The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 438

by William Shakespeare


  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

  either get her ravish’d or be rid of her. When she

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  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, if he would

  cheapen a kiss of her.

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  BOULT Faith, I must ravish her, or she’ll disfurnish us

  of all our cavalleria, 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 way

  to the pox. Here comes the Lord Lysimachus, dis-

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  guis’d.

  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?

  BAWD Now, the gods to bless your honour!

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  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

  withal, and defy the surgeon?

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  BAWD We have here one, sir, if she would – but there

  never came her like in Mytilene.

  LYSIMACHUS If she’d do the deeds of darkness, thou

  wouldst say.

  BAWD Your honour knows what ’tis to say well enough.

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  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.

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  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

  pluck’d yet, I can assure you.

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  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

  I’ll have done presently.

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  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.

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  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

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  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 pac’d yet; you must take some

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  pains to work her to your manage. Come, we will 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?

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  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.

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  LYSIMACHUS Did you go to’t so young? Were you a

  gamester at 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 creature of sale.

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  MARINA Do you know this house to be a place of such

  resort, and will come into’t? I hear say you’re of

  honourable parts and are the governor of this place.

  LYSIMACHUS Why, hath your principal made known

  unto you who I am?

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  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 of my power, and so stand aloof for

  more serious wooing. But I protest to thee, pretty one,

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  my authority shall not see thee, or else look friendly

  upon thee. Come, bring me to some private place;

  come, come.

  MARINA If you were born to honour, show it now;

  If put upon you, make the judgement good

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  That thought you worthy of it.

  LYSIMACHUS

  How’s this? how’s this? Some more; be sage.

  MARINA For me,

  That am a maid, though most ungentle fortune

  Have plac’d me in this sty, where, since I came,

  Diseases have been sold dearer than physic –

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  That the gods

  Would set me free from this unhallow’d place,

  Though they did change me to the meanest bird

  That flies i’th’ purer air!

  LYSIMACHUS I did not think

  Thou couldst have spoke so well; ne’er dreamt thou couldst.

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  Had I brought hither a corrupted mind,

  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!

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  LYSIMACHUS For me, be you thoughten

  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.

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  Hold, here’s more gold for thee.

  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.

  Enter BOULT.

  BOULT I beseech your honour, one piece for me.

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  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. If your peevish chastity, which is not worth a

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  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?

  BOULT I must have your maidenhead taken off, or the

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  common hangman shall execute it. Come your ways.

  We’ll have no more gentlemen driven away. Come

  your ways, I say.

  Enter Bawd and Pandar.

  BAWD How now! what’s the matter?

  BOULT Worse and worse, mistress; she has here spoken

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  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.

  BAWD Marry, hang her up for ever!

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  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.

  Crack the glass of her virginity, and make the rest

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  malleable.

  BOULT And if she were a thornier piece of ground than

  she is, she shall be plough’d.

  MARINA Hark, hark, you gods!

  BAWD She conjures: away with her! Would she had

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  never 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! Exeunt Bawd and Pandar.

  BOULT Come, mistress; come your ways with me.

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  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?

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  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

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  Of hell would not in reputation change;

  Thou art the damned door-keeper to every

  Coistrel that comes inquiring for his Tib;

  To the choleric fisting of every rogue

  Thy ear is liable; thy food is such

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  As hath been belch’d on by infected lungs.

  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?

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  MARINA Do any thing but this thou doest. Empty

  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,

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  Would own a name too dear. That the gods

  Would safely deliver me from this place!

  Here, here’s gold for thee.

  If that thy master would gain by me,

  Proclaim that I can sing, weave, sew, and dance,

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  With other virtues, which I’ll keep from boast;

  And 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?

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  MARINA Prove that I cannot, take me home again,

  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.

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  MARINA But amongst honest women.

  BOULT Faith, my acquaintance lies little amongst them.

  But since my master and mistress hath bought you,

  there’s no going but by their consent; therefore I will

  make them acquainted with your purpose, and I doubt

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  not but I shall find them tractable enough. Come, I’ll

  do for thee what I can; come your ways. Exeunt.

  5.Ch. Enter GOWER.

  GOWER

  Marina thus the brothel ’scapes, and chances

  Into an honest house, our story says.

  She sings like one immortal, and she dances

  As goddess-like to her admired lays.

  Deep clerks she dumbs, and with her neele composes

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  Nature’s own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry,

  That even her art sisters the natural roses;

  Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied cherry:

  That pupils lacks she none of noble race,

  Who pour their bounty on her; and her gain

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  She gives the cursed bawd. Here we her place,

  And to her father turn our thoughts again,

  Where we left him on the sea. We there him lost,

  Whence, driven before the winds, he is arriv’d

  Here where his daughter dwells; and on this coast

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  Suppose him now at anchor. The city striv’d

  God Neptune’s annual feast to keep; from whence

 

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