Middleton, Thomas, 1580–1627, English dramatist, b. London, grad. Queen's College, Oxford, 1598. His early plays were chiefly written in collaboration with Dekker, Dekker, Thomas, c,1570–1632, English dramatist and pamphleteer. Little is known of his life except that he frequently suffered from poverty and served several prison terms for debt. He began his literary career c.1598 working for Philip Henslowe .
..... Click the link for more information. Drayton, Drayton, Michael, 1563–1631, English poet. The son of a prosperous tradesman, he received his educational training in the house of Sir Henry Goodere, where he served as page.
..... Click the link for more information. 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 Rowley, William (rou`lē), 1585?–1642?, English playwright and actor.
..... Click the link for more information. ,) 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).