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_ ACT II - SCENE VII
[Alarms of battle within. Then enter COSROE wounded, TAMBURLAINE, THERIDAMAS, TECHELLES, USUMCASANE, with others.]
COSROE.
Barbarous [122] and bloody Tamburlaine,
Thus to deprive me of my crown and life!--
Treacherous and false Theridamas,
Even at the morning of my happy state,
Scarce being seated in my royal throne,
To work my downfall and untimely end!
An uncouth pain torments my grieved soul;
And death arrests the organ of my voice,
Who, entering at the breach thy sword hath made,
Sacks every vein and artier [123] of my heart.--
Bloody and insatiate Tamburlaine!
[Footnote 122: Barbarous] Qy. "O barbarous"? in the next line but one, "O treacherous"? and in the last line of the speech, "O bloody"? But we occasionally find in our early dramatists lines which are defective in the first syllable; and in some of these instances at least it would almost seem that nothing has been omitted by the transcriber or printer.]
[Footnote 123: artier] i.e. artery. This form occurs again in the SEC. PART of the present play: so too in a copy of verses by Day;]
"Hid in the vaines and ARTIERS of the earthe."
SHAKESPEARE SOC. PAPERS, vol. i. 19.
The word indeed was variously written of old:
"The ARTER strynge is the conduyt of the lyfe spiryte."
Hormanni VULGARIA, sig. G iii. ed. 1530.
"Riche treasures serue for th'ARTERS of the war."
Lord Stirling's DARIUS, act ii. Sig. C 2. ed. 1604.
"Onelye the extrauagant ARTIRE of my arme is brused."
EVERIE WOMAN IN HER HUMOR, 1609, sig. D 4.
"And from the veines some bloud each ARTIRE draines."
Davies's MICROCOSMOS, 1611, p. 56.]
TAMBURLAINE.
The thirst of reign and sweetness of a crown,
That caus'd the eldest son of heavenly Ops
To thrust his doting father from his chair,
And place himself in the empyreal heaven,
Mov'd me to manage arms against thy state.
What better precedent than mighty Jove?
Nature, that fram'd us of four elements
Warring within our breasts for regiment, [124]
Doth teach us all to have aspiring minds:
Our souls, whose faculties can comprehend
The wondrous architecture of the world,
And measure every wandering planet's course,
Still climbing after knowledge infinite,
And always moving as the restless spheres,
Will us to wear ourselves, and never rest,
Until we reach the ripest fruit [125] of all,
That perfect bliss and sole felicity,
The sweet fruition of an earthly crown.
[Footnote 124: regiment] i.e. rule.]
[Footnote 125: fruit] So the 4to.--The 8vo "fruites."]
THERIDAMAS.
And that made me to join with Tamburlaine;
For he is gross and like the massy earth
That moves not upwards, nor by princely deeds
Doth mean to soar above the highest sort.
TECHELLES.
And that made us, the friends of Tamburlaine,
To lift our swords against the Persian king.
USUMCASANE.
For as, when Jove did thrust old Saturn down,
Neptune and Dis gain'd each of them a crown,
So do we hope to reign in Asia,
If Tamburlaine be plac'd in Persia.
COSROE.
The strangest men that ever nature made!
I know not how to take their tyrannies.
My bloodless body waxeth chill and cold,
And with my blood my life slides through my wound;
My soul begins to take her flight to hell,
And summons all my senses to depart:
The heat and moisture, which did feed each other,
For want of nourishment to feed them both,
Are [126] dry and cold; and now doth ghastly Death
With greedy talents [127] gripe my bleeding heart,
And like a harpy [128] tires on my life.--
Theridamas and Tamburlaine, I die:
And fearful vengeance light upon you both!
[Dies.--TAMBURLAINE takes COSROE'S crown, and puts it on his own head.]
[Footnote 126: are] Old eds. "Is."]
[Footnote 127: talents] Was often used by our early writers for TALONS, as many passages might be adduced to shew. Hence the quibble in Shakespeare's LOVE'S LABOUR KOST, act iv. sc. 2., "If a TALENT be a claw," &c.]
[Footnote 128: harpy] So the 8vo.--The 4to "Harper;" and with that reading the line is cited, in a note on MACBETH, act iv. sc. 1, by Steevens, who also gives "tires UPON my life;" but "TIRES" (a well-known term in falconry, and equivalent here to--preys) is to be pronounced as a dissyllable. (In the 4to it in spelt "tyers."]
TAMBURLAINE.
Not all the curses which the [129] Furies breathe
Shall make me leave so rich a prize as this.
Theridamas, Techelles, and the rest,
Who think you now is king of Persia?
[Footnote 129: the] So the 4to.--The 8vo "thy."]
ALL.
Tamburlaine! Tamburlaine!
TAMBURLAINE.
Though Mars himself, the angry god of arms,
And all the earthly potentates conspire
To dispossess me of this diadem,
Yet will I wear it in despite of them,
As great commander of this eastern world,
If you but say that Tamburlaine shall reign.
ALL.
Long live Tamburlaine, and reign in Asia!
TAMBURLAINE.
So; now it is more surer on my head
Than if the gods had held a parliament,
And all pronounc'd me king of Persia.
[Exeunt.] _
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