quite separate publications
of Baldwin and Higgins were combined. The primary object of this
earliest of English miscellanies was didactic. It was to be a kind of
textbook of British history, illustrating the evils of ambition. The
writers pretended to historical accuracy, but with the notable
exceptions of Churchyard and Sackville they paid little attention to
form. The book did much to promote interest in English history, and Mr
W. J. Courthope has pointed out that the subjects of Marlowe's _Edward
II._, of Shakespeare's _Henry VI._, _Richard II._ and _Richard III._ are
already dealt with in the _Myrroure_.

Sackville's _Induction_ opens with a description of the oncoming of
winter. The poet meets with Sorrow, who offers to lead him to the
infernal regions that he may see the sad estate of those ruined by their
ambition, and thus learn the transient character of earthly joy. At the
approaches of Hell he sees a group of terrible abstractions, Remorse of
Conscience, Dread, Misery, Revenge, Care, &c., each vividly described.
The last of these was War, on whose shield he saw depicted the great
battles of antiquity. Finally, penetrating to the realm of Pluto
himself, he is surrounded by the shades, of whom the duke of Buckingham
is the first to advance, thus introducing the _Complaint_. To this
induction the epithet "Dantesque" has been frequently applied, but in
truth Sackville's models were Gavin Douglas and Virgil. The dignity and
artistic quality of the narrative of the fall of Buckingham are in
strong contrast to the crude attempts of Ferrers and Baldwin, and make
the work one of the most important between the _Canterbury Tales_ and
the _Faerie Queene_.

Sackville has also the credit of being part author with Thomas Norton of
the first legitimate tragedy in the English language. This was
_Gorboduc_ or _Ferrex and Porrex_, performed as part of the Christmas
festivities (1560-1561) by the society of the Inner Temple, and
afterwards on the 18th of January 1561 before Elizabeth at Whitehall.
The argument is as follows:

"Gorboduc, king of Brittaine, devided his Realme in his lyfe time to
his Sones, Ferrex and Porrex. The Sonnes fell to dyvision and
discention. The yonger kylled the elder. The Mother, that more dearely
loved thelder, fr revenge kylled the yonger. The people, moved with
the Crueltie of the facte, rose in Rebellion, and Slewe both father
and mother. The Nobilitie assembled, and most terribly