5 - Middleton and Rowley

Summary

The collaboration between Middleton and Rowley was one of the most successful of the period, and produced one of its finest plays, The Changeling (1622). The quality of their collaboration has been acknowledged by a number of critics. R. H. Barker notes that A Fair Quarrel (1616) and The Changeling, both written with Rowley, have a directness and conciseness unsurpassed in Middleton's other work. R. V. Holdsworth writes of ‘Middleton and Rowle's unique success as a collaborating team’. Not surprisingly therefore it has attracted some interesting discussions of the collaborative process.

In addition to The Changeling, they wrote Wit at Several Weapons (1613), A Fair Quarrel, The Old Law (1618) and The World Tossed at Tennis (1620). Of these the attribution of the first is complicated by the fact that it appears in the Beaumont and Fletcher Folio of 1647, but linguistic analysis appears to confirm it was written by Middleton and Rowley. The Old Law was attributed to Massinger, Middleton and Rowley in the first printed edition of 1656, and there has been much discussion of Massinger, possibly as a reviser. Catherine Shaw concurs with Barker that there is little evidence to suggest that Massinger had any definite part in the writing of The Old Law, while Lake agrees that the play is almost entirely by Middleton and Rowley, with the possibility that a few lines are by Massinger or an ‘unknown dramatist’. The Oxford Middleton proposes the presence of Thomas Heywood. One other play, The Spanish Gypsy (1623), has been attributed to Middleton and Rowley, based on the title page of the first edition of 1653. It has been the subject of some discussion: Dekker's and Ford's names have been linked with it, and Lake admits the possibility that these two dramatists may have been revisers of an earlier Middleton and Rowley play. It is included in the Oxford edition and attributed to all four writers.

WILLIAM ROWLEY

Information about Rowley is sparse. His date of birth is uncertain, probably c.1585; he died in 1626. Most of what is known comes from theatrical records. His name is associated with those of John Day and George Wilkins and The Travels of Three Brothers (1607), a play presented by Queen Anne's Men.