Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/371

Middleton ition of the ‘Sentences.’ 4. ‘De gradibus formarum,’ MS. Munich 8723. 5. ‘Quæstiones disputatæ,’ manuscript at Assisi. Middleton is also credited with 6. ‘Super epistolas Pauli.’ 7. ‘Super evangelia.’ 8. ‘Super distinctiones decreti.’ 9. ‘De ordine judiciorum.’ 10. ‘De clavium sacerdotalium potestate.’ 11. ‘Contra Petrum Joannem Olivum.’ 12. ‘De Conceptione immaculata Virginis Mariæ,’ in verse. 13. ‘Expositio super Ave Maria,’ which is more probably by Richard or Conrad de Saxonia. To Middleton has incorrectly been assigned the authorship of a treatise, ‘In regulam S. Francisci,’ and of the ‘Quadragesimale’ of Francis of Asti. It is also stated in error that he completed the ‘Summa’ of Alexander of Hales by order of Alexander IV; this was the work of William of Meliton [q. v.], who died in 1261. Three sermons, preached by a Friar Richard at Paris in 1281 and 1283, and now preserved in MS. Bibliothèque Nationale 14947; Nos. 47, 69, and 98, may be by Middleton.

 MIDDLETON, RICHARD (d. 1641), divine, was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. on 13 July 1586. Wood conjectures that he was son of Marmaduke Middleton [q. v.], bishop of St. David's. It is probable that he was presented to the vicarage of Llanarthney, Carmarthenshire, in 1588. He was collated to a prebend in the collegiate church of Brecon in 1589, held the archdeaconry of Cardigan from 1589 to 1629, became chaplain in ordinary to Charles, prince of Wales, and was designed vicar of Leeds in 1614 (, Vicaria Leodiensis, pp. 62, 64). In 1628 he was appointed rector of Eaton, Northamptonshire, being then B.D. He died on 16 Nov. 1641. One Richard Middleton was admitted to the rectory of Stisted, Essex, on 28 Sept. 1619, on the translation of Samuel Harsnet from the see of Chichester to that of Norwich; but his identity with the rector of Eaton is not certain.

Middleton was author of: 1. ‘The Carde and Compasse of Life, containing many Passages fit for these Times,’ London, 1613, 8vo. 2. ‘The Heauenly Progresse,’ London, 1617, 8vo. 3. ‘The Key of Dauid,’ London, 1619, 12mo. On the title-page is his portrait, engraved by R. Elstracke, representing him with a ruff and a great beard (, Cat. of Portraits, p. 54). At the end of the book is another tract by Middleton, also printed in 1619, and entitled ‘Goodnes: The blessed Man's Badge, or God's Character stampt on Man's Conscience.’

 MIDDLETON, THOMAS (1570?–1627), dramatist, was the son of William Middleton, gentleman, and Anne, daughter of William Snow, and was probably born in London, to which both parents belonged. Of his early training nothing is directly known; but his writings, though seldom obtrusively learned (as in ‘A Game at Chess,’ v. 1), contain plenty of evidence of classical scholarship, and bear, as a whole, the stamp of culture and breeding. Whether or not, however, Middleton studied at either university, he entered, while still a young man, at Gray's Inn, being probably the earlier of two Thomas Middletons admitted there in 1593 and 1596. It is plain that he used his opportunities, and his earlier plays in particular abound with vigorous sketches of legal life at first-hand. His first essays, however, probably belonged to the domain, which was still thought more reputable for a ‘gentleman,’ of pure literature. The ‘Wisdom of Solomon Paraphrased’ (1597) and the ‘Microcynicon’ (1599) have commonly been assigned to Middleton in default of any other qualified claimant with the same name or initials; but the former recalls his acknowledged work only in its metrical fluency, the latter only in the satirical animus of which the fashion had just been set by the ‘Virgidemiæ’ of Joseph Hall [q. v.]

Middleton's connection with the stage cannot be shown to have begun before 1599, when, according to hardly disputable internal evidence, his ‘Old Law’ was written in conjunction with William Rowley [q. v.]—to the end his most frequent coadjutor. In 1601–2 he was writing regularly for the ‘Admiral's Men,’ taking part, according to the system of combined production prevalent in that company, with Munday, Drayton, Webster, and ‘others,’ in a play called ‘Cæsar's Fall,’ for which Henslowe on 22 May advanced 5l. Seven days later Henslowe paid the four dramatists named 3l. for a play called ‘Too Harpes,’ i.e. ‘Two Harpies.’ The following autumn we find him receiving 6l. in two instalments (21 Oct. and 9 Nov.) for a play of his own, variously called by Henslowe ‘The Chester Tragedy’ and ‘Randowlle earlle of Chester.’ In December he