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Donne and the Court of Wards. (John Donne)

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From: ANQ
Date: 19940701
Author:Hester, M. Thomas

John Donne's comparison of the misguided efforts of some English Reform Protestants to the Court of Wards in 'Satyre III' was part of an on-going effort to resist the intrusion of politics into personal spiritual matters. Donne had ideological and personal reasons to oppose the Court of Wards. His equation of Protestantism, guardianship and prostitution reveals his opinion. A letter written by Anne Brooke to Robert Cecil on May 30, 1599, provides evidence of Donne's personal involvement against the Court of Wards.

In Satyre III, a sardonic attack on the failures of "true religion" in late ...

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