Tichborne's Elegie,
(written with his owne hand in the Tower before his execution)
My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,
My feast of joy is but a dish of paine,
My Crop of corne is but a field of tares,
And al my good is but vaine hope of gaine.
The day is past, and yet I saw no sunne,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
My tale was heard, and yet it was not told,
My fruite is falne, & yet my leaves are greene:
My youth is spent, and yet I am not old,
I saw the world, and yet I was not seene.
My thred is cut, and yet it is not spunne,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
I sought my death, and found it in my wombe,
I lookt for life, and saw it was a shade:
I trod the earth, and knew it was my Tombe,
And now I die, and now I was but made.
My glasse is full, and now my glasse is runne,
And now I live, and now my life is done.
Tichborne was executed in 1586 as a member of the Babington conspiracy to assas- sinate Queen Elizabeth and her chief ministers, release Mary Queen of Scots from captivity, and promote an uprising of English Catholics to coincide with a Spanish invasion. The detection of this plot by Walsingham, and the proof of Mary’s complicity in it, finally cost the Scottish queen her life. Tichborne, one of the six conspirators assigned to **** Queen Elizabeth, pleaded guilty at his trial. His “Elegy” was published in a volume called Verses of Praise and Joy Written upon Her Majesty’s Preservation; it was later set to music by three different composers.
