Middleton, THOMAS, dramatist, born about 1570, was the only son of William Middleton, gentleman, who settled in London and married Anne, daughter of William Snow. The earliest mention of Middleton in Henslowe's Diary is under date 22d May 1602, when he was engaged with Munday, Drayton, Webster, and others on a lost play, Cesar's Fall. First on the list of his printed plays is Blurt, Master Constable (1602), a light, fanciful comedy. Two interesting tracts, Father Hubbard's Tale and The Black Book, exposing the practices of London rogues and sharpers, were published in 1604, to which year belongs the first part of The Honest Whore (mainly written by Dekker, but containing occasional scenes by Middleton). The Phœnix and Michaelmas Term (both published in 1607) are lively comedies; and even more diverting is A Trick to catch the Old One (1608). The Family of Love (1608) and Your Five Gallants, n.d. [1608], are of slender merit; but A Mad World, my Masters, from which Aphra Behn pilfered freely in The City Heiress, is conducted with singular adroitness. All these early comedies of Middleton, even the poorest of them, are distinguished by smartness and buoyancy. The Roaring Girl (1611), written in conjunction with Dekker, describes the exploits of Mary Frith, a noted cut-purse and virago, who is turned into an attractive heroine by the kindly playwrights. In 1613, and frequently in later years, Middleton was employed to write the Lord Mayor's pageant. The highly amusing but somewhat indecorous comedy, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, printed in 1630, was probably produced in 1613; and to that year may belong No Wit, No Help like a Woman's, first printed in 1657. A Fair Quarrel (1617), written with William Rowley, presents in the person of Captain Ager a noble example of blameless magnanimity. The World Tost at Tennis (1620), to which Rowley contributed, is an ingenious, well-written masque, contrived with more elaborate care than was usually bestowed on such compositions. On 6th September 1620 Middleton was appointed to the office of City Chronologer. A MS. City Chronicle compiled by him was extant in the 18th century, but has since disappeared. More Dissemblers besides Women (circa 1622, probably written in conjunction with Rowley), is more elaborate and substantial than the early comedies.
The dates of The Witch, The Mayor of Quinborough, and The Old Law are difficult to fix. The Witch, first printed in 1770, is interesting from the resemblance that it offers in the incantation scenes to the similar scenes in Macbeth, which was (probably) written earlier. Some of the songs from Middleton's play were foisted into Macbeth by the players. The Mayor of Quinborough (first printed in 1661) was supposed by Dyce to be one of Middleton's earliest plays; but a passage in iv. 3 is certainly imitated from The Tempest. The tragic scenes contain some of Middleton's most powerful writing; the broadly comic scenes may be safely assigned to Rowley. The delightful comedy, The Old Law, first published in 1656 as the work of Massinger, Middleton, and Rowley, bears some indications of having been originally produced in 1599. Massinger did no more than revise the play on its revival at the Salisbury Court Theatre; and there is more of Rowley in it than of Middleton.
In the three posthumously published plays, The Changeling, The Spanish Gypsy, and Women beware Women, Middleton's genius is seen at its highest. Rowley had a share in the first two and probably in the third. The Changeling (written circa 1623) has not the sustained tragic power of Webster's masterpieces, and is weighted with a cumbrous comic underplot (evidently managed by Rowley); but it contains one scene (the colloquy between De Flores and Beatrice after the murder of Alonzo) that for sheer intensity of passion finds no parallel outside Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. It was one of the first plays revived at the Restoration. The Spanish Gypsy (circa 1623), a rich romantic play, opens sombrelly, leading us to expect a tragical issue, but ends cheerfully; the breezy Gypsy-scenes are doubtless by Rowley. Women beware Women has a blithe beginning, but closes in tragic gloom. As a whole it is even more powerful than The Changeling.
A very curious, interesting, and skilful play is A Game at Chess, which was acted for nine days continuously, with unbounded applause, in August 1624. The cause of its great popularity was that it gave expression to the general feeling of satisfaction at the failure of the negotiations for the Spanish marriage. Gondomar ('the Black Knight') was satirised with scathing severity; and the Archbishop of Spalatro ('the Fat Bishop') was rudely handled. After the performance had continued for nine days a strong protest from Gondomar caused the withdrawal of the play; and both author and actors were summoned to appear before the Privy-council. Middleton shifted out of the way.
The Widow, a comedy of uncertain date, was published in 1652 as the work of Jonson, Fletcher, and Middleton; but it is difficult to assign any part to Jonson, and Fletcher's share was slight. The scene in act iv. where Latrocinio disguises himself as an empiric and dispenses his nostrums seems rather to be imitated from Ben Jonson than written by him. Anything for a Quiet Life, printed in 1662 and written circa 1619, may have been revised by Shirley.
In 1626 Middleton composed the city pageant, The Triumphs of Health and Prosperity. On 4th July 1627 he was buried at Newington Butts. He had married in 1602 or 1603 Mary, daughter of Edward Morbeck, one of the six clerks in Chancery; and his son Edward, the only child of the marriage, was born in 1604. The widow survived for about a year. Ben Jonson succeeded to the post of City Chronologer.
Middleton was concerned in the authorship of some of the plays included in the works of Beaumont and Fletcher. Mr Fleay plausibly assigns to him A Match at Midnight (usually attributed to Rowley) and the pseudo-Shakespearean Puritan.
Dyce's edition of Middleton's works was published in 1840 (5 vols.); an edition by the present writer appeared in 1885-86 (8 vols.). Selected Plays (2 vols.), with an Introduction by Mr A. C. Swinburne, are included in the 'Mermaid' series, edited by Mr Havcloc Ellis.