Tamburlaine the Great: Parts One and Two

Tamburlaine the Great, Part One and Part Two are the first plays that Christopher Marlowe wrote for Londons then new freestanding, open-air public playhouses. They trace the progress of Tamburlaine, a Central Asian leader, as he scourge[s] kingdoms with his conquering sword and rises to imperial power. The plays were a powerful beginning to Marlowes brief career as a public theatre dramatist: the brutally masculine and martial main character immediately captured audiences, and the plays were widely imitated and parodied. Even four hundred years later, Marlowes Tamburlaine remains a shocking and seductive figure.

The introduction and historical appendices to this new Broadview Edition provide many avenues for readers to understand these plays, presenting other portrayals of Islam from the period, related lives of Tamburlaine from other writers, and material on Marlowes scandalous reputation.