Should be the doctor’s patrimony, and

The surgeon’s feeding; follows it, that I

Must needs infect myself to give them maint’nance?

LYSIMACHUS

How’s this, how’s this? Some more. Be sage.

MARINA ⌈kneeling⌉ For me

That am a maid, though most ungentle fortune

Have franked me in this sty, where since I came

Diseases have been sold dearer than physic—

That the gods would set me free from this unhallowed

place,

Though they did change me to the meanest bird

That flies i’th’ purer air!

LYSIMACHUS ⌈moved⌉ I did not think

Thou couldst have spoke so well, ne’er dreamt thou

couldst.

⌈He lifts her up with his hands⌉

Though I brought hither a corrupted mind,

Thy speech hath altered it,

⌈He wipes the wet from her eyes⌉ and my foul thoughts

Thy tears so well hath laved that they’re now white.

I came here meaning but to pay the price,

A piece of gold for thy virginity;

Here’s twenty to relieve thine honesty.

Persever still in that clear way thou goest,

And the gods strengthen thee.

MARINA The good gods preserve you!

LYSIMACHUS

The very doors and windows savour vilely.

Fare thee well. Thou art a piece of virtue,

The best wrought up that ever nature made,

And I doubt not thy training hath been noble.

A curse upon him, die he like a thief,

That robs thee of thy honour. Hold, here’s more gold.

If thou dost hear from me, it shall be for thy good.

⌈Enter Boult standing ready at the door, making his obeisance unto him as Lysimachus should go out⌉

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 executioner shall do it. We’ll have no more gentlemen driven away. Come your ways, I say.

Enter Bawd and Pander

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.

⌈PANDER⌉ Boult, take her away. Use her at thy pleasure. Crack the ice 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 womenkind? Marry, come up, my dish of chastity with rosemary and bays. Exeunt Bawd and Pander

BOULT ⌈catching her rashly by the hand⌉ Come, mistress, come your way 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 can be so bad as thou art,

Since they do better thee in their command.

Thou hold‘st a place the painèd’st fiend of hell

Would not in reputation change with thee,

Thou damned doorkeeper to ev‘ry coistrel

That comes enquiring for his Tib.

To th’ choleric fisting of ev’ry rogue

Thy ear is liable. Thy food is such

As hath been belched 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 anything but this thou dost. Empty

Old receptacles or common sew’rs of filth,

Serve by indenture to the public hangman—

Any of these are yet better than this.

For what thou professest a baboon, could he speak,

Would own a name too dear. Here’s gold for thee.

If that thy master would make gain by me,

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 hath 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. ⌈The sign is removed⌉

Sc. 20 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 nee‘le composes

Nature’s own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or berry,

That e’en her art sisters the natural roses.

Her inkle, silk, twin with the rubied cherry;

That pupils lacks she none of noble race,