now, thou art fearful of thy army's strength,
Thou wouldst with overmatch of person fight:
But, shepherd's issue, base-born Tamburlaine,
Think of thy end; this sword shall lance thy throat.
 
 
TAMBURLAINE.  Villain, the shepherd's issue (at whose birth
Heaven did afford a gracious aspect,
And join'd those stars that shall be opposite
Even till the dissolution of the world,
And never meant to make a conqueror
So famous as is 169 mighty Tamburlaine)
Shall so torment thee, and that Callapine,
That, like a roguish runaway, suborn'd
That villain there, that slave, that Turkish dog,
To false his service to his sovereign,
As ye shall curse the birth of Tamburlaine.
 
 
CALLAPINE.  Rail not, proud Scythian:  I shall now revenge
My father's vile abuses and mine own.
 
 
KING OF JERUSALEM.  By Mahomet, he shall be tied in chains,
Rowing with Christians in a brigandine
About the Grecian isles to rob and spoil,
And turn him to his ancient trade again:
Methinks the slave should make a lusty thief.
 
 
CALLAPINE.  Nay, when the battle ends, all we will meet,
And sit in council to invent some pain
That most may vex his body and his soul.
TAMBURLAINE.  Sirrah Callapine, I'll hang a clog about
your neck for running away again:  you shall not
trouble me thus to come and fetch you.—
But as for you, viceroy[s], you shall have bits,
And, harness'd 170 like my horses, draw my coach;
And, when ye stay, be lash'd with whips of wire:
I'll have you learn to feed on 171 provender,
And in a stable lie upon the planks.
 
 
ORCANES.  But, Tamburlaine, first thou shalt 172 kneel to us,
And humbly crave a pardon for thy life.
 
 
KING OF TREBIZON.  The common soldiers of our mighty host
Shall bring thee bound unto the 173 general's tent [.]
 
 
KING OF SORIA.  And all have jointly sworn thy cruel death,
Or bind thee in eternal torments' wrath.
 
 
TAMBURLAINE.  Well, sirs, diet yourselves; you know I
shall have occasion shortly to journey you.
 
 
CELEBINUS.  See, father, how Almeda the jailor looks upon us!
 
 
TAMBURLAINE.  Villain, traitor, damned fugitive,
I'll make thee wish the earth had swallow'd thee!
See'st thou not death within my wrathful looks?
Go, villain, cast thee headlong from a rock,
Or rip thy bowels, and rent 174 out thy heart,
T' appease my wrath; or else I'll torture thee,
Searing thy hateful flesh with burning irons
And drops of scalding lead, while all thy joints
Be rack'd and beat asunder with the wheel;
For, if thou liv'st, not any element
Shall shroud thee from the wrath of Tamburlaine.
 
 
CALLAPINE.  Well, in despite of thee, he shall be king.—
Come, Almeda; receive this crown of me:
I here invest thee king of Ariadan,
Bordering on Mare Roso, near to Mecca.
 
 
ORCANES.  What! take it, man.
 
 
ALMEDA.  [to Tamb.] Good my lord, let me take it.
 
 
CALLAPINE.  Dost thou ask him leave? here; take it.
 

TAMBURLAINE.  Go to, sirrah! 175 take your crown, and make up the half dozen.

So, sirrah, now you are a king, you must give arms. 176

 
ORCANES.  So he shall, and wear thy head in his scutcheon.
 

TAMBURLAINE.  No; 177 let him hang a bunch of keys on his standard, to put him in remembrance he was a jailor, that, when I take him, I may knock out his brains with them, and lock you in the stable, when you shall come sweating from my chariot.

KING OF TREBIZON.  Away! let us to the field, that the villain may be slain.

TAMBURLAINE.  Sirrah, prepare whips, and bring my chariot to my tent; for, as soon as the battle is done, I'll ride in triumph through the camp.

Enter THERIDAMAS, TECHELLES, and their train.

 
How now, ye petty kings? lo, here are bugs 178    
Will make the hair stand upright on your heads,
And cast your crowns in slavery at their feet!—
Welcome, Theridamas and Techelles, both:
See ye this rout, 179 and know ye this same king?
 
 
THERIDAMAS.  Ay, my lord; he was Callapine's keeper.
 

TAMBURLAINE.  Well, now ye see he is a king.  Look to him, Theridamas, when we are fighting, lest he hide his crown as the foolish king of Persia did. 180

KING OF SORIA.  No, Tamburlaine; he shall not be put to that exigent, I warrant thee.

 
TAMBURLAINE.  You know not, sir.—
But now, my followers and my loving friends,
Fight as you ever did, like conquerors,
The glory of this happy day is yours.
My stern aspect 181 shall make fair Victory,
Hovering betwixt our armies, light on me,
Loaden with laurel-wreaths to crown us all.
 
 
TECHELLES.  I smile to think how, when this field is fought
And rich Natolia ours, our men shall sweat
With carrying pearl and treasure on their backs.
 
 
TAMBURLAINE.  You shall be princes all, immediately.—
Come, fight, ye Turks, or yield us victory.
 
 
ORCANES.  No; we will meet thee, slavish Tamburlaine.
 

[Exeunt severally.]

ACT IV

SCENE I

Alarms within.  AMYRAS and CELEBINUS issue from the tent

where CALYPHAS sits asleep. 182

 
AMYRAS.  Now in their glories shine the golden crowns
Of these proud Turks, much like so many suns
That half dismay the majesty of heaven.
Now, brother, follow we our father's sword,
That flies with fury swifter than our thoughts,
And cuts down armies with his conquering wings.
 
 
CELEBINUS.  Call forth our lazy brother from the tent,
For, if my father miss him in the field,
Wrath, kindled in the furnace of his breast,
Will send a deadly lightning to his heart.
 
 
AMYRAS.  Brother, ho! what, given so much to sleep,
You cannot 183 leave it, when our enemies' drums
And rattling cannons thunder in our ears
Our proper ruin and our father's foil?
 
 
CALYPHAS.  Away, ye fools! my father needs not me,
Nor you, in faith, but that you will be thought
More childish-valourous than manly-wise.
If half our camp should sit and sleep with me,
My father were enough to scare 184 the foe:
You do dishonour to his majesty,
To think our helps will do him any good.
 
 
AMYRAS.  What, dar'st thou, then, be absent from the fight,
Knowing my father hates thy cowardice,
And oft hath warn'd thee to be still in field,
When he himself amidst the thickest troops
Beats down our foes, to flesh our taintless swords?
 
 
CALYPHAS.  I know, sir, what it is to kill a man;
It works remorse of conscience in me.
I take no pleasure to be murderous,
Nor care for blood when wine will quench my thirst.
 
 
CELEBINUS.  O cowardly boy! fie, for shame, come forth!
Thou dost dishonour manhood and thy house.
 
 
CALYPHAS.  Go, go, tall 185 stripling, fight you for us both,
And take my other toward brother here,
For person like to prove a second Mars.
'Twill please my mind as well to hear, both you 186    
Have won a heap of honour in the field,
And left your slender carcasses behind,
As if I lay with you for company.
 
 
AMYRAS.  You will not go, then?
 
 
CALYPHAS.  You say true.
 
 
AMYRAS.  Were all the lofty mounts of Zona Mundi
That fill the midst of farthest Tartary
Turn'd into pearl and proffer'd for my stay,
I would not bide the fury of my father,
When, made a victor in these haughty arms,
He comes and finds his sons have had no shares
In all the honours he propos'd for us.
 
 
CALYPHAS.  Take you the honour, I will take my ease;
My wisdom shall excuse my cowardice:
I go into the field before I need!
 

[Alarms within.  AMYRAS and CELEBINUS run out.]

 
The bullets fly at random where they list;
And, should I 187 go, and kill a thousand men,
I were as soon rewarded with a shot,
And sooner far than he that never fights;
And, should I go, and do no harm nor good,
I might have harm, which all the good I have,
Join'd with my father's crown, would never cure.
I'll to cards.—Perdicas!
 

Enter PERDICAS.

 
PERDICAS.  Here, my lord.
 
 
CALYPHAS.
Come, thou and I will go to cards to drive away the time.
 
 
PERDICAS.  Content, my lord:  but what shall we play for?
 

CALYPHAS.  Who shall kiss the fairest of the Turks' concubines first, when my father hath conquered them.

 
PERDICAS.  Agreed, i'faith.
 

[They play.]

CALYPHAS.  They say I am a coward, Perdicas, and I fear as little their taratantaras, their swords, or their cannons as I do a naked lady in a net of gold, and, for fear I should be afraid, would put it off and come to bed with me.

 
PERDICAS.  Such a fear, my lord, would never make ye retire.
 

CALYPHAS.  I would my father would let me be put in the front of such a battle once, to try my valour!  [Alarms within.] What a coil they keep!  I believe there will be some hurt done anon amongst them.

Enter TAMBURLAINE, THERIDAMAS, TECHELLES, USUMCASANE;

AMYRAS and CELEBINUS leading in ORCANES, and the KINGS OF JERUSALEM, TREBIZON, and SORIA; and SOLDIERS.

 
TAMBURLAINE.
See now, ye 188 slaves, my children stoop your pride, 189    
And lead your bodies 190 sheep-like to the sword!—
Bring them, my boys, and tell me if the wars
Be not a life that may illustrate gods,
And tickle not your spirits with desire
Still to be train'd in arms and chivalry?
 
 
AMYRAS.  Shall we let go these kings again, my lord,
To gather greater numbers 'gainst our power,
That they may say, it is not chance doth this,
But matchless strength and magnanimity?
 
 
TAMBURLAINE.  No, no, Amyras; tempt not Fortune so:
Cherish thy valour still with fresh supplies,
And glut it not with stale and daunted foes.
But where's this coward villain, not my son,
But traitor to my name and majesty?
 

[He goes in and brings CALYPHAS out.]

 
Image of sloth, and picture of a slave,
The obloquy and scorn of my renown!
How may my heart, thus fired with mine 191 eyes,
Wounded with shame and kill'd with discontent,
Shroud any thought may 192 hold my striving hands
]From martial justice on thy wretched soul?
 
 
THERIDAMAS.  Yet pardon him, I pray your majesty.
 
 
TECHELLES and USUMCASANE.
Let all of us entreat your highness' pardon.
 
 
TAMBURLAINE.  Stand up, 193 ye base, unworthy soldiers!
Know ye not yet the argument of arms?
 
 
AMYRAS.  Good my lord, let him be forgiven for once, 194    
And we will force him to the field hereafter.
 
 
TAMBURLAINE.  Stand up, my boys, and I will teach ye arms,
And what the jealousy of wars must do.—
O Samarcanda, where I breathed first,
And joy'd the fire of this martial 195 flesh,
Blush, blush, fair city, at thine 196 honour's foil,
And shame of nature, which 197 Jaertis' 198 stream,
Embracing thee with deepest of his love,
Can never wash from thy distained brows!—
Here, Jove, receive his fainting soul again;
A form not meet to give that subject essence
Whose matter is the flesh of Tamburlaine,
Wherein an incorporeal 199 spirit moves,
Made of the mould whereof thyself consists,
Which makes me valiant, proud, ambitious,
Ready to levy power against thy throne,
That I might move the turning spheres of heaven;
For earth and all this airy region
Cannot contain the state of Tamburlaine.
 

[Stabs CALYPHAS.]

 
By Mahomet, thy mighty friend, I swear,
In sending to my issue such a soul,
Created of the massy dregs of earth,
The scum and tartar of the elements,
Wherein was neither courage, strength, or wit,
But folly, sloth, and damned idleness,
Thou hast procur'd a greater enemy
Than he that darted mountains at thy head,
Shaking the burden mighty Atlas bears,
Whereat thou trembling hidd'st thee in the air,
Cloth'd with a pitchy cloud for being seen.— 200    
And now, ye canker'd curs of Asia,
That will not see the strength of Tamburlaine,
Although it shine as brightly as the sun,
Now you shall 201 feel the strength of Tamburlaine,
And, by the state of his supremacy,
Approve 202 the difference 'twixt himself and you.
 
 
ORCANES.  Thou shew'st the difference 'twixt ourselves and thee,
In this thy barbarous damned tyranny.
 
 
KING OF JERUSALEM.  Thy victories are grown so violent,
That shortly heaven, fill'd with the meteors
Of blood and fire thy tyrannies have made,
Will pour down blood and fire on thy head,
Whose scalding drops will pierce thy seething brains,
And, with our bloods, revenge our bloods 203 on thee.
 
 
TAMBURLAINE.  Villains, these terrors, and these tyrannies
(If tyrannies war's justice ye repute),
I execute, enjoin'd me from above,
To scourge the pride of such as Heaven abhors;
Nor am I made arch-monarch of the world,
Crown'd and invested by the hand of Jove,
For deeds of bounty or nobility;
But, since I exercise a greater name,
The scourge of God and terror of the world,
I must apply myself to fit those terms,
In war, in blood, in death, in cruelty,
And plague such peasants 204 as resist in 205 me
The power of Heaven's eternal majesty.—
Theridamas, Techelles, and Casane, 206    
Ransack the tents and the pavilions
Of these proud Turks, and take their concubines,
Making them bury this effeminate brat;
For not a common soldier shall defile
His manly fingers with so faint a boy:
Then bring those Turkish harlots to my tent,
And I'll dispose them as it likes me best.—
Meanwhile, take him in.
SOLDIERS.  We will, my lord.
 

[Exeunt with the body of CALYPHAS.]

 
KING OF JERUSALEM.  O damned monster! nay, a fiend of hell,
Whose cruelties are not so harsh as thine,
Nor yet impos'd with such a bitter hate!
ORCANES.  Revenge it, 207 Rhadamanth and Aeacus,
And let your hates, extended in his pains,
Excel 208 the hate wherewith he pains our souls!
 
 
KING OF TREBIZON.  May never day give virtue to his eyes,
Whose sight, compos'd of fury and of fire,
Doth send such stern affections to his heart!
 
 
KING OF SORIA.  May never spirit, vein, or artier, 209 feed
The cursed substance of that cruel heart;
But, wanting moisture and remorseful 210 blood,
Dry up with anger, and consume with heat!
 
 
TAMBURLAINE.  Well, bark, ye dogs:  I'll bridle all your tongues,
And bind them close with bits of burnish'd steel,
Down to the channels of your hateful throats;
And, with the pains my rigour shall inflict,
I'll make ye roar, that earth may echo forth
The far-resounding torments ye sustain;
As when an herd of lusty Cimbrian bulls
Run mourning round about the females' miss, 211    
And, stung with fury of their following,
Fill all the air with troublous bellowing.
I will, with engines never exercis'd,
Conquer, sack, and utterly consume
Your cities and your golden palaces,
And, with the flames that beat against the clouds,
Incense the heavens, and make the stars to melt,
As if they were the tears of Mahomet
For hot consumption of his country's pride;
And, till by vision or by speech I hear
Immortal Jove say "Cease, my Tamburlaine,"
I will persist a terror to the world,
Making the meteors (that, like armed men,
Are seen to march upon the towers of heaven)
Run tilting round about the firmament,
And break their burning lances in the air,
For honour of my wondrous victories.—
Come, bring them in to our pavilion.
 

[Exeunt.]