Thomas Middleton was an English playwright and poet of the English Renaissance. He was born in 1580 and died in 1627. Middleton is one of the most famous Jacobean playwrights along with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson.
Son of a bricklayer, he attended Queen’s College in Oxford. During the Elizabethan period, he wrote poetry but did not achieve success. He then wrote satires, and pamphlets unlike Shakespeare and many other Elizabethan writers, he was not tied to a company such as the Admiral’s men. He was what was then called a free agent. He was involved in numerous controversies with his fellow playwright contemporaries: mainly Ben Jonson and George Chapman. During the 1603 plague, which led to the closure of London theaters, Middleton resorted to writing pamphlets in prose, then went back to writing plays once theaters reopened. In 1613 he wrote his first comedy, A chaste maid in cheapside.
He is most famous for the “Chaste maid”, but also “The changeling”, “A game at chess”, “Women beware Women”. It is said Middleton cooperated with Shakespeare for “All’s well that ends well”.
Although not as famous as Jonson, his plays have been critically acclaimed for the deep suspicion they display of human nature, and their comedic cynicism.
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