By reason King Richard, which was to be moned, By sinister advice had turned all upsodown.' For surety of whose estate them thought it did behove His corrupt counsellors from him' to remove. 17. Among whom, Robert Vere, called Duke of Ireland. With Michael Delapole, of Suffolk new-made Earl, Of York also the Archbishop, dispatch'd were out of hand, m With Brembre, of London Mayor," a full uncourteous churl; Some learned in the law, in exile they did hurl: C But I, poor Tresilian, because I was the chief, Was damned to the gallows most vilely as a thief. 18. Lo the fire of falsehood, the stipend of corruption, S Riches and promotion be vain things and unsure ; The favour of a Prince is an untrusty stay; But Justice hath a fee that shall remain alway. 19. What glory can be greater before " God or Man, V Than by the paths of equity in judgment to proceed? So duly and so truly the laws always to scan, W f That. Add" much." h Without regard at all of. i Misled by ill. j Upside down, k Councellors corrupt. 1 By order. m The Archbishop of Yorke was also of our band. 9 The fickle fee of fraud, the fruites it doth procure. r Ye Jndges now living. u More greater in sight of. • Our just. Add "All." By paths of justice. w Omit "so." That right may take his place without reward or meed, Set apart all flattery and vain worldly dread: Take God before your eyes, the just y judge supreme; Remember well your reckoning at the day extreme! 20. Abandon all affray, be soothfast in your saws; Be constant and careless of mortal man's displeasure; With eyes shut and hands close you should the laws; a pronounce Esteem not worldly hire; think there is a treasure, More worth than gold or stone, a thousand times in valure, Reposed for all such as righteousness ensue, 21. If some in latter days had called unto mind The fatal fall of us for wresting of the right, a The statutes of this land they should not have defin'd So wilfully and wittingly against the sentence quite : a e But though they scaped pain, the fault was nothing light. Let them that come hereafter both that and this compare, And weighing well the end, they will, I trust, beware.* * Justice may take place. y Righteous. e Weigh not this worldly mucke. b Judges in our. d Such statutes as touch life should not be thus defin'd Finis G. F. *Niccols's edition follows principally the edition of 1578 in this Legend, but occasionally it copies the edition of 1569, and in a few trifling words differs from both. VOL. I. k i When Master Ferrers had finished this tragedy, which seemed not unfit for the persons touched in the same, another which in the mean time had stayed upon Sir Roger Mortimer, whose miserable end, as it should appear, was somewhat before the others, said as followeth: Although it be not greatly to our purpose, yet in my judgment I think it would do well to observe the times of men, and as they be more ancient so to place them. For I find that before these, of whom Master Ferrers here hath spoken, there were two Mortimers,' the one hanged TM in" Edward the third's time out of our date, another slain in Ireland in Richard the Second's time, a year before the fall of these Justices: whose history sith it is notable and the example fruitful, it were pity to overpass it. And therefore by your licence and agreement, I will take upon me the personage of the last, who full of' wounds, miserably mangled, with a pale countenance and grisly look, may make his moan to Baldwin, as followetht. m [Here follows the Legend of the Mortimers.] My readers who are unacquainted with The Mirror for Magistrates, will now be able to form an idea of its origin and progress; and will possess a tolerable f When finished was this Tragedy. Add "Earl of March, and heir apparent of England." Purposed matter. i These great infortunes. Add "in time." *Their several plaintes. m Omit "hanged." P Favours. Add "bloody." Earls of the name of Mortimer. n Add "the time of." • Not good... 9 Earl Mortimer called Roger. s Omit "miserably," t In this wise. specimen of its execution. The Legend here inserted however must be admitted to possess but little of the character of real poetry. The whole is very prosaic, and I have yet seen nothing of FERRERS, which entitles him to the praise of genius. But it is Warton's opinion, that "many stanzas both by him and Baldwin, have considerable merit, and often shew a command of language and versification. But their performances have not the pathos, which the subject so naturally suggests. They give us, yet often with no common degree of elegance and perspicuity, the Chronicles of Hall and Fabian in verse.” A Memorial of suche Princes, as since the tyme of King Richard the seconde, have been unfortunate in the realme of England. Londini, in ædibus Johannis Waylandi, cum privilegio per septennium. Folio. The above title appears to have been appended to some copies of Lydgate's translation of the Tragedies of Boccace, printed by Wayland, in 1558, folio; but the title was all that appeared in such a shape. Herbert* seems to think it was inserted in order to fill up a spare leaf, or perhaps to try the pulse of the public; since the first edition of the Mirror for Magistrates was printed in the following year, and thus entitled: A Myrroure for Magistrates; wherein may be seen by example of other, with howe grevous plages vices *Typogr. Antiq. I, 565. A MS. note by Ritson (penes T. Hill, Esq.) conjectures that "this must have been the edition, which, as we are expressly told by Baldwin, was begun, and part of it printed, in Q. Mary's time, but hindered by the Lord Chancellor that then was," bishop Gardiner. See ante. 1 are punished, and howe frayle and unstable worldly prosperitie is founde, even of those whom Fortune seemeth most highly to favour. Fælix quem faciunt aliena pericula cauțum. Anno 1559. Londini. In ædibus Thomæ Marshe. This first edition appears to agree with the second, in title, epistle dedicatory, and preliminary address to the reader; but in the table of contents there is an entry, following K. James I. of "Good Duke Humfrey murdered, and Elianor Cobham his wife banished." Yet the tragical tale itself does not appear in the body of the book, nor was it printed prior to Baldwin's part of the edition in 1578. The prefatory address of Higgins to the first edition of his part in 1575, seems worthy of being added to those of Baldwin already given. "To the Reader. "Amongst divers and sondry chronicles of many nations, I thinke there are none (gentle reader) so uncertaine and brief in the beginning as ours: at which I cannot but marvayle, sith at all tymes our Ilande had as learned wryters (some singuler men excepted) as any nation under the sunne. Againe, those which nowe are our best chroniclers as they report, have great antiquities; but what they publish of late yeares may be enlarged in many places by chronicles of other nations: whereby it is manifest they are either ignoraunt of the tongues, or els not given to the studie of that, which they most professe. For if they were, me-thinkes it were easie for them, |