Authorities:—His works were edited by Alexander Dyce (5 vols.)
in 1840, with a valuable introduction quoting many documents,
and by A. H. Bullen (8 vols.) in 1885. The Best Plays of Thomas
Middleton were edited for the Mermaid series (1887) by Havelock
Ellis with an introduction by A. C. Swinburne. See also Miss
P. G. Wiggin’s Inquiry into the Authorship of the Middleton-Rowley
Plays (Boston, 1897), and the notice on Middleton in Professor
A. W. Ward’s Hist. of Eng. Dram. Lit. (ed. 1899; ii., 493–540),
which contains a full account of Middleton’s Game at Chesse. A
careful examination of the parallelisms between the plays of Shakespeare
and Middleton is made by, D. Hugo Jung in “Das
Verhältnis Thomas Middleton’s zu Shakspere” (Münchener Beiträge
zur roman. u. engl. Phil. vol. xxix., 1904).
MIDDLETON, a market town and municipal borough in the Middleton parliamentary division of Lancashire, England, on the Irk, near the Rochdale Canal, and on the Lancashire & Yorkshire railway, 6 m. N.N.E. from Manchester. Pop. (1901), 25,178. The church of St Leonards is of mixed architecture, with a low square tower. The oldest portion of the building (the tower arch) dates from the 12th century, but the main portion from 1412, and the south aisle from 1524. Two chapels in it contain memorials of, and are named after, two ancient Lancashire families, the Asshetons and the Hopwoods. The Queen Elizabeth grammar-school, a building in the Tudor style, was founded in 1572 by Nowell, dean of St Paul’s, London. There are a handsome town-hall and municipal technical schools. An extensive system of tramways and electric light railways connects the town with its suburbs and adjacent industrial centres. The prosperity of the town dates from the introduction of manufactures at the close of the 18th century. The staple trade is the spinning and weaving of cotton, and the other industries include silk weaving, calico-printing, bleaching, dyeing, iron-founding and the manufacture of soap and chemicals. There are collieries in the neighbourhood. The town was incorporated in 1886, and the corporation consists of a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 4775 acres.
MIDDLETOWN, a city and the county-seat of Middlesex
county, Connecticut, U.S.A., in the township of Middletown, in the south central part of the state, on the west bank of the Connecticut river, about 30 m. from its mouth, and about
15 m. south of Hartford. Pop. (1890), 9013; (1900), 9589,
of whom 2316 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 11,851.
Within a radius of 2 m. from the city hall there was
found in 1910 most of the township’s population of
20,749 The city is served by two branches of the New
York, New Haven & Hartford railroad, by a line of coast
steamers, and by electric lines connecting with neighbouring
cities and villages. The city is connected by a long highway
bridge with the village of Portland in the township of Portland
(pop. in 1910, 3425; area 26 sq. m.), which is known for its
brown-stone quarries. Four miles south of Middletown is Chestnut
Mountain (or Bull Hill), which commands a fine view; and
about 3 m. east are the “Narrows” of the Connecticut river,
where the water flows between high hills. Middletown has a
number of handsome residences. In High Street stand the
buildings of Wesleyan university (Methodist Episcopal), founded
in 1831 by the Rev. Wilbur Fisk, who became the first president
and the Rev. Laban Clark (1778–1868), who became the first
president of the board of trustees. Women were first admitted
in 1872, but coeducation was later discontinued,” and the last
freshman class of women students under the old system entered
in 1909. The university offers classical and scientific courses,
and in 1908–1909 had 36 instructors, 322 students (30 being
women), and a library of 79,000 volumes. In 1875–1877 the
work of the first agricultural experiment, station in the United
States was carried on here under state supervision in Wesleyan
University, with Professor Wilbur Olin Atwater (1844–1907) as
director; it was then removed to New Haven. Middletown is also
the seat of the Berkeley divinity school (Protestant Episcopal),
founded in 1849 as the theological department of Trinity College,
Hartford, rechartered and removed to Middletown in 1854, and
having in 1907 a faculty of 8, and 16 students; and the city has a
free public library (1874) with 17,700 vols. in 1907. South-east
of the city is the Connecticut hospital for the insane, and south-west
of the city, the Connecticut industrial school for girls
(reformatory). The total value of the factory products in 1905
was $5,604,676, an increase of 35% over that for 1900. The
municipality owns and operates the waterworks.
Middletown occupies the site of an Indian village, Mattabesec or Mattabesett (frorn Massa-sepues-et, “at a great rivulet or brook”), the principal village of the Mattabesec Indians, an Algonquian tribe which included the Wongunk, Pyquaug and Montowese Indians and seems to have had jurisdiction over the whole of south-western Connecticut. The township of Middletown was settled by whites in 1650, and until 1653, when the present name was adopted, was known by the Indian name, Mattabesett. It was incorporated in 1651; and the city was chartered in 1784. Shipbuilding and commerce became the principal sources of wealth. In the middle of the nineteenth century Middletown was one of the leading cities of Connecticut, and as late as 1886 it was a port of entry; but the development of rival ports, especially New Haven, Hartford and Bridgeport, into railway centres, retarded the growth of manufacturing, and commerce declined after the Civil War.
MIDDLETOWN, a city of Orange county, New York, U.S.A.,
on the Wallkill river, 67 m. N.N.W. of New York City. Pop.
(1890) 11,977; (1900) 14,522, including 1700 foreign-born and 480
negroes; (1905, state census) 14,516; (1910) 15,313. It is served
by the Erie, the New York, Susquehanna & Western, and the
New York, Ontario & Western railways, and is connected by an
electric line with Goshen (pop. in 1910, 3081), the county-seat.
It is situated in an attractive dairy and agricultural country;
and in the city and vicinity there are many summer residences.
Here are the state homoeopathic hospital for the insane, a state
armoury, Thrall hospital, and Thrall library. Middletown is
primarily a manufacturing city, and has the car shops of the
New York, Ontario & Western railway. The value of its factory
products increased from $2,154,742 in 1900 to $3,356,330 in
1905, or 55·8 %. The municipality owns and operates its
Waterworks. Middletown was settled about 1796 and owed its
early commercial importance to its being a “half-way house”
(whence its name) for travellers on the Minisink Road to
western New York, and it was for a time a terminus of the
Erie railroad. It was incorporated as a village in 1848, and
first chartered as a city in 1888.
MIDDLETOWN, a city of Butler county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the
Miami river, 34 m. N. of Cincinnati. Pop. (1890), 7681; (1900),
9215, of whom 769 were foreign-born and 314 were negroes; (1910)
13,152. It is served by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago &
St Louis, the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton, the Cincinnati
Northern (New York Central system), and a branch of the
Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern (Pennsylvania system) railways.
It is the trade centre of a rich and beautiful agricultural region
in which tobacco, wheat and Indian corn are the principal crops.
The river furnishes considerable water-power and the total factory
product in 1905 was valued at $8,357,993, an increase of
47·2 % over that in 1900. The Waterworks are owned and
operated by the municipality. Middletown was laid out in 1802
and was named from its location between Cincinnati and Dayton;
it was incorporated in 1833.
MIDDLETOWN, a borough of Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the east bank of the Susquehanna river, 9 m. below
Harrisburg. Pop. (1890), 5080; (1900), 5608 (340 foreign-born
and 289 negroes); (1910), 5374. It is served by the Pennsylvania
and the Philadelphia & Reading railways, and by an electric
line to Harrisburg. The borough has a considerable trade with
the surrounding agricultural country, and owing to the proximity
of the Yorkhaven power-plant (across the river) and the excellent
railway service, is a manufacturing centre. The municipality
owns its electric lighting plant. Middletown was founded in
1755 by Friends (from Philadelphia and other places in Pennsylvania)
and Scotch-Irish, and was so named because of its position
midway between Lancaster and Carlisle. It was first incorporated
as a borough in 1828.
MIDDLEWICH, an urban district in the Northwich parliamentary division of Cheshire, England, 166 m. N.W. of London,
