Hyperbole In Tamburlaine

he refers to Jupiter as his precedent, the eldest son of heavenly Ops, who thrust his doting father from his chair. The point of this allusion is to demonstrate the glory of those aspiring minds that are always climbing after knowledge infinite. Such hyperbole enables Marlowe to express the magnitude of his protagonist’s ambition. It is important to realise that for Tamburlaine all aspects of life contribute to the achievement of his goal, the enhancement of his own supremacy. Even his language of love is closely associated with that of war, using the same flamboyant tropes and hyperbole.
Agydas, struggling to prevent Zenocrate from loving her enemy, reminds her that his language will not be amorous discourse but rather facts of war and blood.

Although she lacks the means to motivate her utterances, she invokes Tamburlaine’s feared name in order to make her threats more substantial. Managing words with Zabina, she repeatedly summons the authority of his name, comparing his physical fight with her own verbal gestures. Bajazeth, self-named the high and highest Monarke of the world (p.28) is easily defeated. A worthy enemy, his easy subjugation emphasizes Tamburlaine’s strength. Jill L. Levenson criticizes this association of language with power, claiming that it constitutes a lack of dramatic variation. She argues that “[F]rom Mycetes to Zenocrate, the persons employ the same lexicon” attributing this quality of sameness to Marlowe’s lack of technical skill. Likewise, Van Hook questions the maturity of a playwright who fails

However, whereas Macbeth initially displays noble qualities, Tamburlaine’s attitude is always that of the merciless tyrant. Although such characteristics as his love for Zenocrate suggest humanity, they are not enough to reduce the general impression of his merciless infernall cruelty. Despite this cruelty, Tamburlaine continues to command respect, the dynamism of his action and suffering attracting interest, even sympathy in his audiences. His strength is bigger than that of his enemies and his downfall is never imagined in terms of military defeat. Rather, it is the deaths of his wife and son that lead to his gradual decline. When Zenocrate dies, he is weakened, unable, as he is to wound the world that it may cleave in twaine. Although attempting to inscribe his pain on the earth by incinerating a village, he is unable to resist his action.
Considering all these, it is rather surprising that Tamburlaine does not modify his hyperbole, limiting his horizons to accord with his circumstances and reality. Stephen Greenblatt, exploring how Tamburlaine presents his identity through repeated rhetoric and actions, argues that it is only through such re-iteration that he is able to “stamp his image on time and space.” He defines Tamburlaine as the self-conscious hero, the warrior who