Act 4, Scene 6

The same. A room in the brothel.

[Enter Pandar, Bawd, and Boult.]
Pandar
1768 Well, I had rather than twice the worth of her she had ne'er come
1769 here.
Bawd
1770 Fie, fie upon her! she's able to freeze the god Priapus, and undo
1771 a whole generation. We must either get her ravished, or be rid of
1772 her. When she should do for clients her fitment, and do me the
1773 kindness of our profession, she has me her quirks, her reasons,
1774 her master reasons, her prayers, her knees; that she would make
1775 a puritan of the devil, if he should cheapen a kiss of her.
Boult
1776 'Faith, I must ravish her, or she'll disfurnish us of all our
1777 cavaliers, and make our swearers priests.
Pandar
1778 Now, the pox upon her green-sickness for me!
Bawd
1779 'Faith, there's no way to be rid on't but by the way to the pox.
1780 Here comes the Lord Lysimachus disguised.
Boult
1781 We should have both lord and lown, if the peevish baggage would
1782 but give way to customers.
[Enter Lysimachus.]
Lysimachus
1783 How now! How a dozen of virginities?
Bawd
1784 Now, the gods to bless your honour!
Boult
1785 I am glad to see your honour in good health.
Lysimachus
1786 You may so; 'tis the better for you that your resorters stand
1787 upon sound legs. How now! wholesome iniquity have you that a
1788 man may deal withal, and defy the surgeon?
Bawd
1789 We have here one, sir, if she would — but there never came her
1790 like in Mytilene.
Lysimachus
1791 If she'ld do the deed of darkness, thou wouldst say.
Bawd
1792 Your honour knows what 'tis to say well enough.
Lysimachus
1793 Well, call forth, call forth.
Boult
1794 For flesh and blood, sir, white and red, you shall see a rose;
1795 and she were a rose indeed, if she had but —
Lysimachus
1796 What, prithee?
Boult
1797 O, sir, I can be modest.
Lysimachus
1798 That dignifies the renown of a bawd, no less than it gives a good
1799 report to a number to be chaste.
[Exit Boult.]
Bawd
1800 Here comes that which grows to the stalk; never plucked yet, I
1801 can assure you.
[Re-enter Boult with Marina.]
Bawd
1802 Is she not a fair creature?
Lysimachus
1803 'Faith, she would serve after a long voyage at sea. Well, there's
1804 for you: leave us.
Bawd
1805 I beseech your honour, give me leave: a word, and I'll have done
1806 presently.
Lysimachus
1807 I beseech you, do.
[To Marina.]
Bawd
1808 First, I would have you note, this is an honourable man.
Marina
1809 I desire to find him so, that I may worthily note him.
Bawd
1810 Next, he's the governor of this country, and a man whom I am
1811 bound to.
Marina
1812 If he govern the country, you are bound to him indeed; but how
1813 honourable he is in that, I know not.
Bawd
1814 Pray you, without any more virginal fencing, will you use him
1815 kindly? He will line your apron with gold.
Marina
1816 What he will do graciously, I will thankfully receive.
Lysimachus
1817 Ha' you done?
Bawd
1818 My lord, she's not paced yet: you must take some pains to work
1819 her to your manage. Come, we will leave his honour and her
1820 together. Go thy ways.
[Exeunt Bawd, Pandar, and Boult.]
Lysimachus
1821 Now, pretty one, how long have you been at this trade?
Marina
1822 What trade, sir?
Lysimachus
1823 Why, I cannot name't but I shall offend.
Marina
1824 I cannot be offended with my trade. Please you to name it.
Lysimachus
1825 How long have you been of this profession?
Marina
1826 E'er since I can remember?
Lysimachus
1827 Did you go to't so young? Were you a gamester at five or at
1828 seven?
Marina
1829 Earlier, too, sir, if now I be one.
Lysimachus
1830 Why, the house you dwell in proclaims you to be a creature of
1831 sale.
Marina
1832 Do you know this house to be a place of such resort, and will
1833 come into 't? I hear say you are of honourable parts, and are
1834 the governor of this place.
Lysimachus
1835 Why, hath your principal made known unto you who I am?
Marina
1836 Who is my principal?
Lysimachus
1837 Why, your herb-woman; she that sets seeds and roots of shame and
1838 iniquity. O, you have heard something of my power, and so stand
1839 aloof for more serious wooing. But I protest to thee, pretty one,
1840 my authority shall not see thee, or else look friendly upon thee.
1841 Come, bring me to some private place: come, come.
Marina
1842 If you were born to honour, show it now;
1843 If put upon you, make the judgement good
1844 That thought you worthy of it.
Lysimachus
1845 How 's this? how 's this? Some more; be sage.
Marina
1846 For me,
1847 That am a maid, though most ungentle fortune
1848 Have placed me in this sty, where, since I came,
1849 Diseases have been sold dearer than physic,
1850 O, that the gods
1851 Would set me free from this unhallow'd place,
1852 Though they did change me to the meanest bird
1853 That flies i' the purer air!
Lysimachus
1854 I did not think
1855 Thou couldst have spoke so well; ne'er dream'd thou couldst.
1856 Had I brought hither a corrupted mind,
1857 Thy speech had alter'd it. Hold, here 's gold for thee:
1858 Persever in that clear way thou goest,
1859 And the gods strengthen thee!
Marina
1860 The good gods preserve you!
Lysimachus
1861 For me, be you thoughten
1862 That I came with no ill intent; for to me
1863 The very doors and windows savour vilely.
1864 Fare thee well. Thou art a piece of virtue, and
1865 I doubt not but thy training hath been noble.
1866 Hold, here's more gold for thee.
1867 A curse upon him, die he like a thief,
1868 That robs thee of thy goodness! If thou dost
1869 Hear from me, it shall be for thy good.
[Re-enter Boult.]
Boult
1870 I beseech your honour, one piece for me.
Lysimachus
1871 Avaunt, thou damned door-keeper!
1872 Your house but for this virgin that doth prop it,
1873 Would sink and overwhelm you. Away!
[Exit.]
Boult
1874 How's this? We must take another course with you. If your peevish
1875 chastity, which is not worth a breakfast in the cheapest country
1876 under the cope, shall undo a whole household, let me be gelded
1877 like a spaniel. Come your ways.
Marina
1878 Whither would you have me?
Boult
1879 I must have your maidenhead taken off, or the common hangman
1880 shall execute it. Come your ways. We'll have no more
1881 gentlemen driven away. Come your ways, I say.
[Re-enter Bawd.]
Bawd
1882 How now! what's the matter?
Boult
1883 Worse and worse, mistress; she has here spoken holy words to the
1884 Lord Lysimachus.
Bawd
1885 O Abominable!
Boult
1886 She makes our profession as it were to stink afore the face of
1887 the gods.
Bawd
1888 Marry, hang her up for ever!
Boult
1889 The nobleman would have dealt with her like a nobleman, and she
1890 sent him away as cold as a snowball; saying his prayers too.
Bawd
1891 Boult, take her away; use her at thy pleasure: crack the glass of
1892 her virginity, and make the rest malleable.
Boult
1893 An if she were a thornier piece of ground than she is, she shall
1894 be ploughed.
Marina
1895 Hark, hark, you gods!
Bawd
1896 She conjures: away with her! Would she had never come within my
1897 doors! Marry, hang you! She's born to undo us. Will you not go
1898 the way of women-kind? Marry, come up, my dish of chastity with
1899 rosemary and bays!
[Exit.]
Boult
1900 Come, mistress; come your ways with me.
Marina
1901 Whither wilt thou have me?
Boult
1902 To take from you the jewel you hold so dear.
Marina
1903 Prithee, tell me one thing first.
Boult
1904 Come now, your one thing.
Marina
1905 What canst thou wish thine enemy to be?
Boult
1906 Why, I could wish him to he my master, or rather, my mistress.
Marina
1907 Neither of these are so had as thou art,
1908 Since they do better thee in their command.
1909 Thou hold'st a place, for which the pained'st fiend
1910 Of hell would not in reputation change:
1911 Thou art the damned doorkeeper to every
1912 Coistrel that comes inquiring for his Tib;
1913 To the choleric fisting of every rogue
1914 Thy ear is liable, thy food is such
1915 As hath been belch'd on by infected lungs.
Boult
1916 What would you have me do? go to the wars, would you? where a man
1917 may serve seven years for the loss of a leg, and have not money
1918 enough in the end to buy him a wooden one?
Marina
1919 Do any thing but this thou doest. Empty
1920 Old receptacles, or common shores, of filth;
1921 Serve by indenture to the common hangman:
1922 Any of these ways are yet better than this;
1923 For what thou professest, a baboon, could he speak,
1924 Would own a name too dear. O, that the gods
1925 Would safely deliver me from this place!
1926 Here, here's gold for thee.
1927 If that thy master would gain by me,
1928 Proclaim that I can sing, weave, sew, and dance,
1929 With other virtues, which I'll keep from boast;
1930 And I will undertake all these to teach.
1931 I doubt not but this populous city will
1932 Yield many scholars.
Boult
1933 But can you teach all this you speak of?
Marina
1934 Prove that I cannot, take me home again,
1935 And prostitute me to the basest groom
1936 That doth frequent your house.
Boult
1937 Well, I will see what I can do for thee: if I can place thee, I
1938 will.
Marina
1939 But amongst honest women.
Boult
1940 'Faith, my acquaintance lies little amongst them. But since my
1941 master and mistress have bought you, there's no going but by
1942 their consent: therefore I will make them acquainted with your
1943 purpose, and I doubt not but I shall find them tractable enough.
1944 ome, I'll do for thee what I can; come your ways.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 1770classical allusion
“freeze the god Priapus, and undo a whole generation”
Priapus was the Roman fertility god, typically depicted with a permanent, conspicuous erection; he was the patron deity of gardens, orchards, and lustful appetite. The Bawd's complaint that Marina could 'freeze' even him is the play's most outrageous measure of her chilling effect on the brothel's trade: if the god of sexual readiness himself is put off, no ordinary customer stands a chance. 'Undo a whole generation' means ruin the act of begetting — wipe out the brothel's reproductive commerce.
TLN 1774cultural context
“make a puritan of the devil”
Puritans were the strict Protestant reformers of Shakespeare's England, notorious for opposing theatres, dancing, brothels, and all forms of festivity on moral grounds. The Bawd's joke — that Marina's prayers and arguments could convert even the devil into a puritan — captures both her almost supernatural virtue and the play's comic edge: the brothel's best asset is turning its would-be customers into preachers. For an Elizabethan audience, 'puritan of the devil' would have been a deliberately absurd contradiction.
TLN 1778archaic vocab
“the pox upon her green-sickness”
'Green-sickness' was an Elizabethan medical diagnosis for a pallid, languid condition supposedly afflicting young unmarried women; physicians attributed it to the suppression of sexual desire and lack of a husband. It is now understood as likely iron-deficiency anaemia. Pandar's curse — 'the pox upon her green-sickness' — sarcastically wishes a venereal disease (the pox, i.e., syphilis) on her excessive chastity; the pox is also the only cure for green-sickness the brothel trades in.
TLN 1781archaic vocab
“both lord and lown, if the peevish baggage”
'Lown' (also spelled 'loon') means a rascal, a base fellow, or a worthless nobody. Boult regrets that Marina's stubbornness is driving away both the highest clients ('lord') and the lowest ('lown') — the full social spectrum from the governor Lysimachus to common riffraff. 'Peevish baggage' means a foolish, obstinate girl.
TLN 1791archaic vocab
“deed of darkness”
'Deed of darkness' is a standard Elizabethan euphemism for sexual intercourse, with a particular emphasis on its illicit or shameful character. The phrase echoes through the play's brothel scenes (compare 4.2). Lysimachus supplies the phrase before the Bawd can say it, showing he understands perfectly what is being offered.
TLN 1818archaic vocab
“she's not paced yet: you must take some pains to work her to your manage”
The Bawd speaks in horsemanship terms. 'Paced' means trained to the required gaits and responsive to the rider; 'manage' (French manege) is the art of training and handling a horse, especially in the fine movements of dressage. Applied to Marina, the metaphor means she has not yet been broken in to the brothel's work, and Lysimachus will need to coax and handle her as one trains a young horse. The vocabulary degrades Marina to livestock, which is exactly the Bawd's view of her stock-in-trade.
TLN 1845archaic vocab
“be sage”
Lysimachus's single startled response — 'how's this? how's this? Some more; be sage' — uses 'sage' to mean: speak wisely, speak seriously, continue speaking with this gravity. He is so caught off-guard by Marina's eloquence that he urges her to go on, his dismissive brothel-visit tone entirely broken.
TLN 1847rhetorical device
“most ungentle fortune Have placed me in this sty, where, since I came, Diseases have been sold dearer than physic”
Marina shifts from prose into verse with two compressed images. 'Ungentle fortune' invokes the goddess Fortune who governs the romance (ungentle = cruel, but also low-born — a double slight, since Fortune has treated a noble girl as baseborn). 'Sty' calls the brothel a pigsty, reducing its inmates to animals. 'Diseases have been sold dearer than physic' inverts the normal order: here the brothel's infection costs the customer more than a doctor's cure would.
classical Fortune and her wheel
TLN 1858archaic vocab
“Persever in that clear way thou goest”
'Persever' is the standard Elizabethan spelling of 'persevere,' with stress on the second syllable (per-SE-ver). The word is not a typo or corruption; it is the form found throughout Shakespeare's plays and the period's prose. Lysimachus instructs Marina to hold her course — the image of a 'clear way' against the filth of the brothel is pointed.
TLN 1861syntax grammar
“For me, be you thoughten That I came with no ill intent”
'Be you thoughten' is an archaic reflexive construction meaning 'let it be thought by you' or simply 'understand' or 'know.' The form uses the past participle 'thoughten' (thought) in a passive-reflexive sense found in older and dialectal English; it is equivalent to 'as for me, be assured that I came with no ill intent.' The construction was already old-fashioned in Shakespeare's day.
TLN 1875archaic vocab
“not worth a breakfast in the cheapest country under the cope”
'Cope' here means the vault of the sky — the overarching canopy of the heavens, imagined as a great dome or cloak stretched over the earth. 'Under the cope' therefore means 'anywhere in the world.' Boult is telling Marina that her chastity is not worth even the cheapest meal available anywhere on earth — an insult framed by a cosmic gesture.
TLN 1898cultural context
“my dish of chastity with rosemary and bays”
The Bawd's contemptuous exit line casts Marina as a cold dish dressed with herbs: rosemary was used to season and preserve meat, but it was also the herb of remembrance and of funerals; bay (laurel) was associated with honour and with poets. Together the herbs signal both the kitchen and the grave — the Bawd is mocking Marina's chastity as a dead, finished, unusable thing, a cold carcass fit only for a wreath. 'Marry, come up' is an expression of impatient contempt, roughly 'Good lord!'
TLN 1909archaic vocab
“pained'st fiend Of hell would not in reputation change: Thou art the damned doorkeeper to every Coistrel that comes inquiring for his Tib”
Marina is methodically humiliating Boult with precise vocabulary. A 'coistrel' (also 'costrel') is a groom, a low base fellow, a scullion — the cheapest rank of servant. 'Tib' was a stock nickname for a low or loose woman — the lowest-common-denominator female name, the way 'Tom' was used for any common man. Together they mean: Boult opens the door for the cheapest riff-raff looking for the cheapest woman. Even the most tormented fiend in hell, Marina says, would refuse to swap its reputation for his.
TLN 1913archaic vocab
“To the choleric fisting of every rogue Thy ear is liable, thy food is such As hath been belch'd on by infected lungs”
'Choleric' means hot-tempered, quick to anger — one of the four humours; a choleric person flies into violent rages. 'Fisting' means a punch with the fist. 'Liable' means exposed or subject to. Marina catalogues the specific physical degradations of Boult's job: he must stand at the door receiving blows from angry, drunken clients, and eat whatever scraps the sick have contaminated with their breath. The food-metaphor lands the hardest blow: even Boult's daily meal is polluted by the infected.
TLN 1919archaic vocab
“Empty Old receptacles, or common shores, of filth; Serve by indenture to the common hangman”
'Common shores' are open sewers or drainage ditches — the communal gutters that carried waste through Elizabethan towns. Marina is listing occupations even more degrading than Boult's: emptying cesspits, or being a hangman's apprentice ('by indenture' = bound by legal contract as a formal apprentice). 'Indenture' was the standard legal agreement for apprenticeship, so Marina sardonically imagines Boult formally apprenticed to the public executioner.