in Fair Em, the Miller's Daughter of Manchester — Anonymous (?)
Metadata
Play
Fair Em, the Miller's Daughter of Manchester
Author
Anonymous (?)
Year (catalogued)
1591
First performance
1590
Decade
1590s
Genre
Comedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Derby's (Strange's) Men
Speech prefix(es)
Mariana. | Mariana
Words
746
Characters
3831
Typicality
0.43 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A21328
BritDrama no.
852
Cluster
Cluster 13 — Attendant courtiers & citizens
Important excerpts
Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 13 (tanner, kate, topas, harry, henry, george…). Matches are highlighted.
often to their shifts Oft have I herd you say, you loved me well: Yea, sworn the same, and I believed you to. Can this be found and Actium of good faith, Thus to dissemble where you found true love? But Lubeck now regards not Mariana : Why do you post me to another then? Then will Duke William rob me of my Love? Speak for yourself
Full speech
Not that I find occasion of mislike My entertainment in your graces court, But that I long to see my native home. Trust me my Lord, I am sorry for your hurt. How grew the quarrel my Lord? Madam. How near is this humour to madness If yond hold on as you Begin, you are in a pretty way to scolding. Madam here comes one, Madam though you have discourteously Red my letter, yet I pray you give it me. How far does this differ from modesty: Yet will I gather up the pieces, which happily May show to me the intent thereof Though not the meaning. Your servant and love sir Robert of Windsor Alius William the Conqueror, wishes long health and happiness. Is this William the Conqueror, shrouded under The name of sir Robert of Windsor ? Were he the Monarch of the world He should not disposxess Lubeck of his Love. Therefore I will to the Court, and there if I can Close to be friends with Lady Blanch, And thereby keep Lubeck my Love for my self: And further the Lady Blanch in her suit as much as I may. Exit. My Lord you know you need not to entreat, But may command Mariana to her power Be it no impeachment to my honest fame. My Lord wherein hath Mariana given you occasion That you should mistrust or else be jealous of my secrecy. True my Lord, he came to see fair Blanch. Well well my Lord, I Like you, for such drifts Put silly Ladies often to their shifts Oft have I herd you say, you loved me well: Yea, sworn the same, and I believed you to. Can this be found and Actium of good faith, Thus to dissemble where you found true love? But Lubeck now regards not Mariana : Why do you post me to another then? Then will Duke William rob me of my Love? Speak for yourself my Lord let him alone. Then loving you I do content you both. Leave of my Lord, here comes the Lady Blanch. Thy Mariana cannot choose but remember thee. 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. Madam as thus: It is not unknown 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 Marks Lubeck, I will as did the constant lady Penelope Undertake to effect some great task. The next time that Sir Robert shall come In his wonted sort to solicit me with Love, I will seem to agree and Like of any thing That the Knight shall demand so far forth 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 were the English Crown. And than? If Sir Robert prove a King and you his Queen How than? Madam begun and you shall see I will work to your desire and my content. Exit Blanch. Surely you are beholding to the Marks, For he hath been and earnest spokesman in your cause. My Lord I am a prisoner, and hard it were To get me from the Court. Put case I should, how would you use me than? But this I think were most convenient To mask my face the better to escape unknown. But this I must entreat your grace, You would not seek by lust unlawfully To wrong my chased determinations. In hope your oath is true, I leave your grace till the appointed time. When first I came into your highness court, And William often importing me of love: I did devise to ease the grief your daughter did sustain, She should meet Sir William masked as I it were. This put in proof, did take so good effect, As yet it seems his grace is not resolved, But it was I which he conveyed away. Born 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.
Plot summary
Plot — Fair Em, the Miller's Daughter of Manchester
Ata tilt, William the Conqueror falls in love with the portrait on his opponent’s shield. The subject is the Danish princess Blanche, and he travels incognito to Denmark to woo her. In the flesh she is a disappointment, outshone by the captive princess Mariana. At a masque, William unwittingly picks a fight with his friend the Marquis of Litbeck, and spends a night in prison. He sends a love-letter to Mariana, which Blanche intercepts and tears up in Mariana’s face. Mariana has no interest in William anyway: she asks him to rescue her from Denmark, but substitutes Blanche when the plot is carried out. William returns to England to find his regents fighting one another, and the Danes threaten war if he does not return Blanche to her father. In the sub-plot, meanwhile, the Norman Conquest has forced many of the English gentry into hiding, among them Sir Thomas Goddard and his daughter, Em. He disguises himself as a miller, and she is wooed by three suitors: the local boy Manvile, whom her father favours, and the Normans Mountney and Valingford. The miller’s man Trotter also fancies his chances: he persuades Em to promise to do anything to ease his sickness before telling her that it is love- sickness. Manvile becomes jealous of the other suitors, and Em tries to put them off by pretending to be blind and deaf. This only succeeds in alienating Manvile, who lays plans to marry another woman, Elinor. Suspecting a stratagem, Valingford is harder to yet rid of: he learns of Manvile’s intentions and tells Em and her father, Em admits her deception and wants revenge on Manvile. The Danes invade England. William still believes it was Mariana who left Denmark with him, but she and Liibeck are with the Danish troops as prisoners, accused of abetting Blanche’s abduction. When William realizes the truth, Sueno offers him Blanche’s hand in marriage, but Mariana’s deception has made him a misogynist. Em and her suitors now arrive, and Em explains her stratagem. Relieved, Manvile renews his willingness to marry her, but she won't have him - and neither will Elinor. William decides to accept Blanche after all, and, once Goddard’s true identity is revealed, Em is bestowed on Valingford.