63-) English Literature

63-) English Literature 

Chidiock Tichborne

Chidiock Tichborne (after 24 August 1562 – 20 September 1586), erroneously referred to as Charles, was an English conspirator and poet.Chidiock Tichborne was born in Southampton, England, to Roman Catholic parents. Though Catholicism was tolerated in England during Tichborne’s early years, when Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated by the pope in 1570, she reinstated a series of anti-Catholic measures in retaliation. In 1583, Tichborne was interrogated about relics he had gathered while traveling abroad; three years later, he joined the Babington conspirators who were plotting to kill the queen. He was apprehended and held in the Tower of London, where he composed a letter to his wife with the stanzas—known as “Tichborne’s Elegy”—concerning his impending death. Tichborne and a number of his coconspirators were disemboweled before they were hanged, a practice Queen Elizabeth prohibited in future executions when she learned of

it.

Life

Tichborne was born in Southampton sometime after 24 August 1562 to Roman Catholic parents, Peter Tichborne and his wife Elizabeth (née Middleton). His birth date has been given as circa 1558 in many sources, though unverified, and thus his age given as 28 at his execution. It is unlikely that he was born before his parents' marriage, so he could have been no more than 23 years old when he died.

Chidiock Tichborne descended from Sir Roger de Tichborne, who owned land at Tichborne, near Winchester, in the twelfth century. Chidiock's second cousin and contemporary was Sir Benjamin Tichborne who lived at Tichborne Park and was created a Baronet by King James I in 1621. In Chidiock's reported oration from the scaffold before his execution he allegedly stated: "I am descended from a house, from two hundred years before the Conquest, never stained till this my misfortune".

Chidiock's father Peter appears to have been the youngest son of Henry Tichborne (born circa 1474) and Anne Mervin (or Marvin) but the records are unclear. Peter was clerk of the Crowne at the trial of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton in 1554 and was an ardent Catholic supporter. Being the youngest son of a youngest son he was of little means and required to make his own way. He secured an education and the patronage of his distant kinsman, Lord Chidiock Paulet (1521–1574, son of the 1st Marquess of Winchester), after whom he named his son. In later life he spent many years imprisoned unable to pay recusancy fines. Chidiock's mother was Elizabeth Middleton, daughter of William Middleton (grandson of Sir Thomas Middleton of Belso) and Elizabeth Potter (daughter of John Potter of Westram). William had been servant to John Islip, Abbot of Westminster, and a banner bearer at Islip's funeral 1532, and later bought lands in Kent.

The name "Chidiock", pronounced ‘chidik’, as derived from his father's patron, Chidiock Paulet, originates from a Paulet ancestor, Sir John de Chideock, who owned land at Chideock, a village in Dorset. Chidiock Tichborne was never called Charles – this is an error that has grown from a misprint in the AQA GCSE English Literature syllabus which has included the Elegy in its early poetry section for several years. Unfortunately, this error persists in much of the educational literature supporting the syllabus.

At least two of Chidiock's sisters are recorded by name: Dorothy, first wife of Thomas Muttelbury of Jurdens, Somerset; and Mary, second wife of Sir William Kirkham of Blagdon in the parish of Paignton in Devon. At his execution Chidiock mentions his wife Agnes, one child, and his six sisters. In his letter to his wife, written the night before his execution he mentions his sisters – and also 'my little sister Babb'. Another sister is implied in a secret intelligence note to Francis Walsingham, dated 18 September 1586, in which the writer has had conference with "Jennings of Portsmouth" who reports that Mr Bruyn of Dorset and Mr Kyrkham of Devon are persons to be suspect as they had married Tychbourn's sisters.

History

After the succession of Elizabeth I to the throne following the death of Mary I, Chidiock was allowed to practise Catholicism for part of his early life. However, in 1570 the Queen was excommunicated by the Pope for her own Protestantism and support of Protestant causes, most notably the Dutch Rebellion against Spain; in retaliation she ended her relative toleration of the Catholic Church. Catholicism was made illegal, and Roman Catholics were once more banned by law from practising their religion and Roman Catholic priests risked death for performing their functions.

In 1583, Tichborne and his father, Peter, were arrested and questioned concerning the use of "popish relics", religious objects Tichborne had brought back from a visit he had made abroad without informing the authorities of an intention to travel.[2] Though released without charge, records suggest that this was not the last time they were to be questioned by the authorities over their religion. In June 1586 accusations of "popish practices" were laid against his family.

In June 1586, Tichborne agreed to take part in the Babington Plot to murder Queen Elizabeth and replace her with the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, who was next in line to the throne. The plot was foiled by Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's spymaster, using double agents, most notably Robert Poley who was later witness to the murder of Christopher Marlowe, and though most of the conspirators fled, Tichborne had an injured leg and was forced to remain in London. On 14 August he was arrested and he was later tried and sentenced to death in Westminster Hall.

While in custody in the Tower of London on 19 September (the eve of his execution), Tichborne wrote a letter to his wife. She is named as Agnes, even though the State Papers recording his interrogation clearly identify her as Jane Martyn of Athelhampton. But in Tudor times, Agnes was often used as a nickname or term of endearment for very devout women; and it was pronounced in a way that made it sound similar to Jane. So Agnes was most probably a private name that the young husband used for his wife.

The letter contained three stanzas of poetry that is his best known piece of work, Tichborne's Elegy, also known by its first line My Prime of Youth is but a Frost of Cares. The poem is a dark look at a life cut short and is a favourite of many scholars to this day. Two other poems are known by him, To His Friend and The Housedove.

On 20 September 1586, Tichborne was executed with Anthony Babington, John Ballard, and four other conspirators. They were eviscerated, hanged, drawn and quartered, the mandatory punishment for treason, in St Giles Field. However, when Elizabeth was informed that these gruesome executions were arousing sympathy for the condemned, she ordered that the remaining seven conspirators were to be hanged until 'quite dead' before being eviscerated.

Tichborne's poetry

Elegy and others

Elegy

My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,

My feast of joy is but a dish of pain,

My crop of corn is but a field of tares,

And all my good is but vain hope of gain;

The day is past, and yet I saw no sun,

And now I live, and now my life is done.

My tale was heard and yet it was not told,

My fruit is fallen, and yet my leaves are green,

My youth is spent and yet I am not old,

I saw the world and yet I was not seen;

My thread is cut and yet it is not spun,

And now I live, and now my life is done.

I sought my death and found it in my womb,

I looked for life and saw it was a shade,

I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb,

And now I die, and now I was but made;

My glass is full, and now my glass is run,

And now I live, and now my life is done.

This is the first printed version from Verses of Prayse and Joye (1586). The original text differs slightly: along with other minor differences, the first line of the second verse reads "The spring is past, and yet it hath not sprung," and the third line reads "My youth is gone, and yet I am but young."

The last word in the third line, "tares," refers to a harmful "weed" that resembles corn when young, and is a reference to Matt. 13:24–30.[9]

To His Friend (assumed to be Anthony Babington)

Good sorrow cease, false hope be gone, misfortune once farewell;

Come, solemn muse, the sad discourse of our adventures tell.

A friend I had whose special part made mine affection his;

We ruled tides and streams ourselves, no want was in our bliss.

Six years we sailed, sea-room enough, by many happy lands,

Till at the length, a stream us took and cast us on the sands.

There lodged we were in a gulf of woe, despairing what to do,

Till at the length, from shore unknown, a Pilot to us drew,

Whose help did sound our grounded ship from out Caribda's mouth,

But unadvised, on Scylla drives; the wind which from the South

Did blustering blow the fatal blast of our unhappy fall,

Where driving, leaves my friend and I to fortune ever thrall;

Where we be worse beset with sands and rocks on every side,

Where we be quite bereft of aid, of men, of winds, of tide.

Where vain it is to hail for help so far from any shore,

So far from Pilot's course; despair shall we, therefore?

No! God from out his heap of helps on us will some bestow,

And send such mighty surge of seas, or else such blasts to blow

As shall remove our grounded ship far from this dangerous place,

And we shall joy each others' chance through God's almighty grace,

And keep ourselves on land secure, our sail on safer seas.

Sweet friend, till then content thy self, and pray for our release.

The Housedove

A silly housedove happed to fall

amongst a flock of crows,

Which fed and filled her harmless craw

amongst her fatal foes.

The crafty fowler drew his net –

all his that he could catch –

The crows lament their hellish chance,

the dove repents her match.

But too, too late! it was her chance

the fowler did her spy,

And so did take her for a crow –

which thing caused her to die.

The only known manuscript versions of "To His Friend" and The Housedove" are from Edinburgh Library MS Laing, II, 69/24. However, twenty-eight different manuscript versions of the "Elegy" (or "Lament") are known and there are many variations of the text.

Comment

Tichborne's authorship of the Elegy has been disputed, with attributions to others including Sir Walter Raleigh. However it was printed soon after the Babington plot in a volume called Verses of Praise and Joy in 1586, published by John Wolfe of London to celebrate the Queen's survival and to attack the plotters. In the same volume an answer poem entitled "Hendecasyllabon T. K. in Cygneam Cantionem Chideochi Tychborne" ("T. K.'s Hendecasyllabon Against Chidiock Tichborne's Swan Song") is most likely by the poet and dramatist Thomas Kyd, author of The Spanish Tragedy.

Hendecasyllabon T. K. in Cygneam Cantionem Chideochi Tychborne

Thy prime of youth is frozen with thy faults,

Thy feast of joy is finisht with thy fall;

Thy crop of corn is tares availing naughts,

Thy good God knows thy hope, thy hap and all.

Short were thy days, and shadowed was thy sun,

T'obscure thy light unluckily begun.

Time trieth truth, and truth hath treason tripped;

Thy faith bare fruit as thou hadst faithless been:

Thy ill spent youth thine after years hath nipt;

And God that saw thee hath preserved our Queen.

Her thread still holds, thine perished though unspun,

And she shall live when traitors lives are done.

Thou soughtst thy death, and found it in desert,

Thou look'dst for life, yet lewdly forc'd it fade:

Thou trodst the earth, and now on earth thou art,

As men may wish thou never hadst been made.

Thy glory, and thy glass are timeless run;

And this, O Tychborne, hath thy treason done.

Critical appreciation

Elegy

Tichborne's "Elegy" (his rhyming, final soliloquy poem), uses two favourite Renaissance figures of speech – antithesis and paradox – to crystallise the tragedy of the poet's situation. Antithesis means setting opposites against each other: prime of youth / frost of cares (from the first line). This is typical of Renaissance poetry, as for example in Wyatt's "I find no peace, and all my war is done", with the lover freezing/burning. It also appears in the poem by Elizabeth I "I grieve and dare not show my discontent", e.g., "I am and not, I freeze and yet am burned." A paradox is a statement which seems self-contradictory, yet is true, e.g., "My tale is heard, and yet it was not told", or "My glass is full, and now my glass is run." Often a Renaissance poem will begin with antithesis to establish circumstances and reveal its themes through paradox.

The "Elegy" is remarkable for being written almost entirely in monosyllables: Every word in the poem is of one syllable, with ten words in each line, monostich style), with the possible exception of the word "fallen". However, in early editions it was written as "fall'n" which is monosyllabic.

The "Elegy" has inspired many "homages" and "answers" including those by Jonathon Robin at allpoetry.com ; a rap version by David A More at www.marlovian.com ; After Reading Tichborne's Elegy by Dick Allen (2003) and Tichborne's Lexicon by Nick Montfort.

The "Elegy" has also been set to music many times from the Elizabethan era to the present day by, among others, Michael East, Richard Alison (fl1580-1610, in An Hour's Recreation in musicke, 1606), John Mundy (1592) and Charles-François Gounod (1873) and more recently Norman Dello Joio (1949) and Jim Clark (see Tichborne's Elegy Poem Animation) and Taylor Momsen.

The Housedove

"The Housedove" exploits a popular image from the period: Tichborne sees himself as an innocent dove caught among his fellow conspirators, (see Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet 1.5.48). The "crafty fowler" is probably Sir Francis Walsingham, the spymaster who manipulated the Babington plot.

Chidiock Tichborne Poems

My prime of youth is but a frost of cares

Chidiock Tichborne Biography

The tragic figure of Chidiock Tichborne is famous either for his martyrdom as a devout Catholic or for being part of a terrorist plot to kill the reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth I. He had lived a short life in the 16th century practicing, along with his parents, Catholicism at a time when to do so was becoming increasingly dangerous. With the Queen having been excommunicated due to her support of the Dutch conflicts with Spain her tolerance of papists had come to an end. The fact that she saw the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots as a direct threat to her own throne was a major factor. Tichborne made the fatal error of getting mixed up in the so-called Babington Plot. This was a group of men hell bent on killing a Queen, and it was only a matter of time before they were discovered, and they would then all suffer the grisly consequences.

There is some conjecture as to Tichborne’s year of birth but most historians have recorded it as some time during 1562. His place of birth was Southampton, Hampshire and his parents had some strains of nobility in their family histories, an example being Sir Roger de Tichborne who was a 12th century land owner not far from Southampton, in Winchester. The family line went right back to the Norman Conquests and Chidiock Tichborne was reported as making the following statement while on the scaffold:

poem

Nothing is written about his upbringing as, not surprisingly, the story focuses on the activities that brought a premature end to his life. He was known to be a poet, although only three poems appear to have survived. His most famous one was written on the night before his execution and is sometimes called Tichborne’s Elegy or My Prime of Youth is but a Frost of Cares. The other two are called To His Friend and The Housedove.

The persecution of Catholics in England began after the Queen’s excommunication in 1570 and priests who continued to preach their faith did so under pain of death. The Tichborne family came to the notice of the authorities in 1583 for the use of “popish relics” and for having made an unauthorised overseas trip.   At this time there were no charges but some were made against them three years later, in 1586. The Queen’s so-called “Spy Master”, Sir Francis Walsingham, had uncovered a plot to kill the sovereign and then install the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots. A lot of the Babington plot conspirators got away but some, including Tichborne, were caught and tried at Westminster Hall in August. The death sentence for such treason was mandatory and would lead to be a particularly savage end for all of them.

On the 19th September Tichborne was allowed to write a letter to his wife, Agnes and he included a poem of three stanzas which has become his most famous piece of work. Sometimes called his Elegy, here is the poem. It’s a mournful, resigned statement that says he knows that his life is over, but what a pity it had to be so short. He seems to be acknowledging, though, that he has brought about his own downfall because of his unwavering faith:

A Short Analysis of Chidiock Tichborne’s ‘Elegy’

A summary of a famous Elizabethan poem

Chidiock Tichborne was only 24 years old when he was executed in the most horrifically brutal way, by being hanged, drawn, and quartered, for his role in the Catholic Babington Plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I in 1586. Tichborne’s Elegy, which he composed on 19 September 1586 on the eve of his execution and sent to his wife Agnes, remains his most famous poem, and an oft-anthologised example of sixteenth-century English verse. Commonly known as ‘Tichborne’s Elegy’, or by its first line ‘My Prime of Youth is but a Frost of Cares’, the poem is worthy of analysis because of the skill it demonstrates but also, of course, because of the circumstances under which it was composed.

Tichborne’s Elegy

My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,

My feast of joy is but a dish of pain,

My crop of corn is but a field of tares,

And all my good is but vain hope of gain;

The day is past, and yet I saw no sun,

And now I live, and now my life is done.

My tale was heard and yet it was not told,

My fruit is fallen, and yet my leaves are green,

My youth is spent and yet I am not old,

I saw the world and yet I was not seen;

My thread is cut and yet it is not spun,

And now I live, and now my life is done.

I sought my death and found it in my womb,

I looked for life and saw it was a shade,

I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb,

And now I die, and now I was but made;

My glass is full, and now my glass is run,

And now I live, and now my life is done.

Before we get to a summary and analysis of Tichborne’s Elegy, a quick note on his name. The unusual name Chidiock was taken from his father’s patron, Chidiock Paulet, and has its origins in the name of a village in Dorset. Chidiock Tichborne is sometimes erroneously called Charles, a mistake that apparently originated in a misprint in the AQA GCSE English Literature syllabus in the UK.

The version we reproduced above is somewhat different from the original version Tichborne sent to his wife, where the first and third lines of that middle stanza were different. Below we’ve included the original version (with Tichborne’s own spelling) as it is included in the excellent anthology The Oxford Book of English Verse, edited by Christopher Ricks, right down to the inconsistencies (‘live’ becomes ‘lyve’ in the middle stanza):

My prime of youth is but a froste of cares,

My feaste of joy, is but a dishe of payne,

My cropp of corne, is but a field of tares:

And all my good is but vaine hope of gaine:

The daye is gone, and yet I sawe no sonn:

And nowe I live, and nowe my life is donn.

The springe is past, and yet it hath not sprong

The frute is deade, and yet the leaves are greene

My youth is gone, and yet I am but yonge

I sawe the woorld, and yet I was not seene

My threed is cutt, and yet it was not sponn

And nowe I lyve, and nowe my life is donn.

I saught my death, and founde it in my wombe

I lookte for life, and sawe it was a shade.

I trode the earth and knewe it was my Tombe

And nowe I die, and nowe I am but made

The glasse is full, and nowe the glass is run

And nowe I live, and nowe my life is donn.

Reading the poem in its sixteenth-century spelling adds extra poignancy and power to its meaning.

Although the meaning of Tichborne’s ‘Elegy’ might be reasonably clear, a brief paraphrase of the poem might help to clarify a few things. His best years, he tells us, are not what they should be. The crop of corn he has (metaphorically) grown has turned out to be actually a nasty weed that merely resembles corn (but is inedible). (This is a biblical allusion to Matthew 13:25-30, which mentions the ‘tares’ of the bearded darnel, Lolium temulentum, a species of rye-grass, the seeds of which are highly poisonous. The weed looks remarkably like wheat until the ear appears.) All of the goodness in his life is a sham, because he foolishly and futilely hopes to achieve things which he never will. And although he never reached the lofty heights he hoped to, his life is already over, like an overcast day when the sun never comes out.

Spring is over, yet he missed the growth and warmth of that season; all the fruit that grew in the spring is already dead, even though the leaves remain green – in other words, Tichborne is still young, fit and healthy, but all of the things he hoped to achieve are already dead and over with. Paradoxically, although he is still young (just 24 when he wrote the Elegy, remember), his youth is now over – because his life is to end tomorrow. Although he went out there and saw the world, his potential was never realised. With a nod to the fates, Tichborne states that the ‘thread’ of his life has been cut, before the Fates of classical myth even had a chance to ‘spin’ a course for him (i.e. before he had a chance to make a real mark on the world).

In the final stanza, Tichborne reflects that, to borrow from T. S. Eliot’s ‘East Coker’, ‘In my beginning is my end.’ His death is to be found in his origin or conception, in the ‘wombe’ – in other words, no sooner had he been conceived and born than he is to be recalled by death. His life is but a shadow of what it could have been. The earth he has walked upon was his ‘tombe’ all this time: he was a dead man walking. He’s dying when he’s barely been made, or formed, into a man. One moment the hourglass is full of grains of sand, and the next moment they have all run out, and his time is up. The poem ends the way each stanza has ended: ‘And now I live, and now my life is done.’ There is something almost resigned or inevitable about those ‘And nows’: ‘and now this happens, and now tomorrow, this other thing is going to happen.’ C’est la vie – et la mort.

The poem is a masterly balance of contrasts, presenting, in each successive line, two distinct states: his field of corn is actually a field of weeds; the leaves are green and yet the fruit has already fallen from the tree, dead. The repetition of ‘and yet’ reinforces the sense of injustice and waste that Tichborne feels. After all, to his mind he is a brave representative of the true Christian faith being executed by a corrupt Protestant government. Yet Tichborne also probably believed he was a Catholic martyr who would be rewarded in heaven, which perhaps explains the more stoic tone glimpsed in that repeated refrain.

Chidiock Tichborne’s authorship of the ‘Elegy’ has been disputed, with some claiming it was another Tower of London jailbird, Sir Walter Raleigh, who wrote it. But it seems likely that Tichborne – who also wrote some other charming poems, such as ‘The Housedove’ – did indeed pen the poem shortly before his brutal execution. Interestingly, the pioneering playwright Thomas Kyd (author of the pioneering revenge play The Spanish Tragedy) would pen a response to Tichborne’s Elegy, included below. Like Tichborne, Kyd would later fall foul of the authorities (for his associations with Christopher Marlowe), and would be tortured in the Tower; although he was later released, he would die of his injuries less than a year later.

Thy prime of youth is frozen with thy faults,

Thy feast of joy is finisht with thy fall;

Thy crop of corn is tares availing naughts,

Thy good God knows thy hope, thy hap and all.

Short were thy days, and shadowed was thy sun,

T’obscure thy light unluckily begun.

Time trieth truth, and truth hath treason tripped;

Thy faith bare fruit as thou hadst faithless been:

Thy ill spent youth thine after years hath nipt;

And God that saw thee hath preserved our Queen.

Her thread still holds, thine perished though unspun,

And she shall live when traitors lives are done.

Thou soughtst thy death, and found it in desert,

Thou look’dst for life, yet lewdly forc’d it fade:

Thou trodst the earth, and now on earth thou art,

As men may wish thou never hadst been made.

Thy glory, and thy glass are timeless run;

And this, O Tychborne, hath thy treason done.