St Peter's Complaynt : Lines 589-600

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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- 99 -

O sister nymphes, the sweet renowned payre,

That blesse Bethania bounds with your aboade! [590]

Shall I infect that sanctified ayre,

Or staine those steps where Iesus breath’d and trode?

No; let your prayers perfume that sweetned place;

Turne me with tygers to the wildest chase.

    Martha and Mary: you are two sisters who are by now well-known. You live in a town called Bethania which is blessed by the good things that happened in your home. Could I, a sinful traitor,  even think of polluting that hallowed place with my presence, or sullying the very ground where Jesus Himself walked during His visits?

    No: let your prayers ccontinue to spread their fragrance in that hallowed home; I deserve only to suffer the fearful pangs of my guilty conscience, like a man relentlessly pursued by wild beasts.

    589. O sister nymphes . . . Bethania. This appears to be a reference to the two sisters, Martha and Mary, of whom the Catholic Encyclopedia states:

“Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are represented by St. John as living at Bethania, but St. Luke would seem to imply that they were, at least at one time, living in Galilee; he does not mention the name of the town, but it may have been Magdala, and we should thus, supposing Mary of Bethania and Mary Magdalene to be the same person, understand the appellative ‘Magdalene’.”

    See too the following excerpts from the Gospel:

“Now it came to pass as they went, that he entered into a certain town: and a certain woman named Martha, received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sitting also at the Lord's feet, heard his word.” [Luke x. 38-39]

“Now there was a certain man sick, named Lazarus, of Bethania, of the town of Mary and Martha her sister. (And Mary was she that anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair: whose brother Lazarus was sick.) His sisters therefore sent to him, saying: Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.” [John xi. 1-3]

    nymphes. nymph. Here, in the general sense of: A beautiful young woman; a maiden, a damsel. 1600   W. Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream iv. i. 126   Thes. But soft. What nymphes are these? Egeus. My Lord, this my daughter heere a sleepe.

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- 100 -

Could I revived Lazarus behold, [595]

The thyrd of that sweet Trinitie of saints,

Would not astonisht dread my sences hold?

Ah yes, my hart even with his naming faints:

I seeme to see a messenger from hell,

That my prepared torments comes to tell. [600]

   Lazarus and his two sisters Martha and Mary formed an earthly trinity of saintly persons. 

If I were to see Lazarus now, would not all my senses be seized with horror and dismay? In truth, at the mere mention of his name, my heart loses all courage and I tremble with dread; it is as though I were to see a messenger from Hell itself who had come tell me of the torments awaiting me.

 

    Note. The raising of Lazarus is recounted in Chapter xi. Of St John’s Gospel.

    596. The Trinity of saints consists of Martha, Mary (vid. supra 589. - 594) and their brother Lazarus.

    597. astonisht. astonish. v. To deprive of sensation, as by a blow; to stun, paralyse, deaden, stupefy. To stun mentally; to shock a person out of his or her wits; to drive stupid, bewilder. To shock a person out of his or her self-possession, or confidence; to dismay, terrify. 1535   Bible (Coverdale) Jer. ii. 12   Be astonished (o ye heauens), be afrayde, and abashed at soch a thinge.

a1616   W. Shakespeare Julius Caesar (1623) i. iii. 56   When the most mightie Gods, by tokens send Such dreadfull Heraulds, to astonish vs.

    598. hart. heart.

faints. faint. v. To lose heart or courage, be afraid, become depressed, give way, flag. 1526   Bible (Tyndale) 2 Cor. iv. 1   As mercy is come on us we fayncte not.

    599. a messenger from hell. Cf. 

“And, crueller still,

A fierce and restless fright begins to fill

The mansion of my soul. And, worse and worse,

Some bodily form of ill

Floats on the wind, with many a loathsome curse {329}

Tainting the hallow'd air, and laughs, and flaps

Its hideous wings,

And makes me wild with horror and dismay.

O Jesu, help! pray for me, Mary, pray!” [1865. Newman. The Dream of Gerontius, 325-333.] 

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Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.