The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson

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  • Letter 11, to George Garrard with Epitaph on Cecilia Bulstrode (1609)

Letter 11, to George Garrard with Epitaph on Cecilia Bulstrode (1609)

Letter 11

 Letter 11, to George Garrard with  Epitaph on Cecilia Bulstrode

Epitaph

Stay, view  this stone;  and, if thou  beest  not such,

Read here  a  little, that thou mayst  know much.

It covers, first, a virgin; and then one

 That durst be  that in court:  a virtue alone

To  fill an epitaph. But she  had more: 5

She might  have claimed  t’ have made the  Graces  four,

Taught  Pallas  language,  Cynthia modesty,

As fit to have  increased the harmony

Of spheres,  as light of stars. She was earth’s  eye,

The  sole  religious  house  and  votary, 10

 With  rites not bound, but conscience.  Wouldst thou all?

She was    ’Sell  Bulstrode.  In which name I call

Up so much truth, as, could I    it pursue,

Might make  the fable of good women true.

 See what the obedience of friendship is, and the hazard it runs. This I have done, 15

straitened with time (as  your man knows) to let you know your power in me. If

it be well (as I think it is, for my invention hath not cooled so much to judge)

show it, though  the greater wits have gone before. It hath somewhat in it  moris

antiqui, and suggesting the suddenness of it may pass. For till your letter came,

I was not so much as acquainted with the  sad argument, which both struck me20

and keeps me a  heavy man. Would God I had seen her before, that  some that live

might have corrected some prejudices they have had injuriously of me. By your

next commodity write me your liking of it, and some news. I will answer it with

your other request if I can for my business, which is now very weighty to me, by

reason of some  embarkings.25

Your true lover

Ben Jonson

Letter 11 First printed from Jonson’s autograph manuscript (JnB 102) in P. Simpson (1930); previously printed from JnB 112 in Harper (1863). The manuscript is reproduced as Illustration 1 in vol. 1 of this edition. Cecilia, the daughter of Edward Bulstrode of Hedgerley Bulstrode in Buckinghamshire was baptized 12 Feb. 1584, died 4 Aug. 1609 at the Earl of Bedford’s House in Twickenham, and was buried on 6 Aug. On her unsavoury reputation see Und. 49 headnote. Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Poems English and Latin, 20 recorded that she died ‘after a languishing disease and not without unease of the spirit and conscience’. Donne wrote to Sir Henry Goodyere ‘I fear earnestly that Mistress Bulstrode will not escape that sickness in which she labours at this time’ (Donne, Letters, 1651, 215–16) and composed two Elegies on her death, probably at the solicitation of George Garrard, cousin of Sir Thomas Roe (see Epigr. 98). Sir John Roe’s elegy on her death is echoed in New Inn, 2.6.196–232. The covering letter to Garrard (below, which forms part of the autograph manuscript JnB 102), records that Jonson composed the poem rapidly and in sorrow. H&S sentimentally suppose that he changed his mind about Cecilia once he heard of her sufferings. This is not entirely compatible with lines 201–2 (and see J. Lee, 1986), although the allusions to Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women strongly suggest the poem is an act of atonement (see 9n.). The autograph contains one alternative reading (13n.), and it is likely that other MSS preserve authorial afterthoughts inserted when the heat of Jonson’s invention cooled. JnB 118 (in an important Donne MS) avoids the awkwardly repeated ‘that’ in line 4. The autograph is copy-text here since no other MS is of unquestionable authority. On Jonson’s penchant for fourteen line epigrams, see Und. 58 headnote. [Editor: Colin Burrow]
Autograph copy in JnB 102 headed ‘Epitaph’
1 this] JnB 102; the JnB 117
1 and, if] JnB 102; and JnB 105
1 beest] JnB 102; bee JnB 103, JnB 107 subst., JnB 114
1 not] JnB 102; no JnB 108
2 a little] JnB 102; little JnB 110
2 little . . . much Jonson often makes a point of the suggestive compression of the epitaph form. Cf. Epigr. 124.2.
2 know much] JnB 102; be such JnB 105
4 That] JnB 102; Who JnB 112, JnB 114, JnB 117, JnB 120
4 that] JnB 102; soe JnB 103, JnB 106, JnB 107 subst., JnB 109 subst., JnB 110, JnB 111, JnB 112, JnB 113 subst., JnB 115 subst., JnB 116, JnB 117 subst., JnB 118, JnB 120 subst., JnB 121
4 a virtue] JnB102 (a vertu’); virtue JnB 110
5 fill] JnB 102; fitt JnB 103, JnB 114, JnB 120
5 had] JnB 102; hath JnB 111, JnB 115, JnB 116, JnB 118, JnB 121
6 have claimed] JnB 102; claime JnB 110
6 t’ have made] JnB 102; to haue made JnB 104, JnB 110, JnB 111, JnB 113, JnB 116; to make JnB 106, JnB 107; t’haue ye JnB 112; to haue the JnB 115; to haue had JnB 118
6 Graces four Traditionally there were three (Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia). Cf. an epigram by Rufinus in the Anthologia Palatina: ‘dear one, with you the Graces will be four’, translated into French in 1589 by Pierre Tamisier (Rufinus, Les epigrammes d’amour de Rufin, 1925, 38–9), and found with a Latin translation in the anthology of Greek and Latin poetry owned by Jonson (La Rovière, Poetae Graeci, 1614, 730; see Jonson’s Library, Electronic Edition).
6 four] JnB 102; poore JnB 110
7 Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom.
7 language] JnB 102; wisdom language JnB 113
7 Cynthia Diana, goddess of chastity.
8 increased] JnB 102; infusde JnB 108
9 as . . . eye] JnB 102; as light of starres was she JnB 103, JnB 114; as light of starrs, she was earthes eye JnB 104, JnB 105 subst., JnB 111 subst.; as light of starrs, she was JnB 108; as light of Stars. Shee was Earths eye JnB 115; as light of Starrs: she was [final words omitted] JnB 120
9 eye centre of attention, bright spot; with an allusion to Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women (F Text), 84–5: ‘She is the clerness and the verray lyght / That in this derke world me wynt [directs] and ledeth.’ Chaucer goes on to praise the ‘“dayesye,” or elles the “ye of day”’, 184. The reminiscence may be prompted by the claim that Chaucer ‘maad the lyf also of Seynt Cecile’, 426. It is especially appropriate: Chaucer is accused by Cupid of having abused women for faithlessness, and is condemned to make amends in the Legend by telling stories of good women, just as Jonson may well have sought in this poem to atone for having previously satirised Cecilia Bulstrode.
10 sole] JnB 102; best JnB 103, JnB 114
10 religious] JnB 102; religions JnB 112
10 house] JnB 102; louer JnB 105
10 and] JnB 102; the JnB 110
10 votary one who is bound by religious vows; nun.
11 With . . . bound] JnB 102; Not bound by rights JnB 103, JnB 106, JnB 107 subst., JnB 110 subst., JnB 111 subst., JnB 112 subs., JnB 113 subst., JnB 114, JnB 115 subst., JnB 116, JnB 117, JnB 118, JnB 120 subst., JnB 121 subs.; With Rytes not ffound JnB 104
11 rites . . . conscience She was not controlled by laws of a convent, but by conscience.
11 Wouldst thou all] JnB 102; would thou all JnB 104, JnB 119; would yu all JnB 109, JnB 120; woulds yu all JnB 116
12 ’Sell Cecilia. (For the metre.)
12 ’Sell] JnB 102; sett JnB 103, JnB 106, JnB 107, JnB 110, JnB 114, JnB 120 subst.; Ann JnB 105; Sill JnB 112; [illegible deletion] Sew JnB 113; Sal (corrected in the margin to ‘Sil.’) JnB 116; . . . . . JnB 119; fr. [?] JnB 121
12 Bulstrode] JnB 102 (Boulstred)
12 In which] JnB 102; wth ye rich JnB 106; in with the rich JnB 110
13 it JnB 102 reads ‘here’ with ‘it’ inserted in the margin. This may indicate a suggested alternative rather than a revision (P. J. Croft, 1973, 1.27); H&S’s inaccurate collation here obscures the fact that many MS copies (especially those in Donne MSS) preserve Jonson’s original reading. He may well not have preserved his own revision; possibly he thought better of ‘it’.
13 it] underlined in the margin of JnB 102, the text of which reads ‘here’, also underlined; heer JnB 103, JnB 111 subst., JnB 112 subs., JnB 113 subst., JnB 114, JnB 115 subst., JnB 116 subs., JnB 117 subst., JnB 118, JnB 120 subst., JnB 121 subst.; but JnB 107, JnB 110; yett JnB 109
14 the fable . . . women Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women. See 9n.
15–27 JnB 102 only
16 your man i.e. the messenger who waited for a reply to the news of Cecilia’s death.
18 the greater wits Presumably an allusion to Donne and Goodyere.
18–19 moris antiqui of ancient custom.
20 sad argument i.e. the knowledge of her death.
21 heavy melancholy.
21 some] JnB 102 (ʌsomeʌ)
25 embarkings Unexplained. Jonson is not otherwise known to have travelled or ventured abroad in late 1609; the sense ‘involvement in business ventures’ is possible.