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_ ACT IV - SCENE III
[Enter SOLDAN, KING OF ARABIA, [214] CAPOLIN, and SOLDIERS, with streaming colours.]
SOLDAN.
Methinks we march as Meleager did,
Environed with brave Argolian knights,
To chase the savage Calydonian [215] boar,
Or Cephalus, with lusty [216] Theban youths,
Against the wolf that angry Themis sent
To waste and spoil the sweet Aonian fields.
A monster of five hundred thousand heads,
Compact of rapine, piracy, and spoil,
The scum of men, the hate and scourge of God,
Raves in Aegyptia, and annoyeth us:
My lord, it is the bloody Tamburlaine,
A sturdy felon, and [217] a base-bred thief,
By murder raised to the Persian crown,
That dare control us in our territories.
To tame the pride of this presumptuous beast,
Join your Arabians with the Soldan's power;
Let us unite our royal bands in one,
And hasten to remove Damascus' siege.
It is a blemish to the majesty
And high estate of mighty emperors,
That such a base usurping vagabond
Should brave a king, or wear a princely crown.
[Footnote 214: King of Arabia] i.e. Alcidamus; see p. 10, l. 9, sec. col.
(Page 10, Second Column, Line 9, This Play:
"Where her betrothed lord, Alcidamus,")]
[Footnote 215: Calydonian] So the 8vo.--The 4to "Calcedonian."]
[Footnote 216: lusty] So the 8vo.--Omitted in the 4to.]
[Footnote 217: and] So the 4to.--0mitted in the 8vo.]
KING OF ARABIA.
Renowmed [218] Soldan, have you lately heard
The overthrow of mighty Bajazeth
About the confines of Bithynia?
The slavery wherewith he persecutes
The noble Turk and his great emperess?
[Footnote 218: Renowmed] See note ||. p. 11.[i.e. note 52.] So the 8vo.
--The 4to "Renow[ned."]]
SOLDAN.
I have, and sorrow for his bad success;
But, noble lord of great Arabia,
Be so persuaded that the Soldan is
No more dismay'd with tidings of his fall,
Than in the haven when the pilot stands,
And views a stranger's ship rent in the winds,
And shivered against a craggy rock:
Yet in compassion to his wretched state,
A sacred vow to heaven and him I make,
Confirming it with Ibis' holy name, [219]
That Tamburlaine shall rue the day, the [220] hour,
Wherein he wrought such ignominious wrong
Unto the hallow'd person of a prince,
Or kept the fair Zenocrate so long,
As concubine, I fear, to feed his lust.
[Footnote 219: Ibis' holy name] The ibis has been already alluded to in
the lines (p. 27, sec. col.),--
"The golden stature of their feather'd bird,
That spreads her wings upon the city-walls";
and it is well known to have been a sacred bird among the
Egyptians (see Cicero DE NAT. DEORUM, I. 36). Compare the old
play of THE TAMING OF A SHREW;
"Father, I SWEARE BY IBIS' GOLDEN BEAKE,
More faire and radiente is my bonie Kate
Then siluer Zanthus," &c.
p. 22. ed. Shakespeare Soc.
In the passage of our text the modern editors substitute "Isis'"
for "Ibis'."]
[Footnote 220: the] So the 8vo.--The 4to "and."]
KING OF ARABIA.
Let grief and fury hasten on revenge;
Let Tamburlaine for his offences feel
Such plagues as heaven and we can pour on him:
I long to break my spear upon his crest,
And prove the weight of his victorious arm;
For fame, I fear, hath been too prodigal
In sounding through the world his partial praise.
SOLDAN.
Capolin, hast thou survey'd our powers?
CAPOLIN.
Great emperors of Egypt and Arabia,
The number of your hosts united is,
A hundred and fifty thousand horse,
Two hundred thousand foot, brave men-at-arms,
Courageous and [221] full of hardiness,
As frolic as the hunters in the chase
Of savage beasts amid the desert woods.
[Footnote 221: and] So the 8vo.--Omitted in the 4to.]
KING OF ARABIA.
My mind presageth fortunate success;
And, Tamburlaine, my spirit doth foresee
The utter ruin of thy men and thee.
SOLDAN.
Then rear your standards; let your sounding drums
Direct our soldiers to Damascus' walls.--
Now, Tamburlaine, the mighty Soldan comes,
And leads with him the great Arabian king,
To dim thy baseness and [222] obscurity,
Famous for nothing but for theft and spoil;
To raze and scatter thy inglorious crew
Of Scythians and slavish Persians.
[Exeunt.]
[Footnote 222: thy baseness and] So the 8vo.--The 4to "THE basnesse OF."] _
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