Since they do better theé in their command.
Thou hold'ft a place, for which the pained'ft fiend
Of hell would not in reputation change:

Thou'rt the damn'd door-keeper to every coyftrel
That hither comes enquiring for his tib;'
To the cholerick fifting of each rogue thy ear
Is liable; thy very food is fuch

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 ferve feven years for the lofs 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;

I

to every coyftrel

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-veffel. Tib is, I think, a contraction of Tabitha. It was formerly a cant name for a ftrumpet. 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:

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They wondred much at Tom, but at Tib more, "Faith (quoth the vicker) 'tis an exlent whore." Again, in Churchyard's Choife:

"Tufhe, that's a toye, let Tomkin talke of Tibb." Coystrel means a paltry fellow. This word feems to be corrupted from kefirel, a baftard kind of hawk. It occurs in Shakfpeare's Twelfth-Night, A&t I. fc. iii. Spenfer, Bacon, and Dryden, alfo mention the heftrel; and Kaftril, Ben Jonson's angry boy in The Alchemift, is only a variation of the fame term. The word coystrel in fhort, was employed to characterise any worthlefs or ridiculous being. STEEVENS.

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

Any of thefe ways are better yet than this :3
For that which thou profeffeft, 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 mafter would gain aught by me,
Proclaim that I can fing, weave, few, 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 thefe ways are better yet than this :] The old copies read:

Any of thefe ways are yet better than this.

For this flight tranfpofition I am accountable. MALone.

4 For that which thou profeffeft, a baboon,

Could he but Speak, would own a name too dear.] The old

copy thus:

For what thou profeffeft, a baboon, could he Speak,

Would own a name too dear.

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

Marina's with for deliverance from her shameful fituation, has been already expreffed in almoft the fame words:

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O that the good gods

"Would fet me free from this unhallow'd place!"

In this fpeech I have made fome trifling regulations.

STEEVENS.

I doubt not but this populous city will Yield many fcholars.] The fcheme 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 baseft groom
That doth frequent your house.

BOULT. Well, I will fee 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 mafter and mistress have bought you, there's no going but by their confent; therefore I will make them acquainted with your purpose, and I doubt not but I fhall find them tractable enough." Come, I'll do for thee what I can; come your ways. [Exeunt.

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

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

STEEVENS.

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

ACT V.

Enter Gower.

Gow. Marina thus the brothel fcapes, and chances

Into an honeft houfe, our story says.

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

Deep clerks the dumbs; and with her neeld
compofes1

Nature's own fhape, of bud, bird, branch, or
berry;

That even her art fifters the natural roses;2
Her inkle, filk, twin with the rubied cherry :3

and fhe dances

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

and undergoes,

"More goddefs-like than wife-life, fuch affaults
"As would take in fome virtue."

Again, in The Winter's Tale:

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MALONE.

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

9 Deep clerks fhe dumbs ;] This uncommon verb is also found in Antony and Cleopatra:

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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 fhiver and look pale,
"Make periods in the midst of sentences,
"Throttle their practis'd accents in their fears,
"And, in conclufion, dumbly have broke off,
"Not paying me a welcome.

Thefe paffages are compared only on account of the fimilarity

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

place ;4

And to her father turn our thoughts again,

of expreffion, the fentiments being very different. Thefeus confounds those who addrefs him, by his fuperior dignity; Marina filences the learned perfons with whom the converfes, by her literary fuperiority. MALONE.

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

Like pricking neelds, or points of swords."

MALONE.

2 That even her art fifters the natural rofes ;] 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, whofe concave womb reworded
"A plaintful ftory from a fift'ring vale―.”

MALONE.

3 Her inkle, filk, twin with the rubied cherry :] Inkle is a fpecies 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 fubftituted is used by Shakspeare in Othello :

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

Again, more appofitely, in The Two Noble Kinfmen, by Fletcher :

"Her twinning cherries shall their sweetness fall
"Upon thy tafteful lips."

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

4

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