Thomas Middleton, A Game at Chess

Tamsin Theresa Badcoe (University of Bristol)

Ed. by William M. Hamlin, Washington State University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1625

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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Thomas Middleton’s

A Game at Chess

was performed at the Globe theatre by the King’s Men for nine consecutive days between the fifth and fourteenth of August 1624. Although it attracted large audiences, its short, but evidently highly popular run, was brought to an end by the closure of the theatre by the Privy Council acting on King James’s orders. Surprisingly for a play of his period,

A Game at Chess

relied on the audience’s ability to recognise, in spite of the distancing effects of Middleton’s allegory, an exceptionally overt representation of matters concerning contemporary governance and the State, which as a rule had no place on the early modern stage. In addition, the surviving copies of

A Game at Chess

, in both manuscript and printed forms, are unusually numerous,…

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1742 words

Citation: Badcoe, Tamsin Theresa. "A Game at Chess". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 December 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7129, accessed 04 December 2024.]

Thomas Middleton, A Game at Chess

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