William Shakespeare - The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

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 doorkeeper!

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 womenkind? 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 he my master, or rather, my mistress.

MARINA.

Neither of these are so had 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 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 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. ome, I’ll do for thee what I can; come your ways.

[Exeunt.]

ACT V.

[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 neeld composes

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

That even her art sistrs 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 fervour 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.]

SCENE I. On board Pericles’ ship, off Mytilene. A close pavilion on deck, with a curtain before it; Pericles within it, reclined on a couch. A barge lying beside the Tyrian vessel.

[Enter two Sailors, one belonging to the Tyrian vessel, the other to the barge; to them Helicanus.]

TYRIAN SAILOR.

[To the Sailor of Mytilene.]

Where is lord Helicanus? he can resolve you.

O, here he is.

Sir, there’s a barge put off from Mytilene,

And in it is Lysimachus the governor,

Who craves to come aboard. What is your will?

HELICANUS.

That he have his. Call up some gentlemen.

TYRIAN SAILOR.

Ho, gentlemen! my lord calls.

[Enter two or three Gentlemen.]

FIRST GENTLEMAN.

Doth your lordship call?

HELICANUS.

Gentlemen, there s some of worth would come aboard;

I pray ye, greet them fairly.

[The Gentlemen and the two Sailors descend, and go on board the barge.

Enter, from thence, Lysimachus and Lords; with the Gentlemen and the two sailors.

TYRIAN SAILOR.

Sir,

This is the man that can, in aught you would,

Resolve you.

LYSIMACHUS.

Hail, reverend sir! the gods preserve you!

HELICANUS.

And you, sir, to outlive the age I am,

And die as I would do.

LYSIMACHUS.

You wish me well.

Being on shore, honouring of Neptune’s triumphs,

Seeing this goodly vessel ride before us,

I made to it, to know of whence you are.

HELICANUS.

First, what is your place?

LYSIMACHUS.

I am the governor of this place you lie before.

HELICANUS.

Sir,

Our vessel is of Tyre, in it the king;

A man who for this three months hath not spoken

To any one, nor taken sustenance

But to prorogue his grief.

LYSIMACHUS.

Upon what ground is his distemperature?

HELICANUS.

‘Twould be too tedious to repeat;

But the main grief springs from the loss

Of a beloved daughter and a wife.

LYSIMACHUS.

May we not see him?

HELICANUS.

You may;

But bootless is your sight: he will not speak

To any.

LYSIMACHUS.

Yet let me obtain my wish.

HELICANUS.

Behold him.

[Pericles discovered.]

This was a goodly person.

Till the disaster that, one mortal night,

Drove him to this.

LYSIMACHUS.

Sir king, all hail! the gods preserve you!

Hail, royal sir!

HELICANUS.

It is in vain; he will not speak to you.

FIRST LORD.

Sir,

We have a maid in Mytilene, I durst wager,