Sir Thomas Browne / by Edmund Gosse.

  • Edmund Gosse
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sir Thomas Browne / by Edmund Gosse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    31/232 page 19
    St. Paul’s. In a spirit of great indulgence the youthful poet tells the ghost of Donne that he feels no inclination to blame or wonder “at this strange fire That here is mingled with thy sacrifice, But dare read even thy wanton story As thy confession, not thy glory.” The ingenuity of excuse, and the moderation which hates to find fault, seem characteristic of the author of freligio Medici. ‘These lines, which have as much or as little merit as Browne’s customary efforts at poetry, were omitted in later editions of Donne, no doubt because it was held indiscreet to draw such particular attention to the divine’s “‘ poems of the looser sort.” It was now, perhaps, that Browne practised physic for a while in Oxfordshire ; but we find him presently a resident of Halifax in Yorkshire. Bentley, writing during the life-time of Dr. Edward Browne, says that his father “fixed himself in this populous and rich trading place, wherein to show his skill and gain respect in the world: and that during his residence amongst us, and in his vacant hours, he writ his admired piece,” Seligio Medici. Other accounts add the information that the famous treatise was composed at Shipden Hall, a house near Halifax. The entire absence of documents at this period of Browne’s career is much to be lamented, since, when his private corre- spondence begins to be preserved, some fifteen years later, we find him still keeping up old friendships in Halifax. We are, however, able to fix with reasonable exactitude the date at which the Religio Medict was written. The preface “To the Reader,” prefixed to
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