Middleton, Thomas

Middleton, Thomas, 1580–1627, English dramatist, b. London, grad. Queen's College, Oxford, 1598. His early plays were chiefly written in collaboration with Dekker, Drayton, and others. Between 1604 and 1611 he wrote realistic, satiric comedies of London life, including A Trick to Catch the Old One (c.1604), Michaelmas Term (c.1605), The Roaring Girl (c.1610, with Dekker), and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (1611). His comedies, like his early pamphlets, expose contemporary vice and give graphic pictures of the more scabrous side of Jacobean life. During the years 1613 to 1618 he wrote tragicomedies. From 1621 to the end of his career he wrote his most notable plays, two powerful tragedies about the corruption of character, The Changeling (1622, with William Rowley,) and Women Beware Women (1625). Some modern scholarship suggests that he wrote a significant portion of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens (c.1607, pub. 1623). Middleton was severely reproved by the Privy Council for his anti-Spanish political satire, A Game at Chess (1624). In addition to his plays, he wrote civic pageants and masques.

Bibliography

See his works ed. by A. H. Bullen (8 vol., 1885–86); bibliography by S. J. Steen (1985); studies by C. Asp (1974) and A. L. Kistner (1984); B. Vickers, Shakespeare, Co-Author (2003).

---

Middleton, Thomas

(born April? 1580, London, Eng.—died July 4, 1627, Newington Butts, Surrey) British playwright. Middleton studied at Oxford University and had written three books of poetry by 1600. He learned to write plays by collaborating with John Webster and others on works for the producer Philip Henslowe. His tragedies Women Beware Women (c. 1621) and The Changeling (1622, with William Rowley) are considered his masterpieces. His comedies, which picture a society dazzled by money, include Michaelmas Terme (c. 1605), A Trick to Catch the Old-one (1608), A Mad World, My Masters (1608), A Chast Mayd in Cheape-side (c. 1613), and A Game at Chess (1625).

---

Middleton, Thomas 

Born Apr. 18, 1580, in London; died July 4, 1627, at Newington Butts. English playwright.

Middleton graduated from Oxford University in 1598. From 1620 to 1627, he was chronologist of London. His creative work reveals the crisis of the humanistic world view and of Renaissance drama.

Middleton’s allegorical satire The Blacke Booke (1604) expresses the notion of the depravity of human nature, an idea that pervades his dramatic works. The comedy A Tricke to Catch the Old-one (staged 1604, published 1608) is a satire on bourgeois money-grubbing. In the play Women Beware Women (staged 1621, published 1657) a society corroded by vices is depicted. The tragicomedy The Witch (published 1778) develops the theme of man’s weakness in the face of demonic forces. Middleton collaborated with other playwrights on many plays.

The allegorical drama A Game at Chesse, which contained topical political allusions, was suppressed by order of the king. In the 1960’s several successful performances of Middleton’s plays were staged in Great Britain.

WORKS

Works, vols. 1–8. London, 1885–86.
A Critical Edition. Michigan, 1958.

REFERENCES

Istoriia angliiskoi literatury, vol. 1, fasc. 2. Moscow, 1945. Pages 126–29. Barker, R. H. T. Middleton. New York, 1959.
Eliot, T. S. “T. Middleton.” In his book Elizabethan Dramatists. London, 1963.
Holmes, D. M. The Art of T. Middleton. Oxford, 1970. (Bibliography, pp. 227–32.)
MIDDLETON, THOMAS. Born Apr. 18, 1580, in London; died July 4, 1627, at Newington Butts. English playwright.
Middleton graduated from Oxford University in 1598. From 1620 to 1627, he was chronologist of London. His creative work reveals the crisis of the humanistic world view and of Renaissance drama.
Middleton’s allegorical satire The Blacke Booke (1604) ex-presses the notion of the depravity of human nature, an idea that pervades his dramatic works. The comedy A Tricke to Catch the Old-one (staged 1604, published 1608) is a satire on bourgeois money-grubbing. In the play Women Beware Women (staged 1621, published 1657) a society corroded by vices is depicted. The tragicomedy The Witch (published 1778) develops the theme of man’s weakness in the face of demonic forces. Middleton collaborated with other playwrights on many plays.

E. V. KORNILOVA