A Chaste Maid in Cheapside

Moll is the maid, or pretty young daughter, of Yellowhammer, a goldsmith. She has two men vying for her hand. One is the wealthy Knight, Sir Walter Whorehound, who already has two mistresses, one of whom has several of his children. Yellowhammer favors Sir Walter for a son-in-law. The second suitor is Tuchwood Junior, whose older brother is a local conman. He is Moll's choice, which forces scheming.
A second plot line involves Tuchwood Senior's con of the wealthy Sir and Lady Kix, a couple who are at each others throats over their lack of children.

This play is a comedy that gets crude and raunchy and probably had its audiences choking with laughter. Puritan women get sloppy drunk, the aristocratic are impotent and obnoxious, the newly show more educated are pretentious fops and there are constant double entendres about sex. The play did well enough that it was still being published nearly two decades later, then seems to have disappeared from the stage completely until a revival in 1956.

Since this was most likely written around 1613 (it was first performed that year), getting the most out of it would take some doing. I mean that even if you're familiar with Shakespearean language, this is a little more challenging. I read from the Fountainwell Drama Texts, edited by Charles Barber, and it was a decent enough copy but I did feel there were some explanations missing. show less

A satirical play set in 17th century London that focuses on hypocrisy. Showcases society's concern with money and appearances. 70 pages

Thomas Middleton (1580-1627) was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. Middleton stands with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson as among the most successful and prolific of playwrights who wrote their best plays during the Jacobean period. He was one of the few Renaissance dramatists to achieve equal success in comedy and tragedy. Also a prolific writer of masques and pageants, he remains one of the most noteworthy and distinctive of Jacobean dramatists. Middleton wrote in many genres, including tragedy, history and city comedy. His best-known plays are the tragedies The Changeling (written with William Rowley) and Women Beware Women, and the cynically satirical city comedy A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. His plays are characterized by their show more cynicism about the human race, a cynicism that is often very funny. True heroes are a rarity in Middleton; in his plays, almost every character is selfish, greedy, and self-absorbed. show less

This Fountainwell Drama Text edition is an examined, researched edition is introduced to the point of supporting the case for two compositors at work on the first edition and other details of the available source material, such as the exact year of production, etc. I found it difficult to read the 17th century text while appreciating the adherence to original content. I turned to an online BBC RADIO DRAMA version and read along. Of course there were some differences, such as getting lost in the confusing group conversation concluding Act II. Overall, the differences were helpful. It was easier to hear words than read the antique spellings such as "Sonne" (son), "Citie", (city), "Ideot" (idiot), etc. Also, this production tended to show more replace pronouns with names which made it easier to follow the plot. One change was to "gossip" which I learned at the time was not as derogatory, but just meant something closer to the Middle English sense of ‘a close friend, a person with whom one gossips’.

The cast I hear was top-notch and I will especially call out for praise Yellowhammer (Hugh Paddick) and Touchwood Senior (an elder brother, not father; the recently deceased James Laurenson). show less