Pericles

Pericles

ACT IV SCENE II	Mytilene. A room in a brothel.
	Enter Pandar, Bawd, and BOULT
Pandar	Boult!
BOULT	Sir?
Pandar	Search the market narrowly; Mytilene is full of
	gallants. We lost too much money this mart by being	5
	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 they with continual action are even as good as rotten.
Pandar	Therefore let's have fresh ones, whate'er we pay for	10
	them. If there be not a conscience to be used in
	every trade, we shall never prosper.
Bawd	Thou sayest true: 'tis not our bringing up of poor
	bastards,--as, I think, I have brought up some eleven--
BOULT	Ay, to eleven; and brought them down again. But	15
	shall I search the market?
Bawd	What else, man? The stuff we have, a strong wind
	will blow it to pieces, they are so pitifully sodden.
Pandar	Thou sayest true; they're too unwholesome, o'
	conscience. The poor Transylvanian is dead, that	20
	lay with the little baggage.
BOULT	Ay, she quickly pooped him; she made him roast-meat
	for worms. But I'll go search the market.
	Exit
Pandar	Three or four thousand chequins were as pretty a
	proportion to live quietly, and so give over.	25
Bawd	Why to give over, I pray you? is it a shame to get
	when we are old?
Pandar	O, 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	30
	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.
Pandar	As well as we! ay, and better too; we offend worse.	35
	Neither is our profession any trade; it's no
	calling. But here comes Boult.
	Re-enter BOULT, with the Pirates and MARINA
BOULT	To MARINA
	she's a virgin?
First Pirate	O, sir, we doubt it not.
BOULT	Master, I have gone through for this piece, you see:	40
	if you like her, so; if not, I have lost my earnest.
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.	45
Bawd	What's her price, Boult?
BOULT	I cannot be bated one doit of a thousand pieces.
Pandar	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	50
	entertainment.
	Exeunt Pandar 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	55
	thing, if men were as they have been. Get this done
	as I command you.
BOULT	Performance shall follow.
	Exit
MARINA	Alack that Leonine was so slack, so slow!
	He should have struck, not spoke; or that these pirates,	60
	Not enough barbarous, had not o'erboard thrown me
	For to seek my mother!
Bawd	Why lament you, pretty one?
MARINA	That I am pretty.
Bawd	Come, the gods have done their part in you.	65
MARINA	I accuse them not.
Bawd	You are light into my hands, where you are like to live.
MARINA	The more my fault
	To scape his hands where I was like to die.
Bawd	Ay, and you shall live in pleasure.	70
MARINA	No.
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?
MARINA	Are you a woman?	75
Bawd	What would you have me be, an I be not a woman?
MARINA	An honest woman, or not a woman.
Bawd	Marry, whip thee, gosling: I think I shall have
	something to do with you. Come, you're a young
	foolish sapling, and must be bowed as I would have	80
	you.
MARINA	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.	85
	Re-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 prithee tell me, how dost thou find the
	inclination of the people, especially of the younger sort?	90
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.	95
BOULT	To-night, to-night. But, mistress, do you know the
	French knight that cowers i' the hams?
Bawd	Who, Monsieur Veroles?
BOULT	Ay, he: he offered to cut a caper at the
	proclamation; but he made a groan at it, and swore	100
	he would see her to-morrow.
Bawd	Well, well; as for him, he brought his disease
	hither: here he does but repair it. I know he will
	come in our shadow, to scatter his crowns in the
	sun.	105
BOULT	Well, if we had of every nation a traveller, we
	should lodge them with this sign.
Bawd	To MARINA
	have fortunes coming upon you. Mark me: you must
	seem to do that fearfully which you commit
	willingly, despise profit where you have most gain.	110
	To weep that you live as ye do makes pity in your
	lovers: seldom but that pity begets you a good
	opinion, and that opinion a mere profit.
MARINA	I understand you not.
BOULT	O, take her home, mistress, take her home: these	115
	blushes of hers must be quenched with some present practise.
Bawd	Thou sayest 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	120
	I have bargained for the joint,--
Bawd	Thou mayst cut a morsel off the spit.
BOULT	I may so.
Bawd	Who should deny it? Come, young one, I like the
	manner of your garments well.	125
BOULT	Ay, by my faith, they shall not be changed yet.
Bawd	Boult, spend thou that in the town: report what a
	sojourner we have; you'll lose nothing by custom.
	When nature flamed this piece, she meant thee a good
	turn; therefore say what a paragon she is, and thou	130
	hast the harvest out of thine own report.
BOULT	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.	135
MARINA	If fires be hot, knives sharp, or waters deep,
	Untied I still my virgin knot will keep.
	Diana, aid my purpose!
Bawd	What have we to do with Diana? Pray you, will you go with us?
	Exeunt