George Ferrers, Mirror for Magistrates

Elizabeth M. Sturgeon (Mount Saint Mary's University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1559

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Historical
Poetry (any)

Resources

In Lyncolnes Inne and Temples twayne,
Grayes Inne and other mo [. . .]
There heare thou shalt a great reporte,
Of Baldwyns worthie name,
Whose Myrrour dothe of Magistrates,
Proclayme eternall fame.
-- Jasper Heywood, “Preface” to Seneca's Thyestes (1560)

The Mirror for Magistrates, a collaboratively-authored, partly-anonymous book of poetic complaints spoken by the ghosts of infamous Englishmen and women, was one of the most popular printed histories in Elizabethan England.

Published in 1559 and designed to be a continuation of John Lydgate's Fall of Princes, a translation of Boccaccio's De casibus illustrium virorum, the first edition, produced by William Baldwin, George Ferrers, Thomas Phaer, Thomas Chaloner, and three anonymous others, contains nineteen poetic complaints narrated by ghosts who tell the tragic tale of their fall from prominent...

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1404 words

Citation: Sturgeon, Elizabeth M.. "Mirror for Magistrates". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 September 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=30681, accessed 09 June 2026.]

George Ferrers, Mirror for Magistrates

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback