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]