Fair Em

by Shakespeare

LUBECK.
Lady,
Since that occasion, forward in our good,
Presenteth place and opportunity,
Let me intreat your woonted kind consent
And friendly furtherance in a suit I have.
MARIANA.
My Lord, you know you need not to intreat,
But may command Mariana to her power,
Be it no impeachment to my honest fame.
LUBECK.
Free are my thoughts from such base villainy
As may in question, Lady, call your name:
Yet is the matter of such consequence,
Standing upon my honorable credit,
To be effected with such zeal and secrecy
As, should I speak and fail my expectation,
It would redound greatly to my prejudice.
MARIANA.
My Lord, wherein hath Mariana given you
Occasion that you should mistrust, or else
Be jealous of my secrecy?
LUBECK.
Mariana, do not misconster of me:
I not mistrust thee, nor thy secrecy;
Nor let my love misconster my intent,
Nor think thereof but well and honorable.
Thus stands the case:
Thou knowest from England hether came with me
Robert of Windsor, a noble man at Arms,
Lusty and valiant, in spring time of his years:
No marvell then though he prove amorous.
MARIANA.
True, my Lord, he came to see fair Blanch.
LUBECK.
No, Mariana, that is not it. His love to Blanch
Was then extinct, when first he saw thy face.
’Tis thee he loves; yea, thou art only she
That is maistres and commander of his thoughts.
MARIANA.
Well, well, my Lord, I like you, for such drifts
Put silly Ladies often to their shifts.
Oft have I heard you say you loved me well,
Yea, sworn the same, and I believed you too.
Can this be found an action of good faith
Thus to dissemble where you found true love?
LUBECK.
Mariana, I not dissemble, on mine honour,
Nor fails my faith to thee. But for my friend,
For princely William, by whom thou shalt possess
The title of estate and Majesty,
Fitting thy love, and vertues of thy mind—
For him I speak, for him do I intreat,
And with thy favour fully do resign
To him the claim and interest of my love.
Sweet Mariana, then, deny me not:
Love William, love my friend, and honour me,
Who else is clean dishonored by thy means.
MARIANA.
Borne to mishap, my self am only she
On whom the Sun of Fortune never shined:
But Planets ruled by retrogard aspect
Foretold mine ill in my nativity.
LUBECK.
Sweet Lady, cease, let my intreaty serve
To pacify the passion of thy grief,
Which, well I know, proceeds of ardent love.
MARIANA.
But Lubeck now regards not Mariana.
LUBECK.
Even as my life, so love I Mariana.
MARIANA.
Why do you post me to another then?
LUBECK.
He is my friend, and I do love the man.
MARIANA.
Then will Duke William rob me of my Love?
LUBECK.
No, as his life Mariana he doth love.
MARIANA.
Speak for your self, my Lord, let him alone.
LUBECK.
So do I, Madam, for he and I am one.
MARIANA.
Then loving you I do content you both.
LUBECK.
In loveing him, you shall content us both:
Me, for I crave that favour at your hands,
He, for he hopes that comfort at your hands.
MARIANA.
Leave off, my Lord, here comes the Lady Blaunch.
[Enter Blaunch to them.]
LUBECK.
Hard hap to break us of our talk so soon!
Sweet Mariana, do remember me.
[Exit Lubeck.]
MARIANA.
Thy Mariana cannot chose but remember thee.
BLAUNCH.
Mariana, well met. You are very forward in your Love?
MARIANA.
Madam, be it in secret spoken to your self, if you will but
follow the complot I have invented, you will not think me
so forward as your self shall prove fortunate.
BLAUNCH.
As how?
MARIANA.
Madam, as thus: It is not unknowen to you that Sir Robert
of Windsor, a man that you do not little esteem, hath long
importuned me of Love; but rather then I will be found
false or unjust to the Marques Lubeck, I will, as did the
constant lady Penelope, undertake to effect some great
task.
BLAUNCH.
What of all this?
MARIANA.
The next time that Sir Robert shall come in his woonted
sort to solicit me with Love, I will seem to agree and like
of any thing that the Knight shall demaund, so far foorth
as it be no impeachment to my chastity: And, to conclude,
point some place for to meet the man, for my conveyance
from the Denmark Court: which determined upon, he will
appoint some certain time for our departure: whereof you
having intelligence, you may soon set down a plot to wear
the English Crown, and than—
BLANCH.
What then?
MARIANA.
If Sir Robert prove a King and you his Queen, how than?
BLANCH.
Were I assured of the one, as I am persuaded of the other,
there were some possibility in it. But here comes the man.
MARIANA.
Madam, begone, and you shall see I will work to your desire
and my content.
[Exit Blanch.]
WILLIAM CON.
Lady, this is well and happily met.
Fortune hetherto hath beene my foe,
And though I have oft sought to speak with you,
Yet still I have been crot with sinister happs.
I cannot, Madam, tell a loving tale
Or court my Maistres with fabulous discourses,
That am a souldier sworn to follow arms:
But this I bluntly let you understand,
I honor you with such religious Zeal
As may become an honorable mind.
Nor may I make my love the siege of Troy,
That am a stranger in this Country.
First, what I am I know you are resolved,
For that my friend hath let you that to understand,
The Marques Lubeck, to whom I am so bound
That whilest I live I count me only his.
MARIANA.
Surely you are beholding to the Marques,
For he hath been an earnest spokes-man in your cause.
WILLIAM.
And yields my Lady, then, at his request,
To grace Duke William with her gratious love?
MARIANA.
My Lord, I am a prisoner,
And hard it were to get me from the Court.
WILLIAM.
An easy matter to get you from the Court,
If case that you will thereto give consent.
MARIANA.
Put case I should, how would you use me than?
WILLIAM.
Not otherwise but well and honorably.
I have at Sea a ship that doth attend,
Which shall forthwith conduct us into England,
Where when we are, I straight will marry thee.
We may not stay deliberating long,
Least that suspicion, envious of our weal,
Set in a foot to hinder our pretence.
MARIANA.
But this I think were most convenient,
To mask my face, the better to scape unknowen.
WILLIAM.
A good devise: till then, Farwell, fair love.
MARIANA.
But this I must intreat your grace,
You would not seek by lust unlawfully
To wrong my chaste determinations.
WILLIAM.
I hold that man most shameless in his sin
That seeks to wrong an honest Ladies name
Whom he thinks worthy of his marriage bed.
MARIANA.
In hope your oath is true,
I leave your grace till the appointed time.
[Exit Mariana.]
WILLIAM.
O happy William, blessed in th love,
Most fortunate in Mariana’s love!
Well, Lubeck, well, this courtesy of thine
I will requite, if God permit me life.
[Exit.]

SCENE II.
Manchester. Near the Mill.
[Enter Valingford and Mountney at two sundry doors, looking
angrily each on other with Rapiers drawn.]

MOUNTNEY.
Valingford, so hardly I disgest
An injury thou hast profered me,
As, were it not that I detest to do
What stands not with the honor of my name,
Thy death should pay thy ransom of thy fault.
VALINGFORD.
And, Mountney, had not my revenging wrath,
Incenst with more than ordinary love,
Been loth for to deprive thee of thy life,
Thou hadst not lived to brave me as thou doest.
Wretch as thou art,
Wherein hath Valingford offended thee?
That honourable bond which late we did
Confirm in presence of the Gods,
When with the Conqueror we arrived here,
For my part hath been kept inviolably,
Till now too much abused by thy villainy,
I am inforced to cancel all those bands,
By hating him which I so well did love.
MOUNTNEY.
Subtle thou art, and cunning in thy fraud,
That, giving me occasion of offence,
Thou pickst a quarrell to excuse thy shame.
Why, Valingford, was it not enough for thee
To be a rival twixt me and my love,
But counsell her, to my no small disgrace,
That, when I came to talk with her of love,
She should seem deaf, as faining not to hear?
VALINGFORD.
But hath she, Mountney, used thee as thou sayest?
MOUNTNEY.
Thou knowest too well she hath:
Wherein thou couldest not do me greater injury.
VALINGFORD.
Then I perceive we are deluded both.
For when I offered many gifts of Gold,
And Jewels to entreat for love,
She hath refused them with a coy disdain,
Alledging that she could not see the Sun.
The same conjectured I to be thy drift,
That faining so she might be rid of me.
MOUNTNEY.
The like did I by thee. But are not these
Naturall impediments?
VALINGFORD.
In my conjecture merely counterfeit:
Therefore lets join hands in friendship once again,
Since that the jar grew only by conjecture.
MOUNTNEY.
With all my heart: Yet lets try the truth hereof.
VALINGFORD.
With right good will. We will straight unto her father,
And there to learn whither it be so or no.
[Exeunt.]

SCENE III.
Outside the Danish Palace.
[Enter William and Blanch disguised, with a mask over her
face.]

WILLIAM.
Come on, my love, the comfort of my life.
Disguised thus we may remain unknowen,
And get we once to Seas, I force no then,
We quickly shall attain the English shore.
BLAUNCH.
But this I urge you with your former oath:
You shall not seek to violate mine honour,
Until our marriage rights be all performed.
WILLIAM.
Mariana, here I swear to thee by heaven,
And by the honour that I bear to Arms,
Never to seek or crave at hands of thee
The spoil of honourable chastity,
Until we do attain the English coast,
Where thou shalt be my right espoused Queen.
BLANCH.
In hope your oath proceedeth from your heart,
Let’s leave the Court, and betake us to his power
That governs all things to his mighty will,
And will reward the just with endless joy,
And plague the bad with most extreme annoy.
WILLIAM.
Lady, as little tarriance as we may,
Lest some misfortune happen by the way.
[Exit Blanch and William.]

SCENE IV.
Manchester. The Mill.
[Enter the Miller, his man Trotter, and Manville.]

MILLER.
I tell you, sir, it is no little grief to me, you should
so hardly conseit of my daughter, whose honest report,
though I say it, was never blotted with any title of
defamation.
MANVILLE.
Father Miller, the repair of those gentlemen to your house
hath given me great occasion to mislike.
MILLER.
As for those gentlemen, I never saw in them any evil intreaty.
But should they have profered it, her chaste mind hath proof
enough to prevent it.
TROTTER.
Those gentlemen are so honest as ever I saw: For yfaith one
of them gave me six pence to fetch a quart of Seck.—See,
maister, here they come.
[Enter Mountney and Valingford.]
MILLER.
Trotter, call Em. Now they are here together, I’ll have this
matter throughly debated.
[Exit Trotter.]
MOUNTNEY.
Father, well met. We are come to confer with you.
MANVILLE.
Nay, with his daughter rather.
VALINGFORD.
Thus it is, father, we are come to crave your friendship in
a matter.
MILLER.
Gentlemen, as you are strangers to me, yet by the way of
courtesy you shall demand any reasonable thing at my hands.
MANVILLE.
What, is the matter so forward they came to crave his good
will?
VALINGFORD.
It is given us to understand that your daughter is sodenly
become both blind and deaf.
MILLER.
Marie, God forbid! I have sent for her. In deed, she
hath kept her chamber this three days. It were no little
grief to me if it should be so.
MANVILLE.
This is God’s judgement for her treachery.
[Enter Trotter, leading Em.]
MILLER.
Gentlemen, I fear your words are too true. See where
Trotter comes leading of her.—What ails my Em? Not blind,
I hope?
EM.
[Aside.] Mountney and Valingford both together! And
Manville, to whom I have faithfully vowed my love! Now, Em,
suddenly help thy self.
MOUNTNEY.
This is no desembling, Valingford.
VALINGFORD.
If it be, it is cunningly contrived of all sides.
EM.
[Aside to Trotter.] Trotter, lend me thy hand, and as thou
lovest me, keep my counsell, and justify what so ever I say
and I’ll largely requite thee.
TROTTER.
Ah, thats as much as to say you would tell a monstrous,
terrible, horrible, outragious lie, and I shall sooth it—
no, berlady!
EM.
My present extremity will me,—if thou love me, Trotter.
TROTTER.
That same word love makes me to do any thing.
EM.
Trotter, wheres my father?
TROTTER.
Why, what a blind dunce are you, can you not see? He
standeth right before you.
[He thrusts Em upon her father.]
EM.
Is this my father?—Good father, give me leave to sit where
I may not be disturbed, sith God hath visited me both of my
sight and hearing.
MILLER.
Tell me, sweet Em, how came this blindness? Thy eyes are
lovely to look on, and yet have they lost the benefit of
their sight. What a grief is this to thy poor father!
EM.
Good father, let me not stand as an open gazing stock to
every one, but in a place alone, as fits a creature so
miserable.
MILLER.
Trotter, lead her in, the utter overthrow of poor Goddards
joy and only solace.
[Exit the Miller, Trotter and Em.]
MANVILLE.
Both blind and deaf! Then is she no wife for me; and glad
am I so good occasion is hapned: Now will I away to Chester,
and leave these gentlemen to their blind fortune.
[Exit Manville.]
MOUNTNEY.
Since fortune hath thus spitefully crost our hope, let us
leave this quest and harken after our King, who is at this
day landed at Lirpoole.
[Exit Mountney.]
VALINGFORD.
Go, my Lord, I’ll follow you.—Well, now Mountney is gone,
I’ll stay behind to solicit my love; for I imagine that I
shall find this but a fained invention, thereby to have us
leave off our suits.
[Exit Valingford.]

SCENE V.
The Danish Court.
[Enter Marques Lubeck and the King of Denmark, angerly with
some attendants.]

ZWENO K.
Well, Lubeck, well, it is not possible
But you must be consenting to this act?
Is this the man so highly you extold?
And play a part so hateful with his friend?
Since first he came with thee into the court,
What entertainment and what coutenance
He hath received, none better knows than thou.
In recompence whereof, he quites me well
To steal away fair Mariana my prisoner,
Whose ransom being lately greed upon,
I am deluded of by this escape.
Besides, I know not how to answer it,
When she shall be demanded home to Swethia.
LUBECK.
My gracious Lord, conjecture not, I pray,
Worser of Lubeck than he doth deserve:
Your highness knows Mariana was my love,
Sole paragon and mistress of my thoughts.
Is it likely I should know of her departure,
Wherein there is no man injured more than I?
ZWENO.
That carries reason, Marques, I confess.
Call forth my daughter. Yet I am pesuaded
That she, poor soul, suspected not her going:
For as I hear, she likewise loved the man,
Which he, to blame, did not at all regard.
[Enter Rocillio and Mariana.]
ROCILLIO.
My Lord, here is the Princess Mariana;
It is your daughter is conveyed away.
ZWENO.
What, my daughter gone?
Now, Marques, your villainy breaks forth.
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 steal your highness daughter,
Let leavens in Justice presently confound me.
ZWENO.
Not all the protestations thou canst use
Shall save thy life. Away with him to prison!
And, minion, otherwise it cannot be
But you are an agent in this treachery.
I will revenge it throughly on you both.
Away with her to prison! Heres stuff in deed!
My daughter stolen away!—
It booteth not thus to disturb my self,
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 again,
Or I shall fetch her unto Windsors cost,
Yea, and Williams too, if he deny her me.
[Exit Zweno and the rest.]

SCENE VI.
England. Camp of the Earl Demarch.
[Enter William, taken with soldiers.]