from whom I had a Letter of command to have Preached the fifth of November Sermon to the King A service which I would not have declined if I could have conceived any hope of standing it I beseech you intreat my Lord Percy in my behalfe that he will be pleased to name George to my L. Carlile and to wonder if not to inquire where he is The world is disposed to charge my Lords honour and to charge my naturall affection with neglecting him and God knowes I know not which way to turn towards him nor upon any message of mine when I send to kisse my Lords hands doth my Lord make any kinde of mention of him For the Diamond Lady when time serves I pray look to it for I would fain be discharged of it And for the rest let them be but remembred how long it hath been in my hands and then leave it to their discretion If they incline to any thing I should chuse shirt Hollond rather under then above 4 s. Our blessed Saviour multiply his blessings upon that noble family where you are and your self and your sonne as upon all them that are derived from Your poor friend and servant J. Donne To my very much respected friend M r George Garrard SIR I Thank you for expressing your love to me by this diligence I know you can distinguish between the voyces of my love and of my necessity if any thing in my Letters sound like an importunity Besides I will adde thus much out of counsell to you that you can do nothing so thriftily as to keep in your purpose the payment of the rest of this years rent though at your conveniency for Sir E H. curiosity being so served at first I shall be no farther cause but that the rest be related and you in as good possession of his love and to as good use as your love deserves of him You mocke us when you aske news from hence All is created there or relates thither where you are For that book which you command me to send I held it but half an hour which served me to read those few leafes which were directed upon some few lines of my book If you come to town quickly you may get a fair widow for M ris Brown is fallen to that state by death of her husband No man desires your comming more nor shall be readier to serve you then Your affectionate friend and servant J. Donne To my Honoured friend M. George Gherard over against Salisbury house SIR I Do not make account that I am come to London when I get within the wall that which makes it London is the meeting of friends I cannot therefore otherwise bid my self welcome to London then by seeking of you which both Sir H. Goodere and I do with so much diligence as that this messenger comes two dayes before to intreat you from us both to reserve your self upon Saterday so that I may at our coming to London that night understand at my house where I may send you word of our supping place that night and have the honour of your company So you lay more obligations upon Your poor unprofitable servant J. Donne To my very much Honoured friend George Garret Esquire SIR VVHen we thinke of a friend we do not count that a lost thought though that friend never knew of it If we write to a friend we must not call it a lost Letter though it never finde him to whom it was addressed for we owe our selves that office to be mindefull of our friends In payment of that debt I send out this Letter as a Sentinell Perdue if it finde you it comes to tell you that I was possessed with a Fever so late in the year that I am afraid I shall not recover confidence to come to London till the spring be a little advanced Because you did our poor family the favour to mention our George in your Letters to Spain with some earnestnesse I should wonder if you never had any thing from thence concerning him he having been now divers moneths in Spaine If you be in London and the Lady of the Jewell there too at your conveniency informe me what is looked for at my hands in that businesse for I would be loath to leave any thing in my house when I die that were not absolutely mine own I have a servant Roper at Pauls house who will receive your commandments at all times God blesse you and your sonne with the same blessings which I begge for the children and for the person of Your poor friend and humble servant in Chr. Jes. J. Donne To the Honourable Knight Sir Robert Karre Gentleman of his Highnesses Bed-chamber SIR I Am come to that tendernesse of conscience that I need a pardon for meaning to come to Newmarket in this weather If I had come I must have asked you many reall pardons for the many importunities that I should have used towards you But since I have divers errands thither except I belie my self in that phrase since it is all one errand to promove mine own business and to receive your commands I shall give you but a short respit since I shall follow this paper within two dayes And that I accuse my self no farther then I am guilty the principall reason of my breaking the appointment of waiting upon M. Rawlins was that I understood the King was from Newmarket and for comming thither in the Kings absence I never heard of excuse except when Butler sends a desperate Patient in a Consumption thither for good aire which is an ill errand now Besides that I could not well come till now for there are very few dayes past since I took Orders there can be no losse in my absence except when I come my Lord should have thereby the lesse latitude to procure the Kings Letters to Cambridge I beseech you therefore take some occasion to refresh that businesse to his Lordship by presenting my name and purpose of comming very shortly and be content to receive me who have been ever your servant to the addition of Your poor Chaplaine J. Donne 27 January To the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount of Rochester My most Honourable good Lord AFter I was grown to be your Lordships by all the titles that I could thinke upon it hath pleased your Lordship to make another title to me by buying me You may have many better bargaines in your purchases but never a better title then to me nor any thing which you may call yours more absolutely and intirely If therefore I appeare before your Lordship sometimes in these Letters of thankfulnesse it may be an excusable boldnesse because they are part of your evidences by which you hold me I know there may be degrees of importunity even in thankfulnesse but your Lordship is got above the danger of suffering that from me or my Letters both because my thankfulnesse cannot reach to the benefits already received and because the favour of
receiving my Letters is a new benefit And since good Divines have made this argument against deniers of the Resurrection that it is easier for God to recollect the Principles and Elements of our bodies howsoever they be scattered then it was at first to create them of nothing I cannot doubt but that any distractions or diversions in the ways of my hopes will be easier to your Lordship to reunite then it was to create them Especially since you are already so near perfecting them that if it agreed with your Lordships purposes I should never wish other station then such as might make me still and onely Your Lordships Most humble and devoted servant J. Donne To the Hononrable Knight Sir Robert Karre SIR LEst you should think your selfe too much beholding to your fortune and so relie too much upon her hereafter I am bold to tell you that it is not onely your good fortune that hath preserved you from the importunity of my visits all this time For my ill fortune which is stronger then any mans good fortune hath concurred in the plot to keep us asunder by infecting one in my house with the Measels But all that is so safely overworne that I dare not onely desire to put my selfe into your presence but by your mediation a little farther For esteeming my selfe by so good a title as my Lords own words to be under his providence and care of my fortune I make it the best part of my studies how I might ease his Lordship by finding out something for my selfe Which because I thinke I have done as though I had done him a service therein I adventure to desire to speake with him which I beseech you to advance in addition to your many favours and benefits to me And if you have occasion to send any of your servants to this town to give me notice what times are fittest for me to waite to injoy your favour herein My businesse is of that nature that losse of time may make it much more difficult and may give courage to the ill fortune of Your humble servant J. Donne To your selfe SIR I Make shift to think that I promised you this book of French Satyrs If I did not yet it may have the grace of acceptation both as it is a very forward and early fruit since it comes before it was looked for and as it comes from a good root which is an importune desire to serve you Which since I saw from the beginning that I should never do in any great thing it is time to begin to try now whether by often doing little services I can come towards any equivalence For except I can make a rule of naturall philosophy serve also in morall offices that as the strongest bodies are made of the smallest particles so the strongest friendships may be made of often interating small officiousnesses I see I can be good for nothing Except you know reason to the contrary I pray deliver this Letter according to the addresse It hath no businesse nor importunity but as by our Law a man may be Felo de se if he kill himself so I think a man may be Fur de se if he steale himselfe out of the memory of them which are content to harbour him And now I begin to be loath to be lost since I have afforded my selfe some valuation and price ever since I received the stampe and impression of being Your very humble and affectionate servant J. Donne To the Honourable Knight Sir Robert Karre Gentleman of his Highnesses Bed chamber SIR I Have always your leave to use my liberty but now I must use my bondage Which is my necessity of obeying a precontract laid upon me I go to morrow to Camberwell a mile beyond Southwark But from this town goes with me my brother Sir Tho. Grimes and his Lady and I with them There we dine well enough I warrant you with his father-in-law Sir Tho. Hunt If I keep my whole promise I shall Preach both forenoon and afternoon But I will obey your commandments for my return If you cannot be there by 10 do not put your selfe upon the way for Sir you have done me more honour then I can be worthy of in missing me so diligently I can hope to hear M. Moulin again or ruminate what I have heretofore heard The onely misse that I shall have is of the honour of waiting upon you which is somewhat recompensed if thereby you take occasion of not putting not your self to that pain to be more assured of the inabilities of Your unworthy servant J. Donne To the Honourable Knight Sir Robert Karre SIR I Sought you yesterday with a purpose of accomplishing my health by the honour of kissing your hands But I finde by my going abroad that as the first Christians were forced to admit some Jewish Ceremonies onely to burie the Synagogue with honour so my Feaver will have so much reverence and respect as that I must keep sometimes at home I must therefore be bold to put you to the pain of considering me If therefore my Lord upon your deliverie of my last Letter said nothing to you of the purpose thereof let me tell you now that it was that in obedience of his commandment to acquaint him with any thing which might advantage me I was bold to present that which I heard which was that Sir D. Carlton was likely to bee removed from Venice to the States of which if my Lord said nothing to you I beseech you adde thus much to your many other Favours to intreate my Lord at his best commodity to afford mee the favour of speaking with him But if hee have already opened himselfe so farre to you as that you may take knowledge thereof to him then you may ease him of that trouble of giving mee an Audience by troubling your selfe thus much more as to tell him in my behalfe and from mee that though Sir D. Carlton bee not removed yet that place with the States lying open there is a faire field of exercising his favour towards mee and of constituting a Fortune to mee and that which is more of a meanes for mee to doe him particular services And Sir as I doe throughly submit the end and effect of all Projects to his Lordships will so doe I this beginning thereof to your Advice and Counsell if you thinke mee capable of it as for your owne sake I beseech you to doe since you have admitted mee for Your humble servant J. Donne To the Honoured Knight Sir Robert Karre SIR I Amend to no purpose nor have any use of this inchoation of health which I finde except I preserve my roome and station in you I beginne to bee past hope of dying And I feele that a little ragge of Monte Magor which I read last time I was in your Chamber hath wrought prophetically upon mee which is that Death came so fast towards mee that the over-joy of that recovered mee Sir I measure
not my health by my appetite but onely by my abilitie to come to kisse your hands which since I cannot hope in the compasse of a few dayes I beseech you pardon mee both these intrusions of this Letter and of that within it And though Schoole-men dispute whether a married man dying and being by Miracle raised again must bee remarried yet let your Friendship which is a Nobler learning bee content to admit mee after this Resurrection to bee still that which I was before and shall ever continue Your most humble and thankfull Servant J. Donne 20. Mar. To the Honourable Knight Sir Robert Karre SIR WHen I was almost at Court I met the Princes Coach I thinke I obeyed your purposes best therefore in comming hither I am sure I provided best for my selfe thereby since my best degree of understanding is to bee governed by you I beseech you give mee an assignation where I may wait upon you at your commoditie this Evening Till the performance of which commandment from you I rest here in the red Lion Your very thankefull and affectionate Servant J. Donne To the Honourable Knight Sir Robert Karre SIR I Was loth to bee the onely man who should have no part in this great Festivall I thought therefore to celebrate that well by spending some part of it in your company This made mee seek you againe this after-noone though I were guilty to my selfe of having done so every day since your comming I confesse such an importunity is worthy to be punished with such a missing yet because it is the likeliest reparation of my Fortunes to hope upon Reversions I would be glad of that Title in you that after solemnities and businesses and pleasures be passed over my time may come and you may afford some of your last leisures to Your affectionate and humble servant J. Donne 4 Novemb. To the Honourable Knight Sir ROBERT KARRE Sir YOur mans haste gives me the advantage that I am excusable in a short Letter else I should not pardon it to my selfe I shall obey your commandment of comming so neare you upon Michaelmas day as by a Message to aske you whether that or the next morning bee the fittest to sollicite your further Favour You understand all Vertue so well as you may be pleased to call to minde what thankefulnesse and services are due to you from me and beleeve them all to bee expressed in this ragge of Paper which gives you new assurance that I am ever Your most humble servant J. Donne To your selfe SIR IF I shall never be able to do you any reall service yet you may make this profit of me that you be hereafter more cautelous in receiving into your knowledge persons so uselesse and importune But before you come to so perfect a knowledge of me as to abandon me go forward in your favours to me so farre as to deliver this Letter according to the addresse I think I should not come nearer his presence then by a Letter and I am sure I would come no other way but by you Be you therefore pleased by these noble favours to me to continue in me the comfort which I have in being Your very humble and thankfull servant J. Donne Drury house 23 Sept. To the Right Honourable Sir Robert Karre SIR A Few hours after I had the honour of your Letter I had another from my Lord of Bath and Wells commanding from the King a Copy of my Sermon I am in preparations of that with diligence yet this morning I waited upon his Lordship and laid up in him this truth that of the B. of Canterburies Sermon to this hour I never heard syllable nor what way nor upon what points he went And for mine it was put into that very order in which I delivered it more then two moneths since Freely to you I say I would I were a little more guilty Onely mine innocency makes me afraid I hoped for the Kings approbation heretofore in many of my Sermons and I have had it But yesterday I came very near looking for thanks for in my life I was never in any one peece so studious of his service Therefore exceptions being taken and displeasure kindled at this I am afraid it was rather brought thither then met there If you know any more fit for me because I hold that unfit for me to appear in my Masters sight as long as this cloud hangs and therefore this day forbear my ordinary waitings I beseech you to intimate it to Your very humble and very thankfull servant J. Donne To the Right Honourable Sir Robert Karre at Court SIR I Humbly thanke you for this continuing me in your memory and enlarging me so far as to the memory of my Soveraign and I hope my Master My Tenets are always for the preservation of the Religion I was born in and the peace of the State and the rectifying of the Conscience in these I shall walke and as I have from you a new seal thereof in this Letter so I had ever evidence in mine own observation that these ways were truly as they are justly acceptable in his Majesties eare Our blessed Saviour multiply unto him all blessings Amen Your very true and intire servant in Chr. fes J. Donne To the Right Honourable Sir Robert Karre at Court SIR I Was this morning at your door somewhat early and I am put into such a distaste of my last Sermon as that I dare not practise any part of it and therefore though I said then that we are bound to speake aloud though we awaken men and make them froward yet after two or three modest knocks at the door I went away Yet I understood after the King was gone abroad and thought you might be gone with him I came to give you an account of that which this does as well I have now put into my Lord of Bath and Wells hands the Sermon faithfully exscrcibed I beseech you be pleased to hearken farther after it I am still upon my jealousie that the King brought thither some disasfection towards me grounded upon some other demerit of mine and took it not from the Sermon For as Card. Cusanus writ a Book Cribratio Alchorani I have cribrated and re-cribated and post-cribated the Sermon and must necessarily say the King who hath let fall his eye upon some of my Poems never saw of mine a hand or an eye or an affection set down with so much study and diligence and labour of syllables as in this Sermon I expressed those two points which I take so much to conduce to his service the imprinting of persuasibility and obedience in the subject And the breaking of the bed of whisperers by casting in a bone of making them suspect and distrust one another I remember I heard the old King say of a good Sermon that he thought the Preacher never had thought of his Sermon till he spoke it it seemed to him negligently and extemporally spoken And I knew that