A Letter to a Gentlewoman requesting Love.
COnsidering with my self, most divine Lady, the many vertues wherewith nature hath in a su∣perabundant measure adorned you, and then weighing the insufficiency of any service I can do you; my trembling hand is scarce able to hold the pen, and my stammering tongue dare hardly ex∣press that which my afflicted heart desireth to ma∣nifest unto you: yet love, which holds in his domi∣nion my enflamed heart, forceth me to lay open to your sweetest self the secrets of my love-tor∣mented brest. Excuse then, I humbly beseech you, these humble lines, that invisibly present to your sair hands an humbler suit then can be expressed. I beseech you to extend a gratious hand, to stay a fainting soul from sinking, that without you is as nothing, whose worth and remembrance gives me being: for I desire not to be, where your being is not; It is that only that betters my joy, and makes me sensible of content, there being no content equal to the enjoying a companion of so great worth. To conclude, I shall expect the sentence of my life or death in your answer, and remain so perfectly yours, that I can say nothing neer it, when I say I am,
Madam,
your most faithful, most obedient, and most affectionate servant.