New Comedy Conventions in Thomas Middleton’s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside

Abstract

New Comedy Conventions in Thomas Middleton’s A Chaste Maid in CheapsideSong, Won-Moon Although Middleton’s A Chast Maid in Cheapside certainly provides great amusement with its hilariously unchaste dramatic incidents, the play satirizes social follies and city realities of the Jacobean era. The play is indeed obscene, but it has something that goes beyond the superficial licentious incidents of the play. Much of the play’s power derives from its basis in New Comedy and underlying currents that connect it with the mythical and ritual roots of comedy.Thomas Middleton, in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, follows the typical conventions of New Comedy. In tragedy intrigues often become the accelerator of tragic catastrophes, but in comedy they work as crucial keys to solve problems. In A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, death becomes the most important intrigue for the healthy marriage of Moll and Touchwood Jr. Yellowhammer and Sir Walter Whorehound, the old oppressors of the young couple, have the image of death gods. The young couple’s wedding, which is achieved after deceiving these death gods, promises rich fertility which is one of the key concepts of New Comedy.Although Touchwood Jr. and Moll’s marriage is proper morally and eugenically, they need to recover their social honor for justifying their intrigue and for achieving the perfect comic ending. In the last scene, Moll and Touchwood Jr.’s marriage acquires social respectability. Society accepts their marriage and promises their prosperity which is another key idea of New Comedy.