57
Being your slave, what should I do but tend
Upon the hours and times of your desire?
I have no precious time at all to spend,
Nor services to do, till you require. 4
Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour
Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you,
Nor think the bitterness of absence sour
When you have bid your servant once adieu; 8
Nor dare I question with my jealous thought
Where you may be, or your affairs suppose,
But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought,
Save where you are how happy you make those. 12
So true a fool is love that in your will,
Though you do anything, he thinks no ill.
58
That god forbid that made me first your slave,
I should in thought control your times of pleasure,
Or at your hand the account of hours to crave,
Being your vassal, bound to stay your leisure! 4
O, let me suffer, being at your beck,
The imprison'd absence of your liberty;
And patience, tame to sufferance, bide each check,
Without accusing you of injury. 8
Be where you list, your charter is so strong
That you yourself may privilege your time
To what you will; to you it doth belong
Yourself to pardon of self-doing crime. 12
I am to wait, though waiting so be hell,
Not blame your pleasure, be it ill or well.
5 world-without-end: never ending
10 suppose: conjecture
6 The imprison'd . . . liberty; cf. n.
7 sufferance: suffering
check: rebuke
10 privilege: authorise
12 self-doing: done by yourself
