Biography of John Donne 1572-1631

John Donne 1572-1631 is in Poets.

On 02 Jan 1572 John Donne was born.

In 1597 the John Donne (age 24) praised Nicholas Hilliard (age 50) in his poem "The Storm": A hand or an eye, By Hilliard drawn is worth an history, By a worse painter made.

After 04 May 1609 John Donne (age 37) wrote an epitaph to Bridget Harrington (deceased):

Man is the world, and death the ocean,

To which God gives the lower parts of man.

This sea environs all, and though as yet

God hath set marks, and bounds, 'twixt us and it,

Yet doth it roar, and gnaw, and still pretend,

And breaks our banks, when e'er it takes a friend.

Then our land waters (tears of passion) vent;

Our waters, then, above our firmament,

(Tears which our soul doth for her sins let fall)

Take all a brackish taste, and funeral.

And even these tears, which should wash sin, are sin.

We, after God's 'No', drown our world again.

Nothing but man of all envenomed things

Doth work upon itself, with inborn stings.

Tears are false spectacles, we cannot see

Through passion's mist, what we are, or what she.

In her this sea of death hath made no breach,

But as the tide doth wash the slimy beach,

And leaves embroidered works upon the sand,

So is her flesh refined by death's cold hand.

As men of China, after an age's stay

Do take up porcelain, where they buried clay;

So at this grave, her limbeck, which refines

The diamonds, rubies, sapphires, pearls, and mines,

Of which this flesh was, her soul shall inspire

Flesh of such stuff, as God, when his last fire

Annuls this world, to recompense it, shall,

Make and name then, th' elixir of this all.

They say, the sea, when it gains, loseth too;

If carnal death (the younger brother) do

Usurp the body, our soul, which subject is

To th' elder death, by sin, is freed by this;

They perish both, when they attempt the just;

For, graves our trophies are, and both deaths' dust.

So, unobnoxious now, she hath buried both;

For, none to death sins, that to sin is loth.

Nor do they die, which are not loth to die,

So hath she this, and that virginity.

Grace was in her extremely diligent,

That kept her from sin, yet made her repent.

Of what small spots pure white complains! Alas,

How little poison cracks a crystal glass!

She sinned, but just enough to let us see

That God's word must be true, all, sinners be.

So much did zeal her conscience rarefy,

That, extreme truth lacked little of a lie,

Making omissions, acts; laying the touch

Of sin, on things that sometimes may be such.

As Moses' cherubins, whose natures do

Surpass all speed, by him are winged too:

So would her soul, already in heaven, seem then,

To climb by tears, the common stairs of men.

How fit she was for God, I am content

To speak, that death his vain haste may repent.

How fit for us, how even and how sweet,

How good in all her titles, and how meet,

To have reformed this forward heresy,

That women can no parts of friendship be;

How moral, how divine shall not be told,

Lest they that hear her virtues, think her old:

And lest we take death's part, and make him glad

Of such a prey, and to his triumph add.

Marriage of Elizabeth Stewart and Frederick V Elector Palatine

On 14 Feb 1613 Frederick Palatinate Simmern V Elector Palatine Rhine (age 16) and Princess Elizabeth Stewart Queen Bohemia (age 16) were married at Chapel Royal, Whitehall Palace. She the daughter of King James I of England and Ireland and VI of Scotland (age 46) and Anne of Denmark Queen Consort Scotland England and Ireland (age 38). He the son of Frederick IV Elector Palatine and Electress Louise Juliana of the Palatine Rhine (age 36).

A grand occasion that saw more royalty than ever visit the court of England. The marriage was an enormously popular match and was the occasion for an outpouring of public affection with the ceremony described as "a wonder of ceremonial and magnificence even for that extravagant age".

It was celebrated with lavish and sophisticated festivities both in London and Heidelberg, including mass feasts and lavish furnishings that cost nearly £50,000, and nearly bankrupted King James. Among many celebratory writings of the events was John Donne's (age 41) "Epithalamion, Or Marriage Song on the Lady Elizabeth, and Count Palatine being married on St Valentine's Day".

In Nov 1627 Frances Coke Viscountess Purbeck (age 25) was convicted of adultery, or incontinency as it was known then. The judges included John Donne (age 55) who was ean of St Paul's at the time. She fled to France.

On 10 Mar 1629 Katherine Knyvet (age 50) died. Monument in St Margaret's Church, Paston [Map] sculpted by Nicholas Stone (age 42). His diary ... made a tomb for my lady Paston ... veryy extraordinary entertained, and pay'd for it £340. The inscription is by John Donne (age 57): To the Reviving Memory of the virtuous and right worth Lady, Dame Katherine Paston, daughter unto the Right Worp'll Sir Thomas Knevitt, Knt., and wife to Sir Edmund Paston, Knight with whom she lived in wedlock 26 years and issue two sonnes yet surviving, vizt. William and Thomas, She departed this life the 10th day of March, 1628, and lyeth here intombed expecting a Joyful Resurrection.

On the pedestal ...

Can a man be silent and not Praise find.

For her that lived the praise of womankind.

Whose outward frame was sent this world to gess.

What shapes our soules shall weare in happiness.

Whose verture did all ill so overswaye.

That her whole life was a communion daye.

On another panel ...

Not that she needeth monument of stone.

For her wel-gotten fame to rest upon.

But this was reared to testifie.

Katherine Knyvet: On or before 22 Jun 1578 she was born to Thomas Knyvet 4th Baron Berners and Muriel Parry. On 22 Jun 1578 she was baptised at Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk. On 28 Apr 1603 Edmund Paston and she were married. In 1611 Edmund Paston and Katherine Knyvet moved into Paston Hall on the death of his grandfather Christopher Paston.

On 31 Mar 1631 John Donne (age 59) died.

Pepy's Diary. 27 May 1668. Thence by coach to the Exchange [Map], and there met with Sir H. Cholmly (age 35) at Colvill's; and there did give him some orders, and so home, and there to the office again, where busy till two o'clock, and then with Sir Prince to his house, with my Lord Brouncker (age 48) and Sir J. Minnes (age 69), to dinner, where we dined very well, and much good company, among others, a Dr., a fat man, whom by face I know, as one that uses to sit in our church, that after dinner did take me out, and walked together, who told me that he had now newly entered himself into Orders, in the decay of the Church, and did think it his duty so to do, thereby to do his part toward the support and reformation thereof; and spoke very soberly, and said that just about the same age Dr. Donne did enter into Orders. I find him a sober gentleman, and a man that hath seen much of the world, and I think may do good.