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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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John Donne
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(1572–1631) Poet and preacher whose reputation has soared in the 20C, as leader of the *Metaphysical poets and as a master of rhetorical prose. His early life, as a law student in London, was fashionable and frivolous (he was described as 'a great visitor of Ladies, a great writer of conceited Verses'). The verses were conceited in the sense of being full of literary conceits, sometimes ironic, often erotic. He was ordained in 1615 (born a Roman Catholic, he became an Anglican in his twenties) and the same intelligent and passionate ingenuity was then adapted to sacred verse (the proud challenge of 'Death, thou shalt die', for example).
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In 1621 be became dean of St Paul's and during the next ten years preached many sermons in or outside the cathedral and at court. His most famous passage of prose, frequently read now in church, comes from a book (Devotions 1624) which he wrote during a serious illness. It involves each of us in the death of all: 'No man is an island, entire of itself; ...and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.'
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