Pericles

ACT IV

Enter GOWER

GOWER

Imagine Pericles arrived at Tyre,

Welcomed and settled to his own desire.

His woeful queen we leave at Ephesus,

Unto Diana there a votaress.

Now to Marina bend your mind,

Whom our fast-growing scene must find

At Tarsus, and by Cleon train'd

In music, letters, who hath gain'd

Of education all the grace,

Which makes her both the heart and place

Of general wonder. But, alack,

That monster envy, oft the wrack

Of earned praise, Marina's life

Seeks to take off by treason's knife.

And in this kind hath our Cleon

One daughter, and a wench full grown,

Even ripe for marriage-rite, this maid

Hight Philoten: and it is said

For certain in our story, she

Would ever with Marina be:

Be't when she weaved the sleided silk

With fingers long, small, white as milk,

Or when she would with sharp needle wound

The cambric, which she made more sound

By hurting it, or when to the lute

She sung, and made the night-bird mute,

That still records with moan, or when

She would with rich and constant pen

Vail to her mistress Dian, still

This Philoten contends in skill

With absolute Marina: so

With the dove of Paphos might the crow

Vie feathers white. Marina gets

All praises, which are paid as debts,

And not as given. This so darks

In Philoten all graceful marks,

That Cleon's wife, with envy rare,

A present murderer does prepare

For good Marina, that her daughter

Might stand peerless by this slaughter.

The sooner her vile thoughts to stead,

Lychorida, our nurse, is dead:

And cursed Dionyza hath

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 rhyme,

Which never could I so convey,

Unless your thoughts went on my way.

Dionyza does appear,

With Leonine, a murderer.

Exit

SCENE I. Tarsus. An open place near the sea-shore.

Enter DIONYZA and LEONINE

DIONYZA

Thy oath remember, thou hast sworn to do't:

'Tis but a blow, which never shall be known.

Thou canst not do a thing in the world so soon,

To yield thee so much profit. Let not conscience,

Which is but cold, inflaming love i' thy bosom,

Inflame too nicely, nor let pity, which

Even women have cast off, melt thee, but be

A soldier to thy purpose.

LEONINE

I will do't, but yet she is a goodly creature.

DIONYZA

The fitter, then, the gods should have her. Here

she comes weeping for her only mistress' death.

Thou art resolved?

LEONINE

I am resolved.

Enter MARINA, with a basket of flowers

MARINA

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 carpet hang upon thy grave,

While summer-days do last. Ay me! poor maid,

Born in a tempest, when my mother died,

This world to me is like a lasting storm,

Whirring me from my friends.

DIONYZA

How now, Marina! why do you keep alone?

How chance my daughter is not with you? Do not

Consume your blood with sorrowing: you have

A nurse of me. Lord, how your favour's changed

With this unprofitable woe!

Come, give me your flowers, ere the sea mar it.

Walk with Leonine, the air is quick there,

And it pierces and sharpens the stomach. Come,

Leonine, take her by the arm, walk with her.

MARINA

No, I pray you,

I'll not bereave you of your servant.

DIONYZA

Come, come,

I love the king your father, and yourself,

With more than foreign heart. We every day

Expect him here: when he shall come and find

Our paragon to all reports thus blasted,

He will repent the breadth of his great voyage,

Blame both my lord and me, that we have taken

No care to your best courses. Go, I pray you,

Walk, and be cheerful once again, reserve

That excellent complexion, which did steal

The eyes of young and old. Care not for me

I can go home alone.

MARINA

Well, I will go,

But yet I have no desire to it.

DIONYZA

Come, come, I know 'tis good for you.

Walk half an hour, Leonine, at the least:

Remember what I have said.

LEONINE

I warrant you, madam.

DIONYZA

I'll leave you, my sweet lady, for a while:

Pray, walk softly, do not heat your blood:

What! I must have a care of you.

MARINA

My thanks, sweet madam.

Exit DIONYZA

Is this wind westerly that blows?

LEONINE

South-west.

MARINA

When I was born, the wind was north.

LEONINE

Was't so?

MARINA

My father, as nurse said, did never fear,

But cried 'Good seaman!' to the sailors, galling

His kingly hands, haling ropes,

And, clasping to the mast, endured a sea

That almost burst the deck.

LEONINE

When was this?

MARINA

When I was born:

Never was waves nor wind more violent,

And from the ladder-tackle washes off

A canvas-climber. 'Ha!' says one, 'wilt out?'

And with a dropping industry they skip

From stem to stern: the boatswain whistles, and

The master calls, and trebles their confusion.

LEONINE

Come, say your prayers.

MARINA

What mean you?

LEONINE

If you require a little space for prayer,

I grant it: pray, but be not tedious,

For the gods are quick of ear, and I am sworn

To do my work with haste.

MARINA

Why will you kill me?

LEONINE

To satisfy my lady.

MARINA

Why would she have me kill'd?

Now, as I can remember, by my troth,

I never did her hurt in all my life:

I never spake bad word, nor did ill turn

To any living creature: believe me, la,

I never kill'd a mouse, nor hurt a fly:

I trod upon a worm against my will,

But I wept for it. How have I offended,

Wherein my death might yield her any profit,

Or my life imply her any danger?

LEONINE

My commission

Is not to reason of the deed, but do it.

MARINA

You will not do't for all the world, I hope.

You are well favour'd, and your looks foreshow

You have a gentle heart. I saw you lately,

When you caught hurt in parting two that fought:

Good sooth, it show'd well in you: do so now:

Your lady seeks my life, come you between,

And save poor me, the weaker.

LEONINE

I am sworn,

And will dispatch.

He seizes her

Enter Pirates

First Pirate

Hold, villain!

LEONINE runs away

Second Pirate

A prize! a prize!

Third Pirate

Half-part, mates, half-part.

Come, let's have her aboard suddenly.

Exeunt Pirates with MARINA

Re-enter LEONINE

LEONINE

These roguing thieves serve the great pirate Valdes,

And they have seized Marina. Let her go:

There's no hope she will return. I'll swear

she's dead,

And thrown into the sea. But I'll see further:

Perhaps they will but please themselves upon her,

Not carry her aboard. If she remain,

Whom they have ravish'd must by me be slain.

Exit

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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] Come your ways. My masters, you say

she's a virgin?

First Pirate

O, sir, we doubt it not.

BOULT

Master, I have gone through for this piece, you see:

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.

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

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

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,

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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?

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 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

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.

BOULT

Well, if we had of every nation a traveller, we

should lodge them with this sign.

Bawd

[To MARINA] Pray you, come hither awhile. You

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

SCENE III. Tarsus. A room in CLEON's house.

Enter CLEON and DIONYZA

DIONYZA

Why, are you foolish? Can it be undone?

CLEON

O Dionyza, such a piece of slaughter

The sun and moon ne'er look'd upon!

DIONYZA

I think

You'll turn a child again.

CLEON

Were I chief lord of all this spacious world,

I'ld give it to undo the deed. O lady,

Much less in blood than virtue, yet a princess

To equal any single crown o' the earth

I' the justice of compare! O villain Leonine!

Whom thou hast poison'd too:

If thou hadst drunk to him, 't had been a kindness

Becoming well thy fact: what canst thou say

When noble Pericles shall demand his child?

DIONYZA

That she is dead. Nurses are not the fates,

To foster it, nor ever to preserve.

She died at night, I'll say so. Who can cross it?

Unless you play the pious innocent,

And for an honest attribute cry out

'She died by foul play.'

CLEON

O, go to. Well, well,

Of all the faults beneath the heavens, the gods

Do like this worst.

DIONYZA

Be one of those that think

The petty wrens of Tarsus will fly hence,

And open this to Pericles. I do shame

To think of what a noble strain you are,

And of how coward a spirit.

CLEON

To such proceeding

Who ever but his approbation added,

Though not his prime consent, he did not flow

From honourable sources.

DIONYZA

Be it so, then:

Yet none does know, but you, how she came dead,

Nor none can know, Leonine being gone.

She did disdain my child, and stood between

Her and her fortunes: none would look on her,

But cast their gazes on Marina's face,

Whilst ours was blurted at and held a malkin

Not worth the time of day. It pierced me through,

And though you call my course unnatural,

You not your child well loving, yet I find

It greets me as an enterprise of kindness

Perform'd to your sole daughter.

CLEON

Heavens forgive it!

DIONYZA

And as for Pericles,

What should he say? We wept after her hearse,

And yet we mourn: her monument

Is almost finish'd, and her epitaphs

In glittering golden characters express

A general praise to her, and care in us

At whose expense 'tis done.

CLEON

Thou art like the harpy,

Which, to betray, dost, with thine angel's face,

Seize with thine eagle's talons.

DIONYZA

You are like one that superstitiously

Doth swear to the gods that winter kills the flies:

But yet I know you'll do as I advise.

Exeunt

SCENE IV:

Enter GOWER, before the monument of MARINA at Tarsus

GOWER

Thus time we waste, and longest leagues make short,

Sail seas in cockles, have an wish but for't,

Making, to take your imagination,

From bourn to bourn, region to region.

By you being pardon'd, we commit no crime

To use one language in each several clime

Where our scenes seem to live. I do beseech you

To learn of me, who stand i' the gaps to teach you,

The stages of our story. Pericles

Is now again thwarting the wayward seas,

Attended on by many a lord and knight.

To see his daughter, all his life's delight.

Old Escanes, whom Helicanus late

Advanced in time to great and high estate,

Is left to govern. Bear you it in mind,

Old Helicanus goes along behind.

Well-sailing ships and bounteous winds have brought

This king to Tarsus,--think his pilot thought,

So with his steerage shall your thoughts grow on,--

To fetch his daughter home, who first is gone.

Like motes and shadows see them move awhile,

Your ears unto your eyes I'll reconcile.

DUMB SHOW.

Enter PERICLES, at one door, with all his train, CLEON and DIONYZA, at the other. CLEON shows PERICLES the tomb, whereat PERICLES makes lamentation, puts on sackcloth, and in a mighty passion departs. Then exeunt CLEON and DIONYZA

See how belief may suffer by foul show!

This borrow'd passion stands for true old woe,

And Pericles, in sorrow all devour'd,

With sighs shot through, and biggest tears

o'ershower'd,

Leaves Tarsus and again embarks. He swears

Never to wash his face, nor cut his hairs:

He puts on sackcloth, and to sea. He bears

A tempest, which his mortal vessel tears,

And yet he rides it out. Now please you wit.

The epitaph is for Marina writ

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,

Marina was she call'd, and at her birth,

Thetis, being proud, swallow'd some part o' the earth:

Therefore the earth, fearing to be o'erflow'd,

Hath Thetis' birth-child on the heavens bestow'd:

Wherefore she does, and swears she'll never stint,

Make raging battery upon shores of flint.'

No visor does become black villany

So well as soft and tender flattery.

Let Pericles believe his daughter's dead,

And bear his courses to be ordered

By Lady Fortune, while our scene must play

His daughter's woe and heavy well-a-day

In her unholy service. Patience, then,

And think you now are all in Mytilene.

Exit

SCENE V. Mytilene. A street before the brothel.

Enter, from the brothel, two Gentlemen

First Gentleman

Did you ever hear the like?

Second Gentleman

No, nor never shall do in such a place as this, she

being once gone.

First Gentleman

But to have divinity preached there! did you ever

dream of such a thing?

Second Gentleman

No, no. Come, I am for no more bawdy-houses:

shall's go hear the vestals sing?

First Gentleman

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 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.

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

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

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 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.

Exeunt