[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.]
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?
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.]
ACT III.
SCENE I.
Enter BAJAZETH, the KINGS OF FEZ, MOROCCO, and ARGIER, with
others, in great pomp.
BAJAZETH. Great kings of Barbary, and my portly bassoes, [130]
We hear the Tartars and the eastern thieves,
Under the conduct of one Tamburlaine,
Presume a bickering with your emperor,
And think to rouse us from our dreadful siege
Of the famous Grecian Constantinople.
You know our army is invincible;
As many circumcised Turks we have,
And warlike bands of Christians renied, [131]
As hath the ocean or the Terrene [132] sea
Small drops of water when the moon begins
To join in one her semicircled horns:
Yet would we not be brav'd with foreign power,
Nor raise our siege before the Grecians yield,
Or breathless lie before the city-walls.
KING OF FEZ. Renowmed [133] emperor and mighty general,
What, if you sent the bassoes of your guard
To charge him to remain in Asia,
Or else to threaten death and deadly arms
As from the mouth of mighty Bajazeth?
BAJAZETH. Hie thee, my basso, [134] fast to Persia;
Tell him thy lord, the Turkish emperor,
Dread lord of Afric, Europe, and Asia,
Great king and conqueror of Graecia,
The ocean, Terrene, and the Coal-black sea,
The high and highest monarch of the world,
Wills and commands, (for say not I entreat,)
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