The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  the other door

  See how belief may suffer by foul show.

  This borrowed passion stands for true-owed woe,

  And Pericles, in sorrow all devoured,

  With sighs shot through, and biggest tears o‘ershow’red,

  Leaves Tarsus, and again embarks. He swears

  Never to wash his face nor cut his hairs.

  He puts on sack-cloth, 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.

  He reads Marina’s epitaph on the tomb

  ‘The fairest, sweetest, best lies here,

  Who withered in her spring of year.

  In nature’s garden, though by growth a bud,

  She was the chiefest flower: she was good.’

  No visor does become black villainy

  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

  Sc. 19 ⌈A brothel sign.⌉ Enter 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 anything now that is virtuous, but I am out of the road of rutting for ever. Exeunt

  Enter Pander, Bawd, and Boult

  PANDER 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 the whole of 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 cavalleria and make our swearers priests.

  PANDER 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.

  Enter Lysimachus, disguised

  Here comes the Lord Lysimachus, disguised.

  BOULT We should have both lord and loon if the peevish baggage would but give way to custom.

  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 woutd—but there never came her like in Mytilene.

  LYSIMACHUS If she’d do the deed of darkness, thou wouldst say.

  BAWD Your honour knows what ’tis to say well enough. LYSIMACHUS Well, call forth, call forth. ⌈Exit Pander⌉ 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 noble to be chaste.

  ⌈Enter Pander with Marina⌉

  BAWD Here comes that which grows to the stalk, never plucked yet, I can assure you. Is she not a fair creature?

  LYSIMACHUS Faith, she would serve after a long voyage at sea. Well, there’s for you. Leave us.

  ⌈He pays the Bawd⌉

  BAWD I beseech your honour give me leave: a word, and I’ll have done presently.

  LYSIMACHUS I beseech you, do.

  BAWD (aside to Marina) First, I would have you note this is an honourable man.

  MARINA I desire to find him so, that I may honourably know 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 (to Bawd) Ha’ you done?

  BAWD My lord, she’s not paced yet. You must take some pains to work her to your manège. (To Boult and Pander) Come, we will leave his honour and hers together. Go thy ways. Exeunt Pander, Bawd, and Boult

  LYSIMACHUS

  Fair one, how long have you been at this trade? MARINA What trade, sir?

  LYSIMACHUS

  I cannot name it 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 seven?

  MARINA Earlier too, sir,

  If now I be one.

  LYSIMACHUS Why, the house you dwell in

  Proclaimeth you a creature of sale.

  MARINA

  And do you know this house to be a place

  Of such resort and will come into it?

  I hear say you’re of honourable blood,

  And are the governor of this whole province.

  LYSIMACHUS

  What, hath your principal informed you who I am?

  MARINA

  Who is my principal?

  LYSIMACHUS Why, your herb-woman;

  She that sets seeds of shame, roots of iniquity.

  ⌈Marina weeps⌉

  O, you’ve heard something of my pow‘r, and so

  Stand off aloof for a more serious wooing.

  But I protest to thee,

  Pretty one, my authority can wink

  At blemishes, or can on faults look friendly;

  Or my displeasure punish at my pleasure,

  From which displeasure, not thy beauty shall

  Privilege thee, nor my affection, which

  Hath drawn me here, abate with further ling’ring.

  Come bring me to some private place. Come, come.

  MARINA

  Let not authority, which teaches you

  To govern others, be the means to make you

  Misgovern much yourself.

  If you were born to honour, show it now;

  If put upon you, make the judgement good

  That thought you worthy of it. What reason’s in

  Your justice, who hath power over all,

  To undo any? If you take from me

  Mine honour, you’re like him that makes a gap

  Into forbidden ground, whom after

  Too many enter, and of all their evils

  Yourself are guilty. My life is yet unspotted;

  My chastity unstained ev’n in thought.

  Then if your violence deface this building,

  The workmanship of heav‘n, you do kill your honour,

  Abuse your justice, and impoverish me.

  My yet good lord, if there be fire before me,

  Must I straight fly and burn myself? Suppose this

  house—

  Which too too many feel such houses are—

  Should be the doctor’s patrimony, and

  The surgeon’s feeding; follows it, that I

  Must needs infect myself to give them maint’nance?

  LYSIMACHUS

  How’s this, how’s thi
s? Some more. Be sage.

  MARINA ⌈kneeling⌉ For me

  That am a maid, though most ungentle fortune

  Have franked me in this sty, where since I came

  Diseases have been sold dearer than physic—

  That the gods would set me free from this unhallowed

  place,

  Though they did change me to the meanest bird

  That flies i’th’ purer air!

  LYSIMACHUS ⌈moved⌉ I did not think

  Thou couldst have spoke so well, ne’er dreamt thou

  couldst.

  ⌈He lifts her up with his hands⌉

  Though I brought hither a corrupted mind,

  Thy speech hath altered it,⌈He wipes the wet from her eyes⌉ and my foul thoughts

  Thy tears so well hath laved that they’re now white.

  I came here meaning but to pay the price,

  A piece of gold for thy virginity;

  Here’s twenty to relieve thine honesty.

  Persever still in that clear way thou goest,

  And the gods strengthen thee.

  MARINA The good gods preserve you!

  LYSIMACHUS

  The very doors and windows savour vilely.

  Fare thee well. Thou art a piece of virtue,

  The best wrought up that ever nature made,

  And I doubt not thy training hath been noble.

  A curse upon him, die he like a thief,

  That robs thee of thy honour. Hold, here’s more gold.

  If thou dost hear from me, it shall be for thy good.

  ⌈Enter Boult standing ready at the door, making his obeisance unto him as Lysimachus should go out⌉

  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 executioner shall do it. We’ll have no more gentlemen driven away. Come your ways, I say.

  Enter Bawd and Pander

  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.

  ⌈PANDER⌉ Boult, take her away. Use her at thy pleasure. Crack the ice 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 womenkind? Marry, come up, my dish of chastity with rosemary and bays. Exeunt Bawd and Pander

  BOULT ⌈catching her rashly by the hand⌉ Come, mistress, come your way 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 can be so bad as thou art,

  Since they do better thee in their command.

  Thou hold‘st a place the painèd’st fiend of hell

  Would not in reputation change with thee,

  Thou damned doorkeeper to ev‘ry coistrel

  That comes enquiring for his Tib.

  To th’ choleric fisting of ev’ry rogue

  Thy ear is liable. Thy food is such

  As hath been belched 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 anything but this thou dost. Empty

  Old receptacles or common sew’rs of filth,

  Serve by indenture to the public hangman—

  Any of these are yet better than this.

  For what thou professest a baboon, could he speak,

  Would own a name too dear. Here’s gold for thee.

  If that thy master would make gain by me,

  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 hath 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. ⌈The sign is removed⌉

  Sc. 20 Enter Gower

  GOWER

  Marina thus the brothel scapes, and chances

  Into an honest house, our story says.

  She sings like one immortal, and she dances

  As goddess-like to her admired lays.

  Deep clerks she dumbs, and with her nee‘le composes

  Nature’s own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry,

  That e’en her art sisters the natural roses.

  Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied cherry;

  That pupils lacks she none of noble race,

  Who pour their bounty on her, and her gain

  She gives the cursed Bawd. Here we her place,

  And to her father turn our thoughts again.

  We left him on the sea. Waves there him tossed,

  Whence, driven tofore the winds, he is arrived

  Here where his daughter dwells, and on this coast

  Suppose him now at anchor. The city strived

  God Neptune’s annual feast to keep, from whence

  Lysimachus our Tyrian ship espies,

  His banners sable, trimmed with rich expense;

  And to him in his barge with fervour hies.

  In your supposing once more put your sight;

  Of heavy Pericles think this the barque,

  Where what is done in action, more if might,

  Shall be discovered. Please you sit and hark. Exit

  Sc. 21 Enter Helicanus ⌈above; below, enter⌉ to him at the first door two Sailors, ⌈one of Tyre, the other of Mytilene⌉

  SAILOR OF TYRE (to Sailor of Mytilene)

  Lord Helicanus can resolve you, sir.

  (To Helicanus) There is a barge put off from Mytilene.

  In it, Lysimachus, the governor,

  Who craves to come aboard. What is your will?

  HELICANUS

  That he have his.

  ⌈Exit Sailor of Mytilene at first door⌉ Call up some gentlemen.

  ⌈Exit Helicanus above⌉

  ⌈SAILOR OF TYRE⌉

  Ho, my lord calls!

  Enter ⌈from below the stage⌉ two or three Gentlemen; ⌈to them, enter
Helicanus⌉

  FIRST GENTLEMAN What is your lordship’s pleasure?

  HELICANUS

  Gentlemen, some of worth would come aboard.

  I pray you, greet him fairly.

  Enter Lysimachus ⌈at first door, with the Sailor and Lords of Mytilene⌉

  ⌈SAILOR OF MYTILENE⌉ (to Lysimachus)

  This is the man that can in aught resolve you.

  LYSIMACHUS (to Helicanus)

  Hail, reverend sir; the gods preserve you!

  HELICANUS

  And you, sir, to outlive the age I am,

  And die as I would do.

  LYSIMACHUS You wish me well.

  I am the governor of Mytilene;

  Being on shore, honouring of Neptune’s triumphs,

  Seeing this goodly vessel ride before us,

  I made to it to know of whence you are.

  HELICANUS

  Our vessel is of Tyre, in it our king,

  A man who for this three months hath not spoken

  To anyone, nor taken sustenance

  But to prorogue his grief.

  LYSIMACHUS

  Upon what ground grew his distemp’rature?

  HELICANUS

  ’Twould be too tedious to tell it over,

  But the main grief springs from the precious loss

  Of a belovèd daughter and a wife.

  LYSIMACHUS

  May we not see him?

  HELICANUS

  See him, sir, you may,

  But bootless is your sight. He will not speak

  To any.

  LYSIMACHUS Let me yet obtain my wish.

  HELICANUS

  Behold him.

  Helicanus draws a curtain, revealing Pericles lying upon a couch with a long overgrown beard, diffused hair, undecent nails on his fingers, and attired in sack-cloth

  This was a goodly person

  Till the disaster of one mortal night

  Drove him to this.

  LYSIMACHUS (to Pericles)

  Sir, King, all hail. Hail, royal sir.

  ⌈Pericles shrinks himself down upon his pillow⌉

  HELICANUS

  It is in vain. He will not speak to you.

  LORD OF MYTILENE

  Sir, we have a maid in Mytilene I durst wager