,
which brought on a consumption; notwithstanding which he returned
to London, and preached in his turn at court as usual, on the first
friday in Lent. He died on the 31st day of March 1631, and was buried
in the cathedral church of St. Paul's, where a monument was erected
over him. Walton says that amongst other preparations for death, he
made use of this very remarkable one. He ordered an urn to be cut in
wood, on which was to be placed a board of the exact heighth of his
body: this being done, he caused himself to be tied up in a winding
sheet in the same manner that dead bodies are. Being thus shrouded,
and standing with his eyes shut, and with just so much of the sheet
put aside, as might discover his thin, pale, and death-like face,
he caused a skilful painter to draw his picture. This piece being
finished, was placed near his bed-side, and there remained as his
constant remembrance to the hour of his death.

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 fuae aetatis 42,
Decanatu hujus ecclesiae 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
b