thoughts of his heart, endeavoured firft to prevent, and after to compofe the difcords of that difcompofed ftate; and amongst other his endeavours, did then fend the Lord Hay', Earl of Doncafter, his Ambaffador to thofe unfettled princes; and by a fpecial command from his majefly, Dr. Donne was appointed to affift and attend that employment to the princes of the Union; for which the earl was moft glad, who had always put a great value on him, and taken a great pleasure in his converfation and difcourfe: And his friends of Lincoln's Inn were as glad; for they feared that his immoderate study, and fadnefs for his wife's death, would, as Jacob said, "Make his days few," and respecting his bodily health, "evil" too; and of this there were many vifible figns.

At his going" he left his friends of Lincoln's Inn, and they him with many reluctations; for though he could not fay as St. Paul to his Ephefians, "Behold you to whom I have preached the kingdom of God fhall from "henceforth fee my face no more;" yet, he believing himself to be in a confumption questioned, and they feared it; all concluding that his troubled mind, with the help of his unintermitted ftudies, haftened the decays of his weak body: But God, who is the God of all wifdom and goodness, turned it to the beft; for this employment (to fay nothing of the event of it) did not only divert him from those too ferious ftudies and fad thoughts, but feemed to give him a new life, by a true occafion of joy, to be an eyewitnefs of the health of his moft dear and most honoured miftrefs, the O2 Queen

of peace." Yet, notwithstanding his well-known pacific difpofition, the adulation of a Scotch poet (Alexander Boyde) hath compared him to Minerva for his wifdom, and to "Mars for his warlike qualities."

Primus in orbe Deus, qui jungis Pallada Marti,

Et facis ut titulis cedat uterque tuis.

Of whom fee Lord Clarendon's Hiftory of the Rebellion, vol. I. p. 61, 8vo edit. 1705.

"He thus mentions his journey in a Latin letter to Sir Henry Goodyere. "Elucefcit mihi "nova nec inopportuna nec inutilis (paulo quam optaram fortaflis magis inhonora) occafio "extera vifendi regna, liberofque perquam amantiffimæ conjugis pignora cæteraque hujus "auræ oblectamenta aliquot ad annos relinquendi." Upon this occafion he preached a Sermon of valediction at Lincoln's Inn, April 18, 1619, from whence an extract is inferted in a preceding note.

Queen of Bohemia, in a foreign nation, and to be a witnefs of that gladness which she expreffed to fee him: Who, having formerly known him a courtier, was much joyed to fee him in a canonical habit, and more glad to be an ear-witness of his excellent and powerful preaching. About fourteen months after his departure out of England, he returned to his friends of Lincoln's Inn, with his forrows moderated and his health improved, and there betook himfelf to his conftant courfe of preaching.

About a year after his return out of Germany, Dr. Carey was made Bishop of Exeter, and by his removal the deanery of St. Paul's being vacant, the king fent to Dr. Donne, and appointed him to attend him at dinner the next day. When his majefty was fat down, before he had eat any meat, he faid after his pleasant manner, "Dr. Donne, I have invited you to dinner, and though you fit not down with me, yet I will carve to you of a dish that I know you love well; for knowing you love London, I do therefore make you Dean of Paul's; and when I have "dined, then do you take your beloved dish home to your study, fay 66 grace there to yourself, and much good may it do you."

Immediately

This unfortunate princess from her amiable and engaging manners was called "The Queen of Hearts."-" God hath now at last cast her into an ocean of calamities, in which she "ftill remains a floating example to other princes of the inftability of fortune, as fhe did in “her prosperity, of civility and goodness." (Osborne.)-In Dr. Donne's Poems is an epithalamium or marriage-fong on the Lady Elizabeth and Count Palatine being married on St. Valentine's Day, beginning thus:

"Hail Bishop Valentine, whofe day is this,

"All the aire is thy diocis,

"And all the chirping choristers

"And other birds are thy parishioners,

"Thou marryest every yeare

"The lirique larke, and the grave whispering dove,

"The fparrow that neglects his life for love,

"The household bird, with the red ftomacher.

Valentine Carey, Mafter of Chrift's College in Cambridge, and Dean of St. Paul's, is faid to have been born in Northumberland. He was confecrated Bishop of Exeter, Nov. 20, 1620, and having well governed this church about fix years, he died June 10, 1626.

Immediately after he came to his deanery, he employed workmen to repair and beautify the chapel, fuffering, as holy David once vowed, "His eyes and temples to take no reft till he had firft beautified the house of "God."

66

The next quarter following, when his father-in-law, Sir George Moor (whom time had made a lover and admirer of him) came to pay to him the conditioned fum of twenty pounds, he refused to receive it, and faid, as good Jacob did, when he heard his beloved fon Jofeph was alive, "It is enough; you have been kind to me and mine; I know your prefent con"dition is fuch as not to abound, and I hope mine is or will be fuch as "not to need it; I will therefore receive no more from you upon that con"tract," and in teftimony of it freely gave him up his bond.

Immediately after his admiffion into his deanery, the vicarage of St. Dunstan in the Weft", London, fell to him by the death of Dr. White, the advowfon of it having been given to him long before by his honourable friend, Richard Earl of Dorfet", then the patron, and confirmed

z Ifaac Walton, our biographer, was an inhabitant of this parish, and thus became intimately acquainted with Dr. Donne.

a Dr. Thomas White, much admired as a preacher, died March 1, 1623, and was buried in his chancel of the church of St. Dunstan in the Weft. Having founded a lecture in moral philofophy at Oxford, and being alfo diftinguished for many other charitable benefactions, the heads of the univerfity directed an oration to be publicly delivered, on occafion of his death, by William Price, the first reader of that lecture. This oration, with feveral copies of verses written upon the fame subject, was printed under the title of "Schola moralis "Philofophiæ Oxon. in funere Whiti pullata. Oxon. 1624," 4to. (Wood's Ath. Ox.)

Principibus placuiffe viris non ultima laus eft."

HOR.

The character of this nobleman, Richard (Sackville) Earl of Dorfet, the friend and patron of Dr. Donne, is thus delineated by the pen of his lady, Anne, daughter and heir of George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, in the manufcript which fhe has left, containing the hiftory of her life. “He was," fays fle," in his own nature of a juft mind, of a sweet difpofition, ❝ and very valiant in his own perfon: He had a great advantage in his breeding by the wif"dom and difcretion of his grandfather, Thomas Earl of Dorfet, Lord High Treasurer of "England, who was then held one of the wifeft men of that time; by which means he was

"fo

confirmed by his brother, the late deceased Edward, both of them men of much honour.

By these, and another ecclefiaftical endowment which fell to him about the fame time, given to him formerly by the Earl of Kent, he was enabled to become charitable to the poor and kind to his friends, and to make fuch provifion for his children, that they were not left fcandalous, as relating to their or his profeffion and quality.

The next parliament, which was within that prefent year, he was chosen Prolocutor to the Convocation, and about that time was appointed by his majesty, his most gracious master, to preach very many occafional fermons, as at St. Paul's Crofs and other places; all which employments he performed to the admiration of the reprefentative body of the whole clergy of this nation.

He

"fo good a fcholar in all manner of learning, that in his youth when he lived in the univer"fity of Oxford, there was none of the young nobility then students there, that excelled him. "He was alfo a good patriot to his country, and generally well beloved in it, much esteemed "in all the parliaments that fat in his time; and fo great a lover of scholars and foldiers, as "that with an exceffive bounty towards them, or indeed any of worth that were in distress, "he did much diminish his eftate: As alio, with exceffive prodigality in houfe-keeping "and other noble ways at court, as tilting, malking, and the like; Prince Henry being "then alive, who was much addicted to thofe noble exercifes, and of whom he was much "beloved." (Collins's Peerage, vol. II. p. 194, 195.)

This nobleman, Edward (Sackville) Earl of Dorfet, was entrusted with the command of the English forces which were fent to the affiftance of the King of Bohemia in 1620; and in the next year was appointed Ambaffador to the court of France. Of the melancholy cataftrophe of a duel with his intimate friend Lord Bruce, fee the Guardians, No. 129, 133. During the civil wars he diftinguithed himfelf by his loyalty to Charles I. with whofe death. he was fo deeply affected, that after that event he never went out of his own houfe. He died July 17, 1652.

On this occafion he fpoke a Latin oration as his inauguration fpeech, which is extant in his "Poems, &c. 8vo, London, 1719." Dr. Jofeph Hall preached the Latin fermon on the opening of this Convocation, which was held in 1624, and in which large fubfidies were granted by the clergy to the king.

He was once, and but once, clouded with the king's difpleasure, and it was about this time; which was occafioned by fome malicious whisperer, who had told his majesty that Dr. Donne had put on the general humour of the pulpits, and was become bufy in infinuating a fear of the king's inclining to Popery, and a dislike of his government, and particularly for the king's then turning the Evening Lectures into catechifing, and expounding the Prayer of our Lord, and of the Belief and Commandments. His majefty was the more inclineable to believe this, for that a person of nobility and great note, betwixt whom and Dr. Donne there had been a great friendship, was at this very time difcarded the court (I fhall forbear his name unless I had a fairer occafion), and justly committed to prifon, which begot many rumours in the common people, who in this nation think they are not wife unless they be bufy about what they understand not, and especially about religion.

The king received this news with fo much difcontent and restleffness, that he would not fuffer the fun to fet and leave him under this doubt, but fent for Dr. Donne, and required his answer to the accufation, which was fo clear and fatisfactory, that the king faid "He was right glad he "refted no longer under the fufpicion." When the king had said this, Dr. Donne kneeled down and thanked his majefty, and protefted his anfwer was faithful and free from all collufion, and therefore "defired that "he might not rife, till, as in like cafes he always had from God, fo he "might have from his majefty, fome affurance that he ftood clear and fair "in his opinion." At which the king raised him from his knees with his own hands, and "protefted he believed him, and that he knew he was an "honeft man, and doubted not but that he loved him truly." And having thus difmiffed him, he called fome lords of his council into his chamber, and faid with much earnestnefs "My Doctor is an honeft man; and my lords, I was never better fatisfied with an answer than he hath new "made me; and I always rejoice when I think that by my means he be"came a divine."

He was made dean in the fiftieth year of his age, and in his fifty-fourth year a dangerous fickness feized him, which inclined him to a confumption. But God, as Job thankfully acknowledged, preferved his fpirit, and

kept