15. "The Complete Plays," by Christopher Marlowe, pp. 272-340

The Jew of Malta, Acts 2-5

_____

Abigall retrieves Barabas's valuables from the nunnery. (When she appears on the balcony with them, we get what sounds like an allusion to Romeo and Juliet when Barabas says: "But stay, what star shines yonder in the east? / The lodestar of my life, if Abigall." But The Jew of Malta antedates Romeo, so Shakespeare would have to be alluding to Marlowe.) She throws down the bags, and Barabas rejoices, "O girl, O gold, O beauty, O my bliss!"

Ferneze is meeting with Martin del Bosco, the captain of a Spanish ship, who has captured the crew of a Turkish ship -- "Grecians, Turks, and Afric Moors." They want to sell them as slaves in Malta, but Ferneze is concerned because of their "tributary league" to the Turks. Del Bosco reassures him that the King of Spain wants to free Malta from the deal, so he says that they can keep the money they owe the Turks. Ferneze in turn agrees to let him sell the slaves.

Barabas, wealthy again, has bought a new house. He meets Ferneze's son, Lodowick, who wants to see Abigall because his friend Mathias has praised her beauty. He asks Barabas if he can sell him a diamond, and Barabas, to lure him to his house in order to kill him, agrees to sell him one. There is some double-meaning conversation between them in which Barabas is referring to Abigall as his "diamond." They stop at the slave auction and Barabas buys Ithamore, who "by my help shall do much villainy." He bids Lodowick farewell just as Mathias and his mother, Katherine, are arriving at the slave market. Mathias is suspicious that Lodowick has been talking to Barabas about Abigall.

Barabas tells Ithamore in an aside that Mathias loves Abigall "But I have sworn to frustrate both their hopes / And be revenged upon the governor." Mathias asks Barabas why he was talking to Lodowick, and Barabas reassures him, "we talked of diamonds, not of Abigall." Katherine is shocked to see her son talking to the Jew, so Mathias tells her "my talk with him was / About the borrowing of a book or two." She says, "Converse not with him, he is cast off from heaven."

When they are alone, Barabas tells Ithamore to be "void of these affections: / Compassion, love, vain hope, and heartless fear. / Be moved at nothing; see thou pity none, / But to thyself smile when the Christians moan." And he claims to "walk abroad a-nights / And kill sick people groaning under walls; / Sometimes I go about and poison wells." And he follows with a curriculum vitae that includes being a physician, an engineer, and "an usurer,"

And with extorting, cozening, forfeiting,
And tricks belonging under brokery,
I filled the gaols with bankrupts in a year,
And with young orphans planted hospiitals,
And every moon made some or other mad,
And now and then one hang himself for grief,
Pinning upon his breast a long great scroll
How I with interest tormented him. 

It's a speech full of anti-Semitic calumnies, of course, but in a play also full of double-dealing by gentiles. Ithamore tells Barabas that he has spent his time "In setting Christian villages on fire, / Chaining of eunuchs, binding galley slaves." And that once he was an ostler who cut travelers' throats. Barabas is pleased: "we are villains both."

Lodowick arrives for his diamond, and Barabas tells Abigall to flirt with him. She protests that she loves Mathias, but he insists on it and she complies. Then Mathias enters and Barabas stirs up his jealousy of Lodowick, promising that Mathias will marry Abigall. When he leaves, Barnabas tells Lodowick that Mathias has sworn to kill him and promises Abigall's hand to Lodowick. And so on until finally he has "set 'em both at enmity."

The prostitute Bellamira and her procurer, Pilia-Borza plot to steal from Barabas. Ithamore, returning from his mission to deliver messages that will cause Lodowick and Mathias to fight for Abigall, sees Bellamira and is smitten: "Now would I give a hundred of the Jew's crowns that I had such a concubine."

Mathias and Lodowick fight, and manage to kill each other. Ferneze and Katherine enter to discover their sons dead; they vow to find out who's responsible for their deaths.

Ithamore reveals to Abigall that Mathias and Lodowick are dead, and that Barabas is the one who goaded them on to fight. She resolves to return to the nunnery: "I perceive there is no love on earth, / Pity in Jews, nor piety in Turks." She sends Ithamore to bring one of the friars to her, and dismisses him when he returns with Friar Jacomo, who accepts her back into the nunnery. She vows "O Barabas, / Though thou deservest hardly at my hands, / Yet never shall these lips bewray thy life."

Barabas, however, learning that Abigall has returned to the nunnery, still fears that she'll tell what he has done. So he enlists Ithamore in a plot to take a pot of poisoned rice to the nuns who are celebrating a feast day.

Ferneze is meeting with Callapine and the Turks, whom he tells that the Maltese won't pay the tribute.Tthe Turks are, of course, outraged, and Ferneze, counting on the support of the Spanish, says, "naught is to be looked for now but wars, / And naught to us more welcome is than wars."

Friar Jacomo and Friar Barnardine meet to share the news that the nuns are all dying, including Abigall, who confesses to Barnardine what her father has done. But because "confession must not be revealed," Barnardine can't tell the authorities, or even Jacomo.

Barabas is delighted at the death of the nuns, as is Ithamore, who wants to "poison all the monks" in a nearby monastery, too." Barabas says, "Thou shalt not need, for, now the nuns are dead, / They'll die with grief" -- one of several jokes about the sexual intimacy between nuns and priests in the play. Ithamore wonders why Barabas is not grieving for Abigall, but Barabas says "I grieve because she lived so long, / An Hebrew born, and would become a Christian!" Jacomo and Barnardine enter, and Barnardine begins to chastise Barabas because of the crimes Abigall has revealed to him in her confession. Whenever Barnardine begins to denounce him, Barabas completes the sentence himself:

FRIAR BARNARDINE Thou hast committed -- 

BARABAS Fornication? But that was in another country; and besides, the wench is dead. 

(The lines were famously used as an epigraph by T.S. Eliot for the poem "Portrait of a Lady.") Suddenly, Barabas tells the friars that he wants to turn Christian and that he will give his wealth "to some religious house, / So I may be baptized and live therein." Immediately the two friars begin bidding against each other. Barabas chooses Friar Jacomo and tells him to come to his house "at one o'clock this night." Barnardine is angry, and the two friars scuffle until Barabas sends Barnardine into his house with Ithamore. After Jacomo leaves, they strangle Barnardine and prop him up in a standing position. When Jacomo returns, he attacks the corpse of Barnardine and thinks he has killed the friar. Barabas and Ithamore accuse Jacomo of murder and take him to the police.

Bellamira and Pilia-Borza have concocted a plan to lure Ithamore into conning Barabas out of his money. Pilia-Borza reports to her that he met Ithamore "looking of a friar's execution" -- i.e., Jacomo's. Bellamira proceeds to seduce Ithamore and to enlist him in the plot to extort money from Barabas by threatening to "confess all." Barabas is furious at Ithamore's betrayal, and goes to Bellamira's house disguised as a French musician. Meanwhile, the drunken Ithamore is telling Bellamira and Pilia-Borza all about the trick played on Mathias and Lodowick and the poisoning of the nuns. When Barabas arrives, he gives Bellamira a poisoned bouquet, which she also has Ithamore and Pilia-Borza smell.

Ferneze is preparing for war with the Turks when Bellamira and Pilia-Borza come to him with the news that Barabas is responsible for his son's death, the poisoning of the nuns, and the murder of Barnardine. The officers bring Barabas and Ithamore to Ferneze, who sends them to jail when Ithamore confesses. But an officer returns to report that Bellamira, Pilia-Borza, Ithamore and Barabas are all dead. Ferneze orders Barabas's body thrown "o'er the walls, / To be a prey for vultures and wild beasts."

The officers "throw down the body," according to the stage directions, and everyone exits. But Barabas has faked death with "poppy and cold mandrake juice" and is ready to take his revenge by showing the Turks how to enter the city by way of a sewer: "I'll lead five hundred soldiers through the vault, / And rise with them i'th' middle of the town." The plot works, and Calymath and the Turks take Ferneze and the Knights prisoner, and make Barabas governor. Calymath departs, proclaiming "Farewell, brave Jew, farewell great Barabas."

Barabas isn't so sure he wants to be governor:

I now am governor of Malta. True,
But Malta hates me, and, in hating me,
My life's in danger; and what boots it thee,
Poor Barabas, to be the governor,
Whenas thy life shall be at their command. 

So he turns against the Turks and presents a plot to Ferneze to blow up a building with the Turkish army inside and to set a trap for Calymath and the bashaws. Ferneze agrees to the plot. Barabas is seen with carpenters setting up something that he explains to Ferneze:

Now, as for Calymath and his consorts,
Here have I made a dainty gallery,
The floor whereof, this cable being cut,
Doth fall asunder, so that it doth sink
Into a deep pit past recovery. 

He gives Ferneze a knife to cut the rope, and in an address to the audience says,

                                                 Why, is not this 

A kingly kind of trade, to purchase towns 

By treachery and sell 'em by deceit? 

Now, tell me, worldlings, underneath the sun 

If greater falsehood ever has been done.

But Ferneze turns the tables on Barabas and warns Calymath, then cuts the rope so that Barabas falls through the trapdoor into a cauldron. Barabas calls out for help, "But now begins the extremity of heat / To pinch me with intolerable pangs. / Die, life! Fly, soul! Tongue, curse thy fill and die!" Ferneze spares Calymath's life, but tells him that his army has been "Blown up, and all thy soldiers massacred."

CALYMATH

O, monstrous treason! 

FERNEZE                  A Jew's courtesy; 

For he that did by treason work our fall, 

By treason hath delivered thee to us.

14. "The Complete Plays," by Christopher Marlowe, pp. 241-271

The Jew of Malta, Act 1

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This seems to be Marlowe's first actual play -- you know, with a plot and plausible characters. Dido, Queen of Carthage is a pageant for very precocious (by our standards) schoolkids, and Tamburlaine really has no plot to speak of other than "I came, I saw, I conquered, I got sick and died," and only a couple of characters that are even mildly interesting, like Tamburlaine's cowardly (or just prudent) son, Calyphas.

How can you not be intrigued by a play that has Machiavelli -- okay, Machevil -- as its prologue, speaking lines like "I count religion but a childish toy / And hold there is no sin but ignorance"? We begin with Barabas gloating in his counting-house about how much money he has -- "Infinite riches in a little room," and all that. Merchants enter to tell him his ships have come in, and Barabas chortles

Thus trolls our fortune in by land and sea,
And thus are we on every side enriched.
These are the blessings promised to the Jews,
And herein was old Abram's happiness....
They say we are a scattered nation;
I cannot tell, but we have scambled up
More wealth by far than those that brag of faith. 

But then three of his fellow Jews enter to tell him that they've been summoned to the senate-house. Something is up because "A fleet of warlike galleys, Barabas, / Are come from Turkey." None of my business, says Barabas, but he goes anyway.

Ferneze, the governor of Malta, is meeting with a Turkish delegation led by Callapine (who was Bajazeth's son and heir in Tamburlaine) and Calymath. They're demanding a tribute that has been left unpaid, and Ferneze is trying to stall them. They grant him a month to collect the revenue from the inhabitants of Malta. Barabas and the three Jews are told that the governor can't raise the funds, "And therefore are we to request your aid." Some "request": The Jews are ordered to pay half of their estates, and anyone who refuses is to be forcibly converted to Christianity. And anyone who refuses to do that "shall absolutely lose all he has."

The three Jews quickly agree, but Barabas denounces them as "earth-mettled villains, and no Hebrews born!" When Ferneze orders him to pay his half, Barabas protests, "Half of my substance is a city's wealth. / Governor, it was not got so easily, / Nor will I part so slightly therewithal." However, when Ferneze insists, "Either pay that, or we will seize on all," Barabas backs down and agrees, "you shall have half." But Ferneze says that Barabas has "denied the articles, / And now it cannot be recalled." Barabas protests, "Is theft the ground of your religion?" But Ferneze argues that it's "better one want for a common good / Than many perish for a private man," and he agrees not to banish Barabas but let him stay in Malta and try to amass his fortune again. And one of the Knights of Malta adds to the insult with the anti-Semitic argument that the Jews were cursed because they crucified Jesus:

If your first curse fall heavy on thy head
And make thee poor and scorned of all the world,
'Tis not our faith, but thy inherent sin.

It's the "you brought it on yourself argument." Ferneze chides Barabas with "Excess of wealth is cause of covetousness, / And covetousness, O, 'tis a monstrous sin." To which Barabas responds, quite rightly, "Ay, but theft is worse." Ferneze is not swayed, however, and at the suggestion of the knight, orders Barabas's house converted into a nunnery. Persisting in his argument that he is only serving justice, Ferneze says, "Content thee, Barabas, thou has naught but right." Barabas retorts, "Your extreme right does me exceeding wrong."

He gets only scant sympathy from his fellow Jews, one of whom tells him to "remember Job" and the other to "be patient." His daughter, Abigall, enters in distress at what has happened, and volunteers to go plead for her father at the senate. "No, Abigall, things past recovery / Are hardly cured with exclamations," he says, and then tells her that he has hidden a lot of his wealth in his house. She tells him that the nuns are already moving in, and that they won't let him in again, so he hatches a plot: She will become a nun -- "for religion / Hides many mischiefs from suspicion" -- and smuggle the valuables out to him. So when the nuns, accompanied by Friar Jacomo and Friar Bernardine, enter on their way to Barnabas's house, she volunteers to enter the nunnery as a novice. Barnabas whispers to her that the jewels and gold are hidden underneath a board marked with a cross, and that he will meet her outside the house the following morning.

Mathias and Ferneze's son Lodowick enter and discuss the news that Abigall, described as "A fair young maid, scarce fourteen years of age," is entering the nunnery. Lodowick suggests, "'Twere time well spent to go and visit her," and Mathias agrees. In an aside, Lodowick confides, "And so will I too."

13. "The Complete Plays," by Christopher Marlowe, pp. 187-240

Tamburlaine the Great, Part Two, Acts 3, 4 and 5 

_____

Callapine, having escaped with the help of Almeda, is crowned emperor of Turkey, the title his father once held. He vows to keep his promise and make Almeda a king, saying that he "is a gentleman, I know, at least." Almeda replies, "That's no matter, sir, for being a king, / For Tamburlaine came up of nothing." And speaking of Tamburlaine, Callapine is determined to get his revenge. 

Tamburlaine, meanwhile, is burning "the turrets of this cursèd town" where Zenocrate died and vowing to turn his sons into warriors, putting them through a rigorous training course. Calyphas protests, "My lord, but this is dangerous to be done. / We may be slain or wounded ere we learn," which of course enrages Tamburlaine so much that he cuts a gash in his own arm to demonstrate how little fear he has. "Now, my boys, what think you of a wound?" Calyphas regards it as "a pitiful sight," but Celebinus and Amyras beg him to give them one, too. Tamburlaine regards it as enough that they should volunteer, and declines, then urges them to set out on a campaign to hunt down Callapine and and "that accursèd traitor Almeda." 

Techelles and Theridamas are laying siege to Balsera, whose captain and his wife, Olympia, and son come out on the walls to hear their demands. Techelles and Theridamas make the usual threats, but the captain vows, "Were you, that are the friends of Tamburlaine, / Brothers to holy Mahomet himself, / I would not yield it." So the attack begins, and ends with the captain mortally wounded. When he dies, Olympia takes a knife and responds to her son's plea, "dispatch me, or I'll kill myself," by stabbing him. But Theridamas enters and stops her before she can kill herself. Admiring her bravery, he says he'll take her to Tamburlaine who "Will match thee with a viceroy or a king." She kneels to Theridamas, begging to be allowed to throw herself on the funeral pyre for her husband and son, but he replies, "Madam, I am so far in love with you / That you must go with us. No remedy." She reluctantly complies. 

A messenger comes to Callapine and Orcanes to say that Tamburlaine's army is near. He and his sons enter, and Usumcasane observes that "your presence makes them pale and wan." Tamburlaine says he'll spare their lives and make them slaves. Callapine is defiant, but Tamburlaine promises that he will make the conquered kings, "harnessed like my horses, draw my coach." Orcanes promises, "first thou shalt kneel to us / And humbly crave a pardon for thy life." Celebinus points out Almeda to Tamburlaine, who denounces his former jailer as "Villain, traitor, damnèd fugitive, / I'll make thee wish the earth had swallowed thee." Callapine retorts by making Almeda a king, but when he offers him the crown, Almeda turns to Tamburlaine to request, "Good my lord, let me take it." This annoys Callapine, but Tamburlaine tells Almeda to take the crown, and when Almeda does, Tamburlaine points out that now that he's a king he'll have to fight. Theridamas and Techelles enter, and points out Almeda to them: 

TAMBURLAINE 

See ye this rout, and know ye this same king?

THERIDAMAS 

Ay, my lord, he was Callapine's keeper. 

TAMBURLAINE Well, now you 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.  

Before the battle, Amyras and Celebinus enter, ready to fight, but Calyphas is still asleep. When they try to wake him to get ready, Calyphas argues that Tamburlaine doesn't need any of them to fight, and that they "will be thought / More childish-valorous than manly-wise." Amyras warns him that their "father hates thy cowardice." Calyphas replies, 

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. 

The alarm sounds, and Amyras and Celebinus go off to battle, leaving Calyphas who observes, 

The bullets fly at random where they list, 
And, should I 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 nor harm nor good, 
I might have harm, which all the good I have, 
Joined with my father's crown, would never cure. 

So he stays and plays cards with Perdicas, agreeing that the winner "shall kiss the fairest of the Turks' concubines first, when my father hath conquered them."


Tamburlaine wins, of course, and enters with the conquered kings, including Orcanes. He praises Amyras and Celebinus for their valor, but denounces Calyphas as "coward -- villain, not my son, / But traitor to my name and majesty." He hauls Calyphas out of his tent, and although Theridamas, Techelles and Usumcasane kneel and beg Tamburlaine to pardon him, he stabs Calyphas. And then then he denounces the gods for giving him a son like Calyphas, 

Wherein was neither courage, strength, or wit, 
But folly, sloth, and damnèd idleness, 
Thou [i.e., Jupiter] hast procured a greater enemy 
Than he that darted mountains at thy head.

He orders his soldiers to 

Ransack the tents and the pavilions 
Of these proud Turks, and take their concubines. 
Make them bury this effeminate brat, 
For not a common soldier shall defile 
His manly fingers with so faint a boy.

And when Jerusalem, Trebizond, Orcanes and Soria denounce his cruelties, he vows to "bridle all your tongues / And bind them close with bits of burnished steel / Down to the channels of your hateful throats."


Olympia is looking for a way to commit suicide rather than yield to Theridamas, who enters and promises that she will "be stately queen of fair Argier." She tells him that she's not interested in hearing love talk: "No such discourse is pleasant in mine ears / But that where every period ends with death / And every line begins with death again." So when he tells her, "I'll use some other means to make you yield," she hits upon an idea. She promises to give him "An ointment which a cunning alchemist / Distillèd" that makes the wearer invulnerable: "Nor pistol, sword, nor lance can pierce your flesh." And to prove it she rubs some on her throat and says, "Now stab, my lord, and mark your weapon's point, / That will be blunted if the blow be great." He falls for it, and kills her, then spends some time blaming himself.

Tamburlaine makes his great entrance with the kings of Trebizond and Soria drawing his chariot. He lashes his whip and cries, "Holla, ye pampered jades of Asia!" Amyras asks for a chance to drive the chariot but Tamburlaine replies, "Thy youth forbids such ease, my kingly boy." Orcanes, who is among the other kings being led in triumph, calls on Pluto "to subdue / This proud contemner of thy dreadful power" and haul Tamburlaine off to hell. Theridamas, who seems to have overcome his grief at killing Olympia, tells Tamburlaine, "Your majesty must get some bits for these, / To bridle their contemptuous cursing tongues," and Techelles suggests just pulling their tongues out. Celebinus puts a bridle on Orcanes. Then they bring the concubines of the captured kings on and give them to the soldiers, who run off to have their way with them. Tamburlaine continues to boast: 

Thorough the streets with troops of conquered kings 
I'll ride in golden armour like the sun, 
And in my helm a triple plume shall spring, 
Spangled with diamonds dancing in the air, 
To note me emperor of the threefold world....
To Babylon, my lords, to Babylon! 

At Babylon, the Governor of the city enters, and listens to pleas to submit to Tamburlaine to save the city from destruction. He's having none of it, of course, and denounces them as "Villains, cowards, traitors to our state!" Theridamas and Techelles enter to warn the Governor to surrender, but he replies, "Assault and spare not. We will never yield." Of course, Tamburlaine's forces win, and Theridamas and Techelles bring to him "The sturdy governor of Babylon, / That made us all the labour for the town / And used such slender reck'ning of your majesty." When Tamburlaine orders him hanged in chains, the governor tries to bargain with him, revealing where he stashed the city's gold in exchange for his life. Tamburlaine sends some soldiers to get the gold and proceeds with the execution anyway. He also orders the kings of Trebizond and Soria hanged, and Orcanes and the king of Jerusalem harnessed to his chariot. When the governor is hanged in chains, he has the others shoot at him.

So, now he hangs like Baghdad's governor, 
Having as many bullets in his flesh 
As there be breaches in her battered wall. 
Go now and bind the burghers hand and foot, 
And cast them headlong in the city's lake. 

When Techelles asks what should be done with their wives and children, Tamburlaine orders them drowned too: "Leave not a Babylonian in the town." Then he tells Usumcasane,
Now, Casane, where's the Turkish Alcoran, 
And all the heaps of superstitious books 
Found in the temples of that Mahomet 
Whom I have thought a god? They shall be burnt....
In vain, I see, men worship Mahomet. 
My sword hath sent millions of Turks to hell, 
Slew all his priests, his kinsmen, and his friends, 
And yet I live untouched by Mahomet. 
It is a final act of hubris, for shortly after the burning of the books and the drowning of the citizens, he says, "But stay, I feel myself distempered suddenly." However, he makes an effort at recovering with his old bluster, "Sickness or death can never conquer me."  


Thinking that Tamburlaine and his army will be "faint and weary with the siege," Callapine and the king of Amasia decide that this is a good time to take them on. They call on Muhammad to aid them in their attempt to conquer Tamburlaine. 


Theridamas, Techelles, and Usumcasane enter to lament Tamburlaine's illness, and Tamburlaine himself enters in his chariot drawn by Orcanes and Jerusalem to defy the gods once again: 

What daring god torments my body thus 
And seeks to conquer mighty Tamburlaine? 
Shall sickness prove me now to be a man, 
That have been termed the terror of the world? ...
Come let us march against the powers of heaven 
And set black streamers in the firmament 
To signify the slaughter of the gods.

He falls back in weakness, but when he hears that Callapine is approaching with his army, he rallies and goes out to confront the enemy: "My looks shall make them fly.... In spite of Death I will go show my face." 


The stratagem works: "Thus are the villains, cowards, fled for fear, / Like summer's vapours vanished by the sun." And he calls for a map, to "see how much / Is left for me to conquer all the world." He outlines his plans but realizes he can't fulfill them: "And shall I die, and this unconquerèd?" He gives the map to his sons, telling them to finish the job, "For Tamburlaine, the scourge of God, must die."

12. "The Complete Plays," by Christopher Marlowe, pp. 157-186

Tamburlaine the Great, Part Two, Acts 1 and 2

_____

Yet another king, Orcanes, the king of Natolia, vows to do something about Tamburlaine. This time, the scheme is to join forces with a Christian leader. Gazellus, the viceroy of Byron, explains, 

'Tis requisite to parley for a peace 
With Sigismond the King of Hungary, 
And save our forces for the hot assaults 
Proud Tamburlaine intends Natolia.

Orcanes agrees that despite their considerable forces, which are "Enough to swallow forceless Sigismond," they don't have enough to defeat Tamburlaine, who "brings a world of people to the field." 


Sigismond enters with his retinue, and seems uncertain whether this meeting will result in a peace treaty or a battle, but Gazellus insists, "We came from Turkey to confirm a league, / And not to dare each other to the field." So Sigismond agrees to join forces against Tamburlaine, and swears by "Sweet Jesus Christ, I solemnly protest / And vow to keep this peace inviolable." And Orcanes similarly swears "By sacred Mahomet, the friend of God." And they go off to "banquet and carouse" together. 


Callapine, Bajezeth's son, enters with Almeda, his keeper, to complain about being held by Tamburlaine. Almeda is a little dim: When Callapine starts a sentence with "By Cairo runs --," he protests, "No talk of running, I tell you, sir." So Callapine bribes him by promising that if he helps him escape, "Amongst so many crowns of burnished gold / Choose which thou wilt." Almeda falls for it. 


Tamburlaine, Zenocrate, and their three sons enter, and Zenocrate pleads with her husband to "leave these arms / And save thy sacred person fee from scathe / And dangerous chances of the wrathful war." But he's having none of it, and moreover worries that his sons are not warlike enough, that "they are too dainty for the wars, / Their fingers made to quaver on a lute, / Their arms to hang about a lady's neck," and so on. Zenocrate assures him that "they have their mother's looks, / But when they list, their conquering father's heart." She singles out the youngest, Celebinus, for a recent feat of horsemanship. Tamburlaine commends him: 

If thou wilt love the wars and follow me, 
Thou shalt be made a king and reign with me, 
Keeping in iron cages emperors. 
If thou exceed thy elder brothers' worth 
And shine in complete virtue more than they, 
Thou shalt be king before them, and thy seed 
Shall issue crownèd from their mother's womb.

Celebinus says he's up to the task, and his brother Amyras says he wants to be "the scourge and terror of the world" too, which is what Tamburlaine wants to hear. 

But Calyphas is willing to let his brothers "follow arms" while he accompanies his mother: "They are enough to conquer all the world, / And you have won enough for me to keep." Tamburlaine denounces him as "Bastardly boy, spring from some coward's loins / And not the issue of great Tamburlaine." He warns him that he'll be disinherited unless he learns to "armèd wade up to the chin in blood." Zenocrate worries that such talk will scare the boys, but Celebinus boasts that he would sail a ship through a sea of blood "Ere I would lose the title of a king," and Amyras vows to "swim through pools of blood / Or make a bridge of murdered carcasses" before he would lose such a title. Finally Calyphas volunteers that when he meets the Turkish deputy, "If any man will hold him, I will strike, / And cleave him to the channel with my sword." This isn't quite good enough for Tamburlaine: "Hold him and cleave him, too, or I'll cleave thee, / For we will march against them presently." 


Theridamas, Techelles and Usumcasane enter, and ritually present their crowns to Tamburlaine, who, after commending their valor, returns the crowns. Before setting off to battle, they "banquet and carouse." 


Meanwhile, on the other side, Sigismond is letting himself be persuaded to void the treaty with Orcanes. He protests at first that "This should be teachery and violence / Against the grace of our profession," but Baldwin, the lord of Bohemia, argues that they're not bound by an agreement with a Muslim: "such infidels, / In whom no faith nor true religion rests." Frederick, lord of Buda, says they shouldn't "lose the opportunity / That God hath given to venge our Christians' death / And scourge their foul blasphemous paganism." So Sigismond gives in. 


Orcanes and his retinue are getting ready to fight Tamburlaine when a messenger enters with the news that Sigismond has broken the treaty:

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 denounces them as "Traitors, villains" and shows the "solemn covenants we have both confirmed, / He by his Christ and I by Mahomet." 

Can there be such deceit in Christians, 
Or treason in the fleshly heart of man, 
Whose shape is figure of the highest God? 

And he burns the treaty and himself ask Christ to prove himself by helping the Muslims take revenge against "false Christians":

If thou wilt prove thyself a perfect God 
Worthy the worship of all faithful hearts, 
Be now revenged upon this traitor's soul....
If there be Christ, we shall have victory.

Apparently Christ agrees, because the battle takes place and Sigismond enters, fatally wounded, to say "God hath thundered vengeance from on high" and to die. Orcanes and the others enter in triumph, and though Gazellus calls it "but the fortune of the wars," Sigismond insists, "Yet in my thoughts shall Christ be honourèd, / Not doing Mahomet an injury." And they go off to "celebrae / Our happy conquest." 


Things aren't so happy for Tamburlaine now: Zenocrate is dying. He calls on the gods to receive her, repeating the plea "To entertain [welcome] divine Zenocrate," but when he threatens suicide if she dies, she pleads for him to live: 

For, should I but suspect your death by mine, 
The comfort of my future happiness 
And hope to meet your highness in the heavens, 
Turned to despair, would break my wretched breast, 
And fury would confound my present rest.

She dies, and he goes into a rant, "Raving, impatient, desperate, and mad," and vows "This cursèd town will I consume with fire / Because this place bereft me of my love."