It is the sweetest note that man can singeThis page is dedicated to Saint Robert Southwell, one of the most remarkable men and finest poets in English history. The two lines above come from the final couplet of 'To the Reader', the first poem in in one of the main manuscripts of his work (the 'Waldegrave' Manuscript). It seems to strike a happy note for both the content and the tone of Robert Southwell's character, life and poetry.
When grace in Vertews keye tunes natures stringe
What follows is not a finished piece of work on Fr Southwell but represents a series of little steps taken during my research into this English poet, priest, martyr and canonised saint. I pray that Fr Southwell may guide these steps AD MAIOREM DEI GLORIAM ('to the greater glory of God', the motto of Fr Southwell's Jesuit Order).
Note to readers: for brevity's sake, I shall refer to St Robert as RS; excerpts from his written works retain original spellings and punctuation (or lack thereof).
Table of contents
A short lifeTantalising links to Shakespeare
Poems
The Conception of our Ladie
Our ladies Nativitye
Our ladyes Spousalls
Our Ladies Salutation
The Visitation
The Nativitye of Christ
The Circumcision
The Epiphanye
The Presentation
The flight into Egipt
Christes returne out of Egipt
Christes Childhoode
The death of our Ladie
The Assumption of our Lady
A childe my Choyce
New heaven, new warre
The burning Bab
New Prince, new pomp
Sinnes heavy load
Christ bloody sweat
Christes sleeping frendes
Davids Peccav
Saint Peters Complaynt
Saint Peters afflicted mynd
Mary Magdalens Blush
Saint Peters remors
Decease release
I dye without desert
A short life
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| Fr Southwell. Engraving published 1608. Artist unknown. |
His grandfather, Sir Richard Southwell, had been a wealthy and prominent courtier during the reign of Henry VIII. In 1547, Sir Richard played a part in bringing the Catholic poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, to the executioner's block. Their respective grandsons, Father Southwell and Philip, Earl of Arundel, were to be close friends and both suffered for their shared Catholic Faith.
Robert Southwell was brought up a Catholic and was educated at Douai. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1584 and in 1586 he agreed to accompany Father Henry Garnett and returned to England, in the full knowledge of the risks priests faced of arrest, torture and execution.. Two years later, he became chaplain to the Countess of Arundel and established relations with her imprisoned husband, Philip, Earl of Arundel, the ancestor of the present Duke of Norfolk.
He spent six years in successful missionary work. During this time, he worked secretly in London, or travelled under various disguises from one Catholic house to another. He had a very gentle manner and was never accused of taking part either in political agitation or in religious controversial.
In 1592 Father Southwell was arrested at Uxendon Hall, Harrow. He was betrayed by a woman of the house to Richard Topcliffe, Queen Elizabeth's psychopathic poursuivant. He was taken to Topcliffe's private torture chamber to be interrogated under torture. He was later moved to the Tower of London where Queen Elizabeth allowed Topcliffe to continue torturing him. He had readily admitted his priesthood but at no stage revealed any information that could put at risk other priests or secret Catholic supporters. He was condemned at his trial on February 20 1595 to be hanged, drawn and quartered. The government did not even try to implicate him in any plot against the Queen or government. He was executed just because he was a Catholic priest.
He was taken to Tyburn to be executed on February 21st. His last words come from Psalm 30:
[6] In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum; redemisti me, Domine Deus veritatis.
[6] Into thy hands I commend my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truthSome onlookers pulled down on his legs during his hanging to make sure he was dead before the next stage of the grisly process began, the ripping out of his bowels and heart. When his severed head was finally displayed to the crowd, there were no cheers.
Southwell was beatified in 1929 and canonised in 1970.
In addition to being a great saint and steadfast martyr, he is regarded as one of the great poets of the Elizabethan Age. Much of his poetry was written while he was held in solitary confinement in the Tower of London and was published posthumously.
Tantalising links to Shakespeare
My starting point in this endeavour was a slim volume entitled St Robert Southwell, Collected Poems (Manchester: Fyfield books. 2007. Edited by Peter Davidson and Anne Sweeney). I had purchased this book without ever really reading any of the material apart from the famous poem: 'The burning Babe'. I began with Part I on page 1 with text under the heading '[Epistle]'.Poetes by abusing their talent, and making the follies and feynings of love the customary subject of their base endeavours, have so discredited this faculty that a Poett a lover and a lyer, are by many reckoned but three words of one significacon.
[Source: 'Waldegrave Manuscript, Stonyhurst MS A,v.27)Apart from guiltily recognising a feature of many of my own early 'base endeavours' in verse, I was immediately and forcefully struck by his linking of a 'Poett a lover and a lyer'. These words took me straight back to my role as a teenage Oberon in Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-96) which formed a 'set book' for my 'O' Level exam in English Literature in 1969.
The lunatic, the lover and the poet[Theseus, in Act V Scene 1]
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Shakespeare's reference to the 'lunatic, the lover and the poet' seems uncannily close to RS's 'a Poett a lover and a lyer'. Was this simply a coincidence? Merely a case of two sixteenth century poets thinking alike? Or were they influenced by a common source? Or did one poet borrow from the other? Thence to an obvious question: did the poets actually know each other?
Regarding the last question, I have discovered some tantalising links between RS and Shakespeare (WS).
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| Courtesy of Sylvia Morris. See link on right. |
Is 'W.S.' a reference to William Shakesepeare? If not, who was 'W.S.'? Who decided to add the details of the addressee? Why?
WS died in 1616, was it judged then safe to include a reference to his name? Was this because WS was a recusant Catholic?
Joseph Pearce presents a very strong case in favour of WS's catholicism. See:
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.
For a summary of the evidence Pearce adduces to support his claim, see: The Catholicism of William Shakespeare.
Pearce is also convinced that RS and WS knew each other. His evidence includes the following:
- In London, WS enjoyed the patronage of the Earl of Southampton, a known Catholic who seems to have had RS as his confessor.
- In his poem Decease Release, RS wrote about the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Many believed she was a martyr for the Catholic faith. RS likens her unto 'pounded spice': 'God's spice I was and pounding was my due.' In King Lear (1605), the title character's use of the phrase 'God's spies' may be a play on the words 'God's spice.' It may also be a coded reference to Jesuits, such as Southwell, who were 'God's spies' under the heretic and repressive Elizabethan and Jacobean regime. God's spies became themselves 'God's spice,' pounded to death so as to gain their martyr's reward in heaven.
- Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venice were written in the same year RS was martyred (1595). In the latter play, for instance, it has been suggested that Antonio is a thinly-veiled personification of a Jesuit. This would add deeper meaning to the courtroom scene which recreates Southwell's own trial. Shylock demands that, according to the law, he has a right his pound of flesh, taken from nearest to the heart of Antonio. In the show trial of RS, the law demanded that he should be hanged, drawn and quartered, with his heart being riipped from his body whilst still alive. Portia's speech on the 'quality of mercy' becomes a plea to Queen Elizabeth to show this same mercy toCatholics loyal to the faith of their fathers and families.
And Pity, like a naked new-born babe,He compares this imagery to that in RS's most famous poem, the Burning Babe:
Striding the blast, or heaven’s Cherubins, hors’d
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind.
A pretty babe all burninge bright did in the ayre appeareAnother point of comparison is this excerpt from RS's New heaven, new warre
Who scorched with excessive heat, such floodes of teares did shedd,
As though his floodes should quench his flames, which with his teares were fedd.
With teares he fightes and wynnes the feild
His naked breste stands for a Sheilde
His battering shot are babishe cryes
His Arrowes lookes of weeping eyes
His Martiall ensignes cold and neede
And feeble fleshe his warriers steede.
'These few dittyes'
RS goes on to explain in his Epistle to WS that, despite the its abuse by some poets, the art of verse is good and its use allowable in matters of devotion. Many parts of scripture are in verse and Christ Himself made a hymn the conclusion of his last Supper. The Church has provided a pattern to all men to know the 'trew use of this measured and footed style'. He prays that his 'course thridds' (coarse threads, rough and ready verse) may show how well 'Verse and Vertue suite together'.
Th Epistle closes with some intriguing word-play:
In the meane tyme with many good wishes I sende you these few dittyes(,) add yowe the tunes and let the meane* I pray yowe be still a part in all your Musicke.*meane [ mean, mene] (from Old Fr. moien , or meien : ‘middle’ ) English term referring originally to the middle part of a three-voice polyphonic texture. English usage was complicated because even in the late 16th century ...an alto part might also be called a meane, a contra, a counter or a Countertenor. [From Oxford Music online]
'add yowe the tunes' / 'all your Musicke': is RS to be understood literally here, as referring to a composer who will set his verse to music sung in parts? Or metaphorically, as referring to a poet who will take RS's 'course thridds' and 'goe forward in the same or to beginne some fyner peece'?
Our steps now lead on to the 'dittyes' themselves and the first of these are poems on the Virgin Mary and Christ, based on the 'Waldegrave' MS.
The Conception of our Ladie
Our second Eve putts on her mortall shrowde
Earth breedes a heaven for gods new dwelling place
Now ryseth up Elias little cloude
That growing shall distill the shoure of grace
Her being now begins who ere she ende [5]
Shall bringe the good that shall our evill amende.
Both grace and nature did their force unite
To make this babe the summe of all their best
Our most her lest, our million but her mite
She was at easyest rate worth all the reste [10]
What grace to men or Angells god did part
Was all united in this infants hart.
Fower only wightes bredd without fault sre nam'd
And all the rest conceived were in synne
Without both man and wife was Adam fram'd [15]
Of man but not of wife did Eve beginne.
Wife without touch of man Christ's mother was
Of man and wife this babe was bred in grace.
Notes
[l1] Our second Eve: The parallels and contrasts between the first Eve and Mary, the 'second Eve', have been the subject of commentaries from the earliest times of Christianity. One of the first examples comes from St Justin Martyr, born about AD 100 and converted to Christianity about A.D. 130. He taught and defended the Christian religion in Asia Minor and at Rome, where he suffered martyrdom about the year 165. Two 'Apologies' bearing his name and his "Dialogue with the Jew Tryphon" have come down to us. Here is an excerpt from his Dialogue:He (Christ) became man by the Virgin, in order that the disobedience which proceeded from the serpent might receive its destruction in the same manner in which it derived its origin. For Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy, when the angel Gabriel announced the good tidings to her that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her, and the power of the Highest would overshadow her: wherefore also the Holy Thing begotten of her is the Son of God; and she replied, 'Be it unto me according to thy word.' And by her has He been born, to whom we have proved so many Scriptures refer, and by whom God destroys both the serpent and those angels and men who are like him; but works deliverance from death to those who repent of their wickedness and believe upon Him. [Chapter C][l1] mortall shrowde: words with connotations for the modern mind of death, winding sheets, funerals etc. 'shrowde' had a broader meaning in Elizabethan English of a 'covering' (preserved today when used in expressions such as 'shrouded in mystery'). Her 'being now begins' when God creates her soul and her body, the latter 'covering' or 'clothing' the former. 'Mortall' perhaps means 'human' rather than destined to die, because although Mary was human she never died, being free from the mortality that was one of the consequences of Eve's sin of disobedience.
[l2] Earth breedes a heaven...: A creature, Mary, provides in her womb a dwelling place for her Creator. A human being, in the order of nature, provides a home in her flesh for a supernatural being, God the Son. Mary, a woman bred of earthly parents but conceived without sin, will provide an immaculate dwelling place, a heavenly home for her Son.
[l3-4] Elias little cloud/distill the shoure of grace: This is a reference to Chapter 18 of the Third Book of Kings (1 Kings). Achab, King of Israel, had married Jezabel and together they had promoted the worship of the demon Baal throughout the land. The Lord God punished this idolatry with a drought. Elias, a prophet of the lord, challenged the priests of Baal to a trial by fire on Mount Carmel. The idolaters were unable to call down fire from their demon but Elias' prayer to the one, true God was answered. The priests of the demon Baal were all slain and Elias told Achab that rain would come. Eventually, Elias servant reported that a little cloud had appeared in the cloudless sky, coming from the direction of the sea and shaped like a foot. The cloud grew and the rain they had prayed for
arrived, showered down upon the people of Israel to save them from death and suffering through the hunger and thirst caused by the drought.
Mary appears amidst a humanity suffering from the terrible consequences of the sin committed by their first parents. People were hungry and thirsty for faith, hope and love in a world dominated by Satan and his minions. many of them praying for the coming of the reign of the promised Messiah. Small in her humility, like a little cloud, she is to become a conduit through which the reign arrives and divine grace will be showered upon a suffering mankind.
The little cloud shaped like a foot recalls the following prophecy in Genesis:
[14] And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the earth: upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. [15] I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. [Genesis 3]The 'woman' is Mary; the serpent's seed are his human minions;* 'her seed' is the Messiah, Jesus; Christian art traditionally shows Our Lady crushing the head of a serpent beneath her feet.
*[44] You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof. [John 8]According to a tradition of the Carmelite Order, a group of holy men formed a religious community on Mount Carmel during the lifetime of Elias, leading strict lives of fasting, penance and prayer. Their descendants were rescued by the Crusaders from the Saracen Muslims sweeping across the Holy Land. These refugees from persecution formed the first Carmelite community in England. See the Flos Carmeli tab for more details due to be published shortly.
[l9] her lest...her mite: her lest = her least. 'mite': a. Any small coin of low value; originally applied to a Flemish copper coin, but in English used mainly as a proverbial expression for an extremely small unit of monetary value. b. In proverbial phrases (esp. based on Biblical reference), as the type of a small or insignificant amount.
Mary is the 'summe' of all that is best in grace and nature (l8). In one sense, therefore, she is the summit or high-point. As a representative of mankind fallen low after Adam's sin, she is the highest, in other words 'our most'. Mary, having perfect humility, in her own eyes regards herself as the least.
My soul doth magnify the Lord. [47] And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. [48] Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. [49] Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name.[Luke I]In another sense, Mary is the 'sum' resulting from the 'addition' of all that's best in grace and nature. This 'sum' would naturally be regarded by us as a huge figure or quantity: 'our best', 'our million'. Mary, however, magnifies the Lord not herself and contemplates the might of He that is mighty and the great things that He has done for her, despite her unworthiness and lowliness. He must increase, but I must decrease, says John the Baptist (John 3:30). Our Lord Himself says to us: Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. [4] Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew 18]. St Therese of Lisieux, the 'little flower', placed this at the heart of her little life in Carmel.
[l1]: fower: four.
[ll 13-18]: wight: a human being, man, woman or person. wife: historically, 'wife' could mean simply a woman or a married woman considered in relation to her spouse.
This verse refers to the only four people named in all human history who were not conceived in sin, ie who were sinless from the instant of their conception (or coming into being).
- Adam: specially created by God with no human parents, male or female.
- Eve: created by God from a man (Adam) and having in a certain sense a male parentage but with no female parentage.
- Mary: 'of man and wife this babe was bred in grace'. Mary's parents were St Anne and St Joachim, names coming through unbroken tradition from Apostolic times. 'bred 'in grace' means that Mary was from the first instant of her conception in her mother's womb free from all sin. This is what is meant by her 'immaculate conception'. For more details, see Ineffabilis Deus, 1854.
- Jesus: 'Wife without touch of man Christ's mother was'. Jesus' father is God the Father; He was conceived by the Holy Ghost; He was born of the Virgin Mary, His mother.
Our ladies Nativitye
Joye in the risinge of our orient starr
That shall bringe forth the Sunne that lent her light
Joy in the peace that shall conclude our Warr
And soon rebate the edge of Satons spight
Load starr of all engolfd in worldly waves [5]
The card and Compasse that from Shipwracke saves.
The patriacks and Prophetts were the flowres
Which time by course of ages did distill
And culld into this little cloude the showres
Whose gratious droppes the world with joy shall fill [10]
Whose moysture suppleth every soule with grace
And bringeth life to Adams dyeing race.
For god on earth she is the royal throne
The chosen cloth to make his mortal weede
The quarry to cutt out our Corner stone [15]
Soyle full of fruite yet free from mortall seed
For heavenly floure shee is the Jesse rodd
The childe of man the parent of s god.
Notes
[l1-2]orient starr...the Sunne that lent her light: the star rising in the east. Mary is the 'Stella Matutina,' the Morning Star, appearing after the dark night but always heralding the Sun. The star's place is in the high heaven. Mary's womb was a heaven where she welcomed her Son; and He has welcomed her into Heaven. 'Mary, like the stars, abides for ever, as lustrous now as she was on the day of her Assumption; as pure and perfect, when her Son comes to judgment, as she is now.' [Newman, Meditations and Devotions]'It is Mary’s prerogative to be the Morning Star, which heralds in the sun. She does not shine for herself, or from herself, but she is the reflection of her and our Redeemer, and she glorifies Him. When she appears in the darkness, we know that He is close at hand.' [ibid]
'Stella maris', star of the sea, is the most popular interpretation of the name Mary (Miriam), and dates back to St. Jerome AD (340-420). In Isaiah 40:15, however, Jerome renders the word 'stilla maris' (drop of the sea), instead of stella maris. Miriam occurs only once in the Old Testament, with reference to the name of Moses' sister. Some have concluded from this that it is of Egyptian origin, from the Egyptian mer or mar, 'to love', and the Hebrew Divine name Yam or Yahweh. Miriam then comes to mean 'one loving Yahweh' or 'one beloved of Yahweh'. Another fascinating suggestion is that Miriam derives not from a compound form but from a simple Hebrew noun meaning 'well-formed'. It would therefore be equivalent to 'the beautiful one'. For a fuller treatment of this subject, see 'The Name of Mary' in the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia.
[l4] rebate: To reduce the effect or force of (a physical agent); to ward off or turn aside (a blow, stroke, etc.). To blunt a weapon; to dull the edge or point of a blade, etc.
Satons spight: Satan's spite.We are engaged in a 'warr' but we now through Mary have the hope of peace:
[12] For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. [Ephesians 6][l5] Load starr: A star that shows the way; esp. the pole star. A ‘guiding star’; that on which one's attention or hopes are fixed. 'If the winds of temptation arise, if you are driven upon the rocks of tribulation, look to the star, call on Mary. If you are tossed upon the waves of pride, of ambition, of envy, of rivalry, look to the star, call on Mary. Should anger, or avarice, or fleshly desire violently assail the frail vessel of your soul, look at the star, call upon Mary.' Attributed to St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153).
[l6] The card and Compasse: The mariner's compass consists essentially of three parts, the bowl or box, containing the card on which the 32 points of the compass are marked, and the needle'.
[l7] patriacks: patriarchs.
[l8] distill: here used with a different sense from line 4 of The Conception of oure Ladie (above). Here the sense is: To extract the essence of (a plant, etc.) by distillation; to obtain an extract of. Cf Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream i. i. 76 'Earthlyer happy is the rose distild, Then that, which, withering on the virgin thorne, Growes, liues, and dies, in single blessednesse.'
[l9] cull'd: Gathered, picked, plucked (flowers, fruits, etc.).
[l10] gratious: several possible layers of meaning: enjoying grace or favour; pleasing, acceptable to, popular with. Characterized by or exhibiting kindness, courtesy, or generosity of spirit; courteous, considerate, generous. Of a person or thing: characterized by, conveying, or filled with divine grace;
[l11] suppleth: supplieth.
[l14] weede: An article of apparel; a garment.
[l15] our Corner stone: Christ.
[22] The stone which the builders rejected; the same is become the head of the corner. [Psalm 117, the Psalmist foretelling the coming of Christ][l16] Soyle...free from mortall seed: the soyle here is Mary's womb; the blessed fruit of her womb is Jesus. Mary herself asked Gabriel how she could become a mother without the human (mortal) seed of a husband.
[34] And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man? [35] And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. [Luke 1][l17] the Jesse rod: this is a reference to one of the prophecies of Isaiah foretelling the coming of the Messiah, some 700 years before Christ:
[1] And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. [Isaiah 11]Jesse was the father of eight sons. The youngest was born in Bethlehem and was to become the King of Israel. Christ came from this royal line and was born in Bethlehem. 'rod' means here a straight, slender shoot or branch, growing on or cut from a tree or bush; by extension an offshoot, a scion. 'Rod' apparently derives from the same root as 'rood', meaning 'cross' (as in the 'rood screen' in Christian churches). The flower that rises up out of Jesse's root is Mary, the 'heavenly floure.'
Our ladyes Spousalls
By Tissot. (Brooklyn Museum)
Wife did she live yet Virgin did she die
Untowched of man, yet mother of a sonne
To save herself and childe from fatall lye
To end the webb whereof the thredd was spoone
In marriage knotts to Joseph she was tyde [5]
Unwonted workes with wonted veyles to hide.
God lent his paradice to Josephs Care
Wherein he was to plante the tree of life
His sonne of Josephs child the title bare
Just cause to make the mother Josephs wife. [10]
O blessed man betrothd to such a spouse
More blessd to live with such a childe in house.
No carnall love this sacred league procurde
All vaine delights were farre from their assent
Though both in wedlocke bandes themselves assurde [15]
Yet streite by vow they seald their chaste intent.
Thus had she Virgins, wives, and widowes crowne
And by chast child-birth doubled her renowne.
Notes
Preliminary: The Joseph in the Gospels is known to all Christians as an example of chastity. It is interesting to note that his namesake, Joseph son of Jacob, also demonstrated the virtue of chastity. When he was employed by Potiphar in Egypt, the latter's wife tried to seduce him. The story is recounted in Chapter 39 of Genesis:[7] And after many days his (Potiphar's) mistress cast her eyes on Joseph, and said: Lie with me. [8] But he, in no wise consenting to that wicked act, said to her: Behold, my master hath delivered all things to me, and knoweth not what he hath in his own house: [9] Neither is there any thing which is not in my power, or that he hath not delivered to me, but thee, who art his wife: how then can I do this wicked thing, and sin against my God? [10] With such words as these day by day, both the woman was importunate with the young man, and he refused the adultery.Potiphar's wife was so enraged by his rejection of her advances that she made a false accusation of rape against Joseph and he was thrown into prison.
St Joseph was of the City of David but was worked in Nazareth as a tekton (a carpenter according to St Justin, writing in the second century AD). St Thomas Aquinas suggests that Joseph was affianced to Mary at the time of the Annunciation and married her some time after.
[16] And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ
[18] Now the generation of Christ was in this wise. When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child, of the Holy Ghost. [19] Whereupon Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately. [20] But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost. [21] And she shall bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name JESUS. For he shall save his people from their sins. [22] Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: [23] Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. [24] And Joseph rising up from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took unto him his wife. [25] And he knew her not till [A Hebrew mode of speech connoting only what is done without any regard to the future] she brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS. [Matthew I][Title] spousalls: (n plural)The action of marrying someone, or of contracting to do so; the performance of a ceremony of marriage or (esp.) betrothal
Verse 1: Mary was seen to live the life of a wife and mother but remained ever a virgin up to the end of her earthly life, her dormition and her assumption into Heaven. She was untouched by any man in the sense of never having any congress, conjugal or otherwise. Though 'untouched of man', both men and women have been touched by her graces and intercessions as she spends her time in Heaven doing good on earth.
[l3] fatall: 'Producing or resulting in death, destruction, or irreversible ruin, material or immaterial; deadly, destructive, ruinous.' For the Blessed Virgin Mary, marriage to Joseph would prevent the dissemination of rumours ('lyes') that would ruin her good name and lead to dishonour for herself and also for her son.
[ll4] To end the webb ...spoone: 'spoone' is of course 'spun'. One possible image here is of a woman spinning wool or flax from a distaff into thread and twisting it onto a spindle. Such women were called 'spinsters' which came to mean an unmarried woman (with none of the pejorative connotations of modern English).
[l5] In marriage knotts ...tyde: To preserve their reputation and honour, Mary and Joseph would 'tie the knot' of marriage, providing thereby a husband for Mary and a foster-father for Jesus.
[l6] Unwonted: Not wonted, usual, or habitual; not commonly heard, seen, practised, etc.; infrequent. Not wont to appear; rarely seen. Going beyond ordinary limits.The 'unwonted workes' are described by Gabriel in response to Mary's question: How shall this be done, because I know not man?
[35] And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.The 'wonted veyles' are the external appearances of the betrothal and marriage, modest coverings that veil the mystery of the conception. St John records in chapter VI of his gospel of the Jews:
[42] And they said: Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?[l7] his paradice: In one sense, God's paradice refers to Mary. The image, however, suggests a further idea. . God created a beautiful garden for Adam. Eve began as part of Adam's body, being formed from it. She was created as his friend and to be a 'helper like himself', created both to dwell in God's presence in Paradise [Genesis 2 20]. Mary, the second Eve, also begins physically joined (in her womb) to the second Adam, Jesus who is her son and her God. God places this paradise in Joseph's care. In the first as in the second state, the formula may be written thus:
Adam + Eve + freedom from sin + the real presence of God = Paradise.Is it too fanciful to meditate upon a third state for Christians in the Church Militant?
The soul + Mary + freedom from sin + the real presence in Holy Communion = Paradise.
[l8] ...the tree of life: God planted the tree of life in the midst of Paradise. It was a gift to our first parents who, by eating of the fruit of it, would have been preserved in a constant state of health, vigour, and strength, and would not have died at all. The second tree of life is Jesus, our Divine Saviour, who was born in Bethlehem, the house of bread, was laid in a manger (from a word meaning 'to eat': whence the ox and ass were able to eat) and was later to explain to astonished listeners:
[51] I am the living bread which came down from heaven. [52] If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world. [53] The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? [54] Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. [55] He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.[John VI]The astonishment of His listeners persists even to this day, among those who even give a second thought to the matter. Who could ever have imagined that Jesus would offer Himself as the fruit of the tree of life to us in Holy Communion? Who could ever slide into an indifferent frame of mind when approaching the Blessed Sacrament?
l11-12] O blessed...More blessed:The first sense here is that Joseph was a man blessed to be betrothed to such a spouse as Mary but was even more blessed to live in a house in the presence of the child Jesus, the son of the living God.
A second sense comes from recollecting that Fr Southwell was writing for an audience living in a land which, from once proudly proclaiming itself Mary's dowry, had become a place where recusant Catholics following the faith of their fathers, were cruelly persecuted. The Act of Uniformity of 1558 first imposed fines on all non-attenders of the new church services. These recusants may have pondered sadly on the fact that, unlike their parents and grandparents, they no longer enjoyed the blessing of their own local church, with the real presence of Jesus in the tabernacle. They no longer had easy access to Mass, Holy Communion (see previous note) and the other sacraments. The message for such Catholics would be to unite themselves to Mary and to pray that, just as the child Jesus was present in Joseph's house, He might also be present in their house, which is to say in their hearts.
[l13] this sacred league: 'league' means a covenant, compact, alliance made between parties for their mutual protection and assistance against a common enemy, the prosecution or safeguarding of joint interests, and the like. In one sense, it refers here to the betrothal and marriage between Mary and Joseph. The expression 'sacred league' may also refer to the 'Holy League' formed in 1571 as a result of the efforts of Pope St Pius V to defend Christendom from conquest by the infidel Turks. The League secured a miraculous victory against the odds at the Battle of Lepanto on 7 October that same year. The date became the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
[l16] streite: If taken adverbially, the meaning would be 'immediately, without delay'. If taken as an adjective, qualifying 'vow', the sense might include: : 'tightly drawn' (of bonds, a knot); 'close' (of an embrace); 'rigorous, strict' (of a religious order, its rules, etc.); 'stringent, strict, allowing no evasion' (of a commandment, law, penalty, vow)
Our Ladies Salutation
Continuing with our journey with Robert Southwell in Elizabethan England, we now turn to his next poem in his sequence on the Virgin Mary and Christ: 'Our Ladies Salutation'.
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| The Annunciation. Tissot (Brooklyn Museum) |
The first beganne the last reversd our harmes
An Angells witching wordes did Eva blynde
An Angells Ave disinchaunts the charmes
Death first by Woemans Weakenes entred in [5]
In woemans vertue life doth nowe beginn.
O Virgin brest the heavens to thee inclyne
In thee their joy and soveraigne they agnize
Too meane their glory is to match with thyne
Whose chaste receite god more then heaven did prize [10]
Hayle fayrest heaven that heaven and earth dost blisse
Where vertewes starres god sonne of justice is.
With hauty mynd to godhead man aspird
And was by pride from place of pleasure chas'd
With loving mynde our manhead god desird [15]
And us by love in greater pleasure plac'd
Man labouring to ascend procur'd our fall
God yelding to descend cutt off our thrall.
Notes
[l3] witching wordes: 'witching': 'that casts a spell; enchanting'. This is a reference to the seductive lies of the fallen Angel, Lucifer, who persuades Eve she can disobey the commandment God gave not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.[4] And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death. [5] For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil. [Genesis 3][l4] An Angells Ave: The Angel Gabriel, who fought in the victory of the good angels over Lucifer's proud hordes, begins the process of undoing the effects of the 'witching wordes', by a simple salutation: Ave...
[l5] Death:
[12] Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned. [Romans V][l8] agnize: recognize, acknowledge. Christians acknowledge Mary as the 'Cause of our joy' (Causa nostrae laetitiae, Litany of Loreto, 12th century); and they honour her as Queen (see the thirteen titles in the same litany). Alternatively, the meaning here may be that the heavens acknowledge Jesus Christ, present body, blood, soul and divinity 'in thee', ie in the tabernacle of Mary's womb. See however lines 1-2 of The Visitation by Southwell:
Proclaymed Queene and mother of a god[l10] receite: The act of receiving or taking in; or a place of reception or accommodation for people; a shelter, refuge.
The light of earth the Soveraigne of saints
[l11] blisse: 'bless'. Some interesting definitions from the OED: To consecrate (a person) to a sacred office. To consecrate by a prayer committing a person to God for his patronage, defence, and prospering care. To sanctify or hallow by making the sign of the cross. 'Orig. meaning (probably), To make ‘sacred’ or ‘holy’ with blood; to consecrate by some sacrificial rite.' A curious foreshadowing of the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross, even unto shedding the last drop of His blood for us.
Mary is apostrophized as 'fairest heaven'. She is 'Heaven' because God is dwelling in her and she is completely free from sin. 'dost' is second person singular and so the line reads as: 'O fairest Heaven, thou dost bless heaven and earth', because of the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus. The second 'heaven' may be taken to mean everything above and around the earth: the sky, the sun, the moon, the starts and the planets. 'heaven and earth' therefore represent all the created world.
[l12]: Where vertewes...sonne of justice is: The uncertainty over punctuation, number and ellipsis in this line gives pause for thought. The sense may be: God, the Sun of Justice, is (there) where Virtue's Star [Mary] is. 'sonne' shows up as either 'sun' or son' in OED citations from the Elizabethan and Jacobean period. 'Sun of Justice' is a known title of Jesus Christ when He coms again in judgement of the living and the dead. see for example:
[2] But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise... [Malachi 4][l15] manhead: The state of being human; the condition of belonging to humanity; human nature. Esp. as opposed to godhead. An illustration of this now rare word may be found in: 'The Glorie of Christs Godhead was hid..by the sufferinges of his Manhead'.
[l18] thrall: thraldom, bondage, servitude; captivity.
The Visitation
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| The Visitation. Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
The light of earth the Soveraigne of Saints
With Pilgrimm foote upp tyring hils she trodd
And heavenly stile with handmayds toyle acquaints
Her youth to age her helth to sicke she lends [5]
Her heart to god to neighbour hand she bendes.
A prince she is and mightier prince doth beare
Yet pompe of princely trayne she would not have
But doubtles heavenly quires attendant were
Her child from harme her selfe from fall to save [10]
Word to the voyce songe to the tune she bringes
The voyce her Word, the tune her dittye sings
Eternall lightes enclosed in her breste
Shott out such percing beames of burning love
That when her voyce her Cosens eares possest [15]
The force thereof did force her babe to move
With secret signes the children greete ech other
But open praise ech leaveth to his mother.
Notes
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| The Magnificat. Tissot |
[l2] The light of earth the Soveraigne of Saints: This can in one sense refer to Mary who is the Stella Matutina and the Stella Maris - the Morning Star, the Star of the Sea: the 'light of the earth'. She is also honoured as a queen under various titles (thirteen in the Litany of Loreto), including Regina Omnium Sanctorum, Queen of All Saints. See also the use of 'soveraigne' in line 7 in Our Ladies Salutation'.The syntax supports a second sense whereby she is the 'mother of a god' and 'the light of the earth', Christ the 'light of the world'; and the mother of the 'Soveraigne of Saints', Christ the King.
[l3] upp tyring hils she trodd: Mary made a journey from Nazareth to a village in the hill country of Judah, Ain Karim, some 90 miles distant. Ain Karim means 'Spring of the Vineyard', an interesting name for the birthplace of John the Baptist who was to baptise Christ in the waters of the Jordan. There are many texts linking Christ to the 'vine': see, for instance:[5] I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.[John XV]
[l4] And heavenly stile: this line makes reference to the heavenly and the earthly. The angel from Heaven speaks of miraculous, Heavenly things:
[31] Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. [32] He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. [33] And of his kingdom there shall be no end. [34] And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man? [35] And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.The Blessed Virgin Mary, here in her earthly home in Nazareth, replies: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word. Pondering the Heavenly words in her heart, but mindful of earthly, practical concerns for her elderly kinswoman, Elizabeth, Mary journeys 'with haste' to offer help. She bends he heart to God, but to her neighbour (Elizabeth), she will lend a helping hand [l6]. This last line is a wonderful example by Mary of Jesus' answer to the scribe who asked which was the 'first commandment of all':
[36] And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: [37] Because no word shall be impossible with God. [Luke I]
[29] And Jesus answered him: The first commandment of all is, Hear, O Israel: the Lord thy God is one God. [30] And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment. [31] And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these.[l5] sicke: either a sickness or a person suffering (here Elizabeth). Cf 1526 Bible (Tyndale) Matt. ix. f. xj Then sayd he vnto the sicke of the palsey.
[l7] prince: Mary. Can be applied to a female sovereign in Elizabethan usage. See eg, 1581 W. Stafford Compend. Exam. Complaints (1876) i. 29 Yea, the Prince,..as she hath most of yearely Reuenewes,..so should shee haue most losse by this dearth.
l11-12] Word, voyce, songe, tune, dittye: these two lines are rich in imagery and meaning. There is clearly at one level a reference to Mary singing the Magnificat, the 'Canticle of Mary'. She voices her ideas through words that she sings. There is another possible reference:
'Word to the voyce...she bringes': Mary bears within her womb Jesus, the 'Word made flesh', and she has brought him to John who is in the womb of his mother Elizabeth and will later say that he is the 'voice of one crying in the wilderness'.
dittye: The words of a song, as distinguished from the music or tune. See eg, 1561 Iniunctions Bishop of Norwich sig. B.iii 'That the songe in the Churche be..so deuised and vsed that the ditte may plainly be vnderstand.'
[l14-15] eternall lightes...percing beames of burning love: Jesus, the 'light of the world', enables to see the truth and the way to Heaven:
[12] Again therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying: I am the light of the world:But the Divine fire that provides this light also enflames hearts. After the resurrection, two disciples met up with a stranger on their way to Emaus. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures, the things that were concerning him. They did not recognise him as Jesus until the breaking of bread in the evening, when their eyes were suddenly opened.
he that followeth me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life. [John 8, 12].
[32] And they said one to the other: Was not our heart burning within us, whilst he spoke in this way, and opened to us the scriptures? [Luke 24]ll17-18] With secret signes... : Luke recounts the words uttered by Elizabeth and Mary. 'secret signes' can mean here a sign that is not outwardly visible, as in the coming of the Holy Ghost upon Elizabeth and her baby's dancing for joy in the womb.
And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: [42] And she cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. [43] And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? [44] For behold as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.[Luke 1]The angel who visited Zachary in the temple to prophesy the birth of John included the following words:
he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.[Luke 1, 15]John was not free from original sin at the moment of his conception but was freed from sin while he was still in his mother's womb, when the little Lamb of God arrived, Himself also in a mother's womb. This is almost like a baptism by his cousin Christ.
There may also be a reference to the 'secret signs' necessary in Elizabethan England for people to avoid falling foul of the oppressive, anti-Catholic laws. In this scene, two cousins greet each other by 'secret signes'. Did two other cousins, Fr Southwell and Shakespeare, use such signs?
The Nativitye of Christ
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| Nativity. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
The bird that built the nest, is hatchd therein
The old of yeres an hower hath not outrunne
Eternall life to live doth now beginne
The worde is dumm the mirth of heaven doth weepe [5]
Might feeble is and force doth fayntly creepe.
O dyinge soules behold your living springe
O dazeled eyes behould your sunne of grace
Dull eares attend what word this word doth bringe
Up heavy hartes with joye your joy embrace [10]
From death from darke from deaphness from despayres
This life this light this word this joy repaires
Gift better than himself god doth not knowe
Gift better then his god no man can see
This gift doth here the giver given bestowe [15]
Gift to this gift lett ech receiver bee
God is my gift, himself he freely gave me
Gods gift am I and none but God shall have me.
Man altered was by synn from man to best
Ox, ass & shepherds. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum
Bestes food is haye haye is all mortall fleshe [20]
Now god is fleshe and lyes in manger prest
As haye the brutish synner to refreshe.
O happy feilde wherein this foder grewe
Whose taste doth us from beastes to men renewe.
[First verse] 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. A common feature of RS's writings is the paradox, well-illustrated here.
[l1] the father is his daughters sonne: because Jesus is Mary's son but He is the Son of the Father and He and the Father are one. [ [30] I and the Father are one John 10]
[l2] the bird ... hatched therein: See: [10] He was in the world, and the world was made by him [John 1]
[l3] the olde of yeres an hower hath not outrunne: Daniel prophecies the Second Coming of Jesus
[22] Till the Ancient of days came and gave judgment to the saints of the most High,[Daniel 7][l5] the word is dumm: In the beginning was the Word (God the Son), the Word became flesh and dwelled amongst us. But as a newborn, the Word did not utter words (though doubtless communicating like all newborn infants!).
[l5] the mirth of heaven doth weepe: 'mirthe' - Often used of religious joy and heavenly bliss. Now obsolete. The sense then seems to be that God's Heaven is bliss ('mirth') where there are no tears; but the Christ child cries like any other infant here on earth in 'this vale of tears'.
[l6] fayntly: weakly, feebly.
ll11-12]: The syntax works like an acrostic:
From death : This life
from darke ('darkness') : this light
from deaphnesse : this word
from despayres : this joy repaires
[l15] gift/giver/given: the giver is God; the gift is Himself (ie His Son); He is bestowed on or given to us. He gives Himself to us through His incarnation; He gives Himself unto death as a sacrifice to redeem us, with such great love, he lays down or gives His life for His friends; He gives Himself in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and offers to give Himself to the faithful in Holy Communion.
[l19] best: beast. Man lost the gift of freedom from from concupiscence, a desire of the lower appetite contrary to reason and hence likened here to animal impulses.
[21] I find then a law, that when I have a will to do good, evil is present with me. [22] For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man: [23] But I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin, that is in my members. [24] Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? [Ephesians 7][ll20-24] haye: The context here suggests an image of baby Jesus lying on hay in the manger of the stable in Bethlehem, with the ox and the ass nearby. This image conveys another meaning: God has come down from Heaven ('Now god is fleshe') and has a taste of life on earth, like one of his creatures; He lies in a manger where animals eat the hay to keep themselves alive. He will become like this hay for our sake and offer Himself to us through Mass and Communion so that we may have a taste of Heaven here on earth; and so that we, 'brutest synners', by partaking of Him, might be refreshed and have the hope one day of life with Him forever in Heaven.
There is no ass or ox in the Biblical narratives of the birth of Christ but with exception of the Child himself, the ass and the ox are the most ancient and stable elements in the iconography of the nativity. See The Ass and The Ox in The Nativity Icon by Jonathan Pageau at The Orthodox Arts Journal.
The ox (a clean animal, a castrated male) represents Israel (the chosen people, circumcised) and the ass (an unclean, uncastrated animal, a beast of burden) represents the gentiles (uncircumcised of the flesh). Together they represent the whole of mankind, as in the poem.
They feature in the prophecies of Isaiah:
[3] The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood.[Isaiah 1]This has an interesting parallel in St Paul:
[22] For both the Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: [23] But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness: [1 Corinthians 1]
Coda
Fulton Sheen provides a modern version of the use of paradox in describing the Incarnation of Christ:“He who made his mother is born of his mother. He who made all flesh is born of flesh. The bird that built the nest is hatched therein. Maker of the sun, under the sun; molder of the earth, on this earth; ineffably wise, a little infant; filling the world, lying in a manger; ruling the stars, suckling a breast; the mirth of heaven weeps; God becomes man; Creator, a creature. Rich becomes poor; Divinity, incarnate; Majesty, subjugated; Liberty, captive; Eternity, time; Master, a servant; Truth, accused; Judge, judged; Justice, condemned; Lord scourged; Power, bound with ropes; King, crowned with thorns; Salvation wounded; Life, dead. And thought we shall live on through eternity, eternity will not be long enough for us to understand the mystery of that Child Who was a Father and of the mother who was a child.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Divine Romance, delivered in the Catholic Radio Hour 1930)
The Circumcision
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| The Circumcision 1500. Workshop of Bellini. National Gallery.CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 |
The head is launc't to work the bodies cure
With angring salve it smartes to heale our wounde
To faltlesse son from all offences pure
The falty vassalls scourges do redounde
The judge is cast the guilty to acquite [5]
The sonne defac'd to lend the starre his light
The veyne of life distilleth droppes of grace
Our rock gives yssue to an heavenly springe
Teares from his eyes blood runes from wounded place
Which showers to heaven of joy a harvest bringe [10]
This sacred deaw lett Angells gather upp
Such daynty droppes best fitt their nectared cupp.
With weeping eyes his mother reu'd his smart
If bloode from him, teares rann from her as fast
The knife that cutt his fleshe did perce her hart [15]
The payne that Jesus felt did Marye tast
His life and hers hunge by one fatall twiste
Noe blow that hitt the sonne the mother mist.
Notes
[l1] the head...the bodies cure: Christ is the head and we are the body.[17] And he is before all, and by him all things consist. [18] And he is the head of the body, the church [Colossians 1]His blood will be our redemption, the cure of the body. Perhaps it is worth recalling another's head, a reference to Satan and his horde of demons and minions:
[15] I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. [Genesis 3][l1] launc't: lanced. To lance: To pierce with or as with a lance or a lancet; to cut, gash, slit. Also, to slit open; to open. Obsolete exc. poet. The word derives from the Latin lancea which is found in the Chapter 19 of St John's Gospel. Christ is cut at the beginning of the Gospels and also at the very end, after His death on the cross:
[34] sed unus militum lancea latus ejus aperuit, et continuo exivit sanguis et aqua.RS refers to this image of 'blood and water' throughout this poem. We are called to meditate upon the blood and watery tears of Christ during his circumcision; the water and wine of the first miracle at Cana; the water and wine at the first Mass during the Last Supper; the bloody sweat of His agony in the garden; the blood and finally water shed by our Redeemer during His passion and crucifixion; the wine and water of the Mass.
[34] But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water.
[l2] angring: angry - inflamed, smarting, as a sore. salve: a healing ointment for application to wounds or sores. 'salve' derives originally from roots meaning butter, oil or balm. It also calls to mind 'salvation' and 'Saviour'.
[l3] sonne: Mary's son, without fault, free from stain of sin.
[l4] vassals: 'vassal' - a base or abject person; a slave common Elizabethan use. Fallen man became a slave to the evil one through sin. The Saviour will suffer in His flesh, the scourges man deserves in order to redeem him. The circumcision looks forward to the scourging at the pillar 33 years later.
[l5] cast: condemned. See eg, 1567 J. Jewel Def. Apol. Churche Eng. (1611) 107 Thinke you, he would determine matters, before he knew them: So might he cast Christ, and quit Barabbas.
[l5] acquite: To pay the debt of and free (a debtor who has been held in prison); to ransom (a person); (also occasionally) to redeem (a thing). Obsolete.
The sense of the line then becomes: Christ, who will come again to judge the living and the dead, is condemned in order through His passion and death to acquit guilty mankind.
[l6] The sonne: the sun, as in the Sun of Justice. God Almighty, the supreme being, permits Himself to have His glory seem to be diminished in order that His light may lead poor creatures unto salvation from sin and show them the way to Heaven.
[l8] rock: A reference to the rock struck by Moses to save his people from death and enable them to make their way to the promised land [Numbers 20]. This rock was a figure of Christ, and the water that issued out from the rock, of his precious blood, the source of all our good.
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| Mateo Cerezo. 1664-1665. Museo de Burgos |
[3] Jesus ... said to him: Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.[John 3]Many artists have represented angels collecting the 'sacred dew', the precious blood from the crucified Christ, as described in lines11-12. Cerezo's Cristo de la Sangre (left) is one example.
[l13] reu'd: rued.
[l15] did perce her hart: When Jesus was presented in the Temple at Jerusalem, Simeon prophesied to Mary that she would experience great sorrow:
Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted; [35] And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed. [Luke 2][l17] twiste: The continuation or course of life figured as a thread. Obsolete.
1568 T. Howell Arbor of Amitie f. 4 For thin is twist or fatall threed, on mortall wheele so spoon.
A further sense signified here: an intimate union or connection.
[l18] miste: missed. RS's English syntax reflects his expertise in Latin. Here is but one of many examples of a verb ('missed') where 'the mother' could be either the subject or the direct object.
Coda: Circumcision and Baptism
St. Thomas holds that circumcision was a figure of baptism. He gives three reasons why the organ of generation rather than any other was to be circumcised:- Abraham was to be blessed in his seed;
- The rite was to take away original sin, which comes by generation;
- It was to restrain concupiscence, which is found especially in the generative organs (III, Q. lxx, a. 3).
The Epiphanye
To blase the rising of this glorious sunne
A glittringe starre appeareth in the Easte
Whose sight to Pilgrimm toyles three sages wunne
To seeke the light they long had in requeste
And by this starre to nobler starr they pace [5]
Whose armes did their desired sunne embrace
Stall was the skye wherein these planetts shynde
And want the cloude that did eclipse their rayes
Yet through this cloude their light did passage finde
And perc'd these sages harts by secret waies [10]
Which made them knowe the ruler of the skyes
By infant tongue and lookes of babish eyes.
Heaven at her light, earth blusheth at her pride
And of their pompe these peeres ashamed bee
Their crownes, their robes their trayne they sett aside [15]
When gods poor Cotage clouts and crewe they see
All glorious thinges their glory now dispise
Sith god contempt doth more than glory prize.
Three giftes they bringe three giftes they beare awaye
For incense myrrhe and gould, faith hope and love [20]
And with their gifts the givers hartes do staye
Their mynde from Christ no parting can remove
His humble state, his stall his poore retynewe
They phancie more, then all their ritch revenewe.
Notes
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| And by this starre to nobler starr they pace. JJ Tissot, Brooklyn Museum |
[l1] blase: blaze - To proclaim (as with a trumpet), to publish, divulge, make known.
[ll3-4]: The sense would seem to be: Three sages, through their determined effort and toil, were favoured with sight of the glittering star in the East. They had spent a long time in the quest for the light of this star.
[ll5-6]: They follow the star, making their way to Mary, a nobler star (Stella Maris), whose arms enfold the sought for Sun of Justice.
[ll7-8]: One possible explanation of these lines is as follows. The created sun and stars shine in the physical firmament. Down on earth, Christ the Sun of Justice and Mary, Star of the Sea, have a stall (or primitive home) for their sky in which they ('these planets') shine. The poverty of the setting and of the Holy Family might have masked, like a cloud, the light of their souls. The poverty might have been a particular problem for the richly vested sages, with all their fine accoutrements. See the next verse.
 |
| Infant tongue and lookes of babish eyes. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Mus |
[l13] her: 'their'. The genitive case of the third person plural personal pronoun : of them; of themselves. Heaven and earth blush at their pride, the pride of the richly clad sages.
[l16] clouts: 'clout' - A small piece or shred produced by tearing or rending; in later use chiefly a shred of cloth, a rag. Applied contemptuously to any article of clothing; in plural clothes.
[l16] crewe: A number of persons classed together (by the speaker) from actual connection or common characteristics; often with derogatory qualification or connotation; lot, set, gang, mob, herd.
[l18] contempt: God looks favourably upon those who are poor and lowly in the eyes of the world and viewed with 'contempt.
[23] Then Jesus said to his disciples: Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. [24] And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew 19][l23] retynewe: retinue. A group of people (or animals) in the service of or accompanying a person, esp. a sovereign, noble, or person in authority; a train, a suite. The little baby is Christ the King, the Prince of Peace, of the royal house of David; His mother is a Queen; but his 'retinue' is 'poore'.
[l24] revenewe: revenue, with stress on penultimate syllable: revénue.
The Presentation
To be redeemd the worlds redeemer brought
Two sely turtle doves for ransome payes
O ware with Empyres worthy to be bought
This easy rate doth sounde not drowne thy praise
For sith no price can to thy worth amounte [5]
A dove yea love dew price thou doest accounte.
Old Simeon cheap penyworth and sweete
Obteyn'd when the in armes he did embrace
His weeping eies thy smiling looks did meete
Thy love his heart thy kisses blissd his face [10]
O eies O hart meane sights and loves avoyde
Base not your selves, your best you have enjoyed.
O Virgin pure thow do'st these Doves present
As due to lawe not as an equall price
To buy such ware thow wouldst thy life have spente [15]
The worlds to reach hid worth could not suffice
If god were to be bought not worldly pelfe
But thow wert fittest price next god himself.
Notes
 |
| Presentation in Temple. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum |
[22] And after the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord: [23] As it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord: [24] And to offer a sacrifice, according as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons: [Luke 2][l1] redeemd/redeemer: to redeem- To ransom (a person) from slavery, captivity, or punishment; to save (a person's life) by paying a ransom.
[l2] selye: 'silly' - in Elizabethan/Jacobean usage can mean 'helpless, defenceless, powerless; frequently with the suggestion of innocence or undeserved suffering. Meagre, poor, trifling; of little significance, substance, or value; weak, feeble, frail; lacking strength, size, or endurance.'
[l2] payes: To construe this as a verb is attractive, as in 'pays a ransom', but sits ill with the syntax. If it is construed as a noun, the sense becomes 'ransom payment(s) (there being two doves). One contemporaneous citation would permit a singular construction of the noun: 1598 R. Barret Theorike & Pract. Mod. Warres iv. 117 Souldiers of great experience..should be aduantaged in their payes ('salary').
[l3] O ware...bought: The little baby Jesus is compared to 'ware' (see also l15) that is worthy of being redeemed by all the riches of the world's empires.
[l4] This easye rate... thy praise: this rate of paying two turtle doves is an easy rate that sounds (proclaims) rather than drowns (or conceals) His praise.
[l6] yea: Used to introduce a statement, phrase, or word, stronger or more emphatic than that immediately preceding: = ‘indeed’; ‘and more’. dew: 'due'. If thou (referring to the Lord) dost account a dove a fitting (due) price to pay in order to redeem the firstborn, then even more so would be love in the giver's heart.
[l7] Simeon:
[25] And behold there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was in him.[26] And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. [27] And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when his parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, [28] He also took him into his arms, and blessed God, and said: [29] Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace; [30] Because my eyes have seen thy salvation, [31] Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples: [32] A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.[Luke 2]
[l8] the: thee, the holy infant Jesus. For a minuscule sum (cheap penyworth), Simeon obtained a sweet privilege of taking the Holy Infant in his arms.
[l9] thy smyling looks: It is commonly attested that babies smile for the first time around six weeks after birth (ie, some 40 days!).
[l10] blissd: to bliss and/or to bless - to give joy or gladness to; to gladden, make happy. (In 16–17th centuries blended with bless.) Obsolete. The verb is used twice in this line: 'Thy love blissed his heart, thy kisses blissed his face.' In the first two verses, the poet is addressing Christ.
[l12] Base not yourselves: Following on from the exhortation to avoid 'meane sights and loves', 'base' seems to suggest 'Do not debase yourselves', mindful that you have found satisfaction in ensuring that your eyes and heart focus on what is good (best).
[l17] pelfe: Property, material possessions; objects of value. Obsolete. Chiefly depreciative. Money, riches. 1589 G. Puttenham Arte Eng. Poesie iii. xxii. 217 A misers mynde thou hast, thou hast a Princes pelfe. A lewd terme to be giuen to a Princes treasure. 'If God were to be bought, no worldly lucre would suffice; but thou, Mary, would be the fittest price (next to God Himself).
The Flight into Egipt
Alas our day is forc'd to flye by nyghte
Light without light, and sunne by silent shade
O nature blushe that suffrest such a wighte
That in thy Sunne this darke Eclipse hath made
Day to his eyes, light to his steppes denye [5]
That hates the light which graceth every eye
Sunne being fledd the starres do leese their light
And Shyninge beames in bloody streames they drenche
A Cruell storme of Herods mortall spite
Their lives and lightes with bloody showres doth quench [10]
The Tiran to be sure of murdringe one
For feare of sparinge him doth pardon none.
O blessed babes, first flowers of Christian springe
Who though untimely cropt fayre garlands frame
With open throates and silent mouthes you singe [15]
His praise whome age permitts you not to name
Your tunes are teares your instruments are swords
Your ditye death and bloode in liew of wordes.
Notes
Background: |
| The Flight into Egypt. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
[15] Woe to you that are deep of heart, to hide your counsel from the Lord: and their works are in the dark, and they say: Who seeth us, and who knoweth us? [Isaiah 29]
[19] And this is the judgment: because the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light: for their works were evil. [20] For every one that doth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, that his works may not be reproved. [John 3]
[5] And this is the declaration which we have heard from him, and declare unto you: That God is light, and in him there is no darkness. [6] If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. [7] But if we walk in the light, as he also is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.[1 John 1][l3] wighte: A living being in general; a creature. Obsolete. A human being, man or woman, person.
Now arch. or dialect (often implying some contempt or commiseration). The wighte here is presumably
Herod the Great (78-1 BC), tetrarch of Galilee and father of Herod Antipas (who beheaded
John the Baptist and had a role in the Passion of Christ.
[Second & third verses]: These verses refer to the massacre of the Holy Innocents.
 |
| The Holy Innocents. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum |
the boy babies are fated to lose the light of their lives.
[l11] Tiran: the tyrant, Herod.
[l13] first flowers: first martyrs of Christianity, their lives being taken for Christ. Compare with the use in: 'The flower of English manhood perished in the mud of Flanders.'
[l18] ditye: The words of a song, as distinguished from the music or tune; also, the leading theme or phrase; hence, Subject, matter, theme, ‘burden’. liew: lieu, place
Coda
It is salutary when studying his poetry to recall that RS was writing in 'Christian', 'God-fearing' England at a time when belief in Christ and the one, true Church He founded risked grisly martyrdom under the Virgin Queen, 'Bloody Bess'.The slaughter of the Holy Innocents in Bethlehem finds its parallel in the butchery of men and women were innocent of any crime, condemned to die for staying faithful to the faith of their fathers.
For a passionately written account of these times written by a protestant, see: Cobbett's History of the Protestant Reformation (edited by FA Gasquet).
Christes returne out of Egipt
When death and hell their right in herode clayme
Christ from exile returnes to native soyle
There, with his life more deepely death to mayme
Then death did life by all the infantes spoyle
He shewd the parentes that their babes did mone [5]
That all their lives were lesse than his alone.
But hearing Herods sonne to have the crowne
An impious offspring of a bloodye syre
To Nazareth (of heaven beloved) towne,
Flower to a flowre he fittly doth retyre. [10]
For flowre he is and in a flower he bredd
And from a thorne now to a flowre he fledd.
And wel deservd this floure his fruite to vew
Where he invested was in mortall weede
Where first unto a tender budd he grewe [15]
In virgin branch unstaynd with mortall seede.
Younge flowre with flowres in flower well may he be
Ripe fruite he must with thornes hange on a tree.
Notes
 |
| The return from Egypt. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
[19] But when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in Egypt, [20] Saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel. For they are dead that sought the life of the child.[21] Who arose, and took the child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. [22] But hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea in the room of Herod his father, he was afraid to go thither: and being warned in sleep retired into the quarters of Galilee. [23] And coming he dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was said by prophets: That he shall be called a Nazarene.[Matthew 2][l2] native soyle: the land of Israel (as in verse 21 above). Presumably Bethlehem.
[ll3-4] life/death: Christ's life will overcome death, maiming death mortally through His own death and resurrection. The triumph of Christ's death completely obliterates the apparent victory of death over life and its 'spoyle' of the slaughtered Holy Innocents.
[l4] spoyle: Goods, esp. such as are valuable, taken from an enemy or captured city in time of war; the possessions of which a defeated enemy is deprived or stripped by the victor; in more general sense, any goods, property, territory, etc., seized by force, acquired by confiscation, or obtained by similar means; booty, loot, plunder.
1582 N. Lichefield tr. F. L. de Castanheda 1st Bk. Hist. Discouerie E. Indias 163 With this spoyle the king of Calicut remained..ill contented.
[l5] mone: moan (with grief), mourn. He (Christ) showed (through His life) to the parents who were mourning the death of their babes...
[l7] Herods sonne: Archelaus.
 |
| Nazareth. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum |
[23] And coming he dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was said by prophets: That he shall be called a Nazarene.[Matthew 2]
[1] And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.In the time of St. Jerome, Nazareth was known as Nazara (in modern Arabic, en Nasirah). The Nazara derives from neser, which means 'a shoot'. The Latin Vulgate renders this word by flos, 'flower'. Nazareth is accordingly the 'flower of Galilee'. The above Prophecy of Isaiah speaks of Christ's family tree in terms of a root, a shoot and a flower. He was descended from David (son of Jesse).
[1] Et egredietur virga de radice Jesse, et flos de radice ejus ascendet. [Isaiah 11]
[l10] fittly: fitly - In a way that is fit; properly, aptly, becomingly, suitably, appropriately.
a1616 Shakespeare Coriolanus (1623) iv. ii. 36 Cats, that can iudge as fitly of his worth, As I can of those Mysteries. Christ is the flower who fittingly retires to Nazareth, the flower of Galilee.
[l11] in a flower he bredd: in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Rosa Mystica, Flos Carmeli.
[l12] from a thorne: the risk that Archelaus would shed His blood. This perhaps looks ahead to the Crown of Thorns and His Passion in l18. He flees to Nazareth, the flower of Galilee.
[ll12-16]: 'this floure' may refer to Nazareth (the antecedent in l12) or to Christ Himself. In Nazareth, witness Christ came to fruition; it was here that He (a god) was clothed as a human (a mortal); where He grew from a babe, to a child, to a young man. His mother conceived Him sinlessly without the stain of human seed.
[ll17-18]: Christ lives with His family, growing up to manhood in Nazareth; but, as a man, He is destined to die nailed to a cross, wearing a crown of thorns.
Christes Childhood
Till twelve yeres age, how Christ his childhood spent
All earthly pennes unworthy were to write
Such actes to mortall eyes he did presente
Whose worth not men but Angells must recite
No natures blotts no childish faulted defilde [5]
Where grace was guide and god did play the childe
In springing lockes laye couched hoary Witt
In semblant younge a grave and auncient port
In lowly lookes high majestie did sitt
In tender tungue sound sense of sagest sort. [10]
Nature imparted all that she could teache
And god supplyd where nature could not reach
His mirth of modest meane a mirrhour was
His sadness tempered with a mylde aspecte
His eye to try each action was a glasse [15]
Whose lookes did goode approve and bad correct.
His natures giftes his grace his word and deede
Well shewd that all did from a god proceede
Notes
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| The Youth of Jesus. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
[l8] semblant: seeming. port: carriage, deportment.
[l13] meane: The look, bearing, manner, or conduct of a person, as showing character, mood, etc.
1596 Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene vi. ix. sig. Gg4 Her rare demeanure, which him seemed So farre the meane of shepheards to excell, As that [etc.] mirrhour: mirror.
[l15] ech: each. trye: To examine and determine (a cause or question) judicially; to determine the guilt or otherwise of (an accused person) by consideration of the evidence; to sit in judgement on; to judge. glass: mirror. 1594 Shakespeare Lucrece sig. M3 Poore broken glasse, I often did behold In thy sweet semblance, my old age new borne.
The death of our Ladie
Weepe livinge thinges of life the mother dyes
The world doth loose the summ of all her blisse
The Quene of Earth the Empresse of the skyes
By maryes death mankind an orphan is
Lett nature weepe yea lett all graces mone [5]
Their glory grace and giftes dye all in one
It was no death to her but to her woe
By which her joyes beganne her greives did end
Death was to her a frende to us a foe
Life of whose lives did on her life depende [10]
Not pray of death but praise to death she was
Whose uglye shape seemd glorious in her face
Her face a heaven two planettes were her eyes
Whose gracious light did make our clearest day
But one such heaven there was and loe it dyes [15]
Deathes dark Eclipse hath dymmed every ray.
Sunne hide thy light, thy beames untymely shine
Trew light sith wee have lost we crave not thine.
[ l1]: Weep, all living things; the mother of life dies.
[l2] summ: the sum; the summit.
[l5]: mone: moan with grief, mourn.
[ll7-8]: It is not death that Mary suffers; it is the death of (the end of) her woe. Her death ends her 'greives' (sorrows) and leads her to the joy of life in Heaven.
[35] And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed. [Luke 2][l10]: One sense might be: 'Hers was the life of those whose lives did on her life depend.' 'Her life' may be herself or the life she bore within her and whom she bore unto the world.
[l11] pray: prey
[l15] loe: lo.
[l12]: There are attested cases of saints whose body suffered no putrefaction after death; who even seemed strangely beautiful in death. How fitting it is therefore that Our Lady's face would be gloriously and radiantly beautiful in death.
For a summary of what the Church has always held and taught on the subject of the Dormition and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, see: the APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION OF POPE PIUS XII, MUNIFICENTISSIMUS DEUS. November 1, 1950
The Assumption of our Lady
If sinne be captive grace must finde release
From curse of sinne the innocent is free
Tombe prison is for sinners that decease
No tombe but throne to guiltless doth agree
Though thralles of sinne lye lingring in their grave [5]
Yet faultles cors with soule rewarde must have.
The daseled eye doth dymmed light require
And dying sightes repose in shadowinge shades
But Eagles eyes to brightest light aspire
And living lookes delite in loftye glades [10]
Faynte winged foule by grounde doth fayntly flye
Our Princely Eagle mountes unto the skye.
Gemm to her worth spouse to her love ascendes
Prince to her throne Queene to her heavenly kinge
Whose court with solemn pompe on her attends [15]
And Quires of Saintes with greeting notes do singe
Earth rendreth upp her undeserved praye
Heaven claymes the right and beares the prize awaye.
Notes
Background: According to the general rule, God does not will to grant to the just the full effect of the victory over death until the end of time has come. And so it is that the bodies of even the just are corrupted after death, and only on the last day will they be joined, each to its own glorious soul.
Now God has willed that the Blessed Virgin Mary should be exempted from this general rule. She, by an entirely unique privilege, completely overcame sin by her Immaculate Conception, and as a result she was not subject to the law of remaining in the corruption of the grave, and she did not have to wait until the end of time for the redemption of her body.
St. John Damascene (c675-c749) spoke out with powerful eloquence when he compared the bodily Assumption of the loving Mother of God with her other prerogatives and privileges. “It was fitting that she, who had kept her virginity intact in childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruption even after death. It was fitting that she, who had carried the Creator as a child at her breast, should dwell in the divine tabernacles. It was fitting that the spouse, whom the Father had taken to himself, should live in the divine mansions. It was fitting that she, who had seen her Son upon the cross and who had thereby received into her heart the sword of sorrow which she had escaped in the act of giving birth to him, should look upon him as he sits with the Father. It was fitting that God’s Mother should possess what belongs to her Son, and that she should be honored by every creature as the Mother and as the handmaid of God.”
For more, see: Munificentissimus Deus (1950).
[l5] thralles: thrall - One who is in bondage to a lord or master; a villein, serf, bondman, slave; also, in vaguer use, a servant, subject; transf. one whose liberty is forfeit; a captive, prisoner of war. fig. One who is in bondage to some power or influence; a slave (to something).
[l6] cors:body.
[l7] daseled: dazzled
[l11] Faynte: Sluggish, timid, feeble.Wanting in courage, spiritless, cowardly. Obsolete or arch. Wanting in strength or vigour. foule: fowl, birds.
[l14] Prince: Mary. Applied to a female sovereign. Obsolete.1594 Willobie his Auisa iv. f. 7 'Cleopatra, prince of Nile.'
[l17] praye: prey.
A childe my Choyce
Let folly praise that phancy loves I praise and love that childe
Whose hart no thought, whose tong no word, whose hand no deed defilde
I praise him most I love him best all prayse and love is his
While him I love in him I live and cannot lyve amisse
Loves sweetest mark, lawdes highest theme, mans most desired light [5]
To love him life to leave him death to live in him delighte
He myne by gift I his by debt thus ech to other Dewe
First frende he was best frende he is all tymes will try him trewe.
Though yonge yet wise though small yet stronge though man yet god he is
As wise he knowes, as stronge he can as god he lives to blisse [10]
His knowledge rules his strength defendes his love doth cherish all
His birth our joye, his life our light, his death our end of thrall
Alas he weepes he sighes he pantes yet do his Angells singe
Out of his teares his sighes and throbbs doth bud a joyfull springe
Almightie babe whose tender armes can force all foes to flye [15]
Correct my faultes, protect my life direct me when I die.
Notes
 | |||
| The Holy Infant of Prague* |
[l1] phancy: fancy - In early use synonymous with imagination n.
[l2] hart: heart
[l4] amisse: Out of order: not in accord with the recognized good order of morality, society, custom, nature, bodily health, etc. etc.; deficient, faulty.
a1616 Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) ii. iii. 96 Don. 'What is amisse? Macb. You are, and doe not know't.'
[l5] lawdes: lauds - Praise, high commendation.A hymn or ascription of praise.
*The statue shown here was formerly installed in Corpus Christi church, Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. It was given to my family in the 1980s by the parish priest, Father Henry Dodd, when a larger one was acquired for the church. Please remember the learned and saintly Fr Dodd and his saintly housekeeper, Esther Clark, in your prayers. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,et lux perpetua luceat eis.
[l7] Dewe: due.
[l10] blisse: bless.
[l14] throbbs: throbs - A sudden catching of the breath or similar audible expression of emotion or distress; a sob, a sigh. Obsolete.1590 Spenser Faerie Queene iii. ix. sig. Nn2v 'Still as she stood, she heard with grieuous throb Him grone, as if his hart were peeces made.'
Metre: 'fourteener'
The sixteen lines of the above poem each contain fourteen syllables. Such a line is known as a a 'quatorzain' or 'fourteener'.
1591 T. Nashe in Sir P. Sidney Astrophel & Stella Introd. 'Put out your rush candles you poets and rimers and bequeath your quaterzayns to chandlers.'
It usually has seven stresses in an iambic metre, in which case it can also be called an iambic heptameter. There is normally a caesura after the eighth syllable.
Fourteeners, usually in rhyming couplets, were often used by English poets in the 15th and 16th centuries.
One familiar, modern example is the nursery rhyme:
O Mary had a little lamb. Its fleece was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go.
New heaven, new warre
 |
| Of Shepeherds he his muster makes. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
Come to your heaven yowe heavenly quires
Earth hath the heaven of your desires
Remove your dwellinge to your god
A stall is nowe his best aboade
Sith men their homage doe denye [5]
Come Angells all their fault supply
His chilling could doth heate require
Come Seraphins in liew of fire
This little ark no cover hath
Let Cherubs winges his body swath [10]
Come Raphiell this babe must eate
Provide our little Tobie meate.
Let Gabriell be nowe his groome
That first tooke upp his earthly roome
Let Michell stande in his defence [15]
Whom love hath link'd to feeble sence
Let graces rocke when he doth crye
And Angells sing his Lullybye
The same you saw in heavenly seate
Is he that now suckes Maryes teate [20]
Agnize your kinge a mortal wighte
His borrowed weede letts not your sight
Come kysse the maunger where he lies
That is your blisse above the Skyes
This little Babe so fewe daies olde [25]
Is come to ryfle Satans folde
All hell doth at his presence quake
Though he himselfe for cold doe shake
For in this weake unarmed wise
The gates of hell he will surprise [30]
With teares he fightes and wynnes the feild
His naked breste stands for a sheilde
His battering shot are babishe cryes
His Arrowes lookes of weepinge eyes
His Martiall ensignes cold and neede [35]
And feeble fleshe his warriers steede
His campe is pitched in a stall
Be His bulwarke but a broken wall
The Cribb his trench hay stalks his staks
Of Shepeherds he his muster makes [40]
And thus as sure his foe to Wounde
The Angells Trumpes alarum sounde.
My soule with Christ joyne thou in fighte
Sticke to the tents that he hath pight
Within his Cribb is surest warde [45]
This little Babe will be thy garde
If thou wilt foyle thy foes with joye
Then flit not from this heavenly boy.
Notes
Background: RS was a Jesuit, a member and priest of the Society of Jesus that was founded in 1534 by St Ignatius of Loyola. Ignacio had been a soldier and was seriously wounded. When he later founded the Society of Jesus, he called it the 'Compañía de Jesús', a company being a unit in the army. The Jesuits were to wage a war on behalf of Christ's Church against Satan and sin, seeking to rescue souls and lead them to Heaven. This theme permeates the poem but with a particular emphasis on Christ, the Head of the Church Militant, viewed as a 'babe so fewe daies old'. The oppressive Elizabethan regime directed its power at waging war against the Catholic Church in order to eliminate it from England. Many Catholics were to offer their lives in this struggle.[l1] yowe: you
[l7] could: cold
[ll11-12] Raphiell and Tobie: a reference to Raphael and Tobias, whose story appears in the Book Of Tobit (Tobias). The archangel Raphael ('God has healed') cares for the young Tobias on his journey to obtain ten talents of silver left in bond by his father. Tobias while bathing in the Tigris is attacked by a large fish, catches it, and, at the advice of Raphael, keeps its heart, liver, and gall. Tobias chooses Sara for his wife and by continence and using the odour of the burning liver of the fish and the aid of Raphael, he conquers the devil who had slain the seven previous husbands of Sara. Raphael cures the blindness of the elder Tobias, on the return of his son
[l13] Gabriell: the power or strength of God. groome: a serving-man; a man-servant; a male attendant. Obsolete exc. arch.
[l21] wight: man
[l22] borrowed weede: borrowed clothes. This may be reference to the flesh with which God, the Supreme Spirit, clothes Himself in the incarnation. letts: to let - to hinder, prevent, obstruct, stand in the way of (a person, thing, action, etc.). 1584 T. Cogan Hauen of Health ccxii. 189 'Much meate eaten at night, grieueth the stomacke, & letteth naturall rest.'
[l38] metre: There is an extra syllable in this line in the Waldegrave MS> In the printed edition, 'Be' is omitted.
[l39] staks: stakes.
[l42] Trumpes: trumpets. trumpet n. 1. arch. and poet.a1530 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfeccyon (1531) iii. f. CCxiiiiv 'The day of the sounde of the claryon & trumpe of god.' alarum: A signal calling upon people to arm themselves; a call to arms.
[l44] pight: 'pitched'. transitive. = pitch ; to set up; to fix. Obsolete (arch. and poet. in later use)
1586 W. Warner Albions Eng. ii. vii. 23 'And hauing in their sight the threatned Citie of the Foe, his Tents did Affer pight.'
The burning Babe
As I in hoary Winters night stoode shyveringe in the snowe
Surpris'd I was with sodayne heat, which made my heart to glowe
And lifting upp a fearefull eye to vewe what fire was nere
A pretty babe all burninge bright did in the ayre appeare
Who scorched with excessive heate such floodes of teares did shedd [5]
As though his floodes should quench his flames, which with his tears were fedd
Alas quoth he, but newly borne in fiery heates I frye
Yet none approach to warme their hartes or feele my fire but I!
My faultles brest the furnace is the fuell woundinge thornes
Love is the fire and sighs the smoke the ashes shame and scornes [10]
The fewell Justice layeth on, and Mercy blowes the coales,
The metall in this furnace wrought are mens defiled soules
For which as nowe on fire I am to worke them to their good
So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my bloode
With this he vanisht out of sight and swiftly shronke awaye [15]
And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas daye.
Notes
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| AHB 2018 |
It is possible to meditate upon 1) a general sense; 2) an historical sense; and 3) a personal sense. In the general sense, after their sin of disobedience, the 'poor banished children of Eve' find themselves in a world very different from the Paradise their first parents left. It is a cold, dark and accursed place.
... cursed is the earth in thy work; with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. [18] Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth. [19] In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.[Genesis 3]Note the references to thorns and thistles, signifying perhaps not only harsher conditions of living but also a world of sin, where the sins become the 'wounding thorns' of the poem (l9). God fulfils His promise in Genesis to send a New Eve and a New Adam, who will redeem mankind from the curse of sin and death. The Word is made flesh, a baby is born in Bethlehem. His love for mankind is so great that He will suffer torture, crucifixion and death to save sinners. He perspired drops of His blood and water in the garden of Gethsemane. He will shed every last drop of His blood on the cross. When his side is pierced with a lance, He will shed water.
Key
1) furnace 1) heart
2) fire 2) on fire with love
3) wounding thornes (fuel) 3) sins
4) smoke 4) sighs
5) ashes 5) shame & scornes
6) stoker 6) Justice
7) bellows 7) Mercy
8) metal 8) defiled soules
9) bath 9) blood
10) water 10) tears
The second sense calls to mind the historical context in which the poet found himself. Following the vast looting operation under the reigns of Henry VIII and his son Edward, who confiscated for themselves and their cronies the wealth of the Church held in trust for all their subjects, Elizabeth introduced a cruel regime of persecution against Catholics. She, who continued to claim the title granted by the Pope to her father of 'Fidei Defensor' (defender of the faith), viciously and persistently attacked that same Faith. In his poem Lepanto, Chesterton wrote of her, that while the very future of Christendom hangs in the balance, being menaced by the cruel and infidel Turks:
The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;The persecution of Catholics under Elizabeth and her family may be likened unto that suffered by Israel in the Babylonian captivity. Indeed, Nabuchodonosor had attacked Jerusalem and had looted the Temple before carrying off the faithful Israelites and eventually trying to force them under pain of imprisonment, torture and death to take part in his false religion. This was just what Elizabeth and her ministers had done and were doing to the faithful Catholics. For a summary of her draconian Penal Laws, see the Catholic Encyclopedia.
In a personal sense, I too stood shivering in the cold, bleak world of my own iniquity.
[12] And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold. [Matthew 24]Through the saving waters of Baptism, I was given a chance of coming to know, love and serve God in this world; and of being happy with Him forever in the next. I was granted the saving graces of the Sacraments. But I fell into iniquity again...and again... and again. Christ's inexhaustible love, however, is like a mighty furnace that will burn away my sins, if only I can become like a little infant and beg His forgiveness through true contrition; making use of the Sacraments He has instituted to help sinners obtain His pardon, absolution and penance through the ministers of His Church; and to help the unworthy to approach His Real Presence in Holy Communion.
The image of this great furnace cannot but recall to mind the glorious faith of the three children who refused to bow down before the demonic statue that King Nabuchodonosor had set up. There are many echoes in this poem of the words, sounds, images and meanings in the third chapter of the Book of Daniel which is well worth revisiting. The Song of the Three Children is part of Lauds in the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary and would have been very familiar in prayer or chant to many Catholics in the 16th century. Here is a poignant excerpt from the Song:
[66] O ye fire and heat, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever. [67] O ye cold and heat, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever. [68] O ye dews and hoar frosts, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever. [69] O ye frost and cold, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever. [70] O ye ice and snow, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever.[71] O ye nights and days, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever. [72] O ye light and darkness, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all for ever. [Daniel 3]In the New Testament, St Luke recalls the testimony of two eye witnesses of the Risen Christ. They were on their way to Emmaus when they were joined by a stranger who explained the prophecies relating to the Messiah's life, death and resurrection. He later joined them for a meal in the village and they suddenly recognised him as Jesus during the breaking of bread. He left them and Luke recounts:
[32] And they said one to the other: Was not our heart burning within us, whilst he spoke in this way, and opened to us the scriptures? [Luke 24]
New Prince, new pompe
Behold a sely tender babe
In freesing Winter nighte
In homely manger trembling lyes
Alas a piteous sighte
The Inns are full no man willl yeld [5]
This little Pilgrime Bedd
But forc'd he is with sely beasts
In Crib to shroude his headd.
Despise not him for lyinge there
First what he is enquire [10]
An orient pearle is often founde
In depth of dirty mire
Waye not his Crib, his wooden dishe
Nor beasts that by him feede
Way not his mothers poore attire 15]
Nor Josephs simple weede
This stable is a Princes Courte
The Cribb his chaire of state
The beastes are parcell of his pompe
The wooden dishe his plate [20]
The persons in that poore attire
His royall liveries weare
The prince himselfe is come from heaven
This pompe is prized there
With joy approach O Christian wighte [25]
Do homage to thy Kinge
And highly prise this humble pompe
Which he from heaven doth bringe
Notes
[l1, 7] sely: seely ( > modern English silly) - Happy, blissful; fortunate, lucky, well-omened, auspicious. Spiritually blessed, enjoying the blessing of God. Innocent, harmless. Often as an expression of compassion for persons or animals suffering undeservedly.1545 G. Joye Expos. Daniel (vi.) f. 93 'Sely innocent daniel was casten into the lyons.' Deserving of pity or sympathy; pitiable, miserable, ‘poor’; helpless, defenceless. Insignificant, trifling; mean, poor; feeble.[l11] orient pearle: 'pearl of orient' n. (also 'pearl of the orient') a pearl from the seas around India, as distinguished from those of less beauty found in European mussels; (hence, more generally) a brilliant or precious pearl. Obsolete.
[45] Again the kingdom of heaven is like to a merchant seeking good pearls. [46] Who when he had found one pearl of great price, went his way, and sold all that he had, and bought it. [Matthew 13][l13] waye: To estimate, assess the value of (a person, a condition, quality, etc.), as if by placing in the scales.
[l16] weede: clothing. Cf 'widow's weeds'.
[l18] Cribb: A barred receptacle for fodder used in cowsheds and fold-yards; also in fields, for beasts lying out during the winter; A small rectangular bed for a child, with barred or latticed sides. (Sometimes loosely = cradle.)
[l19] parcell: A part, portion, or division of something (material or immaterial), considered separately as a unit; a small part. Now arch. and rare.
[l25] wighte: A human being, man or woman, person. Now arch. or dialect
Sinnes heavy loade
O lord my sinne doth overchardge thy breste
The poyse thereof doth force thy knees to bowe
Yea flatt thou fallest with my faultes oppreste
And bloody sweate runs tricklinge from thy browe
But had they not to earth thus presséd the [5]
Much more they woulde in hell have pestred me
This globe of earth doth thy one finger propp
The worlde thow dost within thy hand embrace
Yet all this waight of sweat drew not a dropp
Ne made thee bowe much less fall on thy face [10]
But now thou hast a loade so heavy found,
That makes thee bowe yea flatt fall to the grounde
O synne how huge and heavye is thy waight
Thou wayest more then all the worlde beside
Of which when Christ had taken in his fraighte [15]
The poyse thereof his flesh coulde not abide
Alas if god himself sinke under synne
What will become of man that dies therein
First flatt thou fellst when earth did thee receive
In Closet pure of Maryes Virgin breste [20]
And now thow fallst of earth to take thy leave
Thou kissest it as cause of thy unrest
O loving lord that so dost love thy foe
As thus to kysse the ground where he doth goe.
Thow minded in thy heaven our earth to weare [25]
Dost prostrate now thy heaven our earth to blisse
As god to earth thou often wert severe
As man thou seal'st a peace with bleeding kisse.
For as of soules thow Common Father art
So is she mother of man's other parte [30]
She shortly was to drinke thy dearest bloode
And yelde thy soule a waye to Satans cave
She shortly was thy cors in tombe to shroude
And with them all thy Deitye to have
Now then in one thou joyntly yealdest all [35]
That severally to earth should shortely fall
O prostrate Christ, erect my croked mynde
Lord lett thy fall my flight from earth obtayne
Or if I still in earth must needes be shrynde
Then lord on earth come fall yet once againe [40]
And ether yelde with me in earthe to lye
Or els with thee to take me to the skye.
Notes
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| Christ's Agony. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
[l5] they: my faultes (l3). the: thee.
[l7]:word order: thy one finger doth propp this globe of earth
[l10] ne: Following a negative clause or a word with negative force (frequently 'ne' itself as adverb). Frequently in correlative constructions, as ne..ne(..ne): neither..nor(..nor).
c1537 T. Cranmer Let. 26 May in Remains (1833) I. 186 'He cannot in that diocese be accepted ne allowed.'
[l15] fraighte: A load, burden. a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1954) VII. 440 Keep up that holy cheerefulnesse, which Christ makes the Ballast of a Christian, and his Fraight too.
[ll19-20]: This is a reference to the Incarnation when the Word was made flesh, in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
[l21] Word order: And now thou fallest, to take thy leave of earth.
[l25]: A reference to the Incarnation. God the Supreme Spirit, takes on what is material or earthly by becoming man.
[l26] blisse: To give joy or gladness to (orig. with dative); to gladden, make happy. (In 16–17th centuries blended with bless.) Obsolete.
[l30] she: There are three antecedent references in this verse to 'earth', each time contrasted with Heaven or God. Apart from the difference between the Creator and the created, another contrast is between the spiritual and the material, between the soul and the body. The pronoun 'she' seems therefore to stand for the noun 'earth' (terra, feminine in Latin). God formed man's body from the earth and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. The poet is representing God as the father of men's souls and the earth is 'personified' as the 'mother' of their bodies, 'their other parte'.
[7] Formavit igitur Dominus Deus hominem de limo terrae, et inspiravit in faciem ejus spiraculum vitae, et factus est homo in animam viventem.
[7] And the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. [Genesis 2]
[19] In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return. [Genesis 3][l31] She: the earth will receive ('drinke') Christ's blood that is shed during His passion. There are however echoes here of:
[55] He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. [John 6]
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| Descent into Hell. Duccio. 1308. Public domain |
[ll33-36]: A reference to the laying of Christ's body in the sepulchre.
[l33] cors: corpse, body - 1579 Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Nov. 166 Her soule unbodied of the burdenous corpse [rhymes forse, remorse].
[l34-36] them all/in one thou joyntly yealdest all: Christ's body, blood, soul and divinity (cors, bloode, soule and Deitye). In a first sense, there is a reference to what happens after Christ's death, when the earth receives 'them all'. In a second sense, there is a reference to authentic Christians (Catholic or Orthodox) belief in the Real Presence: that the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ are really present once the host has been consecrated. In a third sense, the words refer to the hope of being able to receive 'them all' in sacramental communion. In the latter two senses, the 'earth' means by extension 'humanity', since humans have received the gift of the Real Presence even after the death of Christ:
[20] ... and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. [Matthew 28]
Christs bloody sweate
Fatt soyle, full springe, sweete olive, grape of blisse
That yeldes, that streames, that powres, that dost distil
Untild, undrawne, unstampde, untouchd of presse
Deare fruit, cleare brooks, fayre oyle, sweete wine at will
Thus Christ unforc'd preventes in shedding bloode [5]
The whippes the thornes the nailes the speare and roode.
He Pelicans he Phenix fate doth prove
Whome flames consume whom streames enforce to die
How burneth bloud howe bleedeth burning love
Can one in flame and streame both bathe and frye [10]
How could he joyne a Phenix fyerye paynes
In faynting pelicans still bleeding vaynes
Elias once to prove gods soveraigne powre
By praire procur'd a fier of wondrous force
That blood and wood and water did devoure [15]
Yea stones and dust beyond all natures course
Such fire is love that fedd with gory bloode
Doth burne no lesse then in the dryest woode
O sacred Fire come shewe thy force on me
That sacrifice to Christe I maye retorne [20]
If withered wood for fuell fittest bee
If stones and dust yf fleshe and blood will burne
I withered am and stonye to all good.
A sack of dust a masse of fleshe and bloode
Notes
Background: After the Last Supper, Christ went with his disciples to Gethsemane to pray. His prayer in the garden is often referred to as the 'Agony in the Garden', by reason of the terrible pain in mind and body that He suffered there on account of our sins and in contemplation of His Passion.[44] And his sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground. [Luke 22][ll1-4]: The first four lines can be read horizontally, vertically and (possibly) along some diagonals. In one sense, they refer to a miraculous paradox: how could untilled soil yield precious fruit? How might a man obtain water, undrawn, from a spring? Or oil from olives that have not been pressed? Or wine from grapes that have not been in the wine press?
[l1] Fatt: Fat - of land: fertile, rich. Of things: Abundant, plentiful; esp. of a feast, pasture, etc.
Of an animal used for food: Fed up for slaughter, ready to kill, fatted.
[l1] grape of blisse:In one sense, Christ is likened unto a vine bearing grapes. The grapes are placed in the wine press and crushed in order to obtain the 'sweete wine'. In the wine press of His passion, Christ is crushed and sheds every drop of His precious blood.
[2] Why then is thy apparel red, and thy garments like theirs that tread in the winepress? [3] I have trodden the wine press alone... [Isaiah 63]In a second sense, there is a reference to the Last Supper, where Christ instituted the sacrament of Holy Communion, and to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in which His sacrifice is renewed to be applied through history. Bread and wine are changed into His body, blood, soul and divinity.
[l2]: powres: pours. distil: To let fall or give forth in minute drops.To give forth or impart in minute quantities; to infuse
[l3] unstampde: unstamped. Not crushed by stamping.1595 R. Southwell Christ's Bloody Sweat in Mæoniæ 3 'Sweete oliue, grape of blisse,..vnstampt, vntoucht of presse.' Gethsemani, a garden of olive trees with an olive press, is derived from the Hebrew gat, press, and semen, oil.
[l4] deare: Of high estimation, of great worth or value; precious, valuable. Obsolete. Precious in import or significance; important. Obsolete. Of a high price, high-priced, absolutely or relatively; costly, expensive. Perhaps a reference to the price paid by Christ for our redemption. [fayre] fair - Excellent, admirable; good, desirable; noble, honourable; reputable. Obsolete.
[l5] unforc'd: this word corresponds in the poet's metaphor to the words in line 3: 'Untild, undrawne, unstampde, untouchd of presse.'
[l5] preventes: transitive. To act in anticipation of, or in preparation for (a future event or point of time, esp. a time fixed for some action); to act as if (the event or time) had already come. Obsolete. 1549 Bk. Common Prayer (STC 16267) Celebr. Holye Communion f. lxxxixv 'That thy grace maye alwayes preuente and folowe vs.' Christ's agony in the garden anticipates His Passion and Crucifixion through the shared elements of suffering and the shedding of blood and water.
[l6] roode: The cross upon which Jesus suffered; the cross as the symbol of the Christian faith.?1515 Hyckescorner (de Worde) sig. A.ii Whan she sawe her sone on the rode The swerde of sorowe gaue that lady wounde.
[l7] Pelicans: A reference to the story that the pelican revives or feeds its young with its own blood. This story is told by Epiphanius and St Augustine. The image of Christ as the 'loving pelican' is common in Christian writing and art.
Adoro Te Devote is one of the five beautiful hymns St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) composed in honour of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament at Pope Urban IV's (1261-1264) request when the Pope first established the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1264. The hymn is found in the Roman Missal as a prayer of thanksgiving after Mass. It contains a reference to Jesus as a pelican:
Deign, O Jesus, Pelican of heaven, me, a sinner, in Thy Blood to lave, to a single drop of which is given all the world from all its sin to save. Pie pellicane, Iesu Domine, me immundum munda tuo sanguine; cuius una stilla salvum facere totum mundum quit ab omni scelere. [See Preces Latinae site for the whole hymn][l7] Phenix: In classical mythology: a bird resembling an eagle but with sumptuous red and gold plumage, which was said to live for five or six hundred years in the deserts of Arabia, before burning itself to ashes on a funeral pyre ignited by the sun and fanned by its own wings, only to rise from its ashes with renewed youth to live through another such cycle. The phoenix is commonly used in Christian art with reference to the resurrection of Christ.
[ll13-18] Elias: Elias (Elijah) opposed the cult of Baal, the demon worshipped by Jezebel, wife of King Ahab of Israel. To please Jezebel, Ahab had altars erected to Baal. Elias appeared before King Ahab to announce God's curse for this idolatry: a drought on the country. Elijah challenged the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of the demon Asherah to a contest on Mount Carmel. The idolaters sacrificed a bull and cried out to Baal from morning until nightfall, even slashing their bodies until blood flowed, but nothing happened. Elijah then built an altar to the Lord, sacrificing a bull there. He put the burnt offering on it, along with wood. He had a servant soak the sacrifice and wood with four jars of water, three times. Elijah called on the Lord God:
[38] Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the holocaust, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. [39] And when all the people saw this, they fell on their faces, and they said: The Lord he is God, the Lord he is God. [3 Kings 18]
Christes sleeping frendes
When Christ with care and pangues of death oprest
From frighted flesh a bloody sweate did raine,
And full of feare without repose or reste
In agonye did praye and watch in payne
Three sundry tymes he his Disciples findes [5]
With heavy eies, but farre more heavy myndes.
With milde rebuke he warnéd them to wake
Yet sleep did still their drousy sences hould
As when the sunne the brightest shewe doth make
In darkest shroudes the night birdes them infold [10]
His foes did watch to worke their cruell spyght
His drowsye frendes slept in his hardest plighte
As Jonas sayled once from Joppes Shoare
A boystrous tempest in the ayre did broyle
The waves did rage the thundring heavens did rore [15]
The stormes, the rockes, the lightninges threatned spoyle
The Shipp was billowes game and chaunces praye
Yett careles Jonas mute and sleepinge laye
So now though Judas like a blustringe gust
Doe stirre the furious sea of Jeweshe Ire [20]
Though storming troopes in quarrells mpst unjust
Against the barke of all our blisse conspire
Yett these disciples sleepinge lie secure
As though their wonted calme still did endure.
So Jonas once his weary lymmes to reste [25]
Did shroude himself in pleasant Ivy shade
But loe, while him a heavy sleepe opprest
His shadowy bowre to withered stalke did fade
A cankered Worme had gnawen the roote away
And brought the glorious Braunches to decay. [30]
O gratious plante. O tree of heavenly springe
The paragon for leafe, for fruite and floure
How sweete a shadow did thy braunches bringe
To shroude these soules that chose the for their boure
But now while they with Jonas fall a sleepe [35]
To spoyle their plant an envious worme doth creepe
Awake ye slumbring wightes lift upp your eyes
Marke Judas how to teare your roote he strives
Alas the glory of your arbour dyes
Arise and gard the comfort of your lives [40]
No Jonas Ivye no Zacheus Tree
Were to the world so greate a losse as hee.
Notes
 |
| Could you not watch one hour with me? JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
[38] Watch ye, and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. [Mark 14]
Here are excerpts from the Gospel accounts:
[45] And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow.[46] And he said to them: Why sleep you? arise, pray, lest you enter into temptation. [Luke 22][l10] shroudes: 'Shroud' bears a variety of possible senses in this context, by no means exclusive:
[40] And he cometh to his disciples, and findeth them asleep, and he saith to Peter: What? Could you not watch one hour with me? [41] Watch ye, and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak. [42] Again the second time, he went and prayed, saying: My Father, if this chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, thy will be done. [43] And he cometh again and findeth them sleeping: for their eyes were heavy. [44] And leaving them, he went again: and he prayed the third time, saying the selfsame word. [45] Then he cometh to his disciples, and saith to them: Sleep ye now and take your rest; behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners.[Matthew 26]
[37] And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping. And he saith to Peter: Simon, sleepest thou? couldst thou not watch one hour? [38] Watch ye, and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. [39] And going away again, he prayed, saying the same words. [40] And when he returned, he found them again asleep, (for their eyes were heavy,) and they knew not what to answer him.[41] And he cometh the third time, and saith to them: Sleep ye now, and take your rest. It is enough: the hour is come: behold the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners.[Mark 14]
In generalized use: Clothing, vesture, covering. A winding-sheet. Plumage. Obsolete. The branches of a tree, considered as affording shade. Obsolete. 1597 M. Drayton Englands Heroicall Epist. f. 49 v Where like a mounting Cedar he should beare His plumed top, aloft into the ayre; And let these shrubs sit vnderneath his shrowdes.
[l10] night birdes: nocturnal birds, eg owls (which in Leviticus 11 are numbered among the birds to be avoided).
[l11] spyght: spite - A strong feeling of hatred or ill-will; intense grudge or desire to injure; rancorous or envious malice.
[l13] Jonas: is the fifth of the minor prophets. This verse is a reference to an incident recounted in the Book which bears his name. In the opening verse, it is stated that
[1] Now the word of the Lord came to Jonas the son of Amathi, saying: [2] Arise, and go to Ninive the great city, and preach in it: for the wickedness thereof is come up before me. [Jonah 1]But the Prophet, instead of obeying the Divine command, tried to run away.
[3] And Jonas rose up to flee into Tharsis from the face of the Lord, and he went down to Joppe, and found a ship going to Tharsis: and he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them to Tharsis from the face of the Lord. [4] But the Lord sent a great wind into the sea: and a great tempest was raised in the sea, and the ship was in danger to be broken. [5] And the mariners were afraid, and the men cried to their god: and they cast forth the wares that were in the ship, into the sea, to lighten it of them: and Jonas went down into the inner part of the ship, and fell into a deep sleep.[Jonah 1](Later, on his admission that he is the cause of it, he is cast overboard. He is swallowed by a great fish providentially prepared for the purpose, and after a three day's sojourn in the belly of the monster, during which time he composes a hymn of thanksgiving, he is cast upon dry land.)
[l16] spoyle: The action or fact of spoiling or damaging; damage, harm, impairment, or injury, esp. of a serious or complete kind. Now rare. 1592 T. Kyd Trueth Murthering of Brewen 6 'It is thou and no man else that can triumph in my spoyle.'
[l17] praye: prey.
[ll19-24]: The disciples are compared to Jonas. Jonas received the word of God giving him a mission to preach in Nineveh because of sin. The disciples received a warning from the Word of God to watch and pray that they enter not into the temptation of sin. Jonas 'mute and sleepinge laye' in the midst of the storm threatening his ship and the lives of those on board. The disciples slept in the midst of the storm of anger of Judas and other Jews,threatening the 'barke of all our bliss' (Christ) and their own lives (salvation).
[ll25-30] Background scripture: Jonah preached in Nineveh as the Lord had commanded, warning that ther city would be destroyed in yet forty days. The king and citizens listened and began a fast, putting on sack cloth and ashes. God showed mercy on Nineveh but Jonah was angry and exceedingly troubled because he feared he would be regarded as a false prophet. In reality, the conversion of Ninive, a city of gentiles, was an earnest of that of the all gentiles.
[5] Then Jonas went out of the city, and sat toward the east side of the city: and he made himself a booth there, and he sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would befall the city. [6] And the Lord God prepared an ivy, and it came up over the head of Jonas, to be a shadow over his head, and to cover him (for he was fatigued), and Jonas was exceeding glad of the ivy. [7] But God prepared a worm, when the morning arose on the following day: and it struck the ivy and it withered.
[8] And when the sun was risen, the Lord commanded a hot and burning wind: and the sun beat upon the head of Jonas, and he broiled with the heat: and he desired for his soul that he might die, and said: It is better for me to die than to live. [9] And the Lord said to Jonas: Dost thou think thou hast reason to be angry, for the ivy? And he said: I am angry with reason even unto death. [10] And the Lord said: Thou art grieved for the ivy, for which thou hast not laboured, nor made it to grow, which in one night came up, and in one night perished. [Jonah 4]Here is an excerpt from Haydock commentary:
In this history and prediction, who would have thought that Jonas had been a figure of our Saviour's death and resurrection, if he himself had not declared it? Mat. xii. W. --- The prophet comes out of the fish alive, as Christ does from the tomb. He was cast into the sea to save those on board; Christ dies for the redemption of mankind. Jonas had been ordered to preach, but did not comply till after his escape; thus the gospel was designed to be preached to the Gentiles, yet Christ would not have it done till he had risen. Mat. xv. 26. The prophet's grief intimates the jealousy of the Jews; as his shade destroyed, points out the law, which leaves them in the greatest distress. The very name fish, icquV, is a monogram of "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, a Saviour, (C.) or crucified." H. S. Paulinus, ep. 33. --- Hence Jonas most strikingly foreshowed Christ. S. Aug. de civ. Dei. xviii. 30.[l25] So Jonas... : like the 'night birdes' in l10, like Jonah himself in the hold of the ship and like the disciples in the garden.
[l25] lymmes: limbs
[l27] loe: lo
[l29] Cankered: Characterized by bad mood or feeling; malignant, spiteful, envious; (also) bad-tempered, cross. Infected with evil; corrupt, depraved. This may be a reference to the jealousy referred to in Hadock's commentary above, embodied in Judas and the Jews who sought Christ's death.
[l31] O tree of heavenly springe: Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life; recalling too the tree of life in another garden, that of Eden.
[l32] paragon: An object of outstanding quality or value; an object which serves as a model of some quality.
[l36]: See l29 note above.
[l42] Zacheus Tree: The account of Zacheus is in Luke 19:
[1] And entering in, he walked through Jericho. [2] And behold, there was a man named Zacheus, who was the chief of the publicans, and he was rich. [3] And he sought to see Jesus who he was, and he could not for the crowd, because he was low of stature. [4] And running before, he climbed up into a sycamore tree, that he might see him; for he was to pass that way. [5] And when Jesus was come to the place, looking up, he saw him, and said to him: Zacheus, make haste and come down; for this day I must abide in thy house. [Luke 19]
Context
Those who actively resisted the cruel and rapacious persecution of the Catholic clergy faithful under Elizabeth I were not very numerous. The majority 'closed their eyes' to the changes for a variety of very human motives. The poem may well be a 'wake up' call to this 'silent' majority. By way of extension, the words and sentiments must surely strike home in our own hearts and stir us to be ever watchful over our own souls and those in our charge by reason of our state in life.Awake ye slumbring wightes lift upp your eyes
Marke Judas how to teare your roote he strives
Alas the glory of your arbour dyes
Arise and gard the comfort of your lives [40]
Davids Peccavi
In eaves sole sparowe sitts not more alone
Nor mourning Pelican in desert wilde
Then sely I that solitary mone
From highest hopes to hardest happ exild
Sometime o blissfull tyme was vertues meede [5]
Ayme to my thoughtes guide to my word and deede.
But feares now are my pheares grief my delight
My teares my drinke my famisht thoughtes my bredd
Day full of Dumpes nurce of unrest the nighte
My garmentes gives a bloody feild my bedd [10]
My sleape is rather death then deathes allye
Yet kild eith murdring pangues I cannot dye
This is the change of my ill changed choise
Ruth for my rest, for comforts cares I finde
To pleasinge tunes succeedes a playninge voyce [15]
The doleful Eccho of my waylinge minde
Which taught to know the worth of Vertues joyes
Doth hate it self for lovinge phancies toyes.
If wiles of witt had overwrought my will,
Or sutle traynes misledd my steppes awrye [20]
My foyle had founde excuse in want of skill,
Ill deede I might though not ill dome denye.
But witt and will muste nowe confesse with shame,
Both deede and dome to have deserved blame
I phancy deem'd fitt guide to leade my waie [25]
And as I deem'd I did pursue her track
Witt lost his ayme and will was phancie's pray
The rebell wonne the ruler went to wracke.
But now sith phancye did with follye end,
Witt bought with losse will taught by witt will mend. [30]
Notes
[Title] Davids Peccavi: 'peccavi' means 'I have sinned'. David, second king of Israel, fell into the sins of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Urias, her husband. His contrition was so sincere that God pardoned him. His example and his words as handed down in several psalms have served as a model and inspiration for all penitents.[ll1-2] sole sparowe/Pelican: Sparrows are invariably found in busy little flocks, interacting with each other. A lone sparrow would accordingly be very miserable in his solitude, deprived of the presence of his fellows. Similarly, a pelican is a water bird and would be miserable in the waterless desert, mourning the absence of his river or pond. There is also here a reference here to a prayer for one in affliction: the fifth penitential psalm.
[7] I am become like to a pelican of the wilderness: I am like a night raven in the house. [8] I have watched, and am become as a sparrow all alone on the housetop. [Psalm 101][l3] sely: Deserving of pity or sympathy; pitiable, miserable, ‘poor’; helpless, defenceless. 1551 R. Robinson tr. T. More Vtopia sig. Rviii But thies seilie poore wretches be presently tormented with barreyne & vnfrutefull labour.
[l3] mone: intransitive. To lament, grieve, moan, mourn.
[l4] happ: The chance or fortune that falls to a person; (one's) luck, lot; (also) an instance of this. Frequently modified by good (also bad, evil, etc.). 1591 Troublesome Raigne Iohn i. sig. D3v 'No redresse to salue our awkward haps.'
[l5] meede: meed - In early use: something given in return for labour or service; wages, hire; recompense, reward, deserts; a gift. Later: a reward or prize given for excellence or achievement; a person's deserved share of (praise, honour, etc.). Now literary and arch. 1590 Spenser Faerie Queene i. ii. sig. B8 A Rosy girlond was the victors meede.
[ll5-6]: There was formerly a time (oh happy time!) when the aim of my thoughts and the guide of words and actions was to obtain the prize of virtue.
[l7] pheares: fere - A companion, comrade, mate, partner; whether male or female;
[l9] Dumpes: A fit of melancholy or depression; now only in plural: Heaviness of mind, dejection, low spirits. A mournful or plaintive melody or song;
[l9] nurce: nurse - That which nourishes or fosters some quality, condition, etc. Also: a place that nurtures or produces people of a specified type. Now literary and rare. 1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. CCiiii Obedience..is the helthe of faithfull soules, the nourse of all vertue.
[l10] gives: gyves - A shackle, esp. for the leg; a fetter. 1600 E. Fairfax tr. Tasso Godfrey of Bulloigne v. xlii. 83 Hands..Not to be tide in giues and twisted cords.
[l11] allye: A relative, a relation; a kinsman or kinswoman. Now chiefly hist.1597 Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet iii. i. 109 This Gentleman the Princes neere Alie.
[l13] change: There are several senses available, eg: 1) The action of substituting one thing for another. 2) Death, considered as a substitution of one state of existence for another. Obsolete.1611 Bible (King James) Job xiv. 14 All the dayes of my appointed time will I waite, till my change come. 3) The balance that is returned to the buyer when something is paid for with an amount greater than its price. The misery described in the second stanza is the result of replacing 'vertues joyes' (l15) with his sinful desires. This change has led to the death of his former peace of mind. Finally, in exchanging (paying) virtue's prize to obtain his lust's desire, he receives by way of change the misery he describes.
[l14] Ruth: Matter for sorrow or regret; occasion of sorrow or regret. Obsolete.Mischief; calamity; ruin. Obsolete.Sorrow, grief, distress; lamentation. Obsolete. 1591 Spenser tr. Petrarch Visions ii, in Complaints sig. Z2 O how great ruth and sorrowfull assay, Doth vex my spirite with perplexitie.
[l15] playninge: That plains; plaintive, mourning, lamenting; (formerly also) †expressing a grievance, uttering a complaint (obsolete).
[l16] waylinge: wailing, expressing lamentation.
[l19] witt: The faculty of thinking and reasoning in general; mental capacity, understanding, intellect, reason. arch. 1600 Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream iv. i. 203 I haue had a dreame, past the wit of man, to say; what dreame it was.
[l20] sutle: Of behaviour, words, an action, etc.: characterized by slyness or treachery; intended to deceive, delude, or entrap someone.
[l20] traynes: train - Treachery, guile, deceit, trickery; prevarication. An act or scheme designed to deceive or entrap, a trick, stratagem, artifice, wile. Also: a lie, a false story. A trap or snare for catching wild animals. Also in figurative contexts. Now rare (arch. and poet. in later use). 1590 Spenser Faerie Queene i. vi. sig. F5 Thou cursed Miscreaunt, That hast with knightlesse guile and trecherous train Faire knighthood fowly shamed.
[l21] foyle: A repulse, defeat in an onset or enterprise; A disgrace, stigma.
[l22] dome: Personal or private judgement, opinion.The faculty of judging; judgement, discrimination, discernment. Obsolete.
[l25] phancy: Delusive imagination; hallucination; an illusion of the senses. Caprice, changeful mood; an instance of this, a caprice, a whim. Amorous inclination, love. Obs. 1600 Shakespeare Merchant of Venice iii. ii. 63 Tell me where is fancie bred. ‘Something that pleases or entertains’ (Johnson).
Word order: 'I judged (my) fancy a fit guide to lead my way.'
[l26] her: 'phancy' or the object of his fancy (for David, Bathsheba).
[l27] pray: prey
[l28] wracke: Damage, disaster, or injury to a person, state, etc., by reason of force, outrage, or violence; devastation, destruction.
[l29] sith: since
[l30]: One possible paraphrase is: I have paid dearly for greater understanding ('wit') through my loss (allowing sin victory); my will has been instructed by this understanding; (and so) my will and my wit will mend.
According to traditional teaching, the three powers of the soul are: memory, understanding ('wit') and will.
Saint Peters Complaynte
How can I live that have my life deny'de
The Tears of Peter. After El Greco.
What can I hope that lost my hope in feare
What trust to one that trewth it self defyde
What good in him that did his god forsweare
O synne of synnes of evells the very worste [5]
O synfull wretch of synners most accurste
I vaunted erst though all his frendes had fayl'd
Alone with Christe all fortunes to have tr'de
And loe I craven first of all was quaild
Excellinge none but in Untrewth and pride [10]
Such distance is betwene high wordes and deedes
In proof the greatest vaunter seldome speedes
If tyrans bloody thretts had me dismay'd
Or smart of cruell torments made me yelde
There had bene some pretence to be afray'de [15]
I shoul have fought before I lost the feilde
But o infamous foyle a maydens breath
Did blowe me downe and blast my soule to death.
Was I to stay the Churche a Chosen rocke
That with so soft a gale was overthrowen [20]
Was I cheife pastour of the fa'thfull flocke
To guide their soules that murdred thus my owne
A rocke of ruyne not a reste to staye
A pastour not to feede but to betraye.
Could servile feare of rendering natures dewe [25]
Which grouth in yeres was shortly like to clayme
So thrall my love that I should thus eschewe
A vowed death and myself so faire an ayme
Dye, dye disloyal wretch thy life detest
For saving thyne throw hast forsworn the best [30]
Was life so deare and Christ become so base
I of so greate god of so small accounte
That Peter needs must followe Judas race
And all the jewels in Cruelty surmounte
Yet Judas deemed thirtye pence his price [35]
I worse then he for nought deny’d him thrice
I once designed Judge to loose and byndeWhere was the hart that did so little feare
Malchus. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum
The armed troupes that did him apprehended
Where was the sworde that stroke off Malchus eare
Where was the faith of Christie’s professed frende [40]
O Adams childe it was a selye Eve
That thee of faith and force did thus bereave
Now pleade at mercyes barr as guilty thrall
Doves sonne was once to me for name assign'd [45]
My stony name now better sutes my fall
My othes were stones my cruell tonue the slynge
My god the marke at which my spite did flynge
Were all the Jewesh tyrannyes too fewe
To glutt thy hungry lookes with his disgrace [50]
That thow more malice then they all must shewe
And spitt thy poyson in thy makers face
Didst thowe to spare his foes putt up thy sworde
To brandish now thy tongue against thy lorde
Is this thy best deservinge maysters meede [55]
Is this the wage he earn’d with all toyle
And didn’t thow vow thy helped at every neede
Thus at the first encounter to recoyle
O impious tongue no tongue but vipers stinge
That could with cursing othes forswear thy kinge [60]
O tongue the first that did his godhedd sounde
How couldn’t thow utter such detestinge words
That every word was to his hart a wounde
And lawnced him deeper than a thowsand swordes
What Jewish race, yea what infernall sprite [65]
Could have disgorg’d against him greater spite
With mercy, Jesu, measure my offence,
Lett deepe remorse thy due revenge abate
Lett tears appease when trespas doth incense
Lett myldnes temper thy deserved hate [70]
Lett grace forgive lett love forgett my fall
With feare I crave with hope I humbly call
Notes
These 12 stanzas are a shorter and earlier version of a later 132 stanza version first printed in 1595. Peter's denial of Christ through fear would have a particular relevance and poignancy in sixteenth century England when a tyrannical regime, determined to eradicate Catholicism, was determined to use fear as a weapon against Catholics remaining faithful to their baptismal vows.[Background in Scripture]: After the Last Supper, Jesus explains to His disciples:
[31] Then Jesus said to them: All you shall be scandalized in me this night. For it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be dispersed. [32] But after I shall be risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. [33] And Peter answering, said to him: Although all shall be scandalized in thee, I will never be scandalized. [34] Jesus said to him: Amen I say to thee, that in this night before the cock crow, thou wilt deny me thrice. [35] Peter saith to him: Yea, though I should die with thee, I will not deny thee. And in like manner said all the disciples. [Matthew 26]After His agony in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was betrayed by Judas, His disciple, into the hands of His enemies.
[57] But they holding Jesus led him to Caiphas the high priest, where the scribes and the ancients were assembled. [58] And Peter followed him afar off, even to the court of the high priest. And going in, he sat with the servants, that he might see the end.[Matthew 26]
[69] But Peter sat without in the court: and there came to him a servant maid, saying: Thou also wast with Jesus the Galilean. [70] But he denied before them all, saying: I know not what thou sayest. [71] And as he went out of the gate, another maid saw him, and she saith to them that were there: This man also was with Jesus of Nazareth. [72] And again he denied with an oath, I know not the man. [73] And after a little while they came that stood by, and said to Peter: Surely thou also art one of them; for even thy speech doth discover thee. [74] Then he began to curse and to swear that he knew not the man. And immediately the cock crew. [75] And Peter remembered the word of Jesus which he had said: Before the cock crow, thou wilt deny me thrice. And going forth, he wept bitterly.[Matthew 26][l1] my life: Jesus, 'the way, the truth and the life' [John 14, 6].There may also be reference to teh supernatural life of the soul: cf l18: '...blast my soule to deathe'.
[l7] vaunted: vaunt - To boast or brag; to use boastful, bragging, or vainglorious language.Fairly common c1600; now rare or Obsolete.
[l7] erst: Earliest, soonest, first in order of time.
[l9] loe: lo
[l9] quaild: quailed: To quail: Of courage, hope, faith, etc.: to fail, give way, become faint or feeble. Now rare.
[l12] speedes: to speed - intransitive. Of persons: To succeed or prosper; to meet with success or good fortune; to attain one's purpose or desire. Now arch.
[l13] tyrans: tyrant's (or tyrants')
[l14] smart: Sharp, often intense, physical pain
[l17] foyle: Foil - A repulse, defeat in an onset or enterprise; a baffling check. arch. A disgrace, stigma. Obsolete. The cause of (one's) defeat or failure. Obsolete.
[l17] maydens breath: the words uttered by the maidservants as recounted by the evangelists (see eg Matthew 26, 69-71, cited above]
[l19] stay: v transitive. To support, sustain, hold up (a person or thing). 1590 Spenser Faerie Queene i. vi. sig. F4 And in his hand a Iacobs staffe, to stay His weary limbs vpon.
[l23] stay: n. A thing on which something else rests; a support or prop for holding or steadying something.
[l25] rendering natures dewe: rendering unto nature her due, ie dying.
[l26] grouth: growth.
[l27] thrall: arch. transitive. To bring into bondage or subjection; to deprive of liberty; to hold in thraldom, enthrall, enslave; to take or hold captive.
[l28] A vowed death: a reference to Peter's words:
[35] Peter saith to him: Yea, though I should die with thee, I will not deny thee.[l32] accounte: With that-clause and to-infinitive. To calculate or reckon, to conclude. Obsolete.
[l37] hart: heart
[l39] Malchus: A reference to Peter's reaction when Christ's enemies sought to seize him inn the garden of Gethsemane:
[10] Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it, and struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. And the name of the servant was Malchus.[11] Jesus therefore said to Peter: Put up thy sword into the scabbard. The chalice which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?[l41] a selye Eve: this is a reference to the maidservant whose questions frightened Peter. 'selye' means: Insignificant, trifling; mean, poor; feeble. Often of the soul, as in danger of divine judgement.
[l43-48]: At Cesarea Philippi, Christ asked his disciples '..whom do you say that I am?' Peter replied and Christ's response provides a key to understanding this verse:
[16] Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. [17] And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. [18] And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. [19] And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. [Matthew 16][l44] thrall: one whose liberty is forfeit; a captive. Peter stands condemned of cowardice in the face of the enemy, of lying, of betraying his friend and of treason against his Lord and King. Found guilty, he stands before the bar of the court and can only plead for mercy from his judge.
[l45] Doves sonne: see Matthew 16, 17 above: 'Simon Bar-Jona' means Simon son of Jonah; Jonah means 'dove' or 'pigeon'.
[l46] My stony name: At the beginning of Christ's public ministry, Andrew brought his brother Peter to meet the Messiah:
[42] And he brought him to Jesus. And Jesus looking upon him, said: Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter. [John 1]'Cephas' means 'rock' in Aramaic and becomes 'Peter' through Greek and Latin. The idea of a rock recalls the parable of the man who built his house on a rock:
[24] Every one therefore that heareth these my words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, [25] And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock.[Matthew 7][l47] othes: oaths. Peter had sworn before Christ (effectively an oath before God) that he would not deny Him even if were to cost him his life. After denying Him three times, he began to curse and swear that he knew him not.
[l48] marke: A target, butt, or other object set up to be aimed at with a missile or projectile. Hence also: a person or animal targeted by an archer, spear-thrower, etc. Also in figurative contexts. 1535 Bible (Coverdale) Lament. iii. 12 He hath bent his bowe, and made me as it were a marck to shute at.
[l53] putt up thy sworde: See note to [l39] above.
[l55] maysters meede: master's reward
[l61] O tongue the first that did his godhedd sounde: a reference to Peter's confession of faith at Cesarea Philippi:
[16] Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.[Matthew 16][l64] lawnced: lanced, speared.
[l65] sprite: spirit
[l69] trespas: A transgression; a breach of law or duty; an offence, sin, wrong; a fault.
[l69] incense: To inflame with wrath, excite or provoke to anger, make angry, enrage, exasperate. 1596 Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene v. iii. sig. O7v Much was the knight incenst with his lewd word.
Saint Peters afflicted mynde
If that the sicke may grone
Or orphane mourne his losse
If wounded wretch may rue his harmes
Or caytif show his Crosse
If hart consum'd with Care [5]
May utter signs of payne
Then may my brest be sorowes home
And tongue with cause complayne
My Malidye is sinne
And languor of the mynde [10]
My body but a lazars couche
Wherein my soule is pynde
The care of heavenly kynne
Is ded to my reliefe
Forlorne and left like orphane child [15]
With sighes I feede my greife
My woundes with mortall smarte
My dying soule tormente
And prisoner to myne owne mishaps
My follyes I repente [20]
My hart is but the haunte
Where all dislikes do keepe
And who can blame so lost a wretche
Though teares of blood he weepe.
Notes
[l4] caytif: Expressing commiseration: A wretched miserable person, a poor wretch, one in a piteous case. Obsolete. a1616 Shakespeare Othello (1622) iv. i. 108 Alas poore Catiue
[l11] lazar: A poor and diseased person, usually one afflicted with a loathsome disease; esp. a leper.1577–87 R. Holinshed Chron. III. 1082/2 They prouided for the lazer to keepe him out of the citie from clapping of dishes, and ringing of bels.
[l12] pynde: pind - To imprison, confine;To enclose or pen (an animal or bird);
[l22] keepe: To reside, dwell, live, lodge. (Frequently in literary use from c1580 to 1650; now only colloq., esp. at Cambridge University and in U.S.). 1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. 127 Among the mountaines of this tract, the Pygmæans, by report do keepe.
Mary Magdalens Blushe
The signes of shame that stayne my blushinge face
Rise from the feelinge of my ravinge fittes
Whose joy annoy whose guerdon is disgrace
Whose sollace flyes whose sorowe never flittes
Bad seede I sow'd worse fruit is now my gayne [5]
Soon Dying mirth begatt long living payne.
Now pleasure ebbes revenge beginns to flowe
One day doth wrecke the Wrath that many wrought
Remorse doth teach my guilty thoughtes to knowe
Howe cheape I sould that Christ so dearely bought [10]
Faults long unfelt doth conscyence now bewraye
Which cares must cure and teares must washe awaye
All ghostly dints that grace at me did dart
Like stubborne rock I forced to recoyle
To other flightes an ayme I made my hart [15]
Whose woundes then welcome now have wrought my foyle
Woe worth the bowe woe worth the Archers might
That drave such arrowes to the marke so right
To pull them out to leave them in is deathe
One to this world one to the worlde to come [20]
Woundes may I weare, and draw a doubtfull breath
But then my Woundes will worke a dreadfull Dome
And for a world whose pleasures passe awaye
I loose a world whose joyes are paste decaye.
O sence o soule o had o hoped blisse [25]
You woe you weane you draw you drive me backe
Your crosse-encountring, like their combate is
That never end but with some deadly wracke
When sence doth wynne the soule doth loose the field
And present happ makes future hopes to yelde.[30]
O heaven lament sense robbeth thee of Sayntes
Lament o soules sense spoyleth yow of grace
Yet sence doth scarce deserve these hard Complaynts
Love is the theefe sence but the entringe place
Yett graunt I must sence is not free from Synne [35]
For theefe he is that theefe admitteth in.
 |
| Mary Magdalene washes Christ's feet. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum |
Notes
[l2] fittes: fit - a painful, terrible,experience. In 16th cent. occasionally: A mortal crisis; a bodily state (whether painful or not) that betokens death.[l3] annoy: noun. A mental state akin to pain arising from the involuntary reception of impressions, or subjection to circumstances, which one dislikes; disturbed or ruffled feeling; discomfort, vexation, trouble. In earlier times often = modern French ennui; in later usage expressing more active feeling of discomfort. 1675 T. Brooks Golden Key 206 His Cross our Comfort; his annoy, our endless joy.
[l3] guerdon: A reward, requital, or recompense. 1600 Shakespeare Much Ado about Nothing v. iii. 5 Death in guerdon of her wronges, Giues her fame which neuer dies.
[l9] wrecke: wreak - To visit (a fault, misdeed, evil action) with punishment;1596 Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene vi. ii. sig. Aa5v There gan he..With bitter wracke To wreake on me the guilt of his owne wrong.
[l10] sould that: 'sold that which'.
[l11] bewraye: To divulge or reveal (secrets) prejudicially. 1599 Shakespeare et al. Passionate Pilgrime (new ed.) sig. D4 Yet will she blush..To heare her secrets so bewraid.
[l13] dints: blows, attacks. 1579 Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Nov. 104 Such pleasaunce now displast by dolors dint.
[l16] foyle: A repulse, defeat in an onset or enterprise; A disgrace, stigma. Obsolete.
[l17] Woe worth...woe worth: woe worth (a person or thing): may evil or misfortune beset (a person); may a curse be on (a person or thing). Frequently in woe worth the day (also time, etc.). Now arch. and rare.
[l25] had: referring to the past pleasure obtained through sensual sin, in contrast with hoped for joy to come in Heaven. Another reading is 'hap': an unfortunate event, mishap, mischance, in contrast with hoped for bliss.
[l26] woe: Read as 'woo' in some texts.
[l26] weane: weane - To detach or alienate (a person, his desires or affections) from some accustomed object of pursuit or enjoyment;
[l25-26]: There are two contrasting triplets here:
Sensuality (sinful pleasures of the flesh): past pleasures/you woo (seduce) and attract me...
Soul (the spiritual life): hoped for supernatural and eternal bliss/you ween (nourish) me and drive me back from the earthly, fleshly to the heavenly.
Saint Peters remorse
Remorse upbraides my faultes
Peter's denial. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum
Selfe blaming conscience cries
Synn claymes the hoast of humbled thoughtes
And streames of weeping eyes
Let penance lord prevayle [5]
Lett sorowe sue release
Lett love be umpier in my cause
And pass the dome of peace
If dome go by desert
My lest desert is death [10]
That robbes from soul immortall joyes
From bodye mortall breathe.
But in so highe a god
So base a wormes annoy
Can add no praise unto thy powre [15]
No bliss unto thy joye
Well may I fry in flames
Due fuell to hell fire
But on a wretch to wreake thy wrath
Cannot be worth thyne Ire [20]
Yett sith so vile a worme
Hath wrought his greatest spite
Of highest treasons well thou mayst
In rigour him endite
Butt mercye may relente [25]
And temper Justice Rod
Foe Mercy doth as nuch belonge
As Justice to a godd.
If former tyme or place
More right to mercy wynne [30]
Thow first wert Author of my self
Then umpier of my synne
Did mercye spynn the thredd
To weave in Justice Loome
Wert thow a father to conclude [35]
With dreadfull judges Doome
It is a small reliefe
To say I was thy childe
If as an evell deserving foe
From grace I be exilde [40]
I was I had I Coulde
Are wordes importing wante
They are but dust of dead supplies
Where needfull helpes are scant
Once to have bene in blisse [45]
That hardly can retorne
Doth but bewray from whence I fell
And wherefore now I mourne.
All thoughtes of passed hopes
Encrease my present Crosse [50]
Like ruynes of decayed joyes
They still upbraide my losse
O mylde and mightye lorde
Amend that is amisse
My synn my sore thy love my salve [55]
Thy cure my comfort is
Confirme thy former deede
Reforme that is defilde
I was I am I will remayne
Thy charge thy choise thy childe. [60]
Notes
[l3] hoast: Two senses: A great company; a multitude; a large number. The bread consecrated in the Eucharist, regarded as the body of Christ sacrificially offered. Sin tempted with thoughts of happiness and fulfilment but the fruit of sin was 'humiliation', a host of humiliating thoughts leading to a sense of humility.[l6] sue: To follow as a consequence or result. Obsolete. 1559 W. Baldwin et al. Myrroure for Magistrates Richard II. i Shame sueth sinne, as rayne drops do the thunder.
[l7 & l32] umpier: umpire, judge, arbitrator.
[l8] dome: A judgement or decision, esp. one formally pronounced; a sentence;
[l9]: desert: An action or quality that deserves its appropriate recompense; that in conduct or character which claims reward or deserves punishment.
[l10] lest: least.
[l14] annoy: A mental state akin to pain arising from the involuntary reception of impressions, or subjection to circumstances, which one dislikes; disturbed or ruffled feeling; discomfort, vexation, trouble.
[l23] Treasons: A reference firstly to Peter's betrayal thgrough denying Christ; but, secondly, suggestive of the treasons committed by the 'reformers' in sixteenth century England and of the alleged 'treason' committed by faithful Catholics against the regime ('Crown').
[ll29-32]: Peter (and with him, all who have betrayed Christ through sin), pleads for mercy in recalling an earlier time and place in his life when God was his creator rather than his judge. The opposition continues:
Author (creator) Judge
Mercy Justice
Father Judge
[l47] bewray: To reveal, divulge, disclose, declare, make known, show. Obsolete.
[ll55-56]: My sin is my sore, Thy love is my salve, Thy cure is my comfort.
[ll59-60]: May be read horizontally (cumulatively) or vertically. Cf first stanza in Christs bloody sweate.
Decease release
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.
I dye without desert
If orphane Childe enwrapt in swathing bands
Doth move to mercy when forlorne it lyes
If none without remorse of love withstands
The pitious noyse of infantes selye cryes
Then hope my helplesse hart some tender eares [5]
Will rue thy orphane state and feeble teares.
Relinquisht Lamb in solitarye wood
With dying bleat doth move the toughest mynde
The gasping pangues of new engendred brood
Base though they be compassion use to finde [10]
Why should I then of pitty doubt to speede
Whose happ would force the hardest hart to bleede
Left orphane like in helplesse state I rue
With onely sighes and teares I pleade my case
My dying plaints I daylie do renewe [15]
And fill with heavy noyse a desert place
Some tender hart will weepe to here me mone
Men pitty may but help me god alone.
Rayne downe yee heavens your teares this case requires
Mans eyes unhable are enough to shedd [20]
If sorow could have place in heavenly quires
A juster ground the world hath seldome bredd
For right is wrong'd, and vertue wag'd with blood
The badd are blissd god murdred in the good.
A gracious plant for fruite for leafe and flower [25]
A peereless gemm for vertue proofe and price
A noble peere for prowesse witt and powre
A frend to truth a foe I was to vice
And loe alas nowe Innocente I dye
A case that might even make the stones to crye. [30]
Thus fortunes favors still are bent to flight
Thus worldly blisse in finall bale doth end
Thus vertue still pursued is with spight
But let my fall though ruefull none offend.
God doth sometymes first cropp the sweetest flowre [35]
And leaves the weede till tyme do it devoure
Notes
This poem is written in the first person and is believed believed to represent the thoughts of Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, a contemporary of Robert Southwell. A short life of this remarkable Englishman follows below. For a short, informative film, see:Saint Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel English Martyr. Produced in 2011 by Mary's Dowry Productions.Philip Howard - a short life
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| Philip Howard. Public Domain. |
1569: Philip Howard's father, the Duke of Norfolk, was arrested in 1569 for his intrigues against Queen Elizabeth.
1571: At the age of fourteen he was married to his stepsister, Anne Dacre, the Countess of Arundel and Surrey, who survived to 1630. She was a woman of remarkable generosity and courage, and became after her conversion the patroness of Father Southwell and of many priests, and eventually founded the novitiate of the Jesuits at Ghent.
1572: His father was beheaded for plotting to marry Mary Queen of Scots. His grandfather had been beheaded in 1547 on suspicion of treason. Two of his nieces married Henry VIII (Ann Boleyn and Catherine Howard, both beheaded).
1574: After a protestant education, he graduated from St John's College, Cambridge in 1574 and became a courtier to Queen Elizabeth I.
1580: Philip Howard succeeded to his mother's inheritance becoming Earl of Arundel
1581: He witnessed a debate in the Tower of London, between Father Edmund Campion, a Jesuit, Father Ralph Sherwin and a group of Protestant theologians. He was so impressed that he experienced a spiritual conversion to the Catholic faith. He renounced his previous life and was reconciled with his wife.
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| The inscription in the Beauchamp Tower at the Tower of London. PB 2018 |
Quanto plus afflictionis pro Christo in hoc saeculo, tanto
plus gloriae cum Christo in futuro
'the more affliction for Christ in this world, the more glory with Christ in the next'.
Arundell June 22 1587
gloria et honore eum coronasti domine
[5] What is man that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest him? [6] Thou hast made him a little less than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honour: [7] And hast set him over the works of thy hands.[Psalm 8]Note how Philip has intertwined 'eum' ('him') with his title-name Arundell, identifying himself personally with the words of the Psalmist and offering his humble thanks for the opporrtunity to win his crown of glory through suffering the love of his Saviour: 'Thou hast crowned me with glory and honour'.
In memoria aeterna erit justus
[7] The just shall be in everlasting remembrance: he shall not fear the evil hearing. His heart is ready to hope in the Lord: [8] His heart is strengthened, he shall not be moved until he look over his enemies. [9] He hath distributed, he hath given to the poor: his justice remaineth for ever and ever: his horn shall be exalted in glory. [10] The wicked shall see, and shall be angry, he shall gnash with his teeth and pine away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.[Psalm 111]The last part of the inscription is very unclear. It is possibly a reference in Latin to his age: Aetatis Suae. He would have been approaching his thirtieth birthday at the date of this inscription.
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| Philip & his dog (PB, after statue in Arundel) |
1595: Philip Howard died alone in the Tower of London on Sunday 19 October. Charges of high treason had never been proven. He had spent ten years in the Tower, until his death of dysentery. Some have suggested he was poisoned. He was buried without ceremony beneath the floor of the church of St Peter ad Vincula, inside the walls of the Tower.
1624: Twenty-nine years later, his widow and son obtained permission from King James I of England to move the body to the Fitzalan Chapel located on the western grounds of Arundel Castle. Some of his bones are also found within his shrine at Arundel Cathedral
Notes
[l1] & [l13] orphane/orphane-like: This may have a personal reference to Philip Howard himself. He never knew his mother Mary, who died eight weeks after his birth. His father, Thomas Howard, was executed by Elizabeth in 1572, 13 years before his own imprisonment in the Tower. In an historical sense, Philip and other Catholics found themselves in a state analogous to that of orphans. They had deprived of their mother, the Catholic Church, and their Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ on earth. They found themselves placed under a cruel step-mother, the illegitimate Queen Elizabeth, 'Supreme Governor' of the Church of England.
[l1] swathing bands: Although wrapping newborn babies in tight bands was the common practice in this era, there are perhaps echoes here of Luke's words:
[7] And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. [Luke 2]Philip comes unto his own people but finds there is 'no room' or welcome in Elizabethan England and he has to find places where he can be lodged in secret.
[l4] sely: Innocent, harmless. Often as an expression of compassion for persons or animals suffering undeservedly. Deserving of pity or sympathy; pitiable, miserable, ‘poor’; helpless, defenceless.
[l6] rue: To regard or think of (an event, fact, etc.) with sorrow or regret; to wish that (something) had never taken place or existed. 1557 Earl of Surrey et al. Songes & Sonettes (new ed.) f. 90 It was the day on which the sunne..To rew Christs death amid his course gaue place vnto ye night.
[l7] Relinquisht Lamb: A possible echo here of Christ's own words:
[4] What man of you that hath an hundred sheep: and if he shall lose one of them, doth he not leave the ninety-nine in the desert, and go after that which was lost, until he find it? [5] And when he hath found it, lay it upon his shoulders, rejoicing: [6] And coming home, call together his friends and neighbours, saying to them: Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost? [7] I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance. [Luke 15]Christ's true pastors came to England to find the lost sheep and bring them back to the one, true fold.
[ll9-10] brood: a family of young hatched at once, a hatch. Fig: Of human beings: family, children. The pitiful cries of newly engendered creatures, no matter how 'base' or low in the order of creation, or in reputation, stimulate a compassionate response.
[ll11-12]: speed: intransitive. Of persons: To succeed or prosper; to meet with success or good fortune; to attain one's purpose or desire. Now arch. The sense then appears too be: My misfortune (happ) would force the hardest heart to bleed (with compassion); why should I doubt that this will not succeed in arousing pity (for me)?
[l16] a desert place: Possibly a reference to his close confinement in the Beauchamp Tower at the Tower of London from 1585-1595.
[l23] wag'd: waged. to wage - To pay wages to. Now rare or Obsolete. 1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie iii. xxii. 112 b Besides that which is giuen vnto them of almes, they are waged either publikely, or of som in particular. ccc. 'and irtue is paid for in blood'.
[l24] blissd: blissed or blessed. To bliss - ,Transitive. To give joy or gladness to (orig. with dative); to gladden, make happy. (In 16–17th centuries blended with bless.) Obsolete.
[ll25-30]: There is something of a contrast between the words and images of this stanza and those of the previous: eg, orphane childe, feeble teares, helplelesse state, sighs, dying plaints and so on. This tension prepares for its resolution in the final stanza where 'worldly blisse in finall bale doth end.' It must be remembered that it is the poet who puts these words into Philip's mouth and they may be a reflection of the admiration Southwell had for this remarkable Earl.
[l30] A case that might even make the stones to crye: Even on a warm day, visitors to the Tower of London are aware of the cold stone blocks from which the towers are constructed. There is here perhaps a reference to the stones of the walls of the Beauchamp Tower wher philip and other recusants were imprisoned. Above the fireplace, Philip carved some words that may still be seen:
Quanto plus afflictiones pro Christo in hoc saeculo, tanto plus gloriae cum Christo in futuro – 'the more affliction for Christ in this world, the more glory with Christ in the next'Philip entered the Tower where he would undergo his passion and his slow martyrdom. When Christ entered Jerusalem, He was approaching His Passion and death on the cross:
[37] And when he was now coming near the descent of mount Olivet, the whole multitude of his disciples began with joy to praise God with a loud voice, for all the mighty works they had seen, [38] Saying: Blessed be the king who cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven, and glory on high! [39] And some of the Pharisees, from amongst the multitude, said to him: Master, rebuke thy disciples. [40] To whom he said: I say to you, that if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out.[l31] still: With reference to action or condition: Without change, interruption, or cessation; continually, constantly; on every occasion, invariably; always. Obsolete exc. poet. The favours of this life are always deflected in their flight and 'worldly bliss' ends in final 'bale'.
[l32] bale: Evil in its passive aspect; physical suffering, torment, pain, woe. Mental suffering; misery, sorrow, grief. Opposed alliteratively to bliss, blithe. a1577 G. Gascoigne Princelie Pleasures Kenelworth sig. B.iiiv, in Whole Wks. (1587) And turne your present blysse to after bales.
1598 B. Yong tr. G. Polo Enamoured Diana in tr. J. de Montemayor Diana 440 That still deducts my life in blisselesse bale.
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