Southwell Shakespeare

Magdalene’s Complaint at Christ’s Death
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Thirty-four-year-old Robert was beheaded and quartered at Tyburn on Feb. 21, 1595, for the crime of being a Catholic priest.

He came from the Douay-Rheims group (NT - 1582, OT - 1609-1610).

Southwell and Shakespeare
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“Apart from their mutual acquaintance with the Earl of Southampton, and the strong circumstantial evidence that they must have known each other within the confines of London’s close-knit Catholic recusant community, the strongest evidence for Southwell’s and Shakespeare’s friendship is to be found in their respective works.
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“Shortly before his capture in July 1592, Southwell had been working on a manuscript of his poems and had penned a Preface addressed to the author’s ‘Loving Cousin’. Since Southwell and Shakespeare were distant cousins, it has been conjectured that the Preface was addressed to Shakespeare, though others have suggested that the ‘Cousin’ in question was perhaps Southampton, since Southwell’s brother and sister had each married Southampton’s first cousins.

“Either way, the Preface itself is an appeal to poets in general, or perhaps to Shakespeare in particular, to use their God-given talents in the service of the Giver of them: ‘Poets, by abusing their talents, and making the follies and feignings of love the customary subject of their base endeavours, have so discredited this faculty, that a poet, a lover, and a liar, are by many reckoned but three words of one signification….’”

theimaginativeconservative.org/2023/07/romeo-jesuits-robert-southwell-joseph-pearce.html#:~:text=Since%20Southwell%20and%20Shakespeare%20were,each%20married%20Southampton's%20first%20cousins.

Shakespeare wrote a poem to honor Anne Line and her husband, but you will find no mention of her name in it. The Phoenix and the Turtle Catholics were subject to a COE tax and fines and had two choices: pay the tax and lay low or be jailed and executed. Shakespeare chose the former; the Line's and Southwell chose the latter. Two other women were executed for hiding priests: Clitherow and Ward.