"be My Trew Mistres Still, Not My Faignd Page": Truth and Disguise in Donne's "Elegy 16" (Poet John Donne‪)‬

A pivotal element in John Donne's "Elegy 16" is his use of the page-disguise motif. No thorough analysis having been overtly devoted to it, this paper aims to explore its nature and significance within the poem and the broader context of early modern English literature. By carefully reading the elegy in terms of the technical aspects and implications of Donne's conception of disguise, it is argued that its non-normative translucence chiefly rests on his own personal politics of power and certainty. Therefore, the resultant realistic deviation, along with his concomitant articulation of the grotesque, are claimed to assume a paradigmatic quality in his poetry when bringing into final artistic shape his vast array of experiential raw material. Key words: John Donne, Elegy 16, William Shakespeare, Renaissance literature, disguise, cross-dressing, grotesque