Wounded and broken with your highness' grief,
Retain a thought of joy or spark of life?
Your soul gives essence to our wretched subjects,*
Whose matter is incorporate in your flesh.

Cel. Your pains do pierce our souls; no hope
survives,

For by your life we entertain our lives.

Tamb. But, sons, this subject, not of force
enough

To hold the fiery spirit it contains,
Must part, imparting his impressions
By equal portions into + both your breasts;
My flesh, divided in your precious shapes,
Shall still retain my spirit, though I die,
And live in all your seeds‡ immortally.—
Then now remove me, that I may resign
My place and proper title to my son.-
First, take my scourge and my imperial crown,
And mount my royal chariot of estate,
That I may see thee crown'd before I die.-
Help me, my lords, to make my last remove.

[They assist TAMBURLAINE to descend from the chariot. Ther. A woful change, my lord, that daunts our thoughts

More than the ruin of our proper souls!
Tamb. Sit up, my son, [and] let me see how well
Thou wilt become thy father's majesty.

Amy. With what a flinty bosom should I joy
The breath of life and burden of my soul,
If not resolv'd into resolvèd pains,
My body's mortified lineaments §
Should exercise the motions of my heart,
Pierc'd with the joy of any dignity!
O father, if the unrelenting ears

Of Death and Hell be shut against my prayers,
And that the spiteful influence of Heaven
Deny my soul fruition of her joy,
How should I step, or stir my hateful feet
Against the inward powers of my heart,
Leading a life that only strives to die,
And plead in vain unpleasing sovereignty?

*subjects] Mr. Collier (Preface to Coleridge's Seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton, p. cxviii) says that here "subjects" is a printer's blunder for "substance": yet he takes no notice of Tamburlaine's next words, "But, sons, this subject not of force enough," &c.-The old eds. are quite right in both passages: compare, in p. 62, first col.; "A form not meet to give that subject essence

Whose matter is the flesh of Tamburlaine," &c. + into] So the 8vo.-The 4to "vnto."

your seeds] So the 8vo.-The 4to "our seedes." (In p. 18, first col., we have had "Their angry seeds"; but in p. 47, first col., "thy seed" :-and Marlowe probably wrote "seed" both here and in p. 18.)

§ lineaments] So the 8vo.-The 4to "laments."-The Editor of 1826 remarks, that this passage "is too obscure for ordinary comprehension."

Tamb. Let not thy love exceed thine honour, son,

Nor bar thy mind that magnanimity
That nobly must admit necessity.

Sit up, my boy, and with these* silken reins
Bridle the steelèd stomachs of theset jades.
Ther. My lord, you must obey his majesty,
Since fate commands and proud necessity.
Amy. Heavens witness me with what a broken
heart
[Mounting the chariot.

And damned‡ spirit I ascend this seat,
And send my soul, before my father die,
His anguish and his burning agony !

[They crown AMYRAS.
Tamb. Now fetch the hearse of fair Zenocrate;
Let it be plac'd by this my fatal chair,
And serve as parcel of my funeral.

Usum. Then feels your majesty no sovereign ease, Nor may our hearts, all drown'd in tears of blood, Joy any hope of your recovery?

Tamb. Casane, no; the monarch of the earth, And eyeless monster that torments my soul, Cannot behold the tears ye shed for me, And therefore still augments his cruelty.

Tech. Then let some god oppose his holy power Against the wrath and tyranny of Death, That his tear-thirsty and unquenched hate May be upon himself reverberate !

[They bring in the hearse of ZENOCRATE,
Tamb. Now, eyes, enjoy your latest benefit,
And, when my soul hath virtue of your sight,
Pierce through the coffin and the sheet of gold,
And glut your longings with a heaven of joy.
So, reign, my son; scourge and control those slaves,
Guiding thy chariot with thy father's hand.
As precious is the charge thou undertak'st
As that which Clymene's§ brain-sick son did guide,
When wandering Phoebe's|| ivory cheeks were
scorch'd,

And all the earth, like Etna, breathing fire:
Be warn'd by him, then; learn with awful eye
To sway a throne as dangerous as his;
For, if thy body thrive not full of thoughts
As pure and fiery as Phyteus'¶ beams,

* these] So the 4to.-The 8vo "those."

† these] So the 4to.-The Svo "those." damned] i.e. doomed,-sorrowful.

§ Clymene's] So the 8vo.-The 4to "Clymeus." Phoebe's] So the 8vo.-The 4to "Phoebus."

Phyteus'] Meant perhaps for "Pythius'", according to the usage of much earlier poets:

"And of Phyton [i.e. Python] that Phebus made thus fine

Came Phetonysses," &c.

Lydgato's Warres of Troy, B. ii. Sig. K vi. ed. 1555. Here the modern editors print "Phoebus" ".

The nature of these proud rebelling jades
Will take occasion by the slenderest hair,
And draw thee* piecemeal, like Hippolytus,
Through rocks more steep and sharp than Caspian
cliffs:†

The nature of thy chariot will not bear
A guide of baser temper than myself,
More than heaven's coach the pride of Phaeton.

thee] So the 8vo.-The 4to "me."

tcliffs] Here the old eds. " clifts" and "cliftes" but see p. 12, line 5, first col.

Farewell, my boys! my dearest friends, farewell!
My body feels, my soul doth weep to see
Your sweet desires depriv'd my company,
For Tamburlaine, the scourge of God, must die.
[Dies.

Amy. Meet heaven and earth, and here let all

things end,

For earth hath spent the pride of all her fruit, And heaven consum'd his choicest living fire! Let earth and heaven his timeless death deplore, For both their worths will equal him no more!

[Exeunt.