Muffle your beauties with eternal clouds; For Hell and Darkness pitch their pitchy tents, And Death, with armies of Cimmerian spirits, Gives battle 'gainst the heart of Tamburlaine! Now, in defiance of that wonted love Your sacred virtues pour'd upon his throne, And made his state an honour to the heavens, These cowards invisibly 299 assail his soul, And threaten conquest on our sovereign; But, if he die, your glories are disgrac'd, Earth droops, and says that hell in heaven is plac'd! TECHELLES. O, then, ye powers that sway eternal seats, And guide this massy substance of the earth, If you retain desert of holiness,      As your supreme estates instruct our thoughts, Be not inconstant, careless of your fame, Bear not the burden of your enemies' joys, Triumphing in his fall whom you advanc'd; But, as his birth, life, health, and majesty Were strangely blest and governed by heaven, So honour, heaven, (till heaven dissolved be,)      His birth, his life, his health, and majesty! USUMCASANE. Blush, heaven, to lose the honour of thy name, To see thy footstool set upon thy head; And let no baseness in thy haughty breast Sustain a shame of such inexcellence, 300 To see the devils mount in angels' thrones, And angels dive into the pools of hell! And, though they think their painful date is out, And that their power is puissant as Jove's, Which makes them manage arms against thy state, Yet make them feel the strength of Tamburlaine      (Thy instrument and note of majesty)      Is greater far than they can thus subdue; For, if he die, thy glory is disgrac'd, Earth droops, and says that hell in heaven is plac'd! Enter TAMBURLAINE, 301 drawn in his chariot (as before)           by ORCANES king of Natolia, and the KING OF JERUSALEM, AMYRAS, CELEBINUS, and Physicians. TAMBURLAINE. What daring god torments my body thus, And seeks to conquer mighty Tamburlaine? Shall sickness prove me now to be a man, That have been term'd the terror of the world? Techelles and the rest, come, take your swords, And threaten him whose hand afflicts my soul:      Come, let us march against the powers of heaven, And set black streamers in the firmament, To signify the slaughter of the gods. Ah, friends, what shall I do? I cannot stand. Come, carry me to war against the gods, That thus envy the health of Tamburlaine. THERIDAMAS. Ah, good my lord, leave these impatient words, Which add much danger to your malady! TAMBURLAINE. Why, shall I sit and languish in this pain? No, strike the drums, and, in revenge of this, Come, 

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