Thomas Middleton

During his career Thomas Middleton (1580-1627) produced a pretty spectacular canon of plays: spectacular in quantity, quality, and scope. It's no surprise that Middleton excelled at plays of social intrigue, given that it was part of his life from a young age. He was baptised in 1580, the son of Anne and William Middleton; his father was part of the guild of tilers and bricklayers, and had a certified coat of arms, making young Thomas Middleton a gentleman. In 1586 Middleton's father died, and his mother married the grocer Thomas Harvey. Two weeks into the marriage Harvey tried to claim the Middleton children's inheritance for his own, and fifteen years of legal battles between husband and wife ensued. Middleton appeared in court to testify multiple times between 1597 and 1606. It's no wonder, then, that his characters meddle in equivocation and social wrangling. Middleton entered The Queen's College, University of Oxford in 1598, but left university to become an actor and a playwright. Etching for Vizetelly & Co. After 17th century woodcut (Thomas Middleton, Vizetelly & co., 1887) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Master of Many Genres By 1601…