Editing John Donne (section)

===Marriage to Anne More===
During the next four years, Donne fell in love with Egerton's niece Anne More. They were secretly married just before Christmas in 1601, against the wishes of both Egerton and Anne's father [[George More]], who was Lieutenant of the Tower.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gosse |first1=Edmund |author1-link=Edmund Gosse |title=The Life and Letters of John Donne |date=1899 |publisher=Heinemann |location=London |isbn=9781532678103 |pages=97–99 |edition=2018 |oclc=179202190|volume=1}}</ref> Upon discovery, this wedding ruined Donne's career, getting him dismissed and put in [[Fleet Prison]], along with the Church of England priest [[Samuel Brooke]], who married them,{{sfn|Lee|1886}} and his brother Christopher, who stood in, in the absence of George More, to give Anne away. Donne was released shortly thereafter when the marriage was proved to be valid, and he soon secured the release of the other two. Walton tells us that when Donne wrote to his wife to tell her about losing his post, he wrote after his name: ''John Donne, Anne Donne, Un-done.''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=II|first=Ernest W. Sullivan|date=30 August 2016|title="John Donne, Anne Donne, Vn-done" Redone|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19403364.1989.11755209|journal=ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews|volume=2|issue=3|pages=101–103|language=en|doi=10.1080/19403364.1989.11755209|issn=1940-3364}}</ref> It was not until 1609 that Donne was reconciled with his father-in-law and received his wife's [[dowry]].

[[File: John Donne house Pyrford.jpg|thumb|Part of the house where Donne lived in [[Pyrford]]]]

After his release, Donne had to accept a retired country life in a small house in [[Pyrford]], Surrey, owned by Anne's cousin, Sir Francis Wooley, where they lived until the end of 1604.{{sfn|Colclough|2011}}{{sfn|Jokinen|2006}} In spring 1605 they moved to another small house in [[Mitcham]], Surrey, where he scraped a meagre living as a lawyer, while Anne Donne bore a new baby almost every year. Though he also worked as an assistant pamphleteer to [[Thomas Morton (bishop)|Thomas Morton]] writing anti-Catholic pamphlets, Donne was in a constant state of financial insecurity.{{sfn|Colclough|2011}}

Anne gave birth to twelve children in sixteen years of marriage, including two [[stillbirth]]s—their eighth and then, in 1617, their last child. The ten surviving children were Constance, [[John Donne the Younger|John]], [[George Donne|George]], Francis, Lucy (named after Donne's patron [[Lucy, Countess of Bedford]], her godmother), Bridget, Mary, Nicholas, Margaret and Elizabeth. Three, Francis, Nicholas and Mary, died before they were ten.{{sfn|Greenblatt|2012|pp=1370–1372}} 

In a state of despair that almost drove him to kill himself, Donne noted that the death of a child would mean one mouth fewer to feed, but he could not afford the burial expenses. During this time, Donne wrote but did not publish ''[[Biathanatos]]'', his defence of suicide.{{sfn|Greenblatt|2012|pp=1370–1372}} His wife died on 15 August 1617, five days after giving birth to their twelfth child, a still-born baby.{{sfn|Colclough|2011}} Donne mourned her deeply, and wrote of his love and loss in his [[s:en:Holy Sonnets|17th]] [[Holy Sonnet]].