Open Source Shakespeare

Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Act IV

Prologue

Scene 1. Tarsus. An open place near the sea-shore.

Scene 2. Mytilene. A room in a brothel.

Scene 3. Tarsus. A room in CLEON’s house.

Scene 4. Chorus.

Scene 5. Mytilene. A street before the brothel.

Scene 6. The same. A room in the brothel.

• To print this text, click here
• To save this text, go to your browser's File menu, then select Save As


       

Prologue

       

[Enter GOWER]

  • Gower. Imagine Pericles arrived at Tyre,
    Welcomed and settled to his own desire.
    His woeful queen we leave at Ephesus, 1495
    Unto Diana there a votaress.
    Now to Marina bend your mind,
    Whom our fast-growing scene must find
    At Tarsus, and by Cleon train'd
    In music, letters; who hath gain'd 1500
    Of education all the grace,
    Which makes her both the heart and place
    Of general wonder. But, alack,
    That monster envy, oft the wrack
    Of earned praise, Marina's life 1505
    Seeks to take off by treason's knife.
    And in this kind hath our Cleon
    One daughter, and a wench full grown,
    Even ripe for marriage-rite; this maid
    Hight Philoten: and it is said 1510
    For certain in our story, she
    Would ever with Marina be:
    Be't when she weaved the sleided silk
    With fingers long, small, white as milk;
    Or when she would with sharp needle wound 1515
    The cambric, which she made more sound
    By hurting it; or when to the lute
    She sung, and made the night-bird mute,
    That still records with moan; or when
    She would with rich and constant pen 1520
    Vail to her mistress Dian; still
    This Philoten contends in skill
    With absolute Marina: so
    With the dove of Paphos might the crow
    Vie feathers white. Marina gets 1525
    All praises, which are paid as debts,
    And not as given. This so darks
    In Philoten all graceful marks,
    That Cleon's wife, with envy rare,
    A present murderer does prepare 1530
    For good Marina, that her daughter
    Might stand peerless by this slaughter.
    The sooner her vile thoughts to stead,
    Lychorida, our nurse, is dead:
    And cursed Dionyza hath 1535
    The pregnant instrument of wrath
    Prest for this blow. The unborn event
    I do commend to your content:
    Only I carry winged time
    Post on the lame feet of my rhyme; 1540
    Which never could I so convey,
    Unless your thoughts went on my way.
    Dionyza does appear,
    With Leonine, a murderer.

[Exit]


       

Act IV, Scene 1

Tarsus. An open place near the sea-shore.

       

[Enter DIONYZA and LEONINE]

  • Dionyza. Thy oath remember; thou hast sworn to do't:
    'Tis but a blow, which never shall be known.
    Thou canst not do a thing in the world so soon,
    To yield thee so much profit. Let not conscience, 1550
    Which is but cold, inflaming love i' thy bosom,
    Inflame too nicely; nor let pity, which
    Even women have cast off, melt thee, but be
    A soldier to thy purpose.
  • Leonine. I will do't; but yet she is a goodly creature. 1555
  • Dionyza. The fitter, then, the gods should have her. Here
    she comes weeping for her only mistress' death.
    Thou art resolved?
  • Leonine. I am resolved.

[Enter MARINA, with a basket of flowers]

  • Marina. No, I will rob Tellus of her weed,
    To strew thy green with flowers: the yellows, blues,
    The purple violets, and marigolds,
    Shall as a carpet hang upon thy grave,
    While summer-days do last. Ay me! poor maid, 1565
    Born in a tempest, when my mother died,
    This world to me is like a lasting storm,
    Whirring me from my friends.
  • Dionyza. How now, Marina! why do you keep alone?
    How chance my daughter is not with you? Do not 1570
    Consume your blood with sorrowing: you have
    A nurse of me. Lord, how your favour's changed
    With this unprofitable woe!
    Come, give me your flowers, ere the sea mar it.
    Walk with Leonine; the air is quick there, 1575
    And it pierces and sharpens the stomach. Come,
    Leonine, take her by the arm, walk with her.
  • Marina. No, I pray you;
    I'll not bereave you of your servant.
  • Dionyza. Come, come; 1580
    I love the king your father, and yourself,
    With more than foreign heart. We every day
    Expect him here: when he shall come and find
    Our paragon to all reports thus blasted,
    He will repent the breadth of his great voyage; 1585
    Blame both my lord and me, that we have taken
    No care to your best courses. Go, I pray you,
    Walk, and be cheerful once again; reserve
    That excellent complexion, which did steal
    The eyes of young and old. Care not for me 1590
    I can go home alone.
  • Marina. Well, I will go;
    But yet I have no desire to it.
  • Dionyza. Come, come, I know 'tis good for you.
    Walk half an hour, Leonine, at the least: 1595
    Remember what I have said.
  • Leonine. I warrant you, madam.
  • Dionyza. I'll leave you, my sweet lady, for a while:
    Pray, walk softly, do not heat your blood:
    What! I must have a care of you. 1600
  • Marina. My thanks, sweet madam.
    [Exit DIONYZA]
    Is this wind westerly that blows?
  • Leonine. South-west.
  • Marina. When I was born, the wind was north. 1605
  • Leonine. Was't so?
  • Marina. My father, as nurse said, did never fear,
    But cried 'Good seaman!' to the sailors, galling
    His kingly hands, haling ropes;
    And, clasping to the mast, endured a sea 1610
    That almost burst the deck.
  • Leonine. When was this?
  • Marina. When I was born:
    Never was waves nor wind more violent;
    And from the ladder-tackle washes off 1615
    A canvas-climber. 'Ha!' says one, 'wilt out?'
    And with a dropping industry they skip
    From stem to stern: the boatswain whistles, and
    The master calls, and trebles their confusion.
  • Leonine. Come, say your prayers. 1620
  • Marina. What mean you?
  • Leonine. If you require a little space for prayer,
    I grant it: pray; but be not tedious,
    For the gods are quick of ear, and I am sworn
    To do my work with haste. 1625
  • Marina. Why will you kill me?
  • Leonine. To satisfy my lady.
  • Marina. Why would she have me kill'd?
    Now, as I can remember, by my troth,
    I never did her hurt in all my life: 1630
    I never spake bad word, nor did ill turn
    To any living creature: believe me, la,
    I never kill'd a mouse, nor hurt a fly:
    I trod upon a worm against my will,
    But I wept for it. How have I offended, 1635
    Wherein my death might yield her any profit,
    Or my life imply her any danger?
  • Leonine. My commission
    Is not to reason of the deed, but do it.
  • Marina. You will not do't for all the world, I hope. 1640
    You are well favour'd, and your looks foreshow
    You have a gentle heart. I saw you lately,
    When you caught hurt in parting two that fought:
    Good sooth, it show'd well in you: do so now:
    Your lady seeks my life; come you between, 1645
    And save poor me, the weaker.
  • Leonine. I am sworn,
    And will dispatch.

[He seizes her]

[Enter Pirates]

  • First Pirate. Hold, villain!

[LEONINE runs away]

  • Second Pirate. A prize! a prize!
  • Third Pirate. Half-part, mates, half-part.
    Come, let's have her aboard suddenly. 1655

[Exeunt Pirates with MARINA]

[Re-enter LEONINE]

  • Leonine. These roguing thieves serve the great pirate Valdes;
    And they have seized Marina. Let her go:
    There's no hope she will return. I'll swear 1660
    she's dead,
    And thrown into the sea. But I'll see further:
    Perhaps they will but please themselves upon her,
    Not carry her aboard. If she remain,
    Whom they have ravish'd must by me be slain. 1665

[Exit]


       

Act IV, Scene 2

Mytilene. A room in a brothel.

       

[Enter Pandar, Bawd, and BOULT]

  • Pandar. Boult!
  • Boult. Sir?
  • Pandar. Search the market narrowly; Mytilene is full of 1670
    gallants. We lost too much money this mart by being
    too wenchless.
  • Bawd. We were never so much out of creatures. We have but
    poor three, and they can do no more than they can
    do; and they with continual action are even as good as rotten. 1675
  • Pandar. Therefore let's have fresh ones, whate'er we pay for
    them. If there be not a conscience to be used in
    every trade, we shall never prosper.
  • Bawd. Thou sayest true: 'tis not our bringing up of poor
    bastards,—as, I think, I have brought up some eleven— 1680
  • Boult. Ay, to eleven; and brought them down again. But
    shall I search the market?
  • Bawd. What else, man? The stuff we have, a strong wind
    will blow it to pieces, they are so pitifully sodden.
  • Pandar. Thou sayest true; they're too unwholesome, o' 1685
    conscience. The poor Transylvanian is dead, that
    lay with the little baggage.
  • Boult. Ay, she quickly pooped him; she made him roast-meat
    for worms. But I'll go search the market.

[Exit]

  • Pandar. Three or four thousand chequins were as pretty a
    proportion to live quietly, and so give over.
  • Bawd. Why to give over, I pray you? is it a shame to get
    when we are old?
  • Pandar. O, our credit comes not in like the commodity, nor 1695
    the commodity wages not with the danger: therefore,
    if in our youths we could pick up some pretty
    estate, 'twere not amiss to keep our door hatched.
    Besides, the sore terms we stand upon with the gods
    will be strong with us for giving over. 1700
  • Bawd. Come, other sorts offend as well as we.
  • Pandar. As well as we! ay, and better too; we offend worse.
    Neither is our profession any trade; it's no
    calling. But here comes Boult.

[Re-enter BOULT, with the Pirates and MARINA]

  • Boult. [To MARINA] Come your ways. My masters, you say
    she's a virgin?
  • First Pirate. O, sir, we doubt it not.
  • Boult. Master, I have gone through for this piece, you see:
    if you like her, so; if not, I have lost my earnest. 1710
  • Bawd. Boult, has she any qualities?
  • Boult. She has a good face, speaks well, and has excellent
    good clothes: there's no further necessity of
    qualities can make her be refused.
  • Bawd. What's her price, Boult? 1715
  • Boult. I cannot be bated one doit of a thousand pieces.
  • Pandar. Well, follow me, my masters, you shall have your
    money presently. Wife, take her in; instruct her
    what she has to do, that she may not be raw in her
    entertainment. 1720

[Exeunt Pandar and Pirates]

  • Bawd. Boult, take you the marks of her, the colour of her
    hair, complexion, height, age, with warrant of her
    virginity; and cry 'He that will give most shall
    have her first.' Such a maidenhead were no cheap 1725
    thing, if men were as they have been. Get this done
    as I command you.
  • Boult. Performance shall follow.

[Exit]

  • Marina. Alack that Leonine was so slack, so slow! 1730
    He should have struck, not spoke; or that these pirates,
    Not enough barbarous, had not o'erboard thrown me
    For to seek my mother!
  • Bawd. Why lament you, pretty one?
  • Marina. That I am pretty. 1735
  • Bawd. Come, the gods have done their part in you.
  • Marina. I accuse them not.
  • Bawd. You are light into my hands, where you are like to live.
  • Marina. The more my fault
    To scape his hands where I was like to die. 1740
  • Bawd. Ay, and you shall live in pleasure.
  • Marina. No.
  • Bawd. Yes, indeed shall you, and taste gentlemen of all
    fashions: you shall fare well; you shall have the
    difference of all complexions. What! do you stop your ears? 1745
  • Marina. Are you a woman?
  • Bawd. What would you have me be, an I be not a woman?
  • Marina. An honest woman, or not a woman.
  • Bawd. Marry, whip thee, gosling: I think I shall have
    something to do with you. Come, you're a young 1750
    foolish sapling, and must be bowed as I would have
    you.
  • Marina. The gods defend me!
  • Bawd. If it please the gods to defend you by men, then men
    must comfort you, men must feed you, men must stir 1755
    you up. Boult's returned.
    [Re-enter BOULT]
    Now, sir, hast thou cried her through the market?
  • Boult. I have cried her almost to the number of her hairs;
    I have drawn her picture with my voice. 1760
  • Bawd. And I prithee tell me, how dost thou find the
    inclination of the people, especially of the younger sort?
  • Boult. 'Faith, they listened to me as they would have
    hearkened to their father's testament. There was a
    Spaniard's mouth so watered, that he went to bed to 1765
    her very description.
  • Bawd. We shall have him here to-morrow with his best ruff on.
  • Boult. To-night, to-night. But, mistress, do you know the
    French knight that cowers i' the hams?
  • Bawd. Who, Monsieur Veroles? 1770
  • Boult. Ay, he: he offered to cut a caper at the
    proclamation; but he made a groan at it, and swore
    he would see her to-morrow.
  • Bawd. Well, well; as for him, he brought his disease
    hither: here he does but repair it. I know he will 1775
    come in our shadow, to scatter his crowns in the
    sun.
  • Boult. Well, if we had of every nation a traveller, we
    should lodge them with this sign.
  • Bawd. [To MARINA] Pray you, come hither awhile. You 1780
    have fortunes coming upon you. Mark me: you must
    seem to do that fearfully which you commit
    willingly, despise profit where you have most gain.
    To weep that you live as ye do makes pity in your
    lovers: seldom but that pity begets you a good 1785
    opinion, and that opinion a mere profit.
  • Marina. I understand you not.
  • Boult. O, take her home, mistress, take her home: these
    blushes of hers must be quenched with some present practise.
  • Bawd. Thou sayest true, i' faith, so they must; for your 1790
    bride goes to that with shame which is her way to go
    with warrant.
  • Boult. 'Faith, some do, and some do not. But, mistress, if
    I have bargained for the joint,—
  • Bawd. Thou mayst cut a morsel off the spit. 1795
  • Boult. I may so.
  • Bawd. Who should deny it? Come, young one, I like the
    manner of your garments well.
  • Boult. Ay, by my faith, they shall not be changed yet.
  • Bawd. Boult, spend thou that in the town: report what a 1800
    sojourner we have; you'll lose nothing by custom.
    When nature flamed this piece, she meant thee a good
    turn; therefore say what a paragon she is, and thou
    hast the harvest out of thine own report.
  • Boult. I warrant you, mistress, thunder shall not so awake 1805
    the beds of eels as my giving out her beauty stir up
    the lewdly-inclined. I'll bring home some to-night.
  • Bawd. Come your ways; follow me.
  • Marina. If fires be hot, knives sharp, or waters deep,
    Untied I still my virgin knot will keep. 1810
    Diana, aid my purpose!
  • Bawd. What have we to do with Diana? Pray you, will you go with us?

[Exeunt]


       

Act IV, Scene 3

Tarsus. A room in CLEON’s house.

       

[Enter CLEON and DIONYZA]

  • Dionyza. Why, are you foolish? Can it be undone? 1815
  • Cleon. O Dionyza, such a piece of slaughter
    The sun and moon ne'er look'd upon!
  • Dionyza. I think
    You'll turn a child again.
  • Cleon. Were I chief lord of all this spacious world, 1820
    I'ld give it to undo the deed. O lady,
    Much less in blood than virtue, yet a princess
    To equal any single crown o' the earth
    I' the justice of compare! O villain Leonine!
    Whom thou hast poison'd too: 1825
    If thou hadst drunk to him, 't had been a kindness
    Becoming well thy fact: what canst thou say
    When noble Pericles shall demand his child?
  • Dionyza. That she is dead. Nurses are not the fates,
    To foster it, nor ever to preserve. 1830
    She died at night; I'll say so. Who can cross it?
    Unless you play the pious innocent,
    And for an honest attribute cry out
    'She died by foul play.'
  • Cleon. O, go to. Well, well, 1835
    Of all the faults beneath the heavens, the gods
    Do like this worst.
  • Dionyza. Be one of those that think
    The petty wrens of Tarsus will fly hence,
    And open this to Pericles. I do shame 1840
    To think of what a noble strain you are,
    And of how coward a spirit.
  • Cleon. To such proceeding
    Who ever but his approbation added,
    Though not his prime consent, he did not flow 1845
    From honourable sources.
  • Dionyza. Be it so, then:
    Yet none does know, but you, how she came dead,
    Nor none can know, Leonine being gone.
    She did disdain my child, and stood between 1850
    Her and her fortunes: none would look on her,
    But cast their gazes on Marina's face;
    Whilst ours was blurted at and held a malkin
    Not worth the time of day. It pierced me through;
    And though you call my course unnatural, 1855
    You not your child well loving, yet I find
    It greets me as an enterprise of kindness
    Perform'd to your sole daughter.
  • Cleon. Heavens forgive it!
  • Dionyza. And as for Pericles, 1860
    What should he say? We wept after her hearse,
    And yet we mourn: her monument
    Is almost finish'd, and her epitaphs
    In glittering golden characters express
    A general praise to her, and care in us 1865
    At whose expense 'tis done.
  • Cleon. Thou art like the harpy,
    Which, to betray, dost, with thine angel's face,
    Seize with thine eagle's talons.
  • Dionyza. You are like one that superstitiously 1870
    Doth swear to the gods that winter kills the flies:
    But yet I know you'll do as I advise.

[Exeunt]


       

Act IV, Scene 4

Chorus.

       

[Enter GOWER, before the monument of MARINA at Tarsus]

  • Gower. Thus time we waste, and longest leagues make short; 1875
    Sail seas in cockles, have an wish but for't;
    Making, to take your imagination,
    From bourn to bourn, region to region.
    By you being pardon'd, we commit no crime
    To use one language in each several clime 1880
    Where our scenes seem to live. I do beseech you
    To learn of me, who stand i' the gaps to teach you,
    The stages of our story. Pericles
    Is now again thwarting the wayward seas,
    Attended on by many a lord and knight. 1885
    To see his daughter, all his life's delight.
    Old Escanes, whom Helicanus late
    Advanced in time to great and high estate,
    Is left to govern. Bear you it in mind,
    Old Helicanus goes along behind. 1890
    Well-sailing ships and bounteous winds have brought
    This king to Tarsus,—think his pilot thought;
    So with his steerage shall your thoughts grow on,—
    To fetch his daughter home, who first is gone.
    Like motes and shadows see them move awhile; 1895
    Your ears unto your eyes I'll reconcile.
    DUMB SHOW.
    [Enter PERICLES, at one door, with all his train;]
    CLEON and DIONYZA, at the other. CLEON shows
    PERICLES the tomb; whereat PERICLES makes 1900
    lamentation, puts on sackcloth, and in a mighty
    passion departs. Then exeunt CLEON and DIONYZA]
    See how belief may suffer by foul show!
    This borrow'd passion stands for true old woe;
    And Pericles, in sorrow all devour'd, 1905
    With sighs shot through, and biggest tears
    o'ershower'd,
    Leaves Tarsus and again embarks. He swears
    Never to wash his face, nor cut his hairs:
    He puts on sackcloth, and to sea. He bears 1910
    A tempest, which his mortal vessel tears,
    And yet he rides it out. Now please you wit.
    The epitaph is for Marina writ
    By wicked Dionyza.
    [Reads the inscription on MARINA's monument] 1915
    'The fairest, sweet'st, and best lies here,
    Who wither'd in her spring of year.
    She was of Tyrus the king's daughter,
    On whom foul death hath made this slaughter;
    Marina was she call'd; and at her birth, 1920
    Thetis, being proud, swallow'd some part o' the earth:
    Therefore the earth, fearing to be o'erflow'd,
    Hath Thetis' birth-child on the heavens bestow'd:
    Wherefore she does, and swears she'll never stint,
    Make raging battery upon shores of flint.' 1925
    No visor does become black villany
    So well as soft and tender flattery.
    Let Pericles believe his daughter's dead,
    And bear his courses to be ordered
    By Lady Fortune; while our scene must play 1930
    His daughter's woe and heavy well-a-day
    In her unholy service. Patience, then,
    And think you now are all in Mytilene.

[Exit]


       

Act IV, Scene 5

Mytilene. A street before the brothel.

       

[Enter, from the brothel, two Gentlemen]

  • First Gentleman. Did you ever hear the like?
  • Second Gentleman. No, nor never shall do in such a place as this, she
    being once gone.
  • First Gentleman. But to have divinity preached there! did you ever
    dream of such a thing? 1940
  • Second Gentleman. No, no. Come, I am for no more bawdy-houses:
    shall's go hear the vestals sing?
  • First Gentleman. I'll do any thing now that is virtuous; but I
    am out of the road of rutting for ever.

[Exeunt]


       

Act IV, Scene 6

The same. A room in the brothel.

       

[Enter Pandar, Bawd, and BOULT]

  • Pandar. Well, I had rather than twice the worth of her she
    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 1950
    either get her ravished, or be rid of her. When she
    should do for clients her fitment, and do me the
    kindness of our profession, she has me her quirks,
    her reasons, her master reasons, her prayers, her
    knees; that she would make a puritan of the devil, 1955
    if he should cheapen a kiss of her.
  • Boult. 'Faith, I must ravish her, or she'll disfurnish us
    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 1960
    way to the pox. Here comes the Lord Lysimachus disguised.
  • Boult. We should have both lord and lown, if the peevish
    baggage would but give way to customers.

[Enter LYSIMACHUS]

  • Lysimachus. How now! How a dozen of virginities? 1965
  • Bawd. Now, the gods to-bless your honour!
  • Boult. I am glad to see your honour in good health.
  • Lysimachus. You may so; 'tis the better for you that your
    resorters stand upon sound legs. How now!
    wholesome iniquity have you that a man may deal 1970
    withal, and defy the surgeon?
  • Bawd. We have here one, sir, if she would—but there never
    came her like in Mytilene.
  • Lysimachus. If she'ld do the deed of darkness, thou wouldst say.
  • Bawd. Your honour knows what 'tis to say well enough. 1975
  • Lysimachus. Well, call forth, call forth.
  • Boult. For flesh and blood, sir, white and red, you shall
    see a rose; and she were a rose indeed, if she had but—
  • Lysimachus. What, prithee?
  • Boult. O, sir, I can be modest. 1980
  • Lysimachus. That dignifies the renown of a bawd, no less than it
    gives a good report to a number to be chaste.

[Exit BOULT]

  • Bawd. Here comes that which grows to the stalk; never
    plucked yet, I can assure you. 1985
    [Re-enter BOULT with MARINA]
    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. I beseech your honour, give me leave: a word, and 1990
    I'll have done presently.
  • Lysimachus. I beseech you, do.
  • Bawd. [To MARINA] First, I would have you note, this is
    an honourable man.
  • Marina. I desire to find him so, that I may worthily note him. 1995
  • Bawd. Next, he's the governor of this country, and a man
    whom I am bound to.
  • Marina. If he govern the country, you are bound to him
    indeed; but how honourable he is in that, I know not.
  • Bawd. Pray you, without any more virginal fencing, will 2000
    you use him kindly? He will line your apron with gold.
  • Marina. What he will do graciously, I will thankfully receive.
  • Lysimachus. Ha' you done?
  • Bawd. My lord, she's not paced yet: you must take some
    pains to work her to your manage. Come, we will 2005
    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. What trade, sir?
  • Lysimachus. Why, I cannot name't but I shall offend. 2010
  • Marina. I cannot be offended with my trade. Please you to name it.
  • Lysimachus. How long have you been of this profession?
  • Marina. E'er since I can remember.
  • Lysimachus. Did you go to 't so young? Were you a gamester at
    five or at seven? 2015
  • Marina. Earlier too, sir, if now I be one.
  • Lysimachus. Why, the house you dwell in proclaims you to be a
    creature of sale.
  • Marina. Do you know this house to be a place of such resort,
    and will come into 't? I hear say you are of 2020
    honourable parts, and are the governor of this place.
  • Lysimachus. Why, hath your principal made known unto you who I am?
  • Marina. Who is my principal?
  • Lysimachus. Why, your herb-woman; she that sets seeds and roots
    of shame and iniquity. O, you have heard something 2025
    of my power, and so stand aloof for more serious
    wooing. But I protest to thee, pretty one, my
    authority shall not see thee, or else look friendly
    upon thee. Come, bring me to some private place:
    come, come. 2030
  • Marina. If you were born to honour, show it now;
    If put upon you, make the judgment good
    That thought you worthy of it.
  • Lysimachus. How's this? how's this? Some more; be sage.
  • Marina. For me, 2035
    That am a maid, though most ungentle fortune
    Have placed me in this sty, where, since I came,
    Diseases have been sold dearer than physic,
    O, that the gods
    Would set me free from this unhallow'd place, 2040
    Though they did change me to the meanest bird
    That flies i' the purer air!
  • Lysimachus. I did not think
    Thou couldst have spoke so well; ne'er dream'd thou couldst.
    Had I brought hither a corrupted mind, 2045
    Thy speech had alter'd it. Hold, here's gold for thee:
    Persever in that clear way thou goest,
    And the gods strengthen thee!
  • Marina. The good gods preserve you!
  • Lysimachus. For me, be you thoughten 2050
    That I came with no ill intent; for to me
    The very doors and windows savour vilely.
    Fare thee well. Thou art a piece of virtue, and
    I doubt not but thy training hath been noble.
    Hold, here's more gold for thee. 2055
    A curse upon him, die he like a thief,
    That robs thee of thy goodness! If thou dost
    Hear from me, it shall be for thy good.

[Re-enter BOULT]

  • Boult. I beseech your honour, one piece for me. 2060
  • Lysimachus. Avaunt, thou damned door-keeper!
    Your house, but for this virgin that doth prop it,
    Would sink and overwhelm you. Away!

[Exit]

  • Boult. How's this? We must take another course with you. 2065
    If your peevish chastity, which is not worth a
    breakfast in the cheapest country under the cope,
    shall undo a whole household, let me be gelded like
    a spaniel. Come your ways.
  • Marina. Whither would you have me? 2070
  • Boult. I must have your maidenhead taken off, or the common
    hangman shall execute it. Come your ways. We'll
    have no more gentlemen driven away. Come your ways, I say.

[Re-enter Bawd]

  • Bawd. How now! what's the matter? 2075
  • Boult. Worse and worse, mistress; she has here spoken holy
    words to the Lord Lysimachus.
  • Bawd. O abominable!
  • Boult. She makes our profession as it were to stink afore
    the face of the gods. 2080
  • Bawd. Marry, hang her up for ever!
  • Boult. 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: 2085
    crack the glass of her virginity, and make the rest malleable.
  • Boult. An if she were a thornier piece of ground than she
    is, she shall be ploughed.
  • Marina. Hark, hark, you gods!
  • Bawd. She conjures: away with her! Would she had never 2090
    come within my doors! Marry, hang you! She's born
    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. 2095
  • Marina. Whither wilt thou have me?
  • Boult. To take from you the jewel you hold so dear.
  • Marina. Prithee, tell me one thing first.
  • Boult. Come now, your one thing.
  • Marina. What canst thou wish thine enemy to be? 2100
  • Boult. Why, I could wish him to be my master, or rather, my mistress.
  • Marina. Neither of these are so bad as thou art,
    Since they do better thee in their command.
    Thou hold'st a place, for which the pained'st fiend
    Of hell would not in reputation change: 2105
    Thou art the damned doorkeeper to every
    Coistrel that comes inquiring for his Tib;
    To the choleric fisting of every rogue
    Thy ear is liable; thy food is such
    As hath been belch'd on by infected lungs. 2110
  • Boult. What would you have me do? go to the wars, would
    you? where a man may serve seven years for the loss
    of a leg, and have not money enough in the end to
    buy him a wooden one?
  • Marina. Do any thing but this thou doest. Empty 2115
    OLD receptacles, or common shores, of filth;
    Serve by indenture to the common hangman:
    Any of these ways are yet better than this;
    For what thou professest, a baboon, could he speak,
    Would own a name too dear. O, that the gods 2120
    Would safely deliver me from this place!
    Here, here's gold for thee.
    If that thy master would gain by thee,
    Proclaim that I can sing, weave, sew, and dance,
    With other virtues, which I'll keep from boast: 2125
    And I will undertake all these to teach.
    I doubt not but this populous city will
    Yield many scholars.
  • Boult. But can you teach all this you speak of?
  • Marina. Prove that I cannot, take me home again, 2130
    And prostitute me to the basest groom
    That doth frequent your house.
  • Boult. Well, I will see what I can do for thee: if I can
    place thee, I will.
  • Marina. But amongst honest women. 2135
  • Boult. 'Faith, my acquaintance lies little amongst them.
    But since my master and mistress have bought you,
    there's no going but by their consent: therefore I
    will make them acquainted with your purpose, and I
    doubt not but I shall find them tractable enough. 2140
    Come, I'll do for thee what I can; come your ways.

[Exeunt]