Chidiock Tichborne

Abbreviations Hirsch

Richard S.M. Hirsch, The Works of Chidiock Tichborne, English Literary Renaissance, 16, No. 2 (Spring 1986), 303-18. Additions and corrections in The Text of Tichborne's Lament Reconsidered, English Literary Renaissance, 17, No. 3 (Autumn 1987), between pp. 276 and 277.
Introduction

Chidiock Tichborne is known to history as one of the principal Catholic conspirators who was involved in the Babington Plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth in 1586, for which he suffered the full rigours of hanging, drawing and quartering. His few known poems and other writings, including his last letter to his wife (TiC 48-51) and speech on the scaffold (TiC 52-54), all relate to the last few weeks of his life. Most notable is the fine lament My prime of youth is but a frost of cares, which soon became extremely popular in both single-leaf printed publication and manuscript circulation. At present forty-five contemporary or near-contemporary manuscript copies are recorded (TiC 2-46).

Peter Beal