Great Throughts Treasury
This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Robert Southwell, also Saint Robert Southwell
English Roman Catholic Priest of the Jesuit Order, Poet, Clandestine Missionary in Post-Reformation England, hanged, drawn and quartered after being captured, tortured and convicted of high treason by Sir Richard Topcliffe
"This stable is a prince's court, the crib his chair of state; the beasts are parcel of his pomp, the wooden dish his plate."
"The lopped tree in time may grow again, most naked plants renew both fruit and flower."
"The saddest birds a season find to sing, he roughest storm a calm may soon allay; thus with succeeding turns God tempereth all, that men may hope to rise yet fear to fall."
"To rise by others' fall I deem a losing gain; all states with others' ruins built to ruin run amain."
"We trample grass, and prize the flowers of May; yet the grass is green when the flower fades away."
"Though all the East did quake to hear of Alexander's dreadful name, and all the West likewise did fear to hear of Julius Caesar's fame,"
"Within his crib is surest ward, this little babe will be thy guard, if thou wilt foil thy foes with joy, then flit not from this heavenly boy."
"When Fortune smiles, I smile to think how quickly she will frown."