The different complaints are linked together by Baldwin's narrative, in which he records the comments of the company on each tragedy as it is finished, and the circumstances under which the next speaker began his complaint. In this way the entire series of examples is connected as regularly as the Decameron or the Canterbury Tales. There is very little poetical merit in the conception of the tragedies themselves. As the chief object of the writers was to instruct by means of historical examples, no attempt is made to observe the boundaries which separate poetry from versified history. Historical accuracy on the other hand is aimed at. The sources from which the poets derive their materials are the chronicles of Hall and of Fabian; and when these authorities are at variance, Baldwin, as the rex cœnæ, is careful to call attention to the discrepancy. In the supplement to the poem dealing with the legendary period of British history, Higgins of course drew his materials from Geoffrey of Monmouth. By the union of the two parts a large number of readers obtained an extensive survey of the history and mythology of their country, while the quasi-dramatic form of the complaint paved the way for those regular historical tragedies which are among the earliest productions of the Elizabethan stage. It is worthy of note that The Mirror for Magistrates contains the germinal matter of Marlowe's Edward II., produced in 1590; as well as of Shakespeare's Henry VI., produced in 1592; of Richard II., produced in 1594; and of Richard III., produced in 1595. The language and versification of The Mirror for Magistrates is full of instruction for the student who seeks to trace systematically the growth of the art of English poetry. Composed as it was by the co-operation of many poets varying widely in age and genius, the book offers examples of the successive experiments in poetical diction that mark the transition from the rude archaic style prevailing in the early part of the sixteenth century to the comparatively finished manner aimed at by the writers in the middle of the reign of Elizabeth. George Ferrers, who after Baldwin was the chief contributor to the edition of 1559, was probably born before 1510; Thomas Churchyard, a follower and imitator of the Earl of Surrey, was born about 1520, and Thomas Sackville, who also modelled himself on the style of Surrey, was some sixteen years younger than Churchyard. The first named, the son of Thomas Ferrers of St. Albans, became Bachelor of Canon Law at Cambridge in 1531, and in 1534 published an English translation of Magna Carta. A member of Lincoln's Inn, enjoying a high reputation for eloquence at the Bar, he was elected to the Parliaments of 1542, 1545, and 1553, where he sat as member for Plymouth; in those of 1554, 1555 as member for Brackley; and in that of 1571 as member for St. Albans. Like Baldwin he appears to have been skilled in the superintendence of dramatic shows, for in Edward VI.'s reign he was made Master of the King's Pastimes, and produced a masque entitled The Triumph of Venus and Mars; while in the time of Mary he was "Lord of Misrule." He is supposed to have intrigued in behalf of the succession of Mary Queen of Scots, shortly before his death, which happened in 1579. Sa Ferrers' contributions to The Mirror for Magistrates are characterised by the didactic spirit that pervades the allegorical masques of the Court of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., and which is illustrated in the poetry of Sir Thomas More. His first thought is to instruct by means of his historical example. When he has conceived of himself in the situation of the Prince whose tragedy he is relating, he cares for little beyond presenting biographical facts to the mind of the reader. Yet is he not without a sense of dramatic effect, an experience he had doubtless gained in his management of Court plays; witness his Prologue to the tragedy of King Richard II.: "Therefore, imagine, Baldwine, that you are the corps of this prince all to be mangled with blew woundes, lying cold and wan all naked upon the cold stones in Paul's Church, the people standing round about him, and making his complaynt as followeth." But what is particularly noticeable in this poet is his harsh and rude versification, which, though he is posterior to Surrey, is scarcely more harmonious than the diction of Lydgate, and resembles the metrical style of Sir Thomas More. The following specimen from the Complaynt of Humphrey, Duke of Glocester, will suffice : Of King Henry the fourth fourth son I was, My selfe to call, in recordes and writinges, A striking contrast to the style of Ferrers is furnished churchyard in the style of Thomas Churchyard, a poet of whom I shall have to say more in the next chapter, and who contributed for the edition of The Mirror published in 1563 a tragedy called Shore's Wife. While Ferrers concerns himself with nothing but his moral, Churchyard is almost entirely occupied with the business of versification. It is true that his theme was well chosen as an instructive example of the instability of Fortune. Sir Thomas More had moralised on the history of Jane Shore in his Life of King Richard III.; and Hall, from whom Churchyard derived his materials, had expatiated upon it in his Chronicle, observing: "I doubt not some men will think this woman to be too slight to be written of among grave and weighty matters, which they shall especially think that saw her in her age and adversity, but me seemeth the chance so much more worthy to be remembered in how much after welth she fell to poverty, and from riches to beggary, unfriended, out of acquaintance, after great substance, after so great favour with her prince, etc." 2 This is the gist of Churchyard's "Complaint," but though the moral could best have been drawn by a brief and sententious recital of the facts, he has made his tragedy one of the longest in The Mirror for Magistrates. This prolixity is the result of reproducing 1 Haslewood's Mirror for Magistrates, vol. ii. part ii. p. 130. 2 Chronicle (edition of 1809), p. 364. one or two leading commonplaces in a great variety of forms, as for example: The settled mynde is free from fortune's power; That where the trees the smallest branches bere, Where is it strong but nere the ground and roote ? Yf they breake not they bend with every blast; The wynde is great upon the highest hylles, Who treads on yse shall slide against their wylles, Is perfect wyse, and sets us all to schoole, Who hates this lore may well bee calde a foole.1 If these lines be regarded as a mere metrical exercise, and apart from the poverty of their thought, it is strange indeed to think of them as contemporary with the hobbling verses of Baldwin and Ferrers. The poet, up to a certain point, has thoroughly understood the nature of the improvements introduced into versification by his master Surrey, both in respect of the disposition of the accent and the marking of the cæsura. But more than this he is himself, on his own poor level, something of an inventor, and in his careful balance of thoughts, words, and lines, as well as in his excessive fondness for alliteration, anticipates the coming of the Euphuists. Stanzas like these will illustrate what has been said :— Compell the hauke to sit that is unmande, Or make the hounde untaught to drive the dere, Or bring the free against his will in hande, 1 Haslewood's edition of The Mirror for Magistrates, vol. ii. part ii. p. 472. Or move the sad a pleasant tale to heare, Yf I did frowne who then did looke awrye ? I meane my power was knowne to every wight: On such a height good hap had built my bowre, As though my sweete should nere have turnde to sowre. My want was welthe, my woe was ease at will; The just mean between Ferrers excessive attention to matter and Churchyard's excessive attention to form is attained in the style of Thomas Sackville, who, by the Sackville nobility of conception as well as by the skill in execution He shown in his Induction, towers a head and shoulders over all 1 |