Thomas Middleton: The Collected Works

by Taylor, Gary; Lavagnino, John

• ISBN13: 9780199580538
• ISBN10: 0199580537
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-30
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Thomas Middleton (1580-1627) - "our other Shakespeare" - is the only other Renaissance playwright who created lasting masterpieces of both comedy and tragedy; he also wrote the greatest box-office hit of early modern London (the unique history play A Game at Chess). His range extends beyond these traditional genres to tragicomedies, masques, pageants, pamphlets, epigrams, and Biblical and political commentaries, written alone or in collaboration with Shakespeare, Webster, Dekker, Ford, Heywood, Rowley, and others. Compared by critics to Aristophanes and Ibsen, Racine and Joe Orton, he has influenced writers as diverse as Aphra Behn and T. S. Eliot. Though repeatedly censored in his own time, he has since come to be particularly admired for his representations of the intertwined pursuits of sex, money, power, and God. The Oxford Middleton, prepared by more than sixty scholars from a dozen countries, follows the precedent of The Oxford Shakespeare in being published in two volumes, an innovative but accessible Collected Works and a comprehensive scholarly Companion. Though closely connected, each volume can be used independently of the other. The Collected Works brings together for the first time in a single volume all the works currently attributed to Middleton. It is the first edition of Middleton's works since 1886. The texts are printed in modern spelling and punctuation, with critical introductions and foot-of-the-page commentaries; they are arranged in chronological order, with a special section of Juvenilia. The volume is introduced by essays on Middleton's life and reputation, on early modern London, and on the varied theatres of the English Renaissance. Extensively illustrated, it incorporates much new information on Middleton's life, canon, texts, and contexts. A self-consciously "federal edition", The Collected Works applies contemporary theories about the nature of literature and the history of the book to editorial practice.

Author Biography

Gary Taylor, George Matthew Edgar Professor of English and Director of the program in the History of Text Technologies at Florida State University, was joint General Editor of Shakespeare's Complete Works (Oxford, 1986; revised 2005). He has written or co-written more than a dozen books, including Reinventing Shakespeare, Cultural Selection, Castration, and Buying Whiteness . In 2006 he gave the McKenzie lectures in the history of the book at Oxford University.
John Lavagnino studied physics at Harvard University and American literature at Brandeis University, where he wrote his dissertation on Vladimir Nabokov. He has worked in atmospheric science at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and in electronic publishing for numerous organizations. He is now Senior Lecturer in Humanities Computing at King's College London, and is working on the digital Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts 1450-1700.
Associate General Editors
MacDonald P. Jackson
John Jowett
Valerie Wayne
Adrian Weiss

Table of Contents

Index of Titles by Genre

List of Illustrations

How to Use This Book

Thomas Middleton: Lives and Afterlives

Middleton's London

Middleton's Theatres

Collected Works 1603-1627

The Phoenix

News from Gravesend: Sent to Nobody

The Nightingale and the Ant and, Father Hubburd's Tales

The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinary or, The Walks in Paul's

Plato's Cap cast at the year 1604

The Black Book

The Patient Man and the Honest Whore

The Whole Royal and Magnificent Entertainment Given to King James through the City of LondonThe Patient Man and the Honest Whore

Lost Plays: A Brief Account

Michaelmas Term

A Trick to Catch the Old One

A Mad World, My Masters

A Yorkshire Tragedy or, One of the Four Plays in One, called All's One

The Life of Timon of Athens

The Puritan Widow or, The Puritan or, The Widow of Watling Street

The Revenger's Tragedy

Your Five Gallants

Sir Robert Sherley his Entertainment in Cracovia

The Two Gates of Salvation or, The Marriage of the Old and New Testament or, God's Parliament House

The Bloody Banquet: A Tragedy

The Roaring Girl or, Moll Cutpurse

No Wit/Help like a Woman's or, The Almanac

The Lady's Tragedy ['The Second Maiden's Tragedy']: Parallel Texts

A Chaste Maid in Cheapside

The Manner of his Lordship's Entertainment

The Triumphs of Truth

Wit at Several Weapons

Masque of Cupids

More Dissemblers Besides Women

The Widow

The Witch

The Tragedy of Macbeth

Civitatis Amor

A Fair Quarrel

The Triumphs of Honour and Industry

The Owl's Almanac

The Peacemaker or, Great Britain's Blessing

An/The Old Law

Masque of Heroes or, The Inner Temple Masque

Hengist, King of Kent or, The Mayor of Queenborough

The Triumphs of Love and Antiquity

The World Tossed at Tennis [A Courtly Masque]

Honourable Entertainments and An Invention

Women, Beware Women: A Tragedy

The Sun in Aries

Measure for Measure

Anything for a Quiet Life

The Changeling

The Nice Valour or, The Passionate Madman

The Triumphs of Honour and Virtue

The Spanish Gypsy

The Triumphs of Integrity with The Triumphs of the Golden Fleece

A Game at Chesse: An Early Form

A Game at Chess: A Later Form

Occasional Poems, 1619-25

Lost Pageant for Charles I: A Brief Account

The Triumphs of Health and Prosperity

Lost Political Prose, 1620-7: A Brief Account

Juvenilia 1597-1602

The Wisdom of Solomon Paraphrased

Microcynicon: Six Snarling Satires

The Ghost of Lucrece

The Penniless Parliament of Threadbare Poets

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