The same. A room in the brothel.
[Enter Pandar, Bawd, and BOULT]
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 ravished, or be rid of her. When she
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 should cheapen a kiss of her.
BOULT ‘Faith, I must ravish her, or she’ll disfurnish us
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
way to the pox. Here comes the Lord Lysimachus
disguised.
[Enter LYSIMACHUS]
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 resorters stand upon sound legs. How now!
wholesome iniquity have you that a man may deal
withal, and defy the surgeon?
Bawd We have here one, sir, if she would–but there
never 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 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 gives a good report to a number to be chaste.
[Exit BOULT]
Bawd Here comes that which grows to the stalk;
never plucked yet, I can assure you.
[Re-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.
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.
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 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 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?
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 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.
MARINA Do you know this house to be a place of
such resort, and will come into ‘t? I hear say you are
of 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
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, 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 judgment good
That thought you worthy of it.
LYSIMACHUS How’s this? how’s this?
Some more; be sage.
MARINA O, that the gods
Would set me free from this unhallow’d place,
Though they did change me to the meanest bird
That flies i’ the purer air!
What reason is there in your justice
That has power over all to undo any?
Take you my honour and you make a gap
Into forbidden ground whereafter all may tread
If then with violence you mar
this workmanship of heaven
You will abuse your justice, kill your honour
And leave me impoverished to the world.
LYSIMACHUS Why,
this same house wherein thou livest is a reseptacle
of all men’s sins. A nurse of wickedness.
How canst thou then be anything than nought
that dwell’st within?
MARINA O my good lord, if there be fire before me
Must I straightway run to burn myself?
Suppose this house, which too too many feel
Such houses are, should be the doctor’s patrimony
And the surcheon’s [ ] follows it that I must need
Infect myself to maintain them?
And yet, good lord, make me your servant, and I will
obey you. Let me leave honest, and I am content
What if? How? Now? Even in this minute, let me die!
LYSIMACHUS Ah surely this is virtue’s image,
rather virtue’s self
Come down from heaven a while to reign on earth
To teach us what we should be. I hither came with
thought intemperate foul and deformed
the which your tears have washed till
they’re white. I did not think
Thou couldst have spoke so well; ne’er dream’d thou couldst.
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!
LYSIMACHUS
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.
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.
[Re-enter BOULT]
BOULT I beseech your honour, one piece for me.
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
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 Come your ways, I say.
[Re-enter Bawd]
Bawd How now! what’s the matter?
BOULT Worse and worse, mistress;
she has here spoken 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!
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 malleable.
BOULT An if she were a thornier piece of ground
than she is, she shall be ploughed.
MARINA Hark, hark, you gods!
Bawd She conjures: away with her! Would she had
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!
[Exit]
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,
Since they do better thee in their command.
Thou hold’st a place, for which the pained’st fiend
Of hell would not in reputation change:
Thou art the damned doorkeeper to every
Coistrel that comes inquiring for his Tib;
To the choleric fisting of every rogue
Thy ear is liable; thy food is such
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?
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,
Would own a name too dear. O, that the gods
Would safely deliver me from this place!
Here, here’s gold for thee.
If that thy master would gain by thee,
Proclaim that I can sing, weave, sew, and dance,
With other virtues, which I’ll keep from boast:
And I 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?
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.
MARINA But amongst honest women.
BOULT ‘ Faith, my acquaintance lies little
amongst them. But since my master and mistress
have bought you, there’s no going but by their
consent: therefore I will make them acquainted with
your purpose, and I doubt not but I shall find them
tractable enough. Come, I’ll do for thee what I can;
come your ways.
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