Fair Em, Quarto 1

Fair Em, Quarto 1 Author Anonymous Transcriber Brett Greatley-Hirsch Conversion and Remediation LEMDO Team Digital Renaissance Editions DRE

Anthology Leads and Co-Coordinating Editors: Brett Greatley-Hirsch, Janelle Jenstad, James Mardock, and Sarah Neville.

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Insight Grant awarded to Janelle Jenstad) Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Partnership Development Grant) University of Western Australia

Released with LEMDO Classroom 0.3

University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform

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This file was transcribed and encoded in IML by Brett Greatley-Hirsch for publication on the first DRE website on the ISE platform. The file was converted to TEI by the LEMDO Team (using an XSLT transformation written by Martin Holmes and Joey Takeda) and then remediated and proofread by LEMDO RAs. The transcription has been checked by LEMDO RAs against the Bodleian Library copy, with reference to the Elham Parish Library copy where the Bodleian Library copy is deficient (e.g., underinked, smudged).

Bodleian Library Mal. 208 (5) Elham Parish Library copy, now held at Canterbury Cathedral

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Document Types All documents in LEMDO are either born-digital documents or primary documents. Within those two general categories, LEMDO offers additional ways to categorize a file. Primary Source Primary source documents. Use this top-level category only for supplementary texts, usually in combination with the editorial treatment letmixed. Primary Source Text Edited primary source texts. Modernized texts and semi-diplomatic texts must have this value. Not to be used for supplementary texts. Early Modern Book Formats Early Modern Book Formats Quarto Print volume constructed from sheets folded twice. Editorial Treatments Distinct approaches to textual editing used by LEMDO editors Semi-diplomatic transcription Texts in which original spelling and other features have been retained. Document History Various sources from which born-digital texts have made their way into the LEMDO collection. Original Source: IML This TEI file was created based on one or more files from the Internet Shakespeare Editions anthology, originally encoded in ISE Markup Language (a custom markup language somewhat resembling SGML). Responsibilities Responsibilities Author A person, family, or organization responsible for creating a work that is primarily textual in content, regardless of media type (e.g., printed text, spoken word, electronic text, tactile text) or genre (e.g., poems, novels, screenplays, blogs). Use also for persons, etc., creating a new work by paraphrasing, rewriting, or adapting works by another creator such that the modification has substantially changed the nature and content of the original or changed the medium of expression. LEMDO uses the term author in two contexts: (1) to indicate the author of a primary work or document (such as Hamlet), and (2) to indicate the author of a secondary text (such as the Critical Introduction to <title level="m">Hamlet, by David Bevington). Markup Editor A person or organization performing the coding of SGML, HTML, or XML markup of metadata, text, etc. Gloss needed. Transcriber A person, family, or organization contributing to a resource by changing it from one system of notation to another. text-align: center; display:block; display:inline; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0.5em; font-style: normal; text-align: right; s ſ {s} U+017F W W VV {VV} {W} ae ae æ {ae} U+00E6 ct ct {ct} ff ff ﬀ {ff} U+FB00 ffi ffi ﬃ {ffi} U+FB03 ffl ffl ﬄ {ffl} U+FB04 fi fi ﬁ {fi} U+FB01 fl fl ﬂ {fl} U+FB02 ft ft {ft} sh ſh {{s}h} si ſi {{s}i} sl ſl {{s}l} sp ſp {{s}p} ss ſſ {{s}{s}} ssi ſſi {{s}{s}i} st ſt ﬅ {{s}t} U+FB05 Added rendition to titlePart to see if that fixes the rendering issue. Finished remediation. Changed status to end with _proofing. Began remediation. Updated encoding of figure Replaced original @place values with new ones from emdPlacement taxonomy. Commented out particDesc. Ran regex to standardize order of attributes on fw and stage; remove rnd:italic from running titles, SDs, and speaker; remove rnd:centre from sigs and running titles; remove @who; remove supplied page numbers on pb. Corrected 450 ill-formed xml:ids. Created TEI from IML file. Tracey El Hajj Tracey El Hajj

Junior Programmer 2019–2020. Research Associate 2020–2021. Tracey received her PhD from the Department of English at the University of Victoria in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on the algorhythmics of networked communications. She was a 2019–2020 President’s Fellow in Research-Enriched Teaching at UVic, where she taught an advanced course on Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life. Tracey was also a member of the Map of Early Modern London team, between 2018 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, she was a fellow in residence at the Praxis Studio for Comparative Media Studies, where she investigated the relationships between artificial intelligence, creativity, health, and justice. As of July 2021, Tracey has moved into the alt-ac world for a term position, while also teaching in the English Department at the University of Victoria.

Brett Greatley-Hirsch Brett Greatley-Hirsch

Brett Greatley-Hirsch is Professor of Renaissance Literature and Textual Studies at the University of Leeds. He is a coordinating editor of Digital Renaissance Editions, co-editor of the Routledge journal Shakespeare, and a Trustee of the British Shakespeare Association. He is the author (with Hugh Craig) of Style, Computers, and Early Modern Drama: Beyond Authorship (Cambridge, 2017), which brings together his interests in early modern drama, computational stylistics, and literary history. His current projects include editions of Hyde Park for the Oxford Shirley (with Mark Houlahan) and Fair Em for DRE, a history of the editing and publishing of Renaissance drama from the eighteenth century to the present day, and several computational studies of early modern dramatic authorship and genre. For more details, see notwithoutmustard.net.

Martin Holmes Martin Holmes

Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the UVic’s Humanities Computing and Media Centre for over two decades, and has been involved with dozens of Digital Humanities projects. He has served on the TEI Technical Council and as Managing Editor of the Journal of the TEI. He took over from Joey Takeda as lead developer on LEMDO in 2020. He is a collaborator on the SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Janelle Jenstad.

Navarra Houldin Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

Janelle Jenstad Janelle Jenstad

Janelle Jenstad is a Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and Director of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Beatrice Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old Words, New Tools (Routledge). She has edited John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Elizabethan Theatre, Early Modern Literary Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, Renaissance and Reformation, and The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She contributed chapters to Approaches to Teaching Othello (MLA); Teaching Early Modern Literature from the Archives (MLA); Institutional Culture in Early Modern England (Brill); Shakespeare, Language, and the Stage (Arden); Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate); New Directions in the Geohumanities (Routledge); Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter); Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana); Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota); Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge); and Civic Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern London (Routledge). For more details, see janellejenstad.com.

Kate LeBere Kate LeBere KL

Project Manager, 2020–2021. Assistant Project Manager, 2019–2020. Textual Remediator and Encoder, 2019–2021. Kate LeBere completed her BA (Hons.) in History and English at the University of Victoria in 2020. During her degree she published papers in The Corvette (2018), The Albatross (2019), and PLVS VLTRA (2020) and presented at the English Undergraduate Conference (2019), Qualicum History Conference (2020), and the Digital Humanities Summer Institute’s Project Management in the Humanities Conference (2021). While her primary research focus was sixteenth and seventeenth century England, she completed her honours thesis on Soviet ballet during the Russian Cultural Revolution. She is currently a student at the University of British Columbia’s iSchool, working on her masters in library and information science.

James D. Mardock James Mardock

James Mardock is Associate Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Associate General Editor for the Internet Shakespeare Editions, and a dramaturge for the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival and Reno Little Theater. In addition to editing quarto and folio Henry V for the ISE, he has published essays on Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and other Renaissance literature in The Seventeenth Century, Ben Jonson Journal, Borrowers and Lenders, and contributed to the collections Representing the Plague in Early Modern England (Routledge 2010) and Shakespeare Beyond Doubt (Cambridge 2013). His book Our Scene is London (Routledge 2008) examines Jonson’s representation of urban space as an element in his strategy of self-definition. With Kathryn McPherson, he edited Stages of Engagement (Duquesne 2013), a collection of essays on drama in post-Reformation England, and he is currently at work on a monograph on Calvinism and metatheatrical awareness in early modern English drama.

Sarah Neville Sarah Neville

Sarah Neville is an associate professor of English and Theatre, Film and Media Arts at the Ohio State University. She specializes in early modern English literature, bibliography, theories of textuality and Shakespeare in performance, chiefly examining the ways that authority is negotiated in print, digital and live media. She is an assistant editor of the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016-17), for which she edited five plays in both old and modern-spelling editions, as well as an associate coordinating editor of the Digital Renaissance Editions. She regularly publishes on textual theory, digital humanities, pedagogy, and scholarly editing. Neville’s book, Early Modern Herbals and the Book Trade: English Stationers and the Commodification of Botany (Cambridge, 2022), demonstrates the ways that printers and booksellers of herbals enabled the construction of scientific and medical authority in early modern England. A theatre director and film artist who is a great believer in experiential learning, Neville is the founder and creative director of Ohio State’s Lord Denney’s Players, an academic theatre company that enables students to see how technologies of textual transmission have shaped the reception of Shakespeare’s plays.

Sam Seaberg Sam Seaberg

Samuel Seaberg, a University of Victoria English undergrad, enjoys riding his bike. During the summer of 2025, he began working with LEMDO as a recipient of the Valerie Kuehne Undergraduate Research Award (VKURA). Unfortunately, due to his summer being spent primarily in working to establish an edition of Thomas Heywood’s If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody, Part 2 and consequently working out how to represent multi-text works in a digital space, his bike has suffered severely of sheltered seclusion from the sun.

Will Sharpe Will Sharpe

Will Sharpe is a full-time Teaching Fellow in Shakespeare at the University of Birmingham, and has held postdoctoral fellowships at the Universities of Warwick and Leeds. He contributed a monograph-length study on Authorship and Attribution to the RSC volume William Shakespeare and Others: Collaborative Plays (2013), and edited All Is True: Or, King Henry VIII for The New Oxford Shakespeare (2016). He is a revising editor of the updated Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (2015), and is editing 3 Henry VI for the Arden 4 Shakespeare Series.

Anonymous Thomas Newman Thomas Newman

Bookseller in St. Dunstan’s Churchyard in Fleet Street. BBTI 50070.

John Winnington John Winnington

Bookseller. BBTI 77201.

LEMDO Team The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors. University of Victoria https://www.uvic.ca/ A Pleasant Commodie, of faire Em the Millers daughter of Manchester: VVith the loue of William the Conqueror: As it was sundrie times publiquely acted in the honourable citie of London, by the right honourable the Lord Strange his seruaunts.

Imprinted at London, for T.N. and I.VV. and are to be solde in S. Dunstones Church- yarde in Fleete-streete.

A Pleasant Commodie of faire Em, the Millers daughter of Manchester. With the loue of William the Conquerour. Actus Primus Scaena prima. Enter William the Conqueror: Marques Lubeck, with a picture: Mountney: Manuile: Ualingford: and Duke Dirot. Marques. WHat meanes faire Britaines mighty Conqueror So suddenly to cast away his staffe? And all in passion, to forsake the tylt. D. Dirot. My Lord, this triumph we solemnise here, Is of meere loue to your increasing ioyes: Only expecting cheerefull lookes for all. What sudden pangs than moues your maiestie, To dimme the brightnes of the day with frownes? W. Conqueror. Ah: good my Lords, misconster not the cause: At least, suspect not my displeased browes I amorously do beare to your intent: For thanks and all that you can wish I yeeld. But that which makes me blush and shame to tell, Is cause why thus I turne my conquering eyes To cowardes lookes and beaten fantasies. Mountney. Since wee are giltlesse, wee the lesse dismay To see this sudden change possesse your cheere: For if it issue from your owne conceits, Bred by suggestion of some enuious thoughts: Your highnes wisdome may suppresse it straight. Yet tell vs (good my Lord) what thought it is, That thus bereaues you of your late content, That in aduise we may assist your grace, Or bend our forces to reuiue your spirits. W Con. Ah Marques Lubeck, in thy power it lyes To rid my bosome of these thraled dumps: And therefore, good my Lords forbeare awhile, That we may parley of these priuate cares, A2 Whose The Millers daughter Whose strength subdues me more than all the world. Valingford. We goe and wishe thee priuate conference, Publicke affectes in this accustomed peace. Exit all but William and the Marques. William. Now Marques must a Conquerer at armes disclose himselfe thrald to vnarmed thoughts, And threatned of a shaddowe, yeeld to lust: No sooner had my sparkeling eyes beheld The flames of beautie blasing on this peece, But sodenly a sence of myracle Imagined on thy louely Maistres face, Made me abandon bodily regarde, And cast all pleasures on my woonded soule: Then gentle Marques tell me what she is, That thus thou honourest on thy warlike shield. And if thy loue and interest be such, As iustly may giue place to myne, That if it be: my soule with honors wings May fly into the bosome of my deere. Yf not, close them and stoope into my graue. Marques Yf this be all renowned Conquerer: Aduance your drooping spirites, and reuiue The wonted courage of your Conquering minde, For this faire picture painted on my shield Is the true counterfeit of louelie Blaunch Princes and daughter to the King of Danes: Whose beautie and excesse of ornamentes Deserues another manner of defence Pompe and high person to attend her state, Then Marques Lubeck any way presents. Therefore her vertues I resigne to thee, Alreadie shrinde in thy religious brest, To be aduaunced and honoured to the full. Nor beare I this an argument of loue: But to renowne faire Blaunch my Soueraignes child, In euerie place where I by armes may do it. William of Manchester. William. Ah Marques, thy wordes bring heauen vnto my soule, And had I heauen to giue for thy reward: Thou shouldst be thronde in no vnworthie place. But let my vttermost wealth suffice thy worth, Which here I vowe, and to aspire the blisse That hangs on quicke atchiuement of my loue, Thy selfe and I will traueile in disguise, To bring this Ladie to our Brittaine Court. Marques. Let VVilliam but bethinke what may auayle, And let me die if I denie my ayde. VVilliam. Then thus the Duke Dirot and Therle Dimach Will I leaue substitutes to rule my Realme, While mightie loue forbids my being here, And in the name of Sir Robert of VVindsor Will goe with thee vnto the Danish Court. Keepe VVilliams secretes Marques if thou loue him. Bright Blaunch I come, sweete fortune fauour me, And I will laud thy name eternally. Exeunt. Enter the Miller, and Em his daughter. Miller. Come daughter we must learne to shake of pomp, To leaue the state that earst beseemd a Knight, And gentleman of no meane discent, To vndertake this homelie millers trade: Thus must we maske to saue our wretched liues, Threatned by Conquest of this haplesse Yle: Whose sad inuasions by the Conqueror, Haue made a number such as we subiect Their gentle neckes vnto their stubborne yoke, Of drudging labour and base pesantrie. Sir Thomas Godard now old Goddard is Goddard the miller of faire Manchester. Why should not I content me with this state? As good Sir Edmund Trofferd did the flaile. And thou sweete Em must stoope to high estate. To ioyne with mine that thus we may protect A3 Our The Millers daughter Our harmeles liues, which ledd in greater port Would be an enuious obiect to our foes, That seeke to roote all Britaines Gentrie From bearing countenance against their tyrannie. Em. Good Father let my full resolued thoughts, With setled patiens to support this chaunce Be some poore comfort to your aged soule: For therein restes the height of my estate, That you are pleased with this deiection, And that all toyles my hands may vndertake, May serue to worke your worthines content. Miller. Thankes my deere Daughter: these thy plesant words Transferre my soule into a second heauen: And in thy setled minde, my ioyes consi st, My state reuyued and I in former plight. Although our outward pomp be thus abased, And thralde to drudging, stay lesse of the world, Let vs retaine those honorable mindes Thar lately gouerned our superior state. Wherein true gentrie is the only meane That makes vs differ from base millers borne: Though we expect no knightly delicates, Nor thirst in soule for former soueraintie. Yet may our myndes as highly scorne to stoope To base desires of vulgars worldlynes, As if we were in our presedent way. And louely daughter, since thy youthfull yeares Must needes admit as yong affections: And that sweete loue vnpartiall perceiues Her daintie subiects through euery part, In chiefe receiue these lessons from my lippes. The true discouerers of a Virgins due Now requisite, now that I know thy mynde Somthing enclynde to fauour Manuils sute, A gentleman, thy Louer in protest: And that thou maist not be by loue deceiued, But of Manchester. But trye his meaning fit for thy desert, In pursuite of all amorous desires, Regard thine honour. Let not vehement sighes Nor earnest vowes importing feruent loue, Render thee subiect to the wrath of lust: For that transformed to former sweete delight, Will bring thy bodie and thy soule to shame. Chaste thoughts and modest conuersations, Of proofe to keepe out all inchaunting vowes, Vaine sighes, forst teares, and pittifull aspectes, Are they that make deformed Ladies faire, Poore wretch, and such intycing men, That seeke of all but onely present grace, Shall in perseuerance of a Virgins due Prefer the most refusers to the choyce Of such a soule as yeelded what they thought. But hoe: where is Trotter? Here enters Trotter the Millers man to them: And they within call to him for their gryste. Trotter. Wheres Trotter? why Trotter is here. yfaith, you and your daughter go vp and downe weeping, And wamenting and keeping of a wamentation, As who should saye, the Mill would go with your wamenting. Miller. How now Trotter? why complainest thou so. Trotter. Why yonder is a company of yong men and maydes Keepe such a styr for their grist, that they would haue it before my stones be readie to grinde it. But yfaith, I would I coulde breake winde enough backward: you should not tarrie for your gryst I warrant you. Here he Em abo necke. Miller. Content thee Trotter, I will go pacifie them. Trotter. Iwis you will when I cannot. Why looke, You haue a Mill. Why, whats your Mill without mee? Or rather Mistres, what were I without you? Em. Nay Trotter, if you fall achyding, I wil giue you ouer. Trotter. I chyde you dame to amend you. You are too fyne to be a Millers daughter: For The Millers daughter For if you should but stoope to take vp the tole dish You will haue the crampe in your finger At least ten weekes after. Miller. Ah well said Trotter, teach her to plaie the good huswife And thou shalt haue her to thy wife, if thou canst get her good will. Trotter. Ah words wherein I see Matrimonie come loaden With kisses to salute me: Now let me alone, to pick the Mill, To fill the hopper, to take the tole, to mend the sayles, Yea, and to make the mill to goe with the verie force of my loue. Here they must call for their gryst within. Trotter. I come I come, yfaith now you shall haue your gryst Or else Trotter will trot and amble himselfe to death. They call him againe. Exit. Enter king of Denmarke, with some attendants, Blanch his daughter, Mariana, Marques Lubeck, VVilliam disguised. King of Denmarke. Lord Marques Lubecke welcome home, Welcome braue Knight vnto the Denmarke King: For Williams sake the noble Norman Duke, So famous for his fortunes and successe, That graceth him with name of Conqueror: Right double welcome must thou be to vs. Rob. VVindsor. And to my Lord the king shall I recount Your graces courteous entertainment, That for his sake vouchsafe to honor me A simple Knight attendant on his grace. King Den. But saie Sir Knight, what may I call your name. Robert VVindsor. Robert Windsor and like your Maiestie. King Den. I tell thee Robert, I so admire the man, As that I count it haynous guilt in him That honors not Duke William with his heart. Blanch, bid this straunger welcome, good my gyrle. Blanch. Sir, should I neglect your highnes charge herein, It might be thought of base discourtesie. Welcome Sir Knight to Denmarke hartelie. Robert. of Manchester. Ro. VVinds. Thanks gentle Ladie. Lord Marques, what is shee? Lubeck. That same is Blanch daughter to the King, The substance of the shadow that you saw. Rob. windsor. May this be shee, for whome I crost the Seas? I am ashamde to think I was so fond. In whom thers nothing that contents my mynd. Ill head, worse featurde, vncomly, nothing courtly. Swart and ill fauoured, a Colliers sanguin skinne. I neuer sawe a harder fauourd slut. Loue her? for what: I can no whit abide her. King of Denmark. Mariana, I haue this day receiued letters From Swethia, that lets me vnderstand, your raunsome is collecting there with speede, And shortly shalbe hither sent to vs. Mariana. Not that I finde occasion of mislike My entertainment in your graces court, But that I long to see my natiue home. king Den. And reason haue you Madam for the same: Lord Marques I commit vnto your charge The entertainement of Sir Robert here, Let him remaine with you within the Court In solace and disport, to spend the time. Exit king of Denmarke. Robert Wind. I thank your hightnes, whose bounden I remaine. Blanch speaketh this secretly at one end of the stage. Vnhappie Blanch, what strange effects are these That workes within my thoughts confusedly, That still me thinks affection drawes me on To take, to like, nay more, to loue this Knight. Robert. Wind. A modest countenance, no heauie sullen looke, Not verie fayer, but ritchly deckt with fauour: A sweete face, an exceding daintie hand, A bodie were it framed of wax By all the cunning artists of the world It could not better be proportioned. Lubeck. How now Sir Robert? in a studie man? B Here The Millers daughter Here is no tyme for contemplation. Robert Windsor. My Lord, there is a certaine odd conceite, Which on the sudden greatly troubles me. Lubeck. How like you Blaunch? I partly do perceiue The little boy hath played the wagg with you. Sir Robert. The more I looke, the more I loue to looke, Who seyes that Mariana is not faire: Ile gage my gauntlet gainst the enuious man, That dares auowe there liueth her compare. Lubeck. Sir Robert, you mistake your counterfeit. This is the Ladie which you came to see. Sir Robert. yea, my Lord: Shee is counterfait in deede: For there is the substance that best contents me. Lubek. That is my loue. Sir Robert you do wrong me. Robert. The better for you sir, she is your Loue, As for the wrong, I see not how it growes. Lubeck. In seeking that which is an others right. Robert. As who should saie your loue were priuileged That none might looke vpon her but your selfe. Lubeck. These iarres becomes not our familiaritie, Nor will I stand on termes to moue your patience. Robert. Why my Lord, am not I of flesh and bloud as well as you? Then giue me leaue to loue as well as you. Lubeck. To Loue Sir Robert? but whome? not she I Loue? Nor stands it with the honor of my state, To brooke corriuals with me in my loue. Robert. So Sir, we are thorough for that L. Ladies farewell. Lord Marques, will you go? I will finde a time to speake with her I trowe? Lubeck. With all my heart. Come Ladies wil you walk? Exit. Enter Manuile alone disguised. Manuile. Ah Em the subiect of my restlesse thoughts, The Anuyle whereupon my heart doth beate, Framing thy state to thy desert, Full yll this life becomes thy heauenly looke, Wherein, sweete loue and vertue sits enthroned. Bad of Manchester. Bad world, where riches is esteemd aboue them both, In whose base eyes nought else is bountifull. A Millers daughter, sayes the multitude, Should not be loued of a Gentleman. But let them breath their soules into the ayre: Yet will I still affect thee as my selfe, So thou be constant in thy plighted vowe. But here comes one, I wil listen to his talke. Enter Valingford at another dore, disguised Man hidin selfe. Valingford. Goe William Conqueror and seeke thy loue. Seeke thou a mynion in a forren land Whilest I drawe back and court my loue at home, The millers daughter of faire Manchester Hath bound my feete to this delightsome soyle: And from her eyes do dart such golden beames, That holdes my harte in her subiection. Manuile. He ruminates on my beloued choyce: God graunt he come not to preuent my hope. But heres another, him yle listen to. Enter Mountney disguised at another dore. L. Mountney. Nature vniust, in vtterance of thy arte, To grace a pesant with a Princes fame: Pesant am I so to misterme my loue Although a millers daughter by her birth: Yet may her beautie and her vertues well suffice To hyde the blemish of her birth in hell, Where neither enuious eyes nor thought can perce, But endlesse darknesse euer smother it. Goe William Conqueror and seeke thy loue, Whilest I drawe back and court mine owne the while: Decking her bodie with such costly robes As may become her beauties worthynes, That so thy labors may be laughed to scorne, And she thou seekest in forraine regions, Be darkened and eclipst when she arriues, By one that I haue chosen neerer home. B2 Manuile The Millers daughter Manuile. What comes he to, to intercept my loue? Then hye thee Manuile to forestall such foes. Exit Manuile Mountney. What now Lord Ualingford are you behind? The king had chosen you to goe with him. Ualingford. So chose he you, therefore I marueile much That both of vs should linger in this sort. What may the king imagine of our staye? Mountney. The king may iustly think we are to blame: But I immagined I might well be spared And that no other man had borne my mind. Ualingford. The like did I: in frendship then resolue What is the cause of your vnlookt for stay? Mountney. Lord Ualingford I tell thee as a friend, Loue is the cause why I haue stayed behind. Ualinford. Loue my Lord? of whome. Mountney. Em the millers daughter of Manchester. Ualingford. But may this be? Mountney. Why not my Lord? I hope full well you know That loue respectes no difference of state So beautie serue to stirr affection. Ualingford. But this it is that makes me wonder most: That you and I should be of one conseite In such a straunge vnlikly passion. Mountney. But is that true? my Lord: I hope you do but iest. Valingford. I would I did: then were my griefe the lesse. Mountney. Nay neuer grieue: for if the cause be such To ioyne our thoughts in such a Simpathy: All enuie set asyde: let vs agree To yeeld to eythers fortune in this choyce. Valingford. Content say I, and what so ere befall, Shake hands my Lord and fortune thriue at all. Exeunt Enter Em and Trotter the Millers man with a kerchife on his head, and an Urinall in his hand. Em. Trotter where haue you beene? Trotter. Where haue I bene? why what signifies this. Em. A kerchiefe, doth it not? Trotter. of Manchester. Trotter. What call you this I praye? Em. I saie it is an Vrinall. Trotter. Then this is mystically to giue you to vnderstand I haue beene at the Phismicaries house. Em. How long hast thou beene sicke? Trotter. Yfaith, euen as long as I haue not beene halfe well, And that hath beene a long time. Em. A loytering time I rather immagine. Trot. It may be so: but the Phismicary tels me that you can help me Em. Why, any thing I can do for recouerie of thy health, Be right well assured of. Trot. Then giue me your hand Em. To what end. Trot. That the ending of an old indenture Is the beginning of a new bargaine. Em. What bargaine? Trot. That you promised to do any thing to recouer my helth. Em. On that condition I giue thee my hand. Trot. Ah sweete Em. Here he offers to kisse her. Em. How now Trotter? your maisters daughter? Trot. Yfaith I aime at the fairest, Ah Em, sweet Em: fresh as the flowre: That hath poure to wound my harte, And ease my smart, of me poore theefe, In prison bounde. Em. So all your ryme lies on the grounde. But what meanes this? Trot. Ah marke the deuise, For thee my loue full sicke I was, in hazard of my life Thy promise was to make me whole, and for to be my wife. Let me inioye my loue my deere, And thou possesse thy Trottter here. Em. But I meant no such matter. Trot. Yes woos but you did, Ile goe to our Parson Sir Iohn And he shall mumble vp the marriage out of hand. Em. But here comes one that will forbid the Banes. B3 Here The Millers daughter Here Enters Manuile to them. Trotter. Ah Sir you come too late. Manuile. What remedie Trotter. Em. Goe Trotter, my father calles. Trotter. Would you haue me goe in, and leaue you two here? Em. Why, darest thou not trust me? Trotter. Yes faith, euen as long as I see you. Em. Goe thy waies I praye thee hartely. Trotter. That same word (hartely) is of great force. I will goe: but I praye sir, beware you Come not too neere the wench. Exit Trotter. Manuile. I am greatly beholding to you Ah Maistres, somtime I might haue said my loue, But time and fortune hath bereued me of that, And I am abiect in those gratious eyes That with remorse earst sawe into my griefe, May sit and sigh the sorowes of my heart. Em. In deede my Manuile hath some cause to doubt, When such a Swaine is riuall in his loue. Manuile. Ah Em, were he the man that causeth this mistrust, I should esteeme of thee as at the first. Em. But is my loue in earnest all this while? Manuile. Beleeue me Em, it is not time to iest VVhen others ioyes, what lately I possest. Em If touching loue, my Manuile charge me thus? Vnkindly must I take it at his handes, For that my conscience cleeres me of offence. Manuile. Ah impudent and shamelesse in thy ill, That with thy cunning and defraudfull toung, Seekese to delude the honest meaning minde: Was neuer heard in Manchester before, Of true louer then hath beene betwixte vs twaine: And for my parte how I haue hazarded Displeasure of my father and my freindes Thy selfe can witnes. Yet notwithstanding this: Two genlemen attending on Duke William Mountney and Valingford, as I heard them named, Oft of Manchester. Oft times resort to see and to be seene, Walking the streete fast by thy fathers dore, VVhose glauncing eyes vp to the windowes cast, Giues testies of their Maisters amorous hart. This Em is noted and too much talked on. Some see it without mistrust of ill. Others there are that scorning grynne thereat, And saith, there goes the millers daughters wooers. Ah me, whome chiefely and most of all it doth concerne To spend my time in griefe and vexe my soule, To thinke my loue should be rewarded thus, And for thy sake abhore all women kind. Em. May not a maide looke vpon a man Without suspitious iudgement of the world? Manuile. If sight do moue offence, it is the better not to see. But thou didst more vnconstant as thou art, For with them thou hadst talke and conference. Em. May not a maide talke with a man without mistrust ? Manuile. Not with such men suspected amorous. Em. I grieue to see my Manuiles ielosie Manuile. Ah Em, faithfull loue is full of ielosie, So did I loue thee true and faithfully, For which I am rewarded most vnthankfully. Exit in a rage, Manet Em. And so awaie? what in displeasure gone? And left me such a bitter sweete to gnawe vpon? Ah Manuile, little wottest thou, How neere this parting goeth to my heart. Vncourteous loue whose followers reapes reward, Of hate, disdaine, reproach and infamie, The fruit of frantike, bedlome ielozie. Here enter Mountney to Em. But here comes one of these suspitious men: VVitnes my God without desert of me: For onely Manuile honor I in harte: Nor shall vnkindnes cause me from him to starte. For The Millers daughter Mountney. For this good fortune, Venus be thou blest, To meete my loue, the mistres of my heart, Where time and place giues oportunitie At full to let her vnderstand my loue. He turnes to Em, & offers to take her by the hand, & shee goes from him. Faire mistres, since my fortune sorts so well: Heare you a word. What meaneth this? Nay stay faire Em. Em. I am going homewards, syr: Mountney. Yet stay sweete loue to whom I must disclose The hidden secrets of a louers thoughts, Not doubting but to finde such kinde remorse As naturally you are enclyned to. Em. The Gentle-man your friend Syr, I haue not seene him this foure dayes at the least. Mountney. Whats that to me? I speak not sweete in person of (my friend, But for my selfe, whom if that loue deserue To haue regard being honourable loue: Not base affects of loose lasciuious loue: Whome youthfull wantons play and dally with: But that vnites in honourable bands of holy rytes, And knits the sacred knot that Gods. Here Em cuts him off. Em. What meane you sir, to keepe me here so long? I cannot vnderstand you by your sygnes. You keepe a pratling with your lippes, But neuer a word you speake that I can heare. Mountney. What is shee deafe? a great impediment. Yet remedies there are for such defects. Sweete Em, it is no little griefe to mee, To see where nature in her pryde of art Hath wrought perfections ritch and admirable. Em. Speake you to mee Sir? Mountney. To thee my onely ioy. Em. I cannot heare you. Mountney. Oh plague of Fortune: Oh hell without compare. What bootes it vs to gaze and not enioy? Em. of Manchester. Em. Fare you well Sir. Exit Em. Manet Mountney. Monntney. Fare well my loue. Nay farewell life and all. Could I procure redresse for this infirmitie, It might be meanes shee would regard my sute. I am acquainted with the Kings Phisitions: Amongst the which, theres one mine honest friend, Seignior Alberto, a verie learned man. His iudgement will I haue to help this ill. Ah Em, faire Em, if Art can make thee whole: Ile buy that sence for thee, although it cost mee deere. But Mountney: stay, this may be but deceit, A matter fained onely to delude thee. And not vnlike, perhaps by Ualingford, He loues faire Em as well as I. As well as I? ah no, not halfe so well. Put case, yet may he be thine enimie, And giue her counsell to dissemble thus. Ile try the euent, and if it fall out so? Frindship farewell: Loue makes me now a foe. Exit Mountney. Enter Marques Lubeck, and Mariana. Mariana. Trust me my Lord, I am sorie for your hurt. Lubeck. Gramercie Madam: but it is not great: Onely a thrust, prickt with a Rapiers point. Mariana. How grew the quarrel my Lord? Lubeck. Sweet Ladie, for thy sake. There was this last night two maskes in one company, My selfe the formost: The other strangers were: Amongst the which, when the Musick began to sound the Measures, Eche Masker made choice of his Ladie: And one more forward than the rest stept towards thee: Which I perceiuing, thrust him aside, and tooke thee my selfe. But this was taken in so ill parte, That at my comming out of the court gate, with iustling togither, It was my chaunce to be thrust into the arme. The doer thereof because he was the originall cause of the disorder At that inconuenient time, was presently committed, C And The Millers daughter And is this morning sent for to aunswer the matter: And I think here he comes. What Sir Robert of Windsor how now? enters Sir rr of dsor with lor. Sir Robert. Yfaith my Lord a prisoner: but what ayles your arme? Lubeck. Hurte the last night by mischaunce. Sir Robert. What, not in the maske at the Court gate? Lubeck. Yes trust me there. Sir Rob. Why then my Lorde I thank you for my nights lodging. Lubeck. And I you for my hurt, if it were so? Keeper awaie, I discharge you of your prisoner. Exit the Keeper. Sir Robert. Lord Marques, you offerd me disgrace to shoulder me. Lubeck. Sir I knew you not, and therefore you must pardon me And the rather it might be alleaged to me of Meare simplisitie, to see another daunce with my Maistris disguysed, and I my selfe in presence: but seeing it Was our happs to damnifie each other vnwillingly, Let vs be content with our harmes, And laye the fault where it was and so become friendes. Sir Robert. Yfaith I am content with my nights lodging If you be content with your hurt. Lubeck. Not content that I haue it, but content To forget how I came by it. Sir Robert. My Lord, here comes Ladie Blaunch, lets away. Enter Blaunch. Lubeck. With good will, Ladie you will staie? Exit Lubeck and Sir Robert. Mariana. Madam. Blaunch. Mariana, as I am grieued with thy presence: So am I not offended for thy absence, And were it not a breach to modestie, Thou shouldest know before I left thee. Mariana. How neare is this humor to madnesse If yon hould on as you begyn, you are in a pretie waie to scoulding. Blannch. To scoulding huswife? Mariana. Maddam here comes one, Here enters one with a letter. Blaunch of Manchester. Blaunch. There doth in deed. Fellow wouldest thou haue any thing with any bodie here? Messenger. I haue a letter to deliuer to the Ladie Mariana. Blaunch. Giue it me. Messen. There must none but shee haue it. Blaunch snatcheth the letter from him. Et exit messenger. Go to foolish fellow. And therefore to ease the anger I sustaine, Ile be so bolde to open it, whats here? Sir Robert greets you well? Your Maistries, his loue, his life? Oh amorous man, How he entertaines his new Maistres? And bestowes on Lubeck his od friend A horne night capp to keepe in his witt. Mariana. Maddam though you haue discourteously Redd my letter, yet I praye you giue it me. Blaunch. Then take it there, and there, and there. She teares it. Et exit Blannch. Mariana. How farr doth this differ from modestie: Yet will I gather vp the peeces, which happelie May shew to me the intent thereof Though not the meaning. She gathers vpp the peeces and ioynes them. Mariana. Your seruant and loue sir Robert of Windsor Alius William the Conqueror, wisheth long health and happinesse. Is this William the Conqueror, shrouded vnder The name of sir Robert of VVindsor? Were he the Monarch of the world He should not disposesse Lubeck of his Loue. Therefore I will to the Court, and there if I can Close to be friendes with Ladie Blaunch, And thereby keepe Lubeck my Loue for my selfe: And further the Ladie Blaunch in her sute as much as I may. Exit. Enter Em solus. Em. Ielosie that sharpes the louers sight, And makes him conceiue and conster his intent, C2 Hath The Millers daughter Hath so bewitched my louely Manuils sences, That he misdoubts his Em that loues his soule. He doth suspect corriuals in his loue: Which how vntrue it is, be iudge my God. But now no more: Here commeth Ualingford: Shift him off now, as thou hast done the other. Enter Ualingford. Valingf See how Fortune presents me with the hope I lookt for. Faire Em: Em. Who is that? Ualingf. I am Ualingford thy loue and friend. Em. I cry you mercie Sir: I thought so by your speach. Ualingf. What ayleth thy eyes? Em. Oh blinde Sir, blinde, striken blind by mishap on a sudden. Valingf. But is it possible you should be taken on such a suddain? Infortunate Valingford to be thus crost in thy loue. Faire Em, I am not a little sorie to see this thy hard hap: Yet neuerthelesse, I am acquainted with a learned Phisitian, That will do any thing for thee at my request. To him will I resort, and enquire his iudgement, As concerning the recouerie of so excellent a sence. Em. O Lord Sir: and of all things I cannot abide Phisicke: The verie name thereof to me is odious. Valingford. No? not the thing will doe thee so much good? Sweete Em, hether I came to parley of loue Hoping to haue found thee in thy woonted prosperitie. And haue the gods so vnmercifully thwarted my expectation? By dealing so sinisterly with thee sweete Em? Em. Good sir, no more, it fits not me To haue respect to such vaine fantasies, As idle loue presentes my eares withall, More reason I should ghostlie giue my selfe, To sacred prayers for this my former sinne, For which this plague is iustly fallen vpon me, Then to harken to the vanities of loue. Valingford. Yet sweet Em accept this iewell at my hand Which I bestowe on thee in token of my loue. Em. of Manchester. Em. A iewell sir, what pleasure can I haue In iewels, treasure, or any worldly thing That want my sight that should deserne thereof. Ah sir I must leaue you: The paine of mine eyes is so extreame I cannot long staie in a place. I take my leaue. Exit Em. Valingford. Zoundes, what a crosse is this to my conceite? But Ualingford, serch the depth of this deuise. Why may not this be fained subteltie, By Mountneies inuention, to the intent That I seeing such occasion should leaue off my sute, And not any more persiste to solicite her of loue. Ile trie the euent, if I can by any meanes perceaue The effect of this deceyte to be procured by his meanes, Freind Mountney the one of vs is like to repent our bargeine. Exit. Enter Mariana and Marques Lubeck. Lubeck. Ladie, since that occasion forward in our good Presenteth place and opportunitie: Let me intreat your woonted kind consent And freindly furtherance in a suite I haue. Mariana. My Lord you know you neede not to intreat, But may commaund Mariana to her power Be it no impeachment to my honest fame. Lubeck. Free are my thoughts from such base villanie As may in question Ladie call your name: Yet is the matter of such consequence Standing vpon my honorable credit, To be effected with such zeale and secresie, As should I speake and faile my expectation I would redound greatly to my preiudice. Mariana. My Lord wherein hath Mariana giuen you occasion That you should mistrust or else be ielous of my secrecie. Lubeck. Mariana, do not misconster of me: I not mistrust thee, nor thy secresie, Nor let my loue misconster my intente, Nor think thereof but well and honorable. C3 Thus The Millers daughter Thus stands the case: Thou knowest from England Hether came with me Robert of VVindsor, a noble man at Armes, Lustie and valiant, in spring time of his yeares, No maruell then though he proue amorous. Mariana. True my Lord, he came to see faire Blanch. Lubeck. No Mariana, that is non it. His loue to Blnnch was then extinct When first he sawe thy face. Tis thee he loues: yea, thou art onely shee That is maistres and commaunder of his thoughts. Mariana. Well well my Lord, I like you, for such driftes Put silly Ladies often to their shiftes Oft haue I heard you saye, you loued me well: Yea, sworne the same, and I beleeued you to. Can this be found an action of good faith, Thus to dissemble where you found true loue? Lubeck. Mariana, I not dissemble on mine honour: Nor failes my faith to thee. But for my friend, For princely William, by whom thou shalt possesse The tytle of estate and Maiestie, Fitting thy loue and vertues of thy minde, For him I speake, for him do I intreat, And with thy fauour fully do resigne To him the claime and interest of my loue. Sweete Mariana then denie mee not, Loue William, loue my friend and honour mee Who els is cleane dishonored by thy meanes. Mariana Borne to mishap, my selfe am onely shee, On whome the Sunne of Fortune neuer shyned: But Planets rulde by retrogard aspect, Foretolde mine yll in my natiuitie. Lnbeck. Sweete Ladie seace, let my intreatie serue To pacifie the passion of thy griefe, Which well I know proceedes of ardent loue. Mariana. But Lubeck now regardes not Mariana: Lubeck. Euen as my life, so loue I Mariana. Mariana. of Manchester. Mariana. Why do you poste mee to another then? Lubeck. He is my friend, and I do loue the man. Mariana. Then will Duke VVilliam robb me of my Loue? Lubeck. No as his life Mariana he doth loue. Mariana. Speake for yourselfe my Lord let him alone. Lubeck So do I Madam, for he and I am one. Mariana. Then louing you I do content you both. Lubeck. In louing him you shall content vs both. Me, for I craue that fauour at your handes: He for hopes that comfort at your hands. Mariana, Leaue of my Lord, here comes the Ladie Blaunch. Enter Blaunch to them. LuBeck. Hard hap to breake vs of our talke so soone, Sweet Mariana doe remember me. Exit Lubeck, Mariana. Thy Mariana cannot chuse but remember thee. Blaunch. Mariana well met, you are verie forward in your Loue? Mariana. Madam be it in secret spoken to your selfe, If you wil but follow the complot I haue inuented you will not think me so forward As your selfe shall proue fortunate. Blannch. As how? Mariana. Madam as thus: It is not vnknowen to you That Sir Robert of Windsor, A man that you do not little esteeme, Hath long importuned me of Loue: But rather then I will be found false Or vniust to the Marques Lubeck, I will as did the constant ladie Penelope Vndertake to effect some great taske. Blaunch. What of all this? Mariana. The next tyme that Sir Robert shall come In his woonted sort to solicit me with Loue, I will seeme to agree and like of any thing That the Knight shal demaund: so far foorth As it be no impeachment to my chastitie: And to conclude, poynt some place for to meete the man, For The Millers daughter For my conueiance from the Denmarke Court: Which determined vpon, he will appoynt some certaine time For our departure: whereof you hauing intelligence, You may soone set downe a plot to were the English Crowne. And than? Blanch. What then? Mariana. If Sir Robert proue a King and you his Queene How than? Blanch. Were I assured of the one, as I am perswaded Of the other, there were some possibilitie in it. But here comes the man. Mariana. Madam begon and you shall see I will worke to your desire and my content. Exit Blanch. William. Con. Ladie this is well and happelie met, Fortune hetherto hath beene my foe, And though I haue oft sought to speake with you, Yet still I haue beene crost with sinister happs. I cannot Madame tell a louing tale Or court my Maistres with fabulous discoursies, That am a souldier sworne to followe armes: But this I bluntly let you vnderstand, I honor you with such religious Zeale As may become an honorable minde. Nor may I make my loue the seege of Troye That am a straunger in this Countrie. First what I am, I know you are resolued, For that my friend hath let you that to vnderstand, The Marques Lubeck to whome I am so bound, That whilest I liue I count me onely his. Mariana. Surely you are beholding to the Marques, For he hath beene an earnest spokes-man in your cause. William. And yealdes my Ladie then at his request. To grace Duke VVilliam with her gratious loue? Mariana. My Lord I am a prisoner, and hard it were To get me from the Courte. VVilliam. An easie matter to get you from the Court, If of Manchester. If case that you will thereto giue consent. Mariana. Put case I should, how would you vse me than? William. Not otherwise but well and honorably. I haue at Sea a shipp that doth attend, Which shall foorthwith conducte vs into England Where when we are, I straight will marrie thee. We may not stay deliberating long Least that suspition, enuious of our weale Set in a foote to hinder our pretence. Mariana. But this I think were most conuenient To maske my face the better to scape vnknowen. VVilliam. A good deuise: till then, Farwell faire loue. Mariana. But this I must intreat your grace, You would not seeke by lust vnlawfully To wrong my chast determinations. VVilliam. I hold that man most shameles in his sinne That seekes to wrong an honest Ladies name Whome he thinkes worthie of his mariage bed. Mariana. In hope your othe is true, I leaue your grace till the appoynted tyme. Exit Mariana. William. O happie William, blessed in thy loue: Most fortunate in Marianaes loue, Well Lubeck well, this courtesie of thine I will requite if God permit me life. Exit. Enter Valingford and Mountney at two sundrie dores, looking angerly each on other with Rapiers drauen. Mountney. Ualingford, so hardlie I disgest an iniurie Thou hast profered me, as were not that I detest to doe what stands Not with the honor of my name, Thy death should paie thy ransome of thy fault. Ualingford. And Mountney, had not my reuenging wrath Incenst with more than ordinarie loue beene such for to depriue thee of thy life, Thou hadst not liude to braue me as thou doest wretch as thou arte, wherein hath Ualingford offended thee? D That The Millers daughter That honourable bond which late we did confirme In presence of the Gods, When with the Conqueror we arriued here For my part hath beene kept inuiolably Till now too much abused by thy villanie, I am inforced to cancell all those bands, By hating him which I so well did loue. Mountney. Subtil thou art, and cunning in thy frawd, That giuing me occasion of offence, Thou pickst a quarrell to excuse thy shame. Why Ualingford, was it not enough for thee To be aryuall twixt me and my loue, But counsell her to my no small disgrace, That when I came to talke with her of loue, Shee should seeme deafe, as fayning not to heare. Valingford. But hath shee Mountney vsed thee as thou sayest? Mountney. Thou knowest too well shee hath: Wherein thou couldest not do me greater iniurie. Ualingford. Then I perceiue we are deluded both. For when I offered many gifts of Gold and Iewels To entreat for loue, shee hath refused them with a coy disdaine, Alledging that shee could not see the Sunne. The same coniectured I to be thy drift, That fayning so shee might be ridd of mee. Mountney. The like did I by thee. But are not these naturall impe- (diments? Ualidgford. In my coniecture merely counterfeit: Therefore lets ioyne hands in frindship once againe, Since that the iarre grewe only by coniecture. Mountney. With all my heart: Yet lets trye the truth hereof. Ualingf. With right good will. We wil straight vnto her father, And there to learne whither it be so or no. Exeunt. Enter VVilliam and Blanch disguised, with a maske ouer her face. William. Come on my loue, the comfort of my life: Disguised thus we may remaine vnknowen. And of Manchester. And get we once to Seas, I force not then, We quickly shall attaine the English shore. Blaunch. But this I vrge you with your former oath. You shall not seeke to violate mine honour, Vntill our marriage rights be all performed. VVilliam. Mariana, here I sweare to thee by heauen, And by the honour that I beare to Armes, Neuer to seeke or craue at hands of thee, The spoyle of honourable chastitie Vntill we do attaine the English coast, Where thou shalt be my right espoused Queene. Blanch. In hope your oath proceedeth from your heart, Lets leaue the Court, and betake vs to his power That gouernes all things to his mightie will, And will reward the iust with endlesse ioye, And plague the bad with most extreame annoy. William. Lady, as little tarriance as wee may, Lest some misfortune happen by the way. Exit Blanch & William. Enter the Miller, his man Trotter, & Manuile. Miller. I tell you sir, it is no little greefe to mee, You should so hardly conseit of my daughter, Whose honest report, though I saie it, Was neuer blotted with any title of defamation. Manuile. Father Miller, the repaire of those gentlemen to your (house, Hath giuen me great occasion to mislike. Miller. As for those gentlemen, I neuer saw in them Any euill intreatie. But should they haue profered it? Her chaste minde hath proofe enough to preuent it. Trotter. Those gentlemen are as honest as euer I sawe: For yfaith one of them gaue me sixe pence To fetch a quart of Seck. See maister here they come. Enter Mountney and Ualingford. Miller. Trotter, call Em, now they are here together, Ile haue this matter throughly debated. Exit Trotter. Mountney. Father, well met. We are come to conferre with you. D2 Manuile The Millers daughter Manuile. Nay? with his daughter rather. Ualingford. Thus it is father, we are come to craue your frindship (in a matter. Miller. Gentlemen as you are straungers to me, Yet by the waie of courtesie you shall demaund Any reasonable thing at my hands. Manuile. What is the matter so forward? They came to craue his good will. Ualinford. It is giuen vs to vnderstand that your daughter Is sodenly become both blind and deafe. Miller. Marie God for bid, I haue sent for her, in deed She hath kept her chamber this three daies. It were no litle griefe to me if it should be so? Manuile. This is Gods iudgement for her trecherie. Enter Trotter leading Em. Miller. Gentlemen I feare your wordes are two true: See where Trotter comes leading of her. What ayles my Em, not blind I hope? Em. Mountney and Ualidgford both together? And Manuile to whom I haue faithfullie vowed my loue? Now Em suddenly helpe thy felfe. Mountney. This is no desembling Ualingford. Valingford. If ir be? it is cunningly contriued of all sides. Em. Trotter lend me thy hand, And as thou louest me keepe my counsell And iustifie what so euer I saie, and Ile largely requite thee. Trotter. Ah, thats as much as to saie you would tell a monstrous, Terrible, horrible, out ragious lie, And I shall sooth it, no berladie. Em. My present extremitie wills me, if thou loue me Trotrer? Trotter. That same word loue makes me to doe any thing. Em. Trotter wheres my father? He thrusts Em vpon her father. Trotter. Why what a blynd dunce are you, can you not see? He standeth right before you. Em. Is this my father? Good father giue me leaue to sit Where of Manchester. Where I may not be disturbed Sith God hath visited me both of my sight and hearing. Miller. Tell me sweete Em how came this blindnes. Thy eyes are louely to looke on, And yet haue they lost the benefit of their sight. What a griefe is this to thy poore father? Em. Good father let me uot stand as an open gazing stock to (euerie one, But in a place alone as fits a creature so miserable. Miller. Trotter lead her in, the vtter ouerthrowe Of poore Goddardes ioy and onely solace. Exit the Miller, Trotter and Em. Manuile. Both blind and deafe, then is she no wife for me? And glad am I so good occasion is hapned: Now will I awaie to Manchester And leaue these gentlemen to their blind fortune. Exit Manuile Mountney. Since fortune hath thus spitefully crost our hope, Let vs leaue this guest and harken after our King: Who is at this daie landed at Lirpoole. Exit Mountney. Valingford. Goe my Lord Ile follow you. VVell, now Mountney is gone Ile staie behind to solicit my loue, For I imagine that I shall find this but a fained inuention Thereby to haue vs leaue off our sutes. Enter Marques Lubeck and the King of Denmark angerly with some attendants. Zweno. K. VVell Lubeck well, it is not possible But you must be concenting to this acte? Is this the man so highly you extold? And playe a parte so hatefull with his friend? Since first he came with thee into the court What entertainement and what countenance He hath receiued, none better knowes than thou. In recompence whereof he quites me well, To steale awaie faire Mariana my prisoner, Whose raunsome being lately greed vpon, I am deluded of by this escape. D3 Besides The Millers daughter Besides, I know not how to answere it When shee shal be demaunded home to Swethia. Lubeck. My gracious Lord, coniecture not I pray Worser of Lubeck than he doth deserue Your highnes knowes Mariana was my loue, Sole paragon and mistres of my thoughts. Is it likely I should know of her departure, Wherein there is no man iniured more than I. Zweno. That carries reason Marques I confesse. Call foorth my daughter. Yet I am perswaded That shee poore soule suspected not her going: For as I heare: shee likewise loued the man, Which he to blame did not at all regard. Rocilia. My Lord here is the Princesse Mariana: It is your daughter is conueyed away. Zweno. What, my daughter gone? Now Marques your villanie breakes foorth. This match is of your making, gentle sir: And you shall dearly know the price thereof. Lubeck. Knew I thereof, or that there was intent In Robert thus to steale your highnes daughter: Let heauens in Iustice presently confound me. Zweno. Not all the protestations thou canst vse, Shall saue thy life. Away with him to prison. And minion, otherwise it cannot be, But you are an agent in this trecherie. I will reuenge it throughly on you both. Away with her to prison. Heres stuffe in deede? My daughter stolen away? It booteth not thus to disturbe my selfe, But presently to send to English William, To send me that proud knight of Windsor hither, Here in my Court to suffer for his shame: Or at my pleasure to be punished there. Withall, that Blanch be sent me home againe, Or I shall fetch her vnto Windsors coste, Yea, of Manchester. Yea, and VVilliams too if he denie her mee? Exit Zweno. Enter VVilliam taken with souldiers. William. Could any crosse, could any plague be worse? Could heauen or hell? Did both conspire in one To afflict my soule, inuent a greater scourge Then presently I am tormented with? Ah Mariana cause of my lament: Ioy of my hart, and comfort of my life. For thee I breath my sorrowes in the ayre, And tyre my selfe: for silently I sigh, My sorrowes afflictes me soule with equall passion. Souldier. Go to sirha, put vp, it is to small purpose. VVilliam. Hence villaines hence, dare you lay your hands Vpon your Soueraigne? Souldier. Well sir, we will deale for that. But here comes one will remedie all this. Enter Demarch. Souldier. My Lord, watching this night in the campe, We tooke this man, and know not what he is: And in his companie was a gallant dame, A woman faire in outward shewe shee seemde, But that her face was maskte we could not see The grace and fauour of her countenance. Demarch. Tell me good fellow of whence and what thou art. Souldier. Why do you not answere my Lord? He takes scorne to answere. Demarch. And takest thou scorne to aunswer my demaund? Thy proud behauiour verie well deserues This misdemeanour at the worst be construed. Why doest thou neither know, nor hast thou heard? That in the absence of the Saxon Duke, Demarch is his especiall Substitute To punish those that shall offend the lawes. William. In knowing this, I know thou art a traytor, A rebell, and mutenous conspirator. Why Demarch, knowest thou who I am? Demarch. The Millers daughter Demarch. Pardon my dread Lord the error of my sence, And misdemeaner to your princely excellencie. Willi. Why Demarch, what is the cause my subiects are in armes? Demarch. Free are my thoughts my dread and gratious Lord From treason to your state and common weale, Only reuengement of a priuate grudge By Lord Dirot lately profered me, That standes not with the honor of my name, Is cause I haue assembled for my guard Some men in armes that may withstand his force, Whose setled malice aymeth at my life. VVilliam. Where is Lord Dirot? Demarch. In armes my gratious Lord Not past two miles from hence, As credibly I am assertained. VVilliam. Well, come let vs goe, I feare I shall find traytors of you both. Exit. Enter the Citizen of Manchester and his daughter Elner and Manuile. Citizen. In deed sir it would do verie well If you could intreat your father to come hither: But if you thinke it be too farr, I care not much to take horse and ride to Manchester, I am sure my daughter is content with either: How saiest thou Elner art thou not? Elner. As you shall think best I must be contented. Manuile. Well Elner farwell, onely thus much, I pray make all things in a readines, Either to serue here or to carry thither with vs. Citizen. As for that sir take you no care, And so I betake you to your iournie. Enter Ualingford. But soft what gentleman is this? Ualingf. God speed sir, might a man craue a word or two with you Citizen God forbid els sir, I praye you speake your plcasure. Ualingford. The gentleman that parted from you, was he not Of of Manchester. Of Manchester, his father lyuing there of good account. Citizen. Yes mary is he sir: why doe you aske? Belike you haue had some acquaintance with him. Ualingford. I haue beene acquainted in times past, But through his double dealing, I am growen werie of his companie. For be it spoken to you: He hath beene acquainted with a poore millers daughter, And diuers tymes hath promist her mariage. But what with his delayes and floutes, He hath brought her into such a taking, That I feare me it will co her her life. Citizen. To be playne with you sir: His father and I haue beene of old acquaintance, And a motion was made, Beteewene my daughter and his sonne, Which is now throughly agreed vpon Saue onely the place appoynted for the mariage, Whether it shall be kept here or at Manchester, And for no other occaon he is now ridden. Elner. What hath he done to you? That you should speake so ill of the man. Valingford. Oh gentlewoman I crie you mercie, He is your husband that shalbe. Elner. If I knew this to be true? He should not be my husband were he neuer so good: And therefore, good father, I would desire you to take the paines To beare this gentleman companie to Mancheer Citizen. Now trust me gentleman he deales with me verie hardly, Knowing how well I ment to him. But I care not much to ride to Manchester To know whether his fathers will be, E Valingford The Millers daughter Valingford. If it please you to go in Ile followe you preently. Exit. Enter illiam, the Ambaador of enmarke,