A Chaste Maid in Cheapside

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title A Chaste Maid in Cheapside
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Thomas Middleton
Edited by Alan Brissenden
SeriesNew Mermaids
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:144
Dimensions(mm): Height 198,Width 129
Category/GenrePlays, playscripts
Literary studies - c 1500 to c 1800
Literary studies - plays and playwrights
ISBN/Barcode 9780713650686
ClassificationsDewey:822.3
Audience
General
Illustrations photographs, line drawings

Publishing Details

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint Methuen Drama
Publication Date 28 March 2002
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Written for the adult players at the open-air Swan theatre in 1613, this master-piece of Jacobean city comedy signals its ironic nature even in the title: chaste maids, like most other goods and people in London's busiest commercial area, are likely to be fake. Money is more important than either happiness or honour; and the most coveted commodities to be bought with it are sex and social prestige. Middleton interweaves the fortunes of four families, who either seek to marry their children off as profitably as possible, to stop having any more for fear of poverty, or to acquire some in order to keep their property in the family. Most prosperous is the husband who pimps his wife to a rich knight and lets him support the household with his alimony. Like many early modern critics of London's enormous growth, this play warned: the city is a monster that lives off the money the country produces.

Author Biography

Thomas Middleton was a prolific and successful English Jacobean playwright and poet. A contemporary of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, Middleton wrote over 30 plays including A Mad World, My Masters which was first performed in 1606.