to Sir _George Moor_, Chancellor of the
Garter, and Lieutenant of the Tower, who greatly opposed this Match;
yet notwithstanding they were privately married: which so exasperated
Sir _George Moor_, that he procured the Lord _Elsmore_ to discharge him
of his Secretariship, and never left prosecuting him till he had cast
him into Prison, as also his two Friends who had married him, and gave
him his Wife in Marriage.

But Mr._Donne_ had not been long there before he found means to get
out, as also enlargement for his two Friends, and soon after through
the mediation of some able persons, a reconciliation was made, and he
receiving a Portion with his Wife, and having help of divers friends,
they lived very comfortably together; And now was he frequently visited
by men of greatest learning and judgment in this Kingdom; his company
desired by the Nobility, and extreamly affected by the Gentry: His
friendship was sought for of most foreign Embassadors, and his
acquaintance entreated by many other strangers, whose learning or
employment occasioned their stay in this _Kingdom_. In which state of
life he composed his _more brisk_ and _youthful Poems_; in which
he was so happy, as if Nature with all her varieties had been made to
exercise his _great Wit_ and _Fancy_; Nor did he leave it off in his
_old age_, as is witnessed by many of his _divine Sonnets_, and other
_high, holy_ and _harmonious Composures_, under his _Effigies_ in these
following Verses to his Printed Poems, one most ingeniously expresses.

_This was for youth, strength, mirth, and wit, the time
Most count their golden age, but 'twas not thine:
Thine was thy later years, so much refin'd,
From youths dross, mirth, and wit, as thy pure mind,
Thought, like the Angels, nothing but the praise
Of thy Creator in those last best days.
Witness this Book, thy Emblem, which begins
With love, but ends with sighs and tears for sins_.

At last, by King _James's_ his command, or rather earnest persuasion,
setting himself to the study of _Theology_, and into _holy Orders_, he
was first made a Preacher of _Lincoln's-Inn_, afterwards advanc'd to be
Dean of _Pauls_, and as of an eminent Poet he became a much more
eminent Preacher, so he rather improved then relinquisht his Poetical
fancy, only con converting it from _humane and worldly_ to _divine and
heavenly Subjects_; witness this Hymn made in the time of his sickness.

_A Hymn to God the Father_.

W