TPTT Pericles, Prince of Tyre: ACT IV
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
[Prologue]
SCENE I. Tarsus. An open place near the sea-shore.
SCENE II. Mytilene. A room in a brothel.
SCENE III. Tarsus. A room in CLEON's house.
SCENE IV
SCENE V. Mytilene. A street before the brothel.
SCENE VI. The same. A room in the brothel.
ACT V
About the Play
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SCENE VI. 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
5     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,
10    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
15    way to the pox. Here comes the Lord Lysimachus disguised.
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!
BOULT
20    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
25    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
30    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
35    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.
40    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
45    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
50    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
55    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
60    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
65    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,
70    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
75    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:
80    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
85    For me,
      That am a maid, though most ungentle fortune
      Have placed me in this sty, where, since I came,
      Diseases have been sold dearer than physic,
      O, that the gods
90    Would set me free from this unhallow'd place,
      Though they did change me to the meanest bird
      That flies i' the purer air!
LYSIMACHUS
      I did not think
      Thou couldst have spoke so well; ne'er dream'd thou couldst.
95    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
100   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.
105   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
110   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
115   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 common
120   hangman shall execute it. Come your ways. We'll
      have no more gentlemen driven away. 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
125   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
130   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
135   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?
140   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
145   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.
150   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
155   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
160   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;
165   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,
170   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
175   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
180   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
185   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.
Exeunt
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