John Donne a biography 1572 – 1631 #
(Shakespeare’s time 1564 - 1616)
Donne’s birth date is not certain; it between January to June 1572. Donne’s Father died when John was 3 years old and his brother Henry died of gaol fever for harbouring a Catholic priest. His mother remarried a wealthy man (related to Thomas More) so Donne was educated at both Oxford and Cambridge, but unable to graduate because as a Catholic he would have to swear allegiance to a Protestant Queen. He then studied Law but led the life of a young libertine; frequenter of plays and womanising.
Richard Baker, wrote of him as:
“not dissolute [i.e., careless], but very neat; a great visitor of Ladies, a great frequenter of Plays, a great writer of conceited Verses.”
Donne traveled widely in Spain and Italy and then with the earl of Essex’s successful privateering expedition against Cádiz, and the following year he sailed with Sir Walter Raleigh and Essex in the near-disastrous Islands expedition, hunting for Spanish treasure ships in the Azores.
At Lincoln’s Inn (1592–94) he turned to a comparative examination of Roman Catholic and Protestant theology and perhaps even toyed with religious skepticism. (Britannia)
Donne left the Catholic Church likely due to lack of any chance of advancement. Under Protestant rule, Catholics could not get work. Donne is presented as an apostate, neurotic and guilt-ridden, unable to detach himself emotionally from the Catholic faith but propelled into Anglicanism by a lust for power.
Donne’s theological studies had made him intensely aware of the transitional temper of the time: the Reformation was pushing Catholicism to the margins, alchemy was being discredited by the rise of empirical science, monarchical government was under question. Where, amidst such flux, was permanence to be found? The great love poems, such as “The Good Morrow” “The Sun Rising,” “The Canonization,” “A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy’s Day,” and “The Ecstasy,” exalt the lovers into monarchs–indeed, into deities of an alternative universe given coherence by their relationship.
John Donne wrote of “rank itchie lust, desire and love” for a “plumpe muddy whore, or prostitute boy,”
Very little of his poetry was published until about six years after his death - it was mainly circulated amonst trusted fellow coterie of poets.
Sir Thomas Egerton (son of Keeper of Seal Chancellor) was so impressed with Donne’s writing, he appointed Donne as his secretary. Donne was so well liked he dined with the family. He was hired to promote Catholics to become Anglican, so could be called a public relations officer or media writer.
Donne claimed: I did best when I was least serious in my subjects.
Sir Thomas Egerton’s second wife was a sister to Sir George More. They brought with them their 15 year old niece Ann More. John fell madly in love with Ann.
When Sir George found out he was furious and Ann was taken to Surrey. Later John and Ann met secretly and were married in 1601. She was 16 and he 29. Sir George More had John Donne dismissed and imprisoned for two months. John Donne and Ann More lived in poverty for the next 10 yrs dependent on his writing of tracts. This led to Donne’s rueful saying:
“John Donne, Ann Donne, undone.”
Donne’s writing reflect at least five stages of his development. His daytime religious work for officialdom, earlier from 1590’s and later as a Priest from 1609, and his love poetry’s three stages; early 1590’s soft porn, to his serious love sonnets after falling in love with Anne More from 1601, to his Holy Sonnets from 1609.
Donne’s serious poetry extolls the power of love above all else.
Ann More gave birth to 12 children 7 surviving her. Ann More died in childbirth in 1617 after which his writing became more sombre and religious
- “wholly on heavenly things my mind is set”.
He devoted his life to writing the Holy Sonnets. Donne became a priest reluctantly in 1615, realizing there was no other way out of his poverty and the need to provide for his family (they had seven children, the birth of the last effectively killing her with exhaustion 1617). [Donne’s “dialogue of one” ] - Paul Dean
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3345/is_5_25/ai_n29321083/
Donne trained as lawyer and many of his poems read like a prosecutor’s argument. Neither the fantastic nor the cynical nor the sensual occupies an excessive importance with Donne; the elements in his mind had an order and congruity. The range of his feeling was great, but no more remarkable than its unity. He was altogether present in every thought and in every feeling.
During his student days he led a dissolute rakish student life, writing his early poetry for light entertainment at the inns of the court. They were circulated among close friends so highly unlikely read by the upper aristocracy. Few were published until long after his death in 1631.
Katherine Rundell writes: “You cannot claim a man is an alchemist and fail to lay out the gold”.
Donne’s religious writings attracted the notice of King James I and he gained favour again. His Devotions upon Emergent Occasions contained the famous sayings, “No man is an Island”. Donne says that because we are all part of mankind, any person’s death is a loss to all of us:
“Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
The line also suggests that we all will die: the bell will toll for each one of us.
It was his proclamation that Catholics could owe their allegiance to King James I, without forfeiting their loyalty to the Pope, that earned him a place at the court and promotion to higher positions in the church.
He became dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in 1621, one of the most prestigious appointments in the Anglican Church. Often sickly, in his last few years, John Donne died in 1631.