which Saint Peter laments betraying Christ. Critics
have noted that WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’s later poem The
RAPE OF LUCRECE (1593–94) shows the infl uence of
Southwell’s earlier work. The poem represents the sum
of Southwell’s priestly and poetic insights, and it is
geared to a variety of audiences: practicing Catholics,
lapsed Catholics, and other poets.
Southwell’s poetry deals with spiritual maturity and
the intent of teaching the way to love God through suf-
fering; it covers topics such as the nativity of Christ,
the Virgin Mary, and Christ’s ministry. “The Virgin
Mary’s Conception” is perhaps the best known of the
Mary poems, while “The BURNING BABE” commands the
most attention overall. It has force and simplicity and
was much admired by contemporaries. Printing and
possessing Southwell’s work was illegal during the
reign of Elizabeth I; nevertheless, his poetry surrepti-
tiously enjoyed wide circulation.
FURTHER READING
Brownlow, F. W. Robert Southwell. New York: Twayne,
1996.
McDonald, James H., and Nancy Pollard Brown, eds. The
Poems of Robert Southwell, SJ. Oxford: Clarendon, 1967.
Pilarz, Scott R. Robert Southwell and the Mission of Literature,
1561–1595. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 2004.
Mark DiCicco
SPANISH ARMADA (1588) In 1588, a large
fl eet (armada) of 130 Spanish vessels sailed through
the English Channel with the objective of occupying
England. The duke of Parma’s troops in the southern
Netherlands were to embark on the fl eet, and the Span-
ish troops would be set on English soil. The armada’s
objectives failed miserably: Before it even reached Par-
ma’s soldiers, the Spanish ships suffered heavy damage
from the English navy, and many vessels were lost on
their return voyage off the West Irish coast. The expe-
dition was a human and fi nancial disaster for the Span-
ish Crown, which became increasingly destitute by
fi nancing its wars in the Low Countries (today’s Bel-
gium, Luxembourg, and Netherlands). Moreover, the
armada’s demise was a sign of the Spanish navy’s
decreasing power, freeing up their English, French,
and Dutch competitors to challenge Iberian authority
over its overseas possessions in the Americas, Africa,
and Asia.
Moreover, this victory proclaimed the Protestant
deliverance over Catholic tyranny during the 16th cen-
tury’s religious wars, and set the stage for English
imperialism.
The outcome of the religious and political warfare
made its way into pamphlets, memorial medals, and
literature. For instance, EDMUND SPENSER’s The FAERIE
QUEENE and THOMAS CAMPION’s “Ad Thamesin” both
directly reference the armada. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’s
Sonnet 107 (see SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS) also boasts
cryptic references to this event. Historians have taken
the armada’s defeat as the ultimate sign of “Spanish
decline” and English “rise to glory.” Though perhaps
not quite so defi nitive as this, the English victory did
encourage the budding nationalists, and later literature
referenced it often.
FURTHER READING
Mattingly, Garrett. The Defeat of the Spanish Armada. Har-
mondsworth, U.K.: Penguin Books, 1962.
Whitehead, Bertrand T. Brags and Boasts: Propaganda in the
Year of the Armada. Dover, N.H.: Alan Sutton Publishers,
1994.
Ernst PijningSPENSER, EDMUND (ca. 1552–1599)
Edmund Spenser was an important fi gure of the Eng-
lish Renaissance who succeeded in inventing his own
verse form, style, and vocabulary. Spenser not only
stimulated a whole contemporary PASTORAL tradition
with the publication of his fi rst major work, The SHEP-
HEARDES CALENDER (1579), but also, posthumously,
exerted a powerful infl uence on a series of major
canonical authors, most notably John Milton, William
Blake, and T. S. Eliot.
Edmund Spenser was born around 1552 to a family
of modest means and earned his education through
academic prowess. In 1561, Spenser entered the Mer-
chant Taylors’ School as a “poor scholar.” There he
came under the tutelage of Richard Mulcaster, a noted
humanist scholar and writer, who emphasized equally
the CLASSTICAL TRADITION and studies in the VERNACULAR.
Spenser continued his education in 1569 by enteringSPENSER, EDMUND 423