Other People's Mail | John Donne

Who doesn’t like the occasional dip into someone else’s personal correspondence? The Folger’s collection of 16^th and 17^th century letters gets us up close and personal with some of the period’s most famous and infamous people, as well as with long forgotten men and women. Their letters are small smudgy windows into 400-year-old bedrooms and offices, offering us glimpses into the lives of real people as they navigate the uncertainties of life and matters of the heart. As you read an old letter, you can almost imagine the writer sitting at a desk staring at a piece of paper, repeatedly dipping their quill pen into an inkpot, signing their name, waiting for the ink to dry, folding the letter into a packet, addressing it, sealing it closed with melted red wax, and handing it off to a bearer or letter carrier. And then waiting for a reply.

This is the beginning of an occasional series on juicy letters from the Folger vault. Each letter is part of a bigger story with enough drama to form an epistolary novel or Shakespearean play. They are just a taste of the real-life drama, passion, fear, vulnerability, and joy that lie within our collection.

What’s done is done  |  John Donne apologizes to his angry father-in-law for secretly marrying his daughter

TODAY WE KNOW JOHN DONNE AS A FAMOUS POET AND DIVINE, BUT IN THE 17TH CENTURY HE WAS ALSO CELEBRATED AS A LETTERWRITER. It is not surprising, then, that after Donne and Anne More secretly married in December 1601, he broke the news to his new father-in-law, Sir George More, in a letter (Folger MS L.b.526). The letter was delivered by Henry Percy, 9th earl of Northumberland, a wealthy and powerful nobleman who may have been one of the unnamed handful of people who attended the wedding. Donne’s first biographer, Izaak Walton, reports More’s reaction: “This news was to Sir George so immeasurably unwelcome, and so transported him as though his passion of anger and consideration might exceed theirs of love and error.” More tried to annul the union, convinced Donne’s employer/Anne’s uncle Sir Thomas Egerton to fire him, and had Donne thrown into prison. A popular punning quip at the time was “John Donne, Anne Donne, Un-done.” Despite the initial fall-out and years of financial hardship, John and Anne’s marriage lasted for over 15 years. She died in 1617, shortly after giving birth to their twelfth child. Donne was devastated and never remarried.

In this letter and in Donne’s seven other “apology” letters written during a 4-week period to More and to Egerton, he signs his name in the bottom right corner of the page. This was a common way for letterwriters to display deep humility, penance, and respect. Donne wrote to his father about 2 months after the marriage took place, on February 2, 1602. The location of the signature is at odds with the tone of the letter itself, which is a strange combination of forgiveness-seeking and defiance. In the excerpt below, he explains why they kept the marriage a secret from More and pleads with him to spare Anne from his rage. You can view the images and transcription in original and modernized spellings here.

At her lying in town this last parliament, I found means to see her twice or thrice: we both knew the obligations that lay upon us, and we adventured equally, and about three weeks before Christmas we married… The reasons, why I did not foreacquaint you with it, (to deal with the same plainness that I have used) were these. I knew my present estate less then fit for her; I knew, (yet I knew not why) that I stood not right in your Opinion: I knew that to have given any intimation of it had been to impossibilitate the whole Matter. And then having those honest purposes in our hearts, and those fetters in our Consciences, me thinks we should be pardoned, if our fault be but this, that we did not by fore-revealing of it, consent to our hindrance and torment. Sir, I acknowledge my fault to be so great, as I dare scarce offer any other prayer to you in mine own behalf, then this, to believe this truth, that I neither had dishonest end nor means. But for her, whom I tender much more, then my fortunes, or life (else I would I might neither joy in this life, nor enjoy the next) I humbly beg of you, that she may not, to her danger, feel the terror of your sudden anger. I know this letter shall find you full of passion: but I know no passion can alter your reason and wisdom; to which I adventure to commend these particulars; That it is irremediably done; That if you incense my Lord [Donne’s employer], you destroy her and me; That it is easy to give us happiness; And that my Endeavours and industry, if it please you to prosper them, may soon make me somewhat worthier of her.

The spelling is modernized in this quote so it is hard to catch the pun on his name. As he tries to convince his father-in-law to accept the fact of their marriage and not try to undo it, he explains, rather cheekily: “yt ys irremediably donne.” Also, note Donne’s use of the word “impossibilitate,” which predates the first cited usage in the Oxford English Dictionary by 31 years!