The Romance of Biography (Vol 2 of 2)

R. DONNE A

history of our own country, and founded on as true and touching

arned, metaphysical, and theological productions. As a poet, it is probable that even readers of poetry know little of him, except from the lines at the bottom of the pages in

muse on drom

okers into tr

ghly mixed up the good and the bad together." What is good, is the result of truth, of passion, of a strong mind, and a brilliant wit: what is bad, is the effect of a most perverse taste, and total want of harmony. No sooner has he kindled the fancy with a

cur to his works, with an interest and a curiosity, which while they give a value to every

ndsome, lively, and polished by travel and study. They met constantly, and the result was a mutual attachment of the most ardent and romantic character. As they were continually together, and always in presence of watchful relations ("ambushed round with household spies," as he expresses it,) it could not long be concealed. "The friends of both parties," says Walton,

never be voluntary: she preferred marrying without it, to marrying against it; and trusted to obtain his forgiveness when there was no remedy:-a common mode of r

edience,[45] but followed it with his curse, which he was with difficulty prevailed on to retract. His mediation failed: Sir George, on learning that his precautions came too late, burst into a transport of rage, the effect of which resembled insanity. He had sufficient interest in the arbitrary court of James, to procure the imprisonment of Donne and the witnesses of his daughter's marriage; and he insisted that his brother-in-law should dismiss the young man

s kept guard, l

ence whilst th

sweeten them)

nference, embra

negligence our

nguage throug

, looks; and of

with our feet f

l this passe

e make us the v

reduced to the greatest distress. Donne had nothing. "His wife had been curiously and plentifully educated; both their natures generous, accustomed to confer, not to receive

shed friendship.[48] Volumes could not say more in praise of both than this singular connection:-to bestow favours, so long continued and of such magnitude, with a grace which made them sit lightly on

attended with a heavy repentance, if God had not blessed them with so mutual and cordial affections, as, in the midst of their sufferings, made their bread of sorrow taste more pleasantly than the banquets of dull and low-spirited[49] people." We find in some of Donne's letters, the most heart-rending pictures of family distress, mingled with the tend

ldren's sufferings, without money to purchase medicine,-"and if God should ease us with burials, I know not how

ospital. "

rit of high honour and conscious desert; for in the midst of this sad, and almost sordid misery and penury, Donne, whose talents his contemporaries acknowledged

rt Drury received the whole family into his house, treated Donne with the most cordia

. Her affectionate husband yielded; but Sir Robert Drury was urgent, and would not be refused. Donne represented to his wife all that honour and gratitude required of him; and she, too really tender, and too devoted to be selfish and unreasonable, yielded with "an unwilling willingness;" yet, womanlike, she thought she could not bea

strange and f

s which there

riving hopes;

' masculine pe

hee, and b

spies and rival

but by thy f

ich want and di

e;-and all th

sworn to seal

r, and oversw

love by means

Love! Love's

stress, not m

y thy kind lea

orthy to nur

back. O! if t

ther lands to

mighty) beau

as, not thy love

oreas' harshnes

he in piec

, whom he sw

d, 'tis madness

'd: feed on t

overs one in

hing,-not a b

bit nor mind:

ly: all will

omanly, disco

e dream me so

oks our long h

ispraise me; nor

rce; nor in bed

starlings, cry

love is slai

e Alps alone;

ight, stabb'd, ble

er chance, ex

h for me to ha

xpression. The superior power of truth and sentiment have immortalised this little poem, and the occasion which gave it birth

her face pale and mournful, and carrying in her arms a dead infant. Sir Robert Drury found him a few minutes afterwards in such a state of horror, and his mind so impressed with the reality of this vision, that an express was immedi

e imagination to impress us with a palpable sense of what is not, and cannot be; and it seems to me that, in a man of Donne's ardent, melancholy temperament, brooding day and n

ay be both changed and heightened by accidents,) but that the abundant affection which was once betwixt him and her, who had so long been the delight of his eyes and the companion of his youth; her, with whom he had divided so many pleasant sorrows and contented fears, as common people are not capable of, should b

ore harmony and elegance than his other pieces, that it is scarcely a fair specimen of his style

long stray'

o long have d

hee they've l

ions, That they be Made by thee Fit

y harmless

orthy though

ath been ta

To forget both Its word and troth

to add, that Donne's famous lines,

and eloqu

eeks, and so di

almost said he

n England, the wealth of her father being considered almost incalculable; and this, added to her singular beauty, and extraordinary talents and a

were maternal ancesto

TNO

rds the famous Countess of Ca

onne's

alton'

fe of Donne.-Cha

e. low

lmers's

In