Pericles by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 2
Mytilene. A room in a brothel.
Pandar : Boult!
Boult : Sir?
Pandar : Search the market narrowly; Mytilene is full of
[p]gallants. We lost
too much money this mart by being
[p]too wenchless.
Bawd : We were never so much out of creatures. We have but
[p]poor three, and
they can do no more than they can
[p]do; and they with continual
action are even as good as rotten.
Pandar : Therefore let's have fresh ones, whate'er we pay for
[p]them. If there
be not a conscience to be used in
[p]every trade, we shall never
prosper.
Bawd : Thou sayest true: 'tis not our bringing up of poor
[p]bastards,--as, I
think, I have brought up some eleven--
Boult : Ay, to eleven; and brought them down again. But
[p]shall I search the
market?
Bawd : What else, man? The stuff we have, a strong wind
[p]will blow it to
pieces, they are so pitifully sodden.
Pandar : Thou sayest true; they're too unwholesome, o'
[p]conscience. The poor
Transylvanian is dead, that
[p]lay with the little baggage.
Boult : Ay, she quickly pooped him; she made him roast-meat
[p]for worms. But
I'll go search the market.
Pandar : Three or four thousand chequins were as pretty a
[p]proportion to live
quietly, and so give over.
Bawd : Why to give over, I pray you? is it a shame to get
[p]when we are
old?
Pandar : O, our credit comes not in like the commodity, nor
[p]the commodity
wages not with the danger: therefore,
[p]if in our youths we could
pick up some pretty
[p]estate, 'twere not amiss to keep our door
hatched.
[p]Besides, the sore terms we stand upon with the
gods
[p]will be strong with us for giving over.
Bawd : Come, other sorts offend as well as we.
Pandar : As well as we! ay, and better too; we offend worse.
[p]Neither is our
profession any trade; it's no
[p]calling. But here comes Boult.
Boult : [To MARINA] Come your ways. My masters, you say
[p]she's a virgin?
First Pirate : O, sir, we doubt it not.
Boult : Master, I have gone through for this piece, you see:
[p]if you like
her, so; if not, I have lost my earnest.
Bawd : Boult, has she any qualities?
Boult : She has a good face, speaks well, and has excellent
[p]good clothes:
there's no further necessity of
[p]qualities can make her be refused.
Bawd : What's her price, Boult?
Boult : I cannot be bated one doit of a thousand pieces.
Pandar : Well, follow me, my masters, you shall have your
[p]money presently.
Wife, take her in; instruct her
[p]what she has to do, that she may
not be raw in her
[p]entertainment.
Bawd : Boult, take you the marks of her, the colour of her
[p]hair,
complexion, height, age, with warrant of her
[p]virginity; and cry 'He
that will give most shall
[p]have her first.' Such a maidenhead were
no cheap
[p]thing, if men were as they have been. Get this done
[p]as
I command you.
Boult : Performance shall follow.
Marina : Alack that Leonine was so slack, so slow!
[p]He should have struck,
not spoke; or that these pirates,
[p]Not enough barbarous, had not
o'erboard thrown me
[p]For to seek my mother!
Bawd : Why lament you, pretty one?
Marina : That I am pretty.
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
[p]To scape his hands where I was like to die.
Bawd : Ay, and you shall live in pleasure.
Marina : No.
Bawd : Yes, indeed shall you, and taste gentlemen of all
[p]fashions: you
shall fare well; you shall have the
[p]difference of all complexions.
What! do you stop your ears?
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
[p]something to do
with you. Come, you're a young
[p]foolish sapling, and must be bowed
as I would have
[p]you.
Marina : The gods defend me!
Bawd : If it please the gods to defend you by men, then men
[p]must comfort
you, men must feed you, men must stir
[p]you up. Boult's
returned.
[p][Re-enter BOULT]
[p]Now, sir, hast thou cried her through
the market?
Boult : I have cried her almost to the number of her hairs;
[p]I have drawn
her picture with my voice.
Bawd : And I prithee tell me, how dost thou find the
[p]inclination of the
people, especially of the younger sort?
Boult : 'Faith, they listened to me as they would have
[p]hearkened to their
father's testament. There was a
[p]Spaniard's mouth so watered, that
he went to bed to
[p]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
[p]French knight
that cowers i' the hams?
Bawd : Who, Monsieur Veroles?
Boult : Ay, he: he offered to cut a caper at the
[p]proclamation; but he made
a groan at it, and swore
[p]he would see her to-morrow.
Bawd : Well, well; as for him, he brought his disease
[p]hither: here he does
but repair it. I know he will
[p]come in our shadow, to scatter his
crowns in the
[p]sun.
Boult : Well, if we had of every nation a traveller, we
[p]should lodge them
with this sign.
Bawd : [To MARINA] Pray you, come hither awhile. You
[p]have fortunes coming
upon you. Mark me: you must
[p]seem to do that fearfully which you
commit
[p]willingly, despise profit where you have most gain.
[p]To
weep that you live as ye do makes pity in your
[p]lovers: seldom but
that pity begets you a good
[p]opinion, and that opinion a mere
profit.
Marina : I understand you not.
Boult : O, take her home, mistress, take her home: these
[p]blushes of hers
must be quenched with some present practise.
Bawd : Thou sayest true, i' faith, so they must; for your
[p]bride goes to
that with shame which is her way to go
[p]with warrant.
Boult : 'Faith, some do, and some do not. But, mistress, if
[p]I have
bargained for the joint,--
Bawd : Thou mayst cut a morsel off the spit.
Boult : I may so.
Bawd : Who should deny it? Come, young one, I like the
[p]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
[p]sojourner we
have; you'll lose nothing by custom.
[p]When nature flamed this piece,
she meant thee a good
[p]turn; therefore say what a paragon she is,
and thou
[p]hast the harvest out of thine own report.
Boult : I warrant you, mistress, thunder shall not so awake
[p]the beds of
eels as my giving out her beauty stir up
[p]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,
[p]Untied I still my
virgin knot will keep.
[p]Diana, aid my purpose!
Bawd : What have we to do with Diana? Pray you, will you go with us?
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Next: Act 4 - Scene 3
