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  • Title: Fair Em (Modern)
  • Editor: Brett Greatley-Hirsch

    • ISBN:

    Copyright Digital Renaissance Editions. This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Author: Anonymous
    Editor: Brett Greatley-Hirsch
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Fair Em (Modern)

    349.1[Scene 5]
    350Enter Em, and Trotter the Miller始s man with a kerchief on his head and a urinal in his hand.
    Em
    Trotter, where have you been?
    Trotter
    Where have I been? [Holding up the kerchief] Why, what signifies this?
    Em
    A kerchief, doth it not?
    Trotter
    355[Holding up the urinal] What call you this, I pray?
    Em
    I say it is a urinal.
    Trotter
    Then this is mystically to give you to understand I have been at the physmicary始s house.
    Em
    How long hast thou been sick?
    Trotter
    360I始faith, even as long as I have not been half well, and that hath been a long time.
    Em
    A loitering time, I rather imagine.
    Trotter
    It may be so, but the physmicary tells me that you can help me.
    Em
    Why, anything I can do for recovery of thy health 365be right well assured of.
    Trotter
    Then give me your hand.
    Em
    To what end?
    Trotter
    That the ending of an old indenture is the beginning of a new bargain.
    Em
    370What bargain?
    Trotter
    That you promised to do anything to recover my health.
    Em
    On that condition I give thee my hand.
    [Em offers Trotter her hand.]
    Trotter
    Ah, sweet Em.
    Here he offers to kiss her.
    Em
    How now, Trotter? Your master始s daughter?
    Trotter
    375I始faith, I aim at the fairest.
    Ah Em, sweet Em,
    ‘Fresh as the flower
    That hath power
    To wound my heart,
    And ease my smart;
    Of me, poor thief,
    In prison bound始 —
    Em
    380‘So all your rhyme
    Lies on the ground始.
    But what means this?
    Trotter
    Ah, mark the device:
    ‘For thee, my love,
    Full sick I was,
    In hazard of my life;
    Thy promise was
    To make me whole,
    And for to be my wife.
    385Let me enjoy my love, my dear,
    And thou possess thy Trotter here始.
    Em
    But I meant no such matter!
    Trotter
    Yes, woos, but you did. I始ll go to our parson, Sir John, and he shall mumble up the marriage out of hand.
    Em
    390But here comes one that will forbid the banns.
    Here enters Manville to them.
    Trotter
    Ah, sir, you come too late.
    Manville
    What remedy, Trotter?
    [Goddard calls for Trotter within.]
    Em
    Go, Trotter, my father calls.
    Trotter
    395Would you have me go in, and leave you two here?
    Em
    Why, dar始st thou not trust me?
    Trotter
    Yes, 始faith, even as long as I see you.
    Em
    Go thy ways, I pray thee heartily.
    Trotter
    [Aside] That same word ‘heartily始 is of great force. — 400I will go, but I pray, sir, beware you come not too near the wench.
    Exit Trotter.
    Manville
    I am greatly beholding to you. — Ah
    ‘Mistress始, sometime I might have said, ‘my love始,
    But time and fortune hath b始reaved me of that.
    405And I, an abject in those gracious eyes
    That with remorse erst saw into my grief,
    May sit and sigh the sorrows of my heart.
    Em
    Indeed, my Manville hath some cause to doubt
    When such a swain is rival in his love.
    Manville
    410Ah Em, were he the man that causeth this mistrust,
    I should esteem of thee as at the first.
    Em
    But is my love in earnest all this while?
    Manville
    Believe me, Em, it is not time to jest
    When others 始joys what lately I possessed.
    Em
    415If touching love my Manville charge me thus,
    Unkindly must I take it at his hands,
    For that my conscience clears me of offence.
    Manville
    Ah, impudent and shameless in thy ill,
    That with thy cunning and defraudful tongue
    420Seek始st to delude the honest-meaning mind!
    Was never heard in Manchester before
    Of truer love than hath been betwixt us twain?
    And for my part, how I have hazarded
    Displeasure of my father and my friends
    425Thyself can witness. Yet, not withstanding this,
    Two gentlemen attending on Duke William,
    Mountney and Valingford, as I heard them named,
    Oft times resort to see and to be seen
    Walking the streets fast by thy father始s door,
    430Whose glancing eyes up to the windows cast
    Gives testes of their masters始 amorous heart.
    This, Em, is noted and too much talked on.
    Some see it without mistrust of ill;
    Others there are that, scorning, grin thereat
    435And saith, ‘there goes the miller始s daughter始s wooers始.
    Ah me, whom chiefly and most of all it doth concern,
    To spend my time in grief and vex my soul!
    To think my love should be rewarded thus,
    And for thy sake abhor all womankind.
    Em
    440May not a maid look upon a man
    Without suspicious judgment of the world?
    Manville
    If sight do move offence, it is the better not to see.
    But thou didst more, unconstant as thou art,
    For with them thou hadst talk and conference.
    Em
    445May not a maid talk with a man without mistrust?
    Manville
    Not with such men suspected amorous.
    Em
    I grieve to see my Manville始s jealousy.
    Manville
    Ah Em, faithful love is full of jealousy.
    So did I love thee true and faithfully,
    450For which I am rewarded most unthankfully.
    Exit [Manville] in a rage. Manet Em.
    [Em]
    And so away? What, in displeasure gone,
    And left me such a bitter sweet to gnaw upon?
    Ah Manville, little wot始st thou
    455How near this parting goeth to my heart.
    Uncourteous love, whose followers reap reward
    Of hate, disdain, reproach, and infamy,
    The fruit of frantic, bedlam jealousy!
    Here enters Mountney to Em.
    460But here comes one of these suspicious men.
    Witness, my God, without desert of me,
    For only Manville honour I in heart,
    Nor shall unkindness cause me from him to start.
    Mountney
    [Aside] For this good fortune, Venus be thou blessed,
    465To meet my love, the mistress of my heart,
    Where time and place gives opportunity
    At full to let her understand my love.
    He turns to Em.
    Fair mistress, since my fortune sorts so well,
    470Hear you a word.
    [He] offers to take her by the hand, and she goes from him.
    What meaneth this?
    Nay, stay, fair Em.
    Em
    I am going homewards, sir.
    Mountney
    Yet stay, sweet love, to whom I must disclose
    The hidden secrets of a lover始s thoughts,
    475Not doubting but to find such kind remorse
    As naturally you are inclined to.
    Em
    The gentleman, your friend, sir, I始ve not seen him
    This four days at the least.
    Mountney
    What始s that to me?
    I speak not, sweet, in person of my friend,
    480But for myself, whom if that love deserve
    To have regard, being honourable love,
    Not base affects of loose lascivious love
    Whom youthful wantons play and dally with,
    But that unites in honourable bands
    Of holy rites, 485and knits the sacred knot that gods —
    Here Em cuts him off.
    Em
    What mean you, sir, to keep me here so long?
    I cannot understand you by your signs.
    You keep a-prattling with your lips,
    But never a word you speak that I can hear.
    Mountney
    490[Aside] What, is she deaf? A great impediment!
    Yet remedies there are for such defects. —
    Sweet Em, it is no little grief to me
    To see where Nature in her pride of art
    Hath wrought perfections rich and admirable —
    Em
    495Speak you to me, sir?
    Mountney
    To thee, my only joy.
    Em
    I cannot hear you.
    Mountney
    O plague of Fortune! O hell without compare!
    What boots it us to gaze and not enjoy?
    Em
    500Fare you well, sir.
    Exit Em. Manet Mountney.
    Mountney
    Farewell, my love. Nay, farewell life and all!
    Could I procure redress for this infirmity,
    It might be means she would regard my suit.
    I am acquainted with the king始s physicians,
    505Amongst the which there始s one mine honest friend,
    Signor Alberto, a very learned man;
    His judgment will I have to help this ill.
    Ah Em, fair Em, if art can make thee whole,
    I始ll buy that sense for thee, although it cost me dear.
    510But Mountney, stay. This may be but deceit,
    A matter feigned only to delude thee,
    And not unlike, perhaps by Valingford.
    He loves fair Em as well as I.
    (As well as I? Ah no, not half so well.)
    515Put case, yet may he be thine enemy,
    And give her counsel to dissemble thus.
    I始ll try the event, and if it fall out so,
    Friendship farewell, love makes me now a foe.
    Exit Mountney.
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