John Donne and Reformation

keister Donne was born in Bread Street, London in 1572 to a prosperous Ro human beings Catholic family a precarious thing at a quantify when anti-Catholic sentiment was rife in England. His father, John Donne, was a well-to-do ironmonger and citizen of London. Donnes father died explosively in 1576, and left the trio children to be raised by their mother, Elizabeth, who was the daughter of epigrammatist and playwright John Heywood and a relative of Sir doubting Thomas More. Family tree. Donnes first teachers were Jesuits.At the age of 11, Donne and his younger pal Henry were entered at Hart Hall, University of Oxford, where Donne studied for three years. He fagged the next three years at the University of Cambridge, but took no spirit level at either university because he would not take the Oath of supremacy required at graduation. He was admitted to study law as a member of Thavies Inn (1591) and Lincolns Inn (1592), and it seemed natural that Donne should embark upon a h ealthy or diplomatic career. In 1593, Donnes brother Henry died of a feverishness in prison afterwards being arrested for giving sanctuary to a proscribed Catholic priest.This made Donne begin to question his faith. His first platter of poems, Satires, compose during this period of residence in London, is considered one of Donnes close all-important(prenominal) literary efforts. Although not immediately published, the volume had a fairly total readership through private circulation of the manuscript. Same was the case with his love poems, Songs and Sonnets, assumed to be written at about the same time as the Satires. Having genetic a considerable fortune, young Jack Donne spent his money on womanizing, on books, at the theatre, and on travels.He had also be familiarityed christopher Brooke, a poet and his roommate at Lincolns Inn, and Ben Jonson who was part of Brookes circle. In 1596, Donne joined the naval expedition that Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, led against Cadiz, Spain. In 1597, Donne joined an expedition to the Azores, where he wrote The Calm. Upon his blow over to England in 1598, Donne was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord flight attendant of the Great Seal, afterward Lord Ellesmere. Donne was beginning a promising career. In 1601, Donne became MP for Brackley, and sat in Queen Elizabeths last Parliament. just in the same year, he secretly married Lady Egertons niece, seventeen-year-old Anne More, daughter of Sir George More, police lieutenant of the Tower, and effectively committed career suicide. Donne wrote to the livid father, saying Sir, I grant my fault to be so great as I dare scarce offer any other prayer to you in exploit own behalf than this, to believe that I neither had dishonest end nor means. But for her whom I tender much more than my fortunes or life (else I would, I might neither joy in this life nor have a go at it the next) I humbly beg of you that she may not, to her danger, feel the terror of your sudden anger. 1 Sir George had Donne thrown in Fleet Prison for some weeks, on with his cohorts Samuel and Christopher Brooke who had aided the couples clandestine affair. Donne was dismissed from his domiciliate, and for the next decade had to struggle climb poverty to support his growing family. Donne afterward summed up the experience John Donne, Anne Donne, Undone. Annes cousin offered the couple refuge in Pyrford, Surrey, and the couple was helped by friends akin Lady Magdalen Herbert, George Herberts mother, and Lucy, Countess of Bedford, women who also played a prominent role in Donnes literary life.Though Donne still had friends left, these were bitter years for a man who knew himself to be the intellectual superior of most, knew he could have risen to the highest posts, and to that extent found no preferment. It was not until 1609 that a reconciliation was effected amid Donne and his father-in-law, and Sir George More was finally induced to pay his d aughters dowry. In the intervening years, Donne perform law, but they were lean years for the Donnes. Donne was employed by the religious pamphleteer Thomas Morton, later Bishop of Durham.It is possible that Donne co-wrote or ghost-wrote some of Mortons pamphlets (1604-1607). To this period, before reconciliation with his inlaws, lead Donnes Divine Poems (1607) and Biathanatos (pub. 1644), a radical piece for its time, in which Donne argues that suicide is not a sin in itself. As Donne approached forty, he published devil anti-Catholic polemics Pseudo-Martyr (1610) and Ignatius his Conclave (1611). They were final public testimony of Donnes renunciation of the Catholic faith.Pseudo-Martyr, which held that slope Catholics could pledge an oath of allegiance to James I, King of England, without compromising their religious loyalty to the Pope, won Donne the favor of the King. In return for patronage from Sir Robert Drury of Hawstead, he wrote A Funerall Elegie (1610), on the death of Sir Roberts 15-year-old daughter Elizabeth. At this time, the Donnes took residence on Drury Lane. The ii Anniversaries An Anatomy of the World (1611) and Of the Progress of the Soul (1612) continued the patronage.Sir Robert promote the publication of the poems The First Anniversary was published with the original elegy in 1611, and both were reissued with The Second Anniversary in 1612. Donne had refused to take Anglican orders in 1607, but King James persisted, finally announcing that Donne would receive no post or preferment from the King, unless in the church. In 1615, Donne reluctantly entered the ministry and was appointed a magnificent Chaplain later that year. In 1616, he was appointed Reader in deity at Lincolns Inn (Cambridge had conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity on him two years earlier).Donnes style, full of elaborate metaphors and religious symbolism, his flair for drama, his wide acquirement and his quick wit soon established him as one of the sterling (prenominal) preachers of the era. Just as Donnes fortunes seemed to be improving, Anne Donne died, on 15 August, 1617, aged thirty-three, after giving birth to their twelfth child, a stillborn. Seven of their children survived their mothers death. Struck by grief, Donne wrote the seventeenth Holy Sonnet, Since she whom I lovd hath paid her last debt. According to Donnes friend and biographer, Izaak Walton, Donne was thereafter crucified to the world. Donne continued to write poetry, notably his Holy Sonnets (1618), but the time for love songs was over. In 1618, Donne went as chaplain with Viscount Doncaster in his embassy to the German princes. His Hymn to Christ at the Authors Last Going into Germany, written before the journey, is laden with hint of death. Donne returned to London in 1620, and was appointed Dean of Saint Pauls in 1621, a post he held until his death. Donne excelled at his post, and was at last financially secure.In 1623, Donnes eldest daughter, Constance, marrie d the actor Edward Alleyn, then 58. Donnes private meditations, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, written while he was convalescing from a serious illness, were published in 1624. The most famous of these is undoubtedly Meditation 17, which includes the immortal lines No man is an island and neer send to know for whom the bell tolls It tolls for thee. In 1624, Donne was made vicar of St Dunstans-in-the-West. On walk 27, 1625, James I died, and Donne preached his first sermon for Charles I.But for his ailing health, (he had babble out sores and had experienced significant weight loss) Donne almost certainly would have execute a bishop in 1630. Obsessed with the idea of death, Donne posed in a shroud the painting was completed a few weeks before his death, and later used to create an effigy. He also preached what was called his own funeral sermon, Deaths Duel, just a few weeks before he died in London on parade 31, 1631. The last thing Donne wrote just before his death was Hym ne to God, my God, In my Sicknesse. Donnes monument, in his shroud, survived the Great Fire of London and can still be seen like a shot at St. Pauls.