See introduction to d2_RolH_008. Metre: elegiac couplets.
Ad. F. Millum, F. Walsingami amanuensem (c.1579-80)
[p384]
Ad. F. Millum, F. Walsingami amanuensem
1Mille mihi angores mea fors, fastidia mille,
mille sali peperit taedia, mille soli.
Una dies pretium exhausit mihi mille laborum,
quod non mille queant restituisse dies.
[p385]
5Te Mille adjuro, qui mille per ora vagaris,
et faustum a Milli nomen et omen habes,
per quae virtutes te mille notantur in uno,
perque quibus crucior mille superque modos;
expedias me mille malis, et mille querelis,
10addideris vitae mille superque dies.
Non tibi mille dabo nummum pro munere, praeter
cui restat, voces, votaque mille, nihil.
Sed tibi mille canam versus, encomia mille:
14vateque me saeclis mille superstes eris.
[p384]
To Francis Milles, secretary to Frances Walsingham
My luck brought forth for me a thousand anxieties, a thousand aversions,
a thousand loathings for sunshine and wit.
A single day has drained me of a thousand of wages,
that a thousand days could not have replaced.
[p385]
I beseech you Milles, who strolls about through a thousand mouths,
and has the favourable name and sign of 'Milles',
through you there are a thousand virtues which are known in one man,
and on account of which I am put on the rack in a thousand ways and more;
please set me free from a thousand evils, and a thousand quarrels,
and you will have added a thousand days and more to my life.
I will not give you a thousand coins as a reward,
you for whom nothing remains beyond a thousand entreaties and prayers.
But I will write you a thousand verses, a thousand encomia:
and with me as your prophet you will exist and endure for a thousand ages.
