The play Romeo and Juliet reflects in its moral theme some of the poetry and writing of
the Jesuit priest and martyr, St. Robert Southwell, most notably in his
poem, "Lewd Love is Loss". Southwell wrote of the difference between
true love, i.e. caritas or charity, and the false love inspired by Venus
or Eros, i.e. venereal or erotic "love". This is William Shakespeare's primary
theme in Romeo and Juliet, of course. In my book, "Shakespeare On
Love: Seeing the Catholic Presence in Romeo and Juliet", which
will be published by Ignatius Press this autumn, there is a long
appendix section on "The Jesuit Connection" in which Shakespeare's
creative debt to Southwell is explored.
Link (here) to Joseph Pearce's full piece at St Austin Review
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