SOURCE: Straznicky, Marta. “Performing the Self in Browne's Religio Medici.” Prose Studies, History, Theory, Criticism 13, no. 2 (September 1990): 211-29.

In the following essay, Straznicky studies the strategy of self-presentation as used by Browne, contending that this duality is presented most clearly by Browne in the speaking voice of the text.

… at my death I meane to take a totall adieu of the world, not caring for a Monument, History, or Epitaph, not so much as the bare memory of my name to be found any where but in the universall Register of God.¹

To whom does this voice belong? Apart from the obvious irony that a statement renouncing worldly fame appears in print, there are several matters which may lead us to ask this question. We know the passage occurs nearly halfway through a revealing and rather intimate book named Religio Medici; contrary to what the passage suggests, we...