by John Donne
“Before that moneth ended, he was designed to preach upon his old constant day, the first Friday in Lent; he had notice of it, and had in his sicknesse so prepared for that imployment, that as he had long thirsted for it, so he resolved his weaknesse should not hinder his journey; he came therefore to London, some few dayes before his day appointed. At his being there many of his friends (who with sorrow saw his sicknesse had left him onely so much flesh as did cover his bones) doubted his strength to performe that task; and therefore disswaded him from undertaking it, assuring him however, it was like to shorten his daies; but he passionately denyed their requests, saying, he would not doubt that God who in many weaknesses had assisted him with an unexpected strength, would not now withdraw it in his last employment; professing an holy ambition to performe that sacred work. And when to the amazement of some beholders he appeared in the Pulpit, many thought he presented himself not to preach mortification by a living voice, but mortality by a decayed body and dying face. And doubtlesse many did secretly ask that question in Ezekiel, Do these bones live? or can that soul Organize that tongue, to speak so long time as the sand in that glasse will move towards its Centre, and measure out an hour of this dying mans unspent life? Doubtlesse it cannot; yet after some faint pauses in his zealous prayer, his strong desires enabled his weake body to discharge his memory of his preconceived meditations; which were of dying, the Text being, To God the Lord belong the issues from Death. Many that then saw his teares, and heard his hollow voice, professing they thought the Text prophetically chosen, and that Dr. Donne had preach’t his own funerall sermon.
“Being full of joy that God had enabled him to performe this desired duty, he hastened to his house, out of which he never moved, till like St. Stephen, he was carryed by devout men to his Grave.”
LXXXVIII
This letter, addressed, I suppose, to Donne’s sister Jane, the wife of Sir Thomas Grymes, is printed in the 1719 edition of the Poems, and is there dated “Amyens, the 7th of Febr. here, 1611,” i.e., January 28th, 1612.
LXXXIX
To George Gerrard, and written from Paris not long after the date of the preceding letter.
XC
Written in 1624, during Donne’s recovery from a dangerous illness. Here, as elsewhere, Walton is our best commentator:
“Within a few dayes his distempers abated; and as his strength increased, so did his thankfulnesse to Almighty God, testified in his book of Devotions, which he published at his recovery. In which the reader may see, the most secret thoughts that then possest his soul, Paraphrased and made publick; a book that may not unfitly be called a Sacred picture of spiritual extasies, occasioned and applyable to the emergencies of that sicknesse, which being a composition of Meditations, disquisitions and prayers, he writ on his sick-bed; herein imitating the holy Patriarchs, who were wont to build their Altars in that place, where they had received their blessings.”
Donne’s Devotions upon Emergent Occasions and Several Steps in my Sickness was published in 1624, and dedicated “To the most excellent prince, Prince Charles.”
XCI
To George Gerrard, and written from the Low Countries, where Donne was travelling with Sir Robert Drury in the late summer of 1612.
XCII
To George Gerrard, and evidently an amplified version of LXXXV.
XCIII
Apparently written on Donne’s return to London at the beginning of the winter of 1612-13. I imagine that George Gerrard and his sister had come up to London to meet Donne, but had, by some mischance, failed to find him.
XCIV
Written, I think, early in the summer of 1612, and, if so, from Paris, whither Donne had gone with his “noble neighbour,” Sir Robert Drury. “That Noble Lady” is presumably the Countess of Bedford.
XCV
To George Gerrard, and like the next letter written from Amiens in the winter of 1611-12.
XCVII
To George Gerrard’s sister, and written from Spa in the summer of 1612.
XCVIII
Certainly not addressed to Sir Henry Goodyer, but probably to Somerset, during the negotiations of which Walton, though with some inaccuracy, reports the happy ending:
“His Majesty had promised him a favour, and many persons of worth mediated with his Majesty for some secular employment for him, to which his education had apted him, and particularly the Earle of Somerset, when in his height of favour, being then at Theobalds with the King, where one of the Clerks of the Council died that night, the Earle having sent immediately for Mr. Donne to come to him, said, Mr. Donne, To testifie the reality of my affection, and my purpose to prefer you, stay in this garden till I go up to the King, and bring you word that you are Clerk of the Council. The King gave a positive denial to all requests; and having a discerning spirit, replied, I know Mr. Donne is a learned man, has the abilities of a learned Divine, and will prove a powerfull Preacher, and my desire is to prefer him that way. After that, as he professeth, the King descended almost to a solicitation of him to enter into sacred Orders: which, though he then denied not, yet he deferred it for three years.”
XCIX
Written in 1613. (See note on L, above.)
C
Donne’s fifth daughter, Margaret, was christened April 20th, 1615, three days after the date of this letter.
CI
Mary, Donne’s fourth daughter, died in May, 1614, in her fourth year.
CII
This letter, and CXIII, below, seem to belong to the same period, probably to the closing years of Donne’s residence at Mitcham, when Donne may have begun to hope that through his acquaintance with the Earl of Bedford (who is, I think, here intended by “My Lord”) he might obtain public employment of some kind.
CIII
This and the two following letters belong to July and August, 1622, and seem to relate to a single incident. Sir Robert Ker had apparently asked Donne for his opinion of one of his fellow-travellers in attendance on Lord Doncaster during the German tour. Donne’s evident anxiety to be fair to both parties results in a somewhat indefinite answer.
CVI
Donne’s eyes gave him a good deal of trouble in the winter of 1613-14; this letter, as well as LXVII, above, may belong to this period.
CVII
“In August, 1630,” says Walton, “being with his eldest daughter, Mrs. Harvy, at Abury Hatch in Essex, he there fell into a fever, which, with the help of his constant infirmity (vapours from the spleen,) hastened him into so visible a consumption, that his beholders might say, as St. Paul said of himself, ‘He dies daily.’” This letter was written from Abury (or Aldeburgh) Hatch. “Mrs. Harvy” is Donne’s daughter Constance, the widow of Edward Alleyn, and now the wife of Samuel Harvey. Donne’s son George, the soldier, was taking part in the campaign in Spain. Lord Carlisle was the old friend whom, as Lord Doncaster, Donne had attended in his German embassy. Lord Percy was Algernon Percy, soon to become fourth Earl of Northumberland.
CVIII
Written apparently before Donne had entered the church, and probably in 1614, while Donne was still living in Drury House. George Gerrard was at court. His “hopeful designs upon worthy widows” seem to have been the cause of much pleasantry. (See XIX.)
CIX
There is no certain indication of the date of this letter. Mr. Gosse assigns it conjecturally to 1622. It seems to me more likely that it belongs to the period of Donne’s residence at Mitcham, and is of 1609, or earlier date. “My house” would then be Donne’s lodgings in the Strand.
CX
Written not long after the date of CVII, above, and presumably from Aldeburgh Hatch. “The Lady of the Jewel” (obviously “the Diamond Lady” of CVII) remains a mystery. Apparently she had placed her jewels in Donne’s keeping, thus charging him with a responsibility which he seems to have found exceedingly irksome.
CXI
Donne was ordained in January, 1615, a “very few days” before the date of this letter.
CXII
This letter may safely be assigned to 1613. Rochester was made Earl of Somerset in December of this year, a few days before his marriage to Lady Frances Howard. Surely none of the letters to Somerset for which Sir Francis Bacon has been so severely condemned expresses a more complete submission than is here offered.
CXIV
To George Gerrard. Probably written from France, and, if so, presumably to be assigned to 1612, when Donne was in Paris with Sir Robert Drury. “This book of French Satyrs” Mr. Gosse takes to be the first authoritative edition of Regnier’s Satyres et autres œuvres folastres, 1612.
CXV
The allusion to Pierre du Moulin, the French theologian, who preached before the Court in June, 1615, gives the approximate date of this letter. Sir Thomas Grymes, the husband of Donne’s sister Jane, we have already met. Donne says father-in-law where we should say step-father.
CXVI
Sir Dudley Carleton remained as Ambassador to Venice until 1616, when he was succeeded by Sir Henry Wotton, but this letter must have been written before Donne’s ordination in January, 1615. “My Lord” is, of course, the Earl of Somerset.
CXVII
This, and the next letter, may belong to the same period as the preceding letter to Sir Robert Ker. “Monte Magor” is George de Montemayor, whose “Shepherdess Felismena,” in the Spanish pastoral romance of “Diana,” tells the same story as “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” A translation into English by Bartholomew Yonge was published in 1598, but Donne may have read it in the original.
CXIX
On November 4, 1616, Charles, the Duke of York, was created Prince of Wales.
CXX
This letter, like CXVI, seems to belong to the period immediately preceding Donne’s entrance into the church, when Sir Robert Ker’s advice as to the best way of retaining Somerset’s interest was constantly in request.
CXXI
To George Gerrard, and belonging to the winter of 1612-13. Cf. XCI, which also carried an enclosure. The letter enclosed with the present letter may have been addressed to Lord Clifford (Cf. CVI) or, more probably, to Rochester.
CXXII
This and the next two letters were written in April, 1627, and relate to the same incident. This letter is the first, and the next the last of the series.
Dr. Richard Montagu, who had been chaplain to James I, was the highest of high-churchmen, and a believer in the doctrine of the divine right of kings in its extreme form. He is said to have looked upon reunion with the Roman church as quite possible. In the ecclesiastical politics of the time he was an ardent supporter of Laud, then Bishop of Bath and Wells. In the early part of 1627 Montagu published his Apello Cæsarem, in spite of the opposition of Archbishop Abbot, who had refused to license it. Abbot thereupon instigated an attack on Montagu in the House of Commons. Montagu was committed to the custody of the serjeant-at-arms, and the House petitioned the King for his punishment. Charles not only refused his consent, but marked his resentment of the attitude of Archbishop Abbot and the Commons by making Montagu Bishop of Chichester. Abbot returned to the charge in a sermon which gave the King great offense. At this juncture Donne was appointed to preach before the court. Laud was present and seems to have thought, and to have persuaded the King, that Donne’s sermon indicated sympathy with Abbot, whose break with the King was now open. At any rate Laud directed Donne to send a copy of his sermon to the King.
The letters tell the rest of the story so far as Donne is concerned. Abbot, on his refusal to license Dr. Sibthorpe’s sermon, Apostolical Obedience, was deprived of his archiepiscopal authority, which was given to a commission of five bishops.
CXXIII
As Donne was born and bred in the Roman church, this reference to the religion he was born in, is explicable only if we understand Donne to be thinking of the Anglican and Roman communions as branches of one Catholic Church, divided in government, but spiritually one.
CXXIV
There is in the British Museum a copy of Donne’s Poems, 1633, which belonged to Charles I, and which contains MS. notes in his hand. “The Bishop” here is Laud; “My Lord Duke” is Buckingham.
CXXV
This letter, and CXXVII, below, which should precede it, relate to the occasion of the delivery of the first of the Two Sermons Preached before King Charles, upon the xxvi verse of the first Chapter of Genesis, which stand at the head of Donne’s published Sermons. James I died on March 27th, 1625. One week later, Donne, at the command of the new King, preached at the Court. His extreme nervousness and almost painful diffidence are clearly implied in these two letters to Sir Robert Ker.
CXXVI
I am unable to give any satisfactory account of this letter. The form of the address indicates that it was written not earlier than 1625 when Ker became Master of the Privy Purse. “My great neighbour” may possibly be “the B” of CXXVIII.
CXXVIII
“The B” to whom allusion is here made, is George Montaigne, Bishop of London since 1621, and a prominent member of the party of which Laud, now Bishop of Bath and Wells, was already the leader. In 1628 Montaigne’s witty suggestion that the King had power to throw “this mountain” into the see of York was rewarded by his appointment as Archbishop of York, Laud succeeding him as Bishop of London. Montaigne warmly defended Montagu against the attacks of Archbishop Abbot. (See note to CXXII, above.)
CXXIX
This letter, written less than two weeks before his death, is addressed to one of the most intimate of the friends of Donne’s later life. Mrs. Thomas Cokain, or Cokayne, had been abandoned by her husband, who left her with a houseful of children, at Ashbourne, the Derbyshire estate of the Cokaynes, and went to London where the rest of his life was spent in the compilation of an English-Greek lexicon, which was finally published in 1658, twenty years after his death.
Donne lived long enough to perform the Lenten service of which he writes. On February 12th, 1631, he preached at Court the last and most famous of his sermons, Deaths Duell, or, A Consolation to the Soule, against the Dying Life, and living Death of the Body, Delivered in a Sermon at White-Hall, before the KINGS MAIESTIE, in the beginning of Lent, 1630, By that late Learned and Reverend Divine, John Donne, Dr. in Divinity, and Deane of S. Pauls, London.
The Biographies
Donne in his middle years
THE LIFE OF DR. JOHN DONNE by Izaak Walton
Izaak Walton (1593–1683) was an English writer. Although most famous now for his book The Compleat Angler, he also wrote a number of short biographies that have been collected under the title of Walton’s Lives. He was born at Stafford and his father was an innkeeper. As an adult, Walton settled in London where he began trading as an ironmonger in a small shop in the upper story of Thomas Gresham’s Royal Burse or Exchange in Cornhill. In 1614 he had a shop in Fleet Street, two doors west of Chancery Lane in the parish of St Dunstan’s. At about this time he met and became friends with John Donne, who was the vicar of the parish church.
After the Royalist defeat at Marston Moor in 1644, Walton retired from his trade. He went to live just north of his birthplace, at a place between the town of Stafford and the town of Stone, where he had bought some land edged by the river. His new land at Shallowford (now a museum in his honour) included a farm, and a parcel of land. But by 1650 he was again living in Clerkenwell, London.
The full title of Walton’s book of short biographies is Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Rich’d Hooker, George Herbert, &C. His leisurely labours as a biographer seem to have grown out of his devotion to angling. It was probably as a keen angler that he made the acquaintance of Sir Henry Wotton, who had intended to write the life of John Donne himself, having already corresponded with Walton on the subject, but he eventually resigned the task to his fellow angler. Walton had already contributed an Elegy to the 1633 edition of Donne’s poems, and he completed and published the following biography in 1640, receiving favourable reviews from contemporary critics.
Izaak Walton
Izaak Walton�
�s house at 120 Chancery Lane, which he occupied from 1627 to 1644
THE LIFE OF DR. JOHN DONNE
Master John Donne was born in London, in the year 1573, of good and virtuous parents: and, though his own learning and other multiplied merits may justly appear sufficient to dignify both himself and his posterity, yet the reader may be pleased to know that his father was masculinely and lineally descended from a very ancient family in Wales, where many of his name now live, that deserve and have great reputation in that country.
By his mother he was descended of the family of the famous and learned Sir Thomas More, sometime Lord Chancellor of England: as also, from that worthy and laborious Judge Rastall, who left posterity the vast Statutes of the Law of this nation most exactly abridged.
He had his first breeding in his father’s house, where a private tutor had the care of him, until the tenth year of his age; and, in his eleventh year, was sent to the University of Oxford, having at that time a good command both of the French and Latin tongue. This, and some other of his remarkable abilities, made one then give this censure of him: That this age had brought forth another Picus Mirandula; of whom story says, that he was rather born than made wise by study.
There he remained for some years in Hart Hall, having, for the advancement of his studies, tutors of several sciences to attend and instruct him, till time made him capable, and his learning expressed in public exercises, declared him worthy, to receive his first degree in the schools, which he forbore by advice from his friends, who, being for their religion of the Romish persuasion, were conscionably averse to some parts of the oath that is always tendered at those times, and not to be refused by those that expect the titulary honour of their studies.
