’Tis no injustice, nor foul play;
And that you ought to take that course,
As we take you, for better or worse;
And gratefully submit to those 285
Who you, before another, chose. 
For why should ev’ry savage beast
Exceed his great lord’s interest? 
Have freer pow’r than he in grace,
And nature, o’er the creature has? 290
Because the laws he since has made
Have cut off all the pow’r he had;
Retrench’d the absolute dominion
That nature gave him over women;
When all his pow’r will not extend 295
One law of nature to suspend;
And but to offer to repeal
The smallest clause, is to rebel. 
This, if men rightly understood
Their privilege, they wou’d make good; 300
And not, like sots, permit their wives
T’ encroach on their prerogatives;
For which sin they deserve to be
Kept, as they are, in slavery: 
And this some precious Gifted Teachers, 305
Unrev’rently reputed leachers,
And disobey’d in making love,
Have vow’d to all the world to prove,
And make ye suffer, as you ought,
For that uncharitable fau’t. 310
But I forget myself, and rove
Beyond th’ instructions of my love.

Forgive me (Fair) and only blame
Th’ extravagancy of my flame,
Since ’tis too much at once to show 315
Excess of love and temper too. 
All I have said that’s bad and true,
Was never meant to aim at you,
Who have so sov’reign a controul
O’er that poor slave of yours, my soul, 320
That, rather than to forfeit you,
Has ventur’d loss of heaven too: 
Both with an equal pow’r possest,
To render all that serve you blest: 
But none like him, who’s destin’d either 325
To have, or lose you, both together. 
And if you’ll but this fault release
(For so it must be, since you please)
I’ll pay down all that vow, and more,
Which you commanded, and I swore, 330
And expiate upon my skin
Th’ arrears in full of all my sin. 
For ’tis but just that I should pay
Th’ accruing penance for delay,
Which shall be done, until it move 335
Your equal pity and your love.

The Knight, perusing this Epistle,
Believ’d h’ had brought her to his whistle;
And read it like a jocund lover,
With great applause t’ himself, twice over; 340
Subscrib’d his name, but at a fit
And humble distance to his wit;
And dated it with wond’rous art,
Giv’n from the bottom of his heart;
Then seal’d it with his Coat of Love, 345
A smoaking faggot —­ and above,
Upon a scroll —­ I burn, and weep;
And near it —­ For her Ladyship;
Of all her sex most excellent,
These to her gentle hands present. 350
Then gave it to his faithful Squire,
With lessons how t’ observe and eye her.