Pseudo-martyr

Book excerpt: Pseudo-Martyr was Donne's first published work and the only one he wrote as a lawyer. It is also an autobiographical document which reveals how Donne resolved his own lapse from Catholicism so that he could remain loyal to the king. A descendant of Thomas More's sister, Donne had inherited a rich tradition from the Counter-Reformation, which he sought to reconcile with the political absolutes of his day. Anthony Raspa provides a definitive critical edition of this long-neglected work, setting it in its historical context and making the forest of quotations and references given by Donne in the main body of the text and its margins intelligible to the modern reader.