[236]
MARGARET PASTON TO JOHN PASTON[300.1]
To my right wurshipfull hosbond, John Paston, be this delyveryd in hast.
1454(?)
JAN. 29
Right worshipfull hosbond, I recommawnd me to yow, praying yow to wete that I spak yistirday with my suster,[300.2] and she told me that she was sory that she myght not speke with yow or ye yede; and she desyrith if itt pleased yow, that ye shuld yeve the jantylman, that ye know of, seche langage as he myght fele by yow that ye wull be wele willyng to the mater that ye know of; for she told me that he hath seyd befor this tym that he conseyvid that ye have sett but lytil therby, wherefor she prayth yow that ye woll be here gode brother, and that ye myght have a full answer at this tym whedder it shall be ya or nay. For her moder hath seyd to her syth that ye redyn hens, that she hath no fantesy therinne, but that it shall com to a jape; and seyth to her that ther is gode crafte in dawbyng; and hath seche langage to her that she thynkyt right strange, and so that she is right wery therof, wherefor she desyrith the rather to have a full conclusyon therinne. She seyth her full trost is in yow, and as ye do therinne, she woll agre her therto.
Mayster Braklee[300.3] be her yisterday to have spoke with yow; I spak with hym, but he wold not tell me what his erond was.
It is seyd her that the cescions shall be at Thetford on Saterday next komyng, and ther shall be my Lord of Norffolk and other with grette pupill [people], as it is seyd.
Other tydyngs have we none yett. The blissefull Trynyte have yow in his kepyng. Wretyn at Norwyche, on the Tewysday next befor Candelmasse.
I pray yow that ye woll vowchesawf to remembr to purvey a thing for my nekke, and to do make my gyrdill. Yowris, M. P.
My cosyn Crane recommawndeth her to yow, and praytth yow to remembr her mater, &c., for she may not slepe on nyghtys for hym.
[300.1] [From Fenn, iii. 170.] The request made at the end of this letter that John Paston would procure his wife an ornament for her neck, is noted by Fenn as one that she had made in April 1452, and of which this was probably a repetition nine months afterwards. There seems no better evidence of date to go by, so we follow the same mode of inference; but as we have placed the letter containing the first petition for the necklace in 1453 instead of 1452, we must attribute this letter to the year 1454.