{\b Robert Southwell}.

{\b Date of Birth}.: 1561

{\b Date of Death}.: February/March 1595

{\b Works}.

English religious poet and martyr. His most important work is St Peter's 
Complaint (1595) which is a long narrative about Christ. His best known poem 
is The Burning Babe (1595) and is contained in a collection called Moeoniae 
(1595). The important prose work An Epistle of Comfort was produced in secret 
in 1587. Southwell also wrote Mary Magdalen's Funeral Tears (1591). He is 
credited with bringing the Counter-Reformation 'literature of tears' to 
England. The 'literature of tears' was penitential writing. He was part of the 
group of seventeenth-century metaphysical baroque poets which includes 
Herbert, Crashaw and Vaughan. He is now considered the most important Roman 
Catholic man of letters of his time.

{\b Featured Works}.

'The Burning Babe', 'The Virgin Mary to Christ on the Cross', 'A Child My 
Choice', 'New Prince, New Pomp', 'Times Go by Turns', 'Upon the Image of Death'.

{\b General Comment}.

Born in Horsham St Faith, Norfolk, Robert Southwell was educated by the 
Jesuits in Paris and Rome. He was ordained as a priest (1584-5) and returned 
to England as a missionary with Henry Garnett in 1586. He became the spiritual 
adviser to the first Earl of Arundel, who was imprisoned in the Tower of 
London. He lived in secrecy at Arundel House, where he was chaplain to the 
wife of the first Earl, Ann Howard. During this time he wrote letters to 
support Roman Catholics who were being persecuted. He also went out on 
pastoral visits. In 1592 he was betrayed and arrested. He was tortured and 
remained in solitary confinement in the Tower of London. He was found guilty 
of treason at a trial in 1595 and executed. Southwell was beatified in 1929 
and canonised in 1970. Southwell wrote in a direct manner reflecting his own 
strong spirituality. He is considered an important precursor to the later 
metaphysical poets.