Of the J. L. of this and the letter which follows the next, nothing has been unearthed. He clearly belonged to the North of England, beyond the Trent.
To Mr B. B.
Grosart conjectures that this was Basil Brooke (1576-1646?), a Catholic, who was knighted in 1604. In 1644 he was committed to the Tower by Parliament and in 1646 imprisoned in the King's Bench. He translated Entertainments for Lent from the French. He was not a brother of Christopher and Samuel. The identification is only a conjecture. The tenor of the poem is very similar to that addressed to Mr. S. B.
Page 213, l. 18. widowhed. W here clearly gives us the form which Donne used. The rhyme requires it and the poet has used it elsewhere:
The Litanie, xii. 108.And call chast widowhead Virginitie.
ll. 19-22. As punctuated in the old editions these lines are somewhat ambiguous:
My Muse, (for I had one) because I'am cold,
Divorc'd her self, the cause being in me,
That I can take no new in Bigamye,
Not my will only but power doth withhold.