P R 2349 S5 A14 1872 MAIN urn xl MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Resident, as undoubtedly Richard Southwell was, at Horsham St. Faith^s at the period, there seems no reasonable doubt that Robert was bom there, and not in Suffolk, as Pits earlier, and Fuller copying him, stated. After-dates, that will come out in the sequel, enable us to fix his birth in 1560-1, or just about the time that Mary Queen of Scots— of whom he was destined to sing pathetically — * landed' from France in her native Scot- land. A singular anecdote has been transmitted of him while an infant — curiously repeated in other Lives, as is familiar to all — viz. that he was stolen from his cradle by a vagabond woman or * gipsy.' Being, however, speedily missed by his nurse, he was almost immediately recovered.^ This * deliverance' was tenderly and grate- fully remembered in after years. ^ What,' exclaims he, * if I had remained with the vagrant ? how abject ! how destitute of the knowledge or reverence of God ! in what debasement of vice, in what great peril of crimes, in what indubitable risk of a miserable death and eternal punish- ment I should have been !'2 Where he began to ^ learn letters' has not been told : but he was sent over ^ very young' to Douai. Inquiries there have resulted in the information that the French Revolution made havoc of the Books and Papers there, so that no memorial exists of its early ^ scholars.'^ In his * TuRNBULL states that the vagrant ' substituted for him her own child,' and ' confessed to have been prompted to the crime for the sake of gain' (p. xiv.). 2 TuRNBULL, as before, quotes this p. xiv. 2 From our correspondence with the Librarian of Douai we had hoped to find in the possession of H.E. the Archhishop of Westminster (Dr. Manning) an early ms. roll of alumni belong- ing to the College; but, in a courteous answer to my appli- I MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. xU 15th year he passed to Paris, where he came under the care, religiously and educationally, of a once famous Englishman, Father Thomas Darbyshire, who, Arch- deacon of Essex, for ^ conscience' sake' made a sacrifice of all his preferments on the accession of Elizabeth.^ j'his ^LMaster^a^ among the earliest from England to ^join^ the Society of Jesus ; and we cannot doubt that his per- lervid zeal and example quickened^isjpupirs desire to give himself to the same Order. In 1578 at Rome, be- fbTe"ile"was iTThe was enrolled * amongst the children' of St. Ignatius. The date of this event — so central in his short Life — is noticeable. It was on the vigil of St. Luke (17th October) : and it is pleasant to conclude that as the vigil of St. Luke was also St. Faith' s-day (Old style), he chose that day in honour of his native place, Horsham St. Faith's. The thing has not hitherto been pointed out ; but it seems to verify itself as well as confirm the birthplace. ^ Young as he was, he had thought of it long before he was * received.' Here is his plaint, rather than com- plaint : * Divulsum ab illo corpore, in quo posita sunt mea vita, mens amor, totum cor meum, omnesque ef- fectus.'^ He still pursued his * studies,' and spent a con- cation, H.E. informed me that he had no such ms. Suggest- ing that it might be preserved at Ushaw, I applied there also ; but Dr. Tate had to report that there was nothing of the kind there. ^ See Dr. Oliver's ' Collections towards illustrating the Bio- graphy of the Scotch, English, and Irish members of the Society of Jesus :' (1845) p. 80, and references to Tanner and to Wood's AthencB. 2 I am indebted to the very Reverend Dr. Husenbeth, Cossey, Norwich, for the interesting suggestion. K3 Mori, Hist. Prov. Angl. Soc. Jesu, p. 173. U/ Jfulla- Mmi^tf "fifer^tyg. , THE COMPLETE POEMS ROBERT SOUTHWELL SJ. FOR THE FIRST TIME FULLY COLLECTED AND COLLATED WITH THE ORIGINAL AND EARLY EDITIONS AND MSS. AND ENLARGED WITH HITHERTO UNPRINTED AND INEDITED POEMS FROM MSS. AT STONYHURST COLtEGE, LANCASHIRE, AND ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND FACSIMILES IN THE QUARTO FORM. EDITED, WITH MEMOKIAL-INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BY THE B. GEOSAET, CASHIRE. PRINTED FOR pdl^ATE CIRCULATION. 1872. 5C copies only. ■ '■ }JW .••■i;;:-??,^W 76 35^ 5^ h THE REV. JAMES MAETINEAU. MA. AS AUTHOR OF ^ ENDEAVOURS AFTER THE CHRISTIAN LIFE,' TO WHICH, IN COMMON WITH MULTITUDES, I OWE MUCH, AND TO WHOM NOT ADMIRATION ONLY BUT LOVE IS FELT BY ALL OF US, I DEDICATE THIS EDITION OF A ^ SWEET SINGER ;' REMAINING VERY GRATEFULLY ALEXANDER B. GROSART. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/completepoemsofrOOsoutrich CONTENTS. I place on the left figures 1, 2, 3, &c. in these Contents, in order to show the sequence of the Poems in the Author's Stonyhurst MS. volume. There is no title-page to it, and never has been. On the seventh page (three leaves blank) begins the Letter to his Father (pp. 29). Next three pages blank; then the Triumphs ouer Death (pp. 33)— the last page and half containing the Latin and English poems as printed by us (pp. 182-3). After the Latin and English verse on the Lady of the Howard family, there are other three pages blank, then comes the Preface, commencing ' Poets, by abusing,' &c. (2 pp.) Then, to the Reader, and the poems in succession as numbered. The Poems occupy 36 leaves and part of a page = 72 or 73 pages, with five blank leaves. The Prose occupies 31^ pp. G. PAGE Dedication v Preface xi Memorial-Introduction. I. The Life .... xxxv „ „ II. The Writings .... Ixvi I. St. Peter's Complaint, 1-55 i II. Myrt^, or Myrtle-Wreaths, 57-112. 27. Mary Magdalen's Blushe 59 ,^. Mary Magdalen's Complaint at Christ's Death . , .62 • 44. Tymes goe by tumes 64 ^43. Locke Home 65 49. Fortune's Falsehoode 66 52. Scome not the Leaste 68 16. A Childe my Choyse 70 51. Content and Ritche 72 VUl CONTENTS. PAGE 45. Losse in Delaye . , 75 46. Love's Servile Lott .78 37. Life is but Losse 81 ^ 39. I dye alive .84 40. What Joy to live 85 41. Life's Death, Love's Life , . . . . . .86 JiQ. At Home in Heaven 88 47. Lewd Love is Losse • .90 * 48. Love's Gardyne Greife 92 50. From Fortune's Reach .94 30. Dyer's Phancy turned to a Sinner's Complainte . . .96 29. David's Peccavi 103 ^^19. Synne's heavy Loade 105 -18. New Prince, New Pompe . . . . . . . 107 17. The Burning Babe 109 ^Jr6. New Heaven, New Warre no HL M^ONi^, 113-168. Note 114 ^. The Conception of our Ladie it6 ^^. Our Ladle's Nativitye 117 3. Our Ladye's Spousalls . . . . . . • . .119 ^. Our Ladle's Salutation 120 22. Josephe's Amazement 122 ^. The Visitation . . . 126 ^. The Nativity of Christe .128 7. The Circumcision 130 8. The Epiphanye 131 ^. The Presentation 133 10. The Flight into Egipt 134 11. Christe's Retome out of Egipt 135 12. Christe's Childhoode 136 20. Christ's Bloody Sweate 137 ^^. Christe's Sleeping Frendes 138 The Virgin Mary to Christ on the Crosse . . . .141 CONTENTS. IX PAGE 15. The Death of our Ladie 142 14. The Assumption of our Lady 143 23. Saint Thomas of Aquines Hymne read on Corpus Christy Daye i44 26. Saint Peter's Afflicted Mynde . . . . .149 28. Saint Peter's Remorse 150 Man to the Wound in Christ's Side 153 Vpon the Image of Death 155 /(I. A Vale of Teares 158 ^ 32. The Prodigall Chyld's Soule Wracke 162 "^ 36. Man's Civill Warre 165 38. Seeke Flowers of Heaven 167 IV. Melofolia, or Atples in Leaves, 169- 34. Decease, Release. Dum morior, orior . ^35. I dye without Desert 24. Of the Blessed Sacrament of the Aulter Laments for a Noble Lady To the Christian Reader of ' Short Rvles of Good Life' 171 173 177 182 V. POEMATA LaTINA, 189-215. Poema de Assumptione B.V.M Filii Prodigi Porcos pascentis ad Patrem Epistola Fragment of a Series of Elegies .... Jesus. Marye Ad Sanctam Catherinam, Virginem et Martyrem In Renovationem Votorum, Festis Natalis Domini In Festum Pentecostes, Anno Domini 1580, 21 Maii Additional Notes and Illustrations 191 199 206 212 213 214 214 216 CONTENTS. Illustrations in the illustrated Quarto only. Jesus Christ, after Leonardo da Vinci , Facing title-page (See Preface, pages xxxii.-iii.) Fac-simile of Title-page of 1596 edition . , . i>. 3 (See Preface, page xiv.) Fac-similes from Stonyhurst mss 84 (See Preface, pages xxviii. and xxxii. Vexed by the travesties on editing and mere careless- ness of Walter earlier (1817) and Turnbull later (1856) in their so-called editions of the Poems of Fa- ther Southwell — of both of which more, with specific proofs, in the sequel — I had long wished worthily to reproduce this * sweet Singer;' and having fortunately come into possession of the original and early editions — each rarer and costlier than another — and a still more fortunate '•find* of his own mss. in Stonyhurst College — all of which were cordially and unreservedly placed at my service by the Rector, the very Reverend Father Purbrick, S.J., — I am at last enabled to do so, not without a * good hope' of grateful acceptance by competent students and lovers of our poetic Literature. I would now give account of previous editions, and thereafter show what we have tried to accomplish in ad- vance of them. As distinguished from some of his Prose Writings, which were furtively printed in his own house in Lon- don (1593-4),^ the Poems of Southwell were wholly * Father John Gerard, the Poet's friend, is our authority. His words are : ' P. Southwellus, qui in modo juvandi et lucrandi animos excelluit, totus prudens et pius, mansuetus etiam et am- abilis .... in domo sua Londini prehim habuit ad imprimendos Xll PREFACE. POSTHUMOUS, although, from the Epistles to his ^ louing cosen' and to the Reader prefixed to St. Peter's Com- plaint and related pieces (1595 and in after-editions), it is clear that he had himself intended their publication. Our collation of the Poems in the Stonyhurst mss. re- veals that originally and continuously they have suffered from the want of the Author's own supervision : for over and over, as our JN'otes show^ there are most an- noying misreadings and misprints, whereby epithets bright as dew are changed (so -to -say) into blotches of ink, and the meaning reversed, and delicacies not only missed but absolutely spoiled, as in rough handling of a moth's wing. Certainly his small and difficult hand- writing offers an excuse for the original Editors. The following is the title-page of the first edition (1595), from the Capell copy preserved in Trinity Col- lege, Cambridge : Saint Peters Complaint, With other Poemes, Printer's ornament. London Imprinted by lohn Wolfe. 1595- Ixbroi suos, quos qnidem edidit egregios.' (ms. Autobiography of Father Gerard, quoted by the very Keverend Dr. Oliver in the Catholic Magazine for September 1832.) UNIVERSITT PREFACE. X. /.. = ^ Xlll The collation is 38 leaves in forms — signatures A to K^ — ending with ^ From Fortune's Reach ;' and it may be noted that the two leaves C and C^ (pp. 11-14) of the undated [1596] edition, beginning ^ Euill president' &c. and closing ^ Darts of disdaine' &c. are omitted in that place and inserted after > Come in, say they' &c. (p. 30 of 1596 edit.), so as to form sigs. E and E^. This thin quarto, which is identical with another of the same date, ' At London, Printed by I. R. for G. C. 1595' [ = James Roberts for Gabriel Cawood], contained St. Peter's Com- plaint and these shorter poems : Mary Magdalen's Blushe ; Mary Magdalen's Complaint at Christ's Death ; Tymes goe by Turns; Looke Home; Fortune's Falsehoode; Scorne not the Leaste; A Childe my Choice; Content and Ritche ; Losse in Delaye ; Love's servile Lott ; Life is but Losse ; I dye Alive ; What Joy to live ; Life's Death, Love's Life ; At Home in Heaven ; Lewd Love is Losse; Love's Gardyne Greife ; From Fortune's Reach ; The Nativity of Christe ; Christe's Childhoode, — the last two coming in between Scorne not the Leaste and a Chylde my Choyse. With the exceptions above noted, the 1595 and 1596 editions correspond page for page as far as p. 46. Following this volume speedily was the * M^oniae' of the same year, 1595. Its title-page will be found at page 115, with relative Epistle by the Publisher (John Busbie) — not, be it noted, named as, but in all probability really, the Publisher of * St. Peter's Complaint and other Poems/ This volume, of which a beautiful copy is in Jesus College, Oxford, contained those additional Poems ever since printed under the title of * Mseoniae.' It was a precious gift John Busbie gave in ^ Mseonioe :' for there can be no question that in these relatively minor xiv PREFACE. poems we have Southwell at his deepest, tenderest, and best. Issued in 1595, these two volumes must have been read by those whose eyes were yet wet from weep- ing over their Author's tragic end. The next edition of the Poems is without date, but I assign it, after careful thought, to 1596 (early). Its - title-page is given in fac-simile in our illustrated quarto edition : the ^ wording' of it at page 3. It will be , noticed that this edition bears to be * Newly augmented with other Poems.' These augmentations were not ^Mae- oniaB'— which is not included in it even to the extent of a single poem — but the following : A Phancy turned to a Sinner's Complainte ; David's Peccavi ; Synne's heavy Loade; Josephe's Amazement; New Prince, new Pompe; The Burning Babe ; New Heaven, new Warre. The col- lation is 42 leaves : and throughout, this edition agrees in its contents with that of 1615 (4to). My accomplished friend Deputy-Inspector-General Dr. Brinsley Nichol- son has favoured me with full notes on William Leake the Publisher of this undated edition, whereby it appears that he was a somewhat humble and often-changing Bookseller from about 1594-5 (at latest) onward for a decade (at least). He has also called my attention to the head-pieces and tail-pieces ornamenting the volume, specially that * bluff King Hal,' and early incidents of the Keformation, are (seemingly) introduced into them. But inasmuch as these were common to other contem- porary books, it is scarcely worth while recording the details, save that I invite critical readers to solve the meaning of the monogram in the title-page, as shown in our fac-simile. It has the look of a combination of R. S.. as = Robert Southwell with L. = Leake; but PREFACE. XV the numerals below, which at first I thought might indi- cate the Poet's age at death (32-3) scarcely yield this, unless the final X. be = 11.^ as a cross. I assign Leake's edition to 1596, because it is so marked in a contem- porary hand in my copy and in another reported to me, and because there are certain misprints in it that are par- tially corrected in the edition of 1597 as also in those of 1599 and 1602, which editions I merely name, as they are identical in their contents and of no special worth or authority, although as books they fetch extravagant prices in their * few and far between' occurrence in Li- brary-sales and Book-catalogues. Dr. Hannah favoured me with the use of his copy (formerly Park's) of 1599 edit. In the centre of its woodcut title-page is an JEscu- lapian device, with the mottoes * Nosce teipsum, Ne qvid nimis' and * Love and lyve.' As a bibliographic curiosity I give on the next page the title-page (which is within a border) of an early Scottish edition. David Laing, Esq. LL.D., has kindly forwarded me this, and he conjectures that its date was probably 1597 or 1598. From its incompleteness Cal- DECOTT supposed it to be the '■first^ edition, that is, pre- vious to the edition of 1595 : but this is most improbable. ^ As I pass this through the press, my excellent friend the Rev. S. Sole thus writes me : ' I was thinking whether Iesws Marye could not be made out of the monogram. You will remember Southwell has prefixed these names to one of the Elegies. F. Haigh of Erdington Catholic Church, well known in the cii'cle of Archasologists, showed me that it could be done, and suggests it as the explanation. Notice the lengthening of the upright line of the E in the monogram on the left of the page ; this may be the I of lesus ; which otherwise can be formed without much stretch. The monogram would thus read R. S. Jesus Marye.' XVI PREFACE. Moreover, incompleteness is no evidence, inasmuch as the St. Peter's Complaint, with only * Content and Ritche' of Edinburgh, bears the much later date 1634, while 1616 and 1620 editions of London are exceedingly imper- fect. The exemplar now described is that of the Anglo- Poetica, where it was priced 211, The meniorandum date of 1595 in Chalmers' copy I suspect was simply a note that it was a reprint of the 1595 edition. It would seem that Professor John Johnston of St. Andrews — a notable man, as shown in M'Crie's Life of Andrew Melville and Dr. Irving's * Lives of Scottish Writers' — had some oversight of this edition. Saint Peters Com- Plaint With other Poems. Printer's ornament. Edinbvrgh Printed by Robert Walde-graue Printer to the Kings Majestie cum Privilegio Regis. - A Sonnet bearing Johnston's initials is oddly inserted at page 30, at close of Saint Peter's Complaint. It may find place here, the more so that it has never since been reprinted : PREFACE. Sonnet : A Sinfull Soule to Christ. I lurk, I lowre in dungeon deepe of mynd, In mourning moode, I run a restles race ; With wounding pangs my soule is sorelie pyn'd, My griefe it growes, and death drawes on a pace : What life can last except there come releace ? Feare threats, dispaire ; my sinne infernall wage. I faint, I fall : most wofuU is my cace ; Who can me helpe, who may this storme assuage ? Lord of life, our peace, our only pleaye, plea ?■ blesful light, who life of death hast wrought. Of heau'nlie loue the hrightsome beame, and bage, hay ? Who by Thy death from death and hell vs brought, Reviue my soule; my sinnes, my sores redresse, That line I may with Thee in lasting blesse. I. I. The collation is in all 28 leaves : sigs. A to G : and the contents (except the addition of Johnston's sonnet) cor- respond with those of 1595, and follow the same order. The Epistles only are awanting. Another Scottish edition of Saint Peter's Complaint, with Content and Eitche — already named — bears the imprint ^ Edinbvrgh, Printed by lohn Wreittoun, Anno Dom. 1634' (4to, 19 leaves). That assigned to Eobert Waldegrave, Edinburgh, 1660 (4to), by TuRNBULL, I suspect to be an imagination : at least I have failed to trace a copy anywhere. These are all the quarto editions known. Others are in duodecimo, and are combined with more or less full collections of the Prose Writings. On the next page is the title-page of the earliest smaller edition, of which the collation is: Title-page; Epistle-Dedicatory * To my worthy good cosen, Maister W. S.' 2 pp.; The Avthovr to the Eeader {his), 2 pp.; St. Peter's Complaint, pp. 1-34 ; St. Peter's Peccaui [sic, = David's Peccavi and Sin*8 Heavy Load], St. Peter's Eetume Home [= Look b XVlll PREFACE. Home], Saint Peter's Comfort [ = Scorn not the Least and Times go by turns], Saint Peter's Wish [ = Life is but Loss], pp. 35-42 ; * Finis' being placed on the last. Then follows Sainte Mary Magdalen's Fvnerall Teares [prose], pp. 43-157; ^ Finis' again being placed on the last. Then St. Mary Magdalen's Blvsh, No loy to Line, St. Mary Magdalen's Traunce [ = Lewd Love is Losse], Sainte Mary Magdalen's Farewell [ = From Fortune's Reach], At Home in Heauen, Christ's Natiuity, Christ's Childhood, and the Christian's Manna (of which more immediately), pp. 158-170, and ^ Finis' once more on the last. The edition of 1620 is identical throughout with the preceding. S. Peters Complaint. And Saint Mary Magdalens Fvnerall Teares. With sundry other selected, and deuout Poems. By R. S. of the Society of lesvs. Is any among you sad ? Let him pray. Is he of a cheerfull hart ? Let him sijtg. lac. 5. [Doway] Permissu Superiorum. m. dc. xvi. PREFACE. XIX Of * The Christian's Manna' Turnbull thus speaks : * This [edition 1620] has annexed to it "The Christian's Manna," a poem not in any other edition [a mistake, as it had previously appeared with the same heading in 1616 edition]. But Mr. Park considers it "has no le- gitimate claim to be considered as his production." On this point I am neither able myself to form an opinion, nor give others an opportunity for doing so; since, in spite of every effort, I have been unable to find a copy of the edition' (Kitson, Bib. Poet. 341 n.) — (p. xxxvi.). Later, Mr. J. Payne Collier, in his * Bibliographical Account' (s.n.)j in recording the 1620 edition of London, which also contains the * Short Rules of Good Life,' ob- serves : ^ To the present copy is added a poem called " The Christian's Manna" not found elsewhere [a mistake, as with Turnbull], but which, though not reprinted by Mr. Turnbull, there is no sufficient reason for doubting to be by Southwell;' and then with high praise follows a quo- tation. Still later, Mr. W. Carew Hazlitt, in his * Hand- book of Early English Literature' (1867), has this note under the 1616 edition: *This edition and the next contain the very doubtful piece entitled The Christian's Manna, which was not included in the English and Scot- tish editions. ' All have been misled by the Anglo-Poetica. After all this, our Readers will be amused to learn that * The Christian's Manna' is only * Of the blessed Sacra- ment of the Aulter' under a new title, as pointed out in our Notes and Illustrations in the place. Of course this establishes its genuineness, seeing that the poem is not only in Addl. ms. 10.422, but in our Stonyhurst ms. It was printed unknowingly by Turnbull (pp. 157-160). None of the other changes of headings in 1616 and 1620 XX PREFACE. have before been observed. There were enlarged editions —the additions being Prose— in 1630 and 1634. That of 1630, * London, printed by I. Haviland, and sould by Egbert Allott' (the same engraved title-page with the London edition of 1620), has all the Poems of 1596 and of ^ Maeonise' 1595, and Marie Magdalen's Fvnerall Teares, Triumphs over Death and Short Rules of Good Life. Barrett the Publisher dedicates this edition * To the right Honorable Eichard, Earle of Dorset,' who was the third earl and second son of Eobert Sackville, second earl, by his first wife Margaret, only daughter of Thomas Howard, fourth duke of Norfolk, on which ^ fair lady's' death our Worthy wrote his ^ Triumphs of Death.' He was also the patron-friend of Donne and Bishop Henry King. The Epistle follows : *My Lord, — The entertainment which this worke in the seueral parts therof hath formerly found with men of exact iudgment, may be a sufficient testimony, that it is not (now) offered vnto your Lordship for that it stands in need of protection (the vsuall apologie of euery tri- uiall Pamphletter), much lesse to emendicate any others suffrages, beyond the knowne worth thereof : the onely reason of this present boldnesse, and my excuse for thus presuming to recommend it to your honorable hands, being, that as the Author thereof had long since dedi- cated some peeces of the whole to sundrie particular branches of that noble stocke and familie whereof your Lordship is (and long may you be a strong and flourish- ing arme !), so now my selfe hauing first collected these dismembred parcels into one body, and published them in an entire edition, I held it a kinde of sacrilege to de- PREFACE. XXI fraud your noble name of the right which you may so justly challenge thereunto, which by the sunshine of your fauour shall bee as it were reanimated; and he en- couraged to further endeuours, who in the meane time is at your Lordship's seruice. i^ Barret.* The allusions in this Epistle-dedicatory are explained by the Verse-dedication of the ^ Triumphs over Death' to * the WorshipfuU M. Kichard Sackuile, Edward Sack- uile, Cicily Sackuile and Anne Sackuile, the hopeful! issues of the honorable gentleman, Master Eobert Sack- uile Esquire.' This verse-dedication follows : Most lines do not the best conceit containe ; Few words, well coucht, may comprehend much matter : Then as to use the first is counted vaine, So is't praise-worthy to conceit the latter. The grauest wits that most graue works expect, The qualitie, not quantitie respect. The smallest sparke will cast a burning heat, Base cottages may harbour things of worth : Then though this volume be, nor gay nor great, Which under your protection I set forth : Do not with coy disdainefull ouersight Deny to read this well meant orphan's mite. And since his father in his infancy Prouided patrons to protect his heire : But now by Death's none-sparing crueltie, Is turnd an orphan to the open ayre : I, his unworthy foster-sire haue dar'd To make you Patronizer of this ward. You glorying issues of that glorious dame. Whose life is made the subiect of Death's will : To you, succeeding hopes of mother's fame, I dedicate this first of Southwel's quill : He for your unkle's comfort first it writ, I for your consolation print and send you it. XXU PREFACE. Then daine in kindnesse to accept the worke, Which he in kindnesse writ I send to you : The which till now clouded, obscure did lurke : But now opposed to each Header's view, May yeeld commodious fruit to every wight, That feeles his conscience prickt by ParcsBS spight. But if in ought I haue presumptuous beene, My pardon-crauing pen implores your fauour : If any fault in print be past unseene, To let it passe, the Printer is the crauer : So shall he thanke you and I by duty bound, Pray that in you may all good gifts abound. S. W. F. G. Waldron, who in 1783, in an appendix to an edition of Ben Jonson's ^ Sad Shepherd/ gave a few pieces from Southwell, and which were reprinted by Headley in his ' Beauties,' supposed the above verse- dedication to have been composed by Southwell him- self, and the initials (S. W.) to denote S[outh] W[ell]. TuRNBULL repeats this without correction. The suppo- sition is of the wildest. It is neither suggested nor sup- ported, but contradicted by the sense and style of the verses, and in the third and fourth stanzas his death is distinctly named. If I might hazard a more likely con- jecture, the S. W. is = W. S. the ^ loving cosen' of the Epistle-dedicatory of the Poems of 1595, that is, in such case, his * loving cosen' had something to do with the edition, and added his initials reversed. But of course the full signature of John Trussel in 1596 edition gives the Verses to him. Such were the original and early editions of the Poems of Southwell : and I have now to show that they all prove faulty in their text when collated with the Author's own mss. at Stonyhurst College. Taking Leake's PREFACE. XXlll edition (1596, though undated) as a basis, I submit these dozen examples of errors ; others are pointed out in our Notes and Illustrations : 1. * Yet higher poures [ = powers] must think though they repine,' in ^Scorne not the Leaste' (st. i. line 5), mis- reads * most' for * must.' 2. * Untowched of man, yet mother of a sonne,' in * Our Ladye's Spousalls' (st. i. Hne 2), misreads ' Vntaught' for * Untowched.' 3. ^Unwonted workes with wonted veyles to hide,' in the same poem (st. i. line 6), misreads ^wiles' for ^veyles.' 4. *■ blessed man, betroth'd to such a spouse,' in the same (st. ii. line 5), misreads * betrothd too much' for ^ to such.' 5. * Thus had she virgins', wives' and widowes' crowns,' in the same (st. iii. line 5), misreads ^the' for ^she.^ 6. ^ In thee their joy and soveraigne they agnize,' in * Our Ladle's Salutation' (st. ii. line 2), misreads ^ they' for * their.' 7. ' With weeping eyes His mother reu'd His smart, If blood from Him, teares rann from her as fast,' in * The Circumcision' (st. iii. lines 1-2), misreads * his' for ^her;' and again in line 4, * The payne that Jesus felt did Mary tast,' misreads * set' for ^ felt.' 8. * And from a thorne nowe to a floure He fledd,' in ' Christe's Keturn out of Egipt' (st, ii. Hne 6), misreads * throne' for * thorne.' 9. ^ His worthes all prayses farr exceed,' in * Lauda Syon Sal.' (st. i. line 5), misreads * workes' for * worthes.' 10. ^ThQ prime use of this mystery,' in the same poem (st. iii. line 6), misreads * prince' for * prime.' 11. * No heed of their deceivinge shiftes,' in ^ The Pro- XXIV PREFACE. digall Chylde's Soule Wracke' (st. xii. line 2), misreads * receiuing' for ^ deceivinge.' 12. * The world with, jesses of delight,' in * Man's Civill Warre' (st. iii. line 3), misreads Besses' for ^jesses:' and in the same (st. v. line 3), * Foes senses are to vertue's lore,' misreads ' and' for * are:' and again (st. vi. line 4), * Or truce of halves the whole betraye,' misreads * trust* for ' truce.* I have selected these out of (literally) scores similar, because, with the exception of the egregious one of Hhrone' for Hhorne' (No. 8), the first edition (1595) has the same blunders, and so the other early editions enumerated by us. Our Notes and Illustrations will supply abundantly more. Turnbull corrects none of these misreadings, save the very few corrected for him in his text of 1634, and, as we shall see, superadds as many of his own. It will be evident that none of the printed texts from 1595 to 1856 is to be regarded as accurate or authori- tative. This being so, I turned to the British Museum Manuscripts (Addl. MS s. 10.422 andHarleiannss. 6921): but after a laborious collation, these, while yielding by a happy chance better occasional readings — and which are confirmed by the Stonyhurst mss. — proved flagrantly blundering. The Addl. mss. 10.422 is unquestionably the superior : but taking St. Peter's Complaint, here are specimens of its misreadings : 1. St. i. line 2, *Full fraught with teares' for *full fraught with grief,* the ^ teares' being caught from the preceding line. 2. St. ii. line 4, * in penance wed* for * to penance.' 3. St. xii. line 2, *now leasf for * now left.' PREFACE. XXV 4. St. xiii. line 3, * What trust to one' for ^ in one.' 5. St. xviii. line 1, * a sea of showres' for ^ a sea of sours.* 6. St. xxii. line 4, * With hellish dunge to fertill heavenly desires' for ^ lieaverHs desires.' 7. St. xxiv. line 5, ' My other were stones . . .' for * My oaths' 8. St. xxxviii. line 4, ^ Soule's wilful! /am^, synne's lost stealing face' for ^ wilful! faming and * so/l^-steahng.' 9. St. xliii. line 5, ^ unquanted hunger' for ^ unac- quainted hunger.' 10. St. xlvi. line 1, * ah ! that ever I saw it' for * ah ! that I ever saw it.' 11. St. Ixii. 1. 3, ' You nectar'd ambrose! for '- ambries.' 12. St. Ixviii. line 6, ^ all the shrikes'' for ^ scribes' 13. St. ixxii. line 2, ^ God 5oowe' for ^ God, sun.' 14. St. xcvii. line 3, ^ To blame your babes' for ^ em- balm' 1 5. St. cxvii. 1. 6, ^ shop of sAare' for ^ shop of shame' It were endless to enumerate the dropping and misplac- ing of words and the uncouth orthography. The same result is obtained in collating the shorter poems. I ad- duce only half-a-dozen examples : 1. * Flye fortune's subtleties' for ^ Sly,' in '• Fortune's Falsehood' (st. i. line 2). 2. ^/S'ome- dying mirth' for * soone-dying mirth,' in * Marie Magdalen's Blush' (st. i. line 6). 3. ^ Lett thy farewell guide thy thought' for ''forewit,^ in * Losse in Delay' (st. ii. line 6). 4. ^ Where pleasure's upshott is to denye accurst' for ^ die accurst,' in * What Joy to liue',(st.T, line 6). fV" CFTHK "^'y^ UNIVERSITY XXVI PREFACE. 5. * Such hyde the light* for * Sunne^ hyde thy light' (* Death of our Ladie,' st. iii. line 5). 6. ^ For sith no price can thy worth amount' for * to thy worth/ in * The Presentation' (st. i. line 5). Similar errors might be exhibited to almost any extent, but it cannot be required. It was this ms. Walter and TuRNBULL consulted and used. It had formerly been in the Heber collection. From its contents and arrange- ment I was inclined to think it must have been the same Manuscript that is stated by Dr. Oliver (as before) to have been in the Catholic Church of Bury St. Ed- munds, and which has long been missing there : but the presence of St. Peter's Complaint in full in it seems to make this doubtful. Seeing that 6921 (Harleian mss.) is of like and even faultier character, I do not deem it ne- cessary to record the result of our collation of it. Both swarm with mistakes of every conceivable sort, in addi- tion to a punctuation that is chaos. Yet, as our Notes and Illustrations show, both yield some admirable correc- tions of the printed edition. It is pleasant to turn from the printed texts and these MSS. to the Stonyhurst mss. The principal ms. of the Poems is a handsome volume, one plainly upon which the Jesuits set much store. It is daintily bound in vellum, with gilt edges, and written very beautifully throughout in one hand, with the exception of one poem, viz. The Prodigall Chylde's Soule Kacke, which, though occur- ring in the body of the volume, is wholly in Southwell's autograph. The badge of the Society of Jesus is upon the cover. This ms. must have been prepared for the Author himself, inasmuch as while now and again self- I PREFACE. correcting mistakes are left inadvertently, there are re- peated corrections in his own autograph, revealing care- ful reading and interest Our fac-similes (in the illus- trated quarto) show both the ms. and a correction, and also from another autograph ms. the Poet's handwriting and signature. Besides this Volume, there are various separate mss. in Southwell's own autograph, notably the Latina Poemata, which it is my privilege to print for the first time. But as these, with the exception of the remarkable Latin poems, are in Prose, I reserve farther notice of them for our Memorial-Introduction. It may be well to give proof of the value and autho- rity of the Stonyhurst ms. Our waning space forbids enlargement : but in Notes and Illustrations other ex- amples will be found in plenty. I shall select instances that will at the same time serve to show Turnbull's er- roneous readings. Turning to the * Visitation' (st. i. 1. 5), we read in the early editions and British Museum mss. ^ Her youth to age, herselfe to sicke she lends.' So it stood in the ori- ginal text of the Stonyhurst ms.; but Southwell has made it * Her youth to age, her helth to sicke she lends,' giving meaning to what was nonsense. Turnbull per- petuates the nonsense. Again, in * David's Peccavi' (st. ii. line 4), the Stony- hurst MS. reads ^ My garments gyves' [=fetters]. Turn- bull has * My garments give.'' Once more, in * Seeke Flowers of Heaven' (st. v. lines 3-4) reads in Turnbull, * Most glittering gold in lieu of glebe. These fragrant flowers do yield.' So also the Stonyhurst ms. originally, but corrected by the Author as the sense requires, * doth yield.' XXVUl PREFACE. Yet again, in * Mary Magdalen's Complaint' (st. v. line 2), Turnbull reads, ' In the sunne of happiness :' the Stony hurst ms. corrects * In the summe.^ Farther, in * What Joy to live' (st. iii. 1. 1), Turnbull misreads, * Here loan is lent :' the Stonyhurst ms. corrects ' loue' for * loan ;' and so in st. iv. line 5, for Turnbull's * luring gain,'' Southwell corrects by ^ ayme.' Again, in ^ Love's servile Lot' (st. vi. line 2), Turn- bull reads haltingly, * Yet doth draw it from thee :' the Poet fills-in in the Stonyhurst ms. ^ she' before ^ draw.' Once more, in * Love's servile Lot' (st. xii. line 1), Turnbull reads, ' With soothed words enthralled souls:' the Stonyhurst ms. corrects * soothed' into ^ soothing.' Farther, in * Content and Eitche' (st. vi. line 3), Turn- bull reads, * Effects attend, or not desire :' the Stony- hurst MS. * Effects atteyn^d or not desired^ Again, in Dyer's Phancy' (st. i. line 3), Turnbull reads, ^ Whose hope is salve ;' the Stonyhurst ms. * Whose hope is falne^ Finally, in 'I die Alive' (st. iii. line 1), Turnbull reads, * Thus still I dye, yet still I do remayne! So ori- ginally in the Stonyhurst ms. as in the Harleian ms. But in the former there has been study to make the line of which it is the final word accord in rhyme with the line which is balanced with it, and which ends in * alive.' First of all the word ' relyve! was substituted ; and that not satisfying, ^revive' was finally adopted. The radical changes and the study evinced reveal the Poet's own au- thority and care. Moreover, when we consider that the Harleian ms. has the word * remayne' and the consequent defect of rhyme ; and that the same care which has ren- dered the Stonyhurst ms. superior here and in many PREFACE. XXIX similar cases, down to minute corrections of orthography (and so in the Prose mss.), has been bestowed upon the whole work — not to speak of the fact that this Volume is and always has been in the hands of the Society of which Southwell was a member, and that the beauty of the MS. confirms one's expectation that to his own brethren he would have presented a copy of his own poems worthy of him and of them — the Stony hurst ms. must {meo judicio) be assigned the highest, if not absolute authority. Accordingly I have taken it for my text, albeit in iN'otes and Illustrations I have pointed out the '• vari- ous readings' of the early printed editions, and adopted an occasional correction of the Stonyhurst ms. oversights. The Stonyhurst ms. is arranged as shown in our Con- tents, and includes all those in the British Museum mss. published by Walter and Turnbull. Curiously enough, St. Peter's Complaint is given only in an abbreviated form, as recorded in the preliminary Note to our reprint, and I have reports of various ms. copies of a similar kind.^ I know not that the extension of the Poem has added to its value. Its absence from the Stonyhurst ms. in full would seem to argue that it was a later poem than the others. For the text of St. Peter's Complaint I have selected Leake's edition of 1596, with relative Notes and Illustrations at the close. Our Notes and Illustrations throughout will furnish sorrowful examples of the utter carelessness of Turnbull (in addition to the foregoing). I may farther refer to pp. 46, 47, 48, 50, 53, 54, 55, 65, 70, 71, 75, 81, 86, 90, and so onwards at? nauseam. Of Walter's edit. (1817) ^ See more on the formation of St. Peter's Complaint in onr Memorial-Introduction. XXX PREFACE. suffice it to say generally, that in the complete Poems (apart from our additions for the first time) there are in all 57, while Walter gives only 15, and 3 from Addl. Mss. 10,422. Specifically his manipulation of the ad- dress of the * Author to the Reader' will be enough. In 1595 edition (his avowed text) st. ii. thus reads : If equities euen-hand the ballance held, Where Peters Binnes and ours were made the weight es : Ounce, for his Dramme : Pound, for his Ounce we yeeld : His ship would groane to feele some sinners frightes. So ripe is vice, so greene is vertues bud : The world doth waxe in ill, but waine in good. In Walter we have this without a shred of authority : If Justice' even hand the balance held. Where Peter's sins and ours were made the weights. How small his share, compared to what we yield/ His ship would groan, &c. He gives only three out of the four stanzas of this poem, and tacks on for the missing fourth stanza the closing one of the first address to theEeader, omitting the others there- in. Then in * A Fancy turned to a Sinner's Complaint,' after stanza iv. no fewer than eight verses are omitted, and another, and other five, and again other three, and twice one; and so throughout. Turnbull said con- temptuously, * I refrain from criticism on Mr. Walter's text :' severe but not undeserved, only his own is scarcely one whit better, and in places worse. I deplore the sad necessity laid on me thus to pronounce on one so labori- ous as TuRNBULL. Our finest Literature would get cor- rupted, if such editing were not exposed and censured. In basing my edition on the Stonyhurst mss., I can- not sufficiently utter my sense of indebtedness to the custodiers of them, seeing that they not only give us a PREFACE. XXXI superior and authoritative text, but the hitherto unprinted Latin Poems. ]^or must I omit very cordially and grate- fully to acknowledge the loving and careful helpfulness of the Rev. S. Sole, of St. Mary's College, Oscott, Bir- mingham, in collating and recollating the text, and in re- reading our proofs with the mss. * To err is human,' so that I cannot hope to have presented an immaculate edi- tion ; but I can in all honesty say no pains, no toil, has been spared to try to make it worthy of the Poet. It may be as well to state, that I may have failed to repro- duce literally an occasional ' u' for * v' and * v' for * u,' and perhaps ' hee' for ^ he,' and the like. I have also thought it expedient to introduce the apostrophe and the usual capitals in divine names and personifications (nouns and pronouns), and, as explained in relative Notes, have ad- opted our * Thou^ instead of * Thoz^,' * too' for * to,' and * thee' for * the,' as in present usage. The Notes and Il- lustrations at close of each poem discuss various read- ings, punctuation, obscurities, &c. &c.; and here I wish most heartily to thank Deputy- Inspector- General Dr. Brinsley Nicholson for his varied and luminous com- munications in elucidation and illustration of the text. As in Vaughan and Crashaw, and as in Marvell, Donne and Sidney forthcoming, my editions owe much and will owe more to his affluent reading, rare insight, and most generous willinghood to aid us in our * labour of love.' The Shakesperean Reader will thank Dr. Nicholson for putting us in the track of the Shake- speare allusions noted in our Memorial- Introduction, only one of many hke services. As before, I have to thank my helpers on the other Worthies for continued and increasing interest in my XXXU PREFACE. books. To the authorities of Jesus College, Oxford, I am indebted for the use of the extremely rare 1595 edi- tions of St. Peter's Complaint and other Poems and Maeoni^e, and to the same at Stonyhurst College for use of other early editions ; and also to Dr. Hannah of Brighton, for scarce editions and some annotations and suggestions. In our illustrated quarto edition I have the satisfac- tion to present a photo-facsimile by Pouncey of Dor- chester of the Christ of Leonardo da Vinci's renowned fresco in the convent Maria delle Grazie, Milan, of * The Last Supper.' It may be permitted me to state, that after days and days' study of the very best engravings {e.g. Morghen's) of this mighty picture, while seated before the original, I never have seen a faithful reproduction of it, emphatically never have seen even an approach to faithfulness in the face of The Lord. I must regard our photograph — specially taken for me and under my own eyes in Milan — as an infinite advance on the engravings. ; The sorrow-laden eyes, lids heavily, burningly, tearlessly pressed down in fathomless sorrow and shame under the coming Betrayal (how large-orbed if the lids were raised!) ; the quivering lips as the awful words are spoken, ' Verily i /say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me ;' the I wasted cheek, broad-shadowed; the ineffable sweetness of I the mouth and dimpled chin ; the magnificent dome of brow — no nimbus there, and not needed, any more than is a crown needed to mark out the true king ; the thin, pre- maturely blanched, though abundant hair, — are brought out, as I think, with incomparable superiority in our fac- simile — all the more that the pathetic marks of * Time's effacing fingers' are inevitably given. I have seen many PREFACE. XXXlll Christs by the great Masters, but Leonardo da Vinci's conception abides unapproached and unapproachable. As an illustration of Southwell's poems, all so radiant with the light of His Face, every one will agree it is most fitting. Besides the Christ, as already named, I furnish two Fac-similes, by Wort, of New Oscott, Birmingham, of Southwell's mss. from Stonyhurst — (1), from the author's ms. of Poema de Assumptione B.V.M. ; (2), from the Stonyhurst ms. volume. With reference to the former, an examination of the ms. satisfies that the poem and signature were written by the same hand and at the same time as the latter and larger portion. One is a careful measured hand, suited to the writing of a poem in a complete form ; the other is his own signature, written freely as he naturally would write in signing his name. It is in the same dark ink. III. The same of the title-page of the 1596 edition of St. Peter's Com- plaint and other Poems. ^ For other things I refer my Readers to our Memo- rial-Introduction and Notes and Illustrations. I feel it to be no common privilege to be really the first worthily and adequately and in integrity to present Southwell as a Poet. ^^ Alexander B. Grosart. 15 St. Alban's Place, Blackburn, Lancashire. February 27tli, 1872. P.S. I add here the judgment of Edmund Bolton, whom Warton calls * a sensible [old] Critic,' on South- well's works, from Hypercritica (Oxon. 1772, written before 1616): ^ Never must be forgotten *' St. Peter's XXXIV PREFACE. Complaint," and those other serious Poems, said to be Father Southwell's ; the English whereof, as it is most proper, so the sharpness and light of wit is very rare in them.' This quotation from Bolton was first used by Warton (H.E.P. iii. 230: 1781), next by Headley (1787, p. Ixv.), and next by Park in a note to Cens. Lit, (ii. 78), whence Walter copied it (p. xviii.) almost in Park's own words, and Willmot (i. 15 note) has also secured it. Sir Egerton Brydges has it in his new edition of Philips (p. 219 note) and Ritson (Bibl. Poet. 342). Brydges also quotes it in his Adv. to the reprint of * Triumphs of Death' — and so the hackneyed words go from critic to critic. I hope our edition will lead some to read for themselves. Dr. Bliss, in his edition of the Athence Oxoniensis (s.n.), has corrected Wood's odd mis-assignation of South- well's Poems to John Davies of Hereford. We owe too much to Wood to deal hardly with him for occasional slips of this kind. G. MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. I. The Life. The Life-story of Southwell beyond his Writings is a brief one on the earthly-side, albeit on the thither hea- venly-side, I do not doubt it fills many a page of the Great Biographer's * Book of remembrance' — as does every beautiful and meek life. And so in Eternity, and through Eternity's audience, there ^ remaineth' compensa- tion over-against the large and clamorous * biographies' in Time and for contemporaries, of multitudes * great' only in an unconsecrate use of the word. Sibbes' ^ resurrec- tion' of saintly * memories, as well as of bodies,' is of the certainties, and the demonstration that to be good, simply and quietly, is the most abiding greatness. We are far off from the Facts, and the Facts are few, of our Worthy's life ; but a fragrance sweeter than cere-cloth perfumes is blown to us across the centuries from it. So that, with all the dimness, we can discern that in him England held one who was of her truest, purest, bravest, lovingest, Christliest sons. Collins records of the Southwells that the ^antient and honourable family,' whence all came, derived its name from the town of Southwell, in Nottinghamshire, where he says, the ^ chief branch continued to reside until the XXXVl MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. reign of Henry VI.* The first ancestor, however, of the Norfolk house — our Worthy's — found in the Pedigrees ; and I have wearied myself over well-nigh ^ endless gene- alogies' — was John Southwell, of Felix Hall in Essex, who was M.P. for Lewes in Sussex in 28 and 29 Henry VI. He had two sons, Robert and John. John was ancestor to the Southwells now represented by Vis- count Southwell in Ireland. Robert Southwell, the elder son, succeeded his father at Felix Hall. In 1415, according to Collins, he was made trustee to the Duke OF Norfolk. He married Isabella, daughter of John Boys, Esq. of Norfolk, and had by her Richard, his son and heir, who in the Act of Resumption (3 and 4 Ed- ward IV.) had his grant from the King saved. This Richard's first wife was Amy, daughter and heiress of Sir Edmund Wychingham, of Wood-rising in Norfolk (by Alice, daughter and heiress of Sir John Falstolfe, *a name to conjure with*). With her, he obtained the manor of Wood-rising, 'where — quitting Felix Hall — he fixed his residence, and there his posterity had a noble seat and fine park, which continued in the family for many generations.* There were two sons of this mar- riage ; but Sir Robert, the elder, died without issue in 1513. Francis Southwell, his brother, was Auditor of the Exchequer to Henry VIII. ; and by Dorothy, daughter and co-heir of William Tendring, Esq., had four sons — 1. Sir Richard Southwell, his heir. 2. Sir Robert, Master of the Rolls. 3. Francis. 4. An- thony. For the descendants of the latter three I must refer those curious in such matters to Blomefield's well- known county History. I limit myself, except in one memorable thing to be after-noted, to Sir Richard MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. XXXVll Southwell and his line. He was our Poet's grand- father. Of him Blomefield, under Wood Eysing, thus recounts his * honours:' ^ He was a great favourite of King Henry VIII. ; one of the visitors appointed by him of the monasteries in Norfolk on their suppression ; of the Privy-council to that King, Edward VI., and Queen Mary ; master of the ordnance and armory ; one of the executors to Henry VIII. ; and high-steward of the Duchy of Lancaster. '^ Farther : ' In the reign of Queen Mary he made a remarkable speech (1554) in the House of Lords (sic) on that Queen's being with child, and an act of Parliament thereon passed ; about the government of the realm, and the person of the child, in case of that Queen's decease. '^ The county History also enumerates about thirty manors in N^orfolk of which this Sir Kichard Southwell was lord in 87 Henry VIII. It also states, * Great part of his inheritance, with this lordship (Wood-rising), came to his nephew, Thomas Southwell, son of Sir Robert Southwell by Mar- garet his wife, daughter and sole heir of Thomas Nevill, fourth son of George, Lord Abergavenny.'^ Unhap- pily this Sir Richard Southwell introduced not a few bars sinister (if I may venture to use heraldic phraseo- logy) into the House.^ During the lifetime of his first > Blomefield, vol. x. pp. 276-7, ed. 1809. 2 HoUingshed, p. 1124. ^ Blomefield, as before. * Blomefield refers, in his account of the illegitimate family of Sir Richard, to Sir Henry Spelman's History of Sacrilege, p. 270. I may remark in passing (with all reverence) that it was part of the ' humiliation' of The Lord to have in His human descent not great and holy ones merely, but this record also : ' Salmon begat Booz of Rachab ; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth' (St. Matthew i. 5). XXXviii MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. wife, by Mary, daughter of Thomas Darcy, of Danbury — who eventually became his second wife — he had a num- ber of children. The first, Kichard, was eldest son, of Horsham St. Faith's, Norfolk, who was hving there 27 Elizabeth [1585-6]. He died a prisoner in the Fleet. He was Father of our Southwell by Bridget, daughter of Sir Roger Copley of Roughway, county Sussex (by EHzabeth, daughter of Sir Wilham Shelley), his first wife — his second wife having been Margaret, daughter of John Styles, Parson of EUingham. Of the first mar- riage — with which alone we are concerned — there were issue as follows : 1. Richard, eldest son, of Spixworth, county Norfolk, who married Alice, daughter of Sir Thomas Cornwallis of Brome, county Suffolk, whence descend the Southwells of Kinsale in Ireland, Barons de Clifford. 2. Thomas, second son. 3. Robert, our Poet. 4. Mary, who married Edward Banister of Ids worth, county Hants, Esq. (ms. 2 d. 14.186 Coll. Armor.) 5. Other four daughters. I do not think it necessary to record other issue after the second marriage. Robert Southwell was thus the third son of Richard Southwell, Esq. of Horsham St. Faith's, which * estate,' and its acquisition, is thus described by Blomefield (as before) : * The site of this priory, with the lordship, lands, appropriated rectory, and the rectory and advowson of Horsford, were granted about the 36th of Henry VIII. to Sir Richard Southwell, of Wood-rising in Norfolk, and Edward Elrington {vot Ebrington, as inadvertently misprinted by Turnbull). Richard Southwell, Esq. MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. XXXIX held it in 1588, who sold it to Sir Henry Hobart, the judge, and his son Sir John inherited it/ .__^ Turning back a moment, our Readers will have ob- served the occurrence of the name of Shelley in these genealogical details. It is to be remembered ; for Eliza- beth, daughter of Sir William Shelley, and mother of Bridget Copley, in turn mother of our Worthy, links the Poet of ^ Maeonise' and ^ Myrtse' with the mightier Percy Bysshe Shelley. A short table shows this : John Shelley, Esq. == Elizabeth, d. and h. of John Michelgrove, of Michelgrove, co. Sussex. Sir William Shelley, Edward Shelley, second son of the chief of the Kjit., eldest son ; one House, settled at Worminghurst Park, co. Kent, of the Justices of the and from whom, says W. M. Rossetti, Esq., Court of Common in his Memoir of J. P. Shelley, ' descends Pleas. that branch of the family which has achieved some fleeting distinction in the way of a peer- age and a second baronetcy (the first baronetcy, in the older line, dates from 1611), and an eternal distinction in giving birth to the " poet of poets." ' ( Works^ vol. i. pp. xxx.-i. 1870.) In other Hues there is Hke association with other his- toric names — Sidney, Newton, Howard, Paston, and William Lenthall, Speaker of the Long Parliament. But the family branches and twigs, marriages and inter- marriages, noble and base, renowned and commonplace, of the Southwell Family I must leave to be followed up by those wishful to do so. I place below helps and au- thorities.^ ^ Besides Blomefield, Collins, Burke and the usual autho- rities, I am indebted to my never-failing friend, the Rev. J. H. Clark, M.A., of West Dereham, Norfolk, for full notes from, among others, the 'Visitation of Norfolk' (1563), published by the Norfolk Archaeological Society, continued and enlarged by the late Rev. G. H. Dashwood, M.A. F.S.A., and other Norfolk genealogists (1865). Harleian ms. 1178 is the basis. xl MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Eesident, as undoubtedly Richard Southwell was, at Horsham St. Faith's at the period, there seems no reasonable doubt that Robert was bom there, and not in Suffolk, as Pits earlier, and Fuller copying him, stated. After-dates, that will come out in the sequel, enable us to fix his birth in 1560-1, or just about the time that Mary Queen of Scots— of whom he was destined to sing pathetically — * landed' from France in her native Scot- land. A singular anecdote has been transmitted of him while an infant — curiously repeated in other Lives, as is familiar to all — viz. that he was stolen from his cradle by a vagabond woman or * gipsy.* Being, however, speedily missed by his nurse, he was almost immediately recovered.^ This * deliverance' was tenderly and grate- fully remembered in after years. ^ What,' exclaims he, ^ if I had remained with the vagrant ? how abject I how destitute of the knowledge or reverence of God I in what debasement of vice, in what great peril of crimes, in what indubitable risk of a miserable death and eternal punish- ment I should have been !'2 Where he began to * learn letters' has not been told : but he was sent over * very young' to Douai. Inquiries there have resulted in the information that the French Revolution made havoc of the Books and Papers there, so that no memorial exists of its early '• scholars.'^ In his ^ TuRNBULL states that the vagrant ' substituted for him her own child,' and ' confessed to have been prompted to the crime for the sake of gain' (p. xiv.). * TuRNBULL, as before, quotes this p. xiv. 2 From our correspondence with the Librarian of Douai we had hoped to find in the possession of H.E. the Archbishop of Westminster (Dr. Manning) an early ms. roll of alumni belong- ing to the College; but, in a courteous answer to my appli- MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. xli 15th year he passed to Paris, where he came under the care, reUgiously and educationally, of a once famous Enghshman, Father Thomas Darbyshire, who, Arch- deacon of Essex, for ^ conscience' sake' made a sacrifice of all his preferments on the accession of Elizabeth. ^ j^his j_Master'jwa^ among the earliest from England to ^ join^ the Society of Jesus ; and we cannot doubt that his per- fervid zeal and example q^uickenedjbis'^upirs^desire to give himself to the same Order. In 1578 at Kome, be- fore he was 17, he was enrolled ' amongst the children' of St. Ignatius. The date of this event — so central in his short Life — is noticeable. It was on the vigil of St. Luke (17th October) : and it is pleasant to conclude that as the vigil of St. Luke was also St. Faith's-day (Old style), he chose that day in honour of his native place, Horsham St. Faith's. The thing has not hitherto been pointed out ; but it seems to verify itself as well as confirm the birthplace. ^ Young as he was, he had thought of it long before he was * received.' Here is his plaint, rather than com- plaint : * Divulsum ab illo corpore, in quo posita sunt mea vita, mens amor, totum cor meum, omnesque ef- fectus.'^ He still pursued his ^ studies,' and spent a con- cation, H.E. informed me that he had no such ms. Suggest- ing that it might he preserved at Ushaw, I applied there also; but Dr. Tate had to report that there was nothing of the kind there. 1 See Dr. Oliver's ' Collections towards illustrating the Bio- graphy of the Scotch, English, and Irish members of the Society of Jesus :' (1845) p. 80, and references to Tanner and to Wood's Athence. 2 I am indebted to the very Reverend Dr. Husenbeth, Cossey, Norwich, for the interesting suggestion. 5 Mori, Hist. Prov. Angl. Soc. Jesu, p. 173. xKi MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. siderable portion of his ^ noviciate' at Tournay in Bel- gium, its climate being pronounced milder and more suited to his constitution. ^ The little Memoir in Bishop Challoner's * Memoirs of Missionary Priests, as well Secular as Kegular, and of other Catholics of both sexes that have sujfifered death in England on Keligious Ac- counts, from the year of our Lord 1577 to 1684' (1741, 8vo), thus summarises these years : * He was sent over young to Doway, where he was, for some time, alumnus of the English College or Seminary in that University. From thence he went to Kome, and there was received into the Society of Jesus when he was but sixteen [in 17th] years of age. Having finish'd his noviceship, and gone thro' his course of Philosophy and Divinity with very great satisfaction of his Superiors, he was made Prefect of the Studies in the English College of Rome, and took that opportunity of applying himself to the study of his native language, in which he proved no small proficient, as the elegant pieces, both in Prose and Yerse, which he has publish'd in print abundantly demonstrate. '2 The name of Ignatius Loyola was still a recent * me- * We learn this from More : ' Ne videlicet ardentem Banctis desideriis juvenem, imnioderatis Italiae SBstibus nondum parem, duo in uno corpore calores opprimerent, utque tarn prasclaris dotibns ornato, et qui per ardorem quaerendi spem excitaverat eximia qusedam adipiscendi, non sola Roma nobilitaretur.' (Mori Hist. Prov. Angl. Soc. Jesu, p. 177.) 2 P. 324. The same data are found in More (as before), as follows : ' Romam Tornaco rursus vocatus ad philosophos, theo- logosque audiendos, neque ingenio, neque industria, neque laude studiorum, aut fructu, neque vita cum virtute acta cuiquam se passus est esse inf eriorem. Et ingenii quidem et industriae laus in universaB philosophias decretis propugnandis enituit; turn etiam, cum post decursum theologiae stadium, aliorum studiis est MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. xliii mory' and power (he died on July 31st, 1556, or only at most five years before Southwell's birth), and his mag- nificent and truly apostoHc example of burning love, com- passion, faith, zeal, self-denial charged the very atmo- sphere with sympathy as with electricity; so that it is no marvel our Worthy gave himself with a fine self-forget- fulness and consecration to that Work in which the great Founder of the Order wore out his life. The Society was then in its first fresh * love' and force, unentangled with political action (real or alleged) ; and I pity the Protestant who does not recognise in Loyola and his disciples noble men, who, in the fear of God and with a passion sprung of compassion, went forth with the single object to win allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. I * intermeddle^ not with later complications and actual or imagined degeneracies into mere pohtical interferences and * plottings.' I wish to hold up clear and high the indubitable fact that Loyola himself and (I believe) the great body of his followers at the period in which we are concerned, were * priests' seeking supremely to do spiri- tual duty and not to engage in treasons, stratagems, and spoils. That Southwell and others contemporary had the"" hearts of true Englishmen of * gentle' descent, and that what they sought was * religious' good for their country and countrymen, with not a shadow of thought or * plot- ting' against Elizabeth, I cannot for a moment doubt praefectus in Anglicano de urbe Seminario ; in quo juventus id temporis copiosissima, et ingeniorum varietate, et splendore florentissima non facile nisi ab omnibus doctrinaBpraBsidiis ornato atque instructo ducebatur.' (p. 179.) Xliv MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. in the face of their pathetic and (in the circumstances) brave words as ^on oath;' and none the less that as a Protestant I must rejoice that The Reformation in Eng- land was not undone. I have that faith in Truth that makes me confident that it was no righteous way to pre- serve The Reformation to * persecute' and slay cruelly and meanly those who held to the ^ old Religion' in its old forms. The contest might have been more prolonged and the final issue difi'erent : but prolongation is not always delay or loss, and difference does not necessarily involve a less desirable result. Of this I am satisfied that the * Blood-shedding' tragically and sorrowfully re- corded in Bishop Challoner's matter-full * Memoirs' and Dodd's great * Church History of England,' and Dr. Oli- ver's ' Collections,' wears as black a colour as any in FoxE. There is no monopoly of martyrdoms. Our Worthy repeatedly gives utterance to his love for his Order, and Tanner furnishes many quotable bits : e.g, ' Nescio an quis alius unquam post sanctissimum Pa- rentem ejus Ignatium, majorem de Societate Jesu sen- sum, majorem vocationis suae foverit sestimationem, quam RoBERTUs SouTHWELLUs. . . . Scripsit aliquaudo in sua ad socios Romam epistola S. Xaverius, aeternum animas su£e exitium imprecans, si unquam ab amore dilectissimse suse religionis descisceret : "si oblitus," inquit, " fuero tui, Societas Jesu, oblivioni detur dextera mea." Sed an non sublimes ejus de hoc ordine conceptus adaequarit, si non superaret Robertus, clarissimo in Anglia gentis Southwellise natus sanguine, ex his sua propria manu consignavit, patebit.'^ 1 Tanner, Soc. Jesu Martyr, p. 30: quoted by Tuknbull (p. XV.). MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. xlv Thus flaming with the very ^ fire' of the dauntless Founder, Southwell was ' ordained Priest' in the sum- mer of 1584, and being appointed to the Mission to Eng- land, proceeded to his native country. He left Home on 8th May 1586.^ He had earnestly sought the * perilous' commission, as appears from a letter to the General dated 20th February 1585, * wherein his future martyrdom seems rather to have been anticipated, than merely re- ferred to as a simple possibility. '^ Another letter from Porto, written on 5th July 1586, while on his way to England, breathes the yearning * haste' of The Lord as He went up for the last time to Jerusalem. Even in the quaint old Latin these * Epistolae' pulsate and throb with emotioUo I do not envy the Keader who can rise with dry eyes from Father Morels * History' which con- tains them. 2 We get passing glimpses of our Southwell in the Life of Father John Gerard, published only recently in the following very weighty and remarkable book : ^ The Condition of Catholics under James I. Father Gerard's Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot. Edited, with his Life, by John Morris, Priest of the Society of Jesus. 1871. (8vo, Longmans).' I know not that I can do better than at this point glean these notices. So far as I can make out, the first belongs to 1588, and thus runs : ^ On my arrival in London, by the help of certain Catholics, I dis- covered Father Henry Garnett, who was then Superior. ^ Bp. Challoner (as before) inadvertently assigns the depar- ture to 1584 (p. 324). It is plain by the Letters in More that it was not until 1586, as Dr. Oliver states (p. 194). 2 TURNBULL, p. XVi. ^ See pp. 182-183, for these Letters. Xlvi MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Besides him, the only others of our Society then in Eng- land were Father Edmund Weston, confined at Wisbech (who, had he been at large, would have been Superior), i^a- ther Robert Southwell, and us two new-comers.'^ Again : * My companion. Father Ouldcorne, had already ar- rived, so the Superior was rather anxious on my account, as nothing had been heard of me ; but yet for that very reason hopes were entertained of my safety. It was with exceeding joy on both sides that we met at last. I stayed some time with the Fathers, and we held frequent con- sultations as to our future proceedings. The good Su- perior gave us excellent instructions as to the method of helping and gaining souls, as did also Father Southwell, who much excelled in that art, being at once prudent, pious, meek, and exceedingly winning,^^ Once more : * Next morning [after account of a meeting in Worcestershire], about five o'clock, when Father Southwell was beginning Mass, and the others and myself were at meditation, I heard a bustle at the house- door. Directly after, I heard cries and oaths poured forth against the servant for re- fusing admittance. The fact was, that four Priest- hunters, or pursuivants, as they are called, with drawn swords were trying to break down the door and force an entrance. The faithful servant withstood them, other- wise we should have been all made prisoners. But by this time Father Southwell had heard the uproar, and guessing what it meant, had at once taken off his vest- ments and stripped the altar ; while we strove to seek out everything belonging to us, so that there might be no- thing found to betray the presence of a Priest. . . . Hav- * Pp. xxiv.-v. 2 Ibid. p. xxv. MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. xlvii ing thus escaped the day's danger, Father Southwell and I set off the next day together, as we had come.'^ Far- ther: In the * journeying' of the Priests there was per- petual danger of betrayal in their intercourse with the * gentry.' One half-pathetic half-comic Incident is told of a * gentleman' who * suspected' the Father. But he observes, * after a day or so he quite abandoned all mis- trust, as I spoke of hunting and falconry with all the details that none but a practised person could command. '^ He then adds : ' For many make sad blunders in at- tempting this, as Father Southwell, who was afterwards my companion in many journeys, was wont to complain. He frequently got me to instruct him in the technical terms of sport, and used to complain of his bad memory for such things ; for on many occasions when he fell in with Protestant gentlemen, he found it necessary to speak of these matters, which are the sole topics of their conversation, save when they talk obscenity or break out into blasphemies and abuse of the Saints or the Catholic faith.'s These incidental Notices verify at once the hazard of the time for Priests in England and the ' spiritual' cha- racter of the work prosecuted by our Worthy. Every other mention of him is in accord with this. It is re- membered that he ^ sought out' the woman — his nurse — who had rescued him in his infancy from the ^ gipsy' with a view to her conversion ;* while the long, intense, wist- ful, most eloquent and beautiful Letters to his Father * Ibid. pp. xxxix.-xl. ^ Ibid. p. xxiii. ' Ibid. pp. xxiii.-iv. . * Mori Hist. Prov. Angl. Soc. Jesu, p. 172. xlviii MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. and Brother remain as evidences of the ^ one thing' cared for by him.i During his Mission in England he had always a * re- fuge' and home in London in the house of Anne, Countess of Arundel, whose husband, Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, was imprisoned in the Tower and died there, * the noblest victim to the jealous and suspicious tyranny of Elizabeth, non sine veneni suspicione, as his epitaph still testifies. '2 He and his companion had gone in the outset to William third Lord Yaux of Harrowden, resi- dent in then suburban Hackney. But after a few months, when the Confessor of the Countess of Arundel died, Southwell was appointed her domestic chaplain and con- fessor. It was while in this noble Family that he com- posed for the Earl's use his ^ Consolation for Catholics' — of which more hereafter. If the phrase '■ Eeign of Terror' is historically used of that in Fkance called * Red,' an examination of the Facts — not merely as told by Lingard, but as being in our day revealed in the Calendars of the Period and in such a book as Morris's * Condition of the Cathohcs' — 1 See on this Letter in the second part of this Memorial-In- troduction. 2 Morris's ' Condition of Catholics,' as hefore, p. Ivii. It is impossible to over-rate the permanent historic worth of this Work, nor the painstaking and thoroughness of the editing. We may not agree in some of the verdicts, must see thihgs dif- ferently o' times : but none will deny the weight and value of the book as a contribution to the ecclesiastico-historico litera- ture of England. Might I suggest to Father Moreis to explore the Mss. at Eome for notices of English Catholics undoubtedly lying there utterly neglected? I and all who have to do with our early Literatm-e long for daylight being introduced into the masses of correspondence buried in the great Libraries of Rome, MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. xllX shows a * White' ^ Reign of Terror' in England for Ca- thoHcs. It was a crime to be a Catholic : it was proof of high-treason to be a Priest : it was to invite * hunt- ing' as of a wild-beast to be a Jesuit. Granted that in our Southwell's years 1588 is included, and that the shadow of the coining of The Armada lay across Eng- land from the very moment of his arrival. Granted that, in the teeth of their instructions, there were Priests and members of the Society of Jesus who deemed they did God service by * plotting' for Restoration of the * old Faith and Worship' after a worldly sort. Granted that politically and civilly the Nation was in a sense in the ' throes of since-achieved liberties. Granted that Mary all too sadly, even tremendously, earned her irrevocable epi- thet of * Bloody.' Granted that the very mysticism, not to say mystery, of the ' higher' sovereignty claimed for him who wore the tiara, acted as darkness does with sounds the most innocent. Granted nearly all that Pro- testantism claims in its Apology as a Defence, it must be regarded as a stigma on the statesmanship and a stain on the Christianity of the ^ Reformed' Church of England, as well as a sorrovs^ to all right-minded and right-hearted, that the * convictions' of those who could not in conscience * change' at the bidding of Henry Y III. or Elizabeth or James were not respected ; that ^ opinion,' or, if you will, * error,' was put down (or attempted to be put down) by force, and that the headsman's axe and hangman's rope were the only instrumentalities thought of. The State Trials remain to bring a blush to every lover of his coun- try for the brutal and * hard' mockery of justice in the highest Courts of Law whenever a * Papist' was con- cerned — as later with the Puritans and Nonconformists. 1 MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Bp. Challoner has translated two Letters of our Southwell from the * History of the Persecutions in England,' by Didacus Yepes, Bishop of Tarragona ; and 1 avail myself of them here, as follows : The First Letter. 1. ' As yet we are alive and well, being unworthy, it seems, of prisons. We have oftener sent, than re- ceived, letters from your parts, tho' they are not sent without difficulty; and some, we know, have been lost. 2. * The condition of Catholic recusants here is the same as usual, deplorable and full of fears and dangers, more especially since our adversaries have look'd for wars. As many of ours as are in chains, rejoice, and are comforted in their prisons; and they that are at liberty set not their hearts upon it, nor expect it to be of long continuance. All, by the great goodness and mercy of God, arm themselves to suiBfer any thing that can come, how hard soever it may be, as it shall please our Lord ; for Whose greater glory, and the salvation of their souls, they are more concerned than for any tem- poral losses. 3. ' A little while ago, they apprehended two priests, who have suffered such cruel usages in the prison of Bridewell, as can scarce be believ'd. What was given them to eat, was so little in quantity, and, withal, so filthy and nauseous, that the very sight of it was enough to turn their stomachs. The labours to which they obliged them were continual and immoderate ; and no less in sickness than in health ; for, with hard blows and stripes, they forced them to accomplish their task, how MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. 11 weak soever they were. Their beds were dirty straw, and their prison most filthy. 4. ^ Some are there hung up, for whole days, by the hands, in such manner that they can but just touch the ground with the tips of their toes. In fine, they that are kept in that prison, truly live in lacu miserice et in luto feeds (Psalm xxxix.). This Purgatory we are looking for every hour, in which Topliffe and Young, the two executioners of the Catholics, exercise all kinds of torments. But come what pleaseth God, we hope we shall be able to bear all in Him that strengthens us. In the mean time, we pray that they may be put to confusion who work iniquity : and that the Lord may speak peace to His people (Psalm xxiv. and Ixxxiv.), that, as the royal prophet says, His glory may dwell in our Land. I most humbly recommend myself to the holy sacrifices of your reverence and of all our friends. January 16, 1590.' The Second Letter. 1. ' We have written many letters, but, it seems, few have come to your hands. We sail in the midst of these stormy waves, with no small danger ; from which, nevertheless, it has pleased' our Lord hitherto to de- liver us. 2. * We have altogether, with much comfort, renewed the vows of the Society, according to our custom spend- ing some days in exhortations and spiritual conferences. Aperuimiis ora, et attraximus spiritum. It seems to me that I see the beginnings of a religious life set on foot in England, of which we now sow the seeds with lii MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. tears, that others hereafter may, with joy, carry in the sheaves to the heavenly granaries. 3. ^ We have sung the canticles of the Lord in a strange land, and, in this desert, we have suck'd honey from the rock, and oil from the hard stone. But these our joys ended in sorrow, and sudden fears dispers'd us into different places : but, in fine, we were more afraid than hurt, for we all escaped. I, with another of ours, seeking to avoid Scylla, had like to have fallen into Charybdis ; but, by the mercy of God, we passed be- twixt them both, without being shipwreck' d, and are now sailing in a safe harbour. 4. * In another of mine I gave an account of the late martyrdoms of Mr. Bayles and of Mr. Horner, and of the edification which the people received from their holy ends. With such dews as these the Church is water'd, ut in stillicidiis hujusmodi loetetur germinans (Ps. Ixiv.). We also look for the time (if we are not un- worthy of so great a glory) when our day (like that of the hired servant) shall come. In the mean while I re- commend myself very much to your reverence's prayers, that the Father of Lights may enlighten us, and con- firm us with His principal Spirit. Given March 8, 1590.' These Letters are only two out of hundreds of the like ; and I for one deplore that one so gentle and lov- able as Father Southwell had his heart thus wrung. But worse than ^ fear' and haunting * suspicion' inevit- ably came. For about six years our Worthy laboured with consuming devotedness and success, when his Mis- sion was as in a moment ended by that old peril of St. Paul, 'false brethren,' in 1592. The circumstances are as MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. liii follows, from Turnbull, verified by the authorities al- ready cited. * There was resident at Uxendon [Woxin- don], near Harrow-on- the-Hill, in Middlesex, a Catholic family of the name of Bellamy, whom [which?] Southwell was in the habit of visiting and providing with reHgious instruction when he exchanged his ordinary [ordinarily ?] close confinement for a purer atmosphere. One of the daughters, Ann, had in her early youth exhibited marks of the most vivid and unshakable piety ; but having been committed to the Gatehouse of Westminster, her faith gradually departed, and along with it her virtue. For, having formed an intrigue with the keeper of the prison, she subsequently married him, and by this step forfeited all claim which she had by law or favour upon her father. In order, therefore, to obtain some fortune, she resolved to take advantage of the act of 27 EHzabeth, which made the harbouring of a priest treason, with confiscation of the offender's goods. Accordingly she sent a messenger to Southwell, urging him to meet her on a certain day and hour at her father's house, whither he, either in ignor- ance of what had happened, or under the impression that she sought his spiritual assistance through motives of penitence, went at the appointed time. In the mean while having apprised her husband of this, as also of the place of concealment in her father's house and the mode of access, he conveyed the information to Top- CLiFFE, an implacable persecutor and denouncer of the Catholics, who, with a band of his satellites, surrounded the premises, broke open the house, arrested his Kever- ence, and carried him off in open day, exposed to the gaze of the populace. '1 * Pp. xxii.-xxv. liv MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Perhaps this account must be read cum grano salis in so far as Ann Bellamy is concerned, seeing that, in a Letter of the justly-named ^ bloodhound' Topcliffe, he boasts of the seizure of Southwell as his own act, adding, with a penetration we at this later day must ac- knowledge : ^ It may please your Majesty to consider, I never did take so weighty a ma% if he be rightly consi- dered.' The whole fawning, cruel, abominable Letter appears in Strype.^ John Danyell also claimed ^ merit' in the same ^ arrest. '2 Carried by Topcliffe to Topcliffe's own dwelling, he was there during a few weeks * tortured' ten times with such pitiless severity, that the unhappy prisoner complaining of it to his judges, declared that death should have been preferable. Nor did the ^ tortures' end when he was transferred to the Gatehouse and the Tower, the former kept by the husband of the she- Judas who had ^ betrayed' him. How he was ' agonised' is simply and affectingly told by Tanner and by More. Even Cecil admitted the * torture' of him to have reached * thirteen times.'^ There must have been pauses in the cruelty, though not an hour's release in the imprison- ment ; for his Poems bear hitherto unrecognised traces of having been composed in (probably) the Tower, and subsequent to the putting him ^ to the rack' and kindred atrocities that are not to be named. Let us turn to these midoubted reminiscences of his prison-experiences of the 1 Annals of the Church and State, vol. iv. p. 9 (edit, folio, 1731). 2 TuRNBULL, pp. xxvi.-vii., where a Letter from Danyell is given from the State-Paper Office : Domestic, No. 200. » Cf. More, as before, p. 193. I MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Iv dolorous kind named. First of all, in ^ Mary Magdalen's * Sith my life from life is parted, Death, come take thy portion ; Who survives when life is murdred^ Lives by mere extortion.^ (p. 62.) The simile is somewhat forced, but * extortion' is more than a rhyme- word with * portion.' It is a synonym for ' racking' or ^ tormenting;' and, alas, it was well, or ra- ther, wretchedly known to him that one rendered sense- less through violence became conscious again on renewal of torture. Thus it was natural to him to represent Mary as saying that in her surviving when Christ her life had been murdered, her sense of life was only due to the rackings and torments of her grief. Prisoner in the Tower, under the circumstances he did indeed *couche his life in deathe's abode.' But deeper and more painfully realistic still are his ^ Life is but Losse' (pp. 81-3) and * I die alive' (p. 184). Let the Keader at once turn to these unutterably tender and pathetic pieces, and slowly, and I doubt not with mist of tears, read them. Take meanwhile these lines in the former : ' By force I live^ in will I wish to dye ;' and this complete stanza (iv.) : ' Come, cruell death, why lingrest thou so longe ? What doth withould thy dynte from f atall stroke ? Nowe prest I am, alas! thou dost me wronge, To lett me live, more anger to provoke : Thy right is had when thou hast stopt my breathe. Why shouldst thoue stay to worke my dooble deathe ?' Similar is the yearning, the * panting,' the ^ sighing of the Ivi MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. prisoner/ that God hears, the hunger for the benignant release of Death, in * I dye to live ;' and there are like touches in ^ What joy to live' (pp. 85-6). Surely, too, the solace of Sleep's sweet forgetfulness takes new soft- ness from the recollection of his own prison- sleep, in ^ St. Peter's Complaint,' thus : ' Sleepe, Death's allye, obliuion of teares, Silence of passion, balme of angry sore, Suspence of lones, securitie of feares, Wrath's lenitiue, heart's ease, storme's calmest shore. Sense's and soule's repriuall from all cumbers, Benumning sense of ill with quiet slumbers.' (St. cxxi.) It gives a new and strange interest to these Poems thus to find these erewhile overlooked autobiographic experiences worked into them. Their bearing on the inevitableness of his poetic gift I shall speak of onwards. Transferred to a dungeon in the Tower * so noisome and filthy, that when he was brought out at the end of the month to be examin'd, his cloaths were quite cover'd with vermin,' his Father — and one is grateful to know that he was worthy of his son and of the Letter ad- dressed to him — ^presented a Petition to the Queen, humbly begging " That if his son had committed any- thing for which, by the laws, he had deserved death, he might suffer death ; if not, as he was a gentleman, he hoped her Majesty would be pleased to order that he should be treated as a gentleman, and not be confined any longer to that filthy hole." 'i It argued conscious innocence politically, and absolute confidence in the ^ ij not^ so to address Elizabeth. It argued too recognition in the highest quarters of the justice of the plea, that * Challoner, as before, p. 325. MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Ivii ^ the Queen was pleased to have regard to this Petition, and to order Mr. Southwell a better lodging ; and to give leave to his father to supply him with cloaths and other necessaries ; and amongst the rest, with the books which he ask'd for, which were only the Holy Bible, and the works of St. Bernard.'^ The selection of books, the Book of Books and the Father of the Fathers for a Poet, is very noteworthy : and through all his weary imprison- ment * spiritual things,' not civil or earthly, were his theme when he ^ discoursed' to his sister Mary (Mrs. Bannister), or others permitted occasionally to visit him. Bishop Challoner tells unexaggeratedly and simply the story of the * beginning of the end,' and * the Trial,' and the ^ end,' deriving the * Trial' from a ms. in Latin preserved in the Archives of the English College at St. Omer's. I have now to submit these successively: first, the * beginning of the end,' as follows: * He was kept in prison three years ; and, at ten several times, was most cruelly rack'd, till, at length, a resolution was taken on a sudden in the Council to have him executed. Some days before his execution he was' removed from the Tower to Newgate, and there put down into the hole call'd Limbo ; from whence he was brought out to suffer, on account of his priesthood, the 21st of February 1594-5, having been condemn'd but the day before. Care was taken not to let the people know before-hand the day he was to die, to hinder their concourse on that occasion ; and a famous highwayman was ordered to be executed at the same time, in another place, to divert the crowd from the sight of the last Challoner, p. Sa^^Vi^*'- "- '" ^ ^ iT v^ OF TTiV UNIVERSI^ ^^IC^tlFORHiL, Iviii MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTIO^• conflict of the servant of Christ : but these precautions avail'd nothing, great numbers, and amongst them many persons of distinction, flock'd to Tyburn to be witnesses of his glorious martyrdom. Hither Mr. Southwell was drawn on a sled thro' the streets; and when he was come to the place, getting up into the cart, he made the sign of the Cross in the best manner that he could, his hands being pinion'd, and began to speak to the people those words of the Apostle (Eom. xiv.). Whether we live, we live to the Lord, or whether we die, we die to the Lord : therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. Here the sheriff would have interrupted him ; but he begged leave that he might go on, assuring him, that he would utter nothing that should give offence. Then he spoke as follows : "I am come to this place to finish my course, and to pass out of this miserable life ; and I beg of my Lord Jesus Christ, in whose most precious Passion and Blood I place my hope of salvation, that He would have mercy on my soul. I confess I am a Cathohc priest of the holy Roman Church, and a reli- gious man of the Society of Jesus ; on which account I owe eternal thanks and praises to my God and Saviour." Here he was interrupted by a minister telling him, that if he understood what he had said in the ^ense of the Council of Trent, it was damnable doctrine. But the minister was silenc'd by the standers by, and Mr. South- well went on saying, " Sir, I beg of you not to be trou- blesome to me for this short time that I have to live : I am a Catholic, and in whatever manner you may please to interpret my words, I hope for salvation by the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. And as to the Queen, I never attempted, nor contrived, or imagined any evil against MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. lix her ; but have always prayed for her to our Lord ; and for this short time of my life still pray, that, in His in- finite mercy, He would be pleased to give her all such gifts and graces which He sees, in His divine wisdom, to be most expedient for the welfare, both of her soul and body, in this life and in the next. I recommend, in like manner, to the same mercy of God, my poor country, and I implore the divine bounty to favour it with His light, and the knowledge of His truth, to the greater advancement of the salvation of souls, and the eternal glory of His divine majesty. In fine, I beg of the almighty and everlasting God, that this my death may be for my own and for my country's good, and the comfort of the Catholics my brethren." * Having finished these words, and looking for the cart to be immediately drove away, he again blessed himself, and, with his eyes rais'd up to heaven, repeated, with great calmness of mind and countenance, those words of the Psalmist, in manus tuas, &c., " into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit," with other short ejaculations, till the cart was drawn off. The unskilful hangman had not apply'd the noose of the rope to the proper place, so that he several times made the sign of the Cross whilst he was hanging, and was some time before he was strangled; which some perceiving, drew him by the legs to put an end to his pain ; and when the executioner was for cutting the rope, before he was dead, the gentlemen and people that were present cried out three several times, " Hold, hold I" for the behaviour of the servant of God was so edifying in these his last moments, that even the Protestants who were present at the execution were much affected with the sight. Ix MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. After he was dead he was cut down, bowelled, and quar- tered.' i It is added by Turnbull : ^ Lord Mountjoy (Charles Blount, eighth Baron Mountjoy), who happened to be present, was so struck by the martyr's constancy, that he exclaimed, '* May my soul be with this man's !" and he assisted in restraining those who would have cut the rope while he was still in life' (pp. xxxi.-ii.). Now comes the St. Omer's ms.: * After Father Southwell had been kept close pri- soner for three years in the Tower, he sent an epistle to Cecil, Lord Treasurer, humbly entreating his lordship, that he might either be brought upon his trial, to ans- wer for himself, or at least, that his friends might have leave to come and see him. The Treasurer answered, that if he was in so much haste to be hanged, he should quickly have his desire. Shortly after this, orders were given, that he should be removed from the Tower to Newgate ; where he was put down into the dungeon call'd Limbo, and there kept for three days. * On the 22 d of February, without any previous warn- ing to prepare for his trial, he was taken out of his dark lodging and hurried to Westminster, to hold up his hand there at the bar. The first news of this step to- wards his martyrdom fiU'd his heart with a joy which he could not conceal. The judges before whom he was to appear were Lord Chief Justice Popham, Justice Owen, Baron Evans, and Sergeant Daniel. As soon as Father Southwell was brought in, the Lord Chief Jus- tice made a long and vehement speech against the Jesuits 1 Challoner, pp. 325-27. MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Ixi and seminary priests, as the authors and contrivers of all the plots and treasons which he pretended had been hatched during that reign. Then was read the bill of indictment against Father Southwell, drawn up by Cook, the Queen's solicitor, to this effect : " Middlesex. " The jury present on the part of our sovereign lady the Queen, that Robert Southwell, late of London, clerk, born within this kingdom of England ; to wit, since the Feast of St. John Baptist, in the first year of the reign of her Majesty; and before the 1st day of May, in the thirty-second year of the reign of our' lady the Queen aforesaid, made and ordained priest by authority derived and pretended from the See of Rome ; not having the fear of God before his eyes, and slighting the laws and statutes of this realm of England, without any regard to the penalty therein contained, on the 20th day of June, the thirty-fourth year of the reign of our lady the Queen, at Uxenden, in the county of Middlesex, traiterously, and as a false traitor to our said lady the Queen, was and remained, contrary to the form of the statute in such case set forth and provided, and contrary to the peace of our said lady the Queen, her crovm and dig- nities." * The grand jury having found the bill. Father South- well was ordered to come up to the bar: he readily obeyed, and bowing down his head, made a low rever- ence to his judges ; then modestly held up his hand ac- cording to custom; and being ask'd, whether he was guilty, or not guilty 1 he answered : I confess that I was bom in England, a subject to the Queen's majesty ; and Ixii MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. that by authority derived from God, I have been pro- moted to the sacred order of priesthood in the Roman Church ; for which I return most hearty thanks to His divine Majesty. I confess also, that I was at Uxenden in Middlesex at that time ; when, being sent for thither by trick and deceit, I fell into your hands, as it is well known : but that I never entertained any designs or plots against the Queen or kingdom, I call God to wit- ness, the revenger of perjury ; neither had I any other design in returning home to my native country, than to administer the sacraments, according to the rite of the Catholic Church, to such as desired them. ^ Here the judge interrupted him, and told him that he was to let all that alone, and plead directly guilty, or not guilty. Upon which he said, he was not guilty of any treason whatsoever. And being asked by whom he would be tried ? he said. By God and by you. The judge told him he was to answer. By God and his country ; which, at first, he refused, alledging that the laws of his country were disagreeable to the law of God ; and that he was unwilling those poor harmless men of the jury, whom they obliged to represent the country, should have any share in their guilt, or any hand in his death. But, said he, if thro' your iniquity it must be so, and I cannot help it, be it as you will, I am ready to be judged by God and my country. When the twelve were to be sworn, he challenged none of them, saying, that they were all equally strangers to him, and therefore charity did not allow him to except against any one of them more than another. * The jury being sworn, Mr. Cook began to prove the heads of the indictment, that Mr. Southwell was an MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Ixiii Englishman, and a priest, by his own confession; and that his being so young was a demonstration that he was made priest since the time mentioned in the statute, &c. The judge ask'd him how old he was ? He replied, that he was about the same age as our Saviour, viz. 33. Topliffe, who was present, took occasion from this ans- wer to charge him with insupportable pride, in com- paring himself to our Saviour. But Father Southwell refuted the calumny, confessing himself to be a worm of the earth, and the work and creature of Christ his Maker. In fine, after Mr. Cook had declaim'd, as long as he thought fit, against the servant of Christ, and Topliffe and Lord Chief Justice Popham had loaded him with reproaches and injuries, to which Father Southwell opposed a Christian constancy and modesty, the jury went aside to consult about the verdict, and, a short time after, brought him in guilty. He was asked, if he had *any thing more to say for himself, why sent- ence should not be pronounced against him ? He said, nothing ; but from my heart I beg of Almighty God to forgive all who have been any ways accessory to my death. The judge (Popham) exhorted him to provide for the welfare of his soul whilst he had time. He thank'd him for this show of good-will ; saying, that he had long since provided for that, and was conscious to himself of his own innocence. The judge having pro- nounced sentence according to the usual form. Father Southwell made a very low bow, returning him most hearty thanks, as for an unspeakable favour. The judge offered him the help of a minister to prepare him to die. Father Southwell desired he would not trouble him upon that head ; that the grace of God would be more than Ixiv MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. sufficient for him. And so, being sent back to Newgate, thro' the streets, lined with people, he discovered, all the way, the overflowing joy of his heart, in his eyes, in his whole countenance, and in every gesture and motion of his body. He was again put down into Limbo, at his return to Newgate, where he spent the following night, the last of his life, in prayer, full of the thoughts of the journey he was to take the next day, thro' the gate of martyrdom, into a happy eternity ; to enjoy for ever the sovereign Object of his love. The next morning early, he was called out to the combat, and, as we have seen above, gained a glorious victory. * Mr. Southwell's execution is mentioned by Mr. Stow in his Chronicle : "February 20 (1594-5), says the historian, Southwell, a Jesuit, that long time had lain prisoner in the Tower of London, was arraigned at the King's-Bench bar. He was condemned, and on the next morning drawn from Newgate to Tyburn, and there hanged, bowelled, and quartered. 'i It is very pitiful to have the great name of Coke — for the * Cook' of the Manuscript was he — thus intro- duced. Anything more relentless and ingeniously and wickedly perverse than the * meaning' put into South- well's allusion to the age of The Lord as (nearly) equal to his own is inconceivable. To me it is an in- finitely touching and unconscious revelation of how his whole soul was filled with thoughts of the supreme Life, so that, as perfume from a wind-shaken flower, the Christ-linked remembrance of his age could not but be uttered. ^ Ghalloner, pp. 330-34. MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. IxV From Morris's * Condition of the Catholics' (as be- fore) we learn that there were * conversations' on * equi- vocation' and kindred matters during the examinations, and that one * in authority' sought to break down the * firmness' of another Catholic prisoner by a false as malignant assertion that Southwell had ^ conformed' and sent for a Protestant ^minister.'^ I care not to dwell any longer on this judicial Murder. I pronounce it to be such ; and it is the sorrow and shame of our com- mon human nature and Christianity that ^ both sides' have like blood- wet pages. I must regard our Worthy as a * martyr' in the deepest and grandest sense — a * good man and full of the Holy Ghost. '^ I should 1 As before, pp. ccxiv. ccxviii. and Ixvii. 2 I add the following as a foot-note, from the Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archseological Society (vol. i. pp. 293-4) : ' Kobert Southwell, y^ Jesuit priest, was also discovered and arrested at Uxenden, and it was admitted by him that he had been often in Bellamy's house ; and his friend John Gerard, another Jesuit, defended y® denial of y® fact by one of y® wit- nesses, as being a denial authorised by y® example of y® Saviour.' In June 1592 it was ordered, ' That Mr. Justice Young, or sume other lyke commissioner, do apprehend Richard Bellamy of Oxenden, in y® parryshe of Harrow on y^ Hyll, and his wyffe, and the tow sonnes and ther tow daughters, in whose house father Southwell, alias Mr. Cotton, was taken by Mr. Toplay [Topcliffe?] a comyssyner, andwher a noumber of other preests have bene recevyd and harberd, as well when Southwell hathe been ther as when Mr. Barnes, alias Stranudge, al's Hynd, al's Wingfeld, hathe beene ther a sojorner in Bellamy's house. And they to bee comytted to severall prysons : Bellamy and his wyfe to y® Gaythouse, and ther tow doughters to y® Clynck, and ther tow soones to St. Katheryn's, and to be axamyned stray tly for y® weighty service of y« Q^Ma*^.' The ' alias Cotton' is a new fact in Southwell's biogi'aphy. Tuenbull has given a genea- logical table of the Bellamys, and related papers from the State- Paper Office (pp. Ixiv.-vi.): sufficient to have been once printed. Ixvi- MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. blush for my Protestantism, if I did not hold in honour, yea reverence, his stainless and beautiful memory, all the more that he was on the * losing side,' none the less that beliefs and forms and observances that were dear to him are errors, and more, to me : Through this desert, day by day, Wandered not his steps astray. Treading still the royal way.' Faradisus Animce. Pass we now to II. Thej WRiTiNas. It is to be lamented that there is no authentic por- trait of Southwell known. Dr. Hannah of Brighton in- deed has sent me an early etching-like engraving, which, from the number * 89' in the right-hand corner, seems to have formed one of a series. Beneath is inscribed * P. Kobertvs Sovthvell, Soc. lesu, Londini, pro Cath. fide suspensus et sectus 3. mar. 1595' (the date erro- neous). Above is a cherub reaching out a wreath and palm : round the neck is ' the rope,' and in the breast a sword with blood coming forth in great drops. The face is a conventional monkish one, self-evidently no Portrait. We could better have spared other portraits that have come down for his. I very much mistake if a genuine Portrait of him would not have shown an intellectual, ethereahsed Face, thin and worn no doubt, but ensouled. One likes to go to the Writings of a man from a study of his Face. This we are not privileged to do here ; but I have told his Life-story ill from the extant authorities, if my Readers have not a ^prejudice' in his favour — using my Scottish archaic phrase — if his character have MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Ixvii not won an extrinsic interest and transfiguration for his books. His Prose I can only very briefly notice ; nor indeed is it their literary value that has kept them * quick' and potential to this day. It was not for a hterary object they were composed, neither as contri- buting to hterature they were published. They were the outcome of the Author's own * j nner lif e' and sym- patMsajnth the sad, the unwary, the eager, the tempted, the doubting, the * tried.' Hence it is, I take it, that there never has been a decade of years since their ori- ginal issue, that something bearing the name of South- well has not been in living circulation and prized by * weary' and sorrowful spirits. The Bibliographies (e. g. Hazlitt's) place at the head of his Writings * A Supplication to Queen Elizabeth' (1593): but this was probably his father's Petition. I have failed to discover a copy. The next — really the first — is ^ An Emstle of Comfort to the Reverend Preistes, and to the honourable, worshipful, and other of the lay sorte restrayned in durance for the Catholike faith. Im- printed at Paris [1593?],' 8vo, 214 leaves: a copy in the British Museum. Following this was * A. Short Rulej^f-Gocd- Life : to direct the devout Christian in a regular and ordinary course, n.p. or d. 8vo: a copy in the Bodleian. Dr. Oliver (as before) has stated that these were all * printed at his private press,' mentioned in our Memoir. But in such case the date of the ^Epistle of Comfort' usually filled in, viz. 1593, must be a mis- take, as Southwell from 1592 was a * prisoner.' The imprint of Paris may have been a blind. Another edi- , tion of this treatise — for it really is such — bears date * 1605' (in the Bodleian). Dodd (as before) gives the IXVUl MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. imprint of Doway to the * Short Rule.' His * Epistle to his Father to forsake the World' is also assigned to the * private press,' and so must have been printed prior to 1592. I have not been able to trace an early copy. As we shall find, the Stonyhurst ms. copy of it is dated 1589. The next published prose vras the following: * The Triumphs ouer Death : or A Consolatorie Epistle for afflicted minds, in the affects of dying friends. First written for the consolation of one : hut nowe published for the generall good of all, by R. S. the Authour of S, Peters Complaint, and Mceonice his other Hymnes. London, Printed by Valeritine Simmes for John Busbie, and are to be soldo at Nicholas Lings shop at the West end of Paules Church. 1596. (4to).' By the hberality of the authorities of Jesus College, Oxford, I have been allowed the leisurely use of their very fine copy of this excessively scarce book. There was a previous edition in 1595. John Trussell, author of *Eaptvs I Helenas. The first Rape of faire Hellen. Done into a Poeme by I. T.' (1595), appears to have been Editor of the ^ Triumphs.' The Epistle-dedicatory in verse to the Sackvilles we have already given in the preceding Memoir, and now the Verses in memoriam of Southwell by Trussell must here find successive place ; the former an acrostic, and neither, so far as I am aware, hitherto reprinted. I. [Of Southwell and his Book.] R Reade with regarde, what here with due regarde, Our second Ciceronian Southwell sent : B By whose perswasiue pithy argument, E Ech well disposed eie may be preparde R Respectiuely their griefe for friends decease T To moderate without all vaine excesse. MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Ixix S Sith the worke is worthie of your view, O Obtract not him which for your good it pend : V Vnkinde you are if you it reprehend, T That for your profit it presented you : H He pend, I publish this to pleasure all, E Esteeme of both then, as we merite shall. W Way his workes woorth, accept of my goodwill, E Else is his labour lost, mine crost, both to no end : L Lest then you ill deserue what both intend, L Let my goodwill and small defects fulfill : He here his talent trebled doth present, I, my poore mite, yet both with good intent ; Then take them kindly both, as we them ment. II. To THE Readee. Chancing to find with ^sope's cocke a stone, Whose worth was more than I knew how to prize ; And knowing if it should be kept vnknowne, 'T would many skathe, and pleasure few or none : I thought it best, the same in publike wise I['d] print to publish, that impartiall eyes Might, reading iudge, and iudging, praise the wight The which this Triumph ouer Death did write. And though the same he did at first compose For one's peculiar consolation, Yet will it be commodious vnto those. Which for some friend's losse,proue their owne selfe-foes: And by extreamitie of exclamation And their continuale lamentation Seeme to forget that they at length must tread The selfe same path which they did that are dead. But those as yet whom no friend's death doth crosse. May by example guyde their actions so. That when a tempest comes their barke to tosse. Their passions shall not superate their losse : And eke this Treatise doth the Reader show. That we our breath to Death by duety owe, And thereby prooues, much teares are spent in vaine, When teares can not recall the dead againe. IXX MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Yet if perhappes our late sprung Sectaries, Or, for a fashion, Bible-bearing hypocrites. Whose hoUowe hearts doe seeme most holy wise, Do, for the Author's sake, the worke despise, I wish them weigh the worke, and not who wi'ites : But they that leaue what most the soule delights, Because the Preacher's no precisian, sure To reade what Southwell writ will not endure. But leaning them, since no perswades suffise To cause them reade, except the Spirit moue, I wish all other reade, but not despise This little Treatise : but if Momus' eies Espie Death's Triumph, it doth him behoue, This Writer, Worke, or me for to reprooue : But let this pitch-speecht mouth defile but one, Let that be me, let t' other two alone : For if offence in either merit e blame. The fault is mine, and let me reape the shame. loHN Tkussell. Southwell's own prose address of ^ The Authour to the Eeader' is well-turned in phrase. A copy of the * Tri- umphs,' includiug this Epistle, corrected in his own auto- graph, is preserved among the Stonyhurst mss., dated * The last of September 1591.* In any reprint this Manu- script will be found of much value. The date there given (1591) led us to place the * Triumphs' before * Marie Magdalen's Funerall Teares,' although the latter was in print one year earlier. This was his last published prose. The title-page is as follows — taken from the unique copy in the Bodleian : * Mary Magdalen's Funerall Teares. Jeremiae, c. 6, ver. 26. Auctum unigeniti fac tibi plane- turn amarum. London, Printed for A. I. G. C. 1594' (8vo, 47 leaves). There were editions of the * Funerall Teares' in 1602, 1607, 1609, 1630, &c. &c. Such were the printed and pubHshed Prose Writings ^P MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Ixxi of our Poet. Farther : Dolman, the late Catholic pub- lisher, is stated bj Turnbull to have had in his posses- sion an unpublished (and still so) ms. of his, entitled * The Hundred Meditations of the Love of God,' with a Pre- face-Letter * To the Eight Honble and virtuous Lady, the Lady Beauchamp.' It must be the same that is quoted from by Walter. Besides these * Hundred Meditations' among the Stonyhurst mss., exclusive of holographs of the already-named * Triumphs over Death' and Epistle to his * loving cosen,' prefixed to St. Peter's Complaint, with other Poems (as before), and of the Letter to his Father, and of the Poems, there are a variety of exceed- ingly characteristic * weighty and powerful' productions, chiefly in Latin, and which I would here record. But with reference to the Letter to his Father it may be stated that it thus begins in the ms. : * To the Worshipfull, his very good father, Mr. Eich. Sou. Esq®, his dutifuU soon [52c] Eob. Sou. wisheth all happines ;' and ends, *may finde excuse of my boldnes, I will surcease. This 22 of October 1589, your most dutifuU and lovinge sonne, E. S.' The date ^1589' is important, and confirms our remark, that if printed at the * private press' in his own house, it must have appeared sooner than the known earliest edi- tion, viz. 1593. The whole of these are included in the same Volume with the Poems, as described by us. The additional autograph pieces in Prose are on separate foldings of paper, and are these : * Notes on Theology,' consisting of the usual scholastic-dogmatic discussions (in Latin). Next, * Precationes,' as follow : * Ante orationem precatio,' *Ante Missam precatio,' * Ante studia precatio,' * Ad omnia accommodata precatio,' * An- tequam cum externis &c.,' and two others without head- Ixxii MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. ings. Next, * Meditationes in Adventu' — both the Prayers and Meditations being in Latin. Next, a * Discourse on Mary Maudelyn,' and * Alas, why doe I lament,' in Eng- lish prose, both extrinsically valuable from their relation to the published ' Mary Magdalen's Funerall Teares,' of which indeed I believe them to have been the first form. Finally, another Prayer on a separate bit of paper, and - Notes or jottings for the poem of St. Peter's Complaint. ] Returning upon the Prose of Southwell, as thus for the first time fully and accurately placed before the Reader, I feel a difficulty in making representative quota- tions, seeing — as remarked in the outset — it is not for their literary but for their * spirituaT^mHlh^wee^ them highly: while there is this additional element of difficulty, that the great body of the instruction and con- . solation presented is plain, simple, unadorned, almost | homely, and so unfurnished of those brilliancies that yield vivid and often untrue * quotable hits.'' Nevertheless, it were probably to disappoint not to give something from the Prose — published and unpub- lished. As we have seen, the earliest- dated prose of our Worthy is the Letter to his Father. This Letter is printed in extenso by WALTER~^aFbefore), and from him as Appendix No. 1 by Turnbull. We have very much more valuable new materials, and hence have not thought of reprinting it ; but it is of rare interest in many ways, and won the fine praise of Aris Willmott. His father seems either to have been inclined to fall in with The Re- formation, being at least an absentee from Catholic ob- servances, or to have been ' gay' and * of the world.' His marriage with a lady of the Court — formerly, we learn Hlo] MEMORIAL- INTRODUCTION. Ixxiii •m More (as before), the instructress of Queen Eliza- beth in the Latin language — and his wealth led him among the highest in the Land. His son Robert yearned over him. Thus does he pave the way for counsel and admonition :^ * I am not of so unnatural a kind, of so wild an education, or so unchristian a spirit, as not to remember the root out of which I branched, or to forget my secondary maker and author of my being. It is not the carelessness of a cold affection, nor the want of a due and reverent respect, that has made me such a stranger to my native home, and so backward in defraying the debt of a thankful mind, but only the iniquity of these days that maketh my presence perilous, and the discharge of my duties an occasion of danger. I was loth to inforce an unwilling courtesy upon any, or by seeming offici- ous to become offensive; deeming it better to let time digest the fear that my return into the realm had bred in my kindred than abruptly to intrude myself, and to pur- chase their danger, whose good-will I so highly esteem. I never doubted but that the belief, which to all my friends by descent and pedigree is, in a manner, heredi- tary, framed in them a right persuasion of my present calling, not suffering them to measure their censures of me by the ugly terms and odious epithets wherewith heresy hath sought to discredit my functions, but rather by the reverence of so worthy a sacrament and the sacred usages of all former ages. Yet, because I might easily perceive by apparent conjectures that many were more * As most easily got at by Readers desiring to seethe whole, I take my quotations from this Letter from Turnbull, without in this instance going back on the old spelling. In Walter it occupies pp. 106-125, and was taken from a ms. in the Bodleian. Ixxiv MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. willing to hear of me than from me, and readier to praise than to use my endeavours, I have hitherto bridled my ■ desire to see them by the care and jealousy of their safety ; and banishing myself from the scene of my cradle in my own country, I have lived like a foreigner, finding among strangers that which, in my nearest blood, I presumed not to seek' (pp. xliii.-iv.). Then follow most wistful and anxious arguments taking the form of entreaties : e.g. ^ Surely for mine own part, though I challenge not the prerogative of the best disposition, yet am I not of so harsh and churlish a humour, but that it is a continual corrective and cross unto me, that whereas my endea- vours have reclaimed many from the brink of perdition, I have been less able to employ them where they were most due ; and was barred from affording to my dearest friends that which hath been eagerly sought and bene- ficially obtained by mere strangers'! (p. xlvi.). More pas- sionately : ' Who hath more interest in the grape than he who planted the vine ? who more right to the crop than he who sowed the corn ] or where can the child owe so great service as to him to whom he is indebted for his very life and being 1 With young Tobias I have tra- velled far, and brought home a freight of spiritual sub- stance to enrich you, and medicinable receipts against your ghostly maladies. I have with Esau, after long toil in pursuing a long and painful chase, returned with the full prey you were wont to love ; desiring thereby to in- sure your blessing. I have in this general famine of all true and Christian food, with Joseph, prepared abund- ance of the bread of angels for the repast of your soul. And now my desire is that my drugs may cure you, my prey delight you, and my provisions feed you, by whom MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Ixxv I have been cured, enlightened, and fed myself; that your courtesies may, in part, be countervailed, and my duty, in some sort, performed. Despise not, good Sire, the youth of your son, neither deem your God measureth His endowments by number of years. Hoary senses are often couched under youthful locks, and some are riper in the spring than others in the autumn of their age' (pp. xlvi.-vii.). That * you were wont to love* from the old Story was exceedingly ingenious and is ingenuously put. There follow superabundant Scriptural defences of his * youth' as no bar to addressing his Father, neither his subordination as * son' an argument for silence, nor * counsels' an accusation, as though his father were unin- structed in such matters. Again, very finely : ^ The full of your spring- tide is now fallen, and the stream of your life waneth to a low ebb ; your tired bark beginneth to leak, and grateth oft upon the gravel of the grave ; there- fore it is high time for you to strike sail and put into harbour, lest, remaining in the scope of the winds and waves of this wicked time, some unexpected gust should dash you upon the rock of eternal ruin' (p. lix.). And so the ^ sharp arrow' is at last sent home. * Now there- fore, to join issue and to come to the principal drift of my discourse : most humbly and earnestly I am to be- seech you, that, both in respect of the honour of God, your duty to His Church, the comfort of your children, and the redress of your own soul, you would seriously consider the terms you stand on, and weigh yourself in a Christian balance, taking for your counterpoise the judgments of God. Take heed in time, that the word Thekel, written of old against Balthazar, and interpreted by young Daniel, be not verified in you ; remember the Ixxvi MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. exposition, " you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. "(Eemember that you are in the balance, that the date of your pilgrimage is well-nigh expired, and that it now behoveth you to look forward to your country .^ Your strength languisheth, your senses become impaired, and your body droopeth, and on every side the ruinous cottage of your faint and feeble flesh threateneth a fall. Having so many harbingers of death to pre -admonish you of your end, how can you but prepare for so dread- ful a stranger ? The young may die quickly, but the old cannot live long. The young man's life by casualty may be abridged ; but the old man's Hfe can by no phy- sic be long augmented. And therefore, if green years must sometimes think of the grave, the thoughts of sere age should continually dwell on the same. The prero- gative of infancy is innocency ; of childhood, reverence; of manhood, maturity ; and of age, wisdom ; and seeing that the chief property of wisdom is to be mindful of things past, careful of things present, and provident of things to come, use now the privilege of Nature's talent to the benefit of your soul, and show hereafter to be wise in well-doing, and watchful in foresight of future harms. To serve the world you are now unable, and though you were able, you have little wish to do so, seeing that it never gave you but an unhappy welcome, a hurtful enter- tainment, and now doth abandon you with an unfortunate farewell. You have long sowed in a field of flint, which could bring you nothing forth but a crop of cares and afflictions of spirit ; rewarding your labours with re- morse, and for your pains repaying you with eternal damages. It is now more than a seasonable time to alter your course of so unthriving a husbandry, and to enter MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Ixxvii into the field of God's Church' (pp. xHx.-li.). The se- quel is intensely, almost awfully in earnest in its calls for •recovery — ' return to His Church' — and to ^ consider' be- fore it be * too late ;' and he urges : * I have expressed not only my own, but the earnest desire of your other chil- dren, whose humble wishes are here written with my pen. For it is a general grief that filleth all our hearts, whom it hath pleased God to shroud under His merciful wing, to see our dearest father, to whom both nature hath bound and your merits fastened our affection, dismem- bered from the body to which we are united, to be in hazard of a farther and more grievous separation' (p. Ix.). I know nothing comparable with the mingled affec- tion and prophet-like fidelity, the wise * instruction, correc- tion, reproof,' the full rich scripturalness and quaint ap- plications, the devoutness, the insistence, the pathos of this Letter. Even the noble Letter of the late Bishop of Exeter (Phillpotts) to Lord Chancellor Eldon on his deathbed — the gem of the * Life' of Eldon by Twiss-Tk looks chill and meagre beside it. A shorter Letter to his Brother (not named), similarly preserved, is of the same character, and of as urgent and eager intensity for * decision.' Here is one * cry' out of it : * I would I might send you the sacrifice of my dearest veins, to try whether nature could awake remorse, and prepare a way for grace's entrance.' ^ The * Triumphs over Death' is a panegyric on the lady of the family of the Howards noticed in the Me- moir [Lady Mary Sackville]. It seeks to check over- grief, and in so doing lacks the gentleness, the softness * Walter, as before, p. 127 : Turnbull from Walter, p. Ixiv. Ixxviii MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. of his other Letters, being severe to sternness in its re- pression. His * character' of the * fair lady' is drawn with the firm lines of a Painter and the glow of a Poet. It may serve as an example of the elegance of his style, and so I adduce it here : * She was by birth second to none but vnto the first in the realme ; yet she measured onely greatnesse by goodnes, making nobility but the mirrour of vertue, as able to shewe things worthie to be scene, as apte to draw many eies to beholde it ; shee suted her be- hauior to her birth, and enobled her birth with her piety, leaning her house more beholding to her for hauing hon- oured it with the glorie of her vertues, then she was to it for the titles of hir degree. She was high-minded in nothing but in aspiring to perfection and in the disdaine of vice ; in other things couering her greatnes with hu- militie among her inferiors, and showing it with curtesie among hir peeres. Of the carriage of her selfe, and her sober gouernement [it] may be a sufficient testimony, that Enuy hirself was dumbe in her dispraise, finding in her much to repine at, but naught to reproue. The clearenes of hir honor I neede not to mention, she hauing alwaies armed it with such modestie as taught the most vntem- perate tongues to be silent in her presence, and answered their eyes with scorne and contempt, that did but seeme to make her an aime to passion ; yea, and in this behalfe, as almost in all others, shee hath the most honourable and knowen ladies of the Land so common and knowen witnesses, that those that least loued her religion were in loue with her demeanour, deliuering their opinions in open praises. How mildely she accepted the checke of fortune fallen vpon her without desert, experience hath bin a most manifest proofe ; the temper of her mind being MEMORIAL-INTllODUCTION. Ixxix SO easie that she found little difficultie in taking downe her thoughts to a meane degree, which true honour not pride hath raised to her former height ; her faithfulnes and loue, where she found true friendship, is written with teares in many eies, and will be longer registred in grate- ful memories.'^ Scattered up and down the ' Triumphs' are felicitous conceits and most ingenious applications of Bible facts and names : e.g. * Would Saul have thought it friendship to have wept for his fortune in hauing found a kingdome by seeking of cattel ? or Dauid account it a curtesie to have sorowed at his successe, that from folowing sheep came to foyle a giant and receiue in fine a royall crowne for his victorie ? Why then should her loss bee lamented V Again : * Wee moisten not the ground with pretious waters. They were stilled to nobler endes, eyther by their fruits to delight our sences, or by their operation to preserve our healths. Our teares are water of too high a price to be prodigally poured in the dust of any graues. If they be teares of loue, they per- fume our prayers.' Once more: ^ When Moses threw his rod from him, it became a serpent, redy to sting, and affrighted him, insomuch as it made him to flee; but being quickly taken vp, it was a rod againe, seruiceable for his vse, no way hurtful. The crosse of Christ and rod of every tribulation seem to threaten stinging and terrour to those that shunne and eschew it, but they that mildely take it up and embrace it with patience may say with David (Psalme xxiii.), " Thy rod and Thy staffe ' Our text is the edition of 1596, which being unpaged, re- ferences are not easy : but being short the Reader will readily find our quotations. Sir Egerton Brydges reprinted the ' Tri- umphs.' • IXXX MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. have been my comfort." ' Yet again : * She stood vpon too lowe a ground to take view of her Sauior's most de- sired countenance, and forsaking the earth, with Zacheus, she cHmed vp into the tree of Hfe, there to giue her soule a full repast on His beauties. . . . shee departed, with Jepthae's daughter from her father's house, but to passe some moneths in wand ring about the mountaynes of this troublesome world. . . . and to ascend out of this desart like a stemme [= steam] of perfume out of burned spices.' WiLLMOTT appositely (as before, first edition of ' Lives,' p. 13) reminds us in relation to the closing image, that the voice of the * Lady' in Comus is described as rising * like a steam of rich distilled perfumes.' The fol- lowing seems to me to contain in brief a very famous paper of Addison in The Spectator : * If men should lay all their evilles together, to be afterwards by equall portions divided among them, most men would rather take that they brought than stand to the diuision.' I close with three sentences (* golden' the Puritans would have called them) that you inevitably note in reading : * That which dieth to our loue is always aliue to our sorrow.' * The termes of our life are like the seasons of the yeare, some for sow- ing, some for growing, and some for reaping : in this only different, that as the heauens keepe their prescribed periods, so the succession of times have their appointed changes ; but in the seasons of our life, which are not the laws of necessarie causes, some are reaped in the seed, some in the blade, some in the vnripe eares, all in the end : the haruest depending vpon the Eeaper's wil.' * The dwarfe groweth not on the highest hill, nor the tall man looseth not his height in the lowest valley.' * Mary Magdalene's Funerall Teares' was in part MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Ixxxi reprinted by Dr. Isaac Watts along with his own Hymns ; and it has never, I suppose, been ^ out of print.' I confess, that it has a morbid sentimentalism about it not at all pleasing — after the type of a good deal of Father Faber's otherwise striking and suggestive Prose — an over-dwelling upon and over- valuation of * weeping' per se, that repells. And yet ever and anon one is arrested Jij a quaint fancy, an odd metaphor, as of a gargoyle or cathedraT-stall oaken carving. Thus of Mary, as she stood at the empty tomb in her sor- row, he says, * Alas, how vnfortunate is this woman, to whom neither Hfe will afoord a desired farewell, nor death allow any wished welcome ! She hath abandoned the lining, and chosen the company of the dead ; and now it seemcth that euen the dead have forsaken her, since the coarse she seeketh is taken away from her.^'^ Again : * Though teares were rather oyle than water to her flame, apter to nourish than diminish her griefe, yet now being plunged in the depth of paine, she yeelded herselfe captiue to all discomfort.' Once more: ' Ke- member [Lord] that Thou saidst to her sister, that " Mary had chosen the better part, which should not be taken from her." That she chose the "best part" is out of the question, sith she made choice of nothing but only of Thee. But how can it be verified, that this part shall not be taken from her, sith Thou that art this part art already taken awayf Here and elsewhere, without au- thority, Southwell assumes * Mary Magdalene' to have been Mary of Bethany : but the argument is lovingly * As with the ' Triumphs,' qui- text (1630) is unpaged, and hence we can't give references for our quotations ; but again the treatise is brief. / Ixxxii MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. dexterous on the (erroneous) assumption. Eeasoning that is now commonplace, through familiarity, is notice- able in its early occurrence in our Worthy: e. g. * Would any theefe, thinkest thou, haue beene so religious, as to haue stolen the body and left the clothes ? yea, would he haue beene so vertuous as to haue stayed the vn- shrouding of the coarse, the well-ordering of the sheets, and folding vp the napkins ? Thou knowest that the myrrh maketh linnen cleaue as fast as pitch or glue : and was a theefe at so much leasure, as to dissolue the myrrh and vncloath the dead V and so on. Once more : ^ If thou [Mary] seest anything that beareth colour of mirth, it is vnto thee like the rich spoiles of a van- quished kingdome in the eye of a captiue prince, which puts him in mind what he had, not what he hath, and are but vpbraidings of his losse and whetstones of sharper sorrow.' Again : * Loue is no gift except the giuer be giuen with it ;' and ^ Lpue is not ruled with reason, but with loue.' Yet again : ^ If sorrow at the crosse did not make thee as deafe as at the tombe, it maketh thee for- getfull, thou diddest in confirmation hereof heare Him- selfe say to one of the theeues, that the same day he should be with Him in Paradise.' Finally : on the words *she taking Him to be a gardener,' there is this odd expostulation passing into genuine exposition : * Hath thy Lord lined so long, laboured so much, died with such paine, and shed such showers of bloud, to come to no higher preferment, than to be a gardener? And hast thou bestowed such cost, so much sorrow and so many teares, for no better man than a silly gardener ? Alas, is the sorry garden the best inheritance that thy loue can afoord Him, or a gardener's office the highest dig- MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Ixxxiii nitie that thou wilt allow Him ? It had beene better He had liued to haue beene lord of thy castle [Magdala], than with His death so dearely to haue bought so small a purchase. But thy mistaking hath in it a further mysterie. Thou thinkest not amisse, though thy sight be deceiued. For as our iSrst father, in the state of grace and innocency, was placed in the garden of pleasure, and the first office allotted him was to be a gardener ; so the first man that euer was in glory, appeareth first in a garden, and presenteth Himselfe in a gardener's like- nesse, that the beginnings of glorie might resemble the entrance of innocencie and grace. And as the gardener was the fall of mankinde, the parent of sinne, and au- thor of death, so is this gardener the raiser of our mines, the ransome of our offences, and the restorer of life. In a garden Adam was deceiued and taken captiue by the deuill. In a garden Christ was betrayed and taken pri- soner by the Jewes. In a garden Adam was condemned to eame his bread with the sweat of his browes. And after a free gift of the bread of angels in the Last Sup- per, in a garden Christ did earne it vs with a bloudy sweat of His whole body. By disobedient eating the fruit of a tree, our right to that garden was by Adam forfeited ; and by the obedient death of Christ vpon a tree, a farre better right is now recouered. When Adam had sinned in the garden of pleasure, he was there ap- parelled in dead beasts* skinnes, that his garment might betoken his graue, and his liuery of death agree with his condemnation to die. And now to defray the debt of that sinne, in this garden Christ lay clad in the dead man's shrowd and buried in his tombe, that as our harmes began, so they might end ; and such places and meanes -fr- Ixxxiv MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. as were the premises to our misery, migkt be also the conclusions of our misfortune ;' and so on, after the manner of St. Bernard. ^ Mary Magdalen's Funerall Teares' supplies also words of Southwell used in his Poems, e. g. sindon, wrecke as = wreak, demurres, and the like. The ^ Short Eules' are in many respects admirable and ^ charitable,' but offer nothing very remarkable. The instructions concerning * children' and * servants' are good.i With relation to the Stonyhurst mss. I must express an earnest hope that some one capable will make them the basis of an adequate edition of the Prose Writings of Southwell, and that the ms. * Meditations,' formerly in possession of Walter and lately of Dolman, will be forthcoming. The * Precationes' and ^ Meditationes' and * Notes on Theology' most certainly ought not to remain in MS. only. Passing now to the Poetry of our Worthy, from its greater extent, St. Peter's Complaint claims perhaps first thought. When we come to examine it, to ' search' it — the old (English) Bible word — it is discovered to par- take very much of the character of the shorter poems. That is to say, that while a thread of unity runs through it, it really is rather a succession of separate studies on the sad Fall of St. Peter than a single rounded poem ; so much so, that were it divided into portions and given 1 Originally issued as 'A Shorte Rule,' the little tractate grew to the ' Short Rules' of the collective edition of 1630. Kerslake of Bristol had an autograph ms. of the earlier form, ' A shorte Rule of Good Lyfe to direct the devoute Christian in a regular and orderlie course.' (Catal. Feb. 1860, No. 449, 4Z. 14s.) MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. IxXXV headings, as with the minor pieces in the 1616 edition, we should discern no abruptness, and no distinction as between them and the others. As we have found in the Memoir, the Stonyhurst mss. contain only 12 out of the 131 stanzas (see page 2) ; and in this form it exists in various contemporary and later copies. Again, in Eliza- beth Grymeston's Miscellanea, Meditations Memora- tiues (1604), ' sixteene staves' are taken from the long Poem, which it is said ^ she usually sung and played on winde instruments.' Each ^ stave' or stanza is prefaced by prose ^meditations' or prayers, simple, sweet, and affectionate. Thus it would seem St. Peter's Complaint extended beyond its Author's original design. That it cost him no little thought and * pains' and prayer, the fragmentary mss. of Stonyhurst prove. There are sepa- rate stanzas written and re-written, and corrected and re- corrected: e.ff, a heading is *The Peeter Playnt' (sic) with ^ The' erased ; and then as follows : peer ' That sturdy peter did boaste The champion stout which did with othe avowe Amyds a thousand pykes and blody blades At his deare masters syde to yeld the ghoast Perceyvyng that he conquered of two mades ^yi^h dread his credit distayne and cowardyce Even at the pinch from premiss did retyre he fades, and angry smart a,t the pinch The shame, the pitye and the gryping gi-iefe his loyalty doth Loth of his fait and of his maysters paynes stayne. A thousand daggers stabbed in his hart [erased] did with puniardes pushes [erased] stabbe A thousand woundes prickyns [erased] pearce [erased] his hart.' So throughout. There are also prose-jottings of ideas and metaphors for the poem: e.g. commencing with verse and going on ad interim in prose : IxXXvi MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. * Ech eie of Chryst a running tunge did seeme ech lyk a listning And peters eis so many eagre eares [' s' erased] Eche ey of pe- Prest to recyve the voyce and it esteame *^^ ^^^® ^ ^^" According to that sense that it should beare. More fierce he seemed to say ar thy eis Then the impious hands which shall naile me on the crosse Nether feele I any blow [sic] which do so annoy me Of so many which this gylty rable doth on me lay As that blow which came out of thy mouth. None faythful found I, none courteous Of so many that I have vochsafned to be myne But thow in whome my was more kyndled And faythlesse and ungratefull above all other All other with there (cowardly) ilyght did only offend me my But thou hast denyed and now with the other (foes) [sic] ghilty Standest feedynd thy eies with my damage (and sorowes) As though part of this pleasur belonged unto the.' These specimens must suffice; and the critical Header will delight to compare them with the ultimate published Poem.i In the Note to St. Peter's Complaint (page 2) I ven- ture to assign it a foremost place only on the ground of its being longer than the others. I adhere to the verdict, inas- much as there are in * IMasoniae' and our * JMyrtag' shorter pieces that attain a reach and sweep, and which gleam with a dove-neck or peacock-crest splendour of colour, only now and again paralleled in the ^ Complaint.' At the same time, regarded as so many distinct Studies of the tragic Incident, it is ignorance, not knowledge, glance-and-run reading, not insight, that will pronounce it tedious or idly 1 As these variations and studies are peculiarly interesting I give the remainder (not extensive) in Additional Notes and Il- lustrations at close of the Volume. MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Txxxix paraphrastic. Bishop Hall, among the many mis-eb^h mates of his passionate youth, in his * Satires' (Book i. viii.) has one mocking line on the ' Complaint :* * Now good St. Peter weeps pure Helicon,' with a gibe at * Mary's Funerall Teares;' and Gervase Markham's ^ Lamentations of Mary Magdalene' (reprinted in our Fuller Worthies' Miscellanies) : • And both the Marys make a music moan.' But Marston repaid the Satirist with compound interest : ' Come daunce, ye stumbling Satyres, by his side, If he list once the Syon Muse deride. Ye Granta's white nymphs come, and with you bring Some sillabub, whilst he does sweetly sing 'Gainst Peter's Teares and Marie's mouing Moane, And, like a fierce enraged boare doth foame.'^ Lodge and Nash have kindly allusions to the * Funerall Teares' and Southwell : the former in his ' Prosopopeia, containing the Teares of the holy, blessed, and sancti- fied Marie, the mother of God' (see Shakespeare Society Papers, ii. 157); and so too in 'Pierce's Supererogation.' But it is from the shorter Poems the vitality of SouTa=^ well's memory as a Singer has sprung and will abide. Our Memoir establishes that some of the tenderest and , sweetest must have been composed after the anguish of j his * thirteen rackings' and other prison tortures. The poor Canary continuing to sing in the darkness of its artificial and cruel sightlessness (for the eyes are put out on pur- pose to secure ' singing' at night as during the day) is an imperfect symbol of our Poet continuing to utter out the music that was in him under such conditions. Pro- ^ Reactio, sat. iv. Hall's Works (1839), vol. xii. pp. 169-170. , . .1 MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. 1XXXV3 ^ y^olj his entire Poems were produced in prison ; and I must reiterate that this inevitableness surely determines that his most quaint and affected-seeming Verse was na- tural, spontaneous, truthful. The man is a pretender who can really * ponder' ^ Myrtse' and ^ Masoni^e' and the rest, and not recognise a born-poet in Southwell; not supreme, high-soaring, imaginative, grand, but within his own self- chosen lowly sphere pure and bright, well-languaged and memorable and thought- packed.^ I name and only name * Tymes goe by Tumes;' * Look Home;' ^ Scorne not the Least;' *A Child my Choyce;' ^Content and Riche;' * Love's Servile Lott;' ^ Life is but Losse,' and those related; * Lewd Loue is Losse;' ^ Dyer's Phansie turned to a Synner's Complaynte;' and the whole series on the Lord and His Mother, with every abatement that we, who are Protestants, must make in respect of the uttermost recognition of her as the God-bearer (Gzoroxog.) The Latin Poems — printed by us for the first time — have, as our few notes show, certain superficial metrical defects ; but apart from other things, as their subjects, which are of special interest, I must regard the long poem on the Assumption of the Virgin as bold, original, unforgettable; while that on the Prodigal has a pre-Raphaelite realism that is taking. Altogether, in recollection of their (early) date and of the circumstances of their composition, it were a loss to our small body of English Sacred Poetry to lose Southwell. The hastiest Eeader will come on * thinking' and ' feeling' that are as musical as Apollo's lute, and as fresh as a spring-budding spray ; and the wording of all (excepting over- alliteration and inversion 1 Cf . the Preface-Epistle to his * loving cosen' for his humble self-estimate, as onward. MEMORIAL-INTRODUCTION. Ixxxix occasionally) is throughout of the ' pure well of English undefiled.' When you take some of the * Myrtse' and * MaeoniERr ^~GfiOaA£X ^ » By Hon. Mrs. Noi-ton (1863), pp. 120-1. 2 At end of our Volume I add a few farther Notes and Illus- trations on points touched on in their places. ST. PETEE'S COMPLAINT. NOTE. We place St. Peter's Complaint first, simply because it is the longest verse-production of its author, not at all as being his best. The only complete ms. of this poem known, is that of Addl. Mss. 10.422 in British Museum ; but while furnishing a few good readings, it is, in common with the whole Manu- script, sorrowfully careless and corrupt ; as fully shown in our Preface. The Stonyhurst ms. and Harleian ms. 6921 unfor- tunately contain only 12 stanzas out of the 132 ; viz. 10, 11, 28, 29, 14, 17, 30, 21, 22, 20, 23, and 131 of the completed poem. So that we have been obliged to fall back on the printed edi- tions. Again, unfortunately, we have most unsatisfactory texts to work on, even the original edition of 1595 and that assigned by us to 1596 being extremely faulty ; as also shown in our Preface. After an anxious collation of mss. and editions, we have taken for basis the edition of 1596 ; and in Notes and Il- lustrations at the close of the poem, record corrections and various readings, with their several authorities in ms. and print. Opposite is the title-page of 1596. It is placed within an engraved border of quaint device, and having in the centre an open book with an hour-glass set on it, and the motto, ' I Hue to dy: I dy to liue' (in Jesus College, Oxford, copy there is this in a contemporary hand, * Vt moriar vivo : vt viva morior'), and underneath a winged death's-head and a globe ; all as repro- duced in fac-simile in our illustrated quarto edition. For more on this edition, and certain significances in its ornaments, and others, see our Preface. "' The Notes and Illustrations are placed at the close of St. Peter's Complaint, and of each of the others, as throughout. Our Memorial- Introduction sheds light on the formation of the ' Complaint :' and thither the reader is referred. G. Saint PETERS COM^ Plaint, Newly augmented With other Poems. I Hue Idy to to dy liue London, Printed by H. L. for William Leake: and are to be sold at his shop in Paules Church- yard, at the signe of the holy Ghost. [n.d. 1596? 4to.] THE AUTHOE TO HIS LOUING COSIKi Poets, "by abusing their talent, and nuking the follies and faynings of loue the customarie subiect of their base endeuours, haue so discredited this facultie, that a poet, a louer, and a Iyer, are by many reckoned but three words of one signification. But the vanitie of men cannot counterpoyse the authoritie of God, who deliuering many parts of Scripture in verse, and, by His Apostle willing vs to exercise our deuotion in hynmes and spiritual sonnets, warranteth the art to be good, and the vse allowable. And therefore not onely among the heathen, whose gods were chiefely canonized by their poets, and their paynim divinitie oracled, in verse, but euen in the Olde and Newe Testament, it hath been vsed by men of the greatest 1 This forms tlie Autlior's preface to the volume of 1595, and is repeated in that of 1596 and after- editions. On the Stonyhukst MS. of this Epistle -dedicatory see our Memorial- Introduction. These corrections of Tubnbull's text may be noted : line 8, ' deliuering' for ' delivered :' line 10, ' sonnets' for ' songs :' line 22, * and footed' dropped out: line 40, ' com- mend it' for ' he commended :' line 47, ' the meane' for * let them.' These readings are all in 1616, 1620 and 1630, as well as 1595 and 1596. G. THE AUTHOR TO HIS LOUING COSIN. 5 pietie, in matters of most deuotion. Clirist Himselfe, by making a hymne the conclusion of His Last Sup- per, and the prologue to the first pageant of His Pas- sion, gaue His Spouse a methode to imitate, as in the office of the Church it appeareth; and to all men a patterne, to know the true vse of this measured and footed stile. But the deuill, as he afFecteth deitie and seeketh to haue all the complements of diuine honour applyed to his seruice, so hath he among the rest possessed also most Poets with his idle fansies. For in lieu of solemne and deuout matter, to which in duety they owe their abilities, they now busie themselues in express- ing such passions as onely serue for testimonies to what unworthy affections they haue wedded their wills. And, because the best course to let them see the er- rour of their works is to weaue a new webbe in their owne loome, I haue heere laide a few course threds together, to inuite some skilfuller wits to goe forward in the same, or to begin some finer peece; wherein it may be seene how well verse and vertue sute to- gether. Blame me not (good Cosin) though I send you a blame -worthy present; in which the most that can commend it is the good will of the Writer; neither arte nor invention giuing it any credite. If in me this be a fault, you cannot be faultlesse that did importune me to commit it, and therefore you must beare part 6 THE AUTHOR TO HIS LOUING COSIN. of the penance when it shall please sharp censures to impose it. In the meane time, with many good wishes, I send you these fewe ditties; adde you the tunes, and let the Meane, I pray you, be still a part in all your musicke. THE AYTHOYE TO THE EEADEK.i Deare eye that doost peruse my Muses stile, i With easie censure deeme of my delight : Giue sobrest countenance leaue sometime to smile, And grauest wits to take a breathing flight : Of mirth to make a trade, may be a crime, 5 But tyred spirits for mirth must haue a time. The loftie eagle soares not still aboue. High flights will force her from the wing to stoupe ; And studious thoughts at times men must remoue, Least by excesse before their time they droupe. i o In courser studies 'tis a sweet repose, With poets pleasing vaine to temper prose. Profane conceits and faining fits I flie, Such lawlesse stuffe doth lawlesse speeches fit : With Dauid, verse to Yertue I apply, 15 Whose measure best with measured words doth fit : It is the sweetest note that man can sing. When grace in Yertue's key tunes N'ature's string. ^ This and the next poem belong to the whole volume, and not merely to St. Peter's Complaint. G. THE AVTHOVR TO THE READER. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. St. i. line 2, • deeme' is=:pronounce judgment, as in 'deems- ter,' Dempster. 'Deemed' as a participial is similarly used in ' Life is but Losse' (line 5), 'where death is deemed gaine,' for adjudged or pronounced ' gain ;' at least this gives a stronger and better sense than if it betaken as merely = thought or con- sidered, or than if ' is deemed' be taken as a verb. St. ii. line 1, ' still' is = constantly, without reference, as now, to any particular moment of time. Such use was not unfre- quent contemporarily. St. ii. line 4, Tubnbull misprints ' the' for ' their,' and in st. iii. line 1, ' feigned' for ' feigning.' G. THE AYTHOYE TO THE EEADERi Deare eye, tliat daynest to let fall a looke i On these sad memories of Peter's plaints : Muse not to see some mud in clearest brooke ; They once were brittle mould that now are saints. Their weaknesse is no warrant to offend ; 5 Learne by their faults what in thine owne to mend. If Equitie's even-hand the ballance held, Where Peter's sinnes and ours were made the weights. Ounce for his dramme, pound for his ounce we'd yield; His ship would grone to feele some sinners' freights: 10 So ripe is Vice, so green is Vertue's bud : The world doth waxe in ill, but wane in good. This makes my mourning Muse resolue in teares, This theames my heauie penne to plaine in prose ; Christ's thorns is sharpe, no head His garland weares ; Y^Stil finest wits are 'stilling Yenvs' rose, 16 l^ln Paynim toyes the sweetest vaines are spent ; To Christian workes few haue their talents lent. Licence my single penne to seeke a pheere ; You heauenly sparkes of wit shew natiue light ; 20 1 In 1630 and later editions, and repeated by Turnbull, this is headed ' Rvrsvs ad Evndem.' G. 10 THE AVTjqpVR TO THE. READER. Cloud not with mistie loues your orient cleere, Sweet flights you shoote, learne once to leuell rigjit. Fauour my wish, well-wishing workes no ill ; I moue the sute, the graunt rests in your will. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. St. ii. line 1, Turnbull has * Justice :' it is ' Equitie's' in 1595, 1596 and 1630. Lines 1-4. If we read these lines as punctuated in 1596 and by Turnbull, the line ' Ounce yield' must be paren- thetical, and the sense and sentence ends at * freights.' But {meo judicio) this sense is very like non-sense, and not in South- well's manner. The same punctuation, viz. in 1596, a comma (,) after ' held,' and colon (:) after * weights,' and comma (,) after ' yeeld,' and period (.) after ' freights.' Or as in Turn- bull, comma after ' held' and , — after ' weights,' and , — after * yield,' mingles metaphors, and represents one end of the bal- ance with its weights as in St. Peter's ship, which seems a somewhat ludicrous combination ; and the more so, that the difference of weight is given so exactly. But if we end with * yield' ( ; or even :), and read ' we'd yield' instead of * we yield,' and then suppose that the Poet's remembrance of St. Peter's draught and exclamation led him on to ' His ship . . . freights (:)' as a second and allied thought, we get clear sense and sent- ences, and a stanza after Southwell's wont. I have punctuated accordingly, and read ' we'd.' Line 6. In Addl. mss. 10.422, for ' ill' the reading is * evill,' on which see onward on the frequent occurrence of ' evil' for 'ill' and its pronunciation (St. Peter's Complaint, st. ii. line 5: relative note). St. iii. line 2, Turnbull spoils the sense by misreading ' too' for * to.' The reference in line 1 is to the Author's verse, in line 2 to his prose, e.g. his ' Mary Magdalen's FunerallTeares.' * Theames' ogives a theme or subject. Lines 4-5, on a probable allusion to Shakespeare here — one of several — see our Memorial-Introduction. St. iv. line 1, ' phere' = husband or companion: line 4, Addl. MSS. 10.422 reads * fleghts ;' query ' arrows' ? G. SAINT PETEE'S COMPLAi:^rT. I. ' Launch forth, my soule, into a maine of teares, Full fraught with griefe, the trafficke of thy mind; Torn sailes will serue, thoughts rent with guilty feares : Giue Care the sterne, vse sighs in lieu of wind : Eemorse, thy pilot ; thy misdeede thy card ; Torment thy hauen, shipwrack thy best reward. II. Shun not the shelfe of most deserued shame ; Sticke in the sands of agonizing dread ; Content thee to be stormes* and billowes' game ; Diuorct from grace, thy soule to pennance wed; Fly not from forraine euils, fly from thy hart ; Worse then the worst of euils is that thou art. III. Giue vent vnto the vapours of thy brest, That thicken in the brimmes of cloudie eyes ; Wliere sinne was hatcht, let teares now wash the nest. Where life was lost, recouer life with cryes. Thy trespasse foule, let not thy teares be few, Baptize thy spotted soule in weeping dew. 12 SAINT PETER*S COMPLAINT. IV. Fly mournfull plaints, the ecchoes of my ruth Whose screeches in my frighted conscience ring ; Sob out my sorrowes, fruites of mine vntruth, Keport the smart of sinne's infernall sting ; Tell hearts that languish in the sorriest plight, There is on Earth a farre more sorry wight. V. A sorrie wight, the object of disgrace, The monument of feare, the map of shame. The mirrour of mishap, the staine of place, The scorne of Time, the infamy of Fame, An excrement of Earth, to heauen hatefuU, Injurious to man, to God vngratefull. VI. ! Ambitious heads, dreame you of Fortune's pride, ' Fill volumes with your forged goddesse' prayse; You Fancie's drudges, plung'd in Follie's tide. Devote your fabling wits to louers' lays : Be you, sharpest griefes that euer wrung. Text to my thoughts, theame to my playning tung. VII. Sad subiect of my sinne hath stoard my minde, With euerlasting matter of complaint ; My threnes an endlesse alphabet doe finde, Beyond the pangs which leremie doth paint. That eyes with errors may iust measure keepe. Most teares I wish, that haue most cause to weepe. I SAINT Peter's complaint. 13 VIII. All weeping eyes resigne your teares to me, A sea will scantly rince my ordur'd soule ; Huge horours in high tides must drowned he : Of euery teare my crime exacteth tole. These staines are deepe: few drops take out no such; Euen salue with sore, and most is not too much. IX. I fear'd with life, to die, hy death to Hue ; I left my guide,— ^now left, and leaning God. To breath in blisse, I fear'd my breath to giue ; I fear'd for heauenly raigne an earthly rod. These feares I fear'd, feares feeling no mishaps : fond ! faint ! false ! faultie lapse ! X. How can I line, that thus my life deni'd 1 What can I hope, that lost my hope in feare 1 What trust to one, that Truth it selfe defi'd ? What good in him, that did his God forsweare? sinne of sinnes ! of euils the very worst : matchlesse wretch ! catiffe most accurst ! XI. Vaine in my vaunts, I vowd, if friends had fail'd, Alone Christ's hardest fortunes to abide : Giant in talke, like dwarfe in triall quaild : Excelling none, but in vntruth and pride. Such distance is betweene high words and deeds : In proofe, the greatest vaunter seldome speeds. 14 SAINT Peter's complaint. XII. Ah, rashnes ! hastie rise to murdering leape, Lauish in vowing, blind in seeing what : Soone sowing shames that long remorse must reape : ^N'ursing with teares that ouer-sight begat ; Scout of Eepentance, harbinger of blame. Treason to wisedome, mother of ill name. XIII. lohn 9. The borne-blind begger, for received sight. Fast in his faith and loue to Christ remain'd ; He stooped to no feare, he fear'd no might, No change his choice, no threats his truth disain'd : One wonder wrought him in his dutie sure, I, after thousands, did my Lord abiure. XIV. Could seruile feare of rendring Nature's due. Which growth in yeeres was shortly like to claim e. So thrall my loue, that I should thus eschue A vowed death, and misse so faire an ayme ^ Die, die disloyall wretch, thy life detest : For sauing thine, thou hast forsworne the best. XV. Ah, life ! sweet drop, drownd in a sea of sowres, A flying good, posting to doubtfull end, Still loosing months and yeeres to gaine few howres : Faine, time to haue and spare, yet forc't to spend : Thy growth, decrease ; a moment all thou hast : That gone, ere knowne; the rest, to come, or past. SAINT Peter's complaint. 15 XVI. Ah, life ! the maze of countlesse straying waies, — | Open to erring steps and strewed with baits, — To wind weake senses into endlesse strayes, Aloofe from Vertue's rough, vnbeaten straights; A flower, a play, a blast, a shade, a dreame, A lining death, a never-turning streame. XVII. And could I rate so high a life so base ? Did feare with loue cast so vneven account, That for this goale I should runne ludas' race. And Caiphas' rage in crueltie surmount ] Yet they esteemed thirtie pence His price ; I, worse then both, for nought denyd Him thrice. Mat. 26. XVIII. The mother-sea, from ouerflowing deepes, Sends forth her issue by diuided vaines, Yet back her ofspring to their mother creepes. To pay their purest streames with added gaines ; But I, that drunke the drops of heauenly flud, Bemyr'd the Giuer with returning mud. XIX. J^ Is this the haruest of His sowing-toyle 1 Did Christ manure thy heart to breede Him briers % Or doth it neede, this vnaccustom'd soyle, With hellish dung to fertile heaven's desires ? No, no, the marie that periuries do yeeld. May spoyle a good, not fat a barraine field. 16 SAINT Peter's complaint. XX. Was this for best deserts the duest meede 1 Are highest worths well wag'd with spitefull hire ? Are stoutest vowes repeal'd in greatest neede ? Should friendship, at the first affront, retire ? Blush, crauen sot, lurke in eternall night ; Crouch in the darkest caves from loathed light. XXI. Mat. 16/ Ah, wretch ! why was I nam'd sonne of a doue, j Whose speeches voyded spight and breathed gall 1 \ No kin I am unto the bird of loue : My stonie name much better sutes my fall : My othes were stones, my cruell tongue the sling. My God the mark at which my spight did fling. XXII. Were all the lewish tyranies too few To glut thy hungrie lookes with His disgrace ? That thou more hatefuU tyrannies must shew, And spet thy poyson in thy Maker's face 1 Didst thou to spare His foes put vp thy sword, lohn 16. To brandish now thy tongue against thy Lord 1 XXIII. Ah ! tongue, that didst His prayse and Godhead sound, How wert thou stain'd with such detesting words, That euerie word was to His heart a wound. And launct Him deeper then a thousand swords? - What rage of man, yea what infernall spirit, Could haue disgorg'd more loathsome dregs of spite ? SAINT Peter's complaint. 17 XXIV. Why did the yeelding sea, like marble way, Mat. 14 Support a wretch more wauering then the wanes? Whom doubt did plunge, why did the waters stay 1 Ynkind in kindnesse, murthering while it saues : Oh that this tongue had then been fishes' food, And I deuour'd, before this cursing mood ! XXV. There surges, depths and seas, vnfirme by kind, Eough gusts, and distance both from ship and shoare, Were titles to excuse my staggering mind ; Stout feet might falter on that liquid floare : But heer no seas, no blasts, no billowes were, A puife of woman's wind bred all my feare. XXVI. coward troups, far better arm'd then harted ! Whom angrie words, whomblowes could not prouoke ; lohn is Whom thogh I taught how sore my weapon smarted. Yet none repaide me with a wounding stroke. Oh no ! that stroke could but one moity kiU ; 1 was reseru'd both halfes at once to spill. XXVII. Ah ! whether was forgotten loue exil'd 1 Where did the truth of pledged promise sleepe? What in my thoughts begat this vgly child, That could through rented soule thus fiercely creepe? viper, feare their death by whom thou liuest; All good thy ruine's wreck, all euils thou giuest. c 18 SAINT Peter's complaint. XXVIII. Threats threw me not, torments I none assayd : My fray with shades ; conceits did make me yeeld, Wounding my thoughts with feares ; selfely dismayd, I neither fought nor lost, I gaue the field : Infamous foyle ! a maiden's easie breath Did blow me downe, and blast my soule to death. XXIX. Mat. 16. Titles I make vntruths : am I a rocke, That with so soft a gale was ouerthrowne 1 Am I fit pastor for the faithfuU flocke, i To guide their soules that murdred thus mine owne 1 Mark 9. A rocko of ruiuc, not a rest to stay, A pastor, not to feede but to betray. XXX. Fidelitie was flowne, when feare was hatched, Incompatible brood in Yertue's neast : Courage can lesse with cowardise be matched, Prowesse nor loue lodg'd in diuided breast. Adam's child, cast by a sillie Eue, Heire to thy father's foyles, and borne to grieue ! XXXI. Mat. 17. In Thabor's ioyes I eger was to dwell : Mat. le. An earnest friend while pleasures' light did shine, But when eclipsed glorie prostrate fell. These zealous heates to sleepe I did resigne ; And now, my mouth hath thrise His name defil'd, That cry'd so loude three dwellings there to builde. SAINT PETER*S COMPLAINT. 19 XXXII. When Christ, attending the distressefuU hower, With His surchargM breast did blesse the ground, Prostrate in pangs, rayning a bleeding shower, Me, like my self e, a drowsie friend He found. Thrice, in His care, sleepe clos'd my careless eye ; Presage how Him my tongue should thrise denie. XXXIII. Parted from Christ, my fainting force declined, With lingring foot I followed Him aloofe ; Base feare out of my hart His love vnshrin'd : Mark u. •^ Luke 22. Huge in high words, but impotent in proofe. My vaunts did seeme hatcht vnder Sampson's locks, Yet woman's words did giue me murdring knocks. XXXIV. So farre lukewarm desires in crasie loue, Parre off, in neede with feeble foote they traine ; In tydes they swim, low ebbes they scorne to proue ; They seeke their friends' delights, but shun their Hire of a hireling minde is earned shame : [paine : Take now thy due, beare thy begotten blame. XXXV. Ah, coole remisnes ! Virtue's quartane feuer, Pyning of loue, consumption of grace ; Old in the cradle, languor dying euer, Soule's wilfuU famine, sinnes soft-stealing pase ; The vndermining euill of zealous thought, Seeming to bring no harmes, till all be brought. 20 SAINT Peter's complaint. XXXVI. lohn 18. portresse of the doore of my disgrace, Whose tongue vnlockt the truth of vowed minde ; Whose words from coward's hart did courage chase, And let in deathfull feares my soule to blinde ; hadst thou been the portresse to my toome, When thou wert portresse to that cursed roome ! XXXVII. Yet loue was loath to part, feare loath to die ; Stay, danger, life, did counterplead their causes ; I, fauouring stay and life, bad danger flie, But danger did except against these clauses : Yet stay and Hue I would, and danger shunne. And lost myselfe while I my verdict wonne. XXXVIII. 1 stayde, yet did my staying farthest part ; I liv'd, but so, that sauing life, I lost it ; Danger I shunn'd, but to my sorer smart ; I gayned nought, but deeper damage crost it. . What danger, distance, death, is worse then his , That runnes from God and spoyles his soule of blisse 1 XXXIX. lohn 18, O lohn, my guide unto this earthly hell, Too well acquainted in so ill a Court, (Where rayling mouthes with blasphemies did swell. With taynted breath infecting all resort,) Why didst thou lead me to this hell of euils. To shew myself a fiend among the deuils ? SAINT Peter's complaint. 21 XL. EuiU president ! the tyde that wafts to vice ; Dumine orator, that wooes with silent deeds, Writing in works lessons of ill aduise ; The doing-tale that eye in practise reedes ; Taster of ioyes to vnacquainted hunger. With leauen of the old seasoning the younger. XLI. It seemes no fault to doe that all haue done ; / The number of offenders hides the sinne ; Coach drawne with many horse, doth easely runne, Soone followeth one where multitudes beginne. had I in that Court much stronger bin, Or not so strong as first to enter in. XLII. Sharpe was the weather in that stormie place, Best suting hearts benumd with hellish frost, lohn i8. Whose crusted malice could admitte no grace : Where coales were kindled to the warmers* cost ; Where feare my thoughts canded with ysie cold, Heate did my tongue to periuries vnfold. XLIII. hateful fire (ah ! that I euer saw it) ! Too hard my hart was frozen for thy force ; Farre hotter flames it did require to thaw it. Thy hell-resembling heate did freeze it worse. O that I rather had congeal'd to yse, Then bought thy warmth at such a damning price ! 22 SAINT Peter's complaint. XLIV. Mat 26. wakefull bird ! proclaimer of the day, Whose pearcing note doth daunt the lion's rage ; Thy crowing did myselfe to me bewray, My frights and brutish heates it did asswage : But in this alone, vnhappy cocke, That thou to count my foyles wert made the clocke ! XLV. bird ! the iust rebuker of my crime. The faithfull waker of my sleeping feares, Be now the daily clocke to strike the time, When stinted eyes shall pay their taske of teares ; Ypbraide mine eares with thine accusing crowe, To make me rew that first it made me knowe. XLVI. milde Eeuenger of aspiring pride ! Thou canst dismount high thoughts to low effects ; Thou mad'st a cocke me for my fault to chide, »- My lofty boasts this lowely bird corrects. Well might a cocke correct me with a crowe, Whom hennish cackling first did ouerthrowe. XLVII. 1 Reg. 17. Weake weapons did Goliah's fumes abate, Whose storming rage did thunder threats in vaine : His bodie huge, harnest with massie plate. Yet Dauid's stone brought death into his braine : With staff and sling as to a dog he came. And with contempt did boasting furie tame. SAINT Peter's complaint. 23 XLVIII. Yet Dauid had with beare and lyon fought, \/ His skilful might excused Goliah*s foile : The death is eas'd that worthy hand hath wrought, Some honour lives in honourable spoyle ; But I, on whom all infamies must light, Was hist to death with words of woman's spight. XLIX. Small gnats enforst th' Egyptian king to stoupe, / Yet they in swarmes, and arm'd with pearcing stings ; Exod. s. Smart, noyse, annoyance, made his courage droop ; No small incumbrance such small vermine brings : I quaild at words that neither bit nor stung, And those deliuered from a woman's tongue. y.>^; L. Ah, Feare ! abortiue impe of drouping mind ; Selfe-ouerthrow, false friend, roote of remorse : Sighted, in seeing euils ; in shunning blind : Foil'd without field, by fancie not by force ; Ague of valour ; frensie of the wise ; True honour's staine ; loue's frost, the mint of lies. LI. Can vertue, wisdome, strength, by women spild In Dauid' s, Salomon's, and Samson's falls, "With semblance of excuse my errour gild, Or lend a marble glosse to muddy walls ? 2 Reg. 11. no ! their fault had shew of some pretence : ludgfie.' No veyle can hide the shame of my offence. 24 SAINT Peter's complaint. LII. The blaze of beautie's beames allur'd their lookes ; Their lookes, by seeing oft, conceiued loue ; Loue, by affecting, swallowed pleasure's hookes ; Thus beautie, loue, and pleasure them did moue. These Syrens' sugred tunes rockt them asleepe : Enough to dame, yet not to damne so deepe. LIII. But gracious features dazled not mine eyes ; Two homely droyles were authors of my death ; Not loue, but feare, my senses did surprize : Not feare of force, but feare of woman's breath ; And those vnarm'd, ill grac't, despis'd, vnknowne : So base a blast my truth hath ouerthrowne. LIV. I women ! woe to men ; traps for their falls ; I Still actors in all tragicall mischances ; j Earth's necessarie euils, captiuing thralls, [glances ; 1 Now murdring with your tounges, now with your ; Parents of life, and loue, spoylers of both. The theeues of harts ; false do you loue or loth. LV. In time, Lord ! Thine eyes with mine did meete, i. In them I read the mines of my fall ; Their chearing rayes, that made misfortune sweet, Into my guiltie thoughts pourd floods of gall ; Their heauenly looks, that blest where they beheld, Darts of disdaine and angrie checks did yeeld. SAINT PBTER*S COMPLAINT. 25 LVI. ' sacred eyes ! the springs of liuing light, ' The earthly heauens where angels ioy to dwell, How could you deigne to view my deathfull plight, j Or let your heauenly beames look on my hell ? But those vnspotted eyes encountred mine, 1 As spotlesse sunne doth on the dunghil shine. ■ LVII. Sweet volumes, stoard with learning fit for saints, Where blissfull quires imparadize their minds; Wherein eternall studie neuer faints, Still finding all, yet seeking all it finds : How endlesse is your labyrinth of blisse. Where to be lost the sweetest finding is ! LVIII. Ah wretch ! how oft haue I sweet lessons read In those deare eyes, the registers of truth ! How oft haue I my hungrie wishes fed. And in their happy ioyes redrest my ruth ! Ah ! that they now are heralds of disdaine, That erst were euer pittiers of my paine ! LIX. You flames diuine, that sparkle out your heats. And kindle pleasing fires in mortall harts ; You nectar'd aumbryes of soule-feeding meates ; You gracefull quiuers of loue's dearest darts ; You did vouchsafe to warme, to wound, to feast, My cold, my stony, my now famisht breast. 26 SAINT Peter's complaint. LX. I The matchlesse eyes, matcht onely each by other, Were pleas'd on my ill matched eyes to glaunce; The eye of liquid pearle, the purest mother, Broach't teares in mine to weepe for my mischance; The cabinets of grace vnlock'd their treasure. And did to my misdeed their mercies measure. LXI. ^ These blazing comets, light'ning flames of loue, Made me their warming influence to knowe ; My frozen hart their sacred force did proue. Which at their looks did yeeld like melting snowe : They did not ioyes in former plentie carue. Yet sweet are crums where pined thoughts doe starue. LXII. ^ O lining mirrours ! seeing Whom you shew, Which equal shadows worths with shadowed things, Yea, make things nobler then in natiue hew, By being shap't in those life-giuing springs ; Much more my image in those eyes was grac't. Then in myselfe, whom sinne and shame defac't. LXIII. ^ All-seeing eyes, more worth then all you see, Of which one is the other's onely price ; I worthlesse am, direct your beames on mee, With quickning vertue cure my killing vice. By seeing things, you make things worth the sight, You seeing, salue, and being scene, delight ! I SAINT Peter's complaint. 27 LXIV. pooles of Hesebon ; the baths of grace, Where happie spirits diue in sweet desires, Cant, 7, Where saints reioyce to glasse their glorious face, Whose banks make eccho to the angels' quires ; An eccho sweeter in the sole rebound. Then angels' musick in the fullest sound ! LXV. eyes ! whose glaunces are a silent speach, In cipherd words high mysteries disclosing ; Which, with a looke, all sciences can teach. Whose textes to faithfull harts need little glosing ; Witnesse vnworthie I, who in a looke Learn'd more by rote, then all the Scribes by book. LXVI. Though malice still possest their hardned minds, I, though too hard, learn'd softnes in Thine eye, Which yron knots of stubborne will vnbinds, Offring them loue, that loue with loue wil buy. This did I learne, yet they could not discerne it ; But woe, that I had now such neede to learne it ! LXVII. O sunnes ! all but yourselues in light excelling, Whose presence, day, whose absence causeth night ; Whose neighbour-course brings Sommer, cold expelling, Whose distant periods freeze away delight. Ah ! that I lost your bright and fostring beames. To plung my soule in these congealed streames ! 28 SAINT Peter's complaint. LXVIII. gratious spheres ! where loue the center is, A natiue place for our selfe-loaden soules ; The compasse, loue, — a cope that none can mis, The motion, loue, — that round about vs rowles : spheres of loue, whose center, cope, and motion, Is loue of us, loue that inuites deuotion ! LXIX. ' O little worlds ! the summes of all the best. Where glorie, heauen; God,sunne; allvertues, stars; Where fire, — a loue that next to heauen doth rest; Ayre, — light of life that no distemper marres ; The water,— grace, whose seas, whose springs, whose Cloth !N"ature's earth with euerlasting flowers, [showers, LXX. What mixtures these sweet elements do yeeld. Let happie worldlings of these worlds expound; Best simples are by compounds farre exceld. Both sute a place where all best things abound; And if a banisht wretch ghesse not amisse. All but one compound frame of perfect blisse ! LXXI. I, out-cast from these worlds, exiled rome ; Poore saint, from heauen, from fire, cold salamander, Lost fish, from those sweet waters' kindly home, From land of life stray' d pilgrim still I wander. 1 know the cause : these worlds had neuer hell, In which my faults haue best deseru'd to dwell. SAINT Peter's complaint. 29 LXXII. Bethelem-cestems ! Dauid's most desire, 2 Reg. 23. From wMcli my sinnes like fierce Philistims keep ; To fetch your drops what champion should I hire, That I therein my withered heart may steepe 1 1 would not shed them like that holy king : His were but types, these are the figured thing. LXXIII. turtle-twins ! all bath'd in virgins milke, Cant.5,v. 11 12. Ypon the margin of full-flowing banks. Whose gracefull plume surmounts the finest silke. Whose sight enamoureth heauen's most happy ranks : Could I forsweare this heauenly payre of doues, That cag'd in care, for me were groning loues ! LXXIV. Twise Moses' wand did strike the stubborne rock, Exod. 17, V 6 Ere stony veynes would yeeld their crystall blood; Thine eyes' one looke seru'd as an onely knocke, To make my hart gush out a weeping flood ; Wherein my sinnes, as fishes, spawne their frie, 1/ To shew their inward shames, and then to die. LXXV. But how long demurre I on His eyes ! Whose look did pearce my hart with healing wound, Launcing imposthumd sore of periur'd lyes, Which these two issues of mine eyes have found ; Where runne it must, till death the issues stop. And penall life hath purg'd the finall drop. 30 SAINT Peter's complaint. r LXXVI. Like solest swan, that swims in silent deepe, And nener sings but qbsequiesvof death; ,. ^ Sigh out thy plaints, and sole in secret weepe, In suing pardon, spend thy periur'd breath ; Attire thy soul in sorrowe's mourning weede, And at thine eyes let guiltie conscience bleede. LXXVII. 'Still in the limbecke of thy dolefull brest These bitter fruits that from thy sinnes doe grow ; For fuell, selfe-accusing thoughts be best ; Vse feare as fire, the coals let penance blow ; And seeke none other quintessence but teares, That eyes may shed what entred at thine eares. LXXVIII. Come sorrowing teares, the ofspring of my griefe, Scant not your parent of a needfull ayde ; In you I rest the hope of wisht reliefe, By you my sinnefull debts must be defrayd : Your power preuailes, your sacrifice is gratefull, By loue obtaining life to men most hatefuU. LXXIX. Come good effect of ill-deseruing cause. Ill-gotten impes, yet vertuously brought forth ; Selfe-blaming probates of infringed lawes. Yet blamed faults redeeming with your worth; The signes of shame in you each eye may read. Yet, while you guiltie proue, you pittie plead. SAINT Peter's complaint. 31 LXXX. beames of mercie ! beate on sorrowe's clowd, Poure suppling showres vpon my parcbed ground; / Bring forth the fruite to your due seruice vowde, / Let good desires with like deserts be crownd : Water young blooming vertue's tender flower, Sinne did all grace of riper growth deuoure. LXXXI. Weepe balme and myrrhe, you sweet Arabian trees, With purest gummes perfume and pearle your ryne ; Shed on your honey-drops, you busie bees ; I, barrain plant, must weepe vnpleasant bryne, Hornets I hyue, salt drops their labour plyes, Suckt out of sinne, and shed by showring eyes. LXXXII. If Dauid, night by night, did bathe his bed, Ps. q^ y. 7, Esteeming longest dayes too short to mone ; Inconsolable teares if Anna shed, Who in her sonne her solace had forgone ; Tob. 10. Then I to dayes and weekes, to monthes and yeeres, Do owe the hourely rent of stintless teares. LXXXIII. If loue, if losse, if fault, if spotted fame. If danger, death, if wrath, or wreck of weale. Entitle eyes true heyres to earned blame. That due remorse in such euents conceale Then want of teares might well enroll my name, As chiefest saint in calender of shame. (UNTVERSirx) 32 SAINT Peter's complaint. LXXXIV. Loue, where I lou'd, was due, and best deseru'd ; ^0 loue could ayme at more loue-worthy marke ; 'No loue more lou'd then mine of Him I seru'd ; Large vse He gaue, a flame for euerie sparke. This loue I lost, this losse a life must rue ; Yea, life is short to pay the ruth is due. LXXXV. I lost all that I had, who had the most, The most that will can wish, or wit deuise : I least perform'd, that did most vainely boast, I staynd my fame in most infamous wise. What danger then, death, wrath, or wreck can moue More pregnant cause of teares then this I proue ? LXXXVI. Gen. 3,v. 7. If Adam sought a veyle to scarfe his sinne, Taught by his fall to feare a scourging hand ; If men shall wish that hils should wrap them in. When crimes in finall doome come to be scand ; What mount, what caue, what center can conceale My monstrous fact, which euen the birds reueale 1 LXXXVII. Come shame, the liuerie of offending minde, The vgly shroude that ouershadoweth blame ; The mulct at which foule faults are iustly fin'd ; The dampe of sinne, the common sluce of fame, By which imposthum'd tongues their humours purge ; Light shame on me, I best deserue the scourge. SAINT Peter's complaint. 33 LXXXVIII. Caine's murdering hand imbrude in brother's blood, c^en. 4. More mercy then my impious tongue may craue j He kild a riuall with pretence of good, In hope God's doubled loue alone to haue. But feare so spoyld my vanquisht thoughts of loue, That periurde oathes my spightfull hate did proue. LXXXIX. Poore Agar from her pheere enforc't to flye, Wandring in Bersabeian wildes alone, Doubting her child throgh helples drought would die, Layd it aloofe, and set her downe to moane : The heauens with prayers, her lap with teares she fild ; A mother's loue in losse is hardly stild. xc. But Agar, now bequeath thy teares to me ; Feares, not ejffects, did set afloate thine eyes. Gen. 22. But, wretch, I feele more then was feard of thee ; Ah ! not my sonne, my soule it is that dyes. It dyes for drought, yet hath a spring in sight : Worthie to die, that would not Hue, and might. xci. Faire Absalon's foule faults, compared with mine, 2 Reg. 15. Are brightest sands to mud of Sodome Lakes ; High aymes, yong spirits, birth of royall line. Made him play false where kingdoms were the stakes : He gaz'd on golden hopes, whose lustre winnes, Sometime the grauest wits to greeuous sinnes. D 34 SAINT Peter's complaint. XCII. But I, whose crime cuts off the least excuse, A kingdome lost, but hop't no mite of gaine ; My highest marke was but the worthlesse vse Of some few lingring howres of longer paine. YngratefuU child, his parent he pursude, I, gyants' warre with God Himselfe renude. XCIII. Mat. 22. loy, infant saints, whom in the tender flower A happie storm did free from feare of sinne ! Long is their life that die in blisfull hower ; loyfull such ends as endlesse ioyes begin : Too long they liue that Hue till they be nought : ' Life sau'd by sinne, base purchase dearely bought ! xciv. This lot was mine ; your fate was not so fearce. Whom spotlesse death in cradle rockt asleepe; Sweet roses, mixt with lilies, strow'd your hearce, Death virgin- white in martyrs' red did steepe ; Your downy heads, both pearles and rubies crownd My hoarie locks, did female feares confound. xcv. You bleating ewes, — that wayle this woluish spoyle Of sucking lambs new-bought with bitter throwes, — T' inbalme your babes your eyes distill their oyle, Each hart to tombe her child wide rupture showes : Rue not their death, whom death did but reuiue, Yeeld ruth to me that liu'd to die aliue. SAINT Peter's complaint. 35 xcvi. With easie losse sharpe wrecks did he eschew, That sindonlesse aside did naked slip : Once naked grace no outward garment knew ; Riche are his robes whom sinne did neuer strip. I, that in vaunts, displaid Pride's fayrest flags, Disrob'd of grace, am wrapp'd in Adam's rags. xcvii. WhQn, traytor to the Sonne in mother's eyes I shall present my humble sute for grace, What blush can paint the shame that will arise. Or write my inward feelings on my face "l Might she the sorrow with the sinner see. Though I despisde, my griefe might pittied bee ! XCVIII. But ah ! how can her eares my speech endure, Or sent my breath, still reeking hellish steeme 1 Can Mother like what did the Sonne abiure, Or hart deflowr'd a virgin's love redeeme ? The mother nothing loues that Sonne doth loath : Ah, lothsome wretch ! detested of them both. xcix. sister nymphes, the sweet renowned payre, That blesse Bethania bounds, with your aboade ! Shall I infect that sanctifiM ayre, Or staine those steps where lesus breath' d and trodel ^0 ; let your prayers perfume that sweetned place ; Turne me with tygers to the wildest chase. M- 36 SAINT Peter's complaint. c. John 11. Could I reuiued Lazarus behold, The third of that sweet trinitie of saints, ' Would not astonisht dread my senses hold ? Ah yes ! my hart euen with his naming, faints : I seeme to see a messenger from hell, That my prepared torments comes to tell. CI. Mat. 16.* John! James ! wee made a triple cord Lukes. ^^ Of three most louing and best loued friends ; My rotten twist was broken with a word, *' Fit now to fuell fire among the fiends. It is not euer true though often spoken. That triple-twisted cord is hardly broken. CII. The dispossessed devils, that out I threw In Jesvs' name, — now impiously forsworne,— Triumph to see me caged in their mew. Trampling my mines with contempt and scorne : My periuries were musick to their daunce, And now they heape disdaines on my mischaunce. cm. Our rocke (say they) is riuen ; welcome howre ! Our eagle's wings are dipt that wrought so hie ; raugh t Our thundring cloude made noyse, but cast no showre : He prostrate lyes that would haue scal'd the skie; In woman's tongue our runner found a rub, Our cedar now is shrunke into a shrub. SAINT Peter's complaint. 37 CIV. These scornefull words vpbraid my inward thought, Proofes of their damned prompters' neighbour-voice : Such vgly guests still wait vpon the nought : Fiends swarm to soules that swarue from Yertue's For breach of plighted truth this true I trie ; [choise : Ah, that my deed thus gaue my word the lie ! cv. Once, and but once, too deare a once to twice it ! A heauen in earth, saints neere myselfe I saw : Sweet was the sight, but sweeter loues did spice it, But sights and loues did my misdeed withdraw. From heauen and saints, to hell and deuils estrang'd, Those sights to frights, those loues to hates are changed. cvi. Christ, as my God, was templed in my thought, As man. He lent mine eyes their dearest light ; But sinne His temple hath to ruine brought. And now He lighteneth terrour from His sight. Now of my lay vnconsecrate desires. Profaned wretch ! I taste the earnest hires. CVII. Ah, sinne ! the nothing that doth all things file, defile Outcast from heauen. Earth's curse, the cause of hell; Parent of death, author of our exile. The wrecke of soules, the wares that fiends doe sell ; That men to monsters, angels turnes to deuils. Wrong of all rights, self-ruine, roote of euils. ^\^ 38 SAINT Peter's complaint. CVIII. A thing most done, yet more then God can doe ; Daily new done, yet euer done amisse ; Friended of all, yet unto all a foe ; Seeming a heauen, yet banishing from blisse ; Serued with toyl, yet paying nought but paine, Man's deepest losse, though false-esteemed gaine. cix. Shot, without noyse ; wound, without present smart ; First, seeming light, prouing in fine a lode ; Entring with ease, not easily wonne to part. Far, in effects from that the showes abode ; Endorct with hope, subscribed with despaire, Ygly in death, though life did faine it faire. l > ,,.,■'■' ex. 0, forfeiture of heauen ! eternall debt, A moment's ioy ending in endlesse fires ; Our nature's scum, the world's entangling net, I!^ight of our thoughts, death of all good desires : Worse then al this, worse then all tongues can say ; Which man could owe, but onely God defray. CXI. This fawning viper, dum till he had wounded. With many mouthes doth now vpbraid my harmes ; My sight was vaild till I myselfe confounded. Then did I see the disinchanted charmes : Then could I cut th' anatomic of sinne. And search with linxes' eyes what lay within. SAINT Peter's complaint. 39 CXII. Bewitching euill, that hides death in deceits, Still borrowing lying shapes to niaske thy face, !N'ow know I the deciphring of thy sleights ; A cunning, dearely bought with losse of grace : Thy sugred poyson now hath wrought so well, That thou hast made me to my self e a hell. CXIII. My eye, reades mournfuU lessons to my hart, My hart, doth to my thought the greefes expound ; My thought, the same doth to my tongue impart, My tongue, the message in the eares doth sound ; My eares, back to my hart their sorrowes send ; Thus circling griefes runne round without an end. cxiv. My guiltie eye still seemes to see my sinne. All things characters are to spell my fall ; What eye doth read without, hart rues within, What hart doth rue, to pensiue thought is gall, Which when the thought would by the tongue digest. The eare conueyes it backe into the brest. cxv. Thus gripes in all my parts doe neuer fayle. Whose onely league is now in bartring paines ; What I ingrosse they traffique by retayle, Making each others' miseries their gaines : All bound for euer prentices to care, Whilst I in shop of shame trade sorrowe's ware. 40 SAINT Peter's complaint. cxvi. Pleasd with displeasing lot, I seek no change ; I wealthiest am when richest in remorse ; To fetch my ware no seas nor lands I range ; For customers to buy I nothing force : My home-bred goods at home are bought and sold, And still in me my interest I hold. CXVII. My comfort now is comfortlesse to Hue In orphan state, denoted to mishap : Rent from the roote that sweetest fruite did giue, I scorn'd to graffe in stock of meaner sap ; 'No iuyce can ioy me but of lesse flower. Whose heavenly roote hath true reuiuing power. CXVIII. At Sorrowers dore I.knockt : they crau'd my name : I aunswered, one unworthy to be knowne : What one ? say they. One worthiest of blame. But who 1 A wretch, not God's, nor yet his owne. A man ? no ! a beast ; much worse : what creature ? A rocke : how call'd 1 The rocke of scandale, Peter ! oxix. [there ? From whence "? From Caiaphas' house. Ah ! dwell you Sinne's farme I rented there, but now would leaue it. Wliat rent *? My soule. What gaine 1 Ynrest, and feare. Deare purchase ! Ah, too dear ! will you receiue if? What shall we giue 1 Fit teares and times to plaine mee : Come in, say they : Thus Griefes did entertaine me. t^^-y SAINT Peter's complaint. 41 cxx. With tliem I rest true prisoner in their layle, Chayn'd in the yron linkes of basest thrall ; Till Grace, vouchsafing captiue soule to bayle, In wonted See degraded loues enstall. Dayes pass in plaints, the night without repose ; I wake to weepe, I sleepe in waking-woes. cxxi. Sleepe, Death's allye, obliuion of teares, Silence of passions, balme of angry sore, .j y ^ Suspence of loues, securitie of feares. Wrath's lenitue, heart's ease, storme's calmest shore; Senses' and soules' reprieuall from all cumbers, Benumning sense of ill, with quiet slumbers ! CXXII. Not such my sleepe, but whisperer of dreames, Creating strange chymeras, fayning frights ; Of day-discourses giuing fansie theames, To make dum-shewes with worlds of anticke sights; Casting true griefes in fansie's forging mold, Brokenly telling tales rightly foretold. CXXIII. This sleepe most fitly suteth Sorrowe's bed. Sorrow, the smart of euill, Sinne's eldest child ; Best, when vnkind in killing who it bred ; A racke for guiltie thoughts, a bit for wild ; The scourge that whips, the salue that cures offence : Sorrow, my bed and home, while life hath sense. 42 SAINT Peter's complaint. cxxiv. Here solitarie Muses nurse my griefes, In silent lonenesse burying worldly noyse ; Attentiue to rebukes, deafe to reliefes, Pensiue to foster cares, carelesse of ioyes ; Kuing life's losse, vnder death's dreary roofes Solemnizing my funerall behoofes. cxxv. A selfe-contempt the shroude, my soule the corse, The beere, an humble hope, the herse-cloth, feare ; The mourners, thoughts, in blacks of deepe remorse, The herse, grace, pitie, loue and mercie beare : My teares, my dole, the priest, a zealous will. Penance, the tombe, and dolefuU sighes the knill. cxxvi. Christ ! health of feuer'd soule, heauen of the mind, Porce of the feeble, nurse of infant loues, Guide to the wandring foote, light to the blind, Whom weeping winnes, repentant sorrow moues ; Father in care, mother in tender hart, Reuiue and saue me, slaine with sinnefull dart ! CXXVII. If King Manasses, sunke in depth of sinne. With plaints and teares recouered grace and crowne : A worthless worme some mild regard may winne, And lowly creepe, where flying threw it downe. A poore desire I haue to mend my ill, I should, I would, I dare not say, I will. SAINT Peter's complaint. 43 CXXVIII. I dare not say, I will, but wish I may; My pride is checkt, high words the speaker spilt. My good, Lord, Thy gift, Thy strength my stay ! Give what Thou bidst, and then bid what Thou wilt. Worke with me what Thou of me doos't request, Then will I dare the most and vow the best. cxxix. Prone looke, crost armes, bent knee and contrite hart, Deepe sighs, thick sobs, dew'd eyes and prostrate Most humbly beg release of earned smart, [prayers, And sauing shroud in Mercie's sweet repaires. If iustice should my wrongs with rigor wage, Feares would despaires, ruth, breed a hopelesse rage. cxxx. * Lazar at Pitie's gate I vlcer'd lye, Craning the reffuse crums of childrens' plate ; My sores I lay in view to Mercie's eye. My rags beares witnes of my poore estate : The wormes of conscience that within me swarme, Proue that my plaints are lesse then is my harme. cxxxi. With mildnes, lesu, measure mine offence ; Let true remorse Thy due reuenge abate ; Let teares appease when trespasse doth incense ; Let pittie temper Thy deserued hate ; Let grace forgiue, let loue forget my fall : With feare I craue, with hope I humblie call. 44 SAINT Peter's complaint. CXXXII. Redeeme my lapse with, raunsome of Thy loue, Trauerse th' inditement, rigor's doome suspend ; Let frailtie fauour, sorrowes succour moue, Be Thou Thyselfe, though changeling I offend. Tender my sute, cleanse this defiled denne, Cancell my debts, sweet lesu, say Amen ! The ende of Saint Peter^s Complaint. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. St. 1. line 1, mainezzz sea. Addl. ms. 10.422 spells 'maigne.' Line 4. Turnbull modernises ' in lieu' into ' instead.' ,, 5. Card. Some have said that the ' card' or carta is a chart, others that it is the ' card' of the mariner's compass, and hence j^ut for the compass itself. While, however, the former sense, or rather that of map, is the more usual, there are passages which demand some one, and some the other, of these senses, and Halliwell is right in giving both. In Floeio's World of Words (1611) we find ' Carta ; any paper, a leafe of a book. Also a carde, a map. Also a plaing card. Also &c.' Other dictionaries give the same, and Carte marine, Carta da nauicdre (FL), Carta de mar ear (Minsheu), a sailing or sea-card. Sometimes, of course, the determinative adjective is omitted, as in Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas, quoted by Dyce in his Shakespeare Glossary : ' Sure, if my card and compats doe not fail Ware neer the Port.' {The Triumph of Faith.) Here the original is ' mon Quadrant et ma Carte marine,' and * quadrant' answers to ' compass ;' for though Quadrant is not found in Cotgeave, yet Boussole is given as ' a Pilot's Dyall, Compass, or Quadrant.' See also quotations from Hakluyt and Sir H. Mainwaring in Hunter's New Illustrations of Shake- speare. On the other hand, though I cannot find that the word is used for the card of the compass or compass itself, in Italian, French, or Spanish, or that it has these meanings attached to it in any English dictionary, or in the English part of any die- SAINT Peter's complaint. 45 tionary, yet there are passages which admit of no other. Nares quotes from Beaumont and Fletchek's Chances (i. 11), * "We're all like sea cards, All our endeavours and our motions, As they do to the north, still point at beauty.' And in Fletcher's Loyal Subject we find (iii. 2), * I send ye With your own virtues season' d and my prayers ; The card of goodness in your minds, that shews ye When ye sail false ; the needle touched with honour, That through the blackest storms still points at happiness. Your bodies,' &c. And elsewhere, in Southwell (' Our Ladie's Natiuitye'), * Loadstarr of all engolfd in worldly wanes, The card and compasse that from shipwracke saves ;' where the allusion to one person, the determining context ' loadstar,' and the verb in the singular, show that the words mean the compass -card and needle. In some passages the author's meaning may be doubtful ; as in Macbeth, i. 3, though from the word ' ports,' I am inclined to think that the seaman's card is his chart ; and this will appear, if, as perhaps we ought to do with the text, we transpose the two lines ending ' blow' and ' know.' It may also be doubtful in the present instance ; but as the misdeed is not so much a chart of his haven, or of the places to be avoided, or of his course, as the standing con- stant guide pointing to torment, his haven, and as ' card' is used by our poet, as above in ' Our Ladie's Natiuitye,' as the compass-card, so I believe it to be the same here. In Hamlet's ' speak by the card' the word is used in a third and very different sense. St. ii. line 1, shelfe = a ledge of rock. Lines 5-6. Turnbull misprints ' ills' for * euils.' I call it a misprint ; for throughout in all the mss. and early editions, Southwell writes ' euill' not ' ill ;' and there is something no- ticeable herein, inasmuch as this constant use by him of ' euill' as a monosyllable seems to prove that the contemporary pro- nunciation (in verse at least) was as if written 'e'il;' very much as in Scotland * devil' is pronounced ' deil,' and as ' spirit' is pronounced ' sprite.' What if, after all the guesses of the Shakesperean commentators, the much-contested ' dram of eaW (Hamlet, i. 4) be a misprint for ' dram of e'il' = evil or ill ? It fits in with the context. See our Memorial- Introduction for numerous examples of * eyill' requiring to be read as * e'il.* Line 5. Turnbull misprints ' the' for ' thy.' 46 SAINT Peter's complaint. Line 10, penance = penitence, as in st. 77, line 4 ; st. 125, line 6 ; St. Peter's Kemorse, st. ii. line 1. So too in one at least of the E.G. versions. Wicklif (St. Luke xv. 7) and Chaucee also use it in the same sense. Cf. Richabdson, s. n. St. iii. line 5, ' Thy trespasse foule ;' an irregular ellipse, where (being), or perhaps (is), is taken out of the succeeding ♦ be.' St. iv. line 1, ^ plaints;^ taking 'plaints' as the nominative to 'sob,' 'report,' and 'tell,' I have punctuated ruth not ruth, and, sorrows — fruits of mine untruth,. St. vii. line 3, ' Threnes ;' alluding to the ' threnes' or la- mentations c. i-iv., where the stanzas (and in c. iii. the lines) commence with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in succession, as in Psalm cxix. &c. Tubnbull grossly misprints ' themes.' St. viii. line 6, euen, v. act. = equal or equalise. St. ix. lines 1-4, the construction is somewhat obscure. Is * and leaving God' part of the second clause, ending with ' give' ? In such case God should either be followed by (,) or by no stop at all, while ' give' should have (;). Then is ' now left' to be taken as part of this second clause ? or should it close the first ? Either way there is no essential difference in the sense. If taken as part of the first, the ellipse requires (and am) left &c. I have followed the punctuation of 1595 and 1596 here, though doubting. Line 4, Turnbull again badly misprints ' sign' for ' raigne.' For =z for sake of. Line 5. ' These feares ;^ these are ' fears' in their objective sense, the substantival form of the causal verb, to fear, to make to fear = these fear-causing things ; the second fears are fears subjective, or the fears felt and acted on, through the feeling or belief that the cause so determined avoided disaster. St. X. line 3, Tubnbull misprints ' in' for ' to.' St. xiv. line 6, for = for sake of, as before. St. XV. line 3, I have ventured to read ' few' for ' new' of 1595 and 1596. St. xvi. line 1, 'Ah, life !' Tubnbull now over-punctuates and now under and mis-punctuates, e.g. he puts (!) after ' Ah' and (,) after ' life;' and so throughout. I have put (!) after life, and (,) after ' Ah,' i.e. after the noun to which the descriptive sentence applies ; and so elsewhere. 1595 and 1596 punctuate simply ' Ah life,' SAINT PETERS COMPLAINT. 4/ Line 3, Turnbull misprmts again * bind' for * wind' (of 1595 and 1596). Line 6, ' never-turning' not a misprint as might be supposed for 'ever-turning;' but = never returning, which might have been written ' ne'er-returning.' Cf . use of ' turning' in quotation from Batman in our next note on st. xviii. lines 1-6. St. xviii. lines 1-6. The old philosophy believed that the ocean filtered back through narrow chinks, and re-appeared in springs ; e.g. Jerome saith (when writing on Eccles. i. 7, and giving an erroneous interpretation), * Philosophers tell, that Bweete waters that runne into the Sea, be consumpt and wasted by heat of the sunne, or els they be foode and nourishing of saltnesse of the sea. But our Ecclesiastes, the maker of waters, sayeth. That they come agayne by privie veynes of the earth, to the well-heades, and commeth out of the mother, that is the Sea, and walmeth and springeth out in well-heades' (Batman upon Bartholome, lib. xiii. cap. 3). Some, however, if we may judge from Batman's quotations from Isidore, combined the two views ; and this would appear from the word ' added' to have been th^t which Southwell had been taught. But besides the mother -sFa or main-ocean, there had to be added, according to early Christian philosophy, the abyssus, the * deep' of South- well, and of the authorised version. Gen. i. 2 and vii. 11 : but the views as to its nature and position appear to have been vague and varied. According to some, * abyssus' is * deep- nesse of water unseene, and thereof come and spring wells and rivers ; for out of the deepnes come all waters, and turne againe thereto by priuy waies, as to the mother of water,' as Isidore saith, lib. 13 : but according to Augustine, ' abyssus' is the primordial matter, made of naught, whereof ' all things that hath shape and forme should be shaped and formed,' and from which it would appear that either of the elements of eai-th or water were according to the ordination gift of God formed. Neither does it seem to have been settled whether this Abyss formed part of the general circulation spoken of above, or whether the hidden veins from the Sea to the well-heads were subsidiary to the hidden veins from the abyss or overflowing deep. Compare Batman, lib. xiii. cap. 3, 22 and 23. St. xix. line 3. The construction may be doubtful. Looking to the word ' unaccustomed,' and to the parallelism of ' unac- customed soil and baiTen field,' it would seem the heart is = the soil, and the construction, * doth this unaccustomed soil need it,' 48 SAINT Peter's complaint. viz. the fertilising with hellish dung. The very frequent in- versions in Southwell favour this view, and assuming it to be correct I have punctuated (,) after need. St. XX. line 1, Turnbull misprints ' direst' for * duest.' St. xxi. line 1. If *lava of St. Matthew xvi. 17 represent the Hebrew Jonah, Bar-Jonah is, as in the text, ' son of a dove ;' but by the analogy of the lxx. and the better reading 'Iwdwov of St. John i. 42 is with greater probability taken to represent Bar-Johannan ::=: son of God's grace. St. xxii. line 3, ' That thou.^ Turnbull confuses all by mis- printing ' these' for ' thou.' St. XXV. line 1, ' There.'' Turnbull once more loses the antithesis as between ' there' and ' here' by misprinting ' These.' St. xxvi. line 6, * both halfes' == body and soul ; the ' two mites' of the old Puritans that all may give the Lord. St. xxvii. lines 3-6. A reference to the myth-simile of the ' viper' rending the womb of its mother shows that the reading is not ' ruines' but * mine's :' = all good is the wreck of thy ruin or ruining ; just as a rock of ruin in next stanza is a rock of ruining, or rock causing ruin. ' Vipera is a manner kinde of serpents that is full venemous. Of this serpent Isidore speaketh lib. xii. and saith, that Vipera hath that name, for she bringeth forth broode by strength : for when hir wombe draweth to the time of whelping, the whelpes abideth not covenable time nor kinde passing, but gnaweth and fretteth the sides of their dam, and they come so into this world with strength, and with the death of the breeder. It is said, that the male doeth his mouth into the mouth of the female .... and she wexeth woode [=wud] in lyking of increase, biteth off the head of the male, and so both male and female are slaine.' (Batman upon Bar- tholome, lib. xviii. cap. 117.) St. xxviii. line 5, 'Infamous,' and so inst. Ixxxv. line 4: but ' infamy' in st. xlviii. line 5, and elsewhere. St. xxix. line 5, rest = support : * and he made narrowed rests round about, that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house' (1 Kings vi. 6). To stay =: to support restrain- ingly, as do the ' stays' of a ship's mast : in st. xxiv. 1. 8. it has more the simple sense of restraining (from the plunge) ; for a ' stay' in the sense of a restraining support is properly a side or inclined support, not an under-pinning or under-propping. SAINT Peter's complaint. 49 St. xxxii. line 5, Turnbull vexatiously misprints * by' for 'my.' St. xxxiii. line 1, Additional mss. 10.422 reads 'Parted:' and I prefer it to ' Parting' of 1595 and 1596. St. xxxiv. line 1, 'Farre' Turnbull obscures by misprinting ' Fare.' Line 4, Turnbull again misprints ' suck' for * seeke.' St. xxxviii. line 1, * part' i.e. me, from Christ. Line 4, Turnbull misprints ' danger' for ' damage :' 1595 spells * domage.' Line 5. I have ventured to make two corrections in this line, viz. * worse' for ' worst,' and ' his' for ' this.' In the latter the rhyme is not so good ; but cf . ' he is' and ' bliss' in A Child my Choice, st. v. ' That runnes' can hardly refer to danger or distance or death. St. xlii. line 5, * canded' as in Shakespeare, * The cold brook candied with ice' (Timon, act iv. sc. 3). On this Shakesperean parallel, see our Memorial-Introduction. St. xliv. line 5, * alone' = in this only or alone did the ' crow- ing' assuage, that the cock thereby became his clock to reckon his task-duty of tears. St. xlv. line 4, * stinted.^ The sense is not eyes ' stinted' by any one ; but eyes in a state of ' stint' (as compared with the remorse due for so supreme a crime). This sense of the parti- ciple in -ed, in which it can hardly be called a participle of past time, allows and explains its use in Shakespeare and others, where we would rather employ the participle -ing. Thus Bolingbboke uses ' totter'd :' * Let's march without the noise of threatening drums, That from the castle's totter'd battlements Our fair appointments may be well perused.' King Richard II. act iii. sc. 3. We use the -ed form in a similar sense, but not so frequently ; and where the action appears to exist within the thing itself, as in ' stint' and ' totter,' we prefer (though with less truth) to make the noun agental, and speak of ' stintm^f eyes' and ' tot- term^ walls.' If Bolingbboke had battered Flint Castle, he would probably have said ' tottering walls,' as indicative of a newly present result. For more, see relative note on st. cxi. line 4, ' disenchanted.' 50 SAINT Peter's complaint. St. xlvi. line 1, * Revenger' ^Christ, not the cock, as Turn- bull's ' revenger' might suggest. St. xlviii. line 4, ' spoyle.' See general note onward. Lines 1-3, ' gnats :' Exodus viii. 16-18. The third plague (of lice, Auth. Vers.). The crvL([)€s and (Tvlires of the lxx., and the cyniphes and scyniphes of the Vulgate — all taken by the Egyp- tian and African authorities, Philo, Origen, Augustine, &c., to be gnat-like insects. St. 1. line 6, Turnbull misreads ' Fine' for • True' of 1595 and 1596. Addl. mss. 10.422 spells ' Thrue,' the copyist being probably an Irishman. St. lii. line 3, Turnbull again obscures by misprinting ' ef- fecting.' St. liii. line 2, ' droyles'== drudges. St. liv. line 3, ' captiuing ;' causal use : thralls staking cap- tive their masters or those who are free. Line 6, ' false.' By the usual punctuation false, (,) that in- terpretation is suggested and favoured which would read, ' do you false ones, when you seem to feel either of these emotions, love or loathe ?' Looking to Southwell's general style and use of inversion, I prefer to interpret false as=:/aZsrt=do you love or loathe falsehood ? Accordingly comma (,) omitted. St. Ivii. 13 et seqq. On this passage see our Memorial-Intro- duction for a very remarkable Shakesperean parallel hitherto overlooked, and confirmatory of other Shakespeare allusions found in Southwell. St. lix. line 3, ' ambryes,' in Turnbull * ambries.' Ambry z^almonry, or the place where alms (and as here alms or doles of food) were kept. In Scotland still= a larder or pantry for cold and broken meats, ' aumry,' as in Fergusson's ' Caller Water.' St. Ixi. line 1, I have printed * light'ning,' not 'lightning- flames :'=the blazing comets lighten flames of love. St. Ixii. line 2, ' shadows worths,' not, as Turnbull mis- prints, ' shadow worths.' In so doing the ' living mirrors' go beyond what is natural ; for in Nature • No shadow can with shadow'd things compare.' Lewd Love is Losse, st. 2. Line 6, * Then in myselfe, whom sinne and shame defac't.' The thought is drawn from Holy Scripture, and the expression characteristically elliptical. His * image' showed itself in the SAINT Peter's complaint. 51 eyes of Christ as that of a man before the Fall made in the image of God, whereas in himself it appeared blurred and de- faced. ' My image' may in the first line have the ordinary sense of the * image' of myself ; but in the second line it means as (meo judicio) in the first also, the image that is in me, much as ' my wrongs' and ' my injuries' might in the older writers be used to mean the wrongs or injuries done to me. St. Ixiv. line 1, * Hesebon.' I place in margin, from 1595 edition (dropped in 1596), ' Cant. vii. 3.' Oculi tui sicut piscinae in Hesebon, quae sunt in portufiliae multitudinis (Vulg.) : ' Thine eyes like the fish-pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bath-rabbim' (Auth. Vers.), Cant. vii. 4. The ' baths of grace' is a new epi- thet, and has nothing to do with the pools of Heshbon. Hence I punctuate Hesebon (;) not (,), and (,) not (;) after ' desires.' Line 3, Turnbull misreads ' delight* for ' reioyce.' St. Ixv. line 2, Tuenbull again obscures and noneensxfies by misprinting ' works' for ' words.' St. Ixvi. line 1, cf. St. Luke xxii. 61. St. Ixviii. line 3, ' compasse'z= circumference.. St. Ixix. line 2, 1595 spells * soone.' Line 3, Turnbull misprints ' Whose' for * Where :* and line 5, * Whose' for ' The.' St. Ixx. line 3, I have ventured to read ' Best' for ' But.' The previous stanza and the word ' Both' in the next line war- rant the emendation. St. Ixxi. lines 1-4. At first sight it seems natural to make a division at salamander, thus reading [exiled] from heaven, [ex- iled] from fire ; lost fish [I wander] . Perhaps too the rhythm is rather improved thereby. But as heaven^air, fire, water, land of life, refiect the enumeration in the last stanza but one, I have punctuated roam ; [thus ending the general clause, and then giving the elemental similes] .... salamander .... home .... wander. The ellipse is more Southwell, ' Poor saint from heaven [I wander] .... from land of life I wander, &c. St. Ixxii. line 1, cf. 1 Chronicles ii. 17-18. Bethlehem is the Vulgate form, which Southwell has contracted. So too with. Salomon (st. li. line 2) and Aman, &c. Line 2, ' keep.' A strangely elliptical omission of the ob- jective [me] . 52 SAINT Peter's complaint. St. Ixxiii. line 3, ' surmounts' = over-passes, excels — one sense of the French surmonter. St. Ixxiv. line 1, Addl. mss. 10.422 reads * Horebb rocke.' St. Ixxv. line 1, * demurre ;'=to delay by dwelling on, to dwell on, its primary sense : French demeurer. St. Ixxvi. line 1, Southwell adds to the old myth of the dying swan's ' singing' solitariness or singleness ; a natural and pathetic inference. St. Ixxvii. line 4, ' penance' =:penitence, as before. St. Ixxviii. line 4, ' By'=through, by means of, as more fre- quently in our Poet's day than now. By love is here, through God's love. St. Ixxix. line 3, ^pi'obates ;'=proofs, or perhaps provings, though it is difficult to understand how this obsolete sense, or its legal sense, was derived horn probatus . St. Ixxxv. line 4, * infamous.' See relative note on st. xxviii. line 5. St. Ixxxvi. line 6, * euen.' Here, like * heauen,' monosyl- labic : but while our pronunciation of ' heaven' does not require ' heav'n,' the fulness of our ' even' requires ' e'en,' and so I note it (see also st. c. line 4). The student will have no difficulty in properly reading such words in their places by attention to the above rule, and so in the full -ed and -'d (apostrophe), e.g. ' Cain's murdering hand imbrued in brother's blood' (st. Ixxxviii. line 1), ' murdering' needs no more to be printed * murd'ring' as dissyllabic, than ' heavens' and ' prayers' require to be ' The heav'ns with pray'rs, her lap with tears she fill'd' (st. Ixxxix. line 5). In Southwell, er, en, and on, are almost constantly slurred, though he seizes every opportunity of syllabling -ed. Throughout, with one or two exceptions (duly noted in their places), that might lead to ambiguous readings, I adhere to the Stonyhurst mss. forms. St. Ixxxvii. line 4, ' sluce.' Turnbull wretchedly misprints ' slime.' St. Ixxxix. line 1, 'pheare:' spelled in 1595 'phere' = hus- band (Abraham), Line 2, Turnbull misprints ' In wilds Barsabian wandering alone'=the desert of Beth-sheba, Auth. Vers. ; Brjpaapee, Sept., Bersabe, Vulg. passim : in accord with which I read Ber- not Bar-. SAINT Peter's complaint. 53 Line 3, * doubting' =in the old sense of siispecting=dreading. St. xc. line 3, Tuenbull misprints ' by' for * of.' St. xciii. line 5, ' Too.' Turnbull vexatiously misprints * For.' Line 6, Turnbull once more misprints * is' for * base.' St. xcv. line 3, not ' embalm,' as in Turnbull. Line 4, * rupture.^ Turnbull senselessly misreads and mis- prints ' rapture.' Cf . The Virgin Mary to Christ, for the sense (St. 4). St. xcvi. line 2, * sindonless.^ aLP^cbi/ said to be muslin and a garment of muslin ; crLi/Sovirris, the wearer of such a garment : but the (Ttvdu)u fivacTivoSf as the embalming-cloths of the Egyp- tians are called by Herodotus, shows that the word was used more generically. It might also be supposed that Southwell was anticipating, since it was only by Pharaoh that Joseph was endued with a o-toA)/ ^vaaivr) ; but the above words of Herodotus, as interpreted by the mummy- wrappings, show that aiv^cSou was not necessarily applied to a thin roller either of fine cotton or fine linen. Line 4, Turnbull misprints ' Such' for ' Riche;' and line 5 ' rich' for ' that.' St. ci. line 1, cf. St. Mark iii. 16-17 ; v. 37 : St. Matthew xvii. 1 ; xxvi. 37. Line 6, cf. Ecclesiastes iv. 12. St. ciii. line 2, for ' wrought' I have put * raught' in the margin, such being the meaning. But in this and other words there was a confusion in the old spelling which hardly amounted to error. In Earle's Phil, of Engl. Tongue (p. 142) Coverdale is quoted as spelling ' raught' like Southwell ' wrought' (Parker Soc. i. 17). Line 3, referring to the passages in the Gospels under st. ci. line 1, and to the triple cord of friendship there mentioned, it would almost seem that Southwell considered St. Peter to have been included in the collective name 'Boanerges.' Or have we the Apostolate represented by St. Peter the rock (line 1) and St. John the eagle (line 2) ? Line 5, Turnbull misprints, with even more than his usual carelessness, ' rubber' for ' runner,' stupidly perpetrating a mis- erable pun as between 'rubber' and ' rub.' Line 6, ' cedar.' From the general imagery of the Old Tes- 54 SAINT Peter's complaint. tament, with possibly especial remembrance of Isaiah xxxvii. 22-24. St. civ. line 4, St. Matthew xii. 43-5. St. cv. lines 1-4, at the Transfiguration. St. cvi. line 4. Here is a case where a strict regard to metre would read ' light'neth ;' but I prefer for emphasis' sake to read and pronounce it as demi-trisyllabic. Line 5, Turnbull misprints ' late' for ' lay'=unapostolic. ,, 6, in Addl. mss. 10.422 the reading is ' cast' for ' taste.' Query : Is this the proper word, and the reference to Judas casting down his blood-money before the priests ? (St. Matthew xxvii. 5.) In 1595, as well as in 1596, it is ' taste,' in the for- mer spelled * tast.' In 1595 for ' earned' of 1596 the reading is 'earnest,' which I adopt as=the foretaste, or Scotice ' earles,' or earl-money, given on the hiring of servants. Cf . 2 Cor. i. 22 ; Ephesians i. 14, and Mr. W. A. Wright's Bible Word-Book, s.v. St. cix. line 4, ' a&o<^e'=:f ore show, v. act., as in Shakespeaee, ' The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time.* 3 Henry VI. v. 6. St. cxi. line 4, * disinchanted charmes,' in their [natural] state of disenchantment. (See relative note on st. xlv. line 4.) St. cxiii. reminds of the soliloquy of Eichard II. act ii. St. cxv. line 2, ' Whose'' refers to parts, as before. Line 3, ' ingrosse'^engrossier remake greater. St. cxvi. line 4, ^ force.'' Verb intrans.= strive (Webster); alluding not so much to pressing things on would-be customers, as to the usual cry of What d'ye lack ? St. cxvii. line 3, ' Bent.'' Turnbull, with unpardonable neg- ligence, makes nonsense of this by misprinting ' but' for ' rent,' which is the word in 1595, 1596, and Addl. mss. 10.422. Line 6, Turnbull further blunderingly reads ' Where' for ' Whose.' St. cxx. line 6, ' weepe.' Turnbull yet again misprints ba- thetically * sleep' for ' weepe.' St. cxxi. line 2, * balme.' Turnbull once more actually prints * blame' for * balme.' St. cxxii. line 3, = giving themes to fancy. Line 6, * foretold,' not predicted, but rightly recounted dur- ing the past time of wakefulness. SAINT Peter's complaint. 55 St. cxxv. line 6, * penance'=penitence, as before. St. cxxvii. line 1, 2 Chronicles xxxii. 11-13. St. cxxviii. line 1, as the construction is not [I dare] wish I may [mend] , but I may [that is, it is allowable for me to] wish [to mend] , I punctuate wish (,). Line 3, ^my stay,^ Turnbull misprints ' mistay.' ,, 4, a reminiscence of the Confessions of St. Augustine. ,, 6, BO too he misprints * worst' for ' most,' and * love' for * vow.' St. cxxix. line 3, * release.' Addl. mss. 10.422 reads * re- leafe.' Line 4, ' sauing shroud:' the ' saving shroud:' prophetically spoken of his martyrdom and with reference to Rev. vi. 9-11, &c. Repaires=-pla>ceB whither one goes or repaii'S. St. cxxxi. line 3, Turnbull provokingly misprints 'increase' for ' incense.' St. cxxxii. line 1, 1595 badly misprints * thy' for * my,' and * my' for ' thy.' G. II. MYETJE, OR MYRTLE-WREATHS. viridi nitidum caput impedire myrto.' Horace, Od. i. 4, 9. NOTE. I have given the name ' Myrtae' to the second division of the Poems of Southwell for two reasons : (a) To avoid the commonplace title of 'Miscellaneons Poems.' (b) To correspond with that already accepted for the third portion (' Maeoniae'). If those place our singer among the dainty players of Lydia — and something more — these have the vividness and sweet perfume of the classic ' myrtle.' The whole of the Poems of this part were added to St. Peter's Complaint in 1595, with the exception of those noticed in our Preface. These were first added in 1596. I have adhered to the arrangement of 1596, except in re- moving the Natiuity of Christ, and Christ's Childehood, and Joseph's Amazement, to their own places in MaaoniaB, as choice beads in a string of pearls (as old Thomas Brooks has it), placed around the supreme Life and that of His Mother. Throughout, the basis of our text is the Stonyhuest mss. Notes and Illustrations at the end of each poem give various readings, &c. &c. G. MAEY MAGDALEN'S BLUSHE. I. The signes of shame tliat stayne my blushinge face, Kise from the feelinge of my ravinge fittes, Whose joy annoy, whose guerdon is disgrace, Whose solace ilyes, whose sorowe never flittes : Bad seede I sow'd, worse fruite is now my gayne, Soone-dying mirth begatt long-living payne. II. Nowe pleasure ebbs, revenge beginns to flowe ; One day doth wrecke the wrath that many wrought ; Kemorse doth teach my guilty thoughtes to knowe Howe cheape I sould that Christ so dearely bought : Eaultes long unfelt doth conscyence now bewraye. Which cares must cure and teares must washe awaye. III. All ghostly dints that Grace at me did dart. Like stobbourne rock I forced to recoyle ; To other flightes an ayme I made my hart Whose woundes, then welcome, now have wrought my foyle. Woe worth the bowe, woe worth the Archer's might, That draue such arrowes to the marke so right ! 60 MARY Magdalen's blushe. IV. To pull them out, to leave them in is deathe, One to this world, one to the world to come ; Woundes may I weare, and draw a doubtfull breath, But then my woundes will worke a dreadfuU dome ; And for a world whose pleasures passe awaye, I loost a world, whose joyes are paste decaye. V. O sence ! soule ! had ! hoped blisse ! Yow woe, yow weane ; yow draw, yow drive me backe ; Yow crosse encountring, like their combate is. That never end but with some deadly wracke ; When sence doth wynne, the soule doth loose the feilde. And present happ makes future hopes to yelde. VI. heaven, lament ! sense robbeth thee of sayntes, Lament, soules ! sence spoyleth yow of grace ; Yet sence doth scarce deserve these hard complayntes, Love is the theefe, sence but the entringe place ; Yett graunt I must, sence is not free from synne, For theefe he is that theefe admitteth in. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. St. i. line 2, * feelinge' = the sense or perception of. Line 5, Tuenbull misprints ' seed' for * fruite.' St. ii. line 2, similarly he misprints 'work' for 'wrecks' — wreak, spelled ' wreake' in 1596. St. iii. line 1, ' dints.' Dint is used as 1. the force or energy- employed ; 2. the stroke itself ; 3. the effect of the stroke, a MARY Magdalen's blushe. 61 dent (Webster). In the fourth of the passages in which it occurs in Southwell (Man to the Wound in Christ's side, st. v. line 2) it is used as 2. the stroke. In the second (Losse in Delaye, st. vi» line 3) the same sense may be attributed to it. But in the third (Life is but Losse, st. iv. line 2) it can, of the three senses, only have 1. the force. And while in this first instance senses 1. and 3. are clearly inadmissible, the sense which best agrees with the context (dart and recoil), and which best ex- plains the second and especially the third passage, is a fourth sense, that namely of the weapon while in action. From as- sociating the word ' dint' with a particular kind of weapon, the spear or dart, as he clearly does in three out of the four in- stances, the fourth being left indefinite in its expression, he seems to have been led to employ it as expressing that weapon in action ; just as two lines lower he uses, as is shown by the words ' whose wounds,' the word ' flight,' the technical or quasi- technical term for the action of arrows, for arrows in flight or action. But, as onward, flights may be fleghts = arrows. St. iii. line 6, I adopt ' draue' = drave, from 1596, in pre- ference to ' di-awe' of our ms. St. iv. line 6, Tuenbull misprints ' lose' for * loost.' St. V. line 1, 'had,' Tuenbull misprints 'hap.' Lines 2-3. Here only, as a specimen, I give the uncouth spelling with a w for our u. I have not repeated it, nor in ♦ thou.' Cf. Synne's Heavy Loade, st. iv. and v. (p. 106), where ' thou' in our ms. is spelled ' thow.' It is ' thou' in the first and early-printed editions, and there is no reason for preserving a barbarism. Line 2, ' weane' = wean, Tuenbull misprints ' win.' ,, 6, ' Happ :' in 1596 ' haps.' It has been said that happi- ness (like success) has kept only a part of the original sense of ' hap.' If this be so, Southwell has here, and also in Love's servile Lott (st. xiii. line 2) and in What Joye to live (st. ii. line 4), used ' hap' in a sense reflected from happiness, and equal to good hap and bad hap severally. See other examples in Tymes goe byTurnes (st. i. line 6, and st. ii. line 6), and Con- tent and Rich (st. xiv. line 4). St. vi. line 4, Tuenbull misprints ' chief for ' theefe' G. &? MAEY MAGDALEN'S COMPLAINT AT CHEIST'S DEATH. *^' SiTH my life from life is parted, \ Death come take thy portion ; Who survives when life is mnrdred, Lives by mere extortion : f All that live, and not in God, Conche their life in deathe's abode. Selye starres must nedes leve shyninge When the sunne is shadowed, Borowed streames refrayne their runninge When hed-springes are hindered : One that lives by other's breathe, Dyeth also by his deathe. trewe life ! sith Thou hast left me, Mortall life is tedious ; Death it is to live without Thee, Death of all most odious : Tume againe or take me to Thee, Let me dye or live Thou in me ! Where the truth once was and is not, Shadowes are but vanitye ; MARY Magdalen's complaint at Christ's death. 63 Sbewinge want, that helpe they cannot, Signes, not salves, of miserye. Paynted meate no hunger feedes, Dyinge life eche death exceedes. With my love my life was nestled In the summe of happynes ; From my love my life is wrested To a world of heavynes : lett love my life remove, Sith I live not where I love ! my soule ! what did unloose thee From thy sweete captivitye, God, not I, did still possesse thee, His, not myne, thy Hhertie : too happy thrall thou wert, When thy prison was His hart. Spitefull speare that brak'st this prison, Seate of all felicitye, Workinge thus with doohle treason Love's and life's deKverye : Though my life thou dravst awaye, Maugre thee my love shall staye. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Our MS., in agreement with 1596, corrects three of Turn- bull's characteristic misreadings and misprints : st. v. line 2, ' Bun' for ' summe :' st. vi. line 1, * that' for ' what :' st. vii. line 5, ' draw'st' for ' drav'st.' Additional mss. 10.422 has all these 64 TYMES GOB BY TURNES. blunders. St. ii. line 1, see relative note on * sely' in * I die without desert.' St. iii. lines 3 and 5 : here and throughout, I print ' Thee,' not ' The' of our mss. — the latter simply confuses, and this record is enough for critical purposes. Consult our Introduction for elucidation of what I regard as an affecting personal reminiscence in st. i. lines 3-4. Cf. also ' Life is but Losse,' line 1, and st. iv., especially lines 3 and 5. G. TYMES GOE BY TUENES. The lopped tree in tyme may growe agayne ; Most naked plants renewe both frute and floure ; The soriest wight may finde release of payne, The dry est soyle sucke in some moystning shoure ; Tymes go by turnes and chaunces chang by course, From foule to fayre, from better happ to worse. The sea of Fortune doth not ever floe, She drawes her favours to the lowest ebb ; Her tide hath equall tymes to come and goe, Her loome doth weave the fine and coarsest webb ; JS'o joy so great but runneth to an ende, No happ so harde but may in fine amende. Not allwayes fall of leafe nor ever springe, No endlesse night yet not eternall daye ; The saddest birdes a season finde to singe, The roughest storme a calme may soone alaye ; Thus with succeding turnes God tempereth all, That man may hope to rise yet fear? to fall. LOOKE HOME. 65 A chaunce may wynne that by miscliaiice was lost ; The nett that houldes no greate, takes little fishe ; In some thinges all, in all thinges none are croste, ' Fewe all they neede, but none have all they wishe ; Unmedled joyes here to no man befall, y Who least hath some, who most hath never all. ^ j-- NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. TuRNBULL has once more provoking misprints in this poem : e.g. st. i. line 3, ' sorest' for ' sorriest :' st. ii. Une 3, 'time' for 'tide :' st. iv. hne 2, 'web' for ' nett.' 1596 in st. iii. line 2 hg-s ' nor yet' for 'yet not.' 1630 in st.iv.line 5 reads 'vnmingled.' G. LOOKE HOME. Retyr^d thoughtes enjoy their owne delightes. As beauty doth in self-behoulding eye ; Man's mynde a mirrhour is of heavenly sightes, A breife wherein all marveylls summed lye, Of fayrest formes and sweetest shapes the store, Most gracefull all, yet thought may grace them more. The mynde a creature is, yet can create. To Nature's paterns adding higher skill ; Of fynest workes witt better could the state If force of witt had equall poure of will : Devise of man in working hath no ende ; What thought can thinke an other thought can mende. i ^r^s ^^ fortune's falsehoode. Man's soule of endles bewtye's image is, Drawen by the worke of endles skill and might ; This skillfull might gave many sparkes of blisse, And to descerne this blisse a native light ; To frame God's image as His worthes requird, His might, His skill, His worde and will conspir'd. All that he had His image should present, All that it should present he could afforde, To that he coulde afforde his will was bente, His will was followed with performinge worde ; Lett this suffice, by this conceave the rest, He should, he could, he would, he did the best. G. NOTE. TuRNBULL badly misprints ' This' for ' His' in st. iv. line 4. FOETUJS-E'S FALSEHOODE. In worldly merymentes lurketh much misery, Sly fortune's subtilltyes, in baytes of happynes Shroude hookes, that swallowed without recoverye. Murder the innocent with mortall heavynes. Shee sootheth appetites with pleasing vanityes, Till they be conquered with cloaked tyrannye ; Then chaunging countenance, with open enmyties She tryumphes over them, scorninge their slavery. i fortune's falsehoode. 67 f With fawninge flattery deathe's dore she openeth, Alluring passingers to blody destinye ; In offers bountifull, in proofe she beggereth, ' Men's ruins registring her false felicitye. Her hopes are fastned in blisse that vanisheth, Her smart inherited with sure possession ; Constant in crueltye, she never altereth But from one violence to more oppression. To those that followe her, favours are measured, As easie premisses to hard conclusions ; With bitter corrosives her joyes are seasoned, Her highest benefittes are but illusions. Her wayes a laberinth of wandring passages, Fooles' comon pilgrimage to cursed deityes ; Whose fonde devotion and idle menages Are wag'd with wearynes in fruitles drudgeries. Blynde in her favorites' foolish election, Chaunce is her arbiter in giving dignitye, Her choyse of vicious, shewes most discretion, Sith welth the vertuous might wrest from piety. To humble suppliants tyran most obstinate. She sutors answereth with contrarietyes ; Proud with peticion, untaught to mitigate Kigour with clemency e in hardest cruelties. 68 SCORNE NOT THE LEASTE. Like tigre fugitive from the ambitious, Like weeping crocodile to scornefuU enymies, Suyng for amity where she is odious, But to her followers forswering curtesies. ^0 wynde so changeable, no sea so waveringe. As giddy fortune in reeling varietyes ; I^owe\madd, now merciful!, now ferce, now favoring, In all thinges mutable but mutabilities. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. One of Tuenbull's most egregious misprints is ' Flye' for ' Sly' in st. i. line 2 : and again his (;) after ' happiness' instead of linking it on to ' Shroude hookes,' as in 1596 : our ms. has * shrouds.' Once more, in st. vii. line 2, he confuses aU by print- ing ' in' for ' is.' ' Menage' (in st. vi. line 3) refers to the management of the horse in giving him studied paces and action, and therefore may be = studied movements. Our MS. (in st. x. line 2) by ' varietyes' corrects the lacking syllable in Tuenbull's ' vanities :' so too in 1596. Our ms. is corrected by S. to ' varietyes' from * vanityes.' G. SCOEKE :N^0T the LEASTE. Where wardes are weake and foes encountring, strong, Where mightier do assult then do defend, The feebler part putts upp enforced wronge, And silent sees that speech could not amend ; Yet higher poures must think though they repine, When sunne is sett, the little starres will shyne. SCORNE NOT THE LEASTE. 69 WHle pyke doth range the seely tench doth flye, And crouch in privy creekes with smaller fishe j Yet pikes are caught when little fish go by, These fleete afloate while those do fill the dish. There is a tyme even for the worme to creepe, And sucke the dewe while all her foes do sleepe. The merlen cannot ever sore on highe, Nor greedy grayhounde still pursue the chase ; * The tender larke will finde a tyme to flye, And fearefuU hare to runne a quiet race. He that high grouth on cedars did bestowe, Gave also lowly mushrumpes leave to growe. — In Aman's pompe poore Mardocheus wept, Yet God did turne his fate upon his foe ; The lazar pynd while Dives' feast was kept, Yett he to heaven, to hell did Dives goe. We trample grasse and prize the floures of Maye, Yet grasse is greene when flowers do fade awaye. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. In St. i. line 2, ' assult' is = assault (as in 1596). Line/ 4, ' that.' It is perhaps worth notice here, that Southwell con- stantly uses ' that' where we would use ' what' or * that that' or ' that which,' and this, as in the present instance, causes some obscurity. See other examples in A ChUd my Choice (st. i. line 1), What Joy to Live (st. v. lines 2-4, et alibi). It is used also as we should ' who,' as in Christe's Return out of Egypt (st. i. line 5). In the same, line 5, our ms., like 1596, reads ' must,' not as in Turnbull ' most,' and a meaning is attain- able with this correction, i.e. the higher powers when faUen 70 A CHILDE MY CHOYSE. * think' of the * little stars' shining, while they, represented by the great ' sun,' are sunk. But query — is * think' a misprint for ' sink,' and the meaning ' Yet, higher powers most sink, though they repine' {i.e. the feebler part) ? Cf. ' Their fall is worst that from the height Of greatest honours slide ;' and for other difficult and somewhat similar pronominal uses, see our relative notes on St. Peter's Complaint. As ' most' is simply Tuknbull's blunder, I prefer the reading of our text. In st. ii. line 5, even is = e'en. In st. iii. line 1, in 1596 is spelled ' marline,' in Additional mss. 10.422 ' merlyn,' and mis- printed ' martin' by Turnbull. Merlin or marline is the hawk. In St. iii. line 6, ' mushrumpes' = mushrooms : so in 1596, as well as Additional ms. 10.422. In st. iv. line 1, in 1596, the name is Haman: but Aman is in the Vulgate. In = during. G. A CHILDE MY CHOYSE. Lett folly praise that pliaiicy loves, I praise and love that Childe Whose hart no thought, whose tongue no word, whose hand no dede 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. Love's sweetest mark, lavde's highest theme, man's most desired light, To love Him life, to leave Him death, to live in Him delighte. A CHILDE MY CHOYSE. . 71 He myne by gift, I His by debt, thus ecb to other dewe, First frende He was, best frende He is, all tymes will try Him trewe. Though yonge, yet wise, though smaU, yet stronge; though man, yet God He is ; As wise He knowes, as stronge He can, as God He loves to blisse. / His knowledge rules. His strength defendes, His love -f^ doth cherish all ; His birth our joy, 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. Almighty Babe, Whose tender armes can force all foes to flye, Correct my faultes, protect my life, direct me when I dye! NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. In our MS. (to which we adhere) there is no division into ' stanzas of four short lines each ; nor in 1596. Line 2, Turnbull misprints * head' for ' hand.' ,, 3, our MS. inadvertently reads * this' for * His.' „ 5, Turnbull most unfortunately misprints ' land's' for * laud's.' This is one of S.'s own corrections in our ms. Line 7, Turnbull, ' Him' for ' His.' „ 8, 1596 reads ' other's' = other is. G. CONTENT AND EITCHE. I DWELL in Grace's eonrte, Enriclid with. Yertue's rightes ; Faith guides my witt ; Love leades my will, Hope all my mynde delightes. In lowly vales I mounte To Pleasure's highest pitch ; My sely shroud trew honors bringes, My poore estate is ritch. My conscience is my crowne, Contented thoughts my rest ; My hart is happy in it selfe, My blisse is in my breste. Enoughe, I recken welthe ; A meane the surest lott, That lyes too highe for base contempt, Too lowe for envye's shott. My wishes are but fewe, All easye to fulliill, I make the lymits of my poure The bounds unto my will. CONTENT AND RITCHE. 73 I have TxO hopes, but one, Which is of heavenly raigne ; Effects atteynd, or not-desird, All lower hopes refrayne. I feele no care of coyne, Well-dooing is my welth ; My mynd to me an empire is. While grace affordeth helth. I clipp high-clyming thonghtes : The winges of swelling pride ; — • Their fall is worst, that from the heyghth Of greatest honours slyde. Sith sayles of largest size The storm e doth soonest teare, I beare so lowe and smale a sayle As freeth me from feare. I wrastle not with rage, While Furie's flame doth burne ; It is in vayne to stopp the streame Untill the tide do turne. But when the flame is out. And ebbing wrath doth end, I turne a late enraged foe Into a quiett frende. 74 CONTENT AND RITCHE. And taught with often proofe, A tempered calme I finde To be most solace to it self, Best cure for angry mynde. Spare diett is my fare, My clothes more fitt then fine ; I knowe I feede and cloth a foe That pampred would repine. I envye not their happ, Whome favour doth advance ; I take no pleasure in their payne, That have lesse happy chaunce. ( To rise by others' fall I deeme a loosing gaine ; All states with others' ruyns built, To ruyne runne amaygne. No chaunge of Fortune's calmes Can cast my comfortes downe ; When Fortune smyles, I smile to thinke How quickly she will frowne. And when in froward moode She prooves an angry foe, Smale gayne I found to lett her come, Lesse losse to let her goe. LOSSE IN DELATE. 75 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. TuRNBULL has some very careless misprints in this poem : e.g, st. ii, line 4, ' to' for ' is :' st. ix. line 4, our ms. spells ' freeeth,' the third ' e' inserted by S. : * attend' for ' atteynd' ^= attained (as in 1596) : st. xvi. line 1, * chance' for ' chaunge.' With reference to the line, ' My mynd to me an empire is' (st. vii. line 3), it is interesting to come on another reminiscence of Sir Edward Dyer, whose celebrated poem ' My mynde to me a kingdome is' was doubtless in our Poet's mind at the moment. (See our collection of Dyer's Poems.) For more on this, and imitations, consult our Memorial-Introduction. G. LOSSE I]sr DELAYE. Shunne delayes, they breede remorse ; Take thy time while time doth serve thee ; Creepinge snayles have weakest force, Fly their fault lest thou repent thee. Good is best when soonest wroughte, Lingred labours come to noughte. Hoyse upp sale while gale doth last, Tyde and winde stay no man's pleasure ; Seeke not tyme when tyme is paste, Sober speede is wisdom's leysure. After-wittes are deerely boughte, Lett thy forewytt guide thy thoughte. o? 76 LOSSE IN DELATE. Tjme weares all his lockes before, Take thy hould upon his forehead ; When he iiyes he turnes no more, And behinde his scalpe is naked. Workes adjourn' d have many stales. Long demurres breede new delayes. Seeke thy salve while sore is grene, Festred woui^des aske deeper launcing ; After-cures are seldome seene, Often sought scarse ever chancinge. Tyme and place give best advice, Out of season, out of price. Crush the serpent in the head, Breake ill egges ere they be hatched ; Kill bad chekins in tl^e tredd, Fligg, they hardly can be catched. In the risinge stifle ill, Lest it growe against thy will. Droppes do perce the stubborne flynte, 'Not by force but often fallinge ; Custome kills with feeble dinte, More by use then strength prevayling. Single sandes have little weighte, Many make a drowninge freighte. Tender twigges are bent with ease, Aged trees do breake with bending ; LOSSE IN DELATE. 77 Younge desires make little prease, Groutli doth make them past amendinge. Happy man, that soone doth knocke Babell babes againste the rocke ! NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. TuKNBULL reads in st. i. line 2, * is lent' for * doth serve ;' but our MS. and Additional MS. 10.422, and 1596 and 1630, have the latter. In st. V. line 4, Tubnbull * improves' the author's own word * fligg' into * Fledged ;' and in st. vi. line 4, stupidly reads * and vailing' for ' prevailing ;' and line 6, ' drawing' for ' drowning.' In st. ii. line 5, ' after- witte' is = wisdom after the fact, not second-thoughts. In st. V. line 2, ' ill eggs' = eggs of noxious birds or vermin. Or is the idea a continuance of that in the previous line, and the reference to the egg-like casing of the young scorpion, as in St. Luke xi. 12, * If he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a ser- pent (scorpion) ?' I have seen such ' eggs' as you could hardly distinguish them from a pigeon's. Or combining the two, the allusion underlying may be to the belief that asps when hatched kiU whatever had sat on the eggs. * And as he [Plinius] saith, it happeneth sometime, that a venemous frogge that is called rubeta, findeth the egge of such an adder [the aspis] , and sit- teth on brood thereon, and of such breeding commeth a worme that slayeth with blast and with sight, as doth the cockatrice. The worm that sitteth so on brood, and bringeth it forth, feel- eth first all y® venim of his matter and venime : for when it is first hatcht, hee beholdeth and seeth him that bringeth him forth, and slayeth him in that wise, as he sayeth' (Batman on Bartholome, Ixix. c. 80). Line 3, * tread' = conception. St. vi. line 3, * dint.' See relative note on, elsewhere. Line 4, Fligg or fiygge, as Bryddys, maturus, volatilis. In Prompt. Parv., composed by a Norfolk man (as was Southwell), Way says Jligged is still used there ; and Halliwell gives it as used in Cheshire and the North. 78 love's servile lott. St. vii. line 3, prease = pressure. See Wright, s. v. Line 6, Tuenbull misprints ' Babel's.' Babel, as elsewhere Jesse rod, &c., preferable : = Happy he that destroys wicked thoughts ere they gi-ow up. ' Filia Babylonis misera ! . . . Beatus qui tenebit et aUidet parvulos tuos ad petram.' Ps. cxxxvi. 8-9. (Ps. cxxxvii. Auth. Vers.) — the prophecy being in Isaiah xiii. 16. G. LOVE'S SEEYILE LOTT. Love mistres is of many myndes, Yet fewe know whome they serve ; They recken least how little love Their service doth deserve. The will she robbeth from the witt, The sence from reason's lore ; She is delightfull in the ryne, Corrupted in the core. She shroudeth Vice in Vertue's veyle, • Pretendinge good in ill ; She offreth joy, affordeth greife, A kisse, where she doth kill. A honye-shonre raynes from her lippes, Sweete lightes shyne in her face ; She hath the blushe of virgin mynde, The mynde of viper's race. LOVE*S SERVILE LOTT. 79 She makes thee seeke yet feare to finde, - To finde but not enjoye ; In many frowns some glydinge smyles She yeldes, to more annoye. She woes thee to come nere her fire, Yet doth she drawe it from thee ; Farr off she makes thy harte to frye, And yet to freese within thee. She letteth fall some luringe baytes, For fooles to gather upp ; To sweete, to soure, to every taste ' ^ She tempereth her cupp. Softe soules she bindes in tender twist, Small flyes in spynner's webb ; She setts afloate some luring streames, But makes them soone to ebb. Her watery eies have burninge force, Her fluddes and flames conspire ; Teares kindle sparkes, sobbes fuell are. And sighes do blowe her fier. May never was the month of love, For May is full of floures ; But rather Aprill, wett by kinde, For love is full of showers. 80 love's servile lott. Like tyran, crewell woundes she gives, Like surgeon, salve she lends ; But salve and sore have equall force, For death is both their ends. With soothing wordes enthralled soules She cheynes in servile bandes ; Her eye in silence hath a speeche Which eye best understands. Her little sweete hath many soures ; Short happ immortall harmes ; Her loving lookes are murdring darts, Her songes, bewitchinge charmes. Like Winter rose and Summer yce. Her joyes are still untymelye ; Before her hope, behinde remorse, Fayre first, in fyne unseemely. Moodes, passions, phancies, jelious fitts, Attend uppon her trayne ; She yeldeth rest without repose, A heaven in hellish payne. Her house is sloth, her dore deceite, And slippery hope her st aires ; Unbashfull bouldnes bidds her guestes, And every Vice repayres. LIFE IS BUT LOSSE. 81 Her diett is of such delightes As please, till they be past ; But then, the poyson kills the hart That did entise the tast. Her sleepe in synne doth end in wrath, Eemorse rings her awake ; Death calls her upp. Shame drives her out, Despayres her uppshott make. Plowe not the seas, so we not the sands. Leave off your idle payne ; Seeke other mistres for your myndes, Love's service is in vayne. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. TuKNBULL has some sad eiTors in this poem : e.g. st. iv. line 3, * virgin's' for ' virgin :' st. vi. line 2, ' she' dropped out ; and so inline 4, 'in' for * within :' st. xi. line 2, * salves' for ' salve :' st. xii. line 1, * soothed' for ' soothing.' In our ms. there is no division into stanzas. As before, with * thee,' I print * off,' not ' of,' as in st. vi. line 3, and elsewhere. G. » -, . . LIFE IS BUT LOSSE. T , C.. C.\r By force I live, in will I wish to dye ; In playnte I passe the length of lingring dayes-^ Free would my soule from mortall body flye, And tredd the track, pf death's des/red wales : Life is but losse v^here death is deemed gaine, And loathed pleasures breed. ^displeasinge paj^e. 82 LIFE IS BUT LOSSE. Who would not die to kill all murdring^ grejives ?/^ Or who would live in never-dyinge feares ] Who would not wish his treasure safe from theeves, Andquit^ his hart from pangues,his eyes from teares] Death parteth but two ^everjfighting^ foes, Whose civill strife doth worke our endles* woes. Life is a wandring^ course to doubtfull rest^, As oft a cursed rjse to damninge leape; As happy race to wynn a heavenly crest^i" IN'one being sure,x 172 DECEASE, RELEASE. My skaffold was the bedd where ease I founde, The blocke a pillowe of eteruall reste ; My hedman cast me in a blisfuU swounde, His axe cutt off my cares from combred breste. Eue not my death, rejoyce at my repose ; 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 ; My right my ruthe, 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 advauncd From woe to weale, from hell to heavenly raigne. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Waltee was the first to print this poem from Addl, ms. 10.422, and to entitle it ' On the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots :' but his text is mere carelessness. Tuenbull followed, but in st. ii. line 2 mis-read * favour'd' for ' savor'd,' &c. &c. &c. Our MS. corrects in st. v. line 3, by reading ' shortned' for ' scorned,' and line 4 ' an' for ' and.' In our ms. the Poet has left the name of ' Mary' (st. iv.) unfilled in — a suggestive fact. The ' Mary' was unquestionably Mary Queen of Scots. See Notes at close of next poem. In st. i. line 2 ==' It is in fading smoke that incense shows its force' (as in fading life did Mary) : in st. iii. line 4, 'termed,' causal sense of verb — made a term or limit of, ended: in st. viii. line 1, 'prince:' see relative note on ' The Visitation,' st. ii. line 1. G. I DYE WITHOUT DESEET. If orpliane childe, enwrapt in swathing bands, Doth move to mercy when forlorne it lyes ; If none without remorse of love withstands The pitious noyse of infante's selye cryes ; Then hope, my helpelesse hart, some tender eares Will rue thy orphane state and feeble teares. Relinquisht lamb, in solitarye wood. With dying bleat doth move the toughest mynde ; The grasping pangues of new engendred brood, Base though they be, compassion use to finde : Why should I then of pitty doubt to speede. Whose happ would force the hardest hart to bleede 1 Left orphane-like in helpelesse state I rue, With onely sighes and teares I pleade my case ; My dying plaints I daylie do renewe, And fiU with heavy noyse a desert place : Some tender hart will weepe to here me mone ; Men pitty may, but helpe me God alone ! 174 I DYE WITHOUT DESERT. Rayne downe, yee heavens, your teares this case requires; Man's eyes unhable are enough to shedd ; If sorow could have place in heavenly quires, A juster ground the world hath seldome bredd : For. Right is wrongd and Yertue wagd with blood ; The badd are blissd, God murdred in the good. A gracious plant for fruite, for leafe and flower, A peereles gemm for vertue, proofe and price, A noble peere for prowesse, witt, and poure, 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. t^en Thus Fortune's favors still are bent to flight. Thus worldly blisse in finall bale doth end ; Thus Yertue still pursued is with spight, But let my fall, though ruefull, none offend : God doth sometymes first cropp the sweetest floure. And leaves the weede till Tyme do it devoure. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Walter again first printed this from Addl. ms. 10.422, but again very badly. So too Tuenbull, wbo mis-read in st. i. line 5 ' cares' for ' eares,' &c. &c. Our ms. corrects st. iv. line 5, by reading 'wrongd' for 'wrong;' and in st. vi. line 4, 'fall' for ' fate.' Probably Mary Queen of Scots is the supposed speaker, as in the preceding poem. See also the Latin Elegy, first printed by us, in which the Shade (' Umbra') of Mary laments her hap- less fate. In st. i. line 3, remorse of love is =: loving pity. * Sely' = silly (st. i. line 4) is so frequently-used a word in I DYE WITHOUT DESERT. 175 Southwell, that I gladly avail myself of the present opportunity of bringing together a number of memoranda on it, the more readily that my invaluable friend Dr. Brinsley Nicholson has here specially emdched me from his rare stores. Besides the meaning now attached to ' silly,' there is no question but it had those of innocent, harmless, plain, and simple, and the like, much as simple and innocent have similar shades of mean- ing at the present time, and, as they are substantively used, not without touch of pathos, for ' silly' persons or idiots. Nor is it necessary to enter into its real or supposed derivation from selig, blessed or holy, to understand the connection between these several meanings. Southwell's ' silly shroud' (Content and Rich, st. ii. line 3) may with Shakespeabe's ' silly habit' (Cymbeline, v. 3) mean simple or plain clothing; and the ' silly women' of the Two Gentlemen of Verona (iv. 1), and the ' silly sheep' of 3 Henry VI. (ii. 5), and the 'silly beasts' of 'New Prince, New Pompe' (st. ii. line 3), are so called as innocent, harmless, and inoffensive, as in part at least the doves of ' The Presentation' (st. i. line 2) are silly or innocent. But there is a now provincial North-country use of ' silly' in the sense of ' sickly' or 'weakly' (Halliwell's Ar. Diet. s. v.) de- rived from the stronger sense of sillies, simples, or innocents, because they are not only weakly of mind, but frequently weakly in body and constitution, so much so that from their increased desii-e for warmth comes the sarcastic proverbial saying — ' Yea, wit enough to keep himself ivann.'' Now, as with other provincial words and meanings, this provincialism is but the shrunken remnant of a more widely-spread usage. No other sense can, I think, be given it in Mary Magdalen's Complaynt at Christ's Death in st. ii. line 1, and Lewd Love is Losse (st. ii. 1. 4 — so stupidly misprinted ' folly' by Turnbull), nor can the ' silly beg- gars' of Richard II. (v. 5) be anything but poor beggars; for there is no reason why Richard should call them ' harmless.' Nor could the beggars and vagabonds of Shakespeare's time be as a class so called ; the representatives of them give them the very opposite character, and we know that they were hung by thousands in Henry VIII. 's time : * Thoughts tending to content, flatter themselves That they are not the first of Fortune's slaves, Nor shall not be the last ; like silly beggars, Who sitting in the stocks, refuge their shame, That many have, and others must sit there.' So in 1 Henry VI. (ii. 3) it is tolerably clear from the context 176 I DYE WITHOUT DESERT. that the Conntess does not mean to call Talbot an inoffensive but a * silly' weakly dwarf : ' Alas, this is a child, a silly dwarf ! It cannot be this weak and writheld shrimp Should strike such terror to his enemies.' And in Cymbeline (v. 3) 'poor habit' is a better gloss than plain, both from the context and from the passage (v. 1), where Posthumus says he will ' habit' himself as a Breton peasant, and lead the fashion of less without and more within. From * weakly' we easily arrive at 'poor' or 'insignificant,' and one of the three meanings must be given to two of the quotations in Richabd- son's Dictionary, from Hall's Satires (vi. 1) and Beowne's Pas- torals, as to the ' silly ant' or other insect compared with an elephant, or silly canoe of wood or bark as compared with builded vessels ; while weakly, if not the main sense, is certainly involved in a third quotation from Chapman (Iliad, b. viii.), ' fools, to raise such silly forts,' &c. In other passages also where this sense is not a necessity, it still seems to be involved and to give a much fuUer meaning. The ' silly turtle doves' of The Presentation (st. i. line 2) are contrasted with ' empires ware,' and the infant's silly or weakly plaintive cries with the feeble tears of the next and parallel line of * I die without Desert' (as before). Palsgeave also, as quoted by Halliwell, gives 'sely' as 'pavoreux;' and with this we may take ' she sighit sely sore,' and, against Ellis and Jamieson's 'wonderfully sore,' gloss it as ^piteously sore,' and regard it as akin to Palsgeave's ' sely,' ' wretched' or ' meschant.' ♦ SiUy' (' sely') in David's Peccavi (st. i. line 3) seems to be best glossed by ' pavoreux,' as indicated by the first line of next stanza. In st. iv. line 5, wag'd' = ' recompensed. G. OF THE BLESSED SACEAME:N'T OF THE AULTEE. In paschall feast, the end of auncient rite, An entraunce was to never-endinge grace ; Tipes to the truth, dymm glymses to the light ; Performinge deed presaging signes did chase : Christens final meale was fountayne of our good, For mortall meate He gave immortall foode. That which He gaue. He was : peerelesse gifte ! Both God and man He was, and both He gaue. He in His handes Himself did trewlye lifte, Farre off they see whome in them selves they have ; Twelve did He feede, twelve did their feeder eate, He made. He dressd, He gave. He was their meate. j - They sawe, they harde, they felt Him sitting nere, Unseene, unfelt, unhard, they Him receivd ; 'No diverse thinge, though divers it appeare ; Though sences faile, yet faith is not deceiVd ; And if the wonder of the worke be newe, Beleive the worke because His worde is trewe. Here truth beleefe, beleefe inviteth love. So sweete a truth Love never yett enjoy'd ; I 178 OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT OF THE AULTER. What thought can thincke, what will doth best approve, Is here ohteyn'd where no desire ys voyde : The grace, the joy, the treasure here is such, 1^0 witt can wishe, nor will embrace so much. Self-love here cannot crave more then it fyndes ; Ambition to noe higher worth aspire ; The eagrest famyn of most hungry myndes May fill, yea farre exceede their owne desire : In summ here is all in a summ expressd. Of much the most, of every good the best. To ravishe eyes here heavenly bewtyes are ; To winne the eare sweete musick's sweetest sound ; To lure the tast the angells' heavenly fare ; To sooth the sent divine perfumes abounde ; To please the touch. He in our hartes doth bedd. Whose touch doth cure the dephe, the dumm, the dedd. Here to delight the witt trewe wisdom e is, To wooe the will — of every good the choise ; For memory, a mirrhor showing blisse ; Here's all that can both sence and soule rejoyce ; And if to all, all this it do not bringe, The fault is in the men, not in the thinge. Though blynde men see no light, the sunne doth shyne ; Sweete cates are sweete, though fevered tastes deny it; Perles pretious are, though trodden on by swyne ; Ech truth is trewe, though all men do not trye it ; t<*. OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT OF THE AULTER. 179 The best still to the badd doth worke the worste ; Thinges bredd to blisse do make them more accurst. I The angells' eyes, whome veyles cannot deceive, ''^ Might best disclose that best they do descerne ; Men must with sounde and silent faith receive \ I More then they can by sence or reason lerne ; '^ God's poure our proofes, His workes our witt exceede, The doer's might is reason of His deede. ;- I A body is endow' d with ghostly rightes ; And !N'ature's worke from Nature's law is free ; In heavenly sunne lye hidd eternall lightes, Lightes cleere and neere, yet them no eye can see : ^ tVr^ Dedd formes a never-dyinge life do shroude ; A boundlesse sea lyes in a little cloude. The God of hoastes in slender hoste doth dwell, -^^* Yea, God and man with all to ether dewe, That God that rules the heavens and rifled hell, That man whose death did us to life renewe : That God and man that is the angells' blisse. In forme of bredd and wyne our nurture is. Whole may His body be in smallest breadd, Whole in the whole, yea whole in every crumme ; With which be one or be tenn thowsand fedd, "^"^o^m All to ech one, to all but one doth cumme ; And though ech one as much as all receive, iN'ot one too much, nor all too little have. 180 OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT OF THE AULTER. One soule in man is all in everye part ; One face at once in many mirrhors shynes ; One fearefiill noyse doth, make a thowsand start ; One eye at once of countlesse thinges defynes ; If proofes of one in many, Nature frame, ^..^ God may in straunger sort performe tlie same. ^.^' '^ God present is at once in everye place, Yett God in every place is ever one ; So may there be by giftes of ghostly grace, One man in many roomes, yett filling none ; Sith angells may effects of bodyes shewe, God angells' giftes on bodyes may bestowe. What God as auctour made He alter may ; No change so harde as making all of nought ; If Adam framed were of slymye claye, Bredd may to Christens most sacred flesh be wrought : He may do this that made with mighty hande Of water wyne, a snake of Moyses' wande. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. We give the above poem from our ms. (Stonyhurst) with slight exceptions, noted in the places below. Tuenbull printed it with such errors as really turn it into nonsense, and prove him to have been incapable of so much as reading an old ms., even so plain a one as Addl. ms. 10.422. Walter included it in his volume (1817), pp. 90-95. But a curious circumstance has now for the first time to be mentioned. This poem proves to be none other than ' The Christian's Manna;' which was ori- OP THE BLESSED SACRAMENT OF THE AULTER. 181 ginally published in the edition of 1616, and repeated in that of 1620 ; but over which Editors and Bibliographers alike shook their heads doubtfully; 'Mister Park' (to adopt Ritson's form) pronouncing emphatically against it, and so after-editors and bibliographers followed blindly. It is now sufficiently plain that its presence in the Stonyhurst ms. (as before in Addl. ms. 10.422) establishes its authenticity and vindicates the integrity of the Douai editors. The texts of 1616 and 1620 present some various readings that I have adopted, as noted. Addl. MS. 10.422 differs from our ms. only orthographically, except in the following : st. i. line 2, ' was' dropped : line 3, ' glymes' ( = gleams) for ' glymses ;' in 1616 and 1620 ' glimpses,' which gives the lacking syllable, and on which cf . St. John i. 9 : st. iii. line 5, misreads ' workes' for ' worke :' st. v. line 6, mis- reads ' which' for ' much :' st. vii. line 1, ' will' for ' witt :' st. xii. line 3, drops * be' before ' tenn' — all faithfully continued by TuRNBULL, and in the last * even,' ill supplied by him. St. i. contains reminiscences of Southwell's favourite hymn, 'Lauda Sion Salvatorem' (st. iv.), with the sequence of the thoughts reversed. On another Shakesperean parallel in st. vi. see our Memorial-Introduction. In st. x. line 2, ' Nature's work . . . .' =the wafer of the host : st. xi. line 6, * angells' gifts' == His gifts to angels. I have adopted the following from 1616 and 1620 : st. vii. line 4, ' Here's' for ' Here :' st. x. line 2, ' And' for ' A Nature's.' I record, but do not accept, the following : st. iii. line 6, ' the' for ' His :' st. iv. line 1, * Here true belief e of force inuiteth love :' st. vi. does not appear in either edition : st. x. line 1, ' indued :' st. xiii. line 2, ' glasses' : lines 5-6, * If proofe of one in many, Nature forme, Why may not God much more performe the same ?* St. XV. lines 5-6, * He still doth this, that made with mighty hand Of water wine, a snake of Moyses' wand.' G. LAMEISTTS FOE A NOBLE LADY. Clara Ducum soboles, superis nova sedibus hospes, Clausit inoffenso tramite pura diem : Dotibus ornavit, superavit moribus ortmn, Omnibus una prior, parfuit vna sibi : Lux genus ingenio, generi lux inclita virtus, Yirtutique fuit mens generosa decus. Mors minuit, properata dies orbamque reliquit, Prolem matre, virum conjuge, flore genus. Occidit, ast alium tulit hie occasus in ortum, Yivit, ad occiduas non reditura vices. Of Howarde's stemm a glorious braunch is dead, Sweete lightes eclipsed were at her decease ; In Buckhurst' lyne, she gracious yssue spredd, She heaven with two, with fower did Earth encrease : Eame, honour, grace, gave ayre unto her breathe, Eest, glory, joyes, were sequelles of her deathe. Death aymd too highe, he hitt too choise a wighte, ,^^7::^>^ Eenownde for birth, for life, for lovely partes ; ^y^/^ He kilde her cares, he brought her worthes to light, He robd our eyes, but hath enrichd our hartes : LAMENTS FOR A NOBLE LADY. 183 He lett out of the arke a ]!^oe's dove, But many hartes are arkes unto her loue. Grace, JS'ature, Fortune, did in hir conspire j To shewe a proofe of their united skill : \ Slye Fortune, ever false, did soone retyre, But double grace supplid false Fortune's ill : And though she wrought not to her Fortune's pitch, In Grace and nature fewe were founde so ritche. Heaven of this heavenly perle is now possest. Whose lustre, was the blaze of Honnor's lighte ; Whose substance pure, of every good the best. Whose price, the crowne of Yertue's highest right ; Whose praise, to be her self ; whose greatest blisse, To live, to love, to be where nowe she is. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. I have given a heading to these two poems, which appeared originally at close of Southwell's prose treatise in the form of •A consolatorie Epistle,' entitled 'The Triumphs oner Death.' Our text is that of the Stonyhurst ms., which is superior to that of 1596. Latin, line 7 in 1596 is ' Mors muta at :' line 9, ' a se alium :' English, in Addl. ms. 10.422, st. i. line 2, ' in' for ' at :' st. ii. line 5, note also the very important reading of ' Hee' for the. nonsensical ' Lot' of 1596 blindly repeated by Turnbull : st. iii. line 5, 'raught' in 1596=' wrought' (see relative note on St. Peter's Complaint, st. ciii. line 2) : ' her' dropped out by Turn- bull : line 6, ' nature,' adopted for ' vertue :' st. iv. line 4, ' Ver- tue's' dropped in 1596, and iU-filled by Turnbull' s ' every.' G. TO THE CHEISTIAIT EEADEE OE ' SHOKT EVLES OE GOOD LIEE.'i If Yertue be thy guide, True comfort is tliy path, And thou secure from erring steps, That leade to vengeance' wrath. 'Not widest open doore, Not spacious wayes she goes ; To straight and narrow gate and way, She cals, she leads, she shewes. She cals, the fewest come : She leades, the humble sprited ; She shews them rest at race's end, I Soule's rest to heauen inuited. 'Tis she that offers most ; 'Tis she that most refuse ; 'Tis she preuents the broad-way plagues. Which most do wilfuU chuse ; ' Our text of this and three following is that of 1630. One ob-viouB misprint, ' dog' for ' do,' in st. iv. line 4, is corrected. G. ► TO THE READER OF SHORT RVLES OF GOOD LIFE. 185 Doe choose the wide, the broad, The left-hand way and gate : These Vice applauds, these Vertne loaths And teacheth hers to hate. Her waies are pleasant waies, Vpon the right-hand side ; And heauenly-happy is that soule Takes Vertue for her guide. A Preparatiue to Prayer. When thou doest talke with God, by prayer I meane,^ Lift vp pure hands, lay downe all Lust's desires : Fix thoughts on heauen, present a conscience cleane : Such holy balme, to mercie's throne aspires. Confesse faults' guilt, craue pardon for thy sinne ; Tread holy paths, call grace to guide therein. * TuRNBULL grossly misprints * clear' for ' cleane,' notwith- standing the rhyme mth ' meane,' line 3 ; and in st. iv. line 2, ' sei-vant' for ' sernants.' I have corrected * blame' (st. i. line 4) by * balme,' which vindicates itself. St. iii. line 6, ' converts,' verb neut. reflective = turns, changes: st. iv. Iine4, 'impeach' (Fr. emp^cher)=:hindrance, the literal and, in that day, com- mon meaning: line 6 seems corrupted — qy. 'salvation's hill on Mercie's wings' ? I am not sure that I do right in adhering to the divisions and separate headings of 1630 in what must have been meant by its Author to be one poem on prayer. In reading let these separate headings be ignored, and thereby the reader will be 186 TO THE READER OF SHORT RVLES OF GOOD LIFE. It is the spirit with reuerence must obey Our Maker's will, to practise what He taught ; Make not the flesh thy counsell when thou pray : 'Tis enemie to euery vertuous thought : It is the foe we daily feed and cloath : It is the prison that the soule doth loath. Euen as Elias, mounting to the skie^ 6 Did cast his mantle to the Earth behind : So, when the heart presents the prayer on high, Exclude the world from trafiike with the mind. Lips neere to God, and ranging heart within, Is but vaine babbling and conuerts to sinne. Like Abraham, ascending vp the hill To sacrifice ; his seruants left below, That he might act the great Commander's will, Without impeach to his obedient blow ; Euen so the soule, remote from earthly things ; Should mount saluation's shelter, Mercie's wings. relieved of the misconception which otherwise is inevitable as to ' Oh, fortresse of the faithful!,' &c. (Ensamples, st. ii. line 1). At present no one, till he reads farther and reconsiders, can avoid taking it as an epithet of what is now the opening of the poem and the subject of the first stanza, namely, our Sa- viour. G. TO THE READER OF SHORT RVLES OF GOOD LIFE. 187 The Effects of Prayer. The sunne by prayer did cease his course, and staid ; The hungrie lions fawnd vpon their prey ; A walled passage through the sea it made ; From furious fire it banisht heat away ; It shut the heauens three yeares from giuing raine, It opened heauens, and clouds powrd downe againe. Ensamples of our Saviour. OvR Sauiour, (patterne of true holinesse,) Continuall praid, vs by ensample teaching, — When He was baptized in the wildernesse. In working miracles and in His preaching ; Vpon the mount, in garden-groues of death. At His Last Supper, at His parting breath. Oh ! fortresse of the faithfull, sure defence, In which doth Christians' cognizance consist ; Their victorie, their triumph comes from thence. So forcible, hell-gates cannot resist : A thing whereby both angels, clouds and starres, At man's request fight God's reuengefull warres. Nothing more gratefull in the Highest eyes, Nothing more firme in danger to protect us, 188 TO THE READER OF SHORT RVLES OF GOOD LIFE. Nothing more forcible to pierce the skies, And not depart till Mercy doe respect vs : And, as the soule life to the body giues. So prayer reuiues the soule, by prayer it lines. NOTES. St. ii. line 1, ' fortreese' = prayer : st. iii. line 4, 'respect' =to look back upon or again, hold in view, look upon consider- ately. Part of one of these (the Preparation to Prayer) was pre- fixed to Bp. Cosin's HorcB : but with some variations (pp. 16-18, Oxford reprint). Some of the Prayers in that book are taken from Southwell (which rather modifies what is said in the Ox- ford Preface from Evelyn, p. xii.) : for example, on pp. 68-72, which is altered from one in Southwell's Rules of Good Life (latter part of sheet t, ed. 1630). G. POEMATA LATINA. FROM THE MSS. OF THE AUTHOR. Never before printed. NOTE. The whole of the following hitherto unprinted Latin Poems by Southwell are from his own mss. now preserved in Stony- hurst College, near Blackburn. They are written in fasci- culi distinct from the English Poems' ms. (on which see our Preface). The first two pieces explain themselves — and for remarks on them and the others, reference may be made to our Me- morial-Introduction ; but it may be well to note here, that the first of the Fragment of a Series of Elegies seems to relate to some disaster to the Spanish arms, probably the Armada collapse of 1588 ; that ' Elegia VIII.' is the lament of a husband for the death of his wife, in which there is a conceit running throughout, founded upon the idea of the one being ' alter ego' of the other; and that 'Elegia IX.' is historically interesting as being put into the ' fair lips' of the ' Shade' of Mary, Queen of Scots, and so a fitting companion to his English poem, 'Decease, Kelease. Dum morior, orior.' The shorter sacred poems are elucidated by their headings. Even with the anxious assistance of the Eev. S. Sole of St. Mary's College, Oscott, Birmingham, and the cooperation of the Rev. Joseph Stevenson of the same College — to the latter of whom the whole of the Southwell mss. of Stonyhurst had been sent for calendaring in the Report of the Government Com- mission on (private) Historical mss. — I cannot hope to have furnished an immaculate text. But no pains have been spared to make out the small and difficult handwriting, and it is believed few or no important errors will be found. Some words have been conformed to classical usage in the orthography. G. POEMA DE ASSUMPTIONE B.V.M. Cum caelum et tellus et vasti machina mundi, Ponderibus Kbrata suis, basis inscia, firmas Sortita est sedes, et legibus omnia certis In propriis digesta locis jam fixa manerent, Extremum Deus urget opus, primosque parentes Cunctaruni format veluti compendia rerum. Hos orbis statuit dominos, atque omnibus ornans Deliciis, sacra paradisi in sede locavit. Hie locus a primo mundi memorabilis ortu, Consitus arboribus, leni quas aura susurro Murmureque interflat molli, labensque per herbas Dulcisonos ciet unda modos, paribusque recurrens Flexibus, in varios per gramina finditur arcus. Hie vagus incerto discurrens tramite piscis Plurimus ignoti generis, dum lusibus instat Decipit, et placide fallendo lumina mulcet. Per ripas diffusa patet cum floribus berba, Luxuriansque viget vario Isetissima partu, Quern sponte effudit curvo sine vomere tellus. Hie rosa cum violis, cum calthis lilia certant ; Hie casiae narcissus adest, hyacinthus acantho ; 15 192 POEM A DE ASSUMPTIONE B.V.M. Hie crocus et mixtis crescunt vaccinia bacis. Quis dulces avium modulos, genus omne ferarum Quis memoret, quis cuncta loci miracula narret 1 Quicquid in immenso pulchri diffunditur orbe, Et sparsum solumque alias aliasque per oras Cernitur, hoc uno totum concluditur horto. Haec sedes antiqua fuit, quam Lucifer Adae Invidit, tetrumque Erebi detrusus in antrum Et cselo extorris, diro molimine fraudes Intulit, et tectis veri sub imagine verbis Lethiferum suasit morsum, cseloque rebelles Eeddidit, et victis Stygiae cervicibus Aulae Imposuit servile jugum, placidisque fugatos Sedibus, exilio gravibusque doloribus anxit. Hie primum sua signa ferox victricia Pluto Extulit, hie ultrix morbi mortisque potestas Coepit, et humanum genus in sua jura vocavit. Mox variis grassata modis mors tempore vires Colligit, et cunctos nullo discrimine maetans Imperat, et to to late dominatur in orbe. ^N'on minus beroas, proceres, mundique dynastas Sceptrigerumque genus, quam vili stirpe creatos Abripit, at que omnes vincens invicta triumphat ; Donee virgo, suae vindex generosa parentis, Se rabido victrix objecit prima furori Mortis, et imperii saevas convellere leges Orsa, satellitium mortis superavit, et ipsi Terrorem incussit dominae, quod corporis aequa POEMA DE ASSUMPTIONE B.V.M. 193 Temperies, vegetiqiie artus, et vivida virtus 50 Lethiferis aditum praecluderet Integra morbis. Mors mirata suos contra hanc nil posse ministros, Provectamque nihil solitis concedere telis, Extremam imperio timet impendere ruinam. Principiis igitur cupiens obsistere, totas 55 Intendit vires, atque omnia mente volutans, Tartarei cogit proceres, monstra impia, regni. Est vastum scabris sinnosum anfractibus antrum, Solis inaccessum radiis, fundoque dehiscens, Et ruptas reserans immani borrore cavernas. 60 Propatulo hie fiuvius surgit Lethaeus hiatu, Ingentique mens per concava saxa fragore, Praecipitante rotat limosa volumina cursu, Et dirum aggeribus spumans f remit unda repertis. Hinc atque hinc atrata patent fuligine tecta, 65 Et loca senta situ, varios spirantia morbos, iEternum spissae squalent caligine mortis. In medio solium, nulla spectabile pompa, Informi obductum limo, sanieque perunctum, Eminet, exesis diuturna aerugine fulcris. 70 Hie annosa sedet canis mors horrida ssetis, Os macie, taboque genas confecta, cavisque Immersos fossis oculos et livida circum Dentes labra gerens turpique patentia rictu. Haec jubet : et raucis praeco clamoribus auras 75 Personat, et medio manes compellat ab antro. Excita turba ruit caecas furibunda per umbras, o 194 POEMA DE ASSUMPTIONE B.V.M. Insolitos mirata sonos, atque ociiis una Conglomerata capit certas ex ordine sedes. Fatales primum pariter sedere sorores, 80 Quae levibus vitae deducunt stamina fusis.^ Decrepita has sequitur baculoque innixa senectus, Incultas diffusa comas, et membra caducis Yix pedibus moribunda regens. Tum languida febris, Et tussis, pituita, hydrops, et lurida pestis, 85 Phrenesis, cancer, porrigo, tormina, spasmus, Et genus id, numerosa manus ; quibus undique septa Mors spirans immane, oculis jaculantibus ignes, Atque olidum truncis fumum de naribus efflans, Terribiles ructat fremitus ; dein talia fatur. 90 Atra cohors, nostris semper fidissima sceptris, Olim quanta fuit Letbei gloria regni Qua Phoebus, qua luna suos agit aurea currus, Quas bello edidimus strages, quot funere reges Mersimus, et to tum quoties consumpsimus orbem 95 ISTon latet, et vestris cecidit pars maxima telis. Vos etenim spissos animarum ad Tartara nimbos Praecipites egisse subit, plenisque voracem Exsatiasse hominum functorum messibus Orcum. Numquid tanta ruet virtus ingloria, et uni too ISToster cedet honos ? Sic formidabile numen Imperiumque ruet, sic nostris hostia templis Deiiciet, tantique cadent fastigia regni ? Est mulier, mulier nostris contraria fatis, > In margin ' vel mensurant.' G. POEMA DB ASSUMPTIONE B.V.M. 195 Omni labe carens, nullseque obnoxia culpae : 105 lUius heec genetrix Christi est, qui immanibus ausis Tartareos subiit fines, et victor opimis Ditatus spoliis, superas evasit ad auras, Et rap tarn setbereis prsedam celer intulit astris. Quern timeo, nostroe ne forte injurius aulse no Antiquas violet leges, matremque (quod absit) Viribus eripiat nostris, animosque ministret, Ut praedas actura istis sine sole cavernis Succedat, manesque suis exturbet ab antris. Nee timor bic ratione caret, nam vidimus ilium 115 Qui velut bsec sine labe fuit, victricibus armis Tartareos superasse deos. Pro dicite, civ as, Quid sit opis, quid consilii, qua boc arte queamus Propulsare malum. Yos ista pericula tangunt. Cemitis ut nullos admittat corpore morbos, 120 Et vestras ludat vires 1 Prob sola revellet Jura per innumeros annorum fixa recursus Eemina 1 Sic omnes coepto desistere victos Post tot saecla decet ? Scelus est . . . Hie plura volentem Dicere, non patitur rabies, et marcida circum 125 Fauces spuma fluens, imis quam sseva medullis Ira furorque ciet. Yeluti cum verbere tactus Stat sonipes, pressisque furens detentus habenis, Frena ferox pleno spumantia mergit in ore. Mox varias edit confuso murmure voces 130 Circumposta cobors, strepitu reboante per auras ; Qualis ad excussos sequitur de nubibus ignes. 196 POEMA DE ASSUMPTIONE B.V.M. Subjectis ardent irarum pectora taedis, Atque odiis fervent animi, crudusque per artus Livor et ossa ruit; caecus rapit impetus omnes. 135 Arma fremunt, ssevit belli scelerata cupido, Certatimque feras sese exbortantur in iras, Et patrias jurant tutari sanguine sedes. Non secus ac subitis populus temerarius ausis, Audito belli sonitu, furit undique praeceps, 140 Atque omni sine lege ruit, nil mente retractans Quid fieri expediat, sed quid novus ingerat ardor. Yerum ita concusses animis grandseva senectus, Longe aliud secum meditans, sic ore moratur : Siste gradum, generosa cohors, baud irrita forsan 1 45 Verba loquar, nostris aures advortite dictis. Nobilis ut video vobis vigor insidet, altum Mens agitat bellum, claris crebrescere factis Fert animus, juvat et superis indicere divis Proelia; nos etiam votis si cetera nostris 150 Congruerent, avidi tantos ambimus honores. Sed frustra hoc temptamus opus. Quibus setbera telis Pervia censetis 1 quae non molimina vincet Qui potis est totum delere et condere mundum 1 Jampridem sensere im manes mole gigantes 155 In superos quid bella queant. Et Lucifer ille, Orbe sub empireo rutilanti in sede refulgens. Cum sibi divinos temere^ poscebat bonores, * * Temere' is an oversight, but we must leave it, as with * nisi,' &c. G. I POEMA DE ASSUMPTIONE B.V.M. 197 Haud potuit retinere suos, sed, pulsus in imas Terrarum latebras, poenas exsolvit acerbas. i6o His prsestat didicisse maKs, quam vana furentes In caelum temptare nefas, et cedere victos. Consilium rursus capitote, expendite causas, In melius mutasse animos prudentia summa est. Si mea canities, mea si sententia pondus 165 Momentumque habeat, bellorum insana cupido Cesset, et in summi referamus verba Tonantis Judicium, qui nee Stygiis injurius unquam Sedibus esse potest, cujusque in numine lis est. Hsec ubi dicta dedit, torpent in proelia vires, 170 Infractique cadunt animi, mentesque coacta Pax tenet, et junctis rata fit sententia votis. IlTuntius extemplo liquidas sublimis in auras Tollitur, et facili tranans per inane volatu Arduus insurgit, Letbseique acta Senatus 175 Exponens superis, avidus responsa requirit. Tunc Deus, ostentans sequato examine lances, Esto, ait, aequus ero, causa exagitetur utrinque : Cui ratio, cui jura favent, victoria cedat. Mox partes actura suas mors ferrea prsesto est, 180 Et saevum frendens rabido sic intonat ore : O rerum qui summa tenes, quid jura revellis, Et male nil meritam dubiis terroribus angis 1 Quid merui, quid commisi, quae crimina tandem Sic multanda vides, nostris ut legibus istam 185 Eripias, et prisca ruat labefacta potestas ] 198 POEM A DE ASSUMPTIONE B.V.M. Mortalis nata est, et carnis credita moles Communem redolet massam ; caro terrea terras Eeddatur, maneat^ simili sub pulvere pulvis. Adamo ex patre est, cujus cum cetera proles 1 90 niius ob culpam parcis obnoxia sumat Corpora, cur mortem baec et ineluctabile fatum Effugiat, cur funereas transire per umbras Abnuat, et victrix reliquis magis una triumpbet ? Hsec ait, at Gabriel causam contrarius urget 195 Virginis, adversoque potens sermone tuetur. Nosti, ait, alme Pater, quos mors tellure repostos In sua jura rapit, primi contracta parentis Aspergit maculosa lues ; et cedere fatis Culpae poena fuit. Sed virgo baec, criminis exors, 200 Cur luat immeritas omnino innoxia posnas ? Id Cbristi genetricis erat sponsseque tonantis, Ut pura infectos transiret sola per artus. Communique carens culpa, mala debita culpse Hand ferret. Nullis Deus est nisi sontibus ultor. 205 His ita respondet solio Deus orsus ab alto : Judicium hoc esto. Yenerandae virginis almus Spiritus astra petat, sanoque e corpore migret JN'on mortis sed amoris ope, et violenta doloris Vis nulla impediat, sit summa exire voluptas. 210 Tunc mors dira fremit, lapsumque in viscera torquet Invidiae furiale malum, disrumpitur ira 1 Above 'maneat' is wi'itten 'redeat;' but as 'maneat' is not erased, we retain it. G. ^P FILII PRODIGI AD PATREM EPISTOLA. 199 Morborum infelix acies, et inutile frendens Vipeream expirat rabiem. Demum acrius instat Ut saltern extinctum liceat dissolvere corpus. 215 Ast superi contra insurgunt, et nescia labis Caelo membra petunt, animse decora alta beatae. Annuit Omnipotens. Divum sonat aula triumpbis. Virgo poli regina sedet, mors victa fugatur. 219 FILII PRODIGI POECOS PASCEXTIS AD PATEEM EPISTOLA. Si tam longinquis rogites quis scripsit ab oris, Vel ferat unde rudes sordida cbarta notas, Inspice, suffusis quamvis maculosa lituris Littera scriptoris nomen et omen habet. Continet ilia meos plenos formidine casus, 1 5 Ilia dabit nati facta scelesta tui ; Et licet ingrato sordent elementa colore, Sunt tamen haec domino candidiora suo. Quippe, quod emerui, lutulentis^ versor in antris, Nilque nisi obscenum lumina nostra vident. 10 Non mihi divitiae, non fulvi copia nummi, Praestitit ut quondam, nunc quoque pra3stat opem. ' In margin, as an apparent alternative line for this : ' Ilia meum referet ter lamentabile fatum.' G. '^ Mis-written ' lutosis.' G. 200 FILII PRODIGI AD PATREM EPISTOLA. Hand inopem fallax comitatur vulgus ut olim, !N'ec, qualis fuerat, jam famulatus adest. Ornatse desiint radian ti murice vestes, 1 5 N'ec phaleris tecti subjiciuntur equi ; Omnia nimboso fluxere simillima vento, I^ec facies rebus, quae fuit ante, manet. Hei volvit fortuna rotam, ventisque solutis Disrupit nostram perniciosa ratem. 20 Aurea deperiit, nunc ferrea prodiit setas; Sunt Iseta in tristes tempora versa dies. Quseque prius ventis pergebant vela secundis, Et pontum ut faciles edomuere lacus, Acta ruunt inter Scyllas interque Chary bdes 25 Et fracta adversis dilacerantur aquis. Heu parva infandum liquerunt gaudia luctum ! Heu ruptum liquit vipera parta latus ! Jam placidse periere dies, tristesque secutse ; Ultima Isetitise prima doloris erat. 30 Sors ea dura quidem, sed nostris debita factis, Immo est errato lenior ira meo. Cum miser ignotas veni peregrinus in oras, Pronus in interitum, pro dolor ! ipse meum, Totus in insanos effudi tempora luxus, 35 Tempora vulneribus jam redimenda meis. Seque mihi juveni juvenes junxere sodales, Et ruitura simul plurima turba fuit. Eaptus in exitium, sociis agitantibus, ivi ; Aut comes aut princeps ad scelus omne fui, 40 FILII PRODIGI AD PATREM EPISTOLA. 201 Utque pudor faciem, pietas sic pectora liquit. Calluit a multis mens hebetata malis, !N'ec mihi cura Dei, propriae nee cnra salntis, Sola videbatur caeca libido salus. Sic ego tartareis merces certissima monstris, 45 Tartareos retuli jam nova dira canes ; ^N'on furiis actus furiosa videbar Erinys, 'Nee mihi sub stygiis par fuit uUus aquis. Haec mea vita fuit, si possit vita vocari Quae tulit ad mortis perniciosa fores. 50 Hoc mea lustravit nimium vaga carbasus aequor, Alta quoad plenam sustulit unda ratem •} Sed modo saxosi portus anfractibus haerens, Corruit ablatis naufraga puppis aquis. Jamque luo poenas, turpis fero praemia vitae; 55 Obruor innumeris exul egensque malis. Ah ! lacer ex humeris algenti pendet amictus, Cetera marmoreo frigore membra rigent, Et male contecti madefiunt imbribus artus ; Quin lacerant nudam verbera saepe cutim. 60 Continuis lassae callent grunnitibus aures, Laeta est in tales musica versa sonos : Sunt etenim porci mensae, lectique sodales, Unus eis cibus est, unus et ille mihi. Horridus inculto pendet de fronte capillus, 65 Nee caput a ventis quod tueatur adest. * There is little doubt Southwell meant ' quoad' and * eis' (line G4) for dissyllables. G. 202 FILII PRODIGI AD PATREM EPISTOLA. Dum facies liquida pallens respondet ab unda, Quae quondam a specnlo reddita ssepe fuit, Dissimiles surgant antiqua ab imagine vultus, N^ec species eadem, quse fuit ante, manet ; 70 Quippe novas macies induxit in ora figuras. Vix cutis, exesis carnibus, ossa tegit ; Squalida languentes febris depascifcur artus, Imaque pervasit tabidus ossa dolor, !N'ec mihi curandis dantur medicamina morbis. 7 5 Tu nisi succurras, non feret alter opem. Hei ! tua sum, genitor, tua sum, licet impia proles, l!^i mala quae fuerit, desinat esse tua. Te genitore fui proles, non impia proles, Impia, me misero, me genitore, fui. 80 Aspice tu prolem, proles dedit impia poenas Atque tulit meritis praemia digna suis ; Inque dies funesta magis tormenta supersunt, Et mala prseteritis deteriora malis ; Mille animum curae, corpus mala mille fatigant, 85 Intus nulla datur, nee foris^ ulla quies. quam difficiles portendunt omnia casus, Tu nisi mature tristia fata leves. Hei citus affer opem, dextramque extende cadenti, Quae data vita mihi, morsque negata foret 90 * ' Foris' is here an adverb = ' out of doors.' But in classi- cal Latin the ' is' is always and necessarily long ; and so here again is a false quantity. G. FILII PRODIGI AD PATREM EPISTOLA. 203 pater, nati spes summa et sola salutis, Sis pater et nati sit tibi cura tui. En scelus agnoscit, lacrimis commissa fatetur, Parcere peccanti munus amoris erit : •Peccavi, fateor, sceleris mens conscia luget, 95 Erroresque luunt singula membra suos ; Scilicet et veniam sceleris mens conscia poscit/ 'Nee nisi peccanti parcere posset amor. Parcat amor, vincat pietas, irseqne facessant, Plus tua te virtus, quam mea facta regant. 1 00 Nee quia me cernis factum de prole rebellem, Tu fieri judex ex genitore velis. Quam vis si fieres, nunquam te judice tantis Esset, credo equidem, subdita vita malis. Cur tua deserui redamati limina tecti ! 105 Cur mea subtraxi lumina maesta tuis ! Sic visum est superis, lisec me fortuna manebat,^ Haec mihi, dura licet, poena ferenda fuit. Ah., Deus, ecce tuli, saevos jam comprime fluctus, Et petat optatos lassa carina sinus. no Per mare, per scopulos, per mille agitata Cbarybdes, Mitius ah tandem, te duce, pergat iter. * Line 97 is written in four ways in the ms., somewhat con- fusedly: 1. As above. 2. Scilicet et veniae segetem mea facta ministrant. 3. Materiam venioB mea sors miseranda ministrat. 4. Non quaerit veniam qui nil commisit iniqui. G. 2 This line is thus written on the margin: Scilicet hos superis placuit me volvere casus. G. 204 FILII PRODIGI AD PATREM EPISTOLA. mihi si patrios liceat revidere penates,. mihi si felix luceat ille dies, Ante ruet coelum tendetque ad sidera tellus 115 Et mare siccatis fluctibus ignis erit, Quam quaeram ignotas iterum novus advena terras, Quamvis quserenti regia sceptra dares. Patria ! dulce solum ! quod si mihi visere detur, Nee me divelli mortuus inde sinam ; 120 Condicio melior patriis in sedibus Iri est, Quam Croesi magnas exulis inter opes. Ergo cara tui pateant mihi limina tecti, Et videam notos post fera fata lares. Sin minus, externis moriar peregrinus in oris, 125 Nee tumuli ritum qui mihi pr sestet erit, Sed sine funeribus nuUo curante relinquar, Et miseranda feris praeda cadaver erit. si forte brevi tales tibi littera casus Adferat, et nati talia fata tui, 130 Quae sibi mens, quis sensus erit, cum, te orta parente, Audieris rabidas membra vorasse feras 1 Tunc fortasse gemens sobolis vel busta requires, Quam poteras vivam nunc habuisse domi. Tunc, si me renuas, memorans renuisse dolebis, 135 Atque tuo duplex imber ab ore fluet. Obvia saepe animo defuncti occurret imago, Junctaque cum lacrimis plurima verba dabis, Ast aderit nullus nisi tristes fletibus umbrae Et rapiet gemitus ventus et aura tuos. 140 FILII PRODIGI AD PATREM EPISTOLA. 205 Tunc dolor invadet quern non invaserat olim, Quique sepultus erat, vulnere surget^ amor. lUe quidem surget, sed nostros serus in usus, Cum nulla optatae spes opis esse potest. Nunc igitur,2 nunc, dum spes manet uUa salutis, 145 Succurre, et tantis obvius ito malis. Quodque mihi, O genitor, solus concedere posses, Accipe supremum prolis ab ore vale. * Above * Burget' is written ' vivet.' G. 2 The ' ur' of ' igitiir' is here made long. By transposing the second ' nunc' and ' 0,' and reading * Nunc igitur, nunc O dum,' &c. the false quantity would be avoided, whether the au- thor's or not. G. FEAGMENT OF A SEEIES OF ELEGIES. There appear to be a part of No. 7, the whole of No. 8, and a part of No. 9. These follow in the order of the ms. G. Ex luctu populus, redditur ipse chalybs. Conclamant CeltsB celsos periisse Monarclias, Nee conclamato funere liber Iber. Ferales !N"ebrissa rotat mutata cupressos ; I^nlla premit laurum praefica, laurus abi. 5 Quin formidatos armat Carteia nepotes, Tain ssevse cupiens arnia movere neci. Cantaber et Vasco demptum sibi plorat honorem ; l!^unc onus est illis quilibet alter bonos. Hunc fati lusum flet Lusitanus et inquit, i o Quae mors dicenda est, si jocus ille fuit ? Bisseni/ clamant, * bisseni' cedite menses : Omnis in boo obitu scilicet annus obit. Ecce jacet fusis gens Castellana maniplis, Hoc tumulo vires perdidit, atque viros. 15 Ex merito Latium nomen sortire latendi ; Hac terra, Latii condita terra, lates ! 1 Query, the Spaniards ; so named from some province of Spain ? Biscay ( ?) ; and qy. read Biscani ? G. FRAGMENT OF A SERIES OF ELEGIES. 207 Quid quod et Eoi pariter, gens altera mundi, Sensit de caelo lumiua rapta sue ! Quid quod et ^thiopes membris nigrantibus horrent ! 2 o A luctu credo provenit ille color. Heu, dicunt, periisse Peru ! mens naufraga currit. Quo ferar 1 ah periit qui modo portus erat. India tota gemit passis diffusa capillis : Ortus in occasum Margaris omnis abit. 25 Hei mihi ! cur lacrimas alio peto sole tepentes 1 XJt doleam tellus nenipe petenda nova est. Quid faciam ? vidi lugentes fluminis undas ; Et vidi lacrimas, utraque terra, tuas. Perge, anime, in fletum, tepuerunt marmora fletu, 30 Ergone marmoribus tu mage durus eris ? Ingemuit pontus, gemuit quoque terra dolore, Et ponto et terra tu mage saevus eris 1 Ah doleo ! testes superi ! mea Margaris, eheu ! Margaris, heu ! luctus hsec quoque testis erit. 35 !N"on doleam ? mea vita f ugit, mea Margareta ! Hoc solo steterat nomine vita mihi. 'Non doleam ? sensus animaeque evanuit ardor ! Quis poterit vitae jam superesse calor 1 Deficio, subsido : dolor ! dolor ! expirabo ! 40 Jam satis est, luctus tu tege, terra, meos. 208 FRAGMENT OF A SERIES OF ELEGIES. ELEGIA YIII. Dig ubi nunc quod amo est ! ubinam quod semper amavi 1 Hei mihi ! vel quod amo, vel quod amabo perit 1 Non perit : ilia praeit ; sed amans sectatur amantem ; Haud sequor, baud igitur me prseit ; ergo perit. Non perit, at patrium vivis bibit setbera labris : 5 Me solum duplici morte perire jubet. Sic quod amas animas ? quod amas sinis ecce perire ; Si sinis boc, cinis est, nam calor inde fugit. Si calor bine remeat, mortis me frigus adurit : Die ubi sit gemini pectoris unus amor 1 10 Tu vel»ego^ duo sunt? non sunt : quid? fallimur ambo; Sint duo, non duo sunt, una vel unus eris. Una vel unus ero : qui legem novit amoris, Unum non uno pectore pectus babet. An bene dinumeras ? Ego, tu ; duo nomina fingis : 1 5 Ast unum duplici nomine numen inest. I^umen inest ; cor corde premit, mentemque maritat ; !N'on duo tu vel ego, sint duo corda licet. Sim tuus et mea sis, sint vincula bina duorum : Simus et bic ambo ; non tamen ambo sumus. 20 Quid queror ! baud moreris ; duo sunt nam corpore in uno, Sic vivum nostro corpore corpus babes : 1 See former note : ego. G. FRAGMENT OF A SERIES OF ELEGIES. 209 Aiit ego jam peril, duo sunt nam corpore in uno ; Sic mea sunt tumulo membra sepulta tuo. Sed neque jam morior, neque tecum vivere possum : 25 Hoc vivo, possum quod memor esse tui. Hoc est, quod moriens, rerum pulcherrima, dixti : Nomen tu memori pectore semper habe ! Et licet hinc absim, sit praesens conjuge conjux : Defungor : functse tu quoque vive mihi. 30 Dixi ego, ne dubita, memori vivemus amore, Quam tuus ipse tuus, tam mea semper eris. Jam mea semper eris, licet hie mea diceris absens ; Pectoribus statuam dicta suprema meis. Quamque mihi dictum, tam tu mihi semper adhaeres, 35 Et dicti et vitae mors erit una meae. Non mihi votorum reddet lux uUa tuorum Taedia ; quis tantae non meminisse potest ? In praesente tamen praesentem quaero ; quid illud 1 Eascinor ? absenti num mihi semper ades ? 40 At forsan nequeunt oculi te ferre sequentes ? Si nequeo visu te, mode mente feram. Aut age ! quod menti deerit, supplebit ocellus : Sic mens, sic oculus testis amoris erit. Sic animus lamenta dabit, lacrimabit ocellus ; 45 Commodus ad partes fiet uterque meas. Quodque animus celat, non hoc celabit ocellus ; Mens secum tacite, sed gemet ille palam. Ite palam, lacrimae, servati pignus amoris ; Ille mihi leto non nisi cedet amor : 50 210 FRAGMENT OF A SERIES OF ELEGIES. Ite palam, gemino dolor hie spectabitur orbe : Hie dolor est, hie est quern pins auget amor. Lamentor, queror, usque queror, gemo, lugeo, plan go, Langueo : languorem dicer e vultis ? amo. Nunc molem sine mole feram, sine pondere pondus ; 5 5 Nunc labor, minima nunc ego mole gravor. Dicite quid sit amor ? pondusne est, an mage penna ? Penna mihi levis est, et grave pondus amor. Excutio pondus, rapidis me intersero pennis, Quels vaga sublimis sidera carpit amor. 60 Ah amo ! sed quid nam 1 vel ubi 1 mea sidera novi : Hie quod amo superest, hue volo, terra, vale. ELEGIA IX, UMBRA REGIN^ NOBILES VIROS DOCET, QUID SIT DE REBUS HISCE FLUXIS SENTIENDUM. Quid conclamato jacis irrita vota sepulchro 1 Quam petis, in vili non remoratur humo. Nunc ingens cselorum heres, nunc hospita cseK, Affigo superis parta tropaea polls Verte alio lacrimas, sanguis mens, inclytus ordo, 5 Inde toga gravior, fortior inde sago. Plange ; sed quid nam ] Stulti ludibria mundi ! Pars magna est animi forsitan ille tui. Quid pretii pretium ? Quid habet decus omne decoris ? Non sunt hsec animo digna potente coli. 10 FRAGMENT OF A SERIES OF ELEGIES. 211 Cemis opes 1 Pictae sunt fulva umbracula massee, Est raptrix animi copia ; cernis opes. Divitiis vitiis inhias 'i reus aureus ipse es : Ties inter opes non nisi semper inops. Vanus honor ; tumidi sunt oblectamina sensus, 1 5 Marcida gloriolse pabula ; vanus honor. Ees nuUa est, bulla est, res futilis, utilis illis Queis inhonorus honor non honor est sed onus. Vana Venus ; caecse sunt irritamina culpae. Dementis mentis toxica ; vana Venus. 20 FaUacem faciem cerussat amaror amoris, Dum mala proponit mala venusta Venus. Este procul tellus, et inania munera terrse ; Munera non ullo respicienda die. Pluma volat : pueri totis complexibus instant. 25 Umbra fugit ; pressus praeterit ilia tuos. Eos est ; si pelago rapitur, fit protinus unda. Unda The four following poems are written in a very small, care- ful hand, on a fold of paper (32mo) of eight pages ; the poems occupy three pages only. G. JESUS. MAEYE. AD DEUM IN AFF[lICTIONe] : ELEGIA. Tu tacitas nosti lacrimas, tu saucia cernis Pectora, secreto quod cremer igne vides ; Tu, quoties tristi ducam suspiria corde, Tu, quoties pro te mors milii grata foret. Vivo tamen, si vita potest quam duco vocari, 5 Quippe cui^ mors est vivere, vita mori. l!^amque procul mea vita fugit qua vivere vellem, Et fera qua nollem vivere vita venit : Haec me dum fugio sequitur, fugit ilia sequentem. Persequor et fugio, luctus utrinque mihi ; i o Nee fugiens capior, nee euntem carpere possum. Hei mihi, qui versa vivere sorte dabit ! ^ Southwell makes 'cui,' according to very late usage, an iambus, cui, whereas in the silver age, Seneca, Martial, and Juvenal first began to use it as a dissyllable, but a pyrrhic dissyllable, cui. G. JESUS. MARYE. 213 AD SANCTAM CATHERINAM, VIRGINEM ET MARTYREM. Tu Catherina, mei solatrix unica liictus, soror et Christi sponsa decora, veni. Die mihi cur tacitis intus miser ignibus urar, Die mihi cur mordax viscera luctus edat. Xonne potes, si vis, nostros in gaudia fletus 5 Vertere 1 quid proMbet 1 tu, Catherina, potes, Quippe suae nunquam sponsse renegare maritus Vel minimum easto quod petit ore potest. Hue igitur, dilecta Deo, tua lumina fleete, Aspiee quam multis mens [labet] ieta malis.^ 10 Ferre cito digneris opem, pulcherrima virgo, Atque extinguendis ignibus affer aquas. Cui Deus injussus venit obvius, ipsa rogata, Quaeso, veni nobis mitis, ut ipse tibi. Quoque tuum pepulit^ Christus medicamine morbum, 1 5 Hoc nostro luctum pectore pelle, precor. Cumque dolor similis, quae te medicina juvaret^ Cur potius nostris esset inepta malis ? Si mihi coneedas, dubio procul angor abibit, Quaeque tibi fuerat, nunc erit apta mihi. 20 Virgo sancta, vale, Christi sanetissima martyr, Terque quaterque vale, sisque benigna mihi. * This line is defective : ' labet' filled in to complete it : ' mat' or ' cadat' will do equally well. G. 2 In the MS. Southwell wrote ' pepulit,' and changed it him- self to ' repulit :' but the former seems better. G. Or juvabat mis-written juvavit. The perfect is juvit. G. 214 JESUS. MARYE. IN RENOVATIONEM VOTORUM, TESTIS NATALIS DOMINI. Vita venit, vitse cnm votis obvius ito, Et veniet votis obvia vita tuis. Yita quod est tibi dat, tu vitae redde teipsum, Et tibi per vitam vita perennis erit. At quinam poteris melius te reddere vitae, Qiiam si, qui vita est, des tua vota Deo ? Des igitur tua vota Deo, dabit ipse seipsum, Et reddet votis prsemia viva^ tuis. in FESTUM PENTECOSTES, anno DOMINI 1580, 21 MAIL PosTQUAM, tartarei spoliis ditatus Averni, Yi propria superas Christus rediisset ad auras, Divino angelicas inter splendore phalanges Conspicuus summas cseli se toUit in arces. Tamque expectatum caelestis turba triumphum 5 Aspicit, atque hominum longi pars mortua luctus Praemia degustat. Solus miser incola terrae Angustam patitur sortem, duroque laborum Pondere depressus, querulo petit ore juvantem. Eespice sublimi clemens de sede gementes 10 In terris populos. Cur nos ardentibus ustos Curarum flammis et saucia corda gerentes 1 The MS. reads vita, but wrongly: and we substitute * viva.' G. JESUS. MARYE. 215 Deseris? hei miseris quis nos solabitur ultra? Sufficit exilium, patriique absentia regni ; Sufficiunt varii casus diuturnaque pcena 1 5 Quam caro, quam mundus, quam daemonis impetus in- fert. Si plura imponas, nimia sub mole gravati Decidimus ; sed et hsec propria virtute nequimus Ferre, nisi [et] nostras divina potentia mentes Fulciat, et tenues confirmet numine vires. 20 Eja igitur, celer hue pietatis lumina fiecte, Ut, qui cselicolas dulci solaminis aura Perfundis, Limbique patres sperata tenere Praemia concedis, media regione locatos Haud msestos remanere sinas, sed qualia saltern 25 Mens humana potest, carnis complexa catenis, Gaudia tarn varios inter gustare dolores, Non renuas ; ut, te triplicem solante catervam, Te triplici laudet caelum, Styx, terra, camena. Has adeo msestas pietas divina querelas 30 Suscipiens, miserum placido medicamine morbum Atque infelices statuit curare ruinas. Expansis igitur sacras penetralibus aulae, Tertia de superis placido persona meatu Sedibus egreditur, tenuesque elapsa per auras 35 Versus apostolicum properans se contulit agmen. ADDITIONAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 1. As Btated in Memorial-Introduction (p. Ixxxvi.), I here give the remaining interlineations and studies for St. Peter's Complaint from the Stonyhurst autograph mss., as follows: The howes which [shott the fa . . . — erased] leveld at his dolfnl brest [sic] The sharpest arows and most deadly flyghtes Were theis of Chryste, when they on him did rest These ey[erased] were bowes there lookes lyke arowes lyght Which not content to hurt his heavy hart glanced to the Soule Even pea lanced the Sowle [erased] and wounded in such wise he was f ayne till That al his dayes while life did quyte departe so still He oynted it with liquour of his eies. [In margin— To oynt the wounde to bath the sores.] VEKSE III. This verse it is diJBficult to copy. once to a minion bold face Thre severall tymes [twyse — erased] by two handmades woyce Next to a man last to that revyl [or renyl] rout [And last by meanes of that accursed crue — erased] bought [sicj he was not of the fold He sed and swore [that he new folower was, made his choise — erased]. adherents never Of Chrysts whome he [denyed that he knew — erased] [To folowe Chryst a man he never knew — erased] But when The cocke had chased out this [stubborne — erased] brail as thing [thrall ?] and brought in day for witnes of the cryme 218 ADDITIONAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [When as — erased] the [whe — erased] wretch scarse markyng stubborn yet his fall Did with his eies meete theies of Christ his King. In what distresse pore peater did remayne At this encountrynge ech with others eies Let no man vant that he cann make it playne No tunge can reache the truthe scarce mynde surmyse It seemed that Chryst amids that juysh crew Forlorne of frends these speaches did reherse Behold that which I sayed is now to viewe frende disloyall, disciple fierce. No youthful dame her beautuouse face in glasse Of christall bryghtnes did so wel discrye easely prie As thy old sely wret did in this passe foul de- In th' eies of Chryst his filthy fait espye Nor egre eare though covetous to heare preache And without pause attent to teachers speache Could learne so much in twyce two hundred yeares in a tume As with one looke he did in moment reach. VERSE VI. ETC. Lyke as sometyme (though it unworthy be To lyken sacred matters with profane) [In margin— Profaned things in holy talk to name] By lookes a lover secret thoughtes can se And searche the hart thoughe it no wordes do frame Let amorous knyghts traynd up in cupids schoole Teache those which are unskilful in this art How without usynge tong or wrytynge toole By lookes the lovers know ech others hart The eies may serve for to display the hart Ech eie of Chryst a running tungue did seeme ech lyk a listning And peters eis so many eagre eared [In margin — Eche ey of peter like a listninge eare] ADDITIONAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 219 Prest to receyne the voyce and it esteame According to that sense that it should heare More fierce he seemed to say ar thy eis Then the impious hands which shall naile me on the crosse Nether feele I any blow which do so annoy me Of so many which this gylty rable doth on me lay As that blow which came out of thy mouth. None faythful found I none courteous Of so many that I have vouchsafned to be myne But thow in whome my was more kyndled [sic] Art faythlesse and ungratefull above all other All other with there (cowardly) flyght did onely offend me my But thow hast denyed and now with the other [foes] ghilty Standest feedynd thy eies with my damage [and sorowes] As though part of this pleasur belonged unto the. ANOTHER VERSE. Who by one and one could count The wordes of wi*ath and of love full Which peter seemed to se imprinted In the holy gyre [compasse] those two calme eyes, it would make him brast that could understand [coDceive] them: For if from mortall eie often cometh Virtue, which hath force in us, He which proveth [this] let him gesse What an eie divyne [or of God] is able to worke in man's senses. As a fold [or feld?] of snow which frosen The winter in close valew hiddyn laye At the sprynge tyde of the son heated Doth quyte melt and resolve into water So the feare which enterred was in the frozen heart Of peter then when the truth he conceled When toward him his eies he turned Did quyte thaw and unto teares was resolved. He [sic] teres or weepyng were not as river or torrent Which at the scorchyng hot season could ever di;y upp For though Chryst Kyng of heaven immayntenant Did retorne him the grace which he had lost Yet all the remnant of his lyfe 220 ADDITIONAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. There was never nyght but therein he did wake Herynge the cock tell him how unfayful he had ben And gevinge new teares to his old fait That face which litle before had ben Attyned with the coloure of death By reason of the blood which was retyred to the harte Levyng th' other parts cold and pale Of the beames of those holy eies warmed as red as fyre Waxed flame and by the same dores That feare entred it vanished away And in his due place shame appeared Vewynge the wrech how diverse From his former state he founde him self His hart not suffysyng him to stand there presente Before his offended lord that bo had loved him Without taryance for the fierce or mercyful Sentence which the hard tribunal seat did give on him From that odious house hated house that then he was in Weepyng bitterly he went forth And desyrous to encounter some that just penance [and payn] Would geve him for his grevous error. 2. In the Stonyhurst ms. of a Discourse on Mary Magdalene, these stanzas are written by themselves by Southwell — the second incomplete : The Shippe that from the port doth sayle And lanceth in the tyde Must many a billow's boystrous brunt And stormy blast abyde. The tree that groweth on the hill And hye dothe shoot his bowes Besyde the danger of the axe, 3. ' Josephe's Amazement,' st. ii.-vi. (pp. 122-3). Joseph's intention of flight is mentioned in Pseudo Matt. ch. x. xi. : and with reference to this and Southwell's use of such, it may here be noted that the Protevangel or Apoc. Gospel was (then) new to the Latin Church, being first published in Latin in 1552, and 60 an object of curiosity to our Poet, who seems to have been well-read. (See p. 132.) ADDITIONAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 221 4. Southwell uses ' sight' as = the instrument or organ of sight, i. e. the eye. Richardson and the Lexicographers give no example of such use, and it may therefore be well to confirm the sense and use. Fii-st, Shakespeaee (Venus and Adonis, lines 181-4) : And now Adonis, with a lazy spright. And with a heavy, dark, dishking eye ; His louring brows o'erwhelming his fair 8ig?itf Like misty vapours when they blot the sky. Again (Coriol. ii. 1) : All tongues speak of him, and the bleared sights Are spectacled to see him. Once more, Midsummer Night's Dream (iii. 2) : And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight. Similarly we use 'sight' as the eye opening or instrument of seeing, of optical instruments : and so Shakespeare : Their eyes of fire sparkling through sights of steel. 2 Henry IV. iv. 1. (See p. 155.) 5. ' Silly' (see p. 176 : note on st. i. line 4 of * I die without Desert'). The translator of The Rogue or Life of Don Guzman D'Alfarache, though a Spaniard, was as great a master of col- loquial idiomatic English as Florio, and I think there is a clear example of silly =pavoreux, as late as 1629. Speaking of the innkeeper who. is afraid that his mule veal will be discovered, Guzman says (b. i. c. v.) : * This poor Rogue (albeit a very vil- laine) pardned in roguery, and habituated in mischiefe, and being steeped, and lyen long in soke (as it were), in thefts, and all kinde of coozenages, was now out of heart, and gi*ew silly and weake-spii'ited, and was ready to quake for feare. Besides, such kinde of men are commonly cowards, and have onely an outside of men, but no manhood at all.' The context quoted points to this meaning, and nothing in the rest of the context at all shows that he got foolish or silly in our present sense of the word. 6. In the ' Month' for Januai*y-February 1872 appeared an * Elegy on Edmund Campion' from a black-letter contemporary volume in the British Museum, where it forms one of several. Thereupon a correspondent in the ' Tablet' assigned reasons for ascribing it to Southwell, and received support from other well- known and accomplished critics. But a Letter from my admir- 222 ADDITIONAL NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. able friend Rev. S. Sole, of St. Mary's College, Oscott, Birming- ham, in ' Tablet' for Feb. 24th, shows that the external data are against such authorship, while the internal goes to prove that the Writer (probably Walpole, S.J.) must have been an eye-witness of the martyrdom, which Southwell could not have been. It must be admitted that there are Southwellian words and turns in the Elegy : but his non-authorship is equally cer- tain. G. THE END. LONDON : ROBSON AND SONS, PRINTERS, PANCRAS ROAD, N.W. ^ T^ k ^T -r TO! 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. I This book is due on the last date stamped below, or ^ on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. I r. L£Ck:.a"v ^O C— MAR- 27'CO-IQAM IT NOV 29 1968 7 2 RFrFiVRO ^mwm-^^ COAN DEPT. DEC 1 5 1996 ■■ RECEIVED -I '^ — ' ;lHCULA I IOND[:r LD 21A-45m-9,'67 (H5067sl0)476B General Library University of California Berkeley iiii.f.'^'^f'-f^ LIBRARIES js^~y-^^0SM^~E^ '■ ■■ ,- , ^"^H^^HBHH Ufl^^l^- ^^^^^Offlf^ j^Trn^lJ^p Ifc^^^B ^p^B ^H 1 i iS^^^iai >.• ^' ^4^¥^- r; •<» UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA LIBRARY ^-^:,^