My overcoat is worn out my shirts also are worn out. And I ask to be allowed to have a lamp in the evening it is indeed wearisome sitting alone in the dark.

This line comes from William Tyndale’s final imprisonment near Brussels, where he was held for heresy after being betrayed and arrested in 1535. Confined in harsh conditions at Vilvoorde Castle, Tyndale wrote a petitionary letter to the prison governor (often identified as the Marquis of Bergen-op-Zoom), asking for small comforts: warmer clothing, a cap, and permission to have a light in the evenings. The request underscores both the material deprivation of his captivity and his continued intellectual and spiritual labor while awaiting trial and execution (he was strangled and burned in 1536).

The quote is striking for its plainness: a great translator and religious controversialist reduced to asking for basic necessities—clothes, a lamp, relief from cold and darkness. Its power lies in the contrast between Tyndale’s monumental cultural impact (his English Bible translations shaped later versions and English prose) and the vulnerability of his last months. The lamp request is more than comfort; it suggests the need to read and write, implying that even in confinement he sought to continue study and translation. The “wearisome” solitude also humanizes him, revealing fatigue and isolation rather than heroic rhetoric.