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The stars in Tamburlaine represent the mysterious role of destiny in human life. From the very beginning, Tamburlaine attributes his unswerving path to world domination to the “stars that reigned at my nativity,” merely collecting on that which “gracious stars have promised at my birth.” This supposed astrological guarantee gives him unflagging confidence in his own future, and the ease with which he defeats one foe after another seems to confirm the predestined character of his greatness. Tamburlaine’s enemies likewise chalk up his inexplicable might to the favorable influence of his guiding stars. The odd thing about this trope in the play is that neither Tamburlaine, who constantly invokes the stars, nor anyone else specifies what exactly the astrological markers are that make his destiny so unshakeable. Yet Tamburlaine is so confident in that destiny that he feels emboldened to threaten and belittle the very stars that determined it: “We’ll chase the stars from heaven, and dim their eyes.” Throughout the play, Tamburlaine moves freely between a reverent sense of his own cosmic fortune and a willingness to destroy that very cosmos. That his final undoing should be potentially connected with his blasphemy suggests that even Tamburlaine could not see all of what his stars determined for him.
The Stars Quotes in Tamburlaine
The Tamburlaine quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Stars. 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:
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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 […]
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Art thou but captain of a thousand horse,
That by characters graven in thy brows
And by thy martial face and stout aspect
Deservest to have the leading of an host?
Forsake thy king and do but join with me
And we will triumph over all the world.
I hold the Fates bound fast in iron chains
And with my hand turn Fortune’s wheel about,
And sooner shall the sun fall from his sphere
Than Tamburlaine be slain or overcome.
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For ‘will’ and ‘shall’ best fitteth Tamburlaine,
Whose smiling stars gives him assurèd hope
Of martial triumph, ere he meet his foes.
I, that am termed the scourge and wrath of God,
The only fear and terror of the world,
Will first subdue the Turk, and then […]
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Part 2
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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.]
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