Table of Contents

"Discreet or religious preachers" - John Donne and the late Jacobean public sphere; "the indiscretion of that foole" - John Knight and the Jacobean pulpit, 1620-22; "the fishing of whales" - John Donne's sermons, 1620-22; "faire interpretation" - the "Directions" and the crisis of censorship; "wise as Serpents and innocent as Doves" - zeal and discretion in the pulpit, 1623-35; "Jesus wept" - the journey to Spain and pulpit lamentation; "blinde buzzards in the choise of a wife" - sermons and the moral marketplace; "the lovesick spouse" - Parliament, patriots and the public sphere; "Church-quakes" - post-Parliamentary fault lines; "if the foundations be destroyed" - rules of engagement; "blessed sobriety" - John Donne, the public sphere and Caroline conformity.

Reviews

With this most admirable and insightful study, Shami succeeds in illuminating a short but overwhelmingly significant period in English history. Highly recommended.
*CHOICE*

Exhaustively researched, intelligently arranged, and cogently argued.
*RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY*

A major achievement in Donne studies. [...] The scholarship is impeccable.
*STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE*

A painstaking and highly nuanced account of [Donne's] religious and political evolution during the period in question.[...] Clearly written, well organised, thoroughly documented in both primary and secondary sources, beautifully indexed, and handsomely produced.[...] This very fine series.
*SIXTEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL*