To Sir Henry Goodyer. The quarrel between Hertford and Monteagle and the
last illness of Cecil Boulstrod, here recorded, give the date of this
letter as 1609. Cecil Boulstrod was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen
Anne. Ben Jonson read to Drummond his "Verses on the Pucelle of the Court,
Mistress Boulstred, whose Epitaph Donne made." They are little to the
credit of either the lady or the poet. Drummond records in his
_Conversations_ that "that piece of the Pucelle of the Court was stolen
out of his (Jonson's) pocket by a gentleman who drank him drousie, and
given Mistress Boulstraid; which brought him great displeasure," as well
it might. Donne wrote two elegies in her honour, one of which, at least,
seems to be inspired by genuine emotion.