ABSTRACT
To resume our tale: in a version of the folktale formula familiar from Disney’s Snow White, Eurymine’s would-be assassins ultimately surrender to her plea that they
not kill her-conveyed via a song linking Eurymine to the preternaturally musical fairies-but make her swear never to return to court again (B1r). As soon as they leave her, Eurymine meets up with a shepherd, Gemulo, and a ranger, Silvio, who become her employer and landlord, respectively. Presumably to protect herself (since the Duke has ordered her death), Eurymine tells them a familiar romance narrative to account for her presence unattended in the wood: her parents were going to force her to marry a man that she did not love (B2r). Silvio’s response verbally anticipates Eurymine’s important debate with Ascanio in Act five, that speaks directly to the play’s interrogation of gender roles with a play on the many meanings of both “mind” and “kind”: “Now trust me virgin, they were much vnkind, / To seeke to match you so against your minde” (B2r). In this instance, unkind means both heartless and against nature (since her family members should care about her welfare), while “mind” suggests her thoughts and emotions as well as her will.4
