Thomas Middleton

Born in London and baptized in 1580, Thomas Middleton became one of the most prolific playwrights of the Jacobean age. He studied at Queen's College, Oxford, and built a career not only in the public theaters but also in civic pageants and court entertainment.

Middleton is especially admired for the range of his writing. He was successful in both comedy and tragedy, with major works including The Changeling, Women Beware Women, A Trick to Catch the Old One, and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. He also collaborated with other dramatists, a common practice of the period, and is often noted alongside Ben Jonson and John Fletcher as one of the era's leading writers.

His work often shows a lively, skeptical interest in money, power, sex, and social performance, which gives the plays a surprisingly modern feel. Middleton died in 1627, but his reputation has continued to grow, and he is now widely regarded as one of the finest non-Shakespearean dramatists of early modern England.