Previous
Tamburlaine
Zenocrate is the daughter of the Soldan of Egypt, originally betrothed to the King of Arabia, but whom Tamburlaine captures, woos, and eventually weds. Her beauty compels Tamburlaine’s unfaltering love and adoration, frequently inspiring him to heights of poetic grandeur. Indeed, Zenocrate is the one thing he values above conquest and power. Zenocrate’s reciprocal love for Tamburlaine receives a profound challenge when he refuses to take pity even on her kinsmen. Yet as distraught as she is, she never seems to consider seriously the possibility of rejecting him. Indeed, Zenocrate’s commitment to Tamburlaine is such that she gladly goes along with his conquests, berating the empress Zabina as a proxy battle to Tamburlaine’s with Bajazeth. Only when her own family is threatened does she feel the sting of Tamburlaine’s brutality, and when he spares her father, she returns to overwhelming affection. This sequence, combined with her ease in forsaking the King of Arabia for Tamburlaine, suggests a certain thoughtlessness or blithe self-interest in her character. At any rate, she remains a tempering influence on Tamburlaine’s harshness, defending their sons against his reprimands.
Zenocrate Quotes in Tamburlaine
The Tamburlaine quotes below are all either spoken by Zenocrate or refer to Zenocrate . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1
Quotes
Zenocrate, lovelier than the love of Jove,
Brighter than is the silver Rhodope,
Fairer than whitest snow on Scythian hills,
Thy person is worth more to Tamburlaine
Than the possession of the Persian crown,
Which gracious stars have promised at my birth.
A hundred Tartars shall attend on thee
Mounted on steeds swifter than Pegasus […]
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Zenocrate: Yet would you have some pity for my sake,
Because it is my country’s, and my father’s.
Tamburlaine: Not for the world, Zenocrate, if I have sworn.
What is beauty saith my sufferings then?
If all the pens that ever poets held
Had fed the feeling of their masters' thoughts,
And every sweetness that inspired their hearts,
Their minds, and muses on admired themes,
If all the heavenly quintessence they still
From their immortal flowers of poesy,
Wherein, as in a mirror, we perceive
The highest reaches of a human wit,
If these had made one poem's period
And all combin'd in beauty's worthiness,
Yet should there hover in their restless heads
One thought, one grace, one wonder at the least,
Which into words no virtue can digest.
Now shame and duty, love and fear, presents
A thousand sorrows to my martyred soul.
Whom should I wish the fatal victory
When my poor pleasures are divided thus,
And racked by duty from my cursèd heart?
Part 2
Quotes
Black is the beauty of the brightest day—
The golden ball of heaven's eternal fire
That danced with glory on the silver waves
Now wants the fuel that inflamed his beams,
And all with faintness, and for foul disgrace
He binds his temples with a frowning cloud,
Ready to darken earth with endless night.
Zenocrate that gave him light and life,
Whose eyes shot fire from their ivory bowers
And tempered every soul with lively heat,
Now by the malice of the angry skies,
Whose jealousy admits no second mate,
Draws in the comfort of her latest breath
All dazzled with the hellish mists of death […etc.]
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Ah, good my lord, be patient, she is dead,
And all this raging cannot make her live.
If words might serve, our voice hath rent the air,
If tears, our eyes have watered all the earth,
If grief, our murdered hearts have strained forth blood.
Nothing prevails, for she is dead, my lord.
But now, my boys, leave off, and list to me,
That mean to teach you rudiments of war.
I'll have you learn to sleep upon the ground,
March in your armour thorough watery fens,
Sustain the scorching heat and freezing cold,
Hunger and thirst, right adjuncts of the war.
And after this, to scale a castle wall,
Besiege a fort, […]
Get the entire Tamburlaine LitChart as a printable PDF.
Zenocrate Quotes in Tamburlaine
The Tamburlaine quotes below are all either spoken by Zenocrate or refer to Zenocrate . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1
Quotes
Zenocrate, lovelier than the love of Jove,
Brighter than is the silver Rhodope,
Fairer than whitest snow on Scythian hills,
Thy person is worth more to Tamburlaine
Than the possession of the Persian crown,
Which gracious stars have promised at my birth.
A hundred Tartars shall attend on thee
Mounted on steeds swifter than Pegasus […]
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Zenocrate: Yet would you have some pity for my sake,
Because it is my country’s, and my father’s.
Tamburlaine: Not for the world, Zenocrate, if I have sworn.
What is beauty saith my sufferings then?
If all the pens that ever poets held
Had fed the feeling of their masters' thoughts,
And every sweetness that inspired their hearts,
Their minds, and muses on admired themes,
If all the heavenly quintessence they still
From their immortal flowers of poesy,
Wherein, as in a mirror, we perceive
The highest reaches of a human wit,
If these had made one poem's period
And all combin'd in beauty's worthiness,
Yet should there hover in their restless heads
One thought, one grace, one wonder at the least,
Which into words no virtue can digest.
Now shame and duty, love and fear, presents
A thousand sorrows to my martyred soul.
Whom should I wish the fatal victory
When my poor pleasures are divided thus,
And racked by duty from my cursèd heart?
Part 2
Quotes
Black is the beauty of the brightest day—
The golden ball of heaven's eternal fire
That danced with glory on the silver waves
Now wants the fuel that inflamed his beams,
And all with faintness, and for foul disgrace
He binds his temples with a frowning cloud,
Ready to darken earth with endless night.
Zenocrate that gave him light and life,
Whose eyes shot fire from their ivory bowers
And tempered every soul with lively heat,
Now by the malice of the angry skies,
Whose jealousy admits no second mate,
Draws in the comfort of her latest breath
All dazzled with the hellish mists of death […etc.]
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Ah, good my lord, be patient, she is dead,
And all this raging cannot make her live.
If words might serve, our voice hath rent the air,
If tears, our eyes have watered all the earth,
If grief, our murdered hearts have strained forth blood.
Nothing prevails, for she is dead, my lord.
But now, my boys, leave off, and list to me,
That mean to teach you rudiments of war.
I'll have you learn to sleep upon the ground,
March in your armour thorough watery fens,
Sustain the scorching heat and freezing cold,
Hunger and thirst, right adjuncts of the war.
And after this, to scale a castle wall,
Besiege a fort, […]
