Cecily Bulstrode (15844 August 1609) was a courtier and subject of poetry.John Considine, ‘Bulstrode, Cecily (bap. 1584, d. 1609)’ in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. She was the daughter of Edward Bulstrode (1550–1595) and Cecily Croke; she was a cousin of Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford, in whose household she was a member in 1605. Two years later, she served as a Gentlewoman of the Bedchamber to Anne of Denmark.Tudor and Stuart women writers, Louise Schleiner
Life Early life She was born to Edward Bulstrode (1550–1595) of Hedgerley in Buckinghamshire and Cecily or Cecill Croke (fl. 1575–1608), the daughter of Sir John Croke of Chilton, in Beaconsfield.Considine, John. “Bulstrode, Cecily (bap. 1584, d.1609).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 16 Feb. 2016 Her parents Edward and Cecily produced nine other children, amongst them Edward (1588-1659), who served as a judge in the courts of chancery, king's bench, the Oxford assize circuits, and the Warwickshire quarter sessions throughout his lifetime.Prest, Wilfrid. "Bulstrode, Edward (c.1588–1659)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2007. Cecily was the fourth of six daughters; the names of her nine siblings are recorded on her father's tomb at St Laurence's Church, Upton-cum-Chalvey.George Lipscombe, The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham, vol. 4 (London, 1847), p. 475.
Bulstrode was baptized at Beaconsfield on 12 February 1584, Spelling variations on her first and last name include "Cecilia", "Celia", and "Boulstred".
In June 1608 Bulstrode's mother Cecily married again, to Sir John Brown of Flamberds, at Cold Norton, Essex. Her grandfather Sir John Croke died at Chilton in February 1609.John Bruce, Liber Famelicus of Sir James Whitelocke (Camden Society, London, 1858), p. 17.
Life at Court Bulstrode followed in the footsteps of her ancestors as a courtier. In 1605, she became part of the entourage of her mother's first cousin Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford. When King James I came to the throne, the countess of Bedford became First Lady of the Bedchamber to the queen. Bulstrode and her youngest sister Dorothy, later Lady Eyre, moved up with Lucy Russell, becoming Maidens of the Queen's Bedchamber. There, Bulstrode "became a noted wit in the court of James I." As a good friend of the countess of Bedford and servant of the Queen, Bulstrode was a lady of consequence at court.Price, Victoria E. "Troping prostitution: Jonson and ‘The Court Pucell’", Nebula 4.2 (2007): 208+. Academic OneFile. Web. 15 Feb. 2016
During her time at the court of Anne of Denmark, Bulstrode became the subject of works by poets such as Ben Jonson who threatened her reputation with rumours of promiscuity.Foster, Donald W., and Tobian Banton, eds. Women's Works, Volume 3:1603-1625. New York: Wicked Good Books, 2013. 36-57. Other writers, including John Donne, used the event of her death as an opportunity to gain favor with her friend and patron of the literary arts, the countess of Bedford. The only known work of Bulstrode's is News of My Morning Work, probably written in 1609.
While at court, Bulstrode became the topic of scandalous rumour. She had a brief courtship, and possible engagement, with Sir John Roe in 1602. The reason for their breakup is unknown, but in To Mistress Boulsted, 1602 an elegy ghost-written for Roe by his friend Ben Jonson, Bulstrode seems accused of sluttish behavior:
Shall I go force an elegy? abuse My wit, and break the hymen of my Muse For one poor hour’s love?... I’ll have a Succuba as good as you! -An Elegy to Mistress Boulsted, 1602 lines 1-3, 24
This poem circulated at court as a letter to Bulstrode from "J.R." presumably John Roe. The poem takes the viewpoint of a man who rejects the advances of his female friend because he doesn't want to ruin their friendship "for one poor hour’s love." Although the speaker claims to be a sincere friend who will keep the poem secret to protect her reputation, the poem was not kept secret and was most likely an attempt to ruin Bulstrode's reputation and allege, according to Donald Foster, “that Boulstred solicited Roe for sex, which caused him to reject her as unfit for marriage.” In 1628, Ben Jonson revealed that he actually ghostwrote this poem for Roe.
Boulstred eventually started a relationship with Sir Thomas Roe, Sir John Roe's cousin. This relationship most likely would have led to marriage if she had not become very sick in 1609. In 1609 over a few months, Bulstrode fell ill and died. Her illness was diagnosed by doctors of the College of Medicine as "the mother" also called the "wandering womb", an imprecise diagnosis for ailments thought to attend upon feminine frailty. Her symptoms included stomach pain, sleeplessness, fever, and vomiting. No cure could be found, and she wasted away at the countess of Bedford's house, Twickenham Park,John Bruce, Liber Famelicus of Sir James Whitelocke (Camden Society, London, 1858), p. 18. unable to hold down food or liquids. In a letter to Sir Henry Goodyere, John Donne reported on her condition;"I fear earnestly that Mistress Boulstred will not escape that sickness in which she labors at this time. I sent this morning to ask of her passage of this night; and the return is, that she is as I left her yesternight... [I] fear that she will scare last so long as that you, when you receive this letter, may do her any good office in praying for her.”Edmund Gosse, Life and Letters of John Donne, vol. 1 (London, 1899), p. 231
According to Dr. Francis Anthony, who was called upon by Bulstrode's mother after treatment under the College of Medicine physicians was unsuccessful, she showed improvement in symptoms in her final days, "for in all the other administering of this medicine ... her spirits were relieved! She daily recovered strength. All passions, symptoms, and accidents of disease ceased. Her sickness fully left her, and she recovered perfect health!"
But in regard to her “perfect health,” Anthony exaggerated. Although he gave her doses of potable gold in an attempt to cure her, Bulstrode died within days. As Jongsook Lee puts it, Anthony was "a quack."Lee, Jongsook. 'Who Is Cecilia, What Was She? Cecilia Bulstrode and Jonson's Epideictics', The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 85.1 (1986), pp. 20–34. Bulstrode's brother in-law, James Whitlocke noted her death, "Cecill Bulstrode, my wife’s sister, gentlewoman to Queen An, ordinary of her bedchamber, died at Twitnam in Middlesex, the earl of Bedford’s house, 4 August 1609", and she was buried at St Mary's, Twickenham two days later.John Bruce, Liber Famelicus of Sir James Whitelocke (Camden Society, London, 1858), p. 18.
Although Sir Thomas Roe missed his chance to marry Bulstrode, his love for her remained, and he carried a miniature watercolour portrait of her around with him for the rest of his life, even after he married.
In death, Bulstrode's body became a theme of court poets who competed for the literary matronage of her Lucy Russell, countess of Bedford.Claude J. Summers, 'Donne's 1609 Sequence of Grief and Comfort', Studies in Philology, 89:2 (Spring 1992), pp. 211-231. Lucy Russell's favour was highly valued, as she had a large amount of power and leverage at court as first Lady of the Queen's Bedchamber.
Literary references
Sir John Roe The poems True Love Finds Wit and An Elegy to Mistress Boulstred have been attributed to Sir John Roe. The former describes Bulstrode as a “Wench at Court.” Ben Jonson claimed authorship of the latter in his play The New Inn in 1628/9.
Ben Jonson Jonson continued to write about Bulstrode, most of it of a slanderous nature. In 1603/4, Jonson and Roe were kicked out of a masque at Hampton Court, an instance which Jonson blamed Bulstrode for and wrote about in his play The New Inn (1628/9).
The most well-known of his literary jabs at Bulstrode is his Epigram on the Court Pucell which has been called a "disturbingly ‘personal’ attack on a woman." Jonson supposedly wrote this poem as a response to a criticism she made of his play draft Epicoene: the Silent Woman. In 1619, in a conversation with the Scottish poet, William Drummond of Hawthonden, Jonson claimed that his epigram was stolen out of his pocket when he was drunk and given to Bulstrode, which he had not wanted to happen.Lesley Lawson, Out of the Shadows: The Life of Lucy, Countess, Countess of Bedford (London: Hambledon, 2007), pp. 80-81.Evans, Robert C. 'Ben Jonson', Seventeenth-Century British Nondramatic Poets: First Series. Ed. M. Thomas Hester. vol. 121 (Detroit: Gale, 1992), pp. 186-212. The word "pucell" was an early modern term for prostitute, and "Cell" or "Sell" as short form for "Cecily", so Jonson seems to be calling Bulstrode a prostitute in this poem. He also accuses her of being promiscuous, bisexual, pretentious, hypocritical, and more.Lesley Lawson, Out of the Shadows: The Life of Lucy, Countess, Countess of Bedford (London: Hambledon, 2007), p. 81. His accusation of bisexuality stems from her close relationship with Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford. However, another reading of the poem is that rather than a direct criticism of Bulstrode, the work was intended to evoke a "generic court pucelle", and by that means, an image of the false world. In another reading, the poem is a representation of Jonson's frustration with having to rely on women, like the countess of Bedford, for literary success. Lucy Russell was the matron of many writers, such as John Donne, and Jonson attempted to gain her matronage for many years. Jonson may have been frustrated by this apparent "inversion of traditional gender codes", so he used the "trope of prostitution" to reassert his position of power as a male.
Jonson came to fear that his poetic attack on Bulstrode lost him the favour of Anne of Denmark.Ann Rosalind Jones and Peter Stallybrass, Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory (Cambridge, 2000), p. 294 fn. 55. Jonson wrote the Epitaph on Cecilia Bulstrode in response to her death. This poem paints a very different picture of Bulstrode.Claude J. Summers, "Donne's 1609 Sequence of Grief and Comfort", Studies in Philology, 89:2 (Spring 1992), pp. 211–231. It seems to retract the charges Jonson made in the epigram point by point. He calls her a virgin, the fourth Grace, a teacher to language to Pallas and modesty to Cynthia, conscientious, and good. Jonson seems to have written the epitaph for George Garrard.HMC 2nd Report (Bromley-Davenport) (London, 1874), p. 79. The reason behind Jonson's supposed change of heart is unknown. The likely reason is that he wanted to gain the favor of Lucy Russell, which he had been attempting to do for years. Jonson may have experienced true regret for his slanderous words after hearing of her painful death. However, in 1619, Jonson told Drummond that he still enjoyed reciting Verses on the Pucelle of the Court Mistriss Boulstred.Lesley Lawson, Out of the Shadows: The Life of Lucy, Countess, Countess of Bedford (London: Hambledon, 2007), p. 82.
John Donne