To Sir Henry Goodyer, as is sufficiently indicated by the allusion to the
weekly letter which Donne was in the habit of writing to this most
intimate of his friends, and written from Mitcham, therefore not later
than 1610. Sir Henry Goodyer, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to James I,
was the son of William Goodyer of Monks Kirby. He married his cousin
Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Goodyer the elder, and on his
father-in-law's death in 1595 succeeded to the family estates at
Polesworth. Sir Henry seems to have been an open-minded, open-handed,
easy-going man, with the defects of his qualities. His fortune slipped
through his fingers and he died (1628) in poverty. I have no doubt that it
was to Goodyer that Donne made the present of which Walton writes:
"He gave an hundred pounds at one time to an old friend, whom he had
known live plentifully, & by a too liberal heart then decayed in his
estate: and when the receiving of it was denied by saying, he wanted
not; for as there be some spirits so generous as to labour to conceal
and endure a sad poverty, rather than those blushes that attend the
confession of it, so there be others to whom Nature and Grace have
afforded such sweet and compassionate souls, as to pity and prevent
the distresses of mankind; which I have mentioned because of Dr.
Donne's reply, whose answer was, I know you want not what will sustain
nature, for a little will do that; but my desire is that you who in
the dayes of your plenty have cheered the hearts of so many of your
friends, would receive this from me, and use it as a cordiall for the
cheering of your own: and so it was received."
Goodyer's epitaph is quoted by Camden in the _Remaines concerning
Britain_:
"To the honour of Sir Henry Goodyer of Powlesworth, a Knight memorable
for his vertues, an affectionate Friend of his framed this Tetrastich:
'An ill year of a Goodyer us bereft,
Who gone to God, much lack of him here left:
Full of good gifts, of body and of mind,
Wise, comely, learned, eloquent and kind.'"