Now that your learnéd hand with labour new Of pen and ink a worthier work hath done, What erst you lacked, what still remained her own, The power of giving life, is gained for you.

to find Man now their foe, whom erst they deemed their lord, But mild and gentle, and by whom as yet Secure they grazed.

Well, may I now disclose in plainer guise What erst I meant to work in secret wise; My busy conscience check'd my guilty soul, For seeking maintenance by base vassalage; And then suggested to my searching thought A shepherd's poor, secure, contented life, On which since then I doated every hour, And meant this same hour in [a] sadder plight, To have stol'n from thee in secrecy of night.