Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

Thomas Middleton

1580–1627

Introduction

An undoubted example of Middleton's autograph is the signature he wrote in the subscription register on matriculating at The Queen's College, Oxford, 7 April 1598 (*MiT 35). Five of the six extant manuscripts of A Game at Chess, written twenty-six years later (MiT 14-19), contain handwriting consistent with this signature and can be accepted as in part in Middleton's hand, one of the them entirely autograph (*MiT 14).

The survival of so many manuscripts of A Game at Chess, all earlier than the first edition, can be explained by the special topical interest the play had in 1624 and by the ban imposed upon it by the Government. There survive, besides, important scribal copies of The Mayor of Queenborough (MiT 22-3), of The Witch (MiT 28), and of one of the various entertainments Middleton wrote for the Lord Mayor of London (MiT 20). Printed exempla of three other plays have the text of missing leaves supplied in manuscript (MiT 6, MiT 12, MiT 13). One of these (MiT 6) is of particular interest since the secretary hand can be identified with that of a professional scribe associated with the theatre, also responsible for similar repaired volumes (ChG 12.5 and HyT 5) as well as a verse anthology (British Library, Add. MS 33998) which was later associated with the lawyer Chaloner Chute or his family.

The entries include early manuscript copies of various songs in his plays and of three poems ascribed to him, as well as some miscellaneous extracts from the plays. Some music for the plays is also found in manuscripts, though not included in the entries below (some appears in the Oxford Middleton). Music for the first dance by the Witches in The Witch is in British Library (Add. MS 10444, ff. 21, 74v; British Library, Add. MS 17786-9, f. 5v; British Library, Add. MS 38539, f. 4) and at Trinity College, Dublin (MS 408). Music for the second dance of the Witches is in the British Library (Add. MS 10444, ff. 21v, 75) and at Christ Church, Oxford (MS Mus. 92, f. 15r-v). This music is edited and discussed by John P. Cutts in Jacobean Masque and Stage Music, M&L, 35 (1954), 185-200, and in Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare (1959), pp. 14-16, 125-6.

Some printed exempla of Two New Playes [i.e. More Dissemblers besides Women and Women Beware Women] (London, 1657) are to be found with annotations by early owners. These annotations, which seem to be of little textual or theatrical interest apart from one note in an exemplum at Yale which explains how Livia kills Isabella in the second of the two plays, are discussed in J.R. Mulryne, Annotations in some Copies of Two New Playes by Thomas Middleton, 1657, The Library, 5th Ser. 30 (1975), 217-21.

As with other dramatists of the period, most notably Beamont and Fletcher, the canon of Middleton's works has always been a subject of scholarly debate, general assessments including Bentley, Jacobean & Caroline Stage, IV, 855-911, and David J. Lake, The Canon of Thomas Middleton's Plays (Cambridge, 1975). For present purposes the canon is almost entirely based on the Oxford Middleton (2007), which, with the Oxford Companion (2007), includes lengthy discussions of the texts, including manuscripts.

Abbreviations

Bullen
The Works of Thomas Middleton, ed. A.H. Bullen, 8 vols (London, 1885-6; reprinted New York, [1960s]).
Oxford Companion
Thomas Middleton and Early Modern Textual Culture: A Companion to the Collected Works, general editors Gary Taylor and John Lavagnino (Oxford, 2007).
Oxford Middleton
Thomas Middleton, The Collected Works, general editors Gary Taylor and John Lavagnino (Oxford, 2007).

Verse

Petition to King James ('A harmless game raised merely for delight')

First published in Edward Capell, The School of Shakespeare, III (London, [1780]), p. 31. Bullen, I, lxxxiii. A Game at Chesse, ed. R.C. Bald (Cambridge, 1929), p. 166. Oxford Middleton, p. 1895.

MiT 1

Copy, here beginning A hormless game: royd only for delight and preceded by a note on the success and suppression of A Game at Chess, inscribed in an exemplum of the first printed edition of that play.

c.1625?

Edited from this MS in Capell, and, with a facsimile, in Samuel A. Tannenbaum, A Middleton Forgery, PQ, 12 (1933), 33-6. Tannenbaum considered this MS a forgery (perhaps by George Steevens), but see Bernard M. Wagner, A Middleton Forgery, PQ, 14 (1935), 287-8.

Victoria and Albert Museum (Dyce 6561 (No. 1) (Pressmark Dyce 25.D.42))
MiT 2

Copy, headed On the author of the play called ye game at chesse.

This MS collated in Wagner, PQ, 14 (1935), 288.

An octavo verse miscellany compiled by an Oxford University man, i i + 37 leaves, in later half-calf.

c.1630s

Among the collections of Francis Douce (1757-1834), antiquary and collector.

Bodleian Library, other MSS (MS Douce f. 5 fol. 22v)
MiT 3

Copy, headed The petition of poet Midleton Author of ye Game at Chess, to King Iames.

Edited from this MS in Wagner, PQ, 14 (1935), 288. Facsimile in Oxford Middleton, p. 1895.

A folio composite volume of verse, in various hands, i + 250 leaves.

Collected by Peter Le Neve (1661-1729). Some pages in the hand of Richard Rawlinson.

MiT 4

Copy of an eight-line version, headed Verses sent to King James, subscribed T. M.

Edited from this MS in Geoffrey Bullough, The Game at Chesse: How it Struck a Contemporary, MLR, 49 (1954), 156-63 (p. 163); in A Game at Chess, ed. J.W. Harper (London, 1966), p. xvii; and in Oxford Middleton, with a facsimile on p. 1895.

A duodecimo miscellany of verse and prose, chiefly in one mixed hand, 77 leaves, in modern half-morocco.

Compiled by Sir Thomas Dawes (knighted 1639).

c.1623-30

Purchased on 4 July 1873 from William Carew Hazlitt (1834-1913), bibliographer and writer.

MiT 4.5

Copy of an eight-line version, headed to ye Kinge / Middletons Verses who was comitted to ye Fleet for ye play called the Game at chess.

A small quarto verse miscellany, including some thirty poems by Donne, in several hands, associated with the Inns of Court, with a 19th-century title-page, A Collection of Original Poetry, written about the time of Ben: Johnson, qui ob. 1637 and erroneously annotated Chiefly in the Autograph of Dr. Donne Dean of St. Paul's.67 pages (plus index).

c.1614-25

Later owned by Sir John Simeon, third Baronet, MP (1815-70); by Richard Monckton Milnes (1809-85), first Baron Houghton, author and politician, and by his son, Robert Offley Ashburton Milnes, afterwards Crewe-Milnes (1858-1945), first Marquess of Crewe, politician. Sotheby's, 22 July 1980, lot 585, to Quaritch.

Recorded in IELM, I.i (1980), as the Monckton Milnes MS: DnJ Δ 63. Briefly discussed in Sir John Simeon, Unpublished Poems of Donne, Miscellanies of the Philobiblon Society, 3 (London, 1856-7), No. 3, and, with selected collations, in Grierson (II, cix et passim). A complete set of photographs of the MS is in the British Library, RP 2031.

Meisei University (MR 0799 p. 62)
On the death of that great master in his art and quality, painting and playing, R[ichard] Burbage ('Astronomers and star-gazers this year')

First published in John Payne Collier, New Facts regarding the Life of Shakespeare (London, 1835), p. 26. Bullen, VII, 413. Oxford Middleton, p. 1889.

MiT 5

Copy, subscribed Tho: Middleton.

Edited from this MS in Collier, and in Oxford Middleton, with a facsimile, p. 1889.

A quarto verse miscellany, including fifteen poems by Donne, with a title-page Miscellanies Or A Collection of Diuers Witty and pleasant Epigrams, Adages, poems Epitaphes &c for the recreation of ye ouertravelled sences: 1630 Robert Bishop, in a single mixed hand, probably associated with the University of Oxford, 306 pages, in old calf.

c.1630

Owned and probably compiled by Robert Bishop. Later owned by Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), manuscript and book collector: Phillipps MS 9549. A.S.W. Rosenbach's sale catalogue, English Poetry to 1700 (1941), item 187.

Cited in IELM, I.i (1980) as the Bishop MS: DnJ Δ 59. Edited in David Coleman Redding, Robert Bishop's Commonplace-Book: An Edition of a Seventeenth Century Miscellany (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1960) [Mic 60-3608].

To the worthily accomplished Master William Hammond ('This--which nor stage nor stationer's stall can show')

Oxford Middleton, p. 1896.

See MiT 16.

Dramatic works

Blurt, Master-Constable

First published in London, 1602. Bullen, I, 1-98. This play is not now generally attributed to Middleton.

MiT 6

Exemplum of the first edition (1602) with the text of the missing leaves H2 and H3 supplied in MS, probably transcribed from a promptbook, a quarto in vellum boards gilt.

In the secretary hand of a professional scribe associated with the playhouse and also responsible for ChG 12.5, HyT 5, and a verse miscellany in the British Library, Add. MS 33998.

c.1620s-30s

From the library of the Mostyn family, at Mostyn Hall, near Holywell, Flintshire.

This MS discussed, with a facsimile, in James G. McManaway, Latin Title-Page Mottoes as a Clue to Dramatic Authorship, The Library, 4th Ser. 26 (1945-6), 28-36, reprinted in McManaway, Studies in Shakespeare, Bibliography, and Theater (New York, 1969), 55-66.

MiT 7

Extracts.

This MS discussed in Juliet Gowan, Edward Pudsey's Booke and the Authorship of Blurt Master Constable, RORD, 8 (1965), 46-8 (where Dekker's authorship of the play is argued).

The greater part of a quarto commonplace book of extracts, compiled by Edward Pudsey (1573-1613), iii + 104 leaves, in 19th-century green morocco gilt.

Four leaves of this commonplace book are in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, ER 82/1/21.

c.1604-9

Owned in 1615-16 by one Bassett and in the 1880s by Richard Savage. At the Neligan sale, 2 August 1888, lot 1098. Bought by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89), and his sale 4 July 1889, lot 1257.

All the Shakespearian texts except Othello were edited from this MS in Richard Savage's Shakespearean Extracts (1887). The MS also edited in Juliet Mary Gowan, An Edition of Edward Pudsey's Commonplace Book (c.1600-1615) (unpublished M. Phil., University of London, 1967). It was then found that the miscellany lacked several of its original leaves, including extracts from six plays by Shakespeare. These leaves were rediscovered in 1977 among Savage's papers at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, ER 82/1/21, and the Othello extracts identified by Gowan. The MS also discussed in J. Rees, Shakespeare and Edward Pudsey's Booke, 1600, N&Q, 237 (September 1992), 330-1; in Juliet Gowan, One Man in His Time: The Notebook of Edward Pudsey, Bodleian Library Record, 22 (2009), 94–101; in Fred Schurink, Manuscript Commonplace Books, Literature, and Reading in Early Modern England, HLQ, 73/3 (2010), 453-69 (pp. 465-9), with a facsimile of f. 31r on p. 467; and in Tom Lockwood, At Mr Marston’s Request: Edward Pudsey and the Inns of Court, N&Q, 63 (September 2016), 450-3.

Bodleian Library, Eng. poet. MSS, a through d (MS Eng. poet. d. 3 ff. 41v, 42v, 86r)
Blurt, Master-Constable, I, ii, 209-16. Song ('What meat eats the Spaniard?')

Bullen, I, 24.

MiT 8

Copies of the incipit only, in a musical setting, untitled.

Edited from these MSS in Andrew J. Sabol, Two Songs with Accompaniment for an Elizabethan Choirboy Play, SR, 5 (1958), 149-59.

A set of six oblong quarto part-books of principally vocal music, largely in a single italic hand, each volume in modern half-morocco.

Early 17th century
The British Library, Music Books and Manuscripts (Add. MS 17786-91 (i, ii, iii, iv, vi) f. 13v; (v), f. 9v)
A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, IV, i, 162-72, 174-9. Song ('Cupid is Venus' only joy')

First published in London, 1630. Bullen, V, 1-115 (pp. 80-1). Edited by R.B. Parker (London, 1969), (pp. 84-5). Oxford Middleton, pp. 912-58 (p. 943). An eleven-line version of lines 1-9 of this song occurs in More Dissemblers besides Women (I, iv, 89-99).

MiT 9

Copy of the Welsh Gentlewoman's song, in a musical setting, untitled.

This MS collated in Cutts, Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 144-6. See also Cutts, The Music for A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, Appendix II in Parker, pp. 84-5, 128-37.

An oblong folio songbook, the lyrics in two or more secretary and italic hands, 44 leaves, in contemporary vellum within brown calf gilt, stamped with the initials A. B., now within modern half red morocco.

c.1630

Inscribed (f. 1r) Richard Elliotts his Booke and William Wilkins 1743. The cover initials A. B. conjecturally attributed to Adrian Batten (1591-1637), composer. Puttick & Simpson's, 30 June 1873.

Facsimile of ff. 2r-26v in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 1 (New York & London, 1986).

MiT 10

Copy, in a musical setting.

This MS collated in Cutts, Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 144-6, and in Parker, pp. 84-5, 128-37.

A folio songbook, largely in a single secretary hand, with poems and (reversed) culinary and medical receipts in later hands at the end, imperfect or incomplete, now 27 leaves, lacking half the songs listed in a Table at the end.

c.1620s-30s

The original cover inscribed Ann Twice her booke. Inscribed on the first page My Cosen Twice Leftte this Booke with me...which is to be returne to her AGhaine.... Later owned by Edward Francis Rimbault (1816-76), organist and author.

A complete facsimile is in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 11 (New York & London, 1987). Discussed in John P. Cutts, Songs Vnto the Violl and Lute—Drexel Ms. 4175, Musica Disciplina, 16 (1962), 73-92.

New York Public Library, Music Division (Drexel MS 4175 No. xxiiii)
MiT 11

Copy, in a musical setting.

This MS collated in Cutts, Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 144-6, and in Parker, pp. 84-5, 128-37.

A folio songbook, largely in a single secretary hand, with poems and (reversed) culinary and medical receipts in later hands at the end, imperfect or incomplete, now 27 leaves, lacking half the songs listed in a Table at the end.

c.1620s-30s

The original cover inscribed Ann Twice her booke. Inscribed on the first page My Cosen Twice Leftte this Booke with me...which is to be returne to her AGhaine.... Later owned by Edward Francis Rimbault (1816-76), organist and author.

A complete facsimile is in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 11 (New York & London, 1987). Discussed in John P. Cutts, Songs Vnto the Violl and Lute—Drexel Ms. 4175, Musica Disciplina, 16 (1962), 73-92.

New York Public Library, Music Division (Drexel MS 4175 No. lvi)
A Fair Quarrel

First published, as written by Middleton and William Rowley, in London, 1617. Bullen, IV, 153-276. Edited by R.V. Holdsworth (London, 1974). Edited by George R. Price (London, 1977). Oxford Middleton, pp. 1212-49.

MiT 12

An exemplum of the second printed edition (1622) with the text of the missing leaf (sig. K4) supplied in MS.

17th century
Worcester College, Oxford (Plays 2.1 (1))
The Family of Love

First published in London, 1608. Bullen, III, 1-120. This play is not now generally attributed to Middleton.

MiT 13

An exemplum of the printed edition of 1608 with the text of the various missing leaves (title-page, address to the reader, prologue, parts of A3 and A4, I3 and the epilogue on I4) supplied in MS.

17th century
Worcester College, Oxford (Plays 2.1 (2))
A Game at Chess

First published in London, [1625]. Bullen, VII, 1-136. Edited by R.C. Bald (Cambridge, 1929) and by J.W. Harper (London, 1966). An early form in Oxford Middleton, pp. 1779-1824, with a later form on pp. 1830-85.

*MiT 14
Autograph

Autograph copy, including the Prologue, Epilogue, and Induction, entitled A GAME at CHESSE. by T. Middleton, with two lines deleted on f. 10v, iv + 49 quarto leaves, in contemporary vellum gilt.

[1624]

Edited from this MS in Bald; in Susan Z. Nascimento (later Zimmerman), Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chesse: A Textual Study (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, 1975); and in A Game at Chess by Thomas Middleton 1624, ed. T.H. Howard-Hill, Malone Society (Oxford, 1990).

Facsimile pages in Bald, facing p. 34; in Harper, p. 1; in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XCIV(a); in Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 54; in IELM, I.i (1980), Facsimile XXVII, p. 342; in DLB, vol. 58, Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists, ed. Fredson Bowers (Detroit, 1987), p. 219; in Grace Ioppolo, Dramatists and their Manuscripts in the Age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Heywood (London & New York, 2006), p. 172; and in Oxford Middleton, pp. 1780 and 1791.

Trinity College, Cambridge (MS O. 2. 66 (James 1170))
*MiT 15
Autograph

Partly autograph fair copy, on 54 quarto leaves (plus three blanks), including the Prologue, in contemporary vellum gilt.

Principally in a professional secretary hand, with the title-page (f. 1r), folios 21v-2r, 46r-54v (including the Epilogue), and two or three corrections elsewhere in Middleton's hand, as well as possibly the boxing of speakers' names in pencil or lead point; the Latin oration on f. 45r in another scribal hand.

[1624]

Edited from this MS in The Bridgewater Manuscript of Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chess (1624), ed. T.H. Howard-Hill (Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen, 1995). Portions in Middleton's hand edited in A Game at Chess by Thomas Middleton 1624, ed. T.H. Howard-Hill, Malone Society (Oxford, 1990). This MS collated in Bald and in Harper. Discussed in George R. Price, The Huntington MS of A Game at Chess, HLQ, 17 (1953-4), 83-8, and in T.H. Howard-Hill, The Bridgewater-Huntington MS of Middleton's Game at Chess, Manuscripta, 28 (1984), 145-56.

Facsimile pages in Bald, facing pp. 27 and 39; in Greg, English Literary Autographs, plate XCIV(c); and in Grace Ioppolo, Dramatists and their Manuscripts in the Age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Heywood (London & New York), p. 173.

*MiT 16
Autograph

Copy of an abridged version, xii + 70 quarto leaves.

In the hand of Ralph Crane (fl.1589-1632), poet and scribe, with Middleton's autograph verse dedication To the worthily accomplished Master William Hammond (beginning This--which nor stage nor stationer's stall can show) subscribed T. M.

1624

Once owned by one J. Pepys. Sold by C.J. Stewart, bookseller, c.1860-70.

This MS collated and two scenes printed in Bald. Edited from this MS in N.W. Bawcutt, editor, Ralph Crane's Transcript of A Game at Chess, Bodleian Manuscript Malone 25, Collections: Volume XV, Malone Society (Oxford, 1993), 1-109. Recorded in Harper.

Facsimile pages in Bald, facing p. 33; in F.P. Wilson, Ralph Crane, Scrivener to the King's Players, The Library, 4th Ser. 7 (1926-7), 194-215 (plate V); in Greg, English Literary Autographs, plate XCIV(b); in DLB, vol. 58, Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists, ed. Fredson Bowers (Detroit, 1987), p. 220; and in Bawcutt. Facsimile of the verses to Hammond on p. vii in Oxford Middleton, p. 1896.

*MiT 17
Autograph

Copy, 77 quarto pages, in two professional secretary hands, one on pp. 3-63, 68-72 (with some deterioration of script on p. 55), the other on pp. 63-7, with a title-page in Middleton's hand A Game at Chesse As it was Acted Nine Dayes together Compos'de by Tho: Middleton, including the Induction and an Epilogue, in contemporary vellum gilt.

[1624]

This MS discussed in R.C. Bald, A New Manuscript of Middleton's Game at Chesse, MLR, 25 (1930), 474-8, and in Susan Zimmerman, The Folger Manuscripts of Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chesse: A Study in the Genealogy of Texts, PBSA, 76 (1982), 159-95. Recorded in Harper.

Facsimiles of the title-page in Greg, English Literary Autographs, plate XCIV(d-e); Heather Wolfe, The Pen's Excellencie: Treasures from the Manuscript Collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington, DC, 2002), p. 90.

*MiT 18
Autograph

Copy of an early version, in the hand of Ralph Crane (fl.1589-1632), poet and scribe, on 93 small quarto pages (plus two blanks with 19th-century annotations), in addition to a title-page A Game att Chesse dated August 13o, Anno Dni, 1624, cropped by a binder, in modern boards.

Including the Induction but without an epilogue, with one annotation (p. 32) in Middleton's hand and with a few corrections, deletions and stage directions added in black ink probably also by Crane.

1624

Inscribed (on title-page) Mervyn Archdall [i.e. The Rev. Mervyn Archdall (1723-91), of Dublin.

This MS discussed in R.C. Bald, An Early Version of Middleton's Game at Chesse, MLR, 38 (1943), 177-80, and in Susan Zimmerman, The Folger Manuscripts of Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chesse: A Study in the Genealogy of Texts, PBSA, 76 (1982), 159-95. Recorded in Harper.

Facsimile examples in James G. McManaway, The Authorship of Shakespeare, Studies in Shakespeare, Bibliography, and Theater (New York, 1969), 175-210 (p. 203); Heather Wolfe, The Pen's Excellencie: Treasures from the Manuscript Collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington, DC, 2002), p. 92.

MiT 19

A fair copy, made by Ralph Crane (fl.1589-1632), poet and scribe, with a title-page 1624 A Game att Chesse By Tho: Middleton, on 53 quarto leaves, in modern quarter green crushed morocco on cloth gilt.

1624

Part edited in N.W. Bawcutt, editor, Ralph Crane's Transcript of A Game at Chess, Bodleian Manuscript Malone 25, Collections: Volume XV, Malone Society (Oxford, 1993), 1-109. This MS collated in Bald; facsimile of p. 21 in Wilson, The Library, 4th Ser. 7 (1926-7), 194-215 (plate IV).

MiT 19.5

Extracts.

An octavo commonplace book of extracts from various authors, some under headings, compiled by William Sancroft (1617-93), Archbishop of Canterbury, written from both ends, iv + 558 pages (the majority blank), in contemporary vellum.

Late 17th century
Bodleian Library, Sancroft MSS (MS Sancroft 29 pp. 71-3)
Hengist, King of Kent. or The Mayor of Queenborough

See MiT 22-23.

An Invention for the Service of the Right Honourable Edward Barkham, Lord Mayor

Performed in 1622 (see Bentley, Jacobean & Caroline Stage, IV, 883). First published in Bullen, VII (1886), 369-78. Oxford Middleton, pp. 1446-7.

MiT 20 1622

Copy, in two styles of secretary script (a formal one up to f. 83r, a plainer one thereafter), probably the same hand, with a title-page An Invention performed for the Service of ye Right honorable Edward Barkeham, L. Major. of the Cittie of London: At his Lps. Enterteinement of the Aldermen his Brethren, and the honble and worthie Guests: (At his House assembled & ffeasted) In the Easter Hollidajes: 1622 / Written by Tho. Middleton, on i + eight octavo leaves, imperfect at corners, in a contemporary vellum wrapper.

Stamped Conway Papers: i.e. from the collections of Edward Conway (c.1564-1631), first Viscount Conway, politician, of Ragley Hall, Warwickshire, and his son Edward (1594-1655), second Viscount Conway, politician and book collector.

Edited from this MS in Bullen.

A folio composite volume of state papers, in various hands, 135 leaves, in red morocco.

National Archives, Kew (SP 14/129 ff. 81r-8r)
MiT 20.5 19th century

Copy of MiT 20, with missing lacunae supplied, on rectos only of seven octavo leaves.

Also stamped Conway Papers.

A folio composite volume of state papers, in various hands, 135 leaves, in red morocco.

National Archives, Kew (SP 14/129 ff. 74r-80r)
The Lady's Tragedy

Also known as The Second Maiden's Tragedy. Edited by W.W. Greg, Malone Society (Oxford, 1909). Oxford Middleton, pp. 839-906.

Variously attributed, including to George Chapman in Leonora Leet Brodwin, Authorship of The Second Maiden's Tragedy: A Reconsideration of the Manuscript Attribution to Chapman, SP 63 (1966), 51-77; this attribution dismissed in Anne Lancashire, The Second Maiden's Tragedy: Chapman Reconsidered and Rejected, ELN, 14 (1977), 174-82.

MiT 20.8

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, including some inserted slips of alterations and additions, with corrections and stage directions in two other hands (one possibly a prompter), the MS submitted by the King's Men to the Master of the Revels Sir George Buc, with his further deletions and annotations, his licence inscribed by him at the end (This second Maydens tragedy (for it hath no name inscribed) may wth the reformations bee acted publikely. 31 octobr. 1611. / G. Buc.), with later inscriptions Goff'[?], George Chapman and By Will Shakspeare,

Facsimile examples of ff. 48r, 54r, 55v-6v in Greg's edition, after p. xiii.

A folio volume of plays and songs, in several hands, 88 leaves, in russia.

Later owned by John Warburton, FSA (1682-1759), Somerset Herald and antiquary, including his list of manuscript plays that he says he once owned and which were burned by a servant.

This MS and Warburton's list discussed in W.W. Greg, Collected Papers, ed. J.C. Maxwell (Oxford, 1966), pp. 48-74 (The Bakings of Betsy).

The British Library: Lansdowne MSS (Lansdowne MS 807 ff. 29r-56r)
A Mad World, My Masters

First published in London, 1608. Bullen, III, 247-359. Edited by Standish Henning (London, 1965). Oxford Middleton, pp. 417-51.

MiT 21

Extracts transcribed from the edition of 1608.

A folio composite miscellany of verse and prose, compiled entirely by William Drummond, 403 leaves, in 19th-century calf gilt.

c.1606-14

Among the working papers and collections of William Drummond of Hawthornden: Hawthornden Vol. VII.

The Mayor of Queenborough

First published in London, 1661. Bullen, II, 1-115. Oxford Middleton, pp. 1451-87. Generally known as Hengist, King of Kent, or The Mayor of Queenborough.

MiT 22

Copy, including Prologue and Epilogue, in a professional cursive mixed hand, with some corrections in another hand, actors' names and stage symbols suggesting transcription from a prompt-book, title subscribed at the end (f. 250v) Finis / Hengist King off Kent, 46 folio leaves, foliated [205]-250, cropped by a binder, in modern quarter green morocco.

c.1640s

Formerly part of the Lambarde volume of MS plays once owned by W.L. Lambarde, of Bradbourne Hall, Sevenoaks, Kent. Hodgson's, 19 June 1924, lot 528, to Major Barrett. Purchased by Folger from Frank Marcham, bookseller.

Edited from this MS, with four pages of facsimiles, by R.C. Bald as Hengist, King of Kent: Or The Mayor of Queenborough (New York & London, 1938); see also C.J. Sisson's review in MLR, 34 (1939), 261-2. Edited principally from this MS in Oxford Middleton. Facsimile of ff. 221v-2r in Oxford Companion, p. 1030.

MiT 23

Copy, in a cursive and somewhat flourished mixed hand, entitled on the front paper wrapper Hengist King of Kent or the Maior of Quinburrugh, subscribed (f. 43r) Finis / Hengist King of Kent, with (f. 1r) a Chorus (Dramatis Personæ) and (f. 44v) an epilogue, 43 folio leaves, in a paper wrapper within modern quarter-morocco.

Among the collections of the Duke of Portland, of Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire.

c.1640s-50s

This MS collated in Bald (with two pages of facsimiles), where it is incorrectly stated that this MS and MiT 22 are in the same hand. Edited by Grace Ioppolo, as Hengist, King of Kent, or The Mayor of Queenborough, Malone Society (Oxford, 2003). Collated in Oxford Companion, pp. 1033-61.

More Dissemblers besides Women, I, iv, 89-95, 98-9. Song ('Cupid is Venus' only joy')

First published in Two New Playes (London, 1657). Oxford Middleton, pp. 1037-73 (pp. 1045-6).

See MiT 9-11.

The Nice Valour

Now generally attributed to Middleton. See B&F 11.5-153.

The Widow, III, i, 22-37. Song ('I keep my horse, I keep my whore')

First published in London, 1652. Bullen, V, 117-235 (pp. 168-9). Edited by Robert T. Levine (Salzburg, 1975). Oxford Middleton, pp. 1078-1123 (pp. 1098-9).

MiT 24

Copy of Latrocinio's song, headed Thee Highe Lawyers Song in the playe called the Widdowe.

A large folio composite verse miscellany, chiefly folio, partly quarto, 243 pages, in contemporary calf.

Including 18 poems by Carew and two of doubtful authorship, compiled by Nicholas Burghe (d.1670), Royalist Captain during the Civil War and one of the poor Knights of Windsor in 1661 (references to I Nicholas Burgh occurring on ff. 165r, with the date 3d of June 1638, and 166r, and his name partly in cipher on other pages); predominantly in his hand, with some later additions in other hands.

c.1638

Afterwards owned by Elias Ashmole (1617-92), astrologer and antiquary.

Cited in IELM, II.i (1987), as the Burghe MS: CwT Δ 1.

Bodleian Library, Ashmole Collection (MS Ashmole 38 p. 127)
MiT 25

Copy, headed On A purse-Taker.

This MS recorded in Bullen, V, 168(n) (misprinted as Add. 10319).

A duodecimo miscellany of verse and prose, in a single neat largely italic hand, 155 leaves, in modern half-morocco.

c.1630

The table of contents (f. 155v) subscribed Margrett Bellasys, possibly the daughter of Thomas Belasyse (1577-1652), first Viscount Fauconberg of Henknowle. The front endpaper later inscribed The pieces which I have extracted for The Specimens are, Page 91, 211, 265: i.e. possibly by Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), editor of Specimens of the British Poets first published in 1809. Afterwards owned by Richard Heber (1774-1833), book collector. Evans (Sotheby's), 29 February 1836 (Heber sale, Part VIII), lot 13.

MiT 26

Copy, in a musical setting by William Lawes, untitled.

Printed from this MS and collated in Cutts, Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 57, 153-4.

A folio songbook, almost entirely in a single rounded italic hand, with (ff. 3r-7v) a table of contents, 113 leaves, in 19th-century half dark red morocco.

Compiled by Edward Lowe (c.1610-82), organist and composer (his signature f. 2v).

c.1654-70s

Arms of Eleanor Bursh on a seal affixed to f. 56r. Later owned and annotated in pencil by Thomas Oliphant (1799-1873), music editor and cataloguer.

A complete facsimile of this volume in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 5 (New York & London, 1986).

MiT 27

Copy.

A quarto verse miscellany, including (ff. 113r-15r) copies of, or brief extracts from, 30 poems by Donne (plus two apocryphal poems), in a single hand, transcribed from the 1635 or 1639 edition of Donne's Poems, headed Donnes quaintest conceits in several hands, 156 leaves (plus blanks), in modern black morocco gilt.

Late 17th century

Once owned by Thomas Rawlinson (1681-1725) and afterwards among the collections of Edward Harley, second Earl of Oxford (1689-1741).

Cited in IELM I.i (1980) as the Harley Rawlinson MS: DnJ Δ 64.

The Second Maiden's Tragedy

See MiT 20.8.

Wit at Several Weapons

Now generally attributed to Middleton. See B&F 191.5.

The Witch

First published in London, 1778. Bullen, V, 351-453. Ed. W.W. Greg and F.P. Wilson, Malone Society, 1948 (Oxford, 1950). Oxford Middleton, pp. 1129-64.

MiT 28

Copy, in the hand of Ralph Crane (fl.1589-1632), poet and scribe, x + 102 pages. 7½ x 5½ inches.

Entitled A Tragi-Coomedie, called the Witch: long since acted by his Maties Seruants at the Black-Friers. Written by Tho. Middleton.

c.1619-27

Once owned by Benjamin Griffin (1680-1740), actor and playwright; by Lockyer Davis (1717-91), London bookseller; by Major Thomas Pearson; by George Steevens (1736-1800), literary editor and scholar (bought at the Pearson sale, 1787, lot 3872); and by Edmond Malone (1741-1812), literary scholar, biographer and book collector (bought at the Steevens sale, 20 May 1800).

This MS discussed in Bentley, Jacobean & Caroline Stage, IV, 903-5, and, with a facsimile of one page, in F.P. Wilson, Ralph Crane, Scrivener to the King's Players, The Library, 4th Ser. 7 (1926-7), 194-215. Facsimiles of title-page, dedication, and pages 1 and 87 in Greg and Wilson. Facsimiles of the first page of text also in DLB, vol. 58, Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists, ed. Fredson Bowers (Detroit, 1987), p. 213, and of the title-page in Oxford Companion, p. 63. See also Paul Mulholland, Notes on Several Derivatives of Crane's Manuscript of Middleton's The Witch, PBSA, 78 (1984), 75-81, which includes (p. 77) a facsimile of p. 24 of the transcript of this MS made by George Steevens (now Folger MS D.a.47) for the edition of 1778.

The Witch, II, i, 131-7. Song ('In a maiden-time profest')

Bullen, V, 386. Malone Society edition, p. 25, lines 590-7. Oxford Middleton, p. 1141.

MiT 29

Copy of a three-strophe version of Isabella's song in a musical setting by Robert Johnson (as edited by John Wilson), untitled.

This MS collated in Cutts, Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 7, 122-3.

A large folio volume of songs in musical settings by John Wilson (1595-1674), composer and musician, vi + 214 leaves (plus some blanks), gilt-edged, in contemporary black morocco elaborately gilt, lettered on each cover DR. / I.W, with silver clasps.

Possibly Wilson's formal autograph MS or else in the hand of someone similarly associated with Edward Lowe (c.1610-82).

c.1656

Complete facsimile in Jorgens, Vol. 7 (1987). Discussed in John P. Cutts, Seventeenth Century Lyrics: Oxford, Bodleian, MS. Mus. b. 1, MD, 10 (1956), 142-209.

Bodleian Library, Music MSS (MS Mus. b. 1 f. 21r)
MiT 30

Copy, headed Songe.

A small octavo verse miscellany, written from both ends, predominantly in a single hand in variant styles (ff. 1v-79v, 80r, 88v-96v, 119r-117r rev.), with additions in later hands (ff. 97r-104v, 116v-106r rev.), 164 leaves, in modern half red morocco.

Inscribed (f. 1v, in a court hand) Daniell Leare his Booke, witnesse William Strode, and (f. 164r) Mr Daniell Leare eius Liber: i.e. compiled chiefly by Daniel Leare, a distant cousin of the poet William Strode, probably at Christ Church, Oxford, before he entered the Middle Temple in 1633.

This suggestion, by Mary Hobbs, is supported by entries in the Caution Book of 1625-41 at Christ Church, where Strode is found (p. 22) paying £10 as college security for Leare and where Leare signs (p. 23) on this sum's repayment by Dr Fell on 13 May 1633. Forey suggests (p. lxxix) that he was the Daniell Leare of St Andrews, Holburne, whose will was proved in 1652; but it is more likely that he was the Daniel Leare to whom Henry King, Dean of Rochester, leased property at Chatham on 19 July 1655 (National Archives, Kew, SP 18/99/61). Daniel Leare's wife, Dorothy, was a member of the Hubert family with whom King was associated by virtue of the marriage of his sister Dorothy.

The volume includes 12 poems by Donne; 15 poems (plus a second copy of one and three of doubtful authorship) by Carew; 20 poems (plus two of uncertain authorship) by Corbett; and 84 poems (plus second copies of eight poems, four poems of doubtful authorship and some apocryphal poems) by Strode, the texts being closely related to, and in part probably transcribed from, the Corpus MS of Strode's poems (StW Δ 1).

c.1633 [-late 17th century]

Inscribed also John Leare (probably Daniel's younger brother); (f. 1r) Anthony Euans his booke (who married Daniel Leare's niece Dorothy Leare in 1663); (f. 1v) Alexander Croke his Book 1773; and (f. 164v) John Scott (who matriculated at Christ Church in 1632). Rimell & Son, 9 November 1878.

Cited in IELM, I.i (1980), and II.i-ii (1987-93), as the Leare MS: DnJ Δ 41, CwT Δ 15, CoR Δ 4, and StW Δ 10.

Discussed in Mary Hobbs, An Edition of the Stoughton Manuscript (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1973), pp. 185-90; in her Early Seventeenth-Century Verse Miscellanies and their Value for Textual Editors, EMS, 1 (1989), 192-210 (pp. 189-90); and in her Early Seventeenth-Century Verse Miscellany Manuscripts (Aldershot, 1992), passim, with facsimile examples of ff. 79-80 facing p. 87.

MiT 31

Copy, in a musical setting by Robert Johnson.

This MS collated in Cutts, Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 7, 122-3.

A folio music book, containing 327 songs, in three largely secretary hands, with a Cattalogue of contents, 229 leaves.

Owned (in 1659) and partly compiled by the composer John Gamble (d.1687), with some misnumbering.

c.1630s-50s

Later owned by Edward Francis Rimbault (1816-76), organist and author. Acquired in 1888.

A complete facsimile is in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 10 (New York & London, 1987). Discussed in Charles W. Hughes, John Gamble's Commonplace Book, M&L, 26 (1945), 215-29.

New York Public Library, Music Division (Drexel MS 4257 No. 32)
The Witch, III, iii, 39-72. Song ('Come away, come away, Hecate')

Bullen, V, 416-18. Malone Society edition, pp. 57-9, lines 1331-71. Oxford Middleton, pp. 1152-3.

MiT 32

Copy of the witches' song in a musical setting possibly by Robert Johnson.

This MS printed and collated in Cutts, Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 11-13, 123-4.

A music book partly compiled by John Bull (c.1562-1628).

Early 17th century
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (MS 52. D. 25 ff. 107v-8r)
MiT 33

Copy, in a musical setting possibly by Robert Johnson.

This MS edited and collated in Cutts, The Original Music to Middleton's The Witch, SQ, 7 (1956), 203-9, and in Musique de la troupe de Shakespeare, pp. 8-10, 123-4. Facsimile in Oxford Companion, p. 155.

A folio songbook, largely in a single secretary hand, with poems and (reversed) culinary and medical receipts in later hands at the end, imperfect or incomplete, now 27 leaves, lacking half the songs listed in a Table at the end.

c.1620s-30s

The original cover inscribed Ann Twice her booke. Inscribed on the first page My Cosen Twice Leftte this Booke with me...which is to be returne to her AGhaine.... Later owned by Edward Francis Rimbault (1816-76), organist and author.

A complete facsimile is in English Song 1600-1675, ed. Elise Bickford Jorgens, Vol. 11 (New York & London, 1987). Discussed in John P. Cutts, Songs Vnto the Violl and Lute—Drexel Ms. 4175, Musica Disciplina, 16 (1962), 73-92.

New York Public Library, Music Division (Drexel MS 4175 No. liiii)
Your Five Gallants

First published in London, 1607. Bullen, III, 121-245. Edited by C. Lee Colgrave (New York, 1979). Oxford Middleton, pp. 597-635.

MiT 34

Extracts transcribed from the first edition.

A folio composite miscellany of verse and prose, compiled entirely by William Drummond, 403 leaves, in 19th-century calf gilt.

c.1606-14

Among the working papers and collections of William Drummond of Hawthornden: Hawthornden Vol. VII.

Documents

Subscription
*MiT 35 1598
Autograph

Middleton's autograph subscription (Thomas Midleton: Queen's) upon matriculating at The Queen's College, Oxford, 7 April 1598.

Facsimile in IELM, I.ii (1980), Plate XXVII(b), p. 342.

Subscription Register.

1581-1615
Oxford University Archives (S.P.38, Register Ab f. 93r)

Miscellaneous Extracts from Works by Middleton

Extracts
MiT 36

A large untitled folio anthology of quotations chiefly from Elizabethan and Stuart plays, alphabetically arranged under subject headings, in a single mixed hand, in double columns, 900 pages (lacking pp. 1-4, 379-80, 667-8, 715-20 and 785-8), including (pp. 893-7) an alphabetical index of some 351 titles of plays, in modern boards.

This is the longest known extant version of the unpublished anthology Hesperides or The Muses Garden, by John Evans, entered in the Stationers' Register on 16 August 1655 and subsequently advertised c.1660, among works he purposed to print, by Humphrey Moseley. Another version of this work, in the same hand, dissected by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (1820-89), is now distributed between Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Halliwell-Phillipps, Notes upon the Works of Shakespeare, Folger, MS V.a.75, Folger, MS V.a.79, and Folger, MS V.a.80.

c.1656-66

Formerly MS 469.2.

This MS identified in IELM, II.i (1980), p. 450. Discussed, as the master draft, with a facsimile of p. 7 on p. 381, in Hao Tianhu, Hesperides, or the Muses' Garden and its Manuscript History, The Library, 7th Ser. 10/4 (December 2009), 372-404 (the full index printed as Catalogue A on pp. 385-94).

Contents