February 02, 2010
Donne Undone (1602)
This entry is a repeat of one that ran last year.
If you’re going to marry into the boss’ family, as John Donne should have learned, it’s best not to tell the father-in-law three weeks after the wedding.
The future Jacobian poet and diplomat, was an ambitious young man. At 25, after serving with the Earl of Essex on his successful military campaigns against the Spanish, he became chief secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, who was the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. The appointment not only lodged him in Egerton’s home near the palace at Whitehall, it brought him into contact with his boss’ niece, Anne More.
Love blossomed, and by December of 1601 they were married. Donne waited until this day to write a letter to the bride’s father, George More. After laying out the facts of the matter and confessing that “about three weeks before Christmas we married,” the Jesuit-trained Donne had the audacity to ask More to deal with the situation “as the persuasions of nature, reason, wisdom, and Christianity shall inform you.”
More decided the best response would be to slap Donne into prison. After all, he was Lieutenant of the Tower. But Donne was not high-born enough for the Tower, so he was sent to Fleet Prison instead, along with the priest who married the couple and the witness. Sir Egerton, upset that Donne would romance Anne under his roof, fired him as his secretary.
Eventually, his father-in-law reconciled with John and Anne, but it wasn’t until 1609 that they received the dowery due them. In the meantime, as Donne wrote in a letter to his wife, they were “John Donne, Anne Donne, Un-done.”
Born: William Rose Benet, critical essayist, poet, Fort Hamilton, N.Y., 1886; James Joyce, novelist, short-story writer, Dublin, 1882; Ayn Rand, novelist, playwright, essayist, St. Petersburg, Russia, 1905; James Dickey, poet, novelist, critical essayist, Atlanta, Ga., 1923; Judith Viorst, children's author, poet, Newark, N.J., 1931; Thomas M. Disch, sci-fi author, Des Moines, Iowa, 1940.
Died: Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, chef, author, Paris, 1826; Valery Nicolas Larbaud, novelist, essayist, translator, Vichy, France, 1957; Richard P. Blackmur, literary critic, 1965; Bertrand Russell, philosopher, essayist, near Penryndeudraeth, Merioneth, Wales, 1970; Alistair MacLean, novelist, poet, Munich, W.Germany, 1987.
Quote for the Day: “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.” — Albert Einstein
Also from “Writers 365":
- Michael Servertus and the Fatal Book Review (1553)
- Shakespeare Woos, Weds and Repents (1582)
- Much Ado About Shakespeare’s Taxes (1597)
- Don Quixote Unleashed (1605)
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