THERIDAMAS

Under my colours march ten thousand Greeks And of Argier and Affriks frontier towns, Twice twenty thousand valiant men at arms, All which have sworn to sack Natoliam: Five hundred Brigandines are under sail, Meet for your service on the sea, my Lord, That launching from Argier to Tripoli, Will quickly ride before Natoliam: And batter down the castles on the shore. I left the confines and the bounds of Afrik And made a voyage into Europe, Where by the river Tyros I subdued Stoka, Padalia, and Codemia. Then crossed the sea and came to Oblia. And Nigra Silva, where the Devils dance, Which in despite of them I set on fires From thence I crossed the Gulf, call by the name Mare magioré, of inhabitants; Yet shall my soldiers make no perjod Until Natoliam kneel before your feet. Ah good my Lord be patient, she is dead, And all this raging cannot make her live, If words might serve, our voice hath rend the air, If tears, our eyes have watered all the earth: If grief, our murdered hearts have strained forth blood Nothing prevails, for she is dead my Lord. But stay a while, summon a parley, Drum, It may be they will yield it quietly, Knowing two kings, the friend to tamburlain, Stand at the walls, with such a mighty power. Captain, that thou yield up thy hold to us. These Pioneers of Argier in Africa, Even in the Can ous face shall raise a hill Of earth and faggots higher than thy Fort, And over thy Argins and covered ways Shall play upon the bulwarks of thy hold Volleys of ordinance till the breach be made, That with his ruin fills up all the trench. And when we enter in, not heaven it self Shall ransom thee, thy wife and family. Pioneers away, and where I stuck the stake, Entrench with those dimensions I prescribed: Cast up the earth towards the castle wall, Which till it may defend you, labour low: And few or none shall perish by their shot. Then see the bringing of our ordinance Along the trench into the battery, Where we will have Galions of six foot broad, To save our Canoneers from musket shot, Betwixt which, shall our ordinance thunder forth, And with the breaches fallen, smoke, fire, and dust, The crack, the Ecchoe and the soldiers cry Make deaf the air, and dim the Crystal Sky. How now Madam, what are you doing? But Lady go with us to Tamburlaine, And thou shalt see a man greater n Mahomet. In whose high looks is much more majesty Than from the Concave superficies. Of Jove's vast palace the imperial Orb, Unto the shinining bower where Cynthia sits, Like lovely Thetis in a Crystal robe, That treadeth Fortune underneath his feet, And makes the mighty God of arms his slave: On whom death and the fatal sisters wait, With naked swords and scarlet liveries: Before whom (mounted on a Lions back) Rhammusia bears a helmet full of blood, And strews the way with brains of slaughtered men By whose proud side the ugly furies run. Harkening when he shall bid them plague the world, Over whose zenith clothed in windy air, And Eagles wings joined to her feathered breast, Fame hovereth, sounding of her golden Trump: That to the adverse poles of that straight line, Which measureth the glorious frame of heaven, The name of mighty Tamburlain is spread: And him fair Lady shall thy eyes behold. Come. Madam, I am so far in love with you, That you must go with us, no remedy. Soldiers now let us meet the General, Who by this time is at Natoliam, Ready to charge the army of the Turk. The gold, the silver, and the pearl you God, Rifling this Fort, divide in equal shares: This Lady shall have twice so much again, Out of the coffers of our treasury. I, my Lord, he was Calapines keeper. Yet pardon him I pray your Majesty. Nothing, but still thy husband and thy son? Leave this my Love, and listen more to me, Thou shalt be stately Queen of fair Argier, And clothed in costly cloth of massy gold, Upon the marble turrets of my Court Fit Like to Venus in her chair of state, Commanding all thy princely eye desires, And I will cast off arms and fit with thee, Spending my life in sweet discourse of love. Nay Lady, then if nothing will prevail, I'll use some other means to make you yield, Such is the sudden fury of my love, I must and will be pleased, and you shall yield: Come to the tent again. What is it. Why gave you not your husband some of it, if you loved him, and it so precious? I will Olympiam, and will keep it for The richest present of this Eastern world. Here then Olympiam. What, have I slain her? Villain, stab thy self: Cut off this arm that murdered my Love: In whom the learned Rabies of this age, Might find as many wondrous miracles, As in the Theoria of the world. Now Hell is fairer than Elisian, A greater Lamp than that bright eye of heaven, From whence the stars do borrow all their light Wanders about the black circumference, And now the damned souls are free from pain, For every Fury gazes on her looks: Infernal Dis is courting of my Love, Inventing masks and stately shows for her, Opening the doors of his rich treasury, To entertain this Queen of chastity, Whose body shall be combed with all the pomp The treasure of my kingdom may afford. Your Majesty must get some byts for these, To bridle their contemptuous cursing tongues, That Like unruly never broken Jades, Break through the hedges of their hateful mouths, And pass their fixed bounds exceedingly. It seems they meant to conquer us my Lord, And make us jesting Pageants for their Trulles. Then have at him to begin withal. I, good my Lord, let us in hast to Persea, And let this Captain be removed the walls, To some high hill about the city here. Ah good my Lord, leave these iinpatient words, Which and much danger to your malady. A woeful change my Lord, that daunts our thoughts, More than the ruin of our proper souls. My Lord, you must obey his majesty, Since Fate commands, and proud necessity. Olympiam, pity him, in whom thy looks Have greater operation and more force Than Cynthia's in the watery wilderness, For with thy view my joys are at the full, And eb again, as thou departst from me. Why Madam, think you to mock me thus palpably? The sturdy Governor of Babylon, That made us all the labour for the town, And used such slender reckoning of you majesty. Well met Olympiam, I sought thee in my tent But when I saw the place obscure and dark, Which with thy beauty thou wast wont to light, Enraged, I ran about the fields for thee, Supposing, amorous Jove had sent his son, The winged Hermes, to convey thee hence: But now I find thee, and that fear is passed. Tell me Olympiam, wilt thou grant my suit? THus have we martcht Northward from Tamburlaine, Unto the frontier point of Soria: And this is Balsera their chiefest hold, Wherein is all the treasure of the land. My Lord the great and migh ty Tamburlain, Arch-Monarke of the world, I offer here, My crown, my self, and all the power I have, In all affection at thy kingly feet. I will my Lord.