Madam, I do, as is my duty,
Honour the shadow of your shoe-tye;
And now am come to bring your ear 165
A present you’ll be glad to hear: 
At least I hope so:  the thing’s done,
Or may I never see the sun;
For which I humbly now demand
Performance at your gentle hand 170
And that you’d please to do your part,
As I have done mine, to my smart.

With that he shrugg’d his sturdy back
As if he felt his shoulders ake.

But she, who well enough knew what 175
(Before he spoke) he would be at,
Pretended not to apprehend
The mystery of what he mean’d;. 
And therefore wish’d him to expound
His dark expressions, less profound. 180

Madam, quoth he, I come to prove
How much I’ve suffer’d for your love,
Which (like your votary) to win,
I have not spar’d my tatter’d skin
And for those meritorious lashes, 185
To claim your favour and good graces.

Quoth she, I do remember once
I freed you from th’ inchanted sconce;
And that you promis’d, for that favour,
To bind your back to good behaviour, 190
And, for my sake and service, vow’d
To lay upon’t a heavy load,
And what ‘twould bear t’ a scruple prove,
As other Knights do oft make love
Which, whether you have done or no, 195
Concerns yourself, not me, to know. 
But if you have, I shall confess,
Y’ are honester than I could guess.

Quoth he, if you suspect my troth,
I cannot prove it but by oath; 200
And if you make a question on’t,
I’ll pawn my soul that I have done’t;
And he that makes his soul his surety,
I think, does give the best security.

Quoth she, Some say, the soul’s secure 205
Against distress and forfeiture
Is free from action, and exempt
From execution and contempt;
And to be summon’d to appear
In th’ other world’s illegal here; 210
And therefore few make any account
Int’ what incumbrances they run’t
For most men carry things so even
Between this World, and Hell, and Heaven,
Without the least offence to either, 215
They freely deal in all together;
And equally abhor to quit
This world for both or both for it;
And when they pawn and damn their souls,
They are but pris’ners on paroles. 220

For that (quoth he) ’tis rational,
Th’ may be accountable in all: 
For when there is that intercourse
Between divine and human pow’rs,
That all that we determine here 225
Commands obedience every where,
When penalties may be commuted
For fines or ears, and executed
It follows, nothing binds so fast
As souls in pawn and mortgage past 230
For oaths are th’ only tests and seals
Of right and wrong, and true and false,
And there’s no other way to try
The doubts of law and justice by.