With fingers long, small, white as milk; With the dove of Paphos might the crow The pregnant instrument of wrath Prest for this blow. The unborn event I do commend to your content: Only I carry winged time Post on the lame feet of my ryhme; Unless your thoughts went on my way.- With Leonine, a murderer. [Exit. SCENE I.-Tharsus. An open place near the sea-shore. Enter Dionyza and Leonine. Dion. Thy oath remember; thou hast sworn to do it: 'Tis but a blow, which never shall be known. Leon. I'll do't; but yet she is a goodly creature. Weeping she comes for her old nurse's death. Thou art resolv'd? Leon. I am resolv'd. Enter Marina, with a basket of flowers. Mar. No, no, I will rob Tellus of her weed, To strew thy green with flowers: the yellows, blues, The purple violets, and marigolds, Shall, as a chaplet, hang upon thy grave, Mar. No, I pray you; I'll not bereave you of your servant. Dion. Come, come; I love the king your father, and yourself, He will repent the breadth of his great voyage; Mar. But yet I have no desire to it. Dion. Come, come, I know 'tis good for you. Walk half an hour, Leonine, at the least; Remember what I have said. Leon. I warrant you, madam. Dion. I'll leave you, my sweet lady, for a while; Pray you walk softly, do not heat your blood: What! I must have a care of you. Is this wind westerly that blows? South-west. Mar. When I was born, the wind was north. Leon. Was❜t so? Mar. My father, as nurse said, did never fear, Wash'd off a canvas-climber: Ha! says one, They skip from stem to stern: the boatswain whistles, The master calls, and trebles their confusion. It was when I was born: Never was waves nor wind more violent. Mar. Why, will you kill me? Leon. To satisfy my lady. While summer days do last. Ah me! poor maid, To any living creature: believe me, la, Born in a tempest, when my mother died, Dion. How now, Marina! why do you keep alone? I never kill'd a mouse, nor hurt a fly: My commission Is not to reason of the deed, but do it. How chance my daughter is not with you? Do not Your lady seeks my life; come you between, (8) i. e. Ere the sea, by the coming in of the tide, mar your walk. (9) A ship-boy. [Leonine runs away. 2 Pirate. A prize! a prize! 3 Pirate. Half-part, mates, half-part. let's have her aboard suddenly. Come, [Exeunt Pirates with Marina. Re-enter Leonine. SCENE II.-The same. And they have seiz'd Marina. Let her go: Pand. Boult. Boult. Sir. Pand. Search the market narrowly; Mitylene is full of gallants. We lost too much money this mart, by being too wenchless. Bawd. We were never so much out of creatures. We have but poor three, and they can do no more than they can do; and with continual action are even as good as rotten. Pand. Therefore let's have fresh ones, whate'er we pay for them. If there be not a conscience to be us❜d in every trade, we shall never prosper. Bawd. Thou say'st true: 'tis not the bringing up of poor bastards, as I think I have brought up some eleven Boult. Ay, to eleven, and brought them down again. But shall I search the market? Bawd. Boult, has she any qualities? Boult. She has a good face, speaks well, and has excellent good clothes; there's no further necessity of qualities can make her be refused. Bawd. What's her price, Boult? Boult. I cannot be bated one doit of a thousand pieces. Pand. Well, follow me, my masters; you shall have your money presently. Wife, take her in; instruct her what she has to do, that she may not be raw in her entertainment. [Exeunt Pander and Pirates, Bawd. Boult, take you the marks of her; the colour of her hair, complexion, height, age, with warrant of her virginity; and cry, He that will give most shall have her first. Such a maidenhead were no cheap thing, if men were as they have been. Get this done as I command you. Boult. Performance shall follow. [Exit Boult. (He should have struck, not spoke ;) or that these (Not enough barbarous,) had not overboard Bawd. Why lament you, pretty one? Mar. That I am pretty. Bawd. Come, the gods have done their part in you. Mar. I accuse them not. Bard. You are lit into my hands, where you are like to live. Mar. The more my fault, To 'scape his hands, where I was like to die. Bawd. Yes, indeed, shall you, and taste gentlemen of all fashions. You shall fare well; you shall have the difference of all complexions. What! do you stop your ears? Mar. Are you a woman? Bawd. What would you have me be, an I be Bawd. What else, man? The stuff we have, a strong wind will blow it to pieces, they are so piti-not a woman? fully sodden. Pand. Thou say'st true; they are too unwholesome o'conscience. The poor Transilvanian is dead, that lay with the little baggage. Boult. Ay, she quickly poop'd him; she made him roast meat for worms:-but I'll go search the market. [Exit Boult. Pand. Three or four thousand chequins were as pretty a proportion to live quietly, and so give over. Bawd. Why, to give over, I pray you? is it a shame to get when we are old? Pand. 8, our credit comes not in like the commodity; nor the commodity wages not with the danger; therefore, if in our youths we could pick up some pretty estate, 'twere not amiss to keep our door hatched. Besides, the sore terms we stand upon with the gods, will be strong with us for giving over. Bawd. Come, other sorts offend as well as we. Pand. As well as we! ay, and better too; we offend worse. Neither is our profession any trade; it's no calling :-but here comes Boult. Enter the Pirates, and Boult, dragging in Marina. Boult. Come your ways. [To Marina.]-My masters, you say she's a virgin? 1 Pirate. O, sir, we doubt it not. Bout. Master, I have gone thorough for this piece, you see: if you like her, so; if not, I have lost my earnest. Mar. An honest woman, or not a woman. Bawd. Marry, whip thee, goslin: I think I shall have something to do with you. Come, you are a young foolish sapling, and must be bowed as I would have you. Mar. The gods defend me! Bawd. If it please the gods to defend you by men, then men must comfort you, men must feed you, men must stir you up.-Boult's returned. Enter Boult. Now, sir, hast thou cried her through the market? Boult. I have cried her almost to the number of her hairs; I have drawn her picture with my voice. Bawd. And I pr'ythee tell me, how dost thou find the inclination of the people, especially of the younger sort? Boult. 'Faith, they listened to me, as they would have hearkened to their father's testament. There was a Spaniard's mouth so watered, that he went to bed to her very description. Bawd. We shall have him here to-morrow with his best ruff on. Boult. To-night, to-night. But, mistress, do you know the French knight that cowers3 i'the hams? Bawd. Who? monsieur Veroles? Boult. Ay; he offered to cut a caper at the proclamation; but he made a groan at it, and swore he would see her to-morrow. Bawd. Well, well; as for him, he brought his dis (3) Bends. 3 L ease hither: here he does but repair it. I know,| Dion. Boult. Well, if we had of every nation a traveller, we should lodge them with this sign. Bawd. Pray you, come hither a while. You have fortunes coming upon you. Mark me; you must seem to do that fearfully, which you commit willingly; to despise profit, where you have most gain. To weep that you live as you do, makes pity in your lovers: Seldom, but that pity begets you a good opinion, and that opinion a mere' profit. Mar. I understand you not. Boult. O, take her home, mistress, take her home: these blushes of hers must be quenched with some present practice. Bawd. Thou say'st true, i'faith, so they must: for your bride goes to that with shame, which is her way to go with warrant. Boult. 'Faith some do, and some do not. But, mistress, if I have bargained for the joint, Bawd. Thou may'st cut a morsel off the spit. Bawd. Who should deny it? Come, young one, Bawd. Boult, spend thou that in the town: rcport what a sojourner we have; you'll lose nothing by custom. When nature framed this piece, she meant thee a good turn; therefore say what a paragon she is, and thou hast the harvest out of thine own report. Boull. I warrant you, mistress, thunder shall not so awake the beds of eels, as my giving out her beauty stir up the lewdly inclined. I'll bring home some to-night. Bawd. Come your ways; follow me. Mar. If fires be hot, knives sharp, or waters deep, Bawd. What have we to do with Diana! Pray You'll turn a child again. I think ? Cle. Were I chief lord of all the spacious world, If thou had'st drunk to him, it had been a kindness She died by night; I'll say so. Who can cross it? Cle. O, go to. Well, well, Of all the faults beneath the heavens, the gods (1) An absolute, a certain profit. (2) i. e. Of a piece with the rest of thy exploit. (3) An innocent was formerly a common appellation for an idiot. Be one of those, that think The petty wrens of Tharsus will fly hence, Cle. To such proceeding Who ever but his approbation added, Heavens forgive it! Dion. And as for Pericles, Dion. You are like one, that superstitiously Gow. Thus time we waste, and longest leagues Sail seas in cockles, have, and wish but for't; Is now again thwarting the wayward seas This king to Tharsus, (think his pilot thought; Dumb show. Enter at one door, Pericles, with Gow. See how belief may suffer by foul show! (4) A coarse wench, not worth a good-morrow. Bawd. Now, the gods bless your honour! This borrow'd passion stands for true old wo; Leaves Tharsus, and again embarks. He swears A tempest, which his mortal vessel' tears, By wicked Dionyza. [Reads the inscription on Marina's monument. The fairest, sweet'st, and best, lies here, Who wither'd in her spring of year. She was of Tyrus, the king's daughter, On whom foul death hath made this slaughter, Therefore the earth, fearing to be o'erflow'd, By lady Fortune; while our scenes display [Exit. SCENE V.-Mitylene. A street before the brothel. Enter, from the brothel, two Gentlemen. 1 Gent. Did you ever hear the like? 2 Gent. No, nor never shall do in such a place as this, she being once gone. 1 Gent. But to have divinity preached there! did you ever dream of such a thing? Lys. 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 wouldbut there never came her like in Mitylene. Lys. If she'd do the deeds of darkness, thou would'st say. Bawd. Your honour knows what 'tis to say, well enough. Lys. 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 2 Gent. No, no. Come, I am for no more bawdy-to houses: shall we go hear the vestals sing? 1 Gent. I'll do any thing now that is virtuous; but I am out of the road of rutting, for ever. [Exeunt. SCENE VI.-The same. A room in the brothel. Enter Pander, Bawd, and Boult. Pand. Well, I had rather than twice the worth of her, she had ne'er come here. Bawd. Fie, fie upon her; she is 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 her profession, she has me her quirks, her reasons, her master-reasons, her prayers, her kuces; 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 all our swearers priests. Pand. 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. Boult. We should have both lord and lown, if the peevish baggage would but give way to customers. Mar. If he govern the country, you are bound 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. fully receive. Lys. Have 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. [Exeunt Bawd, Pander, and Boult. Lys. Go thy ways-Now, pretty one, how long have you been at this trade! Mar. What trade, sir? Lys. What I cannot name but I shall offend. Mar. I cannot be offended with my trade. Please you to name it. Lys. How long have you been of this profession? Mar. Earlier too, sir, if now I be one. Lys. Why, the house you dwell in, proclaims you to be a creature of sale. Mar. Do you know this house to be a place of such resort, and will come into it? I hear say, you are of honourable parts, and are the governor of this place. Lys. Why, hath your principal made known unto you, who I am?" Mar. Who is my principal? (5) How much? what price? (6) A wanton. Lys. Why, your herb-woman; she that sets seeds Mar. If ye were born to honour, show it now; Lys. How's this? how's this?-Some more;be sage. Mar. For me, That am a maid, though most ungentle fortune Lys. Thou could'st have spoke so well; ne'er dream'd thou could'st. Had I brought hither a corrupted mind, Boult. An if she were a thornier piece of ground than she is, she shall be ploughed. Mar. 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 woman-kind? Mary come up, my dish of chastity with rosemary and bays! [Exil Bawd. Boult. Come, mistress; come your way with me. Mar. Whither would you have me? Boult. To take from you the jewei you hold so dear. Mar. Pr'ythee, tell me one thing first. Mar. What canst thou wish thine enemy to be? Boult. Why, I could wish him to be my master, or rather, my mistress. Mar. Neither of these are yet so bad as thou art, Thy speech had alter'd it. Hold, here's gold for Is liable; thy very food is such thee: Perséver still in that clear way thou goest, And the gods strengthen thee! A curse upon him, die he like a thief, As hath been belch'd on by infected lungs. Boult. What would you have me? 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? Mar. Do any thing but this thou doest. Empty That robs thee of thy goodness! If thou hear'st O that the gods would safely from this place from me, It shall be for thy good. [As Lysimachus is putting up his purse, Boult. I beseech your honour, one piece for me. But for this virgin that doth prop it up, Mar. Whither would you have me? Re-enter Bawd. Bawd. How now! what's the matter? Boult. She makes our profession as it were to stink afore the face of the gods. Bawd. Marry, hang her up forever! 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. (1) Cope or canopy of heaven. (2) Paltry fellow. Deliver me? Here, here is gold for thee. Boult. But can you teach all this you speak of? Boult. Well, I will see what I can do for thee: if I can place thee, I will. Mar. 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 iractable enough. Come, I'll do for thee what I can; come your ways. [Exeunt. |