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Rh

By all our love, amain you tell

Your wife what drags your soul to hell.

Fore God! the thing that doth oppress

My mind, quoth he, with heaviness,

Had better far be left unsaid.

Alas! dear husband, are you wed

To one whose counsel you reject

As of disloyalty suspect?

When we in holy wedlock, came

Together in the precious name

Of Jesu Christ he was to us

Of his sweet grace so generous.

That closed within the sacred mesh

Of marriage are we but one flesh:

And seen that thus one flesh are we

By every right we ought to be

In no one single thing apart

But have betwixt the twain one heart.

My heart is yours, by that same sign

Your heart should be all wholly mine,

Nor should its inmost chambers hold

A secret thought or wish untold

To her who loves you. Therefore say

To me, whate’er of grief, I pray,

Afflicts you, free from all deceit.

For till your heart with mine doth beat