Read "To the Lady Magdalen Herbert, of St. Mary Magdalen" by John Donne online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Her of your name, whose fair inheritance / Bethina was, and jointure Magdalo, / An active faith so highly did advance, / That she once knew, more than the Church did know, / The Resurrection; so much good there is / Deliver'd of her, that some Fathers be / Loth to believe one woman could do this; / But think these Magdalens were two or three. / Increase their number, Lady, and their fame; / To their devotion add your innocence; / Take so much of th' example as of the name, / The latter half; and in some recompense, / That they did harbour Christ Himself, a guest, / Harbour these hymns, to His dear Name address'd