_To my Maister Paston._
_H. R._
[Sidenote: 1454(?) / SEPT. 2]
Aftyr dewe recomendacion wyth my simple service precedyng, please your
maistershyp to wete, that as to such remembraunce that ye desyre me to
contynew forth to the uttermost, I shall wyth gode wille, so as my
maister wille licence me, as oft as I can, th’officer to hafe leysure to
be wyth me, for ye know well I can not do it alone, &c.
And where as ye of your pleasure wryte me or calle me Maister Worcestr,
I pray and requyre yow foryete that name of maistershyp, for I am not
amended by my maister of a ferthyng yn certeynte, but of wages of
housold in comune _entaunt come nows plaira_. By Worcestr or Botoner I
hafe v_s._ yerly, all costs born, to help pay for bonetts that I lose.
I told so my maister thys weke, and he seyd me yerstenday he wyshed me
to hafe be a preest, so I had be disposed, to hafe gofe me a lyvyng by
reson of a benefice, that anothyr most gefe it, as the Byshop, but he
wold; and so I endure _inter egenos ut servus ad aratrum_.
Forgefe me, I wryte to make yow laugh; and our Lord bryng my maister yn
a better mode for othyrs as for me.
At Caistr, ij^d day of September.
* * *
I pray yow displeser not your servaunt be so long, for my maister lettet
hym.
Your,