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 coystrel
That hither comes enquiring for his tib;'
To the cholerick fifting of each rogue thy ear
Is liable; thy very food is such

As hath been belch'd on by infected lungs.2

BOULT. What would you have me? 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 doeft. Empty Old receptacles, common fewers, of filth; Serve by indenture to the common hangman;

to every coystrel

That hither comes enquiring for his tib ;) To every mean or drunken fellow that comes to enquire for a girl. Coysterel is properly a wine-vessel. Tib is, I think, a contraction of Tabitha. It was formerly a cant name for a strumpet. See Vol. VIII. p. 272, n. 3. MALONE.

Tib was a common nick-name for a wanton. So, in Nofce te, (Humours) by Richard Turner, 1607:

They wondred much at Tom, but at Tib more, "Faith (quoth the vicker) 'tis an exlent whore."

Again, in Churchyard's Choife:

"Tushe, that's a toye, let Tomkin talke of Tibb." Coystrel means a paltry fellow. This word seems to be corrupted from hestrel, a bastard kind of hawk. It occurs in Shakspeare's Twelfth Night, Act I. sc. iii. Spenser, Bacon, and Dryden, also mention the hestrel; and Kastril, Ben Jonson's angry boy in The Alchemist, is only a variation of the fame term. The word coystrel in short, was employed to characterise any worthless or ridiculous being. STEEVENS.

2 As hath been belch'd on by infected lungs.] Marina, who is designed for a character of juvenile innocence, appears much too knowing in the impurities of a brothel; nor are her expreffions more chastised than her ideas. STEEVENS.

Any of these ways are better yet than this :3
For that which thou professest, a baboon,
Could he but speak, would own a name too dear.4
O that the gods would fafely from this place
Deliver me! Here, here is gold for thee.
If that thy master would gain aught by me,
Proclaim that I can fing, 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.5

BOULT. But can you teach all this you speak

of?

MAR. Prove that I cannot, take me home again,

3 Any of these ways are better yet than this:] The old copies read:

Any of these ways ways are yet better than this.
For this flight transposition I am accountable. MALONE.

4 For that which thou professest, a baboon,

Could he but speak, would own a name too dear.] The old copy thus:

For what thou professest, a baboon, could he speak,
Would own a name too dear.

That is, a baboon would think his tribe dishonoured by such a profeffion. Iago says, " Ere, I would drown myself, &c. I would change my humanity with a baboon."

Marina's with for deliverance from her shameful situation, has been already expressed in almost the fame words:

"Would set me free from this unhallow'd place!" In this speech I have made some trifling regulations.

$ I doubt not but this populous city will

STEEVENS.

Yield many Scholars.) The scheme by which Marina effects her release from the brothel, the poet adopted from the Confeffio Amantis.

MALONE.

All this is likewife found in Twine's tranflation. STEEVENS.

And prostitute me to the basest groom
That doth frequent your house.

6

BOULT. Well, I will see what I can do for thee:

if I can place thee, I will.

MAR. But, amongst honest women ?

BOULT. 'Faith, my acquaintance lies little amongst them. But fince 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. [Exeunt.

• And prostitute me to the basest groom-] So, in King Henry V:

7

"Like a base pander, hold the chamber-door,
"Whilft by a flave, no gentler than my dog,
"His fairest daughter is contaminate." STEEVENS.

- but I shall find them tractable enough.] So, in Twine's translation: "-he brake with the bawd his master touching that matter, who, hearing of her skill, and hoping for the gaine, was easily perfuaded." STEEVENS.

客

ACT V.

Enter GoWER.

Gow. Marina thus the brothel scapes, and

chances

Into an honest house, our story says.

She fings like one immortal, and the dances
As goddess-like to her admired lays : 8

Deep clerks she dumbs; and with her neeld

composes1

berry;

Nature's own shape, of bud, bird, branch, or

That even her art fisters the natural roses ;2

Her inkle, filk, twin with the rubied cherry :3

- and she dances

As goddess-like to her admired lays:] This compound epithet (which is not common) is again used by our author in Cymbeline:

"

and undergoes,
"More goddess-like than wife-life, such assaults
"As would take in some virtue." MALONE.

Again, in The Winter's Tale:

-most goddess-like prank'd up." STEEVENS.

Deep clerks She dumbs ;) This uncommon verb is also found

in Antony and Cleopatra :

- that what I would have spoke

"Was beastly dumb'd by him." STEEVENS.

So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream :

"Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
"To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
"Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
"Make periods in the midst of fentences,
"Throttle their practis'd accents in their fears,
"And, in conclufion, dumbly have broke off,
"Not paying me a welcome.

These passages are compared only on account of the similarity

That pupils lacks she none of noble race,
Who pour their bounty on her; and her gain
She gives the cursed bawd. Here we her

place ;4

And to her father turn our thoughts again,

of expreffion, the sentiments being very different. Theseus confounds those who address him, by his superior dignity; Marina filences the learned persons with whom the converses, by her literary fuperiority. MALONE.

I

- and with her neeld composes - Neeld for needle. So, in the tranflation of Lucan's Pharfalia, by Sir A. Gorges, 1614:

"Like pricking neelds, or points of swords."

MALONE.

2 That even her art fisters the natural roses ;] I have not met with this word in any other writer. It is again used by our author in A Lover's Complaint, 1609:

"From off a hill, whose concave womb reworded
"A plaintful story from a fistring vale."

MALONE.

3 Her inkle, filk, twin with the rubied cherry:] Inkle is a species of tape. It is mentioned in Love's Labour's Loft, and in The Winter's Tale. All the copies read, I think, corruptly,twine with the rubied cherry. The word which I have substituted is used by Shakspeare in Othello :

Though he had twinn'd with me, both at a birth,-." Again, in Coriolanus :

-who twin as it were in love." MALONE.

Again, more appositely, in The Two Noble Kinsmen, by

Fletcher:

"Her twinning cherries shall their sweetness fall

Upon thy tasteful lips."

Inkle, however, as I am informed, anciently signified a particular kind of crewel or worsted with which ladies worked flowers, &c. It will not easily be discovered how Marina could work such resemblances of nature with tape. STEEVENS.

4

Here we her place;) So, the first quarto. The other copies read,-Leave we her place. MALONE.