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

Pandar. Boult!

Boult. Sir?

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?

Pandar. Thou sayest true; they're too unwholesome, o'
conscience. The poor Transylvanian is dead, that
lay with the little baggage.

Boult. Ay, she quickly pooped him; she made him roast-meat
for worms. But I'll go search the market.

Pandar. As well as we! ay, and better too; we offend worse.
Neither is our profession any trade; it's no
calling. But here comes Boult.

Boult. [To MARINA] Come your ways. My masters, you say
she's a virgin?

First Pirate. O, sir, we doubt it not.

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?

Boult. I cannot be bated one doit of a thousand pieces.

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.

Boult. Performance shall follow.

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.

Marina. I understand you not.

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. 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.

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.

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

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

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. 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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.