Chapter XXV

Sir Henry Goodyer had lost both father and father-in-law long before his friend had occasion "to reduce to his thoughts the duties of a husband and a father, and all the incumbencies of a family." The reference in this letter to "your father's health and love" therefore seems to preclude the possibility that it was addressed to Goodyer. The absence of a date makes conjecture as to the identity of Donne's correspondent the more difficult. Fortunately the interest of the letter is independent of knowledge of the correspondent to whom it was addressed, consisting as it does in the light which it throws on the mental temperament of the writer.