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  • Title: Fair Em (Quarto 1, 1593)
  • 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    Not Peer Reviewed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 (Quarto 1, 1593)

    The Millers daughter
    Would haue you likewise troubled with a blinde wife,
    Hauing the benefite of your eyes,
    But neither follow him so much in follie,
    But loue one, in whome you may better delight.
    1185Valingford. Father Miller, thy daughter shall haue honor
    By graunting mee her loue:
    I am a Gentleman of king Williams Court,
    And no meane man in king Williams fauour.
    Em. If you be a Lorde syr, as you saye:
    1190You offer both your selfe and mee great wrong:
    Yours, as apparant in limiting your loue so vnorderly,
    For which you rashly endure reprochement:
    Mine, as open and euident,
    When being shut from the vanities of this world,
    1195you would haue me as an open gazing stock to all the world:
    For lust, not loue leades you into this error:
    But from the one I will keepe me as well as I can,
    And yeeld the other to none but to my father,
    As I am bound by duetie.
    1200Ualingford. Why faire Em, Manuile hath forsaken thee,
    And must at Chester be married, which,
    If I speake otherwise than true,
    Let thy father speake what credibly he hath heard.
    Em. But can it be Manuile will deale so vnkindly,
    1205To reward my iustice with such monstrous vngentlenes.
    Haue I dissembled for thy sake?
    And doest thou now thus requite it?
    In deede these many daies I haue not seene him,
    Which hath made me marueile at his long absence.
    1210But father, are you assured of the wordes he spake,
    were concerning Manuile?
    Miller. In sooth daughter, now it is foorth,
    I must needes confirme it.
    Maister Manuile hath forsaken thee,
    1215And at Chester must be married
    To a mans daughter of no little wealth.
    His