ABSTRACT
Taylor (1800-86) was a civil servant with literary interests. In his autobiography he several times quoted Donne to illustrate observations or attitudes of his own. Commenting on a lady his mother had once praised for her beauty he says that he could now almost say it all again, and he quotes lines 1-2 of Elegie ix, 'The Autumnall'. He describes his 'strong leaning towards youthfulness' as he approached the age of forty, and says that this feeling defied his reason; he quotes lines 47-50 of Elegie ix, 'The Autumnall' and adds 'But I am not sure that Donne did actually feel as he saw reason to feel; and neither did I.' Referring to his marriage in October 1839 he says that marriage leaves nothing more to be said of a man, and quotes a version of lines 5-8 of' A Valediction; forbidding Mourning', which he describes as some stanzas Donne addressed to his wife when about to depart for the Continent. (The Autobiography of [Sir] Henry Taylor, 1800-75, 1885, pp. 183, 272-3, 288.)
