Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

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 fome pretty estate, 'twere not amifs to keep our door hatch'd. Befides, the fore terms we stand upon with the gods, will be strong with us for giving over.

Bawd. Come, other forts offend as well as we.

Pand. As well as we! ay, and better too; we offend worse. Neither is our profeffion any trade; it's no calling-but here comes Boult.

Enter the Pirates, and BOULT dragging in MARIŅA.

Boult. Come your ways. [To MARINA.]-My masters, you say she's a virgin?

1 Pirate. O fir, we doubt it not.

Boult. Mafter, I have gone thorough for this piece, you fee if you like her, fo; if not, I have loft my earnest. Bawd. Boult, has the any qualities?

:

Boult. She has a good face, speaks well, and has excellent good clothes; there's no further neceffity of qualities can make her be refused.

Bawd. What's her price, Boult ?

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; inftruct her what the has to do, that she may not be raw in her entertainment. [Exeunt PANDER 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 moft, shall have her first. Such a maidenhead were no cheap thing, if men

were

were as they have been. Get this done as I command

you.

Boult. Performance fhall follow.

[Exit BOULT.

Mar. Alack, that Leonine was fo flack, fo flow!

(He should have struck, not spoke;) or that these pirates, (Not enough barbarous,) had not overboard

Thrown me, to feek my mother!

Bawd. Why lament you, pretty one?

Mar. That I am pretty.

Bard. Come, the gods have done their part in you.

Mar. I accufe 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. Ay, and you shall live in pleasure.
Mar. No.

Bard. Yes, indeed, fhall you, and tafte gentlemen of all fashions. You shall fare well; you fhall 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.

Bard. Marry, whip thee, gofling: I think I fhall have fomething to do with you. Come, you are a young foolith fapling, 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 mult feed you, men must stir you up. Boult's return'd,

[ocr errors]

Enter

Enter BOULT.

Now, fir, haft thou cry'd her through the market? Boult. I have cry'd her almost to the number of her hairs; I have drawn her picture with my voice.

Bawd. And I pr'ythee tell me, how doft thou find the inclination of the people, especially of the younger fort?

Boult. 'Faith, they listen'd to me, as they would have hearken'd to their father's teftament. There was a Spaniard's mouth fo water'd, that he went to bed to her very defcription.

Bawd. We fhall have him here to-morrow with his best ruff on.

Boult. To-night, to-night. But, miftrefs, do you know the French knight that cowers i'the hams?

Bawd. Who? monfieur Veroles?

Boult. Ay; he offered to cut a caper at the proclamation; but he made a groan at it, and swore he would fee 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 fhadow, to fcatter his crowns in the fun.

Boult. Well, if we had of every nation a traveller, we fhould lodge them with this fign.

Bawd. Pray you, come hither awhile. You have for. tunes coming upon you. Mark me; you must seem to do that fearfully, which you commit willingly; to despise profit, where you have moft 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.

Mar. I understand you not.

Boult. O, take her home, miftrefs, take her home: thefe

blushes

blushes of her's must be quench'd with fome prefent prac

tice.

Bawd. Thou fay'ft true, i'faith, fo they must: for your bride goes to that with fhame, which is her way to with warrant.

go

Boult. 'Faith fome do, and some do not. But iniftrefs, if I have bargain'd for the joint,

Bawd. Thou may'st cut a morfel off the spit.

Boult. I may fo.

Bawd. Who fhould 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 fojourner we have; you'll lofe nothing by custom. When nature framed this piece, fhe meant thee a good turn; therefore say what a paragon fhe is, and thou hast the harvest out of thine own report.

Boult. I warrant you, mistress, thunder fhall 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 fharp, 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.

SCENE IV.

Tharfus. A Room in Cleon's House.

Enter CLEON and DIONYZA.

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

Cle.

Cle. O Dionyza, fuch a piece of flaughter The fun and moon ne'er look'd upon !

Dion.

You'll turn a child again.

I think

Cle. Were I chief lord of all this fpacious world, I'd give it to undo the deed. O lady,

Much less in blood than virtue, yet a princess

To equal any fingle crown o'the earth,

I'the justice of compare! O villain Leonine,
Whom thou haft poison'd too!

If thou hadft drunk to him, it had been a kindness

Becoming well thy feat: what canft thou say,

When noble Pericles fhall demand his child?

Dion. That the is dead.

Nurses are not the fates,

To fofter it, nor ever to preserve.

She died by night; I'll fay fo. Who can cross it?
Unless you play the impious innocent,

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 Tharfus will fly hence,
And open this to Pericles. I do fhame
To think of what a noble strain you are,
And of how cow'd a spirit.

Cle.

To fuch proceeding

Who ever but his approbation added,
Though not his pre-confent, he did not flow

From honourable courses.

[blocks in formation]

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

She

« AnteriorContinua »