Take hit awaye therefore, y praye yow fayre,
For hardyly my hert beryth hevy y nowh,
For there is Sorow at rest as in hys chayre,
Fixid so fast with hys prikks rowh,
That in gode feith I wote not whan I lowh,[281.3]
For, Master Paston, the thyng whereon my blisse
Was holly sette, is all fordoone, I wysse.
By your John Pympe,
thes beyng the vj. letter that I have send yow.
Alway prayyng yow to remembre the hors that I have in every letter wryten for; as thus, that hit wuld plese yow to undrestond who hath the gentyllest hors in trottyng and steryng that is in Calis, and if he be to sell, to send me word of hys pris, largenesse, and colour. Hytt is told me, that the Master Porter hath a coragiouse ronyd hors, and that he wuld putt hym away by cause he is daungerous in companye; and of that I force [care] not, so that he be not chorlissh at a spore, as plungyng; and also I sett not by hym, but if he trotte hye and gentilly. No more, but God kepe yow. John Pympe.
[280.1] [From Fenn, ii. 234.] We may as well place this letter—the only remaining one of the series that has been preserved—immediately after the other two. John Pympe seems to have been a very industrious correspondent, and the art of writing, in prose or verse, came to him very easily.