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 Benjamin Jonson ( 11 June 1572 – ) was an English playwright, poet and actor. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence on English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satire, satirical ...

, 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 Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

and

tragedy A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a tragic hero, main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsi ...

. He was also a prolific writer of

masque The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A mas ...

s 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 The Curtain Theatre was an Elizabethan playhouse located in Hewett Street, Shoreditch (within the modern London Borough of Hackney), just outside the City of London. It opened in 1577, and continued staging plays until 1624. The Curtain was b ...

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 The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...

matriculating Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term ''matriculation'' is seldom used no ...

in 1598, but he did not graduate. Before he left Oxford sometime in 1600 or 1601, he wrote and published three long poems in popular Elizabethan styles. None of them appears to have been especially successful, and one, '' Microcynicon: Six Snarling Satires'', ran foul of an

Anglican church Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

ban on verse satire and was burned. Nevertheless, his literary career was launched. In the early 17th century, Middleton made a living writing topical pamphlets, including one – ''Penniless Parliament of Threadbare Poets'' – that was reprinted several times and became the subject of a parliamentary inquiry. At the same time, records in the diary of

Philip Henslowe Philip Henslowe ( – 6 January 1616) was an Elizabethan theatrical entrepreneur and impresario. Henslowe's modern reputation rests on the survival of his diary, a primary source for information about the theatrical world of Renaissance London. ...

show that Middleton was writing for the

Admiral's Men The Admiral's Men (also called the Admiral's company, more strictly, the Earl of Nottingham's Men; after 1603, Prince Henry's Men; after 1612, the Elector Palatine's Men or the Palsgrave's Men) was a playing company or troupe of actors in the Eli ...

. Unlike Shakespeare, Middleton remained a free agent, able to write for whichever company hired him. His early dramatic career was marked by controversy. His friendship with Thomas Dekker brought him into conflict with

and

George Chapman George Chapman ( – 12 May 1634) was an English dramatist, translator and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman is seen as an anticipator of the metaphysical poets of the 17th century. He is ...

in the

War of the Theatres The War of the Theatres is the name commonly applied to a controversy from the later Elizabethan theatre; Thomas Dekker termed it the ''Poetomachia''. Because of an actual ban on satire in prose and verse publications in 1599 (the Bishops' Ban o ...

. The grudge against Jonson continued as late as 1626, when Jonson's play ''The Staple of News'' indulges in a slur on Middleton's great success, ''A Game at Chess''. It has been argued that Middleton's ''Inner Temple Masque'' (1619) sneers at Jonson (then absent in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

) as a "silenced bricklayer". In 1603, Middleton married. In the same year an outbreak of the plague forced the London theatres to close, while

James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) * James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) * James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu * James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334� ...

came to the English throne. These events marked the beginning of Middleton's greatest period as a playwright. Having passed the time during the plague composing prose pamphlets (including a continuation of

Thomas Nashe Thomas Nashe (also Nash; baptised 30 November 1567 – c. 1601) was an English Elizabethan playwright, poet, satirist and a significant pamphleteer. He is known for his novel '' The Unfortunate Traveller'', his pamphlets including '' Pierce P ...

's ''

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,Harri ...

''), he returned to drama with great energy, producing almost a score of plays for several companies and in several genres, notably

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 ...

and

revenge tragedy Revenge tragedy (sometimes referred to as revenge drama, revenge play, or tragedy of blood) is a theatrical genre, in which the principal theme is revenge and revenge's fatal consequences. Formally established by American educator Ashley H. Tho ...

. He continued to collaborate with Dekker: the two produced ''

The Roaring Girl ''The Roaring Girl'' is a Jacobean stage play, a comedy written by Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker 1607–1610. The play was first published in quarto in 1611, printed by Nicholas Okes for the bookseller Thomas Archer. The title page of ...

'', a biography of the contemporary thief

Mary Frith Mary Frith (c. 1584 – 26 July 1659), alias Moll (or Mal) Cutpurse, was a notorious English 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 ...

. In the 1610s, Middleton began a fruitful collaboration with the actor

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 ...

, producing ''

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 scholars ...

'' and ''

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 O ...

''. Working alone in 1613, Middleton produced a comic masterpiece: ''

A Chaste Maid in Cheapside ''A Chaste Maid in Cheapside'' is a city comedy written c. 1613 by the English Jacobean playwright Thomas Middleton. Unpublished until 1630, and long-neglected afterwards, it is now considered among the best and most characteristic Jacobean c ...

''. He also became increasingly involved with civic pageants, and in 1620 became officially appointed as chronologist to the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

, a post he held until his death in 1627, when it passed to Jonson. Such official duties did not interrupt Middleton's dramatic writing; the 1620s saw the production of his and Rowley's tragedy '' The Changeling'', and of several tragicomedies. In 1624, he reached a peak of notoriety when his dramatic

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

A Game at Chess ''A Game at Chess'' is a comic satirical play by Thomas Middleton, first staged in August 1624 by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre. The play is notable for its political content, dramatizing a conflict between Spain and England. The plot t ...

'' was staged by the King's Men. The play used the

conceit An extended metaphor, also known as a conceit or sustained metaphor, is the use of a single metaphor or analogy at length in a work of literature. It differs from a mere metaphor in its length, and in having more than one single point of contact be ...

of a chess game to present and satirise the recent intrigues surrounding the

Spanish Match The Spanish match was a proposed marriage between Prince Charles I of England, Charles, the son of King James VI & I of Kingdom of Scotland and Kingdom of England, England, and Infante, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, the daughter of Philip III of ...

. Though Middleton's approach was strongly patriotic, the Privy Council silenced the play after nine performances, having received a complaint from the Spanish Ambassador. Middleton faced an unknown, probably frightening degree of punishment. Since no play later than ''A Game at Chess'' is recorded, it has been suggested that the sentence included a ban on writing for the stage.

Death

Middleton died at his home at

Newington Butts Newington Butts is a former hamlet, now an area of the London Borough of Southwark, London, England, that gives its name to a segment of the A3 road running south-west from the Elephant and Castle junction. The road continues as Kennington Park ...

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

in 1627, and was buried on 4 July in St Mary's churchyard. The old church of St Mary's was demolished in 1876 for road-widening. Its replacement elsewhere in Kennington Park Road was destroyed in the Second World War, but rebuilt in 1958. The old churchyard where Middleton was buried survives as a public park in

Elephant and Castle Elephant and Castle is an area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name also informally refers to much of Walworth and Newington, due to the proximity of the London Underground station of the same name. The n ...

Reputation

Middleton's work has long been praised by literary critics, among them

Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist and critic. He wrote many plays – all tragedies – and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the Eleve ...

and

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

. The latter thought Middleton was second only to Shakespeare. Middleton's plays were staged throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, each decade offering more productions than the last. Even some less familiar works of his have been staged: ''

'' at the National Theatre, and ''

The Old Law ''The Old Law, or A New Way to Please You'' is a seventeenth-century tragicomedy written by Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, and Philip Massinger. It was first published in 1656, but is generally thought to have been written about four decad ...

'' by the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...

. '' The Changeling'' has been adapted for film several times. The tragedy ''

Women Beware Women ''Women Beware Women'' is a Jacobean tragedy written by Thomas Middleton, and first published in 1657. Date The date of authorship of the play is deeply uncertain. Scholars have estimated its origin anywhere from 1612 to 1627; 1623–24 has ...

'' remains a stage favourite. ''The Revenger's Tragedy'' was adapted for

Alex Cox Alexander B. H. Cox (born 15 December 1954) is an English film director, screenwriter, actor, non-fiction author and broadcaster. Cox experienced success early in his career with ''Repo Man (film), Repo Man'' (1984) and ''Sid and Nancy'' (1986 ...

's film ''

Revengers Tragedy ''Revengers Tragedy'' is a 2002 film adaptation of the 1606 play '' The Revenger's Tragedy'' (attributed to Thomas Middleton in the credits, following the scholarly consensus). It was directed by Alex Cox and adapted for the screen by Cox's fe ...

'', the opening credits of which attribute the play's authorship to Middleton.

Works

Middleton wrote in many genres, including

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

and

. His best-known plays are the tragedies '' The Changeling'' (with

) and ''

'', and the cynically satirical city comedy ''

''. Earlier editions of ''

The Revenger's Tragedy ''The Revenger's Tragedy'' is an English-language Jacobean revenge tragedy which was performed in 1606, and published in 1607 by George Eld. It was long attributed to Cyril Tourneur, but "The consensus candidate for authorship of ''The Reve ...

'' attributed the play to

Cyril Tourneur Cyril Tourneur (; died 28 February 1626) was an English soldier, diplomat and dramatist who wrote '' The Atheist's Tragedy'' (published 1611); another (and better-known) play, '' The Revenger's Tragedy'' (1607), formerly ascribed to him, is now mo ...

, or refused to arbitrate between Middleton and Tourneur. However, since the statistical studies by David Lake and MacDonald P. Jackson, Middleton's authorship has not been seriously contested, and no further scholar has defended the Tourneur attribution. The Oxford Middleton and its companion piece, ''Thomas Middleton and Early Modern Textual Culture'', offer extensive evidence both for Middleton's authorship of ''The Revenger's Tragedy'', for his collaboration with Shakespeare on ''

Timon of Athens ''The Life of Tymon of Athens'', often shortened to ''Timon of Athens'', is a play written by William Shakespeare and likely also Thomas Middleton in about 1606. It was published in the ''First Folio'' in 1623. Timon of Athens (person), Timon ...

'', and for his adaptation and revision of Shakespeare's ''

Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...

'' and ''

Measure for Measure ''Measure for Measure'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604 and first performed in 1604. It was published in the First Folio of 1623. The play centers on the despotic and puritan Angelo (Measure for ...

''. It has also been argued that Middleton collaborated with Shakespeare on ''

All's Well That Ends Well ''All's Well That Ends Well'' is a play by William Shakespeare, published in the First Folio in 1623, where it is listed among the comedies. There is a debate about the date of its composition, with possible dates ranging from 1598 to 1608. ...

''. However, these latter collaborative attributions are not universally accepted by scholars. Middleton's work is diverse even by the standards of his age. He did not have the kind of official relationship with a particular company that Shakespeare or Fletcher had. Instead he appears to have written on a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

basis for any number of companies. His output ranges from the "snarling" satire of ''Michaelmas Term'' (performed by the

Children of Paul's The Children of Paul's was the name of a troupe of boy actors in Elizabethan and Jacobean London. Along with the Children of the Chapel, they were an important component of the companies of boy players that constituted a distinctive feature of ...

) to the bleak intrigues of ''The Revenger's Tragedy'' (performed by the King's Men). His early work was informed by the flourishing of satire in the late Elizabethan period, while his maturity was influenced by the ascendancy of Fletcherian

tragicomedy Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragedy, tragic and comedy, comic forms. Most often seen in drama, dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the ov ...

. His later work, in which his satirical fury is tempered and broadened, includes three of his acknowledged masterpieces. ''A Chaste Maid in Cheapside'', produced by the

Lady Elizabeth's Men The Lady Elizabeth's Men, or Princess Elizabeth's Men, was a company of actors in Jacobean London, formed under the patronage of King James I's daughter Princess Elizabeth. From 1618 on, the company was called The Queen of Bohemia's Men, aft ...

, skilfully combines London life with an expansive view of the power of love to effect reconciliation. ''The Changeling'', a late tragedy, returns Middleton to an Italianate setting like that of ''The Revenger's Tragedy'', except that here the central characters are more fully drawn and more compelling as individuals. Similar development can be seen in ''Women Beware Women''. Middleton's plays are marked by often amusingly presented

cynicism Cynic or Cynicism may refer to: Modes of thought * Cynicism (philosophy), a school of ancient Greek philosophy * Cynicism (contemporary), modern use of the word for distrust of others' motives Books * ''The Cynic'', an 1875 book by James Gordon ...

about the human race. True heroes are a rarity: almost every character is selfish, greedy and self-absorbed. ''A Chaste Maid in Cheapside'' offers a panoramic view of a London populated entirely by sinners, in which no social rank goes unsatirised. In the tragedies ''Women Beware Women'' and ''The Revenger's Tragedy'', amoral Italian courtiers endlessly plot against each other, resulting in a climactic bloodbath. When Middleton does portray good people, the characters have small roles and are shown as flawless. A theological pamphlet attributed to Middleton is thought by some to be proof of a strong belief in

Calvinism Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyteri ...

List of works

Plays

*'' The Phoenix'' (1603–1604) *'' The Honest Whore, Part 1'' (1604) (co-written with Thomas Dekker) *''

Michaelmas Term Michaelmas ( ) term is the first academic term of the academic year in a number of English-speaking universities and schools in the northern hemisphere, especially in the United Kingdom. Michaelmas term derives its name from the Feast of St M ...

'' (1604) *'' A Trick to Catch the Old One'' (1605) *''

A Mad World, My Masters ''A Mad World, My Masters'' is a Jacobean stage play written by Thomas Middleton, a comedy first performed around 1605 and first published in 1608. The title had been used by a pamphleteer, Nicholas Breton, in 1603, and was later the origin f ...

'' (1605) *''

A Yorkshire Tragedy ''A Yorkshire Tragedy'' is an early Jacobean era stage play, a domestic tragedy printed in 1608. The play was originally assigned to William Shakespeare, though the modern critical consensus rejects this attribution, favouring Thomas Middleto ...

'' (1605) *''

'' (1606) (co-written with

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

) *''

The Puritan ''The Puritan, or the Widow of Watling Street'', also known as ''The Puritan Widow'', is an anonymous Jacobean stage comedy, first published in 1607. It is often attributed to Thomas Middleton, but also belongs to the Shakespeare Apocrypha ...

'' (1606) *''

'' (1606) *'' Your Five Gallants'' (1607) *''

The Bloody Banquet ''The Bloody Banquet'' is an early 17th-century play, a revenge tragedy of uncertain date and authorship, attributed on its title page only to "T.D." It has attracted a substantial body of critical and scholarly commentary, chiefly for the ch ...

'' (1608–1609) (co-written with Dekker) *''

'' (1611) (co-written with Dekker) *''

No Wit, No Help Like a Woman's ''No Wit, No Help Like a Woman's'' is a Jacobean tragicomic play by Thomas Middleton. Title On the title page of the first published edition (1653), the play's title is rendered as follows: No \begin Wit \\ Help \end Like~a~Woman's This ...

'' (1611) *''

The Second Maiden's Tragedy ''The Second Maiden's Tragedy'' is a Jacobean play that survives only in manuscript. It was written in 1611, and performed in the same year by the King's Men. The manuscript was acquired but never printed by the publisher Humphrey Moseley afte ...

'' (1611) *''

'' (1613) *''

'' (1613) (co-written with

) *'' More Dissemblers Besides Women'' (1614) *'' The Widow'' (1615–16) *'' The Witch'' (1616) *''

'' (1616) (co-written with Rowley) *''

'' (1618–19) (co-written with Rowley) *'' Hengist, King of Kent'' (1620) *''

'' (1621) *'' Anything for a Quiet Life'' (1621) (co-written with

John Webster John Webster (c. 1578 – c. 1632) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies '' The White Devil'' and ''The Duchess of Malfi'', which are often seen as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. His life and car ...

) *'' The Changeling'' (1622) (co-written with Rowley) *'' The Nice Valour'' (1622) *''

The Spanish Gypsy ''The Spanish Gypsy'' is an English Jacobean tragicomedy, dating from around 1623. The play was likely a collaboration between several dramatists, including Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, Thomas Dekker, and John Ford. Like Shakespeare's lo ...

'' (1623) (co-written with Rowley, Dekker and

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), better known as John Ford, was an American film director and producer. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and w ...

) *''

'' (1624)

Attributed to Middleton, authorship disputed, possible co-authorship

*'' Blurt, Master Constable'' (1602) (usually attributed to either Middleton or Thomas Dekker) *''

'' (1603–4) (some scholars argue that the

First Folio ''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...

text was partly revised by Middleton in 1621) *''

'' (1604-5) (believed by some scholars to be co-written or revised by Middleton, based on stylometric analysis) *''

'' (1606) (scholars have recognized evidence of late interpolations written by Middleton) *'' The Family of Love'' (1608) (many scholars have attributed it to Middleton and Dekker; recent scholarship suggests that it was probably penned by

Lording Barry Lording Barry (baptized April 17, 1580–1629) was a 17th-century English dramatist and pirate. Career Barry was the son of Nicholas Barry, a fishmonger of London, and his wife Anne Lording. On the death of his father in 1607, he received an i ...

) *''

The Witch of Edmonton ''The Witch of Edmonton'' is an English Jacobean play, written by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford in 1621. The play—"probably the most sophisticated treatment of domestic tragedy in the whole of Elizabethan-Jacobean drama"—i ...

'' (1621) (title-page indicates an additional writer that could be Middleton) *''

A Match at Midnight A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient ...

'' (1622) (some nineteenth-century critics ascribed it to Middleton and Rowley)

Other stage works

*''The Whole Royal and Magnificent Entertainment Given to King James Through the City of London'' (1603–4) (co-written with Thomas Dekker, Stephen Harrison and

) *''The Manner of his Lordship's Entertainment'' *''Civitas Amor'' *''

The Triumphs of Truth ''The Triumphs of Truth'' was a medieval pageant to honor a British Lord mayor and written circa 1613 by English Renaissance playwright Thomas Middleton. The pageant was credited with first creating the term white people to refer to Europeans. R ...

'' (1613) *''The Lord Mayor's Masque'' or ''The Masque of Cupids'' (1614).A. B. Hinds, ''HMC Manuscripts of the Marquess of Downshire'', 4 (London, 1940), p. 259
Masque of Cupids, Lost Plays Database
/ref> *''The Triumphs of Honour and Industry'' (1617) *''The Masque of Heroes, or, The Inner Temple Masque'' (1619) *''The Triumphs of Love and Antiquity'' (1619) *''

The World Tossed at Tennis ''The World Tossed at Tennis'' is a Jacobean era masque composed by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, first published in 1620. It was likely acted on 4 March 1620 ( new style) at Denmark House. Middleton and Rowley conducted one of the ...

'' (1620) (co-written with

) *''Honourable Entertainments'' (1620–1) *''An Invention'' (1622) *'' The Sun in Aries'' (1621) *''The Triumphs of Honour and Virtue'' (1622) *''The Triumphs of Integrity with The Triumphs of the Golden Fleece'' (1623) *''The Triumphs of Health and Prosperity'' (1626)

Poetry

*''The Wisdom of Solomon Paraphrased'' (1597) *'' Microcynicon: Six Snarling Satires'' (1599) *''The Ghost of Lucrece'' (1600) *'' Burbage'' epitaph (1619) *''Bolles'' epitaph (1621) *''St. James'' (1623) *''

Duchess of Malfi ''The Duchess of Malfi'' (originally published as ''The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy'') is a Jacobean revenge tragedy written by English dramatist John Webster in 1612–1613. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, ...

'' (Commendatory verses to

's play) (1623) *''To the King'' (1624)

Prose

*''The Penniless Parliament of Threadbare Poets'' (1601) *''News from Gravesend'' (1603) (co-written with Thomas Dekker) *''The Nightingale and the Ant'' (1604) (also published as ''Father Hubbard's Tales'') *''The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinary'' (1604) (co-written with Dekker) *''Plato's Cap Cast at the Year 1604'' (1604) *''The Black Book'' (1604) *''Sir Robert Sherley his Entertainment in Cracovia'' (1609) (translation). *''The Two Gates of Salvation'', or ''The Marriage of the Old and New Testament'' (1609) *''The Owl's Almanac'' (1618) *''The Peacemaker'' (1618)

Notes

References

*Anthony Covatta, ''Thomas Middleton's City Comedies''. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1973 *Barbara Jo Baines, ''The Lust Motif in the Plays of Thomas Middleton''. Salzburg, 1973 * *J. R. Mulryne, ''Thomas Middleton'' *Pier Paolo Frassinelli, "Realism, Desire, and Reification: Thomas Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside." ''Early Modern Literary Studies'' 8 (2003) *Kenneth Friedenreich, ed., ''"Accompaninge the players": Essays Celebrating Thomas Middleton, 1580–1980'' *Margot Heinemann. ''Puritanism and Theatre: Thomas Middleton and Opposition Drama Under the Early Stuarts''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980 *Herbert Jack Heller. ''Penitent Brothellers: Grace, Sexuality, and Genre in Thomas Middleton's City Comedies''. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Press, 2000 *Ben Jonson. ''The Staple of News''. London, 1692
Holloway e-text
*Bryan Loughrey and Neil Taylor. "Introduction." In Thomas Middleton, ''Five Plays''. Bryan Loughrey and Neil Taylor, eds. Penguin, 1988 *Jane Milling and Peter Thomson, eds. ''The Cambridge History of British Theatre''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004 *Mary Beth Rose. ''The Expense of Spirit: Love and Sexuality in English Renaissance Drama''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988 * *

. ''The Age of Shakespeare''. New York: Harpers, 1908
Gutenberg e-text
*Ceri Sullivan, 'Thomas Middleton's View of Public Utility', ''Review of English Studies'' 58 (2007), pp. 160–74 *Ceri Sullivan, ''The Rhetoric of Credit. Merchants in Early Modern Writing'' (Madison/London: Associated University Press, 2002 *Taylor, Archer. “Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases in the Plays of Thomas Middleton.” ''Southern Folklore Quarterly'', 23 (1959), 79-89. *Gary Taylor. "Thomas Middleton." ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004 *

Stanley Wells Sir Stanley William Wells, (born 21 May 1930) is an English Shakespearean scholar, writer, professor and editor who has been honorary president of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, professor emeritus at Birmingham University, and author of many ...

. ''Select Bibliographical Guides: English Drama, Excluding Shakespeare''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975 *''The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21)''. Volume VI. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1907–1921
Bartleby e-textThe Oxford Middleton Project

*Bilingual editions (English/French) of two Middleton plays by Antoine Ertl�
(A Game at Chess)

(The Old Law)

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Middleton, Thomas 1580 births 1627 deaths People educated at Christ's Hospital English Renaissance dramatists Alumni of the Queen's College, Oxford People from the City of London 17th-century English dramatists and playwrights 17th-century English male writers English male dramatists and playwrights English male poets