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VIE

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 419 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VIE . 141590, and in 1592 he entered See also:

Lincoln's See also:Inn with the intention of studying the See also:law. When he came of See also:age, he found himself in See also:possession of a considerable See also:fortune, and about the same See also:time rejected the See also:Catholic See also:doctrine in favour of the See also:Anglican communion. He began to produce Satires, which were not printed, but eagerly passed from See also:hand to hand; the first three are known to belong to 1593, the See also:fourth to 1594, while the other three are probably some years later. In 1596 See also:Donne engaged himself for See also:foreign service under the See also:earl of See also:Essex, and " waited upon his lordship " on See also:board the " Repulse," in the magnificent victory of the 11th of See also:June. We possess several poems written by Donne during this expedition, and during the Islands Voyage of 1597, in which he accompanied Essex to the See also:Azores. According to See also:Walton, Donne spent some time in See also:Italy and See also:Spain, and intended to proceed to See also:Palestine, " but at his being in the farthest parts of Italy, the disappointment of See also:company,or of a safe See also:convoy,or the uncertainty of returns of See also:money into those remote parts, denied him that happiness." There is some See also:reason to suppose that he was on the See also:continent at intervals between 1595 and the See also:winter of 1597. His lyrical See also:poetry was mainly the product of his See also:exile, if we are to believe See also:Ben See also:Jonson, who told See also:Drummond of Hawthornden that Donne " wrote all his best pieces ere he was 25 years old." At his return to See also:England he became private secretary in See also:London to See also:Sir See also:Thomas See also:Egerton, the See also:lord keeper (afterwards Lord See also:Brackley), in whose See also:family he remained four years. In 1600 he found himself in love with his See also:master's niece, See also:Anne More, whom he married secretly in See also:December 16or. As soon as this See also:act was discovered, Donne was dismissed, and then thrown into the See also:Fleet See also:prison (See also:February 1602), from which he was soon released. His circumstances, however, were now very much straitened. His own fortune had all been spent and " troubles did still multiply upon him." Mrs Donne's See also:cousin, Sir See also:Francis Wooley, offered the See also:young couple an See also:asylum at his See also:country See also:house of Pyrford, where they resided until the end of 1604.

During the latter See also:

part of his See also:residence in Sir Thomas Egerton's house, Donne had composed the longest of his existing poems, The Progress of the Soul, not published until 1633. In the See also:spring of 16o5 we find the Donnes living at See also:Camberwell, and a little later in a small house at See also:Mitcham. He had by this time " acquired such a perfection " in See also:civil and See also:common law that he was able to take up professional See also:work, and he now acted as a helper to Thomas See also:Morton in his controversies with the Catholics. Donne is believed to have had a considerable See also:share in See also:writing the See also:pamphlets against the papists which Morton issued between 1604 and 1607. In the latter See also:year, Morton offered the poet certain preferment in the See also:Church, if he would only consent to take See also:holy orders. Donne, however, although he was at this time become deeply serious on religious matters, did not think himself fitted for the clerical See also:life. In 1607 he started a See also:correspondence with Mrs Magdalen See also:Herbert of See also:Montgomery See also:Castle, the See also:mother of See also:George Herbert. Some of these pious epistles were printed by Izaak Walton. These exercises were not of a nature to add to his income, which was extremely small. His uncomfortable little house he speaks of as his " See also:hospital " and his " prison; " his wife's See also:health was broken and he was bowed down by the number of his See also:children, who often lacked even clothes and See also:food. In the autumn of ,6o8, however, his See also:father-in-law, Sir George More, became reconciled with them, and agreed to make them a generous See also:allowance. Donne soon after formed part of the brilliant assemblage which See also:Lucy, countess of See also:Bradford, gathered around her at See also:Twickenham; we possess several of the See also:verse epistles he addressed to this See also:lady.

In 1609 Donne was engaged in composing his See also:

great controversial See also:prose See also:treatise, the Pseudo-See also:Martyr, printed in 161o; this was an See also:attempt to convince See also:Roman Catholics in England that they might, without any inconsistency, take the See also:oath of See also:allegiance to See also:James I. In 1611 Donne wrote a curious and See also:bitter prose See also:squib against the See also:Jesuits, entitled See also:Ignatius his See also:Conclave. To the same See also:period, but possibly somewhat earlier, belongs the See also:apology for the principle of See also:suicide, which was not published until 1644, See also:long after Donne's See also:death. This work, the Biathanatos, is an attempt to show that " the scandalous disease as of headlong dying," to which Donne himself in his unhappy moods had " often such a sickly inclination," was not necessarily and essentially sinful. In 16ro Donne formed the acquaintance of a wealthy See also:gentleman, Sir See also:Robert See also:Drury of Hawsted, who offered him and his wife an apartment in his large house in Drury See also:Lane. Drury lost his only daughter, and in 1611 Donne published an extravagant See also:elegy on her, entitled An See also:Anatomy of the See also:World, to which he added in 1612 a Progress of the Soul on the same subject; he threatened to celebrate the " blessed Maid;" See also:Elizabeth Drury, in a fresh elegy on each anniversary of her death, but he happily refrained from the third occasion onwards. At the See also:close of 1611 Sir Robert Drury determined to visit See also:Paris (but not, as Walton supposed, on an See also:embassy of any See also:kind), and he took Donne with him. When he See also:left London, his wife was expecting an eighth See also:child. It seems almost certain that her fear to have him absent led him to compose one of his loveliest poems: " Sweetest Love, I do not go For weariness of thee." He is said to have had a See also:vision, while he was at See also:Amiens, of his wife, with her See also:hair over her shoulders, bearing a dead child in her arms, on the very See also:night that Mrs Donne, in London (or more probably in the Isle of See also:Wight), was delivered of a still-See also:born See also:infant. He suffered, accordingly, a great anxiety, which was not removed until he reached Paris, where he received reassuring accounts of his wife's health. The Drurys and Donne left Paris for See also:Spa in May 1612, and travelled in the See also:Low Countries and See also:Germany until See also:September, when they returned to London'. In 1613 Donne contributed to the Lachrymae lachrymarum an obscure and frigid elegy on the death of the See also:prince of See also:Wales, and wrote his famous See also:Marriage See also:Song for St See also:Valentine's See also:Day to celebrate the nuptials of the elector See also:palatine with the princess Elizabeth.

About this time Donne became intimate with Robert See also:

Ker, then See also:Viscount See also:Rochester and afterwards the infamous earl of See also:Somerset, from whom he had hopes of preferment at See also:court. Donne was now in weak health, and in a highly neurotic See also:condition. He suggested to Rochester that if he should enter the church, a See also:place there might be found for him. But he was more useful to the courtier in his legal capacity, and Rochester dissuaded him from the See also:ministry. At the close of 1614, however, the See also:king sent for Donne to See also:Theobald's, and " descended to a persuasion, almost to a solicitation of him, to enter into sacred orders," but Donne asked for a few days to consider. Finally, See also:early in 1614, King, See also:bishop of London, " proceeded with all convenient See also:speed to ordain him, first See also:deacon, then See also:priest." He was, perhaps, a See also:curate first at See also:Paddington, and presently was appointed royal See also:chaplain. His earliest See also:sermon before the king at See also:Whitehall carried his See also:audience " to See also:heaven, in holy raptures." In See also:April, not without much See also:bad See also:grace, the university of See also:Cambridge consented to make the new divine a D.D. In the spring of 1616, Donne was presented to the living of Keyston, in Hunts., and a little later he became See also:rector of See also:Sevenoaks; the latter preferment he held until his death. In See also:October he was appointed reader in divinity to the benchers of Lincoln's Inn. His anxieties about money now ceased, but in See also:August 1617 his wife died, leaving seven young children in his See also:charge. Perhaps in consequence of his bereavement, Donne seems to have passed through a spiritual c See also:isis, which inspired him with a See also:peculiar fervour of devotion. In 1618 he wrote two cycles of religious sonnets, La See also:Corona and the Holy Sonnets, the latter not printed in See also:complete See also:form until by Mr See also:Gosse in 1899.

Of the very numerous sermons preached by Donne at Lincoln's Inn, fourteen have come down to us. His health suffered from the austerity of his life, and it was probably,, in connexion with this fact that he allowed himself to be persuaded in May 1619 to accompany Lord See also:

Doncaster as his chaplain on an embassy to Germany. Having visited See also:Heidelberg, See also:Frankfort and other See also:German cities, the embassy returned to England at the opening of 162o. In See also:November 1621, James I., knowing that London was " a dish " which Donne " loved well," " carved " for him the deanery of St See also:Paul's. He resigned Keyston, and his preachership in Lincoln's Inn (Feb., 1622). In October 1623 he suffered froma dangerous attack of illness, and during a long convalescence wrote his Devotions, a See also:volume published in 1624. He was now appointed to the vicarage of St See also:Dunstan's in the See also:West. In April 1625 Donne preached before the new king, See also:Charles I., a sermon which was immediately printed, and he now published his Four Sermons upon See also:Special Occasions, the earliest collection of his discourses. When the See also:plague See also:broke out he retired with his children to the house of Sir See also:John See also:Danvers in See also:Chiswick, and for a time he disappeared so completely that a rumour arose that he was dead. Sir John had married Donne's old friend; Mrs Magdalen Herbert, for whom Donne wrote two of the most ingenious of his lyrics, " The See also:Primrose " and " The Autumnal." The popularity of Donne as a preacher See also:rose to its See also:zenith when he returned to his See also:pulpit, and it continued there until his death. Walton, who seems to have known him first in 1624, now became an intimate and adoring friend. In 163o Donne's health, always feeble, broke down completely, so that, although in August of that year he was to have been made a bishop, the entire break-down of his health made it worse than useless to promote him.

The greater part of that winter he spent at Abury See also:

Hatch, in See also:Epping See also:Forest, with his widowed daughter, See also:Constance See also:Alleyn, and was too See also:ill to preach before the king at See also:Christmas. It is believed that his disease was a malarial form of recurrent See also:quinsy acting upon an extremely neurotic See also:system. He came back to London, and was able to preach at Whitehall on the 12th of February 1631. This, his latest sermon, was published, soon after his See also:demise, as Death's See also:Duel. He now stood for his statue to the sculptor, See also:Nicholas See also:Stone, See also:standing before a See also:fire in his study at the Deanery, with his winding-See also:sheet wrapped and tied See also:round him, his eyes shut, and his feet resting on a funeral See also:urn. This lugubrious work of See also:art was set up in See also:white See also:marble after his death in St Paul's See also:cathedral, where it may still be seen. Donne died on the 31st of See also:March 1631, after he had lain " fifteen days earnestly expecting his hourly See also:change." His aged mother, who had lived in the Deanery, survived him, dying in 1632. Donne's poems were first collected in 1633, and afterwards in 1635, 1639, 1649, 1650, 1654 and 1669. Of his prose See also:works, the Juvenilia appeared in 1633; the LXXX Sermons in 164o; Biathanatos in 1644; Fifty Sermons in 1649; Essays in Divinity, 1651; his Letters to Several Persons of See also:Honour, 1651; Paradoxes, Problems and Essays, 1652; and Six and Twenty Sermons, 1661. Izaak Walton's Life of Donne, an admirably written but not entirely correct See also:biography, preceded the Sermons of 164o. The See also:principal editor of his See also:posthumous writings was his son, John Donne the younger (1604-1662), a See also:man of See also:eccentric and scandalous See also:character, but of considerable See also:talent. The See also:influence of Donne upon the literature of England was singularly wide and deep, although almost wholly malign.

His originality and the fervour of his imaginative See also:

passion made him extremely attractive to the younger See also:generation of poets, who saw that he had broken through the old tradition, and were ready to follow him implicitly into new See also:fields. In the 18th See also:century his reputation almost disappeared, to return, with many vicissitudes in the course of the 19th. It is, indeed, singularly difficult to pronounce a judicious See also:opinion on the writings of Donne. They were excessively admired by his own and the next generation, praised by See also:Dryden, paraphrased by See also:Pope, and then entirely neglected for a whole century. The first impression of an unbiassed reader who dips into the poems of Donne is unfavourable. He is repulsed by the intolerably harsh and crabbed versification, by the recondite choice of theme and expression, and by the oddity of the thought. In time, however, he perceives that behind the fantastic garb of See also:language there is an See also:earnest and vigorous mind, an See also:imagination that harbours fire within its cloudy folds, and an insight into the mysteries of spiritual life which is often startling. Donne excels in brief flashes of wit and beauty, and in sudden daring phrases that have the full perfume of poetry in them. Some of his lyrics and one or two of his elegies excepted, the Satires are his most important contribution to literature. They are probably the earliest poems of their kind in the language, and they are full of force and picturesqueness. Their obscure and knotty language only serves to give peculiar trouveres with Doon by imaginary genealogical ties, and all are represented as in opposition to See also:Charlemagne, though their adventures, in so far as they possess a See also:historical basis, must generally be referred to earlier or later periods than the reign of the great See also:emperor. The See also:general insolence of their attitude to the See also:sovereign suggests that Charlemagne is here only a name for his weaker successors.

The tradition of a traitorous family of Mayence, which was See also:

developed in Italy into a See also:series of stories of criminals, was however anterior to the Carolingian See also:cycle, for an interpolator in the See also:chronicle of Fredegarius states (iv. 87) that the See also:army of See also:Sigebert was betrayed from within its own ranks by men of Mayence in a See also:battle fought with Radulf on the See also:banks of the Unstrut in Thuringia. The See also:chief heroes of the poems which make up the geste of Doon de Mayence are Ogier the Dane (q.v.), the four sons of Aymon (see RENAUD), and Huon of See also:Bordeaux (q.v.). It is probable that Doon himself was one of the last personages to be clearly defined, and that the chanson de geste See also:relating his exploits was See also:drawn up partly with the view of supplying a suitable ancestor for the other heroes. The latter See also:half of the poem, the See also:story of Doon's See also:wars in See also:Saxony, is perhaps based on historical events, but the earlier half, which is really a See also:separate See also:romance dealing with his romantic childhood, is obviously pure fiction and See also:dates from the 13th century. Doon had twelve sons: Gaufrey de Dane See also:Marche (See also:Ardennes ?), the father of Ogier; Doon de See also:Nanteuil, whose son Gamier married the beautiful Aye d'See also:Avignon; Griffon d'Hauteville, father of the See also:arch-traitor Ganelon; Aymon de Dordone or Dourdan, whose four sons were so relentlessly pursued by Charles; Beuves d'Aigremont, whose son was the enchanter Maugis; Sevin or Seguin, the father of Huon of Bordeaux; See also:Girard de See also:Roussillon, and others less known. The See also:history of these personages is given in Doon de Mayence, Gaufrey, the romances relating to Ogier, Aye d'Avignon, the fragmentary Doon de Nanteuil, Gui de Nanteuil, See also:Tristan de Nanteuil, Parise la Duchesse, Maugis d'Aigremont, Vivien l'amachour de Monbranc, Renaus de See also:Montauban or See also:Les Quatre Fils Aymon, and Huon de Bordeaux. Some of this material, which dates in its existing form from the 12th and 13th centuries, remains unpublished, but the chief poems are available in the .series of Anciens Pates de la See also:France (185g, &c.): See Hist.litt. de la France, vols. xxii. and See also:xxvi. (1852 and 1873), for analyses of these poems by Paulin Paris; also J. See also:Barrois, Elements carolingiens (Paris, 1846) ; W.Niederstadt, Alter and Heimat der altfr. Doon (Greifswald, 1889). The prose romance, La Fleur See also:des batailles Doolin de Mayence, was printed by See also:Antoine Verard (Paris, 15o1), by Alain Lotrian and See also:Denis Janot (Paris, c.

1530), by N. Bonfons (Paris; no date), by J. Waesbergue (See also:

Rotterdam, 1604), &c.

End of Article: VIE

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