ABSTRACT
There is a wildly inaccurate account of Donne in the seventh edition of the Nouveau Dictionnaire Historiqlle: ou Histoire Abregee, eaen and Lyon, 1789, pp. 33 1-2. Donne is said to have been born in 1574, son of a rich merchant, and to be the subject of a life by 'Jean Watton', 1658. There is a mention of Pseudo-Martyr and a summary of the argument of Biathanatos. Otherwise all that is said of his writings is that 'he gained the esteem of his countrymen by productions full of spirit and grace', and that he made in turn poems of gallantry and what his age took for satires. He is declared to have gained prosperity and honours in recompense of his talents.
