As a student, Niccols produced his earliest publication, on the death of Elizabeth I. In 1607 appeared a narrative poem called
The Cuckow, with the motto "At etiam cubat cuculus, surge amator, in domum". The volume, which is dedicated to Master Thomas Wroth, and was printed by F[elix] K[ingston], has no author's name, but in his later
Winter Nights Vision Niccols describes himself as having "Cuckow-like" sung "in rustick tunes of Castaes wrongs". It tells the story of a contest between the
cuckoo and
nightingale for supremacy in song; it imitates
Edmund Spenser, who is eulogised. The work may have been suggested by Drayton's
Owl, 1604. Niccols's undertook a revised edition of the
Mirror for Magistrates, which had originally been issued in 1559. Since its first appearance (
William Baldwin), nine editions had appeared with continuations by
Thomas Blenerhasset,
John Higgins, and others. The previous edition under Higgins was dated 1587. In 1610 Niccols's version was printed by
Felix Kingston. His main additions were inserted towards the close of the volume, and were introduced by a new title-page: "A Winter Nights Vision. Being an addition of such princes especially famous who were exempted in the former historie". The princes dealt with by Niccols include King Arthur, Edmund Ironside, Richard I, King John, Edward II, Edward V, Richard, duke of York, and Richard III. Niccols dedicated his own contribution to the Earl of Nottingham, and prefaced it with a "poeticall Induction". There followed, with another title-page and separately numbered pages, Niccols's ''England's Eliza, or the victorious and triumphant Reigne of that Virgin Empresse of sacred memorie, Elizabeth, Queene of England, France, and Ireland, &c.'' The dedication was addressed to Elizabeth, wife of
Sir Francis Clere. Another poetical induction precedes the poem on Elizabeth, which, Niccols states, he wrote at Greenwich, apparently in August 1603, when the plague raged in London. Niccols's edition of the
Mirror was reissued in 1619 and 1628. All Niccols's continuations are reprinted in
Joseph Haslewood's edition of 1815. On 15 February 1612 a play by Niccols, entitled
The Twynnes Tragedie, was entered on the ''
Stationers' Registers It is not otherwise known. But in 1655 William Rider published a tragi-comedy called The Twins'', which
Frederick Gard Fleay suggested may be a printed copy of Niccols's piece. Niccols also issued: •
Three precious teares of blood, flowing … in memory of the vertues … of … Henry the Great, a translation from the French, printed with the French original, London (by John Budge); •
The Three Sisters Teares: shed at the late solemne funerals of the royall deceased Henry, Prince of Wales, London, 1613, dedicated to
Lady Honor Hay; •
The Furies with Vertues Encomium, or the Image of Honour in two bookes of Epigrammes satyricall and encomiasticke, London (by William Stansby), 1614, dedicated to Sir Timothy Thornhill (reprinted in
Harleian Miscellany, x. 1 seq.); • ''Monodia, or Waltham's Complaint upon the death of the Lady Honor Hay'', London (by W. S. for Richard Meighen and Thomas Jones), 1615, dedicated to
Edward, Lord Denny, Lady Honor's father (reprinted in
Harleian Miscellany, x. 11 seq.); • ''London's Artillery, briefly containing the noble practise of that worthie Societie: with the moderne and ancient martiall exercises, natures of armes, vertue of magistrates, antiquitie, glory, and chronography of this honourable cittie'', London, 1616, dedicated to
Sir John Jolles; • ''Sir Thomas Overbvrie's Vision with the ghoasts of Weston, Mris Turner, the late Lieftenant of the Tower, and Franklin, by R. N., Oxon. … Printed for R. M. & T. I. 1616''—a poetical narrative of
Sir Thomas Overbury's murder. It was reprinted in the
Harleian Miscellany (vii. 178 seq.) and by the
Hunterian Club, Glasgow, in 1873, with an introduction by
James Maidment. An anonymous work, ''The Begger's Ape, a poem
, London, 1627, was published posthumously. Niccols seems to claim it for himself in the induction to Winter Nights Vision''. In it the author apparently imitated Spenser's ''
Mother Hubberd's Tale''. ==Notes==