The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson

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Letter 5, to an unnamed lady (1605)

 Letter 5, to an unnamed lady

(See also Introduction: Letters from Prison by Jonson and Chapman)

Excellentest of ladies,

And most honoured of the graces, muses, and me: if it be not a sin to profane

your  free hand with prison-polluted paper, I would entreat some little of your

aid to the defence of my innocence, which is as clear as this leaf was, before I

stained it, of anything half-worthy this violent infliction.  I am committed; and 5

with me, a worthy friend, one Master Chapman, a man –  I cannot say how known

to your ladyship, but I am sure known to me to honour you – and our offence,

a  play: so mistaken, so misconstrued, so misapplied, as I do wonder whether

their ignorance or impudence be most, who are our adversaries. It is now not

disputable, for we  stand on uneven bases, and our cause so  unequally carried as 10

we are without examining, without hearing, or without any proof, but malicious

rumour, hurried to bondage and fetters. The cause we understand to be the King’s

indignation, for which we are heartily sorry, and the more, by how much the less

we have deserved it.  What our suit is, the worthy employed  solicitor and equal

adorer of your virtues can best inform you. 15

Ben Jonson

Letter 5 Folger MS.V.a.321, fol. 92. Various guesses have been made as to the identity of the unnamed lady to whom this letter is addressed. Schelling (East. Ho!, 162) proposed Sir Philip Sidney’s daughter, Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland (?1584–1612), whom Jonson addressed in Epigr. 79, Forest. 12, and Und. 50 and reckoned to be ‘nothing inferior to her father, Sir P. Sidney, in poesy’, Informations, 159–60. H&S favour Lucy, Countess of Bedford (1581–1627), the friend and patroness of Jonson and other poets (including Donne, Drayton, Daniel), celebrated by Jonson in Epigr. 76, 84, and 94, but also advance a third possible candidate: Mary, Lady Wroth (?1587–1651/3), to whom Jonson addresses Epigr. 103, 105, and Und. 28, and dedicates Alch. Of these three contenders, the Countess of Rutland is perhaps the least likely to have been the recipient of the present appeal. Jonson respected her qualities, but might well have judged her to be less powerful politically than the other two. The Countess of Bedford, as the most influential of the three, seems the likeliest candidate. She was a member of Anne’s bedchamber and her favourite lady-in-waiting, who ‘influenced the queen’s patronage directly and had the ear of the king’s ministers and favourites’ (Lewalski, 1987, 52; cf. Nichols, 1828, 1.174). Lady Wroth, as the eldest daughter of Robert Sidney, Lord Lisle – the Queen’s Lord Chamberlain, who had oversight of the company which had performed Eastward Ho! (see Letter 2 headnote) – might also have exerted effective influence. Jonson’s phrase, ‘most honoured of the graces, muses, and me’ (2), could equally be applied to any of these three talented ladies; Jonson invokes the muses in poems he writes to each of them (and associates Mary, Lady Wroth with the muses and with the graces in Epigr. 105.4). The odds appear to favour the Countess of Bedford and Lady Wroth, in that order, with Rutland as an outside chance. [Editor: Ian Donaldson]
3 free noble (OED, †3), but also, in contrast to the writer’s condition, unconstrained.
5 I am committed Contradicting the account of Jonson’s voluntary imprisonment offered in Informations, 207–9; see headnote.
6–7 I cannot . . . Ladyship Chapman’s first associations with the court, as sewer-in-ordinary to Henry, Prince of Wales, had begun around 1604. It is not known when he first met Lucy, Countess of Bedford and Mary, Lady Wroth. He later published sonnets to them both with his Twelve Books of the Iliad in 1611, with other sonnets addressed to aristocratic figures who had helped him through troublesome times, including Suffolk, Salisbury, Pembroke, Montgomery, and Lisle.
8 play Cf. Letter 3, 14–15n.
10 stand . . . bases i.e. are not dealt with fairly.
10 unequally unfairly.
14–15 What . . . you Evidently the letter is to be delivered by a common friend, whose identity is not known. If the recipient is Lucy, Countess of Bedford, the ‘equal adorer of your virtues’ might be John Donne, with whom Jonson was probably by now on close and friendly terms (Donaldson, 2001a, 80–1). Their shared admiration of the Countess is evident in Epigr. 94.
14 solicitor The word has developed its legal sense by this date (OED, 3a, first usage 1577), but more commonly denoted, less specifically, one who negotiates or intercedes on behalf of another (OED, †2a, 4a).