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| Ad Jesum per Mariam. J-J Tissot. |
The Novena is offered as a gift to Our Lady praying that, through her maternal intercession, she will mediate graces so as to guide and protect the author, his family* and all the members of the Church Militant, in these disturbing times. [*E, E, K, P, T, E ,E; E, A.]
We shall be posting each day examples of Marian poetry written by St Robert Southwell who himself lived in a terrible time of trial for Catholics. Much of his poetry was written whilst he was in solitary confinement prior to his execution at Tyburn on the 21st of February, 1595.
The original spelling and punctuation has been retained; the notes which follow each poem are my own.
Our Ladies Salutation
Spell Eva backe and Ave shall yowe finde
The first beganne the last reversd our harmes
An Angells witching wordes did Eva blynde
An Angells Ave disinchaunts the charmes
Death first by Woemans Weakenes entred in [5]
In woemans vertue life doth nowe beginn.
O Virgin brest the heavens to thee inclyne
In thee their joy and soveraigne they agnize
Too meane their glory is to match with thyne
Whose chaste receite god more then heaven did prize [10]
Hayle fayrest heaven that heaven and earth dost blisse
Where vertewes starres god sonne of justice is.
With hauty mynd to godhead man aspird
And was by pride from place of pleasure chas'd
With loving mynde our manhead god desird [15]
And us by love in greater pleasure plac'd
Man labouring to ascend procur'd our fall
God yelding to descend cutt off our thrall.
Notes
[l 1] Eva... Ave: This correspondence appears at least as early as the 9th century in the hynb, Ave Maris Stella (anon), of which the second verse has: Sumens illud Ave Gabrielis ore, funda nos in pace,mutans Hevae nomen. Taking that sweet Ave, which from Gabriel came, peace confirm within us, changing Eve's name.
yowe: you
[l 3] witching wordes: 'witching': 'that casts a spell; enchanting'. This is a reference to the seductive lies of the fallen Angel, Lucifer, who persuades Eve she can disobey the commandment God gave not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
[4] And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death. [5] For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil. [Genesis 3]
[l4] An Angells Ave: The Angel Gabriel, who fought in the victory of the good angels over Lucifer's proud hordes, begins the process of undoing the effects of the 'witching wordes', by a simple salutation: Ave...
[l 5] Death:
[12] Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned. [Romans V]
[l 5] Woemans Weakenes: woman's weakness; woeman: etymology: < wife n. + man. The word 'woman' appears at the beginning of Genesis in reference to Eve:
"And the Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman [mulier*]: and brought her to Adam. And Adam said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman,[virago**] because she was taken out of man." [Genesis ii: 22, 23]
The Septuagint uses one word for 'woman' in both contexts: γυνή, γυνή, γυναικός, ἡ (voc. γύναι), woman; wife. St Jerome uses the words mulier and virago in these two verses. It has been suggested that St Jerome used the words Vir for man and Virago for "woman" attempting to reproduce a pun on "male" and "female" (ish and ishah) that existed in the Hebrew text:
וַיֹּאמֶר, הָאָדָם, זֹאת הַפַּעַם עֶצֶם מֵעֲצָמַי, וּבָשָׂר מִבְּשָׂרִי; לְזֹאת יִקָּרֵא אִשָּׁה, כִּי מֵאִישׁ לֻקְחָה-זֹּאת.
Then the man said, "This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called Woman (isha) for from man (ish) she was taken".
However, almost all modern linguists say that ish and isha aren't related. Ish comes from the root אוש, meaning strength (the related root אשש means "to strengthen"), and isha derives from אנש, meaning weak. See: Balashon.
*mulier: mŭlĭer, ĕris, f. mollior, comp. of mollis, q. v., a woman, a female, whether married or not. mollis, e, adj. Gr. μαλακός, ἀμαλός, μῶλυς; cf. βληχρός, perh. Lat. mulier (mollior), easily movable, pliant, flexible, supple; soft, tender, delicate, gentle, mild, pleasant
**virago: vĭrāgo, ĭnis, f. virgo: man-like, vigorous, heroic maiden, a female warrior, heroine.
[l 6] woemans vertue: A reference to another woman, the second Eve, Mary, Mother of Jesus. Note the two occasions that Our Lord addresses Our Lady, using the word 'Woman.'
[4] And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come. Et dicit ei Jesus : Quid mihi et tibi est, mulier? nondum venit hora mea. [John ii. 4]
[26] When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son. Cum vidisset ergo Jesus matrem, et discipulum stantem, quem diligebat, dicit matri suae : Mulier, ecce filius tuus. [John xix. 26]
Through a woman's 'virtue', through Our Lady's virtue, 'life doth nowe beginn.' She is to be the mother of the 'the Way, the Truth and the Life.'
Note the etymology of 'virtue': virtūs, ūtis (gen. plur. virtutium, f. vir, manliness, manhood, i. e. the sum of all the corporeal or mental excellences of man, strength, vigor; bravery, courage; aptness, capacity; worth, excellence, virtue, etc
[l 7] In art, Gabriel, Heaven;s envoy, inclines (bows or genuflects) before the Blessed Virgin.
[l 8] agnize: recognize, acknowledge. Christians acknowledge Mary as the 'Cause of our joy' (Causa nostrae laetitiae, Litany of Loreto, 12th century); and they honour her as Queen (see the thirteen titles in the same litany). Alternatively, the meaning here may be that the heavens acknowledge Jesus Christ, present body, blood, soul and divinity 'in thee', ie in the tabernacle of Mary's womb. See however lines 1-2 of The Visitation by Southwell:
Proclaymed Queene and mother of a god
The light of earth the Soveraigne of saints
[l 10] receite: The act of receiving or taking in; or A place of reception or accommodation for people; a shelter, refuge.
[l 11] blisse: 'bless'. Some interesting definitions from the OED: To consecrate (a person) to a sacred office. To consecrate by a prayer committing a person to God for his patronage, defence, and prospering care. To sanctify or hallow by making the sign of the cross. 'Orig. meaning (probably), To make ‘sacred’ or ‘holy’ with blood; to consecrate by some sacrificial rite.' A curious foreshadowing of the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross, even unto shedding the last drop of His blood for us.
Mary is apostrophized as 'fairest heaven'. She is 'Heaven' because God is dwelling in her and she is completely free from sin. 'dost' is second person singular and so the line reads as: 'Hail fairest Heaven, thou dost bless heaven and earth', because of the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus, and for which reason she is esteemed blessed among all women. The second 'heaven' may be taken to mean everything above and around the earth: the sky, the sun, the moon, the starts and the planets. 'heaven and earth' therefore represent all the created world.
[l 12]: Where vertewes...sonne of justice is: The uncertainty over punctuation, number and ellipsis in this line gives pause for thought. The sense may be: God, the Sun of Justice, is (there) where Virtue's Star [Mary] is. 'sonne' shows up as either 'sun' or son' in OED citations from the Elizabethan and Jacobean period. 'Sun of Justice' is a known title of Jesus Christ when He comes again in judgement of the living and the dead. see for example:
[2] But unto you that fear my name, the Sun of justice shall arise... [Malachi 4]
[l 13] hauty: haughty, proud, arrogant; referring to the original sin of pride committed by our first parents through the deceit of Satan.
[l 15] manhead: The state of being human; the condition of belonging to humanity; human nature. Esp. as opposed to godhead. An illustration of this now rare word may be found in: 'The Glorie of Christs Godhead was hid..by the sufferinges of his Manhead'.
[l 18] thrall: thraldom, bondage, servitude; captivity.
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