but having often repeated them, I shall now relate them to you. Madam, _Ever till I saw thee my heart was still at rest, Little did I think one Female could have pierc’t Either Heart or Bowels, that on thee doth waste, So sad all faint and feeble grow within my brest; Alas, it is pity that sorrow to me should come, For to tell you the truth as yet I am but very young, And to express my self I want a better tongue; But I can truly and sadly say that only you Are she that hath brought me to grief and sorrow too Brave Vertues that are in this lovely Damsel found At the first sight gave my poor heart a desperate wound. You have my sences very much decay’d With love, that at one time they will be all dismai’d Long of the tender love that to you I do bear, Even now I will make and end my only Dear._ Your true Lover, _L. M._ We all laughed heartily at this non-sensical stuff, and I told mistress _Dorothy_ that sure she was mistaken in the recital of these verses, and that they were to be said backwards, for that wayes that she repeated them I discovered the humour of our Poetical Lover, and Mistress _Peggy_ by my directions returned him this answer. Amorous Friend, _Tis much you should receive two infections at once, the one Love, the other Poetry, but it is not very strange since they commonly accompany one another, but i’le assure you ’tis dangerous, for you know the old_ Proverb, _that sad are the effects of_ Love and Pease Porridge; _and besides Poetry is commonly attended with Poverty, but after a strict perusal of your poetick Fancies, I find there is no great danger in your poetick infection, for unless you improve your self mightily it will be a long time e’re you be a compleat Poet, and since your Poetry and Love came together, it will be as long e’re you be a compleat Lover; now if you have still a mind to prosecute these two Designs, of Love and Poetry, I advise you to make use of some other more fit and sublime object that may raise your fancy to a higher pitch of eloquence, or at least wise sense, as you have been in verse. I return this answer to you in prose, and as you like this you may prosecute your Designs of Love and Poetry, with some other Object, but I pray give no more trouble to_ Your Frind, _M. S._