Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/372

 was employed to write a prologue and epilogue for Greene's ‘Friar Bacon’ on its performance at court; and an obscure entry of 2 Oct. further describes him as writing a play, not named, for Lord Worcester's company. In 1602 also his ‘Blurt, Master-Constable,’ was published, after having been ‘sundry times privately acted.’ Although the pieces recorded by Henslowe are all lost, their subjects were evidently—like that of ‘The Old Law’—taken in name from remote history; and it seems likely that the only other play of Middleton's which shares this feature, ‘The Mayor of Quinborough,’ was at least sketched at this time.

Within the next few years, however, he had discovered a more congenial path, the comedy of contemporary manners, and to this species the abounding energy, vivacity, and invention of his early maturity were devoted. His prose tracts of 1603–4, ‘The Black Book’ and ‘Father Hubburd's Tales,’ are vivid and richly coloured satirical sketches of London life, in the manner of Nashe and Dekker. The publication of not less than six plays of his in 1607–8 shows with what success he worked this vein on the stage. These plays contain, however, much poor and hasty work, as well as a good deal of scattered excellence, and it is likely that Middleton abused his facile powers under the stimulus of popularity. The remainder of his extant plays appeared (so far as their dates are known) at longer intervals, and they include his most powerful work.

Twice in 1613 he was commissioned to take a literary part in public ceremonials. In September he composed speeches for the formal opening of the New River, the work of the public-spirited goldsmith Hugh Myddelton [q. v.] In October he wrote a pageant in celebration of the mayoralty of Sir Thomas Myddelton (29 Oct.), the first of a long series of ‘Triumphs’ contributed by him for the same annual occasions. Such work was usually entrusted to the city poet, Anthony Munday [q. v.], and although Middleton undertook in each of the cases specified to eulogise men of his own name, he does not appear to have claimed relationship with either, and did not owe his selection to family partiality (cf., London Pageants, p. 97). On 4 Jan. 1614 he produced the ‘Mask of Cupid’—of which nothing is known—for the reception of Somerset and Lady Frances Howard, whose marriage had been celebrated with another masque at court in the previous December. A minute in the ‘City Records’ (18 Jan.) directs that Middleton be recouped for the ‘Mask’ as well as for ‘other shows lately made’ at Merchant Taylors' Hall by him. Middleton's work in this department culminates in the elaborate and effective masque ‘The World Tost at Tennis,’ performed at court in 1620, and published in July of that year. In the following September Middleton was, on his own petition and as a direct recognition of his services to the city, appointed city chronologer (City Records, 6 Sept. 1620), being required ‘to collect and set down all memorable acts of this city and occurrences thereof,’ with a yearly salary of ten marks (6l. 13s. 4d.) The same ‘Records’ attest numerous extra payments made to him in connection with this office. His salary was on 20 Nov. raised to 10l. On 17 April 1621, 7 May 1622, and 24 April 1623, freedoms were granted him in aid of his labours; on 17 Sept. 1622, 6 Feb. 1623, and 2 Sept. 1623, he received gifts ranging from twenty marks to twenty pounds for special services. Of Middleton's official writings nothing remains. Two manuscript books of his were, however, extant in the last century, and were briefly described by Oldys in his annotations to Langbaine's ‘Account of the English Dramatick Poets.’ One of them (‘Annales’) was devoted to specifically civic events (among others the arrest and imprisonment of Bacon), the other (‘Middleton's Farrago’) to various non-civic, political, and social topics of the day. The latter collection, which was doubtless not a part of his official work, indicates that he followed contemporary affairs with some zest.

Middleton was at the very height of his powers when he produced the ‘Changeling,’ and probably also the ‘Spanish Gipsy,’ in 1621–2. In 1624 he ventured on a remarkable political drama called ‘A Game at Chess.’ The national hatred of Spain had in March of that year found expression in the despatch of six thousand men into Flanders; but the ‘peace-making’ king had stubbornly resisted to the last, and, despite the ignominious failure (October 1623) of the proposed Spanish match, had taken action with reluctance. To represent the situation on the stage was a matter of some delicacy; and Middleton hit upon the device of disguising the leading politicians of Spain and England in his play under the names of the pieces on a chess-board. He thus did not conceal, but rendered it possible to ignore, the true character of his plot. The play was acted early in August by the king's players for nine days continuously, and excited unparalleled interest: persons accustomed to avoid the theatre crowded to see the protestant play, and the nine performances are said to have produced 1,500l. It is significant that