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Alec Byrd
Introduction to Shakespeare
John Nance
11/19/15
Shakespeare Versus Middleton
William Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton had very different
styles of writing for their plays in the early modern theatre. They are
both arguably the best playwrights of all time, but what remains to be
known is why most of us have never heard of Thomas Middleton until
this particular class. The truth lies in the fact that Middletons writing
was too vulgar and was not as popular among the Elizabethan people
so his writing was not passed down like the glorious Shakespeares
work was. Shakespeare was known for his serious tragedies written in
iambic pentameter, while Middletons writing did not have a specific
structure and was most likely satirical. The two authors differing style
was evident throughout a number of plays that they collaborated on
such as Timon of Athens and is also shown in their two respective plays
The Revengers Tragedy and Hamlet.
Thomas Middleton was by far the most prolific writer of the era
with regards to volume of works. He was a playwright, wrote
pamphlets and was also a poet. Middleton was such a diverse writer
because he was a freelance playwright so he basically had to write
other things such as pamphlets to generate money especially when

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people stopped going to the theatre for a period. This is the polar
opposite of Shakespeare because as we all know, the famous
Shakespeare had his own theatre known as The Globe and his
company known as The Kings Men perform his plays. The main
difference here lies in the fact that Shakespeare did not have to
diversify himself as a writer because he had job security knowing that
his plays would be played at all times, while Middleton was not always
commissioned to do so and needed to write other things in order to
survive.
Thomas Middleton is referred to as Our Other Shakespeare
because of the quality and volume of his works. His plays were widely
viewed throughout the time period, but in todays society we hear little
or no mention of his writing. This is simply because his plays were too
gross and they did not get passed down generations like
Shakespeares work was. Sure, Shakespeare was a great writer in his
time period but his reputation grew into what we regard him as today
because of the manner that his works were passed down.
Shakespeares play Hamlet is one of the most well-known and
popular plays in the history of theatre and it is a typical Shakespearean
play about a tragedy and contains many soliloquies rhymed in iambic
pentameter. Hamlet, like all of Shakespeares other plays was
performed at The Globe Theatre by The Kings Men which is ironic
because Middletons work titled The Revengers Tragedy was also

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performed by the same group at the same place. The Revengers
Tragedy is a direct satire of Shakespeares Hamlet, and this is evident
through the plot of the play being identical and having the characters
perform the same actions. Middletons genius mind knew that this play
would be performed in the same place that Hamlet was performed, so
he is drawing upon the audiences emotions because they see the
same actors performing a satirical role while using the same props as
Hamlet. The Revengers Tragedy was basically Middleton making fun of
Shakespeare for his style and his tragical plays that everyone lapped
up. The difference between these two plays for the most part sums up
the polar different styles of Middleton and Shakespeare.
The play Timon of Athens is a collaborative effort between
Shakespeare and Middleton that was ultimately a failure because of
the two contrasting writing styles. Because the authors did not directly
work together in collaboration during this time period, the two were
not on the same page when commissioned to do this work, which
resulted in Shakespeare writing his portions as a tragedy and
Middleton making his scenes satirical. A result of these two great
authors not being on the same page was an incoherent plot that leaves
some things unanswered and characters that say barely anything and
are not explained. The play also has many prose sections to it that are
attributed to Middleton because it is uncharacteristic of Shakespeare to
have such unpolished work. Overall, this play was a large-scale failure

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because these two authors were not on the same page and had
different ideas as to how the plot should unfold.
Respectively, these two authors are each great in their own right.
One of the tragedies found here is that only one of the two of them
gets the recognition they deserve in our society today. It is evident that
educators need to include at least one of Middletons plays into
curriculum for students instead of reading three of Shakespeares
tragedies. Personally I enjoy humor, especially dark satire so I am glad
that I was able to read something out of the ordinary and actually
laugh while reading Middletons plays. Overall I respect both of their
work because they are brilliant but argue that they should both be well
known instead of just Shakespeare.
Works Cited

Draper, John W.The Theme of "timon of Athens". The Modern

Language Review 29.1 (1934): 2031. Web.
Found on FSUs JSOR Database