Tamburlaine the Great, part 2 | Page 8

thence I cross'd the gulf call'd by the name Mare Majore of the inhabitants. Yet shall my soldiers make no period Until Natolia kneel before your feet.
TAMBURLAINE. Then will we triumph, banquet and carouse; Cooks shall have pensions to provide us cates, And glut us with the dainties of the world; Lachryma Christi and Calabrian wines Shall common soldiers drink in quaffing bowls, Ay, liquid gold, when we have conquer'd him,<61> Mingled with coral and with orient<62> pearl. Come, let us banquet and carouse the whiles. [Exeunt.]

ACT II.
SCENE I.
Enter SIGISMUND, FREDERICK, and BALDWIN, with their train.
SIGISMUND. Now say, my lords of Buda and Bohemia, What motion is it that inflames your thoughts, And stirs your valours to such sudden arms?
FREDERICK. Your majesty remembers, I am sure, What cruel slaughter of our Christian bloods These heathenish Turks and pagans lately made Betwixt the city Zula and Danubius; How through the midst of Varna and Bulgaria, And almost to the very walls of Rome, They have, not long since, massacred our camp. It resteth now, then, that your majesty Take all advantages of time and power, And work revenge upon these infidels. Your highness knows, for Tamburlaine's repair, That strikes a terror to all Turkish hearts, Natolia hath dismiss'd the greatest part Of all his army, pitch'd against our power Betwixt Cutheia and Orminius' mount, And sent them marching up to Belgasar, Acantha, Antioch, and Caesarea, To aid the kings of Soria<63> and Jerusalem. Now, then, my lord, advantage take thereof,<64> And issue suddenly upon the rest; That, in the fortune of their overthrow, We may discourage all the pagan troop That dare attempt to war with Christians.
SIGISMUND. But calls not, then, your grace to memory The league we lately made with King Orcanes, Confirm'd by oath and articles of peace, And calling Christ for record of our truths? This should be treachery and violence Against the grace of our profession.
BALDWIN. No whit, my lord; for with such infidels, In whom no faith nor true religion rests, We are not bound to those accomplishments The holy laws of Christendom enjoin; But, as the faith which they profanely plight Is not by necessary policy To be esteem'd assurance for ourselves, So that we vow<65> to them should not infringe Our liberty of arms and victory.
SIGISMUND. Though I confess the oaths they undertake Breed little strength to our security, Yet those infirmities that thus defame Their faiths,<66> their honours, and religion,<67> Should not give us presumption to the like. Our faiths are sound, and must be consummate,<68> Religious, righteous, and inviolate.
FREDERICK. Assure your grace, 'tis superstition To stand so strictly on dispensive faith; And, should we lose the opportunity That God hath given to venge our Christians' death, And scourge their foul blasphemous paganism, As fell to Saul, to Balaam, and the rest, That would not kill and curse at God's command, So surely will the vengeance of the Highest, And jealous anger of his fearful arm, Be pour'd with rigour on our sinful heads, If we neglect this<69> offer'd victory.
SIGISMUND. Then arm, my lords, and issue suddenly, Giving commandment to our general host, With expedition to assail the pagan, And take the victory our God hath given. [Exeunt.]
SCENE II.
Enter ORCANES, GAZELLUS, and URIBASSA, with their train.
ORCANES. Gazellus, Uribassa, and the rest, Now will we march from proud Orminius' mount To fair Natolia, where our neighbour kings Expect our power and our royal presence, T' encounter with the cruel Tamburlaine, That nigh Larissa sways a mighty host, And with the thunder of his martial<70> tools Makes earthquakes in the hearts of men and heaven.
GAZELLUS. And now come we to make his sinews shake With greater power than erst his pride hath felt. An hundred kings, by scores, will bid him arms, And hundred thousands subjects to each score: Which, if a shower of wounding thunderbolts Should break out of the bowels of the clouds, And fall as thick as hail upon our heads, In partial aid of that proud Scythian, Yet should our courages and steeled crests, And numbers, more than infinite, of men, Be able to withstand and conquer him.
URIBASSA. Methinks I see how glad the Christian king Is made for joy of our<71> admitted truce, That could not but before be terrified With<72> unacquainted power of our host.
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER. Arm, dread sovereign, and my noble lords! 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. Traitors, villains, damned Christians! Have I not here the articles of peace And solemn covenants we have both confirm'd, He by his Christ, and I by Mahomet?
GAZELLUS. Hell and confusion light upon their heads, That with such treason seek our overthrow, And care so little for their prophet