Robert Southwell (Jesuit) - Quotes

Quotes

• "The Chief Justice asked how old he was, seeming to scorn his youth. He answered that he was near about the age of our Saviour, Who lived upon the earth thirty-three years; and he himself was as he thought near about thirty-four years. Hereat Topcliffe seemed to make great acclamation, saying that he compared himself to Christ. Mr. Southwell answered, 'No he was a humble worm created by Christ.' 'Yes,' said Topcliffe, 'you are Christ's fellow.'"—Father Henry Garnet, "Account of the Trial of Robert Southwell." Quoted in Caraman's The Other Face, page 230.

• Southwell: I am decayed in memory with long and close imprisonment, and I have been tortured ten times. I had rather have endured ten executions. I speak not this for myself, but for others; that they may not be handled so inhumanely, to drive men to desperation, if it were possible.
• Topcliffe: If he were racked, let me die for it.
• Southwell: No; but it was as evil a torture, or late device.
• Topcliffe: I did but set him against a wall.
• Southwell: Thou art a bad man.
• Topcliffe: I would blow you all to dust if I could.
• Southwell: What, all?
• Topcliffe: Ay, all.
• Southwell: What, soul and body too? At his Trial
• "Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live" on the outside of The DeNaples Center at the Jesuit University of Scranton. Longer version: "Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live; / Not where I love, but where I am, I die."
• "Hoist up saile while gale doth last,Tide and wind stay no man's pleasure."—from "St. Peter's Complaint. 1595."
• "May never was the month of love, For May is full of flowers; But rather April, wet by kind, For love is full of showers."—from "Love's Servile Lot"
• "My mind to me an empire is, While grace affordeth health."—from "Look Home"
• "O dying souls, behold your living spring; O dazzled eyes, behold your sun of grace; Dull ears, attend what word this Word doth bring; Up, heavy hearts, with joy your joy embrace. From death, from dark, from deafness, from despair: This life, this light, this Word, this joy repairs."—from "The Nativity of Christ"
• "A poet, a lover and a liar are by many reckoned but three words with one signification." – from "The author to his loving cousin," published with "St. Peter's Complaint." 1595.