THE RELIC

THE RELIC 

1) Introduction 
                                                                                             

John Donne

John Donne was born in Bread Street , London in 1572 to a prosperous Roman Catholic family - a precarious thing at a time when anti Catholic sentiment was rife in England . His Father , John Donne , was a well - to do ironmonger and citizen of London . Donne's father died suddenly in 1576 , and left the three children to be raised by their mother , Elizabeth , who was the daughter of epigrammatist and playwright John Heywood and a relative of Sir Thomas More . Donne's first teachers were Jesuits . At the age of 11 , Donne and his  younger brother Henry were entered at Hart Hall ,University of Oxford , where Donne studied for three years .                                                  
 He spent the next three years at the University of Cambridge , but took no degree 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 Lincoln's Inn(1592) , and it seemed natural that Donne should embark upon a legal or diplomatic career.

In 1593 , Donne's brother Henry died of a fever in prison after being arrested for giving sanctuary to a proscribed Catholic priest . This made Donne begin to question his faith .His first book of poems  satires,Written during this period of residence in London,id considered one of Donne's most important literary efforts . Although not immediately published , the volume had a fairly wide 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 inherited a considerable  fortune , young "Jack Donne "spent his money on womanizing,on books at the theatre , and on travels . He had also befriended Christopher Brooke ,a poet  and his roommate at Lincoln's Inn,and Ben Jonson who was part of Brooke's circle . In 1596 , Donne joined the naval expedition that Robert Devereux,2nd Earl i Essex,Led against Cadiz , Spain . In 1597 , Donne joined an expedition to the Azores, where he wrote "the Calm ". Upon his return to England in 1598 , Donne was appointed private secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton,Lord Keeper of the Great Seal,afterward Lord Ellesmere.

Donne was beginning a promising career,In 1601,Donne became MP for Brackley , and sat in Queen Elizabeth's last parliament .but in the same year ,he secretly  married Lady Egerton's niece , seventeen -year -old Anne More daughter of sir George More , Lieutenant of the Tower, and effectively committed career suicide , Donne wrote to the livid father ,saying :

"Sir , I  acknowledge my fault to be great as I dare scarce offer any other prayer to you in mine own behalf than this , to believe that I neither had dishonest end nor means . But or her whom I tender much more than my fortunes or line (else I would , I might neither joy in this life nor enjoy the next ) I humbly beg of you that she may not , to her danger ,feel the terror of your sudden anger ."

Sir george had Donne thrown in Fleet Prison for some weeks ,along with his cohorts Samuel and Christopher Brooke who had aided the couple's clandestine affair .Donne was dismissed from his post ,and for the next decade had to struggle near poverty to support his growing family . Donne later summed up the experience  :  "John Donne , Anne dome , Undone. "Anne's  cousin offered the  couple refuge in Pyrford , Surrey ,and the couple  was helped by friends like Lady Magdalen Herbert , George Herbert' s mother , and Lucy, Countess of Bedford , women who also played a prominent role in Donne's literary life .though Donne still had friends left these were bitter years for a man who knew himself to be the intellectual superior or most ,knew he could have risen to the highest post ,and yet found  no preferment .It was not until 1609 that a reconciliation was effected between Donne and his father -in - Law ,and sr George More was finally induced to pay his  daughter's dowry .

In the intervening years ,Donne practiced law ,but they were lean years for the Donne's . 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 Morton's pamphlets (1604-1607). To this period , before reconciliation with his in laws , belong Donne's divine Poem (1607) and Biathanatos (pub),a radical piece for ts time, in which Donne argues that suicide is not a sin in self .

As Donne approached forty ,he published two ant - Catholic polemics Pseudo -Martyr )and Ignatius his Conclave (1611), They were final pubic testimony of Donne's renunciation of the Catholic faith . Pseudo Martyr , which held that English 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 Robert's 15- year -Old daughter  Elizabeth .At this time  , the Donne's took residence on drury lane .the to Anniversaries An Anatomy of the world (1611) and of the progress of the Soul (1612) continued the patronage .sir Robert encouraged 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 annoucing 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 Royal Chaplain later that year . In 1616 ,he was appointed Reader in Divinity at Lincolns  Inn ( Cambridge had conferred the degree of  doctor of Divinity on him two yeas earlier ). Donne's style full of elaborate metaphors and religious symbolism  ,his flair for drama m,his wide learning and his quick wit soon established him as one of the greatest preachers of the era .

Just as Donne's 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 mother's death .Struck by  grief,Donne wrote the seventeenth Holy sonnet ," since she whom I Lo'd hath paid her last debt ." According to Donne's friend and biographer , Izaak Walton , Donne was the after  '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 apprehension of  death .Donne returned to London in 1620 , and was appointed Dean of Saint Paul's in 1621 ,  A last financially secure . In 1623 ,Donne's eldest daughter l , Constance , married the actor Edward  ,then 58 .

Donne's private meditations , Devotion 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 "never send to know for whom the bell tolls ; It tolls for thee ."In 1624 , Donne was made vicar of St Dunstan's - in - the - west . On March 27, 1625 ,James  died , and Donne preached his first sermon for Charles I . But for his ailing health , (he had mouth sores and had experienced significant weight weight ) Donne almost certainly would have become a bishop in 1630 . Obsessed with the idea of death , Donne posed in a shroud -the panting was completed a few weeks before his death , and later used to create and efffigy . He also preached what was called his own funeral sermon , Death's Duel , just a few weeks before he died in London on March 31 , 1631 , the last thing Donne wrote just  before his death was Hymne to God my God . In my Sickness . Donne's monument , in his shroud , survived the Great Fire of London and can still be seen today at St . Paul's .