SAINT PETERS complaynt - by Robert Southwell

Introduction

Excluding the introductory address to the reader, this poem totals 792 lines of rhyming, iambic pentameter, arranged in six-line stanzas.  In view of its length, I plan to publish and annotate the poem in a series of posts.

The Author to the Reader

Deare eye that daynest to let fall a looke,
On these sad memories of Peters plaints:
Muse not to see some mud in cleerest brooke,
They once were brittle mould that now are Saints.
Theyr weaknes is no warrant to offend, [5] 
Learne by their faults, what in thine owne to mend.

If equities even-hand the balance held,
Where Peters sinnes and ours were made the weightes:
Ounce for his dramme: Pound, for his ounce we yeeld:
His ship would groane to feele some sinners freightes.[10]
So ripe is vice, so greene is vertues bud:
The world doth waxe in ill, but waine in good.

This makes my mourning Muse resolve in teares,
This theames my heavy penne to plaine in prose,
Christs thorne is sharp, no head his Garland weares:[15]
Still finest wits are stilling Venus Rose.
In paynim toyes the sweetest vaines are spent:
To Christian workes, few have their tallents lent.  

License my single penne to seeke a pheere
You heavenly sparkes of wit shew native light: [20]
Cloud not with mistie loves your Orient cleere, 
Sweet flights you shoot: learn once to levell right.
Favour my wish, well-wishing workes no ill:
I move the Suite, the Graunt rsts in your will.

Notes

Background: RS is believe to have started work on the theme of Peter's betrayal and repentance as early as 1584 in Rome where he studied Tansillo's Le Lagrime di San Pietro ('the tears of St Peter). It circulated firstly in manuscript amongst recusants and several scholars argue that it influenced Shakespeare in the Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis. At one level, the poem explores Peter's personal sins of denial, betrayal and cowardice, leading to bitter sorrow and true contrition of heart. At another level, this treatment has reference to the fear of Catholics under the harsh Elizabethan regime and to the risk of betrayal and apostasy. Finally, the poem also touches on the universal themes of sin, betrayal, cowardice and repentance.

[l3] Muse: To muse - To be affected with astonishment or surprise; to wonder, marvel. With at, of, to. Obsolete. Muse  not: Do not be surprised to...

[l4] mould: clay; earth considered as the material of the human body;1535   Bible (Coverdale) Tobit viii. 6   Thou maydest Adam of the moulde of the earth.

[l7]: equities: equity's

[l9] dramme: in Avoirdupois weight, of 271/ 3 grains = 1/ 16 of an ounce; ounce; 1/16 of a pound.

[l10] freightes: loads, burdens.

[l13] resolve: To melt; to dissolve; to become liquid. Also fig. Now rare.a1616   Shakespeare King John (1623) v. iv. 25   Euen as a forme of waxe Resolueth from his figure 'gainst the fire.

[l14]: This is the theme of my sorrowful pen (in this poem) - too plain in prose.

[l15]: Each thorn in Christ's crown of thorns is sharp and pierces painfully. No other head wears this garland (crown)

[l16]: Yet the finest minds are still distilling the perfumed essence of Venus' (love's) rose (taking for their theme romantic and physical love).

[l17] paynim: pagan, non-Christian. 1531   T. Elyot Bk. named Gouernour iii. iii. sig. Yv   Apollo, whome the paynimes honoured for god of wisedome. veins: vein - A particular, individual, or characteristic style of language or expression.

[l19] pheere: A companion, comrade, mate, partner. In one sense, the poet (the 'single penne') is looking for fellow-poets (a pheere, heavenly sparks of light) to join him and lend their talents to Christian works rather than pagan playthings and fancies. In another sense, a faithful believer is seeking companions to reflect upon the themes of the poem: sin, betrayal, repentance and forgiveness.

[l21]: Don't allow misty-eyed preoccupations with love and romance to obscure the clarity of 'your Orient': 'The Orient' is one of the titles of the Messias, the true light of the world, and the sun of justice. 

in which the Orient from on high hath visited us: [79] To enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death: to direct our feet into the way of peace. [Luke 1]

[l22] Sweet flights you shoot: see l17 'the sweetest vaines': Many poets made frequent references to Cupid's bow intheir 'paynim toyes': eg, Oberon's words from from Act 2 Scene 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream:

That very time I saw (but thou couldst not)
Flying between the cold moon and the Earth,
Cupid all armed. A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal thronèd by the west,
And loosed his love shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts.

The other poets should aim (levell) rather for what is right and true.

[l24] Suite: suit - The action or an act of suing, supplicating, or petitioning; Earnest search for or endeavour to obtain something.