The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume I.Cibber, Theophilus
General
The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume I.
Cibber, Theophilus
Poets, English -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Poets, Irish -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
His character as a preacher and a poet are sufficiently seen in his
incomparable writings. His personal qualifications were as eminent as
those of his mind; he was by nature exceeding passionate, but was apt
to be sorry for the excesses of it, and like most other passionate
men, was humane and benevolent. His monument was composed of white
marble, and carved from the picture just now mentioned of him, by
order of his executor Dr. King, bishop of Chichester, who wrote the
following inscription,
Johannes Donne, S.T.P.
Post varia studia, quibus ab annis tenerimus fideliter,
Neo infeliciter, incubit,
Instinctu et impulsu spiritus sancti, monitu et horatu,
Regis Jacobi, ordines sacros amplexus,
Anno sui Jesu 1614, et fuæ ætatis 42,
Decanatu hujus ecclesiæ indutus 27 Novembris 1621,
Exutus morte ultimo die Martii 1631.
Hic, licet in occiduo cinere, aspicit eum,
Cujus nomen est oriens.
Our author's poems consist of, 1. Songs and Sonnets. 2. Epigrams. 3.
Elegies. 4. Epithalamiums, or Marriage Songs. 5. Satires. 6. Letters
to several Personages. 7. Funeral Elegies. 8. Holy Sonnets. They
are printed together in one volume 12mo. 1719, with the addition
of elegies upon the author by several persons. Mr. Dryden in his
dedication of Juvenal to the earl of Dorset, has given Dr. Donne the
character of the greatest wit, though not the greatest poet of our
nation, and wishes his satires and other works were rendered into
modern language. Part of this wish the world has seen happily executed
by the great hand of Mr. Pope. Besides the Pseudo-Martyr, and volume
of poems now mentioned, there are extant the following works of Dr.
Donne, viz.
Devotions upon emergent Occasions, and several steps in sickness, 4to.
London 16. Paradoxes, Problems, Essays, Characters, &c. to which is
added a Book of Epigrams, written in Latin by the same author, and
translated into English by Dr. Main, as also Ignatius his conclave, a
Satire, translated out of the original copy written in Latin by the
same author, found lately amongst his own papers, 12mo. London 1653.
These pieces are dedicated by the author's son, Dr. John Donne, to
Francis Lord Newport.
Three Volumes of Sermons, in folio; the first printed in 1640, the
second in 1649, and the third in 1660.
Essays on Divinity, being several disquisitions interwoven with
meditations and prayers before he went into holy orders, published
after his death by his son, 1651.
Letters to several persons of honour, published in 4to. 1654. There
are several of Dr. Donne's letters, and others to him from the Queen
of Bohemia, the earl of Carlisle, archbishop Abbot, and Ben Johnson,
printed in a book, entitled A Collection of Letters made by Sir Toby
Mathews Knt. London 1660, 8vo.
The Ancient history of the Septuagint, translated from the Greek
of Aristeus, London 1633, 4to. This translation was revised, and
corrected by another hand, and printed 1685 in 8vo.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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