Fair Em Part 9

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 s.h.i.+p 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 l.u.s.t 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.ds, 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 friends.h.i.+p 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.]