Mytilene. 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 cavalleria, 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'd do the deeds 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 PANDAR with MARINA.

	Is she not a fair creature?

Lysimachus	Faith, she would serve after a long voyage at sea.
										[Giving money to BAWD.
	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, taking her aside.] 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 PANDAR, BAWD, and BOULT.

Lysimachus	Now, pretty one, how long have you been at this trade?

Marina	What trade, sir?

Lysimachus	Why, I cannot name 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're 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 judgement 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 - 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	I did not think thou couldst have spoke so well; ne'er 
	dreamt thou couldst. Had I brought hither a corrupted mind, 
	thy speech had altered 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 damnd 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 and PANDAR.

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.
										[Exeunt BAWD and PANDAR.

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 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 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. 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 
	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.
