St Peter's Complaynt : Lines 637-648

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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- 107 -

Ah, sinne, the nothing that doth all things file,

Outcast from heaven, earthes curse, the cause of hell;

Parent of death, author of our exile,

The wrecke of soules, the wares that fiends do sell; [640]

That men to monsters, Angels turnes to divels,

Wrong of all rights, self-ruine, roote of evils.

Ah, the wretchedness of sin.  As a privation of goodness, it is like nothing; but it pollutes and destroys everything. It led to Adam and all his descendants being cast out of Heaven and it has cursed the earth. It is the cause of Hell.  It is the begetter of death, which we all inherit from our first parent. It led to exile from our heavenly home. It causes the wreck and devastation of souls. Sin is the infernal merchandise peddled by Satan and his demons. Men made in the image and likeness of God are made into monsters; Angels are turned into devils. It is the wrong that is the opposite of everything that is right; it leads to the ruin of oneself; it is at the root of all evil.

    637. file. transitive. To render (materially) foul, filthy or dirty; to pollute, dirty; to destroy the cleanness or purity of; = defile.  ?1523   J. Fitzherbert Bk. Husbandry f. xxiv   Yf any shepe..be fyled with dong about the tayle. 1607   G. Wilkins Miseries Inforst Mariage sig. I4   As not to file my hands in villaines blood.

    To render morally foul or polluted; to destroy the ideal purity of; to corrupt, taint, sully. To sully the honour of, dishonour. 1594   King James VI in P. F. Tytler Hist. Scotl. (1864) IV. 217   That so wise and provident a prince [Elizabeth]..should be so fyled and contemned by a great number of her own subjects.

    640. wrecke. wreck. The action or process of wrecking or destroying, and related uses. The action of subverting or overthrowing an established order of things, etc.; the fact of being brought to disaster; downfall, overthrow, ruin. 1595   E. Spenser Amoretti xxv, in Amoretti & Epithalamion sig. B6   Then all the woes and wrecks which I abide, As meanes of blisse I gladly wil embrace. 

    638. Outcast from heaven, earthes curse.  These words recall the consequences of the first sin, committed by Adam and Eve:

“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;” [Gen. iii.17]

“And he cast out Adam; and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubims, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” [Gen. iii.24]

    639. parent of death. The begetter of death for Adam and mankind, whom God had made for eternal life.

“ . . . for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.” [Gen. iii.19] 

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- 108 -

A thing most done, yet more then God can doe;

Dayly new done, yet ever done amisse;

Friended of all, yet unto all a foe; [645]

Seeming a heaven, yet banishing from blisse;

Served with toyle, yet paying nought but paine,

Mans deepest losse, though false, esteemed gaine.

    Sin . . . It is one of the things that people do most, yet in fact it is more than God Himself can do, since God is without any sin whatsoever. It’s something people do every day and it always leads to evil. It presents itself as everyone's friend but, in truth, it is the enemy off everybody. It holds out the hope of heavenly delight but in reality it drives into exile those hoping for such bliss. It actually takes a lot of effort and toil and yet its reward is nothing but pain and anguish. Sin tempts with its promises, but these are lies. The sinner loses everything and plunges into the depths of hell.  

    643. yet more then God can doe.  God is incapable of sin. 

“For we have not a high priest, who can not have compassion on our infirmities: but one tempted in all things like as we are, without sin.” [Hebrews. iv. 15]

    644. Dayly new done. It is written that even the just man sins daily:

“For a just man shall fall seven times and shall rise again: but the wicked shall fall down into evil.” [Prov. xxiv. 16]

    amisse. amiss. Wickedly, sinfully; with evil intent; wrongfully; 1611   Bible (King James) Luke xxiii. 41   We receiue the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done nothing amisse .

    645. friended. Having a friend; possessed of or supplied with friends. That has been made a friend; befriended. 1568   E. Tilney Brief Disc. Mariage (new ed.) sig. Eiv   What avayleth it a man to have his wife of..good parentage, and wel friended, if [etc.].

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Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.