Pericles

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

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
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.
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

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.
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 I must have your maidenhead taken off, or the common 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 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 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
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