Written in 1579 as an imitation of the "Mirror for Magistrates, " Munday's "Mirrour of Mutabilitie" is a collection of complaints by biblical characters whose unfortunate downfalls illustrate the vanity and mutability of human affairs. This work echoes the profound scepticism of its age, a legacy of the medieval "contemptus mundi" tradition. It underpins the view that "Time" is a destroyer, that human actions cannot be calculated positively, because life is temporal and full of accidents.
This edition, the first one after the "editio princeps" of 1579, offers a text with the original spelling based on critical study of the 1579-edition, together with an introduction, textual notes, commentary and bibliography, designed to give scholars and students as much editorial assistance as they are likely to require.