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    The Old Law: “Tis time to die, when 'tis a shame to live.”
    The Old Law: “Tis time to die, when 'tis a shame to live.”
    The Old Law: “Tis time to die, when 'tis a shame to live.”
    Ebook178 pages1 hour

    The Old Law: “Tis time to die, when 'tis a shame to live.”

    By Thomas Middleton and William Rowley

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    About this ebook

    Thomas Middleton was born in London in April 1580 and baptised on 18th April. Middleton was aged only five when his father died. His mother remarried but this unfortunately fell apart into a fifteen year legal dispute regarding the inheritance due Thomas and his younger sister. By the time he left Oxford, at the turn of the Century, Middleton had and published Microcynicon: Six Snarling Satirese which was denounced by the Archbishop of Canterbury and publicly burned. In the early years of the 17th century, Middleton wrote topical pamphlets. One – Penniless Parliament of Threadbare Poets was reprinted several times and the subject of a parliamentary inquiry. These early years writing plays continued to attract controversy. His writing partnership with Thomas Dekker brought him into conflict with Ben Jonson and George Chapman in the so-called War of the Theatres. His finest work with Dekker was undoubtedly The Roaring Girl, a biography of the notorious Mary Frith. In the 1610s, Middleton began another playwriting partnership, this time with the actor William Rowley, producing another slew of plays including Wit at Several Weapons and A Fair Quarrel. The ever adaptable Middleton seemed at ease working with others or by himself. His solo writing credits include the comic masterpiece, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, in 1613. In 1620 he was officially appointed as chronologer of the City of London, a post he held until his death. The 1620s saw the production of his and Rowley's tragedy, and continual favourite, The Changeling, and of several other tragicomedies. However in 1624, he reached a peak of notoriety when his dramatic allegory A Game at Chess was staged by the King's Men. Though Middleton's approach was strongly patriotic, the Privy Council silenced the play after only nine performances at the Globe theatre, having received a complaint from the Spanish ambassador. What happened next is a mystery. It is the last play recorded as having being written by Middleton. Thomas Middleton died at his home at Newington Butts in Southwark in the summer of 1627, and was buried on July 4th, in St Mary's churchyard which today survives as a public park in Elephant and Castle.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStage Door
    Release dateNov 1, 2016
    ISBN9781785438813
    The Old Law: “Tis time to die, when 'tis a shame to live.”

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      Book preview

      The Old Law - Thomas Middleton

      The Old Law by Thomas Middleton

      Written with William Rowley

      Thomas Middleton was born in London in April 1580 and baptised on 18th April.

      Middleton was aged only five when his father died. His mother remarried but this unfortunately fell apart into a fifteen year legal dispute regarding the inheritance due Thomas and his younger sister.

      By the time he left Oxford, at the turn of the Century, Middleton had and published Microcynicon: Six Snarling Satirese which was denounced by the Archbishop of Canterbury and publicly burned.

      In the early years of the 17th century, Middleton wrote topical pamphlets. One – Penniless Parliament of Threadbare Poets was reprinted several times and the subject of a parliamentary inquiry.  

      These early years writing plays continued to attract controversy.  His writing partnership with Thomas Dekker brought him into conflict with Ben Jonson and George Chapman in the so-called War of the Theatres. 

      His finest work with Dekker was undoubtedly The Roaring Girl, a biography of the notorious Mary Frith. 

      In the 1610s, Middleton began another playwriting partnership, this time with the actor William Rowley, producing another slew of plays including Wit at Several Weapons and A Fair Quarrel.

      The ever adaptable Middleton seemed at ease working with others or by himself. His solo writing credits include the comic masterpiece, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, in 1613.

      In 1620 he was officially appointed as chronologer of the City of London, a post he held until his death.

      The 1620s saw the production of his and Rowley's tragedy, and continual favourite, The Changeling, and of several other tragicomedies.

      However in 1624, he reached a peak of notoriety when his dramatic allegory A Game at Chess was staged by the King's Men. Though Middleton's approach was strongly patriotic, the Privy Council silenced the play after only nine performances at the Globe theatre, having received a complaint from the Spanish ambassador.

      What happened next is a mystery.  It is the last play recorded as having being written by Middleton.

      Thomas Middleton died at his home at Newington Butts in Southwark in the summer of 1627, and was buried on July 4th, in St Mary's churchyard which today survives as a public park in Elephant and Castle.

      Index of Contents

      Dramatis Personae

      Scene - Epire

      ACT I

      Scene I - A Street in Epire

      ACT II

      Scene I - The Court

      Scene II - Lisander's House

      ACT III

      Scene I - A Church

      Scene II - Lisander's House

      ACT IV

      Scene I - Before a Tavern

      Scene II - Outside Leonides' Lodge in the Woods

      ACT V

      Scene I - The Court

      Thomas Middleton – A Short Biography

      Thomas Middleton – A Concise Bibliography

      Dramatis Personae

      EVANDER, Duke of Epire

      CREON, father to SIMONIDES

      LEONIDES, father to CLEANTHES

      SIMONIDES  }

      CLEANTHES  } young courtiers

      LISANDER, uncle to CLEANTHES

      GNOTHOS, the clown

      CRATILUS, the executioner

      BUTLER  }

      BAILIFF   }

      TAILOR   }

      COOK   } Creon's servants

      FOOTMAN  }

      COACHMAN  }

      PARISH CLERK

      DANCING MASTER

      DRAWER

      Three COURTIERS

      Two LAWYERS

      Fiddlers, Officers, Servants

      ANTIGONA, wife to CREON, mother to SIMONIDES

      HIPPOLITA, wife to CLEANTHES

      EUGENIA, wife to Lisander

      PARTHENIA, daughter to Lisander

      AGATHA, wife to Gnothos

      SIREN, a wench

      Old women, wives to Creon's servants

      THE SCENE - Epire

      ACT I

      SCENE I - A Street in Epire

      Enter SIMONIDES and TWO LAWYERS.

      SIMONIDES

      Is the law firm, sir?

      FIRST LAWYER

      The law! What more firm, sir,

      More powerful, forcible, or more permanent?

      SIMONIDES

      By my troth, sir,

      I partly do believe it. Conceive, sir,

      You have indirectly answered my question;

      I did not doubt the fundamental grounds

      Of law in general for the most solid,

      But this particular law that me concerns

      Now, at the present, if that be firm and strong,

      And powerful, and forcible, and permanent?

      I am a young man that has an old father.

      SECOND LAWYER

      Nothing more strong, sir,

      It is secundum statutum principis

      Confirmatum cum voce senatus,

      Et voce republicae, nay, consummatum

      Et exemplificatum. Is it not in force

      When diverse have already tasted it

      And paid their lives for penalty?

      SIMONIDES

      'Tis true.

      My father must be next; this day completes

      Full fourscore years upon him.

      SECOND LAWYER

      He's here then,

      Sub poena statuti; hence I can tell him

      Truer than all the physicians in the world,

      He cannot live out tomorrow. This is

      The most certain climacterical year;

      'Tis past all danger, for there's no 'scaping it.

      What age is your mother, sir?

      SIMONIDES

      Faith, near her days too;

      Wants some two of three score.

      FIRST LAWYER

      So! She'll drop away

      One of these days too. Here's a good age now

      For those that have old parents and rich inheritance!

      SIMONIDES

      And, sir, 'tis profitable for others too:

      Are there not fellows that lie bedrid in their offices

      That younger men would walk lustily in?

      Churchmen that even the second infancy

      Hath silenced yet hath spun out their lives so long

      That many pregnant and ingenious spirits

      Have languished in their hoped reversions,

      And died upon the thought? And, by your leave, sir,

      By some grave senators that you imagine

      Have held them long enough, and such spirits as you,

      Were they removed, would leap into their dignities?

      FIRST LAWYER

      Dic quibus in terris, et eris mihi magnus Apollo.

      SIMONIDES

      But tell me, faith, your fair opinion:

      Is it not a sound and necessary law,

      This by the duke enacted?

      FIRST LAWYER

      Never did Greece,

      Our ancient seat of brave philosophers,

      'Mongst all her nomothetae and lawgivers,

      Not when she flourished in her sevenfold sages

      Whose living memory can never die,

      Produce a law more grave and necessary.

      SIMONIDES

      I'm of that mind too.

      FIRST LAWYER

      I will maintain, sir,

      Draco's oligarchy, that the government

      Of community reduced into few,

      Framed a fair state; Solon's chreokopia,

      That cut off poor men's debts to their rich creditors,

      Was good and charitable, but not full allowed;

      His seisactheia did reform that error,

      His honourable senate of Areopagitae.

      Lycurgus was more loose and gave too free

      And licentious reins unto his discipline:

      As that a young woman, in her husband's weakness,

      Might choose her able friend to propagate,

      That so the commonwealth might be supplied

      With hope of lusty spirits. Plato did err,

      And so did Aristotle, allowing

      Lewd and luxurious limits to their laws.

      But now our Epire, our Epire's Evander,

      Our noble and wise prince, has hit the law

      That all our predecessive students

      Have missed, unto their shame.

      [Enter CLEANTHES.

      SIMONIDES

      Forbear the praise, sir;

      'Tis in itself most pleasing. Cleanthes!

      Oh lad, here's a spring for young plants to flourish!

      The old trees must down that kept the sun from us;

      We shall rise now, boy.

      CLEANTHES

      Whither, sir, I pray?

      To the bleak air of storms, among those trees

      Which we had shelter from?

      SIMONIDES

      Yes, from our growth,

      Our sap, and livelihood, and from our fruit!

      What? 'Tis not jubilee with thee yet, I think,

      Thou lookst so sad on it. How old's thy father?

      CLEANTHES

      Jubilee! No, indeed, 'tis a bad year with me.

      SIMONIDES

      Prithee, how old's thy father? Then, I can tell thee.

      CLEANTHES

      I know not how to answer you, Simonides.

      He's too old, being now exposed

      Unto the rigour of a cruel edict,

      And yet not old enough by many years,

      'Cause I'd not see him go an hour before me.

      SIMONIDES

      These very passions I speak to my father.

      Come, come, here's none but friends here, we may speak

      Our insides freely; these are lawyers, man,

      And shall be counsellors shortly.

      CLEANTHES

      They shall be now, sir,

      And shall have large fees if they'll undertake

      To help a good cause, for it wants assistance;

      Bad ones, I know, they can insist upon.

      FIRST LAWYER

      Oh, sir, we must undertake of both parts,

      But the good we have most good in.

      CLEANTHES

      Pray you, say,

      How do you allow of this strange edict?

      FIRST LAWYER

      Secundum justitiam, by my faith, sir,

      The happiest edict that ever was in Epire.

      CLEANTHES

      What, to kill innocents, sir? It cannot be;

      It is no rule in justice there to

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