{"product_id":"a-mirror-for-magistrates-and-scott-lucas-9781558497061","title":"A Mirror for Magistrates and the Politics of the English Reformation","description":"Perhaps no other work of secular poetry was as widely read in Tudor England as the historical verse tragedy collection \u003ci\u003eA Mirror for Magistrates\u003c\/i\u003e. For over sixty years (1559-1621), this compendium of tragic monologues presented in the voices of fallen political figures from England's past remained almost constantly in print, offering both exemplary warnings to English rulers and inspiring models for literary authors, including Spenser and Shakespeare. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In a striking departure from previous scholarship, Scott Lucas shows that modern critics have misconstrued the purpose of the tragic verse narratives of the \u003ci\u003eMirror\u003c\/i\u003e, approaching them primarily as uncontroversial meditations on abstract political and philosophical doctrines. Lucas revises this view, revealing many of the \u003ci\u003eMirror\u003c\/i\u003e tragedies to be works topically applicable in form and politically contentious in nature. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Lucas returns the earliest poems of\u003ci\u003e A Mirror for Magistrates \u003c\/i\u003eto the troubled context of their production, the tumultuous reign of the Catholic Queen Mary (1553-1558). As Protestants suffering from the traumatic collapse of King Edward VI's \"godly\" rule (1547-1553) and from the current policies of Mary's government, the \u003ci\u003eMirror\u003c\/i\u003e authors radically reshaped their poems' historical sources in order to craft emotionally moving narratives designed to provide models for interpreting the political failures of Edward VI's reign and to offer urgent warnings to Marian magistrates. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Lucas's study also reveals how, in later poems, the \u003ci\u003eMirror\u003c\/i\u003e authors issued oblique appeals to Queen Elizabeth's officers, boldly demanding that they allow the realm of \"the literary\" to stand as an unfettered discursive arena of public controversy. Lucas thus provides a provocative new approach to this seminal but long-misunderstood collection, one that restores the \u003ci\u003eMirror\u003c\/i\u003e to its rightful place as one of the greatest works of sixteenth-century English political literature.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Scott Lucas\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1558497064\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781558497061\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Massachusetts Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/01\/2009\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChronicle of Higher Education\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/04\/2009 pg. 17","brand":"Scott Lucas","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":49096982266111,"sku":"9781558497061","price":39.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/a-mirror-for-magistrates-and-scott-lucas-9781558497061","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}