2 
By way of relief from severer studies, Donne was induced to 
attend the Earl of Essex in his expedition to Cadiz, in 1596, 
and one of his early poetical essays was an epistle in verse 
addressed to his friend, Mr. Christopher Brooke, giving him a 
description of a violent storm he had encountered on his voyage. 
He begins thus :—* 
“ Thou, which art I, (’tis nothing to he so) 
Thou, which art still thyself, hy this shall know 
Part of our joassage; and a hand, or eye. 
By Hilliardf drawn, is worth a history 
By a worse jpainter made, and (without pride) 
When hy thy judgment they are dignified, 
My lines are such. ’Tis the preheminence 
Of friendship only to impute excellence.” 
When Donne returned to England he accepted the appoint¬ 
ment of chief secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, recently made 
Lord Keeper of the great seal, and in the year 1600, whilst 
engaged in the duties of this important office, he fell in love 
with Anne Moore, the daugliter of Sir George Moore, of Lozeley, 
and the neice of Lady Egerton, a girl of seventeen, then on a 
visit at the Lord Keeper’s residence. His passion was warmly 
reciprocated hy the young lady, but he knew that his suit 'would 
be highly disapproved of by the Lord Keeper and his brother- 
in-law. Most imprudently, the lovers resolved upon a private 
marriage, and Donne prevailed upon his friend, Christopher 
Brooke, to assist in accomplishing their wishes. Brooke per¬ 
suaded his brother Samuel, who was then in holy orders, to 
solemnize the clandestine nuptials, whilst he, himself, officiated 
as father and gave the bride away. The young lawyer’s com¬ 
plicity in this transaction might have been attended with fatal 
consequences to his future prospects in life. As soon as the 
marriage became known to Sir George Moore and the Lord 
Keeper, Donne was dismissed from his secretaryship, and he 
and the two Brookes were committed to the Marshalsea. 
* Donne’s Poems, Ed. 1719, p. 127. 
t Xickolas Hillyard was the King’s Lymner. On tke 28tli December, 1603, 
he was paid £19. 10s. for certain pictures of his Majesty given to the Duke of 
Denmark’s ambassadour. Cunningham’s Bevels at Court, p. 34. 
