Silent Witness: The Politics of Allusion in John Donne's Sermon on Isaiah 32: 8

摘要

Like many early modern authors, John Donne did not always acknowledge his sources. This article examines his practice of citation in the sermons, and goes on to analyse a pair of concealed allusions in one sermon preached in 1628. It shows that by juxtaposing quotations from two quite different authors at a crucial point in his discourse, Donne effects a major transition in his argument. This transition underpins his elevation of the spiritual over the civil in a sermon concerned with the virtue of liberality, and with what it means to give generously. Donne's silent act of quotation works subtly to critique royal policy, courtly values, and the ecclesiological and doctrinal preferences of the anti-Calvinist faction in the English Church.