Act IV.
Scene II.
Scene II.—Mitylene. A Room in a Brothel
Enter Pandar, Bawd, and BOULT.
Pand. Boult.
Boult. Sir?
Pand. Search the market narrowly; Mitylene
is full of gallants; we lost too much money this
mart by being too wenchless.
Bawd. We were never so much out of crea-
tures. 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.
Pand. Therefore, let's have fresh ones, what-
e'er we pay for them. If there be not a con-
science to be used in every trade, we shall never
prosper.
Bawd. Thou sayst true; 'tis not the 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.
Pand. Thou sayst true; they're too unwhole-
some, 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.
Pand. 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?
Pand. 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.
Pand. 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. 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 thou-
sand pieces.
Pand. 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 maiden-
head were no cheap thing, if men were as
they have been. Get this done as I command
you.
Boult. Performance shall follow. [Exit.
Mar. 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?
Mar. That I am pretty.
Bawd. Come, the gods have done their part
in you.
Mar. I accuse them not.
Bawd. You arc lit into my hands, where you
are like to live.
Mar. The more my fault
To 'scape his hands where I was like to die.
Bawd. Ay, and you shall live in pleasure.
Mar. No.
Bawd. Yes, indeed, shall you, and taste gen-
tlemen of all fashions. You shall fare well; you
shall have the difference of all complexions.
What! do you stop your ears?
Mar. Are you a woman?
Bawd. What would you have me be, an I be
not a woman?
Mar. An honest woman, or not a woman.
Bawd. Marry, whip thee, gosling; I think I
shall have something to do with you. Come,
you are a young foolish sapling, and must be
bowed as I would have you.
Mar. 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 re-
turned.
Re-enter BOULT.
Now, sir, hast thou cried her through the
market?
Boult. I have cried her almost to the num-
ber 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 testa-
ment. 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 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 tra-
veller, 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 fear-
fully, which you commit willingly; to de-
spise 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.
Mar. I understand you not.
Boult. O! take her home, mistress, take her
home; these blushes of hers must be quenched
with some present practice.
Bawd. Thou sayst 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 framed 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.
Mar. 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.
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