The Folger Shakespeare Library

L.b.540: Letter from John Donne, Chelsea, to Sir Henry Wotton, 1625 July 12: autograph manuscript signed

Catalog record:http://hamnet.folger.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=244741
Collection:Papers of the More family of Loseley Park, Surrey
Preferred Citation:Letter from John Donne, Chelsea, to Sir Henry Wotton, 1625 July 12: autograph manuscript signed, Papers of the More family of Loseley Park, Surrey. Transcription by Early Modern Manuscripts Online (EMMO). MS L.b.540, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC.
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leaf 1 recto



Sir
This is your Quietus est from me; It is your assurance that
I will never trouble you more, about any place in your College;
But this Quietus est must bear date from the end of this
letter; for in the letter, I must make a suite of that kind,
to you: In which, I know you will give a good interpretation of mine
ingenuity, that I would not forbear even the troubling of you, when
I had a way presented me, to do any service to that noble family, to
whom I owe, even my posterity. Sir, At your last Election, Sir Robert
More (to whom I have the honor to be brother-in-law) had a son
elected into your school, and his place is not fallen, and so our hopes
evacuated, that way. Because it was my work at first, I would
feign perfect it; and I am in the right way of perfecting it, when
I address myself to you, who have a perfect power in the business,
and have multiplied demonstrations of a perfect love to me. That
which was then done, was done by way of wa gratitude, by Mr Woodford,
one of the then opposers, to whom I had given a Church, belonging
to our Paul's: And for the favor which you shall be pleased to
afford us herein, I offer you mother and daughters, all the service
that I shall be able to do, to any servant of yours, in any place, of any
of our Churches. Our most Blessed savior, bless you with all his graces, and
restore us to a confident meeting in wholesomer places, and direct us all,
by good ways to good ends. Amen.

your very true friend and
humble servant in Christ Jesus
John Donne
from Sir John Danvers' house at Chelsea,
of whose house, and my Lord Carlisle's at Hanworth,
I make up my Tusculan. 12 July. 1625


This Man Dr. Donne Married one of Sir George More's daughters against
his consent

leaf 1 verso

leaf 2 recto

leaf 2 verso

To the Honorable knight, and
my most Honored friend
Sir Henry Wotton provost
of Eton.