Speeches (Lines) for Bawd in "Pericles, Prince of Tyre"

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. 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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Lysimachus. How now! How a dozen of virginities?

Bawd. Now, the gods to-bless your honour!

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. That dignifies the renown of a bawd, no less than it
gives a good report to a number to be chaste.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!