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Did Not Rowley Merely Revise Middleton?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Wilbur D. Dunkel
Wilbur D. Dunkel*
Affiliation:
University of Rochester
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Extract

For over thirty years students of the drama have apparently accepted Miss P. G. Wiggin's monograph, An Inquiry into the Middleton-Rowley Plays, as a statement of the individual shares of Thomas Middleton and William Rowley in writing A Fair Quarrel, The Changeling, and The Spanish Gipsy. Though Miss Wiggin considered styles and methods of writing, she differentiated between the contributions of the two authors, whose names appear on the title pages, principally by means of verse tests. In each of the plays Miss Wiggin assigns the opening and closing scenes to both authors, the main plot to Middleton, and the minor action to Rowley. Curiously enough, however, the minor action of each play seems to me to present striking similarities to Middleton's dramatic method in his comedies of London life.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , September 1933 , pp. 799 - 805
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1933

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References

1 Boston, 1897.

2 The title pages, as reprinted by A. H. Bullen, The Works of Thomas Middleton (London, 1885–86), are as follows: (1) Op. cit., Vol. iv, p. 153. A Faire Quarrell. As it was Acted before the King and diuers times publikely by the Prince his Hignes Seruants. Written/By Thomas Midleton/and William Rowley. Genti./Printed at London for I. T. and are to bee sold at Christ Church Gate. 1617 4 to. (2) Op. cit., Vol. vi, p. 3. The Changeling: As it was Acted (with great applause) at the Privat house in Drury-Lane, and Salisbury Court./Written by Thomas Midleton,/and/William Rowley./Gent./Never Printed before. London, Printed for Humphrey Mosely, and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the Princes-Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1653. 4 to. (3) Op. cit., Vol. vi, p. 115. The Spanish Gipsie. As it was Acted (with great applause) at the Privat House in Drury-Lane, and Salisbury Court /Written by Thomas Midleton/and/William Rowley Gent. Never Printed before. London, Printed by J. G. for Richard Marriot in St. Dunstans Church-yard, Fleetstreet, 1653. 4 to.

3 P. G. Wiggin, An Inquiry into the Middleton-Rowley Plays, (Radcliffe Monograph), (Boston, 1897).

4 i, i; ii, ii; iii, ii; iv, ii, iv; v.

5 i, ii; ii, iii; iii, i; iii, ii, vii; iv, ii, iii; v, ii, iii.

6 W. D. Dunkel, The Dramatic Technique of Thomas Middleton in His Comedies of London Life (Chicago, 1925), pp. 104–105. Cf. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, iv, i, ll. 1–21.

7 Ibid., pp. 63–66. Cf. Michaelmas Term, i, i, ll. 116–152; ii, ii, ll. 1–39; iv, i, 65–118.

8 Ibid., p. 9, or pp. 13–18. Cf. A Trick to Catch the Old One, i, i.

9 Ibid., pp. 24–26. Cf. A Mad World, My Masters, v, ii.

10 A Mad World, My Masters.

11 The Family of Love.

12 Ibid.

13 Michaelmas Term.

14 A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.

15 iii, iii, l. 39. ff.

16 W. D. Dunkel, op. cit., pp. 75–77.

17 Ibid., pp. 12–13.

18 v, iii, 207–219.

19 In particular, A Trick to Catch the Old One and A Mad World, My Masters; though not in precisely the last speech, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, Michaelmas Term, Your Five Gallants, The Family of Love have moralizing speeches given by third or fourth speaker from the last.

20 Edgar C. Morris, Introduction, The Spanish Gipsy and All's Lost by Lust, The Belles-Lettres Series (Boston, 1908), p. xxix, or p. xlix.

21 Edgar C. Morris, “On the Date and Composition of The Old Law” PMLA, xvii, 1–70.

22 H. Dugdale Sykes, “John Ford the author of ‘The Spanish Gipsy,‘ ” Sidelights on Elizabethan Drama (Oxford, 1924), p. 183.

23 Edgar C. Morris, op. cit., p. xxix.

24 Charles M. Gayley, (Gen. Ed.) Representative English Comedies, (New York, 1914), iii, 114–115.

25 W. D. Dunkel, op. cit., pp. 90–92. Cf. A Mad World, My Masters, iii, ii, ll. 12–53.

26 The Spanish Gipsy, ii, i, ll. 18 ff.

27 W. D. Dunkel, op. cit., pp. 75–77. Cf. Fitsgrave's disguise in Your Five Gallants, ii, i, ii; iii, ii, iv; iv, v; v, i, ii.

28 Cf. E. C. Morris, op. cit., p. xxix.

29 H. Butler Clarke, op. cit., p. 113.

30 W. D. Dunkel, op. cit., pp. 72–75. Cf. The Family of Love, i, ii, iii.

31 C. W. Stork, Introduction, William Rowley His All's Lost by Lust and A Shoemaker, a Gentleman (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Publications, Vol. xiii, 1910), p. 40.

32 Ibid., p. 45.

33 Ibid., p. 42.