Dum morior orior
The pounded spice both tast and sent doth please
Infading smoke the force doth incense shewe
The perisht kernell springeth with encrease
The lopped tree doth best and soonest growe.
Gods spice I was and pounding was my due [5]
In fading breath my incense savoured best
Death was the meane my kyrnell to renewe
By loppinge shott I upp to heavenly rest.
Some thinges more perfect are in their decaye
Like sparke that going out gives clerest light [10]
Such was my happ whose dolefull dying daye
Beganne my joye and termed fortunes spite
Alive a Queene now dead I am a Sainte
Once M. calld my name now Martyr is
From earthly raigne debarred by restraint [15]
In liew whereof I raigne in heavenly blisse
My life my griefe my death hath wroughte my joye
My frendes my foyle my foes my Weale procur'd
My speedy death hath shortened longe annoye
And losse of life and endles life assur'd [20]
My Skaffold was the bedd where ease I founde
The blocke a pilloe of Eternall reste
My hedman cast me in a blisfull swounde
His axe cutt off my cares from combred breste
Rue not my death rejoyce at my repose [25]
It was no death to me but to my woe
The budd was opened to lett out the Rose
The cheynes unloosed to let the captive goe
A prince by birth a prisoner by mishappe
From Crowne to crosse from throne to thrall I fell [30]
My right my ruth my titles wrought my trapp
My weale my woe my worldly heaven my hell.
By death from prisoner to a prince enhaunc'd
From Crosse to Crowne from thrall to throne againe
My ruth my right my trapp my stile advaunc'd [35]
From woe to weale from hell to heavenly raigne.
Notes
Dum morior orior: Even while I die, I rise. Decease (death in this world) releases me (to eternal life in Heaven).
dum : (conj.), while, as long as, 1.607, et al.; even while (in the act of), 6.586; until, till, 1.265; yet, as yet.morior , mortuus sum, morī, 3 and 4, dep. n.: to die, perish. orior , ortus sum, 4 (pres. oritur, 3 conj.): to rise, spring up.
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| Mary Queen of Scots. After Nicholas Hilliard. 1578. NPG (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) |
In a particular sense, the poem refers to Mary, Queen of Scots (see for example ll 13-14); in a secondary sense, it speaks for all the Catholic martyrs who were butchered under the Tudors; in a third sense, it can speak for all Christian martyrs ready to offer sacrifice for their Divine Saviour.
Her life: a summary
Mary Stuart was born at Linlithgow, 8 December, 1542 and died at Fotheringay, 8 February, 1587. She was the only legitimate child of James V of Scotland, the son of King James IV of Scotland and his wife Margaret Tudor (sister of Henry VIII). His death (on 14 December) followed immediately after her birth, and she became queen when only six days old. The Tudors tried to force a marriage with Edward VI of England. Mary, however, was sent to be educated in France and in 1558, she married the dauphin Francis. On the death of Henri II in 1559, she became Queen Consort of France until Francis's death in 1560. Widowed, Mary returned to Scotland in 1561. Four years later, she married her first cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and in June 1566 they had a son, James.
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| Elizabeth I 1580s Unknown. NPG CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 |
the garden. James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, was generally believed to have orchestrated Darnley's death, but he was acquitted of the charge and in 1567 he married Mary. Following an uprising against the couple, Mary was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle. On 24 July 1567 she was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son. After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the throne, she fled southwards seeking the protection of her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England.
Mary had once claimed Elizabeth's throne as her own, and was considered the legitimate sovereign of England by many English Catholics, including participants in a rebellion known as the Rising of the North. Elizabeth had her confined in various castles and manor houses in the interior of England. After eighteen and a half years in custody, Mary was found guilty of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth in 1586. She was beheaded the following year at Fotheringhay Castle. She was first buried in Peterborough Cathedral with great solemnity by Elizabeth's orders but James I brought the remains to Westminster Abbey in 1612. To read the Abbey's translation of her tomb inscriptions, click here: Westminster Abbey - Mary Queen of Scots.
[l1-4] tast and sent: taste and scent. Spice that has been pounded produces a pleasing taste and aroma. The paradox is the contrast between dying, on the one hand, and surprisingly good results that may ensue therefrom. Incense, for example, shows the power of its taste and scent in smoke that is fades and dies away. A kernel or seed, in dying, produces the seedling of a new plant. When a branch is cut and dies, the tree grows more vigorously.
[l5-9]: The ideas in the first stanza are now attached to a person:
I was like the spice described, God chose for my due or destiny for me to be impounded, confined and crushed; my dying breath rose Heavenwards like a sweet offering of incense; death was the means by which I might pass to a renewed life in Heaven; through being cut down in this world, I could rise up to be happy with God forever in the next.
[l5] God's spice: Towards the end of Shakespeare's King Lear is a passage that seems to contain an echo of Southwell's words. Lear is speaking to his daughter, Cordelia. Brokenhearted and disturbed in his wits, he utters words that have an astonishing, haunting wisdom. 'Come,' he says to Cordelia, 'let's away to prison':
We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:There is considerable evidence that Shakespeare was a Catholic and that he knew Southwell. There is also evidence that the Bard was influenced by Southwell's poetry. Joseph Pearce presents a very strong case. See:
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down
And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,
Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;
And take upon's the mystery of things,
As if we were God's spies. (Act V, Scene 3)
- The Quest for Shakespeare: The Bard of Avon and the Church of Rome. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. 2008.
- Through Shakespeare's Eyes: Seeing the Catholic Presence in the Plays. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. 2010.
In the quotation from Lear, it is easy to read the image of imprisonment as a reference to the reality of life under the Elizabethan regime of spies, informants and draconian penalties for any Catholics caught practising the faith of their fathers. Those prepared to give witness to their Catholic faith become in a sense counter-spies, 'spying' for Christ the King of Heaven and not for the illegitimate, upstart queen and her ministers.
[l11] happ: a chance, accident, happening; (often contextually) an unfortunate event, mishap, mischance.
[l12] termed: Term - To bring to an end or conclusion; to terminate. Obsolete.
[l14] M.: the metre and Mary suits both sense and metre which requires a trochee here.
[ll17-18]: The syntax (the ways in which a particular word or part of speech can be arranged with other words or parts of speech) permits a number of senses, relyinng on the use of paradox (an apparently absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition, or a strongly counter-intuitive one, which investigation, analysis, or explanation may nevertheless prove to be well-founded or true). Here is one reading:
My life hath wrought my grief [family losses, widowhood, loss of child and two husbands, arrest and imprisonment, false accusations, unjust condemnation and execution); my death hath wrought my joy (supernatural life through martyrdom); my friends procured my defeat and disgrace (through betrayal); my foes procured my well being (Heaven).[l18] foyle: A repulse, defeat. A disgrace, stigma. Obsolete.
[l19] annoye: pain arising from the involuntary reception of impressions, or subjection to circumstances, which one dislikes; disturbed or ruffled feeling; discomfort, vexation, trouble.
[l23] hedman: executioner (she was beheaded).
[l23] swounde: swound, swoon - a fainting fit.
[l24] combred: encumbered, laden, oppressed
[l29] prince: male or female at this epoch.
[l30] thrall: The condition of a thrall; thraldom, bondage, servitude; captivity.
[l31] My right: Mistress of Scotland by law, of France by marriage, of England by expectation, thus blest, by a three-fold right, with a three-fold crown. The daughter, bride and mother of kings.
[31] ruthe: ruth - Mischief; calamity; ruin. Obsolete. Matter for sorrow or regret; occasion of sorrow or regret. Obsolete.
[l34] Crowne:
[7] I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. [8] As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day: and not only to me, but to them also that love his coming. [2 Timothy 4][l35] stile: style - the ceremonial designation of a sovereign, including his various titles and the enumeration of his dominions. It matches 'titles' in l31.
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