Mar. Alack, that Leonine was so slack, so slow! (He should have struck, not spoke ;) or that these pirates, (Not enough barbarous,) had not overboard Thrown me, 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 are 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. 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? 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 Boult's returned. you up. 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. +"For to seek," &c.- MALOne, Bawd. And I pr'ythee 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? 8 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. 9 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. 1 You have Bawd. Pray you, come hither awhile. fortunes coming upon you. Mark me; you must seem to do that fearfully, which you commit willingly; to despise profit, where you have most gain. To weep that you live as you do, makes pity in your lovers: Seldom, but that pity begets you a good opinion, and that opinion a mere profit. 2 8 that cowers 'the hams?] To cower is to sink by bending the hams. 9 - he offered to cut a caper at the proclamation; but he made a groan at it, and swore he would see her to-morrow.] If there were no other proof of Shakspeare's hand in this piece, this admirable stroke of humour would furnish decisive evidence of it. MALONE. we should lodge them with this sign.] If a traveller from every part of the globe were to assemble in Mitylene, they would all resort to this house, while we had such a sign to it as this virgin. 1— 2 — a mere profit.] i. e. an absolute, a certain profit. Mar. I understand you not. Boult. O, take her home, mistress, take her home: these blushes of her's must be quenched 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. But, mistress, if I have bargained for the joint, Bawd. Thou may'st 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. tom. Bawd. Boult, spend thou that in the town: report what a sojourner we have: you'll lose nothing by cusWhen 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 eels3, as my giving out her beauty stir up the lewdly-inclined. I'll bring home some tonight. 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! Bard. What have we to do with Diana? Pray you, will you go with us? [Exeunt. 3 · thunder shall not so awake the beds of eels,] Thunder is not supposed to have an effect on fish in general, but on eels only, which are roused by it from the mud, and are therefore more easily taken. SCENE IV. Tharsus. A Room in Cleon's House. Enter CLEON and DIONYZA. Dion. Why, are you foolish? Can it be undone? 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 the spacious world, I'd 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, If thou hadst drunk to him, it had been a kindness Who can cross it? Dion. That she is dead. Nurses are not the fates, To foster it, nor ever to preserve. She died by night+; I'll say so. Unless you play the impious innocent, And for an honest attribute, cry out, She died by foul play. Cle. 5 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 ↑ Becoming well thy feat:] Feat, i. e. of a piece with the rest of thy exploit. +"at night;" - MALONE. 5 Unless you play the impious innocent,] She calls him, an impious simpleton, because such a discovery would touch the life of one of his own family, his wife. An innocent was formerly a common appellation for an idiot. The pretty wrens of Tharsus will fly hence, Cle. To such proceeding Who ever but his approbation added, Though not his pre-consent, he did not flow Dion. Be it so then: Yet none does know, but you, how she came dead, She did disdain my child, and stood between Whilst ours was blurted at, and held a malkin, Cle. Dion. And as for Pericles, Heavens forgive it! What should he say? We wept after her hearse, And even yet we mourn her monument Is almost finish'd, and her epitaphs 6 Cle. +"coward a spirit." MALONE. a malkin, Thou art like the harpy, Not worth the time of day.] A malkin is a coarse wench. Not worth the time of day, is, not worth a good day, or good morrow; undeserving the most common and usual salutation. 7 It greets me,] Perhaps it greets me, may mean, it pleases me c'est à mon gré. If greet be used in its ordinary sense of saluting or meeting with congratulation, it is surely a very harsh phrase. |
