Pericles by William Shakespeare
Act 4 - Scene 6
The same. A room in the brothel.
Pandar : Well, I had rather than twice the worth of her she
[p]had ne'er come
here.
Bawd : Fie, fie upon her! she's able to freeze the god
[p]Priapus, and undo a
whole generation. We must
[p]either get her ravished, or be rid of
her. When she
[p]should do for clients her fitment, and do me
the
[p]kindness of our profession, she has me her quirks,
[p]her
reasons, her master reasons, her prayers, her
[p]knees; that she would
make a puritan of the devil,
[p]if he should cheapen a kiss of her.
Boult : 'Faith, I must ravish her, or she'll disfurnish us
[p]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
[p]way to the pox.
Here comes the Lord Lysimachus disguised.
Boult : We should have both lord and lown, if the peevish
[p]baggage would but
give way to customers.
Lysimachus : How now! How a dozen of virginities?
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
[p]resorters stand upon
sound legs. How now!
[p]wholesome iniquity have you that a man may
deal
[p]withal, and defy the surgeon?
Bawd : We have here one, sir, if she would--but there never
[p]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.
Lysimachus : Well, call forth, call forth.
Boult : For flesh and blood, sir, white and red, you shall
[p]see a rose; and
she were a rose indeed, if she had but--
Lysimachus : What, prithee?
Boult : O, sir, I can be modest.
Lysimachus : That dignifies the renown of a bawd, no less than it
[p]gives a good
report to a number to be chaste.
Bawd : Here comes that which grows to the stalk; never
[p]plucked yet, I can
assure you.
[p][Re-enter BOULT with MARINA]
[p]Is she not a fair
creature?
Lysimachus : 'Faith, she would serve after a long voyage at sea.
[p]Well, there's
for you: leave us.
Bawd : I beseech your honour, give me leave: a word, and
[p]I'll have done
presently.
Lysimachus : I beseech you, do.
Bawd : [To MARINA] First, I would have you note, this is
[p]an honourable
man.
Marina : I desire to find him so, that I may worthily note him.
Bawd : Next, he's the governor of this country, and a man
[p]whom I am bound
to.
Marina : If he govern the country, you are bound to him
[p]indeed; but how
honourable he is in that, I know not.
Bawd : Pray you, without any more virginal fencing, will
[p]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
[p]pains to work her
to your manage. Come, we will
[p]leave his honour and her together. Go
thy ways.
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.
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
[p]five or at
seven?
Marina : Earlier too, sir, if now I be one.
Lysimachus : Why, the house you dwell in proclaims you to be a
[p]creature of
sale.
Marina : Do you know this house to be a place of such resort,
[p]and will come
into 't? I hear say you are of
[p]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
[p]of shame and
iniquity. O, you have heard something
[p]of my power, and so stand
aloof for more serious
[p]wooing. But I protest to thee, pretty one,
my
[p]authority shall not see thee, or else look friendly
[p]upon
thee. Come, bring me to some private place:
[p]come, come.
Marina : If you were born to honour, show it now;
[p]If put upon you, make the
judgment good
[p]That thought you worthy of it.
Lysimachus : How's this? how's this? Some more; be sage.
Marina : For me,
[p]That am a maid, though most ungentle fortune
[p]Have placed
me in this sty, where, since I came,
[p]Diseases have been sold dearer
than physic,
[p]O, that the gods
[p]Would set me free from this
unhallow'd place,
[p]Though they did change me to the meanest
bird
[p]That flies i' the purer air!
Lysimachus : I did not think
[p]Thou couldst have spoke so well; ne'er dream'd thou
couldst.
[p]Had I brought hither a corrupted mind,
[p]Thy speech had
alter'd it. Hold, here's gold for thee:
[p]Persever in that clear way
thou goest,
[p]And the gods strengthen thee!
Marina : The good gods preserve you!
Lysimachus : For me, be you thoughten
[p]That I came with no ill intent; for to
me
[p]The very doors and windows savour vilely.
[p]Fare thee well.
Thou art a piece of virtue, and
[p]I doubt not but thy training hath
been noble.
[p]Hold, here's more gold for thee.
[p]A curse upon him,
die he like a thief,
[p]That robs thee of thy goodness! If thou
dost
[p]Hear from me, it shall be for thy good.
Boult : I beseech your honour, one piece for me.
Lysimachus : Avaunt, thou damned door-keeper!
[p]Your house, but for this virgin
that doth prop it,
[p]Would sink and overwhelm you. Away!
Boult : How's this? We must take another course with you.
[p]If your peevish
chastity, which is not worth a
[p]breakfast in the cheapest country
under the cope,
[p]shall undo a whole household, let me be gelded
like
[p]a spaniel. Come your ways.
Marina : Whither would you have me?
Boult : I must have your maidenhead taken off, or the common
[p]hangman shall
execute it. Come your ways. We'll
[p]have no more gentlemen driven
away. Come your ways, I say.
Bawd : How now! what's the matter?
Boult : Worse and worse, mistress; she has here spoken holy
[p]words to the
Lord Lysimachus.
Bawd : O abominable!
Boult : She makes our profession as it were to stink afore
[p]the face of the
gods.
Bawd : Marry, hang her up for ever!
Boult : The nobleman would have dealt with her like a
[p]nobleman, and she
sent him away as cold as a
[p]snowball; saying his prayers too.
Bawd : Boult, take her away; use her at thy pleasure:
[p]crack the glass of
her virginity, and make the rest malleable.
Boult : An if she were a thornier piece of ground than she
[p]is, she shall be
ploughed.
Marina : Hark, hark, you gods!
Bawd : She conjures: away with her! Would she had never
[p]come within my
doors! Marry, hang you! She's born
[p]to undo us. Will you not go the
way of women-kind?
[p]Marry, come up, my dish of chastity with
rosemary and bays!
Boult : Come, mistress; come your ways with me.
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?
Boult : Why, I could wish him to be my master, or rather, my mistress.
Marina : Neither of these are so bad as thou art,
[p]Since they do better thee
in their command.
[p]Thou hold'st a place, for which the pained'st
fiend
[p]Of hell would not in reputation change:
[p]Thou art the
damned doorkeeper to every
[p]Coistrel that comes inquiring for his
Tib;
[p]To the choleric fisting of every rogue
[p]Thy ear is liable;
thy food is such
[p]As hath been belch'd on by infected lungs.
Boult : What would you have me do? go to the wars, would
[p]you? where a man
may serve seven years for the loss
[p]of a leg, and have not money
enough in the end to
[p]buy him a wooden one?
Marina : Do any thing but this thou doest. Empty
[p]OLD receptacles, or common
shores, of filth;
[p]Serve by indenture to the common hangman:
[p]Any
of these ways are yet better than this;
[p]For what thou professest, a
baboon, could he speak,
[p]Would own a name too dear. O, that the
gods
[p]Would safely deliver me from this place!
[p]Here, here's gold
for thee.
[p]If that thy master would gain by thee,
[p]Proclaim that I
can sing, weave, sew, and dance,
[p]With other virtues, which I'll
keep from boast:
[p]And I will undertake all these to teach.
[p]I
doubt not but this populous city will
[p]Yield many scholars.
Boult : But can you teach all this you speak of?
Marina : Prove that I cannot, take me home again,
[p]And prostitute me to the
basest groom
[p]That doth frequent your house.
Boult : Well, I will see what I can do for thee: if I can
[p]place thee, I
will.
Marina : But amongst honest women.
Boult : 'Faith, my acquaintance lies little amongst them.
[p]But since my
master and mistress have bought you,
[p]there's no going but by their
consent: therefore I
[p]will make them acquainted with your purpose,
and I
[p]doubt not but I shall find them tractable enough.
[p]Come,
I'll do for thee what I can; come your ways.
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