
The Mirror For Magistrates, The Collection Of De Casibus Complaint Poems In The Voices Of Medieval Rulers And Rebels Compiled By William Baldwin In The 1550s, Was Central To The Development Of Imaginative Literature In The Sixteenth And Early Seventeenth Centuries. Additions By John Higgins, Thomas Blenerhasset, And Richard Niccols Between 1574 And 1610 Extended The Mirror's Scope, Shifted Its Focus, And Prolonged Its Popularity; In Particular, The Texts' Later Manifestations Profoundly Influenced The Work Of Spenser And Shakespeare. Unperfect Histories Is The First Monograph To Consider The Text's Early Modern Transmission History As A Whole. In Chapters On Baldwin, Higgins, Blenerhasset, And Niccols's Complaint Collections, It Demonstrates That The Mirror Is An Invaluable Witness To How Verse History Was Conceptualized, Written, And Read Across The Period, And Explores The Ways In Which It Was Repeatedly Reinterpreted And Redeployed In Response To Changing Contemporary Concerns. The Mirror Corpus Encompasses Topical Allegory, Nationalist Polemic, And Historiographical Skepticism, As Well As The Macabre Humour And Metatextual Play Which Have Come To Be Known As Hallmarks Of Baldwin's Mid-tudor Writings. What Has Not Been Recognised Is The Complex Interaction Of These Themes And Techniques Right Across The Mirror's History. Higgins, Blenerhasset, And Niccols's Contributions Are Analysed For The First Time Here, Both Within Their Own Literary And Historiographical Contexts, And In Dialogue With Baldwin's Early Editions. This New Reading Offers A Lively Account Of The Texts' Depth And Variety, And Provides Insight Into The Extent Of The Mirror's Influence And Ubiquity In Early Modern Literary Culture.
How did the evolving transmission and reinterpretation of The Mirror for Magistrates shape the development of early modern English literary culture? Harriet Archer, a scholar of early modern literature, investigates the collective history of this influential complaint poem collection. By analyzing the contributions of William Baldwin, John Higgins, Thomas Blenerhasset, and Richard Niccols, Archer argues that the text served as a dynamic site for conceptualizing verse history, reflecting shifting political and historiographical concerns from the 1550s through 1610.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars recognize this monograph as a significant contribution to the study of early modern literary transmission and the evolution of verse history. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the precision with which Archer connects disparate editions of the text to broader cultural shifts.
Page Count:
200
Publication Date:
2017-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
019252884X
ISBN-13:
9780192528841
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