SAINT PETERS Complaynt - by Robert Southwell: 469 - 504/792

Come good effects of ill-deserving cause;
Ill gotten impes, yet vertuously brought forth: [470]
Selfe-blaming probates, of infringed lawes,
Yet blamed faults redeeming with your worth;
The signes of shame in you ech eie may reade,
Yet, while you guiltie prove, you pitty pleade.

O beames of mercy; beat on sorrow's cloud, [475]
Pour suppling showers upon my parched ground;
Bring forth the fruit to your due service vow'd,
Let good desires with like deserts be crown'd:
Water young blooming virtue's tender flow'r.
Sin did all grace of riper growth devour. [480]

Weep balm and myrrh, you sweet Arabian trees,
With purest gums perfume and pearl your rine;
Shed on your honey-drops, you busy bees,
I, barren plant, must weep unpleasant brine:
Hornets I hive, salt drops their labour plies, [485]
Suck'd out of sin, and shed by showering eyes.

If David, night by night, did bathe his bed,
Esteeming longest days too short to moan;
Tears inconsolable if Anna shed,
Who in her son her solace had forgone; [490]
Then I to days and weeks, to months and years,
Do owe the hourly rent of stintless tears.

If love, if loss, if fault, if spotted fame,
If danger, death, if wrath, or wreck of weal,
Entitle eyes true heirs to earned blame, [495]
That due remorse in such events conceal:
That want of tears might well enrol my name,
As chiefest saint in kalendar of shame.

Love, where I loved, was due and best deserved;
No love could aim at more love-worthy mark; [500]
No love more loved than mine of him I served;
Large use he gave, a flame for every spark.
This love I lost, this loss a life must rue;
Yea, life is short to pay the ruth is due.

Notes

[l470] impes: children, offspring.

[l471] probates: probate - The act of proving something; the fact of being proved; proof, demonstration; evidence, testimony. Obsolete. People like Peter are living proofs of of laws or commandments that have been broken or disobeyed; as such, they have themselves to blame.

[l472]: Yet such people through the worth of their repentance can redeem what they have lost through their sins for which they are to blame.

[l476] suppling: fig. or in figurative context. That softens or soothes; spec. that weakens resistance or renders something susceptible to an external influence. Now rare.

[l481] mirrhe: myrrh - A bitter, aromatic gum resin exuded by various Arabian and African trees of the genus Commiphora (family Burseraceae), esp. C. abyssinica and C. myrrha, which was formerly important esp. in perfumery and as an ingredient of incense. 

[l482] ryne: bark - 1578   H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball 167   The roote is..couered with a thinne..barke or rinde. The Arabian trees weep their gum of myrrh which forms little beads (or pearls) and perfumes the bark.

[l485] hive: verb, To gather (as with bees) into a hive; to locate (a swarm) in a hive. Peter contrasts himself with the busy bees shedding their honey drops. He is like a plant that has borne no fruit but is barren and he weeps salt tears (brine). He has by his sins gathered within himself not bees but pestilential hornets  who suck out sin and produce not honey but salt drops, shed by showering eyes.

[l487-8] David: Peter refers here to King David's words in Psalm 6 where he declares his contrition:

[2] O Lord, rebuke me not in thy indignation, nor chastise me in thy wrath. [3] Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak: heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. [4] And my soul is troubled exceedingly: but thou, O Lord, how long? [5] Turn to me, O Lord, and deliver my soul: O save me for thy mercy's sake.[6] For there is no one in death, that is mindful of thee: and who shall confess to thee in hell? [7] I have laboured in my groanings, every night I will wash my bed: I will water my couch with my tears. [8] My eye is troubled through indignation: I have grown old amongst all my enemies. [9] Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity: for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. [10] The Lord hath heard my supplication: the Lord hath received my prayer.[Psalm 6]

[l489] Anna: This is a reference to the Book Of Tobias (Tobit) when his parents lament the long absence of their son Tobias.

[1] But as Tobias made longer stay upon occasion of the marriage, Tobias his father was solicitous, saying: Why thinkest thou doth my son tarry, or why is he detained there? [2] Is Gabelus dead, thinkest thou, and no man will pay him the money? [3] And he began to be exceeding sad, both he and Anna his wife with him: and they began both to weep together: because their son did not return to them on the day appointed. [4] But his mother wept and was quite disconsolate, and said: Woe, woe is me, my son; why did we send thee to go to a strange country, the light of our eyes, the staff of our old age, the comfort of our life, the hope of our posterity? [5] We having all things together in thee alone, ought not to have let thee go from us.[Tobias (Tobit) 10]

[l492] howrely: hourly
[l492] stintless: That may not be stinted or caused to cease; that may not be assuaged or satisfied. Obsolete. 1587   T. Hughes Misfortunes Arthur Epil. 8   See heere..The lasting panges: the stintlesse greefes: the teares.

[l493] spotted: adj. Morally stained or blemished with something disgraceful or defiling. Cf. spotless. 1548   Hall's Vnion: Richard III f. xxixv   That note of infamie with the whiche his fame was iustely spotted and stayned.

 [l494] weale: Welfare, well-being, happiness, prosperity.