Tamburlaine the Great, part 2 | Page 9

score:
Which, if a shower of wounding thunderbolts Should break out of the
bowels of the clouds, And fall as thick as hail upon our heads, In partial
aid of that proud Scythian, Yet should our courages and steeled crests,
And numbers, more than infinite, of men, Be able to withstand and
conquer him.
URIBASSA. Methinks I see how glad the Christian king Is made for
joy of our<71> admitted truce, That could not but before be terrified

With<72> unacquainted power of our host.
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER. Arm, dread sovereign, and my noble lords! The
treacherous army of the Christians, Taking advantage of your slender
power, Comes marching on us, and determines straight To bid us battle
for our dearest lives.
ORCANES. Traitors, villains, damned Christians! Have I not here the
articles of peace And solemn covenants we have both confirm'd, He by
his Christ, and I by Mahomet?
GAZELLUS. Hell and confusion light upon their heads, That with such
treason seek our overthrow, And care so little for their prophet Christ!
ORCANES. Can there be such deceit in Christians, Or treason in the
fleshly heart of man, Whose shape is figure of the highest God? Then,
if there be a Christ, as Christians say, But in their deeds deny him for
their Christ, If he be son to everliving Jove, And hath the power of his
outstretched arm, If he be jealous of his name and honour As is our
holy prophet Mahomet, Take here these papers as our sacrifice And
witness of thy servant's<73> perjury! [He tears to pieces the articles of
peace.] Open, thou shining veil of Cynthia, And make a passage from
th' empyreal heaven, That he that sits on high and never sleeps, Nor in
one place is circumscriptible, But every where fills every continent
With strange infusion of his sacred vigour, May, in his endless power
and purity, Behold and venge this traitor's perjury! Thou, Christ, that
art esteem'd omnipotent, If thou wilt prove thyself a perfect God,
Worthy the worship of all faithful hearts, Be now reveng'd upon this
traitor's soul, And make the power I have left behind (Too little to
defend our guiltless lives) Sufficient to discomfit<74> and confound
The trustless force of those false Christians!-- To arms, my lords!<75>
on Christ still let us cry: If there be Christ, we shall have victory.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE III.

Alarms of battle within. Enter SIGISMUND wounded.
SIGISMUND. Discomfited is all the Christian<76> host, And God hath
thunder'd vengeance from on high, For my accurs'd and hateful perjury.
O just and dreadful punisher of sin, Let the dishonour of the pains I feel
In this my mortal well-deserved wound End all my penance in my
sudden death! And let this death, wherein to sin I die, Conceive a
second life in endless mercy! [Dies.]
Enter ORCANES, GAZELLUS, URIBASSA, with others.
ORCANES. Now lie the Christians bathing in their bloods, And Christ
or Mahomet hath been my friend.
GAZELLUS. See, here the perjur'd traitor Hungary, Bloody and
breathless for his villany!
ORCANES. Now shall his barbarous body be a prey To beasts and
fowls, and all the winds shall breathe, Through shady leaves of every
senseless tree, Murmurs and hisses for his heinous sin. Now scalds his
soul in the Tartarian streams, And feeds upon the baneful tree of hell,
That Zoacum,<77> that fruit of bitterness, That in the midst of fire is
ingraff'd, Yet flourisheth, as Flora in her pride, With apples like the
heads of damned fiends. The devils there, in chains of quenchless flame,
Shall lead his soul, through Orcus' burning gulf, >From pain to pain,
whose change shall never end. What say'st thou yet, Gazellus, to his
foil, Which we referr'd to justice of his Christ And to his power, which
here appears as full As rays of Cynthia to the clearest sight?
GAZELLUS. 'Tis but the fortune of the wars, my lord, Whose power is
often prov'd a miracle.
ORCANES. Yet in my thoughts shall Christ be honoured, Not doing
Mahomet an<78> injury, Whose power had share in this our victory;
And, since this miscreant hath disgrac'd his faith, And died a traitor
both to heaven and earth, We will both watch and ward shall keep his
trunk<79> Amidst these plains for fowls to prey upon. Go, Uribassa,
give<80> it straight in charge.

URIBASSA. I will, my lord. [Exit.]
ORCANES. And now, Gazellus, let us haste and meet Our army, and
our brother[s] of Jerusalem, Of Soria,<81> Trebizon, and Amasia, And
happily, with full Natolian bowls Of Greekish wine, now let us
celebrate Our happy conquest and his angry fate. [Exeunt.]
SCENE IV.
The arras is drawn, and ZENOCRATE is discovered lying in her bed of
state; TAMBURLAINE sitting by her; three PHYSICIANS about her
bed, tempering potions; her three sons, CALYPHAS,