Unperfect Histories: The Mirror for Magistrates, 1559-1610

The first detailed exploration of the transmission and expansion over fifty years of one of the most significant but neglected works of Tudor literature. The Mirror for Magistrates has often been read as a tedious and moralistic collection of poems, whose main purpose is criticism of contemporary political figures. This book challenges that assessment, to argue instead that the Mirror is especially concerned with the transmission of national history, and the ways in which the past can be distorted, misremembered, misinterpreted, or lost completely. In turn, this perspective is shown to be of central importance to some of the most influential figures in English literary history, including Marlowe, Spenser, and Shakespeare.