Abstract

Sermons and public executions were extremely popular modes of entertainment in early modern England. John Donne, King James’s favorite preacher, often turns to those scenes of executions, which must be understood as Foucauldian exhibitions of biopower—state control of the biological—for inspiration in his pulpit sermons, especially those preached at court. Beginning when Donne was young, he witnessed rhetorical conventions of clergymen overseeing executions which were different than those he learned at Oxford or Cambridge. Through his incorporations of the biopolitical rhetoric associated with the gallows and his position as state-appointed preacher, Donne likens the discipline of the sovereign to the judgement of God, arguing that citizens should absolutely serve royal authority. One example of such rhetoric is found in the Palatinate Sermon of 1619. In this sermon, Donne perpetuates the notion of ultimate sovereignty of the English crown and advocates for political submission, thus mediating the biopolitical message of executions, authority, and submission to a wider audience.