"Vera Amicitia": Ciceronian Friendship and Virtue in John Donne’s Verse Epistles
This talk examines how the poet John Donne adapted Cicero’s model of friendship into his verse letters.
CMRS Colloquium online
26 November 2020
3:00-4:00 pm, CST
Kyle Dase (PhD candidate, Department of English, University of Saskatchewan)
Vera Amicitia: Ciceronian Friendship and Virtue in John Donne’s Verse Epistles
Scholars have often cited John Donne’s description of friendship as his “second religion,” but there is little scholarship that explores Donne’s relationship with the classical texts that serve as the bedrock for the foundation of that religion. Many classical texts discuss the topic of friendship, but none were so ubiquitous and influential to writers in the English Renaissance as Cicero’s Laelius De Amicitia. This talk revisits Donne’s often undervalued verse letters— poems written with a small readership and often even just a sole recipient in mind—and examines how the poet adapts Cicero’s model of friendship into verse letters addressed to both close friends and patrons alike, negotiating his relationships through the framework Cicero’s model provides.
This is a livestreamed video event on Zoom. To get an invitation that will link you to the event, please contact Yin Liu, CMRS Director, by email: cmrs.director@usask.ca.
We thank the Department of English, University of Saskatchewan, for co-sponsoring this event.