Read the full text of Pericles Act 4 Scene 2 with a side-by-side translation HERE.
- The next thing we know, we're at a brothel in "Meteline" (a.k.a. Mytilene).
- (It looks and sounds a whole lot like the kind of "bawdy house" that one might come across in Shakespeare's London, though.)
- A pimp named Pander is talking with Bawd, who is his business partner and his wife.
- Pander orders another pimp named Boult to go to the marketplace to find some more girls.
- Bawd and Pander complain about losing money because they don't have enough prostitutes in the brothel tosatisfy all their clients.
- Apparently, a bunch of their girls are "rotten" with STDs, so they need some "fresh" ones ifthey want business to pick up.
- Now Bawd complains about having to raise a bunch of "poor" little "bastards" because theirmoms can't do it themselves. Then she pats herself on the back for being so generous.
- (Yep, sex trafficking is ugly business, all right. And it was big business in Shakespeare's London; that'sprobably why he obsesses about it here and in another play, Measure for Measure.)
- Boult shows up with the Pirates and Marina.
- Bawd and Pander decide to buy her because1) she's a virgin, and 2) she's pretty.
- Bawd sends Boult back to the marketplace to advertise Marina and offer her virginity to the highest bidder.
- Meanwhile, Bawd tries to give Marina advice about being a successful prostitute, but Marina's not having anyof it.
- Marina prays to the goddess Diana to help her keep her virginity.