- Apr 2024
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In 1622, the famous poetand clergyman John Donne wrote of Virginia in this fashion, describing thenew colony as the nation’s spleen and liver, draining the “ill humours of thebody . . . to breed good bloud.”
By fascinating contrast, Donne was frequently underemployed, and perhaps a bit desperate just a decade and change prior and had applied for a job in Virginia
The years between 1607 and 1610 are biographically murky. The letters are hard to date and hard to decipher, and the best historical records we have are of jobs that didn’t happen. He failed to get a position in the Queen’s household in 1607, and there are references in the letters to his application to jobs in Ireland or, even more remotely, Virginia, but neither came to anything, if they were ever serious prospects to begin with. It’s equally likely that they were an attempt on his part to look industrious, both to his friends and to himself; neither Ireland nor Virginia were at all desirable places at the time.
quote via: Rundell, Katherine. Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022. with excerpt linked at https://hypothes.is/a/M3Ma0PXdEe6Lk-doNS30CQ
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The years between 1607 and 1610 are biographically murky. Theletters are hard to date and hard to decipher, and the best historicalrecords we have are of jobs that didn’t happen. He failed to get aposition in the Queen’s household in 1607, and there are referencesin the letters to his application to jobs in Ireland or, even moreremotely, Virginia, but neither came to anything, if they were everserious prospects to begin with. It’s equally likely that they were anattempt on his part to look industrious, both to his friends and tohimself; neither Ireland nor Virginia were at all desirable places atthe time.
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Rundell, Katherine. Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022.
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quod.lib.umich.edu quod.lib.umich.edu
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Donne, John. A Sermon Vpon the Eighth Verse of the First Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles: Preached to the Honourable Company of the Virginian Plantation, 13. Nouemb. 1622. By Iohn Donne Deane of Saint Pauls, London. 1622. Reprint, London: printed [by Bernard Alsop] for Thomas Iones, 1624. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A73849.0001.001?view=toc.
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