The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 436
A vestal livery will I take me to,
And never more have joy.
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CERIMON Madam, if this you purpose as ye speak,
Diana’s temple is not distant far,
Where you may abide till your date expire.
Moreover, if you please, a niece of mine
Shall there attend you.
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THAISA My recompense is thanks, that’s all;
Yet my good will is great, though the gift small.
Exeunt.
4.Ch. Enter GOWER.
GOWER
Imagine Pericles arriv’d at Tyre,
Welcom’d and settled to his own desire.
His woeful queen we leave at Ephesus,
Unto Diana there’s a votaress.
Now to Marina bend your mind,
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Whom our fast-growing scene must find
At Tharsus, and by Cleon train’d
In music’s letters; who hath gain’d
Of education all the grace,
Which makes her both the heart and place
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Of general wonder. But, alack,
That monster envy, oft the wrack
Of earned praise, Marina’s life
Seeks to take off by treason’s knife;
And in this kind hath our Cleon
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One daughter and a wench full-grown,
Even ripe for marriage-rite. This maid
Hight Philoten; and it is said
For certain in our story, she
Would ever with Marina be:
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Be’t when she weav’d the sleided silk
With fingers long, small, white as milk;
Or when she would with sharp neele wound
The cambric, which she made more sound
By hurting it; or when to th’ lute
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She sung, and made the night-bird mute
That still records with moan; or when
She would with rich and constant pen
Vail to her mistress Dian; still
This Philoten contends in skill
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With absolute Marina: so
With dove of Paphos might the crow
Vie feathers white. Marina gets
All praises, which are paid as debts,
And not as given. This so darks
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In Philoten all graceful marks,
That Cleon’s wife with envy rare
A present murderer does prepare
For good Marina, that her daughter
Might stand peerless by this slaughter.
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The sooner her vile thoughts to stead,
Lychorida, our nurse, is dead;
And cursed Dionyza hath
The pregnant instrument of wrath
Prest for this blow. The unborn event
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I do commend to your content;
Only I carried winged time
Post on the lame feet of my rime;
Which never could I so convey,
Unless your thoughts went on my way.
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Dionyza does appear,
With Leonine, a murtherer. Exit.
4.1 Enter DIONYZA with 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,
Which is but cold, or flaming love thy bosom
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Enslave 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.
DIONYZA The fitter then the gods should have her.
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Here she comes weeping for her only mistress’ death.
Thou art resolv’d?
LEONINE I am resolv’d.
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,
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Shall as a carpet hang upon thy grave,
While summer-days doth last. Ay me! poor maid,
Born in a tempest, when my mother died,
This world to me is as a lasting storm,
Whirring me from my friends.
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DIONYZA How now, Marina! why do you keep alone?
How chance my daughter is not with you?
Do not consume your blood with sorrowing:
Have you a nurse of me! Lord, how your favour’s
Chang’d with this unprofitable woe!
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Come, give me your flowers. On the sea-margent
Walk with Leonine; the air is quick there,
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.
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DIONYZA Come, come;
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,
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He will repent the breadth of his great voyage;
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
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The eyes of young and old. Care not for me;
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.
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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 care of you.
MARINA My thanks, sweet madam.
Exit Dionyza.
Is this wind westerly that blows?
LEONINE South-west.
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MARINA When I was born, the wind was north.
LEONINE Was’t so?
MARINA My father, as nurse says, did never fear,
But cried ‘Good seamen!’ to the sailors, galling
His kingly hands, haling ropes;
And, clasping to the mast, endur’d a sea
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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
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A canvas-climber. ‘Ha!’ says one, ‘wolt 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.
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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.
MARINA Why will you kill me?
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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.
I never spake bad word, nor did ill turn
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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’t. How have I offended,
Wherein my death might yield her any profit,
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Or my life imply her any danger?
LEONINE My commission
Is not to reason of the deed, but do’t.
MARINA You will not do’t for all the world, I hope.
You are well favour’d, and your looks foreshow
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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,
And save poor me, the weaker.
LEONINE I am sworn,
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And will dispatch. [Seizes her.]
Enter Pirates.
1 PIRATE Hold, villain! Leonine runs away.
2 PIRATE A prize! a prize!
3 PIRATE Half-part, mates, half-part! Come, let’s have
her aboard suddenly. Exeunt Pirates with Marina.
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Enter LEONINE.
LEONINE
These roguing thieves serve the great pirate Valdes;
And they have seiz’d Marina. Let her go;
There’s no hope she’ll return. I’ll swear she’s dead
And thrown into the sea. But I’ll see further;
Perhaps they will but please themselves upon her,
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Not carry her aboard. If she remain,
Whom they have ravish’d must by me be slain. Exit.
4.2 Enter Pandar, Bawd and BOULT.
PANDAR Boult!
BOULT Sir?
PANDAR Search the market narrowly; Mytilene is full of
gallants. We lost too much money this mart by being
too wenchless.
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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.
PANDAR Therefore let’s have fresh ones, whate’er we
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pay for them. If there be not a conscience to be us’d in
every trade, we shall never prosper.
BAWD Thou say’st true; ’tis not our bringing up of poor
bastards, as I think I have brought up some eleven –
BOULT Ay, to eleven; and brought them down again.
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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; there’s two unwholesome, a’
conscience. The poor Transylvanian is dead, that lay
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with the little baggage.
BOULT Ay, she quickly poop’d 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.
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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 the commodity wages not with the danger;
therefore, if in our youths we could pick up some
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pretty estate, ’twere not amiss to keep our door
hatch’d. Besides, the sore terms we stand upon with
the gods will be strong with us for giving o’er.
BAWD Come, other sorts offend as well as we.
PANDAR As well as we? ay, and better too; we offend
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worse. Neither is our profession any trade; it’s no
calling. But here comes Boult.
Enter BOULT, with the Pirates and MARINA.
BOULT Come your ways, my masters; you say she’s a
virgin?
1 PIRATE O, sir, we doubt it not.
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BOULT Master, I have gone through for this piece you
see. 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 good clothes; there’s no farther necessity of
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qualities can make her be refus’d.
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