LITMIR.BIZ

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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 judgement 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 doorkeeper!

       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.

       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.

       BAWD. Boult, take her away; use her at thy pleasure: crack the glass 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!

       [Exit.]

       BOULT.

       Come, mistress; come your ways with me.

       MARINA.

       Whither wilt thou have me?

       BOULT.

      

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