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Jun 19, 1572
Birth
Birth of John Donne in London; born to a Roman Catholic family during an anti-Catholic atmosphere due to the rise of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. His mother Elizabeth Heywood, was the youngest daughter of John Heywood, epigrammist and playwright. His father, also named John Donne was a London merchant, though he died when Donne was four. His mother then married Dr. John Syminges. -
University Student
At the age of 12 Donne studied at the University of Oxford then continued his education in the University of Cambridge; however, he took no degree because he was of Catholic heritage and had to take a vow as a Protestant.
He refused. -
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Songs and Sonnets
Colleetion of love poems. His speakers cover a wider range of lovers from devoted and platanoic to lustful and manipulative men. -
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Law
Read law at Thavies Law and Lincoln's Inn. Compared Catholic theology with Protestant. Began exhibiting relgious skepticism. -
Henry
Donne's brother Henry dies in New gate prison from bubonic plague. He harbored a Catholic priest in his home, was discovered with the priest put to death and Henry sent to rot. -
Expedition Job
Enlisted as a gentleman with the earl of Essex’s privateerng expedition against Cádiz. It was successful. -
Failed Expedition
Sailed with Sir Walter Raleigh and Essex in the near-disastrous Islands expedition, hunting for Spanish treasure ships in the Azores -
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Secretary Job
Became secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, lord keeper of the great seal -
Marriage
Married in secret to Anne More, niece of Egerton’s second wife and the daughter of Sir George More, who was chancellor of the garter, because they could not get his blessing. -
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Holy Sonnets
Wrote 19 Holy Sonnets. He openly explores his love for God. Themes demonstrate his spiritual unworthiness, doubts, and fears.They never exhibited him honestly spiritually at peace.
"So my deviant fits come and go away Like a fantastic ague: save that here these are my best days, when i shake with fear." -
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Life of Financial Instability
Denied Anne's dowry and further opportunites of jobs in public service due to the marriage. Struggled to provide adequate funds for his wife and growing family. Lived off of the goodness of Anne's cousin at Pyrford, Surrey. Then they lived in a house in Mitcham, at times at a London apartment at the dependence of patrons. 5 out of the 12 children born by Anne and Donne died before reaching maturity. -
Resilience ?
Produced prose works on theology, canon law, and anti-Catholic polemics and composed love lyrics, religious poetry, and complimentary and funerary verse for his patrons. From this year onwards his friends urged him to seek employement with the Church of England. -
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Benefits from Drury
Donne traveled through France and the Low Countries with his patron, Sir Robert Drury, leaving his wife at Mitcham. Still voiced concerns for his wife:"Because I have transplanted [her] into a wretched fortune, I must labour to disguise that from her by all such honest devices, as giving her my company, and discourse." -
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Anniversaries
Commemorated the death of Elizabeth Drury, 14 year old daughter of his patron. In the first aniverssarie she is potrayed as an idealized young women, whose death was a loss of virtue for the world. The second was a eulogy to her and partlly about men regaining their holy wisdom to a path of eternal life. -
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Drury Estate
Upon his return his patron gave him a house at his estate in London where he stayed with his family. -
Priesthood
Donne takes holy orders from King James I becoming a deacon and priest Was made royal champlain at by the King's command received a doctorate of divinity at Cambridge. -
Death of a soul mate
Wife Anne dies giving birth to 12th child. -
Dean
Became dean of St. Paul's cathedral, dutifully efficient at his job. -
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Fevaaaaaaaaaaaar!
Donne caught typus or relapsing fever and during his sickness he made comparisons between physical and spiritual illness. These parallels gave way to his prose in Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions. -
Death
Became fatally ill with stomach cancer. He left his sickbed to preach one final sermon at court; called Death's Duell. Coined as Donne's funeral sermon. -
Courthope critic
Courthope stated "“he who examines historically the movement of imagination will find in Donne’s subtle analysis and refined paradoxes much that helps to throw light on the contradictions of human nature” -
Horace Eaton Critic
a figure of “extraordinary variety—a scholar of civil and canon law, a wit, a poet, a preacher”
