The Mirror for Magistrates
The Mirror for Magistrates
Political Discourse and the Legal Magistracy
This chapter examines one of the most popular literary works of the later sixteenth century, the Mirror for Magistrates (1559–63). The chapter argues that the Mirror, which was written in the 1550s, presents a literary community as the foundation for a political one, and the type of literary-cum-political culture imagined in the Mirror was realized at the Inns in the 1560s. The Mirror is the seminal, and arguably the most important, work in the literature of magistracy that appeared in the late 1550s and early 1560s. Why was the Mirror written at this time? Why was it so popular and influential? An important key to these questions lies in the literary and political community represented in its pages, and the related role it imagines for magistrates in the polity. Magistrates are an enlightened political group who have the authority to advise monarchs, and even to resist them.
Keywords: The Mirror for Magistrates, The Mirror for Magistrates: prose frame, literary community, political community, representation of magistrates, political counsel, Inns of Court
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
