The Valentine Letter
To the truly virtuous &
religious Lady the Lady Eliza
Beesworth NB wishes an
everlasting spring of Grace
& Glory.
religious Lady the Lady Eliza
Beesworth NB wishes an
everlasting spring of Grace
& Glory.
Madam I here present your Ladyship with a good fight. Two words (though at other times ill) yet now well put together. Which you ought to look on not as a romance or devised piece, of purpose to detain an idle hour. But as a challenge unto which all noble spirits are bound in honour to yield all satisfaction. Madam I am not mistaken! I know your Ladyship to be no Amazonian, no feminine warrior. Nor let this word challenge affright you. When the Jebusites held the tower of Zion against David, they told him their lame & sick, their women & children, yes and blind people, should guard it from him1. You are in the same tower of Zion! And with such like advantage a woman once by rolling a stone killed a brave king Abimelech2. But I need not urge, you are already engaged, no are more then [manuscript next page starts] a conqueror. I had done better to present you with a trophy or triumphal acclamation. But that had been a presumptuous putting myself into and your LaP3 out of God almighty’s office of rewarding. Go on therefore sweet Lady to fight and subdue your mortal enemies to the end of your days that when you have finished your course with your noble consort MJH you both may receive a crown of righteousness already laid up for you.
So prays your this years Valentine but perpetual servant.
Nathaniel Bernard.
Feb 14 1641/2.
So prays your this years Valentine but perpetual servant.
Nathaniel Bernard.
Feb 14 1641/2.
1. 2 Sam 5:6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither.
2. King Abimelech hired “vain and light persons” to follow him. Judg 9:53 And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to brake his skull.
3. “LaP”, i.e. Ladyship.
Transcribed by Charlotte Mackenzie May 2005