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Tamburlaine the Great, Parts I and II

Name: Tamburlaine the Great, Parts I and II
Author: Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe

c. 1587-1588 (printed 1590) · Renaissance Early Modern · Drama · English

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Abstract

Written: c. 1587-1588
Setting: 14th century (freely treated); Persia, Turkey, Egypt, Damascus and Babylon
Author: Christopher Marlowe
Country: England
Language: English
Genre: Elizabethan heroic tragedy
Form: Two plays in five acts each
Recommended: Grades 10–12 (Violent conqueror plays in grand blank verse; upper high school.)

Promise. A prologue vows to leave behind rhyming clowns and show a herdsman from the steppes who threatens the world with thundering words.

Rise. The herdsman captures an Egyptian princess and wins her heart, charms a Persian general to his side, and topples two Persian monarchs in turn.

Cruelty. He imprisons the Turkish sultan in a cage, uses him as a footstool, and destroys Damascus despite its pleading maidens, though he spares the princess's father and weds her.

Sequel. In the second play his queen dies and he burns the town where she perished, kills a timid son, and harnesses defeated kings to his chariot.

End. After drowning Babylon and burning sacred books he falls ill, looks at the map of lands still unconquered, and dies.

Reading. These dramas made blank verse the voice of English tragedy. Their violence is extreme, so they suit upper-level students exploring ambition, eloquence and the limits of human power. Teachers can pair key speeches with Shakespeare's Henry V and ask how each dramatist makes conquest sound glorious, and whether the plays finally praise or condemn the conqueror's boundless and destructive will.

Main characters

Tamburlaine: A Scythian shepherd who becomes a world conqueror.
Zenocrate: The daughter of the Soldan of Egypt.
Theridamas: A Persian captain who joins Tamburlaine.
Bajazeth: The Turkish emperor, caged by Tamburlaine.
Mycetes: The foolish king of Persia.
Calyphas: A son who refuses to fight.

Summary

Tamburlaine the Great, written in two parts around 1587-88 and printed in 1590, was Christopher Marlowe's first great success on the London stage and established blank verse as the language of English tragedy. The prologue promises to lead the audience away from jigging rhymes to the stately tent of war, where they shall hear the Scythian Tamburlaine threatening the world with high astounding terms. The plays are loosely based on the life of Timur, the fourteenth-century Central Asian conqueror. In Part One, Tamburlaine, a Scythian shepherd, captures the Egyptian princess Zenocrate and wins her love, persuades the Persian captain Theridamas to join him, and with his followers Techelles and Usumcasane overthrows the foolish Persian king Mycetes and then his brother Cosroe. Crowned, he asks whether it is not passing brave to be a king and ride in triumph through Persepolis. He defeats the Turkish emperor Bajazeth, keeps him in a cage and uses him as a footstool; Bajazeth and his wife Zabina dash out their brains against the bars. At the siege of Damascus Tamburlaine slaughters the virgins sent to plead for the city, but he spares Zenocrate's father, the Soldan of Egypt, and the play ends with their marriage. In Part Two, Tamburlaine continues his conquests with his three sons. Zenocrate dies, and in grief he burns the town where she died. He kills his son Calyphas for cowardice, harnesses captured kings to draw his chariot, and at Babylon orders the inhabitants drowned and burns the Koran, defying Mahomet. Soon after, he falls sick, studies a map of the world he has not yet conquered, and dies, declaring that Tamburlaine, the scourge of God, must die. The plays celebrate and question limitless ambition. Their cruelty is extreme, but their soaring poetry made Marlowe famous, and they suit upper-level students studying Elizabethan drama.

Virtues in this work

Fortitude: Tamburlaine's courage is never in doubt.
Magnanimity: He aspires to greatness, though without justice.

Plot or Argument

Part I: rise
Tamburlaine wins Zenocrate and Theridamas and overthrows the Persian kings.
Part I: conquest
He cages Bajazeth and destroys Damascus, then marries Zenocrate.
Part II: grief and cruelty
Zenocrate dies; Tamburlaine kills his son and drives kings like horses.
Part II: death
After burning the Koran at Babylon, Tamburlaine sickens and dies.

Characters

Tamburlaine, protagonist
A Scythian shepherd who becomes a world conqueror.
Zenocrate, Tamburlaine's wife
The daughter of the Soldan of Egypt.
Theridamas, follower
A Persian captain who joins Tamburlaine.
Bajazeth, emperor
The Turkish emperor, caged by Tamburlaine.
Mycetes, king
The foolish king of Persia.
Calyphas, Tamburlaine's son
A son who refuses to fight.

Lessons

The overreacher
Tamburlaine, a Scythian shepherd, wants limitless power and believes he can win it.
- What drives Tamburlaine?
- Does Marlowe admire or condemn him?
- What limits finally stop him?
Related across the library
- The Aeneid, Book 2
  Aeneas narrates the fall of Troy, Priam’s death and the loss of Creusa as survivor testimony.
- The Fall of Constantinople, 1453, Narrative of the siege, April-May 1453
  Bombardment by the great cannon and the repair of the walls each night under fire.
- The Fall of Constantinople, 1453, Lesson: Division weakens a people
  Division weakens a people. The quarrel over union with Rome divided the Byzantines, and rivalry between Venice and Genoa and the indifference of Western rulers limited help. Runciman shows how disunity among Christians shaped the city's fate, while also noting that the last liturgy in Hagia Sophia gathered both parties.
- The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Selections), Chapter LXVIII, Part IV, and notes 58–59
  Justiniani's wound, his withdrawal to seek a surgeon, the varying accounts of the injury, and the death of Constantine Palaeologus.
- War and Peace, Book Four, Chs. VIII–IX
  Lise's labor and death in childbirth at Bald Hills as Andrew returns home.
The power of verse
Marlowe's 'mighty line' transformed English drama.
- What makes the verse powerful?
- How does Tamburlaine use words as weapons?
- Compare with Shakespeare's early histories.
Related across the library
- Ex parte Milligan, Lesson: A Constitution for war and peace
  A Constitution for war and peace. Davis's central claim is that the Constitution does not lapse in emergencies; its guarantees bind rulers and protect citizens at all times. The opinion treats the temptation to suspend rights in a crisis as the very danger the framers foresaw.
- The Histories, Book II, ch. 46-49
  Otho refuses to prolong the war, consoles his nephew, sleeps, and kills himself at dawn; some soldiers die by their own hand at his pyre.
- The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Selections), Lesson: A historian's judgments on religion invite a reply
  A historian's judgments on religion invite a reply. Gibbon writes of Roman paganism with ironic detachment and argues that Christianity and monasticism weakened the empire's military spirit, while granting that the faith softened the conquerors. Christian scholars answered him from his first volume onward, and Milman's notes in this very edition qualify several of his claims. Reading Gibbon well means hearing his argument in his own words and also listening to the replies.
- The Fall of Constantinople, 1453, Lesson: Division weakens a people
  Division weakens a people. The quarrel over union with Rome divided the Byzantines, and rivalry between Venice and Genoa and the indifference of Western rulers limited help. Runciman shows how disunity among Christians shaped the city's fate, while also noting that the last liturgy in Hagia Sophia gathered both parties.
- The Fall of Constantinople, 1453, Narrative of the siege, April-May 1453
  Bombardment by the great cannon and the repair of the walls each night under fire.
Cruelty and conquest
The plays stage extreme violence and ask whether conquest can ever be glorious.
- How do victims respond to Tamburlaine?
- Why does he kill Calyphas?
- Is conquest ever just?
Related across the library
- History of Friedrich II of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, Lesson: The son who survived his father
  The son who survived his father. Books IV-X show a father who beat and humiliated his heir, a son who tried to flee, and a king who killed his son's friend to teach obedience; yet Carlyle also shows reconciliation, work and a measure of mutual respect by 1740. The story raises hard questions about authority, obedience, repentance and the line between discipline and cruelty.
- The Aeneid, Book 2
  Aeneas narrates the fall of Troy, Priam’s death and the loss of Creusa as survivor testimony.
- War and Peace, Lesson: Greatness and goodness
  Greatness and goodness. Tolstoy sets the vain Napoleon, who believes he commands history, against Kutúzov, who trusts patience, and against Karatáev, who has no ambition at all. He argues that greatness without simplicity, goodness and truth is not greatness.
- The Conquest of Gaul, Book VIII.44
  Defenders of Uxellodunum have their hands cut off; the captive Drappes starves himself to death.
- The History of the Peloponnesian War, Lesson: Power changes language
  Power changes language. In civil war, words like courage, moderation and loyalty shift meaning. Political collapse begins partly as semantic collapse.

Context

Elizabethan audiences were fascinated by the Ottoman Turks and the empires of the East; Timur had defeated the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I in 1402.

Composition

Part One was staged around 1587 by the Admiral's Men with Edward Alleyn as Tamburlaine; Part Two followed; both were printed together in 1590.

Reception

Hugely popular; Ben Jonson praised 'Marlowe's mighty line', and the plays shaped Shakespeare's early work.

Ambition Power / Politics War Violence Heroism Death / Mortality

Comparisons

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
Marlowe's other great overreacher.
Henry V
Shakespeare's portrait of a conquering king.

Quotes

“Is it not passing brave to be a king, And ride in triumph through Persepolis?”

— Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great, Parts I and II, Part I, Act II (Project Gutenberg #1094 and #1589).Quote card

Gibbons v. Ogden, Full Text
the war-making power and that an embargo is an instrument of war not a regulation of trade That it may be and often is used as an instrument of war cannot be denied An embargo may be imposed for the purpose of facilitating the equipment or manning of a fleet or for the purpose of concealing the progress of an expedition preparing to sail from a particular port In these and in similar cases it is a military instrument and partakes of the nature of war But all embargoes are not of this description They are sometim...
First Inaugural Address ("The only thing we have to fear"), Franklin D. Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address
a rounded and permanent national life We do not distrust the future of essential democracy The people of the United States have not failed In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct vigorous action They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership They have made me the present instrument of their wishes In the spirit of the gift I take it In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God May He protect each and every one of us May He guide me in the days to come
Opening Statement at the Nuremberg Trial, Opening paragraph
That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that Power has ever paid to reason. Jackson praises the decision to try rather than simply punish the defeated leaders.
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, Full Text
U S S Ct L Ed Neither the Bill of Rights nor the specific practices of States at the time of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment marks the outer limits of the substantive sphere of liberty which the Fourteenth Amendment protects See U S C onst Amdt As the second Justice Harlan recognized T he full scope of the liberty guaranteed by the Due Process Clause cannot be found in or limited by the precise terms of the specific guarantees elsewhere provided in the Constitution This liberty is not a series of isolat...
The War of the Worlds, Lesson: Humility before the smallest things
Humility before the smallest things. Every human weapon fails; the Martians are killed by bacteria. The narrator describes them as slain by the humblest things God has put upon the earth, and adds that by the toll of a billion deaths man has bought his birthright. Wells joins the language of providence to the language of natural selection and leaves readers to weigh how the two fit together.

“For Tamburlaine, the scourge of God, must die.”

— Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great, Parts I and II, Part II, Act V (Project Gutenberg #1094 and #1589).Quote card

The Great Gatsby, Chapter VIII
Wilson's night of grief with Michaelis, his fixation on the billboard eyes as the eyes of God, and the murder of Gatsby and Wilson's suicide.
Kidnapped, Chapter I
Davie, Davie,” I thought, “was ever seen such black ingratitude? Can you forget old favours and old friends at the mere whistle of a name? Fie, fie; think shame Excited to be heir of a great house, David rebukes himself for his eagerness to leave the kind minister and the village that raised him.
The Hiding Place, Ravensbrück chapters (Betsie's last days, December 1944)
there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still Betsie, near death, tells Corrie that the two of them must tell the world what they have learned in the camp about God's presence.
The Giver, Lesson: Naming hides the truth
Naming hides the truth. The Community calls killing release, sends its unwanted to Elsewhere, and corrects children who use words loosely. Careful language is used to keep people from seeing what they do. Jonas's father is not cruel; he simply has never been given the words or the memories to understand his work.
The Prussian Officer and Other Stories, Lesson: Authority and the hidden passions
Authority and the hidden passions. In the title story the Captain uses his rank to act out a feeling he will not name, and the orderly, who has no words for what is happening, answers with violence. Lawrence shows how a passion denied can become cruelty, and how cruelty in a rigid hierarchy has no outlet but disaster. The doctors' silence at the end extends the concealment beyond death.

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

The prologue's promise of 'high astounding terms'.
Tamburlaine's wooing of Zenocrate.
The caging of Bajazeth.
Zenocrate's death in Part II.
Tamburlaine's final speech.

Key terms and names

Overreacher: A hero who aspires beyond human limits.
Mighty line: Ben Jonson's phrase for Marlowe's blank verse.
Scythia: An ancient region north of the Black Sea.
Scourge of God: A title given to conquerors seen as instruments of divine punishment.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension How does Tamburlaine rise to power?
Comprehension What happens to Bajazeth?
Comprehension How does Zenocrate die?
Interpretation Why does Tamburlaine call himself the scourge of God?
Interpretation What finally defeats him?
Big Question Is the desire for greatness a virtue or a vice?

Faith Connections

Isaiah 10:5 (Scripture)
O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger; conquerors as scourges.
Daniel 4:30-31 (Scripture)
Nebuchadnezzar's pride and fall.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Human will and eloquence can win empires, but death sets a limit no conqueror can pass.

Rhetorical device: hyperbole. Tamburlaine speaks of pulling Jove from his throne.

Debate: Resolved: that Marlowe celebrates Tamburlaine.

Memory Work

Is it not passing brave to be a king, And ride in triumph through Persepolis?
Part I, Act II. Tamburlaine's famous exaltation of kingship.

Writing Prompts

Essay: How does Marlowe make Tamburlaine both fascinating and terrible?

Comparison with The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus: Compare Tamburlaine's ambition with Faustus's.

Creative Prompts

Essay
Is Tamburlaine a hero or a monster?
Fiction
Write a speech of ambition in blank verse.
Classroom
Compare a speech of Tamburlaine with one of Henry V.