LEON. To fatisfy my lady.

MAR. Why would she have me kill'd?
Now, as I can remember, by my troth,
I never did her hurt in all my life;
I never fpake bad word, nor did ill turn
To any living creature: believe me, la,
I never kill'd a moufe, nor hurt a fly:
I trod upon a worm against my will,
But I wept for it.3 How have I offended,
Wherein my death might yield her profit, or
My life imply her danger?

LEON.

My commiffion Is not to reafon of the deed, but do it.

MAR. You will not do't for all the world, I hope. You are well-favour'd, and your looks foreshow You have a gentle heart. I faw you lately,

When you caught hurt in parting two that fought:
Good footh, it fhow'd well in you; do fo now:
Your lady feeks my life; come you between,
And fave poor me, the weaker.

LEON.

And will defpatch.

I am fworn,

hope for me to efcape my life, give me licence to say my prayers before I die. I give thee licenfe, faide the villaine. And I take God to record, that I am constrained to murther thee against my will." STEEVENS.

3 I trod upon a worm against my will,

But I wept for it.] Fenton has tranfplanted this image inte his Mariamne:

Enter Pirates, whilft MARINA is ftruggling.

[LEONINE runs away.♦

1 PIRATE. Hold, villain!

2 PIRATE. A prize! a prize!

3 PIRATE. Half-part, mates, half-part.

Come,

let's have her aboard fuddenly.

[Exeunt Pirates with MARINA.

SCENE II.

The fame.

Re-enter LEONINE.

LEON. These roving thieves ferve the great pirate Valdes ;5

And they have feiz'd Marina. Let her go:

• Leonine runs away.] So, in Twine's tranflation: "When the villain heard that, he ran away as fast as he could.-Then came the Pyrats and rescued Tharfia, and carried her away to their fhips, and hoifed failes, and departed." STEEVENS.

5 These roving thieves ferve the great pirate Valdes ;] [Old copy-roguing.] The Spanish armada, I believe, furnished our author with this name. Don Pedro de Valdes was an Admiral in that fleet, and had the command of the great galleon of Andalufia. His fhip being disabled, he was taken by Sir Francis Drake, on the twenty-fecond of July, 1588, and sent to Dartmouth. This play therefore, we may conclude, was not written till after that period.-The making one of this Spaniard's ances tors a pirate, was probably relished by the audience in those days. MALONE.

In Robert Greene's Spanish Mafquerado, 1589, the curious reader may find a very particular account of this Valdes, who was commander of the Andalufian troops, and then prisoner in Eng-, land. STEEVENS.

There's no hope fhe'll return. I'll fwear fhe's dead, And thrown into the fea.-But I'll fee further; Perhaps they will but please themselves upon her, Not carry her aboard. If the remain,

Whom they have ravish'd, must by me be slain.

[Exit.

SCENE III.

Mitylene. A Room in a Brothel.

Enter PANDER, Bawd, and BOULT.

PAND. Boult.

BOULT. Sir.

PAND. Search the market narrowly; Mitylene is full of gallants. We loft too much money this mart, by being too wenchless.

BAWD. We were never fo much out of creatures. We have but poor three, and they can do no more than they can do; and with continual action are even as good as rotten.

6

PAND. Therefore let's have fresh ones, whate'er we pay for them. If there be not a confcience to be used in every trade, we fhall never profper."

We fhould probably read-These roving thieves.-The idea of roguery is neceffarily implied in the word thieves.

6

M. MASON. and with continual action -] Old copies-and they with &c. The word they was evidently repeated by the carelefsness of the compofitor. MALONE.

7 Therefore let's have fresh ones, whate'er we pay for them. If there be not a confcience to be used in every trade, we shall never profper.] The fentiments incident to vicious profeffions

BAWD. Thou fay'ft true: 'tis not the bringing up of poor baftards, as I think, I have brought up fome eleven.

BOULT. Ay, to eleven, and brought them down again. But fhall I fearch the market?

BAWD. What elfe, man? The stuff we have, a ftrong wind will blow it to pieces, they are so pitifully fodden.

PAND. Thou fay'ft true; they are too unwholefome o'conscience.1 The poor Tranfilvanian is dead, that lay with the little baggage.

fuffer little change within a century and a half.-This fpeech is much the fame as that of Mother Cole, in The Minor: " 'Tip him an old trader! Mercy on us, where do you expect to go when you die, Mr. Loader?" STEEVENS.

8 Thou fay ft true: 'tis not the bringing up of poor baftards,] There feems to be fomething wanting. Perhaps that will door fome fuch words. The author, however, might have intended an imperfect fentence. MALONE.

9

Ay, to eleven, and brought them down again.] I have brought up (i. e. educated) fays the Bawd, fome eleven. Yes, (anfwers Boult) to eleven (i. e. as far as eleven years of age) and then brought them down again. The latter clause of the fentence requires no explanation.

Thus, in The Play of the Wether, by John Heywood, 4to. bl. 1. Mery Report fays:

"Oft tyme is fene both in court and towne,

Longe be women a bryngynge up, and fone brought downe." STEEVENS.

The modern copies read-I too eleven. The true reading, which is found in the quarto, 1609, was pointed out by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.

Thou fay't true; they're too unwholesome o'confcience.] The old copies read-there's two unwholefome o' confcience. The preceding dialogue fhows that they are erroneous. The complaint had not been made of two, but of all the stuff they had. According to the prefent regulation, the pandar merely affents to what his wife had faid. The words two and too are perpetually confounded in the old copies. MALONE.

BOULT. Ay, the quickly pooped him; she made him roast-meat for worms :-but I'll go fearch the market. [Exit BOULT. PAND. Three or four thoufand chequins were as pretty a proportion to live quietly, and fo give

over.

BAWD. Why, to give over, I pray you? is it a shame to get when we are old?

PAND. O, 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 eftate, 'twere not amifs to keep our door hatched.4 Befides, the fore terms we ftand

2

Ay, She quickly pooped him ;] The following paffage in The Devil's Charter, a tragedy, 1607, will fufficiently explain this fingular term:

foul Amazonian trulls,

"Whofe lanterns are ftill lighted in their poops."

MALONE.

This phrafe (whatever be its meaning) occurs in Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, &c. 1596: "But we fhall l'envoy him, and trumpe and poope him well enough-."

The fame word is used by Dryden, in his Wild Gallant : "He's poopt too." STEEVENS.

3

the commodity wages not with the danger :] i. e. is not equal to it. Several examples of this expreffion are given in former notes on our author. So, in Antony and Cleopatra : his taints and honours

66

"Wag'd equal with him." STEEVENS.

Again, more appofitely, in Othello:

"To wake and wage a danger profitlefs." MALOne.

to keep our door hatched.] The doors or hatches of brothels, in the time of our author, seem to have had some diftinguishing mark. So, in Cupid's Whirligig, 1607: "Set fome picks upon your hatch, and, I pray, profefs to keep a bawdy-houfe."

Prefixed to an old pamphlet entitled Holland's Leaguer, 4to. 1632, is a representation of a celebrated brothel on the Bank fide