Why, I could wish him to be my master, or rather, my mistress.
-Boult
Pericles, Prince Of Tyre Act IV, Scene v Line 159
This morning I took the time to read all of scene v. It’s pretty interesting. This is the scene where Marina has been sold by the pirates to a house of prostitution and she ends up preaching to all the customers and converting them into God fearing, law abiding citizens. The owners of the house have realized that she’s bad for business and they’ve instructed the servant, Boult, to go take Marina and…well… break her in, so to speak (whilst Will uses figurative language, crack the glass of her virginity, and make the rest malleable, he’s also pretty explicit). But before Boult can take her away, she asks him a question: what canst thou wish thine enemy to be? And Boult’s answer is today’s Totally Random line: Why, I could wish him to be my master, or rather, my mistress. This appears to be Boults way of saying that he doesn’t like the people he’s working for (the owners of the brothel), and doesn’t’ think much of them. But Marina’s not buying that, and she comes right back at Boult telling him that he’s worse, a lot worse, than his master and mistress.
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 are the damned doorkeeper to every
Coistrel (knave) that comes inquiring for his Tib (whore);
To the choleric fisting (beating) of every rogue
Thy ear is liable; thy food is such
As has been belched on by infected lungs.
Ouch! That’s disgusting!
Boult responds by asking her, given his situation, what does she expect him to do? And she answers:
Do anything but this thou doest. Empty
Old receptacles, or common shores, of filth;
Serve by indenture to the common hangman:
Any of these ways are yet better than this;
For what thou professests, a baboon, could he speak,
Would own a name too dear.
Do anything! Take out the garbage, help out with executions. A monkey could do your job!
Again, ouch! A monkey could do what you’re doing! It doesn’t’ get much more insulting than that. And yet, somehow with all these insults she manages to convince Boult that she could be put to better use, and more profitable use, by doing skilled work, not prostitution. And they head off to go sell this idea to the master and mistress of the house. Go figure!
I thought that the language in this scene was pretty vivid, so I wanted to share it with you. What do you think?
For what thou professests, a baboon, could he speak,
Would own a name too dear.
You're no better than a monkey. And that's one pretty funky looking monkey!
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