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| 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. |
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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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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