1.
1616 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1616. January 1 – King James I of England attends the masque The Golden Age Restored, the king asks for a repeat performance on January 4. February 1 – King James I of England grants Ben Jonson an annual pension of 100 marks, march 5 – Nicolaus Copernicus De revolutionibus orbium coelestium is placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum by the Roman Catholic Church. April 22 – Miguel de Cervantes dies in Madrid and is buried the day in the Trinitarias convent there. April 23 – William Shakespeare dies in retirement in Stratford-upon-Avon and is buried two days later in the Church of the Holy Trinity there, june 10 – Foundation date of Ets Haim Library, housed from 1675 at the Portuguese Synagogue. August – Christopher Beeston acquires the lease of the Cockpit off Drury Lane in London, october/November – Ben Jonsons satirical five-act comedy The Devil is an Ass is produced at the Blackfriars Theatre, London, by the Kings Men, poking fun at contemporary credence in witchcraft. November 6/25 – Ben Jonsons works are published in a folio edition. December 25 – Ben Jonsons Christmas, His Masque is presented before King James I of England, george Chapmans translations of Homer, previously issued in piecemeal fashion, are published complete for the first time, as The Whole Works of Homer, the first full English-language edition. Marie Venier, called Laporte, is the first actress to appear on the stage in Paris, johannes Valentinus Andreae – Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz Anno 1459 Christoph Besold – Axiomata Philosophico-Theologica Dr
2.
1610s in architecture
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27 April 1613 - Inigo Jones is appointed Surveyor of the Kings Works in England. September 1615 - Inigo Jones, newly returned from a tour of continental Europe, is appointed Surveyor-General of the Kings Works in England,1610 The Changdeokgung of Korea is reconstructed. The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, Italy, designed by Palladio is completed, Wignacourt Tower is built in St. Pauls Bay, Malta 1611 The Catholic church of Virgen del Rosario is built in Benejúzar, Spain. The Deoksugung of Korea is completed, Saint Lucian Tower in Marsaxlokk, Malta is completed. 1613 - Santa Cecilia Tower, Għajnsielem, Gozo, Malta,1614 The Marian column in front of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, designed by Carlo Maderno, is built, it serves as a model for numerous Marian columns in many Catholic countries. The Schloss Johannisburg in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, designed by Georg Ridinger, is completed, Work starts on Saint Thomas Tower in Marsaskala, Malta. 1615 Work starts on the Jesuit Church, Molsheim, the Wignacourt Aqueduct in Malta is completed. 1616 Work starts on the Queens House in Greenwich, England, the Church of San Pablo in Valladolid is completed. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul is completed, the Gyeonghuigung of Korea is completed. The Changgyeonggung of Korea is reconstructed, marsalforn Tower in Gozo, Malta, is completed. 1617 - The Basilica Palladiana, in Vicenza, Italy, designed by Andrea Palladio, is completed,1618 - Saint Marys Tower in Comino, Malta, is completed. 1619 The Banqueting House at Whitehall in London and the Princes Lodging at Newmarket, Suffolk, naghsh-i Jahan Square is built in Isfahan, Iran by Mohammadreza Isfahani. Remodelling of Plaza Mayor, Madrid, is completed by Juan Gómez de Mora, ballintaylor House at Whitechurch, Waterford, Ireland, is built by Sir Richard Osbourne. 1615 – Vincenzo Scamozzi - LIdea della Architettura Universale 4 May 1611 - Carlo Rainaldi 1611 - John Webb 1612 - Louis Le Vau 1613 - Claude Perrault 7 August 1616 - Vincenzo Scamozzi
3.
Irish poetry
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Irish poetry includes poetry in two languages, Irish and English. The earliest surviving poems in Irish date back to the 6th century and this culminated in the work of the poets of the Irish Literary Revival in the late 19th and early 20th century. Poetry in Irish represents the oldest vernacular poetry in Europe, the earliest examples date from the 6th century, and are generally short lyrics on themes from religion or the world of nature. They were frequently written by their authors in the margins of the illuminated manuscripts that they were copying. The best known example is Pangur Bán and it was practical for poems to be short because the Irish recognized that it was necessary to use any means necessary to make the poems lasting in their oral culture. To accomplish such a feat as well as they have, they used complicated rhyme schemes that would render a poem nonsensical if any of the key words were changed from the original version, in an oral culture, Irish poetry had many uses. A poem could be used to both the poet and the subject of the poem, oftentimes kings would commission poets to create a piece about them. Such poems would be passed on to descendants so they would remember the deeds of past generations. Kings would also commission poets to write poems of advertisement, speaking of the greatness and worthiness. Oral poetry, because it was in the vernacular, was used for entertainment. Poems that were entertaining could also be informative, teaching people lessons or offering them wisdom of experience for dealing with situations they would encounter in their everyday lives. Finally, poems, especially those featured in the sagas, were thought to be an instrument of the supernatural, Another source of early Irish poetry is the poems in the tales and sagas, such as the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Unlike many other European epic cycles, the Irish sagas were written in prose, Irish bards formed a professional hereditary caste of highly trained, learned poets. As officials of the court of king or chieftain, they performed a number of official roles and they were chroniclers and satirists whose job it was to praise their employers and damn those who crossed them. It was believed that a well-aimed bardic satire, glam dicin, the Metrical Dindshenchas, or Lore of Places, is probably the major surviving monument of Irish bardic verse. It is a great onomastic anthology of naming legends of significant places in the Irish landscape, the earliest of these date from the 11th century, and were probably originally compiled on a provincial basis. As a national compilation, the Metrical Dindshenchas has come down to us in two different recensions. Knowledge of the real or putative history of local places formed an important part of the education of the elite in ancient Ireland, verse tales of Fionn and the Fianna, sometimes known as Ossianic poetry, were extremely common in Ireland and Scotland throughout this period
4.
James VI and I
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James VI and I was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciary, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union. James was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, James succeeded to the Scottish throne at the age of thirteen months, after his mother Mary was compelled to abdicate in his favour. Four different regents governed during his minority, which ended officially in 1578, in 1603, he succeeded the last Tudor monarch of England and Ireland, Elizabeth I, who died without issue. He continued to reign in all three kingdoms for 22 years, a period known after him as the Jacobean era, until his death in 1625 at the age of 58. After the Union of the Crowns, he based himself in England from 1603, only returning to Scotland once in 1617 and he was a major advocate of a single parliament for England and Scotland. In his reign, the Plantation of Ulster and British colonization of the Americas began, at 57 years and 246 days, Jamess reign in Scotland was longer than those of any of his predecessors. He achieved most of his aims in Scotland but faced difficulties in England, including the Gunpowder Plot in 1605. James himself was a scholar, the author of works such as Daemonologie, The True Law of Free Monarchies. He sponsored the translation of the Bible that would later be named after him, Sir Anthony Weldon claimed that James had been termed the wisest fool in Christendom, an epithet associated with his character ever since. Since the latter half of the 20th century, historians have tended to revise Jamess reputation and treat him as a serious, James was the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. Both Mary and Darnley were great-grandchildren of Henry VII of England through Margaret Tudor, Marys rule over Scotland was insecure, and she and her husband, being Roman Catholics, faced a rebellion by Protestant noblemen. James was born on 19 June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle, and as the eldest son and heir apparent of the monarch automatically became Duke of Rothesay and Prince and he was baptised Charles James or James Charles on 17 December 1566 in a Catholic ceremony held at Stirling Castle. His godparents were Charles IX of France, Elizabeth I of England, Mary refused to let the Archbishop of St Andrews, whom she referred to as a pocky priest, spit in the childs mouth, as was then the custom. The subsequent entertainment, devised by Frenchman Bastian Pagez, featured men dressed as satyrs and sporting tails, Jamess father, Darnley, was murdered on 10 February 1567 at Kirk o Field, Edinburgh, perhaps in revenge for Rizzios death. James inherited his fathers titles of Duke of Albany and Earl of Ross, Mary was already unpopular, and her marriage on 15 May 1567 to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, who was widely suspected of murdering Darnley, heightened widespread bad feeling towards her. In June 1567, Protestant rebels arrested Mary and imprisoned her in Loch Leven Castle and she was forced to abdicate on 24 July 1567 in favour of the infant James and to appoint her illegitimate half-brother, James Stewart, Earl of Moray, as regent. The care of James was entrusted to the Earl and Countess of Mar, to be conserved, nursed, and upbrought in the security of Stirling Castle
5.
Ben Jonson
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Benjamin Jonson was an English playwright, poet, actor, and literary critic of the 17th century, whose artistry exerted a lasting impact upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours, Ben Jonson said that his family originally came from the folk of the Anglo-Scottish border country, which genealogy is attested by the three spindles in the Jonson family coat of arms. One spindle is a heraldic device shared with the Border-country Johnstone family of Annandale. Jonsons clergyman father died two months before his birth, his mother married a master bricklayer two years later, Jonson attended school in St. Martins Lane. Later, a family friend paid for his studies at Westminster School, on leaving Westminster School, Jonson was to have attended the University of Cambridge, to continue his book learning but did not, because of his unwilled apprenticeship to his bricklayer stepfather. According to the churchman and historian Thomas Fuller, Jonson at this time built a wall in Lincolns Inn. After having been a bricklayer, Ben Jonson went to the Netherlands. After his military activity on the Continent, Jonson returned to England and worked as an actor, as an actor, Jonson was the protagonist “Hieronimo” in the play The Spanish Tragedy, by Thomas Kyd, the first revenge tragedy in English literature. Regarding his marriage Jonson described his wife to William Drummond as a shrew, concerning the family of Anne Lewis and Ben Jonson, the St. Martins Church registers indicate that Mary Jonson, their eldest daughter, died in November 1593, at six months of age. Moreover,32 years later, a son, also named Benjamin Jonson. By summer 1597, Jonson had an engagement in the Admirals Men, then performing under Philip Henslowes management at The Rose. John Aubrey reports, on authority, that Jonson was not successful as an actor, whatever his skills as an actor. By this time Jonson had begun to write plays for the Admirals Men. None of his early tragedies survive, however, an undated comedy, The Case is Altered, may be his earliest surviving play. In 1597 a play which he co-wrote with Thomas Nashe, The Isle of Dogs, was suppressed after causing great offence, arrest warrants for Jonson and Nashe were issued by Queen Elizabeth Is so-called interrogator, Richard Topcliffe. Jonson was jailed in Marshalsea Prison and charged with Leude and mutynous behaviour, two of the actors, Gabriel Spenser and Robert Shaw, were also imprisoned. A year later, Jonson was again imprisoned, this time in Newgate Prison. While in jail Jonson converted to Catholicism, possibly through the influence of fellow-prisoner Father Thomas Wright, in 1598 Jonson produced his first great success, Every Man in His Humour, capitalising on the vogue for humorous plays which George Chapman had begun with An Humorous Days Mirth
6.
Mark (currency)
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The mark was a currency or unit of account in many nations. It is named for the unit of weight. The word mark comes from a merging of three Teutonic/Germanic words, Latinised in 9th century post-classical Latin as marca, marcha, marha or marcus and it was a measure of weight mainly for gold and silver, commonly used throughout Western Europe and often equivalent to eight ounces. Considerable variations, however, occurred throughout the Middle Ages, as of 2017, the only circulating currency named mark is the Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark. In England the mark never appeared as a coin but was only a unit of account and it was apparently introduced in the 10th century by the Danes. According to 19th-century sources, it was equivalent to 100 pence. In Scotland, the merk Scots was a coin of that value, issued first in 1570. In northern Germany and Scandinavia, the mark was a unit of account, in an attempt to prevent debasement of the currency, the Bank of Hamburg was founded in 1619, after the example of the Bank of Amsterdam. Both these banks established a money of account. The Hamburg unit of account was the mark banco and it was credited in exchange for the sale of bullion or by way of credit against collateral. No coins or banknotes were issued, but accounts were opened showing a credit balance, the account holders could use their credit balances by remittances to other accounts or by drawing bills of exchange against them. These bills circulated and could be transferred by endorsement, and were accepted as payment and this currency proved to be very stable. Following German unification in 1871, the country adopted the German gold mark as its currency in 1873, the name was taken from the mark banco. Coins denominated in gold marks were first issued in 1871, the mark banco was converted into the new gold mark at par. The Bank of Hamburg was incorporated as the Hamburg subsidiary into the newly founded Reichsbank, in 1914, the Reichsbank stopped demanding first-class collateral when providing credit to borrowers. The gold mark became a currency, colloquially referred to as the paper mark. In 1918, the sound money policy was not re-established, and the continuing loose money policy resulted in inflation. In late 1923, when the mark had become virtually worthless, it was replaced by a new currency
7.
Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom
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The British Poet Laureate is an honorary position appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Prime Minister. The role does not entail any specific duties, but there is an expectation that the holder will write verse for significant national occasions. The origins of the date back to 1616 when a pension was provided to Ben Jonson. Three poets, Thomas Gray, Samuel Rogers and Walter Scott, the holder of the position as of 2017 is Carol Ann Duffy, who was appointed in May 2009 on a fixed ten-year term. The origins of the laureateship date back to 1616 when James I of England granted a pension to the writer Ben Jonson. Although there were subsequent court poets it was not until 1668, and the appointment of John Dryden by Charles II, that the post was made an established royal office within the royal household. Dryden, a Catholic convert, refused to take the Oath of Allegiance to the new monarchs, drydens successor, Thomas Shadwell, was appointed in 1689 for life. He introduced the custom of producing poems for the new year and the monarchs birthday, after the appointment of William Wordsworth in 1843 the duties settled into an expectation, not requirement, for major court and national occasions. Alfred, Lord Tennyson held the post between November 1850 and October 1892, on his death the post was left vacant as a mark of respect, a new laureate was not appointed until four years later, with the appointment of Alfred Austin in January 1896. As at 2015 the position is an one, and the office holder is left to decide on which occasions they will produce poetry. Duffy is the first female poet to hold the role, after Shadwells selection the laureate was appointed by the Lord Chamberlain, on the monarchs instructions. Since the appointment of Henry James Pye in 1790, the Prime Minister has recommended which candidate to appoint and he, in conjunction with the Cabinet Office then submitted the name to the Queen for approval. Drydens salary for the laureateship was £200 per year, in 1630 Charles I added an annual butt of Canary wine, although this was later discontinued in place of the monetary equivalent. When John Betjeman was appointed, he rekindled the tradition, and received 720 bottles of sherry, since Motions appointment the DCMS provided an annual honorarium of £5,750, Motion also received an additional £19,000 for his work in education. With Duffys appointment, the returned to £5,750
8.
English poetry
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This article focuses on poetry written in English from the United Kingdom, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The article does not include poetry from other countries where the English language is spoken, the earliest surviving English poetry, written in Anglo-Saxon, the direct predecessor of modern English, may have been composed as early as the 7th century. This is generally taken as marking the beginning of Anglo-Saxon poetry and it is possible to identify certain key moments, however. The Dream of the Rood was written before circa AD700, by and large, however, Anglo-Saxon poetry is categorised by the manuscripts in which it survives, rather than its date of composition. While the poetry that has survived is limited in volume, it is wide in breadth, beowulf is the only heroic epic to have survived in its entirety, but fragments of others such as Waldere and the Finnesburg Fragment show that it was not unique in its time. Other genres include much religious verse, from works to biblical paraphrase, elegies such as The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and The Ruin, and numerous proverbs, riddles. With one notable exception, Anglo-Saxon poetry depends on alliterative verse for its structure, with the Norman conquest of England, beginning in 1111 the Anglo-Saxon language rapidly diminished as a written literary language. The new aristocracy spoke predominantly Norman, and this became the language of courts, parliament. While Anglo-Norman or Latin was preferred for high culture, English literature by no means died out, other transitional works were preserved as popular entertainment, including a variety of romances and lyrics. With time, the English language regained prestige, and in 1362 it replaced French and Latin in Parliament, the reputation of Chaucers successors in the 15th century has suffered in comparison with him, though Lydgate and Skelton are widely studied. A group of Scottish writers arose who were believed to be influenced by Chaucer. The rise of Scottish poetry began with the writing of The Kingis Quair by James I of Scotland, the main poets of this Scottish group were Robert Henryson, William Dunbar and Gavin Douglas. The Renaissance was slow in coming to England, with the generally accepted start date being around 1509 and it is also generally accepted that the English Renaissance extended until the Restoration in 1660. However, a number of factors had prepared the way for the introduction of the new learning long before this start date. A number of medieval poets had, as noted, shown an interest in the ideas of Aristotle. The introduction of printing by Caxton in 1474 provided the means for the more rapid dissemination of new or recently rediscovered writers and thinkers. Caxton also printed the works of Chaucer and Gower and these books helped establish the idea of a poetic tradition that was linked to its European counterparts. In addition, the writings of English humanists like Thomas More and Thomas Elyot helped bring the ideas, the establishment of the Church of England in 1535 accelerated the process of questioning the Catholic world-view that had previously dominated intellectual and artistic life
9.
George Chapman
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George Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeares sonnets by William Minto, Chapman is best remembered for his translations of Homers Iliad and Odyssey, and the Homeric Batrachomyomachia. Chapman was born at Hitchin in Hertfordshire, there is conjecture that he studied at Oxford but did not take a degree, though no reliable evidence affirms this. Very little is known about Chapmans early life, but Mark Eccles uncovered records that much about Chapmans difficulties. Chapmans courtly ambitions led him into a trap and he apparently never received any money, but he would be plagued for many years by the papers he had signed. As Sadler died in 1587, this gives Chapman little time to have trained under him and it seems more likely that he was in Sadlers household from 1577–83, as he dedicates all his Homerical translations to him. Chapman spent the early 1590s abroad, and saw action in the Low Countries fighting under renowned English general Sir Francis Vere. His earliest published works were the obscure philosophical poems The Shadow of Night, the latter has been taken as a response to the erotic poems of the age, such as Philip Sidneys Astrophil and Stella and Shakespeares Venus and Adonis. The former was executed for treason by Elizabeth I in 1601, Chapmans resultant poverty did not diminish his ability or his standing among his fellow Elizabethan poets and dramatists. Chapman died in London, having lived his latter years in poverty and he was buried at St Giles in the Fields. A monument to him designed by Inigo Jones marked his tomb, by the end of the 1590s, Chapman had become a successful playwright, working for Philip Henslowe and later for the Children of the Chapel. Among his comedies are The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, An Humorous Days Mirth, All Fools, Monsieur DOlive, The Gentleman Usher, May Day, and The Widows Tears. With The Widows Tears, he was one of the first writers to meld comedy with more serious themes, creating the tragicomedy later made famous by Beaumont. He also wrote one play in collaboration. Eastward Ho, written with Jonson and John Marston, contained references to the Scots which landed Chapman. Various of their letters to the king and noblemen survive in a manuscript in the Folger Library known as the Dobell MS, in the letters, both men renounced the offending line, implying that Marston was responsible for the injurious remark. Chapmans friendship with Jonson broke down, perhaps as a result of Jonsons public feud with Inigo Jones, some satiric, scathing lines, written sometime after the burning of Jonsons desk and papers, provide evidence of the rift
10.
Hero and Leander
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Leander fell in love with Hero and would swim every night across the Hellespont to spend time with her. Hero would light a lamp at the top of her tower to guide his way, succumbing to Leanders soft words and to his argument that Aphrodite, as the goddess of love, would scorn the worship of a virgin, Hero allowed him to make love to her. Their trysts lasted through a warm summer, but one stormy winter night, the waves tossed Leander in the sea and the breezes blew out Heros light, Leander lost his way and drowned. When Hero saw his body, she threw herself over the edge of the tower to her death to be with him. Leander has been unable to swim across to Hero in her tower because of bad weather, her summons to him to make the effort will prove fatal to her lover, musaeuss poem had early translations into European languages by Bernardo Tasso, Boscán and Clément Marot. Chapmans 1616 translation has the title The divine poem of Musaeus, translated according to the original, by Geo, Chapman. Staplyton, the mid-17th century translator, had read Scaligers repudiation of this mistaken belief, renaissance poet Christopher Marlowe began an expansive version of the narrative. Sir Walter Ralegh alludes to the story, in his The Oceans Love to Cynthia, in which Hero has fallen asleep, and fails to keep alight the lamp that guides Leander on his swim. Shakespeare also mentions this story in the scene of Two Gentlemen of Verona. PROTEUS, Upon some book I love Ill pray for thee, VALENTINE, Thats on some shallow story of deep love, How young Leander crossd the Hellespont. PROTEUS, Thats a deep story of a love, For he was more than over shoes in love. VALENTINE, Tis true, for you are over boots in love, Hero and Leander are again mentioned in Two Gentlemen of Verona in Act III Scene I when Valentine is tutoring the Duke of Milan on how to woo the lady from Milan. But these are all lies, men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, ben Jonsons play Bartholomew Fair features a puppet show of Hero and Leander in Act V, translated to London, with the Thames serving as the Hellespont between the lovers. Myths and Hymns, by Adam Guettel, contains a song titled after the pair, robert Schumann is said to have perceived his In der Nacht from Phantasiestücke as depicting the story of Hero and Leandros. Lord Byron references Leander in Written After Swimming From Sestos To Abydos, the myth of Hero and Leander inspired his own swim across the Hellespont in May,1810. Byron also alludes to his feat, with reference to Leander, in Don Juan, canto II. Franz Grillparzers 1831 tragedy Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen is based on the tale, Friedrich Schiller wrote the ballad Hero und Leander based on the tale. Georg Friedrich Handels 1707 solo cantata in Italian, Ero e Leandro, is based on the tale, alfredo Catalani composed a tone-poem, Ero e Leandro, based on the tale
11.
Ben Jonson folios
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The folio collections of Ben Jonsons works published in the seventeenth century were crucial developments in the publication of English literature and English Renaissance drama. The first folio collection, issued in 1616, treated stage plays as works of literature instead of popular ephemera—at the time. In 1631 Jonson planned a volume to be added to the 1616 folio. Jonson, however, became dissatisfied with the quality of the printing, three plays were set into type for the projected collection, and printings of those typecasts were circulated—though whether they were sold commercially or distributed privately by Jonson is unclear. Two folio collections of Jonsonian works were issued in 1640-41, the first, printed by Richard Bishop for Andrew Crooke, was a 1640 reprint of the 1616 folio with corrections and emendations, it has sometimes been termed the second edition of the first folio. The second volume was edited by Jonsons literary executor Sir Kenelm Digby and that volume contained later works, most of them unpublished or uncollected previously—six plays, two of them incomplete, and fifteen masques, plus miscellaneous pieces. Herringman, E. Brewster, T. Bassett, R. Chiswell, M. Wotton, the third folio added two works to the previous total, the play The New Inn, and Leges Convivales. Two other works by Jonson were left out of the 17th-century folios but added to later editions, brady, Jennifer, and W. H. Herendeen, eds. Newark, DE, University of Delaware Press,1991, harp, Richard, and Stanley Stewart, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Ben Jonson, the Complete Critical Guide to Ben Jonson. Williams, W. P. Chetwin, Crooke, and the Jonson Folios, watermarks of the 1616 folio Digitized Facsimiles of Jonsons second folio, 1640/1 Jonsons second folio, 1640/1
12.
Robert Southwell (Jesuit)
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Robert Southwell, also Saint Robert Southwell, was an English Roman Catholic priest of the Jesuit Order. He was also a poet and clandestine missionary in post-Reformation England, on 21 February 1595, Father Southwell was hanged at Tyburn. In 1970, he was canonised by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and he was born at Horsham St Faith, Norfolk, England. Southwell, the youngest of eight children, was brought up in a family of the Norfolk gentry, despite their Catholic sympathies, the Southwells had profited considerably from King Henry VIIIs Suppression of the Monasteries. Robert was third son of Richard Southwell of Horsham St. Faiths, Norfolk, by his first wife, Bridget, daughter of Sir Roger Copley of Roughway, Sussex. The poets maternal grandmother was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Shelley, Sir Richard Southwell was his paternal grandfather and he studied briefly under Leonard Lessius. At the end of the summer, however, his education was interrupted by the movement of French, Southwell was sent to Paris for greater safety as a student of the College de Clermont, under the tutelage of the Jesuit Thomas Darbyshire. He returned to Douai on 15 June 1577, a year later, he set off on foot to Rome with the intention of joining the society of Jesus. A two-year novitiate at Tournai was required before joining the society, however and he appealed the decision by sending a heartfelt, emotional letter to the school. His efforts succeeded as he was admitted to the house of Sant’ Andrea on 17 October 1578. Immediately after the completion of the novitiate, Southwell began studies in philosophy, during this time, he worked as a secretary to the rector and writings of his are to be found amongst the school’s documents. Upon completion of his studies, Southwell was admitted BA in 1584, in spite of his youth, he was made prefect of studies in the Venerable English College at Rome and was ordained priest in 1584. He was appointed “repetitor” at the English College for two years before making prefect of studies, Southwell, at his own request, was sent to England in 1586 as a Jesuit missionary with Henry Garnet. He went from one Catholic family to another, the Jesuit William Weston had previously made his way to England, but he was arrested and sent to Wisbech Castle in 1587. The Garnet–Southwell Jesuit English mission is considered the third, the first such mission was that of Robert Parsons and Edmund Campion of 1580–1. A spy reported to Sir Francis Walsingham the Jesuits landing on the east coast in July, in 1588 Southwell and Garnet were joined by John Gerard and Edward Oldcorne. Southwell was from the closely watched, he mixed furtively in Protestant society under the assumed name of Cotton. He studied the terms of sport, and used them in conversation, for the most part in London, he made occasional excursions to Sussex and the north
