significant innovator in humanistic English drama. Marlowe also greatly influenced Jonson and Shakespeare, whose works are generally considered the pinnacle of the English Renaissance.

Tamerlane

The conqueror Tamerlane, known in Europe by the corrupted name of the Persian "Timur-i Leng," or "Timur the lame," was a formidable military leader renowned for his brutality and devotion to Mongol-Islamic religious practices. Born in Ulus Chaghatay, present-day Uzbekistan, in 1336, Tamerlane belonged to a Mongol tribe that had converted to Islam during his father's reign. In his youth, he was a thief and brigand, attracting allies and preparing for his bid for leadership, which initially failed. By forming an alliance with the neighboring prince Amir Husayn (strengthening their bond by marrying his sister), Tamerlane managed to eliminate all significant threats to his control over Ulus Chaghatay. Eventually, Tamerlane and Husayn became rivals, leading Tamerlane to lay siege to Husayn's city, allow a local warlord to kill him, and take four of his wives as concubines.

By 1379, Tamerlane had quelled a series of uprisings and secured sole control over Ulus Chaghatay. To keep other warlords under his dominance, since they would be within his watchful eye as a subordinate army, he embarked on a series of highly successful conquests into neighboring territories. From 1386 to 1388, Tamerlane invaded Persia and Anatolia but was later compelled to return to defend his homeland against a former protégé, Tokhtamish. Tamerlane ultimately defeated Tokhtamish in 1390. After spending two more years defending against northern enemies, Tamerlane invaded Iran in 1392, appointing his sons as governors there. In 1398, he set out for India, where he sacked Delhi and killed 100,000 Hindu prisoners. By 1399, he had campaigned into Syria and Anatolia, defeating the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid I and capturing him in 1402. In 1405, while preparing for an ambitious conquest of China, Tamerlane fell ill and died. He had established no lasting infrastructure, leading to the rapid disintegration of his vast empire after his death, despite nominating a grandson as his successor.

Tamburlaine the Great, especially in its second part, contains numerous historical inaccuracies and alternative interpretations. This is partly due to the limited historical information available at the time, partly due to Marlowe's occasional misinterpretation of that information, but mainly because Marlowe’s dramatic purposes diverged from historical reality. For instance, since Marlowe likely did not envision the work in two parts, he had to incorporate events from before Bajazeth’s demise and, in the case of Orcanes's defeat of Sigismund, nearly fifty years after it, to create a coherent drama in part 2. Additionally, the play’s depiction of Bajazeth and his wife’s imprisonment in an iron cage is based on an alternative reading of the historian Arabshah. Other elements, such as Tamburlaine’s love for Zenocrate, are entirely fictional and reflect Marlowe’s intent to shape the play in a way that best develops his main themes.

Blank Verse

In his introductory homage to the first folio edition of Shakespeare’s plays, Ben Jonson acknowledged "Marlowe’s mighty line," recognizing Marlowe's significant contribution to verse. Critics generally concur that Marlowe’s innovations in verse were pioneering and highly influential to the era's stylistic developments. It was Tamburlaine the Great that popularized this robust verse style. In the prologue to part 1, Marlowe emphasizes his aim to move away from the "jigging veins of rhyming mother wits," referring to the simplistic rhymes of his predecessors, akin to a mother offering trivial advice through a jig. Instead, Marlowe aspired to craft a work with profound philosophical depth and powerful, "astounding" verse.

The poetic technique Marlowe employs for his "mighty line" is blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter, a meter consisting of five beats of two-syllable units called iambs. This style, originally adapted from Greek and Latin heroic verse, was developed in Italy before Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, brought it to England. Marlowe was a key innovator who infused blank verse with emotional intensity and rhythmic elegance. He masterfully aligned his characters’ temperaments with the nature of their lines. For instance, Tamburlaine’s lines are not only musical and eloquent but also immensely powerful and grand, featuring hard consonant sounds and decisive, accented peaks. In contrast, the lines of Calyphas and Mycetes ineffectively rhyme and frequently repeat sounds without purpose.

Rhetoric

While Tamburlaine’s speeches might occasionally seem overwrought, in Elizabethan England, they were seen as excellent examples of rhetoric, the art of effective speaking and writing. Marlowe does not adhere strictly to the logical rules of classical rhetoric used in ancient Greek philosophy. Nevertheless, like the ancient Greeks, he utilizes language as a potent tool to convey truth and persuade. Marlowe’s skillful use of comparisons, evocative diction, vivid imagery, and his ability to weave his words into a compelling and musical rhythm of speech create some of the most powerful rhetoric in Elizabethan drama. Though Elizabethan audiences might sometimes perceive Tamburlaine as pompous, his rhetoric is the playwright’s primary means of depicting him as such an enthralling character.

Tamburlaine's rhetorical skills are crucial not only for captivating his audience but also for achieving his military victories. His persuasive speech convinces Theridamas to join his cause and motivates his soldiers to triumph in battle. Additionally, Tamburlaine uses rhetoric to win over Zenocrate and teach his sons the art of war. While he complements his words with his impressive appearance and decisive actions, his eloquent speech is the primary means through which he conveys his power.

Marlowe recognized rhetoric as a fundamental element of power and truth. He rejected the lowbrow humor and clichéd language of earlier playwrights. Marlowe's writing was so grand and compelling that his style became the subject of parody after Tamburlaine the Great gained fame. He was seen as the epitome of powerful, albeit sometimes ostentatious, rhetoric.

1400s: Tamerlane governs his expansive territories by allowing his troops to retain the spoils of war and bolstering his treasury with ransom money from conquered cities.

1580s: The Ottoman Empire, at its zenith, controls much of Tamerlane’s former lands and instills fear and misunderstanding among Christian nations.

Today: The Middle East, the central setting of Tamburlaine the Great, comprises several wealthy nations with abundant natural resources, yet remains one of the most politically unstable regions globally.

1400s: England is entrenched in the Middle Ages. Henry IV has ascended to power after deposing his cousin Richard II and will confront rebellions and other issues partly stemming from the Black Plague's devastation in the mid-1300s.

1580s: Elizabeth I rules England with strategic pragmatism. Despite her treasury being strained by military expenditures, she fosters a stable environment for commerce.

Today: Tony Blair serves as the prime minister of England, characterized by center-left economic and social policies and his alliance with the United States in a preemptive war with Iraq.

1400s: The Americas remain undiscovered by Europeans, and Native Americans maintain traditional ways of life that vary by region and civilization.

1580s: The most violent Spanish conquests of native populations in South and Central America have mostly concluded, but English and French colonists have yet to firmly establish control, which will later lead to widespread displacement and massacre of Native North Americans.

Today: In the United States, Native Americans face poverty and inadequate resources on reservations. Despite these challenges, the Native American population is not fully integrating into mainstream culture and does not necessarily wish to do so.

Sources

Jonson, Ben, ‘‘To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author Master William Shakespeare, and What He Hath Left Us,’’ in William Shakespeare: The Complete Works, by William Shakespeare, edited by Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, Oxford University Press, 1988, pp. xiv–xvi.

Marlowe, Christopher, Tamburlaine the Great: Parts I and II, edited by J. W. Harper, Ernest Benn, 1971. Sales, Roger, Christopher Marlowe, St. Martin’s Press, 1991, pp. 51–83.

Further Reading

Battenhouse, Roy W., Marlowe’s ‘‘Tamburlaine’’: A Study in Renaissance Moral Philosophy, Vanderbilt University Press, 1964. This book provides an analysis of the play as a didactic and conventionally religious moral statement, in which Tamburlaine is meant to be a figure of evil.

Eliot, T. S., ‘‘Christopher Marlowe,’’ in Selected Essays, 1917–1932, Harcourt, Brace, 1932, pp. 100–07. Eliot’s discussion of Marlowe’s style is one of the most influential modern critical evaluations of the dramatist, and it includes an analysis of the verse in Tamburlaine the Great.

Manz, Beatrice Forbes, The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane, Cambridge University Press, 1989. Manz offers a useful historical account of the Mongol conqueror.

Ribner, Irving, ‘‘The Idea of History in Marlowe’s Tamburlaine,’’ in ELH, Vol. 20, 1954, pp. 251–66. Ribner discusses Marlowe’s classical sources in Tamburlaine the Great and argues that the play denies the role of providence in human history.

Rowse, A. L., Christopher Marlowe, A Biography, Macmillan, 1964. Rowse’s book is a colorful and controversial biography addressed to a wide audience.