Dean John Donne
For the first part of his life, poet John
Donne (1572–1631) led a libertine existence, romancing ladies at
court and writing some of the most famous seduction poems in history. But,
somewhere along the way, his views, and the views of others on him, changed.
In spite of his previous rakish exploits, and in spite of his Catholic
upbringing, Donne was ordained as an
Anglican priest in 1615. In 1621, at the age of 49, Donne became the dean of St. Paul’s,
the last man in the country Gap in transcription. Reason: Editorial omission for reasons of length or relevance. Use only in quotations in born-digital documents.[…] who might have been expected to rise to that position(Times 114). He occupied the deanery until his death.
At St. Paul’s, Donne composed and delivered sermons prolifically.
His biographer, Isaak Walton, gives the following account:
The latter part of his life may be said to be a continued study; for as he usually preached once a week, if not oftner, so after his Sermon he never gave his eyes rest, till he had chosen out a new Text, and that night cast his Sermon into a form, and his Text into divisions; and the next day betook himself to consult the Fathers, and so commit his meditations to his memory, which was excellent. (qtd. in Bald 406)
He delivered his sermons either inside the cathedral, on Christmas and
various other holidays, or in the open-air pulpit at Paul’s Cross. There, he
preached to hundreds of rapt listeners, sometimes for longer than two hours.
Donne dazzled his congregations,
both with his animated style of delivery and with the masterfully wrought
poetry of his words. As Walton tells us, he was:
A Preacher in earnest; weeping sometimes for his Auditory, sometimes with them: alwayes preaching to himself, like an Angel from a cloud, but in none Gap in transcription. Reason: Editorial omission for reasons of length or relevance. Use only in quotations in born-digital documents.[…] inticing others by a sacred Art and Courtship to amend their lives Gap in transcription. Reason: Editorial omission for reasons of length or relevance. Use only in quotations in born-digital documents.[…] with a most particular grace and an unexpressible addition of comeliness. (qtd. in Bald 408)
John Chamberlain, whose Letters offer an
expansive contemporary record of London life, makes numerous approving
mentions of Donne’s sermons. He
offers this account of a sermon at Paul’s Cross, early in Donne’s religious career:
great men were at Paul’s Cross and heard Dr. Donne who made there a dainty sermon upon the eleventh verse of the 22nd of Proverbs, and was exceedingly well liked generally(Thomson 141). In his letter of July 1, 1622, Chamberlain contrasts Donne with an inferior preacher, reporting an address given by the Bishop of London
so low that I think scant the third part was within hearing,which Donne followed with
a very good sermon in the Church as he hath done diverse of late, with great concourse(Thomson 290). Indeed, Donne’s fame in his lifetime rested almost entirely on his preaching; his Poems were not published until 1633, two years after his death.
Donne’s preaching was not universally
approved. The puritans especially found him suspect, not least of all
because he often attacked them in his sermons (Bald 409). On one occasion in particular, Donne raised the eyebrows of his
listeners with a sermon defending James I’s
controversial
Direction for Preachers.The paper was released in 1622, in response to the growing debate surrounding the King’s dealings in Spain. In it, James forbade public discussion of controversial religious and political issues, and he chose Donne to defend him in a sermon at Paul’s Cross (Carey 103). Donne’s defense pleased the King greatly, but the citizens were not so appreciative. Even Chamberlain stood in disbelief as Donne
gave no great satisfaction--or as some say, spake as if himself were not so well satisfied(Thomson 291).
The sermon defending James is famous
not just for the controversy it raised, but also because it was the first of
Donne’s sermons to be printed. In
the coming years, Donne printed a
number of his sermons. His final sermon, Death’s
Duell, was published soon after his death. Donne made the decision to print selectively. He saw
the publication of a sermon as being justified, as Bald suggests, only if
it contain[ed] something beyond mere homiletic instructionand had
a special application to the problems of the day(Bald 447). These printed sermons are significant to Donne’s relationhip with St. Paul’s, for even if they were not delivered at the cathedral itself, the printed copies would have been sold in one of the churchyard’s various book stalls.
Donne’s heroic devotion to his
preaching, while dean of St. Paul’s,
is truly remarkable. Furthermore, he carried out his administrative duties,
such as the approval of appointments and grants, with
care and efficiency(Bald 401). However, his performance of certain other duties did not live up to the same standard. While he was dean, the decrepit state of the cathedral was allowed to worsen. Furthermore, he resoundingly failed to control the din of visitors and tradespeople which rang through various parts of the cathedral. The noise was a great hindrance to the services preached from the choir in an adjacent area of the church, separated from the mob by a mere screen.
One story of Donne reprimanding an
unruly visitor does survive. Christopher Ruddy, yeoman to Humphrey Smith,
was sent to Newgate for failing to
kneel when admonished. On Christmas Day of that year, Donne delivered a sermon concerning the necessity of
kneeling at church, imploring the congregation,
Deus stetit, saies David, God standeth in the Congregation; does God stand there, and wilt thou sit? sit, and never kneele?(qtd. in Bald 404). This was, it seems, an isolated instance of Donne reprimanding the unruly, for a commission inquiring into the profanation of the Cathedral was issued soon after his death, placing the blame on the dean and his chapter (Bald 403).
References
-
Citation
Bald, R.C. John Donne: A Life. New York: Oxford, 1970. Print.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Carey, John. John Donne: Life, Mind and Art. London: Faber, 1990. Print.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
The City of London: A Book Reprinted from the Special Number of the Times. London: Times Publishing, 1928. Print.This item is cited in the following documents:
-
Citation
Thomson, Elizabeth, ed. The Chamberlain Letters. New York: Putnam, 1965. Print.This item is cited in the following documents:
Cite this page
MLA citation
Dean John Donne.The Map of Early Modern London, edited by , U of Victoria, 15 Sep. 2020, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/DONN2.htm.
Chicago citation
Dean John Donne.The Map of Early Modern London. Ed. . Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed September 15, 2020. https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/DONN2.htm.
APA citation
The Map of Early Modern London. Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/DONN2.htm.
2020. Dean John Donne. In (Ed), RIS file (for RefMan, EndNote etc.)
Provider: University of Victoria Database: The Map of Early Modern London Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8" TY - ELEC A1 - Carlone, Dominic ED - Jenstad, Janelle T1 - Dean John Donne T2 - The Map of Early Modern London PY - 2020 DA - 2020/09/15 CY - Victoria PB - University of Victoria LA - English UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/DONN2.htm UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/xml/standalone/DONN2.xml ER -
RefWorks
RT Web Page SR Electronic(1) A1 Carlone, Dominic A6 Jenstad, Janelle T1 Dean John Donne T2 The Map of Early Modern London WP 2020 FD 2020/09/15 RD 2020/09/15 PP Victoria PB University of Victoria LA English OL English LK https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/DONN2.htm
TEI citation
<bibl type="mla"><author><name ref="#CARL1"><surname>Carlone</surname>, <forename>Dominic</forename></name></author>.
<title level="a">Dean John Donne</title>. <title level="m">The Map of Early Modern
London</title>, edited by <editor><name ref="#JENS1"><forename>Janelle</forename>
<surname>Jenstad</surname></name></editor>, <publisher>U of Victoria</publisher>,
<date when="2020-09-15">15 Sep. 2020</date>, <ref target="https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/DONN2.htm">mapoflondon.uvic.ca/DONN2.htm</ref>.</bibl>
Personography
-
Joey Takeda
JT
Programmer, 2018-present. Junior Programmer, 2015-2017. Research Assistant, 2014-2017. Joey Takeda was a graduate student at the University of British Columbia in the Department of English (Science and Technology research stream). He completed his BA honours in English (with a minor in Women’s Studies) at the University of Victoria in 2016. His primary research interests included diasporic and indigenous Canadian and American literature, critical theory, cultural studies, and the digital humanities.Roles played in the project
-
Abstract Author
-
Author
-
Author of Abstract
-
Author of Introduction
-
Author of Stub
-
CSS Editor
-
Compiler
-
Conceptor
-
Copy Editor
-
Copy Editor and Revisor
-
Data Manager
-
Date Encoder
-
Editor
-
Encoder
-
Encoder (Bibliography)
-
Geographic Information Specialist
-
Geographic Information Specialist (Agas)
-
Junior Programmer
-
Markup Editor
-
Metadata Co-Architect
-
MoEML Encoder
-
MoEML Transcriber
-
Post-conversion processing and markup correction
-
Programmer
-
Proofreader
-
Researcher
-
Second Author
-
Toponymist
-
Transcriber
-
Transcription Editor
Contributions by this author
Joey Takeda is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Joey Takeda is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Tye Landels-Gruenewald
TLG
Data Manager, 2015-2016. Research Assistant, 2013-2015. Tye completed his undergraduate honours degree in English at the University of Victoria in 2015.Roles played in the project
-
Author
-
Author of Term Descriptions
-
CSS Editor
-
Compiler
-
Conceptor
-
Copy Editor
-
Data Manager
-
Editor
-
Encoder
-
Geographic Information Specialist
-
Markup Editor
-
Metadata Architect
-
MoEML Researcher
-
Name Encoder
-
Proofreader
-
Researcher
-
Toponymist
-
Transcriber
Contributions by this author
Tye Landels-Gruenewald is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Tye Landels-Gruenewald is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Cameron Butt
CB
Research Assistant, 2012–2013. Cameron Butt completed his undergraduate honours degree in English at the University of Victoria in 2013. He minored in French and has a keen interest in Shakespeare, film, media studies, popular culture, and the geohumanities.Roles played in the project
-
Author
-
CSS Editor
-
Conceptor
-
Contributing Author
-
Copy Editor
-
Creator
-
Data Manager
-
Encoder
-
Markup Editor
-
Metadata Architect
-
Proofreader
-
Researcher
-
Transcriber
Contributions by this author
Cameron Butt is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Cameron Butt is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Kim McLean-Fiander
KMF
Director of Pedagogy and Outreach, 2015–present. Associate Project Director, 2015–present. Assistant Project Director, 2013-2014. MoEML Research Fellow, 2013. Kim McLean-Fiander comes to The Map of Early Modern London from the Cultures of Knowledge digital humanities project at the University of Oxford, where she was the editor of Early Modern Letters Online, an open-access union catalogue and editorial interface for correspondence from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. She is currently Co-Director of a sister project to EMLO called Women’s Early Modern Letters Online (WEMLO). In the past, she held an internship with the curator of manuscripts at the Folger Shakespeare Library, completed a doctorate at Oxford on paratext and early modern women writers, and worked a number of years for the Bodleian Libraries and as a freelance editor. She has a passion for rare books and manuscripts as social and material artifacts, and is interested in the development of digital resources that will improve access to these materials while ensuring their ongoing preservation and conservation. An avid traveler, Kim has always loved both London and maps, and so is particularly delighted to be able to bring her early modern scholarly expertise to bear on the MoEML project.Roles played in the project
-
Associate Project Director
-
Author
-
Author of MoEML Introduction
-
CSS Editor
-
Compiler
-
Contributor
-
Copy Editor
-
Data Contributor
-
Data Manager
-
Director of Pedagogy and Outreach
-
Editor
-
Encoder
-
Encoder (People)
-
Geographic Information Specialist
-
JCURA Co-Supervisor
-
Managing Editor
-
Markup Editor
-
Metadata Architect
-
Metadata Co-Architect
-
MoEML Research Fellow
-
MoEML Transcriber
-
Proofreader
-
Second Author
-
Secondary Author
-
Secondary Editor
-
Toponymist
-
Vetter
Contributions by this author
Kim McLean-Fiander is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Kim McLean-Fiander is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Janelle Jenstad
JJ
Janelle Jenstad is Associate Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and PI of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. She has taught at Queen’s University, the Summer Academy at the Stratford Festival, the University of Windsor, and the University of Victoria. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media (Routledge). She has prepared a documentary edition of John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Renaissance and Reformation,Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Early Modern Literary Studies, Elizabethan Theatre, Shakespeare Bulletin: A Journal of Performance Criticism, and The Silver Society Journal. Her book chapters have appeared (or will appear) in Institutional Culture in Early Modern Society (Brill, 2004), Shakespeare, Language and the Stage, The Fifth Wall: Approaches to Shakespeare from Criticism, Performance and Theatre Studies (Arden/Thomson Learning, 2005), Approaches to Teaching Othello (Modern Language Association, 2005), Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate, 2007), New Directions in the Geohumanities: Art, Text, and History at the Edge of Place (Routledge, 2011), Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter, 2016), Teaching Early Modern English Literature from the Archives (MLA, 2015), Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana, 2016), Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota, 2017), and Rethinking Shakespeare’s Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge, 2018).Roles played in the project
-
Annotator
-
Author
-
Author of Abstract
-
Author of Stub
-
Author of Term Descriptions
-
Author of Textual Introduction
-
Compiler
-
Conceptor
-
Copy Editor
-
Copyeditor
-
Course Instructor
-
Course Supervisor
-
Course supervisor
-
Data Manager
-
Editor
-
Encoder
-
Encoder (Structure and Toponyms)
-
Final Markup Editor
-
GIS Specialist
-
Geographic Information Specialist
-
Geographic Information Specialist (Modern)
-
Geographical Information Specialist
-
JCURA Co-Supervisor
-
Main Transcriber
-
Markup Editor
-
Metadata Co-Architect
-
MoEML Project Director
-
MoEML Transcriber
-
Name Encoder
-
Peer Reviewer
-
Primary Author
-
Project Director
-
Proofreader
-
Researcher
-
Reviewer
-
Reviser
-
Revising Author
-
Second Author
-
Second Encoder
-
Toponymist
-
Transcriber
-
Transcription Proofreader
-
Vetter
Contributions by this author
Janelle Jenstad is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Janelle Jenstad is mentioned in the following documents:
Janelle Jenstad authored or edited the following items in MoEML’s bibliography:
-
Jenstad, Janelle.
Building a Gazetteer for Early Modern London, 1550-1650.
Placing Names. Ed. Merrick Lex Berman, Ruth Mostern, and Humphrey Southall. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 2016. 129-145. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
The Burse and the Merchant’s Purse: Coin, Credit, and the Nation in Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody.
The Elizabethan Theatre XV. Ed. C.E. McGee and A.L. Magnusson. Toronto: P.D. Meany, 2002. 181–202. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Early Modern Literary Studies 8.2 (2002): 5.1–26..The City Cannot Hold You
: Social Conversion in the Goldsmith’s Shop. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
The Silver Society Journal 10 (1998): 40–43.The Gouldesmythes Storehowse
: Early Evidence for Specialisation. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Lying-in Like a Countess: The Lisle Letters, the Cecil Family, and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 34 (2004): 373–403. doi:10.1215/10829636–34–2–373. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Public Glory, Private Gilt: The Goldsmiths’ Company and the Spectacle of Punishment.
Institutional Culture in Early Modern Society. Ed. Anne Goldgar and Robert Frost. Leiden: Brill, 2004. 191–217. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Smock Secrets: Birth and Women’s Mysteries on the Early Modern Stage.
Performing Maternity in Early Modern England. Ed. Katherine Moncrief and Kathryn McPherson. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007. 87–99. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Using Early Modern Maps in Literary Studies: Views and Caveats from London.
GeoHumanities: Art, History, Text at the Edge of Place. Ed. Michael Dear, James Ketchum, Sarah Luria, and Doug Richardson. London: Routledge, 2011. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Versioning John Stow’s A Survey of London, or, What’s New in 1618 and 1633?.
Janelle Jenstad Blog. https://janellejenstad.com/2013/03/20/versioning-john-stows-a-survey-of-london-or-whats-new-in-1618-and-1633/. -
Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Internet Shakespeare Editions. Open.
-
Stow, John. A SVRVAY OF LONDON. Contayning the Originall, Antiquity, Increase, Moderne estate, and description of that Citie, written in the yeare 1598. by Iohn Stow Citizen of London. Also an Apologie (or defence) against the opinion of some men, concerning that Citie, the greatnesse thereof. With an Appendix, containing in Latine, Libellum de situ & nobilitate Londini: written by William Fitzstephen, in the raigne of Henry the second. Ed. Janelle Jenstad and the MoEML Team. MoEML. Transcribed. Web.
-
-
Martin D. Holmes
MDH
Programmer at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC). Martin ported the MOL project from its original PHP incarnation to a pure eXist database implementation in the fall of 2011. Since then, he has been lead programmer on the project and has also been responsible for maintaining the project schemas. He was a co-applicant on MoEML’s 2012 SSHRC Insight Grant.Roles played in the project
-
Abstract Author
-
Author
-
Author of abstract
-
Conceptor
-
Editor
-
Encoder
-
Markup editor
-
Name Encoder
-
Post-conversion and Markup Editor
-
Post-conversion processing and markup correction
-
Programmer
-
Proofreader
-
Researcher
Contributions by this author
Martin D. Holmes is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Martin D. Holmes is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
Dominic Carlone
DC
Hypertext student at the University of Windsor in Fall 1999. Shakespeare student at the University of Windsor in Winter 2000. Dominic Carlone was one of the three students who created the first version of MoEML in 1999.Roles played in the project
-
Author
Contributions by this author
Dominic Carlone is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Dominic Carlone is mentioned in the following documents:
-
-
John Donne is mentioned in the following documents:
John Donne authored or edited the following items in MoEML’s bibliography:
-
Donne, John.
A Tale of a Citizen and his Wife.
John Donne: The Elegies and the Songs and Sonnets. Ed. Helen Gardner. Oxford: Clarendon, 1965. Print.
-
James VI and I
James This numeral is a Roman numeral. The Arabic equivalent is 6VI This numeral is a Roman numeral. The Arabic equivalent is 1I King of Scotland King of England King of Ireland
(b. 1566, d. 1625)James VI and I is mentioned in the following documents:
James VI and I authored or edited the following items in MoEML’s bibliography:
-
James VI and I. Letters of King James VI and I. Ed. G.P.V. Akrigg. Berkeley: U of California P, 1984. Print.
-
Rhodes, Neill, Jennifer Richards, and Joseph Marshall, eds. King James VI and I: Selected Writings. By James VI and I. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.
Locations
-
St. Paul’s Cathedral
St. Paul’s Cathedral was—and remains—an important church in London. In 962, while London was occupied by the Danes, St. Paul’s monastery was burnt and raised anew. The church survived the Norman conquest of 1066, but in 1087 it was burnt again. An ambitious Bishop named Maurice took the opportunity to build a new St. Paul’s, even petitioning the king to offer a piece of land belonging to one of his castles (Times 115). The building Maurice initiated would become the cathedral of St. Paul’s which survived until the Great Fire of London.St. Paul’s Cathedral is mentioned in the following documents:
-
Newgate Market is mentioned in the following documents: