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Pretty Maid, would you speak with me?
Yes, and if't please your Worship.
From whom come you?
From my Mistris.
Who is your Mistris?
Mother Matron.
What Message hath Mother Matron sent to me?
She hath sent your Worship a Letter, and desires your Worship to send her an Answer.
Go and stay within, and I will give you an Answer.
This Letter is concerning some of the young Ladies that are in Love with me.
Blessed Letter, that art the Messenger of Love, the Presenter of Youth, Beauty and Wit, and the Inviter to Pleasure.
The Letter.
Sweet Monsieur Frisk,
O Dear Monsieur Frisk, since I last saw you, and heard you speak so wisely, as that you would wait upon the Ladies, and proffer so kindly, as to proffer me a kiss, meeting you in the Lane called Loves Folly. O that Lane, that fortunate or unfortunate Lane! for as my wishes succeed, the Lane proves good or bad: for since that time of meeting, I have loved you, or rather, I may say, I have been in Love with you, or rather, I may say, I have Fancy'd you beyond all other young Gentlemen, and I hope you will return the like to me: For though I am not in my blooming Beauty, yet I am not quite decay'd, but there remains some fresh colour, wherewith a young Gentleman may take delight; and let me tell you, the Autumn is more plea∣sant than the Spring, for the Spring is raw and cold, the Autumn is warm and com∣fortable: wherefore let me perswade you, sweet Monsieur Frisk, to chuse the Au∣tumnal fruits, and reject the Springing buds, which are incipid and tasteless: Ripe fruit's are better than green, and VVinter-fruits more lasting than the fruits of the Summer: Staid Gravity is more happy to live with, than wilde Inconstancy; the wisedome of Age is more profitable than the follies of Youth; not that I say I'm old, nor pray think me not so, but that I am as wise as Age can make me, and VVisedome is not a portion that is given to every one, yet what wisedome I have, I will impart to you, sweet Monsieur Frisk, you shall be the Receiver; the Treasurer, and the Dis∣poser; also with my wisedome I give my heart, with my heart I give you my person, which wisedom, heart, and person, is not to be despised: for by my wisedome you will receive Counsel, with my heart Love, and with my person that Beauty Time hath left me, who like a cheating knave, hath rob'd me of some, but yet there is enough left, dear Monsieur Frisk, to delight your view: for although I am not like Hellen of Greece, yet I am like Hellen, when she was Hellen of Troy, for then, by my faith, she was in her Autumnal years, as I am, which was about fifty, or by'r Lady, somewhat more, and then she was as dear to her Paris, witness Troy, and as much de∣sired of her of....witness the Greeks, as when she was but fifteen. Wherefore, dear Frisk, let me be thy Hellen, and be thou my Paris, and let our Loves be as bright as the fire of Troy, but not so consuming; but if thou deny'll me, I shall consume in mine own flames, and be buried in mine own ashes, which will fly in the face of thy cruelty, to revenge me thy
Languishing Lover, namely Mother Matron.
A pox of her luxurious Appetite, to be Amorous at fourscore, one might have thought, nay sworn, that Cupids fire had been put out with Times Extinguisher; but I perceive by Mother Matron, that time hath no power over that Appetite, but I am forty time hath made her such a creature, as not to be capable of curses, for she is her self a curse beyond all I could give her; but if she were capable, I would bury her under a mountain of curses, for
raising up my hopes to the height of young beautiful Ladies by the outside of the Letter, and then frustrating my expectation by the inside, causing me to fall from the bower of bliss, into the grave of life, the habitation of death; from a young Beauty, to an old doting Woman: Oh, I will tear this letter that hath deceived me; but stay, I will keep this letter to make sport a∣mongst the young Ladies, which sport may perchance insinuate me into some favour with the young Ladies: for as idle and ridiculous pastime, or means as this is, hath got many times good success amongst Ladies: wherefore I will, for their sport-sake, jestingly Court Mother Matron, and in the mean time of the Progress, write her a letter.