Act 4, Scene 2

Mytilene. A room in a brothel.

[Enter Pandar, Bawd, and Boult.]
Pandar
1526 Boult!
Boult
1527 Sir?
Pandar
1528 Search the market narrowly; Mytilene is full of gallants. We lost
1529 too much money this mart by being too wenchless.
Bawd
1530 We were never so much out of creatures. We have but poor three,
1531 and they can do no more than they can do; and they with continual
1532 action are even as good as rotten.
Pandar
1533 Therefore let's have fresh ones, whate'r we pay for them. If
1534 there be not a conscience to be used in every trade, we shall
1535 never prosper.
Bawd
1536 Thou sayest true: 'tis not our bringing up of poor bastards, —
1537 as, I think, I have bought up some eleven —
Boult
1538 Ay, to eleven; and brought them down again. But shall I search
1539 the market?
Bawd
1540 What else, man? The stuff we have, a strong wind will blo it to
1541 pieces, they are so pitifully sodden.
Pandar
1542 Thou sayest true; they're too unwholesome, o' conscience. The
1543 poor Transylvanian is dead, that lay with the little baggage.
Boult
1544 Ay, she quickly pooped him; she made him roast-meat for worms.
1545 But I'll go search the market.
[Exit.]
Pandar
1546 Three or four thousand chequins were as pretty a proportion to
1547 live quietly, and so give over.
Bawd
1548 Wgy to give over, I pray you? is it a shame to get when we are
1549 old?
Pandar
1550 O, our credit comes not in like the commodity , nor the commodity
1551 wages not with the danger: therfore, if in our youths we could
1552 pick up some pretty estate, 'twere not amiss to keep our door
1553 hatched. Besides, the sore terms we stand upon with the gods will
1554 be strong with us for giving over.
Bawd
1555 Come, others sorts offend as well as we.
Pandar
1556 As well as we! ay, and better too; we offend worse. Neither is
1557 our profession any trade; it's no calling. But here comes Boult.
[Re-enter Boult, with the Pirates and Marina.]
Pandar
1558 BOULT
[To Marina.]
Pandar
1559 Come your ways. My masters, you say she's a virgin?
First Pirate
1560 O, sir, we doubt it not.
Boult
1561 Master, I have gone through for this piece, you see: if you like
1562 her, so; if not, I have lost my earnest.
Bawd
1563 Boult, has she any qualities?
Boult
1564 She has a good face, speaks well, and has excellent clothes:
1565 ther's no further necessity of qualities can make her be refused.
Bawd
1566 What is her price, Boult?
Boult
1567 I cannot be baited one doit of a thousand pieces.
Pandar
1568 Well, follow me, my masters, you shall have your money presently.
1569 Wife, take her in; instruct her what she has to do, that she may
1570 not be raw in her entertainment.
[Exeunt Pandar and Pirates.]
Bawd
1571 Boult, take you the marks of her, the colour of her hair,
1572 complexion, height, age, with warrant of her virginity; and cry
1573 'He that will give most shall have her first.' Such a maidenhead
1574 were no cheap thing, if men were as they have been. Get this
1575 done as I command you.
Boult
1576 Performance shall follow.
[Exit.]
Marina
1577 Alack that Leonine was so slack, so slow!
1578 He should have struck, not spoke; or that these pirates,
1579 Not enough barbarous, had not o'erboard thrown me
1580 For to seek my mother!
Bawd
1581 Why lament you, pretty one?
Marina
1582 That I am pretty.
Bawd
1583 Come, the gods have done their part in you.
Marina
1584 I accuse them not.
Bawd
1585 You are light into my hands, where you are like to live.
Marina
1586 The more my fault
1587 To scape his hands where I was like to die.
Bawd
1588 Ay, and you shall live in pleasure.
Marina
1589 No.
Bawd
1590 Yes, indeed shall you, and taste gentlemen of all fashions: you
1591 shall fare well; you shall have the difference of all complexions.
1592 What! do you stop your ears?
Marina
1593 Are you a woman?
Bawd
1594 What would you have me be, an I be not a woman?
Marina
1595 An honest woman, or not a woman.
Bawd
1596 Marry, whip the, gosling: I think I shall have something to do
1597 with you. Come, you're a young foolish sapling, and must be bowed
1598 as I would have you.
Marina
1599 The gods defend me!
Bawd
1600 If it please the gods to defend you by men, then men must comfort
1601 you, men must feed you, men must stir you up. Boult's returned.
[Re-enter Boult.]
Bawd
1602 Now, sir, hast thou cried her through the market?
Boult
1603 I have cried her almost to the number of her hairs; I have drawn
1604 her picture with my voice.
Bawd
1605 And I prithee tell me, how dost thou find the inclination of the
1606 people, especially of the younger sort?
Boult
1607 'Faith, they listened to me as they would have hearkened to their
1608 father's testament. There was a Spaniard's mouth so watered,
1609 that he went to bed to her very description.
Bawd
1610 We shall have him here to-morrow: with his best ruff on.
Boult
1611 To-night, to-night. But, mistress, do you know the French knight
1612 that cowers i' the hams?
Bawd
1613 Who, Monsieur Veroles?
Boult
1614 Ay, he: he offered to cut a caper at the proclamation; but he
1615 made a groan at it, and swore he would see her to-morrow.
Bawd
1616 Well. well; as for him, he brought his disease hither: here he
1617 does but repair it. I know he will come in our shadow, to
1618 scatter his crowns in the sun.
Boult
1619 Well, if we had of every nation a traveller, we should lodge them
1620 with this sign.
[To Marina.]
Boult
1621 Pray you, come hither awhile. You have fortunes coming upon you.
1622 Mark me: you must seem to do that fearfully which you commit
1623 willingly, despise profit where you have most gain. To weep that
1624 you live as ye do makes pity in your lovers: seldom but that
1625 pity begets you a good opinion, and that opinion a mere profit.
Marina
1626 I understand you not.
Boult
1627 O, take her home, mistress, take her home: these blushes of hers
1628 must be quenched with some present practice.
Bawd
1629 Thou sayest true, i' faith so they must; for your bride goes to
1630 that with shame which is her way to go with warrant.
Boult
1631 'Faith, some do and some do not. But, mistress, if I have
1632 bargained for the joint, —
Bawd
1633 Thou mayst cut a morsel off the spit.
Boult
1634 I may so.
Bawd
1635 Who should deny it? Come young one, I like the manner of your
1636 garments well.
Boult
1637 Ay, by my faith, they shall not be changed yet.
Bawd
1638 Boult, spend thou that in the town: report what a sojourner we
1639 have; you'll lose nothing by custom. When nature framed this
1640 piece, she meant thee a good turn; therefore say what a paragon
1641 she is, and thou hast the harvest out of thine own report.
Boult
1642 I warrant you, mistress, thunder shall not so awake the beds of
1643 eels as my giving out her Beauty stir up the lewdly-inclined.
1644 I'll bring home some to-night.
Bawd
1645 Come your ways; follow me.
Marina
1646 If fires be hot, knives sharp, or waters deep,
1647 Untied I still my virgin knot will keep.
1648 Diana, aid my purpose!
Bawd
1649 What have we to do with Diana? Pray you, will you go with us?
[Exeunt.]