One of the smash hits of the late 1580s and 90s, Tamburlaineestablished blank verse as the poetic line of English Renaissancedrama, Edward Alleyn as the first English star actor and Marlowe as oneof the foremost playwrights of his time. The rise and fall of a Scythian peasant-warrior who conquers the Middle East and is struckdown by illness after burning the books of the Koran is presented intwo parts crammed with theatrical splendour and equally spectacularcruelty. Marlowe’s original audiences were delighted with theblasphemous and ruthlessly ambitious hero; the introduction to thisedition discusses the problems that such a character poses for modernaudiences and highlights the undercurrents of the play that leadtowards a more ironic interpretation.