MIDDLETON AND ROWLEY: FORMS OF COLLABORATION IN THE JACOBEAN PLAYHOUSE

by David Nicol
University of Toronto Press
ISBN 9781442643703
Published Oct 2012

Can the inadvertent clashes between collaborators produce more powerful effects than their concordances? For Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, the playwriting team best known for their tragedy The Changeling, disagreements and friction proved quite beneficial for their work.

This first full-length study of Middleton and Rowley uses their plays to propose a new model for the study of collaborative authorship in early modern English drama. David Nicol highlights the diverse forms of collaborative relationships that factor into a play’s meaning, including playwrights, actors, companies, playhouses, and patrons. This kaleidoscopic approach, which views the plays from all these perspectives, throws new light on the Middleton-Rowley oeuvre and on early modern dramatic collaboration as a whole.

“This book ought to interest anyone with an interest in the role of drama in Jacobean society, as well as the curious nature of co-authorship” – Jackie Watson, Times Literary Supplement, 11 April, 2014

“Inventive, persuasive, and nuanced … An important contribution to the study of early modern authorship and collaboration” – Heather Hirschfield, Early Theatre 17.1 (2014)

“A notable and substantial contribution to our understanding of the theatre of the period … It extends our knowledge and understanding through detailed examination of the varied material and does so in a lucid and admirably readable style” – Tony Bromham, SEDERI 24 (2014)

“An important inquiry into the practices of collaborative authorship and a major contribution to recognizing Rowley” – Andrew Gordon, Renaissance Quarterly  67.2 (2014)

“A thorough and thoughtful account of coauthorship” – Julia Reinhard Lupton, Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 54.2 (2014)