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Home  »  The Book of Restoration Verse  »  Matthew Prior (1664–1721)

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.

A Letter to the Honourable Lady Miss Margaret Cavendish Holles-Harley

Matthew Prior (1664–1721)

MY noble, lovely, little peggy,

Let this my First Epistle, beg ye,

At dawn of morn, and close of even

To lift your heart and hands to Heaven.

In double duty say your prayer:

Our Father first, then Notre Père.

And, dearest Child, along the day,

In every thing you do and say,

Obey and please my lord and lady,

So God shall love, and angels aid ye.

If to these precepts you attend,

No second letter need I send,

And so I rest your constant friend.