FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[1]In discussing the first and second heads, it must be recollected that the subject confines the inquiry to that portion of the work, which was edited byWilliam Baldwin, and forming Part III. in the present edition.[2]Hist. of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 209.[3]Bibliographia Poetica, p. 88.[4]See vol. ii. p. 7.[5]This must have been Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, who was made Chancellor 21 Sept. 1553, and died the 13 Nov. 1555. On his death the great seal was entrusted to Sir Nicholas Hare, Master of the Rolls, and on the first of January following it was given to Dr. Nicholas Heath, the Archbishop of York.[6]The copy before me wants the title. The colophon as follows:Thus endeth the nynth and laste boke of Iohnon Bochas, whiche treateth of the fall of princes, princesses, & other nobles. Imprinted at London in flete strete by Richarde Pynson, printer vnto the kynges moste noble grace, & fynisshed the xxi. day of Februarye, the yere of our lorde god. M. CCCCC. XXVII.Folio. Has sig. P. P. viij, the preceding signatures in sixes and the first alphabet wanting Y & Z. Ends at fo. CCXVI. This edition differs materially from the one printed by Tottell.[7]A treatise excellent and compendious shewing and declaring, in maner of Tragedye, the falles of sondry most notable Princes and Princesses with other Nobles, through yemutabilitie and change of vnstedfast Fortune together with their most detestable & wicked vices. First compyled in Latin by the excellent Clerke Bocatius, an Italian borne. And sence that tyme translated into our English and Vulgare tong, by Dan John Lidgate Monke of Burye. And nowe newly imprynted, corrected, and augmented out of diuerse and sundry olde writen copies in parchment.Colophon.Imprinted at London in Fletestrete within Temple barre at the sygne of the hande and starre, by Richard Tottel, the x day of September in the yeare of oure Lorde.1554.Cum Privilegio ad imprimendum solum.Folio: folds in Sixes. Extends to Pp. vj. the first alphabet wanting Z, and the dance of Machabree having for sig. ¶ ¶, in six. Ends at fol. CC. xxiiii.[8]Head title:The daunce of Machabree wherin is liuely expressed and shewed the state of manne, and howe he is called at vncertayne tymes by death, and when he thinketh least theron; made by thaforesayde Dan John Lydgate Monke of Burye.[9]It is entitled:The tragedies, gathered by Jhon Bochas, of all such Princes as fell from theyr estates throughe the mutability of Fortune since the creacion of Adam, until his time; wherin may be seen what vices bring menne to destruccion, wyth notable warninges howe the like may be auoyded. Translated into Englysh by John Lidgate, Monke of Burye. Imprinted at London,byJohn Wayland, at the signe of the Sunne ouer against the Conduite in Fletestrete. Cum Priuilegio per Septennium.The title is in the architectural compartment of John Day the printer, where the two Atlas figures upon pedestals support the entablature, having the royal arms central, and at the bottom Day’s rebus, of one person awaking another, pointing to the rising sun, in a frame before a bar, having “Arise, for it is Day.” Folio, 189 leaves.[10]History was always recommended as supplying interesting lessons for youth, and a fit amusement for the avoiding idleness for gentlemen.—“Cosmography,” says the intelligent Sir Thomas Eliot, “beyng substancially perceyued, it is than tyme to induce a chylde to the redyng of histories. But fyrst to set hym in a feruent courage, the maister in the most pleasant and elegant wise, expressyng what incomparable delectacion, vtilitee, and commoditee shall happen to emperours, kinges, princis, and all other gentylmen, by redyng of histories.”The boke named the Gouernour.1553. B. I. Ch. XI.—As a proper study for gentlemen it is more largely enforced by an anonymous author, who says: “To auoyd this blemyshe of idlenes, whiche defaceth vtterly the lyfe of gentlemen, it behoueth them alwayes to be occupyed, and although there wante sumetyme mete occacion of corporall exercyse, yet the mynde of man maye be occupyed much to the increase of hys knowledge and vnderstandyng: wherin ther can be nothynge more meete for gentlemen then the readyng of histories, a most excellent and laudable exercise for them, euen so muche as historyes are called the bokes of kynges and princes, because vnto rulers of this earthe the knowlege of histories is most profitable, and very necessary to be read of all those whyche beare office and authority in the communwealth. Siculus affirmeth that the reading of histories is to younge men moste proffitable, for because by them they learne the righte institucion of their liues, and that by meanes of readynge sundrye thynges their wittes are made equall with their elders that haue gone before them. Moreouer he saieth that it maketh priuate men worthy to becom rulers ouer others, it prouoketh Capitaines in the warres to seke immortal glory throughe their worthye deedes, it maketh soldiers more earnest to enter into perilles for the defence of their country, by reason of the laud and fame that is geuen vnto men after theyr deathe, and also it feareth euill disposed men, and maketh them ofttimes refraine from dooing of mischiefe by reason of the shame that commeth therof, regestred in histories to their dishonoure. In histories are to be learned manye morall lessons to the vnderstanding of thinges past, the ordre of thinges present. By them we lerne to knowe howe princes and rulers of thys worlde haue passed their liues, as sum geuen to knowledge of sciences, sume to see iustice truelye executed, other geuen to pitie, others to peace, quyetnes, and care of the commune wealthe.”The Institvcion of a Gentleman, 1568.[11]With that view Hearne noticed the Mirror for Magistrates as a work in which “are several things of note to be consulted by those who write of the English history.” MSS. Col. vol. i. p. 133. Bod.[12]The title was repeatedly borrowed even by popular writers. There was: “The Mirrour for Mutabilitie, or principall part of the Mirrour for Magistrates, describing the fall of diuers famous Princes, and other memorable Personages. Selected out of the sacred Scriptures by Anthony Munday, and dedicated to the Right Honorable the Earle of Oxenford. Honor alit Artes. Imprinted at London by John Allde and are to be solde by Richard Ballard, at saint Magnus Corner. 1579.”—“Mirrour of Mirth, a story book by R. D. 1583.”Capell’sShakesperiana, No150.A Mirrour for Magistrates of Cities, &c. by Geo. Whetstone, 1584, andThe English Myrror, in three parts, by same Author, 1586. Also theMirrour for Mathematikes; aMirrour of Monsters, &c. Warton also mentions, upon the manuscript authority of Coxeter:The Mirrour of Mirrours, or all the tragedys of the Mirrour for Magistrates abbreuiated in breefe histories in prose. Very necessary for those that have not the chronicle. London, imprinted for James Roberts in Barbican, 1598.No copy of this work has yet been discovered.[13]In 1560 was publishedGodet’sChronicle. It may be conjectured that that work was printed, to the reign of William the Conqueror, before the appearance of the M. for M. in the year preceding, when the compiler, from the reception of that poem, was induced to alter his descriptions from prose to octave stanzas. As this Chronicle is of more than usual rarity, I shall venture to extend this note with some account of it, premising, that in the continuance of Ames, Mr. Dibdin will give a minute analysis of the work, accompanied with a specimen of the very curious wood cuts.This Chronicle takes its name from the colophon: “Imprinted at London by Gyles Godet dwellinge in Blacke Frieres.” It was printed on a long roll in divisions, with bold well executed portraits, cut in wood, of our ancient patriarchs and monarchs, each having an ensign of arms, and beneath a brief narrative of the principal events of each life. The Roll commences with the following address:“To the reader. Beholde here (gentle reader) a brief abstract of the genealogie and race of all the kynges of England, from the floudde of Noe, vntill Brute, at whiche tyme this contrye was called Albion, takyng that name of one of the thirtie sisters (as some saye) whose name was Albion: or as other some saye, so named by mariners, bicause of the white Cliffes that are on the costes of the same. And afterward from Brute to Athelscaine, at which time it was named Britaine, taing name of Brute: from Athelscaine, the first of the Saxons, (at which tyme it chaunged that name of Britayne, & was called England) to william Conquerour. And from william Conquerour to this present day. And if by chaunce thou fynde any thyng herein fautye, or not agreeing with some other cronicles, vnderstand that the diuersities of the cronicles of our realme, be so great, (especially in thinges long past) that it is very difficult, to make a certain & true report thereof. Not with standing, I haue vsed the helpe of the best Cronicles that haue [been] wrytten therof, & gone so neare to the truth, as to me seemed possyble. I haue also set forth the pourtraiture of their personages, with their true armes: also briefly their gestes, & deedes with the yeares of their raygnes & places of their burials, according as I haue found mention therof: Beesechyng the to accept my good wyll, and to receyue thys my laboure in good part: which if thou do, it shal not only be the accomplishyng of my request, but also shal encourage me hereafter, to vse my little talent, farther. Farewel.”The “portraitures” commence with a square compartment representing “Noe” asleep in a vineyard and his three sons. See Genesis, C. IX. v. 22, 23. Then follows a three quarter length of each monarch, with a summary of their “gests” or acts printed underneath. Their names areNoe, Cham, Mesraim, Laabin, Tuscus, Altheus, Camboblascon, Dardanus Ericthonius, Tros, Eneas, Ascanius, Siluius, Brutus.Here another square compartment exhibits “the foundation of the cytie of London,” in a view of the Thames, with a Tower nearly built on the one side and foundations for buildings upon the other, with workmen, &c. Brutus “founded the cytye of Troynouant; (whiche is as muche to say, as:) New Troye, whiche afterward, was repayred & garnyshed with Towers and faire buyldynges, by Kynge Lud: And from his tyme, it was called Ludstone: and afterwarde by corruption of speache, was called London. So that from the begynnyng of the foundacion of the same Cytye, to this present yeare, (whiche is the yeare of our Sauiour 1560) we fynde it to be 2690. yeares, or there about.” Then succeedLocrinus, Maddan, Memprise, Ebrancke, Brute the ii, Leyl, Lud Hurdibras, Bladud, Leir, Queen Cordeile, Morgan & Conedag, Riueall, Gurgustius, Sysyllus, Jago, Kymar, Gorbonian, Dunwallon, Bellinus, Gurgwin Batrus, Guitellin, Sicilius, Morindus, Gorbonianus, Archigall, Elidurus, Vigenius & Peridurus, Gorbonias, Morgan, Emerianus, Idwall, Rimo, Geruntius, [Here the names of 26 kings are given in genealogical circles, according to succession, of whom “we fynd not much written” and we may presume, that circumstance the reason for omitting any supposed resemblance of them.] Elinguellus, Hely, Lud, Casseuelanus, Tenentius, Kimbeline, Guinderus, Aruiragus, Marius, Coell, Lucius, Bassianus, Carasius, Asclepiodotus, Coell, Constantius, Constantyne, Octauius, Traherus, Maximianus, Gratian, Constantyne, Constans, Vortiger, Vortimerus, Aurelius Ambrose, Vter Pendragon, Arthur the great, Constantyne, Aurelius Conan, Vortiporuis, Malgon, Cathericus, Cadwan, Cadwallon and Edwyn, Cadwallader.“Here endeth the raignes of the Britaines, from the time of Brute to Cadwallader, and then this realme being in great misery, the English Saxons inuaded it, and so raigned vntill the comming in of willyam Conqueror.” AsAthelscayne, Egbrut, Edelnulph, Alfred, Edward, Athelstone, Edmond, Edred, Edwin, Edgar, Edward, Etheldred, Edmond Ironsyde, Ciuiton or Swayne, Herauld, S. Edward, Harauld.“Here endeth the raignes of the Saxon kinges: & beginoneth the raigne of willyam Conquerour, who slewe the last of the Saxons ligne, & conquered the land: & from him, to our Souueraine lady the Queenes maiestie that nowe is, whom god prospere. Amen.”From William the Conqueror to Q. Elizabeth, the names of the portraits are according to the general regal table. With that king the compiler of the Chronicle commences his description in octave stanzas, of which a specimen for comparative use may be here preserved.Willyam Conquerour i.William Conquerour Duke of NormandyConquered England and began there to raignThe thousand syxty syx yeare truelyeOf Christ: but the Englysh men rebelled againYet he subdued them to their great paine,And brought yeking of Scottes to his obeissanceWith his eldest son Robert, warre he did sustainIn Normandy: & with king Philip in France.In Fraunce he fell sycke and tooke his deathAnd to his son Robert which then was most old,The Dukedome of Normandy he did bequest.To his Sonne called William Rous he woldeThe Realme of Englande; but his goldHe wylled to his yongest sonne HenryeAnd XXI. yeare he raigned it is toldAnd lyeth buried at Cane in Normandy....Phillip and Mary.The yeare a thousand fyue hundreth fyftythrewas Mary cround in England queen to raignewho then allowed the Popes authoritieErectinge eke all Papistry agayneAnd after maried with Phyllip king of Spainewho raignde with hir as king, and yet was heNot crounde, wherby no claime he could attainShe being dead of England kyng to be.Hir raigne, hir port and eke hir gouernmentSo rife in memory still with vs remainesThat it to shewe the tyme in vayne is spentAnd eke to me it seemes but needlesse paynes:Hir soule is fled, hir body still remainesAt Westminster the same eke buryed ysfiue years she raygnd: Lo thus is death yegainsAnd eke the end of all this worldly blysse.Elizabeth.O England nowe of right thou mayst reioyce,Sith myghtye Joue hath placed in princely throne,Elisabeth, therfore with heart and voyce,Prayse God: and giue all laude to him alone,Whose myghtye hand hath placed nowe suche one,As vertues force full amply hath endued:More hope of welthe and ioye we haue had none,Then God his grace to vs nowe hath renued.For we his wrath against vs stil did moue,And he his grace thus vndeserued sent,We did rebell and he did shewe his loue,In placing hir, whiche with our whole intentWe so did wishe: nowe let our heartes relent,And pray to God that as she gracious is,We maye be worthye tyll our lyues be spente,Hyr to enioye, and thankfull be for this.Only two copies of this rare chronicle are at present known, and those are in the collections of Earl Spencer, and the right honourable Thomas Grenville.[14]Warton, in the account of the Mirror for Magistrates, given in his History of English Poetry, Vol. III. at p. 216, has copied the title of the edition of 1559, then extracted Baldwin’s Dedication from that of 1563, as from the same. In another place he refers to the Induction as printed in 1559. But this confusion is still more exceeded by the following note at p. 220. “These lines in Collingbourne’s legend are remarkable, fol. cxliiii. a.Like Pegasus a poet must have wynges,To flye to heaven, or where him liketh best;He must have knowledge of eternal thynges,Almightie Jove must harbor in his brest.”The reference of roman capitals can only be to the edition of 1563, where the second line stands thus:“To flye to heaven,thereto to feede and rest.”The above alteration first appeared in 1571.[15]The following critical disquisition upon the claim of Sackville, contained in a letter from my intelligent and excellent friend Sir Egerton Brydges, it would be unjustifiable on my part to suppress, however militating against the position I have above sought to establish:“You have made out (he writes) a strong case; and some of your inferences cannot be controverted: but I think that others are pressed a little too far. That no contribution of Sackville appeared in the first edition of the Mirror cannot be denied. That Sackville was not one of the party engaged in the original design stopped by the Lord Chancellor, is at least equivocal. According to my construction of Baldwin’s words, he was one of that party, who, when a stop was put to the plan adopted by him, in common with his partners, purposed to execute the work by himself on a new plan of his own; and, in aid of that work, intended to obtain of Baldwin what had been finished by others, and to fit them to his own scheme. It is clear, that this happened before the publication of the first edition of the Mirror, because it was while the prohibition was in force. “How happened it then,” it may be asked, “that Sackville’s pieces did not appear in the first edition?” Perhaps because the hope of completing his own design, though delayed, might not then have been abandoned. The delay might have caused his coadjutors not to wait for him, though he himself might not yet be prepared to bend his own nobler scheme to theirs. Four important years from 1559 to 1563, the interval which elapsed between the appearance of the first and second edition, might, and if we examine the history of his life, most probably would effect this change. In the days of Q. Mary he had the opportunity of cultivating and ripening into fruit his poetical genius, which would require, as in most other cases, the nurture of leisure and solitude. The accession to the throne at this time of a Princess, to whom he was nearly allied, and with whom he soon became, and always continued, a favourite, opened to him other and more active prospects. The paths of ambition, however thorny and full of dangers they might prove to long experience, were too alluring to an high fancy and vigorous talents, when thus invited. At first he might be still unwilling to abandon the pursuits of his youth, of which he could not be insensible to the dignity and the virtue, and which the conscious grandeur of genius must tell him that wealth and birth could not rival, and princes could not qualify him for. But he who once accustoms himself to the intoxicating cup of worldly ambition, too generally feels that it gradually undermines the strength of his higher intellect and nobler resolves; and that he sinks into the common notions, feeble sentiments, and groveling amusements of ordinary men. In four short years, the vigorous and inspired hand of Sackville might no longer possess either the impulse, or the skill, or the strength, to strike the lyre, which formerly returned to his touch alternate strains of sublime morality and glowing description. In this state of mental apostacy or dereliction, he might finally abandon his youthful project of poetical glory, and give the mighty fragment to his old coadjutor Baldwin, who seems to have had taste enough to perceive its superiority; and to resolve not to lose the attraction of so splendid a patch to his work, though its execution, as well as its plan, rendered it impossible to make it coalesce with the rest of the performance.Warton therefore, though he cannot be entirely freed from the charge of having expressed himself somewhat ambiguously in the application of the wordsprimary inventorto the general plan of the Mirror for Magistrates, yet may be justified in substance, if he meant, as I conceive he did, to apply it to the only part to which the praise of invention could be applied; that is, to theplan of Sackville.Warton has well called the whole of this work, except the part executed by Sackville, “biographical details.” This is their precise character: they are scarcely ever animated by any of the ingredients of poetry, at a period when true poetry was not utterly unknown, as not only the antiquated strains of Chaucer, but the later performances of Surrey and Wyat decisively prove. The popularity of this large collection of historical legends shews that the general taste of the nation was then low, vulgar, and uncultivated. Powerful and brilliant genius will at all times seize striking circumstances, produce picturesque effects, and omit disgusting, low, or uninteresting particulars: but more ordinary minds, which require long discipline, and example, and experience, to lead their taste, are insensible to these arts, either as writers or readers, in early stages of literature. In an advanced age of mental polish, even inferior authors catch a considerable portion of this skill; and even the multitude, who seek amusement in books, have learned to demand it. To a common eye therefore, there does notthenappear such an immeasurable distance between the Works of natively-gifted poets, and the herd of imitators who borrow their outward garb. In our days there would not have been put forth a publication, combining such poetical excellence of the highest kind, as Sackville’s Induction and Legend contain, with a number of productions deficient in the very elements, and even shape, of poetry. All would have been polished into something like the same external form.But this very discordancy givesThe Mirror for Magistratesa high value among the records of the history and progress of the human mind. For the purposes of the English philologist; for the development of the first dawnings of our poetical phraseology; for the investigation of the commencement of that “ornate style,” as it has been well called by a modern critic, which at length became so copious and laboured, as to make the greater part of that which assumed the name of poetry, little better than a piece of hollow mechanism, till one or two poets, of genuine inspiration, disgusted with its emptiness, put it out of fashion, by a plainer and more vigorous style; for these purposes, theMirror for Magistrates, is a treasure meriting the most serious attention and study of the English scholar; and therefore well worthy of the reprint, which will render it accessible to his inquiries.S. E. B.”[16]See it described p. iv. note §[i.e. Footnote 9 in this text].[17]The copy of the quenes Maiesties letters Patentes. Mary by the grace of God, Quene of Englande, Fraunce, and Ireland, defendour of the faith, and in earth of the Churche of Englande, and also of Ireland, the supreme head. To al Prynters of bookes, and bookesellers, and to al other our Officers, Minysters, and Subiectes these our letters patentes hearing or seing gretyng. Knowe ye that we of oure especial grace and meare mocion: haue geuen and graunted, and by these presentes doo geue and graunte full power, licence, auctoritie, and Priuilege vnto our welbeloued Subiect Jhon Wayland, Citezeyn and Scriuenour of London. That he & his Assignes only and none other person or persons shal from hensforth haue auctoritie, & lybertie to prynt al and euery such vsual Primers or Manual of prayers by whatsoeuer other title yesame shal or may be called, which by vs our heyres, successours, or by our clergy by our assent shal be auctorised, set furth, and deuysed for to be vsed of all our louing subiects thoroughout all our Realmes, and domynyons, duringe the full tyme and terme of seuen yeares next ensuing the date of these our letters patentes. And farther that it shal not be lawful for any maner of other person, or persones of our said Subiectes, to Prynt or to procure to be imprinted, anye Prymers or Manuall of prayers by whatsoeuer title the same shall or may be called, or set furth, during the said tearme, nor any booke, or bookes, which the said John Waylande or his Assignes at his or theyr costes and charges shall first Prynte, or set furth during the said terme of seuen yeares next ensuing the printing of the same booke or bookes, vpon payne of forfature, and confiscacion of the same Prymers, Manuall of prayers, and bookes, to thuse of vs and oure successours. Wherfore we woll and commaunde all you our Printers, and other our Subiectes that ye nor any of you, do presume, procure, or attempt to print or set furth any maner Prymers, Manuall of prayers, booke or bookes, which the said Jhon Wayland or his assignes shal first print during the tyme of thys our Priuilege, and licence, vpon payne of forfature and confiscacion of the same Prymers, Manual of prayers, and bookes, as aforsaide. And as ye tendre oure pleasure, and wyl auoyde the contrarie. In witnes wherof we have caused these our letters to be made patentes. Wytnes ourselfe at Westminster the foure and twentith daye of Octobre, in the fyrst yeare of our reigne. Per bren de priuato sigillo et de data predicta.[18]A license for the first part was obtained through the means of Lord Stafford in 1559, and when published that nobleman continued to make earnest calls upon Baldwin for that he had got from other men, which is given in the second part printed 1563. Whether the whole of the first, and what portion of the second part, was inserted in the folio edition is uncertain. The following passage in the prose conclusion of the second part bears incontestible evidence that it was written in the time of queen Mary. “The frantyke heades whiche disable our Queene, because she is a woman, and our kynge because he is a straunger, to be our princes and chiefe governours, hath caused me to saye thus much.” It is therefore probable that forming the conclusion of the suppressed edition, it was reprinted from the original text, and, as happens frequently by inadvertence at the press, without being corrected.[19]Herbert possessed a copy, ad conjectured it was “printed to fill up a spare leaf, and perhaps to try the pulse of the public.”Typographical Antiquities, p. 565.[20]The inspection of a larger proportion of the suppressed edition can alone solve many doubts as to the contents: nor does there appear any reason for not expecting to find the whole of the matter then printed, either in the library at Knowle, or some other unexamined collection of early English books! Why may it not be expected to discover the copy no doubt gotten by Sackville from Baldwin, before he wrote the Induction, when he intended to have all the tragedies “preserved in one volume?” Vol. II. p. 307.[21]It appears probable that some addition was made to the work in 1559. See Vol. II. p. 53, note, and p. 111, note 1.[22]That reviler of fashions, Philip Stubbs, exhibits by the following notice of theMirrour for Magistratesits early popularity, and a sign of his contracted reading by not knowing the contents, as, at the time he wrote, the legend of Henry the VIth had been twice printed. He says: “Holy king Henry [the sixth] was crowned in Paris, and yet lost all on that side before he was a man; and, before hys vnhappy death, he lost thys land also. So that he may with more reason be recorded among those fallen princes at the lowest of Boccace’s while; or in our English booke offallen Maiestrates, there to be reconed up by any faythfull English man for a patent of imitation to our present Q. Elizabeth.”Discouerie of a gaping Gulf.1579.[23]See Vol. II. p. 8.[24]Vol. II. p. 43.[25]See upon that subject Vol. II. p, 168, note 1, &c.[26]The title of this and the later editions by Marsh are in the compartment given with the title of each part of the present reprint.[27]A copy is mentioned in Capell’sShakesperiana, No149.[28]Higgins formed his plan on what had already appeared. In imitation of Sackville there is a poetical Induction, wherein the author is conducted by Morpheus, as the servant of Somnus, to a goodly hall, wherein successively appear the ghosts of all those whose legends are pronounced. Little invention was needed for these prolegomena, and in the selection of Morpheus, as an appropriate conductor, there exists a rivalry in one of the imitations of the Mirror for Magistrates also published in 1574. It is entitledThe rewarde of Wickednesse Discoursing the sundrye monstrous abuses of wicked and ungodly worldelinges: in such sort set downe and written as the same haue beene dyuersely practised in the persones of Popes, Harlots, Proude Princes, Tyrauntes, Romish Byshoppes, and others. With a liuely description of their seuerall falles and finall destruction. Verye profitable for all sorte of estates to reade and looke upon. Newly compiled by Richard Robinson, Seruaunt in housholde to the right Honorable Earle of Shrewsbury. A dreame most pitiful, and to be dreaded.Of thinges that be straunge,Who loueth to reede:In this Booke let him raunge,His fancie to feede.In the dedication to Gilbert Talbote, Esq. second son of the Earl of Shrewsbury, the work is described as composed to eschew idleness, when the author’s “turne came to serue in watche of the Scottishe Queene:” I then (he says) euery night collected some part thereof, to thend that nowe it might the better appeare, that I vsed not altogeather to sleepe: Though one time I chaunsed among many watchfull nightes to take a slumber, which incited mee to compile this fiction of poetry as more largely appeareth in my prologue.The address to the reader is dated theXIXof Maie, 1574, and the Prologue describes the time of the dream as in December, after a “good ale feast,” when the author says:I thought none yll, my heade was layde full saft,All carke and care my wandring sprite had laft.Not lying thus one houre by the clocke,Me thought the chamber shone with torches bright,And in the haste at doore I hearde one knocke,And sayde: “What slugge, why sleepest all the night?”I starting vp behelde one in my sight,Dasht all in golden raies before me did appeare,And sayde: “I am a god, beholde that standeth here.”Miue eares were filde with noysè of trumpets sounde,And dazled were mine eies, my sence was almost gon,But yet amazde my knee vaylde to the grounde,And sayde: “Heare lorde, thy will and mine be one,What is thy minde, more redie there is none,To ride, to runne, to trauell here and there,By lande and seas halfe worthie if I were.But first to know thy name I humbly thee beseeche,Forgiue my rudenesse this of thee to craue:”He aunswering sayd, with meeke and lowlie speeche:“Morpheusis my name, that alwaies power haue,Dreames to shewe in countrie, courte, or caue.In the heauens aboue, or Plutoe’s kingdome loe,Its I that haue the power each thing t’unfolde and shoe.”Morpheus, as the guide, conducts the author through Pluto’s dominions, who selects the following subjects as fit for his muse. 1. Hellen, tormented for her treason to her husbande, and liuing in fornication ten yeares. 2. Pope Alexander the sixt rewarded for his wickednesse and odible lyfe, with his colledge of cardinals, bishops, abbots, moonckes, freers, and nunnes, with the rabble of greasie priestes, and other members of idolatory and superstition. 3. Young Tarquine rewarded for his wickednesse. 4. The rewarde of Medea for hir wicked actes, and false deceyuing of hir father, sleying of hir children, and hir owne brother, and working by inchauntment. This historie is merueylous tragicall and a good example for women. 5. The wordes of tormented Tantalus, being rewarded for his extortion and couetousnes: Oppressing the poore people of his countrey, and for other wicked actes. 6. The rewarde of an ambicious and vaine glorious counseller, called Vetronius Turinus, for his wicked life among them that hee might ouercome and for his pride. 7. The wofull complaint of the monstrous Emperor Heliogabalus for spending of his dayes in abhominable whoredome. 8. The two Iudges for slaundering of Susanna: and bearing false witnesse against hir, be rewarded for the same most terribly. Q. Pope Ihoan rewarded for hir wickednesse. 10. Newes betwene the Pope and Pluto, and of the proclamation about the ladder betwixt hell and heaven. 11. The torment of Tiranny and the reward for his wickednesse, being a king called Mydas, which tirannouslye swallowed not onely his countrey for lucre sake, but his housholde seruauntes also. 12. The rewarde that Rosamonde had in hell, for murdering of hir husbande Albonius and liuing vitiouslie in hir husbandes dayes. 13 Retourning from Plutos Kingdome, to noble Helicon: the place of infinite joy.—Col. Imprinted at London in Pawles Churche Yarde, by William Williamson.[29]See Vol. I. p. 243. Where, in note 8, the reader is requested to alter 'first’ to 'second’ edition. In a few other notes the like alteration may be wanted. I did not obtain sight of the copy described above, until the volume was in print.[30]By very close examination it appears, as if the whole of the first sheet was reprinted.[31]In the present edition the very numerous notes subscribed with the initial N. will point out the unusual interpolations or substitutions made upon the original text by Niccols; as the [brackets] in the text also show the words, lines, and passages wholly omitted in the edition of 1610.[32]To select only three may be sufficient. “I account (says Sir Philip Sydney, in theDefence of Poesy) the Mirrour of Magistrates meetly furnished of beautiful parts.” That profound critic, Edmund Bolton, says: “Among the lesser late poets, George Gascoigne’s work may be endur’d. But the best of those times (ifAlbion’s Englandbe not preferr’d) for our business is, theMirrour of Magistrates, and in that Mirrour Sackvil’s Induction,” &c. And Oldys, in his preface beforeThe British Muse, examining the reign of Elizabeth, observes: “At that time came out the fine collection, calledThe Mirror for Magistrates. This piece was done by several hands. It represents pathetically the falls of many great and unfortunate men of our nation, and beautifully advises others to avoid following their example. Besides the particular praises given this work by Sir Philip Sidney and Mr. Edmund Bolton, (another judicious critick, who writes not long after him;) that it received the general approbation, appears from its having been three or four times reprinted. Every impression had new additions from other eminent hands, amongst whom the Earl of Dorset is not the least conspicuous.”[33]John Higgins was born about 1544. He was educated at Christ Church, and in 1572 describes himself as late student at Oxford. He did not learn the tongues or begin to write until he was twenty years of age, and then studied, chiefly, French and Latin. At twenty-five he taught grammar for about two years, and spent as much time in enlarging Huloet’s Dictionary. He also translated phrases from Aldus, the Flowers of Terence, and wrote, with divers other works, the first part of the Mirror for Magistrates before he was thirty. This brief account is related by himself in some lines preserved in a note at the end of the legend of Mempricius. (See vol. i. p. 102.) In December 1586, while residing at Winsham, in Somersetshire, or, as Wood has it, in Surrey, he prepared and edited, as already noticed, the best edition extant of the present work. Before 1602, it is not improbable, he had established a school at Winsham, or taken orders, for in that year he published a tract upon a subject of theological controversy. The time of his death is uncertain. For a list of his works see Wood’sAthenæ Oxonienses, vol. i. col. 734, ed. 1813.[34]Thomas Blenerhasset was probably a descendant from the ancient family of that name which flourished in Norfolk temp. Hen. 8. of whom Jane B. is named by Skelton inthe Crown of Laurelas one of the bevy of beauties attendant upon the noble Countess of Surrey; and John B. married the daughter of Sir John Cornwallis, knt. the steward of the household to Prince Edward. Our author was educated at Cambridge, and having adopted a military life, was in 1577 stationed in the Island of Guernsey, and there composed his portion of the present work. As the printer, in the following year, tells us the author was “beyond the seas,” it is probable he had then accompanied his regiment to Ireland, where he went as a captain, settled and “purchased an estate. He died about the beginning of the reign of King Charles I. and was the author ofDirections for the Plantation in Ulster, London, 1610.”History and Antiquities of Ireland, by Walter Harris, 1764, vol. ii. p. 333.[35]The note vol. i. p. 371. is a misprint for “of th’ armed Picts.”[36]George Ferrers was born at or near St. Albans, in Hertfordshire, educated at Oxford, and afterwards became a barrister of Lincoln’s Inn. In his juridical pursuit he published,The great Charter called in latyn Magna Carta, with diuers olde statvtes, &c. Colophon,Thus endeth the booke called Magna Carta translated out of Latyn and Frenshe into Englysshe by George Ferrers. Imprynted at London in Paules church yerde at the signe of the Maydens head by Thomas Petyt.M. D. XLII. An earlier edition was printed without date. He was a polished courtier, and esteemed favourite with Henry the 8th, although that capricious monarch, for some offence, the nature of which has not been discovered, committed him to prison in 1542, in which year he was returned member of parliament for the town of Plymouth. The anger of the king was probably not of long duration, as, in addition to other rewards, he bequeathed him a legacy of an hundred marks. He appears to have served in the suite of the protector Somerset, and was one of the commissioners in the army in the expedition into Scotland. By Edward the VIth he was made Lord of Misrule: an appointment to which genius and talent only could pretend, or give its needed prominence and effect. A warrant was issued, on the 30th November, 1552, to pay him, being appointed to be Lord of the Pastimes for the Christmas, 100l.towards the necessary charges. And the honest chronicler Stowe, gives the following account of the jovial pastime and eclat which attended the keeping this annual feast. “The king kept his Christmas with open houshold at Greenewich, George Ferrers gentleman of Lincolns Inne, being lord of the merrie disportes all the twelue daies, who so pleasantly and wisely behaued himselfe, that the king had great delight in his pastimes. On Monday the fourth of January, the said lord of merry disportes came by water to London, and landed at the tower wharfe, entered the tower, and then rode through tower streete, where he was receiued by Sergeant Vawce lord of misrule, to John Mainard one of the Sherifs of London, and so conducted through the citie with a great company of yoong lords and gentlemen to the house of sir George Barne lord maior, where he with the chiefe of his company dined, and after had a great banket, and at his departure, the lord maior gaue him a standing cup with a couer of siluer and gilt, of the value of ten pound for a reward, and also set a hogshead of wine and a barrel of beere at his gate for his traine that followed him: the residue of his gentlemen and seruants dined at other aldermens houses, and with the sherifs, and so departed to the tower wharfe againe, and to the court by water, to the great commendation of the maior and aldermen, and highly accepted of the king and councell.” In the reign of queen Elizabeth he again held the appointment of Lord of Misrule in the court, and as such devised and penned a poetical address which was spoken to her majesty beforethe princely pleasures of Kenelworth-castle, 1576. He is one of the most prominent contributors to the Mirror for Magistrates, and was undoubtedly intimate with all the leading persons that assembled together for the purpose of completing that work. I think it is probable that the edition of 1578, which has many exclusive alterations, and his two legends of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, so long withheld, then first inserted, was edited by him. He died at Flamstead in Hertfordshire, whereupon administration was granted May 18, 1579.

[1]In discussing the first and second heads, it must be recollected that the subject confines the inquiry to that portion of the work, which was edited byWilliam Baldwin, and forming Part III. in the present edition.

[2]Hist. of English Poetry, vol. iii. p. 209.

[3]Bibliographia Poetica, p. 88.

[4]See vol. ii. p. 7.

[5]This must have been Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, who was made Chancellor 21 Sept. 1553, and died the 13 Nov. 1555. On his death the great seal was entrusted to Sir Nicholas Hare, Master of the Rolls, and on the first of January following it was given to Dr. Nicholas Heath, the Archbishop of York.

[6]The copy before me wants the title. The colophon as follows:Thus endeth the nynth and laste boke of Iohnon Bochas, whiche treateth of the fall of princes, princesses, & other nobles. Imprinted at London in flete strete by Richarde Pynson, printer vnto the kynges moste noble grace, & fynisshed the xxi. day of Februarye, the yere of our lorde god. M. CCCCC. XXVII.Folio. Has sig. P. P. viij, the preceding signatures in sixes and the first alphabet wanting Y & Z. Ends at fo. CCXVI. This edition differs materially from the one printed by Tottell.

[7]A treatise excellent and compendious shewing and declaring, in maner of Tragedye, the falles of sondry most notable Princes and Princesses with other Nobles, through yemutabilitie and change of vnstedfast Fortune together with their most detestable & wicked vices. First compyled in Latin by the excellent Clerke Bocatius, an Italian borne. And sence that tyme translated into our English and Vulgare tong, by Dan John Lidgate Monke of Burye. And nowe newly imprynted, corrected, and augmented out of diuerse and sundry olde writen copies in parchment.Colophon.Imprinted at London in Fletestrete within Temple barre at the sygne of the hande and starre, by Richard Tottel, the x day of September in the yeare of oure Lorde.1554.Cum Privilegio ad imprimendum solum.Folio: folds in Sixes. Extends to Pp. vj. the first alphabet wanting Z, and the dance of Machabree having for sig. ¶ ¶, in six. Ends at fol. CC. xxiiii.

[8]Head title:The daunce of Machabree wherin is liuely expressed and shewed the state of manne, and howe he is called at vncertayne tymes by death, and when he thinketh least theron; made by thaforesayde Dan John Lydgate Monke of Burye.

[9]It is entitled:The tragedies, gathered by Jhon Bochas, of all such Princes as fell from theyr estates throughe the mutability of Fortune since the creacion of Adam, until his time; wherin may be seen what vices bring menne to destruccion, wyth notable warninges howe the like may be auoyded. Translated into Englysh by John Lidgate, Monke of Burye. Imprinted at London,byJohn Wayland, at the signe of the Sunne ouer against the Conduite in Fletestrete. Cum Priuilegio per Septennium.The title is in the architectural compartment of John Day the printer, where the two Atlas figures upon pedestals support the entablature, having the royal arms central, and at the bottom Day’s rebus, of one person awaking another, pointing to the rising sun, in a frame before a bar, having “Arise, for it is Day.” Folio, 189 leaves.

[10]History was always recommended as supplying interesting lessons for youth, and a fit amusement for the avoiding idleness for gentlemen.—“Cosmography,” says the intelligent Sir Thomas Eliot, “beyng substancially perceyued, it is than tyme to induce a chylde to the redyng of histories. But fyrst to set hym in a feruent courage, the maister in the most pleasant and elegant wise, expressyng what incomparable delectacion, vtilitee, and commoditee shall happen to emperours, kinges, princis, and all other gentylmen, by redyng of histories.”The boke named the Gouernour.1553. B. I. Ch. XI.—As a proper study for gentlemen it is more largely enforced by an anonymous author, who says: “To auoyd this blemyshe of idlenes, whiche defaceth vtterly the lyfe of gentlemen, it behoueth them alwayes to be occupyed, and although there wante sumetyme mete occacion of corporall exercyse, yet the mynde of man maye be occupyed much to the increase of hys knowledge and vnderstandyng: wherin ther can be nothynge more meete for gentlemen then the readyng of histories, a most excellent and laudable exercise for them, euen so muche as historyes are called the bokes of kynges and princes, because vnto rulers of this earthe the knowlege of histories is most profitable, and very necessary to be read of all those whyche beare office and authority in the communwealth. Siculus affirmeth that the reading of histories is to younge men moste proffitable, for because by them they learne the righte institucion of their liues, and that by meanes of readynge sundrye thynges their wittes are made equall with their elders that haue gone before them. Moreouer he saieth that it maketh priuate men worthy to becom rulers ouer others, it prouoketh Capitaines in the warres to seke immortal glory throughe their worthye deedes, it maketh soldiers more earnest to enter into perilles for the defence of their country, by reason of the laud and fame that is geuen vnto men after theyr deathe, and also it feareth euill disposed men, and maketh them ofttimes refraine from dooing of mischiefe by reason of the shame that commeth therof, regestred in histories to their dishonoure. In histories are to be learned manye morall lessons to the vnderstanding of thinges past, the ordre of thinges present. By them we lerne to knowe howe princes and rulers of thys worlde haue passed their liues, as sum geuen to knowledge of sciences, sume to see iustice truelye executed, other geuen to pitie, others to peace, quyetnes, and care of the commune wealthe.”The Institvcion of a Gentleman, 1568.

[11]With that view Hearne noticed the Mirror for Magistrates as a work in which “are several things of note to be consulted by those who write of the English history.” MSS. Col. vol. i. p. 133. Bod.

[12]The title was repeatedly borrowed even by popular writers. There was: “The Mirrour for Mutabilitie, or principall part of the Mirrour for Magistrates, describing the fall of diuers famous Princes, and other memorable Personages. Selected out of the sacred Scriptures by Anthony Munday, and dedicated to the Right Honorable the Earle of Oxenford. Honor alit Artes. Imprinted at London by John Allde and are to be solde by Richard Ballard, at saint Magnus Corner. 1579.”—“Mirrour of Mirth, a story book by R. D. 1583.”Capell’sShakesperiana, No150.A Mirrour for Magistrates of Cities, &c. by Geo. Whetstone, 1584, andThe English Myrror, in three parts, by same Author, 1586. Also theMirrour for Mathematikes; aMirrour of Monsters, &c. Warton also mentions, upon the manuscript authority of Coxeter:The Mirrour of Mirrours, or all the tragedys of the Mirrour for Magistrates abbreuiated in breefe histories in prose. Very necessary for those that have not the chronicle. London, imprinted for James Roberts in Barbican, 1598.No copy of this work has yet been discovered.

[13]In 1560 was publishedGodet’sChronicle. It may be conjectured that that work was printed, to the reign of William the Conqueror, before the appearance of the M. for M. in the year preceding, when the compiler, from the reception of that poem, was induced to alter his descriptions from prose to octave stanzas. As this Chronicle is of more than usual rarity, I shall venture to extend this note with some account of it, premising, that in the continuance of Ames, Mr. Dibdin will give a minute analysis of the work, accompanied with a specimen of the very curious wood cuts.This Chronicle takes its name from the colophon: “Imprinted at London by Gyles Godet dwellinge in Blacke Frieres.” It was printed on a long roll in divisions, with bold well executed portraits, cut in wood, of our ancient patriarchs and monarchs, each having an ensign of arms, and beneath a brief narrative of the principal events of each life. The Roll commences with the following address:“To the reader. Beholde here (gentle reader) a brief abstract of the genealogie and race of all the kynges of England, from the floudde of Noe, vntill Brute, at whiche tyme this contrye was called Albion, takyng that name of one of the thirtie sisters (as some saye) whose name was Albion: or as other some saye, so named by mariners, bicause of the white Cliffes that are on the costes of the same. And afterward from Brute to Athelscaine, at which time it was named Britaine, taing name of Brute: from Athelscaine, the first of the Saxons, (at which tyme it chaunged that name of Britayne, & was called England) to william Conquerour. And from william Conquerour to this present day. And if by chaunce thou fynde any thyng herein fautye, or not agreeing with some other cronicles, vnderstand that the diuersities of the cronicles of our realme, be so great, (especially in thinges long past) that it is very difficult, to make a certain & true report thereof. Not with standing, I haue vsed the helpe of the best Cronicles that haue [been] wrytten therof, & gone so neare to the truth, as to me seemed possyble. I haue also set forth the pourtraiture of their personages, with their true armes: also briefly their gestes, & deedes with the yeares of their raygnes & places of their burials, according as I haue found mention therof: Beesechyng the to accept my good wyll, and to receyue thys my laboure in good part: which if thou do, it shal not only be the accomplishyng of my request, but also shal encourage me hereafter, to vse my little talent, farther. Farewel.”The “portraitures” commence with a square compartment representing “Noe” asleep in a vineyard and his three sons. See Genesis, C. IX. v. 22, 23. Then follows a three quarter length of each monarch, with a summary of their “gests” or acts printed underneath. Their names areNoe, Cham, Mesraim, Laabin, Tuscus, Altheus, Camboblascon, Dardanus Ericthonius, Tros, Eneas, Ascanius, Siluius, Brutus.Here another square compartment exhibits “the foundation of the cytie of London,” in a view of the Thames, with a Tower nearly built on the one side and foundations for buildings upon the other, with workmen, &c. Brutus “founded the cytye of Troynouant; (whiche is as muche to say, as:) New Troye, whiche afterward, was repayred & garnyshed with Towers and faire buyldynges, by Kynge Lud: And from his tyme, it was called Ludstone: and afterwarde by corruption of speache, was called London. So that from the begynnyng of the foundacion of the same Cytye, to this present yeare, (whiche is the yeare of our Sauiour 1560) we fynde it to be 2690. yeares, or there about.” Then succeedLocrinus, Maddan, Memprise, Ebrancke, Brute the ii, Leyl, Lud Hurdibras, Bladud, Leir, Queen Cordeile, Morgan & Conedag, Riueall, Gurgustius, Sysyllus, Jago, Kymar, Gorbonian, Dunwallon, Bellinus, Gurgwin Batrus, Guitellin, Sicilius, Morindus, Gorbonianus, Archigall, Elidurus, Vigenius & Peridurus, Gorbonias, Morgan, Emerianus, Idwall, Rimo, Geruntius, [Here the names of 26 kings are given in genealogical circles, according to succession, of whom “we fynd not much written” and we may presume, that circumstance the reason for omitting any supposed resemblance of them.] Elinguellus, Hely, Lud, Casseuelanus, Tenentius, Kimbeline, Guinderus, Aruiragus, Marius, Coell, Lucius, Bassianus, Carasius, Asclepiodotus, Coell, Constantius, Constantyne, Octauius, Traherus, Maximianus, Gratian, Constantyne, Constans, Vortiger, Vortimerus, Aurelius Ambrose, Vter Pendragon, Arthur the great, Constantyne, Aurelius Conan, Vortiporuis, Malgon, Cathericus, Cadwan, Cadwallon and Edwyn, Cadwallader.“Here endeth the raignes of the Britaines, from the time of Brute to Cadwallader, and then this realme being in great misery, the English Saxons inuaded it, and so raigned vntill the comming in of willyam Conqueror.” AsAthelscayne, Egbrut, Edelnulph, Alfred, Edward, Athelstone, Edmond, Edred, Edwin, Edgar, Edward, Etheldred, Edmond Ironsyde, Ciuiton or Swayne, Herauld, S. Edward, Harauld.“Here endeth the raignes of the Saxon kinges: & beginoneth the raigne of willyam Conquerour, who slewe the last of the Saxons ligne, & conquered the land: & from him, to our Souueraine lady the Queenes maiestie that nowe is, whom god prospere. Amen.”From William the Conqueror to Q. Elizabeth, the names of the portraits are according to the general regal table. With that king the compiler of the Chronicle commences his description in octave stanzas, of which a specimen for comparative use may be here preserved.Willyam Conquerour i.William Conquerour Duke of NormandyConquered England and began there to raignThe thousand syxty syx yeare truelyeOf Christ: but the Englysh men rebelled againYet he subdued them to their great paine,And brought yeking of Scottes to his obeissanceWith his eldest son Robert, warre he did sustainIn Normandy: & with king Philip in France.In Fraunce he fell sycke and tooke his deathAnd to his son Robert which then was most old,The Dukedome of Normandy he did bequest.To his Sonne called William Rous he woldeThe Realme of Englande; but his goldHe wylled to his yongest sonne HenryeAnd XXI. yeare he raigned it is toldAnd lyeth buried at Cane in Normandy....Phillip and Mary.The yeare a thousand fyue hundreth fyftythrewas Mary cround in England queen to raignewho then allowed the Popes authoritieErectinge eke all Papistry agayneAnd after maried with Phyllip king of Spainewho raignde with hir as king, and yet was heNot crounde, wherby no claime he could attainShe being dead of England kyng to be.Hir raigne, hir port and eke hir gouernmentSo rife in memory still with vs remainesThat it to shewe the tyme in vayne is spentAnd eke to me it seemes but needlesse paynes:Hir soule is fled, hir body still remainesAt Westminster the same eke buryed ysfiue years she raygnd: Lo thus is death yegainsAnd eke the end of all this worldly blysse.Elizabeth.O England nowe of right thou mayst reioyce,Sith myghtye Joue hath placed in princely throne,Elisabeth, therfore with heart and voyce,Prayse God: and giue all laude to him alone,Whose myghtye hand hath placed nowe suche one,As vertues force full amply hath endued:More hope of welthe and ioye we haue had none,Then God his grace to vs nowe hath renued.For we his wrath against vs stil did moue,And he his grace thus vndeserued sent,We did rebell and he did shewe his loue,In placing hir, whiche with our whole intentWe so did wishe: nowe let our heartes relent,And pray to God that as she gracious is,We maye be worthye tyll our lyues be spente,Hyr to enioye, and thankfull be for this.Only two copies of this rare chronicle are at present known, and those are in the collections of Earl Spencer, and the right honourable Thomas Grenville.

This Chronicle takes its name from the colophon: “Imprinted at London by Gyles Godet dwellinge in Blacke Frieres.” It was printed on a long roll in divisions, with bold well executed portraits, cut in wood, of our ancient patriarchs and monarchs, each having an ensign of arms, and beneath a brief narrative of the principal events of each life. The Roll commences with the following address:

“To the reader. Beholde here (gentle reader) a brief abstract of the genealogie and race of all the kynges of England, from the floudde of Noe, vntill Brute, at whiche tyme this contrye was called Albion, takyng that name of one of the thirtie sisters (as some saye) whose name was Albion: or as other some saye, so named by mariners, bicause of the white Cliffes that are on the costes of the same. And afterward from Brute to Athelscaine, at which time it was named Britaine, taing name of Brute: from Athelscaine, the first of the Saxons, (at which tyme it chaunged that name of Britayne, & was called England) to william Conquerour. And from william Conquerour to this present day. And if by chaunce thou fynde any thyng herein fautye, or not agreeing with some other cronicles, vnderstand that the diuersities of the cronicles of our realme, be so great, (especially in thinges long past) that it is very difficult, to make a certain & true report thereof. Not with standing, I haue vsed the helpe of the best Cronicles that haue [been] wrytten therof, & gone so neare to the truth, as to me seemed possyble. I haue also set forth the pourtraiture of their personages, with their true armes: also briefly their gestes, & deedes with the yeares of their raygnes & places of their burials, according as I haue found mention therof: Beesechyng the to accept my good wyll, and to receyue thys my laboure in good part: which if thou do, it shal not only be the accomplishyng of my request, but also shal encourage me hereafter, to vse my little talent, farther. Farewel.”

The “portraitures” commence with a square compartment representing “Noe” asleep in a vineyard and his three sons. See Genesis, C. IX. v. 22, 23. Then follows a three quarter length of each monarch, with a summary of their “gests” or acts printed underneath. Their names are

Noe, Cham, Mesraim, Laabin, Tuscus, Altheus, Camboblascon, Dardanus Ericthonius, Tros, Eneas, Ascanius, Siluius, Brutus.

Here another square compartment exhibits “the foundation of the cytie of London,” in a view of the Thames, with a Tower nearly built on the one side and foundations for buildings upon the other, with workmen, &c. Brutus “founded the cytye of Troynouant; (whiche is as muche to say, as:) New Troye, whiche afterward, was repayred & garnyshed with Towers and faire buyldynges, by Kynge Lud: And from his tyme, it was called Ludstone: and afterwarde by corruption of speache, was called London. So that from the begynnyng of the foundacion of the same Cytye, to this present yeare, (whiche is the yeare of our Sauiour 1560) we fynde it to be 2690. yeares, or there about.” Then succeed

Locrinus, Maddan, Memprise, Ebrancke, Brute the ii, Leyl, Lud Hurdibras, Bladud, Leir, Queen Cordeile, Morgan & Conedag, Riueall, Gurgustius, Sysyllus, Jago, Kymar, Gorbonian, Dunwallon, Bellinus, Gurgwin Batrus, Guitellin, Sicilius, Morindus, Gorbonianus, Archigall, Elidurus, Vigenius & Peridurus, Gorbonias, Morgan, Emerianus, Idwall, Rimo, Geruntius, [Here the names of 26 kings are given in genealogical circles, according to succession, of whom “we fynd not much written” and we may presume, that circumstance the reason for omitting any supposed resemblance of them.] Elinguellus, Hely, Lud, Casseuelanus, Tenentius, Kimbeline, Guinderus, Aruiragus, Marius, Coell, Lucius, Bassianus, Carasius, Asclepiodotus, Coell, Constantius, Constantyne, Octauius, Traherus, Maximianus, Gratian, Constantyne, Constans, Vortiger, Vortimerus, Aurelius Ambrose, Vter Pendragon, Arthur the great, Constantyne, Aurelius Conan, Vortiporuis, Malgon, Cathericus, Cadwan, Cadwallon and Edwyn, Cadwallader.

“Here endeth the raignes of the Britaines, from the time of Brute to Cadwallader, and then this realme being in great misery, the English Saxons inuaded it, and so raigned vntill the comming in of willyam Conqueror.” As

Athelscayne, Egbrut, Edelnulph, Alfred, Edward, Athelstone, Edmond, Edred, Edwin, Edgar, Edward, Etheldred, Edmond Ironsyde, Ciuiton or Swayne, Herauld, S. Edward, Harauld.

“Here endeth the raignes of the Saxon kinges: & beginoneth the raigne of willyam Conquerour, who slewe the last of the Saxons ligne, & conquered the land: & from him, to our Souueraine lady the Queenes maiestie that nowe is, whom god prospere. Amen.”

From William the Conqueror to Q. Elizabeth, the names of the portraits are according to the general regal table. With that king the compiler of the Chronicle commences his description in octave stanzas, of which a specimen for comparative use may be here preserved.

Willyam Conquerour i.

William Conquerour Duke of NormandyConquered England and began there to raignThe thousand syxty syx yeare truelyeOf Christ: but the Englysh men rebelled againYet he subdued them to their great paine,And brought yeking of Scottes to his obeissanceWith his eldest son Robert, warre he did sustainIn Normandy: & with king Philip in France.In Fraunce he fell sycke and tooke his deathAnd to his son Robert which then was most old,The Dukedome of Normandy he did bequest.To his Sonne called William Rous he woldeThe Realme of Englande; but his goldHe wylled to his yongest sonne HenryeAnd XXI. yeare he raigned it is toldAnd lyeth buried at Cane in Normandy....

William Conquerour Duke of Normandy

Conquered England and began there to raign

The thousand syxty syx yeare truelye

Of Christ: but the Englysh men rebelled again

Yet he subdued them to their great paine,

And brought yeking of Scottes to his obeissance

With his eldest son Robert, warre he did sustain

In Normandy: & with king Philip in France.

In Fraunce he fell sycke and tooke his deathAnd to his son Robert which then was most old,The Dukedome of Normandy he did bequest.To his Sonne called William Rous he woldeThe Realme of Englande; but his goldHe wylled to his yongest sonne HenryeAnd XXI. yeare he raigned it is toldAnd lyeth buried at Cane in Normandy....

In Fraunce he fell sycke and tooke his death

And to his son Robert which then was most old,

The Dukedome of Normandy he did bequest.

To his Sonne called William Rous he wolde

The Realme of Englande; but his gold

He wylled to his yongest sonne Henrye

And XXI. yeare he raigned it is told

And lyeth buried at Cane in Normandy....

Phillip and Mary.

The yeare a thousand fyue hundreth fyftythrewas Mary cround in England queen to raignewho then allowed the Popes authoritieErectinge eke all Papistry agayneAnd after maried with Phyllip king of Spainewho raignde with hir as king, and yet was heNot crounde, wherby no claime he could attainShe being dead of England kyng to be.Hir raigne, hir port and eke hir gouernmentSo rife in memory still with vs remainesThat it to shewe the tyme in vayne is spentAnd eke to me it seemes but needlesse paynes:Hir soule is fled, hir body still remainesAt Westminster the same eke buryed ysfiue years she raygnd: Lo thus is death yegainsAnd eke the end of all this worldly blysse.

The yeare a thousand fyue hundreth fyftythre

was Mary cround in England queen to raigne

who then allowed the Popes authoritie

Erectinge eke all Papistry agayne

And after maried with Phyllip king of Spaine

who raignde with hir as king, and yet was he

Not crounde, wherby no claime he could attain

She being dead of England kyng to be.

Hir raigne, hir port and eke hir gouernmentSo rife in memory still with vs remainesThat it to shewe the tyme in vayne is spentAnd eke to me it seemes but needlesse paynes:Hir soule is fled, hir body still remainesAt Westminster the same eke buryed ysfiue years she raygnd: Lo thus is death yegainsAnd eke the end of all this worldly blysse.

Hir raigne, hir port and eke hir gouernment

So rife in memory still with vs remaines

That it to shewe the tyme in vayne is spent

And eke to me it seemes but needlesse paynes:

Hir soule is fled, hir body still remaines

At Westminster the same eke buryed ys

fiue years she raygnd: Lo thus is death yegains

And eke the end of all this worldly blysse.

Elizabeth.

O England nowe of right thou mayst reioyce,Sith myghtye Joue hath placed in princely throne,Elisabeth, therfore with heart and voyce,Prayse God: and giue all laude to him alone,Whose myghtye hand hath placed nowe suche one,As vertues force full amply hath endued:More hope of welthe and ioye we haue had none,Then God his grace to vs nowe hath renued.For we his wrath against vs stil did moue,And he his grace thus vndeserued sent,We did rebell and he did shewe his loue,In placing hir, whiche with our whole intentWe so did wishe: nowe let our heartes relent,And pray to God that as she gracious is,We maye be worthye tyll our lyues be spente,Hyr to enioye, and thankfull be for this.

O England nowe of right thou mayst reioyce,

Sith myghtye Joue hath placed in princely throne,

Elisabeth, therfore with heart and voyce,

Prayse God: and giue all laude to him alone,

Whose myghtye hand hath placed nowe suche one,

As vertues force full amply hath endued:

More hope of welthe and ioye we haue had none,

Then God his grace to vs nowe hath renued.

For we his wrath against vs stil did moue,And he his grace thus vndeserued sent,We did rebell and he did shewe his loue,In placing hir, whiche with our whole intentWe so did wishe: nowe let our heartes relent,And pray to God that as she gracious is,We maye be worthye tyll our lyues be spente,Hyr to enioye, and thankfull be for this.

For we his wrath against vs stil did moue,

And he his grace thus vndeserued sent,

We did rebell and he did shewe his loue,

In placing hir, whiche with our whole intent

We so did wishe: nowe let our heartes relent,

And pray to God that as she gracious is,

We maye be worthye tyll our lyues be spente,

Hyr to enioye, and thankfull be for this.

Only two copies of this rare chronicle are at present known, and those are in the collections of Earl Spencer, and the right honourable Thomas Grenville.

[14]Warton, in the account of the Mirror for Magistrates, given in his History of English Poetry, Vol. III. at p. 216, has copied the title of the edition of 1559, then extracted Baldwin’s Dedication from that of 1563, as from the same. In another place he refers to the Induction as printed in 1559. But this confusion is still more exceeded by the following note at p. 220. “These lines in Collingbourne’s legend are remarkable, fol. cxliiii. a.Like Pegasus a poet must have wynges,To flye to heaven, or where him liketh best;He must have knowledge of eternal thynges,Almightie Jove must harbor in his brest.”The reference of roman capitals can only be to the edition of 1563, where the second line stands thus:“To flye to heaven,thereto to feede and rest.”The above alteration first appeared in 1571.

Like Pegasus a poet must have wynges,To flye to heaven, or where him liketh best;He must have knowledge of eternal thynges,Almightie Jove must harbor in his brest.”

Like Pegasus a poet must have wynges,

To flye to heaven, or where him liketh best;

He must have knowledge of eternal thynges,

Almightie Jove must harbor in his brest.”

The reference of roman capitals can only be to the edition of 1563, where the second line stands thus:

“To flye to heaven,thereto to feede and rest.”

The above alteration first appeared in 1571.

[15]The following critical disquisition upon the claim of Sackville, contained in a letter from my intelligent and excellent friend Sir Egerton Brydges, it would be unjustifiable on my part to suppress, however militating against the position I have above sought to establish:“You have made out (he writes) a strong case; and some of your inferences cannot be controverted: but I think that others are pressed a little too far. That no contribution of Sackville appeared in the first edition of the Mirror cannot be denied. That Sackville was not one of the party engaged in the original design stopped by the Lord Chancellor, is at least equivocal. According to my construction of Baldwin’s words, he was one of that party, who, when a stop was put to the plan adopted by him, in common with his partners, purposed to execute the work by himself on a new plan of his own; and, in aid of that work, intended to obtain of Baldwin what had been finished by others, and to fit them to his own scheme. It is clear, that this happened before the publication of the first edition of the Mirror, because it was while the prohibition was in force. “How happened it then,” it may be asked, “that Sackville’s pieces did not appear in the first edition?” Perhaps because the hope of completing his own design, though delayed, might not then have been abandoned. The delay might have caused his coadjutors not to wait for him, though he himself might not yet be prepared to bend his own nobler scheme to theirs. Four important years from 1559 to 1563, the interval which elapsed between the appearance of the first and second edition, might, and if we examine the history of his life, most probably would effect this change. In the days of Q. Mary he had the opportunity of cultivating and ripening into fruit his poetical genius, which would require, as in most other cases, the nurture of leisure and solitude. The accession to the throne at this time of a Princess, to whom he was nearly allied, and with whom he soon became, and always continued, a favourite, opened to him other and more active prospects. The paths of ambition, however thorny and full of dangers they might prove to long experience, were too alluring to an high fancy and vigorous talents, when thus invited. At first he might be still unwilling to abandon the pursuits of his youth, of which he could not be insensible to the dignity and the virtue, and which the conscious grandeur of genius must tell him that wealth and birth could not rival, and princes could not qualify him for. But he who once accustoms himself to the intoxicating cup of worldly ambition, too generally feels that it gradually undermines the strength of his higher intellect and nobler resolves; and that he sinks into the common notions, feeble sentiments, and groveling amusements of ordinary men. In four short years, the vigorous and inspired hand of Sackville might no longer possess either the impulse, or the skill, or the strength, to strike the lyre, which formerly returned to his touch alternate strains of sublime morality and glowing description. In this state of mental apostacy or dereliction, he might finally abandon his youthful project of poetical glory, and give the mighty fragment to his old coadjutor Baldwin, who seems to have had taste enough to perceive its superiority; and to resolve not to lose the attraction of so splendid a patch to his work, though its execution, as well as its plan, rendered it impossible to make it coalesce with the rest of the performance.Warton therefore, though he cannot be entirely freed from the charge of having expressed himself somewhat ambiguously in the application of the wordsprimary inventorto the general plan of the Mirror for Magistrates, yet may be justified in substance, if he meant, as I conceive he did, to apply it to the only part to which the praise of invention could be applied; that is, to theplan of Sackville.Warton has well called the whole of this work, except the part executed by Sackville, “biographical details.” This is their precise character: they are scarcely ever animated by any of the ingredients of poetry, at a period when true poetry was not utterly unknown, as not only the antiquated strains of Chaucer, but the later performances of Surrey and Wyat decisively prove. The popularity of this large collection of historical legends shews that the general taste of the nation was then low, vulgar, and uncultivated. Powerful and brilliant genius will at all times seize striking circumstances, produce picturesque effects, and omit disgusting, low, or uninteresting particulars: but more ordinary minds, which require long discipline, and example, and experience, to lead their taste, are insensible to these arts, either as writers or readers, in early stages of literature. In an advanced age of mental polish, even inferior authors catch a considerable portion of this skill; and even the multitude, who seek amusement in books, have learned to demand it. To a common eye therefore, there does notthenappear such an immeasurable distance between the Works of natively-gifted poets, and the herd of imitators who borrow their outward garb. In our days there would not have been put forth a publication, combining such poetical excellence of the highest kind, as Sackville’s Induction and Legend contain, with a number of productions deficient in the very elements, and even shape, of poetry. All would have been polished into something like the same external form.But this very discordancy givesThe Mirror for Magistratesa high value among the records of the history and progress of the human mind. For the purposes of the English philologist; for the development of the first dawnings of our poetical phraseology; for the investigation of the commencement of that “ornate style,” as it has been well called by a modern critic, which at length became so copious and laboured, as to make the greater part of that which assumed the name of poetry, little better than a piece of hollow mechanism, till one or two poets, of genuine inspiration, disgusted with its emptiness, put it out of fashion, by a plainer and more vigorous style; for these purposes, theMirror for Magistrates, is a treasure meriting the most serious attention and study of the English scholar; and therefore well worthy of the reprint, which will render it accessible to his inquiries.S. E. B.”

“You have made out (he writes) a strong case; and some of your inferences cannot be controverted: but I think that others are pressed a little too far. That no contribution of Sackville appeared in the first edition of the Mirror cannot be denied. That Sackville was not one of the party engaged in the original design stopped by the Lord Chancellor, is at least equivocal. According to my construction of Baldwin’s words, he was one of that party, who, when a stop was put to the plan adopted by him, in common with his partners, purposed to execute the work by himself on a new plan of his own; and, in aid of that work, intended to obtain of Baldwin what had been finished by others, and to fit them to his own scheme. It is clear, that this happened before the publication of the first edition of the Mirror, because it was while the prohibition was in force. “How happened it then,” it may be asked, “that Sackville’s pieces did not appear in the first edition?” Perhaps because the hope of completing his own design, though delayed, might not then have been abandoned. The delay might have caused his coadjutors not to wait for him, though he himself might not yet be prepared to bend his own nobler scheme to theirs. Four important years from 1559 to 1563, the interval which elapsed between the appearance of the first and second edition, might, and if we examine the history of his life, most probably would effect this change. In the days of Q. Mary he had the opportunity of cultivating and ripening into fruit his poetical genius, which would require, as in most other cases, the nurture of leisure and solitude. The accession to the throne at this time of a Princess, to whom he was nearly allied, and with whom he soon became, and always continued, a favourite, opened to him other and more active prospects. The paths of ambition, however thorny and full of dangers they might prove to long experience, were too alluring to an high fancy and vigorous talents, when thus invited. At first he might be still unwilling to abandon the pursuits of his youth, of which he could not be insensible to the dignity and the virtue, and which the conscious grandeur of genius must tell him that wealth and birth could not rival, and princes could not qualify him for. But he who once accustoms himself to the intoxicating cup of worldly ambition, too generally feels that it gradually undermines the strength of his higher intellect and nobler resolves; and that he sinks into the common notions, feeble sentiments, and groveling amusements of ordinary men. In four short years, the vigorous and inspired hand of Sackville might no longer possess either the impulse, or the skill, or the strength, to strike the lyre, which formerly returned to his touch alternate strains of sublime morality and glowing description. In this state of mental apostacy or dereliction, he might finally abandon his youthful project of poetical glory, and give the mighty fragment to his old coadjutor Baldwin, who seems to have had taste enough to perceive its superiority; and to resolve not to lose the attraction of so splendid a patch to his work, though its execution, as well as its plan, rendered it impossible to make it coalesce with the rest of the performance.

Warton therefore, though he cannot be entirely freed from the charge of having expressed himself somewhat ambiguously in the application of the wordsprimary inventorto the general plan of the Mirror for Magistrates, yet may be justified in substance, if he meant, as I conceive he did, to apply it to the only part to which the praise of invention could be applied; that is, to theplan of Sackville.

Warton has well called the whole of this work, except the part executed by Sackville, “biographical details.” This is their precise character: they are scarcely ever animated by any of the ingredients of poetry, at a period when true poetry was not utterly unknown, as not only the antiquated strains of Chaucer, but the later performances of Surrey and Wyat decisively prove. The popularity of this large collection of historical legends shews that the general taste of the nation was then low, vulgar, and uncultivated. Powerful and brilliant genius will at all times seize striking circumstances, produce picturesque effects, and omit disgusting, low, or uninteresting particulars: but more ordinary minds, which require long discipline, and example, and experience, to lead their taste, are insensible to these arts, either as writers or readers, in early stages of literature. In an advanced age of mental polish, even inferior authors catch a considerable portion of this skill; and even the multitude, who seek amusement in books, have learned to demand it. To a common eye therefore, there does notthenappear such an immeasurable distance between the Works of natively-gifted poets, and the herd of imitators who borrow their outward garb. In our days there would not have been put forth a publication, combining such poetical excellence of the highest kind, as Sackville’s Induction and Legend contain, with a number of productions deficient in the very elements, and even shape, of poetry. All would have been polished into something like the same external form.

But this very discordancy givesThe Mirror for Magistratesa high value among the records of the history and progress of the human mind. For the purposes of the English philologist; for the development of the first dawnings of our poetical phraseology; for the investigation of the commencement of that “ornate style,” as it has been well called by a modern critic, which at length became so copious and laboured, as to make the greater part of that which assumed the name of poetry, little better than a piece of hollow mechanism, till one or two poets, of genuine inspiration, disgusted with its emptiness, put it out of fashion, by a plainer and more vigorous style; for these purposes, theMirror for Magistrates, is a treasure meriting the most serious attention and study of the English scholar; and therefore well worthy of the reprint, which will render it accessible to his inquiries.

S. E. B.”

[16]See it described p. iv. note §[i.e. Footnote 9 in this text].

[17]The copy of the quenes Maiesties letters Patentes. Mary by the grace of God, Quene of Englande, Fraunce, and Ireland, defendour of the faith, and in earth of the Churche of Englande, and also of Ireland, the supreme head. To al Prynters of bookes, and bookesellers, and to al other our Officers, Minysters, and Subiectes these our letters patentes hearing or seing gretyng. Knowe ye that we of oure especial grace and meare mocion: haue geuen and graunted, and by these presentes doo geue and graunte full power, licence, auctoritie, and Priuilege vnto our welbeloued Subiect Jhon Wayland, Citezeyn and Scriuenour of London. That he & his Assignes only and none other person or persons shal from hensforth haue auctoritie, & lybertie to prynt al and euery such vsual Primers or Manual of prayers by whatsoeuer other title yesame shal or may be called, which by vs our heyres, successours, or by our clergy by our assent shal be auctorised, set furth, and deuysed for to be vsed of all our louing subiects thoroughout all our Realmes, and domynyons, duringe the full tyme and terme of seuen yeares next ensuing the date of these our letters patentes. And farther that it shal not be lawful for any maner of other person, or persones of our said Subiectes, to Prynt or to procure to be imprinted, anye Prymers or Manuall of prayers by whatsoeuer title the same shall or may be called, or set furth, during the said tearme, nor any booke, or bookes, which the said John Waylande or his Assignes at his or theyr costes and charges shall first Prynte, or set furth during the said terme of seuen yeares next ensuing the printing of the same booke or bookes, vpon payne of forfature, and confiscacion of the same Prymers, Manuall of prayers, and bookes, to thuse of vs and oure successours. Wherfore we woll and commaunde all you our Printers, and other our Subiectes that ye nor any of you, do presume, procure, or attempt to print or set furth any maner Prymers, Manuall of prayers, booke or bookes, which the said Jhon Wayland or his assignes shal first print during the tyme of thys our Priuilege, and licence, vpon payne of forfature and confiscacion of the same Prymers, Manual of prayers, and bookes, as aforsaide. And as ye tendre oure pleasure, and wyl auoyde the contrarie. In witnes wherof we have caused these our letters to be made patentes. Wytnes ourselfe at Westminster the foure and twentith daye of Octobre, in the fyrst yeare of our reigne. Per bren de priuato sigillo et de data predicta.

[18]A license for the first part was obtained through the means of Lord Stafford in 1559, and when published that nobleman continued to make earnest calls upon Baldwin for that he had got from other men, which is given in the second part printed 1563. Whether the whole of the first, and what portion of the second part, was inserted in the folio edition is uncertain. The following passage in the prose conclusion of the second part bears incontestible evidence that it was written in the time of queen Mary. “The frantyke heades whiche disable our Queene, because she is a woman, and our kynge because he is a straunger, to be our princes and chiefe governours, hath caused me to saye thus much.” It is therefore probable that forming the conclusion of the suppressed edition, it was reprinted from the original text, and, as happens frequently by inadvertence at the press, without being corrected.

[19]Herbert possessed a copy, ad conjectured it was “printed to fill up a spare leaf, and perhaps to try the pulse of the public.”Typographical Antiquities, p. 565.

[20]The inspection of a larger proportion of the suppressed edition can alone solve many doubts as to the contents: nor does there appear any reason for not expecting to find the whole of the matter then printed, either in the library at Knowle, or some other unexamined collection of early English books! Why may it not be expected to discover the copy no doubt gotten by Sackville from Baldwin, before he wrote the Induction, when he intended to have all the tragedies “preserved in one volume?” Vol. II. p. 307.

[21]It appears probable that some addition was made to the work in 1559. See Vol. II. p. 53, note, and p. 111, note 1.

[22]That reviler of fashions, Philip Stubbs, exhibits by the following notice of theMirrour for Magistratesits early popularity, and a sign of his contracted reading by not knowing the contents, as, at the time he wrote, the legend of Henry the VIth had been twice printed. He says: “Holy king Henry [the sixth] was crowned in Paris, and yet lost all on that side before he was a man; and, before hys vnhappy death, he lost thys land also. So that he may with more reason be recorded among those fallen princes at the lowest of Boccace’s while; or in our English booke offallen Maiestrates, there to be reconed up by any faythfull English man for a patent of imitation to our present Q. Elizabeth.”Discouerie of a gaping Gulf.1579.

[23]See Vol. II. p. 8.

[24]Vol. II. p. 43.

[25]See upon that subject Vol. II. p, 168, note 1, &c.

[26]The title of this and the later editions by Marsh are in the compartment given with the title of each part of the present reprint.

[27]A copy is mentioned in Capell’sShakesperiana, No149.

[28]Higgins formed his plan on what had already appeared. In imitation of Sackville there is a poetical Induction, wherein the author is conducted by Morpheus, as the servant of Somnus, to a goodly hall, wherein successively appear the ghosts of all those whose legends are pronounced. Little invention was needed for these prolegomena, and in the selection of Morpheus, as an appropriate conductor, there exists a rivalry in one of the imitations of the Mirror for Magistrates also published in 1574. It is entitledThe rewarde of Wickednesse Discoursing the sundrye monstrous abuses of wicked and ungodly worldelinges: in such sort set downe and written as the same haue beene dyuersely practised in the persones of Popes, Harlots, Proude Princes, Tyrauntes, Romish Byshoppes, and others. With a liuely description of their seuerall falles and finall destruction. Verye profitable for all sorte of estates to reade and looke upon. Newly compiled by Richard Robinson, Seruaunt in housholde to the right Honorable Earle of Shrewsbury. A dreame most pitiful, and to be dreaded.Of thinges that be straunge,Who loueth to reede:In this Booke let him raunge,His fancie to feede.In the dedication to Gilbert Talbote, Esq. second son of the Earl of Shrewsbury, the work is described as composed to eschew idleness, when the author’s “turne came to serue in watche of the Scottishe Queene:” I then (he says) euery night collected some part thereof, to thend that nowe it might the better appeare, that I vsed not altogeather to sleepe: Though one time I chaunsed among many watchfull nightes to take a slumber, which incited mee to compile this fiction of poetry as more largely appeareth in my prologue.The address to the reader is dated theXIXof Maie, 1574, and the Prologue describes the time of the dream as in December, after a “good ale feast,” when the author says:I thought none yll, my heade was layde full saft,All carke and care my wandring sprite had laft.Not lying thus one houre by the clocke,Me thought the chamber shone with torches bright,And in the haste at doore I hearde one knocke,And sayde: “What slugge, why sleepest all the night?”I starting vp behelde one in my sight,Dasht all in golden raies before me did appeare,And sayde: “I am a god, beholde that standeth here.”Miue eares were filde with noysè of trumpets sounde,And dazled were mine eies, my sence was almost gon,But yet amazde my knee vaylde to the grounde,And sayde: “Heare lorde, thy will and mine be one,What is thy minde, more redie there is none,To ride, to runne, to trauell here and there,By lande and seas halfe worthie if I were.But first to know thy name I humbly thee beseeche,Forgiue my rudenesse this of thee to craue:”He aunswering sayd, with meeke and lowlie speeche:“Morpheusis my name, that alwaies power haue,Dreames to shewe in countrie, courte, or caue.In the heauens aboue, or Plutoe’s kingdome loe,Its I that haue the power each thing t’unfolde and shoe.”Morpheus, as the guide, conducts the author through Pluto’s dominions, who selects the following subjects as fit for his muse. 1. Hellen, tormented for her treason to her husbande, and liuing in fornication ten yeares. 2. Pope Alexander the sixt rewarded for his wickednesse and odible lyfe, with his colledge of cardinals, bishops, abbots, moonckes, freers, and nunnes, with the rabble of greasie priestes, and other members of idolatory and superstition. 3. Young Tarquine rewarded for his wickednesse. 4. The rewarde of Medea for hir wicked actes, and false deceyuing of hir father, sleying of hir children, and hir owne brother, and working by inchauntment. This historie is merueylous tragicall and a good example for women. 5. The wordes of tormented Tantalus, being rewarded for his extortion and couetousnes: Oppressing the poore people of his countrey, and for other wicked actes. 6. The rewarde of an ambicious and vaine glorious counseller, called Vetronius Turinus, for his wicked life among them that hee might ouercome and for his pride. 7. The wofull complaint of the monstrous Emperor Heliogabalus for spending of his dayes in abhominable whoredome. 8. The two Iudges for slaundering of Susanna: and bearing false witnesse against hir, be rewarded for the same most terribly. Q. Pope Ihoan rewarded for hir wickednesse. 10. Newes betwene the Pope and Pluto, and of the proclamation about the ladder betwixt hell and heaven. 11. The torment of Tiranny and the reward for his wickednesse, being a king called Mydas, which tirannouslye swallowed not onely his countrey for lucre sake, but his housholde seruauntes also. 12. The rewarde that Rosamonde had in hell, for murdering of hir husbande Albonius and liuing vitiouslie in hir husbandes dayes. 13 Retourning from Plutos Kingdome, to noble Helicon: the place of infinite joy.—Col. Imprinted at London in Pawles Churche Yarde, by William Williamson.

The rewarde of Wickednesse Discoursing the sundrye monstrous abuses of wicked and ungodly worldelinges: in such sort set downe and written as the same haue beene dyuersely practised in the persones of Popes, Harlots, Proude Princes, Tyrauntes, Romish Byshoppes, and others. With a liuely description of their seuerall falles and finall destruction. Verye profitable for all sorte of estates to reade and looke upon. Newly compiled by Richard Robinson, Seruaunt in housholde to the right Honorable Earle of Shrewsbury. A dreame most pitiful, and to be dreaded.

Of thinges that be straunge,Who loueth to reede:In this Booke let him raunge,His fancie to feede.

Of thinges that be straunge,

Who loueth to reede:

In this Booke let him raunge,

His fancie to feede.

In the dedication to Gilbert Talbote, Esq. second son of the Earl of Shrewsbury, the work is described as composed to eschew idleness, when the author’s “turne came to serue in watche of the Scottishe Queene:” I then (he says) euery night collected some part thereof, to thend that nowe it might the better appeare, that I vsed not altogeather to sleepe: Though one time I chaunsed among many watchfull nightes to take a slumber, which incited mee to compile this fiction of poetry as more largely appeareth in my prologue.

The address to the reader is dated theXIXof Maie, 1574, and the Prologue describes the time of the dream as in December, after a “good ale feast,” when the author says:

I thought none yll, my heade was layde full saft,All carke and care my wandring sprite had laft.Not lying thus one houre by the clocke,Me thought the chamber shone with torches bright,And in the haste at doore I hearde one knocke,And sayde: “What slugge, why sleepest all the night?”I starting vp behelde one in my sight,Dasht all in golden raies before me did appeare,And sayde: “I am a god, beholde that standeth here.”Miue eares were filde with noysè of trumpets sounde,And dazled were mine eies, my sence was almost gon,But yet amazde my knee vaylde to the grounde,And sayde: “Heare lorde, thy will and mine be one,What is thy minde, more redie there is none,To ride, to runne, to trauell here and there,By lande and seas halfe worthie if I were.But first to know thy name I humbly thee beseeche,Forgiue my rudenesse this of thee to craue:”He aunswering sayd, with meeke and lowlie speeche:“Morpheusis my name, that alwaies power haue,Dreames to shewe in countrie, courte, or caue.In the heauens aboue, or Plutoe’s kingdome loe,Its I that haue the power each thing t’unfolde and shoe.”

I thought none yll, my heade was layde full saft,All carke and care my wandring sprite had laft.

I thought none yll, my heade was layde full saft,

All carke and care my wandring sprite had laft.

Not lying thus one houre by the clocke,Me thought the chamber shone with torches bright,And in the haste at doore I hearde one knocke,And sayde: “What slugge, why sleepest all the night?”I starting vp behelde one in my sight,Dasht all in golden raies before me did appeare,And sayde: “I am a god, beholde that standeth here.”

Not lying thus one houre by the clocke,

Me thought the chamber shone with torches bright,

And in the haste at doore I hearde one knocke,

And sayde: “What slugge, why sleepest all the night?”

I starting vp behelde one in my sight,

Dasht all in golden raies before me did appeare,

And sayde: “I am a god, beholde that standeth here.”

Miue eares were filde with noysè of trumpets sounde,And dazled were mine eies, my sence was almost gon,But yet amazde my knee vaylde to the grounde,And sayde: “Heare lorde, thy will and mine be one,What is thy minde, more redie there is none,To ride, to runne, to trauell here and there,By lande and seas halfe worthie if I were.

Miue eares were filde with noysè of trumpets sounde,

And dazled were mine eies, my sence was almost gon,

But yet amazde my knee vaylde to the grounde,

And sayde: “Heare lorde, thy will and mine be one,

What is thy minde, more redie there is none,

To ride, to runne, to trauell here and there,

By lande and seas halfe worthie if I were.

But first to know thy name I humbly thee beseeche,Forgiue my rudenesse this of thee to craue:”He aunswering sayd, with meeke and lowlie speeche:“Morpheusis my name, that alwaies power haue,Dreames to shewe in countrie, courte, or caue.In the heauens aboue, or Plutoe’s kingdome loe,Its I that haue the power each thing t’unfolde and shoe.”

But first to know thy name I humbly thee beseeche,

Forgiue my rudenesse this of thee to craue:”

He aunswering sayd, with meeke and lowlie speeche:

“Morpheusis my name, that alwaies power haue,

Dreames to shewe in countrie, courte, or caue.

In the heauens aboue, or Plutoe’s kingdome loe,

Its I that haue the power each thing t’unfolde and shoe.”

Morpheus, as the guide, conducts the author through Pluto’s dominions, who selects the following subjects as fit for his muse. 1. Hellen, tormented for her treason to her husbande, and liuing in fornication ten yeares. 2. Pope Alexander the sixt rewarded for his wickednesse and odible lyfe, with his colledge of cardinals, bishops, abbots, moonckes, freers, and nunnes, with the rabble of greasie priestes, and other members of idolatory and superstition. 3. Young Tarquine rewarded for his wickednesse. 4. The rewarde of Medea for hir wicked actes, and false deceyuing of hir father, sleying of hir children, and hir owne brother, and working by inchauntment. This historie is merueylous tragicall and a good example for women. 5. The wordes of tormented Tantalus, being rewarded for his extortion and couetousnes: Oppressing the poore people of his countrey, and for other wicked actes. 6. The rewarde of an ambicious and vaine glorious counseller, called Vetronius Turinus, for his wicked life among them that hee might ouercome and for his pride. 7. The wofull complaint of the monstrous Emperor Heliogabalus for spending of his dayes in abhominable whoredome. 8. The two Iudges for slaundering of Susanna: and bearing false witnesse against hir, be rewarded for the same most terribly. Q. Pope Ihoan rewarded for hir wickednesse. 10. Newes betwene the Pope and Pluto, and of the proclamation about the ladder betwixt hell and heaven. 11. The torment of Tiranny and the reward for his wickednesse, being a king called Mydas, which tirannouslye swallowed not onely his countrey for lucre sake, but his housholde seruauntes also. 12. The rewarde that Rosamonde had in hell, for murdering of hir husbande Albonius and liuing vitiouslie in hir husbandes dayes. 13 Retourning from Plutos Kingdome, to noble Helicon: the place of infinite joy.—Col. Imprinted at London in Pawles Churche Yarde, by William Williamson.

[29]See Vol. I. p. 243. Where, in note 8, the reader is requested to alter 'first’ to 'second’ edition. In a few other notes the like alteration may be wanted. I did not obtain sight of the copy described above, until the volume was in print.

[30]By very close examination it appears, as if the whole of the first sheet was reprinted.

[31]In the present edition the very numerous notes subscribed with the initial N. will point out the unusual interpolations or substitutions made upon the original text by Niccols; as the [brackets] in the text also show the words, lines, and passages wholly omitted in the edition of 1610.

[32]To select only three may be sufficient. “I account (says Sir Philip Sydney, in theDefence of Poesy) the Mirrour of Magistrates meetly furnished of beautiful parts.” That profound critic, Edmund Bolton, says: “Among the lesser late poets, George Gascoigne’s work may be endur’d. But the best of those times (ifAlbion’s Englandbe not preferr’d) for our business is, theMirrour of Magistrates, and in that Mirrour Sackvil’s Induction,” &c. And Oldys, in his preface beforeThe British Muse, examining the reign of Elizabeth, observes: “At that time came out the fine collection, calledThe Mirror for Magistrates. This piece was done by several hands. It represents pathetically the falls of many great and unfortunate men of our nation, and beautifully advises others to avoid following their example. Besides the particular praises given this work by Sir Philip Sidney and Mr. Edmund Bolton, (another judicious critick, who writes not long after him;) that it received the general approbation, appears from its having been three or four times reprinted. Every impression had new additions from other eminent hands, amongst whom the Earl of Dorset is not the least conspicuous.”

[33]John Higgins was born about 1544. He was educated at Christ Church, and in 1572 describes himself as late student at Oxford. He did not learn the tongues or begin to write until he was twenty years of age, and then studied, chiefly, French and Latin. At twenty-five he taught grammar for about two years, and spent as much time in enlarging Huloet’s Dictionary. He also translated phrases from Aldus, the Flowers of Terence, and wrote, with divers other works, the first part of the Mirror for Magistrates before he was thirty. This brief account is related by himself in some lines preserved in a note at the end of the legend of Mempricius. (See vol. i. p. 102.) In December 1586, while residing at Winsham, in Somersetshire, or, as Wood has it, in Surrey, he prepared and edited, as already noticed, the best edition extant of the present work. Before 1602, it is not improbable, he had established a school at Winsham, or taken orders, for in that year he published a tract upon a subject of theological controversy. The time of his death is uncertain. For a list of his works see Wood’sAthenæ Oxonienses, vol. i. col. 734, ed. 1813.

[34]Thomas Blenerhasset was probably a descendant from the ancient family of that name which flourished in Norfolk temp. Hen. 8. of whom Jane B. is named by Skelton inthe Crown of Laurelas one of the bevy of beauties attendant upon the noble Countess of Surrey; and John B. married the daughter of Sir John Cornwallis, knt. the steward of the household to Prince Edward. Our author was educated at Cambridge, and having adopted a military life, was in 1577 stationed in the Island of Guernsey, and there composed his portion of the present work. As the printer, in the following year, tells us the author was “beyond the seas,” it is probable he had then accompanied his regiment to Ireland, where he went as a captain, settled and “purchased an estate. He died about the beginning of the reign of King Charles I. and was the author ofDirections for the Plantation in Ulster, London, 1610.”History and Antiquities of Ireland, by Walter Harris, 1764, vol. ii. p. 333.

[35]The note vol. i. p. 371. is a misprint for “of th’ armed Picts.”

[36]George Ferrers was born at or near St. Albans, in Hertfordshire, educated at Oxford, and afterwards became a barrister of Lincoln’s Inn. In his juridical pursuit he published,The great Charter called in latyn Magna Carta, with diuers olde statvtes, &c. Colophon,Thus endeth the booke called Magna Carta translated out of Latyn and Frenshe into Englysshe by George Ferrers. Imprynted at London in Paules church yerde at the signe of the Maydens head by Thomas Petyt.M. D. XLII. An earlier edition was printed without date. He was a polished courtier, and esteemed favourite with Henry the 8th, although that capricious monarch, for some offence, the nature of which has not been discovered, committed him to prison in 1542, in which year he was returned member of parliament for the town of Plymouth. The anger of the king was probably not of long duration, as, in addition to other rewards, he bequeathed him a legacy of an hundred marks. He appears to have served in the suite of the protector Somerset, and was one of the commissioners in the army in the expedition into Scotland. By Edward the VIth he was made Lord of Misrule: an appointment to which genius and talent only could pretend, or give its needed prominence and effect. A warrant was issued, on the 30th November, 1552, to pay him, being appointed to be Lord of the Pastimes for the Christmas, 100l.towards the necessary charges. And the honest chronicler Stowe, gives the following account of the jovial pastime and eclat which attended the keeping this annual feast. “The king kept his Christmas with open houshold at Greenewich, George Ferrers gentleman of Lincolns Inne, being lord of the merrie disportes all the twelue daies, who so pleasantly and wisely behaued himselfe, that the king had great delight in his pastimes. On Monday the fourth of January, the said lord of merry disportes came by water to London, and landed at the tower wharfe, entered the tower, and then rode through tower streete, where he was receiued by Sergeant Vawce lord of misrule, to John Mainard one of the Sherifs of London, and so conducted through the citie with a great company of yoong lords and gentlemen to the house of sir George Barne lord maior, where he with the chiefe of his company dined, and after had a great banket, and at his departure, the lord maior gaue him a standing cup with a couer of siluer and gilt, of the value of ten pound for a reward, and also set a hogshead of wine and a barrel of beere at his gate for his traine that followed him: the residue of his gentlemen and seruants dined at other aldermens houses, and with the sherifs, and so departed to the tower wharfe againe, and to the court by water, to the great commendation of the maior and aldermen, and highly accepted of the king and councell.” In the reign of queen Elizabeth he again held the appointment of Lord of Misrule in the court, and as such devised and penned a poetical address which was spoken to her majesty beforethe princely pleasures of Kenelworth-castle, 1576. He is one of the most prominent contributors to the Mirror for Magistrates, and was undoubtedly intimate with all the leading persons that assembled together for the purpose of completing that work. I think it is probable that the edition of 1578, which has many exclusive alterations, and his two legends of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, so long withheld, then first inserted, was edited by him. He died at Flamstead in Hertfordshire, whereupon administration was granted May 18, 1579.

Back to Index Next