some 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 Mitylene.

say.

Lys. If she'd do the deeds of darkness, thou would'st

Bawd. Your honour knows what 'tis to say, well enough.

Lys. 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

Lys. What, pr'ythee?

Boult. O, sir! I can be modest.

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

Enter MARINA.

Bawd. Here comes that which grows to the stalk;— never plucked yet, I can assure you.-Is she not a fair creature?

Lys. 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.

Lys. I beseech you, do.

Bawd. First, I would have you note, this is an honourable man. [TO MARINA. Mar. 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.

7

Mar. If he govern the country, you are bound to

wholesome INIQUITY,]

"Iniquity" is misprinted impunity in every old copy after the first. The printer of the quarto, 1619, possibly thought " iniquity” a misprint, and himself misprinted impunity for impurity.

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.

Mar. What he will do graciously, I will thankfully receive.

Lys. Have 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 Bawd, Pander, and BOULT. Lys. Now, pretty one, how long have you been at

this trade?

Mar. What trade, sir?

Lys. Why, I cannot name but I shall offend.

Mar. I cannot be offended with my trade. Please you to name it.

Lys. How long have you been of this profession?
Mar. Ever since I can remember.

Lys. Did you go to it so young? Were you a gamester at five, or at seven?

Mar. Earlier too, sir, if now I be one.

Lys. Why, the house you dwell in proclaims you to be a creature of sale.

Mar. Do you know this house to be a place of such resort, and will come into it? I hear say, you are of honourable parts, and are the governor of this place.

Lys. Why, hath your principal made known unto you who I am?

Mar. Who is my principal?

Go thy ways.] These words, addressed probably to the Pander, (or possibly to Marina, as a sort of instruction not to be too backward) are only in the quarto, 1609. Some modern editors have assigned them to Lysimachus, without any information as to the change made in the distribution. They may belong to Lysimachus, but we prefer adherence to the old copies, when a change is not required by the sense.

Lys. Why, your herb-woman; she that sets seed 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.

Mar. If you were born to honour, show it now;

If put upon you, make the judgment good

That thought you worthy of it.

Lys. How's this? how's this?-Some more;-be sage.

Mar. For me,

That am a maid, though most ungentle fortune
Hath plac'd me in this sty, where, since I came,
Diseases have been sold dearer than physic,-
That the gods

Would set me free from this unhallow'd place,
Though they did change me to the meanest bird
That flies i' the purer air!

Lys.

I did not think

Thou could'st have spoke so well; ne'er dream'd thou could'st.

Had I brought hither a corrupted mind,

Thy speech had alter'd it. Hold, here's gold for thee: Persevere in that clear way thou goest,

And the gods strengthen thee!

For me, be you thoughten

Mar. The gods preserve you!
Lys.
That I came with no ill intent; for to me
The very doors and windows savour vilely.
Farewell. Thou art a piece of virtue, and
I doubt not but thy training hath been noble.

9 Hath plac'd me in this sty,] Modern editors have re-written this passage as follows:

"Hath plac'd me here within this loathsome sty."

Lower down, they inserted good before "gods." This is most unwarrantably misrepresenting the ancient text.

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.

Enter BOULT.

Boult. I beseech your honour, one piece for me.
Lys. Avaunt, thou damned door-keeper!

house,

But for this virgin that doth prop it, would
Sink, and overwhelm you. Away!

Your

[Exit LYSIMACHUS. 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.

Mar. Whither would you have me?

Boult. I must have your maidenhead taken off, or the common hangman shall execute it. Come your

way.

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 profession2 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.

1

under the COPE,] i. e. under the cope or covering of heaven.

2 SHE makes our profession-] In all the old copies it is, "He makes," but

it was probably a misprint.

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.

Mar. 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! [Exit Bawd. Boult. Come, mistress; come your way with me. Mar. Whither wilt thou have me?

Boult. To take from you the jewel you hold so dear. Mar. Pr'ythee, tell me one thing first.

Boult. Come now, your one thing

Mar. What canst thou wish thine enemy to be? Boult. Why, I could wish him to be my master; or rather, my mistress.

Mar. 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'rt the damn'd door-keeper to every coystrel3
That hither comes inquiring for his Tib;

To the cholerick fisting of each 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?

Mar. Do any thing but this thou doest. Empty Old receptacles, or common sewers, of filth;

3 to every coYSTREL] "Coystrel seems to be corrupted from kestrel, a bastard kind of hawk. The word has occurred before in Vol. iii. p. 331. In the quarto, 1609, it is spelt custerell.