Middleton’s Early Work

Abstract

Thomas Middleton began to write for the stage sometime around 1602, and produced his last play — A Game at Chess — in 1624. His career therefore spans the Jacobean period almost exactly, and during that time he was involved in virtually every activity open to the professional playwright. He wrote for public and private theatres, adult and children’s companies, pageants for the streets, entertainments for the court, and produced a range of work remarkable for its variety — and its quality.

We are comedians, tragedians, tragi-comedians, comitragedians, pastorists, humourists, clownists, satirists: we have them, sir, from the hug to the smile, from the smile to the laugh, from the laugh to the handkerchief.

(Hengist, King of Kent, V. i)