Collected Works

Flight on the Jacobean Stage

“…27 Muir argues that the Weird Sisters are not in fact witches, but demons or devils in their human form: 'whether one considers them as human witches in league with the power of darkness, or as actual demons in the form of witches, or as merely inanimate symbols, the power which they wield or represent or symbolizes is ultimately demonic.' 28 Although Muir takes Macbeth's witches as actual demons, but they do not have a pact with the devil or their familiars.…”

“…289-299. 27 classed as English village witches; they are not demons and devils, but witches. In contrast to Muir, Purkiss argues that the witches in Macbeth are in fact witches, rather than simply uncanny old women.…”

Interrogating The Spread Of Shakespeare

“…Fuente Ovejuna, with its story of collective village revolt against oppression and mis-government, has the thematic potential to speak to the developing world, but it would take imaginative direction and re-contextualisation of a high order for the play to make a popular impact there. Recently Gary Taylor, buoyed and enthused by the task of editing his work afresh, punted Middleton as a suitable candidate (see Middleton 2007), largely on the basis of the playwright's preoccupation with power, sex and money. Both Lope and Middleton have undoubted merits, and Jonson is marvellous.…”

Reading the Royal Entry (1604) in/as Print

“…This collected works volume attributes The Whole Royal and Magnificent Entertainment of King James through the City of London, 15 March 1604, with the Arch's of Triumph not only to Middleton, but also to 'Thomas Dekker, Stephen Harrison, Ben Jonson, and Thomas Middleton'. 4 Such a list suggests collaboration, but, I argue, this is a list of rivals rather than partners. King James I's ceremonious London entry in March 1604, staged and performed over a single day, swiftly was rendered into four different printed texts: quartos from Jonson and Dekker; Stephen Harrison's elaborate folio text of engravings and speeches, The Arch's of Triumph; and Gilbert Dugdale's apparent eyewitness account, The Time Triumphant.…”

“…10 As one of the most up to date and authoritative editions of the pageantry for James I, 11 this collated text is invaluable, and I would hasten to point out Smuts's clear articulation of his text's aim of providing 'an ideal reconstruction'. 12 But I am interested in the range of texts behind this present day composition, and I begin with the Oxford Middleton because this edition neatly signals -in what it acknowledges and elides -the importance of reading this particular pageant in and as its numerous printed versions. This new composite edition precisely demonstrates the power of a printed text to shape, interpret, and revise an event, in 1604 and today.…”