The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume III. Renascence and Reformation.
§ 2. Contents of the parts
It appears from the end-links of Clarence (Quarto 1) and Shore’s Wife (Q 2) that Baldwin planned three parts or volumes: first to the end of Edward IV’s reign; then, to the end of Richard III; and, lastly, “to the ende of this King and Queene’s reigne” (Philip and Mary). It further appears, from a reference to “our queene because she is a woman, and our king because he is a straunger” in the Blacksmith’s endlink, that this tragedy was written at the same time, although it was not given to the public until 1563. In the Shore’s Wife end-link (Q2), the tragedy of Somerset was also mentioned, and, presumably, that also was in existence in the reign of Philip and Mary, for a place was left for it in the first quarto, although it was not published until the second quarto. As actually given to the public, part 1 contained nineteen tragedies—those of Tresilian, Mortimer, Gloucester, Mowbray, Richard 11, Owen Glendower, Northumberland, Cambridge, Salisbury, James 1 (of Scotland), Suffolk, Cade, York, Clifford, Worcester, Warwick, Henry VI, Clarence, Edward IV; in the prose links, mention is made of three others—those of the duchess Eleanor and duke Humphrey of Gloucester (printed in 1578) and that of Somerset (printed 1563). Part
In 1574, Marsh issued The First parte of the Mirour for Magistrates, containing the falles of the first unfortunate Princes of this lande. From the comming of Brute to the incarnation of our saviour and redemer Jesu Christe. John Higgins, the editor, says he was moved to the work by the words of Baldwin in his address “To the Reader”: “the like infortunate princes offered themselves unto me as matter very meete for imitation, the like admonition, miter, and phrase.” He, accordingly, took the earliest period, up to the birth of Christ, and was inclined with time and leisure “t’accomplish the residue til I came to the Conquest.” His first edition included the lives of Albanact (
The first and last parts were united in an edition published by Marsh in 1587, and edited by Higgins, who had rewritten his own legends of Bladud, Forrex and Porrex, and added to his list Iago, Pinnar, Stater, Rudacke, Brennus, Emerianus, Chirinnus, Varianus, Julius Caesar, Tiberius, Caligula, Guiderius, Hamo, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Londricus, Severus, Fulgentius, Geta, Caracalla, making forty lives in all, and bringing his part of the work down to
Meanwhile, Thomas Blenerhasset had set to work to fill the gap left by Higgins after
The next editor, Niccols (1610) adopted the plan suggested by Sackville, and omitted the prose links. For the first part, he took Higgins’s Induction; for the second, Sackville’s; and, for the third, one of his own composition. The first part included the forty tragedies by Higgins and ten of Blenerhasset’s—omitting Guidericus (supplied, since Blenerhasset wrote, by Higgins) and Alurede (supplied by Niccols himself); for the latter reason, he omits Richard III in part