Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

ACT IV BOULT. Ay, she quickly poop'd him; she made him
Sc. II
But I'll go search the market.

roast-meat for worms.

[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?

29

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 hatch'd. 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.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

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 refus'd.

BAWD. What's her price, Boult?

50

BOULT. I cannot be bated one doit of a thousand
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 maidenhead were no cheap thing, if men

were as they have been. Get this done as I command ACT IV you.

BOULT. Performance shall follow.

MAR. Alack, that Leonine was so slack, so slow!

62

[exit.

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. 70
MAR. I accuse them not.

Bawd. You are light 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 gentlemen 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?

81

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're a young foolish sapling, and must be bow'd as I would have you.

MAR. The Gods defend me!

90

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 return'd.

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 pr'ythee tell me, how dost thou find the

Sc. II

[ocr errors][merged small]

inclination of the people, especially of the younger

99

sort? BOULT. 'Faith, they listen'd to me as they would have hearken'd to their father's testament. There was a Spaniard's mouth so water'd, 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 offer'd to cut a caper at the proclamation; but he made a groan at it, and swore he would see her to-morrow.

III

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.

117

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.

MAR. I understand you not.

BOULT. O, take her home, Mistress, take her home: these blushes of her's must be quench'd with some present practice.

BAWD. Thou say'st 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.

Mistress, if I have bargain'd for the joint

BAWD. Thou may'st cut a morsel off the spit.

BOULT. I may so.

131

But,

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 chang'd ACT IV yet. 139 Sc. II BAWD. Boult, spend thou that in the town: report what a sojourner we have; you'll lose nothing by custom. When Nature fram'd 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-inclin❜d. 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!

150

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.

DION. Why, are you foolish? Can it be undone ?

CLE. O Dionyza, such a piece of slaughter

The Sun and Moon ne'er look'd upon! DION.

You'll turn a child again.

I think

CLE. 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?
DION. 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 impious' innocent,

1 i.e. treacherous to your own family.

ΤΟ

ACT IV
Sc. III

And for an honest attribute cry out

She died by foul play.

CLE.

O, go to. Well, well,

Of all the faults beneath the Heavens, the Gods
Do like this worst.

DION.
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.

CLE.

To such proceeding
Who ever but his approbation added,

Though not his prime consent, he did not flow
From honourable sources.

[blocks in formation]

Yet none does know, but you, how she came dead,
Nor none can know, Leonine being gone.

She did distain my child, and stood between
Her and her fortunes: none would look on her,

But cast their gazes on Marina's face;

Whilst our's was blurted at, and held a malkin,
Not worth the time of day.' It pierc'd me thorough;
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.

CLE.

DION. And as for Pericles,

20

30

Heavens forgive it !

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.

CLE.

Thou art like the harpy,

Which, to betray, dost, with thine Angel's face,

Seize with thine eagle's talons.

DION. You are like one that superstitiously

40

Doth swear to the Gods that Winter kills the flies: 50

But yet I know you'll do as I advise.

[exeunt.

1 i.e. an ordinary salutation.

« ZurückWeiter »