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I would go thrust my self into the flame.

Let Maistres nice go Saint it where she list,

And coyly quaint it with dissembling face.

I hold in scorn the fooleries that they use:

I being free, will never subject my self

To any such as she is underneath the Sun.

ZWENO.

Refusest thou to take my daughter to thy wife?

I tell thee, Duke, this rash denial may bring

More mischief on thee then thou canst avoid.

WILLIAM.

Conseit hath wrought such general dislike,

Through the false dealing of Mariana,

That utterly I do abhore their sex.

They are all disloyal, unconstant, all unjust:

Who tries as I have tried, and finds as I have found,

Will say theres so such creatures on the ground.

BLANCH.

Unconstant Knight, though some deserve no trust,

Theres others faithful, loving, loyal, and just.

[Enter to them Valingford with Em and the Miller, and

Mountney, and Manville, and Elner.]

WILLIAM.

How now, Lord Valingford, what makes these women here?

VALINGFORD.

Here be two women, may it please your grace,

That are contracted to one man, and are

In strife whether shall have him to their husband.

WILLIAM.

Stand foorth, women, and say,

To whether of you did he first give his faith.

EM.

To me, forsooth.

ELNER.

To me, my gratious Lord.

WILLIAM.

Speak, Manville: to whether didst thou give thy faith?

MANVILLE.

To say the troth, this maid had first my love.

ELNER.

Yes, Manville, but there was no witness by.

EM.

Thy conscience, Manville, is a hundred witnesses.

ELNER.

She hath stolen a conscience to serve her own turn; but you

are deceived, yfaith, he will none of you.

MANVILLE.

In deed, dread Lord, so dear I held her love

As in the same I put my whole delight;

But some impediments, which at that instant hapned,

Made me forsake her quite;

For which I had her fathers frank consent.

WILLIAM.

What were the impediments?

MANVILLE.

Why, she could neither hear nor see.

WILLIAM.

Now she doth both. Maiden, how were you cured?

EM.

Pardon, my Lord, I'll tell your grace the troth,

Be it not imputed to me as discredit.

I loved this Manville so much, that still my thought,

When he was absent, did present to me

The form and feature of that countenance

Which I did shrine an idol in mine heart.

And never could I see a man, methought,

That equaled Manville in my partial eye.

Nor was there any love between us lost,

But that I held the same in high regard,

Until repair of some unto our house,

Of whom my Manville grew thus jealous

As if he took exception I vouchsafed

To hear them speak, or saw them when they came:

On which I straight took order with my self,

To void the scrupule of his conscience,

By counterfaiting that I neither saw nor heard,

Any ways to rid my hands of them.

All this I did to keep my Manvilles love,

Which he unkindly seeks for to reward.

MANVILLE.

And did my Em, to keep her faith with me,

Dissemble that she neither heard nor saw?

Pardon me, sweet Em, for I am only thine.

EM.

Lay off thy hands, disloyal as thou art!

Nor shalt thou have possession of my love,

That canst so finely shift thy matters off.

Put case I had been blind, and could not see—

As often times such visitations falls

That pleaseth God, which all things doth dispose—

Shouldest thou forsake me in regard of that?

I tell thee Manville, hadst thou been blind,

Or deaf, or dumb, or else what impediments might

Befall to man, Em would have loved and kept,

And honoured thee: yea begged, if wealth had failed,

For thy relief.

MANVILLE.

Forgive me, sweet Em.

EM.

I do forgive thee, with my heart,

And will forget thee too, if case I can:

But never speak to me, nor seem to know me.

MANVILLE.

Then farewell, frost! Well fare a wench that will!

Now, Elner, I am thine own, my girl.

ELNER.

Mine, Manville? thou never shalt be mine.

I so detest thy villainy,

That whilest I live I will abhor thy company.

MANVILLE.

Is it come to this? Of late I had choice of twain,

On either side, to have me to her husband,

And now am utterly rejected of them both.