TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT, PART
TWO
A monologue from the
play by Christopher
Marlowe
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from Masterpieces of the English Drama. Ed. William Lyon
Phelps. New York: American Book Company, 1912. |
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- TAMBURLAINE: Black is the beauty of the brightest
day;
- The golden ball of heaven's eternal fire,
- That danc'd with glory on the silver waves,
- Now wants the fuel that inflam'd his beams;
- And all with faintness, and for foul disgrace,
- He binds his temples with a frowning cloud,
- Ready to darken earth with endless night.
- Zenocrate, that gave him light and life,
- Whose eyes shot fire from their ivory brows,
- And temper'd every soul with lively heat,
- Now by the malice of the angry skies,
- Whose jealousy admits no second mate,
- Draws in the comfort of her latest breath,
- All dazzled with the hellish mists of death.
- Now walk the angels on the walls of heaven,
- As sentinels to warn th' immortal souls
- To entertain divine Zenocrate:
- Apollo, Cynthia, and the ceaseless lamps
- That gently look'd upon this loathsome earth,
- Shine downwards now no more, but deck the heavens
- To entertain divine Zenocrate:
- The crystal springs, whose taste illuminates
- Refined eyes with an eternal sight,
- Like tried silver run through Paradise
- To entertain divine Zenocrate:
- The cherubins and holy seraphins,
- That sing and play before the King of Kings,
- Use all their voices and their instruments
- To entertain divine Zenocrate;
- And, in this sweet and curious harmony,
- The god that tunes this music to our souls
- Holds out his hand in highest majesty
- To entertain divine Zenocrate.
- Then let some holy trance convey my thoughts
- Up to the palace of th' empyreal heaven,
- That this my life may be as short to me
- As are the days of sweet Zenocrate.--
- Physicians, will no physic do her good?
MORE MONOLOGUES BY CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE |
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