SAINT PETERS Complaynt - by Robert Southwell: 541 - 576/792

Fair Absalom's foule faults compard with mine,
Are brightest sands, to mud of Sodome lakes.
High aymes, yong spirits, birth of royall lyne,
Made him play false, where kingdoms were the stakes.
He gazde on golden hopes, whose lustre winnes, [l545]
Sometimes, the gravest wittes to grievous sinnes.

But I whose crime cuts off the least excuse,
A kingdome lost, but hop'd no mite of gaine,
My highest marke, was but the worthles use
Of some few lingring howres of longer paine; [l550]
Ungratefull child, his parent he pursude,
I, Gyants warre with God himself renude.

Joy infant Saints, whom in the tender flower
A happy storme did free from feare of sinne:
Long is their life, that die in blissfull hower, [l555]
Joyfull such ends as endles joyes beginne.
Too long they live, that live till they be nought,
Life sav'd by sinne, is purchase dearely bought,

This lot was mine, your fate was not so fearce,
Whom spotlesse death in cradle rockt a sleepe: [l560]
Sweet Roses mixt with Lillies strow'd your hearce,
Death virgin white in martirs red did steepe.
Your downy heads both pearles and rubies crownde,
My hoary locks did femall feares confound.

You bleating Ewes that wail this wolvish spoyle, [l565]
Of sucking Lambes new bought with bitter throwes;
To balme your babes your eyes distill their oyle,
Each hart to tombe her child wide rapture showes;
Rue not their death, whom death did but revive:
Yeeld ruth to me that liv'd to die alive. [l570]

With easie losse sharpe wreaks did he eschew,
That Sindonles aside did naked slip:
Once naked grace no outward garment knew,
Rich are his robes whom sinne did never stryp.
I that in vaunts, displaid prides faiyrest flags, [l575]
Disrob'd of grace, am wrapt in Adams rags.

Notes

[l541] Absalom: (flourished c. 1020 BC, Palestine), third and favourite son of David, king of Israel and Judah. He is first mentioned as murdering his half brother Amnon, David’s eldest son, in revenge for the rape of his full sister Tamar. For this he was driven into banishment, but he was eventually restored to favour through the good offices of his cousin Joab. Later, Absalom attempted a coup against Davidand for a time he seemed completely successful.  David, with a few followers and his personal guard, fled across the Jordan, leaving to Absalom Jerusalem and the main portion of the kingdom where he committed the outrage of lying with the king's concubines. Absalom was completely defeated in battle by David's army and killed by Joab, who found him caught by the hair in an oak tree. [2 Samuel 13–1]

[l545] winnes: He contemplated ambitious hopes which attracted him like gleaming gold.  This lustre was the sort that can win over the soberest minds to commit grievous sins.

[ll551-52]: Absalom was an ungrateful son who pursued his father in battle. I renewed the 'giants' war' with God. The Battle of the Giants or 'Gigantomachy' was  a fight between the Giants or Gigantes, sons of Gaea and Uranus, and the Olympian gods who were trying to overthrow the old religion and establish themselves as the new rulers of the cosmos.

[l553] infant Saints: a reference to the Massacre of the Holy Innocents:

[16] Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. [17] Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying: [18]  [Matthew 2]

[l564] did femall feares confound: Peter's fear when questioned by the maidservants confounded his 'hoary locks', peter being old enough to have known better.

[l566] throwes: throes -  An intense spasm of pain experienced during labour; a uterine contraction; (also, in plural) the pain and effort of labour or childbirth. Also in figurative context.

[l568]: to tomb - To place (a body) in a tomb or in a location which functions as a tomb; to inter, bury; to lay to rest. Alternatively, To enclose, receive, or contain in the manner of a tomb; to serve as a tomb for. Frequently fig.a1586   Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1593) iii. xx. sig. Cc1   The stone That tombes the two. One possible sense is, when speaking of the mothers who  lost their baby boys: Each heart shows how torn apart it is ('shows wide rupture') on taking each baby to its tomb. An alternative sense is: Each mother's heart, torn wide apart, provides a living tomb for each baby.

[l570] ruth: The quality of being compassionate; the feeling of sorrow for another; compassion, pity.

[l571] wreaks: wreak - Pain or punishment inflicted in return for an injury, wrong, offence, etc.; hurt or harm done from vindictive motives; vengeance, revenge.

[l572] Sindonles: sindonless. sindon - A fine thin fabric of linen; a kind of cambric or muslin.1582   Bible (Rheims) Matt. xxvii. 59   Ioseph taking the body, wrapt it in cleane sindon. 1582   Bible (Rheims) Mark xiv. 51   A certaine yong man folowed him clothed with sindon vpon the bare. This is a reference to John's success in escaping from the clutches of the men who came to seize Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane:

[51] And a certain young man followed him, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and they laid hold on him. [52] But he, casting off the linen cloth, fled from them naked. [Mark 14]

[51] Adolescens autem quidam sequebatur eum amictus sindone super nudo : et tenuerunt eum. [Mark 14]