'LITE OF WALTOX. 



kind in general, thought so well worthy to be signalized 

 by him. 



Doctor JOHN DONNE was born in London, about 

 the year 1575. At the age of eleven he was sent to Ox- 

 ford ; thence he was transplanted to Cambridge ; where 

 be applied himself very assiduously to the study of di- 

 vinity. At sevenleen he was admitted of Lincoln's-Inn ; 

 but not having determined what profession to follow, 

 and being besides not thoroughly settled in his notions 

 of religion, he made himself master of the Romish con- 

 troversy, and became deeply skilled in the civil and 

 canon law. He was one of the many young gentlemen 

 that attended the Earl of Essex on the Cales expedition ; 

 at his return from which, he became secretary to the lord 

 chancellor Ellesmere. Being very young, he was be- 

 trayed into some irregularities, the reflection on which 

 gave him frequent uneasiness, during the whole of his 

 future life : but a violent passion which he entertained 

 for a beautiful young woman, a niece of lady Ellesmere, 

 cured him of these, though it was for a time the ruin of 

 his fortunes ; for he privately married her, and by so 

 imprudent a conduct brought on himself and his wife 

 the most pungent affliction that two young persons 

 could possibly experience; he being, upon the repre- 

 sentation of Sir George Moor, the lady's father, dis- 

 missed from his attendance on the lord chancellor, and 

 in consequence thereof involved in extreme distress and 

 poverty* ; in which he continned till about 1614, when 

 having been persuaded to enter into holy orders, he was 



* In a letter of his to an intimate friend, is the following most affecting 

 |jassage : * There is not one person, but myself, well of my family : 

 " I have already lost half a child ; and with that mischance of hers, 

 ** my wife is fallen into such a discomposure, as would afflict her too 

 * extremely, hut that the sickness of all her other children stupifies her ; 

 ** of one of which, in good faith, I have not much hope ; and these meet 

 ** with a fortune so ill provided, for physick, and such relief, that if 

 ** God should ease us with burials, I know not how to perform even 

 ** that. But I flatter myself with this hope, that I am dying too ; for 

 * I cannot waste faster than bv such griefs." Life of Dwne t in the 

 Ci>lltclion of Lives, edit. 1670, j%e 29. 



