that he was 'not of the number of the Faithfull, i. e. Poets, and but a base fellow' (Laing, 12). Occasional plays for several companies and the beginnings of employment in city pageantry occupied 1607-16, and to later periods belong a fruitful partnership with William Rowley for Prince Charles's men, and some slight share in the heterogeneous mass of work that passes under the names of Beaumont and Fletcher. He also wrote a few independent plays, of which A Game at Chess (1624) got him into political trouble. At some time before 1623 a few lines of his got interpolated into the text of Macbeth (cf. Warwick edition, p. 164). In 1620 he obtained a post as Chronologer to the City. He married Maria Morbeck, had a son Edward, and dwelt at Newington Butts, where he was buried on 4 July 1627.
Collections 1840. A Dyce, Works of T. M. 5 vols. 1885-6. A. H. Bullen, Works of T. M. 8 vols. [Omits The Honest Whore.] 1887-90. H. Ellis, The Best Plays of T. M. 2 vols. (Mermaid Series). [Includes Trick to Catch the Old One, Chaste Maid in Cheapside, Widow, Roaring Girl, Mayor of Queenborough, and later plays.] Dissertations: J. Arnheim, T. M. (1887, Archiv, lxxviii. 1, 129, 369); P. G. Wiggin, An Inquiry into the Authorship of the Middleton-Rowley Plays (1897, Radcliffe College Monographs, ix); H. Jung, Das Verhältniss T. M.'s zu Shakspere (1904, Münchener Beiträge, xxix).
PLAYS The Old Law. 1599
1656. The Excellent Comedy, called The Old Law; Or A new way to please you. By Phil. Massenger. Tho. Middleton. William Rowley. Acted before the King and Queene at Salisbury House, and at severall other places, with great Applause. Together with an exact and perfect Catalogue of all the Playes, with the Authors Names, and what are Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Pastoralls, Masks, Interludes, more exactly Printed than ever before. For Edward Archer.
Editions with Massinger's Works (q.v.).—Dissertation: E. E. Morris, On the Date and Composition of T. O. L. (M. L. A. xvii. 1).
It is generally supposed that in some form the play dates from 1599, as in III. i. 34 a woman was 'born in an. 1540, and now 'tis 99'. Of the three authors only Middleton can then have been writing. Morris, after elaborate study of the early work and the versification of all three, concludes that Rowley (c. 1615) and Massinger (c. 1625) successively revised an original by Middleton. The Paul's plays began in 1599, but it cannot be assumed that this was one of them. Stork, 48, doubts the 1599 date and is inclined to assume collaboration between the three writers c. 1615.
