Ah, Em, the subject of my restless thoughts,

4.2279The anvil whereupon my heart doth beat,

4.3280Framing thy ʼstate to thy desert.

4.4281Full ill this life becomes thy heavenly look,

4.5282Wherein sweet love and virtue sits enthroned.

4.6283Bad world, where riches is esteemed above them both,

4.7284In whose base eyes nought else is bountiful.

4.8285‘A millerʼs daughterʼ, says the multitude,

4.9286‘Should not be loved of a gentlemanʼ.

4.10287But let them breathe their souls into the air!

4.11288Yet will I still affect thee as myself,

4.12289So thou be constant in thy plighted vow.

4.13290But here comes one. I will listen to his talk.

Go, William Conqueror, and seek thy love,

4.15293Seek thou a minion in a foreign land,

4.16294Whilst I draw back and court my love at home.

4.17295The millerʼs daughter of fair Manchester

4.18296Hath bound my feet to this delightsome soil,

4.19297And from her eyes do dart such golden beams

4.20298That holds my heart in her subjection.

[Aside] He ruminates on my belovèd choice.

4.22300God grant he come not to prevent my hope!

4.23301But hereʼs another. Him Iʼll listen to.

Nature unjust, in utterance of thy art,

4.25304To grace a peasant with a prince's fame!

4.26305(Peasant am I, so to misterm my love.)

4.27306Although a millerʼs daughter by her birth,

4.28307Yet may her beauty and her virtues well suffice

4.29308To hide the blemish of her birth in hell,

4.30309Where neither envious eyes nor thought can pierce

4.31310But endless darkness ever smother it.

4.32311Go, William Conqueror, and seek thy love,

4.33312Whilst I draw back and court mine own the while,

4.34313Decking her body with such costly robes

4.35314As may become her beautyʼs worthiness,

4.36315That so thy labours may be laughed to scorn

4.37316And she thou seekʼst in foreign regions

4.38317Be darkened and eclipsed when she arrives

4.39318By one that I have chosen nearer home.

[Aside] What, comes he too to intercept my love?

4.41320Then hie thee, Manville, to forestall such foes.

What now, Lord Valingford, are you behind?

4.43322The king had chosen you to go with him.

So chose he you. Therefore I marvel much

4.45324That both of us should linger in this sort.

4.46325What may the king imagine of our stay?

The king may justly think we are to blame,

4.48327But I imagined I might well be spared

4.49328And that no other man had borne my mind.

The like did I. In friendship then resolve,

4.51330What is the cause of your unlooked-for stay?

Lord Valingford, I tell thee as a friend,

4.53332Love is the cause why I have stayed behind.

Love, my lord? Of whom?

Em, the millerʼs daughter of Manchester.

335But may this be?

Why not, my lord? I hope full well you know

4.58337That love respects no difference of state,

4.59338So beauty serve to stir affection.

But this it is that makes me wonder most,

4.61340That you and I should be of one conceit

4.62341In such a strange unlikely passion.

But is that true? My lord, I hope you do but jest.

I would I did. Then were my grief the less.

Nay, never grieve. For if the cause be such

4.66345To join our thoughts in such a sympathy,

4.67346All envy set aside. Let us agree

4.68347To yield to eitherʼs fortune in this choice.

Content, say I, and what so eʼer befall

4.70349Shake hands, my lord, and fortune thrive at all.