John Donne

So I think we really need to look more into the microbiomes in whatever system we're studying to be able to understand how it impacts our favorite organism and its behavior.

There's the old John Donne poem that no man is an island.

And the same thing's true for microbes.

They do not exist in isolation.

John Mitchinson, what have you been reading?

I've been reading a marvellous biography of John Donne, the metaphysical poet and turned, obviously, Anglican priest, Dean of St. Paul's, by Catherine Rundell.

Catherine Rundell, former guest on the show.

It's called Super Infinite, The Transformations of John Donne.

It was published by Favour, I think, a couple of months ago.

And it's just marvelous.

And

who's it published by?

It goes...

It kind of harks back to some of the poetry of John Donne, the earlier poetry of John Donne.

It has that, that kind of brutal honesty about it, but it takes things even further.

It's, uh, yeah, it's hilarious.

McDonald's.

Satire 1 of John Donne's Satires This is a LibriVox recording.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

For more information, or to volunteer, please visit nigrivox.org. Recording by Thomas Copeland.

John Donne's Satires Satire 1 away thou fondling motley humorist leave me and in this standing wooden chest consorted with these few books let me lie in prison and here be coffin when i die here are god's conduits grave divines and here nature's secretary the philosopher and jolly statesman which teach how to tie the sinews of a city's mystic body here gathering chroniclers and by them stand giddy fantastic poets of each land shall i leave all this constant company and follow headlong wild uncertain thee first swear by thy best love in earnest if thou which lov'st all canst love any best thou wilt not leave me in the middle street though some more spruce companion let us meet not though a captain do come in thy way bright parcel guilt with forty dead mens pay not though a brisk profum'd pert courtier deign with a nod thy courtesy to answer nor come a velvet justice with a long great train of blue coats twelve or fourteen strong with thou brinn or fawn on him or prepare a speech to court his beauteous son and heir for better or worse take me or leave me to take and leave me is adultery o monstrous superstitious puritan of refined manners yet ceremonial man that when thou meet'st one with enquiring eyes dost search and like a needy broker prize the silk and gold he wears and to that rate so high or low dost raise thy formal hat that wilt consort none until thou have known what lands he hath in hope or of his own as though all thy companions should make thee jointures and marry thy dear company why shouldst thou that dost not only approve but in rank itchy lust desire and love the nakedness and bareness to enjoy of thy plump muddy whore or prostitute boy hate vertue though she be naked and bare at birth and death our bodies naked are and till our souls be unapparalled of bodies they from bliss are banished mans first blest state was naked when by sin he lost that yet he was clothed but in beasts skin and in this coarse attire which i now wear with god and with the muses i confer but since thou like a contrite penitent charitably warned of thy sins dost repent these vanities and giddinesses lo i shut my chamber door and come lets go but sooner may a cheap whore who hath been worn by as many several men in sin as are black feathers or musk colour hose name her child's right true father mongst all those sooner may one guess who shall bear away the infanta of london heir to an india and sooner may a gulling weather spy by drawing forth heav'ns scheme tell certainly what fashioned hats or ruffles or suits next year our subtil witted antic youths will wear then thou when thou depart'st from me canst shew whither why when or with whom thou wouldst go but how shall i be pardon'd by offence that thus have sinned against my conscience now we are in the street he first of all improvidently proud creeps to the wall and so imprison'd and hemmed in by me sells for a little state his liberty yet though he cannot skip forth now to greet every fine silken painted fool we meet he then to him with amorous smiles allures and grins smacks shrugs and such an itch endures as prentices or school-boys which do know of some gay sport abroad yet dare not go and as fiddlers stop lowest at highest sound so to the most brave stoops he nice the ground but to a grave man he doth move no more than the wise politic horse would heretofore or thou o elephant or ape wilt do when any names the king of spain to you now leaps he upright jogs me and cries do you see yonder well-favoured youth which oh tis he that dances so divinely oh said i stand still must you dance here for company he drew we went till one which did excel the indians in drinking his tobacco well met us they talked i whispered lets go may be you smell him not truly i do he hears not me but on the other side a many colourd peacock having spied leaves him and me i for my lost sheep stay he follows overtakes goes on the way saying him whom i last left all repute for his device in handsoming a suit to judge of lace pink panes print cut and plight of all the court to have the best conceit our dull comedians want him let him go but o god strengthen thee why stoops thou so why he hath travell'd long No, but to me, which understand none, he doth seem to be perfect French and Italian.

I replied, so is the pox.

He answered not, but spied more men of fort, of parts and qualities.

At last, his love he in a window spies, and like light dew exhaled, he flings from me violently ravished to his lechery.

From Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Together with Death's Duel.

By John Donne.

This is a LibriVox recording.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

But this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me.

If, by this consideration of another's danger, I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security.

End of Meditation 17 From Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel by John Donne Read by Catherine Russell

Years ago, in a Paris club, one man said to another, Well, what's up? The other shook a paper, There is only one genius in England, and they have put him in jail.

... than real human doppelgangers.

So John Donne's, um, story is strictly bilocation.

I would not call it a doppelganger one, where he saw his wife a few times while he was in Paris and she was back in England, and-

Right