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Tamburlaine, the “Scourge of God”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Roy W. Battenhouse
Roy W. Battenhouse*
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University
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Extract

The title-page of Marlowe's Tamburlaine (1590) presents “two Tragicall Discourses” concerning a mighty monarch who “(for his tyranny, and terrour in Warre) was rearmed, The Scourge of God.” A dozen times in the play Tamburlaine calls our attention to his title; and the last syllables of his dying breath are devoted to announcing it. “Scourge of God,” however, is no mere phrase that happened to catch the playwright's fancy; it is a definitive concept which signifies a pattern of human behavior and of divine destiny.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 56 , Issue 2 , June 1941 , pp. 337 - 348
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1941

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References

Note 1 in page 337 Tamburlaine, ed. C. F. Tucker Brooke (Oxford, 1910, The Works of Christopher Marlowe), lines 234, 1142–43, 1475–76, 2629 ff., 3046–48, 3820–32, 3873–75, 4003, 4078, 4204, 4294–96, 4436–37, 4641. The term is used also by the Prologue, by the Souldan of Egypt (1579), by Orcanes (3523–24), and by Usumcasane (4429–30).

Note 2 in page 337 Bernard Latzarus, Les Idées Religieuses de Plutarque (Paris, 1920), p. 69.

Note 3 in page 338 Enn., iii.ii.8.

Note 4 in page 338 A Commentary V pon the Prophecie of Isaiah (1609), pp. 115–122, which I quote, by permission, from the Huntington Library copy. The commentary appeared in Latin in 1551, in French in 1552, both editions dedicated to Edward VI. Later Latin editions appeared in 1559, 1570, and 1583; and a 1572 French translation of the 1570 Latin edition was the basis of C. Cotton's English translation, entered to Harrison and Bishop as early as 21 Jan. 1577, then on 26 Jan. 1608 to Kingston, and printed by him in 1609.

Note 5 in page 338 Cf. Du Bartas, First Week, Seventh Day, 204–209, ed. Grosart, Works of Sylvester, i, 85.

Note 6 in page 338 It is therefore a particularly appropriate sign of Tamburlaine's rage when he treads Bajazet under foot, and when he orders his horsemen to charge (and thus to trample under foot) the virgins of Damascus. (Tamb. 1458, 1898.)

Note 7 in page 338 Commentary, pp. 119–120.

Note 8 in page 338 The interpretation is, to be sure, not limited to Renaissance writers, but appears earlier for example in Trevisa's translation of Methodius' The Beginning of the World (ed. A. J. Perry, 1925, EETS, clxvii), p. 103.

Note 9 in page 339 Quoted by S. C. Chew, The Crescent and the Rose (New York, 1937), p. 106.

Note 10 in page 339 “Preface to the Reader.” Cf. Nashe's fear of Providential calamity upon wicked London (Christs Teares, ed. McKerrow, Works of Nashe, ii, 15). For the appearance of this Biblical philosophy of history in Elizabethan ballad literature, see Index to Ballad-Entries in the Stationers' Registers (ed. Rollins, 1924), ballads numbered 663, 809, 2494, 2877, 2878.

Note 11 in page 339 Mornay's De la Vérité de la Religion Chrestienne (Antwerp, 1581) is in the S.R. licensed for translation on 13 Oct., 1581, and on 7 Nov., 1586, Thomas Cadman was paid for printing the translation.

Note 12 in page 339 The Trewnesse of the Christian Religion (1587), p. 208. Regarding the providential punishment visited in turn on Cyrus, see Bodenham's Belvedere (1600), the section “Of Tyrants.”

Note 13 in page 340 Op. cit., p. 209.

Note 14 in page 340 The quoted phrase is Nicholas Breton's in Characters Upon Essays Moral and Divine (1615). Note also in The Good and the Bad (1616) Bretons's charaçter of “An Unworthy King”: he is “the scourge of sin ... he knows no God, but makes an idol of nature ...” (Cf. Tamb. 869). See also Gascoigne's “Duke Bellum Inexpertis,” stanzas 12 ff. (ed. Cunliffe, Works of Gascoigne, i, 143 ff.); and Greville's “A Treatie of Warres” (ed. Grosart, Works of Greville, ii, 103 ff.), esp. stanza 6. Burton is summarizing a well-established view when he says that war is “the scourge of God, cause, effect, fruit and punishment of sin.” (ed. Shilleto, Anatomy of Melancholy, i. 61).

Note 15 in page 340 “A Treatie of Warres,” stanzas 29, 50.

Note 16 in page 340 Stanzas 17, 64. Cf. Caelica, lxii.

Note 17 in page 341 Note that Tamburlaine in Marlowe's play exhibits just such religion as is here described.

Note 18 in page 341 Stanzas 18, 65 ff. Cf. Du Bartas' “The Miracle of Peace,” sonnet 36 (ed. Grosart, Works of Sylvester, ii, 42).

Note 19 in page 341 “Babylon,” Second Week, Second Day, 51 ff. (ed. Grosart, Works of Sylvester, i, 138 ff.). Babilon (1596), an early English translation by William L'Isle together with the commentary of Simon Senlisien, advertises itself in the preface as offering a display of the wicked practices of tyrants.

Note 20 in page 342 Babilon (1596), pp. 21–22. The reader should compare also Du Bartas' story of the Assyrian (“The Decay,” ed. Grosart, i, 251 ff. Cf. ii Kings xviii: 28–35). When Rabsakeh, on behalf of Sennacherib, blasphemes:

I am the Scourge of God: 'tis vain to stand
Against the pow'r of my victorious hand:

God sends a “winged champion” to slaugher the Assyrians, and Sennacherib is slain by his own sons.

Note 21 in page 342 Op. cit., p. 196. Cf. George Whetstone, A Mirror of True Honnour and Christian Nobilitie (1585), pp. 8–9; Greville, Caelica, xxxiv; and William Habington's poem “Nox Nocti Indicat Scientiam.”

Note 22 in page 342 The Second Part of The French Academie (1594), p. 326.

Note 23 in page 342 In the histories, however, this proclamation occurs but once, always in connection with the protest of a certain merchant of Genoa on beholding Tamburlaine's treatment of the virgins of an unnamed besieged city. Marlowe, while excluding altogether the episode of the merchant, interjects the significant proclamation, as we have noted, at a dozen points in the play.

Note 24 in page 343 According to John Bakeless, Christopher Marlowe (New York, 1937), the works of Paulus Giovius were in the libraries of both Corpus Christi College and the University while Marlowe was at Cambridge.

Note 25 in page 343 The Elogia (ed. of Basle, 1575) contains the stories of Attila (pp. 14–17), of Tamburlaine (pp. 102–107), and of Bajazet (pp. 107–111). In each case the moral monstrosity of the hero is emphasized.

Note 26 in page 344 For this identification of Belus, see Bodenham, Belvedere (Spenser Society Reprint, 1875), p. 62. The building of the tower of Babel was popularly assigned sometimes to Belus, sometimes to Nimrod, sometimes to Ninus.

Note 27 in page 344 Nearly all writers of history, says Orosius, “definitely state that kingdoms and wars began with Ninus,” who “for fifty years ... maintained a reign of bloodshed throughout Asia.” See Against the Pagans, ed. I. W. Raymond (New York, 1936), pp. 32, 42; cf. Alfred's Orosius, EETS, lxxix, ed. Sweet, i, 28. Spenser twice (Ruines of Time, 511; F. Q. ii, 9.21) refers to Ninus as the builder of the tower of Babel. For comment on the wickedness of both Nimrod and Ninus, see also Bale's God's Promises, Act iii, 13–17. Note also the entry in the Stationers' Register under date of 10 May 1595: “The Tragedie of Ninus and Semiramis, the first Monarchs of the World.” This tragedy is unfortunately not now extant. But Thomas Heywood says in An Apology for Actors (1612) that Ninus is presented on the stage as a warning against ambition. See Shaks. Soc. Rep. (1841), p. 53.

Note 28 in page 344 Cf. F.Q. i.v.48, where together in one stanza Spenser lists Alexander, Nimrod, and Ninus as men whom Pride has caused to fall. Spenser attributes to Alexander the fault of boasting himself the son of Jove. (The blasphemous aspect of Alexander's character is that stressed by Lydgate in his story of the “tirant” Alexander. See Fall of Princes, iv, 1107 ff., ed. Bergen, ii, 504 ff.) In the stanzas which immediately follow, Spenser lists Sylla, Marius, Caesar, Pompey, Semiramis, and others. This entire list of Pride's victims should be compared with the list of companions-in-hell given by Caesar's ghost in the anonymous Caesar's Revenge (ii.i.). The latter list includes, among others, Belus, Ninus, Cyrus, Alexander (“the conquering youth that sought to fetch his pedegree from Heauen”), Hercules, Sylla, Marius, and Pompey. It would seem that the careers of these heroes had for Renaissance humanists a type-significance as patterns of paganism; hence, of sin. Cf. Erasmus, Education of a Christian Prince, ed. L. K. Born (New York, 1936), p. 201, and Against War, ed. J. W. Mackail (Boston, 1907), p. 43. Alexander and Nimrod stood out especially, for Spenser lists them together (F.Q. iv.i.22) as the two names engraved on the “riven walls” of Ate's dwelling amid the ruins of war. Regarding Alexander, Seneca's view also should be noted (On Benefits, vii.ii.6). Covetousness, says Seneca, was the vice that consumed Alexander; the great conqueror was a madman, a destroyer of cities, self-tormented by his insatiable desire for conquest.

Note 29 in page 345 Tamburlaine's burning of the Koran is meant, no doubt, to have a significance analogous to that of a Christian burning his Bible. But perhaps the burning of books has also further symbolism. Greville sees in wars a pride which “will no more the yoke of heauen beare” and which shows itself in the burning of books:

Here bookes are burnt, faire monuments of minde;
Here ignorance doth on all Arts tyrannise;
Vertue no other mould but courage findes.
(“Treatie of Warres,” stanzas 9, 10, ed. Grosart, ii, 106).

Note 30 in page 346 If the last three lines are somewhat puzzling, we should compare the scepticism of the mockers at Calvary, whose blasphemy showed itself not in a denial of the existence of God, but in a violent challenging of the truth of His providence. Though Mahomet is in Christian eyes a false God, nevertheless Tamburlaine's blaspheming of Mahomet must be regarded as indication of general impiety; for Calvin says that if idolators lift themselves up against their own forged gods they thereby show themselves contemners of all divine power. (Commentary, p. 118.) Compare Raleigh's view of Xerxes (History of the World, iii.6A). Xerxes, a believer in Apollo, impiously sent his army to sack Apollo's temple, and it is reported that as the barbarians approached to commit the sacrilege, two rocks from Parnassus fell upon them. Raleigh is disposed to regard this as an instance where the true God licensed the Devil to chastise Xerxes for impiety, even though that impiety was to the false god Apollo.

Note 31 in page 346 As cited above, footnote 22. Compare the divinely-caused sudden attack of illness which comes upon Worldly Man at the height of his glory in W. Wager's Inough Is as Good as a Feast (c. 1565). Or compare the words given to Lord Clyfford in The Mirror for Magistrates: (ed. Haslewood, ii, 197.)

But cruelty can neuer scape the scourge
Of shame, of horror, or of sodayne death.
... For sudden vengeaunce sodainly alightes
On cruel deedes, to quite theyr cruell spights.

Note 32 in page 346 viii, 1464 ff. (ed. H. Bergen, EETS, E. S., cxxiii, iii, 864 ff.). See also Lydgate's story of Agathocles, which is in spirit that of Tamburlaine. Of Agathocles, Lydgate says: (Bergen's marginal summary ii, 551): “Although he was victorious, covetousness made him err, and, true to his low origin, he became a revengeful tyrant. He thought he had power to bind fast Fortune's wheel, the nature of which is to be unstable; but pride, outrageous behaviour and low birth caused him to fall.”

This story became the subject for one of the earliest tragedies in English (entered 22 July, 1568, to Henry Weeks: “A Trygecall Historye of agathocles”). If now extant, the tragedy would probably shed light on our understanding of Tamburlaine.

Note 33 in page 347 Marlowe has taken liberty with the histories in reconstructing the circumstances of Tamburlaine's death. Most of the histories report that after many victories Tamburlaine retired to Samarcand and there died peacefully. In Marlowe's story the conqueror is allowed to form glorious projects of what he shall do when he reaches Samarcand, but he is not allowed to arrive there. With proper symbolism, he dies suddenly in Babylon (similarly as his prototype, Alexander—according to Orosius, op. cit., p. 138—at the height of his conquests returned to Bablyon to die suddenly of poisoning). And in place of the quiet, natural death which the histories report of Tamburlaine, Marlowe stages a death scene showing the conqueror involved in torments of soul and in vain raging against what he interprets as heaven's intervening hand. Certain aspects of the episode undoubtedly are influenced by Seneca's picture of the stricken Hercules. (See Mario Praz, “Machiavelli and the Elizabethans,” Proceedings of the British Academy, xiv (1928), 71.) Other aspects seem to be suggested by the three portents—a man with a spear, a comet, and the ghost of Bajazet—which are given of Tamburlaine's death in Thevet's account in the Cosmographie Universelle (1575). See Ethel Seaton, “Fresh Sources for Marlowe,” R.E.S., v (1929), 298–299. But Marlowe's use of these literary bits is guided always, I believe, by his artistic purpose to make Tamburlaine's career fulfill the dramatic design of a Scourge of God.

Note 34 in page 347 See Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes (Cambridge, 1930), chap, i; also the excellent article “Theories of Revenge in Renaissance England,” M.P., xxviii (1931), 281–296.

Note 35 in page 347 See The Medieval Heritage of Elizabethan Tragedy (Berkeley, 1936); and also “The Mirror for Magistrates and Elizabethan Tragedy,” JEGP, xxv (1926), 66–78.

Note 36 in page 348 F. S. Boas, Marlowe and His Circle, 2nd ed. (1931), p. 77.