Tamburlaine the Great

The Admiral's <i>Vayvode</i> of 1598

“…The argument, put forward by Fredericke and Baldwine, lords of Buda and Bohema, is that Christians need not keep oaths made with infidel Turks, especially when presented with a God-given opportunity to 'scourge their foule blasphemous Paganisme'. 46 Orcanes's response to the news of the breach is shocked disbelief: 'Can there be such deceit in Christians, / Or treason in the fleshly heart of man[?]' 47 Orcanes prays to Christ for revenge, and, in the next scene, Sigismond dies after realizing his fault: 'God hath thundered vengeance from on high, / For my accurst and hatefull periurie'.…”

On the origins of the name for the ‘Black Sea’

“…In Marlowe's play Tamburlaine the Great (1587), Theridamas thus tells Tamburlaine that he 'crossed the gulf called by the name Mare Majore of the inhabitants'. 44 Contemporary travel and geography books had to explain the Greek name by referring to the Italian style. According to Marlowe's contemporary Richard Hakluyt, who compiled narratives of travel in a brilliant edition, the 'Pont Euxine' was then called Mare Maggiore.…”

Categorical Transgression in Marlovian Death and Damnation

“…In the two Tamburlaine plays (Marlowe 1998) whole armies perish in the in all eight off‐stage battles, presumably in the usual manner of armies, but the killing and suffering on‐stage and/or in the aftermath of battles have a somewhat more intense leavening of categorical transgression. This does not apply to Tamburlaine himself: like the Guise in The Massacre , as one of Marlowe’s less ambivalent protagonists he is singularly unqualified for transgressive suffering, and his own demise is quietly uncomplicated.…”