The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson

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Letter (d), William Drummond to Jonson (1619)

  Letter (d), from William Drummond of Hawthornden

To his worthy friend, Mr Benjamin Jonson


Sir,

  Here you have that epigram which you desired, with another of the like argument. If there be

any other thing in this country unto which my power can reach, command it; there is nothing

I wish more, than to be in the calendar of them who love you. I have heard from court that   the 5

late masque was not so approved of the King as in former times, and that your absence was

regretted; such applause hath true worth, even of those who otherwise are not for it. Thus, to

the next occasion, taking my leave, I remain,

Your loving friend.

January 17, 1619 10

Letter (d) This letter from William Drummond first appeared in the folio edition of The Works of William Drummond of Hawthornden, [ed. Bishop John Sage and Thomas Ruddiman], Edinburgh (1711) p. 234 (‘Sage’). For the circumstances of Jonson’s visit to Hawthornden, see Informations, Introduction. Jonson had evidently left Hawthornden by 17 January 1619, the date of this letter, and was staying in Leith – perhaps at the house of Mr John Stuart, ‘Water-Bailie and Skipper’ – before setting out on his homeward journey to London on 25 January (Taylor, 1618, 58; Informations, 553, Masson, 1894, clxvii). [Editor: Ian Donaldson]
3 Here . . . argument The epigrams that Drummond sent to Jonson with this letter have not been identified. Jonson reciprocated the gift on 19 January 1619 with two poems of his own, versions of Und. 8 and 9: see Informations, 523–52.
5–6 the late masque Chapman’s Masque of the Twelve Months, danced at Whitehall on Twelfth Night 1619, while Jonson was still in Scotland; see Butler (2007).