with depraved types becomes an artistic method; he creates characters which fascinate without making the smallest appeal to sympathy, tragedy which harrows without rousing either pity or terror, and language which disdains charm, but penetrates by remorseless veracity and by touches of strange and sudden power. While, however, his greatest triumphs are in the region of moral pathology, he could on occasion represent with great force and brilliance fresh and noble types of character, such as Captain Ager (No. 11 below), Pretiosa (No. 13), Phœnix (No. 4), and the ‘Roaring Girl’ (No. 10).
The writings attributed to Middleton fall into four groups: plays, masques and pageants, miscellaneous verse, and miscellaneous prose. They are enumerated in their presumed chronological order, the titles and dates being those of the first extant editions. Those of which his authorship is doubtful or improbable are marked with an asterisk.
I. Plays.—1. ‘The Old Law, or A New Way to please you, by Phil. Massinger, Tho. Middleton, William Rowley,’ 4to, 1656. In its present state doubtless largely revised, with the aid of Rowley, whose hand is traceable in several scenes (esp. v. 1), and probably edited by Massinger. But the first version can hardly be dated later than 1599 (cf. iii. 1), and in this version Rowley can hardly have been concerned, while Massinger is out of the question. The play, granting the farcical extravagance of its motive, is highly effective. 2. ‘The Mayor of Quinborough,’ a comedy, 4to, 1661. A romantic drama, crude in structure and treatment, but finely written. Like No. 1, this play can hardly have been planned later than Middleton's first period; its present state, however, also shows his mature hand. There are striking reminiscences of the ‘Tempest’ in iv. 3, and of ‘Hamlet’ in v. 1. The dumb show and chorus (perhaps suggested by ‘Pericles’) are borrowed from the early drama to symbolise, it would seem, the antiquity of the subject. Raynulph of Chester, i.e. Ranulf Higden [q. v.], author of the ‘Polychronicon,’ the ‘chorus,’ was the direct source of the story, as Gower in the case of ‘Pericles.’ The caricature of a puritan secured the revival and publication of the play after the Restoration. 3. ‘Blurt, Master-Constable, or the Spaniards Nightwalke,’ 4to, 1602. The plot, which contains effective elements, is not quite clearly worked out. Lazarillo is a portrait in Jonson's elaborate manner; Blurt has traces of Dogberry; but the imitation is nowhere close. 4. ‘The Phœnix,’ 4to, 1607; 1630; licensed for the press 9 May 1607. A felicitous conception, allied both to the Jonsonian humour comedy (a virtuous critic or censor contemplating a corrupt world) and to ‘Measure for Measure’ (the censor being a prince in disguise), but where Jonson paints follies Middleton paints crimes. 5. ‘Michaelmas Terme,’ 4to, 1607; 1630; licensed for the press 15 May 1607. A lively and effective comedy of city intrigue. 6. ‘A Trick to Catch the Old-One,’ 4to, 1608; 1616; licensed for the press 7 Oct. 1607. A highly ingenious and well-constructed plot, the strongest of Middleton's comedies of intrigue. 7. ‘The Familie of Love,’ 4to, 1608; licensed for the press 12 Oct. 1607. The introduction of the familists merely serves as an opening to a comedy of intrigue of the usual kind; as a representation of manners it has no value except as it reflects the scandal of the time. The play was very successful, and probably contributed much to establish Middleton's reputation, the ‘Prologue’ describing the author as not yet famous, while the ‘Address to the Reader’ refers complacently to the applause the play had excited when new. The terms of this address hardly permit us to date the play later than 1605. 8. ‘Your Five Gallants,’ 4to, n.d. [1608]; licensed for the press 22 March 1608. The play ‘The Fyve Wittie Gallants,’ entered on the Stationers' Registers under the same date, is doubtless the same. A hasty and loosely constructed comedy of intrigue. 9. ‘A Mad World, my Masters,’ 4to, 1608; 1640; licensed for the press 4 Oct. 1608. 10. ‘The Roaring Girle, by T. Middleton and T. Dekkar’ (sic), 4to, 1611. Dekker is easily traced in the ‘canting’ scenes (v. 1), less certainly elsewhere. The original of the heroine was Mary Frith [q. v.]; Middleton, who was strong in moral pathology, has idealised her character in an unexpected and remarkable way, ‘but it is the excellency of a writer to leave things better than he finds 'em’ (Preface). 11. ‘A Faire Quarrell, by Thomas Midleton and William Rowley,’ 4to, 1617; 1622. The remainder of the first edition was issued, the same year, ‘with new Additions of Mr. Chaugh's and Trimtram's Roaring …’ The main plot is without a parallel in Middleton's plays for intensity of moral passion. But it is easier to assign it to Middleton, a man of refined sensibility who chose to deal with gross materials, than to Rowley's coarse though gifted nature. The story of Jane and the physician is apparently borrowed in part from Cinthio's ‘Hecatommithi,’ Novel 5 of Dec. 4 (stories of persons who fall victims to their own plots). 12. ‘The Changeling, by
