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
Complete Plays, The Page 352
