Tichborne's Elegy

"Tichborne's Elegy" is a 16th-century poem by 28-year-old English poet Chidiock Tichborne, written in the Tower of London on the eve of his execution.

The poem

 * 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.

Background
Chidiock (Charles) Tichborne (1558 - 20 September 1586) is remembered as an English poet and a political conspirator. He was born in Southampton in c. 1558 to Roman Catholic parents, Peter Tichborne and his wife Elizabeth (nee Middleton). Given the recent succession of Elizabeth I to the throne after the death of Mary I, he was allowed to practice 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 practicing 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. 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, Chidiock 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. 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 to his wife Agnes. 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 favorite 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.

Texts
The above 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."

Twenty eight different manuscript versions of the Elegy (or Lament) are known and there are many variations of the text.

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. Another poem in the volume is titled: Hendecasyllabon T. K. in Cygneam Cantionem Chideochi Tychborne and is an answer to Chidiock verses, most likely by the poet and dramatist Thomas Kyd, author of The Spanish Tragedy.


 * Hendecasyllabon T. K. (Thomas Kyd 1558-1595) 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.

Writing
Tichborne's Elegy uses two favorite Renaissance figures of speech - antithesis and paradox - to crystallize 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. We also see it 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 with the possible exception of the word "fallen". However in early editions it was written as "fall'n" which is monosyllabic.

Recognition
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 an affecting reworking by Nick Montfort called Tichborne's Lexicon, which is an alphabetical list of the words in the Elegy (http://nickm.com/poems/#riddles).

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) and John Mundy (1592) and more recently Norman Dello Joio (1949) and Jim Clark (see http://wn.com/Tichborne's_Elegy_Poem_animation).