SCENE II. Mytilene. A room in a brothel. Pericles, Prince of Tyre  Shakespeare homepage  |  Pericles  | Act 4, Scene 2 

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 Enter Pandar, Bawd, and BOULT  Pandar  Boult! 

 BOULT  Sir? 

 Pandar  Search the market narrowly; Mytilene is full of 

 gallants. We lost too much money this mart by being 

 too wenchless. 

 Bawd  We were never so much out of creatures. We have but 

 poor three, and they can do no more than they can 

 do; and they with continual action are even as good as rotten. 

 Pandar  Therefore let's have fresh ones, whate'er we pay for 

 them. If there be not a conscience to be used in 

 every trade, we shall never prosper. 

 Bawd  Thou sayest true: 'tis not our bringing up of poor 

 bastards,--as, I think, I have brought up some eleven-- 

 BOULT  Ay, to eleven; and brought them down again. But 

 shall I search the market? 

 Bawd  What else, man? The stuff we have, a strong wind 

 will blow it to pieces, they are so pitifully sodden. 

 Pandar  Thou sayest true; they're too unwholesome, o' 

 conscience. The poor Transylvanian is dead, that 

 lay with the little baggage. 

 BOULT  Ay, she quickly pooped him; she made him roast-meat 

 for worms. But I'll go search the market. 



 Exit  Pandar  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? 

 Pandar  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 hatched. 

 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. 

 Pandar  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  BOULT  [To MARINA]  Come your ways. My masters, you say 

 she's a virgin? 

 First Pirate  O, sir, we doubt it not. 

 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 refused. 

 Bawd  What's her price, Boult? 

 BOULT  I cannot be bated one doit of a thousand pieces. 

 Pandar  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 you. 

 BOULT  Performance shall follow. 



 Exit  MARINA  Alack that Leonine was so slack, so slow! 

 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? 

 MARINA  That I am pretty. 

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

 MARINA  I accuse them not. 

 Bawd  You are light into my hands, where you are like to live. 

 MARINA  The more my fault 

 To scape his hands where I was like to die. 

 Bawd  Ay, and you shall live in pleasure. 

 MARINA  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? 

 MARINA  Are you a woman? 

 Bawd  What would you have me be, an I be not a woman? 

 MARINA  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 bowed as I would have 

 you. 

 MARINA  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 

 you up. Boult's returned. 



 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 prithee 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? 

 Bawd  Who, Monsieur Veroles? 

 BOULT  Ay, he: he offered to cut a caper at the 

 proclamation; but he made a groan at it, and swore 

 he would see 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 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. 

 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. 

 MARINA  I understand you not. 

 BOULT  O, take her home, mistress, take her home: these 

 blushes of hers must be quenched with some present practise. 

 Bawd  Thou sayest 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 mayst 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. 

 Bawd  Boult, spend thou that in the town: report what a 

 sojourner we have; you'll lose nothing by custom. 

 When nature flamed 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-inclined. I'll bring home some to-night. 

 Bawd  Come your ways; follow me. 

 MARINA  If fires be hot, knives sharp, 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? 



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