TAMERLANE.
19
The Mind grows tough by buffeting the Tempest;Which, in Success dissolving, sinks to Ease,And loses all her Firmness.
Tam.Oh! Axalla!Could I forget I am a Man, as thou art,Would not the Winter's Cold, or Summer's Heat,Sickness, or Thirst, and Hunger, all the TrainOf Nature's clamorous Appetites (assertingAn equal Right in Kings, and common Men)Reprove me daily?———No——— If I boast of ought,Be it, to have been Heaven's happy Instrument,The means of Good to all my Fellow-Creatures;This is a King's best Praise.
Enter Omar.
[Bowing to Tamerlane.Om.Honour and FameFor ever wait the Emperor; may our ProphetGive him ten thousand thousand Days of Life,And every Day like this. The Captive SultanFierce in his Bonds, and at his Fate repining,Attends your Sacred Will.
Tam.Let him approach.
Enter Bajazet and other Turkish Prisoners in Chains, witha Guard of Soldiers.
When I survey the Ruins of this Field,The wild Destruction, which thy fierce AmbitionHas dealt among Mankind, (so many Widdows,And helpless Orphans has thy Battle made,That half our Eastern World this Day are Mourners)Well may I in behalf of Heav'n and EarthDemand from thee Atonement for this wrong.
Baj.Make thy Demand to those that own thy Power,Knew I am still beyond it; and tho' Fortune(Curse on that Changeling Deity of Fools!)Has stript me of the Train, and Pomp of Greatness,That Out-side of a King, yet still my Soul,
Fixt
