St Peter's Complaynt : Lines 553-570

Please pray for the soul of Esther Clark. R.I.P. She gave a 
framed copy of this painting to the author in the 1980's.

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 on behalf of my family to Our Blessed Lady, Regina Martyrum et Consolatrix Afflictorum. 

For EEKPTEE&EA.

👈The Tears of St Peter (1587-1596) 

El Greco (Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos) 1541-1614

Museo Soumaya at Plaza Carso, Mexico.

+    +    +

- 93 -

Joy, infant saints, whom in the tender flower

A happie storm did free from feare of sinne!

Long is their life that die in blisfull hower; [555]

Joyfull such ends as endlesse joyes begin:

Too long they live that live till they be nought:

Life sav’d by sinne, base purchase dearely bought.

    Joy be to those Holy Innocents who were slaughtered by Herod while they were mere babes and infants. The murderous violence took away their lives but also freed them from sin’s terrible dangers and brought them to the eternal bliss enjoyed by martyrs for Christ.

    Those who in their final hour die a death like theirs enjoy a long life in eternity. Such joy at life’s end brings the start of a joy without end. To live a long life with nothing achieved is to live too long, for when a longer life is gained through sin, it is a mean and base purchase for which a very dear price is paid.

    553. infant saints. The ‘Holy Innocents’ slaughtered on the orders of King Herod.

“Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. [17] Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying: [18] A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.” [Matt. ii. 16-18]

    in the tender flower.  “from two years old and under.” 

    554. happie. Happy only in the sense of leading to a happy outcome, by putting an end to any fear of sin committed towards them or committed by themselves after attaining the age of reason. Here are the words of Dom Prosper Guéranger taken from The Liturgical Year:

“They died for Jesus' sake - therefore, their death was a real Martyrdom, and the Church calls them by the beautiful name of The Flowers of the Martyrs, because of their tender age and their innocence. Justly, then, does the ecclesiastical Cycle bring them before us today, immediately after the two valiant Champions of Christ, Stephen and John. The connection of these three Feasts is thus admirably explained by St. Bernard: ‘In St Stephen, we have both the act and the desire of Martyrdom; in St. John, we have but the desire; in the Holy Innocents, we have but the act. ... Will any one doubt whether a crown was given to these Innocents? ... If you ask me what merit could they have, that God should crown them? let me ask you, what was the fault, for which Herod slew them? What! is the mercy of Jesus less than the cruelty of Herod? and whilst Herod could put these Babes to death, who had done him no injury, Jesus may not crown them for dying for Him?’ ” [Feast of the Holy Innocents]

    storm. A violent disturbance of affairs whether civil, political, social or domestic; commotion, sedition, tumult. a1616   W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) iii. i. 349   I will stirre vp in England some black Storme, Shall blowe ten thousand Soules to Heauen, or Hell.

    555. hower. hour. 

+    +    +

- 94 -

This lot was mine, your fate was not so fearce,

Whom spotlesse death in cradle rockt asleepe; [560]

Sweet roses, mixt with lilies, strow’d your hearce,

Death virgin-white in martirs red did steepe;

Your downy heads both pearles and rubies crownde

My hoary locks, did femall feares confound.

    This was my lot but your fate did not have so terrible an ending.  Just as a babe or infant can be rocked into the sleep of the innocent, you were despatched into the sleep of death, but an innocent death without any stain of sin. 

    Sweet red roses of martyrdom intermingled with white lilies of innocence were strewn on your funeral palls. Death steeped your innocent and unsullied whiteness in the red of martyrs who suffered a bloody death. These colours were carried over into the white pearls and red rubies of your martyrs’ crowns placed upon your downy heads. 

    No such crown was placed on the hoary locks of my head, because mere women’s questions were to overcome me and risk the ruin of my soul.

    559. fearce. fierce. Latin ferus wild (of an animal), untamed, fierce. The butchery of Herod’s soldiers was not so fierce because its impact was on the bodies of the Holy Innocents, whereas Peter’s lot was to suffer the risk of his immortal soul.

    560. spotlesse. Without stain or spot of sin. The only sin on the souls of the Innocents was original sin inherited from Adam and Eve and this washed away by the bloody baptism of a martyr’s death. Vid. note to line 554. 

    561. roses. Perhaps red (see 562.)

    lilies. Perhaps white lilies. (see 562.)

    strow’d. From strew, v. To scatter, spread loosely; to scatter (rushes, straw, flowers, etc.) on the ground or floor, or over the surface of something; 1535   Bible (Coverdale) Matt. xxv. 24   Thou..gatherest where thou hast not strowed.

    hearce. hearse. A light framework of wood used to support the pall over the body at funerals. It fitted on to the parish bier, and was probably adapted to carry lighted tapers. A hearse-cloth, a funeral pall. 1610   R. Knolles Gen. Hist. Turkes (ed. 2) 1200   This coffin of this great Sultan..couered with a rich hearce of cloth of gold downe to the ground.

    562. The word order is: Death did steepe virgin-white in martirs red.

    virgin. The Holy Innocents were all baby boys so perhaps the sense is: Comparable to a virgin in respect of purity or freedom from stain; pure, unstained, unsullied. In early use in figurative context. 1596   E. Spenser Prothalamion 32   The virgin Lillie, and the Primrose trew.

    steepe. steep. v. To soak in water or other liquid; chiefly, to do so for the purpose of softening, altering in properties, cleansing, or the like. 1577   W. Harrison Descr. Eng. (1877) i. ii. vi. 156   Our Mault is made of the best Barley, which is steeped in a cysterne..vntyll it be thorowlye soked.

    563. The word order is: Both pearles and rubies crownde your downy heads.

    564. The word order is: Female fears did my hoary locks confound. 

    hoary. Of the hair, head, or beard: grey or white with age. Perhaps with a hint of hardness and coldness of heart: 1582   R. Stanyhurst tr. Virgil First Foure Bookes Æneis iv. 72   His beard with froast hoare is hardned.

    confound. To defeat utterly, discomfit, bring to ruin, destroy, overthrow, rout, bring to nought (an adversary). 1570   J. Dee in H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. Math. Præf. sig. dj   Archimedes..vtterly confounded the Romaine Nauye.

femall. female, referring to the portress and the handmaid who were suspicious of Peter.

 

+    +    +

- 95 -

You bleating ewes, that waile this wolvish spoyle [565]

Of sucking Lambes new bought with bitter throwes, 

To balme your babes your eyes distill their oyle,

Each hart to tombe her child wide rupture showes;

Rue not their death, whom death did but revive,

Yeeld ruth to me that liv’d to die alive. [570]

    O ye mothers of these innocent babes, you are like ewes who bleat their sorrow and distress at a murderous assault on their little lambs, still unweaned and newly born after gruelling labour’s pains. The flowing tears of your eyes serve as a fragrant oil to embalm your babies. Each of your hearts is torn with grief as the little ones are laid in their sepulchres.

    Do not mourn for their death unduly because, through their death, they have been born to eternal life; but rather grieve for me because, through fearing death, I have saved my life only in a living death — the death of my immortal soul.

    565. waile. wail. v. transitive. To bewail, lament, deplore. To lament, manifest or feel deep sorrow for;

1526   W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. RRiiiv   O, howe they wyll wayle and wepe their neglygences, & wysshe that they had neuer slepte so long.

    spoyle. Spoil. The action or practice of pillaging or plundering; the carrying off or taking away of goods as plunder; rapine, spoliation. 1603   R. Knolles Gen. Hist. Turkes 79   So was the citie of Constantinople..for that time saued from saccage and spoile.

    566. sucking. That is still being suckled, unweaned.

    throwes. throe. An intense spasm of pain experienced during labour; a uterine contraction; (also, in plural) the pain and effort of labour or childbirth. Also in figurative context. a1500  (▸1471)    G. Ripley Compend of Alchemy (Ashm.) l. 1247 (MED)   They schalbe vnbownd by water wyche passyth..with grevous throwys a-fore her chyldyng. ?1615   G. Chapman tr. Homer Odysses (new ed.) xix. 301   Moane for my daughters, yet vnended throes.

    567. balme. v. To embalm. To anoint with fragrant, soothing, or cleansing oil or other liquid. 1611   J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. ix. xxiv. 836/2   Shee balming it [sc. the head], sent it to her Holy Father.

    distill. v. transitive. To let fall in minute drops, as rain, tears; to exude in drops. 

    oyle. Oil.

    568. hart. heart.

    tombe. v. transitive. To place (a body) in a tomb or in a location which functions as a tomb; to inter, bury; to lay to rest. To bury or enclose (something) as if in a tomb; to cause (something) to be enveloped or enfolded in or within something. 1611   T. Heywood Golden Age i. sig. C   I'le toombe th' usurper in his Infant bloud.

    570. Yeeld. Yield. v. transitive. To give as a favour, or as an act of grace; to grant, accord, allow, let (one) have, bestow. 1582   R. Stanyhurst tr. Virgil First Foure Bookes Æneis i. 15   Yeeld pytye; graunt mercy.

To hand over, give up, relinquish possession of, surrender. 1611   Bible (King James) Rom. vi. 13   Neither yeeld yee your members as instruments of vnrighteousnes vnto sinne.

    ruth. The quality of being compassionate; the feeling of sorrow for another; compassion, pity. Sorrow, grief, distress; lamentation. 1591   E. Spenser tr. Petrarch Visions ii, in Complaints sig. Z2   O how great ruth and sorrowfull assay, Doth vex my spirite with perplexitie.

+    +    +

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

St Peter's Complaynt : Lines 541-552

Please pray for the soul of Esther Clark. R.I.P. She gave a 
framed copy of this painting to the author in the 1980's.

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 on behalf of my family to Our Blessed Lady, Regina Martyrum et Consolatrix Afflictorum. 

For EEKPTEE&EA.

👈The Tears of St Peter (1587-1596) 

El Greco (Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos) 1541-1614

Museo Soumaya at Plaza Carso, Mexico.

+    +    +

- 91 -

Faire Absalons foule faults, compard with mine,

Are brightest sands to mud of Sodome Lakes.

High aymes, yong spirits, birth of royall line,

Made him play false where kingdoms were the stakes.

He gazde on golden hopes, whose lustre winnes [545]

Sometime the gravest wits to grievous sinnes.

    King David had a most handsome son called Absalom who committed a series of  terrible sins; and yet, in contrast to my own sins, his are like bright, clean sands compared to the murky sludge in Sodom’s salt lake. His lofty ambitions, youthful energies and his birth of a royal line, all these made him use lies and treachery in a contest to win his father’s kingdom.

    He set his hopeful eyes on dazzling dreams, whose bright splendour can sometimes lure even the most sober-minded into grievous sin.

    541. Faire. fair. Absalom was noted for his personal beauty and for his extraordinarily profuse and rich head of hair.

“But in all Israel there was not a man so comely, and so exceedingly beautiful as Absalom: from the sole of the foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.” [2 Kings xiv. 25]

    foule faults. These faults include: the killing of his half-brother Amnon (David’s eldest son); betraying his own father who loved him dearly and who had forgiven him the fratricide by plotting his overthrow as king; defiling ten women in the royal household; rebelling against his father at the cost of 20,00 men's lives and of his own, when his long hair caught in thick branches as he sought to flee the scene off the last battle.

    542. Sodome. Sodom, one of the five cities of the plain which the Lord God destroyed on account of the terrible sinfulness of their inhabitants:

“And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the earth.” [Gen. xix. 24-25].

    Lakes. The waters of the salt lake nowadays known as the Dead Sea.

    The mud may perhaps refer to a) the putrid remains of those who were punished by this destruction; or b) to their dark sins, which darkened and tarnished the site of the destruction.

    543. aymes. Aims. The ambitious plans of Absalom for his own advancement.

Birth of royall line. His father was King David and his mother was Maacha, daughter of Tholmai, King of Gessur.

    544. play . . . stakes. Suggesting the metaphor of a game or contest, with the chief protagonists being Absalom and his own father, King David. 

    play false. To play a person false: to deceive or betray a person. Absalom secretly plotted his father’s betrayal and overthrow.

    545. gazde. gazed. 

    golden. Superficially or misleadingly attractive; fair-seeming. 1543   Chron. J. Hardyng f. xv   And kynge Edwarde beynge rauished with their golden promises, thoughte nothyng more payneful or wretched, then to tary one daye lenger.

    lustre. Luminosity, brilliancy, bright light; luminous splendour. Brilliance or splendour of renown; glory. 1580   Sir P. Sidney tr. Psalmes David xxxvii. iv   Like the light, he shall display Thy justice in most shining lustre.

    546. gravest. grave. Having weight or importance; influential, respected. 1599   F. Thynne Animaduersions (1875) 22   Chaucer was a grave manne, holden in greate credyt.

+    +    +

- 92 -

But I, whose crime cuts off the least excuse,

A kingdome lost, but hop’d no mite of gaine;

My highest marke was but the worthlesse use

Of some few lingring howres of longer paine. [550]

Ungratefull child, his parent he pursude,

I, Gyants’ warre with God Himselfe renude.

    Unlike Absalom, my sin of betrayal can claim no justification whatsoever; instead of trying to win a kingdom, I threw one away and did so without the hope of gaining anything at all. The most I was aiming for was useless and could lead only to a few extra hours dragged out in pain for myself.

    Absalom was an ungrateful son who pursued war against his own father. The giants of old made war against Jove; I renewed this war, but I was at war with God Himself.

    548. A kingdom.  The kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. There are over 150 references to these two expressions  in the New Testament. Perhaps Peter may have been recalling the following:

“Jesus saith to them: But whom do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.” [Matt. xvi. 15-19]

    The phrase kingdom of heaven is traditionally understood as having several senses, e.g., 1. the kingdom of heaven within a baptised soul in a state of grace; 2. a realm here on earth, of which Christ is acknowledged as king; 3. the kingdom of heaven where the souls of the just enjoy the beatific vision of the Holy and Undivided Trinity.

    mite. 1. Any small coin of low value; originally applied to a Flemish copper coin, but in English used mainly as a proverbial expression for an extremely small unit of monetary value. 1577   D. Gray Store-house Breuitie Arithm. 5   Firste giue heede howe many Mites make one Farthyng, and that beeyng 6. you shall for euery 6 Mytes cary one Farthyng to the place of farthynges. 2. A jot, a whit.  1591   in I. W. Archer et al. Relig., Politics, & Society in 16th-cent. Eng. (2003) 228   It is to mee noe small comforte that my poore myte is acceptable to your lordshipp. 

    549. marke. 1. A target, butt, or other object set up to be aimed at with a missile or projectile. Hence also: a person or animal targeted by an archer, spear-thrower, etc. Also in figurative contexts. 1536   J. Gwynneth Confutacyon Fyrst Parte Frythes Boke xi. sig. d.iiiv   All though they were bothe, of an equall euyll, yet so myche thou arte wyde of the marke, that he is farre, the worst of them bothe. 2. a post or other object indicating the terminal point of a race. Frequently figurative: an object desired or striven for, a goal, an objective, a standard for attainment. 1561   T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. ii. viii. f. 61   Lette this bee our perpetuall marke, to ayde all men faithfully.

    522. Gyants’ warre. This seems to be a reference to the giants’ unsuccessful war with Zeus (Jupiter, Jove) and the Olympian gods (see, e.g., Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book 1). 

    renude. renewed.

+    +    +

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

St Peter's Complaynt : Lines 529-540

Please pray for the soul of Esther Clark. R.I.P. She gave a 
framed copy of this painting to the author in the 1980's.

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 on behalf of my family to Our Blessed Lady, Regina Martyrum et Consolatrix Afflictorum. 

For EEKPTEE&EA.

👈The Tears of St Peter (1587-1596) 

El Greco (Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos) 1541-1614

Museo Soumaya at Plaza Carso, Mexico.

+    +    +

- 89 -

Poore Agar from her phere enforc'd to flye,

Wandring in Barsabeian wildes alone, [530]

Doubting her child throgh helples drought would die,

Layd it aloofe, and set her downe to moane:

The heavens with prayers, her lap with teares she fild;

A mother's love in losse is hardly stild.

    Poor Agar, Sarah's maid and Abraham’s consort, was forced to flee from him and his household. She wandered with her son Ismael in the wilderness of Bersabee, worried that the boy could not but die for want of water. Finally, she placed him under a tree and sat herself down at some distance away, crying out in grief. She filled Heaven with her prayers and her own lap with tears. A loving mother cannot easily be soothed and consoled for the loss of her child.

    Note. Abram’s wife Sarai, having brought forth no children, urged Abram to take her Egyptian handmaid Agar to wife. Agar duly bore Abram a son, Ismael. Later, God appeared to Abram and, having spoken of circumcision, promised his wife Sarai would bear him a son and directed that their names were to be changed to Abraham and Sara. The promised son was born and called Isaac. Chapter xxi. of Genesis then continues as follows:

“And when Sara had seen the son of Agar the Egyptian playing with Isaac her son, she said to Abraham:  Cast out this bondwoman, and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. Abraham took this grievously for his son. And God said to him: Let it not seem grievous to thee for the boy, and for thy bondwoman: in all that Sara hath said to thee, hearken to her voice: for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. But I will make the son also of the bondwoman a great nation, because he is thy seed. So Abraham rose up in the morning, and taking bread and a bottle of water, put it upon her shoulder, and delivered the boy, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Bersabee. And when the water in the bottle was spent, she cast the boy under one of the trees that were there. And she went her way, and sat over against him a great way off as far as a bow can carry, for she said: I will not see the boy die: and sitting over against, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy: and an angel of God called to Agar from heaven, saying: What art thou doing, Agar? fear not: for God hath heard the voice of the boy, from the place wherein he is. Arise, take up the boy, and hold him by the hand: for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes: and she saw a well of water, and went and filled the bottle, and gave the boy to drink.” [Gen. xxi. 9-19]

    529. phere. fere.  A companion, comrade, mate, partner; whether male or female.  A consort; spouse; a husband or wife. c1550   Adam Bell in J. Ritson Pieces Anc. Pop. Poetry (1791) 6   Two of them were single men, The third had a wedded fere.

    flye. fly. To flee. 1594   Willobie his Auisa xlvii. f. 43v   Nor flye the field though she deny.

    530. Barsabeian wildes. The wilderness of Bersabee (Beersheba).

    wildes. 1600   W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice ii. vii. 41   The Hircanion deserts, and the vastie wildes Of wide Arabia.

    531. helples. helpless. Admitting no remedy; that cannot be helped. 1590   E. Spenser Faerie Queene i. vii. sig. G3v   Such helplesse harmes yts better hidden keep.

     drought. Probably here in the sense of thirst: Thirst. 1548   Hall's Vnion: Henry VII f. liii   He called for drynke..one of hys chambrelaynes meruellynge, requyred the cause of hys drouth. 

    532. aloofe. To or at a distance from something; far off; separately, apart. a1554   J. Croke tr. Thirteen Psalms (1844) cii. 20   No frende draweth nere, I syt alowfe.

    set. sat.

    moane. Moan. v. intransitive. To lament, grieve, echoing mourn. 1594   W. Shakespeare Lucrece sig. G4   Let there bechaunce him pitifull mischances, To make him mone 

    534. hardly. Not easily or readily; with difficulty. 1582   Bible (Rheims) Luke xviii. 24   How hardly [Tyndale, Great, Geneva, with what difficulty] shal they that haue money enter into the kingdom of God?

    stild. stilled. still. v. To quiet, calm. To relieve (pain); to assuage, allay. To keep back, repress, desist or refrain from (words, tears). To quiet, calm (a person's mind); to subdue (agitation, emotion). To lull, soothe (a child); to induce (a person) to cease from weeping. 1545   R. Ascham Toxophilus i. f. 11   Euen the little babes..are scarse so well stilled in suckyng theyr mothers pap, as in hearynge theyr mother syng.

+    +    +

- 90 -

But Agar, now bequeath thy teares to me; [535]

Feares, not effects, did set aflote thine eies.

But, wretch, I feele more then was feard of thee;

Ah! not my sonne, my soule it is that dyes.

It dyes for drought, yet hath a spring in sight:

Worthie to dye, that would not live, and might. [540]

    Agar, please share with me the tears which filled thine eyes, not so much because of something that had happened but because of thy fears for the life of thy son.

    As for me, wretch that I am, the fear I feel seems greater than thine because it is not my son but my soul itself that is dying. It is dying from thirst and yet the remedy that would satisfy this thirst is close at hand [Christ, through contrition, confession, forgiveness and a renewal of sanctifying grace].

    I deserve this spiritual death for my soul because I chose it in preference to the supernatural life I might have enjoyed.

    535. bequeath. v. To transfer, hand over, make over, assign, deliver. a1616   W. Shakespeare Winter's Tale (1623) v. iii. 102   Bequeath to Death your numnesse. ?1594   M. Drayton Peirs Gaueston sig. Bv   To you black spirits I my woes bequeath.

    536. aflote. afloat. Overflowing, in flood; submerged in water, flooded; brimming with. 1563   T. Sackville Induction in Myrrour for Magistrates ii. f. cxviiv   Her iyes swollen with flowing streames aflote.

    eies. eyes.  1584   H. Llwyd & D. Powel Hist. Cambria 31   Let them belieue no more but what they see with their Eies.

    537. then. than.

    of thee. by thee.

    539. drought. Probably here in the sense of thirst: Thirst. 1548   Hall's Vnion: Henry VII f. liii   He called for drynke..one of hys chambrelaynes meruellynge, requyred the cause of hys drouth.

    a spring. There are two possible senses here: 1. the drought refers to the absence of tears of contrition and the spring is the contrition which will supply this absence. 2. the soul is dying because it is thirsty and yet the remedy for this thirst is close at hand. Peter thirsts for the life-giving and life-sustaining water of divine grace. Cf. the story of the Samaritan woman at the well:

“There cometh a woman of Samaria, to draw water. Jesus saith to her: Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone into the city to buy meats. Then that Samaritan woman saith to him: How dost thou, being a Jew, ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans. Jesus answered, and said to her: If thou didst know the gift of God, and who he is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou perhaps wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith to him: Sir, thou hast nothing wherein to draw, and the well is deep; from whence then hast thou living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered, and said to her: Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again; but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst for ever: But the water that I will give him, shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting. The woman saith to him: Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come hither to draw.” [John iv. 7-15]  

540. Worthie. Worthy. Deserving of blame, punishment, or misfortune. 1584   R. Scot Discouerie Witchcraft iii. xix. 71   Whereby it is inferred, that they are worthie to die.

+    +    +

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

St Peter's Complaynt : Lines 517-528

Please pray for the soul of Esther Clark. R.I.P. She gave a 
framed copy of this painting to the author in the 1980's.

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 on behalf of my family to Our Blessed Lady, Regina Martyrum et Consolatrix Afflictorum. 

For EEKPTEE&EA.

👈The Tears of St Peter (1587-1596) 

El Greco (Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos) 1541-1614

Museo Soumaya at Plaza Carso, Mexico.

+    +    +

- 87 -

Come shame, the liverie of offending minde,

The ougly shroude that ouershadoweth blame;

The mulct at which fowle faults are iustly fynde;

The dampe of sinne, the common sluce of fame, [520]

By which impostum'd tongues their humours purge;

Light shame on me, I best deserve the scourge.

    Come shame, the distinctive garb for a mind that has sinned, like an ugly cloth that overshadows the guilt it covers; 

    Shame, the standard rate at which vile sins are with justice punished; 

    Shame, the noxious vapour of sin; fame’s common sluice through which the humours of festering tongues pour forth their poison.

    Do thou, O shame, descend upon me for I have fully merited this punishment.

    517. - 518. Perhaps developing the theme in 511 (supra): If Adam sought a veyle to scarfe his sinne. 

    517. liverie. Livery. 1. The distinctive dress worn by the liverymen of a Guild or City of London livery company. More generally: the distinctive dress or uniform provided for and worn by an official, retainer, or employee. 1599   George a Greene sig. F1v   Two liueries will I giue thee euerie yeere, And fortie crownes shall be thy fee. 2. Something assumed or bestowed as a distinguishing feature; a characteristic garb or covering; a distinctive guise, marking, or outward appearance. 1563   2nd Tome Homelyes Rogation Week iv, in J. Griffiths Two Bks. Homilies (1859) ii. 495   Love and charity, which is the only livery of a Christian man.

    518. ougly. Ugly. 1. Offensive or repulsive to the eye; unpleasing in appearance; of disagreeable or unsightly aspect: 2. Morally offensive or repulsive; base, degraded, loathsome, vile. 1583   G. Babington Very Fruitfull Expos. Commaundem. i. 62   Sight of ouglie sinne lodging still in mee..will make mee praise his name.

    shroude. 1.A garment; an article of clothing; 2. The white cloth or sheet in which a corpse is laid out for burial; a winding-sheet.  

    overshadoweth. overshadow. To cast a shadow over; to cover or obscure with shadow, darkness, or clouds. 1563   A. Neville tr. Seneca Lamentable Trag. Œdipus sig. Aiij   No star on hygh at all doth shyne but all the Skies are couered, With black and hellyke hewe & mistie stenche, quight ouershadowed.

    519. mulct. A fine imposed for an offence. Also occasionally in extended use: a compulsory payment, a tax.  A penalty or punishment of any kind.  1584   B. R. tr. Herodotus Famous Hyst. ii. f. 94   The 5 other cityes..sequestred Halicarnassus, beyng the sixth, from the right and freedome of the temple: leviying a mulct or feine [Gk. ζημίη] uppon the whole citye.

    fowle. foul. Grossly offensive to the senses; revolting, loathsome. a1535   T. More Wks. (1557) 477   Lest he finally fall into the fowle smoke of helle, where he shall neuer see after.

fynde. fined. 

    520. dampe. Perhaps linked with the word humours in 521. (vid. Infra). 1. An exhalation, a vapour or gas, of a noxious kind. 1584   T. Cogan Hauen of Health ccxliii. 281   All infected in a manner at one instant, by reason of a dampe or miste which arose..within the Castle yeard. 2. A dazed or stupefied condition; loss of consciousness or vitality, stupor. 1542   T. Becon Dauids Harpe 150 b   He was in a trauns, that is to say in a dampe, a stupour, abashement, and soden privacion of sence or fealyng. 3. A state of dejection; depression of spirits. 1606   G. W. tr. Justinus Hist. 22 a   Their heartes were stricken into a great dampe, and were so discouraged, that [etc.].

    sluce. 1. A structure of wood or masonry, a dam or embankment, for impounding the water of river, canal, etc., provided with an adjustable gate or gates by which the volume of water is regulated or controlled. Also, rarely, the body of water so impounded or controlled.   2.  figurative. 1586   T. Bowes tr. P. de la Primaudaye French Acad. I. 283   The number of them being verie small, who would not willingly make (as we say) a sluce to their consciences.

521. impostum'd. Imposthumed. Imposthume. v. To gather into an impostume or abscess; = impostumate. 

To swell into an impostume, to form an ulcerous tumour; to fester. 1607   G. Markham Cavelarice vii. 70   When those kernels do swel and impostumate outwardly. 1712   J. Arbuthnot Law is Bottomless-pit viii. 15   The Bruise imposthumated, and afterwards turn'd to a stinking Ulcer.

humours. In ancient and medieval physiology and medicine: any of four fluids of the body (blood, phlegm, choler, and so-called melancholy or black bile) believed to determine, by their relative proportions and conditions, the state of health and the temperament of a person or animal. In early use also: †any of the four qualities (hotness, coldness, dryness, and moistness) believed to be associated with these. 1598   F. Meres Palladis Tamia f. 146   The foure humors of the body (heate, coldnes, drines, and moisture) are the causes of all welfare and ill fare in the body.

522. light. Here perhaps in the following sense: With on, upon, or (rarely) †to. Of good fortune, misery, a curse, etc.: to fall or descend upon a person, place, etc.; to be the fate or lot of someone. 1607   E. Sharpham Cupids Whirligig ii. sig. D3v   The plague of Egipt light vppon you all.

+    +    +

- 88 -

Caines murdering hand imbrude in brothers blood,

More mercy then my impious toung may crave;

He kild a ryvall with pretence of good, [525]

In hope Gods doubled love alone to have.

But feare so spoild my vanquisht thoughts of loue,

That periurde oathes my spightfull hate did prove.

    

    Cain slew Abel and yet even Cain's murdering hand, stained with Abel's blood, has more of a claim to God’s mercy than my wicked tongue. 

    Cain killed his rival with what he thought was a good reason, for he thought to double God’s love and have it all for himself alone; but in my case, any thoughts of love that I had were vanquished, being stripped away by my abject fear. I broke my oath of faithfulness and this proved my shameful and detestable betrayal.

    523. Cain’s murder of his brother Abel is set in chapter iv. of Genesis:

“And Cain said to Abel his brother: Let us go forth abroad. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and slew him. And the Lord said to Cain: Where is thy brother Abel? And he answered, I know not: am I my brother's keeper? And he said to him: What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth to me from the earth. Now, therefore, cursed shalt thou be upon the earth, which hath opened her mouth and received the blood of thy brother at thy hand. When thou shalt till it, it shall not yield to thee its fruit: a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be upon the earth.” [Gen iv. 8-12]

    imbrude. imbrue. v. To stain, dirty, defile. To stain, dye (one's hand, sword, etc.) in or with (blood, slaughter, etc.). 1577   M. Hanmer tr. Socrates Scholasticus iv. xxix, in Aunc. Eccl. Hist. 340   Thy right hand is imbrued with slaughter and bloodshed.

Said of blood or bleeding wounds. 1595   S. Daniel First Fowre Bks. Ciuile Warres iii. lxxxii. sig. Q2v   There lies that comely body all imbrude With that pure bloud, mixt with that fowle he shed.

    524. impious. Not pious; without piety or reverence for God and his ordinances; presumptuously irreligious, wicked, or profane: 1585   Abp. E. Sandys Serm. xi. 173   If magistrates should commaund that which is impious..we haue our answere well warranted,..It is better to obey God than men.

    toung. tongue.

    525. pretence.  An assertion of a right, title, etc.; the putting forth of a claim; a claim. An alleged reason; an excuse or pretext. In later use chiefly: a trivial, groundless, or fallacious excuse or reason. 

    528. spightful. spiteful. Full of, possessed or animated by, spite; malicious, malevolent.  1561   T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. (1634) i. 70   He is of nature froward, spiteful, and malicious.

1591   J. Lyly Endimion iv. iii. sig. G3v   Belike you cannot speake except you bee spightfull.

+    +    +

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.

St Peter's Complaynt : Lines 505-516

Please pray for the soul of Esther Clark. R.I.P. She gave a 
framed copy of this painting to the author in the 1980's.

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 on behalf of my family to Our Blessed Lady, Regina Martyrum et Consolatrix Afflictorum. 

For EEKPTEE&EA.

👈The Tears of St Peter (1587-1596) 

El Greco (Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos) 1541-1614

Museo Soumaya at Plaza Carso, Mexico.

+    +    +

- 85 -

I lost all that I had, and had the most, [505]

The most that will can wish, or wit devise:

I least perform'd, that did most vainely boast,

I stainde my fame in most infamous wise.

What daunger then, death, wrath, or wreck can move

More pregnant cause of teares then this I prove? [510]

    I lost everything I had; and what I had was the most that any will could wish for or any mind conceive. I had in my vanity made the most foolish boasts, and to no purpose since I did not in the least translate them into action. I stained my name in a most shameful manner.

    What possible danger then could there be to me — death, divine wrath, utter ruin — that could be more guaranteed to bring forth tears than what I am now experiencing?

    507. vainely.  1. With personal vanity; conceitedly. 1602   W. S. True Chron. Hist. Ld. Cromwell sig. D4   'Tis greater glorie for me, that you remember it, Then of my selfe vainelie to report it. 2. Foolishly, senselessly, thoughtlessly. 1596   J. Dalrymple tr. J. Leslie Hist. Scotl. (1888) I. 101   Nathir haue thay notwithstandeng, now vanelie fallin frome the faith of the Catholik Kirk. 3. In a vain or futile manner; without advantage, profit, or success; to no effect or purpose; in vain; uselessly, fruitlessly, ineffectually. a1616   W. Shakespeare Timon of Athens (1623) v. v. 8   Till now, my selfe and such As slept within the shadow of your power Haue..breath'd Our sufferance vainly .

boast. See, for example: 

"And Peter answering, said to him: Although all shall be scandalized in thee, I will never be scandalized. Jesus said to him: Amen I say to thee, that in this night before the cock crow, thou wilt deny me thrice. Peter saith to him: Yea, though I should die with thee, I will not deny thee. And in like manner said all the disciples." [Matt. xxvi. 33-35]

    508. infamous. Deserving of infamy; of shameful badness, vileness, or abominableness; of a character or quality deserving utter reprobation. (One of the strongest adjectives of detestation.) 1590   E. Spenser Faerie Queene i. xii. sig. M2v   False erraunt knight, infamous, and forswore. 1606   J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. (new ed.) ii. iii. 147   A Sinke of Filth, where aye th' infamousest, Most bold and buisie, are esteemed best.

    509. daunger. 1. Liability (to loss, punishment, etc.). 1526   W. Tyndale Pathway Holy Script. in Wks. (1848) I. 9   The wretched man (that knoweth himself to be..in danger to death and hell). 2. Difficulty (made or raised); hesitation, reluctance, chariness, stint, grudging; 1526   A. Dalaber in J. Foxe Actes & Monuments (1570) 1368/2   I made daunger of it a while at first, but afterward beyng persuaded by them..I promised to do as they would haue me.

+    +    +

- 86 -

If Adam sought a veyle to scarfe his sinne,

Taught by his fall to feare a scourging hand;

If men shall wish that hils should wrap them in,

When crimes in finall doome come to be scand; 

What mount, what cave, what center can conceale [515]

My monstrous fact, which even the birds reveale?

    Adam sought to consider the shame resulting from his sin by covering his nakedness with fig leaves; he learned that his fall brought fearful consequences as punishment.

    When men consider how their sins will be revealed and examined at the day of Judgement, they pray in their shame and terror for the mountains and hills to fall upon them and cover them.

    As for me, what mountain, hill or hidden den can conceal my monstrous sin, a sin which even the birds reveal?

    511. The reference here is to chapter iii. of Genesis:

“And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband who did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened: and when they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons. And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise at the afternoon air, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God, amidst the trees of paradise. And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: Where art thou? And he said: I heard thy voice in paradise; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” [Gen. iii. 6-10]

    veyle. veil. A length of linen or other fabric.  figurative and in extended use. Something which conceals, covers, or hides in the manner of a veil; 1596   J. Dalrymple tr. J. Leslie Hist. Scotl. (1888) I. 228   Eftir her consecratione, haueng put on the Vale of her Virginitie..eftir the consuetude of the kirke.

    scarfe. v. To clothe, cover, or wrap with or as with a scarf or scarves; a1616   W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) iii. ii. 48   Come, seeling Night, Skarfe vp the tender Eye of pittifull Day.

    512. Adam’s fall through pride and disobedience brought consequences not only for himself but for all mankind:

“To the woman also he said: I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband's power, and he shall have dominion over thee. And to Adam he said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work; with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.” [Gen. iii. 16-19]

    513. - 514. Consider the words of Christ when He encounters the women of Jerusalem whilst carrying His cross:

“And there followed him a great multitude of people, and of women, who bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning to them, said: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over me; but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For behold, the days shall come, wherein they will say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the paps that have not given suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains: Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us.” [Luke xxiii. 27-30]

    Consider, too, St John’s words in the Apocalypse:

“And I saw, when he had opened the sixth seal, and behold there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair: and the whole moon became as blood: And the stars from heaven fell upon the earth, as the fig tree casteth its green figs when it is shaken by a great wind: And the heaven departed as a book folded up: and every mountain, and the islands were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the princes, and tribunes, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of mountains:  And they say to the mountains and the rocks: Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb:  For the great day of their wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?” [Apoc. vi. 12-17]

    514. doome. doom. The last or great Judgement at the end of the world; 1529   T. More Dialogue Heresyes ii, in Wks. 180/1   I speke of Christes..comming to the dreadfull dome. a1616   W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) iv. i. 133   What will the Line stretch out to' th' cracke of Doome ?

    scand. scanned. Scan. v. Here, To examine, consider, or discuss minutely. 1586   Let. to Earl Leicester 16   But you Lawyers are so nice in sifting and skanning euery woorde and letter.

    516. even the birds reveale. A reference to the cock crowing and Peter’s denial. see, for example:

“And immediately the cock crew again. And Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said unto him: Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt thrice deny me. And he began to weep.” [Mark xiv. 72]

+    +    +

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.