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 work is offered to Mary, Our Queen and Mother, and dedicated to EEKPTEE&EA.]
👈The Tears of St Peter (1587-1596)
El Greco (Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos) 1541-1614
Museo Soumaya at Plaza Carso, Mexico.
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- 27 -
Ah! whether was forgotten loue exil'd?
Where did the truth of pledged promise sleepe?
What in my thoughts begat this vgly child,
That could through rented soule thus fiercely creepe?
O viper, feare their death by whom thou liuest;
All good thy ruine's wreck, all euils thou giuest.
Thou didst forget thy love for Christ . . . whither has it been banished? Thou didst pledge a promise to Christ, but where did it go to die? How did thy thoughts generate this hideous idea that would rip thy soul apart and crawl out? How like a viper, yet thou, seeking to save thy life, shouldst fear the death of all thou dost cherish; thy spiritual ruin is the destruction of the good and thou hast become the source of every evil.
157. whether. Whither. To what place? a1616 W. Shakespeare Two Gentlemen of Verona (1623) iv. i. 17 Whether trauell you?
158. pledged promise. A reference to Peter’s words:
"Peter saith to him: Yea, though I should die with thee, I will not deny thee…" [Matthew xxvi. 35]
sleepe. 2. figurative. To lie in death; to be at rest in the grave. 1548 R. Hutten tr. J. Spangenberg Sum of Diuinitie R vij b Euen so wil god bring them wyth him whych haue sleped. 1567 Compend. Bk. Godly Songs (1897) 164 The bodie sleipis, quhill Domisday.
160. rented. Rend. To tear, pull, or rip (something) away from its proper place or current position; to remove (a thing, occasionally a person) by force. 1596 E. Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene v. v. sig. P8v As if she had intended Out of his breast the very heart haue rended.
161. viper. RS uses this image in his prose to describe the persecutors of English Catholics. In this verse, the sense is that Peter risks the death off everything he holds dear as the price of saving his life through betrayal off Him whom he holds most dear.
10. The viper (vipera) is so named because it is ‘born through force’ (vi parere), for when their mother’s womb is groaning to deliver, the offspring, not waiting for nature’s suitable time, gnaw at and forcibly tear open their mother’s sides, causing her death. Lucan (Civil War 6.490) says:
When the body has burst apart, the knotted vipers gather.
11. It is said that the male spits his seed into the mouth of the female viper, and she, turned from the passion of lust to rage, bites off the head of the male that is in her mouth. Thus it happens that each parent dies; the male when they mate and the female when she gives birth. From the viper comes the pill that the Greeks call θηριακοὶ. [Isidore of Seville, Etymologies. Book XII Animals (De animalibus)].
162. wreck. Wreak. 1) Pain or punishment inflicted in return for an injury, wrong, offence. 1587 G. Turberville Tragicall Tales f. 79v Such flames of wreake withyn her bowels fride. 2) Harm, injury; damage. 1591 E. Spenser Ruines of Rome in Complaints 33 These same olde walls..is that which Rome men call. Behold what wreake, what ruine, and what wast.
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- 28 -
Threats threw me not, torments I none assayd:
My fray with shades; conceits did make me yeeld,
Wounding my thoughts with feares; selfely dismayd, [165]
I neither fought nor lost, I gaue the field:
Infamous foyle! a maiden's easie breath
Did blow me downe, and blast my soule to death.
Threats made to me had no effect and I didn’t test myself against the torment of severe pain;
no, my problem was a frightening struggle with shadows — notions haunting my mind made me surrender. My thoughts were as if wounded by my fears and I was discouraged so as to be defeated in my heart. I didn’t put up a fight but neither did I fight and lose — no, I surrendered the field.
What an infamous defeat it was! The gentle breath of a young woman was enough to lay me low and blow my soul into death’s oblivion.
163. threw. Perhaps in the figurative sense from Throw. a. transitive. As in wrestling. Vid. l.167. Or from a horse.. ?1573 L. Lloyd Pilgrimage of Princes f. 144 Thei were bothe throwen by their horses, and so died.
assay. c. figurative. transitive. To put to the proof, try (a person or thing); vid. 1545 R. Ascham Toxophilus To Gentlem. Eng. Therfore did I take this litle matter in hande, to assaye my selfe. To attack anything difficult: ?1606 M. Drayton Man in Moone in Poemes sig. H7v She the high mountaines actiuely assays.
164. fray. 1. A feeling of fear; alarm, fright, terror. 2. An assault, attack. c1575 in J. Raine Depositions Courts Durham (1845) 300 After that Crampton had maid a fraye of the said Martyn, one Robert Johnson cauld for the constable, to carry them to the stoks.
shades. II. A shadow, image, or phantom, and related uses. c1580 Sir P. Sidney tr. Psalmes David xxxix. iv They are but shades, not true things where we live.
conceits. Something conceived in the mind; a notion, conception, idea, or thought. Emotional state or disposition; frame of mind. nn
165. selfely. Selfly. 2. a. In oneself; in one's heart. Also: in itself; inherently.
167. foyle. Foil. a. A repulse, defeat in an onset or enterprise; a baffling check. 1573 G. Harvey Let.-bk. (1884) 13 Considering what a foul shame and foil it had alreddi bene unto me.
easie. Easy. Not hard pressed: not hurried, gentle; said of motion, a breeze. Of actions: Not difficult; to be accomplished with little effort. 1608 E. Topsell Hist. Serpents 282 They haue a very slowe and easie pace.
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Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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