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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MIC-MOL |
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MIDDLETON, THOMAS (c. 1570-1627) , English dramatist, son of William Middleton, was born about 1570, probably in London. There is no proof that he studied at either university, but he may be safely identified with one of the Thomas Middletons entered at Gray's Inn in 1593 and 1596 respectively. He began to write for the stage with The Old Law, in the original
Dekker
The most notable event in his career was the production at the Globe theatre in 1624 of a political play, A Game at Chess, satirizing the policy of the court, which had just received a rebuff in the matter of the Spanish marriage, the English and Spanish personages concerned being disguised as the White Knight, the Black King, and so forth. The play was stopped, in consequence of remonstrances from the Spanish ambassador, but not until after nine days' performances, and the dramatist and the actors were summoned to answer for it. It is doubtful whether Middleton was actually imprisoned, and in any case the king's anger was soon satisfied and the matter allowed to drop, on the plea that the piece had been seen and passed by the master of the revels, Sir Henry Herbert. Middleton died at his house at Newington Butts, and was buried on the 4th of July 1627. He worked with various authors, but his happiest collaboration was with William Rowley, this literary partnership being so close that F. G. Fleay (Biog. Chron. of the Drama) treats the dramatists together. The plays in which the two collaborated are A Fair Quarrel (printed 1617), The World Lost at Tennis (1620), an ingenious masque, The Changeling (acted 1624, printed 1653), and The Spanish Gipsie (acted 1623, printed 1653). The main interest
drawn
Joanna
" That note of incredulous amazement that the man whom she has just instigated to the commission of murder ` can be so wicked ' as to have served her end for any end of his own beyond the pay of a professional assassin, is a touch worthy of the greatest dramatist that ever lived. . . . That she, the first criminal, should be honestlycollaborators.With Thomas Dekker
drawn
Frith (1584-1659?), who was made to do penance at St Paul's Cross in 1612. " Worse things, I must confess," says Middleton in his preface, " the world has taxed her for than has been written of her; but 'tis the excellency of a writer to leave things better than he finds 'em." In the play she is the champion of her sex, and is equally ready with her sword and her wits. Middleton is also credited with a share in Thomas Dekker's Honest Whore (pt. i., 1604). The Witch, first printed in 1778 from a unique MS., now in the Bodleian, has aroused much controversy as to whether Shakespeare borrowed from Middleton or vice versa. The dates of both plays being uncertain, there are few definite data. The distinction between the two conceptions has been finely drawn by Charles Lamb, and the question of borrowing is best solved by supposing that what is common to the incantations of both plays was a matter of common property. The Mayor of Quinborough was published with Middleton's name on the title-page in 1661. Simon, the comic mayor, is not a very prominent character in the plot, which deals with Vortiger, Hengist, Horsus and Roxena among other characters. One of its editors, Mr Havelock
It is generally supposed to have been a very early work subjected to generous revision. The plays of Middleton still to be mentioned may be divided into romantic and realistic comedies of London Life. Dekker had as wide a knowledge of city manners, but he was more sympathetic in treatment, readier to idealize his subject. Two New Playes. Viz.: More Dissemblers besides Women. Women beware Women, of which the former was licensed before 1622, appeared in 1657. The plot of Women beware Women is a double intrigue from a con-temporary novel, Hyppolito and Isabella,, and the genuine history of Bianca Capello and Francesco de Medici. This play, which ends with a massacre appalling even in Elizabethan drama, may be taken as giving the measureno mean oneof Middleton's unaided power in tragedy. The remaining plays of Middleton are: Blurt. Master-Constable. Or the Spaniards Night-walke (1602) ; Michaelmas Terme (1607), described by A. C. Swinburne as an excellent Hogarthian comedy; The Phoenix (1607), a version of the Haroun-al-Raschid trick; The Famelie of Love (16o8) ; A Trick to catch the Old-one (anonymously printed, 16o8) ; Your Five Gallants (licensed 16o8) ; A Mad World, my Masters (16o8); A Chast Mayde in Cheapside (printed 1630), notable for the picture of Tim, the Cambridge student, on his return home; Anything for a Quiet Life (c. 1617, printed 1662); No Wit, No Help like a Woman's (c. 1613, printed 1657) ; The Widdow (printed 1652), on the title-page of which appear also the names of Ben Jonson and John Fletcher, though their collaboration may be doubted. Eleven of his masques are extant. A tedious poem, The Wisdom of Solomon paraphrased, by Thomas Middleton, was printed in 1597, and Microcynicon, Six Snarling Satires by T. M. Gent, in 1599. Two prose pamphlets, dealing with London life, Father Hubbard's Tale and The Black Book, appeared in 1604 under his initials. His non-dramatic work, however, even if genuine, has little value.shocked as well as physically horrified by revelation of the real motive which impelled her accomplice into crime, gives a lurid streak of tragic humour to the lifelike interest
Leigh Hunt thought that the character of De Flores, for effect at once tragical, probable and poetical, " surpassed anything with which he was acquainted in the drama of domestic life." The underplot of the piece, though it is based on the humours of a madhouse, has genuine comic flashes. The Spanish Gipsie has a double plot based on the Fuerza de la sangre and the Gitanilla of Cervantes Much has been said on the collaboration of Middleton with Rowley, who was much in demand with fellow-dramatists, especially for his experience in low comedy. These plays, even in scenes where the evidence in favour of one or other of the collaborators is clear, rise to excellence which neither dramatist was able to achieve alone. It was clearly no mechanical partnership the limits of which can be said to be definitely assigned when the actual text has been parcelled out between the End of Article: MIDDLETON, THOMAS (c. 1570-1627) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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