Lys. Go thy ways. Now, pretty one, how long have you been at this trade?

Mar. What trade, sir?

Lys. What I cannot name but I shall offend.

Mar. I cannot be offended with my trade. Please you to name it.

Lys. How long have you been of this profession?
Mar. Ever since I can remember.

Lys. Did you go to it so young? Were you a gamester at five, or at seven ?5

Mar. Earlier too, sir, if now I be one.

Lys. Why, the house you dwell in, proclaims you be a creature of sale.

to

Mar. Do you know this house to be a place of such resort, and will come into it? I hear say, you are of honourable parts, and are the governor of this place.

Lys. Why, hath your principal made known unto you who I am?

Mar. Who is my principal?

Lys. 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.

Mar. If you were born to honour, show it now; If put upon you, make the judgment good

That thought you worthy of it.

Lys. How's this? how's this? - Some more; — be

sage.

6

Mar. For me,

That am a maid, though most ungentle fortune

5 Were you a gamester, &c.] A gamester was formerly used to signify a wanton.

Some more; — be sage.] Lysimachus says this with a sneer. Proceed with your fine moral discourse.

Hath plac'd me here within this loathsome stie,
Where, since I came, diseases have been sold
Dearer than physick, O that the good 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!

Lys.

I did not think

Thou could'st have spoke so well; ne'er dream'd thou could'st.

Had I brought hither a corrupted mind,

Thy speech had alter'd it. Hold, here's gold for thee:
Perséver still in that clear way thou goest,

And the gods strengthen thee!
Mar. The gods preserve you!

Lys.

For me, be you thoughten

That I came with no ill intent: for to me
The very doors and windows savour vilely.
Farewell. 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 hear'st from me, It shall be for thy good.

[AS LYSIMACHUS is putting up his Purse,

BOULT enters.

Boult. I beseech your honour, one piece for me. Lys. Avaunt, thou damned door-keeper! Your house, But for this virgin that doth prop it up,

Would sink, and overwhelm you all. Away!

[Exit LYSIMACHUS.

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.

7

under the cope,] i. e. under the cope or covering of heaven.

Mar, Whither would you have me?

Boult. I must have your maidenhead taken off, or the common hangman shall execute it. Come your way. We'll have no more gentlemen driven away. Come your ways, I say.

Re-enter Bawd.

Bard. How now! what's the matter?

Boult. Worse and worse, mistress; She has here spoken holy words to the lord Lysimachus.

Bard. 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.

Mar. Hark, hark, you gods!

Bard. 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 women-kind? Marry come up, my dish of chastity with rosemary and bays!8 [Exit Bawd. Boult. Come, mistress; come your way with me. Mar. Whither would you have me?

8

Boult. To take from you the jewel you hold so dear. Mar. Pr'ythee, tell me one thing first.

Boult. Come now, your one thing.

my dish of chastity with rosemary and bays!] Anciently many dishes were served up with this garniture, during the season of Christmas. The bawd means to call her a piece of ostentatious virtue.

Mar. What canst thou wish thine enemy to be?

Boult. Why, I could wish him to be my master, or rather, my mistress.

Mar. Neither of these are yet so bad as thou art,
Since they do better thee in their command.
Thou hold'st a place, for which the pained'st fiend
Of hell would not in reputation change:
Thou'rt the damn'd door-keeper to every coystrel
That hither comes enquiring for his tib;9
To the cholerick fisting of each rogue thy ear
Is liable; thy very food is such

As hath been belch'd on by infected lungs.'

Boult. What would you have me? go to the wars, would you ? where a man may serve seven years for the loss of a leg, and have not money enough in the end to buy him a wooden one?

Mar. Do any thing but this thou doest. Empty
Old receptacles, common sewers, of filth;

Serve by indenture to the common hangman;
Any of these ways are better yet than this:
For that which thou professest, a baboon,+
Could he but speak, would own a name too dear.
O that the gods would safely from this place
Deliver me! Here, here is gold for thee.
If that thy master would gain aught by me,
Proclaim that I can sing, weave, sew, and dance,
With other virtues, which I'll keep from boast;

That hither comes enquiring for his tib;] To every mean or drunken fellow that comes to enquire for a girl. Coysterel is properly a wine-vessel. 7b is a contraction of Tabitha, probably it was formerly a cant name for a strumpet.

1 As hath been belch'd on by infected lungs.] Marina, who is designed for a character of juvenile innocence, appears much too knowing in the impurities of a brothel; nor are her expressions more chastised than her ideas. STEEVENS.

+ "For that which thou professest, a baboon, could he speak,
Would own a name too dear. That the gods
Would safely from this place deliver me," &c. MALone.

And I will undertake all these to teach.
I doubt not but this populous city will
Yield many scholars.

Boult. But can you teach all this you speak of?
Mar. Prove that I cannot, take me home again,
And prostitute me to the basest groom

That doth frequent your house.

Boult. Well, I will see what I can do for thee: if I can place thee, I will.

Mar. But, amongst honest women?

Boult. 'Faith, my acquaintance lies little amongst them. But since my master and mistress have bought you, there's no going but by their consent; therefore I will make them acquainted with your purpose, and I doubt not but I shall find them tractable enough. Come, I'll do for thee what I can; come your ways. [Exeunt.

2

ACT V.

Enter Gower.

Gow. Marina thus the brothel 'scapes, and chances

Into an honest house, our story says.

She sings like one immortal, and she dances

As goddess-like to her admired lays:

Deep clerks she dumbs; and with her neeld composes 2

Nature's own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry;

That even her art sisters the natural roses;

Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied cherry:
That pupils lacks she none of noble race,
Who pour their bounty on her; and her gain

and with her neeld composes-] Neeld for needle.

3 Her inkle,] Inkle, anciently signified a particular kind of crewel or worsted with which ladies worked flowers, &c.