The First Part of
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I.i: Cosroe scolds his brother Mycetes, king of Persia, for being fickle-brained and incompetent. Mycetes has his right-hand man Meander dispatch Theridamas to conquer the bandit Tamburlaine. Theridamas goes with one thousand men on horse to vanquish the five hundred infantry soldiers of Tamburlaine. Cosroe insists that Mycetes is committing too many men to fight Tamburlaine when the Babylonians are a greater threat. Mycetes will not listen. He is a jellyfish. As soon as Mycetes leaves Ortygius enters with the Persian crown. Ortygius, Ceneus and others crown Cosroe king of Persia. The coup has ousted Mycetes.
I.ii: Tamburlaine has taken the Egyptian princess Zenocrate captive. She calls him a shepherd but sees greatness in him. She and her followers sue to be released, but Tamburlaine swears he does not want their ransom but rather the princess herself. His men, we learn, are loyal to Tamburlaine and fight lustily to conquer the world for future, not present gain. Tamburlaine speaks eloquently of the future empire he will build. It has been prophesied that he will be ever victorious, and the prophecy is often referred to in the text. He has two right-hand menUsumcasane and Techelles. Techelles enters with news of Theridamas's approach. Tamburlaine calls a parley and convinces the Persian general to join with him for future gloryeach of his generals will be made kings. Everyone, including the Egyptian band Tamburlaine has captured, is captivated by his charisma and yield to him.
II.i: Cosroe has seen the advantage of joining with Tamburlaine and marching against Mycetes's ousted forces. Menaphon describes Tamburlaine as a man among mena demi-god.
II.ii: Mycetes prepares for war. His hatred is stirred against both Tamburlaine and his brother Cosroe. The person who kills Tamburlaine is promised the province of Albania; he who kills the "traitor" Theridamas will rule Media; the person who brings Cosroe before Mycetes will give him "princely lenity." Meander's plan is, as Tamburlaine's men are mercenary thieves, Mycetes's men will toss gold before them and kill Tamburlaine's men as they stoop to retrieve the treasure.
II.iii: Tamburlaine speaks again of his oracular strength and invincibility in battle. Theridamas attests that he speaks highly, but his actions in war are higher still. A messenger enters with news that Mycetes's army is poised to charge.
II.iv: Mycetes sneaks behind the battlefield to hide his crown in a hole to keep himself from being recognized or his crown stolen from him. There he meets Tamburlaine, who handles the crown and promises to have it for himself before he returns it to Mycetes and identifies himself. After he leaves, Mycetes wonders why the arch thief did not steal his crown when he had it in he hands.
II.v: The battle is ended, Cosroe and Tamburlaine's forces have triumphed. Meander is accepted into Cosroe's counsel. Cosroe is crowned king of Persia and hastens on to Persepolis to be paraded and to sit on the throne. Once he leaves with twenty thousand men, Tamburlaine and his men decide that Tamburlaine is best to wear the Persian crown. Tamburlaine sends Techelles to warn Cosroe that he means to engage him with one thousand of his men.
II.vi: Cosroe cannot believe the arrogance of Tamburlaine and swears to destroy Tamburlaine's one thousand men with his twenty thousand.
II.vii: The battle is engaged; Cosroe enters wounded. He dies cursing both Theridamas and Tamburlaine. Tamburlaine crowns himself king of Persia.
III.i: Bajazeth, emperor of the Turks, enters with his three contributory kings: Fez, Morocco, and Argier. Tamburlaine has assailed the Turks, and Bajazeth promises to crush him. He tells Tamburlaine that he has three days to retreat. The Turks are planning a blockade of Constantinople to win that city.
III.ii: Agydas, Zenocrate's counselor from Egypt tells Zenocrate that she is wrong to fall in love with Tamburlaine (which she confesses she has) because she is just a toy to him, and he has already lost interest in her. Tamburlaine overhears this counsel and wordlessly enters. He takes Zenocrate away from Agydas. When Techelles and Usumcasane enter with daggers drawn, Agydas kills himself. Techelles and Usumcasane view this as a noble deed and determine to give Agydas a noble burial.
III.iii: Tamburlaine is given Bajazeth's ultimatum by a bassoe. When he learns of Fez, Morocco, and Argier he promises Techelles, Usumcasane, and Theridamas that those crowns will be theirs. Tamburlaine, responding to Theridamas's praise says it "will and shall best fitteth Tamburlaine."
Bajazeth enters. He and Tamburlaine engage in boasting of what they will do to one another once the battle is won. Bajazeth promises to make Tamburlaine and his generals "draw the chariot of my empress." He bids his empress Zabina to sit where she can see the battle. Tamburlaine bids Zenocrate to sit beside Zabina. Zabina calls Zenocrate a "base concubine" (since Tamburlaine has not married Zenocrate). Zenocrate promises to make Zabina her servant's slave.
Tamburlaine wins the battle. The three kings are slain and Bajazeth is captured. Theridamas takes the diadem from Zabina's head and crowns Zenocrate the new empress of the Turks. The deposed emperor and wife curse Tamburlaine, Zenocrate, and Mahomet.
IV.i: Outside of the Sultan of Egypt's palace in Damascus, Tamburlaine's army is trumpeting. The army is now three hundred thousand strong on horse in armor and five hundred thousand foot soldiers with more engines of war than men.
The messenger brings news of Tamburaline's military style:
IV.ii: Tamburlaine calls for his footstool. Bajazeth is brought out in a cage and made to bend down to accommodate Tamburlaine's assent into his throne. Zabina curses him for his audacity. Zenocrate begs Tamburlaine to be merciful to her father, the Sultan of Egypt. Tamburlaine says he will show mercy only if surrender is tendered while his white flag of amity flies.
IV.iii: The Sultan has joined forces with the king of Arabia, who was the betrothed of Zenocrate before Tamburlaine stole her. Their combined power is about half of Tamburlaine's.
IV.iv: Tamburlaine is wearing scarlet. He orders a banquet, which Bajazeth and Zabina curse them in the eating of. The Turks are starving themselves. Again Zenocrate begs Tamburlaine to show mercy to the Sultan of Egypt. Tamburlaine relents and promises that the Sultan's person will be held safe in the battle.
The second course of the banquet is the three crowns of Fez, Morocco, and Argiers. These are given to Tamburlaine's three generals. Theridamas is made king of Argiers; Techelles of Fez; and Usumcasane of Morocco. Zenocrate Tamburlaine refrains from crowning yet "Until with greater honors I be grac'd."
V.i: The governor of Damascus, seeing certain destruction, calls together four fair virgins to go speak terms of peace with Tamburlaine. He hopes that they will "bring us pardon in your cheerful looks."
V.ii: Tamburlaine is in black. The virgins plead to allow their city to surrender to Tamburlaine's mercy. Instead Tamburlaine orders the virgins slaughtered and sent up the walls of Damascus on pikes. Techelles carries out the order. Damascus falls.
Techelles announces that The Sultan and Arabia are marching on Tamburlaine's army. Tamburlaine rides out to meet them. Bajazeth and Zabina call for his defeat and curse him as he leaves. While Tamburlaine is away, Bajazeth sends Zabina to bring him water and, while she is out of sight, he dashes his brains out on the bars of the cage. When Zabina returns she also dashes her brains out on the bars of the cage after first running lunatic.
Zenocrate enters. She doesn't know which army to pray for, her father's and former lover's or her present lover's. She discovers the dead Turks and weeps for their fallen honors. She determines she must pray for Tamburlaine's victory.
Arabia enters wounded. With the last sight of his fair Zenocrate he dies. Tamburlaine enters with the captured Sultan. Zenocrate is happy to find both well. He enriches the Sultan's realm and makes him more powerful. When he sees the dead emperor and empress and the dead king of Arabia he says "such are objects fit for Tamburlaine." He chooses now to invest Zenocrate as queen of Persiawhich now includes all of Tamburlaine's conquered lands. The play ends with Tamburlaine promising to solemnize the marriage rites.
Tamburlaine is heroic out of all proportion to the other characters, but he seems cruel at times and driven by his own self will. He is awesome in demeanor, but not particularly sympathetic. Although it is not difficult to see Zenocrate's reason for loving him, he is also wholly unlovableas when he is slaughtering virgins ruthlessly. He is a complex and an interesting series of contradictions.
Mycetes is a dithering old fool. Cosroe's opinion of him seems justified. So does his overthrow.
Cosroe seems no more ambitious than many charactersand far less than Tamburlaine. He seems to be interested in the well being of Persia, and it seems somewhat of a shame that Tamburlaine makes him his second victim of ambition.
Theridamas is a good soldier. Although he seems at first to be a traitor to Persia, he makes a loyal general to Tamburlaine. He might be second only to Tamburlaine in golden tongued oration.
Techelles and Usumcasane are loyal right-hand men to Tamburlaine, though hardly distinguishable at first. They are both overshadowed when Theridamas becomes one of their number.
Bajazeth and Zabina are as contradictory as Tamburlaine. They are wholly despicable as mean-spirited losers, but Bajazeth's barbaric treatment by Tamburlaine and Zenocrate's weeping upon their deaths is troubling and makes them almost sympathetic against one's will.
Three days is important. It is the time that Bajazeth first gives Tamburlaine to withdraw his troops from Turkish soil; it is later the time Tamburlaine has chosen to lay siege to citadels like Damascus. In addition, three is the number of boys Zabina gave Bajazeth, and (as will be seen in 2 Tamburlaine) three is the number of boys Zenocrate will give Tamburlaine.
The Marlovian colorswhite (or silver), red, and blackare patent in Tam I. Most striking is the Tamburlaine colors at siege: White for amity, Red for war-like siege, and Black for merciless siege.
This play well depicts "Marlowe's mighty line." The iambic pentameter blank verse flows smoothly, makes brilliant use of enjambment and caesura, and raises to heroic heights throughout. It is by far the most splendid use of English language of its time. So effective is it that its power may be felt even in today's debased language of commerce and civil service jargon.
Synopsis:
The Prologue invites us to "View but [Tamburlaine's] picture in this tragic glass" of theatre.
The Sultan (Zenocrate's father) is angered by Tamburlaine's treatment of his town and daughter and refuses to surrender.
Characterization:
Vaunting ambition is the theme of the play and several characters manifest itTamburlaine, his generals, the kings and Emperors he encounters. They are all both ambitious and prideful.
Notes of Interest:
Tamburlaine's fate is determined by a prophecy which is referred to time and again in the play (at I.i.41; I.ii.92; II.iii.7; III.iii.42; IV.ii.33; V.ii.297). On two occasions, in addition, Tamburlaine's "charmed skin" (which seems to be as impenetrable as Macbeth will believe of his own) is mentioned (at I.ii.179 and V.ii.158).