As a young man, Thomas Middleton went by the pseudonym Thomas Medius & Gravis Tonus
—medius meaning in the middle
but also middling, ordinary
and neutral, ambiguous
([Taylor](BIBL1.xml#TAYL6)). All these epithets could be said to fit. As a prolific writer of poetry, plays, masques, and entertainments, Middleton occupied the centre of public imagination in [London](LOND5.xml). However, he achieved neither the fame of a Shakespeare nor even the notoriety of a Marlowe. His work—often written in collaboration with other writers—occupies an ambiguous space between ribald comedy, biting satire, and sober allegory.
Middleton was baptized on 18 April 1580 in [St. Lawrence, Jewry](STLA5.xml), [London](LOND5.xml). His father, a well-to-do gentleman bricklayer, died when Thomas was a young boy, and his mother subsequently wedded Thomas Harvey, an itinerant grocer of dubious means ([Barker 2](BIBL1.xml#BARK3)). Harvey’s pecuniary difficulties, combined with a family feud over Middleton Sr.’s estate, left young Thomas with a meagre inheritance and a bitter taste of legal chicanery and debt, themes that would later surface, comically or otherwise, in many of his plays ([Friedenreich 1](BIBL1.xml#FRIE1)).
Middleton matriculated at Oxford in 1598, although it is doubtful that he graduated. Family obligations brought him repeatedly back to [London](LOND5.xml), where he was seen daylie accompaninge the players
(Snode, qtd. in [Friedenreich 1](BIBL1.xml#FRIE1)). Indeed, Middleton soon surrendered himself to theatre and what he called the lickerish study of poetry
(qtd. in [Barker 7](BIBL1.xml#BARK3)). He published his first collection of verse while still at Oxford ([Taylor](BIBL1.xml#TAYL6)), and, by 1602, he was writing plays for Philip Henslowe’s company at the [Rose](ROSE6.xml) in [Southwark](SOUT2.xml) ([Barker 9](BIBL1.xml#BARK3)).
The [Rose](ROSE6.xml) specialized in populist entertainment, but Middleton, never one to yoke himself to a single theatre company or even a single style, simultaneously took on more reputable projects, including plays for children’s theatre companies such as the Children of Paul’s and the Children of the Chapel ([Barker 10](BIBL1.xml#BARK3)). The audiences for these plays tended to be gentlefolk and citizens with deep pockets and extensive connections. Hence, Middleton’s name began to spread within powerful circles. In 1603, he was commissioned to write a speech for Thomas Dekker’s
The Magnificent Entertainment.
See MoEML’s transcription of [The Magnificent Entertainment](MAGN3.xml). The Phoenix, his earliest surviving play, was performed before
King James in the court’s first winter theatrical season (
[Taylor](BIBL1.xml#TAYL6)).
During this period, Middleton continued to write plays for both popular and elite audiences. His works include
Michaelmas Term (
1605),
A Trick to Catch the Old One (
1605), and possibly
The Revenger’s Tragedy (
1606), though the attribution of this final work to
Middleton is still a matter of debate. In these plays and others, financial and moral perdition constitute recurrent themes, and the lubricious underbelly of contemporary
[London](LOND5.xml) emerges as a favourite backdrop, as in
The Roaring Girl, or, Moll Cutpurse (with
Dekker,
1611) and
A Chaste Maid in Cheapside (
1613) (
[Taylor](BIBL1.xml#TAYL6)).
From 1610 to 1620, Middleton’s more highbrow commissions continued apace. In October 1613, he undertook his first Lord Mayor’s show:
The Triumphs of TruthSee MoEML’s transcription of [The Triumphs of Truth](TRIU1.xml). (
[Barker 17](BIBL1.xml#BARK3)), written for the Grocers’ Company.
See [Introduction to The Triumphs of Truth](TRIU1_critical.xml#TRIU1_critical_grocers). Staged in honour of
[London](LOND5.xml)’s new mayor (confusingly also named
Thomas Middleton), the spectacular allegorical pageantry of
The Triumphs of Truth remains on record as Early Modern
[England](ENGL2.xml)’s most expensive mayoral entertainment (
[Bergeron 134](BIBL1.xml#BERG2)). As
Middleton’s affiliation with the city and court developed, he also undertook commissions for masques, celebrations (including the opening of the New River waterway), and two more Lord Mayor’s shows (
[Taylor](BIBL1.xml#TAYL6)). In
1620, he was appointed to the salaried position of city chronologer. One of his functions as chronologer was that of
Inventor of Entertainments
(
[Barker 20](BIBL1.xml#BARK3)).
All the while, Middleton never stopped writing plays. His greatest theatrical success, the 1624 political allegory
A Game at Chess, ran for an unprecedented nine consecutive days, and the controversy it inflamed was so tremendous that the playwright was forced, briefly, to go into hiding (
[Barker 22](BIBL1.xml#BARK3)).
The late 1620s saw a deterioration of Middleton’s affiliation with the city. Plague forced the cancellation of the Lord Mayor’s show in 1625, and dissatisfaction with other civic entertainments led the common council to terminate Middleton’s pay. He took on less lucrative commissions from livery companies, never quite regaining his prestige, until his death in 1627 ([Taylor](BIBL1.xml#TAYL6)).See also [Taylor, Thomas Middleton: Lives and Afterlives](BIBL1.xml#TAYL7) and [Marshall, Thomas Middleton](TRIU1_critical.xml#TRIU1_critical_middleton). The standard scholarly edition of Middleton’s works is [Thomas Middleton: The Complete Works](BIBL1.xml#TAYL8), ed. Taylor and Lavagnino; see also [Thomas Middleton and Early Modern Textual Culture: A Companion to the Collected Works](BIBL1.xml#TAYL9).