Chidiock Tichborne

Chidiock Tichborne (1558 - 20 September 1586) is remembered as an English poet and a political conspirator. His best-known work is "Tichborne's Elegy," which he wrote in the Tower of London on the eve of his execution.

A member of the Tichborne family (possibly Chidiock Tichborne). Portrait by Hans Eworth (?1520-1574?). Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Life

Tichbourne, born at Southampton about 1558, was the son of Peter Tichborne by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Middleton. This branch of the family traced descent from Roger de Ticheburne, knight in Henry II's reign, through Henry, younger son of John Tichborne, sheriff of Hampshire in 1488, and great-grandfather of Sir Benjamin, the first baronet (d. 1629) (see the elaborate pedigree in Harl. MS. 5800 ad fin.)

Both Chidiock and his father were ardent Papists, and were in connection with the king of Spain and other enemies of the English government abroad. Francis Walsingham seems to have had his eye upon the father for some time, as in 1583 he was interrogated touching certain ‘popish relics’ that he brought from abroad, where he had gone without leave; and in June 1586 a footboy named Edward Jones gave information as to the "popish practices" observed by the family (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1581–90, pp. 145, 336).

In April 1586 Chidiock threw in his lot with the Babington conspirators at the instance of John Ballard. In the following June he agreed at a meeting held in St. Giles's-in-the-Fields to be, together with John Savage, Robert Barnewell, and 3 others, among the 6 to whom the task of killing the queen was specially allotted.

Ballard was arrested on 4 August 1586 – Babington and others of the conspirators took refuge in St. John's Wood – but Tichborne, who was laid up with a bad leg, was compelled to remain in London. There he was seized on 14 August along with Savage and Charles Tilney, and lodged in the Tower. He was tried with 6 of the other conspirators before Lords Cobham and Buckhurst, Sir Christopher Hatton, and the body of special commissioners, on 13 and 14 September, and after some hesitation pleaded guilty, as did also his companions.

Tichborne was the 5th of the conspirators to be hanged on 20 September. He was "a goodly young gentleman," and his speech as well as his demeanour moved many to compassion. He spoke feelingly of his good mother, his loving wife, his 4 brethren and 6 sisters, and of his house, "from two hundred years before the Conquest never stained till this my misfortune." He suffered the full penalty of the law, being disembowelled before life was extinct. The news of these barbarities reached the ears of Elizabeth, who forbade their recurrence.

Writing

The Elegy

Main article: Tichborne's Elegy

The pathetic letter which he wrote to his wife Agnes on 19 Sept. (the night before he suffered) is preserved along with the 3 beautiful stanzas commencing "My prime of youth is but a frost of cares," which he is said to have written in the Tower on the same occasion. The poem has been with little justification assigned to others (Lansdowne MS. 777, art. 2; Harl. MS. 6910, f. 141 verso; Ashmol. MS. 781, f. 138; Malone MS. 19, f. 44; cf. Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, 1672, ii. 395–6).

An "Answer to Mr. Tichborne, who was executed with Babington," was printed with Tichborne's poem in Hannah's Poems of Raleigh, &c., from "a manuscript belonging to J. P. Collier;" it is of no merit.

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

Other poems

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.

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).

Poems by Tichborne

Elegy By Chidiock Tichborne

• Tichborne's Elegy

See also

• List of British poets

References

• Isaac D'Israeli (circa 1859) (1st collected edition 1881) Curiosities of Literature, Vol. II, pp. 171-178
• Richard S. M. Hirsch (1986) The Works of Chidiock Tichborne, English Literary Renaissance, (1986) Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 303-318 and (1987) Vol 17 pp. 276-277
• Teresa McLean (1982) The Recusant Legend: Chideock Tichborne, History Today, Vol. 32, Issue 5, May 1982, pp. 11-14
•  Seccombe, Thomas (1898) "Tichborne, Chidiock" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 56 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 374-375  . Wikisource, Web, Apr. 24, 2021.
• Katharine Tynan (Hinkson) (1892) "A Conspirator under Queen Elizabeth," The Ave Maria, Vol. XXXV:13 (Sept. 24, 1892). Notre Dame, Indiana.

External links

Poems

• Tichborne's Elegy
• Tichborne, Chidiock at Representative Poetry Online (1 poem)
• Chidiok Tichborne 1558-1586 at the Poetry Foundation
• Tichborne's Elegy - Poem of the week at The Guardian

Audio / video

• Audio: Robert Pinsky reads "Tichborne's Elegy"
• "My prime of youth is but a frost of cares (Tichborne's Elegy) at LibriVox

About

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Tichborne, Chidiock