St Peter's Complaynt : Lines 481-492

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.

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- 81 -

Weepe balme and myrrhe, you sweet Arabian trees,

With purest gummes perfume and pearle your ryne;

Shed on your honey-drops, you busie bees;

I, barraine plant, must weepe vnpleasant bryne,

Hornets I hyve, salt drops their labour plyes, [485]

Suckt out of sinne, and shed by showring eyes.

    Picture the sweet trees of Arabia, weeping balm and myrrh that ooze fragrant little drops from the bark; and picture the gathering bees, whose busy visits to flowers produce drops of honey. 

    I, alas, am like a barren plant with neither flower nor fruit, weeping bitter brine; not for me the bees’ honey-drops, but rather the salty droplets produced as if by angry hornets, sucked from my sin and shed in floods of tears from my eyes.

    481. balme. An aromatic substance, consisting of resin mixed with volatile oils, exuding naturally from various trees of the genus Balsamodendron, and much prized for its fragrance and medicinal properties. 1563   T. Gale Certaine Wks. Chirurg. iv. ii. f. 35   This oile hath al the vertues of true Balme. 

Aromatic ointment used for soothing pain or healing wounds. transferred or figurative. A healing, soothing, or softly restorative, agency or influence. 1597   W. Shakespeare Richard III i. ii. 13   Lo in those windowes..I powre the helplesse balme of my poore eies. 

    myrrhe. Myrrh. A bitter, aromatic gum resin exuded by various Arabian and African trees of the genus Commiphora. figurative and in figurative contexts. Balm; sweetness; something which soothes, heals, or preserves. ?1548   J. Bale Image Bothe Churches (new ed.) i. sig. Dv   The odoriferous mirrha geueth forth the swete smelle of all good Christen workes.

    482. gummes. Gum. A viscid secretion issuing from certain trees and shrubs, which hardens in drying but is usually soluble in cold or hot water, in this respect differing from resin. 

    pearle. v. transitive. To set, decorate, or stud with or as with pearls, or with mother-of-pearl. Chiefly literary. To sprinkle with dew, tears, etc.; to cover with pearl-like drops. Of dew, tears, etc.: to cover or adhere to in the form of a drop or drops. 1594   J. Ogle Lament. Troy sig. B2v   His siluer beard he pearled..with teares.

    ryne. rind. The bark of a tree or plant. 1555   R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde iii. xi. f. 161v   The leaues wherof are made of the inner ryndes or barkes of trees. 

    483. Shed. To emit and let fall in drops. 1590   E. Spenser Faerie Queene ii. iii. sig. P2   And when she spake, Sweete wordes, like dropping honny she did shed.

    484. barraine. barren. Of trees or plants: Without fruit or seed. Figurative senses. Bare of intellectual wealth, destitute of attraction or interest, poor, meagre, jejune, arid, dry. 1598   R. Barret Theorike & Pract. Mod. Warres Pref. 5   Discourses..not so barraine, but you may reape some good fruit from them.

    bryne. Brine. Water saturated, or strongly impregnated, with salt; salt water. 1597   W. Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet ii. ii. 69   Iesu Maria, what a deale of brine Hath washt thy sallow cheekes for Rosaline? 

    485. hyve. v. transitive. To gather (bees) into a hive; to locate (a swarm) in a hive. transferred and figurative. To shelter as in a hive; to afford shelter to, as a hive does; c1595   Countess of Pembroke Psalme lvii. 4 in Coll. Wks. (1998) II. 59   Lord..Hide me, hiue me, as thyne owne, Till those blasts be overblown.

    plyes. ply. v. transitive. To apply oneself to, practise, work at (one's business, an industry, a task, etc.). a1513   R. Fabyan New Cronycles Eng. & Fraunce (1516) I. cxxxiv. f. lxxv   Then they plyed nothynge that was worldely, but gaue them to prechynge and techynge. 1555   W. Waterman tr. J. Boemus Fardle of Facions ii. xii. 269   Diligently to plye the reading of holy scripture.

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- 82 -

If Dauid, night by night, did bathe his bed,

Esteeming longest dayes too short to mone;

Inconsolable teares if Anna shed, 

Who in her sonne her solace had forgone;[490]

Then I to dayes and weekes, to monthes and yeeres,

Do owe the hourely rent of stintless teares.

    King David washed his bed every night with his tears of contrition and for him even the longest days were too short to express his grief and sorrow. Anna, the mother of Tobias, wept and wept inconsolable tears for her missing son.

    If this is true for David and Anna, then I must reckon my debt of hourly, unstinting tears by days, weeks, months and years.

    487. - 488. If David . . . to mone. Peter refers here to King David's words in Psalm vi where he declares his contrition for his sins:

O Lord, rebuke me not in thy indignation, nor chastise me in thy wrath. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak: heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. And my soul is troubled exceedingly: but thou, O Lord, how long? Turn to me, O Lord, and deliver my soul: O save me for thy mercy's sake.For there is no one in death, that is mindful of thee: and who shall confess to thee in hell? I have laboured in my groanings, every night I will wash my bed: I will water my couch with my tears. [Psalm vi. 2-7]

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

    489. - 490.  Anna is the mother of Tobias and laments the long absence of her son Tobias.

But as Tobias made longer stay upon occasion of the marriage, Tobias his father was solicitous, saying: Why thinkest thou doth my son tarry, or why is he detained there? Is Gabelus dead, thinkest thou, and no man will pay him the money? And he began to be exceeding sad, both he and Anna his wife with him: and they began both to weep together: because their son did not return to them on the day appointed. But his mother wept and was quite disconsolate, and said: Woe, woe is me, my son; why did we send thee to go to a strange country, the light of our eyes, the staff of our old age, the comfort of our life, the hope of our posterity? We having all things together in thee alone, ought not to have let thee go from us.[Tobias (Tobit) x. 1-5]

    492. stintless. That may not be stinted or caused to cease; that may not be assuaged or satisfied. 1587   T. Hughes Misfortunes Arthur Epil. 8   See heere..The lasting panges: the stintlesse greefes: the teares.

1598   S. Rowlands Betraying of Christ sig. Gv   His life was nothing els but stintlesse passion.

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Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.