Tamburlaine the Great – Christopher Marlowe

"I hold the Fates bound fast in iron chains, And with my hand turn Fortune's wheel about."

This two-part play chronicles the rise of the Scythian shepherd Tamburlaine to become the emperor of half the world. Through sheer force of will, military genius, and ruthless cruelty, he conquers kings and emperors, using them as footstools and dragging them in cages. He defies gods and men, seemingly unstoppable until he faces the one enemy he cannot defeat: death.

Marlowe's epic revolutionized English drama with its 'mighty line' of blank verse. It celebrates the Renaissance ideal of the limitless human will, presenting a hero who is both magnificent and monstrous.