GREENE'S FAREWELL TO FOLLY 1 Modern spelling tran

GREENE’S FAREWELL TO FOLLY 34
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Menon, although amazed with this news, yet for that his conscience was clear, feared not,
but with as much haste as was possible made himself ready to go. Semiramis dissembled
the matter, fetched her husband forth his new hose and his best jacket, thinking to sponge
him up after the cleanliest fashion, that Ninus might see she had cause to love and like so
proper a man. Setting her husband therefore forth in print, he took his way unto the
court, where at the gate the secretary awaited to bring him into presence, whither no
sooner he was entered but the king, taking the poor man aside, began to common with
him in this manner:
Menon, for the sovereign to make a long discourse unto the subject were frivolous, seeing
as the one for his majesty is privileged to command and constrain, so the other by
obedience is tied to obey; therefore omitting all needless preambles, thus to the purpose.
Menon, thou art poor, and yet a lord over fortune for that I hear thou art content, for it is
not richesse to have much, but to desire little, yet to thy want thou hast such a favour
granted thee by the destinies as every way may countervail thy poverty, I mean the
possession of thy wife Semiramis, whom mine eye can witness to be passing fair and
beautiful. Envy, that grudged at thy happiness, and love, that frowned at my liberty,
joining their forces together have so disquieted my mind with sundry passions as only it
lies in thy power to mitigate the cause of my martyrdom, for know, Menon, I am in love
with thy wife, a censure, I know, which will be hard for thee to digest, and yet to be borne
with more patience for that thou hast a king and thy sovereign to be thy rival. Her,
Menon, I crave of thee to be my concubine, which if thou grant [-not], think as now thou
hast poverty with quiet, so then thou shalt have both content & dignity.
The poor man, who thought by the king’s speeches that his wife had been consenting to
this pretence, framed the king this answer:
I know, right mighty Sovereign, that princes may command where poor men cannot
entreat; that the title of a king is a writ of privilege in the court of love; that chastity is of
small force to resist where wealth and dignity, joined in league, are armed to assault.
Kings are warranted to command, and subjects to obey; therefore if Semiramis be
content to grant the interest of her affections into your Majesty’s hands, I am resolved to
redeliver up my fee simple with patience.
No, Menon, quod Ninus, as thy wife is fair, so she is honest, and therefore where I cannot
command I will them [sic for ‘then’?] constrain, I mean, that thou force her to love me.
Menon, grieving at the words of the king, made this reply:
If my wife, mighty Ninus, be contented to prefer a cottage before a crown, and the person
of a poor labourer before the love of a prince, let me not, good my Lord, be so unnatural
as to resolve upon such a villainy as the very beasts abhor to commit. The lion killeth the
lioness being taken in adultery; the swan killeth her make for suspicion of the same fault,
and shall I, whom reason willeth to be chary of my choice, force my wife perforce to such
a folly? Pardon, my liege, never shall the loyalty of my wife be revenged with such
treachery; rather had I suffer death than be appeached of such discourtesy.
Modern spelling transcript copyright 2007 Nina Green All Rights Reserved