Women Beware Women and Other Plays

Thomas Middleton is one of the greatest playwrights of the early 17th century, and this is a collection of some of his best works. "Women Beware Women" and "The Changeling" are both devastating tragedies, fully comparable to Christopher Marlowe's and John Webster's greatest works. This collection also includes "A Chaste Maid in Cheapside," a good example of a 17th century London "city comedy." The editors also include a fascinating work of anti-catholic propaganda, "A Game at Chess," an historical allegory. "A Game at Chess" is not widely available, making this collection especially valuable. The language of the plays is frequently quite difficult, making footnotes absolutely necessary. However, the editors of this work have inexplicably chosen to use endnotes instead of footnotes. This makes reading extremely slow and difficult, since there are 5 to 10 notes per page. For each page the reader must go to the back of the book 5 or 10 times to check the unfamiliar vocabulary, syntax, or sloppy 17th century editing. For the reader interested in Middleton, there are other choices available, including a penguin collection (entitled FIVE PLAYS) which uses footnotes and includes "The Revenger's Tragedy" and another comedy in addition to the essential tragedies mentioned above. The Norton anthology of ENGLISH RENAISSANCE DRAMA includes Middleton's great tragedies in addition to the important cross-dressing comedy "The Roaring Girl," and also uses the more convenient footnotes.

It's completely understandable if a certain piece of literature isn't suited to your personal tastes but to bash a work that is clearly of literary and historical value without even giving concrete reasons I can only attribute to a gross lack of understanding and general stupidity.

After Shakespeare and Ben Jonson's best work, the best plays from the Jacobean era are probably: Webster's Duchess of Malfi, Webster's The White Devil, The Revengers' Tragedy, The Changeling, Women Beware Women, and A Game at Chess. The last three are handily present in this volume. My personal favorite is A Game at Chess, a brutal satire on Catholic conspiracies to subvert England. The reign of James I began with the gunpowder plot - an attempt by catholics to blow up the entire parliament and the king with it - but by the end of his reign James was trying to negotiate for his son to marry a Catholic princess from arch-catholic power Spain. A Game at Chess was written during those latter years in order to rouse sentiment against 'the spanish match', and it got Middleton into some trouble.

This is a wonderful play; fast, funny and utterly captivating. In my experience I have far preferred Middleton and Marlowe to Shakespeare and this has rejustified my opinion. I have just read this for my university course and if you're whimpering about this at A level I really wouldn't bother going any further with literature, there are far, far worse things out there. The characterisation of Livia is stunning as she changes from well meaning to conniving and sinister to lovelorn and hopeless. The Ward is a dolt and so ridiculous it is hilarious (note the scene where offered Isabella for his wife he checks her as you would do a horse, noting her teeth). Leantio is tragic, let down and hurt by all, to the point of his murder. I would recommend everybody read this book.