The same. A room in the brothel.

Enter Pandar, Bawd, and BOULT

Pandar
Well, I had rather than twice the worth of her she
2 had ne'er come here.

Bawd
Fie, fie upon her! she's able to freeze the god
Priapus, and undo a whole generation. We must
5 either get her ravished, or be rid of her. When she
6 should do for clients her fitment, and do me the
7 kindness of our profession, she has me her quirks,
8 her reasons, her master reasons, her prayers, her
knees; that she would make a puritan of the devil,
10 if he should cheapen a kiss of her.

BOULT
'Faith, I must ravish her, or she'll disfurnish us
12 of all our cavaliers, and make our swearers priests.

Pandar
Now, the pox upon her green-sickness for me!

Bawd
'Faith, there's no way to be rid on't but by the
15 way to the pox. Here comes the Lord Lysimachus disguised.

BOULT
16 We should have both lord and lown, if the peevish
17 baggage would but give way to customers.
Enter LYSIMACHUS

LYSIMACHUS
18 How now! How a dozen of virginities?

Bawd
Now, the gods to-bless your honour!

BOULT
20 I am glad to see your honour in good health.

LYSIMACHUS
21 You may so; 'tis the better for you that your
22 resorters stand upon sound legs. How now!
23 wholesome iniquity have you that a man may deal
withal, and defy the surgeon?

Bawd
25 We have here one, sir, if she would--but there never
26 came her like in Mytilene.

LYSIMACHUS
27 If she'ld do the deed of darkness, thou wouldst say.

Bawd
28 Your honour knows what 'tis to say well enough.

LYSIMACHUS
Well, call forth, call forth.

BOULT
30 For flesh and blood, sir, white and red, you shall
31 see a rose; and she were a rose indeed, if she had but--

LYSIMACHUS
What, prithee?

BOULT
O, sir, I can be modest.

LYSIMACHUS
34 That dignifies the renown of a bawd, no less than it
35 gives a good report to a number to be chaste.
Exit BOULT

Bawd
36 Here comes that which grows to the stalk; never
37 plucked yet, I can assure you.
Re-enter BOULT with MARINA 38 Is she not a fair creature?

LYSIMACHUS
'Faith, she would serve after a long voyage at sea.
Well, there's for you: leave us.

Bawd
41 I beseech your honour, give me leave: a word, and
42 I'll have done presently.

LYSIMACHUS
43 I beseech you, do.

Bawd
To MARINA First, I would have you note, this is
45 an honourable man.

MARINA
46 I desire to find him so, that I may worthily note him.

Bawd
Next, he's the governor of this country, and a man
48 whom I am bound to.

MARINA
49 If he govern the country, you are bound to him
indeed; but how honourable he is in that, I know not.

Bawd
51 Pray you, without any more virginal fencing, will
52 you use him kindly? He will line your apron with gold.

MARINA
53 What he will do graciously, I will thankfully receive.

LYSIMACHUS
Ha' you done?

Bawd
55 My lord, she's not paced yet: you must take some
56 pains to work her to your manage. Come, we will
57 leave his honour and her together. Go thy ways.
Exeunt Bawd, Pandar, and BOULT

LYSIMACHUS
Now, pretty one, how long have you been at this trade?

MARINA
59 What trade, sir?

LYSIMACHUS
Why, I cannot name't but I shall offend.

MARINA
61 I cannot be offended with my trade. Please you to name it.

LYSIMACHUS
62 How long have you been of this profession?

MARINA
63 E'er since I can remember.

LYSIMACHUS
64 Did you go to 't so young? Were you a gamester at
65 five or at seven?

MARINA
66 Earlier too, sir, if now I be one.

LYSIMACHUS
Why, the house you dwell in proclaims you to be a
68 creature of sale.

MARINA
69 Do you know this house to be a place of such resort,
70 and will come into 't? I hear say you are of
71 honourable parts, and are the governor of this place.

LYSIMACHUS
Why, hath your principal made known unto you who I am?

MARINA
73 Who is my principal?

LYSIMACHUS
Why, your herb-woman; she that sets seeds and roots
75 of shame and iniquity. O, you have heard something
76 of my power, and so stand aloof for more serious
wooing. But I protest to thee, pretty one, my
78 authority shall not see thee, or else look friendly
79 upon thee. Come, bring me to some private place:
come, come.

MARINA
81 If you were born to honour, show it now;
82 If put upon you, make the judgment good
83 That thought you worthy of it.

LYSIMACHUS
84 How's this? how's this? Some more; be sage.

MARINA
85 For me,
86 That am a maid, though most ungentle fortune
87 Have placed me in this sty, where, since I came,
88 Diseases have been sold dearer than physic,
O, that the gods
90 Would set me free from this unhallow'd place,
91 Though they did change me to the meanest bird
92 That flies i' the purer air!

LYSIMACHUS
93 I did not think
94 Thou couldst have spoke so well; ne'er dream'd thou couldst.
95 Had I brought hither a corrupted mind,
96 Thy speech had alter'd it. Hold, here's gold for thee:
Persever 97 in that clear way thou goest,
98 And the gods strengthen thee!

MARINA
99 The good gods preserve you!

LYSIMACHUS
100 For me, be you thoughten
101 That I came with no ill intent; for to me
102 The very doors and windows savour vilely.
103 Fare thee well. Thou art a piece of virtue, and
104 I doubt not but thy training hath been noble.
Hold, here's more gold for thee.
106 A curse upon him, die he like a thief,
107 That robs thee of thy goodness! If thou dost
108 Hear from me, it shall be for thy good.
Re-enter BOULT

BOULT
109 I beseech your honour, one piece for me.

LYSIMACHUS
Avaunt, thou damned door-keeper!
111 Your house, but for this virgin that doth prop it,
112 Would sink and overwhelm you. Away!
Exit

BOULT
113 How's this? We must take another course with you.
114 If your peevish chastity, which is not worth a
115 breakfast in the cheapest country under the cope,
116 shall undo a whole household, let me be gelded like
117 a spaniel. Come your ways.

MARINA
118 Whither would you have me?

BOULT
119 I must have your maidenhead taken off, or the common
120 hangman shall execute it. Come your ways. We'll
121 have no more gentlemen driven away. Come your ways, I say.
Re-enter Bawd

Bawd
122 How now! what's the matter?

BOULT
123 Worse and worse, mistress; she has here spoken holy
124 words to the Lord Lysimachus.

Bawd
125 O abominable!

BOULT
126 She makes our profession as it were to stink afore
127 the face of the gods.

Bawd
Marry, hang her up for ever!

BOULT
129 The nobleman would have dealt with her like a
nobleman, and she sent him away as cold as a
snowball; saying his prayers too.

Bawd
Boult, take her away; use her at thy pleasure:
crack 133 the glass of her virginity, and make the rest malleable.

BOULT
134 An if she were a thornier piece of ground than she
is, she shall be ploughed.

MARINA
Hark, hark, you gods!

Bawd
137 She conjures: away with her! Would she had never
138 come within my doors! Marry, hang you! She's born
139 to undo us. Will you not go the way of women-kind?
Marry, come up, my dish of chastity with rosemary and bays!
Exit

BOULT
Come, mistress; come your ways with me.

MARINA
142 Whither wilt thou have me?

BOULT
143 To take from you the jewel you hold so dear.

MARINA
Prithee, tell me one thing first.

BOULT
145 Come now, your one thing.

MARINA
146 What canst thou wish thine enemy to be?

BOULT
Why, I could wish him to be my master, or rather, my mistress.

MARINA
148 Neither of these are so bad as thou art,
149 Since they do better thee in their command.
150 Thou hold'st a place, for which the pained'st fiend
151 Of hell would not in reputation change:
152 Thou art the damned doorkeeper to every
153 Coistrel that comes inquiring for his Tib;
154 To the choleric fisting of every rogue
155 Thy ear is liable; thy food is such
156 As hath been belch'd on by infected lungs.

BOULT
157 What would you have me do? go to the wars, would
158 you? where a man may serve seven years for the loss
159 of a leg, and have not money enough in the end to
160 buy him a wooden one?

MARINA
161 Do any thing but this thou doest. Empty
162 OLD receptacles, or common shores, of filth;
163 Serve by indenture to the common hangman:
164 Any of these ways are yet better than this;
165 For what thou professest, a baboon, could he speak,
166 Would own a name too dear. O, that the gods
167 Would safely deliver me from this place!
Here, here's gold for thee.
169 If that thy master would gain by thee,
170 Proclaim that I can sing, weave, sew, and dance,
171 With other virtues, which I'll keep from boast:
172 And I will undertake all these to teach.
173 I doubt not but this populous city will
Yield 174 many scholars.

BOULT
175 But can you teach all this you speak of?

MARINA
176 Prove that I cannot, take me home again,
177 And prostitute me to the basest groom
178 That doth frequent your house.

BOULT
Well, I will see what I can do for thee: if I can
180 place thee, I will.

MARINA
181 But amongst honest women.

BOULT
'Faith, my acquaintance lies little amongst them.
183 But since my master and mistress have bought you,
184 there's no going but by their consent: therefore I
185 will make them acquainted with your purpose, and I
186 doubt not but I shall find them tractable enough.
Come, I'll do for thee what I can; come your ways.
Exeunt Enter GOWER

GOWER
188 Marina thus the brothel 'scapes, and chances
189 Into an honest house, our story says.
190 She sings like one immortal, and she dances
191 As goddess-like to her admired lays;
192 Deep clerks she dumbs; and with her needle composes
193 Nature's own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry,
194 That even her art sisters the natural roses;
195 Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied cherry:
196 That pupils lacks she none of noble race,
197 Who pour their bounty on her; and her gain
198 She gives the cursed bawd. Here we her place;
199 And to her father turn our thoughts again,
200 Where we left him, on the sea. We there him lost;
201 Whence, driven before the winds, he is arrived
202 Here where his daughter dwells; and on this coast
203 Suppose him now at anchor. The city strived
204 God Neptune's annual feast to keep: from whence
205 Lysimachus our Tyrian ship espies,
206 His banners sable, trimm'd with rich expense;
207 And to him in his barge with fervor hies.
208 In your supposing once more put your sight
209 Of heavy Pericles; think this his bark:
210 Where what is done in action, more, if might,
211 Shall be discover'd; please you, sit and hark.
Exit


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