Part 1
# The works of Thomas Middleton, Volume 1 (of 5) ### By Dekker, Thomas
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Transcriber’s Note:
This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. Superscripted letters are indicated with ‘^’ or, if multiple characters are involved, ‘^{abc}’.
All footnotes have been moved to the end of the text. A number of lengthy notes spanned multiple pages, and the segments are gathered together here. Footnotes were lettered ‘a’ to ‘z’, repeating the pattern. They have been resequenced numerically to ensure uniqueness across the text. On occasion, when a note is referred to in another note by its superscripted letter, the new number is substituted.
Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.
This volume includes an “ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA” which hold editorial notes for all volumes of this series. The relevant portions of this section will be copied to the Transcriber’s end note for each of the succeeding volumes for ease of reference.
THE WORKS OF THOMAS MIDDLETON.
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VOL. I.
CONTAINING
THE OLD LAW. THE MAYOR OF QUEENBOROUGH. BLURT, MASTER-CONSTABLE. THE PHŒNIX. MICHAELMAS TERM.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, 46 St. Martin’s Lane.
[Illustration:
_Vera Effigies_ _Tho. Midletoni Gent._ ]
THE WORKS
OF
THOMAS MIDDLETON,
=Now first collected,=
WITH
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR,
AND
NOTES,
BY
THE REVEREND ALEXANDER DYCE.
_IN FIVE VOLUMES._
VOL. I.
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LONDON:
EDWARD LUMLEY, CHANCERY LANE.
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1840.
TO
JOHN PAYNE COLLIER, ESQ.
=These Volumes=
ARE INSCRIBED
BY
HIS VERY SINCERE FRIEND,
ALEXANDER DYCE.
PREFACE.
All the surviving works of Middleton are comprehended in the present volumes; and though, perhaps, to a certain class of readers, a selection from his writings might have been more acceptable, I am confident that the entire series is requisite to satisfy the lovers of our early literature.
So rare are some of the pieces now reprinted, that they were not to be obtained without considerable difficulty. The original quartos of _The Triumphs of Integrity_, and _The Triumphs of Honour and Industry_, are nowhere to be found but in the dramatic library of the Duke of Devonshire; and I beg leave respectfully to express my sense of his Grace’s liberality and kindness, in granting me permission to transcribe them.
An obligation, for which I am truly grateful, has been conferred upon me by the Rev. Joseph Hunter, whose intimate acquaintance with the genealogical collections of the British Museum enabled him to point out to me a most important document, which had escaped my notice—the pedigree of Middleton in one of the Harleian MSS.
To Charles George Young, Esq., York Herald, who readily assisted my researches at the College of Arms; and to Henry Woodthorpe, Esq., town- clerk of London, who with equal good will rendered me the same services at Guildhall, I have to return my sincere thanks.
To Sir Harris Nicolas, John Payne Collier, Esq., the Rev. John Mitford, and the Rev. Stephen Reay, sub-librarian of the Bodleian Library, I have to acknowledge myself indebted for a variety of useful communications.
ALEXANDER DYCE.
GRAY’S INN, _December 1839_.
SOME ACCOUNT OF MIDDLETON AND HIS WORKS.
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Thomas Middleton[1] is seldom mentioned by his contemporaries; and to the scanty materials for his biography already collected by the curiosity of antiquarian writers, the facts which I have been enabled to add, though important, are unfortunately few.
His father was William Middleton; concerning whom I have found no earlier notice than is contained in the following document, which affords unquestionable evidence that he was a gentleman by birth:
“To all and singuler as well Noblez and gentlemen as others to whome these presentz shall coome I Sir Gilberte Dethicke knyghte alias Garter principall kinge of armes sende greatinge in owre Lord god euerlasting, Forasmuche as anncientlye from the begynninge the valiant and vertius actes of wourthie parsons haue ben commended to the world and posteretie with sondrie monumentz and remembrances of there good desearttes Emongst the which the chefiste and most vsuall hath ben the bearinge of signes and tokens in shildes called Armes which are euident demonstracions of prowez and valoure diuerslie distributed according to the qualities and wourthines of the parsons demereting the same which order as it was prudentlie devised in the beginnynge to stirre and kindle the harttes of men to the ymytacion of vertue and noblenes Euen so hathe the same ben and yet is contynnuallie obseruid to the [end] that suche as haue don commendable seruice to their prince or contrey eyther in warre or peace may bothe receiue due honor in their liues and also leaue the same successiuelie vnto there posteritie after them And wheras therfore William Midleton of in the Countie of [2] gentleman hathe ben of longe time one of the bearrers of these Armes That is to say Argent on a Saulteir engrailed sablez a Castle of the firste And for asmuch as I finde no Creaste therevnto belonging or appertayninge hath requested me the sayd Garter to assigne vnto his coot armoure such creaste or Cognissance as he may lawfullie vse and beare In consideracion wherof and for a further declaration of the wourthines of the sayd William I the sayd Garter kinge of Armes haue assigned vnto him this creast or cognissance folowinge That is to say on his Torce argent and sables a Ape passant with a coller about his necke and chaine golde mantelled argent double gules as more playnlie appeareth depicted in this margent Which Armes and Creast I the sayd Garter principall Kinge of Armes haue ratefied confermed assigned and allowed and by these presentes do ratefye confirme assigne and allow vnto the sayd William Mydleton and to his posteritie for ever and he and they to haue hould and enioy the same and therin to be revested att his and there libertie and pleasure without the lett ympediment or interruption of any other parson or parsons whatsoeuer In wittnes whereof I the sayd Garter haue signed these presentes with my hand and sett therevnto the seall of myne office and armes Dated the xxiiiᵗʰ of Aprill in the xᵗʰ yeare of the Raigne of our moste gracius soueraigne Ladie Elizabeth by the grace of godd of England France and Ireland Quene Defender of the fayth &c Anno 1560 [1568].”[3]
William Middleton appears to have settled in the metropolis.[4] He married[5] Anne, daughter of William Snow, of London; and by her had two children,—Thomas, the subject of the present memoir; and Avicia,[6] who first became the wife of John Empson, of London, and afterwards of Alan Waterer, of the same city.
The date of the poet’s birth, which is matter of conjecture,[7] I am inclined to fix not earlier than 1570.
It was probably about 1603 that he married Maria,[8] daughter of Edward Morbeck,[9] of London, one of the Six Clerks of Chancery, by Barbara, daughter of William Palmer, of Warwickshire. A son, named Edward, the only issue of this marriage, was alive in 1623, aged nineteen. If there be no error in the MS. from which the above information has been derived, and if the entry among the City Records, which is cited in another part of this memoir, be also correct, Middleton must have married a second time, either during 1623 or subsequently to that year, for, according to the latter authority, the name of his widow was Magdalen.
A “Tho. Middleton” was admitted member of Gray’s Inn in 1593, a second in 1596, and a third in 1606.[10] Of these individuals, the first is more likely than either of the others to have been the dramatist.
_The Wisdom of Solomon Paraphrased, Written by Thomas Middleton_, 1597, has generally been assigned to our author; and since no other poet of the same name is known to have existed in those days,[11] I have thought myself obliged, notwithstanding its length and tediousness, to reprint it entire. _Micro-cynicon, Six Snarling Satires_, 1599, has also been attributed to him, because the prefatory verses are subscribed “T. M. Gent.;” and as it possesses at least the doubtful merit of shortness, I have not rejected it from the present collection.[12]
But of whatever kind were his earliest (and perhaps unsuccessful) efforts to attract the notice of the public, it is evident that Middleton devoted the maturity of his powers almost exclusively to dramatic composition, though the period at which he commenced a writer for the stage cannot be determined. There are grounds for believing that _The Old Law_ was first produced in 1599.[13] Of that play, a portion only is by him—a portion is by William Rowley; and subsequently it received improvements from the pen of Massinger, who when it was originally acted had not completed his fifteenth year. The reader ought to remember, that dramas which bear on their title-pages the names of more than one author were not necessarily written by those authors in conjunction: that popular playwrights were often employed to alter and to add to pieces which had ceased to be attractive, is a fact sufficiently established by the valuable memoranda of Henslowe. We are not, however, to conclude that the other dramas of which Middleton was only in part the author were wrought into their present form by such a process.
It is unnecessary to enumerate all the various pieces with which, during a long series of years, he continued to enrich the stage; nor would it be possible to ascertain the exact order in which they were produced. Henslowe’s papers supply the following notices of two which perhaps were never printed, and are no longer extant:
“May 1602. Two Harpies, by Dekker, Drayton, Middleton, Webster, and Mundy.”[14]
“Oct. 1602. Randall, earl of Chester, by T. Middleton.”[15]
And among the MS. plays which belonged to Warburton the Somerset Herald, and which, according to his own cool statement, “were unluckely burnd or put under Pye-bottoms,” there was one entitled “The Puritan Maid, the Modest Wife, and the Wanton Widow, by Tho. Middleton.”[16]
Two tracts, which issued separately from the press in 1604, _The Black Book_, and _Father Hubburd’s Tales, or The Ant and the Nightingale_, I assign, with little hesitation, to Middleton: in both the Epistle to the Reader is subscribed “T. M.,” and in both are found expressions which remind us strongly of his dramatic dialogue. They are coarse but humorous attacks on the vices and follies of the time; and are peculiarly interesting on account of the passages which relate to Thomas Nash,[17] of whose admirable prose-satires they may be considered as no unhappy imitations. The verses interwoven with _Father Hubburd’s Tales_ are occasionally very graceful.
_The Inner Temple Masque_, written, I apprehend, in 1618, and _The World tost at Tennis_, first produced as a royal entertainment, and afterwards brought out with alterations, probably in 1620, are the only pieces of the kind which we possess from our author’s pen; but it appears, by an entry in the City Records, that he had been called on at an earlier date to compose a masque, of which the title alone remains:
“Martis xviii die Januarii 1613 Anno R.Rs Jacobi Angliæ &c. undecimo.
Middleton Mayor. Item: it is ordered by this Court that Thomas Rep. No. 31. (Part Middleton Gent. shalbe forthwith allowed upon his Sec.) fol. 239.ᵇ Bill of particulers such recompence and chardges as the Committees lately appointed for the ordering of the late Solempnities at Marchauntailors Hall shall thinck meete for all his disbursements and paynes taken by him and others in the last _Mask of Cupid_ and other Shewes lately made at the aforesaid Hall by the said Mʳ Middleton.”
The “solempnities” in question had been occasioned by the recent nuptials of that infamous pair the Earl and Countess of Somerset, and are thus described by Howes: “Vpon Tewsday the 4. of January [1613-14], the Bride and Bridegroome, being accompanied with the duke of Lenox, the Lord priuie Seale, the lord Chamberlayne, the earles of Worcester, Pembroke, Mountgomery, and others, and with many honorable Barons, knights, and gentlemen of qualitie, came to marchant-taylers hall, where the Lord Maior and Aldermenne of London, in their Scarlet robes, entertayned them with hearty welcome, and feasted them with all magnificence: at their first entrance into the hall, they were receiued with ingenious speeches and pleasant melody: at this princely feast all the meate was serued to the Table by choyse cittizens of comeliest personage, in their gownes of rich Foynes, selected out of the 12. honorable companies: after supper, and being risen from the Table, these noble guests were entertayned with a Wassaile, 2. seuerall pleasant maskes, and a play, and with other pleasant dances, all which being ended, then the Bride and Bridegroome with all the rest were inuited to a princely banquet, and about 3. a clock in the morning they returned to Whitehall.”[18]
Middleton’s earliest[19] pageant was produced in 1613; and his ingenuity was again taxed to devise fantastic shows for the amusement of the populace in 1616, 1617, and 1619.
Among the expenses of the pageant for 1617, _The Triumphs of Honour and Industry_,[20] which have been printed from the accounts of the Wardens of the Grocers’ Company, are the following entries:
£. _s._ _d._
“Payde to Thomas Middleton, gent. for the ordering, over seeing and writyng of the whole devyse, for the making of the Pageant of Nations, the Iland, the Indian Chariot, the Castle of Fame, trymming the Shipp, with all the several beastes which drew them, and for all the carpenter’s work, paynting, guylding and garnyshing of them, with all other things necessary for the apparelling and finding of all the personages in the sayd shewes, and for all the portage and carryage, both by land and by water, for the lighters for the shew by water, for paynting of a banner of the Lord Mayor’s armes, and also in full for the greenmen, dyvells and fyer works with all thinges thereunto belonging according to his agreement, the some of 282 0 0
“Payde to Nicholas Oaks, stationer, for the printyng of 500 bookes, the some of 4 0 0”[21]
## Partly, perhaps, in consequence of the satisfaction afforded by these
and other performances, he was appointed, in 1620, Chronologer to the City of London, and Inventor of its “honourable entertainments.” Such, at least, is the date of his election according to the authority cited below[22] by Oldys; and in the extracts from the City Records with which I have been furnished, I find no mention of his having held the office anterior to that year:
“Martis vicesimo tertio die Januarii 1620 Annoque R.R. Jacobi Angliæ &c decimo octavo.
Jhones Mayor. Rep. Item: this day uppon consideracion taken by No. 35. f. 76. this Court of the peticion of Thomas Middleton Gentⁿ this Court is well pleased to order that his yearely fee of sixe poundes thirteene shillings and foure pence payable out of the Chamber of London shall from henceforth be encreased to Tenne poundes per annum duringe the pleasure of this Court And the first quarters payment to be made at our Ladye daye next.”
“Martis decimo septimo die Aprilis 1621 Annoque Regni Regis Jacobi Angliæ &c decimo nono.
Jhones Mayor. Rep. Item: this day uppon the humble peticion of No. 35. f. 148. Thomas Middleton Chronologer and Inventor of the hoᵇˡᵉ entertainments of this Citty this Court is pleased for and towardes his expences in the performances thereof to graunt unto him the nominacion and benefitt of one persone to be made free of this Citty by redempcion, the same persone beinge first presented and allowed of by this Court, and to be one of the nomber of ten to be now made free at this Easter and payinge to Mr. Chamberlen to the Citties use the some of sixe shillings and eight pence.”
“Martis decimo septimo die Septembris 1622 Annoque R. Regis Jacobi &c vicesimo.
Barkham Mayor. Rep. Item: this day uppon the humble peticion of No. 36. f. 249. Thomas Middleton the Cittyes Chronologer This Courte is pleased for his better incouragement to order that Mr. Chamberlen shall pay unto him the some of fifteene poundes as of the guifte of this Courte.”
“Jovis sexto die Februarii 1622 Annoque R.Rs Jacobi Angliæ &c vicesimo.
Proby Mayor. Rep. Item: this day uppon the humble peticion of No. 37. f. 95. Thomas Middleton the Citties Chronologer this Court is pleased to take into their consideracion the services of the saide peticioner expressed in his peticion and thereupon to order that Mr. Chamberlen shall pay unto him the some of Twenty poundes as of the guifte of this Court.”
“Jovis vicesimo quarto die Aprilis 1623 Annoque R.Rs Jacobi Angliæ &c vicesimo primo.
Proby Mayor. Rep. N. Item: this daye upon the humble peticion of 37. f. 151.^b Thomas Middleton the Citties Chronologer and for his better incouragement to doe his best service to this Cittye this Court of theire especial favour doth graunt unto him the nominacion and benefit of one person to bee made free of this Cittie by redempcion the same beinge first presented and allowed of by this Court and payinge to Mr. Chamberlen to the Citties use the some of vis. viiid.
“Martis secundo die Septembris 1623 Annoque R.Rs Jacobi Angliæ &c xxi^o.
Proby Mayor. Rep. Item: this daie upon the humble peticion of No. 37. f. 240. Thomas Middleton gent. the Citties Chronologer this Court vouchsaved to order that Mr. Chamberlen shall paie unto him the some of Twentie Markes of the guifte of this Court for and towardes the charges of the service latelie performed by him att the shuting at Bunhill before the Lord Maior and Aldermen and for his service to be performed att the Conduitt heades.”
With the representation of _A Game at Chess_ in 1624 is connected the most memorable incident of our poet’s history. In this singular drama he ventured to bring upon the stage both the English and the Spanish court; much of the satire being levelled at Gondomar, who is unmercifully held up to ridicule not only for his political intrigues, but even for his bodily infirmities. “Prince Charles,” says Mr. Collier, “returned from Spain, after the breaking off the match with the Infanta, late in the autumn of 1623; and to take advantage of the popular feeling upon this question, Middleton’s play was probably written in the succeeding spring, and certainly acted at the Globe in the summer.”[23] _A Game at Chess_ could hardly fail to prove attractive; and it had already been performed (as the 4tos state) “for nine days together,” when the exhibition was suddenly prohibited by a royal mandate, and both the author and the actors were cited before the Privy Council. A detail of the proceedings in this curious affair is supplied by the following letters.
Mr. Secretary Conway to the Privy Council:
“May it please your Lordships,—His Majesty hath received information from the Spanish Ambassador of a very scandalous comedy acted publickly by the King’s players, wherein they take the boldness and presumption, in a rude and dishonourable fashion, to represent on the stage the persons of his Majesty, the King of Spain, the Conde de Gondomar, the Bishop of Spalato, &c. His Majesty remembers well there was a commandment and restraint given against the representing of any modern Christian kings in those stage-plays; and wonders much both at the boldness now taken by that company, and also that it hath been permitted to be so acted, and that the first notice thereof should be brought to him by a foreign ambassador, while so many ministers of his own are thereabouts, and cannot but have heard of it. His Majesty’s pleasure is, that your Lordships presently call before you as well the poet that made the comedy as the comedians that acted it: And upon examination of them to commit them, or such of them as you shall find most faulty, unto prison, if you find cause, or otherwise take security for their forthcoming; and then certify his Majesty what you find that comedy to be, in what points it is most offensive, by whom it was made, by whom licensed, and what course you think fittest to be held for the examplary and severe punishment of the present offenders, and to restrain such insolent and licentious presumption for the future. This is the charge I have received from his Majesty, and with it I make bold to offer to your Lordships the humble service of, &c. From Rufford, August 12^{th}, 1624.”
The Privy Council to Mr. Secretary Conway:
“After our hearty commendations, &c.—According to his Majesty’s pleasure signified to this board by your letter of the 12^{th} August, touching the suppressing of a scandalous comedy acted by the King’s players, we have called before us some of the principal actors and demanded of them by what license and authority they have presumed to act the same; in answer whereto they produced a book being an original and perfect copy thereof (as they affirmed) seen and allowed by Sir Henry Herbert Knᵗ, Master of the Revels, under his own hand, and subscribed in the last page of the said book: We demanding further, whether there were not other parts or passages represented on the stage than those expressly contained in the book, they confidently protested, they added or varied from the same nothing at all. The poet, they tell us, is one Middleton, who shifting out of the way, and not attending the board with the rest, as was expected, we have given warrant to a messenger for the apprehending of him. To those that were before us we gave a sound and sharp reproof, making them sensible of his Majesty’s high displeasure herein, giving them straight charge and commands that they presumed not to act the said comedy any more, nor that they suffered any play or interlude whatsoever to be acted by them or any of their company until his Majesty’s pleasure be further known. We have caused them likewise to enter into bond for their attendance upon the board whensoever they shall be called. As for our certifying to his Majesty (as was intimated by your letter) what passages in the said comedy we should find to be offensive and scandalous; We have thought it our duties for his Majesty’s clearer information to send herewithal the book itself subscribed as aforesaid by the Master of the Revels, that so either yourself or some other whom his Majesty shall appoint to peruse the same, may see the passages themselves out of the original, and call Sir Henry Herbert before you to know a reason of his licensing thereof, who (as we are given to understand) is now attending at court; So having done as much as we conceived agreeable with our duties in conformity to his Majesty’s royal commandments, and that which we hope shall give him full satisfaction, we shall continue our humble prayers to Almighty God for his health and safety; and bid you very heartily farewell. [Dated the 21st of August, 1624.]”
Mr. Secretary Conway to the Privy Council: