ABSTRACT
Twentieth-century criticism of Donne’s sermons began in falsity and bias, according the autobiographical fallacy a special prominence. Eminent critics claimed that ‘the real Donne’ may be found in his sermons (Quiller-Couch 1918, p. 107); that in them Donne ‘preaches himself’ (Donne 1919, p. xxx); that he used his sermons as a ‘means of self-expression’ (Eliot 1951, p. 351). Though now tediously familiar, the assumption that we can easily detect in Donne’s writing the very voice and personality of their author despite the fact that he died four hundred years ago and was an expert at literary disguise is perhaps a little trickier to refute when applied to the sermons than to Satire III or the Holy Sonnets. Surely, it might be asked, the fact that the sermons were delivered by Donne himself authenticates their use of the first person?
