SCENE VI. The same. A room in the brothel. Pericles, Prince of Tyre  Shakespeare homepage  |  Pericles  | Act 4, Scene 6 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE VI. The same. A room in the brothel. 

 Enter Pandar, Bawd, and BOULT  Pandar  Well, I had rather than twice the worth of her she 

 had ne'er come here. 

 Bawd  Fie, fie upon her! she's able to freeze the god 

 Priapus, and undo a whole generation. We must 

 either get her ravished, or be rid of her. When she 

 should do for clients her fitment, and do me the 

 kindness of our profession, she has me her quirks, 

 her reasons, her master reasons, her prayers, her 

 knees; that she would make a puritan of the devil, 

 if he should cheapen a kiss of her. 

 BOULT  'Faith, I must ravish her, or she'll disfurnish us 

 of all our cavaliers, and make our swearers priests. 

 Pandar  Now, the pox upon her green-sickness for me! 

 Bawd  'Faith, there's no way to be rid on't but by the 

 way to the pox. Here comes the Lord Lysimachus disguised. 

 BOULT  We should have both lord and lown, if the peevish 

 baggage would but give way to customers. 



 Enter LYSIMACHUS  LYSIMACHUS  How now! How a dozen of virginities? 

 Bawd  Now, the gods to-bless your honour! 

 BOULT  I am glad to see your honour in good health. 

 LYSIMACHUS  You may so; 'tis the better for you that your 

 resorters stand upon sound legs. How now! 

 wholesome iniquity have you that a man may deal 

 withal, and defy the surgeon? 

 Bawd  We have here one, sir, if she would--but there never 

 came her like in Mytilene. 

 LYSIMACHUS  If she'ld do the deed of darkness, thou wouldst say. 

 Bawd  Your honour knows what 'tis to say well enough. 

 LYSIMACHUS  Well, call forth, call forth. 

 BOULT  For flesh and blood, sir, white and red, you shall 

 see a rose; and she were a rose indeed, if she had but-- 

 LYSIMACHUS  What, prithee? 

 BOULT  O, sir, I can be modest. 

 LYSIMACHUS  That dignifies the renown of a bawd, no less than it 

 gives a good report to a number to be chaste. 



 Exit BOULT  Bawd  Here comes that which grows to the stalk; never 

 plucked yet, I can assure you. 



 Re-enter BOULT with MARINA  Is she not a fair creature? 

 LYSIMACHUS  'Faith, she would serve after a long voyage at sea. 

 Well, there's for you: leave us. 

 Bawd  I beseech your honour, give me leave: a word, and 

 I'll have done presently. 

 LYSIMACHUS  I beseech you, do. 

 Bawd  [To MARINA]  First, I would have you note, this is 

 an honourable man. 

 MARINA  I desire to find him so, that I may worthily note him. 

 Bawd  Next, he's the governor of this country, and a man 

 whom I am bound to. 

 MARINA  If he govern the country, you are bound to him 

 indeed; but how honourable he is in that, I know not. 

 Bawd  Pray you, without any more virginal fencing, will 

 you use him kindly? He will line your apron with gold. 

 MARINA  What he will do graciously, I will thankfully receive. 

 LYSIMACHUS  Ha' you done? 

 Bawd  My lord, she's not paced yet: you must take some 

 pains to work her to your manage. Come, we will 

 leave his honour and her together. Go thy ways. 



 Exeunt Bawd, Pandar, and BOULT  LYSIMACHUS  Now, pretty one, how long have you been at this trade? 

 MARINA  What trade, sir? 

 LYSIMACHUS  Why, I cannot name't but I shall offend. 

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

 LYSIMACHUS  How long have you been of this profession? 

 MARINA  E'er since I can remember. 

 LYSIMACHUS  Did you go to 't so young? Were you a gamester at 

 five or at seven? 

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

 LYSIMACHUS  Why, the house you dwell in proclaims you to be a 

 creature of sale. 

 MARINA  Do you know this house to be a place of such resort, 

 and will come into 't? I hear say you are of 

 honourable parts, and are the governor of this place. 

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

 MARINA  Who is my principal? 

 LYSIMACHUS  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. 

 MARINA  If you were born to honour, show it now; 

 If put upon you, make the judgment good 

 That thought you worthy of it. 

 LYSIMACHUS  How's this? how's this? Some more; be sage. 

 MARINA  For me, 

 That am a maid, though most ungentle fortune 

 Have placed me in this sty, where, since I came, 

 Diseases have been sold dearer than physic, 

 O, that the 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! 

 LYSIMACHUS  I did not think 

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

 Had I brought hither a corrupted mind, 

 Thy speech had alter'd it. Hold, here's gold for thee: 

 Persever in that clear way thou goest, 

 And the gods strengthen thee! 

 MARINA  The good gods preserve you! 

 LYSIMACHUS  For me, be you thoughten 

 That I came with no ill intent; for to me 

 The very doors and windows savour vilely. 

 Fare thee well. 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 dost 

 Hear from me, it shall be for thy good. 



 Re-enter BOULT  BOULT  I beseech your honour, one piece for me. 

 LYSIMACHUS  Avaunt, thou damned door-keeper! 

 Your house, but for this virgin that doth prop it, 

 Would sink and overwhelm you. Away! 



 Exit  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. 

 MARINA  Whither would you have me? 

 BOULT  I must have your maidenhead taken off, or the common 

 hangman shall execute it. Come your ways. We'll 

 have no more gentlemen driven away. Come your ways, I say. 



 Re-enter Bawd  Bawd  How now! what's the matter? 

 BOULT  Worse and worse, mistress; she has here spoken holy 

 words to the Lord Lysimachus. 

 Bawd  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. 

 MARINA  Hark, hark, you gods! 

 Bawd  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! 



 Exit  BOULT  Come, mistress; come your ways with me. 

 MARINA  Whither wilt thou have me? 

 BOULT  To take from you the jewel you hold so dear. 

 MARINA  Prithee, tell me one thing first. 

 BOULT  Come now, your one thing. 

 MARINA  What canst thou wish thine enemy to be? 

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

 MARINA  Neither of these are 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 art the damned doorkeeper to every 

 Coistrel that comes inquiring for his Tib; 

 To the choleric fisting of every rogue 

 Thy ear is liable; thy food is such 

 As hath been belch'd on by infected lungs. 

 BOULT  What would you have me do? 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? 

 MARINA  Do any thing but this thou doest. Empty 

 OLD receptacles, or common shores, of filth; 

 Serve by indenture to the common hangman: 

 Any of these ways are yet better than this; 

 For what thou professest, a baboon, could he speak, 

 Would own a name too dear. O, that the gods 

 Would safely deliver me from this place! 

 Here, here's gold for thee. 

 If that thy master would gain by thee, 

 Proclaim that I can sing, weave, sew, and dance, 

 With other virtues, which I'll keep from boast: 

 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? 

 MARINA  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. 

 MARINA  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 

 Enter GOWER  GOWER  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 needle composes 

 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 

 She gives the cursed bawd. Here we her place; 

 And to her father turn our thoughts again, 

 Where we left him, on the sea. We there him lost; 

 Whence, driven before the winds, he is arrived 

 Here where his daughter dwells; and on this coast 

 Suppose him now at anchor. The city strived 

 God Neptune's annual feast to keep: from whence 

 Lysimachus our Tyrian ship espies, 

 His banners sable, trimm'd with rich expense; 

 And to him in his barge with fervor hies. 

 In your supposing once more put your sight 

 Of heavy Pericles; think this his bark: 

 Where what is done in action, more, if might, 

 Shall be discover'd; please you, sit and hark. 



 Exit  Shakespeare homepage  |  Pericles  | Act 4, Scene 6 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene 