Letter Sixth To Anne Boleyn
TO MY MISTRESS. Because the time seems very long since I heard
concerning your health and you, the great affection I have for you has
induced me to send you this bearer, to be better informed of your health
and pleasure, and because, since my parting from you, I have been told
that the opinion in which I left you is totally changed, and that you
would not come to court either with your mother, if you could, or in any
o
her manner; which report, if true, I cannot sufficiently marvel at,
because I am sure that I have since never done any thing to offend you,
and it seems a very poor return for the great love which I bear you to
keep me at a distance both from the speech and the person of the woman
that I esteem most in the world: and if you love me with as much affection
as I hope you do, I am sure that the distance of our two persons would be
a little irksome to you, though this does not belong so much to the
mistress as to the servant.
Consider well, my mistress, that absence from you grieves me sorely,
hoping that it is not your will that it should be so; but if I knew for
certain that you voluntarily desired it, I could do no other than mourn
my ill-fortune, and by degrees abate my great folly. And so, for lack of
time, I make an end of this rude letter, beseeching you to give credence
to this bearer in all that he will tell you from me.
Written by the hand of your entire Servant,
H. R.