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,
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 love'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 wouldst 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 will be pleas'd to yield,
Or may be forced to make me emperor;
For Egypt and Arabia must be mine.--
Feed, you slave; thou mayst 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 hastening cruel death.
My veins are pale; my sinews hard and dry;
My joints benumb'd; unless I eat, I die.
Zab. Eat, Bajazeth; let us live in spite of them, look-
ing some happy power will pity and enlarge us.
Tamb. Here, Turk; wilt thou have a clean trencher?
Baj. Ay, tyrant, and more meat.
Tamb. Soft, sir! you must be dieted; too much eat-
ing will make you surfeit.
Ther. So it would, my lord, 'specially 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. Ay, my lord: but none save kings must feed
with these.
Tech. 'Tis enough for us to see them, and for Tam-
burlaine only to enjoy them.
Tamb. Well; here is now to the Soldan of Egypt,
the King of Arabia, and the Governor of Damas-
cus. Now, take these three crowns, and pledge me,
my contributory kings. I crown you here, Theri-
damas, 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 marched with happy Tamburlaine
As far as from the frozen plage of heaven
Unto the watery 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 births 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 vouch-
saf'd,
If we deserve them not with higher meeds
Than erst our states and actions have retained,
Take them away again, and make us slaves.
Tamb. Well said, Theridamas: when holy Fates
Shall stablish me in strong Ægyptia,
We mean to travel to th' antarctic pole,
Conquering 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.)
(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 threatened lives
We see his tents have now been altered
With terrors to the last and cruel'st hue;
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