Bawd. Why, to give over, I pray you? Is it a.. fhame to get when we are old?

Pand. Ö, 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 fome pretty estate, 'twere not amifs to keep our door hatch'd. Befides, the fore terms we ftand upon with the gods, will be ftrong with us for giving over. Bawd. Come, other forts offend as well as we ". Pand. As well as we! ay, and better too; we offend worse. Neither is our profeffion any trade; it's no calling but here comes Boult,

Enter the Pirates, and Boult dragging in Marina. Boult. Come your ways. [To Marina.] My mafters, you say she's a virgin?

1 Pirat. O fir, we doubt it not.

Boult. Mafter, I have gone thorough for this piece, you fee: if you like her, fo; if not, I have loft my

earnest.

Bawd. Boult, has fhe any qualities?

Boult. She has a good face, fpeaks well, and hath excellent good cloaths; there's no farther neceffity of qualities can make her be refused.

the commodity wages not with the danger:

-] i. e. is not equal to it. Several examples of this expreffion are given in the notes on Shakspeare, laft edition:

his taints and honours

to keep our door hatch'd;

"Wag'd equal with him." Ant. and Cleop. STEEVENS. -] The doors or hatches of brothels, in the time of our author, feem to have had some distinguishing mark. So in Cupid's Whirligig, 16:6:"Set fome picks upon your hatch, and I pray, profefs to keep a bawdy-house."

MALONE.

Come, other forts offend as well as we.] From her husband's anfwer, I fufpe& the poet wrote-Other trades, &c. MALONE.

I have gone thorough] i. e. I have bid a high price for her, gone far in my attempt to purchase her.

STEEVENS.
Bawd.

Bawd. What's her price, Boult ?

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

Pand. Well, follow me, my masters; you shall have your money prefently. Wife, take her in; inftruct her what he has to do, that fhe may not be raw in her entertainment 7.

[Exeunt Pander and Pirates. 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, fhall have her firft. Such a maiden-head were no cheap thing, if men were as they have been. Get this done as I command you.

Boult. Performance fhall follow.

[Exit Boult. Mar. Alack, that Leonine was fo flack, fo

flow!

(He should have struck, not spoke ;) or that these pi

rates,

Not enough barbarous, had but over-board
Thrown me, to feek my mother!

Bared. Why lament you, pretty one?

Mar. That I am pretty.

Bawd. Come, the gods have done their part in

you.

I cannot be bated one doit of a thousand pieces.] This speech fhould feem to fuit the pirate. However, it may belong to Boult.- I cannot get them to bate me one doit of a thousand

pieces. MALONE.

that he may not be raw in her entertainment.] Unripe, unfilfull. So in Hamlet: - and yet but raw neither, in refpect of his quick fail.”

MALONE.

and cry, He that will give moft, fhall have her first.] The prices of firft and fecondary proftitution are exactly fettled in the old profe romance already quoted: "Go thou and make a crye through the cyte that of all men that fhall enhabyte with her carnally, the fyrft fhall gyve me a pounde of golde, and after that echone a peny of golde." STEEVENS.

9

bad but over-board

Thrown me,--] All the copies are here evidently corrupt," They read had not o'er-board &c. MALONE.

Mar,

Mar. I accufe them not.

Bawd. You are lit into my hands, where you are like to live.

Mar. The more my fault, to 'fcape his hands, where I

Was like to die.

Bawd. Ay, and you fhall live in pleasure.
Mar. No.

Bawd. Yes indeed fhall you, and tafte gentlemen of all fafhions. You fhall fare well; you fhall have the difference of all complexions. What! do you stop your ears?

Mar. Are you a woman?

Bawd. What would you have me be, an I be not a woman?

Mar. An honeft woman, or not a woman.

Bawd. Marry, whip thee, gofling: I think I fhall have fomething to do with you. Come, you are a young foolish fapling, and must be bowed as I would have you.

Mar. The gods defend me!

Bawd. If it please the gods to defend you by men,' then men must comfort you, men muft feed you, men must stir you up.-Boult's return'd,

Enter Boult.

Now, fir, haft thou cry'd her through the market? Boult. I have cry'd her almoft to the number of her hairs; I have drawn her picture with my voice.

Bawd. And I pr'ythee tell me, how doft thou find the inclination of the people, efpecially of the younger fort?

Boult. 'Faith they liften'd to me, as they would have hearken'd to their father's teftament. There was a Spaniard's mouth fo water'd, that he went to bed to her very defcription.

Bawd. We fhall have him here to-morrow with his beft ruff on.

Boult.

Boult. To-night, to-night. But, mistress, do you know the French knight that cowers i'the hams '? Bawd. Who? monfieur Veroles?

Boult. Ay; he offered to cut a caper at the proclamation; but he made a groan at it, and fwore he would fee her to-morrow 2.

Bawd. Well, well; as for him, he brought his difeafe hither here he doth but repair it *. I know he will come in our fhadow, to scatter his crowns in the fun '.

Boult. Well, if we had of every nation a traveller, we should lodge them with this fign 4.

I

Bawd.

that cowers i'the hams?] To cower is to fink by bending the hams. So in King Henry VI:

"The fplitting rocks cour'd in the finking fands."

Again, in Gammer Gurton's Needle:

They cow'r fo o'er the coles, their eies be blear'd with fmooke." STEEVENS.

2

be offered to cut a caper at the proclamation; but he made a groan at it, and fwore he would fee her to-morrow.] If there were no other proof of this piece's having been written by Shakspeare, this admirable ftroke of humour would, in my apprehenfion, ftamp it as his. MALONE.

here he doth but repair it. To repair here means to renovate. So in Cymbeline: O disloyal thing! That fhould't repair my youth

3

MALONE.

to featter his crowns in the fun.] The allufion is to the lues venerea. It occurs frequently in our author's plays. So in Meafure for Meafure:

Lucio. A French crown more.

"Gent. Thou art always figuring difeafes in me"- MALONE. I know he will come in our fladow to featter his crowns in the fun. This paffage, as the words which compofe it are arranged at prefent, is to me unintelligible. I would correct and read: "I know he will come in, to fcatter his crowns in the fhadow of our fun. -I fuppofe the bawd means to call Marina the Jun of her houfe. So in King Richard III:

"Witness my fun, now in the fhade of death."

There is indeed a proverbial phrafe alluded to in Hamlet, and introduced in K. Lear:-" out of heaven's benediction into the warm fun." But I cannot adapt it to this paffage. Let the reader try. STEEVENS.

ave fould lodge them with this fign.] If a traveller from every part of the globe were to affemble in Mitylene, they would all

Тва

Bawd. Pray you, come hither a while. You have fortunes coming upon you. Mark me; you must feem to do that fearfully, which you commit willingly; to defpife profit, where you have moft gain. To weep that you live as you do, makes pity in your lovers Seldom, but that pity begets you a good opinion, and that opinion a meer profit 5. Mar. I understand you not.

Boult. O take her home, mistress, take her home: thefe blufhes of her's must be quench'd with fome prefent practice.

Bawd. Thou fay'ft true i'faith, fo they muft; for your bride goes to that with fhame, which is her way to go with warrant 6.

Boult. 'Faith fome do, and fome do not. But, mistress, if I have bargain'd for the joint,

Bawd. Thou may'ft cut a morfel off the spit.
Boult. I may fo.

Bawd. Who fhould deny it? Come young one, I like the manner of your garments well.

refort to this boufe, while we had fuch a fign to it as this virgin.— This, I think, is the meaning. A fimilar eulogium is pronounced on Imogen in Cymbeline: She's a good fign, but I have feen fmall reflection of her wit." Perhaps there is fome allufion to the conftellation Virgo. MALONE.

in Cate:

lodge them with this fign.] A term from the chafe. So

"The deer is lodg'd, I've track'd her to her covert." STEEVENS.

a mere profit.] i. e. an absolute, a certain profit. Sa in Hamlet:

to go

"Engag'd my friend to his mere enemy."

goes

MALONE.

6 for your bride to that with fhame, which is her way with warrant.] You fay true; for even a bride, who has the fanction of the law to warrant her proceeding, will not surrender her perfon without fome constraint. Which is her way to go, means only to which she is entitled to go. MALONE.

Boult.