On One Condition

This is apparently the only manuscript copy of the poem and is one of the eighteen bouts rimés sonnets by DGR and (apparently) WMR preserved in the Duke University Library. The numbers heading each of the sonnets suggest that they are selected from a larger group, perhaps comprising at least forty-four sonnets.

That DGR cancelled this manuscript text indicates his dissatisfaction with what he had written. And the sonnet is indeed markedly weaker than the rest of DGR's bouts rimés sonnets.