Чедиок Тичборн: Англия ақыны және қастандықшысы

English poet and conspirator against Elizabeth I

Chidiock Tichborne (after 24 August 1562 – 20 September 1586), erroneously referred to as Charles, was an English conspirator and poet.

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.

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.

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.

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" 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.