7 - Middle Years: Tragi-comedy and Moral Comedy

Summary

We do not know exactly how and when Middleton began to write extensively (though never exclusively) for the King's Men, the best dramatic company of the time and the most favoured royal entertainers: but it seems likely that it was after his connection with the City was established, perhaps around 1615 (see below, Chapter 8). In this employment he would be working partly for the public theatres, since the King's Company, while playing in winter at the indoor Blackfriars, used the Globe as their summer theatre from about May onwards. Moreover he seems to have worked on adapting their repertory, including Shakespeare, an experience which may well have influenced his own later work. He would also, inevitably, be closer now to court and political affairs. The ultimate responsibility for the King's Men was the Lord Chamberlain's. Technically, they were members of the King's household and wore his livery on state occasions; practically, they performed at court much more often than any of the other companies, and some at any rate of the leading members of the company were personally acquainted with the Lord Chamberlain himself.

Although the chronology of the plays is uncertain, it seems likely that The Witch dates from about 1616. There are strong grounds for believing that it was designed to appeal not only to the general interest in witchcraft, but to the particular excitement about the subject aroused by the unedifying divorce proceedings between the Earl and Countess of Essex, which had been the talk of the town in 1613, and the even more sensational and highly publicised trial in 1616 of the Earl of Somerset, King James' favourite, and his wife, the former Countess of Essex, for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in the Tower.