Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Shortall, Sebastian
SHORTALL, SEBASTIAN (d. 1639), titular abbot of Bective in co. Meath, was born at Kilkenny. He became a Cistercian monk at Nucale in Galicia, and worked at philosophy in the seminary of St. Claudius there, and afterwards in the monastery of Mons Ramorum, where Henriquez, the literary historian of the Cistercian order, was then studying theology. Henriquez describes Shortall, whom he classes among Spanish writers, as keen-spirited, vehement in disputation, and efficacious in argument, and as one of the best poets the order had produced. Shortall wrote with ease in all the Latin metres. Many of his poems circulated in manuscript, but none appear to have been printed. The names of a few are given by Henriquez and reproduced by Harris.
Shortall, being sent on a mission to his native country, was captured by the Moors at sea. Having been redeemed, he made his way to Ireland, and died titular abbot of Bective in co. Meath on 3 Dec. 1639.
[Henriquez's Phœnix Reviviscens, Brussels, 1626; Ware's Writers of Ireland, ed. Harris.]