Did you ever hear the like?
Marina is beautiful, true. But she is also pure-hearted. If they try to make her work in that place, she will resist. Her virtue will protect her.
Yeah, she is pretty. But she is also good. Really good. The brothel will not change her. She will be difficult there.
she will not work in a brothel. she is too good. they will never break her.
No, nor never shall do in such a place as this, she being once gone.
No, and we won't again. Not as long as that girl is here.
No. Never again. Not while she's there.
never again. this place is different now.
4-5 comes before 4-6 deliberately. Shakespeare shows us the testimony before the act itself. Two men emerge reformed, and the audience hasn't yet seen Marina's method. This creates a kind of anticipation: if she did that to these two gentlemen, what will she do with Lysimachus, who is actually the governor? The technique is not unusual in Shakespeare — he often shows us the result of a scene's emotional logic before fully dramatizing it. But here it works particularly well because the brevity of 4-5 forces the question: how? And 4-6 is the answer.
But to have divinity preached there! did you ever dream of such a
thing?
But to have someone speak with such divine grace in a place like that! Did you ever imagine such a thing?
Did you ever think you'd hear someone talk about virtue in a place like this? Ever?
divinity. in a brothel. we heard divinity.
No, no. Come, I am for no more bawdy houses: shall’s go hear the
vestals sing?
No, no. Come on, I'm done with brothels forever. Let's go hear the priestesses sing instead.
Nope. I'm done. Let's go listen to the priestesses instead. That's where we belong now.
no more brothels. let's hear the vestals sing. let's be good now.
I’ll do anything now that is virtuous; but I am out of the road of
rutting for ever.
I'll do anything that is virtuous from now on. I'm leaving that whole life behind forever.
I'll do whatever's good. I'm done with that old life. Completely done.
i'm done rutting. forever. i'm choosing virtue.
The Reckoning
This is the smallest scene in the play, and arguably the most important for understanding Marina. We don't see what she said to these men — we see the effect. Two customers came in expecting one thing and left transformed. The scene functions as testimony: this is what Marina does. She converts people by talking to them. The absurdity of it is part of the point — a brothel as a venue for moral reformation is funny, and the play knows it. But the comedy doesn't undercut the miracle; it heightens it.
If this happened today…
Two guys walk out of a strip club in utter silence. One finally says, 'Did you ever hear anything like that?' The other says, 'No, and I'm never going back.' They end up at an outdoor concert instead.