Full text of "The Mirror For Magistrates"

ifltrror for J$ag;i$trate2

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jWtrror for

EDITED from ORIGINAL TEXTS

in the

HUNTINGTON LIBRARY

by
LILY B. CAMPBELL

BARNES & NOBLE, INC. . NEW YORK
PUBLISHERS . BOOKSELLERS . SINCE 1873

Published in 1938 by the
Cambridge University Press

Reprinted by Barnes & Noble, Inc.
by Special Arrangement with the Cambridge University Press

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Contents

Introduction pages 3-60

Tragedies of the 1559 Edition 61-240

Prefaces to the 1559 Edition 63

1. Robert Tresilian, Chief Justice of England 73

2. The Two Rogers, surnamed Mortimers 82

3. Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester 91

4. Lord Mowbray 101

5. King Richard the Second in

6. Owen Glendower 120

7. Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland 132

8. Richard, Earl of Cambridge 139

9. Thomas Montague, Earl of Salisbury 143
10. King James the First 155
n. William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk 162

12. Jack Cade 171

1 3 . Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York 182

14. Lord Clifford 192

15. John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester 197

1 6. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick 205

17. King Henry the Sixth 212

1 8. George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence 220

19. King Edward the Fourth 236

CONTENTS

Tragedies Added in the Edition of 1563 P a g es 241-421

Preface to the Second Part of the 1563 Edition 243

20. Anthony Woodville, Lord Rivers and Scales 245

21. Lord Hastings 268
Sackville's Induction 298

22. Henry, Duke of Buckingham 318

23. The Poet Collingbourne 347

24. Richard Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester 360

25. Shore's Wife 373

26. Edmund, Duke of Somerset 388

27. The Blacksmith 402

Tragedies Added in the Edition of 1578 427-460

28. Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester 432

29. Humphrey Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester 445

Tragedies Added in the Edition of 1587 461-51 1

30. Sir Nicholas Burdet 463

31. King James the Fourth 483

32. The Battle of Brampton or Flodden Field 489

33. Cardinal Wolsey 495

Appendices 513-554

A. Description of the Huntington Library Copies of the

Texts 5I$

B. Indexes Showing the Arrangement of the Tragedies in the

Various Editions 522

C. Collation of MS 364 in St John's College, Cambridge,

with Sackville's "Induction" and Tragedy 22 532

D. Collation of Poems in Harleian MS 2252 with Tragedies

31 and 32 548

Illustrations

IN COLLOTYPE

Tide-page and Verso from the Dyce Copy of Way-
land's Edition of Lydgate frontispiece
By the courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum

Title-page from the Undated Wayland Edition of

Lydgate

[ pages
A Page from the Undated Wayland Edition of * &

Lydgate
Additional Tide-page sometimes bound with Way-

land's Edition of Lydgate
Verso of Additional Tide-page sometimes bound

between
6&j

with Wayland's Edition of Lydgate

The Recto and Verso of the Single Leaf extant from between

the Suppressed Edition of the Mirror for Magistrates 8 & 9

The Verso of Fol. 39 introduced as a cancel into
the 1578 Edition facing 430

LINE BLOCKS IN THE TEXT

The Tide-page of the 1559 Edition 62

The Tide-page of the 1563 Edition 242

The Tide-page of the 1571 Edition 423

The Last Page of the Index to the 1571 Edition 424

The Tide-page of the 1574 Edition 425

The Tide-page of the 1575 Edition 426

The Tide-page of the 1578 Edition 428
The Original FoL 39 (Recto and Verso) from the 1578

Edition 429, 430

The Tide-page of the 1587 Edition 462

vii

THE
MIRROR for MAGISTRATES

INTRODUCTION

SINCE the publication of Warton's History of English Poetry, 1
some account of the Mirror for Magistrates has been included
in almost every history of English literature. 2 Bibliographers
have recognized as intriguing the complex history of its printing. 3
Sackville's induction has been decreed the best poem in English between
Chaucer and Spenser and is duly incorporated in anthologies of the
period. Historians of the drama have from time to time noted that the
work contains tragedies which in the reign of Elizabeth were remade in
dramatic form. 4 Yet the Mirror itself remains practically unknown and
unread, its tragedies are classed as medieval, and literary criticism has
dealt scarcely at all with its experiments in verse, its critical theory, its
poetic vocabulary, its embodiment of a new conception of tragedy, and
similar matters where darkness should be turned into day. The reason
for the neglect of a work so generally recognized as important is not
far to seek, however, for the early editions are extremely rare, and the
only modern edition, that by Joseph Haslewood, was published in 1815
in an edition of one hundred and fifty copies. 5

A number of years ago, while working in the Huntington Library
on a study of Shakespearean tragedy, I discovered that the then unex-
plored library had, through the interest of its former librarian, Mr G. W.

1 Thomas Warton, A History of English Poetry, m (London, 1781), 209-82. It should
be noted, however, that Mrs Cooper's Muses Library (1737) and CapelTs Prolusions
(1760) had preceded Warton's interest in the work.

* See, for instance, W. J. Courthope, A History of English Poetry (London, 1897),
n, 110-26, and J. W. Cunliffe, "A Mirror for Magistrates," in The Cambridge History
of English Poetry (Cambridge, 1930), m, 192-200.

3 For a recent study, see H. J. Byrom, "John Wayland Printer, Scrivener, and
litigant," The Library, 4th Ser., xi, 312-49, csp. pp. 346-49-

4 F. B. Heay, "Excursus on The Mirror for Magistrates," in A Biographical Chronicle
of the English Drama, 1559-1642 (London, 1891), i, 17-20, and F. E. Schelling, The
English Chronkle Play (New York, 1902), pp. 34-3<5 et passim.

5 Mirror for Magistrates, ed. Joseph Haslewood (London, 1815). SirEgertonBrydges
wasoriginally associated withtheplanto publish the Mirror. For evidence, see TheBritish
Bibliographer 9 17 (London, 1814), Appendix, p. 260, and Haslewood, Mirror, I, xxxii.

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

Cole, built up a collection of the first editions of the various parts of
the Mirror which was unique in its completeness. Proposing to com-
plement my study of Shakespearean tragedy by a study of the history
plays, I found that I could not get far without knowing the Mirror for
Magistrates. The combination of circumstances resulted in a decision on
the part of the Huntington Library authorities to publish from their
copies a new edition of the Mirror , and I postponed my study of Shake-
speare.

It was, of course, obvious that the first objective of a new edition
of the Mirror must be to make available an accurate text. Since the
publication of the Mirror was progressive and cumulative, it was decided
to use as basic texts for this edition the first extant printed text of every
part of the work, and to collate later editions of these parts with the
original texts.

The second objective has been to bring together all available records
concerning the publication of the Mirror, so that students may have easy
access to the documents which must serve as evidence upon which to
base any conclusions whatsoever as to its history and significance.

The third objective has been to suggest the approach which is neces-
sary if the Mirror is to be comprehended at all, though the limitations of
space render it, of course, impracticable to do more than make sug-
gestions in the introduction.

The text which is here reproduced, then, is arranged in the way in
which it was published. From the abortive first attempt to print the
Mirror there remain only two variant titled-pages and one leaf of text.
These are reproduced in photographic facsimile. The text of the first
edition, that of 1559, is printed in full. Following that is the text of the
additions to the original Mirror, made in 1563, in 1578, and in 1587, with
facsimiles of the tide-pages of these and of intervening editions. Thus, the
history of the various editions and the cumuktive nature of the text should
be apparent at once to the eye of anyone who consults this edition. 1

1 Haslewood used the 1587 edition as a basic text, collating earlier copies with it*
The spelling of die variant readings makes it dear that he did not always collate from
the edition indicated.

INTRODUCTION

What we know concerning the history of the printing of the Mirror
for Magistrates is for the most part gathered from the evidence offered
by the texts of the work itself, but, fortunately, both printer and editor
were explicit in their statements in the early editions.

In the Dyce Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum in South
Kensington there is an unique ride-page affixed to a copy of Wayland's
undated edition of Lydgate's translation of the old work of Boccaccio
on the fall of princes, though it was evidendy not originally a part of
the volume with which it is now bound. 1 This tide^page reads:

The fall of/ Prynces. / Gathered by lohn Bochas, / fr5 the begynnyng
of the world / vntyll his time, translated / into English by lohn / Lidgate
Monke / of Burye.

([ Wherunto is added the / fall of al such as since that time / were
notable in Englande : / diligently collected out / of the Chronicles. / (?) /
^[LONDINI /In aedibus Johannis Waylandi. / Cum priuilegio per Sep- /
tennium.

On the reverse of the tide leaf appears the address of "The Prynter
to the Reader," which I here transcribe in full:

WHile I attended the quenes highnes plesure in setting fourth an vni-
forme Primer to be vsecf of her Subiectes, for the Printynge wherof it
pleased her highnes (which I besech god long to preserue) to geue me
a Priuilege vnder her letters Patentes, I thought it good to employ and
occupy my Print & seruauntes for that purpose prouided, about sum
necessary & profitable worke. And because that sundry gentlemen very
wel lerned, commended much the workes of Lydgate, chefdy the fall
of Prynces, which he drew out of Bochas, whereof none were to be
got, after that I knew the Counsayles pleasure & aduice therein, I
determined to print it, & for that purpose caused the copy to be red
ouer & amended in dyuers places wher it was before ey ther through the
wryters or Prynters fault corrupted: for verye fewe names were true
besydes muche matter dysplaced as to the conferrers may appere. Yet
is it not so throughly well corrected as I would haue wyshed it, by
meanes of lacke of certayne copies and authours which I could not get
by any meano And yet I doubt not (Gentle reader) but thou shalt
fynde it as clere as any other heretofore set fourth. To which I haue

x For an account of the discovery of this title-page, see W. A. Jackson, "Wayland's
Edition of The Mirror fir Magistrates" The Library, 4th Ser., xra, 155-7.

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

added a continuation of that Argument, concernynge the chefe Prynces
of thys Hand, penned by the best dearkes in such kinde of matters that
be thys day lyuing, not vnworthy to be matched with maister Lydgate.
Whose doynges do prayse theymselues, as to the indifferente reader
shall appere. Wherefore I beseche the (good reader) to take in worthe
these my endeuoures, and to iudge and reporte of them as they do
deserue. And as I shall be encouraged herein, so. wyll I procede to cause
other notable woorkes to be penned and translated, whiche I trust shalbe
to the weale of the whole countrey and to the singuler profit of euerye
subiecte: And so Imprynte the Quenes hyghnes Primer, whan I shall
get the copy, as shall content her and all the Realme.

The Primer was off the presses on June 4, 1555, and this tide-page must,
therefore, have been printed some time before that date, since clearly
it was printed before the copy for the Primer had been received.

Wayland's edition of Lydgate's work, in a copy of which this tide-
page is inserted, has in all other copies a tide-page which reads:

^The trage- / dies, gathered by Ihon / Bochas, of all such Princes as / fell
from theyr estates throughe / the mutability of Fortune since / the
creation of Adam, vntil his / time: wherin may be seen what / vices
bring menne to destrucri- / on, wyth notable warninges / howe the
like may be auoyded. / Translated into Englysh by / lonn Lidgate,
Monke / of Burye. / ([ Imprinted at London, by / lohn Wayland, at
the signe / of the Sunne ouer against / the Conduite in Flete- / strete. /
Cum priuilegio per Sep- / tennium.

Sometimes bound at the end of this volume is a second tide-page,
which reads:

A memorial / of suche Princes, as since / the tyme of King Richard /
the seconde, haue been / vnfortunate in the / Realme of/ England. / (?) /
If LONDINI / In aedibus Johannis Waylandi. / cum priuilegio per Sep- /

tennium.

On the reverse of this additional tide-page, Wayland's letters patent
granted him by Queen Mary on October 24, 1553, for the printing of
the Primer are printed in fulL The letters patent begin in the usual
fashion, "MAry by the grace of God, Queue of Englande Fraunce
and Ireland, defendour of the faith, and in earth of the Churche of

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INTRODUCTION

Englande, and also of Ireland, the supreme head. To al Prynters of
bookes, . . ."*

There are in the British Museum duplicates of a single leaf which
by its format seems clearly to have belonged to this continuation of
Wayland's Lydgate. This leaf bears the prose link occurring in the
Mirror between the tragedies of Richard II and Owen Glendower,
together with eighteen stanzas of the latter tragedy. Its running ride
is A briefe memorial off Vnfortunate Englysh princes*

1 The first study of the history of the printing of the Mirror was made by Professor
W. F. Trench, in A Mirror for Magistrates: Its origin and influence (privately printed,
1898). Upon this study all succeeding writers have based their accounts of the Mirror.
Professor Trench did not know the Dyce title-page. He argued for 1554 as the date
of the suppressed edition, on the ground that the letters patent here printed use the
tide of "supreme head," which would have been dropped after 1554. In accordance
with his assumption that the Mirror editors were Protestants, he determined that the
printer who instigated the work was Edward Whitchurch. For a further development
of these ideas, see E. I. Feasey, "The Licensing of The Mirror for Magistrates' 9 The
Library, 4th Ser., m, 177-93. In an article on "The Suppressed Edition of A Mirror
for Magistrates," published in The Huntington Library Bulletin, No. 6, pp. 1-16, 1 argued:
(i) that the Dyce tide-page gives new evidence for Wayland as the printer at whose
instigation the work was undertaken, and that we are without evidence of any previous
plans; (2) that Baldwin's own statement in the 1563 edition as to the date of the
suppressed edition fixes it as four years before the first year of Elizabeth's reign
which would be 1555 ; (3 ) that the Dyce tide-page and that on the verso of which the
letters patent appeared were probably separated by a period of time; and (4) that the
authors were more conspicuous as opportunists than as Protestants. Furthermore, I
argued that the edict of June 13, 1555, suppressing Halle's chronicle was probably
related to the suppression of the Mirror which was based upon it, and that the act of
Parliament instanced by Professor Trench as evidence for the disuse of the tide of
"supreme head" did not forbid the use of the title, but specifically made legal all
letters patent in which it had been used. There would, in any case, have been no reason
for dropping the tide of "defendour of the faith." (Acts of the Parliament held at
Westminster, November 12-January 75, Anno primo & secundo Phillipi and Mariae,
fol. xxii.) In the London Times Literary Supplement "Bibliographical Notes" for
December 28, 1935, Mr Fitzroy Pyle objected to my conclusions. My answer was
published under the same heading on February 29, 1936.

* In the London Standard for June 25, 1836, was printed an account of the rescue
of these duplicates of the single leaf of the suppressed edition of the Mirror from a copy
of Wayland's 1557 edition of The Dyall of Princes.

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

The Edition In the Stationers 9 Register is an entry for the year July 10, 1558, to
I559 July 10, 1559, which gives us our next bit of evidence in the history of
the Mirror: 1

Thomas marshe hathe lycense to pryntc The myrronre of mates-
trates vj d

In accordance with this permission there appeared, bearing the date
1559, A MYRROVRE For Magistrates printed by Thomas Marshe. A
four-page address "To the nobilitye and all other in office," signed by
William Baldwin, explains the purpose of the book and also relates
something of its early misadventures, for Baldwin says:

The wurke was begun, & part of it printed .iiii. yearc agoe, but
hyndred by the lord Chauncellour that then was, nevertheles, through
the meanes of my lord Stafford, lately perused & licenced. Whan I first
tooke it in hand, I had the helpe of many graunted, & offred of sum,
but of few perfourmed, skarce of any : So that wher I entended to have
continued it to Quene Maries time, I have ben faine to end it much
sooner: yet so, that it may stande for a patarne, till the rest be ready:
which with Gods grace (if I may have anye helpe) shall be shortly. 3

Following this address, which is printed on leaves bearing the signa-
tures CL .ii. and C, .iii., begins what is apparently the original work, for
a new title heads the address of "William Baldwin to the Reader,"
and the regular signatures commence, the first leaf signed A.i., the
second A.ii., etc. The title as here given is A Briefe Memorial ofsundrye
Vnfortunate Englishe men, a title that clearly recalls the running tide
found on the single leaf remaining from the early edition, A briefe
memorial of j Vnfortunate Englysh princes. The address to the reader sup-
plies information complementary to that on the reverse of the title-page
oftheDycecopy:

WHan the Printer had purposed with hym selfe to printe Lidgates
booke of the fall of Princes, and had made priuye thereto, many both
honourable and worshipfull, he was counsailed by dyuers of theim, to
procure to haue the storye contynewed from where as Bochas lefre,

1 Edward Arber, A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London;
1554-164 AV., i (London, 1875), 97.
J See below, p. n, for the 1563 version of this statement.

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INTRODUCTION

vnto this presente time, chiefly of suche as Fortune had dalyed with
here in this ylande: whiche might be as a myrrour for al men as well
noble as others, to shewe the slyppery deceytes of the waueryng lady,
and the due rewarde of all kinde of vices. Whiche aduyse lyked him
so well, that he required me to take paynes therin: but because it was
a matter passyng my wyt and skyll, and more thankles than gaineful
to meddle in, I refused vtterly to vndertake it, excepte I might haue
the hdpe of suche, as in wyt were apte, in learning allowed, and in
iudgemente and estymacion able to wield and furnysh so weighty an
enterpryse, thinkyng euen so to shift my handes. But he earnest and
diligent in his affayres, procured Athlas to set vnder his shoulder: for
shortly after, dyuers learned men whose many giftes nede fewe praises,
consented to take vpon theym parte of the trauayle. And whan certayne
of theym to the numbre of seuen, were thraughe a generall assent at
an apoynted time and place gathered together to deuyse therupon, I
resorted vnto them, bering with me the booke of Bochas, translated by
Dan Lidgate, for the better obseruacion of his order: whiche although
we lyked well, yet woulde it not cumlily serue, seynge that both Bochas
and Lidgate were dead, neyther were there any alyue that meddled
with lyke argument, to whom the vnfortunat might make their mone.

To make therfore a state mete for the matter, they al agreed that I
shoulde vsurpe Bochas rowme, and the wretched princes complayne
vnto me: and tooke vpon themselues euery man for his parte to be
sundrye personages, and in theyr behalfes to bewayle vnto me theyr
greuous chaunces, heuy destinies, & wofull misfortunes.

This doen, we opened suche bookes of Cronicles as we had there
present, and maister Ferrers, after he had founde where Bochas left,
whiche was about the ende of king Edwarde the thirdes raigne, to begin
the matter, sayde thus.

To these prefatory statements we owe our knowledge of the main facts
concerning the history of the Mirror. They show that Wayland proposed
to print a continuation of the work of Lydgate, that he went to Baldwin
in the matter but that Baldwin refused to undertake so thankless a job
without the help of able men, that die printer secured the promise of co-
operation from a group of gifted men, seven in number, who met to con-
sider the enterprise. Baldwin was to become the interlocutor to whom
the unfortunate English princes might make their complaints, but the

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

prospective authors took upon themselves each to write "sundrye"
complaints. That it was decided to begin at the reign of Richard n
and to base the work upon the available English chronicles, we know
also on Baldwin's authority. The words of Baldwin which I have
already quoted from the preface dedicating the work to the nobility
and all others in office, are those of the disillusioned editor who found
the promised co-operation more generous in promise than in fulfilment.

Of the group 1 assembled at the planning of the Mirror, only William
Baldwin and George Ferrers are identified in the 1559 text. How-
ever, the prose link found on the single extant leaf of the suppressed
edition names "master Chaloner" as the author of the preceding tragedy
of Richard II, and in the edition of 1578 the authorship of the tragedy
of Owen Glendower is attributed to Thomas Phaer.

The prose links state explicitly that the work was based upon the
histories compiled by Fabyan, Halle, and Sir Thomas More. Wherever
the chronicles disagreed, the authors accepted the authority of Halle. 2

The 1559 edition of the Mirror contained nineteen tragedies, but two
last-minute omissions are indicated. The first is that of the tragedy
which is indexed in The Contentes and Table of the booke as that of

( Good duke Humfrey murdered, and fol. xl.

Elianor Cobham his wife banished.

The tragedy here indexed is not included in any of the known copies
of this edition, and the prose link on Folio xxxix indicates a sudden
change of plan, for Ferrers suggests that they leave affairs with which
they have been concerned in the tragedy of James I, and return to their
own story. He proposes, then:

How the cardinal Bewford maligneth the estate of good duke Humfrey
the kinges vncle & protector of the realme, & by what driftes he first
banisheth his wife from him. And lastly howe the good duke is mur-
derously made away through conspiracy of Quene Margaret and other:
both whose tragedies I entend at leasure to declare, for they be notable.

1 For a discussion of the number and identity of those so assembled see Haslewood,
I, xx, and Trench, pp. 66-70.

2 See Prose Links 4 and 24, and Tragedy 15, 11. 15-35.

INTRODUCTION

In the usual fashion one of the group bids him, "Do so I pray you," but,
instead of the tragedy's being inserted at this point, the speaker con-
tinues:

And I to be occupied the meane time, will shewe what I haue noted
in the duke of Suffolkes doinges, one of the chiefest of duke Humfreyes
destroyers, . . .

Likewise, Ferrers leads up to the introduction of the Duke of Somerset's
tragedy on Folio xlviii, saying:

... let sum man els take the Booke, for I mynde to say sumwhat of
this duke of Somerset.

But the tragedy is not printed, and, immediately after these words of
Ferrers, a paragraph beginning "Whyle he was deuisyng thereon" is
added to introduce the tragedy of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York.
A hand is used by the printer to call attention to this added paragraph.

Sometime within the year between July 22, 1562, and July 22, 1563, The Edition
Thomas Marshe was granted a new^ licence. The Stationers 9 Register 1 * I5<53
again records:

Recevyd of Thomas marshe of his lycense for pryntinge of the
ij*'parteof[ihe]myrrorofmagestrates iiij d

This new licence was undoubtedly necessary because Marshe was
printing, in addition to the prose and verse of the original edition,
The seconde PARTE OF THE Mirrourfor Magistrates, containing a new
preface by Baldwin, eight new tragedies, and the usual prose links.

This edition of 1563 reprinted the edition of 1559, with only such
minor variations as are indicated in the collations of the text. It should
be noted, however, that Baldwin made clearer his prefatory statement
as to the date of the suppressed edition, when he revised his dedication
to read:

5 of it prynted in Queene Maries tyme,
but hyndred by the Lorde Chauncellour that then was, nevertheles,
through the meanes of my lord Stafford, the fyrst parte was licenced,
and imprynted the fyrst yeare of the raygne of this our most noble and
vertuous Queene, and dedicate then to your honours wyth this Preface.

1 Arber, 1, 208.
II

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

Certain later statements of Baldwin in the revised preface are also of
importance. Rrst, there is an incidental allusion to the fact that, since
he had published the first edition of the Mirror, he had been called
"to an other trade of lyfe," which seems clearly, in the light of other
evidence, to refer to his having become a minister. Second, Lord
Stafford's continued interest in the project is indicated, and Baldwin,
indeed, says that, "through his Lordshyppes earnest meanes," he has
been brought to set forth another part of the Mirror. Third, Baldwin
states that this new part contains as little of his own work as the first
part did of other men's; and on the basis of this evidence many of the
tragedies of the 1559 edition not specifically assigned therein to other
writers are generally attributed to Baldwin.

The new part of the Mirror is linked by the prose narrative to the
first part. Toward the dose of the 1559 edition 1 Baldwin says:

. . . nyghte was so nere cum that we could not conveniently tary to-
gether any longer: and therfore sayd mayster Ferrers: It is best my
masters to staye here. For we be cum now to the ende of Edwarde the
fowerth his raygne. For the last whom we finde vnfortunate therein,
was this Duke of Clarens: In whose behalfe I commende much that
which hath be noted. Let vs therfore for this time leave with him. And
this daye seuen nightes hence, if your busines will so suffer, let vs all
mete here together agayne. And you shal se that in the mean season I
will not only deuise vppon this my selfe, but cause divers other of my
acquayntauns, which can do very well, to helpe vs forwarde with the
rest.

After the recital of Skelton's tragedy of Edward IV, therefore, Baldwin
concludes the first edition with these words:

WHan this was sayde, every man tooke his leave of other and departed:
And I the better to acquyte my charge, recorded and noted all such
matters as they had wyfled me.

The second part, added in the 1563 edition, opens with the account of
the meeting so arranged:

THe tyme beynge cum, whan (according to our former appoynt-
ment) we shuld meete together agayne to deuyse vpon the tragicall

1 Prose 1 8.
12

INTRODUCTION

affayres of our English Rulers, I with suche storyes as I had procured
& prepared, went to the place wherein we had debated the former
parte. There founde I the prynter and all the rest of our frendes and
furderers assembled & tarying for vs, Save Maister Ferrers, . . .

When Ferrers did arrive, Baldwin tells us, he brought with him
certain tragedies: that of the Duke of Somerset, which he had written
himself, that of Jane Shore by Churchyard, and others which he left
without recommendation. The printer gave to Baldwin the tragedy of
Hastings by Dolman, and that of Richard HI by Seager. Baldwin
announced that he had himself secured Sadcville's tragedy of the Duke
of Buckingham and Cavyl's tragedy of the blacksmith. These six
tragedies, together with that of Lord Rivers and Scales, and that of the
poet Collingbourne, constitute the additions made in this second part
and bring the total number of tragedies printed to twenty-seven. As
Baldwin himself noted, Ferrers* tragedy of Somerset should have been
printed in the first part. The tragedy of the blacksmith, added to the
second part temporarily, belonged, he also advised, to the proposed
third part of the Mirror ; which was intended to bring the record down
to the time of Queen Mary.

Certain indications in the prose links between the tragedies of this
second part of the Mirror point to the conclusion that, like the part
printed in 1559, it must have been ready for printing during the reign
of Mary. In the first place, Baldwin says that "Lord Vaulx" was to
have prepared the tragedy of the two young princes slain by Richard ffi,
"butwhat he hath done thereinlam not certayne,& therfore I let it passe
til I knowe farder." 1 Since Lord Vaux died in 1556, this statement must
have preceded that event unless Baldwin was speaking of a dead man,
which does not seem likely. In the next place, the prose passage which
closes the edition could obviously have been written only during the
reign of Mary and Philip, for it was confessedly written to answer those
who objected to the rule of the Queen because she was a woman and
of the King because he was a foreigner. Churchyard's tragedy, the author
records in his Challenge, was written during the reign of Edward VI.

1 Prose 21.
13

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

The problem of dating the tragedies of this edition is, therefore, a very
complicated one. 1

It must be noted, too, that the first tragedy of the second part, that
of Sir Anthony Woodville, clearly represents his ghost as speaking after
the first part of the Mirror had been finished. Indeed, the opening stanzas
are given over to a discussion of his complaint's not having been included
in the first edition. He compares himself to the suitors who sit all year
waitingfor the prince, only to be toldat last thathe willhear no moresuits:

My case was such not many dayes agoe.
For after brute had biased all abrode
That Baldwyn through the ayd of other moe,
Of fame or shame fallen prynces would vnloade
Out from our graves we got without abode,
And preaced forward with the rufull rout,
That sought to have theyr doynges bulted out.

But after long waiting, just as he thought at last he was to have his say,
The hearers paused, arose and went theyr way.

His first idea was that it was political exigency which had determined
their action,

But after I knew it only was a pause,
Made purposely, most for the readers ease,
Assure thle Baldwyn, highly it dyd me please.

He recognized the fact that readers easily grow weary, but he noted:

And syth the playntes alredy by the pende,
Are briefe ynough, the number also small,
The tediousnes I thynk doeth none offend,
Save such as have no lust to learne at all, ...

The tragedy thus seems to corroborate Baldwin's statement that the
second installment of tragedies was gathered a week later than the first,
but it would take a better theologian than I am to decide whether the
seven days are to be conceived as existing in time or eternity. At any
rate, this first complaint of the second part must have been either written
or revised after the first edition was finished.

1 See also Trench, pp. 63-66, "Summary of Date-Indications."

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

The problem of dating the tragedies of this edition is, therefore, a very
complicated one. 1

It must be noted, too, that the first tragedy of the second part, that
of Sir Anthony Woodville, clearly represents his ghost as speaking after
the first part of the Mirror had been finished. Indeed, the opening stanzas
are given over to a discussion of his complaint's not having been included
in the first edition. He compares himself to the suitors who sit all year
waiting for the prince, only to be told at last that he will hear no more suits :

My case was such not many dayes agoe.
For after brute had biased all abrode
That Baldwyn through the ayd of other moe,
Of fame or shame fallen prynces would vnloade
Out from our graves we got without abode,
And preaced forward witn the rufull rout,
That sought to have theyr doynges bulted out.

But after long waiting, just as he thought at last he was to have his say,
The hearers paused, arose and went theyr way.

His first idea was that it was political exigency which had determined
their action,

But after I knew it only was a pause,
Made purposely, most for the readers ease,
Assure the Baldwyn, highly it dyd me please.

He recognized the fact that readers easily grow weary, but he noted:

And syth the playntes alredy by the pende,
Are briefe ynough, the number also small,
The tediousnes I thynk doeth none offend,
Save such as have no lust to learne at all, ...

1 See also Trench, pp. 63-66, "Summary of Date-Indications."

INTRODUCTION

The tragedy of Lord Hastings, the second of those added, is irregular
in that the author, "maker Dolman," continues the complaint in his
own person, in nine stanzas of description and moralizing.

Moreover, three tragedies which from a literary point of view are
unmistakably superior to the rest make this edition of the Mirror not-
able: -the tragedy of Collingbourne (probably Baldwin's), Churchyard's
tragedy of Jane Shore, and SackviUe's tragedy of Buckingham, with its
great poetic induction. The eight tragedies added in this edition are,
indeed, generally much longer than those of the first part and are defi-
nitely more literary in the amplification and adornment of their material.

The third edition, that of 1571, is indicated on the tide-page as The Edition
"Newly corrected and augmented." 1 The tide is amended to read: of I5?I

A MYRROVR for Magistrates, Wherein may be seene by examples
passed in this realme, with howe greueous plagues, vyces are punished
in great princes and magistrates, and how frayle and vnstable worldly
prosperity is founde, where Fortune seemeth moste highly to fauour.

There is no new material in this edition, but the long preface to the
second part (added in 1563) is omitted, the tragedies are rearranged
(as will be seen in the table in Appendix B), Ferrers' tragedy of the
Duke of Somerset being inserted between that of Jack Cade and that
of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, and the tragedy of die black-
smith being placed before that of Jane Shore, so that the complaint of
Jane Shore is now the concluding one of the volume. Signatures are
affixed to certain tragedies. 2

1 Tides of suck editions as are described in Appendix A, and rides of works other
than theMirror, are transcribed without any indication of their arrangement on the page.
In footnotes and in casual references to boob, I have ignored title-page eccentricities in
type and capitalization, when no bibliographical purpose is served by retaining them.

2 Signatures are affixed as Mows: i G.F.;2Ca. (T.CL,ini578);3 G.F.;4T.CL;
5 G.F.; ii W.B.; 21 Maister D; 22T.S.; 24-F.Scg.; 25 Tho.Churchyarde (TLChurch-
yarde, in 1574, 1575, and 1578) ; 26 G.F. ; 27 Maker Cauyll (Maister Cauille, in 1578).
In the 1578 text, 6 is signed TLPh., and 28 and 29 are signed G.F. In the 1587 text, 30 is
signed lohn Higins ; 32 is signed Frauncis Dingley (the name of the scribe in the Scots
MS.) ; 33 is signedTho.Churchyard. The signatures remain the same throughout subse-
quent texts (with variants noted), save in the caseof 6, which appears in one edition only.

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

There are 168 folios in this edition, the colophon occurring on the
verso of folio 168. Yet the preliminary "Table of the contents of this
booke" indexes at the very end two additional tragedies:

28. The vnworthy death of y worthy Duke Hufrey of Glocester,
protectour of England, contriued by false practises. FoL 199.

29. The penance & exile of -y Lady Elyanor Cobham Duches of
Glocester, for witchcraft and sorcery.

It will be remembered that the tragedy of "Good duke Humfrey
murdered, and Elianor Cobham his wife banished" was indexed but did
not appear in the 1559 edition, nor did the two tragedies here indexed
in 1571 appear in the text. Apparently the "augmentation" referred
to on the tide-page related to die proposed addition of these tragedies.
The collation of the text proves that the edition was, however, definitely
"corrected." This correction seems to have been concerned, first, with
bettering the poetry of the tragedies, and, secondly, with the revision
of die historical mirror to adapt it to new situations.

The Editions With only minor variations in the text, and with no mention of the
574 additional tragedies indexed in die edition of 1571, another edition of
the original Minor was published in 1574, under the tide of THE LAST
yarte of the Mirourfor Magistrates. The reason for the change of tide was
that Thomas Marshe in 1574 was also publishing a new work by John
Higgins, To this new work Higgins gave the tide:

THE FIRST / parte of the Mirour for / Magistrates, contai- / tring the
falles of the first / infortunate Princes of/ this lande : / From the comming
of Brute / to the incarnation of our / sauiour and redemer / lesu Christe.

Higgins adopted not only the tide but also, with slight changes, the
dedicatory heading used by Baldwin:

Loue and liue, / TO THE NOBELITIE / and all other in office, God
graunt / the increase of wysedome, with all thinges / necessarie for
preseruacion of their / estates, Amen.

He referred to Baldwin's "Episde of the other volume of this booke,"
and in his address to the reader explained that he was induced to under-
take his task by reading Baldwin's words:

INTRODUCTION

It were (saythhee) a goodly and a notable matter to search and discourse
our whole story from the beginninge of the inhabiting of this Isle.

While deferential in his attitude toward die writers of the older Mirror,
Higgins dearly regarded his contribution as an additional volume of the
same work. It should be noted that, whereas the 1574 edition of
Baldwin's Mirror ends with a colophon, Higgins' work ends merely
with his signature after a Finis. It is probable that the two volumes were
to be sold either separately or bound as one.

In 1575 Thomas Marshe printed a new edition of Higgins' own
FIRST parte of the Mirow for Magistrates, with which was sometimes
bound a reissue of the 1574 edition of Baldwin's work, with a' new
setting of leaves * 1-4, and with the colophon deleted from X8 r .

In 1578 there appeared another edition, "Newly corrected and en- The Edition
larged," of THE LAST part of the Mirourfor Magistrates, the most of I578
interesting feature of which was the introduction of the long-promised
tragedy, which now appeared in the index under the following entry:

n. Humphrey Plantagenet Duke of Glocester Protector of England
by practyse of Enemies was broughte to confusion. FoL 40.

That this tragedy, announced in 1559 and again in 1571, should at last
be published as it was originally intended, and that it should even begin
on folio 40, as it was originally indexed to begin, indicates the surprising
pertinacity with which the original plans for the Mirror were carried
out some twenty years later. The prose link preceding this tragedy of
Duke Humphrey was essentially the same as that which had appeared
in the edition of 1559, save that the last sentence did not have to be
distorted to permit the substitution of the tragedy of Somerset

The edition of 1578, however, appeared also with a caned, 1 folio 39
being cancelled and a new unfoliated gathering being substituted for the
cancelled leaf (sig. F(t.), Fft.i. falling on folio 39. This gathering con-

1 ML det^ concerning this c^^

Times Literary Supplement 9 ]wc 30, 1932, p. 480. According to W, C. Hadkt (Hand-
book to the... Literature of Great Britain [London, 1867], p. 378), there was also an
edition of the, first part of the Mirror in 1578, but I have found no other record of a
copy. The cancelled pages are reproduced on pages 429-30-

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

tained a new prose link, a new tragedy (not indexed), and a rewritten
prose lir1r to introduce the tragedy of Humfrey, Duke of Glocester.
The new tragedy bore the tide:

HOW DAME ELIANOR Cobham Duchesse of Glocester, for prac-
tising of witchcraft and Sorcery, sufired open penance, and after was
banished the realme into the yle of Man.

The story of Elianor Cobham is, of course, part of the tragedy rehearsed
by her husband, but, curiously, she andher husbandin their two tragedies
disagree not only in the lessons which they draw from their falls but
also in matters of fact. The inference seems to be that these tragedies
were not written to mirror the same contemporary situation, and that
they may have been, and probably were, written at different times. 1
The 1559 edition had indexed one tragedy, the 1571 edition had indexed
two separate tragedies, the edition of 1578 indexed and printed only one
tragedy, but the second tragedy was nevertheless introduced in a cancel.
Such is the problem which has puzzled every student of the Mirror for
Magistrates. It was a problem considerably complicated by the fact that,
until the discovery of a copy of the uncancelled edition of 1578 in the
Huntington Library, the cancelled volume was the only one recorded
by bibliographers.

It will be evident from the collation that the 1578 edition, besides
being enlarged by new material, was also "newly corrected" with an
enthusiasm for change which it is hard to explain. Very often neither
rhyme nor reason is improved by the corrections introduced. It seems
very doubtful whether the text was derived from the immediately
preceding texts.

In 1578 there was also published another supplementary work,
THE/ Seconde part of the / Mirrourfor Ma- / gistrates, conteining thefalles/
of the infortunate Princes / of this Lande. / From the Conquest of /Caesar,
vnto the com- / myng of Duke Wil- / Ham the Con- / querour. / The twelve
tragedies of this volume were all written by Thomas Blenerhasset.

1 See my article, "Humphrey Duke of Gloucester and Elianor Cobham. His Wife
in the Mirror for Magistrates" The Huntington Library Bulletin, No. 5, pp. 119-55.

INTRODUCTION

It was published, not by Marshe, but by Richard Webster, and it seems
to have been less well known than either the original work or the volume
added by Higgins.

In 1587 appeared an edition which fused the work of Higgins with The Edition
the original Mirror, but disregarded that of Blenerhasset, the tragedies of I587
of the first and the last parts being numbered continuously and the
foliation being likewise continuous. The original section of the Mirror
was introduced by Baldwin's original preface to the reader. To this
section, however, fournewpoemswereadded: a tragedy of SirNicholas
Burdet, Churchyard's tragedy of Wolsey, and two poems taken from
an old Scots manuscript rehearsing the tragedy of James IV of Scotland
and the story of Hodden Held. A new prose link was substituted to
introduce the tragedy of Jane Shore a prose link that, like the one
which introduces the tragedy of Wolsey, was designed to fight
Churchyard's battle against Baldwin.

The introduction of these old Scots tragedies raises new problems
concerning the date at which the additions were proposed. In the first
place, the prose link introduced between them says that the manuscript
"was pende aboue fifty yeares agone, or euen shortly after the death of
the sayd King," which, since "the death of the sayd King" took place
in 1513, would indicate not long after 1563 as the date of this conversa-
tion in the Mirror. Further, Holinshed printed in 1577 the letters ex-
changed between King James and King Henry which are here described
in terms that would be inappropriate if they were already available in a
printed text. 1 These Scots tragedies are still to be seen in Harleian MS.
2252 in the British Museum, amended frequently to the reading of the
Mirror text in marginal notes presumably written by the one who revised
the text for the Mirror. 2

As I have said, this manuscript must have been in Holinshed's

1 The First volume of the Chronicks of England, Scotlemie, andlreknde (London, 1577),
pp. 417-20 (misprinted 430). It should be noted that the history of Scotland is written
"vnto the yeare, 1571," which may have been the date of compilation.

2 For further details and a collation of the manuscript with the Mirror text, see
Appendix D.

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

possession at some time, for he printed from it in his Chronicles in 1577.
Moreover, the possible participation of Holinshed as a writer for the
Mirror is further suggested by the continuation of the old prose link
which had terminated the 1563 Minor, added by way of introducing
the new tragedy of Sir Nicholas Burdet:

This talke thus being ended: I was willed my maisters (quoth I), by
Maister Holinshed, to bring Sir Nicholas Burdet vnto you. Were you?
(quoth they.) Onhiswordwewillhearewhathesayes. Read it I pray
you (quod one.)

If Holinshed sent the Burdet tragedy, and if the Mirror writers printed
the Scots tragedies from the manuscript from which Holinshed printed
the letters between King James of Scotland and King Henry of England,
the question of date has again to be considered, for Holinshedis supposed
to have died in 1580. It is quite possible that Higgins, deciding to print
a Mirror which should include both the first and the last parts, incor-
porated a section, or sections, written .earlier but never printed.

The 1587 edition was the last of the editions of the Mirror to follow
the original plan. The edition of 1609-10, arranged by Richard Niccols,
cannot be integrated in the tradition. Niccols played Colley Gibber to
the Minor.

The Baldwin wrote of the contributors to the Minor for Magistrates as

Authors of "dyuejs learned men whose many giftes nede fewe praises." If we are

for Magis- to see the Minor in true perspective, it is necessary to understand that

trates i t was -written, not by literary hacks nor by minor writers of the day,

but by learned men who were accepted as important figures in their

own time. I have neither space nor inclination to recount here lives

and adventures which can be read in the Dictionary of National Biography

and in similar works. 1 But it is necessary to recapitulate the evidence

in regard to three points.

1 1 have often included, minor biographical details because they are unknown or
significant, and I have often excluded major biographical facts because they are well
known or are without special significance for die purposes of this study. I have, in
general, paid scant heed to events which occurred in the life of the author after the
date of his relation to the Minor.

INTRODUCTION

First, the men who wrote the Mirror were adroit enough not to suffer
from a change of rulers. So far as we know their history, most of them
might have written their autobiographies as favourites under four reigns.
Second, they were accepted as distinguished men of letters. Third, they
had ample opportunity to know the affairs of the court and the nation.
In other words, 'they had the necessary qualifications for writing a
political Mirror which should take its place in literature : they kept their
heads on their shoulders, which required a good deal of political wisdom;
they had more skill in their craft of writing than did any other group
to be listed during the reign of Mary; and they had intimate and first-
hand acquaintance with the happenings they wrote about Further-
more, so far as the authors of the various tragedies have been identified,
they seem to have written about affairs which were, so to speak, in
their own line.

With the object, therefore, of making the position of these writers
dear, I shall attempt to point out, for each one, only the evidences of
his political adroitness, his literary reputation, and his particular con-
tribution to the Mffror.

It is inevitable that I begin with William Baldwin, 1 the man who was William
chosen by the printer to assume primary responsibility for the whole wm
undertaking. He seems to have been best known for A treatise of Moral
Philosophy, first published by Edward Whitchurchin 1547, and dedicated
to Edward, Earl of Hertford, whose father, the Duke of Somerset, had
just risen to be Protector. The Short Title Catalogue records eighteen
editions of this work before 1640, and, to John Bale, Baldwin was an
English Cato. a

1 Tie fullest surveys of Baldwin's life and work are W. F. Trench, "William
Baldwin," Modern Quarterly of Language and Literature, i, 259 , and E. L Feasey,
"William Baldwin," Modem Lan^gelMew, 10,407-1*. Miss Feasey does not seem
to have known of Professor Trench's earlier study.

* John Bale (Scriptofum illustrium mioris Brytatmie, . . . Catalogus [Basle, 1557-59])
writes: "GUHHELMUS BaMewyn, homo mltarum, ut ex scriptis apparet, literatim
& sapient*?, aualis in ipso Catone rekcehtt t pkrimarum mum usu camparatae" Listing
the four divisions^ the Moral Philosophy as separate works, he adds: "Cmoedias etiam
aliquot." (Pt 2, p. 108.)

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

In 1549 was published The Canticles or Balades of Salomon, phraselyke
declared in Englysh Metres, the colophon of which stated that it was
"Imprinted at London by William Baldwin, seruaunt with Edwarde
Whitchurche." This work was dedicated to the young King
Edward VI, and the dedication serves to establish Baldwin as on the
side of Calvin against Castellio in the bitter fight over the interpreta-
tion of The Song of Solomon. The work itself shows dexterity, and the
variety of meters here attempted is astonishing when it is remembered
that TotteTs Songes and sonettes was not to be published till eight years
later. 1

At the end of Edward's reign, we find Baldwin working upon plays
and pastimes at court at the Christmas season of 1552-3 when George
Ferrers was serving as Master of the King's Pastimes. Of a night's
conversation after Ferrers, the King's divine, the King's astronomer,
and Baldwin had gone to bed in the same chamber (Ferrers and Baldwin
in bed and the other two on pallets on the floor), Baldwin has left an
account in the preface to Beware the Cat, a work the significance of
which is still an unsolved mystery, published during the reign of
Elisabeth, but apparently written in 1553.*

To Baldwin is also attributed The Funeralles of King Edward the sixt,
which he says, in a preface to the 1560 edition, he could not succeed in

1 The only appreciative consideration of Baldwin as poet is that of W. F. Trench
in the article on Baldwin previously noted. It should be remembered that, on the
verso of the title-page of Christopher Langton's A very orefe treatise, ordrely declaring the
pncipelpartes ofphisick, which was published by Whitchurch in 1547, there was printed
a poem by Baldwin, which is said to be die first sonnet printed in England. I have
not seen the book.

a For an account of the entertainments prepared during this season, see : A. Feuillerat,
Documents Relating to the Revels at Court in the Time of King Edward VI and Queen Mary
(Louvain, 1914), pp. 89-114, 134-43 and notes; E. K. Chambers, Mediaeval Stage
(Oxford, 1903), i, 405^7; F. Bde, "William Baldwin's 'Beware the Cat/ M Ag/fc,
xm, 303-50; F. Brie, "William Baldwin als Dramatiker," Anglia, xxxvm, 157-^72;
the articles by Professor Trench and Miss Feasey, on William Baldwin, previously
mentioned; and my note, "The Lost Pky of Aesop's Crow" Modern Language Notes,
XLIX, 454-57.

INTRODUCTION

having published before that time. If it is his, he was much more than
a poet-by-conviction. 1

The choice of Baldwin philosopher, poet, printer, playwright as
keystone for the undertaking can easily be accounted for. He had evi-
dently worked with Whitchurch, the Protestant printer, but his revised
edition of the Moral Philosophy, as well as the Mirror, was printed in the
Catholic Wayland's shop during Mary's reign. Further, his pky, Love
and Lyve, was produced at court in the time of Mary, in 1556.* In 1556
Baldwin was also listed among the members of the " community" of the
Stationers' Company, in the charter granted by Mary and Philip. It is

1 This work, found among the papers of Sir John Cheke, was published in 1610 as
his work, under the tide A Royall Elegie. Further to confound confusion, Sir John
Harington, in a statement hitherto unnoticed, attributed the poem to "Mr. Ferres" (A
Tract on the Succession to the Crown, ed. C. R. Markham for the Roxburghe Club [1880],
pp. 99-100). The Funeralles was edited for die Roxburghe Club in 1817; the Royall
Elegie was reprinted as an appendix to W. Trollope's History of the Royal Foundation
ofChristes Hospital (London, 1834).

* Feuillerat, op. cit., pp. 215-17, and Historical MSS. Commission, Seventh Report
(London, 1879), p. 613. Baldwin's letter to Sir Thomas Cawarden speaks of the
desire of the Tnns of Court to put on his play. His popularity in die Inns of Court is
also evidenced by the Preface of Jasper Heywood to his translation of The Seconde
Tragedie of Seneca entituled Thyestes, printed in 1560. Deprecating himself as unworthy
of the task which Seneca lays upon him, the author suggests:

goe where Mineruaes men,
And finest witts doe swarme: whome she

hath taught to passe with pen.
In Lyncolnes Lone and Temples twayne,

Grayes Inne and other mo,

. . . suche yong men three,

as weene thou mightst agayne,
To be begotte as Pallas was,

of myghtie loue his brayne.
There hcare diou shalt a great reporte,

of Baldwyns worthie name,
Whose Myrrour dothe of Magistrates,

prodayme eternal! fame.

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

reasonable to suppose that he was working with Wayland. In 1559
Elizabeth confirmed the grant to the Stationers' Company, and exactly
the same names of the members of the community were listed, so that
Baldwin was still numbered among the printers. 1 The first edition of
the Mirror was printed in 1559, and The Tuneralles of King Edward the sixt
in 1560, by Thomas Marshe. I therefore suspect Baldwin to have been
associated with Marshe at this period. From Whitchurch to Wayland to
Marshe, the changing political scene shifted favours. We know from his
own statement that, by 1563 , Baldwin had been called to another way of
life, though he was still responsible for the Mirror. On the authority
of the ghost of Jane Shore, we know he was "a Minister and a
Preacher."'

Baldwin's contributions among the Mirror tragedies are not clearly
identified. In the revised dedication of the 1563 edition he said:

I have nowe also set forth an other parte, conteynyng as lide of myne
owne, as the fyrst part doth of other mens.

On the evidence of this assertion it has been easy to assign to him all
tragedies not claimed by others, but only the tragedies of Richard,
Earl of Cambridge (8), Richard, Duke of York (13), and George,

1 Arbor, I, xxvii-xxxiii.

a According to Anthony & Wood (Athenae Oxonienses [London, 1813], I, col. 341),
a William Baldwin supplicated for a degree in 1532. There was a William Baldwin
among those ordained deacon on January 14, 1559/60, in pursuance of Bishop Grin-
dal's plan "to furnish the Church with men of learning, honesty, and good reli-
gion." (John Strype, The Life and Acts of. . . Edmund Grindal [Oxford, 1821], p. 53.)
Miss Feasey further identifies our author as the William Baldwin who became Vicar
of Tortington in Sussex and in 1561, Rector of St Michael le Quern in Cheapside.
She thinks he died in 1563. In view of Heywood's linking of Baldwin's name with
the Inns of Court, it should be noted also that there was at the time of his writing
a William Baldwin resident in the Middle Temple, to which he was admitted May 20,
1557, being then described as "son and heir of John Baldwin, deceased, of Byfelde,
Northants." Lord Stafford was also a member of the Middle Temple at this time.
William Baldwin still maintained his chambers in the Temple in 1577, and the records
show him to have had a continuous legal career to that date. (C. H. Hopwood,
Middle Temple Records: Minutes of Parliament [London, 1904], i, no et passim.)

INTRODUCTION

Duke of Clarence (18), are consistently attributed to him in the Mirror
texts. 1

Among the "dyuers learned men," George Ferrers was certainly the George
one who gave most assistance to Baldwin.* A man of good family, he crrcrs
seems to have been in turn at Oxford and at Lincoln's Inn, and in 1534
he saw his first work published, a translation of Magna Carta into
English. He rose to place through Cromwell, according to Leland, 3
and in 1538 "young Ferys" was listed, along with Thomas Chaloner
and others, "Among the Gentlemen most mete to be daily waiters upon
my said lord and allowed in his house." In 1539 his name occurs among
"The names of the spears" in "The New Body Guard," and in 1539
and 1540 he was listed among the "Squires" appointed to receive
Anne of Cleves. 4

Thus, George Ferrers rose with Cromwell, but he was adroit enough
not to 611 with him, for he remained after Cromwell's fall as page of
the chamber in the King's Household. In 1542 Ferrers, a member of

1 See: Haslewood's ed., I, xix, xrii; Trench, A Mirror for Magistrates, pp. 66^70;
and Henrietta C. Bartlett, "The Mirror for Magistrates," The Library, 3rd Sen, m,
22-32.

* The best account of the life of George Ferrers is that in The Victoria History of the
Counties of England: Hertfordshire, n (London, 1908), 189-90. Since no adequate
biography is available to students of literature, I have tried to indicate new sources
of information.

3 John Leland ("Ad Georgium Ferrarium," in Principium, Ac illustrium aliauot &
eruditiomm in Anglia virorm, Encomia, Trophaea, GenethUaca f & Epithakmia [London,
1589], p. 99) hails Ferrers as one who is bringing glory again to the ancient city of Veru-
lam (St Albans). He speak of Ferrers' work on the laws of his country, of hi bringing
back the ancient pleading at the bar, of the shrewd Cromwell's Claiming lijm as his
own, of his life at court after Cromwell's fall, of his prowess against the Scotch and
French. He urges him to go on as he has begun and "nostro carmine maior erk"
Ferrers' presence in Lincoln's Inn is attested by an amusing entry in the Records of the
Society of Lincoln's Inn (Black Books, I [n.p., 1897], 240) for November 13, 1534, which
orders Messrs Norwood, Ferrers, and others to put away their lackeys or else to be
put out of commons.

4 For references to Ferrers (whose name is variously spelled), see Letters and Papers
of Henry VJU (London), xra, Pt 2 (1893), p. 497J *rv, Pt. 2 (1895), pp. 202, 345;
xy (1896), 6.

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

Parliament and also a member of the King's Household, was the unwit-
ting occasion of a dispute between king and Parliament when he was
arrested for debt, thereby winning prominent mention in English legal
history. 1 Probably his marriage in 1541 to Elizabeth, widow and executrix
of the estate of Humphrey Bourchier, illegitimate son of Lord Berners
and cousin to Sir Francis Bryan, furthered his fortunes. 2 Her will was
probated in I547, 3 but she must have died some time before, since a
licence for the marriage of George Ferrers "of the King's household"
and "Jane Sowthtrote" of St Albans is recorded as of March 5, 1545/6. 4
At the death of Henry YE, Ferrers was heir to 100 marks under
his will, but afterwards Ferrers served the new Protector, Edward,
Duke of Somerset, as is evidenced by Patten's account of him as
"a gentleman of my lord Protectors & one of the commissioners of
the cariages in this army," in his description of the Tfogljsh punitive

1 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, xvn (1900), 107; K. Pickthorn, Early Tudor
Government: Henry VUL (Cambridge, 1934), pp. 465-72; and the chronicles of Halle,
Grafton, and Holinshed.

a Legal action by George Ferrers and his wife Elizabeth, "executrix of Humphrey
Bourgchier, esquire," is recorded in Public Record Office Lists and Indexes, No. 51:
List of Early Chancery Proceedings, vm (London, 1929), 82 (File 983, No. 15). Ferrers
alone appeared to pay Humphrey's debt to the King, June 24, 1546. (See Letters and
Papers of Henry PICT, xxi, Pt. i [London, 1908], p. 631.) That Ferrers continued in
the King's service is attested by his inclusion, in die lists "For the invasion of France,"
among those of "The Privy Chamber," where he is entered "Ferres 2 billmen."
(Ibid., xix, Pt. i [London, 1903], p. 164.)

3 J. C. C. Smith, comp., Index of Wills Proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury,
i (British Record Society; London, 1893), 199: "1547 Ferrers formerly Burgchier,
Elizabeth, High Offelcy, etc., Stafford 45 Alen."

* J. L. Chester and G. J. Armytage, Allegations for Marriage Licences Issued from the
Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury at London, 1543 to 1869 (London, 1886),
p. 7- This is the marriage noted in Metcalfe's Visitations of Hertfordshire (Harleian
Society Publications, xxn [1886], 142), where the bride's name is given as "Jane,
da, of John Soumcote." Of this marriage (according to Metcalfe) was born Julius,
heir to his father's estates; and probably also Richard, for the Middle Temple Records
(i [London, 1907], 186) lists among the admissions for April 29, 1572: "Richard
Ferrers, kte of Davids Inne, gent., second son of George Ferrers of Markate, Herts.
Esq., generally; fine .305. Bound with his rather."

INTRODUCTION

expedition into Scotland in the first year of the young King's reign. 1
On July 29, 1548, Ferrers seems to have reaped his reward for having
been the servant of Henry VIII and the husband of Elizabeth Bourchier,
for he was given the extensive properties formerly held under lease by
Humphrey Bourchier, 2 the grants being made

for good service by the king's servant George Ferrers alias George de
Ferrariis, esquire, to the king's father and himself; and for 325?. 85. 4d. ;
and in fulfilment of the will of the king's father and a tripartite indenture
between the king of the first part, the Protector and the other executors
(named) of Henry Vin/s will of the second part and the said George
Ferrers of the third part, dated 14. Oct. i Edward VU

When the Protector's star in its turn had set, and the fallen Duke was
in prison at the Christmastide of 1551-2 awaiting execution, Ferrers was
again on the side of the angels, as a passage from Grafton's Chronicle at
Large testifies:

The Duke beyng condempned as is aforesayd, the people spake
diuersly and munnored against the Duke of Northumberlande, and
against some other of the Lordes for the condempnation of the sayd
Duke, and also as the common fame went, the kinges maiestie tooke
it not in good part: wherfore aswell to remooue fond talke out of
mennes mouthes, as also to recreate and refireshe the troubled spirites
of the yong king, it was deuised that the feast of Christes Natiuitie,
commonly called Christmas then at hand, should be solemply kept at
Greenewiche with open houshold, and franke resorte to the Court,

1 The Expedition into Scotlade of the most woorthely fortunate prince Edward, Duke of
Soomerset, vncle vnto our most noble sovereign lord } kiges Maiestie Edward the VI.
Goouernour ofhys hyghnes persone, and Protectour of hys graces Realmes, dominions & and
subiectes: made in the fast yere of his Maiesties most prosperous reign, and set out by way of
diarie, by W. Patten Londoner (London, 154.8), sig. D.v., recto.

a A dear and concise account of the grants to Humphrey Bourchier, and of his
financial difficulties due to Sir Francis Bryan, is given in the Victoria History: Hertford-
shire, n, 189. The complete list of his holdings is recorded in the Calendar of the Patent
Rolb, Edward VI, Vol. I, iffl-W* (London, 1924), p. 314.

3 The complete record of the estates transferred to Ferrers in 1548 is given in ML,
pp. 314-16. It is interesting to note that Croxley Manor was given, at the Dissolution
in 1538, to William Baldwin, under a lease for forty-four years. There is no indication
which William is meant. (Victoria History: Hertfordshire, n, 378.)

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

j of the Hall,) what time of olde ordinarye course,
there is alwayes one appoynted to make sporte in the Courte, called
commonly Lorde of Misrule, whose office is not vnknowne to such as
haue bene brought vp in Noblemens houses, and among great house
keepers, which vse liberall feasting in that season. There was therefore
by order of the counsaile a Gentleman both wise and learned, whose
name was George Ferrers appoynted to that office for this yere: who
beyng of better calling then commonly his predecessors had bene before,
receyued all his commissions and warrauntes by the name of the Maister
of the kinges pastimes. Which Gentleman so well supplyed his office,
both in shew of sundry sightes and deuises of rare inuention, and in act
of diuers enterludes and matters of pastime, played by persons, as not
onely satisfied the common sorte, but also were very well liked and
allowed by the counsayle and other of skill in the like pastimes: But
best of al by the yong king himselfe, as appered by his princely liberalise
in rewarding that sendee.

This Christmas being thus passed and spent with much mirth and
pastime, wherewith the mindes and eares of murmorers were meetdy
well appeased, according to a former determination as the sequele
shewed, it was thought now good to proceede to the execution of the
iudgement geuen against the Duke of Somerset touching his conuktion
and attaynder of the felony afore mentioned. 1

So well had Ferrers performed his office, that he was recalled for the
next Christmas season, and further reward came in a new grant:

For war services both in France under Henry VIBL and in Scotland
under the king, and for offices performed at home in the king's Court
meriting a perpetual testimony of the royal munificence.

Grant to the king's servant George Ferrers alias George de Ferrariis,
esquire, of the lordship and manor of Hampsted, Herts, parcel of the
lands called Warwickes Londes.*

For this new grant Ferrers was to pay a yearly fee of a fortieth part of
a knight's fee, 20 marks. That he won favour with the boy King is also
evidenced by a manuscript account of the expedition into Scotland,

1 Richard Grafton, A Chronicle at Large, n (London, 1568), 1317. For the account
of Ferrers' activities at court during tie Christmas seasons of 1551/2 and 1552/3, see
also Feuillerat, op. dt. 9 pp. 56-63, 89-114, 134-43, and the notes thereon.

* Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Edward VI, Vol. IF, 1550-1553 (London, 1926), p. 378.

INTRODUCTION

addressed by the author, J. Berteville, to the King, whereon is an inscrip-
tion which reads, "LIBER GEORGII FERRERS EX DONO
REGIS EDOUARDI." 1

When Edward VI was dead, when the nine-day reign of Jane Grey
was over, and the ambitious Duke of Northumberland had gone to his
death, cringing for his life, Ferrers was again aiding the winning side
by assisting to put down Wyatt's Rebellion. Underbill recorded:

When I came to the courte gate, ther I mett with mr. Clement
Througemartone, and George Feris, tindynge ther lynges to go to
London. Mr. Througemartone was cume post frome Coventry, and
hadde byne with the quene to declare unto her the takynge off the duke
off Suffoke. Mr. Feris was sentt from the councelle unto the lorde
William Hawwarde, who hadde the charge off the whache att London
bryge. As we wentt, for thatt they weare bothe my frendes, and
protestanes, I tolde them my goode happe, . . .

Trying to enter the city at Ludgate, the trio were challenged, and Ferrers
.answered:

"I am Ferris, that was lorde off misrule with kynge Edwarde, and am
sentt from the councelle unto my lorde William, . . . uppon weyghtie
affayres; . . ." a

In 1555 Ferrers was loyally acting as informant to the Privy Council
concerning the machinations of the young Princess Elizabeth, who was
said to have been engaged with Dr John Dee and others in casting the
nativity of King Philip, Queen Mary, and Elizabeth herself. It was
suspected that Elizabeth was using Dr Dee to destroy the King and
Queen by means of enchantments, and all concerned suffered Ipng
detention and severe questioning. In a letter to Edward Courtenay,
Thomas Martyn wrote that Dee evidently had a familiar spirit, since
"Ferys, one of their accusers, had, immediately upon the accusation,

1 Retit de V expedition en Ecosse fan. M.D.XLVL etde la lattayle de Musclehtrgh par
le sieur Berteville au Roy Edouard VI (Bannatyne Club; 1825).

a "Autobiographical Anecdotes of Edward Underbill, One of the Band of Gentle-
men Pensioners," in Narratives of the Days of the Reformation, ed. J. G. Nichols (Camden
Society; 1859), pp. 163-65.

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

both his children strucken, the one with present death, the other with
blindness/' 1 According to the Return of Members of Parliament, Ferrers
was elected in 1544/5, 1552/3, 1554> and 1555-

Of Ferrers' activities after Elizabeth's accession we know little. He
was again married,* he held the office of escheator for the counties of
Essex and Hertford in 1567, he was concerned in 1571 in the attempt to
secure the English throne to Mary Stuart. 3 But he contributed to the
entertainment of Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth Castle in I575. 4 And,
of most significance, he was, according to Stow, the author of the section
of Grafton's chronicle which recorded the eveftts of Queen Mary's
reign.5

According to Sir Sidney Lee, the "administration of his effects was
granted by the prerogative court of Canterbury'' r8 May 1579," but I
can find no evidence in the published records of the court.

It is a curious fact that Ferrers' first name seems not to have been
familiar to those about him. He is referred to as "young Ferys" in

1 For a full account of this incident and its possible mirroring in the tragedy of
Elianor Cobham, see my article on "Humphrey Duke of Gloucester and Elianor
Cobham His Wife in the Minor for Magistrates, " loc. cit. Professor Kittredge apparently
misunderstood the incident, t-liiTilcmg that Dee was called before the Privy Council,
on an accusation, by "George Ferrys," of having blinded one child by magic and
killed another. (G. L. Kittredge, Witchcraft in Old and New England [Cambridge,
Mass., 1928], pp. 69, 254.)

a The licence is recorded as of November 26, 1569, for his marriage to "Margaret
Prestone, Widow, of S 4 Albans, Herts." See J. L. Chester and G. J. Annytage,
Allegations for Marriage Licences Issued by the Bishop of London, 1520-1610 (London,
1887), i, 44. This wife, his third, survived him, married a Thomas Hall after his death,
and continued to hold the manor of St Agnels settled upon her by Ferrers in 1577.
(Victoria History: Hertfordshire, n, 366.)

3 William Murdin, A Collection of State Papers relating to Affairs in the Reign of Queen
Elizabeth ("Burghley Papers"; London, 1759), pp. 20, 30, 43, 51.

4 J. Nichols, The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1788),
i, 702-3. Robert Wittington, English Pageantry (Cambridge, Mass., 1920), i, 218, n. 6,
refers to further accounts of Ferrers' later work of this sort, but I have not been able
to locate the reference.

5 John Stow, Annales, or, A Generall Chronick of England. . . . Continued ...By
Edmund Howes (London, 1631), p. 632.

INTRODUCTION

Cromwell's records, King Henry's will bequeaths a sum to " Ferrys,"

and Puttenham and Meres both praise the work of "Edward Ferrys"
(or "Ferris"), though the person indicated is clearly George Ferrers. 1

The evidence of the text makes Ferrers the author of the tragedies of
Tresilian (i) and Thomas of Woodstock (3), together with the three
tragedies which for one reason or another were "stayed": Edmund,
Duke of Somerset (26), Elianor Cobham (28), and Humphrey, Duke
of Gloucester (29).

Thomas Chaloner, whose authorship of the tragedy of Richard n is Thomas
attested by the text of the only remaining leaf of the 1555 edition of the cll aloner
Mirror , was, like Ferrers, a not inconspicuous servant of four rulers of
England, of which service the records of the State Papers give ample
proof. 2 In 153 8, as I have said before, he was, with Ferrers, listed among
the gentlemen favoured by Cromwell. He accompanied Sir Henry
Knevet as ambassador to Charles V and went with the Emperor on his
African expedition, was made Clerk of the Privy Council on his return,
and wrote a great Latin poem, In Laudem Henrici OctaviJ He was
returned to Parliament in 1544/5 and 1547. Like Ferrers, furthermore,
he was of service to the Protector during the reign of Edward VT, and
was knighted by the Duke himself after the battle of Musselborough
in 1547. At the Christmas season of 1551-2, he was working with
Ferrers, apparently as his assistant, in making the young King forget
the plight of his uncle, the Duke of Somerset. 4 Under Mary, however,
he continued to serve England in negotiations with Scotland over the
borderland and similar questions. When Elizabeth came to the throne,

1 The 1813 edition of the Athenae Oxonienses (i, cols. 340, 443~4<5) corrects the
mistake of identification in regard to Edward and George Ferrers. Sir Sidney Lee gave
considerable attention to the subject in his article on Ferrers in the Dictionary of
National Biography.

a The auAoritative source for our knowledge of Chaloner's life is the biographical
account, by William Malim, prefixed to the posthumous edition of his great work,
De Rsp. Anglorum Instauranda Libri Decent (London, 1579). In general, accounts of his
life are fairly accurate, except that his son's activities are sometimes attributed to him.

3 Published in the ed. of his work by William Malim, noted above.

4 Feuillerat, op. dt. t pp. <5o, 61.

THE MIRROR FOR MAGISTRATES

he went, in turn, to Emperor Ferdinand to draw him from the French
alliance, to Philip n in Brussels to conciliate him, and to Spain as
ambassador. When he died, William Cecil was chief mourner, and to
Cecil, William Malim dedicated the posthumous edition of Chaloner's
worb published in 1579.

When, in 1553, John Whitals (or Withals) dedicated to Chaloner
A short Dictionarie for Yonge Beginners, he described him as "beyng
worthily esteemed of all men, to be as well learned wyse and vertuous,
as any gentleman in this realme." 1 Peacham held him up as a model of
the ideal of nobility set forth in The Compleat Gentleman? Indeed, so
numerous are the tributes to his many excellences that it is impossible
to record them here. But it must be noted that, in 1 543 , he had published
a translation of A Book of the Office of Servants, in 1544 a translation of
Sir John Cheke's translation of An Homilie of Saint John Chrysostome,
and,in 1549, atransktionofErasmus'Pr^eofFo/ie. Hemustberanked,
therefore, in 1555, as a man of importance in the service of both Mars
and the Muses (to use Camden's phrase), even though his great Latin
poem, De Republica Instauranda, was not published until after his death,
which occurred in 1565. And it should be mentioned that, among his
works published with this Latin poem, was an epitaph on Thomas Phaer.
Thomas Thomas Phaer, the last of the four whose names have been associated
definitely with the tragedies of the first edition of the Mirror, made a
will in 1558, which included a legacy of friendship:

my body to be bured in the p'ishe churche of Kilgerran, w& a stone
vpon my grave, in man' of a marble stone, with suche Scripture there-
upon, graven in brasse, as shalbe devised by my fryndMr. George fferers. 3

The evidence of this "Scripture" still speaks of the interlocking friend-
ships of the Mirror, as does the epitaph written for Phaer by Thomas

1 Quoted from the edition of 1556.

8 Henry Peacham, The Compleat Gentleman (London, 1622), pp. 93-94.

3 Peter Cunningham, "The Will of Thomas Phaer, the poet and translator from
Virgil," The Shakespeare Society's Papers, iv (London, 184.9), i-5- Cunningham also
quotes an interesting epitaph written by Barnabe Googe on Phaer, comparing him
with earlier translators of VirgiL

INTRODUCTION

Chaloner, of which I have spoken. Furthermore, Phaer must already
have been known to Baldwin through Whitehurch, for by 1555
Whitchurch had published five editions of Phaer's translation of
Goeurot's great medical work, The Regiment ofLyfe (to which he had
added a treatise on the plague and A Bake of Children), as well as the
original edition of The bok&q[Precedentes, in mcwer of a Register (the later
editions of which were published by other printers), with a preface by
Phaer and probably altogether of his writing. These two popular and
important works had given prominence to Phaer as physician and as
lawyer.

However, the work by which Phaer is generally known today is his
translation of the Aeneid, the first seven books of which were published
in 1558. The work was dedicated to Queen Mary in humble words of
adulation, and Phaer described himself as "sollicitour to the king and
quenes maiesties, attending their honorable counsaile in the Marchies of
Wales." He calls Mary "moste famous and excellent princesse," his
"moste souerain good Ladie, and onely redoughted maistresse," and
avows, "I shall praie almightie god for your pre-eminente estate, to
encreas in all vertue, honor, prosperitie, and quiet." Moreover, Phaer
says that he was preferred to Mary's service by William, Marquis of
Winchester, whom he calls "my firste brynger vp and patrone."

Since Phaer professed himself desirous of rendering an account to
the Queen of how he spent his vacations, he has added at the end of
each book of Virgil a statement of the time spent in its translation. The
first book is subscribed:

Per Thomam Phaer .xxv. Maij finitum. Ihchoatum .ix. eiusdem .1555.
in foresta Kilgerran SouthwaUie. Opus vndecim


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