St Peter's Complaynt : Lines 571-576

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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- 96 -

With easie losse sharpe wreaks did he eschew,

That Sindonles aside did naked slip:

Once naked grace no outward garment knew;

Riche are his robes whom sinne did never stryp.

I, that in vaunts displaid Pride's fayrest flags, [575]

Disrob’d of grace, am wrapt in Adams rags.

    When the armed band came to arrest Christ, the disciple John Mark was also seized but he managed fairly easily to escape their keenness to punish him by slipping off his cloak and running away naked. 

    There was a time when man, before his fall, lived in a state of grace and knew no need to clothe his naked body. A man who never falls into mortal sin is truly said to be clothed with the riches of grace. 

    I was quick to make boasts, making a proud display of my loyalty as though it were a fine banner. Now, I find that my sin of betrayal stripped me of grace and left me quite naked, clad like the fallen Adam in rags and tatters.

    

    571. - 572. These two lines refer to an incident recorded by St Mark when the disciples fled from Gethsemane after Christ was seized:

“Then his disciples leaving him, all fled away. And a certain young man followed him, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and they laid hold on him. But he, casting off the linen cloth, fled from them naked.” [Mark xiv. 50-52]

    Most commentators identify the “certain young man” as St Mark himself (John Mark, whose mother owned a large house in Jerusalem where the Last Supper was eaten).

    571. sharpe. sharp. Of conflict, warfare, an attack: Carried on with vigour, fierce, keen. Referring here to the armed band who came to arrest Christ. 

    wreaks.  wreak. n. Pain or punishment inflicted in return for an injury, wrong, offence, etc.; hurt or harm done from vindictive motives; vengeance, revenge. Harm, injury; damage. a1598   A. Montgomerie Mindes Melodie (1600) vi. 44   My foes..would rejoise To see my wreak, and would my soule subuert.

Cf. wrack and wreck.

    eschew. To avoid, shun. a1616   W. Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor (1623) v. v. 229   What cannot be eschew'd, must be embrac'd. 

    572. Sindonles. Sindonless, i.e., without a sindon. A piece of this fabric used for various purposes: e.g., as a garment. This is a reference to the “linen cloth” referred to in St Mark’s Gospel (vid. supra). “linen cloth” is a translation of the 

Latin  sindon, ŏnis, f., = σινδών . The 1582 edition of the Douay New testament has the following:

“Then his difciples leaving him, all fled. And a certain yong man followed him clothed with findon upon the bare: & they tooke him. But he cafting of the findon, fled from them naked.” [Mark xiv. 50-52]

    573. A possible reference here to Adam and Eve before their fall from grace.

“And they were both naked: to wit, Adam and his wife: and were not ashamed.” [Gen. ii. 25]

    Cf. after their fall:

“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.” [Gen. Iii. 7]

    574. The man is richly clad indeed who is clothed with the riches of sanctifying grace, in contrast to the sinner who strips himself thereof. 

    There may also be a reference by implication to the traditional ritual of the sacrament of Baptism.

    The priest would take a white linen cloth — symbolizing the purity of a soul cleansed from all sin, and a relic of the days when the newly baptized wore white albs for 8 days — and place it on the head of the candidate.  

Priest: Receive this white garment, which mayest thou carry without stain before the judgment seat of our Lord Jesus Christ, that thou mayest have life everlasting.

    575. vaunts. Boasting, bragging; boastful or vainglorious language or utterance; arrogant assertion or bearing. 1596   E. Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene vi. iv. sig. Cc5   A great Gyant..Whom he did ouerthrow..And in three battailes did so deadly daunt, That he dare not returne for all his daily vaunt .

His vaunts include:

“And Peter answering, said to him: Although all shall be scandalized in thee, I will never be scandalized.”[Matt. xxvi. 33]

“Peter saith to him: Yea, though I should die with thee, I will not deny thee.” [Matt. xxvi. 35]

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Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.