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Plays By Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jacobean period, and among the few to gain equal success in comedy and tragedy. He was also a prolific writer of masques and pageants. Life Middleton was born in London and baptised on 18 April 1580. He was the son of a bricklayer, who had raised himself to the status of a gentleman and owned property adjoining the Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch. Middleton was five when his father died and his mother's subsequent remarriage dissolved into a 15-year battle over the inheritance of Thomas and his younger sister – an experience that informed him about the legal system and may have incited his repeated satire against the legal profession. Middleton attended The Queen's College, Oxford, matriculating in 1598, but he did not graduate. Before he l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jacobean period, and among the few to gain equal success in comedy and tragedy. He was also a prolific writer of masques and pageants. Life Middleton was born in London and baptised on 18 April 1580. He was the son of a bricklayer, who had raised himself to the status of a gentleman and owned property adjoining the Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch. Middleton was five when his father died and his mother's subsequent remarriage dissolved into a 15-year battle over the inheritance of Thomas and his younger sister – an experience that informed him about the legal system and may have incited his repeated satire against the legal profession. Middleton attended The Queen's College, Oxford, matriculating in 1598, but he did not graduate. Before he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, the North Sea to the northeast and east, and the Irish Sea to the south. It also contains more than 790 islands, principally in the archipelagos of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. Most of the population, including the capital Edinburgh, is concentrated in the Central Belt—the plain between the Scottish Highlands and the Southern Uplands—in the Scottish Lowlands. Scotland is divided into 32 administrative subdivisions or local authorities, known as council areas. Glasgow City is the largest council area in terms of population, with Highland being the largest in terms of area. Limited self-governing power, covering matters such as education, social services and roads and transportation, is devolved from the Scott ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Changeling (play)
''The Changeling'' is a Jacobean tragedy written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. Widely regarded as being among the best tragedies of the English Renaissance, the play has accumulated a large amount of critical commentary. The play was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 7 May 1622, and was first published in 1652 by the bookseller Humphrey Moseley. Authorship The title page of the first edition of ''The Changeling'' attributes the play to Middleton and Rowley. The division of authorship between the two writers was first delineated by Pauline Wiggin in 1897, and is widely accepted. David Lake, in his survey of authorship problems in the Middleton canon, summarises the standard division of shares this way: : Middleton – Act II; Act III, scenes i, ii, and iv; Act IV, scenes i and ii; Act V, scenes i and ii; : Rowley – Act I; Act III, scene iii; Act IV, scene iii; Act V, scene iii. Lake differs from previous commentators only in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
City Of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, but the modern area named London has since grown far beyond the City of London boundary. The City is now only a small part of the metropolis of Greater London, though it remains a notable part of central London. Administratively, the City of London is not one of the London boroughs, a status reserved for the other 32 districts (including Greater London's only other city, the City of Westminster). It is also a separate ceremonial county, being an enclave surrounded by Greater London, and is the smallest ceremonial county in the United Kingdom. The City of London is widely referred to simply as the City (differentiated from the phrase "the city of London" by ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Chaste Maid In Cheapside
''A Chaste Maid in Cheapside'' is a city comedy written c. 1613 by English Renaissance playwright Thomas Middleton. Unpublished until 1630 and long-neglected afterwards, it is now considered among the best and most characteristic Jacobean comedies. The play was originally staged by the Lady Elizabeth's Men. The 1630 quarto was published by the bookseller Francis Constable. Plot The play presents multiple plots centered on the marriage of Moll Yellowhammer, the titular maid, who is daughter to a wealthy Cheapside goldsmith, and, in particular, her intended husband, Sir Walter Whorehound. Moll loves Touchwood Junior, a poor gallant; her father, however, has betrothed her to Whorehound, a philandering knight eager for Moll's dowry. As a kind of side-bargain, Sir Walter has promised Moll's brother Tim a "landed niece" from Wales. Tim, a fatuous scholar, returns to London from Cambridge University with his Latin tutor. This "landed niece" is in reality one of Sir Walter's mistresses ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Fair Quarrel
''A Fair Quarrel'' is a Jacobean tragicomedy, a collaboration between Thomas Middleton and William Rowley that was first published in 1617. Performance and Publication The play was written sometime between 1612 and 1617, and probably after October 1614, on the basis of suspected borrowings from Ben Jonson's ''Bartholomew Fair''. The first quarto was printed by George Eld for the booksellers John Trundle and Edward Wright, and was published in two states or impressions: Q1a is missing the "roaring school" scene (Act IV, scene iv), while Q1b includes the scene as an appendix. The second quarto, issued in 1622 and printed by Augustine Matthews for Thomas Dewe, places the "roaring school" scene in its proper place. The play was dedicated to Robert Grey, Esq., the dedication signed by Rowley. The play was originally performed by Prince Charles's Men, the company to which Rowley belonged at the time, and the title page of both quartos states that it was "acted before the King". Afte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wit At Several Weapons
''Wit at Several Weapons'' is a seventeenth-century comedy of uncertain date and authorship. Authorship and Date In its own century, the play appeared in print only in the two Beaumont and Fletcher folios of 1647 and 1679; yet modern scholarship has determined that the ''Wit at Several Weapons'' is a collaboration between Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, written some three decades before publication. In addition to the play's appearance in both folios, its belated entry in the Stationers' Register on 29 June 1660 also assigns it to Beaumont and Fletcher. The Epilogue to the play in the folios refers to a limited Fletcherian role in the play's authorship: "...if he but writ / An act, or two...." Yet the play itself indicates that Fletcher's contribution may be more minor than that; Fletcher's highly characteristic pattern of linguistic preferences (''ye'' for ''you'', em'' for ''them'', etc.) is lacking in the play. David Lake confirms the presence of Middleton and Rowley tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Rowley
William Rowley (c. 1585 – February 1626) was an English Jacobean dramatist, best known for works written in collaboration with more successful writers. His date of birth is estimated to have been c. 1585; he was buried on 11 February 1626 in the graveyard of St James's, Clerkenwell in north London. (An unambiguous record of Rowley's death was discovered in 1928, but some authorities persist in listing his year of death as 1642.) Life and work Rowley was an actor-playwright who specialised in playing clown characters (that is, characters whose function is to provide low comedy). He must also have been a large man, since his forte lay specifically in fat-clown roles. He played the Fat Bishop in Thomas Middleton's ''A Game at Chess'', and Plumporridge in the same author's ''Inner Temple Masque''. He also wrote fat-clown parts for himself to play: Jaques in ''All's Lost by Lust'' (a role "personated by the Poet", the 1633 quarto states), and Bustopha in ''The Maid in the Mill'', h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Frith
Mary Frith (c. 1584 – 26 July 1659), alias Moll (or Mal) Cutpurse, was an English notorious pickpocket and fence of the London underworld. Meaning of nicknames Moll, apart from being a nickname for Mary, was a common name in the 16th through 17th centuries for a young woman, usually of disreputable character. The term "Cutpurse" refers to her reputation as a thief who would cut purses to steal the contents. The other name by which she was known, "The Roaring Girl" is derived from the early modern London trend of "roaring boys," or aggressive young men of lower social stations who defied codes of civility and aped the belligerent and courtly styles of the upper class. An eccentric life The facts of her life are extremely confusing, with many exaggerations and myths attached to her name. ''The Life of Mrs Mary Frith'', a sensationalised biography written in 1662, three years after her death, helped to perpetuate many of these myths. Mary Frith was born in the mid-158 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Revenge Tragedy
Revenge tragedy (sometimes referred to as revenge drama, revenge play, or tragedy of blood) is a theoretical genre in which the principal theme is revenge and revenge's fatal consequences. Formally established by American educator Ashley H. Thorndike in his 1902 article "The Relations of ''Hamlet'' to Contemporary Revenge Plays," a revenge tragedy documents the progress of the protagonist's revenge plot and often leads to the demise of both the murderers and the avenger himself.Thorndike, A. H. "The Relations of Hamlet to Contemporary Revenge Plays." ''Modern Language Association''. 17.2 (1902): 125-220. Print. The genre first appeared in early modern Britain with the publication of Thomas Kyd's ''The Spanish Tragedy'' during the latter half of the 16th century. Earlier works, such as Jasper Heywood's translations of Seneca (1560s) and Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville's play '' Gorbuduc'' (1561), are also considered revenge tragedies. Other well-known revenge tragedies include ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
City Comedy
City comedy, also known as citizen comedy, is a genre of comedy in the English early modern theatre. Definition Emerging from Ben Jonson's late-Elizabethan comedies of humours (1598–1599), the conventions of city comedy developed rapidly in the first decade of the Jacobean era, as one playwright's innovations were soon adopted by others, such that by about 1605 the new genre was fully established. Its principal playwrights were Jonson himself, Thomas Middleton, and John Marston, though many others also contributed to its development, including Thomas Heywood, Thomas Dekker, John Day, and John Webster. Once the companies of boy players—the Children of Paul's and the Children of the Chapel—had resumed public performances from 1600 onwards, most of their plays were city comedies. The closest that William Shakespeare's plays come to the genre is the slightly earlier ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' (c. 1597), which is his only play set entirely in England; it avoids the caust ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierce Penniless
''Pierce Penniless his Supplication to the Divell'' is a tall tale, or a prose satire, written by Thomas Nashe and published in London in 1592. It was among the most popular of the Elizabethan pamphlets. It was reprinted in 1593 and 1595,Harrison, G. B. ''Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication to the Divell.'' Corwen Press. 1924 and in 1594 was translated into French. It is written from the point of view of Pierce, a man who has not met with good fortune, who now bitterly complains of the world's wickedness, and addresses his complaints to the devil. At times the identity of Pierce seems to conflate with Nashe's own. But Nashe also portrays Pierce as something of an arrogant and prodigal fool. The story is told in a style that is complex, witty, fulminating, extemporaneous, digressive, anecdotal, filled with wicked descriptions, and peppered with newly minted words and Latin phrases. The satire can be mocking and bitingly sharp, and at times Nashe’s style seems to rel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
