PREFACE. ALL the surviving works of Middleton are comprehended in the present volumes; and though, perhaps, to a certain class of readers, a selection from his writings might have been more acceptable, I am confident that the entire series is requisite to satisfy the lovers of our early literature. So rare are some of the pieces now reprinted, that they were not to be obtained without considerable difficulty. The original quartos of The Triumphs of Integrity, and The Triumphs of Honour and Industry, are nowhere to be found but in the dramatic library of the Duke of Devonshire; and I beg leave respectfully to express my sense of his Grace's liberality and kindness, in granting me permission to transcribe them. An obligation, for which I am truly grateful, has been conferred upon me by the Rev. Joseph Hunter, whose intimate acquaintance with the genealogical collections of the British Museum enabled him to point out to me a most important document, which had escaped my notice the pedigree of Middleton in one of the Harleian MSS. To Charles George Young, Esq., York Herald, who readily assisted my researches at the College of Arms; and to Henry Woodthorpe, Esq., town-clerk of London, who with equal good will rendered me the same services at Guildhall, I have to return my sincere thanks. To Sir Harris Nicolas, John Payne Collier, Esq., the Rev. John Mitford, and the Rev. Stephen Reay, sub-librarian of the Bodleian Library, I have to acknowledge myself indebted for a variety of useful communications. ALEXANDER DYCE. GRAY'S INN, SOME ACCOUNT OF MIDDLETON AND HIS WORKS. THOMAS MIDDLETONa is seldom mentioned by his contemporaries; and to the scanty materials for his biography already collected by the curiosity of antiquarian writers, the facts which I have been enabled to add, though important, are unfortunately few. His father was William Middleton; concerning whom I have found no earlier notice than is contained in the following document, which affords unquestionable evidence that he was a gentleman by birth: "To all and singuler as well Noblez and gentlemen as others to whome these presentz shall coome I Sir Gilberte Dethicke knyghte alias Garter principall kinge of armes sende greatinge in owre Lord god euerlasting, Forasmuche as anncientlye from the begynninge the valiant and vertius actes of wourthie parsons haue ben commended to the world and |