DONNE (John, D. D., English poet and theologian), 1573-1631. "_I were miserable, if I might not die._" Some say his last words were: "I repent of my life except that part of it which I spent in communion with God, and in doing good." Others say his last words were, "Thy will be done." Dr. Donne was formerly Dean of St. Paul's. Among other preparations for his death, he ordered an urn to be cut in wood, on which was to be placed a board of the exact height of his body. He then caused himself to be tied up in a winding-sheet. Thus shrouded, and standing with his eyes shut, and with just so much of the sheet put aside as might discover his death-like face, he caused his portrait to be taken, which, when finished, was placed near his bedside, and there remained to the hour of his death. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, where a monument was erected over him, composed of white marble, and carved from the above-mentioned picture, by order of his dearest friend and executor, Dr. King, Bishop of Chichester.[17] [17] Charles V., of Spain, seems to have entertained the same morbid desire for a personal acquaintance with his own _postmortem_ appearance and condition. In Robertson's History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V. we have this account of the monarch's attendance upon his own funeral: "He resolved to celebrate his own obsequies before his death. He ordered his tomb to be erected in the chapel of the monastery. His domestics marched thither in funeral procession, with black tapers in their hands. He himself followed in his shroud. He was laid in his coffin with much solemnity. The service for the dead was chanted, and Charles joined in the prayers which were offered up for the rest of his soul, mingling his tears with those which his attendants shed, as if they had been celebrating a real funeral. The ceremony closed with sprinkling holy water on the coffin in the usual form, and all the assistants retiring, the doors of the chapel were shut. Then Charles rose out of the coffin, and withdrew to his apartment, full of those awful sentiments which such a singular solemnity was calculated to inspire." This story is somewhat changed in Stirling's "Cloister Life of the Emperor Charles V." If I must die, I'll snatch at every thing That may but mind me of my latest breath; Death's-heads, Graves, Knells, Blacks, Tombs, all these shall bring Into my soul such useful thoughts of death, That this sable king of fears Shall not catch me unawares.--_Quarles._ DORNEY (Henry, a man of peculiarly beautiful life and religious experience. His "Contemplations and Letters," published after his death, had a large circulation), 1613-1683. "_I am almost dead; lift me up a little higher_," to his wife.