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This Jacobean city comedy is a curiosity in that it presents a
real-life character, the notorious cross-dresser Moll Frith, who
probably was among the first audiences of 'her' play before she was
taken up for public misconduct. Middleton and Dekker's 'roaring girl'
may outrage her society with her pipe, bluster and swagger, but she
turns out to be the moral centre of the play. Her code of honour leads
her to call the bluff on rogues and conspicuous consumers, to thrash a
hypocritical gallant in a duel, and to act as go-between for the young
lovers thwarted by parental tyranny. This wry dramatisation of female
deviancy exposing male ineffectuality is as much to the point today as
it was in King James's England. An appendix helps the modern reader to
appreciate the canting terms used by the low-life characters.
real-life character, the notorious cross-dresser Moll Frith, who
probably was among the first audiences of 'her' play before she was
taken up for public misconduct. Middleton and Dekker's 'roaring girl'
may outrage her society with her pipe, bluster and swagger, but she
turns out to be the moral centre of the play. Her code of honour leads
her to call the bluff on rogues and conspicuous consumers, to thrash a
hypocritical gallant in a duel, and to act as go-between for the young
lovers thwarted by parental tyranny. This wry dramatisation of female
deviancy exposing male ineffectuality is as much to the point today as
it was in King James's England. An appendix helps the modern reader to
appreciate the canting terms used by the low-life characters.
This Jacobean city comedy is a curiosity in that it presents a
real-life character, the notorious cross-dresser Moll Frith, who
probably was among the first audiences of 'her' play before she was
taken up for public misconduct. Middleton and Dekker's 'roaring girl'
may outrage her society with her pipe, bluster and swagger, but she
turns out to be the moral centre of the play. Her code of honour leads
her to call the bluff on rogues and conspicuous consumers, to thrash a
hypocritical gallant in a duel, and to act as go-between for the young
lovers thwarted by parental tyranny. This wry dramatisation of female
deviancy exposing male ineffectuality is as much to the point today as
it was in King James's England. An appendix helps the modern reader to
appreciate the canting terms used by the low-life characters.
real-life character, the notorious cross-dresser Moll Frith, who
probably was among the first audiences of 'her' play before she was
taken up for public misconduct. Middleton and Dekker's 'roaring girl'
may outrage her society with her pipe, bluster and swagger, but she
turns out to be the moral centre of the play. Her code of honour leads
her to call the bluff on rogues and conspicuous consumers, to thrash a
hypocritical gallant in a duel, and to act as go-between for the young
lovers thwarted by parental tyranny. This wry dramatisation of female
deviancy exposing male ineffectuality is as much to the point today as
it was in King James's England. An appendix helps the modern reader to
appreciate the canting terms used by the low-life characters.
Considered by critics to be one of the best tragedies of the English Renaissance, The Changeling was written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley and first published in book form in 1653. Beatrice-Joanna is betrothed to Alonzo but in love with Alsemero. She convinces De Flores, who is in love with her, to help her be free of Alonzo - by murdering him. In a comic sub-plot, Alibius' young wife Isabella has two admirers, Franciscus and Antonio, who pretend to be madmen in order to see her.
Written for the adult players at the open-air Swan theatre in 1613,
this master-piece of Jacobean city comedy signals its ironic nature
even in the title: chaste maids, like most other goods and people in
London's busiest commercial area, are likely to be fake. Money is more
important than either happiness or honour; and the most coveted
commodities to be bought with it are sex and social prestige. Middleton
interweaves the fortunes of four families, who either seek to marry
their children off as profitably as possible, to stop having any more
for fear of poverty, or to acquire some in order to keep their property
in the family. Most prosperous is the husband who pimps his wife to a
rich knight and lets him support the household with his alimony. Like
many early modern critics of London's enormous growth, this play
warned: the city is a monster that lives off the money the country
produces.
this master-piece of Jacobean city comedy signals its ironic nature
even in the title: chaste maids, like most other goods and people in
London's busiest commercial area, are likely to be fake. Money is more
important than either happiness or honour; and the most coveted
commodities to be bought with it are sex and social prestige. Middleton
interweaves the fortunes of four families, who either seek to marry
their children off as profitably as possible, to stop having any more
for fear of poverty, or to acquire some in order to keep their property
in the family. Most prosperous is the husband who pimps his wife to a
rich knight and lets him support the household with his alimony. Like
many early modern critics of London's enormous growth, this play
warned: the city is a monster that lives off the money the country
produces.
One of the great Renaissance playwrights, Middleton wrote tragedies essentially different from either Marlowe's or Shakespeare's, being wittier than the former and more grittily ironic than the latter. The genre of 'citizen tragedy' came into its own in the eighteenth century, but Middleton can claim to have created it: Bianca, wife of a middling commercial agent, arouses the lust of the Duke of Florence and becomes his mistress, first secretly, then openly and finally, after her husband has been seduced by the scheming Lady Livia and stabbed by Livia's brother, the Duke's wife. Livia plots her revenge, and the play ends with a banquet and a masque that are a triumph of black farce. Middleton's powerful, psychologically complex female characters and his clear-sighted analysis of misogyny are bound to impress today's audiences, but it is the pervasive irony - cynicism, even - with which he dissects the motivations of both oppressor and victim that makes him so eerily modern.
The Jacobean playwright Thomas Middleton stands with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson as one of the most successful and prolific playwrights of his time. Middleton achieved equal success in comedy and tragedy, producing a diverse range of dramatic and poetic works. This comprehensive eBook presents Middleton’s complete plays and poetry, with numerous illustrations, rare texts appearing in digital print for the first time, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)
* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Middleton’s life and works
* Concise introductions to the famous plays
* All 32 plays, with individual contents tables
* Includes rare attributions, available in no other collection
* Images of how the plays were first printed, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts
* Excellent formatting of the play texts
* Features Middleton’s complete poetry – available in no other collection
* Easily locate the poems you want to read
* Includes a special ‘Glossary of Elizabethan Language’, helping your comprehension of rare words and phrases
* Features two biographies - discover Middleton’s medieval life
* Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres
Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles
CONTENTS:
The Plays
THE PHOENIX
BLURT, MASTER CONSTABLE
THE HONEST WHORE, PART I
MICHAELMAS TERM
A TRICK TO CATCH THE OLD ONE
A MAD WORLD, MY MASTERS
A YORKSHIRE TRAGEDY
TIMON OF ATHENS
THE FAMILY OF LOVE
THE PURITAN
THE REVENGER’S TRAGEDY
YOUR FIVE GALLANTS
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
THE BLOODY BANQUET
THE ROARING GIRL
NO WIT, NO HELP LIKE A WOMAN’S
THE SECOND MAIDEN’S TRAGEDY
A CHASTE MAID IN CHEAPSIDE
WIT AT SEVERAL WEAPONS
MORE DISSEMBLERS BESIDES WOMEN
THE WIDOW
THE WITCH
A FAIR QUARREL
THE OLD LAW
HENGIST, KING OF KENT
WOMEN BEWARE WOMEN
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
ANYTHING FOR A QUIET LIFE
THE CHANGELING
THE NICE VALOUR
THE SPANISH GYPSY
A GAME AT CHESS
The Poetry
THOMAS MIDDLETON’S POEMS
The Biographies
THOMAS MIDDLETON by Algernon Charles Swinburne
INTRODUCTION TO THOMAS MIDDLETON by A. H. Bullen
Glossary of Elizabethan Language
Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to purchase this eBook as a Parts Edition of individual eBooks
* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Middleton’s life and works
* Concise introductions to the famous plays
* All 32 plays, with individual contents tables
* Includes rare attributions, available in no other collection
* Images of how the plays were first printed, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts
* Excellent formatting of the play texts
* Features Middleton’s complete poetry – available in no other collection
* Easily locate the poems you want to read
* Includes a special ‘Glossary of Elizabethan Language’, helping your comprehension of rare words and phrases
* Features two biographies - discover Middleton’s medieval life
* Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres
Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles
CONTENTS:
The Plays
THE PHOENIX
BLURT, MASTER CONSTABLE
THE HONEST WHORE, PART I
MICHAELMAS TERM
A TRICK TO CATCH THE OLD ONE
A MAD WORLD, MY MASTERS
A YORKSHIRE TRAGEDY
TIMON OF ATHENS
THE FAMILY OF LOVE
THE PURITAN
THE REVENGER’S TRAGEDY
YOUR FIVE GALLANTS
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
THE BLOODY BANQUET
THE ROARING GIRL
NO WIT, NO HELP LIKE A WOMAN’S
THE SECOND MAIDEN’S TRAGEDY
A CHASTE MAID IN CHEAPSIDE
WIT AT SEVERAL WEAPONS
MORE DISSEMBLERS BESIDES WOMEN
THE WIDOW
THE WITCH
A FAIR QUARREL
THE OLD LAW
HENGIST, KING OF KENT
WOMEN BEWARE WOMEN
MEASURE FOR MEASURE
ANYTHING FOR A QUIET LIFE
THE CHANGELING
THE NICE VALOUR
THE SPANISH GYPSY
A GAME AT CHESS
The Poetry
THOMAS MIDDLETON’S POEMS
The Biographies
THOMAS MIDDLETON by Algernon Charles Swinburne
INTRODUCTION TO THOMAS MIDDLETON by A. H. Bullen
Glossary of Elizabethan Language
Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to purchase this eBook as a Parts Edition of individual eBooks
As the Elizabethan era gave way to the reign of James I, England grappled with corruption within the royal court and widespread religious anxiety. Dramatists responded with morally complex plays of dark wit and violent spectacle, exploring the nature of death, the abuse of power and vigilante justice. In Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy a father failed by the Spanish court seeks his own bloody retribution for his son's murder. Shakespeare's 1603 version of Hamlet creates an avenging Prince of unique psychological depth, while Chettle's The Tragedy of Hoffman is a fascinating reworking of Hamlet's themes, probably for a rival theatre company. In Marston's Antonio's Revenge, thwarted love leads inexorably to gory reprisals and in Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy, malcontent Vindice unleashes an escalating orgy of mayhem on a debauched Duke for his bride's murder, in a ferocious satire reflecting the mounting disillusionment of the age. Emma Smith's introduction considers the political and religious climate behind the plays and the dramatic conventions within them. This edition includes a chronology, playwrights' biographies and suggestions for further reading.
This New Mermaids anthology brings together the four most popular and widely studied of Thomas Middleton's plays - Women Beware Women; The Changeling; The Roaring Girl and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside - with a new introduction by William Carroll, examining the plays in the context of early modern theatre, culture and politics, as well as their language, characters and themes. On-page commentary notes guide students to a better understanding and combine to make this an indispensable student edition ideal for study and classroom use from A Level upwards.
The Changeling is a powerful psychological tragedy of the moral degeneration of a highborn Spanish girl through a crime prompted by obsessive love. Thomas Middleton was probably responsible for the tragic plot, and William Rowley for the comic subplot concerning the antics of a young rake who contrives to have himself committed to an insane asylum for love of the proprietor's handsome wife.
Written for the adult players at the open-air Swan theatre in 1613,
this master-piece of Jacobean city comedy signals its ironic nature
even in the title: chaste maids, like most other goods and people in
London's busiest commercial area, are likely to be fake. Money is more
important than either happiness or honour; and the most coveted
commodities to be bought with it are sex and social prestige. Middleton
interweaves the fortunes of four families, who either seek to marry
their children off as profitably as possible, to stop having any more
for fear of poverty, or to acquire some in order to keep their property
in the family. Most prosperous is the husband who pimps his wife to a
rich knight and lets him support the household with his alimony. Like
many early modern critics of London's enormous growth, this play
warned: the city is a monster that lives off the money the country
produces.
this master-piece of Jacobean city comedy signals its ironic nature
even in the title: chaste maids, like most other goods and people in
London's busiest commercial area, are likely to be fake. Money is more
important than either happiness or honour; and the most coveted
commodities to be bought with it are sex and social prestige. Middleton
interweaves the fortunes of four families, who either seek to marry
their children off as profitably as possible, to stop having any more
for fear of poverty, or to acquire some in order to keep their property
in the family. Most prosperous is the husband who pimps his wife to a
rich knight and lets him support the household with his alimony. Like
many early modern critics of London's enormous growth, this play
warned: the city is a monster that lives off the money the country
produces.
