Middleton Thomas

Middleton, Thomas, English dramatist, was born about 1570 in London, and died in 1627. In 1620 he was appointed City Chronologer, in which office he was succeeded by Ben Jonson; and he frequently wrote for and arranged the city pageants. He wrote both tragedies and comedies, frequently, as was then the custom, in collaboration. 'Ike Roaring Girl (1611) was written with Dekker; A Fair Quarrel, The Old Law, and many others with Rowley; while Jonson and Fletcher may have had a hand in The Widow. Some of the most popular were A Mad World, my Masters, The Mayor of Queenborough, and ,4 Trick to catch the Old One : but the posthumous plays, The Changeling, The Spanish Gipsy, and Women, beware Women, are probably the best. A play directed against the Spanish marriage produced in 1624, and called A Game at Chess, took the public by storm, but was interdicted by the authorities, and the- author was summoned before the Privy Council.