Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/377

 late Royall Employment. Inuented by Thomas Middleton, imprinted at London by G. E.’ A description of the work, which is believed to be unique, was communicated to the Athenæum by its discoverer, Mr. F. A. Wheeler, on 2 Oct. 1886. It was subsequently sold to an American collector.

III. .—1*. ‘The Wisdome of Solomon Paraphrased, written by Thomas Middleton,’ 4to, 1597. The preliminary address ‘To the Gentlemen Readers’ shows singular confidence in the work. 2*. ‘Microcynicon: Sixe Snarling Satyres,’ 8vo, 1599. The introductory stanzas, ‘His Defiance to Envy,’ are signed ‘T. M., gent.;’ so that, the work being confessedly unworthy of him, its authenticity rests on a slender basis. The character of the verse in these two pieces is wholly distinct. It is hardly possible to attribute both to the same writer. Mr. Swinburne peremptorily rejects Middleton's authorship of either.

IV. .—1. ‘The Blacke Booke,’ 4to, 1604; entered on Stationers' Registers 22 March 1604; the Preface signed ‘T. M.’ Though only signed with initials, this and the following piece bear the stamp of Middleton far more palpably than either of the foregoing. Mr. Fleay assigns all the writings signed ‘T. M.’ to Thomas Moffat [q. v.], a student of physic. 2. ‘Father Hubburd's Tales, or The Ant and the Nightingale,’ 4to, 1604. Another edition, in which the second title precedes, and one tale is omitted, appeared in the same year. The ‘Address to the Reader’ is signed ‘T. M.’ Entered on Stationers' Registers 3 Jan. 1604. The vivid sketch of a spendthrift heir has many parallels in Middleton's plays (e.g. Nos. 4 and 5). 3*. ‘Sir Robert Sherley, sent Ambassador, in the name of the King of Persia, to Sigismund the Third, King of Poland,’ &c., 4to, 1609. The dedication is signed ‘Thomas Midleton.’ A curious pamphlet, consisting mainly of translations of the complimentary speeches and poems lavished upon Sherley at the Polish court. It has some interest as a picture of Polish manners. 4*. ‘The Peacemaker: or, Great Britaines Blessing,’ 4to, 1618; anonymous, but described in the ‘Calendar of Domestic State Papers,’ 19 July 1618, as by ‘Thomas Middleton.’ The dramatist's authorship is very doubtful: the style is totally unlike his. Mr. Bullen supposes that the author attempts to personate the king; but there is no suggestion of this except in the prefixed address, ‘To all our True-loving and Peace-embracing Subjects,’ nor does the style resemble that of James. It is highly probable that this, with iii. 1, 2, and iv. 3, are due to some more obscure owner or owners of Middleton's not uncommon name. Undoubtedly genuine, however, were the lost writings before named—1, ‘Annales;’ 2, ‘Middleton's Farrago’—which are not known to have been printed.

Middleton's works were never collected in his own day. Attention was first recalled to him by the discovery of ‘The Witch’ (printed 1778); but Lamb's ‘Specimens’ first disclosed his rare merits. In 1840 appeared the admirable collected edition of his works by Dyce. This had been long out of print when, in 1886, Mr. A. H. Bullen published what will no doubt remain the final edition, in eight volumes. Five of the best plays (Nos. 6, 12, 13, 16, 18) have been separately edited by Havelock Ellis with an introduction by Mr. A. C. Swinburne in the ‘Mermaid Series’ (1887).

The only known portrait of Middleton is a rough woodcut prefixed to ‘Two New Plays’ (i.e. Nos. 14 and 18), 1657. It is reproduced, as an etching, by Bullen, and also in the volume of the ‘Mermaid Series.’

 MIDDLETON, THOMAS (1550–1631), lord mayor of London. [See .]

MIDDLETON, THOMAS (fl. 1645), parliamentary general. [See .]

MIDDLETON, THOMAS FANSHAW (1769–1822), bishop of Calcutta, was the only son of Thomas Middleton, rector of Kedleston, Derbyshire, where he was born on 26 Jan. 1769. He entered Christ's Hospital on 21 April 1779, and became a ‘Grecian.’ Among his schoolfellows were S. T. Coleridge and Charles Lamb, who describes him (Christ's Hospital Five-and-thirty Years Ago) as ‘a scholar and a gentleman in his teens,’ whose manner at school was ‘firm, but mild and unassuming.’ Middleton was always grateful to Christ's Hospital, and shortly before his death gave a donation of 400l. and was elected a governor of the institution. Entering Pembroke College, Cambridge, he graduated B.A. January 1792 as fourth in the list of senior optimes. He became M.A. 1795, D.D. 1808. In March 1792 he was ordained deacon by Dr. Pretyman, bishop of Lincoln, and became curate of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, where he edited, and in great part