Donne AO3
Married Anne Moore when she was 17- the niece of his employer Sir Thomas Egerton. This led him to lose his job as his secretary/putting him in prison and his social standing within the royal favour, denying him progress for 10 years
Distant relative to Sir Thomas Moore who was executed for treason after disagreeing with Henry the 8th's 2nd marriage
Religion
Born a Roman Catholic when Catholicism was illegal, and Henry 8th basically put the monarch in place of the pope by saying the king was "the only supreme head on earth of the Church in England"
Lots of guilt surrounding his transition from being Catholic to Protestant
Transitioned to being a Protestant, and even became an Anglican priest renowned for his moving sermons
Could not obtain his degrees from Oxford or Cambridge because of his Catholicism, since he refused to take the Oath of Supremacy required to graduate which swore an oath to the Church of England
Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, being succeeded by King James VI of Scotland as King James I of England. The fashion for coterie poetry of the period gave Donne a means to seek patronage, and many of his poems were written for wealthy friends or patrons
Donne's poems were never published while he was alive (posthumously), and meant to be shared amongst his mates
Fought against the Spanish in late 1500's, travelled to Spain and Italy
Donne's brother Henry was executed for harbouring a Catholic priest, and was tortured on the rack, hanged until not quite dead, and then subjected to disembowelment (organs removed)
King James was also accepting of Catholicism in comparison to Liz
Donne had 12 children, 2 dying in birth and 3 dying before their 10th birthday. Donne became suicidal after these deaths but could not fulfill this wish as it is a sin under his religion, and as he needed to support his kids
Donne's wife died in 1617 during birth (stillborn)
Donne knew about his illness
Historical references
Ptolemaic celestial circles were hollow circles believed to be concentric upon the earth, containing heavenly bodies
Scientific discoveries e.g. Galileo only discovered that the sun was at the centre of the solar system in 1610, meaning that before this there was high anxieties surrounding the composition of the world and how the system works
1585 was the first time England colonializaed America, with many references in Donne's work to colonialism/America
THE REFORMATION was the reformation of the catholic church due to a rise in nationalism and new knowledge
Written during the RENAISSANCE PERIOD- 1330-1700
Alchemy is the very old study and philosophy of how to change basic substances (such as metals) into other substances. It also studied how substances (and how they are changed into other substances) were related to magic and astrology. In Donne's work, it provides a path to spiritual transformation through a matching of the alchemical process of putrefaction which results in new life, with the Christian parallel; that of the resurrection of Christ.
Alchemical beliefs also include turning impure substances into gold/the elixir of life
1605 was the gunpowder plot
1603 was the plague, mortality rate very high, many dead= anxieties
In 1614 King James I refused Donne’s final attempt to secure a post at court and said that he would appoint him to nothing outside the church. By this time Donne himself had come to believe he had a religious vocation, and he finally agreed to take holy orders. He was ordained deacon and priest on Jan. 23, 1615, and preferment soon followed.
Donne knew of his illness 10 years before he died. In 1623 Donne fell seriously ill with either typhus or relapsing fever, and during his sickness he reflected on the parallels between his physical and spiritual illnesses
Had a drawing made of himself in his shroud, perhaps as an aid to meditating on his own dissolution.
Because almost none of Donne’s poetry was published during his lifetime, it is difficult to date it accurately. Most of his poems were preserved in manuscript copies made by and passed among a relatively small but admiring coterie of poetry lovers.
"Divine Right of Kings" and the Elizabethan idea that that natural order of the universe depended on a hierarchical order headed by the King.
a shift towards scientific endeavour and a human search for knowledge about the world
Salvation is often viewed by Donne in what is an eschatological or apocalyptic perspective. ('Eschatology' means the end of the world and 'apocalyptic' means revelation). He views judgement in a heightened way.