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
5
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-
15
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
60
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
130
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
5
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
10
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
15
Suppose him now at anchor. The city striv’d
God Neptune’s annual feast to keep; from whence
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 438