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ROBERT SOUTHWELL (c. 1561-1595)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 518 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROBERT See also:SOUTHWELL (c. 1561-1595)  , See also:English Jesuit and poet, son of See also:Richard See also:Southwell of See also:Horsham St Faith's, Nor-folk, was See also:born in 156o/61 . The Southwells were affiliated with many See also:noble English families, and See also:Robert's grandmother, See also:Elizabeth See also:Shelley, figures in the See also:genealogy of Shelley the poet . He was sent very See also:young to the See also:Roman See also:Catholic See also:college at See also:Douai, and thence to See also:Paris, where he was placed under a Jesuit See also:father, See also:Thomas Darbyshire . In 1580 he joined the Society of Jesus, after a two years' novitiate, passed mostly at Tournay . In spite of his youth he was made See also:prefect of studies in the English college of the See also:Jesuits at See also:Rome, and was ordained See also:priest in 1584 . It was in that See also:year that an See also:act was passed, forbidding any English-born subject of the See also:Queen who had entered into priest's orders in the Roman Catholic See also:Church since her See also:accession to remain in See also:England longer than See also:forty days on See also:pain of See also:death . But Southwell at his own See also:request was sent to England in 1586 as a Jesuit missionary with See also:Henry See also:Garnett . He went from one Catholic See also:family to another, administering the See also:rites of his Church, and in 1589 became domestic See also:chaplain to See also:Ann See also:Howard, whose See also:husband, the first See also:earl of See also:Arundel, was in See also:prison convicted of See also:treason . It was to him that Southwell addressed his See also:Epistle of Comfort . This and other of his religious tracts, A See also:Short See also:Rule of See also:Good See also:Life, Triumphs over Death, See also:Mary Magdalen's Tears and a Humble Supplication to Queen Elizabeth, were widely circulated in See also:manuscript . That they found favour outside Catholic circles is proved by Thomas See also:Nash's See also:imitation of Mary Magdalen's Tears in See also:Christ's Tears over See also:Jerusalem . After six years of successful labour Southwell was arrested .

He was in the See also:

habit of visiting the See also:house of Richard See also:Bellamy, who lived near See also:Harrow and was under suspicion on See also:account of his connexion with See also:Jerome Bellamy, who had been executed for sharing in See also:Anthony See also:Babington's See also:plot . One of the daughters, See also:Anne Bellamy, was arrested and imprisoned in the See also:gatehouse of See also:Holborn . She revealed Southwell's movements to Richard Topcliffe, who immediately arrested him . He was imprisoned at first in Topcliffe's house, where he was repeatedly put to the See also:torture in the vain See also:hope of extracting See also:evidence about other priests . Transferred to the gatehouse at See also:Westminster, he was so abominably treated that his father petitioned Elizabeth that he might either be brought to trial and put to death, if found guilty, or removed in any See also:case from " that filthy hole." Southwell was then lodged in the See also:Tower, but he was not brought to trial until See also:February 1595 . There is little doubt that much of his See also:poetry, none of which was published during his lifetime, was written in prison . On the 20th of February 1J95 he was tried before the See also:court of See also:King's See also:Bench on the See also:charge of treason, and was hanged at See also:Tyburn on the following See also:day . On the See also:scaffold he denied any evil intentions towards the Queen or her See also:government . St See also:Peter's Complaint with other Poems was published in See also:April 1595 without the author's name, and was reprinted thirteen times during the next forty years . A supplementary See also:volume entitled Maeoniae appeared later in 1595, and A Foure See also:fould Meditation of the foure last things in 1606 . This, which is not included in Dr A . B .

See also:

Grosart's reprint (1872) in the See also:Fuller Worthies Library, was published by Mr See also:Charles Edmonds in his Isham Reprints (1895) . A See also:Hundred Meditations of the Love of See also:God, in See also:prose, was first printed from a MS. at Stonyhurst College in 1873 . Southwell's poetry is euphuistic in manner . But his frequent use of See also:antithesis and See also:paradox, the varied and fanciful imagery by which he realizes religious emotion, though they are indeed in accordance with the poetical conventions of his See also:time, are also the unconstrained expression of an ardent and concentrated See also:imagination . See also:Ben See also:Jonson told See also:Drummond of Hawthornden that he would willingly have destroyed many of his own poems to be able to claim as his own Southwell's " Burning Babe," an extreme but beautiful example of his fantastic treatment of sacred subjects . His poetry is not, how-ever, all characterized by this elaboration . Immediately pre-ceding this very piece in his collected See also:works is a See also:carol written in terms of the utmost simplicity . See Dr Grosart's edition already mentioned . Southwell's poems were also edited by W . B . Turnbull in 1856 . A memoir of him was See also:drawn up soon after his death .

Much of the material was incorporated by See also:

Bishop See also:Challoner in his Memoir of Missionary Priests (1i41), and the MS. is now in the Public See also:Record See also:Office in See also:Brussels . See also See also:Sidney See also:Lee's account in the See also:Diet . Nat . Biog.; See also:Alexis Possoz, See also:Vie du Pere R . Southwell (1866); and a life in Henry See also:Foley's Records of the English See also:Province of the Society of Jesus . Historic facts illustrative of the labours and sufferings of its members in the loth and 17th centuries, 1877 (i . 301-387) . Foley's narrative includes copies of the most important documents connected with his trial, and gives full See also:information of the See also:original See also:sources .

End of Article: ROBERT SOUTHWELL (c. 1561-1595)
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