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| The Tears off St Peter. El Greco. |
[These posts contain revised and expanded notes to St Peter's Complaynt, considered by many to be the last poem written by St Robert Southwell ("RS") before his martyrdom on the 21st of February 1595. The original series of posts was first published in 2018 on our sister site, Mary's English Dowry. I have expanded my original notes so as to provide a more detailed critical apparatus - with fairly extensive use of quotations from the period in which RS wrote. I have also included paraphrases with the aim of making the poet's language more accessible to modern readers.]
👈The Tears of St Peter -1587 until 1596
El Greco (Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos) 1541-1614
Museo Soumaya at Plaza Carso, Mexico.
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Launch forth, my soule, into a maine of teares,
Full fraught with griefe, the trafficke of thy mind;
Torn sailes will serue, thoughts rent with guilty feares:
Giue Care the sterne, vse sighs in lieu of wind:
Remorse, thy pilot; thy misdeede thy card; [5]
Torment thy hauen, shipwrack thy best reward.
He addresses his soul – note the use of thy mind, thy pilot etc.
Launch thyself forth, O my soul, like a ship into an ocean of tears; thou art fully laden with grief, thy mind’s cargo is sorrow; sails torn asunder are thy thoughts rent with guilty fears; and aft, at the stern, is suffering; thy sighs will serve in place of the wind; the ship’s pilot is remorse; the nautical chart is thine evil deed; thy safe haven is torment; shipwreck is thy just reward.
1. Launch. c. 1300, "to rush, plunge, leap, start forth; to be set into sudden motion," from Old North French lancher, Old French lancier "to fling, hurl, throw, cast," from Late Latin lanceare "wield a lance," from Latin lancea "light spear". Meaning "to throw, hurl, let fly" is from mid-14c. Sense of "set (a boat) afloat" first recorded c. 1400, from notion of throwing it out on the water; generalized by 1600 to any sort of beginning. Related: Launched; launching.
“. . . . the image of the sea with which the poem opens reflects not only Peter’s traditional association with ships, but, more significantly, the description of penance as a ‘second plank after shipwreck’, the words of the second canon on penance issued by the Council, recalling a popular image used by St Jerome and Tertullian.”1 (SSPC)
maine. main: Short for main sea n.; the open sea. Now chiefly poetic. Vide 1579 T. North tr. Plutarch Liues 472 The winde stoode full against them comming from the mayne [Fr. le uent se tourna du costé de la pleine mer].
2. fraught. late 14c., "freighted, laden, loaded, stored with supplies" (of vessels); figurative use from early 15c.; past-participle adjective from obsolete verb fraught "to load (a ship) with cargo," Middle English fraughten (c. 1400), which always was rarer than the past participle, from noun fraught "a load, cargo, lading of a ship" (early 13c.), which is the older form of freight (n.). OEtD.
Of a vessel: Laden. Vide 1575 G. Gascoigne Fruites of Warre cvii, in Posies sig. Iiiiiv The shippes retyre with riches full yfraught. Figurative. fraught with: (a) attended with, carrying with it as an attribute, accompaniment, etc.; (b) ‘big’ with the promise or menace of; destined to produce. Vide 1576 A. Fleming tr. Isocrates in Panoplie Epist. 178 Such thinges as bee intricate and fraught with difficulties.
traffic. Goods or merchandise transported for commercial purposes. Vide 1560 in R. G. Marsden Sel. Pleas Court Admiralty (1897) II. 119 In which shipps there be any merchaundizes or traffick apperteining to the ennemies.
3. serue. Serve.
4. Care. Mental suffering, sorrow, grief, trouble. Vide 1596 E. Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene iv. viii. sig. G7 Him to recomfort in his greatest care.
5. card. A map or chart; spec. a nautical chart. Vide ?a1560 L. Digges Geom. Pract.: Pantometria (1571) i. xxxv. sig. L iij You shall make a sea carde wherin you may by the former rules place Coastes, Harboroughes, Rockes, Sandes,..with their soundings and depthe of ancorage, &c. A disk of stiff paper or similar material marked with the 32 principal bearings, forming the indicator in a magnetic compass. Vide a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) i. iii. 16 All the Quarters that they know, I' th' Ship-mans Card .
6. shipwrack. Shipwreck. Cf ‘rack and ruin.’ Vide 1589 R. Hakluyt tr. in Princ. Navigations i. 169 If by any casualtie their shippes shall bee driuen on shoare in perill of shipwracke.
Reward. Also from late 14c. sometimes "punishment, recompense for evil-doing." OEtD. Vide 1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene iii. v. sig. Gg2v He from daunger was releast,..Yet not escaped from the dew reward Of his bad deedes. 1610 J. Healey tr. St. Augustine Citie of God xiv. xv. 517 The iust reward that our first parents receiued for their sinne.
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Shun not the shelfe of most deserued shame;
Sticke in the sands of agonizing dread;
Content thee to be stormes' and billowes' game;
Diuorct from grace, thy soule to pennance wed; [10]
Fly not from forraine euils, fly from thy hart;
Worse then the worst of euils is that thou art.
Do not try to avoid the dangerous sandbank and rocks of the shame deservedly thine; run aground on the sands of agonizing dread; be content to be the plaything of tempests and the great waves of the sea; having divorced and cut thyself off from grace, pledge thyself to contrition, confession and penance; fly not from external evils but fly rather from those within thine own heart — thou art worse than the worst of evils.
7. shelfe. Shelf: A sandbank in the sea or river rendering the water shallow and dangerous. Also loosely applied to a submerged ledge of rock.
8. agonizing. Causing agony or extreme anguish; exceedingly painful physically or mentally; (in weakened sense) causing worry, causing difficulty in making a choice.
9. billowes. A great swelling wave of the sea, produced generally by a high wind; but often used . . . . poetically for ‘the sea’. Vide 1589 A. Jenkinson in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations ii. 358 And much adoe to keepe our barke from sinking, the billowe was so great.
10. Divorced. Note the use of wed as a symmetry of contrast.
Pennance. 1) Pain, suffering, affliction, sorrow. Vide 1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost i. i. 115 Ile keepe what I haue sworne, And bide the pennance of each three yeeres day. 2) Repentance, penitence; amendment of one's life. 3) The performance of some act of self-mortification or the undergoing of some penalty as an expression of sorrow for sin or wrongdoing; religious discipline, either imposed by ecclesiastical authority or voluntarily undertaken, as a token of repentance and as a means of satisfaction for sin; (also) such discipline or observance imposed by a priest upon a penitent after confession, as an integral part of the sacrament of penance.
11. forraine: foreign. Not related to or concerned with the thing or person being considered; of a different nature or character; strange, unfamiliar, alien. Belonging to another; not one's own. Provided by other people or things; coming from an external source.
hart. Heart: The seat or repository of a person's inmost thoughts, feelings, inclinations, etc.; a person's inmost being; the depths of the soul; the soul, the spirit. Vide 1571 Dict. French & Eng. sig. H.ivv Contre son cueur, dissemblingly, or agaynst his hart.
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Giue vent vnto the vapours of thy brest,
That thicken in the brimmes of cloudie eyes;
Where sinne was hatcht, let teares now wash the nest, [15]
Where life was lost, recouer life with cryes.
Thy trespasse foule, let not thy teares be few,
Baptize thy spotted soule in weeping dew.
Give vent to the thoughts and feelings which well up from thy heart and form a thick mist over thine eyes which are awash with grief; let thy tears wash and cleanse the place where sin was hatched; let thy cries of contrition restore life where life was lost; thy transgression was terrible, so weep tears in abundance; like the waters of Baptism, with tears of contrition wash away the stains of sin on thy soul.
13. Give vent. To afford or provide with an outlet or means of escape; to cause or allow to issue or flow out. To give outlet, expression, or utterance (to an emotion, faculty, etc.); to relieve in this way. Perhaps a reference to wind, continuing the metaphor of a ship at sea in stormy weather: late 14c., "emit from a confined space," probably a shortening of aventer "expose oneself to the air" (c. 1300), from Old French eventer "let out, expose to air," from Vulgar Latin *exventare, from Latin ex "out" + ventus "wind." OEtD.
vapours. late 14c., from Anglo-French vapour, Old French vapor "moisture, vapour" (13c., Modern French vapeur) and directly from Latin vaporem (nominative vapor) "a warm exhalation, steam, heat," which is of unknown origin. OEtD.
brimmes. 1) brim: An old poetical word for the sea; also, ‘flood’, water. Vide 1596 E. Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene v. ix. sig. V1v The bright sunne, what time his fierie teme Towards the westerne brim [perh. = edge, horizon] begins to draw. 2) The border, margin, edge, or brink: vide 1597 J. Gerard Herball ii. 249 The bayche and brimmes of the sea.
14. cloudie. figurative. Darkened by misfortune, grief, anger, forebodings, etc.; full of gloom or trouble; gloomy, sullen, frowning. Vide 1561 T. Hoby tr. B. Castiglione Courtyer ii. sig. K.iiijv Cloudy and troublous heauinesse.
16. cries. An importunate call, a prayer, entreaty; an appeal for mercy, justice, etc. Vide 1597 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie v. lxi. 138 The vnresistable cryes of suppliants calling vpon you for mercye.
17. trespasse. Trespass: A transgression; a breach of law or duty; an offence, sin, wrong; a fault. Vide 1526 Bible (Tyndale) Matt. vi. f. vijv And forgeve vs oure treaspases, even as we forgeve them which treaspas vs.
foule. foul: Grossly offensive to the senses; revolting, loathsome; esp. having a disgusting smell or taste; stomach-churning. In extended metaphors and other figurative contexts, with reference to moral or spiritual corruption. Vide a1535 T. More Wks. (1557) 477 Lest he finally fall into the fowle smoke of helle, where he shall neuer see after.
18. Baptize.
“He speaks of his need for penitential tears, almost as if they were the matter of the sacrament, as water in baptism. . . . .the language here refers not vaguely to a repentant mood, but to the sacrament of penance itself, which, in the words of the doctrine propounded at Trent, ‘has justly been called by holy Fathers a laborious kind of baptism.’” (SSPC).
Cf. Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed: thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.
Asperges me hyssopo, et mundabor; lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor. [Ps. l. 9]
spotted. 1) Disfigured or stained with spots. Vide 1619 R. West Schoole of Vertue: 2nd Pt. sig. B3 Keep it neat and cleane, For spotted, dirty, or the like, is lothsome to be seene.
2) Morally stained or blemished with something disgraceful or defiling. Vide 1548 Hall's Vnion: Richard III f. xxixv That note of infamie with the whiche his fame was iustely spotted and stayned.
dew. Moisture glistening in the eyes; tears. Hence funeral dew. Vide 1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iv. iii. 27 The night of dew that on my cheekes downe flowes.
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Fly mournfull plaints, the echoes of my ruth
Whose screeches in my frighted conscience ring; [20]
Sob out my sorrowes, fruites of mine vntruth,
Report the smart of sinne's infernall sting;
Tell hearts that languish in the sorriest plight,
There is on Earth a farre more sorry wight.
Depart from me you mournful cries of grief, the echoes of my remorse, whose shrieks ring around my fearful conscience; let my sorrows, the fruit of my infidelity, in sobs and tears pour forth the pain of sin’s infernal sting; explain to those who feel their hearts are plunged in the sorriest plight that there is one on earth who is in a far sorrier state.
19. ruth. Contrition, repentance; remorse. Vide ?a1603 E. Grymeston Miscelanea (1604) sig. F4v Thou pardon promisest Where hearts true ruth is showne. Sorrow, grief, distress; lamentation. Vide 1591 E. Spenser tr. Petrarch Visions ii, in Complaints sig. Z2 O how great ruth and sorrowfull assay, Doth vex my spirite with perplexitie.
21. sob. To catch the breath in a convulsive manner as the result of violent emotion, esp. grief; to weep in this fashion. Vide 1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 724/1 The poore boye sobbed, as his herte shulde brust.
untruth. Unfaithfulness; lack of fidelity, loyalty, or honesty. Unbelief; lack of faith.
22. smart. Here, mental pain or suffering; grief, sorrow, affliction; (sometimes) suffering of the nature of punishment or retribution. Vide a1591 H. Smith 6 Serm. (1592) 44 He came..when man had sinned, that he might feele the smart of sinne.
23. sorriest. Sorry: Distressed, sad; feeling grief or sorrow. Causing distress or sorrow; painful, grievous, dismal. Vide 1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid iii. iv. 13 The fluid of Stix, that sory place.
plight. In negative sense: an unfortunate condition or state. In early use often with modifying word, as evil, sorry, woeful. Vide c1595 Countess of Pembroke Psalme cvii. 17 in Coll. Wks. (1998) II. 170 They cri'd to him in woefull plight.
24. wight. A human being, man or woman, person. Now archaic or dialect (often implying some contempt or commiseration, as in ‘wretch’). Vide 1567 G. Turberville Epitaphes, Epigrams f. 34 Away shee went a wofull wretched Wight.
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A sorrie wight, the object of disgrace, [25]
The monument of feare, the map of shame,
The mirrour of mishap, the staine of place,
The scorne of Time, the infamy of Fame,
An excrement of Earth, to heauen hatefull,
Iniurious to man, to God vngratefull. [30]
A pitiful wretch, the object of disgrace, an effigy of fear, the embodiment of shame, the mirror of suffering, the sullying stain of a position granted by Christ, the object of Time’s contempt, the shameful infamy of reputation, foul outcast of Earth, hateful to Heaven; causing harm to man and ungrateful to God.
25. a sorrie wight. Vide supra 23.
disgrace. 1580s, "state of being out of favor of one in a powerful or exalted position;" also "cause of shame or reproach;" 1590s, "state of ignominy, dishonour, or shame," from French disgrace (16c.), from Italian disgrazia, from dis- (see dis-) + grazia, from Latin gratia "favor, esteem, regard; pleasing quality, good will, gratitude".
26. monument. Something that serves as a reminder of, or witness or tribute to, a way of life. An effigy; a carved figure, statue. A statue or other structure erected in memory of the dead.
map. An embodiment or incarnation of a quality, characteristic, etc.; the very picture or image of something. Vide a1591 H. Smith Sinfull Mans Search (1592) sig. A6 What were man if hee were once left to himselfe? a map of miserie.
27. mirror. A person or thing embodying something to be avoided; an example, a warning. Vide c1550 Complaynt Scotl. (1979) xi. 74 The onfaithful cruel act..suld be mirrour and ane exempil til al scotland.
mishap. An unlucky accident, unfortunate event. The suffering of misfortune or harm; injury, harm, damage. Vide 1587 R. Greene Morando ii. sig. Ej Fewe or none whiche onely fixe their fancie vpon Beautie, escape without mishappe or miserie.
staine. stain: The action of staining; pollution, disgrace. A morally defiling effect on the character or conscience; a grave blemish on a person's reputation; a mark of infamy or disgrace, a stigma. Vide 1594 W. Shakespeare Lucrece sig. M1v How may this forced staine be wip'd from me?
place. A job, office, or situation. Formerly: spec. high office in the service of the crown or state. Perhaps a reference to the place or position awarded to Peter by Christ, which through his betrayal Peter besmirched or stained.
28. fame. The character attributed to a person or thing by report or generally entertained; vide 1487 (▸a1380) J. Barbour Bruce (St. John's Cambr.) ix. 574 A knycht..Curtas and fair, and of gude fame.
29. excrement. Superfluous matter thrown off by a plant, animal or as here, the earth; note that man was created from the earth by God. Vide 1565 T. Cooper Thesaurus Excrementum, the dregges or excrementes of digestion made in the bodie; as fleume, choler, melancholie, urine, sweate, snivell, spittel, milke, ordure. Figurative. In 16–17th centuries often as an opprobrious designation of persons. Vide 1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. Author's Pref. Abject sillie men we be..yea and if you will, certaine excrements and outcasts of the world.
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Ambitious heads, dreame you of Fortune's pride,
Fill volumes with your forged goddesse' prayse;
You Fancie's drudges, plung'd in Follie's tide,
Devote your fabling wits to louers' lays:
Be you, O sharpest griefes that euer wrung, [35]
Text to my thoughts, theame to my playning tung.
Minds that are swollen with ambition, you dream of becoming Fortune’s favourite; your writings fill volumes with praise of a mythical goddess; your imagination toils like drudges for Fancy’s love, plunging in the current and going with the flow of the tide; you devote your creative talents to composing lovers’ ditties.
For myself, let the sharpest pains of grief ever to torment a man form the text for my thoughts and the melody for the mournful song.
31-34. The general sense here reflects Southwell's words taken from his introductory Epistle (RS-DS, p1)
"Poetes by abusing their talent, and making the follies and feynings of love the customary subject of their base endeavours, have so discredited this faculty that a Poett a lover and a lyer, are by many reckoned but three words of one significacon [. . .] For in lieu of solemne and devoute matter, to which in dutye they owe their abilities, they now busy themselves in expressing such passions as onely serve for testimonies to howe unworthy affections they have wedded their willes."
It has been suggested that Southwell has in mind life under the “virgin queen” Elizabeth.
“Southwell has replaced the subject of Peter with talk of volumes in praise of a false goddess, leading the reader’s mind away from the Gospel towards thoughts of the female-centred Elizabethan court, with its hierarchy of favourites and its poetics of praise.’ ‘You Fancie's drudges, […] / Devote your fabling wits to louers' lays’, Southwell now has his Peter say; that hackneyed courtly poetic of unrequited love cannot match his grief, beyond the powers even of ‘Jeremy’ (Jeremiah) to express (l.40).” [RS-DS, p136]
31. Fortune’s pride. There are several possible meanings here: 1) the ambitious heads dream of Fortune helping them to achieve worldly fame and reputation; 2) Fortuna may be the goddess referred to in line 32 and the heads seek to win worldly success by flattering her pride; 3) the heads dream of becoming Fortune’s favoured ones. Cf the use in Henry IV Pt I where the King contrasts his own son Hal with Hotspur, “who is sweet Fortune's minion and her pride.” [Act 1 Scene 1 line 84]
32. forged. Forge: To fabricate, frame, invent (a false or imaginary story, lie, etc.); to devise (evil). Also, to pretend (something) to have happened, to fable.
Goddesse. Goddess: either Fortuna, or perhaps Venus: Cf. supra: Still finest wits are stilling Venus Rose (from line 16 in The Author to the Reader). Vide supra, note on 31-34.
33. Fancie: 1) In early use synonymous with imagination. Vide 1581 T. Howell Deuises (1879) 229 The flaming dartes, That Fancie quickly burne with quenchlesse fyre.
2) Caprice, changeful mood; an instance of this, a caprice, a whim. Vide 1579 G. Harvey Let.-bk. (1884) 86 A foolish madd worlde, wherein all thinges ar overrulid by fansye.
3) Amorous inclination, love. Vide 1600 Shakespeare Merchant of Venice iii. ii. 63 Tell me where is fancie bred.
drudges. drudge: One employed in mean, servile, or distasteful work; a slave, a hack; a hard toiler. Vide 1579–80 T. North tr. Plutarch Lives (1676) 791 Getting their living as drudges and slaves, to do most vile Service.
tide. Applied to that which is like the tide of the sea in some way; as in ebbing or flowing, rising or falling, or ‘turning’ at a certain time. Vide a1616 W. Shakespeare Julius Caesar (1623) iv. ii. 270 There is a Tide in the affayres of men, Which taken at the Flood, leades on to Fortune.
34. lays. A short lyric or narrative poem intended to be sung. Vide 1609 W. Shakespeare Pericles xx. 4 Shee sings like one immortall, and shee daunces As Goddesse-like to her admired layes .
35. wrung. From to wring: To twist, turn, or struggle in pain or anguish; to writhe. Vide a1616 W. Shakespeare Cymbeline (1623) iii. vi. 76 He wrings at some distresse. 1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus iv. iii. 49 Wrung with wrongs more than our backs can beare.
36. theame. Theme: The principal melody, plainsong, or canto fermo in a contrapuntal piece; hence, any one of the principal melodies or motives in a sonata, symphony, etc.; a subject; also, a simple tune on which variations are constructed. Vide [1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke 86 Your plainsong is as it were your theme, and your descant as it were your declamation.]
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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