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Pericles: Act IV, Scene 6

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Pericles
Act IV, Scene 6

Mytilene. A room in a brothel.

  1. Enter three bawds: Pander, Bawd, and Boult.

Pander

1 - 2
  1. Well, I had rather than twice the worth of her she had ne’er
  2. come here.

Bawd

3 - 9
  1. Fie, fie upon her, she’s able to freeze the god Priapus, and
  2. undo a whole generation. We must either get her ravish’d or
  3. be rid of her. When she should do for clients her fitment,
  4. and do me the kindness of our profession, she has me her
  5. quirks, her reasons, her master reasons, her prayers, her
  6. knees, that she would make a puritan of the devil, if he
  7. should cheapen a kiss of her.

Boult

10 - 11
  1. Faith, I must ravish her, or she’ll disfurnish us of all our
  2. cavalleria, and make our swearers priests.

Pander

12
  1. Now the pox upon her green-sickness for me!

Bawd

13 - 14
  1. Faith, there’s no way to be rid on’t but by the way to the
  2. pox. Here comes the Lord Lysimachus disguis’d.

Boult

15 - 16
  1. We should have both lord and lown, if the peevish baggage
  2. would but give way to customers.
  1. Enter Lysimachus.

Lysimachus

17
  1. How now? How a dozen of virginities?

Bawd

18
  1. Now the gods to bless your honor!

Boult

19
  1. I am glad to see your honor in good health.

Lysimachus

20 - 22
  1. You may so, ’tis the better for you that your resorters
  2. stand upon sound legs. How now? Wholesome iniquity have you,
  3. that a man may deal withal and defy the surgeon?

Bawd

23 - 24
  1. We have here one, sir, if she would—but there never came her
  2. like in Mytilene.

Lysimachus

25
  1. If she’d do the deeds of darkness, thou wouldst say.

Bawd

26
  1. Your honor knows what ’tis to say well enough.

Lysimachus

27
  1. Well, call forth, call forth.

Boult

28 - 29
  1. For flesh and blood, sir, white and red, you shall see a
  2. rose, and she were a rose indeed, if she had but—

Lysimachus

30
  1. What, prithee?

Boult

31
  1. O, sir, I can be modest.
  1. Exit.

Lysimachus

32 - 33
  1. That dignifies the renown of a bawd, no less than it gives a
  2. good report to a number to be chaste.

Bawd

34 - 36
  1. Here comes that which grows to the stalk, never pluck’d yet,
  2. I can assure you.
  3. Enter Boult with Marina.
  4. Is she not a fair creature?

Lysimachus

37 - 38
  1. Faith, she would serve after a long voyage at sea. Well,
  2. there’s for you, leave us.

Bawd

39 - 40
  1. I beseech your honor give me leave a word, and I’ll have
  2. done presently.

Lysimachus

41
  1. I beseech you do.

Bawd

42
  1. Aside to Marina
  2. First, I would have you note, this is an honorable man.

Marina

43
  1. I desire to find him so, that I may worthily note him.

Bawd

44 - 45
  1. Next, he’s the governor of this country, and a man whom I am
  2. bound to.

Marina

46 - 47
  1. If he govern the country, you are bound to him indeed, but
  2. how honorable he is in that, I know not.

Bawd

48 - 49
  1. Pray you, without any more virginal fencing, will you use
  2. him kindly? He will line your apron with gold.

Marina

50
  1. What he will do graciously, I will thankfully receive.

Lysimachus

51
  1. Ha’ you done?

Bawd

52 - 54
  1. My lord, she’s not pac’d yet, you must take some pains to
  2. work her to your manage. Come, we will leave his honor and
  3. her together. Go thy ways.
  1. Exeunt Bawd, Pander, and Boult.

Lysimachus

55
  1. Now, pretty one, how long have you been at this trade?

Marina

56
  1. What trade, sir?

Lysimachus

57
  1. Why, I cannot name ’t but I shall offend.

Marina

58
  1. I cannot be offended with my trade. Please you to name it.

Lysimachus

59
  1. How long have you been of this profession?

Marina

60
  1. E’er since I can remember.

Lysimachus

61 - 62
  1. Did you go to’t so young? Were you a gamester at five, or at
  2. seven?

Marina

63
  1. Earlier too, sir, if now I be one.

Lysimachus

64 - 65
  1. Why, the house you dwell in proclaims you to be a creature
  2. of sale.

Marina

66 - 68
  1. Do you know this house to be a place of such resort, and
  2. will come into’t? I hear say you’re of honorable parts, and
  3. are the governor of this place.

Lysimachus

69
  1. Why, hath your principal made known unto you who I am?

Marina

70
  1. Who is my principal?

Lysimachus

71 - 76
  1. Why, your herb-woman, she that sets seeds and roots of shame
  2. and iniquity. O, you have heard something of my power, and
  3. so stand aloof for more serious wooing. But I protest to
  4. thee, pretty one, my authority shall not see thee, or else
  5. look friendly upon thee. Come bring me to some private
  6. place. Come, come.

Marina

77 - 79
  1. If you were born to honor, show it now;
  2. If put upon you, make the judgment good
  3. That thought you worthy of it.

Lysimachus

80
  1. How’s this? How’s this? Some more, be sage.

Marina

81 - 88
  1.                                             For me,
  2. That am a maid, though most ungentle fortune
  3. Have plac’d me in this sty, where since I came,
  4. Diseases have been sold dearer than physic—
  5. That the gods
  6. Would set me free from this unhallowed place,
  7. Though they did change me to the meanest bird
  8. That flies i’ th’ purer air!

Lysimachus

89 - 94
  1.                              I did not think
  2. Thou couldst have spoke so well, ne’er dreamt thou couldst.
  3. Had I brought hither a corrupted mind,
  4. Thy speech had altered it. Hold, here’s gold for thee.
  5. Persever in that clear way thou goest,
  6. And the gods strengthen thee!

Marina

95
  1.                               The good gods preserve you!

Lysimachus

96 - 104
  1. For me, be you thoughten
  2. That I came with no ill intent, for to me
  3. The very doors and windows savor vilely.
  4. Fare thee well, thou art a piece of virtue, and
  5. I doubt not but thy training hath been noble.
  6. Hold, here’s more gold for thee.
  7. A curse upon him, die he like a thief,
  8. That robs thee of thy goodness! If thou dost
  9. Hear from me, it shall be for thy good.
  1. Enter Boult.

Boult

105
  1. I beseech your honor one piece for me.

Lysimachus

106 - 108
  1. Avaunt, thou damned door-keeper!
  2. Your house, but for this virgin that doth prop it,
  3. Would sink and overwhelm you. Away!
  1. Exit.

Boult

109 - 112
  1. How’s this? We must take another course with you! If your
  2. peevish chastity, which is not worth a breakfast in the
  3. cheapest country under the cope, shall undo a whole
  4. household, let me be gelded like a spaniel. Come your ways.

Marina

113
  1. Whither would you have me?

Boult

114 - 116
  1. I must have your maidenhead taken off, or the common hangman
  2. shall execute it. Come your ways. We’ll have no more
  3. gentlemen driven away. Come your ways, I say.
  1. Enter bawds: Bawd and Pander.

Bawd

117
  1. How now, what’s the matter?

Boult

118 - 119
  1. Worse and worse, mistress, she has here spoken holy words to
  2. the Lord Lysimachus.

Bawd

120
  1. O abominable!

Boult

121 - 122
  1. She makes our profession as it were to stink afore the face
  2. of the gods.

Bawd

123
  1. Marry, hang her up forever!

Boult

124 - 126
  1. The nobleman would have dealt with her like a nobleman, and
  2. she sent him away as cold as a snowball, saying his prayers
  3. too.

Bawd

127 - 128
  1. Boult, take her away, use her at thy pleasure. Crack the
  2. glass of her virginity, and make the rest malleable.

Boult

129 - 130
  1. And if she were a thornier piece of ground than she is, she
  2. shall be plough’d.

Marina

131
  1. Hark, hark, you gods!

Bawd

132 - 135
  1. She conjures, away with her! Would she had never come within
  2. my doors. Marry, hang you! She’s born to undo us. Will you
  3. not go the way of womenkind? Marry, come up, my dish of
  4. chastity with rosemary and bays!
  1. Exeunt Bawd and Pander.

Boult

136
  1. Come, mistress, come your ways with me.

Marina

137
  1. Whither wilt thou have me?

Boult

138
  1. To take from you the jewel you hold so dear.

Marina

139
  1. Prithee tell me one thing first.

Boult

140
  1. Come now, your one thing.

Marina

141
  1. What canst thou wish thine enemy to be?

Boult

142 - 143
  1. Why, I could wish him to be my master, or rather, my
  2. mistress.

Marina

144 - 152
  1. Neither of these are so bad as thou art,
  2. Since they do better thee in their command.
  3. Thou hold’st a place for which the pained’st fiend
  4. Of hell would not in reputation change.
  5. Thou art the damned door-keeper to every
  6. Custrel that comes inquiring for his Tib.
  7. To the choleric fisting of every rogue
  8. Thy ear is liable; thy food is such
  9. As hath been belch’d on by infected lungs.

Boult

153 - 155
  1. What would you have me do? Go to the wars, would you? Where
  2. a man may serve seven years for the loss of a leg, and have
  3. not money enough in the end to buy him a wooden one?

Marina

156 - 169
  1. Do any thing but this thou doest. Empty
  2. Old receptacles, or common shores, of filth,
  3. Serve by indenture to the common hangman:
  4. Any of these ways are yet better than this;
  5. For what thou professest, a baboon, could he speak,
  6. Would own a name too dear. That the gods
  7. Would safely deliver me from this place!
  8. Here, here’s gold for thee.
  9. If that thy master would gain by me,
  10. Proclaim that I can sing, weave, sew, and dance,
  11. With other virtues, which I’ll keep from boast,
  12. And will undertake all these to teach.
  13. I doubt not but this populous city will
  14. Yield many scholars.

Boult

170
  1. But can you teach all this you speak of?

Marina

171 - 173
  1. Prove that I cannot, take me home again
  2. And prostitute me to the basest groom
  3. That doth frequent your house.

Boult

174 - 175
  1. Well, I will see what I can do for thee. If I can place
  2. thee, I will.

Marina

176
  1. But amongst honest women.

Boult

177 - 182
  1. Faith, my acquaintance lies little amongst them. But since
  2. my master and mistress hath bought you, there’s no going but
  3. by their consent. Therefore I will make them acquainted with
  4. your purpose, and I doubt not but I shall find them
  5. tractable enough. Come, I’ll do for thee what I can; come
  6. your ways.
  1. Exeunt.
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