[The Mirror for Magistrates], by William Baldwin et all edited by Lily B campbell

“note wel the cause of my decay and fall,
And make a mirrour for Magistrates all.”

A mirror for magistrates is a collection of Tudor poems originally edited by William Baldwin. The first collection was printed in 1559 and some of the poetry was written by Baldwin himself. In his introduction he presented the work as a volume of urgent political counsel. Baldwin urges men of government to see themselves not as servants of the crown but as servants of God. He hastily goes on to say that Kings and Queens are appointed by God and must be obeyed, any thoughts of rebellion should be firmly pushed out of mind. Baldwin attempted to get his first collection published during Queen Mary’e reign, but it could not get past political censorship. This was not surprising because the message of the text was: unless the political elite of Mary I’s regime was careful, the Mirror poems warned, good government officers (those who were Protestants especially) would be destroyed by the state in the same spirit as the medieval politicians as represented in the poems.) They had to wait for Queen Elizabeth to first see the light of day. The collection was a big success and in 1563 a further eight tragedies were added to the collection. Following this there were a number of reprints with further addition and after Baldwins death, when other editors took on the role of commissioning and writing more poems.

Twentieth century critics have been unkind to the Mirror for Magistrates: C S Lewis labelled it as a typical production of a drab age and others have decried its limitations pointing to a grinding out of the poetry in the form of Rhyme Royal (Stanzas of seven lines, in iambic pentameter, rhyming ababbcc). In fact Lewis criticised it for not even being able to keep to the Rhyme Royal form. I can only think that these critics were reading later versions of the Mirror, because the original versions collected by Wlliam Baldwin contain some striking poetry: some of the best of the period. The criticism is also unfair because the poetry was written by different authors and so the quality especially as regards to the form is not consistent. The men who wrote the poems were skilled writers of their time and were adroit enough to keep their heads on their shoulders; this is not the work of a bunch of hacks. The contributions by Thomas Sackville: his induction and the Complaint of Henry Duke of Buckingham have been recognised as worthy to be included in some poetry collections, probably because he was the most adept at writing poetry in the formal way, however in my opinion there is much here that is just as good. (Baldwin himself points out that the unevenness of some of the poetry is quite deliberate)

The poems (or tragedy’s) mostly take a similar form; a ghost of the chosen subject, usually the victim, while looking into a mirror addresses Baldwin; he/she explains what happened, sometimes the subject itself comments on the reasons for his demise or can draw a moral from his story, sometimes it is Baldwin who draws it all together, but in the best of the poems it is left to the reader to make a judgement. Tragedy no 28 is an example of a female subject and the title of the poem gives us the necessary information: “How Dame Elianor Cobham Duchesse of Glocester for Practicing Witchcraft and Sorcery, Suffered Open Penance, and after was Banished from the Realm into the Isle of Man”. In the poem the Duchesse of Glocester admits to having too much pride and says she dabbled in astrology, hiring various seers to predict her future (she had more than half an eye on becoming queen), but says: “for lawyers turned our offence to treason”. After death she is still very angry particularly because of the defamation she has suffered:

“A song was made in manner of a laye
Which old wives sing of me unto this day.”

She goes on to castigate Cardinal Beaufort for his lying, scheming part in her downfall and wants to see hell hounds harrie him to hell.

Between each of the poems Baldwin adds some prose explaining or amplifying the message of the previous poem, in the case of the Duchesse of Glocester he wonders if she goes beyond the bounds of female modesty in her hatred.

Another poem that is certainly worth a look is Thomas Churchyard’s “Shores Wife” or to give it its full title “How Shores Wife, Edward IV’s Concubine, was by King Richard Despoyled of All Her Goods and Forced To Do Open Penance” In the poem she has a number of memorable stanzas:

“Ye Princes all, and Rulers everychone,
In punyshment beware of hatreds yre.
Before ye skourge, take hede, looke well thereon:
In wrathes yl wil yf malice kyndle fyre
Your hartes wil bourne in such a hot desire,
That in those flames the smoake shal dym your sight,
Ye shal forget to joyne your justice ryght.”

She is given a sympathetic hearing and issues relating to force of circumstances making it so difficult for women to make their way in the world are stressed. Refreshingly the poems bear little evidence of misogyny

The Mirror then was an important pioneer work in literature because it transferred to the poet the accepted task of the historian. Much of the history deals with incidents from the Wars of the Roses, where there is much to be learned for present and future rulers. The morals and history taught is orthodox Tudor doctrine and so Richard III comes in for a thorough derogation: a real villain of the piece. I found it useful to read a potted history of the events before tackling the poems, so that I would have a good clue as to the story they would be telling.

The poems vary in length but most of them are over 200 lines with many being between 600-800 lines. There are 34 poems with prose passages in between, but I hardly ever found my interest flagging. I read an edition from original texts by Lily B Campbell. Spelling has not been modernised, but I found little difficulty in making sense of it: there are notes and alternative versions, together with a series of appendices. Campbells introduction takes the reader through the printing history of the Mirror and gives pointers to a better understanding of the texts. This is a five star read for anyone interested in Tudor poetry or in late medieval politics. ( )

“note wel the cause of my decay and fall,
And make a mirrour for Magistrates all.”

A mirror for magistrates is a collection of Tudor poems originally edited by William Baldwin. The first collection was printed in 1559 and some of the poetry was written by Baldwin himself. In his introduction he presented the work as a volume of urgent political counsel. Baldwin urges men of government to see themselves not as servants of the crown but as servants of God. He hastily goes on to say that Kings and Queens are appointed by God and must be obeyed, any thoughts of rebellion should be firmly pushed out of mind. Baldwin attempted to get his first collection published during Queen Mary’e reign, but it could not get past political censorship. This was not surprising because the message of the text was: unless the political elite of Mary I’s regime was careful, the Mirror poems warned, good government officers (those who were Protestants especially) would be destroyed by the state in the same spirit as the medieval politicians as represented in the poems.) They had to wait for Queen Elizabeth to first see the light of day. The collection was a big success and in 1563 a further eight tragedies were added to the collection. Following this there were a number of reprints with further addition and after Baldwins death, when other editors took on the role of commissioning and writing more poems.

Twentieth century critics have been unkind to the Mirror for Magistrates: C S Lewis labelled it as a typical production of a drab age and others have decried its limitations pointing to a grinding out of the poetry in the form of Rhyme Royal (Stanzas of seven lines, in iambic pentameter, rhyming ababbcc). In fact Lewis criticised it for not even being able to keep to the Rhyme Royal form. I can only think that these critics were reading later versions of the Mirror, because the original versions collected by Wlliam Baldwin contain some striking poetry: some of the best of the period. The criticism is also unfair because the poetry was written by different authors and so the quality especially as regards to the form is not consistent. The men who wrote the poems were skilled writers of their time and were adroit enough to keep their heads on their shoulders; this is not the work of a bunch of hacks. The contributions by Thomas Sackville: his induction and the Complaint of Henry Duke of Buckingham have been recognised as worthy to be included in some poetry collections, probably because he was the most adept at writing poetry in the formal way, however in my opinion there is much here that is just as good. (Baldwin himself points out that the unevenness of some of the poetry is quite deliberate)

The poems (or tragedy’s) mostly take a similar form; a ghost of the chosen subject, usually the victim, while looking into a mirror addresses Baldwin; he/she explains what happened, sometimes the subject itself comments on the reasons for his demise or can draw a moral from his story, sometimes it is Baldwin who draws it all together, but in the best of the poems it is left to the reader to make a judgement. Tragedy no 28 is an example of a female subject and the title of the poem gives us the necessary information: “How Dame Elianor Cobham Duchesse of Glocester for Practicing Witchcraft and Sorcery, Suffered Open Penance, and after was Banished from the Realm into the Isle of Man”. In the poem the Duchesse of Glocester admits to having too much pride and says she dabbled in astrology, hiring various seers to predict her future (she had more than half an eye on becoming queen), but says: “for lawyers turned our offence to treason”. After death she is still very angry particularly because of the defamation she has suffered:

“A song was made in manner of a laye
Which old wives sing of me unto this day.”

She goes on to castigate Cardinal Beaufort for his lying, scheming part in her downfall and wants to see hell hounds harrie him to hell.

Between each of the poems Baldwin adds some prose explaining or amplifying the message of the previous poem, in the case of the Duchesse of Glocester he wonders if she goes beyond the bounds of female modesty in her hatred.

Another poem that is certainly worth a look is Thomas Churchyard’s “Shores Wife” or to give it its full title “How Shores Wife, Edward IV’s Concubine, was by King Richard Despoyled of All Her Goods and Forced To Do Open Penance” In the poem she has a number of memorable stanzas:

“Ye Princes all, and Rulers everychone,
In punyshment beware of hatreds yre.
Before ye skourge, take hede, looke well thereon:
In wrathes yl wil yf malice kyndle fyre
Your hartes wil bourne in such a hot desire,
That in those flames the smoake shal dym your sight,
Ye shal forget to joyne your justice ryght.”

She is given a sympathetic hearing and issues relating to force of circumstances making it so difficult for women to make their way in the world are stressed. Refreshingly the poems bear little evidence of misogyny

The Mirror then was an important pioneer work in literature because it transferred to the poet the accepted task of the historian. Much of the history deals with incidents from the Wars of the Roses, where there is much to be learned for present and future rulers. The morals and history taught is orthodox Tudor doctrine and so Richard III comes in for a thorough derogation: a real villain of the piece. I found it useful to read a potted history of the events before tackling the poems, so that I would have a good clue as to the story they would be telling.

The poems vary in length but most of them are over 200 lines with many being between 600-800 lines. There are 34 poems with prose passages in between, but I hardly ever found my interest flagging. I read an edition from original texts by Lily B Campbell. Spelling has not been modernised, but I found little difficulty in making sense of it: there are notes and alternative versions, together with a series of appendices. Campbells introduction takes the reader through the printing history of the Mirror and gives pointers to a better understanding of the texts. This is a five star read for anyone interested in Tudor poetry or in late medieval politics. ( )