The Consolation of Tragedy: A Mirror for Magistrates and the Fall of the "Good Duke" of Somerset

M OST studies of the Tudor de casibus collection A Mirror for Magistrates have characterized its historical verse narratives as designed to inculcate universally applicable philosophical and political truths. Yet it is noteworthy that scholars who generally agree about the didactic purpose of the Mirror have found surprisingly little success in deciding just which truths this collection is supposed to teach. Students of the Mirror have identified numerous ‘‘lessons’’ in the collection, many of which stand in direct contradiction to one another. For instance, a number of critics cite evidence to suggest that the Mirror teaches the manifest power of divine providence over human affairs; yet others cite equally extensive evidence to claim that the collection in fact chiefly teaches the dominance of fortune in human life. Similarly, numerous scholars argue that the Mirror embodies a conservative politics, one that instructs readers to venerate the monarch and to abhor