To Sir Henry Goodyer, and apparently written during the anxious weeks
between Donne's decision to enter the church and his ordination in
January, 1615. (See note on XXXIV, above.) "That good lady" is, of course,
the Countess of Bedford, "Mr. Villars" is George Villiers, soon to be the
Duke of Buckingham, and "Mr. Karre" is a nephew of Somerset, the present
favourite. The "Masque of Gentlemen" may have been Ben Jonson's _The
Golden Age Restored, in a Masque at Court, 1615, by the Lords and
Gentlemen, the King's Servants_, first printed in the folio of 1616.
Sir Robert Rich, later Earl of Warwick, lived to become Lord High Admiral
for the Parliament, 1643-5, 1648-9. Three years after the date of this
letter we find Donne planning to meet Sir Robert at Frankfort. (XLII.)
Lord Dorset (Richard, third Earl of Dorset) was one of the most generous
of Donne's patrons. To him Donne owed the reversion of St. Dunstan's.