JOHN DONNE BIOGRAPHY,

This John Donne Biography, begins on 21st January 1572, in Bread Street, which lies very close to St. Pauls Cathedral London. (John Milton the Author of Paradise Lost, was also born on Bread Street, thirty six years later in 1608)

It was here, on 21st January 1572, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, that John was born, at a time when the open practicing of the Roman Catholic Faith was illegal. .

It was into that faith, that he was born to Elizabeth, the wife of a well respected, wealthy, but Catholic warden of the Ironmongers Company in the City of London, who was also named John Donne.

John senior, had to go to great pains in order to avoid unwanted government attention, or the attention of the government spies and informers, who were everywhere. This was out of a genuine and real fear, that he would be persecuted for upholding his faith, the faith of his forefathers.

It was a very real fear and the punishments were extremely harsh. It was into this environment that young John, the third of six children was born.

His mother Elizabeth, was herself a member of a recusant Catholic family, who refused to attend the services of the Church of England.

They numbered among them, her father John Heywood, the playwright; her brother the Rev. Jasper Heywood, who was a Jesuit priest and her great-uncle, the Catholic Martyr Sir (later St.) Thomas More.

A great many more of John Donne's close relatives were prepared to follow in the footsteps of the martyr, by sacrificing their own lives if necessary, for their faith. Many of them endured great hardships, some of them were exiled.

In 1576, she was left with what seemed would be a huge responsibility of bringing up their six children, when she was made a widow, by the death of John's father.

However, a few months after the death of John Snr, she married a wealthy widower, Dr. John Syminges, himself with three children of his own.

JOHN DONNE BIOGRAPHY : OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE AND LINCOLN'S INN.

ABOVE : JOHN DONNE BIOGRAPHY : JOHN AS A YOUNG MAN IN ABOUT 1595.

With the Draconian Laws against Roman Catholics being in force at the time, it would have been extremely hard for John, a Catholic, living in the Protestant England of Queen Elizabeth 1, to find a school which would have accepted him. It is therefore, quite possible that a private tutor would have been employed.

At the age of eleven, John Donne entered Hart Hall, now Hertford College Oxford. After spending three years there, he transfered to the University of Cambridge where he spent another three years in study.

However, he was unable to obtain a degree, at either of the Universities, because, due to his Catholicism, he could not take the Oath of Supremacy, which was a requirement for all graduates.

In 1592 he gained admission as a student to Lincolns Inn London and began to study law. The following year in 1593, his brother Henry was arrested and thrown into Newgate Prison (the site is now occupied by the Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey) for harbouring William Harrington, a Catholic Priest.

Under extreme torture, Henry betrayed William Harrington, who was subsequently hanged, drawn and quartered.

This was a barbaric form of execution, by which means, the poor victim, after being horrifically tortured, was then hanged by the neck until not quite dead, emasculated (i.e. castrated), disembowelled with his entrails being burned before his eyes.

John Donne's brother, Henry, died in Newgate after contracting Bubonic Plague. This whole sequence of events had a dramatic effect on John Donne, leading him to begin questioning his Catholic Faith.

Why he should have questioned his own Faith instead of questioning the barbarity of the authorities and their paid torturers and executioners, has never been explained satisfactorily.

JOHN DONNE BIOGRAPHY : HIS TRAVELS.

It is known that John Donne travelled across Europe, but where is not actually known, apart from the fact that he did fight with Robert Devereaux, 2nd Earl of Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh, in the capture of Cadiz in 1596, and also fought in the Azores in 1597, as part of the Anglo-Spanish War.

ABOVE : JOHN DONNE BIOGRAPHY : JOHN DONNE'S GREAT FRIEND AND BIOGRAPHER, IZAAK WALTON.

His great friend Izaak Walton, the author of The Complete Angler, who also wrote a biography of John Donne said:

"he returned not back into England till he had stayed some years, first in Italy, and then in Spain, where he made many useful observations of those countries, their laws and manner of government, and returned perfect in their languages."

Having also demonstrated his loyalty to the crown by fighting against a Catholic foe, he was therefore, on his return to England well prepared for a diplomatic career.

It is as well to point out here however, that during the wars against Spain, which occurred during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, Catholic Englishmen, who would not give up their Faith at any price, and of whom there were a great many, fought shoulder to shoulder with their Protestant countrymen against a common Catholic foe.

JOHN DONNE BIOGRAPHY : HIS MARRIAGE TO ANNE MORE.

So by the age of twenty five, John Donne was appointed chief secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. He was on the threshold of a great career.

Over the course of the next four years he met and fell in love with Anne More, the seventeen year old niece of Sir Thomas' wife and daughter of Sir George More, the Lieutenant of the Tower.

Knowing that a marriage would not be approved by either Anne's father or Egerton, they were secretly married just before the approach of Christmas in 1601, knowing it to be against the wishes of Anne's powerful relatives.

The clandestine marriage was the ruin of Donne's career. He wrote to Anne's enraged father saying:

"Sir, I acknowledge my fault to be so 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 for her whom I tender much more than my fortunes or life (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."

The livid father had Donne thrown into Fleet Prison for several weeks, accompanied by the priest who married them and the man who acted as their witness.

John Donne was released from the Fleet when his marriage was proved valid, but was dismissed from his post.

According to Izaak Walton, when Donne wrote to his wife, explaining the loss of his career, he wrote after his name: John Donne, Anne Donne, Un-done. It took eight years for John Donne to be reconciled with his father-in-law and to receive his wife's dowry.

JOHN DONNE BIOGRAPHY : EARLY MARRIED LIFE.

On being released from prison and having no home or income, he and Anne were kindly offered assistance by Anne's cousin Sir Francis Wolly, which they gratefully accepted and retired to a country life in Pyrford, Surrey. The next few years were exceptionally hard for them.

ABOVE : JOHN DONNE BIOGRAPHY : PART OF THE HOUSE IN PYRFORD SURREY WHERE JOHN DONNE AND HIS WIFE LIVED AFTER THEIR WEDDING. THIS PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN IN JAN 2007 BY SUZANNE KNIGHTS WHO HAS KINDLY RELEASED IT INTO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

In 1602, he was elected to become the Member of Parliament for Brackley. This position however, was unpaid and the struggle for survival continued.

With Anne giving birth practically every year and Donne managing to scrape a meagre living by working as a lawyer, the generosity of Sir Francis, in housing them was a Godsend.

JOHN DONNE BIOGRAPHY : PATRONAGE AND PUBLICATIONS

He continued to write, publishing the Divine Poems in 1607 and Biathanatos which he wrote in 1608. This work was posthumously published in 1644.

He enjoyed the patronage of friends, one of them being the Countess of Bedford and Huntingdon, and another, Sir Robert Drury of Hawstead, who became John Donne's biggest patron in the year 1610.

In return for his patronage, on the death of Sir Robert's fifteen year old daughter, Elizabeth, Donne wrote - A Funerall Elegie in 1610.

He then wrote The Two Anniversaries, An Anatomy of the World in 1611 followed by Of the Progress of the Soul in 1612 for Drury.

Another Godsend for Donne, was the reconciliation between himself and his father-in-law in 1609, when, at long last he received his wife's dowry.

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