629 



DONEAU, HUaUES. 



DONNE, JOHN. 



630 





support their cause, they subscribed to the opinions of Donatus, and 

 openly declaimed against the Catholics. It is said that they gave out 

 thut the church was become prostituted; re-baptised the Catholics; 

 trod under foot the hosts consecrated by priests attached to the Holy 

 See ; burned their churches : and committed various other acts of 

 violence. They had chosen into the place of Cecilianus one Majorinus, 

 but he dying soon after, they brought in another Donatus, different 

 from him of Casa Nigra, as bishop of Carthage. It was from this 

 new head of the sect, who used so much violence against the Catholics, 

 that the Donatists are believed to have received their name. They 

 appear to have sent one of their bishops to Rome, and to have 

 attempted likewise to send some bishops into Spain, that they might 

 say their church began to spread itself everywhere. They attained 

 their greatest prosperity in the beginning of the 5th century, when 

 they are said to have bean little inferior in numbers to the orthodox 

 party in Africa, and to have been directed by four hundred bishops. 

 After many ineffectual efforts to crush this schism, the emperor Hono- 

 rius ordered a council. of bishops to assemble at Carthage in the year 

 410, where a disputation was held between seven of each party, when 

 it was decided that the laws enacted against heretics had force against 

 the Donatiats. The glory of their defeat was due to St. Augustine, 

 bishop of Hippo, who bore the principal part in this controversy. 

 The Donatists however continued as a separate body, and attempted 

 to multiply their sect even hi the 6th century ; but the orthodox 

 bishops used so much prudence that they insensibly brought over 

 most of those who had strayed from the bosom of the church. The 

 church of the Donatists gradually dwindled to nothing, and became quite 

 extinct in the 7th century. (Broughton, Did. of all Religions, folio, 

 Lond., 1756, pp. 340, 341; Mosheim, Eccl. History, 4to, Lond., 1765, 

 voL i. pp. 211, 21-1, 259, 305 ; Moreri, Diet. Hittorique, folio, Paris, 

 1759, tuin.iv. p. 214.) 



DONEAU, Latinised DONELLUS, HUQUES, a lawyer, was born 

 at Chalons-sur Sadne, in France, December 23, 1527. He is said to 

 have been idle in his youth, and an anecdote is preserved, according 

 to which he was frightened into diligence by a threat of his father to 

 have him brought up as an assistant to a swineherd. He studied 

 literature at Tournon and jurisprudence at Toulouse, and subsequently 

 at Bourgeg, where he took a degree as Doctor of Laws in 1551. He 

 soon afterwards began to teach jurisprudence at Bourges, and con- 

 tinued to do so till the massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572. He 

 had embraced the opinions of the Huguenots, and, dreading to be 

 involved in rum with others of his persuasion, he made his escape to 

 Geneva, being aided by his pupils, among whom he seems to have been 

 popular, and who had determined to defend his person if he were 

 attacked. After having remained a short time in Geneva, he was 

 called by the Calvinist Elector Palatine Frederic III. to be Professor 

 of Law at Heidelberg. Ludwig IV., the successor of this prince, who 

 did not follow his religious opinions, made changes in the university 

 which drove Doneau thence, and leaving Heidelberg In 1579, he settled 

 in Leyden. Having adopted the faction in favour of the Earl of Lei- 

 cester, he was obliged to leave Holland and return to Germany. He 

 died at Altorf on the 4th of May 1591. He was a voluminous com- 

 mentator. His earliest work appears to have been ' In titulum de 

 Usuris in Pandectis Commentarius,' Paris, 1556. A collection of his 

 commentaries was published in five volumes, foL, at Frankfurt, in 1596, 

 and again in 1626, with the title ' Commentariorum de Jure Civili libri 

 xxviii., ex receiisione et cum supplements Scipiouis Geutilis.' One 

 of the most complete extant lists of Doneau's works will be found in 

 the printed catalogue of law books in the Advocates' Library, Edin- 

 burgh. His Life is in the Supplement of ' Les Vies des plus cel&bres 

 Jurisconsultes,' by Taisand. 



DONELLUS. [DONEAU.] 



DONIZETTI, GAETANO, was born September 25, 1798, at Ber- 

 gamo, in Northern Italy. He studied in the Lyceum of that town, 

 and his father having originally destined him for the law, it was some- 

 what late before he commenced his musical studies. He received his 

 first instruction at the Musical Institute of Bergamo, of which Simone 

 Mayer was then director. Here he remained three years, and in 1815 

 removed to Bologna, where his musical education was completed under 

 Pilutti and Mattel. In consequence of some dispute with his father, 

 he entered into the army, and while in garrison with his regiment at 

 \\nice in 1818 produced his first opera, ' Enrico di Borgogna,' He 

 continued to write for the theatre, and in 1822 left the army. His 

 earliest pieces are forgotten, or at least are no longer performed, and 

 it was not till 1830, when he produced 'Anna Boleua' at Milan, that 

 he began to take rank ith the higher class of musical composers. In 

 the course of these first twelvo years of his career he composed 

 31 operas. During the fourteen years from 1830 to 1844, when his 

 last opera, ' Catarino Cornaro ' was performed, he produced 33 operas, 

 of which several have sunk into oblivion, but others still retain their 

 places on the stages of Italy, Germany, France, and England. Some 

 are especial favourites, and frequently performed. Among these more 

 fortunate productions may be mentioned 'Anna Bolena,' Milan, 



'L'Elisire d'Amore,' Milan, 1832; 'Lncrezia Borgia,' Milan, 1833; 

 ' Marino Faliero,' Paris, 1835 ; ' Lucia di Lammermoor,' Naples, 1835 ; 

 Betljr,' Naples, 1836; 'La Fille du Regiment,' Paris, 1840; 'La 

 Favorite,' Paris, 1840; 'Linda di Chamouni,' Vienna, 1842; 'Don 

 Pasquale,' Paris, 1843 ; ' Maria di Rohan,' Vienna, 1843. Most of these 



later operas, besides his usual grace and facility, exhibit strength, 

 solidity, command of the resources of counterpoint, and skill in instru- 

 mentation, much superior to his earlier productions. His artistic 

 cowers were thus manifestly improving and expanding towards the 

 termination of his musical career. Soon after the performance of hia 

 ' Lucia,' which excited great admiration, he was appointed Profesaor 

 of Counterpoint in the Royal College of Music at Naples, and after the 

 production of 'Linda' at Vienna, he was named chapel-master and 

 composer to the imperial court. In 1845, while in Paris, symptoms 

 of mental decay, arising chiefly from habits of intemperance, began to 

 show themselves, and he was for some time in a lunatic asylum. In 

 October 1847 he was removed to his native town of Bergamo, where 

 he died on the 8th of April 1848. (Nouvelle Sioyraphic Genircde.) 



DONNE, JOHN, was born at London in the year 1573 of respect- 

 able parents. At the early age of eleven, being esteemed a good 

 Latin and French scholar, he was sent to the University of Oxford, 

 and after remaining there a few years was removed to Cambridge. 

 Although he greatly distinguished himself in his studies he took no 

 degree, as his family being Roman Catholic had conscientious objections 

 to his making the requisite oath. At the age of seventeen he weut 

 to Lincoln's Inn to study the law; and while here, in order to satisfy 

 certain religious doubts, he read the controversies between the Roman 

 Catholics and Protestants, and decided in favour of the latter. After 

 travelling for about a year in Spain and Italy, he became on his return 

 secretary to Lord Elsinore, and fell in love with that nobleman's 

 niece, the daughter of Sir George More. The lady returned his 

 affection, and they were privately married. When this union was 

 discovered by Sir George he was so indignant, that he induced Lord 

 Elsinore to dismiss Donne from his service. The unfortunate secre- 

 tary was afterwards imprisoned by his father-in-law, and his wife was 

 taken from him ; but by an expensive law-proceeding, which consumed 

 nearly all his property, he was enabled to recover her. Sir George 

 forgave him shortly afterwards, but absolutely refused to contribute 

 anything towards his support, and he was forced to live with his 

 kinsman, Sir Francis Whalley. Dr. Morton, afterwards bishop of 

 Gloucester, advised Donue to enter into the Church, and offered him 

 a benefice; but although in great poverty he refused the offer, 

 thinking himself not holy enough for the priesthood. Sir Francis 

 Whalley at last effected a complete reconciliation between Doune and 

 Sir George, who allowed his son-in-law 800Z., in quarterly sums of 

 201. each, till the whole should be paid. Still he continued to be iu 

 embarrassed circumstances, and after residing some time at Mitcham, 

 whither he had removed for the sake of his wife's health, he lived iu 

 the house of Sir Robert Drury, at Drury Lane. He accompanied that 

 gentleman to Paris, contrary to the solicitations of his wife, who 

 could not bear to be parted from him, and who, as she said, felt a 

 foreboding of some evil. While Donne was in Paris, there is a story 

 that he saw the apparition of his wife enter his apartment bearing a 

 dead child, and shortly afterwards received the intelligence th;it his 

 wife had actually been delivered of a dead child at that very moment. 

 The honest angler, Izaak Walton, who writes Donue's biography, 

 seems inclined to believe this story. On Donne's return to England 

 he was introduced to James I., and delighted the king by a polem'j 

 treatise against Catholicism, entitled 'Pseudo-Martyr.' James was so 

 anxious that he should take holy orders, that Donne at length com- 

 plied, and became the king's chaplain-in-ordinary. His style of 

 preaching is thus described by Walton : "always preaching as an 

 angel from a cloud, but not in a cloud." The University of Cambridge 

 made him doctor of divinity ; the benchers of Lincoln's Inn presented 

 him with their lectureship ; and after accompanying an embassy to 

 the Queen of Bohemia, James's daughter, he became dean of St. 

 Paul's and vicar of St. Dunstan's, being then in the fifty-fourth year 

 of his age. Falling into a consumption, he was unable to perform 

 his clerical duties; but some enemy having hinted that he merely 

 feigned illness because he was too idle to preach, he mounted his 

 pulpit, and almost in a dying state, preached what Walton has called 

 his " own funeral sermon." This discourse was afterwards printed 

 under the quaint title of 'Death's Duel." From this time he 

 abandoned all thoughts of life, and even had a portrait painted of 

 himself, enveloped in a shroud, a design apparently for the shrouded 

 effigy afterwards placed as his monument in St. Paul's cathedral : 

 this portrait he kept in his bed-room. Shortly afterwards he died, 

 having exalted himself (according to Walton), almost to a state of 

 angelic beatitude. 



Of the real goodness and piety of Donne there can be no doubt. 

 But while we admire these genuine qualities, we must not be blind to 

 the superstitions which were blended with Donne's religion, though 

 these might be attributed partially (but not wholly) to the age. 

 There was evidently a great deal of simplicity about him, as well as 

 about his biographer Walton, who, enthusiastic in his admiration, 

 exalts a weakness as much as his hero's most brilliant qualities. 

 However, to those who wish to see characters like Donne treated iu 

 the spirit of their own time, we caunot recommend a more delightful 

 book than Walton's ' Life of Donne.' 



As a poet, Donne was one of those writers whom Johnson has (to 

 use Wordsworth's expression) ' strangely ' designated metaphysical 

 pouts ; a more infelicitous expression could not well have been devised. 

 The fact is, that 'quaint conceits' are only the deformities of Donne's 



